Illinois Democrats’ Habitual Problem – Mistaking Inputs for Outputs
There’s nothing more self-righteous than an Illinois Democrat in the throes of budget negotiations.
Every one of them assumes that all the state needs to do is spend more money, and magically, matters of crime, lackluster education scores, the third-highest unemployment in the country, and a myriad of other problems will get solved.
It’s been the Democrat modus operandi since at least President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In Illinois, they’ve taken spending to unheard-of levels since they’ve had full control of state government for over two decades. Rauner’s years don’t count, as he even famously admitted that he wasn’t in charge.
Their biggest issue is in mistaking inputs for outputs in a nauseating way that panders to low-information voters and disregards outcomes and reality about the programs they fund. Every Democrat has been and still is guilty of approving these obscene budgets under un-democratic appalling processes. Those who voted against the series of bills that form the budget this year DO NOT get a pass. Their previous actions grew this monstrosity to the level it is now.
First, a look at the FY2025 toplines is in order since that is the only information most media and politicians report to the public. The Illinois House passed the budget at about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday morning after it passed the Senate on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend—when no one was paying attention, not that it would have mattered.
The $53.1 billion budget is the largest in state history and larger than the budget proposed in February by Illinois’ most progressive Governor in history, Governor Pritzker.
For comparison, the first budget passed under Pritzker, FY 2020, was $40.12 billion; five years later, the budget is 32 percent higher, despite Illinois losing over 300,000 people to other states in that same timeframe. The budget includes about $750 million in new taxes and spends $970 million to support illegal aliens in the state. Every dollar in new taxes, plus $200 million more, will go to support people residing here illegally. That number is likely higher as many programs that support illegals are not transparent, i.e. schools.
Also, in the budget, the statutory pension cost for the five state pensions plus the normal cost for Chicago Public Schools will be $10,473,319,233, an amount equal to 19.7 percent of the budget. This statutory amount underfunds the actuarial amount by billions. In total, the five state pension funds have an actuarily unfunded liability as of 2022 of $207 billion, according to the DOI Biennial Report. The pension hole grows bigger as the legislators contemplate scrapping Tier 2 and increasing benefits.
Illinois legislators made out again this year. For the fifth year in a row, the budget also includes pay increases. The maximum allowable for legislators is five percent. Last year’s pay raise got cutback after a 17% increase was passed and then found to be illegal. On page 187, legislator base pay is set for the next year at $93,712. On top of base pay, legislators who are committee heads, both Democrat and Republican, receive an additional $10,300 no matter how many times committees meet. On average, when tracked from 2013-2018 (I had staff track it), committees only met six times during the year for about one hour each time; some committees never met. Legislators also receive a per diem of $166 per day plus travel expenses and can sign up for generous taxpayer-funded healthcare and pension. That means legislators take home nearly $500 more for a three-day session week, and many of them return home at night and eat out at some lobbyist’s expense. Great pay for part-time work.
While legislators debated the toplines, perhaps they should have taken the time to read aloud specific budget items and ask questions about the numerous grants being handed out to questionable entities. In the 3,389-page budget bill, SB251, it only took until page 12 to find the first completely non-essential handout to a special interest non-profit. This year, listed on page 12, Illinois taxpayers will give the Irish American Heritage Center $500,000 for infrastructure improvements. Further on, the Reflections Foundation for Polished Pebbles Girls Mentoring Program is getting $250,000 from taxpayers, and the Puerto Rican Cultural Center is getting $1 million.
Beginning on page 33, there are over $63 million in grants to other non-profits for violence prevention, youth employment, and operational expenses. These are entities that likely only a few, if any, legislators have ever heard of. Some of them do legitimate work with the developmentally disabled, like SEASPAR, which is controlled by 12 park districts – that is a great use of tax dollars. However, they also receive lots of support from local units of government and are supported locally with property taxes. Others are non-profits engaged in “civics,” meaning politics, and shouldn’t receive a dime in taxpayer money.
Still, other non-profits that provide government-funded childcare, early childhood education, and healthcare services under a contract are in other parts of the budget that are lumped into one big line item. For example, on page 831 is a bulk expense for Early Childhood Education in the amount of $748 million. This is very expensive preschool, approaching $9,000 per child or even higher, and is often provided for by non-profits. No one really knows the whole cost, either. In Pritzker’s budget address, he said he wanted $150 million more to fund 5,000 more preschool slots. That would be a cost of $30,000 per child. Few questions were asked in committee about the specific costs and impact. The outcomes are obvious – since only a third of students in the state are proficient in math and reading, preschool is not making a long-term impact.
The Black Research Collective is receiving $700,000 in this year’s budget. Their website states that they are “a collective of Black women in Chicago taking research to the streets. The mission of the Black Researchers Collective is to train and equip communities with research tools to be more civically engaged and policy informed.” Every state legislator who voted for the budget should be asked if this grant is a proper use of taxpayer money.
The Black Fire Brigade will receive $1.4 million, Black Men United will receive $268,000, the NAACP will receive $1 million, and an entity called It Takes a Village will receive $940,000. Thousands of pages of grants add up to billions of taxpayer dollars spent for what public purpose?
Much of the spending is for other people to watch over, entertain, babysit, and “employ” children. Without researching every entity, it is obvious that many of these programs teach social and family skills. Becoming a Man and Working on Womanhood is getting a whopping $2.772 million. Mr. Dad’s Father’s Club is getting $100,00. What do they do, and what are their outcomes? Illinois passed a grant accountability act a few years ago. Is it still in place and working? Did voters send their hard-earned money to Springfield to have politicians hand it out to non-profits to teach social skills that should be taught in the home?
I have started a spreadsheet to list the various grants to numerous organizations. The list does include grants to entities like SEASPAR that I know do meaningful work with the developmentally disabled. The list will be added to as we go through every page in the budget and I will publish it so others can know where their money is going.
Here’s a small look at where some of your taxes are going.
According to a report by the Illinois Department of Revenue, in the last five years that Pritzker has been in charge, personal income tax collections have increased by over $5 billion, sales tax revenue has increased by $2 billion, gas taxes have more than doubled, and property taxes collected in the state have increased by over $5 billion, from $31 billion to $36 billion.
There’s plenty of money sloshing around in the cesspool of government which is why billions are available for pet projects. Also, in the budget, according to testimony in the budget hearing, Democrat State Senators received $3 million to dole out to whatever entities they want, and Democrat State Representatives received $1.5 million in “member initiative money.” This pork spending wasn’t given to Republican legislators for their districts. And, in fact, under Minority Leader Jim Durkin, 20 Republicans were enticed to vote for a doubling of the gas tax in 2019 and were promised millions in projects for their district. Those projects however, over $41 million worth, have never been funded for the last five years, according to state reps that I have spoken with.
According to my sources, the listing of “member initiative” grants begins on page 3301. Here is a screenshot of the information we have gathered so far under that category.
They are funding everything from infrastructure grants for municipalities to programming for more non-profits. The Indo-American Center, a Chicago-based organization that helps new arrivals from India access public benefits and immigration services, among other things, is getting $3 million. WHO agreed to that grant? These grants should have a sponsoring name attached to them in the budget bill.
A group called UCAN that supports youth development and is funded by wealthy corporations like ATT, ComEd, Allstate, and AON is getting $115,000. Do they really need taxpayer money? And what are their results? CPS is also a funder to them.
The drama behind passing the budget adds to its absurdity. The budget passed in the dark, after rules were suspended to allow for a third vote on the concurrence motion and with a bare minimum of votes on the tax increase bill.
Now two Democrat State Reps are apologizing because they failed to stick around to vote and blew out of town before all the votes were taken. Rep. Aaron Ortiz (Rep. 1st District) left without his leaders knowing, as has been widely reported, and someone else, probably a staffer, supposedly voted for him. If that happened, it’s 100% unethical. An ethics investigation should be conducted to see who voted for Ortiz to pass the bill when he wasn’t there. And why did he leave? Did he just get tired at 3:30 am?
Here’s a screenshot of Ortiz and Marcus Evans’ (Rep-33rd District) apology letter to their fellow Democrat caucus members.
So, Welch didn’t have enough votes to cover his position. It took three votes to pass the revenue bill, and on a concurrence motion, the rules only allow for two votes.
But the rules don’t matter to Democrats – they just suspend them!
Meanwhile, Welch wasn’t on the floor for any of the final votes because everything was a foregone conclusion—that is until one of his members left and the orchestrated vote didn’t work out.
This entire operation is a game to them. From the limited discussion in committee on the spending of billions of dollars and other consequential legislation to the end-of-session drama and hurry-up and wait-for nonsense.
They don’t care about your money or the condition of the state. They don’t care about the disabled, education, business, the environment (C02 pipelines through an aquifer are okay; putting fossil fuel pipelines elsewhere isn’t), or even unions. Welch blocked his own staff from forming a union. You can’t make that up.
They pass votes at 5 am in the most unprofessional manner, thinking this is an essential duty, like pulling guard on the frontlines in combat or working an emergency surgery to save a life. They pretend like what they do is SO important that they need to pull an all-nighter. Instead, they just show how incompetent and narcissistic they are. They are pathetic, bought and paid-for minions of the people who feed off the government.
Here’s the rub – while taxes and the budget have ballooned over the last five years (and even before that), unemployment is higher, outmigration has continued unabated, key companies have moved their headquarters elsewhere, wealthy individuals, including our former governor, have left the state, student proficiency is down, and crime has skyrocketed.
What are you paying for Illinois voters?