This came from John Tillman from the Illinois Policy Institute:
The Illinois Policy Institute’s Vice President of Communications Diana Rickert publicly debated Madigan’s official spokesman, Steve Brown on Joe Greenwood’s 1470 WMBD radio morning show. . Diana and Steve covered a wide range of topics, including the budget crisis, Illinois’ downgraded credit rating, workers’ compensation reform, “fair-share fees” and more. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that instead of offering real solutions to Illinois’ financial crisis, Steve deflected nearly every question. He answered with Madigan’s usual talking points: blaming Gov. Bruce Rauner for the state’s problems and claiming taxpayers don’t want economic reforms such as property-tax relief and workers’ compensation. Listen to some of the highlights below, including:
- Why Madigan is not responsible for any of the financial crisis (hint: because his signature is not on any bills)
- How Madigan’s law firm, which profits from the lucrative field of Cook County property-tax appeals, is not a conflict of interest
- Why gerrymandering is the way district maps should be drawn
- Why taxpayers don’t want property-tax relief or workers’ compensation reform
- Why “fair-share fees” are fair
- Why term limits shouldn’t be applied to terms of current sitting politicians
Diana calls Steve out for blaming the governor for not approving Madigan’s budget – even though Senate Democrats didn’t pass the $7 billion out-of-balance budget, which never made it to the governor’s desk. The entire show was extremely telling of how Madigan’s top spokesman deflects any responsibility for the financial crisis from Madigan. You can listen to the full segment here.
