Gov. J.B. Pritzker opened and closed his State of the State address by telling a story about how, in 1943, Gov. Dwight Green made a deal to buy a copy of the Gettysburg Address for $60,000 knowing that the state could not afford it. So, Green enlisted the children of the state to raise the funds to purchase it.
While it is an endearing story to talk about the children of Illinois rallying for a good cause, it is also a story of a governor counting on the future generations to pay for his promises. And that is the same story, I’m afraid, that will be told a couple of generations from now when Illinoisans look back on the irresponsibility of those in government now making promises they cannot afford.
Because once you weed out the parts of Pritzker’s speech and budget proposal that are there solely for future presidential ads, you see the true state of the state. I’m not writing this to be a “doom grifter” like Pritzker would contend, but rather because Illinoisans deserve some truth telling.
The artificial boost to state revenue from federal taxpayer dollars is gone, and revenues from inflationary spikes are slowing. The years of budgets in which increases in normal spending outpaced increases in typical revenues are catching up to us. Said simply, the gravy train is gone, but the appetite of Pritzker and his majority for spending is stronger than ever.
It is also time to pay the piper for the virtue signaling of the past. Pritzker, to much fanfare, proclaimed how welcoming Illinois is to migrant families and signed legislation to provide taxpayer-funded health care to any able-bodied adult immigrant in Illinois — whether here legally or not. What made for good sound bites at the time has ballooned into a full-blown migrant crisis throughout Illinois, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars so far. But when those of us try to propose any kind of solutions, such as cutting off the free health care, Pritzker would rather call names or deflect blame than admit that there is a problem that needs action.
The root of these problems in Illinois is that those in power are wholly unaccountable. Those in the majority have the protection of artificial supermajorities and hand-picked constituencies thanks to the gerrymandered political maps signed by Pritzker. And for those in power who do face a challenge, they can stay in power by staying in the good graces of those who wield large political bank accounts. With Pritzker handing out millions of dollars in political contributions, it is no wonder that those in the majority in the legislature do what he asks. They are unaccountable to their voters, and we have the outcomes to prove it.
Every Illinoisan would benefit from a truly accountable government. And they will have that option at the ballot box this March and this November. The reforms to fix our broken state of the state will need to come from both policy and electoral change. On the policy front, we need more transparency, more oversight and fair maps. On the electoral side, we need more common sense, more bipartisanship and less grandstanding for the White House.
After listening to the governor’s State of the State and budget address, I wonder what our children will say 40 years from now about decisions being made today. I hope they are still living in Illinois with an interest in the future of their state.
Illinois state Rep. Ryan Spain represents the 73rd District and is the deputy Republican leader.