Whether it's the growing potential that education budgets will be slashed across the state or just common sense, several University of Illinois-Chicago professors are correctly sounding the alarm about Illinois' deficit crisis. On WTTW's Chicago Tonight, public policy professor Michael Pagano recently compared the budget deficit to a balloon mortgage and later urged lawmakers to show some "political will" to fix the crisis. Yesterday on Fox Chicago Sunday, his colleague Dick Simpson -- a political science professor and former Chicago alderman -- warned that without an income tax hike, "this state will actually melt down." Even so, he's not too bullish on the prospects of legislative action, adding that "it can't be done until February ... and it's not clear it can be done then." Watch the segment:

It's no wonder that social service agencies, health care providers, and schools reliant on state money are worried. A recent report fom the National Conference of State Legislatures pegged the budget gap for FY 2010 (which ends June 30) at $4.3 billion, equal to 16.5 percent of the state's general-fund budget. That comes on top of the $4.4 billion in backlogged bills and Illinois' deep pension debt, which Gov. Pat Quinn is hoping to shore up temporarily by issuing another $3.5 billion in municipal bonds.

At the tail-end of the clip above, Simpson says that the state's finances represent an "incredible problem that we're not going to get out of and that will hurt us for decades." Luckily, there are a few solutions floating around that could avert disaster. But it will take some real political courage to get the job done.