Foggy crystal ball leads to 21 years of Illinois budget deficits
Foggy crystal ball leads to 21 years of Illinois budget deficits
The first step of passing a budget is to determine how much is available to spend. Illinois routinely misses the mark in estimating future revenues. There is a solution.
Whether sitting around the kitchen table at home or negotiating a multibillion-dollar state spending plan, figuring out how much you have available to spend is the first step of budgeting.
Illinois state estimates are routinely wrong: 19 of the past 26 estimates have been off, some by billions.
Worse, the Illinois General Assembly has not even officially adopted a revenue estimate since 2014. This leaves the public in the dark about assumptions lawmakers use when crafting the budget, and makes it nearly impossible to hold Springfield accountable for statutory and constitutional requirements to balance the budget.