Change of the Guard

The editors of the Wall Street Journal remark on the changing of the guard in Springfield:

Mr. Welch was first elected in 2013 from Hillside, a Chicago suburb south of O’Hare Airport, and at least he’s talking about decentralizing power. “I want to examine the rules and possibly make changes—possibly make a lot of changes,” he said. One might be a 10-year term limit on the speakership.

Mr. Welch, who is Illinois’s first black speaker, urged a lowering of partisan tensions. “Why do our politics have to be about negativity and destruction?” he asked. It’s a good question. But it will take more than bipartisan bonhomie to reverse Illinois’s spiral of high taxes and bloated government, which has caused so many residents to flee over Mr. Madigan’s tenure.

Democrats finally dumped Mr. Madigan because they feared his high public profile and a corruption probe were hurting them. But they still like Mr. Madigan’s system of public-union dominance and gerrymandered districts. The old boss may be gone, but his system survives.

I think that “like” understates the scope of the problem. It’s intrinsic to their business model.

I’m not opposed to labor unions but I’m highly skeptical of public employee labor unions. The arrangement of recycling taxes to wages to political contributions not to mention foot soldiers is inherently corrupt.