Who could argue with Illinois Wine Month? Making September state-sanctioned sipping time is a frugal feat meant to help nurture Illinois' fledgling wine industry.
But that thrifty initiative isn't the sort one would expect from Gov. Rod Blagojevich — at least not until now. The Chicago Democrat's third State of the State address was peppered with relatively modest programs and promises, avoiding the pomp and personal attacks that punctuated previous interactions with the General Assembly.
Recession, record deficits, high health care costs and an unresponsive education bureaucracy kept hope drowning in a sea of doubt, Blagojevich told lawmakers last month. "But thanks to you, and to the hard-working people of Illinois, I'm proud to say that the state of our state is strong and growing stronger." That strength, he said, was evidenced by 50,000 new Illinois jobs created last year and a state unemployment rate that dipped to its lowest level in more than three years.
Blagojevich's speech centered on proposals to follow this economic progress with many more job-creation programs. At the same time, he expressed interest in rebuilding bridges to the business community, sweeping aside the cinders of a relationship scorched by two years of fiery rhetoric.
In fact, a good deal of Blagojevich's speech focused on ways to heat up Illinois' business climate, which some say the governor made less temperate when he hiked fees and moved to close so-called corporate tax loopholes in an effort to balance his first two budgets.
So far, the usual critics approve the approach but await the follow-through.
This year, for instance, the governor said he wants to root out worker's compensation fraud and hammer out a new benefit system that business and labor can live with. The goal, he said, is to help Illinois shed its status as the 19th-most-expensive state for insuring employees against workplace injuries.
Blagojevich said his administration also is studying ways to lower health insurance costs for small businesses. He pointed to one model in particular that allows small companies in the Cleveland area to pool health insurance for possible savings of 15 percent.
These proposals won tentative applause from the other side of the political aisle. "A lot of what was said here today was a Republican agenda," said Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson, a Greenville Republican. "I'm surprised at the emphasis that he talked about on the job climate because that's what we've been talking about."
Blagojevich won approval, as well, for another of the GOP's top priorities. Without suggesting a solution, the governor stated the need for meaningful medical malpractice reform while acknowledging negotiations on the issue have been a bust. Still, he said he believes the legislature can approve reforms that protect the personal assets of doctors, allow the injured to bring claims and lower premiums insurers charge.
"I hope he's sincere," Watson said. "That's the only problem I might have. A track record out there of floating out ideas and then not following through has accompanied this governor in the last couple years. I personally think he means it on medical malpractice."
Rhetoric, however, can't remove the major political stumbling block on this issue: whether to cap awards for pain and suffering. Republicans continue to argue for limiting jury discretion in financial compensation for noneconomic damages. Democrats argue Illinoisans couldn't be assured of legal relief if caps were in place.
Blagojevich injected himself into another contentious battle when he urged lawmakers to join him in building the Peotone Airport. Blagojevich said moving forward on a south suburban airport — a project long supported by U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Chicago — could create as many as 15,000 jobs. At the same time, he recognized Will County's desire for a role in overseeing any airport that might be built within its boundaries and reaffirmed his commitment to expanding Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, which proponents say would create 195,000 new jobs.
Meanwhile, another 252,000 jobs, including 42,000 this year, should be created, Blagojevich said, under his 10-year, $5.3 billion transformation of the suburban tollway system.
But the governor didn't limit his jobs programs to Chicago and the suburbs. Southern Illinois, he said, should realize nearly 3,000 new jobs through a clean coal power plant that is being built with up to $1.7 billion in state financing. And some 3,000 construction jobs and several hundred permanent jobs could be generated, he said, if the state increases its renewable energy standards. Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn has promoted wind power over the past two years, and Blagojevich incorporated the concept in his speech.
Finally, the governor announced his goal, albeit a vague one, to make Illinois attractive to companies meeting homeland security needs.
Job creation, of course, is often tied to job climate. With Illinois facing a budget deficit of at least $1 billion and perhaps $2 billion next year, good will could turn to sour grapes if the state's next budget again relies on squeezing revenue from the business sector.
Representatives of that sector say they're still coping with a hangover from Blagojevich's first two budgets. The Illinois Supreme Court could cure one of those headaches as soon as this month. The dispute centers on a worker's compensation surcharge the Blagojevich Administration implemented among more than 300 budget-balancing fee hikes two years ago. The Illinois State Chamber of Commerce filed suit last year, contending that businesses are being asked to shoulder an unfair economic burden.
He expressed interest in rebuilding bridges to the business community, sweeping aside the cinders of a relationship scorched by two years of fiery rhetoric. In fact, a good deal of Blagojevich's speech focused on ways to heat up Illinois' business climate.
In last month's State of the State, Blagojevich repeated his commitment to holding the line on income and sales taxes, which has so far required the business community to bear what it considers to be an uneven share of the budget burden. Still, the governor's conciliatory, even pro-business tone did contrast sharply with the past.
Todd Maisch, vice president of government affairs for the Illinois chamber, was among those who saw what may be a new side of Blagojevich.
"People ask me, 'What do we need to do to turn things around?' And I've always said, 'We need to start even with just a change in tone from the governor,'" Maisch said. "The governor has thrown out an awful lot of anti-employer rhetoric over his first two years. So we welcome the tone. We hope it is matched with concrete and effective follow-through.
"It's real easy to say you want to be the friend of employers and help them out, but it's got to be backed up by policies. And, in the first two years, the policies have been very bad for employers."
So, whether it's wine month or worker's compensation reform, business interests will await the details. As another budget battle plays out in the General Assembly these next few months, they will watch whether Blagojevich's latest rhetoric falls victim to the state's bottom line.
But at a minimum, the change in tone has been refreshing. In this year's State of the State, no special interest was targeted for selling short the state of Illinois.
"Of the three speeches the governor has given on the state of the state, this was, to me, by far, the best," said Sen. Ed Petka, a Plainfield Republican. "There were no bogeymen that were trotted out for the governor to bash on. And I think, for the first time since he's been in the chair, he has laid out a plan that I think is fairly ambitious."
Can ambition be matched by results? And can the governor succeed without a foil? A year ago, the bogeyman was the "Soviet-style bureaucracy" known as the Illinois State Board of Education. The legislature didn't let him relegate the board to think-tank status, but the gov-ernor did strip the board's independence.
Blagojevich saw that crusade through to conclusion. But other efforts have been marked by starts, stops and inconsistencies.
Here's a case in point: Two years ago, when vanquishing fiefdoms was on his agenda, Blagojevich put an end to the independent Grape and Wine Resources Council, which spent about $200,000 a year on the salaries of grape and wine experts and administrative help. Under Blagojevich's latest plan to boost central and southern Illinois tourism, though, the state will spend $142,000 on wine marketing, with nearly three-quarters of that money headed to a Chicago public relations firm.
So one might excuse those who remain unconvinced by the reversal seen in Blagojevich's most recent State of the State address.
The toned-down rhetoric was a start some in the business community could drink to. But after last year's session lingered through much of July, partisans will watch to see whether a favorable budget resolution ripens well before September and the start of Illinois Wine Month.
Pat Guinane can be reached at capitolbureau@aol.com.
Illinois Issues, March 2005
