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[Viewt]

via Chicagoist

Add another victim to the embarrassing budget impasse's pileup. A leading credit rating agency just downgraded Illinois' bond rating to just one step above junk. It's the lowest rating any state has ever received by Standard & Poor's—and it very well could fall lower still.

The agency left little doubt as to the cause of the ding, which arrived one day after lawmakers in Springfield again missed a deadline to pass a budget, with the stalemate now 700 days strong and the state's unpaid bills hitting a staggering $14 billion.

"The rating actions largely reflect the severe deterioration of Illinois' fiscal condition, a byproduct of its stalemated budget negotiations," S&P analyst Gabriel Petek said in a statement. ”The unrelenting political brinkmanship now poses a threat to the timely payment of the state's core priority payments."

With the disastrous effects of the absence of a budget so palpable on state universities, social services and even K-12 education, a credit grade might seem esoteric or abstract, but it of course has real-world consequences, too. The downgrade increases borrowing costs, which have already spiked. A dip into junk push many mutual funds away from the state's securities, Bloomberg notes.

It appears that the threat of hitting that even-lower-than-the-new-low low is very real, too. After failing to meet an agreement on Wednesday, lawmakers gave themselves one more month to come up with a budget. If Springfield again fails by July 1, S&P said they will probably push the rating down again, to junk.

Bruce Rauner (Governor of Illinois) is a fucking joke. He and Mike Madigan (State Speaker) are locked in a pissing contest, and in the meantime, he's letting the state sink deeper and deeper down the drain. When he was elected, the big fear was that he'd be our Scott Walker. He's not quite that evil (this is, after all, his very first attempt at being involved in government), but for fuck's sake - this is embarrassing.

 

[Like the hat?]

Rauner is a joke at best. What a cock.

 

[Lord Frieza]

Goddamn these GOP Governor​s

 

[Turbo Killer]

He has such a hard on for term limits, why is that? That's all I hear from him. Also, the rest of Illinois is a red state, only Chicago matters.

 

[Affeinvasion]

Keep in mind that the previous governors who went to fucking prison didn't even screw up the state this much.

 

[Pagusas]

So glad I escaped that hell hole of a state.

 

[HawkeyeIC]

He has such a hard on for term limits, why is that? That's all I hear from him. Also, the rest of Illinois is a red state, only Chicago matters.

Because the state is run by people who have been in office forever. Still dumb to hold the budget hostage over (Dems aren't blameless in the slightest here either).

 

[theepicoftyler]

Hopefully Rauner continues the trend of ending up in prison at the end of his term.

 

[RumblingRosco]

Rauner sucks, but it isn't like our Democrats have done a great job in the past decade. We've had a boat load of imprisoned governors and taxes, especially property taxes, are seriously really high here.

This isn't a "both sides" post, but it is a "even if we had a Democrat as the governor, though we wouldn't be without a budget, we'd still have major problems."

 

[Turbo Killer]

Because the state is run by people who have been in office forever. Still dumb to hold the budget hostage over (Dems aren't blameless in the slightest here either).

Right, and if they were Republican he wouldn't be asking for term limits. Not saying the democrats are without blame.

 

[Lord Frieza]

Rauner sucks, but it isn't like our Democrats have done a great job in the past decade. We've had a boat load of imprisoned governors and taxes, especially property taxes, are seriously really high here.

This isn't a "both sides" post, but it is a "even if we had a Democrat as the governor, though we wouldn't be without a budget, we'd still have major problems."

You don't think there would be a budget even worth a Dem Governor? Like, damn, is IL that bad

He has such a hard on for term limits, why is that? That's all I hear from him. Also, the rest of Illinois is a red state, only Chicago matters.

I thought IL was a pretty solidly blue state?

 

[Viewt]

Rauner sucks, but it isn't like our Democrats have done a great job in the past decade. We've had a boat load of imprisoned governors and taxes, especially property taxes, are seriously really high here.

This isn't a "both sides" post, but it is a "even if we had a Democrat as the governor, though we wouldn't be without a budget, we'd still have major problems."

For sure, I don't want to diminish Mike Madigan's role in all of this. Dude's held the Speaker title for longer than anyone in the history of the position, in any state. If anyone can be tied to the mistakes of the past that created a lot of our current problems, it's Mike Madigan (and his role model, Daley the First). And Illinois has had plenty of terrible Democrats in the office, as well (three of the four Illinois governors who went to prison were Dems).

Rauner just also sucks. Very much so.

I thought IL was a pretty solidly blue state?

Not at all. There are pockets of blue here and there, but once you get out of the Chicago Metro, it's a sea of red.

 

[Slayven]

I don't have anything to add but Rahm Emmuinal is a terrible human being, and should be lead away in handcuffs. If the police wasn't so terrible

 

[Couleurs]

I thought IL was a pretty solidly blue state?

It is blue cause of Chicago, which makes up an overwhelming portion of the total population. The rest of the state is pretty conservative (though you get small liberal pockets in university cities like Champaign)

 

[Turbo Killer]

Illinois presidential elections through the years, or how the red necks took over.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/data/ct-illinois-president-results-20161108-htmlstory.html

 

[Vandiger]

Let them sink, too bad for Chicago.

 

[Dyle]

At this point I don't even know who to blame. Rauner obviously deserves the most blame due to the fact that he essentially started this, but at this point it probably would have been better overall if Madigan gave in a bit and got anything passed. Literally anything would be better than the never-ending hell this budget has caused us and it makes you wish for anyone in either party to realize that these deliberations hurt the state more than even the most heinous budget ever could.

Illinois has, or perhaps rather had, an excellent scholarship program for education majors called Golden Apple. Through it you got a bunch of money and great teaching experience, the only catch being that you had to work at an Illinois public school for 4 years after graduation. My sister will be graduating next year and has lost many of the benefits of this program which only happened because of the budget showdown. No budget proposed by either side ever would have cut anything from this program, but without a budget to guide spending, the program has essentially been discontinued for the future. The students who are still in school will still get the money, but many of the opportunities to meet with other educators have been cut and they will likely not be able to continue in 2018 without a budget. What's happened to her is just one of thousands of state programs damaged because neither side has moved away from brinksmanship and agreed to a less than ideal bill.

Rauner and the Illinois Republicans are awful for all sorts of reasons, but Madigan and the Democrats bear almost as much of the burden of responsibility for this mess. I sincerely hope that Illinois, as an entire state, can bounce back from this and build a positive future for Chicago and downstate, but it's hard to see much positive in the near future.

 

[Thoraxes]

I just hope however fucked things get, they don't try to pin Chicago's teacher pension fuck up on the entire state when it was Chicago's fault in the first place.

I'm glad that shit got shut down the first time.

 

[Viewt]

I don't have anything to add but Rahm Emmuinal is a terrible human being, and should be lead away in handcuffs. If the police wasn't so terrible

No arguments there.

It is blue cause of Chicago, which makes up an overwhelming portion of the total population. The rest of the state is pretty conservative (though you get small liberal pockets in university cities like Champaign)

Yep. The Chicago Metro is 9.4M people (though, to be fair, a small portion of that comes from close-by areas in Southeastern Wisconsin and Northwestern Indiana). The total population of Illinois is 12.8M. A huge swath of the state is rural as hell.

 

[Lord Frieza]

Shit, I had no idea IL was so red. Makes me fear they'll go red for President at some point unless Chicago can really offset it forever.

 

[Thoraxes]

Shit, I had no idea IL was so red. Makes me fear they'll go red for President at some point unless Chicago can really offset it forever.

Not likely gonna happen. This is where things like population density matters, and I say that as someone who has lived in both rural and urban areas in this state.

 

[hodayathink]

Not at all. There are pockets of blue here and there, but once you get out of the Chicago Metro, it's a sea of red.

And the pockets of blue are generally either college towns (the one in the middle of the state is Champaign, home of the state public university), or bordering cities in other states (East. St. Louis, and apparently Davenport, Iowa looking at that map). And Peoria, but I always forget about Peoria.

 

[mo60]

Shit, I had no idea IL was so red. Makes me fear they'll go red for President at some point unless Chicago can really offset it forever.

It would require cook county losing millions of voters in the next couple of decades which is unlikely. A lot of the counties that turned red in Illionis last year can also turn blue again.

 

[rrs]

maybe this will a fire on some asses and stop inviting bordering states to suck out jobs. honestly it's wild how the state during this literally made a gambing free for all putting gambling machines in every bar ever and even in dedicated places

And the pockets of blue are generally either college towns (the one in the middle of the state is Champaign, home of the state public university), or bordering cities in other states (East. St. Louis, and apparently Davenport, Iowa looking at that map). And Peoria, but I always forget about Peoria.

everything plays in peoria, and I live around there