* From the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service…
Cook County’s penny-per-ounce sugary drink tax is one final step away from being repealed.
Despite threats from County Board President Toni Preckwinkle that a repeal would leave the county without enough money to pay for basic services, the County Board’s Finance Committee, which is made up of all 17 board members, voted overwhelmingly – 15-1 – Tuesday to recommend eliminating the tax, with one member absent. Commissioner Larry Suffredin was the sole vote to keep the tax. The full County Board is expected to formalize the repeal with a vote during its meeting Wednesday. […]
Some commissioners pushed back against all the dire warnings.
“The sky is not falling,” Commissioner Richard Boykin said, adding that there are places in the county budget that can be reasonably cut, including not filling hundreds of vacant positions that have been budgeted for. […]
Commissioner Jeffrey Tobolski said Tuesday that taxpayers have made it clear they can’t take more tax hikes.
“People are tired of it,” he said. “They are literally being taxed out of their shoes. … We’re really going to need to retool the way we think.”
That includes addressing what he called Cadillac pension and other benefit plans that workers in the private sector don’t receive.
All commissioners sit on that committee, so tomorrow’s final repeal vote will be similar. The tax will be eliminated December 1st.
“This is great news for consumers and retailers throughout Cook County. Since its inception, this tax was poorly devised, placed an enormous operational and financial burden on retailers and saddled consumers with the responsibility to pick up the tab. We thank Commissioners Morrison and Boykin for leading the charge for repeal and all of the County Board members that have signed on to the repeal,” said Rob Karr, president & CEO, IRMA.
…Adding… From Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle…
Today the board exercised its collective will and set in motion a repeal of the sweetened beverage tax we approved last year. As I outlined last week, it is up to the commissioners to choose our direction on revenue, and I respect their authority to do so. Now, together, we must chart a new course toward the eighth consecutive balanced budget of my tenure as board president.
While I am disappointed in today’s outcome, I am grateful to the dedicated public health advocates at the American Heart Association and the Illinois Public Health Institute who have supported us every step of the way. And I am thankful for the talented professionals at the Cook County Health and Hospitals System who are committed to promoting better health outcomes for residents across the County, especially in our vulnerable communities.
As I noted last month, the difficult fight for this revenue has focused me on what matters most: doing the hard work necessary to build a healthier, safer and more efficient Cook County.
A reporter pointed out that a lot of Republican legislators are grumbling these days about how Gov. Rauner has been “dictating how they vote.” He also noted that some Democrats are worried that having a billionaire leading their party may not be a good thing. “Will you pledge to allow Democrats to vote their conscience, vote their district?” Pritzker was asked.
“Of course,” Pritzker said.
The candidate referenced the old Will Rogers quote “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” And then said…
I believe that people ought to vote their conscience. Always. Always vote their conscience. I also believe we ought to elect progressive Democrats to the Legislature. But I also believe that we have a big tent in this party. That this party always has been about three really core issues: Jobs, healthcare, education. And we need to stick to that, we need to win this election based upon plans for making working families’ lives better.
Democrat Chris Kennedy isn’t saying directly whether he would support an assault weapons ban proposed by several Democratic lawmakers. In an interview for the WMAY News Feed, Kennedy was asked multiple times if he supported the ban on certain types of firearms.
He would only say that the issue of gun violence needs more study but federal regulations limit the ability to conduct such studies.
*** UPDATE *** Kennedy just called to say he fully supports an assault weapons ban and wasn’t trying to get around the topic.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Meanwhile, despite the delay, the Bustos endorsement did receive a lot of news coverage…
Illinois’ 17th District Congresswoman Cheri Bustos endorsed Democratic candidate JB Pritzker in his run for Governor, Mon. His appearance at the AFL-CIO Labor Temple started 90 minutes later than scheduled, due to unfavorable flight conditions.
Dense fog enveloped Peoria Monday morning. A member of Pritzker’s campaign team says his plane circled the area for 30 minutes, then rerouted to Galesburg. Pritzker apologized for the delay and said the flight was “a lil’ dicey.”
About 20 people, mostly with labor union ties, stuck around to hear the endorsement from Rep. Bustos. The Congresswoman says JB Pritzker is taking a different approach, by focusing on downstate Illinois.
“This is a guy who’s going to be our next governor, who’s not going to have to understand how you get to Peoria, how you get to Pekin, how you get to Monmouth,” Bustos said. “He’s going to know the way, and that was a critical part of my decision making as to who I was going to endorse in this race.”
U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Moline, endorsed gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker when he opened his Quad-Cities campaign office — his eighth in the state — Monday afternoon.
Rep. Bustos said voters should vote for Mr. Pritzker for governor because he will represent working families across the entire state, not just in Chicago and Cook County.
“He understands that the state of Illinois has 102 counties, with 101 of them outside Cook County,” Rep. Bustos said. “When we elect our next governor, we want to make sure they know how to find a place like the Quad-Cities.”
* DGA…
On Friday, Governor Bruce Rauner’s habit of dodging questions relating to federal matters came under tough scrutiny from the Chicago Tribune’s Rick Pearson. Rauner was questioned why he had not spoken in “specifics” on matters like tax reform, mass shootings, and Obamacare. Rauner ended up saying that he, as the state’s highest elected executive, had “no obligation” to weigh in on federal matters:
Chicago Tribune’s Rick Pearson: “Don’t you owe the public and voters an obligation to say where you stand on these things? Where do you stand on eliminating the state and local tax deduction with Peter Roskam, your Republican colleague, and Republicans in Washington?
Governor Bruce Rauner: “I have no obligation to comment on every possible policy change in Washington DC. I never have and never will. So, I appreciate your advocacy on that.”
Rauner has been inexplicably silent on President Trump’s decision to end DACA, which puts at least 42,000 children and young adults at risk of deportation. Just a few years ago, candidate Bruce Rauner indeed felt an obligation to speak out in support of these children. This morning, Bruce Rauner attended the Hispanic Heritage Month Breakfast and again refused to stand up for DACA beneficiaries.
“Watch out Illinois – Bruce Rauner does not have your back,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “Illinois voters elected Rauner to be a leader but he admitted that felt no obligation to protect them against the bad ideas coming out of Washington. Instead, Rauner said he was focused on his political ambitions. This is just another example of Rauner’s failed leadership in action.”
* In other news, Jack Franks won’t run for AG…
Last November, McHenry County’s voters gave me the great honor of becoming the first popularly elected County Board chairman. I have been an outspoken advocate for government reform and tax cuts during my entire political career. Since voters elected me in 1998 to my first of nine terms in the Illinois House of Representatives, I have given my all to help those most in need while always putting the financial interests of the taxpayers first.
My experience as a lawyer, businessman and reform-minded lawmaker makes me uniquely qualified to be a candidate for the office of Illinois attorney general. I am grateful and humbled by the outpouring of support for this possibility, and I was very tempted to enter the race.
But something really special is beginning to happen in McHenry County. In a bipartisan manner, we are reducing the tax levy and bringing substantial reform and efficiency to government. The tax reductions are real but they are not complete. I have therefore decided to pass on the opportunity to run for attorney general in favor of fulfilling my commitment to the taxpayers of McHenry County to reduce their property taxes and reform county government.
Democrats can reduce taxes and reform government, and I am proving that in McHenry County. Working together with my Republican colleagues, we can make McHenry County the best run, most efficient and transparent county in the nation. This battle is too important to stop.
We hosted a community meeting on property taxes this evening in Harvey, which is one of the most overassessed communities in the state. pic.twitter.com/6qV7mzZpRZ
* A different sort of gerrymandering. From the Chicago Reporter…
In Illinois, about 90 percent of the prison population of 50,000 is incarcerated outside of Cook County, even though Cook County accounts for three out of every five prisoners. This spatial mismatch is a consequence of political decisions about prison growth. All of the state’s prisons built after 1941 are located at least 100 miles from Chicago, and the average distance between Chicago and a state prison is more than 200 miles.
This is the spatial story of Chicago and Illinois. And this story is a racial one as well. While seven out of 10 incarcerated by the state identify as black or Latinx, about 95 percent of the prison population is located in counties that are overwhelmingly white. Of the 10 counties with the highest percentage of prison residents, for example, eight of them had general populations that were at least 85 percent white.
When lawmakers use census counts like these to draw electoral districts without regard for prison gerrymandering, the effects are clear. White votes in downstate Illinois are inflated at the disproportionate expense of folks of color in the Chicago area.
These political decisions don’t just punish individual voters convicted of crime. They punish whole communities, even those innocent of any wrongdoing. Crime victims who disproportionately reside in urban areas are more likely to have their collective political power deflated from diminished voting blocs as a result of prison gerrymandering — adding not only insult to injury but injury to injury.
There’s a simple solution to the problem of prison gerrymandering: Count inmates as residents of their home communities, not their prison cells. But this methodological flaw is unlikely to be corrected prior to the 2020 Census. And no other federal action can be expected at the current political moment. Therefore, the onus is on state and local governments to make change.
* Democratic Rep. La Shawn Ford and Republican Reps. Dan Brady and Christine Winger are sponsoring a bill to stop this…
Creates the No Representation Without Population Act. Provides that the Department of Corrections shall collect and maintain an electronic record of the legal residence, outside of any correctional facility, and other demographic data for each person entering its custody after January 1, 2017. Provides for the minimum records that the Department shall maintain. Requires the Department to provide certain information to the Secretary of State after the decennial census. Requires the Secretary of State to request similar information from agencies that operate federal incarceration facilities. Requires the Secretary of State to prepare redistricting data to reflect the incarcerated persons at their residential address, rather than the address of the facility in which the person is incarcerated. Provides that for persons form whom a legal residence is unknown or not in the State, and for all persons reported in the census as residing in a federal correctional facility for whom a report was not provided, the Secretary of State to allocate the person to a State unit not tied to a specific determined geographic location, as other residents with unknown addresses are allocated. Requires the data collected to only be used as a basis for determining Legislative and Representative Districts. Prohibits the use of the data for the distribution of State or federal aid. Contains severability provisions. Effective immediately.
* The Question: Should prisoners be counted as residents of the legislative districts where they lived before incarceration or where their prisons are? Click here to take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
But the Reader’s Ben Joravsky has surveyed the rest of the godawful field and found a reformer: Andrea Raila, a former aide to Pat Quinn when he was on the property tax review board in the 1980s. Raila now runs a tax-appeal consulting business.
“The woman’s a true tax geek,” Joravsky writes.
* And…
NGP software fails another Illinois campaign committee, Lisa Madigan filed A-1 on paper due to software problem.https://t.co/ZnucLT5bx4
Last April, Rauner publicly promised he would veto a bill that would force taxpayers to pay for abortions through all nine months of pregnancy. He lied. He signed the bill with a shrug of his shoulders, stating “I have always been pro-choice and I always will be.” […]
The cost of this law could approach $20 million. In a state with presumptive eligibility for pregnant women to receive Medicaid, there is also a real possibility that Illinois taxpayers will pay for abortions of women from surrounding states who falsely claim to be residents. The state has had enormous problems in the past with high numbers of ineligible folks on Medicaid.
In all this drama, the families of Illinois are forgotten and left to pick up the tab. Already on the hook for the highest property taxes in the nation, many families face unemployment as businesses bleed into more friendly states. Other families are trying to keep their heads above water, having seen needed social services reduced or eliminated over the past three years. So, as pundits and pols rant and rave in the papers and on social media, too many families quietly pack up and leave. Even those who are doing well look at state politics and wonder why they would entrust their family’s future to these “leaders.”
Here is what Illinois families should know: While the concentrated power in Springfield seems daunting, the people have the collective numbers, resources, and values to end Illinois’ rigged political culture. Illinoisans deserve bold leaders, and in 2018, they can pick those leaders willing to fight for them to own a home in a safe community, to have access to quality schools, to be able to count on basic services when they are in need, and to have the opportunity to build their lives and pursue happiness.
The estimated annual cost for abortion services resulting from House Bill 40 is approximately $1.8 million, which would be 100% GRF funded. There may be other budgetary impacts that are not quantifiable.
Some supporters of HB40 fear the harsh conservative backlash — a steady drumbeat of disapproval against Gov. Bruce Rauner’s signature on the bill expanding public funding of abortion in Illinois — has eclipsed any talk of what they view as a victory for low-income women.
“I feel like the conversation around this is all focused on politics instead of on the women,” Lori Chaiten, ACLU’s Director of the Reproductive Rights Project told POLITICO. “This was a huge step forward for women and communities in Illinois. It is getting drowned out by the negative statements and the politics in this state.”
Opponents will quickly point out that it wasn’t just Rauner’s signature that was the problem — it was that he had promised abortion opponents in his party that he would veto the bill. Rauner said he came to the decision after meeting with groups of women across the state who told him they didn’t have access to abortion because of finances.
“Unfortunately, I do believe we’ve become incredibly polarized, not just in Illinois but across the country,” Chaiten said. “I do think it’s really important to stop for a minute. I think this is what the governor did. He stopped and listened to the experiences of the women of this state and to women who needed access to health care. It was a brave and bold move on his part.”
Bruce Rauner said his signing of a controversial abortion bill was consistent with his pro-choice principles and that he had never presented himself as anything but pro-choice.
We looked through numerous campaign appearance videos, ads and news stories and found no evidence that Rauner ever tried to hide or downplay his pro-choice beliefs. In fact, his campaign touted the Rauners’ support of abortion rights groups to rebut the charge that he was not pro-choice.
Rauner sought anti-abortion voters by assuring them that, as governor, he had no social agenda and that “the right for a woman to choose is the national law and… that ain’t gonna change in Illinois.” Politically, it proved to be a smart strategy that helped gain him election in 2014. By 2017, however, it became impossible to continue finessing the issue.
In picking a side, Rauner declared that he has been consistent in declaring his pro-choice beliefs. We rate that statement True.
* Related…
* Kadner: Too busy spurning Rauner, GOP fails to make Dems pay for taxes: If Republicans have a difficult time uniting behind Rauner, I can’t see how they will run effective campaigns for countywide office or ever mount a serious challenge to Michael Madigan’s control of the Illinois House.
* Anti-abortion groups dump Rauner for 2018: Meanwhile, Rep. Jeanne Ives, a DuPage County Republican, told me in a phone interview that she’s “much closer” to deciding whether to run after getting expressions of support from “all over the state.”
* Knox County Right to Life leaders say Rauner’s re-election chances are now dim: “We’re going to lose the election. I don’t think Rauner can win, and I think if Rauner wins – what have we won? We’ve basically got a Democrat in Republican clothing.” He added, “So I don’t see the Republican party or Pro-Lifers losing by running another candidate.”
Former federal prosecutor and criminal justice reform expert Sharon Fairley announced her candidacy for Attorney General of Illinois on Tuesday, launching her campaign in the March 2018 Democratic primary.
Fairley is seeking the position after incumbent Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced last month she would not run again for the seat, which she has held since 2003.
Fairley spent eight years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois under the leadership of former U.S. Attorneys Patrick Fitzgerald and Zach Fardon. Most recently, she served as Chief Administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, an agency which she designed and built from the ground up in the aftermath of the release of video of the death of Laquan McDonald in 2015. Prior to her work at COPA, Fairley served as First Deputy and General Counsel to the City of Chicago Office of the Inspector General.
“My experience–as a former federal prosecutor, and as a leader in criminal justice reform here in the City of Chicago–will allow me to provide that leadership as we work for progressive change in our justice system and in our communities,” said Fairley at a press conference announcing her campaign launch on Tuesday.
Fairley said, as Attorney General, she’d focus on combating the unconstitutional attacks on civil rights, voting rights, immigrant communities and religious freedoms, among other areas.
“Here in Illinois, our Attorney General must stand up against corruption and oppose the eroding of consumer protection and government accountability,” she added.
Fairley earned her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a BS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and holds an MBA in Marketing from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Fairley, who grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, lives in Chicago’s Garfield Ridge community on the Southwest Side. She is the mother of two adult children.
If elected, Fairley would be the first African American woman to hold the Attorney General’s seat in Illinois history.
* See if you can spot the news item announced by JB Pritzker during the weekend gubernatorial forum…
Mary Ann: Do you believe it’s appropriate to disconnect the plumbing from what many people would consider a mansion, to receive a $230,000 tax break?
JB: Thank you for asking that question. Here is the truth of that. And that is, that we began a renovation project on a home, and we decided to stop that project, and at some point in the future after that, like 50,000 other people in Cook County every single day–like Chris Kennedy, like Gov. Rauner and others–asked for a reassessment of the property’s value. Not because of that, but just that it was a point in which, as you know, we have a very unfair assessment process. We need, and I’ve discovered how flawed it really is. That in fact is why we need to get rid of that system, make sure that we’ve got a formula that really works for assessing properties, and make sure that people are paying their fair share for their properties. That’s what happened in that situation.
Mary Ann: If there need to be a change in the assessment, does that also mean a change of the assessor? Where do you stand on Mr. Berrios?
JB: Yeah, well things have not been going that well recently, let’s all face it. And across the state, this is not just an issue in Cook County by the way. All across the state, we have got the problem of in poor communities, they are paying the very highest rates, the very highest rates, that is very unfair. I am in favor of more progressive taxes, less regressive taxes, and unfortunately, our property tax system is quite regressive in this state.
Mary Ann: So Mr. Kennedy, he brought your name up. You have received a tax break at Wolf Point, and you have apparently also received a tax break on your home, where do you stand?
Chris: Well what Mr. Pritzker did and what everybody else who has ever appealed taxes did, are two radically different things. We appealed our taxes, he had his house reclassified as uninhabitable. That’s a different thing. I’ve never even heard of it. I’ve been in real estate 30 years in Chicago, I never knew you could do that thing. [Laughter] I’m serious, that’s like a whole other game.
Mary Ann: But you also did receive a tax break…
Chris: Let me just finish. He did that, then he says he’s in the house next door and he appeals that tax, and he says “Look, I’m living next to an uninhabitable home.” [Laughter] Don’t put me in that bucket, I never did either of those things. [Applause]
I have the courage to stand here and tell you that Joe Berrios’ system is a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and he should be taken out of office. [Applause]
JB: I need to respond to that, I’m sorry. I must say that millions of dollars of tax breaks at Wolf Point taken by Mr. Kennedy do qualify in fact as tax breaks. And to be clear, our property, by the way, is no longer on that roll. It was a temporary situation that we in fact were doing renovations to stop that, and are beginning to do those renovations again.
Mary Ann: But you do support Mr. Berrios?
JB: No, what I’m suggesting is I’m running for governor and I believe the people of Cook County ought to make the decision about who the assessor is of Cook County. I must say though things are not going well in terms of assessment of properties and people who are poor are paying the highest taxes.
Mary Ann: And Mr. Kennedy, could you clarify, you did receive a tax break at Wolf Point
Chris: That’s not true. When Wolf Point was a parking lot, it was assessed as a parking lot. When Wolf Point was a development site, it was assessed as a development site. When Wolf Point was an apartment building, it was assessed as an apartment building. All of those assessments were within the range of their peers. There’s no evidence that I got a break outside of what everyone else got. There’s no evidence that the taxes paid there were different than any other taxes paid by a similar building, development or lot anywhere else in the city. It’s just not true.
Did you spot it? He’s apparently no longer claiming that his next door mansion is uninhabitable.
Pritzker Still Claiming “Uninhabitable” Tax Break On $2.5 Million Mansion
At The October 8 Democratic Candidate Forum, JB Pritzker Told The Audience That He Is No Longer Claiming That His Second Mansion At 1431 N. Astor Street In Chicago Is Uninhabitable In Order To Claim A Massive Property Tax Break: PRITZKER: “To be clear, our property, by the way, is no longer on that roll. It was a temporary situation that we, in fact, were doing renovations. We stopped that, and are beginning to do those renovations again.” (Our Revolution Illinois Candidate Forum, 10/8/17, 55:18)
Pritzker’s Lawyers Applied To Have The Mansion Declared Uninhabitable Again This Year
According To The Cook County Assessor’s Database, Pritzker’s Lawyers Applied For And Received A Vacancy Reduction For The 2016 Tax Year On Pritzker’s 1431 N Astor Street Mansion. (Cook County Assessor, Accessed 10/9/17)… Pritzker’s 2016 Valuation Is Identical To The One That He Initially Received For The 2015 Tax Year. (Cook County Assessor, Accessed 10/9/17)
*** UPDATE 2 *** Pritzker campaign…
Both of these reductions were already public knowledge. JB was referencing the status for the current year. Opposition research generally works better when the facts are correct.
* Pritzker, by the way, shot back at Sen. Daniel Biss for the latter’s repeated references to the former’s wealth…
Thank you for referring to me once again as wealthy. I want to be clear about something and that’s that no one here on stage wears any kind of halo. And Daniel, while I appreciate you calling that out, you’ve accepted PAC money, you’ve accepted money from special interests, you’ve accepted money from banking [Applause]. And I want to be clear though that I do not believe that they’re buying you in any way whatsoever. I believe that they believe in you and that’s why they wrote checks. I’m standing up here telling you exactly what it is that I believe in. The one thing you will know about me is that if you elect me, everything that I have told that I will do is exactly what I will do. There’s nobody calling me in the middle of the night telling me I can’t do it. There’s no special interests that will have funded me who will call me in the middle of the night and say ‘I’m sorry we’re not funding you for the next election.’
* And Kennedy kinda mansplained Mary Ann Ahern…
Mary Ann: Mr. Kennedy where are you on the LaSalle street tax?
Kennedy: Well I’d point out that most of the trading is done on Wacker Drive and not LaSalle Street. Let’s just start there.
Mary Ann: Wherever it’s done, should we have a tax?
Kennedy: Well it matters if you are going to regulate it, you oughta know what you’re talking about. [Audible gasps from crowd]
Mary Ann: We’ll let Mr. Pritzker respond to that then.
Kennedy: I would say this. You know, I’d like to promise everybody rainbows and swing sets in their back yard and they’re not going to have to pay for any of it. The idea that we’re going to go after LaSalle Street and somehow tax all of them, is just a fallacy. They’ll move that money around faster than we can regulate it. Fact is you could order from Amazon Prime they know, they know the router in your apartment or your office, they know your address, and then they’re delivering it to your address. If you live in Cook County you don’t have to pay Cook County taxes. We can’t friggin’ find a way to tax Amazon we’re never going to tax the mercantile board.
So, he corrects the moderator about LaSalle Street and then uses the exact same LaSalle Street name in his own response.
I got some clarification on how much sales tax Amazon is supposed to collect in Cook County, which was the example Kennedy cited. It’s complicated.
The company clearly is supposed to collect the 6.25 percent state sales tax everywhere in Illinois. But local sales taxes are different. If the product involved in a transaction was stored in a warehouse in Cook County and shipped to a county resident, the tax is supposed to be collected. But if it was shipped from out of state, no. If it was stored in Kankakee, a Cook County resident would not have to pay, but some in Kankakee would.
That’s the word from Laurence Msall over at the Civic Federation.
So, bottom line: It looks like Kennedy is partially right, in some cases. But misleading, at least as he phrased it.
* If you click the link on this tweet, you’ll see that 77 percent of the money Ameya Pawar raised during the third quarter came from one person: The wealthy father of Pawar’s campaign manager…
A week ahead of deadline: Ameya Pawar for Governor 09/30/17 Raised: $335,980.33 Spent: $260,625.45 CoH: $304,788.56https://t.co/EFOj0qvm3b
That’s not a ding on his campaign manager at all. Sam Hobert won our 2016 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best campaign staffer - Senate Democrats. It just is what it is.
Pawar reported a ton of small contributions. But, outside of that one $250,00 contribution, he only raised $85,980.
* Meanwhile, Pawar had a couple of awkward moments during the Democratic candidate forum over the weekend…
During police brutality discussion, protester shouts @Ameya_Pawar_IL down, calling him "just another one of Rahm Emanuel's puppets."
AHERN: As a progressive candidate, why are you not a member of the Progressive Caucus for the Chicago City Council?
PAWAR: Love that question. So, I think I’ve been able to get a lot done on City Council, work on progressive issues. Truthfully, I know what my faults are. I tend to work alone. I don’t always build coalitions. But I think that’s always been able to afford me the ability to actually pass legislation. I think there has been a lot of personality conflicts between me and the Progressive Caucus and I own that. Some of it’s started by me, and some things that are internal. I don’t think that makes sense to air that. I respect them. And I’ll tell you one thing. I worked on the task force to pass $13 minimum wage and I led the effort on paid sick leave but they were also the ones leading out there and organizing around it. So, I think we’ve all played our roles, I’m proud of the work that I’ve done and I’m proud of my record. There have been some personality issues that came up. And I don’t think it makes sense to air that in a public setting, other than to say I respect them. I think they respect me. I’ll leave it at that.
AHERN: How do you work, then, with the state? If you are someone who likes to work alone, how will you expand that role from being a city council member to the head of Illinois?
PAWAR: I mean by working alone is I’ve always been able to cobble together the votes to pass things like an independent budget office or paid sick leave. I got here on my own. I knocked on doors, I knocked on doors with my wife. I have volunteers that help me. I’ve never been a part of any club and no establishment figure has ever helped me. The party’s never given me a dime and I’ve never asked them for a dime. I got here on my own grit and sh – sweat equity – Now I own my weaknesses, I always have. But I’ve been diplomatic. I’ve always worked hard. And I’ve outworked people and that’s how I’ll work as governor.
Her “summer”? She was on staff for six weeks. And she wasn’t fired? Yeah, OK…
A day after crafting a controversial statement citing Gov. Bruce Rauner’s position as a “white male,” the governor’s new communications staff has been ousted — with more exits on the way.
The staffers — hired in July after a staff purge and series of protest resignations — were asked to resign; one was asked to stay but chose to resign.
A lot of people have asked why I took the role, considering I have spent the bulk of my career railing against the government.
It came down to this: If I declined the job, I’d watch Illinois’ problems go unfixed and wonder if I could have made a difference. Or, I could enter the nucleus of state government and attempt to change the system from within.
The experience was eye-opening, but after six weeks I decided to leave the position. It was a dysfunctional workplace in a flailing administration. The bad I saw far outweighed any good I could do.
But perhaps worst of all is that I learned early on that there would be no fixing the system from within, especially from my role; this is a state government that has been broken for decades. It is designed to reject improvement in every form, at every level.
It’s always somebody else’s fault. Always. The only real surprise is that the word “Madigan” doesn’t appear anywhere in the piece.
…Adding… An affiliate of the Illinois Policy Institute…
News that will surprise *literally nobody* - Diana Rickert is now a Vice President at the Liberty Justice Center, according to her Linkedin pic.twitter.com/gSF8gGrL0a
* Parts of the Democratic gubernatorial forum over the weekend were tough to watch. We’re going to discuss other aspects, but let’s start with this one…
The question that seemed to draw the most heated response launched a back and forth between Biss and Pritzker. Ahern asked about candidates’ relationships with Michael Madigan, speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. […]
Biss said Madigan is too powerful.
Pritzker said Madigan has just become a GOP “talking point.”
When asked if Madigan supports him, Pritzker added that he is an independent who won’t be influenced, and called Biss out for voting for the speaker. Biss then responded that Pritzker should be more honest about the speaker’s support.
* ILGOP…
Democrat Audience Laughs At Pritzker’s Claim of ‘Independence’ from Madigan
As Pritzker tries to distance himself from Madigan, the Democrat audience responds with laughter and groans
“On Sunday, the Democrats running for governor were abundantly clear: Mike Madigan is for J.B. Pritzker. It makes sense, since Pritzker and Madigan both share a history of corrupt deal-making and gaming the system for their own personal gain. Pritzker’s attempts to distance himself from Madigan were literally laughable - so laughable that an audience of Democrats and progressives wren’t buying the malarkey he was peddling.” - Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Aaron DeGroot
On Sunday, the Democratic candidates for governor held a forum at the Chicago Teacher’s Union headquarters, and though they may disagree on exactly how high they will raise taxes, they all came together on one topic: Mike Madigan’s support for J.B. Pritzker.
When asked about his relationship with Mike Madigan, Pritzker repeatedly dodged the question, fumbling over his inability to change the subject. His discomfort was so plain that after being challenged on the issue by moderator Mary Ann Ahern, Pritzker’s non-answers were met with laughter from the crowd of Democrat activists. […]
The Democrats may not always agree on how big government should be, but they all came together on one topic: J.B. Pritzker is Mike Madigan’s candidate for governor.
Biss definitely took it to the guy. But here’s Pritzker’s retort…
I do need to respond to that. Senator Biss, you ran Mike Madigan’s PAC last year. You ran his Super PAC, millions of dollars. C’mon, there is no halo here, we all are Democrats, we don’t get to choose who the Speaker is. He is the Speaker of the House, There’s nothing that any of us can do about it except to support leadership term limits which I do.
* Chris Kennedy’s response…
Mary Ann Ahern: Mr. Kennedy, what’s your relationship like with Speaker Madigan?
Kennedy: I think we should give [Madigan] a choice. I think he should have the choice between being a property tax appeals lawyer or a state Representative. I don’t think we have to accept the current situation. I don’t think it has to be like this in Illinois. He’s a property tax appeals lawyer, he’s appealing the property taxes to Joe Berrios. One is head of the state Democratic Party, one is head of the Cook County Democratic Party. The scale of this thing is incredible. The Sears Tower sells for a billion, two hundred million dollars. It gets a billion dollar mortgage on it. They’re recorded at Cook County. They’re reported in the Tribune and Crain’s. The assessor says “oh no,” he has alternative facts, it’s only worth $579 million. We need to prevent our elected officials from having outside jobs that are adverse to the interests of the body they were elected to serve.
Illinois is chasing a moving target as it tries to dig out of the nation’s worst budget crisis, and a review obtained by The Associated Press shows $7.5 billion worth of unpaid bills — as much as half the total — hadn’t been sent to the official who writes the checks by the end of June.
Although many of those IOUs have since been paid, a similar amount in unprocessed bills has replaced them in the last three months, Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s office said Monday. That’s in addition to $9 billion worth of checks that are at the office but being delayed because the state lacks the money to pay them.
The mound of past-due bills tripled over the two years Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the General Assembly were locked in a budget stalemate, which ended in July when lawmakers hiked income taxes over Rauner’s vetoes.
In some cases, agencies were waiting to send their receipts to Mendoza because lawmakers haven’t approved the spending. For example, the Department of Corrections had $471 million in unpaid bills on hand as of June 30 largely for that reason.
Wait. What?
* The comptroller sent a letter to legislators this morning. From that letter…
• What amount of bills held at the agencies lack appropriation authority?
Agencies cannot send the Comptroller vouchers to pay for expenditures that lack an appropriation. If services are being rendered without a sufficient appropriation, then those bills sit at the agency until an appropriation is ultimately made. All the while, these unappropriated expenditures may accrue late payment interest penalties, and the vendors providing those services suffer as they await payment. As evidenced by the report, the information disclosed does not reveal any status relative to appropriation authority or if sufficient authority even exists.
A breakdown of appropriated versus unappropriated liabilities gives lawmakers, the public and the Comptroller an idea of what can actually be paid and where appropriations are not covering the services being delivered.
* From Rep. Dave McSweeney…
As of June 30th, Governor Rauner’s Administration has been holding about $7.5 billion of bills at state agencies, which is making our fiscal problems worse as late payment interest penalties continue to accrue. Also, it appears that the Rauner Administration is holding bills for Fiscal Year 17 that have not been appropriated. For example, a significant portion of the Department of Corrections $471,821,889 liability appears to be unappropriated.
The Rauner Administration needs to immediately provide the General Assembly with a full accounting of unappropriated Fiscal Year 17 bills, which appear to be substantial. With approximately $16 billion of unpaid bills, Governor Rauner’s fiscal record is abysmal.
We need more transparency in state Government. As a strong fiscal conservative, I will be voting to override Governor Rauner’s veto of Comptroller Mendoza’s HB 3649. HB 3649 is a common sense bill that will require monthly reporting of all bills being held by state agencies. I’m also a recently added Chief Co-Sponsor of that legislation.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, despite buckets of campaign cash, may be in for a primary fight in his 2018 re-election battle for governor.
Suburban Republican lawmaker Jeanne Ives (Wheaton) is considering getting in the race, citing her frustration with the governor’s signing of HB40, a law that will increase access to abortion for state Medicaid recipients and would continue to make abortion legal in Illinois should the U.S. Supreme Court choose to overturn it.
“Our team is having important conversations around the state about challenging the unprincipled and morally bankrupt politicians who have failed to deliver reforms demanded by taxpayers, businesses and ordinary citizens that have played by the rules and yet, find themselves ignored by both parties,” Ives said.
Rauner is facing a revolt from the grassroots of his party, with several Republican lawmakers saying they can’t support him for re-election and are actively looking for an alternative. Former ally John Tillman, head of the libertarian think tank The Illinois Policy Institute, referred to him as “Benedict Rauner” for allegedly “going back on his word” and signing HB40.
Ives would appear to be at a significant financial disadvantage, but could level the playing field if she garners the support of political operatives like Dan Proft and uber-funder Dick Uihlein.
“Certainly, the party’s fractured, but when I talk to my colleagues, they’re not supporting Rauner, not passing his petitions,” Ives says. “We actually seem to be uniting against the signing of this bill.”
If it seems to you that more legislators are announcing their retirements than in the past, you’re right, at least about the House.
With the recent retirement announcement by Rep. David Harris (R-Arlington Heights), a total of 24 House members have either resigned or announced that they weren’t running for reelection.
That compares to 16 state representatives who retired or resigned during the 99th General Assembly, a two-year period which ended this past January.
Seventeen House members retired or resigned during the 98th General Assembly. Sixteen retired or resigned during the 97th, and 17 resigned during the 96th. Members who lost reelection races and those who died aren’t included in these figures.
So, that’s an average of 16.5 retirements/resignations every two years. And we’re already at 24 after only nine months of the 100th General Assembly.
Now, there are some caveats here. Two House members (Juliana Stratton and Litesa Wallace) are leaving to run for lieutenant governor, but that’s unusual because they’re really just beginning their legislative service. Another, Scott Drury, is running for attorney general, but he’s clearly dissatisfied with the House.
Even so, statewide bids by House members are pretty rare, mainly because their two-year terms requires giving up their seats. If House members do run statewide, it’s usually because they’re nearing the end of their careers.
So, I think it’s pretty safe to say that the Statehouse’s toxic atmosphere and the political exhaustion it has caused are the main reasons why we’ve seen so many House retirements.
But that hasn’t necessarily been the case in the Senate, which has so far seen 7 retirements/resignations since January. Nine Senators retired or resigned during the 99th General Assembly. Then again, just one retired during the 98th. And 12 retired or resigned during the 97th, while 6 did so during the 96th GA. Unlike the House, the Senate’s retirement rate has been all over the place.
The House has twice as many members as the Senate, but more than three times as many House members have resigned or retired so far. What gives? Senators have longer, staggered terms, so that may be part of it.
The one Senator we know for sure who quit because of the dysfunction was also the most high-profile resignation of the year: Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno. Leader Radogno sparred with the governor’s campaign apparatus during the 2016 campaign season and then was repeatedly undercut by the governor and his team during her ultimately unsuccessful “grand bargain” negotiations with the Senate Democrats.
Just one Senate Republican, Dale Righter, voted for the income tax hike, and he is in the middle of a four-year term. But 15 House Republicans voted for that bill, although some didn’t vote for the veto override. All of those Republicans were immediately denounced as essentially being Speaker Michael Madigan-supporting traitors by the Illinois Republican Party. Gov. Bruce Rauner has since said that support for the education funding reform bill would cause him to forget the tax hike vote, but the damage was already done. The blowback from the folks back home was horrific.
Nine of the eleven House Republicans who’ve so far said they’re not running again voted for the income tax hike.
Rauner has been focused like a laser on defeating as many of Speaker Madigan’s House Democrats as possible. But he’s also said publicly that he doesn’t really care if the Senate Democrats retain their majority as long as he can topple Madigan.
Twelve House Democrats have so far either quit or announced they aren’t running again. Several of those faced tough general election races next year if they ran again. Others said they’d just had enough of the war and wanted the heck out.
Now, I’m an agnostic when it comes to term limits. I can see the good and the bad either way. Fresh ideas and a clean slate would be welcomed in this state. But some fresh ideas can also be stupid ideas. And term limits on legislators make governors more powerful — and that may not be a good thing when you look at Illinois’ history of gubernatorial elections.
But this sort of turnover (on top of any electoral losses next year) means that a higher percentage of House members will be newbies. So, remaining legislators with more experience (along with lobbyists and staff) will gain even more influence and power, unless those who are elected next year take much more independent stances — and that doesn’t seem all that likely to me.
* The list…
GOP State Rep. David Harris the latest to announce retirement
* Walker to run for his former House seat: Former Democratic state Rep. Mark Walker of Arlington Heights said Monday he plans to make a bid for his old House seat that’s being vacated by Republican David Harris. The Wheeling Township Democratic committeeman says he knows the difficulty of finding candidates interested in the role, given ongoing gridlock in Springfield.
Pro-Life/ Pro-Family Forces Meet…Will Oppose Rauner in Primary and General Election
The following Bill of Particulars was unanimously endorsed today by representatives of 20 statewide pro-life and pro-family organizations at a meeting in Chicago.
Bill of Particulars
Whereas the 2016 platforms of both the national and Illinois Republican parties clearly state their opposition to taxpayer-funded abortion.
Whereas the Republican members of the Illinois House and Senate have expressed their united opposition to taxpayer-funded abortion as expressed in House Bill 40.
Whereas the duly-elected Governor of Illinois, Bruce Rauner, after making several public promises to veto House Bill 40, shockingly, caved to pressure from radical abortion extremists and signed this dastardly legislation into law on September 27, 2017.
Whereas every Republican member of the Illinois Congressional Delegate called upon Rauner to veto HB 40
Therefore, we the assembled leaders of 20 pro-life, pro-family statewide organizations in Illinois state the following:
We hereby express a vote of “no confidence” in Governor Bruce Rauner.
We hereby state that Governor Bruce Rauner, were he to seek re-election for the office of Governor, will not have our support in either a Republican primary or in the General Election of 2018.
We state that we will support a candidate or candidates for governor who are publically committed to the repeal of House Bill 40 in 2018 Republican primary and, if required, in the 2018 general election.
We further state that we will support only candidates for public office who are publically committed to the repeal of House Bill 40.
We encourage the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, other Christian churches, Jewish people, and other people of Faith throughout Illinois to demand of their local public officials a public commitment to support the repeal of House Bill 40.
We ask people of Faith throughout Illinois to join us in prayer for the souls of the many innocent victims of abortion including the unborn, the women victimized, and their families who will suffer as a result of the pen of Governor Bruce Rauner.
* I asked Paul Caprio for a list of groups…
Rich,
Here are 13 of the groups that were involved. There were some in other groups that endorsed the Bill of Particulars, but preferred not to have their names mentioned publically. Hope this is helpful.
Illinois Family Institute
Illinois Family Action
Family-Pac
Illinois Citizens for Ethics (Catholic Pro-life Pac)
Lake County Right to Life Pac
Lake County Republican Assembly
West Suburban Patriots
Illinois Right to Life
Walsh Forum
One Nation Under God Foundation
Christian Emergency League
Illinois Citizens for Life
Catholic Citizens of Illinois
