Progress Illinois

Most lawmakers weren't happy with the budget they passed on Wednesday. Neither was the financial research firm Moody's Investors Services. But what did the state's editorial boards make of the "stop gap" spending plan cobbled together and approved Wednesday evening? Well, let's just say there's little praise to be found on the editorial pages today.

The Daily Herald considers the spending bill a mixed-bag. On the one hand, compared with the "50 percent" budget passed by legislators at the end of May, lawmakers found ways to restore some funding to social service programs that help care for the vulnerable (though the exact level of funding these providers will receive remains uncertain). But like so many bills that pass through the General Assembly, "the devil always is in the details:"

It's clear from the way in which it was handled and from the way in which the most painful decisions were pushed off, that political self preservation still rules the day in Springfield. [...]

The only things moved forward were the tough decisions and billions in debt. Quinn and the others need to accept, like many of us have, that trying to borrow your way out of debt can be catastrophic. They can still learn. They should host hearings and provide details now on budget cuts and prospective tax hikes and keep the information coming.

That would be refreshing leadership.

Like their colleagues to the north, the Pantagraph's editorial board tries to emphasize that the budget brings a bit of relief to our already-beleaguered social service agencies. They go on to urge lawmakers to take advantage of the reprieve and enact more structural economic reforms:

People need to recognize that sacrifices will have to be made. Quinn needs to recognize that this is his opportunity to demonstrate leadership - even if it's not popular.

What's needed in addition to immediate cost cutting is substantive, longer range changes that will put Illinois on more solid footing and end the spend-and-borrow, borrow-and-spend routine which got us into this mess and can't be sustained indefinitely.

The state needs to make changes in its pension system and Medicaid. It needs to review programs - both those run by the state and those operated by private agencies through state-funding - to see where money can be saved through combining programs, eliminating duplication and ending those that are ineffective or shouldn't be a high priority.

The Peoria Journal-Star wasn't nearly as forgiving. Calling the new budget fix "embarrassing," the editorial board reams lawmakers for their lack of backbone:

People are going to disagree on remedies and policies, which is the natural order of things. But what we have now from Springfield are no-no policies and no real direction, other than down. It's the refusal to fully confront these chronic problems - existing long before this relentless recession - that is so galling. Illinois government for most of the last decade has been known for its corruption and incompetence. Now we can add cowardice to the list.

Not surprisingly, the Tribune wins the prize for the most animated piece. With its usual sanctimonious tone, the paper lambastes Democrats for "behaving irresponsibly" and failing to enact the "game-changing reforms -- in ethics and in spending -- that would give Illinoisans a sense that the state is on the mend."

Don't let big numbers and legislative complexities camouflage just how irresponsibly the Democrats who run state government are behaving. Imagine that your household couldn't meet its obligations, continued to overspend -- and steadily piled up more debt. Would you drastically reduce your expenditures? Find more economical ways of buying the goods and services you can't live without? Or would you borrow still more money and throw a great party? [...]

This eagerness of the state's ruling Democrats to pander rather than to make difficult decisions about how Illinois spends money reminds us of an iconic scene in "Animal House": The frat brothers escape a plight by changing the subject to, "Road trip!" And off they go, as irresponsible as the lawmakers who avoid meeting expenses by putting them on the taxpayers' credit card.

The state's two left-leaning editorial boards -- the Sun-Times and the State Journal-Register -- have yet to weigh in. Perhaps when they do, they'll mention two necessary economic reforms these other papers failed to note: fixing the state's regressive tax structure and its inequitable education funding system.