Let’s say you lost your job and you’re late on rent when an unexpected tax refund shows up in your mailbox. Or you’re a young adult with student loans who gets a nice birthday check from Grandma. In both cases, there is bound to be a temptation to spend the money on a fancy meal or a fun item from your wish list.

Illinois lawmakers, this is an exercise for you.

State government expects to receive as much as $7.5 billion from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan signed by President Joe Biden. Another $5.5 billion will go to city and county governments. And already that money has some lawmakers feeling the urge to splurge. It’s tradition.

Less than two years ago as lawmakers jammed a major capital spending bill through the General Assembly, they made sure to sweeten it with more than a billion dollars in pork projects: barely vetted state grants to private schools, museums, theaters, schools and parks, including pickleball courts and dog parks.

Who pays for these projects? You do, through a doubling of the gasoline tax, higher vehicle sticker fees and expanded gambling that — fingers crossed — will cover the costs of lawmakers’ long wish list. Gamble away, everyone! Your state needs you.

Last year, as the pandemic was crushing the economy, Gov. J.B. Pritzker borrowed nearly $2.9 billion from the Federal Reserve to cover Medicaid and other bills. Even before 2020, our state had the puniest of rainy day funds because Illinois politicians had long declined to set aside money for an emergency. Before the pandemic, Iowa had enough money in its emergency stash to fund state government operations for 37 days. Illinois had enough for 30 seconds.

Pritzker agrees on the need to repay borrowed funds, but he also wants to spread some of the windfall around “to help us stimulate the economy to make sure we’re bringing back the jobs.” State Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, says, “Many, many communities in the state have businesses, especially in the food, restaurant, bar, hospitality industries, that have been dramatically impacted by the COVID restrictions and closures. And I think that we should better design programs to deliver aid to those businesses.”

The federal government already is spending huge amounts to stimulate the economy and help businesses and workers hurt by the pandemic. The progress made in vaccinating Americans against COVID-19 will mean that restaurants and bars will be able to bring back customers in far larger numbers.

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza is trying to head off a spending binge. She argues that the state should first repay those Fed loans, then cut its backlog of unpaid bills from $5.5 billion to $3 billion, and then replenish the depleted rainy day fund. “The vast majority of this money is already spoken for,” she says. “There’s no room for new spending.” Keep in mind that only half of the $7.5 billion in federal funds will arrive this year. The rest won’t come until 2022. And we’re not out of the economic woods yet. So strict spending discipline is in order.

Anything else is an invitation for politicians to sacrifice, again, the long-term fiscal health of Illinois to satisfy short-term desires. We’ve seen that movie before. We don’t like the way it ends.

Get our latest editorials, op-eds and columns delivered twice a week in our newsletter. Sign up here.