George Burns once said, “Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair.” To which I might humbly add, “and running think tanks.”
Illinois desperately needs a chief executive committed to free-market ideas. I’ve stood on the sidelines for too long. It’s time I got my hands dirty, practice what I preach, fish or cut bait, and quit just talking about it. It’s time, in other words, for me to run for Governor of Illinois.
My Predecessors
Illinois has had Republican governors ever since I arrived in Illinois as a college student in 1976, and they’ve all been numbskulls (pardon my frank language, but this is politics).
The first one, Jim Thompson, oversaw an unprecedented expansion in the size and cost of state government, from an annual budget in 1978 of $8.8 billion to a budget of $26 billion in 1991. To finance this largess, Thompson raised the state income tax and plunged the state into debt with his infamous “Build Illinois” pork barrel scheme.
Thompson was succeeded in 1991 by Jim Edgar. Jim II was less liberal than Jim I, though he signed legislation to make Jim I’s “temporary” income tax increase permanent. Edgar courageously opposed new spending initiatives and statewide tax hikes until his final year in office, when his misguided search for a “legacy” led him to push for an income-tax/property-tax swap.
Edgar’s opposition to school choice prevented the adoption of pilot voucher programs in Chicago and other major cities in the state, programs that by now would have been expanded to provide choice statewide. He vetoed even a modest tuition tax credit plan. After properly cutting back on some of the Thompson era’s worse excesses, such as the smokestack-chasing Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, he allowed these programs to grow during his second term until they were even more bloated and expensive than they were under Jim I.
Governor Ryan
In 1999, Edgar was followed in office by George Ryan. Ryan brought back Thompson-style bust-the-bank spending, including his own version of “Build Illinois” called “Illinois FIRST.” Ryan is familiar with conservative ideas and can talk the talk, but he doesn’t walk the walk. During his campaign for governor he signed a “no new taxes” pledge, then “changed his mind” and raised a wide variety of taxes (though not the state income tax). He signed into law a $500 tuition tax credit early in his term, but since then has done nothing for conservatives or libertarians.
Dogged by a federal investigation into corruption in the Secretary of State’s office, which he ran prior to becoming governor, Ryan isn’t running for reelection. The odds-on favorite to win the Republican primary is Attorney General Jim Ryan, no relation, except that he’s another liberal Republican cut from the same cloth as Jim I, Jim II, and George. Conservatives and libertarians are rightly filled with despair. Jim III slept while George Ryan’s cronies looted the Secretary of State’s office; he promised trial lawyers over $100 million to help sue smokers (and now that the suit has been settled, he’s trying to wiggle out of it); and he backed litigation against Microsoft and gun manufacturers.
What I Will Do
I am running for Governor to offer voters a choice, not an echo, a new deal, a new beginning, a new day, and a Joe rather than another Jim. As Governor, my four top priorities will be:
(1) Reduce state spending by 5 percent a year by eliminating unnecessary programs and downsizing others. By the fourth year, state spending will be about 80 percent what it was in 2002, or about the same as it was in 1999. This hardly seems like a radical proposal, yet every other candidate in the race would increase spending by at least 5 percent a year, meaning by their fourth year in office, they would have the state spend 121 percent as much as in 2002, which is about 50 percent more than what my plan would achieve. If I’m elected, in other words, state government in 2006 would be one-third smaller than it otherwise would be.
(2) Cut taxes in pace with spending cuts. In the first year I will abolish taxes on beer, cigarettes, and cheese, which are outrageously high and hit hardest middle-income folks like you and me. If necessary, I will campaign for a constitutional amendment banning state and local taxes on these three food groups. In my second year in office I will abolish the corporate income tax, the state’s most anti-jobs and anti-business tax. In year three I will repeal all the tax hikes Gov. Ryan imposed. And in year four I will repeal all the tax hikes Gov. Edgar imposed, including the “temporary” income tax hike.
(3) Allow parents to choose private schools for their children without financial penalty. Milwaukee and Cleveland have pilot programs that give parents “vouchers” to pay for tuition at the schools of their choice. When those parents choose private schools that spend less than government schools, taxpayers save and kids get better educations. Illinois should show the rest of the country how competition and choice can revolutionize schooling, please parents, and benefit hard-pressed taxpayers … statewide.
(4) Revamp the War on Drugs. I would put Prof. Gary Becker, the Nobel Laureate economist at the University of Chicago, in charge of reforming drug policy in Illinois. Dr. Becker is as far from being a pot head or mushy liberal as you can possibly get, yet he favors drug legalization. The War on Drugs has devastated neighborhoods in many of Illinois’ biggest cities, ruined countless lives, corrupted our judicial system, and imposes an enormous financial burden on taxpayers. We need a new approach that concentrates on protecting children from the most dangerous substances, and leaves the rest of the drug problem to churches, families, and the other institutions of civil society.
Heartland and My Campaign
It would be improper for The Heartland Institute, a nonprofit and tax-exempt charity, to be involved in any way with my campaign for Governor. I have carefully thought through a plan to avoid possible legal and ethical conflicts.
First, I will run as a write-in candidate in the general election, so I am not now officially a “candidate.” In fact, very few people will even know I was a “candidate” until I am swept into office (see below).
Second, no campaign activities will take place in Heartland’s offices during business hours. Please do not drop by our office at 19 South LaSalle Street, Suite 903, Chicago, Illinois, before 9:00 a.m. (I’ll be here at 8:00 a.m.) or after 5:00 p.m. (I’m usually here until about 7:00 p.m.). BYOB.
Third, your campaign contributions (payable to “Bast for Governor”) should not be sent to The Heartland Institute, 19 South LaSalle Street, Suite 903, Chicago, Illinois 60603. Any contributions mistakenly sent to that address will be taken home and opened in my garage.
Finally, I am working with a New York-based company that manufactures beer, tobacco, and cheese, which must remain anonymous for now, to have ads for my campaign printed on every beer case, carton of cigarettes, and pizza box sold in Illinois during the two weeks prior to the election. I fully expect those ads, featuring my picture and tax cut proposals, will ensure my election.
“The pursuit of public office is like the pursuit of women,” G.K. Chesterton once wrote. “The position is ridiculous, the expense damnable, and the pleasure fleeting.” I expect my campaign to live up to his high standards.
