23 Comments - Perrid - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 9:39 am: So it hurts lower income people, not the kids themselves directly. That would still be a stinger, not sure why Rauner wouldn’t use it. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 9:40 am: The most confused person in the House Raunerite Caucus now? It has to be Rep. Andersson… - Roman - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 9:44 am: == Someday, one of these softball interviewers needs to do a little homework. == If I had a nickel for every time that thought popped in my head. The last 32 months have exposed many weaknesses in our state, like the shortage of well-informed journalists willing to ask an occasional follow-up question. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 9:45 am: Ugh. My bad. Apologies. To the Post, I think it goes back to Bret Baier and his interview and what happens when Rauner goes on radio or gets interviewed here “locally” and we here dig deeper into the policy, and the reporter/interviewer wants to “sound” thoughtful to policy, but they lack the knowledge or persistence (or both?) to really go after where the Governor is wrong. Rauner knows this. The superstars and IPI, even the BTIA(tm) knows this. It’s Rauner’s “Three yards and a cloud of dust” bread and butter play… Say anything, know they can’t/won’t call him on it. - RNUG - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 9:50 am: == So it hurts lower income people, not the kids themselves directly. == More specifically, it hurts anyone who doesn’t appeal their property tax assessment. In reality, I suspect the landlords who own commercial property like apartments tend to stay on top of their assessments. If that is the case, then renters are being somewhat protected. The people who most likely don’t stay on top of their assessments are the home owning lower income / working poor. They are too busy scraping out a living and don’t have the time to learn the appeal game or money to hire an appeal lawyer. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 9:56 am: So I’m clear… Pearson, who Rich has up here specifically, and many others who actually cover the statehouse (too many to catalog in fear of missing one) do hold Rauner accountable in the reporting and their work, even when their own reports are run the same day editorials from the same paper seem to either ignore or seemingly not read what their paper’s reporters are actually reporting on or about Rauner and his policies. Rich Miller, here, overall since Rauner came to office has done an outstanding job cataloging Rauner’s misspeaks. This blog has been a great single source to see and read the multiple Rauner fact failings to countless media outlets - wordslinger - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 10:01 am: Just like holding funding for social services and higher Ed hostage, this is another case where Rauner is falsely accusing others of what he himself is doing. Stands to reason Rauner knows it’s a bad thing, But he does it anyway. - Anon221 - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 10:03 am: Yes, this is about national politics, but with Rauner’s national “debut” last Friday on Fox, it is relevant to this discussion. The “Madigan Lunch” is case in point. As to the WGN interview, I don’t see them going softball on Rauner. The “spitball” from Rauner (unfortunately) offers so much more fodder. “But what is journalism’s obligation here — to tell its viewers and readers the truth? Or to knowingly showcase individuals who will not tell the truth? Spin is one thing. Actual lying is something quite different.” http://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2017/06/28/trumps-lies-peter-may - Michael Westen - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 10:06 am: “So it hurts lower income people, not the kids themselves directly” Well, no. Not necessarily. That would be a falsehood also, which of course wouldn’t keep Rauner from using it. The tax gets shifted to those who choose not to appeal, could be lower or higher income people. - Annonin' - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 10:07 am: Sunday the task fell to Andy Manar to expose GovJunk claim on championin’ education reform. Guessin’ some diggin’ into the numbers from “independent” ISBA — another misspeak — will raise additional questions. - Rabid - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 10:08 am: Rauner’s brain thinks madigan takes money from children, not his SB1 veto - Can - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 10:11 am: I’m starting to think Rauner actually believes his own lies. When he tells the story that Madigan told him “I manage power and make money from managing power,” I can’t find one person, other than hyper-partisan Republicans, who actually believes that conversation took place. Why would the Speaker say something like that to anyone, let alone someone he didn’t know? - Glengarry - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 10:20 am: Rauner has always been the inverse of Robin Hood. Even Spongebob and Patrick finally realize this. Gary the snail just wished it happened earlier. - Steve Rogers - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 11:00 am: Rauner = Costanza: “it’s not a lie…if you believe it.” - don't the wheels turn slowly - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 11:05 am: successful appeals bring down the assessment in the current tax year for the owners; this deemed error wouldn’t have time to be shifted, if at all, until the next year’s levy - would it? - Cook County Commoner - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 11:06 am: Please no follow-up questions from reporters. First, most people don’t want to understand the prop tax. Second, I need the disinterested property owners to absorb my assessment reduction. - a journalist - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 11:21 am: Dear pundits blaming reporters: Have you been to a Rauner press conference? He does not answer the questions we ask. Follow-ups are tricky because other reporters jump in (we are all competing with each other). And no matter what we ask, he can dodge. A colleague put it this way: “The odds of getting a direct answer from Rauner are about the same odds as catching a unicorn with a butterfly net.” - Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 11:22 am: === Follow-ups are tricky because other reporters jump in=== The governor was on a radio show with a radio host. Nobody else could jump in. - a journalist - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 11:53 am: Rich, I was mainly responding to Roman’s complaint about “a shortage of well-informed journalists willing to ask an occasional follow-up question.” I agree; in a one-on-one, there’s no excuse. - Anon Downstate - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 12:30 pm: “…tax appeal firm actions take money from CPS kids. Wrong. Levy is the same, tho prop tax burden shifts.” ————– Not necessarily true. There’s more to the story. Pearson went part of the way, but there’s facts that either he doesn’t understand, or didn’t know. Big dollar tax appeals often don’t get settled prior to the current year tax rates being set. Often the decisions have to come from the Property Tax Appeal Board, and that happens after current year taxes are already issued, and often billed & paid. So the current year rate adjustment is figured in (Thanks to Excel) - current year actual tax rate - (minus) re-calculated tax rate reflecting changes; with different being an adjust to the next year’s tax rate for each affected tax dist. Normally that means a higher tax rate for all the properties located in those tax districts for the following tax bill. Had to do those types of calculations more than a few times. And it can affect a whole lot of properties when it happens. End result: 1) Property owners tax rates go up, so pay more (following year). 2) Tax districts get same. 3) Individual large commercial/industrial property owners get a substantial cut, with resulting refund checks. Can be some really serious dollars; see Excelon nuclear plants as an example. 2) - Roman - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 12:46 pm: - a journalist - I’ve been at hundreds of press conferences given by government officials in my career and I have rarely seen a politician go as consistently unchallenged by the reporters as Rauner has. This is particularly true when he’s in the Chicago media market — where most of the reporters are appallingly uninformed on state politics, but the “kid glove” treatment is too often provided in Springfield, too. I’m not sure what’s behind this. Maybe it’s the dwindling number of statehouse reporters? Rauner’s intimidating personality and message discipline? The lack of a modern media counter punch from the Speaker’s press shop? I’d invite anyone to contrast a Rauner presser in the statehouse with a Rahm press conference in City Hall (or, for that matter, a White House briefing.) Rahm and whomever is at the podium in Washington, are consistently subjected to more aggressive questioning and multiple follow-up questions when they’re evasive. Rauner?…not so much. Thankfully, the deferential treatment afforded to Rauner seems to be fading recently and, as OW posted above, a handful of reporters have consistently pushed back against Rauner. But they’ve been a distinct minority so far. - Chicago 20 - Monday, Aug 14, 17 @ 6:19 pm: - “Dear pundits blaming reporters: Have you been to a Rauner press conference? He does not answer the questions we ask.” Here is an idea. Have every reporter keep asking the same question until Rauner gives a real answer instead of the same old redundant broken talking points. It’s way past time Illinois reporters take some collective pride in their craft. - The young gov - Tuesday, Aug 15, 17 @ 8:45 am: It’s like Amanda Vinicky saw this thread and promptly offered up hardball questions. This is a great interviews: http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/08/14/gov-rauner-let-s-compromise-school-funding Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.