Former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar spoke on WBEZ's "Eight Forty Eight" Tuesday morning about the budget crisis in Illinois. While offering his opinion on what it will take to fix the nearly $13 billion deficit, he called Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady's budget plan "naïve."
Edgar, a Republican, served as governor of Illinois from 1991 to 1999, and is the last Illinois governor who did not face criminal charges. He also is credited for the state's $1.5 billion surplus in the 90s and was quite popular among both political parties. On Tuesday, he acknowledged the challenges that face Gov. Pat Quinn, and said he is pessimistic about Springfield fixing anything during an election year.
"Anything meaningful (in terms of fixing the budget) is going to be publicly unpopular," Edgar said. "I just don't think that's going to happen during an election year."
Edgar stressed the importance of cutting non-essential programs, saying he "didn't enjoy" cutting good programs when fixing the state budget in the 90s, but when the state is in such a bad situation, these decisions need to be made.
"First have to deal with the spending side," Edgar said. "A tax increase without dealing with the spending side will just get lost."
When WBEZ's Alison Cuddy asked if Edgar agreed with Sen. Brady's proposal of a 10 percent across the board reduction to all state agencies, he replied quickly:
"I don't agree with across the board. I think that's a naïve approach," Edgar said. "There are some more essential [programs] than others. It's a difference of life and death... we don't want to make a cut that will result in somebody dying. There are some programs in state government that [can mean] the difference between life and death. Those programs you can't cut."
Edgar said he is "very pessimistic" about the budget crisis getting better this year.
"The partisan bickering is as bad as its ever been," Edgar said. "There's just a lack of trust." He said that during Rod Blagojevich's impeachment, there was a spirit of bipartisanship in Springfield that has been lost.
He also said he gives Gov. Quinn credit for trying to "do the right thing," with his proposed tax increase, but said he got the "car before the horse."
"The tax increase [proposal] has limited the talk of 'where do we cut spending?'" Edgar said.
As for Edgar's political future? He told Cuddy he plans on sticking with academia.
"I was hoping that Kirk [Dillard] would be the [Republican] nominee," Edgar said. "He was my chief of staff and I think he had a good understanding of what it took to get the problems...I'm at the University of Illinois and I think I'll take a professorial role in this campaign and just sit on the sidelines."
Listen to Edgar's conversation with Cuddy here.