Illinois state government is wearing me out. I find it hard to keep up. Here’s news from the beginning of June.
Illinois’ Governor Bruce Rauner came to my hometown the
first Monday in June. He was to speak at city hall at 1:30. After swimming laps
at the YMCA I got the Number #6 sandwich at Jimmy John’s drive through (the
veggie) for $5.
“Any chips, pickles, cookies or drinks with that?” They try to sell me the same four items every time, in that exact same order, to which I
reply every time;
“No just the sandwich.”
I guess we’re both scripted.
While eating I guided the Buick towards Ottawa City
Hall. There was a big gathering of
people there, which I recognized instantly as the Union crowd. I parked a block away and walked up. Rocky Raikes greeted me, former BA for the
Laborer’s Union and chairman of the Democratic Party. Kevin Frances came walking up as I did,
teacher at Ottawa High School and a union member who endured a nasty strike not
many years ago. Gary Grabowski was
there, retired member of the Carpenter’s Union and renowned good guy. Rick Scott, one of Ottawa’s retired fire
chiefs and current county board member, Heather Reardon another teacher now
retired who was and apparently is still active in the teacher’s union, Helen
Jo, a secretary at DCFS and part of AFSCME, John Knudson former mayor of
Marseilles. YSB staff showed up in
force-Kelly Rinker, Jami Valenzuela, Julie Cullinan, Denise (used to be) Rick,
and new workers I don’t know. They don’t
belong to a union but their employer, YSB, is one of those not for profit
social service agencies that has signed contracts for services they have
provided but not been paid for in nearly a year. I could go on dropping names but in short
the crowd was made up of my friends and neighbors. I’m not good at estimating numbers in crowds
but let’s say 200 people showed.
Friday we learned that Ottawa’s Mayor had agreed to host Governor
Rauner for a press conference at City Hall on school funding which was to be
attended by school superintendents. I
planned to attend to hear what the governor had to say. There I was at City Hall, but they were not
letting us in the building. As people in suits began leaving, filing past
us silently down the sidewalk, not responding to the simple question “where are
you going?” we realized the venue was being changed, we were not a welcome
audience, and because of that we were clumsily being given the slip. Social media being what it is someone tweeted
us the new location and we walked all of a block through the alley by Berta’s and
past Bianchi’s to our old downtown LaSalle County courthouse. There we covered both the North and South
entrances. Unlike City Hall the
courthouse has metal detectors and security guys at the entrances. It was apparent we weren’t getting in there
either.
But the governor had not yet arrived so there was
opportunity to do a little hectoring and sign waving upon his arrival which
happened. But we were fooled some. The
entourage of big black SUV’s met by Ottawa policeman pulled up to a little used
side entrance covered by chain link at the bottom of old iron fire escape
stairs. I’d never seen it used. But sure enough someone from inside opened a
chain link gate for Bruce Rauner and his people. And there he was, walking across the street
from Senate Billiards and disappearing into the courthouse with no hat. He’s pretty tall. Skinny too.
Our hard working and nimble Ottawa radio station WCMY 1430 scrambled,
moved their equipment, got their reporter to the new site, played his remarks
live on air and stored them on website.
You can hear the whole thing here by holding Control and clicking.
After the governor
got into the court house and it was clear the demonstrators, including me, were
shut out I walked to my car and listened on the radio as I drove back home, hearing
the last of his short speech in my garage.
I prefer reading transcripts of these things because I like written
words better than those that hang in the air.
I think writing lasts longer and
has more impact. But that’s just me. How he got to Ottawa, where he spoke, and the
bad things the protestors were able to yell at him in the seconds he walked
from his car into and out of the courthouse are much less important than what
he said. So I’m going focus on the words
our governor chose for Ottawa to hear. The
only thing that speaks louder than words are actions, and so far there has been
so little action in Springfield we only have words to go on.
For one thing, he said “supermajority Democrats” 14 times
before I lost count. Every time he said Democrat
he said supermajority. I was keeping hash
marks on a yellow tablet, you know four marks crossed by a fifth, and I’m not
certain I got them all. Often he said
“Speaker Madigan and the supermajority Democrats.” He went on to call the Speaker Madigan and
his supermajority democrats “total, utter, complete failures” which is a tad
redundant but hey it’s his speech.
Interestingly enough he did not call our local state
representative, Andy Skoog, appointed to serve the remainder of Frank Mautino’s
term, by name. He talked about him this
way;
“You have a representative here, right here in the Illinois
Valley, that is part of the Democrat supermajority and you need to talk to him
and tell him to vote for you and not the City of Chicago. It’s not fair, ladies and gentlemen, for
your tax dollars to be used to bail out Chicago. It’s not fair to YOU.“
He said that or something like it at least seven times, and neither
did he mention by name Skoog’s Republican opponent, tea party truck driver
Jerry Long, who nearly beat Frank Mautino in his last election. I have a feeling that contest is the main
reason the Governor was in our fair city that Monday afternoon. Andy Skoog’s seat is targeted by the
Republicans, one of a handful the Republicans are trying to win back to erase
the “supermajority.” Super.
The Chicago slur, the reference to bailing them out, taps a downstate sentiment fairly easy to
exploit. Chicago is that evil place, the
black hole of tax dollars, and its government-oh my God. Let me use Rauner’s words to describe Chicago
government.
“Ladies and gentlemen Chicago government is deplorable. The corruption, cronyism, and self dealing
that benefit the Chicago machine and the supermajority Democrats is
unbelievable. Unbelievable.” He says
things twice for dramatic effect.
That’s a pretty easy sell downstate, akin to a soft target, bashing Chicago. Bashing Chicago.
The meeting was billed as a discussion about public
education with school boards and superintendents. Those people were allowed to sit in the
chairs in the courthouse. As it turns
out they were more or less foils for a campaign speech. There wasn’t a heck of a lot of school talk
or discussion taking place. Not all the
superintendents attended. Maybe they
could see it coming.
Regarding education Rauner decried “patronage, cronyism, and
waste” in the Chicago Public School (CPS) system and adamantly opposed, promising
to veto, any legislation they might pass which gives CPS more money than they
had last year. While he didn’t go into it
that day Rauner’s Plan A is for CPS to force it into bankruptcy, shed its
commitments to the teacher’s union, completely reorganize and save money. School starts in August. That’s a pretty tall order for the next two
months. I’ve not heard a Plan B. Have you?
I started counting the number of times he dropped the -g
from -ing and literally could not make the marks fast enough. I gave out at 22. He’s folksy, this rich new governor. He also says “gol darn”, that euphemism used
by old timey devout Christians to avoid takin’ the Lord’s name in vain by sayin’
god damn. It’s cute in a way, or might
be cute if it wasn’t life or death for private agencies and public schools. While listening to him it seemed like he just
couldn’t resist. He even mentioned his
Grandpa, a dairy farmer who lived in a double wide trailer. Neither he or his Grandpa came from money,
Bruce Rauner said. He worked hard for
every penny he’s earned, and he is proud of it.
“And gol darn it I’m a volunteer. I’m not takin’ a salary. I’m doin’ this to give back. I’m tryin’ to make Illinois prosperous so we
can afford the things we want and deserve in this state.”
The Governor specifically pushed two emergency bills,
introduced by the Republicans, one to run essential state services up till the
November elections and the other to open the schools on time this fall. He needs that legislation because the
budget passed by the Democrat supermajority does not allow him to sign portions
of the budget, which is typically passed as a package of separate appropriation
bills. I’d not heard it put that
way. You learn something every day if
you pay attention.
“This budget is integrated into a knot and you can’t
separate it,” he explained. “So you need
to talk to your representative, right here in the Illinois Valley, and urge him
to vote against Speaker Madigan and the supermajority Democrats and vote for YOU,
not the City of Chicago.”
He was asked about the situation in Streator, one of our
major towns in the Illinois Valley, where the elementary district, which has
been running on tax anticipation warrants for the last two years and is
desperate for money, is considering scheduling school four days a week to try
to make it on their local property tax dollars and state aid. He reported being very familiar with
Streator, called it “a tragedy” and said that it was typical of many school
districts in Illinois where the tax base is eroding. He claimed Streator would get A LOT MORE MONEY under his emergency bill which
takes school districts back to the foundation level established in 2004 before
the state began prorating the payments.
He didn’t know how much though.
An aide came to his rescue and said $6,119 per student. I asked one of my school administrator
friends where Streator currently is in relation to that funding level and he simply
said “that was twelve years ago. It’s pretty
hard to keep track of where you are.”
Either a union person infiltrated the hand picked audience
or a school person raised this question but it was probably the most
interesting. He (or she, it was hard to
hear the questions) asked the Governor where he stood in regard to Right to
Work laws. The Governor reacted fairly
strongly.
“You know people say I’m anti union and I’m not. If you want to be in a union fine, go for
it. If you don’t want to be in a union
that’s should be all right too.”
(I so would have wanted to ask him about “AF-SCAMMY”, his
derogatory term for the public employees union AFSCME, in response to his
sudden purported union neutrality stance.)
But back to the Governor's Right to Work response; it’s a head
scratcher because what he described pretty much defines Right to Work as a
concept. Yet he went on.
“There is no Right to Work in our agenda. Zero.
Doesn’t exist. That’s a
fact. Right to work is in none of our
bills. I’m not pushing Right to Work at
all.”
The person posing the questions reacted incredulously, as would
the 200 angry union members outside have reacted, saying something to which the
Governor said.
“It’s spin. All
spin. Welcome to my world.”
He said some other things that should be noted. While railing against the Democrat
supermajority’s budget passed with a clearly evident $7 Billion deficit the
Governor claimed the budget he presented earlier this spring was balanced. That’s not accurate. The Civic Federation, in a report released
Tuesday, estimates Rauner’s budget had
an operating deficit of $3.5 Billion. It
does not fully account for the actual cost of essential state services and is
based on projected savings that are unlikely to be realized. Granted his budget is not as bad as the budget
bill passed by the Democrats which he vetoed, but it is still phony.
The Illinois constitution requires a balanced budget and so
the legislature, with the governor often complicit, has in the past simply
inflated revenue lines or obviously undershot expense lines in order to make it
appear balanced. In the year that
legislation was passed approving video computer gambling in taverns and
restaurants the budget showed a giant dollar amount attributed to that
activity. That despite the fact the
software hadn’t been developed and the internet connections were not
established. There was no way in hell
that revenue could have been generated in the following 12 months. Yet there it was, in a phony balanced
budget.
Both party’s budgets are phony because Illinois’ budget will
not work without a tax increase. That’s
been apparent for a year and a half. Let
me say that again. The budget doesn’t
work without a tax increase. Everybody
knows that. Rauner admits he would
support a tax increase, but not if it helps Chicago and its corrupt public
schools. Oh no. Any budget he would sign must provide for
items in his turn around agenda and it can’t help Chicago. No sir.
At least that is what he said in early June in downstate Ottawa in our
courthouse. Apparently our governor
assumes us downstate folk are so provincial we wholeheartedly support him
screwing the largest city in our state.
We’ve let eighteen months go by without renewing a tax increase at a
level that would have allowed us to pay our bills and provide services to
Illinois’ most vulnerable citizens in the meantime. How deep are we going to dig this hole? How much longer do we make things worse?
What is Illinois without Chicago? Do you think perhaps some of Chicago’s tax revenue
just might just creep past Route 80 to benefit us? Do you think it is in our best interest as
citizens of Illinois to throw public education and the families it serves in
Chicago under the bus? How dumb does he
think we are? It is one thing for the
populace to consider only the well being of your own community, but it is quite
another and equally self defeating for the leader of the entire state to pit
one region against another. I hate to hear the Governor, the state’s political
leader, promoting and exploiting the city/downstate divide that so plagues
Illinois.
On the other hand Speaker Madigan and the Democratic
supermajority say next to nothing publicly.
Bruce Rauner at least came to town and said things we could mull over. I haven’t seen Mike Madigan in town since perhaps
the 1990’s when he was promoting judicial candidates. I don’t know where we’re going in Illinois,
but I’m tired of words. I want something
to happen. I want something to happen. I want something to happen.
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