I’ve been belatedly reading Jeremiah Joyce’s 2021 book “Still Burning: Half a Century of Chicago, from the Streets to the Corridors of Power; A Memoir.”
The former 19th Ward alderman and Southwest Side state senator is a conversational writer and speaks frankly about some very divisive times, particularly regarding race. (It can get cringey.)
Joyce is remembered now as a consummate insider, but he came up the hard way without regular party support. It wasn’t until he forged a bond with Richard M. Daley, the first Mayor Daley’s son, that he came into his own as a power broker.
Anyway, what I wanted to tell you about was one of Joyce’s observations of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, who died in office in 1976 during Joyce’s one and only aldermanic term.
“Over time,” Joyce wrote of the first Mayor Daley, “he developed a firm though rarely spoken theory of Chicago government — let some other entity pay, whether it be the state, the county, a regional body, or the federal government.”
It was true then, and it’s still true today, although perhaps stated more bluntly by the city’s current mayor and some of his closest allies.
We saw it again for the umpteenth time last week when Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates castigated the governor and the Democratic legislative majorities for not spending more on the city’s public schools.
Gates, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s most visible ally, was responding to Gov. JB Pritzker’s remarks to reporters that CTU’s demand for $1.6 billion in additional state funding is “just not going to happen.”
“And it’s not because we shouldn’t,” Pritzker clarified. “We should try to find the money, but we don’t have those resources today, and we’re not going to see the resources from the federal government level either.”
Pritzker went on to blame the Trump administration. “The federal government has taken away education funding from schools all across the United States,” he said, adding the state has increased funding by $2.5 billion during his time in office.
“We are all having to deal with the onslaught of Donald Trump on education in this country, and I’m going to continue to stand up for and protect students across the state of Illinois, including students in the city of Chicago,” the governor continued.
“But, at the local level, every school is going to have to do whatever is it is required in order to protect those students, and I will stand with them in that endeavor. But there is not extra money laying around in Springfield, mainly in part because of what Donald Trump has done at the federal level.”
CTU President Gates issued a blistering response: “Logic would tell you that if the Republican despot in the White House is defunding public education, then a state with a Democratic supermajority should take the opposite approach by fully funding schools in its largest district. There was no delay in giving $10 billion in tax breaks to the wealthiest businesses and individuals in our state, so why do Black and Brown children have to wait?”
The CTU has mentioned these “$10 billion in tax breaks” quite often, so I reached out and asked what that was all about.
For the most part, these aren’t actually “tax breaks.” Instead, almost $6 billion, according to CTU spokesperson B. Loewe, comes from the Illinois Revenue Alliance’s list of potential tax hikes on corporations, although a very small part of that is from closing corporate tax loopholes.
Another $4.5 billion is from not imposing a state surcharge on annual income over $1 million, which would require a constitutional amendment and couldn’t be implemented until after the 2026 election, if voters approved it.
Loewe also pointed to several state incentives criticized by a group called Good Jobs First, including tax breaks for electric vehicles, data centers, and TV and film production.
But it’s not like state leaders can snap their collective fingers and suddenly produce $10 billion in new revenues. Lots of labor unions, particularly the trades, would strenuously object to some of these ideas.
What the CTU really wants is an immense expansion of the state tax base.
“Why do students at Carver Elementary have to go without their flag football team?” Gates asked. “Why are educators being told to conserve toilet tissue and paper towels? Why does everyone have to subsidize the foot-dragging of our governor and Democratic General Assembly.”
From the first Mayor Daley to the present, some things never change.
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.
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