For some time now, we've been bemoaning the fact that the Republican gubernatorial candidates here in Illinois have largely gone unchallenged regarding their vague and overly simplistic plans for closing the state's multi-billion budget gap. Mike Lawrence of the Paul Simon Institute recently caught our attention when he took to the op-ed page of the State Journal-Register to call them "pandering Pinocchios."

Today, the AP's Christopher Wills chimed in as well:

As Illinois faces the biggest budget disaster in its history, the seven men battling for the GOP nomination are making big promises but offering voters few details about what they would actually do if elected.

They fiercely reject the idea of tax increases and say cost-cutting is the key to balancing the budget. But when asked to spell out which government services they're willing to cut, most of them retreat - as [Jim] Ryan did in the debate - to generalities about making Medicaid more efficient or scouring the budget for waste.

They rarely dwell on the scope of the state's problem: a deficit of about $11 billion.

Is "retreat" too harsh? Not at all. During Monday night's debate, Illinois Public Radio's Sean Crawford asked the candidates for more specifics regarding what exactly they would cut. Ryan's response: "I think answer is obviously to cut spending and to limit the growth of spending which is outrageous." Watch for yourself:

No wonder Ryan's campaign declined the AP's request to talk about his budget plans in detail.

The reality is that Illinois will start next year with a deficit equivalent to about 40 percent of all state spending. Even if the deficit was halved by the time the next governor takes office, Wills points out, the state would still need to cut $1 for every $5 it spends.

"You can't balance this budget simply by looking for easy efficiencies or slight reductions in head count," Steve Schnorf, the former budget director to both Govs. Jim Edgar and George Ryan, told the AP. "They've got themselves in a position, election-wise, where they can't campaign on the truth."

The entire article is worth a read.