* Let’s revisit my newspaper column…

As we’ve all seen over the past several months, Gov. Bruce Rauner is adamantly refusing to provide any help whatsoever to Chicago, which is struggling mightily under the weight of years of fiscal misfeasance, until his Turnaround Agenda demands are met. A long-sought education funding reform bill, a 911 emergency call center fee, even a bill to allow the expedited sale of the Thompson Center have been hit with Rauner’s broad (and often false) brush of being a “Chicago bailout.”

* OK, now let’s take a look at these three issues one at a time. First, here’s the Chicago Tribune editorial board on the education funding reform bill that has passed both chambers…

Let’s get something straight: It’s not a bailout. CPS is teetering on bankruptcy. It is borrowing to pay off borrowing and faces a structural deficit so alarming that none of the proposals in Springfield to overhaul the statewide formula would funnel enough money to bail out CPS. Not even close.

That said, this proposal would put CPS on steadier footing while closing the gap between wealthy and poor districts from Rockford to Cairo. It should not be summarily dismissed simply because CPS gets help. Let’s all acknowledge CPS serves the largest number of low-income children in this state.

Not exactly the neutral third-party validation I was hoping for last week, but it’ll do for now.

* OK, on to the 911 emergency call center legislation. Here’s Rep. Chad Hays’ (R-Catlin) take…

“I came to the conclusion that my constituents weren’t that concerned with the amount that the people of Chicago paid and if Chicago legislators were comfortable with that amount, fine,” Hays said. “But what I was not willing to do was go home and tell my own constituents that when you dial 911 and on the other end of the line it says that this has been disconnected and people ask, ‘Why did this happen?’ I was totally uncomfortable with saying that the mayor of Chicago and the governor are in a wrestling match over something peripheral to your 911 service.”

And if it’s a “bailout,” it’s a self-imposed one because the Chicago City Council has to approve that new fee before it can be implemented.

* And here’s the Sun-Times editorial board on the Thompson Center sale…

City Hall would be crazy to share control over what goes there. […]

Rauner also wanted the Legislature to grant him a say in what zoning changes would be allowed for any new development. This is necessary, the governor’s administration has argued, if he is to negotiate the best deal for the state, potentially bringing in an estimated $300 million.

Democrats did not yield to the governor last week, nor should they have. In this deal, the state is just another landlord. Zoning decisions are made by municipalities. And fees imposed for zoning changes are collected by the municipality for use by the municipality. City Hall expects to invest much of that money in more impoverished parts of town.

The governor should do what sellers do: Find a potential buyer and then negotiate with the city for whatever zoning changes the buyer might demand.

As I’ve also argued, this had nothing to do with a “bailout” and everything to do about control.

* Back to my newspaper column…

But Rauner has a stronger public hand. His pledge to stop any and all Chicago bailouts fits right in with attitudes of this state’s “white flight” suburbanites and city-hating Downstaters.

If the governor was accurately describing the above legislation as “Chicago bailouts,” I’d let it go. But he’s obviously not, so somebody needs to point out that he’s using politically expedient dog whistle language.

And, please, don’t tell me this isn’t racially and geographically divisive rhetoric. I grew up in a rural Downstate area. I also covered Pate Philip’s tenure for many years. This ain’t rocket science. It’s old style politics at its worst and was used to fire up the rubes since long before I was born.

* And it’s not new to Rauner, either. From a column I wrote almost exactly one year ago today…

Having spent much of my white male life downstate, I can vouch for the effectiveness of these attacks. Yes, some downstaters realize they’re being pandered to, but many still love it. Finally, they say, we have a governor who’s saying what we’ve been thinking. […]

Even so, deliberately creating this much division is flat-out wrong. Stop it.

* From Ameya Pawar’s appearance on Rick Pearson’s “Sunday Spin” show…

“He understands that there are divisions between Chicago and the rest of the state. There’ve always been. But he exploits that by saying things like Chicago teachers are virtually illiterate, or calling Chicago Public Schools prisons or referring to our schools using corporate terms like a bailout,” Pawar said.

“I mean, it is code words to prey on people’s fears about what they might think about Chicago. It’s embedded in race and class. What he does is racist. It is racist. There is no doubt about it, except he’s a lot less bombastic and nasty about it. But the code words are there,” he said.

The governor’s camp pushed back.

“The Rauners are proud to have personally supported Chicago schools and contributed substantial resources to improving education in the city for many years,” spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said in a statement. “As governor, Bruce continues to work towards funding reform that is fair to the entire state.”

What a lame push-back.

Look, Rauner has accomplished some things on criminal justice reform (including signing the bail reform bill last week) that no racist would ever do. He’s for automatic voter registration, for crying out loud.

I think that Rauner is simply a very accomplished political opportunist who claims he’s for “the people” while employing all sorts of tactics to win the media cycle, including tactics used by racists and those who would divide this state for their own personal political gains.

But it does need to stop. No political gain justifies this crud.

*** UPDATE ***  Pawar is now coming right out and saying it…

.@GovRauner, you're a racist. And here's why: https://t.co/XeN2ap3Gjc

— Ameya Pawar (@Ameya_Pawar_IL) June 13, 2017