* Governor Pat Quinn was asked today about Treasurer Dan Rutherford’s comments this week about more borrowing. Rutherford said that if the state tried to borrow to pay off old bills he’d inform the New York bond houses that Illinois was a major credit risk and tell them he was opposed to the plan. Quinn’s response…
“If I were Treasurer Rutherford i’d watch my language. I think that he’s really off base there. We’re not going to be paying any attention to him.”
Gov. Pat Quinn Friday harshly criticized a gambling expansion proposal that would add 1,200 slot machines as Arlington Park and five new casinos, including in Lake County and Chicago.
“We can’t have a top-heavy proposal in Illinois on gambling that’s going to make us the Las Vegas of the Midwest, the people don’t want that,” Quinn said. “Every time the proposal comes along they keep adding on, adding on.”
Quinn also said he was opposed to any racino at the State Fairgrounds, claiming he wanted to keep the fair a family oriented event.
*** UPDATE *** The House Executive Committee passed Rep. Lou Lang’s gaming bill on the second try today. As we figured earlier this week, Lang just had to tweak it a bit, including taking out a “labor peace” provision that was opposed by Arlington International. Most likely, Lang had to try to run it with the labor language to appease the labor folks. When that failed, he was free to move it his way.
* 1:32 pm - Rep. John Bradley has just advanced his proposal to repeal the workers’ compensation system to the floor. Listen or watch by clicking here.
…Adding… Doug Whitley at the Chamber wrote this before the bill was passed today…
The implied threat has been that if agreements cannot be reached by affected interest groups, chaos would prevail. While such an action may appear attractive in the abstract, the consequences would force all workers’ compensation cases into the civil courts. It would overwhelm the courts and require dozens if not hundreds of new judges.
Every employer would have to scramble for new insurance coverage while the insurance companies would be trying to reassess pricing in a volatile, litigious state with a reputation for being an unfavorable judicial “hellhole.”
Workers’ compensation insurance premiums would likely escalate even higher. Many injured workers would undoubtedly suffer under the scenario of an extended period of disarray and uncertainty. Most significantly, such an action would once again send the wrong signal regarding Illinois’ ability to affectively deal with critical public policy issues.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A judge has ruled that the campaign finance law banning corporations from making contributions to federal candidates is unconstitutional.
In a ruling issued late Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Cacheris tossed out part of the indictment against two men accused of illegally reimbursing donors toHillary Clinton’s Senate and presidential campaigns.
Cacheris says that under last year’s Citizens United Supreme Court case, corporations enjoy the same right as people to contribute to campaigns.
The ruling is the first of its kind. The Citizens United case had applied only to independent corporate expenditures, not to actual campaign contributions.
* The Question: Do you support the current federal ban on direct campaign contributions to federal candidates by corporations? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
The proposal would address possible abuses by dumping most of the arbitrators who currently hear cases for the Illinois Workers Compensation Commission. The idea is to get rid of those hearing officers who may have “cozy” relationships with attorneys representing workers, Raoul said. New arbitrators would be appointed by Gov. Pat Quinn, and must be confirmed by the state Senate. Arbitrators would also be required to be licensed attorneys, participate in ongoing training and would have their job performance reviewed every three years.
Arbitrators also would be required to used American Medical Association guidelines when rating a workers’ impairment after an injury, and there will be a beefed up review process to provide some standardization when it comes to the type and amount of treatment a worker receives.
The plan would also cap the amount of payment workers get for carpal tunnel claims, setting a limit that would allow workers to collect 60 percent of their average weekly salary for 28 weeks. The current average payout is spread over 40 weeks, Raoul said. To prevent “doctor shopping,” a network of medical providers will be set up by the Department of Insurance, and workers would not be able to receive benefits if they were hurt because they were under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Business groups pushed hard for higher burdens of proof that an injury happened on the job, saying workers could get hurt on the weekend but claim it happened at work. They didn’t get the standards they wanted, but the proposal would put into law several court decisions that require a worker to prove an injury happened during the course of employment.
The Medical Society and the Hospital Association are opposed. Labor, trial lawyers and the Illinois Chamber are neutral. The Illinois Manufactures’ Association, Illinois Retail Merchants Association and the Chicagoland Chamber are in favor.
* Hopefully, this will help the state’s economy. But things are already looking up a bit more…
Unemployment dropped in April in each of Illinois’ 12 metro areas for the eighth straight month, the state Department of Employment Security said Thursday. And officials noted that — aside from flood-soaked Alexander County in southern Illinois — the jobless rate dropped in all of the state’s counties.
The state Department of Employment Security says the biggest year-over-year drops in the unemployment rates were in two of the state’s most economically troubled metro areas. […]
Elsewhere, the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville metro area, the state’s largest, saw its unemployment rate fall from 10.7 percent in April 2010 to 8.7 percent last month. The area added 37,400 jobs over that period.
One sign of an improving economy in the Chicago area was a drop in April in mass layoffs — 50 jobs or more — that companies are required to report to the state. Big layoffs cost the area 446 jobs in April, a little over half the 810 jobs they ended a year earlier, according to Department of Employment Security records.
Ten was the magic number for Decatur-area unemployment in April: In its 10th month of consecutive decline, the unemployment rate finally fell below 10 percent.
The rate was 9.7 percent, compared to 12.2 percent a year ago, according to Illinois Department of Employment Security statistics released Thursday. It was the first time April’s rates fell below 10 percent since 2008, when they were 5.8 percent.
The Galesburg April unemployment rate followed the trend of other areas across the state and dropped sharply. The Illinois Department of Employment Security reported the April jobless rate in Galesburg was 7.6 percent, down from 8.7 percent the month before.
Unemployment in Jefferson County dropped from 8.5 percent to 7.9 percent in April.
The rate has continued to drop, with the rate in February this year at 8.7 percent, March at 8.5 percent, followed by the latest numbers released by the Illinois Department of Unemployment Security at 7.9 percent in April.
The rate is down substantially from April 2010, when unemployment was at 9.4 percent.
Things hit a new low this week when the Illinois Department of Central Management Services — a department under the governor’s control — chose to go to court rather than comply with the state’s open records law. At taxpayer expense, CMS hired the Chicago law firm of Holland and Knight to file suit Monday in Cook County Circuit Court to deny the Belleville News-Democrat’s request for records in a controversial series of workers’ compensation settlements involving employees of Menard Correctional Center.
The Illinois Attorney General’s Office, the official arbiter of Freedom of Information Act issues under the new law, had ordered CMS to turn over the records. Among other things, CMS argues in its 31-page brief that the attorney general missed a deadline in filing its order, thus relieving CMS of the burden of obeying the Freedom of Information Act.
So here we have the governor who lauded and signed into law the new Freedom of Information Act suing the elected official whose office was empowered by that law to interpret and enforce it.
What an embarrassment this should be for the Quinn administration. What an outrage it is for the citizens of Illinois.
* The Tribune used sources for its story last night on the congressional remap…
*Freshman Republican Rep. Bob Dold of the North Shore 10th Congressional District would find his home mapped into the district of Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a veteran lawmaker who represents the north lakefront 9th District.
*Freshman Republican Rep. Joe Walsh of the northwest suburban 8th District would be matched with GOP Rep. Donald Manzullo, a veteran lawmaker who represents the 16th District.
*As a result, a new district would open up in the northwest suburbs for Democrats to try to win. Even before the map was unveiled, Raja Krishnamoorthi, a former state deputy treasurer who narrowly lost a bid for the Democratic nomination for state comptroller last year, announced an exploratory bid for Congress. […]
*Downstate, second-term Republican Rep. Aaron Schock of Peoria will give up some ground but will still have a GOP-leaning district as will 11-year Rep. Tim Johnson in west central and southern Illinois. But Republican Rep. John Shimkus would find more Democrats and could face a challenge in his newly drawn southeastern Illinois district.
Tammy Duckworth is also interested in that new northwest suburban district.
* As subscribers know, the Senate Democrats posted the congressional remap data online early this morning. Click here to access the Senate Democrats’ page containing the new congressional map.
*** UPDATE 1 *** For the second time in a week, the Democrats have unknowingly released their own map before they intended to do so. Last Friday, you will recall, the House accidentally posted its map in the morning just long enough for us to grab it. The same thing happened again in the wee hours of this morning. They got everything ready and queued up the page, but didn’t notice that a link to the congressional data was appearing on other, readily available internal pages…
These things happen. I sure hope nobody gets into too much trouble.
It’s a good map for Dems. I think there are 12 likely Dem seats. Bobby Schilling is gone with this map and Adam Kinzinger has to primary either Manzullo, Schock or Shimkus. If he had to primary anyone he wanted Tim Johnson, but he has no real ties to the Johnson areas.
Pretty sure Kinzinger will go after Manzullo if he decides to run.
*** UPDATE 4 *** The House is now debating the state redistricting bill.
The map splits Springfield into two congressional districts. The city is currently represented by three represenatives in the U.S. House.
The new 13th District, which includes U.S. Rep. John Shimkus’ house in Collinsville, takes in virtually all of Springfield from Chatham Road east to Interstate 55.
The new 18th District includes Springfield west of Chatham Road as well as U.S. Rep. Aaron Shock’s house in Peoria.
*** UPDATE 6 *** I really don’t like the idea of using Obama numbers alone to test these new congressional districts, but Dave Wasserman, US House editor of the Cook Political Report, has taken a quick look at the new map. His initial findings…
Initial calculations: new IL08, IL10 and IL11 are both easily over 62% Obama, new IL13 is 55%, new IL17 is 60%. Wow.
The new IL17 is 3 pts more Democratic than the current “rabbit on a skateboard” and doesn’t even look that egregious!
Mystery to me: why didn’t Dems put city of DeKalb in IL14 and give Manzullo parts of McHenry? Hultgren safer than I would’ve thought
By my count, only fairly safe GOP members in new IL map are Schock, Shimkus, Manzullo, Roskam, and possibly Hultgren
Central Illinois is less carved up than it was in the previous remap. All of Macon County is part of what would be a new 13th congressional district along with all or parts of DeWitt, McLean, Piatt, Champaign, Christian, Montgomery, Bond, Madison, Calhoun, Jersey and Greene counties. The area appears to be represented by U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville.
Logan County is part of a new 18th District, which would be represented by U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria.
Douglas, Moultrie, Coles, Fayette and Effingham counties are part of a new 15th District that would eat up most of the southeast quarter of the state. That area would be represented by U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Urbana.
The vote on the map came only hours after its public release—a plan that featured some variations from a map Democrats released a week ago, prompting complaints by Republicans.
“I think the public has been left on the short end of this process by not being able to comment on the changes,” said Rep. Mike Fortner of West Chicago, the ranking Republican on the House Redistricting Committee. Fortner would be lumped into a district with fellow Republican Rep. Tim Schmitz of Batavia.
But Barbara Flynn Currie, the House majority leader and top deputy of Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, said, “I think this has been the most transparent, the most accountable, the most open redistricting process in the history of the state of Illinois.”
Rep. Roger Eddy, R-Hutsonville, responded, “This is not open and transparent. The final version of this map has had zero public hearings.”
*** UPDATE 7 *** From US Sen. Mark Kirk…
“The draft map is the unfortunate result of cynical partisans who want to override the decision of Illinois voters who elected fiscal conservatives to Congress. Its main purpose is to force Nancy Pelosi back into power.
“The map senselessly divides dozens of Illinois communities and denies our growing Hispanic community their rightful opportunity to be fully enfranchised with a second Congressman.
“This map was gerrymandered to ensure suburban voters will have little voice in Congress.”
*** UPDATE 8 *** From Republican Will County Board Chairman Jim Moustis…
“The proposed congressional map fails to keep Will County together with communities of interest and, more than likely, will result in unfair representation for our residents. Essentially, Chicago politicians will now serve areas in stark contrast to where they live and call home. No surprise this map was drawn by a partisan committee, behind closed doors, and without consideration for the 677,560 citizens living in this county. Those drawing this map should start over and take a cue from the way Will County has gone about the reapportionment process- openly, transparently and by a bipartisan committee.”
*** UPDATE 9 *** Congressman Bob Dold…
“Behind closed doors the Democrats in Springfield proposed a new Congressional map that was drawn without any input from Republicans or any consideration for the hours of testimony offered at public hearings this spring. This map was gerrymandered to ensure suburban voters will have little voice in Congress. This proposal appears to be little more than an attempt to undo the results of the election held just six months ago. My Republican colleagues and I will take whatever steps necessary to achieve a map that more fairly represents the people of Illinois – they deserve nothing less. The people of my district sent me to Washington to solve our nation’s serious challenges. In my first five months in office, we have put forward solutions to address those challenges but more work remains. I intend to continue to work tirelessly for my constituents and to be a Member of Congress until that work is done.”
*** UPDATE 10 *** Letter from the entire Republican congressional delegation…
“Under the cover of darkness, the Democrats in Springfield proposed a new Congressional map that was drawn without any input from Republicans or any consideration for the hours of testimony offered at public hearings this spring. We are very concerned that this proposal does not fairly represent the significant growth that has occurred in the Hispanic community. The proposed map carves up towns and communities with little regard to the values and beliefs of the people who live there.
“This proposal appears to be little more than an attempt to undo the results of the elections held just six months ago and we will take whatever steps necessary to achieve a map that more fairly represents the people of Illinois – they deserve nothing less.”
Jim Oberweis, Republican state central committeeman for the 14th District, said that as of Friday morning he was still trying to unerstand the Democratic strategy behind the map.
“At first glance it almost seems a bit less (gerrymandered) than in past years. …I’m assuming this is better.”
The new boundaries, Oberweis said, don’t “change anything from my viewpoint. We want to do the best we can to elect suburban Republicans.”
Will County would be split into six different congressional districts, instead of the current three, if a proposed redistricting map is approved this weekend by the General Assembly.
The new version of the map shows five Senate districts with majority Latino voting-age populations. But the percentage of voting-age Latinos in the least-majority district was increased in one district from barely 50 percent to 58 percent. Latino groups had been seeking districts with 60 percent to 65 percent voting-age populations.
The new version also shows 10 House Districts with at least a 50 percent majority of voting age Latinos — down one district from the proposal of last week. But the plan would create five districts with a Latino-age voting majority of 60 percent compared to only four with Latino voting-age concentrations that high.
The new version of the Senate map also would create eight districts with a majority black voting-age population instead of the seven they previously proposed. It would bring up one district from a 48.6 percent African American voting age population to 50.45 percent. The number of House districts with a black voting-age majority was unchanged at 16.
It was unclear whether the changes to the legislative map would satisfy Latino voting rights groups who had sought districts with larger voting-age populations or risk the prospect of a federal Voting Rights Act suit.
Republicans say their map complies with the Federal Voting Rights Act while trying to follow county and municipal borders wherever possible. “The maps … demonstrate that you cannot concern yourself with where incumbents live and not concern yourself with what Republican/Democrat numbers are … and draw a map that is constitutional.”
However, Dr. Leon Finney, co-chairman of the legislative redistricting committee for the African American Leadership Roundtable, said the Republican map “creates an illusion of fairness.” He said while the number of minority/majority districts is important, so is the way they are drawn. He said the plan reminds him of a proposal from the 1991 remap that “packed” districts with African-Americans and diluted their political voice. “Having gone through this in 1991, I am very painfully aware of the need to unpack those districts.”
* Remap roundup…
* Democrats roll out changes to their remap proposal
* “Movement” doesn’t mean “passage.” The pension reform bill has a very long way to go before it becomes law. The House floor is just one step…
The legislation, pushed by House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego), passed the House Personnel and Pensions Committee on a 6-2 vote with one member voting present. The measure now is positioned for a vote by the full House as early as Friday.
“This is an awful discussion, but if we let this go, if we put our heads in the sand, it just gets worse,” Cross said. […]
“This will not be for the faint of heart,” Madigan said.
State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said he didn’t believe changing pensions for current state employees would pass constitutional muster. […]
State Rep. Rich Morthland, R-Cordova, said he is not inclined to support the current version of the legislation, because the employees weren’t consulted. […]
Republican state Reps. Bill Mitchell of Forsyth and Dan Brady of Bloomington agreed. “We certainly have a problem, but we should bring all the parties together and work out a solution,” Mitchell said. […]
State Rep. Adam Brown, R-Decatur, said he would likely oppose the legislation. “The average state worker’s pension in my district is $29,000 a year,” Brown said. “It’s not the extravagant pension that you hear about.”
One provision that “troubled” Rep. Karen May, D-Highland Park, was that the out-of-pocket payments eventually could go up if workers opt to pay more now in order to maintain their current level of pension benefits when they retire.
In particular, she questioned why the worker payments would be based on a percentage of an employee’s salaries for the first three years and then recalculated every three years. She called the three-year review a “last-minute wrinkle” and voted against the bill in the House Personnel and Pensions Committee.
The amounts most state workers, teachers, university employees and legislators would pay to keep their current pension benefits would keep climbing in the future under legislation sent to the floor of the Illinois House on Thursday. […]
“The numbers can only go up. They can’t go down,” said Dick Ingram, executive director of the Teachers’ Retirement System. “How far and how fast will be determined by how many people elect to leave” the first tier of benefits and go to a second, lesser tier or a defined contribution plan similar to a 401(k). […]
TRS opposed the bill partly because it would cap state contributions and tie them to state revenue projections. The measure proposes to revise a 1995 law aimed at getting the five state-funded systems to 90 percent funding by 2045. It ramps up funding in fiscal years 2013 through 2015 in order to ensure the state contributes a level percentage of its tax revenue through 2045.
“Tying funding to state revenue is not a current or common or accepted actuarial practice,” Ingram said. “We have experienced a ramp proposal in the state twice before. It has failed to deliver both times.”
We watched Thursday as the reform bill emerged from committee on a 6-2 vote with one member “present.” That tally reflected some courage but also cowardice. One “no” came from Raymond Poe, a Springfield Republican with a history of caving to union pressure. The other came from Karen May, a Highland Park Democrat who fancies herself a pension reformer but who, when confronted with a pension reform bill, also caved.
Then there’s Daniel Biss, a freshman Democrat from Evanston. In blather-rich questions and a pre-vote soliloquy, he illogically twisted his proclaimed belief in free markets into a fear that workers will abandon public employment if their pension plan changes. (Mr. Biss, next time do your homework. Governments have high retention rates because of the job security and benefits they offer to comparatively risk-averse employees. With these reforms, Illinois’ benefits package still would trounce most private-sector packages.)
We zero in on Poe, May and Biss because they represent three clusters of legislators who know the current pension system needs to change but who may not be strong enough to change it: Some downstate Republicans seem terrified by lobbying from teachers groups and others fighting to keep the doomed status quo. Some Chicago-area Democrats posture as pension worriers but in the end abandon taxpayers. And some freshmen of both parties want to be seen — not all of them honestly — as new-style legislators who will rescue state government finances.
Ken Swanson, president of the Illinois Education Association, said that since 1990, members of TRS contributed $12.7 billion to the system. “It has been said that 95 percent [of the public] are paying for five percent [of state employees]. It should be remembered that in the 30 some years of periodic underfunding of the pensions, the state has used our pension systems as a credit card. One hundred percent of those 95 percent actually received that benefit because they got more state government services then they were paying for in taxes. So our pension systems have been used as a credit card, and everyone benefited from that,” said Swanson, who added that 97 percent of Illinois students are educated by his members. […]
University of Illinois President Michael Hogan said he would also face problems recruiting employees, and he expects that many of the 20 percent of U of I employees who are eligible for retirement would likely retire to avoid the change. “There’s a high probability if this goes through, they’ll get the hell out as fast as they can.”
Hogan said a reduction in pension benefits would come on the heels of furlough days, which resulted in reduced pay for employees. “ A pension cut like this, a change like this, would amount to another pay cut, and a substantial pay cut.”
But a top AFSCME official needled the Civic Committee, which has sponsored an aggressive media campaign seeking public-employee pension givebacks, for attacking modestly paid state retirees when several business leaders on the organization’s board are in line for gold-plated pensions themselves.
The union cited the Civic Committee’s CEO, Abbott Laboratories’ CEO Miles White, who has a retirement package valued at more than $20 million and had total compensation in 2010 of more than $26 million.
“That’s Mr. White, who thinks that a $23,000 pension for state employees is too high. … A state employee would have to live a thousand years to equal Mr. White’s pension,” AFSCME Executive Director Henry Bayer said, prompting laughter within the packed hearing room.
Remember that Soca Boys song, “Follow the Leader,” which went: “Jump for the left, jump for the right”?
That’s probably the best way to sum up what Democratic state legislators have been doing for the past six months. They’ve been following their leaders first in one direction and then the other.
In December, the General Assembly approved a bill legalizing civil unions. Days later, legislators abolished the death penalty, then they increased the income tax rate.
It was perhaps the most intensely liberal few legislative weeks in more than 40 years, back to when Illinois created the income tax and vastly expanded the role of state government.
It was also probably among the most unpopular few legislative weeks in Illinois. Too much change too quickly can make people very nervous and angry.
While most Illinoisans don’t oppose civil unions, polls show a majority does believe that the death penalty should be used — at least in some instances.
And tax increases are almost never a politically safe vote unless they’re done in such a bipartisan way that nobody takes the heat. The Republicans refused to put any votes on the bill, so the Democrats were forced to “own” it all by themselves.
The public reaction was not pretty. Which brings me back to that Soca Boys song, which stole a line from Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three: “The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!”
But instead of letting the [expletive deleted] burn, the Democrats reached for the fire hose, figuring they’d better “go back to the right.”
The rightward move is more prominent in the House, which is run by Michael Madigan, who literally lives for his House majority. There are plenty of Democrats in the Senate who also want to get with the rightward program, but their leader, Senate President John Cullerton, is more liberal than Madigan. Cullerton is far from stupid. He knows how bad things are but appears to be shunning too much of a course correction.
After the liberal lurch, Madigan teamed up at least temporarily with the House Republicans to push for an austere state budget and significant public employee pension reform. Their budget spent a billion dollars less than the Senate proposed, which also was far less than the governor proposed.
The House’s pension bill emerged Thursday. If it becomes law, state workers, teachers and Chicago and Cook County employees will pay more every paycheck to stay in the current system; some will pay lots more. The workers have an option to move to a far less generous — and cheaper for them — “defined benefit” system or enroll in a 401(k)-style plan. Cullerton thinks the bill is unconstitutional, but he won’t stop it from coming to the floor.
Madigan even allowed a bill to the floor which would have legalized concealed carry in Illinois. The bill came up just a few votes short.
Cullerton has pushed hard all year for workers compensation reform. Business has complained for years about the often morally corrupt, too-expensive system. Madigan has gone one step farther and threatened to abolish the entire system if he didn’t see any real progress in reform negotiations.
The Senate also managed to pass a historic education reform bill, which mainly focuses on reining in the teachers’ unions, particularly the Chicago Teachers Union. Madigan had initially pushed for a much harsher bill, but he backed away when Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood) negotiated a deal that won national praise and almost unanimous support in both chambers.
I think I need a neck brace after this political version of whiplash.
Friday, May 27, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
From all of the testimony in the House pensions committee yesterday, the biggest concern appeared to be a 3 year nightmare scenario for pensioners and politicians. We do know that as employees retire or choose to leave tier 1, the costs will go up and cause more people to leave and further increase costs until no one is left. The same thing will happen in tier 2, until everyone has been forced out of the defined benefit system.
The worst part is, this won’t happen all at once. Teachers and public employees will have to watch costs rise and make tough decisions every 3 years. Each time a painful reminder of what their lawmaker has done to their future.
There are still many unknowns. The federal government is already investigating the second pension tier created for new hires who don’t receive Social Security. This bill will fall under the same scrutiny.
Witnesses also testified that someone who works half of their career under the old system and half their career under the new system will receive a final benefit that is less than halfway between the 2. That decrease would seem to create a clear violation of the state’s constitution.
Friday, May 27, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The Illinois Grid Modernization legislation (SB 1652) has unprecedented consumer protections in place.
• Eliminates automatic rate increases: Creates an annual process for the ICC and intervenors to review utilities’ costs. The utilities must show that investments were made prudently or they are disallowed. No rates are set until 8-month review is complete.
• Includes enhanced performance standards for utilities with financial penalties if targets are not reached. The tougher metrics include reliability and customer service goals that will hold utilities accountable.
• Lowers the utility profits-level.
• Mandates that if the average residential rate increase exceeds 2.5% annually by 2014, the program terminates.
• Sunsets the entire law in 2017 requiring the utilities to reapply to the General Assembly to continue the program.
• Caps utility earnings with any dollars exceeding the cap (during a particularly hot summer for example) being returned to customers.
The grid modernization bill addresses stakeholder concerns about consumer protections. Other states are on the move, and we need to get moving building the energy infrastructure the 21st century is demanding. The time to act is now.
