SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Don't look for quick
action to reduce Illinois' huge backlog of unpaid bills, despite universal
agreement among state leaders that the debt is unfair to businesses, charities
and local governments that provide valuable services.
Progress is blocked by fundamental disagreements on
how to solve the problem and a lack of any sense of urgency among officials.
Even with the Legislature's fall session beginning next week, officials report
little or no discussion of what can be done to pay the bills, which total
billions of dollars.
Gov. Pat Quinn did not list the issue among his top
three priorities for the session — ending legislative scholarships, passing a
revised gambling expansion and sustaining his veto of a "smart grid"
energy system. The Senate's top Republican doesn't expect progress any time
soon. The speaker of the House and president of the Senate say they're waiting
for signs of cooperation from Republicans.
Sen. John Sullivan, a proponent of borrowing money
to pay the backlog, said he won't bother calling for a vote on his plan.
"I see no reason to bring it up just to fail," said the Rushville
Democrat.
While acknowledging the long odds, advocates for
human service groups still plan to push for action, hopefully this fall but
perhaps in January. They're trying to build support for several options:
borrowing, taking money out of special-purpose funds or simply devoting any
extra income to the backlog.
"It's a moral, ethical obligation," said
Judith Gethner, director of Illinois Partners for Human Service.
Officials are split, largely along party lines,
into two camps on how to address the backlog.
Many Democrats want to borrow by selling bonds and
using the money to pay overdue bills. They maintain this would not be new debt.
State government already owes vendors who can ill-afford to go without their
money, they say, so it would simply be a matter of changing things so the state
owes money to a different, more willing group — bond-buyers.
"Debt restructuring is the very best way to
have Illinois pay its bills immediately," Quinn, a Democrat, said in an
interview with The Associated Press.
"Mainly the reason it hasn't passed is
politics. It isn't policy," he said.
Not true, say those in the other camp. They say
it's bad management to pay for everyday government expenses by borrowing money
over many years.
They want to reduce the backlog gradually with
money saved by cutting spending and with higher revenues that come in as the
economy improves.
Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont,
criticized Quinn for not doing more to overhaul government spending for the
long run.
"There is no plan here to dig out other than
borrowing, and that is the wrong answer," Radogno said.
Any borrowing plan would require a super-majority
for approval, meaning Democrats need at least a few Republican supporters.
One of the few people with a foot in each camp is
Treasurer Dan Rutherford, a Republican.
In May, Rutherford sharply condemned the idea of
taking on more debt and threatened to lobby credit-rating agencies to reject
the borrowing if Illinois were to go that direction. But last month he told the
Illinois State Chamber of Commerce that not paying bills is
"criminal" and it might be feasible to borrow money to pay them.
"For those of you that are owed money from the
state of Illinois, I support the idea of looking at refinancing some kind of a
package to take the burden of the debt load off of you and put it on the
state," Rutherford said.
Republicans want to see major changes in government
pensions and Medicaid. They predict the changes would save huge amounts of
money, but they also acknowledge it would be a long process.
In his spring budget address, Quinn proposed
borrowing $8.7 billion over 14 years. Lawmakers essentially ignored the idea.
In May, Sullivan proposed borrowing $6.2 billion for about half that amount of
time. It failed 19-23.
Key figures report almost no discussion of
alternatives or compromises since then.
Republican legislative leaders say the governor's
staff recently approached them about possibly supporting a $4 billion borrowing
plan, but they rejected it.
Sullivan said he has had no contact with the
governor, or with the treasurer, and doesn't know of anything likely to change
the status quo in Springfield.
Spokesmen for Senate President John Cullerton and
House Speaker Michael Madigan, both Chicago Democrats, said they haven't
pursued the issue because there's no sign Republicans are willing to cooperate.
The size of the backlog varies. As of Sept. 8, it
was just over $5 billion. Nearly half of that was more than a month old, and
$1.4 billion was more than two months old.
State government owed the money to businesses that
provided food for prisons and gasoline for vehicles, to nonprofits that care
for the disabled and protect abused women, to local governments that educate
students and feed hungry children.
Illinois raised income taxes dramatically this
year. The money, along with budget cuts, was enough to bring revenue and
spending into balance but not pay off the old bills
So far, money is flowing into the treasury faster
than anticipated in the state budget. But a weak economy means revenues could
still dry up, warns the Legislature's Commission on Government Forecasting and
Accountability.
For now, what to do with the additional money is
likely to be a major question for lawmakers meeting this month and next. Should
Quinn's plan to close facilities and cut jobs be blocked? Should canceled
government raises be restored? Should overdue bills be paid off?
Gethner, of Illinois Partners for Human Services,
is lobbying for bills to be top priority. It won't be easy, she said, but it's
still possible.
"I'm certainly not 100 percent in the
pessimistic camp," Gethner said.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/David Banks, File)
