Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner stopped at the iWireless Center in Moline for a luncheon with members of the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce Monday.
Rauner says his administration is trying to cut down on excessive rules that are tough on small businesses. He also focused on his ongoing battle with AFSCME, the largest union of public employees in the state. Rauner has pushed for a different health care plan and a 40-hour work week for union employees.
“These are the kinds of things we’re going to change. We’ve got 20 unions to agree, so far the big union AFSCME has said ‘No, no way’ and they threatened to strike. And I said ‘We’re gonna do this, we have to do this and I hope you don’t strike, I don’t want you to strike, but we’re probably not going to miss you if you go,’ and so they don’t like that,” said Gov. Bruce Rauner, (R) Illinois.
* From the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association…
During the breakdown in [AFSCME] negotiations Governor Rauner has sent out emails and videos to State Employees where he falsely claims to support them whilst blaming others for the impasse. Now that Governor Rauner has clearly shown his true feelings, Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association President Doug House issued the following response:
“Yesterday Governor Rauner showed Illinois exactly what he thinks about State Employees. While he says one thing in Springfield, as soon as he’s back on the campaign stump, he says something different. This is a man who has made it his mission to drive our State into the ground and he doesn’t care who gets hurt in the process.”
Yesterday’s comment was not the first time Rauner indicated an interest in forcing a strike. During the 2014 gubernatorial campaign, Rauner said he wanted to “do what Ronald Reagan did with the air traffic controllers” in state government and “shut things down for a little while”, evoking the firing of nearly 12,000 striking air-traffic controllers in 1981.
House also commented, “Real lives are at stake, and Governor Rauner needs to stop campaigning and start governing. Public employees drive our kids to school. They take care of our seniors citizens and those who can’t fend for themselves. Blaming others for his failures and blocking attempts to fix this problem are not helping.”
Chicago City Treasurer Kurt Summers on Tuesday said he’s spoken with each Democratic gubernatorial candidate about how they’ll represent the needs of African-Americans, Hispanics and women within their campaigns — and that he’ll announce whether he’s running for governor within the next two weeks. […]
If Summers joins the race, he’ll be the only African-American candidate. He’d join J.B. Pritzker, Chris Kennedy, Bob Daiber, Ald. Ameya Pawar and state Sen. Daniel Biss in the race.
Summers says he’s spoken with each Democratic candidate about his plans to represent minorities. He said there’s a need for a candidate “that truly represents the values” of minorities.
“There isn’t a female candidate. There isn’t a black candidate. There isn’t a Latino candidate. And I think each of the current candidates have to be able to show their commitment to those constituencies but also have to show their commitment to those who are most harmed,” Summers said. “And I think low-income communities, working families and black and brown people have been disproportionately affected by what’s happening in Springfield.”
He has an April 23rd fundraiser on his schedule, so that could be playing into this story.
Even though by most accounts he’s been a pretty good treasurer, the simple fact that he’s the Chicago City Treasurer will, unfortunately, write its own hit pieces.
* In related news, you’ll recall last week that I asked all the Democratic candidates to name one state spending program they’d cut. Summers finally got back to me yesterday. …
“Talking about cuts to line item appropriations without a comprehensive budget plan in place is unproductive and does nothing to advance the dialogue about how to address the state’s fiscal challenges. Both parties have backed budget plans with phony savings built in and continue to watch interest pile up on unpaid bills - that’s where we should start. But Governor Rauner refuses to lead. He owns this crisis and needs to give the people of Illinois a clear vision. The Governor and his allies would prefer to negotiate in the press because they know their ideas won’t make a significant dent in our unpaid bills, our bond payments, or our deficit. That’s not how you bring people together to solve problems.”
“Hi, I’m Bobby Jindal and I’m running for governor.”
With those words, Ald. Ameya Pawar introduced himself Tuesday night to comedy fans and potential voters at Chicago’s iO Theatre.
“I didn’t know how that would go,” he admitted moments later of his ethnic joke, as the laughter from the audience of around 100 died down. […]
“I’ll be the first normal Indian governor,” he joked, in a barb at both Jindal and Nikki Haley, two Indian-Americans who previously served as governors of South Carolina. […]
“I don’t think wealth is bad but I don’t think wealth is synonymous with success, either,” he said, calling for changes to the tax code to support the middle class and describing it as “kind of annoying to listen to all these crusty old white men making all the decisions.”
Yes, billionaire would-be Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker’s wife really is called M.K. — and yes, they really do call each other by their initials.
“Friends joked that we should call our kids ‘A,’ ‘B’ and ‘C,’” J.B. told Chicago Inc. on Monday. […]
Rauner recently appeared in a campaign ad in a workshop holding the kludger’s tool of choice — a roll of duct tape — which he used as a metaphor for the fixes Illinois politicians have used over the years.
But Pritzker said he too is “reasonably handy, though my wife is probably handier than me.”
“I’ve fixed the toilet,” he said. “And I’ve been crawling in claustrophobic places… you have to deal with that when you become a homeowner.”
Just last week, the Governor toured the state, reminding everyone that we need a budget that works for the people of Illinois - not the political insiders and special interests. I was with him on the tour, and the momentum from every stop on the route was impressive.
Check out our video recap highlighting the budget and reform tour
We’re running this digital ad across the state so that Illinoisans know how hard Bruce is fighting for budget and reform.
Every decision I make as Governor I make in the context - how will this impact the children of Illinois?
Will this give them a better future in the long run, living in our wonderful state?
More growth, more jobs, lower taxes, better schools and term limits on our elected officials, and redistricting reform so we have competitive general elections. A new positive direction for Illinois - that’s what we’re arguing about, that’s what we’re battling for.
The best thing we can do to restore government and our prosperity for the long term - change the political culture so it’s not insiders running the government for the insiders’ benefit, but restore democracy.
“Tuition has gone way up in this state,” he said. “It’s become harder and harder for middle class families to put their kids through school. College is not affordable in this state when you don’t have (Monetary Award Program grants for low-income students) — and we don’t fund MAP grants.
“So we’ve got to step back up to the plate here, and we’ve got to make sure that people who are seeking to get a degree in higher education have the ability to get it.” […]
Asked if he favors an expansion of MAP or something like the limited free college program proposed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Pritzker replied, “As long as every kid who wants to go to college and can’t afford it has the ability to, I think that answers the question.”
He said that if every young person had the opportunity to go to a public university or obtain vocational training at a community college, “I think we’re going to have a much better and more economically productive state.”
Pritzker fielded a question about burdensome student loan debt, and replied with a suggestion that young people launching their own businesses should be given more time to pay back their loans.
“The idea that if you’ll go be part of a startup enterprise, or start up your own enterprise, that we ought to give you a grace period from having to pay your student debt,” said Pritzker. “Because it strikes me that we want to create jobs in this state. Startups and small businesses are the ones that are creating most of the jobs.”
Pritzker’s own company, Pritzker Group Private Capitol, invests in fast-growing technology companies. And he led a group that founded Chicago’s non-profit digital startup incubator, “1871”.
Before his meeting with the Illini Democrats, Pritzker toured the University of Illinois’ Research Park, which he compared to his own activities as a venture capitalist.
* Brownie last week on the Senate’s attempt at putting together a grand bargain…
“This was neither grand nor a bargain,” said Madigan spokesman Steve Brown. “House Democrats were waiting for something to come about in a final form to even comment on. We never really saw that. We saw a group of bad ideas — harder for workers to take care of their injuries, harder for people to pay police and firefighters and teachers.”
Speaker Madigan has advanced a handful of smallish proposals this year, but he’s shown little interest in sitting down with Gov. Rauner or the House Republicans to try and hammer out an agreement to end the impasse. Rauner has said repeatedly that Madigan is not interested in a deal. I’ve said more than once that if the Senate could pass something, then Madigan would finally be put on the spot.
* The Question: Do you think Speaker Madigan really wants a deal to end the impasse? Click here to take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Today's the day! Moving out of the People's House & into the Ag Director's house on the fairgrounds. Apparently, Stella is ready to go! pic.twitter.com/VXXdie6q7u
A large private party at the Illinois State Fairgrounds turned violent early Sunday morning, with police reporting more than 20 shots fired and four people stabbed.
Capt. Jerry Felts of the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office said it’s fortunate nobody was shot or more seriously injured in the hail of gunfire.
Deputies discovered dozens of spent shell casings, as well as bullet-hole damage to the Illinois Building, a bullet hole through a window in the Expo Building and several vehicles shot.
The four people who were stabbed all suffered non-life-threatening injuries and have been released from the hospital, according to the sheriff’s office. […]
The violence stemmed from a fight that erupted during a party at the Illinois Building, attended by at least several hundred people, Felts said.
In an effort to keep Americans safer on the roads this year, BackgroundChecks.org researched state DUI rankings. BackgroundChecks.org used a combination of CDC, Department of Transportation data, and local state data, to create a comprehensive score for each state.
The top 10 states with the worst DUI problems in America are Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, South Carolina, Mississippi, New Mexico, Kentucky, and Maine.
The 10 states with the least DUI Problems are: New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey, Utah, Rhode Island, Virginia, Indiana, Washington, and Kansas.
“The fact that over 10,000 people a year die from DUI related accidents is a travesty”, said Trent Wilson, co-author of the research. “We hope this research will open some eyes and make people think twice before drinking and driving.”
Click here for more. Illinois ranked 48th. So, at least we’re doing something right here.
* As you know, Rauner said last week that he will veto HB40, which would delete the “trigger” language in state law that some say would return Illinois to pro-life legal status if Roe v. Wade is overturned. The bill would also provide for Medicaid funding of abortions beyond what is provided now.
*** UPDATE 1 *** I expect this has something to do with what Gov. and Mrs. Rauner told pro-choice activists in 2014…
RAUNER DECEPTION ON REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS TO BE REVEALED
Pro-choice group releases evidence exposing Governor’s frenzy to curtail women’s right to choose
What: Personal PAC makes major announcement regarding Gov. Rauner’s position on HB 40
When: April 19, 2017; 12:30 p.m.
Where: Allegro Hotel, 171 W Randolph St, Chicago, IL 60601 (Palladium Room)
Who: Marcie Love, Personal PAC Founder & Chair Emerita
Melissa Widen, Personal PAC Board Chair
Terry Cosgrove, Personal PAC President & CEO
Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Board President
Anna Valencia, Clerk, City of Chicago
*** UPDATE 2 *** Susan Musich, Board Chair, Planned Parenthood of Illinois…
Last week, Governor Rauner let us know his true stance on reproductive rights. By stating his intention to veto HB 40, Governor Rauner is refusing to safeguard legal access to abortion in Illinois in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned. Further, he is perpetuating discrimination against women with low-incomes by prohibiting them from using state Medicaid coverage to access abortion care.
Planned Parenthood believes that women should have access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion, regardless of where they live or the source of their health care coverage. The uncertainty of reproductive health care policies in Washington DC means that we must ensure there are protections in place at the state level. Governor Rauner need to stand with all Illinois women, not just some!
*** UPDATE 3 *** Posted by a commenter…
In 2014, Bruce Rauner took the pro-choice position to every question in the Personal PAC questionnaire except on Parental Notification, as confirmed by Diana Rauner
A 1975 Illinois Law (Illinois Abortion Law of 1975: P.A. 81-1078) states that when the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision is overturned or modified, Illinois law will revert back to its pre-Roe status, meaning abortion will again become illegal in Illinois as it was prior to 1973.
1. Do you SUPPORT legislation repealing this 1975 law and replacing it with a law stating that decisions about reproductive matters are to be made privately between a woman and her doctor, without government interference?
Question 5 asks:
5. Do you SUPPORT restoring abortion coverage under the state Medicaid plan?
Question 6 asks:
6. Do you SUPPORT legislation to restore state employees’ health insurance coverage for abortion?
Bruce Rauner said he supports all 3, which is what HB 40 does
The claim costs and other metrics of 18 state workers’ compensation systems are analyzed in depth in a new series of studies, CompScope™ Benchmarks, 17th Edition, released by the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI).
“The research can help policymakers and other stakeholders identify current cost drivers and emerging trends in a wide variety of workers’ compensation system components,” said Ramona Tanabe, WCRI’s executive vice president and counsel.
The studies examine trends in workers’ compensation medical and indemnity payments in a number of states with significant changes, either through new laws or through court rulings. They also examine how income benefits, medical payments, duration of disability, litigiousness, and benefit delivery expenses changed over time, and they compare how these measures differ from state to state.
The following are sample findings for some of the study states:
California: Total costs per claim remained stable between 2010 (claims with experience through March 2013) and 2013 (claims with experience through March 2016), likely reflecting the impact of Senate Bill 863.
Florida: Total costs per claim grew moderately from 2010 to 2015, but two 2016 Florida Supreme Court decisions are expected to increase workers’ compensation system costs.
Illinois: Total costs per claim decreased 6.4 percent since 2010, reflecting the impact of a 30 percent reduction in fee schedule rates for medical services.
Indiana: Total costs per claim decreased 4 percent from 2014 to 2015, the result of a nearly 10 percent decrease in medical payments, partly offset by a nearly 5 percent increase in indemnity benefits per claim. Those changes are likely related to provisions of House Enrolled Act 1320, which enacted a hospital fee schedule and increased income benefits paid to injured workers.
According to the report, in 2015, the most recent year for which figures are available, Illinois business paid 9.4 percent of profits in state and local taxes.
The rate was lower in other Midwest states, including Indiana at 7 percent, ranking fifth; Missouri, 7 percent, sixth; and Ohio 7.3 percent, ninth. Michigan was 16th and Wisconsin 24th, with rates of 8 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively. All of them now have GOP governors who have pushed through tax cuts.
In the Midwest, only Minnesota had a higher business tax burden than Illinois: 9.7 percent of profits, or 32nd.
Nationally, Illinois’ rank of 30th is an improvement over last year’s 32nd. That appears to be due largely to the repeal of the Quinn hikes, which took effect mid-fiscal 2015. […]
Illinois ranked dead in the middle—26th—in terms of the share of the total tax burden paid by business. But again, the state’s 39.4 percent share was higher than the Midwest average, though interestingly tied with Indiana.
Pritzker said Monday that while he would “focus on getting a fair tax system that’s progressive” as governor, as for this year, “We’re left with this stopgap, lifeline proposal” and “I don’t know what social services (agencies) and universities are going to do if we don’t get that in place, because it doesn’t appear to me like we’re gonna get a full-on budget.”
Pritzker said Rauner is holding up the budget for “an agenda that has nothing to do with a budget,” and telling lawmakers, “If you give me this agenda, I’ll let you figure out how to get a budget. That’s not leadership.”
Pritzker was at the church because it is where the Illinois Coalition for Community Services has a summer lunch program for children. While the food is federally funded, a reduction in the coalition’s staff during the state budget impasse has dropped locations for that program from 70 across the state to seven, said Jason Gyure, executive director.
Rauner has lamented pain caused by the budget impasse as he seeks structural change. But, said Pritzker, “When you’re a child who’s not able to get that meal … that short-term pain is more painful than the governor is describing. So if you ask me, there’s a kind of a focus on spreadsheets and not people by this governor.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner said during a visit to Peoria on Monday that he was “cautiously optimistic” that “in the next few weeks we might get a deal” that leads to a spending agreement.
But he offered no detail on what might be in that pact, and when asked to quantify the reasons behind his expectations, Rauner offered tantalizingly little in corroboration.
Emphasizing that he didn’t want to “overpromise” a result after having suggested the potential deal to employees of Getz Fire Equipment during a question-and-answer session at the South Peoria business, Rauner said that he had been “hearing chatter and feedback from some of the senators and some of our administration staff that the negotiations are proceeding and they’re starting to develop some consensus on certain things that have been difficult so far.”
When asked, he didn’t provide any specific examples, but said he’d heard that “some of the senators are making progress with each other, feeling good about where some Democrats have moved on a couple things, some Republicans have moved on a couple things.”
Clearly, I’m having a bit of fun — but there’s a broader, more important truth here about how to build our politics in this state.
I’m of the belief that we are stronger when all of us, from all walks of life, come together to build something collectively — not when we’re dependent on a single person or their vast personal wealth to make change.
Unfortunately, we know all too well here in Illinois what happens when we let one individual have a disproportionate share of power or influence. Whether because of their money or their connection to the machine, what happens is a select few make decisions about us, without us — and the rest of us pay the price.
That’s why we’re doing things differently with this campaign, and building a new kind of politics in Illinois. One powered by action, support, and yes, $25 contributions from thousands of people like you.
If you share this vision for a new politics in Illinois, help us grow this movement. Chip in $25 or more and let’s show that a movement of people is stronger than any self-funder (even me).
Rauner and state Sen. Daniel Biss are the two gubernatorial candidates reporting more than a million dollars of campaign cash on hand, according to the first major campaign report filed Monday with the state’s Board of Elections.
Businessman Chris Kennedy fell just shy of that mark, with $907,427.61 on hand when the reporting period closed at the end of March.
And billionaire venture capitalist J.B. Pritzker beefed up his total with $7 million out of his own pocket after the filing period closed.
“This election isn’t about money, it is about values,” said Pritzker. “It is about standing up for progressive values. It’s about standing up and saying that millionaires and billionaires ought to pay a higher rate of tax than people who make 20 and 30 and 50 and $50,000 a year.”
Pritzker referred to a graduated income tax, which he says should be part of any tax increase in Illinois. […]
Pritzker used his own family story to promote the value of entrepreneurship and philanthropy —- touching on the work of his father, Hyatt hotel magnate Jay Pritzker, his own company, and his work to expand Illinois’ school breakfast program and establish the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in the Chicago suburb of Skokie.
“I know I started out lucky in life,” said Pritzker, “but I know I have to work hard every day to earn what I’ve been given. So I’ve spent much of my life building things that would be good for other people.”
During his tour Monday, Pritzker told reporters that he favors getting rid of Illinois’ flat income-tax rate.
“When I become governor, the first question we ought to ask is: Who should pay the bulk of whatever it is that we want to pay for? And the answer is that yes, millionaires and billionaires and people who can afford to pay are the ones who should pay more, not people who make 20 and 30 and 40 and $50,000 a year.”
Asked if he supported a graduated income tax or the “millionaires tax” proposed by House Speaker Michael Madigan, Pritzker said he wanted a graduated tax.
“We can call it whatever you like,” the Chicago Democrat said. “I think a fair tax in this state would be to ask people who can afford to pay to pay more. It shouldn’t fall on the middle class or people who are working poor.”
A new expense filing reveals how Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign is investing heavily in an online mapping technology aimed at influencing voters - and potentially elected officials. The filing shows the Rauner camp’s biggest recent expenditure - more than $338,000 - went to a New York-based company called Project Applecart. (See Rauner’s filing). The technology uses unorthodox ways of collecting data on individuals, including through high school yearbooks and obituaries, according to this explainer: watch here. It identifies a “social anchor” who has links to voters with similar ideals. That anchor is then targeted in phone banks and other messaging. The technology can also be used to target an elected official who a campaign is attempting to influence for an endorsement or other action. GOP presidential contender John Kasich in 2016, used Applecart during the New Hampshire Republican primary, where he came in second to Donald Trump.
Among Rauner’s top expenditures was $338,092.12 to Project Applecart LLC, a New York company that offers “strategic political consultancy” while developing technology built to give tools and insights “for motivating political action.” The company says it builds “scalable, scientific and data-driven solutions,” according to the company’s website.
Other expenditures included $27,278.75 for Arena Online, a Salt Lake City digital marketing firm specializing in political campaigns.
* Scott Kennedy…
Since last fall the Rauner campaign has paid $668K to Project Applecart LLC for "Technology" and "Principal payment, Project Applecart LLC".
* From David Jacobson, Vice President Communications – Public Finance Group, Moody’s Investors Service…
Late yesterday, Moody’s announced it was placing all seven of its rated public universities in Illinois under review for downgrade because of the state’s failure to enact a budget providing full operating funding to the universities for the current fiscal year FY 2017 and the resulting operational and liquidity strains on the universities. The total debt affected by these rating actions is $2.2 billion.
Moreover, we have already downgraded Northeastern Illinois University two notches from Ba2 to B1 because of the university’s continued rapid liquidity deterioration due to weakened cash flow, caused in part by the protracted state budget impasse. With continued pressure on enrollment and sustained state funding uncertainty, the university has limited avenues by which it can improve its liquidity position over the medium term. Northeastern Illinois’ B1 rating also remains under review for downgrade.
We expect to conclude these reviews within 90 days. Reviews will focus on each university’s exposure to continuing state budget pressure given failure of the state to adopt a budget for the current fiscal year and the resulting use of each university’s own liquidity to bridge the funding shortfall. This includes an assessment of projected liquidity and operating performance for each university for the June 30, 2017 fiscal year-end. We will review contingency plans and other expense actions initiated to cope with the shortfall in state operating appropriations. Also included in the reviews are budgeted FY 2018 operations and assumptions. We will also assess each university’s near-term debt service commitments against pledged revenues and related reserves.
The result of the review could result in differing actions, including some potential multi-notch rating actions depending on liquidity and ongoing ability to adjust to the prolonged lack of state operating funding.
Four of the seven already have junk ratings on their bonds, while two others are within one or two levels of losing their investment-grade status. Only debt from the state’s flagship institution, the University of Illinois, is rated more than three steps above junk. The review affects $2.2 billion of debt and threatens to leave the universities facing increased borrowing costs if investors demand higher yields to compensate for the risk. […]
Moody’s also lowered Northeastern University deeper into junk on Monday, dropping its rating by two steps to B1, four levels below investment grade.
Today, Biss for Illinois announced Abby Witt, the former Managing Director of Organizing for America (OFA), as its campaign manager. An Evanston native, Witt was responsible for strategic planning and day-to-day operations of OFA, an organization dedicated to advancing a progressive agenda through grassroots action and training.
“If we want real change and to start solving problems in Illinois, we need to build a movement to take our state back from money and the machine,” said Biss. “Building a bold and progressive grassroots campaign requires an organizer leading us every day, and we got one of the best in Abby Witt.”
Witt has over a decade of experience working with campaigns and progressive causes. Prior to her work organizing at OFA, Witt played several roles in the Obama presidential campaigns and administration from regional field director in key states in 2008 to Director of Political Operations during Obama’s 2012 re-election bid. Most recently, Witt worked with the Chicago Public Schools where she focused on improving the connection between the community and the school district. Witt’s professional background also includes time at the Center for American Progress and the Common Purpose Project.
“Daniel Biss started in politics as a community organizer and understands that real change doesn’t come with the ability to cut a check, but with the ability to organize a community,” said Witt. “I’m honored to join a movement to take our state back from money and the machine, and set us on a new course.”
“There is no one or two structural changes that we need to have as a requirement. I’ve never said any one thing has to be there,” Rauner said Friday during the [WBEZ] radio interview. “But we need a package of changes, structural changes that materially move the needle.”
Yet to move the needle to satisfy Rauner, the governor said “term limits definitely helps big with that.”
“So far the Senate Democrats have proposed a term limit on Senate leaders through a rule change, just for the Senate leader would be term limited. Well what we need is term limits on everybody, on me, on everybody in the General Assembly. That’s not on the table as of now,” he said.
Such elusiveness has frustrated some lawmakers at the Capitol who are looking for clarity on what it will take to reach agreement. Democrats like [Rep. Lou Lang] suggested Rauner isn’t being up front when he’s preaching flexibility.
“As you’ve seen the last few days, he’s commented, ‘Well, I don’t really need this. I don’t really need that. I just need everyone to come together.’ But the truth is that’s not what he wants,” Lang said.
* The Question: Do you think Gov. Rauner really wants a deal to end the impasse? Click here to take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please. Thanks.
As Illinois considers raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, up from the current $8.25, advocates say the changing face of the low-wage worker is a reason why the minimum wage must be a living wage.
But some businesses insist a hike could kill them, causing more harm to workers and communities than good.
Ed Schubert, whose family owns the Dairy Queen franchise where Simpson works, said he can’t imagine how he’d keep his shop afloat with a $15 minimum wage, a rate he thinks shouldn’t apply to his largely teenage staff. […]
One survey found Illinoisans to be skeptical. TSheets, a time-tracking software, polled 500 Illinois residents and found two-thirds said they believed the $15 proposal would fail and nearly half said they did not support it; another 20 percent were indifferent. But they didn’t support the status quo, either. Only 6.5 percent of those surveyed believed the minimum wage should stay at $8.25. A raise to $12 was the most popular choice.
That wasn’t really a poll. It was a Google Survey. Click here for the results. Note the partisan breakdown. It leans Democratic by just 2 points. That’s not your usual Illinois result.
There’s a state budget plan circulating Springfield circles that is 1. balanced, 2. hides no tax hikes, and 3. actually makes budget cuts.
We’re calling it the “McPlan” budget prescription. Too good to be true, you say?
Republican State Senators Kyle McCarter and Dan McConchie (the Mc’s - get it?) are staking their stellar political reputations on what they’re calling the “Taxpayer Bargain Budget Plan” in response to Senator Bill Brady’s “Grand Bargain Budget” that features an income tax hike to pay bills that are stacking up.
“The plan is very strong medicine for a very sick state,” McCarter and McConchie said last week in an op-ed about their proposal. “It forces the Legislature to make tough decisions between needs and wants. The ‘Taxpayer Bargain’ requires lower spending, with 10% across-the-board cuts at state agencies and departments. It simply asks for a dime of savings for every dollar spent.”
Contact your senator and representative and ask them to sign on as a sponsor to one of the 15 bills that are needed to deliver a no-tax-increase-balanced-budget to the governor.
Except, the package of bills hasn’t even been introduced yet. Right now, the “plan” is a press release.
* From the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service…
In the wake of a publicly funded Illinois university trying to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a graduation speaker in the midst of a fiscal crisis, a state lawmaker is reintroducing a bill that would ban the practice.
Local control! Except when we don’t like local control!
State Sen. Jacqueline Collins wants to bar insurance companies from using a person’s ZIP code when setting auto insurance premiums.
The Chicago Democrat said Monday she’ll add the ZIP code rule to her pending bill that would block insurers from considering a person’s credit rating. […]
A recent report published by ProPublica and Consumer Reports that focused in Illinois and three other states concluded 33 of 34 insurance companies analyzed in Illinois charged at least 10 percent more in ZIP codes where a majority of the residents are minorities. Additionally, six Illinois insurers charged rates as high as 30 percent higher in minority ZIP codes, the report showed.
The Insurance Information Institute trade group disputed the report’s findings after hiring an independent expert to review the data it’s based on.
A good friend of mine moved from her Chicago home east of Western Ave. in the Beverly neighborhood a few blocks west to the Mount Greenwood neighborhood and every one of her insurance bills went down.
* Wanna bet that a bill gets filed to address this issue?…
You may be sweating through the annual race to file your income tax returns on time, but the state of Illinois is still trying to get tax returns that were due two years ago from hundreds of the very state employees whose salaries you pay.
Two incumbent state lawmakers are among the 312 people who the Department of Revenue determined are getting state checks but still haven’t filed returns for calendar year 2014, which were due two springs ago.
Each has already been assessed a $250 penalty for delinquency and faces an additional penalty equivalent to 10 percent of any taxes owed.
[Christopher Mooney, director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois] questioned the continued effectiveness of Rauner’s blame-Madigan excuses as the campaign for governor fully begins to take shape.
“Generally speaking, the governor is held responsible, the chief executive of a unit is held responsible, by the public. That’s what we know about public opinion. It’s a pretty simplistic view of the world. And as time goes on, he’s got to take responsibility for that. Maybe he can effectively blame somebody else like Madigan or whoever, but that’s not normally what works,” Mooney said.
Asked about his ability to work with veteran Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, Pritzker said governors “don’t get to choose … who the speaker is.”
“I’m an independent thinker and independent leader. I have been my whole life,” he said.
Rauner, Pritzker said, is seeking a second term by asking people to forget about his first term.
“He’s now campaigning for re-election pretending the last 2 1/2 years didn’t happen, as if to say it’s his agenda going forward, but we should just forget that 2 1/2 years have gone by,” Pritzker said of Rauner.
Oswego Willy’s favorite line in comments is “Governors own.”
And that’s normally true, as Mooney says. But this isn’t a normal state. Speaker Madigan is phenomenally unpopular here. He is every Illinoisan’s favorite bogey man - across the political spectrum and in every demographic. For crying out loud, the most recent Paul Simon poll had Rauner out-polling Madigan in Chicago.
So, all you gotta do is point the finger at Madigan and millions of Illinoisans don’t have to even think before they nod in agreement. It’s easy peasy.
* But in the wake of his attempt to kill off the Senate’s grand bargain, Rauner became the bad guy, which is why he’s now attempting to pin the blame on Madigan for its failure and praising the Senate Democrats.
And he did it again today in the Quad Cities…
.@GovRauner heaps praise on Senate Democrats at QC Chamber event. Says they want a balanced budget.
This reset appears to be a tacit acknowledgement that he lost the spin war in the Senate, so the governor is now trying to bring the debate back to more favorable turf: Speaker Madigan.
* Will it work? It certainly did during legislative campaigns last year, but it’s arguably tougher now that there are Democratic candidates zapping the governor from all sides.
On the other hand, the administration has almost no legislative accomplishments they can point to. Rauner’s always talking about the stuff he has done on his own and uses that to show how he could even greater things if it wasn’t for that Madigan dude.
“Blame Madigan!” is really the only thing they have in their arsenal right now. So Madigan is being painted as the “real” incumbent with Rauner as the good guy outsider tryin’ his gosh-durned best to change Illinois for the better.
Those of you who have been around a few years will remember how things used to be at the Chicago Transit Authority. Every year or two, the agency would suffer one of its inevitable financial crises. Without enough cash to pay the bills, whoever was the boss at the time would throw a five-alarm news conference, vowing to shut half the el stops, limit bus service to daylight hours every other Tuesday, and otherwise force everyone to walk 10 miles to work.
Eventually, the CTA’s financial situation stabilized. But the lesson of “let’s hold our breath until we turn blue and scare the bejabbers out of everybody” apparently was not lost on Forrest Claypool, the ex-CTA boss who now runs Chicago Public Schools and is threatening to shut down CPS almost three weeks early in June because he can’t pay the bills. He and Mayor Rahm Emanuel loudly blame the shortfall on Gov. Bruce Rauner, who they say reneged on a deal to provide $215 million for CPS pensions.
There’s merit to Claypool’s claim, although the situation is more complicated than he suggests. But I have come to suspect that his threat to toss the kiddies out onto the mean streets isn’t real as much as a means to whip up parents to contact their lawmakers and demand that CPS get that $215 million tout de suite! […]
can’t see Emanuel raising property taxes further. Nor can I see him following Lewis’ advice to “go where the money is” and hit up the rich and/or bring back the hated employee head tax. And the tax-increment financing program just doesn’t have the $400 million-plus in excess cash that would legally be needed to give CPS $215 million right now.
That leaves borrowing, which would be extremely expensive, given CPS’ abysmal credit rating, but perhaps possible in small amounts. And/or a shorter early recess, more layoffs of those hated CPS bureaucrats or a delay of a few weeks in a huge $721 million pension payment CPS is scheduled to make by June 30. In other words, something ugly, short-term and unsustainable. Somehow, it fits at CPS.
Also, CPS’ budget is so opaque it’s difficult to tell if they’re being honest about their finances.
So do you want footage of Schakowsky, Quigley and a reluctant Biss doing the Chicken Dance from the Tax Day Rally?
But of course, I replied. A dancing gubernatorial candidate is always a fun post, especially so when it’s attempted by a very, um, non-loose guy like Daniel Biss.
* I allowed commenters to rate the state spending cut proposals from the Democratic gubernatorial candidates last week.
* Here’s Juice on Ald. Ameya Pawar’s proposal to get rid of the state subsidy for Sox Park…
If the hotel/motel tax revenue is not sufficient to meet the debt service, the City of Chicago then becomes on the hook for the payments (which many on here are probably fine with, but a Chicago Alderman probably shouldn’t be).
Nice talking point, but not likely doable.
* Evanstonian on Sen. Daniel Biss’s long soliloquy …
Definitely laughed at Biss’ bold plan to save the taxpayers $138,000/year. Nice work, progressive champ.
Also, I asked for “one state spending program that you/your candidate would cut or reduce if elected,” and Leslie Munger’s salary isn’t exactly a spending program, unless you lump it in with patronage hiring.
* Arthur Andersen on Superintendent Bob Daiber’s proposal to abolish CMS…
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, CMS manages a handful of the more difficult programs in State Government. So, when we abolish it, does every agency procure their own healthcare? Will we see “streamlined procurement” like DHS and the empty warehouse? Let every agency decide what kind of vehicles they like without the advantage of buying in bulk?
Good point, but as another commenter mentioned, CMS charges agencies huge fees to do their purchasing, which artificially inflates agency costs in order to subsidize CMS’ operations.
* Chris Kennedy wants to merge the comptroller and treasurer’s office, so that qualifies as a cut, albeit a tiny one.
* Nobody really weighed in on Pritzker’s actual proposal, which was basically an “ounce of prevention” type thing. He wants to spend more money on certain programs in order to save money. There is a growing body of evidence to support his claims (click here for an informative NYT article on this very topic), but I asked for a specific programmatic cut. So, he didn’t answer the question.
It was kind of a silly story because the final deadline for passing House bills out of the originating chamber isn’t until April 28th. The Senate has the same deadline for passing its own bills over to the House. Those deadlines weren’t even mentioned in the story, by the way.
And it’s more than a little ironic that the ILGOP would use this angle since the most important legislation of the year was derailed in the Senate by Gov. Rauner.
Gov. Bruce Rauner: The bad news is the House Democratic leadership has been sending over some of their lieutenants and some of the leaders of their special interest groups that fund them over to attack the Senate Democrats — and try to blow up the grand bargain. That’s what’s been happening over the last six weeks. And I feel bad for Senate President Cullerton and some of his Senate Democrats. […]
Tony Sarabia: Where did you hear that about House Democrats, because this is the first time that we’re hearing this — that they’re sending over, as you say, special interests to block …
Rauner: You should check with the Senate Democrats about the pressure they’re getting. President Cullerton has been under relentless pressure. Special interest groups are beating him up. Senate Democrats are feeling a lot of pressure. In fact, I’ve been told that several — I won’t name names right here on this program — but several of the Senate Democrats have decided, boy, it’s not worth the pressure they’re getting. They’re pulling back off the grand bargain and not wanting to negotiate anymore.
Cullerton spokesman John Patterson questioned Rauner’s assertion of House Democratic involvement.
“I don’t think they had anything to do with … Republican votes for the budget deal disappearing overnight,” he said.
According to Patterson, the full quote was “I don’t think they had anything to do with all but one of the Republican votes for the budget deal disappearing overnight,” a reference to Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno’s lone support in the face of the governor’s opposition.
Aside from Radogno, the only people in the Senate who are standing against the groups and people who fund their campaigns are Democrats. Not all of them, for sure, but most.
It’s not just that universities create opportunities by educating students; they create opportunities by their very existence, especially in places without other major industries. As long as the budget impasse scares students and parents away from its schools, the state loses out on both.
“We had a net loss of 16,000 students last fall who went to school out of state. An enhancement of the MAP program might have kept some of those folks in state,” said [Illinois State University President Larry Dietz]. “Imagine if we kept just half of those 16,000 students. Just think what 8,000 students would have done for all the institutions in the state. 16,000 who left means conservatively $10,00 in tuition and fees that is crossing the state line. That’s $160 million a year.” […]
“The biggest issue around the leaving is the human capital and the intellectual capacity that those individuals take with them. If you go out of state you reduce dramatically the probability that person returning in state to start their business, serve a not for profit, whatever that might be. You may never get that human capacity back. That to me is the worst part of all of this.” […]
Eastern Illinois University President Davis Glassman, without referring to the governor by name, said there “has been much talk of growth needing to be a major element” of the changes the state needs.
“EIU agrees wholeheartedly and we would point out that our greatest opportunity for growth as a state will be through supporting the personal growth of our more than 12 million residents,” as in improving Illinois by investing in Illinoisans, he said.
“We take students from all backgrounds and circumstances and help them identify where they can make the most significant contributions,” said Glassman. “We then train them and arm them with the analytical skills necessary to improve not only their own circumstances but those of their communities and beyond.”
* Biss was clearly a star of the show, but the march didn’t get a whole lot of coverage…
Large protests rarely begin with the Chicken Dance, but Saturday’s Tax March in Chicago’s Richard J. Daley plaza was an exception.
The march — attended by thousands of protesters — called for President Donald Trump to release his tax returns. It was one of about 200 such marches held across the country ahead of Tax Day on Tuesday. U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and State Sen. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) spoke, as did Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) and the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.
Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker on Sunday accused the media of trying to divide the primary field into categories of establishment and progressive contenders and said he’s firmly in the progressive camp despite his immense wealth.
“Let’s be clear that it’s the media that’s decided to break it down into an establishment versus progressive. I’m a progressive,” the billionaire investor and entrepreneur said on WGN AM-720 in describing his work on child care, education, social justice and job creation.
“There’s nobody running in this race and nobody on the other side — for sure, the governor — who’s created jobs like I have. So job creation is hugely important. It’s something I’m running on. I don’t know what you want to call that. I call that good for the state,” he said in reference to founding the private investment firm the Pritzker Group and the tech incubator 1871.
Pritzker is seeking the Democratic nomination for the chance to take on Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner along with another wealthy rival, Chris Kennedy of the iconic political family. Two others seeking the nomination — 47th Ward Ald. Ameya Pawar and state Sen. Daniel Biss of Evanston — have warned Democrats they should not try to combat Rauner’s wealth by nominating a wealthy candidate and have sought support among populist progressives in the party.
We’ve had four cycles in a row where the Democratic candidate attacked the Republican candidate for being a rich white guy (Quinn vs. Brady, Obama vs. Romney, Quinn vs. Rauner, Clinton vs. Trump). It’s what they do, and it’s worked more often than not in this state, so Pritzker is in for the same treatment.
Pritzker is in Springfield and Champaign today…
JB Pritzker to tour the Illinois Coalition for Community Services and learn about how the organization has adapted without a state budget. ICCR is a member of the Illinois Collaboration on Youth, an organization that serves as a collective voice for young people and community-based providers.
He’s also apparently doing a lot of social media advertising…
Iroquois County Democrats are already on board with former University of Illinois board chairman Chris Kennedy as their party’s nominee for governor in 2018.
The party’s central committee endorsed Kennedy last Tuesday — more than 11 months before the March 20 primary election.
“It was the initiative of the people on the committee,” said Dale Strough, party chairman. “Even though it is early in the campaign I think we have a pretty good idea of the field, who is running and the basic information and who we think is the best candidate.”
Strough said there was discussion about making the unusually early endorsement, “but in the end it was unanimously approved.”
Illinois House Democrats will launch a social media campaign to promote candidates who are lifting up the middle class, and push back against Republican politicians who continue pushing an agenda that protects corporations and corporate CEOs at the expense of Illinois’ families.
Democratic Majority’s Lifting Up Illinois campaign can be found at facebook.com/LiftingUpIL and twitter.com/LiftingUpIL. The pages will share news and information on House Democrats’ efforts to advance aggressive economic reforms that strengthen the middle class, grow the economy and help Illinois businesses compete.
“Governor Rauner and Illinois House Republicans are failing to do their jobs. They remain focused on promoting a corporate agenda that hurts middle-class families in order to boost the profits of big businesses. House Democrats want to rewrite the rules so we can protect working families, and we plan to share our own message about lifting up Illinois, not tearing it down,” said Steve Brown, spokesman for the Democratic Majority. “We agree Illinois must do more to create jobs, but cutting the wages of middle-class families and stripping away workplace protections to boost corporate profits isn’t real reform. House Democrats have a clear vision for revitalizing our economy and creating jobs, and we look forward to promoting our message and holding accountable those who stand with corporate interests over working families.”
While Gov. Rauner and House Republicans continue to stand by their corporate agenda, House Democrats are fighting for economic reforms to grow the economy and build a stronger middle class. To this end, House Democrats are working to put more money in the pockets of working families by expanding middle-class tax credits and raising the minimum wage. Efforts by House Democrats are also being made to level the playing field for Illinois’ small and medium-sized employers while closing loopholes that allow big corporations to avoid paying any taxes at all.
Not much of anything at either of those two links yet. We’ll see how this develops. Any suggestions?
* From a full-page newspaper ad that ran October 14th and signed by dozens of pro-choice Republicans and Democrats including Diana Rauner herself, who helped personally pay for the advertisement…
The only difference between Bruce Rauner and Pat Quinn on reproductive rights is the issue of parental notification. Pat Quinn opposes parental notification, and Bruce Rauner favors it.
In accordance with his beliefs that healthcare should not be predicated on income, Governor Quinn supports legislation restoring abortion coverage under the state Medicaid plan.
About 20 Republican lawmakers sat down with Rauner in recent weeks to deliver a message on the abortion legislation: if you want us to support you in your quest for reelection, veto HB40. The meeting came at the urging of social conservatives who wanted a discussion with the governor about his intentions. The bill has been best known as a way to abolish a “trigger law” on the books now in Illinois that would make abortion illegal in Illinois if Roe v. Wade is overturned. However, language in the bill would also allow public funded abortions under Medicaid and state health plans. Social conservatives adamantly oppose both aspects of HB40.
‘Social conservatives have not asked for much’ — “They asked to meet with him and communicated how important this was and how this would be an indication of whether he was going to support a lot of people who got him elected the first time. I think that’s a fair proposition,” state Sen. Kyle McCarter told POLITICO last week. “I mean, the message has been delivered very clearly. I hope he’s listening to that. The social conservatives have not asked for much. We tolerated a lot and this is one thing that we do expect in order to support the governor in the next election.”
Madigan’s Tax Hike Puppets
Pawar, Pritzker, Kennedy and Biss Want Tax Hikes Without Reform
Democratic candidates for Governor are working overtime to court Mike Madigan’s support, meeting with Madigan insiders and conversing with the Speaker himself.
They’re even going so far as to copy his tax hike agenda.
Pawar, Pritzker, Kennedy and Biss want to raise your taxes without reform, just like Madigan.
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed 2018 budget would eliminate or significantly cut funding in at least 40 areas, a new analysis finds.
Those include after-school programs, immigrant services and mass-transit subsidies, according to the Associated Press analysis.
Still, those cuts collectively would result in only $242 million in savings — one-half of 1 percent of what the state government spends in a year.
That illustrates how much more cutting would need to be done to make a real difference for the state, whose financial crisis has worsened over the course of a two-year stalemate between the first-term governor and legislators led by Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.
* It also illustrates how the governor’s critique of the Senate’s grand bargain in this early March AP report is so hollow…
[Gov. Rauner] denied pressuring anyone and said Tuesday he opposes the package, negotiated by Democratic Senate President John Cullerton and Republican Leader Christine Radogno, because it spends too much.
“From what I’ve been told, based on what’s in the package so far, they don’t make any real spending cuts,” Rauner said. “So the budget’s not balanced. That’s one challenge. I’ve said please try to get that done - that’s pretty critical.”
“When you’re governor, you’ve got to step up to the plate, you’ve got to make a proposal for a balanced budget. That’s the requirement. And then you’ve got to sit down and negotiate if the folks that you need to work with disagree with you on points,” [Pritzker] said.
“Instead, what did he do? He went into the room. He said, ‘Great, lay all of your ideas on the table.’ They did. Then he walks out of the room and lambasts all the people in the room. And then he walks back into the room and says, ‘Great, let’s keep negotiating.’ And then he walks out of the room and lambasts every one of the proposals and then walks back into the room. And that’s his idea of negotiating,” Pritzker said.
Last week, Rauner spent two days touring the state on a campaign-funded tour. He blamed Democrats for stonewalling on his economic agenda.
As you know by now, Gov. Bruce Rauner toured the state for 2 days last week. He denied that the tour had anything to do with the 2018 election, but it was pretty darned clear that he and his team were tuning up the band for the big show down the road.
Campaign funds not only paid for the tour, but political money was used to promote in it advance. I’m told Rauner’s advertising on social and online media served more than a million impressions in the days leading up to the fly-around.
And like a musician touring to promote a new album, Rauner played up his latest hits. The “Chicago Machine Democrats” just want to “duct tape” the state’s problems instead of fixing them. Rauner’s latest TV ads, paid for by a “dark money” subsidiary of the Republican Governors Association, feature him in a pristine workshop using duct tape to explain how Springfield politicians don’t ever really fix problems.
Whatever he lacks in governing abilities, there’s no doubt that Gov. Rauner is a master at laying out a very simple, popular and easy-to-understand message and then staying on that message no matter what.
During his Peoria appearance, Rauner slammed the House Democrats’ stopgap budget as just “taping over our problems – duct taping cracks in our system.” The only thing missing was the bright, sharply pressed flannel shirt he wore in the TV ad.
As with all established bands on tour, the governor also played popular tunes from his recent albums. Since about the beginning of the year, when he was asked by a reporter to grade his first 2 years in office, Rauner has repeatedly pointed to his own successes at unilaterally cutting unspecified waste from the system (which plays right into the hugely popular notion that waste is the state’s biggest problem) and then contrasted that with the obstructionism of the “Madigan Democrats” in the General Assembly.
“They’ve created the worst crisis of any state in America,” Rauner said of the Democrats while speaking in Springfield. “On things that I can control, we’ve done wonderfully. Where the General Assembly has blocked progress, they’ve made the problem worse.”
Rauner even brought back a line from his February budget address, when he encouraged the Senate’s leaders to hammer out a grand bargain. He spoke about that effort as if he’d never actually knocked the grand bargain off the rails in March.
And, of course, he brought out the old standards that he’s been playing for years: property tax freeze, term limits and becoming “much more pro-growth, pro-business, pro-investment, pro-job creation,” as he said in Rockford.
The Democratic candidates, for their part, stuck to their #DoYourJob theme in response to Rauner’s tour, saying the governor should be getting a budget deal done rather than campaigning. None mentioned that the House and Senate are in the midst of a 2-week spring break, so doing a deal or even meeting with the other leaders probably wouldn’t be possible. Also, governors often use spring breaks as an opportunity to hit the hustings. This is nothing new.
Much of the Chicago-based print media focused on the fact that Rauner denied he was campaigning while obviously campaigning. But they never put that into the broader context of the governor’s habit of saying one thing (cheerleading the Senate’s grand bargain) while doing another (killing the Senate’s grand bargain).
Channel 7, the most-watched television station in Chicagoland, ran a purely positive piece.
“I want all of you to have a better future, I want your children to have great schools, and I want your salaries to go up,” Rauner said during the Chicago station’s report. There was no mention of the fact that none of that has happened since he became governor, and there is no foreseeable time when any of it will happen as long as we have this never-ending gridlock.
Rauner also appeared via phone on several talk radio programs during his tour and faced mostly softball questions from conservative hosts. Even conservative activist Dan Proft, who has sharply criticized the governor on his radio program since the start of the year, allowed Rauner to endlessly rattle on about his main talking points, duct tape and all, without much of a peep.
For those on Rauner’s side, this was a good tour. For those on the other side (and polls show there are a lot of them), well, they wouldn’t like it anyway.
Those in the middle probably got the message that the governor and his team wanted to send, with a big assist from the media.
