The legislature came back to Springfield last week just one day before the 2010 fiscal year budget was due hoping to find a fiscally responsible solution. The result was disheartening.

We came and went, solving no problems for the state while many lawmakers seemed content to wait until next year for a state budget.

There are many well-meaning legislators who have tried to act responsibly and support the spending cutbacks and revenue enhancement measures necessary to eliminate our deficit. But there are others who are using this opportunity as a stage to make grandiose speeches, playing politics with our fiscal crisis. Simply put, now is not the time for campaigning and politics as usual. It's a time for governance and leadership.

"Leadership requires that we lay the groundwork for fixing the decades-old structural deficiencies that caused the budget crisis in the first place."President John F. Kennedy once said, "While we campaign in poetry, we govern in prose." Sweeping speeches, or fiery, red-meat diatribes aren't getting us closer to the real solutions we need in this crisis.

Leadership requires that we lay the groundwork for fixing the decades-old structural deficiencies that caused the budget crisis in the first place.

Our constituents need their elected officials to show leadership and rise above political rhetoric. State revenues are down 25 percent this year, making this the worst revenue year for our state since possibly the Great Depression. Couple this with the fact that we have a revenue system that is broken. We cannot continue to live off of 1989 income tax revenues in a 2009 economy. Pat Quinn is the first Democratic governor to have to ask for a tax increase in 40 years. We are letting Republicans off the hook when they conveniently forget that small little fact. No matter who makes it to the Governor's mansion in 2010, in the absence of action today, he or she will have to do one thing: raise taxes, just like Governors Ogilvie, Thompson and Edgar. All of whom were Republicans.

House Bill 174 is the only solution on the table in Springfield. Nearly $2 billion in budget cuts, over $500 million in property tax relief, stable funds for education, increased tax exemptions for working families and a long-term revenue solution to pay our bills on time. The Illinois Senate passed this balanced budget solution, meaning that it is halfway to becoming law. The Illinois House and the Governor should be working from this platform. We need to be honest about the problem and we need to find a comprehensive solution.

This is a fight worth having. There is a direct correlation between the taxes we pay and the services we receive. I'm not fighting for taxes. I'm fighting for people. In this time of recession, we cannot cut the services that people rely on to get back on their feet. Safety, hunger, drug addiction, homelessness, aging, foreclosures or unforeseen health challenges are all equal opportunity stressors in many of our communities.

The lives of people are at stake. Now is the time to roll up our collective sleeves and find a long-term solution. We must do this accepting the fact that we won't all agree on how to get there. That's okay. The best legislation comes when people from different points of view honestly negotiate and compromise.

We have to stop campaigning and govern. Today. Right now.