In the early days of Monday Night Football, announcer ‘Dandy’ Don Meredith used to mock his colleagues’ claims that, “If only (someone) had (done something differently), the game would have had a different outcome.” In response, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, in a singsong voice, would recite:
“If If’s and Butt’s were candy and nuts, oh what a Christmas we’d have!”
Which reminds us of Sunday’s Chicago Tribune editorial, which highlighted a University of Illinois study and found that, if Illinois had the same number of jobs as it had a decade ago, the state economy wouldn’t be in the toilet.
Cash-strapped Illinois would collect an additional $2.1 billion in annual tax revenue — enough to fill roughly half of its (anticipated) fiscal 2011 budget hole — if the state had as many jobs as it did a decade ago.”
If.
The editorial continues,
Factoring in population growth over the last decade, Illinois needs 600,000 new jobs just to get the employment level back to where it was. The cumulative cost to Springfield of those lost jobs: $6 billion in tax revenues through fiscal ‘09 and, barring some miracle, $10 billion through fiscal ‘11.
Regular Tribune readers won’t be surprised to learn that the Great Satan of the Illinois economy is “public employee pensions.” Those readers would be equally unsurprised by the Trib’s failure to mention that, if the legislature and past governors had not used the pension systems as a credit card, the severe underfunding that is impacting the Illinois economy wouldn’t have occurred.
One would expect a little more forthrightness from the the editorialists at the (self-described) World’s Greatest Newspaper, at least when it comes to the present and immediate future of our state.
Illinois is about to see, perhaps, 20,000 education employees get laid off. If that happens, it will be a crushing blow to the state economy because those people, who today are taxpayers and spenders, will become reliant on state support. In addition, states that refuse to invest in education don’t attract employers seeking a well-educated/well-trained workforce.
IF you make an appointment
The people who can do something about the disaster facing Illinois are in their home legislative district offices. They read the Tribune editorials, so they need to hear the other side of the story. They need to know that motivated voters like yourself, your colleagues and the parents of the students you serve, expect the legislature to end the madness.
They need to hear this directly from you, their constituent, because, next week, lawmakers return to Springfield and will remain in session until a budget is passed.
Will that budget reflect the obsessions of the editorial page of a bankrupt media dinosaur?
Or will it be shaped in part by input from the people who are dedicated to providing a high quality education to Illinois students?
Click here for information about Back home Lobby Days .
And plan now to attend SOS Rally Day in Springfield .
Only if your voice drowns out that of the Tribune will there be a chance that lawmakers will do the right thing. That is, if they truly care about the future of public education and the state of Illinois.
It’s a big if, but we already know what will happen if we don’t try.
Follow IEA on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ieanea