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Leaders Must Address Our Plight

Bruce Rauner is now governor.  He inherited?, and thus we face, a budgetary crisis.   Both national and regional news media have described our plight in detail, and in depressing terms.

The current budget will expire in June and, unless something is done we will face a huge deficit.  Actually, things might get much worse, since the temporary income tax increase has expired.   Either spending must be cut, taxes must increase, or both. Otherwise we will face a rolling disaster.

Actually, the situation might get even worse than that.  Decades of unfunded state pension liability must be addressed, but the last attempt to do so may well be voided soon as unconstitutional by the courts. To quote former governor Jim Edgar, "Doomsday's coming, and we do not have a printing press."

Now both budget balancing and pension control will be more difficult here in Illinois than in neighboring states because, in those states, the same party controlled both the legislature and the governor's office. 

But here in Illinois we face the same problem that we face from Washington -- divided government.  We need in Illinois precisely what we need in Washington -- bipartisan governing and compromise. 

Our leaders should transform our hopes into their new year's resolution. Our plight must become their priority.

I'm Bob Evans.