In a report
recently released by the Chicago Tribune, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn agreed,
as of the beginning of May, to hand out over $230 million in
“financial incentives” to giant corporations this year, including
a $117 million gift to Motorola as well as a $30 million gift to
Mitsubishi. This marks a tremendous increase in the corporate looting
of Illinois’ public funds, already equaling the amount given out
last year and nearly doubling the money given to corporations two
years ago.
The increase in
corporate welfare comes at a time when Quinn has slashed millions of
dollars in social services, and both Democratic and Republican state
legislators have proposed millions of dollars more to be put on the
chopping block.
The identities of
most of the recipients of Quinn’s corporate handouts have been kept
secret by the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic
Opportunity, but the few names that have come out, besides Motorola
and Mitsubishi, include Chrysler, Navistar and the Sears Holding
Corporation, parent company of Sears and Kmart stores. These
corporations, who pay little to no taxes to the State of Illinois,
will receive massive corporate income tax credits, ostensibly to
retain or add jobs. Some of the corporations, including Motorola and
Mitsubishi, actually get to collect the taxes of their employees that
would otherwise have gone to the state. (Chicago Tribune, May 17)
In the midst of
this plunder of public funds by big business, the governor and state
legislators have used the state’s $8 billion budget deficit as an
excuse to drastically cut services to those who have been worst
affected by the capitalist economic crisis.
A fund that is
intended to assist families in keeping their homes when they can not
afford the payments will be decimated—from $11 million a year to a
measly $1 million. Money for shelters and emergency housing for the
homeless will be sliced in half, and programs for homeless youth have
already been defunded by one-third. According to the Chicago
Coalition for the Homeless, shelters and other service providers for
the homeless in Illinois turned away nearly 5,000 children last year
due to lack of funding and resources.
State workers in
Illinois have also been targeted by Illinois’ pro-business
policymakers. Last year, the retirement age of state workers was
raised from 60 to 67, now the highest in the country. And state
workers’ pensions are in the crosshairs of Republican state
senators like Matt Murphy, who claims that “the rewards will be
great” if the state makes huge cuts not only to pensions but to
health care, fire service and public education.
Hundreds of workers
and activists, including members of the Service Employees
International Union, demonstrated in front of the State Capitol in
Springfield on May 18 to protest the proposed budget cuts. Their
chants included, “Don’t cut home care! Don’t cut pensions!”
This shows that even where the Democratic Party machine, and not Tea
Party arch-reactionaries, controls the state government, when the
working class and oppressed come under attack by the corporate fat
cats and their puppet politicians, the people will fight back. Stop
the budget cuts! Tax the rich!
