First term (1991–1995) Bill Clinton greets Edgar and his wife Brenda in January 1993|299x299px On January 14, 1991, Edgar took the oath of office as Governor of Illinois and gave a speech focused on fiscal responsibility. During the gubernatorial transition between the 1990 election and his inauguration, Edgar and his staff were made aware of a nearly billion-dollar deficit in state spending that he would have to deal with upon assuming office and though the exact size of the deficit was downplayed by the Illinois State Bureau of the Budget to the public and to the news-media of the time, it was still recognized to be the largest budget deficit in state history up to that point. Then, three weeks following Edgar's inauguration, the state began to feel stronger effects of the
early 1990s recession, worsening the state's financial standing further. To try and correct the state's finances, Edgar's first proposed budget for the fiscal year 1992 included no tax increases and extensive cuts to state spending totaling in the millions of dollars—with the exception of education, which received a slight increase. This budget ran into conflict with the
Democrat-controlled
Illinois General Assembly and a months-long budget fight ensued between Edgar and
Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan over his proposals. After months of negotiations, the two reached a compromise in mid-July that included most of Edgar's initial spending cuts, made permanent the temporary income tax increase that had dominated the 1990 campaign, and established property tax caps in all counties except
Cook.
Bill Clinton address the winter meeting of the
National Governors Association in February 1993 In between budget fights, Edgar also sought to reform the
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, which had been put under court supervision following an
ACLU lawsuit three years prior to Edgar taking office. Policy changes enacted by Edgar included reorienting the department's priorities around focusing on the best interests of the children they were dealing with as opposed to keeping families together, toughening standards for private agencies and organizations overseeing child-care, and passing a bipartisan package of welfare reforms in 1994 focused on increasing scrutiny in abuse-related death investigations, establishing methods of stopping
child abuse before it occurs, and requiring the department to draft standardized training procedures and guidelines for
caseworkers.
Bill Clinton during a meeting held for Midwestern governors of states affected by flooding in July 1993 On April 24, 1993, Edgar declared
Kane,
Lake, and
McHenry counties disaster areas due to flooding. Edgar would mobilize over 7,000 members of the
Illinois National Guard to flood duty over the course of the disaster and organize hundreds of inmates from the
Illinois Department of Corrections to help with
sandbagging and
levee-reinforcement. After the bill was passed unanimously by the
General Assembly, Edgar told
The State Journal-Register "We had a time bomb in our retirement system that was going to go off in the first part of the 21st century. This legislation defuses that time bomb." Prior to 1981, the State of Illinois funded pensions on an "as-you-go" basis, making benefit payouts as they came due, with employee contributions and investment income funding a reserve to cover future payouts. This approach was stopped in 1982 due to strains on the Illinois budget and state contributions remained flat between 1982 and 1995, resulting in an underfunding of pensions by approximately $20 billion. It would be from this 'ramp' period that the funding plan would gain the
colloquial name 'the Edgar ramp.' The
Illinois pension crisis continues into the present day, with Illinois' public pensions being the worst-funded in the nation as of 2023.
1994 Illinois gubernatorial election On November 9, 1993, Edgar announced his intention to run for a second term as Governor of Illinois. In the spring primary, Edgar faced only
token opposition from
Jack Roeser, a self-funded conservative businessman who challenged Edgar from
the right in a fashion similar to activist
Steve Baer four years prior. The primary race received little coverage and Edgar won renomination in a landslide. Edgar had initially anticipated that his general election opponent would be
Richard Phelan, President of the
Cook County Board of Commissioners, but he instead faced
incumbent Democratic State Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch. The Netsch campaign, recovering from the costs of the Democratic primary, struggled to respond and Netsch was held back from campaigning that month by her official duties as comptroller. Following an
angiogram, Edgar was informed that he needed to undergo an emergency surgery due to a 95 percent blockage of his
left anterior descending artery.
Second term (1995–1999) Edgar maintained a focus on fiscal stability over his second term. He increased education funding, paid many of the state's previously unpaid bills, and improved Illinois'
bond ratings. At the start of his second term, Edgar passed educational reforms including a major overhaul of the organizational structure of Chicago's
public schools, creating an oversight board and introducing increased measures for academic accountability. These changes improved test scores, attendance and graduation rates. In 1997, Edgar championed and signed a law guaranteeing minimum funding per student for every school in the state and launched the state's first major school construction program. Following his first term's reforms to the
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Edgar and First Lady Brenda Edgar launched Project Heart (Helping to Ease Adoption Red Tape) to streamline the adoption process in Illinois. Reforms included faster backgrounds checks and fingerprinting processes, new courtrooms to speed parental rights cases, reduced filing fees, and waived fees for children with special needs. As a result, adoption times were cut in half and adoptions rose from 708 to 4,293 during Edgar's tenure. Other than himself, Edgar voiced support for retired
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell or
New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman as possible running mates for Dole. During his second term, the relationship between Edgar's re-election campaign and Management Systems of Illinois (MSI), Edgar's largest campaign contributor, came under federal scrutiny. MSI had been granted a state contract that cost an estimated $20 million in overcharges. Edgar was never accused of wrongdoing, but he testified twice at the request of the defense, once in court and once by videotape, becoming the first sitting Illinois governor to take the witness stand in a criminal case in 75 years. In those appearances, the governor insisted political donations played no role in who received state contracts. Convictions were obtained against two men involved with Management Services of Illinois: Michael Martin, who had been a partner of Management Services of Illinois, and Ronald Lowder, who had been a state welfare administrator and later worked for Management Services of Illinois. In 1997, Edgar announced he would retire from politics at the end of his term, ending speculation that he would run for reelection or for the
U.S. Senate the following year. "I've enjoyed what I've done, but I've done it," Edgar said at the time, "I always thought 'I want to go out on top.' Some people stay too long in politics. Sometimes if you don't go out on top, they throw you out." Edgar left office in January 1999 with high approval ratings, something he maintained for most of his two terms, including a high of 73% in 1995. ==Post-governorship==