Civic Committee Task Force Report Asserts that State of Illinois Nearing 'Financial Tipping Point'
Here is the punch line from the executive summary:
One of the many lessons from our country’s current financial and economic crisis is that a failure to act brought unsound actions to a tipping point. When a financial tipping point is reached, it becomes impossible to contain the spread of economic damage or quickly remedy the situation.
Illinois is dangerously close to a financial tipping point with unfunded debts of over
$116 billion—amounting to roughly $10,000 per resident, if not more. Government
inefficiencies and deficit budgeting will increase this by up to $10 billion per year. Unless
urgently-needed steps are taken, Illinois will soon reach a point of no return. The State will not
have sufficient resources to carry out basic public functions or keep its financial obligations to
retired public employees. This is a problem that will be faced by the current generation of
elected officials and residents of Illinois.
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Note that language about what happens when you pass the tipping point. Their 2006 report was dire enough. Everybody agreed with them, but state government did nothing except make the problems worse. In August 2008, Blagojevich handed the state employee unions a 15% pay raise over 4 years. State employee pensions and medical benefits are a huge part of the problem, and the unions refuse to do much of anything to reduce those costs for new hires. They are stuck on more bread and butter for unions, forget the consequences.
Now the state of Illinois is staring right down the gun barrel of insolvency. And that is not an exaggerated metaphor. California has gotten all the press, but Illinois is very nearly in the same situation. If we had a responsible governing class, maybe they could work through it. But the fact is that Illinois ultimately is run by the Chicago Democratic Party machine, and they view the state government as an ATM. I don't expect the public employee unions, mobsters, machine hacks, and ethnic group privilege-mongers to do anything productive about this situation. It seems likely that, like California, Illinois will have to hit the wall.
3 comments:
... or the floor
It's ultimately counterproductive to blame this solely on the Chicago Democratic Party. There's a reason John Kass refers to the "Combine", and that's an appropriate name, a Combine of politicians of both parties who believe you can produce Wisconsin-scale (though unfortunately not Wisconsin quality) public services on an Arkansas revenue base. The bottom line is that a majority of our legislature needs to step up and decisively transition us either to Arkansas-scale services or Wisconsin-scale revenue, and the question mark is over whether they have the guts.
Sure, there are some Republicans fattening themselves at the trough. But there is no avoiding the fact that one-party Democratic rule is the core of Illinois corruption. One party systems produce corruption because all the competition is driven back into the primary elections, where there is less public attention and also fewer voters. People can do whatever they want and get away with it unless the feds prosecute them. Example: Daley can't lose, no matter how corrupt he is. Democrats like the Strogers control the Cook County board despite their antics. And now the entire state government is run by Democrats.
Two party competition is the only way out of this mess. Example: the one force rooting out this corruption is the current US attorney. He was selected by our one-term Republican senator, Peter Fitzgerald. If not for him, Republican governor Ryan, Democrat governor Blagojevich, and a host of others would have gotten away with their crimes.
The fact that there are Republican crooks does not make Illinois corruption bipartisan. The whole thing depends on the existing Machine. Kass is a good writer, but he is the only one who calls it the Combine. He has a point, too. But one-party rule is the key problem that enables the entire corrupt system.
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