As Illinois and the world await the verdict in the Rod Blagojevich trial, some seemingly mundane developments may reveal what could be far more important for Illinois voters. On Tuesday, another national organization belittled Illinois’ fiscal management and some key differences between the gubernatorial race contenders became evident.

A National Conference of State Legislators’ study released this week found that Illinois has the largest budget deficit in the nation this year. The announcement was not totally fair to Illinois because the study did not include information from California, Georgia, Hawaii, Michigan and Pennsylvania and only partial data from New York and Massachusetts. But it does support previous reports from organizations such as the Pew Center, the Illinois Policy Institute and the Tax Foundation that Illinois is in a fiscal mess and seems to be managed more poorly than other states.

In a related series of events, Governor Pat Quinn and his Republican challenger for governor, State Senator Bill Brady, engaged in a battle of words about how they would partially address the state’s fiscal problems. Quinn still contends that he would like to raise the State’s income tax from 3 percent to 4 percent. Brady, on the other hand, would like to reduce taxes by 10 percent, which would include a $1 billion hit on education.

These different strategies help crystalize some of the differences between the candidates. Illinois taxpayers are feeling the impact of bad state government through increases in local taxes and service cuts, which include teacher layoffs throughout the state. In addition, the State is carrying over at least a $4.7 billion backlog of bills from the previous fiscal year with vendors waiting more than 150 days to be paid for goods and services already rendered. At some point, the overdue bills will have to be paid and the majority of economists and state budget experts contend that it is almost impossible to enact enough cuts or find enough waste to balance the budget. To date, Senator Brady has been evasive on what he would cut and what waste he has identified that would prevent state tax increases (or explain how state cuts would essentially be unfunded mandates that will cause local tax increases). At some point, probably in debates between the candidates, Brady should have to actually reveal his plan.

But, he may get a break. Illinois voters have shown a history of preferring to bask in false sunshine than deal with a harsh storm of realities, which provides a segue into the larger Statehouse news this week.

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s fate is now in the hands of the jury in his 24-count federal civil trial. Blagojevich was a master at playing to the public by creating initiatives such as free bus rides for seniors that the state and local governments could not afford.

Will the public connect that electing people like Blagojevich helped create Illinois’ budget problems? Or, will voters once again prefer to stick their heads in the sand and not deal with reality. Blagojevich’s fate should be determined next week. Illinois’ will be determined on November 2nd.