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Will the Last Person to Leave Illinois Turn Out the Lights?
I lived in Illinois from 1987 to 1992 and again from 1993 to 2016. Chicago was a great city; the views of Lake Michigan were wonderful and I enjoyed taking classes at the University of Chicago’s downtown location, but it now faces double trouble. It has the spectacularly unqualified Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot and Governor J.B. Pritzker. Fredo in The Godfather was a genius compared to this Hyatt billionaire. The government pensions are out of control and are ridiculously underfunded. Pritzker has rejected any constraints on pensions, such as replacing them for new employees by 401Ks which are by definition fully funded, because that will not solve the problem. Any solution for this massive problem by definition will necessitate multiple partial solution. His response is to do nothing to constrain costs. He doubtless calculates that he will need the support of public employee unions when he runs for re-election.
Here’s the lastest dire data point for Chicago: a friend just sent us a real estate listing. A condo that last sold in June of 2005 for $410K is now listing for $285K. That’s more than a 30% haircut in the unlikely scenario that they get what they listed it for. Real estate in Illinois is already pricing in the catastrophic financial situation of the state.
Published in Domestic Policy
Or….someone can just slip a little extra something in the first, second, and/or third Illegitimate Joe stimulus packages. What’s a couple a hundred billion among friend? (HINT: Most Republicans in DC will vote for it.)
The prudent states will pay for the profligate ones. Sounds like a good incentive to be profligate.
Smart. It’s a fool’s folly to fail to fail fully. When things get bad enough the Dems in D.C. will nationalize all the debt. Then he will look like a genius! Printer go “brrrrr!”
I live next door in Indiana. Last time I was in Chicago was about 8 years ago. I promised myself I would never go back. I sometimes have to drive through Illnois, but that is what I do, drive straight through. No stopping.
It’s a good state for rural road bicycling. Indiana is, too. But a lot of bicycle geeks prefer to go out west where there are fewer choices of roads to ride on.
Oh, you ain’t seen nothing yet. We just finished our “Lame Duck” session of the legislature, and the Dems larded billions on top of the $3.9 billion out of balanced budget passed in May.
In addition, they tried to sneak through a $1 billion tax increase on struggling businesses with an effort to “decouple” Illinois’ tax law from operating loss carryback provisions which were provided for in the Cares Act which passed in March. We were told that the Department of Revenue only learned of the NOL change in October, whereas New York, among other states, had decoupled state law in April, giving businesses a chance to do some tax planning. Instead, the change would have gone into effect in January of this year and applied to 2020 taxes.
The Governor proposed this decoupling by putting it into a bill that Republicans supported, hoping, I’m sure, that we’d let it through so we could get the other things that we wanted. Instead, we waged a vigorous debate and the measure fell 10 votes short of passage. This attempt to retroactively increase taxes under the cover of darkness (3 A.M.) upon the very businesses that need help the most was one of the most cynical things I’ve ever seen here in Springfield, and that’s saying a lot. I don’t want to think that the Governor held this from us so it wouldn’t detract from his (failed) attempt to enact his graduated “Fair Tax”, but the only other explanation is blithering incompetence at the Department of Revenue. There’s no third alternative.
@richardeaston is correct on the pension front. Going to a defined contribution model for pensions won’t work, because the damage has already been done. We’re on a “pay as you go” system, and all that would do is stop those who are working under our “Tier II” plan (which is another ticking time bomb waiting to go off) from subsidizing those who are already retired and receiving “Tier I” benefits. Our pension plans would just go broke sooner. It’s not the pensions per se, it’s the accumulated debt. Short of structured bankruptcy, we’re out of options.
If you enjoy political theater a little closer to home than D.C., Illinois is the gift that keeps on giving. I’ll try to keep you informed.
Going to 401Ks for new employees prevents the gap from getting bigger. I agree that additional reforms are needed for existing pensions. The state constitution needs to be amended to allow this. The question is when will things get so extreme that public employee unions will realize that changes are needed in order to ensure that something gets paid on pensions (maybe the day after never). How many states will declare bankruptcy?
Tier I pensions increase at a constitutionally protected 3% compounded rate every year. The gap cannot but continue to grow until the last Tier I retiree (or surviving spouse) is gone.
Joe Biden in the second debate said he would bail out any state that goes bankrupt. He considered the 2008 public sector bailout a success.
Change the name to “West Detroit”
I live in Chicago and I have been starting to look for a place to relocate to in Indiana. So far the areas surrounding Indianapolis look most promising. I can’t afford the highest range and I have need for 4+ bedrooms so my options are even further limited. Do you have any more concrete proposals for areas to look (or areas to avoid)? Yes I want to flee the socialist hellhole, but I also don’t want to land in some decaying community with little but decline for my children to look forward to.
Smart idea. The gasoline is usually about the most expensive outside of California.
A huge number of people in eastern Missouri seem to have Illinois license plates. When the relatively new Mississippi River bridge was out due to terrible, terrible flooding last year that prevented access to the bridge, and many Illinois residents were forced to commute to work or school by traveling to Missouri by boat for a month or two. Many people in Illinois refuse to move for various reasons.
That’s not going to happen now for awhile longer as the Democrats are going to spend trillions bailing out all the fiscally-irresponsible states like Illinois and California.
In what state do you live now?
I once worked on a project where I was responsible for reviewing pay applications for an owner. I discovered the project manager was submitting duplicates of previously submitted receipts, to the point it was either incompetence or criminality. There was no third option. I have since been able to apply this eye opener to so many events it is head shaking when I consider it.
I know a person who has a mask that says “Make America Intelligent Again”. I’m certain he voted for Bidden. He either is disconnected from reality, or that word doesn’t mean what he thinks it means.
Just wait until Pritzker signs HB 3653.
I had something to say about that bill. Click here.
If it passed the Senate it would ensure a Republican Senate in short order.
Land of Lincoln Project.
And again in another ten years. The unfunded liabilities aren’t going away, and anything you subsidize you get more of.
He’s just acknowledging his sleek government overlords, there.
Speaking of chowerheads, wasn’t Biden put in charge of the stimulus spending under Obama? As I recall, that was a smashing success. Especially in light of the fraud piece you mentioned above.
Well said! Thanks much for that.
More importantly will the last guy out pick up the check?
No way! Dine and dash time.
Seriously, though, I predict that the check will be nationalized just after the midterms. If the polls are looking bad, though, then it will be rammed through before the midterms.