ILL-inois: State limits lottery payouts to $600

Last autumn Illinoisans elected a reform Republican as governor, political newcomer Bruce Rauner. But General Assembly leaders who helped put the Prairie State into its current fiscal mess--Illinois has the lowest credit rating of any state--Chicago Democrats Michael Madigan and John Cullerton, refuse to agree to Rauner's reforms

So Illinois hasn't operated with a budget for over three months.

In August the Illinois Lottery, because of the budget impasse, announced that it would be limiting payouts to winners to $25,000. The rest would get IOUs.

Now the ceiling for payouts is $600. Folks who live near the state border can of course buy tickets outside of Illinois--which will further deplete the Land of Lincoln's treasury.

Of course the long term answer is to boot the Democratic supermajorities out of the capitol, but that's tall task because Madigan and Cullerton gerrymandered the 2010 remap.

Redistricting reform is one of the changes Rauner is insisting upon.

Don't give in, governor.