69 Comments - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 3:51 pm: ===Human Service has invited Sec. Purvis to join them.=== When “something” freezes over, or a budget deal is struck, she will attend. Whichever… comes first. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 3:52 pm: “This is Secretary Purvis, I’m out of the office, but you already knew that…” - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 3:54 pm: Secretary Purvis wanted to be here today but the traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway is brutal… - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 3:56 pm: Secretary Purvis would attend, but being accountable for her own whereabouts was not part of the job description… - Stones - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 3:58 pm: She’s too busy being a superstar to attend. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:01 pm: Secretary Purvis gave some clues when starting for the state on her accessibility, on her direct deposit routing sheet for her pay she wrote “Who’s asking?” - Louis G Atsaves - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:01 pm: Children! Children! - walker - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:02 pm: Secretary Purvis certainly should have an opinion on what the property tax freeze would mean to the funding and health of public schools across the state. That’s her job, isn’t it? Or is she more interested in helping charters? Glad she’s been requested to testify! - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:04 pm: Secretary Purvis is very elusive. She wanted her pay in unmarked twenty dollar bills in a paper bag to be dropped where she can pick up when the coast is clear. - Arsenal - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:04 pm: If you attack a Jack Franks property tax bill as insincere, you just WANT the drama. Same as it ever was, the Governor trying to prove he’s stronger than the Speaker… - SAP - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:04 pm: Walker: Ms. Purvis was invited to appear before Human Services. The property tax freeze is being heard in Revenue. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:04 pm: Secretary Purvis is so elusive milk cartons wonder what she looks like. - 47th Ward - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:07 pm: ===That’s not our property tax freeze bill=== Oh, OK. Where is your bill? You couldn’t sum it up in 140 characters or less? Keep trying, we’ll wait. It’s only June. - RNUG - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:07 pm: Maybe they don’t have his poison pills included, but bills on Rauner’s “must haves” are getting run. If Rauner was serious about compromise, he’d have people in there trying to get HIS amendments on them. - tominchicago - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:07 pm: So Trover is pretty much admitting that Rauner is not looking to compromise. Either the legislature pass his fever dream of union busting or else you are the problem. - JW - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:08 pm: I think Rauner needs to buy him and his people a thesaurus. How many times can one group of people use “sham” and “phony”? PLEASE USE A DIFFERENT SET OF WORDS. - Liandro - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:08 pm: So Rep. Frank’s bill would hit local governments with all the power of inflation (by freezing even inflation adjustments to property taxes), but provide none of the savings that would come from eliminating prevailing wage. Got it. - Wordslinger - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:10 pm: I find the title “secretary” of education a sexist sham. Purvis doesn’t have a statutory position. They just made up a title. They could have called her “general” or “tsar” or “capo di tutti capi” of education. But no. The frat boys chose “secretary,” like “honey, get Goldberg his Teddy Grahams and juice box, stat!” Sham-wow. - Precinct Captain - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:10 pm: Liandro. Where is the evidence eliminating the prevailing wage will make up for a property tax freeze? Is there a mathematical analysis you could share with us? - Wensicia - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:10 pm: Phony is the new corrupt. - walker - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:10 pm: So Frank’s is a property tax freeze bill, but without the prevailing wage language added on by Rauner from the Turnaround Agenda. Rauner is playing that game once again. This is not in any way a “sham” bill. Some bills Madigan has called have been, and that’s on him. In this case Rauner’s got the sham bill. This one is clearly on him. The Republican House members who actually want a local tax freeze, should call out Rauner in exactly the same way they previously called out Madigan. They should vote their consciences on this one. Not holding my breath. - Frenchie Mendoza - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:12 pm: Come on, Trover. Rauner’s getting the ideas heard. It’s not what Rauner wants, but you’re not going to get that. You and your boss are obligated to compromise at various points during the next four years. You guys aren’t tyrants, much as it seems that’s the preferred mode from over there. - Tournaround Agenda - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:19 pm: I’m not even convinced Trover’s Twitter account is run by a human being. Seems he just programmed it to spit out “phony,” “corrupt,” and “sham” at intervals. - Team Sleep - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:20 pm: This is the main difference between the current political structures in Illinois and Wisconsin. Governor Walker can ramrod his own bills through the House & Senate because the GOP controls both chambers in Wisconsin. Governor Rauner cannot even move a single bill in either the House or Senate because the Dems control both chambers in Illinois. I believe that, eventually, Governor Rauner has to sign one or two of these bills. But, in doing so, he has to make a pretty brazen statement at the end of a signing and promise to come back with more bills that more or less define his terms as he wants and not how they are codified in the language that was introduced and passed by the GA. And that is where the 2016 election comes in to play. I would say get your popcorn, but popcorn is not really a filling snack. - relocated - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:21 pm: Dear Governor Rauner, if you dont like the speaker running his own bills on your topics, heres a refreshing idea.. RUN YOUR OWN. Session came and went and we have yet to see any of the governors bills. - Robert the Bruce - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:22 pm: Madigan could call Rauner’s bluff and put to vote Rauner’s property tax freeze bill, vote it down, move on. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:23 pm: And I get asked why autonomous GOP GA Caucuses are important? lol - Team Sleep - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:26 pm: Relocated - Leader Radogno did drop five pieces of legislation - 3 bills and 2 (literal) Constitutional Amendments - before session ended. Yes, that is not the House. I do agree with you, and I noted last week that I wish Rep. Sandack or Rep. Sullivan or Rep. Tryon would have introduced a property tax or work comp or consolidation bill. Or, hell, a bill about ANYTHING related to the Turnaround Agenda. - 47th Ward - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:31 pm: ===Governor Rauner cannot even move a single bill in either the House or Senate because the Dems control both chambers in Illinois.=== Fair point, but they’ve known this since the inauguration. And they have Durkin and Radogno and their caucuses. They should have drafted the bills, gotten them sponsored, introduced and then dared Madigan and Cullerton to bury them in Rules or Exec. Then and only then would they have something to complain about. - Elo Kiddies - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:34 pm: @Sleep - Leader Durkin filed bills on the same topics and same day as Leader Radogno - walker - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:36 pm: Thanks SAP. My mistake… and Greg Harris and HS should get off this tack, and let Purvis alone. But shouldn’t our Education head have something to say about freezing local property taxes? They mostly go to public schools. - CrazyHorse - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:40 pm: Franks was one who walked on the AFSCME bill. I’m curious as to whether he’ll support it if/when Rauner vetoes it. - TurnaroundWhat - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:42 pm: Bradley’s amendment is IDENTICAL to what radogno and Durkin filed. How is that not Rauner’s bill? - walker - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:48 pm: ==Bradley’s amendment is IDENTICAL to what radogno and Durkin filed. How is that not Rauner’s bill?== Enough said. Anyone calling this a “phony” or “sham” bill, as amended, would be publicly embarrassing themselves. The Republican caucus better figure out a better response. - nona - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:49 pm: Rauner takes the position that the only property tax freeze worth considering is his particular version. Nothing else, even a stricter freeze, is worthwhile. He has a lot to learn if he expects to pass controversial bills with no changes. - JS Mill - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:52 pm: The concept that a repeal of prevailing wage will make up the difference in potential loss of property tax revenue, for new PTELL districts is iffy in the most hopeful of projections. Repealing prevailing wage does nothing to 80% of a school districts costs- wages and benefits- because they are not linked to prevailing wage. The only time you would save money in that scenario is IF and when you hire an outside contractor for work. It will be small. Granted, if you build a new school or other major capital project you will see some one-time savings, but not significant operational savings to offset the potential loss of property tax revenue, the ONLY reliable revenue in Illinois right now. PTELL has an upside- there is a guarantee that, at worst, you will get the same revenue year over year and almost always an increase. But you will loose increases on established property. There are others but those are pretty important. PTELL also guarantees that taxpayers will never see a rate or bill reduction. - Skeptic - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:53 pm: Dear Team Rauner: LMGTFY – bogus counterfeit forged sham spurious imitation pseudo put-on trick affected artificial assumed There. Increased your vocabulary. - nona - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:55 pm: So the Franks bill as amended will be identical to the Rauner version? What excuse will the GOP concoct for voting against the identical version? - 47th Ward - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 5:14 pm: I hope Goldberg put together the list of all of the Governor’s staff who are paid out of other agencies’ budgets, as he promised he would present to Harris. Then he can calmly explain that Governor Rauner is following the precedent set by Governors’ Blagojevich and Quinn. Governor Business As Usual indeed. After that, he can just ask the committee to substitute the transcript of his previous appearance in lieu of further questioning. I’m going to miss him when he’s gone. - bluegrass boy - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 5:20 pm: Lance the twitter butterfly fluttering those characters of deviciveness again. Shovelful by shovelful this guy is digging the governors political grave. Hope I get a chance to meet this cheerful fellow one day - Anonymous - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 5:25 pm: Goldberg is Rauner’s lapdog- that’s what the hearing proved. Where have you seen Rauner actually testify in front of the legislature instead of having people do it for him? - Precinct Captain - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 5:29 pm: ==- Team Sleep - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:26 pm:== ==- Elo Kiddies - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 4:34 pm:== The date you are looking for was May 22nd. - Where's Waldo - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 6:00 pm: I know some ghost payrollers who have spent more time in Springfield than Ms. Purvis. lol - Arthur Andersen - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 6:01 pm: Speaking of the Twitters, maybe the House Dems will be live-tweeting the hearings from their new account. Anon 5:25, tell us was that a joke. You really don’t think Governors testify in committee, right? - Politix - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 6:34 pm: “That’s not our property tax freeze bill - ” Just because it’s not the Governor’s bill doesn’t make it a bad bill. Are you so insulated in your mutual republican admiration society that you’ve lost your common sense? This is just negativity. This is just making Democrats wrong for anything they do. Everyone should bow to the Governor. How’s that working for ya? - Need a Hug? - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 6:46 pm: I am convinced more and more by each passing day that the Rauner administration will settle for nothing other than a government shutdown come August. This administration is giving a bad name to all GOP’s in Illinois. - DuPage Dave - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 6:59 pm: Purvis is the secretary of nothing. Rauner has people confused about what she actually does, with many thinking she has something to do with the State Board of Education, which is run by an entirely different quarter millionaire per year person, Tony Smith. Also through the miracle of time travel, here’s Mr. Goldberg’s comments on the Purvis hearing: “It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham” - Muscular - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 7:12 pm: Bruce Rauner is a proud conservative and has demonstrated that he will use the authority of his office to further conservative values and goals. A property tax freeze is temporary, but allowing local governments to decide on prevailing wage policies will be a permanent change that will reduce the cost of government to taxpayers. Voters are expecting a shakeup in Springfield and if Bruce Rauner delivers anything less, he will be seen as a phony. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 7:14 pm: The roll calls will continue until morale improves. Is it true Lang has offered to chair Human Services approp hearings to discuss the impact of the Rauner budget cuts on Cradle to Grave education all over the state, and “Secretary” Purvis will be invited to testify at all of them? That should be fun. Willie, pack a cooler. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 7:24 pm: - YDD -, as long as I have access to email. ===A property tax freeze is temporary, but allowing local governments to decide on prevailing wage policies will be a permanent change that will reduce the cost of government to taxpayers. === Prevailing Wage? Yikes. How did the Rauner Resolutions go? Ask “ck”. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 7:27 pm: I am sure Franks would welcome a floor vote on the Durkin-Rauner amendment to insert prevailing wage, increase debt and delay implementation a year. - State Gov Shutdown - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 7:36 pm: A state government shut down won’t wait until August. I believe it will be mid-July because if the agencies don’t have a budget then the Comptroller won’t be able to pay staff.If you can’t pay staff then it would be illegal for you to make them work. - Juvenal - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 7:46 pm: SGS: I think you are right, but then what happens exactly? Staff collects unemployment? - thoughts matter - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 7:48 pm: I have to agree with the other posters…. if this isn’t close enough to your bill to make you happy…. then where is your bill? The GOP legislators all got handed checks… won’t any o f them submit a bill for the governor? It’s June, count any bill as a blessing at this point. How about we work on the budget, you know, that thing that allows government, and all the people dependent upon it to function. My priorities must be different than theirs. - Anonymous - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 7:58 pm: @Arthur Andersen He needs to get out of campaign mode already. He travels all through the state to criticize the employees that work for him as corrupt. If he can do that he can testify at hearings. Madigan has been doing it, so put words in place of money. Lapdogs only get you so far. - rilt - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 8:07 pm: There is no one in State Government worth 250000 a year. - Muscular - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 8:24 pm: willie, Some municipalities supported the resolutions and others didn’t. Those that supported the resolutions should be given the flexibility they have demanded from their state leaders. We have a tyrannical liberal majority imposing its unreasonable will and belief system on the conservative minority. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 8:30 pm: ===We have a tyrannical liberal majority imposing its unreasonable will and belief system on the conservative minority.=== No. 71 is greater than 47. 39 is greater than 20. You need 60 and 30 to pass anything out to the governor. It’s not tyrannical, it’s called governing. You might have made a better case without the unwarranted hyperbole. - Anonin - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 8:55 pm: Maybe LT should check back with his imaginaey friends and SlickHeadSandy..it is the TeamBungle bill - Stones - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 9:11 pm: Many non represented staff will work on good faith hoping they will get paid when the budget passes. Union will likely file an unfair labor practice since the terms and provisions of the current agreement remain in force and effect until a new agreement. For the record I do believe a summer lockout is much more of a possibility than a strike. - Chicago 20 - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 9:47 pm: Purvis is Rauner’s superstar State budget expert. If she is a superstar why is Rauner’s budget underfunded by $3 to $4 billion? Superstar didn’t get far. An unbalanced budget isn’t really a budget, it’s a unfinished project. If Purvis was worth the money that Rauner was paying her a couple of months ago, why doesn’t the superstar still command the same salary? Obviously, Rauner is a poor judge of talent and grossly overpaid Purvis, who obviously didn’t get the job done. The big question is why does Purvis still have a job in the Rauner administration? - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 9:49 pm: I think you have Purvis and Arduin confused… - RNUG - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 10:14 pm: == he will be seen as a phony. == He’s already seen as a phony from his running on one agenda and trying to implement his other, hidden during the campaign, agenda. Voters expect a certain level of that but they don’t expect outright lies and 180 reversals on day one. - Joe Bidenopolous - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 10:22 pm: ==Madigan could call Rauner’s bluff and put to vote Rauner’s property tax freeze bill, vote it down, move on.== This. The fact that he hasn’t is signaling there’s room to talk on this issue, unlike right to work, which MJM blessed with a public execution. I don’t know if Rauner’s “superstars” are too thick to figure this out or if he just doesn’t want to deal. I’m cynical so I’m going with the latter. - Chicago 20 - Monday, Jun 8, 15 @ 10:26 pm: Oswego- You are correct sir. Please replace the name Arduin where ever I used the name Purvis in my rant above. Although they are both cut from the same ALEC cloth. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Jun 9, 15 @ 5:27 am: Muscular: There aren’t enough Republican votes to pass Right to Work. It is really that simple. Didn’t you notice there weren’t a heck of a lot of state reps showing up at those townhall meetings testifying in favor of Right to Work? Rainer seems to have confused the jobs of governor and Hollywood director. But this is not a zombie movie, and Right to Work is not going to rise from the grave and sweep across Illinois in an infectious wave. - VanillaMan - Tuesday, Jun 9, 15 @ 7:09 am: he will be seen as a phony He already is seen as a phony. The difference here is that his supporters accept his phoniness, and his detractors are still shocked that his phoniness is far worse than they imagined. - kimocat - Tuesday, Jun 9, 15 @ 9:14 am: He absolutely is seen as a phony. He campaigns pretending to be some smart no nonsense business guy going to make fiscally responsible decisions and do what’s best for the state. Instead, we get Koch brothers “Lite” - a bully who throws around his money to kill unions, reduce wages, privatize everything he can. He is Governor One Percent and he is not on the side of the average Illinoisan. That much is now crystal clear. - Muscular - Tuesday, Jun 9, 15 @ 9:29 am: @ Yellow Dog I believe we are discussing pairing prevailing wage flexibility with a municipal property tax freeze. There is a difference between prevailing wage and right to work policies. @Vanilla Rauner supporters don’t believe he is a phony. They have a real and aggressive advocate on their issues. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.