* Unfortunately I will miss this because I am taking tomorrow off…
I think he is probably talking about infrastructure funding since the operating budget didn’t rely on tax hikes.
* Gov. Pritzker was asked yesterday about the impact of the fees and tax hikes to fund infrastructure on everyday people. He talked about job creation, but also said this…
I would say that the infrastructure bill allows us to invest in things that will save people money in the long run.
For example … when you drive to work and you hit all those potholes and then you get a flat tire, that costs you money. When you drive to work and you hit the potholes and now you need to go out and get your steering realigned and you have to get your car fixed because of it, that costs you money.
When the rail system, when our mass transit system isn’t operating properly and you can’t get to work, that costs you money.
* Background is here if you need it. Springfield Bishop Thomas John Paprocki was asked today if he believed in the concept of separation of church and state. He said he did and said…
This is not a case of the church trying to tell government officials what to do. It’s not intended as a political statement, it is intended, in fact it’s being issued after the vote here because it’s a statement really talking about the integrity of what it means to be a Catholic.
I was notified by Bishop Paprocki that if I permitted the House of Representatives to debate and pass the Reproductive Health Act, I would no longer be allowed to accept the sacrament of communion.
Madigan and Cullerton would be allowed to receive the church sacrament again in Springfield if they make a public statement and introduce legislation to repeal the recently passed abortion bill, the bishop said.
That sounds like a church official “trying to tell government officials what to do.”
* Paprocki was then asked if he had reached out to Speaker Madigan about this topic…
I have spoken with Speaker Madigan on a couple of occasions and some time ago we spoke about it in a general way. I called him last week just to basically remind him of the importance of this issue and it was a brief conversation.
…Adding… Bishop Paprocki also said he followed up with Madigan and Cullerton last week by sending them letters. Speaker Madigan’s spokesman said today that, as of this afternoon, no such letter had been received.
Even though legal marijuana is coming to Illinois next year, Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder still isn’t ready to say if he favors allowing it to be sold in the city.
Local communities could opt out of legal sales under the law passed last week, although city residents would still be allowed to possess and consume it. Langfelder says he wants to talk more with Police Chief Kenny Winslow about the effect legal pot could have on public safety and law enforcement.
Langfelder acknowledges that if Springfield doesn’t allow it, some other nearby community almost certainly will… and will get the tax revenue from it. But the mayor says that’s only one factor in his decision.
* Springfield didn’t raise taxes or make big budget cuts this year, but that’s a first…
In the last two years, the city council has cut millions out of the budget and raised the city’s sales tax by a quarter percentage point, the city’s hotel-motel bed tax by one percentage point and the city’s telecommunication tax by two percentage points.
* The Question: What do you think Mayor Langfelder will do about this subject? Make sure to explain your answer in comments, please.
Governor JB Pritzker paid a special visit to Grafton on Tuesday and announced he has activated an additional 200 Illinois National Guard soldiers for State Active Duty to engage in the state’s active flood fight along the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.
This came as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirmed an overtopping at the Nutwood Levee, which forced the closure of Illinois State Route 16 at the Joe Page Bridge near Hardin. In all, more than 400 guardsmen are reinforcing the state’s efforts to fight raging floodwaters as more precipitation takes aim on river communities.
Task Force 2 (TF2) is made up of approximately 200 soldiers supporting flood operations in the Metro East area of Illinois. The soldiers of TF2 are drawn from the 233rd Military Police Company based in Springfield, 933rd Military Police Company based in Fort Sheridan, 1844th Transportation Company based in East St. Louis, and the 709th Medical Company from Bartonville, Illinois.
* Zero disrespect is intended here. Real people are dealing with very real hardships right now. But here’s a little context…
* February 2018: Grafton isolated after flooding closes Great River Road
* March 2017: Grafton gets ready for major flooding
* July 2015: Grafton restaurateurs: the town has flooded, but we’re still open
* April 2013: Grafton Preparing To Be Cut Off By Rising Rivers
* June 2008: As the floodwaters moved south, the Mississippi River produced near-record flooding from Canton, MO to Clarksville, MO with major flooding also reported at Grafton, IL and Chester, IL.
* 1973: Flooding began in July and when it receded in November many structures (businesses and residences) were damaged, 22 of them so seriously that they were removed. After fighting the flood for 5 months, some residents left town, but most rolled up their sleeves and began the process of cleaning up and rebuilding
* June 1903: The Mississippi north of the mouth of Missouri is rising more slowly, owing to the numerous breaks in the levees above Hannibal, but will continue to rise, and a stage of 24 feet will be reached at Grafton by Saturday night.
* 1844: The water was so deep that steamboats moored in Jersey and Distillery Hollows and a bridge was built over the area now known as The Grove Memorial Park
* I told subscribers about some of this yesterday…
State Sen. STEVE McCLURE, R-Springfield, was among a handful of Republicans who went to the governor’s Statehouse office following the end of the legislative session Sunday, but things got unexpectedly uncomfortable.
Someone on the governor’s staff had called, he said, with the message: “The governor wants to have a press conference right now about Scott’s Law. Would you be available for that?” […]
But it turned out the news conference, where most lawmakers in attendance were Democrats, highlighted many things Republicans had opposed. A sign on the rostrum said, “Governor JB PRITZKER: Keeping Promises, Delivering Results,” and among items with check marks next to them were “Fair Tax,” ”$15 Minimum Wage” and “Reproductive Health Act.”
McClure and Sen. Jason Plummer both discreetly walked out.
“I’m going to give the governor the benefit of the doubt and say it was a staffer who didn’t really know” about the news conference subject matter, McClure said of his invitation, “because they’ve never lied to me on anything before, and I pretty much have a good working relationship with the governor and his staff.”
Similarly, Plummer said he is “going to operate under the assumption that maybe they had some miscommunication on their team, and it was an innocent mistake.”
The governor called Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady later and apologized. Brady’s people told me he was OK with the governor’s explanation. But it was a really dumb staff mistake.
During an appearance Wednesday on “Chicago Tonight,” Senate President John Cullerton and House Minority Leader Jim Durkin both said they didn’t knew about a provision that would allow the Illinois Gaming Board, the regulatory body that oversees the gaming industry, to operate with less public scrutiny.
WBEZ and ProPublica Illinois first reported about a provision in the gaming bill that would give the Gaming Board authority to close off some of its meetings from the public under the State’s Open Meetings Act.
Durkin said he was unaware of the provision until earlier Wednesday.
Exceptions. A public body may hold closed meetings to consider the following subjects […]
Those deliberations or portions of deliberations for decisions of the Illinois Gaming Board in which there is discussed any of the following: (i) personal, commercial, financial, or other information obtained from any source that is privileged, proprietary, confidential, or a trade secret; or (ii) information specifically exempted from the disclosure by federal or State law.
* From the Senate President’s spokesperson…
There has been some media confusion regarding legislation that deals with the Gaming Board.
Senator Syverson has a constituent who sued the board after being denied a license. It is my understanding the court took issue with the way the board conducts business in closed session.
In response, Syverson filed SB 1245 in February. The intent was to force the board to do more in open session by reminding/spelling out the only reasons it could go to closed session. These exemptions are not unique to the Gaming Board. They exist elsewhere in the Open Meetings Act.
It’s an acknowledgement that lawmakers have concerns too with how the board was operating.
This provision has been part of negotiations ever since and was included in the final proposal that was approved.
This is a reform to address concerns at the Gaming Board.
* I called Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Rockford) today. “Are you kidding?” he asked when I explained the argument against his legislation which was included in the gaming bill. Syverson said his proposal was “just the opposite” of what ProPublica was claiming.
“They were using everything as a reason to go into closed door meetings,” Syverson said about the Gaming Board. “Some things they have to do closed-door, but it was just too broad,” he said.
“So I came back with legislation that would clarify that these are the only reasons that justify closed door meetings,” Syverson said. “Everything else has to be open. It was just the frickin’ opposite” of the gist of the criticism.
“I wish the reporter had called and asked me about that as opposed to making that kind of accusation,” Syverson added.
Gov. JB Pritzker’s $40 billion budget—passed with bipartisan support—includes a 3.5% rate increase for state-funded community disability agencies and a 5% increase for youth care agencies.
In an extraordinarily challenging time, AFSCME members succeeded in sharing their story and fighting for continued progress for the adults and youth they serve every day. Hundreds of frontline staff at state-funded agencies lobbied their legislators in their home districts and at the State Capitol. They spoke directly to the governor’s office and delivered thousands of postcards to his door.
“We are one step closer to a fair wage for DSPs, paraeducators and other frontline staff at disability and youth care agencies across the state,” said AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch.
* But this is from Kathy Carmody, CEO of the Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities…
While the FY20 rate increase for community agencies that support people with disabilities is welcome, it’s not enough to impact the workforce crisis affecting agencies that provide community services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities that is in full swing across the state. The crisis is one of the key reasons Illinois has been found out of compliance with a Consent Decree overseen by a federal court appointed Monitor for the 3rd year in a row.
Similar to your observation regarding the DCFS budget, consider that when the community residential (CILA) program began in 2000, reimbursement from the state for the average wage (meaning everyone from a first day employee to a 20 year veteran) for direct support workers was 93% higher than minimum wage. This differential was essential and intentional in recognition of the critical role this workforce plays and the distinction between direct support work and minimum wage positions. Today, that differential is only 45%, with agencies in Chicago receiving reimbursement that only matches minimum wage and will fall below minimum wage on 7/1/19. Once minimum wage is increased in 2020, the differential between minimum wage and reimbursement from the state for direct support workers will fall to only 24%; agencies simply cannot compete with other industries that pay far better for far less challenging work.
Illinois ranks 47th lowest in the country for funding community services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities; a once-in-20 years 3.5% increase isn’t going to move the needle on the crisis impacting community agencies serving people with disabilities.
One reason reimbursement was so much higher than the minimum wage back then was that the minimum wage was lower than it is now. Click here for a chart.
* From the They Deserve More Coalition…
“These are not minimum wage jobs, caring for people with disabilities,” said Ben Stortz, president and CEO of Cornerstone Services. “It is strenuous work with long hours where you are responsible for someone’s life and wellbeing. Wages were already deplorably low, and now the good work done by state leaders for the rest of Illinois workers will unwittingly exacerbate the staffing crisis for people with disabilities as more and more DSPs leave for Amazon or Walmart or $15-an-hour fast food jobs.”
With so many DSPs reluctantly leaving for other opportunities with higher pay, people with disabilities and their families face constant change and uncertainty. Insufficient staffing can lead to dangerous, even life-threatening situations. More and more providers are forced to shut down programs and turn people away who need and deserve support.
“We are glad to get a very small piece of this year’s budget and greatly appreciate those legislators who have championed our cause in recent years,” said Kim Zoeller, president and CEO of the Ray Graham Association. “But we are so far behind, and the minimum wage legislation – which is important for many – has the unintended consequence of leaving us in more dire straits than ever. We hope and pray that our budgeteers will take this into account as they look at new revenue coming in, and we will not stop pressing until our state leaders make people with disabilities a priority.”
The argument is they need to pay people more than the minimum wage because the jobs are so difficult and recruitment and retention suffers if they can’t offer premiums above the minimum. But what happens when the minimum wage is more like a livable wage? If these groups don’t get any more money, we’ll probably find out.
* A circle can’t fit where a square should be takes a look at the capital bill…
In Springfield, $350 million is earmarked for the Capitol complex, but it’s unclear for what. Messages left for the Capitol Architect on Wednesday were not immediately returned.
There’s also $122 million for the long-shuttered State Armory, which is right across the street from the Capitol in Springfield.
“The funding included in Rebuild Illinois will allow the state to return the Armory to a usable space and that work will include new HVAC, plumbing, electrical and an entirely new roof and renovations to the interior space,” Central Management Services Deputy Director Mike Deering said. “But right now we don’t have a determination of what agency or what it will be repurposed for.
“It’s just not usable, the water is turned off, all the different utilities, it needs to brought up to speed and for a safety standard,” Deering said. “It’s much needed for that facility.” […]
The plan includes $3.1 billion over several years for school construction. In the first, first year there’ll be $200 million available for grants. It goes up from there to $450 million the second year, $500 million each for years three and four. Year five there’ll be $800 million in grants awarded and each year after that there’ll be around $660 million available for school construction grants.
For higher education buildings, Eastern Illinois University is getting a new science building for $118.8 million.
“After a couple of decades we’ve got funding … for a new science building,” said Butler who’s a graduate of EIU. “There are so many high schools in the state of Illinois that have much better science facilities than EIU does and that’s a shame. There are tarps that are over some of the equipment to make sure the ceiling doesn’t fall on some of the equipment.”
I’m told state representatives were instructed to designate $2.5 million-$3 million worth of projects for their districts, while senators were allotted $5 million-$6 million, not to suggest everyone was treated equally.
Although many of those “member initiatives” are detailed in the legislation, H.B. 62, others are lumped together in large multi-billion categories with more specific appropriations expected to be disclosed later. […]
Individual legislator’s names are not listed with the earmarks in the legislation.
Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago), the first Indian-American elected to the Senate, said he pushed for the new Pan Asian community center, which he envisions as a place for the area’s diverse and fast growing Asian population to come together for services of common need. He expects it to be located on the North Side or north suburbs with Skokie emerging as an early favorite.
I didn’t spot any obviously egregious taxpayer boondoggles in my first reading of the bill, which is not to say they aren’t in there.
Those member projects lists have been leaked in the past, so we’ll just have to see if that happens again.
State Sen. Cristina Castro confirmed she will receive $6 million in member initiative money. The former Kane County Board member said she isn’t giving any to Longmeadow. She’s committed her dollars to projects brought to her by local officials during the state budget process. […]
[Republican Sen. Don DeWitte] received “an awful lot of” funding requests for local projects. … DeWitte and fellow Republican state senators expect to receive about $4 million each from the member initiative pool.
* Click here for a decent explanation of how the new revenues will be divvied up. It was put together by a group affiliated with Local 150 of the Operating Engineers. Here’s a couple of charts…
Distribution of Anticipated New Annual Revenues from Increasing Motor Fuel Taxes
Bonding Authority Increases for Transportation Projects
* Related…
* Pritzker’s Budget Funds Roadwork For South Suburban Airport: In May, Kelly reported that land acquisition and planning for the airport was 90 percent complete. The state so far owns 89 percent of the land where it will sit and is poised to secure the rest once all other details are in place. All FAA approvals are in place, except for the final, detailed construction plan by the contractor. What’s needed, she and the other elected officials said in a letter to Pritzker, was the funding to wrap up the final leg of the project. The new budget gave them $162 million to do that.
As expected, the devilish details lurking in the mass of legislation approved by the 101st Illinois General Assembly continue to emerge.
Today’s unwelcome example hikes statewide costs for funding teacher and administrator pensions. It was tucked — as such surprises often are — into the omnibus bill that implements the $40 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The move cuts in half what taxpayers statewide will save from so-called pension thresholds. The goal of such thresholds is to reduce the costs to taxpayers statewide when school boards give big raises to educators at the end of their careers so they will receive bigger lifetime state-funded pensions than they would otherwise have earned. The higher threshold wasn’t designed to stop districts from giving generous raises, but to ensure taxpayers across the state do not have to bear the burden for local leaders’ generosity.
Before the original 6 percent cost-shift thresholds were added in 2005, the burden for all pension spiking costs fell to every taxpayer, not just the taxpayers of the local school districts responsible for the spikes. So there was zero accountability and little incentive for local school boards to decline to handsomely reward longtime educators using other people’s money. A year ago, lawmaker faced with a massive and growing public pension crisis agreed to modestly reduce the teacher pension threshold to 3 percent. It was a move we and others hungry for reform applauded.
The initial measure passed in the budget implementation bill for fiscal year 2019 meant the school district or public university had to pay for the entire pension cost of pay raises above 3 percent directly to the pension fund.
State Sen. Dale Fowler, R-Harrisburg, didn’t like that.
“It applied to the teacher that worked overload classes, or became a coach, or became a principle,” Fowler said. “It applied to a teacher that became a mentor, to a teacher that was a band director, or even a teacher that worked on the duty of writing a curriculum for the school.”
“Teachers told me what it was doing to them in the classroom,” Fowler said. “They asked me to fight for the repeal of the 3 percent [cap] and I told them that I would.”
Last year’s cap probably could’ve been drafted better. If a teacher took on additional responsibility or was promoted, that teacher probably should not have been subjected to the cap.
Local taxpayers also suffer. True, local property taxpayers aren’t directly on the hook for TRS benefits. But they do pay the price in a painful but overlooked way: As pensions consume state education funds, school districts must resort to hiking already-high property taxes to find needed revenue. School districts currently consume nearly two-thirds of total property tax dollars collected in Illinois.
They just made a pretty sound argument for higher state taxation, or massive state cuts.
[Springfield] Bishop Thomas John Paprocki has ruled that state legislators who are working to pass Illinois’s new abortion bill may not present themselves for communion in his diocese and that priests are expressly forbidden from giving the Eucharist to both the Senate president and the speaker of the House.
“In accord with canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law … Illinois Senate President John Cullerton and Speaker of the House Michael J. Madigan, who facilitated the passage of the Act Concerning Abortion of 2017 (House Bill 40) as well as the Reproductive Health Act of 2019 (Senate Bill 25), are not to be admitted to Holy Communion in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois because they have obstinately persisted in promoting the abominable crime and very grave sin of abortion as evidenced by the influence they exerted in their leadership roles and their repeated votes and obdurate public support for abortion rights over an extended period of time,” Paprocki wrote in a statement dated June 2, 2019.
“These persons may be readmitted to Holy Communion only after they have truly repented these grave sins and furthermore have made suitable reparation for damages and scandal, or at least have seriously promised to do so, as determined in my judgment or in the judgment of their diocesan bishop in consultation with me or my successor,” he continued.
Although they are not named, Paprocki included other pro-abortion state politicians in his interdict, saying, “I declare that Catholic legislators of the Illinois General Assembly who have cooperated in evil and committed grave sin by voting for any legislation that promotes abortion are not to present themselves to receive Holy Communion without first being reconciled to Christ and the Church in accord with canon 916 of the Code of Canon Law.”
I think they should see this as a clear affirmation of Church teaching about the respect for human life from conception to natural death. It should be also an affirmation of the clear teaching that abortion is wrong. It should also be seen as a clear effort to uphold the integrity of the sacraments and to maintain the consistency between all of those.
It is scandalous, I think, to people — that’s another issue here — it is truly scandalous to people when they see Catholic politicians saying, “I’m a Catholic but I am going to vote for this abortion legislation.” And then they do vote for it, and they vote for this extreme legislation that is promoting abortion, and other faithful Catholics wonder how can they do that? How can they do that and get away with it?
This document is not intended as a political document. The legislation has already passed. What this document is saying is that the people who have done this have done something that is simply not acceptable to the Catholic Church.
So the approach I’m taking here is, there’s two canons in the Code of Canon law, Canon 915 and Canon 916 that are applicable. Canon 915 is the one that has received a lot more media attention, and that is the one that basically says that those who have obstinately persisted in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion. So obstinate persistence requires more than one act. And that’s why my decree really just singles out the Speaker of the House here in Illinois, Michael Madigan, as well as the president of the State Senate, John Cullerton, because they have a persistently over a number of years now, pushed this pro-abortion legislation.
“To the best of my knowledge the Senate President hasn’t ever attended services there,” a Cullerton spokesman said Wednesday.
Madigan issued a statement saying Paprocki had notified him earlier that if he permitted the House to debate and vote on the Reproductive Health Act, he would no longer be able to take communion.
“After much deliberation and reflection, I made the decision to allow debate and a vote on the legislation,” the Madigan statement said. “I believe it is more important to protect a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, including women who become pregnant as a result of rape or incest. With women’s rights under attack in an increasing number of states across the country, Illinois is now a leader in making sure women are protected and their rights are upheld.”
When asked if Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich has ever imposed similar sanctions on lawmakers who supported abortion-rights legislation, the Archdiocese of Chicago released a statement: “Cardinal Cupich has had a longstanding position over his 20-plus years as a bishop that it is important to place the emphasis on teaching what the Church believes about important issues of the day, all the while maintaining an unshakable confidence that the Eucharist is an opportunity of grace and conversion to bring people to the truth.”
…Adding… Full Madigan statement…
The Reproductive Health Act is a recognition that women across Illinois deserve access to health care without intrusion from government. I was notified by Bishop Paprocki that if I permitted the House of Representatives to debate and pass the Reproductive Health Act, I would no longer be allowed to accept the sacrament of communion. After much deliberation and reflection, I made the decision to allow debate and a vote on the legislation. I believe it is more important to protect a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, including women who become pregnant as a result of rape or incest. With women’s rights under attack in an increasing number of states across the country, Illinois is now a leader in making sure women are protected and their rights are upheld.
I don’t think it’s totally legal to offer an inducement to legislators or threaten a specific punishment of them in advance of a vote on legislation.
* ACLU IL statement…
It is sad to read the report of the legislative leaders targeted because each took their oath to our state constitution seriously and respected the religious liberty of all Illinois residents.
We know the passage of the Reproductive Health Act — at a time when other states are criminalizing reproductive health care - was possible because of the leadership and vision of Speaker Madigan, in particular, to move this legislation forward in the House.
The Speaker and Senator Cullerton deserve deep appreciation for advocating for the fundamental rights of individuals to make their own health care decisions.
…Adding… With a hat tip to Hannah Meisel, Madigan doesn’t even attend church any longer. From February..
While he’s known as a classic Chicago South Side Irish politician and went to Catholic school (he graduated from St. Adrian elementary school, St. Ignatius College Prep in 1960, Notre Dame in June ‘64 and Loyola Law School in June ’67), Madigan does not go to church. Madigan said “once upon a time” he regularly attended services as St. Adrian and that “for a time” he “would be a regular attendee at St. Nicholas of Tolentine” but he does belong to a church or parish.
Madigan also said he was not a member of any church or parish, including St. Mary Star of the Sea, the neighborhood Catholic church less than half a mile from his West Lawn home of the last 42 years.
Asked if he ever regularly attended church, Madigan said, “Once upon a time St. Adrian. And let me amend that, for a time I would be a regular attendee at St. Nicholas of Tolentine.”
CHICAGO – Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) released the following statement on Governor Pritzker signing SB687 today:
“For two years in a row, Republicans and Democrats have proven that we can balance the state’s budget with no new taxes on Illinois families. However, the graduated tax rates signed into law today are simply the next step to giving Illinois Democrats a blank check for uncontrolled spending for years to come. Illinois families should remain very wary on the rates that are being ‘promised’ today – as Democrats will continue to come back, year after year, and pickpocket more money from Illinois families and businesses.”
* As we’ve already discussed, the Illinois News Network is now called The Center Square. From the publisher…
When a reporter is on target within their beat, they’re said “to be hitting the center square.”
I asked several reporters if they’d ever heard of that saying and nobody has. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, but when I Googled “‘hitting the center square’ reporter” I only came up with one result, the column by its publisher.
But after about ten of these, I’m starting to run out of names. Friends and colleagues have chimed in with helpful suggestions, but I don’t have enough stockpiled to make it through the week and my brain is still a little fried from the session. So…
* The Question: Your own twist on The Center Square’s name?
* The governor has been making the rounds with editorial boards and others. From his sit-down with Bloomberg…
“You need to be able to discern the difference between someone’s posturing and what they really need,” he said of his conversations with Republican legislators, who came to the governor’s mansion in Springfield for cocktails. Some privately told him that “they had talked to me more in the first couple months of my tenure in office than they did for four years under Bruce Rauner.” […]
Illinois last week became the 11th state to legalize recreational marijuana, which could eventually bring in $300 million to $700 million annually, Pritzker said. The change isn’t going to encourage more use, because “marijuana is readily available now,'’ he said. More importantly, the bill allows some drug convictions to be expunged.
“Are we safer with it legalized? Are we safer with it illegal? … I believe we’re making a more just society,” he said. “This most importantly was about criminal justice reform, expunging records, and safety.”
Pritzker said the state has set aside $29 million — the largest per-capita investment in the country — to ensure a maximum census count. A move by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to include a citizenship question could hurt the accuracy of the population count, he said. “We have to get our numbers,” Pritzker said.
At a meeting with the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board Monday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he’s inherited infrastructure repairs that have been kicked down the road for decades. He said the state has $15 billion in life safety infrastructure investments to make — and that’s just the start of it.
“Think about all the pent up demand and need — the potholes, the bridges they’re falling apart, the mass transit that we can all see everyday here in Chicago is crumbling — that needs to be done,” Pritzker said.
“So look, we have to pay for these things, and we tried to find ways to live up to our obligations to make it safe and then remember we also need to focus on economic development.”
That’ll mean building new roads in areas where there’s development that could go on and that there’s investment in communities that have “been left out frankly for far too long,” Pritzker said.
The Department of Children and Family Services is set to receive almost $130 million more in the next fiscal year. This is the largest budget increase in more than 20 years. The hike will allow DCFS to hire over 300 [new] front-line staff, like case workers and investigators.
DCFS was appropriated $1.4 billion in Fiscal Year 2000. That would be equal to $2.12 billion today, which is almost a billion dollars more than was actually appropriated for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30th. Long way to go, campers.
Members of the Illinois Board of Higher Education are satisfied with how higher ed fared in the new state budget passed by Illinois lawmakers. […]
“…major steps in repairing the damage,” [Nyle Robinson, the Higher Education Board’s Interim Executive Director] said. “In fact, this is arguably the best session for higher education in a generation.” […]
Higher ed will get an 8.2% increase in general funds over last year.
According to the board members, that’s the largest increase for any year since they started keeping track of it in 1990.
There is also a $50 million dollar boost for Monetary Award Program grant funding.
The new state budget awaiting Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s signature includes what advocates say is a much-needed $80 million increase in funding for mental health and addiction treatment.
The state’s fiscal 2020 budget marks the first time in recent years that lawmakers have approved a signficant increase in state funding for behavioral health services, said Eric Foster, Chief Operating Officer for the Illinois Association for Behavioral Health. Last year’s increase amounted to only about 3%, he said.
This year’s funding increase includes $39 million for addiction treatment and prevention and $43 million for mental health services—which represents increases in 18% and 13%, respectively. The money will be made available to service providers through grant programs administered by the Illinois Department of Human Services.
Foster said an additional $40 million appropriation to the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services will help expand access to psychiatric services; plus $7 million to HFS will be used to boost Medicaid reimbursement rates for mental health and addiction treatment. […]
Illinois spends relatively little on community-based treatment programs: $77 per person, compared to the national average of $133, according to the report; and people in Illinois living with mental illness are “more likely to encounter the criminal justice system, resulting in a large number of arrests and incarcerations,” the authors wrote.
Carol Spain, an S&P Global Ratings analyst, said the state’s recently increased forecast for income tax collections along with revenue measures passed by the legislature resulted in a budget with “few one-time revenues.”
“In S&P Global’s view, the fiscal 2020 budget signals near-term credit stability and buys the state more time to address out-year gaps,” she said in an email.
Spain added that to maintain an investment-grade rating, further progress is needed “toward sustainable structural balance, paying down its bill backlog, and addressing its pension liabilities.”
Ted Hampton, a Moody’s Investors Service analyst, said full payment of Illinois’ fiscal 2020 pension contribution, which lawmakers said was in the budget, would be a positive move.
Moody’s Investors Service affirmed its Baa3 rating and stable outlook on Illinois general obligation bonds Tuesday afternoon.
The formal action underscores the views of several municipal bond market observers that the budget does just enough to keep the state from a calamitous downgrade to speculative grade — but nowhere near enough to start talking upgrade. […]
“In the past year, the state has avoided material worsening of its credit vulnerabilities and marginally built on strengths” as “buoyant tax revenues encouraged policymakers to refrain from proposed cuts to pension contributions, and the legislature authorized some new revenue sources, as well as a referendum to potentially adopt progressive income taxes to further increase revenue-raising capacity,” Moody’s lead Illinois analyst Ted Hampton wrote.
“The accomplishments of the 2019 legislative session indicate improvement in political willingness. However, pension contribution requirements remain on track to outpace organic revenue growth, which will subject the state to persistent fiscal pressure, barring further politically difficult decisions on tax increases or essential service cuts,” Hampton warned.
* Related…
* U of I System snags $1.9 billion in funding - The new state budget doles out money for new buildings and the yet-to-be-built Discovery Partners Institute, as well as the most money ever for the state’s student financial assistance program.
* Hannah Meisel interviewed Illinois Department of Revenue Director David Harris. Excerpt…
Illinois Department of Revenue Director David Harris was one of the small group of Republican legislators who defied former Gov. Bruce Rauner in the summer of 2017 when he not only voted for a tax hike to end a two-year budget impasse, but also voted to overturn the Republican governor’s veto on the increase in income taxes. While he and many others announced their immediate retirements after that vote or their decisions to not seek re-election, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Harris would serve as the director IDOR soon after his November win over Rauner. The Daily Line spoke with Harris on Tuesday two days after the legislature wrapped up its business for the spring session, which resulted in the legalization of recreational marijuana, a $40.1 billion budget, a $44.5 billion six-year capital plan and a host of new taxes and fees in exchange for the creation of a bevy of new tax incentives for businesses. […]
Q: Do you think serving as the head of a state agency the last five months — do you think it’s changed your views on state government writ large? You come from a pretty moderate suburban Republican background and you were a longtime legislator. Do you think your views have changed on state government being truly in it?
A: My perspective has changed, yes. I’ll tell you how. As an example, I was on the [House] Revenue Committee and we’d always say, ‘What’s the revenue estimate on this?’ …We just kind of assumed the Department of Revenue had all those people over there working.
Now, we can punch a lot of numbers and we can punch a lot of numbers quickly. But I will tell you I have a research staff that used to be populated with eight people. It’s now populated with four people…if any one of those people gets in a car accident or gets sick and can’t come to work for two weeks, we have to scramble. Because of reductions — and these are all economists, trained economists, you try to hire an economist in state government at the level we’re going to pay them, it’s not easy.
Remember, the governor’s Fair Tax proposal, what does it mean if the [rates] are at such-and-such a level? We pegged it at a level where 97 percent of taxpayers in Illinois are not going to see any income tax increase, and indeed are going to see a benefit from those proposed levels.
But we’ve got to run through 6 million individual income tax filings to figure that out. It takes time. You just don’t push a button and that computer runs through six million computations. There has to be somebody there to do that.
So it’s absolutely increased my appreciation for what is done specifically at the Department of Revenue, and increased my appreciation for folks who do things like that…I’ve gained a greater appreciation for what it takes to actually run state government, whereas being in the legislature, you can sit there and criticize somebody who didn’t do something or say, ‘This just isn’t working as efficiently as it should and I’ll just pass a bill.’ You pass a bill, that means a lot of things have to happen to make sure that bill works the way you intended it to work.
* At the end of a whiny editorial about the state’s cannabis legalization measure, the Tribune editorial board opines…
Because as the Grateful Dead, early advocates of mind-bending substances, noted in song, life with drugs can make for a long, strange trip.
That’s some tortured syntax right there.
* More importantly, though, “What a long, strange trip it’s been” is a line from a Dead song called “Truckin’”…
The lyrics refer to a drug raid of the band’s hotel lodgings in New Orleans during a concert tour earlier in 1970:
Busted, down on Bourbon Street
Set up, like a bowling pin
Knocked down, it gets to wearing thin
They just won’t let you be
Leave it to the Tribune to bungle a Dead reference. The whole idea of cannabis legalization is to finally stop and reverse the very real harm done from arrest and incarceration.
Sittin’ and starin’ out of the hotel window
Got a tip they’re gonna kick the door in again
I’d like to get some sleep before I travel
But if you’ve got a warrant, I guess you’re gonna come in
Update: Daily Public Schedule: Wednesday, June 5, 2019
What: Gov. Pritzker to sign the state budget and fair tax legislation.
Where: James R. Thompson Center, 15th Floor, Blue Room, 100 West Randolph Street, Chicago
When: 3:15 p.m.
The [infrastructure funding] plan doubles Illinois’ state gas tax to 38 cents from 19 cents per gallon, which will vault the total tax burden on Illinois gas beyond states such as New York and California to second-highest in the nation, according to 2018 data from the Tax Foundation. The increase will be effective July 1.
The state motor fuel tax will also be tied to inflation, meaning it will automatically rise in future years without lawmaker approval. The hike will cost the typical driver around $100 more in its first year.
OK, but the state’s Motor Fuel Tax hasn’t been increased since 1990. Factor in inflation since then and the MFT would be… wait for it… 38 cents per gallon today.
In other words, the tax hike to 38 cents per gallon puts us right where we’d be if lawmakers had pegged the MFT to inflation back then like they just did going forward.
On its way to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk is a bundle of spending proposals that come with tax hikes on Illinoisans – and pay raises for state lawmakers.
Due to a “paperwork mix-up that went uncorrected,” according to the Associated Press, lawmakers can expect a pay hike of $1,600 included in a $40 billion budget proposal that now awaits Pritzker’s signature. […]
Since 2008, state lawmakers’ annual salary has been held constant at $67,836. But that doesn’t include $10,000 committee chairmanship stipends, per diems, mileage reimbursements and other perks lawmakers receive for what is technically a part-time job.
OK, but $1,600 works out to $30.77 per week. Not much.
And if annual automatic increases based on cost of living had not been stopped every year since 2008, they’d be making $82,126.94 right now.
Also, if you have a job that requires you to travel as much as 200 miles twice each week and stay in a hotel or rent an apartment, I don’t see the problem with per diems and mileage reimbursements.
Through all of April and all of May, wave after wave of rain hit the nation right in the breadbasket, with April capping the wettest 12 months on record for the continental United States. The past 60 days, in particular, have coincided with planting season in much of the country. […]
Recent measurements show most of Illinois’s famous topsoils are more waterlogged than they have ever been, University of Illinois economist Scott Irwin said.
Farmers cannot plant in that muck. It fouls their equipment and strangles their seeds. It is not enough for the rain to stop. The soil has to dry for as much as a week before they can plant again. According to the latest forecasts from the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, that does not look likely. […]
This is not like most years. As the calendar ticks toward the point of no return, new data released Monday shows farmers have planted 67 percent of the acres they had planned to put in corn. In key states such as Illinois (45 percent) and Indiana (31 percent), it is even lower. […]
Irwin estimates that about 85 percent of the corn acres in Illinois were covered by such insurance, often as part of enormous operations that can afford coverage. The remaining 15 percent includes many small, family farms that are left with little protection against this unprecedented weather.
Along the Illinois River—which meets the Mississippi in Grafton, Ill.—a levee was breached Monday night, the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office said, forcing the closure of the Joe Page Bridge that is the main way in and out of the county. They agency was notified of the breach around 8:30 p.m. local time. The breach threatened homes in Nutwood, a community in nearby Jersey County.
The record wet weather over the last 12 months across the U.S. caused several crests along the Mississippi River and record flooding along the Missouri and Arkansas Rivers. May generated 549 tornadoes for the month, according to preliminary reports, the most for that month ever and second to April 2011 for the most tornadoes in any month.
In some areas over the next several days, the Mississippi River will crest within a foot of the 1993 record, Mr. Fuchs said. That flood killed 50 people, caused $15 billion in damage and forced the evacuation of thousands of people.
Governor JB Pritzker has deployed an additional 200 National Guard troops to southern Illinois to monitor rising water in the region.
The additional troops bring the number to 400 patrolling the region threatened by the rising Mississippi and Illinois rivers. […]
According to the governor’s office, state agencies have provided more than three million sandbags, more than 2,700 rolls of plastic, 27 pumps and five dozen Department of Corrections detainees to help hold back rising rivers.
