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{"id":535,"date":"2014-04-18T09:44:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-18T09:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/04\/this-is-what-the-matter-is-with-illinois.html"},"modified":"2014-04-18T09:44:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-18T09:44:00","slug":"this-is-what-the-matter-is-with-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/04\/this-is-what-the-matter-is-with-illinois.html","title":{"rendered":"THIS is “what the matter is with Illinois”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

(Sorry, I again failed to observe the \u201cbottom line on top\u201d dictum. \u00a0Please read to the end!)<\/p>\n

So earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal editorialized on \u201cWhat\u2019s the Matter with Illinois?<\/a>\u201c; the site Reboot Illinois provided significant excerpts<\/a> as well, and all the bloggers had fun with mocking Illinois and pointing to its neighbors with Republican governors, most notably Michigan and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Meant to comment on it when it appeared. \u00a0My immediate reactions at the time that Illinois is not just blue, but corrupt \u2014 both with respect to the outright criminality that landed our last two governors in prison, but also the larger history of shady deals (Quinn signing a long-term, generous union contract with the largest state union immediately prior to receiving their endorsement in the last election) and entrenched power in the hands of a few (namely, a political structure that gives the speaker of the House exceptional power). \u00a0We also have a penchant for trying to mitigate our high taxes through nearly limitless tax give-aways to powerful corporations, at a cost to the powerless. \u00a0(See this post<\/a> from October.)<\/p>\n

At this point, too, the Democrats in power basically seem to have concluded that they can raise taxes with impunity, with the philosophy that anyone who would have left Illinois for a lower-tax state has done so already; everyone else is trapped here for one reason or another. \u00a0Yes, that\u2019s pretty much what Speaker Madigan said<\/a> when proposing a millionaires tax in March.<\/p>\n

But the State simply cannot get a handle on what it means to budget. The latest? \u00a0In the news today<\/a>, the relevant House committee endorsed a plan to spend $100 million out of the projected $500 million construction cost for the Obama presidential library. \u00a0What\u2019s the rationale? \u00a0Madigan says, \u201cThe state of Illinois will spend over $1 billion in construction this year alone, so $100 million is not out of line,\u201d and, besides, \u201cclose to $100 million in state money\u201d was earmarked for the Abraham Lincoln presidential library in Springfield.\u201d <\/p>\n

If Madigan truly can\u2019t understand that the state doesn\u2019t have the cash to spend on this project, that it should be the responsibility of Obama and his supporters to fund-raise the money, and that the Abraham Lincoln library was a state-sponsored historical museum, with no living president available<\/b> to garner the cash, and if he can\u2019t recognize that the chances of Obama selecting a site other than<\/i> Chicago are slim so there\u2019s no real need to \u201cbribe\u201d him in the first place \u2014 well, of course, he does understand all those things. \u00a0He just doesn\u2019t care. \u00a0He wants to use the state treasury to give $100 million to Obama. \u00a0He has the power to ensure the votes go his way. \u00a0And that\u2019s all he cares about.<\/p>\n

Oh, and the tax hike from 3.5% to 5%? \u00a0No one believed that it was temporary. \u00a0Everyone just took it for granted that all its supporters were lying through their teeth. <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the bottom line. \u00a0The story of Illinois is not a matter of Red Model vs. Blue Model. \u00a0It\u2019s a matter of Honest Government vs. corrupt and self-serving government.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"