Last year, gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner pledged to "crack down on waste" in government in order to save taxpayers over $140 million. He also vowed to cut $500 million from the Illinois Department of Central Management Services and find another $250 million in Medicaid savings.

Very little of that has happened to date, as the governor himself inadvertently admitted during a speech last week in the southern Cook County suburbs.

Instead of saving $500 million at CMS, for example, Rauner touted just $15 million in savings, mainly from grounding the state's fleet of airplanes - although that doesn't take into consideration the cost of paying mileage reimbursements for all those folks who can no longer fly.

The governor identified a grand total of $107 million in what he said are savings he's found this year, but most came from cuts at the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, and people I've talked to aren't buying those numbers because some major state cost controls have been allowed to expire. He also failed to mention that he vetoed a bill that the Democrats say would've resulted in $400 million in DHFS savings - far more than his own stated campaign goal and lots more than the $70 million he claims to have actually saved.

Governor Rauner also bemoaned the lack of a budget and the myriad court orders which are forcing state spending at last fiscal year's levels. "I can't control" the court orders, the governor said. That's true, but the governor could try negotiating with the stakeholders and the courts to come up with more affordable orders. He's not a complete victim.

And, of course, he repeatedly complained that the Democratic General Assembly hasn't allowed votes on a single one of his Turnaround Agenda items.

He has a right to complain, but he's not a legislator and needs to eventually realize that he can't pass bills on his own.

The Illinois Senate had been scheduled to return to Springfield on October 6 after not being in session since September 9. But last week, the Senate President postponed session until October 20.

The reason is pretty straightforward.

The Senate has overridden several gubernatorial vetoes. It's pretty easy for the majority party because the chamber has 39 Democrats, three more than the three-fifths required to override a veto.

The House has 71 Democrats, the exact number of votes required to overturn a veto in that chamber. So the Senate Democrats can be missing a few people or have some folks who don't want to go along and still override the governor on partisan votes. But the House Democrats need every member in town, and they all need to be voting the same way for that chamber to succeed.

Because of that tight margin, and because the Republicans have marched in lockstep with their party's governor, the House has only overridden one veto this entire year: the Heroin Crisis Act.

And the House was only able to override that bill because Governor Bruce Rauner allowed House Republicans to vote against his amendatory veto, which stripped out state Medicaid funding for heroin-addiction treatment. Rauner now gets to portray himself as fiscally conservative, while the Republicans got to do the right thing and make the much-needed criminal-justice-reform legislation an actual law.

To date, the governor and his staff have successfully fought off 62 override attempts, mainly in the House.

So much for Speaker Michael Madigan's much-vaunted veto-proof House majority.

Memory has a way of playing tricks on the mind, but my recollection is that each of the seven presidential elections since I reached adulthood (I turned 18 the week after Ronald Reagan was re-elected in 1984) has been advertised - by the parties, by the candidates, by the media - as "the most important election of our lifetimes."

Here comes the eighth. Same shtick, even if the Jerry Springer atmospherics have been turned up a little. The world will end if Candidate X is elected. Americans will starve in the streets if Candidate Y isn't elected. You know what I'm talking about.

Of course, each presidential election is incredibly important to the parties, the candidates, and the media. Elections are their bread and butter. But are they really that consequential to the rest of us? On close examination, the only plausible answer is "no."

I don't know how many public officials or candidates have ridden the Davenport buses recently, but they should. I did recently and learned a lot while talking with the drivers and the riders. More was learned when discussing the problems with other Davenport citizens who don't take the bus.

If we want to make Davenport thrive, improvements must be made. I've already begun working on a public-private partnership for heated bus shelters. However, the hours and days have to be expanded. Some people haven't taken jobs because of the limited transportation. I know some ministers who'd be happy to see new faces at the services. Meanwhile, stores and entertainment centers would see a boost in sales, and Davenport would see more revenue from sales taxes.

Nearly 5,000 people ride daily. That is a lot of commercial activity.

We know the City of Davenport wants to attract young professionals and has steadily been improving the downtown area partly with that intent.

There are great minds in this city. Let's use them to find solutions. We have the money if we use financial resources smartly. Perhaps Scott County and Rock Island County can team up for a regional transportation authority.

We need a public transportation system that will take people from where they live to where they work and where they want to spend time. The bottom line is that we have a good system now, but we can and must make it better.

Bob Babcock
Davenport