Editorial: After the crisis, let's build stable foundation for state

In a Guest View we published on this page Monday headlined "Getting beyond 'baling wire' to fund government," two Cook County Board members - one a suburban Republican, the other a city of Chicago Democrat - proposed a wholesale re-examination of the way we fund government services in Illinois.

"For decades," wrote Peter Silvestri of Elmwood Park and Jesus "Chuy" Garcia of Chicago, "we have used the financial equivalent of baling wire and duct tape to perpetuate a taxing infrastructure that is increasingly disconnected from both overall economic growth" and the present economy.

They couldn't be more right, and few people in any position in government in Illinois, whether working in a local village office or serving in the highest positions in state government, would likely disagree. The problem is, as it will ever be, what do we do about it?

Right now, the governor and legislative leaders are locked in a test of wills whose outcome both sides believe will determine the fundamental operation of government in Illinois. Yet, to the extent that that belief is valid, the fact is that what actually will be determined over the coming weeks or months is who will get to manipulate the baling wire and duct tape for the next few years.

While the governor talks often of rebuilding the state economy with a more business-friendly regulatory environment and Democratic leaders talk about fairness to all and protecting the state's most-vulnerable citizens, whichever side makes strides coming out of the current standoff, we still won't have changed the fundamental structures of taxation and spending that define the way we operate our state offices, our local governments and our schools.

We will still have about 7,000 government bodies. We will still have an amalgam of gas taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, income taxes, business and commercial taxes, user fees and regulatory fees - not to mention a constantly growing list of ballooning spending obligations. We will still have, in the words of Silvestri and Garcia, "huge bills ... run up on government credit cards, and bond financing for current and past operations (that) have reached staggering amounts."

The real question, then, is how do we do things differently? To be sure, when one begins trying to unravel the tangled lines of revenue creation and spending philosophy, and oversight of it all, the head quickly begins to spin. But at some point, the head spinning has to stop and the action has to begin. Silvestri and Garcia talk generally of getting governments, schools and experts to craft a set of comprehensive reforms. Again, they couldn't be more right. Who, though, is going to bring these interests together, define their mission and shape their outcomes into substantive legislation?

Gov. Bruce Rauner, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton are the only ones in a position to actually facilitate such a process. If they want to provide true leadership, meaningful leadership toward a stable future in Illinois, they will.

Sure, they have to get out the baling wire and duct tape for the present crisis. But immediately after that, the best thing they can do for all interests in the state is to set in motion a broadly representative task force, then find the will and the energy to create a new architecture, built with sound philosophical reflection and steely resolve.