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 The same groups who tried to raise taxes on the
middle class and retirees just two years ago through a progressive income tax
amendment have a new strategy to amend the Illinois Constitution to guarantee
higher taxes.
This time, those taxes will be a secret.
Inaccurately framed as a “workers’ rights amendment,” Amendment 1 is actually a
radical change on the Nov. 8 ballot that would grant government union leaders
power that exists in no other state. If voters agree, the amendment would give
union bosses the power to negotiate costly agreements taxpayers never get to
see.
That’s because Amendment 1 would let union bosses override more than 350 laws
simply by countering them through collective bargaining agreements. That
includes the ability to void the state’s Freedom of Information Act, which
guarantees open access to state and local government records, with limited
exceptions.
The act specifically requires the final contract between a government unit and
the union representing its employees be subject to inspection and copying. But
government union leaders could override the act by demanding provisions in those
contracts that prohibit public access.
That would make those contracts secret. Taxpayers would never see them, yet be
forced to pay for them and whatever costs they contained.
That’s particularly concerning because research shows states that make larger
promises to government unions have more debt per taxpayer.
Under Amendment 1, there is no limit on what government unions can demand, no
limit on what state and local governments can give away through negotiations,
and no requirement that governments be able to pay for new costs.
The amendment itself prohibits lawmakers from ever restricting the subjects that
can be bargained for or limiting the length of union contracts. Lawmakers could
never limit when government unions go on strike to get their demands met.
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Taxpayers would be responsible for whatever generous contracts union leaders
negotiate. That would mean higher property taxes, which are already the second
highest in the nation.
Illinois’ pension debt, most recently estimated by Moody’s Investor Services at
$313 billion in 2021, would continue to balloon while hurting the state economy
and job growth. It would drive more people out of Illinois. It would mean the
state’s high state and local tax burden would continue to increase to pay for
union demands that have already risen beyond what taxpayers can afford. Shifting
more money to unions would mean spending on vital programs for the state’s most
vulnerable would continue to fall.
Illinois government unions already have tremendous power with a track record of
hamstringing government leaders into agreeing to costly contracts, even without
Amendment 1.
The Chicago Teachers Union went on strike in 2019 – keeping kids out of the
classroom for 11 days – to secure a contract projected to cost residents an
average of $80 more per year in higher property taxes. Similarly, the contract
reached in 2012 – after students missed seven days of instruction during a CTU
strike – was followed by the closure of 50 schools and teacher layoffs due in
part to the cost of the contract.
The most recent contract between the state and the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees Council 31 will cost $3.6 billion more than what
taxpayers should have paid under a more taxpayer-friendly contract. While the
union did not go on strike, it threatened to do so – and shut down government
services – in the years leading up to the agreement.
Amendment 1 would only make things worse.
Not only would expensive union contracts make it more costly for residents to
live here, but the ability of union leaders to keep government contracts secret
would prevent Illinoisans from even knowing what they are paying for. |
