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THE CARTOONIST’S VOICE
Hear ticking? Budget contains fiscal time bomb Revenue hole at $6 billion for ’15-’16 forecast
Joe Heller, Heller Syndication
EDITORIALS ELSEWHERE
A veteran departs from the VA, but problems remain Chicago Tribune Editorial Board
T
he resignation of Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki on Friday should leave his Washington critics feeling hollow. Their demands have been met. He has fallen on his sword. Shinseki’s shortcomings as a bureaucrat can’t tarnish his remarkable military record. Washington has plenty of bureaucrats. It has precious few people who have served their nation with such valor and dedication as Shinseki exhibited in two tours of Vietnam and the rest of his military career. His departure solves a political problem for the Obama administration, but it doesn’t resolve the far more vexing problem of how to repair the hugely dysfunctional veterans health care system. The report released last week by the VA’s Office of Inspector General found problems systemwide in scheduling veterans for medical care and in manipulating records to hide long waits for those appointments. The investigation has expanded to 42 sites. Problems have been building at the VA for some time. Over the years, the department
AP
Former Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is seated before speaking at a meeting of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans on Friday in Washington. Shinseki on Friday resigned amid widespread troubles with veterans’ health care. has expanded its mission and reach, opening to all veterans, not just those with service-related disabilities or low incomes. Its budget – now more than $57 billion – has grown much faster than its patient load. So, how to recalibrate? “It’s time for a return to original principles,� former VA Secretary Anthony Principi wrote in The Wall Street Journal. “Those with disabilities incurred while in service – especially in combat or while training for combat – should never again have to wait in line for health care or benefits.� Principi suggested changing the VA’s antiquated disability com-
pensation system “to develop a new framework that promotes wellness� and compensates veterans for injuries and diseases caused by battlefield exposure, not “the expected and ordinary effects of aging.� He wrote that the government should “seriously consider� realigning the separate Veterans Affairs and Defense Department health care systems. A fully integrated system would provide greater purchasing power for drugs, medical supplies and equipment. Those savings could be used to improve care. The best way to ensure veterans don’t languish
on secret waiting lists is to give them greater flexibility to seek medical care through private systems when the VA can’t or won’t see them soon enough. At the same time, encouraging broader access to private health care systems would allow the VA to focus on the specialized care it does best, such as treatment of traumatic injuries. Taxpayers would still pick up the tab. But the responsibilities for more veteran health care would fall on a larger number of doctors and hospitals already prepared to treat patients with many of the same health problems, minor or major, veterans encounter. Real accountability at the VA – from those who concocted and covered up secret waiting lists – is a work in progress. Congress’ rising interest in this system’s failings creates a perfect time to focus on the future of care for the nation’s veterans. The priority should be to focus on those who most urgently need that care because of the wounds they’ve suffered defending this country – not on salvaging the government-run colossus that the VA has become while Congress writes ever bigger checks.
THE READER’S VOICE
Employees disheartened by comments JERRY McBRIDE Dixon
The article in the May 9 Telegraph [“Local plants being consolidated�] discussed the consolidation and closure of three Anchor facilities in the Dixon and Sterling area. We have a few comments. Huge thanks to Sterling Mayor Skip Lee for his positive comments regarding the hardship on the many
EDITORIAL BOARD Jennifer Baratta Jim Dunn Sam R Fisher Sheryl Gulbranson Larry Lough Jeff Rogers
fine families affected by this Caterpillar move. If only Mayor Jim Burke of Dixon could see the problem as it is, rather than make a comment like, “wouldn’t be catastrophic.� Shame on you, mayor. Perhaps the mayor has forgotten that 160 people will lose their jobs as well as many service providers, vending companies, local business people, etc. Anchor has been a strong contributor to Kreider as well as other service organizations. Those employees will surely
be adversely affected. Many daily truck drivers come to Dixon Anchor for pickups and deliveries, buy fuel, eat lunch, and make purchases. Perhaps they don’t count either. Mayor Burke may have forgotten he was informed of this possibility 12 months ago, and may have made no attempt to contact Cat to save jobs. We don’t know, but by his own admission, he was interested in selling them a piece of property 2 to 3 years ago. Perhaps his interest today is how he can get the property at
4(% &)234 !-%.$-%.4 Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
1100 Anchor Road listed for sale. We feel it is a shame he did not work with management to try to save our jobs, and has taken such a casual attitude about the closure. Mayor, we would like to remind you we all vote. Thanks for nothing. Note to readers: Jerry McBride, and the following co-signed the submitted letter: Mark Miller, Lester Flaherty III, Shane Thomas, Larry Lally, Scott Short, Vicki Raymond, and Pat Grassnickel, all employees of Anchor Coupling Dixon.
On the bright side, I suppose you could argue that last week’s budget passed by the General Assembly will lead to the largest tax cut in Illinois history come January, when the 2011 income tax increase partially expires on schedule. But that’s about the only bright side. And, really, pretty much nobody expects that some sort of tax hike will be avoided after the election, no matter who wins come November. The new Fiscal Year 2015 budget proposal had to be based on the partial expiration of the tax hike on Jan. 1, when it will drop from 5 percent to 3.75 percent. House Democrats claim they couldn’t find enough votes to permanently extend the tax hike. But this new budget will blow close to a $6 billion hole in the following year’s budget, according to my own back-of-theenvelope analysis that top Senate Democrats said looked accurate to Gov. Pat them. Quinn I based New state what follows budget puts on what I him on the spot more know about than his how t h e Republican budget was challenger, crafted. But Bruce Rauner. whatever the final number ends up being, it’s crystal clear that whoever wins the governor’s race will face a monstrous challenge after he’s sworn in next January. Borrowing $660 million from special state funds, as this new budget does, is a one-off affair. The money is being put into the state’s spending base and will have to somehow be replaced the following year. A 2-year repayment plan means an additional $330 million will also have to be found in the next budget, for a total hole of about a billion dollars. Using about $500 million in one-time revenue increases from this fiscal year to pay forward some bills in next fiscal year means that same $500 million will have to be found again when the next budget is crafted. Not funding employee salary and health insurance benefit cost increases kicks another $380 million down the road. So now we’re at $1.9 billion. AND THEN, OF COURSE, there’s the approximately $3.6 billion in full-year revenue lost after the income tax hike partially expires. That puts the hole around $5.7 billion. Also, state Rep. Greg Harris, chairman of a House appropriations committee, told reporters last week that the new budget
“Community discourse is the most important thing journalism does. For that to work, we need to reflect all of our community.� Mark N. Trahant, editorial page editor, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2001
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richMILLER Rich Miller publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter. He may be reached at http://thecapitolfax.blog. com online.
could create as much as a “couple of billion� dollars in past-due bills in the coming fiscal year. If that’s accurate, then the FY16 hole becomes much, much worse, plus there’s all that new debt owed to providers that will eventually have to be paid back. Not to mention that some state agencies have been given lump sum operating appropriations. Gov. Pat Quinn could conceivably try to avoid cuts before the election by putting off decisions until after the election. Doing so, of course, would blow a big hole in the second half of the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. And that brings us to Bruce Rauner, the Republican nominee for governor. Gov. Quinn’s campaign has been pushing Rauner hard lately to divulge his “secret� plan to balance the budget. The reason for that is they may have him caught in a trick bag of his own making. RAUNER HAS HINTED more than once that he’d like to taper off the income tax hike over a period of time. But he can’t do that now because last week’s legislative inaction means that most of the 2011 tax hike will automatically disappear on schedule this coming Jan. 1. Because of that legislative failure, if Rauner follows what was widely believed to be his original plan, the Republican would actually have to raise taxes in order to lower them again. Needless to say, don’t bet on that ever surfacing as his plan now. So, he’s going to have to come up with a new idea. And that won’t be easy, because, as I explained above, this “kick-the-can budget� has planted a multibillion-dollar nuclear time bomb that is so massive, Rauner won’t possibly be able to simply cut his way out of it. The other option is to do what he’s doing now: Refuse to answer any questions about his secret plan. But after promising for a year and a half to deliver one, he’s going to find himself dogged on the campaign trail from now on if he tries to stay mum. Either way, though, it’s Quinn who has the most problems. He’ll have to deal with a big budgetary hole during the campaign while attempting to persuade voters to re-elect him so that he can try, once again, to raise their taxes. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.
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