What about taxing all internet sales? It's gonna happen at some point.

The victims are the American People and the Republic itself.

It already has. 2/1/2015.

WHat I find interesting is people vilifying the pensioners,teachers,police,state workers,etc. The reason we have a pension problem is not their fault,they paid their share of the bargain. .

The problem is the original promises were pie-in-the-sky fantasies with zero basis in economic reality.

If Wimpy says "I'll gladly pay you $1 million dollars next Tuesday for a McDouble today" and you agree and fully expect to get that million dollars next Tuesday....that's on you when there's no million dollars next Tuesday.

The money's not there. It was never gonna be there. It didn't matter to either the politicians who agreed to the pensions or the union leaders who sold their membership on the pensions. By the time the chickens came home to roost, it would all be someone else's problem.

The sooner public employee unions figure that out, the better. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), they are quietly preparing to allow states to enter bankruptcy to re-do the public employee pensions--expect Illinois to be one of the first states to seek Federal bankruptcy protection. and then the public employee retirees will be forced to accept a Bo-Ric's caliber haircut.

Would be smart for the public employee unions to negotiate reductions in pension benefits now to help the state avoid bankruptcy, but I don't see that happening.

So nothing of significance will happen until it's in the hands of a Federal bankruptcy judge .

For Illinois purchases? What if I buy from out of state?

The victims are the American People and the Republic itself.

You understand that this is their only retirement plan unlike private plans aka 401k that Rauner is proposing. If you have a 401k at work you also have Social security that these people do not have.

No social security for the Detroit city workers either and they still had to take a substantial haircut on pension payouts when Detroit tilted into Federal bankruptcy.

The victims are the American People and the Republic itself.

you also have Social security that these people do not have.

they negotiated for the payment of a similar level

The matching payments where not just not paid but the payments made by the employees where "borrowed" and used by the state.

Are you stoned or pissed off, or both, when you create these postings?

They didn't "negotiate" shit. Their union bosses were paid off by politicians looking for votes.

The money's not there. It was never gonna be there. It didn't matter to either the politicians who agreed to the pensions or the union leaders who sold their membership on the pensions. By the time the chickens came home to roost, it would all be someone else's problem.

The sooner public employee unions figure that out, the better. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), they are quietly preparing to allow states to enter bankruptcy to re-do the public employee pensions--expect Illinois to be one of the first states to seek Federal bankruptcy protection. and then the public employee retirees will be forced to accept a Bo-Ric's caliber haircut.

Greg Hinz at Crain's:
- The governor is proposing to cut in half, from 8 percent to 4 percent, the share of income taxes the state gives to local governments. That would save the state roughly $600 million a year but would cost local governments—Chicago, for instance—about $125 million a year, if accepted by lawmakers.

-For transit, the Regional Transportation Authority would get a roughly $110 million cut, other sources say. Half or a bit more would come from the Chicago Transit Authority, the rest from Metra and Pace. The CTA has an overall operating budget of about $1 billlion, so something is going to pinch.

-Specifically, according to budget documents shared with me, Rauner intends to save $2.2 billion next year, cutting the state's unfunded pension liability by $25 billion. He'd do that by freezing all benefits as of July 1, moving workers to a new plan in which cost-of-living hikes would be cut from the current 3 percent a year to the lesser of 3 percent or half of inflation, non-compounding; the normal retirement age would be 67; and overtime would not be counted in pension benefits. All of these changes would apply only to plans covering teachers, university employees and other state workers—not public safety employees.

-Also, the budget proposes ending the state's subsidy of health insurance for retired downstate and suburban teachers, saving $125 million. And workers hired prior to 2011 would be given the option of voluntarily reducing their COLA on benefits earned prior to July 1, if they agree to enter a defined-contribution pension and end their defined-benefit pension. Accrued benefits would be carried over into a 401(k)-style system by a lump sum payment covering already accrued benefits.
No benefit changes would affect those who already are retired. That might help Rauner with a legal challenge, maybe.

Gov. Bruce Rauner's budget has elicited gasps in some quarters for the cuts it proposes to taxpayer-funded state programs.
But Rauner isn't stopping at programs supported by state taxes. To plug a budget hole of more than $6 billion, he's proposing to snatch $265 million furnished by ratepayers in the form of surcharges on their utility bills.
The money Rauner is targeting helps low-income households pay their heating bills and makes affordable-rental units and public buildings more energy-efficient.
Trouble is, Rauner can't just grab the money. State law requires utilities such as Commonwealth Edison, Nicor Gas and Peoples Gas, which collect the funds, to use them for the intended purposes or reimburse ratepayers. So Rauner will need a change in those laws to shift the utility-collected funds to the state's general fund. A spokeswoman confirms he will propose just such a change.Getting those amendments through a General Assembly with Democratic veto-proof majorities in both chambers will be challenging, to say the least. But lawmakers are expected to take up wide-ranging energy legislation this session, so stranger things have happened.
FROM AID TO TAX STREAM
Striking in any case is the fact that an Illinois governor has proposed, in effect, to transform utility-bill payments aimed at helping the most disadvantaged into a state tax stream.
The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, is a federally funded pool of money that in Illinois generally is distributed each winter to needy households to keep them current on their bills and prevent gas shutoffs when April comes around. The funds generated through the utility surcharges add another 50 percent to the money available when combined with the federal allocation. For Illinoisans in the current fiscal year, the utility surcharges for LIHEAP generated $165 million, according to the governor's budget document.
The LIHEAP changes Rauner proposes affect only the state's contribution to that program, not the $330 million that Illinois gets from the federal government for low-income heating help.
“To close a $6 billion budget deficit and address years of fiscal mismanagement, the governor's budget brings Illinois in line with 20 other states that use only federal dollars to fund the program,” a Rauner spokeswoman says in a statement. “Illinois households that need help paying utility bills will continue receiving subsidies. As in the past, the state will work to make sure that subsidies go to those most in need.”
The ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs administered by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity also are aimed at the disadvantaged. DCEO uses the money to retrofit affordable-housing units, as well as public buildings like schools. In the current fiscal year, those DCEO-controlled funds added up to $100 million, according to the budget document.
The LIHEAP funds are particularly important in Chicago, with a large number of low-income households.
“While we do not know the details of the proposed budget's impact, any decrease in LIHEAP funding will have an effect on our customers,” Jennifer Block says in an email. Block is a spokeswoman for Peoples Gas, which serves Chicago, and sister utility North Shore Gas, which serves the northern suburbs. “Over 61,000 Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas customers have received more than $31.7 million in LIHEAP assistance this heating season.”
That number will grow substantially as many households wait toward the end of the heating season to apply for LIHEAP grants.
BUDGETARY CHICKEN?
Concerned about the potential political controversy over cutting low-income heating assistance, Nicor declined to disclose how many of its customers have tapped LIHEAP funds so far this winter. Nicor, with more than 2 million customers in the Chicago suburbs, is the state's largest natural gas utility.
“Letting poor people freeze is not an acceptable solution to saving money,” says Bob Gallo, state director at AARP Illinois. “To even think so is reprehensible.”
He speculated that Rauner is “playing a game of (budgetary) chicken with the General Assembly. Playing chicken, with people who are struggling and suffering in the middle, is not the kind of conversation we need.”
As for the efficiency funds, environmental advocates decried the proposal.
“Stealing money from programs that save energy for affordable housing and public buildings is an absurd way to try to balance a budget,” says Rebecca Stanfield, deputy policy director in the Midwest at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It guarantees inefficiency, which is a drag on our economy, makes the utility system more expensive for other ratepayers and disadvantages families who are living in leaky buildings spending a huge part of their income on utility services.”
ComEd said its ratepayers provide about $40 million a year for DCEO's energy efficiency projects and another $40 million for LIHEAP and related low-income assistance.
ComEd's energy efficiency surcharge is 0.227 cents per kilowatt-hour, adding $1.58 to the average monthly residential electric bill. ComEd spends the majority of that money on its own energy-efficiency programs; less than half of it covers DCEO's program.

:lol: A businessman has to male tough decisions. Including taking 265 million so poor people can stay warm in winter. Yep this guy is just what Illinois needs. But unions.....

I am not a legal expert, how many times do I have to say it?

:lol: A businessman has to make tough decisions. Including taking 265 million so poor people can stay warm in winter. Yep this guy is just what Illinois needs. But unions.....

Politicians always start off by cutting or taking things away from the poor.

He cut everything....local government are losing half of their income tax revenue, universities are taking big cuts. Those aren't just for the poor. We are $6B short. The pensions are over $100B underfunded, worst in the nation.


I get it, you all want the politicians to kick the can down the road. Do you see why previous governors have done that? Look at what happens when you try to match revenues and spending.

Please don't make up things that I never said. Taking $300M from people who need it the most isn't good policy. This is something that is probably hard to understand when you're looking at data on a computer. Politicians don't seem to get this or they don't care because the poor don't have lobbyists.

He cut everything....local government are losing half of their income tax revenue, universities are taking big cuts. Those aren't just for the poor. We are $6B short. The pensions are over $100B underfunded, worst in the nation.

The local government one hurts the poor, too. So do the University cuts. Those aren't great examples.

Rauner call to homeowners: “Property taxes are out of control and Pat Quinn’s done nothing about it. We need a property tax freeze in Illinois – no more property tax hikes without taxpayer approval.”

It's not even his money to take! He has to introduce a bill to change the rules so he can take the money!

It's called living within your means, and it sure feels good.

There's going to be a lot of pain to go around. Every single person getting cut is going to scream. There's no easy way to fix it.

$5.4B in unpaid bills backlog
$6.2B in structural deficit
$99.4B in unfunded pension liabilities
$33B in debt outstanding

$32B in annual revenues

It's called living within your means, and it sure feels good.