One Word: Corruption
One Idea: Public Unions
One Person: House Speaker Mike Madigan
On Saturday, union servitude came to an end in Kentucky: State Kills Prevailing Wages, Passes Right-to-Work
No such chance exists in Illinois despite the fact that corruption, prevailing wages, pension disasters, public unions, and the dire fiscal straits of Illinois all go hand in hand.
Illinois is under the hard control of House Speaker Mike Madigan who is the Legislative Branch Dictator. Nothing gets passed without his approval.
Madigan’s Power
- Dole out committee chair positions and the stipends that come with them.
- Control who votes in committees.
- Dictate when a bill will be called for a vote.
- Control what bills make it to a vote.
Under House rules in Illinois, these committee chairs are appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the speaker. This means the speaker may remove and replace committee chairs for any reason at any time. Additionally, the speaker can create new special committees, and thus dole out even more chair positions.
The speaker’s influence doesn’t end there. Each of these committee leadership positions comes with a generous $10,000 yearly stipend. These stipends help push Illinois lawmakers’ salaries to the fifth-highest in the nation.
Total average compensation for lawmakers is now nearly $100,000 for what is essentially part-time work. Those stipends help boost the pensionable salaries of lawmakers who participate in the state pension plan, making the positions much more attractive than one might guess at first glance.
Speaker Corruption
Illinois legislators benefit from their own corruption and Mike Madigan intends to keep it that way. His tax firm is one of the biggest beneficiaries of his power.
The state could benefit from pension reform, workers’ compensation reform, property tax reform, school reform, bankruptcy reform, prevailing wage reform, and right to work reform.
None of them have a chance because Madigan will not let a single bill out of committee.
Those who cross Madigan find themselves ousted from committee perks at a cost of $10,000 per.
Illinois corruption is so bad that it’s no wonder Illinois loses 1 resident every 4.6 minutes, and could fall behind Pennsylvania in population.
Shrinking Illinois
About to Become Number Five
Plea for Help
Madigan’s only answer is higher taxes. But higher taxes and union corruption are the driving force behind citizens leaving the state.
Higher taxes, union work rules, and unfriendly corporate rules, especially workers’ compensation, are the driving force behind the Illinois business exodus.
Meanwhile, cities are squeezed by prevailing wage laws and the lack of right-to-work laws that drive up expenses for every public project.
There is some hope at the national level thanks to the incoming Trump administration. To get things off on the right foot, the new U.S. legislature needs to do three things to help states like Illinois right themselves.
Three National Level Priorities
- National right-to-work legislation that supersedes state legislation
- Scrap Davis-Bacon and all prevailing wage laws
- Bankruptcy legislation that allows municipalities to file when they want to, not when dictators like Madigan allow them.
In regards to point number 3, bankruptcy law is currently a mixed bag. Municipal bankruptcies are governed by Federal law, not state law. However, the existing law lets states decide whether to opt in. Illinois did not.
The Chicago Public school system is bankrupt in all but name. There are also more than a handful of Illinois cities that desperately need to get out from pension promises that absolutely cannot be met.
The only rational solution is bankruptcy, not higher taxes. The later will drive more businesses and citizens away.
Right-to-Work States
It’s not just for Illinois that needs help. The National Right To Work Map looks like this (Kentucky not penned in yet).
Illinois and other states hamstrung by public unions, pension woes, and high costs three things at the national level: right-to-work laws, bankruptcy reform, and prevailing wage elimination.
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce of each Illinois city need to make their representatives aware of what needs to be done.
It would also behoove the Illinois Chambers of Commerce to reach out to cities in other states so their respective chambers preach the same message to their legislative representatives.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
T’would be nice if you spent more time on how to abolish the usury cartel and other welfare for the rich such as positive interest paying sovereign debt, Mish. Since such welfare led to the need for labor unions in the first place?
Let’s do start with eliminating welfare for the rich first? Or would that impact your bottom line too?
Make that “government privileged usury cartel”, e.g. why can’t we all have inherently risk-free accounts at the Fed and thereby eliminate the need for government-provided deposit insurance?
Mish has been saying “End The Fed” and similar things for years.
“End the Fed” is not the solution except insofar as the central bank has the authority to create fiat for the private sector, foreign governments, etc. , i.e. anyone but the US Treasury itself. Instead, all citizens should be allowed inherently risk-free accounts at the central bank itself and government provided deposit insurance and other privileges for depository institutions ended.
And what about positive yields on inherently-risk-free (except for physical fiat, aka “cash”, which can be lost, stolen, etc) sovereign debt since that constitutes welfare proportional to wealth, not need?
Yes, we need to reform or abolish the Federal Reserve and the BANKSTERS.
However, public labor unions involve many MILLIONS of public employees.
These labor unions control many local elections (school board, city council, etc) with their campaign contributions. These unions are corrupting DEMOCRACY; just look at Madigan in Illinois.
Possibly more time would be spent on the subject if it were these actions that were causing state and city bankruptcies. But alas, it is the unions that have driven wages and pensions to irresponsible levels.
You are asking Mish to have to state his every position in every blog post. I wonder if you can see the impracticality of that.
So if one thing is wrong, then everything should be wrong? You’re kids must be real brats.
Corporations are government sanctioned.
Unions are government sanctioned.
Governments are government sanctioned.
See the problem?
You didn’t mention that banks are privileged by government in that fiat should be for the use of all citizens yet only depository institutions in the private sector may deal with it in convenient, inherently-risk-free* account form at the central bank itself. The rest of us must work through depository institutions or else be limited to unsafe, unwieldy physical fiat, aka “cash.”
*Even though the central bank takes risks by creating deposits/liabilities in addition to those it may properly create (for its monetary sovereign alone, e.g. US Treasury) nevertheless a central bank can operate indefinitely with negative equity; hence its liabilities can always be met.
New to call in a Nato airstrike to take-out the dictator and his commie horde!
Illinois in death spiral now:
http://www.wirepoints.com/its-happening-wp-original/#.WHEwRtgJJLc.twitter
Illinois – soon to be a colony of Detroit.
Speaker Mike Madigan is a typical Democrat.
The Democrat Party = ORGANIZED CRIME.
The Clinton Family Foundation = International ORGANIZED CRIME.
Establishment Republicans = Self-Serving GLOBALISTS.
What’s a mother to do … ???
Leaving Illinois is step 1….
Madigan’s desk drawer works exactly like Harry Reid’s desk drawer used to.
Yep, dead on Mish. And Illinois even has “triple dipping” for pensions, so the pols and connected bureaucrats can rob the State 3x before departing for Florida or Arkansas.
Great article! I left Illinois 5 years ago. People are more interested in the going to Starbucks and the latest on the Cubs than fixing the broken system.
I left IL for the military about 30 years ago and did not realize how much better my life was until I went back for a short time a couple of years ago. The challenge for the state is that while manufacturing leads the headlines, ag leads the economy for about 99 of the 102 counties. If you have a job in a factory, pulling up and leaving is far easier than if you are invested in land and physical plant to farm. But don’t get that wrong. I don’t really have much sympathy for farmers since they have totally hitched their wagon to the federal subsidy programs, but I”m just noting that it is far easier for the wage or salary person to pull up roots than a farm or plant owner…
Dr., I was a farmer in Ill-in-noise until 12 years ago when I escaped. One of the things I disliked most about farming was the government making it impossible to make a profit farming unless you jumped through their hoops. That means, obey the stupid regulations in order to get some checks from Uncle Sam, even though the farmers all know the rules are idiotic.
It is not that hard for a farmer to pack up & go. You have an auction & sell all the equipment & livestock, and sell the land to an investor or neighbor. I not only got out of Illinois, I got out of farming even though I really liked doing it. Non-farmers have NO IDEA of all the regulations farmers are subjected to. The EPA is the worst.
Illinois:
Bad roads
Bad weather
Horrible politics.
Illinoois did set some new records in 2016 according to heyjackass.com.
Every one and every thing that pays taxes in Illinois should just up and leave. Then Illinois would implode upon itself, and the state would have to restart. But as someone once said, “the problem with democracy is the voters get the leaders they deserve”. Illinois voters must be either very very bad or very very stupid to deserve such awful leaders.
” But as someone once said, “the problem with democracy is the voters get the leaders they deserve ‘ ”
_____________
According to the Bible, God gives people the kind of government they deserve.
Cause and effect is more noticeable in a democracy.
Be careful here, I believe Mish resides in Illinois!
Forced Unionism States looks a lot like Hillary’s election map.
“Dole out committee chair positions and the stipends that come with them.
Control who votes in committees.
Dictate when a bill will be called for a vote.
Control what bills make it to a vote.”
That isn’t democracy.
Those items have more in common with a Democracy than a Republic,,,,but what’s in the semantics? 😉
Sure it is, Ron.
Mad-again is a democrat, AND the idiot voters keep re-electing him.
There are a few repubs and intelligent people still in Illinois. They are the rabbits in the “democracy is 2 wolves and a rabbit voting on what to have for dinner” scenario.
I remember the day when I used to laugh at the corruption in Mexico. I don’t laugh anymore. In fact, in several ways the Mexicans have it much better than we do. I would prefer a system that promotes a hand-to-hand $40 payoff to the traffic cop as opposed to paying the state $450 (plus traffic school to keep the violation off the insurance records) for going 10 mph over the speed limit to finance the million dollar plus average pensions for the average cop.
I heard that certain states are adding $10-$15 fees to vehicle registration renewals to bolster the failing public safety pension systems. Since it’s called a “fee” and not a “tax” a vote of the people is not required. lol.
Well, one thing that can be said for the Mexican system,,,,it cuts out the middle man,,,kind of? By stopping the Peso way before it gets to the top, where it can only do more damage.
Talking to some friends recently who go to Mexico, I found out it is better than you think LFOT. The cop payoff used to be $5, now it’s $20.
I guess the cops I encountered down there were high-brow with a higher standard of living.
What it comes down to is either occasionally pay the cop hand to hand at a great discount or fund his million dollar plus pension benefit at age 50.
Given a choice I’d opt for the former.
Mish, do you have an idea on how the endgame for Illinois will play out? Do you think the democrats go down with the ship and just outright default or will they get some sense and allow for bankruptcy before then? Do you have an over/under on the date when this will happen, say 20 years?
Can’t speak for Mish, but my bet is, the Feds wind up bailing out Chicago and environs in the end.
Where’s Felix Rohatyn when ya need ’em?
Gerald Ford to NYC: “Drop dead you corrupt bastards!!!”
Ford didn’t actually say that, nor the toned down version of the fable that appeared in newspaper headlines.
But NYC became a ward of NY state. The feds didn’t collect as much taxes from NYC, because the revenue wasn’t there to take, not because they didn’t try.
Same sh-t, same outcome in Chicago. Madigan’s posse is a light weight version of NYC’s Tamany hall.
Here is NYC’s history…. and as Illinois / Chicago’s troubles have largely the same cause by largely the same crime syndicate, expect similar results:
http://www.history.com/topics/tammany-hall
Chicago has their Mayor Daleys and Speaker Madigans — NYC had Boss Tweed and a city hall filled with bandits, junkies, con-artists and parasites.
~~~ OT, (but I can’t resist) ~~~
One word : elitist
One idea : hypocrisy
One name : Meryl Streep
Where was the American contingent in the big Paris rally for free speech and creative liberty that took place in support of Charlie Hebdo? Completely absent, that’s where.
The one conceivable time it might’ve paid to have a “community organizer” in the White House and really turn out a strong showing but instead, the US was the only western country who failed to show solidarity. President Obama had them all sitting on their hands, much too frightened to voice any concern.
Did the hosts of the Golden Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press, stand up and call out the elitists? Of course not. Their job was to fawn all over themselves in admiration of Streep, not demand accountability. It was no time to play journalist, not at the red carpet event of the year! Besides, Streep was defending someone with a handicap from a bully, right?
Now if it had been a foreigner with a handicap, that would be different. The they would have to demand justice! But it’s not like, for example, a blind Italian tenor like Andrea Bocelli was getting bullied around professionally by members of the American performing arts community. That would be an outrage! The foreign press would have to cancel the Golden Globes this year. Streep would rush to defend the lovely operatic vocalist with the voice of an angel. There would be no mountain high enough, no sea wide enough to stop her.
Gilded Globs? What’s that? and who cares?
Seriously I cannot imagine anything more boring or a waste of time than watching Hollywood types giving each other more awards.
Illinois is soon to put a toll on all roads entering the state. You pay $1 to enter and $5 to leave.
Cheer up Mish…. the house that built Obama is crumbling.
Being the supreme legislator of a bankrupt government is not the same as being a legislator of a state with growing industry.
Not too long ago, nobody messed with Detroit. Its Union Station (trains, not labor) was one of the nicest in the nation, now its literally crumbling and fenced off.
Detroit is apparently putting its full faith and credit to pay stupid public pensions in … the hands of starving artists. People who can barely feed themselves are apparently going to squat in vacant lots and pay exorbitant taxes to corrupt officials. Should be great.
Chicago used to be an important city. Now its just an airport everyone desperately tries to avoid. Central planners in DC coerced Boeing to relocate their HQ to Chicago to keep getting federal handouts…. kind of like GM was going to save Detroit.
Wait until Madigan and his crew try to retire on the pension system they f’d up!!
I have my plan to get the hell out of here.
Give it a few years
Mish
Best comment ever Mish!!
I know it takes time but move to a state with better weather. Time for you to move out of Yankee paradise.
I was going to comment on moving out is the only way. I left California for Arkansas because my mother now lived here and needed an operation. I stayed and love it here. Backwards for most I know but very reasonable.
Good weather [generally] here in the Harbour City, Mish
{Sydney]
Lived in Paddo for abut two months.
Enjoyed it a lot.
You’ll not be going to France, That’s for sure..
I tell recruiters that I refuse to consider a job in CA or IL because they have the highest taxes.