Chris Kennedy on Thursday asked Cook County Democratic leaders not to endorse a candidate for the party’s governor nomination, a plea made as J.B. Pritzker urged city ward and suburban township committeemen to side with him and against contenders who attack their rivals. […]
“We need to install in everyone that notion that government is a good thing. And in order to do that, we need to make sure that government is squeaky clean, that it is free from conflict, that elected officials do not have an incentive to use their office for personal gain. We need to reaffirm with the electorate that we work for them, that we are servant leaders and not leaders of servants,” Kennedy said in a meeting at the county party’s Loop headquarters.
“I don’t think there would be anything that we could do that would signal that more powerfully than to say to the electorate, ‘We’re going to have an open primary in the governor’s race and allow you to make the decision for the Democratic Party as to who will be the Democratic nominee for governor,’ and I’m asking you all for support in that today,” he said.
In light of Kennedy’s criticism of the party establishment, ward committeeman and Ald. Ray Lopez, 15th, asked the candidate why he showed up if he did not want to “be endorsed by insiders.”
I’m here because I love the Democratic Party, I love Illinois and I think for Illinois to be saved the Democratic Party has to save it. We believe differently than the Republicans do. We believe government can be an agent of change, it can be helpful to people. But we need to ask the entire population of Illinois to make sacrifices, every taxpayer to make a sacrifice. I think they’re willing to do that. I think they’re willing to pay more for great government that will educate their children and keep their communities safe, but they’re only going to do that if the government is squeaky clean.
And I think calling for reforms like preventing elected officials from having a conflict of interest, mirroring the very laws that our United States Congressmen serve under, I don’t think that’s a big ask. I don’t think electing people who are banned from have a conflict of interest should be something that we’re stumbling over, that we’re wrestling with, that people think is a product of ‘aw, wow’ why would you ever think that would be OK. Because it’s OK everywhere else. Because it’s OK at the federal level. Because we need to return the faith people have in government and if we don’t we will never get the funding necessary to save the next generation.
A bit on the long side, but not a bad argument. It’s just not an argument that will work with party insiders, and you gotta figure Kennedy knew that going in.
According to the Tribune, powerful Thornton Township Democratic Committeeman Frank Zuccarelli told his fellow county Democrats that they need to endorse Pritzker “right away.”
I emphasized to Mr. Durkin that I am prepared to do a budget and am prepared to do revenue to pay for that budget. I’m prepared to work with every member of the Legislature on all issues before the Legislature.
I think that, again, the Legislature, especially the Democrats in the Legislature, have taken great steps to be responsive to requests from the governor in areas like governmental consolidation, procurement, sale of the Thompson Center, reorganization of the Lincoln Library. And unfortunately, we haven’t seen a comparable response from the governor.
We would feel that if we’re being responsive to the governor’s requests, he ought to engage with us on the budget-making and on raising the money to pay for the budget. And I haven’t seen that yet.
* Speaker Madigan was asked today what a House Democratic revenue bill will look like…
“A House Democratic revenue plan would be items that you’ve seen before and you’ve probably written about and others in the Legislature have talked about.”
*** UPDATE *** Governor’s office lawyers say that if the governor waits to take action on this bill until after June 30th, then an override won’t matter because the bill renews the Telecommunications Act and the Cable and Video statute. Those acts are set to automatically expire on June 30th. So, the GA couldn’t technically renew an act that had already expired with an override. And that’s why the governor is now demanding a “clean” bill.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* This bill passed the Senate 53-3 and cleared the House 81-27, way more than enough for an override if the Republicans stick to their guns…
From: Jason Heffley, Policy Advisor for Energy and Environment
To: Cindy Barbera-Brelle, Statewide 9-1-1 Administrator
Date: June 22, 2017
Re: Update on SB 1839
As you know, the House and Senate passed SB 1839 on May 31, 2017. The legislation combined several provisions including carrier of last resort (COLR) obligation relief for AT&T, Illinois State Police’s package of technical changes to the Emergency Telephone System Act, sunset extensions to Article XIII (Telecommunications) and Article XXI (Cable and Video) of the Public Utilities Act as well Emergency Telephone System Act, and 9-1-1 surcharge increases for the city of Chicago (from $3.90 to $5) and the rest of the state (from $.87 to $1.50).
While the Governor has yet to receive SB 1839 from the Senate for consideration, he has been very clear that the surcharge increases would be unacceptable. The city of Chicago has already received two significant increases in the last four years – from $1.25 to $2.50 in 2013 and from $2.50 to $3.90 in 2014. In fact, the Chicago Sun-Times ran a story the day after passage of the bill that touted the legislation as a 28% phone tax to bailout pensions. Additionally, the increase for the remainder of the state is significantly higher than the $1.05 that was recommended by the 9-1-1 Advisory Board that studied the issue for two years. The increase is especially concerning given the fact that the State’s consultant has not yet completed its assessment and made a recommendation, including cost projections, for moving the State towards a Next Generation 9-1-1 network solution, which would also include Chicago.
Since it is clear that the Governor will not sign this legislation as passed, I wanted to make sure you are aware of the potential impacts to other key provisions of the bill – specifically, the sunset provision for the Emergency Telephone System Act, which will repeal on July 1. Without an extension of the ETSA, carriers will no longer be able to collect surcharges from their customers and the State Police will no longer be able to distribute those surcharge monies to local 9-1-1 systems.
While there is nothing that will prohibit carriers from providing the 9-1-1 service if the Act sunsets and the State Police will be able to continue to disperse monies to the local operators through the lapse period in August, no new surcharge money may be collected as of July 1. It would be a decision of the local 9-1-1 service providers to continue to provide service without an extension, and the lack of monies being collected could have impacts in the long run on some local operators.
To be clear: the Governor absolutely supports 9-1-1 services across the state and strongly supports extension of the ETSA without delay. He supported a clean extension of the Act at the end of May and he continues to support one today. It is imperative that the General Assembly immediately take up and pass a clean bill to extend the sunset provision of the ETSA before June 30 to ensure there is no long term harm to Illinois’ 9-1-1 services.
The General Assembly should not put the 9-1-1 system at risk by sending the Governor legislation with poison pills knowing full well he will not sign them into law. There is time left to send the Governor a clean 9-1-1 bill prior to July 1. Please inform all local 9-1-1 operators of this potential danger and highlight the importance of passing a clean sunset extension by June 30.
Gov. Bruce Rauner has rejected a new offer from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to clear the way for construction of an enormous, 2 million-square-foot office tower where the aging Thompson Center now stands, sources close to the matter in both Chicago and Springfield are reporting.
Insiders say Rauner had two reasons: He wanted a free hand to sell the state-owned property for an even larger building, one approaching the size of the Willis Tower. And he was unwilling to grant Emanuel’s requests to, in exchange, sign a bill dealing with city pensions, arguing that the mayor instead needs to lean on House Speaker Michael Madigan to make concessions on broader statewide matters. […]
The deal would have allowed Rauner to dispose of the Thompson site, perhaps netting the $300 million the governor wants to shore up his budget, putting the Loop site back on the taxable property rolls. Emanuel would have won final approval of a plan designed to refinance and put on stronger footing two city pension funds that cover municipal workers and laborers.
But the deal didn’t get done—even though House GOP Leader Jim Durkin personally intervened in recent days in an effort to reach a compromise. And now, “not much is going to pass until” a broader deal on the budget, taxes and other structural changes Rauner wants is agreed upon, says one top state government insider.
The Rauner administration said Thursday the city’s offer wasn’t a “fair trade,” and they issued a counter-offer to instead encourage Senate Democrats to send over a gun bill that has been held since it was passed by both chambers last month.
The administration said sending over the gun bill would be a show of “good faith” and would benefit the city. The city said they’d get back to the Rauner administration about their offer.
So, why wouldn’t the city agree to release the gun bill that the mayor fought so hard to pass? Something doesn’t seem quite right here.
Madigan has stared down Gov. Bruce Rauner for more than 700 days while the state has sputtered along without a budget, daring him to “make a deal” as the House refuses to pass a budget.
Rauner just blinked.
His administration gave its blessing to a GOP budget plan that includes the $5.4 billion tax hike Illinoisans first saw in the Senate’s failed “grand bargain.” Dubbed the “capitol compromise,” the plan starts with a 33 percent income tax increase, and contains new taxes on services such as Netflix, laundry services and more. Each Illinois household would eventually have to pay $1,125 in additional taxes annually under this plan.
What the GOP budget proposal lacks in spending restraint it makes up for in fake reforms: A four-year property tax freeze time bomb that doesn’t address bloated local contract costs; a four-year spending cap that does nothing to rein in core spending drivers; and unconstitutional changes to government-worker pensions that keep in place the failed defined-benefit system.
The trap worked.
Madigan got his tax hike without any real medicine for Illinois’ fiscal sickness.
Congressional Republicans from Illinois have recommended four lawyers to the Trump White House for the U.S. Attorney post in Chicago, with one of them, Maggie Hickey, likely out of the running because Democrats don’t want Hickey — now a top official for GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner — in the spot, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
The other top potential nominees to replace former U.S. Attorney Zach Fardon in the Northern District of Illinois are attorneys John Lausch, Michael Scudder and Andrew Porter, sources said. In all, a pool of about a dozen names for the Chicago slot were sent to the White House, with Hickey, Lausch, Scudder and Porter flagged as frontrunners. […]
Hickey’s present position as a Rauner political appointee makes her viability as a contender to replace Fardon problematic: She has been Rauner’s Executive Inspector General since July 2015, winning confirmation for her post on May 23, 2016, on a 52-0 state Senate vote.
But that bi-partisan vote does not translate when it comes to the selection of Fardon’s replacement, with an entirely different set of politics for the high-stakes job.
According to the article, Hickey was recommended by the governor. But giving a Raunerite full federal prosecutorial powers is probably not something the Democrats in this state relish, to say the least. That’s nightmare city for them.
*** UPDATE *** From a senior GOP source…
We didn’t put Maggie forward… The article wasn’t right.
Cook County in 2016 again recorded the largest black population of any county in the U.S., but it carries that title with less conviction than previous years as more African-Americans move to outlying suburbs or warmer states in the South and West, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Between 2015 and 2016, more than 12,000 black residents left Cook County, an increase from the previous year when about 9,000 residents left. […]
Some of those who left Chicago and Cook County relocated to other parts of the state, but Illinois still recorded a population drop of about 10,000 black residents between 2015 and 2016, more than any other state. Experts say it is an indication that the majority of the state’s black flight is occurring in Chicago. […]
Africans-Americans are leaving in search of stability, experts say, hoping to find stable incomes and safe neighborhoods, something they feel Chicago isn’t offering them. The city of Chicago lost 181,000 black residents between 2000 and 2010, according to census data. […]
William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, said he thinks the trend points to conditions beyond just crime.
“People move from the city to the suburbs for a host of things, crime being one of them. But I wouldn’t expect those people to move from a whole metropolitan area. Something bigger’s going on,” he said, referencing the region and state’s general population loss.
Cook County saw a 13.3 percent increase in residents over age 65, but in the collar counties the growth was much steeper.
The over-65 population rose 24.6 percent in DuPage County, 34.2 percent in Kane County, 24.5 percent in Lake County, 28.5 percent in McHenry County and 31.4 percent in Will County.
The number of Hispanic residents, the fastest-growing group, rose 5.6 percent in Cook County, 8.7 percent in DuPage County, 6.5 percent in Kane County, 7.3 percent in Lake County, 11.4 percent in McHenry County and 10.5 percent in Will County since the decade began.
The total population in the suburbs is relatively flat. Kane County shows the largest population increase with 3 percent growth to 1.06 million residents.
The Census Bureau reported that the median age of Americans — the age at which half are older and half are younger — rose nationally from just over 35 years to nearly 38 years in the years between 2000 and 2016, driven by the aging of the “baby boom” generation.
The number of residents age 65 and older grew from 35 million to 49.2 million during those 16 years, jumping from 12 percent of the total population to 15 percent. […]
The Asian population and those who identified as being of two or more races grew by 3 percent each, to 21 million and 8.5 million, respectively. Hispanics grew by 2 percent to 57.5 million. The black population grew by 1.2 percent to nearly 47 million.
The number of non-Hispanic whites grew by only 5,000, leaving that population relatively steady at 198 million of the nation’s 325 million people.
No state in the nation has gone this long without a budget or has a bigger backlog of unpaid bills.
One bill – among thousands – was submitted by Autumn Country Club. It’s a an affectionate name for a family-run Joliet adult day care facility. It’s a facility whose owners are contemplating closing because its biggest client is a deadbeat.
The State of Illinois confirms it owes Autumn Adult Day Care $162,000. That represents five months of operating expenses.
“I’m a nervous wreck,” said owner Cassie Waterman. “I don’t know how next month I’m going to continue to run my facility.”
Autumn welcomes 60 senior citizens each day. Some are veterans. Many have special needs. All are under the watchful eye of a registered nurse and a dedicated team of caregivers who lead the group in activities, meals and entertainment.
“We are their safety net,” said registered nurse Christine Doyle. “We try to be their family during the day but they all know they’re going home at the end of the day… and that’s a good thing.”
The Illinois Department on Aging and other state entities contract with Autumn to provide day care for these seniors during the day. The rate, according to Autumn Adult Day Care officials, is $9.02 per hour per person.
The biggest key to breaking through the political fog shrouding the capital city is for our leaders to declare a moratorium on politics, then stick to it, no matter the temptation to score political points.
Yes, Rauner’s television ads aimed at Madigan and Democrats are “campaigning.” And yes, it’s early.
But lots of pols are campaigning. Let’s not clutch our pearls, aghast.
Rauner’s Democratic opponents for the 2018 gubernatorial campaign so far are on the air, on the Web and at news conference podiums bashing Rauner. State Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, spent Tuesday at a campaign event touting his proposals for property tax reform. Then he put out a news release Tuesday night criticizing Rauner for campaigning too much.
During the last six months, including when lawmakers should have been in Springfield working on a budget, Madigan raised at least $122,314 for his campaign fund. During the first three months of the year, that fund spent more than $330,000 on office rent, cellphones, workers and meals. Madigan is … campaigning.
Senate President John Cullerton has raised at least $104,500, and hosted and attended several fundraisers. Between January and March 31, he spent at least $150,000 on campaign activity, according to his financial disclosure reports.
Not one mention of Rauner’s $70 million in contributions raised since December, or the bigtime money he’s given to the ILGOP and the House GOP.
People should sheath their swords and do their jobs. We shouldn’t be encouraging this nonsense.
Democrats held a private meeting to review a Republican proposal that calls for spending $36 billion next year and not increasing that amount for four years. Rauner and Republican lawmakers have touted the plan as a compromise that should be acceptable to everyone.
“There are some things in it I think we could be in agreement with. There are some things in it we could be in opposition to,” said Rep. Greg Harris of Chicago, the House Democrats’ top budget negotiator. “I think we looked at the Senate Democratic plan the same way.” […]
During Wednesday’s news conference, Durkin reiterated that the House Republicans aren’t interested in another stopgap measure if agreement can’t be reached on full-year budget. Cullerton has also said he will not consider another stopgap spending plan since the Senate has approved a budget. And Rauner has said he won’t sign a stopgap without approval of the other reforms he’s been demanding.
Still, Harris said the House Democrats “have not ruled anything in or out” when it comes to a stopgap budget.
Chicago Rep. Greg Harris, who is acting as chief budget negotiator for Madigan, said House Democrats continue to review both of those plans and are likely to consider changes. Harris said neither plan is balanced, as they count on savings from an overhaul of the state employee pension system that is likely to face legal challenges and reduced health care costs from a union contract change that is already winding its way through the courts.
House Republican leader Jim Durkin said it was hypocritical of his Democratic colleagues to question whether the GOP budget plan was balanced, noting their history of passing budgets that spend more than the state has on hand.
“They couldn’t balance their way out of a wet paper bag,” Durkin said.
He didn’t actually answer the question, however.
Republicans say the employee healthcare issue is taken care of with BIMP language.
“In Rauner’s first year in office, the House passed a budget. In his second year in office, we passed a budget,” Madigan said. “We’re now in the third year in office, and we’re fully engaged.”
Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, had a different take on history and responded to critics who said the GOP plan isn’t balanced either.
He remembers “last year that the House Democrats passed a $7 billion unbalanced budget. The year before, $4.5 billion; and the year before that, $1.5 billion.”
Granted, but the governor has never proposed a balanced budget and has more than tripled the bill backlog since he took office because he can’t pass a budget. It’s now $15.2 billion.
But the source of the problem continues to be disputed by state democrats and republicans – who have been pointing fingers at each other for years.
“The fact is when the Governor decides to walk into a room, with the four legistlative leaders, and say I am ready to do a budget, we will have a budget in two days, it’s not that hard,” said Lou Lang. […]
House minority leader Jim Durkin is backing a budget proposal crafted last week that includes some of the items democrats say they want, like an increases in the personal and corporate income tax. Madigan is mum about whether he supports any or all of it.
“My message is to the rank and file democrats, ask your leader on whether or not he wants to find a resolution, to help me find votes to bring this to a conclusion,” Durkin said.
Um, the governor says he “wants” an income tax hike, too, Dana.
Though Republicans’ budget is predicated on higher taxes, such as the income tax hike approved by Senate Democrats, no GOP legislator has actually introduced or formally signed on to a tax hike.
Democratic Sens. Heather Steans and Toi Hutchinson held a press conference today and dinged the Republicans on that very issue. “The hardest part of working on a budget is the revenue side,” Hutchinson rightly said. At the end of the press conference, Hutchinson pointed out that a GOP press conference on education funding reform was about to begin and that their plan would require more state revenues. So she placed a form on the lectern that the Republicans could fill out to sign on as tax hike co-sponsors.
Plagued by the state’s budget impasse, the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois will shut down for the second time on July 1. Contractors have received written notifications from the Capital Development Board to prepare the site for demobilization.
Officials at U of I report that the budget for IBRL increased by nearly 30 percent after the previous yearlong stoppage. They are concerned that an extended delay at the present state of construction will result in much more extensive rework with unknown cost escalation to the $32-million project.
According to IBRL Director Vijay Singh, the building was scheduled to open for business in spring 2018.
“We’ve made great progress after recovering from the first shutdown. That momentum will be lost, as attention shifts to protecting the building rather than foundational project scoping,” Singh says. “Relationships that we’ve built with industrial partners will undoubtedly suffer major setbacks and exciting prospects for economic development related to bioprocessing and bio-products in Illinois and along the I-72 biocorridor will be delayed.”
Singh adds that federal and industrial research projects that were expected to begin in 2018 will be postponed or cancelled. Companies, which had set aside monies for projects, will likely look elsewhere for scale-up work.
The remaining days of June will be unproductive toward completion of the building as the work focus becomes securing it against weather and vandalism. Singh also notes that delays like this are compounded because contractors move on to other projects, disrupting the restart of the project.
IRBL is a part of the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. ACES Dean Kim Kidwell says this second halt on construction could have serious long-term consequences.
“It’s not just about a building,” Kidwell says. “Obviously, we’ll need to postpone hiring staff to operate the facility, but there is also the potential for the loss of very talented faculty and scientists as they consider other opportunities. Illinois will be challenged to retain and recruit talent working in the industrial biotech space. Enrollment in the Professional Science Masters (PSM) program in bioprocessing and other related majors may suffer from the lack of available facilities and faculty.”
Kidwell adds, “It is an ironic twist that the construction on this building, which is to be a catalyst for innovation, is stalled not once, but twice. It’s disappointing, not just for the College of ACES, but also for the state of Illinois’ efforts to be a leader in renewable bioprocessing technologies.”
An announcement during the week that the state is investing $26 million in the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Lab (IBRL) at the University of Illinois underscored the importance of pursuing projects that will make Illinois a destination for employers as a way to help the state grow its way out of the current budget mess. Funding for the IBRL, which will help Illinois compete for nearly 20,000 jobs in a new job sector, was secured by the stopgap budget signed into law on June 30.
Except now we’re finding out that, at least in this instance, we can’t grow our way out of this mess without a budget.
20,000 high-paying jobs could fly right out the window. Heckuva job, everybody.
Gov. Bruce Rauner said Wednesday that if a bipartisan budget agreement can’t be reached by the end of May, he’d be willing to pay for a special legislative session out of his own pocket to continue negotiations.
During a visit to Auburn High School to discuss education funding, the Republican governor said he remains cautiously optimistic that he can reach a “grand compromise” with lawmakers in negotiating a budget for the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years by the end of the spring session.
Two things. 1) Whatever happened to that idea of paying for a special session out of his own pocket? 2) I forgot about the “grand compromise” branding. It morphed into “grand bargain” when the Senate took over and now the Republicans are calling their plan the “Capitol Compromise.”
State Rep. Scott Drury of Highwood, a Democratic candidate for governor, said Illinois has been “hijacked” by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan and is no longer a “democracy.”
“The state has been hijacked by a billionaire governor, Bruce Rauner, and by an all-too powerful speaker of the House, Mike Madigan, who continuously put their self-interest against the public interest and that is going to stop once I’m the governor,” Drury said in an interview Tuesday evening on WTTW Ch-11’s “Chicago Tonight.” […]
Drury said Madigan should call for a House vote on a Senate Democrat-passed budget package that includes higher taxes and spending cuts.
But Drury wouldn’t commit to vote for it. Instead, he called it “a good start” but warned the cuts it contains are “too much of a hatchet.”
If he thinks the Senate’s cuts are “too much of a hatchet,” wait until he sees what actually has to happen to balance the budget with the Senate’s proposed revenues that the governor has apparently agreed to.
The experts? Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, who has been arguing for more state taxes for what seems like decades. And Ted Dabrowski, vice president of policy for the Illinois Policy Institute, which believes the budget can be balanced without a single penny in new tax hikes.
How do you see the next 10 days playing out in the legislature?
Dabrowski: “We believe a balanced budget without tax hikes is the way to go. The next 10 days will be a debate about that. It will be a debate about how much taxes should go up. There will be a debate about a compromise between the political elite ignoring what Illinoisans want and need… I want to talk a little bit about the polls that have been done showing that Illinoisans don’t want tax hikes, they want spending reforms.”
Martire: “What is our basic problem? I think it’s been a lack of political will for generations to deal with tax policy honestly. Tax is one of two, three-letter words ending in ‘X’ in the English language that really gets people excited. And generally, not in a good way. So, most elected officials want to avoid dealing with tax policy. Our chosen method for avoiding dealing with tax policy in Illinois has been, and everyone knows this, is to underfund what the state owed to its five pension systems and divert the revenue that should have gone to normal costs to instead fund current services.”
From their lofty perch in Midtown Manhattan, the editors of the Wall Street Journal opined on the years-long budget stalemate here in Illinois. The deadlock has naturally drawn the notice of investors who happen to hold state of Illinois bonds—bonds that could soon be downgraded to junk if Gov. Bruce Rauner and his archnemesis, House Speaker Michael Madigan, don’t come to terms on a budget by the beginning of the next fiscal year, July 1.
If the Journal’s editors intended to help resolve the Springfield deadlock for the good of bondholders—not to mention the people who live and work in Illinois—then they missed the mark. In fact, they made matters much, much worse.
That’s because partisan brinkmanship of the sort they’re dishing out is one of the biggest reasons Illinois is in the shape it’s in now. The Journal drubs Rauner for saying he’ll accept a four-year increase in the state income tax and expand the sales tax, labeling such concessions “capitulation” and “a political defeat by any definition.” Implying that Team Rauner’s tax hike talk is a sop to credit rating agencies that “never met a tax increase they didn’t like,” the Journal writes that Rauner “doesn’t want to run for re-election next year as Governor Junk.” […]
Given the long, hard battle that’s been fought over these very elements of Rauner’s “Turnaround Illinois” agenda, to cite such shortcomings now is essentially to cheer for both sides to harden their positions. But this state can’t afford more tantrums. Rhetoric like this only adds fuel to a partisan fire that’s threatening to immolate Illinois. We agree with the Journal that Madigan is the stumbling block that has prevented Rauner from realizing what he campaigned on, but campaigns are about vision; governing is about seeing clearly. Yes, Madigan is stubbornly in the way. But he cannot be wished away—nor can his constituents. Acting as if they are not there is to enter Fantasyland—and Illinoisans have no further need for fairy tales.
So here’s a thought inspired by a famous headline from another fine New York newspaper: “Illinois to Wall Street Journal: Drop Dead.
I agree with Crain’s. We need a practical solution here. And I’ve never been a fan of that WSJ editorial page.
But, on one specific level, I totally agree with the Wall St. Journal. Rauner did indeed pledge to roll back the income tax rate all the way down to 3 percent by the end of his first term. Instead, Rauner chose a 2-year impasse over tax reduction. That’s totally and completely on him. Period.
And, remember, the governor and his wholly owned state GOP subsidiary have repeatedly blasted Speaker Madigan for suggesting in late 2015 that a good place to start would be returning the tax rate to 5 percent…
The state GOP launched a Twitter campaign attacking Madigan by promoting the hashtag #taxhikemike. It includes a video publicizing Tax Hike Mike’s plan, building it around his comments at the City Club.
“Mike Madigan thinks raising your taxes is funny,” the narrator states.
Then the video shows Madigan being asked and answering the question, as audience members laugh at the delicacy of the issue and Madigan smiles broadly.
“Mike Madigan wants to raise your taxes by 33 percent … and thinks it’s funny,” the narrator concludes.
Doesn’t it make you just want to grab Tax Hike Mike by his tax-hiking neck and give it a good tax-hiking wringing? That’s the response the advertisement is designed to elicit.
If they had returned the rate to 5 percent (or even 4.95 percent, as the governor claims to favor now) in 2015, they could’ve lowered it over time with gradual cuts and other reforms. Instead, we’re stuck in a hopeless morass.
So, kindly spare me the hand-wringing over a little editorial. Rauner’s a big boy who promised to “take the arrows.” Let him deal with it for a while. It’ll build character. /s
Thousands of children in Illinois are at risk of not getting their immunizations this year amid the ongoing state budget crisis, officials said.
More than 100,000 kids on Medicaid in Illinois face potentially not getting their immunizations as the state nears its third year with no budget, according to local officials of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Under the current plans, vaccines for Medicaid Title 21 children are purchased by their doctors, who are supposed to be reimbursed by the state through Medicaid managed care organizations. MCO’s are state contractors.
“This spring, things came to a halt in getting compensated,” said Dr. Timothy Wall, Medical Director and President of Pediatric Health Associates. “We have had to cut back the ages of children we can give vaccines to.” […]
According to the AAP, the backlog is so burdensome for some doctors, they’ve had to stop providing immunizations altogether.
“That’s a perfect recipe for an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease,” said Dr. Edward Pont, who serves as the governmental affairs chair for the Illinois chapter of AAP.
The Rauner administration, of course, blamed the comptroller, which is just completely ridiculous on its face. Absolutely nothing is ever his fault. Her office’s response…
“Like the check bouncer who yells at his bank for bouncing a check from an account he himself emptied, the Governor disingenuously blames the Comptroller for not writing checks from state coffers that Governor Rauner emptied by failing his constitutional duty to propose a balanced budget,” said Abdon Pallasch, Director of Communications for the Office of the Comptroller.
On Day 1 Madigan Stalls, On Day 2…?
Madigan Blasted for Stall Tactics
The ball’s in Madigan’s court.
On Day 2 of the Special Session, what will Mike Madigan do? Will he show up and get to work? Or will he stall because he has no plan to fix Illinois?
Yesterday, he chose stalling.
Instead of working yesterday on a solution, Politico is reporting that Madigan wasted the first day of the special session.
Politico reports, “As the state crumbles awaiting a budget, the House speaker plans to use the second and third days of special session - on more hearings. Maybe Madigan’s ultimate strategy is to waste so much time that when lawmakers finally emerge from the Capitol, the state’s remaining residents will have dwindled to zero.”
The Chicago Tribune reports that instead of working with Republicans on a compromise budget and reform plan, Madigan “provided no details” and “needled Rauner via a statement”.
The Peoria Journal-Star Editorial Board writes that Democrats “got things off to a confidence-draining start on the first day of the special session by adjourning the House after 30 minutes, with senators meeting outside the public eye. The House under Speaker Michael Madigan has yet to even vote on a budget.”
WYMG called Madigan’s stalling schemes “a familiar tactic out of his toolbox”.
And NBC Chicago notes that, “House Speaker Mike Madigan is sounding his familiar themes as the special session begins.”
The one meeting that really needs to take place is between the governor, the speaker and other top legislative leaders. And that hasn’t happened. And until then there’s just a whole lot of talk and not much action.
The governor, of course, is responsible for calling leaders’ meetings.
Now, as I explained to subscribers today, there’s more going on here. But every special session I’ve ever covered has involved leaders’ meetings. And the governor has been on a “unity” kick this week, so you’d think he’d at least give it a try.
…Adding… From the Pritzker campaign…
On Tuesday, instead of acting to alleviate the widespread distress among families across the state, Bruce Rauner provided Illinoisans with a 3-minute sham “unity” address. Rauner called on legislators to support the Republican “Capitol Compromise,” a partisan budget written behind closed doors. 722 days later and Illinoisans are still getting the same political games and no results from their failed governor.
“While Illinois has gone a record 722 days without a budget, Bruce Rauner would rather fake compromise than bring legislators together to pass a fair budget,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Rauner talks a big game, but he doesn’t have the courage to face the budget crisis he’s inflicted on our state. Illinois needs a leader, not a coward in Springfield, and Illinois families deserve a real budget, not sham speeches and fake compromises.”
…Adding More… From the ILGOP…
It’s Day 2 of the special session, and time is ticking for Mike Madigan to propose a balanced budget and path forward for the State of Illinois.
Mike Madigan has yet to put forward any solution to the budget stalemate or agree to reforms needed to fix our state.
That’s why today, the Illinois Republican Party has updated BossMadigan.com to feature a countdown clock to remind the Speaker just how much time he has left to compromise and pass a budget and reform plan.
Mr. Speaker – there isn’t much time left. Get to work.
Lawmakers returned to Springfield today to work on a state budget, and so far absolutely nothing of consequence has happened, despite Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “unity” speech last night.
But one area of government has exploded as a potential pressure point: The looming shutdown in billions of dollars worth of roadwork, as soon as July 1.
Groups across the political spectrum are yelling their heads off, including road builders, unions, think tanks and both of Illinois’ U.S. senators. That’s a potent combination. It certainly has the potential to elevate Springfield’s budget war in the public consciousness in a way that hasn’t occurred in two years of budget battling. […]
Yet lobbying of lawmakers and Rauner, combined with a social media campaign, are having only a minimal impact so far, [Illinois Road & Transportation Builders Association CEO Mike Sturino] conceded. “I feel like politicians sometimes ought to have cardboard cutouts of themselves that say, ‘I care.’ “
* It’s been a while, but Speaker Madigan talked to reporters for a few minutes after his caucus meeting ended today. There wasn’t much to it, but thanks to Greg Bishop for posting…
The speaker said budget talks are continuing, but said that the plan House Democrats are reviewing and the “compromise” plan Republicans favor are “not too far apart.”
“We have been working for several weeks through the [State Rep.] Greg Harris budget team. They have an outline of a spending plan. They’ve engaged with Republicans. They’ve engaged with the Senate Democrats. They’ll engage with anyone who wants to engage with them to fashion a spending plan that would be good for all Illinoisans,” Madigan said.
Asked about the lack of trust amid the historic budget impasse, Madigan pointed the finger elsewhere.
“People that have worked with me know that my word is good. There’s no problem with trusting me. If there’s some problem with trust around this building, it may be with somebody else,” Madigan said.
Harris, who was appointed lead budget negotiator by Madigan last year, said Democrats are working to incorporate the best parts of each plan.
As lawmakers prepare to return to Springfield to address the budget impasse, officials in Belleville District 118 have been calculating how long its 11 schools could operate next year without state funding.
Gov. Bruce Rauner asked lawmakers to return to the Capitol from June 21-30 for a special session. The new fiscal year begins July 1.
Assistant Superintendent Ryan Boike said during the school board meeting Tuesday night that District 118 could possibly get through September without money from the state based on the revenue it currently has.
“Getting through that last half of September could be a challenge,” Boike told board members.
If the July 1 start of the new fiscal year arrives without an agreement, “all the funding stops,” said Jeff King, chief operations officer at U-46, the state’s second-largest school district with 40,000 students. Cuts like eliminating after-school activity busing and hiring would come first.
“We would be out of money by wintertime. We would use all of our reserves,” King said. By the end of February, U-46 would need to borrow to make payroll or else close schools, he said.
Other suburban schools echoed his warning.
“If a budget is not passed and/or funding is not provided to schools, then we could continue operations using fund balances through the end of November,” said Bill Johnston, assistant superintendent of business and operations at Round Lake Unit District 116, which has 7,300 students.
The Springfield School District could open this fall, but would run out of money by January if state government fails to approve an education budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, Superintendent Jennifer Gill said Monday. […]
Also looming, Gill noted, is a property tax freeze, a measure strongly supported by Rauner that passed the Senate but sits idle in the House.
While a freeze may be popular, Gill said, it would result in District 186 not being able to collect an additional $1.9 million in local property tax dollars, based on financial projections.
“We enter a time we have never seen before,” she said.
[Harrisburg Superintendent Mike Gauch] says the districts reserves are depleted through years of pro-ration of state funds.
“We’re $700,000 in the hole this year and we do not have the reserves in Harrisburg to be able to weather those kinds of storms every year,” says Gauch.
Chicago Public Schools will open Sept. 5 as scheduled — regardless of whether state lawmakers have reached an agreement on a budget, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday.
After rattling off a host of specifics designed to tout the progress made by Chicago students during his time in office, Emanuel said the opening of schools for the 2017-18 academic year won’t depend on Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-controlled General Assembly reaching a budget deal after an impasse of more than 700 days.
“Parents don’t need anxieties about that,” said Emanuel, who used his education speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to bash Rauner for failing to reach an agreement on a state budget. “Chicago will be open for the future. I can’t say that about the rest of Illinois.”
Emanuel did not elaborate on how cash-strapped CPS would find the funds to open in September if the state does not start paying its bills. Because of the impasse, the state owes more than $15 billion to a variety of vendors and agencies, including school districts across the state, according to Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza.
McHenry High School District 156, which oversees McHenry East and West high schools, is expecting $5 million from the state in fiscal 2018 – $3.4 million in general state aid and $1.4 million in categoricals, which reimburse for expenses such as transportation and special education, Superintendent Ryan McTague said.
State funding accounts for 16 percent of the district’s budget – like other county school districts, local property taxes make up the majority.
“Obviously, if we didn’t receive any of that [state funding], that would be a pretty massive hole,” McTague said.
The fact that Illinois has funded education throughout the impasse does not mean that districts have been made whole, or even within a timely manner. Schools are among the vendors who are in the state’s $15 billion backlog of unpaid bills. District 156 still is waiting on payment for three of its four categoricals this school year – the most recent categorical payment it received was for the 2016 school year, McTague said.
Although McTague said he believes the district could make it the whole year, other districts statewide do not.
House Speaker Michael J. Madigan will give workers injured on the job an opportunity to tell legislators how Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed changes to the workers’ compensation system will directly impact them at a committee of the whole hearing Thursday.
“The governor and his allies are determined to institute changes to workers’ compensation, but they have no desire to hear from the middle-class workers who will actually be impacted by their changes No one plans to be injured on the job, but every day workers are seriously hurt or even permanently disabled on the job through no fault of their own.” Madigan said. “Democrats have put legislation on the governor’s desk that will help employers cope with workers’ compensation insurance costs, without hurting middle-class families. As the governor insists on further changes, we owe it to the people directly affected by these changes to give them a seat at the table and a voice in the discussion, not just to hear from the corporate CEOs whispering in Governor Rauner’s ear.”
Madigan will call all members of the House to a committee of the whole hearing on Thursday, June 22 to discuss the governor’s workers’ compensation changes with workers previously injured on the job, and with medical professionals.
Democrats have already passed House Bill 2525, which will help ensure Illinois businesses see the benefits of reform by requiring insurance companies to pass savings on to local employers. The measure also takes steps to crack down on fraud and abuse, and includes additional measures to reduce costs without jeopardizing the health or economic security of workers.
On Friday, June 23, Madigan will convene another committee of the whole to discuss the governor’s proposed property tax freeze with local government officials and educators. Both hearings will convene at 2 p.m. in the House chamber.
He’s obviously not keen on either idea.
…Adding… Agreed…
I believe these are what @GovRauner called "sham" hearings — seems clear why, if it isn't in any way going to LEAD TO A BUDGET. https://t.co/rBoIQEPIPE
At 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 22, Chris Kennedy will address the Cook County Pre-Slating Committee, at the Cook County Democrats Building. He will layout his vision for the state of Illinois, and take questions from the committee.
WHAT: Cook County Pre-Slating
WHERE: 134 N LaSalle Dr, Chicago, IL 60602
* The Question: What message should Kennedy deliver to a party organization that probably won’t be endorsing him?
The first day of a special session on Illinois’ budget impasse is off to a slow start.
About half an hour after convening on Wednesday, the Illinois House adjourned until Thursday. House members will spend Wednesday meeting privately and holding public hearings. The Senate, which also convened Wednesday, will also meet privately.
* It looks like workers are setting up for a Committee of the Whole in the House tomorrow…
…Adding… I tipped subscribers about this possibility earlier today…
Speaker Madigan spokesman Steve Brown confirms a Committee of the Whole scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday about workers comp.
Republican lawmakers Wednesday laid resolution of the state’s budget impasse squarely at the feet of House Speaker Michael Madigan.
At a Statehouse news conference as a 10-day special session was about to begin, Republican lawmakers said the House Democrats are the only group that has yet to lay out a spending and revenue plan to end the nearly two-year budget stalemate.
“Speaker Madigan and the House Democrats will need Republican votes if they want to end this impasse,” said House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs. “It is up to them. The time for just having vague, general discussions is over.”
Durkin was referring to the fact it now takes 71 votes in the House to pass bills, including a budget. Democrats hold 67 seats in the chamber.
The Republicans dodged repeated questions about why they won’t introduce their own tax hike bill.
* And Rep. Lou Lang delivered another one of his patented rants at the end of today’s session. Lang chastised the governor for spending “millions of dollars” on TV ads attacking Speaker Madigan and sending out as many as 15 mailers attacking individual House Democrats despite the call by House GOP Leader Jim Durkin for everyone to “lay down their arms” and work on a deal…
“We agree that it’s time to lay down our arms and our weaponry. And so I challenge Leader Durkin today to march down to Room 200 in this building and ask the governor to lay down his arms and his weaponry and do the business of the people of the state of Illinois. It will take even less than the three minutes and fifteen seconds he talked yesterday about the needs of the people of the state of Illinois.”
Rep. Dan Brady (R-Bloomington) then rose to say people on his side of the aisle will do everything they can to “make our time during the next ten days as bipartisan as possible to get something done of the people of Illinois.”
* Illinois Policy Institute: Republican plan perpetuates Illinois’ financial crisis - The Illinois Republicans’ budget proposal includes billions in tax hikes and has an ineffective spending “cap” that will likely result in deficit spending by 2020. The plan’s lack of reforms sets taxpayers up for a permanent tax hike in 2022.
Community groups call on Attorney General Lisa Madigan to investigate Assessor Berrios and for President Preckwinkle and the Cook County Board to fix our unfair property tax assessment system
Wednesday, June 21, Our Revolution Illinois/Chicago, Action Now, Network 49, Blacks in Green, and other community organizations will call for an investigation and a fix for Cook County’s unfair property tax system which illegally hurts working families and communities of color. We will call on key elected officials to do their job and ensure fairness in the system.
On June 10, the Chicago Tribune detailed how the property tax assessment system benefits wealthy homeowners but penalizes low income and working families. Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios has promised to implement new methods that would be fairer and more efficient but has not made good on those promises.
Our Revolution Illinois/Chicago seeks to continue the mission of Bernie Sanders’ campaign by advocating for essential reforms and supporting a new generation of progressive leaders. Our Revolution Illinois will fight to ensure the political and economic systems of the state are responsive to the needs of working families.
We write to respectfully request that the Illinois Attorney General’s Office launch an investigation into the Cook County Assessor’s Office, specifically to determine whether officials violated state or federal law, including the Civil Rights Act, through the assessment process in Cook County. The Chicago Tribune reported on June 10 that through the assessment process, the Cook County Assessor systematically “created an unequal burden on residents, handing huge financial breaks to homeowners who are well-off while punishing those who have the least, particularly people living in minority communities.” Many working families are already struggling to make ends meet. This only exacerbates their hardship.
It appears the faulty assessment process was implemented knowingly. A fairer, more accurate assessment model was developed by experts for the Assessor’s Office, yet it was discarded with no proper explanation, resulting in the continued practice of over- assessing homes in minority and low-income communities. The Tribune further reports that the Assessor relies heavily on a process called “hand checks” through which staff manually adjust the valuation of homes. This process is ripe for abuse and corruption. It may be used by the Assessor’s office to reward or punish particular property owners for political reasons. Yet no statistics are kept on hand checks, the Tribune reports.
This is particularly troubling given that Assessor Berrios has accepted millions of dollars in political contributions from property tax attorneys. The Tribune found that his three campaign funds “raised more than $5 million since 2009, more than half of which came from property tax attorneys and the businesses associated with them.” Some of these property tax attorneys almost exclusively donate to the Assessor and the Board of
Review. Since 2010, of all political contributions by the real estate law firm Weiss, Dubrock, and Doody, 95% were to Berrios and the Board of Review. Another real estate law firm, Flanagan Bilton, gave 81% of its contributions to Berrios and the Board of Review.
Yet when the Tribune sought documentation explaining how the hand check process works, Assessor Berrios refused, and the matter is currently in court. This begs the question as to what degree “pay-to-play” was involved when wealthy political donors sought reductions in assessments.
The rest is here. Their letter to President Preckwinkle is here.
* Also…
Cook Co. Commissioner @jesuschuygar calls for Assessor Joe Berrios to testify before board on property tax system, after Trib investigation
Chair of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Chicago) today expressed deep concern over an Associated Press report that suggests that Governor Bruce Rauner’s administration took action to purposely exclude state guidelines aimed at encouraging minority-owned business opportunities in an effort to steer a nearly $100 million taxpayer-funded contract to a private company that is charged with creating online efficiency in state employee health insurance processing.
The news story, published on Sunday, highlights that the system was hastily designed and has caused serious difficulties in managing health care records of potentially hundreds of thousands of public employees and retirees. In addition, the investigation exposes the Rauner administration’s efforts to award the massive contract to Georgia-based company Morneau Shepell in what appears to be a favored contractor:
“Documents show CMS staff members were told to proceed without following guidelines for ensuring minority-owned business participation,” the AP story says.
“Bruce Rauner might have purchased the Illinois Republican Party, but he doesn’t own the State of Illinois,” Lightford says. “It’s outrageous to discover that he thinks it’s perfectly legitimate to misuse the trust of taxpayers to skirt rules aimed at giving all qualified businesses an equal playing field.”
Lightford says she is discussing the possibility of utilizing part of Governor Rauner’s 10-day Special Session mandate to conduct a hearing on the failures of the Morneau Shepell contract as well as the procedures and decisions for discarding procurement rules.
“I don’t care if Bruce Rauner doesn’t like the long-established requirements to include and consider minority and woman owned businesses, I care that he decided to simply discard them,” said Lightford. “There’s a need for accountability here and I suspect questions will need good answers. We should do that in a public hearing, not behind the Governor’s preferred closed doors.”
Throughout the past six months a number of news investigations have highlighted serious flaws in the judgement of Rauner officials when it comes to hiring and contracting. Already, the Illinois Senate Appropriations Committees have held in-depth hearings on what appear to be multi-million dollar insider leasing schemes to store supplies like paper in private warehouses.
Georgia-based Morneau Shepell was the only company to respond to a quickly executed November 2015 request from the Department of Central Management Services to design a web-based portal for managing health insurance options. The request was posted for only 26 days. Documents show CMS staff members were told to proceed without following guidelines for ensuring minority-owned business participation. […]
Despite a requirement that vendors submit plans to ensure 20 percent participation in the contract by minority- or women-owned establishments under the state’s Business Enterprise Program, contract documents include a note that CMS “has been directed to move forward without the inclusion of a BEP goal.”
CMS spokesman Richard Bossert would say only that “the decision was made by CMS at the time of procurement.”
“Since Morneau Shepell was the only bidder, if BEP goals were not waived, the state would have received no bids at all,” he said. But the waiver note was dated Nov. 3, the day before the procurement request was even made public.
Speaking onstage at the downtown City Club of Chicago luncheon Tuesday, [Bill] Daley prognosticated that “Bruce Rauner cannot win re-election if he does not get a budget right this year. … I don’t care who’s running against him.” […]
He added, “I said at the time that anybody who was running against Pat Quinn would win … but I would say right now … I don’t see how Rauner could go to the voters and say, ‘I’ve done something positive.’” […]
Asked after the event by Chicago Inc. why Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan would agree to a budget deal if holding out would ensure a Democrat in the governor’s mansion when next year’s election is over, Daley said he doesn’t believe Madigan “wants to collapse the state. I think there’s more rationality than that.”
But the brother and son of former Chicago mayors added, “If it’s strictly on politics then, yeah — just let chaos happen.”
The Democrats had better not get over-confident. Nothing is assured in politics. It’s the essential beauty of this business. And while Rauner has definite governing problems, he’s one of the best campaigners at this level that I’ve ever seen. If anyone can win, it’s him.
Also, Speaker Madigan has held out this long, so I wouldn’t be too sure of Daley’s assertion that he doesn’t want to collapse the state. Madigan’s counterpart in the Senate, after all, has been working for months to prevent a complete disaster. Madigan has not put forth any budgetary plans in a year.
Rauner Releases Digital Ad – “The No. 1 Change”
Highlights Real Stories Behind the Need for a Property Tax Freeze
As lawmakers return to Springfield to work on passing a balanced budget with reforms to end the impasse, Rauner today released digital ads highlighting real stories of Illinoisans hurt by crippling high property taxes.
Property taxes are driving people and businesses out of their homes. That’s why Governor Rauner is pushing so hard for property tax relief in Springfield.
If we can agree to pass it, this plan will send a message across our state and around the nation that we are serious about making Illinois a more attractive destination for investment, new businesses, and new jobs.
If we can agree to pass it, we will stop this unnecessary crisis.
Failure to act is not an option. Failure to act may cause permanent damage to our state that will take years to overcome.
An unnecessary crisis?
* From just before the impasse began in April of 2015…
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner kicked off a campaign-style statewide tour Monday by indicating he’ll try to “leverage” the state’s money woes into securing a series of pro-business changes from a General Assembly controlled by Democrats likely to fiercely oppose them.
The first stop was at Tribune Tower, where the governor sought to frame up the last seven scheduled weeks of the spring session during an appearance before the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board. The governor and legislative leaders will try to craft a new budget before the May 31 adjournment deadline against the backdrop of a projected deficit of $6 billion and Rauner calling for major cuts.
“Crisis creates opportunity. Crisis creates leverage to change … and we’ve got to use that leverage of the crisis to force structural change,” said Rauner, borrowing from a political philosophy famously coined by his friend Rahm Emanuel that “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
This crisis was deliberately created. Rauner thought he could make the Democrats blink first. The Democrats thought Rauner would blink first. And here we are, more than two years later and everybody’s eyes are as dry as the Sahara.
“We will crush our economy if we try to spend money on both high-cost, inefficient, bureaucratic, heavily unionized government and a social safety net to help the disadvantaged,” Rauner said.
“We can’t afford both,” he said, and “wealth creators,” like JIMMY JOHN LIAUTAUD, founder of Jimmy John’s sandwich shops and another panelist, would be forced to leave the state.
“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,’ ” Rauner said, instead of directing tax dollars to the Service Employees International Union or “AF-Scammy,” an apparent reference to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, known as AFSCME for short.
* For the second time, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Jason Gonzales, Speaker Madigan’s 2016 Democratic primary opponent. The lawsuit was filed against Madigan and other alleged conspirators. Judge Matthew Kennelly was not impressed…
The remaining defendants filed a joint motion to dismiss the federal claims against them on two grounds: (1) Gonzales failed to allege that defendants acted under color of state law; and (2) he failed to allege the deprivation of any federal constitutional right. The Court determined that Gonzales failed to allege that the remaining defendants acted under color of state law and dismissed all of his federal claims against those defendants, including the claim of civil conspiracy. The Court did not consider defendants’ remaining arguments.
The Court granted Gonzales leave to amend his complaint; the Court’s order said that unless he filed an amended complaint that included at least one viable federal claim, the Court would dismiss his federal claims with prejudice. Gonzales filed his amended complaint on March 29, 2017, asserting, with additional factual allegations, the same claims as in the original complaint.
For the foregoing reasons, the Court grants the joint defendants’ motion to dismiss. And because it is apparent that Gonzales cannot make allegations plausibly supporting a contention that one or more of the defendants acted under color of state law, there is no good reason to give him further attempts to amend.
* Chris Kennedy is making two seemingly contradictory claims out on the campaign trail. He says he represents “radical” change, but also says he wants to bring stability and predictability back to state government. Radical change isn’t usually associated with stability, however. Just the opposite.
The only unifying thing Bruce Rauner is doing is bringing voters together to support radical change in Illinois… Compromise - real compromise - like the kind that happens before the session ends when lawmakers are debating the merits of their proposals, is not surrender.
Taken together, those two sentences don’t make any sense.
I’m sure these diametrically opposed messages both test well. I just wonder if or how long he can get away with saying both things.
…Adding… From comments…
Macron just won the French Presidency on this same message - Radical Centrism.
* Gov. Rauner loves the Wall St. Journal editorial page. That edit board is full of his class of like-minded folks. Back in the day, he would often send around clips from editorials to his pals with his own approving commentary.
The Illinois Capitulation - Gov. Bruce Rauner cries uncle on taxes and economic reform
Bruce Rauner spent a chunk of his personal fortune running for Governor in 2014 to save Illinois from its tax-and-spend political class. More than two years later it looks like the former private equity star has made better investments.
On Tuesday evening the Governor with the worst job in America explained why he and his fellow Republicans have offered to raise taxes for the sake of ending a multiyear budget impasse with Democrats. He said he’ll accept a four-year increase in the flat state income tax to 4.95% from the current 3.75%, expand the sales tax and implement a cable and satellite TV tax.
This is a political defeat by any definition since Mr. Rauner campaigned on lowering the income tax to 3%, not on restoring the rate close to what it was under the last Democratic Governor. The “temporary” 5% rate partially sunset in December 2014. Democrats who run the legislature refused to negotiate over a budget unless Mr. Rauner agreed to a tax increase, and now they’re refusing to make notable spending or economic reforms in return. […]
The Governor’s capitulation may have been triggered by the latest downgrade by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s in the state bond rating to near junk status, with a warning that another downgrade could come this summer. Mr. Rauner doesn’t want to run for re-election next year as Governor Junk.
Oof.
They do make a good point about how he campaigned on lowering the rate to 3 percent by the end of his first term. He took his eye off that ball almost right away, however, and chose to fight a long, protracted war instead.
…Adding… Just as an aside, this could sting even more because the WSJ’s editorial page editor is Paul Gigot, who attended Dartmouth with Rauner.
…Adding More… The WSJ and Joe Walsh on the same day?…
At this point, as a Conservative Republican stuck in Illinois, I have no reason to vote for @BruceRauner.
Positive Headlines for Rauner’s Speech
Democrats Come Across as Petty – Attacking Speech Intended to Unite Around Compromise
While Governor Bruce Rauner addressed the people of Illinois directly, pleading for compromise and unity amid an historic budget impasse, Democratic candidates for Governor and allies of Speaker Mike Madigan publicly refused to accept the Governor’s call.
Instead of agreeing that it’s time to reform our state to end the budget impasse, Democrats attacked a plea to work together.
To everyone outside the rotunda bubble, it was petty.
But Governor Rauner’s message reached Illinoisans across the state. Check out these positive headlines in response to the Governor’s message.
State Journal-Register: Rauner calls for unity ahead of special session
“Failure to act is not an option,” Rauner said in the speech that lasted a little over three minutes. “Failure to act may cause permanent damage to our state that will take years to overcome.”
Rauner called for lawmakers to support a Republican budget plan released last week that would set state spending at $36 billion a year for the next four years. Rauner called it a “compromise budget plan that I can sign, one that we all can support.”
ABC 7 Chicago: Governor Rauner gives address focused on unity, budget
From behind the podium set up in the historic Old State Capital building, Rauner tried to bring an end to the historic budget impasse that has crippled Illinois during the three years there has been no balanced budget.
Chicago Tribune: Rauner calls for compromise in speech Democrats dismiss as empty rhetoric
“Our history reminds us of our state’s great capacity for change — and for our limitless potential when those elected by the people put the people’s interests ahead of all else,” Rauner said. “Right now, our state is in real crisis and the actions we take in the days ahead will determine how history remembers us.”
WTTW: Rauner Calls for Compromise Ahead of Special Session
As Illinois faces the unprecedented possibility of the third fiscal year in a row dawning without a budget in place and on the eve of a special session that’s lawmakers’ last chance to head off that harsh reality, Gov. Bruce Rauner gave a short – but highly publicized – speech.
“Right now, our state is in real crisis – and the actions we take in the days ahead will determine how history remembers us. We can all do better. We must all do better for the citizens of Illinois,” Rauner said Tuesday evening.
WCIA Springfield: Rauner urges ‘Capitol Compromise’
Standing on the second floor of the Old State Capitol, Rauner summoned the unifying powers of Abraham Lincoln, repeating the former president’s famous line, “a House divided against itself cannot stand.” Illinois remains deadlocked in the longest budget battle in state history.
WAND: Governor Rauner urging unity among state lawmakers
Governor Bruce Rauner appeared at the Old State Capitol in Springfield to urge lawmakers to put aside their differences and agree to state budget.
State lawmakers are being called back to Springfield starting Wednesday to participate in a special session, where Governor Rauner hopes a compromise on a state budget can be reached.
