Madigan: No
Monday, May 16, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Speaker Madigan pens yet another SJ-R op-ed…
While House Democrats’ priority has been to pass a comprehensive, full-fiscal year budget using a balanced approach that includes spending cuts but does not decimate needed services, Gov. Rauner’s priority puts his personal agenda first and attacks the wages and standard of living of the middle class. His insistence on passing his personal agenda has been the single roadblock to finding a true bipartisan budget solution.
However, since March 26, 2015, Gov. Rauner has approved six budget proposals that did not include any part of his personal agenda. This reaffirms my previous statements that when the governor sets aside his personal agenda that hurts middle-class families, we can make progress on the state’s most important issue. The people of Illinois want to see progress. They want to see a comprehensive full-year budget. I, too, am committed to passing comprehensive budgets for Fiscal Years 2016 and 2017. I also hope the governor will look at his recent budgetary actions and see that we can come together to find reasonable solutions when he sets aside his personal agenda that will hurt middle-class families and has nothing to do with the state budget.
* So, it’s difficult to disagree with all of this Tribune editorial…
Rauner’s own budget director has been involved in the talks among rank-and-file lawmakers. Those talks have addressed the possibility of raising income taxes and adding new taxes on services such as landscaping and attorney fees. The talks also have addressed some spending reforms, such as reducing costs within the state’s health care program for the poor and pushing high-end pension costs onto local governments that generate them. There’s also talk of borrowing $5 billion to pay down a backlog of overdue bills.
More borrowing? Grrr. But the point isn’t that anyone loves everything being negotiated. It’s that some serious people in Springfield are trying to cut a deal. […]
Rauner has said he is open to the possibility of raising taxes to straighten out the state’s fiscal nightmare. It is Madigan who is shutting the door to compromise, mostly for political reasons. He doesn’t want to jeopardize his members’ chances at re-election this fall with controversial votes. Madigan is doing exactly what he accused the GOP of doing in 2010 — saying “no” for campaign reasons, even though it hurts the state. […]
Judging by Madigan’s reaction to proposals being negotiated by his own members, prepare for some semblance of 2014 and 2015 in 2016. There will be no grand bargain without Mr. No.
* And Greg Hinz is right…
The governor and speaker haven’t given up their partisan politics. Rather, there’s a sense that Rauner finally may have watered down his Turnaround Illinois agenda enough that a reasonable compromise can be reached. Cullerton is key to that happening.
Unlike the total tactician that is Madigan—at this point in his career, does he give a damn about anything other than doing what it takes to win the next election?—Cullerton seems to remember that his North Side voters sent him to Springfield to get stuff done. And that he has, somehow keeping together the most liberal legislative caucus the Capitol has seen in decades while on occasion rolling the dice to accomplish something.
There are two issues in particular that the Senate president is associated with: revamping the state’s broken public school aid formula and reforming the state’s hugely indebted public pension plans. Both are central to finally getting a budget deal before the General Assembly’s scheduled May 31 adjournment. […]
Whether we finally get a budget deal in the next week or two probably depends on whether the Senate president is willing to isolate the speaker. It would be risky. Lots of people have rued the day they attacked Madigan. But if someone doesn’t take him on, the state may never get a budget, despite the rising human toll.
That makes Cullerton the man on the spot. Let’s see if he’s up for it.
* Related…
* Budget compromise hopes fade as end of session nears
- illinoised - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 9:14 am:
Agreed.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 9:15 am:
===Rauner has said he is open to the possibility of raising taxes to straighten out the state’s fiscal nightmare.===
Required “musts” that have to happen… That’s not a give.
It’s likecsll the sense the Tribune tries to convey… they want to ruin it by pushing this outright falsehood as true.
Geez.
- JackD - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 9:21 am:
Yeah it’s Madigan refusing to compromise by giving Rauner something he isn’t entitled to.
- Storm Cloud - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 9:27 am:
Looks like 7 more months of winter.
- Amalia - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 9:31 am:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOIWKCZL_sA maybe someone will do this type of video for Rauner, Madigan….
- wordslinger - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 9:34 am:
What, exactly, is Madigan saying “no” to?
Is he holding the budget hostage? For what, exactly?
And if the governor is willing to raise revenues and cut spending to achieve a budget, what is the holdup?
There must be something specific, but they aren’t mentioned in the three links.
Has the governor now dropped his unpassable pre-conditions before addressing a budget?
Are we supposed to pretend now that the last year of “squeezing the beast” was not intentional or that it did not happen?
Did Bobby Ewing just pop out of the shower or something?
- The Captain - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 9:37 am:
I am of the opinion that one of the lessons learned this past primary was that the Gov can’t get his way with money alone, they’ll need money and some sort of message. They’ve made it clear they want to run Blame Madigan 3.0 this fall, and that may have some success, but in a Presidential election year with much greater Democratic participation they’re going to need independents.
From time to time Rauner likes to mention how people will come up to him and tell him not to give in, to keep up this fight, to take on the Democrats and the unions and so forth, but the people giving him that encouragement are red-meat conservatives, not independents. The people who helped elect Rauner two years ago that aren’t red-meat conservatives are people who wanted to see what a Republican administration would look like after 12 years of Democratic ones and they elected a man who campaigned on being successful at everything he’s ever done. So far our state is in far worse shape than when he took office and you’d have to give him either an ‘F’ or an incomplete. If voters go to the ballot box this fall and we still have no budget it’s hard to see a scenario where they win so many seats in the House and the Senate that it becomes materially easier to pass their agenda.
Without a budget all they can really do is hope to spend enough campaign cash to win the blame game. That isn’t something to run on, that’s something to run against. I continue to believe that for the Republicans to pick up seats in the fall there has to be a budget in place, even an ugly one. We’ll find out in the next two weeks if they think so too.
- Anon221 - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 9:43 am:
Madigan’s, “No,” vs Rauner’s, “Maybe…but…NO”.
Rauner’s trust level has not risen over these past few months. He wants a clean K-12 FY 17 approp bill so he then has the ability to “skip out” on the rest of the FY17 budget. This has been typical Rauner Playbook since he vetoed the FY16 budget.
We have three “parties” at the table- Democrats, Republicans, and Raunerites. We need to make the Raunerites a party of one in order to bring some sanity back to our state. $20 million dollars and threats should NOT weigh more on the scales than the millions and possibly billions at stake for all the People of Illinois.
- SAP - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 9:45 am:
Was that strange sound I just heard the Tribune pivoting toward a tax hike?
- Earnest - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 9:46 am:
>Lots of people have rued the day they attacked Madigan. But if someone doesn’t take him on,
Gosh, summer must really be here, because this is a rerun. I see this as another distraction from Rauner’s intentional destruction of our higher education and human service system. Politics aside, the continuation of a lack of a budget and the squeeze the beast strategy simply creates more leverage for him down the line.
- Tone - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 9:52 am:
Why in the name of all that is holy are they proposed $5Billion in new taxes and $2Billion in spending cuts. IT MUST BE THE REVERSE
- Oswego Willy - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 9:54 am:
Perspective?
Rauner spent $2 million last summer sayin’ how great he was, workin’ for us, and there was no election in the fall. Why? Rauner needs his numbers at least better than Madigan so Fire Madigan 3.0 can try not to fail miserably THIS summer, as $3 million sits in ILGOP coffers to drive the macro, and HRO eyes the required use of the $2 million they got… to drive Fire Madigan 3.0 in the micro.
This editorial, is just sitting out there like a landed ball of paper shot from a slingshot. Its an opening first response to the shelling yet to come. And… it’s coming.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 9:58 am:
===Why in the name of all that is holy are they proposed $5Billion in new taxes and $2Billion in spending cuts. IT MUST BE THE REVERSE===
Maybe it’s to help ease the additional Billions (with a B) that Rauner has accumulated in debt holding the budget hostage for “big, long term gain” that can’t be measured?
You do realize the budgets (Rauner’s and the GA’s) would have been better, imbalanced as they were, compared to what we have now, you do recognize that, right?
- Facts are Stubborn Things - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 10:16 am:
MJM has said from day one, and almost everyday since then, that the number one problem facing the state of Illinois is the budget. He has indicated consistently, that the budget needs to be balanced using a combination of cuts and new revenue. MJM also has consistently pointed out, that to the extent non budget items are include and personal attacks are continued, that it makes arriving at a budget much more difficult. He also continues to state the fact that problems don’t get solved in the extreme, but rather in moderation.
Rauner is holding up the budget in hopes of using it (while hurting this state and many of it’s citizens)as leverage to achieve his non budget agenda. Rauner is the single reason why we don’t have a budget today. We are billions more in debt because of it, and Rauner could have used his veto pin to bring the house and senate budget into balance but he chose to veto the whole thing. He chose not to veto the budget into balance and he refused to negotiate on the budget, but that darn MJM is the problem.
- Facts are Stubborn Things - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 10:19 am:
If employees were not getting paid, we would have had a budget long ago. Too much spending is allowed without appropriations…lack of a trigger to force action.
- Honeybear - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 10:26 am:
I’ve got a bad feeling we’re going to fly this plane right into the mountain. When history looks back at us, we’ll be cited as the reason why hostage taking doesn’t work AND why venture capitalists don’t make good Governors.
- justacitizen - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 10:39 am:
MJM doesn’t negotiate. He says he does but he comes up with a grand scheme, gets his votes and passes his bills. His refusal to negotiate is his greatest strength and also his most glaring weakness.
- Norseman - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 10:47 am:
I’m with Word. We haven’t seen any indication that Rauner will back off on his poison pills for a tax increase. The only “up” news is that we have had some band-aids put on major wounds and that a group of legislators came up with a tax and cut proposal that seems to have been received like a lead balloon.
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 10:49 am:
The Speaker is doing far more to protect his personal agenda-
No term limits, redistricting, Saying no to any reforms that would aggravate any of his favored special interest groups,
Workers comp, property tax reform, labor, trial lawyers etc
Portraying himself as the protector of the middle class
while not acknowledging the despair many middle class families are suffering because of the policies that have driven many jobs out of this state.
Someone should ask him what his legacy will be. Doing more than his fair share of creating the mess we are in but sitting on his hands and refusing to change anything that would get us out.
- Just Me - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 10:59 am:
Mike Madigan does not care about middle-class families.
He cares about middle-class families that belong to a union that contributes to his campaign account.
- Storm Cloud - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 11:15 am:
Norse,
I think every proposal that solves the problem would be received like a lead balloon. That’s the problem. It isn’t easy.
- Annonin' - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 11:32 am:
Tribbie objection to borrowin’ to pay bills is a hoot. The income tax rates still carries a small “temporary surcharge” The borrowin’ never happened because the GOPies dropped the ball.
Put that in the ole memory banks. Meanwhile BigBrain wants to cut all taxes….Huh?
- Arizona Bob - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 12:08 pm:
It’s pretty simple, really. In order to balance the budget while keeping his patronage army happy and his crony contractors hitting the taxpayers at grossly overpriced rates, taxes will need to be raised on the “middle class” not just millionaires. There will be a political price Madigan would have to pay for taking leadership, and ownership, or this tax.
He NEEDS the middle class tax increase to be proposed and promoted by Rauner so that his candidates aren’t hurt by it. The rank and file Dems in the GA don’t want to take that heat.
Madigan is just waiting for Rauner to cave in so that he doesn’t take any political consequence for hitting the middle class to support his indebted political class..
- Oswego Willy - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 12:24 pm:
===He NEEDS the middle class tax increase to be proposed and promoted by Rauner so that his candidates aren’t hurt by it.===
Rauner, as governor, knows that a tax increase is required, not an option, to make any budget work, including his own, and Rauner wI’ll not take it upon himself to own the desired cuts, “the slings and arrows” Rauner keeps dodging.
Keep in mind ” - Arizona Bob -” Rauber said he will not, won’t, take or make any cuts himself in the budget, the same day Rauner said “big, long term, gain” as the reason Rauner was holding out for needed (See: 1.4% - $500+ million “gain”) … gain.
Zonker, that sounds silly.
Any argument tgst refuses, ignores, purposely states it’s a give… now… is blatantly false.
The last thing you’d want to do is try to put something out there as false, would ya ” - Arizona Bob - “?
- RNUG - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 12:31 pm:
== Why in the name of all that is holy are they proposed $5Billion in new taxes and $2Billion in spending cuts. IT MUST BE THE REVERSE ==
Let’s not forget a lot of the $2B is fake savings from proposed unconstitutional pension “reform” and just pushing employee / retiree health care insurance expenses into the following fiscal years.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 12:38 pm:
===Madigan is just waiting for Rauner to cave in so that he doesn’t take any political consequence for hitting the middle class to support his indebted political class..===
The Rauner Administration has made this perfectly clear…
A bicameral, bipartisan, budget with revenues and cuts is desired.
Cover for Rauner and the GOP for, raising taxes and cutting programs, that’s the ball game for them, and actually the ball game for governing, like 15 months ago governing, but I digress.
Why do you think, ” - Arizona Bob - “, the Administration is requiring these parameters? Maybe because Rauner will need to sign this and Democrats will require lots and lots of GOP “Green” on the bicameral, bipartisan agreement?
Ugh.
- Mama - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 1:12 pm:
==RNUG - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 12:31 pm:==
RNUG +1
- Mama - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 1:28 pm:
Everyone knows taxes need to increase - - it is a matter of what and how much. If every legislator in both houses votes for the tax increase, then one side can not blame the other side for the tax increase. I think this is the only way we can get a balanced budget.
- Mama - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 1:31 pm:
Rauner’s stars need to stop counting revenue from the workers’ pensions. Anyone with a pension would be a fool to switch from a legally protected pension to a 401K.
- RNUG - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 2:15 pm:
Someone needs to take Rauner and the superstars through the math of Tier 2 versus 401K so they finally understand that 401K will cost the State more money in pensions than Tier 2 does.
- Stanley Motss - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 3:13 pm:
Fixed for you Arizona Bob, you had some of the names and pronouns and such bass ackwards.
Have a good day,
Stanley
It’s pretty simple, really. In order to balance the budget while keeping his patronage army happy and his crony contractors hitting the taxpayers at grossly overpriced rates, taxes will need to be raised on the “middle class” not just millionaires. There will be a political price Rauner would have to pay for taking leadership, and ownership, or this tax.
He NEEDS the middle class tax increase to be proposed and promoted by Madigan so that his candidates aren’t hurt by it. The rank and file Reps in the GA don’t want to take that heat.
Rauner is just waiting for Madigan to cave in so that he doesn’t take any political consequence for hitting the middle class to support his indebted political class..
- Arizona Bob - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 3:49 pm:
@ Stanley Motss
By the way you re-wrote it and changed the meaning (and reality) completely, you ought to be thinking about more “doublespeak” revisions.
How about re-writing Milton’s “Paradise Lost” to make Satan the hero?LOL Rauner certainly doesn’t relate well to Holy reference, but as for Madigan and the antagonist….
- Stanley Motss - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 4:01 pm:
@arizona bob:
Bruce ran on *Quinn bad*. Thats it.
To paraphrase one of the posters here, he OWNS the wanton destruction of this state by his failure to submit a Constitutionally Mandated budget. You know the Right Wing Nut Jobs always talk about the Constitution, but fail to live by it. So please, refrain from telling me about double speak.
Regards,
Stanley Motss
- Honeybear - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 4:02 pm:
Hey AB!!!! Haven’t seen you in so long!!! I was beginning to think you’d moved to a different country or taken a different pseudonym.
- Enviro - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 4:19 pm:
== Madigan is doing exactly what he accused the GOP of doing in 2010 — saying “no” for campaign reasons, even though it hurts the state. ==
It will not hurt the state to pass a budget without reforms in workman’s comp reform or closing corporate loop holes.
But it will hurt many in Illinois to operate without a state budget to pay for needed services.
- Enviro - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 4:26 pm:
==Rauner’s stars need to stop counting revenue from the workers’ pensions. Anyone with a pension would be a fool to switch from a legally protected pension to a 401K.==
This is true. But he’s really counting the profits that would be made by Wall Street to manage the 401k plans for state workers.
- Honeybear - Monday, May 16, 16 @ 4:50 pm:
re-writing Milton’s “Paradise Lost
love it.
“Round he throws his baleful eyes”