The problem is the current rhetoric about the Chicago bailout, just like the vast majority of past attempts to pit downstate Illinois against Chicago, creates a false dichotomy that ultimately encourages legislation counter to the interests of downstate communities. Understanding why this is the case, requires an understanding of what the dreaded “Chicago bailout” actually entails. The key element of the proposal involves providing some financial support to Chicago Public Schools, by having the state cover all or a portion of the “normal pension cost” — that is, the employer cost of future retirement benefits — currently being earned by CPS teachers.
Many of you are probably wondering why state tax dollars collected everywhere from Rockford to Marion, should be used to cover the normal cost of pension benefits being earned by teachers in Chicago. Well, first and foremost, because Illinois already pays the normal cost of pension benefits earned by teachers in every school district statewide except Chicago. That’s right, CPS is the only school district that has to fund its own normal cost.
Of course, this also means Chicago taxpayers foot the full pension bill for CPS teachers, while also chipping in to cover a portion of the pension benefits being earned by teachers in Rockford, Marion, Winnetka — heck, you name it. And lest you think that contribution isn’t significant, Chicago residents alone account for roughly 20 percent of all income tax revenue collected statewide. So, the proposal isn’t so much a bailout — but rather an attempt to put CPS on equal footing with every other school district.
The Chicago Public Schools will make a $676 million payment to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund due Thursday even though that massive payment will leave the nearly bankrupt school system with just $24 million in the bank — enough to cover just 1.5 days of payroll.
“Chicago Public Schools will make that pension payment. . . . In the last two years, the city of Chicago has made more pension payments to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund than the preceding 15 years. Payments weren’t made by Springfield or anybody else, and that was wrong,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Monday.
Emanuel said CPS would “not have a financial challenge” if Chicago taxpayers were not paying twice — through property taxes for the pensions of their own teachers and through income taxes for the pensions of teachers outside the city.
* According to the governor’s budget office, the state’s pension contribution to the Downstate and suburban Teachers Retirement System is estimated at $3.743 billion this fiscal year. If the 20 percent number is accurate across the board, Chicagoans are paying roughly $749 million to the state to fund a pension system that doesn’t include their own teachers - on top of the $676 million payment they’re making Thursday for their own pension fund.
Rauner’s right that the state’s economy has lagged, and has done so for a long time. But will his solution work?
Fortunately, we don’t have to go very far to find a real-world point of comparison. That’s in neighboring Wisconsin, another Rust Belt state that has lagged the nation’s growth for decades, but which, in January 2011, got a new governor much in the mold of Rauner in Scott Walker. And unlike Rauner, Walker had a GOP-majority legislature to work with, so he was able to actually get through the sorts of union-weakening measures that Rauner so far can only dream of.
Did it work? According to research forwarded to me a few months back by the Rauner-friendly Illinois Policy Institute, between January 2010 and January 2016, total private-sector job growth in Illinois and Wisconsin was almost identical: 7 percent here versus 7.1 percent there.
Using a slightly different time period shows a slightly different result.
According to federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data crunched for me by my colleague John Pletz, comparing December 2010 (the month Walker took over) to December 2015 shows a 5 percent employment gain for Wisconsin to 3.3 percent for Illinois. But Illinois entered the great recession a little later than Wisconsin and came out of it a little later. So if you compare December 2008 to December 2015, the difference is just 1.2 percent, with Wisconsin up 2.4 percent and Illinois half that.
When I asked Rauner about that when he appeared before Crain’s editorial board last week—click on the video and go to around minute 53 — he said it “takes time” for changes to kick in.
Fair enough, but if you look just at the last two years, December 2013 to December 2015, the job growth figures again are almost dead even: 2 percent here versus 2.4 percent there
* Greg asked Rauner if that data suggests “the reforms you want aren’t the great panacea?” His reply…
“No, not at all. The comparables are not necessarily just Wisconsin, or Michigan or Indiana. But the comparables are Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina, Georgia where there’s a lot more rapid growth. You’ll see in the long-term, Wisconsin and Michigan start to fix their problems, and you can certainly see it in Indiana. Indiana started fixing their problems earlier than Wisconsin and Michigan, that’s why they’re taking so many more of our jobs and their financial health is so much better.
“Wisconsin’s financial health isn’t all that good. See, Wisconsin and Michigan, but especially Wisconsin, they were a collectivist state, even before Illinois. And they were more extreme than Illinois in the collectivism. And they’ve already got a high graduated income tax and they’ve already got embedded the problems that we haven’t gone to yet. I’m trying to prevent us from going there, because once you get there, coming back from that is all the harder.”
* This flier was recently posted on the union bulletin board at the state prison in Decatur…
* I asked AFSCME Council 31 spokesman Anders Lindall for an explanation…
Rich,
As you know, the Rauner administration walked away from negotiations on Jan. 8 and has refused to meet with the AFSCME bargaining committee ever since. Instead, the governor is asking his Labor Board to give him the unprecedented power to unilaterally impose his harmful terms—including massive hikes in employee costs for health care, freezing wages for four years, and wiping out existing safeguards against reckless privatization.
If Rauner imposes, public service workers in state government will be forced to choose between working under those harmful terms or going out on strike.
AFSCME members don’t want a strike and continue doing everything in our power to avoid one. We want to be at work, serving our communities, protecting kids, responding to emergencies, caring for veterans and the disabled and much more. We have repeatedly indicated our willingness to return to the bargaining table and our readiness to offer further compromises in hopes of reaching a fair agreement. We supported legislation to prevent a strike and instead settle the differences between the parties through a fair arbitration process.
But we know that as a candidate, Bruce Rauner vowed to force a strike and shut down state government. We know that last summer his administration was attempting to recruit strikebreakers, even reportedly discussing the mobilization of the National Guard. And we know that the administration still refuses to meet with our bargaining committee.
Governor Rauner’s threatening approach has created instability and uncertainty throughout state government. We have to be prepared for him to continue seeking confrontation and sowing chaos. That’s why AFSCME local unions throughout Illinois are meeting to share information and answer questions, and continuing to organize and build community support.
Anders
I’ll let you know what the Rauner administration says about it, if they choose to respond.
*** UPDATE *** From an administration spokesperson…
We are deeply disappointed that, in the middle of impasse proceedings before the Labor Board, AFSCME is reportedly planning for a strike vote. To even talk of striking, much less taking a vote, before the Labor Board has had a chance to rule in this case is not only irresponsible but also a violation of the parties’ Tolling Agreement. Rest assured, although the Governor hopes employees reject AFSCME’s irresponsible call to strike, our contingency planning team is ready and will not let AFSCME’s actions disrupt the provision of services to Illinois citizens.
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday reiterated he will not support what he calls a bailout of Chicago schools as part of his effort to get lawmakers to pass a stopgap budget and funding for K-12 education.
At a Statehouse news conference, Rauner said Democratic leaders have indicated they’re willing to hold up education funding to secure additional money for the Chicago school system.
“The people of Illinois should not be held up to bail out Chicago schools,” Rauner said.
The state’s board of education, headed and governed by Rauner appointees, launched a financial investigation last winter into CPS’ finances. Through that probe, it determined that CPS didn’t meet criteria for the certification of financial distress necessary for the state board to take financial control.
CPS faces a $1.1 billion deficit in the new fiscal year starting July 1, and has been hoarding cash to make a massive pension payment on June 30. It passed last year’s budget with a $480 million gap and has been begging Springfield to help ever since, borrowing hundreds of millions at sky-high interest rates in the meantime. The district has also argued it is exempt from state oversight and has been lobbying for a change to the state funding formula for schools.
* But it’s not just about Chicago money. Riverbender…
“Governor Rauner’s proposed education funding plan does not invest enough money into our local schools,” continued [Rep. Dan Beiser, D-Alton]. “Education funding needs to be made a priority by the governor and my fellow members of the General Assembly, because if an agreement is not made, many schools may not be opening in the fall. It is important that everyone works together to move our all of our schools forward—not just some of our schools.”
Under Rauner’s plan, which was unveiled only hours before the May 31 deadline, two schools in Beiser’s district would see no increase in state funding, East Alton-Wood River CHSD 14 and Wood River-Hartford Elementary School District 15. In total, the governor’s plan would send $2.6 million dollars less to local schools than the plan that Beiser supports.
“The education funding plan that I voted for would send $34.4 million to schools in the 111th district, which would represent an increase for each school district,” Beiser said. “The governor’s plan fails to help every school. In fact, Governor Rauner’s plan shifts funding towards wealthy suburban school districts, while schools like East Alton-Wood River would not see any additional investment. That’s not something I can support.”
Steven Brown is spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan… says House Democrats approved hundreds of millions more for elementary and secondary education than Rauner seeks. So the schools issue remains unsettled.
…Adding… And this…
Flynn Currie: The average property tax dollar, $0.60 on the dollar goes to schools in IL bc state doesn't kick in enough. U.S. avg is $0.40
* The Question: Knowing that additional money would not be paid for because of a lack of revenues, how much, if any, extra money should Gov. Rauner agree to for all K-12 schools in order to reach a deal on the stopgap budget? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Rauner, who described himself as a free-market conservative, went so far as to say that Illinois is being damaged by a “collectivist economy,” employing a term generally used to suggest communist or socialist influence.
“We’ve become a collectivist economy in Illinois. It’s crushing us. And no problem is going to get fixed unless we bring more economic freedom into the state. And I believe that very passionately,” the governor said.
“That’s going to kill us in the long run. I’ve got to change that. And the other issues, we can debate, but that one I have to stay very strong on,” he said.
Collectivism does not preach sacrifice as a temporary means to some desirable end. Sacrifice is its end—sacrifice as a way of life. It is man’s independence, success, prosperity, and happiness that collectivists wish to destroy.
Observe the snarling, hysterical hatred with which they greet any suggestion that sacrifice is not necessary, that a non-sacrificial society is possible to men, that it is the only society able to achieve man’s well-being.
Chicago, as anyone in business knows, has a lot to offer. But lately government seems to be going out of its way to negate these pluses. Let’s hope the City Council doesn’t heap yet another burden on job creators with a well-meaning but ill-thought-out law requiring employers to offer five days of paid sick leave a year to employees.
Mr. Rauner understands employers’ priorities and promises to bring a pro-business message to Springfield. He also pledges to put renewed vigor and energy into the state’s marketing efforts and outreach to business.
Illinois could use such a cheerleader. Despite its current straits, this state still has a lot going for it, including global transportation connections, a thriving arts and cultural scene, leading universities, Fortune 500 companies and a close-knit business community that’s accustomed to taking on big civic projects. Putting a businessman in the driver’s seat in Springfield will send a positive message to employers that Illinois is serious about reform and ready to embrace a pro-growth agenda.
Mr. Rauner’s experience as a private-equity investor would benefit Springfield. Government isn’t the same as business, of course. As head of the state’s executive branch, the governor wields real power, but it’s less than that of a chief executive. Still, Mr. Rauner would bring the much-needed perspective of a private-sector leader. And he has a sharp eye for efficiency, something that bloated state government desperately needs.
He is no politician, and that is a good thing.
Mr. Rauner promises reforms that would lessen the burdens on business and promote entrepreneurship, including cutting red tape, making common-sense changes to workers’ compensation and revitalizing the state agency that should be hustling to bring business to Illinois, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. He has said he would become the state’s top recruiter. We believe him. […]
Illinois is badly in need of a fresh spirit of confidence that we can tackle the problems that lie ahead. A natural salesman in the best sense of the word, Mr. Rauner will convey a renewed sense of optimism about the future, replacing the funk in which Illinois finds itself. […]
If elected, Mr. Rauner likely would face stiff opposition in the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Still, his relationship with the Democratic leadership is unlikely to be worse than Mr. Quinn’s, and could be better, by putting honest differences on the table.
Crimes committed by at-risk Chicago students dropped in half, and high-school graduations rose sharply in an innovative education program called Becoming a Man that is capturing national attention and could become one antidote to the city’s persistent bloodshed, according to a newly published study.
BAM focuses on adolescent and teenage boys on the city’s violent South and West sides. They’re deemed at risk to fail and are offered a chance to skip a class to participate in a program that tries to teach them alternatives to having “automatic” negative responses to stressful situations. […]
The randomized study compared about 4,800 BAM students with peers in regular school programs. Violent-crime arrests fell 50 percent, and arrests for all types of crime fell 35 percent among the BAM students — although those declines were not “persistent” after they cycled out of the BAM program.
Nevertheless, high-school graduation rates rose 19 percent among the same BAM kids. […]
A similar program in the Cook County juvenile detention center reduced readmission rates 21 percent, the study concluded.
The young people were randomly divided into a control group that received no special services and those who for up to two years attended a one-hour weekly counseling session and who had access to a counselor the remainder of the school week—both designed to “help youth recognize their automatic responses and slow down their thinking in high-stakes situations.”
In other words, to think about it, not just pull the trigger.
In the first study conducted during the 2009-10 academic year, the percentage of those who subsequently were arrested for a violent crime in an 18-month period was cut almost in half, 45 percent, amounting to 10 percent of participants, versus 19 percent in the control group. A total of 2,740 young men participated.
Results were very similar in the second round of testing, with 2,064 ninth- and 10th-graders participating. The odds of being arrested for a violent crime were half that in the control group, 6 percent versus 11 percent.
Overall arrests didn’t drop quite as dramatically as arrests for violent offenses but still were off considerably in the study group, down 28 percent and 35 percent, respectively.
Seven people were killed and at least 51 people were wounded in weekend shootings across Chicago.
So far this year, over 1,880 people have been shot across the city and more than 200 of those wounded have died of their wounds, according to records kept by the Chicago Tribune. At least 317 people have been killed this year by shooting, stabbing or other means, Tribune records show.
Twelve of the 51 people shot this weekend were wounded in the city’s Harrison District, an area on the west side where more than 270 people have been shot this year.
The busiest period during the weekend was from Saturday morning to early Sunday, when four people were fatally shot and 26 others were hurt.
What: Governor and Local Mayors Discuss Need for Stopgap Budget and Education Funding
Where: State Capitol - Governor’s Office
Date: Monday, June 27, 2016
Time: 10:30 a.m.
BlueRoomStream.com’s live feed is here. The CMS live feed is here.
Thursday is the end of a full year without a state budget — plus another blown deadline to make a budget for the new fiscal year that starts Friday. […]
A hodgepodge of federal court action and money from Washington has kept some social services in Illinois intact. Funding for others has fallen away, including Des Plaines-based Lutheran Social Services, which early this year cut 750 jobs and programs for vulnerable people.
A United Way survey suggests more than 1 million people have now lost services as a result of the state’s failure to pass a budget. The new fiscal year beginning Friday means an end to the contracts some of the providers signed with the state, leaving them to wonder if they’ll ever get the state money they’re owed. Dozens are now in court.
“We’ve been told: ‘They’ll resolve this by Labor Day; they’ll resolve this in the veto session; they’ll resolve this after the (candidate) filing session in December,’” said Andrea Durbin, executive director of the Illinois Collaboration on Youth, one of the groups leading the lawsuit. “It became clear to us that we cannot rely on the political process to protect us in this.”
Money may be tight in Bellwood School District 88, but the school board still managed to quietly divert more than $105,000 from an education fund to replenish a retirement account its superintendent drained years ago.
The money added 20 years of service to the Illinois Teachers Retirement System account for Superintendent Rosemary Hendricks. That change, under a TRS formula, would increase annual pension benefits to $77,000 from an estimated $14,000. Taxpayers across the state will pick up the tab, potentially for years to come. […]
District 88’s attorney said Hendricks, 66, is required to repay the $105,504 to the district, but the district has not provided a copy of that agreement or any details about a repayment plan or said whether she must pay interest. […]
Local tax revenue has been flat in Bellwood, and last year the state sent additional aid to the district, which has spent nearly twice as much on administration than the average district in Illinois, state records show. Student achievement lags far behind statewide averages as well. […]
Hendricks was dismissed during her first two terms — in 2008 and 2012 — and the district paid her $120,000 in legal and other settlements. As of last school year, Hendricks had earned more through suing her employers or getting bought out of contracts since the 2008-09 school year than through the time she spent working, state records show.
More state money is obviously not the answer for that particular district (and others).
* Crain’s Chicago Business endorsed Bruce Rauner in the 2014 Republican primary and then again in the general election. They’re not happy with the results…
At the time, we were skeptical that the governor could accomplish much with a Democratic-controlled Legislature. But Rauner assured us that he’d dedicate himself to persuading his opponents—and he promised he would wield his executive powers to work around House Speaker Michael Madigan if he had to.
Madigan, of course, bears the lion’s share of responsibility for the mess Illinois is in, thanks to his decades in power. But Madigan is not the governor. Rauner is. And there’s no way to deny it: By nearly every measure, the state is worse off since Rauner took office. Pension liabilities now top $110 billion and are rising by the minute. The stack of unpaid bills is ballooning, turning Illinois into a notorious deadbeat. Vital social service agencies are being cut. Students are abandoning the state’s universities. Illinois’ credit rating hovers just above junk-bond range. We’re in Year Two without a budget—and the best hope for one is months away, after the Nov. 8 election.
In short, Illinois needs fixing more than ever. No matter how beneficial Rauner’s idea of reform might be for the state’s economy long term, what he’s doing to get there is not working.
It’s time for the governor to redefine victory. It can and should look something like this: Craft a balanced budget by cutting where we can and raising enough sustainable revenue to pay for it. For a governor who once hoped to usher in a raft of business-friendly reforms, this probably will feel like failure. But as he himself noted during a visit to Crain’s editorial board, Illinois hasn’t had a balanced budget in 25 years. If Rauner could deliver one, that alone would be a major accomplishment—and put Illinois finally on the path toward living within our means. We could cheer for that and for him.
Between 2014 and 2015, more than 9,000 black residents left Cook County, and since 2010, the Chicago area, which for the census includes parts of Indiana and Wisconsin, has lost more than 35,000 black residents. The exodus is greater than in any other metropolitan area in the country.
“I have very little desire to return to the city,” said Roosevelt Johnson, 47, who moved to Lake County 10 years ago when he first saw the writing on the wall: limited services on the South Side, where he grew up, and unaffordable housing on the North Side, where he later moved. “It became a rat race of having to try to get from Point A to Point B with raising our family. Making sure everyone is in the place they need to be, despite escalating costs. It became too much for us to handle.”
Chicago itself lost 181,000 black residents between 2000 and 2010, according to census data. The numbers are indicative of a larger pattern of Illinois’ general population loss, which dropped by 22,194 residents between 2014 and 2015. The Chicago metropolitan statistical area, defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as the city and suburbs that extend into Wisconsin and Indiana, lost an estimated 6,263 residents between 2014 and 2015, the area’s first population dip since at least 1990. […]
Census numbers also show that African-Americans continue to move to the suburbs, a pattern that slowly began in the 1970s, when manufacturing jobs started to dry up, and picked up in the 2000s. Stephanie Schmitz Bechteler, director of research and evaluation at the Chicago Urban League, said suburbs in DuPage and Kane counties have better housing and job opportunities, citing the Interstate 88 business corridor in DuPage.
“They’ve got lower taxes, more job opportunities, maybe better-funded school districts. All of those things are available in Cook County, too, but not as strongly,” she said.
A potentially politically embarrassing civil lawsuit against Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Duckworth, alleging workplace retaliation during her time as head of the state Department of Veterans Affairs, was settled Friday for $26,000 from the state, with no finding of wrongdoing.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office, representing Duckworth in the case, said in a statement that during a pre-trial settlement conference in Downstate Union County “it became clear that we could resolve this matter… for nuisance value — saving the state the costs of lawyers preparing for and trying the case.”
Madigan spokeswoman Maura Possley said the $26,000 award to two workers at the Anna Veteran’s Home “will cover attorney’s fees and all costs,” and the “settlement is based on the agreement that there is no finding of a violation of the law.”
The lawsuit, which had been scheduled for trial mid-August, had been the dominant theme of Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk’s early attacks on Duckworth, currently a two-term congresswoman from Hoffman Estates, as he seeks re-election.
They settled for fees and costs, meaning the plaintiffs didn’t get a dime.
* But that isn’t stopping the Kirk campaign…
“We now know that there are 26,000 reasons why Tammy Duckworth was guilty. The simple truth is that if Tammy Duckworth was innocent, she would not have settled this case. Instead of taking the stand and testifying, Duckworth has chosen to stay silent and settle the case at taxpayer expense in order to hide from the truth. Duckworth’s actions have cost Illinois taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars while prolonging the legacy of Rod Blagojevich corruption.”
Duckworth’s campaign on Friday called the case a “frivolous workplace case that dragged on over eight years.” Campaign spokesman Matt McGrath pointed the finger at the Kirk campaign for telling voters the case was about Duckworth endangering the care of veterans and that taxpayers would be on the hook for a six-figure settlement.
“Kirk had clearly pinned his desperate campaign hopes on what a federal judge deemed a ‘garden variety workplace case,’ and now it’s clear he’s got nothing left to offer Illinois families,” McGrath said.
* I wrote a blog post the other day which I thought at the time could be re-worked into a decent newspaper column. Here it is…
Illinoisans are undeniably furious about the way their government has been running (or, more accurately, not running). They’re looking for solutions, and some are grasping at anything within reach.
A downstate newspaper editorial the other day attempted to pin the blame for just about all of our state’s fiscal and economic problems on the way politicians in this state draw legislative district maps.
That’s just silly.
Reforming the process by taking away map-drawing duties from politicians and handing it to a nonpartisan commission is definitely a good idea. But, don’t kid yourself that reforming this one process, where politicians choose their voters instead of voters choosing their politicians, will suddenly make Illinois great again, or whatever.
First of all, it may not work like some think it will. When editorial writers and pundits talk about redistricting reform, they usually focus on the man who draws many of the legislative district maps: Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, one of the most disliked politicians in all of Illinois, and the man who is blamed by many for much (or even all) of our problems. Take that power away from him and you’ll do away with Madigan, the theory goes.
OK, but take a look at the Illinois Election Data website, which has the 2014 gubernatorial election results by Illinois House district. Those districts were drawn, of course, by Speaker Madigan.
Bruce Rauner won 50.8 percent of the popular vote in 2014. Yet, by my count, Rauner also won 69 of Illinois’ 118 House districts that same year, or 58.5 percent.
In other words, the Republican candidate for governor won 22 more House districts than the House Republicans.
That’s why Gov. Rauner thinks he has a real shot at picking up some House seats this year. His operation is focusing like a laser on the districts he won.
Why didn’t Republican House candidates do as well as Rauner?
Let’s step back a couple of years. The House Democrats picked up seats in 2012 after they drew the new map in 2011, but besides creating districts that certainly favored their candidates, the wins were also due to ‘12 being a hugely favorable (to them) presidential election year. Democrats do much better here in presidential years.
And once people are elected, it’s difficult to knock them out. By the time the national GOP wave swept through two years later, in 2014, it ran smack dab into Democratic incumbents who’d been working their new districts hard for two years. That’s always something to remember about Madigan. In exchange for his monetary and staff support, he demands rigorous door-to-door work by his candidates. Once they’re in, they tend to stay in.
This year, the presidential election means the national trend will likely be the Democrats’ friend yet again. If Rauner doesn’t net some gains, he’ll likely blame Madigan’s map, but that won’t be totally true.
And just because one party draws the map doesn’t mean it has a lock on it. For instance, the Republicans currently control three U.S. House districts that were actually drawn to favor Democrats.
Also, go back to 1991, the last time the Republicans drew the legislative district map. Madigan’s Democrats managed to hold on to control in the very next election, when Bill Clinton and Carol Moseley Braun swept the state. But Madigan’s Democrats lost the majority two years later in a huge national GOP landslide. Madigan learned some hard lessons in 1994. He regained the majority in 1996, when President Clinton ran again, and managed to hold onto it until he could draw his own map in 2001.
Yet the Senate Republicans held their majority throughout that very same 10-year period.
The lesson here is that getting rid of Madigan, or even clipping his wings, ain’t going to be as easy as it looks.
Again, I think that a nonpartisan, independent remap process would be a good thing no matter the Madigan-related outcome. But so would California’s open primary system, where the top two vote-getters battle it out in November even if they’re from the same party. I’d love to see that brought to Illinois.
There are lots of things we can do to reform the process. But I highly doubt that this one reform will solve all our problems. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise because they’re living in an overly simplistic cartoon world. I prefer the real world.
* Meanwhile…
Rich —
With oral arguments a few days away, here’s the last brief to be filed by Independent Maps coalition in opposition to the lawsuit that seeks to block the redistricting reform amendment from the ballot. The attached reply memorandum from Independent Maps was filed Friday afternoon.
Oral arguments are scheduled for 2 p.m. June 30 before Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane Larsen.
Should electric utilities be allowed to “add a demand charge to household electric bills, which would require people to pay a new fee if they use too many electric appliances at the same time in any half hour period of the month.”
Total Opposed: 81%
Total in Favor: 15%
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 rate increase to bail out nukes and pad Exelon’s profits.
BEST Coalition is a 501C4 nonprofit group of dozens of business, consumer and government groups, as well as large and small businesses. Visitwww.noexelonbailout.com.
The Illinois Secretary of State’s decision not to send license plate renewal reminders has earned the state more than twice the amount of late fees so far this year compared to last year.
The Belleville News-Democrat reports that so far this year the state has collected $9.5 million in late license plate fees, compared with $4.3 million during the same period last year. Illinois Secretary of State’s spokesman Dave Druker says there have been about 476,550 late fees collected so far this year compared with about 214,500 during the same time last year.
The state stopped sending renewal notices in the mail in October, saying it couldn’t afford the $450,000 in monthly postage costs due to the lack of a state budget.
* The Question: Any other “positives” to emerge from this impasse? Snark is heavily encouraged, of course.
* He’s been unsuccessfully trying to give this thing away for years, first to San Francisco, now to Chicago…
The Lucas Museum saga in Chicago has ended.
Lucas Museum officials announced Friday they are dropping plans to build the project in Chicago, ending months of debate and controversy.
Plans to build the museum housing a collection of “Star Wars” creator George Lucas’ art collection have been on hold since November 2014, when the group Friends of the Parks filed a federal lawsuit blocking construction. The parks group argues the museum plans violate the public trust doctrine, benefit a private interest more than the state’s residents and tarnish the city’s lakefront.
Lucas selected Chicago after plans to build the museum in San Francisco were rejected. Lucas’ wife, financial executive Mellody Hobson, is a Chicago native.
* Press release…
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art announced today that in light of extensive delays caused by Friends of the Parks, Chicago will no longer be considered a potential site for the museum. The board of directors and executive leadership of the museum confirmed that California will be its future home.
“No one benefits from continuing their seemingly unending litigation to protect a parking lot,” said George W. Lucas, founder and chairman of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. “The actions initiated by Friends of Parks and their recent attempts to extract concessions from the city have effectively overridden approvals received from numerous democratically elected bodies of government.”
The location — a parking lot near Soldier Field — was originally selected by Chicago’s Site Selection Task Force in May 2014 and subsequently approved by the City Council, Park District, Plan Commission, Department of Zoning, Illinois General Assembly and the governor. When the city offered McCormick Place East as an alternative to the parking lot, Friends of the Parks announced plans to block consideration of that location as well as any lakefront site or park in Chicago.
On behalf of his wife, Mellody Hobson, and other members of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Board of Directors, Mr. Lucas expressed gratitude to the many people throughout the community who worked tirelessly to bring the institution to life on Chicago’s Museum Campus. “We are deeply appreciative to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Governor Bruce Rauner and countless others for all the time and effort they invested in trying to secure the museum for Chicago,” said Mr. Lucas.
The education-focused public institution remains dedicated to expanding public understanding and appreciation of narrative art in all its forms, providing inspiration and learning, especially for young people.
Mr. Lucas stated, “While Chicago will not be home to the museum, my wife and I will continue to enthusiastically support a wide variety of educational and cultural activities throughout the city.”
* Mayor Emanuel…
“Two years ago to the day, George Lucas and Mellody Hobson announced that they had chosen Chicago as the site of their incredible legacy investment. The opportunity for a City to gain a brand new museum is rare, and this particular opportunity – a gift worth approximately $1.5 billion – would have been the largest philanthropic contribution in Chicago’s history.
Unfortunately, time has run out and the moment we’ve consistently warned about has arrived – Chicago’s loss will be another city’s gain. This missed opportunity has not only cost us what will be a world-class cultural institution, it has cost thousands of jobs for Chicago workers, millions of dollars in economic investment and countless educational opportunities for Chicago’s youth.
Despite widespread support of the project from Chicago’s cultural, business, labor, faith and community leaders and the public, a legal challenge filed by Friends of the Parks threatened to derail this once-in-a-generation opportunity.
We tried to find common ground to resolve the lawsuit – the sole barrier preventing the start of the museum’s construction. But despite our best efforts to negotiate a common solution that would keep this tremendous cultural and economic asset in Chicago, Friends of the Parks chose to instead negotiate with themselves while Lucas negotiated with cities on the West Coast.”
It is unfortunate that the Lucas Museum has made the decision to leave Chicago rather than locate the museum on one of the several alternative sites that are not on Chicago’s lakefront. That would have been the true win-win.
A top Illinois mental health advocacy group has sent Governor Bruce Rauner a letter urging him to sign a human services stopgap budget bill sitting on his desk and pointed to a drug overdose death linked to the state’s 12-month budget impasse.
In the letter delivered to Rauner on Thursday (copy here), Community Behavioral Healthcare Association CEO Marvin Lindsey noted that waiting lists at community-based mental health and drug treatment providers now stand at 12 to 200 individuals per month and that an “overdose death” had occurred to someone on the list.
“Regarding the waiting list, many of these individuals usually end up in more expensive emergency rooms, hospital inpatient faculties, jails or, even, dead. Yes, dead,” Lindsey wrote. “In one instance for example, since the budget impasse began, a parent called a substance use provider to tell the agency that they could remove her son from the waiting list because he had died from an overdose.”
Lindsey says that the year-long stalemate between Rauner and the Illinois General Assembly “has crippled” the state mental health and drug treatment services.
“The failure of behavioral healthcare community providers to receive payments over the past 11 ½ months on signed Department of Human Services FY 2016 contracts has crippled Illinois’ behavioral healthcare system,” Lindsey wrote.
In addition to general waiting lists, a June 15-20, 2016 survey of the Association’s 65 members throughout Illinois revealed broad service cuts and more than $85 million in unpaid and delayed bills to the group’s providers.
73%of community mental health and substance use treatment and prevention providers have been force to shut down programs or reduce services.
76% of individuals seeking to see a psychiatrist have wait times ranging from 2 to 4 months, while 24% have wait times that range from 4 months to more than 6 months.
The state owes CBHA members (65) an estimated $85,536,267 for services rendered under the FY 16 contract and delayed Medicaid payments.
“The ongoing budget dispute has financially starved local behavioral healthcare providers,” Lindsey said. “Our agencies and the people that they serve need a lifeline.”
Lindsey is urging the governor to sign a human services stopgap budget measure, SB 2038, that has been lingering on his desk since May 18.
“We urge you to sign SB 2038,” Lindsey wrote. “We also understand that the money contained in the emergency funding legislation is only a temporary solution. Like you, we agree that the General Assembly needs to continue to work to find a permanent FY’16 and FY’17 budget solution.”
TO: Senate Republican Colleagues
FROM: Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno
DATE: June 24, 2016
RE: Stopgap Budget Proposal
Dear Colleagues,
As both the House and the Senate prepare to return to Springfield next week, with only days to go before the end of the fiscal year, I wanted to update you on the status of the negotiations on a stopgap budget proposal.
When it became abundantly clear that the Democrats in the legislature had walked away from budget negotiations at the end of session, Republicans introduced a fiscally responsible stopgap budget to fund essential government operations. This stopgap was not designed to be a solution to our state’s fiscal problems; it’s simply designed to run government operations through December 31, 2016.
In the last few days, the four legislative caucuses and the Governor’s Office have worked diligently to negotiate the stopgap proposal, leading to compromise solutions for almost all of the identified disagreements.
The proposed solution will allow the state to appropriate all federal funds. It also utilizes funds where cash will actually be available. That means there are real resources behind the appropriations, unlike the $7 billion out of balance budget plan passed by Democrats in the House in May.
The stopgap ensures road construction will not be interrupted and that projects for Water and Wastewater can continue without delay. Additionally, it includes funding for emergency repairs at state facilities to protect the public safety and taxpayer assets, and funding for school construction.
It also drives $1 billion in real resources to higher education to ensure that public universities and community colleges can stay open through the fall and includes funding for the Monetary Award Program (MAP) to fund the spring semester of MAP awards.
More than $600 million for social services programs from the Commitment to Human Services Fund has been included to drive much-needed resources to human services providers.
And we’ve agreed to include funding from the Rainy Day Fund to address the critical life, health, and safety operational needs of state government so that food, utilities and medicine continue to be delivered to our state prisons, mental health hospitals and veterans’ homes. This will also allow the state to continue to purchase fuel for state troopers on the highways, IDOT trucks on the roads during construction season, and snow plows and salt trucks on the roads during the winter months.
The only difference that remains is whether or not the state should force suburban and downstate taxpayers to bailout Chicago Public Schools.
Republicans continue to advocate for the Governor’s proposal to fully fund the foundation level for first time in seven years with the addition of a hold harmless provision, so that no school district receives less money from the state than they did last year, and an additional $75 million for early childhood education. This would represent a historic level of funding for Illinois schools.
In the case of Chicago Public Schools, under this plan they would actually receive more money than they did last year, despite having fewer children enrolled.
Yet despite this, Democrats are continuing to pursue yet another fiscally irresponsible bailout, of at least $400 million, for Chicago Public Schools at the expense of suburban and downstate taxpayers.
I remain hopeful that all sides will continue to negotiate in good faith so that we don’t enter another fiscal year without providing the Governor with the spending authority he needs to ensure government operations can continue. I will keep you updated as these talks continue and look forward to seeing you next week in Springfield.
“I will travel much more… If we can get part of what we’re advocating done, I will live on the road a lot… I’m not going to charge taxpayers, but I’m going to travel around the country, I’m going to travel around the world - China, Germany, UK, Japan, Korea.”
“Crisis creates opportunity. Crisis creates leverage to change … and we’ve got to use that leverage of the crisis to force structural change,” said Rauner
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.
The stories behind Chicago’s police settlements often begin in ordinary moments. Riding a bike. Attending a barbecue. Watching TV.
They often end in extraordinary circumstances, according to the lawsuits. An 11-year-old with a gun placed at her temple. A grandmother arrested for battery to a police officer. A young man shocked unconscious by a Taser.
Most of these cases conclude as they occurred – outside of the public glare. People know about the high-profile police shootings of civilians and the multimillion-dollar settlements that result. But most cases are lesser known and settle for far less. Half of all cases paid out $36,000 or less, but they also contribute to a mounting taxpayer bill that goes largely unchecked by the mayor or City Council.
The City of Chicago spent more than $210 million for police misconduct lawsuits from 2012 to 2015, according to a Chicago Reporter analysis. It spent almost $53 million more on outside attorneys to litigate the cases. The Police Department exceeded its annual budget for lawsuits by almost $50 million, on average, in each of those years.
Yet, unlike some other major cities, Chicago doesn’t analyze the lawsuits for trends, identify the officers most frequently sued, or determine ways to reduce both the cost of the cases and officer misconduct.
In New York, before anybody can sue the city or receive a settlement, state law requires him first to submit a notice of claim. It includes basic information such as when, where and how the offense happened. The notices are filed with [New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s] office, where staff members enter the information into a database for analysis. The data are posted on a website, and Stringer releases detailed reports annually, with updates every few months aimed at helping agencies figure out how to drive down costs.
The comptroller’s office said it has been able to link cuts to the city’s tree-pruning budget to increases in tree-related claims and prove that a public hospital in Brooklyn has more medical malpractice claims than others in New York City.
One of the most important uses of the claims, according to Stringer, is sharing precinct-level-data with the New York Police Department to bolster the agency’s new risk management bureau, formed last year to help identify patterns of misconduct and mitigate risks that result in lawsuits. But Stringer cannot force the department to incorporate the data into its early warning system, which targets individual police officers accused of misconduct.
Claims data is more useful in finding trends in specific neighborhoods than it is in identifying the behavior of individual officers. Sometimes people don’t know the names of the police officers they are accusing of misconduct.
* We talked earlier this week about Senate President John Cullerton’s not so pleasant meeting with school parents when he attempted to shift all the blame to Gov. Bruce Rauner. The Tribune editorial board has more…
“It seems like that was the Democratic playbook. I’m a Democrat. I’m about as far left as you can get. But he just kept pivoting to the governor,” says Jeff Jenkins, a member of the Coonley local school council. “We know the governor isn’t doing us any favors. That said, he’s been there 18 months and (Cullerton) has been there 37 years and (House Speaker Michael Madigan) 45 years, and so for 80-plus years, you’ve been running the state.” […]
When a member of the Coonley audience raised the longevity issue, Cullerton got defensive, according to Jenkins, who was sitting next to him. Cullerton reminded the audience that he had “volunteered to be here.” That didn’t go over well either.
“He was rolling his eyes,” Jenkins said. “He was dismissive of people. He offered no practical solutions. He said it wouldn’t be helpful if they were in Springfield working.
“This was an audience that could have been his greatest allies. But people were flabbergasted that he came in the way he did. Most people had never met Cullerton before. I’m sure they’ve all voted for him in the past.”
On Wednesday, City Treasurer Kurt Summers proposed an ordinance to City Council that would impose striking new changes to the city’s investment policy allowing the City of Chicago to purchase debt issued by sister agencies like Chicago Public Schools.
The proposed changes, introduced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the request of Treasurer Summers, would allow the city to invest in “tax anticipation warrants, municipal bonds, notes, commercial paper or other instruments representing a debt obligation” from sister agencies, including the Chicago Board of Education, the Chicago Housing Authority, the Chicago Park District, the Chicago Transit Authority, and the City Colleges of Chicago. Officials from the Treasurer’s office would not comment on the record about whether the move was designed to float CPS during its fiscal crisis.
For the city to invest in bonds for the state, any other county, township, or school district outside of Chicago, the bonds must meet certain requirements, including a rating of at least A-, a maturity of no more than 30 years, and cannot exceed 25% of the total holdings across all funds. The same limitations would not be true for sister agency investments, according to the new proposed rules.
The Board of Education’s most recent ratings from Moody’s are four levels below junk status, which led to an extraordinarily high 8.5% interest rate when it hit the open market in February.
According to the same official from the Treasurer’s Office, there are no limits to the type of sale either, meaning the city can also buy the debt through a private or “over the counter” sale, rather than just on the open market. CPS would be able to issue debt of its own, at potentially a much lower interest rate than the open market would fetch, because it could have a guaranteed buyer in the City of Chicago.
Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk’s re-election campaign on Thursday slammed Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth for seeking a pretrial settlement conference in a civil lawsuit stemming from her time heading the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.
But the settlement conference, scheduled for Friday in Downstate Union County, was “initiated by the judge” and not Duckworth, said a spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who is representing the congresswoman in the case.
“He strongly encouraged it,” Madigan spokeswoman Maura Possley said of the trial judge in the case, Mark Boie. Judges in civil matters routinely set conferences in front of other judges in hopes a settlement can be reached before it goes to trial.
Duckworth, a two-term congresswoman, is scheduled to face a civil trial in August for alleged workplace retaliation involving two workers at the Anna Veterans Home. Duckworth has said she wanted the truth to come out but has declined discussing specifics because of the pending litigation.
Another DeWitt County resource has announced an end to their services due to the lack of the state budget.
PATH Senior Services, which provides various forms of assistance to local seniors, will end their services effective immediately in DeWitt, McLean and Livingston Counties. According to Executive Director of PATH, Karen Zangerle, this cut is going to impact a number of vital services for seniors. Because of this, PATH Senior Services at the DeWitt County Friendship Center will cease.
* Meanwhile, the media is finally starting to catch up on that United Way survey from two days ago, but the largest outlets are still ignoring it…
Rauner on Thursday said Democrats have made “tweaks” to the temporary budget bill proposed by Republicans, asking for more money for MAP grants and human services. Rauner’s administration also indicated Democrats are asking for more higher education funding, in addition to funding for MAP grants.
Subscribers also know how they’re going to pay for them.
Rauner said it’s “not fair” for suburban and Downstate taxpayers to foot the bill for CPS’ financial problems. Asked if he would sign a stopgap funding bill that included a CPS bailout, Rauner replied, “absolutely no.”
“What we’ve been told from the other side is that they’re willing to work out with us the stopgap budget, that we’re close,” Rauner said Thursday after speaking at a business banquet in downtown Chicago. “But what they’ve also made crystal clear is that Chicago’s public schools need a bailout, want a bailout, and they’re going to hold up everything in these budgets, in these negotiations, for Chicago Public Schools to get a bailout. That’s not fair.”
[Speaker Madigan’s press secretary Steve Brown] dismissed Rauner’s assertion, saying that “no one’s talking about bailouts” to CPS.
* Rauner was asked yesterday at the Crain’s editorial board meeting if he would support any extra money for CPS beyond what he’s already proposed, which is level funding with this fiscal year…
“No (more money),” Rauner said. “That’s just rewarding bad behavior at the expense of the suburbs and downstate.”
The fact is, CPS bureaucracy is “bloated and inefficient” and the agency has “squandered” its resources, Rauner said. And with the city property-tax base rising and the number of CPS students dropping, they normally should get less state aid, not more
“They created their own crisis,” Rauner concluded, sharply disputing CPS officials who say a system that mostly serves poor minority students long has been short changed. And with city property taxes lower than in many suburbs, Emanuel has that option if he doesn’t like bankruptcy, the governor said.
A Rauner aide later suggested that more money for all schools, not just CPS might be found if new revenues are obtained, but Democrats don’t want to talk about a tax hike until after the elections.
“They could have CPS reorganize their debts and their contracts under a bankruptcy in front of a judge, reorganize their obligations,” Rauner said. “That’s not a terrible thing, it wouldn’t have to result in any layoffs.” […]
“Governor Rauner is itching to subject Chicago students to his old slash-and-burn corporate takeover tactics, decimating our schools and cheating teachers of their pensions – when he should be providing adequate and equitable funding,” said CPS spokesperson Emily Bittner. “We’ll keep fighting to make sure that Governor Rauner can’t avoid his responsibility to fund schools around the state and protect our children’s futures.”
Mayor Emanuel also criticized the governor’s suggestion, and for recently comparing Chicago Public Schools to prisons.
“Do we give that child at a better tomorrow, or run them down and say that they’re in prisons?” Emanuel asked Thursday. “I am tired of this. This child is not a prisoner in a prison.
As to how exactly the process would work: the district would go before a bankruptcy judge with all of its creditors – such as people who hold debt, and pensioners, etc. – and all parties would have to work out a path forward, establishing essentially who gets paid what. It isn’t the judge that would unilaterally determine that.
The negotiations could get contentious, especially with retirees and how ironclad the state constitution is on the protection of pensions. The Better Government Assoication told “Chicago Tonight” that CPS could actually come out in worse shape than it entered. That’s because the purpose of bankruptcy is to make sure creditors are paid as much as they can get out of it – the whole purpose of educating children could get lost in the mix. It also means CPS may never have future access to capital markets.
Another expert told us that only two school districts, and very tiny ones at that, have gone through Chapter 9 bankruptcy in the last 60 years, and he says it was not a successful endeavor.
The General Assembly would have to pass a law to allow CPS to go bankrupt, something that is highly unlikely to happen.
* They’ve already laid off 56 employees this year…
An Illinois child social service agency is laying off 16 staffers that work with at-risk youth and expectant mothers because of the nearly yearlong budget stalemate between Democratic lawmakers and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Children’s Home and Aid spokesman Jassen Strokosch says the state owes the agency about $1.8 million for services since July 1, the beginning of the current fiscal year. The layoffs happened Wednesday and Thursday and will impact services in East St. Louis and central Illinois.
The staffers worked to provide alternatives to incarceration to teenagers and helped find housing for homeless youth. They also provided counseling to expectant mothers during in-home visits.
Homeless youth, pregnant women, teens in trouble. In East St. Louis, no less.
* The Senate will return to Springfield for the first time this month. They’ll convene the 29th at noon.
No official word out of the House yet, but next Wednesday is the last Wednesday of the fiscal year and Speaker Madigan pledged to hold sessions every Wednesday, so it’s expected that he’ll bring his chamber back.
*** UPDATE 1 *** House members say they’ve just received notice to return Wednesday by 11 o’clock in the morning.
The budget working group says they’re very close to the end of their work.
There’s one more meeting scheduled Thursday and lawmakers are hoping it’s the last.
Working group members say they’re almost ready to hand over their work on a stopgap budget to the leaders.
They say the plan would get the state through the end of the year, but there are just a few more issues the four tops and Governor will have to hammer out.
And…
Senate will be back in session on Wed. "The Senate Pres. remains hopefully optimistic that a bipartisan agreement is close at hand" #twill
Should electric utilities be allowed to “add a demand charge to household electric bills, which would require people to pay a new fee if they use too many electric appliances at the same time in any half hour period of the month.”
Total Opposed: 81%
Total in Favor: 15%
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 rate increase to bail out nukes and pad Exelon’s profits.
BEST Coalition is a 501C4 nonprofit group of dozens of business, consumer and government groups, as well as large and small businesses. Visitwww.noexelonbailout.com.
* This has been going on for years, and it’s unconscionable…
Illinois’ history is crumbling away.
Mansions, museums, and monuments that showcase Illinois’ past, and honor famous luminaries, ranging from President Abraham Lincoln to famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, have been battered by years of fiscal decline and subsequent state-imposed austerity measures, according to a BGA Rescuing Illinois investigation.
The 56 sites operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA) require nearly $146 million of dollars in deferred maintenance through 2020. Many of the buildings’ plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling systems have outlived their useful lives, according to interviews with IHPA officials and documents obtained by the BGA under the Freedom of Information Act.
In recent years, staffing has been reduced two-thirds to 48 full-time employees, according to data from the IHPA division running the 56 historic sites, and most of the venues are now closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, according to their web sites. […]
The agency has an annual maintenance budget of $75,000, which covers only the most routine repairs.
Governor Bruce Rauner visited with employees at the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) offices in Chicago today and discussed transformations the department is making to streamline the way it assists customers. These transformations help reduce poverty levels and transition individuals and families out of our social service systems.
Odd word choice there.
But do you know what might help those “customers” even more? Signing the stopgap human services bill that’s been sitting on his desk for weeks. That way, groups and businesses who work with those “customers” can finally get paid.
Unionized home care workers tried to confront Gov. Bruce Rauner on Thursday, outside a state agency they claim he is hurting.
Dozens of demonstrators booed as the governor made an unpublicized visit to the Department of Human Services office in the West Loop. The protesters were members of Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois, which represents 52,000 workers who have gone without a contract since last July. […]
The union said Rauner’s budget plan would cut $200 million from the state’s community care program, which helps seniors and the disabled get services at home, so they don’t have to go into nursing homes.
It’s obviously not a joking matter to the folks who were injured or suffered property damage, so I’ll just apologize right now in case Scott’s tweet upsets anybody.
But dark humor is all we’ve got left in this state.
[Headline was changed after a couple of funny comments were posted.]
Approaching the November elections, Republican Paul Schimpf aims to bring “common-sense” legislating, conservative values and integrity to the state Senate in District 58, which covers Monroe, St. Clair, Randolph, Perry, Jackson, Union and Jefferson counties. […]
Former Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon (2011-2015) is the current Democrat opponent in the Senate race, but Schimpf is confident that he is the right candidate to address the issues Illinois and his district are facing. […]
What makes Schimpf the best candidate for the district?
“Leadership abilities versus political lineage,” he said.
Schimpf explained that Simon comes from a tradition of politicians who do very little to serve the state; instead, they are more likely to serve themselves. He also argued that he can be a leader for everyone, not just for one party.
By far, the best thing Sheila Simon has going for her is her revered father’s name. She’s a proud liberal Democrat in a district which leans Republican (half of it is represented by a socially conservative, pro-life, pro-gun Democrat with a famous last name) and she hasn’t won an election on her own since her days as a Carbondale alderman.
So, that was just a goofy mistake - or perhaps an ill-conceived homage to the Karl Rove strategy of attacking an opponent’s strength.
A spokesman for Schimpf said the comments in question had nothing to do with the late former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, and were instead a criticism of her connections to former Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, under whom she served as lieutenant governor.
“We’re not going to disparage the memory of the late U.S. Sen. Simon,” said Schimpf spokesman Ron Deedrick. “He obviously was a statesman who served the nation and the state honorably.” […]
Simon said she sees no other way to interpret Shimpf’s comment about her lineage other than to consider it an insult to her parents. She noted that the most common definition of the term “lineage” describes the lineal descent from one’s ancestors, i.e. family.
Deedrick said he refuses to engage in a battle of semantics over use of the phrase “political lineage,” and called it “absurd” for Simon to continue to insist the comment was an intended as an insult to the late Paul Simon. Deedrick did not dispute that the accuracy of the quotes, but also said the campaign had no control over the ultimate outcome of the article.
…Adding… Wordslinger in comments…
Of course. Who didn’t make the Pat Quinn connection with “political lineage?”
LOL, that’s some lousy spin.
If you want to knock Simon for Pat Quinn, you say “Pat Quinn.”
If you want to knock Simon for leaning on the old man, you say “political lineage.”
Believe it or not, using your phone isn’t the most dangerous activity to do while driving. Chatting with your passengers is.
It sounds weird, but according to federal data, more than half of distracted driving accidents were caused by conversations with passengers. Sometimes, it seems, we all just get way too lost in dialogue.
The next most likely distraction is your phone: texting, dialing numbers, Googling things, looking at your directions, changing a song, taking a selfie. All that only accounts for 12 percent of distracted driving accidents.
Focusing on other in-car objects — putting on chapstick, swatting a fly, wiping a smudge off your window — make up 11 percent of those accidents.
Actions of passengers other than talking — like stupid in-car dance moves or kids fighting in the back seat — cause another 7 percent, and everything else (eating, adjusting the radio, moving your seat, anything else) cause the remaining 23 percent.
* The federal study is here. The feds are not as definitive about it as the above story claims, however…
About 57 percent of these drivers were conversing with a passenger in the pre-crash phase. However, it may not reflect the cause of the distraction. In fact, it is difficult to determine how much conversation can contribute to driver inattention.
It goes without saying that the government outlawing conversation between a driver and a passenger would be a wee bit unpopular. Not sure what to do about that, even if the stats are true, except via a public information campaign.
Illinois cities, hospitals, public schools and nonprofit agencies should sue Gov. Bruce Rauner and state lawmakers if they can’t adopt a balanced budget by July 1, said [Rockford] Mayor Larry Morrissey.
Suing Illinois’ executive and legislative branches for failing to pass and sign a balanced budget may seem like a crazy idea. But crazy is the new normal in Illinois, where lawmakers’ inability, or perhaps unwillingness, to adopt a budget for nearly a year is claiming new victims with each passing week. […]
“If there isn’t a budget passed by end of June, I don’t want to see the state go through the same dynamics of last year when everybody and their brother was bringing lawsuits forward to force the state to pay for this or pay for that,” Morrissey said. “My preference would be one lawsuit that’s brought by everybody that asks a judge to hold lawmakers and the governor accountable for their constitutional duty to pass a balanced budget.
“The state constitution says the legislative branch needs to adopt a balanced budget,” he said. “They need to do their job. I think there’s a great constitutional case that could be brought to settle this matter.”
Does the Constitution really require the legislative branch to pass a budget every year?
(a) The Governor shall prepare and submit to the General Assembly, at a time prescribed by law, a State budget for the ensuing fiscal year. The budget shall set forth the estimated balance of funds available for appropriation at the beginning of the fiscal year, the estimated receipts, and a plan for expenditures and obligations during the fiscal year of every department, authority, public corporation and quasi-public corporation of the State, every State college and university, and every other public agency created by the State, but not of units of local government or school districts. The budget shall also set forth the indebtedness and contingent liabilities of the State and such other information as may be required by law. Proposed expenditures shall not exceed funds estimated to be available for the fiscal year as shown in the budget.
(b) The General Assembly by law shall make appropriations for all expenditures of public funds by the State. Appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.
It does say the GA shall make appropriations, but, I dunno. Apparently, the framers couldn’t imagine a controversy like this ever coming up. I mean, who in their right mind wouldn’t pass a budget every year?
SECTION 1. STATE REVENUE POWER
The General Assembly has the exclusive power to raise revenue by law except as limited or otherwise provided in this Constitution. The power of taxation shall not be surrendered, suspended, or contracted away.
I don’t see how a state judge could put in place a balanced budget with higher taxes.
For over a year, the government of Illinois has failed to pass a budget. However, there is a solution, and it does not lie in Springfield.
Its called the Second Enforcement Act of 1871 and it gives the federal government the right and responsibility to dismantle any state or local government that is failing to protect the constitutional rights of its citizens.
This law states “That in all cases where insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combinations, or conspiracies in any State shall so obstruct or hinder the execution of the laws thereof, and of the United States, as to deprive any portion or class of the people of such State of any of the rights, privileges, or immunities, or protection, named in the constitution … it shall be lawful for the President, and it shall be his duty to take such measures… as he may deem necessary for the suppressions of such insurrection, domestic violence, or combinations. …”
* But, according to Wikipedia, that federal law has been amended and replaced with this language…
Every person who under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, Suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable.
State-level gun legislation in response to the Orlando attacks has emerged in Illinois, led by a Chicago Democrat and more than one suburban Republican.
The new proposal in Springfield would let the Illinois State Police notify the FBI if someone on a terrorist watch list applies to get a Firearm Owners Identification card needed in the state to own a gun. It would add people involved in terrorist threats to the list of those who can have such a card denied or revoked. […]
The lead Republican on the plan is state Rep. Ed Sullivan, a Mundelein Republican and key negotiator of the Illinois law that allows people to carry concealed weapons in public. The Illinois State Rifle Association’s leader says he’s OK with the plan if it doesn’t change.
“It helps, but it’s not overly intrusive into gun owners’ rights,” ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson said.
Statement from House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) in response to the introduction of bi-partisan legislation to keep those on the terror watch list from possessing firearms
“I applaud the efforts of both Representative Ed Sullivan (R- Mundelein) and Representative Greg Harris (D-Chicago) for their work in presenting this commonsense and responsible legislation,” said House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs).
“While the federal government plays a larger role in this complicated issue, I believe we have a responsibility to do our part,” Durkin added. “I am proud to lend my support to House Bill 6588.”
Numbers provided to the Sun-Times show the state owes more than $32.3 million to providers for all 43 of the state’s prisons, centers and work camp centers for water and sewer services, gas and electricity. […]
That backlog doesn’t include food vendors, some of which are mom and pop vendors struggling to produce food for the prisons. Those vendors haven’t been paid in months. […]
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin has been sounding the alarm about the prison backlog for months. He said he’s concerned vendors will drop their services.
“Those that are supplying food at some point, if they’re not going to get paid, and they continue to supply the state a product but aren’t getting paid for it, it is a concern. It is a legitimate concern,” Durkin said, adding no stopgap budget by July could cause some dangerous conditions in the state’s prisons.
• 54% of survey respondents anticipate they will have to cease serving clients in six months if the impasse continues
• Almost two-thirds of survey respondents reported making program and/or operational cuts, up from 48% in January 2016
• Of those agencies, 91% have cut the number of clients they serve, leaving nearly 1 million clients in Illinois without critical support, most significantly in the areas of mental health, substance abuse services and childhood education
• More than 50% of safety net and mental health providers indicated they could not meet the needs of their clients for the past year due to the impasse
• 45% of respondents have been forced to lay off staff, up from 24% in January 2016
• 59% of respondents have utilized their cash reserves
• 33% of respondents have utilized lines of credit
• Respondents have taken on a combined $38 million in debt
• 36% of agencies anticipate they will have to close their doors in six months if the impasse continues
Those who saw the Democratic party mobile sign parked a mere 100 feet outside the office of state senate candidate Paul Schimpf (R-Waterloo) at the edge of the Rural King lot in Waterloo last week can attest that the race is indeed getting hot.
Chad Goldschmidt, the husband of Monroe County Coroner candidate Cassy Diehl Goldschmidt (D-Waterloo), owns the truck that has the mobile sign attached. The sign in Waterloo remained in the parking lot for a few days until Schimpf’s office contacted the property owner to confirm whether the truck could remain there.
Thursday, the landlord for Schimpf’s campaign office visited the site and concluded the truck was on her property, at which point she asked Chad to move the truck elsewhere. He complied, moving the sign to the vacant Michael’s on Market lot just up the street.
Since the sign is a mobile advertisement, there is no ordinance that would allow Waterloo city officials to request he move the truck from Michael’s or any other location in the city
* And then there’s this column entitled “Get a load of this phone call I got about Gov. Bruce Rauner the other night.” Rep. Marty Moylan, who has been a Tier One target forever, is doing robocalls ridiculing the governor for claiming his administration is “doing heroic things” during the budget impasse…
So, I shouldn’t have been too surprised to hear that call the last night. But I don’t even live in one of those two dozen or so targeted districts where millions will be spent by Rauner and his Republicans and Madigan, Cullerton and their Democrats waging war and trying to win seats.
And for what? The legislative districts were drawn by Democrats and already have produced supermajorities. Madigan could win a few more that might make it easier for him to override Rauner’s vetoes, or Rauner might win a few back, but not enough to shift the legislative tide toward his party.
So why is Moylan paying for calls to criticize the governor in June? He isn’t considered to be vulnerable. And maybe that’s just it. He isn’t considered vulnerable and he has money to spend. He did vote for Madigan’s budget that was $7 billion out of balance. The budget that even a majority of Senate Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to support. Moylan’s been a loyal Madigan member and a long-time union worker. Illinois Sunshine shows me he’s got more than $577,000 available and his top donors are Madigan and his Democratic Party of Illinois and a variety of unions.
So Madigan’s up to the same tricks as Rauner. He and the unions are roughing up Rauner even in areas that aren’t all that critical to them. Already. In June.
* Um, who says he won’t eventually be targeted? Everybody expects the playing field to expand beyond where Team Rauner is now.
And did anybody happen to notice this last night?…
I'll put this up again in the morning but Richard Uihlein just gave $1.5 million to Liberty Principles. https://t.co/W3dqAzQsQa
Plus, Americans for Prosperity has been whacking Moylan over the property tax issue and, perhaps more importantly, UNITE HERE has blasted him in a TV ad with stuff that could easily be used against him this fall.
* I get the frustration with starting campaigns in June. It’s just crazy. But it’s happening all over the place right now. So, we better get used to it.
Former Governor Pat Quinn: “The first job as a governor is to get a budget passed”
* If you listen to the audio below (15:40 mark, in case you don’t want to listen to it all), you’ll hear Quinn deny that any of his budgets were out of balance…
“That isn’t true at all. Our revenue equaled our expenditure. That’s called arithmetic.”
Umm, no.
Quinn’s final budget as governor was a complete, utter failure. The General Assembly passed a fantasy budget that didn’t make any allowances for the loss of revenues from the scheduled partial rollback of the income tax hike. So, the incoming governor had to patch that huge hole.
The Kirk For Senate campaign launched a new television ad, titled “Even More,” that highlights Senator Mark Kirk’s courageous and independent record in Congress. The ad, airing on Chicago broadcast and cable networks, details Kirk’s independent and bipartisan record, including his demand for a vote on Supreme Court Nominee Merrick Garland along with Kirk’s refusal to support Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“As the partisanship and gridlock in Washington intensifies, Senator Kirk remains an independent-minded, reform-driven solution seeker,” said Kevin Artl, Kirk For Senate campaign manager. “Senator Kirk continues to put partisanship aside to to find common sense solutions for the people of Illinois.”
* As I told you yesterday, this is about a $250K buy, and it’s only running on Chicago TV, prompting one Democrat with the Duckworth campaign to crack wise earlier today…
Thinking we won’t respond to Kirk’s ad, we’ll just run the same ad in Downstate markets….
Long before his stroke, Mark Kirk was independent, ranked as one of the most bipartisan Senators.
After facing death, Kirk returned even more committed to serve Illinois.
Mark was the first Republican to support a vote on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee.
He’s a leader on protecting a woman’s right to choose.
And Mark Kirk bucked his party to say Donald Trump is not fit to be commander in chief.
Mark Kirk, courageous and independent.
I’m Mark Kirk, and I approve this message.
…Adding… So, they did decide to respond…
In response to Republican Mark Kirk’s new campaign spot, released today and running only in Chicago according to reports, Duckworth deputy campaign manager Matt McGrath issued the following statement:
“Republican Senator Mark Kirk has lied for years about his military record, falsely claiming to have served in combat and claiming an award he never earned, and now he’s not being straight with Illinois voters by portraying himself as a liberal Democrat in Chicago while apparently hoping no one else across the state notices. You can always count on two things from Kirk: dishonesty and crude political calculation, and this ad has an abundance of both.” — Matt McGrath, campaign spokesman
But in a new twist on [a scheduled August workplace retaliation trial in Downstate Union County involving two workers at the Anna Veterans Home], the court docket shows that a pretrial settlement conference has been scheduled for Friday. Duckworth is being represented by the Illinois attorney general’s office.
Kirk campaign manager Kevin Artl jumped on the idea of a settlement, suggesting that Duckworth “does not want the truth to come out.”
“After weeks of dodging questions about whether or not she will testify at her own trial, Duckworth is now answering that question by engaging in behind-the-scenes settlement talks in order to avoid a trial and having to take the stand,” Artl said.
“What makes this situation even more egregious is that Illinois taxpayers will ultimately have to pay the bill for Duckworth’s improper actions,” he said.
…Adding… So, Duckworth’s campaign responded to the TV ad, but not about the trial?
[Bumped up for visibility since this story has mostly been ignored by the media except for a brief story this morning by the AP.]
* Press release…
A new survey conducted by United Way of Illinois (UWI), the statewide association of 52 local United Ways and the largest non-governmental funder of health and human services in the state, shows Illinois’ year-long budget impasse continues to starve the nonprofit sector and cause harm to vulnerable citizens across the state.
In the fourth United Way of Illinois survey, more than half of safety net and mental health providers responded that they have been unable to meet the needs of clients for the past year. Survey respondents also indicated that the disruption in services will have long-term effects on the people they serve as extended waiting lists, the elimination of programs and triaging of clients mean more people are moving into crisis situations. The mentally ill who are not getting psychiatric services go to emergency rooms or jails and some of the young people who aren’t in out-of-school time and job training programs become involved in the criminal justice system.
As of June 2016:
• 54% of survey respondents anticipate they will have to cease serving clients in six months if the impasse continues
• Almost two-thirds of survey respondents reported making program and/or operational cuts, up from 48% in January 2016
• Of those agencies, 91% have cut the number of clients they serve, leaving nearly 1 million clients in Illinois without critical support, most significantly in the areas of mental health, substance abuse services and childhood education
• More than 50% of safety net and mental health providers indicated they could not meet the needs of their clients for the past year due to the impasse
“We honestly wished we would have different news” said Kristi Long, United Way of Illinois Board Chair. “The survey results show accelerating damage since January—more program cuts, more clients left unserved, more debt. The mentally ill, disabled seniors and young children in need of educational opportunities—these people can’t wait for the next election.”
Organizations have been unable to come close to filling the gap left by the state through additional fundraising efforts and have been forced to take extreme measures in order to continue serving clients. Agencies reported cutting back or eliminating vital programs, draining cash reserves and credit lines, laying off staff and considering the possibility of shutting their doors entirely. In order to continue to serve clients:
• 45% of respondents have been forced to lay off staff, up from 24% in January 2016
• 59% of respondents have utilized their cash reserves
• 33% of respondents have utilized lines of credit
• Respondents have taken on a combined $38 million in debt
• 36% of agencies anticipate they will have to close their doors in six months if the impasse continues
This is the fourth survey conducted by United Way of Illinois on the state budget stalemate. The survey was conducted June 1-June 8, 2016, and responses were received from 429 human services agencies that receive state funding. Responses were received from every county in Illinois. Survey respondents represented a range of service categories including youth development, early childhood education, mental health, emergency housing, senior services and employment training and varied in budget size from less than $500,000 to more than $15 million.
