Thread: Illinois Budget Crunch

One of the worst is....getting worse.

Pension payouts are draining what little is left.

Illinios, is broke.

Illinois ‘Poster Child’ of Debt Crisis Draining State Services

By Darrell Preston




April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Illinois, the second-lowest-rated U.S. state after California, must fend off a “financial implosion” as its unfunded liability for retiree benefits threatens spending for other services, a group of community leaders warned.

The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, led by former and current executives, is pressuring Governor Pat Quinn and other state leaders to control growth of pension costs they say put the state at risk of fiscal collapse. Members of the group, which estimates the state’s retirement-related liabilities at $130 billion, are speaking out as Illinois enters its general-election season.

“We need every citizen of this state to stand up and be outraged over the way these politicians of both stripes over a long period of time have spent our money,” said W. James Farrell, chairman of the Civic Committee’s state finance task force, in an interview in Bloomberg’s Chicago bureau. “We need to hold them accountable.”

Link & Entire: Illinois ?Poster Child? of Debt Crisis Draining State Services - Bloomberg.com

Now, the cuts.

Illinois deep in debt, doesn’t pay bills

Crisis pushes businesses, organizations to edge of bankruptcy

Seth Perlman / AP
Ed Harp straightens hangers at SPARC, an agency that helps people with developmental disabilities, in Springfield, Ill. The state owes SPARC about $2.5 million.
View related photos


by CHRISTOPHER WILLS
Associated Press Writer
updated 4:43 p.m. ET May 13, 2010

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - For 35 years, frail senior citizens in southern Illinois could turn to the Shawnee Development Council for help cleaning the house, buying groceries or any of the chores that make the difference between living at home or moving to an institution.


No more. The council shut down the program Thursday because of a budget crisis created by the state of Illinois' failure to pay its bills.


Paralyzed by the worst deficit in its history, the state has fallen months behind in paying what it owes to businesses and organizations, pushing some of them to the edge of bankruptcy.

Link & Entire: Illinois is broke, and can

More info and stats on Illinois. Illinois has the most severe budget problem. The article nots that Ill is not the only state.

US state pensions becoming federal issue

By Nicole Bullock in New York and Hal Weitzman in Chicago
Published: May 19 2010 20:44 | Last updated: May 19 2010 20:44

Illinois used to have a plan to pay off the gaping shortfall in the pension funds that pay retired teachers, university employees, state workers, judges and politicians, Dan Long recalls.

Mr Long, director of the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, the non-partisan auditing arm of the Illinois state legislature, remembers that, back in 1994, the state laid out a proposal that would have paid off most of what was then a $17bn gap by 2011.

But Illinois could not stick to the plan.
With financial year 2011 less than six weeks away, the pension arrears of the 1990s look quaint. Instead of a balanced system, the state faces unfunded liabilities of about $78bn, the biggest pension hole in the US, and contributions of more than $4bn for 2011, the largest single element of its $13bn budget deficit.

Illinois is the poster child of unfunded pensions in the US. But state retirement systems could become a national concern, new research shows.

Link & Entire: FT.com / US / Economy & Fed - US state pensions becoming federal issue

Originally Posted by barbaro

30% of Illinois state troopers are planned to be cut.

No problem. Plenty of job openings in Arizona.

Originally Posted by Norton

Originally Posted by barbaro

30% of Illinois state troopers are planned to be cut.

No problem. Plenty of job openings in Arizona.

Because of the AZ law? I presume you're joking.

AZ has serious budget problems.

They need a Charlie Christ.

As the federal govt is heading towards insolvency (*cough* going broke) they states that are already broke have the audacity to do what?

To ask the feds to bailout out failed states like Illinois. It is not going to happen.

Even considering this idea shows how screwed up. Get ready for Greece and Spain-style austerity.

DeMint joins national effort to keep feds from bailing out state pension systems
Published September 30, 2012
FoxNews.com

March 12, 2011: Efforts by Wisconsin's Republican governor to eliminates most union agrees for public employees led to protests, then a failed recall vote. (AP)
Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is getting hit with a nationwide backlash over his suggestion that the federal government bail out the state employees’ pension program.

Critics have in the past several days pounced on the suggestion, made last year when Quinn, in announcing the state’s fiscal 2012 budget, said part of Illinois' long-term effort to reduce the estimate $167 billion in under-funded liabilities would be to seek “a federal guarantee of the debt.”

Among those leading the charge is Republican Sen. Jim DeMint. The South Carolina senator has joined the Illinois Policy Institute’s national “No Pension Bailout” campaign -- an effort to stop Congress from attempting to rescue failing state and municipal pension plans.

“Our greatest concern is states will assume they can run their pension systems into bankruptcy and then turn to the federal government for bailout,” DeMint said Thursday.


Read more: DeMint joins national effort to keep feds from bailing out state pension systems | Fox News

^These nice union pensions...even California has a proposal to go to voters about this, but like Prop 38 (or whatever the # for the same-sex marriage that voters rejected), the far-left courts will overturn it. Absolute insanity.

Fine example of Obamas' early work coming to fruition.
face it, the entire USA is a giant ponzi scheme that's nearing the end of it's run.
Run of the mill low level public servants retiring on 200k per year for life is not sustainable, everybody knows it, but as long as they got theirs it's allright.

This has been a long bad movie.

And it's getting worse in Illinois.

Got illinois pension? Spend decades working for the state of Illinois?

After all of these years of ineptitude and dysfunction, they are still working on it.

Expect to hear more on this.


STATE AND LOCAL

Illinois careens into financial meltdown – and not even the lottery is safe
Brooke Singman
By Brooke Singman Published June 20, 2017 Fox News

Illinois is grappling with a full-fledged financial crisis and not even the lottery is safe – with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner warning the state is entering "banana republic" territory.

Facing billions in unpaid bills and pension obligations, the state is hitting a cash crunch that is rare even by Illinois standards.

A top financial official just warned 100 percent of the state's monthly revenue will be eaten up by court-ordered payments. Rauner is calling a special session of the Democrat-led General Assembly in a bid to pass what he hopes will be the first full budget package in almost three years.

And Illinois will – literally – lose the lottery if the budget fails.

The state lotto requires a payment from the legislature each year. The current appropriation expires June 30, meaning no authority to pay prizes. In anticipation of a budget deadlock, the state already is planning to halt Powerball and Mega Millions sales.

“It is disappointing that the legislature’s inability to pass a budget has led to this development and will result in Illinois lottery players being denied the opportunity to play these popular games,” Illinois Lottery Acting Director Greg Smith told Fox News.

“We’re like a banana republic,” Rauner said earlier this month, after the General Assembly failed, yet again, to pass a budget package by the regular session deadline. “We can’t manage our money.”

The governor has called for a special session starting Wednesday. The state so far is operating on a series of stopgap spending packages.

But the problems are years in the making, caused in large in part by the state’s poorly funded pension system— which led Moody’s Investors Services to downgrade the credit rating to the lowest of any state. The state currently has $130 billion in unfunded pension obligations, and a backlog of unpaid bills worth $13 billion.

FILE - In this Jan. 25, 2017 file photo, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner speaks in the Illinois House chamber in Springfield, Ill.

Reports have suggested the state could be the first to attempt to declare Chapter 9 bankruptcy -- but under the law, that’s impossible unless Congress gets involved.

“Nobody here in Illinois is considering bankruptcy—first of all, it’s not allowed,” said Steve Brown, press secretary for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. “Second of all, it would damage the reputation of the state and it’s just not necessary.”

U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats from Illinois, declined to respond to Fox News’ request for comment on whether they would consider getting involved in introducing a measure allowing state bankruptcy.

“Illinois is the fiscal model of what not to do,” Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., told Fox News, while not commenting on the bankruptcy question. “This avoidance in behavior toward dealing with our challenges is what leads to the devastating impacts we are seeing today.”

Just last week, the Illinois comptroller, who is responsible for paying the state’s bills, warned the office would be paying out 100 percent of Illinois’ monthly revenue, leaving negative funds for “discretionary spending. ”

But Rauner claims the Republicans have a new plan that could remedy the state’s crippling financial situation.

“Republicans in the General Assembly have laid out a compromise budget that I can sign,” Rauner said, calling it a “true compromise.”

The plan incorporates reforms like property tax relief, term limits, and spending caps, which have caused an “ongoing confrontation” between Madigan and the governor, one Republican leader told Fox News, adding that the two have been in a “stalemate” since Rauner took office two years ago.

“Gov. Rauner inherited this financial mess when he took office, and his proposals have been met by resentment from the speaker,” Deputy House Republican Leader Dan Brady said.

Brady added, “we are asking that the speaker allow for a date and a vote before June 30.”

But Brown told Fox News the governor isn’t making enough concessions.

“He’s not walking many back—the financial issues are serious enough, and he’s forcing things that have nothing to do with state government,” Brown said. “The biggest problem here is that the governor keeps associating a lot of things that do not have anything to do with the budget.”

Rauner has pushed for structural reforms, government consolidation and pension reform—some components that were able to pass on the Senate side.

“The people and businesses of Illinois deserve stability, not this ongoing chaos,” Senate President John J. Cullerton, a Democrat, told Fox News. The Illinois State Senate approved a balanced budget before the initial May 31 deadline that “matches” the governor’s spending proposal.

If the General Assembly fails to pass a budget package, they do have an option to pass another stopgap package, which lawmakers say is an option, but “not a good one.”

“We have a very real deadline looming,” Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno told Fox News. “The alternative to not finding a compromise will be devastating to Illinois.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Illinois careens into financial meltdown ? and not even the lottery is safe | Fox News