Stores are closed, jobs are disappearing. People are barely driving, much less flying. Farmers are in the fields — where social distancing is a way of life — but there’s no telling what the market for their crops will look like. The stock market is down 20% for the year.

And somebody’s supposed to figure out the cost of all this?

Well, yes. Gov. J.B. Pritzker ultimately will be responsible for determining the impact on the state’s budget — as if he doesn’t have enough to do fighting the COVID-19 virus day and night. The human toll is climbing rapidly, and Pritzker has shown compassion for victims and caretakers, and a resolve to do his best for the state.

The effort ultimately will include addressing the financial fallout from COVID-19 too. Pritzker showed at a news conference this week that state finances are on his mind, even as he deals with the rest of the coronavirus pandemic. He said there is no telling yet what the financial cost will be, or how revenues and the rest of his 2021 budget will be affected.

Jim Muschinski is one person in state government whose job is to tally the troubles. As chief revenue officer of the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, he delivers forecasts to the state legislature. It’s a demanding job under any circumstances and daunting now.

Read the rest at chicagotribune.com

David Greising is the president and chief executive of the Better Government Association, joining the BGA in 2018. For nearly a century, the BGA has fought for honest and effective government through investigative journalism and policy advocacy.

Greising’s career started at the City News Bureau of Chicago, with stops at the Chicago Sun-Times, Business Week magazine, the Chicago Tribune and Reuters. He was a co-founder of the Chicago News Cooperative and worked briefly as a consultant to World Business Chicago. Today, Greising writes on government issues in regular columns for the Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business.

Under Greising’s leadership, the BGA has played a key role in uncovering public corruption amidst the wide-ranging federal probe, starting with an in-depth report about Ald. Ed Burke’s conflicts of interest before the federal charges against Burke. The BGA also has exposed waste and fraud at O’Hare and the proliferation of corruption and poverty into Dolton, Lyons and other Chicago suburbs. The BGA’s policy team has led calls for ethics reform in Chicago’s City Council and in state government.