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VOL. 13 • NO. 18
Bensenville Park Dis
trict
WWW.THEINDEPENDENTNEWSPAPERS.COM
258202
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2016
Illinois ranks as third worst state in fiscal health, has ‘sinkhole’ status budget in more than 20 years. Illinois is third worst among what Weinberg said some municipaliTruth in Accounting calls “sinkhole ties have growing taxpayer debt as states” when it comes to overall fiscal health, thanks to growing unfunded pension and retiree health care liabilities, according to a new report from the organization. It’s no secret each Illinoisan is on the hook for a lot of debt. How much? Truth In Accounting Founder and CEO Sheila Weinberg said “each taxpayer, in order to clean up the unfunded debt that they [lawmakers] have accumulated for us, owes $45,500.” Only Connecticut and New Jersey taxpayers owe more. Weinberg said Illinois, like other states, keeps retiree health care liability hidden from taxpayers and uses gimmicks to say the budget is balanced. “Illinois is, oh my gosh, they’re the poster child of the accounting tricks they use in the budget to pretend the budget is balanced,” she said. While Weinberg said her organization doesn’t offer fixes, the first step to solving the growing debt issue is to recognize there’s a problem. “Let’s go ahead and be honest with the public,” she said. “We promote what we call fact-based budgeting which is you include all of your costs and you only include revenue that you earn in the budget.” Illinois hasn’t had a full-year budget since July of 2015. An analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago recently confirmed that Illinois hasn’t had a truly balanced BY THE ILLINOIS NEWS NETWORK
well, putting Chicago taxpayers on the hook for more than $29,000 on top of the state debt.
Meanwhile each U.S. citizen owes $272,000 in federal debt. If that federal debt were based on tax-
payers, and not citizens, Weinberg said the number would be over half a million dollars.
Feeding the friendly goats
Inside:
Police Reports......3, 6 Sports �������������������� 16 Viewpoint.................8 Classifieds..........19-20
These two young people carefully and gently feed two goats at a petting zoo set up for a a local community Fall Fest held last weekend. The weather was beautiful for outdoor activities. DEE LONGFELLOW PHOTO Bensenville Independent
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