DOOMSDAY. Illinois might be among the states that have increased higher education appropriations, but editorialists at the Chicago Tribune note the state's continued borrowing and alert readers with Your share of the bill: $8,800.

Illinois is headed toward "financial implosion." The state owes $106 billion, about $8,800 for each resident. Unless something dramatically changes, that massive gap will continue to grow quickly, because the state chronically fails to pay what it owes.

Those are the somber conclusions released Wednesday by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, which includes 80 of the most prominent business leaders in the Chicago area. The conclusions of its task force on state finance demand attention now.

The business leaders say that Illinois will need to look at an increase in personal and corporate income taxes and the state sales tax--but should do so only if the state makes drastic changes in its spending.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration quarreled on Wednesday with some of the Civic Committee's numbers but not its overall message: The state has a serious structural deficit.

Yet the state's financial peril was something Blagojevich and state legislative leaders didn't really want to acknowledge during the November election campaign. Goodness knows this page tried to force them to acknowledge it, but they wouldn't.

They wanted voters to think it was morning in Illinois. It is not. It is midnight.

The state has billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities, particularly in pensions and health care. It has taken on a massive debt load.

And yet, what was all the talk during the election? How we're going to spend more money for education and health care. The money isn't there for what we're spending now. State revenues are growing about 4 percent a year, but state expenses will grow by 7.5 percent each of the next three years, the Civic Committee says.

The Commercial Club is a long-standing organization, and if you want to go beyond the boosterism on the Civic Committee's homepage, the full report is available as a .pdf.