Time for officials' summer schooling

Dear local legislators:

What have you done with your summer break so far? Yes, ours has been dreary too, but it's not just the weather or our mediocre baseball teams that has us down. We're down because we don't see evidence that you're out there fighting for us.

Now maybe you didn't realize it; maybe we weren't clear enough. If so, we apologize, and we're writing now to clear up the confusion. You have summer homework. Just like kids get summer reading assignments, you have work too.

You ought to be weighing in on the budget mess you didn't solve during the spring. You ought to be weighing in on the whole tax, spending, pension morass we're all stuck in right now. You need to tell us your specific ideas for cutting spending and budget balancing. If you've been working behind the scenes, we need to know. You ought to be putting extreme pressure on your leaders to quit procrastinating like teenagers. You need to do your job.

Yes, we know your leaders give you the big money allowance that keeps you running for a shot at that public salary. But we're your bosses. We decide whether you keep the salary. So far, most of you get a failing grade. You don't want to repeat that grade in summer school.

So study this: Your leaders really are not helping. In the Senate, your leadership hung you out to dry by convincing six of you suburban Democrats to vote for a big tax hike that went nowhere and certainly wasn't accompanied by budget cuts. Amazingly, four suburban Democratic House representatives voted for something similar, though your leader surely knew the bill would fail and you'd be wearing that vote like a scarlet letter. Those of you in the House will be up for election next year. For that, you do get some credit for showing the courage of your convictions. In the Senate, yes, we know you're not up for re-election for a while and you're hoping we'll all forget. We intend to remember. The rest of you voted against big tax hikes, but what are you doing to make sure we solve our financial problems? What are you doing to try to fix our tainted campaign finance system? No, we are not going to give you any credit for voting for that lame attempt at campaign donation limits.

We passed high school civics. We read the fine print and we know that plan has more holes in it than the stale Swiss cheese they serve up on hoagies in the school cafeteria.

Last week, after one of the rare handful of hours that Gov. Pat Quinn and your leaders spent talking about the budget, there was mention of state worker layoffs and of changing pensions for new hires to raise the retirement age and reduce benefits. That was refreshing. It mirrored the realities those of us who pay your salaries face. The state's new budget year begins in 2.5 weeks. We elected you to serve and to lead. Please get to work on the summer assignment now.

Sincerely,

The editorial board and like-minded voters