The editorial board of Peoria's paper hit a home run with this one.
WAKE UP SPRINGFIELD
Editorial: Illinois, banana republic, just 17 days to prove it
In a recent story by Politico, “How Illinois became America’s failed state,” the author likened the Land of Lincoln to a “banana republic.”
We’re not talking about the clothing store, of course, but the pejorative term used to describe Latin American countries that are politically unstable, fundamentally bankrupt economic disaster zones.
As we write this, Illinois has missed its spring legislative deadline to produce a budget with simple majority votes — the third year in a row — with but 17 days until the end of the fiscal year.
Its unpaid bills backlog stands at $14.7 billion, expected to reach $16 billion by month’s end; it was $6 billion when this governor entered office in 2015. State vendors are waiting, on average, seven months to be paid, with interest. By June 2018, if nothing is done, Illinois’ IOUs are projected to reach nearly $23 billion, almost three quarters what Illinois collects in revenue for an entire year, notwithstanding all its other obligations to schools, pensions, public safety, infrastructure, etc.
Just 17 days.
Currently, with no budget, Illinois is running a $6 billion deficit. Its pension liability, worst in the nation, has soared past $130 billion with no end in sight. Such numbers may not mean much to most Illinois residents, but the nation’s credit rating agencies have noticed. Illinois is one notch above junk status — reportedly eight notches below most other states — making it the worst investment in the nation’s history, with higher interest rates to show for it.
Just 17 days.
Moody’s has downgraded seven Illinois universities, five of them — Eastern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University, Northern Illinois University, Northeastern and Governors State — to junk status. If EIU received $52 million in state funding in fiscal year 2015, in FYI 2016 it got $12 million, a drop of 77 percent. Chicago’s public schools district is borrowing to pay back previous borrowing just to keep its doors open.
Just 17 days.
The Illinois Department of Transportation has no budget, so road contractors cannot be paid after June 30.
Just 17 days.
And to make matters infinitely worse, a federal judge ruled last week that an Illinois $2 billion behind in payments to Medicaid providers must move those bills to the front of the line, along with debt payments, pensions contributions and K-12 school funding that already are taking up 90 percent of the state’s cash flow. The judge set a June 20 deadline to reach a deal on how to accomplish that.
Just 17 days.
Meanwhile, our legislators moved some 500 bills this past session, which sounds like a ton of collective work. Alas, they don’t add up to the only bill that matters: a budget.
Just 17 days.
Meanwhile, the 2018 gubernatorial campaign has already started, with multiple candidates including two billionaires and another wealthy beyond most of our dreams promising to make this the most costly gubernatorial race in American history. All that money, for the privilege of running a “banana republic”?
Just 17 days.
Central Illinois, by and large, cannot sway the governor, or get within shoutin’ distance of the House speaker. They can get to their local lawmakers, whose contact information we list here.
Not to influence the content of those conversations, but we dare say that in just about any other industry, the employees guilty of this level of performance would be fired.
Just 17 days.
Out for now.......
Matt