Illinois Editorial Roundup:

Here are excerpts of editorials from newspapers around Illinois. January 17, 2021 The (Champaign) News-Gazette Acting swiftly, not wisely Hats off to members of the Black caucus in the Illinois General Assembly. They introduced four major bills – criminal justice, education, health care and economic equity – on Jan. 8 and passed three of them through the House and Senate in six days. The health care bill was approved in just one of the two legislative bodies. Their political play using last-minute action by a lame-duck legislature could not have been handled with more sophistication and raw power. The legislation now goes for signature by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. It will be amazing if he, in deference to the politics of the moment, doesn’t swallow them whole. But while political calculations may have been splendid, the policy questions remain wide open. Here’s something to consider – the bills were so mammoth and introduced so late that few of those voting really knew what they were voting on. Is that really the way the legislative process should be pursued? This wasn’t so much following the legislative process as gaming the legislative process. The fact that these last-minute legislative blitzkriegs have become standard practice over the years in Illinois is no defense. Political reality allowing the majority party – in this case, supermajority Democrats – to do what they did is no justification – purely on the merits – for doing what the General Assembly did in the lame-duck session. Democrats don’t just have their supermajorities during lame-duck sessions – the period between the November election and the beginning of the newly-elected legislature in early January. They have it 12 months a year. What’s the problem with holding real legislative hearings, listening to witnesses discuss the provisions in proposed pieces of legislation and having a real debate about how to proceed? Defenders of this process argue that the Black caucus held a series of online hearings to listen to interested parties discuss general concepts related to these extremely complicated policy proposals. But those discussions did not result in substantive legislation until Jan. 8, when the measures were introduced by Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford. She later explained she did not show her hand until the last minute to avoid having to submit them to public scrutiny and debate. Once again, that’s a clever, but potentially self-defeating, tactic. Here’s just one issue that was not addressed – what are these mystery bills that overturn the status quo going to cost? That matters in a state that is effectively bankrupt. That’s nothing to worry about, argued one legislator, because considering costs is just an impediment to doing the right thing. That’s a perverse way of looking at it. One could better argue that passing bills the state can’t afford can only undermine governance on a statewide basis. Everyone who’s paying attention knows that Illinois government at all levels is a disaster area. It’s financially profligate, relentlessly corrupt, oversees far too many units of government and – worst of all – is absolutely committed to expanding the failed status quo. For every action, there’s a reaction – in this case, people fleeing the state because they have had all they can stand. Who can blame them when so many members of the General Assembly live in an alternative universe where political might makes right regardless of the intended and unintended consequences? ___ January 15, 2021 Chicago Tribune Gov. Pritzker, open the restaurants