Quinn’s State of the State address gets cool reception
BY DAVE McKINNEY AND ANDREW MALONEY Sun-Times Media February 1, 2012 9:06PM
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn delivers his State of the State address to a joint session of the General Assembly in the House chambers at the Illinois State Capitol Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 in Springfield, Ill. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
state of the state highlights
Creating a child tax credit that would amount to $100
annually for a family of four.
Boosting from $1,200 to $5,000 the tax credit businesses get for each veteran they hire.
Abolishing the state natural gas tax.
Increasing spending by a “significant” amount on Monetary Assistance Program awards to low-income college students.
Launching a new construction program for schools and clean-water initiatives.
Raising the age high-school students must stay in school to 18 and making a “major investment” in early childhood education.
Source: Illinois governor’s office
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Updated: March 3, 2012 11:41AM
SPRINGFIELD — Touting a jobs platform, Gov. Pat Quinn pushed modest tax relief, Medicaid and pension reforms, more college grant spending and an end to the state’s natural gas tax Wednesday in a State of the State speech overshadowed by Illinois’ gloomy financial condition.
“We all know that the economic storm is far from over,” Quinn told a joint session of the General Assembly. “While we have downsized Illinois government more than ever before, we continue to face very difficult decisions to restore financial stability to our state.”
In his second State of the State speech, the governor faced low approval ratings and laid out an array of feel-good ideas with shelf lies that will be dictated entirely by the harsh reality of Illinois’ nearly empty treasury and a state Legislature more focused on the March primaries.
Republicans were quick to jump on what they said was a $500 million assortment of spending expansions, deriding it as “Blagojevich lite.” And the two top Democratic legislative leaders who should be in Quinn’s corner, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, both Chicago Democrats,, either stood silent or offered only a tepid defense of the governor’s speech.
“We must always remember that strong economic growth is essential to resolving our fiscal challenges,” the governor said. “Cuts alone will not get us to a better budget. We must build and grow our Illinois economy like never before to keep Illinois moving forward.”
Chief among the goodies Quinn proposed was ending the state’s natural gas utility tax, a revenue source that brings the state $164 million annually that he called an “unfair, regressive tax.”
“By abolishing it entirely, we can provide targeted tax relief to both consumers and businesses,” Quinn said of the natural gas tax.
Quinn proposed a $130 million tax credit for parents with children, a plan he said could deliver $100 in tax savings to a family of four. The proposal, which Republicans valued at as much as $160 million, drew silence from lawmakers as the governor laid it out.
“This targeted tax relief will stimulate consumer demand, which is 70 percent of our economy,” he said.
The governor also pushed a tax credit — valued at up to $10 million — for businesses to cut their state income tax burden by up to $5,000 for each veteran they hire. That credit now stands at $1,200 per veteran. On education, the governor called for requiring high school students to stay in school until they are 18, as President Barack Obama proposed, and boosting spending on the perennially cash-strapped Monetary Assistance Program that provides grants of up to $4,968 to low-income college students. Quinn paid only brief attention to the two largest fiscal elephants in the room: sharply escalating health-care costs for the poor and retirement benefits for government workers.
“Suffice it to say, we must have Medicaid reform and public pension reform in the coming year,” the governor said.
That failure to lay out a clear roadmap to reel in Medicaid and pension spending stoked Republican criticism after the governor’s speech.
Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, a Lemont Republican, noted there were “two lines, at most, about pensions and Medicaid.”
She and her legislative counterpart, House Minority Leader Tom Cross, a Republican from Oswego, estimated Quinn’s new initiatives would cost $500 million at a time the state has no money. Quinn’s budget office outlined only $304 million in expenses.
“I felt like I was listening to a game of fantasy government,” Cross said. “It’s not real. It really isn’t real. And you want the CEO of the state, who’s been here for three years — three years — to get it, and he didn’t demonstrate that today.”
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