When Texas got the lottery, the teachers’ retirement was raided. They were promised the money would be returned. You get one guess if it ever was.
Same with Illinois. The Lottery was to go into the education fund. But, what they do each year, is reduce the education fund by the amount they project the lottery will bring in, and later sell bonds to cover their “miscalculations”.
They always over estimate what the lottery will bring in, thus reducing the education fund. What they take from the education fund, goes into the general fund, where it is lost.
In any event, I am owed a good sum of money by my state for work done over the years. I cannot be paid. I am out equipment and labor costs. I cannot foreclose on the equipment (like a contractors lien) because the state says so. I will not get paid, as our debt increases daily. I am at the bottom of the list.
The top of the list in Illinois? Pensions. Next is legal work. My attorney says I should never expect to be paid. He doesn’t expect to ever get paid for the work he has done, and I’m well below him in priority to the state.
But, crooked contractors (road construction) goes on all over the state because it is fed money. And those contractors are very very well connected to the dems. Little shops like mine got shafted hard.
Oh and btw, on a further note, as the years went on, our state passed laws that we had to pay a “living wage” to our employees. We paid a good amount above union scale, but had a 401k that they could contribute to and we would match up to what was allowable over the years. Well, as time went on, more and more cities refused our bids, citing that our 401k did not meet “the living wage” and only a pension could qualify. Which meant, you had to be union. Even though our 401k had a better pay out for the investment, it was still considered not a “living wage”. I could go on and on about it, but that’s enough I reckon.