Updated 2:39 p.m. with report from WBEZ's Alex Keefe.
State worker pensions and Medicaid funding could be on the chopping block when Illinois' governor outlines his budget proposal this week.
Governor Pat Quinn says the budget plan he'll unveil Wednesday will bring state spending back down to where it was in 2008.
But he says the seed of the state's current fiscal mess was planted even earlier - by his predecessors.
"They let a lot of problems...accumulate, including the Medicaid problem," Quinn said. "My job is the repairman. I'm here to resolve these difficulties and move our state forward."
Quinn plans to take a nearly $3 billion bite out of Medicaid - the health care program for the poor.
And he's calling for most state offices to cut their budgets by 9 percent.
Quinn has also said Illinois workers may have to pay more into their retirement accounts to ease the state's massive pension burden.
One thing the governor has not mentioned - raising income taxes, as he did last year.
