Chicago Tribune Editorial: The Nov. 2 election

Chicago Tribune Editorial: The Nov. 2 election
Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune
May 30, 2010
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-state-20100530,0,2734217.story


They are pleasant people, most of these Illinois lawmakers who need to be voted from office. But there is no point to bathing them in soft encouragements, to say they should "summon the courage to act" or "demonstrate true leadership." They've had their chances and flat-out refused to deliver. Their devotion to nothing more noble than their own political survival has become the reason to deprive them of it.

Failure can lead to consequences. Intentional failure should.

It is with that conviction that this page looks beyond another inconclusive legislative session to focus primarily on the general election just 22 weeks away. The people of this state need solutions to three crises that have Illinois in a downward spiral. We believe Illinois is worth fighting for. We hope voters share that belief, and react less with hot anger than with cold resolve:

Illinoisans need a solutions-oriented General Assembly. But with their combined 72 years in the legislature, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton are embedded in the ossified status quo. Shooing their underworked troops home last week for yet another paid vacation, the two Democrats proved again that they cannot — or, more likely, will not — risk their party's hold on power to solve those three crises. To do so would infuriate public employee unions and other constituencies fattened by overspent, overborrowed Illinois.

Throughout this session we've written about the crises — the need for Madigan and Cullerton to make jobs-starved Illinois attractive to employers, to pass the anti-corruption reforms they ducked in 2009, and to end the chronic money mismanagement best summarized as: "Splurge. Borrow. Repeat." In a March 21 editorial titled "Last chance," we noted that voters are financially liable for our leaders' wreckage — their legacy of unpaid bills, astonishing debts and still more borrowing. If Madigan and Cullerton didn't start meeting epic challenges with epic responses, we said on that day's front page, then "we'll try to defeat as many of their caucus members as we can."

•••

Across the U.S., other state governments are working to attract jobs and restructure how they spend taxpayers' dollars. On Tuesday, The New York Times chronicled how "more leaders have begun to talk not of nipping, not of tucking, but, in essence, of turning government upside down and starting over." Options include eliminating costly but obsolete local governments, merging state agencies, and other overhead reductions analogous to the sacrifices American families and businesses have made. On Thursday, in New York, gubernatorial nominee Andrew Cuomo pledged that, if elected, he will not slash his state's big deficit with tax hikes or borrowing binges. Instead, the liberal Democrat said, he'll cut spending.

Contrast that with Illinois, where Gov. Pat Quinn wants to borrow another $3.7 billion for the most basic of operating expenses: payments into, yes, the nation's worst-funded pension system. And he wants a tax increase. Legislators, meanwhile, have done nothing to restructure state government and how it spends today. And they're content to let other states be the lower-cost options for businesses looking to create new jobs. They won't even ratchet down spending enough to pay billions in overdue bills for services already provided. Instead, they've sent Quinn a measure that would allow the state to … delay payments even longer.

•••

Memorial Day weekend is a time for all of us to ponder the Illinois we inherited from previous generations, and to ask if we want to bequeath something other than insolvency and debt. Consider: On this generation's watch, lawmakers who gerrymander the state to choose their own constituents are avoiding such basic tasks as budgeting how much money goes for what. Abdicating responsibility to Quinn insulates legislators from complaints — and proves them useless.

It is time, then, for many of today's incumbents to go. We have begun, months earlier than usual, to evaluate the records and the votes (on such issues as Quinn's pension borrowing plan) of candidates for the Nov. 2 election. We intend to interview and endorse the best of the bunch statewide.

We want to elect Democrats, Republicans and third-party candidates who can prove that they have demanded and will demand a fundamental change in the status quo. Some of the candidates we'll encourage voters to choose on Election Day will be incumbents. Many, though, will not. Illinoisans can't afford to have the current crowd dodging decisions while taxpayer debt explodes and job creation here wallows at 48th in the U.S.

Give us time to do our job of bird-dogging better candidates and, come November, all of us can do the most important job of all.