* From WJBC…
The third day of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s special session is Friday, but it’s still unclear if there will be any movement on a budget.
Rauner told WJBC’s Patti Penn the first two days of the session have been a ‘waste of time.’
He also said the lack of action in the special session so far was “bad faith on the part of the majority,” and that the Democrats prefer “chaos.”
* From the audio…
WJBC: Well we have taken some calls in the last couple of days, actually over the weeks. But in the last couple of days, one of the calls that came in was one that you know, might be, it’s tough for me to ask and it’s probably going to be tough for you to hear. That maybe there’s an answer to it is someone had asked ‘Why do you think that our speaker, who has worked with other governors, Gov. Thompson, Edgar, Gov. Ryan, what is it about you that he has not wanted to work with you?”
Despite the gentle nature of the question, it took the governor a beat or two to get back onto his talking points…
RAUNER: Um, I really don’t know the answer to that.
Um, he has been very very focused on avoiding a balanced budget. If, if you look back over the years, uh, you can see that this isn’t inconsistent with, uh, the behavior with his majority.
He’s been in power for 35 years and when I’ve looked at the numbers Illinois has never had a true balanced budget during those 35 years. We have always just delayed pension payments, or not paid our bills, or borrowed in the bond markets to come up with what was then called about. The reality is the budgets have not been balanced for decades and it’s the reason that we have over $200 billion in debt today. This didn’t get accrued in the last year or two. This, this has been accrued for decades. And unfortunately, we’ve had failure within the government in multiple ways by multiple parties led by the speaker. He had control of the spending through the General Assembly majority for 35 of the years and there’s never been a balanced budget. And I have said, it’s critical for the people of Illinois that we have balanced budgets, that we stop the deficit spending, that we stop the borrowing. There’s a reason that we have fewer jobs today than we had 17 years ago in Illinois. Businesses see the deficit spending and it scares them away. There’s a reason that we have a brutally high unemployment rate, one of the highest in America. And there’s a reason we have the highest unemployment in America for African American families it’s because our jobs are leaving the state. Businesses won’t stay where they don’t have confidence in the fiscal responsibility of a government.
He went on and on for a while longer. There was no follow-up to try to get him to actually answer the question.
- Ducky LaMoore - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 2:57 pm:
===Um, I really don’t know the answer to that===
The opposition’s campaign narrative begins writing itself today. There is absolutely no excuse for a guy that never leaves campaign mode to not have a decent answer to that question.
- Flip Flop - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:01 pm:
The question should be reversed.
- illini - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:02 pm:
— “There was no follow-up to try to get him to actually answer the question.” —
BVR can repeat his talking points mantra to infinity and he knows that this will always be the case.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:04 pm:
State universities weren’t contemplating their forced closures by passive governors.
Social services knew when they signed contracts that those governors honored contracts.
Other governors didn’t require over… that’s over… 90% of their side for a win or compromise.
Other governors weren’t inclined to say this as their state strategy… then implementing the destruction…
===Bruce Rauner, 2012, “In Illinois there’s been a long-time history of what I would call social service, social justice, a bigger role for government in the safety net than in many other states,” Rauner said at a tax policy conference sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute. “I think we can drive a wedge issue in the Democratic Party on that topic and bring the folks who say, ‘You know what? For our tax dollars, I’d rather help the disadvantaged, the handicapped, the elderly, the children in poverty. I’d rather have my tax dollars going to that than the SEIU or Af-scammy (AFSCME), who are out there for their own interests.’”===
Actually, other governors believe this about Rauner…
GHR, Jim Edgar…
First, Geo. Ryan…
===“The governor is the top guy. He is the leader. House Speaker Mike Madigan is not. The governor has to make things happen. If he doesn’t get everything he wants, he’s got to figure out how much he can get. To get something done. He’s got to take the wheel. He’s got to have a plan. It’s like everything in life.”
“It seems to me what you’ve got today are two guys very set in their ways and have programs that they just won’t give up on. Gov. Bruce Rauner wants to destroy the unions, and it’s Madigan’s lifeblood. Madigan has to save the unions; otherwise, he doesn’t survive. And it’s just as simple as that.===
Edgar, in the past…
===”He (Rauner) comes from a different background than I do. But I just think it’s very important for a governor, you’ve got to have a good budget and you need it in place,” Edgar told reporters. “You can try to compromise on some issues — and I think there are certain things (Democrats in the Legislature) might give him — but some of the things he’s asking for, they’re not going to give him. They’re just not going to give him.”===
Rauner isn’t a governor in any real mold of one, Rauner is a governor driven by an agenda, no what’s best for the state, or getting a compromise where he can take wins where they exist.
That’s really the answer. Isn’t it?
- Galena Guy - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:05 pm:
Bruce….you sure did start out on the right foot, didn’t you? (And Illini is 100% correct)
http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Madigan-Rep-Rauner-Didnt-Call-on-Election-Night-281776281.html
- Sue - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:07 pm:
As Rauner stated- Madigan has been responsible for the State’s spending for 35 years during which we have never had a real balanced budget and Illinois has accrued 200 billion in debt. It’s a crock to blame the Governor who has been in office 2 years for the mess Illinois is in
- Anoniphone - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:07 pm:
I think the word is ‘impotent’.
Second word is ‘Rauner’.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:08 pm:
- Sue -
Jim Thompson doesn’t need a budget, Bruce Rauner does.
Two years running.
Please, keep up.
- Henry Francis - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:10 pm:
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/31dd9806-6372-4a1a-b6bb-db39dc6a38c3
- Sue - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:11 pm:
Oswego- and is it also Rauner’s fault that CPS debt in the secondary markets is yielding 9 percent?
- East Central Illinois - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:12 pm:
Sue, seriously?? Did you just come from the spaceship?
This current governor can’t even get along with people in his own party, let alone the opposition, without buying them.
Do. Your. Job.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:13 pm:
===…and is it also Rauner’s fault that CPS debt in the secondary markets is yielding 9 percent===
… actually the emotional veto of the $215 million is part of that too, so yeah, Rauner owns his veto.
“Anything else?”
- Arock - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:19 pm:
Keep up OW, if we didn’t have the pension debt the budget would be easy to balance. But wait who is the constant in the debt run up to $200 billion($350 billion according to Moody’s) the Speaker. Now we are up to 35 years that the House led by said Speaker has not really passed a balance budget using sound accounting principles. And you complain that the Governor hasn’t submitted a balanced budget, what Illinois Governor has in the last 35 years? Truly balanced using real math.
- Deft Wing - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:22 pm:
Meh. Rauner often trips over himself when he’s off script. He’s no Vincent Gambino, aka Jerry Callo (with a “C”), that’s for sure.
The easy answer is that Madigan ran over those past Governors- whether you’re a true believer in the Combine or not. Those former administrations, all, had Madigan’s able help passing out all sorts of goodies like wonderful union contracts, 3% compounded COLA increases for pensions, expanded services state, infrastructure projects galore (shovel ready or not) and the like. The getting was good in those days …
But now the piper’s come for his money & Madigan just wants to pay — with R votes of course — but not change the way government’s run in IL. In sum, Rauner’s come to clean up the mess and maybe sweep out Madigan in the process. That’s why Mikey ain’t happy and why they don’t “work” well together. Good, it’s time for a reckoning.
One of the two has to go– and that’s what the next election will settle.
- Chicago Cynic - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:22 pm:
Yea, sorry Sue. But the constant playing games with CPS and Chicago, whether it’s by badmouthing our debt to Wall Street and thereby driving up the interest rate, to the constant double-talk and inability to compromise absolutely caused the 9%. It would have been high, but not that high.
Thanks for playing.
- Skeptic - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:23 pm:
“Madigan has been responsible for the State’s spending for 35 year” Um, so he wrote the budgets, he cast 60 votes in the House and then 30 votes in the Senate to pass them and then took over the Governor’s office to sign them? Is that what you’re saying? Or are you just being silly?
- Chicago Cynic - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:25 pm:
Arock,
I’m sure you missed those 26 consecutive years of GOP governors named Thompson, Edgar and Ryan and ten consecutive years of President Pate. And I’m sure you missed the fact that tens of thousands of those pensioners are GOPers appointed under GOP Administrations.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:25 pm:
===And you complain that the Governor hasn’t submitted a balanced budget, what Illinois Governor has in the last 35 years?===
So Rauner IS the stays quo? I’m glad you’re coming around, lol.
===But wait who is the constant in the debt run up to $200 billion($350 billion according to Moody’s) the Speaker. Now we are up to 35 years that the House led by said Speaker has not really passed a balance budget using sound accounting principles===
Rauner said he could balance the budget, without any tax increases, and the sunsetting of the temporary tax increase.
If tug want to admit Rauner is Grossly Inept and can’t do anything he said, I’m fine with that. Rauner said he’d fix it, Rauner has proven he can’t even get a budget, lol..
Oh, Revevue is 100% required, even by Rauner’s own budget. You support Raunerites supporting their own Rauner Tax to pay for that … balance budget…
You must be hyperventilating with all your “Madigan!” mouth-breathing. I’ll wait for you to recover from passing out, lol
- Chicago Cynic - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:27 pm:
What really ticks me off is the insistence that ALL of Illinois problems are caused by one man and one party. They aren’t. Maybe if we didn’t have 26 consecutive years of GOP rules you’d have a leg to stand on, but we did. So rather than saying it’s ALL Madigan’s fault, why don’t we say some of it is Madigan and the D’s fault (everyone on the D side agrees with that) and some of it is the GOP’s fault. There. Now can we sit down and negotiate like grownups?
- Shemp - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:28 pm:
If Rauner ever proposed a legit balanced budget, his answer would be from the high ground. Rauner could say Madigan worked with the others to put together the sham “balanced” budgets that got us here, but since his is about as balanced as those that have preceded him, that defense goes out the window.
- Ducky LaMoore - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:28 pm:
===what Illinois Governor has in the last 35 years?===
Certainly not the only one up for reelection this year. Stuck in the past. You can’t fix the past. So let me ask, why are the problems of the past being turned into an unmitigated crisis by the present governor? What has he done, and what is he doing to help the state for the future?
- Anon221 - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:28 pm:
RAUNER: Um, I really don’t know the answer to that.
I’m sure Rauner wasn’t expecting a “left field” question from WJBC
- Rufus - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:29 pm:
Gee… I don’t know - perhaps because Gov. Rauner has called him corrupt and a crook every day since he took office. How to win friends and influence people by Bruce Raunner. If anyone can prove that that the Speaker broke a law - then charge him and have him arrested. If you don’t - then Shut Up!
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:30 pm:
- Deft Wing -
Rauner’s own “pay the piper” budget needs Revenue.
Why won’t Rauner have a GOP bill, with GOP sponsors, that is a real revenue bill to do all that paying and that pipering Rauner is championing?
If you’re Kass, please use more of your Kassian silliness in explaining why there isn’t a Raunerite Tax vehicle to pay for the Rauner budget, lol
- Charlie Wheeler - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:32 pm:
Points of Information:
Gov. Rauner– “He (Madigan) had control of the spending through the General Assembly majority for 35 of the years .”
Senate President, 1993-2003: James “Pate” Philip, R-Wood Dale.
House Speaker, 1995-1997: Lee A. Daniels, R-Elmhurst.
Gov. Rauner– “Illinois has never had a true balanced budget during those 35 years.”
Illinois ended its fiscal year with a budgetary surplus (GF available balance > lapse period spending) in 7 of the previous 35 years: 1985, 1989, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001.
Illinois had balanced budgets (current year spending
- Rabid - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:35 pm:
I might just be me but, you seem difficult and unengaging
- Anonymous - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:36 pm:
=The easy answer is that Madigan ran over those past Governors- whether you’re a true believer in the Combine or not.=
Maybe. But you can’t decry “phony sham” budgets and then produce one of your own. Not only has Bruce been unable to produce a “balanced” budget he hasn’t been able to get his own “phony sham” budget passed like other governors.
- Cubs in '16 - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:37 pm:
“Focus” must be the word Rauner uses to get himself back on script. There’s a pattern to his responses when he’s asked a tough question. He bumbles and stumbles, buying time, and then…”focus” and BAM, he’s back on script. Off-topic but on-script.
- El Conquistador - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:39 pm:
Rauner sees the problems and is utterly clueless on the solutions. Private sector success absolutely does not equate to public sector success. Next!
- Charlie Wheeler - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:40 pm:
Final try:
Illinois had balanced budgets (current year spending less than current year revenues) in 20 of those years, as measured by declining budgetary deficits.
If unfunded pension liabilities are included, Illinois likely has never had a balanced budget since the state assumed responsibility for certain public employees’ retirement benefits a century ago. Nor is the state likely to have a balanced budget under this concept for the foreseeable future, as the unfunded liabilities totaled $126.5 billion as of 6/30/16, roughly four times the estimated revenues for FY 2018.
Sources: Illinois Blue Books, Illinois Comptroller Reports, Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.
Charlie Wheeler
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:41 pm:
Sorry, Charlie. Not sure why your comments didn’t post. Checking.
- Valvino - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:43 pm:
You are so right conquistador. Not one of his advisors has enough sense to explain it to him.
- not again - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:47 pm:
I can’t listen to this anymore. I just can’t. You are the freaking Governor. G-O-V-E-R-N!!
- Name Withheld - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:50 pm:
==Charlie Wheeler==
(mic drop)
- Norseman - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:51 pm:
Once again, great words of wisdom from Charlie Wheeler.
- Texas Red - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:53 pm:
Thanks for the bad news Charlie
- Linus - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:53 pm:
Hear hear, Charlie Wheeler! Yes to actual facts, boo to makeBelieve Word Jumble baloney!
- Amalia - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:54 pm:
if you want a balanced budget, you have to take breaking the unions, term limits, this long list of things they tried in Kansas that led to a fiscal breakdown of their state. jeez, of course you are worse at working with Madigan than others! you are out to institute a right wing agenda that the citizens did not realize they would get when they elected mr. pro choice. and on that issue, you prove to be a fraud as well.
- Chicago Cynic - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:55 pm:
Charlie, I keep pointing out the bipartisan nature of our issues to my GOP friends but all they can say is “35 years of Democrat control” blah blah blah. It’s tiresome, wrong and counter-productive.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:58 pm:
All deference due to - Charlie Wheeler -’s vast knowledge, and on the issue of “35 years” and “budget” questions, I also tip my cap to him.
Much respect.
- Skeptic - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 3:59 pm:
Is it too soon to nominate RNUG and Charlie Wheeler as co-commenters of the year?
- weary - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:03 pm:
Does anyone really think an Illinois governor has had that much power in the past 35 years. Please don’t lecture me on the constitution and the supposed equal branches of government. I’m talking about the fact that the Speaker has been the most powerful elected official in the state for decades. The fact that several GOP governors worked with him doesn’t mean a thing. It just means they were easy. But after 35 years of unbalanced budgets and deterioration of the state we finally get a governor who isn’t going to just cave to the speaker anymore. And this is what it looks like. It’s not complicated. The governor may have accelerated the chaos over the past two years, but it was bound to happen eventually, just based on the math. After all, what business can run a deficit for 35 years and stay in business? But a state can (and our federal government can) just by “raising the debt limit”. What’s the point of having a debt limit if it never actually LIMITS anything?
- RNUG - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:05 pm:
== Is it too soon to nominate RNUG and Charlie Wheeler as co-commenters of the year? ==
Charlie has lots more institutional experience in politics than I do. Give it to him …
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:08 pm:
- weary -
lol, read the quotes from Ryan and Edgar, especially where GHR says, “The governor is the top dog”.
Hmm…
Your thought, or what a former governor says from experience.
- HangingOn - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:09 pm:
If you really want to play the “it’s not his fault because he wasn’t there when it started” game, keep in mind that there was a warning about the pensions being underfunded in 1959. So according to the Rauner inherited and therefore is blameless logic, Madigan can’t be blamed for the pensions. If you want to blame him for making it worse, calculate how long it took for him to tank the pensions compared to how long it took Rauner to tank the state.
- wondering - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:18 pm:
I would ask but 2 questions of the blame Madigan crowd. How has the election of Bruce Rauner improved Illinois? How will his reelection improve things?
- RNUG - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:20 pm:
== Does anyone really think an Illinois governor has had that much power in the past 35 years. ==
The Illinois Governor is one of the most powerful government executives in the nation IF:
(a) you know how to use the levers of power
(b) you know how to count legislative votes
(c) you have effective floor leaders
(d) you understand the “doable”
(e) are willing to work your issues
(f) don’t demand absolute capitulation
(g) don’t publicly attack the people you have to work with
(h) are willing to take partial wins each year to keep advancing to your goal
(i) honor the deals you agree to; remember, the only thing of value a politician actually has is their word
In simpler words, just respect the opposition.
If you can’t do the above, then you are powerless except for the veto pen. You won’t be able to fool all of the people, not even some of the time.
- ste_with_a_v_en - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:20 pm:
Charlie Wheeler FTW
Question though. So when we are discussing budgets, does that mean the unfunded liability just generally isn’t included? Cause if the state has never had a balanced budget since the state assumed responsibility for certain public employees’ retirement benefits a century ago, isn’t that a serious problem?
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:31 pm:
- RNUG -
Pretty solid list, bud. Well done. Good governors understand all the points.
OW
- Chicago Cynic - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:39 pm:
In other words RNUG, it can be the most powerful governor in the nation if you know how to…govern.
- RNUG - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:40 pm:
== does that mean the unfunded liability just generally isn’t included? ==
Neither pension or retiree healthcare debt (other than the annual appropriations) is included in the FY budget. Just like the assorted bond debt (except for the annual payments) isn’t included.
This makes sense for an annual budget. After all, you only include your annual mortgage payments and and monthly insurance payments in a yearly budget, not your entire mortgage debt or lifetime health costs. Those, if owed, you put as debts on a net worth statement.
The generally accepted definition of a balanced state budget is that appropriations are less than or equal to projected revenue at time of passage.
Charlie’s “after the fact” balancing of the books (if you will) is the truer picture of the State’s budgeting process.
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:42 pm:
“h) are willing to take partial wins each year to keep advancing to your goal”
The key is “each year.” Each year we need to pass a budget, so that our debt doesn’t skyrocket, our vendors get paid, social services and higher ed funding don’t get severely cut, etc. We can work the other things out as we go along, in or out of budget negotiations, year to year, session to session, election to election.
- Pelonski - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:43 pm:
The issue of whether or not the State has had balanced budgets in the past is a red herring. Let’s say that is true and Madigan is 100% responsible. That doesn’t address our current problem. Blame is only a solution for the ignorant and uneducated. I’ve yet to hear a plan from the Governor that addresses the problems. That should be unacceptable for everyone regardless of their party.
- Pundent - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:45 pm:
=Cause if the state has never had a balanced budget since the state assumed responsibility for certain public employees’ retirement benefits a century ago, isn’t that a serious problem? =
Yes and no. Future pension obligations are rarely if ever “fully funded” so one could argue that all pension liabilities are produce unbalanced budgets.
The real issue lies in the assumption of future benefits and current funding needs to meet them. You don’t have to fully fund your future obligations, but you should have an actuarial sound funding mechanism to ensure that you can meet them. And THEN you need to meet the requirements of that funding mechanism. That’s where the state has been lacking.
- walker - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:48 pm:
What Charlie Weaver said
I’ve pretty much given up wasting my time correcting the false meme that Rauner recently created for his defense, (and some commenters here parrot), that we haven’t had “balanced budgets” for 35 years. Those who say that are not interested in the truth, only the political message.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:49 pm:
===In other words RNUG, it can be the most powerful governor in the nation if you know how to…govern===
Since Geo. Ryan. Yes.
I may have to decline to run as a write-in.
I’ve said… too much.
- walker - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 4:49 pm:
Charlie Wheeler, of course. So sorry.
- RNUG - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 5:07 pm:
== I may have to decline to run as a write-in. ==
-OW-, you just need to have politically astute advisors you can trust.
- JoeMaddon - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 5:30 pm:
**The question should be reversed.**
Good point. Why is Mike Madigan the only House Speaker Rauner has not been able to get along with?
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 5:37 pm:
- RNUG -
You keep turning me down, bud.
:)
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 5:38 pm:
- Norseman - runs a great Shop.
- JS Mill - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 5:43 pm:
Interesting. Charlie Wheeler uses the scientific phenomenon of “math” to make a salient data backed point, and an excellent one at that.
Then there is a dearth of Raunerite responses to follow.
Hmm….I guess they are just honing their slide rule and Abacus skills
Thanks for the great post!
- Norseman - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 5:49 pm:
Thank you OW.
- atsuishin - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 6:48 pm:
Edger and Thompson agreed to raise taxes with no strings attached and indeed in Edger’s case, he boosted pensions and salaries for state workers. Rauner understand this is unsustainable.
- The Dude Abides - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 7:36 pm:
Yep, Rauner is quite the visionary isn’t he. Remember when Rauner requested that the Democrats let the temporary income tax lapse because he said that he could balance things on 3.75%. How has that worked out? He’s a rascal!
- RNUG - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 8:30 pm:
== You keep turning me down, bud. ==
-OW-, I’m happily retired. Most days I can do whatever I want and go wherever I want. You know, kind of like Rauner …
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 8:57 pm:
- RNUG -
“Kitchen. Cabinet”
Need a whole cupboard.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 8:57 pm:
lol, like Rauner… - RNUG -
- JDuc - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 11:23 pm:
Where does one even begin ??