Tuesday, January 05, 2010

2010 Furlough Announcement

2010 Furlough Announcement
The University of Illinois has told us that all administrators and faculty are now being furloughed. Four days without pay.

In the press, it is business as usual. Will Lovie Smith be fired as coach of the Bears? Rod Blagojevich will be on Donald Trump's show! But while the press and the sheeple go about their business, the State of Illinois is following Michigan and California into the fiscal toilet. The state isn't paying doctors. It isn't even sending agencies like the U of I the funds the legislature appropriated for them. The state is tens of billions in arrears to the state employee pension funds.

As the President of the U of I says:
"...we now face a cash crisis
triggered by the state’s financial situation which is grim
and worsening. The state budget is out of balance with a
backlog of unpaid bills nearing $5 billion and short-term
borrowing covering roughly a comparable amount. The
state’s credit rating has been recently downgraded and
among the 50 states only California is worse."


Only California is worse. But with the government we have here in Illinois, no doubt we can plunge below the Golden State in short order.

1 comment:

DBX said...

I think we're already there. California has gotten into its mess by way of a mass of contradicting voter initiatives and Progressive-era constitutional flotsam and yet still the state at least tries. Illinois has gotten into its mess through sheer lack of political will, and the state doesn't lift a finger.