The appearance of cuts
Monday, Apr 17, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* AP…
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed 2018 budget would eliminate or significantly cut funding in at least 40 areas, a new analysis finds.
Those include after-school programs, immigrant services and mass-transit subsidies, according to the Associated Press analysis.
Still, those cuts collectively would result in only $242 million in savings — one-half of 1 percent of what the state government spends in a year.
That illustrates how much more cutting would need to be done to make a real difference for the state, whose financial crisis has worsened over the course of a two-year stalemate between the first-term governor and legislators led by Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.
* It also illustrates how the governor’s critique of the Senate’s grand bargain in this early March AP report is so hollow…
[Gov. Rauner] denied pressuring anyone and said Tuesday he opposes the package, negotiated by Democratic Senate President John Cullerton and Republican Leader Christine Radogno, because it spends too much.
“From what I’ve been told, based on what’s in the package so far, they don’t make any real spending cuts,” Rauner said. “So the budget’s not balanced. That’s one challenge. I’ve said please try to get that done - that’s pretty critical.”
* Meanwhile, JB Pritzker offered up his two cents…
“When you’re governor, you’ve got to step up to the plate, you’ve got to make a proposal for a balanced budget. That’s the requirement. And then you’ve got to sit down and negotiate if the folks that you need to work with disagree with you on points,” [Pritzker] said.
“Instead, what did he do? He went into the room. He said, ‘Great, lay all of your ideas on the table.’ They did. Then he walks out of the room and lambasts all the people in the room. And then he walks back into the room and says, ‘Great, let’s keep negotiating.’ And then he walks out of the room and lambasts every one of the proposals and then walks back into the room. And that’s his idea of negotiating,” Pritzker said.
Last week, Rauner spent two days touring the state on a campaign-funded tour. He blamed Democrats for stonewalling on his economic agenda.
- Dolphin - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 9:29 am:
Pritzker is right. That’s how Rauner negotiates.
- Saluki - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 9:32 am:
Pretty good summation of what Rauner has done.
- Gruntled University Employee - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 9:33 am:
There’s an old saying that you get the Government that you deserve. No one deserves this.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 9:41 am:
Whoa, Pritzker understands this exceptionally well
Can Pritzker use that $7 million to break through the Rauner rhetoric and get Skyhook, in reverse, in motion?
Can Pritzker, by circumventing the Rauner media, make the Democrat’s case to allow voters to see Rauner’s reality, that Rauner hides with costumes, Tee-Vee Ads, and undercutting people like Leader Radogno?
I’d like to see that, for all of Illinois’ sake
- Earnest - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 9:51 am:
>And that’s his idea of negotiating
Nice statement by Pritzker. Time for me to stop living in the past, but the IDP should have been doing this two years ago. Or, heck, now.
- slow down - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 9:52 am:
Can anyone even attempt to make an argument against Pritzker’s statement? He’s exactly right.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 9:56 am:
=== but the IDP ===
There is no such organization. It’s the DPI. If you’re gonna whack it, at least know what you’re whacking.
- Huh? - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 9:57 am:
GUE- Sadly, I must disagree with you. The people of Illinois willingly elected 1.4% despite his rhetoric. We deserve what is happening because we elected him.
- Cassandra - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 10:04 am:
He may be right but is there any evidence he can negotiate effectively. He wants Rauner’s job. Or would his election be another leap into the unknown. Negotiations are tough especially when they are taking place in a state with no money.
Somebody, perhaps many somebodies will be losers when it’s over.
- Earnest - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 10:06 am:
>There is no such organization. It’s the DPI. If you’re gonna whack it, at least know what you’re whacking.
Actually there is an Illinois IDP, though not an organization: http://www.dmv.org/international-driver-permits.php
but I did mean the Democratic Party of Illinois. Apologies, I’ve let my typing and feeling get ahead of my thinking this morning.
- Pundent - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 10:08 am:
=The people of Illinois willingly elected 1.4% despite his rhetoric.=
Rauner purposely tamped down his rhetoric to get elected. He professed to having no social agenda, claimed that he wasn’t anti-union, and said that his business skills made him uniquely qualified. Rauner is a master of saying one thing and doing another. The only question at this point is whether or not the electorate has caught on.
- @misterjayem - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 10:09 am:
“Or would his election be another leap into the unknown.”
Given the choice between a leap into the unknown and certain destruction, I’m leaping every time.
– MrJM
- Ducky LaMoore - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 10:16 am:
===That illustrates how much more cutting would need to be done to make a real difference for the state, whose financial crisis has worsened over the course of a two-year stalemate between the first-term governor and legislators led by Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.===
The democrats basically need to hold hearings on the governor’s budget, and have some D legislators ready to vote for it. His awful budget is way better than no budget. It relieves pressure on them and puts it on the governor. Would the governor sign his own sham budget…? Would he veto his own sham budget…? I think it is time to find out.
- RNUG - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 10:17 am:
I agree with the comments about Rauner’s negotiating style.
And my first thought this morning, on reading the story in the SJ-R, was about the same as Rich’s; all this pain over a measly percentage of the budget.
But then I did a rethink. Yes, these cuts don’t amount to an ant hill. But they are still necessary from a Public Relations perspective. You need to be able to lay out lots and lots of cuts as an offsetting factor to the massive tax increase we all know is needed. The only problem is we could have been at this point 2 years ago without all the pain and increased debt.
- Ubecha - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 10:19 am:
Pritzker is absolutely spot on in his assessment of Rauner’s method. I’ve been told by countless folks who have personally been in meetings with Rauner and that scenario takes place time and time again.
- for real - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 10:35 am:
==- Ducky LaMoore - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 10:16 am:
===That illustrates how much more cutting would need to be done to make a real difference for the state, whose financial crisis has worsened over the course of a two-year stalemate between the first-term governor and legislators led by Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.===
The democrats basically need to hold hearings on the governor’s budget, and have some D legislators ready to vote for it. His awful budget is way better than no budget. It relieves pressure on them and puts it on the governor. Would the governor sign his own sham budget…? Would he veto his own sham budget…? I think it is time to find out.==
They did hold hearings about his budget. A dozen or so. The media (other than Rich) doesn’t cover them.
- walker - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 10:51 am:
Pritzker has been well-informed by some who have been “behind closed doors” with Rauner.
- facts are stubborn things - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 10:58 am:
forget term limits, property freeze and workers comp Mr.Rauner and set down and negotiate a budget with cuts and revenue. Call the Dems and say lets set down and hammer this thing out. With real cuts, which he can get with new revenue, does come reforms. The only way to get reforms is not to take these non budget items ( I know lots of things can effect the budget) but rather obtain reforms by focusing on the budget and getting the cuts you want as part of a balance of cuts and revenue. MJM will negotiate with you if you quite attacking him and quite asking for things that you can not get like property tax freezes and term limits etc. Make the 2018 election about those things, if you wan,t but you have to be able to count to 60 and 30.
- Ghost - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 12:31 pm:
They should just seriously pass Rauners proposed budget, since its balanced and all; and say they gave him what he asked for
- RNUG - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 12:46 pm:
== They should just seriously pass Rauners proposed budget, since its balanced and all; and say they gave him what he asked for ==
… and add a provision limiting his ability to shift funds to only 1% instead of the current, I think, 10% … because what it seems Rauner really wants is just a block budget amount he can shuffle money around where HE wants just like he did when he was doing bust-outs in the private sector. Or better yet, if he is as good a manager as he claims, don’t allow any funds shifting without a bill passing the House and Senate … no MOU’s, make him come back for authorization on everything; it can’t be any slower than now with NO budget.
- Mama - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 2:00 pm:
The more I hear JB Pritzker talk, the more I think he may know how to govern. I think Pritzker may be our best chance of beating Rauner. Plus the voters seem to like rich outsiders.
- blue dog dem - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 2:19 pm:
RNUG. With greatest respect. Conservatives. Real ones. Are demanding real cuts. Voters like me will not cast a ballot for a candidate that will not cut this budget. Stay at home voters will doom Rauner in a tight race.
- wordslinger - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 5:14 pm:
Blue Dog, I know in your dotage you like to sit around the cracker barrel whittlin and spoutin antebellum Scarlett O’Hara nonsense, but us Yankees have been doing the heavy lift to make a go of it for a while here.
Check the google. We’ve been carrying your water for a very long time.
- blue dog dem - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 5:30 pm:
Word. Pretty good stuff. But I am not really sure how it applies. But if you are alluding to the fact that you Yankees have tax dollars rnding up in so. Ill you will get no argument from me. That has zero to do with across the state spending cuts. Including LGDF. My continual reference to a city earnings tax for the Windy City is my plea for progressives to lead the way so that maybe my cold cruel heart may open up to ‘your’ desired income tax increase.
Just a question for you. Do you think our state has any wasteful spending in our past budgets?
- wordslinger - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 6:02 pm:
–My continual reference to a city earnings tax for the Windy City is my plea for progressives to lead the way so that maybe my cold cruel heart may open up to ‘your’ desired income tax increase.–
Dude, you might have a lot more money than your neighbors, but you choose to live in Southern Illinois, an area way subsidized from us up yonder.
Whine all you want, huckleberry, but you ain’t foolin’ no one who is actually pulling the load.
- blue dog dem - Monday, Apr 17, 17 @ 6:56 pm:
Word. How in the heck did you know my nickname?
Shucks, I do have a little in common with Trump, and I try and avoid paying taxes as much as I can. And a little confession. I hired a certain law firm on La Salle st. To try and get the property taxes on the old widget factory reduced.
But ya didn’t answer my question Aristotle, Does the state have anything left to cut?