Why a “Balanced” Illinois Budget won’t Actually be Balanced
via Reboot Illinois
“In his budget address yesterday, Gov. Rauner for called for a balanced budget. However, this does not mean the same thing in government as it does in the real world.
Let’s take a look at how Gov. Rauner and the legislature “balanced” the 2015 budget, without raising taxes or cutting benefits and services. In essence they balanced the budget by shifting money from one pocket to another—specifically moving money from non-budgeted funds to budgeted funds.
Illinois’ budget law calls for only six funds, like the general and education funds, to be balanced. The other hundreds of funds are maintained off budget, except when the legislatures and governors need money to “balance” the other funds. Then the cash balances in the non-budgeted funds become fair game for misappropriation to the budgeted funds to pretend the budgeted funds are “balanced.””
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