 Illinois
Gov. Pat Quinn introduced a budget last year and saw it put
on a shelf by legislators, who drafted their own plan with much
lower spending. His vetoes were overturned on issues as important as
the state's power grid and as minor as roadkill. Ideas like
consolidating small schools and restructuring state debt to pay
overdue bills were brushed aside.As Quinn prepares for his State
of the State address this week, he faces twin challenges. He must
come up with ideas to ease some of the country's worst financial
problems and a strategy to enact them at a time when the budget
crisis demands extraordinary action before the problems grow too big
to solve.
The lawmakers giving Quinn a hard time aren't just from the
opposing party. The Illinois Legislature is controlled by his fellow
Democrats. Its top leaders are from Chicago as he is.
Yet Senate President John Cullerton has been known to tell
audiences that if Republicans had nominated a different candidate in
2010, Quinn would not be governor now. And House Speaker Michael
Madigan last week damned Quinn with the faint praise of calling him
"very well-intentioned" and noting that he was once a political
gadfly of little influence.
The upcoming legislative session is likely to be particularly
challenging.
Quinn has said he will make it a priority to solve Illinois' $85
billion unfunded state pension plan. In his address Wednesday and
then his budget, he may propose reducing Medicaid, forcing schools
to pay more for teacher retirements, cutting state jobs and trimming
spending in other areas.
But lawmakers will be skittish about doing anything controversial
in an election year. In particular, any effort to solve the pension
problem could pit Quinn's fellow Democrats against union allies
whose votes and campaign help they will need.
Quinn says he has the skills to lead legislators through
difficult decisions. He points to passage in 2011 of bills
restricting teacher strikes, cutting workers' compensation costs,
establishing civil unions and more.
"I thought we did pretty well last year," Quinn said.
Certainly, Quinn has worked effectively with the Legislature's
Democratic majority when they share the same general goals. His
relationship with lawmakers doesn't begin to resemble the poisonous
atmosphere under his predecessor, Rod Blagojevich. But when they
want to go different directions, Quinn is sometimes left behind.
Legislators complain that he can be inconsistent, throwing out
proposals and making threats, but then backing away. Negotiating
with him is frustrating because he isn't clear about his demands,
said Rep. Lou Lang, who met several times with Quinn last year to
discuss gambling expansion.
"I'm still a supporter of Pat Quinn, but I think there's a lot of
unrest in the General Assembly," Lang, D-Skokie, said last fall. "If
he wants to accomplish great goals, he needs to be engaging with the
members of the General Assembly. Sit down, talk to us: 'What do you
want? Here's what I want. Here's a controversial bill -- do this and
I'll sign it.'"
Quinn, 63, made his name as a crusader. He successfully led a
push to cut the number of Illinois House members by one-third and
helped create a consumer-protection board. He ended a practice of
letting lawmakers collect their entire salaries on the first day of
work.
Later, he began working his way into the government he had so
often criticized. He served one term as state treasurer and then was
elected lieutenant governor, serving under Blagojevich.
When Blagojevich was arrested on corruption charges and tossed
out of office, Quinn suddenly found himself running a state shaken
by scandal and nearly paralyzed by a budget crisis.
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During his first year, Quinn asked for a tax increase but didn't
get it. He chose a 29-year-old with no police experience to run the
state police and, months later, wound up withdrawing the nomination.
He zigged and zagged on how to strengthen state ethics laws and
ultimately signed a measure that many reform groups found wanting.
When it came time to run for a full term, Quinn narrowly won the
Democratic nomination and then eked out a victory in the fall over
an extremely conservative Republican.
Since then, Quinn and legislators have tackled some major issues.
They raised income taxes, legalized civil unions and abolished the
death penalty. They cut retirement benefits for future state
employees and put new restrictions on teacher strikes. They reduced
the cost of workers' compensation and unemployment insurance for
Illinois businesses and passed tax relief for some specific
companies, businesses in general and poor families.
"We achieved a lot, working with the Legislature," said Quinn
spokeswoman Brooke Anderson. "Illinois is back on course."
She said nearly 2,200 measures have become law under Quinn, and
he has used his veto pen only 110 times, for a rate of 5 percent.
The rates under the three previous governors were 10 percent, 9
percent and 16 percent. Anderson said that shows Quinn is working
better with lawmakers than his predecessors did.
When Quinn does use his veto powers, the results are decidedly
mixed. He blocked or amended 30 bills last year, according to
legislative records, but lawmakers wound up rejecting his position
on 17 of those. In other words, Quinn's position carried the day
less than half the time.
Quinn tried to strengthen his hand on one of those measures by
returning to his activist roots. He repeatedly called on the public
to support his veto of legislation allowing utilities to raise rates
to pay for modernizing the state's power grid, and he created a
website where people could register their outrage. Lawmakers still
overrode his veto.
There are some signs that Quinn is changing his approach.
Rep. Frank Mautino, a Democrat who plays a key role in budget
negotiations, said Quinn's staff has already begun sharing
information on possible Medicaid cuts in an effort to build support.
And several legislators praised Quinn for hiring a respected former
House member, Gary Hannig, to represent him on some big issues.
Quinn's relationship with the General Assembly is nothing like
the toxic atmosphere that developed around Blagojevich. Instead,
legislators describe him as a nice guy who too often wavers and
changes course.
"People like Pat Quinn," said Rep. Roger Eddy, R-Hutsonville. "It
just gets to be frustrating trying to figure out where he's going to
land."
[Associated Press;
By CHRISTOPHER WILLS]
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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