Totaling the unsustainable tax increases and windfall revenue during Pritzker Administration – Wirepoints
May 26, 2026
23 Comments
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn’t you deliver a few bond upgrades, too
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A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Full stop. A public sector employee is participating in a guaranteed income program?! First of all, government employees should be ineligible to participate. Second, Santiago’s salary at IDOT is around $66,000 which is the median state income. I have to think there are better candidates for this pilot.
There’s more to this story too. This public employee alludes to, but doesn’t explicitly say, that he is receiving SNAP (food stamps) benefits which he complains that can’t use to buy a hot food. It’s always like this, peoel getting something for nothing, and then complain about it. The gross income limit for SNAP in IL is 165% of the federal poverty level, which is $4464 / month for a family of five (assuming he lives in a household with the mother). The IL state Comptroller says he earns $5,300 a month so he’s well above the limit. So i… Read more »
They feature an IDOT employee, a unionized employee no doubt, who gets a guaranteed income from Cook County and eventually can earn a lifelong pension? And he’s also up-to-date on SNAP requirements.
Does anyone see a problem with taxpayers’ money augmenting a state employee who is already collecting taxpayer money and has the potential to retire on a comfortable state pension?
How absurd!
Agree. Totally absurd. And there is no sense of personal responsibility in his comments. Just pitching the worn out victim narrative.
Pension Paid First, what say you?
This is just another welfare program Old Joe. No different than your social security gubmint cheese you line up for every month.
Well, except the beneficiaries of Guaranteed Income Program paid nothing into the program. Oh, and supposedly the beneficiaries were selected by a lottery. But yeah, it’s exactly like social security.
Social Security recipients didn’t pay any money into the system. They paid taxes into a system that funds pension payments for those already retired. They hold no contractual rights to that money. They only continue to receive it out of the kindness of the other voters. Just like medicare, medicaid, snap and section 8 housing. No different than other forms of welfare.
Santiago’s title is Technical Manager III which, according to the job listing, is definitely a union position (Teamsters). What’s the point of union representation if you can’t get by on the wages they bargained for you?
https://idot.illinois.gov/Assets/uploads/files/About-IDOT/Employment/091422/45880%20TM%20III%20BoBS.pdf
Maybe they need to bargain for more wages?
Which implies they have not been. Dozens of contracts signed that guaranteed substandard wages. Don’t need a union for that.
With massive inflation I have a feeling all these contracts are now underpaid. Since they are in a union they should have a better chance in their next round of negotiations.