It’s Quinn’s second budget speech. He will lay out his proposal around noon today before the General Assembly.

First things first: We’ll have the speech live here on 91.5 FM and WBEZ.org, along with post-speech analysis featuring John Tillman from the Illinois Policy Institute and Ralph Martire from the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. While listening, head over to blogs.vocalo.org, where Justin Kaufmann hosts the second week of The Lunchbox. His all-star panel of guests will live-blog the governor’s speech.

Do your homework:

• The governor: The administration Tuesday night released this slide show and packet of fact sheets.
• The think tanks: Budget proposals from the Illinois Policy Institute, the Civic Federation and the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.
• The public: Comments posted to the governor’s budget site, an outreach element required by legislation granting the governor an extra three weeks to prepare his budget.

Proposals to listen for:

• Mention of tax hike: Quinn’s staff says he isn’t including one in his budget, but they say the governor will talk about the need for more revenue.
• Borrowing and late payments: Without a tax hike, the administration says, this is the only way to balance the budget.
• Cuts: The biggie here is education, $1.3-billion worth. But also look for significant cuts proposed elsewhere, including human services, seniors’ prescription drug coverage and the state police.
• Angering all the Mayor Daleys of Illinois: Quinn wants to cut the local government share of income tax revenues from the current 10-percent, down to 7-percent.
• Small business tax credit: Gives them $2,500 for each full-time job they create.
• Contract review: “Review, reduce or rebid” all state contracts worth over a million dollars.
• Pension changes: Quinn’s chief of staff says a deal is close in the legislature to change the pension benefits for new state employees.
• DJJ merger: There’s next to nothing about this in the documents I received Tuesday from the administration, but it looks like the Department of Juvenile Justice (separated less than four years ago from the Department of Corrections) could be absorbed by the Department of Children and Family Services. UPDATE: A spokesman for AFSCME, which represents many workers in DJJ facilities, confirms the administration made them aware that Quinn intended to propose this merger. The union, Anders Lindall says, is “willing to have an open as they present their proposal and we’ll consider it on its merits.” That said, “whatever office you report to in Springfield matters less than the resources you get.” AFSCME opposed the creation of a separate DJJ four years ago, he says, because its creation included no new resources.

Let’s remember that none of these proposals are a done deal. And Quinn’s chief of staff made clear this budget plan assumes the revenues the state currently has. In other words, if a tax hike passes, the cuts could be less severe. The governor’s efforts on this front failed last year, so he’s trying a new tactic.

Will Quinn try his hand at improv again? Quinn’s State of the State Address in January lasted well over an hour. It took him about 45 minutes to even mention the state’s dire fiscal condition. The campaign of his primary opponent, Comptroller Dan Hynes, called it a “rambling and unfocused performance.” Turns out Quinn was going off notes, rather than a speech text. Will it be a repeat today? The Springfield Journal-Register pleaded with him to come prepared this time: “It was amateur hour when Quinn delivered his state-of-the-state speech, a stream-of-consciousness stemwinder based off of notes jotted down on a yellow legal pad.”