79 Comments - Honeybear - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 7:05 am: Ugh…..why?…..He screws things totally up. Totally delays the work of years adds 75 million tax credit for the rich to plow into private education and wants to take a victory lap. My God the disconnect with reality. Well…makes me work harder to get him out. - Steve W. - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 7:24 am: I think our first commenter this morning is a bit disconnected with reality. A major bipartisan reform to school funding was passed. Both sides have something to call a win here. Everyone should be doing a victory lap. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 7:27 am: Said this yesterday… ===Rauner needed a win. He got it. Good for him. Rauner will sigh a significant, bipartisan, funding bill for education. Don’t dismiss that, embrace that it’s good. Rauner should now do a tour, this time, a victory lap.=== Yep. “Why?”… Governors own. Rauner will own his signature, Rauner owns the victory, and a victory lap is needed desperately to build momentum and chip away at the 63% disapproval. This is what governors do. It would be malpractice to the political if Rauner didn’t. The funny thing is, as Rauner kept denying ownership for all the bad he has done, Rauner fully understands that governors own the good. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 7:30 am: -Both sides have something to call a win here- I’m confused. One side fights for fairer funding of public education. The other side fights to destroy it. What Guzzardi says. - iggy - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 7:32 am: every time I see HB make some insane comment like that I work harder to make sure Katie Stuart doesnt get re elected - Real - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 7:32 am: I’m looking forward to the repeal of the private school tax credit for wealthy individuals program. - DuPage Saint - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 7:35 am: A good politician would take a victory lap and deservedly so. Unfortunately for this governor the more he talks the more apt he is to put his foot in his mouth. I hope is new best team primed him well - Anonymous - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 7:36 am: This deal happened in spite of the Governor, not because of him. That said, signing it is a win for the Governor and he’d be foolish not to take the victory lap. - SAP - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 7:36 am: That was me at 7:36 - Highland IL - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 7:39 am: Note from Mater Dei principal invites questions from the students. He’s done at 2:10pm - wordslinger - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 7:45 am: It’s a big deal that will certainly be the centerpiece of Rauner’s campaign as he tries to make everyone forget the deliberate human destruction and fiscal recklessness of squeeze the beast. He sure came close to blowing it, though, with that FUBAR of an AV. Probably a good idea in the future to brush up on that 3/5ths dealio. You’re not dealing from a position of strength when there’s still no school funding bill in late August. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:00 am: Memories are short. - Mike Cirrincione - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:01 am: I thought the state was running a deficit yet there are $75 million in Government Handouts! Where is the Revenue Offset for yet another Welfare program? Sure would be nice if Republicans would decide if they want small government or not. - Dee Lay - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:05 am: Two private schools and one public school. None of them remotely close to the two largest districts in the state. Any chance a local reporter asks why he was against the CPS bailout before he was for it? But hey, that “non-voucher” program wasn’t a big deal…. - Retired Educator - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:05 am: Just sign the bill, and move on. He is really bad at this victory lap stuff. He will create more harm by trying to tell everyone how great he is. Those who do good don’t have to talk about it, The actions speak for themselves. The problem is, he has done so little he doesn’t know how to treat a win. - Demoralized - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:08 am: ==Two private schools and one public school. == Not quite. One charter school, one public school and one private school. It’s symbolic b/c the bill has something for all of them. - Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:10 am: Rauner can claim this victory if he wants. I mostly credit the legislators and people who stood up to Rauner and forced him to be more reasonable. I’m glad that legislators and people finally stood up against squeeze the beast, crisis governance and Rauner’s constant demonization of his opponents. I mostly credit the legislative leaders who hammered out this compromise, Sen. Manar, school superintendents and so many others who worked on this reform. - Birdseed - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:11 am: === - wordslinger - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 7:45 am: You’re not dealing from a position of strength when there’s still no school funding bill in late August. === Exactly. I guess that’s why the bill was held so long in the GA. - Roman - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:14 am: “Governors own” — agreed. Take your victory lap, Bruce. You need it. But it has to be noted that Rauner was a virtual bystander in crafting this compromise. He had to be kept out of ‘The Room Where it Happens’ - as the say in “Hamilton” - or it wouldn’t have happened. - 47th Ward - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:15 am: Good for Governor Rauner, but let’s not be fooled here. He could have had most of this deal back when in the Spring. He chose to create a crisis with his A/V and his poor grasp of the process. If he knew how to negotiate, he could have had this same bill done in May. Take a bow Governor. Better late than never. - The Real Just Me - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:24 am: I hope one of the students asks the Governor how the tax credit will actually work for his or her parents. Assuming tuition at the school is about $5100 per year, the student’s parent would have to donate about $6800 to a scholarship fund to get a 75% tax credit that equals the tuition. The scholarship donation cannot be directed at that particular student and the family must make less than about $70,000 per year to qualify for the scholarship. The scholarship donation would have to be almost 10% of the household income. A family that earns $70,000 a year pays at most $3500 in state income tax. In order to get a tax credit that would wipe out the entire $3500, the scholarship donation would have to be about $4700, or only about $400 less than the tuition to begin with, and I think that is after federal income tax. - Michael Westen - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:26 am: Wait a minute there, fella! I thought this was a Chicago bailout! No sane Governor would sign that, right? - Publius - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:28 am: ANALOGY A man tosses a baby in the bottom of the well in front on his neighbors and then climbs down to save the baby and expects to be treated like a hero. If the press only reports on the saving of the baby then the man becomes a hero. Press Please report the whole story. - Trapped in the 'burbs - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:28 am: He gets to create content for commercials which he’ll run immediately and constantly. He spends all of his time campaignin’ and no time governin’. Voters don’t pay attention like the readers and commentators of this blog. He’ll face new problems closer to the election (abortion, recreational marijuana?) which will be critical to his campaign. We’ll see how he handles what pops up. - Pundent - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:38 am: I haven’t liked much of what I’ve seen from Rauner over the past 2.5 years. But I’d like to see him taking more victory laps as it would finally signal that he was ready and capable of governing which we desperately need. - Norseman - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:39 am: === I guess that’s why the bill was held so long in the GA. === The bill was held to give time to negotiate. Instead Rauner was too busy whining and blowing up his staff because he was too obstinate to agree to a budget deal. Don’t kid yourself. Rauner is taking bows, but as said by many on this thread, this was a legislative victory. - pundemonium - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:42 am: – Totally delays the work of years – by sitting on the bill for two months? oo wait that was the legislature… - 360 Degree TurnAround - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:44 am: Come on, just one kid, one public school kid ask: “Governor, why did you veto all of the money for our schools. Aren’t we worth it to you?” “You didn’t give us any money this year.” - 360 Degree TurnAround - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:47 am: Another kid…”Governor, why did you give Chicago a bailout?” - 360 Degree TurnAround - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:51 am: Maybe at the Catholic school they can ask him about HB 40 and whether or not he’ll sign it when the senate sends it to him. - SKI - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:52 am: Rauner allowed a tax break the state can’t afford. He is encouraging CPS to raise property taxes when he has been touting a property tax freeze for the past 2 plus years. He is cutting P.E. to 3 days a week, when everyone is concerned about the obesity epidemic. And it only took getting into crisis mode to push it through at the last second. Great job Rauner. Take a bow. - Pundent - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:54 am: =“Governor, why did you veto all of the money for our schools. Aren’t we worth it to you?” “You didn’t give us any money this year.”= Nah, he wanted a better deal for everyone (or so he would claim). And he was very lucky that the legislators were willing to come together quickly to give it to him. The larger question is “if you were so opposed to a Chicago bailout, an opposed to increased spending without reform, how can you justify now supporting a bill that gives Chicago an even larger “bailout” and includes a $75M tax credit at a time when the state has a $15B backlog of bills”? - Duh - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 8:56 am: This is not the Governor’s victory lap. This is a solid bipartisan win. Good things happened for both sides who will be able to campaign off of this. Major kudos to all involved in the negotiations. - Whatever - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:00 am: ==I hope one of the students asks the Governor how the tax credit will actually work for his or her parents.== The idea is that the credit will increase the funds available for scholarships, some of which could go to that student’s parents. Also, many private schools provide “scholarships” to needy students, which are really tuition reductions that the other students pay for through higher tuition. The more students who get scholarships from outside funding, the lower the tuition will be for the others. - 360 Degree TurnAround - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:00 am: “Mommy says I should get along with my sister. Why should I when you can’t get along with Speaker Madigan?” Governor: “Kids, term limits and redistricting will make your lives better.” - wordslinger - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:02 am: Birdseed, that separation of powers thingy really shouldn’t have come as such a surprise to the governor. He certainly seemed aware of it when he was vetoing the approps. to pay for contracts that he signed, in order to create and “leverage” crisis. It’s weak to whine about your own tactics being used against you. And remember, the governor could have sat on the budget and tax increase bills for sixty days to force negotiation — except that he wanted the stability of that extra money going into his re-election. He just didn’t want the blame. - Curl of the Burl - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:04 am: Two of the schools on this list are geographically represented by - what for it - Senator Andy Manar. That is certainly not by accident. - Montrose - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:08 am: The question is whether he can stop himself from bad mouthing the bill he is doing a victory lap about. My money says no. - hisgirlfriday - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:08 am: Why is he going to public schools on this tour? His AV in the end took public schools hostage to get an unfunded tax break for the wealthy to benefit private schools. - Responsa - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:14 am: == Rauner is taking bows, but as said by many on this thread, this was a legislative victory.== Parents throughout the state who would have had to try to re-arrange their work schedules, or impose on extended family, or arrange and pay for private daycare if the schools couldn’t stay open do not care if the victory was a gubernatorial or a legislative victory. The bill was negotiated. Nobody’s entirely happy. The governor signed it. The public schools stay open at least for the foreseeable future even as the state’s fiscal condition worsens. There is a whole world beyond political gaming that regular people inhabit. But not to worry political naval gazers. All sides still have something to run on or run against and yammer about in ads in the next election cycle. - 360 Degree TurnAround - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:15 am: Question for Senator Barickman…”You voted no on the budget for schools and the revenue stream. Could you explain your vote?” - morningstar - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:19 am: Phases 4, 5 and 6 of any project, and this seems like we have reached phase 6: Search for the guilty. Punishment of the innocent. Praise and honors for the nonparticipants. - Rod - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:21 am: If proration of evidence based school funding begins will the Governor take ownership for that? Will the Governor and for that matter the Speaker, President of the Senate, and the Republican minority leaders take ownership for the likely income tax increases that will be needed to fund the EBM approach combined with tax credits for private school scholarships in the years to come? I seriously doubt it. Better yet, will this crew agree to expand the private school scholarships once it becomes evident that the $75 million will be allocated rapidly with many moderate income parents wanting some scholarship money too and private religious schools or new for profit schools (some charters may actually create private schools too to stay in the game) seeking to expand their base of students statewide. The flood gates are now open and the time to pay up will come shortly thereafter as is always the case. - My New Handle - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:22 am: Yesterday Mary Ann Ahern tweeted she heard that Rauner would sign the bill today at some “event” in Chicago. Now we hear that he will sign it tomorrow. Hmmm. Maybe his staff is working on an AV for him to sign and they need time. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:25 am: ===Rauner is taking bows, but as said by many on this thread, this was a legislative victory.== Yeah, um, that’s not how it works. A governor’s signature, the governor own. Not unlike a governor’s veto, the governor owns. This isn’t a new phenomenon, a made up thingy to help Rauner, these are the rules. Now, you may not like that, but thems the breaks. For me? I’m happy that a bipartisan compromise got 73 and 38 and this governor will sign it. Rauner needed a win, Rauner got a win, now the victory lap. This… this is what governing looks like. - Redraider - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:25 am: Iffy, I happen to know Honeybear and one thing that I know for sure is that HB will work harder than you to see Katie Stuart is re-elected - TR - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:26 am: == He had to be kept out of ‘The Room Where it Happens’ - as the say in “Hamilton” - or it wouldn’t have happened. == Not the first time, and it won’t be the last. - Sillies - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:26 am: ==I hope one of the students asks the Governor how the tax credit will actually work for his or her parents. Assuming tuition at the school is about $5100 per year, the student’s parent would have to donate about $6800 to a scholarship fund to get a 75% tax credit that equals the tuition. The scholarship donation cannot be directed at that particular student and the family must make less than about $70,000 per year to qualify for the scholarship. The scholarship donation would have to be almost 10% of the household income. A family that earns $70,000 a year pays at most $3500 in state income tax. In order to get a tax credit that would wipe out the entire $3500, the scholarship donation would have to be about $4700, or only about $400 less than the tuition to begin with, and I think that is after federal income tax. == This is most helpful in it clarifies precisely what the tax credit program is NOT! It’s not a voucher!! It is a vehicle to attract other private dollars to the support of education, augmenting state funds. State funds, as evidenced by the approved property tax changes, will largely be directed to funding pensions. Tax credits don’t fund pensions, they fund educational costs. Thanks for helping to clarify. - Posthole - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:27 am: ==I hope one of the students asks the Governor how the tax credit will actually work for his or her parents. == I’m not sure where you pulled that explanation out of, perhaps thin air, but your explanation was nowhere close to accurate. The tax credit is for person who donate to the scholarship fund. Those families who would receive the scholarships aren’t the ones who would be funding it. - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:31 am: Pundent and OW are both right. Some of you need to take a breath. There are always three numbers in every successful bill, and one of them is “1″ - representing the governor’s signature. Unless you override him (and they couldn’t on this bill), that “1″ is absolutely crucial. - Dance Band on the Titanic - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:33 am: Considering that two GSA payments have been skipped and payroll is due soon, is this a good time to sit on the bill for a couple of days in order to take a “victory lap”? - walker - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:36 am: If Rauner were willing to take some other partial wins when they were negotiated in the GA, we would have had a budget two plus years ago. Hopefully this is a learning experience leading to actual governing. More likely Rauner will be badmouthing all of it, and blaming Madigan, by this weekend. - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:38 am: ===two GSA payments have been skipped and payroll is due soon=== As far as I know, no school is on the brink of closure in the coming few days. What you should’ve learned from the past few months is that lots of schools have much bigger cash reserves than many imagined. It’s a harmless delay. - Paulo Isaac - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:41 am: Establishing the goal of sending a man to the moon. http://krisoff.net/gazowanie-silosow/ - 360 Degree TurnAround - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:45 am: I feel like Paulo may not have taken any history classes in school. - Rod - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:46 am: Posthole is correct, there is vast confusion on these scholarships. Once families who do not feel rich, have children in private schools or would like that option supported to some degree by a scholarship realize they get nothing the pressure will be on to amend the bill back up to over $100,000 in family income eligibility and expand the total amount of total scholarships. Democrat members of the Assembly who can afford to place their children in private schools without scholarships and voted for the bill will have to explain why these families get no scholarships. That is called ownership for the bill. Republicans who are in some cases all for masssive completion with public schools will support the call for amending the existing legislation within two years. - GoIllini1972 - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:47 am: ===He is cutting P.E. to 3 days a week, when everyone is concerned about the obesity epidemic=== I found this comment pretty funny. You can’t honestly believe this is important. You think a couple days of PE has anything to do with the root cause of why a kid is obese? I’ll say it again, everybody move on, take the win, take the money and run! - Curl of the Burl - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:49 am: What is going on with all these spammers? - 360 Degree TurnAround - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:49 am: Rod is correct. And when they come to expand the program, state regulations and testing will come with it for the private schools. - GA Watcher - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:51 am: It will be interesting to see if the Governor provides justification for how SB 1947 is a bill that is more worthy of his signature than SB 1 in light of his strong “Chicago bailout” rhetoric. - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:52 am: ===when they come to expand the program, state regulations and testing=== Testing is in the bill. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:52 am: Perspective? What is a favorite tool of Madigan in compromising? A sunsetting want that his negotiating partner wants either renewed, made “permanent” or left to expire. Yes, be concerned or whatever for “today”, 1 year, 3 years, but… it’s set to… sunset… at some point. Understanding the politics of that too will help your head scratching. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 9:58 am: ==Once families who do not feel rich, have children in private schools or would like that option supported to some degree by a scholarship realize they get nothing the pressure will be on to amend the bill back up to over $100,000 in family income eligibility and expand the total amount of total scholarships.=== So what if there is “pressure on”? Nothing can be done about it because the dems don’t like the progam. It seems pretty basic to me: Rich people can get a nice tax break from donating money to the program, but aren’t eligible to use it for their kids. They put a bunch of money in the program that moderate to lower income families CAN use, possibly to get to a better school for their kids. I just don’t see what’s wrong with this, nor do I think we should be concerned about this tiny part of the bill. - 360 Degree TurnAround - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 10:00 am: ===when they come to expand the program, state regulations and testing=== ==Testing is in the bill. == Just for the students who receive scholarships. - Tri-Sectoral - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 10:28 am: Governor Rauner visiting private, traditional and charters - way to flex your TRI-SECTOR MUSCLE!!! The education governor! Very exciting to say the least. Way to go Bruce, Mike, John, Bill and Jim!!! Team Illinois. Bi partisan and tri-sector. Illinois is now leading on something!! - Arsenal - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 10:28 am: == Rauner is taking bows, but as said by many on this thread, this was a legislative victory.== Eh, doesn’t matter. If the legislature passes something people like with a minimum of drama- yeah, ok, we can come back to THAT- it redounds to the Governor’s benefit. There’s caveats here. There was certainly no small amount of drama, and a complex education funding formula is likely to be lost on most voters in the long term- hell, in the medium term, too. But getting a big bill he can sign is a good thing for the Gov, and he’s gonna campaign on it. Expect it, accept it, and thwack him with whatever you got. - ste_with_a_v_en - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 10:35 am: Rich, are there some Spam comments going through? The Spanish comment kinda gave it away - Langhorne - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 10:36 am: Blogsters know the gov wasn t helpful to the effort (didnt lead), and set things way back w his AV. His AV content shoulda been introduced much earlier. But that requires understanding, and respect for the processes of a co-equal branch. All of this is irrelevant to most voters, once they wade thru millions of dollars in soothing ads, telling us how reasonable and wonderful the gov is. I want to watch the victory lap, and signing, to see if the gov piddles on the results. Is he capable of learning and restraint? Doubtful. - Rod - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 10:59 am: Willy the sunset provision is of course subject to amendment, its not written in stone. Everything depends on the evolution of politics in Illinois. The Republicans took no oath not to amend this legislation before five years, why should they. Time will tell and the same thing will take place in relationship,to,the funding for all of this. What is done is now done. We can all sit back and watch what happens including with the longer term fiscal stability of the Chicago Public Schools. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 11:02 am: - Rod - I read your comment. Good luck. - Norseman - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 11:07 am: Willy, you’re talking about public perception and political framing. I don’t disagree. But in reality, the success was due to legislative efforts. Victory in terms of process, not perception. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 11:14 am: ===…you’re talking about public perception and political framing. I don’t disagree. But in reality, the success was due to legislative efforts. Victory in terms of process, not perception=== Agreed. But in the same breath of process and politics, the AV for example, or the Vetoes of every budgetary bill outside school funding, that would also apply. To paraphrase Pearson, “It’s a process question, but it’s also a political win too” Unless Rauner signs, what are we really talking about? The win, albeit a seemingly a total legislative lift, still needs that signature for completion. I’d ask Leader Radogno, respectfully, the differences in her struggles and this Rauner victory. What happened is Rauner let Durkin negotiate, and accepted the terms Durkin brought. Can’t ding Rauner, as I know I have, and ignore the necessity of the signature and that Rauner allowed Durkin the necessary approval to get this win. We can discuss this on our campaign conference call later today. Respectfully, - Norseman - - Dean - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 11:20 am: I don’t have time to read through all of the comments, but what time is the Gov. going to sign the education bill? - Anon221 - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 11:23 am: Rauner is taking a victory lap before he signs the bill??? Was the Cardinal not available until tomorrow??? This is like an Olympic runner saying, “Just give me the gold medal, I’ll run the race later,”. If he has already signed it, my apologies, but I haven’t seen anything in the feeds yet. - JS Mill - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 12:50 pm: =It’s a harmless delay.= I disagree, but your point on some of the reserves is accurate. U-46 at one point in the last few years had $500 million. But it isn’t harmless to the schools on the edge financially. It caused incredible duress to those people and that is a big deal to them. At the end of the day the new formula does not really matter unless the money is there. Full stop. - East Central Illinois - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 1:19 pm: I totally agree with JS Mill @ 12:50. It’s August 30th, normally school districts would have had two general state aid payments by this date. School district budgets, by law, are due to ISBE and the county clerks by September 30th. Districts have absolutely no certainty of what their state funding allocations will be as of this writing. No certainty either of when, how and how much these payments will be made to the school districts. With all due respect to everyone on this thread, school districts have “been promised” funding before . . . yet we all know too well how that promise has played out. - Dean - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 1:33 pm: Now that I have had time to read through, the only comment I have seen about the Governor signing the bill is “tomorrow”. We just heard yesterday, he would sign the bill as soon as it hits “his desk” and then only a few days before school districts receive their money. As far as Reserves, my district of 300 in a 100% low income community has $54000 in reserves. - Dance Band on the Titanic - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 3:33 pm: JS Mill: U-46’s total budget is just north of $500 million. I don’t recall them ever having anywhere near that amount in reserve. In fact, they have finally built reserves back up, after nearly draining them during the Great Recession, to about $115 million. - JS Mill - Wednesday, Aug 30, 17 @ 7:33 pm: @dance band- their budget is over $1 billion. Go look at their AFR’s over the past 3 or 4 years. Then get back to me with something better than a “guesstimate “ Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.