Is the Governor of Illinois Lying?
Bruce Rauner is “bringing the hammer” to working families, not Springfield. (Photo: Metropolitan Planning Council/flickr)
According to reporters Jennifer Ritter and Jacob Swenson-Lengvel, writing for In These Times, the billionaire Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, is using a manufactured crisis to bust unions, privatize services and destroy pensions for police, fire, teachers and everyone else working for the local or state government. The right-wing Illinois governor is slashing programs for the state and threatening bankruptcy for Chicago Public Schools instead of offering any revenue raising solutions.
From the story:
Bruce Rauner isn’t particularly known for his subtlety—he once said lawmakers should lower the minimum wage in Illinois. In a campaign ad from December 2013, Rauner walks onto a white screen, examines a claw hammer, and puts it on the counter. He reaches down and pulls out a sledgehammer with a self-satisfied look on his face. “Bruce Rauner, he’ll bring the hammer to Springfield,” a voice says while jaunty music plays in the background.
It’d almost be funny, if it didn’t represent a sincerely held governing philosophy that’s making millions of people’s lives worse. Less than a year after the billionaire bought the governorship of Illinois for $65.9 million—including $27.6 million of the his own money—Rauner is using a manufactured budget crisis to make good on that campaign promise.
Illinois had serious budget problems, even before the recession began. Like many other places, the supposedly “blue” legislators in Illinois refused to change the state’s regressive tax structure to bring in more revenue from corporations and the wealthy. While the state starved of revenue, lawmakers have—among other things—used the pension system as a piggy bank to paper over the problem, and continued to hand out corporate tax breaks. The recession simply unearthed the structural rot at the heart of the system.
Rauner may not have invented this “starve the beast” political strategy, but he’s wasted little time exploiting it for his own ends. And they are particularly nefarious ends.
In February, Rauner issued an executive order blocking public employee unions from collecting “fair share” fees, or payments from non-union members who nonetheless benefit from collective bargaining done on their behalf. The order is intended to decimate public employee unions, not just in Illinois, but across the nation. As unions rightfully fight the executive order, Rauner hopes the case will make it to the Supreme Court, where following last years Harris v. Quinn ruling, many experts believe conservative justices may be poised to strike down fair share fees nation wide.
That was just an opening foray. Now Rauner is using the budget crisis to blackmail legislators into supporting his anti-worker policies. He refuses to raise revenue unless the state legislature, Cook County and municipalities across the state bow to his anti-union, destabilizing “turnaround agenda.” He has also created and funded two different PACs to lavish money on lawmakers who support his agenda, while punishing those who stand against it.
As a result of this blackmail scheme, the State of Illinois began its fiscal year on July 1st without a budget and in crisis. And that’s where we are today. Social service organizations that have already been cut to the bones continued with the layoffs and program closures that have been mounting since the financial crisis. Now, there is inadequate funding for homeless services, childcare assistance, senior programs, schools, infrastructure, prison staff, and teachers.
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