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Gov. Rod Blagojevich last month proclaimed that the
Illinois House absolutely, positively, without a doubt had to pass the
Senate-approved pension-obligation bond deal, a special funds sweep, and
the entire capital construction package or he’d have to slash the
state budget right down to the bone. Much suffering would result, the
governor warned, unless the House complied with every one of his
directives. Last week, while announcing yet another summertime
special legislative session, Blagojevich quietly deleted the formerly
all-important pension-bond plan from his list of demands. The bond scheme
would close a $400 million hole in what is supposed to be a horribly
unbalanced budget. The governor also took several items off the
budget-slashing table, including rape crisis centers and Amtrak. In other words, Blagojevich simply reinforced the
widespread Statehouse notion that he’s been bluffing all along about
the budget’s dire straits. For weeks now journalists have reported with a
straight face the governor’s claim that the state is facing an
unmanageable $2 billion deficit. Editorial writers have expressed outrage
at how the General Assembly apparently violated the state’s
Constitution by sending the governor an egregiously out-of-whack spending
plan. But last week reporters only barely mentioned that
the governor dumped a $400 million revenue stream from his list of demands.
Apparently that $2 billion hole isn’t all that big or all that
unmanageable. Why else would the governor abandon it so quickly?
The governor’s people say that after staff
talked to a couple dozen House members they discovered there weren’t
enough votes to pass the pension-bond proposal during this week’s
special session. But that still doesn’t explain the governor’s
flip-flop: Why not propose another revenue source? In reality, there aren’t enough votes to pass
anything. After May 31 it takes a three-fifths majority to pass any
legislation that has an immediate effective date. All those bills the
governor wants approved have immediate effective dates. A new revenue
source would also likely require an immediate effective date. Therefore
very little, if anything, can pass.
So why even bother calling legislators to Springfield
for another special session if nothing can pass?
Blame. The idea is to bring everybody back to town so the
governor can once again pin the blame on his old enemy, House Speaker
Michael Madigan, for all the trouble in the world. He’s been laying it on thick lately, too. For
instance, the governor is now claiming that Madigan has a “secret
plan” to increase taxes after the election. Madigan, the governor
says, deliberately passed an unbalanced budget to increase the pressure for
a post-election tax hike. The governor’s bold accusations miss two points:
• The House passed three different versions of
the state budget. The Senate approved just one of them, the so-called
Christmas-tree budget that was loaded up with all sorts of goodies. The
other two House-approved budgets, which are far more balanced, were never
called for a vote in the Senate. • Senate President Emil Jones, like Madigan, is
on record supporting an income-tax increase. A member of Jones’ own
leadership team, Sen. John Cullerton, has said that he plans to call an
income-tax-increase bill for a vote after the November election. Jones is Blagojevich’s last powerful ally, so
you won’t hear the governor say an unkind word about him.
What the geniuses responsible for the
governor’s miserable approval rating may not have reckoned, however,
is that the special session could also highlight Blagojevich’s
political impotence. This is the same governor, mind you, who tossed
together a half-baked budget proposal at the last minute, then disengaged
from the budget-negotiation process until three weeks after the General
Assembly had adjourned. And now, because of his lack of interest in
governance, multiple federal investigations, rising calls for his
impeachment, and his lack of truthfulness on the budget deficit, he’s
in a position of trying to force his will on a bunch of people who
don’t care what he does.
Rich Miller
publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com.
This article appears in Jul 3-9, 2008.
