Posted on 01/01/2017 11:14:06 AM PST by george76
Illinois state government has left the people of the Prairie State quite the stocking stuffer this holiday season: an $11 billion bill backlog that is expected to hit $14 billion by summer 2017. However, with money from a June stopgap funding agreement set to run out by the new year, nonprofit service providers and students receiving state grants may view it more as a lump of coal.
Funding for service providers hasn’t been a priority for the General Assembly for quite some time. Service providers wait, on average, nearly a year to be paid. Illinois politicians have been delaying payment to service providers since 2002, valuing increases in government-worker salaries and pensions more than compensating those who aid the most vulnerable Illinoisans. Spending on state-employee pension benefits increased 586 percent from 2000 to 2015, yet funding for human services only increased by10 percent during that time.
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The state’s total pension debt has swelled to $130 billion, up 17 percent since 2015.
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Illinois’ tax revenues have increased 70% more than inflation over last 3 decades
A lack of revenue is not driving Illinois’ pension problem.
(Excerpt) Read more at illinoispolicy.org ...
thank God Clinton isn’t President.
One of her first acts would have been to create a fraudulent “stimulus” as a back-door bail-out for loyal Democrat state political machinery like Illinois.
NO Federal Bailout!!!!!
Downstate counties in Illinois should start a secession movement.
11 Billion?
Illinois will soon be bankrupt.
No federal bailouts.
“Spending on state-employee pension benefits increased 586 percent from 2000 to 2015, yet funding for human services only increased by10 percent during that time.”
I wonder how California compares... and ny...
Wonder why Illinois leads the nation in ex-residents? Over 100,000 a year now flee the state for state areas like Allepo.
The state needs to either negotiate with the pension beneficiaries or find a way to get legislation passed so the state can declare a BK.
The case for state bankruptcy https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-21/the-case-for-allowing-u-s-states-to-declare-bankruptcy
...and even now California is a donor state, from the fed income tax perspective... so what, California money goes to help prop up Illinois and ny? Yet California allegedly also voted for Hillary...the irony...
Is Illinois the state that was selling lottery tickets but not paying out for the higher denomination wins?
I can’t remember which state it was. Ah, the liberal dream of the money must come from “somewhere” - magic and pixie dust.
I’m surprised after 8 years, obamao hadn’t figured away to “backdoor” dollars to his so-called home state of Illinois. Hmmmm, that’s right, he’s not going back there to retire and doesn’t need ‘em, so eff ‘em.
Illinois has had trouble paying its bills for many years. A lot of businesses won’t accept Ill. Government credit cards just because they take forever to pay off that charge, and the employees don’t like to use their own cards and get reimbursed for the same reason.
Downstate counties in Illinois should start a secession movement.
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Easier for Chicongo and Cook County to secede. Northern, southern, western and central Illinois all republican and conservative. Why should we try to leave this great nation?
Just another one party city ran by leftists. Most cities that are destroyed and bankrupt are the result of “liberal” policies.
Some years ago there were breathless articles written claiming that soon Illinois wouldn’t be able to pay its bills and asking “WHAT WILL THEY DO THEN?”
Good times.
The state is basically owned and operated by organized crime. No, not the Mafia. Urban Democrats.
Without Chicago, Illinois would be as red as Indiana. Without Chicago and the stain around St. Louis, even darker red.
By the way, the Republican Governor (who beat Quinn) is now considered "stubborn" because he won't give in an just let them write more bad checks to pay all those bills.
And I’ve heard that the black population of Chicago has sharply declined. But these black residents aren’t leaving Chicago for the suburbs as much as they are leaving Illinois entirely to go to other states.
But then we see how black on black shootings in Chicago have sharply increased even as population declines. Sadly for Chicago and Illinois, the most productive stable citizens are leaving, resulting in a greater concentration of lowlife or gang types left behind.
A reliable blue state - any questions?
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