* A recent piece in Illinois Issues is getting some attention…
Charlie Wheeler III, a longtime observer of Illinois politics and head of the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield, has a plan that could at least get the two sides talking. In a column in the Illinois Times, Wheeler rolled out how Rauner, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton could actually accomplish some things together. Wheeler recommends the two sides use an “agreed bill” process, in which all parties compromise and write the legislation together. This process has been used in the past, often with success and acceptable results for both sides of a dispute.
Wheeler’s explanation is lengthy, but here are the highlights of his compromise ideas.
Workers compensation: In a true compromise, tighten the definition of workplace injuries, which Rauner wants, and place more scrutiny on insurance companies, which would please Democrats.
Tort reform: Give Democrats a choice between stricter rules on where to file personal injury lawsuits, restricting “pain and suffering” awards, or sponsoring a constitutional amendment to determine if voters wanted to limit certain damages.
Property tax freeze: Enact a freeze, but only if Rauner drops demands that would severely restrict collective bargaining and eliminate a prevailing wage requirement. Wheeler didn’t mention this one, but we’d add, pave the way for voters to decide a way to reduce the number of local governments.
Redistricting and term limits: On both issues, turn to citizen groups to get the amendments on the ballot through the petition process. Rauner, who supports both issues, could use his bully pulpit to support the issues, but would remove them from his legislative agenda.
Andy Shaw also pointed to Wheeler’s piece as a possible model. Charlie’s piece can be read in full by clicking here.
I’ve supported most of these ideas in the past, particularly an agreed bill process on workers’ comp and dropping the anti-union stuff from the property tax freeze. And as we found out yet again last year, Illinoisans can’t legally put a term limits constitutional amendment on the ballot.
The problem isn’t with the ideas, the problem is the complete lack of will to talk about the ideas.
Once Speaker Madigan decides he’s willing to talk about workers’ comp reforms that don’t include “causation,” then the talks can bear some fruit, but not until he’s willing. Same goes for everything else, on both sides. There just is no will right now to move anything forward.
* The only thing that ever dependably moves these guys to act is a crisis, and despite the long impasse we just haven’t seen one yet that’s urgent enough to generate some will. And instead of talking about the budget for the last few weeks, all the leaders and members did was griped about the AFSCME bill. Speaker Madigan has long chastised the governor for focusing too much on non-budget issues, but what did he do for weeks? I mean, you’d never know there was a budget problem to listen to Madigan et al.
So, Rep. Dunkin wasn’t wrong when he said…
Meantime, on Wednesday eight people were killed in Chicago. The schools are $480 million short. And this is the most salient thing we can talk about in Springfield?
*** UPDATE *** Like I said. No will…
- Take that - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 12:26 pm:
Sorry but the days of me listening to Dunkin are over. I don’t believe he believes in anything of principle.
- Tournaround Agenda - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 12:30 pm:
And with most of the major pressure points removed, there’s probably going to be little will for some time to come.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 12:34 pm:
Non-AFSCME issues within Illinois are lost in a political obsession generated by a new governor who campaigned as one thing, and then once elected, thought he could attack the very people that trusted him to actually be who he said he was.
This is what happens when a new governor blows up his opportunities to demonstrate that he is a governor for all, not just for his narrow partisan ideology.
Non-political issues fall by the wayside when we have a governor determined to win politically, at all costs and as soon as possible. Rauner set an agenda for destruction. He referred to it as “hit it early and hard”, which might make sense in some organization that needs to be hit early and hard - not Illinois government in 2015.
The new governor completely misread his mandate and convinced himself that his gubernatorial powers entitled him to burn down our state and replace it with whatever he wanted. I suppose this is what happens when an inexperienced man disrespectful of government does when he is elected - but it was not what Illinois needed or wanted.
What we needed was a governor. What we got is a demagogue who saw himself as a perpetual winner and never wrong. Real issues be damned, since January Illinois government has been all about Bruce Rauner failing at Governing 101 while torching anything he believed was against him.
This has been the worse start to any Illinois gubernatorial administration I’ve ever seen or read about. It has been nine months of deliberate chaos brought about by a new guy who couldn’t and wouldn’t figure out what his new job entailed.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 12:36 pm:
===I don’t believe he believes in anything of principle. ===
Not saying you’re wrong, but that doesn’t mean his comment contained errors.
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 12:43 pm:
Rep. Dunkin is correct.
Both sides are so full of it that they can’t see the forest through the trees.
We’ve got real structural problems in this state. And what are worried about?! Whether the state workforce’s biggest union can get a win or whether we’ll remove CBA rights from local contract negotiations.
- siriusly - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 12:43 pm:
Voters a path to eliminate townships or other units of local government. Winner. Would save more money money than a property tax freeze. And it’s a popular item.
- Norseman - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 12:45 pm:
=== Once Speaker Madigan decides he’s willing to talk about workers’ comp reforms that don’t include “causation,” then the talks can bear some fruit, but not until he’s willing. ===
I assume you meant “does” include ‘causation.’ He’s been touting several proposals that don’t address causation.
Overall, you are correct. There is no will - no will to put aside their political agendas for the sake of the state. Until that changes, suggesting scenarios is simply a meaningless parlor game.
- Tournaround Agenda - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 12:46 pm:
I’ve had more than a couple county assessors tell me it would make sense to fold township assessing into their offices. Getting rid of urban townships ala Belleville also probably makes sense for a lot of cities.
- Stones - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 12:47 pm:
Dunkin’s comment is a weak attempt to deflect criticism for being absent during crucial votes. It doesn’t matter what the issue is or which side you are on - when you are elected and able you should be there. The circumstances surrounding his trip to NY are a pretty weak excuse for missing important votes for his constituents.
- LIberty - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 12:54 pm:
Eliminating unfunded mandates for schools would save taxpayers a lot more money than getting rid of rural water districts and road funds.
- Willie Stark - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 12:55 pm:
VanMan: thank you for the thoughtful and well reasoned perspective. Spot-on.
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:00 pm:
V-Man - so basically you’re saying we needed Kirk Dillard.
- Tournaround Agenda - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:05 pm:
@Liberty: You’re correct. Unfunded mandates are the number one thing local government and school officials complain about. That ranks much higher on their lists than busting employee unions.
- DuPage Bard - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:06 pm:
Not sure there is a real desire to enact compromise. This has been campaign mode since the ‘14 election ended.
- DuPage Don - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:07 pm:
Great post, Rich. Let’s hope it’s a template they can all agree to at least jump start discussions. I would encourage the Rauner Administration to look on Wheeler’s ideas positively!
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:08 pm:
===He’s been touting several proposals that don’t address causation===
Nothing of consequence. But he has simultaneously rejected any major causation standards. So, he’s gonna have to find other ways.
- Norseman - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:09 pm:
=== Nothing of consequence. But he has simultaneously rejected any major causation standards. So, he’s gonna have to find other ways. ===
Agreed!
- Jack Stephens - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:38 pm:
Eliminating unfunded mandates for private corporations (Amazon) would save taxpayers a lot more money than fake constitutional rights like “right to work”.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:41 pm:
==This reflects surrender==
Until that attitude is dumped we’ll continue with this nightmare. I don’t even think they care anymore. They are too full of testosterone and hell bent on “winning” that concern for anything else has all but left their thinking.
- Democratic Response - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:43 pm:
Eliminating Townships will not save money (or very much of it). It will simply transfer the burden of those services to other units of Government, namely counties.
- Tournaround Agenda - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:46 pm:
Rep. Sandack wins today’s award for “unconstructive partisanship.” Tomorrow, who knows?
- Tournaround Agenda - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:48 pm:
P.S. - Where’s Willy today?
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:49 pm:
Maybe we can find a judge who would hold Rauner in contempt for not doing his job? He can sit in a cell until he introduces a balanced budget.
- Michelle Flaherty - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:51 pm:
It would be nice if Sandack and the HGOPers were motivated by something a little deeper than their shared affinity for Corey Hart songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4pg6Jh94Lo
- Norseman - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:51 pm:
Did Rauner’s people offer him the same vacation deal they gave Dunkin? (/s)
- Norseman - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:52 pm:
Did Rauner’s people offer Willy the same vacation deal they gave Dunkin? (/s)
- walker - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:54 pm:
Sandack is just smart enough not to know better.
- Wordslinger - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:54 pm:
Six billion plus and growing FY16 deficit, social service workers being tossed out of work and programs shut down, and MAP kids will soon start getting nasty notices from their school business offices regarding meal plan cutoffs, course drops and dorm evictions.
Let me know when the crisis gets here.
- Mama - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:54 pm:
Charlie Wheeler III has some good points, but I’m afraid it is to little, to late..
==- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 12:34 pm: ==
You made some great points to ponder. Thank you
- thunderspirit - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:55 pm:
== This reflects surrender, not compromise. ==
Compromise: a settlement of differences by mutual concessions; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles, etc., by reciprocal modification of demands.
Surrender: to yield (something) to the possession or power of another; deliver up possession of on demand or under duress.
“We sort of have to do a do-over and shut things down for a little while, that’s what we’re going to do,” — then-candidate Bruce Rauner, August 2014.
Seems to me the administration’s plan is to somehow convince the other side to surrender rather than consider anything resembling a compromise.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:56 pm:
No deal, - Norseman -, lol.
I am on the road, however.
- pool boy - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 1:59 pm:
Thanks for the highlights. Charlie can ramble some times.
- Norseman - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 2:01 pm:
After reading the Owl’s the headline should read, “If there’s no sanity
will, there ain’t no way.- Norseman - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 2:08 pm:
Travel safely Willy! Don’t let the Raunerbots get you.
- Arthur Andersen - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 2:12 pm:
OW is in safe territory.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 2:14 pm:
- Norseman -, thanks.
The rain, it might scare away the Raunerbots(?)
- MurMan - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 2:20 pm:
Agreed upon bills process constitutes “surrender”. I know the notion of compromise is foreign concept to Sandack, but seriously, c’mon man. Surrender? What does that even mean?
I thought this was a legislative body trying to produce good policy for IL, not two armies engaged in a total war that only ends with one sides complete victory. My bad
- Mason born - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 2:29 pm:
Thank you Mr. Sandack for proving Rich’s point. It’s going to be a long 4 yrs.
- Tournaround Agenda - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 2:30 pm:
Translation: Gov. asking Dems to slit own throats much-needed reform, not politically impossible goal. #TurnaroundIL
- burbanite - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 2:35 pm:
Well Sandack shut that down for the Gov. pretty fast. Ugh
- Mama - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 2:41 pm:
““We sort of have to do a do-over and shut things down for a little while, that’s what we’re going to do,” — then-candidate Bruce Rauner, August 2014.” How long is “a little while”?
- Gooner - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 2:45 pm:
Is it true that, as a good puppy, Ron then turned around three times and took a nap?
He’s a smart guy, so I assume he knows “compromise” by definition means “drop things.”
Rauner on the other hand may not be aware of that concept.
- Anon - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 2:51 pm:
So, if compromise is surrender, and there shall be no compromise, what exactly is their road map to obtaining victory conditions?
This give no quarter/take no quarter nonsense reflects a complete lack of interest in governing.
- DuPage Bard - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 2:54 pm:
If he goes into a William Wallace speech on twitter that would be great!
- Ghost - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 3:15 pm:
(Long typo ridden rant) or ill shortcut it and just say what Vman said
- Mama - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 3:22 pm:
Does no one at the capitol care that the people of IL are being harmed by what they are doing?
Maybe I should say “not doing”. Meaning not passing a budget.
It appears Rauner plans to dig such a big hole in IL that it can not be repaired. All in the name of the Reformers Party’s anti-union!
- walker - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 3:25 pm:
Talk to the hand, Representative.
- Unspun - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 3:55 pm:
Thanks a million to Sandack for once again attempting to force his own relevance via Twitter platitude.
- horse w/ no name - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 4:04 pm:
…”dropping the anti-union stuff from the property tax freeze”
This has become a repeating problem and is the main reason why Charlie’s thought experiment is good but not likely to bear fruit. Anti-union poison pills are the only thing that seem to interest or motivate Rauner. I don’t think he cares that deeply about the principles behind remap, term limits and other “reforms” other than it would give Republicans more seats and special interests more control which they can use to further his anti-union agenda. This guys thinks he is the main character in an Ayn Rand novel and isn’t going to move on anything until he gets something that significantly weakens unions. That’s why Madigan knows we have to deal with this kidney stone now, not in year 2 or 3.
- AC - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 4:08 pm:
I’m thinking we’ll have a budget in February 2019.
- burbanite - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 5:24 pm:
The opposite of surrender is victory. The opposite of compromise is disagree. So Sandack believes he and the Gov. can be victorious, to which, I disagree. February 2019 is looking more realistic, while we spend more than revenues per court order…”winning”…not
- Anon - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 5:57 pm:
Dunkin seems to be saying that issues such as uplifting the poor and working class are higher priorities than making sure that public sector gains in wages and benefits continually exceed private sector gains.
Given that, he might have shown up to vote with Drury and Franks, and also supported the social services overrides.
- Chicago 20 - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 6:18 pm:
=The only thing that ever dependably moves these guys to act is a crisis=
This includes all crisises, real or imagined.
The latter used much more often than folks realize.
- Tired - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 7:31 pm:
Sandack once again shows what it is like to lose your soul got Rauner money. Shameful
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Sep 8, 15 @ 9:43 pm:
Besides being completely political what does a property tax freeze do for the Illinois budget or economy for that matter? Absolutely. Nothing.
- Political Animal - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 9:15 am:
Completely dropping both prevailing wage and collective bargaining from the property tax bill isn’t compromise and isn’t going to happen. That would just be capitulation.
A compromise would be changing the way Prevailing Wage is calculated, like they did in West Virginia, or adding a minimum threshold to public works before prevailing wage kicks in, like almost every other state in the country has.
If they gave him some changes to PW like that, he might be willing to drop the bargaining stuff all together.
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 9:24 am:
==That would just be capitulation==
No, it would be recognition of reality. Which apparently is hard for some.
- Political Animal - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 9:51 am:
You can believe in Prevailing Wage as a general concept and still agree that the Illinois system is flawed.
Here are some states that have a threshold for Prevailing Wage projects: California, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. Hardly Conservative wonderlands.
In fact, of 32 States with PW laws, only 8 have no threshold. One of those states is Illinois.
That makes local government costs much higher than other states for even minor renovation projects.