Corrupt Illinois Politics

[Bible_Belt]

http://www.stltoday.com/business/lo...cle_83853b6e-3851-5ed9-95a7-39f544f6c5d9.html

Special report: The man behind the fiscal fiasco in Illinois

As speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, Michael Madigan has outlasted five governors and is now on his sixth. This year, the Chicago Democrat will become longest-serving state or federal House speaker in the United States since at least the early 1800s.

The speaker is one of America's most powerful politicians, presiding over arguably its most dysfunctional state capital.

Illinois is beyond broke. It is the first state in at least eight decades to go without an annual budget, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Its bond ratings, the lowest of any state, are near junk status. It is projected to have a budget deficit this fiscal year of $5.3 billion and owes vendors about $10.8 billion in unpaid bills.

Its pension system, serving more than 815,000 public employees and retirees, was tied with Kentucky's system for the lowest funding ratio among states, at 37.6 percent, according to a 2014 ranking by Pew Charitable Trusts. Unfunded liabilities stood at $129.8 billion last June, up from $2.5 billion in 1971, the year Madigan joined the Legislature.

 

[speed dawg]

Too big to fail and stuff. Totally laughable they are trying to pin this on one man. Simply years of idiotic democratic policies.

 

[Bible_Belt]

More like decades. if you're talking about democrat control of the Illinois legislature. We occasionally get a republican governor, who somehow manages to be an even bigger jackass. Right now we have Rauner, and the one thing he cares most about is destroying the unions and the few middle-class jobs that still exist. Republicans did it in Wisconsin. It's called "right to work," and makes union membership optional at every job, yet requires the union to still represent everyone for free. What a joke of a name. It means "right to work for minimum wage."

Without a state budget, rural schools right now are operating at about 1/3rd of their usual funding. They make the parents buy all the supplies for the classroom. When things break, there is no money to fix it. Any extra program that costs money has been cut. It's like living in a 3rd world country.

Oh, and the Illinois legislature voted themselves another raise just last fall. There's always money for their pay checks.

 

[logicallefty]

Having lived in Illinois all of my adult life, I agree, it is infested with corruption. Illinois is a "two party" consent state for audio recording meaning that you can't record anyone without their consent or knowing. Did you guys know that the reason its that way is so politicians like Blago can accept bribes? The corruption runs down hill too. It's not just in politics. This State is infested like roaches with sociopaths and psychopaths. You got about a 55% chance of the people you meet in any given part of life to be good people, but a 45% chance they will be canabalistic sh|t infested sociopathic/psychopathic roaches in human form. The good news is that when you do meet the good people, they are the other extreme, really good people. In my adult life the best things I have done are 1) Learned some psychology so I can gage the people I meet and know who to trust and who not to and 2) Leaned some law so when people do fvck me over or attempt to fvck me over I can take swift action without having to mortgage the house to get a lawyer.

I have always wondered how Illinois compares in this regard to other parts of the USA.