Chicago Tribune Editorial: Do You Really Want to Invest in Chicago or Any Place In Illinois?

The Chicago Tribune reports:

As a result, living here will become more expensive. The small but allegedly rising risk of lending money to Chicago and other Illinois governments will thrill vulture investors; they accept the possibility that they won't walk away with 100 cents on the dollar in return for demanding higher interest payments from taxpayers. So the vultures will flock to future Chicago bond offerings. The majority of more cautious institutional investors, though, will at least ask themselves: In a nation full of more stable, better-rated state and local governments, do I want the headache of wondering what happens next in Illinois?

This downgrade, like Friday's court ruling, emphasizes anew that Chicago and Illinois are vastly overpromised, overborrowed, overspent. Governments here live far beyond their means. Yet there are still deniers who think Illinois governments don't have to massively restructure the scope and cost of providing public services.

The reckoning has arrived. We hope it brings more cost-conscious governance across Illinois, at a price the remaining taxpayers can afford.

Unions sure have made Illinois expensive for the middle class!