Right now we’re being deluged by TV spots by Illinois Gov. Pritzker’s re-election campaign. I find them droll in the extreme. Here’s the transcript:
You keep your word in Decatur, pay your bills in Bloomington, save for your kid’s future in Homewood. And the same is true in Peoria, Joliet, and all over Illinois.
Our government should act that way, too. But for years in Illinois, they left bills unpaid, ruined our credit, and racked up over $1 billion in interest penalties.
As governor, I was determined to help fix the financial mess. Now, Illinois is keeping its promises by passing real balanced budgets.
We’re cutting costs, paying bills on time, and paying down our debt, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. And our credit rating has been upgraded for the first time in 20 years.
We’re on the right track, and I’ll work every single day to keep it that way. Because you deserve nothing less than a state that works as hard as you do.
Here’s what I find amusing: what does he mean by “they” in the passage “they left bills unpaid, ruined our credit, and racked up over $1 billion in interest penalties”? How many of “them” are still in office? Yeah, I know. Those that aren’t doing time or have been issued pardons.
Does he support “them”?
And I haven’t even touched on the fact that Gov. Pritzker’s first choice was a graduated income tax which Illinoisans rejected. This is “Plan B”.
Any of what he said true? Credit rating went up? Is this the bank screwing up again or was there reason to improve the credit rating? (We all know by now how bad US banks are at assessing risk.)
Steve
Why, yes. Illinois’s credit rating was upgraded. The upgrade was accompanied by warnings of the state’s major unfunded liabilities.
Since the ratings agencies methods are proprietary I have no idea of their reasoning but that wasn’t my point.
One possibility that just occurred to me is that the fact that Mike Madigan is no longer Illinois House Speaker might be enough for the ratings agencies to goose Illinois’s credit rating the tiny bit they did.
steve lecturing about banks credit acumen while not understanding the difference between a bank, a rating agency and a bond offering. Beautiful.
“One possibility that just occurred to me is that the fact that Mike Madigan is no longer Illinois House Speaker might be enough for the ratings agencies to goose Illinois’s credit rating the tiny bit they did.”
Ewww. A swift kick to the crotch………
Still wondering whom Gov. Pritzker meant by “they”. Did he mean Madigan?
Good point Drew. I should have said the entire financial sector sucks at assessing risk, or at least they are when being bad at it means they can make lots of money.
Steve