Illinois Comptroller Gives the Facts - - "DIRE" Situation

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...&mid=4D6E99C33C960920E7EB4D6E99C33C960920E7EB

I think she disagrees with Gipson.

 

There is another problem for the State of Illinois ... A Judge says the State does not have to pay workers if they do not have a budget ... This could get very nasty very quickly if 65,000 people do not get paid ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

Illinois today, Federal government tomorrow. Prepare for the worst personally, be ready when it comes it is on it's way. This is not a doomsday prediction it is a warning. Roger C.

 

Obviously this problem goes way beyond this year. This will be problem for may years. Bury the place already!

 

If this continues the WRSC will be the least of the States worries. Appears it's time for the ATA to regroup, might be too late already

 

I'm surprised someone hasn't suggested putting the legalization of Pot on the ballot.
Brings in a lot of tax revenue.

Regards....Gerald

 

I got an idea, instead of all that corn surrounding the trap houses, the state could grow the pot there and subsidize the shooting complex and the rest of the state! Steve

 

Most politicians are already in the pot business. They do not want more competition. They get their cut labeled as donations. Roger C.

 

http://www.sj-r.com/article/20151003/NEWS/151009853/10511/NEWS/?Start=1

Legal marijuana stirs hope in southern Illinois town

• By Carla K. Johnson, The Associated Press
  The State Journal-Register
  By Carla K. Johnson, The Associated Press
  Posted Oct. 3, 2015 at 7:16 PM
  Updated Oct 3, 2015 at 10:35 PM

• In this Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015 photo, Ashley Thompson, former high school agriculture teacher and now a grower for Ataraxia, inspects marijuana plants inside the "Mother Room" at the Ataraxia medical marijuana cultivation center in Albion, Ill. Marijuana strains with names like Blue Dream, OG Kush, Death Star and White Poison are now being cut and dried, and by mid-October, will be turned into medicine in many forms like oils, creams, buds for smoking, edible chocolates and gummies. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

By Carla K. Johnson, The Associated Press

Posted Oct. 3, 2015 at 7:16 PM
Updated Oct 3, 2015 at 10:35 PM

ALBION — A skunky aroma fills the room in which hundreds of lush marijuana plants grow, some nearly ready for harvest. Grower Ashley Thompson, a former high school agriculture teacher in this rural part of southeastern Illinois, takes the scent of weed home with her. She doesn't mind. It's the fragrance of money and jobs."My family says I smell," said Thompson, who quit the classroom to work for Ataraxia, one of a handful of cultivation centers in Illinois, which is one of 23 states with medical marijuana. "I can't tell though." The Associated Press recently gained an exclusive look at Illinois' first legal marijuana crop — and the new farmland ritual beginning amid surrounding cornfields in the historic town of Albion: the harvest of medical marijuana that will soon be sold in dispensaries around the state. Ataraxia is the first center to make it to the finish line after running a gantlet of state requirements. For the company to find a home in Albion — where grain trucks rumble past the sleepy central square, cicadas drone in the trees shading a century-old courthouse and a breeze touches an empty bandstand — is paradoxical. Stores can't sell package liquor, but marijuana has been welcomed as a badly needed source of employment. A comical T-shirt for sale says the town is "High and Dry." Cheryl Taylor, who sells the shirts at her shop on the square, said the marijuana facility has everyone curious: "It's brought our little town to life."Down a country road, tucked behind the New Holland tractor dealer and the Pioneer seed plant, the history-making marijuana crop is being cut and dried behind the locked doors of a giant warehouse. By mid-October, strains with names like Blue Dream, OG Kush, Death Star and White Poison will be turned into medicine in many forms: oils, creams, buds for smoking, edible chocolates and gummies. It's been a twisting path to harvest, marked by delays and a secretive, highly restrictive program meant to avoid the creation of easy-access pot shops seen in other states. Until Illinois gave approval in late September for the AP's tour, only company workers and government inspectors had been inside the warehouse. Thousands of marijuana plants — some in full bud, coated with cannabinoid-rich fibers — filled two large rooms at the facility on the day of the AP's tour. Mother plants and young plants started from cuttings had their own smaller rooms. The 2,000-person community of Albion, which is closer to Louisville, Kentucky, than Chicago, has embraced all this, sight unseen. "It's a good thing for the local economy," said Doug Raber, who sells insurance. "This is a pretty conservative area. Any kind of revenue we can have here is good." Local developers sold a cornfield to Ataraxia for $5,000 an acre, which real estate agent Randy Hallam said is a 50 percent discount. The city also paid to build a road and extend water and sewer lines. The company hired locals to build and outfit the warehouse.
Page 2 of 3 - But only seven people, aside from managers, have been hired permanently. With only 3,000 approved medical marijuana patients statewide, the company can't expand yet. CEO George Archos said he wants to hire 50 to 60, and meeting that goal will go a long way to keeping the community's support. "Albion needs to diversify its employment," said Duane Crays, editor of The Navigator, Albion's newspaper. Chief employers regionally are agriculture, oil and gas production, and an auto filter plant. Albion might seem an unlikely place for pioneering a marijuana crop, but it is no stranger to controversies, large and small. A few years ago, residents were at odds over whether to restore the historic brick streets or pave them over. The current debate is whether to sell alcohol in stores or keep the city dry, as it has been for decades, except for clubs. A love triangle was the city's first rift. Albion was founded in 1818 by an Englishman, George Flower; a former rival for the affections of Flower's wife founded his own settlement 2 miles away. The two men did agree on abolition, and the rival, Morris Birkbeck, penned essays credited with keeping Illinois free of slavery. Traces of that settler spirit remain today, Ald. Arrol Stewart said. "As the sign says when you come into town: 'Progressively Independent since 1818,' " Stewart said. Residents' excitement over the health benefits of marijuana — from stimulating appetite in cancer patients to easing stiffness for people with multiple sclerosis — may also have historic roots. The bandstand marks the spot where a mineral spring once drew patients suffering from a host of ailments; it was said the water could cure. "My wife has MS," Hallam said. She doesn't have her patient card yet, he said, "but she has a doctor's appointment coming up."***Steps to harvesting medical marijuana Thousands of legal medical marijuana plants are growing under lights in a warehouse in Albion, a small southeastern Illinois city whose residents are more familiar with corn and soybeans. Ataraxia, which runs the facility, was the state's first cultivation company allowed to start growing plants. It has started harvesting and will be the first to deliver to licensed dispensaries throughout the state by mid-October. The Associated Press was given exclusive access to see the crop.Here's a brief explanation of the 60- to 67-day growing process: 'Immaculate conception' The life cycle starts in the "mother room," where about 20 strains of lush, green marijuana plants thrive. Ataraxia grower Ashley Thompson, a former agriculture teacher, takes cuttings from these plants to start new ones. She won't reveal where the mothers originate — "immaculate conception," she says. While 23 states allow medical use of marijuana, there's a federal prohibition against transporting it across state lines. Growers obtain mother plants either from the black market or from legal operations in other states. Regulators turn a blind eye.
Page 3 of 3 - Clone room Cuttings are taken to the "clone room," where they take root and get light 24 hours a day. Cuttings take root in seven to 21 days. Each plant has a bar code that identifies its strain and when it began life as a clone.Life of lights After the plants take root, they are potted and moved into the "veg room," short for vegetative state. They'll spend about two months under lights for 18 hours a day. Like other plants, marijuana is vulnerable to pests like spider mites, springtails and aphids. Good air circulation and superclean conditions minimize the risk, and workers are sprayed with disinfectant to prevent the spread of pests or disease. This bud's for you Illinois regulations bar pesticides once the plants have flowered, so Ataraxia grows garlic, a natural pest repellent, alongside the marijuana in the flower room. Plants here get 12 hours of light. Buds are ready for harvest when they are covered with fibers called trichomes, which contain the drug's active ingredients, THC and cannabidiol. MunchiesAfter cutting and drying, marijuana can be turned into oils, creams, smokable products and edibles like chocolates. Ataraxia has hired chefs Joseph Pierro and Lenny Ganshirt to create original recipes using marijuana. They won't reveal their secrets, but ingredients on their kitchen shelves include coconut flakes, chocolate, molasses, flaxseed and marshmallows.

 

Albion, I noticed a T shirt vendor in the article, I need to find Albion on a map. Brad

 

State revenues down by nearly $1 billion in first quarter

By Doug Finke, State Capitol Bureau
Posted Oct. 2, 2015 at 5:51 PM
Updated Oct 2, 2015 at 6:42 PM

State tax collections dropped by nearly $1 billion in the first three months of this fiscal year compared with last year.

The legislature's bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability said Friday that the drop was largely from the loss of income tax revenue due to the expiration in January of the bulk of a temporary state income tax hike.

"This was totally expected," said Jim Muschinske, revenue manager for forecasting commission, who prepared the report. "Things are behaving pretty much as what we thought it would be.

"The first quarter of the state's 2016 fiscal year, which began July 1, ended Wednesday. The commission said that in the first three months of the year, tax collections dropped by $987 million. Of that, $699 million was because of a drop in personal income tax collections. Another $154 million was because of lower corporate income tax collections.

Both are the result of income tax rates dropping in January as a large portion of the temporary income tax increase was allowed to expire as scheduled. At the time, the personal income tax dropped from 5 percent to 3.75 percent.

The corporate rate dropped from 7 percent to 5.25 percent.Although reduced tax rates accounted for the drop in personal income tax collections, Muschinske said data showed there was actually "a little bit" of underlying growth in income taxes that helped keep the numbers from being worse.

"We're actually doing OK on personal," Muschinske said.

He said that as of now the figures show the commission's estimate for total tax collections this fiscal year "seems right on track." The commission estimates that the state will take in $32.1 billion.

However, there are estimates that the state is on track to spend $37 billion to $38 billion because of various court orders and state laws that are requiring the state to continue spending money even though it doesn't have a permanent budget in place.

"I don't know what the ultimate spending will be," Muschinske said. "Obviously, the (bill backlog) will be considerably larger because of that.

"Comptroller Leslie Munger has estimated that the state's bill backlog could grow to $8.5 billion by the end of December.

In the meantime, the state has started its fourth month of the new fiscal year with no budget in place. Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislators agree that higher taxes will have to be part of an overall budget solution. However, Rauner, a Republican, has said he won't discuss tax hikes until lawmakers approve his pro-business, anti-union "turnaround agenda.

"So far, Democratic legislative leaders, who control large majorities in both the House and Senate, have not agreed to the agenda.


By doug.finke@sj-r.com, 788-1527, twitter.com/dougfinkesjr.

 

http://www.rebootillinois.com/2015/...ainful-tax-bills-so-wheres-the-outrage/46821/


Each day brings more pain and painful tax bills, so where’s the outrage?

Madeleine Doubek
REBOOT STAFF
Oct 6, 2015 813 4

OPINION

Each day that passes without a state budget agreement, our tax bills grow and so do the damaging programming cuts that hurt our friends and neighbors.

Now into our fourth month without a state budget, in-home respite care for the developmentally disabled is being cut at agencies around the state, a friend of mine tells me. Mentally ill patients are being told to wait or deal with new psychiatrists. People are losing their jobs. Others are retiring early, reports Springfield State Journal-Register’s Doug Finke, or leaving the state because they’ve had enough of the political gridlock. Big lottery winners aren’t being paid. Vehicle license sticker reminders no longer are being mailed. Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White says he doesn’t know how much longer he can keep the state buildings open in Springfield.

The bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability said state tax revenue collections for the first three months of the fiscal year were down by $1 billion. Comptroller Leslie Munger says by the new year, Illinois will have at least $8.5 billion in unpaid bills and will owe another $4.3 billion to universities and others who have yet to be paid.

That’s $12.8 billion owed. Divide that by 4.09 million taxpayers in Illinois last year, according to nonpartisan think tank Truth in Accounting, and you get more than $3,100 per taxpayer. If you live in Chicago, tack on a least another $750-$1,000 for those taxes and fees. That’s just to try to play catch-up.

For thousands of needy residents and those who work at careers trying to help them, it’s probably already too late.

And yet, not many of us seem to care. I don’t hear people on the street talking about the political gridlock. None of us seem to be trying to do much about it.

A few weeks ago, in an interview with WROK Radio in Rockford, Munger said moving back to the 5 percent income tax rate from the 3.75 percent rate we’re currently paying won’t really “even make a dent” in the state’s debt.

So, potentially, we face more than a $3,100 bill and an income tax rate beyond 5 percent. Do we care now? Do we maybe want to try to put some pressure on Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Speaker Mike Madigan to call an end to this nonsense? Needy Illinois residents already are suffering. The rest of us will pay for this ego-driven game of political chicken.

And now it is all about politics. The politicians whose salaries we pay aren’t even pretending to do our business on a “continuing basis” anymore. They haven’t been there for a while and won’t show up at the Capitol for another two weeks.

That’s because now it’s all about the next election. This stale standoff likely won’t end until at least January, perhaps not until after the March 15 primary. Rauner and Madigan and the rest need to see who will have a contested primary and who won’t and how that affects who can vote for a tax hike and who can’t. And none of the Illinois House and Senate candidates turn in petitions to run until Nov. 30. Then, there’ll be the usual weeks of checking signatures and trying to toss people off the ballot.

January is when a tax increase can be passed with a simple majority rather than a supermajority, making the job of sticking us with the bills a bit easier for both the Democrats and Republicans.

We are sick. That’s the metaphor one astute insider used with me recently. We’re going to have to take our medicine at some point. The longer we wait, the sicker the patient gets. And the more painful the cure becomes.

In January, we’ll have six months left in the current fiscal year at the same time we should be budgeting for the next one. Because of court orders and spending already baked into law, the state already is spending 90 percent of $37 billion –last year’s spending— but its only collecting $32 billion. Will the state run out of money before January?

That’s one of the big questions. The other is whether enough or any of us in the downtrodden silent majority who are about to get socked with less government services and skyrocketing tax bills and fees will care enough to speak up?

We aren’t just sick. We’re comatose.
=====================================================

 

Do they have a plan? I'll bet some of the Sparta minions could help the state with a plan seeing as how Sparta is flourishing.

 

I have been on Double Secret Suspension (probation) , so I can't get in to see the responses from the Sparta professionals who never shot until and probably never will shoot another target once the ATA is ushered out of Sparta ... I sincerely hope no one is holding their breath waiting for the cows to come home, but things ain't looking good people ... Turn out the lights, the party is over .... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

Rauner suspends $26 million in social services, public health grants
Tribune wire reportsContact Reporter

Gov. Bruce Rauner has issued his first two pardons, as well as rejecting 57 other clemency requests he has considered since taking office.

But there's always another price - this one paid for by constituents who, as soon as Monday morning, will be told through closed doors there's no more money to help them.

Breandan Magee, senior director of programs for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said dozens of organizations assisted 102,000 legal immigrants in 2014 with applications for citizenship, English as a Second Language classes and health and nutrition programs for low-income immigrants.

"There are 299 jobs across 60 different immigrant-services agencies at risk" with funding ceasing, Magee said Saturday. "There are workshops scheduled for citizenship, applications for citizenship pending, ESL classes hallway through."

Immigrant integration programs - which Rauner proposed eliminating entirely in the 2016 budget - will forfeit nearly half of their $6.7 million budget, according to figures provided by the governor's office. Magee said he hopes the state will cover expenses he's already incurred.


Editorial: Rauner's budget confronts legislators with their own wreckage
A copy of Friday's letter from Human Services, obtained by The Associated Press, notifies the recipient to "immediately cease incurring additional obligations, costs or spending any further grant funds." Agencies must submit records of all spending for the year.

Jimi Orange of Children's Home and Aid faces the unenviable task of telling up to 25 of the 100 children in Chicago's impoverished West Englewood neighborhood they can't come to Earle Elementary School for after-class tutoring and cultural activities because the state has recalled the remaining $3.1 million of Teen REACH money for kids ages 7 to 17.

"The staff's concern is how to tell the families? What to tell the kids? How to tell the kids?" Orange said. "These are kids who already have abandonment issues, trust issues."

Parkland-related grants Rauner has suspended this year include $90 million for park facility construction, $56 million for local governments to purchase open space for future parkland, and $30 million for museum capital-construction grants.

Grants suspended by Rauner include:

DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES

Funeral & Burial, $6.9 million

Immigrant Integration Services, $3.4 million

Welcoming Centers, $191,300

ARC Lifespan, $118,100

Best Buddies, $250,000

Autism, $1 million

Group Home Loans, $20,000

Compulsive Gambling, $406,000

Westside Health, $94,200

Addiction Prevention, $1.6 million

Assistance for Homeless, $300,000

Community Services, $2 million

Teen REACH, $3.1 million

Coalition F/Tech Assist-Child, $250,000

For Children's Health Program, $231,600

Outreach to Individuals to Engage in Services, $380,700

Regions Special Consumer Support, $277,700

SMRF Training, $420,100

Transportation, $43,900

DD Latino Outreach, $87,500

Microboard Development and Outreach, $47,500

Epilepsy, $514,700

DHS TOTAL: $21.8 million



DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Brothers and Sisters United Against HIV/AIDS, $789,800

Increasing Access to Health Care-Wellness on Wheels, $180,000

Wellness on Wheels - Mobile Administration 2015, $135,000

Illinois Tobacco Quitline, $3.1 million

Project Safe Sleep Education and Outreach, $250,000

MidAmerica Regional Public Health Leadership Institute, $75,000

IDPH TOTAL: $4.5 million



DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES*

Park and Recreational Facility Construction, $89.5 million

Open Space Lands Acqusition and Development, $56.3 million

Museum Capital Grants, $30.4 million

Bike Paths, Mud-to-Parks, others, $2.6 million

IDNR TOTAL: $178.8 million

*Grants suspended in March

Associated Press

Copyright © 2015, Chicago Tribune

 

More good news ::::

This Is What A State’s Budget Crisis Means For Its Residents
BY KIRA LERNER SEP 30, 2015 9:47AM


CREDIT: AP PHOTO/SETH PERLMAN

Supporters of Early Intervention programs rally for the continuing of funding from the state in the rotunda at the Illinois State Capitol, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015, in Springfield, Ill.

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First term Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) has been in office for eight months and the state has not had a budget for nearly half that time. The governor is trying to tie passage of the new budget to changes in labor laws — including creating “right-to-work zones” — that would hurt state workers and to changes in the tax code, but the legislature refuses to sign the package. The feud between Rauner and the Democratic-controlled legislature is nearing its fourth month and neither side seems ready to resolve the budget impasse soon.

A number of government vendors haven’t been paid for their services since the fiscal year began on July 1. And the budget impasse has also had a whole slew of other effects on the state and its residents. Here are seven of the more drastic effects of the current budget crisis:

1. Shootings in Chicago have increased.
This past weekend, 53 people were shot and four were killed in Chicago — making the total number of shootings so far this year about 400 times higher than this time last year. One reason for the violence is the budget battle which has resulted in cuts to counseling services and other programs intended to prevent violence and keep kids off the streets, according to Al Jazeera America. Community organizers have had to cut back on the summer jobs they can over youth and churches have had to lay people off and cancel after-school activities. One teenager told Al Jazeera he heard about some people selling drugs because they couldn’t find summer jobs.

2. Police training programs have been canceled.
Police officer training centers have had to begin cancelling classes that provide training on things like how to deal with mentally ill people and the proper use of force. The issue comes just months after lawmakers approved a bill requiring additional law enforcement training. If the impasse continues, many of the programs, like the one in Carbondale, Illinois will have to shut down in the coming months.

3. Electricity could soon be shut off in the state Capitol.
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White sent a letter to Rauner last week outlining problems that could occur if the budget standoff isn’t resolved. The impasse could now mean that garbage pickup at the Capitol is halted, lights in state offices are shut off, and the armored truck service that moves cash would be stopped.

4. More than 100 state workers could soon be laid off.
State workers from several agencies were scheduled to be let go at the end of the month, but the governor’s office announced recently it would delay the layoffs pending litigation in state court. “The administration believes legal proceedings will confirm that the agencies have properly followed the law in executing these layoffs,” a spokesperson for the governor said in a statement.

5. State employees are paying for medical care out of pocket.
Illinois is no longer paying medical or dental claims for nearly 150,000 state employees because their insurance is on hold, so they are on the hook for paying their medical bills themselves until the crisis is resolved. The state has told employees that if they do have to pay upfront for coverage, they will get their money back, but there is no time frame for those reimbursements.

6. Fewer parents can send their children to day care.
The budget impasse has also meant that the state’s Child Care Assistance Program has beenforced to stop enrolling new children, meaning day care centers are struggling to stay open with fewer children and parents are desperate to find someone to watch their kids. And new eligibility requirements for the program mean that a single parent working a full-time minimum wage job now makes too much money to qualify for child care assistance.

7. Low-income families have lost their energy assistance.
The state’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program should have begun providing subsidies to families for heat earlier this month, but because of the budget impasse, senior citizens and others with disabilities will have to pay their utility bills without state aid. The state still hasn’t approved funds for the program, so more than 150,000 families will be affected.

"All the news, all the time" ... Respectfully, WPT ... (YAC) ...