pThough Gov. Pat Quinn won't discuss his proposal for fixing the state's massive deficit until Wednesday, a top Quinn aide told a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2088547,state-budget-schools-police-child-care-030710.article" target="_hplink"the Associated Press Monday/a that the state can expect 17,000 teachers to lose their jobs, thousands of poor families to get less help with child care and fewer state troopers to patrol the roads. /p
pQuinn budget director David Vaught told the AP that even if lawmakers agree to Quinn's proposed tax hikes, the state will still face big cuts. /p
p"This is the reality budget. This is what's really happening," Vaught said./p
pIllinois' deficit, which is roughly $13 billion, is just the tip of the iceberg, Vaught said. The state's current budget is badly unbalanced, revenues are expected to drop and expenses keep climbing, Vaught told the AP. /p
pOn Monday, Quinn's office announced that it plans to examine more than a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/08/quinn-reviews-blagojevich_n_490086.html" target="_hplink"250 government contracts/a issued by his predecessor, Rod Blagojevich, to see if they should be rebid--but it is not yet clear whether the move will ease any of the state's fiscal woes. /p
pVaught would not tell the AP about the size of Quinn's proposed tax hike, but did say Quinn will propose about about $2 billion in cuts: /p
blockquoteGeneral education spending would fall by about $1.4 billion, he said, an 11 percent decrease. The "foundation level" of state support for each child would fall from $6,119 now to about $5,600 next year.
pVaught estimated schools would have to lay off about 17,000 teachers./blockquote/p
pState Republicans are accusing Quinn of trying to scare voters into his tax hikes. "I think the governor is playing a game. It's a sick game," House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, said last week./p
pSen. Bill Brady, who is running against Quinn, has proposed a ten percent across the board reduction to all state agencies, which has been critisized by a href="http://www.herald-review.com/news/local/article_f19e028e-a0c1-5333-a7b5-496de474c890.html" target="_hplink"members of his own party. br /
/a/p
pMore good news from Vaught? /p
p* Quinn will propose $150 million in cuts to human services, meaning less cash for local organizations that provide child-care services for the working poor. About 6,000 children would be affected by the tighter eligibility standards--which could cause their parents to lose their jobs. /p
p* State police would lose about $32 million, meaning fewer troopers on the roads./p
p* Local governments will see about $300 million less in terms of state support--"that and the education cuts are likely to increase pressure for cities and school boards to raise property taxes." (Mayor Daley is a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/08/daley-lashes-out-at-quinn_n_490996.html" target="_hplink"not so thrilled/a about this proposal.) /p
pVaught did not address the fact that the state has a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/03/university-of-illinois-tu_n_484021.html" target="_hplink"failed to pay/a the more than $1 billion it owes to schools, and blamed the current situation on last year's lawmakers who voted against a tax hike. /p
p"If they had acted, we wouldn't be seeing these kinds of cuts," he told the AP.br /
blockquotebr /
In addition to the $2 billion in spending reductions, Quinn will propose borrowing billions of dollars to pay off long-overdue bills. Vaught said that would still leave a hole of about $5 billion to be filled by raising taxes or borrowing more money.br /
/blockquotebr /
/p
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