69 Comments - hmmm - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 2:07 pm: Override (without new revenue) would be the most irresponsible thing anyone could do. Might mean a literally bankrupt state. Of course, that means that is exactly what Fritchey and friends will do. - Anonymous - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 2:13 pm: No, whether you like it or not, the override would mean more cuts not a BK budget. At least know what you’re talking about. - I wish I were Mrs. Guillen - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 2:14 pm: can’t access twitter; can anyone post? - Some Guy - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 2:15 pm: Leaders’ meeting 5p on Monday, with the hope of an agreement by Tuesday morning. Time will tell. 5 minutes ago - Fan of the Game - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 2:17 pm: Borrowing even more from the pension funds is not good fiscal policy. - Macbeth - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 2:31 pm: 5pm on Monday? Wow. These guys work great hours. Off for two weeks while the state flounders and then meet at 5pm the day before (another) D-Day. Get those payroll vouchers ready, Hynes. Looks like the payday on the 25th will be IOUs or minimum wage. - Some Guy - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 2:36 pm: We’re done. Not sure what we accomplished but I appreciate him laying out his plans firsthand. 3 minutes ago - hmmm - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 2:37 pm: Cuts by whom, anonymous? Looks to me the General Assembly wants to override and spend at fanciful levels. If they wanted cuts, they wouldn’t override. - I wish I were Mrs. Guillen - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 2:43 pm: thanks Some Guy - Will County Woman - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 2:47 pm: @ some guy… it was worth a try, I guess. - wordslinger - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 2:52 pm: I think Quinn will take anything now that avoids missing a payroll date. - Scooby - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 2:57 pm: WaPo’s The Fix is reporting that Kirk is out. - Scooby - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 2:59 pm: Link - Scooby - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 3:00 pm: Hmm, maybe this will work. - wordslinger - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 3:03 pm: Calling Alan Keyes! - Shore - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 3:03 pm: looks like it’s senator mckenna. Arggh. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/senate/kirk-opts-out-of-senate-race.html - One of the 35 - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 3:34 pm: Fan of the Game is right on. You can’t keep stiffing the pension fund. Eventually you have to pay the piper. - Anonymous Coward - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 3:36 pm: Maybe, maybe not… http://www.rollcall.com/news/36689-1.html - Rob_N - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 3:49 pm: Ouch — purity trolls run amok. Kirk voted w/ the president one time this session… on a bill that isn’t even through the Senate or final conference yet… and his fellow Illinois Republican Congressman refuse to back him despite the fact just about everyone from Sen. John Cornyn on down said he was the best guy they had… Sucks to be in the small-and-getting-smaller tent GOP. One of 2010’s first casualties of the circular firing squad. If I were Kirk, I’d run anyway. For now add him to the Joe ‘Whiplash’ Birkett “I’m declaring but wait no I’m not but I might still be in” herd. - A Naughty Moose - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 3:59 pm: Mark Kirk: I’m dancing as fast as I can! - lake county democrat - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 4:16 pm: On behalf of Democrats everywhere, big thanks to the GOP wingnuts who are abandoning Kirk because of his cap-and-trade vote. - 47th Ward - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 4:20 pm: This is like watching political musical chairs for the last couple of days. As for the national pundits, ===Sources close to McKenna say he has no plans to drop out of the race=== I would add that he has no plan to get out of his party’s primary either. - dupage dan - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 4:26 pm: I assume KcKenna thinks he can sling the mud to dirty up Kirk. He could assume that Kirk will bow out for the good of the party. Stay in Kirk, please! - 47th Ward - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 4:31 pm: Mark Kirk and Andy McKenna are politically the same person. They cannot both run and they both know it. Someone elsewhere suggested this is a ruse to get Cornyn to commit to IL in a big(ger) way. Given all of the conspiracy talk lately, that sounds right to me. - memsaab - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 4:33 pm: Roll Call has Kirk and McKenna negotiating,McKenna playing aces and eights? Boom! GOP loses again - dupage dan - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 4:35 pm: Yeah, but we need McKenna to run the rejuvenated GOP in Ill. We need Andy at the helm here, not in Washington. (LOL) - Had enough - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 4:37 pm: Look at HB4592. Illinois has no ethical values left. - Dem Observer - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 4:39 pm: What’s the point of massive budget cuts or tax increases right before the primary election? Doesn’t it make sense to deal with the pain now? What is going to change in 5 months– a miraculous economic recovery? - Stoned Prophet - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 4:50 pm: An override without more revenue: Hey pols, how about grabbing some of that capital bill revenue and using it to help balance the state budget and save jobs instead of giving it all to the construction companies? - dupage dan - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 4:56 pm: Dem Observer, Kicking it down the road does no one any good (except primary challengers, like the GOP). It baffles me. Only hurts incumbents to raise taxes just before the primary. GOP landslide anyone? Bizarre. - A Citizen - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 5:03 pm: Off theme - Ricketts lose to Cardinals 8-3. - 47th Ward - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 5:06 pm: Happy anniversary Rich: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-090708-disco-demo-pictures,0,1105299.photogallery I thought I saw you somewhere in that crowd of typical Sox fans… - GA Watcher - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 5:13 pm: Trib’s Clout Street is reporting the Governor will delay push for tax increase until the fall. He will accept a short-term budget to be approved by GA next week. - state employee - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 5:37 pm: Short-term budget (less than a full year) and further borrowing to fund the pension, are both breaking IL law (state constitution). Not surprising, IL has already been sued and lost numerous times including for abuse and neglect in 1988 of children who are wards of the state, and those type of lawsuits will start happening again (soon and in droves) with this irresponsible budget and its delay. On 7/29/09 I may not be paid for work performed, or may be paid min wage of $8/hr for my work, which is the minimum for IL law for work performed. AFSCME is planning to sue the state for us to receive our contracted compensation. I don’t know if I’ll continue to work as a caseworker with over 1,000 cases of people on FS and Medicaid, for no money, if I am not paid on 5/29/09. This state is beginning to feel like a third-world country, run by absolute thugs. Madigan, Quinn, Cross, Rodogno, House GOP, isn’t there anything you can do? You’re really letting us all down, is this (what’s going on now in the state) what you want? You’re the ones against raising taxes, and responsible for the ongoing and escalating crisis. - lakeview lawyer - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 5:50 pm: is fritchey’s twittering a prelude to statewide office. he floated a run for treasurer on his facebook page today. serious? - Cassandra - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 5:50 pm: Does the short term budget require layoffs. Or would these be the layoffs that would occur even with the tax increase. Ditto any social service grant agency cuts. Need more information before assuming the worst. - Truthful James - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 5:55 pm: A pension note issue is one shoe. The other shoe would have to be pension reform with new employees getting a reduced pension plan. Anything less is budgetary folly. - Bill - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 6:00 pm: Reducing pension contributions for new employees is what would be budgetary folly providing an even bigger problem for the next thirty years or so and everybody knows it. Stop beating a dead horse. - Princess - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 6:18 pm: Cassandra “Need more information before assuming the worst”. Though who knows with all the changing of minds Quinn seems to be going through, he seems pretty set on layoffs no matter what else happens. A list of job title, number of title and county of title is up on AFSCME Council 31 as of this morning. The process has begun. - fed up - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 6:36 pm: State employee you like to blame the gop but madigan, cullerton and quinn did not need one gop vote to raise taxes and do whatever they wanted before 01 jun. They chose to fight among themselves and do nothing. Blame Madigan and cullerton. The GOP is representing the voters who pretty overwhelmingly oppose a tax hike. - Will County Woman - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 8:38 pm: state employee, it’s all about you. just you. right? and you need not blame anyone but quinn. two months of his hot air, and now look. you quinn supporters are too funny. you blame mike madigan, lisa madigan, the IL GOP, cullerton and everyone else. Everytime Quinn does something wrong—blatantly wrong, his supporters come with the “Oh, the devil made him do it” defense. please. - this old hack - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 8:45 pm: more borrowing, more delay, more temporary measures, more putting off the hard choices until a later time. Unreal. Borrowing to fill pension obligations? So, then you have to make the payment in the future but with interest. The Democratic Party in Illinois is really screwing up. - Bookworm - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 8:55 pm: So Quinn and the GA are going to “study” the Medicaid situation and other factors carefully for the next 5 months before deciding what to do. Works out perfectly… if their primary opposition turns out to be weak or nonexistent, they vote for a tax hike; if they have strong primary opponents making a big issue of taxation, they vote for more spending cuts. - Bookworm - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 9:03 pm: I suspect it will all come down to how strongly opposed the suburban/collar county voters are to a tax hike. They seem to be the ones most likely to assume they can get along just fine without government services, and seem most eager to see social programs cut, state employees laid off, etc. Of course the anti-tax and government sentiment exists downstate as well, but is somewhat tempered by the fact that state institutions and state contractors (prisons, universities, etc.) also function as major employers in many communities. - always anonymous - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 9:12 pm: why no mention of cuts to All Kids and Family Care? the expansion (without JCAR approval)of these programs was listed among the reasons for Blago’s impeachment. - cartoon channel - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 9:48 pm: Saw the union title layoff list for HFS downstate today. 17 headcount…looks more like a hit list of those at the bottom of bumping and that are not liked…titles only individuals not notified. - ND - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 9:53 pm: We will REMBER IN NOVEMBER - ND - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 9:55 pm: sorry We will “REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER” - Anonymous - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 10:53 pm: Where are the layoff lists posted ? - Emily Booth - Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 11:54 pm: I found the layoff list at the afscme council 31 website by entering “layoff” in their search field. It’s the 1st hit dated 07/10/09. - Juice - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 1:51 am: FamilyCare has already been cut back from rod’s expansion, so get over it. - Princess - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 6:29 am: –”I found the layoff list at the afscme council 31 website by entering “layoff” in their search field. It’s the 1st hit dated 07/10/09″. Or one could just scroll to the 4th article on the frontpage. –”why no mention of cuts to All Kids and Family Care?”– Looking at the income guidelines at FamilyCare the ‘limits’ are back to lower levels again on the chart. For the usual tossed around for example ‘family of 4′ the high for Level 1 is roughly 40,000 and the high for ’shared’ is roughly 33,000. While I don’t begrudge citizens getting help who need it, I must say one of the things I find that really ‘bites’ at me is the lack of better ‘rules’ for clients. I actually know a family who uses the ER an hour after dr office 5 pm closing cause the father works to 5 and does not leave a vehicle so the sick child can visit dr during regular office hours. I find that taking advantage of program available to them. I’ve even offered to drive mother and child to a regular appointment time but I hear ‘no, that’s okay’. - Bookworm - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 6:56 am: Regarding the expanded Family Care program, it appears that not that many people signed up for it. HFS has told us about 4,000 people enrolled at the levels that were in dispute (185 to 400 percent of FPL). My guess is that 1) all the publicity about the legal dispute discouraged people from signing up, or 2) HFS didn’t promote it as aggressively as Blago had originally planned. This wouldn’t be the first time one of Blago’s healthcare programs went over like a lead balloon; remember the 15 or so people who signed up for Veterans’ Care? - Bookworm - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 7:05 am: Also, if I’m not mistaken, Congress and President Obama back in January approved funding for state children’s health insurance programs (SCHIP) up to 400 percent of FPL. That would make the expanded Family Care clientele eligible for federal match, which they were not previously. However, it does NOT change the fact that the expansion HFS attempted to do by rule in 2007 was not eligible for federal match and was not authorized by the General Assembly at the time it took place. My main point is that people who think the Family Care expansion cost the state a vast amount of money and cutting it back to the old eligibility rules will make a big dent in the state’s deficit are likely to be disappointed. - Princess - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 7:45 am: –”looks more like a hit list of those at the bottom of bumping and that are not liked…titles only individuals not notified”– There is a contract process to follow. Individuals won’t be notified until process indicates. First union notice, then impact bargaining and notification of individual. Finally the layoff meetings with individuals. It is at their layoff meeting that they may use any bumping right they may have which goes by senority of position title. Guidelines for bumping are in the contract and/or agency supplementals. Workers in a postion of perhaps being bumped are notified also. - Bookworm - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 8:00 am: Here’s an interesting story: In Utah, where most state employees are working four 10-hour days and taking Fridays off to save gas and other energy costs, many are using their extra day off to volunteer: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090710/ap_on_re_us/us_friday_volunteers Granted, the Utah state employees in question aren’t losing any of their pay or benefits as a result of the extra day off (it’s NOT a furlough day but just a different scheduling of the same 40-hour week). However, should our proposed monthly furlough days come to pass or certain state offices switch to this kind of schedule, this might be a way to get some good out of a bad situation. - Truthful James - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 8:14 am: Regarding those fools in Utah, they must be Mormon or non-union or both In either case - can’t trust them —- LOL - Bookworm - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 8:52 am: TJ, it’s true many of these people are Mormon, and I don’t know if they are union or not; but if they choose to use their free time to do good things, how does that make them “fools” who are not to be trusted? - Bookworm - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 9:04 am: Tj, it’s true many of these people are Mormon; I don’t know whether or not they are union. But, if they choose to use their time off to do something good, how does that make them “fools” who are not to be trusted? - Bookworm - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 9:04 am: Oops, sorry, last comment posted twice. - Truthful James - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 10:35 am: Bw – The LOL at the end stood for “Lots of Laughs” thus signifying that it was meant to be satirical and humorous. - Listen Please - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 11:06 am: I rarely write responses on comment sections, but I have been reading comments that have been placed on quite a few blogs and other public forums. I am really amazed at the myths, the lack of understanding and misconceptions that the public have about government programs, contractors and social service agencies. While I will be the first to admit there is fraud, greed and patronage that exsists in these areas, you must understand that it is the legislative bodies - be it federal or state, that have created this. They will not allow the agencies or departments to set up any type of punitive measures to address these things. If someone is caught cheating, frauding or whatever, they are allowed to continue to receive services, with maybe a slap on the wrist. That being said, I would like to let you know that Illinois has a 3% flat income tax. That means that everybody pays 3% no matter what you make. There are only 7 states in the union that have such a tax, most states have a progressive tax so that the more you make the higher your rate may be. Also Illinois has the lowest tax rate of the flat taxes, all other 6 states tax rates are higher. In fact, Illinois has one of the lowest tax rates in the country. This is very easy to verify if you try. Illinois also has the 5th largest city in the U.S. - Chicago. Now explain how you can run a state that has one of the largest cities with one of the lowest tax rates. Mathimatically that does not jive. So all of you who think you pay so much tax, try moving to another state and see what happens. And as far as the social service agencies, again I agree that there may be some that do not ‘come up to snuff’, but you cannot punish all agencies because there are a few not so good ones. There is also a lot of duplication of services which is something else that needs to be looked at . And as far as public aid (which no longer exists, its TANF), there problem is a lack of a cohesive data system. Illinois has an antiquated computer system that is so fragmented that no one agency knows what the other agency is doing. You can have a person receiving services because they are not working, while another agency is giving them services because they are working. Now smart is that. Also there is a 5 year lifetime limit on receiving TANF (public aid), you may continue to receive the medical card or food stamps, but no cash. And NO extra money for additional children born when you are receiving TANF. Now after all this being said, there are some worth while programs out there. Those programs that help people who cannot help themselves, programs to protect our children from abuse and neglect, programs that help teens to keep them from becoming a criminal statistic later in life (which will cost a whole lot more) and programs that help WORKING parents keep working by assisting them in paying part of their childcare. So before you all want to ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’ please listen and educate yourself. That is one reason our politicians get away with what they do. They rely on the fact that nobody really does their homework. - Truthful James - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 12:59 pm: L.P. It is easy to take the flat income tax on people at three percent and make a very shallow case. The fact is that the personal income tax is not the fault. The goose that the Illinois government has been stabbing and bloodletting are the business taxes which end up causing companies to go elsewhere. Illinois has been a job loss state. Those jobs create personal income which in turn is taxed. The mentality in the legislature is that jobs (and votes) come out of the public spigot. So we have created a climate of politicians who are double dippers themselves - - have to be to pay all the fund raising tickets — trying to keep what is an indentured welfare class. And that is not only in the lowest income groups. AFSCME and NEA have figured out as organizations how to run that racket — we will stick with you as long as we get jobs and raises. It is only natural for the elected to vote the way their constituencies wish, but you might expect that they might see the long view too — for the good of the State Illinois may be a low flat personal income tax state but that doesn’t describe one tenth of the burden or one hundredth of the mess - Listen Please - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 1:31 pm: I would again point to the fact that people need to be more informed. Illinois’ business tax rate is a flat 7.4% which actually falls in the middle of the states. There are just as many states that have higher rates, as well as, just as many have lower rates. That does not make Illinois a bloodletter. And many of those states that do have incentives for business are also states that barely pay working class people barely above minimum wage, that is why the businesses like them so much. - Truthful James - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 1:42 pm: L.P. Once again your simplistic approach omits much of the burden on “corporations” That flat rate is just a start. Please explain why Illinois is a high job loss state. - Listen Please - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 2:25 pm: I understand that there are more reasons than taxes for corporations to leave a state. But those reasons are as many and as varied as there are corporations. Some do not like unions, and Illinois is a very unionized state especially around the Chicago and the Metro St. Louis area. There are corporations who would prefer a less tumultous political sytem than Illinois offers. There are corporations who do not like to pay employees what it costs to live in Illinois, especially in certain areas and find cheaper labor down south. There are corporations that want an “unreasonable” tax break for the next 10 years, which a municipality may not be able to give or want to give. The list can go on and on. But this argument is one that continues from one decade to another…but that is not what is the immediate problem. What to do about the budget is my main concern right now. These decisions and cuts are effecting thousands of peoples lifes, no matter how WE feel about the tax issue. If these cuts go through, we will be trading one problem for another. Who do you think will be paying the bill for all those who get laid off…ie unemployment benefits, food stamps, medical expenses (they will no longer have insurance), home foreclosures, etc. And where will all the displaced persons go who lost funding for their programs. You cannot look at these people as $$$, they are real live, breathing human beings. - Anon - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 2:27 pm: I think LOL is laughing out loud, not lots of laughs. - Bookworm - Saturday, Jul 11, 09 @ 8:12 pm: Sorry TJ, my sarcasm detector wasn’t working this morning - One Of The Many - Sunday, Jul 12, 09 @ 10:30 pm: I am one of the many who are losing their jobs this month due to the fiasco in Springfield. I work in a social service agency for individuals dealing with mental illness and substance abuse. This particular agency is closing due to lack of funding by the state. Please be tolerant and allow me to paint you my view: 1) People with mental illness are losing services which they need: housing, counseling, case management, psycho-social rehabilitation, etc. 2) People who lose that type of support and do not have a contingent support system to replace the one they lost will do whatever they need to do to survive. I am not saying this because of “mental illness”, that is reality - when you don’t have money, you don’t have housing, you don’t have a job - you will steal for your food, squat in an abandoned house for shelter, etc. Or perhaps some will go back to state hospitals where they will be medicated and eventually return to the streets - which becomes a revolving door - in and out! Then there is the other option, which many unfortunately will choose - suicide. 3) State employees are being cut - which includes prison guards and state hospital employees. 4) Laid-off employees of those social service agencies (and state employment) will be drawing unemployment for quite some time due to the economy, which means more home foreclosures, more people drawing welfare as in foodstamps and health care, and less revenue coming into the state of Illinois. So with that being said - what is less costly? Keeping services for the mentally ill (and other social service programs), or paying more in the long run? It is time for people to see the whole picture - don’t just say “don’t raise taxes” - taxes are going to be raised one way or another - either for social services which are currently on the chopping block or due to lack of revenue because of unemployment. I have resolved myself to the fact that I am out of a job. But I cannot accept the fact that innocent and vulnerable people are suffering because this budget has not been determined. I am not talking about those of us who are making our ways to the unemployment office - I am talking about those individuals who are mentally ill, developmentally disabled and physically disabled. What has our society become that we can put people out on the street and say it is what is best for the people? Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.