‘Illinois Remains in Thrall to Big Labor’

Early this week Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry, an avid Right to Work supporter, visited Chicago, Ill., largely to commiserate with business employees and owners who are struggling in a forced-unionism state that is notoriously hostile to free enterprise.     Perry suggested that Illinois businesses and employees alike should consider moving to Right to Work Texas.  “Our state is a beacon for those who want to grow and keep more of what they work for,” Perry correctly observed.

Prairie State Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and Chicago Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel, both apologists for monopolistic unionism, have responded to Perry’s comments primarily by making wisecracks about his personal quirks.  That is probably because, as the Investor’s Business Daily editorial linked below explains, Quinn, Emanuel, and other elected officials in the state have “no viable plan” to address its grave ills, including “the nation’s worst pension problem, lowered credit ratings and high taxes.”

Of course, addressing these ills effectively would necessitate rolling back Big Labor’s special coercive privileges over employees:

A 2011 income tax increase, including a 67% rise in the rate individuals pay, showed that Illinois’ Democratic governor, Pat Quinn, and its Democratic legislature, like the Obama administration, would rather raise revenue than slash spending.

While neighbors including Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan have either challenged the unions on pension reform or embraced right-to-work laws to encourage the economic growth to fund them, Illinois remains in thrall to big labor.

Not so with Texas, a right-to-work state that taxes neither personal income nor capital gains.

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