The big news here in Illinois yesterday was that Christine Radogno, the Illinois Senate Minority Leader, has resigned, not merely from her position of leadership but from her job as a legislator. The Chicago Tribune reports:
The first woman to lead a legislative caucus left little doubt her departure was in part born of frustration over the partisan stalemate that has sent state government finances spiraling downward despite her efforts to reach a compromise that would satisfy a demanding Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and a Democratic-led General Assembly.
“I will say that I feel strongly that the governor has the right agenda, but it’s not that easy getting there. We need fundamental change in this building, but we need to compromise in order to get there,” said Radogno, 64, of southwest suburban Lemont.
“We have to put aside personalities. We have to prioritize what we want. Nobody gets 100 percent, but what do you absolutely have to have? When you negotiate, you need to understand and get in the skin of the person you’re talking to,” she said, providing advice for the governor and other legislative leaders.
The position being taken by the legislature’s Democrats, particularly by Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, is not a moderate one. They refuse to give the governor anything he’s requested.
They have no plan for fixing Illinois’s problems but they do have the votes. They could have enacted a budget without either Republicans or the governor. They’d clearly rather have the issue. They’ve decided to run out the clock.
Presently, here in Illinois we’re being inundated with TV ads for J. B. Pritzker’s gubernatorial campaign. A perusal of his web site finds he’s running against Gov. Rauner’s inability to enact a budget and for additional spending. There’s little in the way of explanations of how he plans to balance Illinois’s budget. We are left to speculate it’s by borrowing at the usurious rates required by Illinois’s near-junk credit rating and by increasing taxes. The last time taxes were increased in Illinois the legislature promised to put Illinois’s finances in good shape. Instead they gave raises to public employees and expanded spending, devoting very little of the additional revenues to straightening out Illinois’s finances.
