For
it seems Gov. Pat Quinn met with the two primary legislative leaders (House
Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, and Senate President John Cullerton,
D-Chicago), and they came up with an agreement that a specific bill will be
called for a vote when the General Assembly reconvenes Wednesday.
THAT
IS THE day of the special session Quinn ordered up. In theory, the legislators
could merely approve that bill, send it to the governor, and Quinn could show
us just how mighty he truly is by signing it into law.
Problem
solved.
Ah,
who’s kidding whom!
Nothing
like that scenario is even going to come close to happening come Wednesday.
MADIGAN
ALREADY IS going around saying he sees this tactic as being a way for Quinn to
distance himself from the failure of Illinois government to resolve this
problem.
While
Cullerton says he doubts that merely calling a bill will result in success. He
expects his legislators to refuse to go along.
Reading
about Quinn’s desires – which amount to calling together a conference committee
and having them try to put together a compromise that everybody could vote for –
just sounds so absurd.
It’s
as though Quinn thinks he can shame the General Assembly into voting “yes” for
something just so they won’t have to put up with any more harassment from
outside interests about how this problem could drag on for so many years.
BUT
I’D ARGUE the fact that this problem has dragged on for so many years and has
been through so many “last chance to avoid disaster” deadlines means that the
legislators are immune to such hysterical talk.
It
also means many of them are likely to want to keep putting off the problem
indefinitely.
Our
legislators feeling ashamed of the fact they haven’t done anything? Our
legislators have no shame! If anything, the rank-and-file of the General
Assembly probably thinks Quinn is being a hot ball of gas on this issue and
ought to get off his high-horse.
Perhaps
by trying to come up with his own solution. Which isn’t going to happen anytime
soon.
WHICH
IS WHY we’re stuck in this stalemate, and the increases in money needed to meet
the pension obligations will continue to grow to the point where they will
overwhelm all else and take money away from the pet causes that many
legislators would prefer to spend tax dollars on.
The
problem is that this really has become a political pissing match between the
legislative leaders on the Democratic side – with both Madigan and Cullerton
having their own preferred solutions.
I
doubt many of the legislators really comprehend exactly what it is those
proposals would do. They merely think of it as showing their loyalty to their
legislative leader. Or more likely, knowing how much they’d be punished
politically for any actions that could be perceived as disloyal.
I’m
at least glad to learn that Quinn is backing away from the silly talk that the
Legislature somehow pass a bill that incorporates both plans – with the idea
being that the Cullerton plan that is not on as large a cost-saving scale as
the Madigan plan would be used as a backup for state government.
IN
THE EVENT that the courts ultimately find the Madigan vision to be
unconstitutional – because no matter what happens, somebody is going to file
suit in the courts because they’re going to claim their pension benefits are
wrongly being taken away from them.
And
why Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is going out of her way to avoid
putting her office on either side of this legal equation. Why kick off a
potential gubernatorial campaign by having half the Legislature think you
screwed up on pension reform?
Because the only thing worse than a Legislature acting stupid may well be one acting indecisive!
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