Can you trust what Illinois is telling you about Amendment 1?
-Consider who has the most to gain, and the most to lose.
-Consider who's paying for all those pretty blue signs that say "Vote Yes on Amendment 1."
-And consider the Constitutional Amendment they tried to pass two years ago, known as the progressive income tax, which Republican AND Democrat voters soundly rejected.
Now they're trying to sneak through another Constitutional Amendment. Which begs the question, why not just pass a law? A Constitutional Amendment is a BIG step. The short answer is: They're afraid people won't like what they're trying to push through, and they might eventually repeal the law. So they're going for the platinum prize- changing the Illinois Bill of Rights, so that you can't second guess it afterward.
Here's why there's so much government money behind Amendment 1, and why they're lying to you- openly- about what it does. Because Amendment 1 will allow state-government unions to negotiate from a stronger position with the very same politicians it supports. Those politicians have absolutely no reason to deny government union leaders anything they want, with the expectation that those unions will turn around and support them with big contributions at election time. It's a form of legal political money laundering, and they want to enshrine it in the Constitution so you can't take it away from them.
This Amendment does NOT protect private unions, only state government unions. Which means that 7% of Illinois workers would be able to negotiate for basically unlimited pay and benefit raises at the expense of the other 93% of Illinoisans.
The plain truth is, unions, private and public, already have collective bargaining rights in Illinois, and they're not going anywhere. And despite how they're framing it, this Amendment does nothing to protect those rights for anybody outside of government employees anyway.
But they aren't just lying there- the language on the ballot intentionally makes it appear to affect all workers. And, to add confusion:
"The measure only goes into effect if it is approved by either three-fifths of those voting on the question, or a majority of those voting in the election." -WCIA Champaign
Translated into plain English, the deck it stacked so that if you are confused and leave it blank on your ballot, you've essentially voted yes for Amendment
1. You have to vote 'no' if there's any chance of this crony Amendment failing on Tuesday.
But the choice is yours. Just make sure you have all the facts before you fill in the bubble, because they're hoping you just throw your hands up and leave it blank.
Ryan Wiggins is the author of the extremely serious and not funny robot novel, The Life of Human, and is a writer and producer of television shows. He is the host of Wiggins America on 97.1 FM Talk in St. Louis.
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