Handful of Republicans want to dump Chicago

Bill Knight column for 4-22, 23 or 24, 2019

Crying “bailout” and “drowned out,” five Illinois Republican lawmakers want to force Chicago to become the nation’s 51^st state or empower downstate to “secede” from Illinois, exploiting the resentful belief that downstate is getting ripped off by Chicago.

The artificial rift stems from a Prairie State version of a national trend of acting on beliefs, however divorced they are from evidence. For example, many Americans believe scientists, journalists, etc. are wrong about many issues, instead preferring to trust those who deny facts, defraud people or dishonestly assert whatever benefits them, not the public.

The legislators’ suggestion isn’t new. For several years I worked for a likeable, bold, old-fashioned publisher who occasionally injected himself into the newsroom. Besides requiring the endorsement of a Libertarian for U.S. President and advocating the bombing of a country where a Peorian was held hostage, he sent me all over to write a series on space colonization and, yes, once had reporters check out the feasibility of separating downstate from Chicago.

Eventually journalists told him it wasn’t practical, sensible or justified, and he accepted their work, lighting another cigar and planning another terrific Christmas party for the staff.

But others such as Rep. Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) refuse to accept reality, and Halbrook introduced House Resolution 101 seeking a forced split-up, citing “the $221 million bailout for the CPS [Chicago Public Schools] pension system.” That echoes ex-Gov. Bruce Rauner’s debunked claim (which he ignored when he finally signed a delayed budget, never conceding that Illinois for years has subsidized teacher pensions everywhere except Chicago).

Last year, Halbrook co-sponsored a similar measure, and it died without a vote; now, he’s also stressing what he considers a schism on social issues such as guns and abortion.

Nonpartisan observers are criticizing his pandering proposal.

“The facts don’t come close to backing it up,” said Kiannah Sepeda-Miller of the Better Government Association (BGA). In fact, BGA’s PolitiFact/Illinois service spoke to various experts who called Halbrook’s claim that Chicago is “bailed out” by everyone else in Illinois “total nonsense” and a “myth.”

Elsewhere, the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute (PSPPI), housed at SIU/Carbondale, offered proof.

“It’s clearly not true,” said John Jackson, a visiting professor at PSPPI, who in a report last year found that Cook County, home to 40 percent of the state’s population, gets 90 cents back for every dollar it sends to Springfield. Since downstate has more state institutions and more low-income households, central Illinois, for instance, receives $1.87 for every dollar sent to the state, and southern Illinois gets back $2.81 for each $1 it contributes to state coffers.

As to the influence of Chicago on Illinois policies, co-sponsoring Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer (R-Jacksonville) said downstate just doesn’t feel its voice matters. Of course, what Davidsmeyer ignores is that downstate doesn’t have the votes – the citizens. Yes, people create a pesky “problem” in political systems where majorities prevail, from New York City to Portland and their relationships to upstate New York and the rest of Oregon. Chicago and Cook County together have a population of 5,211,000 out of 12,740,000 statewide, and people vote, not acreage.

“The issues we face remain the same,” Halbrook conceded. “It’s just this ideology that continues to get driven from that corner of the state.”

Downstate Democrat Andy Manar from Bunker Hill didn’t disagree with Habrook’s first thought, but sees common ground and the public good, not competition.

“Lack of pharmacies, lack of doctors, lack of specialists, underfunded schools, vacant classrooms, unemployment, child-abuse rates going up. Those things are happening in rural communities and urban communities alike,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “Too often, when policymakers get into this building, it’s very easy to use geography to explain deep challenges that our state faces. That’s an easy explanation that plays to the cheers of the crowd.”

Also, in Chicago Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot’s recent, two-day visit to Springfield weeks before her May 20 inauguration, she said she’d like to “eliminate the Chicago vs. the rest of the state mentality.

“I-80 is just a stretch of pavement,” she commented. “It is not a border. We are all one state, and Illinoisans, wherever they live, want the same things for themselves and their families.”

Besides Halbrook and Davidsmeyer, the proposal’s co-sponsors (all from rural or downstate districts) are Reps. Darren Bailey (R-Louisville), Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) and Chris Miller (R-Robinson). The current legislative session is scheduled to end May 31, but the Resolution was referred to the Rules Committee, where hopeless bills are euthanized.