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Troubling lack of leadership on pensions
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We keep looking for leadership -- and we keep ending up with politics. How else can we explain Gov. Pat Quinn's desperate move in the waning hours of this month's lame duck session? He wanted the Illinois Legislature to delegate its power to a special commission that would make the difficult decisions regarding reforming the state pension systems. Silly me -- I thought we elected lawmakers to make tough decisions. But apparently not everyone sees it that way. A House committee approved, and the governor endorsed, a plan to create the commission to deal with pensions. The eight-member board would have been composed of appointees from the head of each legislative caucus. Members of the commission would serve life appointments and their decisions would be final as long as both chambers of the Legislature didn't vote to overrule them. In other words, the Legislature could do nothing and let members of the commission take all the heat. Fortunately, the plan never came up for a vote in the General Assembly. I guess we should be reassured by that. But it's frightening that our governor would back a plan that would have stripped voters of their say. After all, voters can always boot a legislator from office during the next election; but there is no way for them to hold a group of unelected commissioners accountable. Quinn likes to mention that he was born on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. He fancies himself as an advocate for grassroots democracy. And he has a track record of leading grassroots causes -- like a 1980s revolt against legislative pay raises. In 1985 he personally sued the state, arguing that a commission of unelected individuals that determines pay raises for lawmakers was unconstitutional. He lost the case, but his efforts then were praiseworthy. But where was that Pat Quinn this month? He used the case that he lost as a legal precedent for creating a new commission to deal with pensions. Has the man no shame? This unelected commission would have had the power to radically reshape one of the largest items in the state budget -- and even would have had the power to raise taxes on its own. The idea scared government employee unions, as well free-market policy groups. As well it should have. After all, we have a republican form of government through which we elect our lawmakers. They are supposed to be accountable to us -- the voters. To create a commission to make the "really tough decisions" with little to no oversight defies the democratic principles that this nation was founded upon. Imagine George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry sitting around the Continental Congress and saying, "Hey, this liberty thing is hard. Let's just appoint an unelected, unaccountable monarch and have him make the tough decisions for us." Oh wait. That's what they were trying to get rid of. But that is exactly the approach Quinn took to address the pension question. At a time when Illinois needs leadership, it got something less. That's disappointing. Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse reporter and the journalist in residence at the Illinois Policy Institute; sreeder@illinoispolicy.org. 
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Today is Saturday, May 18, the 138th day of 2013. There are 227 days left in the year.
1863 -- 150 years ago: A large variety of children's wagons and gigs have arrived in thecity and are being sold at war prices.
1888 -- 125 years ago: All Rock Island retail houses, with the exception of a clothingstore and a jewelry store, have agreed to early closing hours during the summer months.The store will be closed at 8 p.m.
1913 -- 100 years ago: Baseball enthusiasts in Rock Island are attempting to raise$20,000 to keep the Island City Park open, despite the fact that the city has no franchise inorganized baseball this year.
1938 -- 75 years ago: The organization of a third rural young people's unit will beundertaken tomorrow night at the Milan Presbyterian Church, with Mrs. Mildred K.Wellman, home advisor, and Robert Smith, county farm adviser in charge.
1963 -- 50 years ago: Deere & Co. will begin a "big switch" on its telephone systemMonday morning. The extension numbers of all 1,600 telephones on the firm's EastMoline and Moline exchanges will be changed Monday morning.
1988 -- 25 years ago: East Moline's June Jamboree VI -- Nostalgia Days, will seemlike a '60s revival with the appearance of stars like Bobby Vee, Freddie Cannon, PeterNoone, Turtles, The Grass Roots and Lou Christie. This year's festival has beenexpanded to five days, June 22-26, at the Northeast Park complex.
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