Friday, February 17, 2006
8th Congressional Distrrict Candidate State Rep. Robert Churchill Comments of Governor's Budget
“Over the course of his three years as Governor, all of Rod Blagojevich’s initiatives have been based on borrowing and spending in the midst of a large budget deficit,” said Churchill. “While the Governor may tout the initiatives brought forth by his administration, the sad reality is that virtually all of them have been financed through borrowing. In the meantime, Illinois healthcare providers are still feeling the pressure from the large Medicaid payments owed by the state. Under this Governor, our Medicaid debt has nearly doubled from approximately $1 billion at the end of FY ’03 to nearly $2 billion at the end of FY ’06. This problem is not going to simply go away by ignoring it. We have got to buckle down, pay off our debts and begin living within our means.”
To make matters worse, said Churchill, the percentage of state revenues now just going to pay our debt service payments has nearly doubled from 4.73% to nearly 7%. Furthermore, we are heading into year two of the Democrats’ five-year, $3.5 billion pension raid, said Churchill. For every pension dollar Democrats diverted, taxpayers will have to pay $11 back, for a total cost of $38 billion, added Churchill.
Churchill stated that although the Governor’s universal pre-school and college tuition tax credit ideas are good, the state has current obligations that haven’t even been met yet. We haven’t fully funded schools and the Governor is asking for new programs, noted Churchill. It would be better to use any cash to pay overdue bills to hospitals and pharmacies or to put money into the state’s troubled pension systems, said Churchill.
“The Governor wants to sell the 10th riverboat license and use that money to restore funding to the pension systems,” said Churchill. “The problem is that no one knows when that license will be able to be sold. That may not happen for another five or ten years. We need to find a way to fund the pension systems today. If, in the future, the 10th riverboat license is actually sold, we can consider using the revenue from the sale to fund new programs.”
For more information, please contact Representative Robert W. Churchill at (847)838-6200.
To return to McHenry County Blog, click here.
To make matters worse, said Churchill, the percentage of state revenues now just going to pay our debt service payments has nearly doubled from 4.73% to nearly 7%. Furthermore, we are heading into year two of the Democrats’ five-year, $3.5 billion pension raid, said Churchill. For every pension dollar Democrats diverted, taxpayers will have to pay $11 back, for a total cost of $38 billion, added Churchill.
Churchill stated that although the Governor’s universal pre-school and college tuition tax credit ideas are good, the state has current obligations that haven’t even been met yet. We haven’t fully funded schools and the Governor is asking for new programs, noted Churchill. It would be better to use any cash to pay overdue bills to hospitals and pharmacies or to put money into the state’s troubled pension systems, said Churchill.
“The Governor wants to sell the 10th riverboat license and use that money to restore funding to the pension systems,” said Churchill. “The problem is that no one knows when that license will be able to be sold. That may not happen for another five or ten years. We need to find a way to fund the pension systems today. If, in the future, the 10th riverboat license is actually sold, we can consider using the revenue from the sale to fund new programs.”
For more information, please contact Representative Robert W. Churchill at (847)838-6200.
To return to McHenry County Blog, click here.
# posted by Cal Skinner : 5:26 AM
