-By Warner Todd Huston
Illinois ranks at the bottom of the nation in nearly every single category of rankings of successful states and now the Land of Lincoln can rack up yet another great failure. Illinois’ Governor, Pat Quinn, has received the grade of “F” in a new “fiscal report card” of the 50 states’ fiscal health.
Congratulations once again, Illinois. Your almost unbroken record of failure goes practically unchallenged. You are pretty much the worst of the worst in all of the country.
Oh, happy days.
So, once again Illinois rates at the bottom of the pile with a governor that gets a well-deserved failing grade. This time joined Quinn is joined at the bottom by four other guvs. Chris Gregoire (Washington State), Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii), Mark Dayton (Minnesota), and Dan Malloy (Connecticut), each received the grade of “F” for their monumental failure as their state’s chief executive.
Naturally, these five flunkers share one thing in common: they are all Democrats. In fact, the report card only identifies two Republicans among those governors getting a “D” or an “F.” Arizona’s Gov. Jan Brewer and Tennessee’s Bill Haslam both received a “D.”
The 11th annual report sponsored by the CATO Institute grades the nation’s governors on their records of taxing and spending.
Many states are facing major fiscal problems in coming years. Rising debt and growing health and pension costs threaten tax increases down the road. At the same time, intense global economic competition makes it imperative that states improve their investment climates. To that end, some governors are pursuing broad-based tax reforms, such as cutting income tax rates and reducing property taxes on businesses. The bad news is that many governors are expanding narrow “tax incentives,” which clutter the tax code in an attempt to micromanage the economy.
The top five governors get kudos for their success. Sam Brownback of Kansas, Rick Scott of Florida, Paul LePage of Maine, and Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania are all hailed for their good work. Like the worst of the worst, these successful governors also share something. But unlike the worst of the worst, these successful governors are all Republicans.
So, in what other categories does Illinois rank as the worst of the worst?
Here is a handy-dandy list of Quinn’s and the Democrat’s major failures:
- Illinois Worst in Midwest for Private Sector Job Creation
- Illinois One of the Worst GDP Growth in Entire Midwest
- Illinois Ranks as ‘Worst’ For Small Businesses
- Of the Fifty, Illinoisans Have Least Trust in the State Government
- Poll: Even People in Illinois Say Illinois Worst State to Live In
- Illinois has the most underfunded pensions in the country and faces a deficit growth of $17 million per day.
- The state also has the worst funded teachers pensions in the country.
- Illinois was identified as one of the worst states in the union for its oppressive, jobs-killing lawsuit climate
- Illinois had more home foreclosures than almost every other state.
- Illinois ranks as the 49th worst debtor state in the nation.
- Illinois was ranked the 48th worst state for business.
- Illinois ranked 48th for unemployment making it among the worst five states for joblessness.
- Its government also has one of the worst rankings for state transparency and accountability in the nation, too.
- As to big city stats, Chicago tops the nation with the highest unemployment rate.
- Illinois has the worst credit rating
- Illinois Tops Nation in Growth of Food Stamp Recipients
- Mercatus: Illinois ranks at the bottom of the most free states
- Illinois Ranks as One of Worst States for Losing Citizens
Way to go Illinois, that’s quite an accomplishment.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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