 Come May 14, the speaker said, he’s calling for a House vote on a right-to-work
proposal and the governor might want to send the General Assembly a bill on the
matter before then.
The powerful Chicago Democrat noted Rauner, R-Winnetka, first spoke about
right-to-work measures 100 days ago, yet with only 24 days left in the scheduled
legislative session has yet to submit a bill.
The Rauner team was not thrilled with the speaker’s announcement.
“The administration continues to negotiate in good faith over the governor’s
turnaround agenda and will remain at the table as long as it takes,” Rauner
spokesman Lance Trover said.
“If House Democrats want to walk away from the negotiating table and vote on a
proposal before there is bipartisan agreement that the material is ready to be
introduced in committee, then they should start with a constitutional amendment
to impose term limits on legislators.”
But therein may lie the proverbial rub, or at least the friction among
priorities.
Gov. Bruce Rauner
His “Turnaround Illinois” agenda includes localized right-to-work zones, term
limits, workers compensation reform, unemployment insurance reform, lawsuit
reform, a property tax freeze, and the rollback of prevailing wage laws and
project labor agreements.
Additionally, Rauner’s budget proposal calls for no new revenue and massive cuts
to close the $6 billion gap, including cuts to human service programs that
affect many traditionally Democratic constituencies.
Analysts said Madigan may be signaling Rauner needs to stop asking for
everything he’d like, count his votes in the Legislature and focus on a workable
budget and other potentially achievable goals.
Thursday’s news appeared the second message of the week from House Democrats to
the Rauner administration.
On Wednesday, the speaker essentially brought the governor’s own suggested
budget for human services in FY ‘16 to the House floor. With House Republicans
unprepared for the move, the proposal received exactly zero votes.
“The message may well be that if they want to accomplish anything this session,
then Rauner had better get off a couple of things that have almost no chance of
passing,” said Mike Lawrence, a longtime statehouse journalist, former aide to
Gov. Jim Edgar and retired director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.
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 While cautioning he had no inside scoop, Lawrence said, “I think
it will be clear after this vote that right-to-work has virtually no
chance of passing. I have a difficult time seeing where anything on
the union front is going to happen.”
One by one, Madigan is addressing issues that Rauner has raised,
Lawrence said. And by showing the governor where he seriously lacks
votes, Madigan might be saying it’s time to shift focus.
Political scientist Chris Mooney said the message from Madigan to
Rauner may be one of “who’s for what and who’s not.”
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan
Although enormously accomplished in business, Rauner might also be
getting a lesson from the speaker on the legislative process, said
Mooney, director of the University of Illinois’ Institute of
Government and Political Affairs.
“Illinois state government is not a hierarchical, top-down
structure,” Mooney said. “You have to do certain things. There are
timelines, deadlines, schedules, processes — hoops to jump through.”
To date, Springfield “has blown way past its normal rules-based
deadlines” for the ground gained to date, Mooney said.
For his part, Madigan says he’s simply airing it out. Wednesday’s
debates and votes on human services spending were out in the open,
he said.
And, he said, next week’s right to work public debate and vote are
necessary:
“By putting the governor’s proposal to a vote, legislators will have
the opportunity to ensure the voices of the middle-class families in
their districts are heard,” Madigan said in a prepared statement.
House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Westmont, doesn’t appear
convinced Madigan’s actions have been entirely altruistic.
On Wednesday, he called the sudden human services votes ill-timed,
inappropriate and a break from bipartisanship that has shown results
this spring in resolution of the fiscal year 2015 budget crisis.
Regarding the May 14 vote, Durkin said, “I believe the working
groups, particularly the one dealing with this issue, need to
continue their work negotiating consensus. That is a better approach
to take.”
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