BUDGET
Governor Quinn’s budget address turned out to be nothing more than warmed over Rod Blagojevich. Like his former running mate, Quinn appears utterly indifferent to the real work of state government, the employees who perform it, or the citizens who rely on it.
Quinn callously boasted of eliminating the jobs of over 2,000 state employees since he took office, even though Illinois has the nation's fewest state employees per capita, and despite the fact that millions of citizens, especially the most vulnerable, depend on the services state employees provide.
The specifics of Quinn’s budget plan still haven’t been released even to members of the General Assembly, but Council 31 budget analysts are already at work gathering information from all possible sources. For now, only the broad outlines are known, and they aren't good.
The governor trumpeted the closure of 14 state facilities as the centerpiece of his FY13 budget proposal. In addition to the previously announced closures of Jacksonville Developmental Center and Tinley Park Mental Health Center, Quinn now says he wants to shutter Dwight CC, Tamms CC, Singer MHC, Murray DC, IYC Murphysboro, IYC Joliet and six DOC Adult Transitional Centers.
Closures on this scale would result in thousands of layoffs. And it doesn’t end there. Every department budget was cut by at least 9%. The DOC budget would cut parole staff by 50%. The DHS budget would consolidate 24 offices. And the Illinois State Police budget would close the forensics lab in Carbondale, as well as all telecommunications centers except those in Chicago, Springfield, DuQuoin and Sterling. (It’s important to note that the office closings/consolidations and layoffs listed here are based on preliminary information. Others could be announced in the coming days.)
Quinn’s cuts to state operations would cause great damage. He would increase tensions and danger in the state’s already overcrowded prison system, wreak havoc in the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families, deny treatment to individuals with severe mental illness; decrease supports for children and families in need and weaken the ability of state agencies to fulfill their missions.
The governor's cuts would also cause immense damage to the thousands of state employees who would lose their jobs, to their families, and to the communities their wages help sustain.
Yet Quinn is proposing all these cuts shortly after signing into law $300 million in new annual tax breaks, mostly for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and other big corporations. And the Civic Federation and other big business honchos are applauding his cuts while defending a tax system that lets the rich get away with paying far less than their fair share.
Our battle against this bad budget plan has already begun, with AFSCME leaders across Illinois featured prominently in news reports criticizing the budget and pointing out the flaws in Quinn’s proposals. Today the fight intensifies, as we begin the member mobilization and community outreach that will be essential to persuading the General Assembly to defeat this plan.
It will take the active involvement of all AFSCME members to beat back these devastating service cuts and layoffs. It won’t be easy, but we’ve done it before. If we stay united and work together, we can do succeed this time as well.
PENSIONS
Another central element of Quinn’s budget address was a call for overhauling the state’s pension systems. Illinois pension systems face a severe funding crisis caused by the state’s failure, year after year, to pay its share of pension costs even as employees paid theirs. Now that the Quinn Administration has begun to make the full employer contribution, the dimensions of the crisis have become even clearer because those pension contributions—mostly to pay down the state's unfunded liability—are consuming an ever-larger portion of the state budget and squeezing out other important priorities.
That budget squeeze is a big reason why efforts by Big Business to effectively wipe out public pensions have gained so much traction over the past few years. SB 512, the CEO-backed pension bill, would force employees to choose between (1) paying up to 9% more to retain their current modest pension, (2) accepting the lower Tier II benefits that new hires get, or (3) leaving the pension system entirely with only a 401(k) to fall back on. AFSCME and other unions blocked passage of this measure in the last legislative session, but its proponents are back and pushing harder than ever.
In his address, Governor Quinn appeared to indicate that he did not support the approach embodied in SB 512. Rather he said he wanted to work toward a solution that would be “meaningful, constitutional and fair to employees who’ve faithfully contributed to the system.” He cited a pension work group he’s established made up of legislators from each caucus and both houses of the General Assembly.
AFSCME and other unions in the We Are One Illinois Coalition have met with the pension work group to make clear that no one has a bigger stake in stabilizing Illinois pension funds than the state and university employees, teachers and other public employees whose retirement security depends on keeping the pension funds solvent and adequately funded. AFSCME and our labor allies are insisting that any changes must be constitutional, fair to employees, and focused on guaranteeing public employees that their pensions will be there when they retire.
PAY RAISE
It didn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Quinn's speech made no mention of the money he owes to tens of thousands of state employees whose wage increases he is refusing to pay. The governor claims that funds aren’t available, but his recent round of tax breaks for Big Business proved he can find funding for what he believes is important.
AFSCME is fighting for these pay raises on several fronts, including both state and federal court. An arbitrator ruled in the union’s favor and ordered the governor to pay the raises, but the Quinn Administration appealed the arbitrator’s ruling to circuit court, where the judge has stayed the arbitrator’s order until the appeal is decided. Judicial proceedings are almost invariably slow, plagued by delays and continuances, and this case has been no different. It could take many more months before a decision is reached in Circuit Court.
That’s why it’s so critical to keep the pressure on in the court of public opinion. The union has held several direct actions that shine a bright public spotlight on the governor’s dishonesty and hypocrisy. Most recently, the members of the State Bargaining Committee—some 250 strong—marched on the Governor’s Office to deliver a giant “collection notice” for the raises owed. While the Governor’s staff hid, the media was out in force. The action garnered news coverage across the state.
AFSCME is also continuing to work with other affected unions to galvanize state legislators to stand up for state workers and press the Governor to pay the negotiated raises. Last week a bipartisan group of 36 state senators and representatives issued a public letter calling on the Governor to honor union contracts and pay the raises. And union members are keeping the heat on other legislators to add their voices to the growing chorus.
THE FIGHT IS ON
All across the country, public employees are under attack by elites with big bucks who want to weaken the public sector and destroy public sector unions. In Wisconsin, the battle continues after Governor Scott Walker—with backing from the notorious Koch Brothers—pushed through legislation that effectively outlaws collective bargaining and prevents labor unions from representing state workers. Now tens of thousands of public employees in Wisconsin no longer have the protection of a union contract.
Here in Illinois, the attack is led by the Civic Federation and the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club, bands of rich corporate elites who are out to slash government spending and undermine public employee unions. As Quinn made clear in his speech today, they’re the ones issuing his marching orders—to hand out tax breaks to big business and to eliminate solid middle-class jobs.
He’s clearly prepared to do their bidding, but fortunately many legislators don’t seem prepared to march off the cliff behind him. All across the state today, legislators of both parties joined AFSCME members in speaking out against Quinn’s budget cuts.
The message was clear: These devastating cuts can be stopped. But it’s up to us to build the public pressure that will convince the General Assembly to declare Quinn’s budget dead on arrival, and to get to work on shaping a budget that preserves vital services and good jobs—a budget that serves the interests of all Illinoisans, not just the privileged few.
