The genius of Democrat governance: businesses and non-profits alike shutting down thanks to Illinois' deadbeat budget

Well, this certainly comes as a surprise, seeing as how the public sector unions -- and their political wing, commonly known as the Democrat Party -- control the Illinois state budget.

Illinois lawmakers have found a way to whittle $1.3 billion from state government’s massive backlog of unpaid bills, but it comes too late for The Counseling Center of Lake View... The Chicago nonprofit, a mental health services provider, shut down at the end of April, waiting on about $200,000 in state money.

...Across Illinois, the now $8.5 billion backlog has become a fact of life for people doing business with the state. As The Associated Press reported in a series last fall, the state has turned to a deliberate policy of not paying billions of dollars in bills for months at a time, creating a cycle of hardship and sacrifice for residents and businesses helping the state carry out some of its most crucial tasks.

Public schools, as of late May, are waiting on $562 million, social services $329 million and Medicaid $944 million, according to the state Comptroller’s Office...

...The umbrella group Illinois Partners for Human Service periodically surveys its 700 member agencies about the impact of late state payments. In the most recent survey, late last year, just under a third of the 169 agencies that responded had fired staff, 8 percent had skipped paying staff for some period and almost half had to borrow money.

...Those that stay open struggle to pay their own vendors and suppliers such as janitors, food-service companies and the like.

But remember, folks: Democrats are for the little people. You know, the 99 percent.


Image adapted from: KVAL.