By: Diane Benjamin
The bird-cage liner buys into all government spending is good. Today they jeered Gov. Rauner for shutting down the State Museum in Springfield.
I didn’t even know there was a State Museum in Springfield! Don’t most people think about going to museums in Chicago, and maybe the Lincoln one in Springfield? Any loss of history is tragic, but hey anonymous editorial writer: Where should government be cut?
Isn’t this the 4th month now without a State Budget? Gov Rauner was elected by the entire state to fix Illinois. Evidently our local media doesn’t want it fixed. Rauner makes a great target for editorials, not the clowns that have run this state into the ground.
How about a new editorial? This info is from 2007 about ILLEGALS who have no right to be here except that Illinois allows it. Net cost to taxpayers in Illinois was estimated at $3 Billion a year. http://www.fairus.org/publications/the-costs-of-illegal-immigration-to-illinoisans-2007
Schools wouldn’t need so much money if they weren’t forced to educate illegals. The prisons wouldn’t be as crowed is illegals weren’t in them. Illinois wouldn’t be spending as much on healthcare if illegals weren’t getting it. Wages wouldn’t be declining without illegals willing to work for less money. The list is endless.
Politically correct? Not a chance!
We are no longer a sovereign state (or country) when anybody can take up residence for any reason. No other country on earth allows it. Many countries have lengthy incarcerations for anybody who dares enter illegally – here we buy them presents.
Citizens born in this country are forced to pay for services provided to people without a legal right to be here. Media cheers.
Where is that editorial? Of course missing. Defending the rights of people born here and legal immigrants isn’t part of the media agenda.
Truth doesn’t matter.
Media still can’t see why “outsiders” are leading in the presidential polls.
As a former Bloomington resident, now moved back home to Wisconsin, I see the press CONSTANTLY jumping on Governor Walker for his union busting and cost cutting measures. WHY? Isn’t the press supposed to roll back the cover of deception the scallywag politicians create for themselves? Now I will admit, Walker has made some blunders and some of his associates are from lily white. But how did he get re-elected and survive a recall? The voters decided they were tired of the Democrats constantly spending their money on boondoggles.
I can only remember going to the State Museum in grade school and maybe 1 or 2 times after that. As I recall it is a small museum. The times I went there it was interesting.
I’m on the fence on this one. Is it worth closing? I would have to see the visitor numbers and what it cost to run. I wonder if this is a case where they are over staffed or shall I say over union stuffed with employees.
You would think the Governor and the law makers would come together and work out some way to keep it open if the visitor numbers are there to prove it is worthy of keeping open. Perhaps a reduced staff and days open.
I’d like to see more funding cuts at the state universities. They need to consolidate functions that the universities do. Every university runs their payroll system as an example as I recall. I heard ISU spent some big money for Oracle’s PeopleSoft system. We’re talking $1+ million. Why that can’t be centralized and one common system is beyond me. I’m sure there are other functions that can be consolidated.
Here locally ISU is going to spend I don’t recall how much on a remodel of the entrance to Bone Student Center. I mean really is that necessary or just a way to spend what they have accumulated in some fund. Perhaps they should axe that project and be allowed to move it to other areas where funding is needed and quit asking the state for more funds.
The state museum deal is going to be tied up in lawsuits forever if it closes. Not because of the workers, but because of the research contracts. It will end up costing way more money than keeping it open ever would. None of them thought about that, huh? Not to mention the cost of returning or moving the artifacts to suitable locations. We’re talking millions and millions.
As for the Oracle system, that was for a student information system. It was way more than a million, and it sucks. Trust me, I work with it daily. Are you talking about consolidating into one common system for every state university? That’s a good idea, too bad it won’t happen. Again, like the museum deal, it would cost way more money. In hindsight, it could have been done 20 or so years ago.
We always called it PeopleSh** instead of PeopleSoft. My friend who is a professor at Stanford University said they are using it too and it is really bad. I have never worked with the student application just only Human Resources, Supply Chain Management, and Accounting. It all ran on the IBM mainframe system and it ran poorly. I hear Oracle also charges if it runs on the Oracle operating system servers. Eee haw locked into an eternal service maintenance agreement. Yes there is probably no reason why one system couldn’t service all universities at a lower cost.
I never gave it a thought what do you do with all of that “stuff” in the museum if it closes. Ebay ?
Yes, Oracle is big ‘ol steaming pile. There’s certainly some buyer’s remorse going around now. Not only ISU, but pretty much every school that has implemented it.
Pretty sure ebay would be illegal. 🙂
I see issues with your illegal immigrant narrative:
1. The will be an uptick in the price of consumer goods if there are less illegals. One of the ways employers could pay less than fair wages was because of illegal immigration. If they are on paper, the government will be making sure they are paid a fair wage. What they do get is taxed just like other American workers.
2.
Sorry, hit post too soon. Continuing
2. Legal immigrants cut into wage growth also. You can still hire a software developer at the overseas rate and have them work here. In addition, if they have spouses, they sometimes cannot work because they dont have a work visa. So they are probably not buying houses. Meanwhile an American is out of a job or is underqualified.
3. Legal immigration wouldn’t exactly save a ton of money in government spending. Some won’t be set-up financially so they may need services (medical care, food, shelter) through the government.
4. Restaurant and service industries would have a difficult time. If illegals are filling some jobs at a discount, I don’t think an American would do the same without earning minimum wage. There would be pressure to let in more legal immigrants. That would affect wages.
5. Some Tech companies and others with IT departments would have a difficult time if quotas are put on legal immigrants, which I assume you want quotas. If no quotas, how would bureaucracy be streamlined to save time and money?
6. If you are deporting illegals, how much money is too much? How many people have to be hired to do it?
It’s not a zero sum game and I am
not sure the benefits outweigh the gains.
Don’t have to depart. Make it illegal for them to be here – enforce the law!
People seem to think all the previous warnings about spending too much were all jokes. Instead of making small, slightly painful cuts earlier, we now have to make larger painful cuts which, by the way, always hit the poor the hardest. Keep voting for the usual politicians though. They’ve done a wonderful job.
At times like these, The Simpsons offer clarity. Let me be the first to raise my hand and admit I feel for ruse:
[Mr. Burns is reminiscing about his grandfather’s old Atom Smashing Plant]
Burns’ Grandfather: Come on, men! Smash those atoms! You there, turn out your pockets.
[Two goons seize a waifish worker and turn out his pockets]
Burns’ Grandfather: Aha – atoms! One, two, three, four… SIX of them! Take him away!
Waif: You can’t treat the working man this way! One of these days we’ll form a union, and get the fair and equitable treatment we deserve! Then we’ll go too far, and become corrupt and shiftless, and the Japanese will eat us alive!
Burns’ Grandfather: The Japanese? Those sandal-wearing goldfish tenders? Ha ha! Bosh! Flimshaw!
Mr. Burns: Oh, if only we’d listened to that young man, instead of walling him up in the abandoned coke oven.