Lost in Numbers In Illinois

The NYT completely abandoned its commitment to put numbers in context in an article on the budget cuts proposed by Illinois' new governor, Bruce Rauner. The piece tells readers that the governor had proposed cuts of more than $6 billion. Since most NYT readers are not familiar with the size of Illinois' budget, this is not providing very much information. In fact, the cuts (actually $6.7 billion) would be equal to approximately 17.5 percent of baseline spending (see page 2-23). It refers to a...