* Monday…
Comptroller Susana Mendoza said in a report obtained by The Associated Press Monday that Illinois has run up late-pay fees of $1.14 billion since mid-2015. That’s $100 million more than in the previous 18 years combined.
* Gov. Rauner today…
Right now there’s a bunch of baloney – that’s a nice word for it – from our comptroller, saying somehow our administration is responsible for interest, for unpaid bills for decades [laughs]. That is the most ridiculous, most preposterous statement.
And our comptroller was in the General Assembly for years under Mike Madigan. She voted for the deficits that have created the unpaid bills. She voted to support Blagojevich’s pension holiday that created huge liabilities that we’re funding now.
She created the problem, and now she’s, she puts out a memo and says, ‘Oh it’s the Governor’s fault.’ Are you kidding me?
We gotta get real here, ladies and gentlemen. There’s rascals and scoundrels who are misrepresenting the truth, and who are really responsible, and they’re trying to brush off that responsibility.
Mendoza did, indeed, vote for that Blagojevich pension holiday, which cost the state dearly (click here for the oppo).
But Rauner did, indeed, run up the bill backlog more in three years than in the previous 18 years combined. That’s what Mendoza was saying. She didn’t claim Rauner was “responsible for interest, for unpaid bills for decades,” so it was preposterous to claim such a thing today.
In other words, he muffed the hit.
* Meanwhile, the governor said this twice today when asked about Sen. Sam McCann’s candidacy…
McCann is a pawn. He’s being used by Pritzker and Madigan. And we’re gonna win in November.
I’m betting he’ll say that a lot in the coming months.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Comptroller Susana Mendoza…
“Rauner lies. The numbers don’t. The truth hurts. The truth is, it took Governor Rauner only 2 ½ years to do more damage to Illinois’ finances than all the Democratic and Republican administrations and legislatures over the previous 18 years combined.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** Pritzker campaign…
After returning from an 11-day “jobs mission” with no job announcements, Bruce Rauner spiraled out of control when asked about his confrontational rhetoric at a press conference this morning.
Rauner failed to explain why he says Illinois is in a “death spiral” while trying to attract jobs and doubled down on calling legislators “rascals” as budget negotiations continue in Springfield. Rauner even desperately attacked Comptroller Susana Mendoza for publishing “baloney” numbers on the over $1 billion in late fees and interest penalties he’s racked up, calling her and legislators “rascals and scoundrels who are misrepresenting the truth.”
“Today, a failed governor returned from a failed trip to give a failed press conference, lashing out at the press, the Comptroller, and the General Assembly,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Instead of lying, Bruce Rauner should try looking in the mirror before slandering his coequal branch of government as ‘rascals and scoundrels.’”
- Concerned Dem - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 11:51 am:
It’s only a muffed hit if he was called out for his dishonesty in the same story. If his statement is allowed to stand then he gets away with it and the reader is none the wiser.
- Sonny - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 11:53 am:
Rauner must not be listening to his handlers again, he’s fighting with Mendoza. What is he now 0-5? 0-6? Keep it up genius.
- My New Handle - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 11:55 am:
Perhaps the only place he muffed the hit was to the audience on this blog. Does the general electorate, or even the MSM, make the distinction?
- Arsenal - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 11:56 am:
He’s gonna waste the anti-Madigan message if he tries to push the idea that Madigan is controlling McCann.
- Sonny - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 11:57 am:
Look at the polls, answer your own question then turn off your computer.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 11:57 am:
–Right now there’s a bunch of baloney – that’s a nice word for it – from our comptroller, saying somehow our administration is responsible for interest, for unpaid bills for decades [laughs].–
Yeah, well, she didn’t say that, as you know, judging by the nervous-tic-liar-laugh.
- Tired - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 11:57 am:
He needs to go back to Poland. The state did just fine in his absence.
- titan - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 12:02 pm:
So … “rascals” is the word of the day?
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 12:13 pm:
The first two years of Rauner’s term… Mendoza wasn’t even comptroller…
My point? Unencumbered, Rauner ran up debt, that after 2 1/2 years equaled the amount of debt the state had, in all, in a window of 18 years.
Bruce Rauner is not a fiscal conservative. Rauner is destroying Illinois by running up debts and not paying vendors, like social service providers that laid off workers or went out of business.
“I’m frustrated 2, but taking steps towards reforming IL more important than short term budget stalemate.”
… or run up debt, or hurt social services…
Illinois is worse off since Rauner became governor.
- Arsenal - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 12:18 pm:
==Does the general electorate, or even the MSM, make the distinction?==
Do they make the distinction between, “Illinois government is run poorly” and “But it’s not the incumbent Governor’s fault”?
We’ll know soon enough, I suppose.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 12:19 pm:
===But Rauner did, indeed, run up the bill backlog more in three years than in the previous 18 years combined. That’s what Mendoza was saying.===
What Mendoza did not say in her political hit piece was one of the alternative courses of action. A partial shut down of government. AG Madigan did go to court to claim that payment of salaries should not have happened. She lost.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 12:26 pm:
- Louis G. Atsaves -
LOL…. (catches breath)…. LOL
I know you remember…
“I’m frustrated 2 but taking steps to reform Illinois is more important than short term budget stalemate.”
“Who” tweeted that… Mendoza?
The Owl and Rauner relished the pain, loved it, embraced it.
“I know, but it’s more important to have the stalemate… because reforms are most important… so hold Illinois hostage, run up a debt that took nearly two decades in its measure”
Right? Exactly right.
- Generic Drone - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 12:27 pm:
As a taxpayer and citizen of Illinois, I don’t give a hoot who blames who for debt. What I want is a Governor and legislature who tackles the issues, not multiply them.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 12:32 pm:
WhAt does rauner get for running up the debt
Does he personally benefit.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 12:33 pm:
Dear mr. Rauner, we are glad you took the lat 11 days off to recover from the beating comptroller mendoza has been giving you. Didn’t your cut docter advise you not to step back in the ring with her?
- Thomas Paine - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 12:38 pm:
1. Governor’s Own. Why does Gov. Rauner want to keep having conflicts on this issue? Conflicts keep the story in the news. When the headlines are about the state’s fiscal mess, the Governor owns that, as his job approval numbers show.
2. McCann as a pawn won’t stick. McCann told Rauner to take a leap when he threatened him.
3. 1 & 2 are because the governor just cannot help himself. He is easily angered, and lacks self-control.
The Rauner Party is a political pyramid scheme. He duped a couple of early big investors - Uhlein, Tillman, Proft, Tribune - and they duped others. The folks at the bottom of the pyramid started asking for their results, as they eventually do, and now the whole pyramid is crumbling. How much longer before The Chicago Tribune editorial board cuts its losses?
- Al - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 12:38 pm:
Ives knocked off Rauner’s mask pretty good. His former base has a deaf ear for his false banter.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 12:40 pm:
TP, the Trib is pot committed.
- Pundent - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 12:51 pm:
=McCann as a pawn won’t stick.= You would think that Rauner would have learned something by arguing that Ives was Madigan’s “favorite” Republican. Despite all the money he put behind that message he managed to beat her by only two points.
- TominChicago - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 12:57 pm:
TP, the Trib is pot committed.
Truer words, never spoken.
- Chris Widger - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 12:59 pm:
I’d say Capitol Fax is equally pot committed (although, at least it’s made a better bet).
- wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 1:22 pm:
–What Mendoza did not say in her political hit piece was one of the alternative courses of action. A partial shut down of government. AG Madigan did go to court to claim that payment of salaries should not have happened. She lost.–
What does whatever that is have to do with late fees for running up $12 billion in unpaid bills to private vendors for goods and services delivered?
- low level - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 1:30 pm:
Beyond the interest due are the human stories beyond Rauner’s failings. The students whose education was interrupted; the prison guards threatened; the social service agencies closed and veterans harmed; the women and children made homeless and hungry. Awful
- VanillaMan - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 1:32 pm:
We currently have a governor who deliberately forced a budgetary crisis upon a struggling state. He did this to cause a political revolution. His first appointees bought into his spin.
Problem was, there was no revolution. Rauner wasted the possibility of mandate during his first months after inauguration. He torched any honeymoon. He ripped away his campaign mask instead of keeping up his campaign charade.
His chaos theory only succeeded in crashing Illinois further. There was no revolution. There was no benefit for anyone after Rauner crashed it.
We now know that the best conservative governors conserve our resources, our citizens and don’t create instability. Rauner showed us how NOT to handle a teetering state. Rauner failed.
He failed to have any plans other than destroy and conquer. He failed to govern. He failed to be honest. He failed to keep his own staff. He failed ILGOP and made its principles a mockery. He turned his back to all his supporters.
Go away Bruce. Go away.
- Henry Francis - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 1:42 pm:
Don’t anyone call the Guv a fiscal conservative.
He prefers to be called a rascal conservative.
- Anon - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 1:52 pm:
I wish to second what VanillaMan said. Couldn’t have said it any better.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 1:55 pm:
===What does whatever that is have to do with late fees for running up $12 billion in unpaid bills to private vendors for goods and services delivered?===
Lots of discussion about keeping prisons open back then, water service to prisons, food supplies, heating and other utilities.
And that is just one agency.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 2:01 pm:
So, so, so much to unpack here… lol
===Lots of discussion about keeping prisons open back then, water service to prisons, food supplies, heating and other utilities.===
Oh boy…
“Lots of discussion about keeping prisons open back then…”
These discussions were needed because…
“I’m frustrated 2, but taking steps to reform Illinois is more important than short term budget stalemate.”
That was the Owl telling us all… Rauner was fine with the stalemate, Rauner himself saying he might have to shut down the state too.
That’s not Mendoza, the GA… that’s the Owl speaking for Rauner
“…water service to prisons, food supplies, heating and other utilities.”
Rauner has yet, with his own signature, authorizes budgets to pay for …water service to prisons, food supplies, heating and other utilities.
- Louis G Atsaves -… this is Rauner failing.
You know that.
- Arsenal - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 2:08 pm:
===We currently have a governor who deliberately forced a budgetary crisis upon a struggling state. He did this to cause a political revolution. His first appointees bought into his spin.
Problem was, there was no revolution.===
This is a really good summation.
- Whatever - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 2:46 pm:
==WhAt does rauner get for running up the debt
Does he personally benefit.==
You run down our bond rating, and the value of our bonds goes down. Then you retire from office and let someone who will actually pay the bills take over, and the bond ratings and value of our bonds goes up. If it’s close in the surveys and he loses in November, expect a big spike in bond prices the day after the election when Wall Street hears everyone singing, “Ding-dong, the witch is [out of office].”
- JS Mill - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 2:56 pm:
=did not say in her political hit piece=
Have you ever used those terms to describe one of Rauners phantasms?
Bottom line- Rauner blamed Quinn for his (many) failures and rightly so. In doing so Rauner set the standard by which he would be judged. By Rauner’s own standard he has failed in an epic manner. Quinn, in his bumbling incompetence couldn’t dream of this level of failure.
3 1/2 years of Rauner and we are in exponentially worse shape.
By his standard Bruce Rauner Failed.
- Ducky LaMoore - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 3:39 pm:
===Quinn, in his bumbling incompetence couldn’t dream of this level of failure.===
Seriously, there is no way possible for Bruce Rauner to be unbelievably more bumbling than Pat Quinn. The entire Rauner governorship can’t possibly be an accident. No one is this bad at a job on accident.
- MyTwoCents - Thursday, Apr 26, 18 @ 5:08 pm:
Louis G Atsaves, with the pay lawsuit, Gov. Rauner opposed AG Madigan and wanted employees to be paid. So that would be an example of the governor wanting the impasse to continue and thus drive up the interest payments.
- Rabid - Friday, Apr 27, 18 @ 6:55 am:
Daily Rauner lie alert