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| Economy |
| Illinois facing 'outright disaster' amid budget crisis |
| 2010-07-04 |
| Even by the standards of this deficit-ridden state, Illinois's comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes, faces an ugly balance sheet. Precisely how ugly becomes clear when he beckons you into his office to examine his daily briefing memo. He picks the papers off his desk and points to a figure in red: $5.01 billion. "This is what the state owes right now to schools, rehabilitation centers, child care, the state university -- and it's getting worse every single day," he says in his downtown office. Mr. Hynes shakes his head. "This is not some esoteric budget issue; we are not paying bills for absolutely essential services," he says. "That is obscene." For the last few years, California stood more or less unchallenged as a symbol of the fiscal collapse of states during the recession. Now Illinois has shouldered to the fore, as its dysfunctional political class refuses to pay the state's bills and refuses to take the painful steps -- cuts and tax increases -- to close a deficit of at least $12 billion, equal to nearly half the state's budget. Insolvency looms Then there is the spectacularly mismanaged pension system, which is at least 50 percent underfunded and, analysts warn, could push Illinois into insolvency if the economy fails to pick up. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 our inevitable destruction? Theirs will come first. The Marie Antoinette type public figures of the world never endure. |
| Posted by: Tyranysaurus Slomong2642 2010-07-04 20:37 |
| #6 'Kafkaesque"? Dale is right. Idealogues are not leaders. They will take us all down their Golden Path to our inevitable destruction. It will fall to those of us who are left to rebuild what we can. Hope to see you all on the other side. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2010-07-04 20:32 |
| #5 The economy will not improve period!. They will raise taxes and tax anything and everything. The result will be more of the same. This time next year things will be twice as bad. They see yet they are blind, they hear yet they don't listen, they have a brain yet they don't comprehend what they see or hear. This is kalkaesque. |
| Posted by: Dale 2010-07-04 18:01 |
| #4 Ill has not been able to reimburse the physicians of its state employees for nine months (timing sound familiar? cf ObozoCare). State tried to blame the insurers that administer its plans, but the fact is Ill isn't funding its plans (big lie sound familiar? Cf OblahblahCare)and even the politically connected halfwits that make up the state employee pop are wising up. |
| Posted by: regular joe 2010-07-04 12:56 |
| #3 Mr. Hynes is a card carrying member of the 'Combine' -- that group of insider Dems and Reps that have run Illinois into the ground. He might be a decent enough guy one on one. Might be good conversation with a beer in his hand. But he and the Combine have wrecked my state. If the state had, over the past twenty years, simply limited the increases in its spending to the inflation rate plus population growth rate, Illinois would not have a deficit today. Instead the Combine had the state spend lavishly on pensions for public employees, new prisons that we can't even open, increased transfers to Chicago, and -- of course -- all sorts of goodies for their favored hangers-on. That's why we're $19 billion in the hole. If I were to go along with new taxes in my state, what assurance do I have that the new money would be used to fix the problems? None whatsoever, which is why I won't vote for a tax increase, and why I'll vote against my state rep or senator if they do. It's not just a financial deficit. It's a trust deficit. I don't trust the Combine. I have no reason to trust them. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2010-07-04 11:03 |
| #2 #1 That's why they sent one of their own to DC. Yeah, grom. Like a metastasizing cancer......The gift that keeps on giving. They need someone like a Mayor Bing, backed up by the National Guard. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul in NW Iceland 2010-07-04 06:40 |
| #1 That's why they sent one of their own to DC. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-07-04 05:12 |