The burgeoning corruption scandal that has spread from Chicago and the south suburbs to Springfield gives Gov. J.B. Pritzker a rare chance to implement ethics reforms that would have been unthinkable otherwise, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Friday.

“As somebody once said, and really crystallized it, `Never allow a good crisis to go to waste.’”

Emanuel was quoting himself.

“I remember the auto industry. We finally in that moment of crisis did things that people had been talking about for 30 or 40 years. … We [now] have a crisis. And now, you’re gonna have to do things that you’ve discussed and thought about before, but for a host of reasons” could never do.

Six months after leaving office, Emanuel sat down with the Sun-Times for an extended interview under strict ground rules.

He would not pass judgment on anything Mayor Lori Lightfoot has done. Not on her $11.6 billion budget or her relationships with a City Council that has been pushing back. Not on the 11-day teachers strike or her strained relationship with the Fraternal Order of Police.

Everything about Lightfoot was off-limits. That’s Emanuel’s political ethic.

“I love this city. I love the future of this city. But, I will never, ever, having sat in that chair [pass judgment]. All I would say is, I root for her and root for the city,” he said.

“I had the ethic in office. You didn’t say anything about our predecessor. And I have that ethic also [about his successor]. I know what the job takes. It’s very hard. You don’t need to make it harder. … In a note [left for Lightfoot], all I would say is, `I’m rootin’ for ya.’ My view is, a mayor needs to have all the running room they need to do the job.”

Instead of focusing on Lightfoot and City Hall, Emanuel talked extensively about state politics and the extraordinary opportunity his friend Pritzker now has to clean things up as more and more evidence surfaces about an investigation that includes Commonwealth Edison lobbyists and appears to be targeting Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago).

“If you had a career politician in the governor’s office, they would trim their sails. Governor Pritzker is not part of this. He comes to it fresh, clean. He has no kind of history. All the things that you thought hit the bumper — [saying], `You can’t get that done for this reason’ — he has no history with it. No relationship to it. That allows him to get something done,” Emanuel said.

“Getting this done is key, given what’s hanging over the state. At the same time, it comes with what other things can’t get done because so much energy is around this.”

Pritzker’s top priority is to pass the constitutional amendment he needs in November to implement a graduated income tax.

Emanuel said he expects the amendment to pass in November 2020 — probably after it’s tied to a property tax freeze or some other form of property tax relief.

He credited Pritzker with hitting a “grand slam” during the spring session by winning approval of a massive capital bill, casino gambling and recreational marijuana.

The momentum continued during the veto session, when Pritzker convinced the General Assembly to consolidate suburban and downstate police and fire pensions.

“I had to deal with Governor Rauner, who has his views of the city of Chicago. And it was hand-to-hand combat for four years. ... You [also] know the working relationship I did and did not have with Governor [Pat] Quinn,” Emanuel said.

“You [now] have a governor who is looking to the future and not trying to settle scores, but get moving.”

Emanuel said the impending retirement of his close friend and political ally, Illinois Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago), will be a huge loss to Chicago.

“The state, for the first time in a hundred years, is now paying a portion of the teachers’ pension [thanks to] John Cullerton. ... And it goes up. Re-writing the school financing bill leading to $450 million of more money every year and growing,” the former mayor said.

“The police pension, the fire pension, the laborers pension, after Governor Rauner tried to undermine Chicago. We passed it … because John [Cullerton], Mike [Madigan] and my office worked it and got Republicans and Democrats to realize pension reform was key. You have the [CTA’s] Red-Purple modernization. We leveraged that to get $3 billion more in federal money because John and Mike saw the vision.”

Emanuel said the political sea change caused by Cullerton’s exit will put more pressure on Pritzker to fill the void.