Bill Knight column for Thurs.,
Fri., or Sat., March 1, 2 or 3, 2018
Illinois’s
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner returned to a tired, failed refrain in his Feb. 14
budget address: attacking unions, retirees and schools.
It’s
the same old song and dance.
His
latest budget proposes that the state escape some of its pension obligations by
shifting their responsibility to local school districts and colleges, and that
lawmakers dramatically cut health care.
Seeking
to spend $37.6 billion from projected revenues of $38 billion, Rauner contrives
$1.3 billion in savings by abandoning pension contributions and leaving those
to local schools. It’s mostly an accounting gimmick since taxpayers would still
be underwriting the programs, but it’d be through local property taxes, not
state taxes. So the ploy would take $1.3 billion off the state’s balance sheet,
and then burden local schools with the spending.
“Gov.
Bruce Rauner presented us with yet another budget built with fairy dust,” said
Illinois Federation of Teachers president Dan Montgomery. “He claims to be
investing more money in our public schools, yet last year’s funding still
hasn’t reached our most vulnerable students. Rauner claims to value educators
and senior citizens, but [he] suggests defunding health care for retired
teachers, all while people are increasingly reluctant to enter this important
profession.”
Concerning
health insurance, Rauner asked the General Assembly to remove it as a
bargaining subject for state employees and retired teachers – people who agreed
to work for less than the private sector in exchange for good pensions and
decent health insurance.
The
scheme would save the state about $700 million, including $470 million by
forcing state workers to pay more, $129.4 million by dumping state assistance
for the Teachers’ Retirement Insurance Program and an insurance program for
retired community college workers, and $105 million by shifting some group
health-insurance costs to universities. Adding $700 million to local taxing
bodies is idiocy on a colossal scale.
Of
course, the legislature would have to approve it, and support from the General
Assembly’s Democratic majority, which is often allied with organized labor, is
doubtful.
Meanwhile,
less than a year after several Republican lawmakers joined Democrats to
override Rauner’s veto of a tax hike, the governor presented a budget both
relying on the new revenue and also criticizing legislators for increasing the
personal income-tax rate from 3.75 to 4.95 percent and the corporate rate from
5.25 to 7 percent.
“Rauner’s
budget plan threatens to destabilize our school systems, undermine our public
universities, and create the kind of conflict and confusion that can only
further damage our state’s reputation,” said Roberta Lynch, director for
Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME). “He’s recycling well-worn assaults on public-service workers and
retirees, seeking to impose unaffordably high health-care costs, undermine
retirement security, and weaken union rights.
“Once
again, our billionaire governor wants working people to bear the brunt of a
fiscal crisis he helped create,” she added. “Public-service workers are on the
job every day, often in demanding and dangerous jobs. They jeopardize their own
safety to protect kids from abuse and neglect. They risk their own health to
care for veterans and people with disabilities. They keep order in a prison
system that’s understaffed and riven by violence.”
Plus,
Rauner’s health-care plan would face court challenges and probably be ruled
unconstitutional since a court order previously prohibited him from making such
changes. That likelihood makes his speech more political posturing for this
year’s elections than a way to reach a workable budget.
Rauner’s
Republican challenger in this month’s primary election, State Rep. Jeanne Ives
of Wheaton, blasted him, saying, “Governor Rauner outlined a budget that relies
on the same income tax hike that he promises to ‘immediately roll back’ on the
stump, and his promised property tax freeze – as inadequate as it is – becomes
a massive property tax hike once he pushes pensions back on local districts.”
One
of the Democratic candidates for governor, State Sen. Daniel Biss of Evanston,
said Rauner’s budget would “shift costs to those who can least afford it.”
AFSCME’s
Lynch, commenting the morning after Rauner’s Springfield speech, said, “What we
really need is a fair tax, with higher rates for people with higher incomes and
lower rates for people with lower incomes. That's the fair way to raise enough
revenue to pay the state's bills and invest in public services while finally
getting rich people to pay their share. Illinois needs a budget that’s
responsible, balanced and fair, but Rauner’s address made clear once again that
we lack a governor committed to that cause.”
A
new governor pledged to that approach would be music to our ears.
