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A Sunday afternoon rally brought out a few hundred supporters for voting "yes" on an Illinois State Constitutional Convention. Such a referendum is automatically put on the ballot every 20 years and appears on this year's Election Day ballot. Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin (Dem.) said, "We need to change the educational article to make the state responsible for funding public education. That is not the case in Illinois. We need to change the revenue article. We don't have a progressive income tax."
One opponent of the referendum is The League of Women Voters, who say a convention would be too expensive ($80 million) and that nothing would be accomplished since the legislators that are being accused of corruption will be the ones running the convention. Said League rep Paula Lawson, "The terms are loose and vague. One of our points is that it is the current legislature that is not working that well that would make up the rules that would set up who would be elected to the constitutional convention as delegates."
The last time a change was made to the state constitution was 1970. The last time the referendum was on the ballot (1988), it was voted down.
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Sure, Larry Suffredin, we may not need a progressive income tax, but you had no qualms about giving Cook County the highest sales tax in the nation.
Thanks, buddy.
We also need to rewrite the marriage laws so they are more inclusive.
I have to agree with the LWV. For selfish reasons I would love to watch a con-con occur, but it costs too much in this age of financial hardship and there is a high risk that changes won't be implemented (this has been an issue with past conventions).
Questions, questions.....
OK, maybe I need to look closer, but did anyone see whether the League's website have any explanation of how the convention would work? Are delegates named by the politicians and cronies that run the state now, or can people actually run for the position?
Wouldn't the makeup of the convention delegates generally mirror the political make up of state (i.e. majority democrat?)
Also, where do they get that $80 million dollar cost from?
At the end of the day, don't the people get to vote on ratification of any draft constitution that comes out of the convention?
It seems to me that the political establishment has an interst in making sure this thing fails...which suggests to me that we should consider a vote in favor of it.
I can't believe Suffreden would show his face in public after selling out all of Cook Co. and jumping in bed with Stroger for higher taxes. Having a goof like suffreden speak for it makes me believe it might not be a good idea.