Village Voices - We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks

The State of Illinois lost a great legislator last year when Republican State Representative and Floor Leader Mark Batinick retired. He was a fiscal hawk who was a true problem-solver. He did not promote a partisan agenda, but instead viewed policy ideas, regardless of who sponsored them, through a comprehensive lens of cost-benefit-consequence. Mark and I had a conversation the other day about the dangers of unintended consequences, and how sometimes legislation that looks and sounds good can actually have disastrous results.

No one can deny that the Democratic Party has controll...