Rally around the flag

Smashing the status quo means respecting Illinoisans’ interests.

In a July 8 press conference, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner reintroduced five pieces of legislation for lawmakers’ consideration: a property-tax freeze, redistricting reform, term limits, tort reform and workers’ compensation reform.

These are five common-sense solutions; five pillars on which to rebuild a state that Illinoisans can be proud to call home.

The General Assembly tasked with passing these five reforms has failed to pass a balanced budget since 2001. Structural change has never been on the table – until now.

Instead, Illinois’ middle class has been asked again and again to pay an ever-higher tribute to state government.

State politicians forced the same burden on taxpayers in 2011, just as Illinois was starting to rise from the ashes of the Great Recession. After lawmakers passed an income-tax hike, record revenues flowed to state coffers; but politicians did not bother to change the way government operated.

Where did the tax-and-spend scheme leave us?

First, the state economy flatlined. Jobs growth grinded to a halt, and youth and minority workers took it on the chin. Illinois’ No. 1 budget problem is now people leaving in droves. A record number of Illinois families rely on food stamps to make ends meet. Incomes in neighboring states are booming as Illinoisans shrug. Illinois is farther away from a recession recovery than any state in the nation. The health of broken government-worker pension systems worsened.

Politicians continue to beat the drum for higher taxes, but the reality is Illinois has never had a revenue problem. Politicians have a spending problem, which has decimated the state’s jobs climate – and Illinoisans suffered for it.

But Rauner has planted a flag on behalf of a beleaguered state. It reads: “No longer.”

The structural reforms put forth grow state revenues on the coattails of an Illinois rising, rather than on the backs of a wheezing middle class. Redistricting reform and term limits will erect wildly popular confines on political power.

Rauner has made genuine attempts at compromise, but a Democratic supermajority in the Illinois House and Senate means that if House Speaker Mike Madigan wants to try hiking taxes again, he doesn’t need Rauner’s help. If he wants to preserve the status quo, as he has for decades, Madigan may.

The difference now is that Madigan must look Illinoisans in the eye, because for the first time in many of their lives, Rauner has placed taxpayers on equal footing.

You go first, Mr. Speaker.