The state of Illinois is more than $5 billion dollars in debt. The Land of Lincoln is giving California a run for its money at becoming the most fiscally unstable state.
So Illinois' answer? Just stop paying the bills and see what happens!!
That's not a joke - that's what they're doing!
Residents across the board in that state are struggling with an uncertain future and dwindling pensions.
That is unless you work for Pat Quinn - the governor is handing out raises to all his employees.
Here are the numbers: the Democrat leader has given 43 salary increases - averaging 11.5% to 35 staffers in the past 15 months, according to the Associated Press. Ironically, the state's budget director, David Vaught, made out the best--he got a 20% raise or $24,000!
And the deputy budget director -Gladyse Taylor - got a 10.5% bump!
What makes this actually offensive is that in other parts of the state they're not talking about getting raises - they're trying to keep their jobs.
In almost every district of the state - thousands of teachers have lost their jobs and health centers have shut down. Published reports say the University of Illinois has yet to receive 45% of the money owed to them.
The unemployment rate for the state nears 11% and the state ranks in the top five of states with the most foreclosures.
So Governor Quinn - I understand running the state of Illinois is not an easy job and you don't have a long list of good examples to learn from.
But it doesn't take a rocket scientist or a political genius to understand that if your state is in the red... your staff shouldn't be bathing in big bucks. |