On Opening Day at Wrigley Field, Harry Caray stuck a microphone under Gov. Jim Edgar’s nose and asked whether he wanted to talk about politics or sports.
“Sports,” Edgar replied quickly. “It’s a lot less dangerous.”
It doesn’t take an official scorer to see that Illinois’ Republican governor is in a severe slump, fueled by a heavy dose of bad blood among the GOP team members who run Springfield.
Even on Tuesday, a legislative off day, Senate Republicans said they would join with their House colleagues in a move that should cashier Edgar’s proposed tax increase on riverboat casinos until next year.
Edgar went 0-for-March in pushing a tax hike for schools and a plan to consolidate the state’s human-service agencies. Now, the latest move by the Senate GOP portends a grim gubernatorial April and May, despite Edgar’s efforts to strike back at the legislature’s Republican leaders.
All the squabbling in which Edgar and Senate President James “Pate” Philip (R-Wood Dale) and House Speaker Lee Daniels (R-Elmhurst) have been involved has given Democrats hope of winning back control of the House or Senate in the Nov. 5 election.
For their part, all three GOP officials publicly try to downplay any talk of a rift that threatens to damage the united Republican image they displayed last year in advancing a pro-business, less-welfare and anti-crime agenda.
But not far beneath the surface, Edgar and the General Assembly’s GOP leaders are engaged in a game of fingerpointing that threatens to leave some lasting bruises.
Edgar believes that the Republican legislative leaders didn’t give his school-funding proposal an adequate public airing.
He contends that Philip and Daniels were disingenuous for letting languish his proposed constitutional amendment that would have required $1.9 billion in new state taxes to provide $1.5 billion in property-tax relief and $400 million more for education.
But Daniels and Philip think Edgar didn’t do them any favors by trying to make a potential state tax hike the overriding issue of the fall legislative campaigns.
Privately, they accuse Edgar’s administration of duplicity, saying they were told months before that the governor expected to call for a dollar-for-dollar swap of property taxes for income taxes–not a tax hike.
Edgar has challenged lawmakers to come up with an alternative to help ensure equity in education statewide. But when Daniels offered a no-tax-hike plan, Edgar aides savaged the proposed budget cuts required under the proposal.
Edgar even warned that Daniels’ plan would lead to layoffs of state troopers and could increase crime.
When Philip told Edgar that Senate Republicans would kill the governor’s plan to consolidate seven social-service agencies into a single super-agency, Edgar blamed it on a personal dispute between Philip, other Senate GOP lawmakers and officials at the oft-criticized Department of Children and Family Services.
“Pate has been against this. He’s mad about Children and Family Services. So every time you bring it up, he just harangues on Children and Family Services,” Edgar said. “Contrary to what you might think, the governor cannot change the character of people.”
Edgar’s comments have only emboldened and unified an often disparate group of House and Senate Republicans.
Edgar aides have gone so far as to say that Illinois wouldn’t have a GOP-controlled General Assembly if it wasn’t for the governor’s 1994 election coattails, a remark that causes Philip and Daniels to bristle.
This isn’t the first time that Edgar has had major differences with Republican legislative leaders, especially Philip.
Philip led the opposition to the proposed third regional airport near Lake Calumet, which Edgar and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley supported. Philip also dumped Edgar’s proposed ban on semiautomatic assault weapons shortly after the governor announced it.
This time around, the stakes– which party will control the legislature–are much greater.
Edgar is viewed as a consummate staffer who knows the importance of organization. But Republican lawmakers say Edgar did nothing to further his school-funding plan among rank-and-file lawmakers or the public and completely ignored the proposal’s political impact.
“I read a lot about, `Gee, I didn’t lay the groundwork,’ ” Edgar said. “I’ve been around this process, and I think I understand how you lay groundwork.”
But Daniels denied giving any advance encouragement to Edgar’s proposal.
“I will not support a tax increase or the groundwork being laid for an inevitable tax increase,” Daniels said. “I think we have enough money in this budget in which we can raise a substantial amount for education today.”
But Daniels saw Edgar’s administration quickly trash his preliminary plans to pump $500 million more into education this budget year, in part through budget cuts in other areas.
Edgar aides warned of more than 1,000 layoffs resulting from proposed House GOP budget cuts, including 315 state troopers and 539 mental-health workers. The governor also said Daniels’ “piecemeal approach” won’t solve the long-term problem of education funding.
But Daniels said the cuts represented the opening of budget negotiations and the intention of House Republicans to find more money for schools without raising taxes or requiring an amendment to the Illinois Constitution.
“I am interested in moving education reform forward. I am not interested in personality conflicts,” Daniels said.
Edgar’s budget also apparently will take a hit worth about $67 million after Senate Republicans fired another salvo Tuesday at the governor’s legislative agenda.
Senate GOP leaders said they would support House legislation creating a task force to study riverboat gambling, effectively taking discussions of Edgar’s plan for a graduated tax on riverboat casinos off the negotiating table.
GOP leaders in both chambers had said it would be difficult to consider the tax without a host of other gambling proposals, including new boat licenses and eliminating the cruising requirement for floating casinos competing with those across the Mississippi River in Iowa.
But given the last month, the latest move by Republicans in the legislature shouldn’t have surprised Edgar.
“I told Pate the other day (that) if I sent (lawmakers) the 10 Commandments, they would change them,’ “Edgar said.
