Editorial: Rauner's promising, but still vague 'big picture'

Perhaps the most important objective of Gov. Rauner's State of the State speech Wednesday was to set the tone for change in Illinois. In that regard, he got off to a strong, if imperfect start.

As for its strengths, Wednesday's speech was void of the confrontation and condemnations of the past and focused heavily on inclusion and cooperation toward implementing solutions to Illinois' many fiscal problems. He spoke of a “new beginning” and promised “a new partnership between the General Assembly and the governor.”

Then, he went on to emphasize important priorities for the state without belaboring the campaign rhetoric or the all-too-familiar rundown of Illinois' dismal financial condition. He supplemented his speech with three separate packages of goals for economic growth, education and reforms of government and taxation, describing his plan as “bold, aggressive and comprehensive ... both necessary and doable.”

And, while acknowledging his overview contains items an individual lawmaker will like and items that same lawmaker will dislike, he urged everyone to concentrate on “the big picture.” That indeed is the approach all government leaders — and all of us as citizens, for that matter — must keep in mind. In the end, each of us is likely to have to sacrifice something so that all of us can benefit.

But the huge question mark, the one that has loomed over the Rauner agenda from the early days of his political campaign, is how he plans to bring all this about, and his speech remained unsatisfyingly vague on that point.

To be sure, he offers some specifics. He called for a property-tax freeze. He urged a phased-in annual minimum wage increase of 25 cents an hour for seven years. He cited the need for consolidating governments.

But the dominant fabric of his program still cried out for detail. He promised increase support for education and expanded access to early-childhood programs. He talked of workers' compensation reform that “protects and fairly compensates those who are injured on the job, while also assuring that both public and private employers are not overburdened by an irrational system.” He talked of prison reform and greater investment in the correction system. But he did not talk a lot about how he will bring these things about — especially considering that so much of his speech was fairly standard Republican fare laid before a legislature that remains solidly Democratic.

On the whole, Rauner's State of the State address laid a reasonable philosophical groundwork for turning around the fortunes of the state, but as for whether its most important elements are in fact “doable,” we're still left to wait for the real discussion to begin in two weeks, when the governor will present the budget on which this agenda must be built — and following that, to see if his collaborative and leadership skills are equal to the ambition of his words.