* Steve Schnorf’s “celebration of life” will be Thursday, March 30th. Steve asked me to emcee, and we’ll have a few folks speak at 2 pm in Statehouse Room 212. It’s likely that others will be asked to offer up their own stories as well. A reception with food and beverages will follow across the hall in Secretary of State Jesse White’s office. Many thanks to the Senate and to Secretary White for agreeing to help. There will be an after-party (or two), so ask me about it.
The 4th District Appellate Court, today granted AFSCME Council 31’s request to put on hold the state labor board’s impasse decision in contract negotiations between Governor Bruce Rauner and the largest union of public service workers in state government. As a result, Governor Rauner cannot impose his terms, which include a 100% increase in employee costs for health care that would cost the average state worker $10,000, and an end to basic safeguards against irresponsible privatization schemes.
The court predicated its ruling on a finding that the union has demonstrated a “reasonable likelihood” of prevailing in its appeal.
“Today’s decision is in the best interest of all the people of Illinois, both public service workers and the millions of citizens who rely on their important work,” AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said. “We strongly urge Governor Rauner to join us in the spirit of compromise and return to bargaining in good faith to reach an agreement that is truly fair to all.”
Rauner’s administration broke off talks between the parties in January 2016 and has since refused to meet with the union.
“We are currently analyzing this decision, but we are very disappointed with the court’s ruling which continues the stay that prevents our Administration from implementing common-sense changes in the AFSCME contract. These proposals include overtime eligibility after 40 hours instead of 37.5, the use of volunteers for state services, and a merit pay system. Every day of delay costs taxpayers over $2 million. Our contract framework is fair to the State’s taxpayers and employees alike and reflects proposals accepted by 20 other unions.”
“Why this Democrat is voting for Rauner?” was the headline of my commentary that the Tribune published on March 19, 2014. Borrowing a quote from President John F. Kennedy that said “sometimes party loyalty asks too much,” I explained that as a Democrat I supported Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner because Illinois was in grave financial peril and that we needed to change our financial direction.
After Rauner was elected, the Tribune published another piece I wrote where I urged Gov.-elect Rauner to fire his campaign staff, stop campaigning and start governing with advisers “who are problem solvers, who are not partisans, and who know how to compromise.”
Sadly, our state’s financial situation has continued to deteriorate. Problems have not been solved, bitter and excessive partisanship is accepted political strategy in Springfield, and “compromise” is a dirty word. I do not believe it’s all Gov. Rauner’s fault. It is the fault of both the Democratic and Republican parties. At least Democratic Senate President John Cullerton and Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno are trying to find compromise while House Speaker Michael Madigan insists it is his way or the highway. And while I continue to like and respect Gov. Rauner and his wife, Diana, I believe we need a change if we are to reach compromise and progress.
That is why I will enthusiastically vote for and support Chris Kennedy for governor of Illinois in 2018. As a friend of his mother and father for more than 60 years, I’ve known Chris since his birth. His dad, the late Robert Kennedy, and I were on the 1956 campaign staff of Illinois Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson when he ran for president. Because Bob Kennedy and I were about the same age, we were often roommates on campaign trips. And because we both had children of similar ages, we often talked about our families and our values. As the years passed, Chris grew up, married Sheila Berner, and moved to Chicago to manage the Merchandise Mart.
* Brief gubernatorial candidate and not exactly successful White House chief of staff Bill Daley demands solutions to the city’s crime problem…
Commentary: Enough! Chicago cannot keep tolerating gun violence.
* And former mayoral and presidential candidate Willie Wilson is spending about $8K for a month of cable TV ads on the city’s South Side…
Of all the items above, however, Wilson’s effort is probably the most important and genuine.
For his part, Rauner said the pair had agreed to talk more with [Chance the Rapper] over the weekend on a school funding solution that the two could present to the legislature when it reconvenes Tuesday.
* Twitters…
Chicago Public Schools and I did not lose today. Please don't let that become the narrative. Monday morning I'll have a plan.
— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) March 3, 2017
* The Question: After they solve the city’s school funding problem by Monday, what’s the next issue they should tackle?
…Adding…. Maybe he could negotiate a truce between Rauner and the comptroller?…
* Liberal Rapper whose father worked for Obama has unproductive meeting with Republican governor who never provides a straight answer to questions on just about anything. Surprise!…
The West Chatham native left Rauner’s Thompson Center office Friday feeling “flustered” after a 30-minute conversation with the governor that centered on funding from Chicago Public Schools.
Chance said he discussed the $215 million that had been earmarked for CPS in a budget deal that collapsed earlier this year.
“He asked me where I thought the $215 million was supposed to come from,” the rapper said, frowning, as a scrum of reporters crowded around him at the elevators.
Asked as he stepped onto an elevator what his message was, Chance said, “Take our kids off the table.”
“I’m here cause I just want people to do their jobs,” the musician told reporters after the meeting. “And I did speak with the governor. I asked him about funding CPS with that $215 million that was discussed in May of last year and was vetoed in December over, you know, political arguments and (stuff).”
* From a friend at the Thompson Center…
The most media I’ve seen on the 16th floor, they are stacked past the elevators.
This was the most over-hyped Chicago media event of the year.
* Be careful with this video. It’s got some words which are not safe for work, but if you can deal with that, have a look…
CTR: 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
Reporter: What did the governor say, may I ask you?
CTR: He gave me a lot of vague answers. So we’ll see what happens. He has my personal number. He told me that in 48 hours that, you know. Springfield is in session next week, so we’ll see.
“We had a discussion about education and education funding,” Rauner said. “Good exchange of views on what the options are, what the possibilities are.”
Rauner said Chance the Rapper was “very focused on getting quickly more money for CPS right now, and I share his passion.” The governor said he had offered to work over the weekend with the music artist to find a solution to the funding problem. He said the two agreed to remain in communication.
“I think we agreed that we’re going to talk further in the coming days, and we talked about working together,” Rauner said.
* The governor also told reporters he asked the rapper to work with him…
I said it’s an incredible opportunity to change our system. If we stood together, Chance, I have some power. I have power in some ways, you have great power in other ways. If we stood together, worked together to figure this out, then we could get big things done.
…Adding… As a commenter notes, that sounds a lot like Darth Vader’s infamous offer to Luke Skywalker.
For his part, Rauner said the pair had agreed to talk more with Chance over the weekend on a school funding solution that the two could present to the legislature when it reconvenes Tuesday.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Doomed! Doomed, I tells ya. Doomed!…
If Gov. Rauner is going to let foul mouthed Rapper help make state education decisions, we are all doomed.
One in four Illinois residents are confident in their state government, the lowest among the 50 states by a significant margin. Rhode Island (33%) and Connecticut (39%) join Illinois as states with less than 40% government confidence. North Dakota residents are the most trusting; 81% say they are confident in their state government.
One in four? Who are these one in four? I’d like to meet just one of them. Seriously. I’d love to talk to a single person who is confident in Illinois’ state government.
There is a strong positive relationship between residents’ ratings of their state’s economy and their confidence in state government. In addition to Illinois, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and Kansas all rank among the states in which residents are the least positive about their state’s economy. North Dakota, Utah, Minnesota and Nebraska are four states in which residents rate their state’s economy positively and express high confidence in their state government.
Illinois and Rhode Island tie for the lowest rating of current state economic conditions, at -15. Illinois residents are most negative about the direction of their state’s economy, with Connecticut and West Virginia close behind.
* Hat tip to the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service, by the way…
Almost 75 percent of people who live in Illinois say they have zero confidence in state government, according to a new poll.
Gallup asked 500 Illinoisans if they have confidence in their state’s “government in general.” An overwhelming 74 percent said no.
State Rep Tom Bennett says the only people who may be surprised by that are lawmakers in Springfield who want to keep trudging down the same road.
“We’re spending millions of dollars more than we bring in every day. It’s almost like it’s not real in some ways,” Bennett said of the lack of awareness at the Illinois Capitol. “It’s going to come to a head one day.”
Paychecks for nearly 600 state employees are caught up in a dispute between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic Comptroller Susana Mendoza over which state account to use to pay them.
None of the workers has missed a paycheck yet, but Mendoza’s office told Rauner’s office that it needed to resubmit paperwork to pay the workers “to avoid any disruption in payroll.”
Mendoza’s office says the workers should be paid out of two revolving funds that are used to cover expenses for state vehicle maintenance and building leases. The Rauner administration, though, wants the employees paid out of the state’s general fund.
In a letter to Mendoza’s office Thursday, Ryan Green, general counsel for the Department of Central Management Services, said payroll vouchers were submitted to Mendoza to pay the workers out of the state’s general fund, which is used for most expenses but no longer has enough money in it to cover all of the state’s bills.
However, Green said there also isn’t enough money in the Facilities Management Revolving Fund and the State Garage Revolving Fund to cover all of the expenses they are supposed to pay.
The State Garage Revolving Fund also is the source of critical fuel-related payments that keep state vehicles on the road, as well as fund the maintenance of Department of Human Services’ vehicles that transport our most vulnerable citizens for medical treatment. By forcing CMS to drain the Revolving Funds, your office is putting those critical health and safety functions of the State at risk. And make no mistake, shifting payroll to these funds ensures they will be depleted long before the fiscal year is over. We have determined that, ifpayroll is included, the cash projected to be in Revolving Funds through the end of this fiscal year is not sufficient to cover all of the above critical services. Because these funds get the bulk of their revenues from GRF payments required to be made by the agencies that CMS serves, in the current budget impasse, those agencies do not have sufficient GRF or other available appropriations to make complete and timely payments into these CMS Revolving Funds. […]
As you know, CMS is authorized under the State Finance Act (30 ILCS 105) to pay employees under all available funds, including GRF. And CMS’s payroll plans line up with a longstanding practice of prior Comptrollers in recognizing each agency’s discretion with respect to the source offunds used to make payroll. In other words, after drawing the Revolving Funds down to zero, you will be forced to switch back to GRF to comply with Judge LeChien’s court order. Why, then, do we need to deplete other critical funds in the process?
Good point. The other side is that the GRF bank account is essentially overdrawn right now to the tune of $12 billion. Paying those workers from GRF will only make the backlog worse.
Our Office is in receipt of Central Management Services’ payroll voucher submission to the Office of Comptroller for which there is no authorization beyond the $771,747 remaining from existing amounts available from General Revenue Funds.
As a result of the Governor’s failure to present a balanced budget for the General Assembly’s action, the Office of the Comptroller is left to triage the state’s obligations to ensure provision of critical services for the state’s residents, particularly the most vulnerable. All efforts must be made to utilize existing resources from other available state funds, especially when there are enacted appropriations specifically for such purposes. Your agency’s original request for an additional $24 million, or 73%, increase over previous levels is simply not appropriate given the dire circumstances the state is facing.
Maybe a truce is in order here? “Prior comptrollers” often had decent working relationships with the governor’s office. Team Rauner has not been kind to Mendoza since their own candidate lost the election and that unkindness has been returned in, um, kind.
The fact remains that your agency has yet to expend from lawfully enacted appropriations of $32 million despite the fact that the current balances of these funds exceed $93 million. These are the same funds that you utilized in previous years for payroll without expressing concerns about disruption.
We’re already nine months into the fiscal year and CMS hasn’t yet tapped into those funds? Looks like they could be squirreling money away in case the grand bargain fails. And it also looks like Mendoza isn’t going to let them do this and might end up causing some sort of crisis as a result.
In regard to potential disruption of critical services, if you feel that you have over extended your obligations as to put critical health and safety functions of the State at risk, we encourage you to seek the proper appropriation authority from the General Assembly and the Governor immediately.
A budget deal would, indeed, solve this problem pretty quick.
Furthermore, when the General Assembly passed and the Governor signed Public Act 99-0524 in June 2016, the legislative intent on the treatment of payroll during the budget impasse was clear. The amounts appropriated in various funds, including the Revolving Funds at issue in your direction to CMS, are not intended to be used for payroll.
Putting it all together, it is our position that the Comptroller has the legal authority to continue processing payroll vouchers for this group of approximately 400 CMS employees using GRF. There is no legal reason to shift to the Revolving Funds. Nor is there any sensible policy rationale for forcing CMS to exhaust critical funds and put the health and safety ofour citizens at risk. We will continue to draw our payroll vouchers against GRF and will expect your office to comply with the St. Clair County court order by processing them as you and your predecessor have done up to this point.
She doesn’t need a “legal reason.” She pays the bills. You gotta do it her way if you want those bills paid unless you want to take her to court.
Again, call a truce and work it out. Wouldn’t that be better than engaging in this back and forth every time there’s a disagreement?
“This decision will begin to deplete these government shutdown prevention funds, which could compromise IDPH services,” said IDPH Director Nirav D. Shah, M.D., J.D. “Communicable disease investigations and nursing home inspections would be impacted if the state were unable to pay rent because of this directive.”
“The Department of Human Services provides critical services to families in need,” DHS Secretary Jim Dimas said. “This could impair our ability to provide children and families with access to food assistance, child care and health care needs.” […]
“Comptroller Mendoza recently paid state legislators, and herself, the same way CMS is requesting to pay these 578 employees,” Acting Director Hoffman said. “There is no reason CMS should be forced to drain our government shutdown prevention funds to make payroll when she has money available to pay these employees.”
Um, she hasn’t yet paid herself. Legislators have been paid once in six months.
* The response…
Governor Rauner’s administration is trying to concoct a phony crisis to create a headline to deflect once again from his failure to fulfill his constitutional duty to propose a balanced budget.
The Rauner administration has $93 million dollars in two funds that they have always used to pay the employees of Central Management Services. Now they suddenly want to horde those funds and instead raid the state’s General Revenue Fund – taking money from patients in hospice and nursing homes; meals on wheels for the elderly; and support services for disabled children.
Instead of using the funds with a balance of $93 million; Gov. Rauner wants to raid the fund he put $12.5 billion in the hole by failing to propose a balanced budget for the last three years.
Rauner’s administration has more than enough money to pay employees from the department’s self-protected funds. The only reason to draw attention to this issue now is to manufacture a phony headline about state employees in “danger” of missing a paycheck. This is just one of many phony stories Rauner’s administration has shopped in recent weeks. Expect more: All just as phony.
No employees will miss any paychecks if the administration uses the money that the General Assembly authorized them to use and the Governor signed. These funds were used in an identical fashion under the previous Comptroller. The Facilities Management Revolving Fund and the State Garage Revolving Fund have no role in caring for seniors, the disabled or newborns as the administration cynically suggests. The administration can continue using those funds for payroll as they always have. Or they can choose to create a phony crisis for P.R. value and continue playing politics with people’s lives.
Caterpillar has said it is cooperating with subpoenas tied to a federal investigation of undistributed profits from subsidiaries outside the United States. That’s how the system usually works: Prosecutors issue subpoenas, and a company’s top lawyer ensures evidence is preserved, collected and handed over. The raid raises the possibility that the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Central Illinois was worried that might not happen.
“The fact the federal government has decided to obtain and execute search warrant indicates they are concerned evidence will not be preserved or turned over to them unless they seize it themselves,” said Renato Mariotti, a partner at Thompson Coburn and a former assistant U.S. Attorney. “It’s a big step to send agents into the headquarters of a big company to seize documents.” […]
Caterpillar was sued in 2009 by a former executive who alleged the company had shifted profits overseas to avoid $2 billion in taxes. The lawsuit was settled in 2012, but two years later the company’s tax strategy was investigated by a U.S. Senate subcommittee.
Obtaining a warrant means persuading a judge that probable causes exists to search a person or property, said Ken Yeadon, a partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson and a former U.S. Attorney. It does happen, like when prosecutors were building a case against Chicago-based BCI Aircraft Leasing for fraud. But generally, law enforcement only seizes evidence in cases where there’s something that, “if you don’t act right away, you’re not going to get. A time-is-of-the-essence situation.”
The full search warrant is most definitely worth a read. Click here.
* Federal agents raid Caterpillar offices as part of tax strategy investigation: The investigation appears to stem from revelations about the company’s tax strategy as outlined in a 2009 federal wrongful termination lawsuit brought by Daniel Schlicksup. The lawsuit alleged the company shifted profits overseas and to offshore shell companies to avoid paying more than $2 billion in U.S. taxes. Schlicksup settled the suit in 2012.
* Federal Officials Raid 3 Caterpillar Offices in Illinois: Caterpillar reported sales fell 18 percent in 2016 to $38.5 billion and since late 2015 it has shrunk its workforce by more than 16,000 employees and consolidated or closed 30 facilities. Caterpillar cut 12,300 jobs in 2016, including 7,700 in the United States.
Days after a man awaiting trial on murder charges was mistakenly released on parole, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office says it will no longer send convicted defendants who still have pending cases to be fingerprinted and photographed by the Illinois Department of Corrections and then immediately returned to the county jail.
The release last week of Garrett Glover, who as of Thursday evening was still the subject of an intense manhunt, sparked a war of words and finger-pointing between the two law enforcement agencies. On Tuesday, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart sent IDOC Director John Baldwin a letter criticizing the agency for releasing Glover without checking his criminal history or calling his office.
“Either step would have immediately revealed the existence of the open murder case,” Dart wrote.
On Thursday, Baldwin responded, saying IDOC relies on the sheriff’s office to provide accurate information and that a search of Glover’s paperwork as well as a law-enforcement database showed no holds barring his release on parole.
“We are always willing to assist your office in whatever way we can; however, we cannot take responsibility for your office’s error,” Baldwin wrote.
* As subscribers know, they didn’t just “consider” this idea, the Senate President agreed to put it into the grand bargain package as a concession to the GOP…
Senate Democrats also considered rolling back portions of the proposed income tax increase after several years, though that idea was not incorporated in the latest tax legislation filed Thursday.
You’ll recall that the governor campaigned on the idea of raising the income tax a bit (he never really said by how much) and then rolling it all the way back to 3 percent by the end of his first term. Those 2014 hopes of his are now completely dashed, but this shows you how far Cullerton was prepared to go this week. After all, the temporary nature of the 2011 income tax hike is what put Illinois into this current disaster. Do we really want to go through that again in five years?
The Republicans counter that Gov. Quinn’s biggest mistake was that he didn’t reduce spending by enough to deal with the rollback from 5 to 3.75 percent on January 1, 2015. They’re absolutely right about that. The Democrats did cut some spending, but not nearly enough. They just figured they’d either win again or that the newbie Rauner would be a pushover.
Illinois would charge sales tax on storage lockers, private detectives, lawn care and body piercing under legislation introduced in the Senate on Thursday. […]
The measure would extend the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax to self-storage units, including storage in apartments tenants pay for and lockers rented at amusement parks and recreational facilities. Lawn and garden services including mowing, watering, tree- and shrub-care and patio installation would be subject to the tax.
Other services that would be subject to the tax are: laundry, dry-cleaning, pressing and linen services; private detective and alarm devices; cable television, audio and video streaming and satellite services; pest control; and “personal care services” such as cosmetics, tattoos, body piercing, tanning and massage. Hair removal would be taxed, but not haircuts.
The full proposal (Amendment 3 to SB 9) is here. The service taxes are listed starting on page 212.
* And Hillman makes a good point…
This is going to give consumers fits. It is worded so vaguely it could trap all kinds of internet services. Multimedia elements? #Twillpic.twitter.com/CYb1xRayyN
“The amount of time that I have at home is minimal, I need to make sure that it’s productive,” Bost said Friday. “You know the cleansing that the Orientals used to do where you’d put one person out in front and 900 people yell at them? That’s not what we need. We need to have meetings with people that are productive.”
In a statement Thursday, Bost said he “used a poor choice of words” in describing “coordinated disruptions” he says are taking place across the country.
Bost spokesman George O’Connor said Bost’s use of Orientals was a reference to sessions during China’s Cultural Revolution when individuals were publicly humiliated and subjected to verbal abuse by a crowd.
“While there was no malicious intent, I regret that my words may have distracted from an important point,” Bost said. “When the booing and shouting drowns out the conversation we’re trying to have with our constituents, it becomes that much harder to govern.”
OK, but, again, this is a politician who became nationally known for screaming at the Democrats on the Illinois House floor and then parlayed that epic rant into a congressional seat. And now he’s using the potential for shouting by his own constituents as an excuse to not hold town halls.
*** UPDATE *** From US Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who is an Asian-American…
“Congressman Bost’s remarks are offensive and hurtful to Asian Americans and Asians around the world. In addition to owing his constituents a sincere apology, he should put more thought into his words in the future. Racism has no place in American political discourse.”
