* Press release…

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner put politics over people and sought to increase his own power when he used an amendatory veto to change technical legislation to give himself new authority over approval of certain investments, Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs said [yesterday].

“This is a stunning act even by Illinois’ insider and corrupt standards,” Frerichs said. “Before the Governor tries to do the Treasurer’s job, he should work on doing his own.”

Rauner changed SB 2661. The bi-partisan legislation, sponsored by Senator Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago) and Representative Robert Martwick (D-Chicago), would have allowed the treasurer’s office to invest up to five percent of administrative funds in stocks of publicly traded American businesses.

Higher returns in the administrative funds would enable lower investment fees and lead to higher returns for college savers and local governments who use the Treasurer’s programs. Rauner’s proposed change would allow him – rather than the treasurer’s office – to have the final say over the actual stocks to be purchased or sold based on personal preferences rather than sound investment strategies.

“Separation of powers is as old as our country. It is a bedrock of our democracy,” Frerichs said. “In this era of executive overreach, Governor Rauner’s amendatory veto simply defies common sense.”

The legislation had overwhelming support by Republicans and Democrats. It passed the House 114-1 and the Senate 55-1.

* Fox 55…

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, from 1991 to 2014 the state of Illinois lost 50,000 students at public universities and community colleges. Governor Bruce Rauner signed 2 new laws Tuesday in an effort to keep Illinois students in the state. […]

Senate Bill 2927 creates the AIM HIGH grant Pilot Program, a merit-based scholarship for Illinois students who attend college in-state. House Bill 4781 creates a task force to help share college and career interest data between high schools and higher education institutions.

* Press release…

Yesterday Governor Rauner issued an amendatory veto to House Bill 5104, which abolished the $5 co-pay Illinois prisoners must pay to see a doctor. The Governor cited balancing “the need to provide medical services with potential abuses of a free medical system that could create significant backlogs in an already overburdened Corrections healthcare system.” This decision is incredibly disappointing and the reasoning behind it flies in the face of research and correctional realities. There is little or no substantiation for the assertion that without a medical co-pay, prisoners will seek medical attention regardless of medical need; there is a plethora of evidence demonstrating correctional medical co-pays result in poorer overall health for prisoners and staff as well as increased costs to the state due to administrative expenses and heavier utilization of expensive emergency treatments.

HB5104 passed the Legislature with bipartisan support, and the Illinois Department of Corrections, the agency most impacted by this legislation, took a neutral position on it. The fact that the agency charged with the medical care of the state’s incarcerated population did not oppose abolishing the $5 co-pay is evidence that concerns about abuses of the prison healthcare system are not founded on fact or experience. Illinois is not alone in recognizing this; the National Commission on Correctional Health Care opposes inmate co-pays as an obstruction to quality, necessary healthcare in prisons.

* Other stuff…

* Deal him in: Decades later, ‘Gov. No-No’ now says ‘yes, yes’ to Chicago casino: Former Gov. Jim Edgar on Wednesday told the Sun-Times he doesn’t oppose a Chicago casino “anymore.”

* Jim Edgar: From one Illinois governor to another: Sign these five immigration bills

* Equitable funding is needed, SIUE staff members tell state panel: Kim Archer, president of the union at Edwardsville called SIUE needing to loan money to SIUC a slap in the face to Edwardsville. “After all, we were also entering our fourth year without so much as a half-percent cost of living adjustment, while some administrators on our campus quietly received five-figure raises,” Archer said.

* More protections needed for tax dollars, lawmaker says: Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a law to better control how taxpayer-funded grants are spent, but a state senator who pushed for the measure said it needs to go further. Rauner signed Senate Bill 2540 this week. The law puts limits on how grant dollars are issued. “Numerous nonprofits in Illinois are doing excellent, important work to improve our environment or improve people’s lives,” Rauner said in a statement. “This will help ensure that our limited grant resources are put to the best use.”

* New Law Aims to Increase Use of Compost in Illinois

* Learn the ‘Dutch Reach,’ save a cyclist’s life