Frustrated with Springfield’s repeated failures to produce a viable budget — especially following the state’s recent deteriorating bond rating by Moody’s — state Senate candidate Mel Thillens bluntly nailed Illinois’ drab financial picture with no-nonsense labeling today.
"The Illinois political machine is so dysfunctional right now that the state's credit rating, already the worst in the nation, just got downgraded,” the Republican businessman from District 28 said. “It is appalling to me that the legislature can end the session without a budget. And now it is going to cost us a fortune in higher interest payments."
As if the poor credit score itself weren’t damaging enough, Illinois faces deeper problems with its overall financial picture because it needs to borrow yet another $550 million for capital projects; the credit downgrade just made that more expensive.
Preparing to face incumbent Laura Murphy in the November elections, Thillens straightforwardly called for action with the rhetorical question: "What is my opponent doing down there?”
“There's no compromise,” he said. “There's no reform. There's no budget. Nothing is working. The time for the establishment politicians is over. Let's get some new people in to fix this mess."
Presumably, that means Thillens, who has previously stated that he grew up learning the value of a dollar.
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