Wisconsin fight could happen in Illinois

Mark Brown in Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Don’t forget unionized state employees in Illinois received a 1 percent raise on Jan. 1 and are scheduled for raises of 2 percent on June 1, plus 4 percent on July 1 and another 1.25 percent next Jan. 1. That’s after raises of 3 percent last year. And there still have been no mandatory furloughs for state workers and only a minimum of layoffs during the recession.

The folks at the public employee unions say they are fighting on behalf of all working people against the corporate giants who would otherwise move unchecked across the political landscape. That would be great, except what it seems more like is that the rest of us are now caught in between these two giant forces — the wealthy corporate interests fighting to avoid their fair share of the taxpaying and the public employee unions fighting to soak up as much tax dollars as they can get.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn sure like unions.