Another year older and what do you get. The Chicago Tribune reports this morning that the Governor’s people are preparing to fight over a $750 million budget gap. The chart below shows that we are (according to Dan Hynes records) off pace for the year, by 0.7%.

The Trib calls this a “shortfall.” Isn’t that one of those words that should be banned from use in the context of government? Is it a shortfall if revenue has not increased as fast as expectations and government spending has grown beyond expectations? Some clarity would help.

It will be interesting to how Springfield behaves this year. Word is, nothing will get done until after November because Democrats don’t want to go into the election with a tax increase on the table, for fear of voter backlash. But will they come back in the veto session and raise our income taxes? You can probably count on it.

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