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* SJ-R…
Bailey discussed his vision of a “zero-based” budget that he believes will better serve the taxpayer. The candidate said during the Friday forum that he would appoint the proper department heads to serve this mission.
“They will account for every dollar that is going to be spent and, finally, the people of Illinois will be able to look and see directly where there money is being spent,” he said. “I believe that is how we are going to ferret out the waste that is currently in our budget.”
* Capitol News Illinois…
Bailey still won’t say how he’d cut roughly a third of the state’s budget that he believes to be “waste.”
When asked directly for three proposed budget cuts, Bailey didn’t name any. […]
The only number Bailey cited in the discussion was $2 billion in fraudulent claims paid out by the Illinois Department of Employment Security amid nationwide unemployment fraud of a new federal pandemic-related program.
It’s certainly an example of fraud, but it’s not an example of state spending.
The defrauded program was entirely federally funded.
* To the debate…
Q: Senator Bailey, we’re gonna play for you what you said about wanting to enact zero-based budgeting.
Bailey: Once we do a zero-based budget, I believe there’s $10 to $15 billion in that budget of waste. And we can take that and begin to get our state healthy again.
Q: And you’ve also said that everything is on the table. What in the $10 to $15 billion you plan to cut, name three things. You have 60 seconds for that.
Bailey: We’re going to fire all of the agency directors because they failed. We’re going to place business-minded men and women in those positions. They will be tasked with coming up with a zero based budget. Maybe people don’t understand what that means. But that means accounting for every dollar that’s spent. Governor Pritzker hasn’t even read the 5000-page budget that he’s created over the last four years. No one knows what’s in it. And as a matter of fact, just this last year $2 billion of fraud, of fraudulent payments was discovered in the Department of Employment. Governor Pritzker ignored it, he didn’t do anything about it. And it took some doing to actually get an account to find that money. Now I want to suggest to you that if $2 billion were just recently found as fraudulent unemployment payments, can you imagine how much more fraud or waste exists in each one of these agencies? A zero-based budget will ferret that out.
Q: I think I want to hear something a little more tangible. You say you’re gonna fire everybody and put more people in there, you’re gonna be paying them the same, right?
Bailey: Right. Agency directors that Governor Pritzker has put in place. They failed this because there’s not one state agency that’s doing its job.
Q: So where are you cutting the money then?
Bailey: That is the purpose of a zero-based budget. To find that waste.
This is basically just a dodge to avoid answering reporters’ questions and to look like he has a plan. What we all discovered during the Rauner years is that about 90 percent of state funding is mandated. If we try to cut it, the courts will step in. The other ten percent goes to fund a myriad of programs and services. OK, so cut 10 percent of that and you’ve saved less than $500 million. That’s a far cry from $15 billion.
Also, the $2 billion lost in that federal program was through fraud, not waste. And it was a lot less than a third of the overall pricetag. Bailey’s estimates are clearly being pulled out of thin air.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 10:59 am
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The Underpants Gnomes Candidate’s Underpants Gnomes Budget
Comment by DuPage Dad Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:05 am
So we’re back to the whole “waste, fraud and abuse” ploy to massively reduce Illinois’ budget again? How rauner of him. But him using the words “waste” and “billions” will reach the people he intends to reach.
Comment by Baloneymous Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:07 am
That worked so well under Gov. Rauner.
Let’s try it again.
Comment by Bruce( no not him) Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:10 am
==I believe there’s $10 to $15 billion in that budget of waste==
That’s just a ridiculous number to put out there and shows right off the bat he has no business being Governor if he doesn’t understand that. The only way you get anywhere close to that number is by firing a good chunk of the state’s workforce or totally obliterating spending on things like Medicaid.
==the people of Illinois will be able to look and see directly where there money is being spent==
You can see that now. There’s a ton of information on the Comptroller’s website. I can show him where to look.
==We’re going to place business-minded men and women in those positions.==
We had a “business minded” person who was Governor. We see how that worked out - unless you like not paying your bills and having no budget.
==there’s not one state agency that’s doing its job==
Another absolutely ridiculous comment. I just can’t with this guy. He’s pathetic on so many levels.
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:11 am
== We’re going to fire all of the agency directors … ==
That’s SOP any time an administration changes.
I don’t think he can find 33% or whatever, but I do think (as explained in the morning post reply) that he can find some. If you want me to put a number on it, I’d say between 5% and 10%.
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:12 am
“Thin air” isn’t the same location I was thinking of…
Comment by Give Us Barabbas Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:13 am
While there are some agencies that could use some restructuring and tweaking, this concept that JB and Mendoza have run the state into financial distress is a con. Just saying it puts it out there and all the crazy meme people treat those sound bites the same way they do about the SAFE-T act. It’s a shame people don’t educate themselves. And Bailey is in the senate! He has access to all the budgets and can’t identify ways to trim the budget?? Good grief.
Comment by Alice Childress Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:13 am
To summarize:
What is zero based budgeting?
We’re going to account for every dollar and get rid of waste.
How are you going to get rid of waste?
With zero based budgeting
What is zero based budgeting?
We’re going to account for every dollar and get rid of waste
How are you going to get rid of waste?
With zero based budgeting
My head hurts.
Comment by Steve Rogers Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:14 am
==was entirely federally funded==
That brings up another point about his proposal for budget cuts. There’s a lot of spending with federal matching dollars tied to it.
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:15 am
During the peak of the covid crisis, I opened that it was more important to get the money out and circulating, doing good my the most people, than being too picky about the qualifications. Finding and punishing the scammers is happening now and will continue.
Again, that was federal money, not state, and it was fraud not waste.
Comment by Give Us Barabbas Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:17 am
Bailey announces he’ll sell the state plane in 3…2…
Comment by Scott Fawell's Cellmate Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:18 am
One might conclude Baily might have formed a better answer than fire all the directors…We think the GOPies learned the painful reality from the GovJunk era that state laws, consent decrees, etc. mandate all kinds of spending. So his ZBB plan amounts to a real zeros.
Comment by Annonin' Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:19 am
does Bailey think that zero based budget mean his budget will be based on nothing? it’s a budget about nothing.
Comment by Amalia Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:26 am
Also, even Rauner’s people couldn’t identify exactly what they would cut out of that 10 percent. Agency heads were brought in to testify to committees, and nearly every one said they couldn’t spare a penny. Those were Rauner’s agency heads, not JB’s.
Comment by wildcat12 Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:26 am
Bailey’s definition of waste: what most people in Illinois think State government should do. Yes, State spending should be examined. That’s what the GA does every year. Yes, State programs should be administered more 0efficiently. That’s the Governor’s job. I have little faith Bailey’s up to it.
Comment by Sir Reel Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:28 am
== The defrauded program was entirely federally funded ==
I somewhat take umbrage with Capitol News calling the UI trust fund “federally funded” - it’s Illinois employer funded (into federal trust fund) and distribution came from the work of the State. So that lost money hurts. However, Bailey’s claim that it’s state revenue waste is just silly.
Comment by Lakefront Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:28 am
Bailey’s assertions are, of course, nonsense. It’s not like he doesn’t have access to the budget data. He is a member of the Illinois General Assembly’s bi-partisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. Apparently, he doesn’t read the reports and analyses of the committee of which he is a member.
Comment by Facts Matter Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:31 am
I’m shocked he hasn’t promised to have a forensic audit of every dollar spent in the state.
Comment by City Guy Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:32 am
There are two perfidies at play here.
The Bailey Perfidy
And
The Pritzker Perfidy
The Bailey perfidy is that state government is bloated, corrupt and filled with waste, thus the fallacy that you could cut by a third and it would be all fat. The perfidy is laid open that they can’t name a single thing to cut thus betraying that they know there is nothing that they can cut.
The Pritzker perfidy is that state government is staffed and working just fine. Bailey is correct In that no state agency is working correctly as they are so understaffed that “skeleton crew” is an aspiration. CMS simply isn’t hiring to achieve even skeleton crew. The Perfidy is that our workforce collapse is being hushed up and ignored by the administration. It’s feature not bug. Rauner would be so so impressed. Pritzker has bled AFSCME of members far more than Rauner ever did. Rauner cost the union millions In legal fees. Pritzker is costing the union a fortune in member dues
Simply by not hiring
You see Bailey is correct about the non functioning of state agencies. His diagnosis of why is perfidiously wrong. It’s not waste or fraud…
It’s because the workforce is so depleted.
Pritzkers Leadership Academy announced today
Is a perfidious ploy to cover up
The fact that managers
Have only a couple of people to manage.
It’s a gesture towards
It’s perfidy
He again forgets
It takes a lot of oompa loopas to make the chocolate
Better mid level managers
Under Rauner appointed bosses
Won’t do a thing
Without enough Oompa Loompas to do the work.
Comment by Honeybear Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:33 am
It would be nice if Bailey and his allies knew anything at all about “zero-based budgeting” or about the current budgeting processes which review potential reductions. It’s the new “forensic audit” silver bullet.
Comment by Walker Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:33 am
At what point does the zero-based budgeting expert add in the farm subsidies?
Comment by Ron Burgundy Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:35 am
Politician after politician has said they were going to enforce zero based budgeting. Sorry, but true zero based budgeting is just not realistic in developing a budget as massive and diverse as the State of Illinois’ budget is. Much less specific agencies like IDHS, IDOC, IDOT, etc.
Comment by Magic Dragon Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:44 am
I remember a former good ol boy Governor was able to save the state $4.6B through a “grand bargain”. So why can’t Bailey aim higher?
Comment by Henry Francis Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 11:46 am
“We’re going to place business-minded men and women in those positions.”
Taking a page out of Rauner’s playbook…because that was so successful. /s This is an immediate turnoff for anyone who worked in state gov under Rauner. Working with his appointed corporate business “geniuses” was a nightmare.
Comment by Politix Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 12:08 pm
I doubt the nonexistent Department of Employment lost any money.
Comment by Big Dipper Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 12:10 pm
Throughout his legislative career Bailey hasn’t been required to demonstrate any substantive knowledge of government or advance anything meaningful that would show a grasp of policy, procedure, or leadership. Why should he start now?
Comment by Pundent Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 12:13 pm
==He has access to all the budgets and can’t identify ways to trim the budget??==
He shot his copy if I recall.
Comment by Big Dipper Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 12:14 pm
The last businessman who was Governor was a home day trader that lived on the North Shore. Not much of a business to run when your at home in your sweat pants deciding on whether to buy or sell Spaycelee Sprockets!
Comment by Jerry Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 12:18 pm
So Bailey promotes a zero based budget. Does Bailey have credentials like an MBA in business or a CPA degree to understand the complexities of the budget?
Bailey wouldn’t last five minutes in an interview for a spot in the corporate sector. To borrow a phrase from another commercial, “We’ll be in touch.”
Comment by Rudy’s Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 12:20 pm
==The Pritzker perfidy is that state government is staffed and working just fine. Bailey is correct In that no state agency is working correctly as they are so understaffed that “skeleton crew” is an aspiration. CMS simply isn’t hiring to achieve even skeleton crew. The Perfidy is that our workforce collapse is being hushed up and ignored by the administration.==
Could some of that “skeleton crew” in some offices include those agencies that are actually still having a lot of their staff working from home? Are there agencies still doing the WFH even after many staff have (hopefully) had 4 or 5 total vaccine doses yet, or are most of them back now?
Comment by AcademicUnionStateEmployee Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 12:30 pm
== Does Bailey have credentials like an MBA in business or a CPA degree to understand the complexities of the budget?==
I’ve been told he’s an expert at growing food.
Comment by Henry Francis Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 12:33 pm
Is there some fraud, waste, and abuse in Illinois state government? Without a doubt. There is fraud, waste, and abuse in any large organization, public or private, that is the size of the Illinois government. With that said, however, I think Darren is just pulling a number out of thin air for dramatic effect. He can’t even name three broad areas where cuts should be made.
My guess would be that once unquestionable misspending is rooted out, to the extent that is even possible, there won’t be nearly the kind of savings Darren thinks. The other thing is that money saved by elimination of overspending on some items could very easily be swallowed up by other items that, on examination, are found to have been neglected in previous budgets. Some of this is a matter of priorities.
By all means let’s look for smart ways to save money, but not approach this with unrealistic expectations that we can cut state spending drastically and not expect it to have a negative impact on the economy.
Comment by MoralMinority Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 12:43 pm
What got cut under Rauner was higher education resulting in higher tuition, resulting in more Illinois students going out of state, resulting in brain drain. Yea, that worked well.
Comment by Because I said so... Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 12:48 pm
>> That worked so well under Gov. Rauner.
It worked very well as a campaign pledge for Rauner in 2014. He ran on “magic unspecified spending cuts” all the way to Springfield.
It would be refreshing if the same con doesn’t work this time.
Comment by ZC Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 12:48 pm
===My guess===
There is no guessing. Zero. None.
Use the Google key, Rich had post after post during the entire General Assembly where spending was by court decree, and further, it was social services and higher education taking haircuts, if we wanna make less the damage Rauner caused.
The point, there is NO guessing.
The courts indicated what was required to be paid, the rest where all that waste, fraud, and abuse existed was deep hurtful cuts, purposeful, that had such little waste, Rauner’s own agency heads couldn’t find the cuts when given the opportunity time and again.
No guessing. Institutional knowledge
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 12:57 pm
Who is bailey’s sugar daddy? Uihlein.
He does not like public employees.
Bailey would try to stop paying the annual pension and legacy debt payments. 20% right there.
I would bet my life on it.
And bailey does not read budgets, he shoots them. He thinks that makes him an expert.
Plus…what Demoralized said.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 12:58 pm
Zero based budgeting was a theory we studied in public administration classes way back. Nobody actually implements it as a practice, they do gaslight people into thinking it’s being done.
Regarding cutting waste … to make significant cuts. We’ve been through this mostly rightwing trope so many times. How soon we forget the so-called waste and abuse identified by Rauner. It was a pittance of the total budget and basically consisted of his priorities versus others. Yes, there are fraud problems that are being identified and litigated all the time, but not to the extent and consistency that you can rely on to develop a budget plan.
Comment by Norseman Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 1:05 pm
Republicans have known for decades that they will never actually pay any consequences for just brazenly lying about their plans during campaign season. While the newest anti-democracy and much more openly pro-fascism approach is a change of pace from prior GOP approaches, the “make clearly impossible claims and never even attempt to support them with facts” strategy is one they’ve used for decades.
Comment by Homebody Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 1:23 pm
Also, $2 billion for the federal govt is a rounding error
Comment by Left of what Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 1:33 pm
Honeybear (as always) hits the key issues and does a good job of explaining the issues.
I remember Zero Based Budgeting was a big deal in the Jimmy Carter administration and it sounded like a pretty good idea.
In my relatively short and completely undistinguished government employment I got to head up a team working on using Zero Based Budgeting. In spite of being a poor choice, I actually gave it a whirl and found it was just an excuse to cut budgets and was in no way a solution to state budget issues.
Comment by Back to the Future Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 1:36 pm
I recall Rauner sendng the same message. he also followed-up on it by cutting the autism program, I believe it was 26 million dollars. He said he would take the arrows. Well, not only did he not take the arrows, he sent them a different direction. Darren, you can try to reshoot those broken arrows but they won’t stick like you want it to.
Comment by T.S. Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 1:42 pm
Zero Based Budgeting is helpful only as a thought experiment. It tells you the minimum needs of an organization to remain functioning, to keep the doors open, etc. It doesn’t tell you much more than that, and most organizations discover roughly 90% of their spending is required just to keep the doors open.
For purposes of creating a shared understanding of where the money comes from/where it goes, ZBB can be helpful to demonstrate these concepts. As a management tool, it has very little value beyond that.
But it’s a great way to avoid discussing specifics, so politicians like Bailey love talking about it.
Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 1:49 pm
== Agency heads were brought in to testify to committees, and nearly every one said they couldn’t spare a penny. ==
That was institutional knowledge speaking, to protect the agency’s turf. As I said in another topic / post, an agency always spends all the budget it is given … and always asks for more. If you don’t, you get less.
When I was working on parts of an agency budget, it was a fine art to ask for X amount more, knowing the request was likely going to be cut to Y … which was fine because Y was what you figured was really needed.
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 1:57 pm
===That was institutional knowledge speaking, to protect the agency’s turf===
Think on this, when Goldberg was in his glory and testifying and wranglin’ up Dems and such, the reality goes deeper to the agency folks keeping cash, the reality was, as you know, arguably one of the smartest folks here to things like budgets and pensions, the court order spending alone, the cuts were ones to programs even Diana had problems with seeing.
With great respect as always, bud.
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 2:04 pm
==That was institutional knowledge speaking, to protect the agency’s turf.==
Likely disguised under the cover of “attorney client privilege” or work product.
Comment by AcademicUnionStateEmployee Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 2:10 pm
===Likely===
Unlikely, as it was asked and then answered by - RNUG -
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 2:26 pm
Have we learned nothing? The impact of the Rauner budget impasse was to cost the state millions more any way you sliced it — more in higher interest rates and poor bond ratings, more in lives and livelihoods lost, and more in higher end services that cost much much more than prevention or early intervention services that were starved. Even today, more than 5 years later, we still have substantially more kids in DCFS care than we did at the start of the impasse, because we starved the programs and services that supported struggling families. It is not like this is ancient history. It is not even the past.
Comment by Andrea Durbin Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 3:41 pm
IL is the 6th largest state by population yet ranks 30th in # of state employees. If Bailey cut programs he did not like he might find a few billion (not that the GA would go along with said cuts). If Bailey wants to cut the proverbial waste, fraud, and abuse - you are talking $500m as someone posted above not $15b. Off by a factor of 30. Not impressive. All feel good happy talk for his supporters.
Comment by To the bill Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 3:46 pm
===6th largest===
Feeling good with numbers, “adjusted”, back to 5th, if that is accurate.
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 3:52 pm
RNUG. Put me on your audit team.5% to 10% .
Comment by Blue Dog Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 4:04 pm
Hopefully Bailey has budgeted enough money this month for his Dave Ramsey Halloween Costume.
Comment by Kayak Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 4:16 pm
Defer maintenance and repair? Then pay much more in future year budgets.
Comment by DuPage Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 4:42 pm
- Put me on your audit team.5% to 10% . -
What’s stopping you? The budget is public, let’s see your cuts.
My guess is your eyes would glaze over after a couple minutes of trying to understand numbers and you go back to blissful ignorance.
Comment by Excitable Boy Thursday, Oct 20, 22 @ 8:48 pm