[From article]
Rauner, 58, won his first elective office by promising to change Illinois's political culture of one-party rule by entrenched politicians subservient to public-sector unions. This culture's consequences include:
After more than a dozen credit-rating downgrades in five years, Illinois has the lowest rating among the states. Unfunded public employees' pension liabilities are estimated, perhaps conservatively, at $111 billion, the nation's largest such deficit as a percentage of state revenue. Currently, public pensions consume nearly 25 percent of general state revenues. The state owes vendors $6.4 billion in unpaid bills, and more than 1 million people have left Illinois for less dysfunctional states in the last 15 years. Debt per resident is about $24,989, compared with $7,094 in neighboring Indiana.
[. . .]
Four of the previous nine governors went to prison, so, Rauner says, "people know we've had bad people in charge." Bad but routine practices are astonishing.
[. . .]
Rauner says previous governors from both parties have been complicit in the unionization of about 93 percent of government employees.
[. . .]
Rauner hopes to ban, as some states do, public employees unions from making political contributions, whereby they elect the employers with whom they negotiate their compensation. Rauner notes that an owner of a small firm that does business with Illinois's government is forbidden to make political contributions.
[. . .]
Democrats have veto-proof majorities in both houses of the legislature, and redistricting has entrenched incumbents. Democrats do, however, fear being challenged in primaries by unions punishing anyone disobedient.
[. . .]
An Illinois governor (Adlai Stevenson) once said, "Cleanliness is next to godliness, except in the Illinois legislature, where it is next to impossible."
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/will022615.php3
He's is out to emancipate the Land of Lincoln
By George Will
Published Feb. 26, 2015
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