Rauner Pushes Back On CPS, Defends Own Refugee Halt
By aaroncynic in News on Feb 10, 2017 7:00PM
Gov. Bruce Rauner took questions today from callers on WBEZ’s Morning Shift in the station’s first of a regular monthly segment it plans to broadcast called “Ask the Governor;” and it was a more broad-spectrum conversation than we often see from the state's top official.
The interview, also broadcast over Facebook Live, was more wide-ranging and seemed less choreographed than Rauner’s other attempts at taking questions from Illinoisans, particularly his previous forays into livestreaming on his own Facebook page. Early on, he was able to stick to a familiar script, especially when pressed on how he’ll give his annual state budget address next week when the state has lacked one for so long.
“It’s long past time for us to have a truly balanced budget in the state where we pay our bills, human services on time...We haven’t had a balanced budget going back more than 30 years,” said Rauner. “We either don’t pay our bills, our pensions or we borrow in the bond market and it’s unsustainable. We’ve got to change, got to fix our broken system.”
But callers and other commenters were able to press the governor on a number of issues from funding for Chicago Public Schools, Trump’s executive order banning refugees and some immigrants, compensation for state employees, and his thoughts on Illinois becoming a “right-to-work” state.
“I have never recommended the state become a right to work state,” said Rauner, who has instead tried to push for a slower adoption of the policy via legislation that would create right-to-work “zones.” “All the states around us have gone right-to-work," Rauner said. "I’ve never recommended it here. Maybe we should let local counties or cities decide that for themselves. There are thousands of companies that won’t go to closed shop or forced union locations. We’re not an option, they won’t even talk to us.”
When asked by a caller about his veto of a bill that would’ve provided $215 million in funding for CPS, which the District has blamed for a bevy of recent cuts and spending freezes, Rauner pushed the blame back on the schools.
“CPS has been responsible for funding its own teacher pension for more than 100 years. This has been here forever... CPS has been receiving a block grant of 250 million for years and years that no other school district in Illinois gets. In the end, CPS has been treated fairly,” he said.
Rauner also reiterated his position on President Donald Trump’s executive order banning refugees and certain immigrants from other countries from entering the United States, but still defended his own decision to refuse Syrian refugees from entering Illinois in November of 2015.
“I think the presidential order was overly broad,” said the governor. “I believe it was rash. I do not support immigration restrictions based upon religion. I said when ISIS announced it was working to put terrorists inside the flow of refugees—I said gosh, let’s talk about this and put a short pause on Syrian refugees and work together to understand our vetting process for Syrian refugees and deal with this ISIS stated threat.”
Rauner did however, manage to get a few chances to trumpet pieces of his “turnaround” agenda, including redistricting reform.
“One of the reasons I think it’s important try to change our political structure in Illinois is the power of incumbency. The power of entrenched special interests locking people in office is overwhelmingly powerful,” Rauner said when asked about his arch-nemesis House Speaker Michael Madigan. “We should change the way legislative districts are drawn so we can have competitive general elections.”
“This is not democracy, it’s a rigged system,” added Rauner, who recently donated more than $50 million to his campaign fund for reelection in 2018.