In 1929, the six richest states in the U.S. were, in descending order, New York, Delaware, Connecticut, California, Illinois and New Jersey. Four of those are still in the top six (Illinois missed the cut by a few places, while Delaware has fallen to 22nd; Maryland and Massachusetts replaced them). […]
Per-capita personal income is admittedly not the most closely watched of economic indicators. In the short term, it can give some pretty strange results: West Virginia had the fastest-growing per-capita income of all the states in 2018, according to preliminary data released late last month by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, but that was partly because its population shrank by an estimated 11,216. Per-capita income also doesn’t tell us anything about the distribution of income. The Census Bureau’s median household income estimates do that, but those come with big margins of error and are only readily available back to the mid-1980s. Which leaves per-capita personal income as a quite useful measure of the changing fortunes over time of American states and localities (it’s available down to the county level). […]
Now here are the states … that saw the biggest relative losses in per-capita income from 1929 to 1980, and what’s happened to them since:
Change in per-capita personal income as a percentage of national average…
Finally, here are the 19 states where income gains outpaced the country as a whole over the past decade […]
This is a mix of states bouncing back from a really terrible 2000s (Michigan most of all, but also Colorado and Indiana), a state gaining in per-capita income as its population shrinks (Illinois), and states that are genuinely booming (Washington, Massachusetts, Oregon and others).
States With the Most Income Growth Since 2008: Change in per-capita personal income as a percentage of national average…
Today, Think Big Illinois released two new ads highlighting the need for a fair tax. The 15 second ads will be running in media markets across the state as part of Think Big Illinois’ latest efforts to ensure voters have the chance to decide whether they want a tax system that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.
The first ad, “How Unfair,” explains how the current tax system disproportionately places the burden on our middle-class families, who on average are forced to pay nearly 13% of their income for state and local taxes. In contrast, the top 1% of Illinoisans only have to pay around 7% of their income for state and local taxes.
The second ad, “Affect You,” highlights how Governor Pritzker’s fair tax will impact Illinoisans, including that 97% of Illinoisans will not see a state income tax increase, with only those making above $250,000 paying more. A fair tax will also help address the $3.2 billion budget crisis we’re currently facing and bring in much-needed revenue to fund critical programs, including our schools.
Unlike the group’s first TV ad, neither of these ads feature Gov. Pritzker.
How unfair is Illinois’ tax system?
If you’re a middle-class family, you’re forced to pay around 13% of your income in taxes.
But the top 1%, they pay only about half as much.
It’s time for change.
Let’s make our tax system fair in Illinois.
How will a fair tax affect you?
For 97% of Illinoisans, it would mean no income tax increase.
Only people making above $250,000 would pay more.
It’s time for change.
Let’s make our tax system fair in Illinois.
* The buy…
Think Big Illinois added 4/11-4/15
Chicago, Champaign, Peoria, and Rockford broadcast and cable
Total New Spending: $405,445
1,000 GRPs in Chicago. 380 GRPs in Champaign/Spi. 176 GRPs in Peoria. 132 GRPs in Rockford
In any such [income] tax imposed upon corporations the rate shall not exceed the rate imposed on individuals by more than a ratio of 8 to 5.
One idea behind that clause was to prevent the General Assembly from jacking up rates on corporations by making sure they’d also have to raise rates on individuals.
The current corporate income tax rate is 7 percent (not including the Personal Property Replacement Tax), while the personal rate is 4.95 percent. That’s an easy-to-figure ratio of 7 to 4.95, so there’s actually a little cap space remaining. The corporate rate could legally be increased right now to 7.92 percent (plus PPRT).
In any such [income] tax imposed upon corporations the highest rate shall not exceed the highest rate imposed on individuals by more than a ratio of 8 to 5.
Pritzker’s highest proposed individual income tax rate is 7.95 percent. The governor’s proposed corporate rate is 7.95 percent.
But that 8-5 ratio amendment means the corporate rate could legally be increased to 12.72 percent, plus the 1.5 to 2.5 percent PPRT. That means the highest final corporate rate could go as high as 15.22 percent.
Whew.
…Adding… If they cap out, and I’m not saying they will, that rate would be the highest anywhere…
Under Pritzker's rate structure, this amendment would allow for an effective corporate income tax rate of up to 15.22% (8/5ths of JB's top personal rate of 7.95% + 2.5% PPRT). That would be the highest in the nation by far. Note that Iowa's is scheduled to drop. pic.twitter.com/7F8eHWF3zs
* A Senate appropriations committee held a hearing on the Illinois Department of Human Services budget this week…
Another proposed increase is for the Child Care Assistance Program.
Parents at 185 percent of the federal poverty line can get child care assistance now. DHS is looking to increase that to 200 percent, which could cost about $30 million more.
Righter said that before putting more money into the program, DHS needs to figure out why there’s $100 million in unused funding for the program with the existing income threshold.
“Going to 200 or 215 [percent of the FPL] is good eye candy,” Righter said, “but if we’re leaving people on the table who have less money than that, nobody wants that. Nobody wants that. I don’t care what party you are, nobody wants that.”
State Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, agreed there needs to be an answer why there’s excess money at the lower threshold.
“I’m supportive of increasing the eligibility, but we have 69 percent of the families that are eligible that are not part of the program,” Villivalam said.
Villivalam used to work for SEIU Healthcare, so he should know the answer to his question.
* Child care advocates have been predicting this would happen ever since Gov. Bruce Rauner started slashing eligibility in 2015. Let’s fire up the Wayback Machine…
Under new Illinois Department of Human Services rules instated July 1, [2015] some parents earning minimum wage in full-time jobs make twice as much as the cutoff.
In fact, 90 percent of parents throughout the state who tried to sign up after July 1 are no longer eligible, according to estimates by lawmakers and advocates. That includes not only families new to the program, but those parents, like Jamison, who had not used the program during summer months and tried to re-enroll only to discover they no longer qualified. […]
The state assistance program was created after the 1996 federal Welfare-to-Work initiative. Prior to July 1, it had served families that earned up to 185 percent of the federal poverty line, which would be $51,634 for a family of five or $29,101 for a single parent and child. Under the new emergency rules enacted by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration, if a single parent with one child earns more than $7,968 a year, that family is no longer eligible. In all, about 20,000 children who would otherwise be eligible for the Child Care Assistance Program are expected to be without state-subsidized care by the end of the month. More than 160,000 children had care through the program up until the rule change. The new rule does not apply to families already enrolled at the time it took effect.
“Those slots now that child care providers have are sitting open, and they can’t fill them because 90 percent of people who would apply are no longer eligible,’’ says Emily Miller, director of policy and advocacy for Voices for Illinois Children.
Those projections were revised upward to 30,000 kids being deemed ineligible, then revised up again to 40,000. Because of that, a whole lot of providers simply gave up due to lack of work, decimating the provider network.
In budget documents released Tuesday, Governor Rauner declared he would cut nearly $60 million for an extension of the Child Care Assistance Program that was both mandated by the federal government and approved by the state legislature. That funding would go to expand CCAP eligibility for working families from six to twelve months, per the federal block grant, and ensure that families have the continuity of care they need.
Currently, Illinois’ CCAP eligibility is re-determined every 6 months, and children can lose access to their care setting, even if they are eligible again a short time after they are removed from the program. This creates a reality where kids churn in and out of child care settings and subsidy payments, leading to instability that impacts their development and school readiness, and adds additional burdens to working parents.
Rauner began his war on child care in the summer of 2015, unilaterally slashing the Child Care Assistance Program by 90%. Time and again, the governor vetoed legislation to restore and expand CCAP eligibility, despite desperate pleas from many parents that his CCAP cuts put them at risk of losing their jobs or having to drop out of school.
After two years, SEIU child care providers and working parents have forced Governor Rauner to fully reverse his child care cuts. However, the damage has been done. Today CCAP serves nearly 40,000 fewer children than before Rauner’s 2015 cuts and has 10,000 fewer child care providers in program.
The task at hand is to convince parents and potential providers that this is now a stable, reliable program. That won’t be a simple matter.
*** UPDATE *** Sen. Villivalam called to say that what he was trying to get across at the hearing was the dire need for public outreach. DHS, he said, isn’t doing much to inform the public. Villivalam has a bill in the hopper, SB1321, which would require DHS to promote the availability of the Child Care Assistance Program. That bill passed the Senate unanimously.
* I didn’t notice it yesterday during the roll call, but House Republican Leader Jim Durkin voted for this bill, as did a handful of other Republicans…
The state of Illinois is one step closer to hiking the minimum salary for teachers to $40,000 a year.
House Bill 2078 passed the House on a 79-31 vote Tuesday. The bill would phase in the salary increase over a period of five years.
“Better wages bring better teachers, and better teachers mean better schools,” state Rep. Mike Halpin (D-Rock Island) said. “High-quality education will attract people and business back to Illinois and pump money into our economy. This pay increase will benefit communities across the state.”
The bill is supported by the Illinois Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union.
Durkin voted “No” last year. I’m told he changed his mind partly because of the state’s teacher shortage.
On Tuesday, supporters of legislation that would amend gun ownership laws and make fingerprinting mandatory for a FOID card say it’s a mathematical certainty that of the 265,000 concealed carry licensees and more than 2 million FOID card holders in Illinois, Arquero and Martin are not the only ones who lied on their applications. […]
[Valinda Rowe, the spokeswoman for IllinoisCarry] believes the law that requires anyone who wants a gun to spend $10 on a FOID card that is good for 10 years is unconstitutional as it stands. Any amendments or future legislation aimed at further restricting gun owners’ rights would only exacerbate the problem, she said. And shortening the FOID card’s expiration date from 10 years to five, which is also part of the legislative proposal, puts an additional burden on citizens, she said. […]
The bill also would require applicants, who now can fill out necessary forms online, to apply for both a FOID or a CCL in person at an Illinois State Police district office. Rowe also took issue with that provision.
“There are only 22 district offices for Illinois State Police in the entire state. How can 22 district offices handle two-and-a-quarter million FOID applicants in their 22 lobbies?” she asked.
* Mandatory nurse staffing would lead to cuts in other health care areas: To begin with, there are not enough nurses in Illinois to meet the ratios, with a projected shortage of 21,000 nurses by next year and one-third of registered nurses (RNs) in Illinois planning to retire within the next five years. Even if smaller hospitals like FHN Memorial Hospital could find enough qualified RNs to meet the mandates, it would be done at the expense of staffing cuts in other areas. In turn, that could mean that nurses would be doing work that does not maximize their training and capabilities for the best care of their patients. These negative impacts on the RN work environment and their opportunities for advancement would further curtail our ability to attract and hire nurses in an already challenging hiring environment.
* Some creative ways to save money in Illinois public schools: Authors Adam Slade and Nick McFadden estimate that Illinois could save $645 million per year, or $318 per student, if it reduced administrative spending to the national average.
* Rezin’s health care bills good news for Illinoisans: Rezin, the Republican state senator from Morris, sponsored Senate Bill 2026, which would require legislative approval before the state could apply for a federal waiver to the Affordable Care Act that reduced or eliminated protections for people with pre-existing conditions. She noted the move was necessary to provide peace of mind after 2018 federal legislation giving states the right to waive portions of ACA compliance.
* Caseworkers notified about New Elder Law: Under our new Kasem-Baksys Visitation Law, close family members being unreasonably denied visitation with their elder by another family member can go to court, outside of guardianship proceedings. This is important because abusive isolation can start when an elder first becomes physically dependent, long before he or she becomes mentally disabled.
Families seeking a religious exemption next year, or transferring after Oct. 16, will have to complete a certificate explaining their objection on religious grounds before kindergarten, 6th and 9th grades. That certificate also must include the signature of a doctor, attesting that he or she counseled the parents about the risks of skipping vaccines.
How effective the new law will be in reducing the number of unvaccinated children isn’t clear, since how schools define a religious objection isn’t clear either. The Illinois State Board of Education tracked more than 13,000 such exemptions in 2013, said spokeswoman Megan Griffin. While the objection doesn’t have to be based on religious doctrine, it can’t be based simply on personal preference either, she said.
The certificate also reflects the parents or legal guardians understanding that their child may be excluded from school in the case of a vaccine-preventable disease outbreak or exposure. Parents
The evidence keeps piling up that Illinois must toughen its law on vaccine exemptions.
In dozens of schools in the Chicago area and in hundreds across the state, vaccination rates are below what experts recommend to prevent the spread of measles, according to a new analysis by WBEZ.
According to experts, at least 98% of students in a school should be vaccinated for their own protection — and to provide group protection for children who, for legitimate medical reasons, can’t be vaccinated for the highly contagious disease.
But WBEZ found that at 67 Chicago-area schools, and 514 schools across Illinois, vaccination rates topped out at 95% or lower. At four Chicago schools, fewer than 50% of children had proof of vaccination.
* The Question: Should Illinois eliminate all non-medical childhood vaccine exemptions? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
“When we were at this conference a year ago, Illinois had the most anti-union governor in the nation,” Pritzker said. The audience booed each time Pritzker said Rauner’s name. Pritzker paused, with relish, at each round of boos. […]
Rauner “was hell bent,” Pritzker said, on eliminating project labor agreements, pushing local right-to-work zones and “destroying” prevailing wage agreements while “stacking the Illinois Department of Labor with his anti-union cronies allied with the Koch Brothers,” a reference to the anti-union drives bankrolled by the billionaire brothers. […]
Pritzker told the group about actions he did from day one as governor: signing orders restoring project labor and prevailing wage agreements and dealing with wage theft and day-labor exploitation. He also signed a law raising the Illinois minimum wage to $15-an-hour by 2025.
“I want to be clear. When it comes to fighting for Illinois workers, we are just getting started,” said Pritzker.
* Let’s begin our coverage of the governor’s graduated income tax press conference with this Tribune excerpt…
GOP lawmakers and a pro-business political committee called Ideas Illinois, run by former Illinois Manufacturers’ Association chief Greg Baise, have attacked Pritzker’s proposal as a “jobs tax” and argued that it would push businesses and wealthy residents out of state.
“For those who will oppose a fair tax by waging a misinformation campaign, it is transparent that you are defending an unfair status quo that benefits the wealthiest Illinoisans instead of offering your own ideas for how to fix our state’s problems,” Pritzker said.
The governor cited a report from PolitiFact Illinois that rated the “jobs tax” claim as false.
But is it “really” the hardest-working paper in all of America? I’m sure I could find experts, as PolitiFact often does, to establish some benchmarks about what hard work is, and about how reporters work very hard all over the country. I could then send an e-mail to the paper’s publisher asking him to justify the slogan, then follow up with maybe the Tribune’s publisher to see if he agreed. And then I could easily rate that slogan “False” or even “Pants on Fire!” because it wasn’t true.
Yes, that would be silly, but don’t we generally hold newspapers to a higher standard than dark money committees? Should they be allowed to run such misleading ad campaigns? Who’s going to speak for the children?!
The proposed amendment to change Illinois’ constitution from a flat income tax to one with higher rates for higher earners will get a last-minute hearing Wednesday in Springfield. […]
On Tuesday, state Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, requested the six-day posting requirements to hold a committee hearing be waived. He asked for his Senate Joint Constitutional Amendment No. 1, which includes language to change the state’s flat tax to a tax structure that levies higher rates on higher incomes, to be heard in the Senate Executive Committee on Wednesday.
State Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, objected.
“What’s at issue here is a substantive amendment to the Illinois constitution that will affect the finances and taxes of millions of Illinoisans,” Righter said. “At the very least, the six days notice required is appropriate for this body … to have a conversation about the contents of the amendment and the effects it might have on our constituents.”
I don’t particularly care for the posting waiver, either. But, really, what actual “conversation” can Senators have while the proposal awaits a committee hearing? Isn’t that what a hearing is for?
At any one time there may be no more than one such tax imposed by the State for State purposes on individuals and one such tax so imposed on corporations.
Under the proposed language, they argued, the state would actually be allowed to levy multiple income taxes, each for a different purpose, which would effectively allow the state to tax the same income multiple times. […]
“That means it could set up for all kinds of surcharges,” Maisch said. “It means you could go ahead and actually have a second income tax to go ahead and fund, I don’t know, transportation or whatever the other need is. But they are eliminating that taxpayer protection that says, ‘this dollar of income can only be taxed once by the state.’” […]
According to Harmon, the prohibition on levying multiple income taxes was simply a companion to the requirement for a single, flat tax rate. Without that prohibition, he said, the framers feared that lawmakers could levy a series of “flat” taxes on different levels of income – say, for example, one on income up to $30,000; another “flat” rate on income between $30,000 and $60,000, and so on – effectively creating a multi-tiered tax structure through a series of limited “flat” taxes on different levels of income.
By allowing the state to create a multi-tiered tax structure, Harmon said, the prohibition on multiple taxes would become unnecessary.
Furthermore, he said, if supporters of the proposed change had left in the prohibition on multiple taxes, critics would likely argue that a multi-tiered structure would violate that prohibition.
There may be one tax on the income of individuals and corporations. This may be a fair tax where lower rates apply to lower income levels and higher rates apply to higher income levels. No government other than the State may impose a tax on or measured by income.
I get what Harmon is saying, but somebody may have over-thought that language deletion. They should’ve just left the originally proposed language in place.
One of the arguments from opponents of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed progressive income-tax amendment to the Illinois Constitution is that another tax hike, particularly on upper-income earners, will encourage more people to leave the state.
But a new study conducted by Chicago’s Better Government Association contends that statistics do not support that contention. At the same time, the BGA study shows that the earners Pritzker says he cares about most — middle- and lower-income earners — are the hardest hit by tax increases and most likely to leave the state because of them.
Unlike all previous income tax hikes, this one would only be on upper-income folks.
Mayor-elect Lightfoot to spend Wed and Thurs in Springfield
Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot will spend Wednesday and Thursday in Springfield. On Wednesday, Lightfoot will address the Illinois House of Representatives and meet with Governor JB Pritzker, Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, Speaker Michael Madigan, and Leader Jim Durkin. On Thursday, Lightfoot will address the Illinois Senate and meet with President John Cullerton, Leader Bill Brady, and Leader Kimberly Lightford.
Address to the House of Representatives
When: Wednesday, 4/10, 3:15pm
Where: House of Representatives Floor
Press availability: This address is open press. Lightfoot will be available for comment following her address.
Address to the Senate
When: Thursday, 4/11, 11:15am
Where: Senate Floor
Press availability: This address is open press. Lightfoot will be available for comment following her address.
…Adding… Times are being firmed up…
Updated: Daily Public Schedule: Wednesday, Apr. 10, 2019
What: Gov. Pritzker to greet Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot ahead of their first meeting in Springfield.
Where: Illinois State Capitol, Governor’s Office, Springfield
When: 1:30 p.m.
Note: No additional media availability.
* Meanwhile…
Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot released the following statement in advance of the Wednesday Finance Committee meeting.
“From day one, I’ve stood with the grassroots movement to seek transparency and community input in Lincoln Yards and The 78. I’ve advanced a set of priorities throughout this effort, including the need for clear and specific plans from the developers to boost inclusion of minority- and women-owned businesses.
“I am appreciative of Mayor Emanuel and Finance Committee Chairman O’Connor for agreeing to defer Monday’s vote on Lincoln Yards and The 78 to allow my team additional time to seek clarity and address our concerns. Based on subsequent conversations with Mayor Emanuel, community stakeholders, and a number of aldermen, we expect that this deal is likely to pass tomorrow.
“As a show of good faith, my team had productive meetings today with both developers. As a result of those conversations, I am pleased to report that both developers agreed to meaningfully strengthen their commitments to minority-owned and women-owned business enterprises (”MBE” and “WBE”) from the original terms. The increases would lift the overall M/WBE participation by $80 million to $400 million overall. In addition, both developers agreed to add language to the redevelopment agreements to provide explicit controls for the City to measure and require compliance with actual utilization of M/WBEs on the projects. These changes represent a vital sign that my administration will be able to make progress toward an equitable and fair deal for our communities.
“There remains much more work to do in this regard, and I am hopeful we’ll be able to get there. Under the terms of both redevelopment agreements, we have confirmed that the City has additional controls over these projects, which I am confident will allow for us to further improve these deals and to bring community voices into the process going forward.
“There are likely sufficient votes to advance these proposals tomorrow. I am not yet the mayor, and I recognize that the current administration and City Council must decide whether to carry this vote forward according to the interests of the constituents they serve. Either way, upon swearing in, I will engage with the community and committed activists who have advocated forcefully for affordable housing, park space and the responsible use of tax increment financing dollars for many months. And in making future decisions about these and all other deals, we will work with stakeholders to allow for robust community input from the beginning and throughout.”
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker remains one of the biggest proponents of legalizing recreational marijuana, which he said could bring in $170 million in tax revenue, to start, by next year.
And on Tuesday he took it a step further, saying he’s also in support of “home grow” — marijuana — to an extent. The discussion about how many marijuana plants would be allowed in a household remains part of ongoing negotiations about marijuana legalization in the state.
Asked during a Springfield news conference about his “philosophical” view of whether Illinois residents should have the right to grow cannabis in their homes, Pritzker voiced his support.
“I don’t think it’s a philosophical question about whether it should just be an open right for anybody to open their own farm in their basement,” Pritzker said to some chuckles from legislators behind him. “It’s really more of a question about … it’s really more…”
After a bit more of laughter, Pritzker took a position: “People should have home grow, but the question is how much?”
Governor JB Pritzker and leading members of the General Assembly announced a major step forward for the fair income tax, as lawmakers introduced language to amend the state’s Constitution, which currently requires that all taxpayers pay the same rate, regardless of their income. Governor Pritzker’s proposed fair income tax would address the state’s multi-billion-dollar budget deficit by raising taxes only on those making more than $250,000, who represent only 3% of taxpayers.
“Working with the General Assembly, my administration is taking an important next step to change our tax system to be more fair to the middle class,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “The action we’re taking today means we are one step closer to giving voters a choice about whether the wealthy will pay more and 97% of families will pay the same or less. I’ve said from the beginning that it doesn’t make sense that I pay the same rate as a teacher or first responder, and today brings us closer making Illinois’ tax system fair.”
The amendment would revise the state’s Constitution as follows:
Current
A tax on or measured by income shall be at a non-graduated rate. At any one time there may be no more than one such tax imposed by the State for State purposes on individuals and one such tax so imposed on corporations. In any such tax imposed upon corporations the rate shall not exceed the rate imposed on individuals by more than a ratio of 8 to 5.
Proposed
The General Assembly shall provide by law for the rate or rates of any tax on or measured by income imposed by the state. In any such tax imposed upon corporations the highest rate shall not exceed the highest rate imposed on individuals by more than a ratio of 8 to 5.
As the constitutional amendment moves forward, Governor Pritzker’s administration is simultaneously continuing negotiations with the General Assembly over the tax rates, which would ensure that only those making more than $250,000 a year – only 3% of residents – would pay more in taxes. Additionally, the governor has proposed increasing the property tax credit by 20% and creating a child tax credit targeted to working families.
The administration expects that rates will be finalized with lawmakers this legislative session so that Illinoisans can understand how the rates would affect their family before voting on the constitutional amendment. More information is available at www.illinois.gov/FairTaxCalculator.
“Today is the first step by Springfield politicians to hand themselves a blank check with middle class families’ hard earned money,” said Greg Baise, chairman of the anti-graduated tax dark money group Ideas Illinois. “With zero transparency and zero accountability, JB Pritzker and Speaker Madigan are preparing to stick taxpayers with a massive Jobs Tax that will hurt job creators in our state. At the very least, the politicians who are set to support yet another massive tax hike should do the right thing and release their full tax returns so voters have a clear picture.”
* And…
Think Big Illinois Executive Director Quentin Fulks released the following statement on the newly announced language for the fair tax constitutional amendment:
“It’s time for Illinois to have a tax system that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few, and Think Big Illinois applauds the amendment language proposed by Governor Pritzker and Democrats in the legislature today. A fair tax will help address Illinois’ $3.2 billion budget crisis and put our state on the path toward fiscal sustainability, all while lifting the burden off middle and working-class families who are disproportionately hurt under our current unfair tax system.
“This amendment language is an important step toward ensuring Illinois voters have the opportunity to make their voices heard on this critical issue and decide if they want the wealthiest Illinoisans to finally pay their share.
“Think Big Illinois remains committed to being a staunch ally for our working families as we implement a fair tax in our state.”
The Illinois Department of Transportation is recognizing six members of the public for their creative ideas to improve safety as part of the department’s digital message sign contest. More than 1,400 entries were submitted in six categories.
“Millions of drivers see our digital signs each year, so they are an important tool for heightened safety awareness on our roads,” said Acting Illinois Transportation Secretary Omer Osman. “With more than 1,000 traffic fatalities last year, the public’s messages could be the difference between life and death.”
The six winners will receive a decorative, personalized street sign. Their messages will be in rotation on approximately 100 overhead dynamic message signs statewide in 2019.
Spurred by revelations that the gunman who killed five people at an Aurora manufacturing plant in February bought his weapon despite a prior felony conviction, Illinois Democrats are moving to extend the use of fingerprint background checks for prospective gun owners.
That would close what state lawmakers and former federal law enforcement officials say is a loophole that could be allowing criminals to purchase firearms.
Three bills filed in the Illinois General Assembly would require authorities to collect fingerprints from people applying for state gun licenses or, alternatively, allow people seeking a state Firearms Owner’s Identification card to provide their fingerprints to the Illinois State Police as part of their background checks. […]
[Sen. Julie Morrison, D-Deerfield] said she is considering revisions to bring her legislation in line with a bill filed Monday by state Rep. Kathleen Willis, D-Northlake, that would make fingerprinting mandatory.
Both of their proposals would require private gun transactions to be conducted through a licensed dealer and do more to try to ensure that people whose FOID cards are revoked surrender their weapons.
Tuesday, Apr 9, 2019 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Thousands of Illinoisans working in wind and solar energy are facing a critical deadline that needs a legislative fix.
Statewide demand for renewable energy is surging, with more than 1,300 new wind and solar jobs added last year in Illinois. But the state’s renewable energy program will not be able to support new wind and solar projects after 2020. SB 1781 / HB 2966 will fix the cliff.
Without an expansion of the Renewable Portfolio Standard, wind and solar businesses will be forced to lay off employees and move on to states with more stable markets. SB 1781 / HB 2966, the Path to 100 Act sponsored by Rep. Will Davis and Sen. Bill Cunningham, will allow wind and solar jobs to continue growing in Illinois.
Vote Yes on SB 1781 (Cunningham) and HB 2966 (Davis)
* Background is here. From Amanda Kass, the Associate Director of the Government Finance Research Center…
Hi Rich:
Hope you are doing well. I was in DC for a week, so am a bit behind on things and just read yesterday’s post related to SURS (“Failing to learn from the past”). It struck me that the $13 million decrease figure isn’t really what should be used to account for the Governor’s proposed cut to the pension payments. The $13 million figure is calculated by comparing the FY2019 General Fund SURS contribution with the proposed FY2020 General Fund contribution. But, since the pension contributions are based on the existing funding law, in which the payments increase from year-to-year, the more important comparison is the Governor’s proposed FY2020 SURS contribution ($1.63 billion, all funds) with the certified FY2020 contribution ($1.86 billion, all funds)—looking at those figures for just SURS the proposed cut is about $225 million (so much higher than the discussed $13 million).
Tuesday, Apr 9, 2019 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
“The most important thing we are accomplishing is stabilizing the finances of the state,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at the March 7 press conference rolling out his proposal for a graduated income tax.
But Pritzker’s tax structure would actually make Illinois’ moving revenue target even harder to hit. If Illinois had adopted the governor’s progressive tax rates in 2007, income tax volatility would have been 30 percent higher. Larger swings in income tax revenue would make state finances less stable, harder to predict, and increase the likelihood and size of Illinois’ already chronic budget shortfalls.
Take the 2009 recession, for example. Illinois income tax revenues would have fallen by approximately $2.16 billion that year if Pritzker’s proposed income tax rates were in place – a 13 percent drop. But under the current flat income tax, revenue would have fallen by $1.55 billion – a 10 percent drop. That’s a $613 million larger swing in revenue in just one year.
Increasing the state’s reliance on corporate and progressive individual income taxes could lead to even larger budget shortfalls. And those budget shortfalls will require middle class tax hikes, because the middle class makes up a larger share of taxpayers and their incomes are more stable.
A spending cap, which already has bipartisan support in the General Assembly, would shore up state finances and prevent further shortfalls.
Companies moved into more downtown office space in the first quarter than they did all of last year, lowering the vacancy rate in the market after three consecutive quarters of increases.
Fueled by a series of co-working providers readying new locations over the past three months, downtown office vacancy fell to 12.9 percent at the end of the first quarter from 13.4 percent at the end of 2018, according to data from brokerage CBRE. The current vacancy matches the rate at the end of the first quarter last year, tying its lowest mark since the end of 2016, CBRE data show.
The numbers tell the story of a healthy downtown office market chock full of leasing activity that has kept vacancy hovering around 13 percent for more than two years and allowed many office landlords to boost rents.
Downtown net absorption, which measures the change in the amount of leased and occupied space compared with the prior period, was up by about 525,000 square feet, according to CBRE. That towered over the roughly 415,000 square feet of net absorption the downtown office market saw in all of 2018 and was the highest single quarter for positive net absorption downtown since the fourth quarter of 2015, according to CBRE.
Harris Public Policy scholars Christopher Berry and Anthony Fowler devised an innovative method for statistically testing the effectiveness of leaders. Although many elected leaders take credit for economic growth, boosting employment and lowering crime, the new study downplays the impact of politicians around the world, especially U.S. governors and mayors. […]
Berry and Fowler found no evidence that governors matter for economic outcomes in their states. Although governors differ in their abilities or appetites to raise and spend money, including federal aid, those differences don’t translate into differences in state income and employment. Governors do, however, influence property and violent crime rates, but not because of their political affiliation. There is little effect on crime when looking at Democratic versus Republican administrations.
Berry and Fowler examined the effects of mayors in the 100 largest U.S. cities and found little evidence of mayoral effects on income or employment. What’s more, they found no evidence of mayoral effect on some of the most important outcomes in a city—the economy, the size of city government and crime rates. One possible explanation is that mayors lack control over governance and service provision within their jurisdictions.
“While previous studies have focused exclusively on aggregate economic outcomes, our results highlight the importance of matching different offices to relevant outcomes when estimating leader effects,” said Fowler, an associate professor at Harris Public Policy. “RIFLE can be applied to virtually any setting with leaders and an objective outcome of interest, so its continued application should improve our understanding of where, when and why leaders matter.”
* Related…
* Economists Differ on Prospects for City, State Under Progressive Agenda: But Michael Miller, associate professor of economics at DePaul University, sees things differently. He thinks that over-regulation and higher taxes will ultimately drive people and businesses away from Chicago and Illinois.
Home grow is a check against so many things that can… and do… go wrong…including but not limited to… delays in implementation, slow rollouts, limited access to retail stores, limited product availability or inadequate quality… and… it’s the only check against artificially high prices.
Aside from the liberal use of ellipses, that’s the best, most succinct explanation I’ve seen to date.
Drugs have already done too much damage in minority communities, said Tim McAnarney, lobbyist for Healthy and Productive Illinois, a coalition of anti-marijuana organizations. […]
If marijuana is legalized, the coalition hopes to at least eliminate home-grown pot, McAnarney said, because some of it will inevitably supply the black market.
If people can brew beer and make wine at home, then why prohibit them from growing a couple of plants for personal consumption? Keep in mind that small-time home-growers currently face the possibility of having their houses seized by the local cops.
“Our position is, you eliminate many of the benefits of regulation if you allow home-grows,” said Ed Wojcicki with the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police. He said it’s turned other states into the “wild west.”
I got news for you, Ed. People are already growing it in their homes. This won’t just start happening outta nowhere. Put some limits on it if necessary. I have no problem with regulation. My problem is with adult prohibition.
* Smoking Pot vs. Tobacco: What Science Says About Lighting Up: A sweeping federal assessment of marijuana research found the lung-health risks of smoking weed appear “relatively small” and “far lower than those of smoking tobacco,” the top cause of preventable death in the U.S.
* Activists on both sides are pushing hard as marijuana legalization bill looms in Illinois: On Thursday, pro-legalization groups made their case at the Thompson Center in Chicago. Partners in the push include ACLU Illinois, the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, Clergy for a New Drug Policy, and union officials, including Tom Balanoff, president of the Service Employees International Union State Council. He spoke of the estimated $350 million to $700 million a year the measure could raise in tax revenue, and provisions to clear the criminal records of thousands of workers with minor marijuana convictions. “We need this legislation to help our most vulnerable communities and to create opportunities for both working families and entrepreneurs,” he said.
A lawsuit which accuses the campaign of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker of racial discrimination, and accuses Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton of defamation, can continue, a Chicago federal judge has ruled.
The judge, however, removed Pritzker himself as a defendant in the action.
A group of Pritzker campaign workers on Nov. 6 amended their initial complaint to add Pritzker and Stratton as individual defendants in a discrimination lawsuit brought in the closing days of the campaign, particularly targeting Stratton for allegedly defaming the campaign workers behind the suit as “extortionists.” […]
However, Kendall dismissed claims of discrimination and harassment against Pritzker, Stratton, Capara and Quentin Fulks, saying the complaint lacked “even bare conclusory allegations” of those people being involved in the alleged retaliation. She also dismissed some individual plaintiffs’ harassment claims, but would not dismiss any allegations of discrimination.
The workers alleged the campaign neglected a sexual harassment complaint because the worker who complained was black, terminated workers who challenged racial inequality, subjected a worker to unsafe work conditions because of her race and failed to address both racial discrimination complaints and risks of violent crime at a regional office, all of which Kendall said could rise to the level of adverse employment actions bolstering a discrimination complaint.
Kendall dismissed the retaliation charge, noting the complaint didn’t name which five workers were placed on paid suspension of the eight who could make up that group. But she did allow the defamation claim against Stratton to survive, noting the workers only had to claim harm to their professional reputation.
* Let’s take a look at one of the claims the court allowed to proceed…
Plaintiffs allege that after they filed their complaint, Defendant Stratton widely disseminated false and disparaging statements about them, including that they were “extortionists.” […]
The Complaint alleges Stratton made the false statement that Plaintiffs were “extortionists” and, as a result, Plaintiffs suffered reputational harm, emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, fear, emotional trauma and dis- tress, and interference with their normal lives. […]
There is sufficient plausibility at this stage that per se defamation of professional integrity may be proven. Given the applicability of per se professional integrity prejudice the claim of defamation does not fail for lack of factual plausibility.
* Except Stratton never said the word “extortion” and never called them “extortionists.” The word was used by some reporters, but not by her…
In a statement to POLITICO, Pritzker running mate Juliana Stratton called the suit “baseless” and describes the lawsuit in terms of extortion or a shake-down
* This is Stratton’s full statement that was distributed to reporters without further comment…
I am very proud of the campaign that JB and I have put together. The majority of our senior team are African American and almost 45% of our entire staff are people of color. When people feel like they have been harassed or discriminated against, they have the right to come forward and have their voices heard. In this case, we had a letter delivered to us asking for $7.5 million dollars in 24 hours or they threatened legal action and to go to press. That’s not a good faith effort.
The incidents listed in this complaint are baseless and make offensive claims in regard to several members of our staff. We stand by our staff and that’s why we are not afraid to litigate this to the fullest extent of the law. I couldn’t be prouder to be on the ticket with JB and of the statewide, grassroots campaign we’ve built.
She called the process “not a good faith effort,” which is a very long way from calling the plaintiffs “extortionists.”
Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma L.P. and Purdue Pharma Inc. (Purdue) over its deceptive marketing practices designed to significantly increase prescriptions issued for opioids.
Raoul’s lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court against Purdue, an opioid pharmaceutical manufacturer based in Connecticut. According to Raoul’s lawsuit, Purdue carried out an aggressive and misleading marketing effort to increase prescriptions of opioid painkillers even as communities throughout Illinois and across the country faced an opioid addiction epidemic.
According to Raoul, between 2008 and 2017, Purdue dispatched sales representatives to Illinois hundreds of thousands of times. Raoul alleged Purdue also funded third-party publications under the guise of educational materials to promote opioids and downplay their risks, using terms like “pseudo addiction.” Sales representatives informed doctors and patients that the risks could be controlled. Despite knowing that its opioid painkillers were dangerous and being misused and diverted, Purdue allegedly targeted doctors with addicted patients and whose patients were diverting drugs for unlawful use. Raoul alleged that Purdue’s tactics tripled prescriptions of its opioids in Illinois.
“Opioid addiction has destroyed lives and families throughout Illinois. Not only was Purdue aware of the dangers associated with its opioid products, but it downplayed those effects and used the opioid epidemic to increase its profits,” Raoul said. “In addition to filing this lawsuit, I will continue to collaborate with attorneys general from across the country to investigate and take action against all of those responsible for our nation’s unprecedented opioid crisis.”
Opioids are often prescribed to treat severe pain, as they reduce the intensity of pain signals reaching the brain; however, they can have serious side effects and are highly addictive. Opioids – such as morphine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, oxymorphone, and methadone – are a class of narcotic drugs that include heroin, some prescription pain relievers and fentanyl.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), more than 130 Americans die each day from an opioid overdose. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), more than 2,000 Illinoisans were killed by opioid overdoses in 2017. IDPH’s data also shows that between 2011 and 2016, instances of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), which can occur when a newborn is prenatally exposed to opiates, increased by 53 percent. Babies born with NAS experience a variety of medical complications, including withdrawal symptoms, and often require longer hospital stays after being born.
Raoul’s lawsuit asks the court to prohibit Purdue’s deceptive conduct in order to ensure it does not happen again in the future, and to assess penalties against Purdue. Raoul is also asking the court to require Purdue to give up revenues made as a result of the conduct, and pay to help remediate the problem.
Illinois is late to the game suing Purdue, which last month agreed to a $207 million settlement with the state of Oklahoma, the largest settlement following a deluge of almost 2,000 lawsuits against Purdue regarding opioids that threaten to bankrupt the company. […]
The lawsuit “contains factual errors and gross distortions and misrepresentations based on highly selective excerpting of language from tens of millions of documents,” Purdue spokesman Robert Josephson said in an emailed statement. “The complaint is merely designed to publicly vilify Purdue. The company vigorously denies the allegations in the complaint and it will continue to defend themselves against these misleading and damaging allegations.”
The statement didn’t detail what in the lawsuit was in error.
* Related…
* Metro-east veterans sue drug companies over their opioid addictions: The drug companies specifically marketed to veterans, the suit alleges, because they suffer from chronic pain 40 percent more than non-veterans. Purdue Pharma funded webinars related to veteran pain management where opioids were “pushed on veterans’ prescribers as an effective pain management tool,” the complaint stated. The lawsuit alleged Purdue Pharma and the other drug companies devised a strategy to market to veterans by telling doctors that veterans were “trustworthy” and would not get addicted. The lawsuit further alleged that companies misrepresented the signs of addiction, calling it “pseudoaddiction.” The treatment for pseudoaddiction was more opioids, according to the suit.
A deadly fungus is spreading rapidly in Chicago and suburban health care facilities.
The Candida auris fungus effects mostly people with multiple underlying conditions. Illinois health officials report 154 cases — second only to New York. Of those Illinois cases, 95 are in Chicago, 63 in the suburbs, and three downstate.
The fungus is often resistant to drug treatment.
This is serious stuff, but some perspective is in order here. Those 154 cases were detected over a three-year period, May 24, 2016 through April 4, 2019.
The germ has spread into long-term care facilities. In Chicago, 50 percent of the residents at some nursing homes have tested positive for it, the C.D.C. has reported. The fungus can grow on intravenous lines and ventilators.
Read that closely. It’s half of residents at some nursing homes. The NYT article doesn’t say how many. And the piece doesn’t say if the fungus had caused infections in the residents or was just found on their skin, which is far less of a problem.
Again, very serious stuff here, but some of these articles seem written to incite the most possible fear. That NBC 5 story was classic tabloid TV crud.
Yet as the problem grows, it is little understood by the public — in part because the very existence of resistant infections is often cloaked in secrecy.
With bacteria and fungi alike, hospitals and local governments are reluctant to disclose outbreaks for fear of being seen as infection hubs. Even the C.D.C., under its agreement with states, is not allowed to make public the location or name of hospitals involved in outbreaks. State governments have in many cases declined to publicly share information beyond acknowledging that they have had cases.
According to the CDC, symptoms of the fungus may be difficult to detect because patients are often already sick and only a lab test can identify the superbug. Candida auris can cause different types of infections, including bloodstream infection, wound infection, and ear infection.
People who recently had surgery, live in nursing homes, or who have breathing tubes, feeding tubes or central venous catheters appear to be at highest risk.
“Based on information from a limited number of patients, 30 – 60% of people with C. auris infections have died. However, many of these people had other serious illnesses that also increased their risk of death,” the CDC said.
The man at Mount Sinai died after 90 days in the hospital, but C. auris did not. Tests showed it was everywhere in his room, so invasive that the hospital needed special cleaning equipment and had to rip out some of the ceiling and floor tiles to eradicate it.
Many cases of the disease in the U.S. have been resistant to at least one antifungal treatment, but health officials said the vast majority of cases in Illinois have responded to treatment. Ninety-five of the known cases in the state are in Chicago, 56 in suburban Cook County, seven in DuPage, Lake and Will counties, and three near St. Louis.
Legislators are expected to vote for J.B. Pritzker’s progressive income tax plan by the time the session ends in May. And you can expect the capital bill and budget to be approved at the same time, too.
That’s because Democratic leaders are subtly offering a piece of the capital bill to get votes for the progressive income tax. Lawmakers get a sense that they could be treated well in the capital bill if they vote in favor of a graduated income tax, which Pritzker calls “the fair tax.”
The constitutional change to secure the progressive income tax is expected to be introduced in the state Senate by next week for a first reading.
The message to lawmakers is that the capital bill won’t be possible without supporting the progressive income tax. “If we can’t put ourselves on a path to balance the budget, we can’t ask people to support the taxes necessary to fund a capital bill,” a Dem leader told POLITICO. Funding the capital bill would likely include a gas tax and license-plate fees. […]
Slowing down or rejecting a revenue proposal has consequences. During a recent Democratic Caucus meeting, lawmakers were told that they’ve got to come up with areas in the budget to cut if Pritzker’s menu of revenue generators aren’t met. After going through that exercise, it’s expected the progressive income tax might be more appealing after all.
Mostly true except the Senate won’t be in session next week. You could possibly see some movement this week if the Senate Democratic caucus decides to get the proposal into place for a quick vote after the two-week spring break.
Again, the rest of the excerpt above is pretty accurate. There was a time during the impasse, for instance, that Senate President Cullerton seriously considered running a capital bill. But he pulled back because spending money on infrastructure while not having a state budget in place was just too much to ask.
Capital bills can be wonderful things for governors because they can be used to help attract votes for less palatable proposals. The progressive tax would be no exception.
And those budget briefings are also helping convince Democrats to back Pritzker’s pension holiday. The budget as it stands doesn’t “work” without the nearly $900 million annual diversion.
* Related…
* Lawmakers hear requests for local funding, little on where to find money: After hearing hours of requests, committee chairman Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago, became frustrated with officials ready to ask for millions for projects, but afraid to endorse higher taxes to pay for those projects.
* Local officials outline capital project needs at Peoria legislative hearing: Committee co-chairman Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago, repeatedly pressed panelists on what their institutions and governments were doing to ensure they had adequate participation from minority businesses in their existing operations and ongoing projects. In some instances, those testifying could not provide estimates on those participation levels, or were unfamiliar with voluntary state programs to report that data. Sandoval suggested he’d be interested in a component in a capital bill that had stricter requirements for achieving set participation levels.
Speaker Michael J. Madigan issued the following statement Tuesday:
“Lori Lightfoot’s election marks a moment in our city, our state, and our nation’s history when those who have too often been marginalized and excluded are stepping forward to claim their seat at the table. Mayor-elect Lightfoot inspired Chicagoans with her message and impressed them with her record of accomplishment in both the public and private sectors. As Chicago and Illinois face major decisions, her election sends the clearest message yet that we believe that these decisions should be made by a government that reflects the diversity and the experience of Illinois’ citizens.
“I’m proud to welcome Mayor-elect Lightfoot to a Capitol where women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community are serving in critical leadership roles within the House Democratic Caucus. I believe Illinois is strongest when Chicago succeeds and when all are heard; I look forward to working with Mayor-elect Lightfoot as I have with Chicago’s mayors throughout my career to strengthen our state, our city, and our communities.”
Notice that he didn’t mention any of the reforms she wants to accomplish.
State Representative Darren Bailey (R-Louisville), announced today that he is drafting legislation to block the taxpayer funded sex-change operations in Illinois being pushed by Gov. JB Pritzker. The move to allow Medicaid funding of such operations will be taken up under new policies being established by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS).
“This is yet another example of why people in our part of the state want to separate from Chicago,” declared Rep. Darren Bailey. “The Governor says that supporting the LGBTQ community by this publicly funded kind of operation is the right thing to do. Well, I disagree!” […]
“We do not need the government intruding on our private lives and at the same time we absolutely do not need government spending our tax dollars on programs that are morally offensive to most people,” Bailey added. “First it was the mandating of teaching LGBTQ history to our children and grandchildren and now it’s forcing taxpayers to pay for elective surgeries for sex changes. When will this stop?”
* From the governor’s press release…
“Expanding Medicaid to cover gender affirming surgeries is cost effective, helps avoid long term health consequences, and most importantly is the right thing to do. With continued attacks coming from Washington, this administration will always stand with our transgender community and their right to lead safe and healthy lives.” [said Gov. Pritzker]
The Department has begun developing administrative rules to offer this coverage. Input from stakeholders and the public will be considered during the public comment period. The Department anticipates coverage will become available to Medicaid members upon adoption of the administrative rule, which is likely to be this summer.
Under the proposed coverage rules, Medicaid members age 21 and older who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria will now be eligible for genital and breast-related surgeries.
In studying other state policies, the Department found that in addition to addressing the struggles associated with gender dysphoria, gender affirming surgery is also cost-effective. HFS determined that the policies of the State of Vermont particularly offer a comprehensive and appropriate approach and has been using these as a model.
Coverage for these procedures serve to prevent negative health impacts – such as depression and suicide. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia offer these services and have not reported significant cost increases. The most recent data available shows that 1,400 of the state’s 3.1 million Medicaid members are diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and last year around 2,500 prescriptions for hormone therapy were covered.
“For those facing gender dysphoria, every day can be a painful challenge,” said Theresa Eagleson, director of HFS. “Helping these individuals overcome their struggles through compassionate and comprehensive treatment is the right approach for them and for Illinois. They may not be a major portion of our total Medicaid membership, but the coverage can be so vital for everyone confronting this.”
The Department’s announcement comes during the week of International Transgender Day of Visibility, which is observed on March 31 every year.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2016 set rules to require access to gender transition services. However, the previous administration in Illinois did not create the policies and coverage requirements to accomplish this.
* Gov. Pritzker is proposing a $52 million operating increase for higher education while cutting pension payments by $13 million. So, while Sen. Rose is being a bit hyberbolic here, in a system that’s already severely underfunded, that $13 million shortfall will grow exponentially in the coming years…
Even though the governor is proposing a decrease in how much the state contributes to the State Universities Retirement System, total higher education funding is up from $3.86 billion in fiscal year 2019. Pritzker and university officials said the additional state funding is an investment in stability for the institutions.
State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said a 5 percent increase that fails to address pension costs doesn’t make sense. Growing pension costs will eventually eat up that increase. Pritzker’s proposed budget earmarks $1.63 billion for SURS, that’s down from $1.65 billion in fiscal year 2019 and about even with $1.63 billion in fiscal year 2018.
“When you go back to ‘05, ‘06, that skipped pension payment was a third of our unfunded pension liability now,” Rose said. “Our pension payments in 2002 were $2.2 billion a year, now they’re like $9.5 billion a year. OK, that is coming from somewhere and it’s coming out of higher ed and K-12 and everything else and ultimately comes out of the taxpayers’ pockets.”
“I would caution all the folks back home who got excited about this 5 percent increase for higher ed and just let them know that you don’t get there without this pension, whatever it is,” Rose said. “The retired teachers are saying it’s a skip, the [Illinois Education Association] and the [Illinois Federation of Teachers] are a little leery about it. I want to know a lot about it.”
* Robert Feder asked some prominent Chicago political reporters to offer predictions about and advice to Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot. Here’s Mary Ann Ahern…
Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot’s transition will no doubt be different, since she is not coming from a top post at the White House. Mayor Emanuel’s initial months with the press were rough, as he seemed to think he was still in that White House bubble. Perhaps you recall those moments when we tangled after he walked away after taking only a few questions, or when I asked him if his children were going to go to the University of Chicago Lab School and he took off his microphone and walked out of the interview — then turned around the next day and called another TV reporter to tell him his children would go to U of C.
Over his eight years in office, he adjusted that style and to this day offers off the record sessions with reporters and is less combative.
Lightfoot has needed the media through the campaign to get out her message, but we’ll see if that access continues. Of course my hope is it will, but I also realize campaigning and governing are far different. I would think all of us who cover City Hall — print, radio, TV — will be quite competitive on wanting to know how she plans to carry out her mandate for change. Since there really are no deadlines any more, social media will drive the coverage — as reporters look to be the first to know the mayor-elect’s next moves.
As for as City Hall’s operation, under Mayor Emanuel, reporters often got responses to questions from departmental spokesmen at the very last minute, just before deadline. It happened so often it seemed to be something of a strategy, but it actually hurt the administration because the responses couldn’t be thoughtfully considered or integrated into a story. What’s more, responses to FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests were painfully slow. Mayor-elect Lightfoot has promised openness and transparency. Changing these practices would be one way she could show it.
* The Question: Your own advice for the incoming mayor?
CSL Behring is in the early phases of a 1.8 million-square-foot expansion which will easily require an investment far north of $1 billion.
Although employment projections have not been publicized yet, there is speculation it could come close to doubling the existing 1,600-member workforce.
The Australian-based pharmaceutical company has not asked for a penny of financial assistance or tax breaks from any governmental body.
It has made one seemingly simple request. This request was made 16 months ago, and as of this week, it still has not been satisfied.
CSL wants a traffic light put at its pending new entrance at the intersection at the Lowe’s Hardware store. The company has told the Illinois Department of Transportation it will pay for the stoplight.
Incredibly, a state thirsting for manufacturing development has yet to OK what seems to be a simple request. […]
Abell said CSL is making the largest investment anywhere in the state and perhaps beyond and yet, their request cannot be resolved.
“We can’t get a three-way light to become a four-way light.” […]
Kankakee County Board Chairman Andy Wheeler said he’s been calling IDOT in Springfield, local state political leaders and anyone else he can think of to get the situation rectified.
I’d have to ban myself from my own blog if I wrote what I really think about this level of ineptitude.
*** UPDATE *** It should never have come to this, but I’m glad to see it’s finally being “expedited.” From Sen. Toi Hutchinson’s Facebook page...
This afternoon, I reached out to the Illinois Department of Transportation to receive an update on the situation with CSL Behring’s expansion plans in Bradley.
I was assured the stoplight project would be approved and the agency is currently working to expedite that approval.
There’s never been a Chicago politician who quite fits the profile of Andre Vasquez, the former battle rapper and current democratic socialist who just took down veteran 40th Ward Ald. Patrick O’Connor, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s city council floor leader.
That probably scares some people.
But those folks might want to nod to the wisdom of the 54 percent of voters in the North Side ward who waded through an onslaught of attack ads and concluded they have nothing to fear from the 39-year-old AT&T account manager, his music or his politics.
I stopped by Vasquez’s campaign office to satisfy my own curiosity about this new breed of aldermen. Vasquez will be part of a Chicago City Council bloc of at least five, probably six democratic socialists who, if nothing else, will alter the debate on a range of issues. […]
“I think even within democratic socialism there’s such a spectrum of different folks, right? I tend to be a counterbalance to some of the louder stuff, the louder hardcore, what some would view as extreme,” said Vasquez, noting that he sometimes takes flak within democratic socialist circles because he’s never read Marx and doesn’t “bleed rose red.”
“Everyone’s got their part to play,” he said. “Somebody’s going to be the loud one in the room because you need that kind of impetus to move things forward. And someone’s got to be the one who’s making deals on legislation. You can’t have ideological fights and think you’re going to come up with solutions.”
The thing that separates Brown from a lot of other political columnists is he is still a reporter at heart. He does the legwork you won’t see from some others. Anyway, go read the whole thing.
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza has suspended $5.7 million in payments on an online state-employee health insurance program, a project so botched it also prompted her to begin ordering performance reports for all large state technology contracts.
Mendoza told The Associated Press she will review the contract with Georgia-based Morneau Shepell before deciding on payment. She plans a Monday announcement on that and the new requirement that state agencies complete annual reports for the public on the progress of their information technology deals exceeding $5 million.
A state audit last week found that the previous administration’s contract with Morneau Shepell for a custom-benefit portal that was supposed to save the state $500 million a year was so sloppily executed that the program, which auditors determined could have been done in house, is costing taxpayers $10 million extra a year and still isn’t delivering the services promised. […]
The Democrat’s Monday announcement will detail her “IT Milestone Report” for contracts over $5 million, which will be made public. Not only will it require updates on the purchased work’s progress, but agencies will have to confirm that everyone involved in contract decision-making has completed required paperwork disclosing potential conflicts of interest. And if a contract doesn’t include a provision for ensuring minority- and women-owned business participation in the work, the agency must explain why.
MyBenefits shifted state program administration from CMS offices in Springfield to a Morneau Shepell call center in Atlanta where the Canadian company created between 100 and 115 new jobs.
Following its rollout, MyBenefits users soon reported wrongful termination of health insurance for new retirees; unexplained changes in life insurance policies; difficulty accessing flex spending accounts; difficulty receiving claims reimbursements; and payroll errors.
Mendoza’s office will now suspend over $5.7 million in payments to the vendor pending further review. Next steps regarding outstanding payments to the company are to be determined, Comptroller Mendoza said.
“What happens next is going to be a balancing act. Taxpayers must be represented and employees and retirees need continuity when it comes to their benefits, especially health care. Should the contract be renegotiated or invalidated? Do we bring these functions back in house? What’s clear is Morneau Shepell failed to meet performance standards, and they owe it to the State of Illinois and the nearly 500,000 MyBenefits users to make this situation right as soon as possible,” Comptroller Mendoza said.
Mendoza’s office will also implement new contract reporting standards for Information Technology vendor agreements over $5 million. State agencies will be required to provide certifications that all conflict of interest disclosures have been submitted by state employees. If minority contracting goals aren’t included in a contract, agencies will have to explain why they have been omitted.
Most significantly, the Comptroller will implement an Information Technology Milestone report that, for the first time, will require state agencies to publish progress and performance updates on ongoing IT initiatives.
Comptroller Mendoza said both state agencies and the IT vendor community need to work quickly to restore confidence and integrity to the contract procurement and performance process.
“Over the last four years, the state has expended hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on IT projects, like MyBenefits, with little or nothing to show for it. Its past time to bring more transparency and accountability to a function that ultimately costs the state over $1.5 billion each year,” Mendoza said.
* We talked last week about how Rep. Curtis Tarver (D-Chicago) denied writing a tweet during the 2018 campaign about the need for rent control. Tarver, who voted against Rep. Will Guzzardi’s bill in subcommittee to lift the state’s ban on rent control ordinances, claimed that a staffer had written the tweet and he was opposed to rent control. He then claimed in another tweet that he’d never been in favor of rent control.
A revised plan to make it easier for McHenry County voters to abolish local townships is now headed to the Illinois Senate.
The plan, approved by the Illinois House this week, and also would require townships in Lake and McHenry counties to dissolve road districts that maintain less than 15 miles. The earlier version of the proposal was vetoed by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner in the last legislative session.
State Rep. David McSweeney, who introduced and championed the plan, said he is hopeful that this time the bill will become law.
“It has bipartisan support,” said McSweeney, a Barrington Hills Republican, noting that state Sen. Terry Link, a Vernon Hills Democrat, likely will be sponsoring the Senate version of the bill as he did last year. “I don’t want to be presumptuous but I hope the governor would sign it.”
The state’s environmental regulatory body was prevented from taking measures to address greenhouse gases in Illinois for more than 20 years.
That might soon end after the Senate voted Thursday on a bill led by Sen. Laura Ellman, a Democrat from Naperville, to repeal a law enacted in 1998 that blocked the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Pollution Control Board from introducing or ratifying rules comparable to those adopted at an international conference in Kyoto, Japan, in the late 1990s. […]
“This (1998 law) is basically, you can consider it a gag rule for Illinois. This prevents us as a state from proposing or doing anything as far as greenhouse gases,” Ellman said. “It doesn’t change the way that we have to comply with federal law at all.” […]
“The state can eventually enact new regulations on our power industry, which right now is 40 percent fossil fuel-based, and we have serious concerns about the direction that could take for our consumers,” Plummer said. “Right now, the state of Illinois needs to explore every source (of energy) it can, but by allowing the IEPA to come and set new standards, it’s going to have a significant impact on our power supply for communities, especially in downstate Illinois.”
The state currently produces vastly more electricity than it consumes.
Rick Chignoli, owner of Chignoli Auto Sales in Joliet, said he does not like the idea of his business being open on Sundays at all.
Chignoli said it’s been his experience that customers use Sundays as an opportunity to shop on the lot on their own without salespeople bothering them. He also said it’s nice to have one guaranteed day off, especially since staff for the family owned and operated business, which has been open for 45 years, comprises nearly all of his family members.
“It would be really difficult for me to tell them that they have to work on a Sunday,” Chignoli said.
Chignoli’s comments come after State Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar Grove, proposed Senate Bill 22, which would repeal the 1982 prohibition of dealerships selling cars on Sundays. The bill, which has been proposed in the Illinois General Assembly for six years in a row so far, would allow for the sale of motor vehicles on any six days of the week chosen by the business owner.
* The Better Government Association took a deep dive into IRS tax data and found that this happened after Illinois raised its income tax at the beginning of 2011 and before it partially rolled back at the end of 2014…
Over that time frame, the total number of federal tax filers in the state grew by just 9,000, an almost imperceptible one-tenth of 1 percent. But the number of filers reporting adjusted gross income between $100,000 and $200,000 grew by 16 percent, while the number reporting income in excess of $200,000 rose by 29 percent.
The wealthiest got even wealthier, with 3,618 Illinoisans reporting $1 million-plus incomes in 2014, up 25 percent from four years earlier. Collectively, the adjusted gross income of those earning more than $1 million annually jumped 37.5 percent over the period.
The portrait of those who left the state during the four years of the income tax hike is dominated by the young and those with modest earnings. Records show about 55 percent of departees were under 35 years of age, and more than 60 percent reported incomes of less than $50,000. […]
The IRS data do show a leap in net out-migration from Illinois in most years after 2012. Yet the biggest jump occurred following the partial rollback of the tax hike, underscoring the difficulty in making cause-and-effect arguments about population loss and tax burdens. […]
The declining number of Illinois tax filings is most pronounced downstate, records show. Macon County recorded a 6 percent drop in tax filers between 2011 and 2014, a period during which food processing giant ADM moved its headquarters and top executives from Decatur to Chicago. Even so, Macon experienced a 17 percent jump during those years in tax filers reporting income higher than $100,000. The tally of those reporting income below $100,000 fell 9 percent.
A similar dynamic played out in rural counties along or near the Indiana and Kentucky borders. Total filings dropped by a range of 1 percent to 6 percent between 2011 and 2014, while the percentage of those reporting six-figure incomes grew.
People tend to leave when they can no longer afford to stay. Or, in the case of young people, when they find opportunities elsewhere (which is why a properly functioning higher education system is so important).
* Several newspapers editorialized over the weekend in favor of a Fair Maps constitutional amendment. Here’s the Dispatch-Argus…
A whopping 70 percent of Illinois residents support independent maps, according to the Paul Simon Public Policy institute. But poll numbers are no substitute for the combined voices of Illinoisans demanding action. It was, after all, a citizen call-in campaign that convinced state leaders to end the record budget impasse.
Many Quad-Citians who joined that effort are part of a cadre of volunteers who helped collect nearly 600,000 signatures to put independent maps on the ballot in 2014. Only the Illinois Supreme Court stood in the way of a vote.
Now reformers are back with a new amendment designed to survive a court challenge and put an end to politicians’ “incumbency-protection racket.” But time is running out to keep it alive. The deadline to get the measure on the Nov. 3, 2020 ballot, is May 3. If it doesn’t make it, voters could be condemned to contend for another decade under the old, unfair and broken system.
1) A “citizen call-in campaign” ended the impasse? Huh?
2) The Supreme Court was just following precedent and pretty clear constitutional language. Proponents had devised yet another Rube Goldberg machine that couldn’t pass muster.
3) The deadline to get the proposal on the 2020 ballot is next spring, not next month.
We’re disappointed that Cullerton, typically the grown-up in the room on important issues, hasn’t assigned the proposal to a committee, a step that would allow hearings to begin. It has overwhelming support in his chamber: 36 senators from both parties, including Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, and Steve McClure, R-Springfield, have signed on as co-sponsors. That’s the necessary three-fifths support it would need to pass. The House version so far is supported only by Republicans.
Cullerton loves almost nothing more than the remap process. He lives for it, even.
Gerrymandering has not skewed fair representation in Illinois as much as it has in some other states. For example, Democratic candidates for the Illinois House got 58 percent of the vote in November, and the party wound up with 60 percent of the seats.
But as long as gerrymandering remains the political norm — red state or blue state — democracy is under attack.
Politicians shouldn’t choose their voters. Period. But convincing Cullerton and Madigan to pass a constitutional amendment is just not in the cards. They are who they are. Gov. Pritzker has pledged to veto a 2021 remap bill that isn’t drawn using Fair Map principles. That’s pretty much our only hope to get something done.
Pritzker wants approval this year of a proposed amendment to change the state’s income tax from a flat rate to graduated rates that would require wealthy Illinoisans to pay more. He argues that a graduated tax is needed to raise the billions necessary to solve the state’s many fiscal woes. His long-term plans for the state hinge on this change. But voters can’t weigh in on that until November 2020, either.
Illinois legislators historically have not been great stewards of taxpayer money, yet Pritzker is asking us to trust them with even more of it. How’s this for a deal? Pritzker wins legislative approval of the income tax amendment and throws his weight behind an amendment that would create an independent commission to redraw legislative maps. We call that a win-win.
* But David Greising, the president of the Better Government Association, has a different idea…
The rules governing the creation of electoral maps should be fixed. But the one that bears the most direct correlation to Pritzker’s progressive tax amendment is this: the clause that has protected pensions from any meaningful reforms for decades now.
The Illinois Constitution’s best-known codicil is the one that declares pensions are a contract that can never be “diminished or impaired.” Those words have stood in the way of several fair-minded reform plans, including one passed by the Democratic-led Legislature in 2013 that the Illinois Supreme Court later killed.
Adding a change to the pension clause, alongside the plan for reform of the tax system, would constitute a classic negotiating strategy: The progressive tax appeals to liberals and the pension fix to more fiscally conservative voters.
This is so easy to say from a tall ivory tower, but wake me when Mr. Griesling can identify the 71 House members and 36 Senators willing to do such a thing. I mean, they don’t yet even have enough votes for the progressive income tax proposal.
* We shouldn’t be so excited about stuff like this, but we live in Illinois, where higher education has been hit with funding cuts since Rod Blagojevich was governor and then everything was made worse by the impasse…
Representatives of the Illinois Community College Board told a Senate appropriations committee Thursday they were looking forward to a period of stability in higher education after weathering several years of state government dysfunction.
“I’m excited to come before you and not be talking about drastic budget cuts,” ICCB Executive Director Brian Durham told the committee, noting that community colleges have “continued a rich history of student success” despite “the challenges and uncertainty of a prolonged budget impasse, and declining state support.”
The ICCB’s total request is level with Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget proposal, which includes approximately $388.5 million from all funds. The total general revenue fund expenditures of $334 million represent an approximate 5 percent increase from a year ago for the community college system, which serves more than 675,000 students at 48 institutions.
Durham touted the governor’s proposal for adding $13.9 million into the system for community college operating grants and adult education programs.
“The governor’s investment in community colleges recognizes that we are the largest provider of public workforce training in the state,” Durham said.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker predicted Sunday he’ll have “a great relationship” with Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot — one that should certainly improve on the frosty four years endured by their predecessors.
Chicago’s incoming mayor dined with Illinois’ new governor late last week, days after Lightfoot’s landslide victory. Pritzker and First Lady M.K. Pritzker invited Lightfoot and her spouse, Amy Eshleman, to their Chicago home for dinner Friday, Lightfoot’s press secretary confirmed. […]
“The relationship is a good one,” Pritzker said Sunday at an unrelated news conference. “She, you know, is very much an advocate for so many things that I think we all care about for the city of Chicago. We’re going to have a great relationship.” […]
“We had four years where the mayor and the governor didn’t talk to one another,” Pritzker noted Sunday.
The governor also said Lightfoot is expected to visit Springfield on Wednesday. She’ll be staying until Thursday.
Illinois Senate President John Cullerton said fixing the funding of the Municipal and Laborers pension funds, as well as the city’s other financial problems, will remain a major issue. And he wants to talk to Lightfoot about whether there would be local taxation when it comes to legalizing marijuana or expanding gambling in Chicago.
As for the type of demeanor needed to work with Springfield’s leaders, Cullerton credited Emanuel’s ability to work behind-the-scenes with the four legislative leaders as well as rank-and-file lawmakers to push for legislation, including the school funding formula bill.
“He rarely came down here, but he had very good people, folks that represented him down here. The speaker and I would have frequent meetings at City Hall to kind of review legislation,” Cullerton said.
“When I meet with Lori I’ll urge her to do the same thing. The mayor is an important political figure in the state Legislature. … She has influence beyond the city borders,” Cullerton said. […]
“The speaker’s record of working with the mayors of Chicago who came over his tenure, at any shape or size, has been a good one and that will continue,” Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said.
“I’m going to be mayor of the city, I’m not going to be part of the party apparatus. I’m obviously a Democrat. Been a lifelong Democrat. That’s where my political interests lie, in terms of the values and the issues that I hold dear. But I’m not going to be part of the broken machine. Ever. That’s not happening,” Lightfoot said.
In what would be another break from the past, Lightfoot also aims to distance herself from the state party, led by Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
She didn’t have a direct answer when asked whether Madigan should remain head of the Democratic Party of Illinois.
“I respect the speaker. But I believe in term limits,” Lightfoot said. “He is the leader and I’m going to do everything I can to have a good, productive working relationship with him. As with (Senate President John) Cullerton. But I’m sure there are going to be issues on which we disagree. But that too is part of the democratic process.”
* Related…
* Mayor Rahm Emanuel: “In our first meeting, as well as in subsequent conversations, I made it very clear to the Mayor-elect that I would not move forward on these projects if she wanted to delay the process. While I firmly believe in the value of these projects to the entire city, out of respect for her wishes and request, I will honor my commitment and delay the vote. I am hopeful that under the mayor-elect’s leadership of the new City Council these critical projects will move forward and bring the kind of investment and job creation that has been a hallmark of the past eight years.”
WHEREAS, The City of Chicago is often bailed out by taxpayers in the rest of the State, such as the $221 million bailout for the CPS pension system that was signed into law last year;
Halbrook’s resolution claims that “the City of Chicago is often bailed out by taxpayers in the rest of the State,” pointing to the funding CPS received in 2017 to help cover its pension costs.
We previously rated a similar claim False because the measure only provided CPS with financial support the state had long offered to all other districts in the state except Chicago.
Halbrook also upped the ante by contending the money for CPS wasn’t an isolated incident, with the state “often” throwing a lifeline to Chicago taxpayers at the expense of those Downstate. He offered no evidence, however, and academic research has found the opposite is true.
Experts we spoke with summed up the claim as a “myth,” “clearly not true” and “total nonsense.” We have a rating for claims that fit that description: Pants on Fire!
* But Rep. Halbrook has come up with a new explanation for why Downstate doesn’t get as much money as it appears…
It is, of course, true that downstate and central Illinois receive more direct state-level spending than income-tax dollars we pay. But this simple data point leaves out who actually benefits from that spending.
For example, tax dollars that flow to the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign are actually used to subsidize the education of students from throughout the state of Illinois.
A fair study would show that the benefit of higher-education spending is less to the county hosting the institution and far more to the residents of the counties sending students to those institutions.
*Sigh*
Using that logic, couldn’t you also point to the “free” room and board that Chicago-area residents are receiving from the state while locked up in Downstate prisons?
A “fair study” would show the benefits to the entire state of higher-education spending, but when you’re so focused on individual counties instead of the state as a whole, this is the silly “logic” you’re bound to come up with.
* Related…
* Davidsmeyer signs onto separation resolution for Chicago, sparks debate: “It’s more of a frustration of the policies than the true belief that Chicago and Illinois would be better off as separate states,” he said. “… I don’t believe that Chicago and the state of Illinois should be separated. Our relationship is mutually beneficial.”
Illinois will become the eight state to raise the legal age to 21 to buy or use tobacco products after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed new legislation into law Sunday afternoon.
Flanked by lawmakers and public health advocates in Chicago, Pritzker signed the Tobacco 21 bill, which goes into effect July 1. The new law raises the legal age from 18 to purchase or use cigarettes or other tobacco products as well as vaping products. […]
Former Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed similar legislation, saying people will just cross state lines to get tobacco products.
Before signing the bill, Pritzker noted that 1.5 million more young people used e-cigarettes in 2018 than in 2016. “We’re dealing with an old problem in a new form,” he said.
With Pritzker’s action, beginning on July 1, Illinois will join California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Oregon, Hawaii, Maine and Washington, D.C. in banning sales to those under 21. Included in the ban are cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco and nicotine-based products such as e-cigarettes and vaping materials.
The legislation also does away with penalties for underage possession. Businesses, however, will still face fines and other sanctions for selling to underage customers.
Supporters say the law will discourage teenagers from a deadly, lifelong habit. The legislation’s opponents contended if 18-year-olds can vote and serve in the military, they should be able to decide whether to smoke.
* Kevin Burns, JUUL Labs CEO…
Tobacco 21 laws fight one of the largest contributors to this problem – sharing by legal-age peers – and they have been shown to dramatically reduce youth-use rates.
“Often, we only think of the 18, 19 and 20-year olds being affected by this law, but actually the target age group is the 14-17-year olds. One of the points of this legislation is to remove the 18-year-old supplier from the high schools,” said Rep. Camille Lilly.
Ninety-five percent of smokers start before the age of 21, and in Illinois 5,700 teens become new daily smokers each year, according to a Cook County Health press release.
The City of Chicago raised the age to purchase tobacco products to 21 in 2016, becoming one of the first municipalities to tax e-cigarettes, ban tobacco discounts and require that clerks who ring up tobacco sales be at least 21-years-old. A similar Cook County law was set to go into effect in unincorporated areas June 1.
“As a result of the city’s robust policy agenda and enforcement actions, teen smoking in Chicago has reached a record low of six percent, dropping by more than half over the last six years,” Emanuel’s office stated in a press release.
Freshman Rep. Terra Costa Howard (D-Glen Ellyn) was reportedly none too pleased when Think Big Illinois began running TV ads in her district.
Think Big Illinois is the dark money group created to support Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s progressive income tax proposal. It started running ads in late March in four individual House districts a couple of days after an opposing dark money group called Ideas Illinois targeted the same Democratic House members: Costa Howard, Monica Bristow, Jonathan Carroll and Mary Edly-Allen.
One of the Ideas Illinois ads ended by telling viewers: “Tell Terra Costa Howard to vote ‘No’ on the jobs tax.” A pro-Pritzker Think Big Illinois ad told viewers: “Tell Terra Costa Howard to vote ‘Yes’ and put the middle class first.”
None of the four Democrats were given a heads-up about the pro-tax ads. And word got around that Rep. Costa Howard wasn’t happy, so a Think Big staffer reached out to her. I’m told she didn’t specifically demand that the ad be taken down, but the group pulled the spot off of cable TV almost right away.
Costa Howard scored a huge victory when she defeated Rep. Peter Breen last November. Breen (R-Lombard) is a nationally known pro-life attorney and by last year had become the House Republican floor leader. But Costa Howard beat him by a solid seven points.
Normally, legislators like Costa Howard are encouraged by staff to not stick out their necks on controversial legislation. Costa Howard voted against the $15 minimum wage bill, as did Reps. Bristow and Edly-Allen. The idea is to hold the seat for the party and let other, more politically secure members pick up the slack on the tough stuff.
But the Democrats have 74 seats and the governor needs 71 House votes to put his graduated income tax proposal on the ballot. Since the House Republicans are universally opposed, he can’t afford to lose more than three Democratic votes.
While the purpose behind the ads was to defend fellow Democrats against attacks from the other side, the spots can be perceived as Democrats being pressured in their own home districts by a billionaire governor to “put the middle class first” and vote for his tax plan. A vote against that plan, of course, would be perceived in that frame as a vote against “the middle class.”
Also, governors tend to inform legislators when they so much as travel to their districts. It’s seen as a common courtesy. Running TV ads without notice like this is simply unheard-of.
Even so, the other three Democrats said it was no big deal. Rep. Jonathan Carroll (D-Northbrook) said he has “no issues with the Think Big ads.” Carroll is the most liberal of the four. Rep. Carroll said he “appreciate(s) them engaging my constituents on an important issue.”
Rep. Mary Edly-Allen (D-Libertyville) said “I welcome the efforts to provide cover in my district on the issue.” The freshman claimed the local response to the ad “has been very positive and I look forward to continued discussions.”
Rep. Monica Bristow (D-Godfrey) echoed her colleagues, saying she “welcomed” the ads, and claiming “I think it’s important that my constituents hear the other side of the issue.”
And how are things going in the House? So far, House Speaker Michael Madigan hasn’t done much more than informally poll his members. He does that to see how many votes he (and the governor) will eventually need to find.
As of last week I was told, “We don’t have 60.” That’s far short of the 71 they need, but members aren’t really being pushed on it yet. Pritzker’s folks are having some informal chats with members.
To say that this is the governor’s top priority would be a huge understatement. Pritzker has staked his entire future on this proposal. His “bridge” budget proposal kicks the can in anticipation of eventual fiscal relief from his so-called $3.4 billion “Fair Tax.” It’s fully integrated into who and what he is.
If Pritzker fails, it will be the most spectacular flame-out since Republicans helped override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of the 2017 tax hike. Come to think of it, this could be worse because that override saved Illinois from junk bond status and if this graduated tax thing goes down Pritzker could be the one tagged “Gov. Junk” unless they quickly switch their focus to a higher flat tax. And that’ll come with its own political nightmares.
