58 Comments - Suburban Operative - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 10:54 am: “Now is the time to enact long overdue reforms to save our State…” Can anyone say Turnaround Agenda, Part II? **Snark**. - Grandson of Man - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 10:55 am: This is Illinois’ richest person calling for cuts-only, to the state workforce and everyone else who depends on state funding. Griffin is delusional if he thinks Democrats will whack their constituents Republican-style. Plus, it’s looking decent for a total change of power in our national government. Things appear to be changing in the opposite direction from what right wing/neoliberal billionaires want. - James M - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 10:57 am: His logic is that an across the board tax hike and cuts to services will increase the appeal of Illinois? - hisgirlfriday - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 10:57 am: Long overdue reforms like what? Spit it out, GOP. - Shytown - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 10:58 am: I love it when the billionaires think they know how to fix Springfield. That worked out really well before dontcha think? Working to kill the fair tax killed the state’s ability to generate the kind of revenue that can actually make an impact. So, thank you Ken, but no thanks. - H-W - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 10:59 am: === Now is the time to enact long overdue reforms to save our state === Sounds like a politician. Fluff, but no substance. What reforms does Griffin propose? Can he (and more specifically, the Republican Leadership) go on record saying how much needs to be cut, where cuts should be made, where we can raise new revenues? Rhetoric is easy. It reminds me of the Temptations lyric, “Vote for me and I’ll set you free!” - Dan Johnson - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 10:59 am: To be fair: local government consolidation / cost savings. And the largest pension debt in the country. “Just pay it off” isn’t enough of a solution anymore. Health care costs for retirees are similarly growing too quickly. We can and should start paying Medicare rates for all health care claims. That would help quite a bit. - CubsFan16 - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:02 am: Griffin is correct. JB and company can blame Griffin and blame Madigan all they want for their losses… but they spent a ton of money too. And the people responded accordingly. - Anon y mouse - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:02 am: He’s correct. - Donnie Elgin - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:04 am: =I love it when the billionaires think they know how to fix Springfield= Applies equally to JB right? - Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:05 am: First of all, you are the resident of a state, not a citizen. Guess all that money doesn’t buy basic civic understanding. Second, the message sent was Illinoisans still want blue state government services with red state taxes. - Annonin' - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:09 am: Gotta love Griffy’s indepth.detailed vision. Maybe we should just repaint IL like those big ugly paintings that make him excited and get more than babble - Dotnonymous - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:11 am: Somebody has to pay taxes…guess who? - DuPage - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:14 am: The voters were given the choice. Who will pay the increased taxes, millionaires and billionaires, or you? The voters who voted “no” just voted to increase their own taxes. The billionaires are laughing, thinking how their untrue ads fooled so many people. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:14 am: Both can be true. Griffin soundly defeated the Fair Tax, the Fair Tax Flop is going to require very adult decisions, and real pain. Winners make policy. Governor Pritzker and the General Assembly will dictate how AND what will change after the Fair Tax Flop, not Griffin who created the playing rules. Griffin is wrong on the message. It’s what Griffin wants to *be*, the reality is, according to his own ads… Voters (not citizens) didn’t want the Frerichs Tax, (taxing retirement income), a concern that all taxes were going up, and the politicians shouldn’t make new rules. * Only Mike Frerichs stands tall to discussing the Frerichs Tax, taxing retirement income. * Now taxes are going up, and they will now hurt all. * There were never any new rules to tax, they’ll use the “same rules” as always, which is legislation. - Jibba - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:16 am: “Just pay it off” isn’t enough of a solution anymore. Health care costs for retirees are similarly growing too quickly. I agree about health care costs. Enacting Medicare for all would save the budgets of every state and municipality nationwide. And what constitutional solution are you suggesting for pensions? Most have been tried, other than funding them. - Nick Name - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:18 am: ===Now is the time to enact long overdue reforms=== A long overdue reform was on the ballot this week. You opposed it. - Norseman - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:19 am: Translation: Now that we’ve conned enough people to protect our wealth, we’ll go back to our focus of sticking it to public sector pensions and benefits and healthcare for the economically disadvantaged. - Larry Bowa Jr. - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:20 am: This makes me think of the Worthington’s Law sketch on the old HBO program Mr. Show, satirizing the idea that those who make more money than you are somehow better than you. Griffin takes it another step beyond that, by taking the time to tell you what you believe. Thanks Ken! I didn’t know until you told me. - Huh? - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:25 am: Did Griffin say anything important? - Dan Johnson - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:26 am: Jibba: I think pension buyouts are overdue. And I think putting a pension clause amendment on the ballot is the next step. What is that pension clause? That’s the debate we should have. And yes, tax pension income. Of course they are all unpopular. So what? The hard truth is that the median voter doesn’t want to solve our fiscal problems. And the solutions won’t be popular with the median voter. At all. Property taxes are too high and too localized. Sales tax is to high and too narrow. Income tax is too narrow and not bracketed. Too many local governments with redundant staff and vendors. Too many 3% compounded COLA pensions. We don’t tax wealth or the sale of financial products. Alternative to a grand bargain: more kabuki theater about appealing to the median voter and closer to junk bond status and pension fund bankruptcy (or the equivalent). Easy for me to type on this blog, I recognize. But the political incentives might line up this season for a shared, grand bargain. I sure hope so. - Ares - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:29 am: None of the reformers are proposing how much to cut teacher / civil-servant pensions, and nobody is saying how much hedge funds actually pay in taxes. A transactions charge on hedge-fund and corp-takeover transactions is long overdue, and will happen once today’s young people take control. - Wesleyan Guy - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:35 am: An open mind towards the idea of actually pursuing the goal mentioned by this fellow might be a good start. What might be done to make people actually want to live in Illinois? Why do people seek residency in other states instead of moving or remaining here? What will actually draw business instead of driving it away? Serious reform is a must, or our downtrend will simply continue. A comparison to successful states is a worthwhile start, IMO. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:38 am: What reforms are what y’all are speaking to? Be specific. Griffin wasn’t, that wasn’t an accident - Sue - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:39 am: Forget it’s Griffin but hard to ignore 55 percent of your fellow citizens who voiced their opposition to more of the same - Jocko - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:39 am: ==Serious reform== Call up your lender urging “mortgage reform”…after having skipped out of paying the full monthly amount for years - Annonin' - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:40 am: Guessing Griffy will have restock the court to get the right ruling - thisjustinagain - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:44 am: To - Ares - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:29 am: None of the reformers are proposing how much to cut teacher / civil-servant pensions… —– That’s because the Illinois Supreme Court has decided this 4 times that they CANNOT be cut for existing retirees; only new hires. The Illinois Constitution (Art. 13, Sec. 5) is very, very clear “Shall not be diminshed or impaired”. And if you believe the average State, County, or municipal worker retires with an overpaid “politician’s pension”, you’re sadly mistaken. - City Zen - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:51 am: ==Call up your lender urging “mortgage reform”…after having skipped out of paying the full monthly amount for years== Does my lender have the phone number of the new homeowner? - Responsa - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:56 am: == The Illinois Constitution (Art. 13, Sec. 5) is very, very clear == People who just voted on a proposed Illinois constitutional issue understand there is a way to change the constitution if it gets on a ballot and enough people want change. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 11:57 am: === People who just voted on a proposed Illinois constitutional issue understand there is a way to change the constitution=== Where’s your 71 and 36 - Flying Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 12:01 pm: “enough people want change” Man, some of you commenters are thick. Passing something and the courts ruling it constitutional are two different things. RNUG, again I am in awe of your patience. - Nagidam - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 12:10 pm: When are petitions for the 2022 Governor’s race able to hit the streets? Asking for a Billionaire. That quote sounded a lot like a candidate in the making. - Lake Effect - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 12:10 pm: Voters voted to stick it to public sector workers. That’s the thing that the commenters aren’t acknowledging - Oswego Willy - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 12:12 pm: === Voters voted to stick it to public sector workers.=== LOL, speak for yourself. The messaging was this; Voters (not citizens) didn’t want the Frerichs Tax, (taxing retirement income), a concern that all taxes were going up, and the politicians shouldn’t make new rules. That’s what was sold to voters. Keep up. Oh, lol, how they gonna stick it to state employees? Pensions are protected - Cheryl44 - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 12:19 pm: We’re Illinois residents, not citizens. - Perrid - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 12:20 pm: The money isn’t there. If the democrats completely sacrificed their constituents and cut every program that helps their communities, it wouldn’t be enough. There is going to be a general tax hike, it’s inevitable. Mr. Griffin is just glad that it’s going to be closer to 5% or 6% than the 8% he was going to be taxed at under the Fair Tax - thoughts matter - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 12:26 pm: Voters cut off their nose to spite their face. There will be a tax increase after its proven that cuts in services a) aren’t enough, and b) aren’t what people want. I don’t need to see another legislative hearing where a state employee explains how necessary medical equipment to keep her child alive was repossessed due to the state insurance not paying for it in a timely manner. Luckily a different source was found. Do you want a repeat of that? It’s possible that taxes on retirement income might get discussed. Of course, the same people that voted down the graduated tax won’t understand that taxing retirement income means not just state employee retirement income. It means everyone’s. - Illinifan - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 12:29 pm: Long overdue reforms!!!!!!!!. Hey KG that is what the amendment was meant to start. JP should bring him in along with the Republican leaders and ask where they would start cutting to balance. Televise the meeting. Show the citizens they are all talk and have no ideas or their only idea is cut from services desperately needed by citizens. - Captain Obvious - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 12:36 pm: Mr Griffin has no power to enact any reforms and it is not his responsibility to present any. That is the responsibility of the folks who won elections, which as we all know have consequences. One of those would be responsibility for solving budget/fiscal problems. The winners own that and it is up to them to propose a solution. They did so, and it was overwhelmingly rejected by the voters. So instead of snottily asking Mr Griffin what reforms should be undertaken now, you should be asking ol junk bond Jay Bob what should happen next. Any cuts or new taxes will be his call so he is the one who should be giving specifics. It is his job. He wanted it, and he got it. Time to actually do it. - ZC - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 12:36 pm: People who seriously think the IL voters would ever approve repealing the Pension Clause, need to get out of their conservative talk bubbles. And anyways even if you repealed it, that wouldn’t make any of the outstanding pre-pledged obligations go away, most likely. I’ve said it before, the only way you win that fight, you need a new IL Supreme Court. You basically have to flip it, and vote out enough justices so you get like a reverse-FDR moment, a new majority that overturns its precedent. Maybe a new majority who takes the “total economic crisis trumps Constitution” argument more seriously (and I don’t think that’s a totally crazy argument). I mean we’ve had language guaranteeing funding for public schools for decades and nobody pretends that means anything. Good luck with that strategy, mind. But that’s Griffin’s only shot. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 12:43 pm: === So instead of snottily asking Mr Griffin=== LOL… Welp, Griffin will be sadly disappointed. Pensions aren’t going to be cut, taxes are going to rise, and if you can’t be an adult, then it’s should be to “Griffin friendly” districts, like deep cuts, cuts to painfully punish downstate Illinois. === junk bond Jay Bob=== The adults are trying to move forward, if you’d like to join all of us… Asking Mr. Griffin why he spent $40+ million as calls for reforms is the adult thing, as Griffin inserted himself, both by monies and thoughts to the monies. - Jibba - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 12:51 pm: ==Voters voted to stick it to public sector workers. == Thankfully, we have a constitution and a rule of law. ===Mr Griffin has no power to enact any reforms and it is not his responsibility to present any=== Yet he has op-ed pieces and interviews published. He seems to be putting himself out there as a guy with answers, so what are they? - Sue - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 12:52 pm: The fair tax was no silver bullet. Had it passed Pritzker would still be facing cuts. Based on the articles out yesterday - it appears he gets more revenue raising the flat tax to 5.5 and unlike the fair tax - a higher flat tax provides a more stable revenue stream going forward - Lincoln Lad - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 1:57 pm: Smug billionaires may be irritating… but we still do what they want. Just proved that. We’ll all pay more, so he doesn’t have to… of course he’s happy. - Arock - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 2:41 pm: The adults should have kept up on the pension payments instead of wanting to increase their numbers and power. These supposed adults have yet to fix a financial problem and played games with the temporary tax increase to hurt the citizens during the Rauner governorship. These adults thumped their noses at the Constitutional Balanced Budget requirement with phony accounting practices that helped rack up hundreds of billions dollars in debt. So no they they are not adults they are power hungry corrupt politicians that want to pass the blame for their own ineptness on too others that did not create the problem. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 2:46 pm: === should have=== We’re past that. The adults are working in the now. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 2:48 pm: === tax increase to hurt the citizens during the Rauner governorship.=== Rauner used every dime. You keep using the same “stuff”, you need to either learn, or decide to package thoughts outside the silly. === These adults thumped their noses at the Constitutional Balanced Budget requirement with phony accounting practices that helped rack up hundreds of billions dollars in debt=== Do you want me to pull out the Charlie Wheeler take on that? The last time was 2018. This is truly tiring. - Springfieldish - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 2:53 pm: Pogniently lacking the words, “Thank You” Ken continues to demonstrate his hubristic entitlement, but hey, let’s blame Pritzker. - Iron Lady - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 2:57 pm: Illinifan- so true - Chicago 20 - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 3:06 pm: The myth of needed but unidentifiable fiscal reforms is perpetuated again. Griffin spent millions on defeating the Fair Tax which not only saved him millions in taxes, but has also bought Griffin untold political influence for years to come. Meanwhile the interest on Illinois debt is accumulating on someone, somewhere is making money from that debt. - Techie - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 3:32 pm: Rich people who want to see the poor suffer can take a long walk off a short pier. - Demoralized - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 3:44 pm: “Long overdue reforms” is code for cut pensions. These people will never be satistified until they manage take away state employee’s pensions. - TinyDancer(FKASue) - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 3:44 pm: =nobody is saying how much hedge funds actually pay in taxes.= Don’t make me laugh. - TAXEDOUTWEST - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 3:52 pm: What reforms were asked. I will give you two. I have a road issue near my house. I sent a letter to those guv entities that have jurisdiction…I had to send 9, nine, copies of the letter to the diff’t entities. 2nd, how many school districts do we have in one county? In mine there are at my count eight of them. Roughly 20% of the 74% of our property taxes that go to education is spent on administration. Consolidation is a major step to the reform IL needs. - May Soon Be Required - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 3:53 pm: As OW always likes to say 60 and 30. By the way 60 and 30 won’t come easy if at all. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 3:55 pm: - TAXEDOUTWEST - Serious question, no snark, with respect. You think that’s what Ken Griffin is talking about? - Jibba - Friday, Nov 6, 20 @ 4:24 pm: Closing universities might be just a conversation starter, but cuts should focus on things that are redundant or underutilized. Frankly, many universities (and perhaps a prison) are not operating anywhere near full capacity. The local impact of closure would be devastating, but can we continue to prop up a local economy unnecessarily? Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.