Gov. Bruce Rauner’s State of the State address didn’t sit well with Southland legislators who said it was more politics than substance, emphasizing that his road map to economic improvement remains incomplete until the governor unveils his budget plan Feb. 18.
State Rep. Al Riley, D-Olympia Fields, the House majority leader, said he would grade Rauner’s speech a “D” or “incomplete” because he failed to detail how he would address Illinois’ massive budget deficit.
“The political campaign is over,” Riley said. “Much of what the governor said was divisive, trying to drive a wedge between the unions, for example, and the minority community.
“I can support some of the programs he talked about, but what I really don’t like is that a lot of people on the GOP side are talking about Illinois as though it is broken. This is still one of the most important states in the nation. He keeps comparing Illinois to Indiana, as if Indianapolis is as important economically as Chicago, or our state economy is comparable to theirs.”
Riley noted that Illinois ranks fifth among the states in gross state product compared with Indiana ranking 16th.
“And when the governor talked about raising the minimum wage, you could actually hear a titter go through the crowd (of legislators). He’s talking about raising the minimum wage to $10 over 7 years. That’s laughable.”
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“He talked about property taxes, but the governor has no control over property taxes. That’s controlled by local school districts, municipalities, library boards, park boards and all those other entities that appear on your property tax bill.
“It’s very annoying to me that the public accepts this sort of pandering.”
State Rep. Will Davis, D-Hazel Crest, echoed Riley’s reaction but also had quite a different take on at least one program.
“It was a fantastic campaign speech,” Davis said. “He talked about some great things, like increasing the number of minorities in trade union apprenticeship programs.”
Riley saw the apprenticeship program as an attempt to drive a wedge between minorities and unions that traditionally support Democrats for office.
Like Riley, Davis thought the governor’s call for increasing the minimum wage was little more than lip service.
“If the goal is to bring working people out of poverty, which it ought to be, raising the minimum wage 25 cents at a time isn’t going to get that done,” Davis said.
Davis, chairman of the House Education Appropriations Committee, has called for a change in the state distribution formula for public schools and a $500 million boost in school spending. He said Rauner’s plan to increase school spending also falls short.
“We have a limited amount of money to appropriate to state services, and that’s how we allocate the budget each year among five different appropriations committees,” Davis said. “But if we are going to increase education spending, that means the money is going to have to come out of some other program and the governor didn’t say anything about that. He said nothing about Medicaid, and along with education those are the two biggest appropriations the state makes each year.
When I noted that readers often say that Democrats have no right to be critical because they have been in control of state government as Illinois’ financial crisis has mounted, Davis said he wasn’t trying to be negative.
“We’re willing to work with him on things like workers compensation reform and tort reform. But those aren’t the most important issues facing this state right now.”
State Sen. Michael Hastings, D-Orland Hills, sounded a more positive note regarding Rauner’s speech. He said increasing the number of prison guards (as Rauner proposed) was a good idea.
“I’ve been to Stateville Correctional Center and talked to the prison guards there and they don’t feel safe,” Hastings said. “They don’t carry guns. They have no lethal weapons. So they are sort of at the mercy of the inmates.
Hastings also applauded Rauner’s call for more money for the Adult Redeploy program, which provides grants to counties to develop ways to keep nonviolent offenders out of prison. He said the state needs programs for ex-convicts to prepare them for jobs and reduce the likelihood they will return to prison.
Hastings, a former school board president in Consolidated High School District 230, was less enthusiastic about Rauner’s education plan, although he supports more money for early childhood education.
“We know from all sorts of studies that have been done that the one thing you can do to improve public education is provide early childhood education,” he said. “That’s important because it has the power to change lives.”
But he wasn’t receptive to Rauner’s call for increasing the number of charter and vocational schools, saying “we must improve the schools we have, not create separate and unequal charter schools.”
Hastings sounded a note of optimism about Illinois’ huge budget shortfall, saying that loopholes in the corporate tax system, if plugged, could bring in significant revenue.
But Hastings pointed out that Rauner is going against the public’s will by delaying the implementation of a minimum-wage increase.
“Voters in this state overwhelmingly supported increasing the minimum wage,” he said, referring to a Nov. 4 statewide advisory referendum. “In Rich Township, 90 percent of the voters supported increasing the minimum wage. Even in my more conservative township, Orland Township, the vote was something like 67 percent in support of the minimum wage. This is something people want now, not seven years from now.”
State Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, whose district extends from the city through the suburbs out to Orland Park, said nothing in Rauner’s speech came as a surprise to him.
“The speech to be on the lookout for is coming in two weeks, the budget address,” he said. “That will have to have some specifics behind it. The State of the State is a political speech and contained the same political rhetoric we heard from him on the campaign trail.
“I believe the governor is at heart a centrist. And we have seen centrist Republicans have great success in Illinois. … The real issue here is how are you supposed to project a budget for the state when next year the revenue will be $4 billion less than the year before. This next budget is going to have to have some drastic cuts in it without changing, and likely increasing, the education budget.”
To lead state government forward, Cunningham said, Rauner is going to have to find common ground with Democrats, who control the Senate and House, and eventually tone down the political rhetoric that antagonizes his opponents.
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I thought the governor’s speech was a pretty good one. It was political, but that’s what State of the Union and State of the State addresses usually are. They are intended to stiffen the resolve of core constituencies, rally the public to the side of the speaker and provide some information about his or her primary goals and interests.
Rauner did all of that and also offered a carrot to minority communities by supporting more trade union jobs for them, especially when government contracts are involved.
The upcoming budget speech must address the key issues, which include the state’s massive budget deficit, its pension financing crisis and education funding. And it will be time for him to make the toughest choices, such as where the spending cuts he has promised are going to come from.
Davis suggested that any budget cuts are going to hurt real people who depend on state programs, especially in social services. And those people are going to complain to and lobby their lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike.