Thank Rod!

I can’t help but feel that the Blago Opposite Effect (BOE) is significantly paving the way for some drastic measures to be implemented regarding the state budget. BOE is simply the notion that whatever disgraced former governor Rod Blagojevich did, it’s better to do the opposite. Blago was opposed to tax increases, we should raise taxes! Rod-man closed parks and historic sites, we should reopen them! Seriously, I remember the last state tax increase over 20 years ago. It was very contentious. And while it’s still early in the debate, the even larger state income tax hike being proposed by Governor Quinn has a pretty good chance of passing with only minor opposition. Why? Well, state government is in pretty dire financial straits for one thing. But Blago told us we should never raise taxes so that triggers the BOE in us all, making hiking taxes much easier. We’ll see how it goes, but the Blagojevich legacy just might make the hard decisions easier.

Update: I also think Blagojevich offers us a convenient object of blame, making it easier to implement measures that might not otherwise be politically feasible. “We don’t want to do all of these things to fix the state budget but Blago messed everything up so we have to!”