Bankrupt Illinois stops paying lottery winners

originally posted by: HomerinNC
a reply to: Phage

Exactly!!!
They are shooting themselves in the foot doing this
Besides, doesnt the lottery winnings come FROM the lottery, not the state's budget?

It does in Indiana right next door.

The state just gets a kickback from the Hoosier lottery.

The casino not the state is on the hook here.

Not surprised though, my state is very fiscally responsible, much more so than most other states.

Dems repubs doesn't matter.

Indiana has always had some of the most lax gun laws, and everywhere but Gary, because it is a suburb of Chicago, pretty low crime.

Us Hoosiers demand responsibility from our elected officials.

The rest of you guys need to step up your game.

We are a happy country family.

Most of the rest are battered wives.

ETA-lol, autocorrect, you are the bane of my existence

originally posted by: SlowNail
a reply to: MrSpad

Politics or not, isn't it illegal to offer prizes that don't exist? By that logic, isn't the governor committing fraud by not releasing funds and therefore open to suits from every lottery player, regardless of whether they won or not? They were ensnared in a fraud trap, after all. I manage that's how it would go down, had the shoe been on the other foot.

The prizes exist but, the state comptroller by law is not allowed to release the funds until the budget is passed. And as i can find no rule on how quickly they have to pay a winner it all seems legal.

Now the Governor applied for and got a ruling to keep paying state workers despite the shut down. He could have done this for the lottery winners as well but, so far has not.

Yeah, that is going to hurt the state big time. All it is going to do is simply take a few of the Lottery winners to turn around and sue the state of Il and win in court, force it up to where the state has no choice but to pay up. So that 250 thousand dollar win could cost the state 2.5 million in legal fees.

originally posted by: sdcigarpig
Yeah, that is going to hurt the state big time. All it is going to do is simply take a few of the Lottery winners to turn around and sue the state of Il and win in court, force it up to where the state has no choice but to pay up. So that 250 thousand dollar win could cost the state 2.5 million in legal fees.

But the state doesn't care, they will just take more if other peoples money to pay it.

It is easy to be a douche with money when it isn't yours.

Illinois and Louisiana are the two most corrupt govt bodies besides Washington DC in the US
DC is just.... How do you say "biggest pos in the history of humanity " in a nice way?

Rauner is doing his best fighting the corrupt Democrat machine. The problem is when the Republicans try to act like adults and cut spending the Democrats start yelling about how the Republicans don't care about little children. Of course, a complicit media does nothing to educate their Gruber voters on the reality.

This state is going to implode financially. They have made way too many promises we can't keep to Unions and it is time to pay the piper. Honestly, a complete financial collapse might be the best thing to happen to just wipe the state clean.

Chicago is a world class city, but the corruption and graft are really holding it back.

a reply to: xuenchen

This is alarming. Illinois was looking to take the pensions of all the small cities and put it under their state pension. The fact is I think IL is only a decade or so away from not paying people's state pensions. That is a lot of ex cops, fire fighters, etc....with guns...who are now not being paid what they earned by law. Il may be the state where civil war starts.

On the other hand Alexander Hamilton managed massive debt successfully by handing out legal tender IOU's ...the only problem is I see no end in site for IL.

I hate Hellinois with a passion. Can't wait until I have everything paid off so I can leave this $###hole.

The budget that Rauner vetoed is over two BILLION dollars underfunded. How it's not criminal to propose a budget that's billions in the negative, baffles me!

Here's a fun article.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

The state is more than $5 billion behind in paying its bills. It has the worst credit rating of any state. It has the worst unfunded pension liability of any state. There was not enough support for raising taxes, nor was their enough support for a doomsday budget. Still, lawmakers approved a $35.7 billion budget. Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton acknowledge that this budget borrows $650 million from special funds that will drive up the bills taxpayers ultimately must fund. This budget postpones paying $380 million state worker health insurance bills that taxpayers ultimately must fund. This budget diverts $650 million in funds that had been going to pay down unpaid bills that taxpayers ultimately must fund. Yet, lawmakers voted to start paying themselves again for 12 furlough days they had been taking. In other words, they boosted their own pay by $3,100 to $67,836 per lawmaker. Most actually are paid closer to $78,000 for their part-time jobs because most of them get another $10,000 for committee chairmanships. In the spending plans approved before politicians adjourned was $10 million to renovate the Uptown Theatre in Chicago. There was $35 million to build a grade school in Madigan's district. There was $500,000 for a car racetrack near St. Louis. There is a bill that could allow Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to raise cell phone taxes by $1.40 per month. The budget includes $50 million in funds for Chicago Public Schools and another $50 million in back pay owed state workers. There's money authorized, according to the Chicago Tribune, for more Capitol renovations, for the Glen Ellyn Park District, a Puerto Rican Cultural Center, a Little League in Blue Island, windows for a Chicago church and more. Both Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and Republican nominee Bruce Rauner already are using the budget crisis to try to raise campaign funds and support. Quinn wanted a permanent tax increase. Rauner has refused to provide details for how he would solve the crisis.

Blame whoever you want for this particular shortfall, but this will become a common story in the near future.
They have been kicking the financial can down the road for a long time in illinois.

a reply to: MrSpad

Sorry, Illinois is bankrupt. THey had to pass a huge tax increase just to raise enough revenue to be able to borrow enough additional money to cover the budget shortfalls. If that isn't bankrupt ... I don't know what is.

a reply to: xuenchen

Maybe when citizens don't have enough money to pay for their taxes, they should just write an IOU! During tax time government wants us tax payers to pay on time. If you're late they charge you interest or maybe even put a lean on your home! The laws are always skewed in their favor or it doesn't apply to them.

It's not just lottery winners either. Vendors to the state have been waiting up to three years for payments. My son finally stopped dealing with them when they ran up a $6k bill and haven't paid a penny. That was nearly three years ago and he's still waiting. He's a small business and $6k was a big chunk of income for him. Maybe he can send them an IOU when tax times comes around.

originally posted by: HolgerTheDane2
Is it me reading American politics wrong, or are there a large number of incidents, where Republicans are purposely blocking Democrats with the express purpose to make people thing it's the Democrats fault?

You would be reading American politics correctly, but I'm not sure that's what's going on here. Most prominent Republicans in the country have taken a no tax pledge, and breaking it is political suicide. Effectively it means they can't raise any taxes for any reason and spending will have to shrink to match revenues. So, because this budget involves tax increases to pay for things (states can't carry a deficit the way the feds can), it's a tax increase and gets blocked.

originally posted by: HomerinNC
a reply to: Phage

Exactly!!!
They are shooting themselves in the foot doing this
Besides, doesnt the lottery winnings come FROM the lottery, not the state's budget?

Most likely the state treats all revenue from the lottery as income and then it goes onto the budget, I think it usually goes to education. Lotteries are carefully measured in how many wins there are, so it's very easy to put predictable expense numbers into the budget. During this shutdown no expenses can be paid out, so no lottery winnings can be paid out. They should have the money, they just can't do it procedurally, maybe they don't have the money until the budget authorizes the expenses. The article isn't quite clear on that.

originally posted by: skunkape23
If I won the lottery, I would get paid. We could do it the easy way or we could do it the hard way.

What a ridiculous statement. ATS, can we go back to being a conspiracy forum, PLEASE ?

American life is just one big benny hill episode , I mean things happen everywhere , but every time I see a thread or article regarding America its just embarrassing,
Right !💵💵💵💵💵💵💵💵

Once the state budget standoff ends, the lottery winners will be at the back of the payment line. It's ironic that the state lottery advertisements on radio and TV are still running strong here.

Oh, seriously It's great, because I just bought Illinoise lottery ticket.... Maybe somebody knows, is this wednesday lotto results lotto paid winnings???

originally posted by: carewemust
Once the state budget standoff ends, the lottery winners will be at the back of the payment line. It's ironic that the state lottery advertisements on radio and TV are still running strong here.

That line is going to be pretty damn long, because Illinois just lowered the amount to $600. As of today, if you win more than $600 in the lottery, you get an I.O...F.U.! It will be interesting to see if people keep buying the tickets. The state has kept on paying the radio/TV/print advertisers that promote the lottery, as if all is well in wonderland.