* After last night’s escapades, I’m planning to spend more time at the State Fair tonight. Some friends are coming in from out of town and we’re going to see Eric Church. As I’ve already told you, I wasn’t much into pop country until recently. I’m still not really into it, but there are some people I like, and he’s one of them.
I’m most looking forward to seeing Miranda Lambert next week. She’s got an edge to her that I dig a lot…
I got a mouth like a sailor
and yours is more like a Hallmark card
Gov. Pat Quinn visited striking Caterpillar workers on Friday, giving $10,000 toward a food fund but making no promises he could help broker an end to a strike that has entered its fourth month. […]
Quinn said he came to support striking workers and make a donation to the food fund. But he sidestepped questions from one reporters as to whether Caterpillar management was being fair to the workers.
He also did not make any promises to help broker an end to the strike, which began May 1, although many of the strikers urged the governor to get involved in the labor dispute as he walked among them and greeted them personally.
* The Cat workers rejected a second contract offer in May, after the strike began. Some highlights from that proposal…
The six-year contract would freeze wages for workers hired before May 2005 and set pay for those hired afterwards according to “market rates.” The share of health care costs workers would pay would rise from 10 to 20 percent by the end of the contract, and the company’s defined benefit pension plan would be replaced with a worker-contributed 401(k) plan.
Hmm.
Higher health care costs and whacked pension benefits.
Sound at all familiar?
…Adding… When a corporation does it, it’s bad, but when he does it, he’s fulfilling Abe Lincoln’s legacy…
As he opened the Illinois State Fair Friday, Gov. Pat Quinn said tackling the state’s enormous $83 billion pension debt would make the state’s most famous president proud.
“I think that it’s imperative that we do something for history,” Quinn said. “I think Abraham Lincoln would be very proud of us if we use government of the people to solve the problem for the people.”
* Last year, I ran into US Sen. Mark Kirk after the State Fair Twilight Parade. We chatted for a while and then he offered to buy me some chocolate covered bacon. I said I had enough problems in my life without eating that stuff, so he excused himself and went ahead and bought the delicacy.
I’m wondering if he still thinks that was such a great idea. (Like I can talk.)
* I was taking a look at the SJ-R’s State Fair section and found some odd foods…
* The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability has a new report on Fiscal Year 2013, and it’s not pleasant…
After exceeding expectations in FY 2012, the largely economically related sources are forecast to slow significantly as the recovery appears to be stalling out. With most econometric prognosticators anticipating little growth, coupled with the continuing disappointing jobs picture, there is little reason to believe underlying revenue growth will be able to match last fiscal year’s pace.
Illinois’ net income tax revenues will be down, according to COGFA, because of the extra tax payments made this past April 15 which weren’t taken out of paychecks immediately after the tax hike took effect in January of the previous year. But net corporate income taxes are expected to grow by $214 million. After a barn-burner year, sales taxes are expected to grow only 1.6 percent.
State Sen. Mike Frerichs, D-Champaign, who is one of 11 legislative members of COGFA, said the new report will put greater pressure on lawmakers to cut spending again next year.
“I think a lot of my colleagues looked at the cuts we made this year and said, ‘We did it. We’re done,’” Frerichs said. “But I think this shows that there’s going to be a lot more pain in the next few years.”
Frerichs said that “next year could potentially be as bad or worse in terms of cuts to important services. It just means we’re going to have to work extra hard to protect the important parts of state government, and make sure our priorities downstate are protected.”
* The budget squeeze is one of the reasons that Gov. Pat Quinn has latched onto pension reform. He pushed it again yesterday…
Gov. Pat Quinn Thursday said lawmakers should consider a comprehensive pension-reform proposal when they return for a one-day special session next week.
Speaking before the start of the Illinois State Fair Twilight Parade, Quinn said lawmakers should consider a reform bill introduced this week by Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook.
Nekritz’s bill imposes the same changes on pensions for downstate teachers, university workers, state employees and state lawmakers. A bill approved in May by the Illinois Senate made changes only to pensions for state employees and lawmakers. […]
One problem with Nekritz’s legislation is that it was introduced as a brand-new bill and could not work its way through the General Assembly in a single day. The special session called by the governor is only scheduled to last Aug. 17. Quinn, though, said there are parliamentary techniques available to lawmakers to put the Nekritz proposal onto another bill and pass it in one day.
A retirement funding hole long pegged at $83 billion could hit nearly $93 billion by next summer if changes are not made, the administration projects. In turn, pension payments are gobbling up so much of the state budget so quickly that state government could be spending more on basic annual pension payments than it does on education within four years.
“This is a fire bell in the night,” Quinn said this week. “This is an alarm for all of us.” […]
But the Quinn team estimates that by mid-2016, state government will be spending $5.8 billion on grade schools and high schools and $6.2 billion on pensions. Although it is true that pension payments are scheduled to keep increasing in the coming years, the governor’s analysis also assumes that lawmakers will continue to cut education spending.
That point is disputed by many lawmakers, however. A spokeswoman for Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno of Lemont dismissed the Quinn estimates as “extremely unreliable.” […]
Depending on one’s point of view, the state already may have reached the schools-pensions imbalance Quinn projects will take place in four years. The state is making a $5.2 billion pension payment this year, but it’s also paying back $1.55 billion in pension-related loans taken out under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and early in Quinn’s tenure. Totaled up, that $6.75 billion is greater than the $6.2 billion the state is spending on schools this year.
* And the Tribune thinks that just passing a SERS and General Assembly Retirement System reform would be a “baby step”…
At best, this bill would be a baby step up Mount Kilimanjaro. But that’s nowhere near enough.
* The Republican Party of Illinois has sent out a new e-mail which implies that retiring Chicago FBI chief Robert Grant was talking about House Speaker Michael Madigan in John Kass’ column today. The e-mail’s headline…
ICYMI: The Madigan Rules??
* From the e-mail…
Grant went on to say that there are politicians “who have networks of relationships, real estate firms, law firms, service firms, and you can’t get a permit passed unless you do business with those entities connected to the family.”
“There are aldermen who have networks of relationships, real estate firms, law firms, service firms, and you can’t get a permit passed unless you do business with those entities connected to the family.”
Speaker Madigan has had more than his share of failures. Just look around you. I’ve called him a walking conflict of interest. There really isn’t a need to make stuff up. Just sticking to the facts is more than enough. But I suppose that’s too much to ask of an organization that sees a Madigan ghost under every bed.
* I raised pigs one year when I was in 4-H. My grandfather and my uncle raised pigs. One of my good friends raised two pigs with his 4-H son this year. I helped out for a couple of days with those pigs and it reminded me that I really don’t like pigs all that much. I did have a lot of fun, and I’ll certainly do it again. They’re great people and I’ve enjoyed being back on a farm again. It’s just that I much prefer cattle. They smell better, at least to me.
Anyway, a friend of mine and I cut through the swine barn at the Illinois State Fair last night to get out of the rain. My friend literally hugged a pig while I took a photo. It was all great fun. Everybody was smiling, including the little girl who owned the pig and another friend who walked by while I was trying to take the picture.
Not long after that we had a conversation which went a little like this…
Me: Hey, did you wash your hands after hugging that pig?
Friend: Ha! No! I’m touching you!
Me: Agh!!! Don’t touch me with those pig hands! Wash your hands, man! Get away from me! Wash! Get away! Wash! Don’t touch me! No! Wash! Help! Mom!!!
I really, totally freaked out. Those who know me are probably laughing because I’m not a germaphobe at all. I can only guess that my dislike of pigs finally got the better of me last night. My friend did wash after my freakout and I’ve since apologized. I’m not so sure that I’ve been totally forgiven, however. I was a bit on the weird side.
The Illinois Department of Public Health says a child in the state has been diagnosed with a new strain of swine flu after attending a fair in Coles County.
As the Illinois State Fair ramps up in Springfield, the department is urging patrons to take precautions to avoid the flu which is spread from contact with pigs. Mark Ernst is the state veterinarian for Illinois. He says the State Fair is doing its part to combat health risks:
ERNST: “We’ve notified our staff that works the livestock exhibits, we do go through and check in the livestock. They’re aware of the possibility of influenza in swine and so they’ll certainly be more vigilent in looking for any type of respiratory infections or conditions that may be present in the swine.”
Hand-washing stations will be set-up in many spots throughout the fairgrounds. The flu’s symptoms are said to be similar to that of the regular seasonal flu. And the Illinois boy with the disease has not been hospitalized. Dozens of cases in other states have been reported. There is no vaccine for this strain of swine flu. The state’s health department says it’s possible, although rare, that the flu can also be spread between humans.
* Back when Rod Blagojevich was in charge, AFSCME showed up to Governor’s Day at the 2008 Illinois State Fair to protest his effort to cut their healthcare during contract negotiations. For a while, the union protesters drowned out the governor, who replied “They’re lucky to have a job.”
* Well, the union is planning yet another rally at this year’s Governor’s Day festivities. From the union’s website…
Wednesday, Aug. 15, is Governor’s Day at the Illinois State Fair. AFSCME will be there to ensure that fairgoers know about Gov. Quinn’s repeated attacks on working families in Illinois. Gather at the Main Gate at 11:30 a.m.
Quinn is trying to slash public employee pensions, withhold negotiated pay raises, cut retiree health care and push for huge contract concessions.
It’ll be a lot of fun with a very serious purpose-making sure that the voices of working families are heard.
* Two days later, on Friday the 17th, union members plan to rally at the Statehouse to protest pension reforms. The General Assembly will meet for a special session that day to take up the issue.
* AFSCME has been making a huge deal out of just about every incident of prison violence in order to convince people that closing Tamms and other facilities is a very unwise decision.
[Stacey Solano, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections] said that the data that was supplied “clearly shows that there is no statistical correlation between staffing levels, (inmate) population or the closure and assault levels.”
Charts released by the Department of Corrections to the BND showed that inmate assaults on prison staff decreased at two of the state’s three maximum security lockups, the Pontiac and Stateville correctional centers. Pontiac dropped slightly from 108 such assaults in fiscal year 2011 to 98 in 2012 that ended July 1. And Stateville dropped from 95 to 57 during this same time.
At the maximum security Menard Correctional Center, the state’s largest prison, assaults increased over these same two years, rising from 21 to 36. The figures for Menard are lower overall because, since fiscal year 2008, the facility has spent most of the year on lockdown. In 2011, the prison was on lockdown for 235 days, compared to 13 for Pontiac and 75 for Stateville. No reason was given for the high number of lockdown days at Menard. […]
Overall, for the last three complete fiscal years, inmates assaults on prison employees throughout the entire prison system remained fairly steady. There were 420 in 2010, 502 in 2011 and 444 in 2012.
The only thing I’d say is that the number don’t include any incidents from July.
Also, if AFSMCE has a response I’ll be more than happy to publish it.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From AFSCME via e-mail…
Attached and below is data on staff and inmate assaults provided to the union by IDOC. We released this information at our July 19 hearing on prison safety at the Capitol and it was widely reported.
The chart…
More from the AFSCME e-mail…
We had requested FY 2012 data also but the administration claimed it was not available. Readers can decide for themselves if they believe the administration manipulated the subsequent release of that data. (Prison employees also believe these figures understate the human victims of violence behind bars, as the numbers refer to “incidents,” not individuals harmed. In other words, an attack in which an inmate harmed three employees is counted as one.)
In any case, the five-year trend of rising violence against employees and among inmates is clear.
What the administration’s new figures discount is the first-hand, real-life experience of prison employees on the front lines – the men and women who put on the uniform and walk through the prison gates every day. They say that conditions are increasingly volatile and chaotic due to overcrowding, lack of staff, reclassification and transfer of inmates, and other Quinn Administration policies. The testimony given at the July 19 state Capitol hearing showed that in a personal and palpable way. To discount and seek to undermine the credibility of those who serve is deeply disrespectful of the risks they face and the sacrifices they make simply by going to work each day.
With respect to lockdowns, our members have observed on an anecdotal basis the same decline the administration’s figures reflect. But those fewer lockdowns appear to be part of a systematic effort by the Quinn Administration to cut the utilization of such security measures—we believe in order to artificially drive down costs without regard to safety and operational needs. When a facility is locked down (or shaken down for contraband such as weapons), all operations take longer and more intensive staff time is required to conduct meals, count inmates, search cells etc. That leads to increased overtime costs for staff. It has been apparent to our members for some time that lockdowns and shakedowns are being curtailed not because they are not needed but because the Quinn Administration is cutting corners to reduce costs.
Finally, to the administration’s lack of credibility on corrections matters, see the following chart on overcrowding we also issued at the July 19 Capitol forum. These are the true overcrowding statistics as most recently reported to the General Assembly by IDOC – not the misleading “operation capacity” category the Quinn Administration invented to mask the chaotic conditions it has allowed to fester in state prisons where inmates are now housed in hallways, basements, gymnasiums and closets because there is nowhere else to put them.
Click the pic for a larger image…
*** UPDATE 2 *** The Quinn administration responds to AFSCME’s contention that “an attack in which an inmate harmed three employees is counted as one”…
Each assault is counted individually during an incident. So when prison employees indicate they believe the figures understate violence— and say an inmate who harms three employees is counted as one—that’s not true. It is counted as three.
* We’ve discussed this topic here more than once, but Gov. Pat Quinn is still getting away with it, so I decided to raise the issue’s profile by putting it in my Sun-Times column…
Numbers are hard. People hate math. People really hate reading about numbers and math.
This is why politicians are so successful at using numbers to confuse people. The media too often just accept the numbers and move right along.
But there is a number sticking in my craw these days, and it’s driving me nuts that nobody else is really challenging the governor about it, so I’ve decided to talk about it here.
Wait! Don’t turn the page! It won’t be that bad. I promise. This stuff may look hard at first, but it’s really pretty simple.
Gov. Pat Quinn keeps saying the state goes $12.6 million further into the hole every day that a pension reform law isn’t passed. The additional debt is added to the overall unfunded pension liability. That’s a fancy phrase that describes the money the state should’ve paid into the pension systems over the years and didn’t — and still doesn’t. Every day that goes by without catching up on that unfunded liability means a day that the unfunded liability has a chance to grow.
The media has endlessly repeated this $12.6 million number, and some newspaper editorial pages have used it to demand an immediate pension fix.
The trouble is, the number is really misleading.
“We’ve said repeatedly that every day that goes by, $12.6 million is added to the pension liability,” the governor said this week. “Between now and the election, that’s about a billion dollars.”
Quinn wants the General Assembly to pass a pension-reform bill during a special session he called for Aug. 17. Quite a few legislators want to wait until after the election to pass a bill. They’d rather not have big-time money spent against them by public employee and teachers’ unions this fall. And don’t let anybody kid you, this sentiment is widespread on both sides of the aisle. Republicans as well as Democrats would rather just wait.
What Quinn doesn’t say, partly because nobody has pinned him down on it yet, is that none of the pension reform bills currently on the table will immediately stop that $12.6 million from adding up every day.
And since it’s summertime, any bill with an immediate effective date will require a three-fifths majority to pass. There’s no way the state’s legislative leaders can find that many votes.
They’re having real trouble coming up with simple majorities.
So because our state Constitution has a super-majority requirement for bills passed after May 31 with immediate effective dates, no reforms can conceivably take effect until at least June of next year.
Also, the green eyeshade types who run the state’s pension systems want any reform bills to include a July 1, 2013, implementation date to give them time to get everything ready.
In other words, it doesn’t matter if the Legislature approves a bill on Aug. 17 or waits until after the election because that $12.6 million will still accrue every day regardless of what happens.
The very real problem is the danger of a major downgrade from a credit ratings agency. A major downgrade could push the state’s debt into “junk bond” status, and then a whole lot of big institutions that buy government bonds wouldn’t be able to buy any more of ours. One such threat has apparently been issued already.
So, yes, there is a good reason to pass pension reform sooner rather than later. But this $12.6 million number the governor keeps talking about is, in reality, just scare tactic propaganda, and it should be treated as such.
Discuss.
*** UPDATE *** Gov. Quinn was finally asked today about his $12.6 million a day figure and he dodged the question, pointing instead to the last couple of paragraphs in my Sun-Times column. Listen…
