Progress Illinois

State Sen. Matt Murphy appeared on Fox Chicago Sunday this morning to discuss Gov. Pat Quinn's proposed income tax hike.  Right off the bat, co-host Jack Conaty asked him what alternative proposals he had to balance an estimated $11.5 billion budget deficit.  "If it's politically courageous to take more money from taxpayers," Murphy said after throwing out some ideas, "it better be politically courageous to look at tough cuts."  Watch it:

Let's take Murphy's proposals in order:

"Governor Blagojevich's failed Medicaid expansion has been a boondoggle -- roll it back." 

The former governor's FamilyCare expansion may have been reckless from a constitutional standpoint, but there's no evidence that it's weighing down the budget significantly.  Only about 4,000 additional families managed to enroll under the expanded guidelines, which translates to less than $20 million per year.  

"Look at the pension system and bring it more in line with what the private sector gets."

Gov. Quinn is considering a move to a two-tiered pension system for state employees as part of his budget and there's sure to be some heated negotations with labor over such a proposal.  But let's be clear: This is not a short-term solution.  These types of cuts wouldn't actually hit the state budget until years down the line.

"You may have to look, in the short run, at K-12 education." 

Now we're getting somewhere.  To address the deficit without raising taxes would require deep, deep cuts into the state's education spending, as well as its health care programs (together, these two sectors make up most of the state budget). But it's not as if our public schools are currently enjoying a great deal of support from the state: In fact, Illinois ranks 49th nationwide in terms of the amount of state funding for education.  The schools get the bulk of their funding from local property tax revenues, which has left us with the "second worst per-pupil spending gap in the nation between wealthy and poor school districts," according to A+ Illinois.  You decrease the amount of state funding to those poorer districts and the gap -- with all its human costs -- is only going to widen. 

So whenever you hear opponents of progressive income tax reform complaining that state spending is the real culprit, remember this from the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability:

The problem is not spending, Illinois is a low spending state ranking 42nd nationally, the trouble is the state’s revenue system was developed decades ago and cannot deal with the costs of funding public services in the 21st century.  Illinois has a tax system so antiquated it does not grow with the economy and is one of the most unfair systems in the nation, placing a larger tax burden on low and middle-income residents.  This means state funding for public services like education and public safety is unable to grow with inflation and is often cut from year to year.