🚀 go-pugleaf

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/04/how_the_unfunded_pension_liabi
lities_of_government_unions_are_destroying_illinois.html

I've written several articles on the pension crisis in America over the 
last few years, including the issue of states hiding their unfunded 
pension liabilities that threaten to destroy states' fiscal position.

Nowhere has this been truer than in my home state of Illinois. The 
situation can no longer be kept from the taxpayer, as the Wall Street 
Journal explains:

llinois is an object lesson in why firms are starting to pay more 
attention to the long-term fiscal prospects of communities. Early last 
year, the state imposed $7 billion in new taxes on residents and business, 
pledging to use the money to eliminate its deficit and pay down a backlog 
of unpaid bills (to Medicaid providers, state vendors and delayed tax 
refunds to businesses). But more than a year later, the state is in worse 
fiscal shape, with its total deficit expected to increase to $5 billion 
from $4.6 billion, according to an estimate by the Civic Federation of 
Chicago.

Rising pension costs will eat up much of the tax increase. Illinois 
borrowed money in the last two years to make contributions to its public 
pension funds. This year, under pressure to stop adding to its debt, the 
legislature must make its pension contributions out of tax money. That 
will cost $4.1 billion plus an additional $1.6 billion in interest 
payments on previous pension borrowings.

Business leaders are now speaking openly about Illinois' fiscal failures. 
Jim Farrell, the former CEO of Illinois Toolworks who is heading a budget 
reform effort called Illinois Is Broke, said last year that the state is 
squandering its inherent advantages as a business location because "all 
the other good stuff doesn't make up for the [fiscal] calamity that's on 
the way." 

Caterpillar, the giant Peoria-based maker of heavy construction machinery, 
made the same point more vividly when it declined in February to locate a 
new factory in Illinois, specifically citing concern about the state's 
"business climate and overall fiscal health."

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently made the point that "You won't recruit 
a business, you won't recruit a family to live here" because taxes are 
going to be so high, it will make running a business or living in the 
state a nightmare.

Case in point, in next door Indiana, debt per person for unfunded health 
care benefits is $81. For an Illinois resident, it is $3,399. Where would 
you rather live?

The crisis is not confined to Illinois, of course. California may be even 
worse:

Executives at Stasis Engineering, a formerly Sonoma, Calif.-based auto 
design firm that left the state for West Virginia in the midst of an 
unfolding budget crisis in 2009, told the Press Democrat newspaper that 
the "budgetary bedlam gripping Sacramento" seemed to portend, as the paper 
characterized the company's concerns, "a future filled with tax increases 
and service cuts." 

More recently, in December 2011, Ron Mittelstaedt, the chief executive of 
Waste Connections, a recycling company formerly based in Folsom, Calif., 
told the press that the state's "structural [budget] mess" was a 
contributing factor in its decision to relocate to Texas.

A fiscal crisis of massive proportions is coming and most citizens in 
states where it will hit hardest are completely unaware of the tsunami of 
new taxes that will be needed to pay for the profligacy of unions and 
state legislatures when it comes to public employee health care and 
pension costs.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to check on the situation in the state where you 
live and decide whether you need to take a serious look about moving 
elsewhere.



-- 
Obama's black racist USAG appointee.

Eric Holder, racist black United States Attorney General drops voter 
intimidation charges against the Black Panthers,  "You are about to be 
ruled by the black man, cracker!" 

Eric Holder, prejudiced black United States Attorney General settles the 
hate crime debate, "Whites Not Protected by Hate Crime Laws."

Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact, to 
former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel of New 
York's million dollar tax evasion.   

Barack Obama and Eric Holder,  committed treason by knowingly and 
deliberately arming enemies of the United States of America through 
Operation Fast and Furious.  Complicit in the murder of Federal employees 
during the execution of their duties.



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