Ugh. I sure hope he’s going to be OK. I’ll let you know if there are any official updates.
…Adding… The press release announcing the ribbon cutting included a quote from Director Poe that was obviously written before the event, but no update on his condition.
Illinois Department of Agriculture Director Raymond Poe said he is OK after taking a tumble during Thursday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the Illinois State Fair.
Poe was standing in a line with Gov. Bruce Rauner, Mayor Jim Langfelder and several other officials holding the blue ribbon in front of the Main Gate as Rauner clipped the ribbon.
As the crowd applauded Poe turned around and apparently lost his balance and fell backward.
Rauner’s amendatory veto of SB1 hurts our public schools even more. Because what he isn’t telling you is that behind closed doors he’s working to privatize those funds and redistribute them to private schools in the area. He is calling for a $100 million school voucher program.
This school voucher program is being decided on behind closed doors and just proves what we’ve known all along — Rauner doesn’t care about the families of Illinois, he only cares about his own interests. Whether it’s a budget for the state or school funding, Rauner does not care about the damage he’s causing our state.
Rauner wants to rob our public schools to enrich private schools. We cannot let this happen.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel dodged questions on school vouchers Thursday even as negotiations continue on a new statewide funding formula — talks that, at Gov. Bruce Rauner’s request, include vouchers. […]
Emanuel was asked where he stands on school vouchers before heading off to O’Hare for a flight to the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s meeting in New Orleans.
“My primary focus is on public education,” the mayor said.
Pressed on whether he opposes vouchers, Emanuel said, “I have a history and my record is clear as it relates to public education. And my record is clear as it relates to vouchers and using public money for private schools.”
I wish the media would stop calling this a voucher program. These aren’t vouchers. This is a private school scholarship fund underwritten, as proposed, by 100 percent state income tax credits.
* The Cardinal lobbied the mayor a few months ago about this topic…
Cupich, who invited Emanuel and his wife, Amy Rule, to Rome to witness his elevation to cardinal in November, emailed Emanuel in April about the plan. He said he supported U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ proposal to give credits to taxpayers who donate to a fund that covers private school tuition.
“I am convinced that this would be an enormous boost to the Chicago schools and the thousands of parents who use our schools,” Cupich wrote in the email sent April 11.
Emanuel responded in an email back the next day, saying, “Of course we will discuss,” as first reported by WBEZ.
Enrollment at Chicago’s Catholic schools has been dropping for several years, leading to closures of several schools — including St. Benedict High School in North Center — and the merger of four Far Northwest Side Catholic schools into Pope Francis Global Academy.
* Now that JB Pritzker has chosen Rep. Juliana Stratton as his running mate, whom should the other Democratic candidates choose? And please don’t forget to explain your answer. Thanks.
* From Hari Sevugan at 270 Strategies, who is with the Daniel Biss campaign…
JB’s campaign was using Hustle to get me to come to an event. The idea is to use texts to allow real people to organize through one-on-one conversations. Instead, it looks like I got a bot. I wrote “new phone. who dis?” And got an instant reply with “great. RSVP here.”
Given how much money JB has and is spending, you’d think they could do better than this.
* The screen cap…
To me, anyway, it’s not so much that they’re using a bot, but that their bot doesn’t appear to be properly programmed. He didn’t reply with a “Yes,” so why the follow-up text?
Cook County’s sweetened beverage tax could land the state in hot water with the feds, resulting in roughly $87 million in federal food stamp money being withheld if the problem isn’t fixed, Illinois officials said Thursday.
The problem: While Cook County has informed retailers that purchases made with federal food stamp benefits are exempt from the soda tax under federal law, it’s also allowed retailers to tax those purchases and provide refunds as a workaround for stores that haven’t been able to properly update their point-of-sale systems.
As a result, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Services, the federal agency overseeing the food stamp program — officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — earlier this week warned the Illinois Department of Human Services that federal money could be withheld. The state passed along that warning to the county on Wednesday.
*** UPDATE 1 *** The US Department of Agriculture’s letter to IDHS reveals that it “advised Cook County via phone call on on June 28, 2017 that this option for managing the tax was unacceptable.” Click here to read the letter.
A spokesman for the Illinois Retail Merchants Association says IRMA also told the county this same thing and used it as part of its lawsuit.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From the county president’s office…
The Cook County Department of Revenue has been in collaboration with the retail community since the approval of the Sweetened Beverage Tax last November. We have worked with the retail community to address their concerns and have implemented regulations to provide further guidance.
The regulation addressing Sweetened Beverage purchases made with SNAP benefits was put in place to further address the tax-exempt nature of sweetened beverage purchases made with SNAP benefits. In drafting the regulation, the Department of Revenue discussed the regulation changes with the USDA on June 27th. After speaking with USDA on June 27th, the County was not aware that Regulation 2017-3 was unacceptable. We believed that USDA was taking our regulations under consideration and would communicate back with the County if there was a concern.
If we were specifically told that the Regulation 2017-3 was unacceptable, we would have worked with USDA, just as we had been doing since January, to further modify as needed. It was never our intention in drafting the sweetened beverage regulations to put federal SNAP funding for the state in jeopardy, nor do we think Regulation 2017-3 jeopardizes the State’s participation in SNAP. At this time, we believe we are in compliance with existing SNAP rules. We do however recognize that USDA’s powers against the State in this regard are substantial and we will work collaboratively with both the State and USDA to address USDA’s concerns.
* You’ll recall that the Illinois State Board of Education claimed this week that the Department of Revenue staff reported “a significant error in the TIF EAV data that the Department of Revenue submitted to the State Board of Education for modeling.” I immediately FOIA’d the board for all e-mail correspondence. This is their reply today…
Dear Mr. Miller:
This letter is in response to your request for information under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. Your request was received on Aug. 8, 2017.
You have requested all e-mail correspondence on August 7 and August 8, 2017 between the Illinois Department of Revenue and the Illinois State Board of Education.
The attached document (18-029-miller-doc.pdf) has been provided in response to your request.
* This is the sum total of all e-mails between ISBE and the Illinois Department of Revenue about the mistake in Revenue’s calculations, according to ISBE…
Jason
It has been brought to my attention that the queries that were built for the Chicago TIF values were not correct. I pulled these distributions from cook county and I think what was sent to you for U299 did not include all city of Chicago TIF’s. Please give me a call.
Brad Kriener
Illinois Department of Revenue Property Tax Division
Democratic Comptroller Susana Mendoza is again raising the pressure on Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, calling on him to move forward with a proposal that would allow the state to borrow $6 billion to begin paying down Illinois’ massive pile of unpaid bills. […]
At an unrelated news conference at the Thompson Center, Rauner said the borrowing plan was “not an optimal answer” and suggested he’s looking to work on new plans. Democrats who control the General Assembly, though, might not be interested in renegotiating a budget they approved to break the stalemate last month.
“We will be working with the General Assembly on proposals to actually have an appropriation to pay down debt and have a plan to reduce it and also to have reforms so we don’t stay in this position — where we actually have truly balanced budgets today and going forward,” Rauner said.
Rauner was unable to win changes including freezing property taxes, curbing workers’ compensation costs and weakening union rights. He said, though, that his proposals are “the only answer for our indebtedness, and going out and borrowing more is not going to help the problem.”
There is $6 billion in new financing authority in the budget package, but even optimistic projections say the state could only borrow maybe $3 billion.
That being said, it almost sounds like the governor wants to use the state’s bill backlog as “leverage” to finally get some of his reforms passed.
With a history of unbalanced budgets and the budget impasse, the state has accumulated $11 billion in unpaid bills. The Governor is willing to work with the legislature to sell bonds or take other actions to reduce the backlog of bills owed by the state in conjunction with an overall balanced budget agreement. Financing would enable the state to stop accruing high interest on some unpaid bills.
So, he was all for a borrowing program for unpaid bills back then. And he was right because, as the comptroller often notes, the state is paying $2 million a day in interest on its unpaid bills.
“The comprehensive balanced budget we are offering today will provide care for our state’s most vulnerable citizens,” said Deputy Republican Leader Patti Bellock. “With last week’s court ruling on the $2 billion backlog of unpaid Medicaid bills, it is critically important we take immediate action to address this backlog. Our plan includes more than $4 billion in bonding to help pay off old bills. We must address this crisis now. The consequences of not taking action now would be devastating to human services.”
So, why the sudden change in tone?
As we’ve already discussed today, the governor’s policy director Michael Lucci used to be a commenter on this blog when he was with the Illinois Policy Institute. He was a bit of a hothead and occasionally liked to personally insult me, so I eventually got tired of dealing with him and put him into automatic comment moderation. As a “free market” enthusiast, you’d think the Looch would respect a private company owner’s modest rules about decorum.
* Anyway, before Lucci was hired as Rauner’s chief policy guy, he was the Illinois Policy Institute’s chief policy guy and posted several comments on this site about state debt.
This is how Lucci responded July 5th to Rep. Greg Harris’ contention that money should be borrowed to pay down that mountain of overdue bills…
Harris’ plan is to borrow more from the banks and sweep funds to pay $8 bil from the backlog of bills.
In other words, put the debt on a different credit card and drain your liquidity.
This is exactly what a debt crisis looks like.
In other words, he prefers owing money to struggling social service providers and business owners at insane interest rates rather than borrowing money on the market.
* On July 5th, when Gov. Rauner vowed to stop a veto override and shrugged off warnings that Illinois could be downgraded to junk bond status, Lucci wrote…
Illinois is in a debt crisis.
In a debt crisis, what is good for Wall St. is bad for the people.
It’s worth noting that Dems carried 5 pieces of legislation to bail out the banks this spring. So we know where they stand.
* Also on July 5th, on a post I did about looking at the tax hike in a different way, Lucci wrote…
Illinois has a debt crisis, and this tax hike is addressing a cash-flow issue. And you’re cheerleading it. And it solves nothing but a political cash-flow issue. The debt crisis worsens by the day.
But glad to see another “tax-eater” (that’s you, Rich) is getting to work campaigning on behalf of the tax increase. Someone’s gotta do it.
So, the debt caused by the impasse is merely a “political cash-flow issue.”
Lucci isn’t wrong about the state’s long-term debt, of course. The state absolutely has to get a handle on that and this budget didn’t do it. Heck, as I’ve said before, it didn’t even adequately address the shorter-term debt from the impasse and didn’t adequately fund government’s current spending levels.
But, from his comments (and there are more), he seems to not care a whit about the plight of providers, vendors, state leaseholders, etc. who are owed billions of dollars by the state government despite contracts signed by the governor, nor about the huge resulting state interest payments.
So, pardon me if I’m a bit suspicious about how the governor seems to now be brushing aside questions on refinancing that debt.
* Related…
* GOP Lawmaker Urges Rauner To Resolve Bill Backlog with Bonds: “Unless there’s some alternative, then I strongly encourage the governor to take advantage of the borrowing authority that he has and lower those old bills and start eating away at these outrageous interest charges that we have built up.”
* You just knew this was coming. From the Illinois Republican Party…
Pritzker Chooses Madigan Ally as Running Mate
Pritzker Doing Everything Possible to Cozy Up to Madigan
“J.B. Pritzker’s decided that funneling over $1 million to Mike Madigan and his allies wasn’t enough to prove his loyalty to Madigan. Pritzker’s going even further by choosing a Madigan ally as his running mate.
Juliana Stratton owes her political career to Mike Madigan. Stratton took millions from Madigan-backed groups to win a state house seat and had Mike Madigan’s top political operative run her campaign. J.B. Pritzker is making it clear that he will allow the governor’s office to be annexed over to Speaker Madigan.” – Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Steven Yaffe
Just last year, Pritzker gave LIFT, a Madigan-aligned front group, nearly $1 million dollars in an attempt to increase Madigan’s power and block efforts to reform Illinois. And Pritzker secretly funneled another $200,000 to Mike Madigan and his hand-picked candidates for the state house.
Now Pritzker is doubling-down on his alliance with Madigan, picking a running mate that owes her political career to Madigan.
Juliana Stratton Owes Her Political Career to Mike Madigan:
Stratton’s 2016 Primary Campaign Was Run By Marty Quinn, Madigan’s Top Political Operative. “As hard as it is for me to believe—and I still can’t get over it—one of the most powerful operatives in Illinois house speaker Michael Madigan’s mighty Democratic Machine is a mild-mannered alderman who rarely says a word during City Council debates. That’s alderman Marty Quinn-of Madigan’s home 13th Ward, on the southwest side. In the March primary, Quinn oversaw three legislative campaigns on Madigan’s behalf, including Juliana Stratton’s successful run against state rep Ken Dunkin—one of the most expensive and high—profile legislative campaigns in state history.” (Ben Joravsky, “Quiet In The City Council, Marty Quinn Is Madigan’s Behind-The-Scenes Muscle,” Chicago Reader, 4/5/16)
Stratton’s Campaign Was Funded By Madigan’s Allies. “Stratton has raised $1.2 million, about two-thirds of it from organized labor, which opposes Rauner’s push for legislation to weaken collective bargaining rights. She’s also received contributions from downtown law firms that donate heavily to political funds controlled by Madigan, who has led the resistance to Rauner’s efforts to tighten rules on civil lawsuits.” (Monique Garcia and Kim Geiger, “Rauner, Madigan Feud Flows Down,” Chicago Tribune, 3/10/16)
During The Campaign, Madigan’s Spokesman Claimed “We Have No Involvement In That Race” – 30 Minutes Later A Van Was Seen Arriving At Madigan’s 13th Ward Office To Drop Off Juliana Stratton Campaign Signs. “On Thursday afternoon, Madigan spokesman Steve Brown was asked about the Dunkin-Stratton contest and what role the speaker played in getting the Obama endorsement. ‘We have no involvement in that race,’ Brown said. A half-hour later, a delivery van pulled up to Madigan’s Southwest Side 13th Ward office and two men unloaded hundreds of blue-and-white yard signs with the message ‘President Barack Obama endorses Juliana Stratton.’” (Monique Garcia and Kim Geiger, “Rauner, Madigan Feud Flows Down,” Chicago Tribune, 3/10/16)
* Considering that the chairman of the county party is also the county assessor, I’m betting this guy ain’t getting onto the slate..
Today Fritz Kaegi, progressive candidate for assessor in the March 2018 Democratic primary election, presented his credentials to the Cook County Democratic Committeemen and asked for their support, along with the support of Democratic voters of Cook County. The session was held at the Erie Cafe in Chicago.
Kaegi told the Committeemen, “the assessment system we have right now in Cook County is making things worse. We’ve seen the local coverage. We know the outcomes are unjust. Every time we tell people they should appeal– it is an admission of failure. We can immediately reduce regressivity by getting the assessments right in the first place.”
Kaegi continued “Massive benefits go to downtown corporate, high-rise property owners whose lawyers fund the campaigns of those overseeing the process. Voters in Cook County know this system not working and we owe it to them to do better.”
Finally, Kaegi laid out his vision for the office, “There’s a better way. Eliminate pay to play. Use a less regressive model. Pay attention to the effect of foreclosures, underwater mortgages, and vacancies on neighborhoods. Tell people how you arrived at their assessment. Focus your resources on getting it right the first time. Because the true measure of the office is how it’s doing for the person who doesn’t appeal.”
* Assessor Joe Berrios has taken so much heat and the property tax issue is so white hot that he is undoubtedly vulnerable to a challenge. His daughter, former Rep. Toni Berrios, was soundly defeated in 2014 partly because of her last name.
Kaegi reported raising about a hundred grand last quarter and loaned himself another $30K. He spent about $47K, mainly for a consultant, a couple of staffers and VAN access.
Now, while Berrios does appear to be quite vulnerable, that doesn’t mean Kaegi is the one to defeat him. We’ll just have to see how this unfolds.
On the day Gov. Rauner’s void in leadership caused the state to miss General State Aid payments to K-12 schools for the first time in its history, Comptroller Susana Mendoza directed the payment of $429 million in Mandated Categorical grants to help provide needed cash flow to schools.
Our office has been preparing for this contingency. Failure to sign General State Aid funding legislation allowing payment to school districts statewide meant monies reserved this week for that purpose, combined with additional cash management strategies, could be utilized to pay the grants already owed to those districts. Categorical payments cover transportation, special education and other costs.
Comptroller Mendoza strongly urges the legislature to override Governor Rauner’s veto of Senate Bill 1 so that Illinois schools can finally be equitably funded. The Categorical payments are no substitute for the General State Aid that parents, school administrators and, most importantly, the students, deserve to keep schools open through the entire school year. They will provide some relief, but this does not solve the current K-12 funding crisis the Governor’s veto of Senate Bill 1 has created.
The Looch is loose. @GovRauner's deputy policy director is engaging in Twitter fights alleging he's been censored…in the comments section. https://t.co/teMH6EyNhV
* Huh? Let’s back up a bit. After Dusty Rhodes tweeted yesterday about how Gov. Rauner’s amendatory veto would hurt local school districts, Gov. Rauner’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Michael Lucci weighed in…
BIMB costs shifts for TRS. SB1 picks up norm cost + legacy debt for CPS. Pension switcheroo. Bailout Chicago & tax the rest. #twillhttps://t.co/v0k5gWLJIK
Sorry you haven't had the chance to repeatedly block my comments from your site lately, @capitolfax. I'll come back 2 you later. https://t.co/Kwy3YmCMS3
You sure you want to talk about your record of being right all the time when you didn't know how many votes it takes to accept an AV? #twillhttps://t.co/IA4deK6Tgn
“I’m glad they’re holding meetings, I hope that they vote to uphold my amendatory veto. It’s the right thing to do I think SB-1 as it originally passed is unfair to children around the state,” Rauner said.
However, some administrators disagree.
“It seems like each one of the amendatory vetoes is going against exactly what SB-1 was designed to do, which is to provide equity for all students in the state of Illinois,” said Chris Bobek, business director of the Grayslake District 46.
“It looks like at a very rough and light estimate instead of getting an additional half million dollars we would definitely be losing at least that half million dollars. Most likely more,” said Supt. Nathaniel Cunningham, of the Crete-Monee District 201.
One of his changes could have a big impact on schools hiring new teachers: Thanks to a new state pension law, school districts will now have to pay their pensions. But Rauner’s amendatory veto cut the part of SB 1 that would’ve recognized those pension payments as part of a school’s cost of doing business.
Under the new formula, that’s known as the “adequacy target.” It’s calculated for each school district based on student demographics and other needs. The amount of new state dollars each district receives would be based on how capable it is of meeting its adequacy target. So shifting pension costs to districts, and then not counting those costs in their adequacy targets, would impact the amount of state aid a district gets.
Mike Jacoby, executive director of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials, explained it this way: “So the AV language, eliminating any of the reference to normal cost in the adequacy target, means that those are costs the district is going to have on all new teachers that will never show in their adequacy target.”
The more new teachers a district hires, the more it will be affected by these two measures. At a hearing today in Chicago, several suburban superintendents told lawmakers they’re worried about those costs. Andy Henrikson, superintendent of Mundelein Elementary District 75, says he’s constantly losing staff to neighboring districts that offer higher salaries.
“The shift in pension costs of new teachers will affect districts like mine more than it will affect the wealthier districts,” he said.
* Related…
* Lawmakers hear how education-funding impasse will affect schools: Rauner, during an unrelated event in Chicago, said he did not think he sabotaged an opportunity to change the state’s education funding system. He called on lawmakers to back his veto and suggested he was open to other ideas.
* Rauner urges quick approval of amendatory veto — Dems favor override: Also on Wednesday, the Illinois House held a lengthy committee hearing in Chicago on an amendment that replicated Rauner’s amendatory veto. That was filed in order to have public hearings about the changes. And Democrats may choose to vote on that amendment next week. If it fails, it would show that lawmakers don’t support Rauner’s changes.
* This is either the closest thing we’ll ever see to a Bruce Rauner admission that he made a mistake or just a bit of gubernatorial misdirection…
Lawmakers are not expected to uphold the changes the governor made with his amendatory veto, but he is pushing for them to do just that, despite lingering uncertainties.
Rauner has been asked to explain why he didn’t discuss his proposed changes earlier. For weeks, he toured the state urging Democratic leaders to send him the education bill, so he could issue an amendatory veto. He didn’t specify what changes he wanted to make, but repeatedly blasted the existing bill as a “Chicago bailout.”
On Wednesday, reporters asked the governor whether it was a mistake to not have publicly discussed changes earlier — especially since an analysis by the Illinois State Board of Education is being re-tabulated based on a data error. State aid payments to school districts were to be sent out on Aug. 10 — but the state needs an “evidence-based” school funding formula approved before it can release those funds, per an agreement Democratic leaders inserted into a budget package.
“I’ll never claim to be a perfect person. Never have been, never will be. I don’t know anybody who is perfect,” Rauner said. “We can all try to do better. But let’s be clear. There is no legitimate reason for the General Assembly to have sat on that education bill for two months doing nothing. No excuse. From here we need to try to move quickly,” Rauner said, urging lawmakers to uphold his amendatory veto.
It’s difficult to disagree with the governor on the Senate’s decision to hold the bill for so long. But it’s also difficult to understand why he didn’t release his AV language weeks ago so that we’re not sitting around waiting for the Illinois State Board of Education to revamp its numbers after the Department of Revenue’s mistake.
* Meanwhile, the Ottawa Times editorial board takes up the issue of ISBE’s policy of allowing only the “sponsor” of a school funding reform bill to release the board’s numbers crunching…
When we called the state board’s PR person, she acknowledged an open records request would force the state board to release the documents, but that process can take five business days — a long time when financially struggling schools are set to open in a few days.
We wonder why the board must show such deference to politicians.
Here’s a better idea: Show deference to taxpayers — the folks who pay state board employees to do the analysis.
As soon as the board completes a study, it should post the results on its website. It can give a courtesy call to the governor to let him know it’s online. And he can view it there along with the rest of us.
When analyzing school funding bills, the state school board should see itself as a version of the Congressional Budget Office. In Washington, this agency scores legislation without any special courtesy for either Democrats or Republicans.
On the one hand, I agree. On the other hand, however, ISBE is often asked to score preliminary proposals. Those proposals are quite often revamped when ISBE’s results show problems.
* I think if I had to choose a running mate for Pritzker, or any other Democratic gubernatorial candidate for that matter, it would be Rep. Stratton (D-Chicago).
1) She’s a woman, obviously. It’s an all-male field right now and lots more females vote in Democratic primaries than men.
2) She’s an African-American female. African-Americans make up a huge chunk of the Democratic primary electorate and black women are the party’s most hardcore of hardcore supporters.
3) She’s relatively new to politics. Rep. Stratton hasn’t really been around long enough to do something stupid or ethically questionable.
4) She works hard and she’s already vetted. Remember, she was the victor of an incredibly hard-fought, multi-million-dollar Democratic primary last year against Rep. Ken Dunkin. She was tireless, and if there was something there, we’d probably already know about it.
5) She was personally endorsed by President Barack Obama in the 2016 primary. How many Illinois lt. governor candidates can say that?
6) She’s smart, is an accomplished public speaker and has an engaging personality. Nuff said.
All of those advantages in the primary can also be applied to the general.
Yeah, she was backed by Speaker Madigan against Dunkin, but Pritzker is going to be tagged as the Madigan candidate no matter what, so does it really matter?
And, yeah, she’s a “Chicago Democrat.” That will help in the primary, but could have an impact in the general. Even so, Pat Quinn failed to adequately turn out the city and he lost.
Anyway, maybe I’m wrong. Correct me if you think I am. I’m all ears.
…Adding… Something else to consider for the primary is that SEIU and AFSCME were huge supporters of her race against Dunkin last year. Neither of those unions have yet made an endorsement and they aren’t exactly big fans of billionaires. So, she at least gives Pritzker a shot with them.
Does this win the primary for Pritzker? Of course not. There’s a long way to go, campers, but she’s a solid choice all around.
* Related…
* Sneed: Pritzker poised to get Cook County Dems’ endorsement for gov
* Lynn Sweet: Pritzker gets boost from Stratton pick for running mate: Though Obama is not expected to get tangled up in the large field running for Illinois governor, the Pritzker/Stratton ticket can certainly talk about – it would be political malpractice if they did not – the the Obama endorsement for Stratton that helped her defeat now-former State Rep. Ken Dunkin, D-Chicago in March 2016.
*** UPDATE *** The campaign has released a new video…
