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Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Friday, Jun 24, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller * Good point…
A year ago, the governor called it “leverage“…
And he’s tried mightily to do just that. Ever since he made those remarks to the Tribune editorial board (which somehow “forgot” all about them), the governor has been using the lack of a budget to leverage concessions from the Democrats on his Turnaround Agenda. He is convinced he is right, even though permanent damage has been done to the state. The Democrats are now using the lack of a budget (specifically, money for bureaucratic operations and road construction) to leverage some help for Chicago’s school system and probably other schools which are in crisis (you likely can’t just help one without the others or you endanger your suburban and Downstate targets and may not be able to pass the bill). They don’t want their schools hurt, so they believe they’re right. It’s simply maddening.
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- Formerly Known as Frenchie M - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:10 am:
It’s what the majority of the voters wanted. And now they’re getting it.
The majority should be — and I assume is — overjoyed.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:11 am:
They are who they are. And they’re all talking past each other.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:13 am:
It’s wrong when Rauner does it, it’s wrong when anyone does it.
Period.
You can’t ding the Dems and not Rauner.
Understand Raunerbots?
- illinois manufacturer - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:14 am:
I can’t add anything ..the facts speak
- Delbert Grady - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:15 am:
I’m not sure whats so difficult to understand. If people make less money, and have less of it, the economy expands.
No different than when gays get married, it affects heterosexuals and their marriages.
Its Conservative cause and effect.
- A guy - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:15 am:
CPS is just too big a nut to crack with this particular piece of legislation. That battle just isn’t ripe for passing this stop gap bill.
If the Turnaround is the big kahuna for one side and CPS is the big kahuna for the other. That might be where the deal is. I’m just not sure CPS is a big kahuna for the Dems. It’s just a convenient one at the moment.
The permanent damage is real. It’s been years in the making. It’s maddening and saddening in equal parts.
- thunderspirit - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:16 am:
Dear both sides of the aisle:
That shoe pinches a little when it’s on the other foot, huh?
Sincerely,
Karma
Also: +1 to OW. Wrong is wrong, regardless of whether it’s a (D) or (R) after the name.
- Norseman - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:19 am:
The solution is for us to declare political bankruptcy and ask the federal courts to reorganize our political leadership to appoint folks who’re actually capable of leading.
- Qui Tam - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:20 am:
Structural change could be defined as changing the structural deficits built into every debtor budget over the last xx decades. It would seem that this type of structural change could be accomplished by a combination of state cuts and tax reform (service tax etc.)
As far as I can tell Rauner hasn’t even proposed such “structural change”. That is unless his structural change involves the social structure ….. lower and middle calls downgrades in favor of increases corporate power.
- IRLJ - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:20 am:
There can be no agreement on a stopgap without help for CPS…isn’t that what to look for next week?
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:21 am:
===It’s been years in the making.===
It literally and honestly hasn’t.
Rauner has held hostages, destroying the likes of LSSI… not years in the making.
Not.
This move by the Dems is doing what Rauner has been doing, destroying Illinois.
Please keep up.
- Honeybear - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:23 am:
Is Madigan starving Rauner of the resources to hire scabs during an AFSCME strike in August?
- Pawn - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:23 am:
I agree with OW and others that hostage taking is wrong, no matter who does it. I speak from the perspective of one who has been weaponized in this battle.
It’s hard to see how one side would disarm unilaterally — it will have to be a mutual decision. Or it will be Mutually Assured Destruction….
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:25 am:
What a shock. The introduction of new and more destructive weapons led to opponents scrambling to acquire and use the same weapons.
The world’s only worked that way since the crust cooled.
- Joe M - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:26 am:
If CPS goes down, that seems way worse for the state than if the Governor doesn’t get his turnaround agenda items. But unfortunately both issues seem to have the power to possibly prevent a state budget or even a stopgap budget. And in both cases the Governor seems to be the one holding things hostage. Rauner: No turnaround agenda = no budget. Rauner: Increased aid to CPS = no stopgap budget.
- Mama - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:27 am:
You might find Ralph Martire’s article in the State Journal Register interesting:
Ralph Martire: Downstate vs. Chicago a false dichotomy
http://www.sj-r.com/opinion/20160622/ralph-martire-downstate-vs-chicago-false-dichotomy
- Anonymous - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:27 am:
And approximately 58-63% of every always increasing real estate tax bill goes to school districts.
Higher state income taxes, higher real estate taxes, higher sales taxes, higher utility taxes……..sigh
- Formerly Known As... - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:28 am:
CPS funding alone is not a deal breaker if they are willing to compromise in other areas and Rauner is willing to compromise on CPS funding.
This could have been the precursor to a grand bargain if handled properly.
Now, it could blow things up.
- cdog - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:29 am:
My suggestion would be to compartmentalize the CPS situation. Bite-size chunks that all types of Illinoisan can understand.
Pension parity should stand alone.
It is a fair and reasonable correction to the status quo.
(Unless your true intent is to quit offering insurance to sick people, and educating poor people. /s)
- PublicServant - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:31 am:
===The solution is for us to declare political bankruptcy and ask the federal courts to reorganize our political leadership to appoint folks who’re actually capable of leading.===
I was dreaming about the same thing Norseman, would that it was constitutionally available. What were our forefathers thinking.
- PublicServant - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:33 am:
===It’s wrong when Rauner does it, it’s wrong when anyone does it.
Period.===
Well, yeah, but if the dems succeed, the CPS kids get a better education. If Rauner succeeds, only he and his buddies benefit, while the rest of us suffer. Just sayin.
- Mama - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:34 am:
- Norseman - @ 11:19 am - “federal courts to reorganize our political leadership to appoint folks who’re actually capable of leading. ”
Does the federal courts have the power to remove the governor and the legislature from office and replace them?
- A guy - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:37 am:
+++ Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:21 am:
===It’s been years in the making.===
It literally and honestly hasn’t.
Rauner has held hostages, destroying the likes of LSSI… not years in the making.++++
Willy, seriously, no jest, it literally seriously and honestly has. Ask some of your friends at LSSI (a great org!) what has been happening over a period of 10 years. Ask what they have had to do simply to comply to get paid. Ask how they’ve felt about the money they’ve seen ‘literally’ wasted as it was appropriated to sources in their neighborhoods, close to them, who didn’t have the first idea (or intention) of how to service the people in the community.
They were competing for those same precious dollars. And plenty of shysters were getting money and not doing the great work LSSI was doing. Nobody at LSSI was dressing better or eating better, or seeing any improvement whatsoever in their personal lives. They were spreading fewer resources over more services and busting their keisters to make up the difference.
This truly has been going on for years. The “miracle” is how long the best ones have been willing and able to hang on. That’s truly amazing. This mess has been years in the making. Oiling the squeaks has been the practical solution for too long.
- Norseman - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:39 am:
No Mama, I was using Rauner’s favorite tactic to make a point about his lack of leadership.
- Mama - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:41 am:
With or without a deal for CPS - if the Dems pass a full budget for P-12 and a stopgap budget for everyone else, everyone else can kiss getting a full budget good-bye and the state vendors will go bankrupt.
- Whatever - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:46 am:
“He/she/they hit me first!”
The headline from the latest form mailer being sent out on behalf of legislators in both parties.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:55 am:
- A Guy -
Squeezing the beast IS the Rauner agenda.
Thanks for letting us all know you’re cool with hurting people.
Speaks volulumes about you.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:56 am:
Volumes, - A Guy -..,
Volumes.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 1:02 pm:
“What a shock. The introduction of new and more destructive weapons led to opponents scrambling to acquire and use the same weapons.”
The difference with MAD on an international level has been the fear of being the first nation to push the button. Who ever pushed the button first was going to be turned into glass.
In our current situation, the button has been pushed, but there are no consequences of the action.
- Not It - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 1:34 pm:
Not an apples to apples comparison. Rauner wants reforms to state government operations for a state budget. Tying a SPECIFIC unit of local government’s operations to the state budget is entirely different.
- Qui Tam - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 2:06 pm:
=Rauner wants reforms to state government.=
Please provide specifics within the actual meaning of the term “reform”.
This would include the quantifiable benefits netted from each such “reform”.
- Demoralized - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 2:25 pm:
==Not an apples to apples comparison==
You keep telling yourself that. You’re either tying something together or you aren’t. Doesn’t make a bit of difference what it is.
- Juvenal - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 2:54 pm:
LSSI’s revenue was exceeding expenses last time I checked.
Their decision to end some state services while continue others was driven by a clear cut standard: what will be funded thanks to the courts despite Bruce Rauner’s best efforts, and what they cannot count on Republicans to fund.
They had to sever contracts that threatened to undermine their whole organization, a difficult but necessary decision in response to an unprecedented situation created entirely by Rauner and his Allies.
- Just The Way It Is One - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 3:55 pm:
They’re both a little right and they’re both a little wrong, but just the fact that they are at least “close” to actually AGREEING to a Stopgap Budget to get us ALL through the next few months, from what we are hearing, is terIFFic News at this point…!
- logic not emotion - Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 9:47 am:
“- Mama - Friday, Jun 24, 16 @ 11:41 am:
With or without a deal for CPS - if the Dems pass a full budget for P-12 and a stopgap budget for everyone else, everyone else can kiss getting a full budget good-bye and the state vendors will go bankrupt.”
A definite concern of many in that everyone else category.
- No Sense - Tuesday, Jun 28, 16 @ 10:59 am:
No State Budget . Do you think you have in your heart to do the right thing by the end of the month and all agree to a budget. If not everyone should not vote in November why please you all when you don’t do your job