Simple Answers: and some Serious Questions by John Dillon:
“My blogger friend and I went to Benedictine University the
other night to listen to three members of the General Assembly and the
currently appointed State Comptroller explain their perspectives on Illinois’
current budget morass. We had to fill out questions beforehand on small cards
and submit them for approval before the program really began.
“Governor Rauner appointed Leslie Munger to her current
position as State Comptroller after the death of Judy Baar Topinka. Munger will be running against Democratic
Representative Susanna Mendoza (1st District) in November to retain
the office. Senator Michael Connelly and
Representatives Ronald Sandack and Grant Wehrli were also present; Sandack
sitting in for Jeanne Ives who was unable to attend.
“The opening and ending of the program was telling for
anyone who happened to be a retired state worker there. It began with a question of how to reform
pensions and ended with a general question of ‘If you ruled the State?’ – a
variation on Tony Bennett’s song but without the ‘Every man would say the world
was his friend/ There’d be happiness that no man could end.’ Nope. Not in their world.
“Pension reform is a must – especially for those who might
be coming aboard to work in the public sector.
‘We’ll need opt outs, buy outs, 401k’s, choices between, options moving
forward, reductions in costs, curtailments according to actuarial adjustments…,’
they all affirmed. Good answer.
“But, serious
question: If the income of new workers is gone from the necessary
investments in TRS and the state continues to make insufficient payments into
the public pensions, might the pension system become broken? And if, according to the Illinois Supreme
Court, the state still owes that money, won’t the people of Illinois be obliged
to pay for it by sale of state owned property or higher taxes?
“Yet, they all confessed one way or another the Illinois
Supreme Court had made lucidly clear that current Tier One and Tier Two public
sector workers and teachers are guaranteed what they were promised once they
began their employment.
“Representative Sandack described how the conversations in
the Capitol Building had undergone an unreserved shift from an ever present
concern for pension-reform-now to a subdued notion no longer discussed. In the end of the evening’s program as petty ‘philosophical’
dictators, not one of them thought to attack the strength of the current
Pension Protection Clause. Lots of other
bullet points, but not the Pensions.
“During the evening, Comptroller Munger warned the audience
that the current payment for pensions and pension debt would balloon next year
to eat up even more of the state revenue – if there actually was a budget and
any state revenue.
“Serious question:
My friend had sent a note asking about re-amortizing the debt like a sensible
household in order to eventually reduce annual debt payments rather than pay
out more and more. It must have been
lost on the way to the podium.
“Representative Grant Wehrli declared that the lack of local
control sought by Governor Rauner in his Turnaround Agenda had forced many
local districts to labor under the pension pick-ups which were so injurious to
local taxpayers.
“Serious question:
Aren’t pension pick-ups really a negotiating strategy and not mandated by
anyone; in short an agreement between the local teacher or workers union to
accept another form of raise rather than direct monetary remuneration?
“Comptroller Munger cited her handout, which demonstrated
for those of us unaware just what our state finances might look like if we were
all facing the same tsunami of bills that she faces daily.
STATE FINANCES
|
HOME FINANCES
|
$7,000,000,000
Illinois bill backlog
|
$7,000
Bills on kitchen table
|
$2,000,000,000
Unpaid bills due to impasse
|
$2,000
Bills in the mail
|
$110,000,000,000
Unfunded pension liabilities
|
$110,000
Credit card debt
|
$100.000,000
State’s Daily Revenue
|
$100
In your bank account
|
“And she reminded all of us, those unpaid bills come with an
additional cost. All the postponed bills
to health services, hospitals, or other businesses (that survive the impasse)
must be paid extra interest for the state’s late payments. She suggested the amount is generally one
percent, but in some cases more dependent on time and arrangement. And who pays this? It’s an extra we taxpayers pay for the
impasse.
“Serious question: When the Comptroller received a rousing
applause for the postponement of salary payments to the members of the General
Assembly as a notice that ‘they have not done their duty and passed a budget,’ did anyone wonder if she had penalized those same applauding taxpayers with an
additional payment for her symbolic actions? State payroll, in fact, does
not meet the threshold for an interest charge, so while there is no timetable
for when a legislator might be paid they can count on nothing extra in the
waiting. None of the three legislators in the room were dependent on the
income from their elected positions.
“Serious question: And when she says this action – stopping
salary payment to legislators – will help with nearly $1.3 million per month to
be used for possibly human services, hasn’t the recent report by the Illinois
Fiscal Policy Center indicated that $billions are being jeopardized each month
by this impasse which will result in the permanent closure of programs for the
poor?
“Shortly after that, and ignoring hypocrisy, someone’s
redacted question touched upon the attempt by Representative Lang of Skokie to
pass a law for a progressive tax in the state of Illinois. Representative Sandack, an exhaustedly
animated speaker, flailed throughout his moments on the microphone decrying the
bill as a blatant attempt at class warfare.
He warned us all that the bill would force those of us in the room
(white middle/upper-middle class) we would pay more in the end. Why? ‘Because
all the millionaires will leave the state of Illinois and we will become the
ones left to pay for the programs.’
“Serious question:
Where will they go? The nirvana of
Indiana, which has a higher flat tax than we do? This seems to suggest ‘we’ would have to pay
for ‘them.’ Isn’t that class warfare?
And which states would they run to?
There are only six left? Michigan
(much higher tax)? Colorado (much, much
higher tax)? Utah? Pennsylvania?
Massachusetts (way over 5%)?
“When questioned about whether or not Governor Rauner might
be causal to the pain inflicted on our current situation, Senator Connelly had
a moment of extreme emotion. Exclaiming
that Rauner was not the problem, and instead it was Madigan, Connelly reminded
all of us that the man did not have to take this position. He did it for 'the love of his state.' He reminded us that he had negotiated by
taking Right to Work off the table in his Turnaround Agenda 'months ago,' although the
specific campaign for Right to Work was never an integral part of the original
proposal. ‘He’s only been here 14
months!’ Connelly shouted. ‘You can’t
blame him for this.’
“Serious question: What will Rauner additionally be able to ‘make
better’ for all of us in another 34 months?
One shudders to think of it.
“Finally, Connelly and the others responded to a question
regarding the inability of the state of Illinois to declare bankruptcy but
wondering what might happen on the local levels. They all agreed that locals
should be able to declare bankruptcy.
Senator Connelly had it on good opinion that there were villages and
cities on the south side of the city where this would only be a matter of very
short time, where their revenues were so paltry that there were no longer
services for the people. The other
Representatives agreed as the Comptroller nodded sadly. And these impoverished places, like Dixmoor,
Harvey, Posen, Midlothian, Chicago Heights, Ford Heights, etc., are the same
places where the greatest amounts of human social services are being denied as
part of the budget impasse.
“Serious
question: Is
there something morally unacceptable about a battle between two entrenched
parties that results in the obliteration of the least empowered and the most
marginalized of our citizens? ‘Do unto
others’ was not a suggestion; it was a command” (Simple Answers: and some Serious Questions by John Dillon).
I wrote this originally about Rauner and Madigan. I am adding Connelly, Sandack, Wehrli…:
ReplyDeleteThey are not moved by moral considerations. They have no concern for the well-being of the middle class and the unfair burdens of impoverished people; they have no concern with protecting the rights and benefits of public employees and retirees either; they have no concern about the requirements of reason and the laws of morality or the laws of freedom.
They do not care about moral actions. They do not care about breaking contracts and bankrupting social services. They do not care about obligations to others – about the fair distribution of the tax burden, about constitutional guarantees, about demanding more of others than they are willing to demand of themselves and their wealthy abettors.
They have no empathy and altruism. They are not concerned with promoting the well-being of others. They lack the capacity to sympathize. They are isolated in their elitist class. They have no connections to the middle class or the poor.
They demand sacrifices of the middle class and impoverished people and not of themselves. They do not view their conduct from a standpoint of values and interests of those they hurt. They view masses of people as a means to their own political ends.
They do not live up to their agreements or the established rules of justice. They are motivated solely by power, wealth and greed. They do not respect “rights of property and contracts”; they do not respect that “laws of morality are categorical”; they do not care that “the rightness or wrongness of an act depends on its consequences for everyone affected.” They are politicians.