Support for redistricting reform; pension reform hard because unions opposed
ILLINOIS NEWS NETWORK
Senate President John Cullerton gave some candid remarks at the Elmhurst College 8th annual Governmental Forum on Friday, April 1, advocating for redistricting reform and blaming state unions’ lack of support for the General Assembly’s failure to rein in pension costs.
The Chicago Democrat was the keynote speaker at the event, where he told the audience about the importance of passing a budget, warning that at least one of the state’s four-year universities would close should lawmakers fail to get funding approved. He said the Senate’s “Grand Bargain” budget deal is still alive. He also criticized Gov. Bruce Rauner for making disparaging remarks about Democrats in the media, saying it hurts the budget-making process.
“It doesn’t help the members of my caucus who I am asking to take these tough votes while he’s doing ads slamming them,” he said.
For his part, Rauner has mostly praised the Senate’s efforts to compromise, but the governor maintains that any budget deal must be fair to taxpayers. In his annual budget address, Rauner criticized the fact that the grand bargain contained a permanent income tax increase but a property tax freeze that lasted only two years.
One thing Cullerton did agree with the governor on was the need to get the state’s underfunded pensions reformed. He told the audience that the biggest reason lawmakers haven’t reformed public pensions was pressure from unions on his lawmakers.
“The teachers and state employees are not in favor of it. It’s something which will end up limiting their pensions.” he said. “That’s why it’s very difficult to pass.”
The state’s five public pension systems are underfunded by $130 billion, worst in the nation.
Cullerton said he agrees with Rauner that there should be some sort of redistricting reform, saying, “let it be two bipartisan folks that the Supreme Court chooses. Have those two people decide what the maps would be.”
Speaker Michael Madigan, Cullerton’s counterpart in the Illinois House, largely controls the redistricting process and has opposed grassroots efforts at redistricting reform.
Cullerton also said he thought media coverage of Springfield is disappearing. He said that those who do still cover state government are more interested in salacious topics such as the high cost of the taxpayer-funded SUV that Comptroller Susana Mendoza drives than the budget deficit.
“They used to have skits where they’d make fun of us and we’d go to those things. Now, they don’t have reporters anymore. They don’t have statehouse reporters,” Cullerton said. “The Sun-Times. They don’t have somebody in Springfield covering us. What they have instead are investigative reporters.”
On the topic of unions, Cullerton, seen as an ally of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, worried that creating an elected Chicago Public School Board would lead to one-sided negotiations with unions that would commandeer the electoral process and place friendly members in office.
“It might end up being, electing union members to the school board and those unions represent the teachers,” he said. “The question would be, would there be any kind of oversight.”
