Layoff delay could fuel Illinois tax-boost push

VIENNA, Ill. -- Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn may look elsewhere for the $112 million he believes laying off some 2,600 workers could have saved the state after his push to do so was sidelined by a judge, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Ashley Cross declined to discuss where cuts could come to offset keeping state employees who were scheduled for layoffs on the payroll "longer than anticipated."

"We're at the very beginning stages of examining that," Cross said.

But a budgetary watchdog who considers the layoffs little more than a symbolic drop in the bucket in a state billions of dollars in the red said Quinn's options for trimming fat may be limited, making the tax increase Quinn has sought all the more crucial.

The layoff plan "is clearly a political thing as far as we can tell -- something for the governor to jump up and down and say, 'You know what, we held the line on salaries and fired a bunch of workers,"' said Ralph Martire, executive director of the Chicago-based Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.

But Martire said even the job cuts would not "solve even one-tenth of 1 percent of the budget problem." He said a "thoughtful" tax increase is the clear option, in part because he said Illinois ranks among the bottom 10 states in total state and local tax burden as a percentage of income.

Quinn's efforts to close the budget abyss suffered a legal setback Monday when a Southern Illinois judge sided with the state government's biggest union, put the governor's layoffs on hold and ordered both sides to arbitration -- which could take months.

The injunction was at the request of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees' Council 31, which represents virtually all the 2,600 workers and, in its Johnson County lawsuit filed last month, argued the impact of the layoffs must first be assessed. The union also insisted the cuts would make it unsafe for remaining prison workers.

Some 500 of the job cuts -- more than 400 of them in the state's prisons, where Quinn ultimately wants to eliminate 1,000 jobs -- were to take effect today. Other affected agencies would have been human services, health and family services, revenue and commerce and economic development.

Saline County Circuit Judge Todd Lambert ruled that the union "met its burden to prove irreparable harm that would be suffered by employees if the planned layoffs were implemented" before arbitration or other efforts to resolve the differences.

Pledging to appeal, Quinn called the layoffs plan "responsible and legally sound." The call for job cuts follows the union's refusal to negotiate proposed furlough days and wage freezes meant to minimize layoffs, altogether saving the state an estimated $185 million, Cross said.

Officials trying to put together a state budget for this year faced a gap of at least $11 billion between revenue and expenses. Quinn responded by calling for higher income taxes -- an idea lawmakers rejected.

State officials eventually settled on a budget built mostly on one-time federal money, increased debt and unpaid bills. But even that version wasn't balanced, and Quinn was left to figure out how to cut an additional $1 billion in spending.

Laurence Msall, president of the watchdog Civic Federation, said Quinn was in an unenviable position mapping out where the layoffs would come without lawmakers' input. "We would give the governor the benefit of the doubt that he attempted to identify areas reasonable for reduction," Msall said.

Cross reiterated Quinn's push for a tax increase, saying "everyone (including taxpayers) has to make sacrifices" to ease the state's economic mess.

Henry Bayer, AFSCME's executive director, said the union's legal victory should encourage Quinn to abandon his layoffs plan and redouble efforts on "comprehensive tax reform that raises adequate revenue to fund essential services and preserve the jobs of those who provide them."

Martire said there's little room for layoffs in a state he says already ranks among the bottom in terms of state workers per capita. "It's not like we have public employees tripping over each other everywhere," he said.