* 2:13 pm - House Judiciary Committee Chair Elaine Nekritz just announced that there would be no vote on an assault weapons ban during the lame duck session.
* If you haven’t yet, you ought to read Bernie Schoenburg’s interview of retiring state Sen. Larry Bomke (R-Springfield). The last half of the story is about Bomke’s impressions of the four governors he’s worked with over the years. For example…
Bomke thinks that Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is “just a really nice guy.”
“When he does things … he honestly believes what he is doing is not in his selfish interest, but in the best interest of the state,” Bomke said. Still, Bomke said of Quinn, “I don’t think that he understands the process well enough to get things done.
“We almost need a Jim Edgar/George Ryan clone combination,” Bomke said, “George Ryan, who knew the politics, and Jim Edgar, who understood government.”
Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan could be released from federal prison at any time, according to Federal Bureau of Prison spokesman Chris Burke, and it’s even possible he could go directly to his Kankakee home.
However, Burke said it is extremely rare for a federal inmate to go directly from federal prison to home.
“Almost every inmate released spends at least a short amount of time in a halfway house,” Burke said
Imprisoned Governor George Ryan has yet again been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
University of Illinois College of Law Professor Francis A. Boyle nominated the retired governor first in 2003, following Ryan’s landmark decision to commute all death sentences in Illinois to life in prison. The nominations have continued annually since then.
“We are extremely disappointed that Governor Quinn and legislative leaders have shut out the voices of workers and retirees in their latest talks on pension legislation. Instead, once again, Illinois politicians are preparing to use unconstitutional schemes to ruin the retirement security of hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans while ignoring the state’s revenue problem.
If the General Assembly rams through last-minute legislation that violates the Illinois Constitution, we are prepared to sue to protect the hard-earned benefits of teachers, caregivers, corrections officers, university employees, and others.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The coalition has put forth a real plan to fix the state’s pension funding problem and called to meet with lawmakers at a mid-January summit. Our plan — to create an ironclad guarantee, curtail corporate welfare by closing tax loopholes, and share in the sacrifice by asking employees to pay more into the pension systems — remains the only fair, constitutional, and sustainable proposal on the table.”
* Rep. Jim Durkin might wish this week that he’d kept quiet instead of talking to his local paper late last week…
At least one suburban legislator is rankled by last-ditch efforts to pass laws on controversial issues during the lame duck session in Springfield.
State Rep. Jim Durkin, R-82nd, Western Springs, said moves to rush through laws banning assault weapons and allowing same-sex marriage are unfair to voters.
“I’ve had it with the 11th hour passage of bills which do not get the thorough vetting before the public and members of the legislature,” Durkin said. […]
“I have been in the minority party for a great amount of time, and it’s sickening to watch this process play out,” he said. “It should disgust the voters in Illinois.”
Durkin said he intends to sponsor a bill insuring that a super majority vote, rather than a simple majority of 60, is required to pass bills in the House after May 31, to prevent lame-duck session abuses.
“This is just wrong. The fact that it’s being done in the dark of night at a speed, which is nearly impossible for a thoughtful debate and input from the public,” he said.
I happen to like Jim Durkin a lot and have a great deal of respect for the man. He’s a good state legislator, a decent man and is a reasonable voice in his caucus.
* But what the heck is Rep. Durkin gonna do if a pension reform bill suddenly pops up on the floor in the next day or two and an immediate vote has to be taken - without much deliberation and with little to no public input?
* On the surface, Durkin’s idea has plenty of merit. There is no doubt whatsoever that the Constitution’s lame duck loophole has been overused.
But the reality is that sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do when you’re in leadership. The hard truth is that being allowed to pass bills with a mere simple majority after January 1st helps stuff get done around here. Sometimes the Republicans don’t like that, as with the income tax hike (although they aren’t complaining about the new money). Sometimes, they do, like when they rammed through a bunch of stuff in the 1997 lame duck session - or now, with pension reform.
There’s no way they can pass pension reform with three-fifths majorities when they’re gonna have a whale of a time trying to find simple majorities this week.
When some House members crafted their own pension reform bill, Gov. Pat Quinn insisted it had to undergo a vigorous review by actuaries to see how much it would save.
It took a couple of weeks, but it was reviewed and the results were made public before Christmas, giving legislators time to digest them before coming back to Springfield.
Now Quinn is talking about yet another plan that he thinks should be approved by lawmakers in three days. The House returns Sunday, and the last day to do anything before new legislators are seated is Tuesday.
Hopefully, the actuaries were given this plan long enough ago that they can verify in the remaining three days that all of the savings are legitimate.
If so, they will have had more time to review it than the people who are expected to vote on it.
And remember the last time the Legislature quickly rammed through some pension reforms? Even some of the reformers now admit mistakes were made that will need to be corrected.
Anyone confident they’ll avoid that problem if a new reform plan is rushed through again?
* Mark Brown thinks that Speaker Madigan will either get a pension bill done, or do whatever he can and let the blame fall elsewhere…
There were no smiles on the faces of anyone emerging from Saturday’s closed-door summit of Gov. Pat Quinn and legislative leaders on how to solve the state’s pension funding woes.
That was the bad news for those hoping for an agreement.
The good news was that House Speaker Michael Madigan told reporters afterward that he wants a pension bill passed by the time the Legislature finishes its lame-duck session Tuesday night.
Past performance tells us that when Madigan is of a mind to pass a piece of legislation, he will pass that piece of legislation. […]
When the speaker speaks, you can take him at his word. But you also have to look for the nuance.
My interpretation: He was a little frustrated by whatever transpired over the previous two hours but will apply himself to forging a deal. If things go south this time, we’ll have a hard time blaming him.
Gov. Pat Quinn and Illinois’ legislative leaders met Saturday but couldn’t reach a deal to resolve the state’s pension mess.
“Unfortunately, there are still differences among the participants, and my recommendation is we move beyond the differences and just find a bill that we can pass so there will be some action taken on the question of funding for these pension systems,” House Speaker Michael Madigan said.
He described the meeting among legislative leaders and the governor at the Thompson Center as “productive” and said he remains hopeful that a pension deal can be struck before the lame-duck legislative session’s scheduled conclusion Tuesday.
Asked what he meant by “productive,” Madigan (D-Chicago) joked, “Well, we weren’t throwing punches at each other.”
Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) was less enthusiastic.
“It was a marginally productive meeting,” Radogno said. “We still obviously have a long ways to go.”
* Most every other pension story was covered yesterday, but the Trib’s piece had some important stuff again. For instance…
Cullerton’s position is that a change in public pensions must be accompanied by a choice for employees, such as opting between keeping the cost-of-living increase and giving up health care, or taking a smaller annual increase but keeping health benefits. Cullerton staunchly believes that his approach is the only way to work around the state Constitution’s guarantee that a person’s pension cannot be diminished once it is set. But not everyone agrees with his approach.
Following the meeting, Cullerton, in a statement from an aide, said he was “encouraged,” but still urged the House “to follow the Senate’s lead.” Radogno, however, called the meeting only “marginally productive” and noted Democratic leaders were at odds over whether any pension legislation should include changes being sought by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to deal with Chicago’s municipal pensions.
“We will vote on what Democrat leaders decide to put up on the board,” said Radogno, who did not take questions. “And some of the issues, they can’t even decide if Chicago is going to be in or out of this program. So they have thinking to do before we have an opportunity to vote.”
* The Tribune editorial board sounded almost reasonable on pensions, for a change, when it endorsed the new Nekritz/Cross reform proposal…
In sum, this plan provides a substantial and relatively swift restructuring of the pension systems. It is a strong proposal.
It will run into predictable resistance from organized labor. It might run into resistance from Sen. Cullerton, who has pressed the House to vote on a much more limited pension reform package approved last year by the Senate.
We respect that Senate effort, but we strongly encourage Cullerton to reach agreement with the other leaders and the governor on legislation along the lines of what has been negotiated by the House members.
One more encouraging sign: Republicans, who have been highly suspicious of Democratic efforts to shift future pension costs to local government, are warming to this compromise. They have helped to craft the product. It is likely that the shift of future pensions costs to local government will be separated and negotiated later, in the spring.
Will wonders never cease?
* Roundup…
* Pensions affect Illinois college scholarships: Augustana Vice President of Enrollment Kent Barnds said the uncertainty surrounding the MAP program had led the college to try and recruit more students from outside Illinois.
Officials locked down one of the state’s maximum-security prisons Friday morning, but not because of an outbreak of violence.
Rather, the movement of prisoners at the Stateville Correctional Center was limited from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. because a significant number of prison guards called in sick.
It was not clear Friday why there were so many absences, but Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Stacey Solano said it was “unusual” that 58 workers were unable to report for their shift. […]
The incident came a week after more than 100 Stateville prisoners were reportedly bed-ridden by norovirus, a highly contagious flu that apparently spread through the Crest Hill facility.
It also came a day after hundreds of correctional officers and state retirees had rallied in the Capitol against possible cuts to their pensions.
Practically everybody I know has been sick lately. Then again, practically every AFSCME member I know is supremely upset at the governor right now.
* The absences also came a day after this bill passed, but was held up by a parliamentary procedure…
A bill restricting the number of state employees who can join unions isn’t going to Gov. Pat Quinn right away.
Shortly after the Senate gave final approval to the bill Thursday night, Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, filed a motion to reconsider the vote, a technical step that keeps the bill from being sent to Quinn.
Quinn has said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
“I still believe negotiating a fair compromise with all the stakeholders is preferable to forcing a legislative solution,” Harmon said. “I’m hoping the Senate action will reinvigorate the negotiations.”
* The leaders are meeting again today to discuss pension reform. The House convenes this afternoon at 5 o’clock, but committees start at 2, so we’re restarting the blog now. Blackberry users click here…
Coming out of the meeting, which lasted less than two hours, leaders from both parties said they better understood one another’s positions but that there were still many obstacles to producing a proposal to take to lawmakers before the end of the current General Assembly on Wednesday.
“I’m just anxious to pass a bill,” said Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has agreed to drop for now his proposal to shift pension costs for public school teachers from the state to local districts, an idea that has been a major point of disagreement in negotiations and the reason reform efforts collapsed in last spring’s legislative session.
“There’s no resolution today. We’re going to continue to work throughout the weekend and right through Tuesday of next week to try and move legislation that will solve this funding problem of Illinois pension systems,” Madigan told reporters following the meeting.
Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan of Chicago called the meeting “productive” and said work would continue to try to meet the Wednesday deadline, but acknowledged serious differences remain. Asked why he thought progress was made, Madigan joked, “Well, we weren’t throwing punches at each other.” […]
Asked Saturday what the impediments are to reaching a deal, Madigan basically recited each of the proposals. “It’s all the issues that you’ve all heard, and the question is, ‘Can you bring these all together and get a bill that can pass and be signed by the governor?’” the House speaker said.
Following the meeting, Cullerton, in a statement from an aide, said he was “encouraged,” but still urged the House “to follow the Senate’s lead.” Radogno, however, called the meeting only “marginally productive” and noted Democratic leaders were at odds over whether any pension legislation should include changes being sought by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to deal with Chicago’s municipal pensions.
“We will vote on what Democrat leaders decide to put up on the board,” said Radogno, who did not take questions. “And some of the issues, they can’t even decide if Chicago is going to be in or out of this program. So they have thinking to do before we have an opportunity to vote.”
* The leaders are meeting today to talk about pensions. So, while you need to keep in mind that this could all change once the leaders get together, here’s the outline of what’s being proposed…
* Only the first $25,000 of pension benefits for teachers, university employees, state workers and lawmakers would be subject to a compounding, 3 percent annual cost-of-living allowance. For members of the State Employees Retirement System who also receive Social Security benefits, the amount subject to a COLA would be capped at $20,000.
* All COLAs might be paused for the next five to six years (that detail has not been finalized). COLAs also would not be paid until a retiree reaches age 67.
* Employee contributions to the pension systems would increase by 1 percentage point on July 1 and another 1 percentage point on July 1, 2014.
* An employee’s pension would be based on his or her salary upon passage of the bill or the wage base for Social Security, whichever is higher.
* The bill would require certain amounts to be transferred from the state’s general revenue fund to the pension stabilization fund, presumably to address the current $96 billion owed to the pension systems. If the state attempts to skip payments, the retirement systems could go to court to enforce the law. This provision is sought by public employee unions to prevent future pension crises.
* A cash balance plan would be created for employees who began work after Jan. 1, 2011.
A Cullerton spokeswoman said the House should vote on the Senate-passed bill because it’s the best way to ensure something gets on Quinn’s desk by the Wednesday deadline.
“If there is a more comprehensive plan to address the other systems within that same framework, the Senate president would be open to that,” spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said.
