39 down, 5 to go to end Rauner's ruinous turnaround budget stalemate

Illinois' finances continue to collapse since Gov. Bruce Rauner instituted his 44 point turnaround agenda 2 years ago as the price of implementing a balanced budget. That is extortion and was justly resisted by the Democratically controlled legislature. And what has Rauner's turnaround agenda extortion scheme achieved?

Unpaid state bills which declined under Gov. Quinn have skyrocketed past $10 billion and likely will hit $13.5 billion by next June's fiscal year end. Late payment penalties have zoomed to $118 million from a program intended to speed up payments but now strangling state finances. Fees on unpaid bills grows almost $2.5 million per week. Junk status looms for $26 billion in Illinois bonds. Unfunded pension liability, also slowed by Quinn's fiscal sanity, rises north of $130 billion.

Rauner, desperately trying to extricate himself from a self painted corner, touts his dropping 39 of 44 turnaround agenda items, even saying he may drop one or two more if Democrats will only compromise.

Ain't gonna happen, Governor. You bought Illinois with $26 million of your billionaire wealth and figured you could blast it apart to fit the business model of the companies you bought, then sliced and diced on the road to Xanadu style riches. But Illinois, unlike those companies making things that can be easily disposed of, consists of 13 million flesh and blood folks, many of whom now desperately trying to get by in a state run by a morally confused and heartless oligarch. If you have trouble sleeping at night over the abdication of the most basic governmental functions, try counting the students, business owners, working poor and needy suffering under your governance. There's about a million of them to count before you'll get a good night's sleep in the Governor's Mansion.