{"id":582760,"date":"2010-05-28T10:35:30","date_gmt":"2010-05-28T14:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/illinoiseducationassociation.org\/?p=8204"},"modified":"2010-05-28T10:35:30","modified_gmt":"2010-05-28T14:35:30","slug":"education-and-lawmakers%e2%80%99-images-took-a-big-hit-in-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/582760","title":{"rendered":"Education and lawmakers\u2019 images took a big hit in session"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

The budget passed in the Illinois General Assembly this week cut education and human service providers and has a gaping fiscal hole in it.\u00a0\u00a0 We’re still waiting for the smoke to clear to get a clear understanding of what’s been cut, but there is near-unanimous agreement that the budget passed this week is unbalanced and irresponsible.<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t have a tax increase, so some will claim that it\u2019s the best budget possible.<\/p>\n

The state senate will soon return to try to pass a bill to borrow $4 billion to allow the state to make its required payment to the pension systems.<\/p>\n

Borrowing to pay for pensions, incredibly, is the most responsible option.\u00a0 Since the legislature refuses to increase revenues, the only alternative would be to declare a \u201cpension holiday,\u201d which would cost taxpayers billions more and further weaken the systems.<\/p>\n

What a state we\u2019re in.<\/p>\n

The Southtown’s Phil Kadner observes <\/a> that state government\u2019s reputation is such that, when a lawmaker changes a position, eveyone believes the change was the result of a political deal as opposed to a belief that changing the vote is “the right thing to do.”<\/p>\n

Case in point, Rep. David Miller (D-Lynwood) who voted \u201cNo\u201d on the pension-borrowing proposal, then switched his vote after the measure appeared \u00a0about to fall one vote short of passage in the House.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After his \u201cNo\u201d vote, Rep. Miller met with Speaker Michael Madigan and Gov. Pat Quinn.\u00a0 A short time later, when a second vote was held, he voted \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Miller said the Madigan, Quinn meetings weren\u2019t the deciding factor,<\/p>\n

He said House Republican Leader Tom Cross railed against the plan in a partisan fashion. He heard some of his Democratic colleagues discussing a possible tax increase or budget cuts as solutions to the state’s deficit. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

“But those things weren’t going to happen,” Miller said. “They weren’t realistic alternatives because there were not enough votes to pass any of them. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

“And the more I listened to that, the more I realized that unless we act like mature adults here, we’re never going to come up with a solution. We’re going to drive the state to insolvency.” <\/em><\/p>\n

Kadner says the negative reaction to Miller\u2019s decision to do \u201cthe right thing\u201d speaks volumes about the state of our state\u2019s politics.<\/p>\n

It has become impossible to believe that any elected official in Illinois would do anything just because he thought it was the right thing to do. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

And maybe that’s worse than the budget crisis itself. <\/em><\/p>\n

No members of the legislature emerged from this month\u2019s activities with an enhanced reputation, but for a House member from a wealthy Chicago suburb, this has been a most unmerry month of May.<\/p>\n

May sorry<\/strong><\/p>\n

Karen May (D-Highland Park) was among a group of Democrats who announced a plan to cut the state budget which, some believe, is needed to pave the way for a tax increase.<\/p>\n

Nothing wrong with that.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been saying for sometime that a \u201cbalanced approach, involving cuts more revenue\u201d is needed to get Illinois back on solid financial footing.<\/p>\n

However, Rep. May, for some reason, went into last Monday\u2019s news conference<\/a><\/a> <\/strong>with an attitude that seemed quite tone-deaf to \"\"<\/a>thousands of Illinoisans living on fixed incomes:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as we love our retirees, this is a tough-love exercise,\u201d said Rep. May. \u201cThey have to feel the pain.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019re guessing that it was Rep. May who experienced some discomfort through contacts from retirees.\u00a0 By the end of the week she had retreated<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“I would have, could have, should have, said, ‘We must all share the pain,’” May clarified Wednesday. “If it came out differently, I apologize.”<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf?”<\/p>\n

Oh, well.\u00a0 We\u2019ll accept the apology anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The budget passed in the Illinois General Assembly this week cut education and human service providers and has a gaping fiscal hole in it.\u00a0\u00a0 We’re still waiting for the smoke to clear to get a clear understanding of what’s been cut, but there is near-unanimous agreement that the budget passed this week is unbalanced and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5336,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-582760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5336"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}