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.
expat, LOL! Jersey folks are the only ones I know who identify where they reside w/ Jersey Turnpike or Tollway exit numbers. Another unique way of saying where you’re from is Chicagoans, who tell you from what parish they hail. Even non Catholics will do that.
troll level 5.5 out of a possible 10 thee VideoSavant. Using the words Democrat instead of Democratic, and “pander” almost in the same sentence. I think you can do better.
You might try for a “Jimmy Carter” or even Dukakis! followed by a couple of LOLs.
Paul: The Moar You Know!
Nick Spinelli – 1, October 15, 2015 at 6:35 pm:
I’m an expatriate from Middlesex County in central NJ (exits 10-11 on the TPK). Lived & toiled there all my life. Left NJ in 2007 after retirement (ex Pharma/HAPPI Scientist) and now live in the DEEEEP South. I don’t miss the snow. I’m still trying to rescue friends and family from behind enemy lines.
I appreciate you asking.
Pander and plunder.
It’s the Democrat formula for winning election..
I was surprised to learn that “trolling” does not refer to the ugly creatures living under bridges, but actually refers to fishing from a boat. Dragging a line in the water and using various kinds of bait to see what will bite is the origin of the term trolling.
Obviously many of the board contributors here already know that, either directly or intuitively.
One key element to successful trolling is to find a list of logical fallacies and make them your own. Repeat them over and over regardless of how many times they are exposed or disproved.
Another good one is flipping the script. Blame environmental issues on liberals and socialists. Blame the Jews for what the Nazis did. Blame the blacks for the ghettos.
Third, it’s always good just to drop names and use the code words everyone “knows”. No actual substance needed. Al Gore! LOL!!! San Fransisco! wink wink! Socialism! Am I right? Bill Clinton! Vince Foster! Hahahahahaha. Big government! ROTFLMAO!
It’s actually not hard. So much easier than trying to make a reasoned argument. And if you manage to irritate a thoughtful person, your work is done!
Congrats.
phillyT – Knowledge is a wonderful thing.
WHY is anyone surprised at this? The lottery is a government operation (aka legal crime organization)! Letting a private business run a lottery for the state is no guarantee it will succeed as long as there is any form of politics involved with it. If anything, the government will only set it up (by changing the laws, if necessary) so the management company will make a profit while those who were supposed to receive a payoff will receive nothing. Crooks in charge, as government usually arranges things, will mean that only the insiders and the welfare recipient class will see any benefits. Everyone else loses.
Expat, North or South Jersey? Went to school w/ many Jersey boys. Worked 2 summers in Wildwood, best 2 summers of my life..so far. And, that was back in the mid 70’s.
Nick – a similar pattern happened in NJ.
TPTB said a lottery would end property taxes for seniors, and the hallways of our schools could be paved in gold.
Instead, property taxes in NJ have continually risen so they are now 1st- or 2nd-highest in the US. Senior citizens and disabled cannot retire in NJ. And, government (aka, ‘public’) schools’ infrastructure is worse than ever.
That – and other cr@p – was why I left NJ (hence “Expatriate NJ”).
“wasteful policies of the Dailey Administration and later politicians,”
What Chicagoan spells Mayor Daley ‘Dailey’.?
Lookeditup – I just put it down to auto-correct
I was living in CT. when lottery was passed back in the early 1970’s. There was a lotta opposition. New England folks used to be conservative in things like gambling, drinking, etc. The way the govt. sold it became the template for ensuing states. “It’s for the children” claiming the proceeds would go to education. “The checks in the mail and I’ll still love you in the morning” come to mind w/ that lie.
State will be better of giving the lottery business to an efficient private sector. Get a portion of the proceeds and come out of this nasty situation.
I think that if the state just gave all the lottery money to the rich guys and they use the money to build new ball parks, then everybody would have a job
Except, that is not the reason that people buy lottery tickets.
They buy the tickets because THEY want to win the money to do things that THEY want to do with their winnings. If you sold tickets for one purpose…….letting the winner decide what they want to do with their proceeds, but then falsely used the money for things that YOU want, like ball parks you would be committing fraud. If the government does this it is STILL fraud.
I don’t think you understand the concept of the word lottery.
And NO everybody would not have a job. Only those who were building a park would for a short while have a job. The res of us who couldn’t care less about a park would feel pretty ripped off if our lottery winnings went to something we didn’t want.
I think that if the state just gave all the lottery money to the rich guys and they use the money to build new ball parks, then everybody would have a job…………D’oh……..OK, now I got it, use the money what it was intended to do in the first place, then give to private business to do what they want……..LIKE INDIANA….Our schools, roads, bridges, are falling apart…But the private company that owns it, is in the black…………See its easy……
I know I’m repeating other readers. ” Margaret Thatcher”!
The original text of the WA state constitution banned lotteries:
Original text — Art. 2 Section 24 LOTTERIES AND DIVORCE — The legislature shall never authorize any lottery or grant any divorce.
~+~
The legislature amended the constitution in the 1970’s and later fostered in the vote to authorize the state lottery. The original promise, which enticed people to vote for it, was that the lion’s share of the revenue would go directly to education.
It didn’t take long before the legislature began raiding the lottery for other purposes. Over time the situation worsened until the McCleary decision by the state supreme court ruled that the state was failing to provide the constitutionally mandated primacy of public education. Now, the legislature is in contempt of court for failing to act and a large amount of the problem rests with poor fiscal appropriation for schools and no way to pay for it. Much of this was avoidable but it crept up as a result of negligence.
DBQ – “. 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.”
You have hit a nerve with me and my husband. We live in a county that has a huge amount of legal and illegal immigrants. Our property taxes are skyrocketing. Our taxes are now more than our mortgage payment and our home insurance is almost as much.
We are a border state and their building 3 new schools to be able to accommodate the children of illegal immigrants here and the hospital districts costs have risen. They have built about 4 mosques here and plans for another.
Our crime has risen and it used to be the 4th safest city in the U.S. We’ve had to hire more police as well. You go to McDonalds and it’s tough getting an order right because they speak little English. Then McD’s wonder why their profits are deteriorating. It’s because of their customer service skills, they have none. I was in there last Sunday to get a coffee and heard the manager arguing with a customer in Spanish because he was just one of about 10 people who had their orders screwed up and came in from their cars to straighten it out. It was a negative atmosphere.
We have our home for sale. Their raising taxes yet again and my home insurance keeps going up as well. We will sell and go further out to the country. We have a contract on a country home with acreage. A lake within a mile and only about 1500 population and zero crime.
About 85% of people who have looked at our house are mostly middle eastern. Hardly any of them speak clear English. Thank you Mr. Obama for allowing so many immigrants. Why can’t they at least have enough respect to speak English in a business. There’s little manners left in this world.
We hope to live and die in this small town and hope it stays small until we do. I feel sad for my children and their children when they have them.
May God be with you and your husband and may you survive the economic downfall that will surely come to be, especially in California.
If you’ve got access to Netflix, stream the series “Boss” — it’ll tell you everything you need to know about Chicago and Illinois.
DBQ said …
…and the money is not being set aside …
There’s your answer. Simple. Diversion of funds is the problem. Like a casino, a lottery cannot lose money by design…at least if not designed by idiots.
Your better off playing the numbers racket with your local bookie than the lottery, you get better odds
In a very small way ninian accidentally did hit on an important point. The low interest rates that have been in place for years and years are also a part of the financial failure of the lottery system.
Besides the fact that they are skimming the money from the system for purposes other than intended, the funds (ticket sales) that are supposed to be paid out are not generating enough income/growth to sustain the pay out.
The lottery is is essence just like an annuity, where funds are set aside with an anticipated or guaranteed interest rate to sustain a future pay out of X dollars to the annuitant(s) the lower the current rate of return, the more principle you need to set aside to fund the future obligation. Since interest rates are low low low and the money is not being set aside or there are not enough current ticket sales coming in, the guarantee of future pay out is just an illusion and a joke.
Until the States get spending under control (ha ha ha ha) and the real rate of return reaches a sustainable level, the lottery is in essence a Government shell game and a scam. Any private party (Bernie Madoff sound familiar??) who runs a scheme like this would end up in jail.