* I tried, I really did (OK, not that hard), but I just don’t get Snapchat…
As disgraced former governor Rod Blagojevich, federal inmate 40892-424, has his request for retrial considered by the Supreme Court today, the Rauner campaign launched a Snapchat filter to commemorate the occasion.
The filter allows users to take a selfie posing as Blagojevich and features his confidante JB Pritzker, the man caught on FBI wiretaps discussing potential appointments and donations surrouding the vacant Illinois U.S. Senate seat in 2008.
Pritzker has remained silent on the potential for his wiretap partner to receive another day in court.
So how did we get to this point? It’s because federal courts around the country are interpreting two Supreme Court decisions differently. In some areas, courts hearing corruption cases treat a campaign contribution like a gift to a lawmaker of a winter trip to a Florida beach. That’s both absurd and dangerous to free speech.
In the first of these two cases, the Supreme Court said that to find guilt for extorting a campaign contribution, the law requires “an explicit promise or undertaking by the official to perform or not to perform an official act.” But a year later another Supreme Court ruling in another corruption case created confusion.
Some courts read the second decision as watering down the “explicit promise” requirement. These courts, including the one that hosted the Blagojevich trial, allow conviction under a looser standard. A jury can convict if it infers an implied promise from the candidate’s awareness that the donor expects something in return for a campaign contribution.
*** UPDATE *** Interesting development…
Governor Rauner-@BruceRauner Please take down that disgusting Snap Chat filter using my husband's name, number and likeness. You know I have daughters who are of the age of most Snap Chat users. It is so callous of you to so casually inflict this emotional distress upon them.
* SCOTUS reviewing Blagojevich’s appeal today: In their court filing last fall, Rod Blagojevich’s lawyers argued blurry lines between lawful and unlawful fundraising leave politicians vulnerable. A letter signed by nineteen Illinois lawmakers asks justices to review Blagojevich’s case– calling it an issue of national importance.
* Hillary Clinton won US Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s district by 45 points. Tammy Duckworth won it by 30. Susana Mendoza won it by 18. Schakowsky won by 33.
But, today, Schakowsky’s Republican opponent John Elleson booked $10,885.60 of cable TV ads that are scheduled to run from April 16 through September 2nd. I kid you not. Click here to see the buy yourself.
Elleson — who’s running in the Republican primary to challenge U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky in November’s general election — was ordered by a judge to complete 150 hours of community service and to return $49,000 in benefit payments he’d improperly collected after pleading “no contest” to a first degree theft charge in Hawaii in 2003, court records show. […]
Elleson sold Bethel half of his church, but after his plan to build a wall dividing the worship area into two was rejected by the village, he “repeatedly interrupted” Sunday services at Bethel by cutting off the electricity to the public address system, removing microphones from the podium during services, and by playing loud music and projection screen TVs during services, according to the lawsuit.
A Cook County jury sided with Bethel, ordering Elleson’s church to pay Bethel $257,600, plus costs. […]
Elleson wrote that he was “not aware of” a 1998 criminal damage conviction he holds in Cook County, according to court records, which indicate he plead guilty to the misdemeanor.
* From the Illinois Policy Institute’s former news service…
The state constitution requires lawmakers to pass a budget that only spends what’s estimated to come in for the year. While the Senate has passed a revenue estimate in recent years, the House hasn’t. The number is typically a combination of the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget and input from the General Assembly.
The Illinois Policy Institute put out a study that showed five of the past ten years COGFA and GOMB’s revenue estimates were off by millions. In fiscal years 2013 and 2014, GOMB under former Gov. Pat Quinn was off by $2.1 billion and $1 billion respectively.
* The Illinois Policy Institute and its legislative allies have been loudly harping on this revenue estimate issue for a few years. My ears perked up when Gov. Rauner said this week that an official revenue estimate was one of his chief demands heading into budget talks. Could Rauner and the Institute be doing a bit of reconciling? Stay tuned.
Based on the standard for revenue projections used by the National Association of State Budget Officers – estimates within 0.5 percent of actual revenues are considered “on target” – COGFA revenue estimates have been accurate in only four of the last 10 years. GOMB estimates have been on target in only two of the last 10 years.
Pew took a look at this topic a few years ago and found that states are not nearly as accurate as the Institute suggests. 0.5 percent may be considered “on target,” but it’s not what real world prognosticators always get.
* I asked Clayton Klenke, who runs COGFA, for a response…
The table showing actual revenues and the comparisons to revenue estimates serves as a starting point for the analysis, but it is also important to take into consideration the various factors that were occurring which were leading to increased volatility during this time period.
For FY12, this was the first full year of the implementation of the temporary tax increase. Significant changes to tax structures can lead to increased volatility between estimates and actual receipts. Actual income tax receipts performed better than anticipated in FY12 by $349 million.
Again in FY13, actual income tax receipts performed better than estimated. This variance was largely related to the “April Surprise” in which receipts in April 2013 spiked as taxpayers sought to minimize the impact of recently enacted changes in Federal tax policies. The total difference between the FY13 estimate and actual receipts of $348 million is essentially a difference of 1%.
In FY15, there was increased volatility associated with the partial sunset of the temporary tax increase. Once again, actual receipts from income taxes exceeded estimates, with total variance of about 1.3%.
In each of the examples above, actual receipts exceeded estimates, and the variance was about 1%.
For FY16, at first look there appears to be a large variance, with estimates exceeding actual receipts by $1.3 billion. Remember, this was during a time frame when there was not a comprehensive enacted budget. Further examination of this variance shows that of the $1.3 billion in variance, over $1 billion was associated with Federal Sources. Federal Sources are going to be dependent on the enacted budget, bill payment prioritization, and cash flow at the Comptroller’s office. Aside from the Federal Sources, the revenue estimate for FY16 was within about $300 million of actual receipts, less than 1% variance.
Again in FY17, the vast majority of the $804 million in variance in the table is associated with the $517 million variance in Federal Sources. Controlling for the Federal Source number would leave a variance of $287 million - less than 1%.
Emphasis added.
…Adding… From Adam Schuster, director of budget and tax research at the Illinois Policy Institute…
“We wanted to clarify something about the IPI report you posted on your blog today. The takeaway from that report is not that COGFA does a bad job of estimating revenue (”Both COGFA and GOMB are likely doing their best …”). The point is that revenue estimating is a bad way to do budgeting. As we pointed out in the report, only four states were on target for their revenue estimates in 2017, according to the Spring Fiscal Survey of States put out by the National Association of State Budget Officers.
“Our proposal is to enact a spending cap constitutional amendment that would instead give lawmakers a definite amount of money to spend each year. It has bipartisan support in the General Assembly: SJRCA 21, HJRCA 38.”
Except, COGFA does a pretty good job at estimating, as the post shows.
* Some days, I have to really try to keep in mind that these are just bills not laws. Here’s Rep. CD Davidsmeyer’s HB4230…
Provides that various information after an individual’s arrest must be made available to the news media for inspection and copying as soon as practicable after the individual’s arraignment (rather than in no event shall the time period exceed 72 hours from the arrest).
So… the police don’t have to disclose they’ve got you until after you’re arraigned? Yeah. I can see no problems with that one. None at all…
Davidsmeyer wants to change that to “as soon as practicable” after arraignment, the court proceeding in which a person accused of a crime enters a formal plea. That usually occurs weeks — and, in extreme cases, months — after an arrest.
He told us the legislation was inspired by the arrest of a college-aged woman after a domestic dispute. She ultimately wasn’t charged, but news of the arrest was published, causing her to face ridicule on Facebook. […]
The ACLU’s Ed Yohnka said the proposal flies against the principle that people shouldn’t be held in secret. […]
[Don Craven, a media law attorney representing the Illinois Broadcasters Association] told us the current 72-hour rule was established about 15 years ago through a compromise between media outlets and the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.
* Rep. Jeanne Ives press release…
This morning, Springfield whistleblower Denise Rotheimer testified on HB 4840 before the House Executive Committee. HB 4840 is a bill filed by State Representative Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) that would give Illinois residents who file an Inspector General complaint in state government the right to notification, information, and participation during the investigative process.
Republicans David Reis, John Caveletto and Dan Brady joined Democrats Barbara Flynn Currie, Robert Rita, Marcus Evans, Gregory Harris, Arthur Turner and Chris Welch in voting against the bill. The committee cited a task force that was “working on the issue.” This is an often-used excuse to delay real action in Springfield.
“This is shameful,” said Ives. “Denise is the whistleblower who pushed for her complaint to be heard and only because she kept asking about it was it revealed that the Legislative Inspector General position was vacant for three years. But for her diligence, we still would not know 27 complaints sat for up to three years unheard.
“She was also the first person to go through the complaint process once an LIG was appointed. She had no rights in the process which is why she helped write HB4840.
“Unbelievably, the Sexual Harassment Task Force has refused to have her testify.
“Complainants need rights now. Not after a task force of elected officials water down the issue.”
In October, nearly three hundred women signed an open #MeToo letter about the culture of sexual harassment in Springfield.
“Misogyny is alive and well in this industry,” read the letter in reference to Illinois politics.
And it remains alive and well because of neglect by the leaders of both political parties in Springfield – and aided by obliviousness of Governor Rauner, whose OEIG slipped in opposition to the legislation.
Faux outrage and kabuki theater in response to serious accusations is all part of the bipartisan protection racket that furthers Illinois’ corrupt political culture.
“If Illinoisans don’t wake up, we will continue to have a system where those in power abuse, instead of a system that checks the abuses of those in power,” Ives concluded.
Individuals who threaten gun violence against schools on social media would be required to reimburse police departments for added security and emergency response costs under legislation sponsored by State Senator Bill Cunningham, a Democrat representing Chicago and the Southwest Suburbs.
The legislation, Senate Bill 563, is aimed at reducing the trend of copycat threats in the wake of school shootings by updating the disorderly conduct statute, which is the state law most often used to prosecute individuals who make threats against schools. Under current law, those convicted of making threats are required to reimburse public safety agencies for response-related costs, but only if they make the threat via a 9-1-1 phone call or if they specifically threaten to use a bomb.
“Most threats of violence against schools are no longer made through a phone call and increasingly, the threats make no mention of a bomb,” Cunningham said. “According to law enforcement agencies in my district, threats against schools are more commonly made via social media posts. The law needs to be updated to address this change.”
Six major prolife leaders signed a statement Friday morning declaring they would withhold endorsements of Republican Senate members that voted for the ERA this week in Springfield. The lack of enthusiasm among conservatives could be even more devastating for Illinois Republicans down ballot that are already preparing for a low turnout in the fall.
The state’s prolife leadership points to eight Republicans - despite self-declarations that they’re ‘prolife’ - that the groups will not encourage voters to support in the November election: Senator Pamela Althoff (R), Senator Michael Connelly (R), Senator Karen McConnaughay (R), Senator Jason A. Barickman (R), Senator John F. Curran (R), Senator Chris Nybo (R), Senator Sue Rezin (R), and Senator Tom Rooney (R).
A vote for the ERA is a vote for overturning abortion restrictions and enshrining abortion rights in the US Constitution. A vote for the ERA is a vote against the unborn child. State court judges have held that their state ERAs mandate “HB40” style taxpayer funding of elective abortions. The ERA further threatens parental notification and consent laws throughout the country, along with every reasonable regulation on abortion.
The fight now goes to the House. The Illinois Federation for Right to Life PAC, Illinois Citizens for Life PAC, Illinois Family Action PAC, and Lake County Life PAC will not endorse or support any legislator that casts a vote for such a sweeping pro-abortion piece of legislation as the ERA. […]
While we are disappointed with all 43 Senators who voted for abortion, we are gravely disturbed by those who solicited pro-life support and presented themselves as pro-life but voted for the ERA. Their vote was a vote in opposition to life and will not be ignored by the undersigned.
That statement could very well cause problems for the House’s passage efforts.
Lost in the standard-issue political histrionics of the Illinois governor’s race is serious talk of how to resolve a $130 billion public pension shortfall that has a stranglehold over much of what can be accomplished by any state leader.
Rivals Bruce Rauner and J.B. Pritzker agree on little, yet they so far have found common purpose in tiptoeing around the pension minefield that likely will dictate the success or failure of whichever of them is sworn in next year.
* And then he goes on to explain that one fix (changing the constitution) probably probably won’t work…
So if the Constitution is an obstacle to change, why not just change the Constitution? That, in essence, is the argument underpinning a recent recommendation from the Civic Federation, a budget watchdog, for an Illinois Constitutional amendment aimed at modifying the pension clause to allow “reasonable, moderate changes” to retiree benefits. […]
“You can’t retroactively change substantive rights,” said Ann Lousin, a professor of constitutional law at John Marshall Law School who was a research assistant at the 1970 constitutional convention.
Indeed, the Chicago-based Government Finance Officers Association argues against state and local governments issuing bonds to cover pension obligations.
“Borrowing is a real desperation move,” said William Glasgall, who directs state and local initiatives for the Volcker Alliance, a New York-based nonprofit that advocates for policies that rebuild public trust in government. “A $100 billion sale is beyond absurd. I don’t think there are enough investors to buy something that size, especially given Illinois’ crappy bond rating.”
To manage future budgets and meet our pension obligations, we should determine a level dollar annual payment beginning now and into future years and re-amortize the pension payment schedule so we pay into the system at a rate that pays all pensioners what is due.
So, in other words, adjust the ramp. But that is more costly in the long term.
* One thing Sen. Sandoval does exceedingly well is get himself in the news. AP…
The Illinois Senate is urging Gov. Bruce Rauner to reject a presidential call to send National Guard troops to help secure the U.S.-Mexican border.
The Democratic-controlled Senate voted 33-22 Thursday to adopt a resolution urging the GOP governor not to comply if President Donald Trump makes a request.
Chicago Democratic Sen. Martin Sandoval sponsored the resolution a day after Rauner said he’d deploy troops if the Republican president asks. Sandoval says National Guard troops are needed at home and criticized similar moves by former GOP President George W. Bush and Democratic President Barack Obama. […]
Arizona, New Mexico and Texas have pledged state troops and Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown acquiesced on Wednesday.
Gov. Jerry Brown agreed Wednesday to take money but not marching orders from President Trump in deploying 400 National Guard troops to various locations around the state, insisting any service members near the border would not enforce federal immigration law.
“Your funding for new staffing will allow the Guard to do what it does best: support operations targeting transnational criminal gangs, human traffickers and illegal firearm and drug smugglers along the border, the coast and throughout the state,” Brown wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis.
Brown was the last of the nation’s border governors to respond to Trump’s request for a beefed-up presence. In his letter, he said that he wanted to be “crystal clear” in what he was agreeing to provide.
“This will not be a mission to build a new wall,” Brown wrote. “It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life. And the California National Guard will not be enforcing federal immigration laws.”
Organizers with the “refugee caravan” say they are less than a week away from reaching the U.S.-Mexico border—but only the “most vulnerable” members of the group are left.
The caravan started on March 25, with more than 1,200 migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Central America (about 80% of caravan participants are from Honduras). The caravan made national headlines when President Donald Trump learned the migrants planned on seeking refuge in the United States. “It had better be stopped before it gets there,” Trump tweeted.
Trump then announced he planned to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard troops to guard the border.
By now, only an estimated 250-300 migrants are expected to reach the U.S.-Mexico border near Tijuana next week, according to Rodrigo Abeja, a coordinator from Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a transnational organization that organized the caravan.
The remaining group is made up of mostly unaccompanied minors, women migrating on their own, and family units—“the most vulnerable individuals,” as Abeja described them.
The migrants who are seeking asylum when they reach the border have all been vetted by a team of more than 20 attorneys, Abeja told Splinter.
Fox News has run several breathless stories about the caravan.
Sandoval said the resolution’s intent was to urge Rauner to put the safety of the state “ahead of his political ambitions and the political ambitions of the Trump administration,” by not deploying the state’s National Guard to the border.
State Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, called the resolution “premature,” considering Trump has not yet asked Rauner to deploy the Illinois National Guard. New Mexico, Texas and Arizona have pledged troops, and California this week said it would, as well.
But Rauner on Wednesday told reporters in Springfield he will honor the request should it be made.
A Pekin man has been charged with a drug induced homicide for selling synthetic cannabis to a man who ingested it and died.
Lonnie K. Smith will appear at the Tazewell County Justice Center at 1 p.m.today on the charge, a Class X felony, along with a charges of aggravated battery and unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.
According to the probable cause statement provided by Tazewell County States Attorney’s office, Smith knowingly delivered FUB-AMB, a controlled substance, to Anthony Phillips who ingested around 11 p.m. April 7. He died at UnityPoint Health - Methodist April 9.
Smith is also being charged with aggravated battery for delivering the substance to Rena Corp, who lived with Phillips, because she also got sick after ingesting it.
Democratic Party of Illinois Chairman Michael J. Madigan announced today that the party would be holding an organizational meeting for the State Central Committee on Monday, April 23 in Springfield.
“Voters in the March primary elected new members of the State Central Committee, and now it is our job to choose party officials and begin planning to elect Democrats up and down the ballot in November,” Chairman Madigan said.
The meeting will take place on Monday, April 23 at 1 p.m. in the Gallery Room on the first floor of the State House Inn, located at 101 East Adams Street in Springfield. Members of the public are welcome to attend.
The Democratic State Central Committee is composed of 36 members, one man and one woman elected from each congressional district. Each member will have a weighted vote that is equal to the number of Democratic ballots cast in their congressional district in the March 20, 2018 primary election.
Despite months of criticism over his handling of sexual harassment allegations in his political organization, powerful Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan appears poised to hold onto his seat as chairman of the state Democratic Party.
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said he “doesn’t do predictions,” but noted he wasn’t aware of any opponents throwing their names in the ring as the 36 state central committeemen and committeewomen prepare to vote for the party chair on April 23. […]
The only one breaking ranks with Madigan is newly elected progressive committeeman Peter Janko, who said Democrats in his McHenry-area district were “almost universal” in their desire to oust Madigan. […]
Madigan has led the party since 1998, and if elected to a sixth term on April 23, he would become the longest-tenured Democratic party chairman in state history.
I finally got Ives on the phone and she flatly denies any deal or understanding with Rauner to talk peace.
Both happened to be at the same restaurant for separate events, and when Rauner came in, he started working the tables, including hers. “He said hello, and moved on….We agreed on nothing,” with no discussion of a meeting.
So, was the governor lying? “If he said there was an agreement to meet, yes.”
Ouch.
* DGA…
“Bruce Rauner’s desperation is reaching new, pathetic lows as he tries to win back Jeanne Ives’ voters by lying to them,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “Maybe Rauner knows his failed leadership has turned off the Republicans, Democrats, and Independents he needs to save his sinking reelection campaign.”
* Meanwhile, Rep. Allen Skillicorn, an Ives supporter, has some unsolicited advice for the governor…
A Gubernatorial Opportunity to Act for Unity
In agreement with what the Chicago Tribune characterized as a largely symbolic gesture, the Illinois Senate approved the Equal Rights Amendment 36 years after the deadline, 46 years after being passed by the U.S. Senate for ratification and 95 years after it was first proposed. Yes, you read that right, it appears that Illinois isn’t the only place where playing by the rules is optional. We have now stepped through the looking glass where unpopular Constitutional amendments are perpetually pushed until they are passed.
My colleague in the Senate made the statement “You are looking at a group of women who really, we have our differences on many issues, but we respect each other and together we are very committed to the idea of advancing and promoting legislation and policy that is good for women,” With all due respect, while the ERA was proposed in 1923 by the National Woman’s party with the initial focus on advancing women’s rights, are we really going to say that women’s rights haven’t advanced in the United States for 95 years?
Even a New York Times Op-Ed penned in 2016 by Mary Anne Case, professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School, stated, “Indeed, the current constitutional law of sex discrimination is almost exactly what E.R.A. supporters in the 1970s hoped for from the E.R.A….. For ordinary citizens to treat men and women more equally in venues from the voting booth to the family dinner table does not at this point require a change in law, but in mindset.”
Opponents point out that the major goal for continuing to push the ERA is to end the Hyde Amendment and force unlimited taxpayer funding of abortion at all levels of government. The NRLC in a 2017 memo to the Illinois General Assembly stated that they, “…strongly urge legislators to oppose this resolution for two reasons: (1) The language of the proposed 1972 ERA, which cannot now be revised, is virtually identical to language that the major pro-abortion groups have used in other states (including New Mexico) for highly successful legal attacks on laws protecting unborn children and limiting tax funding of abortion. (2) The Illinois resolution is part of an effort to evade the federal constitutional amendment process spelled out in the U.S. Constitution itself.”
Governor Rauner has been touring the state attempting to bring together the fractured pieces of the Republican Party. His critics, of which I am one, along with many of the Republicans he met with, have emphasized that the time for talk is well over. Only policy deeds could possibly unite us, and there are few opportunities for those remaining this session. So, I have a suggestion for the Governor: take the initiative to encourage legislators in the House to oppose the ERA resolution.
Like bell bottoms, this idea should have stayed in the 70’s.
* Gov. Rauner was asked yesterday about the Equal Rights Amendment that passed the Senate. “I support equal rights for everyone,” he said. Asked to be more specific about the legislative proposal, he said…
That won’t ever come to my desk so that’s not the nature of the process. But I support equality for everyone. And what I’m very supportive of is the Illinois Constitution already is very strong and very protective of equal rights for women and for everyone. I think we’ve got a great Constitution in that regard.
Data kept by Advertising Analytics show the single ad that Team Rauner put the most money behind aired just four days before the March 20 primary. It was a response to an ad the Democratic Governors Association released that called Rauner challenger, state Rep. Jeanne Ives, too conservative for Illinois, a spot aimed to strategically push Republican primary voters toward Ives.
In a sign of the potential impact of the DGA ad, Rauner’s campaign spent more than $1.7 million to air this response 1,162 times over four days. It’s the highest dollar amount the governor’s reelection campaign spent on any single ad throughout the campaign. Of that, more than $1.2 million was dedicated to a single market: Champaign-Springfield-Decatur, that central Illinois swath Rauner desperately needed to keep from defecting to Ives. “Conservative voter alert,” the ad begins in all red. “The same Washington liberals that support J.B. Pritzker are now helping Jeanne Ives with last-second ads. Why? Because Jeanne Ives has already surrendered to Mike Madigan. Liberals are highjacking the Republican primary in Illinois.” In the end, Ives lost to Rauner by fewer than 3 percentage points.
Today Governor Bruce Rauner signed Senate Bill 1451 to standardize and streamline regulation of small wireless cell facilities, paving the way for 5G wireless and other technology in Illinois.
“This legislation sends a strong, competitive message that Illinois is open for business. We want to make Illinois a leader in wireless technology. We are working to grow jobs and our economy and set our community up for future success,” Rauner said.
Small cells are lower-profile wireless signal alternatives to traditional cell towers that can be attached to existing structures. Their deployment will help lay the foundation required to support the technologies of the future, such as the next generation wireless systems known as 5G.
Besides faster internet and devices, Accenture has forecast that 5G and smart cities investments will create nearly 100,000 jobs and bring in nearly $9 billion in investment to Illinois over the next seven years.
“We are building a future where our economy booms, job creation soars and our Midwest neighbors watch in amazement as Illinois takes the lead in innovation, job growth and economic opportunity,” Rauner said.
“As technology continues to advance and smartphone data use continues to increase, it’s important that we have the infrastructure in place to support those advancements,” said Sen. Terry Link (D-Vernon Hills), who sponsored the legislation. “This measure will help ensure a smooth transition to 5G and allow Illinois to stay at the forefront of new wireless technology.”
“The Small Cell Wireless Bill ensures that consumers in Illinois stay on the forefront of wireless technology,” said Rep. Peter Breen (R-Lombard). “Illinoisans will now have greater access to 5G technology, allowing for more data to be transferred faster than ever before.”
“As demand grows, small cells can help bring Illinois consumers a faster and more efficient wireless internet experience. This legislation is a balanced approach to making progress for technology advancements in our state,” said Rep. Kelly Burke (D-Oak Lawn).
“I’m glad that we were able to work in a collaborative and bipartisan way to meet the growing public demand for improved technology that will assist consumers and business development, while making us competitive with neighboring states,” said Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy).
Wireless demand is expected to increase five times by 2022.
“This legislation will benefit businesses, employers and job seekers throughout our state, while providing valuable services for our citizens. Wireless technology is essential for small and start-up businesses that are the core of our economy. We are happy the Governor and the General Assembly made this step forward for our community,” said President & CEO of the Illinois Black Chamber of Commerce Larry D. Ivory.
Small cell technology will help provide Illinoisans with faster download speeds, improved call quality and support Telemedicine, connected cars, distance learning, smart homes, smart farms and Smart Cities, creating a more connected network across the state.
“Innovative and life changing technologies coming from shop floors across Illinois play a central role in creating manufacturing jobs and maintaining our competitive advantage in the global marketplace,” said Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of the Illinois Manufacturers Association Mark Denzler. “We applaud Governor Bruce Rauner and lawmakers who recognize that manufacturing is very technology-infused and technology-driven today. This new law will keep Illinois on the leading edge and provide opportunities for manufacturers to compete in the current period of innovation known as Industry 4.0.”
The bill will also help improve wireless service in areas where large cell towers are not the best solution.
“This is about communities across Illinois – ensuring they have access to cutting edge technology and equal opportunity to compete for jobs in tomorrow’s economy,” said Illinois Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Todd Maisch.
The bill still ensures local governments retain their role and authority in the permitting process of telecommunications equipment by allowing them to exercise their zoning, land use, planning, and permitting authorities within their territorial boundaries, including with respect to wireless support structures and utility poles.
“Illinois retailers need next generation telecommunications infrastructure to provide the customized offerings and services our customers expect. The same infrastructure other states and much of the world already enjoys,” said President & CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association Rob Karr. “This legislation makes that possible and propels Illinois into the 21st Century. We applaud Governor Rauner and the members of the General Assembly for making this possible.”
Texas, Florida, Arizona, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont have already passed similar technology legislation.
The Illinois bill will compensate local governments at a higher rate than any other state’s small cell law.
The legislation boosts “small cell technology” that will expand 5G service to many more locations around the state.
But it caps the rates that local governments can charge companies who want to install those towers… and Springfield officials say that’s an unfair limit on the city’s publicly-owned utility.
First - the bill usurps municipal authority of public infrastructure for private profits. Currently wireless companies have agreements with local governments for small cell installations or they can pay for their own cell tower infrastructure. This bill is just an end around to create greater profits for the wireless companies on the backs of municipalities and taxpayers.
Second - the bill is another hit to municipalities’ budgets. This year the State implemented a sales tax administration fee and reduced the city’s portion of the state income tax. Those changes for the City of Springfield are projected to reduce revenues by over $2 million. This bill eliminates the City’s ability to properly recover ongoing costs associated with installing and maintaining public infrastructure.
Third - the bill preempts home-rule. By eliminating the rights of home-rule, you are essentially opening “Pandora’s Box” which would allow other industries to do the same. The bill should honor the exemption of home-rule municipalities.
Finally - the City of Springfield is unique in that we have our own municipally owned utility (CWLP) from which we generate and distribute electricity and water. During the extremely difficult two-year state budget impasse, we kept the lights and water on while outstanding bills peaked at approximately $15 million.
They should probably tweak this law for Springfield and a few other towns, but overall I think this is a good piece of legislation.
National Blame Someone Else Day is always celebrated on the first Friday the 13th of the year.
The way to celebrate is self-explanatory in the name, and not much more needs to be said. If you do not want to blame someone, put the blame on something (remember, it is all in fun!)
HOW TO OBSERVE
Use #BlameSomeoneElseDay to post on social media.
HISTORY
National Blame Someone Else Day was invented by Anne Moeller of Clio, Michigan in 1982. One day, her alarm clock failed to go off, hence creating a domino effect of bad luck events throughout the day. The day happened to be Friday the 13th.
* Press release…
Today is Bruce Rauner’s favorite holiday: National Blame Someone Else Day. To celebrate the joyous occasion, we compiled the greatest hits of Rauner blaming everyone but himself for his failures as governor:
* First up, the most ridiculous and poignant example. The chief executive of the state said: “I am not in charge. I’m trying to get to be in charge” of the same state he was elected to run.
* After an editorial board grilled Rauner for having accomplished next to nothing during his first term, Rauner blamed lawmakers and more for coming up short.
* When asked if he’d take responsibility for his fatal mismanagement of the Quincy Veterans’ Home, Rauner said “it’s so false” that he’d be responsible and then went on downplay the 13 deaths by saying “these things happen.”
* Following their boss’ lead, Rauner’s agency heads said they’re not in charge either and told lawmakers to ask a local health department and the governor’s legal team to answer for emails within their department.
“Every day is national blame someone else day for Bruce Rauner, a failed leader not in charge of the state,” said Pritzker campaign spokesman Jason Rubin. “No matter the crisis he causes, the agency he mismanages, and the damage he does, it’s clear Rauner will never take responsibility for his abundant failures as governor.”
“This guy, he’s a target-rich environment, and we’re going to light him up in November,” said Rauner of J.B. Pritzker, his Democratic opponent in the governor’s race, during the McLean County Republican Party’s annual Lincoln/Reagan Day Dinner. “He’s as corrupt a political insider as you can find.”
Rauner also took time to address Ives’ claim that Rauner signed legislation to make Illinois a “sanctuary state.” He said law enforcement in fact asked him last summer to sign the Trust Act, which stops police from arresting residents based solely on their immigration status, because they feared Democrats would pass something more restrictive in its place.
The attack was a centerpiece of Ives’ campaign for governor, which came within three percentage points of defeating the better-funded and incumbent Rauner.
“I am passionately against sanctuary states and against illegal immigration,” he said Wednesday.
* The Question: Your own “simple message” suggestions for the gubernatorial campaigns? And let’s just stipulate that “Rauner failed” is a given since it’s used so often in comments. Come up with other stuff.
Breaking: The SIU Board of Trustees did not pass item GG, which would’ve shifted $5.125 million in state allocations from SIU Carbondale to Edwardsville.
The Carbondale Chamber of Commerce opposes the idea. Interim director Jennifer Olson says it could stifle the city’s efforts to grow.
The chamber sent an opposition letter to the board of trustees citing a 2011 study, that said for every dollar of state funding, seven dollars would be spent annually. Olson says a cut over $5 million dollars could damage the local economy by nearly $39 million in revenue. […]
SIUC Chancellor Carlo Montemagno said in a blog post that the university had already cut over $31 million in funding since 2014 and more than $5 million in additional cuts would be equal to 110 layoffs.
During a meeting with The Southern Illinoisan’s editorial board Tuesday, Dunn said that the operating policy for the two campuses has dictated a 60/40 percent split in appropriation distribution between SIUC and SIUE since at least as far back as 1979.
Over the years, that split has gotten skewed by virtue of state cuts and loss of certain programs, Dunn said.
According to figures provided by Dunn, the appropriation distribution for Fiscal Year 2018 was $91,287,400 (63.9 percent) to SIUC and $51,565,000 (36.1 percent) to SIUE. […]
To reflect a 60/40 percent split, the adjustment would be about $5.6 million.
Nine months after Carlo Montemagno left a position as director of Ingenuity Lab to assume the chancellorship at SIU’s Carbondale campus, some members of the Alberta community are still picking up the pieces of what they call a failed project brought to life and then abandoned by its director. […]
Some individuals who worked closely with Montemagno said the employment of his family members, combined with poor leadership, may have contributed to the early downfall of what was intended to be a 10-year-long $100 million project to bolster innovation within Alberta’s oil-reliant economy. […]
“How could we blow this so bad when it looked so good?” a former research associate said. “How could it become so controversial, so dominated by hostility toward others? It became the thing that it was supposed to break. It became this extremely siloed, extremely closed environment that is exactly what that thing was designed to bust up in the broader context of the university.”
This ain’t rocket science. And we keep having unbalanced budgets. We still have an unbalanced budget, even though they overrode my veto on a tax hike last year. We’re still $3 billion dollars in a deficit. This is nuts. Totally nuts.
I vetoed the budget because even after the tax hike it was still out of balance. We’re still running billions of dollars of a deficit. This is fiscal irresponsibility at its worst.
However, because we’re now paying down the Medicaid bill backlog with bonding, one-time federal reimbursements are netting the state an additional $1.2 billion. Factor in one-time borrowing proceeds to pay off other parts of the bill backlog and subtract carry-over costs from last fiscal year’s unappropriated spending and it works out to be a $2.025 billion “surplus,” according to GOMB’s own figures. Yeah, that’s not truly a surplus, but it’s also not a $3 billion operating deficit. Not even close.
* Speaking of the backlog…
Rauner says that the bill backlog is "still climbing" after legislators overrode his veto and passed a bipartisan budget.
…Adding… From retiring GOP Rep. Steve Andersson, who voted for the tax hike and budget last year…
Well we know the Governor isn’t very good on facts, or accuracy or truth. I’m glad the facts are showing what we knew when we overrode him!
* The governor also said today that he was not insisting on his pension cost-shift proposal to schools and higher ed. As long as the final budget agreement is balanced, he said, he’ll sign it. That idea was just a placeholder anyway. He knew he couldn’t pass it, so it was basically designed to kick the can to the General Assembly.
And House Republican Leader Jim Durkin even admitted yesterday that his own caucus is “lukewarm” on the issue…
So, they’re gonna have to find a way to patch that $630 million hole.
Kankakee High School will help pilot an evolving education trend that measures student growth based on competency rather than time spent sitting in a classroom.
Last week, the Illinois State Board of Education named Kankakee School District 111 one of the 12 schools that will pilot a competency graduation program.
Essentially, the program allows high schoolers to advance at their own pace. For instance, a student who demonstrates mastery of ninth grade English requirements can move on to 10th grade English immediately rather than having to wait an entire school year.
“This is going to be more skills-based rather than time spent in the classroom,” said Felice Hybert, the district’s assistant superintendent of curriculum. “If a student can show competency in certain skills, they can move on and get credit. It’s not tied to a year of instruction. They can move on in 30 days, 60 days – whenever they show the ability to move on.”
Superintendent Genevra Walters believes the program will help improve the high school’s graduation rate. It will enable advanced students to challenge themselves. It will also measure skill sets for students who are not as engaged in school. At the same time, the district plans on providing more support for students who struggle. […]
Walters said the district plans on forming partnerships with Kankakee Community College, Olivet Nazarene University and local businesses to help students advance into careers.
At Kankakee Public Schools in Illinois, we’ve introduced 16 different career paths to about 70 percent of our K–5 students using Defined STEM’s career wheel. Some of these topics include agriculture, communication and information studies, human services, and health science. Each grade has a designated topic, paving the way for every student to explore and become familiar with a wide variety of career possibilities.
Three years ago, this began the transformation of Kankakee’s general education track into the College and Career Academy, which is 100 percent focused on using with PBL to prepare students for future jobs. With our new focus, we are one of 10 high school districts in Illinois that have started to move to competency-based learning. We’re also working to report on students’ mastery of skills with progress levels, rather than a traditional report card at the end of each semester.
“I don’t know why a district like yours that is struggling academically is willing to buy into this entire idea that we are going to now learn outside of school when they haven’t mastered obviously the requirements for in school,” Ives said.
Hybert countered by saying the numbers prove students have disengaged with the traditional school setting and need a change,
However, Ives still was not convinced, and said the risk of taking $2 million to fund a pilot program with no proven success is a no for her.
“I am sorry I am just not buying it,” Ives said.
Um, the whole idea is to try to help the kids who have trouble learning the traditional way. Left up to Ives, the kids would have to first learn the traditional way before being given the option to participate in an alternative educational format.
Illinois residents could enjoy lower taxes if their squabbling leaders tackle the debt-riddled state’s biggest problem — its massively underfunded pension system. But that’s a big if.
Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, who’s running for re-election this year, says he could lower taxes by as much as $1 billion. First, lawmakers must address a crisis that’s vexed the state for years, and get a plan cleared by the courts soon.
“When I sign it, we’ll get that in front of our state judiciary,” Rauner told reporters in Chicago this week. “Once they bless it as constitutional, then we will have a billion dollar income tax cut for the people of Illinois.”
But if history is any guide, that’s not likely to happen.
The gist of the rest is that the proposal is constitutionally suspect and is also unlikely to pass the House.
The governor has constructed a trick bag for the Democrats. Senate President John Cullerton says his bill is constitutional. Rauner says he believes Cullerton and says Madigan is now standing in the way of a billion-dollar tax cut, which wouldn’t really amount to much but it sounds nice. A billllion dollars!
* Rauner campaign…
#TBT Pritzker Paid No State Income Tax in 2014, but Wants to Raise Your Taxes
JB Pritzker has made raising taxes on hardworking Illinoisans the defining issue of his campaign. But his personal history shows that he doesn’t put his money where his mouth is.
In 2014, Pritzker received a series of tax credits from his investments that ensured he paid no state income tax that year.
It’s crystal clear that Pritzker wants everyone else in Illinois to pay more with his immediate, destructive tax hike on Illinois families, but he will do whatever he can to avoid paying the taxman himself.
From the Chicago Sun-Times:
In May, Sun-Times reporter Tim Novak reported that Pritzker had saved nearly $230,000 on his property taxes by arguing that a Gold Coast mansion he bought for $3.7 million, began to renovate and then halted the work was “uninhabitable.”
Under the state angel investor program, four Pritzker businesses got a total of more than $1.2 million in tax credits in 2012. He got more state tax credits in 2013, 2014 and 2015, when two of his companies claimed a total of more than $537,000 in credits.
One Pritzker company that got a $250,000 tax credit later contributed $82,000 to the Illinois Democratic Party; the party’s chairman, state House Speaker Michael Madigan of Chicago; and three Democratic candidates for the Illinois House.
Taxes, Madigan, Taxes, Madigan, Taxes, Madigan, Taxes, Madigan, Taxes, Madigan all the way to November.
* Related…
* Editorial: Tax issues big in election year - Republicans have wasted no time speaking out against Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker’s income-tax proposals.
* Three press releases from JB Pritzker’s campaign…
Bruce Rauner’s FY19 budget proposal attempts to “balance” the budget on the backs of working people. With the General Assembly holding budget hearings this week, the Pritzker campaign is highlighting the different communities that would be hurt by this failed governor’s unbalanced budget.
While 3.2 million Illinoisans rely on Medicaid, Bruce Rauner proposed a $150 million cut to the program in his FY19 budget. The failed governor made a 4% provider rate cut in his latest proposal, threatening the children, seniors, and disabled Illinoisans that rely on Medicaid for their healthcare needs.
“While Donald Trump proposes over a trillion in Medicaid cuts nationally, his local partner Bruce Rauner is following suit and proposing $150 million in cuts here in Illinois,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “This failed governor’s unbalanced budget deals a blow to the healthcare system that millions of Illinoisans rely on to build better lives.”
Bruce Rauner’s agency directors followed their boss’ lead yesterday at a legislative hearing, pointing fingers and blaming others for Rauner’s fatal mismanagement of the Quincy Veterans’ Home.
The directors of Rauner’s public health and Veterans affairs departments were unwilling to talk about the emails at the center of the Legionnaires’ crisis and told lawmakers to direct their questions to the Adams Country Health Department and the governor’s legal team. One agency head even lied about Rauner halting construction of the Chicago Veterans’ Home that has been delayed years by his budget crisis.
“While Bruce Rauner and his agency directors claim they’re not in charge, their fatal mismanagement of the Quincy Veterans’ Home continues another day,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Illinois Veterans and their families torn apart by this failure of leadership deserve immediate answers, but all they’re getting is the runaround from Rauner and a team of people trying to shield him.”
Today, the Pritzker campaign released the results from Rauner’s leaked ‘Illinois Priorities Survey’ draft. Here’s what Illinoisans think about their failed governor:
To: Interested Parties
From: Pritzker campaign
Re: Leaked ‘Illinois Priorities Survey’
Date: April 12, 2018
A new survey conducted in Illinois details the extent of Bruce Rauner’s failure as governor. After polling underwater for quite some time, the incumbent faced a heated primary campaign that almost cost him his party’s nomination. Called the ‘Worst Republican Governor in America,’ Rauner barely squeaked by with less than a 4-point margin against insurgent challenger Jeanne Ives. Now failing to consolidate the Republican vote, let alone the support of independents or Democrats, an uphill battle faces the nation’s most vulnerable incumbent governor, and the results of this survey show why.
The Illinois Senate on Wednesday voted to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, renewing a push from decades ago amid the #MeToo movement to guarantee that rights can’t be denied because of a person’s sex.
The vote came about 36 years after the amendment appeared to die after just 35 states ratified it, three short of what was needed by the 1982 deadline. That means Illinois’ approval could be largely symbolic. Still, advocates have pushed for a “three-state solution,” contending Congress can extend the deadline and the amendment should go into effect if three additional states vote in favor.
The amendment passed on a vote of 43-12, with no debate on the Senate floor. It now heads to the House, where sponsoring Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, says he is working to build support but warned it’s far from a “slam-dunk.” The House and Senate each have voted in favor in the past, but it has yet to clear both in the same year.
An effort to limit the amount of tax breaks the state would give to Amazon as officials seek to lure the company’s second headquarters to Chicago will not move forward.
Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a Democrat from Chicago, said Wednesday she was told her proposal would not get a committee hearing, which essentially kills the effort for the spring legislative session.
She was seeking to limit potential tax credits to $50,000 for each job the company would create in Illinois, saying lawmakers must be careful to balance incentives.
“The reality is when we talk about these amazing opportunities, like with Amazon, it’s almost like pie-in-the-sky predictions without any concrete proof of what it’s going to be like,” Cassidy said. “Which is why I talk about relating the incentive to the kinds of jobs that will be created and the kinds of salaries that will be paid by them because otherwise we are buying a pig in a poke.”
* Press release from a couple of days ago that I forgot to post…
Ensuring teachers earn a livable minimum salary is one significant step Illinois can take to recruit more educators into rural and downstate classrooms and address the ongoing shortage, State Senator Andy Manar said today.
The Senate Education Committee approved his measure raising Illinois’ minimum mandated salary for full-time teachers for the first time since 1980.
“Fewer talented young people are going into the teaching profession for numerous reasons, one of which is pay. Would-be teachers can get a higher salary right out of college in other areas of the workforce, which his opposite of our priorities and our needs in this state,” he said.
Senate Bill 2892 updates Illinois statute by increasing the minimum mandated annual salary for full-time teachers to $40,000.
The statute has not been updated in 38 years. Currently, minimum mandated salaries are set at $11,000 for a teacher with a master’s degree, $10,000 for those with bachelor’s degrees and $9,000 for teachers with less than a bachelor’s degree.
Manar said there are teachers in his Senate district who have master’s degrees but live under the federal poverty level.
“To me, this is an issue of respect – for the teaching profession and for the credentials we ask teachers to bring to the table,” Manar said.
“Today, Illinois is investing record amounts of money in schools that tend to have the least competitive salary schedules. There are hundreds of empty classrooms all over the state in communities with enormous challenges and the highest rates of poverty because they can’t recruit teachers,” he said. “Updating Illinois’ minimum mandated teacher salary is a good place to begin addressing the problem.”
* BGA press release…
Sen. Tom Cullerton (D-Villa Park) introduced Senate Bill 3604 which will limit exorbitant severance packages for public executives in a move aimed at restoring taxpayer trust in government.
Not only do Illinoisans face years of budget deficits, cuts to social services, and tax increases, they also foot the bill for six-figure severance packages, known as golden parachutes, for public executives who leave their jobs under questionable circumstances. Cullerton introduced the bill after the Better Government Association (BGA) examined public severance limitations in other states and outlined multiple cases of golden parachutes in recent years that left Illinois taxpayers footing millions of dollars in payouts to make bad executives go away.
Senate Bill 3604, the Government Severance Pay Act, will stop employees fired for misconduct from collecting a severance altogether and it will limit severance packages for other public executives to a maximum of 20 weeks’ compensation. The legislation gives governments in Illinois the ability to remain competitive while eliminating abuses that fuel taxpayer distrust.
Elected government officials frequently are advised to grant rich severances in an attempt to head off employment litigation. By adopting the Government Severance Pay Act, state lawmakers can set a clean, clear plan that will eliminate those thorny decisions for elected officials, just as is done in Florida and other states.
“It’s time to get control of these huge buyouts for public executives and institute some best practices,” Cullerton said. “Taxpayers deserve to have their hard-earned money protected. Let’s end these golden parachutes now.”
“Time and time again,” said BGA President and CEO David Greising, “government officials who are found abusing the public’s trust are allowed to walk away not just unpunished, but, in fact, rewarded. The Government Severance Pay Act acknowledges that severance packages are a part of today’s competitive employment market, while at the same time protecting taxpayers from six-figure giveaways.”
The BGA examined golden parachute packages last fall and found nine recent instances at Illinois universities, Metra and elsewhere that cost taxpayers more than $5 million.
Since that time, Des Plaines Elementary District 62 officials granted a $127,000 severance to former superintendent Floyd Williams Jr. following accusations he denied that he had sexually harassed employees. In northwest suburban Vernon Hills, elected officials asked the long-time village manager John Kalmar to leave recently, but have provided few details on a financial settlement or the reasons for it.
If Gov. Bruce Rauner achieves the anti-union, pro-business reforms he has made the hallmark of his administration, he plans to travel the world to promote the state — and the first country he’ll visit will be Poland, he said Sunday. […]
“We are working hard in Springfield on reforms so we can grow our economy and get more value for taxpayers and fund our schools properly,” he said. “I hope soon we’ll have those reforms accomplished, and then I’m going to travel the world to create stronger ties with the people of Illinois with nations across the globe.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner says he’s traveling to Germany and Poland next week to try to draw more companies to Illinois.
Rauner talked about the trip Wednesday during a question-and-answer session at an Illinois Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Springfield.
Rauner says Illinois is “expanding German investment in the state.” And he says Poland has been growing larger companies and “the No. 1 state where they should be investing when they come to the U.S. is Illinois.”
* Snark aside, I’m told the schedule for the Germany leg of that trip is brutal. Unlike his Asia trip, which looked like it was thrown together at the last minute by the since-ousted BTIA™, this one will feature lots of meetings. The governor told the Chamber yesterday that he hopes to make several announcements about companies moving jobs to or investing in Illinois.
So, good luck, Gov. Rauner. Get something done, please. Prost!
Rauner also took time to address Ives’ claim that Rauner signed legislation to make Illinois a “sanctuary state.” He said law enforcement in fact asked him last summer to sign the Trust Act, which stops police from arresting residents based solely on their immigration status, because they feared Democrats would pass something more restrictive in its place.
The attack was a centerpiece of Ives’ campaign for governor, which came within three percentage points of defeating the better-funded and incumbent Rauner.
“I am passionately against sanctuary states and against illegal immigration,” he said Wednesday.
Upset that the only choice Republicans in the 3rd CD have on the November ballot is a known Nazi sympathizer, a group of Cook County GOP members of the Jewish faith called on Cook County GOP Chairman Sean Morrison to step down in a letter sent to Cook County GOP committeemen
Thumbs Down: To Gov. Bruce Rauner and state Rep. Jeanne Ives for not contacting each other since Election Day.
It’s been more than three weeks since the two battled it out on the ballot for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. The two still haven’t talked. Frankly, the person who loses usually calls to concede the race. It seems clear Ives isn’t interested in doing that. Rauner also hasn’t shown any desire to mend fences.
No one expects these two to be buddies. But even Little League players shake hands and say “good game” after the innings have all been played. The two primary opponents need to talk and put this in the past.
* The electronic Twitter machine…
Gov. Bruce Rauner and Rep. Jeanne Ives were spotted together at Obed and Isaac's Microbrewery in Springfield. I showed up just in time to wonder whose SUV I saw pulling out of the lot at 8:53 p.m., and to be bitter about my inability to run a plate. GOP unity in the works?
*** UPDATE 1 *** With a hat tip to a commenter, somebody has a new website called LyingIves.com. The site was created on January 29th, but it appears to have been udpdated since the primary ended…
Ives has a long history of truth distorting and contempt for those she disagrees with.
Her colleagues call her abrasive and stubborn.
She’s only passed five inconsequential bills in the General Assembly.
She ran one of the most negative campaigns in Illinois history
Now she demands the Republican Party cater to her whims.
We are better than this.
There is no “paid for” disclosure on the site that I could find, but whoever is running it says: “This site is dedicated to exposing her lies till she leaves office.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** This was a good idea. He needs to start flipping public perception on Ives. She’s the one, after all, who never conceded to him…
RAUNER on his encounter with IVES at Springfield restaurant: "I went over to say hello and to wish her well and to tell her I look forward to getting together with her"#twill#ilgov
House Speaker Michael J. Madigan issued the following statement Thursday, following a meeting between legislative leaders and the governor:
“Today I advised the governor and the other leaders that we are already at work on the Fiscal Year 2019 budget with our colleagues across the aisle, just as we did a year ago when Republicans and Democrats stood together to end the Rauner budget crisis. If the governor is finally ready to accept responsibility for the management of the state and be an honest partner in trying to pass a budget, we welcome him to this process.
“In the past, Governor Rauner has resorted to severe cuts targeting women, children and the elderly. Democrats cannot accept this. If the governor’s agenda is to push more of his extreme cuts to health care, senior services, and resources for our most at-risk residents, or if he intends to again move the goalposts and create chaos, he should stay on the sidelines and allow serious leaders to continue working cooperatively to address the challenges facing our state.”
…Adding… The governor sent a letter to the leaders today asking them to appoint “budgeteers” so negotiations can begin. Click here.
…Adding… Senate GOP Leader Bill Brady said the “progress” today was two-fold: 1) The Democrats agreed to appoint budgeteers; 2) The Dems agree to certify a revenue estimate.
They coulda got that done by pony express.
…Adding… Raw audio of Cullerton’s media availability is here.
.@GovRauner and four legislative leaders to have a rare meeting this morning. Gov Wed. said he'll “lay out the game plan for a balanced budget. And I’m going to hold some dates and some deadlines to try to get ‘em to do it. The one thing I am is persistent."
* And for your captioning pleasure (if you so choose), the two Dem leaders confer ahead of the meeting with Gov. Rauner as Tim Mapes looks on…
House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton, House Republican Leader Jim Durkin and Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady are meeting with Governor Bruce Rauner right now. Rauner previously said they’re discussing the FY19 budget. pic.twitter.com/6TnwIcFskV
DGA Calls on Rauner to Renounce Greitens After Bombshell Legislative Report
Missouri Governor Appeared in Rauner TV Ad; New Report Accuses Greitens of Forced Sexual Encounter
Today, the Democratic Governors Association called on Bruce Rauner to renounce the endorsement of Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, following a Missouri House special committee investigative report that accused Greitens of a forced sexual encounter and attempt to blackmail his hairdresser.
Governor Bruce Rauner had Greitens appear in a television ad across Illinois. He has refused to renounce Greitens’ endorsement since the allegations first came to light, saying he wouldn’t take a position saying “those allegations need to be investigated.”
“The allegations have been investigated and it’s time for Bruce Rauner to do the right thing and call on Eric Greitens to step down,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “Bruce Rauner should clearly say that this abusive behavior is unacceptable and renounce his political ally Eric Greitens.”
Some background is here. The full report contains some graphic stuff, so beware if you’re at work. Click here to read it.
…Adding… That Rauner ad is still online…
By blocking my reforms, Madigan is ensuring that Illinoisans continue to struggle. pic.twitter.com/Xs3xH10HHR
.@GovRauner calls the credible findings against MO Gov Eric Greitens “terrible” and “very disturbing” and echoes calls for Greitens to step down. pic.twitter.com/CroeziVQCm
Several senators were frustrated by the apparent nonchalant demeanor of Baldwin and IDOC chief financial officer Jared Brunk, who did not discuss the money request until a few minutes into their presentation. Lawmakers said the agency has downplayed the severity of the situation.
“This is a budget hearing. If you need that money, I would respectfully suggest that you come here and you advocate for it first thing out of the box,” said state Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon.
State Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, said he had “heard more from the inmates about the need for a supplemental than I have from both of you sitting at this table.” […]
And ahead of an expected meeting on Thursday between Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative leaders, state Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, questioned why the urgent need for an appropriation was left off the governor’s list of priorities.
“My understanding is that the governor’s going to be having a leaders meeting,” Steans said. “If this is the nature of the situation, I don’t know why that wouldn’t be high that list of items that he was discussing with the leaders. It seems to merit that.”
Baldwin didn’t respond directly to the criticism, but said his staff has been “magnificent” at keeping the department going. To manage cash flow, they’ve had to cut back on things toilet paper and cleaning supplies.
Manar told Baldwin he’d heard about the toilet paper — but not from him, which he says is part of the problem.
“I’ve heard more from the inmates about the need for supplemental than I have from both of you sitting at this table,” Manar said.
But state Sen. Dale Righter, a Republican from Mattoon, says Democrats have been aware of the budget problems in the prisons.
“The bill that is necessary to appropriate the money for DOC has been on file. The bottom line is the Democratic majority hasn’t moved it,” Righter said.
High anxiety and frustration is expected among incarcerated criminals. But lately Governor Rauner’s administrators at the Illinois Department of Corrections are living under $420 million worth of pressure and they’re hoping lawmakers will quickly send them more money to operate.
Rauner’s Department of Corrections is unable to effectively operate and dig out of the deficit spending hole created by his drawn-out budget stalemate. IDOC officials say they’ve exhausted efficiency methods, all the way down to rationing of toilet paper available to inmates.
As serious as the situation seems, Senators from both sides of the aisle expressed frustration of IDOC Director John Baldwin’s lack of strong advocacy for the funds.
“If the Department of Corrections is out of money, the Governor has to shout it out,” said Senator Elgie Sims (D-Chicago). “Until today, I’ve really heard nothing about how desperate the situation is. I haven’t heard the governor say, ‘we need help, we need half-a-billion dollars for our prison system.’ Given all he has said about out-of-balance budgets and overspending from legislators, I don’t even know if Governor Rauner has a clue about this situation.”
Part of the challenge the Department of Corrections is facing is paying the obligations that were backlogged under the two-year budget impasse. During that period, spending continued in many agencies, including Corrections. After paying many of these bills, there are insufficient funds available to operate for a full year.
While there exists Republican legislation to help advance Governor Rauner’s request for $1 billion more additional spending, the Governor’s office has taken a quiet approach to exposing the need for a supplemental appropriation.
“In February, the governor’s budget director has used terms like ‘unappropriated liabilities’ instead of being blunt in saying he needs hundreds of millions of dollars more to spend,” said Senator Heather Steans, a top Democratic budget negotiator. “There’s a willingness to work to find a solution, but I wish the administration would stop trying to nuance the need.”
The bottom line is the SDems want Gov. Rauner to make a much more specific public ask for that cash. Your thoughts?
Morning Consult released their latest tracking poll of governors’ approval ratings, and it’s bad news for Bruce Rauner. The failed governor has a net approval rating of -34, the lowest of any incumbent running for re-election.
With his approval rating plummeting to 26% and disapproval rating soaring to 60%, Morning Consult singled Rauner out in their analysis:
Rauner dropped 10 percentage points in the first three months of the year. He emerged victorious in a March 20 primary contest against state Rep. Jeanne Ives, winning by almost 3 points. Three in 5 Illinois voters disapprove of Rauner’s job performance as he looks to hold off Democratic candidate J.B. Pritzker, a billionaire philanthropist and venture capitalist, in November.
“After Bruce Rauner’s disastrous record almost lost him the primary, the most vulnerable incumbent is stumbling through the general election and losing support by the day,” said Pritzker campaign communications director Galia Slayen. “Illinoisans know they can’t afford another four years of a failed governor that fatally mismanages the Quincy Veterans’ Home and drives the state economy into the ground.”
The poll is here. But, as always, be a bit wary. Its methodology is unusual.
According to Morning Consult, Rauner is the third most unpopular governor in the country and the most unpopular of those running for reelection this year.
* Almost exactly one year ago today, Morning Consult’s poll had Rauner trending upward…
Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) has improved his standing in traditionally blue Illinois. Forty-two percent of Illinoisans now approve of Rauner, up from 33 percent in September, while his disapproval rating has dropped from 56 percent to 49 percent over the same time period.
Then he fired his top staff and all heck broke loose.
* Some alternate history from a purged Raunerite…
He doesn’t fire us, he goes on tour to slam the GA. Runs new ads playing off his veto of the tax hike. No bad news all summer. He goes into education fight with leverage, issues clean AV of the bailout and runs ads saying Chicago is trying to shut down our schools. Clean AV of the abortion bill as promised and planned - go on offense calling on Madigan not to play politics with the right to choose. Never gets a primary. Runs ads against JB all winter. Emerges from primary stronger than ever.
Maybe. But even if all that worked out as planned, he’d still face a tough reelection because of the national headwinds.
The bottom line, though, is Rauner wouldn’t be nearly in such bad shape right now if he hadn’t decided to blow up his own office and campaign staffs last year (twice).
Over the past year, Quinn has done little to nothing to fix his image, and at 31 percent, Quinn’s job approval numbers trail only Rhode Island chief executive Lincoln Chafee among governors, making him the least-liked incumbent governor facing reelection this fall. […]
“The only thing the [Quinn campaign] can do is try to beat up Bruce Rauner—make him as unattractive as possible,” said Illinois political strategist Patrick Brady, a former chairman of the Illinois Republican Party who has been described as a Rauner supporter. “You haven’t seen any ads on what Pat Quinn is going to do in the next four years… All you’ve seen is ‘Bruce Rauner has horns.’ That’s their whole campaign strategy. They will literally spend tens of millions of dollars trying to convince Illinois voters that Bruce Rauner is evil.” […]
“He’s just not a good governor,” said Brady. “Being governor requires a lot of things. And he just hasn’t shown it. We pay for it and we’re really at a tipping point right now. If we don’t get our fiscal house in order, we are not going to be in a place where we can attract good jobs to keep people here.”
Despite his proclivity for extravagance, Rauner has crafted a campaign that promises much-needed changes on pensions, taxes, and government spending. But like many campaign promises, Rauner’s reforms are non-committal, and will likely be almost impossible to accomplish.
* Gov. Rauner was at an Illinois Chamber event today and was asked about his plans for his next four years as governor. He started by pointing to “record K-12 funding” and “more equitable school funding,” then said he wanted to do this…
More effective funding for our higher education system, both community colleges and our university system. We need a lot of restructuring of our universities and our community colleges because we’ve got too much capacity, we’ve got a lot of redundancy, we’ve got a lot of overlap.
But we need more resources for higher education. And I’m committed to doing that.
Restructuring, too much capacity, redundancy and overlap. That sounds like downsizing talk to me.
…Adding… Pritzker campaign…
Bruce Rauner decimated the state’s colleges and universities during his 736-day budget crisis, yet today he’s saying, “we need more resources for higher education.”
Throughout the manufactured budget crisis, colleges and universities across the state were forced to make devastating cuts year after year. Students fled, tuition was hiked, employees were laid off, and even bond ratings and rankings plunged under Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership.
“Bruce Rauner held our state colleges and universities hostage during his budget crisis, holding back vital state dollars while employees were laid off and students fled,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “This failed governor is the reason we don’t have more resources for higher education, as our critical institutions continue to rebuild from his devastating leadership.”
* Appointed freshman Rep. Jonathan Carroll’s (D-Northbrook) HB4237 would give individual Illinois taxpayers a state tax credit for donations to a state-chartered charity for education. The idea is to get around the federal government’s new state and local tax deduction limit of $10,000. According to Greg Hinz, it is picking up some bipartisan support, including House Republican Leader Jim Durkin…
Carroll said he could call the measure vote a House vote almost anytime now, and believes the outcome will be close but favorable. Other Springfield insiders say a House vote easily could be delayed until later in the spring as the House works on other matters.
But significantly, spokesmen for both House Speaker Mike Madigan and GOP Leader Jim Durkin say they favor passage. “The bill does have some appeal,” said Madigan spokesman Steve Brown. And given that the IRS recently approved prepayment of some property tax bills to avoid the caps, “Perhaps they’ll support this too.” […]
Gov. Bruce Rauner has no official position. A source close to him tells me he believes the IRS will reject such a plan.
But that source did not promise a veto, and the reason seems obvious: While Rauner argues that the new federal rules provide a good reason to adopt some of his plans and reduce local property taxes, it’s hard to see a governor running for re-election vetoing a bill that would provide significant tax savings to tens of thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands of voters, many of them in affluent, GOP-leaning neighborhoods and towns.
Some experts consider IRS rejection of such a plan as extremely likely, if only because charitable contributions are not supposed to confer a benefit on the donor. But the measure almost certainly would end up in court, with no firm timetable on when a decision would come.
* Speaking of all this, if you click here you’ll see Rep. Allen Skillicorn’s very useful interactive map of Illinois by income levels. I tried to embed the map here and failed. So head on over. It’s also useful when discussing a progressive income tax.
As Zuckerberg prepares to testify before Congress, Facebook is quietly fighting a crucial privacy measure in the Illinois Statehouse. Starting tomorrow, state legislators will consider a new amendment to the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) that could neuter one of the strongest privacy laws in the US, giving Facebook free rein to run facial recognition scans without users’ consent.
For years, Facebook has been battling a lawsuit based on BIPA, which required explicit consent before companies can collect biometric data like fingerprints or facial recognition profiles. According to the plaintiffs, Facebook’s photo-tagging system violates that law, identifying faces in uploaded photos with no clear notice or consent. (Similar lawsuits have also been filed against Google and Snapchat.) Facebook added a more explicit consent provision earlier this year, but the lawsuit has continued on the basis of the earlier collection.
This week’s amendment would carve out significant new exceptions to the bill, allowing companies to collect biometric data without notice or consent as long as it’s handled with the same protections as other sensitive data. Companies could also be exempted if they do not sell or otherwise profit from the data, or if it is used only for employment purposes.
Our biometrics are easy to capture. Once captured, we generally cannot change our biometrics, unlike our credit card numbers, or even our names. Databases of biometric information are ripe targets for data thieves. .
The Senate proposal would allow companies to collect biometric information on their employees if it is used exclusively for employment, human resources or identification, as well as safety, security or fraud prevention.
That’s troubling to Adam Schwartz, a senior lawyer at the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation. Currently, employers can take their employees’ fingerprints to have them clock in; they just have to notify them first.
That empowers “workers in Illinois to have a say in what their employers are doing with their biometrics,” Schwartz said. The proposed change would take away that power.
As is the case with many bills, Sen. Cunningham says he started out to address a constituent problem. The law provides for fines of $1,000 per violation if it’s unintentional. Cunningham told me about a nursing home in his district that dumped its old time-card system for fingerprint registration, but was unaware that it needed to notify its employees. So, it faced a penalty of $1,000 for each unintentional offense. That worked out to $4,000 per day per employee - $1,000 when they clocked in, another $1K when they clocked out for lunch, another $1K when they clocked back in from lunch and another $1K when the clocked out at the end of the day. Take that times 200 employees and it was looking at an $800,000 per day penalty.
So, it should come as no surprise that trial lawyers, particularly a narrow set of trial lawyers who file these sorts of lawsuits, are hotly opposed to Cunningham’s bill. Cunningham said he worries about “small employers being sued for technical violations.” But the trial lawyers have a lot of juice in the General Assembly.
In a ruling that may have significant impact on the recent wave of biometric privacy suits, an Illinois state appeals court held that plaintiffs must claim actual harm to be considered an “aggrieved person” covered by Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), in a dispute arising from the alleged unlawful collection of fingerprints from a Six Flags season pass holder. […]
The plaintiff, whose son’s fingerprint was collected by Six Flags after purchasing a season pass for one of its Great America amusement parks, filed suit on behalf of her son and similarly situated class members, against Great America LLC and Six Flags Entertainment Corp. for allegedly violating Illinois’ BIPA by failing to obtain proper written consent or disclosing their plan for the collection, use, storage, or destruction of her son’s biometric information. The plaintiff further claimed that had she known of Six Flags’ collection of fingerprints, she would not have allowed her son to purchase a season pass.
Six Flags argued in a motion to dismiss that the BIPA allows only “aggrieved” individuals to sue for all alleged violations, and that the plaintiff’s son and other similar plaintiffs who had not suffered actual harm have not met the necessary threshold to bring a claim.
* Back to the Tribune for just one reason why big companies like Facebook and Google are hoping to revise Illinois law…
The law already appears to be influencing some product rollouts. Nest, a maker of smart thermostats and doorbells, sells a doorbell with a camera that can recognize visitors by their faces. However, Nest, owned by Google parent Alphabet, does not offer that feature in Illinois because of the biometrics law. Google’s Arts & Culture app rolled out a new feature late last year that matched users’ uploaded selfies with portraits or faces depicted in works of art, but it’s not available in Illinois, likely due to the state’s biometric law.
Opponents are concerned that the proposed changes would only require private entities to notify people if their biometric data is to be kept for more than 24 hours. Additionally, the law would only protect biometric data linked to “confidential and sensitive information,” such as a driver’s license number or Social Security number.
In honor of Equal Pay Day, women took to the Capitol to fight a decades-old battle for equal wages.
They say women deserve equality under the law and they’re calling on lawmakers to rise up and join the movement. One major way is by adopting the Equal Rights Amendment, found in the U.S. Constitution.
Simply put, the amendment protects someone from being discriminated against on the basis of gender and ensures equal rights for men and women.
Since it passed Congress in the 70’s, 37 states have adopted it. Illinois is not one of them. In fact, it’s the only northern state which hasn’t done so.
It takes 38 states for an amendment to become part of the Constitution. That’s why, Tuesday, women’s rights’ advocates were pushing for Illinois to be the final piece of the puzzle.
Dozens went to the Capitol Tuesday to call on lawmakers to put children first.
Several child advocacy groups met with lawmakers for Early Childhood Advocacy Day. They say they want full funding for programs like childcare and early childhood education.
The governor’s budget would slash childcare assistance funding by $96 million. Some say it’s unfair. Enrollment for childcare has dropped since Governor Bruce Rauner changed eligibility requirements.
Sometimes, taking daily medication is a matter of life or death. But, some healthcare providers are taking advantage of that and putting lives in danger.
Now, lawmakers are tackling the problem from all angles. One bill would stop insurers from switching drugs offered in a patient’s plan.
Several healthcare professionals who support the move say “bait and switch” is unfair and unhealthy. They say, when people sign up for healthcare plans, they should get exactly the drugs their bodies need and already rely on.
Monday, the idea came to a committee hearing, but not without some backlash. Business groups say the change could hike prices for employers.
* Gov. Rauner was asked yesterday by Bernie Schoenburg about recent allegations made by Sen. Sam McCann regarding the 2015 AFSCME arbitration bill vote…
He said Rauner suggested he skip the vote if he wouldn’t vote no, but made it clear that there was “one way to make him angry,” which would be a “yes” vote.
“And he looked at me, and said, ‘I’ll destroy you and your family if you go through with this,’” McCann said.
“No, I did not say that,” Rauner told Bernie with a laugh. Schoenburg asked if McCann was lying. “There’s a lot of wild stuff goes on in politics, I’ll say that,” Rauner replied.
Dahl: Speaking of that. House Bill 40, Ives and Madigan are together and Swedish grandparents. I mean, you’ve got a reputation for not telling the truth. [Rauner laughs.] How can people cast a vote for you with all that stacked up against you?
Rauner: I’ve fought hard for the people of Illinois to create a better future. We need to grow more jobs, we need to bring down our property taxes, we need integrity in government with term limits. I’m fightin’ for the people and a better future for our people and our children and grandchildren…
Dahl: But what about being a man of your word? You’re taking on water there.
Rauner: People know that I’m a fighter on principles that will make us a better future. Lower taxes, more jobs and integrity in government through term limits.
* Meanwhile, here’s a fun little snippet that came in over the transom. It’s from Gov. Rauner’s speech last night to the Annual Innovations in Construction, Asphalt, and Transportation Conference in Peoria…
And my kids were leavin’ Illinois. I’ve got six kids, they were leavin’ Illinois. I said ‘This is ridiculous.’ And my partners in my bidness said, ‘Bruce we gotta get out of here, we gotta leave.’ And I said: ‘I ain’t not leaving Illinois. I was born here. I’ve lived here my whole life. I’m not gonna run away. We’re gonna fix this, and that’s why I decided to run for governor.’
“I ain’t not leaving Illinois.” Man, does that Dartmouth/Harvard grad love talking like a hillbilly. Not to mention that it’s a double negative. Maybe those Italy reports were true? /snark
* Related…
* State Rep. McSweeney: Tim Schneider is “head of the Rauner Party, not the Illinois Republican Party”
Wednesday, Apr 11, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Did you know that health plans are changing Illinois families’ benefits while consumers are locked into their plans for the year? People in Illinois, especially those living with chronic conditions, carefully shop for a health plan which covers the treatments they need at prices they can afford. But health plans aren’t delivering the benefits they have marketed and sold to Illinois consumers.
House Bill 4146 Fixes the Health Plan Bait-and-Switch
House Bill 4146 would simply prevent insurers from making unfair – and potentially unsafe – benefit changes while Illinoisans are locked into the plan. The legislation, however, would still allow insurers to utilize generics, add treatments to their formularies and also remove them for safety reasons.
Insurers need to deliver on the policies they sell. The Illinois Legislature should support HB 4146 to make health coverage fair.
States that impose graduated income tax rates, which vary in application but number 33 in all, present a troublesome case for their residents, and would, undoubtedly, present an equally problematic case here in Illinois; looking at California, for example, which has one of the most so-called progressive income tax bracket systems, with a base rate of 1% and a top marginal rate of 13.3%, an Illinois taxpayer that is earning a median household income of approximately $59,000 would be subject to a 9.3% income tax rate under the Golden State’s model - nearly doubling the current Illinois tax; using the New York tax structure, the Illinois taxpayer would be subject to a 6.33% state tax rate; using the New Jersey model, that same Illinois taxpayer would be subjected to a 5.525% income tax rate [Emphasis added]
HR975, supported by nearly the entire House @ILGOP caucus and @BruceRauner, calls a graduated income tax a "repugnant affront to Illinois families" and uses three states to make its point: California, New York, and New Jersey#twill#ilgovpic.twitter.com/aJrVOApWn8
— Illinois Working Together (@IllinoisWorking) April 11, 2018
* The essential problem with the resolution, as IWT points out, is that the House GOP looks at marginal, not effective tax rates. Click here if you need an explainer…
Your marginal tax bracket, or marginal tax rate, and the actual tax rate you pay on your income are usually two different numbers. This is because you don’t pay your marginal tax rate on your entire income, thanks to deductions, exemptions, tax credits, and the way the tax brackets are structured.
…Adding… The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability also weighed in on this topic. Click here.
* Related…
* House GOP blasts Pritzker’s plan for graduated income tax: Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh called the resolution a “political stunt” to distract from Rauner’s “failure as governor.” The Illinois individual income tax rate is a flat 4.95 percent. Although he has not specified the rates he prefers, Pritzker has suggested a higher rate for higher levels of income — the idea being that those bringing home a bigger paycheck can afford to pay more in taxes. He hasn’t suggested bringing in more revenue with the rates. But Durkin scoffed at a Democratic plan that could be revenue-neutral. “They are not going to pass a progressive tax without having more money to spend. It’s in their DNA,” Durkin said. “That’s how they operate, and giving them more ability to raise taxes on individuals at different rates is going to be a disaster.”
* House Republicans Pledge To Oppose Progressive Income Tax: Yet – a poll last year by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute showed 72 percent of voters support changing the state constitution to allow a progressive tax. Twenty-four percent are opposed.
* Republicans aim to make sure Pritzker’s income tax plan doesn’t progress: “First of all business owners will flood out of the state. It will lower our tax base, but more importantly in every state that puts in a graduated income tax hike, the middle class ends up paying more. The middle class gets whacked in the end,” Rauner said.
* Illinois House GOP voices opposition to progressive income tax: Rep. David Harris of Arlington Heights was the only House Republican not to sign the resolution. Harris could not be reached for comment. He was one of 10 House Republicans to split with Durkin and vote for last summer’s budget and tax package. “Taxpayers cannot afford the current increase in taxes,” Durkin said at a Statehouse news conference. “There’s no way the Democrats should even be floating an idea of the progressive tax. Both opponents and proponents know how debilitating this tax would be to Illinois taxpayers.”
* IL Policy Institute: Fifty lawmakers are taking a pledge to fight a progressive income tax in Illinois, denying progressive tax proponents the support needed to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.
Governor Bruce Rauner says if asked by President Trump, he would send Illinois National Guard soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Frankly, the president is the commander-in-chief of our military,” he said while fielding questions at an event in Springfield Tuesday. “Illinois has not been requested to send troops. If we are requested, I believe we’ll honor that request.”
So far, only Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico have agreed to send guardsmen, after President Trump called for a military response to what he calls “lawlessness” at the border.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Expected response…
.@BruceRauner needs to stand up to Trump’s blatant racism and political pandering. This is an unnecessary and irresponsible use of our National Guard.https://t.co/WTLLB2mvIF
State Senator Martin A. Sandoval (D-Chicago)son of immigrant parents that crossed the Mexican border in 1959, issued the following response to Gov. Bruce Rauner’sstatement that he would comply if President Donald Trump ordered Illinois National Guard soldiers to the Mexican border:
“Governor Rauner has shown us time and time again that he is totally unwilling to speak out against the president’s offensive, racist policies and statements. Sending Illinois National Guard soldiers to the border would be a ridiculous waste of taxpayer money. It would also send a message to immigrants in our state that they should be treated like criminals instead of valuable members of our communities. The governor needs to be a leader and stand up for the millions of immigrants living in Illinois
* I went over some of this poll with subscribers earlier today. Keep in mind that the proponents used both a Republican and a Democratic pollster. The 20 House and Senate districts polled were mainly in the suburbs, with three Downstate districts. Polling memo…
To: Interested Parties
From: Randall Gutermuth (American Viewpoint) and Jason McGrath (GBA Strategies)
Re: Recent Survey Findings in Key IL Legislative Districts Regarding Gun Dealer Licensing Act (SB 1657)
Date: April 11, 2018
The following outlines the key findings from a survey of key State House and State Senate districts commissioned by the Illinois Gun Violence Prevention Coalition and conducted by the bi-partisan team of American Viewpoint and GBA Strategies regarding the state regulation of gun dealers.
These findings conclude that there is widespread bi-partisan support for requiring firearms dealers to be licensed by the state. This includes widespread support from gun owners.
“As you may know, recently there was a proposal passed by the state legislature to require firearms dealers to become licensed by the state of Illinois. From what you know, do you favor or oppose this proposal?”
• Across these districts, 71% of voters favor the proposal, with only 23% opposing it. Intensity is much greater on the supporting side, with 52% strongly favoring the proposal and 16% strongly opposing it.
• Nearly two-thirds of Republicans favor the proposal (65%-30%) as do an overwhelming majority of voters in GOP-held Senate (71%-22%) and House (73%-22%) districts.
• The key swing voting bloc of Independents favor this proposal 68%-25%, including Independent women favoring it by a 79%-16% margin. Support from Independent women is nearly as high as it is among Democrats overall (80%-13%).
• There is also little difference seen by geography. For example, voters in the downstate districts favor the proposal 67%-23% and voters in the west suburbs favor it 74%-19%.
Given that gun owners also widely support this proposal underscores that this isn’t seen as an infringement of 2nd Amendment rights.
• 33% of respondents are in a household that owns a firearm. These voters favor the proposal by a greater than two-to-one margin (63%-30%).
Opponents of this proposal will struggle to build opposition.
• After hearing a balanced set of arguments from both sides, more than two-thirds of voters continue to favor the proposal (67%-30%).
• The most powerful argument from proponents was:
o For years, Congress has cut essential funding for law enforcement to prevent gun dealers from selling guns illegally. As a result, gun dealers operate with minimal oversight and are inspected only once every five years. This has resulted in over 4000 illegal guns that each year are traced to gun dealers in Illinois. Licensing gun dealers in our state will improve monitoring and help ensure that guns sold in Illinois don’t end up in the wrong hands. (69% very/somewhat convincing)
• None of the opposing arguments we tested were as resonant as the most powerful arguments from supporters. In particular, arguments about regulatory burdens and the costs to small gun manufacturers fell flat.
o This proposal will put an enormous regulatory burden on gun owners and add between $150 and $300 dollars to the price of any new firearm. This will result in many gun dealers closing, causing law-abiding citizens to drive hundreds of miles to find a gun dealer still in business and will result in the loss of hundreds of well-paying jobs. (42% very/somewhat convincing)
o Small gun manufacturers in Illinois will be priced out of business with the proposal to license gun dealers, as they would have to comply with this proposal as well. The costs to manufacturers would be prohibitive and they would have to move out of state or shut down, forcing many Illinoisans to lose their jobs. (40% very/somewhat convincing)
In the divisive and polarized world of today, it is rare to see a legislative proposal that sees this level of support across partisan lines. The upside for legislators is significant, while the downside for Republicans concerned about their base is extremely limited. Requiring gun dealers to be licensed by the state is both good policy and good politics.
* Methodology…
N=600 interviews were conducted on March 26-28, 2018 in 20 key State House and in State Senate Districts located primarily in the suburban Cook and Collar Counties of Chicago and a few downstate. 40% of interviews were conducted with a cell phone sample of those who couldn’t be reached on a landline. The margin of error for the full sample is +/- 4.0% at the 95% confidence level and the margin of error among sub-groups is greater.
* Accompanying press release…
During a time of significant political divisiveness, there is one issue where Illinois voters across party lines are united: license gun dealers in Illinois as part of the Gun Dealer Licensing Act (SB 1657), thus paving the way for an override of Governor Rauner’s veto of this bill.
Despite passing with bipartisan support this session, Governor Rauner vetoed SB 1657 shortly before the March primary. Starting April 10, the state Senate has 15 days in which to override his veto; if overridden, it will then move to the House, opening another 15 day window for an override.
The Gun Dealer Licensing Act would require criminal background checks for all gun shop employees. It would require training to help gun shop employees identify a buyer purchasing a gun for someone else, require basic store security measures to help prevent theft, and strengthen law enforcement’s ability to catch those responsible for illegal gun trafficking.
The Illinois Gun Violence Prevention Coalition (ILGVP) conducted a bipartisan poll to gauge public opinion around this bill in key swing suburban cook, collar county and (a few) downstate districts. Support for this bill is widespread, with 71% of voters across these districts favoring the proposal. This gives legislators in traditionally more conservative and gun friendly districts assurances that their voters strongly support putting common-sense measures in place to ensure firearms from local gun dealers don’t hand end up in the hands of those looking to do harm.
“Republicans, Independents and gun owners all support this common-sense legislation that would help keep illegal guns out of our communities,” said Kathleen Sances, President and CEO of the Illinois Gun Violence Prevention PAC (GPAC). “Legislators can rest assured that their constituents are on the right side of this issue and they are empowered to vote to override the Governor’s veto of SB 1657.”
The Governor argued that the bill duplicated the work of the Federal government in regulating gun dealers to justify his veto. However, while the ATF is required to monitor gun dealers across the country, including Illinois, they are significantly underfunded and understaffed due to Congressional budget cuts. In fact, the ATF inspected just six percent of the 136,000 gun dealers in the U.S. in 2015. Meanwhile, a typical Illinois dealer may go up to 10 years between inspections. Perhaps worst of all, because the ATF is prohibited from requiring dealers to conduct annual inventories the actual number of guns lost or stolen in the U.S. each year is unknown. SB 1657 addresses these issues, creating a better system of checks and balances that will save lives.
This bipartisan poll was conducted by American Viewpoint and GBA Strategies on March 26 – 28, 2018 in 20 key state House and Senate Districts located primarily in the suburban Cook and Collar Counties of Chicago, in addition to a few downstate districts. 600 likely voters were interviewed and the poll has a margin of error of +/- 4%.
* Related…
* Democrats face two-week deadline in trying to override Rauner veto of gun store bill: “For years we have been combating the intense depth but narrow breadth of NRA-supported districts,” Harmon said. “The same 20 or 30 guys show up at a senator’s office over and over and over again and demand that the senator not support common sense gun laws. And meanwhile there are 30,000 people in the district who feel the opposite but they don’t have the same intensity. And that’s something that has changed in the wake of these horrific shootings.” But opponents led by gun shop owners said they were “optimistic” Rauner’s veto would stand. They note that just 30 senators voted for the proposal the first time around, and Harmon needs 36 votes to override the governor.
While the Rauner campaign launched an “Illinois Priorities Survey” yesterday, it was wildly different than a first draft sources tipped us off to. Take a look for yourself:
“Bruce Rauner forced this state into a 736-day budget crisis, fatally mismanaged the Quincy Veteran’s Home, and decimated the tools Illinoisans need to build better lives,” said Pritzker campaign spokesman Jason Rubin. “After three years of crisis, damage, and pain the results are in: Bruce Rauner has failed.”
* They missed an opportunity, however. A reader recently pointed out this question in the governor’s survey…
Do you believe patronage hires in state government should be illegal?
The snark possibilities are almost endless, but the topic is also in the news this week. From a Daily Herald editorial…
Late last year, we urged a change in state law that allows professional contracts to be awarded at the discretion of the Illinois Toll Highway Authority board.
Rather than seeking sealed bids and awarding the contract to the qualified bidder offering the lowest cost, current law allows the board to choose from among three finalists vetted by a blue-ribbon committee.
At the time, we were concerned about the awarding of a $157 million contract to a Lisle-based engineering company that employs the daughter of the tollway chair and the son of the chief tollway engineer. […]
Daily Herald transportation writer Marni Pyke reported this week that the tollway authority has paid more than $636,000 over seven months as part of an estimated $6.6 million contract with a politically connected communications firm.
Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) would be a lock to become the new chairman of the City Council’s Aviation Committee if not for his role in the #MeToo scandal swirling around House Speaker Michael Madigan’s political organization.
But Quinn is simply too hot to handle after playing a pivotal go-between role between his own brother and political consultant Alaina Hampton, who has accused Kevin Quinn of stalking her with a series of harassing text messages.
As a result, the race is wide open to replace Aviation Committee Chairman Mike Zalewski (23rd), who is resigning his City Council seat, effective May 31.
Although the Aviation Committee budget is a modest $109,496-a-year that’s been frozen since 2011, the position is pivotal.
The new chairman will preside over the $8.5 billion O’Hare Airport expansion project and make certain that African Americans and Hispanics get a fair share of the bonanza of jobs and contracts.
Zalewski’s 23rd Ward is closely allied with Speaker Madigan’s 13th Ward, the home of Midway Airport, which is always in danger of being overshadowed by O’Hare. Quinn would’ve therefore been a perfect contender.
[Ald. Ricardo Munoz] is allied with onetime Emanuel opponent Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, and he is a member of the City Council Progressive Caucus that occasionally opposes the mayor’s initiatives. So it’s questionable whether Emanuel would put someone with such an independent streak atop a key committee.
“I would think the mayor would want someone who’s willing to do the work, to work hard,” Munoz said when asked if the mayor would consider him too much of a wild card.
[Ald. Nick Sposato] has been on the council since 2011, and it could rankle some longer-tenured aldermen if Emanuel gives him such a powerful chairmanship. But Sposato pointed to his work as vice chairman on the committee and his proximity to O’Hare.
“Come over to my house. If someone’s on a plane they can wave to you out the window,” he said.
Remember, however, that Chuy has been cutting a whole lot of interesting political deals the past several months, particularly on the Southwest Side.
In this suit under §2 of the Voting Rights Act, 52 U.S.C. §10301, plaintiffs (registered voters, some of whom are parents or grandparents of school-age children) contend that this system deprives black and Latino citizens of their right to vote. School boards elsewhere in Illinois are elected; plaintiffs say that failure to elect the school board in Chicago has a disproportionate effect on minority voters. The district court dismissed the complaint. […]
The Voting Rights Act has been on the books for 53 years, and as far as we are aware no court has understood §2 to re- quire that any office be filled by election. Several courts have rejected contentions to that effect. […]
There is a further problem with plaintiffs’ position. Black and Latino citizens do not vote for the school board in Chicago, but neither does anyone else. Every member of the electorate is treated identically […]
Plaintiffs have a second theory: that allowing the Mayor to appoint the Board’s members violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. […]
This equal-protection theory is brought up short by Sail- ors v. Board of Education, 387 U.S. 105 (1967), which holds that appointing a school board is constitutionally permissible, and by Hearne v. Board of Education, 185 F.3d 770 (7th Cir. 1999), which holds that the 1995 Illinois statute is valid not- withstanding the line it draws between Chicago and every other city in Illinois.
How Bruce Rauner Decimated Agriculture in Illinois
Rauner Tried to Zero Out Ag Funding, Shut Down Illinois State Museum
Chicago, IL – Bruce Rauner is celebrating Illinois Agriculture Legislative Day today at the Illinois State Museum, but his failed record on supporting the agriculture industry begs serious questions:
Why did Rauner propose eliminating funding for agriculture education? In 2016, Rauner zeroed out funding for the second time.
Why did Rauner cut tens of millions of dollars for agriculture programs? In late 2017, Rauner cut $21 million from the Department of Agriculture in a budget legislators passed over his reckless vetoes.
Why did Rauner hold back on disbursing the soil and conservation funds approved by the legislature? Rauner only disbursed $5 million of the $13.5 million appropriated, a nearly 63% reduction.
Bonus: Why did Rauner close the Illinois State Museum for nine months? A few months into the budget crisis, Rauner closed the museum — which caused two thirds of management to leave — and suggested it charge admission to re-open.
“From gutting agriculture education to slashing funding for agriculture programs, Bruce Rauner has failed hardworking farmers and workers across Illinois,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Illinoisans deserve a governor who knows one in 17 Illinois jobs is in the agriculture industry and values the working families that drive our agricultural economy — and that’s JB Pritzker.”
Read JB’s plan to nurture our agriculture economy HERE.
Rauner’s Unbalanced Budget Cuts Funding, Increases Expenses in Communities Across Illinois
Chicago, IL – Bruce Rauner’s FY19 budget proposal attempts to “balance” the budget on the backs of working people. With the General Assembly holding budget hearings this week, the Pritzker campaign is highlighting the different communities that would be hurt by this failed governor’s unbalanced budget.
To balance the state’s budget, Bruce Rauner is reducing shared income tax revenue while offloading state expenses to local governments across the state. Rauner proposed a 10% cut to the Local Government Distribution Fund while forcing cities and towns to pay for road construction and school districts to pick up pension costs. Now, local governments will be left to either slash services or increase property taxes.
“Bruce Rauner’s unbalanced state budget is leaving gaping holes in local government budgets across the state,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Towns, cities and schools in communities across Illinois will suffer as Rauner tries to balance the budget at their expense and lets his fiscal mismanagement spiral.”
* And here’s the Rauner campaign with a Tuesday press release about something Pritzker said the previous Friday which also mentions Joe Berrios, who lost his primary race and is about to lose his party chairmanship job…
On Friday, JB Pritzker appeared on WJBC and criticized the property tax system as “regressive” and “not fair,” despite personally abusing the system to secure a $230,000 tax break. In doing so, Pritzker forced other residents who are unable to afford politically-connected lawyers to pay more in taxes to cover his reduction.
“Lowering the tax burden is the goal. By lowering the tax rate that they might pay on income taxes, and also, very important, lowering local property taxes, which are so regressive. The poorest neighborhoods and in middle class neighborhoods, people are paying higher rates of property taxes than people who live in wealthy neighborhoods, they’re paying lower rates. That’s just not fair.” - JB Pritzker on WJBC
Pritzker is hypocritically criticizing a system he took advantage of himself. This comes after months of Pritzker’s refusals to condemn Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, the man implicated in multiple independent reviews as having directed a corrupt property tax system that benefitted political insiders like Pritzker and Mike Madigan.
It’s “just not fair” that taxpayers are paying the price for JB Pritzker to benefit from a corrupt system while refusing to criticize Joe Berrios.
* Erratic, arrogant leaders who lay off staff and slash newsroom budgets while spending lavishly on themselves, and demeaning reporters and editors by forcing them to interview to keep their own jobs will often lead to this sort of thing. Even so, wow…
One of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious regional newspapers, The Chicago Tribune, could soon have a unionized staff. Wednesday morning, journalists from its newsroom informed management they are preparing to organize and they have collected signatures from dozens of colleagues.
This is a historic move at a paper that had for decades taken a hardline stance against unions.
The move will likely not go over well with its current corporate owner Tronc. Two months ago, the newspaper publishing company struck a deal to sell another venerable daily the Los Angeles Times, weeks after the paper’s journalists succeeded in unionizing its newsroom.
Journalists at the Tribune say the move will help them secure better pay and ensure they can fulfill the paper’s mission.
The Tribune always kept the union out of its hair by treating its people well. That era has ended.
You can learn more about the organizing attempt by clicking here.
* Background is here. From a Rep. Scott Drury constituent e-mail regarding his state Senator Julie Morrison, a fellow Democrat…
Friends:
Based on the overwhelming response to our email about Sen. Morrison’s efforts to kill the bump stock ban, she issued this response:
“All three pieces of legislation that the Senate passed a few weeks ago represent a bipartisan effort to deal with the epidemic of gun violence in our state. I am in favor of the most restrictive definition of what constitutes a bump-stock and I have complete faith in Rep. Moylan to do what he feels is necessary with HB 1467.”
The response is disingenuous:
Note that the House bump stock ban had bipartisan support. Thus no need existed for Sen. Morrison to placate the Gun Lobby at our expense.
Sen. Morrison’s claim of favoring “the most restrictive” bump stock ban is at direct odds with her own bill which bans nothing.
Sen. Morrison knows she left Rep. Moylan (the House sponsor of the bump stock ban) with two bad two choices:
Accept Sen. Morrison’s amended language; or
Let the bill die and start over.
If you have not already done so, please email Sen. Morrison and let her know that we want to end gun violence in Illinois. Her email address is: xxxx@gmail.com.
Many have asked if we should organize a protest. We are considering this action. If you, your children or someone you know would be interested in attending such an event, please email us at repdrury@gmail.com.
As always, thank you for the privilege of allowing me to help keep our community safe.
–Scott
To use his own word, this whole thing is entirely disingenuous.
You may recall that Rep. Drury made the same accusations against Sen. Raoul during the attorney general campaign. Raoul said at the time that the bump stock language was suggested by the state police. So, instead of going after his party’s AG nominee, Drury has decided to attack his own state Senator.
Secondly, Rep. Drury has been in the House since 2013 so he ought to know basic procedures by now. Rep. Moylan’s bill is HB1467. The Senate added an amendment. Rep. Moylan can now file a motion to either concur with the Senate’s amendment or non-concur. If a non-concur motion passes, the Senate then has the option to recede from its amendment. And Sen. Morrison has said she would defer to Rep. Moylan’s wishes.
* What are your thoughts on a progressive income tax for Illinois?…
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin to file resolution opposing a progressive income tax - the structure supported by Dem gov candidate J.B. Pritzker. Rauner yesterday spoke out about the tax as well, saying it would be a "disaster" for the state.
WHEREAS, A move to amend the constitution to allow for such a repugnant affront to Illinois families would be an act of utter insult to Illinois taxpayers and a dereliction of the duty owed to taxpayers by members of the legislative branch of government, a body that is supposed to improve the general welfare and protect the best interests of all Illinoisans; nothing about creating an unfair, unequal, and avaricious tax system helps the General Assembly accomplish these ends
After fatally mismanaging the Quincy Veterans’ Home, @BruceRauner is letting persistent health issues jeopardize the wellbeing of our nation’s heroes. This is a shameful display of failed leadership. https://t.co/YIiGmT9LaE
Yet unlike Legionnaires’, which is contracted by inhaling water vapor contaminated with the bacteria, the stomach bug state health officials suspect caused the latest Quincy health problems is spread from person to person, rendering a case for structural mismanagement something of a stretch.
Norovirus spreads most frequently in closed environments like nursing homes and assisted living facilities such as Quincy. There is no specific cure for it, meaning the response from care providers is largely limited to isolating patients, casting doubt on what Rauner or his administration could have done to prevent or eliminate it.
Asked how Rauner bears blame for the gastroenteritis outbreak, Pritzker’s campaign did not directly respond, instead attempting to characterize it as further evidence after the Legionnaires’ problems at Quincy that the Republican should not be trusted to handle any health issue at the state facility.
That conflates two very different epidemiological challenges, and leaves an impression–disputed by experts–that more could have, and should have, been done to stop the spread of norovirus at Quincy.
For that, we rate Pritzker’s claim as Mostly False.
Tuesday, Apr 10, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
This bill chills generic competition, leading to fewer choices and higher prices for patients in Illinois. Learn more on the on the Association for Accessible Medicines website.
The Effingham County Board is considering a resolution opposing recent proposals in the state legislature for gun control measures.
The resolution started as a suggestion by local firearms owners and the businesses that cater to them, said Effingham County Board member David Campbell. He modeled the legislation on a similar resolution passed by the Iroquois County Board on March 13.
Campbell consulted with Effingham County State’s Attorney Bryan Kibler, who added a “sanctuary county” section, which attracted the most attention during legislative committee meeting on Monday.
Kibler explained the goal is to protect those people affected by future state legislation by prohibiting the county from enforcing “unconstitutional actions.” He drew a parallel with actions in other fields.
“If you can be a sanctuary county for undocumented immigrants, why can’t you be one for firearms?” Kibler said.
He explained that the section, like the rest of the resolution, is largely symbolic.
“I was in a really surly mood when they sent that to me,” said Kibler.
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza has Gov. Bruce Rauner over a barrel — again.
The Republican governor is in a tough political spot this time because Mendoza, a Democrat, has targeted a state budgeting practice that existed long before Rauner took office. He’s just continued it.
And, in an already tough election year, Rauner has few good options.
Mendoza’s Truth in Hiring Act would ban “offshoring,” a practice where executive staff salaries are stashed within state agency budgets, usually to keep the executive’s office budget — in this case the Governor’s Office — low, at least on paper.
Here’s the short and dirty: Mendoza accuses Rauner of playing a shell game.
* Press release…
A bill that would add the Dutch Reach method to Illinois’ Rules of the Road manual and add bike safety questions to the state driver’s license exam passed out of committee Tuesday.
The Dutch Reach method encourages drivers and passengers to use their far hand and reach across their body to open car doors after parallel parking, forcing people to look back for approaching cyclists and other traffic before exiting the car. Research shows it makes drivers and passengers more aware of approaching cyclists, helping prevent crashes and save lives.
“With more people riding bikes in communities across Illinois, these updates to the state’s road manual and driver’s license exam are sorely needed,” said State Rep. Theresa Mah, the bill’s lead sponsor. “The changes will help people driving become more aware of bicyclists and teach them how to travel and exit their cars safely.”
The bill (House Bill 5143) now advances to the full House. It’s co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 20 legislators.
Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) data shows dooring crashes are on the rise across the state, especially in urban areas. In 2015, there were more than 300 reported dooring crashes in Chicago alone – a 50 percent increase over the previous year.
“Getting doored is never too far from the mind of people riding bikes in the Chicago region,” said Ron Burke, Executive Director of the Active Transportation Alliance. “This bill is a good step towards reforming state policy to better reflect the needs and safety of all road users.”
For months, Rep. Mah and advocates have been working collaboratively with the Secretary of State on revamping the road manual and exam’s bicycle safety content for drivers and bike riders, including adding the Dutch Reach.
* Other stuff…
* Can Illinois Restore Net Neutrality Protections?: Khadine Bennett, associate legislative director for the ACLU of Illinois, says states are not allowed to regulate the Internet, which is a task reserved for the FCC. States, however, are allowed to set rules for anyone who does business within. The proposal would not force Internet service providers to maintain net neutrality, she said. If a service provider holds a contract with the state, they would fall under a transparency disclosure.
In 2003, one year before Facebook was founded, a website called Facemash began nonconsensually scraping pictures of students at Harvard from the school’s intranet and asking users to rate their hotness. Obviously, it caused an outcry. The website’s developer quickly proffered an apology. “I hope you understand, this is not how I meant for things to go, and I apologize for any harm done as a result of my neglect to consider how quickly the site would spread and its consequences thereafter,” wrote a young Mark Zuckerberg. “I definitely see how my intentions could be seen in the wrong light.”
In 2004 Zuckerberg cofounded Facebook, which rapidly spread from Harvard to other universities. And in 2006 the young company blindsided its users with the launch of News Feed, which collated and presented in one place information that people had previously had to search for piecemeal. Many users were shocked and alarmed that there was no warning and that there were no privacy controls. Zuckerberg apologized. “This was a big mistake on our part, and I’m sorry for it,” he wrote on Facebook’s blog. “We really messed this one up,” he said. “We did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them.”
Then in 2007, Facebook’s Beacon advertising system, which was launched without proper controls or consent, ended up compromising user privacy by making people’s purchases public. Fifty thousand Facebook users signed an e-petition titled “Facebook: Stop invading my privacy.” Zuckerberg responded with an apology: “We simply did a bad job with this release and I apologize for it.” He promised to improve. “I’m not proud of the way we’ve handled this situation and I know we can do better,” he wrote.
By 2008, Zuckerberg had written only four posts on Facebook’s blog: Every single one of them was an apology or an attempt to explain a decision that had upset users.
In 2010, after Facebook violated users’ privacy by making key types of information public without proper consent or warning, Zuckerberg again responded with an apology—this time published in an op-ed in The Washington Post. “We just missed the mark,” he said. “We heard the feedback,” he added. “There needs to be a simpler way to control your information.” “In the coming weeks, we will add privacy controls that are much simpler to use,” he promised.
I’m going to run out of space here, so let’s jump to 2018 and skip over all the other mishaps and apologies and promises to do better—oh yeah, and the consent decree that the Federal Trade Commission made Facebook sign in 2011, charging that the company had deceptively promised privacy to its users and then repeatedly broken that promise—in the intervening years.
Last month, Facebook once again garnered widespread attention with a privacy related backlash when it became widely known that, between 2008 and 2015, it had allowed hundreds, maybe thousands, of apps to scrape voluminous data from Facebook users—not just from the users who had downloaded the apps, but detailed information from all their friends as well. One such app was run by a Cambridge University academic named Aleksandr Kogan, who apparently siphoned up detailed data on up to 87 million users in the United States and then surreptitiously forwarded the loot to the political data firm Cambridge Analytica. The incident caused a lot of turmoil because it connects to the rolling story of distortions in the 2016 US presidential election. But in reality, Kogan’s app was just one among many, many apps that amassed a huge amount of information in a way most Facebook users were completely unaware of.
* The Sun-Times editorial board has some questions Congress should ask Zuckerberg…
Shouldn’t users be allowed control their personal data? Specifically, should the United States adopt controls similar to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which goes into effect next month and lets users correct data and transfer their data elsewhere, while letting regulators impose big fines on companies that don’t comply? If such a law is not the answer, in what other way can users regain control of their personal information? Why does Facebook oppose a proposed California ballot measure that would give users the right to know what data about them is being collected and how it is being used?
In your prepared remarks released on Monday, Mr. Zuckerberg, you talk about how Facebook has failed individuals. Doesn’t the company, by its enormous reach, also have large responsibilities to our democracy and our nation as a whole?
Facebook knew about Cambridge Analytica’s data gathering back in 2015. Why wasn’t the public told then?
Is the model of a company that collects personal data to sell to a wide variety of advertisers and others simply incompatible with the goal of protecting users’ personal data, some of which is collected without their knowledge? Will Facebook make it possible for users to retract information they no longer want to be accessible to others, including information gathered through facial recognition software? Over the weekend, “Saturday Night Live” mocked you for resisting this kind of empowerment by Facebook users.
How many other companies are using deceptive techniques to gather data via Facebook, and are they mishandling it once they have it? Recently, Facebook suspended another company, CubeYou, that used personality quizzes similar to the one Cambridge Analytica used to access the personal data of users and their friends. Will Facebook be able to stop such abuses in the future or are they beyond control?
Why didn’t Facebook do more to keep fake news from circulating and prevent foreign interference in our elections? Can we expect a future in which trolls and other abuses of social media become a regular part of political campaigns?
How can we be assured that large social media companies won’t use their power to favor politicians whose views align best with those of the companies? How can we be assured that a particular politician or party won’t get broader reach, cheaper ad rates or more access to user information?
We compile a new dataset containing roughly 780,000 bills, combined with more than 16 million roll-call voting records for roughly 6,000 legislators serving in U.S. state legislatures with term limits. […]
Studying four states which provide estimates of the budget impact of specific bills, we find no evidence that electoral incentives encourage incumbents to propose or pass more fiscally irresponsible legislation, contrary to theories of myopic electorates and political business cycles. Taken together, the evidence suggests that electoral incentives successfully induce incumbents to exert productive effort.
* During the last term in office, state lawmakers sponsor fewer bills and pass fewer bills that become law. They also cosponsor fewer bills.
* “The reduction in bill sponsorship among term-limited legislators is concentrated in states where the term limits permanently bans incumbents from the office, as opposed to states where the term limit only requires them to sit out a term before running again.”
* Termed-out legislators serve on fewer committees and are less likely to be involved with top committees. In addition, they are less likely to serve as committee chairmen or chairwomen.
* Legislators who cannot seek another term are present for fewer committee votes, on average. They participate in fewer roll-call votes, on average.
* “These effects are larger … in state legislatures that pay higher salaries.”
How much of an impact term limits really have is kinda beyond my ability to understand the numbers in this study. Perhaps some of you smart folks can read it and tell us in comments.
It’s ironic that the call for fiscal sensibility comes as a proposal in the Senate that would blast many Illinoisans with a blood-boiling increase in gasoline taxes.
Senate Bill 3279 would increase the per-gallon taxes on gasoline by 30 cents — to 60 cents — making it the highest motor fuel tax in the nation. There is even discussion that it should go even higher, to 85 cents a gallon for gasoline and almost $1 a gallon for diesel fuel.
It doesn’t stop there, though. The same Senate proposal calls for a 50 percent hike in vehicle registration fees. That yearly cost is $101 now but would jump to about $150 — although some talk has floated the idea of making the fee $578.
That all sounds well-informed until you search for SB3279 and see it’s a shell bill which has nothing whatsoever to do with the gas tax.
However, if you go back a couple of years, you’ll find a Senate Bill 3279 in the previous General Assembly which did all that. The bill was filed on February 19, 2016, never got a committee hearing and died when the 99th GA adjourned sine die in January of 2017.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday portrayed Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a gun dealer licensing bill as the height of hypocrisy, but Rauner stood his ground in demanding a more “comprehensive” solution.
As he urged the Illinois General Assembly to override the governor’s veto, Emanuel ridiculed Rauner for vetoing the bill licensing state gun dealers on grounds it’s burdensome, yet imposing new regulations on catfish sales in restaurants. […]
After weekend talks with House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, Emanuel believes the chances for an override may well come down to the votes of three DuPage Republicans, all of who are being challenged by women.
The mayor is hoping to enlist support from Cardinal Blase Cupich, perhaps by persuading the cardinal to go out to DuPage and lobby those three lawmakers. Cupich has already made one trip to Springfield.
It’s down to three suburban Republican votes? The bill fell seven votes shy of a veto-proof majority in the House. It only received 30 votes in the Senate - six votes shy of passage. So they flipped ten members?
I’m a bit dubious, but I suppose we’ll see. The Senate is journalizing the veto today, so the 15-day clock is now ticking.
The campaign worker who sued Madigan’s political operations is expanding the case where she alleged her career got sidelined when she accused a Madigan lieutenant for sexual harassment.
Alaina Hampton has added Madigan-controlled 13th Ward and Democratic Majority political funds as defendants to her federal lawsuit, according to a Hampton statement. She had originally sued Madigan’s campaign fund and the state Democratic Party.
“I will continue to seek ways to hold the defendants accountable for the sustained sexual harassment I experienced, because no one should be forced to quit her job because she is unsafe in her workplace,” Hampton said in the statement released Monday night.
Hampton, who first told the Tribune of receiving inappropriate texts from former Madigan aide Kevin Quinn, contended in the original lawsuit her effort to stop his unwanted advances effectively prevented her from getting further work on Democratic campaigns.
The campaign worker who filed a federal lawsuit against House Speaker Michael Madigan’s political operation is now asking City Hall watchdogs to look into Chicago Alderman Marty Quinn, the brother of the ousted political operative she accused of sexual harassment.
Alaina Hampton sent a letter Wednesday to Joseph Ferguson, the city’s inspector general, and Steve Berlin, executive director of the city’s ethics board, accusing the 13th Ward alderman of failing to take appropriate actions when she reported harassing texts of his brother, Kevin Quinn.
Hampton wants city officials to review whether Ald. Quinn failed to comply with ethics and employment rules.
* Kristen McQueary on JB Pritzker’s opposition to the private school tax credit program…
Pritzker can avail himself of school choice. So can Gov. Bruce Rauner, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton and members of the Chicago City Council, many of whom send their own kids to private school or work the system to gain entry into elite CPS schools.
Pritzker knows this. His family has been deeply involved in the school choice movement involving charters for the same reasons. Not every kid fits in the box of public education. Parents need choices. They’re craving it.
Roughly 60,000 scholarship requests statewide have flowed into the program, which relaunched last month after high demand crashed the computer system the first time around. But private donations so far will cover only a fraction of those kids. Worse, Pritzker’s comments and a bill to eliminate the program have stalled efforts to raise money, organizers say. And for what? To flatter the teachers unions? To position Pritzker as far to the left as possible? […]
Again, let’s give Pritzker the benefit of the doubt. He didn’t know what he was saying. He doesn’t understand the program. It’s the only plausible explanation. Why? Because the other explanation is that a billionaire candidate for governor is willing to impose a lower education standard on poor families that he would never tolerate for his own. [Emphasis added]
Ouch.
As we discussed the other day, donors pledged $36 million on the first day of the program in early January and just $5 million since then.
* Meanwhile, from the Rauner campaign…
On Friday, JB Pritzker appeared on WJBC and criticized the property tax system as “regressive” and “not fair,” despite personally abusing the system to secure a $230,000 tax break. In doing so, Pritzker forced other residents who are unable to afford politically-connected lawyers to pay more in taxes to cover his reduction.
“Lowering the tax burden is the goal. By lowering the tax rate that they might pay on income taxes, and also, very important, lowering local property taxes, which are so regressive. The poorest neighborhoods and in middle class neighborhoods, people are paying higher rates of property taxes than people who live in wealthy neighborhoods, they’re paying lower rates. That’s just not fair.” - JB Pritzker on WJBC
Pritzker is hypocritically criticizing a system he took advantage of himself. This comes after months of Pritzker’s refusals to condemn Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, the man implicated in multiple independent reviews as having directed a corrupt property tax system that benefitted political insiders like Pritzker and Mike Madigan.
It’s “just not fair” that taxpayers are paying the price for JB Pritzker to benefit from a corrupt system while refusing to criticize Joe Berrios.
* Sometimes, you notice a little something when reading a bunch of stories on the same topic and a blog post idea emerges. This is one of those posts. Tribune…
But the budget proposal Rauner offered in February also did not account for an immediate drop in the tax rate, which is now 4.95 percent for individuals, up from 3.75. Instead, his budget plan would spend the extra money from the tax hike, while suggesting pension cost savings could generate as much as $1 billion to pay for a modest rollback of about a quarter-point at some point down the road.
To accomplish that, Rauner pointed to pension legislation introduced by Cullerton and co-sponsored by House Republican leader Jim Durkin. It passed the Senate last spring before stalling in the House. Rauner said the bill was “not perfect” but that he wants it sent to his desk.
Asked if the speaker would allow the bill to be called for a vote, Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said, “So far the sponsor has not persuaded many members that it meets the standards set by the Illinois Supreme Court in various pension rulings.”
* Brown was more up-front about his feelings with the Sun-Times…
“You can’t really react with a straight face,” Brown said of the governor’s desire to roll back the income tax after passing pension reform. “It’s all predicated by a pension law change some people say is unconstitutional. So I guess it’s a pipe dream.”
“The Rauner priorities seem the same as the past. He has generally failed to persuade many that this is a path to improved prosperity,” said Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Mike Madigan.
Despite Rauner’s insistence that his plan is bipartisan, or non-partisan, Madigan spokesman Steve Brown characterized most of Rauner’s agenda as a retread for which there is no support.
“He offers no explanation of why they would want to agree,” Brown said of legislators stance on Rauner’s demands, calling it “the same mumbo-jumbo he’s been peddling for several years without any persuasive arguments, and therein lies part of his problem with why none of this has been passed.”
Brown, too, noted the governor didn’t list improvements to the Quincy Veterans Home as one of the things he wants to focus on: “It appears it has quickly fallen as a priority.”
Rauner’s re-election effort continues to be hindered by open wounds from his narrow, 3-point win over state Rep. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton.
The two still haven’t talked.
Ives has said she will vote for him, but that she has no interest in speaking to Rauner.
Whether she’s a sore lose, or whether Rauner is at fault for being unable to swallow his pride or an inability to overcome a reputation for betraying his word, the divide stands to prevent Rauner from getting even Republican support for elements of his agenda.
Ives has returned to Springfield, and she isn’t sure how the governor will achieve his stated goals of a balanced budget and pension reform.
“People are very skeptical on the budget,” she said. “First of all, politically speaking I think House Speaker Mike Madigan wants to make sure Rauner doesn’t have any success, but Rauner needs success if he’s going to do anything in November to get elected.”
Even though Ives has been publicly critical of the governor, GOP Leader Bill Brady believes the representative and her supporters will be in Rauner’s corner by the time the election rolls around.
“They know. They’re smart. They’re activists,” he said. “They know staying home is a vote for JB Pritzker and Mike Madigan and I believe they’re smart enough to know that.”
But if that’s an olive branch to Democrats, Rauner still has problems in his own party. He still has not spoken to Jeanne Ives to mend fences after a rough and tumble primary election, although the governor said he hopes to soon.
Instead of uniting his base, Rauner says, he is more interested in leading a kind of non-partisan crusade.
“What we need is the support of everyone in the state,” he said. “We need everyone to come together to push back against the corruption and failure of the existing regime that’s controlled our state.”
Incumbent Bruce Rauner’s narrow defeat of Jeanne Ives, a state representative he once characterized as a “fringe” candidate, cannot be spun as anything less than a rebuke of the way government has been operating.
* DGA…
Day 21: Rauner’s Outreach to Ives Was One Text Message, and He Lied About It
At a press conference yesterday, Governor Bruce Rauner was absolutely besieged by reporters’ questions about his efforts to patch relations up state Representative Jeanne Ives. Rauner claimed his campaign “called” Ives’ “office right after the primary”, and that they “were told…that she did not have an interest in speaking with me.” As embarrassing as this admission is for a sitting Governor, it also happened not to be true.
Capitol Fax reported yesterday that the full extent of Rauner’s outreach to Ives was an unanswered text message from one staffer to another. As a reminder, 341,836 Republicans voted for Ives - 48% of the Republican primary vote.
“What’s worse?” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “The fact that Bruce Rauner’s outreach to Jeanne Ives and the 48% of Republican voters that supported her was a single text message… or the fact that Rauner lied about it?”
* Meanwhile, the Pro-Life Action League is planning to protest outside Gov. Rauner’s big fundraiser Thursday night with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. So far, though, only a handful of people have signed up on Facebook.
[Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady] said there have been initial bipartisan talks about the potential for a statewide public works bill funded, at least in part, by expanded casino gambling in the state.
Asked by a reporter later about the talks, Brady said, “It’s as real as it’s ever been.”
“Speaker (Michael) Madigan, I think, wants a capital plan. I know the governor does. I think John Cullerton does. We’ve had some discussions,” Brady said. “You know, everyone going into re-election, it’s a difficult year. Everyone would like to be able to show some accomplishment. I’m hoping to leverage that.” […]
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said, “There are discussions and gaming may figure into it. It’s kind of hard to grasp how far things might go.” Brown added that as he has in the past, Madigan has recused himself on gaming issues.
Brady’s comments came a day after Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin appeared doubtful that Democrats would back a large scale infrastructure plan in an election year.
Group health insurance bills climbed during the State’s budget impasse in FY2016 and FY2017, when the program received no general operating funds. About $4 billion from last fall’s sale of backlog bonds was used to pay down group health bills. As a result, the amount of unpaid health insurance bills declined to $1.6 billion at the end of February 2018 from $5.2 billion in October 2017, according to a recent report by the Illinois General Assembly’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA).
COGFA’s report also provides information about how long it currently takes the State to pay its bills. For group health insurance bills, the delay is as much as 309 days, still high but significantly lower than 734 days a year ago.
Housing advocates and other community activists — including someone in a “giant Alexa costume” — are going to City Hall on Tuesday, calling on Amazon to help people living in whichever city gets the giant company’s new headquarters.
Members of the Grassroots Collaborative are scheduled to hold a news conference to press for community involvement in Amazon’s planning. They want living wages in all jobs created by the company, as well as affordable housing guarantees to help stave off gentrification that they warn could push residents out of working-class neighborhoods as thousands of Amazon workers move in.
“This setup is a losing deal for everybody but Amazon,” the group said in a news release Monday. “Instead of trying to win the race to the bottom, residents in cities bidding for Amazon are coming together to collectively demand that wherever Amazon HQ2 ends up it actually benefits the people who live and work there.”
Chicago voters like the idea of trying to lure Amazon’s second headquarters here, at least in the abstract. And they give Mayor Rahm Emanuel some credit for leading the effort.
That’s the gist of a new poll released today that found, as in an earlier survey, voters see some benefits to chasing after a big corporate prize so long as you’re not hitting them over the head with the potential cost. […]
Asked flatly if they back the city’s efforts to win Amazon, which promises to bring up to 50,000 jobs to the winning city, 48 percent said the bid has their strong support, with another 27 percent saying they somewhat support the move. By comparison, just 12 percent said they strongly or somewhat oppose, with 13 percent saying they don’t know.
Support was greatest among Gen Xers (84 percent), and somewhat stronger among African-Americans (81 percent) then Latinos (78 percent) or whites (73 percent). […]
The survey found somewhat stronger backing for the HQ2 bid than an earlier poll I reported on last month. But that poll, unlike this one, at least mentioned that incentives are being offered to Amazon, though it failed to mention the reported figure: $2.2 billion, mostly in state job credits.
The latest poll, including methodology, is here. The earlier poll Greg mentioned is here.
* Related…
* Brady vs. Pritzker on Amazon: Illinois Senate Republican leader Bill Brady of Bloomington said he believes Bezos will be concerned about higher tax rates, contending that J.B. Pritzker’s call for a graduated income tax could doom Chicago in the contest… “I really believe, if what I read about Jeff Bezos and his philosophy at Amazon is the only thing that would keep them from coming here would be the J.B. Pritzker tax increase,” Brady said.
* Who’s going to win the Amazon hustle?: New York University marketing professor Scott Galloway thinks all the speculation about the new site is moot at this point. “The cake is baked,” he said, and the winner is one of three D.C.-area sites. After all, D.C. is where Bezos recently acquired a huge house, where he and his family might want to spend time, where the political action is, where decisions will be made about the company’s future. And given that President Donald Trump has expressed special animus for Amazon, wouldn’t it be better to be a player where the decisions are made? “The only thing standing between Amazon and a trillion-dollar market capitalization is regulation,” said Galloway, dubbed the Amazon whisperer after his lucky or brilliant prediction that Amazon would buy Whole Foods last year (it did a few weeks later). “The ultimate prophylactic against regulation is to be the local boy in D.C.”
After a judge ruled against the city of Harvey as it seeks money the Illinois Comptroller’s Office is holding, the city’s mayor warns that massive layoffs could be on the horizon.
Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg convened an emergency meeting on Monday after a judge ruled that the state acted appropriately in withholding $1.4 million to cover shortfalls in the city’s pension plan.
“The city of Harvey has never undergone massive layoffs like the ones we’re expecting for our police and fire departments,” Kellogg said. […]
In a statement, Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s office said it acted appropriately.
“The legislature passed a law allowing pension funds to certify to our office that municipalities have failed to make required payments to pension funds,” the statement reads.
In 2015, a Cook County judge found that the city of Harvey, a south Chicago suburb, owes more than $7.3 million to its police pension fund after failing to make payments for nearly a decade.
To satisfy this judgment, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza is currently withholding more than $1 million in revenues due to the city. […]
The city, represented by Ken Hurst with Roth Fioretti, owes payroll of $400,000 due on April 13 as well as an additional $300,000 for its employees’ health insurance, but currently holds less than $200,000 in its general fund, according to the suit. […]
Harvey is currently in serious debt, with a deficit of $5.9 million, and its collection rate on real estate taxes is just 58 percent. […]
In 2015, Harvey reached an $18.5 million settlement with Chicago to pay back the money it owes for water taken from the city without paying and resold to other suburbs.
* Ex-Harvey official made secret recordings for prosecutors in bribery investigation, unsealed documents show
* Federal investigation continues in Markham after mayor’s guilty plea: At the center of the investigation is a series of secret recordings made by a now-deceased Harvey comptroller, Joseph Letke, whose firm was also paid by Markham. Letke recorded conversations with Harvey officials, including Donald Luster, a consultant to Harvey given influence over economic development by Mayor Eric Kellogg. Luster said he could fast-track projects if given bribes, according to the affidavit filed in court for a search warrant.
Speaking later at the City Club of Chicago, Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady said the most powerful agent for Republican unity will be Pritzker.
“That’s the simple election question,” Brady said. “If you think we can grow our state by raising the tax burden on families and businesses, vote for JB Pritzker. He clearly supports that.”
However, Republicans are taking a big chance if they believe their most powerful force for victory is that the opponent is so distasteful.
Many Democrats assumed the same thing two years ago, when Donald Trump won the White House.
Many Democrats assumed the same thing four years ago, when Bruce Rauner won the governor’s race.
But, yeah, it’s gonna be a variation of “Taxes, Madigan, Taxes, Madigan, Taxes, Madigan, Taxes, Madigan” all the way through November. It’s the best and probably only shot Rauner really has.
