Sangamon Sun

Cindy Deadrick Wolfer, GOP candidate for the 96th District state House seat, blamed “bad budgets” and a refusal to reform as root causes for Illinois’ recent credit downgrades by Moody’s, the nation’s credit-rating arbiter.

“Moody's Investors Service downgraded Illinois' credit rating again June 8, and Standard & Poor's Ratings Services followed suit on June 9, reflecting the continuing collapse in the state's finances,” Deadrick Wolfer said via her Facebook page. “Moody’s has the state's debt rated at Baa2, just two notches above junk-bond status, while S&P’s rating is now BBB+, just three above junk.”

 Deadrick Wolfer sees the bottom line not so much as the obvious lack of a budget, but rather the deeper issue of governance decisions that pre-dated the current crisis, but left the door open for poor results. In her statement, she isolated the state’s decision-making from years past as the main cause, emphasizing that it didn’t happen overnight.

 “The recent history of Illinois’ credit downgrades reveals that the lack of a budget is not the underlying issue for Illinois’ deep slide. Illinois’ problems did not start with this fiscal year’s budget gridlock,” Deadrick Wolfer said. “Instead, the real blame lies with the state’s chronic history of bad budgets, and the refusal to pass spending and pension reforms. That’s why Illinois suffered 13 credit downgrades under Gov. Pat Quinn, despite the existence of budgets, “compromises” and the more-than-$31 billion in additional tax-hike revenues from 2011 through 2014 as a result of the record tax hike in 2011.”

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