Tag: Illinois

Categories
political challengers term limits

Land of Limited Terms

It’s baaaaaack.

The issue that won’t go away: Term limits.

I predict that Bruce Rauner, a businessman who has never before held public office, will win the GOP nomination as a result of today’s Illinois Republican Party Primary for Governor, besting three career politicians sporting 60-plus years in office, total.

I’m no soothsayer; Rauner leads in the polls. The key issue driving support for him is his support for term limits.

“Term limits should apply to all politicians,” he proclaims in a TV spot, “and not just when they go to jail.”

It’s not just a cute line. Four of Illinois’ last seven governors have ended up in prison . . . so have a number of congressmen representing [sic] the Land of Lincoln.

Rauner’s term limits advocacy includes actual deeds. He is helping, financially and organizationally, to gather half-a-million voter signatures on a petition to place a constitutional amendment imposing eight-year term limits on state legislators before the electorate this November.

Polls show a whopping 79 percent of Illinois voters favor those term limits.

Still, powerful folks amongst the state’s other 21 percent are not pleased by Rauner, who has also called for reforming Illinois’ pension systems, ranked worst funded in the nation. Public employee unions funded a month-long TV ad blitz making baseless charges against the businessman.

With incumbent Governor Pat Quinn facing no significant opposition in the Democratic Primary, the unions are also organizing Democrats to crossover to vote for State Sen. Kirk Dillard in the Republican Primary.

But I think Dillard, the 20-year incumbent Republican officeholder, will be no match for the guy who supports term limits.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
responsibility

Stop Digging

If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

When it comes to pension systems, the State of Illinois appears shovel in hand, digging to the bottom. The state’s five public employee retirement systems face a combined unfunded liability of $100 billion dollars; they have only 40 percent of what they need to pay the benefits politicians negotiated with public employee unions — the lowest funding level of any state.

The Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago-area paper, calls a spade a spade: “The shortfall is due largely to decades of legislators skipping or shorting the state’s pension payments — a practice that allowed them to spend that money elsewhere.”

Today, Illinois’ legislators will trudge into Springfield for an expected vote to fix the broken system.

“This deal was made by Speaker Madigan and other politicians behind closed doors,” charges Illinois Policy Institute CEO John Tillman, who fears it makes matters worse.

The bizarre attempt at a fix allows the Legislature to be sued before the Illinois Supreme Court if it fails to make its required ongoing contributions into the pension fund.

The legislation also contains a guarantee clause prioritizing pension payouts before most other state spending. As Tillman says, “Not caring for the poor. Not public safety. Not education.”

And a much ballyhooed option for employees to switch to a 401(k)-style plan turns out to allow only 5 percent of employees to so choose, blocking the rest.

Pay what was promised, but stop digging! Move new workers to 401(k) style plans they can own, with employer contributions handed over every pay period.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
Accountability government transparency too much government

Illinois Pension Ills

When it comes to the full faith and credit of the Great State of Illinois, three major credit rating companies judge it the lowest in the union. The problem is that state politicians made pension promises they didn’t pay for and still aren’t.

How bad is it? Illinois’s total unfunded pension liability now tops $200 billion dollars – that’s roughly 250 percent of the state’s annual revenue. And growing.

But take, heart!

Gov. Pat Quinn just said that the massive pension shortfall will grow at a slower pace than previously thought, $5 million (instead of $17 million) a day.

Whoopee!

Folks at the Illinois Policy Institute are a little mystified by this pronouncement, though. The projection seems based more on wishes and hope than the straight dope. Besides, “this isn’t the first time the state has predicted that the growth in the state’s unfunded liability would slow,” Institute Senior Fellow Jonathan Ingram writes, noting that “the exact same prediction was made last year based on the actuarial projections made in fiscal year 2011. The systems predicted that the unfunded liability would grow by ‘only’ $5.3 billion in fiscal year 2012.”

The conventional wisdom blames too many years of the legislature shorting the annual payments to the five public-employee retirement funds.

Another way to look at it is simply that politicians are a whole lot better at promising than delivering, and defined benefit (rather than defined contribution) pensions are too tempting to trust to any politician.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
education and schooling free trade & free markets

Strikes and Rumors of Strikes

The tale of how Chicago’s teachers union beat the Chicago School District, and got their way, is inspiring . . . if you belong to a union, if you don’t care about costs, if you don’t want to improve the quality of education.

And if you define “inspirational” as inspiring copycats.

That’s happened already, and may break out big time. Illinois’s Evergreen Park District (#124) is now on strike. Lake Forest High School District (#115) teachers recently concluded a strike, with a tentative agreement allegedly being finalized as I type. At least two other district teachers’ unions have declared strikes, and contract negotiations have stalled elsewhere. Add to that, AFSCME bigwigs wrote their 40,000 members that “direct action at the work site” might be necessary. I’m hoping that’s a work stoppage, and not sabotage. (“Direct action” sounds ominous, doesn’t it?)

Paul Kersey, writing on the Illinois Policy Institute website, opines that it “would be unfortunate if union officials chose to shut down key government services at a time when so many Illinoisans are struggling economically, but unfortunately it seems that the results of the Chicago Teachers Union strike may have encouraged many of them to do just that.”

Unions arose in the 19th century as a way to deal with poor working conditions, and, over time, the idea of a closed shop took hold with the specific program of excluding competitive workers. That made it easier to negotiate for higher wages, etc.

While private sector unions fought “evil businessmen” — that’s what I read in school — public employee unions fight . . . taxpayers. I always wonder how taxpayers feel, being dragooned into the role of “evil” skinflint.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
local leaders tax policy

CARE Wins

Communist dictator Mao Tse Tung was fond of quoting Laozi, who said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Dennis Collins is neither a Taoist philosopher nor a dictator. The physician’s assistant, husband and father from Jacksonville, Illinois, is fine with that. “I’m just a private citizen,” says Collins. “I saw something that I thought wasn’t right and needed to be righted and it worked out for us.”Dennis Collins VOTE NO TAX INCREASE

What Collins saw was a ballot referendum that would have raised the sales tax in his county. With his area facing a tough economy and job losses, he didn’t think raising taxes made any sense.

So he took the first step; he called some neighbors and, together, they formed “Morgan County CARE.” CARE stands for Citizens Acting for Responsible Education.

“We knew we were outgunned from the start, but we just did the best we could,” Collins recalls in a video produced by the Illinois Policy Institute.

On a budget of just $3,100 and shoe leather, group members went door-to-door and made countless phone calls. “We went out and gave an honest message,” Collins explains, “and ended up making a change.” They defeated the tax hike.

“When I go to the store and see the sales tax receipt it feels very good,” Collins explains after the victory at the polls. “I’m thinking about the less fortunate and the elderly that are on fixed incomes and knowing they aren’t going to have to struggle any more than they currently are.”

“Individual citizens do need to step up and try to make change,” says Collins. That’s not the voice of a history-making dictator or a philosopher, but a community-protecting American citizen.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
tax policy too much government

A Tale of Two States

Tuesday is Election Day for Wisconsin’s gubernatorial recall, pitting Republican Gov. Scott Walker against Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in a rematch of their 2010 contest, won by Walker. Polls show Walker leading, and likely to become the first “recalled” governor to ultimately defeat his recall and retain his office.

In fact, after all the massive protests and the recall campaign, Walker’s popularity has increased.Governors Walker and Quinn

Why?

Mr. Walker has done what he said he would. He hasn’t raised taxes. He staked out his position on ending collective bargaining for most public employees as well as requiring them to pay something toward healthcare and pension benefits, and, against a flurry of opposition, stuck to his guns.

Now the Badger State’s unemployment rate is down below the national average and economic prospects are up.

For a very different story, look south, to Illinois.

Gov. Patrick Quinn supports initiative, referendum and recall, but gets demerits for his response to the current economic difficulties. In 2010, Illinois raised the state income tax by 66 percent. But the $7 billion in extra revenue has done little to solve the state’s chief budget woe — Illinois was $8 billion in the hole when the income tax was hiked, and somehow faces that same $8 billion shortfall today.

So, just a week ago, lawmakers slapped a $1-per-pack tax on cigarettes.

If a state could tax itself out of trouble, Illinois would be a near paradise today.

Walker took on the government employee unions; Quinn took on the taxpayers. That’s why Wisconsin — including their embattled governor — is on the upswing and Illinois is not.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.