On Mar. 18, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn gave a much-publicized budget address in the state capital of Springfield. Quinn proclaimed that Illinois is now “facing its greatest crisis of modern times.” The state is facing an $11.5 billion deficit.
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Evidently, the belt-tightening does not apply to the politicians: The budget includes raises for all elected officials. Illinois House and Senate members will make almost $70,000 a year—two to four times as much as most workers and a universe apart from the millions of workers being forced to live off unemployment right now.
Banks operating in Illinois have received trillions in bailout funds and loan guarantees. The three largest banks in the country—Bank of America, Citibank and Morgan Chase—have all massively increased their holdings in Illinois in the last decade. Early this year, Chicago sold the city’s parking meters to a division of Morgan Chase that swiftly raised parking fees by as much as 400 percent in working-class areas of the city.
Quinn’s budget would also make deep cuts in grant programs and in essentially every state agency. It would force state workers to take four unpaid days off every year.
This open attack on workers comes at a time when more and more unemployed and underemployed workers find themselves struggling to make ends meet. The government is shredding all remaining social safety nets—already woefully inadequate before the economic crisis hit.
The governor’s assault on workers
An alarming component of the proposal is the call for “public pension reform.” This means that newly hired, mostly younger state employees would have their pensions slashed by $162 billion over the next 36 years. The budget would also raise the retirement age and increase the cost of health care for workers and retirees.
The tax changes introduced in the budget would push income taxes up from 3 percent to 4.5 percent. The governor is giving Illinois a 10-day “sales tax holiday” and claims that he will “close corporate tax loopholes,” yet the banks and insurance giants ceaselessly devour trillions of dollars in federal bailouts and continue extracting wealth from the state. Quinn, a Democrat, also spoke out against a once proposed gross receipts tax that would heavily tax big businesses and corporations. The governor, an advocate of the moneyed classes, arrogantly dismissed the raising of taxes on the rich as a “gimmick.”
Even Quinn’s “Illinois Jobs Now” plan to increase state employment would be fully funded by the workers themselves through a rise in “motor vehicle usage fees.” He will hike the price of license plate stickers, which will be $99 dollars a year by July 1—an increase of $20—and will double drivers license fees from $10 to $20.
The more than $200 million allocated to education in the state budget is dwarfed by the $1 billion that would be used to fund corporate incentives and handouts, euphemistically disguised as “much-needed economic development efforts.”
In Illinois, a state of 13 million people, there are currently 570,000 people collecting unemployment. This figure does not include the underemployed and those workers who have given up looking for work. What does Governor Pat Quinn have in his budget to address the needs of those out of work?
Nothing.
The governor’s budget proposal is part of a nationwide drive by the politicians, faithful representatives of the banks and the rich, to save capitalism at a time when its criminal nature is being exposed.
The economic crisis and the consequent budget crises that are now spreading havoc in Illinois and elsewhere have been caused by the capitalists and their system. Now they want workers—especially the poorest and most oppressed—to pay for the crisis in the form of bailouts, budget cuts and increased taxes and fees. Their program is simple: bailouts, pay raises and tax cuts for the rich and their representatives; layoffs, cutbacks, foreclosures and evictions for the rest of us.
Workers do not have to starve, suffer and watch what is left of our hard-earned social gains disappear at the precise time we need them the most. We do not have to be dominated by the banks and their politicians. There is another way. We can stand up, organize and fight back.
On April 25 the Party for Socialism and Liberation is hosting a conference in Chicago entitled “Capitalism is Criminal!” Join us. For more information or to register click here.
