CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner barely mentioned Chicago during his State of the State address, though he did speak of the budget impasse and pension and union reform, issues close to the city's heart.
Chicago was mentioned just five times during the governor's Wednesday speech, though his rocky relationship with the city's government has taken center stage lately: Rauner sent Mayor Rahm Emanuel a dead fish as they squabbled over budget issues in October, and earlier this month Emanuel accused Rauner of holding Chicago Public Schools students "hostage" and using them as "a pawn in a political game."
Just last week, Rauner argued that the state should take over CPS and push for the district to declare bankruptcy as a way of clearing up its budget woes, while opponents said Rauner should focus on passing a budget.
Those political disagreements didn't come up in Rauner's address, though he did say Chicago was the "commercial capital of the Midwest" just seconds before adding "financial mismanagement ... is now strangling Chicago and Cook County."
Rauner did use the address to push union and pension reforms, sore topics in the city. Nearly a quarter of the money in the state's budget goes to pension payments, Rauner said. In Chicago, Emanuel has said Chicago's largest financial challenge "is the exploding cost of our unpaid pensions."
"We need to install common sense into our union contracts," Rauner said. "One of the most critical actions we can take to save taxpayers billions of dollars, while offering state workers a fair deal that protects their retirement, is to enact constitutional pension reform."
Rauner said he is working with Senate President John Cullerton on a pension proposal that would save $1 billion per year from four of the state pension plans, and he urged both chambers to pass the reforms "without delay."
Rauner also said he has 10 long-term goals to improve education and career opportunities "from cradle to career" for people in Illinois. Among those goals is increasing state funding for education with a focus on low-income and rural districts. Districts should also be further empowered and have "more flexibility" when it comes to bargaining and contracts, Rauner said.
Those goals come amid a slew of criticism about how education in Chicago has been affected by the budget debate in Springfield. Students have protested the potential closure of Chicago State University, which is struggling without state funding, and activists staged a sit-in at the Thompson Center. CPS has faced cutting teachers and classes due to the budget issues. Students, including those at Chicago universities, have struggled to pay tuition without state-funded grants.
Rauner said lawmakers must "cast partisanship and ideology aside" and come together to pass a budget, saying he was "ready" to do so and "Illinois can't wait any longer."
Here's Rauner's full speech if you want to read along: https://t.co/69odOu33tX pic.twitter.com/jb2FRxl3f7
— Kelly Bauer (@BauerJournalism) January 27, 2016"If each of us commits to serious negotiation based on mutual respect for our co-equal branches of government, there’s not a doubt in my mind we can come together to pass a balanced budget alongside reforms," Rauner said. "If we work together, Illinois can be both compassionate and competitive."
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