Chicago City Wire

Gov. Bruce Rauner didn't take over a blessedly balanced Illinois economy, as Democrats would like people to believe, the Chicago Tribune argued in an editorial recently. 

"Has state government's fiscal condition worsened under Rauner? Yes, it has, largely because he won't go along with budget gimmicks and because he wants reforms that would give employers confidence in Illinois' economic climate and future governance," the paper said. "Was Springfield a Utopia of comity and balanced budgets in the decades before voters elected him to shake up the town? That's the fiction some rival politicians now peddle."

The Illinois Republican Party highlighted some of the paper's arguments, including that the balanced budgets that passed peacefully before the Republican Rauner won election were built largely on borrowing funds. The budget in the early 2000s under then-Gov. George Ryan included “millions in questionable spending,” it said, adding that in 2002 -- Ryan's final year in office -- Illinois was $1.4 billion out of balance.

Under Rod Blagojevich, who became governor in 2003, the General Assembly had to use money from state funds, including the pension fund, to pay some expenses and balance the budget, despite Republican protests, the Tribune said. The assembly eventually sold $10 billion in pension bonds.

"A little history illuminates what Rauner walked into and what he's up against," the Tribune said.