Nearly two dozen profitable public U.S. utility companies paid no federal income taxes last year, and the utility industry overall has the lowest effective federal tax rate of any business sector, new research shows.
The “Utilities Pay Up” report from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) concludes that domestic utility companies “have become expert tax dodgers at the federal and state levels.” […]
Ameren Illinois and ComEd are among the local utility companies mentioned in the report. Last year, their pre-tax profits in Illinois were $217 million and $706 million, respectively.
Illinois has a corporate income tax of 7.75 percent. Had Ameren Illinois and ComEd paid the full rate, the state government would have had an additional $65 million in revenue last year, according to IPS.
“This revenue could’ve covered the cost of weatherizing 13,800 low-income residences in single and multi-family buildings, reaching 17 percent of all low-income families in Illinois,” the report reads. “Sliced another way, the money could’ve created 1,000 jobs, 400 directly through clean energy projects and another 600 indirectly at suppliers and through economic ripple effects.”
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, Fellow GOP Lawmakers and Candidates Call for Term Limits and Other Political Reforms
Political Reforms Needed to Return State Government to Illinois Citizens
Mike Madigan has rigged the system. He picks the voters for the politicians he controls and backs them with special interest cash. Now that a Cook County judge has ruled against the Independent Maps Initiative, many Republican statehouse candidates are pushing for political reforms, including term limits and fair maps, to restore citizen control over state government. Illinois is broken and we can no longer afford the rigged system built by the supermajority in Springfield.
Jim Durkin, House GOP Leader and 82nd District State Representative:
“The General Assembly is in desperate need of balance, but unfortunately that cannot come until we reform our political system. Term Limits and Fair Maps are the surest way to overcome the lopsided power structure in each statehouse chamber and return control of State government back to the people of Illinois. Powerful special interests will fight these reforms, but an overwhelming majority of Illinoisans - Democrat, Republican, Independent, you name it - support the Term Limits and Fair Maps initiatives. I call on Speaker Madigan and President Cullerton to pass these constitutional measures during the fall veto session and let the people of Illinois have the final say on these hugely important issues.”
As we’ve already discussed, Leader Durkin has served 18 years in the House.
Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan called Gov. Bruce Rauner’s push for reforms extreme when speaking with a reporter July 27 at the Democratic National Convention. Madigan said, “Democrats are like most Illinoisans, they are not happy with the extremism of Bruce Rauner.”
But there’s nothing extreme about Rauner’s reform proposals in light of the economic and fiscal mess Madigan has created during his three-plus decades of leadership in the General Assembly. Illinoisans are suffering under the nation’s third-worst business climate, a shrinking population, the nation’s third-highest unemployment rate, a collapsing manufacturing sector, the nation’s worst pension crisis, the worst credit rating of any state and the nation’s highest property taxes.
What is extreme is the stopgap budget Madigan took pride in passing in June. The speaker said the nearly $40 billion stopgap budget was only possible because it didn’t include any of the governor’s economic and spending reforms: “We can pass a budget when the governor’s demands …. are dropped.”
Madigan got what he wanted: “compromise.” In one fell swoop, Illinois politicians hiked spending by $4 billion to $39.6 billion – a 12 percent increase – despite the fact that tax revenues will total just $31.8 billion in the new fiscal year. […]
Rauner, on the other hand, sees the fiscal crisis that necessitated the stopgap as “the bottom” and “the low point in the evolution of Illinois,” and explained, “This is not a balanced budget. This is not a solution to our long-term challenges. This is a bridge to reform.”
Yep. The governor is most definitely the victim here. He didn’t push a stopgap budget for a solid month at all. Nope. Didn’t happen. Move along.
The University of Illinois Flash Index fell to 104.7 in July from its 105.0 level in June. This indicates that the state’s rate of economic growth is slowing. The slow-down aligns with concern about the national economy.
National gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the first two quarters of this year was weak (0.8 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively). “Recent data on the national GDP confirms that the recovery from the 2007-2009 recession has been the most anemic since World War II,” said J. Fred Giertz, who compiles the index for the Institute of Government and Public Affairs.
The last few years have marked a reversal of a trend established in the early years of the recovery. GDP growth had little impact on the rate of unemployment, which remained stubbornly high. More recently, the national unemployment rate has fallen and remained low even with slow overall growth.
The Illinois unemployment rate fell from 6.4 percent to 6.2 percent in July, while the national rate rose slightly to 4.9 percent. This narrows a long-standing gap between the state and national rates.
Individual income tax and corporate tax receipts were down for the month while sales tax revenue was up from the same month last year after adjusting for inflation.
The Flash Index is a weighted average of Illinois growth rates in corporate earnings, consumer spending and personal income. Tax receipts from corporate income, personal income and retail sales are adjusted for inflation before growth rates are calculated. The growth rate for each component is then calculated for the 12-month period using data through July 31, 2016.
“We’ve been in a recovery now for almost seven years”, said [Fred Giertz, the Index’ compiler]. “And recoveries don’t last forever. So it may be slowing down, it’s kind of a natural maturation of the growth cycle. So a lot of things are happening and again, there’s no easy fix on these. We’d all like to have strong growth, but obviously, if that could be done easily, we would have done it already.”
The index is down from its most recent high of 107.2 in January of 2014 and 107.1 in April of 2015.
The reported index is based on 12 months of data with a new month added and one dropped each month. The index is constructed with the reading of 100 the dividing line between expansion and contraction. Consequently, the key focus of the index is not whether it is increasing or decreasing, but whether and how much it is above or below the 100 level.
Jerry Long, a Republican state representative candidate, is denouncing his party’s latest mailer that attacks his Democratic opponent, Rep. Andy Skoog.
“I am expressing my vehement disapproval to the party about this because the people of our district don’t enjoy negative mailers,” Long, of Streator, said in a statement Monday. “If it doesn’t say it came from me or my committee, then it didn’t come from me or my committee. I will continue to work hard locally and run a strong, clean campaign based on the truth.”
The Illinois Republican Party’s latest mailer depicts a grim-looking House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, moving a pawn featuring Skoog’s smiling face. […]
In an interview earlier this year, Long said he agreed to run for state representative under the condition that he would have total control over his campaign and its narrative and message and that the Republican Party not send out mailers promoting his campaign without his consent “like they did last time.”
He said he was unhappy with some of the pieces the state party sent out in 2014 when he nearly unseated Skoog’s predecessor, Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley.
* There is a concrete way for Long to address this situation. He could pledge to match every negative dollar spent on his behalf with a donation to charity out of his own campaign fund. As we’ve already discussed, this was done by both candidates in a 2012 US Senate race…
In the Massachusetts 2012 Senate race, Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown proved that when candidates are serious about curbing the influence of super PACs on their race, they can work together to make it happen.
In an agreement known as the People’s Pledge, Warren and Brown made a mutual promise to reject the support of super PACs. They pledged that if a super PAC spent money to support either of their campaigns, whoever benefited from the expenditure would offset it by forfeiting money from their own campaign coffers. The idea was new, bold, and bilateral, and it changed the calculus of spending in the race.
Because super PACs saw that making expenditures to support Warren or Brown would ultimately hurt them, it no longer made sense for super PACs to spend money in the race. As a result, the People’s Pledge successfully eliminated virtually all super PAC spending, and it helped to cut the volume of negative advertising – which super PAC money almost exclusively buys – in half. In short, with the mere stroke of a pen, Warren and Brown gave the people of Massachusetts a substantially more accountable race.
So, maybe he could try and work out a deal with Rep. Skoog. Otherwise, he’s merely complaining about something from which he’s most likely deriving a significant benefit….
Congressional candidate David Gill claims “severe and overly burdensome” signature requirements for his independent candidacy are unconstitutional and wants a federal court to allow his name on the Nov. 8 ballot.
If Gill gets the result sought by the lawsuit filed Monday, he would face U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, and Democrat Mark Wicklund of Decatur in the 13th Congressional District election.
Sam Cahnman, the Springfield lawyer representing Bloomington resident Gill, said the signature requirement for independent U.S. House candidates in Illinois “clearly violates” constitutionally mandated equal protection of the law, and is also “clearly out of whack” with requirements for U.S. Senate candidates.
Democrats and Republicans in the race had to file just under 740 valid signatures to enter their primaries. Independents, who filed later and don’t face primary opposition, are required, in the 13th, to have 10,754 – or more than 14 times the amount needed by major-party candidates.
* From Gill’s attorney…
Rich,
You reported on the ballot challenge to Gill, so I thought you’d be interested in the attached Complaint For Declaratory Judgment And Preliminary & Permanent Injunction I filed Monday in federal court on behalf of Dr. David Gill, challenging the constitutionality of the excessive signature requirement for independent candidates for Congress.
It is a rather lengthy complaint, so let me draw your attention to Court III (pars. 60-82) where some of the more salient facts are alleged, particularly:
1. No candidate for the U.S.. House in Illinois has ever overcome the 10,754 signature requirement Gill was subjected to, and it has only been overcome 3 times since 1890 on the entire country! (par. 75)
2. In 2016 the 8,593 valid signatures the SBOE Hearing Examiner found Gill had would have gotten Gill on the ballot as an independent general election candidate in 88.5% of the 435 U.S. House Districts. (par. 70.c)
3. Looking at all 435 U.S.. House Districts in 2016 the median number of signatures required for a candidate petitioning to get on the general election ballot is 1,000, and the average is 3,179. (par. 70.b)
4. Only 3 states have signature requirements of 10,000 or more for U.S. House candidates to get on the general election ballot (N.C., S.C. & GA). (par. 70.a)
5. Only one U.S. House candidate in IL has ever overcome a signature requirement of 8,593 (no. of valid signatures Gill was found to have), and that was 42 years ago when David Lassiter did it in the 15th CD in 1974. (par. 77)
6. An independent candidate for the U.S. House in the 13th Dist. must get almost 15 times the number of signatures the Dems and Repubs have to get to be on the primary ballot; whereas for the U.S. Senate, the independent candidate only needs 5 times more than the Dems & Repubs. (pars. 62, 65 & 66).
7. An independent candidate for U.S. Senate must obtain signatures of 0.694% of the last vote for U.S. Senate, while an independent for the U.S. House must file 5% of the last vote for U.S. House in the District, i.e. a more than 7 times greater signature requirement; yet a Senator has more power (1 of 100 vs.. 1 of 435); has a longer term (6 years vs. 2) and represents the whole state as opposed to 1/18th of the State (par. 69).
In sum, the signature requirement for independent U.S. House candidates in Illinois clearly violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment; and it is clearly out whack with Illinois’ signature requirement for independent U.S. Senate candidates and with signature requirements for independent U.S. House candidates in other states.
Sen. Mark Kirk and challenger Tammy Duckworth both called out presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday over his war of words with the parents of a fallen Army captain.
Kirk said Trump should “lay off the Gold Star family. They have given as much as can be given.” […]
“If the family gets involved in politics then, of course, people are going to argue back — that’s your First Amendment right,” Kirk said, but attacking a Gold Star family is inappropriate. […]
Later Monday, Democrat Tammy Duckworth called Trump’s statements “despicable” and expressed her condolences for the Khan family’s loss.
“Their service and sacrifice are more than most Americans will know,” the Iraq War veteran said. “They should receive nothing but our gratitude.”
On Monday Senator Kirk, who has said he is not voting for Trump, told reporters, “I didn’t like that. In my world a veteran that gave up their life is someone who is almost sacred. ”
Kirk was a Naval Reservist before suffering a stroke in 2012. He also said, “We serve in the military so that you have first amendment rights to make sure that you can say and vote for whoever you want. That young man who gave his life for the country gave his last full measure, as Abraham Lincoln would say. We need to respect that family and make sure that family is honored and not criticized. I would say to Trump ‘Lay off the Gold Star families. They have given as much as can be given.’”
* Kirk wasn’t the only Illinois Republican to take a stand…
Adam Kinzinger of Channahon, who served in the Air Force and is a pilot in the Air National Guard. Kinzinger has not expressed support for Trump’s candidacy and issued a statement that didn’t even use the presidential candidate’s name.
“No one can truly understand the sacrifice a family makes when their loved one serves their country or the heartbreak of losing a loved one. There’s no greater love than a man who lays down his life for his friends,” Kinzinger said.
“As a military man myself, I have deep respect for the sacrifices made by anyone who is willing to defend the Constitution. Comments disparaging our service men and women, and their families, are deeply disturbing and wholly unpatriotic,” he said.
Do your very best to remain calm and civil in comments. I deleted a whole bunch of them yesterday on this very topic. Banishments will commence today.
Tuesday, Aug 2, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The Illinois Supreme Court has accepted an amicus brief filed by the following organizations urging the state’s highest court to let voters have a say on transparent, impartial and fair redistricting in November:
• League of Women Voters of Illinois
• Small Business Advocacy Council
• CHANGE Illinois
• Illinois Campaign for Political Reform
• Rockford Chamber of Commerce
• McCormick Foundation
• Champaign County Chamber of Commerce
• Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI)
• Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law
• Latino Policy Forum
• Illinois Public Interest Research Group
• West Rogers Park Community Organization
• Metropolitan Planning Council
• Better Government Association
• Chicago Southside Branch NAACP
• Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization
• Union League Club of Chicago
• Illinois Farm Bureau
• Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce
• Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce
• Common Cause
• Illinois Chamber of Commerce
• Citizen Advocacy Center
• The Civic Federation
• The Commercial Club of Chicago
• Chicago Embassy Church
• Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Law enforcement officials praised the law today via press release…
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner has signed into law SB2407, which ensures that the Teen REACH after-school program will have a statutory home in state law. The bipartisan bill protects and provides clarity of intent and purpose for a program that is proven to boost graduation rates and significantly reduce crime.
“I am delighted that the Governor has embraced this vital investment in Illinois’ kids,” said Peoria County Sheriff Michael McCoy. “We have five Teen REACH sites here in my county, and I’ve seen first-hand the effect it has had on public safety. Instead of being out on the street during the after-school hours, exposed to drugs and criminal activity, teens are learning life skills in a safe place.”
McCoy was one of 119 Illinois law enforcement leaders who signed a letter to Governor Rauner in support of the bill.
“Teen REACH is an asset to communities around the state,” said the letter, “and there is no doubt our law enforcement jobs would be even more difficult if not for after-school programs. If we don’t preserve and invest in these strategies, we’re pulling the rug out from under vulnerable kids. And taxpayers will pick up the tab later through the far more expensive criminal justice system.”
The new measure will help create a specific line item for Teen REACH in the state’s annual budget. In addition, it establishes the outcomes the program must address, such as educational performance; life skills; parental education; recreation, sports, cultural, and artistic activities; service learning opportunities; and development of positive adult mentors.
The past year’s budget impasse and the lack of a full-year FY2017 state budget, however, continues to negatively impact the ability to provide consistent, high quality after-school programs. Even with the new law, Teen REACH is subject to the appropriations process.
“We are glad the stopgap budget has given us some relief,” said Quincy Chief of Police Robert Copley, who also signed the letter to the governor. “The Quincy Teen REACH hadn’t received any state money for more than a year, and we had to patch together funding from other sources. We’ve got to give these proven programs the kind of consistent support that they – and our communities – deserve.”
The stopgap measure, agreed to by the Illinois General Assembly and the Governor on June 30, provides $13.1 million for Teen REACH for FY2016 and the first six months of FY2017. Law enforcement leaders in Illinois agree, however, that consistent, full-year funding is necessary to repair the damage done by the state’s budget impasse: during the crisis, Teen REACH providers were forced to curtail their programming or close entirely. At least one out of every eight youths recently helped by Teen REACH lost access to the program.
SB 2407 was championed by Sen. Toi Hutchinson and Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth and gathered an impressive list of bi-partisan sponsors before unanimous passage in both the House and Senate. By now becoming law with Governor Rauner’s signature, SB2407 is an important step in the right direction to preserve this key public safety program.
How Teen REACH invests in Illinois’ kids:
· 99.8% of Teen REACH youth were safe from violence during program hours in 2013 –including during the after-school hours known as the “prime time for juvenile crime.”
· 77% of Teen REACH youth improved anger-management and conflict-resolution skills through the program in 2013.
· 99.3% of Teen REACH high school seniors graduated in 2013.
· 93% of participants in 2014 improved their grades.
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Illinois is an anti-crime membership organization of more than 300 police chiefs, sheriffs, state’s attorneys, and other law enforcement leaders.
* From a July 6-10, 2016 Anzalone Liszt Grove Research poll of 606 likely Illinois voters when asked about their cell phone usage…
* Every responsible pollster has already taken note of this trend and adjusted accordingly. So, this move is no surprise…
As more Americans have made a mobile phone their main phone, polls that contact only landline phones look increasingly behind the times. HuffPost Pollster has decided we need to evolve.
By the end of last year, 48 percent of American adults didn’t have a landline phone. Another 16 percent had a landline but relied mostly on their mobile phone to make and receive calls.
That’s 64 percent of Americans who are only or primarily reachable via mobile phone. The numbers go even higher for those under age 45 and for minorities. Sixty percent of Hispanic adults don’t have a landline at all, and more than two-thirds of Americans between ages 25 and 34 rely solely on a mobile phone.
HuffPost Pollster has always sought to base our charts on as many sound polls as possible. As long as a pollster makes a good-faith professional effort to obtain a representative sample of the population, we include the survey’s results. In our opinion, polls that call only landlines with no attempt to sample the other half of the population no longer fit that description. So from now on, we will no longer include the results from landline-only telephone polls in our charts.
* So, consumer beware. If you see a published poll and it doesn’t include the percentage of mobile phone respondents, you can safely assume that there are no mobile phone respondents, particularly if it’s a robopoll. And media outlets that publish telephone poll results from surveys which don’t include mobile phone users are either clueless or living in the past.
Demand better.
*** UPDATE *** And right on cue…
A recent poll commissioned by The Illinois Observer shows Governor Bruce Rauner losing in a hypothetical re-election matchup by nine points.
Illinois Working Together Campaign Director Jake Lewis released the following statement regarding Governor Bruce Rauner’s sagging poll numbers:
“It’s no surprise that the vast majority of Illinoisans would not re-elect Governor Rauner. After all, it was Bruce Rauner’s reckless pursuit of his radical, anti-worker agenda that created a crippling and unnecessary budget impasse, devastating the state’s social safety net. Governor Rauner’s term in office has been a total failure since Day One, and the harm that he has inflicted on the people of Illinois may take years to heal. Illinoisans are sick of the governor’s divisive brand of politics that has achieved nothing except causing widespread damage to Illinois’ seniors, families, and economy.
“Though the 2018 election is still some time away, it is clear that Illinoisans have already rejected the extreme Rauner agenda. It is now up to the governor to listen to the people and drop his demands once and for all.”
The “poll” is problematic for numerous reasons. First and foremost, the pollster’s identity isn’t disclosed, which is highly unusual. Second, there is no disclosure of the type of polling that was done, live calls or robocalls. And third, no stats were disclosed on mobile phone users, if any.
Within the last week, a top member of Illinois House Republican leadership abruptly resigned from the legislature and Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law a birth control bill many of his fellow GOP members opposed.
But suburban House and Senate Republicans presented a unified front Monday at Schaumburg Township Republican offices as they called for the passage of a term limits proposal that, while politically popular, is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled General Assembly.
Republicans state Sen. Michael Connelly of Wheaton and Dan McConchie of Hawthorn Woods joined state representatives Jeannie Ives of Wheaton, Mark Batinick of Plainfield and Christine Winger of Wood Dale, along with a number of Republicans challenging sitting Democratic lawmakers, for the midday news conference where party staffers far outnumbered members of the media.
Flanked by large poster showing former President Richard Nixon and House Speaker Michael Madigan side by side, Gurnee Republican Mike Amrozowicz, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Melinda Bush of Grayslake Nov. 8, pointed out that Nixon had yet to be impeached, the Sears Tower was still under construction and gas was 36 cents a gallon when Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, was first elected to the state House in 1971.
* But check out the long, pregnant pause when Lester asked the Republicans if the governor was “not listening to the Republican caucus in the House and Senate” after signing that controversial “Right of Conscience” bill on Friday. “Well, he certainly didn’t listen to us on that vote,” said Rep. Jeannie Ives after several seconds of awkward silence…
Kim Coble is among scores of professors fleeing Illinois because of the state’s precarious fiscal condition and erratic funding of higher education. After years of climbing the academic ladder, she’s decided to take a chance in California, even if it means giving up tenure and descending a rung.
“I felt that an untenured position in another state was more secure than a tenured position in Illinois,” says Coble, 45, a Chicago State University astrophysicist headed to San Francisco State University and trading a full professorship for an associate one. That’s not the only blow: She’ll pay $3,400 for a two-bedroom apartment (before a one-time $6,000 stipend), two and a half times the $1,350 a month for her three-bedroom co-op in Hyde Park.
Higher ed is in turmoil across the country as states cut support and pressure builds to slow tuition increases. But debt-ravaged Illinois is a special case. Gov. Bruce Rauner wants to chop funding by 20 percent and shift some pension obligations to schools; the stopgap budget approved in June means higher ed will get less—$1.6 billion—over 18 months than the $1.9 billion it got in the 12 months through mid-2015. Hundreds of university employees have been laid off.
More students are heading out of state, too, compounding the professorial brain drain. The exodus could take years to reverse, further threatening the long-term health of the Illinois economy.
“Nobody wants to touch Illinois with a 10-foot pole right now,” says Tanya Cofer, 42, a Northeastern Illinois University math teacher who, with her husband and colleague, Isidor Ruderfer, is leaving to join the faculty of the College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick (population 15,383).
House Speaker Michael Madigan recently offered an insight into his longevity, citing the old proverb that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
Madigan gave the advice after being asked about his lunchtime routine, which has long been rumored to consist of a single, sliced apple.
“Remember that, an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” Madigan told Illinois Public Radio Statehouse Bureau Chief Amanda Vinicky and WBBM radio’s Craig Dellimore during an interview last week at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, which aired on Monday.
“It worked, and it still works,” said Madigan, 74, who has been speaker for all but two years since 1983.
“Generally, it’s Golden Delicious, sometimes I think it’s Honeycrisp,” he added.
* A state legislator running super-expensive Chicago broadcast TV ads in early August? Completely unheard of until Rep. Michael McAuliffe (R-Chicago) started airing a new spot yesterday. If it happens at all (and it’s pretty rare), Chicago broadcast ads usually don’t start until October.
This was videoed by a friend during last night’s Cubs game, so I apologize for the quality…
Rep. McAuliffe is facing Democrat Merry Marwig in what had been expected to be a barnburner. This early ad may change the odds.
