But hell, no. Illinois Dems are demanding a pension bailout from the rest of the country.
Actually, $10B would be cheap to force them to revert to territory status. They could come back in in pieces; upstate and down.
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Illinois is a mess. Most of the problem is Chicago. I grew up downstate, and lived for a while in the Chicago suburbs. I was very glad to be able to move downstate again. (New York and Michigan have pretty much the same problem, of a huge, dysfunctional, Democrat city like a pustule on an otherwise functional and largely rural, Republican state).
No blank check. If Illinois wants a bail out of their pension fund and for the sake of many of my friends back in Illinois who would suffer because of it due to no fault of their own, if the Feds get involved there have to be strings. More like steel cables. NO more state control of the pension fund. It would fall completely under the preview of the federal government. The state would be obligated to pay their “fair share” but the disbursement and investment left entirely under the perview of an administrative committee in the Labor Dept. In Illinois, both the Legislature and the Executive cannot be relied upon to continue to administer the state’s pension fund responsibly, therefore they *must* lose control of it.
Yes or break it up into two states with capitals in Chicago and Springfield. Most downstater’s would get a huge tax break.
I always like to use Indiana and Iowa as examples of what life in Illinois would be like w/o Chicago.
I grew up in the NW Chicago ‘Burbs. Came to a private school in the state of Iowa for undergrad, moved home after graduation for 6 months, then back to Iowa. I’ve been here 19 more years since then, and have few plans to go back.
Family is all that keeps me tied to Chicago and the ‘burbs. My parents have even discussed moving to Iowa when they retire to get a slower pace of life and significantly lower taxes; both of my siblings have been dabbling in the idea of moving out here as well.