CHICAGO—The head of Taxpayers United of America (TUA) today supported changing laws to allow the State of Illinois to declare bankruptcy, and also recommended that local governments be allowed to declare bankruptcy.
“A recent article in Thecentersquare.com discussed the proposal of Richard Porter, attorney and Republican National Committeeman, that Illinois should have ‘A quick GM-style bankruptcy that would replace ‘Old Illinois’ with ‘New Illinois,’ with help from the federal government,” said Jim Tobin, TUA president. “We proposed the idea of an Illinois bankruptcy ten years ago. We still support the idea, but with important differences from that proposed by Porter.”
“Porter proposed a new State Constitution to buy the assets of ‘old Illinois,’ and federal help paying off the state’s accumulated pension debt, suggesting a cap of $80,000 annually per pensioner as a limit.”
“I see no reason why taxpayers should be forced to help pay-off the state’s gigantic accumulated pension debt. The state should be allowed to declare bankruptcy…period. And a cap on pensions of $50,000 is more reasonable.”
“In addition, the General Assembly should allow local governments to declare bankruptcy, with no taxpayer bailout allowed.”
