Bruce Rauner has a problem with the facts

CHICAGO - In today’s State of the State speech, newly elected Gov. Bruce Rauner continued his attempts to run Illinois government like he ran his private equity company: benefit himself and burn everyone else. His loose command of facts and radical disempowerment agenda is an attempt to put more power in the hands of people who already have far too much. The same person who made $60 million in 2013 wants to drive down the wages and retirement security of women and African Americans and wants to keep low-income workers poor for an extended period of time. The same person who clouted his own daughter into one of the highest rated public schools in the state (with unionized teachers no less) wants to subject the rest of the state to a failed charter school model. The same person who owns nine homes refuses to address the real elephant in the room: Illinois’ insufficient and regressive revenue generation policies. Rauner’s approach is not to strengthen government at his “make or break time” but instead to break it and strip it for parts.
 
Rauner’s proposal to raise the minimum wage keeps low-income workers low-income for seven more years. Not only is a $10 an hour insufficient, but his proposal for a $0.25/hour increase every year only serves to erode people’s buying power. That level of change does not keep pace with inflation and prevents Illinois’ economic growth. Sea-Tac, Washington’s, $15/hour minimum wage has been a major boost to the local economy, as the number of jobs has increased. Illinois’ families and students deserve such a raise, and Illinois’ voters overwhelmingly support immediately increasing the minimum wage. Instead, the governor willfully puts the least paid workers even further behind.
 
The new governor also proposed to cut the earnings of middle class Illinoisans, thereby slowing the State’s economy. Illinois already has the lowest number of state employees per capita, and local governments, especially school districts, have slashed budgets because of insufficient State support. Rauner’s so-called “employee empowerment” plan only serves to disempower employees by eliminating their voice in the workplace. His stated goal of cutting public employees’ wages and retired workers’ pensions disproportionately impacts women and people of color, as public sector jobs have for decades provided women and African Americans a path to the middle class. As such, the governor is willfully proposing to slow the local economy on the South and Northwest sides of Chicago, neighborhoods that have been left out of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s downtown development strategy.
 
Rauner’s education proposals are another fact-challenged illusion. His proposal for charter schools glossed over the fact that, as a recent University of Minnesota report demonstrated, charter schools in Chicago perform no better than traditional public schools and often worse.  Rauner omitted the fact that unchecked charter expansion in Chicago led to the closure of 50 neighborhood schools over the objections of parents, students, and community members. Rauner omitted the fact, as outlined in a report released this week titled “Risking Public Money: Illinois Charter School Fraud”, that charter operators in Illinois have stolen millions. Rauner omitted the fact that a charter school with his name on it routinely fined students for minor offenses like having untied shoes. Rauner omitted the fact that Illinois is nowhere near the cap on charters (and therefore does not need to raise it). Rauner omitted the fact that despite his claims to cut bureaucracy, adding charter operators to a school district actually increases bureaucracy through duplicative administration and oversight requirements. Rauner omitted the fact that his approach to charter schools eliminates school boards’ local control. Rauner omitted actual proposals to reduce testing during his discussion of testing. Finally, Rauner omitted the fact that increased school funding for K-12 absent any revenue increases only ensures that cuts must be made in other areas of the state budget, areas that have already been slashed over the last 5 years.
 
Gov. Rauner continued to cite spending as state’s biggest challenge. If he were serious about “Shaking up Springfield” and growing the State’s economy, the Governor would focus on the real cause of the state’s challenges: regressive and insufficient revenue generation. Rauner does not need to wait until the budget address to advocate for a surcharge on millionaires. He could support a graduated income tax. Rauner could propose eliminating tax loopholes that allow corporations to avoid hundreds of millions in Illinois taxes. Rauner could assist municipalities’ finances by pledging to withhold state business from any bank that refuses to renegotiate toxic interest swaps. Rauner proposed none of those, however. As such, we can add a major item to the State’s list of challenges: the Governor’s continued aversion to facts and clear agenda to further shift power to the wealthy and connected.
 

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The Chicago Teachers Union represents 30,000 teachers and educational support personnel working in the Chicago Public Schools, and by extension, the more than 400,000 students and families they serve.  The CTU is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers and is the third largest teachers local in the United States and the largest local union in Illinois.  For more information please visit CTU’s website at www.ctunet.com.    
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