Cut, Cut, Cut
As in most States, the Governor of the State of Illinois presents a budget to the Illinois General Assembly and then the General Assembly passes an approved budget. In Illinois, that budget is supposed to be passed by the end of May and is supposed to be balanced based upon the following Constitutional provisions.
1) Article VIII—Finance, Section 2. State Finance, paragraph (a):
“The Governor shall prepare and submit to the General Assembly … a State budget for the ensuing fiscal year. … Proposed expenditures shall not exceed funds estimated to be available for the fiscal year as shown in the budget.” In short, if the estimated funds are 30 billion dollars, then the proposed expenditures SHALL NOT BE FOR MORE THAN 30 billion dollars! That is the wording of the Constitution!
2) Article VIII—Finance, Section 2. State Finance, paragraph (b):
“The General Assembly by law shall make appropriations for all expenditures of public funds by the State. Appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.” In short, if the estimated funds are 30 billion dollars, then the proposed expenditures SHALL NOT BE FOR MORE THAN 30 billion dollars! That is the wording of the Constitution!
And yet, the talk at the beginning of the year was for a 13 billion dollar deficit. Deficit? Where is a deficit allowed in the planning and implementation of the fiscal year budget?
Doug Finke writes a Sunday article each week dealing with State government. On April 25, 2010, page B1, he wrote the following: “Gov. Pat Quinn’s chief of staff, Jerry Stermer, appeared at a Senate appropriations committee hearing last week to talk about Quinn’s executive office budget. He was asked about budget cuts in general. Stermer referred to the suggestion list and indicated Quinn would be addressing cuts sometime during the coming week. He declined to elaborate.
This could be interesting. A consistent complaint from Republican lawmakers is that Quinn hasn’t offered sufficient details of planned budget cuts. Cuts, they say must be part of any budget solution. A significant part.
Of course, if Quinn has been vague about where to cut, the Republicans have been equally vague about how big the cuts should be. Although Sen. Chris Lauzen, R-Aurora, put out a figure of $2 billion to $3 billion the other day, Republicans mostly don’t talk specific numbers. As long as there is no target, you can always charge that Quinn failed to hit it.”
In tonight’s post, I’m going to give the specific target for the amount of money that needs to be cut from the proposed budget. This is based upon the Constitution, sound economic theory, and practical experience from following my own budget and being a member of a school board for 4 years in a State where the school boards could not spend any more money than was allocated to each school board.
The first criterion is: ABSOLUTELY NO money will be spent on any NEW program. It is the height of folly to spend money on new programs when there is not sufficient money to spend on already existing programs.
The second criterion is: Set the priorities for State spending from the HIGHEST priority to the lowest priority. One being the highest. 5000, or whatever the last priority is, being the lowest.
The third criterion is: Allocate money from the highest to the lowest priority to meet the needs of each priority until the estimated money runs out. If the allocations run out at the 3,450th priority, cut all of the less important priorities out of the budget.
The fourth criterion is: Adjust the allocations as needed, if needed. If more money needs to go from some higher priorities to lower priorities or money needs to be taken from lower priorities to be allocated to higher priorities, make those needed adjustments.
The fifth criterion and last criterion as well as the most important criterion is: Obey the Constitution of the State of Illinois. “Appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.” This is the TARGET! If that means cutting 13 billion dollars from the budget, then cut 13 billion dollars from the budget.
TARGET set! PROBLEM solved!
As I’ve said repeatedly, it is insanity to give more money to a spendaholic. NO NEW TAXES until the General Assembly repeatedly proves it can actually obey the Constitution of the State of Illinois and balance the budget—spending only the estimated funds of the State.
As in most States, the Governor of the State of Illinois presents a budget to the Illinois General Assembly and then the General Assembly passes an approved budget. In Illinois, that budget is supposed to be passed by the end of May and is supposed to be balanced based upon the following Constitutional provisions.
1) Article VIII—Finance, Section 2. State Finance, paragraph (a):
“The Governor shall prepare and submit to the General Assembly … a State budget for the ensuing fiscal year. … Proposed expenditures shall not exceed funds estimated to be available for the fiscal year as shown in the budget.” In short, if the estimated funds are 30 billion dollars, then the proposed expenditures SHALL NOT BE FOR MORE THAN 30 billion dollars! That is the wording of the Constitution!
2) Article VIII—Finance, Section 2. State Finance, paragraph (b):
“The General Assembly by law shall make appropriations for all expenditures of public funds by the State. Appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.” In short, if the estimated funds are 30 billion dollars, then the proposed expenditures SHALL NOT BE FOR MORE THAN 30 billion dollars! That is the wording of the Constitution!
And yet, the talk at the beginning of the year was for a 13 billion dollar deficit. Deficit? Where is a deficit allowed in the planning and implementation of the fiscal year budget?
Doug Finke writes a Sunday article each week dealing with State government. On April 25, 2010, page B1, he wrote the following: “Gov. Pat Quinn’s chief of staff, Jerry Stermer, appeared at a Senate appropriations committee hearing last week to talk about Quinn’s executive office budget. He was asked about budget cuts in general. Stermer referred to the suggestion list and indicated Quinn would be addressing cuts sometime during the coming week. He declined to elaborate.
This could be interesting. A consistent complaint from Republican lawmakers is that Quinn hasn’t offered sufficient details of planned budget cuts. Cuts, they say must be part of any budget solution. A significant part.
Of course, if Quinn has been vague about where to cut, the Republicans have been equally vague about how big the cuts should be. Although Sen. Chris Lauzen, R-Aurora, put out a figure of $2 billion to $3 billion the other day, Republicans mostly don’t talk specific numbers. As long as there is no target, you can always charge that Quinn failed to hit it.”
In tonight’s post, I’m going to give the specific target for the amount of money that needs to be cut from the proposed budget. This is based upon the Constitution, sound economic theory, and practical experience from following my own budget and being a member of a school board for 4 years in a State where the school boards could not spend any more money than was allocated to each school board.
The first criterion is: ABSOLUTELY NO money will be spent on any NEW program. It is the height of folly to spend money on new programs when there is not sufficient money to spend on already existing programs.
The second criterion is: Set the priorities for State spending from the HIGHEST priority to the lowest priority. One being the highest. 5000, or whatever the last priority is, being the lowest.
The third criterion is: Allocate money from the highest to the lowest priority to meet the needs of each priority until the estimated money runs out. If the allocations run out at the 3,450th priority, cut all of the less important priorities out of the budget.
The fourth criterion is: Adjust the allocations as needed, if needed. If more money needs to go from some higher priorities to lower priorities or money needs to be taken from lower priorities to be allocated to higher priorities, make those needed adjustments.
The fifth criterion and last criterion as well as the most important criterion is: Obey the Constitution of the State of Illinois. “Appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.” This is the TARGET! If that means cutting 13 billion dollars from the budget, then cut 13 billion dollars from the budget.
TARGET set! PROBLEM solved!
As I’ve said repeatedly, it is insanity to give more money to a spendaholic. NO NEW TAXES until the General Assembly repeatedly proves it can actually obey the Constitution of the State of Illinois and balance the budget—spending only the estimated funds of the State.
posted by Christian Gunslinger at 4:26 AM
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