City of Chicago budget shortfall projected to be $1 billion
Cook County budget shortfall at $152 million
Chicago Public Schools budget shortfall at $643 million
We live in a state where politicians for years exercised horrible judgement by looking at the contractual obligation to fund pensions as a "soft promise". We now bear the consequence of that poor judgement up and down our state and local government. Regardless of how much of the budget shortfall actually comes to fruition in actual operating losses, or more generally how much one believes about political rhetoric, our state currently mismanages its finances and we need to demand a fix.
Currently, the most commonly proposed solutions involve a combination of tax hikes and cuts in pensions. At worst, these solutions seek to punish those who worked for their careers at lower pay with the promise of future security, breaking the contractual obligation when the pensioner did no wrong. At best, they punish the taxpayer for sending people to represent them who make short-sighted decisions. Through our elected officials, we need to demand a better solution....and one exists.
Our governmental entities need to take advantage of their current land and building assets to turn government property into a field of renewable energy generation.
The cost of solar has dropped significantly over the past five years, and could soon reach $3 per watt of installed generation. As the state and local governments look to close as much as $8 billion in budget deficits, the opportunity afforded by the market potential of solar photovoltaic electricity generation should get detailed consideration.
In a state that annually uses 143 billion kWh of electricity, using government buildings (including schools) to generate as much as 30 billion of that annual usage would provide a revenue stream that the state could monetize for both an immediate fix, and a long-term solution. Spreading that out over as many at 20,000 properties across the state would require each site to generate 1.5 million kWh. This, in turn, would require about 10,000 square feet of solar panel installation at a first cost of about $300,000 each. An individual site would generate $3,750,000 worth of electricity over 25 years (assuming the cost of energy rises at the same rate of inflation, which was not the case in the first six years of this century) leading to an estimated $75 billion value over the 25 years.
A business model can be developed to specifically meet the short-term need for budget security to raise the state's bond rating and fiscal health, as well as the fiscal health of all government entities within the state. In addition, the opportunity presented by solar development can provide ongoing revenue to the state to provide better budget certainty going forward. As a side benefit, we can put thousands of Illinoisans back to work designing, installing, and maintaining these systems, which will create a vital, long-term industry providing even more certainty to the state's finances.
We owe it to those who have fulfilled their obligation to the citizens of our state to live up to our commitment to them. We also owe it to ourselves to develop industries that provide good-paying jobs to those who will work. We owe it to our children to reduce damage to the environment from fossil-fuel-based and nuclear-based electricity generation.
We have the opportunity to solve all three, if our current lawmakers can exercise better judgement than their predecessors.
No comments:
Post a Comment