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.
