By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Amendment 1’s codification into the constitution was a mistake. We’ve repeatedly written about the troubles it’s about to cause: higher property taxes, complicated labor disputes, a tied-up court system, fewer parents rights, and a host of legal challenges in the private sector. See our Amendment 1 page for full details.
But what will make Amendment 1 untenable and eventually strangle Illinois is that it prioritizes and protects just 7 percent of Illinois’ adult population, those with government jobs, over Illinois’ other 93 percent. Amendment 1 provides constitutionally-protected collective bargaining guarantees, with new “economic welfare” and “safety” provisions, to 142,000 state workers and nearly 585,000 local government workers in Illinois. Those new bargaining powers means they’ll be able to push for bigger pay and benefits, more generous work rules and a bigger social justice agenda.
Who’ll pay for all that? The 9.9 million adults who won’t benefit directly from Amendment 1.
The effect of Amendment 1 will be to cement two distinct classes of workers in Illinois. The first class, Illinois’ government sector, will be protected by laws that guarantee workers’ long-term employment contracts, multiyear salary increases, constitutionally backed lifetime pensions, the power to strike, and much more.
The second class, made up of private-sector workers who get no such protections or benefits, will be increasingly forced by lawmakers to pay for the first class.
Some of the costs ordinary Illinoisans endured even before the amendment passed were the nation’s highest property taxes, the country’s biggest pension debts, stripped-down parents’ rights and non-stop corruption. Count on all those things to only get worse.
Finally, there’s the public sector unions’ handout to private unions: the amendment’s permanent ban of Right to Work. Expect Illinois’ economic and business competitiveness to fall even further with that in place. Future legislatures have lost any chance of going the same way as Illinois’ neighbors, sans Missouri.
Amendment 1 simply isn’t going to work. Illinoisans aren’t trapped in a feudal system working for their lords and masters. Unless a wall is built to keep people in, expect the exodus from Illinois to accelerate.
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If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Just 7 percent of citizens benefit from this bill, and yet it passed. Interesting there would be that much support for governmental workers. They have done basically nothing because of the pandemic and now they get to write the rules. Perfect. Maybe this bill is causing Illinois to have the highest unemployment in the country. Companies can see the writing on the wall, which will soon allow all unions to have this “right” under the new Amendment. Why open a business in Illinois, only to be taxed to death and then told how to run your business by overpaid employees.
The answer is you do not open up a business in Illinois. If you think things are bad now just wait and see. This is like a cancer and keeps getting worse till you die.
just now congress is stepping in to end the national railroad strike and set terms…..who’s going to or can step in for Illinoisans to end the craziness??? answer NOBODY!!!
would congress be able to step in and set terms on the rail worker unions if they had passes a Pro Act or had passes some national form of Amendment 1?
New York Post : Union Joe suddenly turns into Union-Buster-in-Chief — to save himself.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/29/union-joe-suddenly-turns-into-union-buster-in-chief-to-save-himself
No one has sold more Florida Real Estate than people like PPF.
The choice is to stay and pay for Pensioners that live in Florida or Join them in Florida and not pay for their HUGE pensions.
Punta Gorda Florida has more Chicago Cops than Chicago.
I even think I heard PPF say he lives in Florida.
Crony capitalism is not the problem , now it is crony unionism
7% of the IL population, has us on the ground with their boot on our neck. Everyone needs to wake up, including the Republicans. IL voters will not vote for maga crazy wacko, even if IL is at the bottom of almost all measures. Business asset owners in IL better wake up too and push back against dem wacko rule, or else this time things could go south. Biden hopefully will continue to shovel federal cash to IL, cause whats going on here is bad press for the dems. An extreme slap in the face to non-public union taxpayers…outrageous in… Read more »
Agreed SPM. Unfortunately a large chunk of Republicans love to support the election deniers and maga nut jobs in the primary. So we are left with one party rule. The upside for these same conspiracy theorists is they get to keep complaining about all the made up fraud. It’s pretty much a hobby for them.
Agree. Everyone needs to get real (fast) and we need real two party rule, without the djt and rep self-serving histrionics. IL is on the edge…or maybe over the edge. Its gonna take a combined effort, including calling out self-serving politicians from both sides.
You are correct when you say say the “Voters” voted for this. No argument there. I have read all the comments so far and you have stated the voters voted for this many times. Now I would add a word before voter to include “Union Voters” voted for this or “Recipient Voters voted for this plus all their immediate family members who will benefit including surviving spouses. Those who benefited or will benefit the most from this legislation voted for this as they did in 1970. I would wager (and win) that those who had inside info (unions and union… Read more »
So union members voted their best interest. Wouldn’t you expect that? Union members were educated on this amendment and the general population didn’t care. Elections and being lazy has consequences. Union members had more money to advertise for this amendment. That’s the power of unionization. Nothing was stopping “Vote No” from raising more money. Maybe electing Bailey at the top of the ticket and chasing away Ken Griffin’s money wasn’t the best idea. This amendment didn’t just pass because of public union votes. Over 2.1 million voters wanted this enshrined into the constitution. With this amendment, the voters clearly show… Read more »
>>>Elections and being lazy has consequences<<<
That says it all
The vote counters kept counting until they had enough votes for it to pass. Just like the DuPage County clerk is doing. Just keeps counting…You think they were going to let another constitutional amendment fail to pass? LOL
Nothing wrong about being concerned for a persons best interest but at what cost. The details of the Amendment is worded which can and will be interpreted in many ways. Laws have become extremely worded.as not to miss anything but always does. The Ten Commandments has less than 300 words depending in which version you read. Thou shalt not kill.Thou shalt not steal. 4 words in each of those and just a few more in the other 8. Simple and to the point. Now laws have thousands of words and can be interpreted in many ways. Thou shalt not kill.… Read more »
I’m not defending the amendment itself, just voters rights to choose what they deem best. Voters choosing what’s in their own best interest happens during each and every election. Not unique to this amendment. Also, your comment about fewer words in the 10 commandments is true. Take “Thou shall not steal” for example. It seems pretty straight forward but unfortunately in our litigious society we need to spell it out even more clearly because some people try to justify stealing. So instead of just using simple language we have the contracts clause in the US and Illinois constitution and Article… Read more »
Here’s another scenario. Hypothetically if there is an Amendment 2 that says seniors over age 62 do not have to pay schools taxes on their property tax bill unless they are raising their grand kids or have foster kids. The seniors would be recipients or beneficiaries just like most of those who voted for Amendment 1 so how many seniors would vote for this? I would venture to say most. But the opposition would say that in Ptell counties the tax rates would rise due to the loss of revenue. It still would save many seniors some money and if… Read more »
Doesn’t matter where the votes came from. All you can do is accept the result or leave Illinois.
Those who choose to stay fund the BS. Yes, you pay for the destruction of your own state. Pay it peasants!
I’m thinking what’s needed is some enterprising republican, maybe downstate mayor or something, as demonstration of the absurdity of Amendment 1 to push it to it’s extremes and maybe hire all of his/her constituents for an hour as city/township Public Employees while simultaneously negotiating $1 million salaries for 1 hour and lifetime pensions & gold plated health care deals!! Why not??
1972: Two freshly minted suburban Chicago teachers tied the wedding knot. How could they ever had even fathomed the taxpayer largess that lie ahead? 2007: The teachers retire exhausted at the age of 57 after thirty-five nine month years. Working until age 67 is for suckers in the private sector. The couple is now fully entitled to the benefits they were promised: unbelievably generous pensions and free medical coverage. 2022: Now in their early seventies, the teachers enjoy a life of affluence that normal working stiffs can only dream of. Thanks to greedy union thugs, bought-off politicians, pension spiking, and the magic of compound interest… Read more »
Good for them. The Illinois voters offered them a constitutional protected pension before they started their career and now they get to enjoy the fruits of their labor. The voters demanded this, the teachers performed the labor and now the voters are fulfilling theirs. That’s how contracts work.
Public sector parasites are worthless. If anything comes out of all this hopefully it is the complete destruction of the public sector employment model, we can terminate them all outsource everything to the private sector. I always think of my dipsh*t uncle who retired before 60 after being a gym teacher, received $110,000 / year with automatic increases every year, and this was 22 years ago! The dude f*cked off the entire 70s and 80s, screwing teachers (and prob a few students), never “worked” a day in his life and loves to brag how he padded his last few years… Read more »
So how do you really feel?
“If anything comes out of all this hopefully it is the complete destruction of the public sector employment model, we can terminate them all outsource everything to the private sector.” Good luck trying to negotiate future contracts to outsource labor away from the existing unions. While outsourcing everything to the private sector could have been an option if Illinois was “right to work”, that seems impossible while collective bargaining is allowed. Maybe some day you’ll be able to make Illinois a “right to work” state and remove collective bargaining rights. Oh wait, Amendment 1 guarantees that right. Ah shucks, back… Read more »
Amendment 1 will be struck down by the supreme court anyways. Until then you and your kind have declared war on the rest of us so expect nothing but hate, profanity and disrespect. Frankly I hope the tax payers burn this state to the ground by leaving, moving their businesses and closing their shops. My family is almost all the way out. We redomiciled to FL, we spend the 6 months and a day there, my wife can now file out of state. I do work here still so I’m still tethered but make no mistake we have minimized our… Read more »
You mean Illinois voters. That’s who approved this amendment.
Hey, maybe we’re neighbors.
Cool. I’ll be sure to look for that. Do you have any idea when that will be filed? lol
It will be struck down by the SCOTUS. It may take a while to get there, but it will.
Probably not likely to go to SCOTUS, unless the filer is able to conjure some kind of federal application. This will, and should, remain a state issue. It is based on the IL constitution, doesn’t deprive anyone of a USSC perview right, and much like the most recent flap of reproduction, the USSC should decline the case. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. We GTFO of Hellinois 2 yrs back… “no regerts” 😉
Did he also pad with a mail order Physical Education Masters Degree?
Probably Masters plus 45 or even a PhD.
Absolutely correct PPF. If you stay in Illinois, you accept responsibility for contracts made by the state government. Residents can stay and have a tantrum every time they see a tax bill or get out. Personally, I don’t understand why so many stay if they are so unhappy.
It’s a shame their parents didn’t raise them right. Instead of raising them with insatiable greed, their parents should have given them morals, a conscience, dignity, respect, generosity, a work ethic and concern for their fellow humans. Instead, their parents burdened society with immoral soulless sociopathic parasites who take pride in bleeding hard-working good people to death
I’m assuming you’re talking about the voters that enshrined contractually protected pension benefits into our constitution in 1970. They believed it was unethical and morally unfair to promise someone retirement benefits and then pull the rug out from these people once they reached retirement. They believed that promises meant something. They believed that someone with a strong work ethic should live out their golden years in dignity. If only they had been taught the ethics that so many support here. That it’s ok to steal from pensioners because I don’t want to pay more taxes. If only those voters in… Read more »
Your unions were / are the mob. Your entire existence is one giant mob extortion racket.
We see the results of that “strong work ethic” in student’s test scores every year.
You are getting your money, and apparently there’s not much we can do about it, as you delight in pointing out. But you will never get agreement that there is anything ethical or moral about the arrangement.
I wasn’t aware that there was a test score requirement that needed to be met to fulfill a contract. So the suburban teachers with the highest pay scale and best test scores are the only ones that morally deserve pensions? What about doctors that provide services to an obese patient that refuses to take charge of their own health care. Should they not get reimbursed. What about attorneys when their client gets convicted. Does that mean they were a bad attorney or is it a reflection of their client’s guilt? You do realize that the students are failing. The teachers… Read more »
We know what is not working: Common Core, Social Emotional Learning, CRT. My kid’s school wastes a dozen hours a week teaching this crap and then is SHOCKED! when test scores plummet. I can only imagine the baby sitting they do in the Free Lunch schools.
Maybe therein lies the problem. You weren’t aware that you were actually expected to teach children? You only needed to show up to fulfill the “contract”? First contract in history that is “performance optional”. Doctors and lawyers who lose most of their patients/clients will also soon lose their practice. But teachers and their unions never have to worry about losing their practice, do they? They are covered by their real clients, the politicians.
union parasites are completely unaware they are supposed to do a job. All these leeches know is the financial rape of people better than them
It’s no surprise that the bill passed. Most people in this country believe they have to vote for the bill and then they can read it later. Well now they’re reading it and a lot of them don’t like it. I don’t want to hear a damn word about it. You did it again. Not only are you going down but you’re taking all the rest of us down with you. You feeling pretty good about that?
Add to that the people that are too lazy to take the time to vote and there are a lot of them
No one who reads Wirepoints regularly voted in favor of Amendment 1. Of course the public sector parasites who come on the page did vote for it and they love it.
So who is your comment even intended for?
Two major trends will arise: (1) The exodus from Illinois will accelerate as people see (a) their tax bills inflate, (b) their local schools close yet again due to another teacher strike, and (c) their opinions silenced by radical school boards honoring union-demanding deviant ideologies and indoctrination in classrooms. (2) Attorneys will be suing in all directions and often as countless constituents seek redress or definition from the courts.
What a mess. Well done, Illinois voters.
7% is probably lowball. The authors should add in current pensioners and family members who share in the benefit pool. And then there’s the wannabes on the government jobs waiting lists. The number may reach 20% of very motivated voters, political contributors and campaign workers.
Then factor in low voter turnout which acts as a force multiplier for the reliable pensionocratic voting bloc.
Public unions are inherently fraudulent, especially in ILL where political corruption runs rampant.
How about calling out the sponsors of Amendment 1, and since there is no more Chicago Trib to do investigations, if we find some sponsors to investigate/research those individuals (i.e. Martwick?) and try to identify any issues they may prefer to hide. Would take like a couple $0.5MM to fund?
To what end? What relief would you expect to get?
The Illinois voters have decided they want this in the constitution. An investigation wouldn’t change a thing.
Tribune to investigate democrats? C’mon friend the democrats are the Tribune’s best friends
Public Unions should just be illegal.
The negotiators are both sitting on the same side of the table and the people paying get screwed.
The people of Illinois voted differently. That’s democracy.
The ballots were counted differently.
Sure they were debtsor. Don’t forget to vote when you already don’t think your vote counts.
Sure they were. They used Biden’s method of counting.
PPF, suppose the bias and censoring by media and tech platforms were as favorable to the right as they are to the left. What do you think Illinois would look like? In my opinion, it would be unrecognizable.
Mark, Media bias and election fraud are two very different things. So many of your readers live in this perpetual state of victimhood that they believe anytime they don’t win an election it’s because of fraud. It’s absolutely ridiculous and serves no purpose other than suppressing more Republican votes. Are you just like so many of your readers that believe Republicans are losing because of fraud? Now to your question. I don’t think the media has much influence on elections the way it did in the past. Every major media outlet in the area told us not to vote for… Read more »
“perpetual state of victimhood”
LOL, we had a Republican gov as recently as four years ago, and a REpublican senator six years ago, until JB showed up with an extra 700k votes more than any other Democrat since 1976, and clean sweeped Republicans out of power in IL. Because all these new voters and a flawless ground game, the Sun-Times tells us.
You mean the Republican governor that upset conservatives when he signed an abortion bill and the Republican Senator that many conservatives called a Rino? Yes, moderate Republicans stand a chance at winning if they can get past the primary. Rauner went after unions and couldn’t pass a budget. The voters blamed him for our inability to pay bills. He also ran his re-election at a time when hatred for Trump was massive. It wasn’t fraud but new voters coming into the fold and voting D. But you keep on with your perpetual victimhood. We all know that you stand with… Read more »
Radical right wing, fascist, mega-maga nazis like FDR agree with you
“laws that guarantee workers’ long-term employment contracts, multiyear salary increases, constitutionally backed lifetime pensions, the power to strike, and much more.” Long-term employment contracts – Also available before amendment 1 multiyear salary increases – Also available before amendment 1 constitutionally backed lifetime pensions – Already embeddded in the constitution power to strike – Also available before amendment 1 Sure this amendment was poorly written and I’m sure lawyers will love all the challenges but the main issues you point to are already happening. “Finally, there’s the public sector unions’ handout to private unions: the amendment’s permanent ban of Right to… Read more »
Also available before amendment 1.
Any act against the US Constitution is Void
You’ll have to explain why this amendment conflicts with the US Constitution. Though I think it was a mistake to vote in favor of amending the IL Constitution, I haven’t read anything suggesting such a conflict. Please enlighten us.
Some animals are more equal than others….
Quick deaths are preferable over slow. The best thing for those staying in Illinois would be for the financial collapse to come sooner rather than later. Crazy as it sounds, Wirepoints could best serve its audience by guiding Illinois taxpayers to other states, simply because a loss of its tax base expedites the Illinois collapse. The best way to save Illinois is by destroying it as quickly as possible. Of course, this only makes sense if you accept the premise that Illinois voters are incapable of saving themselves from their current downward spiral. I submit the most recent election as… Read more »
At the conclusion of each Wirepoints report, the following statement could be added.
“Wirepoints strongly recommends you create a plan to leave Illinois sooner rather than later, as it is in a seemingly irreversible downward spiral leading to financial ruin.”
And those 93% have the freedom to leave Illinois.
Being a stubborn coward and refusing to leave Illinois is peak spineless hypocrisy especially when you whine about how bad things are.
Indy, pretty much sums it up. It’s difficult to find any respect for them.
Buy me a house somewhere else and cut me a check and I’ll be glad to go.
So what you’re saying is that unless someone provides you with a free home and gives you additional money that you will need to stay in Illinois. I guess Illinois still remains the best opportunity for you at the moment. Must not be that bad after all. It’s probably why many people stay.
The state government is occupied by a foreign, corrupt Democrat regime, that fraudulently stole the election. We are an occupied state.
Are you a child? Helpless? You are exactly what the Dems rely on. You complain, but then pay for their ultra-liberal agenda.
Or just have your home foreclosed on, your credit ruined, and being forced to live in the streets by staying in Illinois.
Especially with what’s going on in Ukraine.
The Ukrainians have to endure unimaginable wartime suffering & over 7 Million have already left due to the war & the attacks on the energy grid.
Illinoisans don’t have bombs & missiles falling in their back yard or their power being knocked out yet they refuse to move?
Not buying it.
Illinois is no longer a democracy
Ted, do any of the other states that have similar amendments (I believe like Hawaii) have NOT TO BE DIMINISHED GAURANTEES for a small part of it population (i.e. gov employees) at the expense of the majority? or is Illinois the stand alone state in this ethical/ equitable hypocrisy?
There is a way out.
Travel North, South, East or West as far as you need to leave the State. Whatever you do don’t look back.
All it takes is the price of a Tank of Gas to get out.
Oh, if it were that easy. It took 3 years to execute our exodus. One to convince my spouse. One to prep and sell the house. And one to build another. Result? Illinois’ in the rear view mirror. Amen.
Similar situation. Thru it all I felt like we pretty much had no choice. Although we could afford to stay, we couldn’t stomach the taxes and the politics. No regrets. Things only got worse in Illinois.