44 Comments - Rockford's Finest - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 8:52 am: I sure am glad Syverson is no longer representing my legislative district. - Abe the Babe - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 8:54 am: And what was only believed is now proven true… PQ bent over backwards to convince downstate GOP members to vote for a tax hike with no success… ”I will get killed in my district…I mean, I know we need it but I just cant do it…cant you find someone else? By the way WHY are you closing my DHS facility??!!!” But alas, Mitt Rauner has not even been sworn in yet and the GOP tune changes. Its corrupt spending when PQ wants it and its mathematics when Rauner wants it. - Demoralized - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 8:58 am: Is anybody going to ask Rep Sosnowski for some details about his brilliant plans to fix the budget? Anybody who thinks the state can cut its way out of this situation evidently failed math class. - Buster Brown - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 8:59 am: Rich, saying Sosnowski is not a TEAM player is a bit much for a Monday morning. Or any morning for that manner. The temporary tax increase was meant to be temporary. At least legislators should try to honor this commitment. There will be many Republicans who don’t support an extension but that doesn’t mean their not TEAM players. - anon - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 9:06 am: @Abe the Babe—–Do you ever pay attention to what goes on nationally? Ever? - Wordslinger - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 9:07 am: Sosnowski “believes” this as a matter of faith, or is there some arithmetic and logic involved? Does he have a couple loaves of bread he can turn into billions of dollars? - MrJM - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 9:12 am: Sorry, Rich, no one can credibly claim that the Magic Beans theory has been discredited. Until Illinois’ political leaders embrace pure Magic Beans Doctrine — not another piecemeal version watered-down by reality — we cannot know for certain whether or not it is the solution to all of our state’s problems. – MrJM - Gooner - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 9:14 am: Why do I get the idea that the Speaker just decided that no tax hike passes without Sosnowski’s vote? Now is the time for people like him to lay low, and hope you somehow are not required to be part of that roll call. Keep quiet. Ask nicely. - Abe the Babe - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 9:15 am: ==Do you ever pay attention to what goes on nationally? Ever?== No, never. Do you ever read your off topic comments before you post them? - PublicServant - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 9:23 am: We’ll know forcertain whether Rauner’s gonna play it that way if he hires some ex-baseball players as his liasons. Da boss requested that I educate you as to your postion on the upcoming vote… - Very Fed Up - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 9:42 am: Unfortunately despite advertising the tax hike as “temporary” absolutely nothing was done over the last few years by Quinn to prepare the state to let it expire. Might need to slow down the rollback unfortunately. - AFSCME Steward - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 9:45 am: “However, Representative Joe Sosnowski (R) believes the state can save money from other funds to cover the projected income deficit. He says there’s half a billion dollars sitting in Medicaid alone that the state can save. “My feeling is, before we look to extending [the income tax,] we really need to look at our spending and what reforms we can do,” said Representative Sosnowski.” I am really curious. Rep. Sosnowski, did you & the rest of your “GOP team” present an alternative to the Democratic budget? Where exactly is the 1/2 billion in Medicaid savings? It is easy to just say no to everything and make broad statements about cost cuts. Please back up your idea with facts. - walker - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 9:56 am: Sosnowski: Please lean over and talk with your colleague Patti Bellock before you just repeat time-worn myths about obvious Medicaid savings in Illinois. Then pass on her insights and numbers to the public. She knows what’s what. - CircularFiringSquad - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 9:59 am: Great idea, check with Bellock before you decide you don’t need the the hike and she “withdraws” from whatever post she wants - Louis G. Atsaves - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 10:01 am: I guess it depends on whose magic beans we are talking about here. The magic means of Cullerton, Madigan and Quinn who built in a series of dramatic reductions four years ago and made a bunch of statements that everything would out fine? No one around here wants to talk about those beans. Now for the first time the GOP will have a seat at the table and they can mix their beans with those others. - JS Mill - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 10:07 am: The (very) cynical side of me wants to see the income tax rate drop in January so that all of the “cut your way out” (as the only alternative) types can address the outcomes of that action. As it stands they can grandstand all day long with little risk of accountability. IN the end it makes them no better than those whose only solution is to keep the current tax rate. - Sportsfans - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 10:09 am: Very Fed Up, you can say that PQ did nothing to prepare for the expiration, but thats not completely accurate. What the governor did do was pay the full pension payment each year, paid down money owed by the state to vendors, and managed a slight increase in education spending. I would say that he handled the increased revenue in a completely responsible manner. I would also argue that the current tax rate is appropriate for the state’s current spending levels and fiscal obligations. I would add that a rate at or near 5% is necessary to cover obligations. So you can argue that discretionary spending needs to be cut, but it cannot be cut enough that the previous tax level would adequately cover it. I guess we will see how Governor Elect Rauner plans to handle this very soon. - walker - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 10:11 am: Not only are some formerly-coasting GOP legislators suddenly going to have to participate in tough votes, they are also going to have to learn some real numbers, and apply some simple arithmetic to the problems we face. Ten minutes with backs of envelopes and napkins should suffice for some of them to make significant progress. - VanillaMan - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 10:13 am: I don’t know what the “cut-government” crowd expected to witness in order for them to have moved on from their decades old demand, but government in Illinois has been seriously cut over the past decade as Boomers have retired and their positions left vacant. Illinois has fewer government employees per citizen than any other state. So why hasn’t costs gone down? Because those Boomers are getting their earned pensions, the folks left working as state employees have earned more salaries along with their additional experiences, and the demands placed upon our state government have increased. It costs more to give more aid to more families without work or support. We are being squeezed two ways. One, by not keeping up with national growth over the past two decades and two, by having an older population and more dependent population than nationally. Retirees with the ability to support themselves move to Florida and other sunny states, job seekers with the ability to move have been leaving to high-growth states, and those who cannot support themselves are left behind. Illinois is incredibly different demographically in 2014, than it was in 1984. So any cut-government folks out there need to see that their expectations of easy money isn’t realistic. We aren’t going to stop helping the needy. We aren’t going to stop government from operating. We aren’t going to find waste or inefficiencies after a decade of stagnation. Tax increases aren’t fun, but we are out of money and our economy is still underperforming. Rauner needs to hope that we find new sources of government funding right away if he doesn’t want to see taxes increased to keep what we have. - Anonymous - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 10:16 am: It will be very easy to tell by the way they vote , or by what they are saying if they are looking for a appointment. Senator Dave would be smart not to vote against the incoming administration wishes. - A guy... - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 10:18 am: If there is some new tax policy rearing up now to prevent the state from running out of money because of the rate going down, there is going to have to be something other than “let’s just do it so we don’t run out of money”. Whatever the policy is to be, Syverson has hinted that he’s open to such thinking. Rauner has already signaled that something that includes some very dramatic reforms could have his support. Those, at the least are olive branches, maybe not leafy ones, but it’s a start. It ain’t going to be a freebie for Madigan and Cullerton. They are going to fashion some important changes for this to happen. This lousy budget still has their name all over it. This will need to be credible enough to have plenty of votes from both sides on it. It will have to be something that can be defended in the districts even if it’s not popular. People are resilient if it does what it’s designed to do. If the risk has shifted, so has some of the power. Let’s see what they do. It looks like an opportunity to me. If I see it, I assume MJM sees it. I concede; he is a lot smarter than I am. - AFSCME Steward - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 10:21 am: Louis G Atsaves “Now for the first time the GOP will have a seat at the table and they can mix their beans with those others.” Really, the GOP had no seat at the table? There are no GOP in the GA? None? Being in the minority does not mean that you don’t have a seat. It means that you have to present an alternative plan to the majority & sell it. The ILGOP has done nothing by whine about the Democrats. The so called plans are nothing but non-specific generalities that lack any substantation. If there is really 1/2 billion in Medicaid savings, prove it. Show us all where it is. Present an alternative budget that eliminates all of the waste you “know is there”. Make a case for the ILGOP to elect more reps & work towards the majority party it once was. - AFSCME Steward - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 10:24 am: That should say The ILGOP has done nothing but whine about the Democrats - Wordslinger - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 10:41 am: Louis, you won. The powerless victim act, never credible or attractive, is no longer operational at any level. - Norseman - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 10:41 am: I see Rauner’s new path for getting Republican votes on tough issues. Create more agencies requiring directors that can be filled by legislators. - Loop Lady - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 10:55 am: what Sportsfan said…totally… - Bill White - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 11:02 am: V-Man It doesn’t appear Illinois is “lowest” in state/local employees per capita - but we are close to being lowest http://www.governing.com/gov-data/public-workforce-salaries/states-most-government-workers-public-employees-by-job-type.html - Sir Reel - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 12:31 pm: Norseman got it right. Remember the legislator who was DNR Director for 2 weeks and boosted his pension by more than $40,000 per year. - Louis G Atsaves - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 12:49 pm: AFSME: ” . . . Make a case for the ILGOP to elect more reps & work towards the majority party it once was. . . . ” Does this mean an end to gerrymandering too? Usually a vote that fails to have a single GOP member in favor denotes a “ram it down their throats approach” by the veto proof majority. Unless you and Word have evidence to the contrary. Of course, the true “victims” of all this are people of the State of Illinois. Let’s not forget that as this currently unconstitutional budget passed without any GOP votes with the built in poison pills. - Gooner - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 12:52 pm: Really Louis? I thought one that had no GOP votes simply indicated “Reps. playing politics and opposing everything, rather than looking out for the interests of their districts.” So it looks like two different conclusions could be reached from similar numbers. - Demoralized - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 1:00 pm: @Louis It’s gonna get harder and harder to play the victim now that one of your guys is going to be in the Governor’s mansion. It was ok for the Republicans to vote no on everything. My problem with it was that they didn’t offer any solutions to coincide with their no votes. Sure, they wouldn’t have passed. But that doesn’t matter to me. I have little respect when somebody tells me what they are against without telling me what they would be for. What’s your solution to the currently “unconstitutional” budget Louis? Or do you just want to whine about it like everyone else? - Rod - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 1:12 pm: The fact that both Republican Representatives Sosnowski and Syverson are already taking such divergent positions indicates that team Rauner had no two minute drill prepared for a tax strategy if elected. Rauner’s Blueprint plan indicated he would propose a four year phase out of the 5% income tax along with increased taxes on up to now untaxed services. Apparently he hasn’t messaged any legislative strategy to the GOP troops and they are going off the reservation. - Wordslinger - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 1:22 pm: Louis, you have about another two months of basking in no responsibility, accountability or alternatives. Enjoy. It’s going to get a little tougher, but governing is the reason you run, right? - VanillaMan - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 2:01 pm: The Illinois Republican Party is a farm league team with a new owner, playing against the professionals. Anyone who doesn’t see that is setting ILGOP up for failure and enjoying every minute. Rauner can get every GOP legislator on board and they will still fall short of the goals he has for the next four years. Demanding that ILGOP step up and take responsibility for whatever comes while Rauner is governor is a waste. Rauner gets nothing unless ILDEM wants him to have it. Period. - anon - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 2:52 pm: == He will take any politically unpopular vote necessary to help his state - now that we have a Republican governor-elect, of course. == The good senator is just the first Republican to abandon his long-held position that the state doesn’t have a revenue problem. I predict there will be more. And not only those angling for appointments. I wait to see how many GOPers will go back on their Norquist pledge to never raise any tax or fee — ever — an easy pledge to make so long as the opposition runs the show. - anon - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 2:54 pm: == The temporary tax increase was meant to be temporary. == The tax hike was meant to expire unless it was renewed. Neither Quinn, Madigan or Cullerton ever committed to never extend the hike. Like all sunset provisions, it takes another vote to keep the policy alive. - anon - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 3:02 pm: I’d like to hear from Dan Proft. Does he approve of the GOP abandoning its principles now that they will have a governor? Or were those principles simply political posturing because the opposition had the majority and the mansion? - Wordslinger - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 3:52 pm: The “temporary” argument is and always has been mindless. It will expire on Jan. 1. Always was going to. Now, to all the howling victims, where do you go from here? - A guy... - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 4:47 pm: Slinger it wasn’t “always” going to expire in realistic terms. It is now. Technically it could have expired with legislation reinstating it in real time. It may have been “mindless” to call it temporary. That’s how some guys justified voting for it back home. Same guys campaigned on “I won’t extend it”. Those were Democrats running on that mantra. What was utterly “mindless” was having a revenue policy that didn’t jive with your budget cycle. And then proposing a budget anyway that heightened the “mindlessness” of it. That’s still on the party that passed the budget. Hope it serves as leverage to avoid some catastrophe. I really do hope that. - AFSCME Steward - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 5:14 pm: Louis G Atsaves “Does this mean an end to gerrymandering too?” Are you actually suggesting that the GOP didn’t gerrymander when they were in control? The GOP has lost Illinois, not because of boundaries, but because it has become a party bankrupt of ideas. - Wordslinger - Monday, Nov 17, 14 @ 8:39 pm: Guy, you don’t make any sense. Try to follow what you wrote. The law will expire, and always would have, without another positive vote by the GA and a governors signature, which has not happened. All laws are “temporary” as they can always be changed by future lawmakers. Savvy? - Dave - Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 2:17 am: Dang. I was hoping I could just send a resume’ to apply for an agency directorship. I have been doing it all wrong. 23 years experience just doesn’t cut it I guess. - anon - Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 7:51 am: Sen. Syverson has signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge to never, ever vote for higher taxes or fees. Here’s the link: http://www.atr.org/pledge-database I wonder if the good Senator thought the pledge applied only when a Democrat was in the mansion? Or whether he had his fingers crossed when he signed it. - anon - Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 7:54 am: It turns out that another potential agency head has taken the ATR pledge: Patty Bellock. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.