DECATUR - It is said that the first step to recovery from addiction is admitting you have a problem.

Comptroller Dan Hynes said the first step to the state's financial recovery in the face of an anticipated recession is getting other Illinois leaders to admit they have an addiction to political expediency when it comes to the state's serious financial problems.

Hynes projects that Illinois is facing more than a $750 million deficit for this year's budget. In addition, anticipated revenue growth for next year is expected to fall far short of continuing obligations for pensions, education and health care, even with no increase in spending.

"I can't even get people to accept that these are real problems," Hynes said during a visit with the Decatur Herald & Review editorial board Wednesday in advance of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's budget address next week.

Hynes did not lay all the blame for the state's economic woes at Blagojevich's feet, though he said the governor has given no incentive for lawmakers to seek to address longstanding budget issues with his blanket opposition to increases in income and sales taxes.

The comptroller also expressed concern over the lack of willingness on the part of the General Assembly to set aside personal differences and power struggles to reach a consensus on fiscal solutions.

"I'm hoping that the gravity of this situation will be the impetus of getting everybody together and saying we have to work in a unified fashion to address the problems," Hynes said. "This is too serious to allow this to be ignored because of personality problems."

Hynes noted that even as spending has increased for health care and K-12 education over the past five years, those increases haven't completely kept pace with inflation, and higher education spending has actually decreased. Meanwhile, the state's growing pension obligations are consuming most new revenue.

"If there's any program in state government that you rely on, you have reason to be concerned because there's going to be very little money to be dedicated toward that," Hynes said.

Local governments also may have to wait longer for income tax and sales tax receipts if the deficit is not addressed, he said.

Macon County Auditor Amy Stockwell said the county should be able to withstand reasonable delays in payments from state government, but she lamented that Illinois officials have done nothing to address structural deficits and ignored issues such as the Medicaid payment backlog for health care providers.

"It's not like running up a credit card," Stockwell said. "It's like taking a payday loan. It's like using next month's paycheck to buy this month's groceries."

Stockwell said despite the county racking up about $3 million in internal debt earlier this decade during its own financial crisis, spending restraint as the economic climate improved allowed for debt repayment and the creation of reserves that should allow the county to weather tough economic times.

"Clearly we will be impacted by state government financial problems," Stockwell said. "In the short term, I don't think it's going to be a huge issue because we did the things we had to do when we were seeing higher revenue growth."

Mary Tallon can be reached at mtallon@herald-review.com or 421-7984.