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Illinois Pays Lottery Winners In IOUs After $30K/Month Budget "Guru" Fails To Produce Deal
Much as Brazil is the poster child for the great EM unwind unfolding across emerging economies from LatAm to AsiaPac, Illinois is in many ways the mascot for America’s state and local government fiscal crisis.
Although well documented before, the state’s financial troubles were thrown into sharp relief in May when, on the heels of a state Supreme Court ruling that struck down a pension reform bid, Moody’s downgraded the city of Chicago to junk.
Since then, there’s been quite a bit written about the state’s pension problem and indeed, Reuters ran a special report earlier this month that outlined the labyrinthine, incestuous character of the state’s various state and local governments.
On Friday, in the latest sign that Illinois’ budget crisis has deepened, Governor Bruce Rauner apparently fired "superstar" budget guru and Laffer disciple Donna Arduin who had been making some $30,000 a month as an economic consultant.
And while Illinois apparently found the cash to fork over six figures to Arduin for just four months of "work", the budget stalemate means hard times for Illinoisans - including, apparently, lottery winners. The Chicago Tribune has more:
After years of struggling financially, Susan Rick thought things were looking up when her boyfriend won $250,000 from the Illinois Lottery last month. She could stop working seven days a week, maybe fix up the house and take a trip to Minnesota to visit her daughter.
But because Illinois lawmakers have not passed a budget, she and her boyfriend, Danny Chasteen, got an IOU from the lottery instead.
"For the first time, we were finally gonna get a break," said Rick, who lives in Oglesby. "And now the Illinois Lottery has kind of messed everything up."
Under state law, the state comptroller must cut the checks for lottery winnings of more than $25,000.
And lottery officials said that because lawmakers have yet to pass a budget, the comptroller's office does not have legal authority to release the funds.
Prizes of $25,000 or less will still be paid at lottery claim centers across the state, and people who win $600 or less can cash in their ticket at the place where they bought it.
But the bigger winners? Out of luck, for now.
While lottery officials could not immediately say how many winners' payments were delayed or provide the total amount of those payoffs, the agency's website lists multiple press releases for winners since the current fiscal year began July 1. Including Chasteen, those winners represent millions of dollars in prizes.
"The lottery is a state agency like many others, and we're obviously affected by the budget situation," Illinois Lottery spokesman Steve Rossi said. "Since the legal authority is not there for the comptroller to disburse payments, those payments are delayed."
Generally speaking, this just serves to underscore the extent to which gross fiscal mismanagement along with the perceived inviolability of pension "implicit contracts" is pushing Illinois further into the financial abyss, but what's particularly interesting about the suspension of lottery payouts is that the state is now effectively in default to its own citizens, something which, if the situation were reversed, would not be tolerated, and on that note, we give the last word to Rick (quoted above) and also to State Rep. Jack Franks:
Rick: "You know what's funny? If we owed the state money, they'd come take it and they don't care whether we have a roof over our head. Our budget wouldn't be a factor. You can't say (to the state), 'Can you wait until I get my budget under control?'"
Franks: "Our government is committing a fraud on the taxpayers, because we're holding ourselves out as selling a good, and we're not — we're not selling anything. The lottery is a contract: I pay my money, and if I win, you're obligated to pay me and you have to pay me timely. It doesn't say if you have money or when you have money."
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They want a direct wage tax and then to call it "income tax".
The last thing you want to cut is the lottery - the state makes money off every ticket sold. So discouraging lottery sales only makes the budget situation worse. I am shocked that this is not run by its own agency with its own budget and own annuity setups.
all i can say is rufkm
So, this is the second time I have seen zerohedge sensored. The comment about Irwin Shiff is missing!
Oh, that person said Irwin was a political prisoner and he is. One does not "derive income" by providing services and charging for them. See: Edwards v. Keith. Which is also sensored on Google Scholar so you have to go to the law llibrary. It was 1916. But this will be censored too, probably.
I hadn't realized that was Peter Schiff's dad. I'm sure he is a political prisoner. When you make a big visible spectacle of yourself not paying your Federal Income Tax you're going to get a lot of scrutiny. And to then say those scrutinizing you don't have the right to do so, and they're the Federal Government, you're pretty likely to become a political prisoner. I'm not saying the guy's wrong; I can't evaluate his points. I'm saying going about it the way Irwin Schiff has gone about it will get you a lengthy stay in the Crowbar Hotel.
Do you when know what "income" is in a tax statute? If not, no comment is intelligent. Go check Eisner v. Macomber. BTW, the ONLY reason he is in prison is the IGNORANCE of the jurors. They were INCOMPETENT!
I just saw it five minutes ago.
Where is it now?
I don't know what that Donna Arduin was doing with the Illinois Lottery, and the story doesn't go into it. But if she was involved, there's a scam in which a lot of public money has been diverted to a corporate crony. That's her specialty. That and creating spec-order fake economic analysis that always, amazingly enough, calls for diverting lots of public money to corporate cronies.
If you win the lottery, and then get an IOU.............you have the most fucked up luck of anyone I know.
This will backfire. People won't buy the fucking tickets if they wont pay. It would be money ahead to pay. Most likely, they will as there are just formalities. If they don't, this could drive a person mad. If you know what I mean.
I call the lottery a stupidity tax and tonight I would venture a guess that the lemmings are clogging up check out lines everywhere wanting to pay it.
Every state government official should be arrested immediately.
Illinois, what a corrupt joke.
Zion is a scheme, not an ethnicity.
I'm from Illinois. I know a woman, in her 60s, retired from State government. Her pension from the State of Illinois is $80,000 a year. And she did NOT work in the legit functions of government, e.g. police or the judiciary. She wasn't a teacher either.
Its really hard for me to not yell at her, "Its assholes on state pensions like you who are f#$%^&* up this State!"
Most Chicago cops made more than that on shakedowns and bribes -most aren;t worth a shit. Screw their pensions -same for most teachers. And tax the crooked banksters and billionaires a 90% wealth tax. They're all crooks. This is simply a humane alternative to hanging them.
Every Chicago cop I knew had a cabin on a lake in Wisconsin with some big ass boat. Thanks for the bribes!
Saudi Arabia bought the lottery debt. In case you didn't know.
Stupid muppets
Riyadh has promised $274 million in emergency aid for desperate Yemeni civilians. Two months later, why hasn’t the money arrived?
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/17/saudi-arabias-unpaid-debt/
Umm, 'cause they're Shi'ites?
It looks like goldman sachs fucked them over again.
Which family is going to get a Massad massage with no happy ending?
Several statisticians have written articles showing the average person has a greater chance of being struck by lightning then winning the lottery.
That's one really big broad.
No doubt she spends nearly $30k a month in eye makeup and groceries.
Lotteries are freaking sacred. Mess with it and you lose a big source of revenue of the desperate unwashed masses.
Partially agreed. Have you ever been desperate and dirty....?
further proof the lottery is a tax on people who do not understand probability
I'll bet the "budget guru" isn't getting the $30k a month in IOUs, she's getting it in cold hard cash.
Cannot recall this bitch's name. It was between 2009-2011. This cunt was on welfare even after winning the lottery.
Don't get jealous blackliesmatter, she was white. Take it up with queen racist community organizer in the White House.
A woman I met in passing, whom I understood was married to a lawn care guy and cleaned houses, and who informed me that their only son took his life in his mid teens told me this story: She and her husband had the same lottery number, a combination of relevant dates, and played them weekly. On the week, their numbers were pulled, they came to realize that each had thought the other had purchased the ticket. She said: "we do not talk about it."
Are you somebody special, atomizer?
I would feel sorry for the citizens EXCEPT, they deserve the government they vote for.
And many will flock to buy their lottery tickets despite this story, - just like before,
Wanna bet on it ?
Do you pay out in IOUs?
Firing one budget guu is a start.....
Now they need to "thin" the state payroll by aound 30,000 or so....then there might be hope.
Squid
Owned a pharmacy in Illinois. Illinois public aid was ALWAYS at least 6 months behind on their reimbursements. That and Part D put us out of business.
Take any lottery winnings in one lump sum, everyone knows governments lie, cheat and steal all day, every day.
.....and this is some sort of surprise? a news flash? From the state that brought you his highness Obama and the Wookie; the election of Obama's boy Rahim as mayor of its largest city (twice); who he and his brother were instrumental in coming up with that fabulous ponzi scheme known as Obamacare, not to be outdone by Dick "I was told that there would be doughnuts; any one seen the doughnuts?" Durbin. Home to Bill Ayers, and college football students that were granted the permission to unionize by the Illinios NLRB chapter never mind that they receive benefits in the form of tution, room, board and a stipend. Instead of worrying about Mexican illegal immigrants I would rather bar immigrants from Illinois coming into my State and F'ing it up like they did their own.
+1000 lost 24 years of my life in illinois.
in the 1980s the University of Illinois, LOWERED the minumum ACT score for basketball scholarships (ONLY) from 14 to 13.
Realize, the ACT is a multiple choice test, with a max of about 36,
We used to joke a monkey could bang out random choice answers and score a 13.
Survived two generations of Mayor Daly and three Governor indictments.
Constant Tollway road work, shit traffic, to find out "Palumbo" the contractor awarded most of the tollway work was doing shoddy work to get new contracts to fix the work year after year.
The constant .40 cent tolls everywhere is an effing traffic disaster.
And Lord forbid you ever get pulled over by a Chicago cop. the harrassment and shakdown is a PITA. At least the Illinois State Police start the conversation with "License, Registration and Proof of Insurance, Sir." and not "What The Eff are you doing on my street?"
Factoid: The illinois Tollway budget is not accountable to any other part of the state budget, and in the days before I-Pass it was ALL cash.
I had a boss (an architect) who swears he designed a "sex den" in the basement of an illinois tollay building for executive use complete with mirrors on the ceiling and hottub.
I kid you the eff not. paid for in cash .
Now you know the source of the quote from Blazing Saddles
"Somebody better go get a shit load of dimes"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbWg-mozGsU
Never been back in a decade. not even for an effing airport layover.
Read a story on a guy named John "Quarters" Boyle. Head of tollway back when it was all cash. Ran around living the high life paying for everything with rolls of quarters. Literally had a trunk load. He gets out of jail and they made him an exec in the water dept What a city/State
Illinois is about to lose considerable lottery income as the public is about to lose confidence in getting paid.
Those IOUs are as good as money.
Two thoughts sprang to mind...
One, what are the odds that even though the state hasnt paid yet, that she was reported as a lottery winner, and will be approached by the IRS with a bill to pay the taxes on her 'winnings'
Second, once word of this starts to spread, I imagine the state lottery revenue will go into the shitter. No sense even forking over the money for a ticket if your odds of winning went from 8 million to 1 down to effectiively zero. Then it ceases to be a lottery and its just a donation with a colorful receipt. Except that its a donation that isnt tax deductible.