What to do with a broken Illinois: Dissolve the Land of Lincoln

Chicago Tribune ^ | 20 JUN 17 | By John Kass•Contact Reporter

[DCBryan1]

llinois is like Venezuela now, a fiscally broken state that has lost its will to live, although for the moment, we still have enough toilet paper.

But before we run out of the essentials, let's finally admit that after decade upon decade of taxing and spending and borrowing, Illinois has finally run out of other people's money.

Those "other people" include taxpayers who've abandoned the state. And now Illinois faces doomsday.

So as the politicians meet in Springfield this week for another round of posturing and gesturing and blaming, we need a plan.

And here it is:

[BipolarBob]

Sell it to the Chinese.

[Red Badger]

2016 POTUS Election. Hilliary! won the state only because of Chicago and the urban areas.....................

[ghostkatz]

If you run Rahm Emmanuel and his cohorts out, where will they go ? To your state to screw it up as well ? Maybe Obama should use his ill gotten gains and buy an island of Indonesia and move all his friends there.

[Fiddlstix]

Works For Me!
Good Plan!

[boycott]

Give it to Canada. Pay them if necessary.

[Red Badger]

[vooch]

a better plan would be to sell most states assets and let free market work it’s magic

sell airports
sell highways
sell schools
sell land
sell buildings

shrink the gov’t to 1% of state GDP

[lurk]

There will be blame aplenty, solutions few.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I like your ideas of states losing statehood and being under federal oversight.

What we are seeing with Illinois, and we’ve seen with some cities such as Detroit, should be unthinkable. A unit of government, if run properly, should never be in a position where they are bankrupt.

Maybe this is too strident to say, but public officials who are presiding over the lead up to bankruptcy are derelict in their duties, and perhaps even violating laws themselves, to allow these situations to fester and get to the point of no return.

So what’s the solution? Raise taxes in Illinois? Can they sell bonds; won’t their bond rating go to junk bond status, which in turn will jack up interest owed by Illinois on existing debt, and become a vicious circle??

[bigbob]

Even worse - here's the map that got Demo-idiot Pat Quinn elected as Governor in 2010:

Win four counties and screw you to the other 98 counties.

[Reily]

This needs its own separate but more general topic. “What Do You Do With States That Get Into Fiscal Trouble Like Illinois?”

I guess Illinois is the worst case but are not California, New York and others not far behind?

Question: Can this be laid at the feet of Nixon’s “Revenue Sharing”? Doesn’t federal revenue sharing allow states to skate their own fiscal responsibilities, since Uncle Sucker (meaning other states!) will now pay its bills?

[Leaning Right]

> Simple solution... don’t pay the pensions. <

You’ve got to change the Illinois state constitution first, as it has a clause prohibiting the reduction of pensions. And we are (allegedly) a nation of laws.

But you are on the right track. With Trump in office, the only way out for Illinois is to drop that clause in its constitution.

[bar sin·is·ter]

Crook County needs to stay out of my wallet.

[vette6387]

Unfortunately for California, Oregon and Nevada are similarly poised $hit holes, so our solution is to simply cut out the offending parts and leave them to fester and die. You could start with a Rahmonia look alike by taking Sacramento and renaming it “Jerry The Fairy Land.” And actually, since Jerry was for a time, mayor there, you could “annex” Oakland to JTFLand, but make it land locked like Berlin was after WWII. A “border wall” would be needed at say Bakersfield to demark the border of Mexifornia with most of the rest of the state, and that once proud city, San Francisco would have to be renamed, Queeronia, and would have to encompass all of Marin County as well. Walls would be also required around all eight University of California campuses.

[ghostkatz]

P.S better stock up on ‘Rat poison for when they start jumping the sinking ship Chicago.

[mad puppy]

Pushing Chicago on Wisconsin seems grossly unfair. The level of violence and corruption in that town is to the point of no return. Sad, situation with nothing but more pain in the immediate future.

[Tench_Coxe]

Illinois might be better served by separating Chicago and suburbs from the rest of the state.

[bar sin·is·ter]

Rauner has his hands tied behind his back as long as Madigan’s grubby hands remain in office. The Oak Park liberals and fruity fags of the burbs should all move to San Fran while the thugs of Chicago can all move to Oakland and leave the rest of the State alone.

[bar sin·is·ter]

I wouldn’t mind having Sheriff Clarke in charge of Cook County.

[Envisioning]

Excellent!