Note: This article was last updated in 2010. Click here for more recent information on state budgets and finances. |
FY 2010 Operating appropriations by fund group, FY 2010:[1]
Total cuts made after passage of FY 2010 budget[2]
Category | Amount cut (in millions) |
---|---|
K-12 education | 85.2 |
Higher education | 6.7 |
Public assistance | 41.1 |
Medicaid | 140.0 |
Transportation | 1.7 |
Other | 108.2 |
Total | 382.9 |
Fiscal year 2010 tax collections compared with projections used in adopting FY 2010 Budgets (millions)[2]
Category | Amount |
---|---|
Sales tax original estimate | 6,394 |
Sales tax revised estimate | 6,200 |
Personal income tax original estimate | 9,206 |
Personal income tax revised estimate | 8,460 |
Corporate income tax estimate | 1,133 |
Corporate income tax estimate | 1,310 |
General fund[3]
Category | FY 2009 amount in millions actual | FY 2010 amount in millions estimated |
---|---|---|
Beginning balance | 141 | 280 |
Revenues | 27,551 | 25,828 |
Adjustments | 1,593 | 2,167 |
Total resources | 29,285 | 28,275 |
Expenditures | 26,982 | 23,714 |
Adjustments | 2,023 | 4,281 |
Ending balance | 280 | 280 |
Budget stabilization fund | 276 | 276 |
The Illinois state government appropriated $67,693,357,273.26 to be spent in the 2007 fiscal year.[4]
Fiscal year | General funds expenditures | % change from previous year |
---|---|---|
1999 | $21,527,000,000[5] | 9.4%[5] |
2000 | $22,976,000,000[5] | 6.7%[5] |
2001 | $24,583,000,000[5] | 7.0%[5] |
2002 | $25,125,000,000[5] | 2.2%[5] |
2003 | $24,861,000,000[6] | -1.0%[5] |
2004 | $26,365,000,000[7] | 6.0%[7] |
2005 | $28,247,000,000[8] | 7.1%[8] |
2006 | $28,452,000,000[9] | 0.7%[9] |
2007 | $30,116,000,000[5] | 5.8%[5] |
2008 | $27,162,717,000[1] | -9.8% |
2009 | $29,787,690,000[10] | 9.7% |
2010 | $26,031,201,000[10] | -7.7% |
2011 - proposed | $24,508,432,000[10] | -5.8% |
As of May 2009, the Illinois Office of Management and Budget website did not post copies of the budget proposals from previous fiscal years. This was unusual, given that many other states' budget offices keep archived copies of past budgets.[11] For the 2011 budget, the state adopted a more transparent method of publishing its budget, providing the information on a quarterly and annual basis. The new process would not affect how agency's budgets would be audited. These reports would continue to be released a year or more after revenue and costs were available.[12]
The Illinois Policy Institute posted the PDF budget books from 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.[13]
According to the Illinois Policy Institute, Illinois ranks 48th in economic performance, doing better than Michigan and Ohio:[14]
As of March 2009, Gov. Pat Quinn launched Budget Illinois, which summarized the proposed budget for 2010, offered budget figures and detailed a capital projects list, including information on the recommended and actual appropriations and expenditures going forward.[15]
According to Joe Calomino, Illinois State Director of Americans for Prosperity:
"[Illinois's] current opaque spending process creates the perception, or possible reality, of legislators or bureaucrats using the state budget to fund unnecessary, wasteful, or even corrupt programs, confident that most Illinoisans will never know about it. Giving taxpayers the tools to understand where and how their money is being spent will make state government more accountable and reduce waste, fraud, and abuse."[16]
However, thanks to leaders on the local level, transparency was spreading as of 2009.[17]
"Open Book" is a searchable database of state contracts and campaign contributions that is hosted by the Illinois State Comptroller. Also available from the Comptroller's Office is aggregate expenditure information that can be sorted in a variety of ways. Line-item information was not available as of 2009.
House Bill 35 was a 2009 reintroduction of Rep. Michael Tryon's 2008 transparency bill, House Bill 4765, and would require the state to create and maintain a website on state employees’ salaries, state contracts, state expenditures, state tax credits and revocations and suspensions of state professional licenses. HB 35 was sent to Governor Pat Quinn on June 12, 2009.[18] The only high-ranking state official listed on the site, however, was Gov. Quinn; other state employees, including Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Secretary of State Jesse White, and legislators were not included.[19]
Illinois launched Sunshine.Illinois.gov to publish state expenditures, grants, public facilities’ inspection reports and more.[20]
The following table is helpful in evaluating the level of transparency provided by "Open Book" and the Comptroller's aggregate expenditure website.
State database | Searchability | Grants | Contracts | Line item expenditures | Dept./agency budgets | Public employee salary |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Open Books | ||||||
Comptroller's aggregate expenditure website |
Three Illinois projects were noted in Senator Coburn's and Senator McCain's "Summertime Blues, 100 stimulus projects that give taxpayers the blues" report. One project awarded $712,883 in stimulus funds to Northwestern University to create computer systems that would gather jokes from the Internet and use them to create hilarious presentations that mimic real-life comedians.[22] Another project used $18 million of bonding authority granted to McHenry County from the stimulus bill for a sports complex.[22] In addition, the report noted that the University of Illinois received half a million dollars to study the relationship between taxes and obesity.[22]
According to an audit conducted on the $242 million weatherization program, energy efficiency upgrades on low-income homes repeatedly failed during final inspection.[23] At least 12 of the homes were left in a state that caused risk to the occupants.
According to Recovery.gov, stimulus funding would go to 884 congressional districts, though there are only 435.[24][25]
The recovery website showed that money was dispensed to six phantom districts in Illinois. In fact, nearly $500,000 was directed towards the 20th District, which ceased to exist after the 2000 census.[26]
Illinois Open Gov is a transparency website sponsored by the organization.[27][28] As of 2009, the site listed state employee salary, retiree pensions and vendor information. The site stated plans to eventually include all state spending.
Illinois Open Gov exceeded the then-current state-sponsored site for government employee salary information by also factoring in information about employee benefits and providing information about retired state employees.[29]
The site also allows others to repurpose the data by offering it in Excel or CSV file formats. It also hosts a forum for public conversation to discuss particular spending items.[29]
As of 2009, the Illinois Auditor General was William G. Holland. Since August 1992, William G. Holland had served as Auditor General of the State of Illinois. He was appointed by the General Assembly to a 10-year term commencing August 1, 1992. He was unanimously re-appointed to a second 10-year term, effective August 1, 2002.[30] The Auditor General is a constitutional officer of the state charged with reviewing the obligation, expenditure, receipt and use of public funds. The office issues approximately 150 post-audits of state agencies each year, reviewing an agency's financial records, compliance with state and federal laws and regulations, and program performance after the close of its fiscal year. Report digests (summaries) and full audit reports of released audits are available online.[31]
As of 2009, the Illinois State Comptroller was Daniel W. Hynes, who had served three terms since first elected in November 1998. The Comptroller's Office was created by the Constitutional Convention of 1970 as an expanded replacement for the Office of the Auditor of Public Accounts.[32]
The Institute for Truth in Accounting] (IFTA) rated Illinois “worst” in filing the state’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), the annual report of state and local governmental entities. IFTA rated 22 states timely, 22 states tardy, and six states as worst. IFTA did not consider Illinois’s CAFRs, and those of the other states, to be accurate representations of the state’s financial condition because the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) basis did not include significant liabilities for the pension plans and for other post employment benefits, such as health care.[33] Illinois’s CAFRs are published online by the Illinois State Comptroller.[34]
Credit rating | Fitch | Moody's | S&P |
Illinois[35] | A | A1 | AA- |
Governor Pat Quinn joined with Attorney General Lisa Madigan and members of the Illinois Reform Commission on August 17, 2009 to sign bills to increase transparency and accountability in state government. The legislation strengthened the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and ensured the state’s boards and commissions were open and accessible to the public. The website makes the state’s expenditures and employee pay data available through a single, searchable portal: Accountability.Illinois.gov.[36]
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