Sunday, May 29, 2016

Woe is Illinois

Illinois’s budget crisis (a manufactured crisis, as bears repeating) continues to attract mild national interest. The crisis was the subject of a handful of sentences during NPR’s hourly news bulletins this morning. Among the choice details: there may soon be no funds with which to buy food for the state’s prison population.

In related news, Illinois now has the highest unemployment rate in the United States. Our “pro-business” governor seems incapable of understanding that shutting down social-service agencies, decimating public higher education, and failing to pay the state’s bills do little to foster economic growth or human well-being.

This coming Tuesday will mark eleven months without a budget. After Tuesday, passing any budget legislation in the Illinois General Assembly will require three-fifths majority in each chamber. Woe is us.

Related reading
All OCA Illinois higher-ed crisis posts (Pinboard)

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