Fiscal Focus Quarterly

              Comptroller Daniel W. Hynes
OCTOBER 2002 ISSUE
QUARTERLY
IN THIS ISSUE
Fiscal
Smarts
...PAGE 2
IN THIS ISSUE
IN THIS ISSUE
IN THIS ISSUE
✁
Focus On
Revenue
...PAGE 8
Focus On
Spending
...PAGE 9
Vital
Statistics
...PAGE 15
Comptroller’s Continued
Fiscal Warnings Document
Need for Budget Reform
Two years ago, Comptroller Hynes warned of the consequences Illinois citizens
would face if steps were not taken to prepare state finances for the next eco-nomic
downturn. In calling for the state’s elected officials to “make a covenant
with its citizens to guarantee . . . state services . . . without taking more out of
their pockets,” Hynes recalled past recessions and the effects visited on taxpay-ers
when state government was unprepared in the 1980s and ‘90s:
Already financially strapped by economic circumstances, taxpayers not
only saw reductions in the services provided by the state, but also
increases in their tax bills. Companies who did business with the state
had to wait months to be paid - some had to borrow money until the
state paid its bills; others actually went out of business . . . . Some (state
employees) lost their jobs while those employees who stayed picked up
the workload. The future of state employees’ pensions was threatened
when state government borrowed from their pension funds. In the early
1990s, the State of Illinois also borrowed money on the short-term mar-ket
just to make its payroll every month - racking up $100 million in
interest charges along the way.
COVER STORY continued, page 57