Funding Our Future is a thorough analysis and overview of the Illinois’s long-term spending patterns, budget problems and tax policy. This Report also includes an analysis of the two major gubernatorial candidates’ respective budget proposals. Funding Our Future has been peer reviewed by independent PhD economists that are university-based, think tank-based, and working for the federal General Accounting Office.

Illinois faces a structural deficit, which is not caused by over spending or generous pensions. Instead, it is caused by Illinois' poorly designed tax system, which does not create enough revenue to sustain the state’s expenditures. This problem cannot be solved by cutting spending. This is because 9 out of 10 general fund dollars is spent on providing core-services. The better solution is tax reform. 

Illinois decision makers are confronted with two immense challenges. On the one hand, state government is facing the largest deficit in its history, with published estimates of the hole ranging from $4 billion to $9 billion. At the same time,  the U.S. and state economies are suffering through what looks like the worst recession since the Great Depression. How the state elects to resolve its record deficit will have a meaningful impact on the size and duration of the recession in the state's economy. Given this scenario, the state's best hope of growing its economy and countering the recession is to close its deficit by raising taxes progressively and maintaining or expanding spending on services.