Illinois

February 24, 2016|Bipartisanship, Bruce Rauner, Credit Rating, Illinois, Jurisdictional Competition, President Obama

The President’s Disastrous Version of Bipartisanship

Two weeks ago President Obama returned to the Illinois capitol. Praising the bipartisanship he had found there, he recalled that, despite having different principles, the parties had forged “compromises” that made for “progress.” He held up Illinois politics as superior to the partisan politics that infect Washington D.C. today.

The President may be nostalgic for the political culture that launched his career as a politician. But he does not have to live in the sorry state that was created in large measure by the bipartisanship he celebrates. Illinois is mired in billions of dollars in debt. Its bond rating is the lowest in the nation. It is judged the third worst state to do business. Its strong public sector unions deliver poor services at a high price.

Illinois’ failure to live within its means, and its solicitude for public sector unions, has indeed been bipartisan.

November 30, 2015|Bruce Rauner, Campaign Finance, Illinois, Nicholas Confessore, Pat Quinn, Public Sector Unions

The New York Times Gets Money and Politics Wrong

by John O. McGinnis|

Nicholas Confessore’s long front-page article in Monday’s New York Times, “Rauner and his Wealthy Friends Are Remaking Illinois,” raises concerns about the power of rich individuals to influence elections. The article both subtly and overtly argues that rich people are using their money to overturn the kind of government citizens of Illinois want. But it actually shows the importance of preserving the First Amendment right to push back against the ingrained biases of the government and the media, like the New York Times itself.

July 14, 2015|Bruce Rauner, Illinois, MIchael Madigan, Nicolo Machiavelli, rational ignorance, Separation of Powers

How to Hold a Legislative Leader Accountable

by John O. McGinnis|

I live in Illinois, the worst governed state of the union. And the consequences have been severe. Our fiscal position is the last in the union and we are at the bottom for ease of doing business. Thus, in the current state of taxation and regulation, there is no prospect of climbing out of the fiscal hole. And unless there is radical reform, Illinois is in terminal decline. It does not have California’s climate or New York’s Stock Exchange to break its fall.

There is bipartisan blame to go around. Governors of both parties for decades have been willing to sign legislation to provide unfunded pensions whose bills would come due when they were safely in retirement. Politicians of both parties have all declined to take on public sector unions and other special interest groups that have made the state uncompetitive. But even if fault must be laid at the door of both Democrats and Republicans, there has been one man who has been the power in Illinois politics for three decades and thus must be held most accountable—Michael Madigan, the Democratic speaker of the House for all but two years since 1983.

The accumulation of immense power in one legislative leader is a practical problem for democratic accountability in a system of separation of powers.

January 6, 2014|Abood v. Detroit Board of Ed., First Amendment, Free-riding, Harris v. Quinn, Illinois, John McGinnis, Knox v. SEIU, Labor Unions, Labor-and-Speech, Medicaid, SEIU, Supreme Court, Union Fees

The Government is Us. Let’s Unionize!

by Michael S. Greve|

Happy New Year, and all cheer the arrival of the one and only John McGinnis on this excellent site! His contributions will make it excellenter still. Rummaging around on the Supremes’ docket and among briefs and petitions, I’ve come across Harris v. Quinn. The question is whether it’s okay for a state (Illinois) to authorize unionization, complete with mandatory union fees, for home health care workers who provide in-home care to individual patients under Medicaid-financed programs. Abood v. Detroit Board of Ed. (1977) held that public employers have a “compelling interest” in labor peace and in preventing free-riding by employees. (However,…

August 27, 2013|Arnold Foundation, Illinois, Karen Lewis, pensions

Pensions or Bust

by Michael S. Greve|

On and off, I’ve obsessed over public pensions and retirement costs, and about the menace posed by unfunded liabilities to state and local governments. Now, I’ve come across the Arnold Foundation’s website, which publishes a periodic Pension Litigation Update (link no longer available). It’s very competently done, and supremely useful: there’s no other way to keep track of pending or even adjudicated cases (they’re often unpublished). If you eyeball the cases, there’s stuff you won’t believe. E.g., the State of Illinois (Illinois!) bestirred itself to pass a law that limits the ability of state employees to take a leave of absence to…

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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