County Lawmakers point to Illinois fiscal ills

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Updated: March 3, 2012 11:36AM

Reactions from Lake County legislators to Gov. Pat Quinn’s State of the State speech on Wednesday honed in on one theme: The dire state of Illinois finances.

62nd District State Rep. Sandy Cole, R-Grayslake: “The governor’s address was exactly what I expected: more of the same rhetoric and a vague vision for true fiscal reforms. It is the failed partisan public policies that have put Illinois on this unstable course, leaving billions mounting in unpaid bills, tax policies that hurt small businesses and a climbing unemployment rate that has surpassed the national average.

“The governor spoke a lot about jobs today, but unemployment has risen a full percentage point to 9.8 percent since he signed Illinois’ largest tax increase into law last January. Earlier this week, the Civic Federation issued a dire report on Illinois’ finances, and recently Moody’s downgraded our credit rating to the lowest in the nation. During this legislative session, every consideration needs to be on the table, and I remain committed to work for meaningful and necessary fiscal reforms.”

52nd District State Rep. Kent Gaffney, R-Lake Barrington: “Gov. Quinn is suggesting that we ignore the pension crisis and instead push pension costs onto local governing bodies. Shifting pension costs from the state to local schools and colleges will force school districts to pass massive property tax increases. We will never fix the state’s pension problems by passing the buck. We need real pension reform now.

“Gov. Quinn seems to be pushing platitudes more that solutions. We need to start working on real solutions to our economic and budget problems. We must repeal the (income) tax increase, implement pension reform and stop spending money we do not have.”

30th District State Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan: “These were all great ideas; however, we need to find a mechanism to generate revenues to pay for these initiatives, and I believe gaming is a way to do that. ... I agree with the governor that we need to continue to invest in children through continue to fund early childhood education programs.

“I am currently working again with all of the stakeholders to continue to work on a proposal that is in more in line with what the governor will support this legislative session. A measure such as this would be able to fund some of the initiatives discussed by Gov. Quinn today.”

51st District State Rep. Ed Sullivan Jr., R-Mundelein: “Pushing our pension costs to local governments will only lead to massive property tax increases while they struggle to pick up the cost. I have said for years (that) Illinois does not have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. We do not need to siphon off more tax revenue; we need to rein in the cost.

“Two years ago, we passed (the Medicaid Payment Recapture Audit) that will allow us to see immediate savings, yet those reforms are not being enforced. I agree with the governor that we need to look into further savings, but we could be saving money right now by just implementing what we have already passed.”