A History of Excellence…Wait…That’s Not It.
by Kristin Nisbet A recent piece in The American Spectator by RiShawn Biddle, chronicles Illinois’ less than perfect past. Biddle explains that as things have gotten hairy for former Illinois governor Blagojevich, the prospect of what’s to come for either Quinn or Brady does not promise “sunshine, lollipops and rainbows.” But even if he lands in prison,...
by Kristin Nisbet
A recent piece in The American Spectator by RiShawn Biddle, chronicles Illinois’ less than perfect past. Biddle explains that as things have gotten hairy for former Illinois governor Blagojevich, the prospect of what’s to come for either Quinn or Brady does not promise “sunshine, lollipops and rainbows.”
But even if he lands in prison, Blago Helmet Hair may be a lot happier with his predicament than either Quinn or Brady will be with theirs. No matter what happens in November, the winner will be presiding over a state government that now makes notoriously dysfunctional statehouses in California and New York look exemplary by comparison.
Biddle discusses in more detail Illinois’ fiscal woes and how looking forward, the unfunded teacher pensions along with health care benefits for seniors are big holes that need funding solutions sooner rather than later.
The state’s long-term fiscal profile is even worse. Taxpayers are on the hook for the teachers’ pension fund’s deficit of least $35 billion (and as much as $70 billion, according to the Manhattan Institute), the worst in the nation, as well as another $19 billion deficit for other state employee pensions. This doesn’t include the $40 billion in unfunded retiree healthcare benefits owed to civil servants. Illinois’ total public employee indebtedness of $94 billion is second only to California — despite having just a third of the Golden State’s population.
Though Illinois’ problems may be equating our state with California and New York, we have some things that our uniquely our own–our colorful political history. As Biddle notes, “GOOD, CLEAN GOVERNMENT HAS never been a slogan by which Illini have lived.” Biddle goes back as far as former Illinois governor Joel Aldrich who reigned from 1853-1857 and apparently tried to cash some two hundred thousand dollars in counterfeit railroad scrip. Though we are 150 plus years later, it doesn’t seem so hard to believe that a governor might be trying to look for gold in all the wrong places.