By Jim Nowlan
Outside Columnist

I was challenged the other day when I heard an expert say that no one has—or could—explain the Illinois state budget clearly, even to capable readers of newspaper opinion pages. So here goes my attempt to do so, without your eyes glazing over (well, maybe that is too much to ask):

According to the Illinois Office of the Comptroller, in 2012 Illinois spent $67.8 billion and took in revenues of $64.5 billion (maybe that is part of our problem).     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.