* Sun-Times…
Chicago Public Schools has asked a Cook County judge on Monday to fast-track the district’s civil rights lawsuit against the state of Illinois, warning of dire consequences for students if a funding issue isn’t resolved quickly.
More than $100 million in the red and on the hook for a $721 million teacher pension payment in June, CPS said it could cut the school year as short as June 1 if money doesn’t come through soon from the state. Students typically end school a few weeks later.
The district recently filed a civil rights lawsuit against Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Illinois State Board of Education, alleging that the state’s ways of funding schools and pensions created “separate but unequal” schools systems in which CPS, whose students are predominantly poor and minority, get less money than their wealthier, white counterparts elsewhere in the state.
District officials are asking Judge Franklin Valderrama to issue a ruling before the end of April.
Forrest Claypool has scheduled a 4 o’clock press conference today, so I’m assuming he’ll blame a potentially shortened school year on Gov. Rauner. The school year had been scheduled to end June 20th.
* There’s lots of Rauner-blaming in the CPS motion. For instance…
As a first step toward ending the State’s discriminatory funding of teacher pension obligations, on June 30, 2016, the Illinois House amended Senate Bill 2822 to include an additional State contribution of $215 million to assist CPS to meet its required Fiscal Year 2017 teacher pension payment of $721 million. Even that $215 million pension funding for CPS would stand in stark contrast to the State’s projected Fiscal Year 2017 payment to TRS of $4.0 billion. Amended Senate Bill 2822 passed both houses of the General Assembly.
But on December 1, 2016, Governor Rauner vetoed the bill. Governor Rauner stated that he had agreed to support the bill only if the General Assembly agreed to his other demands on legislation having nothing to do with CPS. As a result, CPS’s children - 90% children of color - are at risk of forever losing their one chance in life to receive a quality education. Prior to the veto, CPS already had taken drastic measures to meet its budget obligations and educate its students. At the end of Fiscal Year 2013, CPS had a positive general operating fund balance of $949 million. By the end of Fiscal Year 2016, CPS had depleted all of that reserve and ended with a negative general operating fund balance of $127 million. In other words, CPS’s general operating fund balance has declined by $1.1 billion in just three years. Over that same time period, CPS made required pension payments totaling $1.9 billion. In that same three years, the State’s discriminatory funding has shortchanged CPS by $1.1 billion. […]
The February 22 budget cuts do not fill the $215 million hole created by Governor Rauner’s veto. If CPS must re-balance its budget by making additional cuts, those cuts will be even more painful. If CPS ends the school year on June 1 - instead of June 20 - students will receive fewer days of instruction. If students are not in class, they forever lose those days of learning. There is no way to compensate for missed time in the classroom. If CPS eliminates summer school for grade-school and middle-school students, those children will not receive the additional instruction they require to get on track. Those children are at risk of falling even farther behind.
*** UPDATE *** From Illinois Secretary of Education Beth Purvis…
As children statewide continue to be impacted by the state’s broken school funding formula, now is the time for CEO Claypool to engage in a constructive process to pass a balanced budget with changes that would help schools across the state, including those in Chicago.
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* AP…
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration is seeking to offer more Medicaid services through managed-care programs.
Rauner and two cabinet members announced the plan in Chicago Monday. It involves choosing a vendor that’ll provide managed-care services to 80 percent of Medicaid clients.
That’s up from 65 percent now. It’ll also be expanded to all Illinois counties and children in the care of the Department of Children and Family Services.
* But there will be fewer managed care providers…
Rauner inherited managed care from Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who backed a law aggressively placing 50 percent of Medicaid enrollees into a health plan that would keep close tabs on their medical care. Now about 65 percent of the state’s 3.1 million Medicaid recipients are in managed care.
While Rauner wants to expand managed care services statewide and add another 15 percent of all Medicaid enrollees to the program, he explained why he plans to cap the number of insurers that can participate to between four and seven.
There are simply too many insurers now participating, he said. While the number has shrunk from roughly 30 to 12 insurers now, the vast system is an administrative headache for doctors, hospitals and patients, he argued. In Central Illinois, for example, enrollees have little access to managed care.
Illinois has been gleaning lessons from other states, including Arizona, which requires all Medicaid recipients to be in managed care. The idea of managed care is to surround patients with teams of nurses, social workers and doctors to coordinate treatment and therefore lower medical costs. […]
Rauner said he couldn’t speculate about how much money the new contracts could save Medicaid, but he said “there’s clearly significant savings to be had” by increasing quality and focusing on prevention.
Rauner wants to take that number of managed care organizations down to as few as four and no more than seven, according to the state’s RFP. Needless to say, some managed care companies are starting to freak out.
And all of this is happening while DC tries to figure out what it’s going to do with Medicaid and the ACA.
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What’s with the secrecy?
Monday, Feb 27, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Gov. Bruce Rauner let it slip that he’s planning to meet with Grammy winner Chance the Rapper this week, though his office declined to say when or where.
Rauner mentioned the planned meeting in passing at a Black History Month event at the Thompson Center on Friday. He was praising Dorothy Jean Tillman, a theater and performance artist who was given a young achievement award for her work as a children’s book author and ensemble member at the Harold Washington Cultural Center.
“I tell you, Dorothy Jean Tillman, this young lady, 10 years old, extraordinary talent. What an inspiration she is. I look forward to seeing her next week,” Rauner said. “She’s going to come when I’m getting together with Chance the Rapper, I think the middle of next week.” […]
Asked when and where the meeting will take place, the administration emailed back a short statement: “On background, the Governor will be meeting privately with Chance next week to discuss important issues affecting our state.”
* From this morning…
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Pawar on Madigan
Monday, Feb 27, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Gubernatorial candidate Ald. Ameya Pawar was at DePaul last week…
But, with four of Illinois’ eight most recent governors having spent time in prison, good governance has not always been the rule. And for the past 30 years of state politics, the elephant in the room has been House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Madigan has been criticized for his stewardship of the state, which has the lowest credit rating of any state in the country as well as a structural budget deficit and mountains of unpaid bills and pension obligations. While Pawar said he doesn’t know Madigan or “have a relationship with him,” he gave a mixed assessment.
“I’d argue that (Madigan’s) the one person standing in the way of the utter destruction of public sector unions,” Pawar said. “But I also recognize that both Democrats and Republicans got us here over the past 40 years. So, we all hold some responsibility. But the path forward is to stop turning (Republican leaders Christine) Radongo, (Jim) Durkin or (Democratic leaders) Madigan and (John) Cullerton into cartoon characters as they get into the room and stop demonizing each other and cut a deal.”
Thoughts on how he handled that?
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It’s just a bill
Monday, Feb 27, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sun-Times…
Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson has been vocal, especially in recent weeks, about his frustration with state lawmakers not passing legislation to stiffen penalties for “repeat gun offenders.”
Johnson hinted at a cause of some of that frustration during a news conference Friday to announce dozens of arrests in overnight raids.
“They promised me that we would have something done in January. We’re at the end of February,” Johnson said.
He went on to mention that state Rep. Elgie Sims Jr. and state Sen. Kwame Raoul, both Chicago Democrats, “are crafting the language for a bill, and I know that they are supportive of CPD.” […]
Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Johnson “was told in his conversations to expect a draft to be introduced in January,” though he didn’t say who offered assurances to Johnson about the time frame.
Sims told the Chicago Sun-Times “there were some discussions about hopefully some developments” on a piece of legislation by January, but “I don’t know about ‘promised.’”
Considering that this proposal is so contentious, I’m thinking the Superintendent is confused about the passage deadline.
* Meanwhile…
A pending bill in the Illinois House that would create sanctuary zones for undocumented immigrants drew demonstrators from both sides of the issue Saturday to downtown Springfield.
Rosanna Pulido of Springfield, founder of The Illinois Minuteman Project, organized a noon rally at the Abraham Lincoln statue at Second Street and Capitol Avenue. The rally was in opposition to HB 426, which would allow schools, medical treatment and health care facilities and places of worship deny access to state and local law enforcement officers who are enforcing immigration laws, unless the officers have a court-issued warrant.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Pulido said. “I think the biggest question we have for Governor Rauner and any legislator who would want to pass this bill is: Does making it easier for illegal aliens to stay in Illinois improve the lives of Illinois residents?”
About five minutes into Pulido’s rally, which drew about 50 people, a group of about 30 people marched down Capitol Avenue chanting “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” The counter-protesters set up shop on the northeast corner of Second and Capitol near the Martin Luther King Jr. statue.
It’s not really a “sanctuary” bill. Amendment 2 is the heart of the legislation at the moment. As mentioned above, it requires a warrant before people can be taken into custody.
* Press release…
State Representative David McSweeney has been joined by 66 fellow members of the Illinois House of Representatives in sponsoring House Resolution 148, which opposes any new taxes on beverages and supports the thousands of Illinois small businesses that are linked to the beverage industry in the state.
“Representative McSweeney and a bipartisan group of representatives have stood up for the industry and Illinois families. They understand that adding yet another tax on common grocery and restaurant products will have disastrous, unintended consequences, creating higher prices at neighborhood grocers and restaurants, and causing massive job losses across several industries,” stated Claudia Rodriguez, Acting Executive Director, Illinois Beverage Association.
Beyond the regressive nature of beverage tax proposals, these taxes could severely hurt local economic growth and job creation. If imposed, a penny-per-ounce tax is estimated to destroy more than 19,000 Illinois jobs, eliminate more than $875 million in wages and would result in $1.695 billion in lost economic activity. More than 90,000 jobs in restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, movie theaters and more rely on the industry – all of which could be hurt by a proposed tax.
“We are thankful for Representative McSweeney’s initiative and support for retailers and the beverage industry. A statewide beverage tax would be devastating to the state’s economy and we’re glad to see a majority of House members being supportive of an industry that employs thousands of Illinois residents,” stated Rob Karr, President and CEO, Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
A similar tax proposal imposed in Philadelphia has already produced devastating effects on the local economy, hurting small businesses and jobs. Early reports have found beverage sales in Philadelphia to have dropped between 30 and 50 percent as consumers leave the city to do their shopping. Many businesses have been forced to cut employees, with more than 300 layoffs already announced and thousands of employee work hours cut. Additional cuts are expected. With a pending penny-per-ounce beverage tax set to be implemented on July 1, 2017 in Cook County, a new state tax would multiply these negative impacts and dramatically weaken the state’s economy.
A broad coalition of more than 1,000 concerned Illinois families, small businesses, labor unions, chambers of commerce and community organizations are opposed to regressive beverage taxes, which could dramatically increase costs for many common grocery items, including juices, teas, sports-drinks and sodas. HR 148 is a bipartisan effort with more than 66 co-sponsors opposed to approving yet another tax on the beverage industry.
* Related…
* Rauner backs water testing near quarries used as cheap dump sites
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*From a News-Gazette editorial…
Last week, AFSCME Executive Director Roberta Lynch announced that union members voted by an overwhelming margin to authorize their negotiators to call a strike if management does not return to the bargaining table.
“We’re going to continue to think that at some point this governor will realize that conflict, confrontation is not the way to move the state forward. We’re going to keep working every way we can to convince him to return to the bargaining table and make a good-faith effort to resolve the situation,” Lynch said.
But judging from Gov. Bruce Rauner’s response to Lynch’s invitation to resume negotiations, that’s not going to happen.
“The labor board unanimously said we’re at impasse. We’ve been at impasse. Negotiations are done. Those days are gone,” he said.
The editorial goes on to question how many workers would actually walk out and how many would stay out.
* Christopher Mooney, the director of the Institute of Government and Policy at the University of Illinois, talked about that topic yesterday, saying that the governor could win the messaging battle with the voters and then added this…
This is not the United Mine Workers of America, this is not the United Auto Workers of America. I’ve seen mine workers strike. Mine workers strike, they are striking to the death. I mean they beat scabs bloody. And they’ll be out on strike for two years to get what they want because they are tightly bound, they work in teams, they’re underground in a dangerous environment and they don’t have a lot of options. So when it comes time to fight the coal bosses their backs are against the wall.
It’s not really the same situation for most AFSCME workers. They work in offices, they work out in the field in various places, too, but there’s not that tight cohesion that there is in industrial unions. And I wonder how long such a strike would last, especially as has been reported there’s not a significant strike fund to support these people. […]
On the other hand, I don’t know what else they can do but go on strike. The governor basically said this is the way it is and we’re going to just impose our contract. If they don’t strike, because that’s really their only other option, they basically just roll over and say we just don’t exist any more, we’re so marginalized that we don’t matter. […]
When the coal miners go on strike, they don’t necessarily have to worry about public image. There’s some of that that goes on, but they’re really fighting the bosses and it’s a power play that way. This is going to be fought in the public arena for both sides because it’s taxpayers that are the bosses and they have to be convinced on one side or the other… When you’ve got a single messenger and you can tick off some talking points, whether completely accurate or not, that people can relate to, the governor’s office might have the advantage.
Those talking points, of course, are the demands for a 40-hour work week, higher health insurance costs, etc.
Also, there’s lately been a tiny bit of deep background push-back on earlier reporting that AFSCME has no strike fund.
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Trib defends Rauner’s tenure
Monday, Feb 27, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Tribune editorial board believes Gov. Rauner has done pretty much everything he could for the past two years…
He took office in January 2015 with 44 items on his Turnaround Agenda. He dropped most due to opposition and as gestures in compromise. He’s open to a politically risky tax hike. Anything else?
He tried meeting with legislative leaders behind closed doors. He tried putting a camera in the room. He tried meeting with leaders individually. He tried lobbying individual lawmakers.
He tried staying out of negotiations. He tried inserting himself. He tried tough talk. He tried gentle prodding.
He tried introducing his agenda in bill form: Scroll through all the bills in House rules, Speaker Michael Madigan’s dead letter office, to find the pillars of that agenda. They’ve been ignored, along with Rauner’s last two budgets.
What compromise or agenda have the Democrats offered? Not much in the House. Dems gave their speaker a 17th two-year term and received engraved clocks that read: “The Honorable Michael J. Madigan, Longest-serving House Speaker of a state House of Representatives in United States History.”
Note what Rauner didn’t do: Cave to that longest-serving speaker. Rauner won’t write a blank check, via a tax hike, for Democrats without also getting pro-growth reforms to help build Illinois’ tax base. That’s what he ran on, what he continues to stand for.
Discuss.
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Biss to decide on bid soon
Monday, Feb 27, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Democratic state Sen. Daniel Biss told Rick Pearson yesterday that he will decide whether to run for governor “in the next few weeks”…
“The state of Illinois is in an incredibly terrible situation now, and we need someone who’s prepared to lead us out of it,” Biss said Sunday on WGN AM-720.
“We need someone to lead us out of it by laying out a progressive economic vision for Illinois — a vision that is about protecting the middle class, lifting up the middle class and fixing the budget by going to the billionaires who have gotten off scot-free and finally, for the first time in generations, having them pay their fair share,” he said.
Biss said that vision needs to be laid out “in a clear, direct, progressive and bold way” that will “build a movement that’s going to be used not just to win a governor’s race but to transform governance in the state of Illinois.” […]
“If we want to do this properly, it’s going to require building something over the course of many months. It’s not going to be quick. It’s not going to be turnkey. It’s not going to be automatic. It’s not going to be all television. It’s going to be a slow, gradual movement of people across the state, and that’s what’s needed, again, not just to win but to really transform Illinois,” he said.
OK, I get the rhetoric here, but just keep in mind that you usually can’t “transform” anything unless you win.
The full interview is here.
* At about the 14:45 mark, Pearson asks him if he thinks Gov. Rauner really wants a budget…
I have no idea. He’s not acting like he wants a budget… I don’t know what’s in his head, all I know is his behavior. And Gov. Rauner is behaving like someone who doesn’t care whether the state has a budget at all. He’s talking about other things 24/7 and that’s just not what he should be doing. His job, his first job and his most important job is to fix the disastrous budget problem that Illinois has.
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* Hmm…
* But, hey, he apparently spends a lot of time in his own executive mansion…
The Illinois Executive Mansion has been available to governors and their families for 162 years, but the prospect of living in a historic building hasn’t been enough to get them all to reside there.
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration believes he’s an exception and said he spends approximately 55 percent of his nights in Illinois at the Executive Mansion. The administration didn’t expand on how many days that actually is.
Conversely, Rauner’s two most recent predecessors, former Govs. Pat Quinn and Rod Blagojevich, didn’t stay at the mansion much at all. Quinn was reported to have stayed at the mansion about 60 or 70 nights annually, according to The Associated Press, and Blagojevich primarily lived at his home in Chicago. The now-imprisoned governor would avoid even one-night stays at the mansion.
Former Gov. Jim Edgar and his wife, Brenda, who actually lived at the Executive Mansion, said the building was wonderful, though it never truly felt like home.
…Adding… Lynn Sweet…
Rauner keeps his distance from Trump. He’s up for re-election next year in a heavily Democratic state.
But there comes a point to deal with governmental reality. Trump is the president. He delivers his first joint address to Congress on Tuesday. Trump’s budget goes to Congress next month. Big decisions are being made that will impact Illinois. Doesn’t Rauner want to have a voice in trying to influence Trump?
To consider…Unlike almost every governor in the nation, Rauner missed two potential chances to tell Trump what Illinois needs from the federal government.
Trump, in almost every speech – and in several Twitter posts – hits Chicago problem with shootings. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been to the Trump White House and done extensive outreach.
Rauner might want to reconsider: By refusing to attend events with Trump – Rauner is abdicating dealing with Chicago violence with a president who threatened to “Send in the Feds” to the city.
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Emulate Trump at your peril
Monday, Feb 27, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
If you’re running for office anytime soon, or if you currently hold office or are a “public figure,” please try to keep one thing in mind: So far, the only person to prove he can thrive by talking like President Donald Trump is . . . President Donald Trump.
Trump, and only Trump, can insult a war hero because the man was captured by the enemy, joke about grabbing women by the unmentionables, accuse an opponent’s father of participating in a plot to assassinate President John F. Kennedy and still be elected to the highest office in the land.
Heck, Trump may have even been right when he joked during the campaign: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
But don’t even think of trying this at home. The president’s election was not a permission slip allowing everybody to now say the most outrageous things that come to mind. Trump changed the rules last year for himself, not anybody else—or, at least, not yet.
Say something stupid and the media—both news and social—will whack you but good, and it won’t turn out nearly as well as it did for candidate Trump. Indeed, if anything, the climate right now seems more antithetical than ever to saying silly things in public.
Earlier this month, an unopposed candidate for an Arlington Heights village board spot named Joe Favia had to drop out of his race after posting something truly stupid about women on Facebook. After the national women’s marches in January, he posted a meme which read “In one day, Trump got more fat women out walking than Michelle Obama did in 8 years.”
Again, he was an unopposed candidate. You don’t usually get a more sure thing in politics than an unopposed campaign. Not for that dude. He gone.
Danville Township Assessor Rick Rohrer, a Democrat, posted the very same meme to his Facebook page, and the chairwoman and treasurer of the Vermillion County Democratic Party were so furious that they both resigned in disgust.
Just last week, the sports anchor for the most-watched television station in Chicagoland, Mark Giangreco, was slapped with a weeks-long suspension for tweeting something stupid about the president and his supporters: “America exposed as a country full of simpletons who allowed this cartoon lunatic to be ‘elected.’ ”
Also, have you seen Gov. Bruce Rauner lately? The formerly elbow-throwing, defiant Republican frat jock is now talking like the dearly departed host of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
I seriously doubt that Rauner just naturally morphed from a tough guy, who has called just about everybody from the judges to the two state legislative leaders to most of the General Assembly “corrupt,” into a soft-spoken yogi who gently speaks of compromise, peace and harmony.
Rauner’s campaign team has the cash to poll-test and focus-group just about everything, and the governor is infamous for relentlessly staying on script. He and his people obviously know things have changed.
So, when probable Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker woke up early one morning last week and, according to an aide, decided to mock the far right’s incendiary rhetoric by tweeting, “As a protest against Trump’s rescinding protections for trans kids, everyone should use the other gender’s bathroom today! #protecttranskids,” he should’ve first taken a deep breath, had another cup of coffee, maybe called a friend or two and then realized he was about to make himself look like just another billionaire who can’t control himself on Twitter. Please leave the jokes to the professionals (who, by the way, are regularly put through the public meat grinder for their misfired attempts at humor).
I’m not arguing here for an utterly bland, completely “politically correct” public discourse. I’m just arguing for a little common sense and a bit of self-awareness. Just because calling some women fat worked for Trump doesn’t mean it’s gonna work for low-level candidates and elected officials. Insulting millions of Americans and questioning the nation’s electoral system also worked for Trump, but it is a no-go for a TV talking head.
And appearing to urge men to enter women’s restrooms as some sort of protest shows exactly zero common sense, no matter what the climate may be right now and no matter how well-intentioned the act may have been.
If you can’t do that, then delete your account.
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In which I agree with the governor
Friday, Feb 24, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the governor’s office…
Signing Statement for HB 950
To the Honorable Members of
The Illinois House,
99th General Assembly:
Today I signed House Bill 950 from the 99th General Assembly, which authorizes the issuance and renewal of liquor licenses for certain establishments located in Chicago.
This legislation is a continuance of the General Assembly’s practice of providing retail liquor licenses to single businesses through a statutory exemption process. However, it should not be necessary for business owners to seek statutory changes in order to obtain a retail liquor license. Going forward, I would encourage the General Assembly to enact a process whereby exemptions for retail liquor licenses can also be handled at the local level. By doing so, we ensure every resident and business owner has access to seek exemptions and are treated fairly.
I look forward to signing a bill that establishes such a process in the future.
Sincerely,
Bruce Rauner
GOVERNOR
* From the bill’s synopsis…
Authorizes the issuance and renewal of a license to sell alcoholic liquor at premises located within 100 feet of specific churches or schools located in the City of Chicago.
So, because state law bars the sale of booze within 100 feet of churches or schools, legislators have to pass complicated bills every time somebody with a little clout wants to carve out an exemption.
* Here’s the part of this bill which deals with one of the two exemptions…
(1) the sale of alcoholic liquor at the premises is incidental to the sale of food;
(2) the sale of alcoholic liquor is not the principal business carried on by the licensee at the premises;
(3) the premises are located on the opposite side of the same street on which the church is located;
(4) the church is located on a corner lot;
(5) the shortest distance between the premises and the church is at least 90 feet apart and no greater than 95 feet apart;
(6) the premises are between 4,350 and 5,000 square feet;
(7) the church’s original chapel was built in 1858;
(8) the church’s first congregation was organized in 1860; and
(9) the leaders of the church and the alderman of the ward in which the premises are located has expressed, in writing, their support for the issuance of the license.
There are about 70 of these complicated exemptions in state statutes right now.
The governor is right. This is a local issue. Let them decide what to do.
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* The latest Illinois Issues article includes this quote from a study of the Illinois pension system…
“The general condition of the pensions operating under the laws of Illinois may be correctly described as one of insolvency. That is to say, viewed from the standpoint of sound finance and of having the necessary reserves to carry out the payment laws, there are immense deficiencies in the existing funds.”
That study was conducted 100 years ago, in 1917.
* And then there’s this…
Why does the state’s Constitution include such strict, locked-in language for pensions? At the 1970 Constitutional Convention, delegates were aware of a persistent problem in Illinois. Pension funds were suffering, and police and fire unions led a fight to protect their benefits. In the 1930s, when New York state was faced with the same problem, it established a new clause that made sure New York was stuck with the benefits it had promised. Under the threat, the state got its act together and shored up pension payments.
Illinois delegates took the language from New York with the hope that if it worked there it could work anywhere.
Of course, it didn’t work
This is Illinois, after all.
* The piece also takes a look at Senate President John Cullerton’s proposal, so click here and go read the whole thing. Good stuff.
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It’s just a bill
Friday, Feb 24, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Conservative Democratic state Rep. with an increasingly Republican district who will undoubtedly be targeted by the GOP next year offers up some red meat that won’t go anywhere, but gets his name in the papers. Mission accomplished…
A state representative from Smithton has filed a bill that would eliminate Illinois’ Firearm Owner’s Identification card, which is needed to buy or possess a gun.
Rep. Jerry Costello II, a Democrat, says FOID cards are a burden to “responsible” Illinois residents and prevent them from obtaining firearms and exercising their second amendment rights.
“It is burdensome on law-abiding citizens to have to overcome bureaucratic red tape in order to exercise their second amendment rights,” Costello said in a prepared statement.
All Illinois residents — barring a few who are specifically exempted, such as on-duty military personnel — must apply for a FOID card in order to legally purchase or possess a firearm or ammunition. According to Illinois State Police, the process is meant to determine whether an individual is eligible to purchase a firearm before allowing them to do so.
The bill is here.
* Editorial uses following words to describe the NFL Players Union’s stance on a piece of legislation: “Squawks,” “barking,” “strident,” and “whining.” Instead of wading through the Trib’s hyperbolic invective, here’s a non-strident take on the same topic from the Insurance Journal…
Should injured pro athletes be allowed to earn workers’ compensation benefits until they are 67 years old, like other workers, even if their athletic careers normally would have ended more than 30 years earlier?
That issue is being debated between the Chicago Bears and the NFL Players Association in the Illinois Legislature as one unlikely element of a compromise proposal to end a nearly two-year-long fight over the state’s budget.
The Bears are leading other Chicago sports franchises in backing a measure that would reduce a former player’s ability to tap into workers’ compensation after a career-ending injury. They want to cap certain payments to athletes at no older than 35 or five years after their injury. Currently they can claim benefits up to age 67, like other workers.
Neither the teams nor players’ advocates will say how much money is at stake. They agree it is not a relatively big pot — while theoretically some could claim millions, most if not all athletes settle their claims for reduced sums up front, the players association says.
Only a handful of pro players filed for the benefit here in the past four years, although the association would not identify them or describe their individual cases.
But one example in the public record of an athlete who claimed this compensation is former Bears offensive lineman Ted Albrecht, a first-round draft choice whose career ended with a back injury in 1982. An arbitrator tried to deny his claim, but an appeals court ruled he was entitled to receive an award based on the difference between his $130,000 Bears salary and what he later earned as a travel agent and sportscaster, which ranged from $87,000 to $36,000 between 1983 and 1986.
* Probably not a bad idea…
Legislation sponsored by State Representative Peter Breen (R-Lombard) that would provide a clear enforcement mechanism to ensure a detailed review of purchases made through out-of-state joint purchasing agreements received a unanimous vote of recommended approval on Thursday from the House State Government Administration Committee.
“This issue was brought to my attention because of purchases made by Illinois government units through joint purchasing agreements with other states’ government units. Illinois law requires competitive bidding, but because other states’ laws are not always as protective of taxpayers as our own, we need a strong enforcement mechanism to make sure Illinois law is followed. House Bill 2424 gives our state’s Chief Procurement Officer, who is charged with enforcing that law, the authority needed to thoroughly review these out-of-state procurements for compliance with Illinois law.”
According to Breen, joint purchasing agreements are very common among local units of government and allow for quantity discount pricing, which ultimately saves taxpayers money. While group purchasing is typically done by entities within the same state, there are occasions when joint purchasing agreements cross state lines.
“After filing this bill, I’ve had numerous other situations involving multi-state agreements that appear to have skirted Illinois’ Joint Purchasing Act,” Breen said. “As our school districts and other units of local government continue trying to bring down their costs through these types of purchasing agreements, we need to support those efforts while making sure our competitive bidding laws are being followed.”
Breen said he is currently negotiating an agreed amendment to the bill with stakeholders that will be added prior to the bill’s final consideration on the floor of the House.
* Related…
* Tom Kacich: Bill looks to memorialize victims of ‘79 gunfight
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Question of the day
Friday, Feb 24, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said Thursday that Illinois should take a day each year to honor former Democratic President Barack Obama, but it shouldn’t come with a day off work. […]
“It’s incredibly proud for Illinois that the president came from Illinois. I think it’s awesome, and I think we should celebrate it,” Rauner said when asked about the measure by a reporter at an unrelated event. “I don’t think it should be a formal holiday with paid, forced time off, but I think it should be a day of acknowledgment and celebration.”
In line with Rauner’s view, a Senate bill would designate Aug. 4 as Barack Obama Day — but it would be a commemorative day instead of a state holiday. […]
Other proposals to honor the former president and his influence in Illinois have surfaced in the General Assembly. One plan would label the stretch of Interstate 55 from the Tri-State Tollway to East St. Louis the “Barack Obama Presidential Expressway.” A separate measure would dub the Tri-State the “President Barack Obama Tollway.”
We’ve already got a Kennedy Expressway, an Eisenhower Expressway, a Reagan Tollway, a Grant Park, a state holiday for Lincoln’s birthday, etc.
* The Question: What should Illinois do to honor Barack Obama? No snark and please explain.
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AG Madigan wants expansion of hate crime law
Friday, Feb 24, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sun-Times…
Responding to what she called a spike in reports of harassment and vandalism targeting Jews, Muslims and other minorities, Attorney General Lisa Madigan is calling for legislation that would broaden Illinois hate crime laws.
Madigan on Thursday hosted a “summit” at the Thompson Center, with a panel of leaders from two dozen advocacy groups, ranging from the Jewish United Fund to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, to Lambda Legal and the National Immigrant Justice Center. The disparate groups were concerned about an increase in hostility toward Muslims, immigrants and LGBTQ people they claim has coincided with Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency.
“We just had active-shooter training at our office, because we also realize that we have to keep our people safe,” said Kim Fountain, chief operating officer of Center on Halsted, an LGBTQ rights organization. “It scared a lot of our staff, but we had to do it.”
Madigan is backing legislation that would make electronic harassment on Facebook, Twitter or other social media a prosecutable offense, and also would give her office the power to pursue civil damages for victims of hate crimes.
* The proposed new provisions are underlined and bolded…
A person commits hate crime when, by reason of the actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or national origin of another individual or group of individuals, regardless of the existence of any other motivating factor or factors, he or she commits assault, battery, aggravated assault, intimidation, stalking, cyberstalking, misdemeanor theft, criminal trespass to residence, misdemeanor criminal damage to property, criminal trespass to vehicle, criminal trespass to real property, mob action, disorderly conduct, transmission of obscene messages, harassment by telephone, or harassment through electronic communications as these crimes are defined in [other statutes].
* From the synopsis, it also adds this provision…
Provides that independent of any criminal prosecution or the result of a criminal prosecution, any person suffering intimidation, stalking, cyberstalking, disorderly conduct, transmission of obscene messages, harassment by telephone, or harassment through electronic communications may bring a civil action for damages, injunction or other appropriate relief. Provides that the Attorney General may bring an action for civil damages for a hate crime in the name of the People of the State. Provides that the court shall impose a civil penalty of $25,000 for each violation of the hate crime statute.
Thoughts?
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Déjà vu all over again
Friday, Feb 24, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* He doesn’t have an ownership stake in his law firm, he says his salary at the firm is less than his legislative pay and that his total compensation is less than the governor’s official salary and he doesn’t work for or financially benefit from state-related clients. And yet…
State Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, is one of the most powerful people in Springfield, talked about as a possible future president of the Illinois Senate.
He’s also a partner in a Chicago law firm that’s been paid more than $9 million in the past five years for doing legal work for state agencies, government workers’ pension funds and local governments whose citizens he represents in the Senate, a Chicago Sun-Times examination has found.
That covers work done for more than 20 government bodies, including the city of Chicago, Cook County, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the agency that owns McCormick Place and Navy Pier.
The firm — Burke Burns & Pinelli — has done work for agencies whose budgets Harmon votes on, including the Illinois Department of Transportation, and government pension funds regulated by Harmon and his fellow legislators, as well as the village of Rosemont, one of the suburbs he represents in the Illinois Senate, according to records and interviews. […]
Harmon — who once worked as deputy legal counsel to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago — was elected to the state Senate in 2002.
There’s a whole lot of sizzle and not a lot of steak in that piece, not unlike an eerily similar BGA story from 2012…
Since bringing an influential state legislator on board as a partner in 2005, a small Chicago law firm has secured at least $6.3 million in legal work from state agencies that receive funding and oversight from the General Assembly, the Better Government Association has learned.
While that relationship smacks of a conflict of interest, it’s not the only curiosity involving the legislator, state Sen. Don Harmon, and the firm where he’s a partner, Burke Burns & Pinelli Ltd.
The BGA also found that Harmon – a Democrat from Oak Park who once served as deputy legal counsel to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan – voted earlier this year on a casino bill that his firm helped craft on behalf of its client, the City of Des Plaines. […]
A BGA review of state financial records shows Burke Burns, a firm of 10 or so attorneys, was paid more than $1 million in each of the past two fiscal years for state-related work.
Overall, the firm was paid more than $6.3 million – or an average of $900,000 a year – from 2006 to 2012 for state-related work, according to interviews, and documents obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. (Fiscal year 2006 was Harmon’s first full year with the firm.)
By contrast, in the four years before Harmon joined the firm, annual payments exceeded $575,000 only once, topping out at $711,734, records show. However, those totals may be incomplete because several state agencies indicated they no longer had data for fiscal years 2001 and 2002. In addition, some records relating to bond work are not always tracked by state agencies.
Harmon says if all payments were included it would show the firm’s state work hasn’t increased dramatically since his hiring, especially given the rate of inflation. But he declined to disclose actual payments or turn over financial records to the BGA.
* One of the reporters who wrote today’s Sun-Times story was with the BGA when that 2012 story was published. An opinion piece above his name was also published back in 2012. It threw the kitchen sink at Harmon…
Harmon’s street cred as a “reformer” or progressive has to be questioned.
Why does his law firm advise public-sector clients not to speak to the media?
Why did he vote to water down the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, which ensures journalists and regular citizens can access most government documents?
Why did he accept $300 in campaign donations just a couple months back from D & P Construction, a waste-hauling company that’s repeatedly (and publicly) been linked to the Chicago mob?
Why did he introduce a piece of legislation that would allow office holders to “double dip” – hold two elected positions at once?
Peter Silvestri, a Cook County commissioner and Elmwood Park’s village president, told the BGA that Harmon fronted that bill at his request. After the BGA learned of the legislation, Harmon relayed that he changed his mind and was withdrawing his support.
But about a month later he quietly resurrected the bill in the form of an amendment to an unrelated piece of legislation. When we tried to ask him about the flip-flop, Harmon wouldn’t return our calls. He later told the BGA he regretted getting involved in the matter. The legislation was never approved.
Lastly, although we’re not into branding people with “guilt by association,” it’s worth noting Harmon started out his career as an aide to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat who is the ultimate Machine guy – one of the most powerful political figures in the state and one of the largest obstacles to reforming our troubled government system.
This isn’t to say Harmon hasn’t done good things. In fact, he’s worked with the BGA on legislation, including a successful effort to kill the misused and abused “legislative scholarship” program.
But judged through a larger prism, Harmon isn’t challenging the status quo. He is the status quo.
Ergo, today’s piece.
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Rauner defends grand bargain parameters
Friday, Feb 24, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* After not speaking to reporters since he gave his budget address, Gov. Rauner took questions yesterday, including on whether he helped or hurt the Senate’s attempt at reaching a bipartisan compromise…
“President Cullerton in the media asked me to weigh in. Democrats and Republicans in private asked me to weigh in. That’s what I did. I honored their request. And if you listen to what I said, everything that I laid out was very reasonable, very reasonable,” Rauner said. […]
Rauner’s parameters include a permanent property tax freeze in exchange for a permanent income tax hike. The Senate plan currently calls for a two-year property tax freeze. The governor also wants a limit on spending and further changes to the workers compensation law for employees hurt on the job, as business groups say the Senate’s plan to curb workers’ compensation costs doesn’t go far enough.
“We should do these things, and they should in no way infringe on or hurt the ability to get a final deal,” said Rauner, who noted the House approved a permanent property tax freeze earlier this year.
But that vote came during the lame-duck session when there was no possibility the bill would be taken up by the Senate, a move designed to provide political cover to Democrats. Local schools and towns oppose a property tax freeze, saying it would hurt their ability to tap into money for day-to-day operations.
Actually, President Cullerton said it would help get Republican votes if the governor came out in favor of the grand bargain. Instead, the governor laid down a list of his own demands.
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“We are proud to call him one of our own”
Friday, Feb 24, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From a Greenville, North Carolina TV station last year…
A Marine reservist from Illinois says he helped rescue one of two teens who were struggling in the surf off Emerald Isle Tuesday night.
Duncan Harris of Peoria, Illinois spoke to WITN’s Heather King on WITN News at Sunrise Wednesday. Harris says his family is on vacation in Emerald Isle. Tuesday night, he says his sister heard screams on the beach. Harris says from the deck of the house, he saw at least one person in the water, between 100 and 150 yards out in the surf. That’s when he and another man he doesn’t know ran into the water.
The two pulled a teen back to the beach, and Harris says they were told there was another boy out there. At that point, rescue boats arrived to help the still struggling teen.
* That rescue led to a Carnegie Hero Fund award in December…
Duncan Harris said he’s often asked if he feels like a hero after he and another man helped pull a drowning boy from the ocean.
“To me, it’s just one of those things,” said Harris, 23, of Buffalo Grove. “When it happened, I acted.”
While Harris, a Marine reservist, isn’t quick to call himself a hero, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission thought the title was fitting when it named him a recipient of the Carnegie medal, an honor for those who risk their lives to save others.
Peter Pontzer, 51, of Fairfax, Va., the other man who worked with Harris to save the boy, also will receive a medal, along with 19 others, the commission announced this week.
* And, yesterday, Gov. Rauner held a ceremony for Harris at his Statehouse office…
Thursday was Duncan O.C. Harris Day in Illinois.
Did you know that? There were no parades for the Buffalo Grove resident. No special treats. No days off school.
Maybe you missed it.
But for the family of the teen Harris saved from drowning, one day surely doesn’t seem like enough.
“Duncan did not hesitate for a minute in putting his own life in danger in order to save this boy’s life,” Gov. Bruce Rauner said during Thursday’s recognition ceremony in Springfield. “His brave and courageous actions reflect the very best of the people of Illinois, and we are proud to call him one of our own.”
Video of the ceremony is here.
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* SJ-R business editor Tim Landis on the impact of a potential AFSCME strike on Springfield and the surrounding area…
“If you talk to anybody, any member in any field, and anybody who watches tax revenue, there is this massive amount of uncertainty accruing,” Bill McMahon, executive director of Local First Springfield, said Thursday. […]
Not only are consumers affected, said McMahon, businesses are reluctant to expand and hire as a result of the uncertainty.
“Everyone is waiting for things to settle out,” said McMahon. “It’s all the things you feel like in a recession.” […]
The anxiety is evident in spring and fall surveys of local business sentiment by the Survey Research Office at the University of Illinois Springfield. A little less than half of business owners surveyed in the fall expected sales to increase in the coming year compared with nearly 70 percent who made that prediction in the fall of 2015. In the most recent survey, 56 percent cited state finances as the biggest challenge in the coming year.
Springfield officials, including Mayor Jim Langfelder, recently have blamed the uncertainty of state finances for an estimated $1.3 million shortfall in sales tax revenue for the fiscal year that ends Tuesday.
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Adding insult to injury in higher ed
Thursday, Feb 23, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tony Arnold…
About 260 Northeastern Illinois University students may be forced out of their campus jobs because of a new rule put in place as a result of the Illinois’ ongoing budget impasse. […]
(A) new rule put in place in December by the State Universities Civil Service System, the organization that administers university employee rules, is creating new headaches for Northeastern officials as they try to save money. The rule states that if a university is going to force its employees to take unpaid days off, then it has to prove it’s doing what it can to save money by first kicking students out of their part-time campus jobs.
Northeastern is believed to be the first Illinois school to be pursuing furloughs that will trigger this new rule.
“I can’t figure out right now a way around it. And I just find that exasperating,” said Richard Helldobler, the interim president of Northeastern.
A university spokesman said if the school goes through with the furloughs, it’s unclear how long the students will be out of their campus jobs.
Helldobler said the state currently owes Northeastern $17 million and over the last few years, the university has taken several measures to save money, from reducing personnel by more than 100 positions to furloughing many of its employees for six days last year.
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Question of the day
Thursday, Feb 23, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* SJ-R…
State lawmakers are being asked to leave schools’ physical education requirements out of the “grand bargain” budget resolution that’s being negotiated in the Illinois Senate.
Senate Bill 13, one of the bills that are packaged in the “grand bargain,” primarily focuses on a property tax freeze. But it also allows school districts to reduce physical education requirements to three days a week, and would expand exceptions available to high school students who participate in extracurricular physical activities.
At an event in Springfield Wednesday, former U.S. Rep. Bill Enyart of Belleville, a retired Army major general, said he applauds bipartisanship in solving the state’s budget crisis, but it shouldn’t be an excuse to roll back the country’s national readiness.
“Do we really want to do that, when we have a statewide and a nationwide epidemic of obesity?” Enyart asked. “Let’s not have a setback in our national readiness, and in our national health. PE is essential to our public education system, and is part of the state’s duty to our nation.”
* The Question: Should the state allow schools to cut back PE to three days per week? Click here to take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
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Congresscritters who draw state pensions
Thursday, Feb 23, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Roskam example is particularly interesting, considering the context…
Six term Wheaton Republican Peter Roskam is a powerful figure in the U.S. House, where he chairs a key panel on tax policy and wants to delay Medicare and Social Security benefits for millions of Americans by raising the eligibility age.
But Roskam - who has criticized his home state as a “fiscal basket case” and marshalled opposition to a federal rescue for Illinois’s troubled pension funds—began collecting his $37,452 annual pension from the state for his years as an Illinois lawmaker at the first legal opportunity last year when he turned 55.
Roskam is one of three members of Congress from Illinois who had previously served in the Illinois General Assembly and are now getting pensions from the state for their years in Springfield. Like Roskam, all began cashing in on their 55th birthdays under generous rules established by the state legislature long ago for its own members.
One of them, Republican Mike Bost of Downstate Murphysboro, in 2012 threw a tirade over a pension reform bill on the floor of the Illinois House. It was so spectacular that a video of it went viral on You Tube. The other, Evanston Democrat Jan Schakowsky, once used her congressional office to urge against a reduction in annual benefit increases for public pension recipients in Illinois—of which she was one.
Bost, 56, gets $73,018-a-year in retirement pay from Illinois while Schakowsky, 72, gets $27,888. And that comes on top of the regular $174,000 salaries paid to all members of Congress. Schakowsky and Roskam also have qualified to receive federal pensions after they retire from the U.S. House, while Bost has three years to go in office before reaching that landmark. […]
Expressing concern for long-term solvency of federal programs for retirees and the elderly, Roskam also backs proposals to raise the age of eligibility for drawing Social Security benefits as well as qualifying for Medicare.
When it came to drawing his own Illinois pension, however, Roskam wasted no time taking advantage once he became eligible after turning 55 in September 2016. For his 13 years of service in both the Illinois House and Senate, Roskam recently began collecting an Illinois pension that starts at $3,128-a-month but will grow over time with automatic cost of living add-ons that kick in once he turns 60.
In Congress, Roskam frequently holds up Illinois’ fiscal crisis as a cautionary tale illustrating the need to bring pension entitlements under control.
In 2011, Roskam organized a letter signed by Republican leaders in the U.S. House as well as all GOP U.S. House members from lllinois warning then-Gov. Pat Quinn and the Illinois legislature that financial help to resolve the state’s pension crisis would not be forthcoming from Washington.
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* Sneed…
Sneed hears the 2005 Chrysler that State Comptroller Susana Mendoza dumped in favor of a $32,000 Ford Explorer may have had 104,000 miles on it, but a top source claims it was in impeccable condition and not in need of expensive repairs, despite Mendoza’s claims.
“It was spotless inside, detailed all the time — and in mint condition,” the source added.
A friend of mine who once worked for the comptroller said he’d ridden in that car and agreed with the above characterization, “except for a slight Marlboro musk.”
* Meanwhile…
Days after the Bruce Rauner-funded Republican Party attacked State Comptroller Susana Mendoza for buying an Illinois-made used car for appropriate state government use, the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association slammed Rauner for his hypocrisy after failing to pass a state budget, spending 54K dollars on a luxury SUV from funds earmarked for State Troopers, and ignoring the outrageous fiscal mismanagement of Donald Trump.
“Rauner should end his petty political games and get to work passing a state budget to help Illinois families,” said President Doug House of the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association. “It’s especially rich that he breathlessly attacked Comptroller Mendoza for purchasing a used vehicle for pool use when he bought a brand new $54,000 SUV for his own use out of funds earmarked for State Troopers,” said House.
Pictures of the SUV parked outside the Thompson Center are included in this release. Also included are purchasing and voucher records detailing the vehicle’s intent and use.
Funds for the luxury SUV for Gov. Rauner’s use came from a fund that is supposed to pay for the Illinois State Police. The starting salary for a State trooper is $57,000 – about the cost of the Governor’s sweet new ride.
House continued to blast the Rauner-funded Republican Party for its hypocrisy on fiscal matters.
“Where was the Republican outrage when Governor Rauner hired Donna Arduin, a $30,000 a month budget consultant that couldn’t pass a budget? What about giving his “wingman” Leslie Munger a new job as Deputy Governor that pays $135,000? And hiring her whole patronage army of nearly 30 people at a cost to taxpayers of $1.8 million? How about Donald Trump’s weekly golf trips to Florida – an amount spent on his family in just one month that President Obama spent over an entire year?
“The Republican Party lead by Bruce Rauner is bankrupt of credibility when it comes to fiscal matters,” said House.
Finally, House defended Comptroller Mendoza’s service to Illinois to fix the mess she inherited.
“In her short time in office, Comptroller Mendoza has been working tirelessly to prioritize payments to the needy and to minimize the impact of Governor Rauner’s inability to do his job and submit a balanced budget. His failure to propose a balanced budget has led to a $12.4 billion backlog for state taxpayers,” said House.
I’m told the pic they provided isn’t even the right car, but the purchasing order is here. As you can see, the purchase was made on behalf of the Illinois State Police’s Executive Protection Unit for “increased mobility for secure transport of public officials.” So, yeah, it’s a fund “earmarked for State Troopers,” but protecting executives is part of their job.
I’ve asked the State Police if the governor’s office was involved in the purchasing decision, but haven’t heard back yet.
*** UPDATE *** From the ISP…
The ISP continuously reviews the status of its Fleet, and makes purchases based upon vehicle conditions, mileage and usage. The ISP’s Statewide Fleet Section Supervisor or one of his staff works with the fleet coordinators for each work unit to ensure we have the correct specifications for a vehicle purchase when we order a vehicle for ISP work units. The ISP Fleet Section did not discuss this vehicle purchase with the Governor’s Office.
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It’s just a bill
Thursday, Feb 23, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Newspaper publishes blockbuster investigative story, legislators hold a hearing, newspaper publishes another story…
State lawmakers pressed Wednesday for stronger regulation of pharmacists’ hours and workload as a way to protect consumers from harmful errors, but pharmacy lobbyists largely did not budge.
In the first public showdown since a Tribune investigation in December found 52 percent of 255 tested pharmacies failed to warn patients about dangerous drug interactions, top pharmacy representatives said safety improvements already in the works will give Illinois some of the nation’s toughest restrictions.
At the center of a sometimes contentious hearing was legislation sponsored by Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, that calls for limiting the number of hours pharmacists work each day, restricting how many prescriptions they fill per hour and adding meal break requirements for pharmacists she said are so overloaded that consumers are in jeopardy.
Pharmacists must juggle calls, track down doctors on questionable prescriptions, deal with multiple insurance issues, supervise technicians and even empty the trash on days when they may work a dozen hours and dispense 300 orders, Flowers said. […]
What became clear to Flowers and pharmacy lobbyists is that more hearings and negotiations are likely to take place before she puts her legislation up for a vote.
And then they’ll get another story.
* Legislator introduces a bill to bring back legislative scholarship, attracts precisely zero co-sponsors, editorial board blasts the entire General Assembly…
They say it’s hard to separate a boy from his dog. It’s even harder to separate a politician from his perks.
Is the Illinois General Assembly really a legislative body? Or just a parody of one?
Sometimes it’s hard to tell, and HB 279 represents Exhibit A for that proposition.
* Columnist who pushed to change Illinois’ state song to a Cheap Trick tune upset by silly bills…
State lawmakers need something to do.
Maybe hand them orange vests and garbage bags, and let them collect litter along the roadside. Give them some sort of busy work. Otherwise, they’ll keep proposing silly bills.
Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar Grove, wants to boost the speed limit from 70 to 75 mph on most interstates outside of Chicago. For you lead-foots, maybe that sounds good. But there’s a downside: faster speed limits would help residents flee Illinois faster. As it is, pretty soon, we’ll be able to drive as fast as we want, as there’ll be almost no one or no cars left.
* Related…
* Obama could be a highway star — but should it be I-55 or I-294?
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* The event starts at 10:30. Click here to watch our live coverage post. You can click here for what’s being billed as a live video feed that I wasn’t able to embed here. WTAX is also promising live coverage, so click here for that.
*** UPDATE 1 *** AFSCME says 81 percent voted to authorize a strike. Its press release is here.
*** UPDATE 2 *** AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch won’t tell reporters how many state workers actually cast ballots. However, a spokesman told me that right around 80 percent of eligible voters turned out.
*** UPDATE 3 *** From the governor’s office…
The Rauner Administration released the following statement in response to AFSCME’s strike authorization vote. The following is attributable to General Counsel Dennis Murashko:
“The vote to authorize a strike is an attack on our state’s hardworking taxpayers and all those who rely on critical services provided everyday. It is a direct result of AFSCME leadership’s ongoing misinformation campaign about our proposal.
AFSCME leaders would rather strike than work 40 hours a week before earning overtime. They want to earn overtime after working just 37.5 hours per week.
AFSCME leaders would rather strike than allow volunteers like Boy Scout troops to lend a helping hand inside government. They want to ban the use of volunteers.
AFSCME leaders would rather strike than allow state employees to be paid based on merit. They want to stick to paying people based on seniority, regardless of whether they’re doing a good job.
And while hard working families across the state face skyrocketing health insurance premiums, AFSCME leaders want to strike to force higher taxes to subsidize their health care plans that are far more generous than taxpayers have.
Put simply, AFSCME leaders will do or say anything to avoid implementing a contract that is fair to both taxpayers and state employees alike.
If AFSCME chooses to strike, we will use every resource to ensure services continue to be available to the people of Illinois. We continue to encourage AFSCME to work with us in implementing a contract that is similar to those ratified by 20 other unions.”
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* Press release…
Speaker Michael J. Madigan is forming a bipartisan House task force to continue working on an equitable education funding formula and address questions a state commission recently left unanswered.
“The question of how Illinois funds our public schools is one that affects every community in our state,” Madigan said. “As such, the entire process for making formula changes – from crafting an overall outline for reform, to working through the specific details – needs to be carefully considered by legislators from across the state. This task force will continue House Democrats’ commitment to vetting these decisions and making sure all voices are heard.”
Madigan has appointed Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, as well as Reps. Linda Chapa LaVia, Fred Crespo, William Davis, Marcus Evans, Laura Fine, Jay Hoffman, Rita Mayfield, Emily McAsey, Michelle Mussman, Elgie Sims and Justin Slaughter to form an education funding reform task force along with House Republicans. The task force will continue the work of the Illinois School Funding Reform Commission, address unanswered questions in the commission’s final report, and continue to craft equitable school funding reform legislation.
House Democrats serving on the Illinois School Funding Reform Commission recently noted that aspects of the Commission’s final report failed to clearly reflect the group’s discussions. Amongst other concerns, the report did not properly recognize that Illinois’ current school funding system is broken, in large part, because of overreliance on property taxes and underfunding from the state. Illinois’ property tax dollars account for 67 percent of all education spending, while the nationwide average is 45 percent. Without reform that acknowledges this overreliance on property taxes, the current education funding system will continue to be regressive compared to states with less property tax reliance.
“House Democrats played a leading role on the Illinois School Funding Reform Commission, and successfully pushed the Commission to meet more frequently,” Currie said. “While the Commission did not accomplish everything it set out to do, it did show that a bipartisan group of lawmakers can work toward consensus on major issues. There are questions that remain unanswered and points that still need clarification. We look forward to continuing to work cooperatively on this important and complex issue.
The best way to start making this idea into reality is by crafting an actual piece of legislation. That isn’t directly addressed by Madigan’s press release, however.
*** UPDATE *** Illinois Secretary of Education Beth Purvis…
We hope this new education reform task force is not an attempt to delay the positive work and progress of the Illinois School Funding Commission. As was discussed throughout the commission process, the goal was for the framework report to lead to a bill that could pass both chambers and be signed by Governor Rauner. Through bicameral and bipartisan discussions, we stand ready to work together in fixing our state’s broken school funding formula.
Except they can’t even agree who’s gonna write the bill.
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* From the Kearney Courier…
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s goal to reduce the state’s prison population by 25 percent can be achieved, but only if extensive changes are made to the criminal justice system, according to two members of a state commission that issued recommendations on prison reform.
Retired 11th Judicial Circuit Judge Elizabeth Robb and Andrew Leipold, law professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, were panelists Wednesday for a forum sponsored by the McLean County League of Women Voters and the Central Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Both served as members of Rauner’s commission to develop proposals to cut the state’s prison numbers by 25 percent by 2025. […]
Robb cited current drug laws with enhanced penalties as one of the areas recommended for change by the commission. The add-ons for selling drugs near schools and parks disproportionately affect African Americans in urban areas and “are not effective and not a deterrent,” said Robb.
Commission members also reviewed the reasons people are sent to prison and explored alternatives to incarceration, including a law that has added 700 people to the inmate population for stealing vehicles.
“We can make a cut in the prison population by changing that law,” said Robb.
Thoughts?
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Fisking Rauner
Thursday, Feb 23, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Pantagraph…
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said Wednesday he understands the frustration of Illinois residents tired of living without a state budget.
“It’s frustrating we don’t have a budget. … When I started this job, I was 6-8 and had a full head of hair. It’s hard,” he said with a laugh. “I’m not patient, but I am extremely persistent. … I’m going to stay persistent.” […]
He said his requirements to approve a budget remain the same: “I’m not going to sign an unbalanced budget,” and “I won’t sign off on any new taxes unless we get major structural changes” in government regulations as called for in his agenda.
Just to be clear, he won’t sign an unbalanced budget, but he’ll propose three of them in a row.
* More…
“I ran for governor because all of my fellow business builders were leaving Illinois,” he said. “The number one state people are going is Indiana. C’mon. It ain’t for the weather. … Our problems are all self-inflicted. Our government is a bureaucratic nightmare, and we’re going to change it.”
Notice that he said “my fellow business builders” and not his current favorite phrase “job creators.” Why? Well, maybe because when he was asked during a campaign debate to detail some jobs he created he couldn’t.
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* Ummm…
Kind of unclear on the actual concept, don’t you think?
*** UPDATE *** Pritzker was called out by a progressive legislator and is back-pedaling…
I’m told that Pritzker was trying to parody the right with his original tweet. Meh. That stuff should be left to the professionals.
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Rauner dodges reporters
Thursday, Feb 23, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Brian Mackey…
In the week since his budget address, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has done little to promote his plan or defend it from attacks by Democrats.
That’s a significant departure from last year. Back then, Rauner toured the state, highlighting his call for greater funding of public schools. This year, he took a ski vacation in Utah.
On Wednesday, Rauner made a brief speech at an education conference in Springfield. Afterward, he refused to answer questions from reporters.
The ski trip was reportedly to celebrate his birthday, but Rauner would not say which — until an aide told him, “You can answer how old you are.”
He’s 61. Wikipedia lists his age as 60, so there was some confusion.
* Mackey was not as kind on Twitter yesterday…
A bit harsh.
* Monique Garcia…
Rauner spoke at three separate events across the state, starting his morning in Chicago, where he addressed the Illinois State Board of Education. The governor’s official schedule listed him as not doing a media availability at that stop, but indicated he would field questions from the media at later events in Bloomington and Springfield.
That didn’t happen. Press aides cited a change in plans due to the governor’s busy schedule. Reporters asked some questions anyway as Rauner entered and exited a gathering of school administrators at a Springfield convention center.
“How are you and CK getting along?” Rauner asked a Chicago Tribune reporter, referring to his spokeswoman Catherine Kelly. […]
Rauner also riled up lawmakers by posting a campaign video shortly after his speech touting “a grand bargain” to end the budget. That’s the same term the Senate has adopted for its plan, and some felt the governor was trying to take credit for work done by lawmakers.
On Wednesday, Rauner did not answer when asked if he felt his speech ultimately would help or hurt the Senate’s efforts to strike a budget deal, nor did he respond when asked what feedback he has received from lawmakers. The governor also remained silent when asked about criticism of the campaign video.
He has an event scheduled at his office today at 11:30, an hour after AFSCME announces its strike authorization vote results, so he is expected to talk to the media today.
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* Press release…
The largest union representing public service workers in Illinois state government, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31, will hold a news conference tomorrow (Thursday) morning in Springfield to announce the results of voting by state workers on whether to authorize their union bargaining committee to call a strike if necessary.
Governor Bruce Rauner broke off negotiations with the union more than a year ago, walking away and refusing to even meet with the AFSCME bargaining committee ever since. Instead of working toward compromise, Governor Rauner has been seeking the power to unilaterally impose his own harsh demands, including a 100% hike in employee costs for health care that would take $10,000 out of the pocket of the average state worker, a four-year wage freeze and an end to safeguards against irresponsible privatization.
WHAT: News conference to announce result of state worker strike authorization vote
WHO: AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch and rank-and-file state employees
WHEN: Tomorrow (Thursday, Feb. 23) at 10:30 a.m.
AFSCME Council 31 represents some 38,000 Illinois state employees who protect kids, care for veterans and the disabled, respond to emergencies, help struggling families and much more.
Over and under on the strike vote percentage?
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* Yep. This is correct. Neither side has clean hands and we need a real budget with revenues that match expenditures…
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The appearance of access
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Columbia Journalism Review…
After ducking his constituents and protesters this month—by leaving a closed meeting through the back door, in one instance—Illinois Rep. Peter Roskam, a Republican who represents the west Chicago suburbs, hosted 18,000 people for a teleconference call last week through his campaign website.
The day after Roskam’s telephone town hall, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner fielded questions about his budget through Facebook Live, a platform the Republican has embraced in order to interact with constituents about statewide issues. The video attracted 16,000 views.
The technology enabled both officials to claim rightfully that they were talking with constituents, and large numbers of them at that. But, in the more controlled virtual space, they also were able to avoid potential confrontation with voters and questions from the press. (Roskam’s staff cancelled a scheduled meeting with constituents earlier this month when a reporter came with them.)
“The urge to control access is getting worse,” says Thomas Suddes, assistant professor at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. He says social media provides a false sense of access to elected officials. “It used to be that if a person were ducking reporters it was easy to say they were,” he says. Now, social media makes “the appearance of access for the public as significant as genuine access.”
Yep, and it’s a real problem.
* Roskam also caught heat for the way he set up his teleconference…
Congressman Peter Roskam is making changes for future telephone town halls after repeated questions from NBC 5 of how his Tele-Town Halls have been conducted.
In the past, those interested in participating had to register on Roskam’s campaign website and agree to receive campaign emails, texts and other literature.
NBC 5 questioned if Roskam was using the information to later solicit donations and campaign mailers. A week after those initial questions were raised, David Pasch, Roskam’s spokesman says “the following language was added to the Tele-Town Hall sign up page:
“The information provided will only be used for Roskam for Congress telephone town halls. It will not be shared with other organizations or used for fundraising purposes.”
* Roskam was also blasted by the Courier-News Editorial Board…
The Wheaton Republican told radio hosts Monday that “the country’s safer this morning than it was 72 hours ago.” Yes, safer for those who fear all those treacherous non-Christians who would come here from those menacing Middle East countries that don’t do business with the president. What is more appalling than the naivete in Roskam’s support is the spineless way in which it was delivered. Roskam declined to respond to the Naperville Sun’s multiple requests for an interview on the issue. He did not explain himself in a public forum before his constituents. No, he made his statement under the friendly cover of conservative talk radio — in an appearance on WIND-AM 560. On Thursday, days after his colleagues had weighed in, he issued a news release that simply reiterated what he said on the radio.
This evasiveness is not all that surprising. Roskam’s staff members also fled from a meeting with a group of constituents last week after finding out a newspaper reporter was with the group. We will cut Roskam’s people some slack for feeling blindsided by this after agreeing to a private meeting with constituents to discuss repeal of the Affordable Care Act. But even after the group told the staffers the reporter did not have to be in the meeting, they refused to call off their retreat.
* Meanwhile, several dozen protesters gathered outside Rep. Mike Bost’s Belleville office yesterday…
There were members of the crowd that did get to spend some time with the congressman in a small group setting, Russell said.
“There are a lot of people who have health care stories where they are scared for their lives, where they are afraid that they’re going to lose their coverage, not going to be able to take care of their chronic illnesses,” Russell said. “So our message is, ‘Listen to those people. You need to listen to them.’”
Russell said he tried last month to organize a meeting with about 15 people with Bost. The meeting was canceled, Russell said.
“We just want an opportunity to talk to our congressman,” Russell said.
* And an area TV station tried and failed to get some straight answers from Bost…
Upon questioning in an email conversation with KFVS-TV, Rep. Bost did not definitively comment on whether or not he would vote yes or no on a repeal/overhaul of the ACA.
The congressman also would not comment on the fate of any Illinois residents who may lose insurance as a result of a repeal.
Although Rep. Bost did not specifically agree to host a town hall meeting as requested by protesters, he did express support for their expression
“I understand that there are heartfelt disagreements on both sides of this issue and welcome and encourage this conversation. Whether you’re Republican, Democrat or Independent, everyone’s input is valid and helps shape our agenda in Congress.”
* Related…
* Republicans who won after rowdy town halls now avoiding them
* Protesters gather outside Bost’s office in support of ACA
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It’s just a bill
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Or, in this case, a rules change…
With thousands of Illinois’ seniors at risk of reduced, or even cut in-home care and community-based services, AARP Illinois, aging advocacy organization, and legislators today urged the Department on Aging to stop proposed changes to senior care rules under Governor Rauner’s proposed Community Reinvestment Program (CRP) and the Community Care Program (CCP).
The Governor’s budget proposes $120 million in cuts to home-and-community-based services that thousands of Illinois seniors depend upon. If the rules proposed by the Department on Aging go through, nearly 36,000 non-Medicaid seniors will face a host of eligilbity restrictions and denied background checks of service providers that will ultimately jeopardize seniors’ care and ability to reside in their home and community.
* From the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service…
A push to automatically register voters at the DMV is back after failing to get past the veto pen last year.
Democrats in Springfield have filed bills that would make getting a new license or ID card a voter registration. The last bill to do this passed with both Democrat and Republican votes, but Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed it, saying it didn’t have sufficient safeguards against voter fraud.
Illinois Public Interest Research Group Director Abe Scarr said the new legislation takes concerns of the governor’s last veto into account. […]
Some lawmakers opposed the measure last year for the same reasons the governor used in his veto message, that “Agencies with access to citizenship information should use that information to verify a person’s eligibility before processing the voter registration.” Scarr said that the new bill makes opting out an option before the registering process begins.
* Press release…
In light of recent attacks on law enforcement personnel and other first responders, State Sen. Paul Schimpf (R-Waterloo) is sponsoring “Blue Lives Matter” legislation to help protect law enforcement, correctional officers, and other first responders from being victimized by hate crimes.
“As a former military prosecutor, I understand that we have a duty to help protect our nation’s first responders. Police, correctional officers, and other first responders – all face very hazardous duties and we must make every effort to ensure their safety,” Schimpf said. “I want my district’s correctional officers, police, firefighters and EMS crews to all know I have their backs.”
The recent tragic shooting incidents in Louisiana and Texas have magnified the incredible burdens that have been placed on emergency personnel in recent years. Acts of violence against police, correctional officers and other first responders are starting to increase to higher levels not seen in modern years.
Senate Bill 1380 adds peace officers, correctional institution employees, probation parole officers, firefighters, and emergency medical services personnel to the listing of protected classes under the Illinois Hate Crimes statutes. The legislation applies to local, state, and federal public safety professionals.
* Illinois Review…
State Rep. Steve Reick (R-Woodstock) filed three bills affecting taxes this week in Springfield. The first, HB 3013, would provide tax relief for those over 65 living on federal adjusted gross income of $50,000 or less.
“The property tax burden falls hard upon seniors on fixed incomes, and while the credit will in most cases be modest, it will help them stretch their limited incomes,” Reick said. “It may help a senior citizen with an electric bill, some groceries or a prescription. Anyway, we’ll keep taking small steps until we figure out how to provide substantive relief to everyone in the state.” […]
Reick has also filed HB 2576, a bill that would add a county designation to all individual income tax forms.
“This simple change could provide a great deal of benefit for those who study the movement of Illinoisans from county to county within the state,” Reick said. “Today we can tell who moves into or out of Illinois, but we are unable to easily collect data about trends related to migration within our state.”
* Press release…
Three key legislators, State Senate Labor Committee Chairman Daniel Biss and State Representatives Lisa Hernandez and Carol Ammons, have joined forces with worker advocates, including HourVoice and United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 881, to introduce groundbreaking legislation (SB1720) to crack down on wage theft in Illinois. Wage theft is estimated to cost American workers over $50 billion per year and news reports have shown Illinois is a very difficult state for workers to recoup stolen wages.
“Our Illinois Fighting Wage Theft Act increases the penalties on companies that commit serious wage theft and prohibits those companies from receiving state government contracts for at least five years,” said State Senator and Labor Committee Chairman Daniel Biss (D-Evanston), who is sponsoring the bill. “Fair to both workers and businesses, SB1720 will level the playing field. Workers deserve to get paid every dollar they’ve earned and employers who treat workers properly and play by the rules shouldn’t be undercut by competitors who cheat their workers.”
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* ESPN…
As part of its initiative to improve the pace of game play, Major League Baseball has approved a change to the intentional walk rule, going from the traditional four-pitch walk to a dugout signal, it was announced Wednesday.
MLB has studied various ways to quicken games.
ESPN’s Jayson Stark reported earlier this month that MLB had made formal proposals to the players’ union to usher in raising the strike zone and scrapping the practice of lobbing four balls toward home plate to issue an intentional walk.
However, the Wall Street Journal reported the other day that the new rule would save an average of only 14 seconds per game.
* And, of course, there’s stuff like this…
* The Question: What other time-saving rule changes would you support?
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* The Southern Illinoisan…
Despite the popular stigma surrounding sexually transmitted diseases and infections, more than half of all people will experience one or the other at some point in their lives, according to the American Sexual Health Association. […]
From 2013 to 2014, 41 out of the 50 states experienced an overall increase in average STI morbidity rate (the death rate caused by STDs and STIs). Using the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HealthGrove, a health data site by Graphiq, found the states that had the largest increases in STI morbidity rates. After analyzing the relative increases for chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis per 100K people, states were ranked by average percent increase in the morbidity rate of all three infections between 2013 and 2014 (the most recent reporting year).
* A few states on the list…
#1 - Utah
Average percent increase in STI morbidity: 29.69%
Chlamydia rate per 100K people (2014): 283.47
Gonorrhea rate per 100K people (2014): 49.67
Syphillis rate per 100k people (2014): 356.99 […]
#11 - California
Average percent increase in STI morbidity: 9.36%
Chlamydia rate per 100K people (2014): 459.94
Gonorrhea rate per 100K people (2014): 118.46
Syphillis rate per 100k people (2014): 29.85 […]
#24 - New York
Average percent increase in STI morbidity: 4.09%
Chlamydia rate per 100K people (2014): 502.84
Gonorrhea rate per 100K people (2014): 105.63
Syphillis rate per 100k people (2014): 36.28 […]
#36 - Indiana
Average percent increase in STI morbidity: 0.98%
Chlamydia rate per 100K people (2014): 434.02
Gonorrhea rate per 100K people (2014): 110.93
Syphillis rate per 100k people (2014): 7.23 […]
#39 - Illinois
Average percent increase in STI morbidity: 0.5%
Chlamydia rate per 100K people (2014): 516.5
Gonorrhea rate per 100K people (2014): 123.97
Syphillis rate per 100k people (2014): 21.7
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Local reaction to new immigration order
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* New York Times…
President Trump has directed his administration to enforce the nation’s immigration laws more aggressively, unleashing the full force of the federal government to find, arrest and deport those in the country illegally, regardless of whether they have committed serious crimes.
Documents released on Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security revealed the broad scope of the president’s ambitions: to publicize crimes by undocumented immigrants; strip such immigrants of privacy protections; enlist local police officers as enforcers; erect new detention facilities; discourage asylum seekers; and, ultimately, speed up deportations.
* Gov. Rauner has already said that he has no interest in having the state police help Homeland Security round up immigrants. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said the same thing this week…
As the Trump administration publicly detailed its plans to more aggressively enforce immigration laws, a top Cook County sheriff’s official said Tuesday the department has “no interest” in joining an effort that would use local police to round up immigrants living in the country without legal permission.
“We have not been approached nor would we be interested in participating in this program,” said Cara Smith, policy chief for Sheriff Tom Dart. “Our focus is and will remain on addressing violence in the city.”
* CPS is also responding…
As the Trump administration expands its deportation policy, Chicago Public Schools told its principals Tuesday that they should not let any agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement into schools without a criminal warrant.
“To be very clear, CPS does not provide assistance to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the enforcement of federal civil immigration law,” chief education officer Janice Jackson wrote. “Therefore, ICE should not be permitted access to CPS facilities or personnel except in the rare instance in which we are provided with a criminal warrant. If presented with any paperwork from ICE, please call the Law Department before taking any action.”
She said that “ICE agents should wait outside while the school is reviewing the matter with the Law Department.”
The district also distributed palm cards in English and Spanish from the National Immigrant Justice Center containing such legal advice as not opening doors to immigration officials who do not have a warrant. And it advised schools to have parents update their emergency contact form with back-up contacts, saying, “If a child is left stranded at your school and you suspect it is because his or her parent is detained, please exhaust the child’s emergency contact list,” and to “have a staff member remain with the student.”
* CBS News interviewed Dr. Jerry Kruse, dean of the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield…
One-in-four doctors in the U.S. are foreign born, including an estimated 15,000 from the seven countries already included in Mr. Trump’s travel ban.
“How significant is the shortage at a place like this?” Dokoupil asked.
“In this county, the shortage of primary care physicians is about half of what’s needed,” Kruse said.
Kruse had hoped to help rural and short-handed places like Morgan County, about 30 miles outside Springfield, Illinois, by recruiting more international graduates. […]
Hospitals have until 9 p.m. Wednesday to decide which recent medical school graduates they’d like to bring on as residents. In a normal year, the best candidates would rise to the top. But this year, hospitals also have to weigh whether to take a risk on a candidate whose visa might be denied.
* And World Business Chicago took a look at the Chicago area’s ties to Mexico…
BUSINESS TIES
There are an estimated 130+ Chicago-area companies in Mexico including: Baxter, Groupon, Hyatt, Illinois Tool Works, Ingredion, McDonald’s, Motorola Solutions, Underwriters Laboratories and United Continental
There are at least 10 Mexican companies with a presence in greater Chicago including: Amtex Chemical, Cemex, Bimbo Bakeries and Famsa
US-Mexico Chamber of Commerce – Mid America Chapter
Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Chicago
Chicago-Mexico City Sister City relationship
There are 70+ weekly nonstop departures from Chicago airports to destinations in Mexico
An estimated 1.55 million Mexican-Americans reside in the Chicago area […]
TOTAL TRADE, 2015: US $22.2 BILLION
Total Imports to Illinois, 2015: US $13.1 billion
Top Import Categories, 2015: Electrical machinery, beer, vehicles and parts, heavy machinery and parts, plastics, furniture, medical instruments, iron & steel crude oil, iron & steel, paper & paperboard
Total Exports from Illinois, 2015: US $9.1 billion
Top Export Categories, 2015: Cell phones and electric apparatus, heavy machinery and parts, engines, plastics, corn, iron & steel, medical instrutments, pharmaceuticals
* Tribune…
President Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigrants in the country illegally will strain an already tight U.S. job market, with one study suggesting that removing all of them would cost the economy as much as $5 trillion over 10 years.
That represents the contribution of the millions of unauthorized workers to the world’s largest economy, about 3 percent of private-sector gross domestic product, according to a recent paper issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research. At an average of $500 billion in output a year, removing all such immigrants would be like lopping off the equivalent of Massachusetts from the U.S. economy, said study co-author Francesc Ortega. […]
“The challenge is particularly high now because the labor market has tightened up not just overall but in areas in which you would think undocumented immigrants would be important, so that means that it’s going to be hard to fill these jobs if you deport these employees,” Harris said. “You have to think about indirect effects when you disrupt production in industries in which they’re a critical part of getting things done. So there’s a transition cost, as well as the cost of a reduced labor force.”
* Related…
* Sen. Aquino: Maybe Trump taking anti-immigrant cues from Rauner
* New immigration enforcement rules worry Southland Latinos: The study concluded that by 2010, the number of unauthorized immigrants in Illinois had fallen to 490,000. The caucus surveyed more than 200 communities in the Chicago area.
* Trump to spare ‘dreamers’ from US crackdown: The administration of US President Donald Trump plans to consider almost all illegal immigrants subject to deportation, but will leave protections in place for immigrants known as “dreamers,” who entered the US illegally as children, according to official guidelines released on Tuesday.
* Trump hardens immigration rules, several Indian-Americans to be affected: Indian-Americans, who as per an unofficial count, account for nearly 3,00,000 illegal aliens are likely to be greatly impacted by this.
* Police chief: Evanston undocumented immigrants should get a legal driver’s license
* Illinois Senators vocally oppose Trump on immigration orders
* How Illinois’ Attorney General Plans To Challenge Trump:
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Is a sales tax on food really regressive?
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Taxing food and medicine sales are back in the news, so the Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois takes another look at an article it published a few years back and a new study which challenge the belief that a sales tax on food is regressive for the poor…
The theory highlighted in our article was borne out more recently in a much more rigorous academic study. The basic premise: a general sales tax exemption on groceries does not really benefit the poor because most of their food is purchased under the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (“SNAP”, formerly known as food stamps) and is therefore tax exempt as a matter of federal law. In other words, the general exemption does not target the in- tended recipients and is costly in terms of tax dollars, and in administration and compliance aggravations (such as the ever-changing lists of exempt and non-exempt products).
Using SNAP data from Alabama (a full taxing jurisdiction) and New Orleans (a reduced rate jurisdiction) in conjunction with data from the 2012 Consumer Expenditure Quarterly Interview Survey (a survey on consumer’s expenditures and incomes), the authors calculate the impact of taxing food on the poor with and without accounting for the federally-mandated SNAP exemption. They find that, while the poor spend 17 percent of their total expenditures on groceries, only about 0.5 percent of those expenditures can be taxed. They show that calculating the sales tax burden without taking SNAP into account makes the sales tax look very regressive. However, once the non-taxability of SNAP purchases is taken into consideration the average tax burden based on total consumption becomes slightly progressive. Using a more traditional tax burden estimate based on income (rather than consumption), there is still a substantial decline in the tax burden on the poor once the non-taxability of SNAP purchases is accounted for, although under this analysis the burden remains regressive.
In sum, the federally-mandated sales tax exemption of SNAP purchases reduces the regressivity of a sales tax on groceries, and a sales tax on groceries may even be slightly progressive when tax burden is measured as a percent of consumption, according to this study. As the authors put it:
While there will always be some of the poor who would pay more if the food at home exemption is repealed, our work suggests that taxing food but compensating with a revenue-neutral reduction in the overall sales tax rate would provide considerable benefits to the poor and, at the same time, lead to a more rational sales tax system.
There’s a lot of stuff in this month’s “Tax Facts” publication, so go read the whole thing. The lack of a tax on retirement income is covered ($1.8 billion could’ve been collected in 2014, it projects, while 1.4 million out of 5.6 million tax returns claimed some retirement income subtraction), the state’s “archaic” franchise tax is also covered as well as a new service tax.
* TFI also used a Minnesota study to claim that “for fiscal year 2016, Illinois’ $2,394,586,460 in corporate income tax receipts would have been borne as follows”…
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* Whoa…
Nearly the entire Chicago Public Schools Latino Advisory Committee has resigned in protest of budget cuts.
Fourteen of the 16 members of the committee resigned Wednesday as Chicago Board of Education is set to meet in hopes of signing off on a revised budget to close a $111 million shortfall.
The committee members said they resigned because the cuts disproportionately affect Hispanic schools.
* Backstory from the Sun-Times…
When Chicago Public Schools just put a freeze on half of every school’s remaining discretionary money to save $46 million, CEO Forrest Claypool blamed Gov. Bruce Rauner for the cuts, saying he has no regard for the city’s impoverished black and brown children.
Claypool even filed a lawsuit last week, accusing Rauner of violating the civil rights of the minority children who make up nine of 10 CPS students by giving them less funding than their mostly white counterparts elsewhere in the state.
But it turns out that the way Claypool decided to cut school budgets this time — by freezing the rest of every principal’s discretionary money — has hurt majority Hispanic schools at twice the rate of schools serving mostly white children, and cut poor schools at twice the rate of wealthier ones.
Schools with at least 51 percent Hispanic students saw 1.8 percent of their total budgets frozen, on average — that’s about twice the average rate of 0.9 percent frozen at schools with at least 51 percent of white students, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of the freezes.
The schools that lost the highest percentage of their remaining spending power — 1.8 percent on average — also serve the very poorest children, where nine out of 10 students qualify for the free or reduced-price lunch that is shorthand for school poverty. And schools where three out of four kids are poor lost 1.7 percent of their money; that’s roughly double the percentage 0.8 percent — that was lost by schools where just one of four kids is poor.
Schools that are both poor and Hispanic bore the worst of the cuts.
…Adding… In Chicago, it’s now blame it all on Rauner all the time…
OK, but the CPS cuts still seem to target Latino schools. So, CPS announced an appeals process today.
*** UPDATE *** Ruiz is right about this…
In an extraordinary action with statewide political implications, former Board of Education Vice President Jesse Ruiz, who took over as interim schools chief after the 2015 indictment of Barbara Byrd-Bennett, and who currently chairs the Chicago Park District, showed up at today’s board meeting and accused CPS of bias in deciding how to implement $46 million in mid-year cuts.
In acting the way it has, CPS “lost the moral high ground” in its recent suit against Gov. Bruce Rauner and the state for allegedly underfunding CPS, Ruiz said. CPS can’t accuse the state of bias “when its own ‘method of administration,’ its budget cuts, have a disparate impact on predominantly Hispanic schools.”
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* Finke…
Members of the Illinois Municipal League said Tuesday they are opposed to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s idea to impose a permanent property tax freeze in Illinois. […]
Belleville Mayor Mark Eckert, a vice president of the IML, said the “vast majority” of the property taxes collected in his city go to municipal pensions.
“For us, it’s primarily police and fire pensions,” Eckert said. “We do meet our threshold each year of the actuaries. If they would freeze the property tax, I’m not sure how we would meet those criteria to properly fund those pensions.”
ILM executive director Brad Cole said that, on average, about 10 percent of a total property tax bill goes to municipalities. The bulk goes to local school districts. However, he said that for smaller communities that may not have a strong retail or manufacturing base, property taxes represent the bulk of the city’s income.
* The Illinois Policy Institute, however, thinks local governments and school districts should take even bigger hits, along with a property tax freeze…
Reforms can end the state’s $1.4 billion pension subsidy to school districts and universities – subsidies that let those institutions dole out higher pay, end-of-career salary hikes and pensionable perks that dramatically drive up the cost of pensions.
Reforms can also reduce the state subsidies to local governments – excluding cities with populations below 5,000 – which prop up the nation’s most numerous units of local government and the bureaucracies that run them, saving $1.3 billion.
* Meanwhile, Greg Hinz…
[IML Executive Director Brad Cole] says his group will not object if all of the proceeds from an income tax hike go to the state, with local governments not receiving their usual cut.
“As long as we’re not losing anything, that’s acceptable,” Cole says.
They didn’t get their usual piece of the 2011 tax, either, and the Senate’s plan as currently drafted does not give them a chunk of its proposed income tax hike.
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* SIU President Randy Dunn on the governor’s proposed budget plan…
Since we haven’t had a real budget going on for 20 months now, remember that it’s become customary to analyze proposals against our last “normal” year of state appropriations … FY15.
If you look at the higher education sector overall for FY18, general funds for institutional grants and other initiatives are down 9.9% from 2015, but that figure doesn’t include the state’s share of pension funding contributed for university and community college employees. (If you count pension funding as part of our state support, the drop looks a little less daunting at 6.7%.)
Each of the public universities would be funded next year at an 85% level from where we were for FY15. For the SIU System, that would mean a loss of roughly $30 million; the $199 million received three years previous would drop to $169.554 million for general operations in 2018. However, each institution would also have the opportunity to earn back a 5% funding performance set-aside, theoretically bringing the appropriation level up to 90% of 2015. The performance funding model would be the same one utilized by the Illinois Board of Higher Education already — which is only at a .5% level currently. While I’m a firm believer in the concept that governors and legislatures should have the prerogative to drive some portion of state support based on performance, I do worry about two things with such plans: 1) “Access” schools — and this institutional value is part of SIU’s DNA — will start curtailing, if not denying admissions to a swath of students who appear even somewhat at-risk of not being able to meet whatever performance metrics are chosen; and 2) Performance funding turns into a redistribution mechanism where those institutions which already may be advantaged in terms of resources available, student profile, geographic service region, and the like receive even more support … while struggling schools attempting to serve higher-need students are penalized. In my view, neither of those unintended consequences is good public policy.
But I digress. Back to the budget details: Two designated appropriations important to SIUE — one for the School of Pharmacy, and the other for debt payment to the City of Edwardsville for the newly constructed fire station on the campus — would be completely zeroed out. By contrast, a separate directed appropriation which was first added for SIUC in 2015 — for the Daily Egyptian student newspaper — is maintained for FY18, to supplement a student fee increase by the campus for that same purpose that year. And while there is some funding re-appropriated for previously approved projects, no new capital funding for HIED is proposed for yet another year.
As I listened to the governor deliver his budget address in the House Gallery last Wednesday, I did find elements that I was heartened to hear. Illinois’ need-based student aid program, the Monetary Award Program, is recommended for a 10% increase in funding which would serve another 12,000 students statewide who are MAP-eligible but have not had access to funds. That’s important to SIU. As well, Governor Rauner acknowledged the need to get serious about making progress on deferred maintenance of state facilities across all public sectors; for the SIU System alone, that total is a staggering $700 million if you count every possible capital renovation, repair, and replacement project currently on our books.
* And here he talks about the Senate’s attempt at a compromise…
Right now those important questions are getting immediate attention in the Illinois Senate to see if an evolving “grand bargain” budget — for FY17 — can yet be achieved. Given we’ve had no predictable revenue or viable long-term funding plan from the state since June 30, 2015, the “urgency here is critical” — to quote Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno. Senate leaders are saying that a vote needs to be taken by the end of this month … or close to it … if that chamber’s bipartisan plan is going to provide a way forward. You see, the Senate’s omnibus budget deal would make a state income tax increase retroactive to January 1 to meet its revenue goal; but, waiting much longer to pass a 2017 budget would force too high of “backloading” of state tax withholding in the final months of the fiscal year to make it palatable to most voters (i.e., six months of state tax taken out over four months of pay). So time is of the essence.
I am supportive of the Senate plan as it presently exists, even though there are parts of it I don’t like — and figuring out the pension reform piece will be tough. While it pains me greatly to say it, we need to acknowledge that FY16 is now lost — essentially a year when Illinois higher education absorbed a 73% state cut. But we all survived it, even if badly wounded … and reality says that time and politics have moved on. However, the spending plan for SIU now contained in Senate Bill 6, at $93.4 million — taken in conjunction with the stopgap money appropriated last June 30 — would bring us back to a normal year of funding (a/k/a FY15) once again. Besides that, the budget deal would have the symbolic impact (maybe psychological, even) of getting the stalemate broken while offering a working template for moving into FY18. Plus we would be assured of reimbursement for the millions of dollars we’ve already advanced to the State of Illinois this year to cover MAP grants and a multitude of other contracts and services.
The political instincts of more than a few experienced Springfield hands suggest that if we leave this opportunity empty-handed, the last glimmer of hope for a reliable, predictable, viable state budget anytime in the next couple of years leaves with it. Such an outcome would do nothing to help our steadily shrinking state of higher education in Illinois. So it is time for a deal to get done, and if it does, we’ll be the first to champion the cause.
*** UPDATE *** Oy…
The head of the Heartland Community College board of trustees thinks the district needs to consider creating a budget without any money from the state.
Noting there is still no state budget seven months into the fiscal year and “no indication that it’s coming,” Chairman Gregg Chadwick said at Tuesday night’s meeting, “I’m not sure it makes sense to continue to assume we’ll have state money.”
Heartland’s budget for the current fiscal year, which began July 1, calls for about $1.2 million in revenue from the state.
His comments came as the board voted to increase tuition and fees by 2.8 percent, raising the total per-credit-hour cost from $144 to $148.
* Related…
* WIU Student Enrollment Dips Below 10K: There are 9,469 students enrolled at Western Illinois University this spring semester. It’s the first time this century Western’s student body has dropped below 10,000. Dr. Ron Williams, Western’s Interim Vice President of Student Services and the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs, said spring 2017 enrollment is down about 6.5% compared to last spring. He said that is less than the 10% drop the university projected.
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Mystery solved on Rauner’s whereabouts
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Mary Ann Ahern yesterday…
Gov. Bruce Rauner has not had a public schedule since delivering his budget address last Wednesday.
Traditionally, after the budget address, the governor travels to promote his budget agenda. But not this year.
Repeated questions to Rauner’s press spokesman about his whereabouts have gone unanswered. She will not say where the governor is, whether he is in Illinois or out of town.
* He’s back today and Ahern caught up with him…
His Twitter account was active while he was gone, including a video post about a recent visit to a school.
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Would term limits make much of a difference?
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The BGA has an interesting look at term limits…
In Maine, a 2004 study from the NCSL and the University of Maine found that legislators elected under term limits “are more partisan and ideological than in the past.” That echoes an observation from Maine Gov. Paul LePage, himself a hard-edged Republican partisan, who nonetheless has lamented the polarizing effect of term-limits
Two decades of term limits delivered “young people with firm agendas” who are “hurting us in the long haul,” LePage complained in a 2014 speech in which he also lauded Martin’s long experience in the Maine legislature as an asset. Martin, LePage argued, was someone who “knew what worked and didn’t work.”
Michigan voters also easily adopted term limits in 1992, enacting caps of six years for House members and eight for state senators.
John Cherry, a Democrat from the Flint area, was among those impacted by the caps, leaving the legislature in 2002 after serving 20 years. But that same year he was elected Michigan’s lieutenant governor, a position he held until 2011. Cherry’s wife is now a state representative.
Cherry said the practical effect of term limits is twofold. First, he said, members elected to the House get to like the $71,685 annual salary and start to angle for a Senate run six years later when term limits kick in. Second, he said, restricting the time members can stay in the legislature hinders the ability or the inclination to address complex issues.
Exhibit A, he said, lay in a recent warning from a state commission appointed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder that Michigan faced a $59.6 billion infrastructure funding gap over the next 20 years. Cherry said the political aversion to raising taxes or fees to maintain roads and other services has convinced many lawmakers to “kick the can down the road” rather than jeopardize the loss of a good salary.
“Infrastructure has suffered more than anything else in Michigan because you have to raise fees to maintain it,” said Cherry, whose old senate district in Flint is now grappling with the cost of a crumbling water system that poisoned the city’s water supply. “The influence has shifted to lobbyists, and anything complex is made more difficult to deal with.”
I’m mostly an agnostic on term limits. They most certainly shift power to governors, which could be a real problem here considering some of the governor’s the voters have elected. On the other hand, there’s Speaker Madigan’s tenure. And short-timers may try to tailor their votes to help them land when they’re out of office, but legislators often do the same thing here. Just look at the former rosters of the utility-related committees, for example.
And everything else in the above excerpt could also be said of Illinois, which has no lawmaker term limits. The GA is far more partisan than it used to be and they’ve been forever kicking the can on important issues. I mean, we can’t even get a budget after two years of not really trying. And, of course, part of the reason for that is the lobbyists, which as I write this are attempting to kill off the Senate’s grand bargain attempt.
* Related…
* WTTW: A Portrait of Michael Madigan
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* From the abstract to a new study involving Republican presidential primary voting in Illinois…
We exploit a natural experiment to study voter taste-based discrimination against nonwhite political candidates. In Illinois Republican presidential primary elections, voters do not vote for presidential candidates directly. Instead, they vote delegate- by-delegate for delegate candidates listed as bound to vote for particular presidential candidates at the Republican nominating convention. To maximize their support for their preferred presidential candidate, voters must vote for all that candidate’s delegates. However, some delegates’ names imply they are not white. Incentives for statistical discrimination against nonwhite delegates are negligible, as delegates have effectively no discretion, and taste-based discrimination against them is costly, as it undermines voters’ preferred presidential candidates.
Examining within-presidential- candidate variation in delegate vote totals in primaries from 2000–2016, we estimate that about 10 percent of voters do not vote for their preferred presidential candidate’s delegates who have names that indicate the delegates are nonwhite, indicating that a considerable share of voters act upon racially-discriminatory tastes. This finding is robust to multiple methods for measuring delegate race, to controls for voters’ possible prior information about delegates, to ballot order, and to other possible confounds we consider. Heterogeneity across candidates and geographies is also broadly consistent with taste-based theories.
* You may recall this story from last March…
If Donald Trump somehow falls three delegates short of reaching the magic 1,237 delegates needed for the Republican nomination, he may be haunted by an obscure outcome from the primary voting in Illinois on Tuesday. There’s clear evidence that Trump supporters in Illinois gave fewer votes to Trump-pledged delegate candidates who have minority or foreign-sounding names like “Sadiq,” “Fakroddin” and “Uribe,” potentially costing him three of the state’s 69 delegates.
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Kennedy fundraises off of proposed budget cuts
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Democratic governor candidate Chris Kennedy used a fundraising email Tuesday to criticize proposed cuts in Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget affecting people with disabilities.
“Working to better the lives of people with developmental disabilities wasn’t so much a suggestion as it was a call to action in my family, and we are all better people because of it,” Kennedy said, a reference to his aunt, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and her husband, Sargent Shriver, who formally launched the Special Olympics in Chicago in 1968.
Kennedy called the Special Olympics movement “perhaps our single greatest export to the world” from Illinois.
He said he was “angered” that Rauner’s budget plan “zeroed out funding for a number of nonprofit organizations aimed at improving the lives of our special needs brothers and sisters.”
“This is not who we are in Illinois. We are kinder, more compassionate and more forward thinking than this. The path to economic prosperity and fiscal responsibility for our state does not lie in jeopardizing the wellness of Illinoisans with disabilities,” Kennedy said.
That story is a whole lot more crisp than the e-mail was. Click here to read it in full.
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