Liability drops, costs to rise
Monday, Nov 4, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* A tiny bit of good news…
According to a new report out today by Moody’s Investors Service, the “adjusted net pension liability” in the state’s five retirement systems dropped 9 percent, or $16.5 billion, to “only” $173 billion, in the year ended June 30. Adjusted net pension liability is a form of unfunded liability. Moody’s defines this differently than other ratings agencies, reflecting what it views as overly optimistic assumptions by pension fund managers.
The New York bond rater attributed the 9 percent decline to two factors: The pension funds earned 12.9 percent on their investments, exceeding their assumed 7.9 percent annual return, and interest rates rose, narrowing the spread between what the state expects to earn on pension investments in the future and what Moody’s believes will be earned.
* But, of course, this being Illinois there’s always bad news…
On a three-year average basis, Illinois’ adjusted net pension liability actually rose 7.2 percent, to $165.8 billion, Moody’s said. And Illinois still has a ratio of pension liabilities to revenues of 241 percent, compared with a 50-state median of 45 percent.
As a result, without reform the share of the state’s general (operating) funds that will have to go to pay pension costs will rise from 22 percent in fiscal 2013 to 24 percent in 2014 and potentially 26 percent in 2015, it said.
That 26 percent figure is based on the partial expiration of the tax hike midway through FY 2015.
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Question of the day
Monday, Nov 4, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sen. Bill Brady talked about his lackluster fundraising with WJBC…
Brady raised about $66,000 during the three-month period that ended Sept. 30 and had about $273,000 on hand based on filings with the Illinois State Board of Elections.
Brady says he has grassroots support, which he says is more important than money.
“We really haven’t been as aggressive as we would like to have been in terms of raising money, I need a little more distance. When you’ve asked people and you’ve raised $20 million just two or three years ago, you need a little distance,” Brady said.
Brady says after a costly campaign for governor three years ago, some donors are a bit fatigued and need time before they’ll give again.
“I raised $20 million in the last election for governor. I think there are a lot of people whose pocketbook was fatigued when giving to Bill Brady, but they are coming along. We will raise enough money, we’ve always been outspent though,” Brady said.
* The Question: Is donor fatigue a plausible explanation for Bill Brady’s lack of campaign funds? Take the poll and then make sure to explain your answer in comments, please.
survey solutions
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* Adam Andrzejewski’s “Open the Books” organization sent out an e-mail this morning entitled “We Sued. Taxpayers Won”…
This is a watershed moment in our fight for transparent government. In a Cook County court room, during ten months of legal wrangling, we’ve shown:
1. Citizens own the State of Illinois checkbook spending information;
2. The Comptroller has a constitutional duty to provide this data on request;
3. The Comptroller has a duty under Freedom of Information Act to fulfill requests;
4. Citizens can request the state checkbook from the Comptroller, from 1996 forward.
For the first time in state history, all public State of Illinois checkbook payments since 1996 will soon be online at OpenTheBooks.com. Turns out, “three days of work” wasn’t an “undue burden.”
Our suit forced the IL Comptroller to finally comply with the law. It shouldn’t have taken 18 months and a lawsuit. At OpenTheBooks.com, 40 of the 50 state checkbooks are already posted online.
“We aren’t asking the Comptroller to lead the charge on openness and accountability - only to follow the law.” January 8, 2013 Press Conference
Illinois Freedom of Information law has an enforcement provision that allows for return of reasonable legal fees. Through our attorney, Michael Lotus of Howard Law Firm, our demand for return of our $45,000 (so far) in legal costs is not negotiable. Non-payment would have a chilling effect on future citizen lawsuits of equal importance to rectify instances of trampled rights.
In these hyper-partisan times, Comptroller Judy Baar-Topinka (R) and Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D) found common ground attempting to hide the state checkbook from taxpayers- a position that pitted them against us all.
The taxpayer’s won. Pay up, Judy- and let’s move on. [Emphasis in original]
But, wait. Didn’t Andrzejewski’s group get this info months ago?
* So, I followed up with Andrzejewski. His reply…
We took our time in broadcasting the latest to give the Comptroller opportunity to settle this case. Topinka didn’t seize the opportunity to wrap it up. We are still assessing whether she’s turned over all public information and didn’t withhold or redact too much.
We are serious about driving a judgment and fully enforcing FOIA with return of our legal fees.
Ah, legal fees.
* The comptroller’s spokesman responded…
That “news release” is from left field.
He has the same information that he’s had all along and we haven’t lost a single motion in Court.
I’m not sure how that’s a victory for him, but if it means he is dropping his frivolous lawsuit, so be it.
It sounds like now all that’s left is his absurd attempt to soak taxpayers for his legal fees.
*** UPDATE *** Andrzejewski’s full response to Comptroller Topinka…
We were disappointed to see the response by the Comptroller to our announcement today. Here are some details to set the record straight.
Eighteen months ago we requested the State’s checkbook for 2011 under the Freedom of Information Act. How the taxpayers’ money is spent is a matter of the highest possible public interest. The Comptroller has a duty to the public to make that information available.
The Comptroller responded that it would take “three days” of work to produce these records, and that this was “an undue burden.” After repeated further requests, we were finally forced to bring a lawsuit to get the State’s checkbook. Here’s our complaint: http://forthegoodofillinois.org/wp-content/uploads/20130104-Complaint-by-For-The-Good-Of-Illinois.pdf
The Comptroller, represented by the Attorney General’s office, filed a motion to dismiss our complaint. They argued, among other things, that the State’s outdated computer systems couldn’t remove confidential information from the public spending record. Our response to the Comptroller’s motion is here: http://forthegoodofillinois.org/wp-content/uploads/20130408-Plaintiffs-Motion-For-Relief-Pursuant-To-IL-Rule-191b-1.pdf
We also filed a motion to take discovery, to get information to respond to the Comptroller’s motion to dismiss. The Court granted that motion, and we served written requests for information on the Comptroller. To be clear, we won that motion and the Comptroller lost it.
When the Comptroller saw our detailed, written requests for information, their office finally agreed to provide the information it should have given us from the beginning. The information we forced the Comptroller to disclose was not previously available to the public. For example, we now have itemized payments, which the Comptroller had not produced before.
The Comptroller also stated that it had now written computer code that will allow it to remove confidential information and produce its other spending records. The Comptroller can no longer refuse to produce its entire checkbook by claiming that there are confidential records in it. Our effort in this case has conferred a benefit on everyone who wants to know where the public’s money is going in Illinois.
The Freedom of Information Act provides for attorney’s fees. There is a good reason for this. Citizens of Illinois should not have to fight a legal battle, and spend their own money, to get public records showing how their tax money is spent. Otherwise, the State could withhold public information with little chance that ordinary citizens could ever force that information to be disclosed. This is an important case which we brought on behalf of all Illinois citizens. Seeking our fees is exactly what the Freedom of Information Act provides for.
We are proud of the success we have already had in this case, on behalf of the citizens of Illinois, and we look forward to bringing this case to a conclusion.
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Checkbook cred
Monday, Nov 4, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Bruce Rauner talks about his conservative credentials…
“I’ve been a passionate free market conservative my whole life. I believe in limited government, low taxes and individual liberty, personal responsibility. The reason we are the most prosperous nation in the world in history is because of free market capitalism. I’ve built dozens of successful companies. I’m all about economic freedom as well as economic liberty.
“I’m a huge donor to the Americans for Prosperity, this group, but also Cato Institute, Club for Growth, Illinois Policy Institute, Heartland Institute.”
He didn’t mention his “huge” contributions to Democrats, but I suppose that wouldn’t add to his conservative cred.
* Meanwhile, Rauner’s name popped up in a rather odd story a new book about the 2012 presidential campaign…
On May 10, 2012, a woman dropped by the Evanston office of Pete Giangreco, a Democratic strategist advising the Obama campaign. The anonymous brunette passed along to one of Giangreco’s staffers a GOP consultant’s proposal to resurrect Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue—remarkably just hours after it was pitched during a meeting at the Wilmette home of Todd Ricketts, whose SuperPac was poised to spend millions to defeat President Barack Obama.
Giangreco read the presentation and that same day raced the proposal over to the Obama re-election headquarters in the Prudential Building, handing it over to Obama campaign manager Jim Messina. Messina quickly put together a conference call which included Obama strategist David Axelrod. They wanted to leak the proposal about Obama’s former pastor to the press. And on May 17, The New York Times trumpeted the scoop on the front page. […]
After the meeting at Todd Ricketts home was finished, Fred Davis, the GOP consultant pushing to revive Wright, headed over to Evanston for lunch with Bruce Rauner, at the time mulling a GOP bid for Illinois governor and now in the 2014 contest. That lunch was a block from Giangreco’s office. […]
Todd and his brother Pete were at the meeting along with Brian Baker, the Ending Spending President. Joe Ricketts was not there, according to the book. Baker “thought the singular focus on Wright was a big mistake.” Tom Ricketts “was negotiating with City Hall for financial help in rebuilding Wrigley Field. ‘This will cause a massive problem for your brother, and for the team, Baker said. This will not go over well in Chicago.”
Baker—who drove Davis to Evanston for his lunch date with Rauner—said to Davis in the car “he was nervous about what the Romney camp would think of a Wright-centric super-Pac effort.”
Elements on the far right really wanted to use the Wright stuff against Obama again last year. They tend to lean toward the tinfoil hat spectrum, so I can only imagine what they’ll make of this.
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The grownup is not behaving like one
Monday, Nov 4, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
The rich irony of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan denouncing somebody else for attempting to be a “kingmaker” is so obvious and laughable that I can’t help but wonder why a guy who’s been a take no prisoners kingmaker himself for so long in this state would ever think of saying such a thing.
You may already know the story. The Better Government Association and the Chicago Sun-Times took a look at some of Madigan’s campaign petition passers to see if they had government jobs.
What they found wasn’t surprising at all. Seventeen of thirty people who passed Madigan’s nominating petitions worked for the government. Another 12 had at one time worked for the government.
Power tends to feed off itself. The longer you’re around, the more power you tend to have, and the more power you have, the more you can get. And Madigan has been around Illinois and Chicago politics forever. He is at the top of the heap as far as state government power goes.
Ideologically, Madigan has moved with the times. He favors both medical marijuana and gay marriage, for example.
Politically, the man is anything but post-modern. He’s the 13th Ward Democratic Committeeman, and he runs his ward like it’s been run for a century or more.
Running an old-time organization, however, requires old-style patronage, and Madigan is a master at finding jobs for his precinct workers.
A good case in point is Patrick Ward, a Madigan precinct worker. Ward was already drawing a public pension while working at Metra, but he wanted a raise and hadn’t received one, so he asked his sponsor for help. Madigan made a couple of calls, then backed off when the man who ran Metra objected to political interference. That guy eventually resigned with a golden parachute and a vow of silence. But when the media got wind of it all heck broke loose and all fingers pointed to Madigan.
The Sun-Times and the Better Government Association’s investigation team took a look at Madigan’s most recent nominating petitions, noticed Ward was a circulator then took a look at the other names.
The BGA sent people door to door to talk to the other circulators and see if they were the same folks who popped up on their government employee searches. Some of those precinct workers alleged that they and their families were harassed, and Madigan got angry.
So, Madigan unleashed a diatribe against the BGA and its leader Andy Shaw for being on “an unrelenting journey to become a kingmaker in Illinois politics.”
Madigan is fiercely protective of the loyal members of his 13th Ward organization, who are almost like family to him.
A statement simply denouncing the BGA’s tactics would’ve been reasonable, although still ironic considering how personally aggressive and “unrelenting” Madigan’s House campaigns can be.
And some of the BGA’s political motivations and top contributors are also fair game. The group preaches political cleanliness, yet it doesn’t always associate with the cleanest of the clean.
But all Madigan did with that “kingmaker” comment was turn the BGA’s Shaw into a folk hero and help Shaw raise lots more money. You’d think Madigan would comprehend the public consequences of such an over the top claim.
Word going around is that Madigan may also be trying to head off another ongoing BGA probe. But all he may have done was whet the group’s appetite.
The Speaker has really been off his game the past several months. He literally ran away and hid from Chicago reporter Chuck Goudie a few months ago, which resulted in a humiliating story on the Chicago media market’s most-watched TV station.
He publicly tossed his own daughter under the bus after she blamed his resistance to retirement for her decision not to run for governor.
And Madigan insulted Senate President Cullerton last May by telling a Sun-Times reporter that Cullerton displayed a “lack of leadership” on pension reform.
Partly due to his daughter’s aborted gubernatorial bid and partly due to the Metra “scandal,” polling has shown that the public’s awareness of Madigan has grown this year. And the public definitely doesn’t like the guy. So, he’s only hurting himself and his members with stunts like this BGA attack.
Madigan is valued at the Statehouse for being the most grown up of the grownups. But he’s simply not acting that way of late.
Thoughts?
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* I told subscribers about this last week, on Friday and filled them in on some details today. Gatehouse had a story up today which was essentially the same stuff I told subscribers last week. The four legislative leaders have been meeting to discuss pension reform and are making progress. But that doesn’t mean a vote will happen this week…
“I’ve been directed to say there is good progress,” Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said afterward. “There are some different elements of a reform bill that the leaders agreed to send off to the pension systems to score.”
Brown would not elaborate. […]
“He has been engaged in constructive conversations with all legislative leaders over the last week,” said Cullerton spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon. “It’s clear that the other leaders consider $138 billion to be the baseline for saving. With that in mind, Cullerton is working with the leaders to identify a fair way to increase those savings. The progress is good, but new ideas are still being considered and scored.”
In the past, it has taken more than a week for actuaries to review, or “score,” pension reform proposals and verify the savings that can be expected. Asked if that would preclude a vote on pension reform next week, Phelon said, “I think that’s a safe assumption. The numbers need to work.” […]
“Discussions have been good, and progress is being made,” [Vicki Crawford, spokeswoman for House Republican Leader Jim Durkin] said. “We need to wait for scoring to come back from the systems, so it is highly unlikely there will be a vote next week. […]
“Leader Radogno believes good progress is being made. As they continue to talk, they will look at the numbers and make sure it all works,” said spokeswoman Patty Schuh. “The numbers have to work. To go without numbers is not a very credible position for the state of Illinois.”
Discuss.
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Coming clean
Monday, Nov 4, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Ron Gidwitz finally comes clean to the Tribune about how he tried to convince state Sen. Jim Oberweis to run for US Senate…
Chicago businessman Ron Gidwitz, a social moderate who also unsuccessfully sought the 2006 GOP nomination for governor, acknowledged he “sort of did suggest very strongly on a number of occasions” that Oberweis consider a U.S. Senate bid in 2014.
Sheesh. Was that so difficult?
* Meanwhile, the two GOP legislative leaders ain’t all that enthusiastic about an Oberweis bid…
“Jim, while he may no longer believe some of the things he said in the past, it will come back,” said Illinois Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno of Lemont, who has discouraged an Oberweis bid. “I don’t think that will help the ticket. I encouraged him to think long and hard.” […]
Rep. Jim Durkin of Western Springs, the new Illinois House Republican leader, said Oberweis should do some “soul searching.” Durkin, who defeated Oberweis for the 2002 GOP U.S. Senate nomination, said Oberweis needs to be aware that a litany of controversial statements “don’t wash away after the election” but “will continue on as long as you’re in the public eye.”
Good advice.
* And here’s a recent photo of Sen. Oberweis with one of his “new” Democratic friends, Sen. Martin Sandoval…
Caption?
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