Where Democrats can be Democrats

Nathan Newman (via Matt Yglesias cites the accomplishments of the Illinois Lege under unified Democratic control with a Democratic Governor.

# Raising the minimum wage to $6.50 per hour by Jan 1, 2005.
# Investing in 195,000 jobs through funding expansion of O’Hare airport.
# Passing the Equal Pay Act against disparities of pay on basis of gender.
# Right to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for victims of sexual or domestic violence.
# State Lawsuit Immunity Act- this legislation waives Illinois’ 11th Amendment immunity to federal anti-discrimination laws, essentially nullifying recent "states rights" Supreme Court decisions in Illinois. This gives state workers rights to sue under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
# New law that permits public employees to form unions based on card-check recognition, meaning when a majority of workers signs cards, the union automatically comes into existence.
# Amended Illinois Human Rights Act to recognize a civil rights violation for employers adopting or implementing so-called "English-only" work rules.
# Illinois Prohibition of Goods from Forced Labor Act- state procurement contracts cannot use foreign-made goods produced by forced, convict, or indentured labor.
# Amendment to the Employment of Strikebreakers Act and the Day and Temporary Services Act- prevents employers from contracting with day and temporary labor service firms to replace workers during a strike or a lockout. Bill bars labor service agencies from sending workers to job sites where a strike, lockout or other labor problem exists.
# Illinois Whistleblower Act- bars employers from creating rules or policies preventing employees from disclosing violations of law to state or federal law enforcement agencies.

Most of these are unequivocally good if you are a Democrat and don’t really raise the ire of many. But as with most achievement posts it leaves out some of the ugly.

1) SBC! This should be count for about five bad things. Instead of having the ICC look at the issue, the Lege and the Governor caved.

2) one-time gimmicks to balance the budget. While not as bad as I expected, it is still problematic. Overall the budget was an improvement over recent years, but it still relies on too many gimmicks. Pate and G-Ry can’t be blamed anymore.

3) Absolutely no movement on school consolidation or even the decreasing the costs of Regional Superintendents.

4) Subsidies continue for horse tracks and ADM

5) The appointment of another tollway authority Board Member with shady dealings.

6) an ethics bill with no teeth

That being said other good things include,

1) Lisa Madigan taking on Rosemont and Don Stephens over the Emerald Casino license. Rosemont wants a bail out for the deal, she says no way.

2) movement on civil rights regardless of sexual orientation

Overall, not a bad session. While pork still got through, it wasn’t as much as I expected. The budget isn’t entirely rational, but it is improved. The Democrats didn’t go crazy and go overboard–with no money there was only so much that could be done.

I believe that two strong competing parties provide the best overall outcomes. However, the biggest development in state politics is the movement of the Republican Party rightward. As they do so they are less competitive and barring major scandals, Democrats face less pressure to check themselves.

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