Do knee-jerk pols put any thought into votes they cast on govt. business?

One of the things that dismays me as a reporter-type person observing various levels of government is that our elected officials are the equivalent of sheep.

Daley's 'rubber stamp' council not odd, even today

The rank-and-file aldermen, commissioners and legislators (Congressmen, too, if you want to be honest) are supposed to be the bodies that give their approval to the proposals put forth by the chief executives (mayors, governors, etc.) they’re supposed to monitor.

YET LET’S BE honest. They usually do whatever they’re told to do. They “get with the program,” so to speak. The occasional public official who actually makes a point of trying to study the details and think for themselves on each and every issue winds up being regarded as a troublemaker – if not a downright huge pain in the derriere.

It is something I have seen at so many levels of government that I don’t doubt its truth. Reading a recent analysis prepared by the Moody’s Investors Service only helped to reinforce it in my mind.

The analysis was meant to study the long-range impact of the recent debacle Cook County government went through in enacting, then repealing, that penny-per-ounce tax on pop and other sweetened beverages.

Those pennies do add up – to the point where people were outraged at the increased cost of a case of pop. Even the county admits it expected to raise some $200 million per year from all those pennies. It wasn’t cheap change!

THE ANALYSIS SAID that public outrage, stirred up by the lobbying efforts of the American Beverage Association with its “Can the Tax” campaign, is now intense enough that the public will be skeptical of any government proposing any kind of tax increase – regardless of the reason.

“The political backlash against the pop tax highlights the practical limitations on raising taxes, even if a government is legally permitted to do so,” Moody’s officials wrote.

“Any future tax hikes in the wake of the pop tax repeal will likely be met with some political opposition, exacerbating budget pressures for Cook County and other area local governments,” the service wrote.

Let’s be honest. When most of the officials who voted to implement the tax did so last November, they really didn’t think much about it. They just voted “aye” because they felt they ought to do so. Likewise, most of them were just as quick to want to jump on board the repeal effort made earlier this month.

I COULDN’T HELP but see some truth in the view of commissioner Deborah Sims, D-Chicago, who complained about being forced to vote to repeal. I think I would have respected her view if she had held her ground, instead of going along with the repeal.

It is the reason why the two county commissioners I gained some respect for out of the pop tax debacle were Jerry “the Iceman” Butler, D-Chicago, and Larry Suffredin, D-Evanston. They were the two who held their ground and voted for the pop tax – then against its repeal.

The others went with the whims of following the way the wind blows – and when it blew in ways telling them to suddenly change their stance, they did so; regardless of whatever it is they really think about the issue.

Although for all I know, they may be more than willing to go with the program – either putting their faith in the elected leadership so that they want to be part of the overall organization. Or maybe they’re really just that indecisive.

NOT THAT COOK County government’s behavior is unique. Aldermen and legislators are just as inclined to follow the whims of the mayor or the Democratic leadership of the General Assembly – who admittedly have staffs of analysts who can discuss the intricacies of any measure that goes before their respective governing bodies.

So are we now going to have knee-jerk “no” votes on anything that involves the revenue by which our government’s operations are funded? That would scare me, because we already have some people willing to act in such a manner on measures they have ideological opposition to.

Thinking they can get government out of its obligations to the people merely by cutting off the funding. Will similar people stir up trash talk against the Uber and Lyft transit fees being considered to help balance out the Chicago city government budget now under review?

It’s not high-minded or responsible government by any means. It’s more about being more interested in holding on to one’s elected office at all costs – even though the individuals probably don’t have anything in mind to do with the post once they have it.

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The dueling Dem strategy on putting together a state budget. Or, do politicos of either party have a sense of shame?

It was intriguing to see the WTTW-TV news program “Chicago Tonight” earlier this week when they did a panel of state legislators (not the leaders) to get them to talk about state government’s inability for two years now to put together a state budget.

 

CULLERTON: Taking the fiscal lead?

State Rep. Carol Sente, D-Vernon Hills, tried to explain Monday the hardline stance of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, by saying the House speaker sees no point in going through the motions of passing a budget proposal if it is quite obvious that Gov. Bruce Rauner will immediately veto it.

THEN PUBLICLY PICK it apart in ways meant to bash Democratic Party political interests for not complying with the hardline, anti-organized labor vision he has for the state of Illinois.

If she is quoting Madigan accurately (and I have no reason to doubt she is), then it does make a certain amount of sense that the Illinois House this spring refused to even take up budget measures that were under consideration because the Illinois state Senate went ahead on their own to advance them.

So what should we make of the fact that the Senate Dems, under the leadership of President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, think they deserve praise for their effort?

Cullerton issued a statement on Tuesday saying the state’s financial problems could be resolved if only Rauner would urge Republicans in the Illinois House to support the measure he has already created.

“WE HELD SPENDING to the exact level (the governor) wanted, kept the tax rate that he asked for, cut $3 billion in spending and ultimately eliminated the nearly $5 billion deficit in his proposed budget,” Cullerton said.

 

MADIGAN: Sees no point to negotiation

“The Senate has done its work,” he said. “It’s up to Gov. Rauner and the Illinois House to finish the job.”

Well, to cite the old cliché expressing sarcasm, “Bully for you.”

As though the political world of Illinois would be a wonderful place if we’d only do what we’re told by John Cullerton. Maybe if this had occurred two years ago, it would be considered a credible effort. It won’t be now.

SO WE NOW have a split in attitudes between the Democratic leadership; one in which Madigan is willing to play hardball to counter the hardball tactics being used by the governor as a deliberate effort to pass a vision of “reform” that many of us would see as anything but.

 

RAUNER: No signs of compromising

As opposed to the vision of Cullerton, who thinks he can shame the governor into signing off on a budget because he wouldn’t want to be remembered as the governor who prolonged the state’s budget-less status any longer than necessary.

Which might be a logical way of thinking of things IF political people had any sense of shame. Yet most of them do not.

I think if Rauner truly cared about the criticism he has been taking and the fact that his public legacy is floating around in a pool of water that has developed at the bottom of a garbage dumpster, this situation would never have developed back in the spring of 2015.

YET RAUNER WAS a business-oriented guy who probably thinks that undermining organized labor’s influence over state government IS more important than the short-term problems caused by a lack of a budget. Except that the “short-term” has stretched out to two full years and shows every sign of extending into four – with the only end in sight being a drastic change in the partisan composition of Illinois state government following the November 2018 election cycle.

Where the budget stalemate (sadly) is likely to be resolved

So when Cullerton says, “the governor needs to sit down with House Republicans, come to agreement on this balanced budget and then help make it law,” I can’t help but snicker. It isn’t going to happen. It’s as absurd an image as that of Cullerton being able to give orders to Madigan about fiscal matters – or any other, for that matter.

What we have in Illinois is a political grudge match between the governor and House speaker, with both having entrenched themselves so firmly neither is capable of budging.

Regardless of which one actually winds up prevailing in the end, the ultimate loser is the Illinois public – which has to suffer knowing these are our allegedly best and brightest of minds at work doing “the peoples’ business.” No wonder most people use that phrase in a mocking tone.

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EXTRA: What would Dawn Clark Netsch think of Illinois’ current debt?!?

We’ve reached a truly sad and pathetic stage in our state’s financial condition – the Illinois comptroller’s office had our accumulation of unpaid bills totaling $12,808,805,651 as of Wednesday.
 

MENDOZA: Ill. w/ debt?

That’s a lot of debt to have built up because of the inability to pay certain bills because we are going on nearly two full fiscal years of state activity without a balanced budget in place.

CONSIDERING THAT THE current Illinois population estimate by the Census Bureau is 12,801,539, it literally translates into just over $1,000 in unpaid bills for each and every resident of the Land of Lincoln.

This figure continues to increase the longer we go without a budget deal in place, yet we don’t seem to be getting any closer to having our government officials realize their short-term political brawls will have long-term consequences.

Because it’s not like the instant we do approve a budget, the problem is suddenly solved. It will take years for us to catch up on the unpaid bills. That is, unless Illinois is becoming the equivalent of a deadbeat who merely quits answering his phone calls so as to avoid the debt collectors.

Not exactly the most flattering image we can have of our home state.

THE REASON WE have these figures is because Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza is going out of her way to publicize them. She doesn’t mind if she winds up making Gov. Bruce Rauner look bad – what with the way he and his allies are always going out of their way to ding Mendoza as being some sort of tool for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

NETSCH: Creating an educational experience?

Her approach fits in with the hostile mood that exists at the Statehouse these days, which is certainly different than the days of a couple of decades ago when I was a reporter-type person there.

I remember how then-Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch used to like to hold monthly press conferences to provide a briefing of the state’s financial situation. Of course, there were times she had all the personality of a dreary, dull constitutional law professor.

She also had a quirky enough sense of humor that when she found out that was how she was perceived, she went with it. We reporter-types became her “class,” and she was going to school us on the details of government finance.

IT MAKES ME wonder how much more feisty Mendoza could be if she tried to take that approach. Would this be the kind of class where the governor winds up sitting in the corner having to wear a dunce cap?

Or would it be the type where the “professor” is eager to be the fun type? Such as Mendoza making it publicly known who she thinks will win the NCAA basketball tourney (North Carolina beats Arizona, she says).

Netsch may have had that one campaign commercial where she shot pool (to show she was a “straight shooter”), but she wasn’t the type to enjoy such frivolity.

And seeing she was a Northwestern alum (and later a faculty member), I doubt she would have been like Mendoza in predicting that the Northwestern Wildcats will see their run come to an end Saturday against the Gonzaga Bulldogs, which means that actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus (a Northwestern alum who has gotten more than her share of public attention for going to basketball games this season) will soon be out of the spotlight.

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For Rauner, is 3rd time the charm? Or is it Steeerike 3, Yer Outta Dere!!!

Wednesday is the day that Gov. Bruce Rauner will take his third crack at presenting a budget proposal for Illinois government’s upcoming fiscal year, which kicks off July 1.

RAUNER: At what point is it Bruce's fault?

It’s a routine ritual – the governor puts forth a spending plan, the opposition party in the Legislature says the governor is out of touch. His allies come to his defense, and in the end the General Assembly approves a plan that will be about 99 percent of what the governor asked for in the first place.

OR AT LEAST that’s the way things used to work each spring when it came to putting together the plan by which state government would spend the money it had available from state taxpayers and federal government grants.

For as we all know, Illinois government hasn’t had a formal budget in place since the 2015 fiscal year that was the end of the Pat Quinn era of state government. Rauner came into office with a desire to impose a series of changes meant to undermine the authority of organized labor.

Under the disguise of being “reform,” he has decided that getting these changes is more important than having a government that operates functionally.

While I don’t doubt that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is more than willing to play political games in order to mess with the governor’s mind and prolong any gaffes he makes, this standoff we have been in for two years now is truly going to be Rauner’s lasting legacy.

AND IT IS one that is now going into its third year. Rauner will make his third attempt at proposing a state government budget, even though he’s the governor who has never been able to get a budget passed into law.

 

MADIGAN: When will he be reasonable?

Legislators whose bills continually get stalled and thwarted wind up becoming the subject of ridicule.

So the question arises what will we get from Rauner this year? Is he finally determined to show he’s capable of handling the operations of state government as many Republican governors have managed to do while dealing with Madigan as the Illinois House speaker?

Or are we truly moving forward to being on our way to having yet another year without a state budget – which is a hassle because of the Illinois Constitution requirements that a budget be in place for government to operate the way it should.

THERE HAVE BEEN efforts within the Illinois Senate to put together a budget plan that could get the state operating the way it should and enable officials to focus on the backlog of bills that now totals in the billions of dollars.

Although there are questions about whether the Illinois House of Representatives would follow suit and approve something, Besides, there also are the objections of Republican types who say this plan is nothing more than the same old tax hikes and (what they consider) overspending that has caused the financial situation that has Rauner so willing to thrown the proverbial monkey wrench into the works of state government.

So what will happen Wednesday?

I have no doubt Rauner will attempt to sound oratorical and try to make us think he’s having deep thoughts about our state’s future. Although I always suspect that our state officials don’t think too deeply about what they do – it would confuse them.

JUST LIKE THE legendary baseball catcher Yogi Berra who once said of the mechanics of hitting a baseball, “How can you hit and think at the same time?”

 

The wit and wisdom of Yogi applies too often

But at some point, Rauner is going to have to be the one who breaks – unless he really wants to be the one-term governor remembered because he couldn’t get a budget passed. There's only so far that all the GOP "Dump Madigan!" can go before people turn on the governor.

There’s a lot of rhetoric being spewed about Facebook and Twitter, with the slogan “Do the Job!” being used almost as an order to Rauner. If anything, Rauner could wind up appearing to be the reasonable one if he were to make serious efforts toward putting together a functional budget now. That is how he could convince people it's really Madigan's fault.

As for those ideological, anti-union dreams the governor has, they’ll still be there following the upcoming election cycle of 2018 – when the many millions of dollars of his own money that he’s putting into Republican political coffers may be capable of buying him a Legislature more sympathetic to his desires!

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A one-on-one Rauner/Madigan confrontation? Or whole lot of nothin'?

We’re now almost completely through Month 9 of Illinois Fiscal ’16 – the year without a budget.

The year that is bizarre enough that we can’t tell if the parties involved are doing anything to try to seriously resolve the financial issue that has ground certain parts of Illinois government to a halt!

SUPPOSEDLY, GOV. BRUCE Rauner made a telephone call recently to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago. The subject matter? The budget.

Allegedly, the governor wants to talk, one-on-one, with Mr. Speaker. None of the other legislative leaders are invited. He wants it to be a direct confrontation – which makes a certain amount of sense, in that many people are perceiving this political spat as a head-to-head fight between the governor and the speaker.

Perhaps a direct battle between the two could be the key to trying to resolve the situation – although the fact that at least three-quarters of a 12-month fiscal year were allowed to pass without a budget in place means the collateral damage is severe.

There’s no way to truly repair the damage that has been done – just try to keep it from spreading any further than it already has. Although some entities have sustained permanent damage. That’s just the fact, Jack!

NATURALLY, THE STORY going about is how Rauner couldn’t reach the speaker. Just like on Election Night when the then-governor-elect said publicly he tried to talk to Madigan about bipartisan cooperation, but it really turned out he called the cell phone of a low-ranking Madigan aide who didn’t pick up the phone that night.

Officially, it seems that Madigan is on a vacation – a spring break, of sorts, on account of the fact that the Illinois House hasn’t been scheduled for session for the past several weeks. Why not take some time off; get away from all the nonsense –even if you’re a part of its cause!

I first heard about this call for a meeting Monday night. In the course of my duties for suburban newspapers, I happened to be at a suburban high school board meeting where the local board president told his colleagues the story – and cited it as a potential breakthrough.

Of course, the punchline to his humorous account was that Madigan didn’t get the phone call because he doesn’t carry a cellphone.

THERE ALSO WAS the observation made that the reason Rauner tried to reach out to Madigan was that he saw the results of Election Night – which a lot of political observers are trying to interpret as a rebuke of Rauner and acceptance of Madigan.

Personally, I think it’s a little overly simplistic to think in those terms.

The fact is that trying to campaign during an Election cycle by spinning an election as being all about Mike Madigan is next to impossible. The number of people who actually can vote for or against Madigan himself is small, and those people like his presence. Jason Gonzales never had a chance.

And the rest of us realize there are more important concerns to take into account when making a political pick.

AS FOR SAM McCann, he was serving the desires and needs of his constituents so that his voters were willing to overlook Rauner’s objections to him, in a way that Ken Dunkin was not serving his constituents – who were then more than willing to dump his keister by a 2-1 voter ratio.

So how will all this play out. Will that message Rauner allegedly left eventually get to Madigan? Will somebody call his vacation hotel? Or scrawl out a message to be left on his desk when he returns to work?

Would it really work if it were only the two of them locked in a room together? Perhaps if you cut off food and refused to let either one of them out until a budget deal was reached.

Or does it really make a difference any more if a budget is ever achieved for Fiscal ’16? You have to admit it would turn out to be rather stupid if, at some point at the end of May the two sides finally reached some sort of deal – only to have to do it all over again for Fiscal ’17, which is now only 99 days away.

  -30-

EXTRA: It’s all about partisan politics

I can’t say I’m shocked by the rhetoric being spewed by Republican politicians about a state takeover of the Chicago Public Schools system, but I am pretty much appalled by it.

No matter how predictable it is, it still comes off as quite offensive. As though those suburban pols of the Republican persuasion, along with those of the rural Illinois bearings, are going to save us poor, ignorant Chicagoans from our stupidity and incompetence.

AT LEAST THAT’S my read of the fact that the General Assembly’s Republican leadership are working with Gov. Bruce Rauner to come up with a bill to create an oversight board for the Chicago Public Schools.

Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, made a point of saying Wednesday that this measure will allow the public schools to declare bankruptcy as a way of legally rebuilding its finances.

As if they’re offering up a life preserver to prevent the schools from drowning financially.

Personally, it’s more of a political power play – trying to gain some influence over an entity that is very much a part of the Democratic Party power structure in this city of Chicago and state of Illinois.

JUST AS I recall the mid-1990s effort to permit local school councils in Chicago as a move approved by Republican politicians in Springfield because they were convinced incompetent Chicagoans would screw everything up to the point where the state could then justify a takeover of the Chicago Public Schools.

Back then, state government had significant Republican influence. For one two-year period, it was GOP-dominated.

But that was then. Now, it is a Democratic-controlled government. Although not Dem-dominant as it was back before the days of Bruce Rauner as governor.

Which is why this measure – which officials said could be introduced before the Legislature within a week – is destined to failure.

IT WOULDN’T TAKE a supermajority vote of Democratic unanimity to kill this off. A simple 60 votes in the Illinois House and 30 votes in the state Senate would be enough to do the job.

That is, unless Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and state Senate President John Cullerton, both D-Chicago, decide to use their legislative control to prevent the measure from ever coming up for a vote.

Actually, that tactic would be the way that Republican partisans would handle the issue – not even giving a chance to something they oppose. I don’t doubt that Cullerton and Madigan, especially Madigan, will want this to come up for a vote.

Because then, the Democratic, Chicago-leaning majorities can come out and vote against the measure. It will fail. It technically will appear to have been democratically debated.

EVEN THOUGH THE outcome was preordained. And Madigan, in particular, will come across as smug if he says that the issue was considered, and the people rejected it.

It’s pure politicking. I realize that. Politicking by both sides, and part of the continued efforts to strong-arm one’s own views down the throat of the opposition. Actually, I find myself agreeing with the Chicago Teachers Union.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, union officials said it was ridiculous to have state government get involved in school finances when they can’t even approve a budget for state government’s own nearly 8-month-old fiscal year. It is a bit more truthful than the Madigan statement that accuses Rauner of trying to attack the middle class and make even more money for his wealthy friends.

Although the honest-to-goodness truth about all this is that it is all more about partisan rhetoric and seeing who can one-up the other in the ongoing fight over who really runs things – and who comes across as the whiny brat!

  -30-

Will Illinois budget battle take so long to resolve that state Supreme Ct winds up coming up with ultimate ruling?

Illinois state government employees wound up getting paid for the work the past couple of weeks, and the Supreme Court of Illinois ruled Friday that it wasn’t about to put the rush on the issue of whether such payments were appropriate.


The high court's justices chose not to get involved in budget issue -- right now

That’s about the best way to describe the current situation with regards to Illinois state government – nothing is really resolved, and the political brawling will draw out for as long as Gov. Bruce Rauner and the legislative leaders are so inclined.

FOR THE LEGAL status quo is that there are cases in the courts for Cook and St. Clair (the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis) counties; which have shown a tendency to go in differing directions on the issue.

The state’s high court rejected a request by the Illinois attorney general’s office to immediately get involved and decide which court got the issue right – Cook when it said state workers could only get a federal minimum wage while the budget battle is ongoing, or St. Clair which said labor union contracts mandated payment of pay checks.

So now, the Cook County case will have to be appealed through the legal system to the appellate court in Chicago, while the St. Clair case will work its way through the appellate court in Mount Vernon.

Only then, will the Illinois Supreme Court get involved – although I suspect they’re hoping the two appeals courts wind up coming up with rulings similar enough that there’s no need for the Springfield-based court to get involved.

Will Bilandic Bldg. justices agree ...

THIS ISSUE HAS come up because Rauner wanted state workers to get their salaries even though the Illinois Constitution clearly states that money cannot be spent on anything government-related if the state doesn’t have a balanced budget in place for the current fiscal year.

Because angry state workers would be quick to blame the governor for their lack of receipt of paychecks (or direct deposits into their bank accounts, if they prefer).

That would have given Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and the others in the Democratic Party caucuses that run state government some serious leverage in their desire to prevent Rauner from using his gubernatorial authority to push forth some seriously anti-labor union-related measures.

... w/ Mount Vernon-based counterparts on payroll issue?

Instead, the Supreme Court rejected taking action that would have imposed his desires, and political observers are proclaiming a Rauner “victory” because the courts didn’t dump all over him and the state workers got paid.

BUT ANYTHING IS possible. What happens if these cases work their way through the legal process (instead of being rushed through with an instant political ruling like Madigan wanted) and the Supreme Court ultimately decides that the Illinois Constitution literally means that no money can be spent on government (not even salaries) until a budget is in place?

Do we wind up getting a contempt ruling issued against the governor AND his state comptroller – who was the one who sought the St. Clair court ruling that she ultimately used to have legal authority to make the salary payments?!?

The sad thing is that with the way the political people have dug in their heels over this budget – which really has nothing to do with finances and has become completely about who gets the political upper hand – there’s a chance that the legal process could take its usual meandering pace and there STILL won’t be a budget in place for Illinois government.

RAUNER: Won Round One, as did all of Rocky's opponents

I’ll also have to admit to being disappointed that the state Supreme Court chose not to act on Friday.

BECAUSE THE REALITY is that the only way the state’s budgetary battle is going to be resolved is for some higher entity to administer a swift kick to the behinds of all our government officials.

Consider that Madigan earlier this week said it’s possible that the final budget will not be something negotiated by all the political parties – but is something that gets forced down one side’s throat.

And I doubt that Madigan envisions any scenario in which he is the one who has to swallow something that has the vile taste of anti-labor union attached to it. Even the courts realize that too many people will revolt if something like that happens.

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EXTRA: Cook County may resume its spot back on top (of the sales tax heap)

A part of me is wondering right about now who’s laughing the loudest – Todd Stroger or William Beavers.

PRECKWINKLE: Now, she wants the tax hike

Both of them surely are saying “told you so” at the thought that Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle let it be known Monday that she’s now pushing for an increase in the county’s share of the sales tax.

CURRENTLY, THE COUNTY charges 0.75 percent of the purchase price as a sales tax. Which when combined with all the other government entities in Cook County and Illinois makes the total sales tax some 9.25 percent.

Preckwinkle says she wants to add another 1 percent to the county’s share, which would bring the total sales tax to 10.25 percent – which would be one of the highest rates anywhere in the nation.

It’s ironic that the county board president is now pushing this issue, because she was the one who during her last term in office went out of her way to repeal a 1 percent sales tax hike that former county board President Stroger imposed.

And which was the primary reason why so many people ganged up on his campaign for re-election in 2010 that he came in fourth in a four-candidate field during the Democratic primary that year.

OF COURSE, SOME people were really upset that Stroger was the son of John Stroger, and they didn’t like the way the elder Stroger orchestrated his succession for his son to the top county board post when his health became so inclement that he had to step down.

Talk of the tax hike was really just their cover.

BEAVERS: How snarky would he be?

Preckwinkle made a priority of gradually knocking down the sales tax hike that Stroger enacted because the tax revenue was needed by county government to fulfill its financial obligations.

Now, she wants that money back. The real question is, Will the bulk of the Cook County Board be just as hard-headed in their opposition to the issue as they were back in the days of Stroger?

OR WILL THE fact that Preckwinkle has much more professional respect in her post than Stroger ever had when he served result in them being willing to accept the need for a revenue increase?

It won’t be just Stroger who thinks “told you so.” Because I can remember so many occasions in which the outspoken Bill Beavers denounced his critics for their tax opposition – always seeing it as a personal slight against Stroger rather than a serious critique about government revenues.

STROGER: Will his tax hike become real?

So many that I honestly lost count, and eventually quit noting them back in the days when I wrote about Cook County government. It got to the point where Stroger NOT criticizing his colleagues was more rare and newsworthy than when he did.

Why would Preckwinkle be willing to move now to repeal something that she previously fought against? Perhaps it is because that with all the different units of government facing financial problems, Preckwinkle wants to stake her claim to an increased share of the sales tax before anybody else can.

OR MAYBE SHE’S just more willing to accept such an increase if she winds up getting the credit for fixing the county’s financial problems.

Although I’m sure the people who are eager to back Gov. Bruce Rauner in his efforts to alter the state’s financial situation will be amongst the most outspoken critics of Preckwinkle for what she is talking about doing now.

I’m also sure it will further bolster the arguments of those people who live near the county’s borders – because they’re going to argue it further makes it cheaper to shop elsewhere. Will County, or perhaps across the state line in Hammond?

Then again, I think anybody who’s willing to go out of their way to waste gasoline so they can save a few cents when they buy gas isn’t going to care about any line of logic that tries to justify the need for additional sales tax revenue.

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Memorial Day “Massacre” a bad memory of how ugly labor tensions once were, and don't need to go back to

Perhaps it’s all appropriate that this Memorial Day holiday weekend comes right as tensions between organized labor and Illinois’ new Republican governor have reached a height that we don’t have a clue when our state officials will be able to put together a balanced budget for Illinois government.



Police attack? Or self-defense? Photo provided by AFL-CIO

We have a governor who seems determined to undermine the influence of labor unions (even if he realizes that “right to work” legislation is mere fantasy) to the point that the Democratic majority in the General Assembly is digging in politically on so many

issues.

SO MANY POLITICAL hotheads. The only thing I feel safe in saying is that there won’t be a state budget enacted by the Legislature by the Sunday deadline.

But how hostile are our labor/management relations these days?

This seems like a time to remember the Memorial Day holiday of 1937. On that day some 78 years ago (the actual holiday that year came on May 30), labor/management relations reached a low point; one that we ought to feel fortunate we haven’t sunk to this far.

That was the day that labor union members picketed outside the Republic Steel plant that used to exist at 119^th Street and Avenue O in the East Side neighborhood.

Who doubted this account 78 years ago?

REPUBLIC STEEL OFFICIALS were adamant about not letting their employees have labor union representation – even though U.S. Steel had given in.

When protesters refused the steel mill management’s orders to go away, they called the police. Who eventually opened fire, then chased away and beat many of the protesters. In all, 10 mill workers were killed and more than 60 people wound up in area hospitals.

If not for the 1968 police activity against protesters of the Democratic National Convention, we’d probably still be talking about this act of police brutality every time a cop does something silly.

Does this poster pay tribute to workers? Or subversives?

It’s fortunate that the Illinois Labor History Society has managed to get ahold of and preserve the newsreel footage that was shot that day. Or else some of us might be inclined to believe the management line that claimed the union-sympathizing protesters were attacking the police – who were merely trying to defend themselves from an unruly mob!

BECAUSE MANAGEMENT WAS merely trying to protect their ability to make the highest profit possible – and ought to be entitled to think of anything that cuts into their bottom line as something subversive that needs to be eradicated.

Some of the nonsense rhetoric we hear these days bears a resemblance to the anti-labor rhetoric of old. It would be overly simplistic to say that nothing has really changed, and that this is merely management trying to get government to give back its old authority over its workers.

Although I’m honest enough to concede that it is highly unlikely that Gov. Bruce Rauner has the Illinois State Police all lined up and prepared to attack anybody who speaks out against his negative labor union talk.

Even though I’m sure there are some ideologue-types who fantasize about such actions, wishing they could “get medieval” on all that organized labor talk.

I SAY THAT because I have noticed in the past how people try to discount the violent activity of that “Memorial Day Massacre” whenever the local neighborhood residents hold their annual service to pay tribute to those workers who were killed.

I have covered the East Side event a couple of times as a reporter-type person (although I didn’t go to this year’s event held two weeks ago), and people from outside the neighborhood always want to think there was something subversive at work on that day.

His poor play that day caused the 'massacre'

Instead of accepting the fact that these were neighborhood residents whose bottom line was to work at their jobs to try to earn a living! Anybody who finds that to be subversive is really ever-so-un-American themselves; and definitely not espousing ideals that those soldiers who made the "ultimate sacrifice" actually fought and died for.

 

Either that, or they’re clueless enough to think that “Memorial Day Massacre” merely means Game One of the 1985 NBA Championship Series when the Boston Celtics beat the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers 148-114.

  -30-

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Hilding Anderson, Alfred Causey, Leo Francisco, Earl Handley, Otis Jones, Sam Popovich, Kenneth Reed, Joseph Rothmund, Anthony Taglioni and Lee Tisdale. Working stiffs, or criminals? Depends on who you talk to.

A political cockfight?!?

It almost feels like we’re in some dingy, hidden-away structure where a batch of grungy men are gathered around, ready to plunk down their cash as bets on which of two wild roosters are about to win the fight they’re being thrown into.

The mood is gloomy once again at the Illinois Statehouse

The cocks themselves are snarling and squawking, readying themselves for the attack – which is about to occur any second.

NOW IF OUR cocks were named “Bruce Rauner” and “Michael Madigan,” we’d have a sense of what we’re about to experience in coming weeks – if not months.

It’s going to be a partisan political battle to the death, so to speak. And the people of Illinois are the ones who will inadvertently be thrown into the middle because there’s always the chance that the political battle will draw the state into the shutdown status IF they can’t agree on a budget for the upcoming fiscal year by July 1.

We’re at the point now where we’re one week away from the end of the 2015 spring legislative session. In typical years, there might still be some significant disagreements about what the state budget should be.

But there ought to be hope, and even some signs, that the sides will come together and hammer out some sort of agreement.

NOT THIS YEAR!

Rauner is making it clear he has his ideological agenda in mind, and he’s not about to take any guff from legislators who want to oppose him. Likewise, legislators want to make it clear they’re not about to let the new governor who got elected because of his anti-organized labor leanings just ram his desires down their throats.

RAUNER: The new guy?!?

And Illinois House Speaker Madigan wants it to be known that HE is the long-time, almighty boss of state government, not Rauner.

That sentiment is what has been behind the various bills the Legislature has rejected in recent days that theoretically advance the Rauner agenda – Madigan is letting it be known that a majority of legislators don’t approve of the “right to work” rhetoric that Rauner is fond of spewing.

RAUNER’S DESIRE TO fight back is what was behind his own statement, which his aides likely wrote for him and was published Thursday in the State Journal-Register newspaper of Springfield.

After ranting that political interests at the Statehouse are more entrenched than he ever envisioned during the 2014 campaign cycle, he made it clear he’s not about to compromise anything.

MADIGAN: The ol' pro!?!

“I might be new around here, but I understand what I was sent to do,” he said, adding that legislators ought to, “expect a very long extra session.” His aides were so eager to make sure I saw this statement that they e-mailed me a message Thursday morning to point it out.

So will our state’s General Assembly finish up its business by the end of next week, thereby sparing us a mass of political drama during the summer months?

FAT CHANCE. WE’D have a better chance of expecting the Chicago White Sox to rise from fourth place to first by season’s end.

All of this is so reminiscent of the 1991 legislative session – which was the first one in which Jim Edgar was governor. He wanted to run a sparse government in hopes of building up reserves for the future, while Madigan had his own vision.

The legislative session, which back then ran through the end of June, ended without a budget, and we reached a point where some government agencies had to shut down until a budget was in place. It became an Edgar/Madigan stalemate; where Edgar prevailed in the short-term by showing he wouldn't meekly back down.

 

EDGAR: Could he advise Rauner?

I still remember the matter not being resolved until the early hours of July 19 – which was a record back then. Although there have been other stalemates since then, including some of the ones brought about by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s desire to show Madigan who was boss.

ONE CAN ARGUE that Madigan is the ultimate winner; Edgar is long retired and Blagojevich remains incarcerated. Now, it seems that Rauner will be the latest person who works his way onto the list.

It seems that Rauner has the will for such a political battle. Madigan has long shown us his ability to be pig-headed and stubborn for political reasons. I don’t know who will win.

But I’m pretty sure that such a battle will catch all of us in the middle, and make us the ultimate losers!

  -30-

Chicago finances; what a mess! Who's got a big-enough mop to clean up?

I’m not about to predict what solution our political people will ultimately come up with to resolve the financial problems our governments face these days.

EMANUEL: Does he still want 'four more years?'

In fact, I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that our officials don’t really have a clue – other than the cheap, old rhetoric they usually fall back on – as to how to resolve the problems we’re confronted with.

I CAN’T HELP but wonder if Rahm Emanuel, as he prepares to take the oath of office on Monday to serve another four-year term, is now secretly regretting that he won the municipal election runoff held last month.

He could be drifting off into the next phase of his life right about now, rather than having to have his name forevermore attached to whatever solution people try to implement. If it goes wrong, he’ll forevermore get the blame!

Which is kind of funny, since we were fed all that campaign rhetoric just a few weeks ago about how the concept of Jesus Garcia as mayor of Chicago would be an ultimate disaster! All kinds of horrible things would happen to the city if we didn’t let Rahm have a second term as mayor.

When you think about it, bad things have happened regardless. Our credit rating was reduced literally to junk by the Moody’s Investors Service. While Standard & Poor’s didn’t take the same exact action, they also downgraded the bond ratings that determine how much interest we’re going to have to repay on our debt.

WILL CHICAGO BE literally reduced to only being able to borrow money from those shifty guys who make their money off the “vig” from their loans – as in they charge exorbitant interest because their “customers” are incapable of getting a traditional loan?

CLINTON: What will he think?

Or would even the loan sharks refuse to do business with city government because we’re too bad a risk and there’s no fingers or kneecaps to break.

Unless the mayor literally has to serve as a surrogate for the city. In which case, perhaps he ought to make sure his health insurance is adequate for the pain he’ll suffer.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I’m being a smart aleck. I’m making organized crime analogies over serious issues involving municipal finance.

BUT PERHAPS THAT is how the mayor himself is having to think of this issue these days. You almost have to have a sense of humor about the term “junk bonds” being applied to our city’s government.

As though the people who are most eager to spread this story have their own ideological hang-ups with regard to urban issues and large municipalities – particularly if they’re filled with people who aren’t exactly like themselves in every racial and ethnic way!

GARCIA: Thankful he didn't win April 7?

How do we get out of this debt and get the bond-rating agencies to boost our standing back to a higher level? While wondering why it wasn’t the state government’s bond ratings that took the hit, instead of Chicago’s?

I do find some humor in those people who suggest that this is now the motivation to approve development of that city-owned casino that some Chicago officials have been dreaming about for years.

IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE the kind of money that such a casino would create as the city (and state) share of tax revenues is so piddly and insignificant compared to the billions of dollars that would need to be produced to truly put Chicago government on fine solid financial stats.

Even more ridiculous are those people who are talking of the state’s pension funding shortfall and who now want a state Constitutional amendment to make possible the very action that the General Assembly tried enacting – only to have it found unconstitutional.

OBAMA: Will he, Rahm and Bill be future pol trio?

That would take so much time to get approved, and the whole while the financial situation would become worse and worse for city and state. This is the time for the radical solution – and not the pie in the sky fantasy!

All of which makes me wonder what will go through Emanuel’s mind as he takes his oath of office, with former President Bill Clinton watching. Dreaming of the day when he can be an ex-politico like William J. (and soon, Barack H., maybe they'll have periodic meetings at the future Obama Presidential Library and Museum) and can think high-minded thoughts about future officials trying to resolve the ongoing issues our government faces.

  -30-