[il-talk] our disfunctional legislature

[Edwin]

Dear Bill,
Thank you for this posting.  I am in complete agreement with you and share
your frustration.
Thanks. 

-----Original Message-----
From: il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Bill Reif
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 3:50 PM
To: il-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [il-talk] our disfunctional legislature

The following is one of two editorials appearing in yesterday's Chicago
Tribune.  I post it here only because it affirms my frustration in working
with legislative leaders, one of whom is mentioned in the article, on
important legislation that could really make a difference in how blind
children in Illinois are educated.  Although we are making great strides in
working with the U.S. Gongress on national priorities, we have been ignored
by state representatives of whom I would have expected better.  If the
legislative strategy is simply to hang on to their perks as long as possible
by promising much and delivering little, they do indeed need to be voted
out.  By now, they should have done the math to find the right combination
of spending cuts and revenue enhancements, any of which would be less of a
future threat than all this borrowing.

Cordially,
Bill Reif, State Legislative Committee Co-Chair

Vote us out Nov. 2.
They haven't sworn off borrowing. Or reformed how they spend money. Or fixed
leaky ethics laws. Or given employers reasons to grow jobs here. Instead,
Illinois legislators have spent four months enjoying the salaries and perks
you lavish on them -- and now they're scheming to start a long summer
vacation. This second post-Blagojevich year of charging so many taxpayers
for so much dereliction of duty will be complete if lawmakers flutter a
banner of surrender from the Capitol dome: "Vote us out Nov.
2. You didn't know about the vacation? Legislators evidently exhausted by
another session of squandered opportunities hope to wrap up work by Friday.
To do so, they may slap together a budget that puts all of us even more
billions of dollars in debt:
Lawmakers would borrow those billions to cover basic state operations. 
That's like
taking out a mortgage to buy diapers and toothpaste. They would do this
because once again they're too weak to limit their spending to the amount of
revenue the rest of us send them. This new borrowing, with no spending
reforms, would be a slap at taxpayers. It would doom employers and workers
to pay years of interest and principal on still more debt. It would rob
money from educating children and providing health care. Why? To pay for yet
another year when lawmakers flat-out refuse to change how they spend the
billions they already have. These two years of stubborn failure to
streamline and reinvent Illinois reflect Democratic leaders' desperate
belief: that
someday a revived economy will give them enough new tax money to pay off
their deficit spending, their massive borrowing and their unfunded pension
obligations. Until that fantasy comes true, why not borrow even more? Such
temptation risks another self-inflicted
consequence: rising interest costs that Illinois must pay to sell bonds. 
In an interview
Thursday, Ted Hampton, a public finance executive with Moody's rating
service, said he wonders if lawmakers here are willing to exert
self-discipline. We have a negative outlook on Illinois," Hampton said.
We're concerned. And if no one acts, that concern will grow. Here's what we
heard between Hampton's opaque lines: 
Lawmakers are deciding
right now whether Moody's and its rivals further slash what's already the
second-worst bond rating in the U.S. That Gov. Pat Quinn, House Speaker
Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton even would consider more
borrowing suggests they've spent too much time in their insular state
government beehive. Americans coast to coast are seething over high
government spending and the eruption of public debt that is burying
taxpayers. Yet incumbent lawmakers evidently bent on replicating the
ruination of California and Michigan here in Illinois seem to think they can
do so and be re-elected Nov. 2. Many, in fact, seem to think of little else.
Voters, though, may not be as stupid as legislators hope. We hear from more
and more citizens who realize that tax-wary employers think twice about
expanding in a state destined to dun its businesses and workers for its
devastating debts and pension obligations. No wonder, then, that Illinois
has lost almost half a million jobs in 10 years. No wonder Illinois ranks
48th in job creation. Yes, we've said some of this before. But now is the
moment
-- if legislators adjourn after doing so little -- when these incumbents
seize full ownership of the indebtedness, the unsustainable pension
benefits, the high-business-tax stature that for two decades has condemned
Illinois to trail the U.S. in job growth.
We've seen this movie before. As sessions wind down, small-think legislators
and their apologists focus less on addressing crises than on going home. 
Another borrowing
binge now will signal that the Democratic fix is to act clueless now -- and
to try raising taxes after the election. That ploy entraps taxpayers in a
zero-sum game:
Because lawmakers won't restructure how they spend gazillions on Medicaid or
on pensions for current employees -- let alone end college tuition waivers
for children of their cronies -- you have to restructure. Just send them
more of your money. 
Vote us out
Nov. 2" is an unorthodox campaign lyric. But we suspect millions of
Illinoisans will be dancing to the beat..


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