CANDID DISCUSSION FROM THE CANDIDATES, PLEASE

With Educational, Health And Fiscal Woes Weighing On Illinois, Sound
Bites Simply Won't Do

Voters say they hunger for candor, but it too often gives them indigestion.

Consider the response from an Illinoisan briefed on the state's
suffocating budgetary crisis - a deficit in the billions that
threatens our quality of life and our economic viability - and then
was asked whether he would support a politician advocating an
income-tax increase as necessary even after severe belt-tightening.

"I would respect the candidate right up until I voted," he replied.

Those seeking our backing encounter similar views, perhaps not stated
as wryly, in public forums and focus groups. So as the fierce heat of
August yields to the post-Labor Day fever of the gubernatorial
contest, it is difficult to summon optimism that Gov. Rod Blagojevich
and Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka will lead us in a responsible,
pander-proof, civil engagement of issues crucial to our kids and
grandkids. Yet, such an engagement is more vital now than ever.

Our ability to attract and retain good jobs - to reverse the slide in
household income - depends on maintaining a capable work force.
Still, we tolerate a school funding system that disadvantages
hundreds of thousands of students. We abide an achievement gap
between white and minority students that rates as one of the worst in
the nation. We allow some 40 percent of highly motivated, energetic
teachers to quit within five years because we lack mentoring programs
and typically give them assignments shunned by older teachers
exercising union-won seniority prerogatives. We squander resources on
an administrative network that sustains more school districts and
their bureaucratic flab than almost any other state.

Although we have extended health-care coverage to the working poor,
those in rural and other underserved areas find it difficult to
access because of a scarcity of physicians, dentists, psychiatrists
and technicians. Many professionals are reluctant to serve Medicaid
recipients because under-financed benefit expansion has made the
state a deadbeat in paying its bills.

We shortchange community-based services, such as mental health
counseling and substance abuse treatment, even as the scourges of
methamphetamine and crack destroy lives, orphan children, imperil
communities and escalate prison costs. Resources to address these
critical needs must compete with imminent surges in funding for our
public pension systems, to redress shameful neglect.

All of which brings us back to a sorry fiscal situation that was not
created by one administration, one General Assembly or one party.
Those of us who served in state government during the 1990s, when a
daunting deficit was managed primarily through budget reductions,
know our leaders cannot cut their way out of this morass. The Center
for Tax and Budget Accountability has documented that our revenue
structure is so woefully inadequate that our structural deficit will
grow during a robust economy even if we girdle government.

Will the candidates level with us? Probably not, given that they
distrust each other, the media and voters as much as they are distrusted.

But we should pressure them to do so. In the months leading up to the
Nov. 7 election, the media should focus far more on the human race
than on the horse race. They and their audiences should make an
extraordinary effort to identify the compelling issues, penetrate the
platitudes and defang the 30-second TV spots. Above all, if a
candidate tells us what we need to hear instead of what we might want
to hear, we should give that candidate our respect - and our vote.