North Cook News

Moody’s Investors Services recently released a report painting a dire picture for the backlog of bills afflicting the state of Illinois.

The group projected that the bills owed by the financially strapped state could soar as high as $14 billion due to the stopgap budget passed at the beginning of July. Mel Thillens, the Republican candidate for state Senate in District 28, is not surprised by this assessment.

 

“The stopgap budget is doing exactly what the politicians knew it would do when they voted on it,” Thillens said in a statement to North Cook News. “It’s adding to our stack of bills, but not doing anything to improve the quality of life in Illinois.”

 

Moody’s suggests that six-month budget will increase general fund expenditures by an estimated 12 percent this year due to a lack of new revenue sources and continued spending. Thillens insisted that politicians on Capitol Hill used the stopgap budget as temporary reprieve from the real problems Illinois faces.

 

“The politicians in Springfield decided it was more important to get back to their districts to campaign, rather than actually fixing our problems, and we’re going further in debt because of it,” Thillens said. “The politicians wanted this stopgap to get us through the election, and they could see what happens. Let's show them what happens and send them home for good.”

 

The stopgap was reported to be $7.8 billion out of balance and pressure has been mounting for legislators to pass a balanced budget to fix many of the state's problems. One such quandary is the state’s pension debt. Illinois meager investment gains, coupled with its near-bottom credit rating, have worsened its pension debt. Its largest pension, the Teachers’ Retirement System, reportedly jumped $7.4 billion.

 

While Thillens called for pension reform, he also said Illinois needs to honor its pension obligations.

“We need to pay the pensions of existing state employees, but we need to reform our pension system moving forward,” he said. “State workers deserve to have control over their pensions. We can’t continue making promises to workers without actually knowing if their checks will clear.”  

He asserted that the pension system is unfair to taxpayers and questioned Democrats on their alleged compassion for the middle class.

 

“Democrats in Illinois claim they are all about fairness and representing the middle class,” Thillens said. “To those politicians, I ask, is it fair to ask middle class families to pay (former Gov.) Pat Quinn’s $3 million pension while Quinn himself paid in less than $200,000? Is it fair that many people receive multiple government pensions, while middle class families, on an income of $50,000 a year, pay for it?”

 

Thillens, committing to his stance on pension reform, declared that if he were elected to the state Senate, he would refuse a pension.

 

His campaign for state Senate has allowed him to speak with voters on his platform and commitment for change in Illinois. It has given him opportunities to be close with the community. One such opportunity was a recent memorial in Hanover Park commiserating the events of Sept. 11. He spent that weekend with his children, explaining to them the courage, resolve and compassion among Americans after the tragic attack.

 

“In this divided political season, it’s important we remember that no matter our backgrounds or who we vote for, we are all in this together,” Thillens said of the event.

 

Thillens also walked the Schaumburg Septemberfest Parade on Labor Day weekend, describing it as a great experience talking with the voters and listening to their concerns as they, in turn, listened to his plans for getting Illinois back on track.