3 ideas for fixing state pension debt

Since Governor Rauner and state legislators have yet to come up with a balanced budget and are threatening to shut down the state, maybe they should consider these suggestions.

1. Charge a $2 fee for every contract bought and sold on the Chicago Board of Trade. This would generate around $40 million a day. Two dollars for each contract bought and two dollars for each contract sold which would total about $8 billion a year. The naysayers will say that the board of trade would leave the state if this fee was added. Come on, do you think a $2 fee on a contact for 10,000 bushels of corn is going to make any difference to the buyer or seller of that contract?

2. The state needs to invest the $100 million to $150 million that it will cost to upgrade the state's computer system so that they can stop the $4 billion to $6 billion in fraud in the Illinois Medicare and Medicaid system. This investment would pay for itself more than 25 times over in the first year.

3. Put slot machines in the gate area at local airports. This will not take revenue away from the Chicago area casinos since you can't get through security to the gate area unless you have a ticket, and the majority of the revenue generated from these machines will be from out of state people during layovers.

These are some ways that a balanced budget can be reached without increasing taxes and the state can start to pay their share of the pension debt. There is no pension problem, only a pension payment problem. It's time for our legislators to come up with a balanced budget without cutting funds from needed programs and increasing taxes.

Brian W Mooberry

Elgin