Oct. 20--Before Bruce Rauner took office in January, an ex-governor who campaigned for him described the state's devastated finances. "Doomsday's coming, we do not have a printing press," Jim Edgar told the Tribune. "I was talking to some people to see if there's any smoke and mirrors left and I don't think there are. They've used them all." The "They" in "They've" included Democrats who had passed an unbalanced budget for fiscal 2015, who would do the same for 2016, and who can't agree with Rauner on what comes next.
So we were perplexed to read Edgar's insinuation that fixing state government -- and making Illinois' moribund economy conducive to job and revenue growth -- aren't Job One. Edger told the Springfield State Journal-Register that Rauner shouldn't "hold the budget hostage" by pushing for term limits and policy reforms that could make Illinois competitive with states now stealing its jobs.
Edgar, governor from 1991 to 1999, loves state government. He likes stability more than confrontation. From the SJ-R story: "Edgar said he thinks Rauner is a person who cares and is smart, but he should adjust his priorities 'to what is doable.'"
Doing what's doable always has been Edgar's Job One. But doable has meant five things that got us where we are: borrowing more, spending more, taxing more, placating public employee union leaders -- and postponing the reckoning for later. Today's fiasco didn't start in 2015: Rauner's revolt follows decades of Springfield politicians doing what was doable:
Two years ago Edgar told the Tribune what was doable when he was Gov. Jim Thompson's legislative lobbyist: rationing spending on pensions so scarce dollars could be put toward more pressing and voter-pleasing priorities. "The state was trying to pay for all these services people wanted on the cheap," Edgar said. "Where they skimped was putting money into the retirement system."
And Edgar surely recalls his deal with House Speaker Michael Madigan on a 50-year pension-funding plan. "This reform will not be ignored," Edgar declared in an August 1994 news release. "It will work to guarantee the fiscal soundness of the state retirement funds on which thousands of state employees rely." Except the so-called "Edgar ramp" was severely backloaded ... to make budgeting easy for Edgar, Madigan et al. in its early years. In March 2013, the federal Securities and Exchange Commission said Edgar's law, with its schedule of "insufficient" contributions, was the "primary driver" of the tremendous increase in Illinois' unfunded pension obligations.
And Rauner? He had no role in creating the twin messes he's trying to fix -- the ruined state finances and the Illinois economy that reflects Springfield's grave anti-employer biases. Rauner gets enough grief from Democrats who set Illinois on its disastrous course. He had to be surprised to read that a Republican who had supported him now wants him to surrender to what little the Democratic defenders of the status quo would accept.
What's doable with those folks? Not enough to make Illinois prosper again.
