Mike Madigan doesn't care. That's the conclusion I've come to after serving in the General Assembly since early 2015.
It has been clear that he doesn't care about the financial well-being of the residents and businesses of Illinois since he first took office in 1971. Unbalanced budgets, chronic overspending, increased debt load, underfunded pension schemes and expansion of entitlement programs have left Illinoisans paying one of the highest overall tax burdens of all 50 states. And it is still not enough to pay for his reckless ways. Madigan doesn't care.
Over the past 2 1/2 years, rank-and-file House members have been working across the aisle to fix some of the systemic problems connected to our state budget — workers' compensation reform, pension reform, a fair and equitable K-12 education funding formula and meaningful property tax relief — only to have Speaker Madigan swoop in at the last minute and kill the discussions. Why would he do that? The answer is simple, power.
Read the rest of Rep. Grant Wehrli's commentary: