Man Wins $250K in Illinois Lottery, All He Gets is IOU

CNS News ^ | 9/2/15 | Barbara Hollingsworth

[markomalley]

Danny Chasteen of Oglesby, Illinois hit the jackpot in July when he bought a winning instant lottery ticket on his way to work.

But instead of his $250,000 prize, all he’s gotten from the Illinois Lottery so far is an IOU.

When Chasteen tried to collect his winnings last week, he was told that state comptroller Leslie Munger could not release any funds until the state adopts a new budget to replace the one that expired on July 1.

That could take a while.

In May, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed the FY 2016 budget passed by the Democrat-controlled state legislature because it spent $5 billion more than the state expected to receive in revenue.

Illinois is now entering its third month without a budget in place, and the governor and state legislators are still not close to an agreement.

“All winners will be paid in full as soon as the lottery and the Illinois comptroller have the legislative authority to do so,” lottery spokesman Stephen Rossi said, adding that the lottery winners can cash in winning tickets worth $25,000 or less.

But anything over that has to wait until the state gets its act together.

“If we owed the state money, they’d come take it and they don’t care whether we have a roof over our head,” Susan Rick, Chasteen’s girlfriend, told The Chicago Tribune. “Our budget wouldn’t be a factor. You can’t say ‘Can you wait until I get my budget under control’.”

[mylife]

Yessir

[mylife]

Guess it beats Gary Indiana in some regards ;)

[Lopeover]

ROTFLMAO! That's the democrat/Marxists for you! 😂

[Jack Hydrazine]

Lloyd Christmas: Listen, Mr. Samsonite, about the briefcase, my friend Harry and I have every intention of fully reimbursing you.
Nicholas Andre: Open it up. Open it up!

Lloyd Christmas: [Motioning to Mary] Go ahead, open it up. Do what he says. Hurry.
Nicholas Andre: What is this? What is this? Where's all the money?

Lloyd Christmas: That's as good as money, sir. Those are I.O.U.'s. Go ahead and add it up, every cent's accounted for. Look, see this? That's a car. 275 thou. Might wanna hang onto that one.

[Jack Hydrazine]

It used to be that 70% of all lottery winners end up going broke and filing for a bankruptcy according to this article.
http://brandongaille.com/22-lottery-winners-bankrupt-statistics/

Now you go broke before you ever get your money - a first!

[joshua c]

That’s a good point. Are the EBT’s still being loaded?

Arent lottery commissions separate entities? And they dont depend on tax revenues, they pay out from ticket sales.

Something smells.

[Smokin' Joe]

I wonder if they are going to hit him uSgt. Jennifer Martin for the taxes before he collects?

[Smokin' Joe]

Not sure how Sgt. Jennifer Martin got in there.

[Nailbiter]

Politicians?

[Shimmer1]

They make money hand over fist with that lottery, they can’t pay out some winnings? oh no, of course not.

[GeronL]

this is what happens when governments run lotteries and it is put into the general fund.

[smalltownslick]

Give them $25,000 a month for ten months

[Shimmer1]

Sometimes my TV contributes a few words when I’m voice texting!

[NorthMountain]

If they don’t have a budget, how are they still collecting taxes..

Because the budget law (authorization to spend money) and the tax laws (authorization to take money) are different laws. Lack of does not imply lack of the other.

In the absence of a budget law, the State has no (limited?) legal authority to spend money ... so spending money would be a violation of the law.

We can hope, pray, that our various governments would be so careful about obeying the law in other areas as well. Like, say, the limits on government size and power established in the Constitution.

[GeronL]

“We can hope, pray, that our various governments would be so careful about obeying the law in other areas as well”

good point

[glorgau]

The note said; “We would rather owe it to you than cheat you out of it”.