Happy Fiscal New Year? Don’t bet on it
They are dates only accountants, comptrollers and financial directors could love.
Tuesday marks the end of the fiscal year for state government, school districts and several other units of government. With it comes the end of the budget years for these entities. A new fiscal year begins Wednesday.
To average folks, an old fiscal year departs and a new one arrives with scant notice. “Leave the budgeting to those who were elected or hired to supervise it,” they might say. “We’ve got better things to do.”
But, as average folks have discovered, budgets aren’t the abstract, boring documents that they were led to believe.
Not when human services agency cuts threaten thousands of Illinois’ most vulnerable residents.
Not when public service retirees across the state fear for their pensions.
Not when students from preschool to college face diminished programs and prospects.
Budgets do matter – particularly when state leaders are prepared to slash human services and other areas that impact the young, the old and the poor.
Many personal futures hang in the balance – all because of fiscal years, and budgets, and revenues and expenditures that don’t add up.
June 30 – the end of the fiscal year – is a day of reckoning of sorts. It will provide answers to important questions. How accurate were revenues and spending projections? How scrupulous were administrators in adhering to their spending plans? How careful were the stewards of taxpayers’ money?
With the state facing billions of dollars in debt and deficits, and its problems getting worse by the year, this Fiscal New Year’s Eve won’t be a happy one, unless state representatives, senators and Gov. Pat Quinn work some kind of a miracle.
But it doesn’t take miracles to achieve happy fiscal years. It takes discipline. It takes prudence. It takes the ability to say no to expensive new programs. It takes judicious borrowing and prompt repayment of debt. It takes the ability to say yes to putting the state’s basic obligations to its people first.
The formula is simple. Don’t spend more than you take in. Balance your expenditures and your revenues. It’s the first law of any type of financial venture – family, business and government. When that law is broken, beware the consequences.
After years of mismanagement, Illinois is facing the consequences now – billions and billions of them. It will take tough decisions to bring spending in line, bolster revenue to help the state pay its bills and debts, and otherwise act to improve prospects for future Fiscal New Years.
We have asked state leaders before to shoulder their responsibilities and reach an agreement on a state budget that begins the process of steering Illinois government toward fiscal responsibility. On Fiscal New Year’s Eve, we make that request again.
Put politics aside. Quit stalling. You were elected to do a job. Now do it.
