|
Comments Off  
|
* Nothing like burying this on a Friday afternoon after declaring a contract impasse. Here’s our hero Bruce Rushton at the Illinois Times…
Faced with a lawsuit from Illinois Times and three opinions from the state attorney general, Gov. Bruce Rauner has released his appointment calendar.
The release today that came via Brown, Hay and Stephens, the Springfield law firm that is representing the governor in the lawsuit filed by the newspaper, details the governor’s meetings held last April, when he left a Holocaust remembrance ceremony early and did not respond when Illinois Times asked where he had gone. The governor later told the State Journal-Register that he had left the ceremony to meet with House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, and Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago. That meeting is memorialized as “leader meeting” in the calendar released today.
The attorney general’s office has issued three opinions, one to Illinois Times, another to the Chicago Reader and a third to the Associated Press, stating that the governor’s calendar is a public record under the state Freedom of Information Act.
Download Rauner’s calendar releases here and here.
Should be interesting weekend reading.
…Adding… The letter sent by the Rauner administration to Rushton’s attorney is here.
12 Comments
|
* From a recent Tribune editorial…
In the next few months, air travelers from Illinois likely will no longer be able to flash their driver’s licenses as proof of identity to get through security and board a plane. Those cards don’t meet stringent federal standards under the REAL ID Act.
Travelers with Illinois licenses will need a passport to pass through security, even on domestic flights. This won’t go into effect until spring or summer. But as of Jan. 10, Illinois residents won’t be able to use a driver’s license to gain entry to federal buildings and U.S. military bases that require identification.
Cue the grumbling from Illinois residents.
And cue the whining from Illinois officials, who say they just need a little more time and money and legislative cooperation to get this done.
Please. […]
“We’ll be meeting the legislature [this] year to get their sense of how doable this is,” Druker said.
It had better be doable. It was doable in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 … you get the idea. But state pols dragged their feet and hoped the feds would — what? Get distracted?
* No, they assumed the feds would do what they just did. Back down…
Feds Announce No Changes to Security Procedures at Airports Until January 22, 2018
Illinois DLs and IDs remain acceptable forms of identification to board commercial airplanes for minimum of two years
The Department of Homeland Security provided an update today on the REAL ID Act, announcing that there will be no security changes at airports for at least two years, with any changes beginning no sooner than January 22, 2018.
As a result, Illinois driver’s licenses and ID cards will continue to be accepted as primary forms of identification to board commercial airplanes for domestic travel.
The Illinois Secretary of State’s office will continue to work with DHS and the Illinois General Assembly on the Real ID Act.
Henry Haupt
Deputy Press Secretary
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White
By the way, federal building access is on a facility by facility basis. According to Henry, you can still use your driver’s license at places like the Rock Island Armory, Scott Air Force Base, etc.
* And there are some very real concerns about this federal law. From the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service…
Ed Yohnka with the ACLU of Illinois says Illinois and other large states like California and New York are being quote “bullied” into compliance by the federal government to get what the ACLU amounts to a national ID card. Despite the federal government being wary of calling the national mandate a national ID, Yohnka says REAL ID is a national ID because it links all states’ ID databases together, something Yohnka says is not secure.
“The idea that somehow we will be more secure and our data will be protected when this goes national doesn’t really pass the test of what we see each and every day in the media and each and every day in the public in terms of our own data.”
One example Yohnka provided is someone possibly leaving a laptop with access to the database at a coffee shop. And, he pointed out, a nationally linked system will only be as strong as the weakest state’s security.
Find yourself living paycheck-to-paycheck? If REAL ID is implemented it may mean trading in a week’s worth of lunch to get the ID that complies with federal standards. Yohnka says getting a REAL ID will be labor intensive and not something applicants could pick up almost instantly, as is done now with the state’s current ID.
“You would have to make several trips to validate who you were. You’d have to produce several source documents, including an original birth certificate.”
Yohnka says at the end of the process of providing all the documents the applicant would then go home and wait for the ID card to arrive in the mail. Meanwhile Yohnka says for people who are struggling financially REAL ID will be even more burdensome.
“Do you have to chose between renewing your driver’s license and eating lunch for a week? These are real questions for people who live at the margins and unfortunately from all the data we see there are far too many folks who are living paycheck-to-paycheck.”
Yohnka estimates if REAL ID is implemented in Illinois, as the federal government is pushing the state towards, it could put the price of a driver’s license to more than $100, whereas it now costs $30. The Illinois Secretary of State’s office couldn’t say how much it will cost individuals but estimates overall implementation of the ID will cost taxpayers $60 million dollars, and there’s little indication of what the yearly costs thereafter would be.
7 Comments
|
* 3:01 pm: From AFSCME Council 31…
At the wrap-up of today’s negotiating session between AFSCME Council 31 and the Rauner Administration, the Governor’s representatives said they would refuse to participate in any further bargaining sessions and claimed that negotiations are at an impasse. AFSCME executive drector Roberta Lynch rejected that claim and said the union is prepared to continue to negotiate.
Lynch issued the following statement:
“We are shocked that the Rauner Administration would walk away and refuse to continue negotiations. The Governor’s rash action invites confrontation and chaos — it is not the path to a fair agreement. The people of Illinois deserve leadership that is focused on working together and getting things done, not someone who demands his own way or nothing at all. With no state budget to fund the public services that Illinois residents rely on and no union contract for the men and women who provide those services, the last thing the people of Illinois need is another manufactured crisis from a governor unwilling to do the hard work of compromise.
“In reality, there is no impasse between our union and the Rauner Administration. Until the final minutes of today’s meeting, both parties continued to exchange proposals on many issues. There has been no hint that the administration would simply refuse to continue to negotiate. If they will not return to the table, our union will take legal action. It is a violation of state labor law for a party to declare impasse where none exists.
“The parties do have areas of serious disagreement. For example, the administration wants to double employee’s costs for health care, making the state’s health plan the worst in the nation for any state workforce. It would also would freeze wages for four years, which coupled with its huge hikes in health costs would take money from the pockets of working families. Our union believes that public-service workers, like all working people, deserve wages that can sustain a family and health care they can afford. We also disagree with the administration’s insistence on eliminating safeguards that prevent unfettered privatization of public services.
“Despite our differences, AFSCME remains committed to finding common ground. We’ve been successful in reaching fair agreements with every Illinois governor of both parties for the past 40 years. But that can’t happen if the Rauner administration refuses to remain at the table and negotiate.
“As a candidate, Bruce Rauner repeatedly threatened to impose his extreme demands and force a strike in order to do so. That’s why unions representing state employees backed legislation to provide for arbitration as an alternative means of reaching a fair agreement. When the governor vetoed that bill, he pledged to work in good faith to reach a settlement—a pledge he has broken today.
“Public-service workers in state government keep us safe, respond to emergencies, protect kids, care for the most vulnerable and fulfill countless other essential functions in every Illinois community every day. They deserve a governor who respects the work they do and who will work in good faith to reach an agreement that’s fair to all.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** According to the tolling agreement, this matter now goes to the Illinois Labor Relations Board, which will decide whether or not an impasse exists. Click here.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Lance Trover…
“Today marked the 67th day of negotiations with AFSCME. Like every previous session, AFSCME rejected all of the Governor’s core proposals and insisted that they would never agree to those proposals despite our good faith efforts to address union concerns.
“In light of that position, our negotiators asked AFSCME if they believed we were at impasse. If so, both parties signed a tolling agreement establishing a Labor Board process by which that determination can be made. AFSCME insists that the parties are not at impasse while rejecting the offer for additional sessions next week.
“After a year of no meaningful progress, we must now evaluate the benefit of future sessions given AFSCME’s intransigence. In light of their answers today, we will now decide if the previously-agreed dispute resolution process should be considered.”
The administration also has a chart which “summarizes the status of the negotiations with AFSCME, while comparing it to its previous contract and the contracts the administration has already reached with 17 other unions representing state employees.” Click here.
…Adding… Re-reading the Trover statement you’ll see that the governor has not yet formally declared an impasse. That’s an important distinction here. The governor now has to decide whether to take this to the ILRB.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Press release…
Democratic State Representative candidate Tony DelGiorno, who is vying for the 99th Illinois House District, issued the following statement and called upon the Governor to return to the bargaining table and lift his unreasonable demands.
I am disappointed that it has come to this. It has been clear since the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2014 that the Governor has a hatred for public servants and the unions that represent them. One year after his inauguration, we are on the verge of a lockout or a strike – either of which fails to serve the taxpayers of Illinois. This all or nothing politics is not serving the people of Illinois well. Governing is best done when both sides work together to serve the people. No one side has all the answers. I urge the governor to continue working with AFSCME to reach a compromise. Had enough of our representatives had the gumption to override of the Governor’s veto of the union arbitration bill, we would not be in the situation we are today.
Nothing yet from the appointed incumbent, Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez (R-Springfield).
*** UPDATE 4 *** The administration notes that AFSCME has canceled next week’s scheduled bargaining session, not the Rauner people, which is significant here.
*** UPDATE 5 *** From AFSCME’s Anders Lindall…
No bargaining dates were scheduled for next week. The administration asked very late if we could meet then but our committee was unavailable. Instead AFSCME offered to meet at any time in any of the following three weeks.
93 Comments
|
* I suggested this weeks ago…
The Cook County Democratic Party Executive Committee has called a meeting for Thursday to reconsider an endorsement in the [state’s attorney] contest, party spokesman Jacob Kaplan said.
In August, Cook Democratic leaders voted to remain neutral in the contest.
That was largely because of a divide in the party, with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle backing Foxx, her former chief of staff, and House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, and influential Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, in Alvarez’s corner. Also running is former prosecutor Donna More. […]
Since the video’s release in late November, Alvarez’s support among Latino and African-American politicians has waned. Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, long a Foxx backer, said he believes Foxx now has the votes to win the endorsement.
If Foxx is slated, ward organizations controlled by Madigan, Burke, etc. will be forbidden to pass literature for or help any of her opponents - a rule change pushed by Madigan.
I think Politico had the story first this week, by the way.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
DONNA MORE ACCUSES DEMOCRATIC PARTY BOSSES OF CAVING TO PRECKWINKLE
Democratic Party Re-Slating Session Set for Next Thursday
Chicago – Jan 8, 2016 Cook County State’s Attorney candidate, Donna More is blasting any attempt by Democratic Party bosses to re-open the slating process for the express purpose of selecting Kim Foxx.
More, who is the only former federal prosecutor and state prosecutor in the Democratic primary race is lashing out at what she sees as a blatant attempt to “force feed an unqualified candidate down voter’s throats.”
More asserts, “It’s obvious that my campaign represents a real threat to Democratic bosses who are more interested in maintaining the status quo than in restoring trust and public confidence in the State’s Attorney’s Office.”
As for the party’s re-slating plans next Thursday, More decried, “Just another example from the political power brokers that this race is more about politics than about independence, transparency, fairness or justice.” Adding More, “This is simply another sordid maneuver by Democratic Party bosses, led by Toni Preckwinkle to get her handpicked candidate Kim Foxx selected.”
More, who on last Wednesday officially kicked off her ’70 Days to Victory Campaign” ahead of the March 15th primary, made it clear that she will be a prosecutor who will be free of political influence in making sure that justice and fairness prevail.
30 Comments
|
Question of the day
Friday, Jan 8, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Phil Kadner…
Leon Fields, of Glenwood, along with hundreds of other motorists, are discovering they are personally involved in the ongoing state budget impasse between Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democrats who control the legislature.
“They hit me with a $20 late fee because they ran out of money down in Springfield to mail out license plate vehicle sticker renewal notices,” the 68-year-old Fields told me during a telephone call. “Every year, we get sticker renewal notices from the (secretary of state), and this year no notice. Nobody told me they had stopped sending out notices. I didn’t get any warning from the state. Didn’t see anything on TV.
“You came to expect those notices a few months before your sticker had to be renewed, and we live in a world where we all expect those kinds of notices, bills from utility companies and such, reminding us it’s time to pay. And this state just stopped it. And then they told me because I was more than 30 days past due in renewing my sticker, I had to pay a $20 late fee.”
Shortly after talking to Fields, I traveled to the secretary of state’s station in Orland Park and quickly ran into a bunch of vehicle owners who were first finding out that the renewal notices stopped going out in September, that their plate stickers had expired and they owed a $20 late fee.
An employee at the Orland Park office estimated that about every other customer coming in to renew their vehicle sticker was being dinged with the late fee, and almost all said they had no idea that the secretary of state had stopped sending out the notices. […]
Jennifer Valauskas, of Orland Park, had just paid a $20 late fee on her license plate sticker when she stopped to talk to me.
“I think it’s really unfair because I never got the renewal notice,” she said. “This is ridiculous. How many people is this happening to? Where is all the money going that they’re collecting from these late fees? It’s just ridiculous that our politicians screw things up, and we’re the ones who have to pay for it. They aren’t even paying the state’s bills.”
* The Question: Should the secretary of state’s office waive the late fee until the impasse is resolved? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
surveys
68 Comments
|
Mixed week for Dold
Friday, Jan 8, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Dold plays the concern troll…
Republican Rep. Bob Dold of Kenilworth was in the middle, telling the Daily Herald editorial board Monday that additional background checks would be a “common sense step forward” but saying Obama moving forward without Congress could “poison the well” for the future.
“My concern is obviously on the process,” Dold said.
Dold is facing a re-election campaign against either Democrat Brad Schneider or Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, who have both also tried to make guns a key issue in the campaign.
The “process” is broken. Whether you’re with Obama or not, you have to admit there’s no way to get any sort of gun limits passed through Congress right now. And the well has been “poisoned” for years.
* Then Dold got trolled…
Rep. Bob Dold planned to bring a felon to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech next week as a guest, but he withdrew the invitation Thursday after learning that a Waukegan woman had accused the man of threatening to kill her in 2014 and obtained a restraining order against him.
Durrell McBride, 30, of Zion, served six years in state prison for armed robbery and was released in 2011, state records show. He was on parole until 2013.
Dold, a Republican from Kenilworth, announced this week that McBride would be his guest at Tuesday’s speech. An aide to Dold said McBride worked in sales and owns a “small business for his motivational speaking engagements.”
In a news release, Dold said he had he met McBride and was “inspired by his success story.” McBride “has worked tirelessly to lift himself up” since his release from prison, Dold said in the statement.
The prison stint wasn’t and isn’t a problem. It’s what happened afterward…
A Dold spokesman said neither the congressman nor the Lake County YouthBuild program that recommended McBride knew of the situation.
“Congressman Dold has a long history of efforts to prevent domestic abuse, including his Zero Tolerance for Domestic Abusers Act, and does not tolerate violence against women of any kind,” Dold spokesman Brad Stewart said in a statement. “Immediately after learning of this, Congressman Dold notified Mr. McBride that, in light of this information, he would no longer be attending the State of the Union as Congressman Dold’s guest. […]
“Mr. McBride was the 2013 YBLC Alumni of the Year and interned at YouthBuild Lake County for the past year,” said Laurel Tustison, executive director [of Lake County YouthBuild]. “He was an outstanding student and we were unaware of this personal situation with the restraining order when we recommended him for the trip.”
Oops.
…Adding… Meanwhile…
Three House Republicans on Wednesday voted against the reconciliation bill that would defund Planned Parenthood and repeal Obamacare while one Democrat voted for it. The bill passed the House of Representatives 240-181.
Republican Representatives Bob Dold (R-Ill.), Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.), and John Katko (R-N.Y.) broke ranks with 239 of their Republican colleagues and opposed the bill while Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) was the only House Democrat to vote for the bill.
15 Comments
|
* Hospitals freaked out when towns like Urbana tried to make them pay their full share of property taxes, so they turned to the state. The attorney general helped negotiate a compromise. But an appellate court has ruled that law unconstitutional…
The state’s 2012 charity care law has been declared unconstitutional by the Fourth District Appellate Court in a ruling that also scored a major victory for the city of Urbana and local taxing districts in a long-standing legal battle with the Carle health system.
A jubilant Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing said Wednesday the decision vindicated the city’s position to fight Carle and the state law after Carle properties became tax-exempt, taking $60 million of assessed value with them.
It also vindicated the city’s decision to turn down Carle’s offer to pay Urbana for some city services to make up for some lost tax revenue, she said.
“People kept saying you should take the money and run,” Prussing said.
The ruling is here.
* More…
“The Legislature could wait (until the Supreme Court rules), but issues will continue to mount,” Msall said. “The Illinois Department of Revenue needs some direction from both the Legislature and the (Rauner) administration on how to handle pending applications.”
I fully expect the Illinois Hospital Association will start a major legislative push this spring.
* More…
A lower court sided with the hospital, but the appeals court reversed that decision, saying the Illinois Constitution allows lawmakers to exempt only property “used exclusively” for “charitable purposes.”
“An unconstitutional statute is unenforceable from the moment of its enactment,” the ruling states. […]
Since 2012, Prussing said, the city has lost 11 percent of its assessed tax value since Carle was relieved of paying $6.5 million a year in property taxes — the vast majority of which went to Urbana and its school district.
* From the Illinois Constitution…
SECTION 6. EXEMPTIONS FROM PROPERTY TAXATION
The General Assembly by law may exempt from taxation only the property of the State, units of local government and school districts and property used exclusively for agricultural and horticultural societies, and for school, religious, cemetery and charitable purposes.
I suppose a main argument will rest on whether the word “exclusively” in that sentence also applies to “charitable purposes,” even though there is quite a separation. The appellate court used the 1870 Constitution’s language to claim that it does…
The property of the state, counties, and other municipal corporations, both real and personal, and such other property as may be used exclusively for agricultural and horticultural societies, for school, religious, cemetery and charitable purposes, may be exempted from taxation; but such exemption shall be only by general law.
Maybe.
Also, “exclusively” doesn’t have to be 100 percent. It has to be “primarily,” according to previous court rulings.
36 Comments
|
And while you’re at it, Rahm…
Friday, Jan 8, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
An organization representing African-American firefighters and paramedics on Thursday asked the U.S. Department of Justice to expand its probe of the Chicago Police Department to include the Fire Department, saying hiring and disciplinary practices there are unfair.
The African-American Firefighters & Paramedics League of Chicago also demanded that Mayor Rahm Emanuel dismiss Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago, alleging that Santiago has failed to investigate claims that minority firefighters are disciplined and demoted unjustly.
* The city is apparently violating a court consent decree…
They say under that decree, the fire department should be 30 percent African-American – equivalent to the black population of Chicago.
But that’s not the case – the group says of the total 4,800 firefighters and medics on the force, 783 are black – a total of just under 17 percent.
They say that’s down from the 1,000 black members back in 1980.
* Their union contract codifies the consent decree…
In December 2005, the percentage of uniformed African-Americans on the Chicago Fire Department totaled 19.2 percent. At the end of 2015 it stood at 16.9 percent. […]
“The contract says that in all ranks we should have fourty-five percent of minorities. Thirty percent should be black, 15 percent should be Hispanic,” Boggs said. […]
The fault in not meeting the 45 percent threshold these firefighters say lies not just with the City but also the union that represents Chicago firefighters. […]
“They agreed to this contract,” said Boggs, “and they have never held the city accountable for the 45 percent.”
In a statement Union President Tom Ryan said, “Local 2 has no control over the City’s hiring process.”
According to city figures, 92.3 percent of Chicago firefighters are male and 7.7 percent female.
The police and firefighter unions are playing right into Gov. Rauner’s hands.
Sheesh.
* And the mayor, of course, stood by his fire commissioner…
“Since 1980 the DOJ has been working with the fire department on their promotion policy and we’ve been cooperating and working with them and we will continue to do that,” he said.
Emanuel has pushed an innovative program to give city hiring preference to public high school graduates, which was, of course, opposed by the union.
20 Comments
|
Smart training = Better cops
Friday, Jan 8, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Several folks have been saying for weeks that the Chicago Police Department needs more Tasers. But as this article points out, Tasers may not be the real answer…
The logic sounds reasonable in theory. In practice, however, it’s hard to tell if Tasers reduce shootings. In fact, Chicago expanded its use of Tasers in 2010 by 300%, but there was no recorded decrease in police shootings. On the other hand, police shootings have dropped overall since 2010.
Meanwhile, data elsewhere has shown that Tasers can actually increase the rate of deadly violence. A 2009 study by Dr. Zian Tseng found that when Tasers were introduced to more than 50 California Police departments, sudden death incidents rose by 600%. A late 2015 Stanford University meta-study of the current state of research didn’t find such clear-cut evidence of harm, but also didn’t find evidence that the introduction of Tasers by police forces reduced injury or death.
“Current research does not support a decline in police shootings with a broader deployment of Tasers,” Louis Hayes, a working police officer who also trains fellow officers as part of the Chicago-based Virtus Group, tells Quartz via email. “Generally speaking, officers tend to use Tasers as an alternative to fistfights and wrestling matches, not as a substitute for deadly force.”
Much more helpful than Tasers, Hayes tells Quartz, would be training that emphasizes “strategic thinking—specifically a philosophy that values distance, protective cover, containment tactics, and a calm demeanor.”
In Chicago, Emanuel’s touting of Tasers seems especially tone-deaf and confused. In early 2014, Dominique Franklin Jr., died after Chicago police officers Tased him during a minor arrest for theft. He fell, hit his head, and never woke up.
Distance, protective cover, containment and calmness.
Exactly right.
That way, a kid wielding a baseball bat isn’t shot to death, along with an innocent bystander.
* Meanwhile…
Twenty-two Chicago Police officers have been disciplined — and there has been a dramatic increase in video and audio usage — in the one-month period since the lack of audio in the Laquan McDonald and Ronald Johnson shooting videos prompted a warning from the acting superintendent.
Punishments ranged from a mere reprimand to a three-day suspension or loss of leave, according to Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
“The disciplines were not over a destruction of equipment, but officers failing to use the cameras properly, [i.e. syncing the audio; uploading videos at the end of their tour; inspecting the cameras to ensure they work correctly],” the spokesman wrote in an email to the Chicago Sun-Times. […]
“We’ve seen a 75 percent increase in user uploads of video at the conclusion of their tours,” Guglielmi said.
* 2nd City Cop has a different take…
Or how about this - the Department, which always buys crap equipment from the lowest connected bidder, bought crappy equipment, then failed to maintain the crappy equipment. Then, since the political pressure became too much, actually paid MASSIVE amounts of overtime to the officers in the “technology section” to actually go out to the districts and perform the routine maintenance that had been lacking for the past two, three or four years, resulting in…..a sudden increase in compliance!
In Chicago? Never!!!
* And after just a week of the new year…
Through January 6th, a person was shot in Chicago every 2 hours, five minutes.
Oy.
Not to be Mr. Obvious or anything, but Chicago has to put this police scandal behind it with some real and immediate reforms so it can tackle the even bigger issue of gun crimes.
19 Comments
|
Today’s number: 8
Friday, Jan 8, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tony Arnold…
Laquan McDonald, the teenager shot 16 times by a Chicago police officer in October 2014, was one of eight wards of the state killed in street homicides last year, according to a newly released report by the watchdog of Illinois’ child welfare system. That number is more than twice as many as in any other year of the past five.
Denise Kane, the inspector general of Illinois’ Department of Children and Family Services, singled out the eight wards killed in street homicides in her latest annual report. She found that in the same time period the previous year, three wards were killed in street homicides.
Kane’s report says wards killed in the state’s 2015 fiscal year, which ran from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2015, were teenagers, with the youngest being 14. In Illinois, wards can age out of the child welfare system at age 21. […]
In a statement, Andrew Flach, a spokesman for DCFS, wrote, “The Department is aware and concerned any time a child in the care of the state dies. However, the statistic should serve as a reminder that children in the care of the state are no more or less immune to the increased threat of street violence than any other child in the state.”
That statement appears a bit heartless, no?
15 Comments
|
Another day, another Rahm flip-flop
Friday, Jan 8, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* They ain’t calling him Rahmbo any more…
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday ordered an independent “third-party review” followed by retraining in the Law Department division that employed a senior attorney who resigned in disgrace after concealing evidence in a police-shooting case.
Two days ago, the mayor told reporters it was “not possible” that his Law Department was part of the “code of silence” he has openly acknowledged exists in the Chicago Police Department.
When asked whether the Law Department should be included in the sweeping federal civil rights investigation of the Police Department he once called “misguided,” Emanuel said. “No. They’re working where they are.”
On Thursday, the mayor who has shifted gears repeatedly in the ongoing furor over his handling of the Laquan McDonald shooting video appeared to change his tune — again.
“I don’t direct the Justice Department. But if they come [into the Law Department], we’re going to cooperate and work with it. But there’s work we can get done . . . I’m going to get going on what we need to do,” the mayor said.
His initial response to questions about expanding the civil rights probe to include the law office was eerily similar to his response to the probe of the police department. And the flip-flop took about the same time to manifest itself.
Apparently, he did little to no reflection during his Cuban vacation.
20 Comments
|
Comparing us to the French
Friday, Jan 8, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* James Krohe writes: “Does the French Revolution hold lessons for Citizen Rauner?”…
Drowsy after a heavy holiday meal, I settled in to finish Stefan Zweig’s classic 1934 biography of Marie Antoinette. As I drifted in and out of sleep, the Versailles in Zweig’s account of the final days of Louis XVI and his queen faded and was replaced in my imagination with the people’s Versailles at Second and Monroe, which shares with the palace outside Paris the same elaborate etiquette, the same sycophancy, the same ambitious courtiers – and the same resentful crowds outside the gates, yearning to pull it down.
One of them, of course, is Bruce Rauner, who famously, bought himself a governorship so he could bring down from the inside a regime that is complacent, corrupt and sclerotic. He did not come to Springfield to head a government, but to foment an insurrection. When Rauner looks at the unionized public sector workers and their politician-protectors, he sees the privileged clergy and the aristocracy of old France. The government that served them was tottering under the weight of debt left by decades of foolish extravagance, and the petit bourgeoisie was up in arms about paying the taxes needed to retire it. The only interesting question was, who would push it over, and in what direction?
As in 1770s France, Illinois is split between liberals who would reform a bad system by altering the basic contract between public workers and government, and those who distrusted reform because it might drain the energy from the fight they really want, which is to alter the basic contract between citizen and government. Rauner is usually characterized by the press as merely an unconventional politician, but I suspect he prefers to think of himself as a revolutionary of sorts, like the many French aristocrats who demanded liberty in the name of The People. He is devoted not to a career but a cause; if by winning the revolution he loses the office, he will be satisfied. […]
I began to wonder whether the revolutionary generation portrayed by Zweig has other counterparts at the Statehouse. If Rauner embodies the ambitions of the Commune, Mr. Madigan is a Girondist to his core. That faction stood for the politics of the legislative chamber; Rauner will take comfort in the fact that the Girondists were defeated by the politicians of the streets, who roused the ignorant against them with half-truths and executed them en masse during the Reign of Terror, which, if things work out Rauner’s way, will happen again on Election Day, 2016. […]
But temperament is not a program. The French Revolution was a profound reordering of society from top to bottom, but the new Illinois imagined by Rauner the governor utterly lacks that kind of boldness. Rauner seems more likely to end up as our Jacques Necker, France’s director general of finance in the late 1770s, who aimed to restore the finances of the state but ended up proposing only puny efficiencies of the sort contained among the recent recommendations of Rauner’s consolidation task force.
You have to go read the whole thing. You may or may not agree with him, but it’s very cleverly written. Love me some Krohe.
* And John McCarron invokes French history in his own column about the feud between Gov. Rauner and Mayor Rahm Emanuel…
After all, the mayor has home field advantage in this phase of the game. This is politics. And when a guy who you thought was your friend, a guy who you thought would help you out of a jam, turns out to be neither, well, it’s time to start counting votes, taking names, calling in chits.
The mayor is pretty good at that. Just ask former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich or former mayoral candidates Gery Chico and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.
Three hundred years ago there was a brilliant but low-born French poet and playwright whose talents earned him the patronage and companionship of nobility. Until, that is, he offended the Chevalier de Rohan, who proceeded to have the young writer horsewhipped.
Rahm Emanuel may be no Voltaire, and Chicago no pre-Revolution Paris, but now that the Chevalier de Winnetka has reminded the mayor who he is, this contest may be headed to a whole new level.
Except there isn’t much Rahm can actually do to Rauner.
27 Comments
|
Moving to the Bilandic?
Friday, Jan 8, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Jay Levine during the break…
Gov. Bruce Rauner is looking into moving his Chicago office from the James R. Thompson Center to the Michael A. Bilandic Building across the street.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports the governor said he wanted to complete a sale of the Thompson Center by late next year, but appears ready to move out a lot sooner.
A spokesman for the governor concedes “the Bilandic building is among the options being explored, but no decisions have been made.”
Two sources tell us the governor himself recently toured the building checking out possible new digs.
* And Sneed this week…
Sneed is told Rauner’s minions have spent a lot of time scurrying around the Bilandic Building’s 10th floor since the governor’s massively expensive tented vacation en famille on Morroco’s Saharan sands.
At a time when displaced families in southern Illinois are complaining about how the state stopped the home buyout program in their flood plain, this move probably isn’t a great idea.
41 Comments
|
Time to start the real work
Friday, Jan 8, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The basic message here is that the people organizing the splashy, made for TV Chicago protests might want to start redirecting their energies into the real work of voter registration and GOTV. Greg Hinz…
[Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez] has been attacked so often and her office stumbled on so many big cases that her victory road, while real, is narrow. She likely needs her two foes to run fairly close to each other.
[Challenger Kim Foxx] is picking up some major political backing, with township committeemen in West and South Cook County gravitating toward her. But what she really needs is an outpouring of rage from the African-American community and, so far, that has not translated into a voter registration drive in black neighborhoods. Foxx dearly needs to move what’s been happening in the streets to the polling place.
There’s just a little over 2 months left until primary day. If Alvarez wins, the protesters’ cause is gonna be badly damaged, despite all the goofy bloviators in the national media.
21 Comments
|
Universities reveal impasse impacts
Friday, Jan 8, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Inside Higher Ed…
SIU has borrowed against several reserve funds, heavily reduced administrative and discretionary spending, laid off about 25 employees and eliminated or left vacant another 50 positions. The university has stopped operating programs — such as research programs and training programs — that were funded by state grants but are no longer solvent because the state money has dried up and isn’t getting replaced. It’s covering the cost of MAP grants for about 7,700 students (the grants can reach $5,000 per student each year), but is warning recipients — all of whom are low income — that if the state doesn’t fund the grants, they may well be on the hook for the money. […]
Western Illinois University has spent much of its general reserves and is now borrowing from reserve funds that were never expected to be used for operating costs — like transportation funds that were earmarked for a new parking lot or health center funds set aside for a specific purpose. The result is that some areas of the university are having to delay projects, even though those areas do not depend on state funding. […]
WIU, in response to years of slowly reducing appropriations and enrollment declines (the university’s enrollment has dipped from roughly 13,000 students in 2006 to 11,100 students this fall), offered early retirement incentives to nearly 60 employees and plans to lay off around 50 faculty members in the near future. It has also begun exploring cutting academic programs with low enrollment. In the summer, EIU also announced layoffs. […]
The University of Illinois System has an administrative hiring freeze in place while it awaits state funding. This year the system expected to get $62 million in MAP grant funding from the state. Its appropriations last year were $660 million. Like other universities in the state, the system is spending down reserves, reducing spending and looking for operational efficiencies as it goes into a second semester without state funding, according to a spokesman. […]
For example, covering MAP grants for the year has cost DePaul University in Chicago about $17 million. At least one private college, the Illinois Institute of Technology, had to deny students MAP funding for the spring semester because it was uncertain it could cover the costs and remain financially solvent. Additionally, some community colleges aren’t funding the grants, either. The result, officials say, is devastating for socioeconomic and racial diversity. (The Illinois Senate did pass a bill that would have funded MAP grants, but the measure has not passed the House of Representatives.)
Not to mention enrollment declines of 4 percent at SIU Carbondale this year.
52 Comments
|
* Reuters…
Jan 7 Illinois’ ongoing state budget battle is being downplayed by Governor Bruce Rauner’s administration ahead of a $480 million bond sale - the state’s first in 20 months.
An impasse between the Republican governor and Democratic lawmakers has left the fiscally shaky fifth-largest U.S. state without a budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. But an online investor presentation posted Dec. 30 for the Jan. 14 bond sale gave a generally rosy assessment of Rauner’s dealings with a Democratic-led legislature.
Illinois Budget Director Tim Nuding emphasized actions taken to patch a hole in the fiscal 2015 budget and provide some fiscal 2016 funding to local governments, lottery winners, federal grant recipients and others.
“Another example of the legislature working together to solve problems,” he said, without discussing the factors blocking a budget accord. Those involve Rauner’s push for collective bargaining curbs, legislative term limits and redistricting changes, and business-friendly moves like making it harder for injured workers to collect damages from their employers.
* But the Bond Buyer looks past the feel-good investor presentation and focuses on a different document…
Illinois’ first bond offering statement in 20 months prominently lays out a trove of warnings about the state’s stressed fiscal condition, from failed pension reforms and budget gridlock to its weakened credit and negative swap valuations. […]
“Particular attention should be given to the investment considerations described below which, among other things, could affect the financial condition of the state and therefore result in a repayment risk for investors, and could also affect the liquidity/market value of the bonds after they are issued,” the offering statement warns. […]
“The state’s financial condition has been materially adversely affected by the budget impasse,” says the offering statement which additionally warns that the bill backlog is expected to grow significantly. […]
“The state’s financial condition is now materially worse than the state’s anticipated financial condition” if the reforms had been upheld, the offering statement says. […]
Additionally, liquidity and bank risks are posed by the state’s $600 million of floating-rate paper from a 2003 issue, although the variable-rate debt represents just a small piece of the state’s $26 billion GO debt portfolio. […]
The offering statement reports that the state may seek to undertake a cash flow borrowing […]
The offering statement reports that as the state rating falls, fees of the credit providers and interest rates on any advances adjust.
Whew.
Also, cash flow borrowing makes sense when money is so tight, but they resisted doing it all last year.
…Adding… Tribune on a report from S&P…
The agency said that while “it might seem obvious” that the state’s credit rating should be downgraded from its current A- position — already the lowest in the nation — Illinois has provided data that shows it has “sufficient internal liquidity” to make debt payments through the end of the current spending year, which ends June 30.
“A budget crisis does not necessarily constitute a debt crisis,” S&P wrote. “From a global ratings scale perspective, we still view the state’s ability to meet its debt obligations as they come strong… In fact, to formulate an argument otherwise, in our view, requires overemphasizing the state’s budget politics relative to its fundamental ability to pay its debt service.”
Still, the agency warned that while the state’s credit is not worthy of a downgrade at this time, “we also do not currently see a pathway to upward rating migration anytime soon.” S&P noted that continued spending despite a drop in revenues following the 2015 income tax rollback means Illinois could face a bill backlog of nearly $10 billion, noting a large accumulation of bills by the end of the budget year “could tip the state’s rating lower.”
90 Comments
|
|
Support CapitolFax.com
Visit our advertisers...
...............
...............
...............
...............
...............
...............
|
   
|
Hosted by MCS
SUBSCRIBE to Capitol Fax
Advertise Here
Mobile Version
Contact Rich Miller
|
