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 Illinois has a chance to lead the
nation in voter suppression on Nov. 8: Change the Illinois Constitution to give
union bosses more power than elected representatives, and the state’s voters
lose a lot of say over policy and their pocketbooks.
Voters are being asked to pass Amendment 1, a constitutional change that would
grant unions in Illinois more extreme powers than any other labor provisions in
the country. The amendment would muzzle the voice of voters and give government
unions more power over state law than lawmakers. It would also guarantee the
state’s pension-driven debt and the high taxes needed to pay for it continue to
increase.
According to numbers from Truth in Accounting, the state’s bills totaled more
than $272 billion in fiscal year 2020. Almost $213 billion, or nearly 80%, of
that total is owed to public sector unions through pension debt and other
post-employment benefits such as retiree health care benefits.
Unfunded liabilities for government worker benefits such as pensions and health
care already make up the largest share of most of the state’s total debt
burdens. When the power of government unions increases, the share of state debt
stemming from government worker benefits tends to as well. Government unions
often have an unfair advantage at the bargaining table that allows them to
extract excessive resources from taxpayers, because they bargain with
politicians they help elect.
In fact, across all 50 states the
share of government debt owing to government worker benefits has a very strong
statistical tie to the overall amount of debt per taxpayer. In other words, when
unions own most of the debt, there tends to be a lot more debt.
According to standard conventions in social science, a correlation coefficient
of 0.3 or higher is considered “moderately strong” while anything above 0.7 is
“very strong.” The percentage of states’ debt related to pension or government
worker health insurance benefits correlates with states’ total debt per taxpayer
ranking at 0.83.
As Illinois’ debt burden has continued to climb in recent years, taxes have
continued to rise despite Illinoisans already facing one of the highest tax
burdens in the country. There have been 24 new taxes and fees implemented in
Illinois since the beginning of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration, taking
another $5.2 billion out of Illinoisans’ wallets. Despite paying more and more,
taxpayers have been losing services while unions continue to win more of the
money.
From 2000 to 2021, research from the Illinois Policy Institute showed state
spending on public sector union benefits grew far faster than other spending and
crowded out growth in spending on everything other than K-12 education.
During that time, pension spending increased 533%, adjusted for inflation, while
spending on government worker health insurance rose 126%. Spending on education
rose just 23%. Spending on all other services shrank 14%.
Illinois taxpayers are being asked to pay more for union benefits even as they
experience cuts to the services and programs they rely on.
Public sector unions have been exploiting their unfair bargaining advantage to
inflate wages and benefits at huge costs to Illinois taxpayers. State workers in
Illinois are the second-highest paid in the country, with an average wage of
over $67,400 after adjusting for regional costs of living. The unfair bargaining
relationship between unions and the politicians whose campaigns they fund leaves
taxpayers with no seat at the table. It has also helped public sector wages grow
60% faster than private sector wages from 1998 to 2019.
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In 1998, the gap in
average total compensation between public and private sector
workers, which includes benefits such as health insurance, was less
than $10,000. By 2019, that gap had more than tripled to over
$35,500, with average state workers in Illinois compensated more
than $94,000 for their work versus under $59,000 for private sector
workers. Illinois
taxpayers are left footing the bill for those huge increases in
public worker compensation, even as the state’s debt and taxes have
soared and services have been cut.
Skyrocketing compensation is not the only cost unions have thrust
upon Illinois taxpayers in recent years. Their influence has bought
numerous perks and giveaways, including overly generous compensation
beyond salary, providing more holidays than there are federal
holidays, 15 different types of leave time and extremely lax
disciplinary measures that allow for numerous infractions before
suspension from work or termination.
Another great perk public unions have created that private sector
counterparts do not enjoy is early retirement. More than 50% of
state workers and teachers will retire before age 60. Taking
advantage of early retirement benefits, large portions of these
employees will retire prior to age 55. Many of them can do this
because paltry worker pension contributions of just 5% can lead to
pension payouts from $1.7 million to $3.6 million depending on the
category of public employee. These perks contribute to the
compounding of pension debt, exponentially driving up costs to
taxpayers and causing the crowd out of other programs and services
in the state’s strained budgets.
A key reason for the huge growth in public worker wages is the
inherently unfair advantage public sector unions have, given they
can and do elect their bosses. Unions send significant political
donations and other resources to the campaigns of favorable
politicians, often resulting in union representatives sitting across
the negotiating table from their hand-picked elected officials. It’s
like being able to pick your best friend for your performance review
at work, who will determine how much you will get paid and what
benefits you will receive.
Illinois politicians have been eager to give taxpayer money to
unions in exchange for their political support. Unions donated more
than $15 million to the campaigns of the lawmakers who voted to put
Amendment 1 on the ballot. That figure averaged out to $119,000 per
vote in favor of placing the amendment on the ballot. Lawmakers who
voted against putting it on the ballot averaged just $9,300 in union
contributions.
Amendment 1 means Illinois’ $317 billion pension debt will continue
to balloon while hurting the state economy and job growth and
driving more people out of Illinois. It means the state’s high state
and local tax burden will continue to increase to pay for union
demands that have already risen beyond what taxpayers can afford,
while spending on vital programs continues to fall. It means the
power of the typical taxpayer will be permanently diminished by
making unions unelected, dominant partners in wielding power with
politicians.
Amendment 1 represents not only the continuation, but the escalation
of a status quo Illinoisans cannot afford to maintain. In short,
Amendment 1 means union bosses and their politician partners will
win while every other Illinoisan loses.
Fortunately, voters will have the last word on the issue Nov. 8.
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