* Governor Quinn, speaking after a lengthy meeting with the four caucus leaders, announced a ‘meeting of the minds’ had coalesced around the concept of a pension obligation note.
A pension obligation note -basically a short term bond- would most likely have a 5 year term. The pension note will allow the IL to make all constitutionally required pension payments for the coming fiscal year.
The perk, according to Quinn, is that note will free up between $2.2 and $2.3 billion to help balance the budget.
Quinn expects the GA to pass the pension obligation note bill tomorrow.
* Leadership also agreed upon the need for further cuts in the state’s operating budget.
The size and scope of these additional cuts are still to be determined. There has been some talk in the Senate of an additional $1 billion in cuts from the operational budget, but the Governor did not commit to that figure. No specific departments or programs were identified as possible areas of saving.
Once a figure for the cuts is agreed upon, Governor Quinn will determine where the cuts will fall.
* The possibility that the GA will pass a new budget by July 1, already considered to be long-shot, has shrunk considerably.
Quinn said the Legislature’s focus tomorrow will be on passing the pension obligation note. Additionally, the Governor does not expect the GA back until Tuesday, June 30.
Considering that the Governor did not repeat his call for a new budget before July -and given the fact that tuesday is the last day of the current fiscal year- it appears that Quinn has backed away from his demand for a new budget to be passed before the new fiscal year.
* The raw video from the press conference will be posted shortly.
* 9:47 pm - Gov. Quinn’s press conference: part 1…
* 9:53 pm - Gov. Quinn’s press conference: part 2…
* 9:55 pm - Gov. Quinn’s press conference: part 3…
* 3:25 pm - Senate President John Cullerton just told reporters that the governor’s long-sought recall proposal will be tied to Gov. Quinn’s signature on HB 7, the controversial ethics bill passed by both chambers. The governor is under major pressure from reformers and editorial boards to veto the bill.
Cullerton also said the House must take the next vote on tax hikes, since the Senate has already approved an income/sales tax bill. He also said it was imperative that the Republicans agree to work towards a tax hike.
We may have video, but maybe not. The cam crashed. Oops.
* 5:07 pm- Here is the audio, in 3 parts, of President Cullerton at the Sen. Dems’ presser…
Fran Eaton wonders when people who depend on the government to meet their needs will realize how enslaved they’ve become.
2 hours ago
Fran Eaton thinks we should support the Republican House members who are staring down angry tax demanders who’ve been ushered out of the Capitol.
15 minutes ago
The governor still wants to raise the income tax rate on individuals by 50 percent. But now the governor says he’s open to negotiating the size of the tax hike on businesses.
“Some of our Republican friends I think would be interested in seeing that happen,” Quinn told reporters after a rally where thousands of people protested potential budget cuts if no more money is found.
Thousands of people squeezed into the Illinois Capitol to protest possible budget cuts and instead demand higher taxes.
They waved signs in support of programs for children, women, senior citizens, disabled people, drug addicts and more.
Authorities say Tuesday’s rally attracted more than 5,000 people. At one point, police stopped letting more people into the Capitol building because of safety concerns.
*** UPDATE 8 - 1:45 pm *** Here’s my intern Mike Murray’s video of the rally. Very good stuff. He learned how to do this all on his own…
*** UPDATE 7 - 1:32 pm *** Facebook post by Rep. Osmond…
I am in my seat at the Capitol and the building has been closed as to those 5000+ individuals here demanding a yes vote for a tax increase. Just like others have written it is not a good day with the outside 90+ degrees. They just cleared the gallery and told all they have to go thru a security check and the visitors are not happy. There is a security meeting in the back and they have called for additional manpower
It’s just one of those days where it is truly a blessing to have an office in the Capitol building. 5,000+ whining people, you can’t walk anywhere, seems like everyone has a drum, whistle, or microphone, and because its 96 degrees outside we get a really ripe smell to top it all off
@capitolbureau Quinn backing a temporary income tax hike. Said he is open to lowering the proposed corporate rate [hike] of 7.2 in exchange for Republican votes. [emphasis added]
@andreazelinski Upward of 5,000 people flooding the state capitol today, says Sec of State office. For safety’s sake, they won’t let more in the building.
…Adding… That’s confirmed.
*** UPDATE 2 - 12:23 pm *** A photo from inside the Statehouse. Click on the pic for a larger image…
*** UPDATE - 12:18 pm *** I’ll be posting on Twitter off and on today. Here are a few relevant “Tweets” that I’ve seen so far…
@Pov2Opportunity Update From Springfield- Thousands of people inside and outside the Capitol Building http://tiny.cc/OIHzP
@DanProft On my way to Springfield for more discussion as to how we “un-fix” Illinois
@kiyoshimartinez A traffic jam on I-55? Are you kidding me?!
@ILSenDems President Cullerton has filed a letter… scheduling a regular session day on Wednesday, June 24th at 10:00am
8:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. - Social service providers have a forum at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel in downtown Springfield to talk with local legislators about devastation caused by possible state budget cuts.
10:30 a.m. - Advocacy groups fighting domestic violence and sexual assault and others gather at the Abraham Lincoln Statue on the east side of the Capitol, with tents, to show the impact of possible budget cuts to their services.
11 a.m. - Service providers meet at the state Capitol’s Lincoln statue, then march nearby to Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office and the state Republican Party office in downtown Springfield to warn about budget cuts.
11:30 a.m. - About 5,000 providers, workers and clients rally in the state Capitol Rotunda along with Gov. Pat Quinn against budget cuts.
They’ve hit the phones, sent the e-mails and even had face-to-face meetings. On Tuesday, service providers take their message en masse to the state Capitol in hopes of getting better answers.
About 5,000 black-clad protestors plan to welcome the Legislature back to Springfield for a special session meant to hash out some of the state’s problems, including human service organizations that could see their funding cut in half in the next budget year.
They promise this won’t be another ordinary legislative rally.
“Every day, you can find another rally, you can find another group that is interested in their issue. What is different is this time … everyone is coming together as a whole,” said Sara Moscato Howe, CEO of the Illinois Alcohol and Drug Dependence Association.
Experience tells us that protest rallies — a big one is scheduled for Tuesday in Springfield — aren’t going to rile up average taxpayers. We’ve heard too many doomsday forecasts and are tired of political posturing that feels an awful lot like extortion:
Fund our programs or real people will really suffer.
My sense is that, this time, only a true crisis will generate popular support for a tax increase. And that even when the suffering is real, the public isn’t going to dig deep until legislators scrap all but the most urgent infrastructure-repair projects in the budget.
They’re not gonna “scrap” anything in the capital bill. Notice that neither side has pointed out the goofy projects in the bill? It’s a “gentlemen’s agreement” - albeit made with one female (the Senate GOP Leader) - not to stir up trouble.
* I should’ve posted this earlier, but I forgot until a commenter reminded me a bit ago.
From that recent statewide poll we talked about yesterday…
In general, do you approve, disapprove or have no opinion about the job the Illinois General
Assembly is doing?
Approve - 16.13%
Disapprove - 42.63%
No Opinion - 41.25%
You gotta wonder how the respondents would’ve reacted if they were told about this little budgetary trick. A bill requiring legislator furloughs calculated the furlough days based on a 365-day working year…
That seems to mean that lawmakers believe they never stop working, even though it would appear from the results of the most recent legislative session, they never really started. […]
If calculated against their base pay of $67,835, the 365-day plan will cost each lawmaker a total of $743 from their paycheck.
If they based it on a five-day workweek, it would cost them a total of $1,043.
And, of course, there are so many committee chairmanships, minority spokespersonships and leadership slots - all which come with higher stipends - that the actual impact for most legislators is far greater.
* Question 1: Should AFSCME agree to reopen its state contract, which doesn’t expire for another three years, in order to help the state balance its budget?
* Question 2: If the contract is reopened, should AFSCME agree to a wage freeze, wage/benefit cuts and/or mandatory furloughs?
Fully explain both your answers, please.
And, please, no drive-by comments that just blast unions in general. We’re talking about one union here and one state contract. Stick to the question.
* Is there a constitutional problem with the “ethics” bill? Chicago Public Radio takes a look…
Paul Ryan, Campaign Legal Center: There’s one provision of the bill that seemingly applies a contribution limit to a political committee organized to support or oppose one or more questions of public policy, which, I’m interpreting as meaning a committee formed to support or oppose a ballot measure in the state.
Ballot questions, Ryan points out, cannot be held to contribution limits. Or, so said the Supreme Court almost 30 years ago. Ryan says there’s a reason it’s alright to limit donations to politicians but not to committees working on ballot questions.
RYAN: Unlimited contributions to candidates and officeholders could corrupt those individuals, potentially. By contrast, in the ballot measure context, there are no human beings who can be corrupted by the contributions.
The sponsor of Illinois’ bill says changes can be made if need be.
* Greg Hinz looks at the failure of a payday loan regulation…
In these days when “reform” supposedly is the mantra in Springfield, business as usual continues, well, as usual. The only thing that’s surprising is the sheer audacity of the players.
A prime example is what didn’t happen late last month on a bill to put more limits on the payday loan guys. You know, the good folks who say they’ll lose their shirts helping worthy citizens if they can’t charge interest rates of 300% or 400%.
The bill, a top priority for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, got a grand total of one vote in the Illinois House committee in which it had been dumped. Yes, one vote. Neither House Speaker Michael Madigan (Lisa’s dad) nor anyone else offset the squads of connected lobbyists who pulled strings to kill the bill — and likely will pull out their checkbooks again when lawmakers are raising cash for their next campaign.
It looks like the University of Illinois dropped the ball — and violated the spirit of the law — when redacting public documents connected to its shadow admission process for well-connected students.
In records released last week, U. of I. officials blacked out Cubs broadcaster Ron Santo’s name in an e-mail discussion about one of his Hall of Fame snubs. […]
The e-mail is dated March 2, 2005, the day Santo failed in another bid to enter Cooperstown. U. of I. spokesman Tom Hardy said the employee handling the redactions didn’t know who Santo was and assumed he was a rejected student.
“I know it may surprise the Tribune and die-hard Cubs fans, but Ron Santo is apparently not a household name,” Hardy said.
Quite the comeback. Now, if Hardy would only answer my question about any attempts by “landmark” Tribune employees to clout kids into the U of I…
* And Chris Kelly’s lawyer has a point about some of the charges against his client. Kelly pleaded guilty to moving huge amounts of money around to conceal payments to a Kankakee bookie, but the feds have shown no interest in the bookie…
[Michael Monico] noted the bookie in the case never has been prosecuted and the matter hasn’t been referred to state prosecutors either.
“Because it’s unimportant to the government,” he said.
Strange, that. They’ve got a major illegal gambling enterprise and no criminal referrals?
* Legislators are getting heckled by social service advocates. As I told subscribers this morning, GOP Rep. Mike Bost was booed off the stage…
The cheering gave way to heckling and shouting after State Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, took to the microphone. Bost urged those in attendance to remember that even if lawmakers pass a proposed income tax increase the state will still have a $5 billion budget deficit, which will require more cuts.
“Then cut from the top,” one woman yelled.
“Raise more money,” another followed.
Bost continued on and said that he didn’t want to “give false hopes” and that people should remember how the state’s finances arrived at their current state.
Here, the shouts tumbled one on top of the other drowning out Bost’s voice.
“Quit politicking,” one man shouted.
“If you don’t want the truth, and you can’t handle the truth, I’m out,” Bost said before dropping the microphone and walking out.
State Rep. Ed Sullivan Jr., a Mundelein Republican, said he was protested and picketed while marching with his wife and two young children at this past weekend’s Libertyville Days parade by local social service groups scared into a frenzy by the governor’s doomsday talk.
“It is absolutely immoral what the governor is doing,” Sullivan said of the governor’s tactic. “If you want to picket me, that’s great. But leave kids out of it.”
Pat Quinn is not Rod Blagojevich. Rod Blagojevich would’ve ordered protesters to shout taunts at legislators. Quinn is not that sort of fellow.
* Parents are some of the most afraid, and angriest…
“I’m infuriated at the lack of responsibility (of state legislators),” said Dianne Hall of Moline, whose son receives aid from the Department of Human Services. “They’re hitting and striking at the most vulnerable population.”
There’s also a lot of activity among organizations as well…
AFSCME members have “picketed, marched and met one-on-one with dozens of lawmakers,” Lindall said. “For the last several weeks, we have sustained an intensive e-mail and phone campaign by our members that has generated many thousands of calls and messages to lawmakers, and those calls and messages are continuing.”
The AARP set up a hotline to connect members with their legislators. So far more than 5,000 people have used the service, according to AARP Spokesman David Irwin. […]
People involved with the Ounce of Prevention Fund, an early childhood education advocacy group, have sent almost 6,000 e-mails and made hundreds of calls to their lawmakers, spokeswoman Jelene Britten said.
Dan Schwick, spokesman for Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, said his group has called on about 1,000 members of a grassroots network to bombard lawmakers with calls and e-mails.
From the Southwest Side campus of Daley College, they marched a dozen blocks to the district office of the man some regard as the most powerful figure in Illinois politics: House Speaker Mike Madigan, D-Chicago. They found his door locked. […]
Madigan’s House Democrats have blocked a big increase in the state income tax sought by Quinn. It’s been approved by the state Senate. The protest at Madigan’s district office was organized by the AFSCME union local representing some 700 adult education instructors at the City Colleges.
“The Speaker could work harder,” Mark Freeman, president of AFSCME Local 3506, said. “There are a lot of Democrats waiting for his leadership.”
“I think a number of legislators who voted `no’ on May 31 understand that when it comes to this crisis, and it is a crisis, they may have to switch their vote,” Quinn said.
But in late May, Quinn also expressed optimism lawmakers would approve. They didn’t.
A memo [fixed link] obtained by the Sun-Times and circulated by House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) to his Democratic members lays out an array of “legislative items” to be considered during the Quinn-called special session that begins today.
But one thing missing on Madigan’s to-do list for the week is a vote on a tax increase, which is likely recognition that the Quinn plan seems to be barely registering a pulse in the House with Republicans en masse against it.
Poe and Brauer also favor reforms to the budget process, reforms that the Republican leadership insists are a pre-requisite for Republicans to even consider a tax increase.
They must have amnesia. Dozens of Republicans voted for a menu of tax and fee increases in order to fund projects in their districts, including $500 million in member-initiated, re-election greasing projects. Those votes came before the governor signed a single reform into law.
Last week, Quinn said he wanted them to vote on a tax increase by Wednesday. But he now says that might not happen.
QUINN: I think we want to keep working and working until it’s the right time to take a vote whether it’s this Wednesday. Certainly by the end of this month we got have a vote.
* Check out the drop in personal income taxes, compiled by Stateline.org…
…for the first time in 15 years, welfare numbers are up in at least 26 states. In Illinois it’s 3 percent, but in South Carolina that number is 23 percent; in Florida, it’s 14 percent and in California, it’s 10 percent.
* Budget cuts back on the table today in Illinois: Brady, who is running for governor next year, disputes the deficit numbers that Quinn is using, and insists the state can get by with its existing funding “if the governor stops his scare-tactics crusade for a tax increase, acts like a leader and manages the state’s finances within the resources we have.”
Under a proposed compromise that has been the subject of a series of closed meetings in recent days, the board would repeal half of the one-cent-on-the-dollar hike that was adopted at the request of County Board President Todd Stroger.
The move would reduce the county’s sales tax levy from 1.75% today to 1.25%, effective Jan. 1.
Aides to Mr. Stroger failed to return phone calls seeking comment. But the president, who twice has vetoed bills to repeal the entire one-percentage-point increase but has said he could live with a one-quarter-cent reduction, is said to be willing to back the half-cent cut.
“My understanding is that the president would sign it,” said Commissioner John Daley, who heads the board’s Finance Committee. He said he is inclined to support the measure.
Chicago is home to four of the top 25 most dangerous “neighborhoods” in the country, including a sliver of Washington Park that ranked No. 2, a recently released study of FBI crime statistics shows.
Folks who lived near 55th and State — less than two miles from President Obama’s house and the possible site of a future Olympic stadium — had a 1-in-4 chance of becoming a victim of violent crime each year between 2005 and 2007, according to NeighborhoodScout.com.
A North Chicago police officer is facing battery and assault charges after he allegedly pistol-whipped Waukegan Police Chief Artis Yancey.
The Lake County State Attorney’s office has charged police officer Carl Sain, 45, with beating Yancey, after Sain found Yancey in his estranged wife’s home.
And yet the U.S. Supreme Court last week, in a 5-4 decision that obsessed over procedural matters at the expense of actual justice, ruled that prisoners have no constitutional right to DNA testing that might prove their innocence.
Ford and Chevrolet ranked virtually even with Toyota and Mercedes-Benz in the J.D. Power & Associates initial quality survey for 2009 vehicles.
The widely followed report issued Monday showed the Detroit automakers narrowing — and in some cases eliminating — a quality gap compared with overseas manufacturers. But the report also demonstrated that the competition remains tough, with Lexus, Japan-based Toyota’s luxury brand, producing the most trouble-free lineup.
Federal banking regulators hit Oak Park-based bank holding company FBOP Corp.’s largest bank with an order requiring it to raise capital even as JPMorgan Chase & Co. sued FBOP demanding repayment of a $246-million loan.
The Daley administration spent $480,000 to modify 911 center consoles to accommodate 17-inch monitors instead of the current 15-inch models, even though the consoles themselves were about to be replaced, a source said.
Jim Argiropoulos, deputy executive director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, gave AT&T the go-ahead to modify the 107 dispatcher and call taker consoles. At about the same time, OEMC was issuing a request for proposals to furniture vendors interested in ripping them out.
* He’s even getting a boost from Don and Roma. From a press release…
MEDIA ADVISORY:
WLS Commentator Dan Proft to Announce Plans for 2010 Election Cycle
Chicago, Illinois – On Tuesday, June 9, WLS (890AM) political commentator Dan Proft, a longtime Republican political consultant and public relations professional, will announce his decision as to whether or not he will seek the Republican nomination for Governor in the 2010 election cycle.
WHO: - WLS Morning Talk Show Hosts Don Wade & Roma
- Dan Proft
WHERE: Chicago Hilton & Towers
720 S. Michigan Avenue
Room Boulevard C
(second floor off the Michigan Ave entrance to the hotel)
WHEN: Tuesday, June 23
10:00am
Click here for the Proft 2010 campaign website and a video.
Discuss.
* Related…
* Analysts weigh in on Cole’s candidacy - Funds, recognition and Ryan could pose problems: While Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole has said he will not reveal which statewide office he will pursue until Labor Day, he cannot stop local political pundits from speculating about his future candidacy. Though Cole would not confirm that he is considering running for lieutenant governor, several analysts said they believe that position, comptroller or state treasurer would be his likely choices.
