Most Crooked State: Illinois? (Chicago, Peoria: city hall, schools, salary)

[silvermelanie]

hi,
this is also the reason chicago is called the windy city. and it is not for the weather.
melanie silver

[MarquettePark]

Ninety percent of the projects, are on the South Side, and they are being demolished, and the residents are being shipped (hopefully) to the north side north surburbs, north west surburbs, or anywhere north or northwest

There is a downside to tax breaks, my North and Northwest neighbors

[greenlee2]

The reason for the 'crookedness' LATELY is that THEY ARE ALL FROM CHICAGO!!! I have lived in Chicago for 17 years but grew up in Central Illinois and still cannot fathom the corruption here in this city; the recent Cook County President election was rigged; Jesse White, Sec. of State hired a bunch of relatives and jacked their salaries from assistant-level ($30K) to well over $130,000!!!; Blagojevich the governor & his campaign contributors are in trouble; Mayor Daley and his lackies all going to jail...... I could keep going but what they all have in common is they ARE ALL FROM CHICAGO. We need another Gov. like Jim Edgar!! Fellow downstater Dan Rutherford from Pontiac, IL who ran against Jesse White didn't have the $$$ White got from the Chicago Dem Machine. Yep - we need some honest downstaters to balance out the Chicago Crooks!

[WazzuCoop21]

I dunno, but I get feeling of someone sticking it to me hard any time I drive into Chicago and have to pay $.80 to drive about 2 miles, so that by the time I've gone from one end to the other I"m out like $10! Total ripoff IMO. Does that count as corruption for just bottlenecking traffic for no reason or are they just idiots?

[mdz]

From what I understand, when the Tollways first started in the late 50s, the plan was to have the roads be "free" by 1984.

2006 and we're still paying...

The Illinois Tollway Authority is a great example of a self-perpetuating bureaucracy.

[Switch625]

When you give a bureaucracy a revenue stream, you give it immortality.

[dumpstermcnuggets]

Originally Posted by mdz

From what I understand, when the Tollways first started in the late 50s, the plan was to have the roads be "free" by 1984.

2006 and we're still paying...

The Illinois Tollway Authority is a great example of a self-perpetuating bureaucracy.

Yep, we'll all sure be paying up tolls, probably even into the mid-21st Century! It's a shame that the Illinois Tollway Authority will likely never look beyond the box and starting the process of at least converting some portions of the tollway system over to free expressways, as long as the corrupted monied interests of the Democrats and Republicans continue to govern the state and deal out jobs to their buds.

*sigh* If only someone truly independent, such as Rich Whitney were to become governor, maybe only then would there finally be some sort of progress towards many goals, including(and beyond) this goal.

[Dingo Junction]

Originally Posted by dumpstermcnuggets

*sigh* If only someone truly independent, such as Rich Whitney were to become governor, maybe only then would there finally be some sort of progress towards many goals, including(and beyond) this goal.

Sadly millions of Chicagoans still vote for the same sickening Dummycrat machine politicians and the Republicans who use to be a decent party are losing ground in the Chicago suburbs(notice all the Blagojevich signs in Republican strongholds?)

I dont vote Republican anymore as they are getting just as stupid as the Democrats and that Judy Baar-Topinka was a pathetic example of a Republican.No wonder she lost!! I sat out this years election.Illinois and the rest of America needs an Independant to gain some ground and wake up this country!

[dumpstermcnuggets]

Originally Posted by Dingo Junction

Sadly millions of Chicagoans still vote for the same sickening Dummycrat machine politicians and the Republicans who use to be a decent party are losing ground in the Chicago suburbs(notice all the Blagojevich signs in Republican strongholds?)

I dont vote Republican anymore as they are getting just as stupid as the Democrats and that Judy Baar-Topinka was a pathetic example of a Republican.No wonder she lost!! I sat out this years election.Illinois and the rest of America needs an Independant to gain some ground and wake up this country!

as someone who grew up in the city of Chicago, and is an independent, I sorta agree and disagree with you. I only disagree, since I thought Dan Rutherford(who ran against the stupid Jeese White) seemed like a decent candidate, and had some decent ideas for improving the Sec. of State + DMV facilities(and one of the few Republicans I voted for). Not to mention I'm sure he'd finally fire Jeese's darn family friends on the state payroll in the Sec. of State office, lol. But I mostly agree with you, especially since both the Democrat slate of candidates and many of the Republican candidates were mostly uninspiring to me(except for Lisa Madigan on the Dem side, who I don't have a prob with). I still have no clue why Obama endorsed such a sleazy candidate(Giannoulias) in the Democratic primary for Treasurer, except to play nice with the Chicago Dem Machine. and ditto for what he did by later endorsing "Toddler" Stroger(and don't get me started how dumb and clueless he is as the incoming Cook County Board President, I actually watched the Chicago Tribune debate online, and didn't think he was THAT clueless).

I enjoyed reading your post, but unfortunately have to get back to studying for finals I'm doing.

[prairiestate]

Louisiana is number 1. Illinois maybe number 2, though New Jersey and Florida are awfully close.

Here in Illinois we have:

Reelected a governor who barely has a 40% approval rating. The state is 100 Billion. Yes, Billion in debt. The gov denies it, and keeps spending money on new programs we can't afford. He was only elected the first time because his father in law is a key figure in the Chicago machine.

Our secretary of state got her job because her father is a key figure in the state machine. She will also be our next governor. Here in Illinois, we can predict these things years in advance. This is one reason our governor was relected, to clear the way for her when his term is up.

Reelected a secretary of state who has done nothing to reduce waiting times at the driver's facilities

Elected a state treasurer who's only qualifications are a few years working in his family's bank. Oh, and who will be indicted in the next year because of the loan's his family has made to convicted mobsters.

Most stunning of all, we have, in Cook County, elected a county board president, who, by any possible measure, is completely unqualified and incapable of doing his job, and who will continue the tradition of robbing the people of Cook County blind. The Chicago Sun Times was the only paper to endorse him, and a week after the election, they basically admitted they made a horrible mistake.

We will likely be facing tax hikes to balance the budget, instead of, oh I don't know, maybe eliminating the massive corruption, fraud, mismanagement and waste that is bankrupting our county and state.

Finally, it was just this week that Cook County was able to release 100% of the vote totals from the November elections. Anyone recall seeing the runner up from the Cook County board presidents race storming the county building in the middle of the night to find out what was going on, as open boxes of ballots were being brought in? I don't know if it made national news or not.

Yeah, things here are great. Hopefully, we'll get some UN troops soon to bring democracy to Illinois.