During the interview, Maze broached the issue of the building trades…
Maze Jackson: You got the endorsement of the… building trades. The building trades council. Now, we know that in the black community there has been systemic racism…
JBP: That’s right
MJ: …within. Wait. What? Within the building trades.
* Jackson seemed stunned by Pritzker’s possible candor (or just an admission that he was endorsed by them), but didn’t follow up directly. Instead he asked how he was going to fix the systemic racial problems within the building trades. Charles Thomas cut Pritzker off to ask how he expected black peoples’ support when Pritzker was being backed by unions that many blacks consider racist…
JBP: Here’s what I would say. Building trades certainly are completely, there are not enough African-Americans in the building trades, in the apprenticeships…
CT: [Cross-talk] So, why would you accept their endorsement?
JBP: …or in pre-apprenticeship programs. Hold on. There are good people who are in the building trades who are not racists, who are trying to, yes, who are skilled labor, who want to make the building trades more diverse. But, here’s the problem. The state of Illinois, when it contracts, when it has a capital bill, when it does any kind of construction, it actually doesn’t live up to the obligation to make sure that there are [Thomas tries to interject], to make sure that there are African-American building trades working on these projects. [Cross talk as Thomas asks what he’s going to do.] Listen, I have consistently said, all of them that are endorsing me, I have consistently raised this issue. By the way, some of them have raised it with me, their effort to make changes. But it’s not good enough. The state of Illinois needs to require that the building trades, when they’re doing business with the state, that they increase the number of African-Americans that are… [Cross talk] …
CT: Did you even consider not accepting their endorsement as an act of good faith to the black community?
JBP: Better I think to have a dialogue that increases their awareness, making sure that they’re adhering to it. I think you have a governor who cares about it, who is influencing them at the state level, that is a better way to go.
Gov. Rauner has made an issue of this since the beginning of his administration. But without a capital bill, it’s somewhat difficult to do anything about it.
An Illinois legislator says striking seven words from the state’s massive energy bill would clear the way for more than $2 billion in new wind energy projects.
State Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, filed a bill in January to remove language concerning wind projects from the Future Energy Jobs Bill, which passed in December and was hailed as one of the most significant pieces of state energy legislation in the U.S. in decades.
The bill included a provision that requires the Illinois Commerce Commission to develop certification and training standards for wind developers – a process that took the commission about two years when the state established similar standards for developers of solar installations and electric vehicle charging stations.
“The bill created significant uncertainty that prevented investment in Illinois by the wind industry, which makes no sense,” Harmon said in a press release.
* Press release…
State Senator Daniel Biss’ measure to bring small donor matching to Illinois to ensure government better reflects the people it serves advanced out of the Illinois Senate Tuesday.
“Everyone who is frustrated today by the influence that corporations and billionaires wield over politicians and the policy decisions they make should support the concept of small donor matching,” said Biss, an Evanston Democrat.
“This is one way we can restore the balance of power in government and ensure that average people – those who represent Main Street America and middle-class values, not Wall Street and the corporate class – have greater influence over the decisions that are made in Springfield and elsewhere.”
Senate Bill 1424 would establish a small donor matching system for statewide races in Illinois, including governor, attorney general, comptroller, treasurer, secretary of state, state senators and state representatives. The system empowers ordinary people to compete financially and ideologically with special interests and wealthy donors. It also opens up the playing field to more diverse candidates for office and leads to more options at the ballot box.
Senate Bill 1424 would weaken the influence of money in Illinois elections by doing the following:
Contributions between $25 and $150 from local donors would be matched 6:1 by public funds.
Limits would be set on the amount of public funds available to each candidate.
Candidates would not be able to accept contributions of more than $500 from a single donor.
Under the legislation, the General Assembly could appropriate money to a special fund in the state treasury. The funds would be either $1 per Illinois resident or 1/20th of 1 percent of the state’s annual budget, whichever is greater.
* Press release…
Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS), the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and retired NASA astronaut Captain Mark Kelly, applauded the Illinois House Judiciary Committee today for advancing the Gun Dealer Licensing Act (SB 1657) to help slow the flow of illegal guns in Illinois, and urged the full House to act to save lives. The bill would give state authorities and law enforcement the tools to encourage better business practices among federally licensed gun dealers and hold corrupt dealers accountable to slow the flow of illegal gun trafficking in Illinois and help keep guns out of the wrong hands.
The bill, which was passed by the Illinois Senate last month, would give state authorities and law enforcement the tools to encourage better business practices among federally licensed gun dealers and hold corrupt dealers accountable to slow the flow of illegal gun trafficking in Illinois and help keep guns out of the wrong hands.
The head of the City Council Budget Committee on Tuesday sought to point the blame at Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner when it comes to finding a way to avoid a looming financial meltdown at Chicago Public Schools, saying in the often-blunt language she’s known for that “somebody needs to take Rauner by his neck and wring it.”
When asked about ways the city might be able to help the school district from going broke around the end of June, Ald. Carrie Austin toed the line of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration by trying to blame the governor, using rougher language in the process.
“Why won’t anybody go after the governor?” asked Austin, 34th, who was referring to the prospect of further city tax increases or draining funds from special taxing districts to help CPS. “Why is it always a strain on us? Why? Nobody ever asks that question. You don’t see this going on in any other school district, except for Chicago. Somebody needs to take Rauner by his neck and wring it.”
Rauner’s spokesperson Eleni Demertzis said Austin’s “outlandish rhetoric can’t paper over the years of fiscal mismanagement that triggered” the financial crisis at CPS.
”Rather than throwing unnecessary insults, it would be helpful if all sides would come together and work on an agreement that balances the state budget along with property tax relief and job-creating reforms that will grow our economy,” Demertzis wrote in an email.
“Alderman Austin is a passionate and committed advocate for our schools, and while we all express exasperation differently, make no mistake, we’re all exasperated by the governor’s leadership failures,” [Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s] spokesman Matt McGrath said.
Twice in the past month or so, people have casually asked me why nobody has yet “taken out” Speaker Madigan.
Leaders need to realize that their words can be taken literally, particularly in this insane age.
* Back in 2014, it seemed like everybody was posting videos doing an “ice bucket challenge.” You’ll recall it was a big fad back then and it raised a ton of money for the ALS Association. Candidate Bruce Rauner posted a video featuring three helpers dumping ice water on his head. Gov. Pat Quinn did a video as well.
JB Pritzker’s ice bucket challenge video is no longer online. A reporter pal brought up the subject last night. He said he saw the video back in the day, but he can’t find it now. So, I reached out to a trusted opposition researcher last night. He told me he’d also heard about it, but, sadly, has come up empty time and time again. I asked the Pritzker campaign what happened to the video this morning and am still awaiting a reply.
* Pritzker is dressed as the Dr. Evil character from the “Austin Powers” movies in his video, stroking a toy cat and wearing one of those bald wigs. The reporter who watched the video says Pritzker talked in a Dr. Evil accent while cheesy, 70s style sound effects played in the background. From a story done at the time by Shia Kapos…
He appears in his video, above, dressed as Dr. Evil, the fictional character played by actor Mike Myers in the “Austin Powers” films — bald head, tipped pinky and all.
Seated in a chair “deep below the Merchandise Mart,” he says he was nominated “by the techno geeks at 1871.”
“Little do they know, I’ll be turning the tables on them with ‘operation ice bucket,’” he says with a sinister laugh. “I’ll pour one million bajillion gallons of water over Chicago!”
The buckets drop with the help of two assistants, and a drenched Mr. Pritzker then peels off his mask to say he’s giving $26,000 to the ALS Association — $100 for each of the 260 companies in 1871. He also challenged his “evil brother” Tony Pritzker, Graff CEO Henri Barguirdjian and professional poker player Phil Hellmuth.
* Maze Jackson and Charles Thomas interviewed JB Pritzker on WVON yesterday. Click here for the full video.
A caller who said he owns a small company in the building industry asked whether Pritzker would consider making a commitment to putting a million dollars into a black-owned bank “so we can have loans and hire people.” Pritzker’s reply…
“As a matter of fact, I have made a commitment to do that. And we’ve met with a number of African-American faith leaders who were very encouraging about that and felt that’s a very important way for us to help create employment in the African-American community. So, it’s something I’ve already done.”
Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner made good on a promise to deposit $1 million in a South Side credit union for small business loans.
Rauner arrived in his 20-year-old Volkswagen van. At the teller’s window he made a $200,000 donation and an $800,000 deposit to help the African American-owned credit union make small business loans. […]
“Is he the kind of person who would rather buy votes in the community as opposed to being here all along?” said Rikeesha Phelon of the Democratic Governor’s Association.
Charles Thomas: I have talked to so many black people over the last several weeks, who say JB’s my guy. Man, they got JB’s personal cell phone number. Everybody’s trying to get paid. These politicians and political operatives, it seems to me, by JB Pritzker because they know he’s got three and a half billion dollars…
JBP: That’s not happening in my campaign. Listen, we have gained a lot of support in the African-American community which I think is a direct consequence of my spending a lot of time in the black community.
CT: Not money.
JBP: No, no. I am spending time in the black community. You ask, people have seen me everywhere. I am going West Side, South Side, everywhere. I’ve spent time and I have a lot of friends in the black community for some time. So, I’ve been successful I think because I’m working hard.
CT: So, you’re not being that guy who’s buying, you say you’re not buying…
Maze Jackson: Hold on. Look. In the interest of what’s in it for black folks, and there’s a half billion dollars being spent, find some black people to hire, because we need to participate in the economic part of this election process too.
So, on the one hand he’s going to make a large deposit into a black bank. But on the other, he’s spending time not money, which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your perspective.
Asked Monday if he believed Democratic leadership was working against him and aligning behind Pritzker, Kennedy warned against creating a political party that won’t allow dissent.
“I think there are elements within the Democratic Party that would like to have someone fight their battle for them. I’m not among them. I believe you look back at the great history of the United States and the progress that’s been made, it always occurred when people fought for themselves,” Kennedy told reporters. “I think we’re at an impasse like that now in our state. And if people think that they can get somebody else to fight their battle for them and have a good outcome, they’re wrong.”
Kennedy pointed to Rauner’s influence on the Republican Party, which the governor heavily funds, and the reluctance of GOP lawmakers and officeholders to break ranks.
“One of the worst things that Gov. Rauner has done is to silence his own party. None of the state reps, none of the state senators, none of the constitutional officers have spoken up against him. None have spoken out. And we don’t want to replicate that system in the Democratic Party as well.”
“I don’t think this is about individuals. I think this is about a whole network that makes it nearly impossible to see integrity in the system for the average voter, the average taxpayer. Having faith in government, understanding that government can be an ally, understanding that government can function at a higher level is something that occurs in other states. We don’t have that here because people don’t believe that the system is just or rid of corruption. We need to rid it of corruption by changing the system.”
J.B. Pritzker Lying to Reporters
Peddling in Alternative Facts about Uninhabitable Mansion Scam
Just weeks into his campaign for Governor, J.B. Pritzker is already lying to reporters about troubling tax breaks he took out on two of his Gold Coast Chicago mansions.
Asked about the questionable property tax appeal on his $3.7 million mansion on a radio show yesterday, the Associated Press reports that Pritzker says he “appealed only once in the nine years he has owned the property”.
This means that Assessor Joe Berrios reduced Pritzker’s assessment by 83% for the second year in a row.
And as a result of his 2015 appeal, Pritzker also received huge refunds retroactively for years 2012, 2013, and 2014 – netting him a $132,000 check according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Capitol Fax also reported yesterday that Pritzker appealed his property taxes on a third Chicago property - a condo near his Gold Coast mansions.
All of this means that Pritzker’s claim that he “appealed only once in the nine years” is a lie. He’s appealed twice and has received property tax breaks for five years.
Will J.B. Pritzker stop shortchanging Chicago schoolchildren, lying to reporters, and end his scam?
In the long and raucous, altogether lively if recently beleaguered history of Chicago newspapers, Monday will rank as a “stop-the-presses” day after it was announced that, in short headline style: “Chicago Tribune Seeks To Buy Chicago Sun-Times.”
Tronc, the parent company of the Tribune, has entered into a nonbinding letter of intent to acquire Wrapports Holdings, which owns the Sun-Times as well other assets such as the Chicago Reader alternative weekly, the Aggrego digital content business and the syndicated column The Straight Dope.
The announcement follows months of discussions between Wrapports and Tronc and after both organizations worked closely with the Department of Justice’s antitrust division.
The tentative deal means Chicago would remain one of the last two-newspaper cities in the country, though those papers would operate under a single corporate owner. Terms of the potential deal were not disclosed.
“There are minor points still to be worked out, but we are confident that we will be able to move forward on this transaction and reach a definitive agreement,” said Tronc CEO Justin Dearborn. “This is generally viewed as good for all Tronc shareholders.”
The Sun-Times is publishing a full-page advertisement in Tuesday’s paper “seeking new ownership that will commit to preserving the Sun-Times as an independent news source in the city of Chicago,” Wrapports officials said in a statement.
After that, the Sun-Times will be sold to Tronc “if no other viable buyer expressing substantial interest” within 15 days, according to the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, which investigates newspaper mergers. Tronc also would acquire the alternative weekly Chicago Reader and Wrapports’ stake in Aggrego, a digital content company.
Federal investigators “will closely monitor the sale process for the Chicago Sun-Times, including whether any other viable buyer expresses interest,” according to a Justice Department statement.
In a memo to employees, Sun-Times Publisher and Editor In Chief Jim Kirk said the companies entered discussions several months ago and informed the Justice Department of the “possibility of a transaction.”
Assurances by both companies that the Sun-Times would remain editorially independent did little to quell fears of substantial cutbacks to the city’s No. 2 daily. The Tribune’s own account described the deal as “providing a lifeline to the scrappy but struggling tabloid.” Others viewed it as the beginning of the end.
The man behind all the machinations is Michael Ferro, the Chicago tech entrepreneur who headed Wrapports until 2016 when he switched sides to become chairman of Tribune Publishing, later renamed tronc.
Ferro has never disavowed ambitions to take back the Sun-Times and combine its ownership with the Tribune. In an interview weeks after he took over the Tribune, Ferro said of buying the Sun-Times: “I do see that someday, and why not?”
The structure for the two newspapers will not look like a joint operation venture, a setup that some rival newspapers have used in years past to share costs without blending their newsrooms. Knight didn’t provide details on what exactly the infrastructure would look like, what costs would be shared and whether there would be new management. “We are working through all of that right now,” he said. “The Chicago Sun-Times will continue to be operated as an independent newsroom, and that’s where there’s benefits for the readers and citizens of Chicago.”
If there’s any potential political winner here, it could be Gov. Bruce Rauner. Rauner was an early investor with Ferro when he first bought the paper in 2011. Under Ferro (and Tim Knight, who has now landed back at tronc) the Sun-Times stopped all political endorsements. That is until the governor’s race in 2014, when it suddenly came out and endorsed its former investor, Bruce Rauner, for governor. The Sun-Times editorial board has just reestablished its independence, moving more to the left, recently laying the state’s budget impasse at the governor’s feet. That’s in contrast to the Trib’s editorial board, which is strongly pro-Rauner.
“Internet privacy legislation making its way through Springfield is more in line with the interests of the trial bar than it is with consumer protection, critics say.”
“John Pastuovic, president of the Illinois Civil Justice League, said that everyone would likely agree that reasonable guidelines are needed to ensure consumer privacy, but the current proposals in Springfield “are falling in the same old trial lawyer trap of using lawsuits to enforce the new standards.”
“Pastuovic also said that legislators should keep working until they find a better way to protect consumer data. ‘There has got to be a better way” than what is currently being proposed,’ he said.”
These bills are wrong for Illinois – VOTE NO ON HB 2774/SB 1502 & HB 3449.
Even if Rauner is right (and he may be) that a bad deal “continues our state’s slow and painful decline,” he completely ignores the fact that no deal would take that slow decline and jam it into overdrive.
No deal means $24 billion in overdue bills by January of 2019. No deal means junk bond credit ratings, which means Illinois won’t be able to borrow in 2019 to pay off that mountainous backlog. No deal means an accelerated decline and even collapse of universities and colleges and more huge tears in our already ripped up social service fabric. No deal means more delays in funding for K-12 schools which are currently dealing with a billion-dollar backlog. No deal means higher unemployment. No deal means chaos.
* Meanwhile, this reader said he received an automated poll…
My wife answered a telephone poll yesterday (yes, we still have a landline) that tested Rauner against Pritzker and Kennedy, then had multiple questions about the “four and four” compromise – 4 year increase in income tax, 4 year complete property tax freeze along with multiple levels of cuts to Medicaid, higher ed, local government funds (10%), state operations, mass transit, etc. Wish I took notes on all the listed items and cut levels but we were finishing dinner at the time.
Pretty clear from the questions that the poll was by the Rauner camp.
* GOP Rep. Dave Severin was listed as having an excused absence (click here) on a recent House floor vote to prevent the layoffs of some Department of Corrections prison nurses. Here’s his explanation…
“I did what I did for one reason and that is so people would ask me why I walked off,” said Severin, R-Benton.
Severin said his decision April 6 to leave Springfield was specifically related to a pending vote that afternoon on Senate Bill 19, which would require the Illinois Department of Corrections to maintain staffing levels at what they were in January 2016 for registered nurses and medical technicians — affecting about 300 positions. […]
Severin said he wanted to support the nurses but faced pressure from Republican Party leaders for him to vote against the bill. Therefore, he decided to skip town that day instead of voting for or against the bill.
“I refused to vote against the nurses,” Severin said. “I didn’t think it was the thing to do but there also was pressure on me not to vote for it. I said, ‘Here’s what I’m going to do then. I’m walking off the floor because I refuse to vote against those nurses.’” […]
Severin said that it is a “fair question” for people to ask him why he didn’t vote in favor of the legislation if he believed in the intention of the bill, regardless of what pressure he felt from his party leadership. Severin did not specifically say who in the Republican Party leadership pressured him to vote against the bill, or in what way they pressured him. He only would describe the pressure as coming from “the Republican Party.”
House Democrats seeking common ground with Gov. Bruce Rauner in order to end the budget stalemate and put the state on a path to fiscal stability will outline additional reforms they plan to present to the governor at a press conference Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the Capitol Blue Room.
Democrats declined to provide details of their plans in advance of a Tuesday morning news conference, but Madigan’s previous proposals included cutting the corporate income tax rate by at least 50 percent but applying that rate across the board so that a vast majority of businesses that currently don’t pay any income taxes will have to pony up.
He also called for keeping in place a sometimes controversial tax credit for businesses that create new jobs, and banning “any future tax incentives for corporations that ship American jobs out of our country.” The speaker has also pushed for expanding the earned income tax credit for low-income families, raising the minimum wage and taxing those who earn over $1 million.
With only a few weeks to go before the end of the spring legislative session, Rauner’s office said it was “skeptical” about Madigan’s intentions.
“After two years of playing games and refusing to negotiate, call us skeptical that all we will see from Madigan Democrats is another set of phony reforms to disguise a massive tax hike and bailout for Chicago,” spokeswoman Eleni Demertzis said.
*** UPDATE *** From the House Democrats…
House Democrats seeking common ground with Gov. Bruce Rauner in order to end the budget stalemate and put the state on a path to fiscal stability are asking the governor to consider their reform proposals that will improve the business climate while lifting up the middle class.
“House Democrats believe the budget crisis demands immediate action, and it is our hope to show Governor Rauner that we stand ready to work with him,” state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie said. “We plan to seek common ground with the governor on his proposals, and present him with items we believe should be part of the bargaining in order to encourage economic growth while lifting up the middle class.”
Last week, House Speaker Michael J. Madigan appointed Currie and House Leaders Lou Lang, Arthur Turner and Jay Hoffman to work with Rauner to find compromise on issues unrelated to the state budget.
The legislators plan to present the governor with House Democratic Caucus proposals that will improve the business climate while lifting up the middle class. While the governor has prioritized changes to the workers’ compensation system, Democrats are pushing for additional reforms that would prohibit insurance companies in Illinois from eliminating an insurance policy due to a pre-existing condition and would also create an Insurance Rate Review Board to prevent insurance companies from unfairly gouging consumers.
The House negotiators also plan to ask Rauner to stand with Democrats in working to close corporate loopholes that allow large businesses to pay nothing in taxes. House Democrats have prioritized cutting the overall corporate income tax to level the playing field for small and medium-sized employers, while also cracking down on large corporations that game the system to avoid paying anything in taxes.
“House Democrats have put forward a number of reforms that address the governor’s goals, and we will continue pushing ideas that will strengthen the economy while also lifting up the middle class,” Lang said. “We believe we can create jobs without hurting the people who work in those jobs every day. We look forward to working with the governor to find common ground and move this conversation forward by discussing his ideas in depth, and presenting him with ideas of our own.”
J.B. Pritzker is under fire this week for abusing vacancy laws to get massive property tax breaks on his two Gold Coast mansions totaling nearly a quarter million dollars.
And Pritzker is slated to get the same tax breaks this year.
But questions remain – such as why the Pritzkers felt it necessary to disconnect all the toilets in the home – allowing them to claim the home as uninhabitable.
Pritzker is taking money from Chicago Public Schools and other City services, and even liberals are taking note.
Mark Brown from the Chicago Sun-Times penned a column yesterday saying that Pritzker “is not paying his fair share of taxes”.
This is not about the commonplace practice of appealing property taxes on someone’s principal place of residence. This is about a very unique situation of a homeowner buying an expensive property next door and being rewarded for being a lousy owner.
As explained by the assessor’s office, this tax break is intended for someone buying a property to rehab it, the idea being they shouldn’t be required to pay full price on their taxes if nobody can live there.
I can’t speak to the exact condition of the home when Pritzker bought it, but I can tell you it was definitely habitable.
At some point afterward, however, all the toilets in the home were disconnected. The Pritzkers haven’t explained when this happened or why it was necessary.
* Pritzker told reporters yesterday in Springfield that the photos shared yesterday by the Republicans didn’t show the house’s problems. He claimed, for instance, that the staircase was falling off the wall…
“It was in terrible disrepair. Actually, the stairs were coming off the wall, the basement is unfinished and has a dirt floor, and so there was nothing in good shape in that house at all, and there was nothing that we did other than we asked that our taxes be reassessed because it wasn’t worth what we paid for it,” Pritzker said. “The truth is we probably over paid for the house, and lots of people have done that, especially in the environment of falling home prices.”
He also said he plans to rehab the house sometime in the future.
Pritzker paid $3.7 million for the building, below the original list price of $6 million. According to a Chicago magazine story by my colleague Dennis Rodkin, he became only the third owner in 118 years of a building designed by Holabird & Root with unique features. […]
It’s unclear if the building declined with age or if there was internal demolition prior to a possible rehab, but in an appeal filed with Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, the assessed value of the property dropped from $6.3 million to $1.1 million, saving Pritzker $230,000 in property taxes so far.
OK, so read between the lines a bit. Pritzker paid $3.7 million for the house, but it’s assessed value remained at or above its original $6 million list price. Usually, you’d file for a reassessment right away if you bought a house for much lower than its assessed valuation, but Pritzker didn’t, which cost him some bucks he didn’t need to be paying.
Not defending him or anything, but on that point some of this isn’t totally out of the realm of reasonableness.
Greg also reports that Pritzker claims to have used the mansion next door “as a staging area for the complete renovation of his home next door.
Still, this is all kinda weird to me.
* Meanwhile, Mark Maxwell reports that Pritzker’s property tax appeals attorneys contributed $25,000 to Assessor Joe Berrios (no surprise in that county). He also has Chris Kennedy’s reaction…
“It’s an inherently corruptible system. We ought to reject it. Nobody is confident that the system yields a fair outcome either for individuals - but most importantly - for the kids who depend on the income to fund their schools.”
“This is an attack by Bruce Rauner and by the GOP because they really have nothing else to talk about, no accomplishments to tout, and so they’re taking any shot they can take. Obviously they are taking a shot at me because they think I’m a threat to them.”
* Sen. Daniel Biss gets the last word…
Right now, two billionaires running for #ilgov are fighting each other over who did the better job of getting out of paying their taxes.
Everyone seems to have a powerful lobbyist in Springfield but you, the taxpayers. That’s why you elected me. I’m here to fight for you and stop career Chicago politicians from squeezing you dry.
For the last two years, the career Chicago politicians who run the General Assembly have been focused on one thing: Raising your taxes without any fundamental changes to their broken system. No real spending reductions or hard spending caps to balance the budget for the long run. No economic reforms to grow our economy and bring high-paying jobs back to Illinois. No relief from skyrocketing property taxes or term limits on the career politicians. Just higher taxes to fuel more government spending and bailouts for Chicago. The Democrat majority has been in power for more than 30 years, and they’ve overseen our continuous deficits, frequent tax hikes, job losses and more than $180 billion in debt.
Plenty of powerful lobbyists are on their side. They’re just fine with an insider-rigged system that raises your taxes and rewards their special interests. But for two years we’ve been your voice in the state Capitol — standing up for you to say enough is enough.
Two years into our state budget impasse, it’s encouraging that some Democrats are finally willing to engage in serious negotiations to resolve our differences. But as we approach the end of the legislative session, many of them are buckling under enormous pressure from Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, powerful lobbyists and special interests who want to maintain the status quo.
It’s always a good idea to chastise Cullerton and his caucus for buckling to Madigan. Yep. That’ll work wonders, I’m sure.
* The other day, I asked the Senate President’s spokesman this question: Does Senate President Cullerton believe that Gov. Rauner really wants a deal on the budget and non-budget items?
He took the question to Cullerton and this is his answer…
Yes, because I refuse to believe that the governor of Illinois would desire otherwise.
