I was very disappointed with Charles Fain Lehman’s piece in the Washington Free Beacon, “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Illinois?”. It stated the problem well enough but offered nothing in the way of a solution. I will note, sarcastically, that the federal government is fine with extracting rents from the state. Illinois has perhaps the worst ROI on taxes sent to Washington of any state.
I will, however, step up to the plate. Here’s my modest proposal for solving Illinois’s fiscal problem:
- Illinois’s legislature must enact a constitutional amendment empowering the legislature to renegotiate the pensions of public employees at will.
- The legislature should enact a second constitutional amendment stripping it of the power to amend or repeal the previously mentioned amendment.
- That power must be used to convert all present public employees to a defined contribution program rather than the present defined benefits programs.
- The pay of present state employees would be cut to balance the budget. Start with the legislature’s pay.
- Then and only then would the federal government give Illinois $7 billion to get over the hump.
Treat it as an opportunity for dealing with decades of misfeasance, malfeasance, and nonfeasance on the part of Illinois’s legislature.
