* Herald & Review…
Illinois’ financial mess is hurting almost every entity in the state, and school districts have felt the pain in their budgets as much as any.
Transportation or special education reimbursements have not been paid this year, for example, and when the Illinois State Board of Education’s annual financial rankings came out in mid-April, some districts pointed right back at the state.
Meridian’s ranking dropped to “early warning,” with a score of 2.8 out of 4. Rankings are based on revenue to fund balance, expenditure to revenue ratio, and days cash on hand.
“The way I look at it, of course we’d like to have (a score) somewhere in the 3s, but we’ve been using some of our reserves because the state has underfunded us,” Meridian Superintendent Dan Brue said. “It’s ironic they come out with these rankings when our rankings go down because we’re not getting the money from the state like they promised us.” […]
State revenue accounts for about 35.5 percent of Meridian’s budget, Brue said, and the state owes the district more than $412,000.
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* Mayor Emanuel reacted today to the governor’s latest plan to sell the Thompson Center. Click here for background. Click here for raw audio…
This is a political stunt. He could have signed the pension parity bill. He could’ve, 22 months ago he could’ve introduced a balanced budget that fully funded education. And he’s spending more time on the Thompson Center in the last three days than he has spent in the last 22 months on the entire budget and funding education.
There’s that pension bill again.
* Mayor Emanuel had earlier released a statement about how Gov. Rauner should focus on passing a budget, and here’s the governor’s response…
The mayor’s correct. We should have a balanced budget. We should’ve had a balanced budget 18 months ago. He should ask the speaker why he’s held that up.
* Rauner also asked reporters why Emanuel was throwing up “artificial roadblocks” on the project and then said…
It seems to be a tag-team effort between the mayor and the speaker to come up with delaying tactics… It’s being held up by the mayor and the speaker for political reasons. This should not be tolerated.
* The Tribune got a response from Speaker Madigan’s spokesman…
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said Friday that he was “not sure what today’s outburst was about.” The speaker’s staff has been meeting with staff from the mayor’s and governor’s offices “multiple times a week on trying to move this project along,” Brown said.
That the idea to sell the notoriously dilapidated office building, and the prime city block on which it sits, has become a sparring ground for the Republican governor and his Democratic adversaries is the latest sign of the deep political stalemate that’s overtaken Illinois.
Democrats agree with Rauner that the Thompson Center, which is used as office space for about 2,200 state employees, is a troubled building. Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton moved their offices and staffs to a nicer building across the street years ago.
“I don’t think there’s any disagreement by the speaker’s office or the staff that the state could do better than (the Thompson Center),” Brown said.
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Question of the day
Friday, May 5, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the Cook Political Report…
IL-06: Rep. Peter Roskam (R) - Chicago west suburbs: Wheaton, Palatine
Lean Republican. Roskam was first elected in the Democratic wave year of 2006 over current Sen. Tammy Duckworth, but hasn’t had a tough race since. Now, after Hillary Clinton carried this suburban Chicago seat by 7 points, there’s a deluge of Democratic interest. Local college trustee Amanda Howland, who took 41 percent last year, is running again, but most early buzz is about Iraq veteran and former Veterans Affairs official Maura Sullivan.
IL-13: Rep. Rodney Davis (R) - South central: Champaign, Decatur, Springfield
Likely Republican. Downstate Illinois has trended away from Democrats, and Davis appeared to have locked down this seat after taking 60 percent last year. But in a wave environment, this Democratic-drawn seat could still come into play. Democratic state Rep. Carol Ammons of Urbana is in, but she comes from the liberal corner of the district. Democrats’ preferred candidate would be state Sen. Andy Manar, who comes from the rural southern end of the seat.
IL-14: Rep. Randy Hultgren (R) - Chicago north and west exurbs: Batavia, McHenry
Likely Republican. In 2012, Democrats drew this district to pack GOP voters, but these outer Chicago suburbs only voted for President Trump 48 percent to 45 percent. Hultgren’s voting record has been reliably conservative. It’s still a long-shot for Democrats, but there’s some local interest in Navy veteran and high school teacher Victor Swanson, who just announced. This seat would only come into play if there’s a big anti-GOP wave. [Emphasis added.]
* The Question: Should Andy Manar run against Rodney Davis, even though the district is ranked “Likely Republican”? Click here to take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
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It’s just a bill
Friday, May 5, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* This is a big win for everyone…
Illinois senators have overwhelmingly endorsed an automatic-voter registration plan two years in the making.
The measure would automatically register qualified voters when they visit Secretary of State’s offices and a handful of other state agencies unless they decide to opt out. It moves to the House after a 48-0 vote in the Senate on Friday. Democratic state Sen. Andy Manar of Bunker Hill is sponsoring the measure. He says it would streamline voter registration and bolster participation.
A previous version passed both chambers last fall but Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed it over concerns it didn’t do enough to prevent voter fraud. Manar says this version addresses nearly all of the governor’s concerns.
The value of compromise.
* This bill is actually supported by the Illinois Restaurant Association…
When 14-year-old Susan Tatelli goes out to eat with her family, they usually stick to a handful of tried-and-true places – not for lack of wanting to explore but because Tatelli, who has a peanut allergy, knows she’ll be safe at the usual spots.
“You really have to grill the restaurant staff, and a lot of times you have to ask to talk to the chef to make sure there wasn’t going to be any cross-contamination issues,” she said. “There weren’t a lot of places I ever went out to eat. We had a short list of restaurants we knew were good with my allergies.”
On one occasion Tatelli said her family was told not to eat in a restaurant because they couldn’t “accommodate” her allergies. “We just left,” she said.
Proposed legislation requiring restaurants to provide food allergen training could make the dining experience more palatable to people who have food allergies, like Tatelli.
The bill would require restaurants to have managers undergo accredited food allergen awareness and safety training within 30 days of being hired (recertification would be required every three years). Restaurants would also be required to have at least one manager who’s received that training on site at all times while the restaurant is open.
* Tribune…
Illinois customers stubbornly hanging on to your old landline telephone service, AT&T has a new plan for you: Switch to a modern alternative or face disconnection.
With traditional landline service dwindling to less than 10 percent of Illinois households in its territory, AT&T is pushing legislation in Springfield that, pending Federal Communications Commission approval, would allow it to unplug the aging voice-only network and focus on the wireless and internet-based phone offerings that have supplanted it.
“We’re investing in a technology that consumers have said they don’t want anymore and wasting precious hundreds of millions of dollars that could be going to the new technologies that would do a better job of serving customers,” said Paul La Schiazza, AT&T Illinois president.
AT&T has 1.2 million traditional landline customers in the state — 474,000 residential and 725,000 business — and is losing about 5,000 each week, La Schiazza said.
* Also from the Tribune…
Senate Democrats pushed through a measure Thursday that would prevent state and local police from making arrests due to a person’s citizenship status, an effort supporters say is designed to build trust between law enforcement and communities living in fear following the immigration crackdown under President Donald Trump.
The bill would prohibit police from searching, arresting or detaining a person because of their immigration status absent a federal criminal warrant. It also would create so-called safe zones in state-funded schools, health care centers and secretary of state facilities, and block state and local law enforcement agencies from creating registries based on race, religion and national origin.
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Policing for Profit in Illinois
Friday, May 5, 2017 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Did you know, current Illinois law allows law enforcement and prosecutors to engage in policing for profit? Learn more.
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Today’s quotable
Friday, May 5, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Amen…
And the universities, and K-12, and social services and…
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Mazeski the latest Dem to challenge Roskam
Friday, May 5, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Democrat Kelly Mazeski picked a good day to launch her congressional bid: The same day GOP Congressman Peter Roskam voted for the Trumpcare bill. She got a bunch of coverage…
* ABC 7: Dem. Kelly Mazeski challenging Roskam with healthcare focus: One of the challengers is a cancer survivor. “If you told me I would be standing here running for Congress, I wouldn’t believe it,” said Democrat Kelly Mazeski. But Mazeski is believing it now. The 57-year-old mother of two is determined to win the Democratic primary in the 6th Congressional District and take on incumbent Roskam. “This is personal for me in this race,” said Mazeski. “He is out of touch, been in this too long, he doesn’t know what it’s like for American’s to walk this walk.”
* NBC 5: Roskam’s Health Care Vote Has Democrats Lining Up To Oppose Him: The healthcare vote has Democrat Kelly Mazeski announcing she’s running for Congress in the west suburban district. To her it’s a personal mission “as a mother who has lost her medical insurance twice, survived breast cancer, and have a daughter with a very serious medical condition, I think it’s time the voters in the Illinois 6th hold Peter Roskam accountable for making Americans pay more to get less in health care.”
* Fox 32: Trump touts House health care bill, questions linger: Kelly Mazeski is a former chemist who plans to use roskam’s vote against obamacare against him. “I think it’s time we hold Peter Roskam accountable for voting to make Americans pay more for less coverage in health care,” Mazeski said.
* CBS 2: Potential Roskam Challenger Vows To Make Health Care The Issue: On the very day U.S. House Republicans voted to throw out Obamacare, a suburban Democrat is launching her campaign against one of Illinois’ most prominent members of Congress. Her own health care journey is at the very heart of her campaign, says CBS 2 Political Reporter Derrick Blakley. “I didn’t choose to get cancer. My daughter didn’t ask for a medical condition that was a huge burden on her life for several years. I can’t begin to tell you how personal this is for me,” Kelly Mazeski says. The 57-year-old survived breast cancer and had to find insurance for a daughter with pre-existing conditions. These are two keys to why she’s making health care the centerpiece of her campaign against Republican Congressman Peter Roskam.
You can click here to watch the TV coverage in one spot.
* Mazeski ran for the Illinois Senate last year and got clobbered by 20 points. A union leader, unhappy that she backed a property tax freeze and opposed a graduated income tax, passed along her Daily Herald candidate questionnaire…
I do not support any increases in income, sales or property taxes. I also do not support a graduated income tax as it would place an unfair burden on my district. Generally speaking, I do not support new taxes or tax increases of any kind. I do support a property tax freeze.
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More finger-pointing on Thompson Center sale
Friday, May 5, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Michael Hoffman, acting director of the Illinois Department of Central Management Services, writing in the Tribune…
Many have focused on the potential short-term financial windfall to the state, but the long-term benefits to the city of Chicago are even more striking. The state currently pays nothing in the way of property taxes for our space in the Thompson Center. That’s an entire city block currently devoid of value to the city’s coffers. If negotiated reasonably, the city would realize up to $45 million annually in property taxes. That’s $45 million a year — in perpetuity.
* Chicago’s budget director Alex Holt responds…
The Rauner administration’s argument that the city will collect $45M in property taxes from this land - “in perpetuity” - is inaccurate.
1) Only 20% of property tax revenues come to the city. So for the city to net $45M, the property’s total tax bill would have to be over $200M a year. That’s almost 10 times the annual property tax payments from the Willis Tower.
2) The city would see no additional property tax revenue, because the city’s property tax levy is a set figure. $45M in property taxes on this building wouldn’t mean $45M more for the city, it would mean that all other owners in Chicago would pay less. The city won’t see that money unless we increase our property levy.
* Today…
* Adam Collins with the City responded…
Suddenly he’s interested in funding CPS? That’s rich. This a fraction of the amount of funding the governor vetoed for our school children a few months ago. Don’t be fooled. The governor is using this as a shiny object to distract from his own failure to fund education fairly and his failure to propose a balanced budget the entire time he’s been in office.
Not to mention that the money wouldn’t even arrive for years because that new building isn’t gonna suddenly appear out of nowhere.
And not to mention that this bill is being handled by the two minority party leaders, meaning it may never see the light of day.
But, anyway, as I’ve said before this week, this Thompson Center fight likely has more to do with CPS than the CTA.
* OK, now on to another subtopic. From yesterday morning’s Tribune editorial about the Thompson Center sale…
So it was strange that Mayor Rahm Emanuel played obstructionist this week, raising the issue of the Chicago Transit Authority station in the building and implying the city had no intention of partnering up to redevelop it.
“We have one of the busiest ‘L’ stations in the entire network of 140-plus ‘L’ stations,” Emanuel said. “If you sell it and it has to come down, who builds it? Who takes the cost? I’m not going to stick that on Chicago taxpayers. The developer or the state has to do it.”
Rauner’s office responded with a question mark. While the CTA station in the building has been discussed as part of a broader redevelopment package, the issue has not loomed as a deal-breaker. Emanuel’s comments, a Rauner spokesman said, came “out of the blue.” [Emphasis added.]
* From a subsequent Tribune story posted around noon yesterday…
Koch said the city would allow a new project there only if the state and developer agree to keep the station open and any new station would come at no expense to the city. Emanuel went public with that concern Tuesday, suggesting the state expected the city to cover the entire cost of a new station, which he said would “stick Chicago taxpayers with $100 million.”
Rauner spokeswoman Eleni Demertzis said the administration has advocated for the state, city and developer sharing the costs of any new station, adding that it was too early to specify what percentage would be covered by each. [Emphasis added.]
So, I guess that issue of the city not paying didn’t really come out of the blue?
* Today…
I hope that shell has room for tunnels so people can get to their trains.
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* Bruce Rushton at the Illinois Times…
Candace Wanzo, a high-ranking official in the Illinois Secretary of State’s office, is under investigation by the office’s inspector general and has been placed on paid leave.
The nature of the investigation isn’t clear. Wanzo, an administrator in the office’s vehicles division, earned $87,238 last year.
Wanzo was hired in 1999 even though she pleaded guilty in 1991 to embezzling more than $230,000 from Southern Illinois University while she was employed by the university. Her sentence for the theft isn’t clear from online court records, but sentencing was delayed after her mother collapsed in court when a federal judge said that prosecutors’ recommendation for 15-month sentence sounded fair, according to a 1992 story published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The newspaper reported that Wanzo had testified that she spent the stolen money on cars, clothes, lingerie and vacations.
Henry Haupt, spokesman for Secretary of State Jesse White, confirmed that Wanzo has been placed on administrative leave, but he provided no details on why she is on paid leave. […]
“Secretary White is troubled by these recent developments,” Haupt wrote. “She was put on administrative leave, and he applauds inspector general Jim Burns and the secretary of state’s inspector general’s office for their efforts in this matter and cannot comment further until the investigation is complete.”
According to the story, she was hired as a secretary in 1999.
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Edgar implies that Rauner is incompetent
Friday, May 5, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the Southern Illinoisan…
Former Gov. Jim Edgar, speaking on the Southern Illinois Carbondale campus Thursday evening, said that House Speaker Michael Madigan is not the villain he’s often made out to be in the media and by his political opponents.
He should be “maligned a little bit” but the long serving speaker from Chicago has been “overly maligned,” Edgar said.
“He is not the problem,” said the former Republican governor who held Illinois’ highest office from 1991 to 1999, all but two years of which Madigan served as speaker. “He might be a little bit of the problem, but he is not the big problem.”
Edgar needs to spend more time in Springfield before he says that again. Speaker Madigan is no longer a very tough but fair negotiator like he was back in Edgar’s day. He never used to be such a staunch public employee union ally (the man fought Jim Thompson repeatedly to get some oversight of the governor’s AFSCME contract negotiations, and he passed Tier 2 and Tier 1 pension reform, for crying out loud). He was always a bigtime trial lawyer ally, but he also passed medical malpractice reform. Madigan is, in other words, a different person that he was back then.
* More…
Edgar went on to say that it’s a myth that Madigan is the most powerful person in Illinois government. “Even a weak governor has far more power than the speaker does,” Edgar said, altering his words mid-sentence. “Not weak — there is no weak governor. Illinois is a strong governor state. Even a somewhat incompetent governor has more power than Mike Madigan.”
As Edgar paused momentarily — and then settled on the word “incompetent” -— there was a brief yet boisterous eruption of applause and laughter among the crowd. Edgar provided this critique of the ongoing budget stalemate in response to a question from Jak Tichenor, the policy institute’s interim director, following Edgar’s prepared remarks.
The strongest governor can’t force the House Speaker to allow a bill to pass without the Speaker’s permission. But a good governor can, which is more to Edgar’s competency point.
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Calm down, we’re not Puerto Rico
Friday, May 5, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From a Chicago Tribune editorial entitled “Puerto Rico is the frightening Ghost of Illinois Future”…
The island, an American territory, is weighed down by $123 billion in bond and pension debt it cannot afford. Illinois, meanwhile, has about $130 billion in unfunded pension obligations alone, plus billions more in retiree health care and other liabilities. The circumstances are different, but no government can function properly — indefinitely — under ever-rising debt. Eventually something gives.
One of the different “circumstances” is that Puerto Rico’s population is just 29 percent of the Illinois Census number. So our debt would have to be much, much higher to match PR’s problem.
Another difference is that the vast majority of Illinois’ debt is tied up in long-term pension obligations, while, according to the Tribune editorial, 61 percent of PR’s outstanding debt is in bonds, which are likely much shorter term obligations.
And yet another difference is that Puerto Rico’s top income tax rate is vastly higher than ours: $8,430 on the first $61,500 (13.7 percent) plus 33 percent on any income over $61,500. They simply have much less room to raise their rates than we do at our current 3.75 percent.
…Adding… It has been duly noted in comments that PR residents don’t pay federal income taxes.
…Adding… As noted by a commenter, Illinois’ gross state product is about 7 times higher than Puerto Rico’s.
* The editorial’s conclusion…
The right response for Illinois is to look at the ruin of Puerto Rico and take its fate as a dire warning: This state has an unsustainable debt load. Eventually it will overwhelm government and taxpayers. No plan to reform the economy to spur growth and create more taxpayers. A $12 billion backlog of unpaid bills. Only gridlock and infighting as the debt load grows. But it is not too late for Illinois to change its ways.
You won’t get any argument from me that we need some economic reforms in this state. But that’s more of a long-term issue. Our debt load is currently “unsustainable” because the politicians in charge won’t find the money to pay for it via revenues and budget cuts. What’s happening right now is a completely man-made crisis.
* Scream all you want about it, but Illinois can’t just walk away from that debt. It has to be paid unless Congress steps in. And that’s something that even the Tribune doesn’t like…
It’s a theoretical solution no one should wish for because of the pain and chaos it would create. If bankruptcy protection became an option, bondholders would charge punishing interest rates, or quit buying Illinois bonds, because of the increased risk that the state couldn’t make its interest payments.
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