Senate Failed States within States

Michigan as a failed state within a state got some play last night in the Sanders-Clinton presidential debate.

Illinois of course gave this a try when Bruce Rauner was elected governor in an upset victory in late 2014.

Since then, Illinois has been in a protracted budget impasse, a multibillion dollar game of chicken between Rauner and the state legislature with which Rauner, in his secret radical right wing heart, likely hopes to destroy the viability of Illinois state government once and for all which, thanks to years of democratic fiscal mismanagement, not to mention an intervening massive recession, was already highly not at all viable.

I thought of this yesterday when I read this article about the deplorable condition of state unemployment funds: The Unemployment System Isn't Ready for the Next Recession. This list really only scratches the surface of the Great Recessionary fiscal holes that many state governments have failed to climb out of over the last 8 plus years.

Illinois isn't worst off on this list with a federally mandated unemployment compensation trust fund of $1.54 billion that is only $1.47 billion in debt. California has $12 million in its fund and $6.6 billion in debt.

The real magic for Illinois comes with its unfunded pension liabilities, which depending on how you calculated them range from the breaking out in a cold sweat reaction to falling over dead from a sudden brain aneurysm. But Illinois isn't the only state with this problem, only the worst.

And of course, Bernie's beloved state universities are suffering: Illinois Universities Plan More Budget Cuts Amid Budget Impasse

Also: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chicago-state-shutdown_us_56a5598ae4b0404eb8f200f5

And here's a more general list of statewide problems caused by the budget impasse:

Statewide Problems:

• Illinois’ unpaid bill backlog could hit $25 billion by FY 2019 if our state continues down this path.
• Redeploy Illinois — a statewide program focused on decreasing the number of juveniles in prison — has completely stopped services in 23 counties
• Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) closed 30 services and eliminated 750 jobs throughout the state due to the budget impasse. Approximately 4,700 people will no longer be receiving services from LSSI.
• 15,000 fewer women will have access to lifesaving cervical and breast cancer screening services through the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer program.
• Chicago State University, a majority black college, could face a shutdown due to the state budget impasse.
• Illinois paid a $53 million “penalty” when the state sold $480 million in general obligation bonds last week, according to a recent analysis.
• More than 1,000 Illinois college students did not return to school for their second semester due to frozen grant funds.
• Secretary of State Jesse White announced his office will stop mailing out registration renewal reminders due to the lack of a state budget.
• The state’s Department of Central Management Services notified state employees it soon may not be able to pay medical providers for 150,000 state employees, retirees, families.
• A Better Government Association investigation found Illinois state parks are suffering amid the budget crisis. Approximately 735 projects at about 135 different sites across Illinois are on indefinite hold due to the budget deadlock.
• Half of Illinois colleges can’t afford to continue to use their own funds to help students who receive the Monetary Award Program.
• Police training classes for more than 57,000 officers across the state have been canceled.
• 136,000 Illinois college students are left in financial limbo by the state budget crisis.
• 75,000 Illinois domestic violence victims will lose services because lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner have not passed a state budget.
• The Illinois childcare assistance program — which provides child care subsidies to low-income, working parents — raised income eligibility requirements from 182% to 50% in July amid the budget impasse, threatening current low-income, working parents from being able to send their children to daycare. Then in November, lawmakers and Gov. Rauner lowered the income eligibility to 150% from 50%, which still prevents many working families from being able to access affordable healthcare for their children.
• Local health departments across Illinois are cutting back on staff, hours and services because they can’t get state funding until there’s a state budget.
• A power company and a prison drug treatment provider have been unpaid due to Illinois budget impasse and are pulling the plug on their services.
• $107 million in funds dedicated to affordable housing are going unused. Currently, there are more than 172,000 people in need of these funds.

How badly and how many state governments get hammered to the point of shattering by the next major recession, which is likely due fairly soon.

 

It's treating states and communities as a business that's leading to the Flint Crisis to begin with.

 

I guess for me trying to save state universities and public K-12 education from failing states is by far the scariest part of failing states. Killing a major state research university like UI at Urbana-Champaign would be a tragedy of epic proportions, a true sign of Ender Sai 's decline and fall of the United States.

And these universities have already been badly undermined by the massive decline in federal research grant funding.

The decline in federal research funding is closely tied to the decline in higher education in the U.S.

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/content/etc/nsb1401.pdf

 

As an Illinois native, It's been sad watching their troubles. On the other hand, I'm glad to be in a stable state!

 

I think the next major recession (not Great Recession big, but 3-4 significantly unpleasant quarters) will basically wipe out a fifth of the states fiscally. The near decade of tepid recovery and the resultant employment patterns haven't helped the states that were in deep holes get even close to backfilling their problems.

 

Living in a rural part of Michigan, I'm kinda glad I don't have to rely on the city for my water, like Flint. It comes from a well dug on my house's property

 

Most of my ancestors are from Illinois. I feel the same way. I feel so bad for those people, as well!

 

I wonder why? Sale tax is a bit high, but all in all Illinois doesn't have overly high tax rates. I was in Chicago last February for my niece's boot camp graduation and it still has the best food and music in the world! It doesn't seem like a bad place to open a business.

 

Agreed about the food and music.

 

It's the Republican governor, JRod

(they've actually been having trouble for a long time.)

 

Many people might not realize how relatively new a nationwide public school system is. We tend to take these things as certainties because they've been around for all of our lives. So obviously, we assume, they must be constants.

 

I would just like to clarify that I was being ironic and tongue-in-cheek when I made the comment which is quoted in the OP. I would also like to concur that Chicago has awesome food and music.

 

Indeed. In fact, the U.S. South didn't have a extensive public school system until after reconstruction.