Listening to elected leaders in Illinois makes me wonder about the discussions taking place on the Titanic as it was about to go down.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to patch the gaping hole in his city’s budget by keeping about $700 million that Chicago taxpayers send to the pension fund for suburban and downstate teachers, ignoring the fact that the state has a $105 billion pension debt. Hey, Emanuel’s not worried about the big ship going down because he’s trying to plug holes in his boat.
Gov. Bruce Rauner, on the other hand, told a TV show host that he doesn’t like the idea of gambling expansion, even though a casino in Chicago could generate as much as $1 billion in new revenue per year.
It’s as if someone on board the Titanic said we have some life preservers, but they were donated by a home for ladies of ill repute and the captain replied, “I wouldn’t feel right about my passengers using them. Toss those things overboard.”
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The governor’s solution, backed by the majority of voters in this state, is to avoid an income tax increase, cut the state budget and propose changes in government employee pensions that will likely never get passed. And he wants to also take money away from local governments that are solvent but would quickly start taking on water without that state money.
I could make an analogy here about sacrificing the mentally ill, developmentally disabled and many other people who can’t fend for themselves without help to give the able-bodied people a better chance of survival.
You’ve gotta make some tough choices when the ship is going down, and sacrificing the lives of a few for the good of the many is one option.
But many will say that’s not a fair analogy — it’s more like Rauner is doing his best to keep the ship afloat after the Democrats ran it smack into an iceberg. Rauner’s plan is to bring more jobs and business development to this state, they say, so any short-term sacrifice is worth the long-term gain.
It makes people feel better about what we’re doing to the weakest among us to think of it that way.
But even a strong swimmer can drown if someone’s clinging to their neck for dear life. And a lot of taxpayers in Illinois feel like they’re already carrying too much dead weight.
I get all that. Still, I like to think that most people in a crisis would say, “if we work together we may be able to save the weaker folks, even if it means increasing the risk to the rest of us.”
In reality, as the water is pouring over the deck, as you’re fighting for the lives of yourself and your family members, such high-minded idealism likely vanishes.
State Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, is the very definition of an idealist. He wants to rectify a problem, inequities in the state’s public school funding system, that have been plaguing Illinois for more than 20 years.
Illinois has the most unfair school funding formula in the nation, according to a recent study, sending more money to wealthy school districts and less to those with the poorest children. I don’t think there’s an elected official in Springfield who would disagree with that, Republican or Democrat.
But to correct the situation, you need to pump a ton of new money into the poorer school districts (about $500 million) or take that money away from other districts.
Has anyone noticed that our ship of state is listing at a 20-degree angle, and people are starting to jump overboard?
Illinois has a serious financial problem. There is no extra money to spread around.
Yet Manar, a decent guy whom I think really believes these inequities in school funding are unjust and need to be addressed (I have sounded that call for more than two decades), demands that something be done now. Now?
Hey, gang, before this boat turns upside down and Gene Hackman announces that he can lead us all to safety, can we please try one more thing — working together.
That means seriously considering any reasonable idea to generate more money, cut spending or try something new. It means not picking a fight with the union hands on the ship, even if you think they are uncouth and overpaid, until the current crisis is over.
I realize at some point you have to think about a way of getting this rusty tub safely into port, but right now you’ve to keep this state afloat.
Even if our elected leaders caused this mess through gross incompetence, the public employees ought to realize that their jobs and pensions are at risk, no matter who was responsible for this wreck.
All of us must resist the impulse to panic. And that brings me back to that tax thing.
Cutting back on the four-year income tax increase was a popular move, but it merely increased the size of the state’s budget hole. Everyone knew that would happen, but we handed a chainsaw to government officials and looked the other way.
Some can turn a deaf ear to all the cries for help, the shouts in the dark for anyone to come to their rescue, but I cannot. I’ve been hearing the pleas from the social service organizations and those who use the services and I know their fears are real.
They at least want to know that their fellow human beings care. They want someone to stand up and say, “Don’t leave these folks behind.” And I’m willing to do that for them.
But that doesn’t solve the problem. The fact is, and I’ve told all my callers this, that most people have already decided that the government’s corrupt, their tax money is wasted and there’s no rescue ship on the way.
So here we are. Choosing up sides. Pointing fingers of blame. Arguing about who should get the most comfortable deck chairs, sit at the captain’s table and whether places in the lifeboats have been distributed in an equitable manner.
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It’s not a pretty sight.
There may be no solution here. But there’s no voice of reason, no calming influence, no leadership that seems capable of rallying the troops or restoring public trust.
Fortunately, a financial collapse of a government body may not be as fatal as the sinking of a passenger liner.
Is that Celine Dion I hear singing “My Heart Will Go On?” Man, I hate that song.