 While Rauner certainly had supporters present, a big portion of the overflowing
audience was made up of university professionals, organized labor supporters and
protesters of the governor’s fiscal 2016 budget proposal, which is heavily
dependent on spending cuts.
The governor gave a short speech much like he’s given throughout the state,
making his pitch that Illinois must correct structural inefficiencies and
corruption before it can again be prosperous and competitive.
As he often does, Rauner promoted local empowerment, including locally decided
right-to-work zones.
He again went after prevailing wage acts and project labor agreements,
contending they add 20 percent or more to public building project costs.
And Rauner got after public-sector labor unions, which he calls “the big one”
among the special interests.
Those unions, he said, contribute millions of dollars and thousands of
person-hours to politicians and then turn right around to “bargain” pay scales,
work rules and pensions with the same people.
Public-sector unions, as well as trial lawyers and big Medicaid providers,
should be forbidden from contributing to campaigns just as businesses that
contract with the state are, Rauner said.
Then it got rough for the first-term Republican from Winnetka.
One man asked if Rauner, a millionaire several times over, didn’t benefit from
the rollback of the temporary tax increase. And he asked if Rauner wasn’t an
“ate-the-cake conservative” who wished to leave the poor with the crumbs?
No, said the governor. The bump in income tax from 3 percent to 5 percent took
the equivalent of a week’s pay from everyone and that didn’t help the state or
its residents, he said.
The governor acknowledged his wealth.
“You know what?” he said. “I’ve made a lot of money and people criticize me for
making a lot of money, and, you know, I’m proud of making a lot of money. I
worked hard for it.”
He did it up from the ground up, Rauner said, his companies were successful and
generated better than double stock-market returns for Illinois retirees
including teachers, troopers and government office workers.
The governor also said he was taking neither and a salary nor a pension and
said, “I don’t want to crumbs for people, I want good careers for people.”
Victoria F. Harris, a retired professor of English at Illinois State University,
told the governor his proposed cuts to higher education would hurt Illinois
children and its universities.
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 She described overloaded teachers, outsized classes and
universities using adjunct faculty rather than tenure track faculty.
She said Illinois would no longer attract or retain the best and
brightest if higher education is slashed.
Rauner said he agreed Illinois teachers and professors should be
well paid for their talents and commensurate with the market.
But, the governor said, “In Illinois, our university system is
suffering from the same bureaucracy, cost structure and burden… as
our state government is.
“The money should be with the teachers in the classroom… and it’s
not getting there,” Rauner said.
The last question of the day came from a member of Fair Economy
Illinois coalition, which supports a graduated tax structure and was
actually a prompt for a stand-and-chant demonstration.
Rauner took in the protest and eventually thanked the protesters for
coming and making their view heard.
“I respect that,” he said.
He then reiterated his position that Illinois cannot tax its way to
prosperity and argued graduated income taxes or special taxes on the
wealthy are not the answer.
If Illinois continues on a path of tax-and-spend without solving
structural problems, he said, it would find itself worse off than it
already is — and it’s already running neck and neck for job loss,
out-migration and high property taxes with its competitor for
abysmal stats, New Jersey.
Asked if he was surprised by the antipathy he was met with Monday,
the governor remarked the protesters were not average Illinoisans
but part of an organized special interest group.
“They’re the ones who control Springfield,” he said.
In a news conference after the event, the governor said if he can
get the structural deficiencies resolved, he’d be willing to talk
about “almost anything” with the legislature, including new state
revenues. He specifically mentioned a broadened sales tax base.
Illinois is running an estimated current-year deficit of about $1.6
billion and a projected $6.2 billion fiscal 2016 shortfall.
[This
article courtesy of
Watchdog.]
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