In my column last week, I wrote about a recently televised discussion between two men on WTTW-TV’s “Chicago Tonight” program regarding the state budget crisis.

Brian Wesbury, chief economist of the Wheaton-based First Trust Advisors, debated Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. Wesbury pointed out how state legislators have merely approved spending for new programs year after year without identifying viable sources of funding. Martire argued that taxes should be raised to keep pace with this new spending.

I concluded that Wesbury was right on the need to stop spending money we don’t have and to start cutting these programs. It wouldn’t be responsible to adopt Martire’s proposal to hike taxes in such a sorry economy to close the $7 billion to $11 billion gap — doing this would merely validate the years of reckless spending.

A reader from Downers Grove left two voice mail messages for me last week after reading my column, and he challenged me to come up with items that should be cut from the budget. He didn’t think I should just talk about program cuts without showing where the budget could be trimmed.

He’s absolutely right. So here’s what I would do to start cutting the budget.

Many state agencies may have to cease their services if a spending bill isn’t approved by June 30. The system is rigged to hurt those who can least afford to have these services cut, which is tragic.
It should be fixed to impact those who got us into this mess.

So if legislators don’t pass a plan by next week’s deadline, we should stop paying their salaries and discontinue their benefits. That should get their attention.

And if that’s not enough to fill the deficit, stop paying the pension benefits of retired legislators. They’ll lobby pretty hard for a solution if the checks no longer appear in their mailboxes.

Let’s rework the system so it doesn’t hurt those who need these services but rather punishes those who’ve put us in this jam. Once this happens, lawmakers will find the courage to make the hard choices necessary to get us back on track.

Jerry Moore is the opinions editor for Suburban Life Publications. Contact him at (630) 368-8930 or jmoore@mysuburbanlife.com. His blog, Suburban Shoutout, can be found at blogs.mysuburbanlife.com/jerry-moore.