OntheWilderSide

Rich Whitney

Illinois Green Party governor candidate Rich Whitney reacted with very little surprise to The Civic Federation’s latest financial analysis of the state of Illinois.  The study concluded that due to its declining bond rating, Illinois will have to pay as much as $551 million extra to pay off the bonds it issued between September 2009 and July 2010. The text of the Civic Federations findings can be found at http://civicfed.org/.

Whitney explained

This result was entirely predictable. Year after year, under both Democratic and Republican governors, our state government has refused to fix our broken and regressive tax system. Instead, they have resorted to gimmicks like fund sweeps, ignoring bills, letting public service providers go out of business, and of course borrowing on the theory that we can just keep putting off doomsday and let some future General Assembly deal with it. Well, doomsday is here and yet they are continuing to do the same thing.

It’s like the captain on the Titanic deciding that the best course of action is to blow another hole in the ship to let more water in and if that doesn’t work, do it again. The only thing this report really tells us is how much more water we are taking on from the most recent borrowing.

If my plan for the budget crisis or something like it is not adopted soon, we are going to hit the bottom of the ocean. The most vulnerable members of our society are already drowning from the budget cuts.  We have to protect schoolchildren, kids in day care, people in need of public health care services, and the elderly. This madness has to stop.

Incidentally, I couldn’t help but notice that Bill Brady today announced that he wants to implement more tax breaks for business. Apparently he is just as intent on sinking the ship as his Democratic rival. He must think he’s running for governor of some other state that isn’t over $12 billion in the red.”

Rich Whitney is a 55-year-old civil rights and employment lawyer from Carbondale. As a lawyer, he has fought for working people who have lost their jobs or had their rights violated. A founder of the Illinois Green Party, he has long been politically active in support of the labor, health-care reform, environmental, civil rights, and peace movements. In 2006, he served as the Green Party’s first candidate for Governor, winning over 360,000 votes and making it possible for Illinois voters to have a third choice on the ballot statewide.

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