Tag: Junk Bond

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Accountability incumbents initiative, referendum, and recall term limits

The Junk Bond State

Nick Tomboulides, U.S. Term Limits, Young Americans for Liberty National Convention, experience, proof

What a pleasure — comparing notes with Nick Tomboulides, executive director of U.S. Term Limits, my old job.

Speaking on a panel last week at the Young Americans for Liberty National Convention,* Illinois came up. Nick agreed that if the Land of Lincoln had a term-​limited legislature, we would never have heard the end of it: “Term limits are a failure!” 

Illinois, you see, is a failed state, confessing the lowest credit rating in history. 

Only a notch above junk bond status.

The media would have incessantly blamed “inexperience” for the fiscal implosion. 

In reality, though, Illinois is a career politician’s paradise. Speaker Michael Madigan (D‑Chicago) has spent the last 45 years in the legislature and all but two of the last 34 years as the chamber’s top banana.

Oh, it’s been a great ride for this longest-​serving House Speaker in modern history. He’s grown wealthy while “serving” in office — and provided himself with a lucrative (and curiously gamable) state pension. 

On the panel, Mr. Tomboulides highlighted “Ranking the States by Fiscal Condition,” a recent study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Though only 15 of the 50 states have term-​limited legislatures, those term-​limited states represent a majority, eight of the top 15 ranked states. Among the states ranked at the very bottom, none have term limits.

“For years they’ve warned that term limits would lead to inexperience which would produce fiscal ruin,” Tomboulides wrote at the U.S. Term Limits blog. “This report proves the opposite is true — that term limits states do better than those run by prehistoric politicians.”

And yet, somehow, not once have Nick or I seen the state’s financial woes blamed on careerism.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

 

* Feel good about the future: Very smart group of young folks at this YAL event.

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Accountability folly local leaders moral hazard porkbarrel politics responsibility term limits too much government

Most Messed Up

Illinois, budget crisis, garbage, term limits, spending, responsibility, Junk Bond, Moody's

“Politicians are notorious for making promises they can’t keep,” Matt Egan reports at CNN Money. “But they really outdid themselves in Illinois — and now the state is paying for it.”

Egan dubs the state “America’s most messed-up.”*

No wonder the state has the worst outbound migration in the nation — or, as Egan puts it: “people are leaving in droves.”

On June 1, Moody’s and S&P Global Ratings downgraded the state’s credit rating to one notch above so-​called “junk bond” status. “Illinois has suffered 21 downgrades from the three major ratings agencies since 2009,” the Illinois Policy Institute informs, and now has the lowest credit rating of any state, making it more expensive to borrow. Even with passage of a budget — finally, after three years of the legislature failing to fulfill its constitutional duty — the threat of a further downgrade still looms.

“After decades of historic mismanagement, Illinois is now grappling with $15 billion of unpaid bills and an unthinkable quarter-​trillion dollars owed to public employees when they retire,” the article explains.

Decades of mismanagement? Perhaps the problem was inexperienced legislators, lacking the necessary expertise to do their crucial jobs, because of term limits. Except that Illinois doesn’t have term limits.

In fact, Illinois sports the nation’s longest-​serving Speaker of the House in modern times. Mike Madigan has been speaker for 32 of the last 34 years, since 1983. Call him “Mr. Experience.” Madigan is recognized as the most powerful man in state government. 

All that leadership experience … leading citizens to experience much pain and suffering.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

 

* That’s in the headline. In the article, Egan explains the mess as “the inevitable result of spending more on pensions and services than the state could afford — then covering it up with reckless budget tricks.”

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