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Taking on the 'structural deficit'

BY CALEB HALE, THE SOUTHERN

Thursday, November 16, 2006 7:21 AM CST

CARBONDALE - In a speech laced with enough purported monetary injustice to get any working stiff's blood to a rolling boil, AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Henry Bayer described the state of Illinois government Wednesday night at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

The Cliff Notes diagnosis: State government is in an all-out crisis.

Bayer, who oversees 200 unions covering 44,000 employees in Illinois, spoke at the Student Center in a speech presented by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. The short but not-so-sweet presentation of public policy according to AFSCME slammed re-elected Gov. Rod Blagojevich for allowing a $3 billion-a-year budget deficit into his financial plans, lamented the $48 billion deficit plaguing the state pension system as well as understaffing at many state agencies and kicked the already down former Gov. George Ryan for his early retirement incentive, which ushered the exit of 11,000 state workers in 2001 but never quite re-staffed the empty positions.

Despite the campaign promises both voters and political candidates have likely forgotten one week after the election, Bayer said the current roster of state leaders doesn't appear ready to take on what he called a "structural deficit" that exists in the Illinois revenue system.

"We don't have political leaders willing to stand up and tell people the truth that we don't have the resources to get the job done," Bayer said.

Blagojevich is holding fast to his renewed no-tax-increase promise for the upcoming second term, and Bayer indicated during both his speech and the question/answer session that followed, the administration will have no shortage of "schemes" to prop up increased government spending with one-time funding sources - a tactic Bayer described simply as "bad public policy."

"It'd be one thing if we were a Third World country, if we didn't have the resources � but in fact we do if you look at what's going on in the economy," he said.

Bayer's evidence: In 2004, he said, the average annual salary of a chief executive officer in the U.S. was $11.8 million. The average working-class American's salary that same year in comparison - $27,000, a 431 to 1 dollar ratio, Bayer said.

"There is wealth in this country; it's just not being spent in the proper ways," he said.

Taking a favorite line from the proponents of smaller government, Bayer said the myth of who spends money better - government or individuals - isn't as one-sided as some people like to say it is.

"One of my favorite line is, 'You know how to spend your money better than the government knows how to spend it,' and I don't think that's necessarily true," Bayer said.

Americans largely enjoy the benefits of government subsidized services, he said, whether it is through public schools and universities, local community centers and parks, or Social Security.

Give him $25,000, Bayer said, and he's not sure he'd spend in a way that benefits the good of society over the good of the individual.

 

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com

(618) 529-5454 ext. 5090