Kane's state reform resolution strips support for parts of governor's turnaround agenda
Gov. Bruce Rauner asked Kane County officials to pass a resolution supporting his turnaround agenda for Illinois last month, but the final draft mostly turns its back on the controversial points of Rauner's platform.
The county board's executive committee performed some final tinkering Wednesday on the resolution. The document the full county board will vote on next week supports the need to address state's financial challenges.
It then delineates a mini-highlight reel of the successes of the county's various agencies and departments. The document then calls a low state income tax, lower sales tax, spending cuts and consolidation of the state comptroller and treasurer's offices. It closes by rejecting state-imposed unfunded mandates, reduction of county government authority and any attempt to merge underfunded pension systems with fully funded pension systems.
County board Chairman Chris Lauzen called the resolution Kane County's own version of a bipartisan vision for reform in Springfield.
"Much of this is just not controversial because those things have already been removed from the proposal," Lauzen said.
That didn't stop attempts to even further tame the document. Board members expressed concern about a passage calling for a recalibration of Medicaid eligibility to cut the costs of the program. Board members said that was largely a federal issue and too complicated to address in one paragraph of a resolution. So they deleted it from the final draft.
Then it was time for the audience to speak. The recurring message from Richard Cosson of Lakewood and nine other speakers was a call to not include anything in the final draft or final vote on the resolution that undercuts the existence of public employee unions.
"I have a problem with a governor who self-reports being worth half a billion dollars and says state employees make too much money," Cosson said. "We have to pay our mortgages. We have to send our kids to colleges. We have to pay our property taxes. I don't make a lot of money. I'm here to support unions and collective bargaining. It's the only thing that guarantees fair wages and equal pay among many other things."
Vince Rychtanek, president of the Elgin Association of Firefighters, attacked the committee for including language in the resolution that calls for pension reform. The wording endorses protection for current retiree benefits but a "different promise of an affordable program" for future employees. Rychtanek noted a sentence in the resolution that keeps IMRF pensions, which even part-time county board members are eligible for, untouched in any reform.
"You're willing to throw the rest of organized labor under the bus and sell them down the river, but hands off your precious IMRF pension system," Rychtanek said. "Thanks for showing us the true hypocrites that you really are. I think that anybody that supports this resolution at the full board meeting, that organized labor could come together in a bipartisan fashion and show you all to the unemployment line in the next election."
Lauzen credited board members Ron Ford and Deb Allan for much of the final wording in the draft. Both are Democrats, leading board member Barb Wojnicki to decry a lack of Republican representation in the drafting process. Lauzen said he provided the Republican input.
"I would put my Republican credentials up against anyone's Republican credentials," Lauzen said.
Though Democrats did most of the talking on the resolution, Republicans mainly agreed the final draft is a document they can live with. Republican Drew Frasz sported two Rauner bumper stickers on his pickup truck during election season. He said he and many of his GOP colleagues on the board would have preferred a resolution with explicit support for lawsuit reform, prevailing wage reform and local empowerment zones.
"I'm not happy with the final outcome," Frasz said. "But it's my only chance to officially support the governor as a Kane County Board member. So I'm going to take it."