Cochran mansplains Mendoza
Monday, Apr 3, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Dude, let it go already…
A talk radio host who was called out by Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza for an on-air comment about duct-taping her mouth said Monday that he was “offended” by the way she addressed the issue.
Mendoza on Friday held a news conference and blasted WGN radio host Steve Cochran for “rape culture” language after he joked on air with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner last week about using duct tape to “put it over her mouth.” Mendoza called on Cochran and Rauner to apologize, “for the millions of women who’ve been victims of violence or sexual abuse.” […]
On his Monday show, Cochran reiterated the apology. He also questioned Mendoza’s motives, saying her choice to address the issue by news conference was “a reach for publicity.”
“If the event was called blowing something out of proportion for potential political gain, it would have made sense. But not in this case,” Cochran said. “I’m quite sure the comptroller knows how this works. If you’re upset, we talk about it … if you call me, I’ll talk to you and we’ll talk it out. Nobody from the comptroller’s office called me, I’m not that hard to find, and I didn’t find out she was going to do this until … the event happened Friday afternoon and became a news story.”
You get paid to make a stupid joke about duct-taping a female officeholder’s mouth shut on a 50,000 watt clear-channel radio station and yet you’re the victim because she somehow owes you a phone call?
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When superstars collide with reality
Monday, Apr 3, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Tribune profiles the governor’s current and former superstars…
When Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner took office, he boasted of a “superstar” team he’d hired to help remake state government.
The team consisted of a consultant with experience helping governors craft spending plans in Florida and California, a former budget office chief from Georgia and the ex-governor of Hawaii. Rauner said they were “the perfect trio” to “help turn our state around.” […]
It’s common for politicians to tout an incoming administration as better, brighter and more competent than that of the vanquished predecessor. In Rauner’s case, his pledge to “assemble a superstar ‘A’ team to turn the government around” also was symbolic of a central premise of his candidacy: that a successful businessman could bring fiscal order to state government by recruiting special talent and applying private-sector practices. […]
When Rauner first talked up his superstars, the new governor was fresh off a campaign in which he’d promised to “shake up Springfield” and use his business skills to streamline the state government bureaucracy. These days though, the governor says he’s focusing on what he can “control.”
That shift has resulted in less emphasis the past year on the notion that superstars can whip the state into shape. Instead, the governor has pivoted his message to attack Democrats who’ve long controlled the legislature and have blocked many of his initiatives.
* And this passage is getting some play in the Twitterverse…
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It’s just a bill
Monday, Apr 3, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* AP…
The Illinois Senate’s leader is promoting legislation he says will protect immigrants from Trump administration actions.
Several immigrant and anti-crime groups and labor unions joined Democratic Senate President John Cullerton of Chicago on Monday to unveil legislation he calls the TRUST act. It would bar law enforcement agencies in Illinois from helping in immigration actions unless federal authorities present a warrant from a judge.
It also would bar federal agents from state-funded schools or health institutions unless they have a court-issued warrant.
* From the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service…
Telecom giant AT&T is asking for Illinois’ permission to scrap requirements that the company maintain land-based phone lines.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, only four percent of Illinoisans still rely solely on landlines. AT&T has to get permission from a number of state legislatures before they can formally ask the Federal Communications Council to be allowed to scuttle the thousands of miles of land-based phone lines, with Illinois being one of those states. The bill is currently awaiting a Senate floor vote.
* Tribune…
A proposal to give the Chicago Teachers Union expanded authority to go on strike advanced out of an Illinois House committee Wednesday over opposition from Chicago Public Schools and its allies.
The legislation would dramatically transform the rules of contract negotiations between the union and the district when a deal reached just before a strike deadline in October expires in 2019. […]
The amended bill, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Silvana Tabares of Chicago, would do away with a provision that prevents the CTU from striking over issues including class sizes, outsourcing, staffing, layoffs and the length of the school day.
Under current law, contract talks can cover those subjects, but CPS has broad authority to implement its own policies on those matters without fear of a teacher walkout.
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* Simple, indeed, but is it a good one? Not so sure…
Cullerton said he agrees with Rauner that there should be some sort of redistricting reform, saying “let it be two bipartisan folks that the Supreme Court chooses. Have those two people decide what the maps would be.”
And if they can’t decide? What then? Pistols at 40 paces?
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Unclear on the concept
Monday, Apr 3, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The concept being “empathy”…
Cathy McClanahan, executive director of the Women’s Center, which offers programs to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and serves about 1,200 people annually, said the center has not received a payment from the state since December.
“We have about three months’ worth of payroll left in order to keep the building open and keep it going,” she said.
[State Sen. Paul] Schimpf responded by saying there are many examples of suffering the budget has caused. He and [state Sen. Dale] Fowler thanked McClanahan for bringing the matter to their attention and said they would seek a resolution to the problem.
“There are companies right now that are wanting to come to the state of Illinois,” Fowler said. “… but they’re not coming to the state of Illinois because we don’t have these several reforms, especially in our workers’ compensation.”
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A snapshot of Chicago’s violence problem
Monday, Apr 3, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From DNAInfo Chicago…
Destiny Edmond said she’s moving out of the [South Shore] neighborhood to Hyde Park or the South Loop when her lease ends at the end of the month because of the violence.
She said at 4 a.m. Thursday, a man tried to force his way into her roommate’s car as he was pulling into their garage near 78th Street and Yates Avenue claiming people were trying to shoot him.
Edmond said she was woken up shortly after that by the alarm going off in the garage and found the man, who she said was 19-20 years old, hiding in the car in the garage.
“When I told him to get out of the car, he just stared at me,” Edmond said. “I put him in a chokehold because he wouldn’t leave.”
She said the man again said he was hiding from people trying to shoot him and when she kicked him out he threatened to come back and shoot her.
“Thankfully, the lease is up next month,” Edmond said.
She said she knew there was violence in South Shore, but didn’t know it was as bad as it is. She said she’s now worried about this man retaliating against her and is moving as soon as she is able.
That is one gutsy person.
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Complaint filed against Rep. Arroyo
Monday, Apr 3, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Mihalopoulos…
Juan Calderon, chief operating officer for the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, filed a complaint against Assistant Illinois House Majority Leader Luis Arroyo with the state’s legislative inspector general on Thursday.
Calderon alleges that Arroyo threatened to cut funding for his and other community groups who opposed Arroyo’s resolution in favor of Puerto Rican statehood. Calderon says he wants Puerto Rico to remain a U.S. commonwealth. […]
“I received a threatening call from the representative,” Calderon wrote in the complaint. “Mr. Arroyo said in no uncertain terms that he noted all of us who spoke against his resolution and promised that there would be retribution. In other words, community-based organizations with links to those who disagreed with him in public will not receive state-funded grants.” […]
“As he is planning to purchase a retirement home on the Island, he hopes to curry favor, or in his precise words, ‘win brownie points’ with the [pro-statehood] administration, which he expects will help him secure a better deal on a better home to enjoy during his retirement.”
Whoa.
However, Rep. Arroyo called the allegations a “total fabrication” and said he’s currently building a retirement house in Florida, not Puerto Rico.
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Question of the day
Monday, Apr 3, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From a letter to the editor in the Champaign News-Gazette…
I have several questions for prospective Champaign council District 2 voters before the upcoming municipal election.
Do citizens prefer the current nonpartisan city council of Champaign, or do they want to follow Urbana and the Champaign County Board into the divisive morass of “real urban politics”?
Do they want a rational and experienced council person with a solid and proven track record in thoughtful and positive municipal oversight, or will they choose the progressive special interests of a social justice warrior with zero experience in municipal governance and with union ties which possibly reach all the way to Chicago’s Michael Madigan?
That Madigan guy is everywhere, apparently.
* Jake Griffin in the Daily Herald…
Suburban voters are seeing plenty of local races on their ballots this week, but they don’t always see much choice.
Barely 30 percent of the hundreds of races being decided Tuesday are contested, according to a Daily Herald analysis. That’s down from about 45 percent of races that were contested in local elections eight years ago.
“The voters I’ve talked with are excited about having a choice,” said Ron Sebonia, who is running for Elmhurst City Council against incumbent Jim Kennedy. Sebonia’s candidacy forced the only contested municipal race in Elmhurst this year, where voters have only one option for mayor, clerk, treasurer and six of the seven council seats. The number of contested races in Elmhurst has dropped steadily since 2009, when six of seven council seats, mayor and clerk were contested.
The lack of contested state legislative races is constantly blamed on gerrymandering, but citywide races aren’t gerrymandered. So, the Daily Herald editorializes today in favor of local government consolidation. The paper doesn’t suggest which towns that Elmhurst should be consolidated with, however.
* The Question: Is anything interesting happening in your local races?
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* Reuters…
Illinois owes a group of women whose police officer and firefighter husbands died in the line of duty more than $351,000 apiece for their losses, but the state’s chronic inability to pass a budget has left all of them unpaid like thousands of state vendors.
The widows’ plight in a state with a $12.7 billion unpaid bill backlog represents yet another frustrating byproduct of lllinois’ 22-month budget stalemate, a span of fiscal ineptitude unmatched by any other U.S. state.
Illinois has limped along without a full operating budget during that time because the state’s Democratic-led legislature and Republican Governor Bruce Rauner have clashed over a list of nonbudgetary demands he has insisted be part of any budget deal. All told, seven Illinois women have been waiting as long as a year for their shares of more than $2.7 million in awards and interest owed under the state’s Line of Duty Compensation Act, which mandates one-time payments and burial reimbursements to the families of fallen first responders.
The Senate passed a stand-alone appropriation for this program last year, but it went nowhere in the House. Instead, the House put the line item into its budget which went nowhere in the Senate.
* And the governor is saying the widows will have to wait until there’s a deal on the governor’s reforms and a balanced budget plan…
Rauner spokeswoman Eleni Demertzis told Reuters the governor believes the state should “uphold any promised payments made to the families” of fallen first responders. But she emphasized the payments should be part of a broader budget deal.
That is something the governor has failed to broker since taking office in January 2015. He has butted heads with Democrats over his insistence that his enactment of a budget be conditional on approval of state workers’ compensation changes, term limits for legislative leaders and a property-tax freeze, among other things.
“Unfortunately, they cannot be paid until the General Assembly passes a balanced budget,” Demertzis said of the widows in a statement. “Governor Rauner continues to advocate for a solution that balances the budget and ensures payment of those types of benefits.”
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* Crain’s editorial…
Gov. Bruce Rauner recently gave Mayor Rahm Emanuel good reason to be ticked off with him. Actually, he gave everyone who has even a passing interest in Chicago’s fiscal well-being good reason to be ticked off with him. Rauner’s offense: He vetoed legislation that would have enabled the city to pump critically needed money into two municipal pension funds nearing insolvency. Without this infusion, the funds will fall further into arrears, meaning the bill will be that much bigger when it’s paid off.
Rauner said he blocked the legislation because it would have fixed only two Chicago pension funds and not underfunded public-employee pension funds throughout Illinois. In other words, the Republican governor killed what was a sane step toward civic responsibility at the municipal level solely to give himself leverage with the Democratic leaders of the General Assembly in their long-running fight over the state’s budget.
* And then there’s the I-55 privatized tollway plan and the Thompson Center sale that are stuck in the House. Greg Hinz…
The Senate is poised to act [on the toll lane]. Building trade unions and planning groups are on board, too. But Madigan’s House, after a year of considering, is not ready. Though Team Madigan denies that it’s just trying to deny Rauner an accomplishment for his upcoming re-election race, it’s clear that the speaker wants to retain House signoff on the deal when Blankenhorn comes back with a final negotiated contract a year or so from now. Team Rauner replies that potential private partners won’t put up with that much uncertainty. […]
Rauner went too far the other day when he accused Madigan of bad faith on [the Thompson Center] deal. Insiders in state and city government confirm that there are some unresolved issues holding up a vote to authorize the sale. Among them: Would the measure lock the city into having to accept whatever private deal Rauner cuts? Would the new owner guarantee keeping big Chicago Transit Authority el stops in and under the building? And is Rauner shooting too high in pitching what could be a 115-story tower on the site, a potential overreach that could leave a big hole in the center of the Loop (like a giant version of the once-upon-a-time Spire near Lake Shore Drive)?
Again, reasonable people could work this out. But the speaker wants a final deal on this project to come back before him. And people who would know make it clear that Emanuel is not going to lean on anyone to vote for Rauner’s plan until he gets the $215 million for teacher pensions he says Rauner unfairly is keeping from him.
That last line is by far the most important.
* So, to sum up, Rauner vetoed the city pension plan to squeeze something out of the Democrats, and the mayor isn’t going to help push anything of Rauner’s forward until he gets what he wants out of the governor.
Stalemate.
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Moving the goalposts
Monday, Apr 3, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Back in February, several Senate Democrats either tweeted out or otherwise posted a “fact check” of Gov. Rauner’s budget address. Click here to see one of them.
The governor made this claim…
Rauner Claim #4: “We know the challenges facing human services … that is why our proposal increases support for Child Care and other programs that assist children, senior citizens, and our other most vulnerable residents.”
The SDem retort…
FACT: Governor Rauner has called every year for eliminating funding for afterschool programs for at-risk youth, homeless prevention services and programs that help autistic children.
* Politifact Illinois decided to fact check the fact checkers…
In an email newsletter, state Sen. Jacqueline Collins accused Gov. Bruce Rauner of calling for the elimination of “funding for afterschool programs for at-risk youth, homeless prevention services and programs that help autistic children,” each year he’s been in office.
A Democratic staffer pointed to five instances where Rauner proposed cuts or freezes to these three programs. We verified these instances by looking at Rauner’s current and former budget proposals, a vetoed bill and news stories.
Rauner has proposed budgets that would eliminate funding in the areas Collins cites. But his 2015 veto of a bill that contained autism funding was in the context of rejecting 19 budget bills on the grounds that the entire package was unbalanced. His veto message did not specifically mention eliminating autism funding. Rather, he said he was vetoing several bills because he wanted structural reforms as part of a balanced budget which majority Democrats did not send him.
Collins’ statement is accurate, but needs clarification and additional information.
We rate Collins’ claim Mostly True.
Um, huh?
* They didn’t actually fact check the original claim by Sen. Collins. As mentioned above, they got a Senate Democratic staffer to send them a list of things Rauner supposedly did and then they fact checked that staff-supplied list. And they apparently only had a minor problem with one of those staffer claims.
But this is how they portrayed their analysis…
Collins’ claim: In April 2015, Rauner announced his plan to freeze funding for autism and homeless prevention.
Our findings: On April 3, 2015, Rauner did call for a $26 million suspension in social services and public health grants. The Chicago Tribune reported, “The Republican’s office released a list of targeted programs…that included funding to pay for…smoking cessation, teen programs, autism, and HIV and AIDS programs, among other things.”
That wasn’t “Collins’ claim,” that was a staffer’s claim. Instead of doing their own homework, they relied on a member of Senate staff to justify the original claim. OK, fine, it’s much easier that way. But if you’re gonna fact check what Collins said, then stick to what she said, not somebody else.
And what Collins and other Senate Democrats said is that Rauner “has called every year for eliminating funding for afterschool programs for at-risk youth, homeless prevention services and programs that help autistic children.” So, if the governor did that at least once in 2015, 2016 and 2017 - and he did, according to Politifact - then why the heck is Sen. Collins’ statement rated only “mostly” true?
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* Maybe Pat Quinn and Leslie Munger could offer up joint testimony about how this grand scheme worked out when they tried it…
Politicians in the North should be denied their salaries if they fail to reach a power-sharing agreement, a former UK minister has said.
Former Northern Ireland secretary Owen Paterson said withholding pay from MLAs might “crystallise minds” in the Northern Ireland Assembly against lengthy negotiations.
Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire pledged yesterday to keep “all options under consideration” in his efforts to form a new executive.
During an urgent statement on Northern Ireland in the UK House of Common, Mr Paterson asked Mr Brokenshire: “Would you agree with me that there is one measure that would put pressure on the parties to come back to the talks and might crystallise minds, and that would be to make it clear that should the elected members not form the executive after a lengthy period of negotiation then their salaries and expenses will not be paid from the public purse?”
And, just in case somebody over there finds this post via Google, former Gov. Quinn vetoed legislative salaries in order to get a pension reform deal. There was no pension reform deal until after a judge ordered the salaries reinstated. And former Comptroller Munger delayed paying legislative salaries last year in order to punish legislators for not reaching a budget deal. There has been no budget deal since then and a judge recently ruled that the salaries had to be paid in a timely manner.
It doesn’t work. Don’t do it.
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The human cost of willful inaction
Monday, Apr 3, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Responsible Budget Coalition totals up the carnage caused by the impasse…
• More than 1 million Illinoisans have lost access to critical services. (United Way)
• 22,000 seniors outside of Chicago have lost access to services such as home delivered meals, transportation and help accessing resources. (Age Options)
• Nearly 47,000 fewer children receive affordable childcare that allowed parents to work and go to school. (SEIU Healthcare)
• Higher education funding has been slashed by $2.3 billion over the past two years — 59% — threatening permanent damage to many colleges amid layoffs, decreased enrollment, academic program cuts, and tuition hikes. (Center for Tax and Budget Accountability)
• K-12 schools are struggling due to cuts to transportation, special education, and school lunches. (The State-Journal Register)
• $0 dollars of state funding has been provided for domestic violence services for the entire state since June 2016, putting thousands of
lives at risk. (Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network)
• Illinois is not funding tuition grants for 130,000 low-income college students, forcing many to drop out. (Young Invincibles)
• 80,000 people in Illinois have lost access to needed mental health services. (National Alliance on Mental Illness, Chicago)
• As rates of opioid addiction steadily rise, over 24,000 fewer Illinoisans were admitted to addiction treatment services. (Illinois Association for Behavioral Health)
• Nearly 30% fewer pregnant women and families with young children have received proven, cost-effective parent coaching and home visiting services. (The Ounce of Prevention Fund)
• 34% fewer women received life-saving breast and cervical cancer screenings. (Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Taskforce)
• 90% of homeless service providers have been forced to cut clients, services, or staff. (Housing Action Illinois)
• 2,311 fewer formerly homeless Illinoisans received needed supportive housing services putting them at risk of losing their homes and entering higher cost systems. (Housing Action Illinois)
• Illinois’ 29 rape crisis centers were forced to lay off staff and cut hours resulting in waitlists for survivors seeking help. (Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault)
• Public transportation used by workers, seniors and those with disabilities has had days and routes cut in Central and Southern Illinois counties. (The State-Journal Register)
• Adult literacy grants were cut by 50%, significantly limiting access to this critical step toward self-sufficiency for the 2.1 million Illinoisans with low literacy skills. (Chicago Citywide Literacy Coalition)
• Cuts to HIV/AIDS testing, housing and prevention services are risking lives and increasing stigma. (AIDS Foundation of Chicago)
• Over 100,000 immigrants have lost access to services like citizenship assistance and language access. (Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights)
• Employment and training programs have been cut, denying job seekers of these cost-effective services. (Chicago Jobs Council)
• Illinois’ agricultural infrastructure has been damaged by cuts to crop research and development, livestock laboratories, soil and water conservation districts, county fairs and more. (Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Farmer Today)
• 21 home healthcare agencies serving low-income seniors and people with disabilities have closed, reduced service areas or capped intake, raising the likelihood of institutionalization. (SEIU Healthcare)
• Services that divert youth from incarceration have been shut down in 24 counties across Illinois. (Illinois Collaboration on Youth)
• As community violence rises, over 15,000 youth have lost access to safe spaces after school. (Illinois Collaboration on Youth)
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* He’s basically dodged this issue for a while now…
On the topic of unions, Cullerton, seen as an ally of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, worried that creating an elected Chicago Public School Board would lead to one-sided negotiations with unions that would commandeer the electoral process and place friendly members in office.
“It might end up being electing union members to the school board and those unions represent the teachers. The question would be, would there be any kind of oversight,” he said.
I get what he’s saying, but the last time I checked every other school board in the state was elected.
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Rauner again dismisses bond rating agencies
Monday, Apr 3, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* ABC 7…
The state has been without a budget for almost two years. The credit ratings agency Moody’s warned Illinois there will be long term damage of Illinois doesn’t have a budget soon. Rauner says he is not worried about Moody’s warning.
“Rating agencies work for bond houses. They love tax hikes, they love pension deferrals, bonds not pensions,” Rauner said.
Actually, they don’t like pension payment deferrals.
This isn’t new, of course. The governor has said similar things about the ratings agencies since the impasse began. But this is what he said during the campaign…
llinois’ credit rating just got downgraded again, the 12th time since Pat Quinn became governor. Unacceptable.
* The Tribune blames Democrats in the General Assembly…
Journalists covering state government should take training courses in adolescent conflict resolution. That’s the caliber of discourse between elected officials.
Do you know who doesn’t care about the daily political score? Bond rating agencies that monitor Illinois’ dysfunction with increasing alarm. “Illinois is at a critical juncture and its leaders must choose between further credit deterioration and drift without compromise, or the potential for stabilization,” Ted Hampton, a Moody’s Investors Service executive, now warns. “With a budget consensus, Illinois could quickly secure its financial position.” […]
So forgive us for viewing the Democrats’ new agenda with skepticism. We’ll know they’re serious if they work with Rauner to find common ground on a budget and on proposals he will sign into law, not to simply pass piles of bills they know he’ll veto.
Two months of the General Assembly’s spring session remain. If lawmakers can’t deliver solutions, they invite voters to ask: Why do we keep electing legislators who perpetuate disaster?
The Senate did try to do that, but were foiled by the big guy.
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Maybe they’re both right?
Monday, Apr 3, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Pearson…
Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin said veteran Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan’s actions have shown Madigan is more interested in denying GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner a win than in helping govern the state.
Durkin, speaking on WGN-AM 720 on Sunday, said Madigan’s reluctance to move forward with comprehensive changes to public employee pensions, a private-public partnership on express toll lanes on the Stevenson Expressway and the sale of the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago back up his view.
“I’m getting to a point where I believe the speaker is more interested in ensuring that this governor does not get a legislative success. That is starting to percolate more and more,” Durkin said.
“But I will say this, his (Democratic) members are not accepting of this. His members need to rise up and say, ‘Put it aside, the elections will come and go.’ But I do believe the gubernatorial race and blocking the governor from getting any kind of legislative success seems to be more apparent.”
* ABC 7…
Is he governing or campaigning? As Governor Bruce Rauner toured Illinois Science and Technology Park in Skokie Friday pushing his agenda to grow Illinois’ economy, new TV commercials appeared [last] week featuring a plaid shirt Rauner blaming Democrats for the budget mess.
The governor says they are not campaign commercials. Instead, he says the ads are a way to communicate to the people of Illinois about the need for a balanced budget.
Illinois State Senate President John Cullerton doesn’t buy it. The Democratic leader calls the commercials counterproductive.
“This is not governing. Cutting commercials and blasting people who are in the legislature who you want to vote for tough bills it’s campaigning not governing and it’s not helpful,” Cullerton said.
Cullerton says is it’s not helping negotiate a budget deal he and Republican Senate Leader Christine Radogno are trying to work out.
* And…
“It doesn’t help the members of my caucus who I am asking to take these tough votes while he’s doing ads slamming them,” [Cullerton] said.
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OK, but where’s the plan and the budget?
Monday, Apr 3, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Gov. Rauner yet again pointed to the great economies created around Stanford in the Bay Area and Harvard and MIT in the Boston area as something Illinois should emulate…
Rauner cited founders and executives of Oracle Corp., PayPal Holdings Inc. and Yahoo Inc. who graduated from or attended the U of I but whose companies are located elsewhere.
“We have an ecosystem, but we have not been strategic about them working together and about location of that capability,” Rauner said. “We’ve got to figure out how to keep the geniuses in Illinois.”
OK, I agree. Universities should be economic engines for their regions and for the entire state.
* And then he said this…
Rauner envisions a state-university system that doesn’t duplicate programs as much as is the case currently.
“I want to see them succeed, but we’ve got to be thoughtful about which degrees they offer,” Rauner said. “I believe in specialization and being great at certain things and not trying to be OK at a bunch of stuff.
“Do we need every school to offer the exact same stuff, but they’re two hours from each other? Should we think more strategically about the offerings?”
I don’t necessarily disagree, but pretty much the only concrete actions to come out of this administration have been to either propose huge cuts to higher education or squeeze them slowly to death by not passing a budget.
The only way a vision like this can be implemented is after the state government moves past its constant crises. And that just doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon.
* Related…
* Education Secretary Defends Gov. Rauner’s Higher Education Budget Proposal: In a two-hour grilling that one Republican called “an inquisition,” representatives pressed Purvis to justify slashing higher education by almost 60 percent over the past two years. Her answers repeatedly referred to the ongoing “budget crisis,” pension costs, and students leaving Illinois to go to school in other states. She was also asked what the administration had done to help schools. “Actually, the responsibility of running those universities and those programs falls directly on those boards. So in appointing high-quality candidates to those boards, I think the governor has done a very important job, as has my team, in putting people on those.” Rauner has proposed funding higher education at up to 90 percent of the 2015 level. That’s the last time Illinois had a full budget. A recent report from bond rating agency Moody’s says state universities have been shorted $2.2 billion dollars since the budget fight began.
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Does Rauner really want a deal?
Monday, Apr 3, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
As the Senate’s two leaders tried again to find the votes to pass their “grand bargain” last week to end the state’s two-year governmental gridlock, Gov. Rauner began spending over a million dollars on two new TV ads that portray him as an every-man “duct tape” hero in the fight for Illinois’ future.
“Illinois is broke and broken,” Rauner says to the camera while standing in a well-kept garage and wearing a plaid flannel shirt. “And the politicians that got us into this mess, their solution is this,” Rauner says as he holds up a roll of duct tape. “Higher taxes,” he says as he yanks out a piece of duct tape, “More spending,” he says with another jerk on the roll, “No real reforms,” he says as he takes one more strong pull.
“After decades of ignoring problems, it’s time someone fixes ‘em,” the governor says. A list of bullet points appears on the screen in front of a line of tools neatly arranged against the garage wall as Rauner says: “Our balanced budget plan freezes property taxes, caps spending, creates jobs and puts term limits on politicians.”
Rauner is then shown sitting on a chair in the garage. “Our plan brings real reforms to Illinois,” he says as he grabs the roll of duct tape. “Their duct tape solutions won’t work anymore. We will fix Illinois together.”
The second, shorter ad, begins with Rauner peeling off duct tape from a piece of glass over the camera. “Springfield politicians don’t want you to see what they’re up to,” the governor begins, wearing the same flannel shirt in the same garage. “‘Cuz their duct tape solutions just cover up Illinois’ problems. They don’t fix ‘em,” he says with a smile on his face. “Fix Illinois,” an announcer says.
The governor’s people firmly believe that they have staked out a comfortably poll-tested platform. “What we oppose, the public opposes,” a Rauner official said last week. “What we support, the public supports.”
The public hates tax hikes and Rauner is gearing up for the 2018 campaign with a message that he saved the state from ruinous Democratic tax increases without his demanded job-creating reforms, which include the above-mentioned balanced budget, property tax and state government spending freezes, term limits and other awesome stuff.
Trouble is, he’s never once proposed a balanced budget and can’t get anything else passed. Rauner is heading into a reelection campaign without much of anything to show for his time in office. Hence, the duct tape ads.
Team Rauner is also still opposed to whatever comes out of the Senate’s negotiations because the proposals don’t meet its demands.
Talks have reportedly faltered over a “five and five” proposal to raise the income tax for five years and cap property taxes for the same amount of time. The Senate Democrats are also still refusing to specify major budget cuts (which the governor has refused to do as well), and a dispute has developed over the latest education funding reform bill.
Should the Senate’s plan go down in flames yet again, the Democrats will undoubtedly say that Rauner never actually wanted a deal to begin with. They’ll claim in unison that the Turnaround Agenda was, in reality, a mere ploy to achieve Rauner’s “real” result, which is the slow but very deliberate destruction of “weak” universities and social service programs and the crushing of unions and “the middle class.” And they might possibly even get some backup from a clearly furious Senate Republican leader, who lashed out at the governor and his chief of staff earlier this month for declaring through an unnamed source in a newspaper article that the grand bargain was dead.
Rauner will continue to counter with a campaign based on running against the Springfield “status quo,” and in particular the overwhelmingly unpopular House Speaker Michael Madigan. But after over two years in office, a kabillionaire who conspicuously drops his “g’s” and dons the costumes of the working class in expensive TV ads to claim he’s on the common man’s side may be finally be wearing thin. The governor’s 58 percent job disapproval rating in the latest Paul Simon Public Policy Institute poll didn’t appear out of nowhere, after all.
Instead of constantly worrying about his own political future by producing yet another round of expensive TV ads far away from election day, the governor ought to find another way to improve his state’s future. He has a Republican Senate leader who is firmly committed to getting us out of this horrific ditch. Instead of undercutting her at every turn, he ought to be helping her across the finish line. Doing otherwise will only prove the Democrats’ point that he doesn’t really want a deal.
Discuss.
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