I catch quite a bit of flack for choosing to live in Illinois. People claim it is the most corrupt state in the union because we have put more politicians in prison than any other state. Well, it’s not. We just have a much lower tolerance level when it comes to corrupt politicians. Yes, they are all corrupt, but if they are actually doing a good job we don’t put them in prison. Hopefully our current governor will be the next to receive at least a decade long all expenses paid Federal Corrections medium security “vacation,” but I digress.
Yes, we keep moving up on the list of top 10 indebted states. According to this we were 4th in 2011/12. Probably much higher now since our current governor hasn’t managed to get a budget passed for a few years, well, since July 1, 2015.
Prediction time!
Our current worthless governor will continue his Jihad to purge everyone who is not a multi-millionaire from the state of Illinois and will not have passed a _complete_ budget by the end of 2017. Spending plans do not count.
Hey, I understand the flack. Why would anyone want to live in a state where economic terrorism is committed against them each and every day? Most people don’t which is why in 2016 Illinois created more more refugees than any other state. So, yes, I totally understand that my state makes Flint Michigan look well run. I understand that in August we will have both a heat wave and a power outage because Comm Ed has figured out if they don’t do maintenance until a storm or heat wave happens they can get a rate increase every time they ask.
Just take a look at that utility pole. You can find them all over rural Illinois looking just like that. Rather than replace them under the maintenance budget they put a metal band around poles pushing 100 years of age and wait for a storm to take them out. Take a real close look at that.
Hopefully the rest of the country will never fall for that privatization scam Illinois fell for. The state sidestepped its obligations opting to contract out social services. Court orders mandate that the state pay its employees even without a budget. If it were state employees providing those services they would still be happening. Now all of those services are shutting down. Privatization of government services BAD.
2017 will see an even larger exodus from the state, there can be little doubt about that. The state is becoming a medieval fiefdom consisting of a ruling class and the indentured servants. Even more so than the rest of the country. Of course in modern times they do not use the term indentured servant. It is called “right to work” now. Combine that with loose standards for credit card holders and you have an instant batch of indentured servants, they just aren’t publicly called that.
Yes, all of this and more is true of the state. If I didn’t have family ties to hold me I would probably be one of the refuges. Actually, about the only thing keeping me here is the fact we still get 4 seasons. Global warming will soon make it 3 seasons, but for now we still get 4. I’ve been to many places in this country but few have had to offer the one thing I find here. Those Norman Rockwell mornings.
From fresh snow on the pines to the beautiful auburn tree lines of fall, I haven’t found any place which looks quite like this. Then again, other than a few places in the Middle East and some notable former Soviet Block countries, I have never heard of a place with a government like our state’s.
