…because, according to George Will, he just took one*.

[Illinois governor Bruce] Rauner [R] hopes to ban, as some states do, public employees unions from making political contributions, whereby they elect the employers with whom they negotiate their compensation. Rauner notes that an owner of a small firm that does business with Illinois’s government is forbidden to make political contributions. Rauner also hopes to enable counties and local jurisdictions to adopt right-to-work laws, thereby attracting businesses that will locate only where there are such laws.

He hopes the legislature will empower voters to ratify changes to the state constitutional provision that says public pensions can never be “diminished or impaired.” He also proposes shifting state employees from unaffordable defined-benefit plans to a more affordable plan for the state. Furthermore, he hopes to end practices that now have more than 11,000 retirees receiving six-figure pensions.

The odds are… long. More accurately, and to quote David Brin, there are two chances, here: fat, and slim. I will be blessed if I can see how Gov. Rauner can ram any of the above through the legislature, let alone term limits – or a legislative version of his executive order ending the involuntary collection of union fines on non-union employees. And yet, the man is trying. I am forced to admit that I wasn’t expecting that.

But perhaps the horse will learn to sing. The current state of Illinois economy is grim enough that possibly even Combine politicians in good standing can recognize that ticks can only feed off of a living host. So maybe Gov. Bruce Rauner will be permitted to reform the process, and kill off enough of the parasites that the rest may continue to thrive.  Maybe. We’ve had odder things happen. Like Illinois electing a governor who apparently has civic ambitions that are grander than ‘don’t get indicted.’

Via @JonThompsonDC.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*Classical reference.