Gov. Rauner speaks Greek to lawmakers

Remember how Hercules’ fifth task was to clean the stables of King Augeas in a single day? The home to 3,000 oxen hadn’t been cleaned in 30 years.

Some might see parallels in Springfield and Gov. Bruce Rauner. Thirty years of B.S. accumulated in the capital, and someone quickly needs to clean it out.

How? Term limits. The Independent Map Amendment.

Voters via petition repeatedly tried to make both of these changes, but Madigan and Co. continue to block them in the courts using the same argument: Amendments to the Illinois Constitution through voter petitions can only change the structure and procedures of the General Assembly. Madigan’s lawyer has successfully argued that because the map amendment proposal adds duties to two other branches of state government — the executive branch’s auditor and the courts’ Illinois Supreme Court justices — that it is unconstitutional.

So Rauner is passing out shovels and hoping he can get the oxen to help him clean up. He picked a Shiloh farm and went elsewhere around the state pushing for both term limits and an independent commission, but asking state lawmakers to make those changes.

Now, those would be the same state lawmakers led for 30 years by a Chicago Democrat and who are the nation’s fifth-highest paid. Illinois lawmakers average $100,000 each when all their pay and benefits are added and hit Illinois taxpayers with a $32 million bill each year that they’ve legislated must be paid regardless of anyone else’s suffering.

They would also be the same state lawmakers who are in their second fiscal year without a state budget, have spent $7.8 billion more than we have at present and have allowed a pension deficit to pass $111 billion. Their concern about the details of the Illinois Constitution seems to vanish when it comes to that mandate that they balance the state budget.

Imagine if everyone got more pay for less work, and the work they did was incompetent. Grounds for firing?

Rauner’s pushing the right ideals, but you better hope the Illinois Supreme Court decides the people should have a say in November on at least an independent commission drawing legislative maps. At present the state lawmakers, two-thirds of whom face no election opposition, draw their districts to create safe havens for re-election rather than making compact districts of people with common interests.

Convincing the bull-headed that their time at the trough should be limited will happen about the same time that pigs fly.

This story was originally published July 30, 2016 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Gov. Rauner speaks Greek to lawmakers."