* 8:35 am - From state Rep. Greg Harris’ Facebook page…
Governor Pat Quinn will sign the Civil Union Law on Monday, January 31. The signing ceremony will be in the afternoon in the Chicago Loop, and open to the public. Details will be announced early next week.
Harris, of course, was the House sponsor, so he should know what he’s talking about. [Hat tip: NowInGayChicago]
*** UPDATE *** From the governor’s office…
MEDIA ADVISORY
**Monday, January 24, 2011**
CHICAGO – Next Monday, Governor Pat Quinn will sign the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act (SB1716) with guests and members of the public. With this law, Illinois joins the handful of U.S. states that have expanded recognition and rights to all families. Members of the public are encouraged to attend the signing of this historic legislation.
WHEN: January 31, 2011 at 4 p.m.
WHERE: Chicago Cultural Center
78 East Washington Street
Chicago, 60601
ADDITIONAL: Members of the public are invited to witness this historic occasion.
As space is limited, RSVPs to gov.civilunionsrsvp@illinois.gov are encouraged.
Guests without an RSVP will be seated as space is available.
Event is open press.
* 3:27 pm - Chicago City Clerk Miguel del Valle finally released his mayoral campaign finance report, which was due last night at midnight. His total cash raised? $59,440.
Yes, you read that right.
Cash on hand as of December 31st: $2,115.33.
Oy.
Money isn’t everything in politics, but it is a very important means of gauging a candidate’s support. Del Valle formed his committee on October 1st. That gave him three full months to raise money.
Miguel del Valle was always one of my favorite state Senators. He’s a decent, kind man who fought the good fight and won. But that was then and this is now, and I just hate to see him go out this way.
On Sunday the Green Bay Packers take on the Chicago Bears for the NFC Championship.
The rivalry is so intense that one Green Bay, Wisc., radio station - WOGB-FM -(103.1) has pulled the band Chicago from its playlist.
“Every single song,” says the oldies station’s program director, Dan Markus. He tells Lifeline Live, “They named themselves after the city whose team is blocking our way to the Super Bowl.”
It’s kinda difficult to retaliate in kind since no Chicago radio stations regularly play German marching band music. But I’m with Otter on this one…
Now we could do it with conventional weapons, but that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part!
Suggestions?
…Adding… The best so far…
In a well-intentioned gesture, Governor Quinn retaliated by calling on all Chicago radio stations to ban Green Day from their playlists.
Fur will fly tomorrow at Tiffany’s Sports Lounge when fans gather to watch the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears face off in the NFC Championship. The fuss won’t just be about which team goes to the Super Bowl.
The St. Paul Packer’s bar is hosting an impromptu bear roast — a 180-pound black bear cooked in a pig-roaster over hickory and charcoal. Tiffany’s co-owner Blake Montpetit said he had to scramble to find a whole unprocessed bear.
Roasting a meat-packer probably wouldn’t be as tasty, unfortunately.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Duct-taping a Packers fan to a Stop sign might be a bit much, but it looks like they had a good time…
The sidewalks on both sides of Walnut Street beside the Brown County courthouse were a sea of green and gold and blaze orange Friday afternoon.
The fans braved below-zero wind chills to cheer on their team ahead of Sunday’s NFC Championship game against the Bears.
Mayor Jim Schmitt announced his wager with Chicago’s mayor for wine and cheese.
In a skit, a Chicago Bears fan was arrested in front of the crowd by a Brown County sheriff’s deputy and brought in front of a judge who ordered him to change his ways.
Well, that’s different. Usually, Bears fans are arrested for speeding in Wisconsin because they’re so anxious to get outta that dump.
*** UPDATE 4 *** Now, that’s what I call a Bears fan…
Brad Buell called giving his tickets to the Bears-Packers game to wounded veterans a “no brainer.”
A season ticket holder for the last 10 years, the Libertyville man said veterans have sacrificed more than enough. So he can sit out on the biggest game in Chicago history: Bears-Packers in the NFC Championship.
“These veterans are doing something that I think 99 percent of people out there won’t do,” Buell said. “They run into harm’s way when everyone else is running away.”
* We had a lot of fun with Gov. Pat Quinn’s rambling ways during the campaign. He’s the jam band governor, this guy. He ought to tour with The String Cheese Incident. Sheila Simon could play banjo. Maybe she could do even better than the $500 she made last year picking and grinning.
Anyway, in our latest edition chronicling the governor’s meandering ways, Gov. Quinn extols the virtues (and the long Illinois history) of the “miracle” soybean. From there, he segues into the University of Illinois and then to China, back to the U of I, then back to China.
He even has mic problems at one point, but keeps right on going. Have a listen…
* Meanwhile, you should also take a look at Rahm Emanuel defending himself for not appearing at community forums with the other mayoral candidates. It’s no big deal, he says, because, among other things, he’s been to 30 grocery stores…
* Gov. Pat Quinn picked the Bears to win 27-17 this Sunday. President Obama said the Bears would defeat the Packers 20-17.
* The Question: What will be the final score in Sunday’s big game?
* Bonus Question: What’s the best trash talk you’ve heard about the Cheesehead team or its home state this week? Make sure to keep it clean, people. But have fun and, of course, Go Bears!
Braun polled at 6 percent last month but made major inroads among African-American voters. Emanuel was at 32 percent in the previous poll, but he, too, gained black voters. Chico was at 9 percent in the December survey and has picked up white and Latino support since then. […]
Braun, meanwhile, is viewed unfavorably by 30 percent of the city’s electorate — the highest negative score for any mayoral candidate. But Braun also is viewed favorably by 39 percent and continues to enjoy strong support in the black community, where 55 percent viewed her favorably and only 11 percent unfavorably. Emanuel’s scores are similar in that community. […]
As the only major female candidate in the race, Braun also may be counting on the support of women. But Emanuel was doubling up Braun among female voters, 47 percent to 23 percent. And 61 percent of women viewed Emanuel favorably, compared with 37 percent for Braun.
Chico, who is Daley’s former chief of staff, scored a 10 percent gain among white voters since the last Tribune poll.
* As we saw yesterday, Emanuel raised $10.6 million last year, plus another $1.1 million transferred from his congressional account for a total of $11.7 million. There were some big names on his contributor list…
Emanuel received $2.6 million in $100,000 chunks, the bulk of which - $1.2 million - came from Chicago private equity investment houses including Citadel Investment Group, Aragon Global Management, Grovesnor Capital Management, and others.
Emanuel also collected $100,000 checks from some Hollywood heavyweights like producer David Geffen, Fox Family Network CEO Haim Saban and William Morris Endeavor agent John Fogelman. Ari Emanuel, the candidate’s brother, is the CEO of William Morris, one of Hollywood’s largest talent agencies.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange gave Emanuel $200,000, records released Thursday show. He also took in $100,000 apiece from wealthy Chicago businessmen James Crown and Fred Eychaner, plus another $100,000 from Hollywood mogul David Geffen, $75,000 from film director Steven Spielberg and $50,000 from Apple CEO Steve Jobs. […]
Emanuel spent nearly $3.5 million, including $2.2 million to AKPD Message and Media LLC, a publicity firm once run by David Axelrod, now an Obama senior adviser. That left Emanuel with more than $8.3 million to spend on the mayor’s race as of the start of this year.
Though he’s been criticized by his opponents for raising big bucks from outside Chicago, Emanuel’s campaign said 74 percent of his 2,494 contributors live in Cook County and more than half gave him $250 or less.
Demonstrating his expected money advantage over his competitors, mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel is shelling out big bucks to run a campaign ad during Sunday’s Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers NFC Championship game.
The cost of Emanuel’s ad is $5,000 a second, or $150,000 for the 30-second commercial, according to an industry source familiar with political TV advertising who was not authorized to speak publicly about ad buys. No other mayoral candidate has purchased time during the game so far.
* Carol Moseley Braun filed her campaign finance report at 9:25 this morning. The deadline was midnight. Her report is here. She raised just $446K and had just $164K on hand at the end of December.
Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins, a community activist, raised $500,367 as of Dec 31. More than half of that money, $296,754, came from Joseph Stanford, pastor of Ambassadors for Christ Ministries.
Watkins spent $138,868, leaving her with $361,499 to spend as of Jan. 1.
* At least Braun filed. As of 9:32 this morning, Miguel del Valle had not filed his required disclosure report.
Gery Chico raised $2.3 million through Dec. 31, according to reports filed today. He has since reported another $98,000 in contributions over $1,000 – for a total of $2.39 million raised. He had $2 million on hand to start the year.
Among Chico’s largest contributors were Bo Zhang, the chairman of American Electronic Products, who gave the candidate $30,000 and Patrick Ryan, the former chairman of Aon, who wrote Chico a $25,000 check.
Chico also received $25,000 from Symon Garber, the president and CEO of Chicago Carriage Cab Co. But the candidate gave the money back to Garber, who is facing millions of dollars in city fines for illegally putting salvaged cars on the street as cabs.
* Whatever happens in Sunday’s big football game, there’s no way a major international business conference like this would’ve been held in Green Bay, or Indianapolis for that matter…
Gov. Pat Quinn, U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and other dignitaries’ participation in a signing ceremony Thursday of business deals between Illinois and Chinese companies signaled how China’s growing middle class is opening potentially explosive revenue-growth opportunities.
Midwestern agricultural giants Archer Daniels Midland of Decatur, Cargill, Bunge, soybean and renewable-energy company Louis Dreyfus and farmers represented by the Illinois Soybean Association and other advocacy groups will benefit from the deals, worth a total of $1.8 billion. The deals signed Thursday at the Chicago Hilton represented eight U.S. and 24 Chinese companies. One-fourth of the total, or $450 million, will go to purchase Illinois soy this year, according to state government statistics. Indeed, one of every four rows of soybeans planted in Illinois is exported to China each year, helping make Illinois the sixth-largest state exporter to China, according to Quinn and the Illinois Soybean Association.
The event was tied to China President Hu Jintao’s historic visit to the United States and Chicago but took place a few hours before his arrival.
From karaoke equipment makers to wind turbine manufacturers, Chicago area companies and business groups are looking for ways to capitalize on the burgeoning market in China and welcome the Chinese president’s visit here.
President Hu Jintao’s two-day stop here includes a trade and economic cooperation forum at the Hilton Chicago today at which some 350 Chinese executives and more than 500 U.S. executives will gather.
The economic downturn has been one with many twists and turns and no one is totally immune, even where things are going well.
Last fall, Japanese firm Nippon Sharyo held a ground breaking ceremony for its newest railcar manufacturing facility to be located just west of Rochelle. It was a highly-attended event, including Gov. Pat Quinn and other politicians, with extensive media coverage.
On Wednesday, Rochelle City Manager Ken Alberts confirmed that the Black Earth Development Resources, LLC., which is developing the property, is having difficulty securing financing for the project.
“I can confirm that there is an issue, and the issue relates to the financing of the infrastructure above and beyond what is being paid for by grants,” Alberts said.
The state grants still left the locals about $2 million short. They’ve been applying for other grants, but you’d think DCEO would step in with at least some paperwork assistance, since Gov. Quinn made such a big deal about this facility last year.
*** UPDATE *** Just this week, Gov. Quinn used the Rochelle manufacturer as an example of how Illinois one-upped Wisconsin by taking Nippon Sharyo away from the Cheesehead State. Check it out…
Sam Beelman has dealt with taxing issues as an Illinois-based business before, but the recent round of income tax hikes may force him to move more of his trucking business out of the state, he says.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” said Beelman, who owns and operates Beelman Truck Co. in Alorton. “We will try to move whatever business we can out of this state.”
* And a thank you note and a promise to do better to this businessperson might also be in order…
The leaders at Allsup Inc., a Belleville-based business that helps clients maximize their access to Social Security disability insurance and Medicare, are also dismayed with the increasingly cost of doing business in Illinois. However, company spokeswoman Mary Dale Walters said there are no plans to move.
“Like every other business in the state of Illinois, we’re disappointed that this has occurred,” Walters said. “We really haven’t completed any analysis of what the impact will be in the end. We’re not going anywhere. Jim (Allsup) built the business here, and it continues to grow here. We will add (90) more jobs here, and we had our best year ever last year.”
“Today’s message is brought to you by the Illinois Labor Union Mafia: We would like to thank the Democratic Socialist Party of Illinois for doing just what we bought them to do, continue to pump us billions of dollars at taxpayer expense. We know that the union system is unsustainable without extorting money from the general public, so thank you for a job well done.”
Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.
Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. Any effort to change that status would have to clear high constitutional hurdles because the states are considered sovereign.
But proponents say some states are so burdened that the only feasible way out may be bankruptcy, giving Illinois, for example, the opportunity to do what General Motors did with the federal government’s aid.
Illinois’ pension problem is quite large. Scary large. But there was that tax hike last week which took care of most of the state’s structural deficit. Perhaps Texas or New Jersey, which are skipping pension payments yet again, would’ve been a better example. That would require an alteration in the media meme, so don’t bet on it.
The state’s stack of unpaid bills will soon double despite an income tax increase, according to state Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka.
The four year, temporary personal income tax hike of 67 percent was approved on the final day of the previous Legislature and recently signed by Gov. Pat Quinn. In part, the income tax hike is designed to help Illinois catch up on past-due bills and stop being delinquent on its payments.
“Our current backlog of bills stands at $6 billion, and the increased revenues will help address this backlog,” said Kelly Kraft, spokeswoman for the governor’s Office of Management and Budget.
Not quite, according to Topinka, who is in charge of Illinois’ checkbook.
“By the time we get through four years from now and all of this and what they’re able to spend, we will probably have a debt of $12 billion of unpaid bills that have yet to be dealt with,” the Riverside Republican said.
Then again, the borrowing bill which stalled last week (and would pay off the overdue debt) isn’t factored into her estimate. And Topinka’s $34 billion revenue estimate for the coming fiscal year is about $2.6 billion below what I’m told will be the governor’s new FY 2012 estimate, which should be released today.
* Related…
* ADDED: Study: States don’t need bankruptcy option
* ADDED: Impact of higher taxes unclear on real estate market
Steel-maker Evraz North America Inc. announced at noon that it’s moving its corporate headquarters from Portland to Chicago.
CEO Mike Rehwinkel said the move is a matter of logistics. It’s easier to meet with the company’s North American customers from a centrally-located base like Chicago.
The move means shifting the 50 employees at its headquarters to Chicago.
* The company may have 50 workers in Portland, but it pledged to create 70 new jobs in Chicago. From a press release…
DCEO will administer the state’s approximately $3 million business investment package, which consists of Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) tax credits based on job creation and Employer Training Investment Program (ETIP) job training funds to enhance the skills of the company’s workforce. In return, the company pledges to create at least 70 jobs. The state’s package leverages a private investment by the company of $9.7 million over a ten-year period.
* So, what about that job-killing tax hike? Not a factor…
The announcement comes shortly after Illinois hiked its corporate and individual income tax rates, a dramatic step that triggered a hue and cry that businesses will exit or avoid moving here. The founder of Champaign-based Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches, for instance, this week told the Champaign News-Gazette that he’s considering moving the corporate headquarters out of state.
But Mike Rehwinkel, Evraz NA president and CEO, said the tax increases, while hardly a welcome turn of events, did not influence the company’s relocation decision.
The key factor, he said, was getting easier, less expensive air travel out of O’Hare and Midway airports to customers with offices dotted around North America, from Dallas and Houston to Calgary and Montreal.
“As much as people say they don’t like those airports, we love them,” he said. “We can reach all our customers, all our mills and into Europe when we need to.”
Transportation and infrastructure. Those are the watchwords.
Mitsubishi Motors says its plant in Normal will remain open and begin producing a new model soon.
Dan Irvin, a spokesman for the Japanese auto manufacturer, said Thursday that the company will wait several weeks to release the details about the new model, when it will go into production and what that will mean for staffing at the plant.
The plant employs 1,100 people and is one of the largest employers in the Bloomington-Normal area.
The Chicago for Rahm Emanuel campaign today announced that $10.6 million has been raised during the mayoral campaign through January 19th. An additional $1.1 million in previously raised funds was transferred from the congressional campaign account, for a total of $11.7 million.
Demonstrating his expected money advantage over his competitors, mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel is shelling out big bucks to run a campaign ad during Sunday’s Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers NFC Championship game.
The cost of Emanuel’s ad is $5,000 a second, or $150,000 for the 30-second commercial, according to an industry source familiar with political TV advertising who was not authorized to speak publicly about ad buys. No other mayoral candidate has purchased time during the game so far.
Carol Moseley Braun‘s mayoral bid has not raised as much as she had hoped and will rely on door-to-door canvassing rather than an extended broadcast TV ad blitz, campaign spokeswoman Renee Ferguson said Thursday.
As of 3 p.m. Thursday, Braun and the other major mayoral hopefuls had not yet filed the campaign-finance disclosure reports that they are required to turn in to state officials by the end of the day. But Ferguson said Braun’s campaign raised about $850,000 — about $600,000 in the reporting period that ended Dec. 31 and another $250,000 in the first three weeks of January. […]
Ferguson said the Braun campaign filmed a TV spot Wednesday but would need to raise more money to air the ad on broadcast TV, which is costly.
[ *** End Of Updates *** ]
* We’re waiting for an appellate ruling today on whether Rahm Emanuel meets the residency requirements to run for Chicago mayor. I put together this post to serve as an addendum, but I’m tired of waiting, so check back here for updates.
* Here is the audio of this week’s arguments before the appellate court…
An attorney for two voters objecting to Emanuel’s candidacy argued again that the Democrat doesn’t meet the one-year residency requirement because he rented out his Chicago home and moved his family to Washington to work for President Barack Obama for nearly two years.
“If the house had not been abandoned by the whole family … we wouldn’t be here today,” attorney Burt Odelson told the panel of judges, all three Democrats.
Odelson so far has had little luck trying to keep Emanuel off the Feb. 22 ballot. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and a Cook County judge have both ruled in favor of Emanuel, a former congressman, saying he didn’t abandon his Chicago residency when he went to work at the White House.
Judge Kevin Hoffman played devil’s advocate with lawyers on both sides.
Hoffman asked Emanuel’s challengers whether he should be allowed on the ballot because state election protects the residency status of anyone who temporarily leaves “on the business of the United States.”
Burt Odelson, the lawyer for the objectioners, said no, that exemption should only apply to members of the military.
“You can’t run with the hounds and hide with the fox,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman asked Emanuel’s lawyers to define the difference between “to live” and “to reside”, arguing that the two are synonymous.
“All this debate is completely academic,” said Kevin Forde, one of Emanuel’s lawyers. “There is absolutely no question that (Emanuel) was on temporary absence on business of the United States.”
They questioned the argument of Burt Odelson, lead attorney against Emanuel, that leasing out the house meant Emanuel abandoned his residency.
“What’s the strongest case you have supporting that?” Hoffman asked.
Odelson mentioned some cases from the 1930s and ’40s. Odelson argued that President Obama would have no problem running for mayor because he did not rent out his house and so could occasionally spend a night there.
What if Emanuel could not afford to maintain two homes, Justice Bertina Lampkin asked. Wouldn’t Odelson’s interpretation of the law put an undue burden on the non-wealthy?
Well, with $60,000 a year in rent from the house and his $172,000-a-year chief of staff position, as well as his savings, that was not an issue for Emanuel, Odelson responded without answering her question.
* Chicago/Cook roundup…
* Mayor Daley’s nephew tries to get in on video poker business
* Daley says he’d like to write, teach after leaving City Hall
* Chico wins police union endorsement for mayor: Chico insisted it was premature to say anything specific about costs and cuts, and that he would negotiate with an open mind. Union officials said they believe Emanuel has made up his mind about cutting their benefits and that he would not be a friendly negotiator.
* Illinois Policy Institute Exclusive: Dan Proft Interviews Alderman Brendan Reilly, Part 1
* Illinois Policy Institute Exclusive: Dan Proft Interviews Alderman Brendan Reilly, Part 2
* Ald.Dixon sues cops over 2009 drunk-driving arrest
* Preckwinkle, Dart stalled on Cook County budget cuts
[I deleted the old post in which I made a grievous error. Not enough coffee, I suppose, because I reported on it correctly last week, but not this week. Sheesh. I need another break. So, with apologies, let’s try this again.]
Senator Matt Murphy (R-Palatine) says the bill he plans to introduce to repeal the Democrats’ tax hike isn’t a hopeless Hail Mary cause to save the state from becoming the highest taxing government in the industrial world as many may believe. KMOX radio reports:
He says with 54 republicans in the Illinois House and 24 G.O.P. members in the state senate along with some Democrats who support the repeal there is actually a majority opposition to the tax hike in both chambers of the general assembly.
[Begin new content]
Sen. Murphy is right and this could be a constant refrain among Republicans for the next two years, just like it has been in DC with “Obamacare.” Plus, the Republicans will now have something to hold over those Democrats who voted “No” on the income tax hike. If they “truly” are opposed to the tax hike, then, the logic will go, they should join with the GOP to repeal it.
It’ll all be a parliamentary nightmare, I’m sure. But since many Republicans deep down (actually, not so deep because I talk to many of them on a regular basis) don’t want to go back to the bad old days of gigantic budget deficits, it’ll probably be just that: Parliamentary maneuvers. Unless, that is, they actually come up with another plan. Don’t bet on it. That’s not been the game for the past couple of years.
Again, sorry for that first post. I don’t know what got into me.
* Meanwhile, the Jacksonville Journal-Courier publishes the most bizarre online letters to the editor you’ve ever seen. For instance…
“OK, you’re saying the state is raising taxes for the welfare programs and we should be mad at those receiving it for they are the reason our taxes went up. Well, then, you would be a racist, because the majority of the money handed out and the assistance goes to Hispanics who are illegal in this country in the first place, but our state has given them millions of dollars each year. Check it out. Those who are legal citizens and of this state do not receive assistance before an illegal does, check that out also. The state created the debt and now wants to further loot and rape you, the legal citizen.”
And…
“Stop paying state income taxes, get real. Stop state spending, get real. As long as these people keep having kids without insurance and no visible means of support except for state aid, taxes will have to be increased regularly to pay the bills. As long as liberals expect criminals to be spoon-fed while in jails and prisons state, taxes will have to be increased regularly to pay the bills. The problem is not state spending but our ‘do as you please society.’”
And…
“Get rid of this stupid tax hike that stupid Quinn and his other crooks are imposing on us poor people of Illinois. What is wrong with this dumb idiot?”
I don’t think you’ll ever seen an editorial in that paper asking for an elevated national public discourse.
Some analysts say the true shortfall could be much higher than $15 billion - closer to $27 billion - to account for enrollment growth in public schools and on Medicaid rolls, cost increases and other variables. That figure amounts to almost a third of discretionary state spending in the current budget.
So, this is only half of what may have to be done.
Texas lawmakers got their first glimpse of what the next state budget might look like late Tuesday, including a staggering $5 billion cut to public schools, as Gov. Rick Perry and his supporters were dancing at an inaugural celebration. […]
The budget draft, which is expected to be filed as legislation in the House later this week, would cut funding entirely to four community colleges and would generally eliminate financial aid for incoming freshmen and new students. The Texas Grants scholarship program would drop by more than 70,000 students over the next two years.
The proposal also would reduce reimbursement rates by 10 percent for physicians, hospitals and nursing homes that participate in Medicaid - a decrease that could eventually dry up participation in the program for poor and disabled Texans. […]
A $4 billion reduction to the Foundation School Program - the pot of money distributed to schools based on daily attendance - means the program would be short almost $10 billion below the amount required to fund the school finance formulas under state law. That would make school finance reform legislation almost inevitable. […]
While almost every other state agency would see a reduction in employees, the average number of full-time employees in Perry’s office over the next two fiscal years would go to 132, up from an average of 120 in the 2010-2011 budget.
The proposed budget does not cover $9.8 billion owed to the school districts under the current school finance formulas. […]
Democratic House members said the budget proposal pretends that the 170,000 new students expected in Texas classrooms just won’t materialize. Nor was money included to pay for new textbooks or supplemental science materials that are needed to prepare high schools for the upcoming end-of-course exams. […]
Spending on Texas Grants, the state’s main financial aid program, would be cut 41 percent, according to an analysis by the office of Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio . The number of students receiving Texas Grants — 156,225 in the current biennium — would decline by half to 78,080 in 2012-13. […]
Medicaid reimbursement rates for doctors, nursing homes and other health care providers — already set so low that more than half of Texas doctors are refusing new Medicaid patients — face a 10 percent cut .
In Aldine ISD, voters rejected an attempt to raise the tax rate in August. Superintendent Wanda Bamberg said a decision to try again would be up to the school board.
The district, bracing for $30 million to $60 million in cuts, is preparing to increase class sizes, reduce busing services, continue a hiring freeze and reduce staffing even more if needed, Bamberg said.
“If the funding scenarios we’re hearing now become reality,” she said, “reductions of that size could certainly cripple this school district.”
The state’s contribution to the state employee retirement fund would be reduced from 6.95 percent to 6 percent, less than what is needed to maintain the fund, according the Legislative Budget Board. The base budget proposes a similar cut in contributions to the Teacher Retirement Fund.
* Except for the governor’s staff budget, almost everything is taking a hit…
Parks and Wildlife Commission would fall from $717 million to $479 million.
Oh, and at a time when there’s a full-court press on to demonize public-sector unions as the source of all our woes, Texas is nearly demon-free: less than 20 percent of public-sector workers there are covered by union contracts, compared with almost 75 percent in New York.
* Also, these cuts are just a first draft. Expect changes…
But the chief budget writer in the House stressed that the recommendations are only a starting point and will likely undergo extensive changes as lawmakers craft a final spending bill during the 140-day legislative session, which started last week.
“I don’t want the folks back home to think this is a done deal,” said Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, as he briefed House members about the 980-page document. “It is not.”
* Related…
* Child-protection budget cuts fought: In announcing its legislative priorities, the group decried the proposed cuts, which would slash $467 million from the Child Protective Services portion of the Department of Family and Protective Services, about 18 percent. The proposed cuts also call for a staff reduction of 14 percent, mostly from the ranks of caseworkers and supervisors, said Madeline McClure, executive director of TexProtects, also known as the Texas Association for the Protection of Children.
* Texas budget fix may mean fewer teachers, bigger classes
* Texas House budget zeroes out state funding for crisis pregnancy resource centers
* With Medicaid cuts, everyone could pay more for health care
* Houston-area prison to shut under budget proposal
* Proposed state budget cuts would hit North Texas hard
* Amazon sues Texas, demands tax documents - Online retailer wants information on audit that led to $269 million bill
* Gov. Pat Quinn was chased down by reporters in Urbana today and eventually agreed to do a media availability. Our new friend Michael Kiser from WDWS Radio provided us with some raw audio. Listen…
* Quinn was asked about the decision by Jimmy John’s founder to leave Illinois because of the income tax hike. He said he hoped that wouldn’t happen and then went on and on about why the tax hike was necessary and temporary. He also talked about the new companies coming to Illinois and said, “We’re the capital of the Midwest, let’s not sell ourselves short… I’m not ever gonna bum rap our state. We have the best of the best and we always will.”
…Adding… Treasurer Dan Rutherford was on WLS AM just now talking about Jimmy John’s [The company’s founder contributed $100,000 to Rutherford’s campaign in the last election cycle]. Rutherford said he talked to the founder just before the show, and predicted that the “dramatic” tax hike would effect other companies. Rutherford said the owner was also upset about the state’s minimum wage increase.
The acting Director of the Illinois State Police is out of a job.
Jonathon Monken was appointed to the post by Governor Pat Quinn in March 2009 but never received Senate confirmation.
According to Eric Madiar, attorney for Senate President John Cullerton, the governor’s office did not turn in paperwork that would have allowed Monken’s directorship to roll over into the new general assembly.
Thirty-seven others are in the same position, including Gladyse Taylor, who is over the Department of Corrections.
“I think this is much ado about nothing, frankly… [The Senate seems] to think they have to be reappointed, temporarily reappointed.” He said he would likely make those temporary appointments. Quinn said he wished that the Senate had acted on those appointees earlier. He defended Acting Director Monken as a “good man,” a “real leader,” and an “all-American hero.” But he wouldn’t say whether Monken would be reappointed.
* It’s not on the tape, but Gov. Quinn also said he wants input from the public before he decides what to do about the death penalty repeal bill sitting on his desk…
Gov. Pat Quinn says he’d like to hear from the citizens of Illinois before he decides whether to sign legislation that would abolish the death penalty in the state.
Quinn said he’s already weighing input from prosecutors, clergy and others on the bill passed this month by the General Assembly. The governor wouldn’t say when he’ll make a decision. He says he’s going through a period of what he called “reflection and review.”
