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Quinn To Illinois: Help Us Solve The Budget Crisis (Online)

By aaroncynic in News on Feb 24, 2010 10:00PM

As we mentioned yesterday, Illinois is on the verge of a big financial fail and has been for quite some time. Today, Governor Pat Quinn’s office launched a website to show the dire straits we’re in and ask the people of Illinois for help. According to the site, almost three-quarters of current spending goes towards education, health care and human services. The site reports that because those funds are sometimes tied to federal matching funds, cuts could mean more lost revenues.

The website contains a “suggest a solution” page, where anyone can post ideas on how Illinois can save itself from financial ruin. For those inclined to write lengthy treatises, attachments can be uploaded. Already, the site has gleaned some interesting ideas along with plenty of angry, typo ridden rants. Whether lawmakers in Springfield will listen or take any of these suggestions under advisement is anyone’s guess, but here are few of the highlights so far:

  • Chris I Jones of Park Forest suggests Illinois does away with automatic cost of living raises for state lawmakers along with selling property the state owns but isn’t using.
  • Lori Ephraim of Channahon feels that Illinois should start a fundraiser to solicit donations to offset our deficit. “If the whole country can raise millions of dollars to benefit other countries, such as Haiti, I would think the people of Illinois might be willing to donate to our deficit.”
  • Several people agree with Alan Grudzien of Lansing, who suggests that all state and appointed officials should take a pay cut.
  • Bob McGarry of Buffalo Grove took a page out of Mayor Daley’s playbook by saying that the State of Illinois should privatize and run itself like a corporation. Apparently, Bob has not noticed how well Chicago did with privatizing its parking.

Other ideas include: Raising the income tax, a 5 percent sales tax on all fuel sold in Illinois, more layoffs, legalizing pot and abolishing the death penalty (the state already has a moratorium).