Emil, Speaker, Cross and Watson sit down and lock out Gov. New revenue for Schools (say $800 million). Road and constuction program (capital) split 45% to 55% by legislative dist. Give hospital their $100 million, pass a gaming bill, and give Madigans taxes on business. Send it to the Gov and override him. Otherwise, we are going to be here a long time.
I will repeat my previous posting.
What everyone does not understand is at this point in Rod’s term he does not care what the media thinks or the public.
He hasn’t gotten his way so he is going to punish everyone who disagrees with him.
Unless the media pushes his agenda and stops asking questions about indictments he refuses to talk to them. This seems to be working. When is the last time they asked him a hard question ?
Shelia Nix is a brown noser and this is another of Rod’s problems, he only surrounds himself with people who worship him. He will never get bad news from them.
But, in the end Rod will get his way. Politicians have no stamina for this fight(just like Iraq).By the time the next election comes around the public will have forgotten all of this. The Democrats will be kissing Rod’s feet and he will buy another election.
This is tough to answer since we don’t know what the budget gap actually is, but let’s use that $874M number as a benchmark.
1) Assume $500M in natural growth (I read that number somewhere…it’s probably on the high end, but for discussion purposes lets accept it.)
2) Give House and Senate leaders one week to examine, line by line, the FY2006 budget and any new spending that’s already been authorized. Each chamber should suggest $600M in cuts.
3) Conference for three eight-hour days. Decide on $400M in total cuts.
4) Pass budget. Make Governor veto. Pass over veto.
5) Take August off to breathe.
6) Reconvene in September to listen to Governor’s complaints and future plans. Require that any new spending must also include a viable method of spending. Anything that is agreed on is automatically included in the next budget.
—————-
I know, oversimplification, it’d never work, etc. But that’s what I’d call for. It requires the Senate to break ranks with the Governor for the good of the people of Illinois, which is a long shot.
Also, I think the time has come to raise taxes to generate new revenue. But that’s also a long shot.
Worth noting that the House accuses the Governor of demagoguery, then its members call him insane and call for impeachment. They accuse him of refusal to compromise, then peel off his individual revenue proposals (which in his budget speech were tied to specific programs), and vote them down without offering specific alternatives. The House then claims the Governor’s proposals are “dead,” but took a long time to accept the Governor and Senate President saying that their no-growth proposal was dead. So while the Governor clearly could do a great deal more to bridge the divide with the House, it’s also easy to see how from his perspective the House isn’t trying to meet him halfway.
In some ways, the substantive budget that everybody could ultimately agree to may be the easiest to picture. Education funding could go up by more than the House proposal, but not as much as under the Governor’s or HB 750 (figure $500-600 million or something). There could be some health care expansion. The revenue could come from some form of increased corporate tax, expanded gambling, and maybe some compromise on the House’s part about the lottery. The House can declare victory for killing the GRT, and members can still talk about an education funding increase; the Governor and Senate President get enough of what they want to sign off and let everybody go home. Maybe it doesn’t look exactly like I laid out, but I think many of you would agree that come the end of the month, or August, a lot of people would be willing to take a package like that to get it over with.
What’s harder to imagine is how it gets done. Given the intransigence on both sides, somebody is going to have to be the bridge between the camps (the unions? Mayor Daley? one of our U.S. Senators?). Right now there’s no process that seems to have any hope of leading to a budget, and what is needed right now is somebody who can sit down in a small room with the Governor and the Speaker and figure out how to get them to at least work together. Right now everybody is just posturing, and neither side is going to stop unilaterally; until somebody puts a halt to it, either one of the participants or a strong enough outside force, there can be no end in sight.
(1) stop having meetings in the Mansion — the legislature passes legislation and budgets, and the Governor’s role is to react afterwards with a veto or signature. Meet in Madigan or Jones’ office, or 212.
(2) Tom Cross needs to be asked to take the causus position off of tax increase votes such as HB/SB 750, the income tax increase with an increase in personal deductions and the beginning of sales taxes on many business sector services. He has members in areas with universities and major state facilities, so there are House Republicans who want to vote for a tax increase. Some Senate Republicans, too, but Watson wants every freshman Democrat on any tax increase roll call.
(3) Community based human services are on the verge of collapse, after years of rate neglect and no broad based COLAs in at least six years. (Education advocates call a status quo budget a $640 million cut? Human services providers have pleaded this same case for years to no effect.) But there should be a “straw man” budget proposed that devastates human services and discretionary education funding, with the intent to use that defeat as the first roll call of a tax increase vote.
But the best strategy is — keep the Governor in Chicago, where he is happiest anyway.
I think Madigan is squeezing Blago for one reason. He sees future indictements and wants to distance himself from a sinking ship, at the same time he wants to protect his daughter Lisa.
Blago will have to budge, because conservative downstate Democrats will not vote for gun control.
PS Rich, a couple of Fridays ago there was some discussion about how the General Assembly might structure a budget if it knew the Governor was going to veto it — I think we can assume that if the GA passes a budget over the Governor’s veto, that the Governor would use all of his discretionary powers to kill projects put into the budget. You and Steve Schnorf thought there might be a way around that, but I don’t think there was ever a final explanation.
It may be legally possible to effectively end-run the Governor, in which case a General Assembly-only budget becomes a real possibility — but if the General Assembly is dependent on the Governor (or agencies under gubernatorial control) to get its special projects done, then the chances of getting to 3/5 go down some, given the fact that pork projects are a standard means to get votes on the final budget. I’m just curious — I really don’t know what the procedure would be.
There might be one or even two more temporary one-month plans. Ultimately, there will be gaming position expansions and possibly even a Chicago-based casino. New revenue will go to education and some limited capital projects.
No income tax increase, no sell-off of lottery. Blago will not veto and will bring back his health care program right away for 2009.
The key is Jones. If he and Madigan can agree to a budget that addresses their member’s top priority - increasing education funding - plus increases the pension payments, provides long-term stable RTA funding and includes a capital plan that treats GOP member districts fairly, then they can probably get enough votes from both sides to of the aisle to override a Blago veto. The revenue will need to come from an increase in the income tax (for the education and pension), new casinos (for the capital program) and sales tax (for the RTA). Of course, Jones would need to agree to cut Blago out of the process and take a pass on the healthcare plan that we cannot afford.
Even better, pass this budget plan, let Blago veto it, then don’t try to override it. Don’t pass a one month budget for August either (the gov’t shutdown strategy worked in NJ last year and PA this week). Come mid-August, when Blago is being blasted for the shutdown and it’s time for his kids to go back to school, he’ll be unable to escape from Springfield and be willing to compromise. Then make him suffer.
I believe that Madigan, Jones, Watson and Cross should sit down and negotiate a deal with minimal or no gubernatorial participation. f they don’t do so, the overtime budget session will last indefinitely.
As the Sun-Times noted in its editorial today, there has been a definite lack of efective Gubernatorial leadership. This is exactly what Madigan and others have been saying publicly and privately for the past several months.
The Madigan budget is clearly inadequate to meet the real needs of the State. I agree with the Governor’s suggestion that Mike Madigan is a fiscal and social conservative, but not that he is a right-wing Bush Republican.
If a casino gambling initiative, including a Chicago casino, could be passed, I’d be in favor of this particular means of increasing state revenues. There don’t appear to be any other feasible altenratives given the Governor’s intransigence on sales sand income tax increases and becasue a supermnajority is required by the overtime budget session.
Well, we now know that Blagojevich is incapable of being dealt with. It wouldn’t have been right to work around him until now. The Governor has blown whatever credibility he ever had since May.
So, it really hasn’t been a waste of time. A governor is important. We had to make sure this one has been given amble chances to see the light.
He obviously can’t. So the time has come to work around him.
Get Jones on board with Madigan. Cross and Watson need to find the votes necessary to support a new budget. We can find the $400 million in cuts by going through the budget line by line. I’d start by targeting this Governor’s pet projects just to punish him and his “friends”. At this point Blagojevich has so many enemies, most of his pet projects have little support, so I’d start cutting thoses.
Jones has sold his soul to Blago; therefore, no compromise between him and MMadigan. Jones has been bought and paid for and would be hard pressed to think for himself and show leadership in the Senate. If he did, this thing could be over tomorrow. The House and Senate can pass a budget without Blago’s pet projects and pass them with a veto proof vote. I’ve said all along that we don’t need Blago for much at all if they pass the budget with enough votes.
I would turn off the AC in the Capitol building after locking the building down with all inside. And I’m really not kidding about this either.
Even if everyone were to “knock it off” today and start concentrating on really getting things done, there are some very tough, unpleasant decisions to be made.
The $874 million gap is real — and that’s before a single new penny gets spent on education or “Illinois Covered.”
That gap already factors in the business tax increases that passed at the end of May.
Listed below are some of the choices that remain. Pick at least three from the list, because just one or two won’t get you there.
Blow off the 2005 pension payment schedule (we’re not even talking about the 1995 targets here);
Pass a massive gambling increase and use the money for education and pensions, to free up other dollars for operating expenses;
Gut state agencies, eliminating some state-funded programs and laying off employees; possibly eliminate or merge whole agencies;
Hold education funding to zero growth;
Freeze Medicaid enrollment; tighten eligibility; increase the payment cycle and institute strict managed care.
Significantly increase every tax other than sales and income.
Even if all of the above were to be done, it wouldn’t raise enough money to do the Governor’s health care plan, so ultimately his plan is toast — simply because the money isn’t there and isn’t going to be there.
I’ve left off choices that aren’t going to happen — like increasing the sales or income tax. I live in the real world and I know what legislators aren’t going to do and passing a major income or sales tax hike over the Governor’s veto just ain’t gonna happen.
The point is this — aside from the budgeteers and their staffs, everyone else is living in a fantasy world. Illinois spends more than it takes in and it’s expenses are increasing at about double the rate of its revenues.
Bottom line: Illinois is in deep doo-doo.
- Napoleon has left the building - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 10:32 am:
Paul / Rich - I have a great QOTD suggestion. “How would the dynamic of this situation be different if Lee Daniels were still HGOP leader?” - This came to me as I was listening to the press audio of Cross yesterday. While he and MJM may not be allies, surely there isn’t the high level of animosity that used to be there.
Hold them responsible for repaying all costs, per diem, plane fuel, air conditioning etc. Because they didn’t finish in May, THEY have to pay all additional costs, not taxpayers. Then a Con-con while we all remember how iditotic this is and outsource their jobs to India. How could we be served/represented any worse?
OneManBlog has it right, settle it Mad Max Thunderdome/Gladiator Style. Put Madigan, Jones, and Blago into an arena, and whoever walks out, gets their way. Thas how the settled it in ancient Rome, and that empire lasted quite a while, so maybe they had it right.
- It Can Be Done - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 11:03 am:
1. Back down the pension level in the 1995 bill from 90% to 80% and recalculate. 80% still provides actuarial legitimacy.
2. Apply the sales tax to services. Then, to allow Rod to declare some victory, reduce the existing sales tax by 0.25%. It’s not a new tax, brings in more $ and the gov can say he reduced sales taxes. “You’ll pay less when buying a car but more for legal, accounting and haircuts.”
3. Add more gaming positions at existing casinos to fund capital bill.
4. If you’re not going to do a tax swap, don’t make any big changes in ed funding. Education has always been a big winner in the state budget. Give cost of living increases to education and social services.
5. Pass the “loophole” closing bill in the Senate and reclaim $100M that way.
6. Find a small pilot project on health care to could give Rod some cover since his monstrosity has no chance of passing.
Lula May is certainly right about Blago running again. It’s clear that we’ve got a very long-time governor here. He’s fifty—5 more terms?
When Harris and Louanner said that they had “cut to the bone” did anybody laugh? They should have.
That would be cut to the bone Chicago style–hundreds of millions for pork and for patronage jobs.
I think all this hype and emotion and we are going to give birth to a mouse here. Balance has it right. No income or sales tax increases (except maybe for the RTA, I think). No lottery sale. Modest expansion of gaming positions. Chicago casino–really, who cares if all the tourists lose their money. Modest increases in education funding from the lottery expansions. Blago continues to plump for universal health insurance in future budget years while hoping the feds come through with a national program. Stirring campaign ads showing him fighting for the health of the people.
A few more special sessions, maybe quite a few, but legislators get their hefty raise (we know they won’t leave Sfield without that going through). Taxpayers don’t win (no substantive cuts in our porky state govt) but at least the state doesn’t take any more of our money.
The guv whiles away the boring hours in Sfield planning his trip to India. Sounds nice.
Bite the bullet. Raise taxes by 1%-2% and get the casinos. Without the bucks, none of this will happen. If you cannot pay for it you cannot do it.
Go through the budget and find areas to cut and drop those pork items. Trouble is these will be one time specials that will simply come back next year in some other form when the “crisis” has passed because the local community “needs” them.
Other problems are not going away without many organizations going out of business if they do not get financial help. The problems faced by hundreds of community human services providers as talked by Capitol View 9:16 are very real. They are “doing the state’s work” and have not had increases for several years. Most of these places, even the very large ones, have 4-6 weeks cash for expenses, maybe. Electric rates, minimum wage, and health care will eat that up. If they close where do the people they work with go? To state facilities at $150,000 a year when they can live in the community for 25% of that cost? Lots of mergers/takeovers are likely, but will not solve the rates issue.
Hold education rates to current rates. They can push for local taxes.
Get the leaders in one room, come to agreement to work together to face any level of veto, and make a budget that includes the Governor or blows by him.
Get some real budget experts involved who will look at all the details and understand the ripple effects. Schnorf Consulting, Inc. seems available.
The pessimistic side of me likes Bluefish’s idea of letting the whole thing collapse. Unfortunately it would simply result in endless finger pointing and name calling of who was responsible. Much like now.
I say bring back the stockades. Put the leaders & gov out in front of the old state capitol building in the stockade until there is a concensus, or surrender, whichever comes first. Perhaps they can be in a circle so nobody is seen as the leader. Much like now. Raise revenue by letting IL citizens buy rotten produce to throw at them.
Lula May - you are correct. Watch what is happening in Northwest Illinois. They might as well kiss it all good-bye. Our Governor is already reprimanding one of our legislators for disagreeing with him.
First, the “four tops” should get together without Blago and try to hash out a veto-proof budget. Have each GA member sign an agreement to not go against their initial approval of the budget; that way, there are no late shenanigans.
If that doesn’t work, bring in Blago but encourage him to come into the meeting without his staff and without talking points. It would be interesting to see what happens in a meeting like that.
If neither works, keep passing month-to-month budgets. If Blago realizes that passing those budgets will end his dream of Illinois Covered, he might finally get serious and work with the leaders.
If we want more natural revenue growth, we need to tax high incomes. Wages for most people are stagnant (so income tax growth is based on population — come on over Latinos, we need you!). Sales tax revenues are a bit better in terms of the rate of growth. But income over $200K is growing much faster than anything else. So the more we tax that high income, the faster our natural revenue growth will be. Plus, those are the people who can afford a higher tax. All that is to say, to balance this year’s and next year’s budget, we should raise the income tax to 6% but also not tax the first $30,000 of everyone’s income at all, so the net result is that only people with income above $120K or $140K will pay more. Everyone else will pay less. And the state will collect a lot more revenue.
Team…the only problem with that is that President Jones is too joined-at-the-hip with the governor. The reality here is that unless the Senate starts moving SB 1 and/or SB 5 to the House, there is no pressure on anyone to act until August 1. Call all the special session, hold all the committees of the whole, have bologna sandwiches you want at the mansion. Is the governor going to give in to the Speaker…hardly. Will the Speaker give in to the governor…why? Can Rep. Hoffman put together a majority of democrats and republicans to pass anything with 71 votes…can Emil get 36 (or 30 on SB 1 and SB 5 with a July 2008 effective date)? Methinks the solution to this will be found in the SFY 2009 budget.
Since nothing of importance is being accomplished, would it not be time for the legislative leaders to attend a week long seminar conducted by Professor Kent D. Redfield to remind them of the structure and responsibilities of a republic and for them to reflect on what it is they are required by law to do?
“Republic: A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them.”
Politically, the one thing that is going to get the budget rolling — and Madigan’s trump card — is Tom Skilling.
To wit: On July 23rd, ComEd customers will receive their first electric bill with a full month of summer, and they are really not going to like what they see. Look for CUB, AARP and Madigan to ramp up pressure on an electric deal and move the budget forward indirectly. If we get some really hot days before then and the meters really start churning, Senate Democrats will be very eager to pass an electric bill and a budget and declare victory.
As for “What is the solution?” don’t expect some miracle, like four new casinos, which Madigan and Cross staunchly oppose, or a 1% income tax increase, which Emil Jones has missed the boat on by not seizing the issue and making it his.
Assuming there is a budget hole of $874 million, look for zero growth in the pension payment, closing that gap to $317 million. But you can bet that lawmakers won’t leave town without saying that they atleast put more money into education. My guess is that they’ll settle around $250 million, although given inflation and the steady increase in enrollment, you probably would need to add $350 million just to keep up with inflation. But hey, if reporters haven’t figured that one out yet, the general public will never catch on. Look for lawmakers to tie the closing of corporate looopholes to whatever education number they arrive at to make it more politically palatable for Republicans and fiscally conservative Democrats (still, Franks will vote against the tax increase, because that’s what Jack Franks does).
The advantage of putting your new money in education is that the Governor can’t withhold it.
The price lawmakers will pay for a veto-proof, Rodless budget will be their pork, but the price they should extract from him will be a line-by-line scrutiny of the budget, possibly even eliminating positions for all of the Governor’s political allies that he has stashed away on state payroll. Then present Rod with a choice: the Lady or the Tiger?
Ok, I’ve got it. Blago is beyond trying to reason with.
The ticket is Emil. This what should and probably will happen.
These are all Chicago Democrats. Mayor Daley needs to call Emil in for a little discussion.
I think he has waited hoping they’ll work this out and he wouldn’t have to come in and pay the heavy.
But he is not going to let his city come to a stand still. Transportation - Schools - Welfare and all the other state services the city depends on.
This meeting will be kept private as it should be.
Related to Napoleon’s comment above concerning routing projects (call them ‘pork’, legislative ‘add-ons’ or initiatives) through the other constitutional officers, that may not be a solution if they do not have statutory authority to expend for those purposes. That is why in the old days so many legislative initiatives went through DCCA — now DCEO — because DCCA had relatively broad powers to expend. Even so, at the end of every session DCCA staff had to go through the list of add-ons to see if the agency had necessary authority for the project.
I suppose that the Assembly could give a constitutional officer broader powers, but that would be subject to veto. I think this would present a problem.
The solution is to address the problem where it exists, with the Governor, not in tyring to find some way around it.
Cogito, I’m assuming they’d be given statutory authority as part of the deal. There might well be practical difficulties, as the other Constitutional offices don’t necessarily have the infrastructure to deal with overseeing pork projects. But as the person who keeps bringing it up, I’ll also be the first to admit that if a budget deal is passed over a gubernatorial veto, the bureaucratic challenges of the end-run will be vastly overshadowed by the political and philosophical implications.
I’m all for an income tax surcharge on the wealthy, but $120-140 k is way too low. People raising families on that income get no government aid to speak of and they therefore have to pay for college, for their own retirements (plus state and federal employee retirements, of course), and they definitely don’t qualify for affordable housing. No free health care a la Medicaid either.
A $200,000 cutoff is better, but it should be graduated above that. Families making $200k a year should not pay the same percentage income tax as those making a million a year, and so forth.
As I’ve been saying, aint gonna happen. Look at our legislators. Many of them are wealthy. Look at Blago, Jones, and Madigan. Ditto. They aren’t going to vote to increase taxes on themselves, no matter how many of the so-called poor would be lifted out of poverty as a result. They want the middle class to pay.
A scaled down version of the GRT with a floor of about $20-$30 million in gross revenue and a low rate, say .5%, the employer tax of about 2%-3% for employers who don’t offer health insurance, expansion of the sales tax to services at a reduced rate, expanded gaming on a scale somewhere between the House and Senate versions. No sale of state assets.
Fund per pupil state contribution to k-12 disricts at EFAB level. A pilot health insurance program which would extend medicaid type benefits to all citizens under a certain income level ($70,000 per family of 4 ?) with premuims to be paid by recipients according to income levels. Pay the full pension payment required by the ramp which was readjusted in 2005. Sell $10 Billion in pension obligation bonds to be used to pay down pension liability only. Use income from gaming for roads to take advantage of federal funds ( float more bonds),pay off complete medicaid debt, offer an early retirement package that he can’t refuse to the Speaker of the House.
I don’t think a scaled down, modified version of the GRT to the tune of $1-2 Billion should be out of the question. More than 95% of Illinois businesses would be exempt and it would be a lot fairer and less regressive than raising the income tax by 1 or more points.
Better forget gaming as a new revenue source. I hear that it takes over 12 months to “vet” a casino operation and all its national and international pieces, and all the owners and their entanglements. Because of the late session, there is no time for gaming revenues to benefit the FY 08 budget — the licenses will not be issued until FY 09.
Sorry Pops. Sometimes I just can’t help myself.
To be honest, I really don’t mind the Speaker’s slow growth budget, aside from the fact that it is unbalanced and unconstitutional. I would be more than willing to just let the state fester until the next governor takes over. Maybe she can get better cooperation out of the House of Commons.
Gasp! I agree with Bill that a scaled-down version should not be out of the question.
HOWEVER - what would Blago want next year? And in 2009? And then in 2010? If you give in to him now, what will he whine and cry about later on? He might want a full-on GRT plan or a massive education plan that we can’t afford or - if he is not going to run again - go all in for an income and sales tax. Any pacification or appeasing now could result in more aggravation later.
Sorry Bill. Blago is first and foremost a politician. You never know what that breed will do.
They need to stop playing the shell game with HB750 and kill it once and for all.
They need to address the state pension last-years-big-raise sham and all good parents should join this fight before their children and grandchildren are forced into indentured servitude to a selfish bunch of SOB’s that could care less about anything or anyone else.
They need to devise a legitimate tax swap that is intended to lessen the burden on property taxes, take local “control” away from inflationary measures such as impact fees and then get ready to reap the rewards of a prospering constituency that would then have the confidence to drive the economy at full throttle.
“Gasp! I agree with Bill that a scaled-down version should not be out of the question.
HOWEVER - what would Blago want next year? And in 2009? And then in 2010? If you give in to him now, what will he whine and cry about later on? He might want a full-on GRT plan or a massive education plan that we can’t afford or - if he is not going to run again - go all in for an income and sales tax. Any pacification or appeasing now could result in more aggravation later.”
Can’t this be said about every “do-good” tax ever passed? The slippery slope of “small tax” ONLY on the “rich” is plum worn out by now.
Question: assume the budget remains unresolved on 31 July. Is there a link between Blagojevich’s federal investigations and the fact that if the govt is shutdown it will make national news (like PA’s?)
In other words, would Blago keep throwing out one month budgets so as not to take even more heat nationally? Would this be at all tied into the fed investigations? Is it in Blago’s personal interests to keep this as non-national as possible?
Get the Passed House Budget Bill out of its technical cubby hole and tweak it to the level of balanced by a combination of sales and income taxes increases and move it on to the Senate. It would be balanced and therefor Constitutional, reasonably affordable, and sufficient. Emil can pass it or commit political suicide. Then override the certain gov veto by a resounding plurality sending the message of disgust they should have with the gov’s tactics.
A,
Good idea. That would mean at least 4 repub votes in the House for sales and income tax increases. I’m sure that you could put 4 on it, couldn’t you? Oh wait you would need at least 5 because Franks would vote no.
Where are the other 173 non-leadership members of the General Assembly? I understand that some are not bothering to show up in Springfield (and they should be held accountable for accepting an important role and not even bothering to fulfill their basic civic duties), but what are the others doing? Playing Monopoly?
I understand that the Speaker and President hold enormous powers concerning the rules, but why can’t some responsible Democrats and Republicans start drafting their own competing budget? They need to get off their useless rears, stop building hotels on Boardwalk, and recommit themselves to the people’s business.
Hey Capital View @ 1:30 pm: “Better forget gaming as a new revenue source.”
Any gaming bill will allow the existing riverboats to expand for a price and they can pony up the next day since they are already fully vetted. Also, if the racetracks are allowed to have slot machines, since they are also already vetted through the racing board it might not take that long for them to be in a position to also pony up.
Bill
Are you saying the dems don’t want a bipartisan solution to this stalemate? There will be no grt and no grandiose new programs - not even for the children, the moms, nor the old folks at home. Just the budget we can afford and the programs we can pay for.
I am no constitutional scholar, but would this work? Get the real numbers agreed upon for the budget, where are we right now? Raise the income tax rate 1%, giving tax credits that disappear at a certain income. Forget all grand plans for new budget items and pay the bills. Protect first and foremost education at all levels (keeping messing with the colleges and we will only be dumbing down our state). Pay our current healthcare obligations. Do not provide any health or education benefits to any illegal immigrants.
Does anyone really think Emil cares about the state of the budget? He can raise enough money to keep his majority. And the Republicans have a lot of seats to defend, although a decent amount should be safe.
Pass a FY08 budget at FY07 funding levels and go home. No GRT, no lotto sale, no tollway lease, no income tax increase, nothing new. If it worked in the previous FY, why doesn’t it work in the next?
Barring that, call someone into mediate this mess. Durbin, Edgar, Thompson, Netsch, Da Mare, Adlai III (is he still alive?), heck even Rich Miller. Where are the adults?
Maybe the “leaders” should try using a less confrontational, less competitive decision making process. Supposedly they’re all members of the same political party, so why not use a form of consensus decision-making?
I’m beginning to think this month to month budget methodology is genius - it doesn’t allow the administration to divert meaningful chunks of money to areas not intentionally and consciously planned. A very effective way to put the virtual leg chains and handcuffs on a gov no one can trust. Even when he signs MOUs. Let’s keep with the month to month for say a year and see how we do - pretty well is my guess!
Coming up with any number of plans that work mathematically to address our budget problems isn’t hard; passing one of them veto-proof is. Basic strategy-Ask President Jones the least he will settle for on education. Ask the Governor the least he will settle for on health coverage expansion. See if the Speaker can live with that budget. President Jones looks to see if he can pass it in the Senate without R votes. Speaker works with Leader Cross to see if they can jointly put 3/5 on it. If yes, everyone goes home. If no, start over.
Steve, not a bad plan, assuming rational players. Go ahead and try it once with the gov included. If he pulls his intransigent position act, then he is out. Then you proceed with cutting a veto override proof plan and steamroll it through. Personally, I think it’s safer and more prudent to keep the admin on a month to month budget - less chance for losing control!
Whenever there’s a budget stalemate there’s always talk of a legislative budget, cut the Governor out, work out our own deal. Problem is, I’ve never really seen it happen Do any of you remember one? They’re far better off working with the Governor and working something out.
Bill, I tend to agree with you that a VERY scaled down version of the GRT (obviously going to have to have a new name) shouldn’t be off the table.
As to all of us who believe that an income tax increase is by far the best way out of this, answer this question for me. Even though the Governor inherited a terrible budget problem, the Rs believe he has really made it much worse thru his own actions of the past 4 years. Then, even with allegations of scandal hanging over his head, he soundly defeated the R candidate for Gov. He has paid scant attention to the Rs in the GA for the past 4 years. Why would the Rs provide any votes for an income tax increase to bail him out? They see it coming down this way. They provide the voted to pass an income tax increase, the Governor excoriates them for doing it. The Gov vetoes, all the while damning the GA. The Rs provide the votes to override, with the Gov again excoriating them. The Governor, his problems solved, happily spends the money.
“…cut the Governor out, work out our own deal. Problem is, I’ve never really seen it happen …” We’ve never had a gov so intransigent and uncooperative as this. Maybe the line in the sand needs be drawn. Enough, gov, it’s our way or Month to month budgets. Your choice, buddy. Game over !
Steve, also your suggestion to Bill that a scaled down grt and or an income tax increase is way off base. Neither at this point is an option and the grt in any form is and should be history. Negotiations have not even shown a hint of starting with the gov. Take away all options and you have a dictated mandate from the gov. Unacceptable. Stay on month to month and go back to square one, start over and see if the exec branch wants to be part of our state government. If not then we have the formula to control and manage through the fiscal year if necessary. Time to leave the twilight zone and manage this mess like leaders.
Steve-
Madigan, Rock, and Philip agreed to, drafted, and passed a budget in 1992 without Edgar’s involvement. It wasn’t pretty but since the proposal was a “no growth” budget, Edgar couldn’t use his veto powers very much against them in reprisal.
Citizen, maybe I wasn’t clear. I believe an income tax increase won’t happen, and I gave my reason, though I still think it should. Same with a small GRT; I don’t think it should be off the table, and I hope it isn’t, but I suspect it is.
Okay Steve, we can talk income/sales tax but will have to have Property Tax Relief. But the grt is off the table. It opens a door to a gov I do not trust and there always is next year and the one after, etc. This gov must be held to a short leash, minimum wiggle room as his word is worthless!
- Moderate Repub - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:01 am:
Emil, Speaker, Cross and Watson sit down and lock out Gov. New revenue for Schools (say $800 million). Road and constuction program (capital) split 45% to 55% by legislative dist. Give hospital their $100 million, pass a gaming bill, and give Madigans taxes on business. Send it to the Gov and override him. Otherwise, we are going to be here a long time.
- Lula May - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:03 am:
I will repeat my previous posting.
What everyone does not understand is at this point in Rod’s term he does not care what the media thinks or the public.
He hasn’t gotten his way so he is going to punish everyone who disagrees with him.
Unless the media pushes his agenda and stops asking questions about indictments he refuses to talk to them. This seems to be working. When is the last time they asked him a hard question ?
Shelia Nix is a brown noser and this is another of Rod’s problems, he only surrounds himself with people who worship him. He will never get bad news from them.
But, in the end Rod will get his way. Politicians have no stamina for this fight(just like Iraq).By the time the next election comes around the public will have forgotten all of this. The Democrats will be kissing Rod’s feet and he will buy another election.
- So Ill - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:05 am:
This is tough to answer since we don’t know what the budget gap actually is, but let’s use that $874M number as a benchmark.
1) Assume $500M in natural growth (I read that number somewhere…it’s probably on the high end, but for discussion purposes lets accept it.)
2) Give House and Senate leaders one week to examine, line by line, the FY2006 budget and any new spending that’s already been authorized. Each chamber should suggest $600M in cuts.
3) Conference for three eight-hour days. Decide on $400M in total cuts.
4) Pass budget. Make Governor veto. Pass over veto.
5) Take August off to breathe.
6) Reconvene in September to listen to Governor’s complaints and future plans. Require that any new spending must also include a viable method of spending. Anything that is agreed on is automatically included in the next budget.
—————-
I know, oversimplification, it’d never work, etc. But that’s what I’d call for. It requires the Senate to break ranks with the Governor for the good of the people of Illinois, which is a long shot.
Also, I think the time has come to raise taxes to generate new revenue. But that’s also a long shot.
- Gus Frerotte's Clipboard - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:15 am:
Worth noting that the House accuses the Governor of demagoguery, then its members call him insane and call for impeachment. They accuse him of refusal to compromise, then peel off his individual revenue proposals (which in his budget speech were tied to specific programs), and vote them down without offering specific alternatives. The House then claims the Governor’s proposals are “dead,” but took a long time to accept the Governor and Senate President saying that their no-growth proposal was dead. So while the Governor clearly could do a great deal more to bridge the divide with the House, it’s also easy to see how from his perspective the House isn’t trying to meet him halfway.
In some ways, the substantive budget that everybody could ultimately agree to may be the easiest to picture. Education funding could go up by more than the House proposal, but not as much as under the Governor’s or HB 750 (figure $500-600 million or something). There could be some health care expansion. The revenue could come from some form of increased corporate tax, expanded gambling, and maybe some compromise on the House’s part about the lottery. The House can declare victory for killing the GRT, and members can still talk about an education funding increase; the Governor and Senate President get enough of what they want to sign off and let everybody go home. Maybe it doesn’t look exactly like I laid out, but I think many of you would agree that come the end of the month, or August, a lot of people would be willing to take a package like that to get it over with.
What’s harder to imagine is how it gets done. Given the intransigence on both sides, somebody is going to have to be the bridge between the camps (the unions? Mayor Daley? one of our U.S. Senators?). Right now there’s no process that seems to have any hope of leading to a budget, and what is needed right now is somebody who can sit down in a small room with the Governor and the Speaker and figure out how to get them to at least work together. Right now everybody is just posturing, and neither side is going to stop unilaterally; until somebody puts a halt to it, either one of the participants or a strong enough outside force, there can be no end in sight.
- Downstater - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:16 am:
Scrap everything that’s currently on the table and start completely over as suggested by one of the Reps.
- capitol view - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:16 am:
(1) stop having meetings in the Mansion — the legislature passes legislation and budgets, and the Governor’s role is to react afterwards with a veto or signature. Meet in Madigan or Jones’ office, or 212.
(2) Tom Cross needs to be asked to take the causus position off of tax increase votes such as HB/SB 750, the income tax increase with an increase in personal deductions and the beginning of sales taxes on many business sector services. He has members in areas with universities and major state facilities, so there are House Republicans who want to vote for a tax increase. Some Senate Republicans, too, but Watson wants every freshman Democrat on any tax increase roll call.
(3) Community based human services are on the verge of collapse, after years of rate neglect and no broad based COLAs in at least six years. (Education advocates call a status quo budget a $640 million cut? Human services providers have pleaded this same case for years to no effect.) But there should be a “straw man” budget proposed that devastates human services and discretionary education funding, with the intent to use that defeat as the first roll call of a tax increase vote.
But the best strategy is — keep the Governor in Chicago, where he is happiest anyway.
- Ryan - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:21 am:
I think Madigan is squeezing Blago for one reason. He sees future indictements and wants to distance himself from a sinking ship, at the same time he wants to protect his daughter Lisa.
Blago will have to budge, because conservative downstate Democrats will not vote for gun control.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:24 am:
I’m posting this in comments today on almost every item…
The really nasty nicknames some of you routinely use are annoying me. I’ve begun deleting the worst ones and will continue to do so.
Elevate yourselves, please. It’s not too much to ask.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:25 am:
And by “nicknames” I mean nicknames you have given others, like the guv, Stroger, etc.
- Gus Frerotte's Clipboard - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:29 am:
PS Rich, a couple of Fridays ago there was some discussion about how the General Assembly might structure a budget if it knew the Governor was going to veto it — I think we can assume that if the GA passes a budget over the Governor’s veto, that the Governor would use all of his discretionary powers to kill projects put into the budget. You and Steve Schnorf thought there might be a way around that, but I don’t think there was ever a final explanation.
It may be legally possible to effectively end-run the Governor, in which case a General Assembly-only budget becomes a real possibility — but if the General Assembly is dependent on the Governor (or agencies under gubernatorial control) to get its special projects done, then the chances of getting to 3/5 go down some, given the fact that pork projects are a standard means to get votes on the final budget. I’m just curious — I really don’t know what the procedure would be.
- Balance - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:30 am:
There might be one or even two more temporary one-month plans. Ultimately, there will be gaming position expansions and possibly even a Chicago-based casino. New revenue will go to education and some limited capital projects.
No income tax increase, no sell-off of lottery. Blago will not veto and will bring back his health care program right away for 2009.
- The Conservative - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:31 am:
How about living within our pocket book. Nothing new until we can afford it.
- Bluefish - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:38 am:
The key is Jones. If he and Madigan can agree to a budget that addresses their member’s top priority - increasing education funding - plus increases the pension payments, provides long-term stable RTA funding and includes a capital plan that treats GOP member districts fairly, then they can probably get enough votes from both sides to of the aisle to override a Blago veto. The revenue will need to come from an increase in the income tax (for the education and pension), new casinos (for the capital program) and sales tax (for the RTA). Of course, Jones would need to agree to cut Blago out of the process and take a pass on the healthcare plan that we cannot afford.
Even better, pass this budget plan, let Blago veto it, then don’t try to override it. Don’t pass a one month budget for August either (the gov’t shutdown strategy worked in NJ last year and PA this week). Come mid-August, when Blago is being blasted for the shutdown and it’s time for his kids to go back to school, he’ll be unable to escape from Springfield and be willing to compromise. Then make him suffer.
- Captain America - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:51 am:
I believe that Madigan, Jones, Watson and Cross should sit down and negotiate a deal with minimal or no gubernatorial participation. f they don’t do so, the overtime budget session will last indefinitely.
As the Sun-Times noted in its editorial today, there has been a definite lack of efective Gubernatorial leadership. This is exactly what Madigan and others have been saying publicly and privately for the past several months.
The Madigan budget is clearly inadequate to meet the real needs of the State. I agree with the Governor’s suggestion that Mike Madigan is a fiscal and social conservative, but not that he is a right-wing Bush Republican.
If a casino gambling initiative, including a Chicago casino, could be passed, I’d be in favor of this particular means of increasing state revenues. There don’t appear to be any other feasible altenratives given the Governor’s intransigence on sales sand income tax increases and becasue a supermnajority is required by the overtime budget session.
- so-called "Austin Mayor" - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:56 am:
Two words: “Guy Fawkes”
– SCAM
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:56 am:
Well, we now know that Blagojevich is incapable of being dealt with. It wouldn’t have been right to work around him until now. The Governor has blown whatever credibility he ever had since May.
So, it really hasn’t been a waste of time. A governor is important. We had to make sure this one has been given amble chances to see the light.
He obviously can’t. So the time has come to work around him.
Get Jones on board with Madigan. Cross and Watson need to find the votes necessary to support a new budget. We can find the $400 million in cuts by going through the budget line by line. I’d start by targeting this Governor’s pet projects just to punish him and his “friends”. At this point Blagojevich has so many enemies, most of his pet projects have little support, so I’d start cutting thoses.
Let’s get to work!
- Little Egypt - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 10:00 am:
Jones has sold his soul to Blago; therefore, no compromise between him and MMadigan. Jones has been bought and paid for and would be hard pressed to think for himself and show leadership in the Senate. If he did, this thing could be over tomorrow. The House and Senate can pass a budget without Blago’s pet projects and pass them with a veto proof vote. I’ve said all along that we don’t need Blago for much at all if they pass the budget with enough votes.
I would turn off the AC in the Capitol building after locking the building down with all inside. And I’m really not kidding about this either.
- Big Al - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 10:06 am:
1. Increase pensions for all involved.
2. Subcontract all legislative work to India.
- Napoleon has left the building - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 10:28 am:
Gus Frerotte’s clip bd: I believe it is possible that pork projects could be routed through other constitutional officers.
- Old Elephant - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 10:30 am:
It’s not going to be easy.
Even if everyone were to “knock it off” today and start concentrating on really getting things done, there are some very tough, unpleasant decisions to be made.
The $874 million gap is real — and that’s before a single new penny gets spent on education or “Illinois Covered.”
That gap already factors in the business tax increases that passed at the end of May.
Listed below are some of the choices that remain. Pick at least three from the list, because just one or two won’t get you there.
Blow off the 2005 pension payment schedule (we’re not even talking about the 1995 targets here);
Pass a massive gambling increase and use the money for education and pensions, to free up other dollars for operating expenses;
Gut state agencies, eliminating some state-funded programs and laying off employees; possibly eliminate or merge whole agencies;
Hold education funding to zero growth;
Freeze Medicaid enrollment; tighten eligibility; increase the payment cycle and institute strict managed care.
Significantly increase every tax other than sales and income.
Even if all of the above were to be done, it wouldn’t raise enough money to do the Governor’s health care plan, so ultimately his plan is toast — simply because the money isn’t there and isn’t going to be there.
I’ve left off choices that aren’t going to happen — like increasing the sales or income tax. I live in the real world and I know what legislators aren’t going to do and passing a major income or sales tax hike over the Governor’s veto just ain’t gonna happen.
The point is this — aside from the budgeteers and their staffs, everyone else is living in a fantasy world. Illinois spends more than it takes in and it’s expenses are increasing at about double the rate of its revenues.
Bottom line: Illinois is in deep doo-doo.
- Napoleon has left the building - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 10:32 am:
Paul / Rich - I have a great QOTD suggestion. “How would the dynamic of this situation be different if Lee Daniels were still HGOP leader?” - This came to me as I was listening to the press audio of Cross yesterday. While he and MJM may not be allies, surely there isn’t the high level of animosity that used to be there.
- North of I-80 - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 10:35 am:
Hold them responsible for repaying all costs, per diem, plane fuel, air conditioning etc. Because they didn’t finish in May, THEY have to pay all additional costs, not taxpayers. Then a Con-con while we all remember how iditotic this is and outsource their jobs to India. How could we be served/represented any worse?
- Ghost - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 10:36 am:
Indictment
- OneManBlog - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 10:53 am:
Two men enter, one man leaves…
- pickles!! - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 11:00 am:
OneManBlog has it right, settle it Mad Max Thunderdome/Gladiator Style. Put Madigan, Jones, and Blago into an arena, and whoever walks out, gets their way. Thas how the settled it in ancient Rome, and that empire lasted quite a while, so maybe they had it right.
- It Can Be Done - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 11:03 am:
1. Back down the pension level in the 1995 bill from 90% to 80% and recalculate. 80% still provides actuarial legitimacy.
2. Apply the sales tax to services. Then, to allow Rod to declare some victory, reduce the existing sales tax by 0.25%. It’s not a new tax, brings in more $ and the gov can say he reduced sales taxes. “You’ll pay less when buying a car but more for legal, accounting and haircuts.”
3. Add more gaming positions at existing casinos to fund capital bill.
4. If you’re not going to do a tax swap, don’t make any big changes in ed funding. Education has always been a big winner in the state budget. Give cost of living increases to education and social services.
5. Pass the “loophole” closing bill in the Senate and reclaim $100M that way.
6. Find a small pilot project on health care to could give Rod some cover since his monstrosity has no chance of passing.
7. Give Chicago a single casino.
- Cassandra - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 11:08 am:
Lula May is certainly right about Blago running again. It’s clear that we’ve got a very long-time governor here. He’s fifty—5 more terms?
When Harris and Louanner said that they had “cut to the bone” did anybody laugh? They should have.
That would be cut to the bone Chicago style–hundreds of millions for pork and for patronage jobs.
I think all this hype and emotion and we are going to give birth to a mouse here. Balance has it right. No income or sales tax increases (except maybe for the RTA, I think). No lottery sale. Modest expansion of gaming positions. Chicago casino–really, who cares if all the tourists lose their money. Modest increases in education funding from the lottery expansions. Blago continues to plump for universal health insurance in future budget years while hoping the feds come through with a national program. Stirring campaign ads showing him fighting for the health of the people.
A few more special sessions, maybe quite a few, but legislators get their hefty raise (we know they won’t leave Sfield without that going through). Taxpayers don’t win (no substantive cuts in our porky state govt) but at least the state doesn’t take any more of our money.
The guv whiles away the boring hours in Sfield planning his trip to India. Sounds nice.
- zatoichi - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 11:18 am:
Bite the bullet. Raise taxes by 1%-2% and get the casinos. Without the bucks, none of this will happen. If you cannot pay for it you cannot do it.
Go through the budget and find areas to cut and drop those pork items. Trouble is these will be one time specials that will simply come back next year in some other form when the “crisis” has passed because the local community “needs” them.
Other problems are not going away without many organizations going out of business if they do not get financial help. The problems faced by hundreds of community human services providers as talked by Capitol View 9:16 are very real. They are “doing the state’s work” and have not had increases for several years. Most of these places, even the very large ones, have 4-6 weeks cash for expenses, maybe. Electric rates, minimum wage, and health care will eat that up. If they close where do the people they work with go? To state facilities at $150,000 a year when they can live in the community for 25% of that cost? Lots of mergers/takeovers are likely, but will not solve the rates issue.
Hold education rates to current rates. They can push for local taxes.
Get the leaders in one room, come to agreement to work together to face any level of veto, and make a budget that includes the Governor or blows by him.
Get some real budget experts involved who will look at all the details and understand the ripple effects. Schnorf Consulting, Inc. seems available.
The pessimistic side of me likes Bluefish’s idea of letting the whole thing collapse. Unfortunately it would simply result in endless finger pointing and name calling of who was responsible. Much like now.
- Belle - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 11:26 am:
I say bring back the stockades. Put the leaders & gov out in front of the old state capitol building in the stockade until there is a concensus, or surrender, whichever comes first. Perhaps they can be in a circle so nobody is seen as the leader. Much like now. Raise revenue by letting IL citizens buy rotten produce to throw at them.
- JJ - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 11:28 am:
Lula May - you are correct. Watch what is happening in Northwest Illinois. They might as well kiss it all good-bye. Our Governor is already reprimanding one of our legislators for disagreeing with him.
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 11:31 am:
First, the “four tops” should get together without Blago and try to hash out a veto-proof budget. Have each GA member sign an agreement to not go against their initial approval of the budget; that way, there are no late shenanigans.
If that doesn’t work, bring in Blago but encourage him to come into the meeting without his staff and without talking points. It would be interesting to see what happens in a meeting like that.
If neither works, keep passing month-to-month budgets. If Blago realizes that passing those budgets will end his dream of Illinois Covered, he might finally get serious and work with the leaders.
- Dan Johnson-Weinberger - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 11:36 am:
If we want more natural revenue growth, we need to tax high incomes. Wages for most people are stagnant (so income tax growth is based on population — come on over Latinos, we need you!). Sales tax revenues are a bit better in terms of the rate of growth. But income over $200K is growing much faster than anything else. So the more we tax that high income, the faster our natural revenue growth will be. Plus, those are the people who can afford a higher tax. All that is to say, to balance this year’s and next year’s budget, we should raise the income tax to 6% but also not tax the first $30,000 of everyone’s income at all, so the net result is that only people with income above $120K or $140K will pay more. Everyone else will pay less. And the state will collect a lot more revenue.
- Commonsense in Illinois - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 11:44 am:
Team…the only problem with that is that President Jones is too joined-at-the-hip with the governor. The reality here is that unless the Senate starts moving SB 1 and/or SB 5 to the House, there is no pressure on anyone to act until August 1. Call all the special session, hold all the committees of the whole, have bologna sandwiches you want at the mansion. Is the governor going to give in to the Speaker…hardly. Will the Speaker give in to the governor…why? Can Rep. Hoffman put together a majority of democrats and republicans to pass anything with 71 votes…can Emil get 36 (or 30 on SB 1 and SB 5 with a July 2008 effective date)? Methinks the solution to this will be found in the SFY 2009 budget.
- i d - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 11:53 am:
Since nothing of importance is being accomplished, would it not be time for the legislative leaders to attend a week long seminar conducted by Professor Kent D. Redfield to remind them of the structure and responsibilities of a republic and for them to reflect on what it is they are required by law to do?
“Republic: A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them.”
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 12:06 pm:
Politically, the one thing that is going to get the budget rolling — and Madigan’s trump card — is Tom Skilling.
To wit: On July 23rd, ComEd customers will receive their first electric bill with a full month of summer, and they are really not going to like what they see. Look for CUB, AARP and Madigan to ramp up pressure on an electric deal and move the budget forward indirectly. If we get some really hot days before then and the meters really start churning, Senate Democrats will be very eager to pass an electric bill and a budget and declare victory.
As for “What is the solution?” don’t expect some miracle, like four new casinos, which Madigan and Cross staunchly oppose, or a 1% income tax increase, which Emil Jones has missed the boat on by not seizing the issue and making it his.
Assuming there is a budget hole of $874 million, look for zero growth in the pension payment, closing that gap to $317 million. But you can bet that lawmakers won’t leave town without saying that they atleast put more money into education. My guess is that they’ll settle around $250 million, although given inflation and the steady increase in enrollment, you probably would need to add $350 million just to keep up with inflation. But hey, if reporters haven’t figured that one out yet, the general public will never catch on. Look for lawmakers to tie the closing of corporate looopholes to whatever education number they arrive at to make it more politically palatable for Republicans and fiscally conservative Democrats (still, Franks will vote against the tax increase, because that’s what Jack Franks does).
The advantage of putting your new money in education is that the Governor can’t withhold it.
The price lawmakers will pay for a veto-proof, Rodless budget will be their pork, but the price they should extract from him will be a line-by-line scrutiny of the budget, possibly even eliminating positions for all of the Governor’s political allies that he has stashed away on state payroll. Then present Rod with a choice: the Lady or the Tiger?
- bored on 1 - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 12:10 pm:
What gets out a clog better than anything?
- If It Walks Like a Duck... - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 12:23 pm:
To: bored on 1- Did you mean “clod?”
- Lula May - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 12:24 pm:
Ok, I’ve got it. Blago is beyond trying to reason with.
The ticket is Emil. This what should and probably will happen.
These are all Chicago Democrats. Mayor Daley needs to call Emil in for a little discussion.
I think he has waited hoping they’ll work this out and he wouldn’t have to come in and pay the heavy.
But he is not going to let his city come to a stand still. Transportation - Schools - Welfare and all the other state services the city depends on.
This meeting will be kept private as it should be.
- Lula May - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 12:27 pm:
Sorry I should proof read. I meant play the heavy.
- Cogito - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 12:37 pm:
Related to Napoleon’s comment above concerning routing projects (call them ‘pork’, legislative ‘add-ons’ or initiatives) through the other constitutional officers, that may not be a solution if they do not have statutory authority to expend for those purposes. That is why in the old days so many legislative initiatives went through DCCA — now DCEO — because DCCA had relatively broad powers to expend. Even so, at the end of every session DCCA staff had to go through the list of add-ons to see if the agency had necessary authority for the project.
I suppose that the Assembly could give a constitutional officer broader powers, but that would be subject to veto. I think this would present a problem.
The solution is to address the problem where it exists, with the Governor, not in tyring to find some way around it.
- Gus Frerotte's Clipboard - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 12:48 pm:
Cogito, I’m assuming they’d be given statutory authority as part of the deal. There might well be practical difficulties, as the other Constitutional offices don’t necessarily have the infrastructure to deal with overseeing pork projects. But as the person who keeps bringing it up, I’ll also be the first to admit that if a budget deal is passed over a gubernatorial veto, the bureaucratic challenges of the end-run will be vastly overshadowed by the political and philosophical implications.
- Cassandra - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 1:00 pm:
I’m all for an income tax surcharge on the wealthy, but $120-140 k is way too low. People raising families on that income get no government aid to speak of and they therefore have to pay for college, for their own retirements (plus state and federal employee retirements, of course), and they definitely don’t qualify for affordable housing. No free health care a la Medicaid either.
A $200,000 cutoff is better, but it should be graduated above that. Families making $200k a year should not pay the same percentage income tax as those making a million a year, and so forth.
As I’ve been saying, aint gonna happen. Look at our legislators. Many of them are wealthy. Look at Blago, Jones, and Madigan. Ditto. They aren’t going to vote to increase taxes on themselves, no matter how many of the so-called poor would be lifted out of poverty as a result. They want the middle class to pay.
- Ghost - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 1:06 pm:
WSe could reinstate the 1% sales tax on groceries.
- Bill - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 1:12 pm:
A scaled down version of the GRT with a floor of about $20-$30 million in gross revenue and a low rate, say .5%, the employer tax of about 2%-3% for employers who don’t offer health insurance, expansion of the sales tax to services at a reduced rate, expanded gaming on a scale somewhere between the House and Senate versions. No sale of state assets.
Fund per pupil state contribution to k-12 disricts at EFAB level. A pilot health insurance program which would extend medicaid type benefits to all citizens under a certain income level ($70,000 per family of 4 ?) with premuims to be paid by recipients according to income levels. Pay the full pension payment required by the ramp which was readjusted in 2005. Sell $10 Billion in pension obligation bonds to be used to pay down pension liability only. Use income from gaming for roads to take advantage of federal funds ( float more bonds),pay off complete medicaid debt, offer an early retirement package that he can’t refuse to the Speaker of the House.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 1:14 pm:
Bill.
Please.
The GRT?
- OneManBlog - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 1:26 pm:
Rich,
You did ask “should” not “would” or “will.”
- Bill - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 1:28 pm:
I don’t think a scaled down, modified version of the GRT to the tune of $1-2 Billion should be out of the question. More than 95% of Illinois businesses would be exempt and it would be a lot fairer and less regressive than raising the income tax by 1 or more points.
- capitol view - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 1:30 pm:
Better forget gaming as a new revenue source. I hear that it takes over 12 months to “vet” a casino operation and all its national and international pieces, and all the owners and their entanglements. Because of the late session, there is no time for gaming revenues to benefit the FY 08 budget — the licenses will not be issued until FY 09.
- Papa Legba - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 1:31 pm:
Bill,
Knock off the Blago think. Just knock it off!
- Bill - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 1:37 pm:
Sorry Pops. Sometimes I just can’t help myself.
To be honest, I really don’t mind the Speaker’s slow growth budget, aside from the fact that it is unbalanced and unconstitutional. I would be more than willing to just let the state fester until the next governor takes over. Maybe she can get better cooperation out of the House of Commons.
- A Citizen - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 1:51 pm:
Don’t pick on Bill about the grt - He spent all yesterday at the cemetery digging that sucker up.
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 2:09 pm:
Gasp! I agree with Bill that a scaled-down version should not be out of the question.
HOWEVER - what would Blago want next year? And in 2009? And then in 2010? If you give in to him now, what will he whine and cry about later on? He might want a full-on GRT plan or a massive education plan that we can’t afford or - if he is not going to run again - go all in for an income and sales tax. Any pacification or appeasing now could result in more aggravation later.
Sorry Bill. Blago is first and foremost a politician. You never know what that breed will do.
- Mac McIntyre - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 2:16 pm:
They need to stop playing the shell game with HB750 and kill it once and for all.
They need to address the state pension last-years-big-raise sham and all good parents should join this fight before their children and grandchildren are forced into indentured servitude to a selfish bunch of SOB’s that could care less about anything or anyone else.
They need to devise a legitimate tax swap that is intended to lessen the burden on property taxes, take local “control” away from inflationary measures such as impact fees and then get ready to reap the rewards of a prospering constituency that would then have the confidence to drive the economy at full throttle.
- To Team Sleep - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 2:34 pm:
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 2:09 pm:
“Gasp! I agree with Bill that a scaled-down version should not be out of the question.
HOWEVER - what would Blago want next year? And in 2009? And then in 2010? If you give in to him now, what will he whine and cry about later on? He might want a full-on GRT plan or a massive education plan that we can’t afford or - if he is not going to run again - go all in for an income and sales tax. Any pacification or appeasing now could result in more aggravation later.”
Can’t this be said about every “do-good” tax ever passed? The slippery slope of “small tax” ONLY on the “rich” is plum worn out by now.
- Macbeth - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 2:40 pm:
Question: assume the budget remains unresolved on 31 July. Is there a link between Blagojevich’s federal investigations and the fact that if the govt is shutdown it will make national news (like PA’s?)
In other words, would Blago keep throwing out one month budgets so as not to take even more heat nationally? Would this be at all tied into the fed investigations? Is it in Blago’s personal interests to keep this as non-national as possible?
- A Citizen - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 2:45 pm:
Get the Passed House Budget Bill out of its technical cubby hole and tweak it to the level of balanced by a combination of sales and income taxes increases and move it on to the Senate. It would be balanced and therefor Constitutional, reasonably affordable, and sufficient. Emil can pass it or commit political suicide. Then override the certain gov veto by a resounding plurality sending the message of disgust they should have with the gov’s tactics.
- Bill - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 3:00 pm:
A,
Good idea. That would mean at least 4 repub votes in the House for sales and income tax increases. I’m sure that you could put 4 on it, couldn’t you? Oh wait you would need at least 5 because Franks would vote no.
- CommonSense - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 3:02 pm:
Where are the other 173 non-leadership members of the General Assembly? I understand that some are not bothering to show up in Springfield (and they should be held accountable for accepting an important role and not even bothering to fulfill their basic civic duties), but what are the others doing? Playing Monopoly?
I understand that the Speaker and President hold enormous powers concerning the rules, but why can’t some responsible Democrats and Republicans start drafting their own competing budget? They need to get off their useless rears, stop building hotels on Boardwalk, and recommit themselves to the people’s business.
- anon - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 3:03 pm:
Hey Capital View @ 1:30 pm: “Better forget gaming as a new revenue source.”
Any gaming bill will allow the existing riverboats to expand for a price and they can pony up the next day since they are already fully vetted. Also, if the racetracks are allowed to have slot machines, since they are also already vetted through the racing board it might not take that long for them to be in a position to also pony up.
- A Citizen - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 3:06 pm:
Bill
Are you saying the dems don’t want a bipartisan solution to this stalemate? There will be no grt and no grandiose new programs - not even for the children, the moms, nor the old folks at home. Just the budget we can afford and the programs we can pay for.
- Leigh - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 3:06 pm:
I am no constitutional scholar, but would this work? Get the real numbers agreed upon for the budget, where are we right now? Raise the income tax rate 1%, giving tax credits that disappear at a certain income. Forget all grand plans for new budget items and pay the bills. Protect first and foremost education at all levels (keeping messing with the colleges and we will only be dumbing down our state). Pay our current healthcare obligations. Do not provide any health or education benefits to any illegal immigrants.
- Leigh - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 3:08 pm:
Okay, keeping messing? Yeah, I did go to college in Illinois……
- A Citizen - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 3:11 pm:
- Leigh -
That’s why we all understood you.
- Bill - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 3:38 pm:
Leigh,
Excellent! I’d vote for that, twice!
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 4:36 pm:
Leigh, that is a good plan.
Does anyone really think Emil cares about the state of the budget? He can raise enough money to keep his majority. And the Republicans have a lot of seats to defend, although a decent amount should be safe.
- jwscott72 - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 4:57 pm:
Pass a FY08 budget at FY07 funding levels and go home. No GRT, no lotto sale, no tollway lease, no income tax increase, nothing new. If it worked in the previous FY, why doesn’t it work in the next?
Barring that, call someone into mediate this mess. Durbin, Edgar, Thompson, Netsch, Da Mare, Adlai III (is he still alive?), heck even Rich Miller. Where are the adults?
- Squideshi - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 5:01 pm:
Maybe the “leaders” should try using a less confrontational, less competitive decision making process. Supposedly they’re all members of the same political party, so why not use a form of consensus decision-making?
- A Citizen - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 5:07 pm:
I’m beginning to think this month to month budget methodology is genius - it doesn’t allow the administration to divert meaningful chunks of money to areas not intentionally and consciously planned. A very effective way to put the virtual leg chains and handcuffs on a gov no one can trust. Even when he signs MOUs. Let’s keep with the month to month for say a year and see how we do - pretty well is my guess!
- SHS - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 7:14 pm:
Call Thompson, Edgar and Ryan and say - what do we do now?
- steve schnorf - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 8:18 pm:
Coming up with any number of plans that work mathematically to address our budget problems isn’t hard; passing one of them veto-proof is. Basic strategy-Ask President Jones the least he will settle for on education. Ask the Governor the least he will settle for on health coverage expansion. See if the Speaker can live with that budget. President Jones looks to see if he can pass it in the Senate without R votes. Speaker works with Leader Cross to see if they can jointly put 3/5 on it. If yes, everyone goes home. If no, start over.
- A Citizen - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 8:32 pm:
Steve, not a bad plan, assuming rational players. Go ahead and try it once with the gov included. If he pulls his intransigent position act, then he is out. Then you proceed with cutting a veto override proof plan and steamroll it through. Personally, I think it’s safer and more prudent to keep the admin on a month to month budget - less chance for losing control!
- steve schnorf - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 8:57 pm:
Whenever there’s a budget stalemate there’s always talk of a legislative budget, cut the Governor out, work out our own deal. Problem is, I’ve never really seen it happen Do any of you remember one? They’re far better off working with the Governor and working something out.
Bill, I tend to agree with you that a VERY scaled down version of the GRT (obviously going to have to have a new name) shouldn’t be off the table.
As to all of us who believe that an income tax increase is by far the best way out of this, answer this question for me. Even though the Governor inherited a terrible budget problem, the Rs believe he has really made it much worse thru his own actions of the past 4 years. Then, even with allegations of scandal hanging over his head, he soundly defeated the R candidate for Gov. He has paid scant attention to the Rs in the GA for the past 4 years. Why would the Rs provide any votes for an income tax increase to bail him out? They see it coming down this way. They provide the voted to pass an income tax increase, the Governor excoriates them for doing it. The Gov vetoes, all the while damning the GA. The Rs provide the votes to override, with the Gov again excoriating them. The Governor, his problems solved, happily spends the money.
- A Citizen - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:22 pm:
“…cut the Governor out, work out our own deal. Problem is, I’ve never really seen it happen …” We’ve never had a gov so intransigent and uncooperative as this. Maybe the line in the sand needs be drawn. Enough, gov, it’s our way or Month to month budgets. Your choice, buddy. Game over !
- A Citizen - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:42 pm:
Steve, also your suggestion to Bill that a scaled down grt and or an income tax increase is way off base. Neither at this point is an option and the grt in any form is and should be history. Negotiations have not even shown a hint of starting with the gov. Take away all options and you have a dictated mandate from the gov. Unacceptable. Stay on month to month and go back to square one, start over and see if the exec branch wants to be part of our state government. If not then we have the formula to control and manage through the fiscal year if necessary. Time to leave the twilight zone and manage this mess like leaders.
- old-timer - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 9:55 pm:
Steve-
Madigan, Rock, and Philip agreed to, drafted, and passed a budget in 1992 without Edgar’s involvement. It wasn’t pretty but since the proposal was a “no growth” budget, Edgar couldn’t use his veto powers very much against them in reprisal.
- steve schnorf - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 10:26 pm:
Citizen, maybe I wasn’t clear. I believe an income tax increase won’t happen, and I gave my reason, though I still think it should. Same with a small GRT; I don’t think it should be off the table, and I hope it isn’t, but I suspect it is.
- anon - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 10:32 pm:
Jagermeister
- A Citizen - Tuesday, Jul 10, 07 @ 10:41 pm:
Okay Steve, we can talk income/sales tax but will have to have Property Tax Relief. But the grt is off the table. It opens a door to a gov I do not trust and there always is next year and the one after, etc. This gov must be held to a short leash, minimum wiggle room as his word is worthless!
- The Conservative - Wednesday, Jul 11, 07 @ 7:16 am:
Easy, if the money isn’t there don’t spend it. No new programs, pay for what we have and save for next year.