* AP…
A coroner in western Illinois is facing sharp criticism for how he handles poor people who can’t afford to bury their loved ones: He has them sign over their rights to the deceased, leaving them without the death certificate, then cremates the body and keeps the ashes until the family pays $1,000.
If they cannot come up with the money, the ashes are eventually buried, along with others, in an unmarked grave. If the family needs the death certificate to access bank accounts or life insurance, the coroner first arranges for the county to recoup its costs from any proceeds.
Adams County Coroner James Keller says the policy started after the state, which for years has faced billion-dollar deficits and unpaid bills, announced it was too broke to pay for indigent funerals and burials — shifting the cost to funeral homes and county coroners. Of the $1,000 people pay, he says $800 goes to the funeral homes and $200 to the crematory. […]
Illinois provides up to $1,655 — $1,103 for funerals and $552 for cremation and burial. But the money was cut off in 2010 and again in 2015 as the state headed into a more than two-year budget impasse. In some cases, counties ended up picking up the costs.
* Not mentioned in the story is that money was appropriated last year…
For Funeral and Burial Expenses under Articles III, IV, and V, including prior year costs 9,271,600
* From October of last year, after the General Assembly passed its own budget…
(A)gencies that get assistance from three-dozen state human service programs learned in recent weeks that Rauner had unilaterally decided to withhold some of the money promised them in the state budget lawmakers passed this summer over the governor’s veto.
As of last October, funeral and burial expenses had been cut by 35 percent. And this wasn’t the first, or even second time that the governor has tried to cut or zero out burial expenses.
* From the comptroller, with emphasis added by me…
Illinois Comptroller Susana A. Mendoza is urging the Illinois Department of Human Services to ensure that county coroners, funeral directors and cemeteries are aware that there are state reimbursements available to help cover the costs of funerals and burial for those in Illinois who cannot afford these services.
The move comes after the Associated Press reported that Adams County Coroner James Keller is refusing to release remains and death certificates to families who cannot afford to pay for a funeral and burial.
“Holding the remains of people’s loved ones for ransom is unthinkable. Everyone deserves a respectful burial. Being poor is not a crime, but disrespecting grieving families the way Coroner Keller is should be,” said Comptroller Mendoza. “This disgusting behavior by Coroner Keller isn’t reflective of who we are as a state.”
The two-year budget impasse has left county officials and funeral directors feeling as though they cannot count on the indigent funeral and burial program. No state money was spent on the program for Fiscal Year 2016. In FY 17, only $2.1 million of the $8.8 million appropriation was expended. This lack of state support created an environment that allowed for Keller’s gross abuse of power.
The AP story reveals a sad reality that many coroners, funeral directors and family members of the indigent are not aware of existing funding administered by DHS. There is a $9.3 million appropriation in the current fiscal year for the program, but only $1.5 million has been expended to date. The Comptroller’s office pays these reimbursements within a few days of receiving the vouchers for them from DHS. In fact, the office is currently prioritizing payment of all vouchers from DHS.
“We are urging the Rauner administration to do more to let county officials and funeral directors know that this money is set aside at the state level, so the costs aren’t pushed onto local taxpayers and businesses, and families aren’t faced with added stress in a time of mourning,” Mendoza said. “Through my office’s role working with cemeteries and funeral homes in a regulatory capacity, we have confirmed that many in the industry are not aware that these funds are available.”
In an effort to increase awareness of the program, the Comptroller’s office will inform funeral directors and burial entities in the Office’s regulatory listing that funding is available for the program in the current year and provide them with the appropriate contact information at DHS.
“When DHS receives these reimbursement applications, they should process them as quickly as possible and send the vouchers to my office for payment. If there are any outstanding applications, I would ask the department to expedite them. Doing so will allow us to bring relief to the funeral homes, that have been shouldering the cost of the state’s financial dysfunction, and lift some of this unnecessary burden on grieving families,” Comptroller Mendoza said.
If DHS is sitting on lots of vouchers, this could get uglier. Both the comptroller and the governor need to get on this.
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How far will he go?
Tuesday, May 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Background is here…
Two hours ago (1:30 or so) I e-mailed this question to the governor’s press person…
Would the governor veto a budget/appropriations bill without a formal revenue estimate?
No response.
What do you think he should do?
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In which I agree with Kristen McQueary
Tuesday, May 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* She’s right. It’s pretty much all Rauner has, except for the likely “corruption” claims. Taxes, Madigan, Taxes, Madigan, Corruption, Taxes, Corruption, Madigan, Taxes all the way to November…
The numbers don’t look good for Gov. Bruce Rauner’s re-election chances based on enthusiasm among Democratic voters alone. Four years ago, the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial primaries drew 1.3 million voters to Illinois polling places. In March, that number jumped to 2.1 million, driven by Democrats. They’re stoked.
Consider that Democratic nominee J.B. Pritzker in a six-way race still collected 597,756 votes. Rauner, in a two-way primary, collected only 372,124. Too early to cue the “Price is Right” loser horn? Bum-bum-ba-buuum. Perhaps.
Rauner has one shot: Convince Illinoisans of both parties that a vote for Pritzker is a vote for higher taxes. Tap into the rebellion that overturned the Cook County soda tax. Remind voters that Springfield cannot be trusted with another blank check. Rauner still can position himself as the only backstop between voters’ wallets and the irresponsible savoir-faire of the General Assembly.
It starts with a fierce campaign against the Democrats’ graduated income tax proposal requiring a constitutional change. Pritzker and House Speaker Michael Madigan are positioning the tax as a fairness issue. Stick it to the rich guys (and never mind the ambidexterity of their positions, being two rich guys).
The rest of the column is a bit on the hyperbolic side, but that part is right.
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Happy anniversary! (Reposted)
Tuesday, May 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
[I accidentally hit the “publish” button on an earlier version of this story before I was finished. That post has been deleted, but then I accidentally lost all my work, so I had to start all over again. Oops! Been one of those days, I guess.]
* Elizabeth Campbell at Bloomberg…
Three years ago today, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down the state’s attempt to cut its employees’ pension benefits to chip away at a retirement-system debt that’s swelled to almost $11,000 for every man, woman and child.
Since then, Illinois’s credit rating was downgraded to the verge of junk, its bonds have tumbled and its largest city — Chicago — was stripped of its investment-grade status by Moody’s Investors Service. And Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and the Democrat-led legislature have made no real progress toward a new plan that doesn’t violate the state constitution’s ban on reducing benefits. […]
The funding shortfall across Illinois’s five retirement systems climbed to $137 billion by last June, a jump of about $17.8 billion since 2015, after the government for years failed to made adequate contributions. That pension deficit — more than four times larger that its debt to general-obligation bondholders — is adding hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to Illinois’s budget each year as the government plows more money in to catch up. […]
Even as the state is set to pay $8.5 billion to the five retirement systems in 2019, it’s still not enough. Unfunded liabilities keep growing. And the 2019 contribution is more than three times the state’s payment a decade earlier: Illinois paid $2.8 billion to pensions in 2009. By 2045, the projected contribution will be $19.6 billion, according to a March report, based on actuarial valuations.
Yes, the projected annual state contribution will be $19.6 billion by 2045, but the state’s Unfunded Accrued Actuarial Liabilities will be just $32.7 billion by then, so I’m thinking the state will likely avoid the full payment for that year and probably a few years before as well. That ramp is so darned back-loaded.
* According to COGFA, Tier 2 is working. Tier 1’s annual “normal costs” (the benefits paid out in a given year) are 17.4 percent of payroll this fiscal year, while Tier 2’s are 1.6 percent. By 2032, Tier 1 costs drop below Tier 2, at 6.7 and 6.8 percent respectively. By 2045, Tier 1 will cost 0.5 percent of payroll, while Tier 2 will be at 10.4 percent.
The question becomes whether Tier 2 can survive federal regulations because the benefits are so low. That could very well be a huge ticking time bomb.
The real problem, as always, is the unfunded liabilities.
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Good cop, bad cop after leaders’ meeting
Tuesday, May 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Senate President John Cullerton emerged from the leaders’ meeting after about an hour to say they had some good discussions. He said the leaders didn’t talk about the supplement appropriation requested by the governor. He said there was no talk about a tax hike. “We did that last year,” Cullerton said.
He denied an earlier claim by Gov. Rauner that the Democrats were slow-walking the process and later said, “We have a much closer, smaller gap and there’s ways to fill it.” And when asked how receptive Gov. Rauner has been to listening to his and other leaders’ priorities, Cullerton replied, “Very receptive.”
* There’s still a budget gap to fill, he said, but he said he was hopeful that they could do some things that they’ve done in the past to close it, including interfund borrowing. Cullerton also said there was some “federal changes” that may allow Illinois to “bring in some more revenue,” but didn’t specify what those were. He was pressed a couple of times about coming up with a formal revenue estimate…
My point was to not get hung up on a specific number, because whatever that number is there’s a general idea about what it is and it’s not enough to pay for our other bills. So, that’s where we get into these other variables. You know, selling the Thompson Center could bring in 200 or 300, so there’s a number you’re never gonna tie down. But that’s another consideration of closing this gap. There’s a number of different things that we would consider to closing the gap and that’s what we’re going to ask our negotiators to do. […]
I wouldn’t get hung up on that. That gets into somewhat of a gotcha game and a political fight… That’s not what’s holding us up.
He kinda meandered, but I think what he meant was there could be ideas for bringing in more revenue (including sweeps, etc.), so locking everything down now with a formal estimate isn’t necessary and could be counter-productive.
* Then came Gov. Rauner…
* But Leader Brady was more optimistic…
After more than three years, the governor has yet to successfully negotiate a full-year budget. Maybe listening to Leader Brady would be the smart move here.
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Today’s number: 3
Tuesday, May 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Rae has been on a tear about this issue lately…
* Related…
* Jacked: Report says only 3 juveniles were repeat carjackers when released last year, but Illinois poised to pass law keeping more youth in lock-up: The statewide discussion on catch-and-release took its early shape during a crime spike last November when over a dozen cars got jacked in under a week and police struggled to make arrests. When two black teenagers led police on a chase following an alleged carjacking in Oak Park, police told the press they suspected the two of being behind the whole rash of armed vehicle thefts. But the spate continued well after the two were in custody.
* Rahm’s anti-carjacking bill is unfair, being falsely sold and won’t work: The offense targeted by House Bill 4729 and proposed amendments is not carjacking – or assault, robbery, or any related violent offense. The bill, far more broadly and dangerously, would make it easier to convict someone of felony possession of a stolen motor vehicle by allowing a court to “infer that a person knows or recklessly disregards” a car is stolen if he or she happens to be in a vehicle “without the consent of the owner.” … Like nine out of ten shootings, nine out of ten carjackings did not end in an arrest by the Chicago Police Department by the end of the year. This is not the fault of state sentencing laws. Giving more felony convictions and prison years to a very broad group of people because police can’t identify the small number who are committing violent crime isn’t a public safety strategy. It is wanton state interference with employment, housing, education, child support and the host of other factors that contribute to stable families and communities.
* Chicago has fewer beat cops despite police hiring surge, records show: More than a year into the Chicago Police Department’s biggest hiring surge in decades, 14 of the city’s 22 police districts now have fewer beat cops than they did when the push was announced, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.
* Carjacked — by a boy who reminded me of my son: It’s aggravating to see the hyperbolic rhetoric about crime ravaging our city and all the tough-on-crime speeches that haven’t worked. I do appreciate police Superintendent Eddie Johnson bringing in federal agents on this matter and Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushing new legislation aimed at combating carjackings. Yet I struggle and consider this boy. Would I really want him to get a punishment that would cut him off from any opportunity or future?
* Editorial: Young offenders with de facto life terms deserve a chance at parole: Juvenile justice reformers and scientific experts have pointed out that young people are less culpable for their actions because their brains are not fully developed. It’s easy for them to make terrible decisions, as McKinley did, especially because of peer pressure or in the heat of the moment. Our laws already recognize that young people don’t make decisions as well as adults: That’s why we have age requirements for voting, drinking, driving, smoking, getting married and joining the military.
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* RGA…
A clear contrast in the Illinois governor’s race is emerging between GOP Governor Bruce Rauner, who supports reforms that will help Illinois grow jobs, and Democrat J.B. Pritzker, who wants to hike taxes and do nothing to help Illinois’ business climate.
Rauner has proposed numerous pro-jobs reforms, but they’ve been consistently vetoed by J.B. Pritzker’s top ally, House Speaker Mike Madigan.
Now, the News-Gazette editorial board is slamming J.B. Pritzker for allying with Madigan and having “shown no interest in promoting changes needed to boost the business climate.” With Illinois families and businesses already fleeing the state in record numbers, Pritzker wants a massive tax hike that will make the problem even worse.
Illinoisans know that this November’s election is a choice between J.B. Pritzker’s tax-hike, anti-jobs agenda, and Governor Bruce Rauner’s pro-jobs reforms that will get Illinois back on track.
* From the editorial…
Massachusetts ranks No. 45, Connecticut (46), New Jersey (47), Illinois (48), New York (49) and California (50) [according to Chief Executive magazine].
If that seems familiar, Chief Executive said, “That’s because those are the exact same positions each of these states has occupied in each of the last four years in our annual poll of CEOs about business climates.” […]
Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, was elected four years ago on a platform dedicated to restoring a healthy business climate. But he’s been stopped cold by a Democratic-controlled Legislature determined to maintain the status quo.
That doesn’t mean Democrats are automatically hostile to policies aimed at creating more job opportunities. But Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker, so far at least, has shown no interest in promoting changes needed to boost the business climate.
That’s the kind of static situation Chief Executive cited as a factor to running in place. Right now, Illinois is two spots from last place and shows no interest in moving up.
Aside from completely absolving Gov. Rauner, the editorial fails to mention the fact that supposedly last place California has had an astonishing rebirth under Gov. Jerry Brown…
California’s economy has surpassed that of the United Kingdom to become the world’s fifth largest, according to new federal data made public on Friday. […]
California last had the world’s fifth largest economy in 2002 but fell as low as 10th in 2012 following the great recession. Since then, the largest US state has added 2 million jobs and grown its GDP by $700bn, now contributing a little over 14% of the US economy despite having 12% of the US population, according to state economists.
California’s GDP growth was 3 percent from 2016 to 2017, ranking it third in the nation behind Washington and Colorado. The state had a $28 billion budget hole when Brown took over, but he’s turned that into a $6.1 billion surplus.
Massachusetts, which Chief Executive magazine ranked 45th, had a 2.6 percent GDP growth, ranking it 11th out of 50. Massachusetts has a popular Republican governor who has worked well with his Democratic legislature.
* Illinois’ GDP growth was just 1.2 percent, ranking us a miserable 33rd. Pritzker’s economic plans don’t really amount to a whole lot. He has a long ways to go to live up to the promise of his Sun-Times endorsement…
Pritzker founded 1871, the tech business incubator in the Merchandise Mart credited with creating some 7,000 jobs. This remarkable nonprofit has raised Chicago’s profile nationwide as a high-tech hub. He served as chairman of Chicago’s Technology and Entrepreneurship Committee. He was a founder of Matter, the nonprofit healthcare technology incubator.
This kind of future-focused approach to economic development is precisely what Illinois sorely needs right now. It is also reflective of what seems to be Pritzker’s philosophy for trying to make a difference in this world: work it from the bottom up.
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ERA debate focuses on abortion rights
Tuesday, May 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune...
Abortion, military service and racial inequality could remain at the center of debate over whether Illinois lawmakers should ratify the decades-old Equal Rights Amendment in the coming weeks.
Those issues were on display at a four-hour Illinois House committee hearing in Chicago on Monday, more than 35 years after the 1982 deadline for states to pass the constitutional amendment designed to protect citizens against sex-based discrimination. […]
Anti-abortion activists were the most vocal in Monday’s hearing. They view the Equal Rights Amendment as a vehicle for putting abortion protections into the U.S. Constitution. […]
Lang needs 71 votes to get the amendment approved by the House, meaning he’ll need both Democrats and Republicans to back it. While Lang has noted conservative opposition, some Democrats don’t like it either. So the issue may be more complicated than traditional partisan differences.
* From Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago)…
Isn’t this all about changing the law on abortion?
No. The right to abortion is already protected under the U.S. Constitution. Whether the ERA has an additional impact on state laws relating to abortion is something that courts will have to resolve, based on the goal that the state is attempting to achieve through the law and whether the law is narrowly tailored (and the least restrictive means) of achieving that goal. Within Illinois, ratifying the ERA will not lead to a significant change in the status of state laws that might touch on abortion, given that the Illinois Constitution already prohibits sex discrimination by the state government.
Reproductive Rights:
The repeated claim of opponents that the ERA would require government to allow “abortion on demand” is a clear misrepresentation of existing laws and court decisions at both federal and state levels.
In federal courts, including the Supreme Court, a number of restrictive laws dealing with contraception and abortion have been invalidated since the mid–20th century based on application of the constitutional principles of the right of privacy and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. The principles of equal protection or equal rights have so far not been applied to such cases at the federal level.
State equal rights amendments have been cited in a few state court decisions (e.g., in Connecticut and New Mexico) regarding a very specific issue – whether a state that provides funding to low-income Medicaid-eligible women for childbirth expenses should also be required to fund medically necessary abortions for women in that government program. Those courts ruled that the state must fund both pregnancy-related procedures if it funds either, in order to prevent the government from using fiscal pressure to exert a chilling influence on a woman’s exercise of her constitutional right to make medical decisions about her pregnancy. The New Jersey Supreme Court issued a similar decision based on the right of privacy and equal protection, with no reference to its state constitution’s equal rights guarantee.
The presence or absence of a state ERA or equal protection guarantee does not necessarily correlate with a state’s legal climate for reproductive rights. For example, despite Pennsylvania’s state ERA, the state Supreme Court decided that restrictions on Medicaid funding of abortions were constitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court in separate litigation (Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 1992) upheld Pennsylvania’s restrictions on the abortion procedure under the federal due process clause.
State court decisions on reproductive rights are not conclusive evidence of how federal courts would decide such cases. For example, while some state courts have required Medicaid funding of medically necessary abortions, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the federal “Hyde Amendment,” which has for decades prohibited the federal government from funding most or all Medicaid abortions, even many that are medically necessary.
More issues with the ERA are discussed here.
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* Sun-Times…
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday announced the federal government has approved a state Medicaid waiver that will allow community-based service providers to provide more care for patients with substance abuse and other mental health problems.
The waiver, which was more than two years in the making and includes 10 pilot programs, will provide services that are not currently covered by Medicaid, Felicia Norwood, director of the state Department of Healthcare and Family Services, said Monday at a West Side press conference. And it’s aimed at getting patients continual care instead of having them go to pricey emergency rooms or institutions.
“I personally believe this is maybe one of the most important days in the history of public health for the state of Illinois, anywhere in our state’s history,” Rauner said.
The initial focus of the program will be behavioral health, both mental health and substance abuse, and that was chosen “due to the urgency of the issue as well as the potential financial and human impact,” the state’s department of Healthcare and Family Services said in a fact sheet. The goals are to help stem the opioid epidemic, reduce violent crime and violent encounters with police and improve maternal and child health.
This waiver has been sought for years, starting with Gov. Quinn. It’s a very big thing.
* Illinois News Network…
Gov. Bruce Rauner announced Monday that the federal government has approved $2 billion in Illinois-directed Medicaid funding for the use of programs focusing on behavioral health conditions and addiction treatment via a 5-year pilot program named Better Care Illinois. Without the waiver, the money couldn’t be used in this manner.
Rauner says the waiver will allow the state to care for the whole person while finding savings in the Medicaid system.
“We believe that this will save huge amounts of taxpayer funding while improving the quality of mental health and total health for the people of Illinois,” he said.
* Those savings won’t be realized right away, of course. It will take time to implement the programs and lots more time for the programs to work as intended…
Rauner said one in four Medicaid recipients have behavior health conditions. They account for 52 percent of Medicaid spending.
“We are going to change the way our services are provided up front,” Gov. Bruce Rauner said. “That will save money over the five-year waiver program, and we’re going to then reinvest those savings back in the program and then drive major savings in the future subsequent to the five-year waiver.”
So some savings within five years and then “major savings” after five years.
* With that in mind, check this out from yesterday’s IDHS bullet points…
What is budget neutrality?
The federal government requires the demonstrations to be “budget neutral,” meaning that during the course of the waiver Medicaid expenditures cannot exceed what they would be without the waiver. The 1115 waiver is not a grant but rather an opportunity to use Medicaid dollars differently to increase the efficiency and quality of care for Medicaid populations.
That link and language was provided by a commenter, who asked…
Question for the Governor: since the overall state spending of federal dollars cannot increased, what will he be cutting out of current Waiver spending in order re-direct money to the pilot programs, or is he planning to use money out of GRF that receives no federal match for the pilots and what will he then cut out of GRF to pay for that?
* More…
The state has five years of flexibility for how it spends $2 billion. It’s a fraction of Illinois Medicaid spending, which is about $21 billion a year.
In other words, they’ll be repurposing about ten percent of current Medicaid spending. It’s actually 2 percent per year for five years…
$1,997,670,906 in repurposed spending over 5-years… So we’re talking about 2%, not 10%.
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* Last week…
Speaking on WOC AM-1420 in Davenport, Iowa, Rauner declared himself a unifier — not just among Republicans, but also with independents and Democrats.
“You know primaries are tough. They’re part of the process. I respect the process and now we’re all coming together in the state. We’re unifying all Republicans,” said Rauner, who faces a third-party challenge from Downstate Republican state Sen. Sam McCann and a potential battle over re-electing his hand-picked state GOP chairman.
* This week…
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday tried to distance himself from a leadership battle within the Illinois Republican Party, the latest in an ongoing struggle between the governor and a vocal wing of conservatives who say they have been betrayed. […]
On Monday, Rauner tried to make light of the party leadership issue, saying: “I really don’t spend much time thinking about it.” […]
Rauner said Monday that he’s not paying attention to the infighting within the party, pointing out that “there have been fights and disagreements and challenges many times over the years. It’s part of the process.”
* Meanwhile…
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* NBC 5…
Lori Lightfoot has resigned as head of the Chicago Police Board, the board confirmed Monday. […]
Her resignation comes days before sources say the former U.S. attorney is expected to announce her campaign for mayor, set to happen Thursday.
Lightfoot has been meeting with key political operatives to build a team, but will not confirm the Thursday timing.
* Fran Spielman reports that Lightfoot has already “hired a fundraiser, a pollster, a campaign consultant and a firm to handle her direct mail.” OK, but she hasn’t even filed a D-1 yet. From Fran’s piece…
Greg Goldner, who managed Emanuel’s 2002 congressional campaign, advised Lightfoot to follow the playbook that carried County Board President Toni Preckwinkle to a landslide victory during a 2010 campaign master-minded by Ken Snyder, who just happens to be Lightfoot’s political consultant.
“She unified the African-American community to a large extent, and she was able to get white progressives,” Goldner said of Preckwinkle. […]
Jacky Grimshaw, who served as a top aide to former Mayor Harold Washington, has her doubts about Lightfoot’s ability to pull it off.
“Dorothy Brown has the church ladies. I don’t know what constituency Lori has,” Grimshaw said. “If police and police misbehavior is your issue, then you pay attention to it. If it’s not, what else have you done? How’s that gonna help me get a job? How’s that gonna help me keep my health care?”
Grimshaw is right. Dorothy Brown does, indeed, have “the church ladies.” Brown visits several churches every weekend and she’s the only Emanuel opponent so far with a readily identifiable and historically friendly base. If she survives the federal investigation (which has dragged on for years and years), she could very well make the runoff without having to spend much. Don’t laugh. Weirder things have happened.
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Four leaders to meet with Gov. Rauner today
Tuesday, May 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The four legislative leaders will meet with the governor at 11 o’clock this morning. They met briefly last month. Watch the live coverage post for updates.
Your predictions? Snark it up if you want.
* Meanwhile…
Gov. Bruce Rauner said Monday that budget talks have been “frustratingly slow” ahead of a deadline to pass a spending plan with simple majorities.
“I hope it’s not some orchestrated effort to go slow,” Rauner told reporters Monday in Chicago. “We need a balanced budget for a full year, not just six months, no new taxes and a budget that lives within our means.” […]
“[The] pace [is] being set by his budget director,” said Steve Brown, Madigan’s spokesman. “The speaker continues to work to get the budget done by the end of the month.”
Brown also said the budget director is focusing on a fiscal 2018 supplemental budget “to pay for administration overspending.”
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* Rep. Jeanne Ives was interviewed by CLTV’s Paul Lisnek yesterday. Audio clip and transcript were not generated by me…
LISNEK: So is this something the state can and should pay for? Durbin [says] we’re going to get federal money. Is it something where we might get the feds? Some have called on the governor to call Trump and say ‘help us.’
IVES: Well that would be me, because I called on the governor months ago to call Donald Trump and ask for assistance immediately and to have that entire structure torn down and rebuilt, and I’m kind of shocked that he has not done that and made that call yet. Maybe he has and it’s being misreported, but I would certainly reach out to the VA [unintelligible] as well.
LISNEK: Before I leave this topic I just wanted to get your reaction to the Darlene Senger— I know you know her well— but that e-mail. Obviously she never intended that to be public, but nevertheless, ‘Hey maybe we can put this back on Tammy Duckworth,’ who you know is a decorated war veteran, served this country. What was your reaction to that?
IVES: Listen, it’s unfortunate that she would ever try to link this Quinn administration that was years before the Rauner administration. Granted, I will give her this though, that for decades both the Democrats and the Republicans have not set aside money to do the maintenance that is required in many of our areas. In fact, I know we’re $21 billion per year behind on infrastructure improvements and much of that goes to our state facilities. So I think there’s some blame to be shared, but you don’t blame-shift when you had 13 deaths and then you failed to actually move those Veterans out of an unsafe condition. Nobody should be blaming that on anybody but the Rauner administration.
* Meanwhile, from that same interview, here’s Politico…
During an interview with CLTV’s Paul Lisnek on Monday, state Rep. Jeanne Ives went on a tear against Gov. Bruce Rauner and Tim Schneider, the Illinois Republican Party chairman the governor is backing. Ives, who narrowly lost to Rauner in the March primary, is supporting Schneider’s opponent Mark Shaw in a heated fight over the GOP throne.
Among the reasons Ives is backing Shaw: she blames Schneider for the Nazi candidate running as a Republican in Illinois’ 3rd congressional district.
“So he’s alienating the base by propping up Schneider again, and Schneider has failed. Look we have 37 state reps, Democrats, unopposed in this coming up election. It is the party chairman’s responsibility to find opponents. We have an avowed Nazi sitting as a Republican in a congressional race, and that’s wrong too. And then on top of it, the entire emphasis from Tim Schneider and Rauner et al over the last campaign cycle is simply to get Rauner elected, and so much of what they did in terms of data collection and everything else did not support our state reps. We need a whole new vision for our party, and a whole new way to attract voters.”
And then there’s this exchange. Ouch: Lisnek: “If polls look close come November and it looks like Pritzker could pull it out, would that be enough of a scare for you to look at your supporters and say it’s ok, vote Rauner?”
Ives: “I can’t predict what the future’s going to look like, umm, in a few months, so we’ll just see what’s going on.”
*** UPDATE *** DGA, with emphasis added by me…
ILGOP Feud Continues - Ives Says Rauner “Never Actually Heard the Message that Was Sent to Him”
While Governor Bruce Rauner claims he’s “unifying” Republicans, state Representative Jeanne Ives blasted the Governor’s lack of rapprochement with the 48% of Republicans that supported her in the primary. Ives went on CLTV and reiterated that they still, a month and a half later, have not spoken:
Reporter: “The Governor says everything is fine between you and him. Let me get your take. Is it all good?”
Ives: “Listen, I have not spoken with the Governor yet. So, he is doing his thing. And I am continuing to do my thing as a state Representative.”
Rauner’s strategy of ignoring Ives is clearly not working as they continue to fight over the party chairman position and the direction of the Republican Party:
Reporter: “…But isn’t supporting somebody besides Tim Schneider an effort to sort of say we still need to shake things up?”
Ives: “No, it’s actually… Governor Rauner supporting Tim Schneider is basically saying he never actually heard the message that was sent to him on March 20th… So, he’s alienating the base by propping up Schneider again, and Schneider has failed.”
Ives finished the interview by refusing to commit to helping Rauner.
Reporter: “If the polls look close come November, and Pritzker could pull it out - will that be enough of a scare for you to look at your supporters and say it is ok to vote Rauner?”
Ives: “I cannot predict what the future is going to look like in a few months. So, we just see what is going on.”
“Bruce Rauner’s sham strategy of claiming that his party was unifying without reaching out to the 48% of Republicans that rejected him is clearly not working,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “It’s been nearly two months since the primary and the only unifying Bruce Rauner has done is getting Independents, Democrats, and Republicans in agreement that he has failed them long enough.”
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*** LIVE *** Session coverage
Tuesday, May 8, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’ve made some changes to this now-daily post to make it even more user-friendly. I’ve added some of the morning roundups I receive every day and I’ll “pin” one of them to the top for the first part of every morning (the pinned item has a red triangle in the upper-right corner). The pinned roundup comes from RK PR Solutions’ Ryan Keith. Many thanks for his help.
The new format worked out well for me yesterday. Instead of adding to my workload it actually reduced it a bit because I didn’t have to struggle to figure out how to post some marginal items. Those will go here from now on, so keep an eye on this post every day. Anyway, watch all the action with the help of ScribbleLive…
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