Our illness is marked by a strong case of lethargy. We exhibit all the symptoms of some election-year paralysis:
–We saw an attempt to pass some pension reform for Cook County, negotiated by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and agreed to by several unions, but it stalled out when Republicans wouldn’t vote for it and Democrats refused to go it alone.
–After the colossal mess of Metra’s severance and patronage scandal last summer and a winter full of discontented train commuters often left stranded, a solid series of recommendations from a Gov. Pat Quinn-appointed, blue-ribbon panel headed by former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and public policy veteran George Ranney derailed nearly as soon as it was released.
State Rep. Al Riley, a Hazel Crest Democrat, convened a transit hearing, but Ranney said none of the Quinn-appointed panelists were invited to attend. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel suggested the recommendations were put together by a bunch of “propeller heads.” Mayor Rahmbo wields so much power over appointees to various public policy and public transit boards that no one really stepped forward to call him out. Ranney told me he laughed at the propeller head line and never expected to be able to have a serious discussion about the panel’s solutions for a desperately needed improved public transit until after the election.
–For the first time in many years, a bipartisan group of state senators met for several months to work on a fix for Illinois’ flawed school funding system. They developed a plan that would have made great strides toward evening out huge swings in funding that shortchange children, especially downstate. Was it perfect? No, it took too much money from suburban districts and that will have to be addressed, but did the plan ever get serious consideration in the Illinois House for a real chance at some changes that could have improved it? No.
–Flushed with election-year fear, Democratic majorities in the House and Senate whiffed on a balanced budget. After threatening calamitous cuts from a doomsday budget without a tax increase, they patched together a Band-Aid budget that borrows more money we don’t have from special funds, puts off paying more bills and delays paying health care bills for state workers. No real attempts at planning to cut spending are being made while Republicans refuse to do their jobs by offering specific alternatives. Meanwhile, Senate President John Cullerton says a tax increase vote will come, after the election. “While a vote on our tax rates has been deferred, rising costs and pressures will force the issue at a later date,” he said.
While we linger on life support, other states thrive.
A majority of states are “in a better budgetary position than at any other point since the start of the recession,” Gabriel J. Petek, an analyst for Standard & Poor’s, told Stateline, a Pew Charitable Trust publication. California has a $4 billion surplus. Florida, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, New York, Nebraska and Indiana all have surpluses of $1 billion or more and all of those are rebating money to taxpayers, Stateline reports.
What about us? We’re sick. A fiscal watchdog friend of mine suggested a diagnosis several weeks back: Stockholm syndrome. What’s that again, you ask? It’s a mental illness in which hostages feel a certain irrational empathy for their captors. We seem unable to escape from our political captors.
Is there a cure? I sure hope we all start working to find one soon.
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Madeleine Doubek is Reboot’s chief operating officer. She previously managed the Daily Herald newsroom. An award-winning journalist, Doubek served as the Daily Herald’s political writer and editor and led the paper’s project and investigative work. She believes in more of us taking charge of our state government. Read Doubek’s personal take on why she’s rebooting. You can find Reboot on Facebook and on Twitter @rebootillinois.