* I told subscribers about this letter earlier today…
A bipartisan group of 30 Illinois House members on Tuesday threw their support behind efforts in the Senate to craft a bill package aimed at ending the state’s historic budget impasse.
“We ask the senators from both parties to pass the best negotiated package they can, and then we will take up their work in the House,” the group said in a statement.
The package, which includes tax hikes, pension changes and a local property tax freeze, stalled in the Democratic-led Senate in March, when most Republicans withdrew their support.
John Patterson, a spokesman for Senate President John Cullerton, said on Tuesday both sides are “trading ideas in trying to find agreement.”
That’s a positive. House members have been mostly silent on the Senate’s work until now. But 17 Democrats and 13 Republicans signed on to this letter. An excerpt…
We believe a solution that can pass the House and Senate and be signed by the Governor needs to include a package of bills that fundamentally addresses the needs of the state, and most importantly provides a normal, full-year budget for our state agencies, schools, and social service providers.
Let’s be clear; we aren’t looking at a simple all or nothing vote on a package sent from the Senate. We understand that a package sent from the Senate will not be complete or perfect, and it will change. Our legislative process allows hearings and amendments from both chambers, and we think that’s the best way to negotiate a deal that serves our constituents and the state as a whole.
Keep in mind that the letter came out hours after Speaker Madigan appointed four of his top members to negotiate with Rauner. The rank-and-file signers don’t appear to want that, however. Instead, they want to take up the Senate’s package and go from there.
* Meanwhile, some rank-and-file House Republicans prefer to focus on process arguments…
According to State Representative David S. Olsen (R-Downers Grove), nothing is more important in Springfield right now than the adoption of a full and balanced budget. To that end, this week the freshman lawmaker signed on as a co-sponsor of three pieces of legislation that provide revenue estimates that can be used as the starting point for the creation of a full budget.
“The implementation of a budget is a multi-step process, and step one involves lawmakers coming to agreement on a revenue estimate,” said Olsen. “The Illinois Constitution is clear; the responsibility for crafting and adopting a budget rests solely with the General Assembly. That process begins with the approval of a revenue estimate that tells us how much money we have to spend.”
I happen to like Olsen, but it’s silly to say that this is the GA’s sole responsibility. Also, we won’t know what revenue levels to estimate until they agree on the taxes they’re going to raise.
* In related news, this is from a press release…
State Rep. Avery Bourne today released the following statement on school funding reform upon the House’s return to Springfield for the final month of the spring legislative session:
“For years, multiple legislative commissions and committees have studied the obvious inequities of Illinois’ school funding system. As it stands now, Illinois has the most inequitable school funding system in the nation. That means students are essentially forced to play a zip code lottery that will determine whether they learn in classrooms equipped with an iPad per student or one where students share decades old textbooks. This is a challenge we need to tackle as the legislature, and there is bipartisan agreement that it must happen soon. […]
“There have been countless hours spent in the last year around this bipartisan solution to our school funding problem. We cannot, however, take our eyes off of the goal. Our goal is a system that works for every student in this state. Getting this crucial reform passed is within sight. However, as often happens - this is when special deals are added or fairness is tossed out the window in exchange for what is politically expedient.
“When talking about state policies, I hear often from constituents that the money flows straight to Chicago while the rest of Illinois is forgotten about. We cannot let this happen again. The children of Illinois are too important. Understand though, I agree - the children of Chicago deserve a high quality education. Many of them are not afforded that opportunity under the current system. However, the children outside of Chicago, in central and southern Illinois deserve the opportunity to get a great education too.
The House Democrats have been working on a school funding reform bill, but haven’t yet convinced any Republicans to sign on. Gov. Rauner won’t go along with giving more money to Chicago’s schools without his pension reform deal, so this seems like a preemptive strike on Rauner’s behalf by Rep. Bourne.
*** UPDATE *** Remember that these are Sen. Bill Brady’s proposals. The Senate Democrats have yet to sign off on them. Greg Hinz…
Brady calls the plan “five for five”: The core is $5 billion in tax increases for what Brady says are $5 billion in spending cuts. […]
On the other side of the ledger, total spending would be capped at roughly $36 billion for each of the next five years.
To get to that figure, Brady would trim $435 million a year from employee group health insurance, save $700 million a year via accounting changes in the state’s pension systems and save another $500 million a year on pensions by moving new workers to 401(k)-style defined contribution plans.
Higher education would get a 15 percent across-the-board reduction, and most other programs outside of grade and high school support a 5 percent cut. Local units of government also would see a reduction in the the cut of state income taxes they now receive.
- Sir Reel - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 2:49 pm:
Let’s see if the Governor punishes Republicans who signed the letter. Don’t they understand that he’s in char?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:02 pm:
Ms. Bourne’s sole purpose, it appears, is to be the prop for Rauner to trot out things. Her thoughtfulness is lacking in complete proportion to her use by Rauner for whatever purpose Rauner needs to seem engaged.
I’m embarrass I thought Ms. Bourne could be a smart, talented legislator, not just a Raunerite that the governor sees as someone he can use to push Raunerism ideas and chess moves.
That’s on me. Lesson learned.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:26 pm:
Is Mr. Olsen is showing a youthful Pollyanna thinking?
If the job is too tough on him that he can’t focus on anything else…
To the Post,
I’m pleased to see 30 members trying to be about trying to get things done. It’s really a clear signal that Rauner is incapable of proposing a budget to fund his agencies, higher education, a want it desire to pay bills… and a clear indication that making the House Chamber and Speaker Madigan move off of sitting on what he wants and focus with these 30 to get 60 on board to pass a budget thru the Lower Chamber.
Do the doable.
This is a beginning.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:28 pm:
And who are the independent Dems who cross the Speaker?
Dunkin doesn’t count
- Rod - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:32 pm:
So I just read the full statement by Rep. Avery Bourne on her website, nowhere in her statement does she acknowledge that all of the proposed education funding reform plans, including HB 2808 will cost multiple billions of dollars to implement. Does she plan of revealing this to her constituents at some later point in time?
Her entire post on this issue makes it sound like passing HB 2808 fixes everything when according to the bill it’s just the start of an increased funding project for k-12 education that lasts ten years. Each one of those years the General Assembly must appropriate hundreds of millions of additional dollars for k-12 education. It certainly is money that needs to be appropriated for the good of many children. But given the overall fiscal situation of Illinois and the fact that Rep Bourne has supported bills that would actually lower the immediate revenue for the State, such as HB 345, or the fact that she also publicly opposed the income tax increase included in the Senate Grand Bargain back in March I don’t see how this plan can be paid for unless its with massive cuts in other areas.
The Republicans on the issue of education funding reform are even more evasive on the cost of this reform education funding project and how to pay for it than are the Democrats. Possibly the similar level of duplicity will truly unite the parties to pass this bill and then later not fund it due to revenue shortfalls and other pressing fiscal issues.
- Rogue Roni - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:33 pm:
Thats a good one Avery. Like you listen to your constituents.
- Thoughts Matter - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:34 pm:
The employees group health insurance is now 20 months behind in paying bills because of the lack of a budget. Even with one, it will take years to get back to the ‘normal’ several months behind. Brady ( who is my senator) wants to make all that worse by trimming money from it? Does he understand that employees pay premiums out of every check and deserve health coverage free from political games?
- Annonin' - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:35 pm:
Does it bother anyone else that the full document from The 30’s does not seem to be fully available….let’s make this one into a COWL skit
- Lech W - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:37 pm:
kudos to State Rep. Avery Bourne, her advocating for statewide fairness in educational funding is a refreshing break from the $215 mil blackmail letter that is coming out of CPS.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:43 pm:
===full document from The 30’s does not seem to be fully availabl===
Sure it is. Click the link.
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:47 pm:
Great to see the movement and hope it bears a budget.
“save another $500 million a year on pensions by moving new workers to 401(k)-style defined contribution plans”
No, man. Do not put new state workers on risky 401(k)-type plans. Workers took huge hits during the last economic meltdown. State workers’ benefits need to be models for the private sector, not vice-versa.
If we legalize marijuana, which appears to be a long shot in the immediate future and may not happen for a few years, we can make up most of the tax revenue. We can and should also pass the industrial hemp bill.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:48 pm:
===the $215 mil blackmail letter that is coming out of CPS.===
Yeah, hate to break it to ya, but Rauner said he vetoed the $215 million emotionally, not because he felt it was blackmail, so there’s that.
- winners and losers - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:50 pm:
=Her entire post on this issue makes it sound like passing HB 2808 fixes everything==
Andy Manar has spent years convincing everyone that the school funding formulas are the problem, not lack of funding for the poorer school districts because the maximum amount of State money for General State Aid has been frozen for the poor school districts for 9 years (since 2008).
Who can be against the Evidence Based Model? (A good political slogan is better than a good school funding formula any day of the week.)
You can fool all of the people some of the time.
Passing SB 1 or HB 2808 will be celebrated as a great victory - until everyone realizes they do nothing without $3.5 Billion to $8 Billion in NEW money just for K-12 education.
- Ron - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:50 pm:
The 5 for 5 seems like a great start.
- Ron - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:52 pm:
Taxpayers should not be on the hook for market returns. Brady is smart.
- Texas Red - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:55 pm:
==No, man. Do not put new state workers on risky 401(k)-type plans. Workers took huge hits during the last economic meltdown. State workers’ benefits need to be models for the private sector, not vice-versa.
You may be right that 401(K) plans may be risky, however so are pensions to the taxpayers of Illinois. With a pension the liability for the pension benefits remains on the backs of Illinois taxpayers for the life of the employee and perhaps even for a surviving spouse. With a 401(k) the liability is only on the taxpayers rolls for the years a person is employed by the state. With the sorry state of our pension funding and matched to the rigid language of the 1970 constitution - we have no other
real choice.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:55 pm:
I can’t think a great many state employees that would willingly not want a constitutionally protected pension…
I’d like to see how that could work, new hires, that’s what I’m saying.
- Not It - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:01 pm:
Moving new hires to a mandated 401 style pension basically bankrupts the pension system. We’ll have all these older people retiring with guaranteed pensions and nobody paying into the system. Better to give them a pension but make r a crappy one.
- HangingOn - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:03 pm:
==401(k)-type plans==
Trying to remember, so forgive if I’m wrong, but didn’t we establish long ago that Tier 2 was cheaper for the state than 401k plans? Doesn’t the state actually have to pay some into the 401k, unlike the games they play with the pensions?
- wordslinger - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:05 pm:
If those 13 GOP House members would buck Rauner on a Senate bill, then you’d have something.
For two years, a minority of House GOP members have had the power to set terms for ending all of this, if they wanted to.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:06 pm:
“With the sorry state of our pension funding and matched to the rigid language of the 1970 constitution - we have no other real choice”
Tax cannabis and use the revenue to fill the gap. There’s one.
Restructure the debt and wait for the tier one employees to die. There’s two
- Lefty Lefty - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:06 pm:
===full document from The 30’s does not seem to be fully availabl===
===Sure it is. Click the link.===
Do I have to subscribe? I’m a lowly geologist. Can I pay in limestone?
- Earnest - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:08 pm:
>A bipartisan group of 30 Illinois House members on Tuesday threw their support behind efforts in the Senate to craft a bill package aimed at ending the state’s historic budget impasse.
Good on them.
- Rogue Roni - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:10 pm:
Of course those two options don’t screw over a class of people you obviously have a distaste for. BTW anon @4:06 was me
- RNUG - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:13 pm:
== To get to that figure, Brady would trim $435 million a year from employee group health insurance,==
Right now we’re between 1 and 2 years behind on reimbursements. If this cut happens, and nothing else changes, we’ll be more like 3 to 4 years behind on reimbursement.
And if they change the employee contribution to be higher, most likely they still won’t catch up with the State reducing their payments.
Typical Rauner plan: poorer service at a higher cost.
- RNUG - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:18 pm:
== save another $500 million a year on pensions by moving new workers to 401(k)-style defined contribution plans. ==
Still waiting for that explanation about how a new DC plan with an employer match is cheaper than the Tier 2 plan that costs the State $0.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:19 pm:
–Right now we’re between 1 and 2 years behind on reimbursements. If this cut happens, and nothing else changes, we’ll be more like 3 to 4 years behind on reimbursement.–
Has there been any movement on the class-action suit brought by employees in Cook County Chancery Court?
The google has the filing from April 2016, but that’s it.
- Honeybear - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:22 pm:
Ah behold the new way for Rauner to try to provoke a strike.
Slash our health insurance
- RNUG - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:23 pm:
== The 5 for 5 seems like a great start.==
Yep. A great start to running what is left of State services and education right down the drain.
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:31 pm:
“so are pensions to the taxpayers of Illinois”
Illinois taxpayers got a sweet deal since at least 1969, paying low state income taxes, never above 4% (with the exception of the 2011 temporary tax hike). That’s one reason we have massive pension debt today.
We don’t want to willfully do to state workers what happened to private sector workers. We are in or approaching the age of retirement insecurity, with fewer defined pensions. Some companies are not even offering 401(k)’s, and many workers don’t make enough money to contribute adequately to defined contribution plans.
Meanwhile the Rauners, Griffins and Uihleins of America–the super-rich who are pushing harsh cuts–can retire thousands of times over.
- Ron - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:33 pm:
Health insurance has been slashed for the vast majority of americans.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:34 pm:
Pensions are very expensive. They are crowding out state services.
We pay massive RE and sales taxes though Grandson of Man.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:35 pm:
Can we lock out the workers if they strike and get all new Tier 2s instead?
- Honeybear - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:41 pm:
I should amend that it won’t work because we’re only going to strike for unfair labor practices. Oh and Ron there must be a reason why you hate good people who work hard every day for the state? I can’t imagine you having a lot of success with relationships being so hateful to people you don’t know. I hate to think of how you treat those you do. Or is it because of the anonymity that you feel powerful? Either way just stop
- Ron - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:44 pm:
Honeybear, you keep ignoring the millions of Illinois households that pay huge amounts I’m taxes and get a horrible government.
- Rogue Roni - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:54 pm:
“Honeybear, you keep ignoring the millions of Illinois households that pay huge amounts I’m taxes and get a horrible government”
Hey Rob your privilege is showing. There are millions of people to whom state services are critical. But I guess since you had to wait 5 minutes at the DMV all government is horrible.
- blue dog dem - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:55 pm:
I am back to endorsing Costello for governor. My chicken …. rep Phelps is clueless.
- MyTwoCents - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 5:03 pm:
Anonymous @ 4:34, why bring up property taxes during a discussion of State revenue & honestly based on what I can find, State sales tax (the only rate that matters in this discussion) I wouldn’t exactly call it really high, more middle of the pack.
www.salestaxinstitute.com/resources/rates
Now if you want local rates to change that’s going to take a massive revenue boost from the State.
- Ducky LaMoore - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 5:12 pm:
Every single one of Brady’s ideas listed above are completely crackers. Sorry I supported him in 2010.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 5:20 pm:
Olsen said the GA is solely responsible for crafting a budget, NOT that crafting a budget is the sole thing for which the GA is responsible.
- Touré's Latte - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 5:42 pm:
==”That process begins with the approval of a revenue estimate that tells us how much money we have to spend.”==
That’s crazy talk, kid…
- PublicServant - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 5:43 pm:
The 30 are urging the wrong people. They ought to be urging Rauner to allow his bought and paid for Republican Senators to vote for the Grand Bargain. Absent that, the Illinois GOP that Rauner controls will vote exactly the way he wants them to, regardless of what the people who elected them want.
- Charlie Wheeler - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 6:53 pm:
Point of information:
“When talking about state policies, I hear often from constituents that the money flows straight to Chicago while the rest of Illinois is forgotten about. We cannot let this happen again. The children of Illinois are too important. Understand though, I agree - the children of Chicago deserve a high quality education. Many of them are not afforded that opportunity under the current system. However, the children outside of Chicago, in central and southern Illinois deserve the opportunity to get a great education too.” Rep. Avery Bourne, 95th Representative District.
The 95th Representative District covers all or parts of 15 school districts, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. During the 2015-2016 school year, 13 of those school districts received a greater share of their operating revenues from the state than did Chicago Public Schools– City of Chicago SD 299– for which state dollars accounted for 29.7% of their operating revenues. The two exceptions were Morrisonville CUSD 1, 28.8%, and Panhandle CUSD 2, 28.2%. Source: http://webprod1.isbe.net/ilearn/
Charlie Wheeler
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 7:11 pm:
===The 95th Representative District covers all or parts of 15 school districts, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. During the 2015-2016 school year, 13 of those school districts received a greater share of their operating revenues from the state than did Chicago Public Schools…===
When a person I highly respect, Charlie Wheeler, clarifies a point so sharply, you scratch your head as to why a member of the General Assembly thinks they are “right” on an issue where math refutes the facts of their own district’s impact on the point.
Ms. Bourne is thoughtful to Raunerism, but understanding her own district and how her words are refuted by numbers, not so much.
Like I said, me, I’m embarrassed I thought Ms. Bourne could be a smart, talented legislator. That’s on me.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 7:43 pm:
Rauner has wasted 2.5 years trying to get 100% of what he wants instead of negotiating. The election only 1.5 years away. It’s gonna get to a point real soon where Madigan just waits till Rauner is out
- T Sowell - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 8:26 pm:
Madigan just waits till Rauner is out
MJM has an even lower approval rating than the Governor. He can wait all he wants but with the loss of just 8 seats in 2018 he will be waiting in vain.
- Opiate of the Masses - Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 8:38 pm:
401k plan? employer match? and 6%(?) social security that needs to be kicked in? sounds…cheaper?