top fiscal officer in the State. What's the fiscal outlook for Illinois? Will taxes ever be cut back?

A. I think with the advent of the Comptroller's Office, we are now in a position to centralize all of the financial data in the State. We now have the technical knowhow to keep the legislature and the Governor from putting us into the position that Governor Ogilvie found himself in in 1969 when the legislature had authorized borrowing 60 million dollars, and we had actually borrowed 30 million in order to keep the general fund solvent. Now we can tell two years in advance when we are coming into a financially troublesome era. At the moment, the State financial condition is good, and as a result of inflation the State has a bonus in its treasury. However, as the months go on the bonus will disappear as the State starts purchasing goods at highly inflated rates.

Q. Well, what about tax relief?

A. I think the best tax relief that can be offered to the people of Illinois during the next two to three years would be the assurance that there would be no new taxes and no increases in the present ones.

Q. What's wrong with our national economy?

A. I think we need an inflationproof Congress. We need a Congress willing to bite the bullet and reduce federal spending significantly. I think we need a change in the attitude of Congress and a Democratic Congress is absolutely the wrong medicine for this inflationary period. They've dominated it for the past 40-45 years.

Q. Do you feel the legislature is under-producing?

'0n the whole the legislature is doing what ifs supposed to do. Unfortunately, that doesn't give all of us a lot of satisfaction'

A. On the whole the legislature is doing what it's supposed to do. Unfortunately, that doesn't give all of us a lot of satisfaction. By the same token it does not create an attitude of "let's have a revolution." It helps the State stay balanced. They're not superstars and they're not bums.

Q. What kind of job is Governor Dan Walker doing?

A. 1 think the most important thing to come out of the Walker administration is mute testimony to the fact that government can pretty well run itself. I have not seen any significant program initiated by the Walker administration, other than those that would enhance Dan Walker's own personal ambitions, which are obviously national and not State. The Ogilvie administration lost the 1972 election; the Walker forces did not win it.

Q. How did he lose it?

A. Walker came into the office by default, because Ogilvie had the fraternal orders raided for gambling equipment. This, with the enforcement of non-burning of grass, and certainly the need to initiate the State income tax, all ganged up on Governor Ogilvie who was probably the best Governor in the last 50 years.

Q. How effective could Governor Walker be running on a national Democratic ticket?

A. I'm certainly not impressed with either the Governor or the people he's gathered around him. Unless he was relegated to the position of Vice-President where he would be essentially harmless, his nomination would encourage me to work very hard against a ticket that had him running for any position of substantial authority.

Q. Why do you feel this way? Has he been uncooperative?

A. He's been the most demagogic politician I have ever seen. First of all, he denies being, a politician, which is absurd. Secondly, the type of politics I see going on in his administration —for example, making sure that they have "their man" in every department, is certainly a .distrustful philosophy. I think his attitude towards the legislators is essentially a disgrace. What he seems to forget is that most of the legislators won and have won many times over by pluralities, far in excess, percentage wise, of the plurality that brought him into office.

Q. Is that the way it is throughout the Walker administration?

A. I'm not going to do what Walker has done in connection with his references to the legislature, where they're all "a bunch of scheming politicians." There are some very excellent people in the Walker administration and there are others whose major characteristic can be described as arrogance. Their primary objective is, as John Dean said, " Work to maximize the incumbency." and so, it's a mixed bag.

Q. What kind of image do you feel you present to the people of Illinois?

A. People are pretty much still unaware of George Lindberg and the Office of Comptroller. They never even knew the office existed and they always presume that the business of the Slate of Illinois was run in a modern fashion just like any corporation would be run. They are. for the most part, totally unaware of the archaic systems that existed before we implemented this new system.

Q. What about your own ambitions? Where do you want to go in politics?

A. My present inclination is to remain in public office. That does not imply, however, that I would necessarily feel that I should move to another office. If I were to fee! that way, it would indicate that I felt that the Office of Comptroller is last in importance of Slate offices. I happen to feel it's second only to the governorship in importance to the people of Illinois, and for that reason, there isn't a strong motivation on my part to go "up." If anything, I'll be moving over.

38/Illinois Issues/February 1975