•September 18, 2019•
By Jim Nowlan
Capital News Service

The only way for Illinois to avoid a fiscal apocalypse is to create a powerful, independent board that would administer bitter budget medicine. Lawmakers would be required to take a single vote — up or down, with no amendments ­­— on the prescriptions. Why so draconian, Nowlan?
First, the Legislature has never once in the past 20 years adopted an honest balanced budget. Obviously, the Legislature lacks the will to solve our problem. The result is the equivalent of $60,000 of debt and unfunded future obligations for each household in Illinois (at three people per), according to Truth in Accounting, a CPA-led research group.
Second, if the 2020 election vote on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed new tax on high-income earners fails, fiscal chaos is likely to follow. Unpaid bills would balloon beyond the present $7 billion. Bond houses would declare our debt junk. Businesses would shun the state because of uncertainty about their future taxes.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.