Illinois – unalloyed
It may be that the only sensible thing for the remaining sensible people in Illinois to do is leave. If you are a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, you are not sensible and please, please stay. The only other viable option is if the sensible people could disenfranchise or financially disassociate from Cook county, that would probably work.
S&P, Moody’s Downgrade Illinois to Near Junk, Lowest Ever for a U.S. State
(excerpts from Bloomberg article)
Illinois had its bond rating downgraded to one step above junk by Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings, the lowest ranking on record for a U.S. state, as the long-running political stalemate over the budget shows no signs of ending. . . .
The downgrades, which also dropped some debt backed by legislative appropriations into junk, came a day after Illinois’s legislature blew the deadline for approving a compromise budget by a simple majority. Now, it takes a higher threshold — three fifths majority vote in each legislative chamber — to pass anything. On Wednesday, Rauner, who is up for re-election in 2018, and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who controls much of the legislative agenda, faulted each other for the unprecedented gridlock. . . .
“We’re going to start to see some real pain now,” Senate President John Cullerton told reporters in Springfield on Wednesday. “We’re going to start to see downgrades. We don’t have any funding for schools. We don’t have any funding for higher end and a bunch of social programs. We don’t have a budget.”
Despite the lack of a budget, Illinois has continued to cover payments due on its bonds, and, like other states, has no ability to resort to bankruptcy to escape from its debts. A downgrade to junk, though, would add further financial pressure by increasing its borrowing costs and preventing many mutual funds from buying Illinois’s securities.
