Lake County Gazette

Illinois is facing a potential backlog of unpaid bills in the billions by the end of this year -- $10 billion to be exact.

State Comptroller Leslie Munger issued the ominous figures earlier this month while noting that the state needs to address its larger financial woes and revenue stream.

| Contributed photo

Mike Amrozowicz, Republican candidate for the State Senate District 31 seat, calls the backlog the result of irresponsible fiscal policy.

“It’s one thing to have a short-term backlog due to an unforeseen revenue interruption,” Amrozowicz told the Lake County Gazette.  “It’s another to have one that has grown to $7.8 billion with a potential to grow to $10 billion in the very near future. Without meaningful and comprehensive balanced budgets, we will never get out of deficit spending in Illinois."

Amrozowicz finds it odd that the Democratic super majorities under House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Dist. 22) and Senate President John Cullerton (D-Dist. 6) concern themselves with the constitutionality of the fair-mapping proposal, but ignore parts of the Illinois Constitution that discuss the budget.

“They have obviously skipped over the section in the constitution that states, 'Appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year,'"" Amrozowicz said.

Amrozowicz said the wording in the constitution leaves little room for interpretation regarding the budget.

“When I served in the Navy, we used to have a saying that 'there’s a clear difference between orders and suggestions; just listen to the words used,' " Amrozowicz said. “In the balanced-budget requirement of the Illinois Constitution, 'shall not' means 'shall not.' If this was a suggestion, then the wording would be different.”

As an experienced business owner, Amrozowicz said he understands the complexities of budgeting and spending. This mindset has led him on a campaign to help the state, which has been losing prime working-age adults ages 25 to 54.

“Our economy is so bad here in Illinois that we are losing residents and businesses at an alarming rate,” Amrozowicz said. “(There's a) massive out-migration of prime working-age adults because opportunities for our young adults are outside of Illinois. The parents I talk to in our district agree on this, and it is sad. With the resources we have here in Illinois, we should be bursting with economic activity.”

Amrozowicz is proud of the plethora of resources available in Illinois, but is astonished at the lack of attention these resources receive.

“Think hard and tell me which state can claim the resources we have here – a massive fresh water supply; transportation hub for air, rail, highway, and waterway; a global financial center; manufacturing; vast farmland; coal mines; a great university system; skilled work force; incredible downtown; center for the arts; major sports teams; and, best of all, Midwest values,” Amrozowicz said. “If someone laid out that list of resources, but didn’t say which state possessed them, they would easily assume that the state is getting swarmed with in-migration instead of the other way around."

The Senate hopeful said Illinois is a great state that has the potential to be the most productive and thriving state in the nation, but it needs to get rid of its bad government for residents to take what is great with the state and fix what is wrong with it.

Getting rid of the current bad government may be difficult due to the recent ruling of Cook County Circuit Judge Diane Larsen on the remapping efforts. Larsen ruled that the redistricting amendment did not meet the constitution’s limit of “structural and procedural” changes to the legislature; and therefore, cannot be put on the ballot in November. The ruling was seen as a win for Madigan and the Democratic majority, as remapping could have potentially changed the legislative districts.

Amrozowicz said the decision was a letdown.

“Voters should get to pick their representatives; politicians shouldn’t get to pick their own voters,” Amrozowicz said in a statement on his Facebook page after the ruling. “It’s a simple concept, but one that Mike Madigan and his Democratic cronies refuse to accept. Over two-thirds of Illinois voters support fair map drawing according to a recent poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.”

The mapping effort was widely supported with more than 500,000 signatures collected and an approval from the State Board of Elections pending the decision by Larsen.

“But then a lawyer with long-standing connections to Madigan and Cullerton sued to deny voters their voice,” Amrozowicz said. “Unfortunately, they won the first battle, and a judge has thrown the amendment off the ballot.”

Amrozowicz said the current system of legislative mapping simply does not work and is the reason for many of Illinois’ woes.

“Rigged maps protect incumbents and are a major reason for the sorry state of Illinois' financial and economic condition,” Amrozowicz said. “We can’t get property tax relief, a friendly business environment, economic growth and balanced budgets as long as we have career politicians protected by partisan map drawing.”

Amrozowicz hopes Independent Maps, the group spearheading the remapping initiative, wins its appeal in the State Supreme Court. If its efforts should fail, however, Amrozowicz said that as a state senator, he would not rest until Illinois has a fair process for drawing its legislative maps so that voters would be able to hold their elected representatives accountable.