DEAR MR. RAUNER: IT’S DUE TIME. HOW WILL YOU BUDGET?

It is due time. In fact, it’s past due time.

You’ve been telling all of us what you wouldn’t do, what you’re opposed to, what’s wrong with what everyone else in office is doing.

Your turn is now.

Yes, there’s not quite five months until the election but it’s time we understand just what you intend to do to us and for us. You’ve been running to govern and lead us in Illinois for more than 18 months now and we’ve yet to hear exactly what it is you’d do if you ran the Illinois circus.

You’ve vaguely said you’d cut the budget. You’ve said you’d find savings in Medicaid and by reforming pensions and that you’d consider all options for revenue.

What exactly does that mean?

Over and over and over again, you’ve told reporters you’d offer a budget alternative “soon.” “Very soon.” “In due time.”

You’ve paid for robo call after robo call attacking lawmakers who were and were not for an income tax increase, getting one of those lawmakers’ positions on the tax wrong. You’ve paid for robo call after robo call attacking Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for a pension reform plan for some city workers that would increase their contributions, decrease their benefits and require bigger contributions from all city taxpayers.

You cling to the general notion that public employees, including teachers and police and firefighters, should have their own 401(k)-style accounts like so many of us in the private sector. But that’s about all we know.

And there’s a catch. If you start shifting people into 401(k)-style accounts where they manage their own investments and control their own funds, well then, there will be less money, naturally, to invest in making the payments on the pension debt that’s already been built up to more than $100 billion for state pensions and $20 billion for Chicago.

So how will you reform pensions exactly, Mr. Rauner? How will you cut $4 billion or more from the state budget so that we can survive on a 3.5 percent income tax rate? And how will you improve our critical mass transit system and ensure that every child in Illinois gets a fair chance at an excellent education?

It might seem like a fun game to avoid answering and to continue to brush off those annoying journalists. But the thing is, the journalists are representing the public, the voters who are weighing for whom to vote for governor. And yes, the public has a right to know. The public has a need to know.

This week when Quinn signed a bill that cut benefits and will require more taxpayer money for two of the city’s five pension funds, you quickly issued a statement via email, “I would have vetoed this law – but Pat Quinn likes to raise taxes and left homeowners holding the bag again. This should have been a no-brainer — veto the bill, don’t squeeze Chicago families even more.”

So, how do you go about finding the $20 billion required to fund Chicago pensionswithout squeezing Chicago families? How do you find $100 billion for state pensions? How do you pay down the $5 billion state bill backlog?

We know what you’re against. What are you for? How will you govern? You’ve proven you’re pretty adept at campaign discipline. You and your surrogates in the Republican Party can criticize and critique and tear down the opposition.

But if you’re the alternate, what’s your alternative?

To paraphrase you, don’t leave us holding the bag.

Respectfully,

Madeleine Doubek

Next article: Stuck in a sickening and sick state in Illinois

[RECOMMENDED]

1. Top five campaign slogans of Bruce Rauner.
2. Take our poll: Should the 2011 income tax increase become permanent?
3. Charting each state’s pension debt.
4. Police and firefighter pensions put many Illinois cities in an impossible fiscal situation.
5. Do you oppose a pension and tax-funded salary? If so, use our Sound Off tool to tell your local politicians enough is enough.

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