What Did You Expect?

Every time I sit down to write a piece about the squalor now called a budget process in Illinois something happens in the news that changes the story.  By the time I finish a piece it’s out of date.  So let’s start with the past in Springfield, that sleepy Central Illinois town where the people we elect to govern our state strive to act in our best interests.  Indulge me while I recall some history.

When Rod Blagojevich defeated Jim Ryan and was installed as governor of Illinois, most Republicans holding administrative jobs quit or were fired and Democrats slowly filled those posts.  I had never heard of the people taking important jobs in the social service arena I worked in nor had they heard of me.  By and large they were new to government.  That was because, as it later appeared, they bought those jobs through their political donations.

 

AFSCME rented a big office in view of the capitol building and put their acronym in huge neon letters on the outside so that legislators, even from their offices at night, and the governor himself, would be reminded who helped get them elected.  AFSCME and its cousin SEIU pumped lots of money into Democratic campaigns to get a leg further up in Illinois politics.  And they succeeded in doing so.

I was the director of a largely state funded private child welfare agency.  That put me in a community of people trying to reform a then (as now many would argue) dysfunctional state code agency - DCFS.  We met in expert panels on a variety of topics and problems within that system.  Not long after Blagojevich was elected union representatives began to attend the meetings.  That was new.  The union was there, among other things, to make sure that whatever solutions or changes we might propose in policy to better serve kids and families which might result in additional programs and thus staff (think jobs) was sure to include state employees, members of their union, along with the largely non union private agency community.  Under the Democrats unions gained the ability to insert themselves even at that level of decision making.  Supervisors unionized.  All but the top tier of administrators unionized.  Things changed.

Make no mistake, we had experienced chronic budget problems, delays and crises, nearly every year no matter which party was in control.  But when the Democrats achieved control of both the Senate and House in addition to the governor’s mansion something unexpected happened.  The problems shifted away from the Republicans and Democrats and migrated instead to being between the Speaker of the House and the Governor.  Occasionally the President of the Senate could be heard.  But it was a different dynamic.

 

And the people we elect to represent our districts?  If you lived where Democrats were elected you at times gained some insight or access to policy and decision making but even then the power was concentrated with the leaders.  Local reps and senators stayed busy helping constituents and bringing money back home, but the show was run from the top.  We took to calling the people who sat in most of the seats in the house and senate “mushrooms.”  They were kept in the dark and brought into the light only when they were ready for harvest, the crop being their votes. They would sit in their offices, reading the Capitol Fax for insight, until a budget deal was worked out and then they voted for the deal as instructed and everyone went home for the summer. Why?

Because Madigan and the party controlled the campaign money, and much of the money came from the unions.  If you voted the wrong way the party would withhold funds for your campaign or worse yet run someone against you in the primary.  That’s how it looked to me as an outsider.  I didn’t particularly care how it worked, I just had to learn and understand the system so I could work within it to get first a fair shake first for Illinois’ kids and families and next, a fair share of available resources for the Illinois Valley.

 

Rauner’s election represented an opportunity for change in Illinois.  Instead he seems intent on creating the same kind of tyranny he’s fighting against.  Buying votes from his own party.  Not tolerating divergent views.  Fighting fire with fire and all the while repeating the past.  Baby boomers learned the folly of that in the lyrics of a cynical old Who song Won’t get fooled again.

There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye.
And the parting on the left
Are now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight.

And that chilly ending

              Meet the new boss

              Same as the old boss

In LaSalle County we saw an example of what is happening in the now resurgent GOP up close.  At Shaker’s Lounge, an Ottawa bar north of Interstate 80 (good selection of craft beer BTW) Jerry Long, truck driver and previous Republican candidate for House Representative in the 76^th district, who lost by a whisker to Democratic incumbent Frank Mautino, Deputy Majority Leader in the general election (337 votes out of 34,481 cast) arranged to meet Jacob Bramel, a 23 year old Air Force veteran from Marseilles who eerily looks like a young Adam Kinzinger.   Jacob previously announced his Republican candidacy for Frank’s seat a while ago, after Jerry Long told the media he had no interest in running for that post again.  But that all happened before Mautino’s bid to fill the recently vacated office of Illinois’ Auditor General.  His eventual appointment was accepted as all but a formality.  Mautino’s sure absence in our area’s House seat apparently changed Mr. Long’s mind.

He was coming to Shakers to tell young Jacob Bramel he was running in the primary, had the backing (think campaign funding) of Rauner and his people, and if he, Bramel, would withdraw from the election he would be looked upon favorably for future opportunities.  They met by the pool tables at Shakers, a good place for private conversation in a crowded bar, with all that necessary space around the tables.  I do not know if they were playing pool during the conversation, with pool cues in their hands or not, but the conversation did not go well.  Mr. Bramel did not want to go along, nor did he, and is running against Jerry Long in the primary.  Primary battles are always a messy, expensive, and needless proposition for parties who like to control the show.

But there you go, a near fight by the pool tables at Shakers for the right to work yourself into a chance to get elected to a job that’s a pain in the ass and pays $67,836 a year.  A fight between Republicans no less.  They used to be happy with just finding some chump to allow them to put his or her name on the ballot.  Republicans are intent under Governor Rauner to pick up seats in both chambers and may now have the money to do it.  Because most everything in Illinois is about the money.

 

Democrats control the House and Senate in Springfield and have since well, before George Ryan was sent to prison.  Amazingly they retained control even after Blogojevich was removed from office mid- term and also sent to prison.  Republicans have been on the sidelines for a long time in Illinois.  There are a lot of good people in Illinois government who happen to be Republicans.  They have to be sick about what’s happening but like good soldiers, or honest Chicago cops, they’re keeping their mouths shut.  I had always thought Republicans who held office in Illinois must take real pride in knowing they were elected despite being from a party that was terribly disorganized and had no money.   After that night of Shakers I’d say that has all changed.

 

The problem is that the campaign money belongs to is Rauner and people like him.  Before Christmas a downstate reporter, pointing out the criticisms leveled at both parties for failing to reach a budget, asked Governor Rauner if the feedback he was getting from people did not pressure him to pass a budget.  His reply, paraphrased because I can’t find the actual quote, was telling.

”On the contrary, the people I talk to: the heads of companies that are the largest employers in Illinois, along with investors and entrepreneurs, they all urge me to stay the course.”

Well hell Bruce, why didn’t you say so earlier?  If those folks want you to ruin government by not passing a budget, by not raising sufficient revenue, by letting priorities and policies for everyday people in Illinois flounder and fail you’d be nuts not to listen to them.  Those big employers and investors are the ones who really count, aren’t they?

People who have almost stopped talking about the budget crisis in Illinois, who simply shake their heads and walk away, sometimes I ask people who are outraged, like me, this question:

“What did you expect?”

I’ll tell you what I expected, and still expect.  I expect Governor Rauner and his administration to spend his four year term working hard to turn Illinois around.  I expected him to offers new ideas, exemplify flexibility, be pragmatic, win some and lose some, bring transparency, inject fiscal sense into the conversation, and incrementally, over four years, change the political culture in Illinois.  And I expect him in the end to tell the rich guys he just can’t accomplish everything they wanted.

 

On the other side of the aisle I expected Speaker of the House Madigan to resist but in the end accept the inevitable swinging back of the pendulum while hanging on to the best of what he achieved over a long run.  I expect him to find financially damaging holes in collective bargaining, the unemployment insurance system, worker’s compensation, state pensions (surely he knows where they are, he and the unions put them there) and in the end agree to changes those systems.  I expect him to risk pissing off Henry Bayer of AFSCME completely and moving Illinois to fiscal recovery while maintaining his focus on protecting the well being of the working class.

 

And while I’m spouting off let me say something to Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune, not only a good writer but also, as far as I can tell, a fair and compassionate guy.  Before Christmas he scolded Andrea Durbin of the Illinois Collaboration on Youth and  Scott Humphrey, CEO of One Hope United insisting they pick a side.

“Get in the game,’ he said.  ‘Make the argument for one side or the other. Point fingers.  Wave signs. Chant slogans. Cast a little blame already.”

Eric believes that by not being partisan advocates, for children in the case of Andrea Durbin and Scott Humphrey, amounts to not sufficiently advancing their cause.

“Right now,” Eric Zorn says “both sides in the standoff seem to believe that public pressure generated by this disintegration of the safety net will be felt most strongly by the other side and eventually cause them to capitulate. Democrats think the Republicans will cave if people get angry enough; Republicans think the Democrats will cave.

Those who are simply whipping up general anger and frustration therefore aren't hastening the day of compromise and reconciliation. Policy agnostics and neutral parties are sideline players, as are members of the "pox on them all" majority detected in recent statewide polling. Pushing on both factions at once keeps them the same distance apart…

What, exactly, do these advocates want?”

I’ll tell you want this advocate wants Eric, a budget.  Progress on fixing the problems that plague Illinois.  Sufficient revenue.  Direction.  And frankly, I want neither extreme.  We can’t afford business as usual with no change as Madigan would have us believe he can deliver nor can I stomach turning over Illinois government to the rich free market elite, Rauner being one of them, that apparently has our new governor’s ear.  I want compromise.  I want a hybrid.  I don’t want Illinois ala Blagojevich any more than I want Wisconsin or Kansas.  I want them both, Rauner and Madigan, to agree on and pass a budget, lose face among their supporters, lick their wounds, and start over next year.  And I want it done now.  

I was talking to a woman who administers state funded (mostly federal pass through) services for the elderly.  She described a pattern I didn’t know existed.

“One of our busiest times is right after Christmas.  Families come home, often from long distance, for what is perhaps an annual visit to elderly parents and grandparents.  When they get here and see the circumstances of their relatives up close, they often call our office seeking help.  Visiting nurses, possible placement into assisted living, any manner of things.  And often their elderly relatives resist.

We often advise them to start with Meals on Wheels.  It’s a simple, fairly non invasive service, but it puts an outsider in the home several times a week, they often form a relationship with the volunteer, and that starts the process.  It’s a simple and overlooked service that does much more than provide food.

The agency that delivers those meals in the Illinois Valley is not being paid because there is no budget.  They are also funded by counties, and have gone to the country where their main office is located for a further advance from them, but were recently denied.  They started adjusting to a lack of money by limiting meals to three days a week.  Starting January first they are also not accepting new clients.  So our primary tool, our gateway to service program, is no longer available to us.  It’s a problem.  A big one.”

I now serve on our local 708 board, which distributes dedicated local tax dollars to help the mentally ill, persons with disabilities, and those suffering from substance abuse.  Our local mental health provider has lost $750,000 in state funding for psychiatry to their mentally ill clients since July 1.  Without the psychiatric staffing that money affords them they cannot prescribe the psychotropic drugs their clients need to function.  They are spending rapidly from reserves.  To exacerbate that problem, it appears even if a budget is adopted, that funding will not be available going forward.

If you are chronically mentally ill in an urban area, taking your eligibility for psychiatric services to some other provider might be possible.  If you live in Ransom or DePue, not having psychiatric services at the local mental health center means you don’t get served.  There is no one else.   Far fewer mentally ill people in our rural area are now being served.  Psychiatrists are not flocking to our small towns to make up the gap, in fact they are fleeing.  The quality of services in the community I live in is rapidly declining.  And Eric Zorn wants me to ride one horse or the other in this race?  Which side could you possibly choose?  I’d rather walk.

I have to tell you something.  I don’t care about either party.  I care about them only to the extent that they could govern well.  And they aren’t.  I don’t have confidence they can.  They are risking the present, posturing politically, in order to gain an edge on their party’s future.  I don’t care about their future.  I care about old people being fed and schizophrenic people getting their meds.  In the end that’s what Illinois does.  It serves people.  I heard on the radio this morning the House has cancelled its legislative session next week because of a lack of work to accomplish.  I have no words for that really.

Since July I keep hoping that every time I leave Illinois there will be a budget in place when I get back.  I’m leaving for a road trip and a stay in Florida Monday to return sometime near the end of the month.  I doubt there will be a budget when I get back.  I don’t know how to end this post.  It’s like an existential play.  The main characters boast and bluff and laugh and howl and nothing changes.  It’s Jean Paul Sartre all over again.  Give me a story with an ending.  Please.