Swordsmyth
06-23-2017, 01:58 PM
The protagonists in the political brinkmanship are House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Democrat with close ties to the state’s unions, and Governor Bruce Rauner, the first Republican in years to occupy the statehouse. Funding his campaign with personal money gained as a successful hedge fund manager, and aided by another hedge fund manager, Ken Griffin, Rauner made clear his intentions in 2014. Griffin spoke for Rauner when he said that Illinois needed to “cut spending and overhaul the state’s pension system, impose term limits and weaken public employee unions.”
Rauner thinks local governments should be allowed to pass right-to-work laws that would weaken union influence. He expanded by holding that the state should ban union political contributions, saying “government unions should not be allowed to influence the public officials they are lobbying, and sitting across the bargaining table from, through campaign donations and expenditures.”
Rauner wanted to reduce the state’s minimum wage, claiming in January 2014 at the start of his campaign for governor that “we could have a lower minimum wage or no minimum wage as part of increasing Illinois’ competitiveness.”
Rauner also called for the state’s personal income tax rate to be reduced from 5 percent to 3.75 percent while reducing the state’s corporate income tax rate from 7 percent to 5.25 percent. He called for a cap on local property tax rates and for term limits (pledging himself to serving just eight years if reelected).
On the other hand, Michael Madigan is a career politician, serving every year but two since 1983 and earning for himself the sobriquet as “the Velvet Hammer — a.k.a. the Real Governor of Illinois” by Chicago Magazine in 2014. Madigan’s position on nearly every issue is the opposite of Rauner’s, and he has successfully blocked Rauner at almost every turn.
That political stalemate has caused the state’s deficits to explode. When Rauner took office in January 2015, the state had a backlog of unpaid bills of just $6 billion and was paying them within 30 days. The total current backlog is now $15.1 billion and climbing, forcing creditors to wait up to six months and more to get paid for services already rendered.
No doubt motivated by the rating agencies’ deadline, and his desire not to be cast in his reelection campaign as Governor Junk, Rauner softened some of his policy positions and demands so as to placate Madigan and his Democrat supporters. In order to reduce the state’s backlog of unpaid bills by an estimated $4 billion, Rauner agreed to increase the state income tax, expand the state sales tax, and implement a cable and satellite TV tax (about the only thing left not already being taxed).
More at: https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/26311-illinois-gov-gives-tax-increases-to-placate-democrats-before-deadline
Rauner thinks local governments should be allowed to pass right-to-work laws that would weaken union influence. He expanded by holding that the state should ban union political contributions, saying “government unions should not be allowed to influence the public officials they are lobbying, and sitting across the bargaining table from, through campaign donations and expenditures.”
Rauner wanted to reduce the state’s minimum wage, claiming in January 2014 at the start of his campaign for governor that “we could have a lower minimum wage or no minimum wage as part of increasing Illinois’ competitiveness.”
Rauner also called for the state’s personal income tax rate to be reduced from 5 percent to 3.75 percent while reducing the state’s corporate income tax rate from 7 percent to 5.25 percent. He called for a cap on local property tax rates and for term limits (pledging himself to serving just eight years if reelected).
On the other hand, Michael Madigan is a career politician, serving every year but two since 1983 and earning for himself the sobriquet as “the Velvet Hammer — a.k.a. the Real Governor of Illinois” by Chicago Magazine in 2014. Madigan’s position on nearly every issue is the opposite of Rauner’s, and he has successfully blocked Rauner at almost every turn.
That political stalemate has caused the state’s deficits to explode. When Rauner took office in January 2015, the state had a backlog of unpaid bills of just $6 billion and was paying them within 30 days. The total current backlog is now $15.1 billion and climbing, forcing creditors to wait up to six months and more to get paid for services already rendered.
No doubt motivated by the rating agencies’ deadline, and his desire not to be cast in his reelection campaign as Governor Junk, Rauner softened some of his policy positions and demands so as to placate Madigan and his Democrat supporters. In order to reduce the state’s backlog of unpaid bills by an estimated $4 billion, Rauner agreed to increase the state income tax, expand the state sales tax, and implement a cable and satellite TV tax (about the only thing left not already being taxed).
More at: https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/26311-illinois-gov-gives-tax-increases-to-placate-democrats-before-deadline