HOST: and of course - many of you have your own opinions on the current budget battle. WAND’s Michael Burton wanted to know exactly what they are. so he took to the streets to find out.
Michael Burton: “Brigette - most people I talked to today found it easy to hold Democrats accountable for political issues in the state and many agree that change of any type can be tough. While lawmakers voice their opinions in Springfield… people in the community are also taking a stand on a never-ending budget battle.”
Man: “There more spend-oriented. He’s more save-oriented. That’s my opinion.”
Michael Burton: “Some picked a side- but Marsha Lenski needs more information.”
Woman: “It seems so entangled to me that I can’t make much sense of it.”
Michael Burton: “On Friday - Governor Bruce Rauner announced he will reject a 2016 fiscal budget if it’s not balanced.”
Man 2: “There’s a lot of things, they’re just not willing to give into, and we understand that but unfortunately, something has to go.”
Michael Burton: “Kevin West says there needs to be a more unified agenda.”
Man 2: “I think everybody involved is trying to decide what’s best for their districts and they’re both trying to see both sides of the aisle. I think they’re having a really struggle with that, knowing what’s coming in is x amount of dollars but they want to spend a greater amount than we actually have.”
Michael Burton: “Like spending money on social programs. Decatur resident Steve Hamilton thinks we have too many.”
Man: “We probably don’t need as many as we have, there’s a lot of redundancies in the programs that we do have.”
Michael Burton: “Many state lawmakers have made it clear they don’t agree with aspects of the governor’s agenda.”
Man: “I think the Democrats are hard-headed and they need to compromise with him. We’ve been going the wrong direction for a long time in this state. We need to turn it around. He’s got some great ideas, they should listen to him.”
Woman: “We’ve become a country of I want, and I want it right now.”
Man 2: “Fair or not, it’s something that has to happen. We can’t continue to do what we’ve been doing and still stay solvent.”
It’s just one news story, but a ton of people were interviewed and there’s not exacty a whole lot of sympathy for the Democratic legislature there, but there does seem to be quite a bit of understanding of the governor’s very simple, direct message. “We need to turn it around.” Heck, that could’ve been said by Rauner himself.
Chicago bonds rose after the Illinois legislature cut more than $200 million from the city’s required 2016 payment into the police and fire retirement systems, a move to provide a partial reprieve from its pension burden.
Illinois’s General Assembly gave final approval Sunday to a bill that would reduce Chicago’s pension payments over the next five years. The average price of a general-obligation bond maturing in 2040 climbed 1.4 percent Monday to 91.6 cents on the dollar. That pushed the yield to 5.6 percent, the lowest since May 12, before Moody’s Investors Service announced that it cut the city’s credit rating to junk.
“It alleviates an immediate fiscal pressure,” said Gary Pollack, who manages $6 billion of munis as head of fixed-income trading at Deutsche Bank AG’s private-wealth management unit in New York. “That’s obviously positive for Chicago, which means it’s positive for the bondholder.”
The legislature’s action would give Chicago more time to find a way to plug a $20 billion pension-fund shortfall that’s left it with a lower credit rating than any big U.S. city except Detroit. The need to put more money into the cash-strapped retirement system has squeezed the city’s budget and led Moody’s to pull its investment-grade rank.
Emanuel’s proposal passed the House 65-45 and the Senate 38-20. But legislative Republicans voted against it, including House GOP Leader Jim Durkin and Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno, with some complaining that the city is still partially deferring rather than immediately meeting its obligation.
Rauner’s office today declined to comment on what he will do with the bill and whether he considers it a hostage of sorts in continuing clashes with Democrats over the state budget and other issues.
But Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said Rauner “tried to beat” the bill. The governor “wants to stop everything now, so he can say in his TV ads that nothing is happening.”
Democrats can deny Rauner the chance to veto the bill by failing to send it to him. Indeed, Brown says he suspects that may happen–Rauner needs time to “cool down,” Brown said. Cullerton has filed a motion to reconsider the bill, which places a temporary brick on it. […]
Another complication: By some accounts, the same bill had been expected to offer similar deferred payment options to downstate pension plans that cover police and firefighters. But that clause was eliminated from the bill and may need to be revived to get Rauner’s support.
Rauner couldn’t beat the bill. But he did keep his GOP members off of it, showing that he is either opposed in principle or at least opposed to passage before he gets his own agenda completed.
And that Downstate language problem may be only part of the issue.
* From a radio interview with the governor today…
Bruce Rauner says the Chicago police & fire pension bill kicks the can down the road on @WBEZmorning
"I'm so disappointed in the mayor"
* Happy hours were getting out of hand when they were banned in Illinois. But, as usual, the powers that be decided to ban something enjoyable entirely instead of just regulating it a bit more. This is long overdue legislation…
Under the legislation, which passed the Illinois House 82-31 the Senate 52-1 over the weekend, restaurants and bars would be allowed to offer discounted beer, wine and spirits for up to 4 hours a day or 15 hours a week. Some limitations will remain in place, including volume discounts (no two-for-ones, for example), and no happy-hour deals after 10 p.m.
The bill also would clarify the law to explicitly allow restaurants to pair alcoholic beverages with meals, something that long has been done at Chicago’s finer-dining establishments but not technically in accordance with the law. The bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, has said the provision came in response from restaurant owners who called her office to complain about being ticketed for the pairings. She declined to name the offenders.
Bars and restaurants also may begin serving house-infused spirits, another no-no that often has been ignored around Chicago. That means imbibers can expect new cocktail offerings around the state that make use of peach-infused vodka or sour cherries soaked in rum.
Hotels also would benefit from the bill, which would streamline permitting and licensure for hoteliers that operate multiple venues under one roof.
In exchange for looser liquor regulations, the legislation would require mandatory statewide training for all who pour and serve alcoholic drinks, including servers, bartenders and the like. The program, called Beverage Alcohol Sellers and Servers Education and Training, is required in Indiana and Michigan and helps servers identify signs of intoxication, stop underage sales and get up to speed on state and local alcohol regulations.
All good stuff.
And the governor had no brick on that bill. On the contrary, even.
* Two Saturdays ago, I was strolling the grounds of the Summer Camp music festival and a young man approached me to ask if I knew who was in the Steve Miller Band.
“Um, Steve Miller,” I said.
He asked if I knew anyone else in the band and I said I didn’t and we politely parted ways.
I was puzzled by that question because it seemed to come out of left field. Why did that guy care about who was in the Steve Miller Band? It just seemed so odd.
Later, I realized what was up. The band was scheduled to play the next day. The festival lineup was so long that I hadn’t even noticed.
* Miller played to the biggest crowd by far at that festival. It was hugely surprising because the average age of the audience was much, much younger than those of us who grew up with the guy. But there they were, joyfully dancing away and singing all the lyrics.
I concluded that they must’ve been raised on Miller’s music by their parents. Or, heck, even their grandparents.
Miller performed a heck of a show. I smiled the whole time. It was an unexpected pleasure.
* The reason I bring this up is because of something Gov. Bruce Rauner said yesterday about Speaker Michael Madigan…
“He makes his money from the status quo. He makes his money from big, expensive government.”
* Between election day and inauguration day, former Gov. Pat Quinn’s office handed out 609 grants totaling $404.6 million. The Sun-Times zeroes in on one of them today…
The village of Melrose Park was awarded a $3 million grant just weeks after its mayor, Ronald Serpico, ordered a stretch of a street in the west suburb to be named after the late father of a top Quinn aide — John D’Alessandro, who was his chief operating officer. Melrose Park has gotten $2.7 million of the grant so far.
Quinn’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity — the agency that gave out the grants — fell under the oversight of D’Alessandro in the governor’s office.
D’Alessandro, 28, who grew up in Melrose Park, joined Quinn’s staff in 2011 as his scheduler and travel aide. He’d risen to deputy chief of staff when he left the state payroll last June to work for the Democratic Governors Association, which pumped $5 million into Quinn’s campaign against Rauner…. He rejoined Quinn’s staff as chief operating officer after the Nov. 4 election.
Around that time, Serpico decided to honor D’Alessandro’s late father — also named John D’Alessandro — by placing his name on a street sign or monument at the corner of 25th Avenue and Division Street as part of the suburb’s marquee “Gateway Project” a few blocks north of Village Hall, according to Melrose Park village records.
The elder D’Alessandro had passed away four years earlier.
* The paper ties that grant to another, more well-known and far more controversial Quinn grant…
D’Alessandro is a longtime friend of Anthony Abruzzo, a member of the Melrose Park village board, but says they never discussed the honorary street name. […]
Abruzzo, 31, owns the architectural firm Forza Design & Consulting Inc. His biggest clients include Cinespace, which got five grants totaling $27.3 million under Quinn — including the $10 million the film studio ended up returning. Cinespace paid Abruzzo’s company about $60,000 out of state grant money, according to records Cinespace filed with the state.
* This must-read open letter to constituents by Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) includes a must-watch video…
Yesterday morning, I spoke on the floor of the House on a bill proposed by several downstate legislators that was intended to be a cleanup to our state’s concealed carry law. The bill (SB836), was characterized as a technical clean up bill but was still opposed by the IL Coalition Against Handgun Violence on grounds that the process of negotiating the bill wasn’t inclusive of both perspectives.
The night before, I voted against the bill in committee and objected to the sponsors’ suggestion that the bill was negotiated and agreed to by all parties.
I spent all night thinking about how we keep having the same fight over and over again: few issues are more polarized than gun rights vs. gun control and I am just as guilty of it as anyone on the other side of the argument. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, so I decided change had to start with me.
When I was recognized by the Speaker and rose to address the House, I could see “here she goes again” on the faces of my usual adversaries in years of battles over guns. What many don’t know is that all three of the lead sponsors of the bill are among my dearest friends in the General Assembly. In our private conversations, we acknowledge that we come from different communities with different needs and that we are each forcefully advocating sincere beliefs on behalf of the people we were sent here to represent. We’ve also often talked about how nice it would be if we could sit down together, without the lobbyists pulling us to extremes, and craft common sense policies that reflect that respect and admiration. Just as we are here to represent our communities, the advocates who work here are paid to represent their positions, not to compromise their organizations’ principles.
I shared a story about the last weekend we were home and an exchange between me and my oldest son while he was at his brother’s baseball game. While the game dragged on, my other two boys got bored and wanted to run around and explore the park around the baseball fields. I said no, I wanted them to stay with me and my oldest repeatedly asked me why. He’s 14, so I am used to that question no matter what the issue, but in this case when I said “because I said so,” the truth was that I didn’t want to tell him the real reason I didn’t want to let them out of my sight. As we sat in the lakefront park on a gorgeous evening, I was preoccupied with the news of how many shootings had happened in the previous week in our neighborhood and I was afraid to let the boys out of my sight. But I wasn’t about to tell my kids that, so I stuck with being the “not cool” mom instead.
When we got home that night, I saw that while we were at the game, a 17 year old boy and a 4 year old girl had been shot in another part of the city and that the little girl was clinging to life with a bullet lodged in her brain. My partner and I were talking about it and she challenged me, reminding me that I used to do a lot of work on gun issues. I responded that I had gotten so much horrific hate mail and threats that I had consciously stepped back to take a break from the ugliness. Her immediate response was “break’s over,” and she was right.
But returning to the same bills, same proposals and same battles just doesn’t make any sense to me. Not because I fear the hate mail, but because I believe all of us were sent here to find solutions and our constituents would prefer us to work together towards compromise rather than dig in on extreme positions with no possibility of success.
I reminded my colleagues that it isn’t the lobbyists’ job to find the middle ground, it is ours and I said that in a gesture of good faith, I was willing to acknowledge that while I did object to the process that led to this bill, I had no objections to the substance of the bill and would be voting yes. I went on to challenge them to meet me in the middle. I made clear that, in spite of being known as a “rabid gun grabber,” I didn’t want their guns, but that I also didn’t want their guns to keep turning up in my neighborhood and leaving bullets lodged in the brains of little girls.
There is a common sense middle ground, one that respects the rights of those who are worthy of respect, punishes those deserving punishment and protects those we are all charged with protecting. It’s time for all of us to find that place, so kids can be free to play in our parks without fear of random acts of violence.
After seeming to indicate Friday that workers’ compensation reform and a property tax freeze were the most important things he wanted to achieve, Rauner on Sunday said all five of the proposals introduced a week ago needed to be addressed. In addition to the property tax freeze and workers’ compensation reform, they include term limits, changes to how political maps are drawn and reforms of civil liability lawsuits. […]
By going past the end of May, the legislature will now need more votes to pass legislation. Instead of 60 votes in the House and 30 in the Senate, bills must now get 71 votes in the House and 36 in the Senate.
The state’s current fiscal year ends June 30, but a critical spending point for the state isn’t reached until about mid-July, when first payrolls must be issued.
Rauner said the administration is making contingency plans, but he would not elaborate.
Madigan said the wealth of Rauner and his allies to use against Democrats is “a new element of consideration. We’ve thought about it. We’ve planned for it.”
That planning appears to be the decision by Madigan and Cullerton to bring lawmakers back to Springfield in just days, using the floor of the House and Senate to respond to Rauner’s use of the bully pulpit, buttressed by the Republican TV campaign.
Rauner said his office was making “contingency” plans, but would not confirm whether that meant he was getting ready for a government shutdown or a strike by unionized state workers when their contract expires.
“We are going to prepare for any and all contingencies,” Rauner said.
Because this is neither a pre-deadline regular session nor a special session called by the speaker and president or the governor, the lawmakers won’t be getting their daily expense payments or mileage reimbursements — a savings of $20,000 on per diem payments alone.
The governor called that savings a little bit of good news in an otherwise stunningly disappointing spring session.
* In my own mind, there’s little doubt that Speaker Madigan has wanted to push the session into overtime for quite a while. I’ll have a fuller explanation of why for subscribers tomorrow, but Madigan did nothing all spring except demand that Rauner take things off the table. And when the governor complied, Madigan didn’t negotiate on the remaining agenda.
But, also, I’m not sure that Rauner did everything he could’ve to change Madigan’s mind. After back-tracking like crazy, he just couldn’t find a way to close a final deal. Make no mistake, Rauner went a whole lot further than Madigan did (which was pretty much nothing). But he’s the governor. It’s ultimately his responsibility to bring those massive Statehouse egos together. And he also seemed to relish this upcoming fight at times. He probably believes he has the Democrats right where he wants them at this very moment.
Forget about the budget, forget about Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda,” forget about the almost unprecedented animosity during the spring legislative session between Democrats and Republicans.
The most talked-about issue under the Illinois Statehouse dome last week was a directive from one of the governor’s top staffers to all state agency directors.
The agency directors received an order from the Rauner administration last Wednesday demanding that they and their staffs not meet or talk with any lobbyists unless the governor’s Policy Office had first OK’d the communications. The directors were also told to inform agency “stakeholders” that they didn’t really need to hire lobbyists anyway.
The governor’s press office refused several entreaties to comment on the ban.
“We have continued concern about outside interests’ attempts to influence the use of state resources and state policy,” wrote Rauner’s Deputy Governor Trey Childress last week.
“As an extension of our efforts to curb the influence of these interests, we want to send a message loud and clear that constituents and stakeholders need not employ a lobbyist to voice their concerns or needs directly,” he continued.
“Until further notice, please coordinate with your department’s contact on the Governor’s policy team in advance of any meeting between your senior team members and registered lobbyists.”
When most people think of lobbyists, they think of them lobbying elected officials, particularly legislators.
But quite a few lobbyists have built careers exclusively lobbying state agencies. And many, many others regularly reach out to agencies on behalf of their clients or association members occasionally or even regularly.
Agencies write rules that impact pretty much every business and every group in Illinois. So, most hire lobbyists to make sure their voices are heard and they aren’t harmed.
Also, some groups and businesses receive state grants, for things like job training, or for providing human or other services, or they rely on other state money. No government ever runs smoothly all the time, so glitches can happen. And when they do, people often turn to their Springfield associations to help fix the problems.
So, adding a layer to this age-old process has the potential to really muck things up. It will add time and hassle.
And most folks don’t have the ability or the time to deal with our vast government bureaucracy. That’s why they hired lobbyists and/or joined statewide associations in the first place.
But there’s another angle here.
The Democratic Party controlled both legislative chambers and the governor’s office for twelve straight years.
That meant many Republican lobbyists were out of luck as Democratic staff, campaign operatives and even legislators decided to take up the lobbying business and existing Democratic lobbyists greatly expanded their businesses.
And after Gov. Rauner won his election last November, several Democratic state agency honchos left to lobby the folks they used to work with.
Rauner’s people obviously don’t want Democrats having contacts with their agency folks without them knowing about it. Controlling the bureaucracy is a very difficult task. Rauner is running the most top-down controlling governor’s office I’ve ever seen. So, this is at least partially designed to prevent surprises from happening down below.
But it will also mean that the governor’s office, which is thickly populated by former Republican campaign workers, will be able to lock out any Democrats they want.
So, those who employ Democratic lobbyists - or even Republicans who don’t show sufficient subservience and tribute to the governor - may very well soon ask why they’re paying those folks when they can’t get anything done.
Most lobbyists were shocked at the governor’s order, but some almost immediately came up with a plan to get around it.
Instead of contacting the agencies directly, they’ll ask their favorite legislators to make the calls. But that obviously won’t work for those who don’t lobby the General Assembly.
The Democrats fully exploited “the spoils of war” when they were running everything. The Republican governor is now doing the same, but in a particularly Raunerish way. Legislative Republicans are already bending over backwards whenever he commands. He’s now extending his power over much of the rest of the Statehouse crowd.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is calling the Legislature’s spring session “stunningly disappointing” after Democrats passed a budget despite an impasse over how to fully fund it. […]
Rauner says there’s been “no sincere effort” by Democratic leaders to compromise. Democrats say Rauner’s agenda hurts the middle class.
“A stunningly disappointing General Assembly session this spring, we do not have a balanced budget,” Rauner said from the Capitol on Sunday. “We have an attempt to force major tax hikes on the people of Illinois and we have no significant reforms and no sincere effort that we can tell yet to achieve significant reforms for the people of Illinois.”
Rauner has positioned himself as the change agent needed to push a Democratic-controlled Legislature into action. He described himself as a volunteer, who was in Springfield working for the people, while calling Madigan a “puppet master” interested only in protecting the power structure he’s built over the decades.
Rauner, a multimillionaire who has more than $30 million in campaign bank accounts and easy access to much more, won’t describe the planned media barrage, but aides have signaled the main target will be Madigan, the longtime speaker and Illinois Democratic Party chairman.
Rauner is relying in part on a statewide poll his political team conducted this spring showing the governor enjoyed a public-approval rating much higher than Madigan’s. Steve Brown, Madigan’s spokesman, said it’s no sure thing the campaign will work.
“As the speaker has said, he’s been the target of Republican attacks for years,” Brown said. “It’s nothing new.”
Democratic mailers have arrived in GOP districts, too, though Illinois Republicans have deep pockets to fight back.
There’s also a huge buzz over whether Rauner, said to have $50 million in political funding under his direction, now will launch a massive advertising attack on Democrats, particularly Madigan, who the governor’s press office has punched at often in the past week.
Rauner on Sunday said he wasn’t going to discuss “messaging,” but he added he’s braced for anything aimed at him.
“You watch the attacks coming against me the next couple of weeks,” the governor said, “This ain’t tiddlywinks.”
* “We are destroying the middle class in Illinois” under House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, said Gov. Rauner yesterday in his most direct attack on the Democrats since last year’s campaign. Both Madigan and Cullerton had painted themselves yesterday as the defenders of the middle class against Rauner’s assaults. “We’re gonna go to battle for them,” the governor said about middle class voters.
Rauner said both Democratic leaders make their money off of big government and the status quo and use it to protect their power. “Speaker Madigan pulls the strings and so many of the legislators dance to his tune,” the governor said. “Speaker Madigan and the politicians he controls are taking the state down.”
* More quotes…
We’ve been driven into the ditch.
He controls government in Illinois. I’m a threat to his power.
He makes his money from the status quo, he makes his money from big, expensive government.
We’re gonna have a rough summer. We will not back down.
* At the same time, the governor pledged to continue negotiating to find a solution, saying he had a pleasant conversation with both Democratic leaders earlier in the day. “We’ll have constant communication as we have for a long time,” he said. “Our staffs are talking all the time.”
