CHICAGO (S&P Global Ratings) Aug. 5, 2016–S&P Global Ratings lowered its underlying rating three notches to ‘BB+’ from ‘BBB+’ on Governors State University Board of Trustees, Ill.’s series 2007 and 2012 university facilities system (UFS) revenue bonds and series 2008 and 2009 certificates of participation (COPs), issued on behalf of Governors State University (GSU or the university). The outlook is negative.
“The downgrade and negative outlook reflect our view of Illinois’ ongoing severe challenges due to its weak financial position, and the resultant impact on GSU’s financial position which, in our opinion, creates significant liquidity risk for the university and without correction or intervention, could result in a negative cash balance by August 2017,” said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Jessica Wood. Additionally, the university’s operations have been deficit on a full-accrual basis for the past couple of years, and this is expected to continue given the state pressures.
Throughout fiscal 2016, the state’s public universities, including GSU, received only a small fraction of historical operating appropriations, placing significant liquidity stress on these institutions given their dependence on these funds to support operations. Furthermore, given the length of the fiscal 2016 budget impasse and the absence of a substantial agreement among elected leaders, it is our opinion that state appropriation outcomes will remain uncertain through at least fiscal 2017. […]
Illinois State University Debt Ratings Lowered To ‘A’ On Fiscal Uncertainty; Outlook Negative
CHICAGO (S&P Global Ratings) Aug. 4, 2016–S&P Global Ratings lowered its long-term rating to ‘A’ from ‘A+’ on Illinois State University Board of Trustees’ auxiliary facilities system (AFS) revenue bonds. In addition, we lowered our long-term rating and underlying rating (SPUR) on existing bonds and certificates of participation (COPs), issued on behalf of Illinois State University (ISU), to ‘A’ from ‘A+’. The outlook, where applicable, is negative.
“The downgrade reflects our view of ongoing operational and liquidity uncertainty attributable to budgetary stresses at the state level,” said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Ashley Ramchandani. “While the state has provided stop-gap funding and ISU does not have immediate liquidity pressures, state budgetary pressures have, and will, in our view, continue to negatively affect the university such that we believe its credit profile is now more consistent with the ‘A’ rating.”
The negative outlook reflects the aforementioned challenges that we believe the university will continue to face over the next two years, and their potential impact on the university, particularly if the state continues to delay, reduce, or not provide operating appropriations and of Monetary Assistance Program (MAP) funding. The funding situation remains unresolved for fiscal 2017.
The state of Illinois passed a stop-gap budget on the final day of the fiscal year 2016 (June 30), providing higher education institutions with $1 billion of funds to support operations during the first six months of fiscal 2017. Under this budget, which was approved by both houses and signed by the governor, ISU is scheduled to receive approximately $38 million of state operating appropriations and $6 million of MAP funds for spring semester of fiscal 2016. While receipt of these state operating appropriations mitigated liquidity risks, we do not view these stop-gap measures as a long-term solution to ISU’s state funding support given the state has yet to make substantial progress toward a budget for fiscal 2017. Please see the full analysis (published Feb. 22, 2016) for more information.
The ‘A’ rating reflects our view of ISU’s enterprise profile, which we assessed as strong, characterized by stabilizing enrollment, a respectable demand profile with improved matriculation and moderate selectivity for the rating. We also assessed ISU’s financial profile as strong, with robust balance sheet metrics and consistently negative operating performance on a full-accrual basis (though somewhat positive on a cash basis) because of historical softening in enrollment and operating in a challenging state funding environment. Combined, we believe these credit factors lead to an indicative stand-alone credit profile of ‘a’ and long-term rating of ‘A’.
* Mark Kirk on himself, the governor and Donald Trump…
Noting the two oppose Trump, Kirk, who was in a wheelchair, said, “I think the governor and I both suffer, forgive the humor here, from a form of PTSD: Post-Trump trauma disorder.”
* Heh…
Just stumbled Chris Farley style through the railing on my steps. I landed in my hydrangea and broke my labor union yard sign.
Is Chicago’s usually private first lady Amy Rule making an unprecedented sortie into the Illinois comptroller’s race?
Er, no — though Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza seemed to suggest so Friday morning.
“Join me and Chicago’s First Lady on 8/22 for an evening on the river,” tweeted Mendoza, who is challenging incumbent Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger in November.
Turns out that, in this case, “Chicago’s First Lady” refers not to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s wife but to the name of the boat that Mendoza’s campaign fundraiser will be held on.
* The governor just announced the signing of a ton of bills and I’m still going through them, but here’s one of a few he vetoed…
Veto Message for SB 2767
To the Honorable Members of
The Illinois Senate,
99th General Assembly:
Today I return Senate Bill 2767, which would allow certain counties to collect delinquent taxes and fees through private debt collectors.
Current law authorizes large, Chicago area counties to pursue court-adjudicated fines, such as for violation of county ordinances, through private debt collection. Senate Bill 2767 would expand that law to also apply to taxes and fees.
Illinois has the second highest property taxes in the country, and those taxes continue to rise. Many property owners struggle to make tax payments. The current tax sale process provides both counties and taxpayers with a system through which to address unpaid or delinquent taxes. Referring unpaid tax bills to private debt collectors would penalize property owners who are already facing skyrocketing property taxes. First and foremost, we need to make property taxes more affordable.
Therefore, pursuant to Section 9(b) of Article IV of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I hereby return Senate Bill 2767 entitled “AN ACT concerning local government”, with the foregoing objections, vetoed in its entirety.
Sincerely,
Bruce Rauner
GOVERNOR
Thoughts?
…Adding… Rauner also signed HB 5529 today, which critics have said would allow school districts to continue getting around tax caps by over-levying a non-capped fund (like transportation) and then transferring excess money into a capped fund (like education).
* Gov. Rauner appears in a new ad touting an online petition favoring term limits. The ad features one character saying “Let’s get a million signatures this time.” Another follows with “Make ‘em debate it.” The ad is paid for by Turnaround Illinois, Inc., which is one of Rauner’s campaign funds. So it’s very likely that Rauner will use the ad to not only boost his flagging poll numbers (since the issue is so popular), but to also gather up contact information to use against Democrats in legislative races this year.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing an Illinois doctor and two pregnancy care centers filed suit Friday in state court against Gov. Bruce Rauner after he recently signed a bill into law that forces doctors and medical facilities to promote abortion regardless of their ethical or moral views on the practice.
ADF sent a letter to Rauner in May on behalf of numerous pro-life physicians, pregnancy care centers, and pregnancy care center network organizations advising him that the bill, SB 1564, would violate federal law and therefore place federal funding, including Medicaid reimbursements, in jeopardy. ADF also warned legislators about the problems with the bill last year. The lawsuit claims the new law, which is actually an amendment to the existing Illinois Healthcare Right of Conscience Act, violates state law and the state constitution.
“No state should attempt to rob women of the right to choose a pro-life doctor by forcing pro-life physicians and entities to make or arrange abortion referrals. What’s even worse is that Illinois did this by amending a law designed specifically to protect freedom of conscience,” said ADF Senior Counsel Matt Bowman. “The governor should have vetoed this bill for many reasons, including its incompatibility with Illinois law and the state constitution, which specifically protects freedom of conscience and free speech.”
The new law forces medical facilities and physicians who conscientiously object to involvement in abortions to adopt policies that provide women who ask for abortions with a list of providers “they reasonably believe may offer” them. Illinois law prohibits government from placing burdens on religious conscience without a compelling interest for doing so. Additionally, the Illinois Constitution protects “liberty of conscience,” saying that “no person shall be denied any civil or political right, privilege or capacity, on account of his religious opinions.” It also protects free speech, which includes the right not to be compelled by government to speak a message contrary to one’s own conscience.
“Pro-life health care professionals shouldn’t be forced to hand out lists describing how to contact abortionists, yet that’s what this law mandates that they do,” explained ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. “If this profane amendment to Illinois’ conscience protection law remains on the books, doctors and medical staff committed to saving all lives will be forced to promote the killing of some children, women will lose access to doctors who unconditionally value human life, and pregnancy resource centers that offer free help and hope to pregnant women will be forced to refer to abortionists. This is the kind of government coercion that the state constitution, the state Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the very law that was amended were all designed to prevent.”
Mauck & Baker LLC attorney Noel Sterett, one of more than 3,000 private attorneys allied with ADF, is co-counsel in the case, The Pregnancy Care Center of Rockford v. Rauner, filed in the Circuit Court of the 17th Judicial Circuit in Winnebago County.
The main targets of this new law are those crisis pregnancy centers. Click here to read the lawsuit. And click here to read the letter the group sent the governor in May.
* Meanwhile, the AP has finally gotten around to covering this story. Click here.
2016 MADIGAN PRIMARY OPPONENT FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST MADIGAN AND HIS MINIONS
Mr. Gonzales ran against incumbent Mr. Madigan in the democratic primary for the 2016 election for the District 22 seat tothe Illinois House of Representatives. Mr. Madigan defeated Mr. Gonzales by engaging in illegal acts both by himself and through his vast network of operatives. On Monday, August 8, 2016, Mr. Gonzales filed a 39-count lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois United States District Court against Mr. Madigan and several of his co-conspirators.
WHO: Jason Gonzales
Anthony J. Peraica (counsel for Mr. Gonzales)
WHERE:Everett M. Dirksen United States Courthouse
219 S. Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL 60604
WHAT:Announcement to the public of Mr. Gonzales’ lawsuit against Michael J. Madigan, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and others.
* There are those who speculate that the governor’s office is using an alleged September 1 strike date and the potential for union fines if they cross the picket line in an attempt to scare state employees into dropping their full union memberships and switching to “fair share.” This e-mail from the governor’s labor negotiator John Terranova will only increase that speculation…
Colleagues,
My office has recently learned that AFSCME representatives are advising employees about the consequences of crossing the picket line in the event of a strike, which could be as early as September 1. Specifically, we heard that the Union is threatening to fine employees as much as $5,000.
We respect every employee’s decision to join a union. We also respect the relationship that employees have with their union representatives. That’s why employees should reach out to their union representatives with any questions related to the threat of fines for crossing the picket line. Employees can ask their union representatives to see any provisions on this topic in the union bylaws.
As the employer, however, we also care about state employees and their rights. I, for one, found it troublesome that, given a chance to firmly deny that it could or would fine employees for exercising their right not to strike, AFSCME Council 31’s spokesman failed to do so.
In light of the Union’s failure to flatly deny that it could or would fine employees, I feel it is my obligation to ensure employees know their rights.
You have the right to report coercion or intimidation by union officials; the right to change your union dues status in order to protect your hard-earned salary and prevent the Union from imposing fines if you want to work during a strike; the right to request a copy of the Union’s bylaws; and more. If you visit the Team Illinois website, team.illinois.gov/laborrelations, you’ll find answers to questions you’ve raised and some basic information about these employment rights.
For example, you’ll find information posted in response to the number one question we’ve been receiving since the Union first began threatening employees with fines if they cross the picket line: how do I change my union dues status to avoid getting fined? The process is simple. You just submit your dues revocation form to the agency that employs you, and they will modify your payroll deductions accordingly. If you visit team.illinois.gov/laborrelations, you’ll find a link to the online form where you can change your status. Separately, you will need to notify your union in writing of your intent to change your status, and you will find a sample letter on team.illinois.gov/laborrelations.
Please know that the decision is yours - and yours alone. The State cannot and will not advise you one way or the other and will respect your decision either way.
Rest assured, regardless of your status–fair share or full union members–we will treat you the same way. Your wages, hours, or any other terms and conditions of employment will not change if you become fair share (in the same way that they do not change if you switch from fair share to a full dues paying member). Regardless of your status, you will retain all benefits of your union’s relationship with the State as it relates to the terms and conditions of your employment.
As always, please continue to visit the Labor Relations tab on team.illinois.gov/laborrelations for important updates.
Yours,
JT
I’m pretty sure this post will be updated with AFSCME’s response.
*** UPDATE *** From AFSCME’s Anders Lindall…
Rich,
While the governor himself is missing in action—unseen and unheard for nearly an entire week—here in Illinois, public service workers in state government are on the job, protecting kids, caring for veterans and people with disabilities, ensuring public safety and performing all the other vital functions for which they’re responsible every day.
Meanwhile the missing governor’s appointees are piling up one lie after another in a desperate bid to create an alternate reality in which down is up, night is day and Bruce Rauner is a friend to state employees.
No matter how many times they repeat the lies, and no matter who says them—John Terranova, Governor Rauner or anyone else—false statements don’t magically become true. The truth is, no one has been fined by AFSCME and no one will be. No one has been threatened. No strike date has been set nor any strike authorization vote taken. And the cynical, obvious ploy of the Rauner Administration to strip union members of their rights and to silence their voices by weakening their representation is doomed to fail.
AFSCME members are going to keep serving our communities, speaking up through our union and standing up for the fair treatment that all working people deserve.
The Rauner Administration should drop its transparent anti-union campaign and focus on the real priorities of state government and the people of Illinois.
* So, according to US Sen. Mark Kirk, Tammy Duckworth hired a criminal under orders from Rod Blagojevich? Really? Where did that even come from? As we’ve already discussed, a criminal was allegedly hired at the Anna Veterans’ Home in 2007 by the facility’s acting manager, not by Duckworth. And he was told to get out the next day. Nobody has ever said that Duckworth knew about the hiring in advance (in fact, one of the whistleblowers in this bizarre case said under oath that the acting manager was solely responsible) and nobody has ever once alleged that Blagojevich played a role in it.
* Here is a transcript of Sen. Kirk talking to reporters yesterday with his most absurd comments highlighted for your reading convenience…
KIRK: I will be able to send you the picture of me in Qalat, Zabul Province in 2009, where I went on a foot patrol walk with the locals. And I’ve done three served assignments in Afghanistan. I know Tammy would like to take that away from me. I actually went to Afghanistan and I worked for General Vick Nicholson, who is now the commander of ISAF. Let me take a moment; take it one of you wanted to about this man Jesse Bell. That is the center of the case against Tammy Duckworth. The two whistleblowers that came forward, who said to us that the entire dispute was between Tammy Duckworth and the people at Anna nursing home Was over hiring this convicted felon, who was a convicted felon. Let me read you his rap sheet.
Guilty Of Felony For Possession Of Stolen Vehicle, Guilty Of Felony For Knowingly engaging in domestic Battery, Guilty Causing Bodily Harm; Guilty of Fleeing Police, Guilty of elder abuse, Guilty Domestic Battery. In the case of…let me be very specific, Jessie Bell committed his greatest crime after Duckworth hired him is now in the Pinckneyville prison for murder. That shows you the kind of person that he was. We cannot have someone running for the Senate who picks people this questionable taking care of our veterans. This disqualifies Tammy Duckworth from office. By, under orders from Rod Blagojevich for whatever reason she wanted to pick up this multiple convicted felon taking care of veterans in the Anna facility and the whistleblowers were exactly correct in saying that this man should not be taking care of veterans.
Reporter: And you know they already responded he did only work for 24 hours?
Kirk: I would say that putting someone this questionable in charge of, and you know, when you look at the whistleblowers, they really heavily objected to this and they were correct to do that and if a normal, like for me it was very easy for my staff to get his prison pictures online.
Reporter: Are you saying that Duckworth had a direct role in hiring the bad guy?
Kirk: She, uh according to the uh, I talked to the uh, my staff talked to the uh, talked to the plaintiffs. They highlighted the battle with Tammy Duckworth was over Jessie Bell, this convicted murderer…
Reporter: Are you saying that Duckworth had a direct role in hiring that man?
Kirk: According to the — my staff talked to the plaintiffs. They highlighted the battle with Tammy Duckworth over Jessie Bell, this convicted murderer. Who committed this murder after he was involved with the Anna nursing home facility.
Reporter: So you have Duckworth hiring this person, correct?
Kirk: She was insisting that this person could come in and that’s why the whistleblowers — let me point out the whistleblowers were right here and highlight my record on whistleblower protection. In the last VA appropriations bill, I put the Kirk whistleblower protection act in there to make sure that people who may be a convicted murderer should be taken care of veterans so they have protections. We’ve got to protect the protectors here.
Man, is that ever weird. Again, if you need a refresher, click here.
“Mark Kirk has floated plenty of lies, but this one is absurd. Tammy had no role in any unauthorized individuals entering the Anna facility, and virtually nothing he said today is supported by the court record — or reality. This is a new low, even for Kirk, and he should be ashamed of himself.” - Matt McGrath, campaign spokesman
Kirk was accused by the Duckworth campaign yesterday of deceptively pumping up his military service record. Instead of focusing on blowing that out of the water, he talked about Rod Blagojevich. Weird.
It was a normal afternoon at Erik’s Deli in Oak Park – normal in that Gov. Pat Quinn was there eating lunch.
Also normal in that the former governor was engrossed in a conversation with his two lunch mates about, you guessed it, Illinois politics. […]
Asked whether he plans to run against Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in the next election, Quinn hedged, but he didn’t say no.
“It’s hard to watch right now, just looking at what’s happened to the budget or lack of a budget,” he said. “The help for lots of vulnerable people in Illinois has been shredded by the current governor, and I think there are a lot of people who want to make a change.”
Something else that’s hard to watch? A guy who’s polling at 10 percent in a Democratic gubernatorial primary.
* Related…
* Pat Quinn: Trump’s remarks about Khans can’t be excused
* The Illinois Policy Institute commissioned a pretty darned comprehensive poll of registered Illinois voters by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates on criminal justice reform. Whatever else you may think of that group, it’s done yeoman’s work on this topic.
Press release…
A new poll commissioned by the nonpartisan Illinois Policy Institute found that Illinoisans view the state’s criminal-justice system as unfair and ineffective, and citizens strongly support reforms.
The poll surveyed 500 registered voters in Illinois on a variety of criminal-justice policies, ranging from mandatory minimum sentences to re-entry reform. Democrats, Republicans and Independents in Illinois overwhelmingly support not only changes to the state’s current system but also candidates who support reforms. The data are broken down by opinions, political affiliation, gender, race and age.
“Despite widespread political polarization, Illinois voters are in agreement on at least one thing: the need for bold criminal-justice reform,” said Bryant Jackson-Green, criminal-justice analyst at the Illinois Policy Institute. “This report shows majorities of liberals, moderates and conservatives have voiced support for major reforms such as reducing Illinois’ prison population, ending money bail, and removing barriers keeping former offenders out of work. Policymakers should heed this support and continue down the path toward reform.”
A majority of respondents, 56 percent, feel that the Illinois criminal-justice system is unfair. There is something of a partisan divide here: 65 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of Independents see the system as unfair, while only 42 percent of Republicans feel the same way.
Next, pollsters asked if voters think the Illinois criminal-justice system is at least doing a good job of keeping communities safe. Bipartisan majorities don’t think it is: 58 percent of Democrats, 52 percent of Republicans and 65 percent of Independents do not believe the Illinois criminal-justice system, as it stands now, is doing a good job at keeping communities safe. […]
• A plurality of poll respondents (39%) think nonviolent crime sentences are too long, though 18% think they’re too short and 23% think they are just right.
• Democrats (+34) and men (+28) polled most strongly for saying sentences are too long.
• A plurality of Republicans (32%) think the sentences are just right.
But that doesn’t mean Republicans are opposed to reform or that politicians can’t be seen as tough on crime while supporting reform. On the contrary, over 80 percent of respondents in all parties think politicians can support criminal-justice reforms “such as community supervision, mandatory drug testing and treatment programs – instead of prison – that reduce the likelihood the offender would commit a new crime.” […]
• Nearly three-quarters of poll respondents believe prisons should primarily be used for violent offenders.
• This sentiment is weakest among Republicans, but they still agree by a 63%-35% margin. […]
More than 4 in 5 respondents support reforming laws to reduce the number of nonviolent offenders in prison. Democrats are most likely to favor this reform at 92 percent, but Republicans are also largely in favor by a 75-22 percent margin. […]
Respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed that “people arrested for drug use should be offered drug treatment instead of being sent to prison.” […]
Eighty-two percent of respondents – including 87 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of Republicans and 83 percent of Independents – agree and want drug users to be offered treatment instead of being sent to prison. […]
• Poll respondents back increasing the felony theft threshold by a 50-point margin.
Pollsters asked whether respondents agreed with the following statement: “Judges should be able to sentence an offender based on their particular offense, their criminal history and risk for reoffending, instead of having to sentence based on mandatory minimums.”
Respondents were overwhelmingly in favor of this idea [88 percent to 11 percent]. […]
Pollsters asked: Illinois’ Crime Reduction Act created Adult Redeploy, which allows counties to create local treatment programs like drug courts that nonviolent offenders can go to instead of prison. These programs cost about $4,400 a year per participant, compared to $22,000 a year for prison. Do you favor or oppose the proposal to expand the Crime Reduction Act so that all probationable offenses, such as DUIs, are also eligible for these evidence-based treatment programs?
Eighty-six percent of respondents – including 92 percent of Democrats, 77 percent of Republicans and 83 percent of Independents – support allowing all probationable offenders to participate in ARI-funded programs. […]
• A majority of poll respondents (53%) said a candidate’s support for reforms to lower the number of nonviolent offenders in Illinois’ prisons makes them more likely to vote for that candidate.
• Only 9% of respondents said they would be less likely to support such a candidate, with the remainder saying it would have no impact on their votes. […]
“Illinois has at least 118 business and occupational licenses that by law either must or may be denied to people with criminal records. This includes, for example, occupations such as barber and real estate agent. Once someone has successfully completed their prison sentence and parole, do you think they should be denied these licenses, or should they be granted these licenses if they’re otherwise qualified?”
Most poll respondents think ex-offenders should be eligible for occupational licenses
• There is significant support for the granting of licenses to qualified, former parolees at
76%-15%. […]
Plurality of poll respondents more likely to vote for candidates who support removing barriers to occupational licensing
• A plurality of respondents (46%) said a candidate’s support for granting occupational licenses to those who have completed sentences/parole makes respondents more likely to support that candidate [13 percent less likely, 23 percent no impact or don’t know]. […]
• There is solid support for sealing nonviolent criminal records, with at least 2 in 3 poll respondents from the major groups backing the proposal [70-25]. […]
• Respondents were more likely to back a candidate who supports a law allowing limits on who can view criminal records of nonviolent offenders by a 40%-16% margin, with another 43% saying it would have no impact on their vote or they don’t know whether it would. […]
Pollsters asked respondents whether they would “favor or oppose a … law in Illinois that would protect a company from being sued for hiring employees with criminal records when their offense isn’t directly related to the job they’re hired for.”
• Eighty percent of respondents, including 82 percent of Democrats, 78 percent of Republicans and 79 percent of Independents, would support this reform.
Pollsters also asked whether support for this reform would make the respondents more likely to vote for a candidate, and 46 percent said they would be more likely to vote for someone who supported reforming negligent-hiring liability laws.rt for protecting employers from legal liability if they hire ex-offenders. […]
89 percent of registered voters opposed property seizures without a conviction. This includes 93 percent of Democrats, 86 percent of Re- publicans and 89 percent of Independents.
Additionally, most respondents – 54 percent – would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports reforming these laws. Twenty-eight percent would be “much more” likely to vote for a re- former on this issue. […]
“Currently, Illinois courts use a bail system for the release of an accused defendant from custody be- fore trial. Instead of bail, there is a proposal to have judges use a risk assessment to decide whether to hold the accused before trial. Under such a system, a court would decide whether to hold an al- leged offender before trial based on a defendant’s criminal history, age, the nature of the offense and other risk factors unrelated to their ability to pay for bail. Do you favor or oppose this change from a bail system to a risk-assessment system for deciding whether to release an accused defendant from custody before trial?”
A majority expressed openness to the change.
• Poll respondents supported switching from a bail system to a risk-assessment system by a 63%-28% margin.
• A majority of Republicans support the switch, but their backing is at a much lower margin (+19) than Democrats (+44) or Independents (+41).
Sixty-three percent of voters would favor a risk-assessment rather than money-bail system. Of course, the details of such a reform vary. What this would look like is a critical question that de- serves further debate and research.
The poll has a margin of error for N=500 [registered voters] of +/-4.38 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. Interviews were stratified into proportionate geographic units based on the population of registered voters. Sixty-one percent of voters were surveyed via landline. Thirty-nine percent of voters were surveyed via cell phone.
Even before Aki Colovic slipped through the sliding door of the Uber minivan outside his house Friday afternoon he thought something was up.
The 34-year-old just couldn’t quite place where he had seen Jaime, his driver, before.
Then it hit him: The man behind the wheel was his local state representative, Jaime Andrade Jr.
“It’s very surprising. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it,” Colovic said minutes into the ride.
The two had met when Andrade had knocked on the door of Colovic’s Old Irving Park home while campaigning in early 2014.
Andrade, who represents the state’s 40th District, has been driving Uber under the radar for more than two months.
It’s not a gimmick.
The representative, whose district includes a portion of the Northwest Side, said he needs the cash to support his family as the state budget mess drags out and regular paychecks to legislators have been sporadic at best.
* You may recall that SEIU Local 73’s two top officers, President Christine Boardman and Secretary-Treasurer Matthew Brandon, were removed from office this week by the international union and the local was put into trusteeship. Brandon told Fran Spielman that the move was a “hostile takeover” and intends to file a federal discrimination lawsuit…
“I don’t view this as a trusteeship. I view it as a hostile takeover. What the international failed to address was the fact there was a vote by the membership based on a motion by Christine Boardman that she would retire in June and, per the constitution and bylaws, I would then assume that office with an election of the executive board to follow within 30 days,” he said.
“To rescind a motion requires a two-thirds vote. Christine refused to do that. Said she didn’t have to do that. She said she simply changed her mind. When I went in to chair the July executive board meeting, I informed her that, based upon the vote of the membership and the executive board, she was retired. She adjourned the meeting, stormed out and cancelled the general membership meeting scheduled for the next day. The rules be damned.”
* He claims a high-level official asked him “to deal with a personal issue that was affecting Boardman’s job performance.” But Boardman viewed his follow-up as an attack.
Brandon, who is black, is not taking this sitting down…
“…These people don’t know what can of worms they’ve opened here. The members are absolutely furious.”
Brandon, who is black, charged that SEIU “discriminates against African-American males” and that he would “be able to prove that.”
* FiveThirtyEight has a very long and interesting analysis about the state of the Republican Party. There are tons of choice nuggets in there, so I encourage you to read the whole thing. Here’s one that really stands out…
“You’re not going to do better than 59 percent,” Stuart Stevens, Mitt Romney’s chief strategist, told me not long ago, citing the percent of the white vote that his candidate got in 2012 while winning 24 states. Ronald Reagan, by comparison, got only 56 percent of the white vote in 1980 but won in a 44-state landslide. […]
According to the American National Election Studies, the white percentage of the national vote overall has dropped fairly steadily from around 95 percent during the period from 1948 to 1960 to the low 80s by 1992 to 73 percent in 2012. The Republican party did not keep pace with this change, nor did it do much to win younger voters. 2008 featured a gaping chasm between the over-65 vote and the 18- to 29-year-old vote: There was a 43-point difference between how the two groups voted, with the older crowd going for John McCain by 10 percentage points, even as he lost the overall election by a 7-point margin to Barack Obama, the country’s first black president.
The Trump people believe they can expand the playing field and inspire lots more white males to vote this year. Easier said than done on the dwindling demographics alone. But I don’t think it’s completely impossible if Trump ever learns how to channel that very real populist anger at Hillary Clinton instead of diffusing it over an ever-widening swath of his enemies, both perceived and real. Again, easier said than done.
If Trump lost, [Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson] said — which seems at this point, not an unreasonable possibility — the factions in the party would only become more entrenched. It would not just be the Trump supporters vs. the Never Trumps; instead, Never Trump would be pitted against Never Trump in a civil war of the moral resistance. Lacking a common enemy, they would revert to their differences.
“On the one hand, you have the autopsy folks, right?” she said, referring to those who concur with the findings of a 2012 report that said, among other things, that the GOP should reach out to minority voters. “You have the people that look at Donald Trump and they go, ‘He’s alienating Latino voters, he’s doing damage to the brand, he’s looking backwards, not forwards, he’s the opposite of what we needed.’”
The other Never Trump faction — “the Ted Cruz folks, the conservative purists,” as Soltis Anderson put it — would disagree with the diagnosis of why Trump was bad for the party. “Their main argument with Trump is not that he’s mean to Latinos; their main argument with Trump is that he’s not really a conservative, he’s not really one of us,” she said. “When all is said and done, those two Never Trump forces are going to blame each other for his existence.”
The prospect that the GOP leaders wouldn’t even be able to agree on why Trump — arguably the worst crisis the modern party has experienced — was even a crisis to begin with, seemed to say it all.
“There is no happy ending to this story,” she said.
That battle has been coming for a very long time. The big money is on the side of the post-2012 “autopsy Republicans,” including the DC leadership and people like Gov. Bruce Rauner, who closely followed that roadmap in 2014. But the party’s intensity and its “bodies” are on the Christian conservative side. Even so, both wings are too small to win without the other.
Rauner united the two wings in 2014 because party members, out of power for so long, were starving for victory and loved his attacks on people like Speaker Madigan and so they didn’t seem to mind all that much when he put a more liberal, independent face on the GOP for the general election. One wing is fraying a bit these days with his signature of the “Right of Conscience Act” changes favored by pro-choicers. But his mind-boggling pile of cash and his well-deserved reputation for revenge is expected to keep folks in line. Also, the Cruz-like faction in Illinois missed their chance in 2010 with Bill Brady’s gubernatorial loss despite a huge national GOP landslide.
So, while there may be some significant national repercussions if Trump gets thumped, I don’t yet think it’ll have an immediate impact here. Then again, these are some crazy times, campers.
Now, Illinois’s Independent Maps campaign fights for its very survival in state Supreme Court. Last month, a local court in Chicago struck down the push to force it onto the November ballot, siding with House Speaker Michael Madigan and his Democratic cronies.
And yet, Rauner decides his time is best spent touring districts of at-risk Democrats, spouting off on the perennial GOP fringe talking point — term limits. Not the best use of time or influence, Governor.
No, last week’s stop in Coal Valley wasn’t about empowering voters or loosening the Democratic stranglehold that’s suffocating Illinois. Such a long-view too often appears beyond Illinois’s freshman executive. His goal was to hit the likes of state Rep. Mike Smiddy, D-Hillsdale, where they live. Tie them to Madigan. Accuse them of being part of the problem.
November’s election, not legitimate policy, was Rauner’s goal. It’s a scattershot approach to governance, an all-to-frequent feature of Rauner’s short tenure in office.
One could argue that Rauner’s quest to chip away at bicameral Democratic majorities is a way of affecting change. But, frankly, term limits is an issue best left for the conservative fringe. What’s next, a return to the gold standard? Both have about the same chances of survival.
Rauner has millions, and he’s shown a willingness to spend it against the union-backed Democrats. That’s politics, complete with a whiff of old fish. Yet, that cash could be spent filing brief after brief in support of Independent Maps. It could be ending the election rigging that, for years, has disenfranchised voters and protected those in power.
Ouch.
* Meanwhile, the group opposing the remap proposal filed a brief with the Illinois Supreme Court yesterday. Click here to read it…
The trial court found that the initiative is not “limited to the structural and procedural subjects contained in Article IV” as required by the structural and procedural clause because it would impose new duties and qualifications on officers created outside Article IV and change the jurisdiction of the Illinois Courts. The trial court also found the initiative violates Article III’s free and equal clause because it would force voters to accept each of the myriad policy choices proposed by the initiative in a single proposition.
Intervenor-Defendant-Appellant Support Independent Maps asks this Court to reverse the trial court’s decision. In doing so, Intervenor would have this Court ignore not only the text of the Constitution, but the decisions of this Court that have interpreted these provisions as well. For the reasons that follow, plaintiffs respectfully request this Court affirm the trial court.
“If the state had shut down, you better believe we would have had a budget by now — and everybody knows it,” said Illinois Sen. Toi Hutchinson, the Democratic chairwoman of the Revenue Committee. “We can’t even shut the state down right.”
The Liberty Justice Center has filed a federal lawsuit to strike down Illinois’ Election Day voter registration law. The lawsuit shows that this law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by making it more difficult for people to register to vote in some areas of the state than in others.
In 2014, the Illinois General Assembly passed a law creating a system for Election Day voter registration in Illinois. The law is unlike any other voter registration law in the U.S. because the availability of Election Day voter registration at polling places varies by county. The law requires counties with populations of 100,000 or more to offer Election Day voter registration at all polling places. However, the law does not require counties with lower populations to offer Election Day voter registration at all polling places – making it more difficult for people to register to vote in some areas of the state than in others.
Every state senator and representative who voted for this scheme was a Democrat, and every state senator and representative who voted against it was a Republican. Not coincidentally, high-population counties in Illinois tend to favor Democratic candidates; low-population counties in Illinois tend to favor Republican candidates. Former Gov. Pat Quinn signed the law during his final days in office.
“Illinois’ voter registration law is unconstitutional. The state cannot give some citizens better opportunities to vote than it gives to others,” said Jacob Huebert, senior attorney at the Liberty Justice Center. “If Illinois is going to have Election Day voter registration at polling places, it should be available statewide. And it should be fair.”
The plaintiffs in this case are Patrick Harlan, a candidate for Congress in Western Illinois, and the Crawford County Republican Central Committee.
The lawsuit asks the federal court to order the Illinois State Board of Elections to direct election authorities in all 102 Illinois counties not to provide Election Day registration at precinct polling places in the November election. That’s the only way a federal court can fix the unfairness of this law. Or, the General Assembly could fix the unfairness of the law by changing it, so that Election Day registration is available at polling places everywhere – not just in places where one political party wants to boost its turnout.
State Senator Don Harmon, a Democrat from suburban Chicago and the law’s chief Senate sponsor, said Illinois law commonly differentiates between counties’ populations and said election officials in less-populous counties voiced concern about not having resources for polling place registration.
Under the law in question, voters in smaller counties can still register on Election Day in county clerks’ offices.
Harmon suggested the lawsuit’s real aim is to dampen Democratic voter turnout this fall, particularly in party strongholds like Cook County. In 2015, there were 4 million residents in the county above the voter-eligible age of 18, according to the U.S. Census. […]
“I suspect the plaintiffs are much more interested in having same-day registration thrown out in Cook County than they are in extending it to every small county in Illinois,” Harmon said.
If I was going to put on my tinfoil hat, I’d say it also has something to do with contested legislative races. The Institute is a major Rauner ally and he’s dumping millions of dollars into those races.
In an increasingly contentious presidential campaign, just a quarter of voters who support Donald Trump in the general election say they have a lot or some close friends who are supporters of Hillary Clinton. Even fewer Clinton backers (18%) say they have at least some friends who support Trump.
Nearly half of Clinton supporters (47%), and 31% of Trump supporters, say they have no close friends who support the opposing candidate.
* The Question: Do you maintain any active close friendships with people on the other side of this election? Take the poll and then explain why or why not in comments, please.
* A News-Gazette editorial discusses the potential 2018 Democratic candidates for governor and concludes…
Serious candidates should ask themselves: “How badly do I want to be governor if Mike Madigan is really calling the shots?”
It’s a good question. Pat Quinn was widely viewed as hapless, and that was at least partly the result of him never figuring out how to constructively engage with the House Speaker - and a lot of that falls on Madigan himself.
After Madigan lost the majority in 1994, he pledged to change his ways if he regained power. And he mostly did. He worked with Jim Edgar for the next two years and George Ryan for four years. And he cooperated with Rod Blagojevich for a year after Blagojevich’s first election. But then, it all went downhill.
Frankly, I have no idea why Dick Durbin or anybody else would want to endure the brutality of a campaign against a deep-pocketed Bruce Rauner for a year only to wind up getting the tar knocked out of them by MJM for the next four years.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday put in place the final piece of the pension puzzle he was elected to solve but in a way that will impose another heavy burden on Chicago homeowners reeling from rising property taxes compounded by reassessments.
To generate the $239 million over five years needed to save Chicago’s largest city employee pension fund, Emanuel wants to slap a new and quickly escalating “utility tax” on water and sewer bills over the next four years.
The plan is to start with a 7 percent tax, double it in year two, impose a 21 percent tax in year three and end at 28 percent in years four and five.
After that, the tax would rise annually to meet the “actuarially required contribution” to achieve a 90 percent funding ratio by 2057 for a Municipal Employees pension with $18.6 billion in unfunded liabilities that is due to run out of money in 2025. […]
It is expected to cost the average homeowner $4.43 more month or $53.16 a year in 2017. In the fourth year, the added tax burden will be $225.96 a year.
Last year, aldermen passed a record property tax increase to resolve shortfalls in the police and firefighter pensions and raised the cell phone tax to shore up the laborers’ retirement fund. They also tacked on a garbage pickup fee to the aforementioned water bills that were increased sharply in 2012 to rebuild mains and sewers.
“We’ve doubled the water rates historically and now we’ve added the garbage fees, so there’s a lot of frustration in our neighborhood,” said Ald. Tom Tunney (44th Ward). […]
Another reason Emanuel ruled out another city property tax increase is that the Chicago Public Schools system has been authorized to raise its levy by $250 million and is expected to do so later this month.
The mayor plans to ask the General Assembly and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to sign off on altering the municipal fund pension system to save about $2 billion over the next 40 years. The legislative changes to the pension fund would require newly hired employees, starting next year, to increase their retirement account contributions to 11.5 percent of their salary from 8.5 percent.
Employees who were hired from 2011 to 2016 and already receive lower retirement benefits would have the option of increasing their contributions to 11.5 percent. In exchange, they would be eligible to retire at age 65 instead of 67.
But employees hired before 2011 would see no changes, after the Illinois Supreme Court struck down Emanuel’s earlier attempt to reduce their benefits, citing a constitutional clause that states their benefits shall not be diminished or impaired. “You can’t touch existing employees, that’s walled off,” Emanuel told investors.
Emanuel and affected unions have an “agreement in principle” on identical changes to the much smaller city laborers fund, with additional city contributions coming from a $1.90-per-month-increase on landline and cellphones billed to city addresses that was approved by the City Council two years ago.
Thursday, Aug 4, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The Illinois Supreme Court has accepted an amicus brief filed by the following organizations urging the state’s highest court to let voters have a say on transparent, impartial and fair redistricting in November:
• League of Women Voters of Illinois
• Small Business Advocacy Council
• CHANGE Illinois
• Illinois Campaign for Political Reform
• Rockford Chamber of Commerce
• McCormick Foundation
• Champaign County Chamber of Commerce
• Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI)
• Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law
• Latino Policy Forum
• Illinois Public Interest Research Group
• West Rogers Park Community Organization
• Metropolitan Planning Council
• Better Government Association
• Chicago Southside Branch NAACP
• Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization
• Union League Club of Chicago
• Illinois Farm Bureau
• Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce
• Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce
• Common Cause
• Illinois Chamber of Commerce
• Citizen Advocacy Center
• The Civic Federation
• The Commercial Club of Chicago
• Chicago Embassy Church
• Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
On Monday, Illinois citizens were jolted by a piercing pain in the wallet as federal officials unveiled proposed Obamacare insurance premium rates for 2017. Insurers plan to dial up rates as much as a heart-stopping 45 percent for those who buy plans on the Obamacare marketplace when open enrollment starts Nov. 1.
That means thousands of people will scramble for affordable insurance … and won’t find it.
* From the US Department of Health & Human Services…
Statement by Press Secretary Jonathan Gold on Illinois health insurance rate changes:
“Consumers in Illinois will continue to have affordable coverage options in 2017. Last year, the average monthly premium for people with HealthCare.gov coverage getting tax credits increased just $4 from $102 to $106 per month, despite headlines suggesting double digit increases. People in Illinois understand how the Marketplace works, and they know that they can shop around and find coverage that fits their needs and budget. In fact, last year more than 53 percent of them did exactly that by switching plans to save money. In addition, the vast majority of consumers in Illinois qualify for tax credits that reduce the cost of coverage below the sticker price. Today’s announcement is just the beginning of the rates process, and consumers will have the final word when they vote with their feet during Open Enrollment.”
Background
Proposed rates aren’t what consumers pay. While today’s filings show an average rate increase in Illinois, a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services demonstrates that proposed premium changes from preliminary rate filings do not capture what Marketplace consumers actually pay. Last year, the average monthly premium for people with HealthCare.gov coverage getting tax credits increased just $4 from $102 to $106 per month, despite headlines suggesting double digit increases.
Most people receive tax credits and can buy a plan for less than $75 per month.
75% of Marketplace consumers in Illinois receive tax credits, which are designed to protect consumers from premium increases and help make coverage affordable.
Tax credits increase if the cost of the second lowest-cost silver, or benchmark, plan goes up. So if all premiums in a market go up by similar amounts, 75% of Marketplace consumers in that market will not necessarily pay more because their tax credits will go up to compensate. Average rate increases reported with the preliminary rate filings do not account for tax credits.
For 2016 coverage, 53% of customers in Illinois had the option of selecting a plan with a premium of $75 or less per month after tax credits.
Shopping: The ACA Marketplace helps consumers shop around for the best deal.
Prior to the ACA, it was nearly impossible for consumers to compare plans and shop around easily – and many Americans went uninsured because they couldn’t afford insurance or had pre-existing conditions. Those who did have insurance in the individual market were often trapped in the plan they had, since people with even small health problems could be denied coverage or charged an exorbitant price if they tried to switch plans or issuers.
Today, Marketplace consumers in Illinois can purchase any available plan regardless of health conditions, and tools such as the doctor lookup and out-of-pocket cost calculator help them find the plan that meets their needs. Last year, 53% of returning Marketplace consumers in Illinois switched plans. They saved an average of $636 annually.
Based on an examination of preliminary 2017 rate filings for nine states that released rates earlier this year, Avalere found that the average rate increase for lowest and second-lowest cost silver plans was 7-8%, about half the overall average rate increase in these states. That difference highlights how consumers can benefit from shopping around.
A major new issuer, Cigna, has indicated it will begin offering plans in the Chicago area for 2017, which will further bolster choice and competition in the Illinois Marketplace.
Prior to the Affordable Care Act, plans were typically inferior and excluded services like maternity care, or even routine services like prescription drugs. Plans also often charged a higher premium, or denied coverage altogether, to consumers due to a pre-existing condition. Now, all consumers have the option to purchase quality, affordable coverage.
This is a big deal for as many as 5,636,000 people in Illinois with a pre-existing condition.
Preliminary rates aren’t final rates. Preliminary rates often change significantly before being finalized. In particular, they are subject to rate review, which led to $1.5 billion in savings for consumers in 2015. Last year, final rates in some states were below proposed rates.
Health insurance is clearly something people in Illinois like, want, and need: 388,179 people signed up for 2016 coverage through the Marketplace.
Since major provisions of the Affordable Care Act went into effect, Illinois’ uninsured rate fell from 14.2 percent in 2013 to 7.9 percent in 2015 for non-elderly residents, according to new data released recently.
Both Marketplace and non-Marketplace consumers continue to benefit from the low health care cost growth of recent years.
Marketplace rates remain well below expectations when the law was passed. Marketplace rates for 2014 came in about 15% below Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections in 2010. Better-than-expected Marketplace premiums are due in large part to lower-than-expected economy-wide health care cost growth and other efficiencies.
For the half of Americans who obtain health insurance through an employer, premiums for family coverage grew by an average of 5% per year from 2010 to 2015 – compared with about 8% per year from 2000 to 2010. Premiums grew at an even slower 4.2% rate in 2015. If premium growth since 2010 had matched the average growth rate over the prior ten years, the average family premium would have been almost $2,600 higher in 2015.
Over the past fiscal year, the lack of an enacted budget has resulted in the State Employee Group Insurance Program (SEGIP) building up a large backlog of unpaid claims. As of the end of June, approximately $3.34 billion in claims were being held by the state from various insurers, organizations, and companies.
Of this total, the largest portion was approximately $1.6 billion of HMO/Medicare Advantage claims. The second largest portion, Open Access Plans, totaled $741.2 million. The third largest portion of the overall claims hold came from CIGNA, which had $556 million in claims currently held by the state.
Concurrently, the estimated time for claims to be held was 314-557 days for Managed Care, 477-547 days for Open Access Plans, and 497-574 days for CIGNA. […]
Despite a stop-gap budget being passed, however, claims will continue to build up and estimated claims hold times will increase due to no appropriation for Group Insurance.
Analyzing thousands of pages from state agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Natural Resources and the attorney general’s office, the Tribune found that pollution incidents from hog confinements killed at least 492,000 fish from 2005 through 2014 — nearly half of the 1 million fish killed in water pollution incidents statewide during that period. Pig waste impaired 67 miles of the state’s rivers, creeks and waterways over that time.
Using either measure, no other industry came close to causing the same amount of damage. […]
Confinements with multimillion-dollar annual revenues often paid just a few thousand dollars in fines after causing massive fish kills. Many went to court to challenge authorities; since 2005, the state attorney general has filed or resolved at least 26 pollution lawsuits against swine confinements. Some operators polluted repeatedly. And the multistate pork producers who supply the pigs and profit from the confinements were rarely held accountable, the Tribune found. […]
In 2010, Illinois’ failure to monitor or regulate livestock confinements prompted the U.S. EPA to threaten funding cuts and decertification of the state EPA. Since then, Illinois has bolstered its inspections staff as well as documented and visited 236 of the largest swine facilities. That is fewer than half of the estimated 527 in the state and includes none of the additional 427 hog confinements with up to 2,500 animals.
Weeks after taking a job as a breeding technician at Eagle Point Farms, an anguished Sharee Santorineos sat down and wrote a three-page whistleblower complaint.
“I seen pigs that are pregnant beat with steel bars,” said her letter to the Illinois Bureau of Animal Health and Welfare. “I seen them kicked all over their body.” […]
Instead, like other worker allegations about animal abuse in Illinois’ 900-plus hog confinement facilities, Santorineos’ account went nowhere.
After Eagle Point executives gave a state bureau inspector a guided tour of the 6,000-pig operation, he wrote a single-page report.
“I did not observe anyone mistreating the animals,” it said. “No violations found. Docket is closed.”
The state has regularly discounted or dismissed such worker complaints, a Tribune investigation has found. In the Illinois hog confinements that send 12 million pigs to market annually, the bureau did not find a single animal welfare infraction or violation during the past five years, the Tribune found in reviewing thousands of pages of bureau records.
Still, the system was working for them until the mid-1990s brought punishing downswings in the market for live hogs — including a devastating 1998 price collapse. Big producers like Smithfield Foods and Cargill swooped in, Steele recalled, and enticed farmers to become “contract growers” instead of raising their own pigs.
It was a way for many to insulate themselves from market risk and remain on their land rather than shutting down altogether.
“For our generation, we all wanted to come back to the farm, and this has enabled us to do so,” said Genny Six, a contract grower whose Morgan County operation in central Illinois has steadily expanded to 7,200 pigs.
Then came the most recent seismic shift: China’s largest meat processor purchased Smithfield Foods for $4.7 billion while a Brazilian firm paid $1.45 billion last year to acquire Cargill’s U.S.-based pork business.
“It used to be, the farmer raised the corn that fed his pigs here in Illinois, they got harvested by a packing plant here in Illinois and they probably got consumed here in Illinois,” said western Illinois hog farmer Greg Giertz. “Now the hogs might be owned by someone in Iowa, raised in Illinois, slaughtered in Indiana and shipped to China.”
Across Illinois, the nation’s fourth-largest seller of pigs, large hog confinements have exploded in number and size. Raising pigs for slaughter in an efficient, factorylike setting, the operations help hold down the price of the most widely consumed meat in the world. […]
Other states and local agencies have moved aggressively to address the problems caused by large hog confinements. Illinois has not, the Tribune found, even as consumers demand more humane treatment of livestock and stronger environmental protections. […]
With the pace of new construction permits accelerating, state authorities say they are doing the best they can to protect neighboring communities and the environment. But they acknowledge that Illinois’ Livestock Management Facilities Act gives them few tools to hold confinement owners accountable.
Twenty years after the state law was put in place, critics liken its provisions to a frontier-era timber blockade in the path of a bullet train.
* From Rebecca Shi, the director of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition…
Hello Rich,
Hope your summer is going great! Governor Rauner signed into law a bill providing health insurance for 41,000 undocumented children. We are celebrating this Friday with Archbishop Blase Cupich, Minority leader Jim Durkin, Latino caucus co-chairs Iris Martinez and Lisa Hernandez, and 350 business, faith, and Latino Asian leaders. Wondering if you would you be interested in this story?
I wholeheartedly believe that this is one bright spot in this year’s Springfield fight: Bi-partisan support for renewal of health care for 41,000 undocumented children in Illinois, passed legislation in the House and Senate with the support of all four legislative leaders, and Gov. Rauner signed the bill. In this era of Trump and his wall, the national anti-immigrant groups weighed in against this legislation and they were crushed.
We had active support from the grass-roots, the faith community (especially Catholics), the business community (including Susan Crown and Bill Kunkler, who put an op ed in the Tribune, Exelon’s John Rowe and Crate and Barrel’s Carole Segal), and the united healthcare community. A beautiful piece of organizing.
I hope perhaps you can tell this story. It is both ironic and beautiful that the MOST vulnerable and least politically relevant people - undocumented children - was where Rauner and Madigan agreed to sheath their swords and each actively worked to move towards a successful resolution.
Even as Donald Trump was wrapping up the Republican presidential nomination in part with his get-tough rhetoric on immigration, Illinois political leaders moved in a decidedly different direction in the waning days of the spring legislative session.
With bipartisan support that included backing from Gov. Bruce Rauner, lawmakers renewed a state health insurance program for low-income children that includes coverage for undocumented youth.
Such celebrations are often held as part of bill-signing ceremonies, but in this case, Rauner quickly signed the legislation to beat a July 1 deadline and is not expected to attend Friday’s festivities. […]
Sen. Chris Nybo of Elmhurst, one of many Republicans who supported the bill, argued that it is in keeping with his pro-life philosophy.
“Being supportive of children and families should transcend immigration status,” Nybo said. […]
House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton kept the bill separate from other Medicaid-funding legislation to keep it from getting caught up in the partisan budget wars.
* Like with his signature on the Right of Conscience Act revisions opposed by the far right and all the new criminal justice reform measures he’s backed, the governor has tried to tamp down coverage of his signatures by signing potentially controversial bills without comment. It’s mostly worked. The uproar over the Right of Conscience Act bill has received almost no mainstream media coverage. And I doubt many people beyond those who read this blog are aware of all the new criminal justice reforms.
Also, Sen. Nybo put to voice something I’ve heard others say. Almost every pro-life legislator (except a few like Nybo) voted against that All Kids bill, despite the fact that it will almost certainly save the lives of newborn infants. And since it came with a 90 percent federal match, it’ll save Illinoisans some cash because those costs won’t be shifted to providers, who then shift those costs to people who have insurance.
And good on all four legislative leaders and the governor for doing their very best to keep this out of the impasse war. Without that cooperation, the bill would’ve never become law.
* As we’ve discussed a few times already, Gov. Rauner signed a whole lot of bills last Friday before clearing this week’s schedule. Bernie writes about another one…
Gov. BRUCE RAUNER last week signed Senate Bill 2613, which provides that employees are entitled to up to 10 workdays of unpaid bereavement leave following the death of a child.
Among advocates for the bill was JIM DIXON of Springfield. He and his wife, LINDA, lost a son, TODD, in a one-car accident 25 years ago, and they lead a group call Bereaved Parents of Springfield. Jim Dixon is also president of the Springfield and Central Illinois Trades and Labor Council.
The bill applies to private-sector businesses that employ 50 or more employees for at least 20 work weeks in a year.
“The pain a parent who loses a child must experience is unimaginable,” said state Sen. JENNIFER BERTINO-TARRANT, D-Shorewood, chief sponsor of the legislation. She said she was saddened to learn that while the Family and Medical Leave Act allows time off to care for a sick child, there was not a similar provision for time upon the death of a child.
“Since introducing this bill, I have heard many stories of parents feeling they were not mentally prepared to go back to work so quickly or needed more time to grieve,” Bertino-Tarrant said. “I am grateful parents now have this guarantee.”
Mayor Rahm Emanuel was talking to the Chicago Investors Conference on Wednesday when one investor asked him to comment on the fact that the mayor’s idea of pursuing “reform with revenue sounds similar to the governor’s turnaround agenda.”
“Yeah, well we got it done,” Emanuel said in reference to Rauner’s failure to get much of his agenda through Springfield, and the mayor’s relative success in getting his pension funding plans approved.
“That was cheap,” he said as the crowd laughed. “That was not fair. Just couldn’t help myself.”
Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Wednesday that he doesn’t see how he can endorse his party’s nominee, Donald Trump, in the wake of the week’s events.
“I’m an American before I’m a Republican,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.” “I’m saying for me personally, how can I support that? Because he’s crossed so many red lines that a commander in chief or a candidate for commander in chief should never cross.”
Kinzinger, who has openly hesitated to embrace Trump as his party’s standard-bearer, said he went to Cleveland hoping to “at least mildly endorse the Republican front-runner.”
But in the aftermath of Trump’s comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin and the parents of fallen Muslim American soldier Capt. Humayun Khan, the third-term Illinois congressman said that he doesn’t “see how I get there anymore.”
“I’m a Republican because I believe that Republicanism is the best way to defend the United States of America,” Kinzinger said, adding that Trump “throws all of these Republican principles on their head.”
Kinzinger slammed Trump for not saying he honored the Khan family and instead took it as “an affront to him.” Also contributing to his ruling out a vote for Trump, Kinzinger said, was Trump’s blaming former President George W. Bush for the 9/11 attacks. […]
Kinzinger, a major in the Air National Guard, said Trump “for me is beginning to cross a lot of red lines into the unbelievable in politics. I am not going to support Hillary, but in America, we have the right to write somebody in or skip the vote, and vote for Mark Kirk in Illinois for instance, and that is what it is looking like for me today.”
“I just don’t see how I get to Donald Trump anymore.”
We filed a motion to enforce the settlement Monday (attached).
This afternoon the judge entered an order into the docket (attached).
It states:
8/1/16 Def. Motion to Enforce Settlement Agreement Filed
8/3/16 B [the Judge’s initial] The Ct. has spoken with AAG & Plaintiff Atty [Plaintiff is abbreviated].
Plaintiff Atty indicates that settlement documents are being finalized.
This matter is stricken from the 8/15 & 16/16 bench trial docket.
If documents are not received w/in 21 days, Clerk to pull for the Ct’s review.
Thanks.
Eileen F. Boyce
Senior Press Secretary
Office of the Attorney General Lisa Madigan
“If you study the statements and the actions of both men, you’ll see a great similarity in their methods and how they castigate people and how they’re always criticizing people without ever talking about their own programs,” Madigan said. “And so I think I’m fully justified in linking Trump and Rauner together in extremism” […]
“Trump has his methods, he has his ways of doing things and I think at the end of the day, the majority of Americans are going to say, ‘that really doesn’t have a place in America,’” Madigan said. “America is a country that recognizes decency and tolerance and respect for others.”
A crisis of governance and collapse of leadership at SEIU Local 73 resulted in an emergency trusteeship by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) today to protect the interests of its members, ensure the performance of the Local’s collective bargaining responsibilities, and restore democratic procedures at the Local.
Immediate action was required because incessant infighting between Local 73’s top elected officers, President Christine Boardman and Secretary-Treasurer Matthew Brandon, reached a boiling point and seriously disrupted the operations and functioning of the Local, putting members’ interests at risk.
Under the provisions of the SEIU Constitution, Eliseo Medina, former Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU, has been appointed as Trustee and Dian Palmer, president of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin, and Lenore Friedlander, an officer from SEIU Local32BJ as Deputy Trustees, and they have assumed responsibility for the operation of the Local. Consistent with the imposition of a trusteeship, the current Local 73 officers have been removed from office.
“Immediate action was needed to protect SEIU Local 73 members,” said Eliseo Medina, who was appointed Trustee of the Local. “We will work to protect the best interests of SEIU Local 73 members by restoring the normal operations and functions of the Local.”
Serious charges and accusations between the Local’s two top officers caused an egregious breakdown in governance. President Boardman and Secretary-Treasurer Brandon each challenge the basic legitimacy of the other’s authority to hold office or lead the Local, resulting in a debilitating dysfunction of the Local’s governance process as well as causing instability and confusion within the Local and its membership.
Circumstances deteriorated so badly that the Local was unable to conduct the July 15, 2016 Executive Board meeting to carry out union business or hold a basic membership meeting scheduled for the next day. The Local is mired in internal charges, contested suspension of its secretary-treasurer and allegations that the local president can no longer serve due to a previous announcement of retirement.
* Back on July 23rd, US Rep. Tammy Duckworth appeared at a campaign event in Will County and tried to give her side of a workplace retaliation lawsuit which had been settled not long before. Two former employees at the Anna Veterans’ Home in deep southern Illinois had claimed Duckworth got rid of them after they blew the whistle on poor management.
The case was settled “for attorneys fees and they got not a dime, which sort of tells you that they have no case,” Duckworth said of the plaintiffs, even though the plaintiffs later claimed they were promised $9,000 each. “So, um you know, this is what they do, they don’t tell the truth and they put it out there. And when they, and you, if your job is to serve veterans, and you’re not doing your job, yeah, I’m going to come after you. And you can go sue me all you want. But I am going to hold you accountable.” Click here to watch the video, which was posted soon after by the Kirk campaign’s tracker.
As you already know, the plaintiffs have decided to withdraw from the settlement agreement. The attorney general’s office, which handled the case, claims the plaintiffs are locked in. It’ll likely be up to a judge to figure things out.
* And at least one of the two plaintiffs, Christine Butler, now appears to be cooperating with US Sen. Mark Kirk’s campaign. The Kirk campaign admits it showed the video of Duckworth’s remarks to Butler, and a top campaign aide facilitated a chat yesterday between myself and Butler about a potentially explosive allegation regarding alleged lax management at the Anna Veterans’ Home.
Butler sent Duckworth, who was then the director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, an e-mail on April 28, 2007 about a troubling incident at the veterans’ facility, where she worked until Duckworth personally fired her.
The families of veterans in the home are allowed to hire people to provide additional care for residents. The day before Butler sent the e-mail, five people were brought in to care for an unidentified veteran. “The appearance of these individuals was simply awful, along with there (sic) personal hygiene,” Butler told Duckworth. Click here to see that e-mail.
According to her e-mail, one of the five allegedly called a contractor a “queer,” and Butler claimed she’d heard second-hand from her union president that an upset resident had asked that he not be allowed back in.
* This is how it’s described in Butler’s lawsuit filed in 2009…
On April 18, 2007, Plaintiff Butler sent an e-mail communication to Defendant Duckworth regarding an incident in which five non-employees of the IDVA had come to the Anna Veterans Home the previous day and requested permission of Defendant Simms to provide care to one of the veteran residents of the Home. Defendant Simms had granted them permission to do so, despite the fact that there were obvious concerns about the appearance, hygiene, and conduct of the individuals – and Defendant Simms had not yet conducted a background check on them. By the next day, the five ostensible care-providers had become abusive, both to the veteran and a contractor working at the facility, as well as loud and disruptive, and were required to leave the facility
* However, Butler claimed in her conversation with me yesterday that the facility’s acting manager had hired the five people out of a local Public Aid office. She claims they were sitting in the lobby, and were asked if they needed work.
Butler claims the person who caused most of the trouble that she wrote Duckworth about in her e-mail was Jessie Bell. A background check would’ve likely found some criminal conduct in his past. But no background check was performed, Butler told me, because her supervisor said she needed to hire people “ASAP.”
* The Kirk campaign sent over Bell’s rap sheet…
• 1998: Guilty Of Felony For Possession Of Stolen Vehicle;
• 2000: Guilty Of Felony For Knowingly Damaging Property, Guilty Of Misdemeanor For Aggravated Battery, Battery Causing Bodily Harm (Judici.com, Accessed 8/1/16);
• 2004: Guilty Of Misdemeanor Battery Causing Bodily Harm (Judici.com, Accessed 8/1/16);
• 2006: Guilty Felony Aggressively Fleeing Police (Judici.com, Accessed 8/1/16);
• 2008: Guilty Misdemeanor Domestic Battery (Judici.com, Accessed 8/1/16);
• 2009: Guilty Felony Of Aggravated Battery In A Public Place (Judici.com, Accessed 8/1/16);
• 2012: Guilty Felony Retail Theft (Judici.com, Accessed 8/1/16);
• 2014: Guilty Felony Domestic Battery With 3 Prior Convictions (Judici.com, Accessed 8/1/16);
In 2015, Jessie Bell Was Convicted Of 2nd Degree Murder And Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison. (Christy Hendricks, “Anna man sentenced to 20 years for 2nd-degree murder,” KFVS, 8/3/15)
Jessie Bell Is Currently Serving His Time At The Pinckneyville Correctional Center In Pinckneyville, Illinois. (Illinois Department of Corrections, Access 8/1/16)
Oof.
“Not one time was any corrective action plan put in place to ensure that this kind of activity never took place again,” Butler claimed yesterday. She filed a complaint with the Inspector General’s office on April 30th. Duckworth fired her in person days later.
* Even so, it should be noted that Butler’s original IG complaint apparently didn’t contain the allegations about the lack of background checks on Bell or anyone else. And this is Duckworth’s side of the story from her 2015 affidavit…
Duckworth obviously believed that Butler was a rumor-mongering troublemaker. “Based on my own investigation,” she wrote in her affidavit, “I regarded many of her allegations as interpersonal issues or unsubstantiated hearsay.”
* Even so, that alleged problem of unchecked outsiders being brought in to assist veterans most definitely should’ve been addressed, and Duckworth should have “gone after” the people responsible. They got lucky that nothing really bad happened.
*** UPDATE *** Here’s a summation of a conversation I just had with some high-level folks at the Attorney General’s office…
It’s worth noting that these folks were allowed into the veterans’ home on the 17th of April. The home’s acting manager told the five to get out of the veterans’ home the very next day, on the 18th of April. By the time Butler met with Duckworth a few days later, the incident had been dealt with. This case is primarily about issues and conflicts between the facility director and the plaintiff Butler.
There might not be a budget, but Illinois could become the first state with a law on the books that gives Muslims a formal voice in government.
The creation of an Illinois Muslim-American Advisory Council is one of more than 400 bills awaiting Gov. Bruce Rauner’s signature. It landed on the Republican governor’s desk shortly before presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump renewed his call to ban Muslims entering the U.S., after a shooter of the Islamic faith killed 49 people at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub.
Muslim leaders say Rauner’s signing of the bill would send a welcome message to the community that Illinois does not condone Trump’s approach. The governor’s office said he is reviewing the bill. […]
Along with a number of other minority advisory councils, the Muslim council that existed under Quinn dissolved when Rauner took office last year, Irfan said. This year’s hostile political climate prompted Muslim community leaders to propose a resolution that would restore it, and lawmakers took it one step further by proposing a statute that would establish the council more formally.
Not only is the proposed council the first in the nation, it’s the first such council representing a religious sector in Illinois. No similar council is in place that represents Catholics, Protestants, Jews or Hindus. Muslims are the third largest religious group in Illinois, following Roman Catholics and evangelical Christians.
Governor Pat Quinn was the first to appoint a Muslim-American Advisory Council. This legislation would make the council official, and continue its service whoever is in the Governor’s Mansion. […]
The definition of “Muslim” in the legislation did not disqualify a representative from Minister Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam from being appointed to the panel. “Muslim” is defined as “an individual who practices the religion of Islam.”
SB 574 was considered on the House floor with no substantial discussion, but a bi-partisan group of lawmakers opposed the bill, including Democrats Dan Beiser, John Bradley, Katherine Cloonan, Jerry Costello, Brandon Phelps, Susan Scherer and Andrew Skoog.
Folks, after several conversations with Governor Rauner’s office, I can report that the Muslim Advisory Council legislation (SB574) that was sitting on the governor’s desk, is dead for now.
What all Illinois voters should know is that this bill, SB574, passed the House and the Senate overwhelmingly, and it was Democrat Senator Terry Link who effectively killed the bill. In a conversation with a rep in Link’s office, he reported there were many technical problems with the bill, one of which was that it violated house rules!
* Actually, the bill’s House passage violated the state Constitution and, contrary to the Tribune report, it never made it to the governor’s desk.
Check out the bill history. The House, for whatever reason, skipped the mandated 1st Reading. So, Sen. Terry Link filed a motion to reconsider on June 30th, effectively stalling the bill in its tracks.
But, really, is it that nefarious? It’s just a little advisory council, after all. And the bill passed both chambers with overwhelmingly bipartisan roll calls.
People really need to calm the heck down out there.
Today, MALDEF announced the favorable outcome from a lawsuit it filed against Illinois Governor, Bruce Rauner, in April, seeking enforcement of the Illinois Gubernatorial Boards and Commissions Act (”The Act”). The Act requires Governor Rauner to publish information about the ethnicity, gender and disability status of applicants and appointees to state boards and commissions. As of April, the governor had failed to publish his first report, even though he was required to do so six months earlier. Three months after the suit was filed, the governor has complied with the Act’s requirements.
Because we were left with incomplete records and information related to appointments by the prior administration, we are unable to provide data related to the appointments made by Governor Quinn from July 1, 2014 to January 11, 2015.
From January 12, 2015 to June 30, 2015, our administration received 692 applications from individuals wishing to be considered for appointment to a State board, commission, or task force.
In compliance with the Act, such application is available online and includes “a data field where an applicant shall disclose his or her ethnicity, gender, or disability status for reporting purposes.” We have compiled the demographic information from all applicants that have disclosed demographic information on their application. The demographic breakdown of those applicants is as follows
No one loves lawn signs more than political candidates. Political candidates love lawn signs because 1. They love seeing their name around, 2. They assume that the number of lawn signs they see somehow correlates to the level of support they enjoy and 3. They know that campaigns have lawn signs, and candidates are biased toward mimicking what winning candidates have done. Between 1984 and 2012, according to one study, use of lawn signs in campaigns quadrupled.
The problem with lawn signs, as any campaign manager would probably tell you, is that they are expensive, annoying, logistically tricky to distribute and — most importantly — don’t seem to do much of anything. Candidates like to feel as if they’re winning. Campaign managers like to know that they’re winning or at least making progress. So campaign managers like things that have either measurable effects on voters (like identifying targeted supporters) or demonstrated past effects (like advertising). Lawn signs don’t fit into either category. To a campaign manager, lawn signs are similar to randomly handing out fliers at a grocery store: a waste of time, money and energy.
Meh. Campaigns often find out who their strongest supporters are when voters agree to put up a yard sign after being contacted either door-to-door or by phone. Campaigns can then circle back and ask the supporters to get even more involved, either by volunteering or by contributing or both. The sign placements also provide physical evidence that precinct workers and phone-bankers are doing their jobs.
Cutting to the chase: “[I]t appears that signs typically have a modest effect on advertising candidates’ vote shares — an effect that is probably greater than zero but unlikely to be large enough to alter the outcome of a contest that would otherwise be decided by more than a few percentage points.” The effect of such signs, the study suggests, is about the same as direct mail.
Of the researchers’ four experiments, only one involved what you might generally think of as yard signs. In three of the experiments, signs were placed in public places within randomly assigned precincts. In the fourth, signs were placed in supporters’ yards — the thing that campaigns often spend a lot of time coordinating. In that case, interestingly, the effects were essentially zero. Aggregated, the four experiments suggested that there was a 1.7 percentage-point boost to the candidate from the signs — with a standard error of 0.7 percentage points. (In precincts adjacent to the targeted ones, there was a slightly smaller benefit.)
If the impact is “about the same as direct mail,” then don’t expect campaigns to stop putting up yard signs any time soon. Campaigns send out tons and tons of direct mail. Not to mention that they all use robocalls, even though it’s getting more difficult to reach voters that way in the height of campaign season because so few people will answer their phones due to the stupefyingly overwhelming crush of the automated calls.
The silver lining is that the study suggests that the much-easier distribution of lawn signs in random public places is more effective than finding supporters and plunking signs in their yards.
TO: Trey Childress, Deputy Governor and Chief of Operations
Jason Barclay, Governor’s General Counsel
Richard Goldberg, Governor’s Chief of Staff
FROM: John Terranova, Deputy Director
DATE: August 2, 2016
SUBJECT: AFSCME Threatening Workers with Fines for Crossing Picket Lines
As we near AFSCME’s September 1 strike date, I wanted to update you about a troublesome development.
My office has recently learned that AFSCME representatives are advising employees about the consequences of crossing the picket line in the event of a strike. Specifically, we heard that the Union is threatening to fine employees as much as $5,000 if they cross the picked the line. Threatened fines in the same amount of $5,000 were reported at the State Retirement Systems Building in Springfield on July 15, 2016, and at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum on July 18, 2016.
As much as I personally find such threats distasteful, I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of what AFSCME plans to do to members who cross the picket line.
To confirm whether AFSCME is able to fine its members and how much, we would need to review the Union’s bylaws. Unfortunately, AFSCME’s bylaws do not appear to be publicly available. We would need the Union to embrace transparency and make its bylaws available to the public.
We will update you as we learn more about this issue and how it is affecting state employees.
A spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees on Tuesday called the memo “another groundless attack from the Rauner administration.” […]
AFSCME locals around the state have been holding meetings with members to inform them of their rights and other ramifications in the event of a strike. However, AFSCME said it doesn’t want a strike and repeated that assertion Tuesday.
“Another day, another groundless attack from the Rauner administration,” AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall said. “There is no ‘September 1 strike date’ anywhere but in the governor’s mind, and this memo’s other claims are just as unreliable.”
“While we won’t get dragged into responding to every phony twist and turn of the Rauner misinformation campaign, the simple fact is that AFSCME Council 31 has never fined anyone for conduct during a strike,” Lindall said. “This is a nonissue invented by the administration to distract state workers from what’s really going on. Governor Rauner boasted that he’d force a strike, he walked away from negotiations, and he’s seeking the power to unilaterally impose his extreme demands.”
OK, so Council 31 has never fined a member for crossing a picket line. But can the union fine strike-breakers?
Section 1. Except as hereafter provided in this Article, any member of the Federation may file charges against any individual for actions taken while a member of the Federation or while a staff employee of the Federation or a subordinate body.
Section 2. The following and no other shall constitute the basis for the filing of charges: […]
D. Acting in collusion with management to the detriment of the welfare of the union or its membership.
Section 15. A trial body may, if it finds the accused person guilty, assess any one or more of the following penalties:
A. A formal reprimand, accompanied by a formal warning against any repetition of the act or acts of which the accused is found guilty.
B. A fine in an amount not to exceed one year’s dues, to be paid to the union at the level at which the charges originate.
C. Full or partial restitution, where the consequences of the offense can be measured in material terms.
So, apparently Council 31 can fine workers.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From Anders Lindall at Council 31…
This is a ludicrous discussion. No AFSCME member has ever been fined for such conduct in Illinois, we’ve never even considered the concept, and in checking with our national union, they are aware of no case in which it has ever happened anywhere in the country. This “matter” is entirely a creation of the Rauner Administration’s anti-union misinformation campaign to confuse, distract and divide state employees and the public.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From Rauner spokesman Lance Trover…
It is outrageous that AFSCME refuses to categorically rule out fining workers who may not want to strike.
BREAKING: Major Victory for People With Disabilities as Rauner Administration Rescinds OT Rules in Face of Lawsuit; Fight Now Moves to Administrative Committee as DHS Backtracks on Disastrous, Illegal Policy
MEDIA AVAILABILITY TODAY 2 P.M. @ CHICAGO ACCESS LIVING TO DISCUSS DEVELOPMENTS
CHICAGO-Advocates for people with disabilities will be available at 2 p.m. TODAY at the Access Living offices in Chicago to discuss the breaking news that, in the face of a class-action lawsuit, the Bruce Rauner administration had rescinded its disastrous new rules limiting overtime hours in the Home Services Program that could have led to the termination of thousands of caregivers.
The rescission, an acknowledgment that the Rauner administration violated the law, represents a major victory in the effort to stop Rauner’s destruction of the social safety net in Illinois-but still leaves many major questions unanswered.
In a press release issued just hours before the lawsuit was scheduled to be filed Wednesday (draft of the unfiled suit attached), and after months of pressure from workers demanding an end to these terrible rules, including the ADAPT advocacy group, the Rauner administration’s Department of Human Services (DHS) announced it would rescind its cruel cap on overtime hours for some 8,000 workers, a policy that has thrown the entire system of care in Illinois into disarray.
In May, Rauner’s DHS illegally implemented the policy to begin firing caregivers who worked over 40 hours WITHOUT the public comment period required by law and on July 21, a Kane County judge issued a temporary restraining order against the state’s policy. The lawsuit the administration faced today, from Chicago ADAPT and three plaintiffs who are people with disabilities from Peoria, Carbondale and Chicago, respectively, would have sought to permanently enjoin the policy statewide.
From almost the moment the Rauner policy was implemented, people with disabilities and caregivers have suffered terrible hardships.
Advocates for people with disabilities will be available at 2 p.m. TODAY before a meeting of the Task Force on Attendant Services (TFAS) at the Chicago offices of Access Living (115 W. Chicago Ave.) to discuss the harm caused by the Rauner policy, the significance of the victory, the major questions that remain and the fight to come.
Illinois Department of Human Services Moves to Implement Rule on Overtime Policy
SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) will publish a proposed rule to govern overtime in the Home Services Program. The Home Services Program pays providers to care for our customers with disabilities where our customers reside.
The overtime policy is designed to achieve two goals, to improve services to our most vulnerable while reducing costs to taxpayers, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the program. Evidence shows that the policy has driven great progress toward both goals.
For example:
• The number of individuals providing services to our most vulnerable have increased from about 32,000 to more than 35,000.
• The amount of money paid in overtime has decreased each month. From January until May of 2016 the amount of overtime payments has been cut nearly in half.
• It has increased much-needed community capacity for the Home Services Program, which enables those in need to continue to receive necessary services at home instead of being institutionalized.
The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) has decided to go through the rule-making process under the Administrative Procedure Act following a recent court decision directing the successful overtime policy be implemented by rule rather than policy.
On July 21, 2016, Kane County Circuit Court entered a temporary restraining order barring the enforcement of the overtime policy until it has gone through the rule-making process. While DHS respectfully disagrees with the Court, DHS will abide by the order and looks forward to the rule-making process where we will have the opportunity to show the positive benefits of the policy and work with all parties involved. The rule-making process allows the Department to hear from all parties before issuing the final rule.
IDHS believes the final rule will closely track the policy as it was originally announced. IDHS would like to thank those customers and providers who have worked hard to follow the overtime policy. IDHS strongly encourages all providers and customers to take the necessary steps now to hire enough providers to avoid unnecessary overtime so they will be prepared when the final rule goes into effect. IDHS employees are happy to help our customers find and hire additional providers.
People heading to the Illinois State Fair when it opens next week may want to download a new mobile phone app.
State fair manager Kevin Gordon announced the application Tuesday in a news release. The free app gives fairgoers access to deals and discounts on the fairgrounds and the ability to buy tickets to concerts and other events.
It will take users on a self-guided tour of agriculture destinations on the fairgrounds.
The app includes tools such as a food finder, a daily schedule of events and a list of all the winners from competitions held at the fair.
Trouble is, I couldn’t get the app to work on my Android phone yesterday. The app asked for permission to access “photos, media and files” on my phone, and when I denied the permission, the app wouldn’t load.
* This morning, I tried clicking on the app again and was told I needed to “accept the next two alerts.” I touched “OK” and received this message…
Unfortunately we are not able to get the latest information for your fair app. Please enable local storage under settings to use your 2016 Fair App.
* So, I uninstalled it and tried again and received the same message. Sorry, but I don’t grant that sort of permission unless I’m assured the app company isn’t gonna be poking around my phone.
Am I just being paranoid? Any experts out there?
*** UPDATE *** From an e-mail…
Hi Rich!
I understand you have some concerns about the new Illinois State Fair Mobile App.
The Department does not have the ability to collect a user’s personally identifiable information via the mobile app, nor does the developer Grandstand Apps.
Upon download, android users will be asked for permission to access certain files such as photos.
The app needs these files to properly function. For example, the photo booth needs to be able to access the pictures taken by your phone to be able to utilize the eight special photo filters. Similarly, permissions are needed to be able to post said pictures to the user’s social media account.
The intent of this app is to help the fairgoer personalize his/her experience at the Illinois State Fair.
The alert prompted by Android only impacts those with an Android phone 6.0 or newer. This does not impact Apple users, as the features are already built into security permissions when the app is downloaded.
Please let me know if you have any other questions. I would be happy to answer them!!!
Rebecca Clark
Communications Manager
Illinois Department of Agriculture
A panel of lawmakers and policy advisers appointed by Gov. Bruce Rauner to pave a path forward on how to overhaul the state’s school funding formula is scheduled to meet for the first time in Chicago on Wednesday afternoon.
The 25 member commission was formed after Democrats spent much of the spring legislative session pushing changes, which Rauner had initially resisted, saying the issue was a red herring meant to get in the way of a larger budget deal.
But panels and commissions are commonplace in Illinois, and only time will tell if real changes will come from the group’s work, given the politically fraught nature of changing how tax dollars are doled out to school districts.
Critics contend the formula shortchanges districts that serve poor children and doesn’t do enough to compensate districts that can’t rely on high real estate values to cover their spending needs with property taxes. But ideas to fix the problem usually hinge on raising taxes or cutting funding for wealthier districts in order to boost spending on poorer ones, both of which are difficult to sell politically.
Nearly two dozen profitable public U.S. utility companies paid no federal income taxes last year, and the utility industry overall has the lowest effective federal tax rate of any business sector, new research shows.
The “Utilities Pay Up” report from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) concludes that domestic utility companies “have become expert tax dodgers at the federal and state levels.” […]
Ameren Illinois and ComEd are among the local utility companies mentioned in the report. Last year, their pre-tax profits in Illinois were $217 million and $706 million, respectively.
Illinois has a corporate income tax of 7.75 percent. Had Ameren Illinois and ComEd paid the full rate, the state government would have had an additional $65 million in revenue last year, according to IPS.
“This revenue could’ve covered the cost of weatherizing 13,800 low-income residences in single and multi-family buildings, reaching 17 percent of all low-income families in Illinois,” the report reads. “Sliced another way, the money could’ve created 1,000 jobs, 400 directly through clean energy projects and another 600 indirectly at suppliers and through economic ripple effects.”
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, Fellow GOP Lawmakers and Candidates Call for Term Limits and Other Political Reforms
Political Reforms Needed to Return State Government to Illinois Citizens
Mike Madigan has rigged the system. He picks the voters for the politicians he controls and backs them with special interest cash. Now that a Cook County judge has ruled against the Independent Maps Initiative, many Republican statehouse candidates are pushing for political reforms, including term limits and fair maps, to restore citizen control over state government. Illinois is broken and we can no longer afford the rigged system built by the supermajority in Springfield.
Jim Durkin, House GOP Leader and 82nd District State Representative:
“The General Assembly is in desperate need of balance, but unfortunately that cannot come until we reform our political system. Term Limits and Fair Maps are the surest way to overcome the lopsided power structure in each statehouse chamber and return control of State government back to the people of Illinois. Powerful special interests will fight these reforms, but an overwhelming majority of Illinoisans - Democrat, Republican, Independent, you name it - support the Term Limits and Fair Maps initiatives. I call on Speaker Madigan and President Cullerton to pass these constitutional measures during the fall veto session and let the people of Illinois have the final say on these hugely important issues.”
As we’ve already discussed, Leader Durkin has served 18 years in the House.
Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan called Gov. Bruce Rauner’s push for reforms extreme when speaking with a reporter July 27 at the Democratic National Convention. Madigan said, “Democrats are like most Illinoisans, they are not happy with the extremism of Bruce Rauner.”
But there’s nothing extreme about Rauner’s reform proposals in light of the economic and fiscal mess Madigan has created during his three-plus decades of leadership in the General Assembly. Illinoisans are suffering under the nation’s third-worst business climate, a shrinking population, the nation’s third-highest unemployment rate, a collapsing manufacturing sector, the nation’s worst pension crisis, the worst credit rating of any state and the nation’s highest property taxes.
What is extreme is the stopgap budget Madigan took pride in passing in June. The speaker said the nearly $40 billion stopgap budget was only possible because it didn’t include any of the governor’s economic and spending reforms: “We can pass a budget when the governor’s demands …. are dropped.”
Madigan got what he wanted: “compromise.” In one fell swoop, Illinois politicians hiked spending by $4 billion to $39.6 billion – a 12 percent increase – despite the fact that tax revenues will total just $31.8 billion in the new fiscal year. […]
Rauner, on the other hand, sees the fiscal crisis that necessitated the stopgap as “the bottom” and “the low point in the evolution of Illinois,” and explained, “This is not a balanced budget. This is not a solution to our long-term challenges. This is a bridge to reform.”
Yep. The governor is most definitely the victim here. He didn’t push a stopgap budget for a solid month at all. Nope. Didn’t happen. Move along.
The University of Illinois Flash Index fell to 104.7 in July from its 105.0 level in June. This indicates that the state’s rate of economic growth is slowing. The slow-down aligns with concern about the national economy.
National gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the first two quarters of this year was weak (0.8 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively). “Recent data on the national GDP confirms that the recovery from the 2007-2009 recession has been the most anemic since World War II,” said J. Fred Giertz, who compiles the index for the Institute of Government and Public Affairs.
The last few years have marked a reversal of a trend established in the early years of the recovery. GDP growth had little impact on the rate of unemployment, which remained stubbornly high. More recently, the national unemployment rate has fallen and remained low even with slow overall growth.
The Illinois unemployment rate fell from 6.4 percent to 6.2 percent in July, while the national rate rose slightly to 4.9 percent. This narrows a long-standing gap between the state and national rates.
Individual income tax and corporate tax receipts were down for the month while sales tax revenue was up from the same month last year after adjusting for inflation.
The Flash Index is a weighted average of Illinois growth rates in corporate earnings, consumer spending and personal income. Tax receipts from corporate income, personal income and retail sales are adjusted for inflation before growth rates are calculated. The growth rate for each component is then calculated for the 12-month period using data through July 31, 2016.
“We’ve been in a recovery now for almost seven years”, said [Fred Giertz, the Index’ compiler]. “And recoveries don’t last forever. So it may be slowing down, it’s kind of a natural maturation of the growth cycle. So a lot of things are happening and again, there’s no easy fix on these. We’d all like to have strong growth, but obviously, if that could be done easily, we would have done it already.”
The index is down from its most recent high of 107.2 in January of 2014 and 107.1 in April of 2015.
The reported index is based on 12 months of data with a new month added and one dropped each month. The index is constructed with the reading of 100 the dividing line between expansion and contraction. Consequently, the key focus of the index is not whether it is increasing or decreasing, but whether and how much it is above or below the 100 level.
Jerry Long, a Republican state representative candidate, is denouncing his party’s latest mailer that attacks his Democratic opponent, Rep. Andy Skoog.
“I am expressing my vehement disapproval to the party about this because the people of our district don’t enjoy negative mailers,” Long, of Streator, said in a statement Monday. “If it doesn’t say it came from me or my committee, then it didn’t come from me or my committee. I will continue to work hard locally and run a strong, clean campaign based on the truth.”
The Illinois Republican Party’s latest mailer depicts a grim-looking House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, moving a pawn featuring Skoog’s smiling face. […]
In an interview earlier this year, Long said he agreed to run for state representative under the condition that he would have total control over his campaign and its narrative and message and that the Republican Party not send out mailers promoting his campaign without his consent “like they did last time.”
He said he was unhappy with some of the pieces the state party sent out in 2014 when he nearly unseated Skoog’s predecessor, Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley.
* There is a concrete way for Long to address this situation. He could pledge to match every negative dollar spent on his behalf with a donation to charity out of his own campaign fund. As we’ve already discussed, this was done by both candidates in a 2012 US Senate race…
In the Massachusetts 2012 Senate race, Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown proved that when candidates are serious about curbing the influence of super PACs on their race, they can work together to make it happen.
In an agreement known as the People’s Pledge, Warren and Brown made a mutual promise to reject the support of super PACs. They pledged that if a super PAC spent money to support either of their campaigns, whoever benefited from the expenditure would offset it by forfeiting money from their own campaign coffers. The idea was new, bold, and bilateral, and it changed the calculus of spending in the race.
Because super PACs saw that making expenditures to support Warren or Brown would ultimately hurt them, it no longer made sense for super PACs to spend money in the race. As a result, the People’s Pledge successfully eliminated virtually all super PAC spending, and it helped to cut the volume of negative advertising – which super PAC money almost exclusively buys – in half. In short, with the mere stroke of a pen, Warren and Brown gave the people of Massachusetts a substantially more accountable race.
So, maybe he could try and work out a deal with Rep. Skoog. Otherwise, he’s merely complaining about something from which he’s most likely deriving a significant benefit….
Congressional candidate David Gill claims “severe and overly burdensome” signature requirements for his independent candidacy are unconstitutional and wants a federal court to allow his name on the Nov. 8 ballot.
If Gill gets the result sought by the lawsuit filed Monday, he would face U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, and Democrat Mark Wicklund of Decatur in the 13th Congressional District election.
Sam Cahnman, the Springfield lawyer representing Bloomington resident Gill, said the signature requirement for independent U.S. House candidates in Illinois “clearly violates” constitutionally mandated equal protection of the law, and is also “clearly out of whack” with requirements for U.S. Senate candidates.
Democrats and Republicans in the race had to file just under 740 valid signatures to enter their primaries. Independents, who filed later and don’t face primary opposition, are required, in the 13th, to have 10,754 – or more than 14 times the amount needed by major-party candidates.
* From Gill’s attorney…
Rich,
You reported on the ballot challenge to Gill, so I thought you’d be interested in the attached Complaint For Declaratory Judgment And Preliminary & Permanent Injunction I filed Monday in federal court on behalf of Dr. David Gill, challenging the constitutionality of the excessive signature requirement for independent candidates for Congress.
It is a rather lengthy complaint, so let me draw your attention to Court III (pars. 60-82) where some of the more salient facts are alleged, particularly:
1. No candidate for the U.S.. House in Illinois has ever overcome the 10,754 signature requirement Gill was subjected to, and it has only been overcome 3 times since 1890 on the entire country! (par. 75)
2. In 2016 the 8,593 valid signatures the SBOE Hearing Examiner found Gill had would have gotten Gill on the ballot as an independent general election candidate in 88.5% of the 435 U.S. House Districts. (par. 70.c)
3. Looking at all 435 U.S.. House Districts in 2016 the median number of signatures required for a candidate petitioning to get on the general election ballot is 1,000, and the average is 3,179. (par. 70.b)
4. Only 3 states have signature requirements of 10,000 or more for U.S. House candidates to get on the general election ballot (N.C., S.C. & GA). (par. 70.a)
5. Only one U.S. House candidate in IL has ever overcome a signature requirement of 8,593 (no. of valid signatures Gill was found to have), and that was 42 years ago when David Lassiter did it in the 15th CD in 1974. (par. 77)
6. An independent candidate for the U.S. House in the 13th Dist. must get almost 15 times the number of signatures the Dems and Repubs have to get to be on the primary ballot; whereas for the U.S. Senate, the independent candidate only needs 5 times more than the Dems & Repubs. (pars. 62, 65 & 66).
7. An independent candidate for U.S. Senate must obtain signatures of 0.694% of the last vote for U.S. Senate, while an independent for the U.S. House must file 5% of the last vote for U.S. House in the District, i.e. a more than 7 times greater signature requirement; yet a Senator has more power (1 of 100 vs.. 1 of 435); has a longer term (6 years vs. 2) and represents the whole state as opposed to 1/18th of the State (par. 69).
In sum, the signature requirement for independent U.S. House candidates in Illinois clearly violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment; and it is clearly out whack with Illinois’ signature requirement for independent U.S. Senate candidates and with signature requirements for independent U.S. House candidates in other states.
Sen. Mark Kirk and challenger Tammy Duckworth both called out presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday over his war of words with the parents of a fallen Army captain.
Kirk said Trump should “lay off the Gold Star family. They have given as much as can be given.” […]
“If the family gets involved in politics then, of course, people are going to argue back — that’s your First Amendment right,” Kirk said, but attacking a Gold Star family is inappropriate. […]
Later Monday, Democrat Tammy Duckworth called Trump’s statements “despicable” and expressed her condolences for the Khan family’s loss.
“Their service and sacrifice are more than most Americans will know,” the Iraq War veteran said. “They should receive nothing but our gratitude.”
On Monday Senator Kirk, who has said he is not voting for Trump, told reporters, “I didn’t like that. In my world a veteran that gave up their life is someone who is almost sacred. ”
Kirk was a Naval Reservist before suffering a stroke in 2012. He also said, “We serve in the military so that you have first amendment rights to make sure that you can say and vote for whoever you want. That young man who gave his life for the country gave his last full measure, as Abraham Lincoln would say. We need to respect that family and make sure that family is honored and not criticized. I would say to Trump ‘Lay off the Gold Star families. They have given as much as can be given.’”
* Kirk wasn’t the only Illinois Republican to take a stand…
Adam Kinzinger of Channahon, who served in the Air Force and is a pilot in the Air National Guard. Kinzinger has not expressed support for Trump’s candidacy and issued a statement that didn’t even use the presidential candidate’s name.
“No one can truly understand the sacrifice a family makes when their loved one serves their country or the heartbreak of losing a loved one. There’s no greater love than a man who lays down his life for his friends,” Kinzinger said.
“As a military man myself, I have deep respect for the sacrifices made by anyone who is willing to defend the Constitution. Comments disparaging our service men and women, and their families, are deeply disturbing and wholly unpatriotic,” he said.
Do your very best to remain calm and civil in comments. I deleted a whole bunch of them yesterday on this very topic. Banishments will commence today.
Tuesday, Aug 2, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The Illinois Supreme Court has accepted an amicus brief filed by the following organizations urging the state’s highest court to let voters have a say on transparent, impartial and fair redistricting in November:
• League of Women Voters of Illinois
• Small Business Advocacy Council
• CHANGE Illinois
• Illinois Campaign for Political Reform
• Rockford Chamber of Commerce
• McCormick Foundation
• Champaign County Chamber of Commerce
• Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI)
• Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law
• Latino Policy Forum
• Illinois Public Interest Research Group
• West Rogers Park Community Organization
• Metropolitan Planning Council
• Better Government Association
• Chicago Southside Branch NAACP
• Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization
• Union League Club of Chicago
• Illinois Farm Bureau
• Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce
• Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce
• Common Cause
• Illinois Chamber of Commerce
• Citizen Advocacy Center
• The Civic Federation
• The Commercial Club of Chicago
• Chicago Embassy Church
• Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Law enforcement officials praised the law today via press release…
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner has signed into law SB2407, which ensures that the Teen REACH after-school program will have a statutory home in state law. The bipartisan bill protects and provides clarity of intent and purpose for a program that is proven to boost graduation rates and significantly reduce crime.
“I am delighted that the Governor has embraced this vital investment in Illinois’ kids,” said Peoria County Sheriff Michael McCoy. “We have five Teen REACH sites here in my county, and I’ve seen first-hand the effect it has had on public safety. Instead of being out on the street during the after-school hours, exposed to drugs and criminal activity, teens are learning life skills in a safe place.”
McCoy was one of 119 Illinois law enforcement leaders who signed a letter to Governor Rauner in support of the bill.
“Teen REACH is an asset to communities around the state,” said the letter, “and there is no doubt our law enforcement jobs would be even more difficult if not for after-school programs. If we don’t preserve and invest in these strategies, we’re pulling the rug out from under vulnerable kids. And taxpayers will pick up the tab later through the far more expensive criminal justice system.”
The new measure will help create a specific line item for Teen REACH in the state’s annual budget. In addition, it establishes the outcomes the program must address, such as educational performance; life skills; parental education; recreation, sports, cultural, and artistic activities; service learning opportunities; and development of positive adult mentors.
The past year’s budget impasse and the lack of a full-year FY2017 state budget, however, continues to negatively impact the ability to provide consistent, high quality after-school programs. Even with the new law, Teen REACH is subject to the appropriations process.
“We are glad the stopgap budget has given us some relief,” said Quincy Chief of Police Robert Copley, who also signed the letter to the governor. “The Quincy Teen REACH hadn’t received any state money for more than a year, and we had to patch together funding from other sources. We’ve got to give these proven programs the kind of consistent support that they – and our communities – deserve.”
The stopgap measure, agreed to by the Illinois General Assembly and the Governor on June 30, provides $13.1 million for Teen REACH for FY2016 and the first six months of FY2017. Law enforcement leaders in Illinois agree, however, that consistent, full-year funding is necessary to repair the damage done by the state’s budget impasse: during the crisis, Teen REACH providers were forced to curtail their programming or close entirely. At least one out of every eight youths recently helped by Teen REACH lost access to the program.
SB 2407 was championed by Sen. Toi Hutchinson and Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth and gathered an impressive list of bi-partisan sponsors before unanimous passage in both the House and Senate. By now becoming law with Governor Rauner’s signature, SB2407 is an important step in the right direction to preserve this key public safety program.
How Teen REACH invests in Illinois’ kids:
· 99.8% of Teen REACH youth were safe from violence during program hours in 2013 –including during the after-school hours known as the “prime time for juvenile crime.”
· 77% of Teen REACH youth improved anger-management and conflict-resolution skills through the program in 2013.
· 99.3% of Teen REACH high school seniors graduated in 2013.
· 93% of participants in 2014 improved their grades.
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Illinois is an anti-crime membership organization of more than 300 police chiefs, sheriffs, state’s attorneys, and other law enforcement leaders.
* From a July 6-10, 2016 Anzalone Liszt Grove Research poll of 606 likely Illinois voters when asked about their cell phone usage…
* Every responsible pollster has already taken note of this trend and adjusted accordingly. So, this move is no surprise…
As more Americans have made a mobile phone their main phone, polls that contact only landline phones look increasingly behind the times. HuffPost Pollster has decided we need to evolve.
By the end of last year, 48 percent of American adults didn’t have a landline phone. Another 16 percent had a landline but relied mostly on their mobile phone to make and receive calls.
That’s 64 percent of Americans who are only or primarily reachable via mobile phone. The numbers go even higher for those under age 45 and for minorities. Sixty percent of Hispanic adults don’t have a landline at all, and more than two-thirds of Americans between ages 25 and 34 rely solely on a mobile phone.
HuffPost Pollster has always sought to base our charts on as many sound polls as possible. As long as a pollster makes a good-faith professional effort to obtain a representative sample of the population, we include the survey’s results. In our opinion, polls that call only landlines with no attempt to sample the other half of the population no longer fit that description. So from now on, we will no longer include the results from landline-only telephone polls in our charts.
* So, consumer beware. If you see a published poll and it doesn’t include the percentage of mobile phone respondents, you can safely assume that there are no mobile phone respondents, particularly if it’s a robopoll. And media outlets that publish telephone poll results from surveys which don’t include mobile phone users are either clueless or living in the past.
Demand better.
*** UPDATE *** And right on cue…
A recent poll commissioned by The Illinois Observer shows Governor Bruce Rauner losing in a hypothetical re-election matchup by nine points.
Illinois Working Together Campaign Director Jake Lewis released the following statement regarding Governor Bruce Rauner’s sagging poll numbers:
“It’s no surprise that the vast majority of Illinoisans would not re-elect Governor Rauner. After all, it was Bruce Rauner’s reckless pursuit of his radical, anti-worker agenda that created a crippling and unnecessary budget impasse, devastating the state’s social safety net. Governor Rauner’s term in office has been a total failure since Day One, and the harm that he has inflicted on the people of Illinois may take years to heal. Illinoisans are sick of the governor’s divisive brand of politics that has achieved nothing except causing widespread damage to Illinois’ seniors, families, and economy.
“Though the 2018 election is still some time away, it is clear that Illinoisans have already rejected the extreme Rauner agenda. It is now up to the governor to listen to the people and drop his demands once and for all.”
The “poll” is problematic for numerous reasons. First and foremost, the pollster’s identity isn’t disclosed, which is highly unusual. Second, there is no disclosure of the type of polling that was done, live calls or robocalls. And third, no stats were disclosed on mobile phone users, if any.
Within the last week, a top member of Illinois House Republican leadership abruptly resigned from the legislature and Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law a birth control bill many of his fellow GOP members opposed.
But suburban House and Senate Republicans presented a unified front Monday at Schaumburg Township Republican offices as they called for the passage of a term limits proposal that, while politically popular, is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled General Assembly.
Republicans state Sen. Michael Connelly of Wheaton and Dan McConchie of Hawthorn Woods joined state representatives Jeannie Ives of Wheaton, Mark Batinick of Plainfield and Christine Winger of Wood Dale, along with a number of Republicans challenging sitting Democratic lawmakers, for the midday news conference where party staffers far outnumbered members of the media.
Flanked by large poster showing former President Richard Nixon and House Speaker Michael Madigan side by side, Gurnee Republican Mike Amrozowicz, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Melinda Bush of Grayslake Nov. 8, pointed out that Nixon had yet to be impeached, the Sears Tower was still under construction and gas was 36 cents a gallon when Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, was first elected to the state House in 1971.
* But check out the long, pregnant pause when Lester asked the Republicans if the governor was “not listening to the Republican caucus in the House and Senate” after signing that controversial “Right of Conscience” bill on Friday. “Well, he certainly didn’t listen to us on that vote,” said Rep. Jeannie Ives after several seconds of awkward silence…
Kim Coble is among scores of professors fleeing Illinois because of the state’s precarious fiscal condition and erratic funding of higher education. After years of climbing the academic ladder, she’s decided to take a chance in California, even if it means giving up tenure and descending a rung.
“I felt that an untenured position in another state was more secure than a tenured position in Illinois,” says Coble, 45, a Chicago State University astrophysicist headed to San Francisco State University and trading a full professorship for an associate one. That’s not the only blow: She’ll pay $3,400 for a two-bedroom apartment (before a one-time $6,000 stipend), two and a half times the $1,350 a month for her three-bedroom co-op in Hyde Park.
Higher ed is in turmoil across the country as states cut support and pressure builds to slow tuition increases. But debt-ravaged Illinois is a special case. Gov. Bruce Rauner wants to chop funding by 20 percent and shift some pension obligations to schools; the stopgap budget approved in June means higher ed will get less—$1.6 billion—over 18 months than the $1.9 billion it got in the 12 months through mid-2015. Hundreds of university employees have been laid off.
More students are heading out of state, too, compounding the professorial brain drain. The exodus could take years to reverse, further threatening the long-term health of the Illinois economy.
“Nobody wants to touch Illinois with a 10-foot pole right now,” says Tanya Cofer, 42, a Northeastern Illinois University math teacher who, with her husband and colleague, Isidor Ruderfer, is leaving to join the faculty of the College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick (population 15,383).
House Speaker Michael Madigan recently offered an insight into his longevity, citing the old proverb that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
Madigan gave the advice after being asked about his lunchtime routine, which has long been rumored to consist of a single, sliced apple.
“Remember that, an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” Madigan told Illinois Public Radio Statehouse Bureau Chief Amanda Vinicky and WBBM radio’s Craig Dellimore during an interview last week at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, which aired on Monday.
“It worked, and it still works,” said Madigan, 74, who has been speaker for all but two years since 1983.
“Generally, it’s Golden Delicious, sometimes I think it’s Honeycrisp,” he added.
* A state legislator running super-expensive Chicago broadcast TV ads in early August? Completely unheard of until Rep. Michael McAuliffe (R-Chicago) started airing a new spot yesterday. If it happens at all (and it’s pretty rare), Chicago broadcast ads usually don’t start until October.
This was videoed by a friend during last night’s Cubs game, so I apologize for the quality…
Rep. McAuliffe is facing Democrat Merry Marwig in what had been expected to be a barnburner. This early ad may change the odds.
