* Gov. Pat Quinn said yesterday that he’ll use his veto power to rewrite the state budget…
Quinn did not specify what changes he will make but identified several areas he will focus on.
“There will be some changes, and we want to make sure we put education and public health, job creation, public safety, those are core priorities and we’re going to do the best we can for those, human services and health care,” Quinn said.
The governor can use his veto powers to take a scalpel to parts of the spending plan he doesn’t like without jettisoning the whole document, thus freeing up money he can ask lawmakers to spend on other priorities. The House and Senate have the option of endorsing his moves or rejecting them later this year.
But he can’t do anything with the budget until the General Assembly sends it to him, and they’re still holding onto some very large appropriations bills. HB 123, for instance, is still sitting in the House, 24 days after it passed.
* Listen to the raw tape of the governor’s press conference…
*** UPDATE *** I missed this budget story…
International Business Machines Inc. is owed $1.1 million. Office Depot Inc. is waiting for a $660,955 check. And the 17th Street Bar & Grill in Sparta is due $340.52. They are among at least 8,000 vendors including businesses, charities and government agencies waiting months for the state to pay up. At least 114 companies are due more than $1 million, according to documents from Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka. […]
“An Illinois phenomenon,” said Ron Ford, CEO of Chicago- based Help at Home Inc., which is owed $43.4 million and hasn’t heard from the state since December. […]
“Banks have refused us a line of credit because of the state,” said David Baker, who runs the nonprofit Open Door Rehabilitation Center in Sandwich, Illinois, and is owed $880,000. “We’ve had a long-time relationship with bankers, but now they wonder ‘What if the state never pays you?’” […]
The consequences of years of ignoring bills fall on organizations such as the South Suburban Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, in the Chicago suburb of East Hazel Crest. The nonprofit has an annual budget of $5 million, and 75 percent of its revenue comes from state funding, said CEO Allen Sandusky.
Sandusky, whose company was owed as much as $1.4 million, has cut his staff to 105 from 155 and obtained a $1 million line of credit at 6 percent interest.
Oof.
As I’ve said before, Illinois’ government is one of the greatest drags on Illinois’ economy.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* The budget, of course, isn’t the only legislation that hasn’t yet moved to the governor’s desk. The gaming expansion bill has a parliamentary hold on it. The governor called that “odd” yesterday…
“I mean, if you believe in a bill, and apparently there are members of the House and Senate who believe in this bill, then not to send it to the governor I feel is kind of curious, sort of odd,” Quinn said.
* There are some concerns about how long the Senate can hold the bill…
The Constitution says any bill passed by the Legislature “shall be presented” to the governor within 30 calendar days of its passage and that requirement is “judicially enforceable.” That language would seem to create legal questions about Cullerton’s strategy of withholding the legislation to avert the potential of a Quinn veto.
I’m not sure the bill can be classified as “passed” since there’s a legitimate motion filed to reconsider the vote, however. And I doubt the courts will want to jump in on this one, since they tend to shy away from ordering the General Assembly around in this state. Either way, though, it’s an interesting take.
* Meanwhile, the legislative Democrats’ decision to look at the state’s business tax code over the summer won’t be easy, as these comments clearly demonstrate…
“If you are talking only about the corporate tax rate, you are only talking about treating one of the symptoms,” [said Greg Baise, president of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association], citing high utility taxes as another area that makes Illinois less competitive.
Both also said it may prove difficult to end tax incentives that are part of the business tax structure.
“Incentives built into the tax code had an interest group that convinced the General Assembly that this was good policy,” [said Todd Maisch, vice president of government affairs for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce]. “It will be very interesting to hear that this will not be a means to an increase in the overall business tax burden.”
“One man’s tax incentive is another person’s loophole,” Baise added.
* The Tribune is a bit dubious…
If legislative hearings lead to a less onerous tax code and a level playing field for all employers, grand. Companies will create more jobs here. That said, two obstacles stand in the way:
First, Madigan’s and Cullerton’s caucuses include Democrats whose Job One is raising state spending, consequences be damned. They usually scorn attempts to make Illinois more competitive for jobs by improving the business climate here, because “more competitive” likely means “less taxation.”
Second, bringing lots of companies to the table forces them to ask whether their problem is state government or … each other. Some will criticize tax policies and loopholes that others will defend.
* Roundup…
* RTA warns of transit cuts - Transit agency says it needs some of $400 million due from state
* Illinois racing to erase $1.8B in Medicaid bills in June
* Casino Bill’s True Believer Enters the Final Stretch: “We wouldn’t say ‘no’ to Starbucks because we have too many Starbucks and too many people are drinking coffee,” Mr. Lang said. “We would never say to an auto dealer, ‘Don’t expand your business. Go to Indiana.’ This is a business like any other.”
* Illinois’ data website: Lots of numbers, few answers
* Lawmakers to address Illinois’ business tax climate
* Lawmakers to look at business tax structure
* Lawmakers: Thanks, now stay home
* Local governments to get state transportation cash
* Christopher Kennedy to leave Merchandise Mart, boost Illinois
- Anonymous - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 9:25 am:
Gov Dudley Do-Right?
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 9:31 am:
There’s been a lot of heat but very little light on the subject of corporate taxation in the state.
Obviously, there are privacy concerns that need to be respected. But through this review, let’s find out, by category and size, who’s actually paying state corporate taxes.
In regards to special tax breaks or incentives, there should be no privacy concerns at all. Let’s lay that out, too.
And in the interests of Truth, Justice and The American Way, the Trib could quite easily disclose it’s Illinois corporate tax bill and breaks.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 10:30 am:
Rich, you are correct about the Motion to Reconsider.
The bill has not technically passed.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 10:31 am:
–At least 114 companies are due more than $1 million, according to documents from Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka. […]–
Explain to me again the pro-business fiscal conservatism of not borrowing on the market at lower rates rather than from businesses — some of whom are losing their lines of credit due to the state’s chronic deadbeatery?
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 10:31 am:
And it does not serve the Governor well to raise questions about the legality of President Cullerton’s legislative moves.
Cullerton is the closest thing to an ally he’s got.
- Ahoy - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 10:45 am:
“Illinois’ government is one of the greatest drags on Illinois’ economy.”
If jobs are the Republican’s number 1 priority, why are they not acting on a simple measure (debt restructuring) to protect jobs and take the borrowing responsibility on themselves? For a party that thinks they represent business, they sure don’t understand how cash flow affects businesses.
On the other side of the as aisle, why do the Senate Democrats want to keep spending money? Just to grow their debt?
The four tops need to come together and work out a short-term borrowing solution and take the responsibility for their debt. The Senate Republicans and Democrats in particular need to grow up and start working together. The type of division in that Chamber doesn’t even happen in bad high-school student councils. Even teenage kids are smarter and more civil than they are.
- Liberty First - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 10:46 am:
Clearly the state needs a retroactive income tax to go back and change all the rules on taxation kind of like they want to do on pensions.
- Aldyth - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 10:58 am:
I voted for Quinn because I couldn’t stomach the idea of voting for Brady. Based on Quinn’s performance, I shouldn’t have voted for him. Who was the Green Party candidate and can I go back and change my vote?
- Left Out - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 11:09 am:
All of the companies waiting for their money need to be told to wait a bit longer. The 66% increase in the state income tax is being collected every week but it has been spent on pressing new needs. All of the increase from the income taxe is gone and there is no more.
- soccermom - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 11:11 am:
The problem is, all of this stuff needs to be considered in an integrated way.
We need to figure out who’s really paying corporate tax — and who’s not. Averages tell us nothing — we need to figure out what the burden is on big, small, old and new, and then find smart, targeted ways to encourage the folks who are likely to create new jobs going forward.
Obviously, we need to know who is getting how much. We also need a clear understanding of how much value Illinois has received from those incentives historically.
We also need to know the true cost of those incentives to the State. Are those companies really getting the full value they were promised, or are they getting less of a break because their profits are lower than anticipated?
Then we need to figure out how much we can afford to hand out in tax incentives, and how we’re going to divide those incentives amongst the various buckets.
“First come, first served” is not a wise approach to economic development. It’s like Halloween — if you give two Snickers bars apiece to the cute little kids who show up early, you may wind up handing out old pennies from under the sofa cushions to the kids with the really good, creative costumes who come to your door later in the night. (Block that metaphor…)
- zatoichi - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 11:21 am:
“it has been spent on pressing new needs.”
Excellent, those pressing old needs are simply not viable. Too bad those vendors spent real money to provide a service/product and now pay interest on loans to cover other costs because the state did not pay for what the vendor provided in good faith. And be told by their local bank no more loans because the state is stiffing them.
The million dollar guys are nice to discuss, but what about the thousands of Dave Baker/Open Door businesses who are owed $800,000 (and far less) and do work in the local community and employ many people? They chump change?
- Irish - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 11:31 am:
It would be interesting to see a study on how many jobs are affected by the non-payment by the state. Wouldn’t it be ironic if we are giving millions to Motorola for a thousand jobs over the next several years and yet we could put two thousand people back to work by just paying the bills?
The issue at hand is the same old, new construction/ribbon cutting vs operating money for what you have, legislative malady. If Rep. Peabody, or Senator Footlocker, or Governor Walker announces that they have captured 1500 new jobs thereby boosting the economy, it is on page one. If they announce that they paid off the vendors they owed and those vendors hired back 1500 people it might make Section 5 page 30.
I’t always about the votes, ALWAYS!!!.
- Wumpus - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 11:57 am:
Aldyth, don’t worry when Quinn signs the casino bill, maybe they will find a way to get rid of him too.
- Horace - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 12:12 pm:
Soccermom - that is what we call “picking winners and losers”
My guess is the politically connect kids will get the candy, while the ones with the cute costumes will get squat. Which will lead all the creative kids to say “Why put effort into my costume next year? I’ll just get juiced instead”
The next year we just have a bunch of lame kids in lousy costumes looking for free handouts.
The war on Halloween will be complete.
- steve schnorf - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 12:32 pm:
Is anyone on here old enough to remember Edgar campaigning in ‘89 and ‘90 about making the income tax surcharge permanent, talking about how he felt personally embarrassed, ashamed, when people came up to him and told him they hadState bills 3 and 4 months old that hadn’t been paid? Do we still have leaders capable of feeling shame?
- soccermom - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 12:56 pm:
Horace —
Another option would be to hand out that nasty taffy wrapped in orange and black waxed paper. The kids would figure it’s not worthwhile to ask, and they would stay home and do their homework.
- Irish - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 1:06 pm:
Steve S. - No. And therein lies the root of why we are where we are. Statesmen are extinct - Politicians are forever.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 1:27 pm:
@Schnorf -
Its the principles, not the shame that’s missing.
I’d argue that today’s crop is pretty easily cowered.
- Quinn T. Sential - Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 3:16 pm:
{Christopher Kennedy to leave Merchandise Mart, boost Illinois}
Should read:
Christopher Kennedy to leave Merchandise Mart, boost Christopher Kennedy.
Look for him to set up shop to run for Congress and be waiting in the wings when Durbin decides to retire rather than revert back to the minority for the remainder of his natural life expectancy.
I think he is probably counting on Edgar to give up his $100K+ gig at UIS in an effort to help supplement his meager federal retirement.