Appoint, Then Confirm: An Alternative Senate Selection Process

Will Burns — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:02:31 -0800

The public does not like appointments to elected offices. Whether it’s a group of committeemen, the mayor of a city, or the governor -- the appointment process never seems or feels completely fair. For starters, the preliminary interviews and vetting typically occur behind closed doors. Prospective appointees advocate for the job, but only to those who control the appointment decision. The public might hear rhetoric about the criteria for the decision, but is left thinking that the rationale offered is little more than spin.

Normally, once the appointment has been made, there is some initial grumbling about the lack of public input in the process. And no more. But the recent allegations that Gov. Rod Blagojevich sought to sell an appointment to the U.S. Senate has changed the old political calculus about appointments.

Prominent Democrats, Republicans, and editorial boards have opined that this time the appointee should be elected rather than selected. I too have supported calls for a special election. And I continue to believe that a special election is the optimal solution for guaranteeing transparency and public accountability. But there is a considerable downside -- the cost. The bill for a statewide special election could reach $30 million. Not chump change at a time when the state has been forced to borrow upwards of $1 billion to pay its bills.

And that $30 million will have to come from somewhere. Maybe the money will siphoned from early childhood education, workforce development programs, or Medicaid providers.

There is another way. After I am sworn in next month as a member of the Illinois House, I will introduce a bill to create an alternative selection process.

Here’s how it works: The governor will retain the appointment power. However, the governor will be required to submit a message to the House and Senate naming the appointee along with his/her qualifications to serve in the United States Senate. A committee of the House and a committee of the Senate will conduct two public hearings, one in Chicago and one in Springfield, on the qualifications of the appointee. The House and Senate will then confirm the appointee through the adoption of a joint resolution.

The law will apply only to the Obama vacancy and will expire in two years.

The Illinois constitution requires the advice and consent of the Senate on most gubernatorial appointments. (The Legislative Inspector General, for instance, is selected through a resolution adopted by the Illinois House of Representatives and Senate.) In this case, it makes sense to add the approval of the vacant U.S. Senate seat to that list of responsibilities.

Committee hearings are open to the public; the public can testify, submit written testimony, etc. Likewise, floor debates are broadcast on the General Assembly’s website and are also open to the public. As a result, citizens could share their opinions with lawmakers regarding the appointment.

This alternative process is obviously not as democratic as an election. Nonetheless, it would be a dramatic improvement over current law, where one person decides, and the selection is made behind closed doors.

Will Burns is the state representative-elect in Illinois' 26th District.

Towards An Equitable School Funding System

Will Burns — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:56:58 -0700

Yesterday, I joined members of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus in a press conference on school funding reform. Recent calls for a boycott of the Chicago Public Schools have, predictably, focused new attention on an old problem: Illinois’ overreliance on local property taxes to fund public schools.

This is not a new issue for me.

In 1998, I was the staff analyst for the Senate Education and Appropriations Committee.

Two years later, I organized a statewide coalition on school funding reform that included unions, businesses, civil rights groups, and civic organizations. We brought in outside experts to demonstrate the state's failure to devote adequate resources to high quality education for our children. We showed how the lack of state support for public schools increased district's reliance on local property taxes, and how the need for property tax reform skewed economic development decisions and created perverse incentives for urban sprawl. All to no avail.

The guaranteed minimum of per-child education spending in the state is still significantly lower than what is needed to adequately serve our children. On the national level, Illinois ranks 49th in state support for public education.

As I learned on the campaign trail this past fall and winter, the consequences are pernicious. Renters struggle to pay rising rents fueled by gentrification and escalating property values. Homeowners are palpably angry about high property tax bills and underperforming schools.

Parents know that their children -- through no fault of their own -- will not reach their full academic potential, because their schools are horribly underfunded. The effects last a lifetime in the form of underemployment, unemployment, and lost wages.

The ramifications are equally bad for the state. Our failure to substantially invest in public education imperils the quality of Illinois' future workforce and its economic competitiveness.

There is an education funding crisis in this state, but it is not readily visible and it lacks the urgency of last year’s transit meltdown.

Districts won’t close their doors anytime soon.

Classrooms are overcrowded, but teachers are still teaching.

No district faces a serious threat of a state takeover.

The key to education funding reform is to make the school funding crisis urgent.

That’s why I support legislation to prohibit the collection of local property taxes for education expenditures and to repeal the school aid formula by 2010. The system is broken and it must be fixed. We should therefore abolish it, by a date certain, so that the General Assembly and governor will be forced to develop an alternative, equitable, and just school funding system.

Some will call this proposal radical. But it is an approach that has worked. In 1993, the Michigan legislature and governor took this unprecedented step and a year later emerged with a new school funding system that boosted state resources for poor school districts and dramatically reduced inequalities between the wealthy and the poor.

Maybe, just maybe, this approach will get us closer to high quality schools for all Illinois children.

Will Burns is the Democratic nominee for state representative in Illinois' 26th District.