Day 70 - Illinois Without a Budget
 

Illinois Pelicans:

What's your take on the state budget crisis?

I'd like to get some opinions from others to support or challenge my take on the situation.

If I lived in Illinois, I don't know what I'd do. You guys have had it pretty rough for a while.

I can't believe Blgoyovich (sp, whatever) "commutes" to Springfield via jet.

Welcome to California. Here they haven't passed a budget on time in a zillion years.
The dems have the majority so they always try to spend more than is coming in. That's what dems do. It's their nature.
The minority republicans are holding out for a balanced budget and it's a stalemate, now they are name-calling in the press blaming each other and lying about the details.

Legion, just move the hell out already and live in real, gun-owner-friendly America.

By the time they get the budget done here, they will owe me a big sack of cash. You see, they don't fulfill their financial obligations, like paying for the healthcare I provide to certain, special folks for a large discount.

At least in Texas you could carry a piece and the roads were decent, neither of which is true here.

I may be wrong but I believe they were on time last year - still it is out of the norm.

I think it's business as usual, and it will not change until the Chicago machine is destroyed. The problem is, no one has the balls to do it.

If you leave Chicago, and head south, you begin to notice a sound around where Legion lives. If you travel further south, it gets louder. When you get where I live, it sounds like a worn out shop vac at full wail. It is the sound of Chicago sucking the resources out of the rest of the state.

Day 71:

The General Assembly has passed a budget with what looks like veto-proof majorities. It does not contain the massive tax increase nor the universal healthcare plan the governor has said that he wants. He has also said that he will veto any budget that does not contain these...

Rod's a douche.

I didn't do the research but a couple od days ago on KFWB news radio they stated that california hasn't had a budget on time in 12 years. I may be wrong, I really don't feel like checking into it right now. Maybe tomorrow.

EVERYWHERE has its good and its bad. I lived in Illinois for three years and actually there were a lot of things I liked about it, but settled in California mostly because if I had to endure one more winter in Illinois, I'd likely have ended up in jail for a mass-murder spree. I'm certainly not saying this place is perfect either (it certainly has its problems too) but of all the places I've lived (Massachusetts, Florida, Illinois, Oregon and California) it seems to be the one with the highest number of "pros" per number of "cons". Everyone loves to bash on California, but people still move here.

I certainly do NOT miss the "good-ole-boy" system of political crony-ism that was so obviously at work in Chicago and in Illinois in general. It was almost as bad in Massachusetts now that I think about it - everyone in government is someone's brother-in-law, nephew, whatever. It ain't just Illinois. . .

Day 72:

The governor says that "he is reviewing the budget" passed by the general assembly. A "deal" was reached to continue paying public employees without a budget.

If the Senate in California makes any changes our budget starts over in the Assembly, according to Fabio. I can understand the Vietnamese making it so painful to maintain the status quo that we left, but why do my elected representatives use the same tactics?

Day 73:

The governor still has neither signed nor vetoed the budget. He called two more special sessions of the General Assembly on Sunday, 11 lawmakers showed up. They complain that he is abusing his power to call special sessions when he is not directing them to consider any legislation.

Day 74:

The governor has announced that he will sign the budget.

BUT...

He will use his line item veto to strike pork from the budget.

AND..

He has given himself the power to replace the spending he is striking with other spending...on expanding healthcare programs. He berates the General Assembly for excess spending on pet projects in one breath, and takes money for his own pet projects in the next. UN-F***ING-BELIEVABLE!!!

Oh...and he gave himself a 10% pay raise.

Day 76 (not much happened yesterday):

Emil Jones, President of the Senate (and a Democrat), has announced that we will not allow any veto overrides of the governor's line-item vetos. He is doing this in exchange for the 14% pay raise (10% Blago awarded + 4% the General Assembly already agreed to).

Michael Madigan, speaker of the house and a fellow Democrat, has publicly stated that he believes Blago's actions (creating new programs and funding them without legislation) violate the Illinois Constitution.

Day 88:

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/08/28/news/doc46d3328e78d5a087515199.txt

The state still functions, yes? It's not like there are roaming bands of ne'er-do-wells running around setting fire to neighborhoods and laying siege to suburbia, right?

Society still functions?

Without government?!?! Oh the horror! Perish the thought!

There's a good argument in here about how truly unnecessary 95% of government really is.

True.

However, the politicians here are spending MY MONEY on their little disagreements. None of them have anything personal at stake.

You know, there might be an opportunity for some really enterprising third party to step in and offer "alternatives" for government programs that people could purchase - trash pickup, utility repair & maintenance, etc. If there's a way to do it (and I don't know the legalities) it might make sense to try and wrest back control of a lot of stuff from the government (proving how unnecessary they are) while they're busy squabbling with one another.

I agree with you though - the most offensive thing about it is that these jokers are doing it on your dime. . .