Mayor’s Row……by Ned Mitchell

          Boy, I’m a little confused!  Actually I am a lot confused!  I’m talking about the last minute down to the wire failure of the General Assembly in Springfield to come up with adequate funding for a state budget.  Legislators had an opportunity to do the right thing, even though it meant taking an unpopular vote but once again failed to provide real solutions for real problems.

          I can assure of this much, Senators, especially democrats on one side of the Capitol will not soon forget the fact that House members left them twisting in the wind on this one.  I’d say it will be a cold day in your know where before the Senate jumps out in front on legislation like this.

          Consider this; every republican Senator voted against a tax increase to help bail this state out of the financial hole it is in.  Democrat Senators had to carry all of the water on this one and our own Senator Gary Forby (D-Benton) voted in favor of this bill.  In my opinion he made the right vote.  I have not always agreed with Senator Forby and I am sure he has not always agreed with me, however, even though this was a difficult vote, he bucked up and did it.  Lets’ face it, nobody likes to pay taxes and we all cringe when we see that taxes are about to go up.  On the other hand we all like nice schools, parks, police protection and a whole host of other services and they take money to provide.  Practically every expert in the state was on board to raise the income tax to provide services and to pay our bills in a timely manner.

          Over in the House of Representatives they ran the thing right down to the wire trying to beat a midnight deadline but ultimately failed to put the votes on the table to pass the legislation.  Locally our own State Representative John Bradley voted no and in my opinion that was the wrong thing to do even though the measure failed by about 17 votes.

          The unique prospective I have here is that I was in the legislature for a time and know how the system works.  I have seen and played the same game of watching a bill to see if it has the votes to pass or not.  If you look on the tally board and see the bill is not going to pass, for your own political protection many legislators go ahead and vote no since it will be popular with the folks back home.  One can always campaign on the idea that they did not vote for a tax increase.  Never mind the fact that the state is bankrupt for all practical purposes.  Those wascially legislators in the House cannot be accused of voting to raise our taxes.

          Senators I am sure figured there was a decent chance of this becoming law or they would have not stuck out their political necks to cast a vote to raise our taxes.  Now we will have the Senators not trusting the House members and that is never a good scenario.  I had hoped that with a new governor and one new legislative leader in the Senate that maybe things would be better.  As it turns out it is the same old game.  Everybody knows what needs to be done but instead of being statesmen or public servants we have a whole lot of politicians who are more interested in their own re-election than they are in doing the right thing.

          Governor Quinn is absolutely right when he refuses to sign the capital bill until the legislature does their job and sends him a balanced budget.  Either make a lot of cuts and identify where they are at or raise taxes to provide sufficient revenues to run this state.  If I were him I would not sign it either.  I can assure you that these same legislators who did not have the backbone to vote for a tax increase were all salivating uncontrollably thinking about the goodies they would have via the capital bill.

          We can all agree for the most part that a capital bill is needed.  It has been far too long since we have had new construction in this state.  I thought that once Senators and House members agreed on this bill and a means to pay for it things would move along in Springfield.  Although I did not agree with expanding gambling to pay for this plan I still felt like the plan was needed.  Buying bonds and paying them back through gambling revenues is about the most ludicrous thing I have seen.  Gambling is on the downswing nationwide and it is a proven fact that it is not a truly reliable source of funding.  But, nobody asked me my opinion and the bill passed.  If your legislator voted against this capital bill don’t hold your breath on any of them getting much construction money to hand out.  Really there is not too much wrong with that theory either.  If you want to help spend the money then you need to help raise it.

          The bottom line is we are back to the drawing board in this state and we will see which side blinks first.  Will Democratic Senators ever forgive their counterparts in the House of Representative?  Not in my opinion and even though I think the Democrats in the Senate did the right thing, you can rest assured they will be clubbed over the head by not only Republicans but also Democrats in the House of Representatives.  It is, my friends, a recipe for disaster!

          Local writer and magazine publisher Jim Muir and staff are putting together a commemorative issue of a special edition magazine featuring the Sesser Homecoming this year.  There will be lots of features about the history of the Homecoming as well as new events.  The magazine will be sold with all profits going back to the Homecoming Association.  The book sells for $5.00 and will be something you will want to buy and keep.  Jim Muir has donated his time and efforts to this cause and we appreciate all his efforts!

          Ann Pyle is home recovering after a fall that fractured her pelvis.  Dean Goessman should be home by the time you read this recovering from surgery.  Robert “Fuzz” Allen was home but I understand he has had to go back to the hospital.