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Central Illinois Gazette

More grim news for the state of Illinois

Posted by: Tom Kacich

Wednesday, March 4, 2009 12:07 PM

The latest monthly report from Illinois' Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability is ugly.

"Base general revenue receipts fell $167 million in February (compared with February 2008) as revenues continued to manifest the deepening recession," wrote Jim Muschinske, revenue manager at the commission. "Key revenue sources experienced a dismal month as weakness spread to virtually all areas."

The state's big three revenue sources -- the sales tax, individual income tax and corporate income tax -- all were down by 9.2 percent or more.

That's a frightening number and it should serve as a warning to local governments, which share some of that state money, that their income stream is in for a huge hit in the coming months.

Things are so bad for the corporate income tax that it has been supplanted by public utility taxes as the state's third-biggest revenue source. The corporate income tax was off by 44.3 percent in February. And Muschinske said its performance "will likely worsen considerably over the remainder of the fiscal year as key months yet to come will reflect the brutalized business sector."

State sales tax revenue was down 9.2 percent in February, and personal income tax was off by 10 percent.

Lottery proceeds were down 13.6 percent and riverboat gambling revenues declined by about 6 percent.

Through the first two-thirds of the fiscal year, state revenue is down by $1.2 billion, meaning that it's likely that total revenue will be down by about $2 billion -- in a year that lawmakers last spring projected would see revenue growth.

What a mess Gov. Pat Quinn and legislators have to deal with over the next three months.