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Tribune gonna Tribune
Tuesday, Mar 31, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller * Tribune editorial…
Gee. I wonder what happened at the end of 2014 that would’ve “depleted” the rainy day fund? I dunno, could it be the automatic partial rollback of the 2011 income tax increase the Tribune so bitterly opposed? Could it have been the election of a new governor with Tribune backing who then refused to cut a deal on new state revenues until he was given anti-union concessions (also with Tribune backing)? Could it have been a two-year impasse with no budget that the Tribune wholeheartedly supported, which drove up our unpaid bill backlog to $16.67 billion? Could it have been the billion dollars the state had to pay in interest to its creditors because of that mountainous bill backlog? * Yes, Illinois has some serious structural budgetary issues. Pensions, for one. But the state has been repeatedly ordered to fulfill its pension promises, so the only way to do that is with budgetary management and additional revenues. The Tribune has always refused to support additional revenues and, if it has seriously engaged on the topic of budget management, I do not recall it.
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- Chicago Cynic - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:22 am:
I think you should cut them some slack. Ever since the Tribune ordered its editorial board employees to throw away their calculators in 2014, it’s been hard every time they try to write about budgets. Math is hard.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:26 am:
It’s adorbs that the Tribune editorial board continues to ignore the damage the Rauner years brought, that the Tribune editorial board propped up Rauner in every and any possible way, cheering the damage as leverage necessary for an agenda.
Let’s put a real fine point on it.
The Chicago Tribune endorsed an incumbent governor who, in 4 years, signed but *one* budget, and had another budget approved over his vetoes… and that governor was glad… because politics.
They endorsed that sitting governor for re-election.
- Linus - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:28 am:
Hypocrisy, thy name is Trib edit board.
- Wow - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:29 am:
The Tribune, only relevant in their own world.
- NIU Grad - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:30 am:
“Need more revenue? Just cut taxes and reduce corruption, easy peasy lemon squeezy.” - Every Tribune editorial for the last ten years
- efudd - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:30 am:
Sounds like the Trib is now part of the “Yeah but” crowd.
You know, the type. Refute their nonsense with cited, known facts and their response will inevitably be “yeah, but”.
- TinyDancer(FKASue) - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:34 am:
“It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.”
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:34 am:
=== Sounds like the Trib is now part of the “Yeah but” crowd.===
With the “I know” helpers as their backup…
They sit at the end of the bar yelling at the tee-vee weather guy about nothing pertaining to weather.
- Amalia - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:34 am:
Oh, snap…..
- TinyDancer(FKASue) - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:36 am:
And I’m referring to the Trib.
- 618er - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:37 am:
This could be the third week of “sheltering in place” talking, but what’s the saying about some people are like those glow sticks. You just wanna shake them until the light comes on…
- Scott Cross for President - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:39 am:
Must… fight… urge… to comment… on… Tribune… editorial (my best Shatner imitation)
But here we go. Chicago Cynic +1. OW +1.
Also, “Even when the economy was booming, lawmakers spent through it.”
Wrong. Governor Rauner spent Illinois’ growing rainy day fund on Rauner’s exploding interest payments on unpaid bills owed to service providers and vendors. Rich +1.
Somewhere, a $500 bottle of red wine is being uncorked, as a former one-term governor smiles and reads his handiwork.
- Anyone Remember - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:40 am:
When did the Tribune Editorial Board become such a joke? While individual editorials stand out (the 1997 praise for the Edgar Ramp in 1997 re-election was ruled out), I think it was the cumulative of the Blago years (a target that was sooo easy to criticize).
- Tawk - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:42 am:
Ah yes, the pre-impasse years. Where Illinois had … the worst credit rating in the nation and a $6B bill backlog. How we pine for those days.
- Tawk - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:44 am:
I think I missed the “budgetary management” of pension costs during the 2011 tax hike years and the 2017 tax hike years.
- Simplicity Felicity - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:48 am:
Chicago tribune equals tabloid
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:48 am:
=== Ah yes, the pre-impasse years. Where Illinois had … the worst credit rating in the nation and a $6B bill backlog. How we pine for those days.===
“By nearly every measure Illinois is worse off now than it was before Rauner took office”
Oh, that’s not my quote.
That was Crain’s Chicago.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:58 am:
===How we pine for those days. ===
Whatever else you may think of him, Quinn was starting to right the fiscal ship. Rauner deliberately sank it.
- Not for Nothing - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 9:59 am:
Kmaq has the keys to the editorial board and the hurricane she has been yearning for.
- Louis G Atsaves - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:01 am:
Let’s just not blame the Trib for the current state of our finances in Illinois. Plenty of blame to go around. Just sayin’.
After this monstrous shutdown of our national and state economies, just how in the world will the Constitutional Amendment pass in Illinois? And considering the current economy, even if it starts rebounding by election day, how will Illinois dig itself out by merely taxing the rich? Those are the questions those running Illinois government these days will have to figure out.
- Ducky LaMoore - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:02 am:
The Trib has really lacked any sort of cogent thought since that whole Thomas Dewey debacle. Existing is practically all they do.
- frustrated GOP - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:04 am:
I am guessing this is the same paper editorial board opposed to the rainy day fund when we had a surplus. how did the Gov. of New York put it yesterday, A stockpile is something you have stored for when you need it, not that you need it today, but will need it tomorrow. I wonder if they even google their own previous positions to see how the swing back and forth.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:08 am:
=== Let’s just not blame the Trib for the current state of our finances in Illinois. Plenty of blame to go around. Just sayin’.===
Counselor, argue like an adult. I know, you’ve told *me*, it’s time to move on, but, see, here’s the deal with all that, wholly ignoring what Crain’s even said about your patron’s stewardship, well, that’s just malpractice.
===After this monstrous shutdown of our national and state economies, just how in the world will the Constitutional Amendment pass in Illinois?===
Funny thing about health care, you wanna * know* the difference between the “haves and have nots”, let’s talk health care. I know you’re ignoring that, but this idea it won’t pass, Pritzker will spend millions in the fall pointing out the “rich”, you know, social media-ing from their yachts, “compounds”, how they got tested… “and they pay the same income tax rate as you… the 3%”
The politics of the progressive income tax shines a huge light on those wealthy right now, and those worried about eating.
===And considering the current economy, even if it starts rebounding by election day, how will Illinois dig itself out by merely taxing the rich?===
Please, please, PLEASE make that the counter argument.
“We don’t want recession, so give the rich a break?”
lol
- Crispy - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:08 am:
–After this monstrous shutdown of our national and state economies, just how in the world will the Constitutional Amendment pass in Illinois?–
@@@
Oh, I don’t know. … Maybe, after (hopefully) making it through a pandemic that was (apparently) made worse by one clueless rich guy in (national) leadership, and recalling how the leadership of another clueless rich guy helped drive Illinois to unprecedented lows, voters will look more favorably on a tax scheme that makes rich guys kick in more while leaving the rest of us largely untouched.
- Shytown - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:09 am:
The Tribune editorial board is a sad semblance of its former self when Dold was editorial page editor. Giving Blago a platform was the last straw (after a few last straws).
- bailbond - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:10 am:
Two related strategic questions regarding the State’s need for budgetary management and new revenue:
1. Why not go bigger with the Fair Tax? The $3+ billion expected is not enough to close the structural deficit including future pension payments, so they could have even kept their “97%” stat and gone with higher rates on the top end to raise the money they actually need.
2. Why not create a constitutional mechanism to force the State to make its full actuarial pension payment every year? This would silence the critics who say the Fair Tax is a blank check.
- adult - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:13 am:
If only the Trib had someone who studied under a journalist who knew the budget as well as anyone. Sigh… can UIS rescind a PAR degree?
- efudd - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:31 am:
Tawk-
So, using your, er, logic, the 15B in bills Rauner left us was better than the 6B Quinn did?
How much stretching is required to perform that kind of twisting?
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:35 am:
== just how in the world will the Constitutional Amendment pass in Illinois==
I’ve been thinking about this and I actually think the prospects of passage are better now than they were before. With the state of the economy I cannot see how an argument that shows that taxes are only going to increase on those with higher incomes doesn’t win. I know, I know, there are people that argue that taxes will eventually go up on everyone. Maybe. But people are going to be thinking in the moment and in this moment people are suffering. They aren’t going to have a problem saying go ahead and raise taxes on those with money.
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:37 am:
It’s true, there is plenty of blame to go around. The Trib editorial board should acknowledge that. The likes of Kass and McQueary should accept and be grateful that they benefited for many years, paying a low, flat state income tax, which cost the state a lot of lost revenue.
- City Zen - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:41 am:
==I wonder what happened at the end of 2014 that would’ve “depleted” the rainy day fund?==
Fortunately, the Civic Federation provides some much-needed context:
“The Budget Stabilization Fund was originally funded at $226 million in 2001 by a transfer from the Tobacco Settlement Recovery Fund. It received a single additional one-time infusion of $50 million in FY2004. The Budget Stabilization Fund had $276 million at the end of FY2013…”
First, we wouldn’t have had any fund if not for a legal settlement.
Second, besides those 2 early cash infusions, one of which was made when the income tax rate was 3%, no other deposits were made into this fund between 2004 and today. And despite record revenues from 2011-2014 tax hike, not a single deposit was made into the fund.
Third, even if that fund remained at $276 million today, it would have lost $100 million in value due to inflation.
- Norseman - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:43 am:
First, for the lack of a “like” button I want to give Rich a hear hear cheer. He excellently lists the Trib editorial board’s hypocrisy.
Second, I would argue the pandemic makes it even more imperative that the Fair Tax amendment pass. The revenue needs are more evident to all, though there will be those who oppose the idea anyway. Fair tax will ensure the burden will not fall hardest on the poor and middle class.
- Jibba - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:45 am:
Been lately feeling the need for an additional source of Illinois centric news and briefly considered taking up the Trib’s really cheap new subscriber offer. But then I remembered all the editorial nonsense and couldn’t become a subscriber at any price. You listening, Trib? Your nonsense is driving your business into the ground, even during a pandemic. Another customer lost due to the Hurricane. And Kass.
- Louis G Atsaves - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:54 am:
@OswegoWilly, clearly you are replacing one fantasy with another. Good luck with that. Expanding government and claiming only the rich will pay for it is a fantasy.
- Moe Berg - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:59 am:
Newspaper ad revenues are plummeting across the country right now. The LA times, which is owned by a billionaire sugar-daddy, has consolidated sections and cut back. I can’t imagine the situation is better for the Trib.
It’s solid reporters who do real work, that will get tossed or furloughed (see Molly Parker’s tweets today). It’s virtually costless to produce Katrina McQueary’s ed board ramblings from outer space.
The vulture capitalists at Alden, by the time they finally get control, may find only bone and a few tufts of fur left.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 10:59 am:
- Louis G Atsaves -
LOL
=== Expanding government and claiming only the rich will pay for it is a fantasy.===
Your question, Counselor…
===After this monstrous shutdown of our national and state economies, just how in the world will the Constitutional Amendment pass in Illinois?===
Now… now you want it to be…
=== Expanding government and claiming only the rich will pay for it is a fantasy.===
The argument for its passage will be… 97% won’t see an increase, which is true to the passage come November.
You think raising taxes by a legislature now is going to pass?
There was reasons they set the rates…. first… before passage.
You know the RaunerS are gone, you don’t owe them anything.
The politics… the Pol-Eye-Tics… to the “millionaire tax”… thinking you can scare 97% folks after this pandemic…
It’s I who wish you good luck.
- Pundent - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 11:02 am:
=Expanding government and claiming only the rich will pay for it is a fantasy.=
What’s your definition of “expanding government”? Does it mean providing enough hospital beds for the sick and testing for potential disease carriers? Throwing around words like “expanding government” with no specific examples is a tired trope. Our government has been contracting for years now. Suggesting that the opposite is the case is dishonest.
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 11:04 am:
“claiming only the rich will pay for it is a fantasy”
The Fair Tax has rates for everybody, so no, not only the rich would pay for it. A great many would get a tax cut, small as it would be. Some ought to show gratitude that they’ve made lots of money in Illinois while being taxed at low, flat rates for many years. There should be a sense of obligation and willingness to help out more.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 11:08 am:
=== Does it mean providing enough hospital beds for the sick and testing for potential disease carriers?===
Ball game.
If anything… anything… this tragic pandemic highlights “haves and have nots” which is the same argument as the progressive income tax.
I’m a Republican, not a Raunerite-Trumpkin… and I’m tellin’ ya, like the embarrassingly helpful “millionaire tax” angle that backfired… if you don’t know that your choices are helping what you’re trying to stop… you deserve to get beat on the issue.
I’ve yet to hear the correct pivot off the progressive income tax, especially now in this climate.
- Annonin - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 11:10 am:
32 comments already — about triple # of readers the Tribbie Edit Page gets these day of the Katrina era. Let’s just say a Rainy Day Fund not enough to get us to move from IL to those other states. Wonder if Capt Fax gettin a little fee from the Tribbies for posting this nonsense.
- Original Rambler - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 11:10 am:
The Tribune isn’t being “blamed” for the fiscal health of the State. It’s just being pointed out how politicians and policies the Tribune endorsed and supported played a significant role in getting us to this point. And now the Tribune is conveniently ignoring that. I’m a Tribune and Sun Times paid subscriber because I think it is valuable to be a 2 newspaper town but editorials like this make me rethink that, especially comparing the cost of each.
I’m no PQ fan but Rich is correct about his steps to improve the State’s fiscal health. Who knew he would be the adult in the room.
Lastly, I agree that this is going to help the CA.
- pawn - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 11:17 am:
I just can’t right now. Too much trauma from that time, and if I go back there to the impasse, I won’t be able to muster up what needs to be done to get us through this crisis. The Trib edit board is irrelevant and irresponsible. GO. AWAY.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 11:25 am:
==And despite record revenues from 2011-2014 tax hike, not a single deposit was made into the fund.==
Could be because the required pension payment was being made. But then again you usually are too interested in making cute comments than being serious.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 11:26 am:
==claiming only the rich will pay for it is a fantasy==
Maybe in your head. But I’m still betting the 97% who aren’t currenlty going to see a tax increase aren’t thinking about that.
You don’t have a winning argument if your only argument is “it’s a fantasy.”
- Skeptic - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 11:26 am:
“I think I missed the “budgetary management” of pension costs during the 2011 tax hike years” Well, the pension contributions were being paid on time and in full, so there’s that.
- Hindsight - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 11:31 am:
That Tobacco Settlement Fund… wish we had a do-over with that cash. See 35 ILCS 208.1 and 35 ILCS 901(c)(3).
- Obamas Puppy - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 11:32 am:
Its called the McQueery logic loop.
1.Ignore debt if it accomplishes budget reform (unconstitutional and politically unattainable policy).
2.Oppose revenue because those policies were not successful or constitutional.
3.Recognize debt because of human service needs and in order to get that revenue see #1
- City Zen - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 12:00 pm:
==But then again you usually are too interested in making cute comments than being serious.==
Despite being the only person providing the necessary context behind the Budget Stabilization Fund? It didn’t magically appear in 2011. Seeing lots of false inferences here.
Quinn had an extra $8 billion per year to parcel out however he wanted, yet that rainy day fund not only remained the same amount, it lost value from inflation. Take from that what you will.
- Say What? - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 12:04 pm:
Does everyone feel better now that the 30 second moratorium on the blame game is over?
Remember those bygone days of focusing on the sick, necessary equipment, et. al.?
Two truths: a) newspapers wield almost no influence at this juncture. They are an ill-funded relic of a bygone era. b) everyone has too much time on their hands, using it in productive and positive ways to address an unprecedented emergency was refreshing.
There will be plenty of time to hand wring over which political characters were the worst. For now . . . . . . .focus on the view from the windshield, not the rear view mirror. It is the only one that can be currently helpful.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 12:04 pm:
=== Despite being the only person providing the necessary context…===
Didn’t you just forget that Quinn made all the pension payments, lol
=== Seeing lots of false inferences here.===
Not really, you just don’t like them. Try (hashtag) Fake News if you think it’ll help you.
Same chiming and same whining for ya.
=== Quinn had an extra $8 billion per year to parcel out however he wanted===
… like pension payments.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 12:07 pm:
==Quinn had an extra $8 billion per year to parcel out however he wanted==
He “parceled” a good chunk to pension payments which you seem to be ignoring.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 12:07 pm:
- Say What? -
Your lecture is… compelling?
The thing is, this post is about the malfeasance of the editorial board and it’s own lack of history… that context is needed as looking from the windshield we recognize truths that the Editorial Board what’s forgotten.
With respect.
- Pundent - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 12:24 pm:
=Quinn had an extra $8 billion per year to parcel out however he wanted=
And I’m sure that the Trib Editorial Board would have lambasted him for hoarding away money instead of dealing with our pressing pension crisis.
The board couldn’t be more clear. They literally want to burn (or blow depending on who’s doing the writing) the state to the ground.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 12:28 pm:
===Quinn had an extra $8 billion per year to parcel out however he wanted===
lol
You’re not dealing with children here.
- NorthsideNoMore - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 1:20 pm:
Quinn never had $8 billion extra for anything. Although he did run about the state offering up big construction plans that never materialized (or are just now materializing) He expanded medical programs and that ate up much of the extra that might have been stashed under the mattress.
- Anyone Remember - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 1:35 pm:
==He expanded medical programs and that ate up much of the extra that might have been stashed under the mattress.==
Nearly all the programmatic expansions under Quinn were funded by his relentless drive to reduce headcount. Remember his Spring 2012 pronouncement he was going to increase the retirement age for then current state employees, leading to what is called the SERS “Class of 2012″?? Specifically, in his FY 2015 budget proposal, Page 7, it showed in 5 years he had decreased headcount by 8%, over 4 thousand employees.
https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/budget/Documents/Budget%20Book/FY%202015%20Budget%20Book/FY%202015-2019%20Budget%20Presentation.pdf
- Michael Feltes - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 1:35 pm:
There’s a line from Monty Python’s self-defense against fresh fruit sketch that comes to mind constantly when I read about Illinois politics. “Well, that’s planning, innit? Forethought.” So many short-sighted decisions compounding and compounding over decades, the worst of which is an unwillingness to match spending to taxes. I’m all in favor of taxing retirement income because if the boomers don’t like it, then they should have paid for everything they consumed or locked in (in the case of pensions) when they were working. Unfortunately, they have the votes so we millennials will be left holding the bag.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 1:37 pm:
=== I’m all in favor of taxing retirement income because…===
Yeah, I’m gonna stop your rant right there;
71 and 36
No Illinois Governor is going to sign legislation to tax retirement income, so… ya need chamber leaders to get folks to vote 3 times to pass it, then both chambers, a 4th vote, to override…
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 1:42 pm:
=== Unfortunately, they have the votes so we millennials will be left holding the bag.===
This is why I stopped your rant, to take this alone;
It’s the signature you’ll probably never get, not the 71 or 36… that’s how tough it is… that’s the lift in “the honest“.
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 2:39 pm:
Unfortunately, they have the votes so we millennials will be left holding the bag.”
America will probably become more left-leaning as millennials age and America becomes less white.
- Michael Feltes - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 2:54 pm:
@Grandson of Man - Maybe. We’ll still have all this debt, whether we’re talking financial, deferred maintenance on infrastructure, or ecological. Also, the Republicans will have no moral qualms about trying to govern with a permanent minority. President Trump gave away the game yesterday while talking about the stimulus bill: “They had things, levels of voting that if you ever agreed to, you would never have a Republican elected in this country again…” It’s genuinely amazing to me how far a man who cannot help saying the quiet part loud has gotten.
https://www.ibtimes.com/trump-says-mail-voting-would-be-disastrous-republicans-2950234
- 37B - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 2:56 pm:
City Zen:
Check out our Comptroller’s website under Illinois Bill Backlog 2010-2017. Quinn bill backlog reduction in purple. Rauner bill backlog increase in red. Some of the $8B was used to reduce the backlog.
- A - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 4:47 pm:
Yep , the Democrats refused to bargain in good faith with the new Governor and stuck it to us all. How many years have we known about the pension underfunding and the retiree healthcare underfunding and about the only action has been to pass a bill that they knew was going to be ruled unconstitutional by the courts. Great leadership Speaker Madigan, but at least you stayed in charge of the State. Evidently too much ego.
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 4:52 pm:
“Yep , the Democrats refused to bargain in good faith with the new Governor”
Sheltering well, Bruce?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 4:52 pm:
=== Democrats refused to bargain in good faith with the new Governor===
Is that you… Bruce?
- A Jack - Tuesday, Mar 31, 20 @ 5:03 pm:
Did Rauner ever move to Italy? That would seem like divine punishment if he did.