PolicyGuy

Friday, May 27, 2005


Paying off a VISA Bill with the MasterCard
Illinois lawmakers are getting ready to add $1.1 billion in pension debt "after the Democrats who control state government were unable to agree on any other way to fix lingering budget problems," reports the Daily Herald. (Under the current schedule, the state must make $2.6 billion payment.)

This year's skipped payment could be followed up with another planned $900 million shortfall next year. Meanwhile, the retirement system's leaders say that $1 foregone now will require $13 in payments later.

So why the maneuver?

The Senate president says "We need revenue."

Actually, it's more like "We need to cut costs and find better ways of doing things."

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"Justice Louis D. Brandeis'?s metaphor of the states as "laboratories" for policy experiments ... had almost nothing to do with federalism and everything to do with his commitment to scientific socialism. .... To this day, it continues to inhibit a truly experimental, federalist politics." -- Michael S. Greve

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