55 Comments - 47th Ward - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:42 am: Wouldn’t that be a duct tape “solution?” Lol. These guys are so transparent and phony. - Il annoyed - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:47 am: This is the worst possible outcome for IL. If the Dems agree to stand alone K to 12 funding they are removing pressure to create a real, full budget. They are letting Rauner cherry pick who will be hurt by the budget crisis, higher ed and social services. They are, in effect, letting him pick the hostages, the constituents he doesn’t care about. It was a terrible move to sign off on stand alone K to 12 funding for the last two years. If there’s no k to 12 funding without a whole budget, I am certain there’ll be the pressure from constituents to end this budget crisis. - On point - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:47 am: For all his detractors, Goldberg did a tremendous job this morning before a testy and partisan panel. Democrats came in trying to score politics points and looked worse for it. - Lucky Pierre - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:47 am: Right and the guys proposing the duct tape solution are virtuous and without fault - RNUG - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:48 am: Rauner would sign it in a New York Minute because it would take tons of pressure off him. Right now, if schools don’t open in the fall, it will.be Rauner’s fault. - wondering - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:48 am: The failed governor is begging for a “D-” instead of an “F”. - Rogue Roni - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:49 am: Shut the schools down. maybe when John Q. Public doesn’t have a place to send the kids will people wake up. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:50 am: ===owever, Goldberg went on to say that he believes “K-12 education, ensuring that schools open in the fall will absolutely be a top priority for him,” as it has in the past.=== Textbook “choosing the hostages”. The embarrassing part is the outright sham that Goldberg is saying; We don’t believe in… but Rauner will allow… How can that not be Rauner holding hostages and choosing hostages. It’s all about insulating Rauner and blaming anyone but Rauner as squeeze the beast, even by Goldberg’s own words, is touted. - Cubs in '16 - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:50 am: In other news, Goldberg confirms the sun rises in the east. - Saluki - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:51 am: The man infuriates me on a daily basis. The only real leverage he has to get the reforms he wants he is unwilling to use. It is almost like his goal is to just make sure that he does as much damage as possible for as long as possible to the state of Illinois. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, I would rather have Blago at the controls. In my opinion, Rauner is the worst Governor in the history of Illinois. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:52 am: ===Right and the guys proposing the duct tape solution are virtuous and without fault=== Funding only K-12 is the textbook duct tape… - East Central Illinois - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:55 am: At least if we do have school in the fall, we can all go to the local high school football game and see the “widened, but not moved, goalposts”. - illini - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:55 am: I totally agree with RNUG that signing off on this without a full budget would take a lot of pressure off the Governor. Now, if he would only make that same commitment to our Junior Colleges and ALL of Higher Education!! - pawn - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:55 am: I swear I will scream if Rauner gets a stand alone K-12 bill to sign. It should absolutely be linked in every way to the rest of the budget, or they should not send him one in the first place. Enough of this. - East Central Illinois - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:56 am: illini @ 10:55 a.m. AMEN!!! - Thoughts Matter - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:57 am: Legislators - do NOT give him this gift. It’s either all or nothing in terms of money( length of budget negotiable) Hold him to his statements regarding duct tape. . If anyone asks why, play his folksy commercials. If you don’t, the rest of the hostages remain hostages or close down altogether. - Nick Name - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:57 am: What pawn said. - Testy - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 10:58 am: Each entitled to his own opinion, but I disagree with On Point about discourse between Goldberg and committee: it was challenging questions met with defensiveness, repetition of admin talking points, passive aggressive answers and interruptions. - Cubs in '16 - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:02 am: Dems have been unwilling, up till now, to allow K-12 to become another hostage. Will they have the fortitude to do so this year? Or are they too afraid of the political blow-back when Rauner pins all the blame on them? - Langhorne - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:03 am: Rauner has three pressure points: –schools not opening –shutdown of state services –repub rank and file uprising, due to univs closing, or whatever End this, for god sake - Simple Simon - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:04 am: If Rauner receives a K12 bill to sign, it will mean Madigan is stalling until the end of Rauner’s term and there will be no budgets before 2019. While I agree that all of Rauner’s “reforms” should be resisted,who would want to start cleaning up the mess aftet Rauner is gone, D or R? Need to start NOW. - Il annoyed - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:08 am: Langhorne is right! If, schools don’t open, rank and file Republicans break away, or state services stop, it’s game over for Rauner. The Dems need to have the courage to insist on school funding being tied to a full budget. If we get to Sept. and schools aren’t opening, the gov. will be hopin, and wishin, and prayin to get something as good as the Grand Bargain. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:08 am: The lunacy that some are cheering how well Goldberg “did”, when in fact Goldberg also laid out which hostages Rauner will tolerate and which hostages can die, y’all are really missing a great deal to the governing by blindly be partisan. But y’all keep cheering the hostage takers. Words fail. - Honeybear - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:11 am: No longer the Prince of Snarkness Prince of Perfidy - Markus - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:12 am: ALL GRF funding bills should be tied together and prorated based on available GRF revenue projections. If one gets voted down, they all die. If there is only 80% of GRF revenue available, then all entities relying on GRF including K-12, get 80%. It’s time to treat all hostages the same until the governor submits a balanced budget proposal. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:12 am: At this point… and how insane is this… Giving Rauner the stand-alone K-12 funding bill… it’s not political malpractice anymore. No. It’s governmental malpractice to help Rauner destroy social services and higher education by allowing Rauner a stand-alone K-12 funding bill. That. That’s how messed up this is. It’s eclipsed the political framing, coming half back on the spectrum to it actually being a governmental malpractice. If that doesn’t sober you up… - Earnest - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:14 am: Forgot: Continuing approp for employee pay - Skeptical - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:15 am: It is a full budget or nothing. The so called governor would like nothing better than a stand alone K-12 bill. This should be an easy decision - winners and losers - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:18 am: ==–schools not opening –shutdown of state services –repub rank and file uprising, due to univs closing, or whatever== As of now I would bet on a K-12 budget being passed and signed by Rauner. - wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:19 am: Stop the presses. Signing K-12 bills have given Rauner enough cover to gut higher ed and renege on contracts to state vendors. That’s the whole strategy to achieve the squeeze the beast objective. And it’s been highly successful. I’d add that Munger’s lame-duck transfer of GRF funds to pay the IT pinstripe patronage army — even though an ample, dedicated fund existed for that purpose — is part of that strategy, too. Once that $71M was gone, no soup for you social service contractors. But still plenty of dough in that dedicated fund for the IT fancy pants. - Ducky LaMoore - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:23 am: Just shut it all down until something is hammered out. The governor will continues to actively escape governing otherwise. Force the hand, win or lose. Force him to give more than platitudes. Force him to do the job he was elected to do. - OurMagician - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:25 am: Of course he’d sign a stand alone K-12 building. People would actually realize what a mess the states in then. A dig in poll would show how few people know about the problems the state is in. Asking do you like Madigan or Rauner isn’t going to show the level of knowledge people have. - Texas Red - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:26 am: Basic take away from most posters here is this: Instead of seeing Rauner as compromising by agreeing to a K-12 funding, they would rather block that and use the kids as hostages. The Dems are saying that the kids are not worth compromising on collective bargaining, prevailing wage, workers comp, pension reform, term limits or really any of the Rauner agenda. - NoGifts - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:32 am: Why is higher education consistently not included with discussions of education funding. If going to college is as important as we claim it is, why doesn’t it have the same urgency? - RNUG - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:33 am: Adding … Wait to pass a K-12 bill until all other budget bills ate passed AND signed … or you will just get a repeat of the last go round. - Oh Boy - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:34 am: Goldberg didn’t choose hostages. Goldberg prioritized. Education is the top priority. On that he was clear. Others want everything to be a priority. You can’t do everything in this environment. - @misterjayem - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:37 am: UPDATE: Goldberg says Rauner would eat stand-alone dessert. – MrJM - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:37 am: ===Instead of seeing Rauner as compromising by agreeing to a K-12 funding, they would rather block that and use the kids as hostages.=== Keep up, please. Having Rauner choose his hostages will only continue Rauner’s new “status quo” of refusing to fund higher education, and waiting for the collapse of social services. Giving Rauner the opportunity to not feel pressure, so everyone can be saved, is all that’s left. The only way your connect makes sense is if you want universities to close and social services to disappear, so schools open. How messed up is that? ===The Dems are saying that the kids are not worth compromising on collective bargaining, prevailing wage, workers comp, pension reform, term limits or really any of the Rauner agenda=== No, it says… “Governor… you don’t have 60 and 30 to… end collective bargaining, end prevailing wage, restructure workers comp, a constitutional pension reform, no term limits majorities, or really any of the Rauner agenda. Governor, are you willing to hurt K-12 now too” - illini - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:37 am: The more I think about this the more infuriated I become. Absolutely no one underestimates the importance of K-12 funding, but to separate this from the rest of the budget, yet again, is giving Rauner exactly what he wants. A stand alone appropriation will further enable Rauner to further pick and choose his hostages. And @Willy is absolutely - correct for either branch of the GA to send him a stand alone bill is indeed “governmental malpractice”. Oh, I forgot the “Grand Bargain” is still being negotiated. Should I hold my breath? - Il annoyed - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:40 am: Texas Red: The hostages have already been taken by Rauner. The principal here is to deny him the option of picking who they are and who they aren’t. That said, I completely agree that the Dems should work with him on the items mentioned, just not as a result of leverage gained through his refusal to budget/do his job. That sets a terrible precedent that other governors could use to push their pet legislation. We don’t negotiate with terrorists for good reason. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:42 am: ===Goldberg didn’t choose hostages=== (Face Palm) Goldberg made clear which hostages Rauner will save, which hostages aren’t worth saving. They’re Goldberg’s words. They’re Goldberg’s choice in picking. What, you think those not pick will be “fine”? Prioritizing means others are better off. They’re not better off. - NorthsideNoMore - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:49 am: Do the right thing… Its for the Kids ! - Winnin' - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 11:53 am: Winners and Losers? Only Rauner is winnin’. - JS Mill - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 12:02 pm: Rauner only partially funded k-12 this year. We are actually in worse shape than during proration because of MCAT funding. Yesterday we were told that we just got our one and only MCAT. Some districts won’t be able to do that next year. We are better off if k-12 is not funded in order to force a proper resolution. - Jocko - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 12:09 pm: ==ensuring that schools open in the fall will absolutely be a top priority for him…== Goldberg left out “…because parents would have Bruce tarred and feathered if he didn’t.” - Cubs in '16 - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 12:10 pm: ===We are better off if k-12 is not funded in order to force a proper resolution.=== To put things in perspective, this comment comes from an education administrator. So the faux outrage from a few of the commenters doesn’t hold water. - anon2 - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 12:17 pm: Republican legislators argue that the Dem stopgap bill would take pressure off the General Assembly to get a full budget. It’s indisputable that piecemeal ed funding would take off even more pressure. They can’t have it both ways! - winners and losers - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 12:30 pm: ===We are better off if k-12 is not funded in order to force a proper resolution.=== In this situation with total war, you may come to regret that comment. In this situation just what is a “proper resolution”? Administrators had better realize that they cannot have it all, and that trying to have it all (money AND complete freedom to spend it via Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 2808) may result in chaos. It is not at all impossible that NO budget will be passed if the demand is all or nothing. - 360 Degree TurnAround - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 12:36 pm: I listened to and was present at the committee at its resolution. If I were Goldberg, I wouldn’t consider today a “win”. - justpeachy - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 1:42 pm: Full budget or nothing! Let’s stop covering the Governor’s butt!! - Arthur Andersen - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 2:04 pm: It’s all for naught if higher ed gets stiffed again. On the other hand, we see one Uni in serious trouble starting a Criminal Justice major (which will be popular) when another troubled one has had a program for decades. iSU, hanging in there, has the same thing. Begging the question…what happened to the IBHE? - logic not emotion - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 2:35 pm: Would absolutely not provide k-12 funding bill. A real budget or none. - JS Mill - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 4:23 pm: @Winners and losers- I can do the math. Right now for much of k-12 it is death by a thousand cuts. It would be better for everyone to get a real budget and appropriate funding. Including social services and higher ed. What is happening now is insane. - peon - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 8:01 pm: Blather. Stopgap. Repeat. “Change is hard” says the Governor. Nov 2018 will show that change is incredibly easy after this dysfunctional tediousness. - mama - Thursday, Apr 27, 17 @ 9:08 pm: Don’t make the same mistakes you made in the pass and expect a different result. Continue to include K-12 with the rest of the budget. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.