In private sector, they would have been fired

Thanks to decades of utter failure by the Illinois General Assembly, our state is now all but bankrupt. The financial mismanagement by the House and Senate should be criminal, but in Illinois, ripping off taxpayers is viewed as, "Working as intended."

We now have a governor who won't rubber stamp bad budgets and the situation is even worse. Despite pending economic disaster, our clueless lawmakers still squabble over spending cuts vs. tax increases vs. pension reforms. The fact is that we need all those changes and probably double the amount anyone has proposed. If a budget package is eventually passed, it should contain serious penalties for lawmakers so that in the future they won't again fail our taxpayers, our homeowners, our businesses, our education system and our state employees.

Will it really take public school and college closings and the end of Powerball and Mega Millions ticket sales to wake up our legislature? In any private sector job responsible for a budget, these people would have been fired long ago. In Illinois, voters continue to re-elect them and watch them earn paychecks while our state can't even pay its other obligations.

In the next elections, I hope anyone reading will join me in voting them all out, Republican, Democrat or Independent, especially the ones who have been there for decades and created this fiasco. I'd lament that our children will be responsible to fix these problems, but I suppose they will join all those leaving Illinois for states that are solvent and have functional legislatures.

Darren Qunell

Naperville