Lipinski may face primary foe
Tuesday, Mar 14, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Conservative Southwest Side Congressman Dan Lipinski may be getting a Democratic primary challenger. Here’s Greg Hinz…
The challenge comes from Marie Newman, a La Grange marketing consultant who tells me she has decided to form a 3rd District exploratory committee, the last formal step before actually announcing, something Newman says she is very likely to do this spring. […]
She’s also working with some more conventional, connected folks, including consultant Tom Bowen, whose clients have included Mayor Rahm Emanuel and U.S. Reps. Bill Foster and Mike Quigley; former Barack Obama and David Axelrod associate John Kupper; and Jill Normington, the pollster to U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill. […]
“People need to have someone who represents their values,” says Newman, noting that Lipinski was the only Democratic congressman from Illinois to vote against the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare. “It’s clear they feel Mr. Lipinski is out of touch.”
Lipinski also has voted against family planning, women’s health care and reproductive rights, she says, “ignores” small business, and routinely accepts campaign donations from PACs and lobbyists. […]
Lipinski, in an interview, waved off the challenge, saying he’s focused on things such as “jobs for the middle class. That was the message of the past election.” While he did vote against Obamacare, he now wants to “fix, not repeal it.”
He has a very famous name, and that still counts for a lot in politics. He’s also been strongly backed by organized labor in the past, so that’ll help him as well.
But it goes without saying that his socially conservative voting record could work against him in a Democratic primary if Newman can raise real money and puts together a decent campaign. According to one analysis, he has the third most conservative record of any Democrat in Congress.
And while several Democratic blue-collar districts in the country went for Donald Trump last November, Hillary Clinton won Lipinksi’s district by 16 points. So the 3rd CD may not be as hardcore blue collar as some assume. Pat Quinn, however, won it by just a point in 2014.
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* Press release…
Please see statement below from J.B. Pritzker regarding today’s filing of a D-1 with the State Board of Elections establishing the “JB for Governor Exploratory Committee”:
“As I’ve traveled across Illinois I’ve listened to people express their deep concerns about the direction of our state. It is clear that having a Governor who’s unwilling to address our state’s challenges is having a real impact on people’s lives. Today, I will take the next step in this process by filing an exploratory committee. I look forward to continuing my conversations with people across Illinois who are currently being forced to pay the price of failed leadership from Governor Rauner.”
Pritzker will also contribute $200,000 to cover day to day operations associated with the exploratory committee.
Lee Rosenberg will serve as Chair and Treasurer. He currently serves as Chief of Staff to JB Pritzker at The Pritzker Group.
Megan Brengarth will provide compliance and serve as custodian of records for the committee.
Megan Brengarth appears to have extensive experience with handling campaign finance compliance.
Chris Kennedy has not yet reported any contributions, despite announcing his own bid a month ago. Ameya Pawar, who just sent out a press release demanding that Gov. Rauner denounce Iowa Congressman Steve King’s racists statements, has reported raising $31,010.15 since January 30th. Bob Daiber has reported raising $28K in the past month, including $20K from himself.
* People have been asking me for a while now if I thought Pritzker was serious about running. Barring any oppo issues, I believe he is. But it is a very long time to the December filing deadline. Lots can happen.
*** UPDATE *** The predictable ILGOP press release…
A Member of Mike Madigan’s Inner Circle Announces Exploratory Committee
J.B. Pritzker - Longtime Madigan Insider
Today, longtime Madigan insider J.B. Pritzker formed an exploratory committee for a run for Governor. The Illinois Republican Party issued the following response:
“Political insider J.B. Pritzker is a longtime member of Mike Madigan’s inner circle, having funneled over a million dollars to Madigan in the last year alone to help Madigan stop reforms. Pritzker was also one of Rod Blagojevich’s closest associates. He worked behind the scenes to bankroll his campaigns and was at the center of Blagojevich’s criminal scheme to sell Illinois’ Senate seat.”
“J.B. Pritzker is a tainted political insider who would only make Mike Madigan and the Chicago Political Machine stronger.” – Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Steven Yaffe
He was at “the center” of RRB’s criminal schemes? That’s a bit much even for them. Click here for their “evidence.”
*** UPDATE *** Pritzker campaign…
“This is just the same old tired playbook from a political party whose Governor isn’t getting the job done.”
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Mar 14, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Illinois State coach Dan Muller may be taking the tack that if you can’t beat ‘em, troll ‘em.
The NCAA tournament selection committee snubbed the Redbirds from the field of 68 despite a 27-6 record, which signals the committee didn’t put much stock in the quality of their “quality wins,” a key factor in breaking ties between candidates.
Muller lamented Sunday that you can’t beat more “quality” teams if they refuse to schedule you, so he took to Twitter on Monday to appeal to the Power 5 conference schools to consider scheduling the Redbirds next season and also take a subtle dig at the selection process.
“ACC BIG 10 BIG 12 SEC PAC 12 BIG EAST. It’s me again. Looking 4 home & home next year. Pls call me 4 chance 4 QUALITY road win, top 33 RPI,” he tweeted with an emoji version of himself impatiently tapping its foot next to the words, “I’m waiting.”
A good friend of mine is an ISU graduate and a college basketball nut and, whoa, is she ever upset by that NCAA snub.
* The Question: Your thoughts on this year’s tournament?
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* Press release…
Speaker Michael J. Madigan has directed state Rep. Greg Harris, chair of the House Appropriations-Human Services Committee, to hold a hearing Thursday to determine how Medicaid cuts being pushed by the Trump Administration and congressional Republicans will affect children, families and other vulnerable residents in Illinois.
“Medicaid is one of the most significant segments of our state budget, and plays a critical role in the health and wellbeing of over 2 million children and families statewide,” Madigan said. “With so much at stake for our state and our families, it’s important for legislators and the governor to understand the real cost of the cuts being proposed by President Trump and congressional Republicans.”
Madigan and Harris have scheduled a hearing of the Appropriations-Human Services Committee on Thursday, March 16 at 8 a.m. in Room 114 of the Capitol. Representatives from the Illinois Hospital Association and Illinois’ safety net hospitals, as well as Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services Director Felicia Norwood will brief members about the proposed changes and their impact.
Changes to federal Medicaid funding could have a dramatic effect on the state budget, and to Illinois families. An estimated 1 in 4 Illinois families would be impacted by the plan backed by Trump and congressional Republicans to alter the Medicaid system by providing states with a set lump sum payment. These proposed changes could cause significant reductions to federal funding, which would force Illinois to cut critical care for struggling families and persons with disabilities, or put taxpayers on the hook for significantly higher payments in order to continue services.
Committee members will consider not only the immediate impact, but how these cuts, coupled with rising health care costs, could force deeper cuts for many years.
“The Trump administration is moving quickly to make sweeping changes that will have a deep effect on our state, our communities and our families for years to come,” Harris said. “These proposals need to be thoroughly evaluated, so lawmakers can understand how they will affect Illinois, and determine the best course of action for Illinois families.”
Gov. Rauner hasn’t commented on the US House proposal since the CBO scoring came out yesterday. He has tweeted about his new Instagram account, however.
* Related…
* Health Bill Would Add 24 Million Uninsured but Save $337 Billion, Report Says: The report foresees huge changes in Medicaid. By 2026, it said, federal Medicaid spending would be 25 percent lower under the House bill than is projected under current law, and the number of Medicaid beneficiaries would be 17 percent lower, with 14 million fewer people covered by Medicaid.
* Critics of GOP health bill get ammunition from budget score: The CBO report also undercuts a central argument that Trump and other Republicans have cited for swiftly rolling back Obama’s health care overhaul: that the health insurance markets created under the 2010 law are unstable and about to implode. The congressional experts said that largely would not be the case and the market for individual health insurance policies “would probably be stable in most areas either under current law or the (GOP) legislation.”
* No Magic in How G.O.P. Plan Lowers Premiums: It Pushes Out Older People: But the change in tax credits matters more. The combined difference in how much extra the older customer would have to pay for health insurance is enormous. The C.B.O. estimates that the price an average 64-year-old earning $26,500 would need to pay after using a subsidy would increase from $1,700 under Obamacare to $14,600 under the Republican plan.
* The GOP’s Obamacare replacement is a disaster for some of its most loyal voters: Among the counties where Trump won his biggest victories, nearly all would face deep cuts in tax credits under the Republican plan to replace Obamacare. And, in the parts of the country that would lose the most in tax credits, a majority of voters were Trump supporters… Now, take a look at the places with the highest support for Hillary Clinton in the last election. In these liberal enclaves, where Clinton won over 80 percent of the vote, many people would actually benefit from the new GOP plan. That’s because health care tends to be less expensive in urban areas, and the GOP’s tax credit would give residents in these low-cost areas more money.
* Shimkus: Men paying for prenatal care coverage like buying a cabin ‘you’re never going to use’: He compared forcing men to have a policy that includes female contraceptive and prenatal coverage to paying for a prime piece of real estate that one could never actually visit. “Why would you buy a cabin in Montana that you’re never going to use?” said Shimkus, whose expansive district covers much of Southern Illinois.
* Roskam backed Ryan health bill in committee, but now open to changes: “I want to learn more about the Medicaid piece, particularly in Illinois,” Roskam said. Asked twice later if that means he’s open to changes in the Medicaid provisions, Roskam replied “yes”… Roskam appeared less willing to make changes in response to another damaging finding in the CBO report: older Americans, particularly those over age 50 with relatively modest incomes, would be big losers under the Ryan plan.
* The GOP’s Obamacare replacement includes many Republican governors’ biggest fear — and it could doom the bill: Kasich’s main gripe with the AHCA: a radical rollback of Medicaid, the government-run health program that provides insurance primarily to pregnant women, single mothers, people with disabilities, and seniors with low incomes.
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Oberweis makes horrible analogy
Tuesday, Mar 14, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the Windy City Times…
In a March 8 hearing on the Illinois Fighting Wage Theft Act in the Illinois State Senate Labor Committee, State Sen. Jim Oberweis ( R-Sugar Grove ) implied that both “wife beating” and wage theft were ultimately results of “differences of opinion.”
After hearing details of the bill, Oberweis asked a witness, workers’ rights advocate Don Chartier, whether he’d ever beaten his wife or any other woman, to which Chartier answered, “No.”
Oberweis then asked Chartier if he’d ever had a disagreement with a woman, to which Chartier answered, “Yes.” At that point, Oberweis made the point that both wife-beating and wage-theft accusations boiled down to differences of opinion and “he said, she said” scenarios.
In a statement released by HourVoice, an organization pushing for the passage of the wage theft law, Chartier said, “I was absolutely shocked to hear the crime of wage theft and the crime of domestic violence both compared to ‘differences of opinion’ and minimized by Senator Oberweis, particularly in a State Senate hearing on International Women’s Day. His comments have certainly strengthened my resolve to work hard to fight both of these crimes.”
The Illinois Fighting Wage Theft Act was passed by the committee.
* Edited audio…
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* Matt Hopf at the Quincy Herald-Whig…
Calling Illinois the transportation hub of America, Gov. Bruce Rauner said the state has underinvested in its infrastructure.
“It has also not expanded to keep up with the rest of the economic growth across America,” he said. “We need to do a big infrastructure bill. I’m going to be pushing to get a balanced budget and do a major infrastructure investment program, so we can be investing in the rail system, the roads and the locks and dams here in Western Illinois, but all across the state.” […]
While not citing specifics on how to pay for a statewide capital plan, Rauner said he could go along with some new revenue and tax options being proposed by legislators.
“There’s been many things that have been put on the table, and I’m flexible,” Rauner said. “We’ll work that out. We need to pay for it, and we can. We’ll find the money if we have a balanced budget, and if we have more job creation.”
He’s been promising a big infrastructure plan since the 2014 campaign, but has yet to propose a thing.
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*** LIVE *** Session coverage
Tuesday, Mar 14, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Today’s post is sponsored by the American Heart Association of Illinois. Follow everything in real time right here with ScribbleLive…
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* ABC 7…
The U.S. attorney in Chicago on Monday wrote two letters. First, Zachary Fardon penned a resignation letter. Then on the way out the door he handed out a five-page public letter that amounts to a roadmap of what’s wrong in Chicago and how to fix it.
In the “open letter,” that focuses on Chicago’s unrelenting street violence and seemingly out-of-control murders, Fardon states that “this is not war” and he discourages the call to use National Guard troopers in the city. He is calling for more law enforcement officers.
“We need to flood those neighborhoods with local and federal law enforcement officers” wrote Fardon. “Not just to arrest the bad guys but also to be standing on that corner where shots otherwise might get fired, to be breaking up those corner loiterers, and to be meeting and learning and knowing the kids, the people, and the truth of who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, and who isn’t yet formed and can be swayed.”
The full letter is here. You should read it all.
* Let’s take a quick look…
The long term is that Chicago has an entrenched gang problem in a limited number of neighborhoods on the south and west sides. For decades, those neighborhoods have been neglected. The reasons for that historic run of neglect are rooted in ugly truths about power, politics, race and racism that are a tragic part of our local and national history and heritage. And as a consequence of those ugly truths, and the neglect they brought, these neighborhoods stand wrought with poverty and inadequate schools, businesses, jobs and infrastructure. For many growing up in these neighborhoods, there is a sense of hopelessness, a belief cemented early in life that they’re not good enough for higher education and that they’ll never get good jobs. Gangs and guns are ubiquitous, and gangs fill the void created by that hopelessness; they teach kids crime and violence, and give kids protection, money, and a sense of belonging. That’s the long term reality, and long term challenge.
The short view is the surge in violence since January 2016. That surge started immediately on the heels of those 4 successive events I mentioned in late 2015: the release of the Laquan McDonald video; the initiation of the DOJ pattern and practice investigation; the firing of CPD’s Superintendent; and the beginning of that ACLU contract. Those things exploded a powder keg that didn’t change fundamentally the landscape of gun violence or law enforcement, but they poured gasoline on the tragic aspects of those realities and further polarized our officers and our community.
* Fardon said there should be more federal agents in the city, including from the FBI, DEA and ATF…
Each is noble, talented and passionate about fighting crime. But here’s a hard truth: federal law enforcement can yield an improved impact on gun violence in this city by either folding those key federal agencies together into one agency, or as an alternative, assigning all their agents working on violent crime to one special task force with one mission and one leadership chain. Do that so that DEA isn’t limited to working dope cases, and ATF isn’t thinking only about gun trafficking, and no one is competing for credit on cases.
* No National Guard…
Some people recently have said bring in the National Guard. If you care only about the short view, maybe there’s some attractiveness to that notion. But if you care about the long view – if you don’t want to be talking about “Chiraq” and “two Chicagos” ten and twenty years from now, then it’s an ill-conceived notion. What would a National Guard presence say to folks in those neighborhoods? This is war, and you are the enemy. The Chicago of bike paths and glistening lakefront, and economic opportunity – that’s not your Chicago, it’s ours and we will protect it.
This is not war. Wars are fought between enemies. There is only one enemy here, and it is us, all of us in Chicago. Every single one of us. We are the problem, and we are the solution. If we resort to wrongheaded measures, we might set ourselves back years, even decades in the long term fight.
* Do the consent decree…
You can’t stop our brand of violence without a top-flight police department. And you can’t have a top-flight police department on the cheap. For decades, CPD has been run on the cheap. Officers don’t have the training, the supervision, the equipment, or culture they need and deserve. Our DOJ findings report lays that out.
* Create new “youth pathway centers, in the handful of most afflicted neighborhoods”…
The vast majority of those kids will do the right thing if we help them find and figure out what that right thing looks like. So let’s find those kids, and let’s intervene, in a positive way, in their lives. Let’s engage them, and their parents, teachers, community leaders, and clergy. Let’s deter criminal behavior and incentive lawful behavior.
To do that, we should have a brick and mortar place, in each afflicted neighborhood, that is base, the home, the epicenter to that effort.
* And recognize that violent crime in these areas spreads like a virus…
Biological viruses are transmitted through body fluid or air. The virus of gun play moves through social media. We can stop or stem that. Don’t send in the National Guard, send in the tech geeks. If a gang member makes CPD’s Strategic Subject List, find a way to curb or real- time monitor that gang member’s social media accounts. If kids have convictions or overt gang affiliations, find a way to curb their social media. I recognize that First Amendment issues come into play, but let’s test those limits. Lives are at stake. Enlist parents, teachers and clergy. And work with social media service providers for options to limit access and to create safeguards against social media as the conduit for the gun virus.
And at the same time, launch a positive community-based social media exchange both deterring kids from gangs and enticing them with music, sports, jobs or other outlets.
* Related…
* Chicago police recruits rarely flunk out, raising concerns about training
* ADDED: Group launches effort to employ 10,000 at-risk young Chicagoans
* ADDED: ACLU blasts Fardon for ‘blindsided attack’ on curtailing stop-and-frisk
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Support House Bill 40
Tuesday, Mar 14, 2017 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
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* From the public finance/muni bonds reporter for Debtwire Municipals…
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Another hostage on death’s door
Tuesday, Mar 14, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* SJ-R on Friday…
A 49-year-old drug treatment center that has seen demand for services rise during the nationwide heroin epidemic plans to shut its doors by early April because of payment delays associated with the ongoing state budget crisis.
The Wells Center’s 32 adult inpatient beds and outpatient programs will close the first week of April, and all 33 employees at the Jacksonville site will be laid off, unless the 20-month budget crisis is resolved, executive director Bruce Carter said Friday.
“I’m very frustrated, like many citizens are,” said Carter, 65, who has led the agency for 37 years. “You see real people suffering.” […]
The decision to close, Carter said, was “directly related” to payment delays associated with the state’s lack of a permanent budget since July 2015. […]
Wells Center, serving 500 clients per year with an annual budget of about $4 million, is owed almost $1.4 million for services provided since July 2016, Carter said. The money owed includes funds held up by the lack of a permanent state budget and payments delayed by Medicaid managed-care companies, he said.
* SJ-R on Monday…
Aides to Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner are blaming Democratic Comptroller Susana Mendoza for failing to ease some of the financial stress on a Jacksonville drug-abuse treatment agency caught in the political crossfire of Illinois’ budget crisis. […]
“It’s outrageous that Comptroller Mendoza is currently sitting on” the money “that she has refused to release,” Demertzis said. “We urge the comptroller to release these funds immediately to ensure the Wells Center can continue providing critical services.”
Contacted by The State Journal-Register, aides to Mendoza wouldn’t commit to issuing $345,000 in payments right away to Wells Center but said they would try to help as much as possible.
OK, so the Rauner administration wants the comptroller to release millions of dollars for a computer system upgrade and dismisses the comptroller’s complaints that doing so would hurt social service groups, but the Rauner administration also complains that the comptroller isn’t sending money to a drug treatment agency even though the current bill payment backlog is currently $12.4 billion in the red.
There may very well be some games being played here. I can’t say one way or the other. But I do know that the comptroller can’t print money. Just because we have checks in the book doesn’t mean there’s money in the account.
* Also, scroll down…
If a check for $342,000 from the state arrived in the next few days, Wells Center’s board would meet and potentially postpone a closure, he said. But the problem of not knowing when the budget stalemate will be resolved remains, he said.
“What’s the prospects of them passing a budget in the next few weeks?” Carter asked. […]
Also included are payments being processed and evaluated by the Illinois Department of Corrections but not yet sent to the comptroller’s office for payment, he said.
The comptroller can’t process vouchers that haven’t even been submitted.
…Adding… This is, unfortunately, probably the best hot take on this topic I’ve seen…
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Uh-oh
Tuesday, Mar 14, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Illinois’ population in 2014 was 12.88 million, so we’re getting really close to one thousand dollars for every man, woman and child in this state…
We need a budget. Like yesterday.
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* From the BGA…
The Better Government Association has asked a judge to reopen its recently settled email lawsuit against Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a dispute over more than 300 communications that the watchdog group argues may have been improperly withheld by the city when it released the mayor’s personal emails related to public business.
The motion, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, also challenges the city’s selective use of redactions to hide some content in emails it did release.
As part of an agreement with the BGA, the city in December released more than 3,000 pages of emails that showed Emanuel routinely using his personal accounts to conduct city business. The mayor and city did not admit wrongdoing, but the lawsuit had alleged that Emanuel turned to personal email to evade open records law transparency requirements.
In its new legal challenge, the BGA is asking Cook County Judge Sophia Hall to scrutinize the validity of the city’s claim that exemptions in open records law allowed it to withhold or redact many of the mayor’s business related personal emails.
“We made it crystal clear, when we agreed to settle the case in December, that we would be back in court if we felt city lawyers were in violation of open records laws by improperly withholding some emails and redacting the content of others,” said BGA President and CEO Andy Shaw. “We believe the mayor’s lawyers are doing just that, so here we are, back in court, continuing our fight for transparency.” […]
According to the city’s own descriptions, many of those withheld emails involve discussions of so-called “talking points” and “press strategy,” in essence how to manage the administration’s messaging on a variety of subjects. Others involve conversations between Emanuel and people not on the city payroll, in particular Michael Sacks, the wealthy CEO of global investment firm Grosvenor Capital Management, who has emerged as both a sounding board and key political fundraiser for the mayor.
And still others, the BGA asserted in its motion, are described by the city index in such vague terms that it is difficult to assess whether the decision to withhold them could meet any legal test. Examples include emails described only as “discussion of strategy for day ahead.”
The BGA challenge also asks Hall to weigh the validity of the city’s decision to obscure portions of some Emanuel emails it did release. In several of those, the comments of aides to the mayor were made public but his own responses were blacked out and rendered unreadable. […]
In its motion, the BGA questions whether the city has overreached in applying such exemptions to block release of some or all of the withheld emails. “The Mayor’s Office must provide clear and convincing evidence that the withheld records, and the redacted portions of the records that were produced, are exempt,” the BGA motion asserts.
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The rest of the story
Tuesday, Mar 14, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Reuters…
Illinois’ state comptroller has suspended $27 million in payments for a computer technology initiative launched by Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, according to a letter seen by Reuters, opening a new front in an ongoing feud over finances.
The move by Democratic Comptroller Susana Mendoza targets one of the governor’s priorities and comes as Illinois faces a record $12.3 billion backlog of unpaid bills that has more than tripled in the 21 months the state has gone without a full operating budget.
In a letter to the Rauner administration, Mendoza’s office said halting payments, including $21.6 million owed to consultants working on Rauner’s $250 million technology upgrade, is warranted because of uncertainty over how the program will produce long-term savings for the state.
The letter asked why those consulting firms should be paid before services like senior centers, hospice care and universities.
“The comptroller wants assurances that resources are being allocated toward our most critical needs and not toward discretionary initiatives,” Mendoza’s senior policy adviser, Patrick Corcoran, wrote.
* The Rauner administration sent out a response at 5 this morning…
Following a report from Reuters, Illinois Deputy Governor Trey Childress today called on Comptroller Susana Mendoza to continue payments for critical technology upgrades supported by both political parties that facilitates transparency within government, protects sensitive data, and modernizes Illinois technology to a centralized system that will save taxpayer money.
“It is fiscally irresponsible to continue to operate government using our current financial reporting systems in the State of Illinois,” said Deputy Governor Trey Childress. “If Comptroller Mendoza disrupts this process, she will be putting our state, residents and sensitive data at risk by forcing us to function under the current outdated systems and the state will soon be unable to make necessary updates that operate key services.”
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) centralizes Illinois’ financial reporting and human resources functions and is one of the few initiatives in Illinois where both political parties recognize its value and importance. The Quinn and Topinka Administrations launched ERP in Illinois. The State of Illinois currently operates a patchwork of more than 260 individual financial reporting systems, most of which are not connected and are costly to operate. For example, buying something as simple as a paperclip in Illinois takes four different programs, including a manual input between the third and fourth step.
Most private sector organizations and states have already streamlined their financial reporting systems, but Illinois is one of the few states still operating in the technological Stone Age. Seventy percent of the state’s systems operate under an outdated technology platform, with the majority of the programmers reaching or past retirement age. An updated and integrated system will increase transparency, protect sensitive data, and provide more accountability in government.
“Illinois’ current financial systems pose a significant threat to our state and residents,” said Hardik Bhatt, Secretary-designate of the Department of Innovation and Technology. “After two failed attempts to implement ERP in the past 20 years, Illinois is finally making progress in record time. In the past 15 months, we developed the ERP plan, designed a statewide system, and launched it within three agencies, which is an unprecedented timeline compared to other states. We are now on target to implement ERP in 16 additional agencies within the next 10 months, bringing more than 60 percent of the state’s financial data into one system and retiring over 100 older systems.”
As Illinois modernizes and streamlines technology systems, the state’s cyber-security team has been able to identify and fix weaknesses. This has led the state to secure more than 5 billion records of sensitive information. As an integrated and modern platform, ERP will help the state establish state-of-the-art control mechanisms and improve the audit process, which currently does not exist in any of the existing financial reporting systems.
“Continued progress in the ERP program is crucial to allow Illinois to provide important services and improve its ability to provide transparency and required financial reporting requirements,” Deputy Governor Childress added.
* But that’s not the whole story. If you click here and read the comptroller’s original letter to DOIT, she points out that the comptroller’s office has been involved with the ERP program since the Judy Baar Topinka days. However, according to her letter, the governor’s people gave her the option of stopping her participation.
And then she wrote this…
In his proposed FY2018 budget, Governor Rauner requested appropriations of $900 million for your agency, including $94 million in additional ERP spending. Last year, the Governor’s staffers put the total rollout cost at $250 million. We would like a description of the evolution of program cost estimates. As an example, according to information shared with the ERP program oversight group, one consultant has requested an additional $5 million in fees per year through 2020, or an additional $20 million.
As you know, the fund designated to pay ERP consultant fees was placed under cash management in late-December. This determination was made after it was discovered that in the final days of her administration, the prior Comptroller expedited $71 million in accelerated fund transfers from the General Revenue Fund to various special funds including $31 million to the specific fund referenced. We have suspended payments from that fund, including over $27 million to five consulting firms, pending review of the ERP program.
The Comptroller wants assurances that resources are being allocated toward our most critical needs and not toward discretionary initiatives. She would like to see a complete justification of this investment in terms of future cost savings and benefits, and wants to know why these consulting firms appear to be prioritized for payment ahead of critical services like senior centers, hospice care facilities and educational institutions.
Our research on ERP initiatives indicates that these concerns may be warranted as the experience of other governmental entities engaging in similar initiatives faced chronic cost overruns, delays, significant audit findings and failure to meet program goals.
Accordingly, we would like to request from you a comprehensive progress report and update on the ERP program.
We are interested in a number of areas including the following: The breakdown of fees already paid and/or committed to consulting firms involved in the ERP; additional fees owed to consulting firms; program expenses to date; an updated program budget estimate; an itemized list of legacy accounting systems, if any, that have been decommissioned and replaced to date; a schedule for the replacement of additional legacy accounting systems; the number of staff (FTEs) and the name, title and salary of staff assigned to the ERP program; the names of the pilot agencies involved in the ERP and an updated timeline for the addition of other State agencies; and a program timeline including an estimated completion date. Importantly we would also request the most current program cost savings analysis.
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We didn’t get here by chance
Tuesday, Mar 14, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My Crain’s Chicago Business column…
Chance the Rapper didn’t tell just Gov. Bruce Rauner to do his job the other day, when he wrote a $1 million check to fund cash-strapped Chicago Public Schools. He asked the same thing of journalists a few days earlier. “I want you all to do your jobs. Like, seriously, all your publications that you guys work for. . . .If you guys could give a comprehensive history on how we ended up here.”
I don’t have the space to write a comprehensive history, but Illinois’ troubles began over 100 years ago. A 1917 study concluded that state pension systems were essentially insolvent. Instead of fixing the problem, the government allowed it to fester.
More than 50 years later, delegates to the state’s constitutional convention were so alarmed that they borrowed a scare tactic from New York: Lock in promised pension benefits with an ironclad lifetime guarantee to force the state’s leaders to finally put a lid on costs and provide enough money to sustain the pension funds.
It didn’t work. Benefits kept being added, funding kept being shorted.
Meanwhile, our courts decided that another new constitutional provision declaring the state had the “primary responsibility” for funding education didn’t mean the state was actually required to provide over half of all funding. The state’s share plummeted while local property taxes rose, and rose, and rose, putting the squeeze on homeowners and businesses alike.
Around the same time, the big brains who ran the state decided to drastically narrow our revenue base by exempting retirement income, food and medicine from state taxation. They also refused to tax services when the service economy was kicking into high gear, while creating tons of tax exemptions for big businesses that were having trouble in a changing economy.
And just for good measure, they greatly increased long-term pension costs by giving retirees a 3 percent compounded annual cost-of-living raise. Albert Einstein may have never called compounded interest the most powerful force in the universe, but he would’ve been right if he had.
Click here to read the rest before commenting, please. Also, keep in mind that the point of all this is that the state has repeatedly narrowed its taxing base (or refused to expand it) while continually spending ever more money.
* Related…
* Illinois considers applying sales taxes to more services
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Huge power grab or major legal stretch?
Tuesday, Mar 14, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
If Attorney General Lisa Madigan succeeds in convincing the Illinois Supreme Court to consider ordering the state to stop paying employees without an appropriation, and if Governor Bruce Rauner’s legal team uses the same arguments it did in St. Clair County, it will be important to understand the repercussions of his strategy.
First a little background. The Illinois Constitution and state laws are clear that no state money can be expended without a legal appropriation, which is legislative speak for a special kind of bill that lists how much government agencies, commissions, etc. can spend on various items.
As you probably know, the state hasn’t had a “real” budget in a couple of years. A budget is basically just a collection of appropriations. The last legal appropriation for state-employee payroll expired on June 30, 2015. Negotiations between the governor and legislative leaders stalled, and shortly thereafter a judge in St. Clair County ordered the state to pay its workers anyway. Everybody figured this would probably be a temporary situation, so nobody squawked too much. It’s been done before for a few weeks.
But the governmental stalemate has continued for more than 20 months. In January, Madigan got tired of waiting for the governor and the General Assembly to cut a deal and filed a legal motion in St. Clair County to vacate that 2015 order. She lost. We’re not sure exactly why because the judge didn’t issue a formal opinion, but the governor’s office was at that hearing and filed a brief opposing Madigan’s motion.
The governor doesn’t want Madigan to win because his bargaining position will be greatly weakened if the courts effectively shut down the state by ruling that money can’t be spent without appropriations. Rauner is demanding some business-related reforms, a property-tax freeze, and a few other things before he’ll agree to a tax hike to balance the state’s infamously out-of-whack budget. So the man who once bragged that he would use the crisis of the state not having a budget to force through his preferred legislative changes now wants to avoid a much-worse crisis that would compel him to abandon his demands to prevent the catastrophe of an actual government shutdown.
Got all that? Okay.
One of the arguments used by the governor’s lawyers when they won at the county level last month was that a bunch of state laws are in reality “continuing appropriations.” A continuing appropriation is a law mandating that certain state bills be paid in perpetuity. The General Assembly isn’t required to pass new appropriations every year, and the governor isn’t required to sign them into law. It’s automatic-pilot spending.
But the governor’s lawyers want to redefine what a continuing appropriation is. According to the governor’s legal brief, “there are many statutes that function as continuing appropriations by mandating the State to perform specific services. Employees who provide those services must continue to be paid.”
Examples the governor’s lawyers used included a state statute mandating that the Illinois Department on Aging “exercise, administer, and enforce all rights, powers, and duties vested in the Department on Aging by the Illinois Act on the Aging.” Complying with these and other mandates, they claimed, “necessitates paying personnel” – because compliance can’t be accomplished without employees.
The governor’s legal team then argued that it would take a lot of time to sift through all state laws to find these mandates, and that the task needed to be followed up by “evidentiary hearings to assess what employees are necessary to provide such services.” Such a process could take months, if not years. There are a ton of those mandates in the state-statute books.
Needless to say, if such an argument prevailed, it would give the executive branch almost limitless authority to spend taxpayer money as it pleased. And it wouldn’t end with employee salaries, either. If the Department on Aging determined that it needed a new Chicago office building to perform its mandated functions, or had to let millions of dollars in new contracts, or had to purchase a dozen new vehicles, then under the governor’s legal logic it could go right ahead and do so without any legislative approval whatsoever.
The governor’s team references what it considers to be favorable court rulings from 1953 and 1974, but this is either one of the most blatant executive-power grab I’ve seen or the biggest legal stretch ever.
* And while we’re on this topic, Doug Finke made some good points about the lawsuit…
Clearly, an adverse ruling from the court would force the governor and General Assembly to do something. You can’t expect people to come to work and not pay them. Nor can you expect the state to function without a workforce.
The solution could be approval, finally, of a permanent spending plan, or it could be just a narrowly focused thing to keep employees paid while everything else continues to languish.
Either way, it would be something.
Rauner also criticized Madigan for making the move just when things were coming together on the Senate’s “grand bargain.”
That worked better before Rauner peeled Republican support from the bargain.
Yep.
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