* This May 1, 2014 Chicago Tribune editorial was an exceedingly rare rebuke of Bruce Rauner…

Gov. Pat Quinn made a politically difficult but necessary decision 2 1/2 years ago to scale back the state’s antiquated and expensive network of developmental centers — institutions that care for people who can’t live independently because of profound disabilities. Most other states have closed these facilities and moved residents whenever it’s appropriate to community-based group homes. It is the compassionate and cost-effective thing to do.

Bruce Rauner, the Republican candidate for governor, recently announced that he opposes Quinn’s plans to close the Murray Developmental Center in Centralia. “Right now, Murray Center is the best option for these families,” Rauner said at a Saturday appearance there.

Rauner wants to keep the center operating until the relatives and guardians of all of its 222 residents are willing to accept an alternative placement for their loved ones, a campaign spokesman said.

This mystifies us. Doesn’t Rauner profess to be the candidate who will make the tough decisions to put Illinois on sound financial footing? In this case, he’s taking political advantage of a tough decision made by Quinn … to put Illinois on sound financial footing.

But this wasn’t just a cold financial calculation by Quinn. The evidence from around the country is that people with disabilities are better served by living in community settings than by living in institutions.

* Today’s column by one of those same editorial board members puts the exact opposite spin on the development center closures…

In 2011, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan attended a private fundraiser for Republican U.S. House Speaker John Boehner. Madigan was a guest of the host, Terrence Duffy, chairman of CME Group, the parent company of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade.

Four months later, Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton gathered lawmakers in Springfield for a rare special session to approve tax-break legislation that included CME Group, cutting the company’s annual state income taxes nearly in half.

At the time, Illinois was facing the possible shutdown of seven facilities, including mental health institutions and a home for the developmentally disabled. For weeks, parents with adult disabled children were visiting the Capitol trying to save the facility slated for closure. They pushed their loved ones around in wheelchairs or sat outside the House chamber carrying framed pictures of their kids.

Their efforts didn’t work. Jacksonville Developmental Center was eventually closed. But CME Group got its tax break.

* From a thoughtful, balanced November 16, 2011 Chicago Tribune editorial about that CME Group tax break…

CME has argued that its tax burden is too high, and that’s correct. Its business has shifted from the open-outcry trading floors to computerized trading. Its tax structure didn’t shift at all, and the company pays as if every transaction still takes place amid the shouting and arm-waving of the old trading pits. CME should have acted long ago to address the inequity, and it’s unfortunate for CME that Duffy’s timing fell flat.

…Adding… From comments…

She also ignores the fact that the CME legislative package also included an increase in the standard deduction and an increase in the EITC. So it’s not like it was only a corporate giveaway. (Though the bills did have to be separated out, because members of a certain political party for for the corporate welfare, but against providing greater relief to actual people.)

She also ignores the fact that Madigan and Cullerton provided funding to not close those facilities. (At the behest of the Republicans, those paragons of fiscal responsibility.). But Quinn closed them anyways.