Chicago State University sends layoff notices - Wash. Post

More budget problems for Illinois - from Washington Post http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ch...nois-budget-battle/ar-BBq5kgX?ocid=spartandhp

Chicago State University sent layoff notices to all faculty, staff and administrators Friday, a drastic move as the school fights to remain open without funding from the state of Illinois.
The historically black school is among 57 public universities and colleges in Illinois that have not received funding in eight months as Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-controlled general assembly fail to agree on a budget. Nearly a third of Chicago State’s funding, about $36 million a year, comes from state appropriations.

[Illinois budget battle leads Moody’s to downgrade several state universities]

The school declared a state of financial emergency earlier this month to make it easier to fire tenured faculty and eliminate academic programs. At the time, officials warned that the school might not be able to make payroll in coming months. The university by law must give employees two months’ notice of potential layoffs. And that’s exactly what happened Friday.

 

But millions of $$ pledged by an MOU to keep a gun range open in an obscure part of the state!

We shall see!

 

Dawg, I thought all the state employees at the WRSC were still there. How does opening shooting back up add millions of expense?

 

Ill is going to going to lay off an Educator and then open a shooting complex? I have a bridge in NY York Ill sell cheap if you believe it. Since there wont be a Grand everyone is invited to a cook out in my back yard that week.

 

The place lost money every year in it's existence. How does re-opening it again suddenly make it profitable?

 

Every state employee will be laid off on February 28th, then and only then, if there is a 29th, they will all have jobs and a paycheck.

What kind of madcap world do we live in, where there is no state budget, yet things still get paid for? Or even worse, if the federal government would ever go without a budget.

Holy Moly

 

Are there any state/federal park that "make money"?

 

Will be interesting to see who a gun hating state pays first. Educators or the guy working at the gun park for millionaires.

 

They will still be shooting in PA, OH, and NY. Plenty large shoots to attend. What happens in IL is a non-issue.

 

More saber rattling?

 

This is what really causes me to believe that there will be no Grand this year. Hopefully a few of these facilities going belly up will force the hands of both sides to get to work and get a FY2016 budget passed and the FY2017 budget due 1 July 2016 passed. Otherwise this will be just the first of many state funded agencies shutting down. The ripple effect will gut the State and the Grand and the WSRC won't even receive a moment of consideration by the folks in the Legislative and Executive branch of Illinois Government.

 

It won't and I didn't state that it would. But, if I'm correct and the payroll costs have continued since it's been closed how does opening shooting back up cost the state millions?

 

It sure seems like quite a few union employees will be sitting on their duffs most of the year instead of collecting unemployment compensation. So few events are scheduled thus far guaranteeing plenty of naps and coffee time with little work!

 

There are many cost related items that increase dramatically if and when the facility is operational compared to not , water, electric, sewer, plus the cost to maintain the facility escalates considerably if there are people on the grounds ... The employees that keep the place in shape do not cost more but there are several adds to contend with that are not cheap ... The facility had one electric bill for over $230,000 that was due and payable , imagine the amount of electric being used when the camping areas are full of motor homes running all of the comforts ... The facility is getting to the point (aging) where its needs repairs besides being maintained, cost of living increases for employees increase annually ... Wait until one of them Prevost, Monico's etc drops into a sink hole and does damage to the under carriage , talk about not so happy campers ... People take things for granted because we have them available to us with the flip of a switch or by pulling a lever, that all cost us or someone in someway ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

UPDATED
Illinois' budget deficit twice as bad as you thinkComments Print

GREG HINZ ON POLITICS

Illinois Supreme Court University of Illinois Bruce Rauner Laurence Msall Rod Blagojevich More +

Photo by APWith Illinois facing deepening deficits, Bruce Rauner in his Jan. 12 inaugural address suggested that sacrifices will be required, but offered no specifics.
Illinois' fiscal woes are significantly deeper and more serious than generally realized, with the state facing a $9 billion operating deficit in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

That's the horrific bottom line of a report released late today by researchers at the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs, a study that may raise the eyebrows even of Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has been warning of huge financial problems ahead.

The conclusion: The actual deficit is about twice what is commonly reported, with the hole in the current fiscal 2015 budget not $2 billion to $3 billion but $6 billion, and rising to a projected $9 billion in fiscal 2016 and hitting $14 billion by fiscal 2026, assuming no changes in law or spending practices. (Read the report below.)

The report says the fiscal hole is so big that even fully reversing the income tax cut that took effect Jan. 1 would close "only about half" the gap projected for the next several years. Starting this year, the individual income tax rate went from 5 percent to 3.75 percent, and the corporate levy from 9.5 percent to 7.75 percent.

'MASSIVE IMBALANCE'

The hole is so big that even growing the state's economy an extra 0.5 percent a year for a decade would have "only a modest" impact, the report warns. And, significantly, so large that trying to eliminate the shortfall by cuts alone would result in a 20 percent reduction in spending on public education, Medicaid, public safety and more.

"Years of pay-later budgeting has resulted in a massive imbalance between sustainable revenue and spending," said Richard Dye, co-director of the institute's Fiscal Future Project, which produced the report. "Like a person in deep credit-card debt, the state has been spending more than it can afford, and is covering the gap by issuing IOUs."

Top Springfield players are not yet commenting on the report, which is gently titled "Apocalypse Now." But I expect an awful lot of chatter now that it's been formally issued.

'ACCOUNTING GIMMICKS'

The report's general conclusions drew immediate backing from Laurence Msall, president of the Chicago-based Civic Federation, a watchdog group that has been issuing similar warnings.

While the federation has not reviewed the report and doesn't necessarily ascribe to all of the institute's methodology, the conclusions "are in keeping with our feeling that the deficit is a lot larger than has been reported," Msall told me. For many years now, Springfield officials "have been using accounting gimmicks," he said, and the true underlying deficit numbers are "very large."

In its report, the center looked not at what is reported in the state's budget but at overall state spending and accrued expenses, comparing that combined figure to actual income.

To get to the $6 billion figure for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, Dye said researchers started with the agreed-upon $2 billion to $3 billion hole (half of which was caused by the income-tax cut) and added other forms of running up debt and otherwise kicking the financial can down the road.

Included in round terms are $1 billion in annual debt service for pension obligation bonds issued by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, $600 million in borrowing and a $650 million "one-time" shift of money from special-purpose state accounts to shore up the operating or general funds, $237 million in supplemental spending approved after the budget was enacted and $470 million for programs that were authorized but not fully funded.

PENDING COURT PENSION RULING

Those holes will continue in fiscal 2016, which starts July 1, Dye said, even as the state loses another $4 billion from a full year of income-tax cuts and even as routine spending needs to rise perhaps another $1 billion. Ergo, a $9 billion hole, with the state potentially getting way behind again on payment of bills. The state owed $6.5 billion as of Dec. 31, but that backlog could rise quickly.

The hole will be even deeper if, as many expect, the Illinois Supreme Court tosses out a pension reform law designed to cut taxpayer expenses by $1 billion or more a year. The state's four major pension funds now have an unfunded liability of at least $111.18 billion.

If anything, the projected deficits are conservative, the report says, noting that it assumes spending over the next decade will rise only 3.2 percent a year, below the average annual 4.7 percent since 1997.

Rauner, echoing the position of many newbie governors, has strongly suggested in recent weeks that state finances are in worse shape than he even expected.

If the institute study is accurate, he is right. He hasn't yet said what he'll do, other than suggesting that "shared sacrifice" will be needed.

Update, 11:15 a.m., Jan. 20 —

The institute now tells me that the report assumes the new pension plan pending before the state's high court will not pass muster. If it is approved, the projected fiscal 2016 deficit would be $1 billion to $1.5 billion less, Dye tells me—in other words “only” $7.5 billion to $8 billion.

Neither the Rauner folks nor House Speaker Michael Madigan is commenting on the report. I'm awaiting some reaction from others, but you can bet it's been widely read.

12 p.m. update:

Some reaction to the report is in, and it’s not very encouraging for your pocketbook.

Says a spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton in a statement: “The IGPA analysis is disappointing but not surprising. The state was making progress toward paying down old bills while providing resources for education and other costs, but we still must address the structural deficit. We look forward to hearing Gov. Rauner’s ideas during his budget presentation Feb. 18.”

Says a Rauner spokesman in an email: “Gov. Rauner has been saying for a long time that the budget is far worse than has been let on. Gov. Quinn left the state in dire financial shape. It is clear that we need to restructure state government. . . .Failure to enact fundamental reforms would cause the taxpayers to throw good money after bad and that can’t happen.”

 

Problem wont end this year.