* Gov. Rauner said several times last week that he expected the Illinois State Board of Education to finish running the district numbers on his school funding reform plan by today. He explained to reporters today that the process is “very complicated,” and said he hoped they would be out very soon.
The governor then repeated his claim he made again and again last week that ISBE won’t run numbers unless there’s a specific piece of legislation in front of them, so he couldn’t get ISBE that language until the Senate sent him SB1 and he was able to formally issue his amendatory veto. And, of course, he’s upset that the Senate waited so long to send him the bill because that caused an unnecessary delay in getting the numbers out of ISBE.
PEARSON: Why didn’t you have Sen. Brady just introduce a bill that had the language of your amendatory veto since much of the debate that’s been going on was about what you were going to be proposing in your amendatory veto? It could’ve been scored already, we would’ve already had the numbers and then you could have a back and forth discussion where everybody knows where they stand instead of trying to cherry pick numbers?
RAUNER: Well, Rick if your argument is trying to defend what the General Assembly did…
PEARSON: I’m not trying to defend anybody… You say you couldn’t score the numbers and you accuse the Democrats of holding the bill so that they couldn’t score the numbers. You said if it was in legislative form it could be scored. You could’ve asked Sen. Barickman, you could’ve asked any of the Republicans to put your AV… in legislative form and it could’ve gotten scored. That’s all I’m saying. It’s a process question, it’s not a political question.
RAUNER: [Takes deep breath, maybe says “Fair,” moves along to next question.]
PEARSON: I’m sorry! Couldn’t you have done that?
RAUNER: [Takes next question.]
Oof.
*** UPDATE 1 *** The Chris Kennedy campaign asked that I post this update, which they entitled “Kennedy campaign response to Rauner’s mess” to either “the CPS thread or the Pearson thread,” so I put it here…
How much more time does Springfield need to fix the state’s broken school funding formula? How many more setbacks will it take before Governor Rauner stops using children as political pawns? This is not an abstract budgeting exercise. The governor has failed our state on an epic level. We need change now - for the sake of students across the state.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Video…
.@rap30 asks @GovRauner to explain why he didn’t introduce school funding plan earlier
Illinois is exactly like #GameOfThrones Boss Madigan IS the Night King. Same eyes, same will. Suburban taxpayers, he's coming. Prepare! pic.twitter.com/cjUF5vc9bl
Chicago Public Schools on Monday moved ahead with plans to lay off about 950 staff members but put off an announcement on an operations budget, citing a need to wait for action on school funding from state lawmakers.
A proposed budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 had been expected on Monday, two weeks after principals received spending plans that anticipated state lawmakers would send an extra $300 million to CPS. The education funding picture remains muddled however after Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner issued an amendatory veto on a plan passed by the General Assembly that would reduce the money going to CPS.
Principals were nonetheless expected to move forward with staff adjustments. The district said 356 teachers and 600 support staff would be let go as a result of “enrollment changes, program adjustments and/or changes in students’ academic needs.”
A CPS spokesman said the district expected to have 500 vacant teaching positions it would try to refill by the time classes begin next month. The teachers whose positions were eliminated will be able to apply for those jobs.
But the district may not be done laying off staff. A final enrollment count will be taken on the 20th day of school, which this year falls on Monday, October 2. Since CPS allocates money to school for each student they have, schools that don’t meet their enrollment projects will see their budgets drop and could lose more staff then.
That really bugs me about CPS. They complain and complain about how Gov. Rauner and the Republicans want to base their hold harmless funding by student population, contending it ought to instead be based by district. But then CPS does the exact same thing in their own school-by-school funding calculations.
* From CPS, by the numbers…
320 schools, across all geographic areas of the city, will have no teacher or staff impacts this year.
356 teachers will be impacted this year, which is less than 2 percent of the district’s total teachers.
240 elementary school teachers are impacted
116 high school teachers are impacted
Approximately 6 percent of CPS’ school-based support personnel (600 staff members) are impacted this year.
134 elementary school support personnel are impacted
466 high school support personnel are impacted
CPS expects to have more than 500 teaching vacancies, which it will attempt to fill prior to the beginning of the school year. Impacted teachers will be invited to apply to open CPS positions, and three career fairs have been organized specifically for teachers. They will be held on August 11, 15 and 16 to help expedite the hiring process and fill these positions before the start of school, per the District’s contract with CTU.
In recent years, approximately 60 percent of impacted teachers have been rehired in full-time CPS positions. An additional 23 percent of impacted teachers work as substitute teachers.
*** UPDATE *** Sen. Daniel Biss…
“The arrogant ‘my way or the highway’ mindset of billionaire Bruce Rauner has cost 950 middle class workers their jobs today. That’s indisputable evidence that it’s time he lost his.
“We can’t expect a billionaire to understand the anxiety of educators who lost their jobs, the fear of those who remain, or the frustration of families like mine who rely on Illinois public schools. If Bruce Rauner thinks he can destroy our jobs but keep his own, he’s not just arrogant — he’s wrong.”
Roughly 67 percent of Illinois families could qualify to send their children to private schools using diverted taxpayer money under a proposal being considered by legislators attempting to break a stalemate that’s threatening school funding on the eve of a new academic year, WBEZ has learned.
Those families may “qualify,” but a $100 million program, even if fully enacted, won’t pay for nearly that many kids to go to private school.
* And check out how this automatic annual escalator is glossed over…
Under the draft proposal reviewed by WBEZ, individual taxpayers could choose to send up to $1 million annually to scholarship organizations rather than to the state Department of Revenue. Those diverted taxpayer dollars would fund scholarships to pay tuition cost at private or parochial schools, or to pay the cost for a public school education in a district outside a child’s community.
All told, the state could dole out $100 million annually in tax credits to finance this scholarship program. If the scholarship fund attracts at least $90 million in donations in any year, it would grow to $125 million. It could continue to grow by 25 percent annually, with no cap, as long as taxpayers send at least 90 percent of the maximum allowed to the fund. Donors could direct their money to a specific school, rather than a specific student, and some eligible students could be turned away.
Emphasis added because if this grows by 25 percent a year with no cap we’re eventually going to have a very real fiscal problem when all that cash is diverted from General Revenue coffers to private schools.
Also, too, there was zero mention in that piece about how nobody has figured out how to pay for this yet, or what sort of revenue stream could possibly support a 25 percent annual growth rate.
…Adding… Oops. I forgot to link to the plan’s outline. Click here.
Schools are set to receive payment from the state in just three days, but that can’t happen until the Illinois legislature approves a new “evidence-based” funding model. But last week, Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed large portions of Senate Bill 1 — the only such plan that’s passed both chambers. At the moment he issued his amendatory veto, the governor was missing some vital information: He didn’t know how many votes he would need to enact his changes, he didn’t know how his changes would impact dollars going to each school, nor did he know how long it would take the State Board of Education to do all that complicated math.
He also had not shared his plan with his own party’s longtime point-person on school funding, State Sen. Jason Barickman, of Bloomington.
“Well, you know, I can’t speak for my colleagues, I was not given a chance to see the amendatory veto before it was issued,” Barickman told me on Friday.
At first, I thought I’d misunderstood the senator. At Rauner’s request, Barickman is currently one of four Republican legislators assigned to a bipartisan negotiation squad that’s supposed to be hammering out some sort of compromise. Barickman sponsored the first EBM legislation back in 2015. Furthermore, he’s now the sponsor of Senate Bill 1124 — a version of the “evidence-based model” that has never been voted upon, but is the one Rauner finds more palatable. He was one of the more active members of Rauner’s bipartisan, bicameral School Funding Reform Commission that spent approximately 100 hours meeting during the months of July 2016 through January 2017 in an effort to draft a new school funding bill (despite strong nudging from State Sen. Andy Manar, the best the commission could come up with was a “framework”).
Why would Rauner take veto action without running his plan past Barickman?
“Well, we all have different roles in this,” Barickman says. “I’m a Republican legislator. I’m certainly not the governor.”
* And he might not have liked what he saw had he been given a preview, particularly when it comes to how his schools would lose out under the governor’s proposed TIF “subsidy” changes. This analysis of Barickman’s district is from the Senate Democrats…
* I’m thinking that the state Senators who worked on the Grand Bargain are now thanking their lucky stars that they resisted attempts by Gov. Rauner to include a sugary beverage tax in their revenue mix. From We Ask America…
As you may know, a new tax has taken effect in Cook County that places a one cent per ounce tax on most sweetened beverages. We’d like to know if you APPROVE, or DISAPPROVE of the new Cook County beverage tax that places a new tax on most sweetened beverages.
Approve 12.34%
Disapprove 86.64%
Undecided 1.02%
Some of the Cook County Commissioners who voted for the tax say they did so to improve the health of Cook County residents, while many in the press speculate that the tax was passed merely to raise more money for County officials to spend. We’d like to know which reason for passing the tax YOU think is more accurate.
Raise money 80.33%
Improve health 8.44%
Unsure 11.22%
Will you be MORE LIKELY or LESS LIKELY to re-elect a Cook County commissioner who voted for this new beverage tax?
More likely 10.48%
Less likely 82.56%
No difference 6.96%
This poll was conducted from August 3 through August 6, 2017 using both automated (recorded) and live operator-initiated calls. In all, 1,119 registered voters completed all questions on the poll. About 46% (515) of the responses came from cell phones. The voters dialed were randomly selected from a proprietary registered-voter database of likely voters to assure the greatest chance of providing an accurate cross-section of opinion from the county-wide sample. No weighting formulas were applied to correct any over- and under-sampling.
…Adding… Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was on WGN Radio over the weekend and explained her side. Click here.
Gov. Bruce Rauner announced Friday he’s chosen Sam Pfister to lead his Washington DC team.
Pfister replaces Kathy Lydon, who had served Illinois in DC for years dating back to Sen. Charles Percy. Lydon quit three weeks ago as the governor overhauled his staff and more than two dozen of his inner circle were either fired or quit in protest.
Pfister will be paid $75,000.
Pfister’ most event job is four years as the associate director of state outreach for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. The think tank was founded by Richard Fink, who heads the Koch Industries lobbying group in Washington, DC.
* From the governor’s office…
Springfield native Sam Pfister has been named Director of Federal Affairs in Washington D.C. As director, Pfister will be working closely with Congress and the Executive Branch to ensure Illinois’ interests are being represented. He also will work with other governors’ offices to achieve shared goals.
Congressman John Shimkus (R-IL15), among other representatives, said Pfister will be a great addition to the governor’s team.
“I congratulate Sam Pfister on his new position in Governor Rauner’s Washington D.C., office,” Shimkus said. “Sam’s experience and relationships on Capitol Hill, including as an intern in my office, will be a great benefit to Illinois as he takes a lead role in coordinating with state and federal policymakers on issues ranging from healthcare to disaster assistance to energy and environmental regulations. I wish him the best and look forward to working with him.”
“As someone who grew up in central Illinois and worked for Congressman Tim Johnson, Sam understands what it takes to represent downstate Illinois in Washington, and I’m confident he will do a great job,” Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL13) said. “My team and I look forward to working with him.”
Pfister is a graduate of Western Illinois University. He held an internship with Congressman Shimkus in September and October of 2009 before working for Congressman Johnson, eventually becoming his top policy adviser. Pfister has spent the past four years as Associate Director of State Outreach for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Arlington, Va.
South suburban parents are anxiously awaiting news from state lawmakers, wondering if public school funding will be approved and their teachers will report for duty on the first day of classes, just two weeks from today.
But they’ll be kept in suspense for at least another week, thanks to the prioritized travel plans of State Sen. Toi Hutchinson (D-Olympia Fields), South Cook News has learned.
Publicly, Senate President John J. Cullerton (D-Chicago) has expressed interest in swiftly resolving the school funding impasse.
Privately, he has long known the State Senate would be effectively blocked from convening this week on account of a long-planned Boston trip for Hutchinson, a key vote who is attending the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) annual convention and will be formally sworn in as the group’s president.
The State Senate cannot meet and act on the schools bill until Hutchinson returns Thursday. […]
Hutchinson is the first NCSL president from Illinois since 1989-90, when then State House Minority Leader Lee A. Daniels (R-Elmhurst) held the post.
Secondly, there are, I’m told, 22 legislators in Boston this week, including both the House and Senate Republican leaders. Cullerton is also out there.
Subscribers have known for a while now which day the Senate will have enough votes to finally reconvene, and it’s several days after the NCSL conference ends this Wednesday.
Illinois State Senator Bill Haine is prepared to go to Springfield next weekend, in hopes of over-riding Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto of Senate Bill One.
Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, will be sworn in as an officer of the organization. The trip was planned months ago, she tells us, and she’ll fly back “on a moment’s notice” if Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, calls members back to Springfield.
The home state of former President Barack Obama will commemorate his birthday under a new law.
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner has signed a plan honoring the 44th President’s birthday on 4 August. It won’t be an official state holiday, rather a day to honor Obama. The law notes Obama’s efforts to protect Americans’ rights and build “bridges across communities.” […]
The measure takes effect next year. It received overwhelming support in the Democrat-led Legislature. The Republican governor signed it Friday.
Interestingly enough, the Senate sent the bill to the governor back in June. Instead of signing it before August 4th, the governor waited until late in the day to approve the legislation. Because he waited, next year will be the first year the state can actually “commemorate” the former president’s birthday.
…Adding… From a commenter who is right, correcting me who is wrong…
Because the bill didn’t have an immediate effective date, it’s not effective until January 1. Even if the governor had signed the bill August 3, Barack Obama Day wouldn’t have started until August 4, 2018.
A federal appeals court Friday cleared the way for same-day voter registration to resume in Illinois, tossing a challenge to the new law back to a lower court.
The ruling is likely to have no immediate effect, since the next election is not until the March primaries.
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated an injunction a U.S. District Court judge granted last year to former Downstate congressional candidate Patrick Harland, barring implementation of the law.
The opinion Friday stated that, given the amount of time until another election in the state, the injunction was no longer needed and the case’s proceedings in the Illinois Northern District Court could continue.
* The appellate opinion is blisteringly harsh. For instance…
Taking the basic criteria in order, we look first at Harlan’s showing of harm. His case rests exclusively on Hood’s testimony, which we summarized earlier. We conclude that his opinion comes nowhere close to demonstrating that Illinois voters would suffer any harm at all—let alone irreparable harm—under the system set up by P.A. 98‐1171. Hood’s report barely considered the effect of the statute against the backdrop of the rest of Illinois’s electoral system. At best, it gave a 30,000‐foot view of some academic research and a table of votes for the candidates of each major party in statewide races in small and large counties. The district court did not explain how that data related to the question before it. […]
Last, we turn to likelihood of success on the merits. Here, too, we find nothing in this record that supports a finding that Harlan has any realistic chance of prevailing. […]
Perhaps recognizing that it was on thin ice, the district court also concluded that even under rational‐basis review, Harlan had some likelihood of succeeding on the merits. But it provided no support for this conclusion, and we cannot find any in the preliminary‐injunction record. Harlan offers no evidence of discriminatory intent, as opposed to evidence of some differences in treatment.
In light of the minimal harm posed by P.A. 98‐1171 and Harlan’s failure to show a likelihood of success on the merits, we conclude that the preliminary injunction should not have issued. Our view is bolstered by the absence of any consideration of the public interest in the opportunity to register to vote, and to vote. Even though P.A. 98‐1171 does not force quite as many options on the smaller counties as it does on the 20 largest counties, it permits every county to adopt the default same‐day rules, and it provides realistic same‐day options even in the smaller places. This, coupled with the lack of any data about which groups are disadvantaged and how, dooms the injunction. […]
The preliminary injunction entered by the district court on September 27, 2016, is hereby VACATED and the case is remanded to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
In 2014, Republican Bruce Rauner defeated Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn by just 142,284 votes out of more than 3.6 million votes cast during a huge national Republican landslide.
Quinn was a very unpopular governor at the time. The last two polls before Election Day had his job disapproval rating at 55 and 54 percent.
According to exit polling on Election Day, Rauner beat Quinn among self-identified moderates 52 to 45 percent. Four years before, Quinn won moderates 51 to 39 percent.
Quinn was an ineffective, unpopular governor up against a strong national partisan headwind.
Throughout 2005 and 2006, polls regularly showed Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s job disapproval rating at or above 50 percent. One poll, taken less than a month before his 2006 re-election, had Blagojevich’s disapproval rating at a whopping 59 percent.
Even so, Blagojevich wound up defeating Republican Judy Baar Topinka by 10 points. He spent heavily and ran a good campaign, but this unloved, bumbling governor was helped by the mighty tailwind of a national Democratic wave so strong it flipped control of the U.S. House and gave Illinois Senate Democrats a super-majority.
It also helped that Republican President George W. Bush was extremely unpopular in Illinois. Some of my more liberal friends had a simple reason for voting for Blagojevich, even though they didn’t care for him. He was, to their minds, a layer of protection, a state firewall if you will, against Bush.
Billionaire entrepreneur and investor J.B. Pritzker pumped another $7 million into his self-funded campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor. So far, Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotels family fortune, has put all $21.2 million into his race for the nomination. State Board of Election reports show the latest donation was reported Saturday. With the March primary still months away, Pritzker already is approaching at least one state record — the most money spent by a Democratic candidate on himself in a primary. Right now, the record is the $29 million that commodities trader Blair Hull spent from his wallet in 2004, only to finish third in a primary contest for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination won by eventual president Barack Obama.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner spent nearly $28 million of his own money to win the primary and the governor’s office in 2014. The former equity investor also made the largest ever self-donation to a political campaign in Illinois when he put $50 million into his re-election bid in December of last year. That number could end up as its own primary record.
I can’t get excited about the governor’s race. The election is 15 months away. Plus, I have a sinking certainty in my gut how it all turns out: the cash Death Star of J.B. Pritzker vaporizes both Biss and Kennedy — a Charlie Brown cry of “How can we lose when we’re so sincere?” and then a pile of ash blown away by the wind.
In November 2018, assuming the country hasn’t devolved into anarchy by then, Pritzker loses to Gov. Bruce Rauner, because the disgust Chicagoans feel at Rauner’s whole C. Montgomery Burns act, his disdain for the poor and the sick, evaporates past the cornfields ringing the city.
There people see a gaunt successful businessman in a Carhartt jacket, droppin’ his Gs, squintin’, bravely battlin’ an alien overlord named My-Kill Mad-Again, who certainly demonizes up well. I don’t think there is enough TV commercial airtime in the world to make people in Kane County look up from their plows and muse, “You know, maybe I’ll vote for the big fat Jewish billionaire.” I hope I’m wrong, hope that this is fat-shaming and self-hatred on my part. Somebody ought to replace this GOP zealot who can’t wrap his head around the fact that the first six letters of the word “governor” spell “govern.”
But if you’ve noticed, we have sailed into a world where unqualified sneering rich guys try to fill the gaping voids where their souls should be by rolling up their sleeves and taking a fling at public office. Not that I put Kennedy in that group. He’s a principled, idealistic, thoughtful man who doesn’t realize that those qualities are now liabilities.
J.B. Pritzker is spending more than $100,000 a day. And he just gave himself another $7 million for his campaign. So far, Pritzker has self-funded his campaign with over $21 million.
Last month, he spent over $8 million on a television and direct mail blitz, while Chris spent zero dollars on paid communications. The result — Chris is still ahead in the polls. It shows that the people of Illinois are tired of being unheard and don’t want another self-funded billionaire in office.
Let me be clear: Pritzker might have billions to self-fund his campaign, but what he doesn’t have is an organic groundswell of support from the people of Illinois.
That is why I’m asking for you to make a $5 contribution to show the strength of our movement. Send a message to Pritzker that our beliefs are bigger than his billions.
There’s only one J.B. Pritzker but there are over 5,000 of us who have contributed to bringing radical change to Illinois. And, over 90% of those contributions were under $100. Your contribution, whether it’s $1 or $100, represents a more significant donation and sacrifice than whatever one billionaire businessman is willing to put into this race.
Our opponents, both Pritzker and Rauner, have money and plenty of it. But what we have is much more important that. We have a groundswell of voters, supporters and volunteers. The reason we will take back Illinois and fix Springfield is because people matter more than their money. Your voice matters more than their bank accounts.
Our campaign is about restoring opportunity back to Illinois and that is only possible when we stand together. Can you make a $5 contribution to join our campaign?
Thank you,
Hanah Jubeh
Senior Advisor
Kennedy for Illinois
It has been more than a month since the General Assembly authorized Gov. Rauner to offer up to $6 billion in General Obligation bonds, which would allow the state to lower the interest rate it pays on its debt.
That high interest rate – up to 12 percent a year – is costing Illinois taxpayers $2 million a day in late payment interest penalties for every day the Governor does not move on putting together the bond issue.
Minutes after the General Assembly voted to override the Governor’s budget veto July 6, Comptroller Mendoza sent a letter (see attached) to the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, seeking a meeting to talk about getting started on the bond issue. Our staff met with the budget office July 14. No timetable for a bond offering was provided.
We sent a follow-up letter (see attached) to the Governor on Friday, July 28, but have heard nothing back. It will take several weeks to put the bond deal together and the longer the wait, the more taxpayers will pay in higher interest rates.
Comptroller Mendoza released a video Monday morning to help familiarize Illinois citizens with the importance of refinancing the state’s debt through a bond offering. “You should know that this debt is costing you, the taxpayer, $2 million dollars a day, at up to 12% interest in late payment interest penalties. 12%. That’s brutal,” Comptroller Mendoza says on the video. “But just like you at home, if you had the opportunity to refinance your debt at a lower interest rate, and save money, you would. People do it all the time with their home mortgages. That’s just common sense.”
The bonding will be used to start to tackle the state’s bill backlog, which reached a record peak of $15.4 billion in June. It will give some relief to providers and businesses awaiting payment from the state. Over the past two years without a budget, they have had to exhaust their lines of credit, lay off employees and, in some cases, turn away Illinois citizens in need of services.
“Approximately 90% of our mental health and addiction treatment providers’ bills have gone unpaid over the last 12 months,” Sarah Howe, CEO of the Illinois Association for Behavioral Health, said. “We strongly urge Governor Rauner to move forward on the authorized bonding to pay for services for which the state is obligated to pay under contracts that the governor’s Department of Human Services signed. This action would help bring stability to a system faced with potential closures.”
“Since the budget impasse has ended, many people believe human service providers’ financial woes are over,” Sherrie Crabb, Executive Director of Family Counseling Center in Vienna, said. “This couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact remains that human service providers, like Family Counseling Center, are still owed hundreds, and some even millions, of dollars. Agencies like ours have had to reduce programming, cut employee jobs and benefits, and some have even closed their doors.”
“While we are feeling some relief now that a budget is in place, we are still operating week to week,” Cathy McClanahan, Executive Director of the Women’s Center in Carbondale, said. “Releasing bonds would guarantee that our services to domestic violence and sexual assault survivors will continue.”
I’ve asked the governor’s office for a response. I’ll post it when I get it.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From Laurel Patrick in the governor’s office…
Rich,
Comptroller Mendoza isn’t telling the whole story. She has the authority to immediately use over $600 million from fund transfers and inter-fund borrowing to pay down bills. This $600 million can be used to reduce the backlog of bills by as much as $1.2 billion if she prioritizes Medicaid payments, which will allow the state to capture federal matching dollars.
The Comptroller should act now. Our office contacted hers last week identifying potential fund transfers and inter-fund borrowing options to begin paying down the backlog. This would reduce the backlog of bills, reduce interest costs, and provide clarity for bonding options.
The Governor’s final decision on bonding requires us to first know how much of the bill backlog can be addressed through means other than bonding. That is why we ask the Comptroller to begin reducing the backlog of bills immediately. We have worked cooperatively with the Comptroller to achieve this critical first step, and ask that she take action to help the state. This will not only reduce the backlog of bills, it will advance the analysis necessary to make a final decision on bonding.
We are additionally working to save taxpayer dollars by reducing spending and reforming government not only to pay down the backlog of bills but also to keep the state from building more debt in the future.
Thanks,
Laurel
Interesting points. I’ll be following up with Mendoza’s office.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From the comptroller’s office…
We’d like to thank the Governor’s Office for validating the work that we have already been doing, in paying down the $15 billion backlog of unpaid bills that has more than tripled since Governor Rauner took office. Now it’s time for the Governor to do his job.
The Office of the Comptroller has utilized funds from inter-fund transfers to access millions of dollars in federal funds. Ironically, the budgetary tools we are using now were vetoed by the Governor, who has come around and is now apparently encouraging their use.
What we need right now is movement by the Governor’s Office and a solid timetable for refinancing the debt so that our office can establish a comprehensive cash management plan for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2018.
Interfund utilization was never envisioned as a substitute for refinancing the debt. They are supposed to work in tandem. Our office has been working effectively on this with GOMB and our communications (see attached) show that.
The fact remains that $600 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the nearly $15 billion backlog of unpaid bills. Our office is appropriately managing our responsibilities, but until the Governor does his job, taxpayers will continue to be on the hook for $2 million a day in late payment interest penalties.
I’ll post the correspondence when I receive it.
…Adding… The paper trail referenced above is here and here.
*** UPDATE 3 *** A commenter wondered where the state treasurer was on this issue. Ask and ye shall receive…
As the state’s chief investment officer, Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs today urged Gov. Bruce Rauner to act on the authority given to him and refinance the nearly $15 billion bill backlog.
The backlog, which has tripled since the Governor took office, represents loans from unwilling employers doing business with the state at the outrageous interest rate of 12 percent.
“There is not a financial advisor worth his salt who would urge a family to keep a 12 percent loan when better interest rates are available,” Frerichs said. “Taxpayers paying $2 million in interest each and every day defies common sense and borders upon malpractice.”
Despite going nearly two years without a budget, there still is appetite in the financial markets to refinance Illinois debt because the state guarantees repayment. Indeed, that repayment guarantee is another argument supporting refinancing.
“Refinancing isn’t enough, of course, and difficult decisions remain,” Frerichs said. “But why in the world would we not do this?”
Illinois has endured eight credit downgrades since Gov. Rauner took office in January 2015. The bill backlog was considered with each downgrade.
* As I noted on Saturday, my weekly syndicated newspaper column was written before we started to see just exactly the sort of Downstate and suburban collateral damage this amendatory veto will cause…
The education funding reform bill which passed the House and Senate in May and was finally sent to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s desk in July was the product of four years of research, endless listening tours and lots of hard bargaining.
The House Democrats changed some things at the last minute to benefit Chicago and the governor didn’t like it, but his own education czar claimed the governor still approved of “90 percent” of the legislation.
However, when Rauner issued his amendatory veto of Senate Bill 1 this week, he introduced a bunch of new ideas that had never been on the table, including during endless discussions among members of his own education funding reform commission.
These new ideas are poisoning the already putrid Statehouse water and are prompting some folks to suspect that the governor’s new top staffers from the Illinois Policy Institute are attempting to sabotage the bill.
The far-right group is on record opposing the whole idea of the “evidence-based” school funding formula contained in the Democrats’ SB1 and endorsed by the governor’s funding reform commission and by Republicans in both legislative chambers. Could some of those same people who are now running Rauner’s office be out to kill off the progress made over the years?
Historically in Illinois, the best way to keep suburban and Downstate Republicans from voting for a bill is to label it a “Chicago bailout.” Rauner and the Illinois Policy Institute have done so repeatedly with SB1, even though Politifact has rated the claim “false” and the almost always pro-Rauner Chicago Tribune editorial board has argued it is not a bailout.
Rauner’s amendatory veto would change the way school districts currently calculate how much property tax revenue they can no longer capture after other local governments create Tax Increment Financing districts. Existing state law recognizes the reality that the school districts won’t receive that money, but the governor’s proposal would order the State Board of Education to ignore that reality.
Doing that would put enormous financial pressure on schools, which might then lead to some reforms of the TIF laws. The Illinois Policy Institute wants to get rid of TIFs. I don’t disagree with them, but I’d rather that we not use school kids’ education as the hammer to do it.
Keeping it Chicago-centric, the Illinois Policy Institute pointed last week to Cook County Clerk David Orr’s claim that Chicago’s TIF money accounts for almost 10 percent of all property tax revenue billed within the city. In suburban Cook, Orr reports, TIF revenues equal about 3.5 percent of property tax bills.
Nobody involved with the funding reform negotiations has ever publicly proposed changing the way the State Board of Education projects school districts’ potential property tax revenue collections by essentially wishing away the impact of the state property tax cap law (known as PTELL). Nobody, that is, until the governor issued his amendatory veto.
Partly because Chicago is so large and has so much property wealth (particularly in the Loop area), it benefits more than anywhere else from the property tax cap school “subsidy,” as the Illinois Policy Institute calls it. The group wants to get rid of that “subsidy.”
But the political danger here is clear. By going after Chicago so hard and making its school district look “wealthier” than it really is by officially pretending that it can capture more tax money than it really can, the governor’s amendatory veto would also create collateral damage throughout the state. TIF districts have been created in a ton of communities, Downstate and in the suburbs. And lots of school districts also fall under the property tax cap.
Sen. Andy Manar, the Senate Democrats’ lead education funding negotiator, claimed last week that the governor had completely gutted “the whole purpose” of SB1 by changing what’s known as the “adequacy calculation.” The bill as passed calculates need by factoring in the actual costs of things schools do. That calculation, Manar said, is the “most profound difference” between the status quo today and what his bill tries to fix.
So, if Manar is right about the governor’s proposed changes, that would be additional, um, evidence that there may be an attempt to sabotage evidence-based funding from within Rauner’s office.
There are other “coincidences” between Rauner’s amendatory veto (and demands being made during negotiations) and Illinois Policy Institute dogma, but the basic premise is that the group wants to kill this bill and Rauner’s proposed changes could conceivably lead to that result if the governor sticks to his guns during negotiations.
…Adding… Pritzker campaign…
While Bruce Rauner has promised for weeks that his school funding veto won’t take away money from any school district besides Chicago, the facts are not on his side. Language in Rauner’s veto — pushed by the right-wing Illinois Policy Institute now running the governor’s office — would leave hundreds of school districts across the state with less money.
Rauner is proposing changes to rules in the school funding formula bill to target Chicago’s funding. But those changes don’t just cripple CPS, they also damage schools across the state. Peoria Public Schools could lose $1 million if Rauner’s changes became law. Rich Miller explains in his Crain’s column:
By going after Chicago so hard and making its school district look “wealthier” than it really is by officially pretending that it can capture more tax money than it really can, the governor’s amendatory veto would also create collateral damage throughout the state. TIF districts have been created in a ton of communities, Downstate and in the suburbs. And lots of school districts also fall under the property tax cap.
“Bruce Rauner is at war with an entire city he is supposed to represent and the collateral damage will impact schools across the state,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Rauner’s Illinois Policy Institute-backed veto would suffocate our public education system and advance their radical agenda.”
* Rep. Mike Fortner (R-West Chicago) becomes the latest budget veto overrider to announce his retirement…
Life is lived in cycles. There are cycles due to changes in our personal lives and those of our families. Elected officials are not immune to these cycles. At the end of this term in 2019 I will have served 12 years in the general assembly – 6 years representing the 49th district and 6 years before that representing the 95th district. Before I was sworn in as a state representative I served 12 years in elected office with the City of West Chicago – 6 years as mayor and 6 years as alderman before that. It has been my honor to serve the public at both the state and local level, but after many months of reflection I have decided that it is time for this cycle to end, and I will not run for reelection in 2018.
As a state representative I have been privileged to use my experience in local government, science and technology to help the people of Illinois. I led the effort to improve our electric power by allowing municipalities to buy power on behalf of their residents. I have been successful in protecting our privacy from unauthorized video recording and unauthorized use of passwords on social media. This year I was successful in helping to negotiate major improvements to the way we recycle electronic equipment, and to improve access to voting registration through automation. However, none of this would have been possible without the support of the people I represent and my colleagues in the legislature.
Twelve years ago a door opened for me when my predecessor decided to seek another position. With this announcement I can open a door to a successor, who I hope will enjoy the same support and success I have in public office.
He’s smart as heck and a sweet man. The GA is also losing its only nuclear physicist.
…Adding… The running list and a bit of context…
Here’s the updated list of 100th GA legislators choosing to give up their seats (so far) pic.twitter.com/kbNpLv8xQB
“I have been privileged to serve alongside Mike Fortner throughout his time in the Illinois General Assembly. He has been a leading voice on important issues such as energy policy, election reform, local government and technology. Mike used his background and expertise to serve the public good and he has been a tremendously effective legislator. We will all miss his professorial intellect, wit and ability to work in a bipartisan fashion to improve the lives of Illinois families. I wish Mike all the best in his future endeavors.”
