I read your blog post about changes to collective bargaining rights, titled “Then Do It Already.”
You correctly point out that the Governor’s proposal goes far beyond the restrictions placed on the employees of CPS as part of the School Reform Amendatory Act of 1995. However, that bill was passed by a legislature that was controlled by the Republicans. The Act not only gave the mayor of the City of Chicago complete autonomous control over CPS, but much like the turnaround agenda, it limited collective bargaining rights for teachers.
Since 1995, the Chicago Public Schools have been a complete and total financial disaster. The district didn’t make a single pension payment for a decade. They offered to pay the employee portion of the pension contribution in lieu of a salary increase (ostensibly to save money on the current operation), but then failed to make that contribution as well, exacerbating the problem. The board entered into misguided toxic rate swaps, that this year alone will cost the district over $500 million in penalties. There have been repeated instances of the board engaging in conduct that at the least is a blatant conflict of interest and at worst has been direct corruption. Finally, despite the wishes of the citizens, students, parents, and taxpayers, CPS has gone a binge of Charter School Expansion, closing neighborhood schools and creating sweetheart deals for questionable operators like UNO, without any evidence of improvement. In fact, while the overall performance of CPS has improved, the district has merely kept pace with the rest of the country. Unfortunately, the gains in academic performance have only been realized by white students. The academic achievement of blacks and latinos has been stagnant and in some cases worse.
Today the governor calls for the passage of the turnaround agenda. But here’s the thing: In 1995, the legislature passed the turnaround agenda for Chicago Public Schools. Despite the authoritarian control over the finances and operations, and the restrictions placed on collective bargaining rights, CPS has been an unmitigated disaster. If he truly believes that his agenda will improve our state, he really should come up with a better example.
Rob Martwick
OK, but the Democrats never withdrew those exemptions during their years of control and they allowed CPS to get out of making those pension payments.
* On a related note, Rep. Martwick’s legislation to elect Chicago’s school board recently passed committee on a partisan roll call. It now moves to the floor.
In an interview in October 2010, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made what would become one of the most repeated (and embellished) quotes of the Barack Obama presidency.
“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president,” McConnell, now the Senate majority leader, told the National Journal.
As the Washington Post explained in fall 2012, McConnell’s words and the date they were spoken often have been inaccurately represented in the years since, generally by Democrats eager to present evidence of unyielding partisan opposition to Obama’s every move.
But as the Illinois state budget battle kicked into high gear last summer and fall, I’ve heard references to McConnell’s famous quote in a different context. This time it was invoked in defense of a Republican — Gov. Bruce Rauner — who has had limited success with a Democrat-led Legislature.
The logic was along these lines: How can Democrats excoriate a Republican Congress for not bending to the wishes of President Obama while at the same time applauding a Democratic Illinois General Assembly for not cooperating on Rauner’s reform agenda?
The question ignores one fundamental nuance in the Illinois debate, where the gridlock comes from Democrats opposing Rauner’s use of reforms as leverage for negotiating a budget. House Speaker Michael Madigan has stated, ad nauseum, his pledge to work “professionally and cooperatively” with Rauner on the budget, but only if Rauner leaves his reform agenda for another day. To a lot of Illinois Republicans, that position misses the entire point of Rauner’s argument. It’s the Illinois equivalent of McConnell’s “single most important thing” quote.
* The Question: Is Rauner getting the Obama treatment? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* The Democratic results match up somewhat closely with the poll we discussed the other day. And Sen. Kirk’s gonna win his primary, but check out the large number of undecideds and the high number of folks who don’t know enough about him to rate him after over 5 years in office. The GOP base isn’t totally in love with him…
Republican Senator Mark Kirk and Democratic U.S. Representative Tammy Duckworth are the clear early leaders in Illinois’ upcoming March 15 primary to be their party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Kirk, according to a poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Both Republicans and Democrats feature contested primaries for their nominations, and the November Illinois contest is widely regarded to be one of the most competitive and pivotal contests in the fierce national battle for majority control of the U.S. Senate.
REPUBLICANS
• In the GOP race, Kirk is being challenged for re-nomination by Oswego business owner and conservative, James Marter. The poll found that 53 percent of likely Republican primary voters said they would vote for Kirk, compared to 14 percent who said they were for Marter. This left one-third, or 33 percent, who were still undecided.
The sample of 306 Republicans was part of a statewide poll of 1,000 registered voters taken Feb. 15-20. The Republican sample has a margin of error of 5.6 percent.
DEMOCRATS
• U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth from suburban Chicago is the leader, with 52 percent of self-identified Democratic primary voters, compared with 6 percent who said they would vote for Andrea Zopp, head of the Chicago Urban League, and 4 percent who said they would vote for Illinois State Sen. Napoleon Harris of Harvey. The remaining 37 percent said they were still undecided in this race.
The sample of 1,000 Illinois registered voters contained 422 who said they would vote in the Democratic primary and those findings have a margin of error of 4.7 percent.
“These results provide just a snapshot of public opinion in Illinois at this juncture, but it is a good indicator of where the races stand with three weeks to go before the vote,” said John S. Jackson, a visiting professor at the Institute and one of the designers of the poll. “Sen. Kirk and Rep. Duckworth were widely considered to be their parties’ leading candidates for the nomination, and so far they are living up to those expectations.”
U.S. SENATOR JOB APPROVALS
The poll asked all respondents how they felt about the state’s two U.S. Senators, Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Dick Durbin.
There were 39 percent of the total sample of 1,000 who approved of the job Kirk is doing, while 31 percent disapproved. There were 25 percent who said they did not know and 5 percent who said they neither approved nor disapproved.
Durbin won approval from 51 percent for the job he is doing. There were 34 percent who disapproved. Only 12 percent said they did not know what kind of job Durbin was doing, and 4 percent neither approved nor disapproved.
Jackson said “these results indicate that Sen. Kirk does have his critics, and that there is an unusually large number who say they do not know what kind of job he is doing. This is probably indicative of why he is being challenged in his own party.”
* I heard yesterday that Reps. Ken Dunkin and Reggie Phillips were working on a bill to help ease the “squeeze” on higher education, but I couldn’t get anyone to respond. Here’s their bill…
Appropriates $160,000,000 from the General Revenue Fund to the Board of Higher Education for emergency assistance to public universities. Appropriates $40,000,000 from the General Revenue Fund to the Illinois Community College Board for emergency assistance to community colleges. Effective immediately, but does not take effect at all unless Senate Bill 3044 of the 99th General Assembly becomes law.
SB 3044 would “forgive” $450 million in special funds borrowing the state did at the very end of Fiscal Year 2015.
* That’s a truly “odd couple” of sponsors, but Chicago State University and Eastern Illinois University are in the worst trouble of all the state’s public universities. So, it makes perfect sense, particularly since both men have primary opponents.
*** UPDATE *** I’ve asked for responses from the governor’s office and all four leaders. Here’s Leader Jim Durkin…
“These two bills should be given a fair hearing and awarded an up or down vote. These initiatives actually have money attached for Higher Education unlike the insincere bill regarding MAP the Governor rightfully vetoed.”
* I’m not sure if y’all noticed this, but by design today I have outlined several ways of ending this impasse…
* Workers’ comp: Call Madigan’s bluff and accept language on insurance company rates and roll back the 7.5 percent increase in PPD rates or implement some of the AMA’s guidelines.
* Local collective bargaining: Call Madigan’s bluff and give all schools the same bargaining exemptions that Madigan has already given Chicago, and leave it at that.
* Higher education funding: Use the impasse to force the universities to the bargaining table in order to extract real and lasting spending reforms, but get that process moving before the schools collapse.
* K-12 funding reform: Jim Edgar first secured Democratic votes for his education funding revamp and then used that to push conservative Republicans into accepting a bipartisan compromise - which is exactly the opposite of Rauner’s approach that is doomed to failure because he simply doesn’t have enough votes to move anything forward.
* Tone: Don’t be like The Donald, because, trust me, that comparison is coming as the March 15th primary nears.
* In addition, there’s no real need to demand remap reform as a condition of negotiating the budget because a well-funded, highly organized effort is already underway to put the issue on the ballot this November.
* That leaves term limits. If he got everything else, I don’t see any reason to hold up the budget for term limits. Convince the Senate to vote on it and be done with it.
* There’s also tort reform. The governor rarely talks about that topic, so maybe he doesn’t really care. I don’t know. But there has to be an idea out there somewhere.
“And what some people say to me, ‘Well, you’re just trying to strip away collective bargaining.’ No, I’m not. I just want to do what Chicago has done, and Massachusetts has done and others. When it’s necessary to protect taxpayers, give the ability for you in each community to take something out of collective bargaining if it’s necessary.
“Chicago has done this for years. And when the Democratic super-majority says to me, ‘Governor, you’ve proposed that, that’s a violation of our core beliefs.’
“Well that’s baloney.
“You’ve done it for Chicago for years. You’ve taken school day out of collective bargaining. Length of school year out of collective bargaining. Outside contracting out of collective bargaining. And right now the mayor has asked that the teachers’ pension contribution get taken out of collective bargaining.
“Why does Chicago get that and Springfield doesn’t get that? Decatur doesn’t get that. Peoria doesn’t get that. What’s, what’s going on? It’s not fair. We should treat everybody the same in Illinois.”
This is a great argument. It is unfair for Chicago to have these exemptions that nobody else has.
(a) A public employer and a labor organization may not bargain over, and no collective bargaining agreement entered into, renewed, or extended on or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 99th General Assembly may include, provisions related to the following prohibited subjects of collective bargaining:
(1) Employee pensions, including the impact or implementation of changes to employee pensions, including the Employee Consideration Pension Transition Program as set forth in Section 30 of the Personnel Code.
(2) Wages, including any form of compensation including salaries, overtime compensation, vacations, holidays, and any fringe benefits, including the impact or implementation of changes to the same; except nothing in this Section 7.6 will prohibit the employer from electing to bargain collectively over employer-provided health insurance.
(3) Hours of work, including work schedules, shift schedules, overtime hours, compensatory time, and lunch periods, including the impact or implementation of changes to the same.
(4) Matters of employee tenure, including the impact of employee tenure or time in service on the employer’s exercise of authority including, but not limited to, any consideration the employer must give to the tenure of employees adversely affected by the employer’s exercise of management’s right to conduct a layoff.
* If the governor would propose a bill which gives suburban and Downstate schools the same options to limit collective bargaining as Chicago already has, then he’d have a much better argument, and we might be on the road to a deal.
To me, anyway, that would be a big Rauner victory. He’s right that it’s the fair thing to do, and he’s right that the Democrats have already agreed to these ideas for the state’s largest city.
So propose a freaking bill already and put the Democrats on the spot. Unless, of course, he doesn’t want a deal.
Rauner most recently has asked lawmakers either to give him his turnaround stuff—workers compensation and tort reform, limits on public-sector unions, etc.—or give him the authority to balance the budget by moving money around and cutting line items on his own. A pending bill from House GOP Leader Jim Durkin lays out the specifics, with a similar bill filed in the Senate by GOP Leader Christine Radogno. Needless to say, Democrats don’t trust Rauner to make the decisions himself.
On its face, that legislation looks like a liberal nightmare. Specifically, to pay for MAP grants and other college spending, it would effectively give Rauner unrestricted power to “limit, reduce or adjust services, payment rates, expenditures, transfers of funds and eligibility criteria, to the extent permitted by federal law” in five departments of particular importance to Democrats: Aging, Children and Family Services, Healthcare and Family Services, Human Services and Public Health.
In fact, administration officials say, all that clause would do is restore a level playing field between those departments and others, like Corrections and Transportation, where Rauner already has a free hand and has used it to make $500 million to $600 million in cuts.
Comparing corrections and transportation to human services, eh?
Lots of spending at DCFS, DHFS and DHS falls under judicial consent decrees, so it’s like comparing apples to chair legs.
The findings from this analysis illustrate that reimbursement rates in the majority of service areas have failed to keep up with increased cost of living. The only human services field that has experienced regular rate increases is Child Care. The remainder of service rates has fallen behind cost of living. Table 1 and Figure 1 present a summary of rate increases compared to cost of living increases. Key findings include the following:
• The current rates for Substance Abuse Treatment (for Level I, II, and III, Adult Recovery Home, Case Management, Psychiatric/Diagnostic, Opioid Maintenance Therapy, and Early Intervention) would need to increase by 27% to adjust for cost of living increases that have occurred since 2000.
• Reimbursement rates for Comprehensive Care Coordination for older adults have generally not increased since 2000. These rates would need to be increased by 38% to adjust for cost of living.
• Early Intervention reimbursement rates have not increased since 2004. The rates would need to increase by 26% to adjust for cost of living.
• Foster Care reimbursement rates would need to increase by at least 25% to adjust for cost of living.
• Reimbursement rates for various Developmental Disabilities Services have not increased since 2008, and would need to increase by 13% to adjust for cost of living.
• Wages for developmental disabilities residential support staff have not increased since 2002. These wage rates would need to increase by 30% to adjust for cost of living.
• Community Mental Health Service rates have not increased since 2006. Based on 2005 rates, they would need an increase of 16% to adjust for cost of living.
Cut those rates and two things will probably happen: 1) Quality of care will decrease; and 2) Wages will be suppressed, so hiring decent people will be much more difficult, which will also likely hamper qualify of care.
Lack of funding for higher education creates “uncertainty if you’re a student,” she said. But, she added, “some of these universities have cut some of their administrative costs –- sort of squeeze-the- beast theory.”
She said “global questions” about higher ed could now be asked.
“Should we have six, eight schools of education, everybody having a program and everything? I don’t know,” Radogno said. She noted a couple of two-year colleges went to four years, including what is now the University of Illinois Springfield.
“Maybe we ought to have more going from four to two,” she said.
* Those words caught the attention of the Champaign News-Gazette and state Sen. Scott Bennett, a Champaign Democrat who represents the U of I…
“What we don’t want to see is some kind of starving out, which is what’s happening now, where the strong survive and the weaker ones die away,” Bennett said. “That’s not the way we should be deciding our higher education system.
“Honestly, that’s what appears to be happening. I don’t know if that’s the design or neglect which is resulting in this.”
Radogno spokeswoman Patti Schuh described Radogno’s comments as part of a “freewheeling” conversation with the newspaper’s editorial board, not a policy proposal. The message, Schuh said, was that budget cuts present an opportunity to “look at things differently.”
“It’s been said by many, ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste,’” Schuh said. “There are legitimate questions that are being asked.”
But she added, “There’s no plan or policy on the table right now.”
OK, take her at her word. But this “squeeze the beast” theory is at the very least a de facto plan right now.
* Make no mistake, however. This current crisis comes after years of “squeeze the beast” policy by controlling Democrats. It’s been a slow-motion train wreck…
Excluding pensions and adult education/career and technical education (which came under community colleges oversight in 2002), community colleges, public universities, need-based financial aid, and institutional grant programs all have experienced decreases in funding since 2000 after accounting for inflation. The total decrease is $1.1 billion, or 36.4 percent.
Emphasis added.
* Universities are (often rightly) seen by state policymakers as top-heavy fiefdoms which need to rein in their own spending. But depriving them of state money hasn’t worked. They’ve continued to expand non-instructional staff and jacked up tuition…
* The upside here is that the universities have been incredibly powerful in the past. It’s why they got away with those massive tuition hikes and their over-reliance on non-tenured professors, etc. The past cuts obviously didn’t work. But the current starvation diet is making them much more amendable to change.
So, how about somebody come up with a reform plan before the whole system implodes and permanent damage is done?
* Not to get all gangsta or anything, but only a short-sighted bookie has his customer’s legs broken for refusing to pay a debt. The customer can’t pay if the customer can’t work. You only break his legs when it becomes clear that he has no intention of ever paying. I don’t think we’re there yet, by any means, but this current, super-intense “squeeze the beast” policy is as close as we’ve ever gotten to breaking some legs.
The university system is a big part of our heritage. Responsible stewards improve on that heritage to pass along to the next generation. Blagojevich and Quinn and the Democratic General Assembly were not responsible stewards. Rauner could turn out to be even worse unless he comes up with a plan.
* Um, dude, they own the Chicago Cubs. That’s probably the worst imaginable thing that anybody would ever try to hide. But, as we all know, they were quite public about their purchase of that evil monstrosity. So, I’m not sure how anything else in their collective family past could possibly be any worse than that…
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump took to Twitter on Monday to denounce a super political action committee opposing his campaign that’s primarily funded by Marlene Ricketts, whose family owns the Chicago Cubs.
“I hear the Rickets (sic) family, who own the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending $’s against me. They better be careful, they have a lot to hide!” wrote Trump, the businessman and reality TV show star who is no stranger to making pronouncements, name-calling denunciations and predictions via social media.
Trump’s message apparently was in response to a USA Today story noting that Ricketts, the family matriarch who lives in Nebraska, had put $3 million into the Our Principles PAC in January. The PAC has spent about $3.5 million in ads, mailings and other efforts to oppose Trump, federal records show.
* Gov. Rauner and Leader Durkin refused to respond. But one guy did…
But, will Trump’s Twitter strategy work in Illinois? Former Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady thinks not.
“It does stir it up and he sucks all the oxygen in the room and other candidates can’t get out there, but I don’t think it’s going to work very well here,” Brady said.
The sample of 306 [Illinois] Republicans was part of a statewide poll of 1,000 registered voters conducted Feb.15 to 20. The GOP voter sample has a margin of error of 5.6 percent.
But I doubt that Trump has suddenly fallen behind in Illinois. As we’ve already clearly seen, a large number of Illinoisans absolutely love it when their guy is constantly on the attack. And Pat Brady ought to know this because he’s been loudly cheering something eerily similar to this in his own back yard for a while now.
The top Republican in the Illinois House says there is room to compromise with Democrats on the conservative agenda Gov. Bruce Rauner Is pushing.
Jim Durkin is a Republican from Western Springs. On Monday, he told a meeting of the City Club in Chicago that he wants Democrats who control the General Assembly to negotiate “with open minds” on a balanced budget. […]
Durkin says there are steps within a workers comp reform package that could be agreed upon, such as adopting American Medical Association guidelines for compensating worker injury.
“In my caucus, I believe that workers’ comp is extremely important, extremely important,” said Durkin, R-Western Springs.
“And I’m of the belief, after my discussions with the (House) speaker and the (Senate) president, over the months, that is an area where we can find some common ground.”
“If we‘re going to get through the budget … that’s one of the things we’re going to have to address. It has to be part of the plan, it has to be part of the big picture,” Durkin said in a presentation to the City Club of Chicago.
Durkin also said the GOP doesn’t expect Democratic support for big changes in workers’ compensation “causation,” which refers to whether an injury actually occurred at work and to what degree the workplace is responsible.
Still, he said, “there are many other issues we can deal with on workers’ comp,” citing as examples the implementation of American Medical Association recommendations and changes in payment-for-loss schedules.
“We passed legislation last year that focuses on the insurance industry, which appears to be a blockade point,” said Madigan spokesman Steve Brown.
“The important thing is there have been independent studies that say the cost of workers’ comp has come down dramatically since the 2011 reforms (but) the insurance companies aren’t passing it along,” said Brown.
“We have a bill that was passed that could focus on the insurance companies (and) get the money to the employers, but the governor is focused on taking wages away from employees,” Brown said.
Brown referenced House Bill 1287, which passed the House last June by a vote of 63 to 39. While Democrats said it was a substantial measure and an olive branch to the governor, Republicans dismissed it as an insincere gesture and falling well short of the changes they want. The bill remains in the Senate.
A 2005 bill that raised payments to workers who suffered permanent partial disabilities on the job [by 7.5 percent] caused workers’ compensation insurance rates in Illinois to soar. Miller said a repeal of that law could break the budget stalemate and satisfy both Rauner and Madigan, who has argued that Rauner’s agenda for workers’ comp will send injured workers to emergency rooms for treatment and force them onto welfare rolls:
“‘If we get this, workers’ comp is done’ [the governor’s people have told me]. Now, rolling back a 7.5 percent benefit increase is not going to put one person on welfare or send one person to the emergency room. That is a doable, possible fix.”
* The question becomes does either side really want to do a deal? I think Durkin is indicating that he’s willing to move forward on something. Brown has laid out what his boss wants. A governor interested in advancing his cause would immediately see this as a prime opportunity for progress.
Put the Speaker on the spot by agreeing to his demand. There’s no better way to test whether Madigan is more interested in compromise or gridlock.
* And, frankly, the same can be said of Rauner. I’m still of the mind that Rauner wants to do a deal. I think that’s supported by what he told the bigshots at GE last year when the company wanted to move its HQ to Chicago, but were worried about governmental instability. Rauner asked for more time because he (for whatever reason) thought he was close to ending the impasse. I don’t think he would’ve told the company execs that if he wanted this thing to go on indefinitely. Maybe I’m wrong, but I still believe he wants to move the state forward. It’s just that he absolutely must find another way to do it.
As Rauner has done throughout the past year, he tried to pin the problem on House Speaker Michael Madigan, saying the current school funding formula that Democrats now want to change was created by the longtime lawmaker.
“I did not create the school funding formula, I just got here,” Rauner said. “This has been in place for decades and you know who created? Speaker Madigan and the Democrats in the General Assembly. Somehow, I’m new, and it’s all my fault and I’m the defender of it. I mean, good grief.”
And the formula which determines how much state aid each school gets hasn’t been changed since 1997.
* That was a huge piece of legislation, by the way, pushed hard throughout most of 1997 by Gov. Jim Edgar…
I felt that in the end, we got 75 percent of what we were out to get. I mean, we didn’t get property tax relief. I think the media has a tendency to dwell on property tax relief. We didn’t get that, but we did get the minimal foundation level, we did get more money for schools; we did get some reforms, but most importantly, we got the minimal foundation level. We helped poor school districts in the state; that was the basis of what we wanted to accomplish, and we did accomplish that.
This legislation took months to pass, over the initial opposition of suburban Republicans, who eventually decided that their Downstaters were getting such heat that they needed to cut a deal with Edgar. That’s why Downstate Sen. Frank Watson was made the chief sponsor.
* The bill had problems in the House Democratic caucus as well because it started off as an income tax hike. Here’s Jim Edgar again….
I think we were in April, late April, probably, because we still had time in that Senate. But Madigan came to me and said, “My guys are nervous that they’ll vote for this and then you’ll campaign against them for raising taxes. They want an endorsement.” I said, “I’m not going to give them an endorsement.” Finally we settled on I’d give them a letter thanking them for their support of this proposal. He came back and said, “Okay, that’ll work.” Anybody who votes for this will get a letter from me thanking them for their courage in voting for this important piece of legislation.
* And it required some serious horse trading in the Senate GOP caucus…
We knew we had all the Democrats, and we needed two or three Republicans to vote for a discharge. Now, this is a trickier vote than voting for it on the floor. There are some guys who just won’t vote for a discharge, and we knew that. But I was down to one vote; I knew who the senator was, and I had him down in my office. At that time we were building a new prison in Illinois, and this senator came from a long family of politicians who cared about jobs.
* My overall point here is that when a governor completely engages, he can get things done. Maybe not everything he wants, but 75 percent isn’t bad. You live to fight another day.
What you don’t do is spend all your time publicly bashing one guy. It might make you feel good. It might make your supporters love you more. But it doesn’t actually get anything accomplished. Keeping your base and the Tribune fired up and giddy as little schoolgirls is no substitute for governance. Period.
* Gov. Bruce Rauner appeared today with Juan Salgado, the innovative President/CEO of Instituto Career Health Services Academy, to talk about the future of education. From the governor’s comments…
“[As Salgado said a few minutes ago, he would] put more resources into the other support networks for our students. Psychological support, counseling support, health support, because the challenges students have to overcome every day in their lives to be able to get in the classroom and study and learn is pretty overwhelming.
“That’s one of the reasons that we just created the Governor’s Cabinet for Children and Youth. We have 15 state departments that touch our young people in different elements of their life. We need to coordinate that, better focus it, so when we interact with a student who needs support, healthcare, counseling, potentially unfortunately sometimes justice issues, corrections issues. When we have a government touching a student, we should be coordinating that effort so we can maximize the impact with the students.
“For example, right now we have a dozen different databases about students, and if a student touches one department another department doesn’t even know that that interaction is even going on, and they can’t impact and benefit each other by coordinating the services that that student needs to realize their full potential. We need more cooperation, we need less bureaucracy, more efficiency and more money in the classroom to support our students.
“If we do that, every student can realize their fullest potential and we can have great schools and students ready to step into great careers in every neighborhood.”
The governor absolutely nailed it. He really gets this.
Except for one thing.
Those much-needed support services he spoke of are being decimated by this impasse.
As we were speaking with Gail Owen, the regional schools superintendent for Tazewell, Woodford and Mason counties, after the budget address, she made a point about another impact of the stalemate that hadn’t gotten much attention.
Of course many of us have heard — if not from the full-throated voice of our own local law enforcement — about how cutbacks in social services, many of them providing care for mental illness, affect the justice system.
But whether it’s violence prevention, post sexual assault counseling, even the lengthy fight over child care reimbursement, other support networks are seeing the effects on kids of cutbacks in programs that help either them or their parents and guardians. That includes teachers in the classroom.
Owen put it bluntly to us: “Without those support services, the schools are picking up the slack.”
Changes in state law have made it difficult for organizers to put on amateur events for kickboxing and martial arts, which aren’t regulated the way boxing and mixed martial arts are, so over the years opportunities for athletes to compete in Illinois have become fewer and farther between. Pending legislation that would allow for such competitions seems to have stalled in the state Senate.
“I think it’s very frustrating that we’re training year-round and we may have four opportunities to fight,” said Josh Brackett, who trains fighters and competes himself. “We probably haven’t fought in Illinois in five or six years.” […]
The current legislation, House Bill 1646, drew support from athletes and trainers and has been endorsed by public bodies, including the Peoria City Council and Peoria Civic Center Authority, and passed the state House by a vote of 114-0 last spring. The bill is opposed, however, by the state’s Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which oversees licensing and regulation of boxing and would oversee kickboxing competitions, should they be allowed. […]
Ryan Blackorby, a kickboxing trainer and enthusiast, estimates that the number of kickboxing competitions has dropped in Illinois by 90 percent in the last decade, while boxing and MMA have continued to be allowed.
* The Question: What other things should Illinois over-regulate to the point of almost banning it?
Snark is heavily encouraged, of course. But please explain your tongue in cheek nomination. Thanks.
* US Sen. Mark Kirk has been whacked by Democrats for not saying whether he supports his party leadership’s rejection of the notion that the President ought to be able to appoint Justice Scalia’s successor. Kirk has an op-ed in the Sun-Times on this topic…
As a 23-year veteran of the U.S. Navy Reserve and as a United States senator, I swore an oath to protect and uphold the constitution. That oath is to our constitution, not to a party or any one individual, but to the ideals that bind our nation.
In that role, I recognize the right of the president, be it Republican or Democrat, to place before the Senate a nominee for the Supreme Court and I fully expect and look forward to President Barack Obama advancing a nominee for the Senate to consider.
I also recognize my duty as a senator to either vote in support or opposition to that nominee following a fair and thorough hearing along with a complete and transparent release of all requested information. The Senate’s role in providing advice and consent is as important and significant as the president’s role in proposing a nominee.
A partisan or extreme nominee would not be prudent nor would it provide a steady, scholarly hand to guide the constitutional ship of state.
My sincerest hope is that President Obama nominates someone who captures the sentiment he spoke about before the Illinois General Assembly this month — a nominee who can bridge differences, a nominee who finds common ground and a nominee who does not speak or act in the extreme.
Such a selection by the president would demonstrate a break from the rancor and partisanship of Washington and a real commitment to a new beginning even as his own term nears its end.
*** UPDATE *** Duckworth campaign…
“I’m pleased Sen. Kirk has chosen under pressure to do the right thing and support the President’s constitutional duty to nominate a Supreme Court nominee. He should go a step further, however, and demand Senators McConnell and Grassley end their obstruction and hold hearings and allow a vote on a nominee.” — Tammy Duckworth
Monday, Feb 22, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Exelon announced that its profits for 2015 were $2,270,000,000 and that it is increasing dividends to shareholders 2.5% per year for the next three years.
So you’re thinking – “The company is healthy, shareholders are getting more $$$, the power auctions provided them $1.7 billion for their nuclear plants in Illinois so they must be done asking struggling Illinois ratepayers for a bailout, right?” Nope - it’s never enough for Exelon.
“Groundhog Day was yesterday, but Exelon appears to want to keep celebrating. The Chicago-based nuclear giant is back to threatening to close nuclear plants in Illinois without financial help from the state.” – “Exelon’s Crane beats the drum again for nuke subsidies” Crain’s, February 3, 2016
To review:
Exelon made more than TWO BILLION DOLLARS ($2,270,000,000) last year
Exelon is INCREASING DIVIDENDS FOR SHAREHOLDERS
Exelon received a $1.7 BILLION WINDFALL through new capacity charges
Illinois still has no budget, the state’s finances and services are in shambles, the social safety net is being decimated but Exelon STILL wants the Legislature to pass a huge BAILOUT.
BEST Coalition is a 501C4 nonprofit group of dozens of business, consumer and government groups, as well as large and small businesses. Visit www.noexelonbailout.com.
* Gov. Bruce Rauner correctly pointed out today that he couldn’t have totally balanced the General Assembly’s budget last year with line item and reduction vetoes alone because so many spending programs are tied to state statutes. But then he was asked why he didn’t include many cuts in his budget proposal last week and instead listed $3.5 billion in revenue or cuts that don’t actually exist…
Because this is a partnership. This is something that we’ve gotta do together. There are many ideas on the table of things to cut. The best answer is bipartisan decision-making on that process… Everything we do should be on a bipartisan basis.
Um, OK.
* That answer obviously wasn’t good enough, so he was pressed again…
We, we proposed a bunch of, of things last year in a budget. We proposed a budget last year. It was completely ignored. My, my, my point is, let’s not just reproduce what happened last year. Let’s just not do that again.
I listed some things out last year, they got ignored. So, you can go study it. You can go study it.
One thing that got “ignored” was Rauner proposal to immediately use savings from his pension reform plan, plus another $800 million or so in savings from state employee health insurance. Those projected savings are down to about $500 million in his current budget proposal.
The Governor shall prepare and submit to the General Assembly, at a time prescribed by law, a State budget for the ensuing fiscal year… Proposed expenditures shall not exceed funds estimated to be available for the fiscal year as shown in the budget.
* Related…
* Illinois governor eyes blocking Chicago school debt: Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner said on Monday the state has the power to block any debt offerings by financially distressed school districts, including the cash-strapped Chicago Public Schools (CPS), which has been dependent on borrowing to fund operations.
* It’s amazing to me that candidates are still getting caught doing this. From Kerry Lester…
A candidate running for state Senate wrote a $2,595 check to the Cook County Assessor on Friday after I called to ask him about improperly claiming two primary homeowner exemptions for a number of years.
Steve Caramelli, who’s running against Cristina Castro of Elgin in the 22nd District Democratic primary, listed homes in both Hoffman Estates and Chicago as primary residences during property tax years 2010 to 2014, records show. Caramelli, who rents out the Chicago property, wasn’t aware of the issue, spokesman Ryan Keith said, and took care of it as soon as he learned.
Caramelli’s not the only politician to run into this problem in recent years. In fact, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner was claiming exemptions on a Winnetka home, a Chicago penthouse and a condo on a separate floor of the same building for a number of years. Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth also claimed two homeowner exemptions from 2007 to 2010 in DeKalb and Hoffman Estates. Like Caramelli, both paid the amount owed after the Daily Herald pointed out the errors.
* And from SEIU Healthcare…
Watch this video to hear child care worker Brenda McMillon and home care worker Vanessa Land talk about their disturbing encounter recently with Rep. Ken Dunkin. We think he owes them an apology.
*** UPDATE *** The earlier video had no disclaimer. It’s now been fixed…
* Gov. Bruce Rauner reverted to his “Speaker Madigan and the legislators he controls” rhetoric today. Click here. Relevant comments start just after the 11 minute mark
Old, wizened, wealthier than a great lord but running out of time, House Speaker Michael J. Madigan sits upon the Iron Throne and looks at what he’s done to Illinois.
Perhaps not a throne of iron exactly, but some great pyramid of bleached skulls of taxpayers who couldn’t make it out of this failing state alive.
It really doesn’t matter what he sits on. For decade upon decade, Boss Madigan has controlled state government and the state Democratic Party, while making a fortune in his legal practice by reducing taxes for owners of downtown real estate, most of whom are Republicans. He sits on high for now.
But he’s in his 70s. His Southwest Side 22nd House District was once heavily Polish, Irish and Lithuanian, but the old ethnics have given way to young Latinos.
Madigan draws the state political maps, but he can’t control the demographics forever. He’s as sentimental as a boning knife, so he’s wise enough to see the end of things.
And he finally has a real challenger in the March 15 Democratic Party primary: Jason Gonzales, 40, a successful business consultant with two postgraduate degrees, one from MIT, the other from Harvard.
* PR consultant Kitty Kurth linked to the Kass column on her Facebook page and then explained why she’s working for Jason Gonzales…
(F)or me it is all about what Mike Madigan did to Patrick Botterman. And what he has not done for the Illinois Democratic Party. I have endured decades of humiliation when talking with my Democratic friends around the country and what seeing how they are all light years ahead of us because Madigan won’t join the modern world. No email in bound or outbound for the Illinois Dems.
Ed Ronkowski, chairman of the Will County Republican Party, says House Speaker Michael Madigan is behind the influx of cash into the Democrat’s coffers.
“(Rep. Kate Cloonen) does exactly what Madigan tells her to do,” Ronkowski says. “When Madigan authorizes money for a campaign, he asks people to vote a certain way. Republicans don’t do it that way.”
Cloonen disputes that depiction.
“There’s never been a time when the speaker has come to me and told me how to vote. That’s not how it works,” Cloonen says.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s presidential campaign has brought on a new adviser whose name and face will be familiar to close Kasich observers.
Mike Schrimpf, who has been serving as Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s deputy chief of staff, will “oversee strategic message development and outreach” in the role of communications director, Team Kasich announced Sunday in an email.
Schrimpf’s twin brother, Chris, had that title when Kasich’s campaign launched last summer. Chris Schrimpf has taken on a role as senior communications adviser and continues to direct Kasich’s press operation on the road.
Both Schrimpfs are veterans of the Republican Governors Association.
“Mike has worked well with our organization for many years at RGA and will be a good fit with the team as Governor Kasich’s growing support creates new opportunities for us to talk about his positive, unifying vision for America,” Kasich campaign manager Beth Hansen said in the emailed statement. “He is an excellent communication thinker and leader who knows how to work effectively in senior positions with large teams and we’re fortunate to have him join the campaign.”
* From the governor’s office…
Mike Schrimpf remains a trusted adviser to Governor Rauner and will continue to advise the Illinois Republican Party throughout the year.
With Schrimpf’s departure, Lance Trover will serve as Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications while Richard Goldberg will serve as Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative Affairs and Strategic Initiatives.
It was explained to me that Goldberg will now have a role in comms planning.
If Kasich’s bid does peter out sooner than later, Schrimpf will then move toward helping with 2016 state races in Illinois, we’re told. The governor’s office on Sunday said Schrimpf will advise the Illinois Republican Party for the remainder of the year. There are a batch of contested seats in the Illinois Legislature that are part of a larger fight between Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan and Rauner. It’s expected Schrimpf will return to team Rauner at some point.
– Kasich vs. Rubio: Schrimpf, who was the top spokesman during Rauner’s record-spending campaign run, will go to battle against Chip Englander, Rauner’s former campaign manager who recently landed with team Rubio. Kasich managed to capture the support of traditional Republicans in Illinois but Rubio’s team says it’s ties here are just as deep. Game on.
(reported by the Chicago Tribune on Oct. 5, 2015) Elected to the Senate in 2012, representing the 21st District. He previously served two terms in the House, first elected in 2008; on the DuPage County Board, elected in 200; and as a Lisle village trustee. Connelly is an attorney from Lisle, in private practice for over 20 years. J.D. from the John Marshall Law School,1989; undergraduate degree from Loyola University,1986. Born in Chicago and raised in LaGrange.
Co-Chair U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood
(reported on Oct. 14, 2015) Represents the 18th CD, Peoria; elected in a special election in Sept. 2015. Served in the Illinois State Senate, 2011-15. U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada, 2001-05. Prosecutor in Tazewell County, IL, 1999-2001. Prosecutor in Cook County, IL, 1997-99. Worked for U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis (CA), 1990-94. J.D. from John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Ill., 1997; B.A. from Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa, 1990.
Supporter Kenneth Griffin
(reported by The New York Times on Dec. 9, 201) “billionaire hedge fund manager”
Co-Chairs:
Dan Cronin, DuPage County Board Chairman
Dave Syverson, Illinois State Senator, 35th District
Ed Sullivan, Illinois House of Representatives, 51st Distrct
David Harris, Illinois House of Representatives, 53rd District
Ron Sandack, Illinois House of Representatives, 81st District
Tom Demmer, Illinois House of Representatives, 90th District
Randy Frese, Illinois House of Representatives, 94th District
Jim Schultz, Director, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity; Chairman, Citizens for Rauner
Pat Brady, former Chairman of the Illinois Republican Party
Sean Morrison, Cook County Commissioner, 17th District
(announced Dec. 3, 2015)
Jil Tracy, former State Representative, 94th House District from 2006-15
Joseph Mohorovic, Commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
(announced Oct. 14, 2015)
Leadership Team:
Aaron Del Mar, Chairman of the Cook County Republican Party
Seth McMillan, Chairman of the Christian County Republican Party
Jerome Groniger, Chairman of the Coles County Republican Party
Liz Gorman, former Cook County Commissioner, 17th District
Cory Jobe, Director, Illinois Office of Tourism, Ward 6 Alderman
John Farney, Champaign County Auditor
Kristy Stephenson, City Treasurer, City of Metropolis
* House Republicans could be hurt by strong downdraft from Donald Trump if he wins presidential nod: Unlike some other vulnerable Republicans, Dold is not waiting to distinguish himself from Trump in his suburban Chicago seat, where Democrats are likely to turn out in droves to back their presidential nominee. And it is not an idle concern that moderate Republicans — or independents who might support a Republican in another presidential year — will choose to either stay home or worse, back Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. “For me, it’s personal,” Dold said in an interview with the Washington Post. “[Trump’s] comments about women, his comments about minorities, about Latinos — for me that’s not a guy I would support.” In a refrain that national Republican strategists may be echoing if Trump or Cruz wins the GOP nod, Dold believes the key to his reelection comes from ticket-splitters, voters who are likely to pull the lever for him and either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.
* Remember Jonathan Kaye? He’s the Republican House candidate running against Rep. Reggie Phillips (R-Charleston) who posted an utterly fascinating life story and confession about a dark chapter of his past on Facebook last month.
Kaye’s problem is that he doesn’t have enough money to respond to a TV ad which uses devastating newspaper headlines against him. He’s reported raising just $8,000 this year, almost all of it from himself.
Then again, even if he had a bunch of money, I’m not sure he could effectively respond.
Citizens for Rauner also transferred $50,000 to the campaign fund of freshman Republican Rep. Reggie Phillips, a Charleston Republican being challenged by Democrat Jonathan Kaye this fall.
Kaye is a Republican, of course, but Rauner is in it to win it.
* Those “//” marks were also all over legislators’ copies of the State of the State Address last month…
There apparently were two printed versions of Gov. BRUCE RAUNER’s budget speech last week.
One, which wasn’t given to the news media, contained double slash marks — like these // — after several sentences.
“This is the budget speech he handed out,” said Sen. JOHN SULLIVAN, D-Rushville, clutching a copy of the speech with slash marks. “Wherever the hash marks are, that’s where the Republicans were supposed to applaud. I’m following the speech and about on this page I’m like what are those? And all of a sudden it hit me. Every time he got to that point the Republicans all applauded.”
Rauner spokesman LANCE TROVER said “it’s unfortunate Democrats are more focused on hash marks in a speech” than passing a balanced budget.
I think they used to call Lance’s response a “non-denial denial.”
There are always two audiences for formal gubernatorial addresses: 1) Legislators who actually attend; and 2) Everyone else outside the Statehouse who watch it or read about it later.
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget address last week seemed far more designed for people outside the building, most of whom don’t really care about the intricacies of government finance. Most do, however, want to see everyone finally get along and end this 8-month governmental impasse, despite what you may read in online comment sections.
That’s probably why Rauner barely even talked about the budget. It’s no surprise why. For the first time since Illinois became a state in 1818 a governor has submitted a budget for the next fiscal year without having passed a budget for the current fiscal year.
The failure is not just an embarrassment. Tens of thousands of the most vulnerable Illinoisans are paying dearly. No budget means the state can’t help homeless teens, assist women with the trauma of a brutal rape or help addicts kick heroin.
Tens of thousands more may have to drop out of college because state universities and a special scholarship program aren’t being funded. The majority African-American Chicago State University is perilously close to shutting down, as are Western Illinois University and Eastern Illinois University.
Even Rauner’s lines that some described as an “olive branch” to the Democratic legislative majority seemed aimed more at the folks back home.
Why? Well, words, even very kind words, are not going to be enough to get this done. The sides are simply too far apart, and now that election season has cranked up again, I’m not sure how this thing is going to be resolved.
The governor wants Democrats to help him undermine their labor union allies before he’ll cut a budget deal. But he’s got tens of millions of dollars in campaign bank accounts which are already being unleashed on Democrats. They won’t unilaterally disarm themselves in the face of a threat like that.
House Speaker Michael Madigan is one of those Democrats with a well-funded primary opponent. Despite adamant denials from the governor and the opponent himself, Madigan firmly believes that Rauner put the guy into the race.
So, after Rauner concluded his budget address and turned to shake Madigan’s hand, Madigan leaned in and sarcastically cracked, “Thanks for the candidate.”
This was the second time that Madigan “thanked” the governor for his opponent. The first time was immediately after January’s State of the State Address. A noisy House chamber meant Rauner didn’t understand what Madigan said, thinking he made some comment about state Rep. Jack Franks. But the message came through loud and clear last week.
Some people think that if we could just get rid of Mike Madigan then the governor would have a free hand to solve all the state’s problems.
But that’s just not the reality. Almost all rank and file Democratic legislators are adamant about opposing Rauner.
Hours after his budget address, Rauner attended the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus’ annual dinner event. The governor chatted with folks and was then unexpectedly asked to speak. Rauner relied on his usual stump speech that he gives at black churches, saying “The Good Lord didn’t make us Democrats and Republicans, the Good Lord put us on Earth to do His work.” He talked about how he wanted to work with everyone in the room. But then he laid an egg.
“My agenda, my goal aligns exactly with the interests of the African-American community,” Rauner declared. “But we’ve got a broken politics in Illinois and around America where African-Americans primarily vote Democrat and as a result Democratic leaders can pretty much ignore the interests of the African-American community because they have the votes all locked up anyway.”
Um, most people at the dinner were Democratic leaders, and most of them were also African-Americans. His remarks were taken as a direct insult by many in attendance.
Rauner’s comments were from an often-used GOP playbook. And I don’t think he had ill intentions because he also said, “Republicans don’t want to listen to African-American concerns because they never get their votes. That is wrong. We should change that. We should work together in the common interests.”
I don’t know if many people heard that, but they did applaud when Rauner said he wanted to spend more money on education “so it goes disproportionately to low income schools.”
What he didn’t say, but what everyone in the room knew, is that he will only agree to do this after Democrats help him gut the power of organized labor.
