Taxes: Who’s giving vs. who’s getting?

Bill Knight column 9-27, 28 or 29. 2021

Studies showing how much areas pay in taxes vs. how much they receive from the government can be revealing, either contradicting or reinforcing regional resentments based on feelings, not facts.

For instance, Illinois gets about 60 cents for every $1 taxpayers send to the U.S. Treasury Department, according to the personal-finance website WalletHub. Illinois is one of 14 such “giving” states.

Comparing 50 states and the District of Columbia, WalletHub documents dollars paid in federal income taxes and federal spending per capita, and the percentage of states’ revenues returning in federal funding.

Ten states get twice the money they sent to D.C.: Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina and West Virginia. (South Carolina leads the “getting” states, receiving almost $8 for each $1 taxpayers send to the U.S. government.)

The 14 “giving” states receiving less than $1 for every $1 they contribute in federal income taxes are: California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming.

Poverty is a bigger influence than population, measured by states’ poverty rates and the number of residents eligible for social services such as food stamps (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP). Mississippi and New Mexico have more than 20% of their population eligible for food stamps; Illinois has about 15%. Other factors could include effects from having a government institution in an area, like a public university, military base or prison.

“It is red states that are overwhelmingly the ‘Welfare Queen States’,” wrote John Tierney in The Atlantic magazine in 2014. “Red States – the ones governed by folks who think government is too big and spending needs to be cut – are a net drain on the economy.”

A similar “giving/getting” relationship exists within Illinois.

Illinois outside Chicago and its surrounding area receive more in state funding – overall up to $2.88 for each $1 paid in state income taxes – according to an updated study by professors John Foster and John Jackson with Southern Illinois University’s Paul Simon Institute.

Cook County and five adjacent counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will) together chip in more to the state budget than Springfield spends there, according to the most recent figures from the General Assembly’s bipartisan Commission on Forecasting and Government Accountability used by the SIU researchers.

Cook paid $12.43 billion and received $12.18 billion. That compares to suburban counties paying $8.5 billion and getting $5.1 billion back, and Downstate counties paying $8.2 billion but receiving $13.9 billion, the two say in their 56-page report, “The Politics of Public Budgeting in Illinois” (online at https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/ppi_papers/59/ ).

“Americans in general do not like taxes, and the people of Illinois are no exception,” the study says. But “no matter how much we hate taxes in general, we do like a great number of concrete public policies and programs that are supported by that revenue.”

A Downstate impulse to separate from Chicago is reflected in one of the pair’s surveys, which asked “whether the state is distributing governmental resources in an equitable manner.” Although 60+% of every region of the state responded, “not at all or only a little,” the greatest dissatisfaction came from Downstate, where two-thirds of respondents were unhappy with the resources available there.

Such sentiment fueled 2020 ballot initiatives in 20 of Illinois’ 102 counties calling for their secession from the state, “ostensibly in order to free the rural areas from the burdens of Chicago,”

This data shows that facts don’t support that feeling – and demonstrates what harmful folly such a secession would be.

“It is clearly the case that the public’s perception of an issue may well not square with all of the empirical facts,” the researchers write. “People believe what they have been taught and … told – never mind what the factual basis for those beliefs are.”

The budget standoff between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-majority legislature in 2015-2017 probably contributed to increased aid Downstate.

“The two years without a state budget and the cuts entailed hurt Downstate, especially southern Illinois, harder than it hit northeastern Illinois,” Jackson told Kay Shipman of FarmWeek magazine. “Downstate, we do get a bigger part of our total revenues from the state.”

In Central Illinois, however, McLean, Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford Counties are “givers”; but Fulton, Henry, Knox and McDonough Counties are “getters,” according to the professors, who note that people – and politicians – sometimes trust claims that are verifiably false.

Civic engagement – at kitchen tables or taverns, campaign stops or legislative hearings – needs facts.

“The operation of a successful mass democracy depends in the long run on the people being well-informed and acting according to reality rather than inaccurate perceptions and myth,” the researchers say.

Changing the filibuster (from a Dutch word for ‘pirate’)

 Bill Knight column for 9-23, 24 or 25, 2021

 Anticipating and preventing a filibuster took considerable effort by bipartisan negotiators who achieved a 69-30 Senate approval of a $550 billion infrastructure bill, and now senators and President Biden are scrambling to pass voting rights. Amy Klobucher (D-Minn.) and James Clyburn (D-S.C.), respectively, are substituting the compromise Freedom to Vote Act for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and are pushing for a filibuster exception to voting rights.

Government must either preserve Americans’ right to vote or the filibuster (derived from a Dutch word for “pirate,” appropriately).

What the ding-dang-deal is a filibuster, you think? It’s one senator’s objection preventing action. To be considered, bills must have a 3/5 supermajority, so 41 out of 100 senators can block bills. (An exception: In 1974, the “budget reconciliation” procedure was adopted enabling measures to be considered IF all parts of a bill significantly involve federal revenue or spending, as determined by the parliamentarian.)

Filibusters were the way Southern Senators protected the “Southern Way of Life” (slavery or segregation) by defeating civil-rights bills, but more recently Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell has used the mechanism to derail things he’s opposed.

At first, the Senate ran by letting members “move the previous question” to vote, but that rule was rarely used and dropped in 1806, but that meant there was no way to end debate, accidentally creating a filibuster.

In the 1800s, Sen. John Calhoun of South Carolina was a “vehement racist [who] wanted to preserve slavery,” according to Adam Jentleson, author of “Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy.” And by the 1920s – despite 70% popular support and backing by presidents of both parties – filibusters killed anti-lynching and anti-poll tax bills.

“From the 87 years between Reconstruction until 1964, the only legislation against which the filibuster was deployed was civil-rights legislation,” Jentleson said.

Founder Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 22 criticized supermajority rules, writing, “Its real operation is to embarrass the administration, to destroy the energy of the government, and to substitute the pleasure, caprice, or artifices of an insignificant, turbulent, or corrupt junto, to the regular deliberations and decisions of a respectable majority.”

Once, it may have been a way to limit majorities from steamrolling legislation, offering minorities some influence, and its defenders, such as conservative Democrats Joe Manchin (W. Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), claim it forces compromise. Others say it creates obstructionism.

 “It’s time to change the Senate rules and stop holding this Senate hostage,” Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said.

Change is possible, too. It’s a rule; 51 votes could change it. Senate rules set a simple majority for approval; the filibuster betrays that.

It’s been modified before. It’s no longer like the “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” movie scene. Talking is no longer required; just announcing an objection stops everything. It’s easy now.

“When Mitch McConnell became Leader, he began using the filibuster at a rate never been seen before,” Jentleson said. “That is a huge reason why we see such gridlock in Washington.”

Also, the Senate changed filibustering in 2013 (for nominations) and 2017 (for Supreme Court appointments).

Today, what makes change so vital is voter-suppression threats in 30 laws passed in 18 states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

“Although the filibuster had historically been used to block progress on civil rights,” said Knox College grad John Podesta, founder and chair of the Center for American Progress, “it also seemed to promote debate, so long as Senate minorities were working in good faith with the majority, finding honorable compromise where possible.

“With the pressures of near-constant electioneering, 24-hour news, and increased political polarization, it has become clear that assessment no longer holds. Instead of promoting debate and compromise, … the filibuster has in recent years become a tool of the minority to block legislation on nearly every major issue facing our nation.”

Repealing the filibuster rule would eliminate Congress’s inability to take action, and help Republicans advance their agenda when they retake the Senate.

“Passing labor-law reform, voter-protection legislation, and the Build Back Better investment,” said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler, “we need democracy in the U.S. Senate.”

If the Senate drops or at least limits the filibuster, debate would be restored, negotiations could happen, and bipartisanship could occur.

Again, the choice, Jentleson said, is “between reforming the rules or getting nothing done.”

Americans still reeling from resurgence of pandemic

 Bill Knight column for 9-20, 21 or 22. 2021

 The plan was to showcase work and life, post-pandemic.

Oops.

After months of Zooming, cooking, gardening and streaming, we thought we were about to resume our lives, to BREATHE again – an odd thought given the same time associated breathing (or not) with police violence as well as ICU ventilators.

Some looked forward to returning to seeing friends or family without risking anyone’s health, going to church, a movie or ballpark. Most folks anticipated relief more than celebrations.

That seems gone despite having more facts and help. Uncertainty looms due to COVID’s highly contagious Delta variant and people still unvaccinated.

Resistance to vaccinating is persistent; some staffers at Illinois nursing homes reportedly will quit rather than get the shot. After 660,000 deaths (about 1 in 500 Americans), the U.S. saw 400,000 new infections over three days this month – a figure that took all of June to reach. Add to that the recent loss of jobless benefits for 9 million people, and Illinois jobs already down 6.9% from last year, according to Pew’s Stateline news service’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, and disappointment, anxiety and anger mount.

The Federal Aviation Administration has some 2,500 unruly passenger complaints since Jan. 1 – about 20 times higher than the typical number of complaints for a year.

“This is an environment that we just haven’t seen before,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, “and we can’t wait for it to be over.”

When it is over, will we learn anything?

“Eventually there will be studies … COVID’s effect on suicide rates, divorce rates, school participation, mortality, depression and anxiety, economic output,” said Stephen Marche, author of “The Next Civil War.”

“But none of them will get it. No study could ever capture the lived experience of the pandemic.”

Meanwhile, the country’s experiencing disasters tied to climate change, plus:

* A retail “apocalypse” worsened by shopping online and the dominance of big-box stores and smaller “dollar” stores. Companies like Payless, Sears and Toys ‘R’ Us went bankrupt; malls declined or died. Besides COVID, private-equity firms harvested companies’ revenues and left behind huge debts; some financially stressed department stores downsized; and malls are converting spaces into groceries, offices or housing.

* Civility to get along enough to cooperate to cope with crises, whether wildfires and hurricanes or the surging pandemic and the economic fallout on families has dwindled. Maybe such division, disorganization or dysfunction has always existed, but national tensions are now global, with disinformation making disagreements arguments. (It is the WORLD Wide Web.)

* A civic “meltdown” goes beyond rowdy airline passengers. Some states are trying Jim Crow-style voting limits, White nationalists are getting bolder, attacks on minorities increasing, and 15% of American adults believe claims spread by QAnon, according to Hal Crowther, author of “Freedom Fighters and Hellraisers.”

Is this a tipping point to outright chaos?

Our outlooks have altered.

“The pandemic revealed how much we hate our jobs,” wrote Joanne Lipman, author of “That’s What She Said,” in Time magazine. “We have an unprecedented opportunity right now to reinvent, to create workplace culture almost from scratch. It’s time to allow the creative ideas to flow.”

The pandemic – during which some workers died from inadequate safety measures and states cut off jobless benefits to force people back to unsafe, low-wage work – clarified how little faith people have in a system that prioritizes profits over people’s health.

For white-collar jobs, 83% of CEOS want office workers back full-time, Newsweek reported, but just 10% of their workers agree. Elsewhere, companies like American Express limited returning; in Illinois, such corporations include Amazon and Walgreens.

For decades, workers without unions or specialized skills had little leverage in the labor market. But the pandemic and shifting demographics of age, gender and race changed the balance of power.

“Workers have more bargaining power in the economy right now than at any point since at least the late 1990s,” said Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “Workers, especially at the bottom end of the wage ladder, are seeing substantial wage gains”

            Other good news: Daily deaths are decreasing to levels of March, and 75% of eligible Americans have at least one vaccination dose; 4 of 5 unvaccinated Americans say they’ll get the shot; and vaccination rates in reluctant rural areas are climbing. Kohl’s and Macy’s raised their 2021 projections and even Toy ‘R’ Us is back (inside some Macy’s locations).

Some hold on to “hope in hard times.”

“So much has been taken, but not everything,” said Marc Lamont Hill, author of “We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest and Possibility.”

“What this moment has taught us is that we have the ability to radically reimagine and reshape the world.”

Illinois’ Clean Energy bill sets path for future

 Bill Knight column for 9-16, 17 or 18, 2021

 Maybe Illinoisans can breathe easier, as a comprehensive energy bill ensuring the state achieves 100% carbon-free energy by 2050 passed the Senate 37-17 on Monday after the House approved it last week 83-33, with 11 Republican Yes votes.

The action occurred weeks after a report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that addressing climate change was almost “beyond reach”; days after a cloud of coal ash caused by an equipment failure at Springfield’s City Water, Light and Power (CWLP) plant hovered above the city; and hours after an urgent call for worldwide action by more than 220 medical and public-health journals.

Passage followed state Rep. Ann Williams (D-Chicago) brokering a deal changing a Senate bill that passed Sept. 3. The House kept most of the Senate’s language but mandated that coal plants cut emissions. The final draft requires 40% of Illinois’ power coming from renewable sources by 2030, and 50% by 2040.

 “This is a climate bill not a utility bill,” Williams said. “We need to address climate, but we also have to ensure that we keep our nuclear fleet operating to that we have a bridge to a renewable-energy future.”

Gov. Pritzer said the bill “puts consumers and climate first.”

The publicly owned CWLP and the Prairie State Generating Station in downstate Marissa – one of the largest polluters in the nation – could remain open until 2045 (longer if they eliminate emissions). But if they don’t cut emissions 45% by 2035, they could be closed.

Illinois’ privately owned coal- and oil-fired power plants would have to shut down by 2030. Natural gas plants have until 2045, and until then their carbon emissions in a year cannot exceed their average releases over the past three years.

Provisions include:

* zero carbon emissions by 2045,

* saving three nuclear plants and their jobs,

* $500 million/year to support wind and solar projects

* job-training programs for the renewable-energy sector,

* increasing electric vehicles to 1 million by 2030, with a $4,000 rebate/buyer, and

* mandating union-scale pay for large-scale renewable-energy projects.

 

Pritzker backed the compromise, as did the Clean Jobs Coalition environmental group and the labor-backed Climate Jobs Illinois group.

“All the pieces of legislation are critical for reliability, solar development, clean energy,” said state Rep. Marcus Evans (D-Chicago), “and of course, all the jobs.”

CWLP and Prairie State – backed by several communities’ $5 billion investment, with bonds due in 2035 – were one obstacle. Another was different priorities by key Democrat constituencies, environmentalists and labor. A third was Exelon, ComEd’s parent company, threatening to close its Byron and Dresden nuclear plants.

Exelon/ComEd got a generous bailout for its Quad Cities and Clinton nukes in 2016, when a $235 million annual rate-hike law was arranged by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and former Democratic Speaker Mike Madigan. That deal contributed to indictments of ComEd executives, lobbyists and others, and the utility giant agreeing to pay a $200 million fine.

Environmentalists objected to giving money to the profitable Exelon without climate-friendly provisions and attention to solar, which has been hurt by inaction. Last year, Illinois’ solar industry had almost 6,000 jobs, according to Clean Energy Trust and Environmental Entrepreneurs, but it’s lost hundreds of positions since because of uncertain government support.

For its part, labor fought to protect about 1,000 jobs at the nukes and maintain fossil-fuel work, including at CWLP and Prairie State.

Common ground was reached, perhaps because of a couple of realizations.

Despite having more financial clout than environmentalists, labor leaders might have wondered where any jobs will be if Illinois is less habitable. And environmentalists maybe accepted that people will have difficulty appreciating Nature and clean air and water without decent jobs.

Joe Duffy of Climate Jobs Illinois praised negotiators overcoming “considerable differences to pass an ambitious bill.”

Giving more money to Exelon was difficult for many to stomach, but cuts in coal-plant emissions and reduced funding made it passable. Pritzker approved subsidizing Exelon’s Byron, Dresden and also Braidwood nukes $694 million over five years, much lower than the corporation’s $6 billion request. The measure also prohibits Exelon/ComEd from making customers pay for any penalties tied to the criminal probe.

Besides planning for a sustainable state, residential consumers may pay $3 to $4.50 more a month, according to Evans, who said, “We’re serious about climate change; we’re serious about just transition; we’re serious about solar development, and we not only want to be a participant nationally. We want to be a leader.”

All in all, chipping in the price of a Frappuccino, a craft beer or two Happy Meals seems literally to be a small price to pay for a decent future.