Posted on 02/08/2005 6:30:11 PM PST by chicagolady
Yesterday 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 the areas of 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 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 done that, and more.
But instead, we drove jobs out of Illinois with the Governor's fee increases, the high cost of business tax rates and our state's struggling health care system. No wonder this Governor is going 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 tort reform, not cheap talk from someone who is a champion for those who oppose it.
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 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.
State of our state ping.
I just slammed your toll road hikes on another thread. We avoided your state on the return trip, went through WI & MI on the way back, they got our commerce.
Cannot say I blame you! Illinois is the pits. How did I end up here??????
Dump Blago ping, you mean!!
Opps!
Ill stated state of the State?
My dad who happens to own a truck avoids the toll roads. It is too expensive for him to go on the tollway.
LOLOL! There are worse places to be from. Think about it, you are looking for a job, you finally get the 2nd interview and you are asked about willing to relocate outside Massachusetts - and you are caught so off guard your coffee sprayed out of your mouth, coats the interviewer's glasses with fake powdered cream.
It could be so much worse.
Excuse me for my ignorance but can you get from WI to MI without going through IL by road??
Of course. Go through the UP next time, God's country. A little longer but worth it.
LOL, I don't know where your "to and from" were to make it a "bit longer" but your right it may be God's country?? It has to be better than sitting in traffic around Chicago in any event. LOL
Minneapolis => Detroit
A heavy route. By the time you mess with local traffic on both ends, F around with Northwest Airlines, you can drive there (white knuckles in the snow) in less time. I hate to promote the upper peninsula as a shortcut, but think of it as a blessing.
If one has has ever been stuck in that I-94 truck corridor traffic, you wonder where bliss is.
Pat O'Malley is the best available candidate. But the real question for we Illinois GOP-ers is:
Who else do have with the last name "Ryan" who is going to ultimately wind up on the ballot for the 2006 race?
The IL GOP, now led by Judy Barr Topinka, will look for a Corrine Wood-type Republican to push in the hopes of bleeding-off Dem votes. This doesn't bode well for the chances of a true conservative like Pat O'Malley, or a popular political veteran like Ray LaHood. But let's face it, the IL GOP is in ruins right now.
Alan Keyes will be used as an example of how a conservative Republican cannot win in Illinois. This despite getting more than 1.3 million votes. The Judy Barr-led GOP is refusing to end the "good old boy" system that has cost the GOP everything in our fine state.
Look for a blowout either way. Right now our state is so blue that Blagojevich could go to prison on October 31st, 2006 and still get re-elected on November 2nd.
We are going to have about a generation before Illinois turns around. It is very sad.
This must really be from The Onion. Blago has no achievements unless he considers good hair an achievement.
You could go over the top across the UP and the skip down through MN along the west cost of Lake Superior. Or you could take one of the two ferry services that connect Michigan and Wisconsin, but neither operates in the dead of winter.
Judas resigned efeective 1/31/05. Andy McKenna was chosen as new State Party Chair at the State Central Committeee meeting in pringfield on 1/15/05.
Andy, who is far from perfect, will be much better than boopsy if only he can develop a pulse.
Yes, plenty of room on U.S. 2!
I agree that Pat O'Malley is a great candidate. I met him last campaign in Springfield.
I love Illinois. My ancestors arrived in Randolph County from South Carolina in the 1820's, and I've lived here my entire life. I expect I'll be buried in the prairie soil. The problem with Illinois is that the government long ago was taken over by gangsters, thieves, sleezeballs and bums-- and the people have let it happen; either by ignorance, or by sitting or their duffs and doing nothing, or by indifference, or by playing along because in some way it benefits them (vote for the alderman, get a new garbage can.) A damned shame.
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