Posted on 09/06/2011 3:36:13 AM PDT by tobyhill
Gov. Pat Quinn plans to issue layoff notices to thousands of state workers this week as he deals with a budget shortfall he pegs in the hundreds of millions of dollars, a state government source with knowledge of the situation told the Tribune.
The governor also intends to announce the closing of several state facilities, including a prison, juvenile detention center and homes for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled, sources confirmed. Without action, Quinn's budget office says, several agencies would run out of money by the spring.
Quinn is responding to the Democratic-controlled Legislature's decision at the end of May to dictate this year's budget with little input from his office. The Democratic governor maintains that lawmakers didn't provide enough money to keep the state operating for a full year. Quinn, who asked for $2.2 billion more, already has made partial vetoes to the budget and blocked raises for thousands of state workers, a decision that's being challenged in court by the state's largest government employee union. The union also is expected to fight the pink slips, citing a no-layoff agreement it struck with Quinn last year.
The governor's impending moves may explain why a Democrat who runs a large, reliably Democratic state made no public appearances over Labor Day weekend — a time when organized labor seeks to rally its troops heading into a critical election year for the White House, Congress and the Legislature.
Quinn also appears to be setting the table for next month's fall session, allowing pressure to build on lawmakers to free up more money as they prepare to return to Springfield after being away most of the summer.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Obviously state money is for union jobs and pensions, not taxpayer services to be rendered...
Maybe not. Look at Detroit. It is a disaster yet the citizens still vote Democrat.
The first hand was dealt on 11/2/10. That was a preview of coming attractions.
That’s true but I know outside Chicago people are not happy in Illinois as with the other 56 states.
Typical dhimmicrap move. Cut services the taxpayers expect and then wait for the cries to restore them and the cries for more taxes to keep them open. Never min the incredible waste the combine puts on the state.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, will put Illinois, "in play", as long as Chicago exists. Keep in mind that Quinn won the governorship by winning Cook and two other nearby counties out of 102 counties in the state.
Yes, it's that bad.
When their backs are to the wall, they'll do everything but cut the welfare payments and the union benefits.
Interesting that Quinn the Eskimo still has a budget deficit after doubling the state income tax. IN addition, Chicago/Cook County must have the highest sales tax in the US - what is it, 10 percent?? Perhaps they should consider supply side economics, but I doubt they will.
Quinn’s 66% INCREASE in Payroll Tax made us FLEE Chicago!! I’m sure we weren’t alone!!!
“........Keep in mind that Quinn won the governorship by winning Cook and two other nearby counties out of 102 counties in the state......”
That’s really what we have nationwide. Dims win 90% of the high rise cities vote...while Republicans win 60-65% of the fly over vote — and we have the vast nation dominated by those who reside in less than 1% of the geography.
This kind of isolated rule can never work.
Ahhhhh.....Democrats.....threaten to close prisons and homes for the mentally ill, but completely ignore firing their sister who works as the Assistant to the Under-Secretary of the Deputy to the Vice-Chairman of the Commission on leaf blowers.
“The union also is expected to fight the pink slips, citing a no-layoff agreement it struck with Quinn last year.”
I can see them standing outside the smoldering ruins of their workplace the morning after a nuclear attack. “But we have a no-layoff agreement!”
...also intends to announce the closing of several state facilities, including a prison, juvenile detention center and homes for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled...With the Demwits running around free, one wonders who was in the prisons in the first place.
This story was reported on the local radio news all day, with the final Quinn quote that people need to show up at their representatives offices to complain if they don’t like it. I’m guessing most of the cuts will be in the non-Democrat areas of the state. Sounds like more of the anti-Tea party sentiment coming from Obama.
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