* Urban Institute report shows Illinois’ school funding system is most regressive in the nation, has remained regressive since 1995
* Emanuel, Rauner spar in latest front in war over school funding: Emanuel fires back by saying the city has used TIF districts to pump more money into education than it could have in their absence. And he contends that Rauner’s assertions are meant to pit suburban and Downstate children against their city counterparts. A Tribune examination shows that Emanuel is right when he says the city has used the controversial taxing districts to spend more on schools and that state law prevents it from tapping most of the money in those districts for CPS costs.
* Greg Hinz: Don’t buy the spin on CPS. It’s still a dumpster fire: How mismanaged is Chicago Public Schools? While enrollment has dropped roughly 10 percent since 2007, total annual spending is up a third, to a projected $6.48 billion.
* Rauner facing pressure from Downstate Republicans to veto ‘very reasonable’ immigration bill: Also critical of the bill is Rep. John Cabello, a Republican of Mexican heritage who is a Rockford police detective and also co-chair of the Illinois Trump Victory fund. Cabello said the measure puts police in the position of choosing whether to uphold federal law or state law. “We can’t cherry-pick which laws we are going to enforce, it doesn’t matter if this bill is signed into law or not, law enforcement will do what we have to do,” he said. “I think this bill is symbolic, no law enforcement officer is going to follow this bill.”
* Illinois Democrats want to spike Rauner’s Medicaid reboot: The legislation is the second attempt this year to move MCO contracts under the state procurement code. In May, the bill didn’t make it out of committee. But that was before Rauner announced the winning bidders. The bill was resurrected quickly—and passed the Illinois Senate with a 38-18 vote two days later—amid fresh concerns that no minority-owned companies won a bid, said Harris, a Chicago Democrat.
* These Governors Are Rich, But Are They Effective?: “Rather than recognize that he had to deal with strong pro-labor Democratic legislative majorities in a blue state,” says Kent Redfield, a University of Illinois-Springfield political scientist, “he pushed a strong anti-union, right-to-work agenda from the beginning that unified all parts of labor against him.” And those weren’t the only enemies Rauner made, Redfield says: The governor “tried to hold the budget hostage to leverage his ‘Turnaround Agenda,’ which initially included tort reform and cuts in social services spending to health facilities in addition to anti-collective bargaining, worker’s comp reform and pension reform measures. This unified the major funders of the Democratic Party against him — labor, the trial lawyers, and the hospitals and nursing homes.”
* Rauner in Aurora as mayor marks 100 days; Fox River pedestrian bridge ‘will be built next year’
* Rauner pays for private helicopter to public event in northern Illinois: MacNeil is also founder and CEO of Bolingbrook-based WeatherTech, a company that makes products including automotive floor mats. Campaign records show that MacNeil donated $200,000 to Rauner’s 2014 campaign, and made in-kind donations totally $18,750 for “use of personally owned aircraft.”
* Suits linked to Rutherford sex charges cost public $515K
* Drinking soda pop will one day be like smoking on an airplane
* Are Endorsements for the Governor’s Race Getting Earlier?: Based on interviews and an analysis of news reports spanning from the 2002 gubernatorial election until today, Chicago found that primary endorsements have slowly begun to pull away from the fall and winter months preceding the election, instead moving toward the summer months of May through August. Removing the outlying earliest endorsement each cycle, it’s clear the bulk of endorsements are coming earlier and earlier each election
* A coronation for Pritzker?
* State Sen. Biss Kicks Off a Campaign Tour in Peoria
* Gov hopeful Daniel Biss: Faith that fuels divisiveness is ‘dead wrong’
* Sara Wojcicki Jimenez won’t run for re-election to Illinois House: Jimenez acknowledged that the tone of politics has changed for the worse. She said she likes to include her family in events, but the results haven’t always been pleasant. She and her family walked in the Illinois State Fair parade and encountered a spectator who yelled he hated them, something picked up by one of her 4-year-old sons.
