In a social media post Sunday, former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley blasted the Illinois Senate Democrats for an “infuriating” attempt to use the coronavirus crisis in order to secure a partial “bailout” for the state’s collapsing pension system.
On Saturday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Democratic Illinois state lawmakers seeking “more than $41B in federal coronavirus aid — including $10B pension bailout.”
“Illinois Senate Democrats are asking the federal government for more than $41 billion in federal aid — about a quarter of it for a pension fund bailout — to keep the state financially afloat as the coronavirus pandemic continues to slash revenues across the board,” the paper reported. “A letter from Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, addressed to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, went out Tuesday to Illinois’ entire congressional delegation — a day before Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the economic shutdown would result in an estimated $2.7 billion revenue shortfall in the state’s current budget.”
This is infuriating. We can’t bailout Illinois’s notoriously corrupt and mismanaged pension system. We can’t have Congress going to the trough for things like like. States should not get windfalls. It All has to be paid back. https://t.co/hZedgfrID4
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) April 19, 2020
“I realize I’ve asked for a lot, but this is an unprecedented situation, and we face the reality that there likely will be additional, unanticipated costs that could result in future requests for assistance,” Harmon wrote in the letter representing state senate Democrats. – READ MORE
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