Will County Gazette

GOP Congressional candidate Rick Laib isn’t surprised by the findings in a new report that concludes Illinois is in need of more help than almost all other states in the aftermath of the still raging COVID-19 pandemic.

“Nothing changes in terms of good fiscal policy – it's the same for small business, big business and home budgets: we cannot repeatedly and consistently spend more money than we have, by any amount, and expect to avoid financial trouble,” Laib told the Will County Gazette. “Raising taxes or changing the tax structure will not solve the problem if at our core we are still not able to exercise discipline and master this most fundamental spending principle.”

The WalletHub.com survey concluded that Illinois ranks as the sixth-neediest state in the country, with part of its poor standing being attributed to its instability even before the pandemic. The state also ranked near the bottom in terms of state and local debt per capita, including on the metric of unfunded pension liabilities, which are estimated at more than $138 billion.

In all, researchers looked at 18 metrics, among them a state's preparedness for a severe recession, the number of unemployment claims, and unfunded pension liabilities.

Laib, now running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Bill Foster (D-Aurora) in the 11th District, argues the newly passed $42 billion budget plan Democrats banded together to send to the desk of Gov. J.B. Pritzker does little to help the situation.

“Before even being signed by the governor, it's a budget that is unbalanced,” he said. “While it's a budget that contains some budget cuts, those cuts are largely reflected as spending that has stayed flat and not increased. It's a budget that relies on borrowing of funds in order for us to pay our bills. Borrowing to pay bills is not a practice that reflects a decision to spend within our means.”