* I’ve been getting some “complaints” lately that I haven’t posted any Oscar the Puppy pics. So, here he is being cool with his shades and shaking hands…
* And if you don’t like this one, well I can’t ever help you. Here’s Taj Mahal rehearsing back stage with the Tedeschi Trucks Band and Jerry Douglas…
Chief Justice Rita B. Garman and the Illinois Supreme Court have scheduled a special evening session of oral argument on Tuesday, March 17, and have invited Gov. Bruce Rauner and the entire Illinois legislature to observe the Court in session.
It is uncertain when an evening session was last held in the Illinois Supreme Court Building, but it is believed to have been more than a century ago.
The Court will hear oral arguments in a case involving an amendment passed by the legislature to the Illinois Juvenile Court Act. A portion of the amendment was ruled unconstitutional by a Circuit Court and the case is on direct appeal to the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Garman explained that the special evening session is an opportunity for members of the General Assembly to observe first-hand the interaction of the functions of the three branches of government and the operation of the checks and balances essential to our system.
“The case involves an amendment that was debated and passed by the legislature, signed by the Governor, applied by the State in an individual case, challenged by a defendant, and declared un- constitutional by the Circuit Court,” said Chief Justice Garman. “It affords a window into how our constitutional system operates and the balance among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.”
The case is People v. Richardson. It involves a defendant who was 17 years old when he allegedly committed the offenses charged. At the time, the Juvenile Court Act applied only to minors under the age of 17, making him ineligible for juvenile court. After the crimes were committed, but before Richardson was to be tried, the legislature amended the Act to raise the age limit for juvenile felony proceedings to 18. The amendment expressly provides that it is to be applied only to offenses committed on or after its effective date. The Circuit Court of DuPage County ruled that it would violate the constitutional guarantee of equal protection if the defendant were not given the benefit of the amendment.
“The State will be represented by an attorney from the Office of the Attorney General, and the defendant will be represented by the Office of the State Appellate Defender,” Chief Justice Garman noted in her letter to the governor, legislative leaders, and members of the Senate and House. “Thus, you will have the opportunity not only to see the Court at work, but also to observe these valuable public employees performing their vital functions on behalf of the people of the State of Illinois.”
I’m not sure how many legislators are gonna show. The Sullivan Caucus and the Black Caucus both have huge events that night. And Gov. Rauner has committed to attending the Sullivan Caucus event.
* The Question: Should the Democrats wait for Gov. Rauner to propose a revenue increase, or should they do it themselves, or should they work with him behind the scenes and make a joint announcement, or should they forget about new revenues entirely?
Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner fired the first shot across the bow last month against the public sector labor unions by ordering an end to a requirement that workers pay dues even if they decide not to join a union.
“These forced union dues are a critical cog in the corrupt bargaining that is crushing taxpayers,” Rauner said, adding that forcing non-union employees to pay union dues requires them to fund political activity they don’t agree with.”
But local union reaction suggests the executive order may have the opposite effect. […]
“We had approximately 8 to 12 fair-share members that this would have affected,” [local AFSCME Steward Bryon Steadman] said. “Ironically, after these members saw what the governor was attempting to do they decided to become full-share members. Our local now has 100 percent full membership, something I’ve never seen before at our facility.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan arrived at a South Side elementary school Thursday morning for an event — but his driver took a wrong turn down a dead-end alley, and Duncan was forced to walk half a block to the school amid protesters who’d been waiting for him to complain about standardized testing.
About 50 parents and children stood outside Ariel Community Academy so they could deliver their message to him about their opposition to the PARCC test. They chased his black SUV when it turned short of the school into an alley.
Why is his U.S. Department of Education forcing a controversial standardized test — one many parents don’t want and that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has argued is “not ready” for prime time — down the throats Chicago Public Schools?
“I’m not,” Duncan said. “The state works it out without Chicago. . . . That’s the state’s decision.”
But isn’t the mandate being dictated by the federal government? Isn’t that what’s behind the threat to withhold $1 billion in funding that forced Chicago’s hand?
“No. You’re wrong. . . . You’re making stuff up. You don’t have your facts straight,” Duncan said.
* From a letter written by an Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Education to the the State Board of Education inquiring about its options in dealing with Chicago’s refusal…
Dear Superintendent Koch:
This letter is in response to your November 25, 2014 letter to Secretary Arne Duncan, regarding various inquiries that have arisen in Illinois about the requirements for State assessments under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA) and, concomitantly, ESEA flexibility. Your letter was referred to the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, and I am pleased to respond on behalf of Secretary Duncan. […]
Below, I have responded to each of the questions for which you have asked ED to confirm the Illinois State Board of Education’s ( ISBE’s) interpretation of certain provisions of Section 1111(b)(3), providing the statutory and regulatory citations, as applicable, and noting any differences between the statutory and regulatory requirements of the ESEA and ESEA flexibility.
1. Please confirm that, under the ESEA, a local educational agency (LEA) is not allowed to “take a year off” from assessing students.
The ISBE’s interpretation is correct. […]
2. Please confirm that it would be inconsistent with ESEA requirements for a State to offer “a menu of assessments” from which local school districts could select to administer to students.
Patrick and Megan Esselman are thriving now. They’re two of Kerry Esselman’s three children who’ve taken part in the state’s Early Intervention program, which screens children under the age of the 3 for many developmental delays and then provides therapy. […]
Patrick is proof, [her mom] says. As a toddler, he couldn’t sit up and he was non-verbal, Kerry Esselman says.
More than 20,000 Illinois one- and two-year-olds were helped by the program last year alone. But now Rauner wants to change requirements, making it more difficult for toddlers with lesser delays to get help.
Advocates say the change would also cut 10,000 children, like Megan, from the program now.
A Rauner spokesperson says the governor had to make some difficult decisions to close a $6 billion budget hole. “Eligibility will be adjusted to prioritize the most vulnerable children,” the spokesperson said.
Friday, Mar 13, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Recently, ads on Capitol Fax have distorted the facts about the Illinois Low Carbon Portfolio Standard (LCPS) (HB 3293/SB 1585). Let’s set the record straight.
Myth: “This is just a bailout for Exelon.” Fact: The opposite is true. The LCPS is a technology-neutral policy that rewards all low carbon resources equally within a competitive market framework. The LCPS is one of the market-based solutions identified in the HR 1146 Report issued by the State of Illinois to position Illinois to meet future energy and environmental goals, which includes preventing the early retirement of certain Illinois nuclear plants that would result in much greater costs and risks to Illinois.
Myth: “This LCPS will cost consumers $1.5 billion. Just let the nuclear plants close.” Fact: The LCPS includes consumer protections that limit the consumer impact to about $2 per month for the average Illinois residential electricity customer (the consumer protections apply to all customers). The cost to Illinois of allowing nuclear plants to prematurely retire are as much as 12 times greater than the actual cost of the LCPS, when fully considering increased wholesale power prices, transmission costs, adverse economic impacts, and adverse environmental impacts. (Source: HR 1146 Agency Report)
Myth: “The LCPS does not benefit Illinois in any way.” Fact: The LCPS will protect thousands of Illinois jobs, prevent economic destruction of Illinois communities, and make the state an environmental leader.
Members of the General Assembly: Support the Illinois Low Carbon Portfolio Standard and Include Zero Carbon, Reliable Nuclear Energy In Illinois’ Energy Future.
* From Rahn Emanuel campaign spokesman Steve Mayberry…
“After four months of studying for the final exam, Chuy Garcia is telling Chicago voters he will hand in his homework after graduation. Today’s stonewalling says zero about what Chuy would do to fund pensions and the budget, or where he would find new revenue. Chicagoans demand an honest framework to balance budgets and secure our workers’ pensions, not an empty promise to appoint a commission on April 8. Chicagoans want a mayor who leads through us through tough times, not a politician who promises $1.9 billion in big spending and big borrowing but hides how will sock it to taxpayers later.”
* The Emanuel campaign also sent this today…
Mayor Emanuel Lays Out Fiscal Framework
Rahm’s plan follows the reform and revenue roadmap that helped balance last four city budgets and led to three landmark pension deals
Chicago – As the public waits anxiously for Chuy Garcia’s much-hyped plan to pay for more than $1.5 billion in new spending promises while balancing the budget’s $350 million deficit, Mayor Rahm Emanuel today outlined his framework to continue on the progress of the last four years.
“Chicago has come a far way in four short years, and now is not the time to risk that progress on empty promises. My budget and pension framework builds on our accomplishments of the last four years – four balanced budgets and three pension agreements with organized labor,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “Chicagoans have a clear choice: our honest budget that couples reform with revenue and creates a strong climate for job growth, or Chuy’s promise to take us backward with $2 billion in promises that would wreck our finances, hike property taxes or force drastic cuts.”
But go check out the actual “plan.” It’s almost laughable. There are a few small doable things, but for the most part it’s a bunch of pie in the sky stuff or “stay the course” rhetoric.
State utility regulators moved today to open a new investigation into Peoples Gas’ massive and troubled gas-main replacement program in Chicago. […]
A pair of letters to the ICC last month from anonymous whistleblowers alleged that Peoples is badly mismanaging the program. That prompted the commission to open the special probe.
“We’re pleased they’re ordering the investigation,” said David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board in Chicago. “These are very serious allegations. We are concerned that perhaps a dual track has been set (to consider the merger and conduct the investigation separately). We think they are inextricably tied.” […]
[Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s] office has estimated that the average Chicago household’s base gas rates will double over the coming decade if Peoples’ program continues on its present course.
A decade ago, Peoples Gas stood accused of ripping off Chicagoans under an arrangement with Enron to profit on cheap natural gas in storage that ratepayers had previously financed.
At the center of that scandal—which ended up costing the utility $100 million in customer rebates under a settlement with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and others—was an executive named Bill Morrow.
Morrow, then a vice president with Peoples, negotiated Peoples’ arrangement with Enron, the Illinois Commerce Commission determined. Enron, the Houston-based energy trading giant, later collapsed in disgrace following revelations of deceptive accounting and manipulation of energy markets that helped cause extensive power blackouts in California. The mishandling of Enron’s accounting eventually led to the fall of its auditor, Chicago-based Arthur Andersen, and sent Enron’s CEO, Jeffrey Skilling, to prison in 2006.
At its heart, Peoples’ deal with Enron in the early 2000s was a “shell game” that allowed Peoples’ parent company at the time to profit “at consumers’ expense,” the commission found in its final order in March 2006.
Fast forward to today. Peoples Gas again is under fire, this time for its management of a massive program to replace 2,000 miles of aging underground gas mains in Chicago. A project that Peoples parent Integrys Energy Group said in 2009 would cost $2.2 billion over 20 years now is estimated to cost $4.6 billion, according to the Attorney General’s interpretation of information provided by Peoples. […]
And the man who’s been in charge of the gas-main program since its inception in 2009? Bill Morrow.
A bill that would have taken legal notices out of the newspaper will not be making its way to the House floor.
Rep. Joe Sosnowski’s House Bill 261 would eliminate the requirement for local governments to post public notices in local newspapers. Instead, it would require governments to post notices only on their websites.
The bill failed in committee Thursday by a 5-6 vote. […]
“This was an initial litmus test at the committee level,” he said. “I think, generally, the committee was open to the legislation. We’ve just got some fine-tuning to do.”
All legislators have community newspapers in their districts. And all Downstate and suburban legislators have local newspapers which publish these required notices for a hefty fee. And pretty much all community newspapers have been struggling financially for years. Every dollar helps. And, not all, but just about all those newspapers are generally friendly toward their legislators, regularly publishing their press releases, having them over for lunch with the publisher, etc.
Dinging those papers could very well be the right fiscal move in trying times, but it’s dangerous politics…
Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson, said some of his constituents do not have access to the Web and rely on printed newspapers for their information. He voted for the bill on the condition that Sosnowski work with the Illinois Press Association and others to reach a compromise on how to reach individuals without computers or Internet access.
Heading into an expensive re-election campaign, Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., is cranking up his fundraising, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned, with Gov. Bruce Rauner ready to unleash his network of super wealthy donors to help Kirk win a second term.
“Got to make sure you are long and you are strong,” Kirk told me on Thursday. He said his next fundraising report will show contributions of $612,000 in the last few months for his 2016 race.
* The Illinois Policy Institute’s Kristina Rasmussen has an SJ-R op-ed…
To hear critics of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget proposal, you’d think he wants women to die from cancer, kids to wander in the streets and the poor to freeze in their homes. […]
Despite the claims of the so-called “Responsible Budget Coalition” – which tweeted Feb. 27 that “Rauner child care budget cuts mean 6-year-olds will have to take are of themselves” – the budget called for a current-year supplemental appropriation of $278 million for child care services to make up for the deliberate underfunding enacted by former Gov. Pat Quinn and the General Assembly last spring.
But instead, we see headlines such as “Rauner wants to seize utility funds for the poor to help balance budget.” Never mind that 263,000 Illinois households are still in line to receive heating assistance in the coming year.
Yes, the governor is taking the heat for eliminating numerous programs, but the reality is many of these initiatives had been funded last year by Quinn at a perfunctory amount of $1. It doesn’t compute that the guy who funded “homeless education” at $1 somehow is a saint, but the man who moves it to $0 is an ogre. […]
Contrary to the impression left by doomsayers, most core government services will be more than adequately funded under Rauner’s budget proposal. The lights will not go off at the Stratton Building. People still will get help. Pension checks still will be cut. Even the politicians at the Statehouse would have a hard time spending $31.5 billion without covering the basics.
Yes, poor people. Look on the bright side. Rauner’s budget would, indeed, eliminate all future child care assistance for any child 6 and over, but let’s brush right past that cold, hard fact and look at the child care that he still wants to fund! All is well! Facts are sooooo inconvenient!
And while heating assistance - paid for with a surcharge on every Illinois residents’ utility bills - is being cut in half, the federal government is still picking up the other half. Bright side, people! Bright side! And if you’re a motorcycle rider, your education funding - like LIHEAP, paid for by motorcycle riders - is actually being increased! So, buy a Harley Davidson, poor people! Pull yourself up by your Durango boot straps, already! Maybe the governor will even let you ride with him. Ever think of that? Then you can talk to him about cutting your 6-year-old off of childcare assistance. Brilliant!
And, yes, Pat Quinn is most definitely a “saint.” Yep. Everyone agrees on that, which is why he won reelection last year, right?
State grants that aren’t eligible for federal matching dollars through the Medicaid program have been especially vulnerable to potential cuts in recent years as Illinois struggled through a recession and bumpy recovery, said Tony Paulauski, executive director of the Frankfort-based Arc of Illinois.
A $482,000 state grant on the chopping block in Rauner’s budget is the sole source of funding for the Arc’s unique Lifespan program. Lifespan provides free information, counseling and advocacy to people with disabilities and their families. […]
The elimination of state general revenue fund support for The Autism Program would be the second-largest cut among the non-Medicaid grant programs. The largest single cut — $8.9 million — would remove funding for respite services throughout the state.
Respite is provided to families of children with intellectual disabilities. Trained workers care for children for hours at a time while family members take care of chores outside the home or simply get a break to preserve marriages and the health of caregivers, said Greg O’Connor, chief executive director of Springfield-based Sparc. .
* But, she does have a point. Rod Blagojevich and Quinn both tried to cut those two programs mentioned directly above. And both did cut back this one over time…
Rauner has proposed eliminating a $390,000 Illinois Department of Human Services grant to the Humboldt Park-based Children’s Place Association, which provides specialized preschool to about 65 toddlers of low-income Latino and African-American families who earn, on average, $5,000 per year. Approximately 50 percent of the kids are from HIV/AIDS-affected families. The others suffer from a broad range of medical disabilities.
They didn’t, however, eliminate it.
* Look, this isn’t about a few cuts that were also proposed earlier. It’s about the width and breadth of the governor’s proposed cuts. And that’s clearly newsworthy and should be debated, not breezed past.
Bruce Rauner has the big chair now. He most certainly helped create this problem by demanding that the General Assembly allow the income tax hike to expire on January 1st. They bowed to his demands. If the tax hike hadn’t expired, we wouldn’t be in this fiscal mess. The current situation is what it is. Deal with it.
Schock’s business career began early. In high school, he bought 107 acres of farmland near Peoria - property he sold to the local sewage district two years later for more than $100,000 in profit. As a college student, he bought three rental properties across the street from Bradley University, selling them to the school a few years later for a profit of more than $120,000. […]
In 2007, Peoria businessman Samuel Hoerr obtained permits to build a home on a Schock-owned vacant lot in the luxury golf course development called Augusta Estates. Schock and Hoerr - himself a financial contributor - have been both listed as owners in varying local real estate records. Sam Hoerr did not respond to a telephone message left at his business. Members of the Hoerr family - a prominent Peoria family with interests in real estate and construction - have donated nearly $80,000 to Schock’s campaign and supporting political committees since 2007. Schock’s sister and campaign manager, Tania Hoerr, married into the family. […]
His financial records show that Schock also earns between $50,000 and $100,000 each year in rental income from a Peoria apartment complex, once owned by an advocacy group that supports many conservative causes like opposing gay marriage. The National Christian Foundation received the stake in the apartments as a donation from a Schock contributor, then sold the investment to Schock and Hoerr family investments in 2007, according to tax filings reviewed by the AP. The foundation declined to comment on its role in the transaction.
Schock emerged from the deal with a 16 percent stake in the apartments, his share valued at $684,000 based on the purchase price. Financial disclosures show he borrowed more than $500,000 to pay for the apartment investments. Schock then switched that loan to Backlund’s bank as well.
The survey had Emanuel at 51 percent to 37 percent for Garcia with less than four weeks before the April 7 runoff election. Both candidates have gained around 5 percentage points since the first round of voting last month. Another 11 percent of voters remained undecided in the poll, which was conducted March 6 through Wednesday. […]
(T)he poll shows Emanuel’s support rebounding among black voters, a group viewed by both campaigns as a major key to winning next month. Among African-American voters, 52 percent backed the mayor, 31 percent supported Garcia and 15 percent were undecided. […]
Among black voters, 50 percent have a favorable view of the mayor, up from 44 percent last month. But for Garcia, the percentage of black voters with a favorable view grew only slightly since last month, to 31 percent from 28 percent, while those who viewed him unfavorably more than doubled to 22 percent from 9 percent. […]
Overall, a third of the city’s voters have no impression of Garcia, while 40 percent view him favorably and 24 percent look at him in an unfavorable light… Emanuel is now viewed favorably by 50 percent of all voters, while 32 percent have an unfavorable impression of the mayor.
