“Spending reform is like going to heaven- everyone wants to get there, but nobody wants to do what’s necessary.”  US Sen. Phil Grahm (paraphrased, 1990).

Last Thursday, For The Good of Illinois outlined our “We’re Spent” Agenda at the State Capitol. Alongside Sen. Kyle McCarter (R-Lebanon), Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine), Sen. Sam McCann (R-Carlinville) and Rep. Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon), we started the statewide push for fundamental budget reform. Click here to read Daily Herald coverage.  Click here for 780AM WBBM radio coverage.

Aggressive action is required because Illinoisans are saying that “We’re Spent”.  Illinois families and businesses are out of money, patience and are frustrated with government’s refusal to cut spending and tighten belts.

Click here to listen to real Illinois business stories- “We’re Spent”.

Our agenda creates a mechanism to restrain government, forces efficiencies in spending and recommends deep auditing as a tool to spotlight waste.

For the Good of Illinois Legislative Agenda:

• Hard spending caps after sustainable spending cuts (Senate Bill 36):  This measure provides real, meaningful spending caps on our budget by limiting spending to 1.5 percent annual increases. Illinois needs spending restraint- roll back spending by $5 billion and then cap future spending. In the future, the caps need to be constitutional.

• PayGo Budgeting (House Bill 111): This concept is very simple yet very effective- Don’t spend more money than you bring in. PAYGO restores sensibility to budgeting. If you want to spend more, you need to cut that exact amount to offset that spending increase. The result of PayGo is that waste and inefficiencies will be trimmed by the special interests competing for new programs.

• Deep Auditing:  the tool to spotlight corruptions, waste and inefficiencies in state spending.

Running a victory lap, Rep. Dwight Kay drafted a forensic audit of workers comp (HR52) which was embraced by Speaker Michael Madigan (HR131). This resolution was approved unanimously (111-00) in the Illinois House.  Audit should save taxpayers millions in rampant abuse and systemic fraud.

Click here to listen to the “We’re Spent” Agenda from press conference.

Cut spending and then cap spending.  Add a dollar of new program spending, cut a dollar of old spending. Root out the corruption, waste and inefficiency in current spending with deep audits.

This is simple, yet powerful fundamental budget reform.

Together, we will bring a new day to Illinois.