Former GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner never once, as governor, met with the Illinois delegation. And they noticed.
On Monday night, at Pritzker’s request, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., hosted a dinner for Pritzker and delegation members in his Capitol office, signaling a new era in Springfield-Washington cooperation. The office of Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., the dean of the Illinois House Republicans, said he was co-hosting.
You don’t get a medal for just doing your job, but it’s nice that somebody is finally doing at least part of their job.
The last four years were so bizarre on so many levels.
With the strong support of Gov. JB Pritzker, the Illinois State Board of Education today named Dr. Carmen I. Ayala as the 30th State Superintendent of Education, making her the first woman and first person of color to serve as the permanent superintendent.
Dr. Ayala has more than 30 years of education experience, most recently serving as the Superintendent of the Berwyn North School District. She previously served as an Assistant Superintendent in Plainfield District 202, Director in Community Consolidated School District 300, and as an Assistant Superintendent, Director of Bilingual Services, and a teacher at the Aurora East School District. She began her career at Chicago Public Schools, serving as a teacher for five years. Dr. Ayala received her Bachelor of Arts from Mundelein College, her MBA from Dominican University, and her Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy studies from Loyola University of Chicago.
“For decades, Dr. Ayala has worked to ensure her students receive a high-quality public education, and I’m thrilled that families across Illinois will now benefit from her leadership,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “There is nothing more important to the future of our state and our economy than providing a quality public education, and I know that Dr. Ayala will be a strong partner in ensuring students in all of our communities receive the education they deserve. My focus will be continuing to invest in education, even during budget challenges, so that school districts receive the support they deserve, including with the largest-ever increase in early childhood education.”
“I’m honored to serve as our state’s Superintendent of Education and grateful to the board members for placing their trust in me,” said Dr. Ayala. “Governor Pritzker has made it clear that education will be a top priority for the new administration, and I look forward to our work ahead. Together, I know we can break down barriers to opportunity and ensure that students of all races, backgrounds, income levels and zip codes receive a strong education in Illinois.”
In a recently launched digital ad, Ideas Illinois — a conservative 501(c)(4) group — has positioned itself as “on a mission” to put Illinois on a “sustainable” path through job creation, spending cuts and economic growth.
On the other side of the spectrum is Think Big Illinois, a left-leaning 501(c)(4) group which includes Pritzker on its list of donors, according to CEO Quentin Fulks, a former deputy manager of the Pritzker campaign.
Think Big’s recently launched digital ad touts a “fair tax” and equates Ideas Illinois’ “mission” with former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “stubborn” leadership. Fulks said Think Big will be closely monitoring the fight for a graduated tax.
“I think we’re going to do whatever it takes to get the job done and to make sure that we’re getting the word out there that the graduated income tax is the best way to solve the problems in Illinois,” he said. “At this moment, we don’t have plans like a TV ad ready to go, but it is something that is in our arsenal if we need to use it. … As long as we’re able to sustain it, we’ll stay up on TV and on digital doing everything we can.”
Interesting that Q decided to go after the other side so early.
The Belvidere Assembly Plant will lay off up to 1,371 workers starting May 2, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said Tuesday.
The company said a slowing global market is causing the reduction.
Starting May 6, the plant will return to a more traditional work schedule, with employees working two shifts. Now, three crews work 10-hour days four days a week.
The company “will make every effort to place indefinitely laid-off hourly employees in open full-time positions as they become available based on seniority,” spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said on Tuesday it will invest $4.5 billion in five plants to build new models of Jeeps to compete in the lucrative market for full-size, three-row SUVs currently dominated by rivals General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co. […]
The new investments announced on Tuesday will create 6,500 jobs in Michigan, Fiat Chrysler (FCA) said in an announcement about three months after GM said it would not allocate new products to five plants in North America that mostly produce less-popular sedan models. […]
[FCA Chief Executive Officer Mike Manley] added that 60 percent of SUV sales are for three-row models “and we don’t have a three-row offering… and this is a segment that I’ve been very interested in for some time.”
* The SALT deduction was designed to prevent double-taxation. You’re not paying taxes on the taxes you’ve already paid. It also gave people a break if they lived in states that weren’t federal spending freeloaders…
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker wants federal lawmakers to lift a cap on a tax deduction that he said helps lower-income people.
One tax expert said the deduction actually benefits wealthy people.
Pritzker joined with governors from other high-debt, high-tax states like New Jersey and New York on Friday to call for removing the $10,000 cap on the State and Local Tax deduction, or SALT. Lawmakers capped the SALT deduction as part of President Donald Trump’s tax overhaul.
“In Illinois, it affects nearly 2 million people in a very negative way and 85 percent of those people make $200,000 or less a year,” Pritzker said.
Jared Walczak, with the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, said the unlimited SALT deduction benefited high-income earners the most. The cap included in the overhaul limited the savings for wealthy homeowners in states with high property taxes.
“It is subsidizing high-income people in high-tax states,” Walczak said. “What it’s really doing is subsidizing the higher taxes in those states.”
Yes, it does subsidize higher taxes in those states. And most of those states were already net federal tax exporters.
Illinois U.S. Representative Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, said it is unlikely the SALT cap will be lifted as he said his constituents are now paying less to the federal government because of tax changes he said Republicans brought together.
Davis said SALT incentivizes the states like Illinois to raise taxes on its citizens.
“That’s wrong,” Davis said. “We took that incentive away. Illinois Democrats need to learn to live within their means.”
Dude who voted for tax breaks that caused huge federal deficits telling Illinois to live within its means. That’s super-duper rich, Rodney.
And, by the way, Davis probably has more state facilities/universities in his district than any other member of the delegation. Wanna tell the state which ones to close, Congressman?
The fiscal 2020 executive budget plan recently introduced by Illinois’ governor would not materially address the state’s structural budget issues in the current fiscal year or the next, says Fitch Ratings.
Illinois’ ‘BBB’ Issuer Default Rating (IDR) reflects an ongoing pattern of weak operating performance and irresolute fiscal decision-making. The Negative Rating Outlook reflects our assessment that near-term fiscal challenges will pressure the rating.
Fitch has indicated that we would lower the state’s IDR if Illinois returned to a pattern of deferring payments for near-term budget balancing. Elements of the governor’s proposal, including a $1.5 billion GO bill backlog borrowing that reduces but leaves largely unresolved the 2019 deficit and numerous one-time measures in fiscal 2020, appear to do that without a clear path toward long-term balance. The legislature will take up the executive budget, a multi-part pension proposal, and a possible capital improvements bill over the next several months, with the goal of enacting a final budget by June 30. Fitch plans to review the state’s rating and Negative Outlook following passage of a final budget for fiscal 2020.
A return to single-party control could ease the legislature’s budget review and adoption process this year, but unified control is not a panacea for Illinois. It also would not mean the end of the state’s credit challenges, which have persisted regardless of the political make-up of the state government. Illinois faces significant fiscal problems that will likely take multiple years to fully address, but the executive budget does not provide enough clarity on how the state will deal with them.
The governor’s fiscal 2020 budget plan relies heavily on non-recurring revenues and large savings from an uncertain pension proposal that poses risks for the state. The budget plan could also be challenged from the start if the sizable fiscal 2019 gap is not adequately addressed. The governor framed the $38.7 billion general funds ($77 billion all funds) plan as a bridge budget that would buy time until the state is able to implement his proposed graduated income tax and then achieve more substantive fiscal progress. This new tax requires a state constitutional amendment that must be approved by legislative super-majorities (which Democrats have in both chambers) and then by voters, also by a super-majority. Fitch estimates the earliest it could be approved would be in the November 2020 general election and notes that prospects for passage at both levels are uncertain.
Fiscal 2019’s gap, estimated at $1.1 billion in the general funds, poses a particular challenge for the state, and the administration’s budget plan leaves it largely unresolved. The governor proposes a $1.5 billion general obligation (GO) bond sale to reduce backlogged bills. $600 million of the proceeds would be deposited directly in the general revenue fund to pay down remaining interest accruing bills. After accounting for other adjustments to the budget, the general funds deficit declines modestly to an estimated $900 million. The remaining $900 million from the GO sale would be deposited in the Health Insurance Reserve Fund (outside of the general funds) to cover unpaid employee health insurance bills.
While potentially beneficial economically by trading high-interest backlogged bills for likely lower-cost GO debt, the state’s liability profile would be essentially unchanged with the proposed GO sale. The administration’s $1.1 billion fiscal 2019 deficit estimate reflects elimination of several items from the enacted budget that Fitch previously noted as questionable, including the sale of the Thompson Center and savings from pension buyouts.
Fitch anticipates the administration will continue working with agencies and the legislature to seek additional measures to address the fiscal 2019 general funds deficit. But those measures have not been articulated, and only four months remain in the year.
For fiscal 2020, the executive budget includes an estimated $1.1 billion in new revenues, with roughly one-third ($370 million) coming from non-recurring sources. Initial licensing fees from legalization of cannabis ($170 million) and sports wagering ($200 million) are assumed to accelerate into fiscal 2020 supported by related tax credits included in the budget plan. Separately, the governor also proposes a delinquent tax payment incentive (amnesty) plan estimated to generate $175 million in one-time revenue.
On a recurring basis, the most significant revenue source proposed by the governor is nearly $400 million from a new assessment fee levied on healthcare managed care organizations that should generate additional federal matching revenues under Medicaid. The combined revenues would be deposited outside of the general fund into the Healthcare Provider Relief Fund and used for Medicaid, thereby reducing the general funds support of Medicaid. The governor noted that other states including California and Ohio use similar fees.
Separately, the governor estimates sports wagering could generate between $77 million and $136 million annually in future years from a 20% tax on gross wagers - only $12 million of tax revenue is included in the fiscal 2020 budget. The governor did not provide an estimate of ongoing cannabis tax revenue.
The only material expenditure reduction is in the state’s pension contributions which the governor proposes to decrease from the current year by $400 million to a general funds total of $7.1 billion, by implementing a five-part pension proposal outlined earlier this month (see “Fitch Ratings: IL Pension Plan Frames the Rating Picture; Budget Details Still Key,” Feb. 19, 2019). This would also be $1.1 billion below the required contribution based on the 26-year closed amortization to 90% funding set out in current law.
$878 million in savings comes from a potentially costly extension of the pension amortization by seven years to 2052, while maintaining the comparatively weak 90% funding target. Without committing to full actuarially determined contributions, the re-amortization could cost the state more over time by perpetuating an already inadequate funding approach. $125 million derives from the administration’s estimate of savings by extending the pension buyout programs permanently.
Over the long term, Fitch considers the proposed open-ended buyouts as indirect pension benefit changes that could gradually reduce the long-term pension liability but would require an ongoing funding source. The enacted fiscal 2019 budget anticipated issuance of up to $1 billion in GO bonds to fund pension buyouts and the governor proposes issuing the first tranche of $300 million by April. Absent a constitutional amendment, Illinois’ ability to more directly reduce already-accrued retiree benefits appears sharply limited.
Education funding is a key area of growth in the governor’s budget plan. K-12 funding under the evidence-based formula increases by $375 million (a robust 5.5%) to $7.2 billion. The minimum wage increase recently signed into law by the governor drives more than $100 million in proposed spending growth (combined state and federal) for providers paid through the state’s Departments of Human Services and Aging. Like Pennsylvania’s executive budget, Illinois’ assumes $25 million in individual income tax revenue growth tied to increased economic activity supported by the higher minimum wage.
The governor also called for a capital improvements bill to fund new infrastructure projects but did not offer a specific plan or revenues to support new issuance. The state maintains between $3 billion and $4 billion in unused GO authorization for various capital projects, and the governor proposes using $1.1 billion over the next year. Illinois also has roughly $370 million in remaining authorization for the Build Illinois sales tax-backed bonding program.
The budget plan also does not make material progress on reducing liabilities as it trades accounts payable for GO debt to repay bills. By the end of fiscal 2020, the governor projects reducing year-end general funds accounts payable by 10% from fiscal 2018, or $900 million over two years, while issuing $1.5 billion in GO bonds to repay bills.
Fitch currently rates Illinois two notches above junk status, so the state has a tiny bit of breathing room, but not much.
Chicago Board of Elections says turnout is extremely low so far for Election Day… on pace to have 30% turnout which would beat the previous low record set in 2007. Still time to vote. Polls open until 7p. @cbschicago#municipal
Going out on a limb to predict that once all of the mail ballots are counted Chicago's turnout for today's election will be higher than the 34.03% from Feb 2015.https://t.co/C1p06ntoXl
* Seniors dominating morning vote [updated with noon totals]…
Turnout numbers as of noon. Age-group-based stats reflect Election Day, Early Voting, and received Vote by Mail ballots. Hourly results reflect only Election Day. pic.twitter.com/0rrStRvpSa
So far the 19th Ward on the South Side has seen the highest turnout, with 26 percent of voters turning in a ballot. That’s followed by the 41st Ward (23 percent), the 47th Ward (22 percent) and the 13th Ward (20 percent).
The 22nd Ward (8 percent) and the 24th Ward (8.1 percent) have seen the lightest turnout so far.
* Early voting stats as of yesterday…
Unofficial total of 25,705 used Early Voting (EV) today, pushing total to 125,600 for this election. That's up 40% from the Feb 2015 EV total of 89,869. Onward to Election Day. Polls open 6 am to 7 pm on Tues., Feb 26. Find your precinct polling place at https://t.co/KcbxuSY02V
* Magnanimity (or total indecision, or a very large and diverse family) in the 19th Ward…
In a mayoral race this wide open, no Chicagoan can guarantee they have the next mayor’s campaign sign on their lawn. No one except the owners of this Beverly bungalow https://t.co/knmjMH8SlBpic.twitter.com/TCUVNzNvFG
And while universities are receiving a 5 percent increase in operating assistance, the total appropriation is still just 96.4 percent of what they were appropriated in the Fiscal Year 2015 budget – the last one approved before the two-year impasse began.
But Illinois’ investment in higher education is even more inadequate when viewed over the long term. Even with the Governor’s proposed increase in funding, Illinois would be providing less support for higher education in FY2020 than it did in FY2000 in both nominal and inflation-adjusted terms. In fact, the proposed FY2020 appropriation is just over half of the inflation-adjusted appropriation two decades earlier.
Some of the communities hit hardest by the opioid epidemic and a related methamphetamine spike also are facing another health crisis: a steep rise in syphilis.
It isn’t a coincidence.
Many opioid users have started to use meth, either in combination with opioids or as a cheaper, more accessible alternative. Stimulants such as meth are even more likely than opioids to promote risky sexual behavior that increases the likelihood of contracting syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Women are increasingly susceptible as their drug use continues to rise, and more of them are passing on the disease to their infants — with deadly results.
Many addicted pregnant women forgo prenatal visits for fear of being drug tested and losing custody of their babies, doctors say. And mothers with untreated syphilis have an 80 percent chance of infecting their unborn babies, contributing to a growing crisis that many states have tried to combat in recent years.
In adults, syphilis can be cured with a course of antibiotics. But syphilis among newborns, called congenital syphilis, can cause deformities, severe anemia, an enlarged liver and spleen, jaundice or brain and nerve problems such as blindness or deafness.
Up to 40 percent of babies born to women with untreated syphilis may be stillborn or die as a newborn, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of congenital syphilis cases climbed by 154 percent between 2013 and 2017. More than 900 cases were reported in 37 states in 2017 — the highest number of cases in the past two decades.
* This was released late yesterday afternoon, just hours before today’s ISBE board meeting…
Gov. Pritzker Appoints New Members of Illinois State Board of Education
Springfield, Ill. — Building on a strong team of diverse experts in their fields, Governor JB Pritzker announced his appointments serve on the Illinois State Board of Education:
Darren Reisberg will serve as chair of the Illinois State Board of Education.* Reisberg currently serves as the vice president for strategic initiatives and deputy provost at the University of Chicago. He served the university as vice president and secretary, and the first executive director of the university’s Institute of Politics, where he currently serves on the Institute’s Board of Advisors. Prior, Reisberg served as general counsel and deputy superintendent of the Illinois State Board of Education. In those roles, he counseled the State Superintendent of Education and State Board of Education on legal, policy, and operational matters. He also was an employment and labor attorney at the Chicago law firm Sidley Austin LLP and worked as a judicial law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer. Reisberg received his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School and his Bachelor of Arts in political science at Duke University.
Christine Benson will serve as a member of the Illinois State Board of Education.* Benson has 35 years of teaching and administrative experience in Illinois public schools ranging from elementary, middle and high school. She served as central office administrator for seven years, focusing on budget management, curriculum development and grants. Benson served as superintendent for six years at Mendota High School, five years at Ottawa Elementary School District and six years at Streator Elementary School District. She received her Doctor of Education from Northern Illinois University and her Master of Science in education administration and Bachelor of Music Education from Illinois State University.
Cynthia Latimer will serve as a member of the Illinois State Board of Education.* Latimer has over 33 years of administrative and classroom experience in Aurora school districts. Beginning her career as a special education teacher at East Aurora District 131 and later West Aurora School District 129 for 10 years, Latimer went on to serve as principal of W.S. Beaupre Elementary School from 1990 to 1993 and Abraham Lincoln Elementary School from 1993 to 2000. She then served as chief officer for special populations at District 129, working closely with social workers, psychologists, speech and language pathologists, teachers and nurses throughout the district. In 2006, Latimer was promoted to Assistant Superintendent in the Division of Student Services, and in 2008, she became the Assistant Superintendent in the Division of Teaching & Learning, which included oversight of all aspects of PK-12 instruction including those of the former Student Services Division. She held this role until her retirement in 2014. Latimer received her Master of Science in educational leadership and policy study from Northern Illinois University and her Bachelor of Science in special education from Illinois State University.
Donna Simpson Leak will serve as a member of the Illinois State Board of Education.* Leak currently serves as superintendent of Community Consolidated Schools District 168. She has trained thousands of teachers and presented at more than 200 conferences worldwide. Previously, Leak served as assistant superintendent and superintendent of schools in Rich Township High School District 227, where she oversaw all functions of the district including curriculum and instruction, federal and state grants, district improvement, and campus restructuring initiatives. During her tenure in Rich Township, the district’s high schools received the distinction of Best High Schools in America from U.S. News & World Report. Leak has been a member of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics Board for several years and is a lead instructor with the Professional Learning Community academies. Leak has also been an active member of the American Association of School Administrators for the past decade, recently receiving her National Certification Certificate. Leak received her PhD in administration and supervision from Loyola University, Master of Arts in educational administration from Governor’s State University and Bachelor of Science in mathematics from University of Illinois at Chicago.
David Lett will serve as a member of the Illinois State Board of Education.* Lett has spent more than 35 years teaching and leading K-12 school and in higher education. He currently is an adjunct professor on the Education Leadership Department at the University of Illinois at Springfield. From 2001 to 2017, Lett served as superintendent for Pana Community Unit School District 8. Prior, he serves as the middle school principal at Seneca Grade School and assistant principal at Ottawa Township High School. He taught social sciences at Seneca, Morrison High School and Reddick Junior High/High School at the beginning of his career. Lett received his Doctor of Education and Master of Education Administration from Illinois State University and his Bachelor of Science in economics from Illinois Wesleyan University.
Susan Morrison will serve as a member of the Illinois State Board of Education.* Morrison has worked as an Illinois educator and advocate for children for almost 40 years. She began her career as a social studies teacher, working for 10 years in Homer and Girard. Morrison taught middle and high school social studies and had administrative experience as a building principal and director of curriculum and instruction. She was also selected as the first state director for AdvancED at the University of Illinois. Morrison’s statewide leadership responsibilities have included positions as state director of School Improvement, state director of Gifted Education, state director of Education to Careers, and program director for many state and federal programs. She had oversight for state accountability, standards and assessment, teaching and learning, educator effectiveness, special education, early childhood education, bilingual education, and career and technical education prior to retiring as deputy superintendent/chief education officer at ISBE in June 2015. Morrison received her Master of Arts in educational administration from the University of Illinois Springfield, her bachelor’s degree from Cornell College, and a specialist degree in superintendency from Eastern Illinois University. She holds a Professional Educator License endorsed for teacher, principal and superintendent. Two of Morrison’s four children are public school teachers in Illinois. Morrison was appointed to the Illinois State Board of Education in July 2017 by Governor Bruce Rauner.
Cristina Pacione-Zayas will serve as a member of the Illinois State Board of Education.* Pacione-Zayas currently serves as the director of policy at Erikson Institute where she generates systemic solutions leading to equitable opportunities and positive outcomes for young children, families, and communities. Her work is informed by over a decade of experience leading education policy and community education initiatives in Illinois’s Latinx communities. Previously, Pacione-Zayas led the Latino Policy Forum’s Education Department with a focus on improving education policy in the birth-to-third-grade continuum that will produce positive outcomes for Latinx and immigrant children. During her two years as the culture of calm coordinator for Roberto Clemente Community Academy, a public high school in Chicago, she cultivated a 29 percent reduction in serious disciplinary infractions. As the community schools director at Enlace Chicago, she managed a network of eight community schools in the Little Village neighborhood, representing more than 1,500 youths and 650 adults. She received her doctorate in educational policy studies, Master of Education in educational policy studies and dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in sociology and Spanish from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Jane Quinlan will serve as a member of the Illinois State Board of Education.* Quinlan currently is regional superintendent for the Champaign-Ford Regional Office of Education 9, where she previously was the assistant regional superintendent. She served as the vice president of the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools from 2011-13. She previously served as director of ROE SchoolWorks, the professional development division of Champaign-Ford ROE and Vermilion ROE. Quinlan also has worked as a reading and language arts specialist at Education Service Center 13, where she later became assistant director and director. She received her Ph.D. in educational organization and leadership and her M.Ed. in reading from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her B.S.Ed. in elementary education from Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
Jacqueline Robbins will serve as a member of the Illinois State Board of Education.* Robbins served as UniServ Director for Region 53 and 35 at Illinois Education Association from 2007 to 2017. She previously taught at Dunlap High School, served as community relations manager and instructor of 28 programs at Hult Health Education Center and as program coordinator and instructor at Illinois Central College. She received her Master of Arts from Bradley University and Bachelor of Arts from Millikin University.
All appointments are pending confirmation by the Illinois Senate.
Tuesday, Feb 26, 2019 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
State Rep. Marcus Evans, D-Chicago, just showed Springfield what real leadership looks like.
State lawmakers are often criticized for not listening to voters. But the reality is most voters assume lawmakers don’t listen, and never contact them.
That wasn’t the case for House Bill 2864, which would have established a pilot program for a per-mile driving tax in Illinois. More than 30,000 Illinoisans in one week signed a petition opposing the tax.
“If people don’t like a bill, you stop it and you go back to the drawing board,” Rep. Evans said. He tabled HB 2864.
Not only did Rep. Evans listen to his constituents and taxpayers across the state, he took action. That’s leadership.
Flooding along the Ohio River forced crews to close roads in Hardin County Tuesday. They shut down Route 1 where the road is submerged.
“The last couple days, the water really started coming up on both side of Route 1,” said Hardin County Deputy Sheriff Joe Jenkins. “It’s completely over the road.” […]
The high water levels along the Ohio River are expected to last at least through the rest of the week.
Senator Dale Fowler said a meeting between lawmakers, first responders, IEMA, and the Army Corps of Engineers will take place Wednesday. They’ll be working to figure out if and when state resources can be deployed to help with damage.
* The governor apparently decided not to wait for Wednesday’s meeting…
Daily Public Schedule: Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019
What: Gov. Pritzker to hold media availability after surveying flooding and receiving an emergency response briefing in Metropolis. The governor will then depart to Cairo to survey flooding.
Where: Metropolis Fire Department, 213 West 7th Street, Metropolis
When: 11:30 a.m.
* Harrah’s Casino closed on the 18th. The governor’s folks sent me this pic today…
* And here’s one of Pritzker with Sen. Fowler and others…
More often than I care to remember, I’ve brow-beaten governors into traveling to flood zones. I didn’t even know about this flood until today.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
Governor JB Pritzker has directed the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) in Springfield to monitor flood conditions in southern Illinois and quickly deploy state assets and personnel if local officials request assistance as they battle floodwaters.
Gov. Pritzker and Illinois Emergency Management Agency Acting Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau met with local officials and emergency management officials in Massac and Alexander County today as the communities continue to prepare for significant river crests this weekend.
“I want all of our communities that have been impacted by recent flooding, from northern Illinois to southern Illinois, to know we are taking this very seriously,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “The state will do everything we can to help communities experiencing these extreme conditions this upcoming weekend and beyond. It’s important we work together in the days and weeks ahead to keep families safe and protect our communities.”
On Tuesday, a crew from the Illinois Department of Correction’s Shawnee Correctional Center began sandbag operations to aid the flood fight in Alexander County. Additional sandbags and pumps have also been deployed to Massac County and Alexander County. IEMA staff have been deployed to southern Illinois to help local emergency management officials assess the need for state assets or personnel. The American Red Cross is also working throughout the area assisting residents and attending to the needs of volunteers.
Public safety officials also want to take this time to remind motorists to be on the lookout for road closure postings. Residents are urged to avoid areas already flooded and never cross any barriers that are put in place by local emergency officials.
“Each year, more deaths occur due to flooding than from any other thunderstorm related hazard,” said IEMA Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau. “Over half of all flood-related drownings occur when a vehicle is driven into hazardous flood waters. Please heed the warning from your local officials. Turn around, don’t drown. It is never safe to drive or walk into flood waters.”
Nearly 100 Illinois children who died within the last two years were involved with the state’s Department of Children and Family Services. That’s according to a recent Inspector General report. […]
Past Inspector General reports reveal the seemingly-high number to be average by comparison. Within the last 10 years, between 84 and 113 children have died while being supervised in some capacity by DCFS.
* But that’s not the most worrisome number, as Hannah Meisel points out today…
However, the number of children who died after a DCFS caseworker investigated a claim of abuse or neglect, but was not able to substantiate the claim, continued to rise in 2018, as in years past.
Thirty-seven children died after a caseworker had investigated either their parent, guardian, home or other situation related to the child but classified the complaint as “unfounded,” according to the report.
[Inspector General Meryl Paniak] pointed to a memo sent anonymously from the agency’s Joliet field office to Gov. JB Pritzker, Paniak, the agency’s former acting director, Beverly “BJ” Walker, several other administration officials and members of the Chicago news media describing a severe understaffing in the office.
The unsigned two-page letter, which is dated “February 2019,” describes the Joliet field office as in a “major crisis,” and says caseworkers who live within miles of the Joliet office are so “stressed and overwhelmed” with their jobs, they’ve found other jobs much further from their homes.
The letter says the Joliet office should have 30 child protection investigators, but in reality has “less than half” the staff needed.
“We are continuing to lose investigators weekly,” according to the letter. “This is a safety concern and unfair to the current staff.”
* This isn’t the first time the Joliet office has been in the news. From 2017…
As state child welfare investigators probed allegations of abuse in the Joliet Township home where 17-month-old Semaj Crosby would later be found dead, their supervisor was launching a contest that awarded $100 gift cards to the two workers who closed the most cases in a month, according to agency interviews and internal emails examined by the Tribune.
The 3rd place winner would get a $50 gift card.
Evidence of the Joliet office contest emerged as the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services faces mounting criticism from state lawmakers that it is quickly closing abuse and neglect investigations even when basic information has not been gathered and children are left in harm’s way.
If you promote an atmosphere like this, then you can’t be surprised when more kids die every year after their cases were deemed unfounded.
…Adding… More from Hannah…
9/11) Another huge thing about DCFS: Since Gov. Blagojevich's first year in office, 2003, the agency has had 11 directors in 16 years. @GovPritzker is conducting a nationwide search for the next one. The names are below. 2 under Blago, 5 under Quinn, 4 under Rauner (some overlap) pic.twitter.com/Uf2WogjVLQ
The budget would raise $1.1 billion of fresh revenue from a new tax on plastic bags, license fees from legalized cannabis and sports betting, closing a corporate tax loophole, taxing e-cigarettes, raising the existing cigarette tax, assessing a tax on Medicaid, changing the existing tax structure on video gambling and capping a retailers’ discount.
About one-third of the new revenue is one-shots, Fitch analyst Eric Kim said.
Another $175 million would be raised from a delinquent tax amnesty and while there’s no new interfund borrowing from non-general fund accounts the budget defers repayment of $320 million previously borrowed. Both are one-shots.
A projected $155 million end-of-year balance would go to pay down the now $8.3 billion backlog of the state’s unpaid bills. A $1.5 billion borrowing to pay down the backlog would generate an estimated $110 million of savings for fiscal 2020.
As some of you may be aware, there’s been a minor tempest floating around the state’s news media on the proper spelling of the governor’s initials. What’s in an initial, right?
But it has to do with the question of do you use periods (J.B.) or not (JB). Pritzker prefers his initials appear without periods. However, many publications, including this one, have a style policy that says use periods. And the administration doesn’t get to dictate all media policy.
The crisis stemmed from the ceremony Pritzker had last week to sign into law the hike in the minimum wage. Lots of people attend these ceremonies, including the one for the minimum wage. Most of them expect to walk away with a souvenir pen that was used to sign a portion of the governor’s name. The more people who want pens, the tinier the part of the signature the pen is part of.
Pritzker felt the stress of making everyone happy and apparently rued his choice of spelling.
“Now is when the periods would have come in handy,” he said.
* The Question: J.B. or JB? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
A suburban state representative has proposed a law that she and her youth advisory group believe would help protect the mental stability of students during interrogations about behavior by requiring a parent or mental health professional to be there.
The proposal originated from the January 2017 death of 16-year-old Corey Walgren, a Naperville North High School student who took his life after being questioned by school officials and police about an allegation of wrongdoing.
But the attorney for Corey’s parents, Douglas and Maureen Walgren of Naperville, said the bill as written could do the opposite of protecting student mental health because of the word “or,” which could allow a mental health professional instead of a parent to be present during questioning, potentially leading to very different advice. […]
“The police and the school personnel are already required to notify the parents prior to any interrogation of a student by the police or where the police are involved,” Ekl said. “That is something that I believe Naperville North and perhaps other school districts routinely violate.”
Ekl said the proposed law’s requirement of “the presence of the student’s parent or guardian, a school social worker or a licensed mental health professional” weakens the previous mandate.
* The Illinois News Network runs at least its third story about this House resolution in eleven days…
One of the four state lawmakers behind a bill that would split Chicago off from the rest of Illinois says that while the measure was designed to spark conversation, support for a split could gain support if policymakers continue to push Windy City policies on the rest of the state. […]
State Rep. Darren Bailey, R-Louisville, said policies implemented in Chicago are being forced on the rest of the state.
“People in our area, southern Illinois, they’re mad,” Bailey said. “Fifteen [dollars an hour], a tax on plastic bags? We’re headed to some serious problems in Illinois if this does not stop.”
Bailey said he hopes to host several Chicago-area lawmakers at his family farm to show them the differences between Chicago and the rest of the state.
Bailey is one of four lawmakers signed on to House Resolution 101, which would ask the U.S. Congress to make Chicago its own state. He said he signed on to the measure to start a conversation.
Illinois motor vehicles would only need one license plate if a bill sponsored by a Chicago-area lawmaker is passed.
Rep. Allen Skillicorn, R-East Dundee, introduced House Bill 1623, which states that the Secretary of State would issue only one license plate to cars, motorcycles, trailers, semi trailers, motorized pedalcycle or truck tractors, instead of two. […]
[Dave Druker, press secretary for the Secretary of State Jesse White] said this has traditionally been a law enforcement issue.
The reason for this, Druker said, is that if an officer is out on the street, they have an increased chance of catching someone’s license plate number if they can see it from both sides.
* Wouldn’t you think that before the governor unveiled his budget he’d brief the chief sponsors of an integral part of his proposal about what he intended to do? Or, you know, maybe do it right after?
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed budget for the 2020 fiscal year includes $170 million in new revenue from licensing fees for legalized recreational marijuana, but the details of the legislation are not yet finalized. […]
[Sen. Heather Steans, the chief Senate sponsor] said she would hope to have language filed for a Senate bill “in the next month or so,” and both said they would like to see it passed by May 31, provided they can iron out the final details.
“I haven’t gotten the details behind (the governor’s $170 million projection). So I really can’t comment on that yet,” Steans said. “It seems like a reasonable approach. All the revenue estimates we’ve had so far, when you have a fully mature program in place, have been around $500 million. So this is clearly well below that and based much more on up-front licensing fees, not from receipts based on sales tax.”
I checked this afternoon and, five days after the governor’s budget address, the sponsors have still not been briefed.
Today is February 25th. May 31st is in 95 calendar days. There are 41 scheduled Senate session days and 44 scheduled House session days until the scheduled adjournment.
* There’s no reason to panic yet because there’s still plenty of time to get this done, but time flies fast around these parts and the sponsors have been asking for gubernatorial guidance for over a month to almost no avail. Also, the sponsors have other things to do before adjournment besides this one project. They’re both approp committee chairs, for instance.
* Lots of people love mail-in ballots. But as we all clearly saw last November, that means we won’t necessarily know all the results on election night. So, news outlets need to make sure they don’t repeat their mistakes from last fall and publicly declare winners before ascertaining whether tens of thousands of uncounted ballots could change the final scores…
With 37,000 mail-in ballots not yet returned, Chicago election officials on Monday talked openly about a nightmare scenario that suddenly looks real: a mayoral election so close, it drags on for days and even includes a possible recount.
Election Board spokesman Jim Allen is not predicting that will happen. But he’s at least acknowledging that possibility with 63,000 mail-in ballots requested, only 26,000 returned, 1,000 not counted because of defects and a crowded field of 14 mayoral candidates that has left voters confused.
Mail-in ballots can be counted later, so long as they are postmarked on Tuesday — or even Wednesday, if they were mailed on election day.
If the margin separating the top few finishers is smaller than the number of outstanding ballots, we may not know until days or even weeks after Tuesday’s election which candidates will advance to the April 2 runoff.
Also, please stop calling it a “nightmare scenario.” It’s the legal voting process and it’s been around awhile now. I mean, remember the 2014 race when we didn’t know who the next state treasurer would be for a couple of weeks?
Instantaneous results are a fantasy of the media’s own construction.
* The president met with several governors at the White House today and gave a speech…
Near the end of his address, Trump noted that there were 17 new governors at the event in the State Dining Room. “Very smart ones, like my friend,” Trump said, turning to Pritzker, who has frequently criticized the president.
“Congratulations. It’s a great — you’re going to have — you have such an easy state. That’s so easy. Great state of Illinois. What an easy state. I don’t know. Huh? Have you found it to be easier or tougher than you thought?”
“Well, you’re going to help us out,” Pritzker responded, drawing a laugh from his fellow chief executives.
“I’ll help you out. I help everybody out. I’m going to help you,” Trump said.
"The china is smashing against the walls again in one of New York's rockiest corporate marriages — the partnership between Jay Pritzker, the Chicago financier, and Donald J. Trump, the Manhattan developer, who jointly operate the Grand Hyatt Hotel." 7/https://t.co/xnYclFx9Vrpic.twitter.com/C7ulrCskF0
* Carol Marin last week asked Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, whether the governor’s proposed restructuring of the pension ramp is “just another pension holiday”…
Well, yeah. An incomplete on the pensions. Look, he didn’t publish enough material for us to weigh in on those pensions and either support or not support what he did.
One major concern we have is they reamortized, changed the ramp, the payment schedule, but they didn’t point out what the new payment plan looks like, so I don’t see what that new ramp is and we want the state to go to a level dollar, so it doesn’t always have this increasing payment obligation. That’s what strains the fiscal resources. We don’t want to see a new ramp with new high payments down the road.
Remember, the governor wants to extend the ramp by seven years. But he has yet to say how much money the state will “save” during those seven years and how much more it will cost taxpayers in the long term. Until we know that, we will have no idea if his other pension proposals (asset transfer, permanent buy-out, $200 million per year from graduated tax, $2 billion pension bond) are enough to close the gap.
A total of 98 children died last year in cases involving the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, according to the Office of the Inspector General.
This more than 200-page report documents almost 100 children who died after some kind of connection to DCFS. […]
Of the 98 deaths, 18 were ruled homicides, 26 undetermined, 27 accidents, and 27 natural causes.
Of the 18 homicides, eight from blunt force trauma, six from a gunshot wound, one from stab wounds, one from blunt trauma due to a vehicle striking a bicyclist, and two from dehydration and starvation, similar to Ta’Naja Barnes’ case.
Each of these cases involves children whose families were involved in the child welfare system in the preceding 12 months.
* Claire Stewart, Staff Counsel at the ACLU of Illinois…
This report makes clear one thing - DCFS is broken. The past administration believed that problems in the agency could be covered by platitudes and public relation stunts. All the while, DCFS was failing at its core mission to protect children in our state.
There can be no more time wasted. We need new leadership in the Department, leadership that is unafraid of doing the hard work and taking advice from experts to avoid a full collapse by this agency.
Nearly 100 children died who were somehow connected to DCFS – nearly 100. This is not tolerable and must be fixed.
Pritzker asked the General Assembly to give DCFS an extra $73 million.
Roughly $11 million of that would go toward hiring 126 additional DCFS service staff.
That would include child protection and welfare specialists as well.
He also proposed $10.5 million for foster home care - that’s due to caseload growth.
* Related…
* Police: Mother left 2-year-old daughter to starve and freeze to death in Decatur home: Police accuse a Decatur mother, Twanka L. Davis, of leaving her 2-year-old daughter to starve and freeze to death amid filthy, rodent-infested conditions in their home, according to a sworn affidavit. The affidavit states that Davis was arrested Wednesday afternoon and booked on preliminary charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter and endangering the life and health of a child. Preliminary charges are subject to review by the Macon County State Attorney’s Office. The child was taken from her mother in 2018 during an investigation of child abuse and placed in foster care, police said. She was returned to her mother in August.
* DCFS takes custody of second child after toddler’s death: Davis and her boyfriend allowed police to search the two-story home. The home had a strong smell of urine and rotten garbage and signs of rodent and insect infestation. The plumbing under the sink was not connected and the water main to the home was shut off from the inside. In the bathroom, they reported finding a toilet filled to the brim. In the bathtub, they found a box filled with liquid and debris. In the child’s room, they found only a toddler bed with no sheets or blankets, empty bottles, debris apparently chewed by rodents and feces.
* Lawmakers react to DCFS’s twisted timeline of Ta’Naja’s death: So we called DCFS spokesperson Jimmie Whitelow back on Tuesday, February 19 and asked if the timeline they had given was accurate. He responded by saying they don’t get into case specifics. Which is different from what he said when we spoke to him on Friday, February 15 and he was giving us specific information.
* What happens to the DCFS report related to child deaths after it’s filed: “Since 2003, DCFS has changed directors eight different times and each of the directors has had a different vision. So, because of this, the core mission of this agency got lost,” Feigenholtz said. In fact, the current interim director, Debra Dyer Webster, has been on the job less than two weeks.
Is there anything more frightening to the citizens of Illinois than a picture of Illinois’ Bermuda Triangle — Gov. J.B. Pritzker, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton — at the dais? Brace for impact, my fellow Illinoisans, the reign of terror has begun.
— Mark Zavagnin, La Grange
Well, at least we know the Trib won’t ever be lecturing anyone on civility.
This budget also includes the legalization and taxation of sports betting. Expansion of gambling is a perennial effort in this state, and often these proposals get bogged down in regional disputes and a Christmas tree approach. But in those instances, we were talking about adding more riverboats or adding into other regions. Sports betting is different – this is a new market created by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. Every day we argue about “who’s in and who’s out” is money that goes to other states and to the black market. I am calling on the legislature to take this up immediately so that Illinois can realize hundreds of millions of dollars, create new jobs, and bring sports betting into a regulated environment that will protect citizens from bad actors. If we do it this year and become the first state in the Midwest to move on this initiative, we can realize more than $200 million from sports betting fees and taxes in FY 2020.
* The Tribune takes a look at the huge number of interest groups vying for a piece of that pie. This is accurate…
“The history is that it’s hard to keep these (gambling bills) clean,” said Kent Redfield, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “But the history is also that, more often than not, when they become a Christmas tree, they collapse under their own weight.”
That mainly happens when the four legislative leaders and the governor are not all pulling in the same direction.
Who would be eligible for a license remains open for negotiation, Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said.
If the state creates 20 licenses as the governor has proposed, each of Illinois’ 10 casinos and three horse tracks could be licensed to take bets on sporting events. Video gaming terminal operators, existing sportsbooks in other states and sports teams also could vie for licenses.
While Pritzker has put down “a reasonable marker” for what he’d like to see, “I do get the sense he’s very willing to let us try to work it out for him and try to get to a place where we’re comfortable and he’s comfortable and we can get a bill on his desk,” [Rep. Mike Zalewski] said.
Using history as a guide, if the governor punts the details to the General Assembly he’s probably gonna wind up with a huge bundle of messy nothing.
Ensuring that guns don’t remain in the possession of unauthorized owners is a challenge. Illinois allows police to get search warrants to confiscate these firearms, but they rarely do so.
On Friday, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said law enforcement agencies should go after owners who have lost their FOID cards, as his department does. Over the past five years, he said, it has seized about 1,000 guns. But even that is a small share of the total: Last year alone, there were 3,610 revocations in Cook County. Dart also proposed a fee for gun licensing to finance gun recovery efforts by police.
Illinois may not be ready for Dart’s approach, which would involve not only expense but danger to both cops and the individuals they would have to confront. But there is another sensible option: Issue arrest warrants for anyone whose FOID is revoked but who fails to relinquish his guns and file a Firearm Disposition Record.
Police wouldn’t necessarily go after those who don’t comply, but they could arrest anyone they stop who has an outstanding warrant. That policy would be simple and inexpensive to administer, and it would serve as an incentive for compliance. If it had been in effect, it could have stopped Martin, who was arrested several times in Illinois, most recently in 2017.
Rep. Robert Martwick, D-Chicago, the House sponsor of one elected school board bill, said he told Gov. JB Pritzker that his No. 1 priority is to get Chicago an elected school board. Martwick said he sees no reason why the bill can’t be passed this spring, with board members selected as soon as next spring. […]
But the bill isn’t being fast-tracked like the $15 minimum wage bill just signed by the governor. The governor’s office did not respond to questions about why the bill doesn’t appear to be moving quickly.
Um, huh?
It’s February 25th. Committees have barely started meeting. Only five House bills have made it out of committee and are currently awaiting floor action.
Just one bill got the super-fast-track treatment since Pritzker was sworn in. Martwick’s bill is in the hopper with literally every other bill.
There’s no need for conspiracy theories here - at least not at this point in the session.
* And there’s good reason for avoiding a fast-track. As the story itself notes, there’s no real agreement yet on how to move forward…
Among the top candidates vying to replace Emanuel, about half want a fully elected school board and the other half want a hybrid board where the mayor appoints some members and others are elected.
* And even Martwick isn’t sure of the specific language he wants to push…
The bill introduced in the House would create an elected school board as soon as 2020, while the one introduced in the Senate doesn’t call for implementation until 2023. However, Martwick said he is willing to move back the date, and a separate bill has been filed in the House to hold elections starting in 2023.
Martwick, by the way, passed an elected school board bill out of the House in 2017, but never publicly tried to move it once the Senate amended it and sent it back to him (inconveniently enough, on May 31st). The bill then sat in House Rules for over a year.
Both chambers have played lots of games with this concept because Mayor Emanuel wanted to keep appointing school board members. So, conspiracy theories have been justifiable in the past and they likely will in the future. Just not today.
Give Gov. J.B. Pritzker some credit, the man can give a good speech.
Last week’s budget address was well-written and respectful of its audience and effectively used Illinois history to make its points. The governor delivered the address like … well … a governor. Unlike some previous occupants of that office, he didn’t try to make himself look better at the General Assembly’s expense. He didn’t propose totally outrageous revenue or spending ideas that had zero chance of passage.
In other words, it was one of the more effective budget addresses I’ve seen since perhaps George Ryan was in office – the last governor who (love him or hate him) actually knew how to get things done.
But speeches, in the end, are just words. What matters most about a budget address is what’s actually in the budget. And it seemed to me like the governor may have oversold the doom and gloom during the past couple of weeks by warning of a $3.2 billion deficit. Pritzker did utter the word “austere,” but focused mainly on how he planned to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on programs near to his heart.
The coming year’s pension “holiday” is bigger than initially advertised – $878 million versus the $800 million figure previously floated by the governor’s office. And they’re looking at $390 million for an “assessment” on managed care organizations for Medicaid programs.
Pritzker wants to reduce interfund borrowing repayments by $315 million, incentivize the payment of delinquent taxes for an estimated $175 million, decouple from the federal repatriation tax cut to bring in $94 million, slap a progressive tax structure on video gaming to bring in $89 million and cap the amount retailers can keep from collecting the sales tax to $1,000 a month to bring in another $75 million.
Licensing fees for sports wagering and recreational cannabis would bring in $212 million and $170 million, respectively. He didn’t book any usage tax revenues.
There were some surprises. We knew Pritzker would ask to impose an e-cigarette tax to bring in $10 million, but we didn’t know he wanted to increase the cigarette tax by 30 cents a pack to bring in $55 million. Revenues from both taxes will be used for Medicaid spending.
We also hadn’t heard about a potentially controversial plastic bag tax that will supposedly bring in $20 million. Between the minimum wage hike, the retailer sales tax discount cap and the plastic bag and two cigarette-related taxes, Pritzker may make it even more difficult for the Illinois Retail Merchants Association to justify working with him after being the only business organization not to endorse Bruce Rauner last year.
The governor’s revenue projections for both this fiscal year and next are a combined $1.4 billion higher than the previous administration’s admittedly gloomy forecast, but that includes the $1.1 billion in additional revenues from his tax and fee list.
Pritzker’s projected expenditures for this fiscal year and next are a combined $660 million lower than Rauner’s, and that’s mainly because of the pension payment “holiday.”
You have to look hard to find proposed program cuts, but they do exist. Not many, but some. There’s a million-dollar cut to expenses for the Park and Conservation Program, for example. School district consolidation incentives are reduced by $1.5 million. A $4.6 million grant to the RTA for paratransit is eliminated. The Department of Natural Resources will see a 1.2 percent reduction because of a cut in Other State Funds that’s partially offset by new federal money.
But the expansions vastly outweigh the cuts. Most have already been widely reported, but the highest percentage increase is for the governor’s own office, at 155 percent. The state has a new law that for the first time ever requires all employees of the governor’s office to be paid out of his office’s budget, not offshored to other state agencies. For decades, governors have used offshoring to mask the actual costs of operating their offices by putting their staff on other agencies’ payrolls. So, while eye-popping, it’s reasonable.
And while universities are receiving a 5 percent increase in operating assistance, the total appropriation is still just 96.4 percent of what they were appropriated in the Fiscal Year 2015 budget – the last one approved before the two-year impasse began. That’s perhaps the best illustration in the entire budget about how far the state has to go to repair the damage caused during Gov. Rauner’s tenure – not to even mention the damage from the previous 15 years.
Gov. Pritzker Appoints 29-Year IDOT Veteran to Lead Department
Building on a strong team of diverse experts in their fields, Governor JB Pritzker announced the following personnel appointment:
Omer Osman will serve as Secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). Osman has over 29 years of experience in the civil engineering and management field at IDOT. In his most recent role as Deputy Secretary for the Office of Project Implementation, he is responsible for guiding day-to-day program delivery and developing both short- and long-term technical policies and procedures. Prior to his current position, Osman served as the Director of Highways, Deputy Director of Region 5 and District Four Project Implementation and Operations Engineer. He has been an integral member of the statewide Diversity and Recruitment Team that had managed to increase and integrate a diverse population of IDOT’s technical staff. Osman received his Master of Science in civil engineering from Bradley University and his Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Southern University.
Osman is an African-American and that agency has been very white throughout the decades.
S&P Global Ratings believes that Illinois’ (BBB-/Stable) executive budget proposal precariously balances the current budget, but punts measures to address fiscal progress to future years. It prioritizes service solvency at the expense of lower pension contributions and does not make meaningful progress toward tackling the $7.9 billion bill backlog or projected out-year deficits. The governor called the fiscal 2020 budget a “bridge” and laid out the framework of a multiyear strategy whose success hinges largely on a tough campaign to pass a progressive income tax that requires a constitutional amendment. Its pension component also relies on unidentified asset transfers to the pension plans, but no savings from those asset transfers are built into the fiscal 2020 budget plan. Illinois has a track record of leaving difficult fiscal choices to future budgets, and to the extent that reforms do not materialize to offset weaker pension funding, the fiscal 2020 budget could weaken the state’s credit trajectory. […]
The new administration laid out a five-step plan that infuses assets into the pension systems, but undermines funding progress through extending the plans’ amortization period for budgetary relief. […]
We consider the fiscal 2020 budget’s balance dubious. First, it relies on legalization of sports betting and recreational marijuana, which could take the state longer than it estimates to implement. Second, revenue projections could prove optimistic given our expectation that U.S. economic growth will slow. The budget estimates 3.19% growth in base individual income taxes and 2.79% growth in base sales taxes, and if the state misses these projections, it would quickly exhaust its 0.4% budgeted surplus and has minimal cushion to weather additional fiscal pressures that would accompany an economic downturn. However, in our view, reliance on a degree of uncertain revenues and lingering structural imbalance is status quo for Illinois.
More consequential for credit quality, the proposed budget asks legislators to reduce pension contributions based on the faith that future years’ budgets will address fiscal sustainability. The governor has predicated his multiyear strategy on a progressive income tax that requires a constitutional amendment that will not appear on the ballot until November 2020. This revenue stream is far from certain, and there is no detail yet on rates, brackets, or the amount of revenue it is supposed to generate. Despite the potential for a more collaborative budget process with single-party control of state government, Illinois has yet to prove its ability to make politically difficult decisions in favor of structural balance and sustainability. If it adopts the budget in its current form, it remains at risk of repeating a pattern of putting off hard choices while eroding pension funding. Illinois cannot indefinitely push out pension payments given benefit payout requirements, and we saw in 2017 that it faces limits to its bill backlog. If the state fails to redeem its longer pension amortization schedule through a practical reduction in liabilities, its credit trajectory could slip.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced Sunday she would return $116,000 raised at a campaign fundraiser that embattled Ald. Edward Burke hosted at his home last January, an about-face after a week of potentially damaging revelations about her history with him. […]
A copy of the invitation for the fundraiser at Burke’s home reads, “Chairman Edward M. Burke would like to invite you to a fundraiser in support of Hon. Toni Preckwinkle.” But Preckwinkle on Friday said it was Burke’s wife, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, who arranged the fundraiser.
Asked why the justice’s name wasn’t on the invite instead of the alderman’s, Preckwinkle replied, “She was a candidate at the time, so the invitation came from Ed.” Anne Burke was seeking retention to a second 10-year term as a justice, and such high-level jurists often try to maintain an appearance of being above the political fray.
[Mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot] argued that Preckwinkle has “made herself a fact witness in the Ed Burke case” because of the fundraiser and would be “questioned by the FBI” if she hasn’t been already.
“They’re gonna want to know what was said. How did this fundraiser come to be? And they’re gonna look, of course, at every dollar that was raised during that fundraiser to make a determination if Ed Burke put the arm improperly on anybody else,” Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot scoffed at Preckwinkle’s claim that Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke —not the alderman— was responsible for throwing the January, 2018 fundraiser at the Burke home.
“She threw Anne Burke under the bus. Of course, Anne Burke had nothing to do with that fundraiser…She’s a good and able judge. She knows what the rules are. That had nothing to do with Anne Burke. It had everything to do with Toni Preckwinkle’s relationship with Ed Burke,” Lightfoot said.
* And now, this…
There is only one way to get to the truth so today I filed a request with the Judicial Inquiry Board to investigate Justice Anne Burke's fundraiser for Toni Preckwinkle. Either Anne Burke violated the judicial code of ethics or Toni Preckwinkle is lying. #ChiMayor2019#twillpic.twitter.com/ttHckRcQN8
Asked about the complaint filed with the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, a spokesman for the state's high court @illinoiscourts just told @WBEZ: 'No comment as this is a pending matter.'
Jeff Orr told WBEZ he does not support any candidate in Tuesday’s mayoral election, but his father has endorsed Preckwinkle rival Lori Lightfoot.
And Preckwinkle’s campaign accused Jeff Orr of being a Lightfoot supporter, too.
“This is pure politics from a supporter of one of Toni’s political opponents the weekend before the election,” the campaign said in a statement Friday. “The details of the event have been known for several months. But now, a couple of days before the election, this supporter of millionaire corporate attorney Lori Lightfoot files a claim. Why?”
* About 25 minutes ago, I received a text message with a link pointing me to this Tribune op-ed by Greg Baise, who, according to the paper, is the “chairman of Ideas Illinois, a pro-job-creation political committee.” The op-ed was published online at 11:40 this morning. Exerpt…
To be clear, Illinois has the second highest property taxes in the nation. Politicians in Springfield have raised income taxes by historic amounts, yet we are still billions in the hole.
The Pritzker administration would say that’s where its “progressive income tax” comes in. The state raises taxes on people at a certain income level, and they pay for all the new spending ideas. Ask some of the small business owners and job creators you know how they feel about that.
Let’s call it the “jobs tax” — because it will accelerate the push of already-struggling job creators out of Illinois.
In addition, the governor has floated this idea without telling voters the rates at which they would be taxed.
Raise your hand if you think it’s a good idea to give Springfield politicians, through a state constitutional amendment, an unfettered ability to raise taxes year after year.
* Then minutes later I received a texted heads-up about a forthcoming statement from Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady. It arrived a few minutes ago…
The Democrat’s graduated income tax plan is nothing more than a tax increase on the middle class. What we need to be focusing on is advancing policies that attract businesses and jobs, grow our economy and provide our over-taxed homeowners with relief.
* Exactly one minute later, this statement from House Republican Leader Jim Durkin landed in my in-box…
State Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) today released the following statement on the Progressive Tax:
My caucus is united in its opposition to the Democrats’ tax increase on Illinois families and employers. Higher taxes won’t solve our problems, nor have they ever as history has shown. Higher taxes only lead to more spending and more government programs. Until our state learns to live within its means, we should not ask for another penny from Illinois families, workers and businesses.
* There’s a bit of a competition brewing between Baise’s group and the Illinois Policy Institute to lead the anti-progressive tax charge. There’s potentially a whole lot of money to harvest for this push, so it should be fun to watch. And while I’m not saying that Brady and Durkin are aligning with Baise, I’m just saying that was an interesting little coinkydink. (The SGOPs, by the way, say it was a total coincidence.)
Both advocacy groups are currently running Facebook ads railing against the progressive tax. Click here for the Policy Institute ads and click here for the Baise ads.
The Institute is also running dozens of Facebook ads railing against a possible tax hike on motorists. Click here to see those ads.
To ensure the public is better protected from those who lose their right to carry deadly weapons, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart proposed legislation Thursday to create countywide police units to recover those weapons and to improve information sharing about those firearms.
The move would close loopholes in state law and processes that Sheriff Dart and anti-violence advocates have long pointed out. Currently, Illinois law relies on an “honor system” when an individual’s firearm license (FOID) is revoked, which often happens because of an arrest, an order of protection or a court’s determination that the person is a danger to themselves or others.
Under the law, such an individual is sent a letter by state police directing them to turn their weapons over to police or another person lawfully able to carry weapons. Additionally, critical information about whether the person attempted to purchase weapons – before or after the revocation – is not shared with local law enforcement.
Sheriff Dart’s proposal requires such information to be shared with local police within 24 hours of a revocation or attempted purchase.
The legislation also mandates the creation of countywide units to recover weapons from those who have their FOID cards revoked. The units will be led by the county sheriff and include members of the county state’s attorney office and local law enforcement. The legislation directs a portion of existing state FOID fees to the effort. Plus, the proposal increases the penalty from a misdemeanor to a Class 4 felony for those who fail to relinquish their weapons when their FOID is revoked.
In 2013, Sheriff Dart created a specialized unit to recover weapons and revoked FOID cards in Cook County. So far, the unit has recovered more than 1,000 firearms.
Additionally, the Sheriff is proposing an increase in the FOID card application fee from $10 to $15, the additional money would be deposited into a fund dedicated to revocation enforcement.
“Last week’s tragedy at the Henry Pratt Company serves as a stark reminder of these dangerous loopholes in our current laws,” Sheriff Dart said. “Too many times there are clear warning signs about deadly violence. We must do more as a state to ensure law enforcement is reacting to those signs and has the information and tools necessary to do so. As we are constantly and tragically reminded, lives are at stake.”
* The Question: Your opinion of Dart’s ideas? Make sure to explain.
Matt Magalis, acting secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation, laid out just some of the numbers to a Senate panel that’s been tasked with putting together a plan.
“We currently have 79 million square feet of bridges requiring maintenance and updates,” he said. “That’s over 730 state bridges. We also have a need over the next 10 years of additional funding of $13-15 billion for our highways. That is just maintenance. We also have a need for capacity (highway expansion) that is in the billions of dollars.”
In addition to highways, Magalis said there is a long list of needed upgrades for other forms of transportation: $250 million in state funds for airports around the state, not including Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports; $19.1 billion for public transit; $800 million for passenger rail; and $4 billion for freight rail.
Also, Margalis said, locks and dams along the state’s waterways, which carry a significant volume of freight, are facing costs in the “hundreds of millions of dollars.”
That totals $39 billion without the highway expansions, Chicago airports and the locks and dams.
* And that doesn’t include “vertical.” NPR Illinois…
Requests for money from across state government and beyond are starting to pile up.
The leaking roofs, aging plumbing, and failing heating and cooling systems at state facilities could cost up to $7.8 billion and, at public colleges and universities, $6.5 billion, according to the Capital Development Board, the agency responsible for state construction. And the Illinois State Board of Education says deferred maintenance at local schools totals around $9.6 billion. […]
While senators heard testimony from state agencies, elsewhere in the Capitol state representatives fielded requests for money for more pre-K classrooms and other deferred maintenance in schools, upgrades to Navy Pier, 10,000 units of affordable housing, and replacement of drinking water pipes that contain lead.
That totals $23.9 billion without the stuff in the second paragraph.
“Given available data from public health research on smoking habits in Illinois, cigarette consumption is likely to continue decreasing over the next few years,” said an entry in the budget book prepared by Pritzker’s office.
It was accompanied by a chart showing cigarette tax receipts dropping from $807 million in the 2016 fiscal year (which ended June 30, 2016) to an estimated $700 million this year. The last cigarette tax hike was in 2012 when it was increased by $1 a pack to $1.98.
Illinois ranks 19th in the country now for the level of its cigarette tax. The only state adjoining Illinois with a higher tax is Wisconsin at $2.52 a pack. It would still be higher if Illinois enacts the latest increase.
However, Illinois will be surrounded by other states with far lower cigarette taxes, including Missouri which ranks 50th at 17-cents a pack.
“They’re putting nails in our coffins,” said Bill Fleischli, executive vice-president of the Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association, Illinois Association of Convenience Stores, who also pointed to the effort to raise the tobacco purchasing age. “They raised the minimum wage, they’re going to try to tax gasoline.”
On February 6th, University of Chicago College Republicans President Brett Barbin spoke to David Krupa, a candidate for alderman in Chicago’s 13th Ward, over the phone. They discussed allegations against Krupa made by the candidate’s ex-girlfriend, Juliet Schmidt. These allegations are outlined in an emergency order of protection filed by Schmidt’s family, which has since been vacated.
The content of the conversation left Barbin unsettled, and he came to Gate reporters with his concerns. The Gate has since spoken with Barbin, Krupa, Schmidt, and others to investigate the allegations ahead of the February 26th Chicago election. […]
Krupa claims that the allegations in the documents were falsified by [Juliet’s father] Michael Schmidt in order to keep the couple apart. […]
However, Juliet Schmidt told the Gate that she agreed with her parents that an EOP was necessary, and that she was afraid of seeing Krupa at the time the order of protection was filed.
Schmidt said the idea of filing an order of protection was first suggested by a social worker she met with due to issues in her relationship with Krupa. Her teacher, Amy Fritsch, confirmed she sent Schmidt to see the social worker during school hours. Her father corroborated that the idea of filing an EOP was first proposed by the social worker. Schmidt said that her father filed the EOP on her behalf due to the fact she was only 17 years old at the time. “My dad did file it,” she said, “but it was my decision.”
[Krupa] said the judge in the case was never going to side with him because she was female. He wished he had had a white, male judge who had faced these kinds of allegations in the past, stating that then he would have been fine. In the midst of our conversation about the case, Mr. Krupa admitted to one of the allegations. In a conversation about his condom use, Mr. Krupa said he did not like wearing a condom during sex and never did early on in his relationship with his ex-girlfriend. But, later on, his ex-girlfriend asked him to start using a condom when the relationship was falling apart. I then asked if he ever took his condom off without her consent. He confirmed this, and said that she never had a problem with unprotected sex at the beginning of their relationship. He then questioned the difference that it made.
To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Krupa has only categorically denied these allegations to the public. He has dismissed them as politically motivated and fabricated by his ex-girlfriend’s father who did not want them to date. Based on the conversation I had with Mr. Krupa on February 6, I believe his public denials to be at least partially false. […]
Mr. Krupa is seeking an office with the responsibility of handling millions in public tax dollars. He has opened himself up to criticism and rigorous vetting in order to earn the public’s endorsement and trust. I would never want a representative who could so easily and consistently lie about his background.
As a Republican in Chicago, I often find myself at odds with the prevailing opinion. However, I think we can all agree that City Council does not need any more lies and deception.
Contrary to recent releases, Paul Vallas will not be participating in aldermanic candidate David Krupa’s “New Chicago Way Coalition” or joint press conference regarding the initiative. We did not provide or approve use of our logo. Any questions regarding the matter can be directed to our media contact.
And…
Our press conference for this afternoon has been postponed. Another date will be announced.
Other [Gov. Pritzker budget] ideas included making a recent [pension] buyout program permanent.
State Rep. Mark Batinick, R-Plainfield, who helped craft the buyout program last year, said making it permanent could be irreversible and possibly be abused, costing taxpayers more.
“The way to do something like this is to expand it, not make the small thing we’re doing permanent, but to expand the buyouts and do it for a short period of time,” Batinick said.
Batinick said if the buyout were made permanent, the state constitution’s pension-protection clause would make it impossible to undo. He said the program needs a sunset date. Instead, Batinick said the state needs to find other incentives to get eligible people to take the buyout in a limited time frame.
“I didn’t hear those,” Batinick said after Pritzker’s budget speech Wednesday. “What I just heard was more borrowing, higher taxes, more spending and counting on revenue that has yet to be realized with new programs.”
Fitch analysts said extending the plans indefinitely could add to current year budget pressures by eliminating the incentive for those eligible to sign up for a buyout this year, reducing estimated savings.
State Rep. Robert Martwick, D-Chicago, who also helped usher in the buyout plans last year, said there’s also the risk of negative selection.
“The most common example would be ‘I’m set to retire but I found out that I only have three weeks to live and so I go in and I take a buyout,’ and so the state loses because it would be a negative selection.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday he will press the General Assembly to approve a graduated income tax before it adjourns in May — with both a constitutional amendment to put before voters and companion legislation setting forth the new tax rates.
Pritzker’s ambitious timetable would set the stage for an immediate political showdown in the legislature to be followed by a protracted 17-month public campaign leading up to a November 2020 referendum.
In the past, Democratic legislative leaders have insisted they would not consider constitutional amendments in odd-numbered years when no statewide election is held.
But Pritzker said both House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton have promised to support his strategy to address the tax issue this spring.
* From Cullerton’s spokesman…
The Senate President is eager to support the governor’s ideas and timeline for accomplishing them. He recognizes how important this is to finally fixing the lingering structural deficit and providing financial stability going forward.
Illinois State Police rescinded more than 10,000 gun licenses last year — and more than 75 percent of the revocation recipients ignored it, according to newly released data.
The state agency provided the staggering figures late Thursday, as part of trove of law-enforcement documents involving Gary Martin, the convicted felon who fatally shot five co-workers and wounded several police officers at an Aurora warehouse last week. Martin, 45, went on a rampage after learning he was being terminated — opening fire with a gun he never should have been allowed to purchase.
In the shooting’s wake, authorities disclosed that Martin passed two background checks before buying the Smith & Wesson .40-caliber handgun used in the mass killing. As convicted felon, Illinois law prohibited Martin from holding a Firearm Owners Identification Card or owning a gun.
* ISP…
In 2018, 10,818 FOID Cards were revoked. In 2018, ISP received only 2,616 Firearm Disposition Records. During that year, only 3,469 FOID cards were returned to ISP. More than 75% of FOID card revocations failed to result in a Firearms Disposition Record being returned.
From 2014 through 2019 (YTD) there have been a total of 110 arrests for violation of 430 ILCS 65/9.5(a) - Failure to Return FOID card or/ not submitting a Firearm Disposition Record. In 2018, there were only 10 arrests statewide for this offense. Therefore, of the 7,531 revocations that did not result in a Firearm Disposition Record being returned, less than 0.004% of revocations resulted in an arrest or conviction.
In his first TV interview since being sworn in, new Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul told the I-Team this week that Illinois’ FOID card enforcement needs to be examined as part of a comprehensive look at gun laws.
Raoul pointed to Martin’s false answer on his FOID application in 2014 that went unchecked. Martin declared that he had never been convicted of a felony, which he had. The new state attorney general suggested to the I-Team that lying on a FOID application should be more than a misdemeanor, which is where it now stands.
The penalty is actually a Class 2 Felony, not a misdemeanor. It needs to be enforced.
* Concealed carry applicants can submit fingerprints to expedite the process. For whatever crazy reason, Martin chose to do that, which led to a search result that finally showed his previous felony conviction. Back to the ISP…
Upon receipt of the court documents, Martin’s FCCL application was denied on March 26, 2014. A letter dated April 15, 2014, was sent to Martin notifying him of his FCCL application denial as well as indicating he was no longer eligible for a FOID card. Martin was notified he was responsible for surrendering his FOID card and any weapons in his possession. FCCL staff notified FOID staff for purposes of revoking Martin’s FOID card. Martin’s FOID card was subsequently revoked on April 17, 2014.
The ISP’s procedure in 2014 was to notify local, county, and state law enforcement of the revocation, where the FOID card holder resides, electronically by means of the LEADS system. ISP records do not contain a copy of an electronic notification sent to law enforcement for Martin. These LEADS administrative messages are only maintained for three years. As of March 16, 2015, notification to law enforcement regarding FOID revocations is made via a typed letter sent through the United States Postal Service. After an exhaustive search of paper and electronic records, neither Martin’s FOID card nor a related Firearms Disposition Form could be located.
Sheesh.
FOID cards are valid for 10 years. The ISP needs to keep records longer than they are and do a much better job of keeping those records.
And putting the sole onus on the felon for turning in his or her guns is just ridiculous.
Richard Pearson, the executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, said he would oppose fingerprinting because of the potential cost to those who apply for a FOID card. Pearson estimated that the current $10 fee could go up dramatically if the cost of a fingerprinting would be passed onto applicants.
“It is just too expensive,” he said, calling what happened in Aurora a “tragedy,” but adding that this was an example of one error.
Pearson told me, however, that he’s willing to work on other issues related to this to get these guns away from people who shouldn’t own them.
* ISP…
There are currently 2,285,990 active FOID cards and 325,187 active FCCL statewide. Of FCCL holders, only 126,559 submitted fingerprints with their applications. Therefore, only 0.06% of FOID card holders were fingerprinted as part of the FOID/FCCL application process.
In a news release, the Illinois State Police blamed authorities in Mississippi for failing to link Martin’s criminal history with a so-called “state identification number” (SID). That failure reportedly prevented detection of a conviction from the nineties for aggravated assault for which he served five years in prison.
On a related matter, Pritzker acknowledged he has provided some of the initial funding for Think Big Illinois, a new non-profit issue advocacy organization expected to provide political cover for his policies — including the switch to a graduated income tax.
But Pritzker said he doesn’t know how much he’s donated and denied he’s made any specific future dollar commitment to the group, which is being run by one of his former top campaign aides.
Dude doesn’t know how much he’s given to the group set up by his former deputy campaign manager? Please.
A freshman Republican state representative is calling a Democratic senator a “hero” for successfully performing the Heimlich maneuver on him after he choked on food at a reception.
State Rep. Mike Murphy, R-Springfield, said state Sen. Michael Hastings, D-Tinley Park, intervened after noticing he was in distress.
Murphy said he stopped by the gathering Wednesday at the President Abraham Lincoln Springfield–a DoubleTree by Hilton, put on by pipe trades unions. He took a bite of a roast beef slider, and “it immediately lodged in my throat.”
“I walked over, grabbed some water, tried to swallow,” Murphy said. But he “couldn’t swallow at all, and was panicking. I turned and looked and everybody had their back to me. Then I turned the other way, and Senator Hastings was walking in the door, and I frantically waved at him. He came over and performed the Heimlich on me twice and got the food to come up. So I got some good help from a good Democrat.” […]
Hastings, a former U.S. Army captain who played football at West Point, served in Iraq and on the borders of Iran and Syria, and is trained in advanced combat lifesaving, said he administered the Heimlich maneuver.
“I lifted him off the ground, and little did I know that he was choking on a piece of steak, and it came out,” Hastings said, saying he also gave Murphy “a good swat on his back” as part of the throat-clearing maneuver.
