Newly elected Governor Bruce Rauner unveiled his budget proposal, which includes $6 billion in cuts to universities, health care, and public sector pensions (except police and firefighters).
Rauner, a private equity investor until he ran for governor, proposed no new taxes on the wealthy.
““This budget is honest with the people of Illinois, and it presents an honest path forward,” Mr. Rauner said as he laid out what he deemed a “turnaround budget” before lawmakers in Springfield, the state capital. “Like a family, we must come together to address the reality we face. Families know that every member can’t get everything they want.”
“The fate of Mr. Rauner’s $31.5 billion spending plan, however, is uncertain, particularly given that Democrats hold veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the legislature. Democrats said it would harm middle-class families and the poor, while asking little more from wealthy residents. The proposed budget calls for no tax increases or new taxes.
“Governor Rauner’s plan includes proposals that will undermine access to health services, child care, affordable college and retirement security for working- and middle-class families,” said John J. Cullerton, the Democratic president of the State Senate, adding that the contents of the plan raised “significant questions about its viability” in the legislature.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If Rauner thinks that there are problems with public pensions that need fixing, then male dominated police and fire fighter pensions should be included.
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It is the usual myogynist Republican view. “Boy” unions are OK. “Girl” unions are bad. Like one Republican said recently, women are a “lessor cut of meat”. Ugh. The GOP is turning into to Taliban of the west. Like we saw in Buffalo and most third world military dictatorships, the GOP needs the police force happy and doing their bidding to suppress a populace angry at austerity and the Republicans’ support of inequality.
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Maybe he would rather attack pensions that are more likely to impact women because they matter less to him.
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He’s trying to split the public unions.
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You are all wrong about the public unions.
I don’t want to sound like a know-it-all, but I know this to be true:
Police and firefighter pensions will be the last to be touched, if ever, because as the overclass continues to swallow the working and middle class, they will need the firefighters and police to CONTAIN all the mounting and ensuing civil unrest.
This is a transformation into a police state.
This is horrible and unacceptable.
We are still not without hope, however.
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Thank you, Robert: it’s a bad career move to try and steal pensions from People With Guns, especially when you must call upon them to act aggressively towards other workers whose pensions are being stolen.
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“Like a family, we must come together to address the reality we face.”
I always love this analogy – like a state budget is just a larger version of a family budget.
But anyway, to the extent the analogy is valid, it’s like Dad coming home and telling the rest of the family that they need to tighten their belts, so Mom needs to drop her pottery class, Missy needs to drop out of dancing, can’t afford Joey’s tuba lessons or Jake’s basketball camp. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m meeting George for dinner at the steakhouse before heading over to the country club and I’ll need to get the Ferrari washed first.
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Rauner is just another Scott Walker wannabe. Part of the upper-midwest takeover by the Koch brothers.
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I would like to hear Rauner articulate why the state’s police and firefighter pension systems should be exempt from this kind of reform.
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He is trying to keep his tail safe. Check out the recent posts about Buffalo using the police to suppress teachers speaking out. Or Reynoldsburg, OH using hired “security” to try to silence parents and intimidate teachers. Firefighters are usually a smaller union along for the ride and make for great publicity. In Ohio’s SB5 fight, the opposition was funded by teachers, but the public face was firefighters. Everyone hates teachers, but everyone loves and respects firefighters (rightly so, of course). Just realities.
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All very true. But I agree with FLERP! – I’d like to hear him say it out loud and in public.
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In NYC at least, police officers have much higher (shockingly higher, I would say) compensation and much more expensive pensions than teachers.
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Yes, it seems likely that it’s a political calculation. I think teachers are always the front line for pension rights for the simple reason that, as you suggest, they are an extremely large workforce, much larger than police or firefighters. But I’d like to hear him try to justify the distinction on the numbers.
Many people, understandably, have a kneejerk reluctance to criticize people who risk life and limb with their jobs. Maybe the U.S. Marines should unionize.
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I agree, it would be great to hear him justify his reasons. But don’t expect much. I never heard Walker justify his reasons for the same approach, but maybe someone in Wisconsin can answer? At least in Ohio, Kasich is well shielded from accountability and scrutiny by his handlers and supportive Ohio media. And for good reason. Usually what comes out of his mouth is bizarre, dismissive, and mean-spirited. These guys avoid the tough questions. Kasich even refused to debate his opponent. The one soft ball interview by the PD was removed from the media (with legal threats for sharing) because it showed Kasich scowling and slouching in a very negative light when challenged on even minor issues. So much for democracy. It is like voters turn a blind eye and just do not want to face reality. The other day, a reporter mentioned Kasich’s “sunny” disposition. The Gov must have been beaming rays of joy between calling a cop an “idiot” or threatening to “break the backs” of teachers.
We can only hope some sunlight shines, but these ALEC puppets hide in shadows so you can’t see their strings.
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Yes, FLERP, police have a difficult and dangerous job. Though maybe convenience store clerks should unionize, too, as that job carries high risk. Here in Columbus, the police and fire have access to a program called DROP. You can retire at 50 with a million dollar bonus. Not bad. Wonder if educators could get 1/2 that at 65?
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Correction, I meant pension “fights,” not pension “rights.”
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It’s funny because the bill is finally coming due in Michigan:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2015/01/14/michigan-budget-picture-worsens-corporate-tax-credits/21756881/
One Tough Nerd turns out to not so great at financial projections, despite his data-driven and technocratic approach 🙂
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I note that Wisconsin also excluded police and firefighters. Essentially that’s the only government role the new right supports. Plus the army on a federal level. We live in “interesting” times.
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” Plus the army on a federal level.”
Talk about a bottomless pit of waste and fraud-the MIC.
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Until something like Ebola hits, then the Right complains about government incompetence in agencies the tea party lawmakers cut. Or try to eliminate the generous farm subsidies to millionaire legislatures in the Farm Bill while they complain about food stamps.
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Ah yes Deb, the ol’ Chinese curse. May you live interesting times.
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These slash and burn policies failed in Europe, and they are some reasons why Europe recovered from 2008 more slowly than we did. All these policies do is stall the economy by putting fewer dollars in the hands of the middle class. The current issue of”Wharton Magazine” features an essay from an alumnus called “Saving Capitalism from a Painful Demise.” Like Robert Reich the author, Anthony Orlando, maintains that income inequality will upend the growth of the economy as the middle class is the key economic driver. Business succeeds when the middle class has money to spend, and business fails when the middle class suffers. The problem is that most of Wall St. only plays a short game that looks for a quick return. They fail to see the bigger picture, and that is why we must fight to protect our children and future from them. What is in the best interest of children or America is not in the realm of their thinking.
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No new taxes on the wealthy, I think I hear ‘Happy days are here again’ playing somewhere.
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Rauner seems to be getting his message right out of the Tom Corbett playbook, a message which didn’t work out too well for Corbett and resulted in Tom Wolf’s election in Pennsylvania. Hopefully Illinois Democats, who are in a majority in the legislature, unlike PA, can run on this to get even more support and get a Democratic governor elected next time. But I suppose that depends on whether these Democrat legislators in Illinois are real Democrats or Obama/Duncan democrats.
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It is important to remember that Rauner made many millions of dollars in management fees from the same pension funds he now intends to raid. Corporate raiders are nothing new, but the shift in state and federal laws that now make it possible to raid public pensions are new. The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago is THE billionaire oligarch club. The funded legislators to vote for the changes written by these financiers of re-election campaigns. Rauner was part of the CCCCC and continues to pursue its goals. His background as a public pension fund investment insider puts him in perfect position to strip its assets, enrich himself and his buddies, and wreak devastation upon retirees and those soon to retire.
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