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"I do a lot of traveling; I would just jump to the border and go to Wisconsin," said Lobello, 47. "I used to buy lottery tickets in Illinois, but I'm not purchasing them anymore. If they're not paying when they say they're going to pay, I have no confidence in the future." As of Thursday, Illinois Lottery payments for any winnings over $600 are being delayed until the state budget stalemate is resolved. Lottery officials said the agency's check-writing account is depleted and no authority can replenish it, though winnings under $600 can still be retrieved immediately at retail kiosks....

The Illinois state lottery announced Wednesday it’s no longer a lottery; it’s more of a voluntary collection agency. That’s because the lottery, due to gridlock in passing a new state budget, no longer has the money to pay people who win. Selling lottery tickets? Not a problem. Paying out winning tickets? Problem.

"If necessary, we will issue parallel liquidity and California-style IOU's, in an electronic form. We should have done it a week ago," said Yanis Varoufakis, the finance minister. ... Syriza sources say the Greek ministry of finance is examining options to take direct control of the banking system ... They want a new team installed, one that is willing to draw on the central bank's secret reserves, and to take the provocative step in extremis of creating euros. "We have to restore stability to the system, with or without the help of the ECB. We have the capacity to print...

Presidential campaigns are long in the making, quick to be forgotten. But one part of them lives on for years: the victor’s promises. President Barack Obama paved his path to re-election with fewer promises than in 2008. The ones he did lay down, though, are meaty, legacy-shaping for him and consequential to ordinary lives today and for generations to come, for better or worse. They also are extraordinarily difficult to achieve in a time of gridlock grief and budgets that are tight when they are not paralyzed. … Whatever a candidate’s promises, legacies are made by how a president manages...

Well, thank goodness we're taking the issue seriously. It's difficult to conceive of a sillier proposal than the trillion-dollar platinum coin, but it's not as if some people aren't working hard at it. National Journal reports that a new suggestion involves government scrip --- IOUs, in other words: The $1 trillion platinum coin seems too wacky; the 14th amendment too risky. But could IOU's be the solution to an impasse on raising the nation's borrowing limit?Yes, and President Obama should publicly adopt the idea, Edward Kleinbard, a University of Southern California law professor and former chief of staff to CongressÂ’s...

Gov. Jerry Brown is considering bypassing Republicans in the Legislature by putting a measure on the November ballot that would increase taxes to close the state's budget deficit, sources involved in the talks said Tuesday. Brown floated the idea of issuing IOUs starting in July, when the next fiscal year begins, until the November election. The IOU plan would cover expenses until the election could be held, according to insiders. The governor has expressed frustration in recent days over negotiations with Republicans on closing California's $26.6 billion deficit and even told a dinner gathering of labor leaders Monday night that...

The state could begin issuing IOUs in April or May if Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature fail in their budget negotiations, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer said this afternoon. IOUs could be required if the state is "unable to meet the self-imposed deadlines by the governor and the Legislature to adopt a budget in a timely way," . . .

California’s longest budget impasse entered its fourth month today as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and top lawmakers wrestled over pensions and corporate taxes to close a $19.1 billion deficit. Reining in state retirement costs and providing tax breaks for businesses remain sticking points, aides said as legislative leaders emerged from a four-hour meeting at the Republican governor’s Sacramento office last night. “We still have some issues that need to be resolved that are significant,” said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat from Los Angeles. He said another meeting is scheduled today. California, the largest issuer of municipal bonds in...

State Controller John Chiang warned Wednesday that California may begin issuing IOUs in as little as two weeks because the state budget is now 50 days late, with no resolution in sight. In a speech to the Sacramento Press Club, Chiang, a Democrat, criticized the governor and lawmakers for not yet agreeing on a spending plan for the state that solves a $19 billion deficit. California has issued IOUs only twice since the Great Depression: last year and in 1992. "I must be clear that this year's looming cash crisis is fundamentally different than last year's," Chiang said, adding that...

State Controller John Chiang said Tuesday that without a state budget, California's government would be unable to pay its bills in late August (or maybe early September). That means issuing IOUs to some people. Possible dates for IOUs could be either Aug. 27 or Aug. 31, when big payments to schools are due, according to this schedule on the controller's website. This announcement, in the upside down world of California's badly broken budget politics

We’ve noticed the cash shortfalls at Social Security for more than a year, and now they appear to be permanent. For the first time, the Social Security Administration will start cashing in its IOUs from the Treasury in order to meet its benefits obligations. Unfortunately, the Treasury doesn’t have the cash, either: The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration. It’s time to start cashing them in. … Too bad the federal government already spent...

Obama May Have to Borrow From Overseas to Pay Social Security IOUs Monday, March 15, 2010 07:31 AM The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in Parkersburg, W.Va., a small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration. It's time to start cashing them in. For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each year. Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social...

State and university employees could wind up with IOUs in their pay envelopes instead of checks in February if the planned sale of state buildings hits a snag, state Treasurer Dean Martin warned Monday. And that could leave worker with a piece of paper that won’t help them buy food for their families, pay the mortgage or heat their homes.

(09-25) 16:05 PDT SACRAMENTO -- Under fire from park supporters and the state's own attorneys, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said today that no state parks will be completely closed to help solve the state's budget woes. Instead, the governor's new plan, which some say is little more than a shell game to save face, would slash $14.2 million from the park budget this year by closing campgrounds and facilities on weekdays, reducing seasonal and administrative staff and cutting back on things like bathroom cleaning. The idea is to allow all 279 state parks to remain open this fiscal year. More options...

The recession has eaten into people's nest eggs so the government is promoting ways to make it easier to save for retirement. One initiative that was outlined in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday will allow people to have their federal tax refunds sent as savings bonds. Others are meant to require workers to take action to stay out of an employer-run savings program rather than having to take action to join it. The new federal steps, which do not require congressional action, include: _Making it easier for small companies to set up 401(k) retirement savings plans in which...

Californians must have thought they’d sent a loud and clear message to Sacramento in May when they rejected a series of referendums that would have approved tax hikes to solve their budget crisis. The only ballot initiative approved cut off legislators’ pay when they failed to produce a budget, in what should have been a sign that the Golden State electorate had had enough. The political class in the state capital apparently has their fingers stuck firmly in their ears:

Remember when the US government had to bail out investment banks? Now a bank is bailing out the state of California. California had been covering its budget shortfalls by issuing IOUs to pay for services, making it the first state to issue its own fiat currency since the Civil War. The program ran into trouble when banks announced they wouldn't keep cashing the IOUs. Eventually California reached a budget deal and kicked the can down the road, but there's still the issue of the outstanding IOUs. Yesterday JP Morgan agreed to lend California $1.5 billion to

California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass plans to strip the most controversial provisions from a Senate-approved plan that would have trimmed the state's prison population by 27,000 inmates. The Assembly version would keep about 10,000 more inmates behind bars and leave the state with a new, nearly $200 million budget hole, Bass said early Friday. Bass said the new plan -- to be considered Monday -- would do away with proposals by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to allow home detention with electronic monitoring for inmates with less than 12 months to serve, who are over age 60 or who are medically incapacitated....

When University of California President Mark Yudof announced a massive furlough plan last month, the idea was that almost all UC employees would have their salaries reduced this year by taking some days off without pay. But a third of UC's 180,000 employees haven't faced the furloughs yet. They're represented by about a dozen labor unions that are fighting Yudof's plan. Speaking Thursday to the Sacramento Press Club, Yudof said UC's unionized workers received 4 percent raises this year, while non-union employees are taking pay cuts ranging from 4 to 10 percent. He said the university would lay off some...

Group airs proposals for California government overhaul By Jack Chang Aug. 15, 2009 The bipartisan government reform group California Forward revealed details Friday about a package of proposals it plans to place on next year's ballot to overhaul state government and, the group hopes, break paralyzing legislative gridlock. The package includes ideas catering to both Democrats and Republicans, a combination that should inspire more cooperation among legislators than Californians have so far seen, said Robert Hertzberg, the group's co-chairman and a former Democratic speaker of the state Assembly. The group's other co-chairman is Thomas V. McKernan, CEO of the Automobile...