By: Mark Glennon*
This is simple but fundamentally important.
If you don’t know that state and local budgets are deceitful and nearly meaningless, or you don’t know why that’s so important to understanding our crisis, spend a few minutes watching the video linked above.
It’s a segment from a panel discussion in which Sheila Weinberg, Founder and CEO, Truth in Accounting, explains in simple language.
“The main reason we are in a budget crisis is our governors and legislators have chosen to use political math to calculate the budget instead of truth in accounting.”
It continues unchallenged by most of the media.
Weinberg’s remarks are focused on the state budget, but they apply fully to Chicago, Cook County and many other municipalities, which endlessly claim to have balanced budgets. The truth is we are bleeding red like stuck pigs at all levels of government in Illinois.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints. Opinions expressed are his own.
If you’re frustrated with Illinois’ educational results, you may want to follow the money from teachers unions. In the last four years alone, Illinois lawmakers and political candidates have taken nearly $30 million in contributions from teachers unions and their national affiliates.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski testified on April 10, 2024 to members of the House Revenue and Finance Committee at the invitation of Rep. Joe Sosnowski. Ted told lawmakers that the state’s property tax burden has become dire for countless Illinoisans.
Ted joined WLS 890’s PM Chicago Show to discuss Chicago’s worsening pension crisis, why the city’s crisis makes it such an outlier nationally, its negative impact on residents, government workers and retirees alike, and what Mayor Brandon Johnson should do about it.
When has any company persisted with a project in the face of stronger local, statewide and national opposition? When have taxpayers subsidized a more harebrained project?
Bill gates has a similar talk on you tube “TED talk, Bill Gates and state budgets”.
Great video, I may take time to watch the whole thing one of these days. At least she talks in real numbers instead of the “political math” the pols use. Toni Prickwanker looked rather uncomfortable when Sheila was speaking.