More fun and games
Friday, Jun 26, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Governor Quinn said this morning that expects the General Assembly will stay in town past the June 30th fiscal year deadline. Speaking to the CARC Adult Developmental Training Center in Chicago , Quinn said he expects another vote Wednesday, July 1st on a tax hike. Oops. This appeared to be listed as an event today on the IIS site, but it was last week. Sorry about that, campers. I didn’t notice that IIS is closed this week. And I listened to the whole thing, too. Thought it sounded kinda familiar. lol
* Did the governor threaten to veto the so-called “50 percent” budget yesterday? Looks like it…
“I’m not going to accept that budget,” he said. “I’m going to send it right back to the legislature, and we’re going to sit there and we’re going to get a full budget.”
Now, that’s a change in plans. He’s never really talked about a veto before in public, although his people told me a few days ago that he was considering it.
* Meanwhile, the Republicans are not impressed, at least publicly, with the governor’s unilateral changes to the corporate income tax hike…
Quinn said he would settle for raising the corporate income tax rate to 6 percent from 4.8 percent, instead of the 7.2 percent he originally proposed. He hasn’t budged on the personal tax rate, which he wants to move up to 4.5 percent from the current 3 percent.
Patti Schuh, spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, was unmoved.
“We’ve been clear and consistent that there’s lots of things that need to be done in state government and a tax increase is not the first one,” Schuh said.
Quinn told reporters yesterday that he received no promise of votes before he proposed making that change.
* It’s been three months since Gov. Quinn picked Jonathon Monken to lead the Illinois State Police. But the Senate never even held a hearing. Heck, they haven’t even read the official appointment message into the record yet…
But the Senate confirmation vote won’t necessarily take place soon.
First, Quinn’s formal message appointing Monken must be read into the Illinois Senate journal, said Rikeesha Phelon, spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton. That hasn’t happened, she said, though she didn’t say why.
Once the message has been read into the record, the state Constitution gives the Senate 60 session days to act, Phelon said. Session days are days when the Senate convenes.
* Back to the budget, the nursing homes are turning up the heat on one proposed reform…
Illinois nursing home operators are fighting a proposal to move thousands of patients out of their facilities in a state cost-cutting move.
It’s among recommendations made this month by a panel appointed by Gov. Pat Quinn to pinpoint spending cuts to chip away at the state’s $9.2-billion budget deficit. The committee suggests moving patients out of nursing homes and state-run institutions and into less costly settings, like home-based care, which it estimates could save the state up to $635 million annually by 2014.
“We believe that a goal of reducing nursing home placements by 10% per year, over the next five years, is desirable and achievable,” the panel’s report says. The state pays for the majority of nursing home care through Medicaid, the health plan for the poor and disabled.
The move would divert revenue from nursing homes, which say profit margins are shrinking as costs rise and Medicaid reimbursement rates stay the same.
* Related…
* ADDED: Home health workers protest at Black’s office - A small group of home health care workers picketed outside state Rep. Bill Black’s Danville office Thursday morning to protest possible budget cuts of 50 percent or more in Illinois human services.
* Republicans want a temporary budget soon
* Deadline, schmedline
* Few Options Remain in Illinois Budget Stalemate
* Protesters want higher taxes to avoid deep budget cuts
* People with disabilities caught in middle of budget fight
* Budget Threats Loom Over Disabled
* Cuts threaten RMTD Belvidere plans
* IPI outlines Illinois budget myths and facts
* Britt: No furlough days for corruption in Illinois
* Toll board director questions leadership
- Deep South - Friday, Jun 26, 09 @ 10:28 am:
One wonders if furloughs for state workers will be based on a 365 day year. Or will there be two standards…one for state legislators and one for everyone else.
- Leatherneck - Friday, Jun 26, 09 @ 10:34 am:
Isn’t the 50% Budget bill, SB 1197, still on “Motion Filed to Reconsider” status–which means it’s still not even on the Governor’s desk?
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 26, 09 @ 10:41 am:
–As time runs out for an alternative budget, Republicans have been pushing for a short-term spending plan to give lawmakers more time to sort out the state’s finances and move forward with some of the spending reforms and government efficiencies the Republican party has called for.–
More time for what? Did the GOP dog eat the homework?
Call a press conference and outline a full-year budget with the “spending reforms and government efficiencies the Republican party has called for.”
Let’ see it. Charts, graphs, numbers.
You say you’ve got a real solutionnnnnnnn, wah-ell, you know — we’d all love to see the plan (shooby-doo-wop, bomp, shooby-doo-wop)..
- Captain America - Friday, Jun 26, 09 @ 10:48 am:
Finally, I see a sensible proposal that would literally save the state millions of dollars - really big money - moving disabled people out of nursing home settings into far less expensive community settings. Of course this proposal is completely at odds with the current proposed cuts to social service budgets of agencies necessary to sustain people in independent settings. It is well known that disable people can enjoy a much higher quality of life at considerably less expense in commuinity settings.
- Crystal Clear - Friday, Jun 26, 09 @ 10:50 am:
This Governor’s actions clearly illustrate his lack of actual administrative experience and leadership. It sure is a lot easier to be the populist, lobbing bombs at the “establishment”, than actually participating in the process. The problem is now, that people are actually paying attention to what he says and how the story changes almost daily. He is all over the plantation.
While he does show up at the office, he appears to be about as engaged in actual solutions as his predecessor. We are in desperate need of some leadership.
If I were the Republicans, I would just sit back and watch the train wreck. They have no reason to believe anything he says or supposedly stands for, it will change later today or tomorrow.
- Anon - Friday, Jun 26, 09 @ 11:05 am:
That audio link is outdated, Rich. It’s from a Quinn presser on June 19th, not today. So he was talking about hoping for a tax vote this week, not July 1st.
- Cassandra - Friday, Jun 26, 09 @ 11:11 am:
What’s amazing is that anyone–taxpayers, legislators, journalists and so on…pays any attention to what Quinn says at all. He is the ultimate flip-flopper.
He was going to remove high-level state government employees appointed by Blago and then he didn’t (no more than 4 or 5). He basically kept the entire Blago bureaucracy.
He was going to make changes in teacher pensions and then he wasn’t…right after he met with the teacherss.
He was going to make drastic cuts in social service grants and then as much as admitted that he wasn’t in a press conference earlier this week.
He met with AFSCME to gain concessions and then when they told him to take a hike he did.
He was going to have “shared sacrifice” and then he cut the proposed corporate income tax increase while retaining the proposed personal income tax increase as originally proposed.
He talked incessantly about bipartisanship yet went out of his way to suggest publicly that the Republicans could be bribed into supporting a middle class tax hike if he reduced the corporate tax hike. That could be true, I suppose, but he actually said it in an era when corporate interests are, to put it mildly, unpopular.
Despite his purported concern for lower income folks, he almost instantly agreed to reduce the size of the personal exemption.
He told the Ill. Chamber of Commerce (note the audience) that he might lay off 2200 state workers, a statement that got very little press up here in Chicago, probably because nobody believes him.
He can’t seem to get the size of the deficit straight.
It’s not just folks like me who are oppposed to a regressive middle class income tax hike who should be worried…it’s everybody. He can’t count, waffles constantly when challenged, and
can’t make decisions. Can’t do his job in other words. He’s in way over his head.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jun 26, 09 @ 11:17 am:
LOL. I’ll update. It was listed as today. Oops.
- dupage dan - Friday, Jun 26, 09 @ 11:29 am:
Captain America,
While I applaud the idea of moving people out of NHs into the community the idea that it can cost less has some problems. When the state moved developmentally disabled people out of State Operated Facilities (SOPs) and NHs into small group homes 15-20 years ago many heralded that move as a way to save money. While the move may have saved some cash it was not as much as was predicted. Also, problems have cropped up - it is harder to monitor dozens of small group homes (some with only one client) than it is to monitor larger ones. Huge chaotic faciilities are not desireable but smaller 10-15 person facilities have a better track record, in my opinion, than the far flung small group homes. You gotta hire alot of surveyors/investigators to monitor the community group homes - something the state hasn’t done enough of (again, in my opinion). There have been some problems with some providers which, I believe, are the result of the limited oversight. Better oversight costs more money which offsets the savings claimed. Just sayin.
- dupage dan - Friday, Jun 26, 09 @ 11:30 am:
OK, Cassandra, tell us something we don’t know.
- Ghost - Friday, Jun 26, 09 @ 12:20 pm:
=== Quinn told reporters yesterday that he received no promise of votes before he proposed making that change.===
WHy must QUinn bid against himself? these constant concessions in exchange for nothing seem like a poor way to get a deal done. In fact, it encourages the GA to do nothing and simply let Quinn unwinnd each of his proposals
- Princess - Friday, Jun 26, 09 @ 1:21 pm:
–”One wonders if furloughs for state workers will be based on a 365 day year. Or will there be two standards…one for state legislators and one for everyone else”.
One for everyone else of course. There’s a method to break down stateworker pay and it sure isn’t based on 365 days. Salary workers that are able to earn overtime have their pay broken down to an ‘hour’ pay all the time.
- Ghost - Friday, Jun 26, 09 @ 2:11 pm:
I should really read the current edition of the fax before I post what I thought was orginal commentary
- Justice - Friday, Jun 26, 09 @ 5:08 pm:
Cassandra is right. A Deputy Director from the Blago Hacks has been appointed to Quinn’s cabinet. Quinn has done nothing but compound the problems that were created by Blago. Maybe this would be the ultimate time for republicans to push one good candidate. I will vote for a republican this time!