An unlimited piggy bank requires the ability to print money, and states can’t do that.
Service suppliers will stop supplying when they don’t get paid. Employees won’t come to work for long when their paychecks stop.
But they’re find a liberal judge who prohibits paychecks from not stopping, and so they won’t, just like happened when the Governor tried to stop paying legislator’s salaries.
I’m being a little facetious but I’ve lived in IL for 30 years and life has been going on the same as before without a budget - until now. Maybe something really is going to hit the fan but thus far all that’s happened is the Democrats have told the Governor to pound sand, they’re not giving an inch on any of his pro-business reforms and are waiting for him to either resign, lose an election, or just cave in and give them what they want. Which is, a tax and spending increase, of course.
Now they’ve put out notices that road construction will stop. That will start to get people’s attention...maybe. But when they stopped other capital projects two years ago, including two state grant-funded project I’m personally aware of, the local governments tightened their belts and found ways to pay to finish the work themselves. I actually approve of this, but the point is, no one felt much pain and all the “budget crisis” amounted to for most people was source of ridicule. Agencies that depend on state aid are taking it on the chin, but again, I haven’t seen many of them close up shop as a result.