As the seemingly interminable spring legislative session drags on through the dog days of summer and lawmakers begin circulating petitions for re-election, Democratic lawmakers can't be enthusiastic about the record compiled by their leaders.
Despite controlling all the levers of the lawmaking machinery — the governorship and majorities in both the Senate and the House — the dysfunctional Ds set new standards for governing incompetence.
The party failed in its most essential task, approving a state budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. Instead, more than two months passed before a spending plan was sent to Gov. Rod Blagojevich — after it was hammered out in negotiations among legislative leaders of both parties with little input from the governor.
Blagojevich's prize initiative, universal health care, fell by the wayside, as did his proposal for the largest tax increase in state history to pay for it.
Similarly grandiose schemes to lease the state lottery and to borrow billions to shore up pension systems met the same fate, leaving Illinois still facing the largest pension debt in the nation.
Hopes of reforming the state's system of financing public preschool through 12th grade were snuffed out, largely because of the governor's steadfast refusal to accept higher income tax rates in return for reduced property taxes.
Also stalled were plans for expanded gaming, including a Chicago casino, strongly championed by Senate President Emil Jones Jr. as a means to pump dollars into local schools and to bankroll public works projects such as roads, bridges and classroom buildings.
Meanwhile, mass transit riders in the Chicago area face stiff fare hikes and deep service cuts, thanks to lawmakers' inability to agree on a relief plan, thwarted in part by Blagojevich's opposition to a local sales tax hike.
Lawmakers managed to hash out a plan to provide some relief for electric customers shocked by soaring bills after a 10-year rate freeze expired, but homeowners and small businesses are likely to find the help too little and too late. Moreover, the governor's dithering on the measure may cost rate payers tens of millions of dollars more.
Much of the blame for the dismal record stems from an ongoing power struggle pitting Blagojevich and Jones against House Speaker Michael Madigan. Although all three have deep roots in the Chicago Democratic Machine, longtime legislative observers can't recall a more poisoned atmosphere among leaders, with a trust level roughly akin to that between the Likud and Hamas.
So how would you like to run as a Democratic incumbent on that dubious record of achievement? One can crow only so much about moving the primary date to February, or letting the telephone industry get into cable TV or making it harder for teens to get driver's licenses, in hopes voters will forget about the nearly 10 percent, retroactive pay raises for lawmakers and other top state officials, including Blagojevich.
Nor should minority Republicans gloat — enraged and disgusted voters may well paint all lawmakers with the same brush, saying a pox on both their houses, opening the door for primary challengers and for candidates of the state's third major party, the Greens.
Against that dreary backdrop, ever-optimistic reformers are promoting tougher ethics legislation as a good way to diminish voter disdain and a first step in rebuilding public trust.
They note that exit polling following last November's election found 86 percent of respondents said corruption was very or extremely important to them, so they reason voters would welcome any effort to limit the opportunities for graft.
Their focus is on a measure intended to curb Illinois' venerable tradition of pay-to-play politics, a system under which major campaign contributors somehow or other seem to get lucrative state contracts. Current practitioners — most notably the Blagojevich Administration — argue it's all a coincidence, that there's no connection between big bucks for the campaign coffers and big bucks for the donor's bank account. Maybe so, but that's not the public perception, as anyone who regularly reads letters to the editor or political blogs knows.
Under the plan, business owners with more than $25,000 in state contracts would be barred from contributing to the officeholders awarding the contracts. In addition, contractors bidding on work worth $10,000 or more would be required to disclose contributions to the officeholder during the prior two years. A final provision would prohibit state officers, employees and their spouses from profiting from state contracts and bond sales.
The proposal, HB 1, cleared the House on April 25 by a 116-0 vote — the other two representatives had excused absences for the day — and moved to the Senate, where 46 of the 59 senators have signed on as co-sponsors. In addition, five of the six constitutional officers — everyone but the governor — have endorsed the legislation, so one would assume its passage was pretty much a slam dunk.
One would be mistaken, however. The bill landed in the Senate Rules Committee, which must clear legislation for further action, where it has languished for more than four months. The roadblock is Jones, who controls the Rules Committee and decides whether legislation advances. Officially, the Jones camp says the president wants stronger legislation and is working on more sweeping reforms, but the suspicion is that the Senate president has bottled up the bill because his ally Blagojevich does not want any restrictions placed on his formidable ability to raise campaign cash.
A cynical view unfair to Jones and Blagojevich? Perhaps, but one easily countered if Jones allows a vote on the measure and saves further reform for a later day.
"Legislators need to take a look at themselves and say, 'What can we do to restore a sense of public trust?'" says Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, a long-time advocate for good government. "This bill won't solve every problem, but if they don't do something, it will be fairly unforgivable."
Charles N. Wheeler III is director of the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
Illinois Issues, September 2007
