While I loved spending a few days back home in Chicago this week, it was depressing to see how decades of mismanagement of the city and the State continue to take a toll on citizens and businesses. The latest absurdity is the announcement by the Illinois lottery that anyone who wins more than $600 will simply get an IOU for their winnings due to a lack of cash. Yet, the state is still encouraging citizens to play the lottery.
Illinois politicians spent decades destroying the economic well-being of the state. Among other things, politicians (including many still in office) yielded to demands for higher and higher public pension plans that ultimately bankrupted the state and city treasuries. They simply kicked the can down the road: grabbing political donations and votes from powerful unions while giving little thought to the economic implications. Now there is a budget impasse that has stopped payment not just on lottery payments but such things as wrongful conviction awards. Springfield is fighting over how to make tough decisions on the budget after decades of reckless spending.
Chicago has been particularly crippled by corrupt and wasteful policies of the Dailey Administration and later politicians, as with the disastrous give-away of the parking meter business in the city and its creation of speed traps for citizens. (for a column, click here). The Illinois Supreme Court recently refused to allow politicians to negate the prior pension agreements. These politicians have left the citizens with the worst-in-the-nation unfunded public pension liability of nearly $105 billion.
In the meantime, the city and county continue to tax businesses and citizens to record levels. Chicago next year will have the highest sales tax rate of any major U.S. city and a ridiculous rate of 10.25 percent on Jan. 1. Mayor Raum Emanuel will add to that tax the largest property tax hike in modern Chicago history. I spoke with friends with businesses in the city who are discussing closing their businesses due to the over-taxation and how the city is forcing payment for every possible element of their businesses from lettering on windows to having simple awnings. Just as the solution for years was to pander for votes with ever increasing pension plans and irresponsible city contracts, it is now a matter of simply taxing citizens for every possible purchase and pleasure.
Ironically, the City has been run with the economic integrity of a lottery system. Of course, it is a lottery system where most citizens lose and even the winners receive only an IOU.
By changing the motor voter law we will be assured to have a large percentage of non-US citizens voting in every election. They will also be among our pool for jury duty. I’m curious to know if it would be grounds for appeal to find your jury consisted of non-US citizens?
Any “lottery” in a state should be “stand alone”…e.g., not connected to the state’s general fund or budget. If “stand alone” how on earth can the massive con-job of a lottery go broke? Impossible….at least based upon the lines of players I see here waitging to plunk down their money. The only way is to make it part of the general fund of said state(s)…where money taken in is not distributed to winners first and foremost….with the remaining proceeds (aka profits) going to something like directly to schools. That’s the system where I live but the state periodically tries to change it for the general fund’s benefit. It took a lawsuit to force the state to apply all net proceeds to the schools system…WTF?
When that silcon valley boom turns to bust, California will make Illinois look like a walk in the park.
Piffle…..the unfunded pension liabilities are just the tip of the iceberg (metaphorically speaking). In California in this 2014 story by a silicon valley newspaper, which is by definition left leaning, we see that the Golden State is dead broke, even by Hillary standards.
Over 330 BILLION dollars in debt, unfunded liabilities, money owed.
http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_24998205/californias-wall-debt-is-only-slice-its-liability
Yet the State continues to spend money on useless and maddening projects like the “bullet train to nowhere’ Anyone in the financial industry who suggests the unsustainability of the system is shut down. Kick the can down the road. Over and over and over.
Never ONCE have they considered lowering future employees benefit costs or reigning in costs of the multiple departments that overlap and are not even necessary. NEVER ONCE.
The Democrats have been in control for years and are the sole party responsible for this debacle. Now, of course the State of California is completely lost since Brown just signed a bill that ANYONE with a driver’s license will be eligible to vote. This is just after allowing all the ILLEGAL ALIENS to register for driver’s licenses.. Thereby guaranteeing a dumb voter base that will vote Democrat until infinity.
If we were not tied to the land by our business, my husband and I as much as we love where we live would be out of here like a shot. The good news is that we are old and hope to die before the real meltdown begins. I do feel very sorry for anyone under the age of 30. They are doomed.
Ted,
The results of privatizing lottery management is not a reflection of it being managed privately, it is a reflection of it being managed poorly. If this private company does not perform it should lose its contract and another private organization should be awarded the contract. If it’s government run and it fails to produce the desired results then no such accountability is to be expected.
chip, We agree. I have LONG stated this blog needs younger, darker, and more female people. I said that when I first arrived and this blog was patrolled by old, white, liberal men. I have said I hoped some of JT’s students and former students would comment. I TRULY want diversity and I am on record. I have friends and family across the spectrum. I would detest a world where we all agreed. However, that is what people, on BOTH ends of he spectrum, seek.
Nick Spinelli
hahaha well I don’t get the salary of a law professor right now, that’s true.
Nonetheless, as a millennial, this site (take in whole) does not represent our generation. Fortunately, Mr. Spinelli I’m beaming with youth…. this site needs that…
The nice thing about youth is its ignorance.
One of my all-time favorite bumper stickers: The lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math.
He’s the guy in the bar talking politics when we’re all just trying to watch the ballgame. LOL.
sounds like Chip is a renter.
Nick spinelli
hahahahahahahahaha you just explained this blog precisely!!!
This place attempts to justify killings of its own citizens and relies on authority and protection of property as it’s main arguments. It seems through posts, that likely all the old white men (the majority population here) with any property have yelled that in their lives.
New Jersey Lottery Falls Short Of Targets After Chris Christie Privatizes Management
WASHINGTON (AP) — When Chris Christie privatized the management of New Jersey’s lottery two years ago, he said its new overseers would “modernize and maximize” the games.
Instead, a lottery once ranked among the nation’s top performers is now lagging for the second straight year, trailing its state income targets by $64 million seven months into the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, the company running it has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire lobbyists and a public relations firm with close ties to the governor.
New Jersey lawmakers anticipated receiving nearly $1.04 billion in income from the lottery this year, a number reduced to just $955 million in a revised budget released this month. Having collected an estimated $510 million seven months into this fiscal year, the lottery is not on track to meet even its lowered expectations.
The shortfalls could mean budget cuts to programs directly funded by the lottery system — such as after-school care, programs for veterans and education for the deaf — should the lottery’s fortunes not improve
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/31/chris-christie-lottery_n_6981190.html
Paul, that’s just another example of how government lies to everyone. When the lottery started in Arizona, my father did some research and told me I have a better chance of getting hit by lightning than of winning the top prize in the lottery. “You can’t lose if you don’t play!” he said. “Keep your money in your pocket.”
Tyger – I had a friend in Prescott who was hit by lightning twice. Told her it was time to play the lottery. 🙂
chip is the old curmudgeon who yells @ kids, “GET OFF MY LAWN!” Lighten up, dude, you’ll live longer.
In Will’s column, he talks about Rahm trying to get money from the state to fund more charter schools. Will likens it to “Puerto Rico asking Greece for money.” An under reported story is Puerto Rico going bankrupt. There are still folks[Dems] that want to make PR our 51st state.
“is this the first time that you have noticed that ninian is clueless?”
Mr. Schulte,
This question coming from you is priceless – thank you for the laughs. Since Jon Stewart’s been off the daily show, I’ve had to come here for humor every so often. The irony, hyperbole, stuffiness, and lack of awareness is comic awesomeness.
“Illinois – America’s Greece.”
Yes, especially under the guidance of failed Liberal policies. They even mess up a lottery. lol
The lottery is how liberals tax the poor without telling them that is what the purpose of the lottery is.
What most people don’t realize is that these managers of the lottery use the same principles to manage pensions. They also have done it with Social Security retirement benefits. If private business were to do it, then it would be illegal and people would be put in jail, but when government does it, well, some people just made some mistakes and the new people in office are going to fix the mistakes. Yeah, right.
“Sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”
A Margaret Thatcher quote.
So erudite on here….. I’m floored. hahahahahahaha
“I spoke with friends with businesses in the city who are discussing closing their businesses due to the over-taxation and how the city is forcing payment for every possible element of their businesses from lettering on windows to having simple awnings. Just as the solution for years was to pander for votes with ever increasing pension plans and irresponsible city contracts, it is now a matter of simply taxing citizens for every possible purchase and pleasure.”
Sleazy company most likely.
Protect my business friends! The Founding Fathers said to!