Addressing the State

Governor Bruce Rauner made two important speeches this month.

On Wednesday,  Feburary 4, he gave his first State of the State Address.  The speech focused mainly on creating a better economic climate for the state, by restructuring government to reduce expenses, especially those accrued by union practices that help special interests, ease the tax burden on the average Illinois family, and creating better conditions to help businesses prosper.  He also touched on education, school choice, teachers, testing, and even proposed decreasing the 7000 units of government in Illinois.

Two weeks later, on February 18--which, by the way, was his birthday--he gave an address with the highlights of his budget proposal.  His major talking point was reforming the way the state spends money before bringing in more revenue from taxes, especially when it comes to the sumptuous pensions that some state employees receive.

Once he stopped talked, the talk then turned to a line-by-line analysis of the budget, with many groups crying foul about the various cuts they received, including public transit, schools, and local communities.

Similar to his inaugural address, Bruce Rauner is making it clear that Illinois is essentially in a crisis, and drastic action needs to be taken to fix the mess that has accrued from years of bad government practices.

It's unfortunate that various entities are going to feel the pain of reduced funds, but it seems that the reductions are across the board, so everyone at least is feeling the pain, even if slightly unequal.  At some point, though, there would have to be plans to restore the funding to these groups.

I imagine pension reform is the largest part of fixing the mess, though I'm not familiar with the intricacies of pensions, and thus can't say what the best way is to reform the system so that funds needed for important services are diverted there from large employees' pensions.

Everyone is definitely going to have to band together to get Illinois back in better shape, like Governor Rauner said in his inaugural address.  While the road is going to be tough, we hope to lay groundwork for eventually getting the state's finances in good shape again in the next few years for the prosperity of all Illinoisans.