SPRINGFIELD - Gov. Rod Blagojevich's political foes are quick to criticize his handling of the state budget crisis, but they're in no hurry to provide details about what they would do differently.

Massive budget deficits have dominated Blagojevich's three years in office, forcing him to scramble for ways to fill the gap without breaking his promise to hold income and sales taxes flat.

His Republican opponents unanimously condemn the Democratic governor's policy of increasing hundreds of fees and special taxes, and they promise to try to roll back some or all of them. They don't talk, however, about how to replace that lost revenue.

"We will reduce or eliminate entirely those programs that are unnecessary and uneconomical," Jim Oberweis replied to an Associated Press questionnaire.

Blagojevich's opponents also accuse him of shortchanging state pension systems but fall silent when asked where they will find the billions of dollars that will someday come due.

Of course, Blagojevich doesn't discuss it, either.

"I have and will continue to work on reforming the pension system," the governor responded when asked how he would come up with the money.

His Democratic challenger, Edwin Eisendrath, is even more vague. His answers often amount to "all options should be on the table."

Blagojevich inherited huge deficits when he took office (he says the shortfall was $5 billion, but that's actually the total for two years combined), and filling them has been his administration's biggest challenge.

He raised a host of small taxes and fees, cut programs, borrowed money, delayed paying bills, eliminated jobs - almost anything to avoid raising income or sales taxes. Blagojevich says he won't raise taxes in a second term, either.

"I think it's the wrong thing to do," he said Sunday.

The Republican front-runner, Judy Baar Topinka, refrains from taking the tax pledge, calling it a "phony-baloney" tactic. The other Republicans, however, responded to the AP's questions by promising not to raise taxes.

"I will hold the line on the major taxes such as the income and sales taxes because I do not believe state taxes should be increased" said Chicago businessman Ron Gidwitz.

Three of the Republicans want to roll back the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of taxes and fees that Blagojevich increased. Topinka, however, says she would reverse only the ones that have been "injurious" to business.

All four of the major Republican candidates say they want to control, or even reduce, government spending.

Gidwitz offers some specifics.

He suggests cutting $100 million from the Department of Central Management Services, an administrative agency where the state auditor found serious mismanagement. He calls for $150 million in cuts to the governor's "Opportunity Returns" economic development programs, calling them "little more than corporate welfare."

Topinka calls for overhauling Medicaid, the government medical program for poor people, so that it controls costs through HMO-style managed care and saves about $200 million.

But such cuts only go so far when the state has been facing deficits of $1 billion and $2 billion in a $55 billion budget.

State Sen. Bill Brady also mentions Medicaid, but the centerpiece of his budget plan is the concept that lowering taxes will create jobs that will, in turn, "restock the Illinois treasury and reduce the need for more of our families to be become dependent on government services."

Brady doesn't see this as a long-term process. He argues the state can cut taxes and within the same budget year will see enough new jobs to replace that lost tax money.

Oberweis argues the way to control government spending is to fight corruption.

The Aurora businessman says corruption drives up the cost of goods and services, increasing the state budget by 2 percent to 3 percent. Eliminating that corruption could save $1 billion or more, Oberweis claims, although he has no data to support that.

Oberweis also says state government could save hundreds of millions of dollars by ending "project labor agreements," which allow the state to require union labor on some construction projects.

The biggest budget question is the one where candidates have the least to say.

The state owes billions of dollars to the retirement systems for government workers, downstate teachers and university employees. The amount the state must pay jumps sharply each year.

The contribution for fiscal 2007 is $1.37 billion, but it nearly doubles by 2009, to $2.66 billion. Blagojevich's budget office calls pension funding the state's "greatest financial challenge."

Blagojevich, while arguing he has made the pension systems more secure during his first term, doesn't say how he would come up with billions more in a second term.

Neither do his opponents, although Topinka acknowledges it will be a challenge.

"That may mean dedicating much of the state's new annual revenues to pension payments," she said.

Gidwitz proposes making pension payments automatic, so that they are taken out of state revenue before the governor and lawmakers start deciding how to spend the state's money.

Brady and Oberweis support switching away from the traditional pension system, where employees are guaranteed to get specific amounts once they retire, to a "defined contribution" system, where employees get money during their working years to invest for retirement.

But pension experts say that would be more expensive in the short run. The state would have to pay into two retirement systems at the same time - the traditional pension system and the new 401(k)-style program.