ILLINOIS was a mess when Bruce Rauner took over as the first Republican governor in many years in January 2015. This large Midwestern state, with a population of 13m, had the most underfunded retirement system of any state and the largest pension burden relative to state revenue. Its bond rating was the lowest in the union, which meant it had sky-high borrowing costs. Pundits compared the state’s finances to those of Greece—or Botswana: Moody’s gave Illinois and Botswana the same credit worthiness rating.
Two years on, Illinois is an even bigger mess. It seemed hardly possible for the state’s finances to have deteriorated further still, but they did. Illinois has not had a budget in two years thanks mainly to Mr Rauner’s inability to agree on a compromise with the legislature controlled by Democrats. On February 10th the Civic Federation, a watchdog, published a new report that said Illinois needs a new budget immediately and admonished Mr Rauner and lawmakers for their intransigence in the budget standoff. "Illinois is in the unenviable position of having by far the worst-rated credit in the United States and the most notoriously dysfunctional state government,"...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2kkBZqg
EmoticonEmoticon