Myth or excuse?
Wednesday, Sep 9, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service about a Senate hearing yesterday…
Tim Nuding, Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget director, said the governor’s office is doing all it can, but the burden remains on the Legislature to pass a balanced budget.
“We’re doing what we can do with tools we’ve been given to manage toward a balanced budget,” Nuding said.
The panel’s Democrats didn’t warm to the idea the budget mess was entirely on the Legislature or particularly on majority Democrats.
“I just find it kind of unhelpful and it sort of makes my teeth hurt to hear this consistent effort to throw the hot potato of blame around when, in fact, there is no possible resolution to these these problems that exists exclusively in the executive or legislative branches,” Biss said.
Although he nodded in recognition of Biss’ point regarding a three-branched government, Nuding said it was disingenuous for Democrats to say the governor could have simply crafted a workable budget by applying his veto pen to an underfunded Democratic spending plan.
Rauner’s simply using his power as governor to rewrite certain lines or to reduce certain amounts wasn’t going to get the job done, Nuding said.
“That’s a myth,” Nuding said, explaining that neither math nor the law nor the General Assembly as it is now constituted would allow for such an easy answer.
“To sit there and make a characterization that we could have solved this problem simply with the veto pen — that is just not accurate,” he said.
* You can watch the hearing by clicking here. More of what Nuding said…
“The Legislature, again, respectfully, has done little to nothing to change laws to reduce spending, either in the area of pensions, Medicaid rates, transfers out to local governments - any of those items that you control. Absent any changes there to reduce spending we are on target to spend somewhere in the range of $36 to $37 billion.
“Now, the administration has taken some steps which we’ve announced to try and manage in areas where we can. But the universe of spending areas where we have control is really quite limited because the Legislature, again, controls large pieces of the budget by the law, either through statute or continuing appropriations. And with the courts stepping in and enforcing consent decree payments without a budget in place, the amount of flexibility the administration has to manage this situation is even less.
“And we could solve all of this tomorrow if the Legislature would pass a balanced budget.”
* Director Nuding was then asked whether Rauner could’ve just used his line item veto powers…
“That’s a myth. That is a myth, Senator. The way this was structured, and it was by design, the governor did not have that option because of the spending that you lock in by law.
“So, let’s take as an example the Medicaid rates. The governor could’ve done a reduction veto on Medicaid spending. Wouldn’t have mattered at all, because spending is controlled by rates that are put in law by you. And we have to, by federal law, provide those services that are in statute by you. So to say that the governor could’ve line item vetoed or reduction vetoed is just simply inaccurate. The numbers don’t work.”
On Medicaid, at least, he’s right. Same goes for transfers out.
* But there’s a bunch of money beyond those two things. Rauner would not have been able to fully balance the budget, but he could’ve got it closer to balancing than it is now by using his veto powers.
Also, Gov. Rauner not only used his own lawyers to make sure employees got paid (which is a major fiscal burden), but he has yet to ask any of the stakeholders or courts to renegotiate the consent decrees.
Their hands are not completely tied here.
- anon - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:39 pm:
==Also, Gov. Rauner not only used his own lawyers to make sure employees got paid (which is a major fiscal burden), but he has yet to ask any of the stakeholders or courts to renegotiate the consent decrees.==
Thank you, thank you, thank you for making this point! The press doesn’t seem to fully appreciate this point.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:39 pm:
Way to go Nuding!
- Wordslinger - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:40 pm:
Who knew that the Illinois governor’s office was impotent?
- old-pol - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:43 pm:
It’s a Myth. And proven so after the GA overroad Blago line item vetoes resulting in unbalanced budgets. The GA can’t have it both ways. If they were required to fund the reduction veto overrides, then maybe, maybe they would be correct. But they never fund their overrides. Nuding is correct.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:44 pm:
For me, it’s simple;
Any Governor that looks at the “burden” of crafting and getting the votes nevessary to pass a budget on the Legislative Branch is either honestly disingenuous to what they as governor know of the duties of the Office or dishonestly lazy to tackling the task and ownership of the task.
That’s the ball game.
Budgets fund Governor’s Agencies, priorities, projects, and allow all who look the monetary values an Adminstration has for the workings of government to the service of the people of Illinois.
Rauner is in the camp of those two choice, for me, but this premise that governors don’t own the budgetary processes and outcomes? That just isn’t so.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:45 pm:
===And proven so after the GA overroad Blago line item vetoes===
They accepted the Ryan vetoes.
- the Patriot - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:46 pm:
Nice analysis. Yea, Madigan created the mess and has failrd to pass a balanced budget, but as I read Nuding’s comments there are state workers a few hundred feet from me that under no circumstances could be interpreted as essential getting a check.
The reality is the the solution will be much more painful than the lack of a budget has been to this point. The one thing history has proven is that Madigan is not capable of balancing a budget. But what we are also learning is the Governor is more interested in the circus than the solution.
- markg8 - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:47 pm:
Poor Governor Rauner wants to be helpful but is only left with poison pills to offer that would do nothing to balance the budget but would destroy collective bargaining, the civil courts and the Democratic Party in IL.
- Miami - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:48 pm:
They accepted the Ryan vetoes as part of a prearranged deal. And the Republican Senate accepted those vetoes. The Democratic House did not play a role. That would not have happened this time.
- Team Sleep - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:49 pm:
This is a double-edged sword.
Yes, it is in part a myth. The GA could have overridden hypothetical cuts and thus made the line items completely for naught.
But, by the same token, would those cuts have been overridden?! Several budget votes in the Senate were well under 3/5. In fact, one of them passed with only 30 votes. Senators Biss, Bush, Landek, Morrison and Noland routinely voted “no” on most of the bills before the Senate, and Tom Cullerton missed some of the votes. Some of those Senators are targets and one (Noland) is running for a higher office and wants to add a feather (”I exercise fiscal restraint!”) to his cap. And, in the House, we saw last week what can happen.
So, as always, things are neither black nor white but rather gray.
- old-pol - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:49 pm:
===They accepted the Ryan vetoes===
What’s your point? The GA and Ryan got along very well.
- Formerly Known As... - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:49 pm:
Who knew that the Illinois governor’s office was omnipotent?
The Constitution requires the Governor to introduce a balanced budget and requires the GA to pass a balanced budget. They are both responsible.
And unless Rauner or Madigan has 71 votes for a budget, they also need each other to get a budget approved. If the GA had no power over the budget, which they do, then the budget process would begin and end with the annual budget speech from Rauner or any other governor.
- Anon - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:51 pm:
“Thanks for making sure we got paid when you vetoed the budget — but aren’t you insisting our bargaining rights be taken away before you’ll pass a budget?”
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:51 pm:
He also said, if Rauner would’ve used his amendatory veto power, it would’ve only taken a simple majority of the legislature to override it and they would be at the same spot they are in today with the legislature.
- Juice - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:55 pm:
Anonymous- at least there would be a budget then. And the Governor would have been able to demonstrate that he is in fact willing to balance the budget. To date, he hasn’t shown that he has the willingness to balance the budget on actual cuts alone. And if overridden, then he would be completely in the right in criticizing the GA for not being willing to balance the budget. Right now he just comes off as a hypocrite. I mean, they held two state fairs for crying out loud.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 12:57 pm:
@the Patriot
What is the obsession with Madigan already? You fail to take into account market and economic fluctuations. Rauner has zero public sector experience. State government isn’t the stock market.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 1:04 pm:
@ Juice
Those state fairs though are paid for through admissions, pretty much the same way as the Tollway Authority’s operations are paid for. The legislature can override the budget but the governor doesn’t have to spend the money. Keeping in mind, nothing stops a judge from ordering the legislature to raise taxes. Washington state is doing it right now with their school system by fining the legislature $100,000 a day until they provide more funding. At the end of the day, Rauner has no experience in government and its showing right now as your stating. A legislator being a wholly owned subsidiary of Rauner isn’t going to make much difference until elections come around.
- Tournaround Agenda - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 1:08 pm:
I’ve never seen a governor go so far out of his way to appear helpless.
- cdog - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 1:10 pm:
/s alert.
GA needs to pass a $5B increase in business/corporate tax.
Gov Rauner will be in the box then.
- Team Sleep - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 1:11 pm:
I’ll correct my earlier post. I forgot that it only takes a simple majority to override budget cuts, but it’s still dicey at best to think the overrides could’ve happened. I guess that’s the easiest of the “arm twister” veto override vote whipping, though, unless you get another underwhelming attendance figure in either chamber.
- Not it - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 1:19 pm:
You can’t say the Governor could use his veto pen to enact a balanced budget, just like you can’t say the Majority Democrats can pass a tax increase to balance it either. However, both sides make those two claims far too often.
- Norseman - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 1:42 pm:
=== I forgot that it only takes a simple majority to override budget cuts, … ===
It only takes a simple majority to override “reduction vetoes” (where the gov reduces the amount that can be spent in a line item). “Item vetoes” still require a supermajority to override.
With that detail correction, the majority of Rauner’s cuts would probably have been of the reduction veto variety.
- Wordslinger - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 1:45 pm:
FKA, no governor is omnipotent, but this one pretends that he is powerless.
In fact, he has chosen fiscal disaster as a strategy in pursuit of a political agenda.
- LIberty - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 2:00 pm:
Not my fault! Not my fault!
- Sir Reel - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 2:18 pm:
Someone should ask Nuding why don’t the Republicans in the GA at least introduce bills to reduce spending, as he says needs to be done. Yes the Democrats have the majority and such bills would probably not pass or even see the light of day, but at least something would be on the table.
This blame game is beyond tiresome, especially when neither side proposes anything concrete.
Yes the Governor proposed an unbalanced budget and the GA passed an unbalanced budget. Since then, nada.
- Jack Stephens - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 2:26 pm:
Bruce,
If you have no intention of presenting your Constitutuonally Mandated Balanced Budget then resign.
Worst. Governor. Ever.
- walker - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 2:45 pm:
As usual, both claims are myths. Nuding is correct that Rauner could not simply use his veto pen to balance the budget, but he is also not as powerless as portrayed. He could have used it and other legal steps to cut spending from where it is right now and get much closer.
The other myth, which is embarrassing to read, is that the GA let Quinn’s tax increase sunset on schedule, because Rauner asked them to do so. Who’d buy that beauty?
The solution must come from both sides, and the hang up since January remains how to blame the other side for the tax increase.
- jim - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 3:48 pm:
doesn’t the constitution require, as the governor’s spokesman suggests, the GA to pass a balanced budget?
- Formerly Known As... - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 3:53 pm:
@Wordslinger - he is not powerless or willing to accept the choices Madigan tries forcing on him. Just like Madigan is not powerless or willing to accept the choices Rauner tries forcing on him.
Madigan tried forcing Rauner into choosing between gory cuts through amendatory veto or returning to Madigan and begging for a tax deal to avoid ==wearing== those cuts alone. Rauner refuses to accept those as his only choices.
Rauner tried forcing Madigan into choosing between gory cuts through GA budgeting or returning to Rauner and begging for a reform deal including taxes. Madigan refuses to accept those as his only choices.
Budget cuts, tax increases and union busting are the tip of a glacier that has expanded to cover everything in Springfield, even the failed override attempt and Goldberg’s snarky letters.
The Springfield glacier freezing up government only thaws when Rauner and Madigan jointly stop measuring manhood and start compromising. As long as the ==Raunigan== battle for capitulation rages in one of them, the other will not yield.
- Justme - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 4:27 pm:
I believe the policy Institute is libertarian which is fine. They just need to identify as that for benefit of readers.
- Chicago 20 - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 4:31 pm:
Again, the Illinois constitution clearly states that it is the Governor’s responsibility to present a balanced budget.
Rauner is simply refusing to perform his constitutionally mandated responsibilities and then blames others for his dereliction of duty.
- what the? - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 4:46 pm:
On the issue of applying vetoes to the budget - the math would have been way too large to work. The Speaker acknowledged that the budget passed by the GA back in May was “short” by at least 3 billion dollars. Follow that up with there are certain items of required spending - like debt service and transfers and other items that must continue at a stated rate unless changed by statute (Medicaid) and options to apply the reductions get smaller and smaller.
So take Medicaid, transfers and debt service out of play. That means you have to apply $3 billion in vetoes against everything else. Where would it come from? Once you take those 3 things out of play, the next largest areas of spending are what - Education? Human Services? Prisons?
Noone I know would be able to stomach those types or reductions to those program areas. Additionally, even if one could manage to reduce the appropriaitons, if there are no changes in law to impact the underlying liability of the program (change rates, eligiblity or allowed services) then all you accomplish is creating a huge unpaid debt at the end of the year.
- LTSW - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 5:35 pm:
I believe any changes to the consent decrees have to be initiated by AG Madigan. Her office agreed to many of those agreements over the objections of administration attorneys because everyone knew that the state had no way to adequately comply.
- Norseman - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 5:46 pm:
=== Her office agreed to many of those agreements over the objections of administration attorneys because everyone knew that the state had no way to adequately comply. ===
Do you have any evidence of this or are you joining the merry myth makers in Rauner’s office.
- Union Man - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 6:55 pm:
@ JustMe 4:27 the IPI won’t tell the public who funds them either. That’s enough for me to not trust them.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 11:27 pm:
The governor tied his own hands by pushing for an increase in K-12 funding and signing it into law.
Every day, he digs himself into a deeper hole, and the Quinn Tax is starting to look like an economic development tool compared to the Rauner Tax.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 11:29 pm:
Governor Rauner should have Durkin and Radogno introduce those statutory changes in bill form so we can put them up for a vote.
All those in favor of reducing Illinois nursing home reimbursement rates, already among the lowest in the nation, say Aye.
Durkin will be the first leader in the Century Club.
- Norseman - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 11:33 pm:
YDD @ 11:29 pm, LOL. I’d love to see it.