* We’re back in session next week, so get some rest.
Press release…
The ultimate party band is headed to the 2018 Illinois State Fair! After nearly 40-years of hits and millions of albums sold, Boy George and Culture Club with Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey will perform on the grandstand stage on Friday, August 10th.
“There’s no better way to kick start the Illinois State Fair than with the ultimate 80’s party in the grandstand,” said State Fair Manager Luke Sailer. “Culture Club is one of the music industry’s most iconic bands. Their unique blend of music and stunning stage presence is sure to wow fairgoers.”
Culture Club has been called one of the most influential groups of the 1980s. The British band, led by iconic front-man Boy George, has sold more than 50-million records worldwide. The group is best known for songs such as, “Karma Chameleon,” “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,” “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya,” and “Time (Clock of the Heart),” which is featured on Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.
The Thompson Twins provided the soundtrack for so many lives in the 1980s. Now, with a new band, Tom Bailey is once again performing those hits live, including a scheduled stop at the 2018 Illinois State Fair. Fairgoers will be treated to great songs from the past, such as “Hold Me Now,” “Lies,” and new music, like “Come So Far.”
S&P affirms Illinois at BBB- w/stable outlook ahead of $500 million state bond sale: "Illinois' credit rating is uncommonly low among the states, reflecting a confluence of its daunting long-term liability profile and persistent crisis-like budget environment in recent years."
guessing that JB Pritzker staff is among those sifting through the rating reports today…and there is plenty of fodder for next campaign commercial…. https://t.co/1ervaByCHD
As state bonds go to market, S&P is slamming the “persistent crisis-like budget environment” under Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership.
Rauner has failed to propose a balanced budget as governor, and he forced the state through an unprecedented 736-day budget crisis where bipartisan lawmakers ultimately overrode his reckless vetoes.
“Bruce Rauner creates crises, destroys state finances and slashes services for over a million while trying to force his failed agenda on our state,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “This governor’s fiscal mismanagement has failed Illinois, and people across the state and country are taking notice.”
S&P gave Illinois’ bonds a stable outlook. [Gabe Petek, managing director of S&P Global Ratings] said that’s because the budget lawmakers passed last summer, which included a $5 billion income tax increase, helped alleviate some of the funding pressures.
“The good news is that they held us stable,” Gov. Bruce Rauner spokesperson Rachel Bold said in an email, “but we clearly have some work to do.”
Moody’s gave Illinois’ bonds a Baa3 rating with a negative outlook.
“The state’s credit outlook is negative, based on our expectation of continued growth in the state’s unfunded pension liabilities, the state’s difficulties in implementing a balanced budget that will allow further reduction of its bill backlog, and elevated vulnerability to national economic downturns or other external factors,” a Moody’s report said. […]
Moody’s noted the state’s bonds could get an upgrade if lawmakers take steps to reassure investors. Those steps would include adopting a plan to fund pension obligations, making progress in lowering the state’s bill backlog, and enactment of a sustainable, balanced budget.
Factors that could lead to a downgrade, Moody’s said, would be larger structural imbalance leading to a build-up of unpaid bills, pension holidays, or difficulties in managing a national recession, trade war or reductions in federal Medicaid funds.
Three of those last five factors are out of the state’s control.
Why do I say this is classic Biss? Well, here is a Biss question to Pritzker in late January…
You’ve contributed $42 million to your primary campaign for governor so far. Will you pledge to contribute at least $42 million to the general election campaign regardless of who the nominee is?
So, a few months ago Biss was all about pressuring Pritzker to commit to funding his own fall campaign with tens of millions of dollars. And now big money is a “cancer” on our politics.
This isn’t all that different from the days when he was an architect of pension reform, then wholly disavowed it during the campaign.
* I confess to being a bit cranky about Biss because of this Tribune story that broke during my week off…
Days before the Democratic primary, lieutenant governor candidate Litesa Wallace’s campaign denied she had fired a female legislative aide in 2014 for reporting sexual harassment by a community leader. Instead, a spokesman said, the woman was dismissed for unauthorized spending on a campaign credit card.
That same spokesman now acknowledges that Rep. Wallace, D-Rockford, knew — but did not mention — that a police investigation had later cleared the employee she fired, LaVern Sanders. The Illinois State Police determined the purchases were linked to a broader credit card fraud ring and ruled out Sanders as a suspect, according to documents obtained by the Tribune through a public records request.
So they dragged that poor woman through the mud for nothing.
Friday, Apr 6, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Did you know that health plans are changing Illinois families’ benefits while consumers are locked into their plans for the year? People in Illinois, especially those living with chronic conditions, carefully shop for a health plan which covers the treatments they need at prices they can afford. But health plans aren’t delivering the benefits they have marketed and sold to Illinois consumers.
House Bill 4146 Fixes the Health Plan Bait-and-Switch
House Bill 4146 would simply prevent insurers from making unfair – and potentially unsafe – benefit changes while Illinoisans are locked into the plan. The legislation, however, would still allow insurers to utilize generics, add treatments to their formularies and also remove them for safety reasons.
Insurers need to deliver on the policies they sell. The Illinois Legislature should support HB 4146 to make health coverage fair.
* It’s difficult to say when this weekly show was taped, but here’s the DGA…
Jeanne Ives: “Bruce Rauner Lied”
17 days after the Republican primary, and instead of a unity event, state Rep. Jeanne Ives is calling Gov. Bruce Rauner a liar to anyone who will listen.
In an interview with EWTN Pro-Life Weekly last night, Jeanne Ives said “Bruce Rauner lied” to the Republican base and touted her close finish in the Republican primary. She then promised to continue holding the failed governor “accountable” for the rest of his term, while failing to offer even a hint of an endorsement of his reelection.
“48% of Illinois Republicans voted for someone else and Bruce Rauner is doing nothing to repair his fractured party,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “Rauner’s approval ratings are in the gutter, his own party is in open revolt, and his chances at reelection look bleaker by the day.”
Illinois’ new “Invest in Kids” scholarship program got off to a fast start last week, attracting more than $36 million of the $100 million limit on its first day.
The governor’s pet project did, indeed, get off to a fast start, but it has stalled out since then. The total contributed as of today is $41 million - just $5 million more than three months ago and $59 million short of the $100 million goal. Also, just $36 million has been received so far.
* Anyway, on to the Rauner campaign…
It’s already clear that JB Pritzker is a tax cheat pushing tax hikes. He hides his money in the Bahamas to avoid paying his fair share of taxes while at the same time proposing a massive income tax hike on hardworking Illinois families.
Now this week, his hypocricsy hit a new level. JB Pritzker wants to immediately end the “Invest in Kids” tax credit scholarship program that provides low-income students an opportunity to finally have a better education. Yet at the same time, he’s benefitted from other tax credits to enhance his personal wealth.
JB Pritzker is completely fine with tax credits when they benefit him…just not when they provide opportunity for Illinois’ least fortunate students.
While Pritzker opposes the use of tax credits for private school scholarships, he supports them when it helps him pursue profit. According to state records, Pritzker claimed a total of $1.9 million in tax credits for companies he owns under the Angel Investment Credit Program, an initiative proposed under Governor Pat Quinn to entice wealthy investors to provide working capital to upstart companies in the state. Governor Bruce Rauner revived the program after it stalled in 2017.
…Former Florida Governor and 2016 presidential hopeful Jeb Bush highlighted Pritzker’s personal wealth and his willingness to reject the bipartisan deal in a tweet he posted Thursday afternoon, which declared Rauner a “champion.”
The Rauner campaign, which is supremely confident public opinion polls support their side in this debate, also highlighted the economic aspect of Pritzker’s stance.
“It’s shameful for Pritzker to say he would immediately end the scholarship program when so many low-income students will soon be benefiting from a better education,” campaign spokesman Will Allison wrote. “It’s clear Pritzker is out-of-touch with struggling families who can finally choose a brighter future for their children.”
Kinda apples to oranges, but it’s politics, so whatevs. And it’s baffling to me that the Rauner campaign didn’t mention the fact that Pritzker used the state high tech investment tax credit program to avoid paying any state income taxes in 2014.
“It’s appalling that the state loses out on precious education funds in order to give to wealthy donors a tax break. J.B. believes in investing in our public schools so that every child, no matter their zip code, has a quality education in their own neighborhood.”
Except that’s not occurring under this new law. A critical linchpin of the new funding formula was a hold harmless provision that insured no school district would lose funding on a per-pupil basis, which protected against any loss of funding in the event of public school students leaving for private school.
“This is private citizens giving private donations to a private 501(c)(3) that funds private students to go to a private schools. Never does the money pass through a state treasury or agency. It’s not funded by the government. It’s not funded by taxpayers.”
Um, it’s a potentially $75 million net reduction in taxes paid.
…Adding… From Rabbi Soroka…
What I said about private donations to private nonprofits was regarding the misconception that there’s a constitutional issue with this program. It had nothing to do with whether or not it results in a loss of revenue to the state. In fact, I’m quoted again later in the article as saying, “A voucher system takes money directly out of the state’s education spending budget. This (tax credit) is from general revenue.” That’s where I was making the point that even the maximum loss of revenue would not significantly impact the state’s ability to fund public education.
We need a robust public educational system that has the financial resources necessary to provide quality education for all the children it serves.
* The Tribune published a long and meandering story today - which is really three or so stories in one that jump back and forth - about Dan Proft, Brian Timpone, John Tillman and others who were involved in one way or another with those ubiquitous Proft papers we’ve been discussing for months. Here’s part of the not-for-profit angle…
Recently obtained documents and interviews show that an organization called Think Freely Media helped fund the operation that produced the [2016 article about a Liberty Principles PAC-backed statehouse candidate’s pitch to voters] for the East Central Reporter’s website. As a nonprofit, Think Freely is forbidden by federal law from engaging in politics, and it has described the articles it funded as news.
But State Board of Elections records also show a political committee, Liberty Principles, paid the same private company to publish the story in a print newspaper and mail it. That group, which state law says must spend its money on politicking, has labeled such content political ads. […]
Since 2015, thousands of articles have been published in more than two dozen print and online publications tied to Proft, who in addition to heading Liberty Principles has served as a [reported $100,000 annual] consultant to Think Freely Media. […]
[The Illinois Policy Institute’s John Tillman] also created Think Freely Media with the aim of touting the “benefits of limited government,” according to its IRS filing. In August 2015, the nonprofit began funding [Brian] Timpone’s Newsinator. Tax filings show that first round of cash amounted to $346,660. […]
“None of the content that was funded by TFM was political or electioneering in nature. To imply otherwise would be wrong,” [Think Freely Media’s president, Eric Tubbs] wrote.
But one group did say otherwise: Proft’s political committee, Liberty Principles. […]
The content complies with legal requirements for nonprofits and “TFM is not responsible for how a PAC uses it, characterizes it or otherwise mischaracterizes it as Ms. Svenson did,” Tubbs wrote in an email.
Essentially, if I’m reading this right, Tillman’s Think Freely paid for non-campaign stories run by Timpone’s Newsinator company. Newsinator paid for campaign-related stories. Proft, who has been a Think Freely consultant, then had his Liberty Principles PAC mail newspapers containing those one-sided Newsinator campaign stories to voters’ homes in races targeted by his PAC.
The papers have since been turned over to a new private company, Local Government Information, which is apparently controlled by Proft. Tipone’s Locality Lab now creates the content. The Tribune did not say whether Think Freely is currently involved.
Before the change, the operation appeared to be a cleverly intertwined web of a nonprofit social activist group, a for-profit business and a super PAC. The question, I suppose, is whether all the actors stayed strictly within their lanes back then and everybody remained independent and on the up and up. The Trib story doesn’t specifically answer either way.
For example, in addition to his role as chief executive officer at the institute, Tillman is the board chairman and former president of Think Freely Media, another small-government nonprofit that once shared office space with the institute and received hundreds of thousands of dollars from it in grant money.
In 2015, Think Freely Media made a $49,400, no-interest loan to a for-profit data and marketing company called Crowdskout. That came a few months after the nonprofit loaned Crowdskout $60,000 plus interest. At the time, Tillman had “majority unit control” of the entity that owned Crowdskout, according to a financial audit of Think Freely Media.
Experts say such transactions raise ethical questions and could violate the federal tax code for nonprofits. A zero-interest loan would benefit the for-profit company at the expense of the nonprofit. […]
“Obviously, these are all fully disclosed transactions, all at fair market value as they should be,” Tillman wrote. “And yes, people and companies are paid for providing services. When I have had a role with an organization, that relationship must be properly disclosed to the board and I recused myself regarding any decisions made.”
* University of Illinois Executive Vice President Barbara Wilson…
“We know for a fact that Texas A&M and the University of Texas have a special fund set aside to go poach Illinois faculty,” Wilson said. “We’ve been told that by numerous individuals, including some of the faculty they’re going after. So, we do have a reputational challenge in front of us, and I think part of the challenge is that our peers think that we’re struggling and they are going to use that opportunity to try and attract talent away.”
Those efforts increased by nearly 40 percent during the budget impasse, Wilson said.
And though the university was able to keep most of their talent, “it’s a lot of energy, a lot of time, and a lot of money to counter these offers from other institutions,” Wilson said.
Enter the University of Alabama. It awarded 203 full-tuition scholarships, out of 305 total, to freshman Illinoisans in 2017, defraying more than $100,000 in costs per student. The university has nearly quintupled over the past decade the amount of institutional, non-need-based aid it awards. […]
In 2016, Alabama spent more than $136.3 million in merit scholarships, which are not based on a family’s financial need, according to university data. That is up from $28.5 million a decade ago.
For many of these students, the equation was simple. Admitted students with at least a 3.5 grade point average and a 32 ACT or 1400 SAT score received full tuition for four years. The requirements are more stringent for incoming freshmen in 2018. In 2017, the average high school GPA of incoming freshmen was 3.72; one-third of students had a 4.0; more than 40 percent of the class scored a 30 or higher on their ACTs.
Even with tuition covered, Alabama still wins, collecting around $18,000 a year from out-of-state students for room and board and other expenses, more than the sticker price for in-state students.
Meanwhile, the UI is about to announce what President Tim Killeen said are “top-echelon” faculty members being pursued from other universities.
Wilson said the Distinguished Faculty Recruitment Program, launched last year to recruit senior faculty from around the country, “is on the cusp of making an announcement about several high-level people that we’ve recruited as part of the program. The goal is to bring in 10 to 12 senior-level faculty across the three universities each year.”
The three-year, $60 million effort will provide one-time grants not for salary “but for start-up funds to build labs and to create opportunities for graduate students, because if you’re a tenured faculty member at a really good university, you’re not going to come in and start over,” Wilson said. “So we have to create the kind of context to woo great faculty.”
UI President Tim Killeen told senators that he wants to increase the university system’s enrollment, now just under 84,000, to 93,000 by 2021.
Most of the enrollment growth would be at the Chicago and Springfield campuses, he said.
“It’s a mix of things. At Urbana, we’d be strongly propelling the distance education, the online components,” he explained after the hearing. “We’d also be looking at professional master’s programs at Urbana since the undergraduate classes are close to capacity.” […]
UI Vice President Wilson said the freshman class at the Urbana campus “is about as big as it can be right now, because everybody has to live in the residence halls, and there are capacity issues there as well as concerns about whether you can get the classes you need to graduate. They’re about tapped out on the freshman level, but they can bring in more transfer students.”
Killeen also said that the UI will continue a tuition freeze for in-state undergraduates for the fourth consecutive year next fall and that he would like to extend it at least two years beyond that.
People in severe pain need care and sympathy, not red tape.
Unfortunately, medical marijuana patients in Illinois have been getting the red tape. When doctors certify that patients have a qualifying disease, the state is supposed to give the patients a card permitting them to buy medical marijuana from an authorized dispensary. But though the law says patients should get the cards in 30 days or less, it’s reportedly taking the Illinois Department of Public Health far longer to issue them.
Even patients who have emergencies or terminal illnesses and who are supposed to get cards within 14 days are finding themselves snarled in red tape, lawmakers say.
That’s appalling. No one should have to suffer day after day and week after week because of bureaucratic understaffing or because the state government is doing a slow walk on an important program. Special taxes on businesses supplying medical marijuana have piled up, unspent, to a total of $11.6 million instead of being used to hire enough staff to process applications, says state Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago.
Day 16: Jeanne “The Godfather” Ives to Rauner “Revenge Is A Dish That Tastes Best When It Is Cold”
Future resident of Italy, Governor Bruce Rauner, made news yesterday after donating Mario Puzo’s Godfather papers to the Dartmouth Library, but Rauner could learn a thing or two from Puzo’s words.
Like Puzo’s characters, Rauner is stuck in his own inter-organization power struggle with state Representative Jeanne Ives. After years of Rauner’s lies and betrayals, Ives declared a vendetta against the failed Governor, nearly toppling him from power.
While Rauner clings on for dear life, he has failed to bring his organization together, and Ives has left his weaknesses exposed. Don Corleone once told his son Michael that “revenge is a dish that tastes best when it is cold.” With Ives’ vendetta unfulfilled and an organization perhaps irrevocably fractured, will Rauner’s dysfunctional GOP family betray him? It’s the type of drama that belongs in the pages of a Puzo novel.
“Bruce Rauner’s vulnerabilities are exposed, his grasp on power slipping, and his own party is ready to watch him fall,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “Rauner needs Jeanne Ives and the 48% of Republicans that wanted her to represent them on his side, but theirs is a family power struggle that shows no signs of subsiding.”
* Zorn writes about the press release and concludes…
Sure, primaries are bruising, the rhetoric is heated and pragmatism generally ends up superseding principle when it comes time to vote. Even Ives has said she’ll vote for Rauner (though she’s said her husband will not).
Unity breakfasts, like the gathering the Democratic gubernatorial rivals had the Saturday morning after the March 20 primary, are polite agreements to ignore the preceding ugliness and pretend the ideological differences are minor.
But that rhetorical salve is important. Parties with open, infected wounds have a hard time getting healthy by the time voters go to the polls. Every day that goes by with Rauner refusing to apologize and Ives refusing to offer a single nice word about him is a day for the Democrats to celebrate.
Seventeen days on Friday. And counting.
The best thing about a March primary is that there’s plenty of time to heal wounds by the November general. But these are obviously gonna fester a while longer.
Dan Proft, by the way, just had the Libertarian Party’s candidate on his radio show for a friendly interview. The candidate went out of his way to praise Jeanne Ives’ campaign.
