Governor Pritzker is financially catfishing Illinois citizens.
He is promoting a fake identity saying:
- Illinois is fiscally responsible
- We have balanced the budget for four years
- We have a surplus
- Pensions are being fully funded
While touting putting money into a rainy-day fund, he is shorting the pension systems $3 to $4 billion.
This move is like patting myself on the back for putting money into my savings account while not paying even the minimum payments on my credit cards.
The credit rating agencies are going all in with this game. But first, people must know that credit ratings are not a grade on the state's overall financial health and fiscal policy.
From Standard & Poor's website:
Credit ratings are forward-looking opinions about the ability and willingness of a state to meet its financial obligations on time and in full. (These financial obligations mean the bonds.) The credit ratings are a rating on whether the state's bonds will get paid. Ratings are not "public policy report cards, although politicians may use them as such."
My organization, Truth in Accounting, gives the state a rating for whether the taxpayers will be hit with tax hikes to pay off total debt, including pensions.
We give the state of Illinois an F.
The biggest problem with this "financial catfishing" is that our decisions are based on insufficient information, causing Illinois to make faulty tax and spending policies.
While the governor's spending ideas might sound good, the state is deep in debt, and the only reason we have money to spend is due to short-changing the pension systems.