Illinois lawmaker loses it

[AngryAmish]

9. If you care about good government then this guy has a point

For those who are unaware of the intricacies of Illinois politics (and be glad if you don't)...

Illinois has been insolvent for a few years now. One of the drivers of this insolvency is a big pension problem. This bill tries to remedy this problem. The way most public employees pensions have been run for years in towns and counties outside Chicago is the employees pensions are run and funded by the state (by and large - there are exceptions but police, fire and teachers are all statewide). The employees and the managers like this because they can spike their pensions at the end and get nice pensions. It really does not matter to the managers because all state taxpayers pay for the pension. It really is a tragedy of the commons situation. The state has not been funding the pensions for years. Well, this bill puts the pension onus back on the individual body politics (school boards, town, counties, et al.) This will require property and tax hikes locally.

This would not be a problem if this was hashed out in the ordinary give and take of politics. But there is no such give and take in Illinois. The only person who matters is Mike Madigan, the Speaker of the House. He funds all the elections of house members through his PAC (and otherwise). Madigan drafted this bill by himself and gave it to the members the night before to vote on the next day. The bill is 350 pages or so. There are lots of Easter Eggs in there that nobody knows about.

That is why this guy went apeshit. It is no way to govern but when one man runs state government that is what you get.