Who’s the boss (and I don’t mean that old television program) of Illinois?

Will new governor have to take marching orders … 

J.B. Pritzker has been governor-elect for a week now and has already created a team of advisers (including Republicans such as former Gov. Jim Edgar and former Illinois Senate leader Christine Radogno amongst them) to advise him on how to go about actually running Illinois government.

Yet there are those who are persisting with such political rhetoric as to say the only person who’s really going to influence him is the guy who will actually run the state.

… from Mr. Speaker himself?

NONE OTHER THAN Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago. As though they can’t let go of all the trash talk that they tried to use to tie everybody in sight to Madigan so it would cost them re-election.

It didn’t work. Yet we’re still hearing the trash talk.

I got my kick out of the Daily Herald newspaper account where Jeanne Ives, the ideologue who tried (but failed) to beat Bruce Rauner herself, said she thinks Illinois is safe from any sort of progressive tax hike.

Although state government certainly could use the money to make real progress toward paying off all the bills it accumulated during Rauner’s partisan efforts to undermine organized labor’s influence, Ives said she believes Madigan won’t let the Democrat-dominated General Assembly approve any such thing.

Radogno and Edgar (below) … 

SHE SAYS MADIGAN is political astute enough to realize a large segment of the population would disapprove, possibly even revolt, and would start electing Republicans again if Democrats get to brazen.

“I think Mike Madigan will still run the state,” Ives told the suburban-based newspaper. “He is savvy and knows the state can’t withstand another tax increase.”

So is J.B. really nothing more than Madigan’s puppet; expected to sign off on whatever bills Madigan (with state Senate President John Cullerton’s cooperation) allows to get as far as the gubernatorial desk?

… are among those advising J.B. these days

Or is Ives, the state senator from Wheaton (no longer a bastion of the Republican Party) merely trying to maintain a semblance of relevance in today’s Illinois political age?

THIS IS A debate I have heard often – trying to figure out who’s really in charge these days! Because it is likely (if not downright predictable) that there will be a falling-out between Pritzker and Madigan. A rivalry will develop within the party over who ought to be listening to whom. Which is why people used to think Illinois would never have Democrats as governor -- Madigan wouldn't permit anyone who could undermine his influence!

Pritzker may well adopt the attitude that the people picked HIM to be governor, while Madigan may well feel J.B. is a political amateur who’s never run NOTHING and who ought to leave the governing to the big boys who have been doing this for awhile.

I’ve even heard it said that Pritzker is in a unique position to challenge such incumbent thought because he’s so wealthy. Similar to how Rauner tried to buy the Republican Party political structure to support his own desires, Pritzker has the kind of money to where he could be the guy that Democrats turn to for political support, instead of having to rely on Madigan’s labor connections to raise their political funds.

Particularly since within the Democratic Party structures across the nation, there are splits between establishment types supporting the current structure, and those who want a more politically progressive structure.

AFTER ALL, WHAT’S the point of having a not-so-liberal Democratic Party? You might as well be a Republican, is their attitude. Madigan himself is most definitely of the party’s establishment – a guy who backs the Democrats because of his support for organized labor and its interests.

IVES: Trying to retain relevance

There are times when he seems to dread having to deal with more liberal elements and social causes. Only backing them when he can figure a way to turn them to his own interests. But that may be the relevant point – Madigan is a political mastermind who can figure ways to use issues for a greater good, so to speak.

We all saw how Rauner’s efforts to use his money to buy a political party for himself failed to the point where some now wonder if the Illinois Republican Party has anything left worth use! Could Pritzker be just as inept without Madigan’s mindset on his side.

Could it be in everybody’s interest that the two men figure out a way to cooperate? Which could mean the true threat to the people of Illinois is that Democrats are not really the united force for liberal causes in the way that elements of the modern-day Republicans have become the party wishing to force conservatism down all our throats.

  -30-

EXTRA: Everybody’s spewing a load of bull in the land of Springpatch

Springpatch; it's that mythical place where Illinois political people live in their own little world and the concerns of the real people whom they’re supposed to be representing don’t seem to amount to much.

All gloomy and dank at the Statehouse these days as it was in this century-old postcard image

Springpatch. That’s the place where we wish we could avoid, yet it now is taking over the focal point of our state government operations all because of the nothingness that is occurring there.

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY convened again in their “special session” – which former legislator-turned-Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey says  on his Facebook account "aren't very special at all" – for a whole lot of nothing toward trying to craft the operating budget that would allow state government to function properly.

We haven’t had one of those for nearly two full years – and based on what we’ve seen so far this week, there’s no reason to think we’re going to have one by next Friday (which is the final day of state fiscal 2017).

About the only thing that did get done Friday was the obligatory round of statements issued by the political partisan hacks who want us to blame “the other guy” for the whole lot of nothingness that is occurring.

Madigan, Cullerton continue to stall was the headline atop the Illinois Republican-issued statement, while da Dems claimed to be “deeply disappointed” that Republican leaders wouldn’t meet with them Friday “and work (with us) to advance a balanced budget.”

THE BULL EMANATING from the Statehouse Scene made me think for a second that we were in mid-August – the time of year when state officials focus attention on the Illinois State Fair and we get to smell the fragrant aroma of the assorted farm animals on the state fairgrounds.

So do I think that Senate Minority Leader Christine Ragodno and James Durkin of the Illinois House really created a sense of disappointment by not showing up to meet with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan or state Senate President John Cullerton?

No more than I believe the Republican rhetoric that Democrats are engaging in “sham hearings” by refusing to blindly vote for whatever the GOP tells them to do.

This is a problem that will require a true sense of political bipartisanship to resolve. Unfortunately, all we’re getting is some of the most intense partisan trash talk that has ever come from Springpatch.

IT’S NO WONDER that we’re getting such garbage from a place that brings to mind the lame old gag of naming the Illinois capital city in memory of the fictitious hometown from the old Lil’ Abner cartoons.

Because there are times I think our government officials have all the sense of a Shmoo.

  -30-

Political bipartisanship is in a coma; I'd certainly hate to think it's deceased

About the only real concept up for argument is whether the notion of  bipartisan cooperation -- the idea of people of various ideological leanings working together to ensure that everybody can claim a piece of political victory -- is dead, or lying unconscious in a coma from which we have no clue whether it will ever regain consciousness.

Would Rauner, Trump backers hate this sign?

For both at our state and federal levels, we got evidence that our officials aren't the least bit interested in working together. Even when some try to work together, there are others who are determined to work to see that nothing happens.

PERHAPS IT'S BECAUSE they realize many people are more interested in results than ideological victories, no matter how much it might sound for one side to take all or how vengefully delightful it might sound for one side to get absolutely nothing!

I got somewhat worked up at learning earlier this week of the failure of the "grand bargain" to advance. For those of you not paying attention to the nuances of the Springpatch Scene, that is the phrase being used by people to describe the state budget deal supposedly being concocted by the Illinois Senate.

It was something resembling a compromise plan and it would have included minor provisions that Gov. Bruce Rauner once included among the so-called reforms he was asking for.

Most importantly, it would have put the state in the direction of finally approving a budget plan for state government operations -- something that state officials have been unable to do since the days of Pat Quinn as governor.

SERIOUSLY, WE'RE NOW approaching two full years of real time during which state government operations were halted due to a lack of a budget -- except for those agencies performing functions so essential that the federal courts are now essentially telling Illinois how to operate!

Rauner and Trump not political twins ...

Nothing wound up happening because even though Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, was helping to negotiate the deal, none of her Republican colleagues were willing to support it. They were following the lead of Rauner -- whom it seems is more interested in maintaining his partisan stances (his priority always has been to undermine organized labor in Illinois, to the extent that he'll extend his wrath upon the people of the state).

For what it's worth, praise is being offered by the Liberty Principles political action committee, which issued its own statement that called attempts at negotiation nothing more than, "the same old power politics presenting the same false choices" and also said it was prepared to lead people in voting against Rauner if he does NOT maintain his ideological hang-ups.

They also went so far as to lambast former governors James R. Thompson and Jim Edgar of selling out the state -- even though I still remember the days of the early 1990s when Edgar was the guy who held out in budget talks against the same Michael Madigan that Rauner now says is standing firm against him.

... but they do bear similarities

PERHAPS A LITTLE bit of the old Edgar sense of priority in maintaining the daily government operations is what ensured that he got re-elected to a second term, and probably would have won a third term if he had tried to seek it back in 1998. Because at some point, we have to start laying blame on Rauner if he thinks he can go an entire four-year gubernatorial term without an operations budget.

I experienced similar feelings this week when President Donald J. Trump shut down his Twitter account for a few moments and tried speaking to the people. Some are determined to say that Tuesday was the evening Trump became presidential in character.

Yes, I heard his comments about how it was time that people on both sides find a way to come together, with the end result being that we could actually live up in reality to his campaign them of "Making America Great."

Now I know some political pundits, particularly those of a conservative ideological bent, have said that this was a fantastic strategic move by Trump because now it puts the pressure on those of us of a more sensible approach to life to figure out ways to come closer to HIS way of thinking.

THAT COULD ACTUALLY have a bearing of truth, in that I don't doubt for one moment that Trump and his believers seriously think that we wouldn't have any problems in our society if only everybody who didn't agree with them would merely "shut up!" and do what they were told.

CULLERTON: Should all heed his advice?

It was the same sense I felt given off by much of the overly-nationalistic rhetoric spewed in the days following the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon back in 2001. Perhaps some people need for us to be in a "disaster" mode in order for them to think we're moving forward as a society.

Perhaps they also think that peacetime and working together is just a little too dull. Even though one could argue that such dullness is the ultimate evidence that things are functioning properly and that we're all alright.

It also makes me wonder if state Senate President John Cullerton's advice to Rauner is something that also could apply to many other ideologue politicos -- saying of the governor, "he's got to grow up!"

  -30-

Will 100th Illinois Legislature behave more responsibly than its predecessor?

The 99^th version of the Illinois General Assembly finishes its business on Tuesday, and I suspect the few people who give things such thought will be thinking to themselves, “Good riddance!”
 

Has the state Senate ...

For these were the legislators who were chosen back in November 2014 along with Bruce Rauner to be governor. Meaning this version of the state Legislature is going to be the one remembered for its inability to work with a governor to do what some consider the primary purpose of state government – putting together the budget that allows government to operate.

OF COURSE, IT’S probably a stretch to place all the blame on the Legislature. For it can also be said that Rauner is the governor who has shown himself incapable of working with a General Assembly to put together that annual budget, without which government cannot operate!

 

... become the mature legislative chamber?

So as we move into a new version of the Illinois Legislature, the 100^th, to be exact, the real question is whether or not anything will be even remotely different than the past two years.

Or are we already preordained to go through four complete fiscal years of state government without anything in the way of a budget – which is important because many government functions cannot take place without a specific spending plan in place detailing how taxpayer monies are to be spent.

The money may be there, but we don’t allow it to be spent unless a budget is in place. It would be reckless to do otherwise.

WHICH IS WHY it was of some significance that the leaders of the state Senate let it be known Monday that they have something resembling a crude outline of a budget.

Will 'Mr. Speaker' care what Cullerton thinks

There’s no way they could get something rushed into approval by Tuesday night, so their plan is to sponsor a bill when the new Legislature takes over. They’re hinting at something that could be approved by Feb. 1 – at least on their end.

For that’s the trick. This is merely something for the state Senate to act upon. There’s no evidence that anything has any additional support.

This could wind up being nothing more than a stunt by which state senators try to create the illusion that they were ready to act, but that everybody else failed. As in we shouldn’t blame them!

IT COULD TURN out that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, will not care much for what state Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, thinks. Then again, Rauner may wind up finding it presumptuous of Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, to try to tell him what to do.

Will governor care what anyone else thinks?

So do we have a budget deal? We’re going to see just how much either Madigan or Rauner really want to settle this deal. A part of me suspects that Rauner, in particular, would like this issue to be ongoing so he can try to use it as political rhetoric to attack his opponents.

Then again, there are plenty of people in Illinois who believe the reason we have a stalemate is Rauner. He got elected as governor in large part because he wanted to push an ideological agenda – one that particularly targets organized labor.

It probably would be a blow to his ego to have to act in a way that merely maintains government operations.

BUT THEN AGAIN, there also are those individuals to whom Rauner’s idea of “reform” is truly harmful. There are those who voted for the people they did back in 2014 because they wanted them to stand up to any of the new governor’s partisan rhetoric.

SCOTT: Illinois not alone in partisan hacks

Just as I’m sure on the federal level this year there are people now in Congress who are being counted upon to oppose anything that President-elect Donald J. Trump tries to enact once he becomes the chief executive – even though people such as Florida Gov. Rick Scott have acted in ways indicating they think that day has already come.

It’s going to be an ugliness existing at so many levels of government.

Somewhere, we’re going to have to have a level of maturity that we’re not likely to see from any of the chief executives of government. Whether it will wind up coming from the rank-and-file is the question that remains to be answered.

  -30-

EXTRA: Illinois not among those out to plot for Trump’s removal from ballot

It seems that our Republican establishment in Illinois is inclined to go along with the notion of Donald Trump as the GOP nominee for president come the November elections.

RAUNER: Not putting self into Trump trap

Either that, or we have a governor whose idea of “vision” doesn’t extend beyond the notion of undermining organized labor!

FOR BRUCE RAUNER told reporter-types on Monday that he’s inclined to accept whomever the Republican nominating process picks to run for president. The Chicago Sun-Times got Illinois House Minority Leader James Durkin, R-Western Springs, to say the same thing.

Which goes along with Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who may be a party renegade for suggesting that his Senate colleagues be fair in considering Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, for the post. But he’s not about to be a part of a plot to undermine Trump’s chances of winning the presidential nomination at the party’s nominating convention to be held in Cleveland.

It seems the only person in a political leadership position amongst the Republicans who’s not surrendering to the inevitability of Trump as the GOP candidate is state Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont.

Officially, she backs the idea of Ohio Gov. John Kasich as the next U.S. president.

ALTHOUGH I FIND it intriguing that Kasich himself is nowhere as accepting.

Go listen to the recordings available on the Internet for the “Meet the Press” program on NBC, where Kasich on Sunday said there’s no way that Trump gets the nomination.

For Donald Trump to lose nomination now ...

He seems to believe there are too many people who despise the idea of the New York real estate developer using the political party to appease his political ego by running for president. He seems to think the Republican strategy of undermining Trump’s political desires will succeed.

It’s not clear if Kasich thinks he’s going to be the Republican nominee, or if someone else will be.

ALL I KNOW is that if Trump fails now after having prevailed this far, it would be the ultimate in political collapses. Perhaps somewhere up there with the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies team that blew a 6 ½ game lead with only 12 games left in the season.

It certainly seems that Illinois Republicans won’t be a part of any such revolt against Trump.

... would be as weak as '64 Phlllies loss

Perhaps it’s just that Trump managed to win the Republican primary held last week in Illinois – even though he failed to take a true majority. He still got more political support than any of the other candidates with presidential dreams.

Rauner and other Republicans already are in a precarious-enough position in this state. Anything that would stir up resentments that would fracture their supporters is something they most definitely do NOT want to endure.

PARTICULARLY if one is most primarily concerned with getting themselves re-elected, and the presidential post (while most important to some) is nothing more than a political catfight for a level of government outside of their realm of interest.

It may be that the legislators are most concerned with seeing that their GOP caucuses don’t shrink even lower than their current levels – ones that already see them on the wrong end of the “veto proof” majority.

Letting the Trump spat drag them to further levels of irrelevance is the ultimate nightmare come true.

  -30-

Will lack of license renewal notices irritate public about lack of Ill. budget?

It shouldn’t make any difference that the state of Illinois will not be able to send out written notices via mail reminding people that their driver’s licenses are on the verge of expiring.

It includes an expiration date!

After all, the date of expiration is printed on every single license. It is spelled out for you right on the card. And it falls on your birthdate every four years!

THE ONLY REAL trick is to remember whether this year is the year you have to make the trip to a secretary of state facility to do the renewal, and whether this year is one of those where you have to submit to a written or actual driving test to show the state that you’re still qualified to be capable of operating an automobile.

But I can already imagine the complaints we’re going to hear from the public; or at least those who won’t receive a notice of renewal in coming weeks – all on account of the fact that the state is running low on cash it has authorization to spend.

It’s that dreaded lack of a budget for state government – something that is required by the state Constitution for the government to operate at full services.

Both the Chicago Tribune and State Journal-Register newspaper of Springfield reported that the secretary of state’s office will have to stop sending out the notices because the cost of postage is too much.

THE STATE HAS been sending out notices the past three months because there was some money left over from the past fiscal year (the one that ended June 30).

RAUNER: You'd think he'd be ashamed by now

The bit that still remains will now be used by the state to mail out license renewal stickers, along with license plates themselves. Although if the politically partisan-motivated stalemate between Gov. Bruce Rauner and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, continues much longer, even those services may have to be cut.

Personally, I feel lucky. My license expired at the end of August – meaning I got my notice back in June. Aside from complaining that my new driver’s license photograph makes me look old (then again, I did just turn 50), I can’t complain.

Could Cullerton and Ragodno ...

Just as my brother is due to renew the license plates on his automobile by Wednesday.

I GUESS THIS means we beat the rush. By the time we have to deal with these duties again, I’d hope our state would be in a position to have an actual budget.

At which time, things would resume the way they’re supposed to within state government.

... resolve budget crisis themselves?

Personally, I find little details such as this to be laughable because they show just how ridiculous the financial status of Illinois has become; so precarious that something as basic as one’s driver’s license can be threatened by the inability of public officials to fulfill one of their most basic duties.

Considering that the conservative ideologues of our society believe that state government ought to pass its budget, and do as little else as becomes necessary, it makes me think that the Republican caucus is the ultimate failure in this situation by putting their desire to bash organized labor ahead of their official duty.

THEY’RE NOT EVEN fulfilling their basic responsibility. Which makes me wonder if they’re more derelict in their duties than that rural Kentucky clerk who wants to thwart a basic duty of her own office (marriage licenses) to make an ideological point about the legitimacy of gay marriage.

DAVIS: Who's more embarrassing; her or gov?

Now I’m fully aware that Madigan is just as capable of being stubborn, although I get the sense he’s at least interested in moving forward on the budgetary issue.

Which also makes me note the interviews that Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, and Minority Leader Cristine Radogno, R-Lemont, gave to WTTW-TV’s “Chicago Tonight” program earlier this week – saying that if it were just the two of them, they’d be able to approve a budget that would allow the state to move forward.

It makes me wonder if we need to dump all our leadership – and if it will be something as petty as driver’s license notification that will ultimately irritate the public enough to put the pressure on political people to get them to actually do something.

  -30-

Life way too short for some people

My belated condolences to Illinois Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, who this week lost her daughter, Lisa – who suffered a massive pulmonary embolism.

RADOGNO: Our condolences

What makes her death particularly tragic was not because of who her mother was. Or even her boss – she worked on the D.C.-based staff of Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill. It was her own age, or lack thereof.

SHE WAS ONLY 31. Lisa should have had a full life ahead of her.

Although the real question is to wonder what exactly constitutes a full life. It can be so short, or so long, or anywhere in the middle. And nobody knows exactly when their “end” will come. We truly have to appreciate every single minute.

Personally, I’m a little more sensitive to this issue these days on account of my brother, Chris. My younger brother has actually spent this week in an area hospital (we think he might wind up being released on Friday).

I had my own scare this week thinking there was a chance I could lose my little brother (he’s barely 44), even though every time I’ve seen and spoken with him this week, he’s claimed he felt fine – not at all out of the ordinary.

YET WHEN, BY pure chance, he had his blood pressure taken at a clinic on Monday (he was hoping to get some sort of medication for a sty that had developed on his eyelid), it registered way up around 240-something.

That’s hypertensive crisis territory. That’s where someone calls the ambulance and insists you go to the Emergency Room because they’re afraid you can’t drive yourself to the hospital.

He wound up spending a day in intensive care, and has since been put in a regular hospital room where he spends his days watching trashy television programs and reading the newspapers to keep up on happenings of the world.

While also complaining about how out-of-his-skull bored he has become, yet can’t go anywhere.

NOW DON’T GET the impression that I’m comparing my brother’s situation to that of Lisa Radogno. She died suddenly, while it seems my brother’s potential for a life-threatening situation was caught right at the exact moment before it became a stroke or a heart attack or something that could have caused me a lot more grief.

In fact, when I happened to be visiting him at the hospital on Thursday, I was present when a nurse took his blood pressure yet again, and it came out at a level that almost constitutes normal and healthy by American Heart Association standards.

 

Not ready to lose my brother yet

I’m fortunate. I’m likely getting my brother back – and suspect I have to be on call Friday to pick him up from the hospital when he’s finally discharged.

But if I think about it too closely, it becomes a near-miss. My brother isn’t ready to depart this realm of existence at age 44. Actually, I don’t think anybody is.

THEN AGAIN, LIFE isn’t fair. I know people I went to high school with who died at ages 19 and 22 – the former when his car was struck by a drunken driver and he went flying through the windshield because of the impact, and the latter because police said he was impaired while driving from having smoked too much marijuana.

It makes me think how they had too much still to do in life, just as my brother is in need of many more years of life to ensure he accomplishes all he wants to do.

Just as we’re going to wonder how much more Lisa Radogno would have accomplished with the extra 40 to 50 years that statistics indicate she might have had a chance to experience.

  -30-

Does an alderman really outrank a legislator? In Chicago, of course!

Gov. Pat Quinn has been taking some abuse in recent weeks, ever since the Illinois auditor general’s office came out with its review of an anti-violence initiative the governor concocted back in 2010.

QUINN: Thinking state terms, or city?

Some think he only did it to try to make himself look better just prior to the gubernatorial election that year (the one in which he barely beat Republican challenger, Bill Brady), and the audit says there was a lot of wasteful spending – and possibly even some fraudulent behavior.

STATE SENATE MINORITY Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, came out and said she wants the U.S. Attorney to investigate Quinn, while Brady is going around saying the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative is really just a fancy label for a “slush fund.”

Which is to be expected. A lot of Republican officials are going to try to say nasty things about Quinn so as to weaken him for whichever guy they wind up nominating come the March 18 primary.

The part that gets to me about this is the fact that some members of the Legislature’s black caucus are also joining in the rants.

It was their home neighborhoods that were the focus of the initiative, and they have been upset with the governor for a reason that comes down to their own egos being besmirched.

BECAUSE THE WAY the program worked, the state gave funds to community organizations that were picked out by the members of the Chicago City Council from those neighborhoods.

It seems that some of those aldermen (Surprise! Surprise!) selected groups that were politically connected to themselves.

RADOGNO: Playing politics!

Which means we now have the state legislators for those areas saying they warned the governor not to trust the aldermen to make honest recommendations. That he should have known better than to let the City Council get involved.

Although I really don’t think those legislators really cared about the fact. They were most likely resentful of the fact that a governor wouldn’t let the legislators make the recommendations and have funds go to groups that were their own political supporters!

AS THOUGH HE went outside the “state government” family to reward someone else. Which may be true if you try to look at state government from a purely parochial point of view.

HENDON: Not the normal move

The problem is that Quinn appears to have viewed dealing with Chicago from the viewpoint that Chicago people view it. Which is that if he had put something like this in the hands of the legislators, he would have been mocked for putting it in the hands of lesser political people.

It’s just the way things work that an alderman in Chicago outranks a state legislator. Heck, even some Cook County Board members outrank legislators. When Rickey Hendon gave up his City Council post for a seat in the state Senate in 1992, it was the ultimate political demotion.

There’s a reason why people trying to get into the political structure in Chicago start out as state legislators to gain some experience, then “move up” to a post that doesn’t require them to make the three-to-four hour drive to the Statehouse on a regular basis every spring.

AND AS FOR the ones who don’t move up and remain on the legislative scene for years to come, there’s always the exception like Michael Madigan who became the almighty (and often lambasted) Illinois House speaker.

MADIGAN: An exception to the rule

But, by and large, they’re the ones who just don’t show the promise to move up in the ranks. For a Chicagoan, a seat in Springfield truly is either the beginning or the end of a career in public office. It’s NOT the middle part of substance!

It’s the complete opposite of someone from a rural part of Illinois who gets “rewarded” with a state Legislature post for putting in time as a village or county official “back home.” Which gives them that tiny perspective on life that often dictates their actions as a “state” official.

I often wonder how much that difference in perspective about the significance of one’s post dictates how much of a mess our legislative activity can become. When combined with the partisanship between the two political parties (which is what the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative rhetoric largely is), it’s a wonder that anything ever gets done right on the Statehouse scene.

  -30-

Earth to Rauner: Oh, Hush!!!

There’s always going to be a malcontent, somewhere, for just about everything.

RAUNER: A Sunday pension statement

In Illinois this week, that malcontent seems to be Bruce Rauner, the wealthy business executive who has dreams of becoming governor – largely because he wants to mess with the labor unions that represent state government employees.

HE WENT SO far as to issue a statement Sunday reiterating his belief that the agreement the General Assembly will consider on Tuesday concerning the way the state funds its pension programs is a flawed one that he does not want to see passed into law.

I’ll be the first to admit that the agreement may be insufficient and may wind up being struck down by the courts as the result of an inevitable lawsuit by the unions.

But let’s be honest. Rauner doesn’t care much about any of this.

His political interests are best served if our Legislature is incapable of achieving any kind of agreement, and the problem is still lingering beyond the January 2015 date on which he dreams of being sworn in as governor.

HE CAN SPEND the next year ranting and raging about the ineptitude of a Democrat-dominated state government that is incapable of resolving a very serious long-term problem. That ignores the fact that this problem dates back decades and that both political parties are equally responsible for its existence.

But heck, the demagogues among us would rather whine about the issues, particularly if it lets them pretend they’re addressing issues rather than taking cheap shots against their political opponents.

Instead, this problem technically is resolved. He won’t really be able to address it as a campaign issue. He can, but he will come across as nothing but a crank!

As for Rauner and his statement, it gave me a headache. He may be running for political office, but the self-serving nature of the rhetoric was just too much to take seriously.

RAUNER EVEN MANAGED to mention the Republican legislative leaders (state Rep. James Durkin of Westchester and state Sen. Christine Radogno of Lemont), by claiming that the agreement up for a vote this week denies them a chance to “negotiate a deal … in good faith.”

That ignores the reality of the fact that there wouldn’t be any vote taken this week if NOT for the fact that the Republican leaders were included in the talks, and that concessions were made to gain their support.

“Good faith” may well be what is taking place, compared to the Rauner way that wants to put his ideological hang-up against organized labor above all else – a way that is sure to do nothing but antagonize those very unions into a fight against the state.

There’s one other part of Rauner’s rant that manages to annoy me so much – his claim that this plan is destined to result in higher taxes paid by Illinois residents.

THAT IS CORRECT in that it presumes that during the next three decades (the time period during which the pension funding reform plan will be implemented), it would be possible for the cost of nothing to increase.

That’s NOT reality. Costs are going to go up. There is going to be a need for more revenue for state government by the year 2043. And yes, I accept it as fact that the so-called “67 percent tax hike” of a few years ago will become permanent and we’re stuck with it!

Rauner tries to make it sound like he can somehow cap the cost of government, and that the issue of inflation and rising costs is some sort of plot conspired to by Democrats.

That’s nonsense. The people who want to think we can automatically vote “no” on anything that resembles a revenue increase in any way are being ridiculous.

THEY MAY BE the ones who decide to vote for Rauner. Although it should be noted that the polls showing him in the lead only have him taking a quarter of the vote.

QUINN: In common w/ Bruce

Which means some three-quarters of Republicans, along with all the Democrats, desperately want someone else to be the next governor.

Perhaps it is that reality that makes Rauner use the day upon which we’re supposed to rest to engage us in silly-talk about pensions. Just like Pat Quinn used to do when he was desperate for news media attention and had his Sunday afternoon press conferences on whatever pet issue he thought would get him the TV camera eye.

See? The two men have that much in common!

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Problem solved? Or is pension funding mess just stepping up to new level

It seems that Illinois state government will actually manage to resolve the long-standing pension funding shortfall it has faced for years. The Legislature is scheduled to meet Tuesday, and officials say they expect a vote on that day.

MADIGAN: Reached a pension funding deal

Then again, it could also be that the Legislature (and later, Gov. Pat Quinn) will merely declare “Victory!” and move on from considering this issue – leaving it to the courts to ultimately decide whether whatever solution gets approved is actually valid.

YES, IT’S VERY true. The courts could find whatever gets approved next week to be unconstitutional – which means we could be back in trouble come the future.

Possibly sometime after Monsieurs Madigan, Cullerton and Quinn are around the political scene.

Now I’m not saying I know for sure that the compromise that the General Assembly’s leaders said they reached Wednesday is doomed to failure. In part, because I don’t know exactly what the agreement entails.

Other than the Capitol Fax newsletter reporting that Illinois House Minority Leader James Durkin, R-Westchester, said it would include a change to the cost of living adjustment, a defined contribution plan and altering the retirement age.

WHICH IS ABOUT as vague a description as one can give. Although Crain's Chicago Business reported late Wednesday that the COLA would drop and state employees would have to work up to five years more before qualifying for retirement in order to cut $160 billion in costs during the next 30 years.

DURKIN: Offering up "details"

From the reports that emanated from the Bilandic Building (the one-time State of Illinois Building now named for the former state Supreme Court justice and Chicago mayor), the leaders say they reached an agreement Wednesday on something they can all support.

They plan to let the rank-and-file of the Legislature know the specifics on Friday, with the legislators actually meeting at the Statehouse for the one-day special session that was previously scheduled.

CULLERTON: Working to get votes

Which means that a bill could then go to Pat Quinn – the guy who originally tried cutting off the Legislature’s paychecks until they got their act together and sent him something he could sign into law.

 

IT WAS NICE to see that Quinn on Wednesday was willing to put aside their past snubs of him and say he wants to work with the legislators to get something approved – even though it would seem he doesn’t know exactly what they’ve concocted in the name of “reform.”


RADOGNO: Also in on deal

“I look forward to working with the leaders and members of the General Assembly over the coming days to get this job done for the people of Illinois,” Quinn said, in a prepared statement.


Such a statement was the best Quinn could do to be included in the process, since it appears that at the time the legislative leaders were meeting in Chicago to hash out details, Quinn himself was in Washington, Ill.

Along with the Chicago Blackhawks – who ventured to the central Illinois community that was devastated by tornado earlier this month. Quinn, the Blackhawks and Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., to host a Thanksgiving holiday luncheon.

I SUSPECT THIS will be the last time that Schock (who has hinted about his own gubernatorial aspirations someday) will want to be seen in public with Quinn.

In fact, I suspect that the legislative leaders handled this the way they did because they weren’t about to share any more of the credit with the governor than they had to.

There’s also the fact that Bruce Rauner, the millionaire Republican gubernatorial challenger was quick to jump all over the plan, saying he opposes it even though he doesn’t really know what it consists of either. He’s just being contrarian, since his campaign seems meant to appeal to people who are ideologically inclined to despise organized labor.

It seems he wants to believe it doesn’t go far enough, even though the unions that actually represent state government workers are now complaining that they weren’t included in the talks. They believe it will be too harsh!

QUINN: Excluded from the "fun?"

VERY FEW OF us have a clue what to expect come Tuesday, and whether it will someday be found acceptable by whichever court winds up getting the inevitable lawsuit challenging “reform.” This is an issue that isn't going to go away, no matter how much our political people want to pretend that it's now resolved.

The very thought of all this makes me sleepy – even more so than the tryptophan I will consume Thursday in my holiday meal.

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