Spring Break
Blagojevich is still "Business as usual"
Issue date: 6/28/05 Section: Opinions
Rod Blagojevich, the governor of Chicago, has provided evidence of why he is not qualified to be the Governor of Illinois. He was elected on a promise to end "business as usual" in Springfield by reforming state government and not raising taxes. He fulfilled a lesser part of that promise by refusing to live in Springfield, instead, moving the office to Chicago, costing taxpayers dearly to fly him back and forth to do business with the legislature.
He broke the more important part of the promise by engineering passage of a state budget including $20 million in unnecessary pork barrel legislation, benefiting Chicago at the expense of downstate, to get the necessary votes for passage. He borrowed from under-funded pension funds to claim a balanced budget, diverting $2.3 billion of required state contributions over the next two years.
If you or I spend more than our income, we do not borrow from our grandchildren to make things right. But that is exactly what budget director John Filan advised the Governor to do. Transferring debt for current spending to future generations by under-funding current retirement obligations has a future cost of $16 for every $1 due and not paid now!
If all that sounds like "business as usual" in Springfield, it is. It is also why, after 13 years of service, I chose not to seek reappointment to the State Universities Retirement System Board of Trustees. That is also why Jim Hacking (Executive Director of SURS), calling the situation "a catastrophe in the making," is leaving to accept a position in Arizona.
What would qualify Blagojevich to truly be the Governor of Illinois would be for him to stop being merely another politician and become a statesman by using his self-proclaimed "testicular virility" to fire John Filan and do what is necessary, by either reducing state spending or securing passage of the necessary increase in either sales or income tax to cover legitimate expenses.
Stan Rives
President, SURS Board of Trustees
He broke the more important part of the promise by engineering passage of a state budget including $20 million in unnecessary pork barrel legislation, benefiting Chicago at the expense of downstate, to get the necessary votes for passage. He borrowed from under-funded pension funds to claim a balanced budget, diverting $2.3 billion of required state contributions over the next two years.
If you or I spend more than our income, we do not borrow from our grandchildren to make things right. But that is exactly what budget director John Filan advised the Governor to do. Transferring debt for current spending to future generations by under-funding current retirement obligations has a future cost of $16 for every $1 due and not paid now!
If all that sounds like "business as usual" in Springfield, it is. It is also why, after 13 years of service, I chose not to seek reappointment to the State Universities Retirement System Board of Trustees. That is also why Jim Hacking (Executive Director of SURS), calling the situation "a catastrophe in the making," is leaving to accept a position in Arizona.
What would qualify Blagojevich to truly be the Governor of Illinois would be for him to stop being merely another politician and become a statesman by using his self-proclaimed "testicular virility" to fire John Filan and do what is necessary, by either reducing state spending or securing passage of the necessary increase in either sales or income tax to cover legitimate expenses.
Stan Rives
President, SURS Board of Trustees
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