Would You Support these Cuts and More?

[froggy]

Downsize Illinois: Eliminate wasteful government - Chicago Tribune

 

[ScienceRocks]

I want more science, r@D, infrastructure and reform of education...

So unless they're totally useless or wasting money that can go to the above....Well, no...

 

[Papageorgio]

25% across the board cuts with corporate welfare getting 100%, make the cuts occur in the red tape portion of the spending and work on making government efficient not bureaucratic.

 

[DiamondDave]

I want more science, r@D, infrastructure and reform of education...

So unless they're totally useless or wasting money that can go to the above....Well, no...

Sure.. get an amendment or 3

 

[longknife]

25% across the board cuts with corporate welfare getting 100%, make the cuts occur in the red tape portion of the spending and work on making government efficient not bureaucratic.

I know this is going to be very difficult to understand, so I'll do my best to make it simple:

Increase taxes on corporations and you reduce the amount of money paid back to the investors - who are people! Many retired and many more counting on it for their retirement.

 

[g5000]

Illinois, Connecticut, and New York are three states that are hit hardest with underfunded public employee pension funds as a result of the economic crash. The end result is going to be higher taxes in those states.

Crooks on Wall Street robbed everyone, for the fees. Pension funds, hedge funds, 401ks, city treasuries, sovereigns, insurance companies, college endowment funds, and on and on and on.

Got higher taxes? Higher tuition? Higher insurance rates? Higher taxes? The fallout from the global derivatives bubble rolls on.

When you feel that invisible hand squeezing your balls, thank Wall Street.

 

[baker001]

I live in IL. Getting rid of the township system would be a GREAT start! Totally useless, what little they do accomplish could easily be done by other existing government entities.

I don't know if I'd go so far to cut the number of school districts by almost 2/3's but some of the smaller ones could easily be consolidated and I agree with getting rid of the regional superintendents.

I'm not anti-government, but I read someplace once that IL has more local government entities than any other state in the Union. We can easily eliminate or consolidate some of that and make our local, county, and state government more efficient, and in turn fund the essential areas better and perhaps lower property taxes a bit (our income tax is reasonable, IMO, but the property taxes in some areas are nuts!).

 

[longknife]

baker001 - I personally think local townships are far more important than any other government entity!!!

It is government at the very closest level that is impacted more by the citizenship than any other. It's where YOU and YOURS can make the biggest direction in where you want government to go.

It is also where politicians at higher levels get their start.

 

[Mr. H.]

As a resident of IL ville yes I'd support them.

 

[Freewill]

Illinois, Connecticut, and New York are three states that are hit hardest with underfunded public employee pension funds as a result of the economic crash. The end result is going to be higher taxes in those states.

Crooks on Wall Street robbed everyone, for the fees. Pension funds, hedge funds, 401ks, city treasuries, sovereigns, insurance companies, college endowment funds, and on and on and on.

Got higher taxes? Higher tuition? Higher insurance rates? Higher taxes? The fallout from the global derivatives bubble rolls on.

When you feel that invisible hand squeezing your balls, thank Wall Street.

The stock market is now at historic highs, one would think that the pension funds should have recovered. I am sure it is not that simple and with the economy never really recovering and I see no recovery in the near future, I am sure they took a hit. But, those who manage these things should have been prepared for downturns in the market. They were not, they are liable.

Mismanagement is more then likely the cause of the problems they are having with their pension funds. It doesn't seem to me it should be all that hard. Someone starts in the pension program and the company buys an annuity. When the person works their 30 years and retires then the annuity is amortized to pay out a certain amount. No mystery it is just dollars and cents.

 

[Freewill]

I live in IL. Getting rid of the township system would be a GREAT start! Totally useless, what little they do accomplish could easily be done by other existing government entities.

I don't know if I'd go so far to cut the number of school districts by almost 2/3's but some of the smaller ones could easily be consolidated and I agree with getting rid of the regional superintendents.

I'm not anti-government, but I read someplace once that IL has more local government entities than any other state in the Union. We can easily eliminate or consolidate some of that and make our local, county, and state government more efficient, and in turn fund the essential areas better and perhaps lower property taxes a bit (our income tax is reasonable, IMO, but the property taxes in some areas are nuts!).

In my state every little collection of houses is a different borough/township. They duplicate services. My little borough recently contracted out our police to a neighboring town. We got better service, more services available, and it was significantly cheaper. Now extend that to volunteer fire fighters. Each district needs it own fire truck at a tune of at least 1/2 million. Big expense to pay so the can get to a fire an put out the ashes.

But no matter how practical people still want to keep their police and fire departments. They say it because they want to preserve their identity, I say it is because they want control.

 

[baker001]

baker001 - I personally think local townships are far more important than any other government entity!!!

It is government at the very closest level that is impacted more by the citizenship than any other. It's where YOU and YOURS can make the biggest direction in where you want government to go.

It is also where politicians at higher levels get their start.

IL has local gov. at the village (or city) level, the county level PLUS the townships. Get rid of the townships and divvy up their functions between the town/village and the county as appropriate. This still leaves plenty of opportunity for locals to participate in local issues and for politicians to get their start.

It's not that townships don't do necessary things (I overstated when I said useless, I should have said redundant), it's just that they do things that can (or is already) be done by the village and/or the county. Why have another layer of local government if it's not really needed? Like I said, I'm not anti government in the least, but IL could use a big dose of streamlining.

 

[ScienceRocks]

stupid laws and regulations I support cuts...Science, r@d, infrastructure and education I support MORE FUNDING and reform.

This is the only way to do it. Cutting to cut is just blind and short sighted.