* I’d recommend that you read both of these stories from beginning to end because there’s too much to post here. Let’s start with the Times…
For more than a year, the state elections board has sought records to show how former state Rep. Frank Mautino spent campaign money at a bank and gas station.
The answer on Thursday: The documents no longer exist.
During a two-hour hearing in Chicago, attorneys argued whether the Spring Valley Democrat’s spending of campaign money complied with state elections law. Mautino, now the state’s auditor general, was not present.
Mautino’s attorney, Sergio Acosta, contended the campaign treasurer followed state law as she read it. And when the committee dissolved in December 2015, the records “were not kept,” he said.
“She didn’t understand what was needed as part of reporting to the Board of Elections,” Acosta said during the hearing, which took place on the 14th floor of the downtown office building.
Attorney Jeffrey Schwab, however, pointed out state law required the campaign keep the last two years of records. In any case, he said, the expenditures violated the election code.
At issue was whether or not these expenses were allowed under the election code, which requires campaign spending be for campaign purposes only. By filing campaign disclosures listing the bank or the service stations as the vendor, it was impossible to know who the ultimate recipient of those services was.
“There is no evidence that is provided that these charges were for legitimate campaign or governmental purposes,” Schwab said. “Even if it was, the election code prohibits the way that they did it.”
In response, Acosta said that the hearing was to determine if the committee was “willfully” withholding the documentation. Citing Manu’s deposition, the way the spending had been done since 1999 had been the way Manu thought it was supposed to be done: if the check was written Spring Valley City Bank, Manu thought that was to be the vendor.
Acosta also brought into evidence a letter from 2012 from the state board of elections regarding a time Manu had filed a report listing the names of individuals. Instead, she was to list where the money went to, the business.
He also entered into evidence campaign disclosure forms from Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville) and Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) who filed similar expenses in a similar way. Wehrli and Ives both called for Mautino to step down as auditor general last year while the campaign spending issues were being sorted out.
Acosta also brought from Manu’s testimony the fact that Mautino had two accounts at Happy’s, and she testified that she paid the campaign account out of campaign funds and Mautino’s personal account from his private funds. He said no one from the committee intentionally violated the law, saying at no point to the state board inform the campaign that it was filing its forms incorrectly.
“The board itself has been inconsistent, the campaign regulations are unclear, and certainly to the extent that any violation is found at the end of these proceedings … there can be no questions with respect to these many years of reporting that Ms. Manu submitted, she believed she was not violating the law at all,” Acosta said.
Again, go read them both all the way through.
…Adding… Press release…
At a hearing in Chicago today before the State Board of Elections, Illinois’ embattled Auditor General Frank Mautino continued his refusal to answer questions concerning campaign expenses that have sparked criminal investigations at the Federal and State levels. State Representatives Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) and Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville) attended this morning’s hearing, and stressed that Mautino’s decision today to “plead the Fifth Amendment” to again avoid providing answers must result in his removal from office.
“Members of the General Assembly gave Auditor General Mautino five chances last year to provide us answers to questions surrounding the state and federal investigations into his campaign finances. He refused. The State Board of Elections gave him two deadlines to produce the required information. He refused. Today, he pleaded the Fifth Amendment, again refusing to answer questions,” Rep. Wehrli said. “We cannot have someone serving as the taxpayers’ top financial watchdog who refuses over and over again to answer questions about serious, possibly criminal problems with his own finances. Auditor General Mautino must be removed from office.”
“Auditor General Mautino has had more than a year to answer questions related to the allegations against him, yet today he again refused to come clean. It is time for him to do the right thing for the people of Illinois and resign. If he won’t, then the General Assembly must act to remove him from office. We cannot afford to have the state’s top auditor continue in office under the cloud of state and federal investigations into his misconduct,” Rep. Ives said.
Representatives Wehrli is sponsoring House Joint Resolution 9 to remove Frank Mautino from the office of Auditor General. The resolution will require a three-fifths majority vote in both chambers of the General Assembly for approval.
“Unethical behavior is not a partisan issue. All elected officials in Illinois must be held to the highest standard regardless of party. If he won’t do the honorable thing and resign, then Auditor General Mautino must be removed. I will be pushing for a hearing on HJR9 when we return to Springfield next week,” Wehrli said.
Sam Werkmeister, a father of two, nearly died six times last year.
He started taking pain pills to get through shifts at a restaurant. That led him to a full-blown addiction to opioids. After a relapse last summer, it took Werkmeister six months to gather the courage to go back into treatment.
“It’s called carfentanil, and it’s really cheap,” he said, as he sat on a worn couch in the Granite City group home he shares with a half dozen other men. “It destroyed my life.”
The roommates share a pledge to stay sober as they work to recover from their addictions: alcohol, prescription drugs or heroin. But the continuing budget crisis in Illinois will make that kind of treatment harder to come by as the state’s network of providers is strained. As a result, people seeking addiction treatment face longer wait times. […]
The Arch House, a low-level treatment facility for men staying sober in Granite City, has a waiting list that is six to 10 weeks long. But a third of the center’s 21 beds are empty — a pretty common occurrence in Illinois.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) announced today that the unemployment rate declined -0.5 percentage points to 4.9 percent in March and nonfarm payrolls decreased by -8,900 jobs over-the-month, based on preliminary data proved by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and released by IDES. February job growth was revised down to show an increase of +14,800 jobs rather than the preliminary estimate of +25,600 jobs. March’s monthly payroll gain kept over-the-year job growth well below the national average. The March drop coupled with February’s downward revised gain means that Illinois remains -19,600 jobs short of reaching its prior peak employment reached in September 2000.
“Illinois payrolls weakened in March, just like they did for the nation,” said IDES Director Jeff Mays. “The usual pattern is that Illinois weakens more than the nation but grows less than the national average when both are on the upswing. This persistent lag in job growth explains why it took 10 years to push the unemployment rate below 5 percent.”
“Our state has the potential to be the most competitive in the nation,” said Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity Director Sean McCarthy. “To expand opportunities and good paying jobs, we need to make common sense reforms that will give businesses the confidence to grow and thrive in Illinois.”
In March, the three industry sectors with the largest gains in employment were: Leisure and Hospitality (+4,200); Other Services (+1,300); and Trade, Transportation and Utilities (+900). The largest payroll declines were in the following sectors: Construction (-7,100); Professional and Business Services (-3,600); and Government (-1,900).
Over-the-year, nonfarm payroll employment increased by +25,500 jobs with the largest gains in these industry sectors in March: Education and Health Services (+15,900); Financial Activities (+8,900); and Leisure and Hospitality (+7,100). Industry sectors with the largest over-the-year declines include: Manufacturing (-6,500); Construction (-4,900); and Government (-3,800). The +0.4 percent over-the-year gain in Illinois is about one-third as strong as the +1.5 percent gain posted by the nation in March.
The state’s unemployment rate is +0.4 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate reported for March 2017, which decreased to 4.5 percent. The Illinois unemployment rate is down -1.2 percentage points from a year ago when it was 6.1 percent. At 4.9 percent, the Illinois jobless rate stands at its lowest level since June 2007, after having decreased for two consecutive months.
The number of unemployed workers decreased -8.4 percent from the prior month to 322,800, down -19.1 percent over the same month for the prior year. This brings the number of unemployed workers to its lowest level since May 2007.The labor force decreased -0.1 percent over-the-month and declined by -0.6 percent in March over the prior year. The unemployment rate identifies those individuals who are out of work and are seeking employment. An individual who exhausts or is ineligible for benefits is still reflected in the unemployment rate if they actively seek work.
You watch, we are gonna win this case and there’s not going to be forced unionism in state government, local government and school districts any more.
That was a big applause line.
* A bit later, Gov. Rauner talked about the local “right to work” federal lawsuit filed by Lincolnshire that is being handled for free by the Illinois Policy Institute. He doesn’t often talk about this topic in public, but the suit would allow local governments to establish their own “right to work zones”…
If we win that case, we are gonna be a free market, free enterprise state with true open competition in our manufacturing sector and transportation sector and it’s gonna boom and I’m gonna recruit hundreds of companies to the state of Illinois.
As the czar of Colorado’s marijuana program, Barbara Brohl says she is neither pro- nor anti-pot.
But she believes the legal market for the drug is eating into the black market, funding drug abuse treatment and prevention and providing a safer product.
The roughly $200 million in tax revenue from more than $1 billion in sales last year funds all that, she says, plus provides $40 million for schools.
Brohl spoke Wednesday to a panel of Illinois lawmakers considering a proposal to make marijuana use legal in the state. While sponsors say the bill won’t get a vote this legislative session, they’re beginning a series of hearings on how to craft the law.
It’s legal for people over 21 in Colorado to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, which is readily available in dedicated shops throughout the state.
Colorado, she said, has three main marijuana guide posts when it come to policy making: preventing the distribution of marijuana to minors, preventing the involvement of criminal enterprises and preventing the diversion of legalized marijuana to other states.
Under the recreational law, Illinois residents could possess up to an ounce of pot and five plants. Nonresidents could possess half an ounce. The bill would impose a $50 per ounce tax on pot at the wholesale level, while sales to the public would be subject to the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax.
Businesses producing marijuana for sale would be bound by labeling requirements and marketing restrictions.
The revenue from marijuana sales would be earmarked for schools as well as treatment and education programs about the dangers of marijuana, alcohol and tobacco.
“Getting this out of the illegal market, taking some of those dealers off our streets, restricting access by youth, these are all really good reasons to do it, over and above the financial benefit,” said State Rep. Kelly Cassidy (IL-14), co-sponsor.
And the financial benefit could be huge: according to estimates, up to $700 million dollars in tax money if marijuana was legal in the state.
Legal marijuana is heavily taxed: There’s a 28% tax in Colorado and a 37% tax In Washington. In Oregon, the tax ranges between 17% and 20%, depending on the city and county. Growers, processors, retailers and buyers all pay taxes. Medical marijuana tends to be cheaper than recreational because it is taxed at a lower rate. In the past year, Colorado has received nearly $200 million in tax revenue from over $1 billion in marijuana sales. […]
“They shouldn’t be going to make illegal narcotics legal just to balance the budget,” said Chief Tom Weitzel, Riverside Police.
Well, they should also make it legal because people are sick and tired of the state locking people up in steel cages for using a plant.
A former Drug Enforcement Administrator predicted legalization here would cause 75 additional marijuana-related highway deaths each year.
“Terrible idea! It’s a disaster waiting to happen in Illinois. It’s gonna increase damage to youth. It’s gonna increase highway accidents and fatalities,” said Peter Bensinger, former director of the DEA.
An official from Colorado claimed legalization did not bring a big increase in the number of regular users.
“We have a healthy kids Colorado survey. We’re not seeing an increase or a change in youth use or even really adult use. There are some differences up and down throughout the years. But it’s not statistically significant,” said Barbara Brohl of the Colorado Department of Revenue.
As the nearly two-year-long budget stalemate leaves Illinois with little revenue, Steans and Cassidy said they see their bills as a way to create a new source of revenue for the state that would provide funding for schools and drug prevention and treatment programs.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Steans said. “Taxing legalized recreational marijuana would have a huge impact on the state both in the form of new revenue and in job creation. Last year alone, 18,000 jobs were created in Colorado due to the marijuana industry.”
The News-Democrat recently surveyed state representatives and senators from the metro-east, asking where they stand on the issue. Only three of them provided replies.
▪ Sen. Paul Schimpf, R-Waterloo: “I am still undecided on the issue. I am carefully considering both sides of the argument.”
▪ Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon: “Medical marijuana, owned by lobbyists, became decriminalization last year, and now it’s legalizing pot for recreation under the guise of a budget solution. I will not lead Illinois on this radical path to exchange good sense and morality for pain, suffering and corruption.”
▪ Sen. Bill Haine, D-Alton: “Legalizing marijuana for recreational use is not something we should pursue at this time. The medical marijuana program is still unfolding and we need to fine-tune it before we can take the next step. I also don’t think this is where our time and energy needs to be spent right now. We need to be negotiating with the governor to get a balanced budget.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) is ready to spend millions to win reelection, but he might have a wealthy opponent in the general in either venture capitalist J.B. Pritzker (D) — who just injected $7 million into his nascent campaign — or businessman Chris Kennedy (D), a scion of Robert Kennedy. Pritzker and Kennedy seem to be the Democratic favorites, but there could be a very crowded field. Rauner has a weak approval rating, so he will be vulnerable in Democratic-leaning Illinois. Toss-up
* Asked on Twitter why Illinois wasn’t “lean Democratic,” one of the author’s responded…
Rauner is going to have a hard time but I think it's a little early/premature to call a sitting governor a clear underdog https://t.co/8J48I9shTb
“Or are we gonna stay under the thumb of a group of corrupt, career politicians who’ve been dragging our state down the drain for decades? Corruption, cronyism, patronage, deficit spending, higher taxes, job losses, poorly funded schools. Are we gonna stay on this track we’ve been on for years? […]
“There’s only one thing holding us back and that’s corrupt Democrats down in Springfield controlling our government for their own benefit.”
The man is not going to be easy to defeat.
…Adding… But…
What does seem safe to say is that Rauner is the most endangered GOV incumbent in 2018 now that Malloy retiring (tho many states are open) https://t.co/C6PhX4xx9f
[I accidentally closed comments on this post. They’re open now. Sorry!]
* Press release…
The Pew Charitable Trusts today released a new brief detailing state-by-state funding for retirement benefits promised to public workers. The brief, “The State Pension Funding Gap: 2015,” examines data from over 230 public sector retirement plans across the 50 states for fiscal year 2015, the most recent year for which complete data are available. It also provides a preliminary analysis of 2016 data.
The brief finds that gap between the total assets reported by state pension systems across the U.S. and the benefits promised to workers reached $1.1 trillion in fiscal year 2015, the most recent year for which complete data are available. That represents an increase of $157 billion, or 17 percent, from 2014. Investment returns that fell short of expectations proved to be the largest contributor to
the worsening fiscal position, with median overall returns of 3.6 percent.
It also finds that preliminary data for 2016 are also expected to reflect low returns. Based on returns averaging 1 percent for 2016, the pension liabilities are expected to increase by close to $200 billion and reach about $1.3 trillion. Market volatility will also have a significant impact on cost predictability in the near and long terms. Since the end of the Great Recession in 2009, overall median returns for public pension plans have ranged from 1 percent in 2016 to 21.5 percent in 2011. This volatility can be attributed in part to increased investment portfolio risk.
“Many states face significant challenges in meeting pension promises to workers,” said Greg Mennis, director of Pew’s public sector retirement project. “The continued volatility and low investment returns are a reminder that policymakers cannot count on investment returns to close the pension funding gap.”
The brief also looks at net amortization, a metric that can help state and local governments understand whether their funding policies are adequate to reduce pension debt. Net amortization serves as a benchmark to assess contribution policies and helps gauge whether payments to a pension plan are sufficient, both to pay for the cost of new benefits and to make progress on shrinking unfunded liabilities.
1. South Dakota (104.1%)
2. Wisconsin (98.3%)
3. New York (98.1%)
4. North Carolina (95.5%)
5. Tennessee (95.4%)
Five Lowest Pension Funded Ratios (2015)
1. New Jersey (37.5%)
2. Kentucky (37.8%)
3. Illinois (40.2%)
4. Connecticut (49.4%)
5. Pennsylvania (55.8%)
OK, so the total unfunded liability in 2015 for the entire country was $1.1 trillion. Now, look at the state-by-state data and you’ll see the total unfunded liability for Illinois that year was $111.55 billion. About 10 percent.
As mentioned above, Pew estimates that the national unfunded liability will grow to “about $1.3 trillion” when FY 2016 numbers are in. COGFA recently published the Illinois numbers and found total unfunded liability here to be $126.5 billion. Again, about 10 percent of the nation’s.
* If you click here and go to about the ten-minute mark, you’ll hear Gov. Rauner say this to a friendly GOP fundraiser audience last night…
The change is so tough, it’s so slow. And, boy, I’m getting the stuffing kicked out of me every day in the press if you haven’t noticed. Well, talk about bias. Oh my goodness, in the press. […]
Now, it’s a battle. It’s a battle, but we’re making changes. The press doesn’t talk about it, but we made big changes.
You know what I’m proudest of? We blocked Madigan’s $7 billion out of balance budget. He wanted way more spending… We blocked billions of dollars the Democrats wanted to spend beyond what we’re spending right now. And we blocked the Democrats’ massive income tax. Right there saving you billions of dollars by blocking ol’ Madigan’s bad behavior and that’s a big deal.
* Four points:
1) The dude gets pretty good media coverage, considering his lousy poll numbers. But, whatevs. Every politician complains about the media.
2) Blocking Madigan’s budget proposal almost a year ago is the action he’s the “proudest of?” Sure, the proposal was out of balance. Way out of balance. But our current bill payment backlog is $13.4 billion. At the time he blocked Madigan’s budget, the backlog was $7.7 billion.
3) Not having a budget isn’t saving anybody anything because those bills are going to have to be paid one day, so taxes are going to go up one way or another at one time or another.
4) That Madigan budget was defeated last year mainly because a large number of rank and file Senate Democrats refused to support it. Click here for the roll call.
Caterpillar will move its global headquarters from Peoria to north suburban Deerfield, choosing not to follow the path of other large companies that have relocated to Chicago.
It’s a decision steeped in irony: The equipment-maker’s future Deerfield home was only available because of another company’s decision to move to Chicago.
Caterpillar will take over the former headquarters of premium spirits maker Beam Suntory, which announced plans last year to move its 450 employees and global headquarters to Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, joining corporations including McDonald’s, Motorola Solutions, Kraft Heinz, Wilson Sporting Goods and Conagra Brands that have recently moved or made plans to relocate downtown. Beam Suntory’s move will be completed by the end of June. […]
Most of Caterpillar’s 12,000 Peoria-area employees will not relocate. About 100 will move to the new Deerfield headquarters this year. By mid-2018, Caterpillar expects to have about 300 employees in Deerfield in corporate roles, including executives and other corporate employees in finance, accounting and communications, said spokeswoman Corrie Scott.
Incentives, while they were discussed, did not drive Caterpillar’s decision, said spokeswoman Corrie Scott. The Deerfield site will give employees who are relocating from Peoria as well as future recruits more housing and educational options, while still offering convenient access to the city via commuter rail, she said.
“To our minds, this is kind of the best of both worlds,” she said.
The national media has overstated the trend of corporations moving downtown to chase millennial workers, said John “Jack” Boyd, founder and principal of a namesake site selection firm in Princeton, N.J. Many of those workers are postponing a move to the suburbs, rather than rejecting it. Moreover, as more companies do move downtown, “at some point there’s inflationary cost pressures” that make the market less attractive.
“Suburbs in selected markets are doing very well, thank you, including Deerfield,” he said.
It’s impossible to examine state higher education finances in 2016 without separating the collapse in Illinois from a more nuanced picture across the rest of the country.
State and local support for higher education in Illinois plunged as the state’s lawmakers and governor were unable to reach a budget agreement and instead passed severely pared-down stopgap funding. Educational appropriations per full-time equivalent student in the state skidded 80 percent year over year, from $10,986 to $2,196. Enrollment in public institutions dropped by 11 percent, or 46,000 students.
That situation proved to be enough of an outlier that it weighed down several key markers in the 2016 State Higher Education Finance report from the State Higher Education Executive Officers association, which is being released today. The report annually offers an in-depth look at the breakdown of state and local funding, tuition revenue, enrollment, and degree completion across public higher education, a sector that enrolls roughly three-quarters of students in U.S. postsecondary education.
Include Illinois in the report’s key markers, and overall public support for higher education fell by 1.8 percent per full-time equivalent student in 2016, to $6,954, according to the report. Exclude Illinois, and overall support increased by 3.2 percent, to $7,116.
“It’s unsustainable. At some point the entire university system will collapse. They’re probably going to have to look for another university to go to, and it’s not going to be in Illinois,” she says.
Mendoza challenged teachers and administrators to not be quiet, to let their lawmakers and the governor know they want a state budget.
“There’s only so far that they can go without getting state funding, so maybe even if they don’t close their doors they’d have to eliminate a whole series of programs and even colleges within the university. We’ve already seen other universities do that,” she says.
* Gov. Rauner’s biggest problem with his threatened veto of HB40 - which would, among other things expand Medicaid and state employee health insurance coverage of abortion - is what he wrote on Personal PAC’s questionnaire in 2014…
“I dislike the Illinois law that restricts abortion coverage under the state Medicaid plan and state employees’ health insurance because I believe it unfairly restricts access based on income. I would support a legislative effort to reverse that law.”
But Rauner’s office last week said the governor doesn’t support the current bill because of “sharp divisions of opinion of taxpayer funding of abortion,” while offering that he’s “committed to protecting women’s reproductive rights under current Illinois law.”
The administration on Wednesday said the current law already covers abortions [in instances of rape, incest and life of the mother] and “goes above and beyond federal law by covering abortions to protect the health of the mother.” They noted that 17 states including Illinois allow taxpayer funds to pay for abortion beyond the federal guidelines.
And as pro-choice activists seek to blast the governor, his administration contends he has signed two bills protecting women’s reproductive rights — one mandating private insurance coverage for birth control and a right of conscience measure.
Rauner, too, has the support of Cardinal Blase Cupich, who on Wednesday thanked him for his stance.
…Adding… A pretty good insight from the comment section…
Not surprising, candidate Rauner knew he could gain votes from disillusioned Democrats with lip service to liberal positions.
Reelection Rauner knows that’s not going to happen again so he needs to shore up the base that will vote for him no matter what, conservatives. Didn’t his office say they support whatever polls well? And this polls well with his supporters.
It actually polls pretty well across the board, as Cardinal Cupich noted yesterday. So, this is a way of both shoring up his base and aligning himself with popular opinion.
…Adding More… Sen. Daniel Biss reacted yesterday on Twitter and I didn’t see it until today. Click here.
* You really gotta give the governor mad props for the many ways he manages to get so much positive publicity, particularly from local TV types…
Tuesday was moving day for Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner and his family.
The Republican governor and his dog Stella were busy moving items into their new residence on the state fairgrounds Tuesday. The family will reside in the new location for about a year while the Governor’s Mansion is under renovation. Rauner will be the first governor to stay on the fairgrounds.
In an exclusive interview with 13 News, reporter Reuben Jones pressed Rauner on whether he plans to run for governor next year. His answer?
“We’re going to deal with that later. Right now my focus is growing the economy,” Rauner said.
…Governor Rauner’s veto of HB 40 would completely betray the trust of everyone in Illinois.
In politics and in life, you are only as good as your word…especially when that word is followed by a signature.
Personal PAC’s questionnaire is a contract of trust and how we the people can hold candidates and elected officials accountable.
Governor Rauner’s intention to veto HB 40 after submitting Personal PAC’s 2014 Questionnaire is not only dishonest, it defrauds every voter who took him at his word and mistakenly believed him to be an honest man.
The only ethical way for Governor Rauner to move forward as the leader of this great state is to honor his 2014 commitment to the voters of Illinois and publicly state TODAY that he will sign HB 40 when it reaches his desk.
“Last Friday, Governor Rauner promised to veto House Bill 40. This legislation, which is pending in the General Assembly, would use public dollars, through Illinois’ Medicaid and employee health insurance programs, to fund elective abortions at any stage of pregnancy for any reason. I thank him for this principled stand. Abortion is a controversial issue in this country, but using public money to provide abortions should not be. The federal government prohibits the practice, and polls show a substantial segment of the American public rejects it.
“I pray that this divisive issue will be put behind us and our government officials will now concentrate on the many difficult challenges facing Illinois. Most importantly, our political leaders must find a way to cooperate and craft a budget that serves all our people. It is essential that we unite in this effort, and I stand ready to help in any way.”
* Ameya Pawar…
“Bruce Rauner is a liar. As a candidate for governor, he said he was pro-choice. Now he says he will veto HB40, a pro-choice bill to provide women access to affordable health care plans that include coverage for abortions.
“We need leaders in government who won’t use women’s rights to score political points when it seems most convenient.
“People are sick and tired of rich men like Bruce Rauner and Donald Trump telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies. If we say we have family values we have to start valuing families.
“As governor, I will always defend a woman’s right to choose and will fight to provide access to affordable comprehensive health care to urban and rural communities across the state.”
* Illinois Right to Life…
Today, well-funded, pro-abortion lobbyists are publicly chastising Governor Rauner for stating he would veto HB 40 should it reach his desk. Illinois Right to Life applauds Governor Rauner for opposing the extreme and out-of-touch HB 40.
For approximately 36 years, Illinois has covered abortions in cases of rape, incest, and where the health and life of the mother are threatened. In its current form, House Bill 40 expands Medicaid coverage for all abortions.
House Bill 40 requires Illinois citizens to pay for abortions for state employees and for women on Medicaid, through the full nine months of pregnancy, for any reason. This bill would force Illinois to provide free abortions to a mother whose unborn child’s heart is beating, who can feel the pain of being dismembered, and can potentially survive outside the womb.
Furthermore, HB 40 includes no restrictions, allowing for free abortions of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome and for reasons of birth control, and does not limit the number of abortions a woman can have.
“The majority of Illinoisans agree that providing free abortions for any reason for state employees and for those on Medicaid is outrageous,” said Emily Troscinski, executive director of Illinois Right to Life. “We applaud Governor Rauner for representing the people of our state by opposing this bill that could cost taxpayers millions of dollars by providing free abortions for any reason, including those abortions in which the unborn child can feel the pain of being dismembered.
“Crain’s Chicago Business reported that Illinois has become an ‘oasis for women’ seeking abortions in the Midwest. With HB 40, Illinois could see an increase of 12,000 abortions per year, all at the taxpayers’ expense.”
Troscinski added, “The people of Illinois sent Governor Rauner to Springfield to fix our broken and despairing state. Illinois citizens know that spending millions of dollars to provide free abortions for reasons of birth control doesn’t solve our state’s debt crisis. We applaud Governor Rauner, who is considered pro-choice, for representing the majority of Illinoisans by opposing this bill.”
Bruce Rauner should be ashamed of himself. He told voters in 2014 that he was “pro-choice” and that he would protect women’s access to healthcare, but last week he proved he didn’t tell voters the truth when he said he would veto House Bill 40.
HB 40 would provide safe access to healthcare for women on state employee health insurance and Medicaid, and it would also remove a “trigger provision” from state law that would make abortions illegal in Illinois if Roe v. Wade is ever overturned. […]
This is not just about access to healthcare, this is about a woman’s right to make her own decisions about her body. That’s not a decision that Donald Trump or Bruce Rauner or any other politician should make. It’s a decision that should be left to a woman, her family, her faith, and her doctor. […]
As your governor, I will always fight for Illinois women and families, and I’ll stand up against Donald Trump’s effort to limit women’s healthcare. Unlike Bruce Rauner, I’ll champion women’s health and sign HB 40.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner told a suburban business group today that state lawmakers are “very close” to a budget deal that would break a two-year stalemate.
He offered no details but called it “a big comprehensive package” and asked the crowd at a GOA Regional Business Association luncheon to “stay strong.”
Rauner, promoting his pro-business agenda in the speech in Elk Grove Village, called the suburbs “the backbone of Illinois prosperity.”
The GOA luncheon was one of three stops the governor is making in the suburbs today, with others at Maine East High School in Park Ridge and at a GOP dinner in Palatine.
* From John Patterson, spokesman for Illinois Senate President John Cullerton…
“We appreciate the governor’s optimism. Throughout all of this the Senate President has been working with Leader Radogno to do what’s best for the state, which is restore fiscal stability and stop the bleeding. Keep in mind, the governor’s own budget relies on the Senate’s success.”
* More from the event…
.@GovRauner: "I've got dozens of companies ready to come to Illinois. …I say give me a little time (for) changes I'm trying to make."
* O’Hare Airport is one of our state’s crown jewels, so this Greg Hinz report ought to case some worry…
(F)igures drawn from U.S. Department of Transportation reports indicate that over the past decade, the total number of departing passengers dropped 1.5 percent at O’Hare even as it grew 8.1 percent nationally.
That leaves O’Hare far behind competing hub airports such as New York’s JFK, Los Angeles International, San Francisco Oakland and Dallas-Fort Worth, whose passenger loads rose 38.3 percent, 22.5 percent, 48.5 percent and 12.4 percent, respectively, in the same period. […]
O’Hare international passenger departures did grow 7.4 percent. But among all U.S. airports, international departures leapt five times faster, up 38.4 percent. Airports in the above cities plus Miami, Seattle and Houston all had growth of 20 percent to 90 percent in international traffic. […]
“O’Hare needs both a face-lift and a terminal expansion plan” to go with the new runways recently built on the field, [Joe Schwieterman, an aviation expert who heads the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University] says. “The facilities gap between Chicago and (other) global gateways has grown” as airports around the country and world have built new international terminals while Chicago has decades-old facilities, he adds.
Schwieterman said other factors beyond outmoded facilities and a shortage of gates explain O’Hare’s lagging growth. For instance, big airline mergers have given some carriers incentives to add service on the coasts and in smaller cities, while O’Hare’s biggest carriers, United and American, have been “cautious” in growing, at least here. Also, until 2010, O’Hare was subject to federal capacity limits on the number of flights it could schedule.
* As we discussed yesterday, candidate Bruce Rauner told the pro-choice group Personal PAC during the 2014 campaign that he supported “restoring abortion coverage under the state Medicaid plan” and backed legislation “to restore state employees’ health insurance coverage for abortion.” Both of those provisions are in HB 40, plus a provision to delete the “trigger” mechanism in state statutes that many say would repeal abortion rights protections if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Rauner cited the public funding aspect when he vowed to veto the bill last week.
Personal PAC held a press conference today (click here for video) to publicly release Rauner’s 2014 questionnaire to reporters, saying it was the first time it had ever released one of its questionnaires.
Rauner was also repeatedly criticized during today’s press conference for “lying” to pro-choice voters, particularly by the group’s director Terry Cosgrove. Rauner, you will recall, ran as a pro-choice Republican and his wife Diana and several of her friends helped pay for a full-page Chicago Tribune ad that touted him as a pro-choicer.
The rhetoric was also harsh about Mrs. Rauner today, with Personal PAC founder Marcie Love saying about that newspaper ad, “So, Diana, did you lie to all your friends… or did Bruce lie to you?”
* The feeling is mutual in the Rauner camp. Back in 2014, Personal PAC paid for advertising which claimed that Rauner supports “dangerously restricting abortion.” Rauner, however, only differed with Personal PAC on his 2014 questionnaire by saying he favored parental notification, which the group opposes.
Terry Cosgrove’s decision to attack Bruce is driven by politics, not the issues, and it sickens me because I believe that it is ultimately destructive to our cause. By attacking a pro-choice Republican candidate, he virtually assures we will never see another. Instead of promoting bipartisan support for choice– a great victory!– he has chosen to use innuendo and misinformation to smear Bruce’s views and record. What Terry neglects to mention is that he is a paid appointee of the Quinn administration with a salary and pension.
Cosgrove was appointed to the Human Rights Commission by Quinn, a position he no longer has.
* Anyway, back to HB 40. Cosgrove pointed out today that state fiscal impact notes filed on an identical bill in 2015 by the Rauner administration found little to no actual impact …
Fiscal Note (Dept. of Human Services)
HB 4013 will have no fiscal impact on the Department of Human Services.
Balanced Budget Note (Office of Management and Budget)
This bill is anticipated to have minimal savings to the State.
Fiscal Note (Dept. of Healthcare & Family Services)
The cost for the Department of Healthcare and Family Services would be $1.3 million.
* But Cosgrove also admitted that there aren’t enough votes in the House to override a Rauner veto.
There are committed believers on both sides of this issue. No doubt about it. But there’s also been a ton of speculation that this bill was designed to do what it has done: Put Bruce Rauner on the spot in a big way with pro-choice and pro-life voters. Rauner took big heat from his right flank, so he appeased them and flipped on Cosgrove, whom he doesn’t like anyway and who failed to defeat him in 2014. And now Cosgrove is kicking up dust in the media.
But since there is a credible veto threat, HB 40 proponents have to make a decision: Do they push ahead as-is and dare Rauner to veto their bill; or do they pull out the Medicaid funding and state employee health insurance aspects and just run the “trigger” component?
If they try to call Rauner’s bluff and he vetoes it anyway and Roe v. Wade is overturned and they can’t override the veto, havoc could ensue. But they probably won’t get the full “benefits” of this alleged political hit without Rauner’s veto. And if Rauner signs an amended bill, he could then take victory laps around both the pro-choice track (for guaranteeing women’s rights to choose in case the Supreme Court rules against them) and the pro-life track (for preventing state taxpayer funding of abortions beyond what is already allowed).
* The Question: Should HB 40’s supporters forge ahead as-is, or amend the bill to Rauner’s liking? Give it some thought, then click here to take the poll and explain your answer in comments, please.
Illinois Director of Natural Resources Director Wayne Rosenthal visited Olson Lake in Rock Cut State Park today.
The DNR unexpectedly closed the popular swimming lake and beach March 20 with the explanation that the lake had collected excessive silt, reducing water quality. After state Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park, expressed concern about the lake’s status, Rosenthal promised to dredge the lake in order to reopen it for swimming and other beach activities.
However, Rosenthal offered no timetable and said his department has an $800 million backlog of deferred maintenance.
Also, he said that while the department has a dredging machine, it is broken. The cost to fix it, he said, is $450,000, and there’s no money for that.
Last night, Daniel Biss was asked on WTTW whether he would favor raising taxes immediately.
His response – tax hikes are “needed” and he would raise taxes across the board without reform.
“We can’t afford to wait…We have to be willing to make some compromises, we have to be willing to sit down and put everything on the table and do what’s needed,” said Biss about his tax hike plan.
We can’t afford to wait a minute more than we have to to get a balanced budget that properly funds our priorities. And so, on the road to amending the Constitution enabling us to have a fairer tax system that will finally allow us to ask the richest Illinois residents to pay their share, we have to be willing to make some compromises. We have to be willing to sit down and put everything on the table and do what’s needed to get a balanced budget. But in the long-term, the only way to make sure that our budget is still balanced, and fair and working for the people in 10, 20 and 30 years is to fix the Constitution and enable fair taxation.
“Daniel Biss is interested in actually doing something about Illinois’ problems, not just buying millions of dollars of TV commercials complaining about them. It’s an honest and pragmatic approach. So, it’s not surprising that the Governor and his party machinery aren’t familiar with it.”
Governor Bruce Rauner [yesterday] toured II-VI EpiWorks and reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to fostering innovation and technology in Illinois.
“EpiWorks started at the University of Illinois, and stayed here. Thank you for investing in Illinois, for believing in Illinois and for showing others what can happen here. You are the future and a model for Illinois’ economic recovery,” said Governor Rauner. “Illinois has every resource to be an economic power and lead the nation—except good government. We have got to advocate for real change that fosters innovation and creates good paying jobs.”
As part of his tour, Governor Rauner discussed the administration’s plans to change the broken system in Illinois. The administration is committed to increasing job growth and creating high quality jobs across all sectors to Illinois by making Illinois competitive. One goal is to improve the schools in Illinois including expanding alternative options like apprenticeship programs. The administration has also created the Illinois Competitiveness Council to assist businesses who want to start, expand or stay in Illinois.
EpiWorks is a successful high-tech company founded by Quesnell Hartmann and David Ahmari, along with their University of Illinois faculty advisor, Gregory Stillman in 1997. Hartmann and Ahmari are world renowned experts who have successfully parlayed their expertise to create a thriving semiconductor fabrication company. EpiWorks has maintained a goal to help build a critical mass so UIUC would be a hub for not just semiconductor research, but also for commercialization and production.
There is just so much wrong with this release.
* First, EpiWorks was started at a University of Illinois incubator. One of the founders said in December the company plans to hire 80 employees over three years. It needs engineering and production personnel for its compound semiconductor epitaxial wafer facility.
So, if EpiWorks is the “future and a model for Illinois’ economic recovery,” as the governor says in his release, and those entrepreneurs need high-quality, well-educated workers, then why the heck are we zapping universities in this state?
Look, “expanding alternative options like apprenticeship programs” and creating a Competitiveness Council to help businesses are fine and dandy. But if we want more of these sorts of high tech start-ups, then the best thing we can do is provide them with a higher education system that is second to none, right?
Now, read that press release again and see if you can find any mention of doing that. You didn’t see it? OK, now look for any reference to higher education at all except for a few UIUC name-checks. Nothing?
* Meanwhile, Moody’s announced this week that it could be whacking the U of I’s credit rating in a few months, along with every other public university. But Champaign-area reporters asked only one question of the governor when he did his EpiWorks visit yesterday: “Do you think five weeks is going to be enough to agree on a budget and is bad money better than no money at all?” Click here to listen.
A day before a hearing on Chicago Public Schools’ lawsuit against the state of Illinois over education funding, some aldermen on Tuesday complained that they haven’t received any updates on the district’s latest budget crunch.
“Where is Mr. (CPS CEO Forrest) Claypool, where is the (school) board, and when are we going to get an answer about the future of our children?” Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, said at a City Council Finance Committee meeting. […]
Claypool has warned that the school year could end June 1 instead of June 20, and that most summer school sessions could be eliminated, without a court ruling in the district’s favor. The state has filed a motion to dismiss the district’s lawsuit, which Cook County Chancery Judge Franklin Ulyses Valderrama is expected to also consider at Wednesday’s hearing.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said cutting the school year short is “not the right option, not the right choice,” casting doubt on whether the city would follow through on Claypool’s threats. But aldermen on Tuesday criticized the absence of a public plan to keep schools open and close a budget gap that lingers despite midyear budget cuts and teacher furloughs.
Ald. Harry Osterman (48th) said Chicago Public Schools are “well past the tipping point” and unable to “sustain themselves” financially.
But he warned that a solution in Springfield is unlikely so long as the marathon state budget stalemate drags on. That puts the City Council on the hot seat.
“CPS and this council have to be on the same page. … If Springfield isn’t gonna solve this, we have to work together. But that requires a dialogue,” he said.
“There are real downsides long-term to our city if we don’t get this right and soon. And that is, people are leaving. CPS has lost 30,000 students in the last few years. And there’s more this year and more to come. We have to get this right. If we don’t, it’s gonna undercut the future of our city.”
“I just would like to know what’s the reluctancy of Claypool and [Chief Education Officer Janice] Jackson from coming to talk to this body,” [Ald. Anthony Beale] said.
Ald. Harry Osterman (48th) said CPS will be “waiting a long time” if it’s expecting any financial help from state lawmakers or the governor.
“The main thing I want to say is that CPS and this Council have to be on the same page,” he said.
Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) said that’s not happening.
“We have a non-responsive head of CPS, you know, which is why I’ve been an advocate for an elected school board,” she said.
Emanuel long has resisted using TIF funds to bolster the public schools budget, saying that it was inappropriate to use money from a one-time revenue source to pay for school operations.
“We can’t subsidize the state’s failure,” 27th Ward Ald. Walter Burnett said, noting that he gave up $60 million in TIF funds earmarked for a new high school in his ward to avert the strike.
Burnett accused his colleagues of supporting using TIF money to avoid an early end to the school year to curry favor with the politically powerful teachers union.
“Let’s do this rationally,” Burnett said, adding that he uses funds from TIF districts in his ward to make critical improvements for residents. “This thing has to be balanced.”
A court hearing Wednesday morning could decide if parents of Chicago Public Schools students need to make plans for an early end to the school year. […]
CPS is suing Illinois and Governor Bruce Rauner for discriminatory funding, saying the state is discriminating against the city’s large population of minority students by giving more money to teacher pensions outside Chicago than to CPS.
The district wants a judge to force the state to release more money.
Attorneys for Rod Blagojevich appeared in federal appellate court Tuesday in Chicago to argue that the imprisoned ex-governor should have his 14-year sentence reduced. […]
The hearing follows Blagojevich’s resentencing last August when a lower court judge gave him the same 14-year prison he imposed at the initial sentencing in 2011. Blagojevich was convicted of abusing his power, including an attempt to sell the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Barack Obama.
On Tuesday, lawyers asked for a new sentencing hearing, saying that the previous judge didn’t take into consideration the dozens of letters from fellow inmates about the good work he has been doing in prison.
“It’s an argument the government keeps raising that he’s not truly remorseful. It’s interesting because the government prosecuted him. The reason we’re back here is because the government prosecuted him for something that wasn’t a crime, something that in the history of this country has never been prosecuted and has been done throughout history as the appellate court found,” his lawyer Leonard Goodman said outside court.
In a signal of how high the legal hurdle is for Blagojevich, the same panel of judges who ruled in 2015 that the ex-governor’s sentence was reasonable — Frank Easterbrook, Michael Kanne and Ilana Rovner — heard the arguments again this time around. For the case to break Blagojevich’s way, those judges would have to decide that their previous ruling was erroneous.
After court, Goodman acknowledged that the chances were dimming for Blagojevich, whose only other recourse should the 7th Circuit decide against him would be to petition the U.S. Supreme Court for a hearing — a move that would be considered a legal long shot at best since the high court already passed on taking up the case last year. […]
In its first ruling in 2015, the 7th Circuit threw out five counts involving the Senate seat on technical grounds. But the court tempered the small victory for Blagojevich by calling the evidence against him “overwhelming” and making it clear that the original sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge James Zagel was not out of bounds. Zagel’s decision in August to resentence Blagojevich to the original 14 years means he’s still slated to remain in prison until May 2024.
In the latest appeal in December, Goodman and co-counsel Michael Nash argued Zagel ignored key evidence presented at the resentencing, including dozens of letters written by fellow inmates about Blagojevich’s character and leadership in the federal prison camp outside Denver.
Nearly all of the questions from the three-judge panel Tuesday came from Rovner, who dwelled on the letters and Zagel’s decision to credit Blagojevich with acceptance of responsibility in 2011 and 2016. She said Blagojevich has “conducted himself admirably in prison,” as described in the letters.
“And perhaps this is something that a different judge would give, you know, more weight to,” Rovner said.
But she also asked whether Zagel was required to do so.
Ilana Diamond Rovner, one of the three 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges who heard the arguments, suggested Blagojevich might have gotten a lesser sentence from a different trial judge.
A prosecutor told the panel that Judge James Zagel was right to stand by the original sentence because Blagojevich, 60, has never admitted serious wrongdoing.
“There’s nothing anywhere where the defendant says, ‘I apologize for putting my own personal interests ahead of the interests of the public I was charged with serving,’” Debra Bonamici said. […]
Outside court later Tuesday, Blagojevich attorney Leonard Goodman said an unqualified apology would contradict his client’s position that he never crossed legal lines.
“It’s ironic that the government is saying that he’s not truly remorseful,” Goodman said. “I’d like to see some of that remorse from the government, for putting him through that and putting his family through that!”
One of McHenry County’s state senators is half of a partnership that has developed and released a proposed balanced Illinois budget that doesn’t raise taxes.
Calling Republican Sen. Dan McConchie’s plan a long shot at ending an almost two-year budget impasse is an understatement. Besides the ongoing stalemate between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, the Democratic Party holds a Senate supermajority, and all eyes have been on a proposed but apparently stalled “grand bargain” that couples some reforms with massive tax increases.
But McConchie’s proposal, he told the Northwest Herald Editorial Board on Thursday, does what other budget proposals have not by proving that the state budget can be balanced without asking taxpayers for more.
“To date, we’ve said only, ‘We need more of your money.’ We can now say, ‘Here’s what it looks like to live within our means, and let’s have a conversation about this,’ ” said McConchie, R-Hawthorn Woods.
Except, his package of bills hasn’t yet been introduced. So far, it’s just a press release. And a press release doesn’t mean that he “has developed and released a proposed balanced Illinois budget that doesn’t raise taxes.”
Mike Madigan publicly professed his desire to raise the income tax back to 5% with no reforms, and House Democrats, under Madigan’s leadership, are now trying to pass a stopgap spending plan to force a massive tax hike without any reforms to fix Illinois and grow jobs.
On Monday, J.B. Pritzker signaled again that he supports Madigan’s borrow-spend-and-tax agenda.
Pritzker previously admitted behind closed doors that he wants to increase the income tax to at least 5 percent, and when asked by WCIA about his comments Monday, Pritzker “wouldn’t answer.”
Then, Pritzker repeated his Madigan talking points, proclaiming that reforms demanded by the people – term limits, a property tax freeze, and pro-growth policies – are “misguided.”
It’s clear Pritzker will do everything he can to help Mike Madigan and raise taxes without reforms.
A stopgap wouldn’t force a massive tax hike. The House proposal would merely use money that’s currently gathering dust in state accounts to keep some social service providers and universities alive while the budget deal drags on.
But they are right that Pritzker put himself on the “wrong” side of public opinion on some pretty popular things like term limits and a property tax freeze.
Rauner twice visited the Quad-Cities in the past week. He twice reiterated well-worn talking points. He twice pinned the blame for Illinois’ failures on the other side of the aisle.
At some point, the bluster becomes destructive. It’s little but positioning for a re-election bid.
Rauner offered one piece of wisdom Monday.
“I tell these folks every day, let’s not think about the next election,” he said. “Let’s think about the future of Illinois.”
If only Rauner took his own advice.
Ouch.
* By the way, you’ll recall that reporters tried to get Gov. Rauner to explain last week why his campaign was paying for a statewide tour if he wasn’t actually campaigning…
(T)he governor insisted [last week] that the proceedings weren’t political. Reporters, Rauner said, shouldn’t cover his tour “in any way other than communication to the people of Illinois.”
“I’ve traveled many times over the last couple years and this trip is not an election announcement,” Rauner said.
The governor struggled to explain the difference.
“Here’s what we’ve got to do. Whether it’s social media, whether it’s visiting with you, a few earned media, whether it’s meeting with the people of Illinois directly, whether it’s running advertising, paid media to get the communication out, we need the people of Illinois, we need the people of Illinois to know what’s going on,” Rauner said after touring a suburban vitamin factory where workers took selfies with him.
Asked why the event didn’t fall under his government duties, Rauner replied: “We want this to be separate and just paid for independently from any government operation.”
Gov. Rauner’s press shop didn’t shed much light when asked why last week’s two-day statewide tour was paid for by the campaign while similar stops Monday in Moline and Peoria were paid for by taxpayers.
On Tuesday, a clearer answer emerged: The governor was filmed during the tour, and the Illinois Republican Party promoted a web ad with footage.
The short commercial clocks in at over three minutes, and features generic uplifting music and plenty of sound bites from the governor.
A happy 75th birthday to longtime Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who came into this world on April 19, 1942, according to his official bio.
The World War II baby was first elected to the House in November 1970 and convinced his Democratic colleagues to elect him speaker in 1983 (he was minority leader or majority leader for six years before that). As is often mentioned, Madigan has served as speaker for all but two years since then. (The Newt Gingrich-led GOP landslide in November 1994 swept Democrats out of power, but Madigan rebounded in 1996 to regain control of the chamber.)
If Madigan keeps control of the House and his chief nemesis, Republican Gov. Rauner, wins re-election next year, their historic stalemate conceivably could last through 2022. The speaker would turn 80 that year.
We’re celebrating here at the ILGOP by reflecting back on everything that Madigan has done for our state. He’s spent over half of his life - 46 years to be exact - in the Illinois political system. So what has he brought to IL?
* massive job losses
* record income tax hikes
* highest property taxes in the country
* worst state pension crisis in America
Let’s band together to tell Madigan how we really feel on his special day. Sign our card here.
