Radicals Positioning To Destroy Illinois If Its Fiscal Crisis Doesn’t

By: Mark Glennon*

They probably comprise no more than 20% of the general population, but they’ve learned how to mau-mau moderate Illinois Democrats into compliance or silence and, unlike America as a whole, their party controls all of Illinois government. That makes their threat existential.

“They” are the new left. Debate a proper label for them if what you want – the resistance, radicals, leftists, whatever. They are why people like me, who have thought of themselves as JFK Democrats all their lives, now view that party as a hostile force.

The exact list of policy positions defining them is debatable but it’s unquestionably extreme and, ominously, has become a normalized element of Democratic governance in Illinois.

Start with the fringe of the fringe, socialists, who are now a serious force. “Socialists win big in Chicago” was The Nation’s headline on last week’s elections. Jacobin, a leading socialist publication, proclaimed that the “left’s victories in Tuesday’s Chicago elections are tangible and undeniable. Few could have imagined such an unquestionably positive night for leftist candidates.” The Chicago Teacher’s Union is headed by socialist Jesse Sharkey. Their influence on elections is huge, and their longstanding efforts in schools are now showing up in election results. “CTU knows how to put a mayor in place,” said one of its vice president’s recently.

More importantly, aside from socialism, the rest of the far left’s policy agenda is gaining acceptance throughout the Illinois Democratic Party and going unchecked in this single-party state. Nationally, some Democrats are beginning to question the party’s leftward shift. Even a liberal columnist in the Washington Post asked last week if the party is committing electoral suicide.

Not in Illinois. Consider a few of the new left’s plans for Illinois, and how far they have gotten with Illinois Democrats:

•   Progressive real estate transfer tax. It’s best seen as an exit tax on wealthier homeowners fleeing. It’s supported by both Chicago mayoral candidates who won a place in the runoff election, Toni Preckwinkle and Lori Lightfoot. The heavily Democratic City of Evanston is already implementing it.

•   Rent control. Illinois politicians should be setting the rent, we’re told. A bill authorizing rent control is pending in the General Assembly and Governor Pritzker has indicated approval in concept. Preckwinkle supports rent control; Lightfoot hasn’t indicated her position.

•   Universal basic income in Chicago. Just give at least $500 per month to every family in Chicago, no strings attached. Mayor Rahm Emanuel evidently saw enough force behind the idea that he authorized a task force to look into a pilot program. It’s leading proponent, Alderman Ameya Pawar, may well become Chicago’s new treasurer, having just won his way into the runoff election. Its cost to the city if fully implemented would be about $12.6 billion annually. Chicago’s annual budget for fiscal 2018 was $8.6 billion.

•   100% renewable energy. Both Governor Pritzker and a many Illinois lawmakers (including at least one Republican) want Illinois to commit to reaching that goal by 2050. It’s the core feature of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s Green New Deal for the nation, albeit with a longer deadline – 30 years instead of 10. But a Greenpeace co-founder recently wrote, “You are delusional if you think fossil fuels will end any time soon, maybe in 500 years,” and said the Cortez plan would “bring about mass death.” The Green New Deal’s price tag has been estimated as high as $93 trillion, or $600,000 per household. Illinois supporters haven’t bothered to place a price tag on meeting the goal over their longer time period. That’s a common aspect of the new left’s policy agenda – numbers mean nothing.

•   Statewide $15 per hour minimum wage. Governor Pritzker made this a top priority and already signed the new law raising the minimum to $15 by 2025, statewide. That might seem reasonable around Chicago, but opposition came largely from lower income communities across the state. The Rockford Park District, for example, gives hundreds of teenagers and young adults get their first jobs at a lower wage, and the new law will open a $2 million per year hole in its budget.

All that is apart from the fiscal crisis Illinois faces. What’s their answer on that? Regarding its primary cause, pensions, the Pritzker Administration and both Chicago mayoral candidates are firm: No pension reform. Not one dime’s worth. Pritzker outlined the rest of his fiscal approach in his recent budget address: More borrowing to fund pension debt, a can-kick delaying the schedule for pension contributions and gifting public assets to pensions. Illinois’ new left seems fine with all of that.

And on the national issues polarizing the country, Illinois’ new left seems intent on stoking division, in policy and words. Chicago is already labeled a super-sanctuary city by critics, protecting some 400,000 undocumented immigrants whose benefits include free community college education (the numbers on which the schools don’t even count). Governor Pritzker has vowed to make Illinois the “most progressive state” on abortion, and the legislature is now fast-tracking what’s been called “legislation so extreme you won’t believe it.”  Pritzker calls those who want border walls “hateful.” Skeptics of his climate policy “hate science,” he has said.

No Illinois Democrat has stood up to yell “Stop” to any of this, except one. Congressman Dan Lipinski warned last year against his party becoming the “Tea Party of the left.” About all he accomplished with that, however, was insulting the Tea Party.

If anything, leading Democrats read the new Chicago elections as a call to move further to the left. “Hours after historic election, Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle each argue they’re more progressive than the other.”  That was a Chicago Tribune headline. Credit the new left for being exceptionally well-organized, aggressive and committed, which accounts for their success bulldozing the entire Illinois Democratic party. Unfortunately, that doesn’t validate their ideas.

Margaret Thatcher’s famous quote needs amendment when it comes to Illinois. “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money,” she said. But in Illinois, the trouble is you run out of other people. If the fiscal crisis doesn’t ensure that Illinois’ population loss accelerates, the new left will.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.

Updated to clarify that the universal basic income tax pilot proposal is for $500 per month.

For background research and commentary on these issues, see our earlier articles below:

 

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R Addis
5 years ago

51 years too many in IL! Got out 2 years ago, escaped to TN, WOW just the quility of life is an amazing difference, not to mention no state income tax and a $12,000.00 savings on my property tax. Get out while you can, they will soon tax you for leaving.

5 years ago

“Just give at least $500 to every family in Chicago, no strings attached.”

That’s sloppy reporting. It would be $500 per month (the “per month” was left out), and it would be to each person, not just each family.

Rick
5 years ago

The Cicero school district is a good example of sanctuary run amok. Most kids are lllegal there, free lunch, free breakfast, free school, free bus. And the parents are taught literally by the district exactly how to apply for every possible government freeby and how to game the system if they don’t qualify. It’s the most well funded biggest district in the state all given to illegals. The union entrenchment custodians and teachers prevents anyone from even thinking about disciplining a teacher. I know one custodian there that steals supplies like crazy. While other districts can’t even buy paste.

nixit
5 years ago

As far as rent control, what’s preventing progressive non-profits from buying real estate themselves and implementing whatever rent controls they want? The CTU Foundation is sitting on $50 million in assets. Eychaner’s Alphawood Foundation has $120 million in assets. There are dozens more just like them. Why don’t they each set aside 20% of their funding for rent stabilization proofs-of-concept?

DantheMan
5 years ago

The Illinois liberal/progressive voters are not evil. Sometimes I need to remind myself of this simple fact. They are however lacking in the ability to reason thru a problem and in some cases are just poorly informed. When the collapse finally arrives, they won’t understand what happened, and have no idea that their own voting record was the root cause of the collapse. They are not deep thinkers. They are surface only thinkers. They see problems being solved simply, by more government involvement. All that’s needed is more spending and more rules. They don’t even consider government as being a… Read more »

DantheMan
5 years ago
Reply to  Mark Glennon

When I was in college many years ago, I was taught in business classes to find and address the root cause and don’t confuse the symptoms as being the underlying cause. With so many young people now being progressive, I wonder if this business approach is still taught in school.

Mark M
5 years ago
Reply to  Mark Glennon

Mark – Wirepoints has done more than any other outlet to approach Illinois’ considerable problems in a logical and empirical way. Well intentioned or not, progressives will be in for a shock when the “end” arrives. There has been discussion over what the “end” means, but taking a cue from NY City in the 70’s, the end will arrive when Chicago (and being so interconnected, the State of Illinois) can no longer borrow money. The political class today lives on borrowed funds, with leverage to the extent not seen or permitted in the private sector. One would think this end… Read more »

Josh
5 years ago

Took a job in IL and worked there for three years, and one year ago I left, never happier. Found a job that pays well back in MT. Chicago controls the rest of IL via Springfield.

S and P 500
5 years ago

At least Gavin Newsom killed the bullet train in the Dem flagship state of Calif. Will Bunch of the Philly Inq is about as leftist a writer as you can get but he did pen a nice guide to the Dem slate of candidates in 2020. What is causing politics to become such a circus ? Tori Spelling has nothing on our lawmakers.

https://www.philly.com/opinion/commentary/democratic-presidential-convention-bernie-sanders-donald-trump-20190303.html

https://reason.com/reasontv/2019/03/01/calif-gov-gavin-newsom-kills-former-gov

Andrew Szakmary
5 years ago

I am very confused by this editorial, in which you simultaneously state that Illinois’ biggest problem is population loss and criticize the left for welcoming immigrants. Reasonable people can disagree on whether immigration, legal and/or illegal, is a net plus or minus, but it is incontrovertibly true that other things equal immigration increases population, and that being more hostile to immigrants would only accelerate population loss.

Paul137
5 years ago
Reply to  Mark Glennon

” in favor of a path to normalization (short of full voting) ..”

Whoo. We’ve had seven mass amnesties of illegal aliens, starting with the original (‘just this once and never again’) in 1986 …

https://www.numbersusa.com/content/learn/illegal-immigration/seven-amnesties-passed-congress.html
… yet we have waaaaay more illegal aliens here now than when we started.

SO WHY WOULD WE DO IT AGAIN??

“I want lots of immigration.”

Whoo, again. For a clue, read Mark Krikorian’s “Legal Good/Illegal Bad?” https://www.nationalreview.com/2007/06/legal-good-illegal-bad-mark-krikorian/

Mark M
5 years ago
Reply to  Mark Glennon

I am of the same bent as Mark Glennon, but still must point out that the raft of illegal immigration has started gnificant impacts on Chicago and Illinois. This population has high social needs, and these are met largely through public sectors workers. And public sector workers, especially in Illinois where they also have the status of belonging to a patronage army, are expensive. The costs of an expanding patronage army are not sustainable. One can argue otherwise, but current finances don’t support that notion.

Riverbender
5 years ago

Immigrants that are members of “the free stuff army” is the problem.
Illinois is a sanctuary state that offers free stuff for all including illegal immigrants.

Chase Gioberti
5 years ago

Why would being slightly less accommodating to immigrants while being more accommodating to native born residents result in accelerating population loss. That makes literally no sense.

steve-oh
5 years ago

Wrong Andrew. Reasonable people believe, in fact KNOW, that illegal immigration up to 20Million or so, is a net minus. They use welfare bfts disproportionally, they use hospitals without paying, schools without paying much if any, they depress wages for entry-level workers, they take jobs that our young entry-level unskilled workers would often like to have at least part-time or summer……..and they cost billions for the “ESL” classes they get free at Jr Colleges and elsewhere, and they get MEALS at schools. Democrats are NOT reasonable on that debate of whether they’re a net plus or minus. Feel free to… Read more »

5 years ago

The socialists will cause a civil war to start in America.

Blair Garber
5 years ago

that’s a perfect description of Evanston

KL
5 years ago

Ironically, their progressiveness results only in regression. But like petulant toddlers, they refuse to see it.
WHERE is ONE good thing going on? WHERE?!
We are ruled and destroyed by morons.

Chase Gioberti
5 years ago
Reply to  KL

Why do conservatives insist on using Marxist approved words like “progressive”?

Dave
5 years ago

I already left. Beat the exit taxes and all and have contributed thousands and thousands of dollars in taxes to next door Indiana which could have gone to Illinois. Saw all this coming.

DantheMan
5 years ago

Elections have consequences. Illinois and Chicago are finally achieving exactly what they always wanted. I don’t understand their logic, values, or even their math, but I do respect their decision. As for myself and others like me, we leave you to your liberal utopia. Anyway, best of luck to you Chicago and Illinois. It’s time for me to explore my other options. I think about 49 of them. You know what’s curious? The ones that think the same way as you in Illinois all seem to be the ones with the biggest problems. Don’t worry about it though. I’m sure… Read more »

5 years ago
Reply to  DantheMan

As Chicago goes, so does the state. We all go down.

Indy
5 years ago
Reply to  DantheMan

Indiana welcomes you with open arms, low taxes, fiscally responsible government, better services, no pension crisis, more freedom, and the best long term stability in the nation.

DantheMan
5 years ago
Reply to  Indy

Thanks Indy. It must be nice to have some feeling of pride, or even just contentment when you think about the state you reside within. When conservative leaning Illinois residents think about home, they just feel like victims.

Bruce ross
5 years ago

Scary, absolutely scary.

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