49 Comments - Linus - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:21 pm: I’m surprised we haven’t heard the Dems resurrecting this argument, of late: Rauner seemed pretty comfortable with CPS when he was clouting his out of town daughter into one of its most elite schools. Not much bankruptcy push or “no bailout” talk until after his progeny graduated. - City Zen - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:25 pm: According to Manar’s plan, Franklin Park, Alsip, and Orland Park are elite. Those residents would disagree. - Anon221 - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:26 pm: No one wants to capitulate. No one wants to take the hit either. This is going to have to be up to the GA members to work out. If Madigan, Cullerton, or Rauner fires torpedoes at any bipartisan work that possible HAS the votes due to had work and compromise, then he/they deserve every pile on imaginable. We really won’t know until the bills are filed what may be and what may not be possible. There’s a lot at stake for the big poker game this afternoon. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:27 pm: Says the guy from the party who has decimated Chicago. It is sadly amusing that failures try to preach how somebody else isn’t doing things correctly. - Saluki - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:28 pm: He is not wrong about the Governor wasting his term in office. - Juvenal - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:29 pm: Agreed Rich. It’s a mistake for Democrats to adopt the bargaining tactic of Rauner by adopting extreme positions. That said, someone should remind Governor Rauner that it wasn’t Claypool who opened fire in a crowded Orlando club, nor was it Emanuel who was cheerleading for Brexit as Americans lost $100 billion from their retirements overnight. We have plenty of real enemies, and plenty of real problems. The governor does not need to manufacture them over school funding. Cullerton wants $800 million for CPS. Rauner wants $0 for CPS. Seems like there is a middle ground there. Rauner should find it soon instead of turning it into Chernyobl. - jeffinginchicago - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:30 pm: If you waste your time on unconstitutional pension changes, does that make you an expert on wasting your term? - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:31 pm: When the CPS burns through 200 mil or 400 mil, what then? - Illinois O'Malley - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:32 pm: Correct me if I’m wrong (and I know people here will) but didn’t Rauner say during the campaign he would increase all sorts of funding, including education without the 5% tax? Where are the billions of dollars in savings from efficiency programs from his last budget? That would cover the $860 mil. - Moe Berg - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:32 pm: Realism would be the governor seriously discussing a combination of REVENUE *and* cuts. Instead, as he did with his business career bust-out schemes, he’s loading the state up with crippling debt. He’s not serious about revenue, never has been, and by using “collectivist economy” he is screaming where he really stands on the issue. I get the reluctance to acknowledge what’s staring us in the face - it’s too terrible to contemplate - but people who ride motorcycles, pose for ice cream social pics, own dogs and gain office are still capable of atrocious acts. Inherent in the role of governor is bringing people together, bridging divides and finding what’s possible. All we’ve gotten from this governor is bitter division. It’s grotesque. - Mama - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:36 pm: “It’s time for some realism here.” Realism: the powers to be do not operate in realism, but they need to learn how. - PublicServant - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:36 pm: ===It’s time for some realism here=== Of course, people differ on what that realism should be. If the Koch-Alex agenda is dropped, and the governor is willing to sit down and talk cuts and revenues, that would be getting real in my book. - PublicServant - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:36 pm: But then I’m just a member of the collective. - Rod - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:39 pm: Rich I have to say you have overwhelmed me today, just on the k-12 budget issues and not even considering the human services related issues. You have just put out an incredible amount of stuff today it’s really amazing. CPS needs a structured bailout, handing over money just will not work, and Mayoral control also hasn’t worked either. I support an elected school board here in Chicago, but I see no inclination on the part of the citizens of Chicago, most of whom do not have kids in CPS, to pay up to save CPS. There is going to have to be some level of additional imposition of taxation on Chicago property owners combined with some level of relief from the state along with strong intrusive fiscal oversight as was done in 1979. I think Mayor Emanuel and Chicagoans in general need to take heed of the Rauner polling data on a CPS bail out that Rich posted and not just dismiss it as BS. I do believe that communities outside of the City in mass believe CPS is responsible for its own mess, but they also fail to understand that the State Government and legislature has refused under both Democrats and Republicans to contain CPS expenditures and passed the buck on to the Office of the Mayor of Chicago which is subject to the politics of education. I think that the campaign for pension equity for CPS has failed beyond the borders of Chicago as has the Manar/Advance Illinois/Cullerton strategy of linking that with funding equity for lower wealth school districts. It’s time to listen to Paul Vallas who months ago discussed a structured oversight solution to the CPS fiscal crisis. One does not have to agree with Mr. Vallas that under his administration every move was fiscally sound to agree with the rationality of his solution. - Ahoy! - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:40 pm: It is not Rauner’s fault that CPS (where Emanuel is essentially the CEO) is financially insolvent. So has Rahmbo wasted his entire time in office? Rahm knows CPS needs major reforms, he’s just politically afraid right now. - Mama - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:51 pm: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel: “Instead of doing the hard work of fixing Illinois’ broken education funding formula, Bruce Rauner has wasted 18 months of his term holding the entire state hostage in the name of workers’ compensation and right to work.” I agree with the Chicago Mayor that Rauner is holding the state hostage on workers’ compensation. I disagree with the Chicago Mayor Emanuel. I think Rauner is doing exactly what he set out to do (destroy all local and state unions), but the destruction is taking him longer than he thought it would. - Hostages 'R Us - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:51 pm: History will determine that. Even if the only thing Rauner achieves is stopping the reckless budgets and deficits of so many years, it will be rembered as a turning point for Illinois. - SinkingShip - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:52 pm: “Realism? What a bunch of collectivist, anti-Chicago rhetoric!” exclaimed John Madigan and Rahm Rauner, with sincere/ironic/sarcastic derision. “This is Illicago!” Seriously, this stuff is all starting to sound the same. - cdog - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:53 pm: Didn’t the ISBE just give CPS a good grade? Also, maybe the increase by $860m is just a negotiation starting point. Ya, that’s it. /s - Illinois Bob - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:55 pm: =I happen to believe strongly that the state should help CPS out.= Sure. TOUGH LOVE, and amend the education labor relations act to prevent teacher strikes. At least prohibit them in every school system with “more than 500,000 residents” for a period of 5 years. Springfield shouldn’t even consider redistributing more money the them until they raise their property tax rates for city schools at least to the average for cook county suburban districts. - City Zen - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 1:56 pm: ==Bruce Rauner is doubling down on the failed formula that rewards wealthy children who grow up in elite communities== What about all those “wealthy children” from the South Loop to Lakeview and from Streeterville to Bucktown? There is Winnetka-type wealth in those neighborhoods, yet I highly doubt their schools are funded over 95% locally like Winnetka. I sure hope Rahm and Claypool are allocating that $900M from the federal government and those block grants properly. It would be interesting to see a school-by-school budget in CPS. Because even though Chicago is one school district, it shouldn’t be allocating federal, state, and local funds equally to each school. Any shortage of funding should be made up in property tax hikes in those wealthy Chicago enclaves, just like they are in any so-called wealthy suburb. - Cassandra - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 2:00 pm: So, let’s see, according to Mayor Rahm and many of his fellow Democrats, Rauner should have dropped his business reform plans shortly after he won, agreed to a huge income tax increase on the middle class, and taken the hit for it for four years, including virtually constant criticism from the Democrats. In 2018 Democrats could then kick him out based on that very tax increase,while the cash keeps pouring in for massive pork projects and both parties get to hire a lot of their job-challenged relatives into lifetime government jobs. And Chicago property taxes could remain low, low, low. Maybe even a property tax cut. Yes, fantasy is fun. - Chris - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 2:03 pm: “Springfield shouldn’t even consider redistributing more money the them until they raise their property tax rates for city schools at least to the average for cook county suburban distrIct” PTELL means that it has to be done by referendum (dead–in part bc of the drumbeat of “waste” from downstate) or by Springfield. So, Springfield shouldn’t act until after Springfield acts??? - Chris - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 2:07 pm: “Any shortage of funding should be made up in property tax hikes in those wealthy Chicago enclaves” Hmmm, pretty sure that would require a change in state law. So, Springfield would be ‘bailing out’ CPS again. Oh, also, the Guv is opposed to property taxes going up, and think they should go down–so how does he sign on to a law that increases property tax in Chicago, regardless of whether or not anyone thinks the rate (which–again–it seems like no one gets how that’s calculated in Cook) is too low. - Rahm is right - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 2:11 pm: For once I believe “Rahm is right.” Don’t get carried away……I said once. - Rod - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 2:21 pm: City Zen you are correct that there are numerous communities within the City that have values in the ball park with Winnetka. But under existing laws the property tax rates within townships have to be uniform. (see the IL constitution ARTICLE IX SECTION 4 (a) by valuation ascertained as the General Assembly shall provide by law.) There are far larger areas of the City where homes are worth little. I think the idea of giving vast property tax rebates for lower valued homes in the City is unconstitutional, but it has been discussed. The world of property taxes is complex and both the Speaker and Senate President are experts in these issues to be sure. Another legal complexity of all of this is where the IL Constitution requires that effectively commercial property taxation rate can not exceed two and one-half times the level of assessment or rate of tax of the lowest property class rate in Cook County. So the tax solution is not simple. - Gone - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 2:24 pm: =And yet, our state’s leading Democrats seem fine with increasing state K-12 spending by $860 million?= It’s how we got here. - Team Warwick - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 2:26 pm: Rahm you rock brother. Nice call out. But he has also wasted 18 months of Illinois workforces who didnt get to work on normally funded state responsibilities. Hes wasted everyone’s time and energy and squandered a fantastic opportunity to lead Illinois into a new future because of all. The inaction. Nothing in Illinois government is ever accomplished in big splashy grand plans, its incremental tooth and claw scraped out baby steps. Governor Donner was too busy starving and cannibalizing all his budget hostages of the Donner party. Enough already. - Rod - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 2:28 pm: Chris, this Chicagoan has supported a PTELL referendum, but according to the PTELL it has to be called by the legal entity needing the increase, i.e. the CPS Board. The Mayor will not authorize it to do so and under state law he appoints the Board members. The General Assembly purposely created the lack of autonomy of CPS when it put it under Mayoral control. Now that Board can’t even act in the interest of its own survival by even trying a PTELL referendum due to political considerations. - Rabid - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 2:42 pm: Wasted days and wasted nights, you showed your hypocrisy to soon - SAP - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 2:48 pm: I would submit that Mayor Emanuel wasted his entire first term without addressing the problems caused by his predecessor’s overspending (although I’ll give him credit for not starting additional digging). - DuPage - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 3:11 pm: The assessment rate for residential real estate in Cook County including Chicago should be increased to the same rate as every other county in the state. This could be phased in gradually. In exchange for this, the state could give CPS a one-time moderate amount this year only. This would give CPS time until the assessments in Chicago kick in. - Rod - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 3:12 pm: SAP Mayor Emanuel has continued to support CPS capital projects that are unnecessary given the overall fiscal condition of CPS and enrollment declines just like Mayor Daley did. I mean up to this week he hasn’t backed off of the idea of building Obama prep, even though he is claiming CPS needs a cash infusion, which it does. Neither Mayor Emanuel nor CPS understand how to implement austerity without political considerations. In general how these capital projects are justified is that they are not coming from operating funds, but capital bond funds, as if those didn’t have to be paid back eventually. Governor Rauner’s solution for CPS is to let the market impose austerity on CPS through bankruptcy rather than creating a government controlled and implemented restructuring of CPS finances. From the Governor’s perspective that is a form of collectivism, apparently two steps away from communism. - Me too - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 3:26 pm: I can’t wait to see the report that we all know will come out showing how much better off with would be financially if we passed last year’s out of balance budget from the Dems. I don’t care about Raune’rs since he had all of his passion pills in there including pension language. Single subject bro. - Willie - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 3:38 pm: Rich, try to stay in the middle of the road Bro! - NeverPoliticallyCorrect - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 3:57 pm: Rich, I think you’re on target here. I’m sick of all of them but most of all the “Lifers” in Springfield who created this mess decades ago and now want to slink away and put the blame on the new kid on the block-Rauner. - truth squad - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 3:58 pm: Because a term in office is only not wasted when you can use it to cover up a policeman murdering the unarmed. Right, Rahm? - walker - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 4:00 pm: Rich is dancing in the middle of the road, trying to direct some out-of-control traffic. Bravo. - SAP - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 4:15 pm: Rod: I’ll agree that Obama prep has all the makings of a boondoggle. Same could be said for the Lucas museum until it finally breathed its last. My point was simply that, I don’t think Emanuel even started the heavy lifting of a property tax increase or higher garbage fees or the like until his second term. - 4 percent - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 4:24 pm: Rahm is a perfect example of wasting a term (or two). Rahm has no room to talk. Yes, he was handled a steaming pile of @#% just like Rauner when they both assumed office. Rahm is asking for more money with no reforms while Rauner wants reforms before the money. In some ways, Rauner is trying to emulate the success of Governor Jerry Brown in CA who made the tough decisions first and then raised revenue later. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 4:34 pm: We are supposed to have a government of checks and balances. Not a government that can’t balance a checkbook. The Democrats are overreaching here. CPS has a toxic history of corruption and no messengers with credibility outside of Chicago. I do not think both sides are dealing with the same numbers. Based on what my Republican Senator and Representative said at a town hall meeting, the Republicans think that more money is flowing from the State to CPS than the Democrats claim. If the working groups developed a side by side comparison with a notations explaining why each side believes each number, revealing that would help. I see no solution until both sides start operating in a common reality. - BIG R. Ph. - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 4:42 pm: It is time that we adopt “means testing” for primary, middle and high school. We do it for College why not the rest? - Downstate Hack - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 4:54 pm: Well Said Rich! - Harry - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 5:09 pm: This “Alphonse and Gaston” act about who is the first one to put taxes or program cuts on the table is getting really, really old. - peon - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 5:22 pm: Budgets are very weak leverage because both sides need them. That is true for the TA (zero items passed in 18 months) and this skirmish over CPS/CTA. - Last Bull Moose - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 5:31 pm: Anonymous at 4:34 was me. - Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 8:06 pm: =I don’t think Emanuel even started the heavy lifting of a property tax increase or higher garbage fees or the like until his second term= Bingo. Remember the CPS budget before Rahm’s re-election? The one where they approved a 12 month budget using 14 months of revenue? Leaving only 10 months of revenue to spend on the next 12 month budget? - btowntruth from forgottonia - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 9:30 pm: In some ways, Rauner is trying to emulate the success of Governor Jerry Brown in CA who made the tough decisions first and then raised revenue later. ================================================== No. no no no noooooooo he isn’t. Brown didn’t constantly badmouth the biggest city in his state….or the majority party in his states GA……or take hostages. - No Sense - Wednesday, Jun 29, 16 @ 11:59 am: Bruce Rauner will win again if he runs. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.