One must pity whoever becomes Governor of Illinois when Rod Blagojevich finally leaves. The next governor will have to be a genius just to raise the state’s financial rating back to basket-case status. He (or she) will have to be considered a smashing success to accomplish that much.
To get a handle on the magnitude of the problem, imagine for a moment that the governor is head of an estate dependent on rents.
The first thing he did was to start trying to sell off revenue-producing assets (the Tollway, the Lottery, the Thompson Center) to cover current obligations. This is, simply, to sacrifice long-term health for short-term windfalls – and even the windfalls are not enough to satisfy the spending appetite of this profligate. The head of such an estate who starts selling off the very things that keep the estate afloat is heading for big trouble.
Next, he effectively raised the rents beyond what the market would bear when there were other competing estates which stayed competitive. When Blagojevich took office he immediately put the pedal to the metal on tax increases for business. No, he didn’t call them tax increases; he called them user fees. But to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck – it’s a tax increase. (I was tempted to say that you can put lipstick on a tax increase….but I figured we’ve all heard enough about that). Those ‘fees’ killed off much of the trucking industry in Illinois, certainly curtailing new expansion. The free-for-all tort climate chased many doctors and health-care professionals out of state altogether. At one point, there was only one neurosurgeon in the state south of Springfield. Many major corporations have red-lined Illinois because of its hostility to business.
For much of the Bush administration the national economy was expanding robustly. But Illinoisans must be forgiven for not believing it. Illinois, which was once the economic engine of the Midwest, has been ranked lower than 40th in job creation throughout this governor’s tenure. It should have come as no surprise that, if you raise rents through the roof, potential renters are going to go elsewhere. Tennessee – that’s right, Tennessee – has taken over Illinois’ place as economic engine of the Midwest.
Now comes the plan to close 13 historic sites and 11 state parks. It is akin to putting the furnishings of the estate in storage and shutting down tours of the manor. Of course, as with everything Blagojevich, there are dark hints of ulterior motives. No one failed to notice that almost every closing came in districts of legislators who weren’t big boosters of the guv, even when it meant shutting down sites that were actually turning a profit. Can’t let a little thing like responsibility get in the way of vengeance. Funny thing, too…Blagojevich is a Chicagoan and Chicago sites remain untouched in the closings – just as a few years ago when Blagojevich proposed raiding teachers’ pension funds, the one exemption was for the Chicago Teachers pension funds.
The Blagojevich record has been one of selling off (or trying to) the state’s assets, killing off the trucking industry, chasing off the companies that create jobs, chasing off medical practitioners, and now trying to kill off the tourist industry.
The next governor will first have to get the ‘rents’ back to a reasonable level – while assuring potential renters it is not a short-term come-on to draw them back and then stick it to them again. In the short term (at least for six months to a year, if he does it successfully) that means that revenues to the state will decline. It’s the price the state will have to bear to get the state back on a paying basis after Blagojevich’s profligacy. Then he will have to try to restore some of the state’s revenue-producing asset base. It doesn’t take long to dump an asset, but it will take a good long time to rebuild. Finally, he will have to take the furnishings out of storage and persuade people who have gotten used to touring elsewhere to come back to Illinois. A single term won’t be enough.
Illinois has not been noted for the quality of its governors – either in competence or lack of larceny. One has to wonder, though, has there ever been a governor of this state as recklessly unconcerned about its financial health or the future of its people as the current occupant of the chair?

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Charlie Johnston is a member of the Chicago Daily Observer Editorial Board.