Back when Jim Edgar was governor, reporters covering his annual budget speech would always approach Senate President Pate Philip as he descended from the House Speaker's podium after the address to ask about his fellow Republican's proposals. Eventually, or even right away, we'd hear an emphatic "No!" from Pate and then we'd pronounce a good chunk of the budget dead on arrival.

Times were simpler back then than they were last week after Governor Pat Quinn finished his latest budget address. Quinn's proposal "benefited" from the lack of any major specifics on the big issues of the day: the exploding costs of Medicaid and pensions. The only things left to attack were program cuts and facility closures - and Republicans who did so risked being labeled as false budget hawks. Then there's the phony complaint that spending was actually rising. (Overall operating expenditures are falling, but total state spending is going up mainly because pension payments are rising by about a billion dollars next fiscal year.)

Governor Pat Quinn outlined a plan last week to reform the state's troubled pension systems. In doing so, Quinn appeared to outright reject some pension ideas offered up by House Republican Leader Tom Cross and Senate President John Cullerton.

The governor said pension-reform negotiations, which have dragged on for well over a year, are in need of a fresh start. Republican Leader Cross' reform proposal raises employee pension contributions to force public employees into either a lower-cost system or to a 401(k)-style plan. The state's pension plans have billions of dollars in what's called unfunded liability, and the idea is to lower that liability by reducing retiree pension payouts.

The governor all but said Leader Cross' plan, which is hotly opposed by labor unions, needed to be tossed out. "I don't think there's a lot of enthusiasm by members of either party and either house for that particular bill," the governor said. "We're going to start from scratch, and everybody will have a voice and we'll get to a good place."

Last week, powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan appeared to all but endorse an idea to force Downstate and suburban school districts to pay a significant share of their state pension contributions for the first time in anyone's memory.

Senate President John Cullerton floated that very proposal last year, and Governor Pat Quinn added his support not long ago.

Needless to say, if all three Democratic leaders are talking about it, you can probably expect some action this year. However, there will be strong pushback from suburban and Downstate legislators who'll undoubtedly fear a voter backlash over potentially massive local tax increases to pay for the idea.

As you might know already, Moody's earlier this month slapped Illinois with the worst credit rating of any state in the nation. But while Moody's report was damaging, S&P's rating was far more negative about the state's future.

Moody's cited Illinois' "weak management practices" as one reason for its ratings downgrade. The state's failure to implement any pension-funding reforms and to pay off its mountain of overdue bills were the two top reasons for the downgrade. But Moody's moved Illinois from a "negative" to a "stable" outlook for the future.

Fox Chicago News quoted a spokesperson for Governor Pat Quinn saying that the Moody's rating drop was an "outlier" because ratings agencies S&P and Fitch had decided not to lower the state's credit rating last week. On the surface, that's true. Underneath, not so much. Trouble is, S&P's rating contained much harsher language about Illinois' credit future, the agency also put Illinois on negative watch, and it issued a sternly worded warning that the state is in danger of another ratings downgrade this year.