Illinois has not passed a real budget in over a year, the first state to do so since the Great Depression. The ongoing fight over the budget between Governor Bruce Rauner and the Illinois General Assembly has been covered widely, but what do the effects of this lingering crisis look like in people’s day-to-day lives? This new video series—a collaboration between In These Times and Kartemquin Films—follows the families, workers and students living through the de facto budget cuts, showing the ways it deteriorates the fabric of Illinois communities.
Each episode will focus on a different aspect of the crisis—from higher education to social services to housing—as well as who is benefiting from the crisis and what kinds of solutions could ultimately solve it. The series incorporates data connecting the situation in Illinois to long-term trends of austerity affecting the country at large, and how it ultimately costs taxpayers more in the long run.
So you make a big deal out of the Madigan “documentary” when it’s funded by the billionaire’s Illinois Policy Institute. But then not a peep when this “documentary” is funded by Labor’s own In These Times?
Something that a competent and conscious Dem media operation would have done a year ago.
Same goes for the state media. When more than one million citizens are getting tuned up by the government’s refusal to honor signed contracts, it’s news.
I can’t wait to see it. I’m elated that In These Times did it. I’m a subscriber. But I’m under no illusion that this will do anything. I hate to spoil the liberal suffering fest with this but nobody cares about the people in this film. We can say that we do but there is the difference between attitudes and behaviors. If we cared Rauner would not have taken them hostage and Madigan would have mounted a rescue. As far as I can discern this just serves to relieve liberal guilt at the situation.
Sorry about my attitude these days. Sorry most to Rich who has to monitor my tone daily. I’m understanding why the poor don’t care about politics. You’re going to catch it from both sides. As a poor coworker ( yes she’s a clerical worker who doesn’t make squat) says ” it don’t matter”.
I finally get it.
Personally I am feeling well and looking forward to my two days off and a lovely meal with my family.
But let’s not think anything changed with this film.
City Zen, if the state had not passed “a real budget in a very, very, long time,” please explain how the backlog of bills was reduced by $5.6 billion during the Quinn years.
Ah, the propaganda films continue while everything remains at an impasse and the State continues its fiscal and governing death spiral.
What did I learn from this clip and the Madigan film? The wealthy are mean and nasty and uncaring, and the Chicago machine is corrupt, mean and nasty and uncaring.
Now let’s take all the time and effort poured into these propaganda pieces, and reach into them for the proposed solutions that can end this standoff, and see if we can fill a thimble using an eyedropper.
The first installment does a great job of explaining what is happening in Charleston, but it doesn’t matter. About 56 percent of Coles county voters choose Phillips instead of Malak. The voters have spoken, they want the destruction of their own communities.
When Eastern closes and Rauner lets it close, I will feel bad for the students, our state as a whole, alums of EIU… staff too.
Charleston?
Elections have consequences.
Boarded up university facilities could be a huge reminder of the RaunerS destruction.
Then again, the RaunerS donate millions, The Ounce gets their donations… and Rauner Library and the Rauner Dormatory seem to be ok…
Charleston made their choice. Ask AFSCME how that worked.
No sympathy.
- East Central Illinois - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 2:03 pm:
Really, no sympathy?? Granted that Reggie Phillips was re-elected and the Democrat was not. But it really wouldn’t matter to EIU who was elected between the two - Malak or Phillips. Reggie hasn’t done squat for EIU for over 2 years. Elections have consequences - yep, I get it - but the reality is that EIU and the other state universities are the pawns being played by Rauner and Madigan. There is a bigger picture here than just “Charleston made their choice.” So who are we that support the SIU, EIU, WIU, NIU, etc universities supposed to go to for help? Only two people matter in this decision - Rauner and Madigan - both need to go.
Only one downstate university wrote a letter saying they’d exist for a year, and the town voted to send back the GA member that you yourself said hasn’t done anything to help.
I feel for the state and the possible loss of EIU, the students, faculty, administration, alumni…
Charleston? Nope.
It’s lazy to think there can be no advocate for your cause. That’s why I have no sympathy. If it doesn’t matter, then I guess… well, I guess the consequences after… that’s predetermined? I never thought that. If that the the thought, wow.
It is true that elections have consequences, it is not true that “Charleston made their choice”. I bet Rep Phillips did not carry either Charleston or Coles County. He did carry the 110th district, not the same thing. The district spans multiple counties many of which are unaffected by the fate of EIU.
- East Central Illinois - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 2:27 pm:
Rich and Oswego - Reggie getting re-elected seems to be of no help to EIU. Rich - yes, if Malak would have beat Phillips that would have been the story of the year, but EIU would not have gained anything. EIU, and Charleston and East Central Illinois for that matter, are no better off with Reggie being the representative. It, the “it” being the political system, is bigger than Reggie or Malak. What is the remedy for the EIU’s, the Charleston’s, the SIU and Carbondale, etc.??? I am not trying to be naïve or combative but serious. As a person that voted for Malak but typically votes for Republicans, I feel that the state universities have no voice at all in what is happening to them. As with most generally everything, whatever the issue is at hand, it seems to be just a stick of dynamite passed back and forth between Madigan and Rauner . . . . while Rome burns all around the both of them.
===As with most generally everything, whatever the issue is at hand, it seems to be just a stick of dynamite passed back and forth between Madigan and Rauner . . . . while Rome burns all around the both of them===
===if Malak would have beat Phillips that would have been the story of the year, but EIU would not have gained anything===
Hmm. Then…
How can you say that, and then recognize, that elections have consequences too?
Then Charleston chose Reggie.
Again, no sympathy for Charleston, but feel sick for all that’s EIU.
Reggie losing? That would’ve said something in a time when saying nothing about the health of EIU could be the be what sinks Charleston in the end?
Although Madigan wasn’t a legislator in Abe Lincoln’s day, it sure seems like it. It’s safe to say that he’s been in power a long time. Yet, somehow we always had a budget, Eastern received funding, every year, until Rauner became Governor. That doesn’t mean Madigan was great or wonderful or good for the state, but it does means he wasn’t responsible for destroying EIU. Failing to differentiate between bad and worse is certainly lost in this whole “plague in both your houses” line of thinking.
- East Central Illinois - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 2:51 pm:
Oswego - with respect- In this particular election between Malak and Reggie, the consequence of the election is the same for EIU. Whether it is Reggie or Malak or Mickey Mouse for that matter doesn’t change the status of EIU and other higher ed schools with their funding. My point is exactly what you are saying with ” . . . feel sick for all that’s EIU . . . “. What can/should EIU and the other higher ed schools do? Rauner and Madigan are controlling the issue.
If having someone advocate for a community or a university in the legislature doesn’t matter, Pat Quinn’s cutback amendment didn’t go far enough. Perhaps instead of 118 he should’ve advocated for it to be cut back to 1 or none.
ECI - normally I would agree with you. After all things like higher ed funding are generally bigger than one person - especially someone who isn’t an approp chair.
But look at what Bill Haine did when Governor Quinn tried to mess with the SIU board. He asserted himself and used his political capital to stop the shenanigans. If he hadn’t done that then Quinn would’ve pulled a Blago and stacked the board with “his people”.
I don’t know Rep. Phillips at all but I do know his predecessor. I’m sure that Rep. Phillips could trade choice words with the Governor to secure both current EIU funding and promises for future funding levels.
I hope Rauner’s own 1.4% ROI is cited somewhere in this series. That way people can make up their own minds if all this destruction is worth the ‘payoff’.
==City Zen, if the state had not passed “a real budget in a very, very, long time,” please explain how the backlog of bills was reduced by $5.6 billion during the Quinn years.==
Because he had an extra $30 billion to pay it down. Give any prudent person 4x the amount of what he owes in debt and he wouldn’t owe anything anymore. And maybe after paying off the debt, he would have learned his lesson, downsized his budget, and lived within his means.
===And maybe after paying off the debt, he would have learned his lesson, downsized his budget, and lived within his means===
By the time he had finished paying down the debt his term had expired.
I don’t disagree - at all - that more cuts should’ve been made. But he made the full statutory pension payment for the first time in eons, paid down the debt and did pare back some spending (Medicaid, for one).
- East Central Illinois - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 3:17 pm:
Team Sleep,
I totally agree with you. I wish Reggie WOULD stand up to Rauner. The problem with that is that Reggie was one of the many republicans that took approx. $57,000 from Rauner about a year ago in campaign monies. So he is not going to spit on the ring that he just kissed.
Anon 305, reducing that backlog required annual budgets in surplus, did it not?
The unchallenged and endlessly repeated talking point from the governor is that Illinois has not had a balanced budget in 30 years. That is simply false.
What is indisputable is that current revenues and spending are wildly out of the balance at the same time social services and higher ed are being drastically slashed.
That ain’t easy to do. It can’t happen by accident. It’s the plan, one that the governor does not wish us to worry our pretty little heads over, so he fills us up with nonsensical word-salads about his Turnaround Agenda.
But the governor’s since-disowned projection that his Turnaround Agenda would produce $500 million a year in new revenue is a sick joke when you consider the backlog of bills will have increased by $10 billion from Jan. 2015 to July 2017.
$500 million is a rounding error; $10 billion is a real millstone, one that will eat up every new dollar if or when a tax increase is enacted.
And a new, lower baseline for social services and higher ed will have been established, on the sneak.
Debate all you want. In the end… this affects actual PEOPLE. Worrying about the writing on the wall, we made one of the most difficult decisions of our lives and left Illinois. This nonsense in the capitol is affecting people in devastating ways. Some would argue we left for better things, others would say we should have stayed to fight it out. In the end, we made the decision we thought best for our family. In every way we have been emotionally wrought… leaving long-time friends and a university community we loved being a part of (both my husband and I worked there). The state is putting people in communities like Charleston in very precarious positions - forcing them to consider the stability of their lives and their children’s future. It’s not a not a game and it is quite more than a heated debate topic. Just keep in mind that we weren’t the only family affected and if things in Springfield continue as they are, we won’t be the last.
Wasted effort. The number of these types of stories over the last 2 years show the pol’s (and most voters) don’t feel the pressure to come off of their positions and negotiate. This budget issue will go nowhere until either K-12 funding is put at risk (when voters will care) or a democrat governor is elected in 2018 when the veto threat would be removed. Sad but true, unless the AG (employee payments) or Comptroller can orchestrate a crisis that can only be resolved with a grand budget deal, we are likely moving to the next election cycle for a resolution.
- Handle Bar Mustache - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 11:50 am:
About. Darn. Time. Good for the producers, whoever they be.
- Prevailing Gage - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 11:50 am:
So you make a big deal out of the Madigan “documentary” when it’s funded by the billionaire’s Illinois Policy Institute. But then not a peep when this “documentary” is funded by Labor’s own In These Times?
- hisgirlfriday - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 11:55 am:
This should get way more attention than the silly Madigan movie.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 11:56 am:
PG, I made a “big deal” out of that “documentary” because I was lied to. Nobody at ITT lied to me about this one.
- Hi - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 11:56 am:
IL Policy set a high bar here. They have a new vid out today. 1983. Wonder why.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 11:58 am:
===They have a new vid out today. 1983===
I’ll save you the time. It’s like 45 minutes about stuff dealing with 1983, and then a personal plea by Tillman for term limits.
So original.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 12:00 pm:
Something that a competent and conscious Dem media operation would have done a year ago.
Same goes for the state media. When more than one million citizens are getting tuned up by the government’s refusal to honor signed contracts, it’s news.
Good on In These Times.
- City Zen - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 12:13 pm:
Illinois has not passed a real budget.
in over a yearin a very, very long time. But for some strange reason, we didn’t seem to mind back then.There, fixed it for them.
- Norseman - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 12:15 pm:
Well said Word!
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 12:18 pm:
My hope in the next 18 months this type of eye-opening will continue.
Great start.
- Honeybear - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 12:22 pm:
I can’t wait to see it. I’m elated that In These Times did it. I’m a subscriber. But I’m under no illusion that this will do anything. I hate to spoil the liberal suffering fest with this but nobody cares about the people in this film. We can say that we do but there is the difference between attitudes and behaviors. If we cared Rauner would not have taken them hostage and Madigan would have mounted a rescue. As far as I can discern this just serves to relieve liberal guilt at the situation.
Sorry about my attitude these days. Sorry most to Rich who has to monitor my tone daily. I’m understanding why the poor don’t care about politics. You’re going to catch it from both sides. As a poor coworker ( yes she’s a clerical worker who doesn’t make squat) says ” it don’t matter”.
I finally get it.
Personally I am feeling well and looking forward to my two days off and a lovely meal with my family.
But let’s not think anything changed with this film.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 12:51 pm:
City Zen, if the state had not passed “a real budget in a very, very, long time,” please explain how the backlog of bills was reduced by $5.6 billion during the Quinn years.
Be sure to show your work.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 12:54 pm:
Ah, the propaganda films continue while everything remains at an impasse and the State continues its fiscal and governing death spiral.
What did I learn from this clip and the Madigan film? The wealthy are mean and nasty and uncaring, and the Chicago machine is corrupt, mean and nasty and uncaring.
Now let’s take all the time and effort poured into these propaganda pieces, and reach into them for the proposed solutions that can end this standoff, and see if we can fill a thimble using an eyedropper.
- Liberty - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 1:02 pm:
Documentary films and protests are passé… people only read headlines today…
- AC - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 1:05 pm:
The first installment does a great job of explaining what is happening in Charleston, but it doesn’t matter. About 56 percent of Coles county voters choose Phillips instead of Malak. The voters have spoken, they want the destruction of their own communities.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 1:28 pm:
- AC -
When Eastern closes and Rauner lets it close, I will feel bad for the students, our state as a whole, alums of EIU… staff too.
Charleston?
Elections have consequences.
Boarded up university facilities could be a huge reminder of the RaunerS destruction.
Then again, the RaunerS donate millions, The Ounce gets their donations… and Rauner Library and the Rauner Dormatory seem to be ok…
Charleston made their choice. Ask AFSCME how that worked.
No sympathy.
- East Central Illinois - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 2:03 pm:
Really, no sympathy?? Granted that Reggie Phillips was re-elected and the Democrat was not. But it really wouldn’t matter to EIU who was elected between the two - Malak or Phillips. Reggie hasn’t done squat for EIU for over 2 years. Elections have consequences - yep, I get it - but the reality is that EIU and the other state universities are the pawns being played by Rauner and Madigan. There is a bigger picture here than just “Charleston made their choice.” So who are we that support the SIU, EIU, WIU, NIU, etc universities supposed to go to for help? Only two people matter in this decision - Rauner and Madigan - both need to go.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 2:08 pm:
===But it really wouldn’t matter to EIU who was elected between the two===
Oh, yes it would’ve. If Reggie had lost that would’ve been the story of the entire season.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 2:13 pm:
- East Central Illinois -
With respect,
Only one downstate university wrote a letter saying they’d exist for a year, and the town voted to send back the GA member that you yourself said hasn’t done anything to help.
I feel for the state and the possible loss of EIU, the students, faculty, administration, alumni…
Charleston? Nope.
It’s lazy to think there can be no advocate for your cause. That’s why I have no sympathy. If it doesn’t matter, then I guess… well, I guess the consequences after… that’s predetermined? I never thought that. If that the the thought, wow.
Again, with respect.
- Blitz-o - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 2:22 pm:
It is true that elections have consequences, it is not true that “Charleston made their choice”. I bet Rep Phillips did not carry either Charleston or Coles County. He did carry the 110th district, not the same thing. The district spans multiple counties many of which are unaffected by the fate of EIU.
- East Central Illinois - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 2:27 pm:
Rich and Oswego - Reggie getting re-elected seems to be of no help to EIU. Rich - yes, if Malak would have beat Phillips that would have been the story of the year, but EIU would not have gained anything. EIU, and Charleston and East Central Illinois for that matter, are no better off with Reggie being the representative. It, the “it” being the political system, is bigger than Reggie or Malak. What is the remedy for the EIU’s, the Charleston’s, the SIU and Carbondale, etc.??? I am not trying to be naïve or combative but serious. As a person that voted for Malak but typically votes for Republicans, I feel that the state universities have no voice at all in what is happening to them. As with most generally everything, whatever the issue is at hand, it seems to be just a stick of dynamite passed back and forth between Madigan and Rauner . . . . while Rome burns all around the both of them.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 2:38 pm:
===I bet Rep Phillips did not carry either Charleston or Coles County===
LOL
Google is apparently not your friend http://il.coles.accessliberty.com/
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 2:44 pm:
===As with most generally everything, whatever the issue is at hand, it seems to be just a stick of dynamite passed back and forth between Madigan and Rauner . . . . while Rome burns all around the both of them===
===if Malak would have beat Phillips that would have been the story of the year, but EIU would not have gained anything===
Hmm. Then…
How can you say that, and then recognize, that elections have consequences too?
Then Charleston chose Reggie.
Again, no sympathy for Charleston, but feel sick for all that’s EIU.
Reggie losing? That would’ve said something in a time when saying nothing about the health of EIU could be the be what sinks Charleston in the end?
- AC - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 2:46 pm:
Although Madigan wasn’t a legislator in Abe Lincoln’s day, it sure seems like it. It’s safe to say that he’s been in power a long time. Yet, somehow we always had a budget, Eastern received funding, every year, until Rauner became Governor. That doesn’t mean Madigan was great or wonderful or good for the state, but it does means he wasn’t responsible for destroying EIU. Failing to differentiate between bad and worse is certainly lost in this whole “plague in both your houses” line of thinking.
- East Central Illinois - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 2:51 pm:
Oswego - with respect- In this particular election between Malak and Reggie, the consequence of the election is the same for EIU. Whether it is Reggie or Malak or Mickey Mouse for that matter doesn’t change the status of EIU and other higher ed schools with their funding. My point is exactly what you are saying with ” . . . feel sick for all that’s EIU . . . “. What can/should EIU and the other higher ed schools do? Rauner and Madigan are controlling the issue.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 2:55 pm:
- East Central Illinois -
You are completely negating the message, arguably THE message of the cycle had Reggie lost.
Refusing to see how elections have consequences while agreeing that it’s true undermines the pity party you are having that nothing really matters…
That rhapsody is out of tune with the message of Reggie losing could do to change the tune.
Respectfully
- AC - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 2:56 pm:
If having someone advocate for a community or a university in the legislature doesn’t matter, Pat Quinn’s cutback amendment didn’t go far enough. Perhaps instead of 118 he should’ve advocated for it to be cut back to 1 or none.
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 3:01 pm:
ECI - normally I would agree with you. After all things like higher ed funding are generally bigger than one person - especially someone who isn’t an approp chair.
But look at what Bill Haine did when Governor Quinn tried to mess with the SIU board. He asserted himself and used his political capital to stop the shenanigans. If he hadn’t done that then Quinn would’ve pulled a Blago and stacked the board with “his people”.
I don’t know Rep. Phillips at all but I do know his predecessor. I’m sure that Rep. Phillips could trade choice words with the Governor to secure both current EIU funding and promises for future funding levels.
- Cubs in '16 - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 3:05 pm:
I hope Rauner’s own 1.4% ROI is cited somewhere in this series. That way people can make up their own minds if all this destruction is worth the ‘payoff’.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 3:05 pm:
==City Zen, if the state had not passed “a real budget in a very, very, long time,” please explain how the backlog of bills was reduced by $5.6 billion during the Quinn years.==
Because he had an extra $30 billion to pay it down. Give any prudent person 4x the amount of what he owes in debt and he wouldn’t owe anything anymore. And maybe after paying off the debt, he would have learned his lesson, downsized his budget, and lived within his means.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 3:08 pm:
===And maybe after paying off the debt, he would have learned his lesson, downsized his budget, and lived within his means===
By the time he had finished paying down the debt his term had expired.
I don’t disagree - at all - that more cuts should’ve been made. But he made the full statutory pension payment for the first time in eons, paid down the debt and did pare back some spending (Medicaid, for one).
- East Central Illinois - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 3:17 pm:
Team Sleep,
I totally agree with you. I wish Reggie WOULD stand up to Rauner. The problem with that is that Reggie was one of the many republicans that took approx. $57,000 from Rauner about a year ago in campaign monies. So he is not going to spit on the ring that he just kissed.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 3:24 pm:
===I totally agree with you.===
And yet you think Reggie losing wouldn’t have made a difference?
Now you’re just trolling victimhood on principle.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 3:33 pm:
Anon 305, reducing that backlog required annual budgets in surplus, did it not?
The unchallenged and endlessly repeated talking point from the governor is that Illinois has not had a balanced budget in 30 years. That is simply false.
What is indisputable is that current revenues and spending are wildly out of the balance at the same time social services and higher ed are being drastically slashed.
That ain’t easy to do. It can’t happen by accident. It’s the plan, one that the governor does not wish us to worry our pretty little heads over, so he fills us up with nonsensical word-salads about his Turnaround Agenda.
But the governor’s since-disowned projection that his Turnaround Agenda would produce $500 million a year in new revenue is a sick joke when you consider the backlog of bills will have increased by $10 billion from Jan. 2015 to July 2017.
$500 million is a rounding error; $10 billion is a real millstone, one that will eat up every new dollar if or when a tax increase is enacted.
And a new, lower baseline for social services and higher ed will have been established, on the sneak.
That’s the objective.
- Offonoff - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 4:05 pm:
Debate all you want. In the end… this affects actual PEOPLE. Worrying about the writing on the wall, we made one of the most difficult decisions of our lives and left Illinois. This nonsense in the capitol is affecting people in devastating ways. Some would argue we left for better things, others would say we should have stayed to fight it out. In the end, we made the decision we thought best for our family. In every way we have been emotionally wrought… leaving long-time friends and a university community we loved being a part of (both my husband and I worked there). The state is putting people in communities like Charleston in very precarious positions - forcing them to consider the stability of their lives and their children’s future. It’s not a not a game and it is quite more than a heated debate topic. Just keep in mind that we weren’t the only family affected and if things in Springfield continue as they are, we won’t be the last.
- Markus - Tuesday, Nov 22, 16 @ 5:57 pm:
Wasted effort. The number of these types of stories over the last 2 years show the pol’s (and most voters) don’t feel the pressure to come off of their positions and negotiate. This budget issue will go nowhere until either K-12 funding is put at risk (when voters will care) or a democrat governor is elected in 2018 when the veto threat would be removed. Sad but true, unless the AG (employee payments) or Comptroller can orchestrate a crisis that can only be resolved with a grand budget deal, we are likely moving to the next election cycle for a resolution.