-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Gov. J.B. Pritzker says Illinois’ budget is balanced ”for the first time in decades.” That’s the claim he made upon signing Illinois’ $40 billion budget for 2020. Pritzker’s claim is simply not true. According to the state’s own actuarial calculations, his budget is billions in the red.
Ted was on the Chicago Way last week with John Kass discussing what the state’s $40 billion budget and $45 billion capital bill mean for ordinary Illinoisans. Hint: It’s about to get a lot more expensive to live, and especially drive, here.
Pritzker and legislative leaders appear to have picked a number — in this case $45 billion — and then worked backward to stuff items into the grocery cart. That includes $50 million for the Illinois Arts Council, overseen by House Speaker Michael Madigan’s wife. In that tranche: $1.5 million for an AIDS garden, $50,000 for a Jewish museum renovation, $370,000 for the Inner City Muslim Action Network and millions more in unexplained line items.
On what the actual 2020 spending gap in Chicago is:
“We’re still looking and digging into the numbers. We’re waiting to get some actuarial numbers so that we know how the actual pension funds are performing and what the projections are for the future….The number is serious, it’s going to be big … It’s north of $700 million, to be sure. But we’re also, at the same time, looking at ways in which we can make city government run more efficiently so that if we find savings, obviously that number is going to come down.”
The article has no headline, which is probably sensible because it’s strangely vacuous.
Comment: But count on the progressive legislators to squelch any discussion of this proposal.
The ordinance, which was to be discussed today by the City Council’s Committee on Workforce Development, would penalize employers for making changes to workers’ schedule without at least two weeks’ notice.
Illinois is quickly becoming a case study in how not to do economic development. State and local politicians have painted themselves into a corner where they are driving away the people and small businesses who should form the economy’s foundation with crushing tax and regulatory burdens, then making unsustainable deals to exempt a few favored companies and developers from those costs.
With unions applauding, a 3 percent cap on late-in-career pay raises is reversed, even though the added pension cost will be paid by a state fund that’s already $75 billion in the red.
Studies show states that turn to gambling and pot tend to have few other options. Heavily in debt, losing population, facing difficulties funding pensions or even paying its bills, Illinois fits the description.
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