Future of Illinois looks bleak, according to former Governor
Former Gov. Jim Edgar spoke at UIC last week
Published in the Chicago Flame (9/29/08)
“The future for the state of Illinois is not real bright,” said former Governor Jim Edgar, who spoke last week at UIC as part of The Future of Chicago Lecture Series.
The former Republican Governor explained that the next governor of Illinois will face serious challenges, due to the inabilities of the current administration.
Edgar outlined the three most pressing challenges that the next governor will be faced with. The first he said, was the financial constraints that the state in currently in. “Illinois is so far in debt,” Edgar said, “that it will take some massive cuts and substantial tax increases [to get out of debt].”
The second challenge that the next governor will face, according to Edgar, is in regards to the people working within the government itself. Edgar explained that while he was governor he had a lot of good non-elected officials working in the bureaucracy of government. He said that since he left office, many of these “good people” left the bureaucracy, preventing much from getting done.
Edgar explained the third challenge, saying, “The next governor must get the public to trust the state government again.” He warned that this will be difficult because the electorate may not be happy with a number of things the future governor will be forced to do. Among those issues, Edgar said, may be a rise in taxes.
Among the challenges that the future governor of Illinois will face, Edgar also discussed the importance of higher education, the issue of bi-partisanship in politics at the local level, and the proposed constitutional convention that Illinois voters will be faced with this November.
Although Edgar was opposed to the 1970 constitutional convention, he said that it warranted an properly updated document from the previously written 1870 constitution. While he cited his involvement in the previous constitutional convention, Edgar said he was opposed to the idea of having another one this year. “I think the current constitution is working well,” Edgar said. “The problem is in who you elect,” he added.
Expressing his concern that opening the constitution up for review could result in several problems, Edgar said, “I don’t want the extreme right or the extreme left rewriting my constitution.” He also said that there are too many uncertainties that come with a constitutional convention. Edgar concluded, “I don’t think we can afford that uncertainty in Illinois.”
The lecture series is part of the undergraduate political science course entitled Chicago’s Future. It is a course led by Professor Dick Simpson that brings former government officials to UIC to discuss the future of the state. Future speakers include James Laski, a former City Clerk who was recently released from prison, and Mike Quigley, the acting Cook County Board Commissioner. These one-hour lectures, which are open to the public, will take place in the Behavioral Science Building, located at 1007 W. Harrison, on October 1st and October 8th in lecture center 140.
Tags: constitutional convention, Dick Simpson, Governor, Illinois, James Laski, Jim Edgar, Mike Quigley, Republican
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