* Facebook…
This is from my hero Rep Deb Conroy. She never stops amazing me with her personal strength and heart.
Posted by Kathleen Willis on Thursday, June 28, 2018
* Rep. Deb Conroy explains the image on her Facebook page…
The Transplant Team at Rush gave this to me today. When I pinned it on my shirt I found myself looking around the waiting room at all the many patients. Men and women of all different race and age waiting for and not knowing when or where their donor will come from.
From the bottom of my heart I want everyone to know that one week post surgery I feel great, I lost 4 pounds and I now have an answer to a question my little nephew once asked me. Liam asked me once why does God give us two kidneys if we only need one? Well Liam, God had me carry an extra one around and keep it safe until it found a new home with Uncle Tim.
So many people are waiting for the gift of life and through live donation we can give it.
Rep. Conroy has not had an easy year, to say the least, so I’d like to take this opportunity to wish her nothing but the best and the speediest recovery possible.
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*** UPDATED x1 *** Our sorry state
Thursday, Jun 28, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Great governing…
The Associated Press has learned that private Illinois nursing homes are fronting $300 million for residential care because the state is so far behind on determining whether they’re eligible for Medicaid.
Numbers compiled by state Comptroller Susana Mendoza and obtained by the AP show the state has a backlog of 15,000 people who are awaiting Medicaid eligibility determinations. The backlog has nearly tripled since August 2014.
A judge in a federal lawsuit ordered the state to clear up the backlog by Thursday or presume everyone is eligible and put up the state’s Medicaid share of $300 million.
Unbelievable.
*** UPDATE *** Excerpt from the comptroller’s press release…
The Comptroller’s report, which uses Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) data, found that the number of pending Medicaid eligibility determinations for LTC over 90-days-old rose 143 percent between December 2017 and May 2018. HFS has reported it can only process 60 percent of new, incoming applications in a timely manner and, as of the end of last month, there were 16,378 pending admissions. According to the Associated Press, the estimated cost of these pending admissions is up to $300 million.
These problems are occurring at the same time the Rauner Administration continues to dump tax dollars into a failed technology solution meant to streamline Medicaid eligibility processes. The state has committed $288 million to Deloitte, the global consulting firm, for an Integrated Eligibility System (IES) to modernize enrollment in benefit programs like LTC or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps.
In six years, the cost of the Deloitte IES has doubled from $144 million to nearly $300 million. The IES has been plagued by public failures that have stopped or delayed critical services for eligible, needy families. And the cost continues to rise: Earlier this month, HFS issued an emergency request to outsource its application processing duties. The cost will likely exceed $14 million over the next two years.
The full report is here.
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* Hmm…
SEIU could be on the hook for “$32 million it unconstitutionally seized from over 80,000 personal assistants without their consent,” according to the petition.
AFSCME fought SEIU over which union should represent those workers. I’m betting the folks at AFSCME are breathing a sigh of relief right now that they lost.
*** UPDATE *** The Illinois News Network has a story up entitled “Foundation: Janus decision could prompt refund of ‘billions’ in forced union fees”…
National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix said this is good news for workers.
“We’re going to be able to get the money back for those home healthcare workers in Illinois and we may be able to get the money back for every government employee across the country that has been forced to pay these fees,” Mix said.
* However, this is from the petition…
To allow unions to profit from unconstitutional fee seizures will beget more unconstitutional fee seizures. This ramification will be especially problematic if the Court rules this term in Janus that it is unconstitutional to force public employees to pay agency fees. Under the Seventh and Sixth Circuits’ decisions, public sector unions will have little incentive to comply with that ruling and cease their agency fee seizures. Instead, unions will have a strong financial incentive to keep seizing fees from nonmembers until a court forces them to stop, because the unions will be able to retain most of the illegally seized monies. It is thereby imperative the Court establish that unions are not free to keep monies they unconstitutionally seize from nonmembers who have not expressed an objection.
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* Two weeks ago…
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said education reforms in the recently passed state budget will definitely help Western Illinois University-Quad Cities.
Appearing before some 100 students, faculty and others Thursday afternoon at the Riverfront Hall in Moline, Rauner said he believes a number of things in the state budget will help the students immediately.
“The immediate thing is we got the budget passed,” he said. “We got the MAP (Monetary Award Program) grants fully funded (for all four years of a student’s education). We got $25 million more coming to our state institutions of higher ed. And we’ve got immediate help on getting the support for this year.”
But, he quickly added, more work is needed. Among the things he plans to tackle are adding more resources while greatly reducing or eliminating mandates, restrictions, requirements and procurement, pension, hiring limitations and bureaucracy.
“Higher education, this is our time,” Rauner said.
* Today…
Hat tip: Jake.
…Adding… The WIU press release is here.
…Adding… Pritzker campaign…
“After state universities were crushed by Bruce Rauner’s 736-day budget crisis, layoffs are still plaguing our higher education system because of his failed leadership,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Teachers and students’ futures are being jeopardized by a failed governor who puts photo-ops ahead of actually doing his job.”
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* Republican attorney general candidate Erika Harold…
“The Janus decision strikes a constitutional balance, respecting a person’s choice to join a public sector union while ensuring those who choose not to join are not compelled in violation of the First Amendment to pay fees to support speech and advocacy they do not feel benefits them and with which they disagree.”
* Worth noting…
* But Greg Hinz claims the Janus decision isn’t about “free speech” at all, it’s about partisan politics…
Plaintiff Mark Janus was just a patsy. This case was all about politics, about giving one political party and its ideology and its beliefs about who ought to pay how much in taxes a leg up on the other. As Trump tweeted, “Big loss for the coffers of the Democrats!”
Indeed. As the four liberal dissenters on the court wrote, “When the vicious cycle (of union members dropping their membership) finally ends, chances are that the union will effectively lack the resources to effectively perform.” Either as a bargaining agent, or in the political sphere. Take that, Mike Madigan and you evil Democrats! That’s what’s really going on.
Now, in the abstract, I understand the notion that someone like Janus, a child specialist with the Illinois Department of Healthcare & Family Services, shouldn’t be forced to pay partial dues to the American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees. Even though Janus is exempted from paying the share of dues that go toward partisan political activity by AFCME, the court majority held that even contributing to what the union tries to accomplish at the bargaining table might offend his views. Like, for instance, seeking insurance coverage for female union members who want an abortion. Or extra hiring consideration for African-Americans or Latinos. The majority didn’t really say.
But it hinted at one of the sentiments underlying its opinion, writing, “Public sector union membership has surpassed that in the private sector and that ascendancy corresponds with a parallel increase in public spending.” Translation: Rauner is right that unions force up spending and taxes. So we’re gonna give him some help.
* And Aviva Bowen of both the IFT and Kwame Raoul’s campaign agreed with Hinz in her response to Erika Harold’s comment…
Spare me. This case was about politics, not speech. Bruce Rauner and Donald Trump bragged about that yesterday. No one was ever forced to pay fees to support political candidates, and nothing in Janus changed that.
This case was a brazen attempt to further rig the economy and weaken the collective voice of the middle class. And it’s why, more than ever, we need a strong Attorney General like Kwame Raoul who will fight back and defend workers’ rights.
*** UPDATE *** Springfield’s Catholic Bishop…
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“Most of them won’t be funded this year”
Thursday, Jun 28, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Civic Federation looks at state appropriations for capital projects…
The total appropriation of roughly $17.1 billion is the largest capital bill since FY2015. The roughly $8.1 billion of new appropriations are the highest amount since the passage of FY2010’s Illinois Jobs Now! capital plan.
However, since the FY2019 budget does not raise any additional revenues for capital projects, it is unlikely that a majority of the appropriations will be spent during the fiscal year. Authorized projects that are not completed or started may be rolled forward with reappropriations in future years.
* As does the Bond Buyer…
llinois’ new state budget paves the way for the state to pay off swaps tied to $600 million of floating-rate debt and authorizes $1.8 billion in new general obligation borrowing to finance pension buyouts and capital projects.
The new GO authority — $1 billion for the buyouts and $800 million for capital — is lean and falls far short of a fiscal 2019 capital budget that totals $16.8 billion when new authorizations of $7.8 billion are counted along with $9 billion in reauthorized projects. Most of them won’t be funded this year.
Keep all that in mind during the summer and fall ribbon-cutting ceremonies.
* Back to the Bond Buyer…
State debt service peaks this year at $4.4 billion and then declines by $1 billion next year as bonds issued in 2011 to cover pension payments are retired. The state owes a total of $32.2 billion in principal and $14.2 billion in interest on $14 billion of GOs for capital, $2.3 billion of Build Illinois sales-tax bonds, the $6 billion of GO bill backlog pay down debt issued last fall, and $9.9 pension-related GO debt. The backlog borrowing carries $1.8 billion of interest and is retired in fiscal 2030.
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* Missed in yesterday’s hullabaloo over yesterday’s Janus decision was a $255,000 independent expenditure by Fight Back for a Better Tomorrow PAC (click here).
Fight Back for a Better Tomorrow, you’ll recall, is run by top officials of Operating Engineers Union Local 150. The dark money super PAC spent well over a million bucks in the attorney general’s primary against Rep. Scott Drury and former Gov. Pat Quinn. The end game was to help Sen. Kwame Raoul’s bid, and it worked.
The latest expenditure is designated as “Media - television” in support of Sen. Raoul’s general election campaign.
Contribution caps are lifted after a statewide candidate contributes more than $250,000 to his/her own campaign or someone else expends more than that amount to benefit or oppose a statewide campaign.
The Illinois State Board of Elections just formally lifted the caps (click here).
JB Pritzker and Gov. Rauner and other bigtime money-bags are now free to give Raoul and Erika Harold whatever they want.
Discuss.
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Rauner campaign continues victory lap
Thursday, Jun 28, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Rauner campaign…
What They’re Saying: Governor Rauner’s “Major Victory” in Janus v. AFSCME
Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME to restore free speech rights of government workers. Governor Rauner first initiated the case and has fought for freedom of speech from the moment he was sworn in to office.
Take a look at what they’re saying about Governor Rauner’s victory:
Chicago Tribune:
“In a case with roots in Rauner’s first weeks in office, the court ruled that public workers shouldn’t have to pay fees to a union they don’t want to join.
…Challenging the fees was one of Rauner’s first acts when he took office in 2015. He issued an executive order giving state workers who don’t want to pay permission not to, and he later instructed state agencies to stop collecting the fees on behalf of public employee unions. He also preemptively filed a federal lawsuit seeking to have the matter escalated to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Rauner has used the Janus lawsuit to make the case to voters that he should be reelected to a second term, pointing to it as an accomplishment from his time in office and promising that once the fees are overturned, it will result in ‘transformative change’ for taxpayers.
….You look at how we’re going to transform politics in Illinois, across America, when we win the federal lawsuit against AFSCME that I started,’ Rauner said. ‘That’s transformative. You think that Republicans across Illinois, across America, aren’t excited about how that will change the balance of power between taxpayers and special interest groups inside government?’”
CBS 2 Chicago:
“The 5-4 ruling in Janus vs. AFSCME is a win for Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has fought to weaken labor unions, and once was a plaintiff in the case.”
Chicago Tribune Editorial:
“If government workers don’t have to contribute, maybe this begins a reckoning for the political class of Illinois. We’re not great fans of that symbiosis between one party and the public’s workforce. Unions have a vested interest in the taxing-and-spending status quo in Illinois, which in fiscal terms is a disaster. Democrats have been too happy to go along for the ride, saddling taxpayers with enormous public debts. The results for this state and its economy are political gridlock and disappointment: Illinois has weak job growth, a bleak credit rating and a $130 billion hole in the state’s pension funds. Those are largely byproducts of the hand-holding between unions and Dems.”
WBEZ:
“Rauner, who was in Washington, D.C., praised Wednesday’s decision. ‘For decades, Illinois workers have been forced to pay partial union dues against their will,’ Rauner said in a statement. ‘The practice infringed on the constitutional rights of public sector workers who were asked to give up their First Amendment rights as a condition of employment. This decision fairly reinstates those rights.’”
Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform:
“The ‘Janus’ SCOTUS Case was at the start —AFSCME vs Rauner.
Rauner will soon have changed the world for the better more than most governors in US history ever have”
Andrew Nelms, Americans For Prosperity Illinois State Director:
“This decision is a huge victory for workers not just in Illinois but across the country. Forcing public workers to fund political activity to keep a job and support their family is a violation of the Constitution. This case vindicates our activists who have long asserted that forcing workers to fund political activity without their consent was a violation of the fundamental and unassailable right to free speech.”
ABC News:
“The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of public employees’ First Amendment rights to decline to pay union dues, marking a potential blow to the funding for influential unions of public employees.
The Court found that union fees violate the free speech rights of nonmembers by compelling them to subsidize private speech on public matters, even if they disagree with the message.”
Belleville News-Democrat:
“The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that a Springfield man does not have to belong to a union, in a case that could have far-reaching implications for workers across the country.”
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