By: Mark Glennon*
Election years are “silly season,” it’s often said in Illinois, but this year is one for the record books.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his party last week last week made astonishingly dishonest claims about the reason why Republican lawmakers voted against new legislation to partially fix Illinois’ insolvent unemployment trust fund, attributing to them a position that is precisely opposite from what they had taken.
Pritzker also made claims about the state’s financial performance during his tenure that, if true, would make his own ally a liar – Comptroller Susana Mendoza.
First, some background. At his Thursday press conference Pritzker proudly announced that he would be signing new legislation that includes a $2.7 billion repayment on $4.5 billion of loans owed by Illinois’ unemployment trust fund to the US Treasury. That fund, which pays unemployment claims, had its entire balance of $1.9 billion wiped out during the pandemic and was also forced to borrow the additional $4.5 from the federal government to cover unemployment claims made.
The problem therefore totals at least $6.4 billion and is a major financial problem for the state – a problem that was entirely ignored in the state’s budgets. Interest on the loans alone has been running at a clip of about $100 million per year. To pay off the loans and restore the fund to solvency, the state will have to either raise taxes on employers, cut unemployment benefits, come up with the money some other way or some combination thereof.
Pritzker boasts about the partial solution, saying “Today we mark yet another milestone in getting Illinois’ fiscal house in order. Democrats in the General Assembly are overcoming the difficult circumstances of our past and putting working families first.”
But he went on to claim that Republicans, who unanimously voted against the authorization, did so because they were against paying down debts with cash that the state has on hand that came from the federal government. “Every republican voted against paying down our states debts,” Pritzker said and just “putting politics ahead of the people….. It drives me crazy to see that it drives them crazy to acknowledge that Democrats have done what they have not done – pay down debts and balance the budget while giving tax relief.”
That could not be further from the truth. Republicans unanimously opposed the bill because they wanted all of the $4.5 billion paid off, not just $2.7 billion as the bill provides. Their votes didn’t matter anyway because the Democratic supermajority in both houses voted unanimously for the bill.
Republicans have been vehement on the record about paying down the entire debt. As reporter Hanna Meisel put it in an excellent column on the subject, “Republicans and business leaders have pushed hard on the narrative that not using every possible dollar of Illinois’ unspent [federal] funds to stabilize the unemployment fund is malpractice.” They estimate that almost $7 billion of federal cash remains available from ARPA, the federal government’s American Rescue Plan Act.
Republicans further complain that, instead of paying down debts, ARPA money is going to pork barrel projects for Democrats.
That’s true. As Meisel noted, that’s “a claim top budget negotiators in the majority party didn’t deny in a Chicago Tribune review of those projects last summer.” Also remember that early this month a group of Democrats got Gov. J.B. Pritzker to freeze projects tied to former Speaker Mike Madigan. But the next day, they said never mind. That’s about the Rebuild Illinois program, but money is fungible. The Better Government Association estimates that “some $4 billion in projects were clouted in, legally, by legislative leaders and Gov. Pritzker.”
The next collection of whoppers from Pritzker’s press conference were his claims about cutting Illinois debt and setting its fiscal house in order.
“Fiscal responsibility is the only way forward for us to focus on balance budget and paying down debt,” he said. “It’s the Democrats that are taking on the tasks” of overcoming fiscal problems. Both short term and long term debts have been cut, he claimed, during his tenure, and he added,
Every year over the last three years we have paid off debts by our predecessor that have been a drag on Illinois finances, in some instances for decades…. reduced the burden on that would have fallen on future generation and stopped irresponsible practices that would have kicked the can down the road.
That’s preposterous, flatly contradicting what both the state’s auditors and Comptroller Mendoza say. Illinois’ balance sheet sank further into the hole during each of the three years since Pritzker took office in January 2019.
It’s called the state’s net position, which sank from negative $188 billion to negative $194 billion to negative $198 billion in 2019, 2020 and 2021. That’s from the state’s audited financial statements contained in its Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports, except for 2021 which is from Mendoza’s interim report. “When examined over time, increases or decreases in net position measure whether the State’s financial position is improving (increases) or getting worse (decreases).” Don’t take my word for that; it’s from Mendoza’s own interim report, and it is routinely said in government CAFRs.
Pritzker also made his usual claims about “balanced” budgets, claims that are nonsense for reasons we have detailed in columns linked below.
Whatever improvement there is currently for Illinois’ finances is attributable only to the gush of federal money poured into the state, now approaching $200 billion, which we explained here. Pritzker has made no meaningful structural reforms of any kind and the fiscal crisis will revert once the federal money runs out.
Pritzker was not alone in telling these whoppers. A parade of Democratic lawmakers followed him in his press conference and are quoted in an accompanying press release, all saying much the same thing.
Finally, what will Illinois do to address pay the remaining $3.8 billion – at least – needed to restore the unemployment trust fund to solvency? Part of the solution will likely include a tax increase on employers.
But a movement is also afoot to borrow money through a bond offering to bail out the fund. That’s right – just the kind of borrowing to cover debt that Pritzker claims is a thing of the past. From Meisel’s column:
The most likely funding scenario is a case of deja vu: Just like after the economic downturns of 2001 and 2008, Illinois could go to the bond market to raise a yet-to-be-agreed-to sum. And like it’s already done twice in the past two decades, Illinois may trade one interest rate for another, borrowing from private lenders to pay back what it borrowed from the feds.
Pritzker also said in his press conference that an additional, unscheduled, one-time contribution of $300 million that’s also authorized under the new law will reduce unfunded pension liabilities by $1 billion.
I don’t get that. Putting $300 million more in should reduce unfunded liabilities by the same $300 million.
We are adding all this to the catalog of Pritzker’s whoppers that we will publish it at some point, but give us some time because that’s quite a project. He is deeply and persistently dishonest.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Related Wirepoints columns:
- Credit the near $200 billion federal bailout, not Pritzker’s actions, for Illinois’ “improved” 2023 budget
- What Illinois incompetence looks like: the state’s unemployment insurance fiasco
- What Pritzker’s 2022 budget proposal doesn’t do: fix Illinois
- Did Federal Bailout Help Illinois Budget Or Not? Pritzker And Congressman Krishnamoorthi Tell Congress A New Story
- Juiced Up Budgets In Other States Attributed To Federal Aid, But Pritzker Claims Credit In Illinois
- Gov. Pritzker: The man with two budget faces
- Deputy Governor Andy Manar’s Deceitful Response To Wirepoints
- Pritzker Administration sloughs off Illinois pension liabilities passing $500 billion mark, dissembles on pension crisis again
- “How much do we hate jobs in this state?” The fight over Illinois’ unemployment insurance debt will hit job creators
- Comptroller Mendoza claims Illinois paying its bills but needs more federal bailout to avoid a big one
- The states’ 2020 financials are in: Biden’s billions in new federal aid aren’t needed
- Illinois Budget Ignores $5 Billion Hole In Unemployment Insurance Fund
- State Of Illinois Revenue Estimates Good Now But 4.5% Drop Expected Next Year As Federal Money Train Ends
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
It’s Monday morning. Time to start a new week of complaining about Illinois. Let’s see, what shall we complain about now …Crime? Taxes? Schools? Masks? Corruption? Such a sad situation. All of you stuck in Illinois. Too bad no other state would allow you to enter. Oh, wait!!!
Yeah, Monday, Tuesday and every day. The modern left will destroy America and all of Western civilization unless they are stopped. Fight them from wherever you pick. We happen to have picked here, and we do not intend to leave them be.
Mark, I believe you will win in Illinois…eventually, at significant cost, perhaps in your lifetime.
My way to fight the modern left of Illinois was to deny them my tax dollars by leaving and finding one of the most conservative states as my new home. It seems to be the only realistic method to fight the left of Illinois at this point in time. I tried the traditional way for years, voting against the Dems, and that didn’t seem to work very well.
As a lifelong Democrat, I now understand what Ronald Reagan said so man6 years ago when he said he didn’t leave the Democratic Party, but the party had left him. They’ve left me and many others with the woke bullshit, and the intellectual contortionist they practice on a daily basis. Biden was the only Dem I voted for last election, and if it’s Trump/ Biden rematch, I may just leave it blank. Is this kind of buffoonery, deceit, and clownishness of fools like Biden, Trump, Pritzker, Ted Cruz, Pelosi The best we can do. They can insult our intelligence on… Read more »
As is true for politicians everywhere the “rules” for what rewards them have to be changed. I could enumerate, but ultimately that’s a waste of time. The truth-killer there is that they would have to vote on such rules, and we know that result in advance, don’t we? We’d all like to vote on the rules where we work and how we are rewarded, wouldn’t we?
Dude, get out of IL once in a while and you will see that IL is a fecal black hole. Try Indiana or Kentucky or Oklahoma or literally any other red state. Give it a try HJ you can do it.
Aaron, I left a few years ago. My comment was aimed at those that stay year after year even though they hate it.
His whoppers are bigger than his waistline. And tell him to put the mask back on; it hides his lying face.
The only reason JB– and many other Democrats for that matter– can get away with this blabber is that Illinois voters are lazy, uninformed and too uneducated to comprehend any discussion of budget, taxes or fiscal matters. Until that changes, Dems can get away with this constant smokescreen.
On the flip side, because no one is listening to them, no one knows their accomplishments. The culture war issues are what are driving voters to the voting booth, and JB’s office has been awfully quiet on those issues lately, knowing it only infuriates Republicans even more when they hear Lard Lard Donut Face even mention these very controversial topics.
Yes, he sure has gone quiet. “Black lives matter” not working now, so he has moved on.
https://twitter.com/GovPritzker
The last few weeks of tweets from his official Gov’s account are pretty quiet about the woke cultural issues. Woke is toxic these days and he knows it. Our societies’ institutions know this too but don’t care. They double down on woke – because they have the power. But JB Pritzer has to win an election where 40%+ of the state reliably votes republican during the largest red wave the country has seen in generations.
I think all the woke/ blm hustle stuff is going to dry up real fast now that the great pork-barrel free fed arpa cash grant give-away has all been spoken for. How much longer can jb zoom around the state announcing some new equity grant give-away on the feds dime before public wakes up and realizes instead of paying the bills (unemployment insurance loan) a lot of bucks have gone to useless fake equity give-aways? And astoundingly, despite all the fed $billions$ in Covid relief, the taxpayers are stuck with a stealth/ back door tax hike when businesses are taxed… Read more »
JB styled himself as a fiscal conservative in the 1990s when he ran in the primary against Jan Schakowski. He was a member of the fiscally conservative Concord Coalition. He jumped on the woke train four years ago when it was working. He is just a political opportunist and is now moving on to something else.
Like most politicians,they have no true beliefs or ideals,they just go whichever way the wind is blowing
Please not Illinois voters. Your post should be Cook/County/Chicago voters. Those idiots carry every election for the democraps. 102 counties in the state usually the dembos carry 8 – 10 and of course Cook/County/Chicago have the lions share of votes in the state with a reliable 90% plus democrap vote.
And don’t forget financially supported by Pritzker’s government and don’t need to get a job so there’s no need for them to change it. They like what they’re getting so they will continue voting for him.
Illinois bonds are still moderate risk across the board, nothing of quality though. The raters will keep Illinois just above junk because they know the leaders have no hesitation to screw over the taxpayers. Or put bondholders above all others in a default. The raters are not stupid in this regard and rates are great for investors, so its at a sweet spot for investors. But it all rests on the guarantee that taxpayers and their descendants will be forever screwed over. Apparently risk in bond rating is not based on math alone, if it were Illinois would be junk.… Read more »
Mark, great piece. It seem where jb & dems are completely vulnerable is that they have essentially, as you say, went on a giant feel good pork-barrel grant giveaway spending spree with most of the fed ARPA funds before paying the bills. I think this is because jb took a huge gamble and assumed the fed would forgive the unemployment insurance loan or at least the interest but that’s all back fired. Taxpayers and businesses in the long are going to get the shaft once again to pay off the remainder. Now on top of being stuck with paying off… Read more »
The College Illinois debt payoff is flying under the radar. JB made a $230 million payment, essentially wiping out the entire liability. But that liability was $300M just last year, its massive gains attributed to a strong stock market last year. So it stands to reason it’ll continue to be an issue, no different than the pensions.
JB hasn’t addressed the plan for College Illinois long term. It’s been closed 4-5 years now. If he’s not going to reopen, is that an admission the plan was a bad idea all these years?
And another big lie is how HE (Pritzker) revived the Rockford Airport into a thriving cargo hub. Pritzker the Rockford airport was rebounding and thriving before you took office, please stop taking credit we’re credit isn’t due, how much did you pay the actors in your latest comical campaign commercial to lie for you. Pritzker you are nothing but a despicable liar, thin skinned individual. Wake up people in Illinois please wake up
“This ongoing expansion of the international cargo operations at RFD is something that our staff and Board have been working on for a long time.”
Paul R. Cicero, Greater Rockford Airport Authority Board Chairman, 2020
JB loves to take credit for existing forward momentum.
Fed up, thanks for that. I was not aware. I will put it on our list.
Just to add in 2016 Amazon showed up, and in 2017 UPS joined Rockford cargo hub, international cargo is also a very big stronghold.
If his skin is thin, it’s the only part of him that is, including his head.
JB needs to be held accountable for the precise language he uses…
We can’t allow them to change definitions of words to suit their narratives…
Politicians are well-schooled in saying whatever they think you want to hear and then doing whatever they think is best for you. They always know better than you do.
I wonder how we persuade Illinoisan’s who are entirely comfortable either ignoring Illinois’ pestilential bankruptcy of finances and governance, or accepting mendacious “Brazen Whoppers” as a reason not to change course, to at the very least acting like they have the sense God gave geese.
I see more brains in the barn at feeding time than I do in Illinois voting booths on election days.
Just sayin…….
The choice in the booth does not matter. Until such time as purposely mismanaged voter rolls are cleansed and secure paper ballots with Voter ID are implemented and counted by hand, it only matters who counts the votes. Everything else, (D vs R, race, religion, income, etc.) is just political theater meant to distract you from the truth. Your pockets are easier to pick when infighting.
It is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled. Those in true control, those with the actual power, are selected, not elected.
What does JB consider tax relief? The only thing that was lowered is trailer plates after they were raised. They went from $18 to $118 which is a 555% increase down to $36 still a 100% increase. Regular plates are still at $151 up from $101 or a 50% increase. When will the candidates running for governor start saying anything about ALL the taxes that were raised. List some on all the commercials. Show people how they are financially hurt from all those increases. This was before inflation went ballistic. All I see and hear is Incoming-Incoming and war photos… Read more »
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Freddy–agree 100%, where are any of the republican gov candidates on any of jbs whoppers?? Unfortunately for both jb & rep gov candidates they realize the Illinios vote is so stupid spinning endless whoppers is just par for the course.
JB has done nothing but lie since he started his trip to Springfield. Denied cheating in the toilet scandal, lied about his connections and attempts to bribe Blago to get a job, lied about his accomplishments. Now governor he has lied about issue after issue. I balanced the budget, lie, taxpayers and billions of dollars of free money did. I pay the state IOU’s, lie, taxpayers and billions of $$$ from the US government paid the bills. On and on he’s nothing but a spoiled rich kid who is out of touch with reality. A phony whose own family will… Read more »
JB is Gov. Pappy O’Daniel from the movie *Oh brother where art thou*…
Without the grey hair…
Or the good looks and dancing ability.
Got a nice suit, though……
On the plus side with the lies: he’s consistent.
Lying is working real well for Democrats all over this nation. We do a lousy job of holding them accountable. Where are the Republicans? We elect them to take care of this crap.
Dead on, Marie. Most of the blame is on corporate media, big tech censorship and the education establishment.