February 24, 2010

When Laurence Msall walked into the state Capitol in Springfield on Tuesday morning, I figured it would be like the skunk showing up at the garden party.

Accurate?

"Yep," Msall said by cell phone. "I was greeted with 'Are you here to raise my taxes?' "

Msall, 48, is the head of a Chicago's Civic Federation, a venerable, nonpartisan, pro-business, pretty conservative outfit that keeps tabs on government and how it handles our money.

Before this job, he worked for Republican Governors Jim Edgar and George Ryan doing economic development.

So, in plain English, Msall cannot be written off as a left-leaning, tax-and-spend liberal.

That's what made his mission all the more meaningful.

And the politicians/lawmakers down in Springfield were acutely aware of the Civic Federation's doomsday report issued Monday. In it, Msall's group said flatly that Illinois is financially heading over a cliff. That we must cut more than $2 billion from the state budget, reduce pensions and benefits for new state workers and raise the income tax.

At that, we'll still be in the hole by a couple of billion. But at least we can salvage our bond rating and borrowing power to live to fight another day.

The Civic Federation is not alone in telling politicians they have to face up to the terrible mess they've made of this state. The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability has issued its own warnings. So has the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club.

How bad is it getting?

As Msall was driving Downstate, he said, "I heard on the radio about Oswego cutting 80 school district employees."

That would be the school district represented by House Republican leader Tom Cross.

Republicans are loath to raise taxes, especially in an election year. Democrats are loath to cut employee pensions and benefits.

But there is no time to delay a massive dose of tough medicine.

"You might be able to get by for another six months," Msall said.

"But you might not."

Still, people in Illinois are not sure they're buying this doomsday descriptor despite the non-political fiscal experts who are delivering it.

Why not?

"Government doesn't touch people," said David Yepsen, matter-of-factly.

Yepsen is the head of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University. For 36 years before that, he was a legendary political reporter and columnist for the Des Moines Register.

"Most people are not using health care for the poor, do not have kids in school, don't go to a courthouse very often, aren't in prison or work as a prison guard . . . so most people don't see this, and it doesn't touch them," Yepsen said. "Secondarily, the leaders in this state have no credibility."

Polling by the Simon Institute bears out the sad fact that unlike the citizens of other states, Illinois residents feel they get more value from the feds far away in Washington than they do from their homegrown state and local governments.

There is, Yepsen said, "a real intersection between ethics and this budget mess. There are few states where people are more down on their politicians."

Other states have done better.

Iowa, for instance, Yepsen notes, has swallowed a bitter pill and cut spending 10 percent across the board.

But in Illinois, we've deferred our problems until it's almost too late. Like in Downstate Alexander County, for instance, where all the squad cars were recently repossessed, and 75 percent of the sheriff's department was laid off. Imagine.

Every day lawmakers wait, every day they keep behaving like politicians instead of leaders, it only puts us ever closer to the edge of the cliff.