State of Illinois rolls over, plays dead

How do Democrats address a broken economy? They play 'let's pretend'.

State lawmakers sent Gov. Pat Quinn a spending framework for the state budget before departing on Thursday.

But in their budget proposals, lawmakers did not address the fundamental problem afflicting state finances - state expenses are far outpacing the amount of money the state is receiving.

But don't worry, Illinois-ians (puh!), your beloved Democrat governor says that a 33% tax increase is just what the doctor ordered!

Sheila Weinberg, CEO of the watchdog Institute for Truth in Accounting, said the budget package passed by lawmakers is not only irresponsible - it's illegal.

Weinberg believes the General Assembly should not be able to pass unpaid bills from one fiscal year to the next... Illinois has about $6 billion in overdue bills to state vendors, according to the State Comptroller's Office.

So if you're one of the many unfortunate and unpaid suppliers to Illinois, don't worry: the state legislature could very well decide to pay you in 2011 or thereabouts.

On Thursday, the Illinois Senate did not vote on a proposed $4 billion borrowing plan with proceeds going to the state's five public employee pension systems... Lawmakers don't have to borrow funds to make the pension contribution, but using $4 billion from state revenues to go toward state pensions would cause serious cash-flow problems in other areas of state government, such as education and human services.

Illinois is borrowing to pay off its current debts, which is somewhat akin to paying off a credit card with another credit card.

Legislators who pull this kind of crap at any level of government should be thrown in a shark tank. Where the sharks have frickin' laser beams on their heads.