Rauner's war on Illinois workers

Rauner's war on Illinois workers

Governor Rauner's budget gave more than $100 million in tax breaks to some of Illinois' biggest corporations while making cuts to dozens of vital programs that aid people in need - autistic children, burial funds for the needy and after school programs for teens. Tax breaks for the wealthy and cuts for the rest of us; it's a constant drumbeat.

In 2011 and 2013, Rauner gave $700,000 to the Donors Trust, which is associated with the Koch brothers. His donations funded the Illinois Policy Institute (anti-tax fairness), Americans for Prosperity (anti-ACA and its guarantees), The Heartland Institute (denies climate change) and to Freedom Works (privatizes Social Security).

Rauner's war on Illinois workers includes pressuring local governments to adopt his "Turnaround Agenda," which will give tax incentives (tax incentives mean our tax money) to the companies who move to "right-to-work" zones. The reason for a company to choose to move is to pay workers less in wages.

Instead of trampling workers' rights by destroying unions and making all these cuts to the middle class, why aren't we talking about generating revenue by demanding politicians put an end to corporate tax loopholes, corporate tax incentives, tax inversions and the offshoring of profits?

Illinois has some of the biggest corporations and our politicians are unwilling to stop the flow of our tax money to the biggest offenders, like GE, Boeing, Citigroup and CME because, as we all know, the flow of money from corporations flows right to the politician's pockets.

Brace yourself. Recently, Madeleine Doubek of Reboot Illinois just uncovered $9 billion in "special funds" that has been squirreled away by our state government, instead of paying off bills or making cuts to programs. Illinois has been turned around all right.

Joni Lindgren

Elgin