Gov. Quinn’s jabberwocky state speech

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Updated: March 6, 2012 8:18AM

Even for a public speaker as rambling and inarticulate as Pat Quinn can be, the governor’s State of the State speech last week left us speechless.

Yes, we understand that a State of the Whatever speech is meant to be happy and “aspirational,” the new favorite word from people who try to explain inexplicable speeches.

But Quinn’s attempt to inform us how our state is doing — and that’s what the annual speech is supposed to do — became lost in a fuzzy, hallucinogenic cloud of oddness.

Quinn essentially said that everything is mostly OK, has been improved but could be better and that we’re all working hard to make Illinois a fine place to live. In other words, don’t worry, be happy.

Maybe that’s the case on Planet Quinn, but the facts do not support being happy with the state of affairs in Illinois and Quinn’s stewardship. To be blunt, we don’t think much of a governor who’s averse to clear speaking based on clear thinking in such a major speech.

Some of the initiatives he proposed (raising college graduation to 60 percent of the populace, for example) were proposed years ago with a follow-up plan to achieve it. No one paid much attention.

As for the pressing need to reform the Medicaid and state pension systems, Quinn barely acknowledged that the financial radar screen is flashing “Danger!” and offered no solutions.

But here’s primarily why we are worried and not happy: The Civic Federation, a nonprofit and bipartisan assessor of Illinois finances, says the state’s unpaid bills could rise to $35 billion by the end of 2017.

State government’s operating deficit is projected to increase to $3.2 billion in 2017 from $508 million this year. Pension debt will grow from $5.2 billion to $7.8 billion.

Those are some scary figures, but the important phrase in these calculations is “if nothing is done.” It’s up to Quinn and the Legislature to get something done.

Based on the lack of political will and leadership that largely got us into this quagmire, we wonder if the right answers can be found by leaders who don’t ask the right questions.