Chicago’s skyscrapers are designed to sway so they don’t shatter, but the architects of the 1970 Illinois Constitution failed to follow those foundational rules: they imposed rigidity.
And 52 years later, Illinois taxpayers are paying dearly because public pensions cannot bend. Instead, the broken system imperils state services, could fail retirees and threatens to crush taxpayers.
Flexibility is important when you cannot know the strength of future headwinds. Lesson learned, right?
Wrong.
State lawmakers listened to the government unions that fund their campaigns and put a rigid change to the Illinois Constitution at the top of the Nov. 8 ballot. Union backers call it the “Workers’ Rights Amendment,” but if passed the vague wording of Amendment 1 would go far beyond stopping Illinois from becoming a right-to-work state and give government unions unyielding negotiating powers enshrined in the state constitution.
While lawmakers might not have learned from the pension fiasco – or chosen to ignore it as they curry favor with union support and cash for their campaigns – that doesn’t mean voters can’t guard their own wallets from the implications of Amendment 1.
The plain text of Amendment 1 does four things:
- Creates a “fundamental right” for government workers to unionize and bargain – on par with freedom of speech and religion.
- Expands bargaining for government worker unions beyond wages and benefits to include broad new subjects, including “economic welfare.”
- Prohibits state and local lawmakers from passing taxpayer-friendly reforms, such as limits to the length of government union contracts or improved disciplinary measures for misconduct.
- Bans right to work, a policy that protects workers from being fired for refusing to pay money to a union.
First, the amendment could prevent reforms to reduce property taxes. If property taxes continue to increase at their long-run average rate, the typical homeowner will pay over $2,100 in additional property taxes during the next four years. The tax damage could be far worse as a result of significantly greater government union power to make broad demands taxpayers would be required to fund.
Second, it would make the state’s business climate even worse than it already is, leaving businesses bracing for higher taxes and increased legal costs as courts try to figure out the limits of the broad dictates.
There are other threats, including stopping reforms of bloated school administration and redundant local governments, invalidating at least 350 state laws, including ones that protect students and children in state care, and allowing secret government contracts that sow corruption.
While increased property taxes is a threat when Illinoisans bear some of the highest tax burdens in the country, perhaps the most damaging aspect is Amendment 1 could potentially stop the constitutional amendment needed to fix problem No. 1 in Illinois – the pension deficit.
Lawmakers and former Gov. Pat Quinn tried to fix the state’s pension deficits in 2013, but government unions fought back and won in the Illinois Supreme Court. That decision was based on the rigidity of the 1970 Illinois Constitution’s pension clause.
So, if all government pension benefits are already ironclad, what hope is there to change the Illinois Constitution and fix the issue bankrupting our state if we further decide those few government unions that benefit should be reinforced with steel?
Voters on Nov. 8 will decide whether Illinois can bend, or whether it eventually will break.
Brad Weisenstein is managing editor of the Illinois Policy Institute.
Editor's note: This opinion piece first was published by The Center Square.