Today in a press conference, Governor Quinn proposed over $4 billion in borrowing to fix Illinois’ huge budget deficit and crippling state debt. That figure will be added to the $58 billion the state already owes, burdening every Illinois taxpayer with a debt of over $4,500.

AFP-Illinois State Director Joe Calomino released the following statement in response to the Governor’s proposal:

“Governor Quinn’s plan is a cynical politically-driven plan that is doomed to failure in the General Assembly. More debt and scare-mongering cuts to popular services is a poor example of leadership. Instead, Governor Quinn should scrap his stated plan and take a hard look at the many bills currently languishing in the General Assembly that present opportunities for real reform.

Governor Quinn is doing nothing to stop this bounty on our heads from growing. Meanwhile, Illinois’ debt rating continues to fall, increasing the costs of borrowing and making any future massive tax hike more and more inevitable.

The Governor’s draconian cuts in the budget are short-term band-aid approaches that will not fix our long-term fiscal perils. Worse yet, they are cuts to carefully chosen, popular programs that will be difficult to pass politically. He proposes eliminating $1.2 billion from elementary and secondary education, $70 million from prescription drug assistance, and $94 million from college education. Once these proposals hit a brick wall in Springfield, Governor Quinn will lay out his real agenda: tax hikes similar to the ones he proposed last year.

Instead, Governor Quinn must work toward developing long-term, free-market strategies that encourage small business growth; stop funding new base spending with one-time revenues; stop catering to the special interest groups who fear fundamental reforms that repair our broken budgetary, pension and Medicaid systems; and streamline state government by consolidating duplicative programs and policies.

These are not new ideas and many of them already have draft bills in the General Assembly. House Bill 5212 would adopt Truth-in-Accounting principals, increasing transparency and give the people Illinois a clear picture of our actual budget condition. Senate Bill 1679 requires zero-based budgeting, thus eliminating potentially millions of dollars of waste in the state budget. House Bill 5802 would require a comprehensive review of job-killing regulations and require an up-or-down vote on eliminating these provisions.

These bills and many more like them are just some of the ideas that could eliminate waste and abuse, decrease spending for the long-term, and most importantly, increase the possibility that individuals want to come to Illinois and set up productive businesses which will generate jobs and tax revenue. “