This weekend we held our town hall, which went all right for a bunch of amateurs (long video here).
What was Mike Bost doing? Watch for yourself: [Link removed at the request of a family member of a participant.]
I spent the last two days creating a video putting these two “events” side by side, hopefully to humorous effect. I will be officially sharing tomorrow morning, but I thought you might be interested in breaking this bizarre video.
Here’s ours: [Link removed at the request of a family member of a participant.]
Enjoy!
* Well, since they went to all the trouble…
[Video removed at the request of a family member of a participant.]
Whew.
*** UPDATE *** From Congressman Bost…
On Saturday, August 5th, Indivisible activists hosted a town hall meeting at 2pm. From 10am-3:15pm that same day, Congressman Bost participated in a long-planned visit to Scott Air Force Base where he reviewed operations of the 932nd Airlift Wing. Later that weekend and on his own personal time, Congressman Bost recorded a lighthearted video at the request of family friends who were working to raise money for charity. While doing so in no way interfered with his congressional duties, we’re aware that some folks will never let facts get in the way of a good story.
It was always our intention to protect the revenue that finances the County’s critical public health and public safety services. Now that the Appellate Court has rejected the emergency motion that would again prevent us from collecting the sweetened beverage tax, we believe we should move forward cooperatively and in good faith with the County’s retail industry. As a result, the County has determined that withdrawing its petition for damages would serve the public interest.
The fight over Cook County’s new soda pop tax may have earned County Board President Toni Preckwinkle a re-election opponent.
In a phone interview today, West Side County Commissioner Richard Boykin, who has been increasingly critical of the president and particularly of the penny-an-ounce levy on sweetened beverages, said the county faces “a real crisis in leadership” that has prompted him to ponder his options.
Running for board president “is something we’re considering, something we’re going to take a strong look at,” Boykin said. “We’re beginning to put together a team to look at it. We’ll get there.” […]
“I think the tax has been handled in a very incompetent manner,” said Boykin, who voted against the levy when it cleared the board earlier this year; Preckwinkle cast the tie-breaking vote. “I’ve met with thousands of my constituents in the last week or so, and they’re mad as hell. . . .They’re going to go to DuPage County to buy not only their soda but their groceries.” […]
Boykin had only $81,000 in his campaign war chest as of June 30, and owed himself $140,000. But that figure could grow quickly if the uproar over the new tax continues.
Chicago city Alderman and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ameya Pawar criticized party leadership for nixing an open air rally in lieu of a private brunch with donors.
“If we continue shutting people out of the conversation about the future of our state, then we will never grow as a party and we won’t stand a chance to beat Bruce Rauner next year,” Pawar said. “We can’t just be talking to each other behind closed doors at fundraisers.
Pawar plans to host his own ‘Progressives Day Rally’ at Springfield’s Douglas Park on Thursday, August immediately after the brunch. The Pawar campaign is reaching out to invite other candidates to join him at the event, which is located three miles from the fairgrounds. Part of the itinerary includes stump speeches, hay bales and a band. […]
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown bristled at the notion that party leaders were neglecting individual voters in favor of donors, saying only conservative groups would make such a suggestion.
Brown then offered to help promote Pawar’s event, although he has not said if Speaker Madigan would attend.
“If they want to tell us where it is, we’ll put it on our website and let people know about it,” Brown replied.
The only time most Springfieldians ever see hay bales is when Chicago-area politicians use them as props. Also, I’m betting they’ll be bales of straw, not hay, but I quibble.
The ever-popular butter cow will be unveiled Wednesday, August 9 at 11:00 a.m. in the Dairy Building on the Illinois State Fairgrounds.
Illinois Agriculture Director Raymond Poe, State Fair Manager Kevin Gordon, Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Claudia VanOpdorp and Dairy Building superintendent Marla Behrends are scheduled to attend the ceremony. Dairy refreshments will be served.
“The Butter Cow is one of the most photographed and most visited attractions of the Illinois State Fair,” said Illinois Ag Director Raymond Poe. “For more than 90-years, fairgoers have looked forward to this buttery bovine creation. We are extremely proud of our partnership with the Midwest Dairy Association, which allows us to keep this long-standing tradition alive at the Illinois State Fair, and we cannot wait to see what they have in store for this year’s sculpture.”
The Illinois State Fair is planned for August 10 – August 20 in Springfield, Illinois. Start planning your visit today by visiting our website (www.IllinoisStateFair.info) and download our free mobile app.
* The Question: Your prediction for how the Best Team in America™ will mess this up? Snark is heavily encouraged, of course.
* Mike Flannery of Fox 32 sent me some scripts from some school funding stories he did last week…
Sources tell Fox 32 News Republican leaders in Springfield believe any public school shutdown would likely be short lived. They’re confident that, just as Downstate judges have repeatedly ordered government paychecks be delivered, a judge can be found to order payment of school aid money. […]
Illinois Policy Institute’s Ted Dabrowski: I certainly think that there are some kids who could sue and say, “Hey, listen! They depend on schools. They need schools.” the funding formula, the way they designed it, was very tricky. They purposely didn’t fund — the only thing they didn’t fund was schools.
* And then Flannery followed up with Ralph Martire on Friday…
Ralph Martire: But there’s no legal basis for a judge to pin that order on. So, that’s not gonna happen — I mean it’s just gonna waste taxpayer money and time. It’s wonderful that conservative groups like wasting taxpayer money so much.
Yeah, well, there’s no sound legal basis for paying state employees without an appropriation, but they found a judge to do it anyway.
Chicken Little is now running around saying the sky is going to fall (in the form of schools not opening on time) unless the Governor signs Senate Bill 1, or some other education funding bill that includes an “Evidence Based” funding model. But is that really the case?
Senate Bill 6, the budget bill that was passed over the Governor’s veto several weeks ago contains the following language:
“The following amounts, or so much thereof as may be necessary, are appropriated to the Illinois State Board of Education for Evidence-Based Funding, provided for in Section 18-8.15 of the School Code.”
While it’s true that Senate Bill 1, if it became law, would add Section 18-8.15 to the Illinois School Code and that section would define “Evidence-Based Funding,” (as of this writing) Senate Bill 1 has not yet been sent to the Governor, so neither the term “Evidence-Based Funding” nor its model of funding is defined in statute. Section 18-8.15 of the Illinois School Code simply does not exist and may never exist. It is a nullity.
What that means is that funding under Senate Bill 6 using the “Evidence-Based Funding” model is contingent upon the happening of a future event (the passage of a bill containing a definition of “Evidence-Based Funding”). There was no language in Senate Bill 6 that made its passage contingent upon the passage of Senate Bill 1. In fact, such contingent language was contained in Senate Bill 1 as introduced, but was omitted by House Floor Amendment 2, which became the bill. The omission of such contingent language is an unambiguous expression of legislative intent that passage of Senate Bill 6 was not contingent upon passage of Senate Bill 1, or vice versa.
What is then left is the phrase.
Under Illinois law, undefined terms in the statute must be given their ordinary and popularly understood meaning. However, in this case, there is no ordinary and popularly understood definition of “Evidence-Based Funding” because any school funding formula, including the formula Senate Bill 1 is intended to replace, is based on evidence. Therefore, the term “Evidence-Based Model” is simply too broad to constrain the appropriation of money for education funding to that particular term.
While the sponsor of SB 1 did a very good job on the floor laying out an argument for the legislative intent behind the term and its application in SB 6, there’s a stronger public policy argument which runs against holding school funding hostage to an undefined term. The idea that an appropriation for education could be halted by language in a bill that may never pass runs afoul of Article X the Illinois Constitution and the clearly expressed legislative intent to fund Illinois’ public schools.
Contained within both SB 1 and SB 1124 is a provision that every school district in the State of Illinois be held harmless, meaning that each school district is to receive at least the same amount of money from the State as it did in the last fiscal year. For example, Senate Bill 1 provides:
“For the 2017-2018 school year, the Base Funding Minimum of an Organizational Unit…shall be the amount of State funds distributed to the Organizational Unit during the 2016-2017 school year prior to any adjustments and specified appropriation amounts…”
Whether a court would look at Senate Bill 1124 (Republican version) or Senate Bill 1 (Democrat version), an identical and consistent feature is this hold-harmless provision.
You may point out that I’m trying to have it both ways, that I’m arguing that neither SB 1 nor SB 1124 is yet law but still I’m trying to cleave unto a provision contained in those bills that provides for a minimum level of funding that can only be calculated by making reference to provisions contained within those bills.
I won’t argue with you. However, given the strong Constitutional and public policy imperative noted above, the legislature cannot shirk its duty and must provide an appropriation of no less than the amount sent to each school district as was sent in the prior year, adjusted, if necessary, using the formula under which that amount was determined in the prior year.
* Illinois State Board of Education press release…
“State Board of Education staff transmitted a model of the Governor’s Amendatory Veto to SB 1 on Monday afternoon. At 9:27 a.m. today, August 8, 2017, State Board of Education staff received an email from Department of Revenue staff reporting a significant error in the TIF EAV data that the Department of Revenue submitted to the State Board of Education for modeling.
“Once State Board of Education staff receive a revised data set from the Department of Revenue, agency staff will update the model and re-transmit to the Governor’s Office. As with past funding reform models, it will be at the discretion of the sponsor, in this case the Governor, when and how to distribute the file.”
…Adding… Here’s something to ponder. Sen. Andy Manar is the actual “sponsor” of SB1, so shouldn’t he be the one who gets the ISBE funding reform model? I’ve asked the ISBE that question. I’ve also filed a FOIA request for all e-mail correspondence between the Department of Revenue and ISBE that occurred yesterday and today.
…Adding More… I’m told Rep. Will Davis has also requested the analysis from ISBE. Davis is the chief House sponsor of SB1.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From ISBE…
Governor Rauner is the author of the Amendatory Veto, which is what ISBE is modeling. How and when the model is distributed is at the discretion of the Governor. At this moment, there is not a final model to share.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Press release…
With funding for schools across the state hanging in the balance, the Rauner administration is one upping its record of incompetence. After waiting days for the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to score Rauner’s amendatory veto, ISBE now says a Department of Revenue model used in scoring had a “significant error” and the process needs to start all over again.
“Bruce Rauner and his team of ‘superstars’ have made one thing abundantly clear: they don’t have the slightest clue what they’re doing,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “First, Bruce Rauner didn’t know what was in his own plan, then he didn’t know how to pass it, and now his administration can’t even get their numbers straight. Focus, Bruce. Illinois schoolchildren are waiting.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Yep…
For 2 months, Rauner admin had every lever of govt to prep AV & supporting docs to show how it works. Today they still aren't prepared. #SB1https://t.co/xtUkAa2qDL
Crisis Creatin’ Rauner released a new video today called ‘Get Educated,’ highlighting the fact that Bruce Rauner doesn’t know what’s in his own education funding plan, let alone how to pass it.
Over the past few weeks, Bruce Rauner and his team of “superstars” have stumbled over basic questions about his school funding plan. Rauner could not answer simple questions about where the numbers in his plan came from and did not know the basic legislative process needed to pass it. As Rauner would say: outrageous.
“Bruce Rauner and his team of ’superstars’ need to get educated on their own school funding plan and the basic legislative process needed to pass it,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “It’s outrageous that funding for schoolchildren across the state is being held hostage to this incompetent administration and this failed governor’s radical agenda.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner today signed House Bill 1805, also known as the Drive for Life Act. The bill, which received bipartisan support, allows 16- and 17-year-olds to express their wishes to become organ and tissue donors. Signing the bill into law will give hundreds of thousands of additional Illinoisans the opportunity to join the registry each year.
“So many people are waiting for life-saving organ transplants,” Gov. Rauner said. “In Illinois alone, more than 4,700 people are on the waiting list, and every year, around 300 people die waiting for a transplant. It’s tragic. We need to give everyone who wants to become an organ donor the opportunity to do so, and that’s exactly what this bill does.”
The Drive for Life Act will allow Illinois residents 16 years old and older to join the First Person Consent Organ and Tissue donor registry when they receive their driver’s licenses or state ID cards. While the law gives 16- and 17-year-olds the right to express their wishes to become an organ donor, parents and guardians still will have the right to give or revoke consent until the donor turns 18.
Secretary of State Jesse White and state legislators have been working with organ procurement organizations Mid-America Transplant Services and Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Network to get the Drive for Life Act written into law.
“My goal for the Illinois Secretary of State’s Organ and Tissue Donor program is to save lives by ensuring that organs and tissue are available for those in need,” Secretary of State White said. “This new law is a major step toward reaching that goal. I was proud to work with the advocacy groups, legislators and the governor to help make this law a reality.”
Illinois joins 47 other states that currently allow 16- and 17-year-olds to register as organ donors.
Not sure why we’re one of the last states to do this, but at least it’s done now.
Speaker Madigan’s spokesman said it was filed “so people can review all this.”
I’ve heard about a possible joint House/Senate education funding committee hearing this week, so will that amendment be part of any hearing? Brown replied with his standard “under review” comment, but said “that could change.”
When communities choose to limit their tax base to fund schools that’s a choice that a local community can make. They’re entitled to make it, they should make it. But when a community chooses to take significant part of its property wealthy and take it off the tax rolls for their schools, that’s a choice, it’s a legitimate choice, but it has consequences. And it’s unfair to all the other taxpayers in this state and all the other communities and school districts in this state to say ‘OK, you took your property out of supporting your schools, so therefore we’re gonna spend a lot more money to send you extra to make up for your choice. That’s not fair to taxpayers, that’s not fair to other school districts that keep all their property tax base for funding their schools. So we need a more equitable system in that regard.
By state statute, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties became subject to PTELL for the 1991 levy year and Cook County was added for the 1994 levy year. Public Act 89-510 allows county boards to put the issue before the voters by placing a referendum on the ballot. Home rule districts (primarily communities over 25,000 in population) are exempt from the law.
Since 1996, 28 counties have approved PTELL. Nine have voted it down.
GREG HINZ: In dealing with PTELL the way you are, aren’t you effectively busting the state’s property tax law by telling local communities that if they want to get full state aid that they have to go to a referendum that would raise their property taxes? Isn’t that counter to everything you’ve talked about in this?
GOV. RAUNER: No. In fact, just the opposite Greg. It’s exactly what we need to do. What I’ve recommended is that we give, at its core, give local residents the ability to control their own property taxes themselves. This is at the core of what I’ve recommended and it’s part of what we were trying to negotiate with reforms in our budget negotiations. And what we recommended was to do a freeze, for some period of time, 2, 3, 4, 5 years, and, and then give local residents the ability through a simple referendum process, to either raise their total levy, reduce their levy or continue to freeze it, but give the local residents, for their own schools, for their own public safety and issues, to control that themselves. And this, our recommendations are very consistent with that.
HINZ: Alright, but if I can follow up, if a community is property tax capped now, under PTELL, under your amendatory veto to get full state aid wouldn’t they have to raise their property tax?
RAUNER: All the districts, um, are treated the, the same way under the amendatory veto that I’m recommending.
HINZ: It’s still a property tax hike, and you’re supposedly against property tax hikes.
RAUNER: I’m sorry, what we’re, what we’re doing, is allocating state aid for schools. And how a specific community chooses to handle their own property taxes, how they choose to, um, fund their schools themselves, that’s up to them. What we’re recommending is a equitable way to take the state aid, um, and and distribute it across the state in a fair and sustainable way.
Again, lots of counties don’t “choose” to cap property taxes.
And Hinz is right. Under the Rauner AV, in order to avoid a state school funding cut, local school districts under PTELL would have to increase their property tax levies.
This is one bizarre amendatory veto, campers. And it appears directly aimed at CPS.
The Illinois State Board of Education has completed an analysis of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s amendatory veto of an education funding bill, but the administration said it won’t release the results until a review is completed, a spokeswoman for the governor said. Rauner spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said the education board delivered its analysis to the governor’s office late Monday afternoon. That analysis is expected to show how his changes affect school districts across the state.
“Given the complexity of the education funding formula and the fact that this type of analysis requires cross-collaboration between multiple state agencies and departments, the governor’s office has requested a meeting with ISBE Tuesday morning to review the analysis. We will release the numbers once the review is complete,” Patrick said. Rauner has predicted the analysis will show that what he is doing is “right and just and fair” and that his plan will “carry the day” even as independent government watchdogs have found that his changes could mean school districts across the state gradually lose money in future years.
But spreadsheets are the school-funding equivalent of Cliff Notes, a shortcut that skips nuances that might show up on the test. That’s especially true with this new funding model. It has built-in recalibration mechanisms to annually rebalance what each district needs to achieve adequacy against its capacity to bear that cost.
Take, for example, student enrollment: “Under SB1, if you lose student population, you’ll get less money from the new state distribution,” said Ralph Martire, director of the bipartisan Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, “because your adequacy target will be reduced. It’s not as if the formula ignores it.”
Martire has been working on this school funding model since 2010.
“But, if you’re below adequacy, you still get more money than you got the prior year, so you can move towards adequacy,” he added. “That’s the beauty of how SB1 works. The math actually accommodates all situations — student population growth or loss.”
This particular feature got the axe under Rauner’s veto. He would cut dollars for schools with declining enrollments, even if they’re already underfunded. The prime example of such a district is Chicago Public Schools.
* The governor sidestepped questions yesterday on “refinancing” part of the state’s gigantic bill backlog to avoid paying what the comptroller says is $2 million a day in interest…
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.
“I would also encourage the Comptroller to take advantage of the fact that under her control, there is over half a billion dollars in cash that is available to pay down debt and if she chose to actually pay down some of the medical bills we could actually leverage that 2-for-1 with other dollars. That action has not been taken yet by the comptroller. I’d certainly encourage her to do that.”
He’s talking about the federal Medicaid match.
* The comptroller’s office pointed to this July 26th press release…
The Office of Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza released a total of $740 million in Medicaid payments this week. In part, these payments help satisfy a June court order requiring the state to pay at least $586 million in Medicaid vouchers in the month of July.
This action was made possible under new provisions in the budget that allow existing Drug Rebate Funds to be leveraged for federal matching dollars for payments to Managed Care organizations (MCOs). The payments were made in cooperation with the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
A total of $740 million was issued to eleven MCOs throughout Illinois, and the Comptroller is hopeful that frontline providers will see relief for the Medicaid services already provided on behalf of the state. “The enactment of a state budget, with the support of courageous legislators from both parties who overrode the Governor’s veto, allows my office to begin to address critical payments to the healthcare networks serving some of the state’s most vulnerable residents,” Mendoza said.
Overall, these payments lower the backlog of medical related bills pending at the Comptroller’s Office by 18 percent, to $3.5 billion.
The ability to access existing revenues held in special funds is an important tool to begin to pay down some of the state’s nearly $15 billion Rauner Bill Backlog. But the Comptroller also urges the Governor to follow through on the legislatively authorized borrowing plan of up to $6 billion in order to address other outstanding medical payments, including a staggering $4.9 billion in state group health insurance bills. All of these bills continue to accrue high interest penalties as they await payment. Until a borrowing plan is implemented to more aggressively tackle the Rauner Bill Backlog, the Comptroller’s office estimates the state is incurring roughly $2 million in interest penalty payments each day.
Ameya Pawar, 47th Ward Alderman and Democratic candidate for Illinois governor, today released a new digital spot, “Stop the Violence.” The video, part of the One Illinois video series, features Pawar’s participation in Danville’s Three Kings of Peace March.
“It makes me feel good when I see people organizing for their communities when the cameras aren’t here, when the media isn’t here. They’re just doing their work. They are marching in the street, bringing community together, praying together, all in the hopes of stopping violent activity, showing that there’s a different path,” explains Pawar.
The Three Kings of Peace are a group of Danville pastors dedicated to promoting peace amidst a surge of gang violence. They hold regular marches, organize school activities, and provide training on keeping teens out of trouble.
“I talk about race and class, and about how we’re all one state, and that we’re neighbors. You can see that in the march today. You have communities in Danville that have been hard hit by violence and poverty. That’s the same thing that’s happening on the south and west sides of Chicago, and in other parts of the state like East St. Louis.
“So, when are we going to start talking about poverty, and helping people? Moving beyond dividing the state, and actually bringing people together, transcending race and class?”
As part of his plan to visit all 102 Illinois counties—not just the urban centers—to listen to Republicans, Democrats and independents, Pawar has traveled more than 8,000 miles over the last 8 months and visited more than 60 counties.
Gov. Rauner on Monday announced that former state Rep. Darlene Senger of Naperville will serve as his deputy chief of staff for legislative affairs.
Senger was in the Illinois House from 2009 to 2015, leaving after an unsuccessful 2014 bid for Congress against Democratic U.S. Rep. Bill Foster.
After that defeat, she joined the Illinois Policy Institute, the conservative think tank that has provided many of the new hires in Rauner’s recent staff shake-up.
Most recently, Senger worked as chief financial officer of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission.
A former legislator? Hmm. Maybe he is learning a bit.
* Interestingly enough, the governor’s press release made no mention of her work for the Illinois Policy Institute…
Senger joins the governor’s office after a year-and-a-half as CFO for the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. Before that, she served as a state legislator from 2009-2015, representing the Naperville area. She also served on the Naperville City Council from 2002-2008.
But her bio is still on the Institute’s website. Click here.
…Adding… The governor was asked about the hire today…
Rauner asked about hiring former legislator and IPI staffer Darlene Senger: "We're striving to be the best team…always looking for talent"
