GOP Pols Reject Quinn Budget

By Mary Massingale, Illinois Statehouse News
"We were sent to Springfield to make difficult decisions, not push our problems off to future General Assemblies and future generations,” said McHenry County State Rep. Mike Tryon (R-64) after Governor Pat Quinn's state budget speech Wednesday.

“After years of overspending by Governor Blagojevich and the Democrats, Governor Quinn could have put us on the right path by embracing reforms and rejecting business as usual,” said Tryon. “Instead, Governor Quinn seems content with maintaining the status quo by proposing a tax increase, borrowing more money, delaying payments to state vendors and refusing to entertain any spending and budget reform proposals."

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady called  Quinn’s fiscal year 2011 budget a “catastrophe,” insisting his own plan for a 10 percent across-the-board cut would balance the budget and dig the state out of its $13 billion hole.

According to Quinn, the solution to the state’s financial woes lies in $4 billion in short-term borrowing and $2 billion in spending cuts, with $1.3 targeted for education. To soften the blow to education, the Democratic governor is calling for a 1 percent point increase – or 33 percent – in the state’s 3 percent income tax rate.

Brady said the income tax increase didn’t “make sense” to him, criticizing Quinn for singling out only one of the state’s major expenses.

“There’s $40 to $45 billion that you can cut and re-construct,” Brady said.” Brady declined, however, to elaborate on the details of the cuts that he believes could be made.

“It seems to me that what he’s simply doing here is ignoring the problem, kicking the can down the road, trying to make it past the election,” Brady said. “I frankly wonder if he’s planning on being here in January because he’s leaving a pretty big problem.”

You can read Mary's full report at: http://illinoisstatehousenews.com/2010/03/10/gop-candidate-for-governor-calls-quinns-budget-catastrophe/