76 Comments - Gooner - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:31 pm: The Speaker is not necessarily against “reforms.” Instead, he’s against Rauner’s far right version of “reforms.” - Westward - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:40 pm: At this point, “their” fundamental beliefs are secondary to fundamentally coming to some middle ground and quit acting like stubborn kids with no consequences. This is ridiculous and please show me a poll that favors any of the leaders of this state. Madigan is a poster child for term limits. Rauner is the Governor: GOVERN!! - Keyser Soze - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:40 pm: “Chose a tax hike”, albeit through the back door. - Anon - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:41 pm: - Gooner - Indeed. And Rauner could put an end to the budget impasse today, but it is his way or no way. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:41 pm: ===Yep. It has become one or the other. Madigan chose a tax hike. And therein lies the fundamental problem.=== That’s been sitting in my brain, that ultimatum. What the governor “fails” to see; No particular order… * MJM can’t get 71 * Rauner will own a Veto, because I’m guessin’ being a core belief and all, Rauner will veto, requiring an override (see above) * Rauner will be no better than Quinn, Rauner got NO budget * No leverage of the GA if MJM goes it alone * Where will Rauner point to as an accomplishment? * Pensions for Chicago and Cook still need leveragin’ * 67 GOP members with nothing tangible accomplished * Failed to be seen as a bipartisan alternative to Dems * Zero Turnaround Agenda items passed That’s for starters Rauner Crew, so riddle me this; Why not slow play that ultimatum by Rauner. Remember, the agencies, they are under the Rauner Administration. Budgets fund the governor’s agencies. Rauner needs. All governors need. Rauner is in denial. - vole - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:41 pm: Something does not look quite equal in the comparison of core beliefs here. If you are against taxes you are against the idea that government of any kind supported by taxes can and should do anything good for the people. - Mama - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:41 pm: The other problem is Madigan supports social service programs. Rauner does not. - Nope, Nope, Nope - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:41 pm: But the sales pitch to Democrats still comes down to “vote for something that goes against your core beliefs that will be incredibly unpopular in your district and I’ll let you vote to raise taxes, which will be incredibly unpopular in your district.” Rauner gets his agenda items in exchange for going against one of his core beliefs, but what do the Dems get? An irate base, and a multi-million dollar Rauner-backed ad campaign in 2016 saying they voted for “Mike Madigan’s job-killing tax hike!!!” So either Rauner is not bargaining in good faith, or he is actually operating from the Illinois Policy Institute/Trib edit board delusion that Democrats actually like raising taxes. - Anon2U - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:42 pm: Then Madigan should run his tax hike bill. With 71 votes. Can’t be done so I guess we just wait for the comprimise on reforms… until December. - Unspun - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:42 pm: If Rauner’s “core beliefs” are against raising taxes, then why did he campaign on increasing service taxes? - Juvenal - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:44 pm: Yeah, I think governor Rauner is forgetting a third option. - Salty - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:45 pm: So when the Governor is saying he is willing to raise taxes, is this raising the rate for 2015 and then a gradual decrease. I seem to remember him saying the rate would be back to 3% by the end of his first term. - Frenchie Mendoza - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:45 pm: I don’t get it. There’s no way Madigan — who apparently is in control, not the governor — can do this. If Madigan gives in now, next year it’s going to be “outlaw collective bargaining or no budget.” I’ve never seen or heard a public official cede their power to someone elected by a small minority (and not on a statewide ballot). Rauner is, IMHO, the weakest elected official I’ve seen in many, many years. And today he just admitted it. - taxes - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:45 pm: To state the obvious, the Governor needs a tax increase too. If he didn’t, he would have submitted a balanced budget or simply used the amendatory veto power. - chi - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:48 pm: If your core beliefs are poorly reasoned, bad for Illinois, or immoral, you don’t get extra credit for a willingness to violate them. - phocion - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:49 pm: Gooner, which reforms exactly does Madigan support? - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:50 pm: @TribTowerChick - hey “taxes”, you’re destroying the narrative. Sure, the Guv needs revenue, just ignore it like I do #Shhh - Wordslinger - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:50 pm: How is it one or the other? I thought for the governor, it was one, then the other. - anon - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:51 pm: Dems always choose tax increases. It is the easy road, they continue the overspending that garners votes for them, and the cycle continues. If I give you these things, I need you to give me certain items. Must be hard for MJM to fathom. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:51 pm: ===How is it one or the other? I thought for the governor, it was one, then the other.=== Wow. Good stuff. Maybe that’s why Rauner says MJM never had to deal with a guy like him; rules don’t apply(?) - One of the 35 - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:52 pm: How about both of them do what they were elected to do? - Wensicia - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:52 pm: Rauner’s core beliefs aren’t anti-tax; they’re anti-union. - Beenthereseenthat - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:52 pm: Why not send Rauner a shell bill on Workers Comp and another in property tax? Then Rauner can use his amendatory veto to write the bills he wants. Madigan and Cullerton have the visited to override any veto. That might stop the impasse. Innocent people are being hurt. Ogilvie used the amend story veto to rewrite the school aid formula and a Walker did that with the Horse Racing Act. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:53 pm: ===If I give you these things, I need you to give me certain items. Must be hard for MJM to fathom.=== - anon -, with respect, Rauner’s own proposed budget required billions in revenue. Rauner’s. - chi - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:53 pm: =Dems always choose tax increases.= Please see Exhibit A, the City of Chicago, where Dems’ terror at the prospect of raising property taxes has dug the schools and pensions into a massive hole. Or just go with the mindless old trope that Dems always raise taxes because it’s “easy”. - Norseman - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:54 pm: Battle for the core beliefs. I think it will be a long time before we see a core meltdown. RNUG’s October is looking good. - Wensicia - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:54 pm: ==How is it one or the other? I thought for the governor, it was one, then the other.== You can’t even trust Rauner on this point, whether you’re Democrat or Republican. - Arsenal - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:56 pm: ==That makes sense.== Not really. If the Governor’s stance is “no new revenue without my reforms”, then he could have just written a budget that needed no new revenue (or line-itemed the GA’s budget to get to that point). That he did something else indicates that that’s not really the hold up. - Anon - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:56 pm: ===“I don’t like taxes, period, I don’t like to ever raise taxes.”=== He’s never held any other public office before. This is the first time he’s ever been responsible for revenue policy yet he’s using language like he has experience. - Arsenal - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:58 pm: ==Dems always choose tax increases.== Yeah, like in Pat Quinn’s last veto session, where you had a Dem Guv begging the GA to pass a tax extension and the longest possible time before they had to face the voters again and the Dems…oh, wait… - Mason born - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:58 pm: Ok. I hate to say it but at least Quinns preferred and unpreffered budgets was honest about it. - Anon - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:58 pm: Willy, ===Rauner needs. All governors need. Rauner is in denial.=== Either that level of introspection is absent from the administration, or they simply think they can bluff their way out of the crisis they created with a stronger position than they had before. It’s a bad idea to assume that one’s political opponent is incompetent because they’re not a billionaire. - hisgirlfriday - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 2:59 pm: How has it become “one or the other” when MJM suddenly agreeing to right to work or term limits doesn’t balance the budget? Rich, looks like you got spun here. - walker - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:00 pm: Rauner’s statement that one must choose taxes or turnaround reforms, flies directly in the face of his own public position that he will trade one for the other. - Ducky LaMoore - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:00 pm: As a former republican and a new pseudo democrat, I don’t understand the mantra from Rauner that all the democrats want is a tax increase. I don’t really want a tax increase. But I can understand a tax increase. Rauner makes it seem like the end goal of democrats is a tax increase. Period. It’s not about the service that the tax increase would provide. It is not about a better quality of government. It is purely about raising taxes just for the sake of it. It is a serious miscalculation. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:05 pm: “I don’t like taxes, period, I don’t like to ever SEE MY taxes raise .” There, fixed it. - Angry Chicagoan - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:05 pm: But it isn’t one or the other. It’s both. It’s just that the reforms we need aren’t the ones Rauner wants. And the reforms Rauner wants will help to undermine the economic vibrancy that we need. - The Muse - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:08 pm: “I don’t like taxes, period.” Didn’t the Gov propose increasing the number of taxable services and the sales tax?? - Norseman - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:09 pm: As many have pointed out. Rauner has shown that he doesn’t want to wear the jacket to support his core belief. He could have done so by introducing a constitutional budget - he didn’t. He could have had his caucuses introduce amendments to Dem budgets - he did not. He could have used item/reduction veto authority to cut Dem budget - he did not. In addition, the Gov has options in responding to his beliefs. He can limit tax increase. He can phase out tax increase. He can limit spending by his agencies. He can limit future fiscal year budgets. If the Dems jettison their core beliefs, there is no going back. No more collective bargaining. No more prevailing wage for non-federal projects. Increase burden on middle class workers. It’s gone, gone, gone. That’s the battle of the cores. - anon - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:10 pm: Chi, the city of Chicago wouldn’t have their problems if your party had been responsible with its borrowing and spending. They were very negligent and look what you have—they will raise property taxes because they $%@#% things up. - Arsenal - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:12 pm: @ Ducky LaMoore That’s called “Getting High on Your Own Supply”. Democrats would be perfectly happy to balance the budget without a tax hike so long as their favorite services didn’t get cut. It’s when you have to cut those services- and then want the Dems to give you political cover to do so!- that they balk. - Formerly Known As... - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:12 pm: ==Didn’t the Gov propose increasing the number of taxable services and the sales tax??== ==I’m willing to do it as part of reform== - The Muse - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:15 pm: Formerly Known As… Thanks! - Eugene - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:17 pm: Posing the issue as taxes vs. reform is pure bamboozlement. First of all, by reform Rauner means his union-busting agenda, which seems to have very limited popular support. Second, deep down Rauner knows that, reforms or no reforms, he will have to raise taxes. That’s why he proposed a phony, unbalanced budget to begin with. So here’s the real choice: more revenue accompanied by union-busting legislation, or just more revenue. - Formerly Known As... - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:25 pm: The Muse - you are welcome! It all becomes one big jumble eventually. - Shared What - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:27 pm: Has anyone checked news clips, statements, releases from Rauner to see when he stopped using the words “shared sacrifice?” I haven’t heard it for months. NOTHING in his recent campaign talks mentions it any more, not his new and improved agenda. Maybe his donors didn’t like the idea? - ZC - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:28 pm: I take it that Rauner’s non-negotiable isn’t right-to-work zones. But it does seem to involve term limits, or at least a binding public vote on term limits. No term limits, no budget? The problem then is that term limits remain a really bad idea. Especially bad in some ways because it polls so well (those exist, the public gets it wrong some times. All hands raised, for a 8-year term limit on doctors, before they all have to retire and turn it over to a new attending? Politics is a profession that requires expertise to govern well, like most things; Rauner’s currently a chief example of this). So what do you do, when the other side’s non-negotiable is a really, and I mean really, bad idea for the future of IL? - phocion - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:33 pm: Gooner and everyone else blasting Rauner’s reforms, I’m still waiting for an answer: What reforms will Speaker Madigan support? - BC - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:34 pm: I’m sorry, Rauner’s entire strategy has never made sense to me. He is essentially saying to the Dems: “go against your core beliefs and support my agenda and if you do, your reward is you get to vote for a tax increase!” Bruce, Dems like spending money, but they don’t like voting for taxes. Sure, there are Democratic legislators whose district are so safe there are no real consequences for voting for taxes, but they don’t make up a majority. Most have to be arm-twisted or enticed to vote “yes” on taxes (see temporary tax increase, January, 2011.) Voting for one bill you don’t like just to get the chance to vote for another bill you don’t like, doesn’t motivate a lot of legislators, especially when all they get in return is the status quo. - Juice - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:35 pm: Huh, didn’t realize that basic laws of mathematics were against the Governor’s core beliefs. That certainly explains an awful lot. - Just Me - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:41 pm: I’ve been thinking about this the past few days. Madigan claims that it is unfair for Rauner to expect Democrats to abandon their core beliefs, but he thinks Rauner should easily be asked to abandon his. Madigan thinks Rauner is extreme, well perhaps he starting negotiating point is, but if Madigan and Rauner would actually talk (perhaps using Cullerton as a liaison) they could both compromise and come up with a solution. And Madigan should remember that ten years of extreme Democratic hard core beliefs is what got us into this mess to begin with. - chi - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:43 pm: =Chi, the city of Chicago wouldn’t have their problems if your party had been responsible with its borrowing and spending. They were very negligent and look what you have—they will raise property taxes because they $%@#% things up.= This is my point! If raising taxes were so easy, and what Dems always do, then Chicago Dems wouldn’t have spent the last couple decades selling off the city and entering into all kinds of swaps and other financial manuevering, all in an effort to avoid raising taxes. Our property taxes are extremely low, and it has *$%&#$^# stuff up. - anon - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:49 pm: but your cost of living and sales taxes are very high Chi. The folks in power weren’t smart enough to realize what they were doing to the finances and didn’t want to put a spotlight on the $ situation. So, now you have a city deep in debt, you have to raise property taxes(which likely will drive people out,) sales taxes are sky high and 20 somethings struggle to live there. - Gooner - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:51 pm: Just Me, Ten years of Madigan got us into this? Lad, you may want to Google “the ramp.” This mess has been a heck of a lot more than ten years in the making. - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:54 pm: ===and 20 somethings struggle to live there=== They struggle to live everywhere. I barely kept a roof over my head. - chi - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:55 pm: Our cost of living is high because a lot of people want to live here. I think the folks in power were smart enough to realize what they were doing to the city’s finances. They simply chose their own survival over the good of the city. We do have a city deep in debt. But our property taxes have a long way to go before they drive people out. Again, they are much lower than the surrounding suburbs. I’m assuming the 20-somethings you are referring to are the just-out-of-college professional type 20 somethings. To the extent they are struggling to live here, it’s because it is a vibrant place with loads of job opportunities and they don’t want to love anywhere else. That’s a good thing. - Just Me - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:58 pm: Gooner, by mess I was referring to the complete dysfunction of State government, along with jobs and economic numbers all well below what a powerhouse State we should be given our size, diversity, and location. - Gooner - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 4:01 pm: Anon 3:49, You need to understand that an increase in property tax would simply bring things close to the surrounding suburban areas. Those low property taxes were part of the reason my wife and I stayed here. Anon, try to focus on the initial post. Gov. Rauner claimed that Democrats really like taxes. From the evidence in Chicago, that’s just not the case. - Politix - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 4:02 pm: Gov? I don’t think “reform” means what you think it means. Is it Groundhog day? “Pass my reforms or there will be no budget” sounds extremely familiar. This time he claims to have negotiated with Cullerton, Preckwinkle and Rahm, which I find extremely hard to believe since we haven’t heard a peep about this prior to now. He still hasn’t accepted that his anti-union “reforms” won’t go anywhere. He still doesn’t seem to understand that relationships with Dem legislators must be maintained - now repaired. He keeps referring to Madigan’s “behavior.” It’s gotten so personal, I’m embarrassed for him. - DuPage Don - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 4:12 pm: Budgets are about priorities. Rauner’s top priority is to grow businesses (new ones and keep the ones we have) Creating a friendly environment for those businesses so there is more people working and thus more tax revenue is proving to be not an easy task. The corrupt bargain between democrats and unions was never going to be easy to dismantle. I think Bruce Rauner is fully expecting to be as popular as herpes on spring break! Way too early to write him off yet! - A guy - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 4:16 pm: Walk, I think Rauner is speaking to the budget presented by the GA. i.e. If that’s what the Speaker wants, pass a tax increase bill that can sustain a veto, and then put 71 votes on that override for all the world to see. Or. Agree to some reforms, and he’ll help put those votes up for the tax increase. - AnonymousOne - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 4:16 pm: It’s exhausting to hear repeatedly that raising taxes will drive people out. Is New York facing a mass exodus? Or do people live where (or near) they find employment and can get to their jobs fairly easily? To have the freedom to move just anywhere because of a tax hike,you’d need to be retired and not care about friends/family relationships. - walker - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 4:23 pm: A Guy: Thanks. In that context, it makes some sense. Often you speak more clearly than the Governor. - JackD - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 4:34 pm: Calling policy preferences reform doesn’t make them reforms especially when they weren’t part of the campaign. Maybe the governor can rally support for them but he certainly doesn’t have mandate for them and the truth that won’t go away is that they have nothing to do with a budget. - Skirmisher - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 4:49 pm: Calling for “Term Limits” is simply a cheap way out of addressing the real problem. When I was in high school, “gerrymandering” was a form of political abuse/corruption that we read about in Civics class. Now it is literally sanctified in the Illinois constitution. If we could draw legislative and congressional districts based on the concept of “compact” without looking at political preferences, race, etc., there would be no need or justification for anything so crude and anti-democratic as “term Limits”. So why not address that issue instead? It is a cancer that is destroying our political system at all levels of government. - Formerly Known As... - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 4:54 pm: Just Me - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 3:41 pm Outside of the ten years, you nailed it. Spot on. It is two children blaming each other for not compromising, while not budging themselves. - vole - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 5:10 pm: Rauner is putting his broccoli up against the dems’ meat and potatoes. Totally false equivalency. - Precinct Captain - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 5:17 pm: ==- A guy - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 4:16 pm:== Why doesn’t Rauner just line-item veto to balance the budget? Is that too hard for him? - Anon - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 6:22 pm: This state has been a mess through 20 plus years and through several governors. But who has been tbe one constant through it all? Madigan! That speaks volumes as to where the biggest problem in this state lies. It is time for the great narcissist to retire. Term limits!!!! - Abe Spirit - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 6:29 pm: No winners only losers especially the least of us. For their sake put politics aside, compromise and get a budget. That is what you all were elected to accomplish. Leader Durkin let Representative Raymond Poe lead the way. Speaker Madigan you can turn to Representative Sarah Feigenholtz. The Illinois budget is the worst in the USA. Roll up your sleeves and go to work. - Mason born - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 7:39 pm: There is the third option. Propose a balanced budget with current revenue then you both can stand on your core principles. Of course you will get to wear the hat for the harm but that is why you get the big bucks. - Anonin' - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 9:26 pm: A little late but let’s remember Team Bungle no social issues have no core beliefs. ..killing grandma…subprime loans…the threats in Arizona and now the Bobbs wants core beliefs Right - CallingBSonRauner - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 10:33 pm: To AbeSpirit, and what reasonable person is going to sit in for Rauner? Truth is, it is Rauner’s unyielding demand that elected representatives ignore their constituents and vote the way he tells them, and “pass” his turnaround agenda, that is holding this whole thing up. His agenda has been voted on, and even Republicans wouldn’t vote for it. Now he insists our representatives flip the voters off, and bow down and kiss the Rauner ring. Rauner’s budget was $3.5 billion out of balance, the Democrat’s was $4 billion out of balance. How about we put all of this non-budget agenda stuff aside and negotiate in good faith to reconcile these two budget proposals? - Wordslinger - Wednesday, Jul 8, 15 @ 11:57 pm: It’s swell that the governor has core beliefs. You would think he would have mentioned his core beliefs during the general election campaign, but then, he’d probably not be governor. But that’s all water under the bridge. After he was elected, the governor took his core beliefs on an extensive, statewide road show, and he sold it, as only he can. The reception ranged from indifference to outrage. Dude, time to get off the bong and get real. You’ve got the gig for a long time to come. A Dartmouth smoothie like yourself must be smart enough to understand that change is incremental, if at all. You’ve got to sell it, over time. Until then, only a very bad man would take bread off the table of citizens doing their jobs in good faith. Governor Rauner, you have the very serious and important gig. 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