Being Broke Costs Illinois $500 Million a Year
by PubliusThe Chicago Sun-Times provides this glimpse into our nation’s future:
The state’s miserable bond rating has driven up borrowing costs for state government by more than $500 million since last year, a government watchdog group says.
The nonpartisan, Chicago-based Civic Federation analyzed the near-record borrowing that the state has undertaken since last September and looked at similar borrowing during the same period in other states that have higher bond ratings than Illinois.
The result was a staggering $551.3 million extra that state taxpayers are having to devote to support the state’s thirst for debt because of a series of rating downgrades, the group says in a report being released today.
“This is an actual quantification of what the cost of the state’s fiscal irresponsibility has been because of the Illinois General Assembly and governor’s failure to stabilize state finances and to allow our credit rating to drop so low we are now the lowest credit-rated state in the country, with California,” said Laurence Msall, the Civic Federation’s president.
Since September 2009, the state has borrowed $9.6 billion, which is the second-largest borrowing spree in state history. The most borrowed during any 12-month period in Illinois history came under ousted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who signed off on a $10 billion borrowing plan in 2003 to shore up the state’s underfunded retirement systems.
Illinois’ credit rating has been downgraded four times by one bond-rating agency in the past 18 months because of the state’s record budget deficits, its underfunded pension liabilities, revenue shortfalls, spending jumps and debt increases.
Read the whole thing here. Spending billions more than you have does have consequences eventually.
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80 Comments
And obama will do for the whole country what has been done to Illinois. And you will like it.
Don't worry, we'll only have to pay interest on it for a couple more years at most before we declare bankruptcy.
That darn George Bush. J/K. Had to get it out there before some proggie did.
How about the United States of America just foreclose on the State of Illinois?
I wonder if we can unload the State of Illinois on Canada?
The future is now. Welcome to Obama's brave new world. The day of reckoning has arrived.
Debt costs money and Progressives can't do math. Congressional BUDGET??? Illinois is dominated by Chicago PROGRESSIVES. I pity the good people of Illinois who carry the Chicago SLIME MACHINE.
Yup, it's all Bush's fault!
Don't forget about CA. I would be more than happy to unload California and all of its pompus, idiot hollywood worshippers and illegal aliens to China.
I wonder what China would do with all the Mexicans?
Citizens of a city or a state should be able to file a petition with a bankruptcy court to FORCE them into bankruptcy when they are demonstrably insolvent (ie: far more in liabilities than assets and income, including pension plans) rather than let them stumble along, accumulate more debt, raise taxes just to keep those public sector union benefits going on another year longer.
Creditors of a US corporation/business has the right to do this, to force a debtor into involuntary bankruptcy.
Congratulations Illinois! …utopia is very expensive proposition. Barry’s doing for America, what he’s helped do for Illinois…thanks a pant load!
"Since September 2009, the state has borrowed $9.6 billion, which is the second-largest borrowing spree in state history. The most borrowed during any 12-month period in Illinois history came under ousted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who signed off on a $10 billion borrowing plan in 2003 to shore up the state’s underfunded retirement systems."
Hilarious!
I never graduated high school; yet a lowly Cowboy such as myself is capable of knowing ciphering well enough, to know that you cain't borrow yourself out of debt.
Going broke with a smile on our president's face.
The future for America per Obama, slavery for those white guys, by a debt so large it can never be repaid. And then America's power will be gone. I got the idea from a Rev Wright tape.
Of course this is our future. We will be repaying our debt for a generation or two unless we deal with it now.
And by "deal with it", I mean adopt common sense measures like cutting spending and fixing the tax code to take in money with less pain. We also should cut back most regulatory red tape, as that is a burden we are all bearing.
Raising taxes may not increase revenue much, unless we raise taxes on those currently not paying it.
Oh, and one more thing: We can take social security out of its misery. We should cut taxes on those who are willing to leave the program for the good of the country. The less beneficiaries of Social Security, the better for the country, we should fund people who don't want to retire, or wish to retire another way.
But will we just kick the can to our kids? It's not even really going to get kicked. They will cancel our social security programs entirely. And can you blame our kids for wanting revenge against us?
We need to treat children with respect, or they will return the debt to us before we die…
When the cost of borrowing goes up, that means we need to stop.
California is an easy one.
The State of California can be chopped up and sold to the States of Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon.
The problem with that solution is that noone in those states would really want even a sliver of California…
Maybe, but Arizona, and Nevada may like a little Beachfront Property.
Knowing going in of course that they would not have to pay out for any State Retirements from the defunct State of California.
Illios did it Obama's way! Vote Republican Conservative in November!
and be prosperous and free!
Even though they are going broke, they gave their office staff some pretty hefty raises this year (20% I think). Meanwhile, they threaten to lay off cops and firefighters, and currently are so far behind on their bills (I am expecting payment this October for services performed in March 2009) that schools, extended care centers, hospitals and other vendors have obliterated almost all of their cash reserves. At least California sends IOUs that can be resold on the open market. Can you imagine what the state will be like once the 99ers stop getting their 'funcation' checks, health insurance premiums go up another 20-30% per year due to O'care, and the welfare checks stop flowing? It won't be pretty.
Isn't that the sad part? Who in their right mind would consider Illinois to be a utopia? Crumbling infrastructure, depressed real estate, massive unemployment, high crime…. see what all their spending has bought them? Poverty.
Problem is that no one wants LA or San Francisco.
too bad illinois hasn't figured out a way to print money. perhaps obama's plan all along was to take a printing press and some ink, so we can print money here in illinois, so we can just pay our debts like the us gubmint. i wonder if we will be sent to china, or japan when we default on our debts, or will they sell off all of our houses, and pay it off that way? and will chigago default before the state?
Can I have more portion of California doled out to Texas please?
Hey, those retirement bennies in Illinois and CA are for public servants not Social Security recipients. Blame the state legislatures, public and private unions, and special interest groups for the money deficits. The real scare is when BO and his cronies bail those states out on the taxpayer dime. He really needs their votes to continue the destabilization of America.
We could give SF to Iran. Now that would be interesting…
No one wants the people who currently occupy Los Angeles and San Francisco.
New (and hopefully better) people can move right in.
and you don't borrow money to go gamble with….
Northern?
Doesn't Texas already have enough Mexicans?….. no need to add to the Border.
This is just more evidence that we can not spend our way out of this economy! How much evidence does the govt need till they understand that they are creating these problems? They think they are smarter then us simple citizens, when are they going to show it? It is time to get rid of the so called smart people and get some people who know how to use common sense to fix a problem. For example any one who has a budget knows that when you are spending more money then you have budgeted something is not going to get paid for, so naturally you need to cut your spending.
How is it that BO can continue to guarantee billions of taxpayer dollars and 51 billion to the IMF when we are on the verge of national bankrupcty? Do a google. Insert the following: Obama's guarantee of billions. It's absolutely scarey.
Depends, do they taste like Fried Chicken?
Do we see any similarities?
1. Democrat run state
2. Heavy Union presence
3. Bloated welfare roles
4. Under performing schools
5. Onerous tax structure
6. Over regulated (taxed) business environment
7. Sanctuary Cities
Dog, not Fried Chicken.
Could market them to the Chinese as CaliCanineicans.
Them Dog Eaters would just love that.
They still stone people for homosexuality in Iran?
If so there may not be enough stones along the entire West Coast.
Tell a San Franciscan he's about to get Stoned and he may just go willingly.
Here in Maine they re-evaluate your home and property anytime the State needs to borrow large sums of money, I often wondered if they defaulted, would they take our homes and property. I sold mine and live in a Trailer Park, I could keep moving it State to State until I reached a solvent State.
My friend, you hit on one of biggest pet peeves.
Sanctuary Cities.
What Flaming Asshole originally came up with that phucking idea?
gee that's a hard thing to swallow isn't that the home state of mr & mrs. obamasoros, blago, rostenkowski, burris,v.jarret, b. ayers, r.daley, r.emanuel, t. rezko. j.wright,shore bank and oprah windbag ? something has got to be wrong is mr. capone still around ?
You also can't spend your way out of debt.
As I sit and look at thoday's issues I wonder whether I should have ever gone to school past high school. That is tongue in cheek for the answer is yes.
BUT….if I had gotten a union job right after high school, I would be retired now and living off the txpayer. Sure my self worth would be low, but I would get the monthly check and the benefits. I could sit my ever growing butt on the front porch and wave to everyone as they went to work to subsidize my beer and sunflower seed habit, knowing that my health benefits would cover whatever medical affliction my sedentary habits might bring.
And the unions would have done all this for me…no matter how much I contributed the cause. All I would be expected to do is march lockstep with the rest of the Dimocrapic minions to the polls.
I don't think I could have lived with myself. At least I keep telling myself that as I go to work.
Never mind. I just answered my own question:It figures.
It started in Los Angeles.
You do not appreciate your real and imminent peril they have prepared for your exclusive suffering and by which you will be made to exclusively pay the costs. The spending will not stop as the states have realized they can offload a large amount of their debts upon the federal taxpayers – thus allowing them to continue to spend money beyond their statutory limits and beyond their own credit restrictions.
This is an extremely dangerous practice that is emerging in the extreme liberal states like California, Michigan, New York and being watched carefully by other states with large progressive legislatures. They know they can turn to a Democrat Congress and a Democrat President and get federal dollars under the cover of it being some kind of "stimulus" bill or "state aid" bill or "teacher and firefighter" bill. They don't have to have sustained power to do this, they just have to do this when they have the majorities as they have now. If it only happens every 8 years or so it still makes all the difference in the intervening years because the state comptroller can go to the bond markets and tell the rating agencies, "hey, when a Democrat-controlled Congress is in session, we'll just have federal taxpayer dollars retire these bonds, so go ahead and give us a better than junk rating," and they will do it.
If they can't go through the door, they will go under the door. If they can't go under the door, they go over the wall. This is just more spending being masked so you don't see what is happening in your name.
Sell it off on eBay
What about Arnold? TO which state would he be given to? Perhaps sent back to Austria with Maria (Kennedy) Shriver?
The key word is Servants, who in their right mind pays their Servants more than they make or give them more in retirement than they give themselves, The Civil Servants should be paid in direct proportion with what the average Tax Payer makes, it's the Tax Payer that pays everybody in the public sector.
Money is racist!
"The most borrowed during any 12-month period in Illinois history came under ousted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who signed off on a $10 billion borrowing plan in 2003 to shore up the state’s underfunded retirement systems."
And if he hadn't he would have rec'd a visit from Luca Brasi. And I don't write that to just crack a joke. This union pension system is organized crime.
Plain and simple.
Illinois….. the ground zero of liberal catastrophe.
That was your mistake to make.
Notice that in almost EVERY city there has been a generations long democrat influence / control. A pattern like this could not be more clear than if it were a stamp on the business end of a sledge hammer to the forehead.
You will not see this in the media, ANYWHERE, but since we (AZ) passed SB1070 our savings from illegal aliens welfare / entitlements / crime / schools and hospital,,,,,has been huge! In fact the 'boycott' failed in that our hotel bookings were up 10%-12% in May, June and July.
God forbid any other states figure this out,,,or that it comes out that simply solving our immigrations would by itself straighten out our deficits.
CAN'T LET ANYONE KNOW THIS!!!!!!
"CaliCanineicans" the new red meat
Hey Illinois, How is that hopey changey stuff working for you these days??? Your imperial master Obama swore that it was in your best interest and you voted him in! Now the rest of the country can get a glimpse of where we are headed if we don't stop him.
It's time in November to put your pride aside and take the checkbook and power away from the Progressives before there is no country left. They had their chance to prove to us what their plan is and to show results. When you out right go against the will of the American people, they will rise to the occasion to show who the real master is.
Naw, we still have you beat hier ins ze peeples republik Von Cullyforjna. Our credit rating is A- now. Beat that Illinois (please)
Send me all your racist money and I will reform it for you <a href="http://www.getoverit.prog” target=”_blank”>www.getoverit.prog
sarc//
Nope they don't blame "W"……….They blame the former Governor George Ryan (Currently a guest of the Illinois Prison System)……….
That is absolute fact!…………the guy hasn't been Gov. for almost 8 yrs but it's his fault not Blagojevich……
This is the level of stupid we Illinoians put up with on a daily basis. That's why leaving Illiois for good is on my plate…………..
When you never pay your bills on time, it has a tendency of effecting and influencing your credit rating.
Quit spending money you don't have, and quit borrowing money that you don't need and your credit rating will mysteriously improve.
That's the law of supply and demand, get use to it.
I think Bush was the Gov of this state while he was also Pres………It of course is all his fault…I mean he has more power out of office than in it…..
I live in Kalifornia and have family in Illinois….. the best of both worlds.
That what we old fogies used to call them. Guess my vocabulary is still stuck back in the old days. Call them what they are today, parasites.
It's good for Liberals to read this article and see how great Obama left Illinois so they can see what's in their future for America.
Is this good?? Problem is we won't survive Health care for 5 years, but the politicians will survive because our tax dollars will provide the best for them.
I have seen the city of Bankruptcy, it is just south of NO Bamaville.
I just sent you $10K. How fast can you get it back to me?
Time for Illinois to raise corporate income taxes . . so the cost can be passed along to the consumer in the form of higher prices . . . . so less product gets purchased because it costs more . . . .resulting in workers being laid off . . . and those workers paying less state tax . . .so it is time (again) for Illinois to raise corporate income taxes . . .so the cost can be
Other states ned to act quickly to contain these idiots within their own state or they will screw up the whole gene pool.
Marrying first cousins should be preferred over someone from Illinois…lol.
With Zero in orifice, it's more like a day of rectuming.
Sorry folks ya can't blame Illinois on Obama,……
he was a complete nobody in the overall scheme of things,…….
Illinois, you see, is run by politicians comprised of two of the worst kind of people
Elitists and Goons,……….either too smart or too dumb,..but,…..
in both cases,…….always voting Democrat.
NO THANKS.
Maybe they can sell Northerly Island so we can put Meigs Field back in there. That Daley boondoggle cost them a cool million in fines. I sure these crooks are taking this money out of their stash. Hey, maybe they found Al Capone's vault!
Or else.
"The last official act of any government is to loot the treasury" – George Washington
Probably what it did to the Tiananmen Square protesters. Nobody would care though, because when you're a collectivist country like China, the Left doesn't protest anything you do no matter how awful it is.
Barry didn't have much to do with it, mostly because he wasn't here long enough. Too busy working his way up. Really you should thank our corrupt governors.
Glad to see someone else gets the need to repeal the welfare state!
Ahh …you should have included "Sanctuary Counties", "Sanctuary Parrish's" and Sanctuary States …Massachusetts is the only "admitted" Sanctuary State at this time.
Illinois: California without the great weather (we do have our own coastline along Lake Michigan).
I think "repeal" is the correct word. But the "welfare state" is a bit misleading. Most Americans, and myself as well, favor common decency hardship payments. But they should never exceed amounts sufficient to sustain life. Giving poor people money "to be happier" is pointless for three reasons:
1. Money doesn't buy happiness, and I've personally been poor and happy at the same time.
2. While you can reasonably discern and give what a person needs, you can never give any human, rich or poor, everything they want. Not with any amount of money!
3. Eventually it becomes a poverty engine, where people who are on the dole tend to vote for whoever will give them more money. But that also falls apart, as the people given more stuff and money are fickle and may choose to vote against their benefactors because they are unhappy with them for some reason. See #1.
So we should sustain life (education and basic healthcare are included in sustaining), and there should be a constitutional requirement to do no more than that for the people who do not earn money.
Most Americans, and myself as well, favor common decency hardship payments. But they should never exceed amounts sufficient to sustain life.
I have no problem with charity, but do not believe it should be government-based. After all, exactly how much is an "amount sufficient to sustain life"? How much do you think the estimate would be now compared to the estimate a century ago? Do you think the list of items used to calculate the amount would be longer now than it would have been a century ago? Do you think there'd be things on it that would have been unthinkable a century ago? And who do you propose should collect the money? Why do they have the right to do it? How should they distribute it? To whom? What gives them the right to decide?
I believe your intentions are benevolent, but the road to hell is paved with them. If you want to say that there's a certain minimum or certain necessity items which should not be taxed in a fair tax system, I could support that, since it's not redistribution, but rather a refraining from confiscation. But I think a private income redistribution system would be more moral, accomplish more good and collect more money than a government-based system.
We have no choice but to use the simple mathematics and common sense approaches to fix this.
Need a roof? Have a trailer or a small house, whichever is cheaper.
Need food? Give the cheapest available food through food stamps.
Need education? Give k-12 public education.
Need healthcare? Give preventative and emergency care, vaccines and emergency care "stamps".
Need transportation, or child care, or college assistance, or anything else?
Charity, the state doesn't provide these it is for charity alone to do. Maybe we register people signed up to the other programs to a list of people needing help – which can be given to specific private charities.
That, plus some simple mathematical calculations, will get us to a better society.
Read the Torah (first 5 books of the bible.)
1. A basic "tenth" of income is given to the poor after the tenth given to the priests. (20 percent taxes, 10 percent for "welfare").
2. The giving of charity was compulsory, not optional. It was enforced by the rulers and collected by the needy.
3. There is little doubt that G-d wants us to take care of fellow humans in an organized, centralized manner. It's not supposed to be a willy-nilly charity mix, but an organized, tax collected sum from each for the benefit of the needy – again as defined by those in power.
If you want a road to heck, try denying this clear message from G-d in the Torah (aka Bible). It's not hidden, it isn't new, and it wasn't wrong. However, we give more than needed at our own peril, we will end up making people dependent on charity, which is ALSO forbidden in the Torah.
So… give a tenth, but not much more, and don't allow people to become dependent. That's the rules, don't complain to me about them.
1) I'm not a Jew
2) I am aware of the requirements for charity in the Torah
3) I do not see how a religious requirement to donate money automatically assumes that this money must be distributed through a large central government. I know of Jews who give this tithe privately, to organizations of their own choosing, and view this as completley in line with their faith.
4) I have already clearly stated that my problem is not with the idea of charity or giving, but the idea that one can legitimately call it "giving" when it is in fact done by force or that one can legitimately call it "charity" when it is done with other people's money. After all, if the only charity you are concerned with is your own, that is something you can easily fix without reference to a government body.
5) I am not complaining. I am arguing. Though your "in good faith" rating went down a notch in my book when you revealed that your ultimate argument was that "God said so."
I believe that was more or less the same argument that was made by LBJ. I would like to note that, after 3 trillion of spending by government and even more spending by private charities and organizations, we still have yet to reach his "great society".
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