By TIM EVANS/Rantoul Press general manager

“A day of reckoning in Illinois is upon us. We’ll need to make some very, very difficult decisions,” State Rep. Chad Hays (R-104) told Rantoul Area Chamber of Commerce members last Tuesday at a special gathering at Hardy’s Reindeer Ranch in rural Rantoul.

Hays, a freshman legislator, said he’s been proud of what he and some of his peers have accomplished in his first year in replacing longtime veteran Bill Black.

“I do think the people involved do want things to be better,” Hays said, although noting the state has had year after year of mismanagement that has led to a deficit that keeps climbing and a government that can’t afford to provide the public services that have become the norm.

Chamber Executive Director Chris Kaler opened the meeting by talking about how Rantoul is “beginning to reshape our community,” and said the business community should be proud of what the village has accomplished.

“I ask each and every one of you to become an ambassador for your community,” Kaler said, noting the good news message about Rantoul “has to come from us.”

Hays called Rantoul “a model for Springfield,” complimenting the fact the village is able to “live within their means.”

He said when he was mayor of Catlin he helped balance the village budget eight straight years.

“I thought that was the norm,” he said. “I thought everybody did that. I didn’t know any different.”

He called what’s happened in Rantoul “remarkable,” noting the community is doing some things most community wouldn’t even consider.

Hays said one of the first things he had to deal with in Springfield was to fight off the largest proposed tax increase in history. He said he voted against it because “I didn’t think we had the appropriate road map for Illinois, pointing out a poor credit rating in comparison to other states.”

“For the first time in a decade, we budgeted to a conservative and realistic number and stuck to it.”

He said for the first time in 20 years, the legislators sent a budget to the appropriations committee.  

“I certainly didn’t agree with all the budget decisions that were made,” Hays said.

He said education took hits with the six months of nonpayments to regional superintendents of schools, withholding school transportation funding and falling behind on overall educational funding.

“How many of you could work for six months without being paid?” Hays questioned, referring to the regional superintendents of schools.

He said the worst part was that there was “no game plan” by Gov. Pat Quinn when he cut their pay. Hays said the good news was that these people finally did get their pay but at the expense of local funds to counties and municipalities.

He said the state’s biggest problems lie in Medicaid funding, where 50 percent of the state monies are being spent. A former Provena hospital administrator who serves on six committees as a state legislator, including Appropriations in human services, health care availability access and aging, Hays said Medicaid is the most rapidly growing portion of Illinois’ budget.

The program has a liability of $700 to $800 million monthly and growing. With the state paying only about $300 million a month to providers of care, it will have a $2.4 billion payment deficit by the end of fiscal year 2012, and the backlog will expand to a staggering $5.4 billion by the end of FY 2013.

He said there’s been eight bills proposed to help the situation, but none has been enacted, calling it “shameful.”

Hays said Medicaid is using a computer software operating system that was invented in 1959. He said it’s “like using a bag phone in a 4G world.” He said the state has no control over people using the system in Illinois from outside the state and there are lots of other flaws.

“We’re in a fiscal crisis, he said. “If we were a private sector, we’d be looking at filing bankruptcy or Chapter 11.”

Hays said “nibbling around the edges” of Medicaid reconstruction “will not get us there.” He said the state needs a “blueprint” to balance the state budget, and legislators need to go hand in hand to get things back to the real world.

“We’ve kicked the can down the road too many years in a row,” he said, noting that’s not truly balancing the budget. He said legislators will look back on 2011 as an “easy year,” compared to what they’ll have to deal with in the future.

He expects a big discussion this spring in Springfield with the fact every dollar of $3 spent in the state will have to go toward Medicaid funding.

Hays said the state needs a “new strategy to build business and jobs,” noting jobs come from creating and helping small business.

He said something has to be done about the workman’s compensation rate in Illinois, the state has to stop giving breaks to big business and has to work on helping small business.

“The bar has been set so low for so long, mediocrity is accepted,” Hays said. “The neediest among us will get the money.”

Hays said the current economic situation calls for quicker action by the state.

Alan Nudo praised Hays for his work, saying he’s “truly not a freshman legislator” and understands the urgency in Illinois government.

Hays calls the input of the public “extraordinarily important” and called it a “rare and special privilege to serve in this capacity.”

Kaler said the Chamber hopes to host other state legislators as well this year in lieu of business after hour events.

tevans@news-gazette.com