Rauner Blasts Emanuel For 'Tragic Failure Of Leadership'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- As he began his second year in office this week, Gov. Bruce Rauner had some harsh criticisms of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Not surprisingly, with the state still without a budget, the governor directs a lot of his venom at his nemesis, House Speaker Michael Madigan, but as he looks back at his first year in office, Rauner also has a lot to say about his friend, the mayor.
"The mayor has failed on multiple levels. It's a tragic failure of leadership," Rauner said of Emanuel.
In an interview about his first year in office, Rauner had a litany of criticisms about the mayor of Chicago, from gun crimes to cash-strapped schools, and a lack of jobs in the neighborhoods.
"I'm not going to discuss the terrible tragedies with the shootings in Chicago. I will talk about Chicago Public Schools, and the financial condition of Chicago. Chicago has basically the lowest credit ratings of any big city, other than Detroit; massive debt, deficits," the governor said.
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Rauner also blasted the mayor's record $588 million property tax hike, which Emanuel pushed through the City Council last year to shore up police and fire pension funds over the next four years, and pay for school construction.
"Brutally high taxes, and a massive property tax [hike] coming now, without any real reforms connected to it; and without reforms, the massive property tax hike that's hitting Chicagoans, and Chicago homeowners and businesses is only the first step of many large tax hikes that are coming in the future years, because so far Mayor Emanuel has refused to do any true real structural reform," he said.
The mayor has said the governor has refused to the Chicago Public Schools, and is holding students hostage to his union-weakening agenda.
"They are not a pawn in your political maneuvers," Emanuel said earlier this week. "The children of the city of Chicago are not a pawn in a political game in Springfield to get an agenda done that people don't agree with."
