By: Former Senator Patrick J. O’Malley

State of the State points out need for change

Recently Governor Blagojevich shared with the citizens of Illinois his greatest accomplishments and his goals for the upcoming year. 

While the State of the State Address provides an opportunity for the Governor to share his perspective, his remarks deserve to be challenged because it is clear that Illinois can and simply must do better over the next year in many areas including fiscal accountability, educational excellence and economic opportunity.

Borrow and Spend

Hiding behind the Big Lie that when he entered office he was faced with a $5 billion deficit, this Governor has taken Illinois government operational spending to all time highs. 

Sadly, this Governor learned some bad habits during his brief stint in Washington, DC. 

Even though the Governor promised not to increase taxes during his 2002 campaign, he has manipulated his way through the state’s budget crisis by first deceptively calling tax hikes “fee increases” or “revenue enhancements” and then funding his spending orgy through risky borrowing schemes.   

Carefully avoiding the label of “tax and spender,” the Governor risks being dubbed “borrower and spender.”  And sadly, our children will eventually be forced to cover the tab for his spending spree.

Educational Excellence 

On education, the Governor is long on rhetoric and short on deeds. 

His state of the state address included a new centerpiece of taxpayer-funded preschool for children whose parents are in our country illegally.  While the concept sounds so compassionate on the surface, one wonders if the Governor has forgotten about the thousands of children who are now left behind in Illinois’ failing schools. 

With the Governor’s proposed expansion of universal preschool, the General Assembly will be hard pressed to not comply.  His idea is simply an expansion of a new state law opening our excellent higher education to the children of illegal aliens.

It is unfortunate that the Governor spent little time in his address discussing Illinois’ excellent higher education system -- a collaboration between Illinois’ public and private institutions of higher learning, accessing public resources together.  The success of Illinois higher education should be showcased because it is set up to provide competition between private and public institutions leading to the system’s model educational excellence.

Why not provide true leadership by striving to provide the education system Illinois children deserve, one where parents have real choice?  How about a system where schools are rewarded based on academic performance?

Economic Opportunity

In an attempt to make us think he is making a difference, the Governor proudly claimed that in the last year, 50,000 new jobs were created.  In reality, those 50,000 jobs are less than half of the economic growth we should have seen.  If Illinois had kept pace with the rest of the nation, at least 100,000 new jobs would have been created.   We should have achieved that, and more.

But instead, this Governor is driving jobs out of Illinois with his fee increases, the high cost of business tax rates, increased regulation and neglect of our state’s struggling health care system.   No wonder this Governor is about to chair the Midwest Governors Association; he’s the best jobs generator our neighboring states have ever had.

Time for a new direction

The citizens of Illinois are ready for change.  They need a leader who can move this state to its highest levels of accomplishment.

The time is now for a change in our state’s education system, one which leaves no child behind.

The time now is for meaningful action on lawsuit abuse, not cheap talk from someone who is a champion for those who oppose reform. 

It’s time for Illinois politicians to become champions for tax relief and stop hiding behind catch phrases like “structural deficits” and “fees are not taxes.”

It’s also time for them to admit that jobs are created when government gets out of the way and unleashes the creative energies of its citizens to make a prosperous future for themselves and our posterity. 

It’s time for Illinois government and the governor to get out of the way of Illinois’ future.