Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Illinois is the Titanic

The state of Illinois is sinking fast. The dynasty that runs the state is not unlike Greece in its current condition. The candidates that get the most exposure during campaigns always win because they can afford the advertising. Most candidates for Governor come from Chicago.

A member of the Illinois General Assembly submitted legislation that would create a separate state for the Chicago area. It seems that every chance the Chicago politicians get, they transfer another state agency from the southern counties into the Chicago suburbs.

The state employees who work throughout the state get paid as if they live in the more expensive Chicago area. The tax increase must continue to pay exorbitant union labor and management salaries. A Janitor at the department of Central Management Services makes over $80,000 per year ("Janitor I")

 People who work for the state for decades are privy to loopholes that allow them to scam the system. Once the public becomes aware of the problems, legislators make a theatrical magnanimous gesture that makes the public think something is being done. As soon as the public has something else to focus their attention, the process of reform is reversed.

Illinois is over $4 Billion dollars in debt to vendors, and in a desperate attempt to repay the debt has now added interest on top of the debt by selling the debt to investors who pay the vendors. The state then pays the investors with interest.

In January of this year the state attempted to start recovering from deficit spending by increasing the individual income tax from 3% to 5% and the founder of Jimmy John's sandwich shop (Jimmy John Liautaud) threatened to leave the state. Recently, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Sears Holding also threatened to leave the state, so the Illinois General Assembly passed a $330 Million dollar tax relief package which will accrue to the state of Illinois already bloated $200 Billion dollar debt.

In 2009, shortly after the Impeachment of former governor Rod Blagojevich, the former Lieutenant Governor-now-Governor Patt Quinn promised to "fumigate" the state government of Blagojevich appointees. We are still waiting as of December 2011.

Ultimately, the responsibility lies with the voters of Illinois, who continue to automatically and unconsciously vote for their candidates based on name recognition and charisma as they have for decades, allowing in the opportunistic greedy sociopaths to feather their own nests and to treat their elected office as the finish line of a race rather than the beginning of an effort to improve the lives of their constituents.