By Wirepoints’ Mark Glennon: “By blaming everything on Rauner and the budget impasse, a new assessment by the Pritzker administration hides the reality that our problems are structural, systemic and old. Our government is broken.”

And thanks to Crain’s for publishing a variety of viewpoints, including ours.

Comment. Miller is exactly right on this, respecting Pritzker’s plan to kick the pension funding ramp out seven more years: “The administration won’t yet say how much more money will be ‘saved’ during the coming fiscal years by extending the payment ramp, except to suggest that the near-term cost reductions might be somewhere around $800 million a year. More importantly, the administration also will not say how many more billions this scheme will wind up costing taxpayers in the long-term.”

Comment: Lots of specifics in here on what Pritzker will include in his new budget. How he will be able to claim it’s balance is a mystery.

A detailed look by an actuary, Mary Pat Campbell.

A national republication of our Wirepoints story.

“Of all the strange things that I have ever seen in government, the new governor’s plan to double 20 underlings’ salaries with his own funds is the one with the most potential to spark serious corruption.”

Comment: Is the huge employment gift for northeastern Illinois, subsidized by Wisconsin, now at risk?

Minimum wage bill cramdown.