May 07--Sea change usually doesn't wash over the political environs of Chicago or Springfield. Transformation in government, if it comes at all, flows so slowly it can be undetectable. But in recent months, if you were standing still, you might have felt subtle shifts.
The Illinois Way -- tax, borrow, spend -- seems to be losing its appeal. The Democrat-controlled Chicago City Council and Illinois General Assembly are struggling to rally support for their so-called progressive agendas. Even proposals that would tax the rich are flopping, despite the blockbuster success of class warfare politics practiced by Democratic candidates for president Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
In Springfield, recent casualties include a graduated state income tax proposal that would have punished upper-income earners. The House sponsor, Rep. Christian Mitchell, D-Chicago, didn't call the measure for a vote because he couldn't muster enough support despite his party's supermajority.
House Speaker Michael Madigan has been unable to build enough support for his proposal to add a tax surcharge on millionaires. Remember, he's the speaker.
And legislation in Springfield that would rescue Chicago Public Schools has floundered for at least two years. CPS officials and the Chicago Teachers Union have been begging for more tax money from the city and the state. CTU recently released a proposal to increase taxes on gasoline, property, hotels -- a long list -- to prop up the district's budget.
But such pleas now go largely ignored. Mayor Rahm Emanuel shut the door to the CTU's tax plan almost immediately.
Schools CEO Forrest Claypool basically admitted the district, now rated at junk bond status, can only access lines of credit as it tries to limp along. Long-term borrowing isn't feasible because the interest rates imposed on the nearly-insolvent district are too high.
Yet no one is bailing out CPS, not City Hall or the state, as they have in the past under similar "doomsday" scenarios.
Meanwhile, the public reacted sourly to Emanuel's plan to borrow $1.2 billion for a George Lucas museum on the lakefront. With Chicago schools destitute, teachers threatening to strike sometime this year and violent crime climbing, a taxpayer-enabled favor for a billionaire filmmaker hit a collective nerve.
Emanuel, with his subservient City Council of fellow Democrats, usually gets what he wants, especially shiny new baubles. Not happening this time.
