In 2012, the union membership rate–the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union–was 11.3 percent, down from 11.8 percent in 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.4 million, also declined over the year. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent, and there were 17.7 million union workers….
Public-sector workers had a union membership rate (35.9 percent) more than five times higher than that of private-sector workers…
About half of the 14.4 million union members in the U.S. lived in just seven states (California, 2.5 million; New York, 1.8 million; Illinois, 0.8 million; Pennsylvania, 0.7 million; and Michigan, New Jersey, and Ohio, 0.6 million each), though these states accounted for only about one-third of wage and salary employment nationally.
Other members of the school safety summit said getting students to speak-up about potential threats is, perhaps the best idea from the Springfield meeting.
It would also be the cheapest.
Roger Eddy, a former state lawmakers and current head of the Illinois Association of School Boards, said Illinois cannot afford to do much more than talk about school safety.
“Certainly most things are going to cost money and resources,” Eddy said. “And some communities are going to have to make tough choices about that.”
Cinda Klickna, who spoke at the safety summit for the Illinois Education Association, said the price tag could be huge.
“If you are going to have resources for students, programs for students, and personnel to help students, you are going to have to pay for it somehow,” Klickna said.
Quinn angrily denied that if Illinois were to pay the nearly $1 billion it owes local schools and local government that there would be ample money for school safety.
“I’ve gone out and gotten resources for our schools, and for a lot of other things in Illinois, two years ago. Check it out,” Quinn retorted.
* Speaking of schools, Greg Hinz follows up on my earlier stories about how $35 million for an UNO school construction project was inserted into the supplemental approp budget and helped kill it…
But, in checking around, I hear that the guy who really pushed the proposed $35 million grant was House Speaker Michael Madigan, whose district has turned overwhelmingly Latino in recent years and who probably could use one of those new UNO schools in his district. Mr. Madigan — his spokesman failed to return calls — was so hot for the grant that he actually tried to add it to some other bills, multiple reliable Springfield sources say.
Mr. Rangel confirms that the money “quite possibly” would have gone for work in Mr. Madigan’s district, where schools are “severely overcrowded.” And guess where that new soccer high school is? At the north end of Mr. Madigan’s legislative district, at 5050 S. St. Louis Ave.
So it goes in our fair capital city. Education money is short, and CPS is talking about shutting schools. But those with friends have their ways.
* Do you ascribe more to the theory that a Gov. Lisa Madigan would concentrate too much power in one family’s hands, or do you lean more to the belief that a Gov. Lisa Madigan would mean that the Democrats would finally elect somebody who could work with House Speaker Michael Madigan?
Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Nine months ago, our organization, For the Good of Illinois, filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking Republican Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar-Topinka to send us one year of the state’s checkbook. We were simply seeking to share state expenditures with Illinois citizens through our online database. Our request for this information was rejected.
The comptroller asserted “review, redaction, and arrangement of all 2011 vendor payments would take multiple staff members, dedicated solely to this request, more than three days to complete.” Topinka’s office concluded that fulfilling the request was an “undue burden.”
This conclusion is not credible, and her refusal is against both the spirit and the letter of the law. Is the comptroller really going to argue that in this electronic age state government can’t produce a timely and organized checkbook? Is the comptroller’s office really that much of a mess? The fact our FOIA request is being denied by the state’s top financial officer because it’s inconvenient is inexcusable. Or is Topinka trying to hide something?
Here in Illinois, income tax rates rise as fast as 67 percent overnight and property taxes double every ten years. You would think citizens should at least have access to detailed information showing how their tax dollars are being spent. The state’s checkbook should be public information.
(T)he state database tracking revenues and expenditures includes confidential information that the law prohibits from being given out — things like Social Security numbers and information about tax refunds, public aid and foster care payments, worker’s comp and unemployment checks. A “complete data dump” would be illegal.
Topinka is absolutely correct. She can’t just hand over things like everybody’s individual tax refund checks. No way. And Andrzejewski ought to know better than to ask for stuff like that.
* But in corresponding with Topinka’s office, it became clear that they could take some time to write a program which would weed out all the protected classes of information. In other words, they could give him all the individual checks for everything except what is protected by state law. There would be no individual check copies of tax refunds or such stuff, just aggregate amounts. It would be an effort, but they could do it. It would certainly be a lot easier than redacting each, individual record.
* So, I told Andrzejewski that I’d noticed that the two sides seemed to be talking past each other. Would he accept the raw data used by the comptroller’s website that didn’t include the info that couldn’t by law be disclosed? His e-mailed response…
This appears to be welcome news…
However, as you know, the information we requested goes beyond the information available on the Comptroller’s website. While it is our preference to reach an amicable resolution, doing so requires the Comptroller to produce all of the information responsive to our FOIA request.
The Comptroller apparently told you that it could provide the data showing individual payments. This information must certainly exist, and there should not be any “probability” involved. The Comptroller must possess a record of each payment the State of Illinois made, to whom it was made, when it was made, and the amount of each payment. This is all information which the public has a right to know, and it is all subject to FOIA.
You mention that providing this information could “take some time.” However, we sent the Comptroller our FOIA request nine months ago. We are willing to be reasonable on timing, but we expect the information to be provided over a reasonable amount of days, not multiple weeks or months. The Comptroller does not have to format the data in any way. We can work with the raw data as it is kept by the Comptroller. Chicago provided 10 years and nearly 7 million individual transactions in approximately 10 days.
The FOIA statute provides for the recovery of attorney’s fees and costs. The Comptroller has already caused us to incur substantial fees and expenses. These must be reimbursed in order to resolve our case.
“Substantial fees and expenses”? C’mon. Andrzejewski the conservative “cut the budget” millionaire now wants to ding the taxpayers for legal fees? Just settle this thing, for crying out loud.
* Illinois’ top atheist “activist” Rob Sherman lost another and likely final round yesterday in his attempt to overturn a $20,000 state grant to renovate a huge cross in southern Illinois, known as the “Bald Knob Cross of Peace.” Lower courts had already ruled against Sherman, and the US Supreme Court rejected his appeal this week…
Sherman sued in August 2010, arguing that efforts to repair the cross using state money have “the primary effect of advancing a particular religious sect, namely Christianity.” He noted that the grant came from a $5 million pot of money that the state Legislature channeled to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
Sherman insisted that the grant was a legislative earmark - not a discretionary allocation from the executive branch - and therefore violated the First Amendment’s prohibition against the establishment of religion.
“This action by the Supreme Court affirms that our nation’s court system is a joke,” Sherman said in a statement. The high court’s “refusal to take my case means that any legislative (body), whether it be Congress, a state legislature or a municipal board, can make blatantly unconstitutional grants to advance religion simply by naming an executive branch agency as a middleman in the transaction.
“What a joke! What a fraud against the taxpayers of this country.”
Well, if the nation’s court system is such a “joke” then maybe Sherman will stop suing at the drop of a hat.
No person shall be required to attend or support any ministry or place of worship against his consent, nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship. […]
Neither the General Assembly nor any county, city, town, township, school district, or other public corporation, shall ever make any appropriation or pay from any public fund whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of land, money, or other personal property ever be made by the State, or any such public corporation, to any church, or for any sectarian purpose.
But since the cross is a tourist destination and doesn’t necessarily serve as a “place of worship” or a “sectarian purpose,” then it’s OK, I suppose.
* Late last week, the governor considered halting a big gun show/sale at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. He didn’t end up doing anything.
I went to the show on Saturday. The place was packed. Some booths were so crowded that I couldn’t even see the guns that vendors had for sale. I ran into a Chicago state legislator at the show, his first such event. He marveled at the crowd. It’s quite possible that all Quinn did last week was drive turnout even higher. Who knew that Pat Quinn could be such a friend to gun dealers?
Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday said he is looking into a possible ban on gun shows held on publicly owned property
“We are talking to the lawyers about that,” Quinn said in response to a reporter’s question after a four-hour summit on school safety at the Springfield office of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.
Last week, Quinn and other Illinois Democrats called for a statewide ban on assault weapons. Yet, some of these very guns were on sale Saturday at a gun show at the state-owned Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.
There were some mean looking weapons at that show, but most of the stuff looked pretty ordinary to my relatively untrained eye. The most sought-after weapons appeared to be pistols, perhaps in anticipation of the federal order requiring Illinois to come up with a concealed carry permit system.
The governor doesn’t like guns. So, it would not be surprising if he went through with this sales ban idea. But maybe he ought to go see one of these shows for himself and talk to some of the average folks who attend them before making up his mind.
Among the many speakers Saturday was state Sen. Sam McCann, R-Carlinville.
McCann said owning a gun was a right and not a privilege that could be revoked. McCann told the crowd he planned to propose a constitutional amendment to appear on the ballot that would make Illinois the strongest gun rights state in the nation.
McCann was just posing for the crowd and his proposal is going nowhere. And he really wouldn’t want gang members convicted of violent crimes to lose the right to own a gun? Really?
* The SJ-R posted some video from the event. One quote from a speaker…
“I am a gun-toting, God-fearing, Bible-reading Christian, let’s make that clear.”
A review of candidate campaign pledges and data from the General Assembly Retirement System shows at least two dozen of the 177 members of the House and Senate have opted out of the General Assembly pension system.
One of the things that the unions rely on is legislators voting to protect their own pensions and benefits. But the more opt-outs we get, the fewer legislators who will care.
* Even so, some legislators who’ve opted out are still eligible for other pensions. For instance…
State Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, decided not to take a legislative pension when he first took office in the mid-1990s.
“What motivated me to do it was I didn’t want people to think I was doing this for the money,” Luechtefeld said.
Luechtefeld, a former teacher and basketball coach, is a member of the Teachers Retirement System. He said his TRS pension is not large.
“It may not have been the best financial decision, but I’m certainly going to get by. I’m happy. I’m satisfied,” Luechtefeld said.
People have been predicting a Luechtefeld retirement for years. We may now know at least one reason why he’s decided to stick around. Luechtefeld is 72.
* For some members, no pensions might mean even less turnover if they simply can’t retire. Simple “solutions” never produce simple results.
State legislators can take jobs as lobbyists immediately after their time as lawmaker is done.
That means a lame-duck legislator can support a particular bill that sends money into one business or sector and then leave the General Assembly and begin working for that company or in that sector the next day. It stinks, but it’s still legal.
Thirty-five states have laws that force lawmakers to wait between six months and two years before taking a job as a lobbyist.
It’s time for Illinois to pass a law making lawmakers wait at least a year before becoming lobbyists.
Congress has a similar rule, but members get around it by being “of counsel” to lobbying firms until the revolving door ban expires. Reforms ain’t always what they’re cracked up to be.
Still, what bothers me is not so much that members take those jobs, it’s that they apply for them and negotiate their contracts while they are still legislators. Several members, for instance, applied for the bigtime Illinois Hospital Association gig which then-Sen. AJ Wilhelmi got. That process went on for a while, and some pretty prominent members served for weeks while the decision was being made.
And I don’t mean to single out Wilhelmi or the IHA here as a particularly noxious example. AJ is a decent guy and the IHA does good work. He was eminently qualified for that job. I don’t blame them at all for hiring him and he’s proved to be top notch.
He introduced a federal voter photo ID bill in June and again in September called the Federal Election Integrity Act of 2012, which – if passed into law – would have required voters to present a government-issued photo ID to vote in federal elections. The bill died in committee both times.
“[Democrats] believe everybody should vote; it should be so easy for people to vote,” Walsh said. “I shouldn’t say this, and this will cost me votes – if and when I run next time. It should be tough to vote. I don’t like this whole early-voting stuff. I think you should have to swim a mile, walk five miles, find a bus – I’m exaggerating for everyone who is filming me – and it should take you three hours to get to the ballot box.
“It should be that important. It shouldn’t be easy to vote. This is probably one of the most sacred privileges you’ve earned, you have to earn to live in this country.”
Sen. Dick Durbin told me Tuesday that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is “seriously thinking” about running for governor.
I talked to Madigan about a gubernatorial bid on Saturday night — she was here for President Barack Obama’s Inauguration festivities — and my takeaway from the conversation is she wants to run whether or not Bill Daley also gets in a Democratic primary to challenge Gov. Pat Quinn.
The main consequence of Madigan, 46, inching toward a bid is this: We now know the politically vulnerable Quinn is heading toward a colossal primary fight because he is going to be facing strong opponents, either Madigan, Daley or both in the March 18, 2014, balloting.
“She had made special outreach to labor and they know it, they’ve noticed in terms of her showing up at events and the like,” Durbin told me. “I don’t think she has made a final decision. I know she is in the process of making a decision.”
When Madigan mulled a Senate run in 2009, she mustered little enthusiasm when we talked about the prospect of what would have been a Democratic primary contest and taking a job where she would have to commute between Chicago and Washington.
That was not the case when we chatted about a 2014 Democratic primary for governor at the Illinois Inaugural Gala. This time, she’s hungry.
As we talked, with her husband, Pat Byrnes by her side, Madigan, was the one who reminded me that her kids were older now and more independent: Rebecca is 8 and Lucy turns 5 next month.
Durbin told me he assumes Quinn is running for re-election. As for getting involved in a primary, Durbin, who is up for re-election in 2014, said, “My plan is to stay out.”
Gov. Pat Quinn sidestepped whether he is concerned about possibly the strongest indicator yet that four-term Attorney General Lisa Madigan is considering running against him for governor in 2014.
“I’m not really doing politics right now,” Quinn said Tuesday following a school safety summit in Springfield. “I think it’s better to do policy…there will be plenty of time to focus on politics later on.”
Former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is taking on a new role as a University of Illinois trustee.
Gov. Pat Quinn announced Friday that he appointed Chicago’s former top federal prosecutor and corruption buster to the university’s board that oversees the three-campus university system.
* Behind the move, however, was the reappointment of Trustee James Montgomery, who defied Quinn in 2009 by refusing to resign from the board after the university’s “admissions scandal.” From the Mikva Commission Report, which investigated the affair…
:
In an email to (UIUC Chancellor Richard) Herman dated April 16, 2009, Trustee James Montgomery advocated for a rejected applicant. Montgomery explained that he emailed Herman at the behest of his daughter, who was dating a relative of the applicant. Montgomery stated that he emailed Herman because he wanted to determine if it was “too late” for the applicant, whom he acknowledged had been rejected, to be accepted by the University….
An April 1, 2009 email to (Chancellor Richard Herman’s secretary Phyllis) Mischo, (Associate Provost Keith) Marshall indicated the University will admit a substandard student sponsored by Trustee Carroll as late as possible because she has terrible credentials at a “good school.”
* Montgomery adamantly refused to step down back then. From Chicago Tonight…
I think what has happened here is that both the governor and the commission has painted all the trustees with one broad brush of taint and that isn’t fair. And I don’t intend of course to submit a resignation under the assumption that I have done something inappropriate on a personal basis. ..(If I am fired I will) fight like hell. whatever is necessary to defend any action that they seek to take to prove me in any way guilty of malfeasance of office or any other alleged offense I don’t think they have a prayer…. There is no legal basis for me to be fired. I don’t want to put anybody down but I was appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate and Governor Quinn is a governor largely by happenstance, not a governor who’s been elected by the people. And to be very candid with you I’m not inclined to agree with his notion that he should follow the so-called public opinion as he reads it in the Tribune and other media
Montgomery was close to former Senate President Emil Jones. Quinn eventually backed off, and then reappointed Montgomery last week while burying it under the Fitzgerald move.
Taxpayers haven’t warmed to the idea of helping to pay for the improvements, though. The Ricketts family, which bought the team in 2009, now says it is prepared to pay for the renovations — if the city will get out of the way.
To make the investment work, the owners say they need some flexibility on zoning and landmark restrictions. They want to be able to close streets on game days and to have more night games, including some on Saturdays. They’d like to hold more concerts and special events at the stadium. And they want to install more and bigger signs in the outfield.
“Just give us some relief on some of these restrictions and then we’ll take care of Wrigley Field,” owner Tom Ricketts said.
The project includes a structural overhaul of the 99-year-old stadium, including new restaurants, expanded concourses and a left field fan deck. Players would get a new clubhouse and underground batting cages. The owners also plan to build a boutique hotel across the street, where a McDonald’s now stands.
The team’s only requirement is that the city lift restrictions on outfield signs and night games and open Sheffield for street fairs on game days. […]
[Ald. Tom Tunney] said he’s willing to help the Cubs with additional night games “sooner than required,” noting that an agreement that caps the number of night games at 30-per-season expires in 2016. He refused to offer a specific number.
But, he said, “I’m not a supporter of putting up signs that block the view of rooftops into the ballpark.” […]
Tunney drew the line on the illuminated Toyota sign in left field that obscured the view of a Horseshoe Casino sign on the rooftop of a building owned by Tom Gramatis.
Tunney initially argued that the see-through sign was “not in keeping with the character of the neighborhood or the spirit of the landmarks” designation, then agreed to it in exchange for a four-year moratorium on additional outfield signs that expires in 2014.
Opposition from Tunney and area merchants also blocked the Cubs’ plan to close down a blocklong stretch of Sheffield for nine days to make way for street fairs during sold-out series against the Yankees, Cardinals and White Sox.
* The Quad City Times ran an editorial on Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady’s recent troubles…
Brady broke ranks with most of his party’s legislative team when he came out in support of an Illinois gay marriage law. That brings him around to where we’ve been on marriage issues: A personal lifelong commitment between two consenting adults is their business, not government’s.
That runs counter to the state GOP platform that insists it is government’s business to dictate whom Illinoisans may or may not be attracted to.
Almost immediately, the Bloomington native’s home county Republican Party called for his resignation “due to his promotion of issues contrary to the Republican Party platform.”
Platform hasn’t been a litmus test for Republican leadership in the past. In fact, Illinois Republicans amended their platform last June specifically to “welcome Republicans who may not agree with specific planks.”
* But that’s not exactly what the state GOP platform plank says…
The views expressed in this Platform, when accepted by the majority of the convention, should be the policy standard for candidates running as a Republicans in Illinois. While we welcome Republicans that may not agree with specific planks, anyone elected as a Republican should strive to self-direct their activities and policy positions to uphold these principles as the unifying basis for the Illinois Republican Party.
In other words - the Platform matters. It should guide policy decisions and activities. The Platform unifies a diverse array of opinions and should never be shrugged off or ignored.
* The Question: Do conservative Republicans have a valid point, or do they put too much emphasis on their platform? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* As I told subscribers a couple weeks ago, George Ryan will be released from prison by January 30th. Phil Rogers takes a look at the former governor’s new reality…
For the last six years, the former governor has been a federal prisoner. When he leaves the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute next week, he will be travelling not to Kankakee but to a halfway house in Chicago.
And he has nothing to pack. Someone will have to bring him the clothes he wears out of the prison gate.
“It will be the first time he’s worn his own clothes in six years,” Ryan’s former chief of staff, Scott Fawell, said Monday.
Fawell provides a unique perspective. Not only was he Ryan’s closest advisor, but he also did more than four years himself for Ryan-related crimes. And he occupied that same Salvation Army halfway house on Chicago’s west side.
“It’s dingy. It’s dark. It’s dirty,” Fawell said. “It’s an old facility.”
And ironically, said Fawell, it will be the place where Ryan will most likely mingle with the hardest criminals he will see during his entire stay with the Bureau of Prisons.
“You can be in the same room with guys who have done 20 or 30 years in prison, where he’s used to a little different clientele,” Fawell explained.
Ryan will be required to take mandatory classes on such mundane skills as opening a bank account, writing a check, and making out a resume. It sounds ridiculous for a former governor but is par for the course in the Bureau of Prisons’, one-size-fits-all approach to corrections.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Bill Cellini reports to prison today…
A judge earlier this month set Tuesday as the reporting date for Cellini, 78. Once known as the “King of Clout,” Cellini was initially supposed to report on Jan. 4 but was granted an extension.
Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke says Cellini hasn’t yet reported. He’s required to report by 2 p.m.
Burke says he can’t identify Cellini’s prison until he arrives. Cellini had requested a Montgomery, Ala., prison.
Springfield businessman Bill Cellini reported this afternoon to the same prison where former Illinois Gov. George Ryan is completing his corruption sentence.
Chris Burke, spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, said that it is likely that Ryan and Cellini would see each other at the institution.
“It’s a more open facility,” he said.Burke said Cellini is at the minimum security portion of the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Complex.
Plenty of Illinois politicians are gathered in Washington DC for the inauguration.
There is speculation abound in the nation’s capital about who will run for governor of Illinois in 2014.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan elevated the status of her possible candidacy.
“I think there’s a lot of people who are considering what they want to do in the future and if they can be of greater service to the people of the state. I am among those people,” she said.
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column also talks about Madigan, even though the piece is about Bill Daley…
Bill Daley called the other day. We estimated that it had been about three or four years since we last had spoken, which is par for the course.
Going back to at least 2001, Daley, the brother and son of former Chicago mayors, has mulled a bid for governor. The last time was in 2009, when he publicly thought about challenging Pat Quinn in the Democratic primary election.
And now he’s talking about it again.
Before I returned Daley’s call, I wanted to check around and see what might be different this time. I was told that there are two major differences between now and before.
First of all, Rich Daley is no longer mayor. Hizzoner simply didn’t want his brother running statewide.
A gubernatorial bid could shine too much of a spotlight on the mayor, and there was real fear that a statewide run could upset the mayor’s delicately balanced coalition, meaning black voters. Bill Daley is now free to do what he wants.
The other consideration also has to do with family. Daley was divorced in 2001. Now, he has a supportive spouse who will back him all the way.
Daley confirmed those points when we finally connected. But he hasn’t been raising money, he hasn’t been traveling the state and he flatly denied a newspaper report that he had commissioned a poll.
Instead, he has been reaching out to old friends, including former President Bill Clinton, who encouraged him to run. At 64, this could be his last opportunity to conduct a strenuous statewide campaign.
Daley said if he does run, it will only be for a term or maybe two, just to straighten things out and move along.
My big question was what he could bring to the table that Dan Hynes couldn’t in 2010, when he narrowly lost to Quinn in the Democratic primary. Like Hynes, Daley is a white, Irish, South Side Chicagoan. What votes would he get that Hynes could not?
While he wouldn’t come right out and say it (most of the conversation was off the record), I think he believes that Hynes made some late mistakes and that enough voters are ready to move beyond Quinn that he has a legitimate shot.
The power of a sitting governor should never be underestimated in a primary election. Even in the “new era” of reform, governors have jobs, contracts and other favors they can hand out to key constituencies. Quinn doled out million-dollar grants like they were candy in 2010.
Besides that, Quinn is one of the best closers I’ve ever seen. After leading for months, Quinn began slipping against Hynes in 2010. By the last weekend, even some of the governor’s top aides were thinking about finding new jobs after primary day.
And Quinn rallied again that fall, when most people had written him off against state Sen. Bill Brady.
But back to Daley. Will he do it? Well, he sounds more like a candidate than he ever has, but until he starts raising money and doing some traveling round Illinois we shouldn’t take him that seriously.
Can he beat Quinn? In 2010, enough people were willing to give the “accidental governor” a chance that he was able to achieve wins by small margins in both the primary and general elections.
This time around, Quinn will have had nearly six years in the office, and if things don’t turn around soon, he’s not going to get the benefit of the doubt.
Another Daley consideration has to be whether Attorney General Lisa Madigan decides to run. After years of dismissing the prospect, Madigan seemed almost eager to take on the challenge when we spoke on Election Night in November.
She flatly denied any interest in a state Supreme Court bid, saying such a job would be too boring. She seemed steamed at Chicago reporters, who had asked her whether she could be a governor and raise her young children.
And she pointed to her huge campaign fund, which currently contains about $3.6 million. And one early poll had Madigan leading Quinn 64 percent to 20 percent.
The Daley people say they aren’t factoring Madigan into the equation just yet. If she runs, she runs. But now they aren’t worrying too much about it. We’ll see.
Illinois’ top fiscal officer urged lawmakers Monday to transfer more than $1 billion from financially sound state programs to agencies that are in danger of running out of money, including some that serve seniors, children and the disabled.
Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka said the supplemental funds are needed so the agencies can pay for services through this fiscal year, which ends in June.
“We need to end the denial and address those budget shortfalls before they jeopardize critical services that our residents depend on,” said Topinka, a Republican.
She said a health insurance fund for state workers faces a $900 million shortfall. The Department of Aging needs an estimated $200 million for a program that helps seniors and people with disabilities in home-based settings; workers compensation has requested an additional $82 million; and the Department of Children and Family Services needs about $25 million to avoid laying off child-welfare workers, she said.
She suggested that other state agencies be required to set aside a portion of their appropriation in reserve, money that could be switched to the social-service providers.
The comptroller said the donating agencies and programs would have to be “financially sound.” Asked who might fit that definition, she pointed to Gov. Pat Quinn, saying that all of the agencies “report to the governor” and that he is “in the best position” to determine who can do without.
Ms. Topinka said she’s willing to set aside 12 percent of her budget, about $3 million, for that purpose. […]
Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, chairman of the House Human Services Appropriations Committee, says it “is correct” that more money is needed and vendors need to be paid, but Ms. Topinka needs to put some skin in the game herself with specifics. “If she has identified additional reserves,” Ms. Feigenholtz said in an email, “she should present a detailed plan and we will gladly review it.”
Despite repeated failures, Democrats again are considering a multibillion-dollar loan to pay down the state’s backlog of past-due bills, now hovering at a near-record $9 billion.
Republicans, led by State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, continue to resist the short-term loan idea as a way for Illinois to pay down stacks of invoices overdue by as much as four months to businesses, charities and local governments performing some of the state’s most essential services.
But an influential Senate Democrat, John Sullivan, is working on a borrowing proposal to re-introduce in this spring’s legislative session. A House budget leader, Rep. Frank Mautino, said a loan would mean “tremendous” savings and should be part of upcoming budget negotiations with Gov. Pat Quinn.
Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said Topinka’s vociferous testimony against the measure during last fall’s session had “a chilling effect” because borrowing is “the kind of thing that needs a bipartisan coalition.”
Translation: Without bipartisan support, Madigan probably won’t move ahead with this.
* Related…
* Deadbeat Illinois: Ambulance services suffer as state delays payments
* Bruce Rauner had some harsh words for Congressman Aaron Schock when he talked to Bernie Schoenburg recently. “I do not think he’s the right person or qualified to be governor — not even close,” Rauner said.
“I find that interesting,” Schock told me this week, “coming from someone who four years ago met with me and encouraged me to run for governor … and said that he and his friends would raise me all the money I ever needed.”
Schock said Rauner had “asked to meet with me” back then.
* Schock also had this to say about the upcoming primary…
“I think I can make the case to my primary voters that maybe we need to be thinking about who can actually win the general election,” he said. “Because at the end of the day, being the nominee isn’t worth anything if you can’t win the general election.”
Rauner told me that creating wealth in Illinois and improving schools are among his passions. He said Indiana Gov. MITCH DANIELS is “sort of my hero.”
“It’s amazing that the worst-run state in the country (Illinois) is right next door to the best one,” he said. “They’re cleaning our clock, taking our jobs.” He also said their schools are “much better than ours.”
He described himself as a “free-market, conservative Republican,” but also said his wife, DIANA MENDLEY RAUNER, is a Democrat.
A worker shouldn’t be under a union boss’ thumb any more than under a business boss’ thumb. Increasingly, employers are relocating to these pro-employment freedom states, and are only looking at those states when considering job expansion decisions.
These labor issues, along with high taxes, restrictive regulations and high litigation costs have pushed more and more employers out of Illinois for years. We used to lead the nation in manufacturing employment; now, we’ve declined to merely the national average. As employers and jobs leave, our tax burden is spread over fewer taxpayers, increasing the costs for all of us who choose to remain in Illinois.
The result is a long-term death spiral that can only be reversed by becoming much more attractive to businesses and their investors and much more pro-job creation for workers.
Illinois need not adopt the exact reforms found in Wisconsin, Indiana, or Michigan. But we sure need to move in that direction if we are going to compete for jobs.
One creative solution is available to us that has not been tried elsewhere. Under federal labor law, states may authorize their local communities to decide for themselves whether to embrace right-to-work.
Why not empower Sangamon County, or Effingham County, or any of our other local governments, to decide for themselves if they would like to compete for the jobs that come with new manufacturing plants or transportation facilities built by the many hundreds of companies that will only consider expanding in flexible work areas?
A 2011 study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute found that workers in states with right-to-work laws earned, on average, $1,500 less annually than workers in closed-shop states.
The wage discrepancy is even higher for women and minorities. The rate of employer-sponsored health insurance and pensions is also lower in right-to-work states. It is not a coincidence that eight of the top 10 poorest states are so called right-to-work.
While out-of-state corporations and venture capitalists would benefit by paying significantly lower wages and virtually no benefits, the very fabric keeping our communities together today would unravel. The “race to the bottom” would hasten the decline and harm working families who are investing their time and efforts to make their communities better places to live. Responsible job creation for all throughout Illinois is the key to rebuilding our economy, not selling out working families.
* Related…
* Jim Dey: Beleaguered GOP looks to avoid family fight
