* Yesterday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office had this to say in response to the threats from Gov. Rauner to withhold state financial help from CPS if the mayor doesn’t help pass his Turnaround Agenda…
An Emanuel spokesman argued the governor was using Chicago schoolchildren as “pawns” and contended the mayor has been working to bring about a larger budget agreement. The mayor’s office did not provide details, however.
“We’re a little surprised given that at the governor’s own request our team has been actively involved in trying to untangle the logjam in Springfield,” mayoral spokesman Adam Collins said. “It’s unfortunate that yet again (CPS students) are being used as pawns in a political chess match.”
* The mayor continued that theme during a press conference today…
I threw that last one in because Ron usually seems pretty tied in to the unsaid, but “real” Rauner mindset.
*** UPDATE *** Response…
Hi, Rich –
Passing along this statement on CPS.
Please attribute the following to Mike Schrimpf:
“As expected, the Mayor is playing the tired political game of blaming others for his unwillingness to fix Chicago’s finances after more than four years in office because he has not taken on any major structural reforms.
While Governor Rauner has increased state support for education to record amounts and has allowed Chicago Public Schools to keep its $600 million special deal, City Hall continues to borrow money for everyday expenses and passed a schools budget that is half a billion dollars short.
Governor Rauner has repeatedly tried to help the families of Chicago by offering the City massive assistance but the Mayor refuses to stand with the Governor to help save Chicago.”
Thanks,
ck
And more from Rahm…
“I strongly disagree” with Rauner’s vow not help CPS avert a financial calamity unless City Hall starts pushing some of the governor’s Turnaround Agenda priorities, Emanuel said. “The children of Chicago are not a political game in Springfield to get a deal done.”
It is wrong to hold education “hostage” to a wider fight, Emanuel continued. Hundreds of thousands of school children “are not a pawn in (Rauner’s) political maneuvers. . . .Get the (budget) job done.”
With a hint of his old cocky smile, Emanuel disclosed that he’d even drafted a New Year’s resolution for Rauner: “That he have his first budget passed before he has to present his second.”
Emanuel shrugged off a question about disputes between Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Mike Madigan over whether to give Rauner something of what he wants in a pending CPS aid bill.
“People can have different takes” on legislation, he said. What counts is that Illinois is “near dead last” nationally in funding schools, and that Chicago suffers “a disparity” within Illinois because it has to pay for its own teacher pension costs.
- crazybleedingheart - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 12:38 pm:
Pillowfight!
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 12:39 pm:
Oh that silly, silly lil Owl…
“@RonSandack: I’m frustrated 2, but taking steps towards reforming IL more important than short term budget stalemate.”
Your are not letting a crisis go to waste, Owl. You, Ron Sandack, are hurtin’ seniors, college students, the poor… You, Owl, and Gov. Rauner ARE leveraging, and purposely hurting people.
Yea Owl!
“@RonSandack: I’m frustrated 2, but taking steps towards reforming IL more important than short term budget stalemate.”
I’ll let you get back to hurtin’ people Owl.
- Norseman - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 12:59 pm:
Cage match! Rauner v. Rahm at $200 per seat. Money to go to the kids.
- AC - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:06 pm:
This conflict makes Emanuel seem compassionate, caring, even likeable, compared to Rauner, and in light of all the recent events in Chicago that’s an accomplishment.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:09 pm:
Rahm should have put his warm and fuzzy sweater back on before his teachers walk out and strike, leaving thousands of students with free time on streets of Chicago. First kid that gets hurt out there will create tons of negative headlines for Rahm.
One thing is certain, the days of Rahm managing news cycles to his advantage are over.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:12 pm:
–Oh, so only Rahm gets to “never let a serious crisis go to waste.” I get it.–
Geez, is anyone more eager to immediately reveal his vacuity at every opportunity?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:17 pm:
- Louis G Atsaves -
Doesn’t the Governor need Rahm to get votes in the House and Senate?
So if Rahm’s influence is “fading” won’t that hurt the Governor?
Or…
Just turnin’ on Rahm is better, with all that leverage?
And…
Didn’t Governor Rauner himself say that Chicago needs to push reform before he, Gov. Rauner would help?
I can point that out for you if you’d like.
I wouldn’t wish for school closings due to strikes. Rauner said he won’t help schools… until unions are destroyed.
What Illinois governor wants, “wants”, Chicago to fail? lol
Speaks volumes how Bruce Rauner feels. Unions destroyed or people’s lives destroyed.
What a Governor!
- Cathartt Representative - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:21 pm:
Rahm has been playing checkers with CPS kids for years.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:23 pm:
@willy, list all the votes Rahm delivered to Rauner last year. If you can.
I don’t wish for a school strike but Rahm has managed to turn CTU against him and that happened four years ago. Now it has become worse. Rauner may have a better relationship with AFSCAM and SEIU than Rahm with CTU! Who would have thought that possible?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:28 pm:
===Rauner may have a better relationship with AFSCAM and SEIU than Rahm with CTU! Who would have thought that possible?===
You ain’t whistling Dixie!
===@willy, list all the votes Rahm delivered to Rauner last year. If you can.===
Bud, you know that, I know that, why does Rauner think he can leverage this into votes then? See my confusion? We both see there’s no “there” there, so why leverage nothing based on a history of nothing?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:30 pm:
… and it’s AFSCME, - Louis G Atsaves -, lol
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:35 pm:
===Please attribute the following to Mike Schrimpf:===
LOL!
All right, “ck”, you’re gettin’ the hang of this.
Get the other Superstars involved in the game instead of hangin’ you out to dry. Good for you!
ow
- Norseman - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:35 pm:
Typical Rauner rhetorical response.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:37 pm:
===”…Governor Rauner has repeatedly tried to help the families of Chicago by offering the City massive assistance but the Mayor refuses to stand with the Governor to help save Chicago.”===
This is where Luca Brazi usually is brought into the Study.
- @MisterJayEm - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:40 pm:
When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
– MrJM
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:41 pm:
- Louis G Atsaves -
Help me, k?
===@willy, list all the votes Rahm delivered to Rauner last year. If you can.===
As “ck” said, from Mike Schrimpf;
===”…Governor Rauner has repeatedly tried to help the families of Chicago by offering the City massive assistance but the Mayor refuses to stand with the Governor to help save Chicago.”===
So, - Louis G Atsaves -, what the heck is Schrimpf talking about if we both agree Rahm can’t deliver any votes for the Governor?
See? So help me, lol
- AC - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:41 pm:
Not to be confused with SECAM which was a French color television system, PAL which was used in other parts of Europe, and PALs which Rahm and Rauner aren’t (any more). I’m not sure what “major structural reforms” are but I think they either involve civil engineering or union busting.
- burbanite - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:48 pm:
structural change=union busting, they just think they can fool everyone by calling it, “structural change.”
- Trolling Troll - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:49 pm:
Meanwhile our neighbors to the north are having a real turnaround of their own
http://urbanmilwaukee.com/pressrelease/layoffs-hit-new-high-under-gov-walker/
- Cheryl44 - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 1:50 pm:
“The children of Chicago are not a political game in Springfield to get a deal done.”
That’s right. Those are Rahm’s pawns, so hands off, Bruce!
- Dawn - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 2:06 pm:
Wait a sec, and I mean this with all sincerity, is Rauner taking credit for the ed bill he asked his caucus to vote against?
- Wensicia - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 2:07 pm:
“Bruce, I appreciate your introducing a topic that allows me to go back on offense. I’m tired of defending my tactics regarding police shootings and coverups before the press..” — Rahm
- Boss Tweed - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 2:13 pm:
In order to survive right now, Rahm needs to go hat-in-hand to a lot of other Chicago power brokers (and they know this, and this is why they’re tepid on the idea of recalling him). Many of those power brokers are about as far away from Rauner as it gets.
- Will Caskey - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 2:20 pm:
Rauner’s demands are ridiculous. He’s also entitled to make them. Emanuel is perfectly capable of passing a transferred property tax increase for CPS through the City Council. He’d rather ask a Republican governor who lost the city vote by 60 points for another half billion dollars a year.
Good luck with that, Emanuel.
- Grayson - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 2:26 pm:
When will the schools run out on money without more borrowing? Does anyone know?
- HangingOn - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 2:31 pm:
“As expected, the (Governor) is playing the tired political game of blaming others for his unwillingness to (submit a budget) after more than (one) year in office because he has not (managed to convince everyone to throw the middle class under the bus).”
It’s almost like Mad-libs!
- justacitizen - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 2:38 pm:
===“Bruce, I appreciate your introducing a topic that allows me to go back on offense. I’m tired of defending my tactics regarding police shootings and coverups before the press..” — Rahm ===
That’s what good friends are for.
- Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 2:47 pm:
Ron, the governor created the crisis. See: budget veto over the summer. Can you not remember back that far Ron? Is it the governor’s amnesia kool aid?
- cdog - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 2:48 pm:
“While Governor Rauner has increased state support for education to record amounts”
Hahahahahaha!! THE LEDGER BILL BACKLOG 1/04/2016
$ 6,915,089,433
These Rauner people are a trip.
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 3:18 pm:
=Hahahahahaha!! THE LEDGER BILL BACKLOG 1/04/2016
$ 6,915,089,433=
cdog nails it. You cannot claim to have raised education funding if you are not actually sending the funding to school.
- Commonsense in Illinois - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 3:26 pm:
>
Oooh…Thank you Your Excellency…
- Commonsense in Illinois - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 3:27 pm:
Rich, take down my last…the quote didn’t take and my comment makes no sense without it.
Thanks.
- cdog - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 3:52 pm:
@JS Mill, thanks. It’s still making me snicker.
If Mr. Rauner’s supporters want to claim he is so cool because he is spending money on something as important as K-12 education, then maybe they should be a little more concerned about that dicey side of the balance sheet/income statement. Debt, debt, debt.
Maybe someone can run on a “Back The “Truck” Up And Turn Around The Other Way Agenda” and get us out of this?
Maybe we can increase Higher Ed spending and ramp the payables up to, say, $12billion?
I absolutely cannot hardly wait until Rauner reveals the 2016 budget for Higher Ed!
- Sue - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:16 pm:
All of today’s blog posts on spending or the lack thereof have a common thread- neither the State nor Chicago have sufficient revenue to pay for needed programs because all the money is needed to pay for legacy benefit costs. Chicago under Daley spent more then it raised in taxes and used the cushion of pension funding as the piggy bank.. the State for 40 plus years spent money as if it had a 5 percent personal income tax rate and failed to make sufficient pension contributions again to make up for the deficit between revenues and tax dollars. None of this is Rauners fault. He has demanded reforms to justify raising taxes.. Those of you opposed to his reforms should not get angry at the consequences when the City and State need to drastically cut programs to come in line with available revenues. Previous governors and Democratic legislative leaders all have contributed to the mess the State and City are in. Rauners is absolutely correct to tell the Mayor to stick it absent his support for the Governor’s reform proposals
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:25 pm:
Then - Sue -,
Rauner will own the consequences for choosing NOT to help Chicago because Union Busting is too important than people and services.
No problem.
Thanks.
- Anon2U - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:33 pm:
=the Governor created this crisis.=
FALSE. CPS has seen this coming for years. And failed to act. Rham’s “never let a good crisis go to waste” is backfiring on him. Never in modern history has a Chicago mayor been so weak and he has no choice but to agree to some reforms to turn things around. Collar and downstate care about CTU layoffs? No. Collar and downstate want to send money we don’t have to fix a Chicago problem? No. Rham need help desperately? Yes. Madigan doesn’t do anything that doesn’t help him get his way and Rauner is about to use the same tactic. Dems have been holding hostages for years to influence policy so this tactic should not come as a surprise to anyone. This ain’t beanbags.
It is indeed about to get very ugly… For Chicago and Rahm.
- Sue - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:49 pm:
To Sue @ 4:16
I’M SUE - who are YOU? Not ME, that’s for sure!
- walker - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 4:59 pm:
Anon2U: good rant
I agree with most of it, but not sure where it gets us. Eventually there must be an agreement/detente to attack the problems. Leaders often have to move beyond the emotional stances of their political bases.
- Norseman - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 5:13 pm:
=== Leaders often have to move beyond the emotional stances of their political bases. ===
walker - you’re so correct. Now our problem is finding leaders.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 5:46 pm:
There would be no crisis if CPS simply passed balanced budgets instead of attempting to use the kids as pawns to get more money from Springfield.
- Chicago Cynic - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 6:33 pm:
Nice of Sandack to confess the truth. The people of our state are being hurt and held hostage because Rauner doesn’t want to let the budget crisis go to waste. As Rich said, not surprising but no less shameful.
- Grayson - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 8:08 pm:
Best Tweet of the New Year:
Rahm Emanuel has polarized #Chicago between those who hate and oppose him & those who hate and support him.
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) January 3, 2016
- cannon649 - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 8:33 pm:
Rayner appears to making progress
Rahm continues his decline
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 5, 16 @ 9:00 pm:
Sue at 4:16 cannot be the real Sue. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever expect the real Sue acknowledge that the pension funds were used as a piggy bank (robbing rightful money from it’s members!)
- Sue - Wednesday, Jan 6, 16 @ 7:20 am:
Anon- I have never refused to acknowledge that our politicians failed to properly fund the pension programs. My beef is that I refuse to accept that we must sacrifice all other public needs to,allow our public sector “welfare participants” to rob us of our future by insisting that their payments come before other pressing needs.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jan 6, 16 @ 7:53 am:
===…public sector “welfare participants” to rob us of our future by insisting that their payments come before other pressing needs.===
Boy, that pesky constitution must rile you up too.
===public sector “welfare participants”===
Nope. The public sector workers who have earned a pension are not “welfare participants”.
Ugh.
- PublicServant - Wednesday, Jan 6, 16 @ 8:38 am:
===Nope. The public sector workers who have earned a pension are not “welfare participants”.===
Thanks Willy, that’s exactly right. Pay up, or move, Sue. Either way works for me.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jan 6, 16 @ 8:41 am:
(Tips cap to - PublicServant -)
- Norseman - Wednesday, Jan 6, 16 @ 9:09 am:
Well said Willy.
- Sue - Wednesday, Jan 6, 16 @ 10:06 am:
I am the real Sue.
Sue @4:16 and 7:20 is NOT me. I would NEVER support cutting hard-earned constitutionally protected contractual pension benefits.
I believe that EVERYONE public sector AND private sector should have a safe predictable defined benefit pension that is not controlled by Wall Street financial planning leeches!
Perhaps I need a new nickname!