Illinois

[IMADreamer]

Wonder how many politicians have stakes in natural gas? There is a coal plant closing near Alton as well, and a coal plant just closed in my county two years ago. Don't get me wrong coal needs to go but those jobs hurt.

[Freed Roger]

What is the consensus on Rauner and his ploy? I know Chicago dems are [expletive] ups and crooks. Seems like he is the same, but from a different vein
Just wondering how his Kochian Scott Walker south schemes are playing out (granted Rauner doesnt have the legislative clout as Walker?)

It is hard to get a feel from the peeps in my old home town. They need the state to pay it's bills or that place suffers. I know people waiting for Illinois to catch up. But the town has many that have gone all-in on whip & chains conservatism.

[Swirls]

I want to slap someone. The nuclear power plant outside the Quad Cities is going to close because Illinois won't let them raise power rates by an average of $0.25 per month per customer. It's 800 jobs.

The backstory is that the flood of natural gas power has made power cheap to the point where nuclear can't compete....At some point the price of natural gas will rise again, and then we'll wish we had that nuclear power plant. I am normally against subsidies for private business but this seems like a pretty good strategic move, keeping a nuclear plant around. Illinois I guess can't think past their nose.

Also, it isn't lost on me that since this plant is well outside of Chicago, the Illinois political machine doesn't give a crap about it.

Exelon to close Q-C, Clinton plants

Yeah, as a fellow nuclear worker who was employed by Exelon while I lived in New York, this hurts to see. Especially this part:

Exelon has said the plants employ a combined 1,500 workers, support 4,200 direct and indirect jobs and produce more than $1.2 billion in economic activity. In addition to the economic impact in their regions and across the state, if the plants close, consumers will see electricity costs increase in Illinois, the company said.

Have fun with that, Illinois. Your entire [expletive] state should be bankrupt thanks to your dumb corrupt [expletive] politicians.

[IMADreamer]

What is the consensus on Rauner and his ploy? I know Chicago dems are [expletive] ups and crooks. Seems like he is the same, but from a different vein
Just wondering how his Kochian Scott Walker south schemes are playing out (granted Rauner doesnt have the legislative clout as Walker?)

It is hard to get a feel from the peeps in my old home town. They need the state to pay it's bills or that place suffers. I know people waiting for Illinois to catch up. But the town has many that have gone all-in on whip & chains conservatism.

Rauner had a lot of goodwill from the voters for a few months but when he started trying to have it his way or no way it quickly soured. In my area he spent something like 2 million dollars in the primary to beat a Republican that voted against something he wanted last year. I don't remember for sure, might have been pension cuts. Anyway that was the last straw around here with everyone because that Republican was fairly well liked and no one likes some rich ass hole spending two million dollars on a puppet candidate. I bet if you polled my county his approval rating is as low as Madigan's.

[Michael]

My wife and I would like to buy a house, but Illinois and Chicago are such hot messes we can't bring ourselves to do it.

[jim]

What is the consensus on Rauner and his ploy? I know Chicago dems are [expletive] ups and crooks. Seems like he is the same, but from a different vein
Just wondering how his Kochian Scott Walker south schemes are playing out (granted Rauner doesnt have the legislative clout as Walker?)

It is hard to get a feel from the peeps in my old home town. They need the state to pay it's bills or that place suffers. I know people waiting for Illinois to catch up. But the town has many that have gone all-in on whip & chains conservatism.

What ploy?

[IMADreamer]

My wife and I would like to buy a house, but Illinois and Chicago are such hot messes we can't bring ourselves to do it.

I'm pretty heavily invested here and I'm wondering it's a really bad idea. I'm thinking about doing some things in Missouri in the future and maybe getting out of some of my Illinois property.

[jim]

My son teaches in a very poor school district that relies on state money that they aren't getting. It really sucks.

It's hard not to be pissed off at the city and politicians of Chicago, which seems to be the biggest culprit in this mess.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

I keep telling my parents to sell their house in Alton. Even if they want to stay there, property values are decreasing, population is decreasing, businesses are shutting down (Winchester, power plant, casino is struggling, etc etc etc).

They always say they'd have to pay somewhere to live, which is true I suppose. Though, they're paying taxes and losing value living there. (Taxes have increased, I think, somewhere around 10% in the past couple years, while the real value has gone down probably about the same amount). Truly a terrible situation. A couple of their friends have sold their houses and moved to the Missouri side of the river. They could do that, I guess, but they really have no ties to the area anymore, except my dad's small business which he could pretty easily move. My brother lives up in Springfield, IL and I think they are just trying to avoid getting further away from him.

I feel bad for them, and I guess it would be a lot easier if my family picked up and moved north (like to St. Louis), but St. Louis isn't exactly an ideal scenario for us either. The longer I'm down here, the more I like it.

[lukethedrifter]

Shame about Alton. It's a cool town.