How To Solve Illinois' Credit Problems? It Starts With Balancing The Budget

More bad news for Illinois taxpayers as Standard & Poor's downgraded Illinois credit outlook to 'negative' and pointed to an unbalanced budget as the reason.

That means that the state's credit rating could be downgraded within the next two years unless its finances improve, S&P said. A lower credit rating translates into higher borrowing costs.

How do we solve this? It starts with balancing the state's budget. Sounds easy, right?
Illinois Treasurer's Candidate Tom Cross has been pushing to force the State of Illinois to balanced the budget every year.

“The unbalanced budget approved by the Quinn/Frerichs team is the primary reason behind Standard & Poor’s downgrading Illinois’ credit outlook to negative. Standard & Poor’s identified the state budget as ‘not structurally balanced and will contribute to growing deficits and payables that will likely pressure the state’s liquidity.’ 

The Quinn/Frerichs budget was completely irresponsible, including $500,000 in legislative pay raises, $10 million in funding for a private Chicago theater and other outrageously wasteful and unnecessary spending. I opposed this unbalanced budget as I believed it violated the state constitution and if I am fortunate enough to be elected as Treasurer, my first act will be to challenge the legality of this budget.”

You can join the legion of Illinois voters by standing with politicians like Tom Cross who are demanding an #honestbalancedbudget by visiting http://www.honestbalancedbudget.com/ and signing the letter.