Another article. "The limits allow next year's spending to increase considerably so the state can make its required contribution to government retirement systems, pay overdue bills and cover other costs that had been shoved aside...." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110112/ap_on_re_us/us_illinois_taxes
I know that life isn't fair, and politicians will always be sticking their grubby hands in my pockets... but I still can't help but feel seriously angry about this latest legalized robbery. You know how to tell when a state has <b><i>really</b></i> fucked up their own economy? When that state starts airing TV commercials begging people to move there. So far only California & Michigan have bought such ads*, but at this rate Illinois is on track to join the club. Where is John Galt? ______ *Some other states have commercials urging people to visit as <b>tourists</b>, but that's entirely different from the kind of desperate 'come live here' commercials I'm talking about.
For those of you not from IL, please keep in mind, we also have the highest sales taxes in the country at 11.25% and the city of Chicago has one of the highest property taxes in the country as well as the highest cigarette taxes in the country. I try to explain this to our resident liberals on this forum and they don't get it. It doesn't matter how high taxes go, they will simply spend more. We give the state so much money in taxes in all forms yet they still are increasing spending. Let me also remind many of you that our CTA (train and bus service) has been broke and bankrupt for years despite raising fares almost 50% the last few years. No matter how high they raise fares, they still go deeper in debt. Yet everyone in this city votes for the democrats. It boggles my mind. I honestly can't explain it. Look, states can't start foreign wars so it's not an issue of foreign policy. Why do the citizens of Chicago and IL continue to vote for these corrupt democrats? Why? BTW Rearden, I believe the phrase is "who is John Galt". Galt represented an idealism more then an actual person.
The passage of this bill is nothing short of the financial gang rape of every working person in the state. Some poor guy slugging it out in some factory making 40K annually, just got a 800 dollar pay cut. That's a considerable amount to a working class person. Worse, the scum in Springfield did not do one thing, NOT ONE THING, to address spending.
I agree Captain.....Mav, and Rearden. I hope you guys do well living in Chicago and I do wish you a prosperous Year. It is sad to see IL and Chicago go down the tubes. I did enjoy my time there, my University years there and all my friends who still live there. But the Country is in deep shit, regardless of what the "S&P" or INDU is saying...or what the PUNDITS try and spin on a "Recovery". Yet, IL is not the only state that will be forced in cuting cost and raising taxes. I'm still waiting, even though TEXAS is one of the last states standing, to see what the House in Austin does to correct their debt. Even Texas will have to tighten its belt if they want to survive. The economy is going strong, if not the strongest out of all states yet, this can't last if TEXAS does not get it's Fiscal House in Order as well.....we have just more time to debate and figuer it out than most of the country.
I don't want all these people from IL to end up in TX but I think that is what is gonna happen We don't need more people here. Stay the !@#$% out.
I'm leaving this armpit of a state, Joisey, this summer and joining the Exodus to Texas as well. (Oh my, did I misuse a term held so dearly to Jewish people?) Even with a Gov bent on breaking the backs of this corrupt state, I feel the corruption will win out in the long run, just as is inevitable in the other welfare states like NY, CA and of course, Il. Mav protested that Chicago (don't forget NYC) is where you will find all the traders. Well, that's not 100% true anymore. More and More firms are leaving the clutches of these cities and if you (or your firm) hooks into a Radianz sever and network, you're working with sub 10ms times from just about anywhere in this country. The argument about being near the exchange was valid 10 yrs ago, but I don't think it is as necessary anymore. Besides, I lived in Chicago during the 90s,and I got to say you should move just to get away from the brutal winters. NYC winters are downright balmy when stacked up against Chicago's. (And the Teexas music blues scene is better than Chicago's. Been that way for a while.)
IL can be thought of as a ponzi/redistribution scheme from private industry to government employees and interest groups. The big one is really the bureaucracy, those, "decent people" who feed off taxpayer dollars to earn far more than they rightly would in any other job in the entire world. Like all ponzi schemes this one will crumble when productive people stop putting money in, which in this case means moving. Look what they did to Detroit if you want to see the logical conclusion of this policy direction.