Illinois Has an $8B Budget Deficit, So Dem Governor Guarantees No Union Layoffs in Exchange For a Whopping... $50 Million in Concessions

If they weren't entrusted with power, Democrats would be useful only as comic relief.

... Ninety-six percent of state workers are in collective bargaining units, and there are petitions pending before the state labor board that could increase that proportion to 99 percent, said House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago...

...Rep. Rosemary Mulligan, R-Des Plaines, said the governor is to blame for reaching a no-layoff agreement until June 30, 2012, with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in exchange for $50 million in concessions.

“Didn’t he think everyone was going to join the union?” Mulligan said. “They’d have to be stupid not to.”..

Because big government and the Democrat Party are one and the same, Governor Quinn appears unable to address the state's $8 billion budget deficit in sensible ways, like eradicating collective bargaining, privatizing much of the state's workforce, promoting charter schools and otherwise letting the free market unleash entrepreneurship, innovation and private sector growth.

As for all of the hospitals, vendors and suppliers to the state who are owed money -- much of it six months in arrears -- the news just got worse thanks to the Democrats' intransigence.

The Senate rejected four bills sponsored by state Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, that would have sold more than $6 billion in bonds to pay vendors to whom the state owes money. That means, for now, school districts, local governments, vendors and other providers won’t be getting paid any more quickly.

As of last week, Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka had more than 130,000 unpaid bills dating back to December that total just over $4 billion.

“Vendors should know that there will still be substantial delays, but the situation will slowly begin to improve if we hold the line on new spending,” she said.

I wonder how bad it will have to get for the righteous taxpayers of Illinois to rebel?

That's a rhetorical question. I suspect that it is too late for the state. It would appear that the intertwined, interdependent gang of Democrats and union hacks are so powerful, so corrupt and so malevolent that they simply can't be dislodged from the halls of power.

And so people and businesses will simply flee rather than deal with the United States' own version of East Germany.


Update: IL comptroller: None of Quinn's "temporary" tax increase has gone to pay off old bills.