This morning, members of Personal PAC, Men4Choice and other allies of women’s reproductive health care challenged Governor Rauner for flip-flopping on his support to protect access to abortion services in Illinois while he leads a closed-door, invite-only roundtable discussion on women’s health.
Protesters urged Rauner to sign HB40 legislation that would ensure abortion remains legal in Illinois even if the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade. The bill also would ensure that Medicaid and state employees’ health insurance policies provide coverage for abortion care.
“When it comes to HB40, Illinoisans have not forgotten what Rauner promised voters on the campaign trail,” said Terry Cosgrove, President and CEO of Personal PAC. “Hosting a closed-door roundtable discussion lets Rauner give the impression he is listening to constituents’ viewpoints, but how closely is he actually listening if he is willing to turn around and veto life-saving legislation that he once promised to support?”
Rauner has vowed to veto HB40 despite promising to support such legislation on Personal PAC’s candidate survey during his 2014 campaign: “My highest priority in this area will be to ensure effective administration of the laws regarding access to contraception and provide that access regardless of income. I dislike the Illinois law that restricts abortion coverage under the state Medicaid plan and state employees’ health insurance because I believe it unfairly restricts access based on income. I would support a legislative effort to reverse that law.”
In August, Personal PAC and Men4Choice launched the “Call BS” campaign designed to engage men to call out anti-choice politicians and policies. The campaign employs creative content to depict an alternate reality in which male reproductive health is under attack, posing the question: “Men don’t have to put up with this BS – why should women?” In addition to social media engagement strategies, the campaign is organizing men to attend phone banks, canvass for women’s health issues and help raise funds for pro-choice candidates.
“Governor Rauner promised the voters of Illinois during the 2014 campaign that he would protect women’s access to reproductive health care services, including abortion; now it’s become politically expedient for him to do an about face on that promise, which is BS and we’re calling him out on that today,” said Oren Jacobson, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Men4Choice.
Each year, thousands of women travel to Illinois to access safe reproductive health care unavailable in their home state. Even so, 92 percent of Illinois counties do not have abortion providers.
* JB Pritzker also arrived at the Thompson Center today…
Thank you to everyone who signed one of the 4,000 postcards urging @GovRauner to do his job & sign #HB40 into law to protect Illinois women! pic.twitter.com/hvREHD9iaq
* Chris Kennedy was on the Ben Joravsky Show yesterday. Click here for raw audio. Here are a few bits, starting with a question about petition circulating time and his running mate..
CK: We have about 2,000 volunteers around the state, there are about 6,000 donors. But aside from the donors, the 2,000 volunteers are like peppering the office, ready to go. You know can we go out this weekend. So believe me, whatever pressure you think you can put on me during this radio show is not anything like what I’m getting day to day in the office. I think we’ll probably spend an extra day or two on vetting and a couple other issues now and try to do a great job.
Ben: Are there people who’ve turned you down?
CK: I wouldn’t describe it like that. I’d say a relationship is not exactly like a marriage in the traditional sense where one person asks another. It’s more of a partnership that needs to be created, almost like a merger. And that needs to be two willing parties that see in each other something hopeful, and not just synergies in a corporate sort of sense, but in the capacity to create something great for the state and that’s a complicated deal.
I think it’s really difficult to be in the arena in politics today, and we ought to cut them a little bit of slack on the enormous pressures that they’re under and the timing, and the fact that they are up against an enormous spender that twists and perverts the natural cycle, and I think as a result of that, people feel they need to make a bigger bet and do something they ordinarily wouldn’t do, and I think that’s what occurred in that relationship. I think you need to have grace under pressure in a situation like this. And I think in states, I can’t remember, fortunately I haven’t looked into it here, there’s this concept of a no-fault divorce, and unfortunately in politics there’s no such thing. You’re going to see it play out for a couple more days, it’s messy, but I think we should all have a little bit of sympathy for their families for what they’re going through as this plays out on the front-page of the paper and the newspapers, and websites and blogs…
* When alluding to an opponent with a lot of money, were you referring to Pritzker, Rauner or both?…
Yeah, well, that’s a good question. I’d say for Democrats the immediate threat is JB Pritzker’s enormous spending. Never before have we had all these mailers and the television ads. Maybe that’s the kind of America people want, and there’s going to be a choice, they can embrace that. Cardinal Cupich said the other day, they interviewed him in one of the papers, I think both the Tribune and the Sun-Times. And they were interesting interviews I thought. And he said, “In a democracy, we get the government we deserve”, and I think he meant that in the nicest possible way, but we’re going to have that choice and we deserve whatever we get after this election. Everybody knows what the choice is.
* On the school funding bill’s private school tuition tax credit…
In my mind, that’s just a clear violation of the state constitution, and, so, then you have to say, well, is it worth it? Did we get enough goodies that we’re willing to live with a violation of the constitution? And I don’t know if that’s ever worth it. I don’t know if that’s ever worth it. The truth is once you abandon the constitution, you abandon the rule of law. Once you abandon the rule of law, you descend into the rule of the jungle. And you abandon this notion, well the Golden Rule I suppose, that do onto others as you’d like them to do onto you, and replace it with Rauner’s Golden Rule which is “He who has the gold makes the rules”, and that’s what has occurred in this funding bill. We’ve allowed the state now to sponsor private, church-run schools. That’s a violation of the constitution.
SECTION 3. PUBLIC FUNDS FOR SECTARIAN PURPOSES FORBIDDEN
Neither the General Assembly nor any county, city, town, township, school district, or other public corporation, shall ever make any appropriation or pay from any public fund whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of land, money, or other personal property ever be made by the State, or any such public corporation, to any church, or for any sectarian purpose.
Members of the Service Employees International Union Illinois have sued the state of Illinois for failing to make good on pay raises required under the new state budget.
The union and Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration are in the midst of a year’s long negotiation for a contract to replace the one that expired June 30, 2015.
At issue in the lawsuit filed Wednesday is a 48-cent-per-hour raise for home health workers lawmakers wrote into the budget enacted over Rauner’s July veto. The provision gave the state one month from the July 5 to increase the wage rates for those workers, who the union claims total about 28,000.
Rauner spokesman Jason Schaumburg said in an email that wage negotiations should be part of the collective bargaining contract process between the administration and SEIU. The union and the administration are in the midst of a yearslong negotiation for a contract to replace the one that expired June 30, 2015.
“The state and unions like SEIU are required to engage in collective bargaining about wages and wage increases under the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act,” Schaumburg said. “Under that same statute, the agreements the state and the union reach over wage increases take precedence over any conflicting law.”
Terri Harkin, union vice president, called the administration’s argument “disingenuous.”
“The law is clear: the state is required to implement statutory minimum labor standards — such as minimum wage,” Harkin said in a statement. “The state is then required to bargain with the union for any increases above the minimum standard by statute. Neither the Labor Act nor the SEIU collective bargaining agreement presents an obstacle to the immediate implementation of the raise required by the statute.”
Personal assistants shall be paid at a rate negotiated between the State and an exclusive representative of personal assistants under a collective bargaining agreement.
Within 30 days after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 100th General Assembly, the hourly wage paid to personal assistants and individual maintenance home health workers shall be increased by $0.48 per hour.
More than two months after the Illinois General Assembly finally approved a state budget, Gov. Bruce Rauner is moving ahead with a plan to begin cutting into the $15 billion backlog of bills.
The state will issue bonds to pay off bills with double-digit interest penalties, saving hundreds of millions of dollars this year. […]
Rauner, a Republican, says he’s looking for programs to cut in order to pay off the bonds.
Democrats, like Rep. Greg Harris from Chicago, say they worry Rauner will target human service providers like he did during the budget stalemate.
“All his traditional targets — the epilepsy foundation, autism, teen reach, after-school programming, violence prevention — have not gotten contracts yet,” Harris said Thursday in a telephone interview.
Those “targets” go back to when he cut autism funding on World Autism Day.
* And Rep. Harris doesn’t believe these are even necessary cuts…
“The legislature-passed budget did not account for the increase in debt service costs to cover the bill backlog bond issuance,” the Rauner statement said. “The governor’s office is identifying several hundred million dollars in possible spending reductions to address this budgetary shortfall. The governor also would like the General Assembly to return to Springfield this fall to work with him to balance the budget and enact structural reforms that could save much more.”
Rep. Greg Harris, a key budget negotiator for House Democrats, said Rauner’s read of the budget legislation is incorrect. He said $350 million was set aside to help pay for the borrowing.
The budget gives the state the authority to issue up to $6 billion in general obligation bonds that must be issued by the end of the calendar year. The money raised must be used to pay down expenses that were incurred during the two-year budget stalemate that ended in July. That’s when lawmakers overrode Rauner’s veto of the budget, enacting it. […]
“His delay has cost us over $120 million in interest that could have been spent on actual services to the people of Illinois. But instead, he has essentially thrown it into the middle of the plaza at the Thompson Center and lit it on fire,” Harris said.
For over a month, Cook County residents have been subjected to the absurd soda tax that Chicago Democrats have imposed on them.
J.B. Pritzker has repeatedly avoided taking any position that would benefit residents who have been paying the price for Toni Preckwinkle and the Cook County Machine’s money grab.
Similar taxes have been viewed as a cautionary tale, resulting in layoffs and reduced sales for small businesses.
When taxes like this have failed elsewhere, why do Toni Preckwinkle and her fellow Democrats continue to support them, especially when confronted with overwhelming disapproval from their constituents?
We know J.B. Pritzker opposes bipartisan legislation in Springfield to repeal the Soda Tax, he says “local governments should be given deference to make decisions over their own jurisdictions,” but where does Pritzker stand on the pending Cook County Board of Commissioners plan to repeal the soda tax?
So far, he’s been MIA and for good reason. The Cook County Democrats recently endorsed Pritzker, and his tacit approval of their disastrous soda tax is the price of their support.
Clearly, Pritzker and the Cook County Democratic Machine have no intention of standing up for taxpayers, especially when there is money to be made.
5 More days for Pritzker to take action.
* From Galia Slayen at the Pritzker campaign…
“We know it has been a rough few months for the ILGOP, but they should try doing their homework before peddling tired talking points. JB has already said he opposes the soda tax and supports the county repealing the tax. Unlike Bruce Rauner, JB supports progressive taxes that lift up middle class families and those striving to get into the middle class – not regressive taxes.”
And, of course, the governor wanted to impose a state sugary drinks tax earlier this year.
* Meanwhile, yes, there are ads running against the pop tax, but blaming public outrage on those ads ignores the simple fact that the tax is hugely unpopular…
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Thursday said public opposition to the county’s controversial beverage tax is being driven by a repeal campaign orchestrated by Big Soda.
She compared the situation to the tobacco industry, saying there’s been an overall drop in pop consumption as consumers turn to healthier alternatives.
“Big Soda knows that, and they are fighting in the same way the cigarette companies fought against taxation, against public-education campaigns to try to reduce the amount of smoking,” Preckwinkle said.
Her comments came amid a local multimillion-dollar ad war between the beverage industry and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a longtime critic of the negative health effects of consuming sugary drinks.
That battle has ramped up in recent weeks, as each side purchased additional TV commercials in the run-up to Wednesday’s County Board meeting. Commissioners who oppose the tax are expected to formally introduce a repeal ordinance then.
* At one point yesterday, Bloomberg bought out the entire Sun-Times home page for his pro-tax ads…
Marking the first concrete threat to Cook County politicians who support the pop tax, critics of the measure have formed a political-action committee to raise money for challengers in next year’s elections.
The new group — called Citizens for a More Affordable Cook County — quietly filed paperwork to form as a campaign committee with Illinois elections officials last month, records show.
Underscoring the spreading distaste for the sweetened beverage tax, the new PAC has ties to the Democratic Party — the same party that backed the tax itself.
The PAC says it could fund challengers to the eight County Board commissioners who voted for the tax. But in a statement to the Sun-Times on Thursday, the group pointedly avoided saying whether it would back a challenger to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who’s up for a third term in 2018.
Today, Daniel Biss announced Litesa Wallace as his running mate. In a video shared with supporters, Daniel and Litesa discussed their excitement about how their partnership could move Illinois’ middle class and working people forward.
“I’m here now because, 13 years ago, I found myself a single mom with a young son,” said Litesa Wallace. “At the time, I was pursuing a graduate degree so that I could build a better life for us. It was not easy—but if it weren’t for state programs like child care assistance, I wouldn’t have had that chance.
“In the legislature, Daniel and I have fought for childcare assistance, a $15 minimum wage, to expand healthcare, and to make millionaires pay their fair share. And that’s what we’ll fight for in our administration. Like Daniel, like me, there are millions of other regular people in our state who want something better for our children. They are people who try hard, who sometimes fall short, who struggle but keep on fighting—and these are people that deserve to have their government fighting for them. The millionaires and insiders have had their time in Springfield. This campaign is for the rest of us.”
“Litesa Wallace is someone I can trust to fight for the middle class and working people,” said Daniel Biss. “As a single mom and sole breadwinner for her family, she can understand the struggles of the millions of Illinoisans who are trying to get by.
“As a woman of color, she understands that justice and opportunity aren’t equally distributed or readily available to everyone. As a social and economic justice champion in the legislature, she’s a proven fighter for the issues and people that have too often been forgotten by the powers in Springfield.
“This election will determine whether we build the progressive Illinois that we know our state can be. In this election we have a chance to get it right. In choosing my team, that’s what I had in mind. Today I’m announcing my running mate, who wasn’t the original choice but is the right choice.”
Litesa has spent her career fighting for working families like her own. As an educator and psychologist, as a single mother, and as the State Representative for Illinois’ 67th District, Litesa understands the impact that decisions in Springfield have on people across the state.
Litesa began her career as a counselor, working with children and adults experiencing mental health issues as well as child abuse victims, families in crisis, and people with histories of substance abuse. After completing a master’s degree and doctorate at Northern Illinois University while raising a son on her own, Litesa worked as an adjunct professor at Northern Illinois University and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Litesa’s experiences as a counselor and educator drew her to become more involved in local government. She began volunteering, and working directly with policy-makers on the issues most important to her. Litesa won her first election for the Illinois House of Representatives in 2014, after serving as chief-of-staff to State Representative Charles E. Jefferson. She was re-elected in 2016.
In the House, Litesa has proven herself an ally of working families and an adept policy-maker able to lead her fellow legislators to support causes she believes in. A progressive advocate for economic justice, she has protected Illinois’ most vulnerable populations by expanding access to crucial services such as affordable childcare, healthcare, and SNAP benefits while also working to raise wages and create innovative economic development tools in cities across the state.
Born on the Southside of Chicago and raised in the south suburbs and the daughter of a law enforcement agent and postal worker, Litesa grew up in a union household and was the first member of her family to complete a college degree. Litesa is raising her son in Rockford.
* The state’s new education funding reform law is apparently pretty darned complicated when it comes to charter schools. CPS is now scrambling to figure out whether the city’s 124 public charters are owed as much as $100 million more or just $40 million…
State law requires school systems to give charters a minimum amount of funding, based on an overall per-pupil spending level known as a “per capita tuition charge.” In the 2016 fiscal year, according to a state financial report, the CPS per capita tuition charge was $12,544.
Previous state law required school districts to pay charters at least 75 percent of that per capita charge, multiplied by the number of charter students enrolled. The new law requires charters to receive at least 97 percent of a district’s calculated per capita rate for each enrolled student.
Complicating the issue is that CPS uses a variation of its student-based budgeting model to fund charters. CPS charters receive the same per-student dollar amount as traditional schools. But they also receive additional money to pay for items such as security and central office expenses, and to subsidize the cost of facilities. Finally, charters get a share of several categories worth of state and federal aid dollars.
Charters were already in line to get additional money this year under a series of previously planned increases to the district’s student-based funding rate and the supplemental funding. That increase comes despite a projected enrollment increase of only about 630 students this year.
CPS says in its budget that the funding model gives charters “an equitable share.” But after reviewing the new state law, officials concluded the funding level fell short of what is now required by an amount that has yet to be determined.
* I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails, calls, texts, etc. the last couple of days from subscribers who say they aren’t receiving their Capitol Fax e-mails. I checked with the person who handles my lists and this is his response…
There was a global update to SPAM filters this last weekend. We will probably have more before this is over.
* So, the first thing you need to do is check your spam/junk folders. If you still can’t find it, then your system may be blocking my e-mails, in which case here are the instructions…
If it is not in your JUNK/SPAM folder on your local computer, they are being blocked by your SPAM filter on the server. Your IT dept will need to whitelist the Constant Contact servers per the following link:
Whitelisting “richmiller@capitolfax.com” WILL NOT fix the problem, it has to be the list of servers in the link above.
When you click that link above, scroll down to the instructions labeled “Letter Your Subscriber Sends to their ISP.” Copy and paste those instructions into an e-mail to your IT person.
Chicago is chasing one of the country’s largest corporate headquarters deals in years, joining what is sure to be a fierce competition to land Amazon’s second headquarters.
The city plans to respond to Amazon’s request for proposals for the new 50,000-employee campus, said a spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Emanuel “has spoken with (Amazon founder and CEO Jeff) Bezos several times about picking Chicago,” said the spokesman, Grant Klinzman, in an email.
The Seattle-based e-commerce giant on Thursday said it plans to invest more than $5 billion to create a second headquarters in another North American city, with buildings potentially totaling more than 8 million square feet and creating 50,000 jobs over the next 10 to 15 years. The positions will pay an average of more than $100,000 annually, Amazon said.
Landing Amazon will require tremendous help from the state of Illinois, and the state only recently reauthorized its tax-incentive program for another five years. Like many other things, it took a back seat to the state’s two-year struggle to pass a budget.
The question is whether a state that has massive financial challenges—with billions in unpaid bills and a staggering pension deficit—can compete in what is likely to be an expensive bidding war. […]
In terms of the cost, Hickey and his peers say comparing this to Wisconsin’s $3 billion deal to land a Foxconn plant is a good place to start.
“I expect the bottom-line number would be at least what Foxconn got,” says Mark Sweeney, a principal at McCallum Sweeney Consulting in Greenville, S.C. “We can look at the big deals that have been done for big projects before, but there’s no telling how much. We’re in pretty rarefied air here with a headquarters operation and complex that would rival their headquarters in Seattle.”
* From the Good Jobs First organization, which warns against corporate subsidies…
“Taxpayers should watch their wallets as the trophy deal of the decade attracts politicians to a hyper-sophisticated tax-break auction. We fear that many states and localities will offer to grossly overspend to attract Amazon, even though the business basics–especially a metro area’s executive talent pool–will surely control the company’s decision.
“Public auctions for economic development deals, like those staged in the past by Boeing and Tesla, are the rare exception: nearly all are staged in secret. Based on what we know about Amazon, we expect this one to be a textbook show.
“As we documented last December, Amazon has since 2012 established an internal group with high expertise in seeking economic development incentives. And as we documented in July, it has recently advertised for additional senior staff in that department. Since our December 2016 study, Amazon has continued to receive subsidies valued at at least $115 million (not including four deals of undisclosed value), for a long-term total exceeding $1 billion.
“While we assumed Amazon would apply this expertise for more fulfillment and sortation centers, it now appears the company will also deploy it for a new headquarters deal. In its press release today, we already see the markings of an aggressive messaging strategy to justify massive subsidies.
Sen. Sam McCann, R-Plainview, has used campaign funds to purchase a sport utility vehicle.
The senator hasn’t stopped at an SUV. He also acknowledges using campaign funds to install a new engine in a personally owned Jeep. And he says that he’s spent more than $19,000 on a trailer and truck to use in parades.
Legislators, who are barred from spending campaign funds for personal use, typically lease rather than purchase vehicles. One expert on campaign finance says that the senator’s purchase of a 2017 Ford Expedition XLT for $61,146 last April raises both ethical and political questions.
“Potentially, you’ve got a violation,” said Kent Redfield, a retired University of Illinois Springfield political science professor. “You certainly have the possibility of violations. It’s just sitting there as a temptation to use. It’s probably not great politics. I would assume a competent opponent would read through your campaign reports and make an issue out of it. It certainly seems to be asking for political trouble.”
McCann, who has pondered a run for governor, responded to an interview request via email, saying that he drives so many miles that a leased vehicle, as opposed to one purchased outright, would be cost prohibitive. He said that he has driven more than 500,000 miles since his first campaign in 2009.
Go read the rest. The dude just can’t stay out of the papers on this stuff.
* As you already know, the Sangamon County GOP is backing a primary opponent against McCann. Click here for some background.
McCann responded on Facebook yesterday…
Please read the whole link below.
THEN - remember that the author doesn’t even bring up the fact that the $100,000,000.00 in tax breaks will be paid for out of the General Revenue Fund. That’s right, we have a backlog of bills owed to vendors of over $15 billion. We owe the pensions somewhere around $200 million that the politicians stole. And instead of paying those bills, they reward the wealthy and well-connected with your tax money that IS ALREADY SPOKEN FOR.
The first version of the bill didn’t include that provision. That was the version I voted for (the first version, without the the extra spending). The second version is the one most republicans ended up voting for and our republican governor signed into law as he hugged Rahm Emmanuel.
I am a real republican. Not a Raunerite. That is why the Sangamon GOP and Illinois GOP are primarying me again. They don’t want public servants who listen to their constituents and consciences, they want a #RaunerRubberStamp
* I saw this on TV last night and was impressed enough to ask for a copy from the campaign…
* Script…
I’m Juliana Stratton and I’m so excited to be running for lieutenant governor and to be a part of JB Pritzker’s team.
About two years ago I remember sitting at home and watching the nightly news and I saw what Governor Rauner was doing and I really saw our state heading in the wrong direction and I decided to run for state representative.
I have seen JB in so many different contexts and he is the same. He’s the same in a one-on-one conversation. He’s the same when he’s before a group of people. He is sharing his heart a sense of economic investment and job creation his concern for making sure that children get the best start in ife
I believe that JB is the right person for this job. He has the ideas, he has the leadership capability and he has the values to really invest in our state and making sure we get on the right track.
* The House and Senate just posted the fall veto session calendar. The chambers will return to Springfield October 24-26 and then again November 7-9. Click here and here.
By using a special session to pass education funding reform, the two chambers avoided activating the 15-day clocks on bills vetoed by the governor, which gave everybody a much-needed break from all the session days the past couple of years.
Natalie Phelps Finnie became the first woman to represent Illinois’ 118th district Wednesday, when Democrats appointed her to replace her cousin, Brandon Phelps, who resigned from office last week.
She does have a political pedigree. Her father, David Phelps, served in Springfield and as United States Congressman. […]
When asked if she would support Mike Madigan as speaker of the house, Phelps Finnie described herself as undecided, with tough decisions ahead of her.
“I’m about the people of southern Illinois and anyone who knows me knows that I’m very stubborn, and I’m certainly no one’s yes man,” she said. “I can tell you that for sure.”
(B)ad net migration numbers can be the result of an unusually high number of people leaving, or an unusually low number of people moving in. And in the case of Illinois, it appears to mostly be the second.
In per capita terms, Illinois’ gross out-migration rate ranks just 29th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. In other words, Illinois residents are actually less likely to move out than are residents of the median state.
But things don’t look so good when it comes to gross in-migration. Adjusted for population, Illinois attracts fewer newcomers than all but two other states: New York and Michigan.
That means Illinois’ migration problems are mostly about how few people come here, not how many people leave.
