Illinois Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger warned Thursday that continued cash flow problems may once again force a delay in the state making its contribution into the government worker pension systems.
Munger said the state is entering a particularly precarious financial period because tax receipts historically drop in October and November, meaning there is less money on hand to pay bills. While some expenses such as debt payments and those covered by court order automatically go out the door, there is more flexibility when it comes to making the pension payment.
That’s because by law, the state’s contribution into the five employee pension systems must be made on a yearly basis. However, Illinois usually chops those up into smaller monthly installments to make the cost more manageable. That means if a payment is skipped, it must be made up by July 2017. […]
Munger pushed back a $560 million pension payment in October 2015, citing similar financial pressures. The payment eventually was made in April, when state coffers were flush with money from yearly income tax payments.
An independent congressional candidate is finally throwing in the towel.
David Gill had been suing for a spot on the ballot in the 13th District, despite failing to submit the required number of valid signatures for an independent candidate. Gill won an initial court ruling after arguing the state’s rules were unfair and burdensome but that decision was overturned on appeal. And two attempts to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court have been rejected.
Comptroller Munger, who was appointed to the office after the death of Republican incumbent Judy Baar Topinka, recently upped the ante on the pay issue.
Earlier this year, Munger decided to make legislators wait in the same line as state vendors who face serious delays in payment for services rendered. That has resulted in paycheck delays that have stressed some legislators’ family budgets and forced them to take out loans (Republican state Rep. Chad Hays) or second mortgages (Democratic state Sen. Scott Bennett).
Now Munger, who is running for the office in the November election, is escalating the paycheck debate in a way sure to draw legislators’ further resentment.
Munger last week proposed what she called “no budget, no pay” legislation that she said will ensure members of the Illinois House and Senate meet their constitutional obligations by passing a balanced budget.
In other words, if legislators don’t pass a real balanced budget they won’t be paid — ever. Further, Munger said that her proposal would block retroactive pay, meaning that the longer there’s no balanced budget, the less lawmakers would make.
Of course, Munger’s proposal has no chance of becoming law because it requires the targets of the bill to pass it. But Munger still scores points by pointing out the failure of the General Assembly to pass full-year budgets two years in a row.
Politicizing the law as a means of garnering votes sets the stage for injustice.
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree in the case of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the daughter of Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.
When it comes to spinning an effective political web, both she and he know what they’re doing. It’s a different matter, of course, when it comes to effective public policy. But in Illinois, who cares?
So it will be no surprise if Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s latest gambit into generating favorable headlines doesn’t prompt state legislators to act with alacrity on the question of abolishing the statute of limitations on more than 20 crimes involving the sexual abuse of children.
Who, after all, supports accused child molesters? No one.
Gov. Bruce Rauner addressed the Illinois General Assembly on Wednesday, outlining his plans for next year’s state budget. The poindexters whipped out their calculators.
117th District: Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, did a better job for his district before he joined House Speaker Michael Madigan’s leadership team. Bradley may bring home more bacon serving in leadership. But he also is stuck voting for the speaker’s agenda, and that often conflicts with the values of his district. Example: Bradley voted for a budget that was $7 billion out of balance. Is that how homeowners of his district run their households?
This week, she filed a brief asking First District Appellate Court in Chicago to deny the Spring Valley Democrat’s request to delay the state Board of Elections’ inquiry into his campaign spending.
In his request for delay, Mautino, whose campaign spending is under federal criminal investigation, cited his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
In her brief to the court, the attorney general said she recognized the elections board’s administrative proceedings put Mautino in a less than ideal situation, but he would not suffer irreparable harm. That’s because he could still invoke his Fifth Amendment rights during the proceedings, she said.
“Therefore, he can choose not to take any action that would jeopardize a possible defense to any possible future criminal charges,” she wrote. “And while a negative inference may be drawn in the proceedings from Mautino’s invocation of his right to remain silent, the state board must prove its case against (him).”
In the elections board’s hearing, Madigan said, Mautino can still mount a “vigorous defense through cross-examination and other means.”
The state, she said, wanted a speedy resolution of the proceedings because of its interest in regulating the election process and ensuring political committees observe the rules.
Share your political memorabilia with the UIS History Harvest at the Old State Capitol
WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Department of History is inviting members of the public to bring and share any and all political memorabilia during a History Harvest at the Old State Capitol. Students will photograph, scan and record the stories behind the items in an effort to document the way that people in central Illinois have participated in elections.
WHEN: Saturday, October 22, 2016, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
WHERE: Old State Capitol, 1 SW Old State Capitol Plaza, Springfield, IL
DETAILS: UIS students are asking people to share campaign literature, brochures, letters, photographs, diaries, buttons and bumper stickers related to the democratic process. Digital copies of the items made during the event will be included in an online exhibit and catalog. Participants will also have an opportunity to tell the ‘harvesters’ the stories behind the objects.
History Harvest offers the opportunity to “put yourself in the historical record.” By collecting information on the memories of the local electorate, the project will provide a unique insight into how ordinary citizens in central Illinois have participated in and remembered the democratic process. Items from both the recent and distant past are welcome.
Students from UIS Assistant Professor of History Devin Hunter’s undergraduate public history class and UIS Assistant Professor of History Kenneth Owen’s graduate history and digital media class will lead the effort to digitize items for the online digital exhibit. Illinois State Historian Dr. Samuel Wheeler will be on site between 11 am and 1 pm. Students will also display items from the Nelson O. Howarth Papers (Springfield Mayor, 1955-1959 and 1963-1971) and the Kozeliski Campaign Button Collection, courtesy of the UIS Archives and Special Collections.
* I’ve been hoping they’d do an album like this for years. They’re just too old to be rock stars. I loved the “Stripped” album because it was a grownup departure from their usual stadium rock nonsense. Keep it simple, keep it basic and keep it bluesy…
Those who like their Rolling Stones music raw and unfiltered may get their wish Dec. 2 when a new studio album, “Blue and Lonesome,” will be released. […]
Produced by Don Was, who has been working with the band for more than two decades, the 12 blues covers were recorded in a rapid-fire three-day session in London last December. “Blue and Lonesome” includes songs associated with Howlin’ Wolf (“Commit a Crime”), Jimmy Reed (“Little Rain”) and Magic Sam (“All of Your Love”). Eric Clapton adds guitar to two songs: Johnny Taylor’s “Everybody Knows About My Good Thing” and Dixon’s “I Can’t Quit You Baby.”
The Stones — Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood — plus sidemen Darryl Jones (bass), Chuck Leavell (keyboards) and Matt Clifford (keyboards) approached the sessions as more of a live recording and avoided overdubs, according to a statement released by the band.
With a few exceptions, they dug a layer or two deeper than the obvious Chicago blues classics on these tracks, reflecting their roots as fledgling blues appreciators who listened obsessively to albums released on Chess, Vee-Jay and other labels imported from overseas in the early ‘60s. As Was said in a statement, for the Stones, the blues is “the fountainhead of everything they do.” That hadn’t always been reflected in their post-‘70s recordings, but it appears they’re doubling down on that commitment now.
Current state law allows the owners of properties that become vacant unexpectedly to ask tax officials for a break on their bill — as long as they are doing everything possible to find a new tenant for the store or office.
But there are troubled properties that have received the break for decades — when, in some cases, the owners should be paying the property’s tax bill in full, Martwick said.
If the measure authored by Martwick is passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Bruce Rauner, government agencies that collect property taxes — like the city of Chicago and the Chicago Board of Education — would have an incentive to investigate the claims of property owners asking for the vacancy deduction, Martwick said.
If officials determine that claim was false or fraudulent, they could force those owners to pay back three times what they owe as punishment, according to the measure. […]
“I’ve been a broker since 1981 and I’ve never done business with a landlord who does not want their building rented,” said Rich Kahan, a principal at commercial real estate brokerage KB Real Estate. “The law provides some relief. You don’t always get it, sometimes you do. At end of day, you make zero income on any empty space.” […]
“Chicago needs to start imposing penalty taxes on property that sits vacant for more than a year in hot areas — the number of commercial spaces that just sit empty due to landlord greed or indifference could be reduced significantly,” [Michael VanDam, an East Village resident in West Town] commented on Neighborhood Square.
On the other hand, what happens to those landlords when the economy turns downward again? I’d bet that’s why the original law was enacted.
Lost amid Donald Trump’s hot takes on life in Chicago during last week’s presidential debate, Hillary Clinton made a statement that could sound overly optimistic to many people here in the city of her birth.
“We also have to recognize, in addition to the challenges that we face with policing, there are so many good, brave police officers who equally want reform,” she said.
“We also have to recognize, in addition to the challenges that we face with policing, there are so many good, brave police officers who equally want reform,” she said.
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Many good and brave officers? No doubt.
You have to be very brave to even show up for work at the Chicago Police Department, especially these days. Let’s also put aside the alleged “Ferguson effect” and assume the vast majority still do the job as well as they can.
But all these officers who Clinton says “want reform”?
If they’re really out there, it’s been hard to hear them in the debate that’s roiled politics here since last November, when the dashcam video of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald’s death in a hail of 16 CPD bullets became public.
A Hinsdale South High School student who allegedly threatened to “shoot up” the Darien school has been charged with several crimes after police found firearms, explosives and a Nazi uniform in his residence, DuPage County prosecutors said Wednesday at a juvenile detention hearing.
Prosecutors said the youth, 16, had promised a “Southocaust” and on Monday had made a specific threat against a fellow student on social media. That brought police to his house, where they found the guns and explosives in his bedroom, prosecutors said.
The youth has been charged with eight felonies and was ordered to be held in a juvenile facility by Judge Michael Wolfe.
How the teenager acquired the cache of weapons is still under investigation.
“We were very disturbed. It’s very shocking. We have great kids. We have great families. This is a great place to live, a great place to send your kids to school,” said Bruce Law, Superintendent of Hinsdale School District 86.
Despite the discovery of the Nazi uniform, police said there’s no indication of a racial motive or an indication of any accomplice. Police said the suspect’s parents were not aware of the weapons cache.
Police also said they searched the student’s locker and found no other weapons or devices.
Nuckolls said police found a flare gun that had been converted to a working gun, as well as a shotgun, a sawed-off rifle, more than 150 rounds of ammunition, knives, ski masks and brass knuckles. His bedroom also contained Nazi posters and flags, a World War II German soldier’s uniform, a Soviet flag and paper targets.
Police said they found an incendiary device in the boy’s closet that contained black powder, razor blades and ball bearings. In addition, Nuckols said the boy had PVC pipe and other materials commonly used in building pipe bombs. […]
The teen’s attorney said the boy’s mother was unaware of her son’s threats and of the materials found in his room. The mother asked Judge Michael Wolfe to release the teen to her with an electronic monitoring device.
“In the interest of the protection of others, in light that the family had no idea what was going on under their own roof, the minor will be detained,” Wolfe said.
The University of Iowa has signed an articulation agreement with the Illinois Community College Board that will provide a seamless transition for eligible students who want to continue their education at the UI.
The agreement sets a minimum number of semester hours in communications, humanities, math and science and a minimum GPA. Students who meet those standards and earn an Associate of Arts degree at Illinois Community College will be admitted to the UI as a junior and will have met all freshman and sophomore level general education requirements, with the exception of a Diversity and Inclusion requirement and the World Language requirement needed for each college.
“This is an exciting new partnership that will benefit thousands of Illinois community college graduates who want to pursue a bachelor’s degree at UI,” says P. Barry Butler, executive vice president and provost at the UI. “At the core of this agreement is the completion of an Associate of Arts degree, which will help increase degree completion rates at both the community college and the University of Iowa.”
* Southern Illinois University President Randy Dunn was not pleased in a system-wide e-mail…
Earlier this summer, The University of Iowa announced on its website that it had just inked a new master articulation agreement with … wait for It … the Illinois Community College Board. In the words of P. Barry Butler, executive vice president and provost at Iowa, “[t]his is an exciting new partnership that will benefit thousands of Illinois community college graduates who want to pursue a bachelor’s degree at UI.”
I get it. A lot of Illinois kids — in Chicagoland, as well as where I grew up, in the western part of our state — head off to Iowa City for their baccalaureate degrees. No doubt these agreements improve accessibility and make for easier transitions in those cases.
But in the wake of record drops in enrollment at numerous of our state’s public institutions of higher education, as well as recent national press (most notably, coverage in The New York Times) that highlighted Illinois’ role as one of the country’s largest exporters of post-secondary students, one might reasonably wonder why this was on the “to do” list right now for the ICCB.
I know we have the Illinois Articulation Initiative that provides us something akin to UI’s special agreement, and I guess I should begrudgingly give Iowa credit for going after this … assuming the impetus for this came from their side.
But as this news has made the rounds across SIU over the last day or so, it has caused any number of our folks to wonder aloud about timing and how something like this happens as Illinois’ universities find themselves struggling through their greatest operational and financial distress of the last 50 years.
Republicans have spent nearly $2 million in television advertising to help a state lawmaker win a Chicago-area legislative district — the most spent on air time for any legislative candidate in the nation.
A new report by the Center for Public Integrity released Thursday shows the Chicago-area contest has helped makeIllinois the state with the most money spent on TV ads for legislative candidates across the country this election cycle. Nearly $14 million has been spent on legislative races in Illinois since Jan. 1, 2015, a staggering amount that reflects the struggle between wealthy Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic leaders amid an epic budget stalemate. Democrats are trying to strengthen their control of the Legislature while Rauner is trying to give his party greater influence. […]
The Illinois race with most money spent on ads pits GOP Rep. Michael McAuliffe, a 20-year veteran of the House, against Democrat Merry Marwig, a political newcomer on leave from her job at a Chicago software company. […]
Even so, the amount they’re spending is remarkable. In 2012, for example, the Republicans’ two major party committees spent just over $2 million combined on all races from July 1 through Sept. 30. […]
Marwig has spent about $187,690 on television ads so far, according to figures from the Center for Public Integrity.
And there’s still more than a month to go before election day, so expect much more like this.
Also, at this pace, state Rep. McAuliffe could wind up outspending US Sen. Mark Kirk on Chicago TV. Let that sink in for a minute.
Munger just got $5 million, so why is she giving $3 million away? And why would they blow the contribution caps in Leader Durkin’s race when he doesn’t even have an opponent?
* Scott Kennedy’s explanation could apply to both developments, although I’m told by one top Munger person that it doesn’t apply to her. We’ll see.
Kennedy’s theory is that the Republicans could be using Munger’s and Durkin’s no longer contribution capped committees as entryways to move huge amounts of fresh, non-Rauner cash into legislative races. Campaign committees can contribute unlimited amounts to state parties, and state parties can contribute unlimited amounts to candidates in general elections, so I suppose it’s possible that Rauner doesn’t want his personal campaign committee’s name on every single dollar going into the system…
Another very likely possibility is that [Munger’s] campaign committee is being used as an entryway to get unlimited contributions into the system where that money can then move freely around to be spent on other races. I discussed the need for entryways in my previous post. The House Dems have had a number of large donors, particularly in labor and legal, who are willing to contribute more than the maximum amount so they’ve had to break up those contributions into the amounts permitted by contribution limits and then contribute those amounts to as many Democratic affiliated committees as necessary to get all the money in the system. In a general election candidate committees can make unlimited transfers to party committees and party committees can make unlimited transfers to candidate committees so once that money is in the system the candidate committees with surplus funds can either transfer those funds to their fellow candidates up to the limited amount or they can make unlimited transfers to their party committee where the funds can then be redistributed in unlimited amounts to other candidates in need.
However in this case the contribution limits are off for the Comptroller’s race because of the $260,000 loan Munger received from her husband. Munger (and Mendoza) can accept contributions in unlimited amounts and if they so choose they can then make unlimited transfers to the party committee who can then spend or transfer unlimited amounts on other candidates, such as targeted general assembly races.
Prior to last week the Governor had been almost single-handedly funding the Republican legislative effort. The only other significant pool of money was in the Independent Expenditure committee Liberty Principles PAC which had raised $5 million since June, $2.5 million from Governor Rauner personally, $1.5 million from Richard Uihlein and $1 million from Ken Griffin. However the funds in the IE committee are somewhat walled off, independent expenditure committees are not allowed to transfer funds to candidate or party committees so if these donors wanted to use their money to help legislative candidates they could only do so by making expenditures independently. But now that the contribution limits have been lifted in the Comptroller’s race they can make direct unlimited contributions to Munger who can then transfer that money to the party as needed and it can be put to use elsewhere.
Just because Munger transferred $3 million to the State Party today doesn’t mean she won’t get additional financial support later to supplement her campaign budget, she may still very well spend $5.5 million on her fall effort if additional contributions are received. Also, it’s unlikely that this is our last unexpected development before the election. Stay tuned.
The Republican comptroller also defended recent moves within her campaign finance fund, which have brought allegations from challenger Mendoza that she is gaming the system.
Late last month, Munger got a $260,000 loan from her attorney husband, which lifted contribution limits in the race. That cleared the way for $5 million in donations from hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin and frequent conservative GOP donor Richard Uihlein, key Rauner allies. Since then, Munger’s campaign transferred $3 million to the Illinois Republican Party, which can now distribute that money to various candidates as the GOP tries to cut into the Democratic supermajorities held by House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton.
Mendoza called it “blatant money laundering” in a Twitter post. Munger said she was just taking advantage of campaign financial rules Democrats put in place in 2009 that Mendoza voted for while in the House.
“We are really just taking advantage of the law that she passed,” Munger said. “Everything I’ve done is completely transparent, and it’s certainly legal.”
