SE Illinois News

Illinois state Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) is so desperate for change in the handling of the state’s finances that he’s conceded the fact it may require a drastic occurrence before the ship can be righted.

“People are always asking me if I have any hope of Illinois getting out this mess,” Bailey told the SE Illinois News. “I do have hope that we’ll hit rock bottom sooner rather than later. Chicago is probably in a little bit more of a mess to get to the bottom first and has to raise taxes. I think that pinch is going be on Chicago first and hopefully people will wake up to vote conservatively.”

Bailey refers to a new Moody’s Investors Services report that finds Illinois residents are now on the hook for as much as $250 billion in unfunded public pension liability to help make his point. The ballpark figure equates to about $18,000 per resident, easily giving the state the highest such estimated debt in the country.

Researchers found that Illinois’ public pension debt load even tops that of California, which is home to more than 26 million more residents and a much larger state economy.

“We had a perfect opportunity to put a dent in this thing in the last state budget, but almost every bit of the money we spent for new programs belied responsibility,” Bailey said. “It’s going to be a pretty bad business environment and it’s going to pretty desolate. We could be past the point of no return.”

Bailey said that's a place no one wants to be, whether it be citizens or businesses.

“Why would any company desire to move here and open up house?” he asked. “We have to pay our debt down and that’s going to take a lot of money.”