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Editorial: House should uphold veto of bad arbitration law

As the House prepares to vote Wednesday on a motion to override Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of a labor arbitration bill, remove the outsized personalities from the equation for a moment, then consider the two sides and one question:

One side says that the state's public-employee pension crisis is only a revenue problem, that the primary solution for fixing it should be a tax increase and that Illinois' public employees are substantially underpaid compared to other states. Its current compensation proposals for state employees in stalled contract negotiations call for pay increases of 11.5 percent over the next four years for most employees - up to 29 percent for some.

One side says that the state's fiscal problems are a product of decades of undisciplined spending, that Illinois' employees are compensated not only comparably to their counterparts in other states but by many measures better, that a solution to the public pension crisis requires substantial contributions from all interested parties, and that the interests of recession-weary taxpayers must take a central role in all state spending decisions.

Admitting that likely neither side is entirely right and neither entirely wrong, on which approach do you find yourself most aligned with the spirit of the argument? That public employees are not treated fairly and taxes should be raised to benefit them? Or that public employees are not treated unfairly and must share equally in the efforts to bring discipline back to state spending?

For us, it is the latter view that resonates, and in the context of a momentous period of budgeting and state spending decisions, we're leery of anything that impedes the ability of the state to right its financial ship.

In such an environment, the arbitration proposal the House is set to take up this week fails on many levels. For one, it is cynically written to apply almost solely to Gov. Rauner and limit his ability to negotiate state contracts at this critical time. For another, and the most troubling, it creates a process whereby the arbitrator's only option is to adopt the offer of one side or the other with no room for finding middle ground.

With the outcome likely to depend on just a handful of votes, there is unusual pressure for lawmakers to fall in line with Speaker Michael Madigan and the union leaders who are fighting hard to pass this law. We of course hope that all suburban lawmakers, Republican or Democrat, will have the wisdom and strength to side with taxpayers, yet we can't help but acknowledge that for those Democrats who fancy themselves independent defenders of the taxpayer's interests, this is a critical test.

There may be a time when it will be appropriate to support an arbitration bill that eliminates the possibility of strikes while providing balance between employee and taxpayer interests. But this is not that time, and this most definitely is not that bill. Thoughtful, independent legislators will recognize that and oppose the effort to override the governor's veto.

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