Posted by Bob Secter and Monique Garcia at 5:30 a.m.; last updated at 4:05 p.m.
The state’s chronic budget woes will force more than $2 billion in spending cuts by this summer, including $922 million for elementary and secondary schools, unless taxes are hiked or a new round of federal stimulus aid rides to the rescue, the Quinn administration said today.
The bad news predictions from David Vaught, Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget director, also included a nearly $400 million drop in spending in the budget year for higher education, another nearly $400 million drop in spending on human services programs, and a $69 million cut for public safety programs.
Vaught said only health care programs would be immune from broad cuts, and that is only because of rules which would financially penalize the state if spending was cut.
"This is a budgetary crisis of huge magnitude and it’s going to take a lot of work to get out the hole," Vaught said.
The projections were part of a sketchy preliminary budget released by the Administration today in advance of Quinn’s March 10 budget address which will lay out a more detailed spending plan for the state for the budget year beginning July 1.
The sneak peak at budget assumptions was part of an effort to underscore the perilous nature of the state’s fiscal position and lay the groundwork for some bitter medicine that taxpayers, state workers and political leaders seeking re-election will be asked to swallow in coming months.
Vaught said Quinn’s bad-news preliminary budget did not factor in any potential tax increases, but the budget director strongly suggested that Quinn would soon put such ideas on the table.
Last year, the governor initially proposed a 50 percent hike in the state income tax to ease fiscal troubles that were already evident at that time. The idea went nowhere, but Vaught said Quinn’s support for the concept “has not wavered.”
Even factoring in the cuts, Quinn’s office is predicting that the state will rack up nearly $11.5 billion in unpaid bills by the end of June 2011 if the status quo remains.
Given the education cuts, school districts could be forced to lay off scores of teachers.
"It’ll be very tough," Vaught said. "The districts have until April 1 to give their layoff notices, you know, they’re going to tighten their belts and face up to this. Then they’re going to have to help us find a solution, we don’t just want to have a message of pain and lack of feeling here in the ramifications of these cuts, but what we want people to do besides feeling the pain and understanding the reality is help us find a solution."
Quinn posted budget information on a state Web site, budget.illinois.gov. In a message on the site, Vaught asked voters what their preferences are.
"Would you cut money from education and give more money to health care? Or would you reduce spending to both and spend more on new road construction. Would you raise taxes and by how much?" Vaught says in the short message.
Quinn is scheduled to speak at an event tonight at a downtown hotel.