* Yet another dustup today about who is leaving Illinois and for what reasons. Rep. Guzzardi makes some valid points…
Slight clarification, @ShiaKapos: I said that families making >$100K are moving to New York, LA and the Twin Cities, with much higher top rates. Fact check: https://t.co/HTsWHAJPUW
March 14 was just 6 days before the Democratic primary. Everyone knew that Guzzardi’s candidate Sen. Daniel Biss was going down, but the left was still piling on hard. The Internet is forever.
Cook County Stateâs Attorney Kim Foxx said she is still on track to begin wiping clean thousands of minor cannabis convictions in the coming months, but acknowledges that her office is still trying to determine how exactly to implement her bold plan.
She also said in an interview with the Sun-Times last week that her office was also taking a look at her office policy toward prosecuting those arrested for the sale of marijuana, but said the review was still in its early stages. […]
Noting the arduous process of cataloguing years of convictions, Foxx told the Sun-Times that her office wonât attempt to expunge them all in one fell swoop. Nevertheless, the stateâs attorneyâs office hopes to start clearing the first round of convictions in a matter of months, she said.
Foxx said her office is seeking to enlist a nonprofit, Code For America, which has already assisted with expungements in California.
* Speaking of Foxx, here’s Comptroller Mendoza…
I am disappointed that âQuartersâ Boyle received no jail time after he recklessly caused a 4-car accident two years ago. I went to every court hearing over the past two years to make sure these charges against Boyle did not get dropped. I would have preferred the Cook County Stateâs Attorney upgrade the charges from the misdemeanors Boyle essentially chose for himself when he finally turned himself in, cleaned up and sober, three days after he caused the accident and fled the scene. I turned over the video to police which showed Boyle staggering around; driving his car into one of his victims who was trying to keep him at the scene. The video showed Boyle falsely claiming to be a police officer. But even with the video, the Stateâs Attorneyâs office never charged Boyle with DUI, reckless driving, battery or with impersonating a police officer. His conviction today for fleeing the scene is better than nothing. But the innocent drivers in those cars he hit deserved more justice.
* Other stuff…
* How legalized pot can help heal wounds inflicted on black and brown communities: Legal adult cannabis use wonât necessarily lead to fewer arrests of black and brown people for cannabis related offenses â Hailey and Childress are right about that. In Colorado, the first state to legalize adult cannabis use, black folks still are arrested for cannabis-related offenses three times more than whites. But rather than blame cannabis for these disparities, we should look at a deeper cause: Racial bias in the criminal justice system.
* Making the argument for cops on the street, not in schools: The video, obtained by the Sun-Times, flatly contradicts the two officersâ account of what happened during the January incident at Marshall High School. They claim that 16-year-old Dnigma Howard kicked and bit them as they tried to escort her out of the school. They also say they fell down a flight of stairs.
The owner of economically challenged coal-fired power plants in Southern Illinois is supporting legislation that, if passed, would help transform those sites into facilities for utility-scale solar and energy storage projects.
The Texas-based company, Vistra Energy, acquired the regionâs fleet of coal plants when it completed its purchase of Dynegy Inc. last year. It says the facilities are beset by tough economic and policy conditions, and favors a bill before the state legislature that would provide funding to phase them out of production and repurpose the sites, instead of just shutting them down abruptly.
But some environmental groups oppose the measure, characterizing it as a potential â$140 million a year coal bailout,â according to J.C. Kibbey, an Illinois clean energy advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Chicago. […]
Vistra employs about 1,000 workers total across its eight Illinois coal plants, Cohn said. The proposal would rely on a combination of funding mechanisms, including renewable energy credits and state-awarded grants. âTransitionary assistanceâ would be capped at $140 million annually from 2020 through 2024, a five-year period during which given coal plants would remain in operation, with solar or energy storage joining the mix at each site in either 2021 or 2022. The legislation would allow the plants to retire if unforeseen capital expenditures of more than $10 million would be needed to satisfy environmental laws or regulations and keep them in operation.
Legislation approved Thursday by the Illinois House would license craft distillers similar to the way craft brewers are regulated, with the aim of giving a boost to the burgeoning community of artisan spirits makers in the state.
The bill, which still faces a vote in the Senate, would create a license that allows small distillers to self-distribute some product, removing a major hurdle for unknown brands trying get on store shelves, and another license that allows distillers to open up to three satellite locations where they can serve their house-made spirits as well as other alcohol in a pub environment.
The changes would allow craft distillers to build brand awareness and new revenue streams, helping them grow and encouraging new distillers to set up shop in the state, said Noelle DiPrizio, who co-owns Chicago Distilling in Logan Square.
âBased on our surrounding states it would make us one of the more favorable states to start a business,â said DiPrizio, president of the Illinois Craft Distillers Association, which pushed for the bill.
There are 34 businesses federally licensed as craft distillers in Illinois, up from two in 2010, DiPrizio said. If the bill becomes law, âit could double very quickly,â she said.
* CUB: Breaking news: SCOTUS will NOT review appellate court decisions that upheld states’ right to advance decarbonization goals through zero-emission credit programs in Illinois and NY. Important victory for cost-effective clean energy
* MisterJayEm: You will never find a more wretched hive of hacks and half-wits.
If a school district — or any local government, for that matter — overtly promoted a bond issue that required voter approval, it would be drawn and quartered.
That’s against the law, and so when Barrington Unit District 220 recently held a referendum for one, school officials were careful to ensure that any publicity that was underwritten by the government was strictly informational, in tone as well as word.
Contrast that with the messaging you and we are financing through Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office. As one example: a “Fair Tax Calculator” on the Illinois government website that begins with the message, “Governor Pritzker is making good on his promise to protect working families and make our system more fair. With a fair tax, 97 percent of taxpayers will see some tax relief.”
Sounds more than a little promotional, wouldn’t you agree? […]
There’s only one reason for Pritzker to brand his proposal as a “fair tax:” to subliminally promote voter support. Who, after all, would want to consider themselves unfair?
At first I just figured this was a typical editorial from opponents demanding that the other side fight with both hands tied behind their back. But I checked the statutes and here’s one of the definitions for prohibited political activities on state time…
Campaigning for any elective office or for or against any referendum question.
Of course, the referendum hasn’t qualified for the ballot as of yet. But whatevs.
* The Question: Is the governor campaigning on state time? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, pleaseâŚ
Speaking before more than a hundred journalists at the Illinois News Broadcasters Associationâs annual spring conference in Normal, Pritzker said heâs committed to helping Illinois media tell the stories that matter.
Pritzker said mutual respect between journalists and elected officials is critical in the era of âfake news.â
âIf we want our democracy to thrive, we must have a first amendment that thrives,â Pritzker said. âThose with political power must be extremely careful that when we disagree with whatâs being said, we nevertheless fight for your right to get the information out.â
Illinois Public Media reporters questioned Pritzker about the lack of cooperation from some state departments, namely the Illinois Department of Corrections and Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
Apparently, some reporters at WILL have been working on stories about education in prisons and mental health care for children, but haven’t been getting cooperation from the directors.
âNow more than ever itâs important that elected office holders remind the public how important journalism is in a healthy democracy,â he said.
Pritzker drew applause from the conference room full of journalists representing news organizations from across the state, and later he invited them to ask questions, calling it âthe biggest press conference I ever had.â
The questions posed included a call for more transparency and access to state departments and agencies, to which Pritzker asked for âone more minute, so to speakâ as his administration works through the process of bringing in new people and making adjustments.
Pritzker said heâs still hiring new staff after the Rauner administration â and that heâll step in when government officials are unresponsive.
That time to “step in” may be now.
Pritzker has been in office three full months. He doesn’t yet have his own Corrections director. Rauner appointed an IDOC Director in March of 2015, but the guy resigned two months later and the department didn’t have a full-time director until August.
At a news conference in his office Tuesday, Gov. JB Pritzker said itâs time to âlet the people voteâ on whether they would like to see the [income] tax structure overhauled.
âWe have a constitutional amendment process that ultimately puts this decision to the voters,â Pritzker said. âItâs time to let the people of Illinois â our taxpayers â decide.â
We never guessed that, like spring introducing crocuses to wide-eyed baby bunnies, Gov. J.B. Pritzker would introduce a novel concept called democracy to his fellow Democrats. As in, letting the people of Illinois vote their wishes.
How startling, then, to see this lead story in Wednesdayâs Chicago Tribune: â âLet the people voteâ on taxes â Pritzker pushes critics for their plan, says taxpayers can decide.â Boldface ours, with pleasure. […]
Yes, Illinoisans do have an amendment process, and Pritzkerâs fellow Democrats have done a splendid job of making sure voters couldnât make it work for them. For years citizens have tried â by amendment or statute â to enshrine pension reform, and term limits on lawmakers, and a redistricting process that lets voters choose their legislators rather than the other way around. […]
So how about a package deal, Governor, of amendments or statutory changes: Let the people vote not just on taking more billions of dollars a year from wallets â an amount sure to grow and grow as tax rates rise and rise. Let the people also vote on rewriting the rigid pension clause of the constitution. Let the people vote on term limits. Let the people vote on creating a fair remap scheme.
The result is his feverish interest in allowing voters to address an issue he cares about â generating more tax revenue â declines dramatically when it comes to other issues that would upset the status quo and the permanent political class.
Pritzker, of course, is no different from other politicians when it comes to issuing bogus cries to “let the people” vote. It’s a common refrain from intellectually dishonest pols who know a good line when they steal one.
But, like so much of the rhetoric from our public servants, its inherent insincerity is exceeded only by its grotesque selectivity.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed into law a bill that bars local governments from establishing so-called right-to-work zones, another rebuke to his Republican predecessor, who blocked similar legislation as he battled with Democratic lawmakers over his pro-business, union-weakening agenda.
The new law, which was passed with strong bipartisan support in the House and Senate and takes effect immediately, âmakes it abundantly clear that we have turned the page here in Illinois,â the Democratic governor said during a bill-signing event at the Capitol, where he was joined by legislators and labor leaders.
Former Gov. Bruce Rauner was a major proponent of laws prohibiting employers and labor organizations from signing contracts that require workers to join unions or pay dues. In 2017, Rauner vetoed a previous version of the bill banning local governments from creating such laws, and the House fell one vote short of overriding him. This time, the measure passed the House on a 101-8 vote and was approved unanimously in the Senate.
âFrom the start, right-to-work was an idea cooked up to lower wages, slash benefits and hurt our working families,â Pritzker said. â âRight-to-workâ has always meant, âright to work for less money,â and itâs wrong for Illinois.â
But Liberty Justice Center Senior Attorney Jeffrey Schwab, who represents Lincolnshire in a case theyâve requested the nationâs high court take up, says right to work doesnât ban collective bargaining.
âIt just makes unions have to get voluntary consent from employees, rather than forcing them to join and pay them,â Schwab said. âItâs disappointing that even though Illinois doesnât want to pass a statewide right to work that itâs prohibiting its local units of government from doing so.â
Schwab has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up Lincolnshireâs case on appeal. Pritzker said he doubts that will change anything now that local right to work is banned in Illinois.
âThis bill actually just establishes what is the law today, so I believe that that would be moot essentially at the [U.S.] Supreme Court,â Pritzker said.
Schwab said theyâre still waiting to see how the new law will impact the lawsuit.
Marc Dixon, a sociologist at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, said during an August 2018 interview that different arguments have been used over the years to campaign for the laws.
The first states to adopt them were primarily in the South, he said, where the laws were used to weaken labor unions, especially the Congress of International Organizations, or CIO, which were actively supporting civil rights legislation for African-Americans.
Later, in the 1950s, he said, they were supported by people who claimed certain labor unions embraced communist sympathies or had ties to organized crime.
More recently, supporters have argued for right-to-work laws on the basis of free speech. As more and more blue-collar workers aligned with the Republican Party, supporters have argued that workers should not be forced to join unions that, broadly speaking, tend to support Democrats.
Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake, spent more than a year holding hearings and overseeing negotiations which eventually produced SB 1829, a massive omnibus bill on sexual harassment.
The proposal would do everything from limiting non-disclosure agreements that could prohibit disclosure of sexual harassment, to preventing unions from representing both an accuser and an alleged harasser in disciplinary proceedings, to protecting contract employees from sexual harassment for the first time in state history, to forcing employers to allow victims of sexual harassment to take leaves of absence from work to âseek medical help, legal assistance, counseling, safety planning and other assistance.â
Despite all this, the historically conservative Illinois Chamber Employment Law Council supported the bill and it passed the Senate last week without opposition. A Chamber representative even attended a press conference with Sen. Bush to tout the billâs success.
Almost immediately, however, House Majority Leader Greg Harris, Assistant Majority Leader Natalie Manley and Majority Conference Chair Kathleen Willis released a joint statement that basically said Bushâs measure would be placed under review in the chamber and stuck in a special study policy panel thatâs charged with coming up with the Houseâs own omnibus bill.
The statement didnât contain so much as a thank you to the sponsor or a hint of praise for the massive bill. Indeed, the language used in the release made it seem as though the legislation was inadequate to the task at hand and was no big deal.
âSenator Bushâs legislation contains many elements which will be reviewed and evaluated alongside ethics and human rights issues proposed by members of the House in our effort to develop the most comprehensive legislation possible,â the statement read in part.
Sen. Bush served on the Democratic Party of Illinoisâ Anti-Harassment, Equality and Access Panel (and intervened to have Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough kicked off the panel because she was too closely aligned with House Speaker Michael Madigan, who is also the state party chairman). She also co-chaired the Senateâs bipartisan Task Force on Sexual Discrimination and Harassment Awareness and Prevention. This is a life mission for her.
Bush has personally poured hundreds of hours into her bill, so to watch the House Democrats blithely shrug while tossing it on a pile with a bunch of other, lesser bills was simply too much to take. She was also furious that Rep. Willis had snatched up sponsorship of her proposal in the House without her consent and then refused to relinquish control.
House members say Bush confronted Leader Harris and others on the House floor last week to strenuously object to their press release and to question their intentions. She reportedly pledged to hold a press conference to angrily call them all out if they allowed her proposal to die.
It didnât work. The chamberâs top Democrats stood by their decision.
Some House members have also complained about their bills being dumped into the informal sexual harassment and ethics study panel and have also been rebuffed by Harris, Manley and Willis every time theyâve asked to move their bills separately from the rest. But the senior Democrats are determined to put their own bill together and thatâs that.
The legislative process is often compared to sausage-making for good reason. But Speaker Madigan and the House Democrats have had some, um, issues with this particular topic for the past couple of years, leaving some folks suspicious about his actual intent.
Madiganâs own chief of staff had to resign after he was accused of sexual harassment. Madiganâs political operation is being sued for retaliation after a former worker complained of sexual harassment by the brother of Madiganâs alderman. A former staffer lost his lobbying job after allegations of misconduct while on staff. Another former staffer was accused of misconduct while running some Madigan campaigns.
âWe havenât done enough. I take responsibility for that,â Madigan wrote to his members in February of last year after one incident.
âI didnât do enough,â Madigan then wrote in September of last year. âI have made it a personal mission to take this issue head-on and correct past mistakes,â he added in his Chicago Tribune op-ed.
So, maybe the House will craft a tough new law. Maybe they just figured that since the Chamber enthusiastically supported it, Bushâs bill wasnât strict enough. I guess weâll find out by May 31, which is the scheduled end of the spring legislative session.
But that final product had better be pretty strong and comprehensive or there will be heck to pay. Sen. Bush will make sure of that.
Legislation sponsored by state Rep. Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, to extend protections to DCFS and Adult Protective Services workers in honor of slain-DCFS worker Pam Knight has received the unanimous approval of the Illinois House of Representatives.
HB 1482 adds protections to DCFS and Adult Protective Service employees concerning assault, the same protections applied to teachers, police/fire, and other emergency responders who protect those in harmâs way.
âThis is a public safety bill that closes a loophole to protect DCFS and Adult Protective Service workers. The loophole was discovered when DCFS worker Pam Knight was brutally beaten, and ultimately succumbed to her injuries,â said McCombie.
Kyle Hillman, an official with the National Association of Social Workers Illinois Chapter, does not believe this bill will better protect DCFS employees. Instead, he believes it could land foster kids who are already struggling with trauma, in jail for years.
âYou have an 18-year-old that acts out that, letâs say kicks a social worker in a fit of rage. This individual could be hit with a Class One felony under this bill,â Hillman said.
He believes there are other ways to better protect DCFS employees.
“If we did a little bit better training, if we had more social workers go into those dangerous situations so they arenât going at it alone, those would be much more effective at protecting our members than adding higher penalties to existing crimes,â Hillman said.
* Whether you’re going somewhere fun or are stuck in an âIn-district work period,” try to have a good time while the General Assembly is adjourned for two weeks. Blogging will probably be light next week. We’ll see.
* The House and Senate have both adjourned, so spring break (or, as Sen. Don Harmon called it today, “In-district work period”) has begun.
I know several folks plan to kick off their break by stopping by the retirement party being thrown for Lisa Guinan today at DH Browns. The party starts at 3.
If you don’t know Lisa, click here for the House Resolution congratulating her for her many years of dedicated service to the Illinois House of Representatives, particularly her time spent as the House GOP’s Floor Manager.
I’m not sure yet what I’m doing for spring break. I will be taking some time off, but I haven’t yet been able to make up my mind.
Friday, Apr 12, 2019 - Posted by Advertising Department
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* Sen. Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake) was not pleased when Gov. Pritzker did not appoint a single Lake County resident to the Tollway board. So, she introduced SB764…
Increases the number of directors of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority appointed by the Governor from 9 to 11. Provides that, of the 11 directors of the Authority appointed by the Governor, at least one shall be from Cook County, at least one shall be from Lake County, at least one shall be from DuPage County, at least one shall be from Will County, at least one shall be from Winnebago, Boone, or McHenry County, and at least one shall be from Kane, DeKalb, Ogle, or Lee County. Provides that no more than 6 (rather than 5) directors shall be from the same political party. Provides that, within 30 days of the effective date of the amendatory Act, the Governor shall appoint one director from Lake County and one director from Winnebago, Boone, or McHenry County. Effective immediately.
Provides that a public university or community college may not inquire about or consider an applicant’s criminal history information at any time during the admission decision-making process, except as required by federal law or specified provisions of the Department of State Police Law of the Civil Administrative Code of Illinois or the Medical School Matriculant Criminal History Records Check Act, if applicable.
Aaron Woodruff, chief of police at Illinois State University, told us they’re not against second chances and notes that most who admit to a conviction on their college application still get admitted. But they want exceptions carved out in the law that would require applicants to disclose convictions for sex crimes and other violent offenses.
“The universities and police recognize that education can be a key component in rehabilitation, but we have to do it with some common sense,” he said, adding the campus law enforcement community hopes to negotiate a compromise with the bill’s proponents in the legislature.
Woodruff said police have found allies on this issue among women’s and LGTBQ organizations.
“They’re asking, ‘Why are we more concerned about someone convicted of a sex crime than other students on campus?’” he said.
The House will soon take up a measure to allow high school students old enough to vote to take time out of class to vote.
State Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, said his Senate Bill 1970 will help get young people to vote.
âWe are trying to make sure that we encourage our young people to participate and exercise our civic duty,â Sims said.
Under state law, high school students who are 18 years old at the time of a general election can vote in the primary when theyâre 17.
State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said there should be some way to ensure students leaving school to vote are actually casting a ballot.
* Other bills…
* Proposed parking fee for Starved Rock State Park rejected by Illinois Senate: Opponents questioned a provision that would have exempted residents of LaSalle County, where the park is located, from paying the fee. The vote on the bill was 29-8, but 30 votes are required to pass any legislation in the Senate.
A real estate developer has been indicted on federal charges alleging he steered legal work to powerful Ald. Edward Burke in exchange for help at City Hall with a permit and $2 million in tax-increment financing for a Northwest Side development.
The charges against Charles Cui, of Lake Forest, were the first to be brought in connection with the ongoing City Hall corruption investigation since Burke himself was accused more than three months ago of attempting to shake down two businessmen seeking to renovate a fast-food restaurant in the 14th Ward.
Cui, 48, was charged in an four-count indictment made public Friday with federal program bribery, using interstate commerce to facilitate bribery and official misconduct.
Burke was not named or charged in the indictment against Cui, but the charges make clear he was the alderman who was allegedly bribed.
Charles Cui, 48, allegedly steered the business to Burke after the city denied a permit for a sign for a retailer at the project site in the 4900 block of West Irving Park Road in the Portage Park neighborhood. The project includes a Binnyâs Beverage Depot and a Culverâs restaurant, public records show.
That permit was critical to Cui, who was the managing partner of the company that owned the property. The company stood to have it tenant either cancel the lease or lose as much as $750,000 if it was unable to obtain the permit because the retailer could pay that much less in rent if it didnât get the sign. […]
Burke motioned to approve the redevelopment project and voted for it at a City Council meeting in March 2016. The tax increment financing deal was worth $2 million for the project.
After the city denied the permit for the sign, Cui allegedly emailed Burke, asking him âto look into the matter.â
Cuiâs email said the retailer âreally needs it, otherwise they will cancel the lease, or ask for significant rent reduction,â according to the indictment.
*** UPDATE *** Mayor-elect Lightfoot…
Todayâs charges add more definition to the utterly corrupt way in which Alderman Ed Burke has exploited his position and power. This is exactly the kind of conduct that the voters mandated must change. My commitment is that we will be vigilant in cleaning up corruption throughout all of City government. I was elected ten days ago to build a government where you donât have to give to getâwhere Chicagoans can receive basic City services, and where being business owners can get signs and permits without bribes and delays.
Weâre going to build a transparent and accountable City government that Chicagoans can trust to put their needs first. Thatâs why Iâve consistently called for critical ethics reforms, including banning profiting from public service. The public gave us a mandate for change, and we intend to deliver.
A former state senator was the subject of a grand jury subpoena in January that sought his emails and mileage reimbursement records as part of an apparent federal investigation, according to documents obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
The subpoena issued to the state Senate out of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois sought emails, tax documents, mileage-reimbursement records and any payments made to William Sam McCann during his time in office from 2011 to 2018, records show.
The reimbursements in question would have come from taxpayer dollars. […]
The subpoena, sent on Jan. 3, came at the behest of U.S. Assistant Stateâs Attorney Timothy Bass, who was the one-time lead prosecutor in former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock corruption case.
McCann, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, told WBEZ Thursday in a text message that he had not been made aware of the subpoena until learning of it through WBEZ. He declined further comment.
McCann expensed $26,061.74 in travel reimbursements during his tenure in the Senate, according to records from the Illinois Comptroller. McCann, a Republican from downstate Plainview, served from 2011 until January 2019.
Campaign finance records show he also received more than $36,000 in mileage reimbursements from his campaign fund in 2017 and 2018. That would translate to nearly 68,000 miles of driving, based on IRS approved mileage reimbursement rates at the time.
Before his successful 2016 legislative re-election bid, McCannâs mileage reimbursements arose as an issue and led to a complaint filed with the State Board of Elections. That complaint was later withdrawn.
* The Chicago Tribune has finally published a story on the House Republican secessionists. We’ve covered this a lot, so let’s just focus on Sen. Manar’s advice…
State Sen. Andy Manar, a Democrat from the southern Illinois community of Bunker Hill, had the regionalism game played against him as a lead architect of a historic change in school funding. Critics claimed it was a bailout of the Chicago Public Schools.
Manar said some of the problems his district faces are akin to what Chicago sees in some of its neighborhoods. Manar said understanding the similar nature of problems is needed to overcome the regional fissure.
âLack of pharmacies, lack of doctors, lack of specialists, underfunded schools, vacant classrooms, unemployment, child abuse rates going up. Those things are happening in rural communities and urban communities alike,â Manar said. âToo often, when policymakers get into this building, itâs very easy to use geography to explain deep challenges that our state faces. Thatâs an easy explanation that plays to the cheers of the crowd.â
In the end, Manar said, the answer is to tone down the rhetoric, find common ground and get things done.
âLook, I could show up here every day and beat the crap out of the city of Chicago and get re-elected every four years. That would be easy to do, right? It would guarantee re-election,â Manar said. âBut when youâre done as an elected official in the Senate, you probably wouldnât be able to point to one single accomplishment for the people who sent you here to get things done.â
And, of course, he spoke about the graduated income tax. But he tries not to call it that.
Itâs a âfair taxâ â a more digestible term that no doubt helps to market his plan. But itâs not so easy. Pritzker has a swear jar of sorts in his office. He has to put in money every time he doesnât use the preferred âfair taxâ name.
âSomeone else in my office suggested something like that, and I thought it was a good idea. It turns out Iâm the guilty party for the most part because people ask me questions that have the words âgraduated income taxâ in or âprogressive,â and then I sometimes will parrot it back, and then I catch myself,â Pritzker said. âSo yes, but itâs really my own swear jar.â
* Ideas Illinois had a little fun with the swear jar…
This week Governor Pritzker acknowledged to the Chicago Sun-Times that his office has created a swear jar to train him and his staff to use the term âfair taxâ when describing his Jobs Tax⢠on middle class families.
âIt is telling that Governor Pritzker is the biggest offender of his own swear jar while trying to convince himself that his jobs tax on middle class families is fair. His Jobs Tax⢠swear jar is offensive to every small business owner and middle class family in Illinois,â said Executive Director of Ideas Illinois Jason Heffley.
â[Republicans] could have come to talk about any of those things [proposed individual and corporate rates],â Pritzker said. âIâm here. I sit in the governorâs office. My door is open. ⌠The most important part, I think, is that Iâm open to conversations about it. I have risen the subject where I could with Republicans. But coming with proposals and having real conversations and negotiations, thatâs something that I welcome. But you canât sit on your hands and say no to everything. Thatâs what Bruce Rauner did for four years and that clearly didnât work.â
âWhat Iâve heard from both leadership and individual members of both the House and the Senate is that they appreciate me being here. It seems like they havenât seen a lot from a mayor of Chicago, and Springfield is incredibly important to the entire state,â Lightfoot said. âI have a feeling Iâll be here with some frequency.â
Asked by reporters how the city will unwind from a pension disaster and bring in new revenue to support itself, Lightfoot tiptoed around specifics. Of a state gas tax that is being considered as part of a state capital plan, Lightfoot noted she is âfollowingâ developments.
âWe are following it and will continue to follow it really closely. Both to make sure that weâve got a realistic and sustainable funding source, but also the projects are really important,â Lightfoot said. âChicago stands to benefit significantly, as does the rest of the state, from having a capital bill which hasnât been in play, I think for 10 years. Weâre going to look at what the options are and weigh in as appropriate as the legislation moves through the General Assembly.â
Lightfootâs Springfield agenda includes a push for expanded gambling to provide more revenue for the city, and that includes a Chicago casino. The mayor-elect said itâs time to have âserious conversationsâ about it.
âThe sad reality is if we donât do something about this, weâre going to continue to lose tens of millions of dollars every single year to Indiana and Wisconsin. And that makes no sense to me,â Lightfoot said. âWeâve got to have serious conversations about a casino in the city of Chicago and elsewhere.â
State lawmakers, however, are scheduled to finish their legislative session May 31, just 11 days after Lightfoot takes office May 20. That leaves little time to make specific financial proposals, let alone win approval from the House, the Senate and Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Lightfoot, however, said her initial trip this week was not the time to start making a specific pitch.
âWhat I have done is been very direct with them about the magnitude of the challenge that we have seen, and weâll be talking more specifically about that in the coming days,â Lightfoot told reporters under the Capitol dome Thursday. âThis is kind of the first couple dates, right? So, weâre getting to know each other, but Iâm pressing on the issues that we have to address in this term.â
* Chicago Mayor-Elect Praises Illinois Move Toward âFair Taxâ: âYou have taken the initial steps to move forward with the governorâs plan to institute a fair tax that ensures everyone pays their fair share but frees the more modest earners from aggressive taxation that has kept them from getting ahead,ââ Lightfoot said.
* To Help Chicago, Lightfoot Looks To Springfield â But Not On Violence: âThe violence is something that weâve got to take on and own as a city,â Lightfoot said. âI donât think we need to â in the short term â look to Springfield to solve that problem. Weâve just got to do better in the City of Chicago.â Lightfoot says that will take the form of greater investment in communities and better practices by police. In the past, Chicago has been a driving force behind gun control legislation in the General Assembly.
* Lightfoot says budget shortfall more âdireâ than she thought, but how much more?: Budget Director Samantha Fields was asked what she told the mayor-elect that made Lightfoot believe the financial mess was worse than anticipated. âWe highlighted a list of things we knew were outstanding â like Local 2 [firefighters contract], possible FOP contract and a number of other items that weâre projecting for 2020âs budget. And I think her team has done some of their own background and determined the range of those expenses,â Fields told the Sun-Times. Fields was asked to project the final shortfall with the cost of police and fire contracts, retroactive pay and debt service costs.
Illinois State Police (ISP) officials announce the arrest of Craig W. Dittmar (M/55) for his involvement in the March 28th, 2019, fatal crash which resulted in the death of Trooper Brooke Jones-Story.
On March 28th, 2019, at approximately 11:24 a.m., Trooper Brooke Jones-Story, #5966, was inspecting a commercial motor vehicle on United States Route 20 westbound, just west of Illinois Route 75 in Stephenson County. At approximately 12:20 p.m., Trooper Jones-Story was outside her squad car when she was struck and fatally wounded when a truck tractor semi-trailer combination struck her squad car and the semi Trooper Jones-Story was inspecting. The semi-trailer combination that struck and killed Trooper Jones-Story was being driven by Craig W. Dittmar of Stockton, Illinois.
On April 11th, 2019, the Stephenson County State’s Attorney’s Office approved charging Dittmar with two counts of Reckless Homicide (both Class 2 Felonies), and one count of Operating A Commercial Motor Vehicle While Fatigued - Causing Death (Class 3 Felony). An arrest warrant was issued for Dittmar and the bond for the warrant was set by the judge at $250,000 (10% applies). Dittmar was later taken into custody and lodged in the Stephenson County Jail where he is being held in lieu of that bond.
The ISP would like to remind the public of Scottâs Law, which requires vehicles to slow down, move over, and change lanes if possible, when they are approaching an emergency vehicle, or any vehicle with its hazard lights activated. The ISP urges the public to help save lives by making responsible driving choices and following the law.
Sixteen state troopers have been hit by vehicles, three of them fatally, since Jan. 1 of this year and continues an unexplained spike in crashes. State police said the crashes were related to violations of Scottâs Law.
Trooper Gerald Ellis was killed on March 30 when a wrong-way driver crashed into his squad car in north suburban Green Oaks. The wrong-way driver, identified as Dan Davies, was also killed in the crash.
On Jan. 12, Trooper Christopher Lambert was struck and killed on I-294 when he stopped to help at a three-car crash in the north suburbs of Chicago. Scott Larsen, 61, of Wisconsin, was charged with a count of reckless homicide of an officer and two counts of reckless homicide involving Scottâs Law.
About 500 violations of Scottâs Law have been logged this year, compared to nearly 200 during the same time period last year, according to state police. The law is named after Chicago Fire Department Lt. Scott Gillen, who was killed on an expressway in 2000.
* Gov. Pritzker sat down with Tina Sfondeles yesterday for a wide-ranging interview. One topic they discussed was legalizing cannabis. Pritzker predicted the final proposal will be a “very, very, strong good bill” and will pass. Here’s some of what he said on the topic..
âI have teenagers, and I was very concerned, just not knowing. I asked a lot of questions about how does this affect teen use,â Gov. Pritzker said. âAnd in Washington state â where that was the governorâs big concern there too â they did a very good job of showing there was no increase in teen use.â
As for the concerns of police associations across the state over how law enforcement will be able to determine whether a driver is impaired, he acknowledged thereâs no current technology to measure impairment when it comes to cannabis.
âNecessity is the mother of invention, and itâs now clear that with 11 states already with legalized adult use cannabis, there are entrepreneurs out there that recognize that every police department is going to want something,â Pritzker said.
Pritzker said he has spent a âreasonableâ amount of time studying other states that have legalized recreational marijuana, specifically Washington state. And he acknowledged there will likely be follow-up bills to the legalization measure. But he said legalization is crucial as a criminal justice reform element, to ensure the safety of cannabis in the state and to create jobs.
âThis happened in medical cannabis. You start out and then you figure out this isnât working out quite as well and you make tweaks along the way,â Pritzker said. âWith legislation, nothing is perfect and so yes, along the way, itâll improve.â
A measure from State Senator Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake) that provides greater protections for private sector workers who experience sexual harassment and discrimination passed out of the Senate without opposition this afternoon.
âRight now, Illinois workers who are harassed or discriminated against donât have the protections they need to seek justice and hold perpetrators accountable.â Bush said. âThis bill strengthens workersâ rights and includes reasonable requirements for employers that will create safer workplaces.â
The measure was drafted based on recommendations that were made last year during the Senate sexual harassment task force hearings.
âThe Illinois Chamber participated in an open and thoughtful process on SB 1829, and we provided language we believe will help make a better workplace environment for employers and employees in Illinois,â said Jay Shattuck, executive director of the Employment Law Council at the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. âThe Chamber will continue to work with the task force senators and other stakeholders to help make a safe, more dependable and productive work environment throughout Illinois.â
âPreventing sexual harassment and discrimination and ensuring our workplaces are safe is not only good for workers, itâs good for business,â Bush said. âIâm pleased that leaders in the business community came to the table and worked with me on this important legislation.â
âWith the #MeToo movement, women and men stood up and said âenough is enough,ââ said State Senator Toi Hutchinson (D-Olympia Fields). âPeople deserve to work in an environment free from discrimination and sexual harassment. Itâs well past time that we strengthen protections for workers and ensure all Illinoisans can live and work in peace.â
Senate Bill 1829 is an omnibus bill, which:
¡ Limits the use of legal documents intended to prevent an employee from reporting sexual harassment, such as non-disclosure agreements, arbitration clauses, and non-disparagement clauses for cases involving harassment, discrimination and retaliation
¡ Makes harassment against contract employees illegal (currently, these employees do not have legal protection against sexual harassment)
¡ Clarifies that it is illegal to discriminate against an employee if they are perceived to be part of a protected class (i.e. gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity), even if they are not
¡ Allows victims of sexual harassment to take unpaid leave from work to seek medical help, legal assistance, counseling, safety planning and other assistance
¡ Prevents a union representative from representing both a victim of sexual harassment and the alleged harasser in a disciplinary proceeding
¡ Requires employers, labor organizations and units of local government to disclose the number of sexual harassment and discrimination settlements or actions against them to the Department of Human Rights
¡ Requires the Department of Human Rights to make a sexual harassment training program available for employers to provide to their employees
Bush introduced the measures after hearing from victims, advocates and members of the business community during the Senate Task Force on Sexual Discrimination and Harassment Awareness and Preventionâs hearings last year. She served as the co-chair of the task force.
* And from the other chamber…
Majority Leader Greg Harris, Assistant Majority Leader Natalie Manley and Majority Conference Chair Kathleen Willis released the following statement Thursday regarding Sen. Melinda Bushâs sexual harassment omnibus legislation:
âAs members of the Legislative Ethics Commission, Representatives Manley and Willis believe that addressing an issue as critical as ending workplace harassment requires a thorough, thoughtful approach. Senator Bushâs legislation contains many elements which will be reviewed and evaluated alongside ethics and human rights issues proposed by members of the House in our effort to develop the most comprehensive legislation possible. Members from both sides of the aisle have been invited to be part of this process. We have discussed these intentions with Senator Bush and made a commitment to our Senate colleagues on the Ethics Commission to work with them in this process.â
* The Question: Would you add anything to or remove anything from this bill? Explain.
Thursday, Apr 11, 2019 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
On April 10th, the Illinois Power Agency held a lottery to award renewable energy credit contracts to community solar, large commercial and industrial projects. Community Solar is for the 75% of Illinoisans who canât put solar on their roofs. Demand was exceptionally strong, but due to the limited program size, approximately 90% of permitted community solar projects failed to receive contracts. Now those projects and the $222 million in tax revenue they would have generated for their communities over the next two decades is in jeopardy.
Without a fix to the stateâs renewable energy program, remaining projects may not be built.
Tim Nugent, president and CEO of the Economic Alliance of Kankakee County, said: âRural communities need new sources of revenue right now, and solar is one way to do that. Weâre interested in seeing more community solar projects move forward, because at this point weâre leaving money on the table.â
Vote YES on HB 2966/SB 1781 to fix Illinoisâ clean energy cliff and let shovel ready projects move forward.
On pensions, Lightfoot does not support changing the Illinois Constitutionâs pension clause to ease benefit mandates that are straining all levels of government. We hope to change her mind on that.
They’re gonna be sorely disappointed by today’s news.
I grew up in a union household and I also watched men in my town who had spent their whole lives working in steel mills lose their pensions.
Let me be clear about my first principles regarding pensions. Pensions are a promise. We cannot turn our backs on those promises. I’m committed to working collaboratively with all stakeholders and through the collective bargaining process to make sure we can meet our commitments.
Thereâs already a ban on private criminal detention operations in Illinois, but a state representative wants to go a step further to prohibit private civil detention facilities as well.
The Dwight Village Board last month approved an agreement with a private provider for a 1,200-bed facility for Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees.
Provides that neither the State, nor any unit of local government, any county Sheriff, or any agency, officer, employee, or agent thereof, shall: (1) enter into an agreement of any kind for the detention of individuals in a detention facility owned, managed, or operated, in whole or in part, by a private entity; (2) pay, reimburse, subsidize, or defray in any way any costs related to the sale, purchase, construction, development, ownership, management, or operation of a detention facility that is or will be owned, managed, or operated, in whole or in part, by a private entity; (3) receive per diem, per detainee, or any other payment related to the detention of individuals in a detention facility owned, managed, or operated, in whole or in part, by a private entity; or (4) otherwise give any financial incentive or benefit to any private entity or person in connection with the sale, purchase, construction, development, ownership, management, or operation of a detention facility that is or will be owned, managed, or operated, in whole or in part, by a private entity.
The bill passed the House with 85 votes, including House Republican Leader Jim Durkin. Other Republican “Yes” votes included: Brady, Bryant, Butler, Demmer, Hammond, Keicher, Marron, McAuliffe, McCombie, McDermed, Severin, Spain, Wehrli, Wheeler and Windhorst.
Lots of AFSCME members in some of those districts. The union hates privatized prisons (or privatized anything, for that matter).
I’m not sure this would’ve received all those HGOP votes under the previous administration.
…Adding… Campaign for a Welcoming Illinois…
The Campaign for a Welcoming Illinois applauds the overwhelming bipartisan majority of the Illinois House that approved the Private Detention Facility Moratorium Act (HB 2040).
HB 2040 upholds Illinoisâ longstanding public policy opposing private prisons, extending it to civil detention functions like immigration detention. Private detention centers, such as the proposed immigration detention facility in Dwight, Illinois, profit from mass incarceration, primarily of immigrants and communities of color. Private prison operators maximize their income by keeping their facilities full while minimizing their expenses by cutting corners, even if that means putting lives at risk. They pursue their profit-maximizing goals without any public safety rationale even though better, more humane alternatives to detention are available.
We thank Rep. Kelly Cassidy for her strong and persistent leadership in moving this bill through, and we thank the hundreds of organizations and individuals, including our allies within the Campaign for a Welcoming Illinois and the #NoICEDwight campaign, who called their legislators, filed witness slips, and otherwise showed their support for HB 2040 and their opposition to private detention centers.
No one should profit off human misery. We look forward to working with the State Senate and with Governor Pritzker to ensure that this bill will become law.
…Adding… Press release…
The Illinois Business Immigration Coalition (IBIC) applauds the Illinois House of Representatives for passing HB2040, which garnered overwhelming bipartisan support and passed by 85 votes.
The bill will prohibit private civil detention facilities in Illinois, including the proposed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immigrant detention facility in Dwight, Illinois. Immigrant detention centers do not keep our communities safe, and actually contribute to lower reporting rates of crime by immigrants due to the erosion of trust with law enforcement. Additionally, data demonstrates that the majority of immigrants detained or deported do not have criminal records, and in the past two years alone, Department of Homeland Security reported over 150% increase in the arrest and deportation of undocumented immigrants with no criminal record across the US.
International trade supports 1,711,100 Illinois jobs, or nearly 1 in 4 jobs. We rely on our global partnerships to grow our economy and workforce, and by passing HB2040, Illinois sends the message that we are a welcoming state and embrace the many contributions of our immigrant communities and will keep them safe.
IBIC thanks Chief Sponsor Kelly Cassidy and the Campaign for a Welcoming Illinois for leading this critical legislation.
IBIC encourages Illinois Senators and Governor Pritzker to ensure that this proposal is enshrined in law and that we continue to build a more welcoming and prosperous Illinois.
* The House passed its own version this week. We’ll see if this is a classic “criss-cross” play (when both chambers pass their own bills, but don’t act on the other chamber’s similar/identical bills) soon enough…
Illinois Senate passes SB10 by a 45-11 vote. The measure sponsored by Democratic Sen. Andy Manar establishes a minimum $32,076 annual salary for teachers in Illinois, rising to $40,000 by the 2023-2024 school year. Bill is similar to one vetoed by former GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner.
A set of measures designed to address Illinoisâ teacher shortage crisis passed the state Senate Wednesday night, championed by State Senator Andy Manar, the planâs sponsor.
manar andySenate Bill 1952 received bipartisan support and will go to the House for consideration.
The measure contains the following provisions:
⢠It reinstates the 6 percent cap for teacher salary increases to be covered by the state. Last year, lawmakers lowered the cap to 3 percent.
⢠It removes the requirement that teachers must pass a basic skills test to be licensed.
⢠It permits K-12 student teachers and early childhood student teachers to be paid.
⢠It creates a refund program for teachers in underfunded, hard-to-staff school districts to recoup the cost of the teacher performance assessment.
⢠It allows early childhood student teachers to be paid and receive credit
* These sorts of resolutions can sometimes be useful to help us get a sense of the chamber. And McSweeney is smart to start signing on Democrats to send a message to the governor…
Gov. J.B. Pritzkerâs plan to phase out the stateâs private school tuition program has new opposition in the General Assembly after a number of Democrats joined a Republican’s bill to try to keep the program through its five-year pilot program.
House Resolution 289 isnât binding, but it is a significant statement. It highlights a number of students who benefited from the Invest in Kids private school scholarship program and urges House and Senate leaders to allow the program to live out its five-year lifespan. […]
State Rep. David McSweeney filed the bill. Heâs gathered a coalition of Democrats to support of the resolution that could present a roadblock to Pritzkerâs plan to phase out the program.
State Rep. Michael Zalewski, D-Riverside; Kelly Burke, D-Oak Lawn; Anthony DeLuca, D-Chicago Heights; Rita Mayfield, D-Waukegan; Lisa Hernandez, D-Cicero; Robert Rita, D-Blue Island; and Jonathan Carroll, D-Northbrook had all signed on in support of McSweeneyâs resolution as of Wednesday.
There could eventually be some horse-trading about this topic on the graduated income tax roll call.
…Adding… Press release…
The Illinois Senate has unanimously passed legislation championed by State Sen. John Curran (R-Downers Grove) that would protect Illinois residents, like those Willowbrook residents impacted by Sterigenics, from the hidden dangers of ethylene oxide. Curran has led the fight against Sterigenics since it was first discovered they were emitting dangerous levels of ethylene oxide into the community. The measures he introduced, and which passed in the Senate, fulfill the pledge he made to residents that the legislature would take action to protect the publicâs health, which remains his number one priority.
âThis legislation will allow us to create real standards for ethylene oxide levels and it will empower the Illinois EPA to enforce them,â said Curran.
Senate Bill 1854 prohibits any facilities from having any fugitive emissions of ethylene oxide 6 months after it takes effect. In addition, it requires the IEPA to study ethylene oxide levels throughout the state to set a baseline for the levels.
In addition, it would subject facilities to stack testing, which tests emissions at all release points at least once per year. The facilities would also be subject to ambient air testing, at random, four times per year. Any facility that emits Ethylene oxide at a level higher than standards set in the federal Clean Air Act or by the IEPA would be required to immediately cease operations until sufficient changes are made to reduce the emissions below both federal and state standards.
* I posted a story Monday about how CSL Behring had been trying without success to get IDOT’s approval to convert a three-way stop light in Bradley to a four-way light for 16 months. The pharmaceutical company is investing $1 billion into a plant expansion, perhaps doubling its 1,600 jobs in a part of the state that is in desperate need of economic expansion. And it’s not seeking any sort of tax breaks or government financing. Sen. Toi Hutchinson said later in the day that IDOT had agreed to put the stoplight (which CSL offered to pay for) on its expedited project list.
But a Kankakee Daily Journal reporter also posted this on Twitter…
Politicians say there is a permit request for traffic light in Kankakee County. But DOT spokeswoman says it has not been filed. State lawmakers and other officials say it has. Trying to figure out these different responses. @TDJnews
* Anyway, several commenters suggested Monday that Gov. Pritzker ought to high-tail it over to Bradley to make amends and straighten this mess out. That’s happening…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker plans to visit the CSL Behring plant in Kankakee County later this month, a local lawmaker said Wednesday.
The Democrat, who was elected last November, will visit CSL shortly after noon April 23, Rep. Lindsay Parkhurst, R-Kankakee, said.
âI have been requesting him visit CSL Behring since January,â Parkhurst said in a phone interview. âWeâre trying to get the governorâs attention on what CSL Behring is doing in this community.â
* Remember yesterday when we discussed the proposed constitutional amendment that deleted existing language barring the imposition of more than one income tax at a time? A refresher…
Under the proposed language, [opponents] argued, the state would actually be allowed to levy multiple income taxes, each for a different purpose, which would effectively allow the state to tax the same income multiple times. [âŚ]
According to Harmon, the prohibition on levying multiple income taxes was simply a companion to the requirement for a single, flat tax rate. Without that prohibition, he said, the framers feared that lawmakers could levy a series of âflatâ taxes on different levels of income â say, for example, one on income up to $30,000; another âflatâ rate on income between $30,000 and $60,000, and so on â effectively creating a multi-tiered tax structure through a series of limited âflatâ taxes on different levels of income.
By allowing the state to create a multi-tiered tax structure, Harmon said, the prohibition on multiple taxes would become unnecessary.
Furthermore, he said, if supporters of the proposed change had left in the prohibition on multiple taxes, critics would likely argue that a multi-tiered structure would violate that prohibition.
* Sen. Don Harmon was asked about it during yesterday’s Senate Executive Committee hearing…
âYou donât believe removing the language that says you can only have one tax on income is removing a protection for taxpayers?â [Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon] asked.
Harmon said that original language was only in there because the framers of Illinoisâ constitution were afraid without it, legislators would create layered flat taxes, or a âsynthetic graduated tax.â
âIf you read … what that sentence means, it is intended to enshrine a flat tax and not give legislators an easy way around a flat tax,â he said. âIf we (kept the language) … what we are essentially doing is creating a series of siloed flat taxes based on income level.â
Clear as mud.
SJRCA1 passed the committee on a party line vote.
* Meanwhile, this is a crystal clear admission about what the fight against a graduated income tax is really about…
Republicans, like state Sen. Dale Righter, from Mattoon, said theyâre worried this would make it easier for future legislatures to endlessly raise taxes.
âPoliticians … are pretty good at the class-warfare game,â Righter said. âAnd if you can point to them and say, âWell weâre going to get more money for your schools but weâre going to make the guys over there pay for it,â that makes it easier to do.â
Yes, it does. Jacking up rates on upper-income taxpayers is a whole lot easier than raising them on middle-income taxpayers.
âThis is something many of us have been working on for the better part of a decade, and it is long overdue,â said state Sen. Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat whoâs sponsoring the proposed amendment. âIt is not a radical departure. It is, in fact, the common tax practice in most every other jurisdiction, and I believe that it will give us some nimbleness in our tax policy to allow us to close our structural deficit and begin to tackle the problems that Illinois faces.â
* In other news, Gov. Pritzker was asked Tuesday about GOP Sen. Dan McConchie’s proposed constitutional amendment to require a two-thirds super-majority vote in both chambers to increase state taxes and fees…
Well, there was actually no negotiation about that. It was just something that they introduced on their own. The fact is that they haven’t proposed to you about how they’re actually overcome the budget deficit of the state or how they’re going to pay the bills of the state. They’re just demagoguing the issue.
So, I asked McConchie’s spokesperson if the Senator had ever requested a meeting with the governor to talk about his proposal…
Sen. McConchie met with a few of the Governorâs people a couple weeks ago, where the Senator mentioned to them that he has never met with the Governor and they told him theyâd be happy to set something up, but Sen. McConchie has never heard from them since.
*** UPDATE 1 *** The governor’s office tells me that Sen. McConchie has accepted an invitation to the governor’s mansion tonight.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From Sen. McConchie…
The rest of the sentence should be “along with everyone else in the Senate.”
Last month, Pritzker unveiled a plan he says would generate $3.4 billion in new annual revenue […]
Pritzker said that without a graduated income tax to generate new revenue, the only available options to address the stateâs $3.2 billion budget deficit, more than $8 billion in unpaid bills and $134 billion in unfunded pension liabilities would be a 15 percent across-the-board spending cut or a 1 percentage-point tax increase on everyone.
He’s got a projected $3.2 billion structural deficit and his plan would raise a projected $3.4 billion. That doesn’t leave a whole heck of a lot of room for anything else, or for the unexpected.
Thursday, Apr 11, 2019 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Itâs simple. Credit unions are member-owned, so any earnings are simply returned in the form of lower loan rates, higher interest on deposits and lower fees. Credit unions create a fair financial alternative for the taxpayers of Illinois. Credit unions are not-for-profit financial cooperatives that donât focus on increasing revenue or paying dividends to outside stockholders. Illinois credit unions are focused on the member-owners we serve. Visit www.asmarterchoice.org to learn more about the benefits of credit union membership.
* First we were told the governor’s budget would short the pension funds by “about $800 million a year” for seven years. Then we found out it was closer to $900 million. But Amanda Kass has crunched the numbers and determined that next fiscal year’s shorting alone will be $1.1 billion…
The State of Illinoisâ pension contributions would be about $1.1 billion less in state fiscal year 2020 than required under current law, according to my analysis of Governor J.B. Pritzkerâs introduced budget, as shown in the chart below.
The table above compares what Illinois is required to pay to each of the five pension systems in FY2020 under current law versus the contributions that are in Governor Pritzkerâs budget proposal for FY2020. To be extra clear, Iâm not comparing the actuarial recommended contributions with current law (actuarial recommendation is based on 100% target in 20-30 years; Illinois law is 90% target by 2045); for a comparison like that see Figure 3 in this report).
How is that $1.1 billion decrease accomplished? The details in the budget proposal are a bit thin (see pages 35-36 of the budget proposal), but they involve a number of pension related changes. The two main items are extending the repayment timeline past 2045 to 2052, and making an already existing pension acceleration program permanent. (The acceleration program is for Tier-1 members, and is currently temporary. You can read details of the program here.)
And, remember, he wants to do this every year for seven years.
* Um, you’re attending a press conference and you won’t take questions? Try again…
Cook County Stateâs Attorney Kim Foxx is in Springfield today for a press conference with crime survivors emphasizing the need for more trauma recovery centers. Her office says sheâs not taking questions. pic.twitter.com/VfI2O09aoN
Crime survivors from across Illinois will join at the Capitol to call for a new safety agenda at the first ever Survivors Speak Illinois, an event hosted by Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice. They will co-host a press conference and vigil with Deputy House Majority Leader Jehan Gordon-Booth (D-Peoria), and be joined by Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Cook County Stateâs Attorney Kim Foxx.
Thursday, Apr 11, 2019 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The Senate Executive Committee heard testimony yesterday on Gov. Pritzkerâs âfair taxâ constitutional amendment. But witness slips alone indicate average Illinoisans arenât buying what the governorâs selling.
Given polling on this issue in key House districts held by Democrats, thatâs not surprising. Pritzker and his tax plan are disliked.
âWe are all Illinoisans and we all have the best interests of our constituents at heart. Working together, regardless of party or geography, I see new opportunities for all of us,â Lightfoot said from the speakerâs podium in the House chamber. âI-80 is just a stretch of pavement. It is not a border. We are all one state, and Illinoisans, wherever they live, want the same things for themselves and their families.â […]
Lightfoot did not lay out any specific initiatives, and afterward she said she would hold her cards longer on how she might seek budget and pension relief from state lawmakers during a legislative session scheduled to end May 31 â just 11 days after she takes office. She did, however, note many Illinois communities face similar challenges when it comes to pension funding, public safety and the need to rebuild infrastructure.
The mayor-elect also signaled to lawmakers that she comes to the office with a different background, having grown up in a low-income family in the segregated small steel town of Massillon, Ohio. Lightfoot will become the first person elected mayor not born in Chicago since Anton Cermak took office in 1931.
âI also wanted them to understand that, given my background, that I am like a lot of people from small towns all over this state who are struggling, looking for help and opportunity,â Lightfoot told reporters afterward. âWhen we solve those problems in Chicago, that certainly can be a template that can be used in other areas of the state, but also vice versa.â
* The people who believed that Lori Lightfoot’s campaign against Toni Preckwinkle somehow meant she’d be picking fights with every powerful machine character could’ve been disappointed yesterday…
Lightfoot campaigned against the Chicago political machine, so sitting next to House Speaker Mike Madigan â who is perhaps more emblematic of machine-style politics than anyone in the state â raised questions about how the two power players will work together.
“Look, the speaker occupies an important space in state government. I look forward and I have no question that weâre going to have a good productive working relationship,” she said.
She needs things from Springfield and almost everything she needs will go through Madigan’s office.
Sheâll need Springfieldâs help to advance parts of her agenda â whether it be gun control legislation, a bill for an elected public school board, money to help pay for infrastructure upgrades, pension relief, extra revenue or approval for a casino in Chicago.
Lightfoot said she recognizes there can only be one mayor at a time, but sheâs ânot going to wait until May 20 (her inauguration date) to be active and engaged in the General Assembly.â
Still, she said sheâs not putting her âcards on the table quite yetâ when it comes to what sheâs looking for from Springfield when it comes to revenue.
âBut weâre looking at a range of options,â she said. âAnd obviously thereâs limited powers regarding revenue that a mayor can exercise. A lot of the powers that we can tap into flow from Springfield. So when we think about what our menu of solutions are, obviously Springfield looms large and weâll make sure that weâll come up with solutions we can get through the General Assembly, with the help of the governor and the leaders.â
She spent about 20 minutes meeting with Madigan, but a planned photo opportunity with perhaps the most powerful, yet unpopular lawmaker in the building was scratched without explanation.
No explanation needed, but she certainly wasn’t running late. In fact, she was early to almost everything yesterday. Statehouse types aren’t accustomed to that sort of thing. Everything, and I mean everything, runs late. “The hour of 2 o’clock having arrived” announced at 4:30 is the norm.
After the speech, lawmakers lined up to meet the Chicagoâs history-making mayor-elect. Political observers kept a close eye on one meeting in particular: State Rep. Robert Martwick, who had a public confrontation with Lightfoot during the campaign, a moment that Lightfoot credited as a turning point.
âI donât know if thereâs a hatchet to bury,â she said. âI think he understood who I am and that he ought to be respectful of me as a woman and a person, and Iâm sure we wonât have a repeat of the incident that happened previously.”
“I look forward to working with her, and I mean the city is going to have some immense challenges over the course of the next four years, she’s got a big job and I told her anything I can do to help, I’ll be there for her,” Martwick said.
âI want to have true parent representation on such a board. I donât favor the Martwick bill. I think itâs highly problematic. And it also doesnât address all of the details that are going to be necessary to flesh out, such as how are we going to get people on that board? What [is] going to be the criteria?â Lightfoot said. âI donât want to turn an elected school board into another costly election, which is going to drown out the opportunity for parents to be participate in the process. Thatâs critically important to me. Weâve got to work out the details and the timing matters, but the details matter and I think getting that right is really important.â
Sounds like maybe a small-dollar, publicly financed election perhaps?
Betsy Dirksen Londrigan to Announce 2020 Run for Congress
Dirksen Londrigan Will Announce the Launch of Her Campaign to Represent Illinoisâ 13th Congressional District and Protect Health Care from Congressional Republican Attacks
SPRINGFIELD, IL - This morning in Springfield, Betsy Dirksen Londrigan will announce the launch of her campaign to represent Illinoisâ 13th Congressional District. The launch will take place at the Illinois AFL-CIO with members of the local community in attendance.
Dirksen Londrigan will discuss the need for new leadership in Congress and to protect the health care of Illinois families against ongoing attacks by Congressman Rodney Davis and Washington Republicans.
Thursday, April 11, 2019
11:00 AM - Dirksen Londrigan Campaign Announcement
Illinois AFL-CIO
534 S 2nd St, Springfield, IL 62701
âHealth care is still the issue,â said Londrigan, 48. âAs I traveled the district during the last 18 months, itâs what I heard over and over and over again. People want the protections that the Affordable Care Act provides, and they want to make sure that their kids get a good education. They want good jobs. But overarchingly, health care is the issue. And we still have an administration and a congressman that are trying to get rid of the ACA.â
Davis has favored repealing and replacing the health care act known as Obamacare but also said he had worked to make sure there were protections such as continued health coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.
Londrigan said the law âis not perfectâ but wondered when opponents would âtake the hintâ that âpeople want their health care.â She also isnât ready for a single-payer health care system. […]
âI was a first-time candidate who came real close to unseating a six-year incumbent, and we really built a movement,â Londrigan said. âI think that we tilled the soil profoundly in the 13th District and people … have gotten to know me. Clearly there are more people who need to get to know me and our campaign, and why Iâm in this and why Iâm going to fight for them.â
…Adding… ILGOP…
âIn a lame attempt to distance herself from her past statements and the Democratic Partyâs march towards Socialism, Betsy Londrigan says sheâs âabsolutely notâ a Socialist, but voters in the 13th District wonât be fooled. Now that Londrigan is officially a Democratic candidate for Congress again, she must let voters know whether or not she will take part in the Democratic Partyâs far-left, Socialist policy agenda - impeaching President Trump, the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and a radical expansion of abortion.â - Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Aaron DeGroot
…Adding… NRCC…
âIllinoisans rejected socialist loser Betsy Dirksen Londrigan once and theyâll do it again in 2020. Her support of radical socialist policies like single-payer, late-term abortion and a Green New Deal are out of step with Midwest values and will once again render her unelectable.â -NRCC Spokeswoman Carly Atchison
With Tax Day just a few days away, Think Big Illinois released new ads in several districts showing the unfair burden middle-class families are currently facing, and how a fair tax would help lift that burden. These ads are part of Think Big Illinoisâ latest efforts to give voters the opportunity to have their voices heard on a critical issue that impacts all Illinoisans.
The ads also highlight the much-needed revenue a fair tax will bring into the state, which will go toward addressing the $3.2 billion budget deficit and funding critical programs, including our schools. The fair tax will generate this funding while ensuring 97% of Illinoisans see no income tax increase, and forcing the wealthiest Illinoisans to finally pay their share.
The ads call on Representatives Monica Bristow, Jonathan Carroll, and Mary Edly-Allen to support a fair tax.
* The ads have a different tone than the previous spots, which called on viewers to “Tell [House Democratic member] to vote âYesâ and put the middle class first.” It seemed almost Rauneresque. This one says “Call [House Democratic member]. Tell her to keep standing up for the middle class.” Much better…
* Script…
Itâs tax time, and if youâre a middle-class family in IllinoisâŚ
That means once again, youâre getting ripped off.
Because in Illinois, middle-class families are forced to shoulder a disproportionate share of the tax burden.
But it doesnât have to be that way.
Under a fair tax, millionaires would be forced to pay their fair share.
To help address the budget crisis and fund our schools.
Call Monica Bristow.
Tell her to keep standing up for the middle class.
* The “Eastern Bloc” supposedly wants to kick Chicago out of Illinois, but four of its members posed with the incoming mayor yesterday…
Conservative members from east central and south eastern Illinois reach out to Chicago mayor-elect to start the discussion how to make Illinois the thriving economy it should be. pic.twitter.com/z98PlXKocC
* Mayor-elect downplays Chicago secession resolution: To those who have concerns about Chicago dictating policy to rural areas of the state, Lightfoot said sheâs willing to talk. âIâm going to look for opportunities to reach out to people out below I-80 to make sure that we build good relationships and I think we started that today,â Lightfoot said. Halbrook said heâs willing to talk, but Chicago is going to have to come around. âThey refuse to talk about reforms to grow the economy,â Halbrook said. âWe have to grow the economy by bringing employers into our rural districts.â
* Effingham County Board Legislative Committee Votes to Put Separate State Question on 2020 Ballot: The Effingham County Board’s legislative committee has voted to place the separation of the bulk of Illinois from Chicagoland on the March 2020 election ballot as a constitutional question. Here’s the question as proposed by County Board member Heather Mumma: “Shall Effingham County Correspond With the Other Counties Of The State Of Illinois, Outside Of Cook County, Outside The City Of Chicago, And Outside Other Municipalities Of Cook County, And Exclude Any Collar Counties Outside Of Cook County That Wish To Be Excluded, About The Possibility Of Separating From Cook County, The City Of Chicago, And Other Municipalities Of Cook County To Form A New State, And To Seek Admission To The Union As Such, Subject To The Approval Of The People Of The United States?” The matter will be on the agenda at Monday’s full Effingham County Board meeting. The Board’s Legislative Committee, though, meets as a Committee of the Whole, so Monday’s endorsement seems likely. The decision would make Effingham County the first county in the state to take such action. Committee members also voted to consider Monday a resolution declaring the Firearm Owners Identification Card, or FOID card, is unconstitutional and should be eliminated. The resolution also demands the rejection of any legislation that would restrict the right to keep and bear arms.
A federal grand jury sent a subpoena for government records to the Illinois Senate for documents relating to Democratic Sen. Tom Cullerton, a three-term lawmaker who last year spearheaded the legislative response to fatal Legionnairesâ disease outbreaks at the state veteransâ home in downstate Quincy.
The Feb. 5, 2019, subpoena sought Cullertonâs personnel file as well as records regarding his legislative attendance; reimbursements for travel, lodging, meals, cell phone and vehicle allowances; and âall emails to and fromâ the senator between Feb. 1, 2013, and March 31, 2016. […]
During the three-year period in which investigators are seeking records, Cullerton â now chairman of the Senate Labor Committee â disclosed in his state economic interest statements that he had received income as an âorganizerâ for Teamsters Joint Council 25. […]
Annual spending reports the union filed with the U.S. Department of Labor for calendar years 2013, 2014 and 2015 showed Teamsters Joint Council 25 paid Cullerton $182,800 for that role, nearly doubling the senatorâs cumulative pay from the state during that period, records show. […]
Government filings involving Coli and the February subpoena seeking state records related to Cullerton share an identical grand jury case number and the same federal prosecutor. That suggests the probe involving both cases is the same, according to a former federal law enforcement source interviewed by WBEZ.
In 1929, the six richest states in the U.S. were, in descending order, New York, Delaware, Connecticut, California, Illinois and New Jersey. Four of those are still in the top six (Illinois missed the cut by a few places, while Delaware has fallen to 22nd; Maryland and Massachusetts replaced them). […]
Per-capita personal income is admittedly not the most closely watched of economic indicators. In the short term, it can give some pretty strange results: West Virginia had the fastest-growing per-capita income of all the states in 2018, according to preliminary data released late last month by the Commerce Departmentâs Bureau of Economic Analysis, but that was partly because its population shrank by an estimated 11,216. Per-capita income also doesnât tell us anything about the distribution of income. The Census Bureauâs median household income estimates do that, but those come with big margins of error and are only readily available back to the mid-1980s. Which leaves per-capita personal income as a quite useful measure of the changing fortunes over time of American states and localities (itâs available down to the county level). […]
Now here are the states … that saw the biggest relative losses in per-capita income from 1929 to 1980, and whatâs happened to them since:
Change in per-capita personal income as a percentage of national average…
Finally, here are the 19 states where income gains outpaced the country as a whole over the past decade […]
This is a mix of states bouncing back from a really terrible 2000s (Michigan most of all, but also Colorado and Indiana), a state gaining in per-capita income as its population shrinks (Illinois), and states that are genuinely booming (Washington, Massachusetts, Oregon and others).
States With the Most Income Growth Since 2008: Change in per-capita personal income as a percentage of national average…
Today, Think Big Illinois released two new ads highlighting the need for a fair tax. The 15 second ads will be running in media markets across the state as part of Think Big Illinoisâ latest efforts to ensure voters have the chance to decide whether they want a tax system that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.
The first ad, âHow Unfair,â explains how the current tax system disproportionately places the burden on our middle-class families, who on average are forced to pay nearly 13% of their income for state and local taxes. In contrast, the top 1% of Illinoisans only have to pay around 7% of their income for state and local taxes.
The second ad, âAffect You,â highlights how Governor Pritzkerâs fair tax will impact Illinoisans, including that 97% of Illinoisans will not see a state income tax increase, with only those making above $250,000 paying more. A fair tax will also help address the $3.2 billion budget crisis weâre currently facing and bring in much-needed revenue to fund critical programs, including our schools.
Unlike the group’s first TV ad, neither of these ads feature Gov. Pritzker.
How unfair is Illinoisâ tax system?
If youâre a middle-class family, youâre forced to pay around 13% of your income in taxes.
But the top 1%, they pay only about half as much.
Itâs time for change.
Letâs make our tax system fair in Illinois.
How will a fair tax affect you?
For 97% of Illinoisans, it would mean no income tax increase.
Only people making above $250,000 would pay more.
Itâs time for change.
Letâs make our tax system fair in Illinois.
* The buy…
Think Big Illinois added 4/11-4/15
Chicago, Champaign, Peoria, and Rockford broadcast and cable
Total New Spending: $405,445
1,000 GRPs in Chicago. 380 GRPs in Champaign/Spi. 176 GRPs in Peoria. 132 GRPs in Rockford
In any such [income] tax imposed upon corporations the rate shall not exceed the rate imposed on individuals by more than a ratio of 8 to 5.
One idea behind that clause was to prevent the General Assembly from jacking up rates on corporations by making sure they’d also have to raise rates on individuals.
The current corporate income tax rate is 7 percent (not including the Personal Property Replacement Tax), while the personal rate is 4.95 percent. That’s an easy-to-figure ratio of 7 to 4.95, so there’s actually a little cap space remaining. The corporate rate could legally be increased right now to 7.92 percent (plus PPRT).
In any such [income] tax imposed upon corporations the highest rate shall not exceed the highest rate imposed on individuals by more than a ratio of 8 to 5.
Pritzker’s highest proposed individual income tax rate is 7.95 percent. The governor’s proposed corporate rate is 7.95 percent.
But that 8-5 ratio amendment means the corporate rate could legally be increased to 12.72 percent, plus the 1.5 to 2.5 percent PPRT. That means the highest final corporate rate could go as high as 15.22 percent.
Whew.
…Adding… If they cap out, and I’m not saying they will, that rate would be the highest anywhere…
Under Pritzker's rate structure, this amendment would allow for an effective corporate income tax rate of up to 15.22% (8/5ths of JB's top personal rate of 7.95% + 2.5% PPRT). That would be the highest in the nation by far. Note that Iowa's is scheduled to drop. pic.twitter.com/7F8eHWF3zs
* A Senate appropriations committee held a hearing on the Illinois Department of Human Services budget this week…
Another proposed increase is for the Child Care Assistance Program.
Parents at 185 percent of the federal poverty line can get child care assistance now. DHS is looking to increase that to 200 percent, which could cost about $30 million more.
Righter said that before putting more money into the program, DHS needs to figure out why thereâs $100 million in unused funding for the program with the existing income threshold.
âGoing to 200 or 215 [percent of the FPL] is good eye candy,â Righter said, âbut if weâre leaving people on the table who have less money than that, nobody wants that. Nobody wants that. I donât care what party you are, nobody wants that.â
State Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, agreed there needs to be an answer why thereâs excess money at the lower threshold.
âIâm supportive of increasing the eligibility, but we have 69 percent of the families that are eligible that are not part of the program,â Villivalam said.
Villivalam used to work for SEIU Healthcare, so he should know the answer to his question.
* Child care advocates have been predicting this would happen ever since Gov. Bruce Rauner started slashing eligibility in 2015. Let’s fire up the Wayback Machine…
Under new Illinois Department of Human Services rules instated July 1, [2015] some parents earning minimum wage in full-time jobs make twice as much as the cutoff.
In fact, 90 percent of parents throughout the state who tried to sign up after July 1 are no longer eligible, according to estimates by lawmakers and advocates. That includes not only families new to the program, but those parents, like Jamison, who had not used the program during summer months and tried to re-enroll only to discover they no longer qualified. […]
The state assistance program was created after the 1996 federal Welfare-to-Work initiative. Prior to July 1, it had served families that earned up to 185 percent of the federal poverty line, which would be $51,634 for a family of five or $29,101 for a single parent and child. Under the new emergency rules enacted by Gov. Bruce Raunerâs administration, if a single parent with one child earns more than $7,968 a year, that family is no longer eligible. In all, about 20,000 children who would otherwise be eligible for the Child Care Assistance Program are expected to be without state-subsidized care by the end of the month. More than 160,000 children had care through the program up until the rule change. The new rule does not apply to families already enrolled at the time it took effect.
âThose slots now that child care providers have are sitting open, and they canât fill them because 90 percent of people who would apply are no longer eligible,ââ says Emily Miller, director of policy and advocacy for Voices for Illinois Children.
Those projections were revised upward to 30,000 kids being deemed ineligible, then revised up again to 40,000. Because of that, a whole lot of providers simply gave up due to lack of work, decimating the provider network.
In budget documents released Tuesday, Governor Rauner declared he would cut nearly $60 million for an extension of the Child Care Assistance Program that was both mandated by the federal government and approved by the state legislature. That funding would go to expand CCAP eligibility for working families from six to twelve months, per the federal block grant, and ensure that families have the continuity of care they need.
Currently, Illinoisâ CCAP eligibility is re-determined every 6 months, and children can lose access to their care setting, even if they are eligible again a short time after they are removed from the program. This creates a reality where kids churn in and out of child care settings and subsidy payments, leading to instability that impacts their development and school readiness, and adds additional burdens to working parents.
Rauner began his war on child care in the summer of 2015, unilaterally slashing the Child Care Assistance Program by 90%. Time and again, the governor vetoed legislation to restore and expand CCAP eligibility, despite desperate pleas from many parents that his CCAP cuts put them at risk of losing their jobs or having to drop out of school.
After two years, SEIU child care providers and working parents have forced Governor Rauner to fully reverse his child care cuts. However, the damage has been done. Today CCAP serves nearly 40,000 fewer children than before Raunerâs 2015 cuts and has 10,000 fewer child care providers in program.
The task at hand is to convince parents and potential providers that this is now a stable, reliable program. That won’t be a simple matter.
*** UPDATE *** Sen. Villivalam called to say that what he was trying to get across at the hearing was the dire need for public outreach. DHS, he said, isn’t doing much to inform the public. Villivalam has a bill in the hopper, SB1321, which would require DHS to promote the availability of the Child Care Assistance Program. That bill passed the Senate unanimously.
* I didn’t notice it yesterday during the roll call, but House Republican Leader Jim Durkin voted for this bill, as did a handful of other Republicans…
The state of Illinois is one step closer to hiking the minimum salary for teachers to $40,000 a year.
House Bill 2078 passed the House on a 79-31 vote Tuesday. The bill would phase in the salary increase over a period of five years.
âBetter wages bring better teachers, and better teachers mean better schools,â state Rep. Mike Halpin (D-Rock Island) said. âHigh-quality education will attract people and business back to Illinois and pump money into our economy. This pay increase will benefit communities across the state.â
The bill is supported by the Illinois Education Association, the stateâs largest teachersâ union.
Durkin voted “No” last year. I’m told he changed his mind partly because of the state’s teacher shortage.
On Tuesday, supporters of legislation that would amend gun ownership laws and make fingerprinting mandatory for a FOID card say itâs a mathematical certainty that of the 265,000 concealed carry licensees and more than 2 million FOID card holders in Illinois, Arquero and Martin are not the only ones who lied on their applications. […]
[Valinda Rowe, the spokeswoman for IllinoisCarry] believes the law that requires anyone who wants a gun to spend $10 on a FOID card that is good for 10 years is unconstitutional as it stands. Any amendments or future legislation aimed at further restricting gun ownersâ rights would only exacerbate the problem, she said. And shortening the FOID card’s expiration date from 10 years to five, which is also part of the legislative proposal, puts an additional burden on citizens, she said. […]
The bill also would require applicants, who now can fill out necessary forms online, to apply for both a FOID or a CCL in person at an Illinois State Police district office. Rowe also took issue with that provision.
âThere are only 22 district offices for Illinois State Police in the entire state. How can 22 district offices handle two-and-a-quarter million FOID applicants in their 22 lobbies?â she asked.
* Mandatory nurse staffing would lead to cuts in other health care areas: To begin with, there are not enough nurses in Illinois to meet the ratios, with a projected shortage of 21,000 nurses by next year and one-third of registered nurses (RNs) in Illinois planning to retire within the next five years. Even if smaller hospitals like FHN Memorial Hospital could find enough qualified RNs to meet the mandates, it would be done at the expense of staffing cuts in other areas. In turn, that could mean that nurses would be doing work that does not maximize their training and capabilities for the best care of their patients. These negative impacts on the RN work environment and their opportunities for advancement would further curtail our ability to attract and hire nurses in an already challenging hiring environment.
* Some creative ways to save money in Illinois public schools: Authors Adam Slade and Nick McFadden estimate that Illinois could save $645 million per year, or $318 per student, if it reduced administrative spending to the national average.
* Rezin’s health care bills good news for Illinoisans: Rezin, the Republican state senator from Morris, sponsored Senate Bill 2026, which would require legislative approval before the state could apply for a federal waiver to the Affordable Care Act that reduced or eliminated protections for people with pre-existing conditions. She noted the move was necessary to provide peace of mind after 2018 federal legislation giving states the right to waive portions of ACA compliance.
* Caseworkers notified about New Elder Law: Under our new Kasem-Baksys Visitation Law, close family members being unreasonably denied visitation with their elder by another family member can go to court, outside of guardianship proceedings. This is important because abusive isolation can start when an elder first becomes physically dependent, long before he or she becomes mentally disabled.
Families seeking a religious exemption next year, or transferring after Oct. 16, will have to complete a certificate explaining their objection on religious grounds before kindergarten, 6th and 9th grades. That certificate also must include the signature of a doctor, attesting that he or she counseled the parents about the risks of skipping vaccines.
How effective the new law will be in reducing the number of unvaccinated children isn’t clear, since how schools define a religious objection isn’t clear either. The Illinois State Board of Education tracked more than 13,000 such exemptions in 2013, said spokeswoman Megan Griffin. While the objection doesn’t have to be based on religious doctrine, it can’t be based simply on personal preference either, she said.
The certificate also reflects the parents or legal guardians understanding that their child may be excluded from school in the case of a vaccine-preventable disease outbreak or exposure. Parents
The evidence keeps piling up that Illinois must toughen its law on vaccine exemptions.
In dozens of schools in the Chicago area and in hundreds across the state, vaccination rates are below what experts recommend to prevent the spread of measles, according to a new analysis by WBEZ.
According to experts, at least 98% of students in a school should be vaccinated for their own protection â and to provide group protection for children who, for legitimate medical reasons, canât be vaccinated for the highly contagious disease.
But WBEZ found that at 67 Chicago-area schools, and 514 schools across Illinois, vaccination rates topped out at 95% or lower. At four Chicago schools, fewer than 50% of children had proof of vaccination.
* The Question: Should Illinois eliminate all non-medical childhood vaccine exemptions? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, pleaseâŚ
âWhen we were at this conference a year ago, Illinois had the most anti-union governor in the nation,â Pritzker said. The audience booed each time Pritzker said Raunerâs name. Pritzker paused, with relish, at each round of boos. […]
Rauner âwas hell bent,â Pritzker said, on eliminating project labor agreements, pushing local right-to-work zones and âdestroyingâ prevailing wage agreements while âstacking the Illinois Department of Labor with his anti-union cronies allied with the Koch Brothers,â a reference to the anti-union drives bankrolled by the billionaire brothers. […]
Pritzker told the group about actions he did from day one as governor: signing orders restoring project labor and prevailing wage agreements and dealing with wage theft and day-labor exploitation. He also signed a law raising the Illinois minimum wage to $15-an-hour by 2025.
âI want to be clear. When it comes to fighting for Illinois workers, we are just getting started,â said Pritzker.
* Let’s begin our coverage of the governor’s graduated income tax press conference with this Tribune excerpt…
GOP lawmakers and a pro-business political committee called Ideas Illinois, run by former Illinois Manufacturersâ Association chief Greg Baise, have attacked Pritzkerâs proposal as a âjobs taxâ and argued that it would push businesses and wealthy residents out of state.
âFor those who will oppose a fair tax by waging a misinformation campaign, it is transparent that you are defending an unfair status quo that benefits the wealthiest Illinoisans instead of offering your own ideas for how to fix our stateâs problems,â Pritzker said.
The governor cited a report from PolitiFact Illinois that rated the âjobs taxâ claim as false.
But is it “really” the hardest-working paper in all of America? I’m sure I could find experts, as PolitiFact often does, to establish some benchmarks about what hard work is, and about how reporters work very hard all over the country. I could then send an e-mail to the paper’s publisher asking him to justify the slogan, then follow up with maybe the Tribune’s publisher to see if he agreed. And then I could easily rate that slogan “False” or even “Pants on Fire!” because it wasn’t true.
Yes, that would be silly, but don’t we generally hold newspapers to a higher standard than dark money committees? Should they be allowed to run such misleading ad campaigns? Who’s going to speak for the children?!
The proposed amendment to change Illinoisâ constitution from a flat income tax to one with higher rates for higher earners will get a last-minute hearing Wednesday in Springfield. […]
On Tuesday, state Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, requested the six-day posting requirements to hold a committee hearing be waived. He asked for his Senate Joint Constitutional Amendment No. 1, which includes language to change the stateâs flat tax to a tax structure that levies higher rates on higher incomes, to be heard in the Senate Executive Committee on Wednesday.
State Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, objected.
âWhatâs at issue here is a substantive amendment to the Illinois constitution that will affect the finances and taxes of millions of Illinoisans,â Righter said. âAt the very least, the six days notice required is appropriate for this body ⌠to have a conversation about the contents of the amendment and the effects it might have on our constituents.â
I don’t particularly care for the posting waiver, either. But, really, what actual “conversation” can Senators have while the proposal awaits a committee hearing? Isn’t that what a hearing is for?
At any one time there may be no more than one such tax imposed by the State for State purposes on individuals and one such tax so imposed on corporations.
Under the proposed language, they argued, the state would actually be allowed to levy multiple income taxes, each for a different purpose, which would effectively allow the state to tax the same income multiple times. […]
âThat means it could set up for all kinds of surcharges,â Maisch said. âIt means you could go ahead and actually have a second income tax to go ahead and fund, I donât know, transportation or whatever the other need is. But they are eliminating that taxpayer protection that says, âthis dollar of income can only be taxed once by the state.ââ […]
According to Harmon, the prohibition on levying multiple income taxes was simply a companion to the requirement for a single, flat tax rate. Without that prohibition, he said, the framers feared that lawmakers could levy a series of âflatâ taxes on different levels of income â say, for example, one on income up to $30,000; another âflatâ rate on income between $30,000 and $60,000, and so on â effectively creating a multi-tiered tax structure through a series of limited âflatâ taxes on different levels of income.
By allowing the state to create a multi-tiered tax structure, Harmon said, the prohibition on multiple taxes would become unnecessary.
Furthermore, he said, if supporters of the proposed change had left in the prohibition on multiple taxes, critics would likely argue that a multi-tiered structure would violate that prohibition.
There may be one tax on the income of individuals and corporations. This may be a fair tax where lower rates apply to lower income levels and higher rates apply to higher income levels. No government other than the State may impose a tax on or measured by income.
I get what Harmon is saying, but somebody may have over-thought that language deletion. They should’ve just left the originally proposed language in place.
One of the arguments from opponents of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed progressive income-tax amendment to the Illinois Constitution is that another tax hike, particularly on upper-income earners, will encourage more people to leave the state.
But a new study conducted by Chicago’s Better Government Association contends that statistics do not support that contention. At the same time, the BGA study shows that the earners Pritzker says he cares about most â middle- and lower-income earners â are the hardest hit by tax increases and most likely to leave the state because of them.
Unlike all previous income tax hikes, this one would only be on upper-income folks.
Mayor-elect Lightfoot to spend Wed and Thurs in Springfieldâ
Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot will spend Wednesday and Thursday in Springfield. On Wednesday, Lightfoot will address the Illinois House of Representatives and meet with Governor JB Pritzker, Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, Speaker Michael Madigan, and Leader Jim Durkin. On Thursday, Lightfoot will address the Illinois Senate and meet with President John Cullerton, Leader Bill Brady, and Leader Kimberly Lightford.
Address to the House of Representatives
When: Wednesday, 4/10, 3:15pm
Where: House of Representatives Floor
Press availability: This address is open press. Lightfoot will be available for comment following her address.
Address to the Senate
When: Thursday, 4/11, 11:15am
Where: Senate Floor
Press availability: This address is open press. Lightfoot will be available for comment following her address.
…Adding… Times are being firmed up…
Updated: Daily Public Schedule: Wednesday, Apr. 10, 2019
What: Gov. Pritzker to greet Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot ahead of their first meeting in Springfield.
Where: Illinois State Capitol, Governorâs Office, Springfield
When: 1:30 p.m.
Note: No additional media availability.
* Meanwhile…
Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot released the following statement in advance of the Wednesday Finance Committee meeting.
âFrom day one, Iâve stood with the grassroots movement to seek transparency and community input in Lincoln Yards and The 78. Iâve advanced a set of priorities throughout this effort, including the need for clear and specific plans from the developers to boost inclusion of minority- and women-owned businesses.
âI am appreciative of Mayor Emanuel and Finance Committee Chairman OâConnor for agreeing to defer Mondayâs vote on Lincoln Yards and The 78 to allow my team additional time to seek clarity and address our concerns. Based on subsequent conversations with Mayor Emanuel, community stakeholders, and a number of aldermen, we expect that this deal is likely to pass tomorrow.
âAs a show of good faith, my team had productive meetings today with both developers. As a result of those conversations, I am pleased to report that both developers agreed to meaningfully strengthen their commitments to minority-owned and women-owned business enterprises (”MBE” and “WBE”) from the original terms. The increases would lift the overall M/WBE participation by $80 million to $400 million overall. In addition, both developers agreed to add language to the redevelopment agreements to provide explicit controls for the City to measure and require compliance with actual utilization of M/WBEs on the projects. These changes represent a vital sign that my administration will be able to make progress toward an equitable and fair deal for our communities.
âThere remains much more work to do in this regard, and I am hopeful weâll be able to get there. Under the terms of both redevelopment agreements, we have confirmed that the City has additional controls over these projects, which I am confident will allow for us to further improve these deals and to bring community voices into the process going forward.
âThere are likely sufficient votes to advance these proposals tomorrow. I am not yet the mayor, and I recognize that the current administration and City Council must decide whether to carry this vote forward according to the interests of the constituents they serve. Either way, upon swearing in, I will engage with the community and committed activists who have advocated forcefully for affordable housing, park space and the responsible use of tax increment financing dollars for many months. And in making future decisions about these and all other deals, we will work with stakeholders to allow for robust community input from the beginning and throughout.”
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker remains one of the biggest proponents of legalizing recreational marijuana, which he said could bring in $170 million in tax revenue, to start, by next year.
And on Tuesday he took it a step further, saying heâs also in support of âhome growâ â marijuana â to an extent. The discussion about how many marijuana plants would be allowed in a household remains part of ongoing negotiations about marijuana legalization in the state.
Asked during a Springfield news conference about his âphilosophicalâ view of whether Illinois residents should have the right to grow cannabis in their homes, Pritzker voiced his support.
âI donât think itâs a philosophical question about whether it should just be an open right for anybody to open their own farm in their basement,â Pritzker said to some chuckles from legislators behind him. âItâs really more of a question about ⌠itâs really moreâŚâ
After a bit more of laughter, Pritzker took a position: âPeople should have home grow, but the question is how much?â
