Go get em Gov!

A few years back I was fortunate to get to know a few of the rising stars in Illinois politics. The common denominator was the Illinois Constitution Convention ballot initiative. The stars are Bruno Behrend, John Bambenek and Adam Andrzejewski.

Behrend and Bambenek were among those spearheading a mostly grassroots constitution convention movement. They were essentially up against President Obama’s 2008 election campaign key advisor, David Axelrod, who shared a multimillion dollar contract provided by opponents to the convention who feared the end of their good times.

Andrzejewski, who self financed the non-profit For The Good of Illinois transparency initiative and would eventually run for Governor, was pro-constitution convention. I tried to get as many votes for the initiative from here in DeKalb County. That’s how our paths crossed.

Andrzejewski and Behrend are conservatives to put it mildly (and Bambenek to put it strongly) but in that effort they had common ground with… Lt. Governor Pat Quinn.

Those who paid Axelrod’s firm the big bucks to defeat the convention initiative included a who’s who of the state’s most influential lobbying organizations: American Insurance Association, Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois, Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, Chicago Urban League, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Citizen Action/Illinois, Illinois Association of Convenience Stores, Illinois Association of School Administrators, Illinois Business Round Table, Illinois Civil Justice League, Illinois Education Association, Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Manufacturers Association, Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association, Illinois Retail Merchants Association, Illinois Retired Teachers Association, Illinois State AFL-CIO, Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, League of Women Voters of Illinois, Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Businesses/Illinois, Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce, Police Benevolent and Protective Association of Illinois, SEIU Illinois, State University Annuitants Association, Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois, Tooling and Manufacturing Association, Union League Club of Chicago, Illinois Rifle Association. The convention was also opposed by House Speaker Michael Madigan (D) and former governor Jim Edgar (R).

The ballot initiative failed by a near two-to-one margin.

Those with political aspirations must have real courage to take the opposite side of a hot button issue with the lobbyists named above. Courage is a requirement of those seeking reform.

I was impressed with Andrzejewski, Bambenek, Behrend and Quinn. I voted for Andrzejewski in the 2010 Republican primary.

I was ready to vote for Quinn in the general election but he stumbled out of the gates as a reformer when he replaced the arrested Gov. Blagojevich. Quinn passed a needed state capital improvement program financed by video poker. He seemed to have spent a lot more time and effort in spending the money than he did putting the revenue side of the equation in place. The video poker law has yet to be enacted.

Then the Governor released a bunch of violent criminals to save some money. So I wrote Adam Andrzejewski on my ballot because I think Illinois needs reformed. Desperately.

I’m still mad at Gov. Quinn but he could win me back over. Remember, I said I believe Illinois is in desperate need of reform. Quinn has made a couple of proposals that would shake up the state and put it squarely ahead of the curve in economic recovery.

The first meaningful reform in school finance in like forever was put in place by Governor Quinn this year. He wants to eliminate about 2/3 of the school districts in the state through a massive consolidation plan.

The plan includes cutting Illinois’ 868 school districts to about 300. Quinn estimates that would save at least $100 million annually by cutting administrative costs. Vested interest critics dispute that figure and say it’s based on the state’s 300 highest-paid superintendents even though many merged districts would be downstate where salaries are typically lower.

If the state ever held its massive investments in technology accountable to a ROI the savings of such a merger could be substantially more and provide glimmering hope for enough property tax relief to get consumers buying higher priced homes again.

Quinn’s also launched an effort to reform the workers’ compensation mess that has Illinois ranked second only to Alaska in comp claim costs. How bad is it? If the state could reduce workers’ comp costs in half it would then fall to third place. In fact, “even if the medical fee schedule were reduced by 30 percent, Illinois would still have the second highest rates in the nation, but our employers could save up to $500 million,” acknowledges the governor’s office.

Workers’ comp as practiced in Illinois is destroying both public and private sector employers. Morton-based CORE Construction Group Ltd. compared five years’ worth of claims between its local construction firm with another of their holdings in Phoenix, Ariz. Illinois claims averaged $32,807 compared to $6,212 in Arizona. Peoria-based Caterpillar reported that in 2008 the total incurred cost of the injuries at an Illinois plant was seven times higher than the cost of the injuries at a similar Indiana plant.

According to Quinn’s office a hernia suffered on the job costs an employer more than $18,700 in Illinois, the next closest state comes in $6,300 less. An Illinois employer is out almost $24,000, compared to about $14,300 for the runner-up, 160 percent higher than the median for a shoulder or elbow injury.

State government pays $130 million to $140 million a year for workers’ comp claims by its employees. For a more local example, the City of DeKalb has paid out $2.7 million to more than 50 of its employees, since January 1, 2005.

Quinn’s Workers’ Comp reform plan would:

• Reduce medical fees paid to doctors and hospitals by 30 percent, saving employers an estimated $500 million a year.
• Limit work comp arbitrators to three-year terms and rotating them around the state. Some have been in the same job, in the same location for decades and have a cozy relationship with local work comp lawyers and doctors. A quarter of the 32 arbitrators who decide injury claims for others have filed claims themselves, reported the Belleville News-Democrat.
• Get this. Quinn’s plan would empower the state to investigate fraud and even deny claims by workers who are injured because they’re drunk on the job.

Critics tell the Chicago Tribune that the governor’s proposed reforms fail to tackle the biggest problems in the Illinois workers comp system. They don’t require workers to prove they were injured on the job and they don’t require generally accepted medical standards to determine the extent of disability.

The savings in Quinn’s plan are real and if his reform plan is enacted, and he says its on the fast track, there would be an explosion in job creation.

But will the Governor follow through?

Those signs are shaky. The video poker ordeal is not a vote in confidence. The school consolidation plan has already been passed over to Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon.

The talking heads in Springfield are spreading the word that there is little support for the Governor’s reform efforts. Quinn is challenging trial lawyers, unions and doctors. He faces stiff opposition from the State Board of Education and the Illinois Association of School Administrators who are already flaming the fear of “loss of local control.”

Some of the opposition need their heads examined. That or the teachers’ unions rank and file members should consider cleaning their house from idiots.

“We don’t need as many folks at the top level,” Quinn told reporters earlier this month. “We need folks on the front line in the teaching, imparting knowledge.”

Are the teachers really interested in classroom size? Do they want to keep their jobs? Have they heard enough about how administrators should be compensated like their corporate counterparts? Well, then corporate downsizing is long overdue. And current law allows teacher salaries to rise when districts merge.

It will take courage and support for needed reform.

The support could come from unlikely sources. If local Tea Party groups are paying attention Gov. Quinn could get a groundswell of support that would sweep the General Assembly of any elected obstacles in his way. A reform joint venture with the Democratic governor would put Republicans on short notice about accountability.

A good number of taxpayers are headed to Springfield on Freedom from Taxes Day (this year it is ironically April 15) to holler a bit about high taxes. Quinn contributed to increasing taxes. He should show some courage and meet with those folks and begin to use his office as a bully pulpit.

Oh what a legacy is there for the taking for a true reformer.

Go get ’em Gov!