Gov. Blagojevich’s ego, craving for power go too far in Illinois budget process

There is a reason there are three branches of government in this state and across the country: to ensure checks and balances happen when necessary.

To say that checks and balances are necessary right now in Springfield is putting things politely. Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s enormous ego and desire for power have put Illinois and its residents in a horrific situation. Not only does the state legislature look like a three-ring circus, its members are acting like clowns.

Our elected lawmakers have been working an overtime session that has lasted more than 70 days in an effort to pass a budget. And while a budget was passed Aug. 23, additional work on the budget is expected to last past Labor Day. That is ridiculous, preposterous. It’s not as if legislators did not know the state needed a new budget. Yet still they have been playing silly games that put the state’s school districts at risk of not receiving much-needed aid. Our legislators in Springfield held hostage state employees, who until just this week were not sure if there would be a government shut-down and were not sure if they were going to get paid.

Unbelievably, though, in the budget Blagojevich simultaneously accepted and rejected on Aug. 23, he gave legislators a 3.5 percent pay raise. In addition to that, Blagojevich last week approved a 9.6 percent pay hike, increasing our legislators’ salaries 13.1 percent. For what? For not doing what they should have done more than three months ago and pass an acceptable budget?

By the way, the governor who consistently has refused to live in the governor’s mansion and reportedly spends some $6,000 a day to fly to Springfield and back to Chicago, is eligible for a pay raise that would mean he would be--depending on your definition of the word--“earning” $170,918 a year. Perhaps he could use some of that money to pay for those daily flights or to help keep the electricity running in the Springfield home he refuses to use.

Blagojevich seems to think he can do whatever he pleases, for whomever he pleases, which more often than not is his own self, his close friends and whomever will support his proposed initiatives. He took it upon himself to slash more than $430 million in “pet” or “pork” projects from the budget--something that may not even be allowed by the state Constitution--to fund his own pet projects, including several health care initiatives. Talk about nerve. While talking about how important it is for all Illinois residents to have adequate health care, Blagojevich cut spending for veterans’ care and hospital health care, including millions slated for Cook County’s Oak Forest Hospital, according to Friday’s Chicago Tribune.

The Tribune also reported that Blagojevich cut about $90 million in spending for hospitals and nursing homes, programs that provide meals to home-bound AIDS patients and programs to assist indigent mental health patients. Blagojevich also cut $16 million in cost-of-living pay raises for substance abuse workers and workers who provide care for the developmentally disabled.

Blagojevich’s health care plans call for changes that would make every uninsured woman in Illinois eligible for breast cancer and cervical cancer screening, as well as allow poor adults not eligible for Medicare a chance to see a doctor and get needed medications. His plan also would provide more of the state’s working- and middle-class families a chance to have health coverage through the Family Care program. There’s also the governor’s All Kids program, which would give kids with pre-existing medical conditions access to affordable health care.

Blagojevich is talking out of both sides of his mouth, something for which he has developed a great talent. It makes no sense to make it more difficult for AIDS patients, the mentally ill and veterans to get the health care they need and to cut hospitals’ budgets. It’s akin to robbing Pete to pay Paul. In an effort to make himself look good and to placate some of the state’s residents, he ultimately makes himself look worse to other residents. Does he see himself as some sort of Robin Hood by taking money from some health-care programs and shifting that money to his own health care initiatives? If so, he’ll be making some people’s lives worse, not better.

“A budget should reflect the priorities of the people who elected us to make their lives better,” Blagojevich said in a statement available on the state’s Web site. “That’s why I’m removing almost $500 million in special pet projects and other spending that we simply can’t afford. And at the same time, we’re preparing new rules and administrative changes that will give half-a-million Illinoisans access to healthcare.”

In other words, he cut his foes’ pet projects from the budget and inserted his own. Blagojevich’s cuts are little more than a “screw you” to those legislators who dared not support the governor's own pet projects, and that includes not just health care but his desire to bring gambling to the state to help fund transit issues. Oddly, he cut many of his fellow Democrats’ projects, reportedly because they did not support his health-care initiatives.

Illnois House Speaker Michael Madigan was one of Blagojevich’s targets. It is widely known that Blagojevich and Madigan are not friendly to each other. Blagojevich's verbal judo with Madigan will be remembered by many watching this budget process as little more than delay and power-play tactics. And Blagojevich’s contempt for Madigan could not possibly be more transparent.

Blagojevich cut Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s budget; she is Michael Madigan’s daughter. Blagojevich also cut funding for the Illinois Arts Council, which is headed by Shirley Madigan, the speaker’s wife. Those actions show just how big a megalomaniac Blagojevich is and why he just really has no business running this state. If his actions are determined by who supports him and who doesn’t, who gives in to his power-play tactics and who doesn't, he and this state are in serious trouble.

The governor’s money shifting is going to be examined to determine if he actually has the Constitutional power to move money from one category of the budget to another simply because he wants to.

Meanwhile, legislators still need to address funding for the CTA and the RTA and other mass transit issues. “I look forward to working with them on a capital bill to provide funding for mass transit, and aging infrastructure like roads and bridges,” Blagojevich said.

One must wonder how much haggling there will be on those funding issues, how much longer legislators will be working “overtime,” and how much longer they will be wasting commuters’ time playing “I’ll give you this if you give me that” and “You’re my best friend forever...wait, wait, no you’re not.”

Blagojevich has abused his power and has turned the Illinois Legislature into a power-point presentation on stupidity, arrogance and stubbornness. He is an embarrassment to the office he represents and he is an embarrassment to this state.

News stories about the way Blagojevich, Madigan, Illinois Senate President Emil Jones (who has flip-flopped in his support for Blagojevich during the past few months) have handled these budget negotiations could and should be used as a tutorial on how not to behave, how not to represent your constituents and how not to keep hold of your office in the next election.

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