Time for a change?
Friday, Jul 27, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My Sun-Times column today is entitled “Gov needs compromise or new plan”…
What’s more evil: The absence of universal health insurance in Illinois or a modest state income tax increase?
I asked Gov. Blagojevich that question the other day.
Blagojevich has been pushing a universal health insurance bill all year. He’s claimed it’s the greatest moral issue of our times and even said it’s “God’s will” that all people should have access to health care. So far, however, he hasn’t had a lot of luck, or demonstrated much skill in making his dream a reality.
His initial plan was grand and sweeping, funded partly by a 3 percent payroll tax on employers. The rest of the multibillion-dollar plan was paid for with the doomed - and gigantic - gross receipts tax on business. Both ideas died.
Through it all, Blagojevich has steadfastly vowed to veto any increase in either the state income tax or the sales tax. He’s even said that if the General Assembly overrides those vetoes he would call special legislative sessions until they changed their minds.
The governor’s obstinacy has greatly complicated his quest. Legislative pressure has built for decades to finally “solve” education funding. The most widely accepted solution was an income tax hike coupled with significant property tax relief. This was supposed to be “the year” to get it done. Nothing has happened, mainly because of the governor’s threats.
Mass transit is experiencing a serious funding crisis, and legislators and advocates have come up with a plan for a minuscule 0.25 percent sales tax increase in the RTA service area. Blagojevich has said he will veto that.
Horse trading is the usual way out of sticky legislative situations. I agree to most of your ideas, you agree to most of mine and then let’s all go home. That hasn’t happened yet this year because of the governor’s intransigence.
Please read the whole thing before commenting. Thanks.
* Meanwhile, the impatience grows at the Peoria Journal-Star’s editorial board…
If the state’s needs are that dire, then its leaders should be making the case to average Illinoisans - all of them, not just some - to open their wallets. When they can’t bring themselves to do that, it only communicates that the situation isn’t that serious, after all. That’s unfortunate, because in fact many of Illinois’ challenges are very daunting, with long-range implications that will not be pretty.
Make no mistake, we’re not advocating a tax increase, not this late or this knee-jerk in a humiliating legislative session in which so few have done anything to elevate the public’s trust in them. There’s precious little talk of living within the state’s means, which ought to be on the table, as well. Some Republicans mouth that recognition, though it’s fair to question their motivation: Do they really believe it, or are they just content to reap the political gain of watching ruling Democrats spontaneously combust?
Allow us to let you in on one other dirty little secret, in answer to this question: Why the now-or-never tax hike urgency? It’s simple: 2008 is an election year, and heaven forbid that anyone should make any hard or controversial decisions before voters go to the polls. Well, there’s an election every other year, which means that half the time, the Legislature doesn’t allow itself to do anything of significance. Maybe its members should be paid half as much, then. Bet that’s one proposal we won’t see in bill form.
Again, cowardice and dishonesty are getting government exactly where they always do: Nowhere.
* Property tax relief has dropped off the Statehouse radar, and the Daily Southtown wants it put back…
So once again, we remind lawmakers and the governor that the region’s high property taxes are their fault. That is, local property taxes go primarily to schools, and school taxes continue to increase every year because the state refuses to pay its fair share for education. The state constitution mandates that the state should be the primary funding source for public schools. But the Legislature, with the tacit support of a succession of governors, has declined to be the primary funding source. Schools only have one alternative when the state ducks its duty, and that is to raise property taxes.
* And then there’s this topic, which I’d like to forget…
Gov. Blagojevich’s office Thursday wrongly suggested it had enlisted Cardinal George to persuade recalcitrant lawmakers to support the governor’s languishing health-care plan.
* More end of session stuff, compiled by a slightly tired and surprisingly non-hungover Paul…
* Tribune Editorial: A decent transit deal
* $613, 824, and we’re counting
* Williams-Harris: 12-month budget buzz
* Editorial: Capital needs, transit still priorities
- Truth - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 10:04 am:
Don’t worry about the Cardinal George mishap, Rich. Sooner or later everybody gets bitten by the Governor’s Office’s untruths and lack of credibility. Most likely, it won’t be the last time. We don’t blame you, we know who to blame.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 10:07 am:
No, it’s my fault. I screwed up.
- Belle - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 10:32 am:
Re: the Senate and House
Hey, they gave themselves a raise to be this incompetent! One thing about them, they have always excelled at lowering the standards…
- Bill Baar - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 11:15 am:
Well what in the world then did the Cardinal mean with this,
An aide to the cardinal said George indicated he would try to be “helpful.” But the governor’s camp, which provided George with a list of lawmakers to lobby, took that assurance to mean the cardinal would be on the phone Thursday with legislators.
Did Cardinal George hand the list back?
- True Comparison - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 11:29 am:
“Bringing out the big guns. The governor’s office confirms that Cardinal Francis George is telephoning some Senate Democrats (Catholics, of course) to urge them to change their minds and vote for the governor’s health insurance bill. He appears to be making progress.”
Rich, how did you make the leap to the last sentence? How did it appear he was making progress, if he hadn’t talked to anyone. Was this a statement from the Gov’s office? Just wondering.
- Leroy - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 12:10 pm:
“This page was cool to the funding plan when the RTA announced it. But we see more evidence now of reform coming to local transit operations. Huberman inspires confidence that he will change the culture and work rules that created a massively inefficient CTA workforce.”
Translation: We know they’ve squandered your money in the past and pretended like they didn’t, but this time it’s different.
Haha…taxpaying suckers……
- El Salsa - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 1:18 pm:
Here is my problem with your article. The Governor has compromised, its Madigan who isnt. Rod backed off the GRT. He compromised on his health care plan.
All these legislators campaigned on health care reform and opportunities for the middle class. I hope voters remember this.
I already know that several legislators have asked their local unions for help with petitions and they have turned them down because of their stance on health care. These are the same unions that always pass their petitions and helped get them elected.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 1:44 pm:
===All these legislators campaigned on health care reform===
Name five.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 1:46 pm:
El Salsa - The Governor didn’t compromise….giving up on the Gross Receipts Tax after it was already dead isn’t compromise, its a thin ray of reality penetrating the governor’s thick ego.
I’d also remind you that it isn’t Madigan who’s holding up the governor’s revamped health insurance plan, its Senate Democrats.
Finally, I don’t know of one lawmaker — or the Governor for that matter — who campaigned on raising payroll taxes by 3%, or creating any statewide tax to subsidize insurance industry profits.
Its that last point that is largely lost in this debate. Whether its funded through a GRT, a payroll tax, expanded gambling, or a tax on cigarettes, the Governor’s plan is a massive transfer of taxpayer money to private insurance companies.
The Gov’s “Illinois Covered” plan, backed these highly profitable insurance companies, would use taxpayer dollars to subsidize the extortionist premium rates that insurance companies now charge.
Why should we reward insurance companies for gouging Illinoisans by engaging in the largest transfer of taxpayer dollars to the insurance industry in Illinois history?
It’s blackmail, pure and simple, and Illinois shouldn’t pay up.
- Truthful James - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 2:36 pm:
Everybody insists on calling it a Transit problem. It is a transportation problem and needs to include all ways of moving people from Point A to Point B in an efficient manner. Not just buses and trains but also taxi xavbs and their south side cousins Jitney Cabs and the Van Pool. It even involves high speed rail.
There is no one sided solution to this multifaceted problem, which extends on a local basis from Kenosha to Kankakee and Valparaiso to DeKalb — to, from and through Chicago. It is the region that has to grow, not just the cities.
- North of I-80 - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 3:12 pm:
Since when is universal health care or health insurance something that IL government is supposed to provide?? We expect state roads, state police, state corrections and state universities, capital development construction and state oversight into social areas [DCFS, state assistance to K-12 public schools, other social programs and expansion of tourism/construction]. After each of these ‘mandated’ or expected services are taken care of fully to protect citizens from worng-doers, THEN we should look at extra services. It is stunning that repeat-offenders are paroled and released early because IDOC is too full and/or short staffed for violent offenders to serve their full terms and we’re watching money fights over CTA money, Chicago public schools and health insurance-for-all notions.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 4:15 pm:
Truthful-
There will be 1,000,000 more people in the state by 2030 (US Census projection), and that # takes into consideration people who are leaving southern IL and Cook County in droves. The growth in the collars and beyond will be here whether it is provided for or not.
I agree it is a transportation problem, because these people are moving into areas that are difficult for transit to serve effectively. And 90% of the travel in the state is on the highways. You are not going to get every one of those new people into a PACE bus - AAMOF, you will be fortunate to get 3 out of 100 of them on public transit unless there is a mass influx back into Chicago or the near-city Cook suburbs that are well served by transit.
- Disgusted - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 7:16 pm:
I agree with “North of I-80″. However, until someone bites the bullet and demands that hospitals, doctors and drug company rein in their costs and overcharges, health care for all will never come to fruition. As with any purchasing done with the state, it all must be bid out and you all know what happens when vendors bid on state contracts - the cost to the state is quadrupled and then labeled a bargain. $200 desk chairs go to contract with a $600 price tag to the state. Happens constantly. And it will for healthcare also.
Another thought. Anyone who votes for any incumbents in future elections deserves the government they get.