The clock is ticking down towards the February 2nd primary. Fortunately, for Illinois Republican politicians there is still plenty of time before the November 2nd election.
Regular readers of this website know that for years we have been calling on our Republican elected officials and candidates to show real leadership on how they’d fix the problem caused by bi-partisan governmental malpractice. The Republicans have failed to gain the confidence of voters even as the Illinois Democrats have held power for seven years and made our fiscal house a disaster.
They had better start getting serious about laying out a credible plan or the can will just be kicked down the road. One friend wrote to me this week:
“It is a house of cards. We CANNOT pay these bills. And it will most certainly get worse over the next 5 years.
Any governor who does not take a meat axe to state employee pensions and health care is just a placeholder on the way to disaster.”
Crain’s Chicago Business reporter Greg Hinz noted this yesterday:
“Illinois’ backlog of IOUs nears $9-billion mark
As Springfield continues to squabble over whether to borrow more money, the state’s backlog of IOUs continues to get worse – a lot worse -having just passed the $8.75-billion mark, according to Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes.
The comptroller’s latest report, covering the quarter that ended Dec. 31, indicated that Mr. Hynes had $5.1 billion in unpaid bills on his desk. But that doesn’t count $2.25 billion in short-term loans that must be repaid by June 30, and another $1.4 billion in health care bills that have been incurred but not yet presented.”
Click here to continue reading Hinz’s article – but don’t expect to read about how General Assembly Republicans have proposed to solve the problem.
Despite the passage of many years and now the worsening situation, Republicans have yet to get serious about drafting – and then winning public support for – a viable alternative plan.
