Illinois officials waited more than five months to alert dozens of domestic violence programs that their funding had been eliminated, an omission that has forced layoffs and other cuts at some facilities, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Associated Press.
No one knows — or is saying — why approximately $9 million in state funding for 62 programs that provide shelter, counseling and advocacy for victims of domestic abuse was left out of a six-month budget that took effect July 1. When providers finally learned they were left empty-handed, they scrambled to make up the lost money by slashing jobs and salaries and expanding client waiting lists.
Although there is no indication officials intended to slice funding for the domestic violence programs, the money won’t easily be restored in the state’s precarious economic situation. Illinois has operated without a spending plan since July 2015 because of bickering between first-term Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the legislature. […]
Experienced state vendors know they sign state contracts that make payment dependent on legislative approval. But domestic violence program providers say they submitted budgets to DHS for review and, in some cases, had to amend them before getting DHS contract approval last spring. Without notice that there wasn’t money forthcoming, “They’ve already spent that money and they’re struggling,” said Vickie Smith, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
This is a failure on multiple levels. But why wait until December to tell the providers there was no money?
llinois Gov. Bruce Rauner will push for state funding to put more state troopers on Chicago-area expressways in an effort to combat gun violence.
Rauner’s office confirms a Chicago Sun-Times report that during his planned budget speech Wednesday the governor will say he wants the state to pay for 200 state police cadets over the next two years.
Last year in Chicago there were 762 homicides and more than 3,500 shooting incidents — totals that far eclipsed those in 2015. At the same time, the number of shootings on Chicago-area expressways rose significantly.
Sneed is told the governor, who is involved in a contentious budget battle, will propose funding for two Illinois State Police classes for 200 cadets over the next two years — which would help deal with the violence spilling from the streets onto the expressways.
“Shootings are increasing on the expressways, which is not only tragic — but falls within the jurisdiction of the State Police,” a top Sneed source said.
“The governor plans to add resources to help contain Chicago’s violence, where 335 state troopers are already assigned to the Chicago expressway region. [There are 1,650 police statewide.]
In 2011 and 2012, there were nine shootings on [Chicago] expressways, according to state police, which had no data prior to that.
That number jumped to 16 in 2013 and 19 in 2014. It nearly doubled the next year to 37 and climbed again in 2016 to 47. Three shootings last year were fatal.
I hear that Jerome had to lay off its police chief. What, you didn’t know that Jerome had a police chief? Or that Jerome had a police department? Or that Jerome needed a police department? The village is home to only 1,651 people. As for the ability of its tax base to support the full spectrum of modern municipal services, if the freezers at Shop ’n’ Save break down for a week, Jerome would have to lay off a clerk.
Why did this agglomeration of very modest subdivisions (West Grand, Leland Highpoint and Alta Sita) in unincorporated Woodside Township undertake the perils of village-ness? For the answer we must go back to the 1930s. The City of Springfield, thanks to Commissioner Willis J. Spaulding, had a spanking new water system that delivered what he invariably described as “sparkling” water. This was a near-miracle; the only thing harder to swallow than Springfield’s politics over the years had been its water. Folks in the unincorporated parts of Sangamon County were still drinking water from holes in the ground. They’d never seen water that sparkled except in the movies, and they wanted some.
Springfield was willing to sell it to them, but how to deliver it? Or rather, how to pay for laying the new mains needed to deliver it? Washington was funding new water systems through the anti-Depression Work Projects Administration, which paid for labor. Locals were responsible for the rest. Unincorporated areas next to the city were connecting to Springfield’s mains, the city recovering part of the costs by assessing residents roughly a buck a lineal foot of pipe. But supplying the future Jerome would take a lot of pipe. (The neighborhood named itself Jerome because it sat on the farm that had belong to Jerome Leland, whose land it once was, and the area was still quasi-rural.) The residents would have to borrow to pay their part of the costs, and selling revenue bonds required that they band together as a corporate entity.
Thus the rush in 1939 to incorporate themselves as villages by citizens who were eager to enjoy modern municipal amenities but preferred that someone else help pay for them. The voters who created Jerome were joined that year by voters in what became Southern View and Grandview. (Residents on the east side rejected a plan to become a new village of Bergen.) […]
There are hundreds of toy towns like these around Illinois. Like special purpose districts and too-small counties and school districts, they duplicate services and waste money and most experts think they ought to be consolidated or otherwise put out of business.
Krohe says the problem is that state law requires both sides agree to an annexation. But that law actually makes sense. Why allow one town or one school district to gobble up another against its will?
Instead, maybe the state could give those tiny towns some incentives along with devising some sort of stick to nudge them toward mergers.
On February 14, 2017, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and five parents of CPS students filed a two-count Verified Complaint for Declaratory Judgment, Injunction and Other Relief (Complaint) in the Circuit Court of Cook County seeking to end the State of Illinois’ discriminatory education funding scheme. Plaintiffs bring their claims under the Illinois Civil Rights Act of 2003, 740 ILCS 23/1 et seq., which prohibits the State from utilizing “criteria or methods of administration that have the effect of subjecting individuals to discrimination because of their race, color, [or] national origin.”
The lawsuit’s defendants are responsible for perpetuating and/or administering the State’s unlawful education funding, and include Governor Bruce Rauner, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), ISBE Chairman Reverend James Meeks, ISBE Superintendent Dr. Tony Smith and Comptroller Susana Mendoza.
Background
On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court decided the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). Facing the realities then present in American public education, the Supreme Court concluded “in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.” Id. at 495. Although Brown’s historic holding is rightly celebrated, more than 60 years later, the reality is that a child’s race continues to dictate whether she or he will receive a good education or something far short.
Chicago’s predominantly African American and Hispanic children still suffer from stark educational inequalities. The State of Illinois maintains two separate and demonstrably unequal systems for funding public education in the State: one for the City of Chicago, whose public school children are 90% children of color, and the other for the rest of the State, whose public school children are predominantly white.
Thirty-eight percent (38%) of CPS students are African American, 47% are Hispanic, and 6% are other students of color (for a total of approximately 90% children of color), and only 10% are white. In contrast, for Illinois children attending public schools other than CPS, 58% are white, only 12% are African American, 21% are Hispanic, and 9% are other students of color. Among public school students in Illinois, an African American child is 11 times more likely than a white child to attend CPS, and a Hispanic child is 9 times more likely than a white child to attend CPS.
Count I — Disparate Funding
In Fiscal Year 2016, the State spent 74 cents to educate Chicago’s children for every dollar the State spent to educate the predominantly white children outside Chicago. Combining all sources of funding from the State, in Fiscal Year 2016, the State spent $1,604,828,661 on CPS. The State spent $9,012,574,633 on all other school districts. CPS, therefore, received just 15% of the State’s $10,617,403,294 in education funding, despite having nearly 20% of the students, according to Fiscal Year 2016 Illinois State Board of Education (“ISBE”) enrollment records.
Unless enjoined by this Court, the disparity will continue. In Fiscal Year 2017, the State is projected to spend $9,571,937,253 in total on other districts, and $1,734,345,898 in total on CPS. As a result, CPS again will receive just 15% of the State’s $11,306,283,151 in education funding, despite having nearly 20% of the students. And the State’s discriminatory funding is expected to get even worse.
Count II — Disparate Pension Funding Requirements
Illinois also imposes a separate and demonstrably unequal pension funding obligation on CPS. The State assumes the primary responsibility for funding pensions on behalf of every school district in Illinois – except CPS. For example, in Fiscal Year 2017, Illinois’ statutory funding obligation requires CPS to spend $1,891 per student on Chicago pensions. Over the same period, non-Chicago school districts spend only $86 per student on pensions.
In Fiscal Year 2017, CPS’ statutory funding obligation to the Chicago Teacher’s Pension Fund amounts to approximately 35% of CPS’ total teacher payroll. By contrast, in Fiscal Year 2017, non-CPS school districts will contribute only 1.5% of total teacher payroll to the Teachers’ Retirement System.
Relief Sought
Plaintiffs are not asking the Court to dictate how the State should distribute its educational funds or asking the Court to reduce teachers’ pension benefits. Rather, Plaintiffs ask the Court to declare unlawful the State’s separate and unequal systems of funding public education in Illinois and to enjoin Defendants from perpetuating a system that discriminates against Plaintiffs.
…Adding… A history of school funding lawsuits in Illinois is here.
*** UPDATE *** From the governor’s office…
Illinois Secretary of Education Beth Purvis released the following statement in response to Chicago Public School’s lawsuit:
“We have just received the lawsuit and are reviewing it.
But it is important to remember that the bipartisan, bicameral school funding commission just issued its report, which recommends an equitable school funding formula that defines adequacy according to the needs of students within each school district.
The Governor remains focused on moving forward these recommendations and hopes that CPS will be a partner in that endeavor.”
* I think I wrote my first story about Rep. Lang’s quest to enact a school bus seat belt law in 1990 or 1991…
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White is teaming with longtime advocate of school bus seat belts, Deputy Majority Leader Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), as well as Transportation Committee Chairman Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Cicero) by introducing legislation requiring 3-point seat belts on school buses. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) supports 3-point seat belts in school buses.
“Nothing is more important than the lives and safety of our children,” said White. “I served with Rep. Lang in the House and appreciate his commitment to this issue over the years. With improvements in the technology of seat belts, along with NHTSA’s recommendation, now is the time to pass legislation pushing for a significant change in protecting our children on school buses.”
In late 2015, NHTSA endorsed seat belts on school buses due in large part to improved technology with 3-point safety belts. Up until NHTSA’s endorsement, federal and state safety organizations have largely remained neutral on the issue, with expressed concerns on whether 2-point lap seat belts improved the overall safety of a child riding a school bus. However, 3-point safety belts better protect children due to their ability to diffuse the forceful and sudden movement the body sustains during a crash over the chest, waist and shoulder areas.
“While school buses are a safe form of transportation, there is no amount of safety which could ever be enough to protect our children,” Lang said. “It is time to provide that safety by making sure that kids have seatbelts on their way to and from school just as if a parent was driving them.”
Six states — California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Louisiana and Texas — have passed laws requiring seat belts in school buses.
Illinois is a national leader in school bus safety. In order to drive a school bus in Illinois, a person must obtain a special school bus permit, which is more involved than obtaining a typical CDL. To obtain the school bus permit, an applicant must possess a valid driver’s license that has not been revoked or suspended for at least three years prior to application. In addition, they must pass written and road school bus driver permit exams and must submit to and pass an Illinois-specific FBI criminal background check. The school bus permit must be renewed each year and requires an annual refresher classroom training course. The applicant must pass an annual physical examination, which includes drug testing.
“My mission is to make Illinois roads the safest ever,” said White. “This new legislation will help us accomplish this goal.”
* The technology has changed, but the objections haven’t: Cost. The state hasn’t been willing to fund this mandate…
Depending on size, a typical new school bus can cost $75,000 to $85,000 and outfitting a single bus with seat belts can cost between $5,485 and $7,346, according to NHTSA, based on the number of seats and whether a lap belt or shoulder-and-lap belt is ordered.
A school-transportation-related crash is a crash that involves, either directly or indirectly, a school bus body vehicle, or a non-school bus functioning as a school bus, transporting children to or from school or school-related activities.
Since 2003 there were 348,253 fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes. Of those, 1,222 (0.35%) were classified as school-transportation-related.
Since 2003, there have been 1,353 people killed in school-transportation-related crashes—an average of 135 fatalities per year. Occupants of school transportation vehicles accounted for 8 percent of the fatalities, and nonoccupants (pedestrians, bicyclists, etc.) accounted for 21 percent of the fatalities. Most (71%) of the people who lost their lives in these crashes were occupants of other vehicles involved.
Since 2003, 119 school-age pedestrians (younger than 19) have died in school- transportation-related crashes. Sixty-five percent were struck by school buses, 5 percent by vehicles functioning as school buses, and 30 percent by other vehicles (passenger cars, light trucks and vans, large trucks, and motorcycles, etc.) involved in the crashes. There were 42 (35%) school-age pedestrians 5 to 7 years old killed in school transportation-related crashes and a similar number and percentage who were 8 to 13 years old.
Drew Peterson is back in the news, but this time it’s because he’s costing you big money.
The cop who was convicted of killing one wife and suspected of murdering another is piling up legal bills for a different crime: plotting to murder the prosecutor who put him behind bars.
The State of Illinois has paid to defend inmates who kill other inmates and spent far less than it did to defend Peterson. And no one was hurt. […]
Peterson’s attorney submitted bills to the state totaling $75,293. The Illinois Department of Corrections says Peterson’s lawyer’s bill was three times the amount corrections spent in all of last year on all of the private attorneys appointed to defend inmates. […]
Add up the lawyer’s bill, investigator’s charges and work done by a forensics lab and you get a grand total of $264,808, all spent to defend a man already in prison.
That story was posted last night.
* This press release just landed in my in-box…
Governor Bruce Rauner announced today his support for a bill that would help ease the burden of the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and taxpayers by taking into account an inmate’s ability to pay for a private attorney. As a WGN investigation noted, state taxpayers paid the attorney and investigator fees to defend convicted murderer Drew Peterson in his murder-for-hire trial.
“Taxpayers are on the hook too easily for inmate legal bills,” Governor Rauner said. “In a time when financial resources are tight across state government, there are better uses for the more than $200,000 the state is paying to defend Drew Peterson. This common-sense proposal protects taxpayers.”
A new bill, sponsored by State Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Freeport), would require IDOC to pay for legal fees only if it’s determined the person cannot afford a private attorney and is eligible for the public defender. If the court appointed a private attorney to represent the defendant because the public defender if not able to take on the case, IDOC will only pay if the inmate is financially unable to do so.
“We need to balance an inmates right to an adequate defense with the rights of taxpayers,” Rep. Stewart (R-Freeport) said. “While using a public defender is always the department’s first option, some communities do not have the capacity to handle a large case like the Drew Peterson murder-for-hire trial. Now taxpayers are on the hook for these legal fees. This bill will make the judge take into account the inmates ability to pay if they choose to assign an outside defense attorney.”
“Illinois taxpayers are paying for Drew Peterson’s plan to have the Will County States Attorney killed,” said IDOC Assistant Director Gladyse Taylor. “Illinois law requires the Department pay the nearly $265,000 in legal fees that Peterson raked up in the case. That is in addition to the thousands of dollars in defense fees the Department pays for other offenders who commit crimes while incarcerated. This money could be better spent on programs and services that reduce recidivism and ensure offenders are more prepared to return to society when they leave our custody.”
The bill is HB 3555.
Taylor’s comment was way over the top, but the legislation isn’t.
It was probably meant as nothing more than an innocuous tip of the hat to on a day where everybody in Chicago seemed to be angling for some residual Chance shine, but when Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday Tweeted a congratulations to Chance the Rapper following the Chatham native’s barnstorming triple win at the Grammys, Chance—true to form—wasn’t going to let an opportunity for deeper engagement slip by.
“Thank you Governor, I would love to have meeting with you this week if possible,” Chance replied after Rauner’s Tweet.
A couple hours later, the governor finally accepted. “Let’s set up a meeting soon. Looking forward to our conversation,” Rauner said.
What we’d give to a be a fly on that wall. If you know of Chance’s biweekly Open Mike series with Chicago youth or saw him lead a Parade to the Polls or have listened to a minute of his music, you know his social conscious precedes him; and he won’t likely let Rauner off the hook on Chicago gun violence or statewide social-service cuts.
* The Question: What pressing question should Illinois’ most accomplished independent musical artist ask the Governor first? This is not a snarky question.
* At the 45:45 mark of this Chicago Sun-Times video, Gov. Bruce Rauner was asked if he was troubled by the fact that the three leading people who are running for governor right now (including Rauner himself) “could only do so because they are extremely wealthy.”
“I believe we got outspent in my race. We got outspent in my race.”
Um, what?
* I checked with the folks over at the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, who sent me a spreadsheet. Click here.
ICPR totaled up all money spent by both major party 2014 gubernatorial candidates and also by outside groups. It came up with $42,007,560 spent by or on behalf of Pat Quinn and $65,432,067 by or on behalf of Bruce Rauner.
After nearly two years of no state budget, it is state workers who are bearing the brunt of the impasse, a fact not lost on me as we negotiate for a deal to end the gridlock.
To me, the most important part of the plan we are piecing together is the budget for the second half of the current fiscal year.
That budget includes $1.81 billion for the state employee group health insurance program. That’s the amount needed to cover the full costs of the program in budget year 2017. These provisions are included in SB 6. Let me be direct to make sure there is no mistake about our plan: The state would fully fund the costs of the state worker health insurance program. That program has been victimized in the past, intentionally underfunded by Governor Quinn to make his budgets look balanced. We would put an end to that in the 2017 budget in the Senate budget plan.
Looking ahead, Illinois Senate Democrats are committed to fully budget for any and all salary, health care and other costs that come with a new AFSCME contract.
You and you members know better than most that our state has teetered on the financial brink of disaster for the past two years. It’s time to restore stability for you, the state workers, and everyone else.
Cullerton’s letter was sent as he and Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno continue to revise parts of the grand bargain in an attempt to secure enough votes to pass it to the House. Last week, three of the less controversial bills in the package passed with only Democratic votes. A fourth, dealing with pension reform, went down to defeat when only 18 Democrats voted for it. No Republicans voted for the bill.
Cullerton’s letter may be intended to blunt opposition to the pension reform bill by public employee labor unions. AFSCME is a member of We Are One Illinois, a coalition of those unions opposed to the pension changes. AFSCME members would not be affected by changes in the pension bill as it is currently drafted. Cullerton said he excluded AFSCME while its contract issues are unresolved.
At the same time, all of the dozen bills in the package — including both the spending plan and the pension changes — must be approved or none of them can become law.
AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall said the union believes the pension bill is unconstitutional. The union did not have comment Monday about Cullerton’s letter.
You may have read a news story or two about the latest blistering report from New York-based S&P Global Ratings about Illinois’ fiscal and economic woes.
But it’s far more brutal than anything reported by the media and it pretty obviously lays the blame for much of the morass at Gov. Bruce Rauner’s doorstep while calling on legislators to assert “governing control.”
The title of the report was: “For Illinois, Having A Plan Beats No Plan.” That title refers to the Illinois Senate’s bipartisan attempt to forge a “grand bargain” of a balanced budget and non-budgetary reforms.
The credit ratings agency took no position on the Senate plan itself, but claimed “if lawmakers were to begin asserting governing control over state finances, that could help alleviate some of the pressure currently bearing down on Illinois’ credit quality.”
“Illinois’ fiscal crisis is, in our view, a man-made byproduct of policy ultimatums placed upon the state’s budget process,” S&P analysts wrote, then immediately added, “As we see it, the governor interpreted his election in 2014 as a mandate to pursue various institutional changes that the legislature has steadfastly opposed.”
To my eyes, those two connected sentences blame Rauner and his longstanding refusal to negotiate a real budget that balances revenues and spending until his non-budgetary demands were approved by Democrats who could not ideologically accept most of them.
Maybe you think you haven’t felt any direct effects of the stalemate. But maybe you just didn’t realize that our state’s declining economic well-being of late is related to the inability of our Statehouse leaders to get their acts together.
“We believe Illinois’ distressed fiscal condition and dysfunctional budget politics now threaten to erode the state’s long-term economic growth prospects,” S&P wrote.
The agency claimed residents and businesses had already begun to “vote with their feet” to flee the state’s governing disaster.
“(W)e have viewed the ability in the U.S. of residents to migrate easily from state to state as providing an implicit check on gross mismanagement. The recent outmigration pattern seen in the Census Bureau data suggests this phenomenon may have begun to assert itself in Illinois to the detriment of the state’s economic outlook.”
In other words, lots of people are leaving Illinois because the government is so screwed up, and that’s making our economic situation even worse, which will, of course, worsen our government’s fiscal problems.
With S&P blaming the governor so directly, it should be no surprise that some Democrats and labor union leaders still don’t want to negotiate with Rauner. But here are a few scary numbers for those who insist that the governor shouldn’t be given any political “wins” by acceding to some of his demands for non-budgetary items.
Let’s start with $27.7 billion, the official projection of the state’s unpaid bill backlog for June 30, 2019, the end of fiscal year 2019. The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget projects the backlog will rise about $7 billion a year. So, by January of 2019, when the next governor is sworn into office halfway through that fiscal year, the backlog will be about $24 billion.
Because so many state vendors, particularly social service providers, aren’t being paid on time, the Senate’s grand bargain includes borrowing $7 billion to pay off many of the state’s overdue bills. The plan budgets a billion dollars a year to make the bond payments.
So, a similar plan to pay off vendors by whoever wins the 2018 governor’s race would have to borrow at least three times that amount, pushing the bond payments to over $3 billion per year. That’s equal to about a percentage point increase in the personal income tax rate — just to make the bond payments. It’ll also cost a lot more to equalize state spending with revenues by then, particularly if the economy tanks into a recession, when revenues fall and spending pressures rise.
But even that prediction is optimistic because it assumes financial institutions will actually loan Illinois that kind of money, which, by then, would equal 81.5 percent of total projected revenues. Or, if they do, the interest rates will be usurious because the state’s credit rating will almost definitely be in junk bond territory by then. Can you imagine how high the tax hike will have to go if Illinois can’t get a loan to pay off those vendors, or has to shell out for payday loan-level interest rates?
If a Democrat does defeat Rauner, he or she probably wouldn’t be re-elected because the first thing that new governor will have to do is jack those tax rates up to unheard-of levels.
* Ahead of Budget Address, Financial Monitors Say They’re Watching: Gabe Petek monitors state finances for S&P Global Ratings. He says he’s not aware of any other state having gone this long without a spending plan. “I think it’s important to recognize that Illinois has separated itself from the state sector, and not in a good way.”
* Crain’s Editorial: For Illinois, there’s only one way out of ‘fiscal quicksand’
* Hinz: Civic Federation sides against Rauner in fiscal plan: Illinois needs a new budget immediately, without conditions about structural change elsewhere in state government. That’s the bottom line of a report out today from the Civic Federation that calls for tax hikes, spending limits and maybe a constitutional amendment to limit pensions, but effectively would defer Gov. Bruce Rauner’s demand for union-weakening moves, term limits and other changes he wants as part of the deal.
“The Constitution is very clear. It says in Article VIII, Section 2, ‘The governor shall prepare and submit to the General Assembly a balanced budget proposal.’ … It does not say, ‘The General Assembly shall prepare and submit to the governor a balanced budget proposal,’” she said.
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.
Anything less than a complete document with all the cuts and hikes spelled out will be more of the same abdication of responsibility that the governor has shown since the day he took office, which is why our backlog of bills has spiked to $11.3 billion in two years. Phony savings projections from pension-reform ideas he knows the courts have already ruled unconstitutional or from union-busting fantasies won’t cut it either. […]
On Wednesday, do your job, governor. Spell out your cuts and revenues. Face the criticism you knew you’d face when you ran for this job. Negotiate. Accept a compromise, sign a balanced budget, and start the healing process.
I don’t disagree, but after years of watching governors propose phony budgets that were balanced with never-gonna-happen “revenue enhancements,” the General Assembly barred governors from using any new revenue streams to balance their proposed budgets. And, like most all reforms, this one also had an unintended consequence. Now, the governor simply proposes imaginary cuts.
[Gov. Rauner] made it clear, though, that he wasn’t happy with the way the General Assembly treated his first two budget offerings.
“My budget was never discussed or debated by the General Assembly. It was ignored,” Rauner said. “A process needs to change. I don’t want to keep doing the same thing over and over, introducing a budget that just gets ignored and criticized. Either let me actually do it if I’m going to introduce it, or let’s do it together. No more I’m speaking in the wind and nothing changes. That’s a mistake.”
I’m not gonna introduce a real budget because it will be criticized or ignored?
Rauner also disputed the oft-repeated claim by Democratic lawmakers that he’s never introduced a balanced budget.
“I introduced a balanced budget my first six weeks in office,” Rauner said of his 2016 fiscal year budget plan. “Some people didn’t like it because it had some pension savings. Changes to pensions could have been done.”
Yeah, but his proposed pension savings were unrealistic and pretty much everybody knew it at the time.
During an interview with The State Journal-Register, he mentioned the city’s three public high schools.
He said at Lanphier and Southeast, “less than 10 percent of the kids who graduate … are ready to go on to a university, enter a trade school, go to community college, or enter the workforce without remedial education. Ninety percent of those kids, therefore, are going to be doomed to a life of economic oppression.” […]
He said students at Springfield High are “three times more likely” to be college ready, but he said that number was still just 25 percent.
“The state needs to step in,” Kennedy said. “What is the economic impact of having all of those people unable to take care of themselves? Where is the moral outrage in the community?”
I checked with Springfield’s District 186, and got a fact sheet from Superintendent JENNIFER GILL noting that based on 2016 ACT tests, college readiness was listed as 23 percent each at Lanphier and Southeast, and 54 percent at Springfield High. An ACT score of 21 or more was considered college ready, and all students, including those with a range of special needs, were included in the testing.
The explanation from the campaign was that Kennedy was referring to PARCC scores.
* Sen. Andy Manar, who represents part of Springfield and is considering a Democratic gubernatorial bid of his own, lashed out at Kennedy…
When asked if he supported term limits, Kennedy said, “I think that it’s really important that people have faith in their government, and they don’t have that now. They want term limits wildly in order to restore that faith; and if that’s the price of getting people to believe in government, then I would embrace term limits.”
With that answer we asked him about the longest serving House Speaker in the country: Michael Madigan. We asked Kennedy if after more than 28 years as House Speaker was it time for a change in leadership?
“Every year he’s up. Let’s say every session he needs to earn the support of his members,” said Kennedy. “I think that’s between him and his members. I think the issues in this state are firmly on the governor’s shoulders. I don’t think the speaker or the legislature is the root of all evil. I think the governor’s refusal to negotiate a budget is.”
*** UPDATE *** No need to edit this mess. From the WREX interview as posted by the ILGOP…
We’ve covered politics a long time, and all’s fair in … well, mostly war. But interestingly — and disappointingly — Kennedy pretty much took a pass on critiquing the performance of House Speaker Michael Madigan, though specifically asked.
Indeed, it’s not the Republican right but the Democratic left controlling the Legislature that has overseen the loss of people, jobs and investment and the erosion of services for the most vulnerable in Illinois. Democrats are responsible for drawing the maps and the gerrymanding that has guaranteed most races in Illinois now go uncontested. It’s Madigan himself who steadfastly has blocked redistricting reform. Arguably it takes an especially willful brand of denial to overlook Madigan’s contribution not just the last two but the last 30 years to putting Illinois at the bottom of the nation’s barrel.
If we may offer some unsolicited advice to Kennedy, to J.B. Pritzker who is reported to be mulling a bid, to any other Democrat who aspires to be governor: You’d be hard-pressed to find a politician more unpopular than Madigan in these parts, and in Illinois that’s saying something. There’s a reason the vast majority of counties in Illinois outside Cook have gone red in a lot of these statewide and national races.
We get the reluctance of Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls to cross the chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, among the conflicts the Speaker has. We’d just say that real leadership requires courage, which includes standing up to someone who’s been around too long and has gained too much power, to this state’s ongoing detriment.
* OK, now on to Bob Daiber, who announced his campaign in Edwardsville yesterday. I happened to be in town anyway, so I went to the event and asked a few questions…
MILLER: Do you think that the speaker should be negotiating non-budget items as part of a package?
DAIBER: Well, I don’t, I don’t, I think that’s the big hangup right now with the governor. I think most of the governor’s items that he has on the table he says he won’t pass a budget ’til he has these other reforms. So, um, I think the issue at stake in drafting a budget has to be budgetary items, not items that are not directly related to the line items.
MILLER: But they are doing that in the Senate. Do you support that?
DAIBER: Yes, I do.
MILLER: Do you support the plan?
DAIBER: Well, there are certain parts of what the Senate, I don’t agree with 100 percent of it, OK? But I agree with their compromise and the collaboration because they’re trying to move the state forward. So, I’m not gonna oppose any effort to get a budget because we need one so bad.
Bruce Rauner barnstormed his way to the governor’s office by promising to “shake up Springfield.” Now it seems he has a new mantra: Don’t rock the boat.
A bipartisan cartel of Illinois’ longest-serving and most tone-deaf politicians are plotting what they call a budget “grand bargain.” Unsurprisingly, the lynchpin of the proposal is a mega income tax increase. The plan contains few fixes to our broken state government.
Translation: We pay more for the same old, same old.
Once upon a time, this was the kind of thing Gov. Rauner would rail against. Career politicians cutting deals that perpetuate, rather than eradicate, Illinois’ deep-rooted problems.
Rank and file members of the Illinois House of Representatives, including:
· Representative Kelly Cassidy (D-14),
· Representative Deb Conroy (D-46),
· Representative Laura Fine (D-17),
· Representative Christian Mitchell (D-26),
· Representative Elaine Nekritz (D-57),
· Representative Carol Sente (D-59),
· Representative Litesa Wallace (D-67),
· Representative Emanuel Chris Welch (D-7), and
· Representative Sam Yingling (D-62)
are eagerly anticipating the Governor’s annual budget address. The Illinois Constitution requires the Governor to present the General Assembly with a balanced budget every year, and requires that the members of the General Assembly — including rank and file members — approve a budget.
For the last two years, however, leaders in Springfield have created a toxic political discourse that has prevented a budget from being enacted. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents are increasingly alienated by the political process and are quickly losing faith in government.
“For the last two years, the so-called budget negotiations conducted by leaders in Springfield have been dominated by toxic political rhetoric from two conflicting camps: the Governor and the Speaker,” said Representative Sam Yingling. “Rank and file House members have been left on the sidelines of a debate that has more to do with ego and political games than the needs of our constituents.”
The lack of a state budget under Governor Rauner has harmed Illinois’ economy and has lead to the steady decrease of the state’s credit rating. To make matters worse, the backlog of unpaid bills has steadily risen during the budget impasse, reaching nearly $11 billion by the end of 2016.
“The impact of the last two years without a state budget has been devastating on the families and communities in my district,” said Representative Chris Welch. “Without a responsible budget, children and families in my district do not have access to vital, life-saving services. Students at our community colleges and public universities seeking higher education — an education that serves as a stepping stone to the middle class — are not certain that they will be able to complete their degree programs. Illinois businesses are left without a trained workforce.”
“I look forward to hearing Gov. Rauner fulfill his constitutionally prescribed role of presenting my colleagues and I with a balanced budget that prioritizes working families and the most vulnerable,” said Representative Litesa Wallace, “The last 2 years have gravely impacted those who need their state government the most—whether it’s a disabled individual attempting to maintain their independence and dignity or a working family just trying to make ends meet as they pay for their child to attend child care or college — they deserve a full budget. Again, I look forward to the governor prioritizing the people of Illinois with his Budget proposal. ”
Rank and file members of the house are awaiting the Governor’s balanced budget proposal, scheduled for Wednesday February 15th at noon, and are eager to be independent voices for the people of their districts as they debate the proposal offered by the Governor.
“Actions speak louder than words. These legislators are now trying to cover up the fact that they ceded all control to Mike Madigan last month when they voted to again make Mike Madigan the Speaker of the House. If House Democrats wonder why rank-and-files legislators have little say over the workings of the Illinois House, they should look in a mirror.” – Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Steven Yaffe
In an outrageously ironic press release, nine House Democrats today issued a statement today complaining that “Rank and file House members have been left on the sidelines.”
Yes, that’s what House Democrats are claiming just weeks after voting to give Mike Madigan a 17th term as Speaker and passing Mike Madigan’s “rules” which give him total power over the Illinois House.
Kelly Cassidy, Deb Conroy, Laura Fine, Christian Mitchell, Elaine Nekritz, Carol Sente, Litesa Wallace, Emanuel Chris Welch, and Sam Yingling all voted to crown Mike Madigan.
* The abject failure of this government’s leaders to get their acts together is flat-out immoral…
One mother says her son’s facing death, all because the government isn’t paying its bills.
“It’s just been awful, it really has,” Kenea said.
Her twin one-year-old boys were born premature, but while Kade is just fine, Kobe lags behind. His lungs still haven’t fully developed and he struggles to breathe on his own.
“It’s very scary, very, very scary,” said Kenea.
That’s why in between the happy noises of their big family, in their home, you can always hear the constant drone of a machine pumping critical oxygen into Kobe’s lungs, without which, he can’t survive.
“Kobe would be dead or in a hospital permanently,” Williams said.
Kenea works for the state of Illinois. Like many of us, she relies on her insurance. She pays her premiums and expected that the state would pay its bills.
But she says she was wrong.
After three years, Illinois still doesn’t have a budget and is now billions of dollars in debt to service provides.
Byrd-Watson, the company that supplied Kobe’s oxygen machines, told Kenea they wanted Kobe’s oxygen machine back.
“She stated to me many times, we are not getting paid for your equipment,” Kenea said.
Kenea was in a panic. But the worst moment came with a bang on the door.
Marion County Sheriff’s Deputies showed up at her home, the supplier at their side, demanding their equipment.
What kind of company does that?
And what kind of government allows this to get to the point where a baby’s oxygen machine is threatened with seizure?
A state representative from Chicago on Friday proposed a radical reform to Illinois’ criminal-justice system, introducing a bill that would do away with cash bail.
Working in concert with Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, state Rep. Christian Mitchell has filed a bill that would allow people charged with nonviolent offenses to be released on their own recognizance until their court hearings.
“In our current system, whether or not someone is in jail has more to do with wealth than risk. Our jails have become as [Cook County] President [Toni] Preckwinkle has often said, the intersection between racism and poverty in this state and in this country.”
Judges would have the discretion to order detention or electronic monitoring for people accused of harming others, Mitchell said.
Mitchell said about 62 percent of people in Cook County Jail can’t afford to pay their money bond. Many of them are charged with nonviolent crimes.
An Illinois senator wants to give the public a stronger voice in Illinois elections.
Senator Dan Biss of Skokie proposed a bill that would create a donor match program for constitutional offices and legislative elections. He says it would allow everyday people to have a greater impact on political races.
“What it says is there’s going to be two way to fund a campaign,” he says. “You can fund a campaign in the old way, with big money, or you can fund a campaign the people’s way, by having ordinary people contribute 25, 50, 100, 150 dollars, and have those contributions matched at a six to one level so that it will be enough resources to allow you to communicate your message.”
The Tri-State Tollway would be renamed for former President Barack Obama under a bill pending in the Illinois General Assembly.
The measure was authored by State Rep. Robert Martwick (D-Jefferson Park).
The tollway connects Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin — all states Obama won in 2008 to reach the White House, Martwick said, crediting Patrick Steffes, a former campaign aide, with coming up with the idea.
That’s a better idea than declaring yet another state holiday.
Rush, a Chicago Democrat, made his comments during a news conference Thursday about the hardships that social-service agencies and low-income people are suffering as state government’s unpaid bills pile up.
The state is $11 billion in arrears for all bills, Rush said.
“While these two despots are engaged in war, I am reminded of a movie I used to see called Godzilla vs. King Kong,” Rush said in a prepared statement. “There were two giant monsters fighting for power and destroying the city of Tokyo as a result of it. They were wiping out homes and businesses and wreaking havoc on the people of the city.
“Madigan and Rauner are like King Kong and Godzilla and they are destroying Illinois.”
* Freshman Sen. Paul Schimpf (R-Waterloo) was interviewed on Will Stephens’ WXAN Radio program this week about the Senate’s attempts to negotiate a grand bargain…
The voters expect us to work together and compromise. That doesn’t mean sell out our principles. That doesn’t mean do a bad deal.
But at the same time, anything that’s going to pass is going to require Democratic votes to pass. So, the other side is gonna weigh in. There’s going to have to be some compromise.
We’re not trying to put together something that is perfect as if Paul Schimpf were king and I could dictate, or even if the governor could dictate everything he wants. It’s gonna have to have Democratic votes to pass, so there is going to have to be some compromise.
And that’s something where I’ve been a little bit disappointed with some of the groups like the Illinois Policy Institute. I don’t think their proposals are realistic, in terms of they’re not something that would get any votes from the other side.
And also… they’re proposing shifting the burden to the local municipalities. You as the mayor of Murphysboro certainly know that Murphysboro needs some state aid. The cuts that the Illinois Policy Institute is advocating would really cripple some of our local municipalities. […]
I appreciate everybody’s input, but I think the reality is we cannot get ourselves out of this hole that we’ve been digging for two decades just by spending cuts alone. I’m gonna insist there be spending cuts, but I don’t think that’s going to get us out of it just on those alone.
* The “Institute” has been targeting Republican Senators for several days with Facebook ads like this one and some GOP members aren’t amused…
Take the Local Government Distributive Fund, or LGDF. This state fund is made up of $1.3 billion in income tax money that the state hands out to local governments with no strings attached.
Local leaders say this money is used to help keep property taxes low. But that argument doesn’t hold water in a state with the highest property taxes in the nation.
They also say it’s a pillar of basic services such as public safety. That’s a convenient excuse. In reality, this money enables reckless spending habits propped up by the state. Practices such as pension spiking, sick leave accumulation and pension “pickups” are rampant in the Land of Lincoln.
Money from the LGDF also enables local governments to pay the state-mandated prevailing wage for work on public projects. The costs this requirement entails are astonishing. […]
And yet, most Republicans still won’t touch programs like the LGDF. Doing so requires taking on the mayors, township supervisors, highway commissioners, park district officials and legions of others who have staked their hopes on multibillion-dollar tax hikes as a way out of the budget mess.
A new report says Illinois’ financial situation is so bad that the state would have to slash spending by more than 26 percent to balance next year’s budget through cuts alone.
The nonprofit Civic Federation released its proposed five-year plan for stabilizing Illinois’ finances on Friday. […]
Civic Federation President Laurence Msall says Rauner and legislators “need to take action immediately.”
The group recommends Illinois limit spending growth and increase the individual income tax rate from 3.75 to 5.25 percent.
Limit State Spending: Illinois should limit spending growth to 1.7% through at least FY2022, using the Governor’s estimated maintenance FY2017 spending level as a base. The State should also stop paying hundreds of millions of dollars in unnecessary interest penalties on its overdue bills. Ending the budget impasse is the only path to reducing the state’s highest-in-the-nation interest costs, including an estimated $700 million in penalties if bills on hand are paid at the end of FY2017.
Increase Income Taxes: The State should retroactively increase the income tax rate to 5.25% for individuals and 7.0% for corporations as of January 1, 2017. If the Civic Federation’s proposals are implemented, the State should be in a position to lower the individual tax rate to 5% on January 1, 2022. The burden of the increase on low income residents should be alleviated by expanding the earned income tax credit by 50%.
Eliminate Tax Exemption for Federally Taxable Retirement Income: Out of the 41 states that impose an income tax, Illinois is one of only three that exempt all retirement income. The State can no longer afford to provide this generous benefit, which is out of line with most other states.
Expand Sales Tax Base and Lower the Rate: The State should enact a new service tax including a broad-based definition of consumer services and a firm exemption for business-to-business transactions and medical services. In conjunction, the State should lower the general sales tax rate for goods and services from 6.25% to 5.5%. This would reduce the effective rate in Chicago to 9.5%, down from 10.25%, which is the highest of any major metropolitan area in the nation.
Limit Business Tax Expenditures: Illinois should cap the retailer’s discount, eliminate the E-10 ethanol incentive, decouple from the federal domestic production activities deduction and eliminate the continental shelf exemption, because these expenditures do not provide sufficient public value to justify their cost.
Merge the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund with the Teachers’ Retirement System: There is no good public policy reason for Illinois to maintain two separate funds for public school teachers’ pensions. The Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund and Teachers’ Retirement System should consolidate, providing more equitable pension funding for all teachers and helping to stabilize Chicago Public Schools’ finances.
Consolidate and Streamline Government Units: The multiplicity of Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation 6,963 units of local government is often cited as a reason for high property tax rates in Illinois.
Borrow to Clear the Bill Backlog: In conjunction with a balanced budget and credible plan to maintain fiscal sustainability, borrowing to eliminate the backlog would save on interest penalties and restore confidence in the State’s finances.
Make Supplemental Pension Payments: Beginning after backlog bond debt service ends, the State should make supplemental payments to bring all five State retirement systems to 100% funded.
Establish a Rainy Day Fund: The State of Illinois should work toward building a rainy day fund equal to 10.0% of State-source General Funds revenues to cushion the budget from the next economic downturn.
A constitutional amendment limiting the pension protection clause to accrued benefits;
A constitutional amendment allowing a graduated individual income tax;
A reduction in the interest Illinois pays on overdue bills under the Prompt Payment Act;
A return of the lapse period to two months from six; and
A phase-out of Section 25 liabilities and other practices that allow prior year’s costs to be paid from current year’s appropriations.
Keep in mind that this is the Civic Federation, not the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club. Two very different entities, but they are often confused with each other.
When gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedy sent out his first email to supporters last night, he mentioned incumbent Bruce Rauner’s name—twice. But President Donald Trump’s name appeared three times.
When I asked a top Rauner strategist if they’re worried, he had a two-word reply: Mike Madigan. […]
“Rauner is a failed governor who has made Illinois worse by dividing people and failing to fix the mess,” says Kennedy strategist Eric Adelstein. “There are a lot of parallels with President Trump and his stubbornness and failure to bring people together.”
When I asked Adelstein if voters should expect to hear a lot more about Trump from the Kennedy campaign, he had a one word answer: “Yes.” […]
“Mike Madigan is in far worse shape with voters than Trump,” says [a Rauner source]. And to the extent that Trump is disliked: “Voters understand he has different views from Trump” on issues ranging from abortion rights to abolishing Obamacare and converting Medicaid to a block grant.
I seriously doubt that many voters know the governor is opposed to converting the Medicaid program to a block grant system, but otherwise it’s not a bad point.
Elections are referendums on the incumbent. The idea by the Republicans has always been to make Madigan the incumbent in voters’ minds. Rauner is an outsider, he just got here two years ago. Madigan is the entrenched insider stopping all progress. You know the drill.
It’s like the old story about the two guys around a campfire seeing an approaching bear. One puts on his running shoes. The other says “You’ll never outrun a bear even in those shoes.”
“I don’t have to outrun the bear,” the first guy says, “I just have to outrun you.”
That right there is what Rauner has been doing to Madigan. Yes, the governor is unpopular, but Madigan is more so. He just has to outrun Madigan.
The Trump card wasn’t played much here last year, so we don’t know how effective it’ll be, but, for now, it doesn’t hurt the Democrats at all. Likely primary voters are fired up like we haven’t seen in a long while, so it’s a smart move at the moment.
* Meanwhile, this is from one of Kennedy’s fundraising e-mails…
States controlled by the radical right are losing people and jobs. Banks and investors are reluctant to fund new investments. Meanwhile, Republican legislatures have cut government services for thousands, including kids who are disabled, the sick and elderly, and wounded veterans.
Governor Rauner has supported the same alt-right, anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-worker agenda that Donald Trump has promoted. With this election, we have the opportunity to reject that agenda and send a message from Illinois that this behavior won’t be accepted anywhere in the country.
With redistricting coming up soon, this race takes an even bigger importance. We can’t let Governor Rauner and his allies try to gerrymander our maps to elect more Republicans from Illinois who will blindly support President Trump.
With the right leadership, we can oppose the worst of the Trump agenda and embrace the best of economic success and opportunity.
OK, well, that first paragraph could be about Illinois and the Democratic legislature, which hasn’t approved a real budget and has therefore effectively cut lots of services.
That second graf may be over the top, but it’ll probably resonate with Democratic primary voters at this point in the game.
And I’m kinda surprised that the Republicans haven’t whacked Kennedy yet for that third paragraph, because that might possibly imply he wants Madigan to draw the next map. He should’ve probably insisted on remap reform.
