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| Lawmaker Ready to Hear About Budget -- LIVE COVERAGE WEDNESDAY ON WGIL AND WGIL.COM |
A local lawmaker says he's ready to hear what Governor Pat Quinn has to say this week about the budget.
74th District State Representative Don Moffitt says he wants to hear how Governor Pat Quinn plans to address the budget situation, which could leave many entities without a lot of money -- chief among them local school districts -- at a time when state officials have suggested slashing such spending maybe as much as 14 percent.
Moffitt tells WGIL while it might be easy to blame Quinn and others for what's happening now, you have to remember to look at "then" first.
"For six years in a row, under Governor (Rod) Blagojevich, deficit budgets were passed," Moffitt said. "I voted against every one of them. I voted 'no.' Our side tried to stop them. But for six years in a row, deficit budgets were passed, $1 billion to $2 billion deficit. And that continued to accumulate. Now we're looking at, probably, depending on whose estimate you use, about a $12 billion deficit at the present time."
The Gilson Republican says he was told when he first became a lawmaker that you could always rely on "natural revenue growth" which is fine if you are increasing spending. But he says for the last several years, nothing could be further from the truth, thanks in part to the economy.
Moffitt says spending has to be cut in order to help balance the budget, and believes something like an income or sales tax increase would have nothing to do with political will, and everything to do with whether or not it will actually work.
You can hear Governor Quinn's budget address live Wednesday at 12pm on WGIL and live online by clicking on "Special Events Audio" at WGIL.com. Local officials will join us live immediately following the speech to provide instant reaction. |
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| 03 09 10 by Newsroom |
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