Kennedy to Rauner: Explain why your “Turnaround Agenda” is more important than passing a state budget
Chris Kennedy, Democratic candidate for governor, issued the followed statement today in response to the news that Governor Rauner will tour Illinois on a two-day swing throughout the state.
“Governor Rauner is a failed governor who has turned a budget problem into a statewide economic crisis that has hurt people across Illinois,” said Kennedy. “As he flies around the state, we hope he will finally give the people of Illinois an explanation as to why, by virtually every measure, Illinois is in worse shape than when he took office.”
Today and tomorrow, Governor Rauner is traveling to Bloomingdale, Rockford, Rock Island, Peoria, Springfield, Quincy, East Alton, Marion, Robinson, and Champaign.
“Rauner owes it to the people of Illinois to explain why his Turnaround Agenda is more important than a state budget. While he plays politics, our schools continue to go without the resources they need, the social safety net is being shredded, and violence has become the norm in neighborhoods across the state. We ask him to put his agenda aside and give the people a budget. It’s time we get to work to fix this mess,” added Kennedy.
* Pritzker…
Bruce Rauner Chooses Politics Over Governing (Again)
As Rauner Hits the Campaign Trail, Another Campus Forced to Shutdown
Chicago, IL — Today, as Bruce Rauner chooses to hit the campaign trail instead of working to pass a much-needed budget, Northeastern campus is shutting down again. This is the second time in three weeks that Northeastern Illinois University has had to shut down due to the two-year deadlock over a new state budget.
“Today, Bruce Rauner is once again choosing to put politics over doing his job as Governor,” said JB Pritzker. “While Rauner heads out on the campaign trail, our state still doesn’t have a budget and Northeastern campus is shutting down again. This is devastating. Illinois families have had enough of Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership and they are ready for a progressive leader who will fight for what’s right and actually get things done for our state.”
* Pawar…
Ameya Pawar to Governor Rauner: ‘Put politics aside and govern’
CHICAGO — Ameya Pawar, 47th Ward Alderman and Democratic candidate for Illinois governor, issued the following statement today in response to Governor Bruce Rauner’s first campaign tour of the 2018 election cycle:
“Instead of working on passing a state budget that is now more than 21 months overdue, Governor Rauner is out campaigning in an attempt to distract us from the 22,000 seniors outside of Chicago who have lost access to services, the 130,000 low-income college students who are not receiving tuition grants, the nearly 47,000 children whose parents are without affordable child care, and the 80,000 people who have lost access to mental health services in Illinois. Earlier this morning, I joined students, faculty and staff at Northeastern Illinois University to protest Gov. Rauner’s $2.3 billion in cuts to higher education.
It’s past time for Gov. Rauner to put politics aside and govern. Our state can’t afford to wait any longer.”
* IWT…
Rauner puts campaigning ahead of doing his job
Gov. Rauner should put the people of Illinois first
Illinois Working Together Campaign Director Jake Lewis released the following statement in response to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “campaign tour”:
“With the state in the midst of a fiscal emergency and Election Day more than 18 months away, it is downright shameful that Gov. Rauner would rather campaign for his re-election than do his job. Rauner’s refusal to compromise has hurt students, seniors, and the Illinois economy.
“The question Illinois residents should be asking is: why is Rauner campaigning for re-election when he has failed to propose a balanced budget, his most basic responsibility as governor? Instead of campaigning, the governor should drop the political games, propose a balanced budget, and do his job.”
A gathering of Cairo residents erupted in anger Monday night as federal housing officials informed them that close to 200 families residing in two sprawling World War II-era family housing developments of the Alexander County Housing Authority will have to move out of their units in the coming months, and that there is no immediate plan to provide new government-assisted housing in Cairo to replace the developments they intend to demolish. […]
For more than a year and a half, The Southern Illinoisan has detailed the inhumane living conditions of ACHA’s Elmwood Place and McBride Place complexes, which have been in poor condition for years. The problems include mold, plumbing and electrical issues, inadequate heating and cooling, rampant infestation and other health and safety issues.
There are presently 82 families living at Elmwood and 103 families at McBride. Many units are vacant, as those that have been vacated since the housing crisis began and are not being filled, HUD officials said. […]
One by one at the standing-room only meeting, residents expressed anger and frustration that HUD does not have a plan to provide adequate housing for the displaced residents within the city, and that no one has been officially held accountable for the alleged mismanagement of the complexes by ACHA administrators, or the lack of oversight by HUD as millions of federal dollars were squandered.
“You have decimated a whole community and you don’t care,” one resident said to cheers and applause.
According to the story, about half of the students who attend Cairo Unit School District 1 live in those two housing projects. So, this is definitely going to have a ripple effect in Cairo and throughout the region.
* Background…
* Living large on the public dime: CAIRO – Hundreds of people here rely on public housing for shelter, with the average income among Alexander County Housing Authority residents just $8,655 a year, the majority of them raising children and nearly half as single mothers. More than half of the county’s children live in poverty, and nearly a third are considered food insecure – meaning they don’t always know from where their next meal is coming. But some of those who were charged with overseeing the shelter upon which many of them rely, lived large, records show, traveling extensively to conferences in destination cities, drinking on the authority’s dime, shelling out hundreds of dollars for steak, salmon, shrimp cocktails, sorbet and other multi-course meals, sometimes paying nearly $100 per person at fine-dining establishments. Meanwhile, the public housing developments that provide shelter in the state’s poorest county have deteriorated into abysmal conditions, besieged by infestation and violent crime.
* Yesterday’s infuriating story about a United Airlines passenger being dragged off a flight from Chicago because the company needed four seats for its own employees was made even weirder by this Chicago Police Department statement posted all over Twitter…
Chicago PD: “Aviation Officers arrived on scene attempted to carry the individual off of the flight when he fell.”
The city of Chicago has two police forces that patrol O’Hare and Midway airports: the Chicago Police Department, whose officers are armed, and city Department of Aviation police, whose officers are unarmed.
Aviation police officers alone handled the situation aboard the United flight.
Despite this, a Chicago Police news affairs officer — not the aviation cops — initially released a statement to an unnamed media outlet saying that a “69-year-old male Asian airline passenger” became “irate” aboard the United flight and that aviation officers “attempted to carry the individual off the flight when he fell.” The statement also said the passenger was taken to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge with “non-life threatening injuries.”
As the Chicago Police statement began circulating on Twitter Monday afternoon — with people taking exception to the characterization of the man falling — police said that any further information about the matter should come through the Department of Aviation. “That was not a formal statement by me or CPD,” Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi explained in an email. [Emphasis added.]
Bizarre.
So, who issued the statement? And if a CPD employee did issue the statement, why would he or she do that? The cops who dragged the poor guy out of the airplane were with the Department of Aviation, and one of those cops has been placed on leave.
When asked why the airline had the man forcibly removed, and whether that was standard procedure in cases of overbooked flights, United refused to comment.
Instead they told BuzzFeed News all further questions should be referred to Chicago Police. BuzzFeed News contacted Chicago Police and were told to contact the Chicago Department of Aviation. When BuzzFeed News contacted the Chicago Department of Aviation, the call was transferred to a TSA message bank. A TSA spokesperson later told BuzzFeed News they were not involved and to contact Chicago Police.
* Related…
* Mark Brown: Aviation cops shoot themselves in the foot in gun debate
After the votes were counted for Tuesday’s election, the race for village president in Colp was still undecided. Candidates Tammy O’Daniell-Howell and Bryan Riekena each received 11 votes.
“We are not waiting for any absentee ballots, so the vote total should not change,” said Williamson County Clerk Amanda Barnes.
The race will be decided April 20 by the flip of a coin. A coin toss is the way to handle tie votes, according to Illinois statutes. […]
Riekena, the other candidate for Colp village president, said 29 out of the 250 registered voters in the village showed up at the polls.
“I would have liked to see a little more than 11 or 12 percent show up,” Riekena said.
So, if 29 people voted, then 7 people under-voted in the mayor’s race, which seems kinda weird.
* Either way, whenever you hear people talk about all the local governments we have in Illinois, always keep in mind that we have an absolute ton of these tiny incorporated towns all over the state. You can’t really talk about consolidation without considering that unavoidable fact.
Growing up in Iroquois County, I had some friends who lived in Kempton, population 231. For a time, my paternal grandmother lived in Martinton, population 375. There are only two towns with more than 1,400 people in all of Iroquois County, even though it’s the third largest county in the state at 1,119 square miles. It’s mostly farmland.
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s approval ratings have seen a big bump compared to his numbers before the presidential election, according to a Morning Consult poll released on Tuesday.
The poll finds that Rauner improved his approval rating to 42 percent, compared to the 33 percent he fared in September, prior to the presidential election. His disapproval rating dropped from 56 percent to 49 percent over the same time period.
However, Rauner is still in the bottom 10 in the rankings, coming in 43rd out of 50 in terms of governors with the best approval ratings. Fifteen governors had approval ratings below 50 percent in the poll.
Rauner’s approval and disapproval ratings are about the same as Robert Bentley who just resigned as governor of Alabama after a sex scandal.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker ranked first with a 75 percent approval rating. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie polled the worst with just a 25 percent approval rating.
More than 85,000 registered voters in America have evaluated the job performance of key elected officials on Morning Consult’s weekly online national polling from January 2017 through March 2017 to determine the latest Senator & Governor Approval Rankings.
On each poll, Americans indicated whether they approved or disapproved of the job performance of President Donald Trump, their state Governor, both of their U.S. Senators, their Member of Congress and their mayor (if they lived in a city with more than about 10,000 residents). For each question, they could answer strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, strongly disapprove, or don’t know / no opinion.
Morning Consult obtained an up-to-date list of Governors, U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives from Sunlight Foundation’s Congress API v3 and Open States API and obtained a list of mayors from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Survey respondents were assigned to their appropriate Governor and both U.S. Senators based on their state of residence, assigned to their Member of Congress based on a combination of zip code, IP address, latitude and longitude, and assigned to their mayor based on their state and zip code.
We obtained population parameters for registered voters from the November 2012 Current Population Survey (CPS). We applied post-stratification weights based on gender, age, educational attainment and race.
Notice anything missing? How were respondents contacted? How did they respond? When were they contacted?
But, their last survey tracked with other polls, so maybe they’re right.
* Related…
* Is Rauner polling on Democrats in governor’s race?: The respondent said the poll asked if Rauner or his chief political nemesis, Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, was responsible for the Springfield impasse and whether Madigan’s tenure was part of the ingrained problems at the statehouse. In addition, the poll asked questions about Democratic governor candidates Chris Kennedy and J.B. Pritzker, including a voting preference for either one as well as an opinion of each of the two candidates. The survey did not mention two others in the contest, Northwest Side Ald. Ameya Pawar and state Sen. Daniel Biss of Evanston.
* Gov. Rauner was on “The Big John and Ray Show” on WLS Radio this morning. After going through his usual litany of how he’s changed the things he could change and has been blocked by Madigan on everything else, co-host John Dempsey asked him this…
You’re running for reelection and you’re saying the General Assembly has blocked us, things are unfair, the system is rigged. It’s one excuse after another. Would you hire somebody who came in and just offered one excuse after another?
Well, that’s interesting, I’ve never heard Madigan’s majority called an excuse.
The reality is they rigged the system. It’s broken. It’s the reason we lead the nation in property taxes. It’s the reason we lead the nation in out-migration. They’re the reason we have so much cronyism and corruption. The system’s broken, it’s rigged by career politicians.
And I’m the one person as a volunteer - I’m not taking any compensation, I’m doing this because I love Illinois. I’m fightin’ against that corrupt machine and we’re gonna win ’cause it’s the right thing for the people of Illinois.
* The Chicago Reader has a profile of the only Downstate Democrat in the race for governor, Bob Daiber…
“I’m the candidate who can carry the downstate vote,” he says. “I can carry Trump voters. On the county board I represented a largely Republican district.”
On social issues, he’s a moderate. “My personal values are more pro-life, but I recognize pro-choice is the law of the land and I will respect that law,” he says. “I’m fully supportive of reproductive rights. I support Planned Parenthood. And I recognize gay rights.”
As for gun control, he’s says, “I support concealed-carry gun laws. The Second Amendment is a big issue where I come from.”
On economic issues, he’s an unabashed pro-union progressive. “We have a revenue problem,” he says. “I would support a progressive income tax. There’s only one solution. The debt has to be bonded out. And we have to pay down that debt with the principal of new tax revenue. I want to become governor to stabilize Illinois. Education is my passion. No one needs to tell me how important education is to kids—I taught for 28 years. And no one needs to tell me about living in poverty—I was raised with solid New Deal Democratic values. This is who I am and who I’ve always been.”
Ironically, Daiber would probably have an easier time beating Rauner than he will winning the Democratic nomination. He’s up against two wealthy businessmen, Kennedy and Pritzker, who can self-finance their campaigns. The other two announced Democrats, alderman Ameya Pawar and Evanston state senator Dan Biss, have a wealthier base to tap for money.
Independent suburban have decided major statewide races for decades here. As Judy Baar Topinka found out, being a moderate on abortion means you get hit by both sides and that doesn’t help with suburban women. The same goes for other traditional hot-button items like guns and gay rights.
So, he actually might have an easier time of winning a super-crowded Democratic primary race.
“When jobs leave a small town,” he says in the ad, “that hurts Chicago.” How, I asked, and how do you make that message work in a state that’s been divided by politicians for so long that many voters south of I-80 wish they could secede from the city.
That line in the ad comes directly from a time when Pawar was standing in a barn on a working farm near Champaign with former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar and a group of others in Edgar’s first government Fellows class at the University of Illinois. Edgar paused, turned to the Chicagoans and told them to realize that what happens on LaSalle Street is dependent on what happens on that farm. He turned to the downstate Fellows and told them if they didn’t support Chicago’s infrastructure, then whatever was grown on the farm didn’t matter because it wasn’t going anywhere.
“We all have our visceral reactions to things,” Pawar said, “but then when you sit down to listen to people, you find we have things in common. Just sit down and listen. We’re not going to write people off based on who they voted for in the last election. We don’t care if a county is red or blue because, by the way, most of the state is red.”
Maybe the money, or the media’s obsession with it, will swamp Pawar. Or maybe this talk of being fiercely for family and one Illinois won’t fly in a state where it’s blue up north and fiery red south. It’ll be fascinating finding out.
“It’s important to go talk to people and to really listen to people,” Pawar said. “We have a lot more in common than we do apart.”
There’s no doubt that Pawar has a strong message. But messages usually only work if lots of people hear them over and over again.
Today, as Bruce Rauner chooses to hit the campaign trail instead of working to pass a much-needed budget, Northeastern campus is shutting down again. This is the second time in three weeks that Northeastern Illinois University has had to shut down due to the two-year deadlock over a new state budget.
“Today, Bruce Rauner is once again choosing to put politics over doing his job as Governor,” said JB Pritzker. “While Rauner heads out on the campaign trail, our state still doesn’t have a budget and Northeastern campus is shutting down again. This is devastating. Illinois families have had enough of Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership and they are ready for a progressive leader who will fight for what’s right and actually get things done for our state.”
* Twitters…
No school at @neiu today because of the lack of a state budget. Faculty and staff are demonstrating outside of campus during a furlough day pic.twitter.com/TaVuEAiMbi
Three class days were cancelled to cut costs during the budget impasse, and union leaders are planning a rally to protest the school’s financial straits — but Northeastern Illinois University was planning to pay former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett $30,000 to speak at its commencement ceremony.
Those plans changed after a few university trustees objected — and the Sun-Times began asking questions. Northeastern said late Monday that a donor came forward to pay the five-figure speaking fee.
But at an April 6 board meeting, trustees approved an honorary degree for Jarrett — while learning that a contract had already been negotiated and signed to pay her $30,000 for her May 8 speech.
Just the day before, the school’s interim president said the university was in a “state of emergency” amid the 22-month budget impasse.
Hearing of Jarrett’s contract on April 6, at least one board member uttered “wow,” according to audio of the board’s meeting.
Click here for the trustee meeting audio and fast forward to about the 1:38:00 mark. It’s quite the discussion, with one trustee arguing that it was “classist” to oppose the speaking fee.
And ironically enough, the trustees discussed a statement on impending employee furloughs immediately after they finished talking about the speaking fee.
Additionally, the university’s board last week approved an “expenditure recommendation” of $98,000 to executive search firm Greenwood/Asher & Associates to search for a new university president.
Asked for comment on that approval, the university said it couldn’t comment on the search for president or the $98,000 approval.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner is launching the first official campaign tour of his re-election bid on Tuesday, as Democrats line up to unseat him in 2018 and the Republican tries to turn around his sagging approval ratings.
Rauner will kick off a two-day, multi-stop swing with a morning event in the Chicago suburb of Bloomingdale, followed by events in northern and western Illinois and an evening rally in Springfield, his campaign said. On Wednesday he’ll appear at five restaurants and businesses in southern Illinois, Quincy and Champaign. […]
Rauner’s campaign says he wants to take a message directly to voters that he’s working hard and is still determined to “deliver real change” for Illinois, such as term limits for lawmakers and a property tax freeze.
He also will criticize Democrats for trying to “duct tape over” Illinois’ problems - a central theme of television commercials that an arm of the Republican Governors Association began airing last month. In the ads, a plaid shirt-wearing Rauner stands in what appears to be a workroom stocked with tools and says he’s the one trying to fix Illinois.
Governor Bruce Rauner will kick of his re-election campaign Tuesday with a stop in Peoria.
The Governor will be at the Brewer’s Distributing Company, talking about his plan to balance the budget, and fix what he calls a broken political system in Illinois.
* Peoria County Republican Party…
You are invited to join Peoria area leaders at a rally to support Governor Bruce Rauner this afternoon at 4:00 pm at Brewer’s Distributing, corner of Allen Road and Townline Road. The doors will open at 3:45 pm, no earlier. Come learn about the Governor’s plans to turnaround our state.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is launching the first official campaign tour of his re-election bid as Democrats line up to try to take him out in 2018.
Rauner will kick off a two-day, multi-stop swing Tuesday morning, April 11, 2017 in suburban Chicago, with a stop planned for Rock Island at 1:45 p.m. The Governor’s itinerary says he will be at Performance Food Group, 8001 51st St. W.
Wednesday’s scheduled 5:15 p.m. appearance at HL Precision Manufacturing, 2110 Round Barn Road, Champaign, is the final stop on a two-day swing around the state. […]
The media release about Rauner’s appearances echoed the theme of television commercials the governor’s campaign staff has been running on Illinois television stations since late March.
“Rather than work to finally solve Illinois’ structural problems, politicians in Springfield want to duct tape over Illinois’ challenges with more spending, higher taxes, and no real reforms,” said the notice. “Gov. Bruce Rauner will tour the state this week highlighting the need for a truly balanced budget with real reforms to fix Illinois’ broken political system, freeze property taxes, reduce the debt and grow jobs.”
Stops today include Bloomingdale, Rockford, Rock Island, Peoria and Springfield. Tomorrow’s campaign tour takes him to Quincy, East Alton, Marion, Robinson and Champaign.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From the ILGOP…
Hi Rich,
This tour is not the governor formally launching his reelection campaign. He’s traveling the state to talk about the need for a balanced budget with reforms. It is being paid with political resources out of an abundance of caution.
Thanks,
Aaron P. DeGroot
Illinois Republican Party
*** UPDATE 2 *** From the Rauner campaign…
This week, Bruce and the team are taking to the road, traveling all across our great state to listen to Illinois families and to talk about budget and reform.
But before we go, we need your help. Will you consider contributing to our Volunteer Fund today to directly help our grassroots team as we prep for this trip?
Chip in $5 >> Fliers for our events
Chip in $20 >> Fuel for grassroots team before hitting the road
Chip in $30 >> Pizza for our grassroots team
Chip in $50 >> Recruitment of more volunteers
Every donation counts as we work to get out the important message this week; we’re so grateful for your support!
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner says his two-day trip across Illinois “has nothing to do with the election” even though it’s being paid for out of his campaign fund.
Rauner spoke Tuesday in Bloomingdale before flying to stops around Illinois.
His tour comes after several Democrats in recent weeks announced they’re running for governor in 2018.
Rauner refused to say he’s running for re-election, saying it’ll be “discussed later on.” He insists the tour as simply “communication with the people of Illinois.”
Rep. Steve Andersson, R-Geneva, said he wakes up every day wondering “who will die today?” because of lawmakers’ inaction on a full-year budget. But he stuck with his opposition to a stopgap, saying it only relieves the pressure on the legislature to find a real solution.
“Call me a hostage taker. Go ahead. It’s been done before. We need the pressure to get to a full budget, not a budget like this,” he said. […]
As much as they blame Rauner and his agency heads for failing to say where they would cut spending — and we get that — they prove him right about duct tape solutions. That’s what a stopgap is.
This state desperately needs a full-year budget. Rauner has said he will block the half measure the House passed, if it gets to his desk. Then what?
Why is it so hard to understand that what social service agencies and universities need is stability? They don’t need stopgap budgets. They don’t need a sip of relief. They need and deserve a long-term plan. All parties in Springfield are failing them on that.
Rep. Andersson is a co-sponsor of a bill to provide funding for state employee salaries in perpetuity and regardless of whether a budget is passed.
And one wonders if the Tribune will say the same about a stopgap if a full budget isn’t passed by June 30th and K-12 schools are in danger of not opening.
So, yes, stability is most desperately needed, as is a real budget. But higher ed and human services need this stopgap money in the interim. To deny them that “sip of relief” so they can remain alive to take a full drink after the big boys and girls finally finish fighting is simply not right.
Universities have laid off staff and shut down programs but those actions have had zero impact on the impasse. Social service providers have stopped providing service to a million people and it has had no impact. Two of the only things that almost undoubtedly will have an impact are a complete governmental shutdown and schools not opening on time.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski is headed for a primary challenge next year in the Southwest Side and southwest suburban 3rd Congressional District.
Marie Newman, a marketing consultant from La Grange, is looking to push a more progressive agenda. […]
Lipinski, who succeeded his father, Bill, holds a more social conservative ideology than most Chicago Democrats — specifically on issues involving abortion and women’s health care.
Newman was born in Beverly and raised in Palos Park. After years of working in advertising, she started her own consulting business.
* Press release…
In a message sent today to thousands of supporters across the 3rd Congressional District, Marie Newman announced that she is challenging Rep. Dan Lipinski in the Democratic Primary for Congress.
Newman, a small business owner, national anti-bullying and rights advocate, said she was inspired to run in the wake of the 2016 Presidential Election. After forming an exploratory committee and meeting with over 55 groups and community organizations, Newman declared today: “I’m in and I’m ready to go! And with your support, we will win this election!”
“On issue after issue that we care about, Dan Lipinski hasn’t been there for us,” Newman said. “He was the only Democrat from Illinois who voted against Obamacare. He takes three-quarters of his campaign money from Washington PACs and lobbyists, representing their interests instead of ours. As a result, he has done nothing to protect our healthcare rights and he ignores the small businesses that are the clear majority of businesses in our district.”
It’s going to be a tough fight to reclaim our seat in Congress from a family who’s held it for two generations,” Newman says. “But I’m confident that a campaign that puts our families first can overcome the insiders and special interests who are propping up the current Congressman.”
Newman was inspired to run after the 2016 Presidential election: “I woke up on November 9th knowing our world had turned upside-down. Many of the things we care about are no longer protected or respected. After participating in the Women’s March in Chicago, I knew I had to do more.”
Newman has advocated for national legislation on anti-bullying, gun safety, cancer research, and small business development, as well as being a job creator and multiple-time entrepreneur.
“This campaign will require the effort and energy of people and families from across our district who’ve been ignored for too long,” Newman said. “Together, we will work to protect and advance healthcare rights, Planned Parenthood, fair treatment of immigrants and their families, and to fight discrimination based on race, religion, gender or sexuality.”
She’s already started hiring staff. A former state House Democratic staffer who ran the primary campaign against Rep. Ken Dunkin will be involved, among others.
* The Sun-Times has a story on Rep. Scott Drury’s announcement that he’s exploring a run for governor…
Drury — who was an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago before taking office in 2013 — said he plans to set up meetings and travel the state to talk to “real people” to determine if he’ll run.
“Let’s face it. Illinois is defined as having no budget, defined by bickering and is defined by violence. It is defined by public corruption. By any measure I have the experience, the skill and the background and the history of showing that I tackled these issues and have worked on these issues instead of just getting wrapped up in the partisanship which has left our state a disaster,” Drury said.
Drury said he hasn’t talked to his fellow Democrats about his decision: “I don’t believe that my candidacy is going to be the one that’s going to be propelled by establishment politicians.”
Across Illinois, social service agencies are closing. Jobs are fleeing the state. Public schools aren’t sure how they open their doors in the fall. Our state universities and colleges are being starved of resources. Nearly 47,000 poor families are no longer eligible for childcare.
This is all because Bruce Rauner has decided that destroying unions and gutting wages for working families is more important than passing a budget that lifts up all Illinois families.
In the midst of all the devastation, does Bruce Rauner feel for all the impacted people? No. Last week he said, he’s never been “so happy in his life.”
Bruce Rauner is happy because the chaos and destruction is by design. His design. A design to divide and rule.
This is personal to me.
My father was born in India under British rule. The British were few, but they were wealthy. The Indians were many but they were kept poor.
They were pit against one another based on what religion they practiced, where they lived, and what language they spoke. The British kept Indians jobless, uneducated, and without medical services.
This was the world my dad grew up in, and it’s the world being created by the broken policies of Donald Trump and Bruce Rauner.
It’s been 21 months and counting without a budget because Rauner wants there to be no budget. In his race to destroy the social safety net, he wants the chaos that comes from slashing school funding, closing health clinics, and encouraging companies to leave the state.
I am running for governor because I’m tired of Bruce Rauner and his billionaire friends being the happiest they’ve ever been as millions of families suffer from lack of jobs, health care, and educational opportunities.
I am running because I want to ensure my daughter doesn’t grow up in the kind of world that oppressed my dad.
That’s a pretty significant leap of logic and ridiculous. Even if you agree with what some of Pawar is saying about Rauner’s actions, to compare them to the bloody and repressive British rule of India is way over the top even for a fundraising plea.
* Gov. Rauner held a press availability today and was asked…
Why is it worth it to use state universities which are starving, and social service agencies which are already starved; why is it worth it to use them as leverage to get your agenda?
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner kicked off a campaign-style statewide tour Monday by indicating he’ll try to “leverage” the state’s money woes into securing a series of pro-business changes from a General Assembly controlled by Democrats likely to fiercely oppose them. […]
“Crisis creates opportunity. Crisis creates leverage to change … and we’ve got to use that leverage of the crisis to force structural change,” said Rauner, borrowing from a political philosophy famously coined by his friend Rahm Emanuel that “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
“We will crush our economy if we try to spend money on both high-cost, inefficient, bureaucratic, heavily unionized government and a social safety net to help the disadvantaged,” Rauner said.
“We can’t afford both,” he said, and “wealth creators,” like JIMMY JOHN LIAUTAUD, founder of Jimmy John’s sandwich shops and another panelist, would be forced to leave the state.
“I think we can drive a wedge issue in the Democratic Party on that topic and bring the folks who say, ‘You know what, for our tax dollars, I’d rather help the disadvantaged, the handicapped, the elderly, the children in poverty,’ ” Rauner said, instead of directing tax dollars to the Service Employees International Union or “AF-Scammy,” an apparent reference to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, known as AFSCME for short.
What I’m advocating is we need to change our system, it’s broken, and we need balanced budgets. And the reason that this is so hard, one of the reasons it’s so hard is that we’ve never had balanced budgets. We either don’t pay our pensions, we don’t pay our bills or we borrow on the bond market. This has been going on for 30 years. We can’t keep doing this. We’re not the federal government, we can’t print money. We’re not the federal government, we can’t just borrow unlimited. We actually have to live within our means.
This is all I’ve said. And I’ve said either let me cut so we can balance the budget, and even with the cuts universities will get funded and social services would get much support. So, and I am very, very supportive of our social services safety net. It’s important, I support it in the state of Illinois. Many of the agencies that have been hurt by this budget impasse are the same services that my wife and I have been supporters of for decades. I’m a big advocate for these human services.
It’s a tragedy that the General Assembly under Madigan’s majority won’t change anything, and they just want to do more deficit spending. And let’s be clear that the stopgap proposal to have more deficit spending - not fix the problem, not get a balanced budget - all that’ll do is kick the can down the road, make the tax hike bigger, later, push more employers and more jobs out of the state and not solve any problems, but just make it worse.
My strict effort is to talk to the people of Illinois. That’s why I speak to with you about this most every day. That’s the reason I go on radio and TV to talk about it. That’s the reason I give six speeches pretty much seven days a week. That’s the reason I use social media to get the message out. That’s the reason that sometimes we do use paid media to get the message out. The people of Illinois need to know what’s on the line. Term limits, fair maps, property tax freeze, pension reform, education funding reform. These are all important things to help us get balanced budgets for the long term. Long term.
We could do a massive tax hike, which is what Madigan’s Democrats have indicated they would like, to balance a budget for one year, maybe 18 months, maybe two years. But it would quickly be out of balance. Whatever our taxpayers pay in in their hard-earned money would quickly be spent in more. This has been our pattern for 30, 40 years. We need structural change to grow the economy and structural change to bring down the cost of government. That way we can keep our budgets balanced without having to raise taxes more in the future.
* If you go to the 10:30 mark of this video (watch out for lots of expletives, however), you’ll see John Oliver talk about the Democrats’ abuse of the redistricting process. And he uses a very funny clip from 2001 featuring the late Senate Majority Leader Vince Demuzio…
I thought it was hilarious. Demuzio was dutifully telling reporters that the Democrats would “draw a very fair map,” but he couldn’t possibly say that with a straight face, so he didn’t. The smirk and eyeroll were both classic Vince.
The wife of deceased Illinois lawmaker Vince Demuzio said she “did not find the humor” in John Oliver’s comparison of Demuzio to a pool urinator on Sunday’s episode of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”
“It’s one thing to talk about gerrymandering, but I did not find the humor in his portraying my husband, who is now deceased, in that manner,” Deanna Demuzio, the mayor of downstate Carlinville, told the Tribune. […]
Demuzio died of complications from colon cancer in 2004 at the age of 62. The former state Democratic Party chairman served in the Senate from 1975-2004.
Your thoughts?
* Related…
* Why you should stop blaming gerrymandering so much. Really: In fact, 83 percent of the districts that moved out of the “swing” category — again, R+5 to D+5 — did so without being redrawn. Only 14 districts moved from swing seats to solidly Republican — R+5 or greater — after redistricting, while 33 did so through the normal political evolution of the American voter.
Independent voices say Bruce Rauner’s urged lawmakers to fix the budget and is on record with a plan to make Illinois competitive again.
It’s why they call Rauner “the only grown-up in Springfield.”
The Rauner balanced budget plan caps spending, pays down debt, freezes property taxes, term limits politicians and grows jobs.
Independent outlets say Rauner issued “a call to action to change the status quo,” pushed for “economic growth to save the state.”
Together, we can Fix Illinois.
“The only grown-up in Springfield” line comes from a February 17th Crain’s Chicago Business editorial which praised Rauner for backing the Senate’s grand bargain during his budget address. That editorial board did not weigh in, however, after Rauner knocked the grand bargain off its tracks just a couple weeks later.
* The Belleville News-Democrat published a story the other day about a vendor at a state correctional facility in East St. Louis. The gist of the story is that the vendor provides substance abuse treatment programs for inmates and wasn’t paid for a year.
Governor Bruce Rauner’s office criticized the order of bills that are paid by the comptroller’s office.
“The order of which payments are made are a question of Comptroller (Susana) Mendoza’s priorities,” said Eleni Demertzis, a spokeswoman for Rauner’s office. “We continue to encourage her to avoid creating a crisis and further harm to service providers by releasing the funds necessary to pay those most in need.”
* I learned decades ago that when any governor’s office attempts to blame the comptroller for late payments to service providers that the first question to always ask is when the agency controlled by the governor actually submitted the voucher for payment. One of the oldest games under the dome is for a governor to sit on a voucher then blame the comptroller when the vendor complains.
* You’ll notice, for instance, on page 3 that the Rauner administration submitted a voucher on December 2nd of 2016 for about $54,000 in services rendered in January of 2016. In other words, they waited 11 months to submit the voucher for payment.
Turn to page 5 and you’ll see a voucher submitted on December 28th of last year for services rendered in December of 2015. In other words, it took the administration a full year to submit that voucher to the comptroller.
On page 6, you’ll see a voucher submitted on March 8th of this year for services rendered in August of last year - 9 months after the services were rendered.
And on page 7 there’s a voucher submitted on March 22nd of this year for services rendered in June of last year.
* All of the above vouchers were paid on March 24th. So, yes, the comptroller did indeed sit on some of them for a few months. Here is the comptroller’s original explanation to the paper…
He said there is a six-month to one-year wait on all bills around the state, citing that no balanced budget has been proposed by the governor’s office nor the general assembly, during the budget impasse that has lasted almost two years.
“Every bill in the state is being held up because we have no budget,” Pallasch said.
Pallasch said vouchers for payment of services from the Department of Corrections had not been turned into the comptroller’s office for several months after services were rendered.
* Lessons? The comptroller’s office needs to do a much better job of figuring out how they’re being played by the governor’s office and react accordingly. And reporters need to make sure they’re not being punked by an age-old game.
JUDICIAL INTERVENTION SOUGHT TO FORCE ILLINOIS TO PROVIDE CRITICAL RESOURSES FOR PEOPLE WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES
The State of Illinois is failing to fulfill its promise to people with disabilities to provide opportunities to live integrated in the community, according to a recent filing in federal court. The filing in Ligas v. Norwood asks a federal judge to compel the State to provide the resources necessary to comply with the Consent Decree in the case. The action on behalf of people with developmental disabilities specifically notes that low wages being paid by the State to disability service professionals prevent people with developmental disabilities from living meaningful lives in the community. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires the State to assure that people with disabilities can live in the most integrated setting possible. The filing makes clear that Illinois is failing this test.
Funding for people with developmental disabilities has been continued at past levels during the current budget impasse because of court orders. But that funding, as the filing shows, has been woefully inadequate to accomplish the mandates of the Consent Decree. As a result, an Independent Monitor in Ligas has found the State out of compliance with the Decree for the last two years. […]
The court filing details troubling reports from family members of people with disabilities and their service providers documenting the real human suffering and impact of the insufficient resources provided by the State.
Community reimbursement rates have been frozen for nearly a decade, while costs continue to escalate. The low rates have created crisis conditions in the staffing of these services. With insufficient staff, services to people with developmental disabilities are cut short. People—who are supposed to be integrated into the community—are instead finding themselves increasing isolated and segregated. The homes and facilities have been forced to decrease staff ratios, frequently to only one staff for 4-8 residents. This means that staff cannot regularly take the residents out of the house and they cannot work on building skills and independence. They are left with simply trying to maintain safety. Instead of living full integrated lives, many of these class members are suffering enormous hardships, including social isolation, a dearth of meaningful activities, a lack of skill development (and, for some skill regression), and, in many instances, anxiety and depression.
…Meredith Krantz of the state’s Department of Human Services said the state disagrees with the monitor’s findings, saying that Illinois has and “will continue to follow every court order” regarding the care of those with disabilities. Further, she said the state has “submitted all payments in question and look to the (state) comptroller’s office to ensure they’re processed.”
“The (Bruce) Rauner administration remains committed to moving individuals with developmental disabilities, mental illness, or physical disabilities out of institutional care and into community settings while ensuring those individuals receive the best care possible,” she wrote.
If you’ve been watching television lately, there’s a good chance you’ve seen Gov. Bruce Rauner on screen with a roll of duct tape and a message of blame for Democrats.
That’s because more than $95,115 worth of TV ads have been purchased in the television market that includes Decatur, part of a statewide ad campaign that Rauner says is unconnected to his 2018 gubernatorial hopes. […]
The ads began airing March 28 and are slated to continue at least through next week on WAND in Decatur and WCIA in Champaign, according to Federal Communications Commission documents obtained by the Herald & Review.
Those documents describe the ads as “non-candidate advertising” focusing on the issue of “Illinois governmental and fiscal reform,” meaning the expenditures are not required to be reported to the state’s election board.
After an exhausting presidential election, many residents are apt to tune out political ads as soon as they appear, said Kent Redfield, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield. He said the TV spots likely won’t do much to improve Rauner’s polling numbers or shift the policy debate.
“The distinction between governing and campaigning seems to get blurrier and blurrier and this is another indication of that,” he said.
But, in addition to reiterating his message and appealing to his base of supporters, Redfield said the ads deliver an important message to Democrats considering their 2018 prospects.
“Part of it has nothing to do with the reaction of the average citizen,” Redfield said. “He’s doing it because he can do it and they’re trying to show that they’re in a position of strength vis-a-vis the Democrats.”
Earlier today I informed supporters that I am exploring a run for governor. A press release is attached and set forth below. Please let me know if you have any questions.
–Scott R. Drury
* The e-mail to his supporters…
Friends:
With your encouragement, I have decided to explore a run for governor. By all accounts, Illinois is headed downhill. Partisan bickering, public corruption and uncontrolled violence have come to define our once great State. The public feels helpless against a billionaire governor and Democratic machine that refuse to prioritize people’s needs over political gain. Governor Rauner’s approval rating is dreadful, and Mike Madigan’s is even worse. The public believes Republicans and Democrats share the blame for the State’s problems and knows that long-term solutions are needed.
Before running for public office, I was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago. In that position, I fought on the front lines of the battle to rid our State of public corruption and gun violence. Public service - not partisan politics - guided the mission.
Since taking office, my goal has been to usher in a new era of government in Illinois - one defined by credibility and responsibility. The public does not trust Illinois government. If Illinois is to change course and move forward, it first must establish a strong foundation of trust upon which it can build.
To that end, in January, I became the first Democrat in 30 years to refuse to support Mike Madigan in his quest to become Speaker of the Illinois House. The status quo has no place in the new era I envision. My vote represented the majority view of Democrats, Republicans and Independents, alike. While entrenched politicians did not like my actions, I sided with the public.
Further, back in 2015, I was the first Democrat to publicly set forth a viable solution to the budget standoff that is destroying our State - proposing that each party simultaneously submit a truly balanced budget, each of which would then be publicly debated and voted upon. The common-sense proposal received universal accolades. But those who see political value in keeping the impasse going have chosen to continue the destruction.
I recognize the enormity of trying to change the status quo in Illinois and the resistance the establishment will put forth to stop the effort. However, as Bob Dylan famously wrote, “the first one now will later be last, for the times they are a-changin’.” The purpose of this exploration is to determine whether Illinois is ready for such change.
* As we discussed earlier, Chris Kennedy warned on Friday that JB Pritzker could turn out to be another “tyrant” like Bruce Rauner. Here’s Mark Brown…
All other things being equal, I would just as soon the Democratic Party didn’t follow the Republicans down the path of choosing the ultra-rich to run the country.
Based on his body of work, though, Pritzker may very well prove to be the most qualified and accomplished Democrat in the race. […]
I missed connections afterward with Pritzker, but a campaign spokesman responded that Kennedy “is more focused on his talking points than dealing with reality. … It’s JB who’s been standing up to everything Bruce Rauner and Donald Trump are trying to tear down.”
I’ve seen no indication Pritzker would be a bully, although I do believe he wants to play a role in building a stronger state party apparatus like Rauner has done with the Republicans.
That’s something Democrats are going to need going forward no matter who is their nominee.
Pritzker and Rauner have two very different personalities. But that much wealth can intimidate a whole lot of Statehouse types, so it could be awful tempting to flout.
J.B.: “My parents, Donald and Sue, were progressives; believers in social justice. They were both Chicagoans. Although my father graduated cum laude with honors from Harvard, he felt he was low man on the totem pole in the family business. So he moved to California at the age of 26 and helped develop the motel business. That was the beginning of Hyatt.”
“My sister Penny, my brother Tony and I were raised in California. And when I was 7 years old and Hyatt had become the fastest-growing hotel chain in America, father died of a heart attack at age 39. My mother was left with three young kids and for ten years struggled mightily with alcoholism.
My mother, who I want to make clear is a hero to me, eventually died from it. And while she was going through that struggle — and while my brother and sister were off at school, my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Jay insisted I move to Chicago from California and live with them while my mother was trying to overcome her addiction.
“Aunt Cindy was an important part of my upbringing because she kind of rescued me from the situation.”
Having a strong personal story about overcoming adversity can be a big plus for candidates, but especially a wealthy candidate because it can show he or she is a lot like everyone else.
“It’s important to be able to talk to people and listen,” Pritzker told News 8 after the rally, adding, “Mostly our elected officials don’t listen. And it’s what I do well, and it’s what I’ll take to Springfield when I’m governor.”
We’ve still got a governor’s race to get through. Having accomplished nothing, Bruce Rauner isn’t in as bad of a position as he’d be if any of his initiatives had worked, though inactivity is not a success strategy.
This vulnerability has drawn former Merchandise Mart head Chris Kennedy and, on Thursday, J.B. Pritzker, into contention. “A race with three billionaires,” a city editor quipped ruefully, and I replied that Kennedy isn’t a billionaire. “He’s the poor man of the group.” (Nor is Rauner a billionaire — a common misconception —
except in his dreams). […]
Pritzker, well . . . how shall I say this? . . . presents an image that will not necessarily be embraced down in Wayne County. Donald Trump needed to sprinkle his strongest hallucinatory dust to convince people that turning his father’s millions into hundreds of millions makes him a business genius. Pritzker’s most savvy career move was being born, so he might have a tougher time of it.
But in seeking support from minimum-wage unionized workers, the Pritzker family’s control of Hyatt hotels could be an issue for J.B. Pritzker.
Hyatt housekeepers waged a four-year battle for a union contract. In one infamous incident, hotel managers even turned heat lamps on picketing workers during a heat wave.
Pritzker distanced himself from that history.
“I have never worked in the hotel business. I have always had my own company. It’s what I built from scratch,” he tells CBS 2 Political Reporter Derrick Blakley.
A day after J.B. Pritzker officially entered the race for governor, a Republican group allied with GOP incumbent Bruce Rauner let the Democrat have it over labor troubles at the Pritzker family’s Hyatt hotel chain.
In a statement with the modest headline “Billionaire Democrat J.B. Pritzker launches Illinois gov campaign on shameless hypocrisy,” the Republican Governors Association said that while the candidate favors a $15 minimum wage, Hyatt fought efforts by Unite Here union to organize and secure raises for Hyatt workers.
The group points to stories such as one on WBEZ a few years ago about how the firm turned winter heat lamps on in the middle of the summer to sweat out striking workers, so the issue is fair game.
But the group neglects to mention that the same WBEZ story reports on how a labor deal eventually was reached, and that Pritzker has had no role in Hyatt management. And it doesn’t at all touch on Rauner’s extremely hostile relations with labor over reduced union rights, collective bargaining, workers’ compensation and other matters.
*** UPDATE *** * From Jared Leopold, the communications director for the Democratic Governors Association…
“The DGA has never polled the Illinois Democratic primary or tested any of the candidates. The Chicago Sun-Times story is 100% false and the DGA has requested a correction.”
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* I don’t know yet if we’re going to make this a regular Monday thing or not, but since I already did a Kennedy weekend roundup, here’s an e-mail from the Ameya Pawar campaign with hyperlinks and some excerpts (I’ve added to what they sent me) for your convenience…
Rich -
Busy weekend for Ald. Pawar on the trail. Wanted to send a quick recap your way.
-Sam
* Laura Washington’s Sun-Times column on Ald. Pawar came out. Gubernatorial candidate targets ‘wealth worship’: “Wealth is fine,” he told me over a recent lunch downtown. “I just don’t believe we should worship it,” he added. “Being wealthy and being successful and being able to run government are not synonymous.” … “We have conflated racist rhetoric and bigotry and bombast and wealth, with authenticity,” he said. “That’s why we ended up with Bruce Rauner and Donald Trump.” … “What we should think about is, the last time we had authentic politicians, was with FDR.”
* New poll from DGA (via Sneed) has Ald. Pawar tied with Mr. Pritzker. Say what you will but as of March 6-9 he’s tied with one of the two “juggernauts” for second: Sneed is told a poll conducted in early March by the Democratic Governors Association — which has no horse in the Illinois gubernatorial race except its desire to beat Gov. Bruce Rauner — showed Kennedy with 40 percent of the vote. Pritzker won just 10 percent. But he only officially entered the race on Thursday — a month after the poll was conducted. Pollsters surveyed 600 likely voters through live telephone calls from March 6-9. Kennedy had already been in the race for nearly a month at that point. Pritzker was tied with Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), who also got 10 percent. Madison County schools superintendent Bob Daiber had 5 percent. Not included in the survey was state Sen. Daniel Biss, who launched his campaign later in March. … After this item was published, the Democratic Governors Association contacted Sneed to say it had not conducted a poll, but Sneed stands by what she was told.
* 300 people attended the campaigns first volunteer training on Chicago’s Northwest side (in the 39th Ward. Photo of crowd here). We also had a few dozen volunteers stream in via computer from around the state. 85% of the attendees have never volunteered for a campaign before.
* Meet and greets in Lombard, Evanston, Edwardsville and East. St. Louis. Over 50 people at each stop. First announced candidate in East St. Louis. Invited to come back by the community for a big town-hall in May.
I’d been hoping that Kennedy would drop out before I felt obligated to say anything about him. But he seems to really be running, still, so this is as good a moment as any to explain that, when dealing with Kennedy, I am compromised. I won’t use the word “friend” — I wouldn’t ask him to help me move, or loan me $20 — but we’ve been friendly acquaintances for a decade. Both my boys volunteered a summer working for his Top Box Foods. My family has had dinner at his house, and gone sailing at Hyannis Port. So keep that in mind should the subject arise.
However, I do pride myself on a well-exercised professional ingratitude. When I wrote a book about my father, my dad didn’t talk to me for six months.
In my view either Kennedy or Pritzker will lose to Rauner. Kennedy because he can be awkward as heck and the romance of the Kennedy name (his father was Robert F. Kennedy) is cool ash at this point. Look what being a Clinton did for Hillary. My sincere personal advice, while he was contemplating the run, was that he absolutely shouldn’t. “Everything you consider an asset is really a liability,” I said.
Comparing a potential Pritzker takeover of the state’s Democratic leadership to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s tight-fisted control over Illinois Republicans, Kennedy told me Friday that Democrats should “make sure that no matter what, we don’t end up with a Democratic Party that’s silenced and intimidated and bullied.”
“Do I think that J.B. Pritzker is going to act like a tyrant like Bruce Rauner has? I don’t know that. But why take the risk?” Kennedy said. “He doesn’t need your money. He doesn’t need your advice. He doesn’t need your help. He doesn’t need to listen.”
It’s definitely a little rich (using the other meaning of the word) — and arguably hypocritical — for Kennedy to be the one throwing the money stone. […]
I asked Kennedy how much money he does have. Thus ensued an awkward silence.
The “tyrant” question is legit and, as I told subscribers last week, it’s something that Democratic legislators are also talking about.
“Chris Kennedy runs, hides and dodges from reporters, even going awkwardly silent when pressed,” said Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Steven Yaffe. “If Kennedy melts down by talking to reporters, he’ll never be able to stand up to Mike Madigan.”
* Related…
* Tom Kacich: Chris Kennedy, the former University of Illinois board chairman and current Democratic candidate for governor, last week reported another $403,960 in campaign contributions. Of that sum, $99,400 came from donors with New York state addresses, $21,600 came from Connecticut addresses and $10,000 came from California addresses. Precisely zero dollars came to Kennedy from addresses in downstate Illinois.
* New wave of Kennedys cresting across the country: “They’re thunderstruck by what’s happened to them,” said Chris Kennedy, standing in the living room, addressing about 40 people. “They feel like the promise of this country, the notion that any of them can make it, can arrive here like the Kennedys did and rise from rags to riches, that that promise, which they refer to as the American dream, that that promise has not been kept. And they’re raging mad.”
I’ve heard a lot of talk from both Statehouse parties that neither side will ever agree to a “bad deal” to end the long government stalemate. An official in Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration told me recently, “No deal is better than a bad deal.” And that sentiment is not confined to one party.
But everybody really needs to rethink what a “bad deal” is. State government is nearing collapse. Universities are on the brink of failure, our social services network is falling apart and our stack of unpaid bills has become Mount Everest.
The governor won’t make a deal unless he also gets some concessions like term limits, a property tax freeze and workers’ compensation insurance reform. He also wants steep budget cuts but hasn’t yet said what those should be.
Democrats say a property tax freeze would hurt local schools, they’re wary of taking away benefits from injured workers and after two years of budgetary carnage, they’re not thrilled with steep cuts.
So, both sides believe the other wants them to make a bad deal.
Again: Maybe they need to redefine what a bad deal is. To illustrate why they should just sit down and work it out, I offer a personal story.
I suppose it’s too much to expect that we get an honest debate about the need for more state revenues in the already active gubernatorial race. Candidates will be candidates and voters will be voters, after all.
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign blasted out an e-mail last week telling supporters that newly announced billionaire Democratic candidate JB Pritzker wants to raise the state income tax to over 5 percent, which, the campaign claimed, would be “Higher than it was under Pat Quinn!”
Nevermind that Rauner himself privately supports raising state taxes to historically high levels. He’s OK with a 4.99 percent income tax rate and a 7 percent corporate tax rate. But he also backs a new tax on sugary beverages and a new sales tax on several services. If all that was implemented, the state government would be taxing residents billions of dollars more than it ever has before.
So, apparently, you can only be for the massive tax hikes that Rauner wants. Otherwise, you’ll be portrayed as being in House Speaker Michael Madigan’s hip pocket.
The Illinois Republican Party obtained audio of Pritzker speaking at a private Democratic event. In one snippet, Pritzker is heard saying: “Let’s remind everybody, the tax used to be 5 percent, and [Rauner] let it lapse down to three and three quarters percent. And that’s what started a lot of the problems that we’ve got in the state. So, if you just put it back that’s $5 billion dollars. That doesn’t get you everything you need, but it’s a good way toward, you know, toward getting real revenue in the state.”
The comment was eerily similar to one made by Speaker Madigan in late 2015. “A good place to begin,” Madigan said back then, “would be the level we were at before the income tax expired. Starting there, you can go in whatever direction you want to go.” Rauner immediately pounced on that comment to claim that Madigan wanted to raise the income tax above 5 percent, even though he never actually said that.
Pritzker’s private comments along with a claim that he’s in league with Madigan’s “plan” were sent to reporters hours before Pritzker’s official campaign kickoff.
“I think that we ought to start with the millionaires and billionaires and make sure that they’re paying taxes first,” Pritzker responded when asked, in apparent reference to a graduated income tax or a surcharge on the wealthy, “We’re not going to talk about raising taxes on middle class families until we take care of that problem,” the Sun-Times reported.
But taxation like that would require a constitutional amendment because the state’s Constitution mandates a flat income tax. And that means it would require a three-fifths majority in both legislative chambers, and the Republicans (along with some Democrats) have historically resisted a graduated tax. So, forget it.
After Pritzker’s press conference, the Republicans released yet another audio snippet of Pritzker admitting the hard truth about a graduated tax: “So let’s just talk about this flat income tax, because we’re not going to be able to turn it into a millionaire’s tax, a fair tax – it’s gonna take us three years.”
Get news headlines sent daily to your inbox
The Republicans used that second snippet to claim that Pritzker wasn’t telling the truth to reporters earlier in the day. And their point has merit.
Rauner insists his plan is better because tax hikes are coupled with his reforms. But even his full package of reforms from back in 2015 would’ve only slightly moved the economic and budgetary needles, according to his very own analysis that he sent to legislators that year. His reform demands have since been significantly scaled back. And while some of his reforms are undoubtedly needed (particularly workers’ comp costs), much of the rest is little more than political window dressing (term limits) and have next to nothing to do with spurring growth.
We are in this hole because our leaders refused to be honest, starting with the 2011 “temporary” tax hike, right through the 2014 campaign, then allowing the tax hike to partially expire and then fighting over who would blink first on raising taxes and accepting “reforms.”
And the public prefers the lies. Polls show Illinoisans are convinced somebody else should solve the problem, either millionaires via taxation (which wouldn’t raise enough cash) or the faceless bureaucracy via cuts (except for just about every state program under the sun).
Again, I suppose it’s too much to ask that candidates and the governor are honest about this stuff. But that means this contest could not only turn out to be the most expensive in Illinois history, it could also be the most dishonest.
The Rauner Administration filed a brief in the Fifth Judicial District Appellate Court this afternoon addressing the duplicity of the Attorney General’s appeal in the state employee pay lawsuit. For over a year, AG Madigan benefitted from the very court order she is now attacking by paying her own staff over $23 million dollars in FY 2017 alone, bringing into question her motives.
In addition, the Rauner Administration’s brief highlights that the Attorney General does not know the consequences of what will happen if her attempt to stop state employee pay is successful, and is asking the court system to move forward in pulling the rug out from under tens of thousands of state employees. The Rauner Administration strongly opposes the Attorney General’s reckless attempts to precipitate a crisis.
General Counsel Dennis Murashko released the following statement about this filing:
“In the last year, Attorney General Madigan’s employees have been paid more than $23 million using the same court order she now is attacking. If the Attorney General were truly concerned about the General Assembly passing a balanced budget, she would not be using state employees as political pawns in her attempts to create a crisis and force a government shutdown.”
I don’t get it. She obeyed a court order to pay state employees and that’s somehow… what?
…Adding… If you take a look at the filing, you’ll notice a lot of stuff like this…
Her entire argument in this Court hinges on a Supreme Court decision she chose to ignore from March of last year until late January 2017, even though her office…
Um, the attorney general represents the people of Illinois. So, it’s the people’s filing, not “her” filing. There are, by my count 26 mentions of the word “she” and 57 mentions of the word “her.”
…Adding More… So, I just talked to someone in the administration who tried to answer my questions. The reasoning is this: The existing court order forces the comptroller to pay any employee salary vouchers that come to her office. It doesn’t force people like AG Madigan to actually submit the vouchers.
The attorney general’s office on Friday said the brief is a show of “snark” with “literally no law” behind it. The issue of whether or not to pay the office’s 750 employees has never been raised and there is no law in place to say Madigan shouldn’t pay her employees – many of whom are representing Rauner’s administration in cases, officials said.
“We have a legal and ethical obligation to follow the court’s order otherwise we would be in contempt of the court,” attorney general’s office spokeswoman Maura Possley said in a statement.
Gov. Bruce Rauner has been in office for about two years, but he suggested Thursday that the time has felt much longer given the protracted battle with Democrats that has left Illinois without a budget.
“I have been a politician for two years now, but it’s really dog years. It’s really 14 years,” Rauner told a community group in Decatur on Thursday. “This is a really hard thing.”
* The Question: How long does it feel to you? Explain.
MPC recently took a deep dive into the wonky world of administrative districts that oversee individual schools, and their findings—based on 2014 data, the most recent available—confirms our worst fears about the insidious impact of bureaucratic bloat:
* Illinois’ 850 school districts—only two states have more—collectively spend more than $1 billion a year, most in the country by far.
* That’s $518 per student—two-and-a-half times the national average of $210.
* By comparison, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin spend less than $400 per pupil, California and Florida less than $100. […]
The Illinois School Funding Reform Commission recently estimated the state would have to spend $3.5 billion over the next decade to achieve fair per-pupil funding for schools in every district.
Incredibly, Illinois could easily meet the commission’s goal without scrounging for another penny if district administrative spending was even close to the national average because that would free up at least $400 million a year for classrooms instead of offices. […]
* 220 of the state’s 850 districts, or 26 percent, have just one school, and those districts cost 67 percent more to operate than multiple-school districts.
* Also, districts comprised of only elementary or high schools spend about a third more on administration than unit districts that include both.
* The state’s largest unit district, Chicago, is barely afloat but full of bloat, according to the MPC study, spending $350 per student on general administration in 2014.
Illinois representatives approved a bill Thursday to prevent further privatization of health care jobs in state prisons.
The House voted 68-42 for the bill that was previously OK’d by the Senate. It will now be sent to Gov. Bruce Rauner.
The legislation was sparked by a decision last month by the Department of Corrections to privatize the jobs of 124 union nurses working in state prisons. They are due to be laid off June 15. Corrections said the move will save the state $8 million a year. […]
This isn’t the first time the General Assembly has gotten involved in the prison nurse issue. The Legislature passed a similar bill last year that was vetoed by Rauner. The bill died when the House failed to override the veto.
The Senate immediately sent the bill to the governor yesterday. He has 60 days to act, which would be before the June 15th layoff date.
It’s possible that a compromise could be found. One of the GOP complaints during debate was that minimum nurse staffing levels were set without regard to prison population. If that population declines, the prisons might have too many nurses. So, something may happen after the break. But the governor could then simply sit on that bill for 60 days, which would be after the layoff deadline, meaning his office will have to be part of any discussions.
* I missed this Ameya Pawar video when it was released earlier this month, but have a look…
* Script…
I live for family. For my daughter, my wife.
My father grew up in India with no running water, doing homework by candlelight.
I grew up in Illinois.
We’re not wealthy or famous. My student loans and child care cost more than my mortgage.
But our family helps each other. We’re for each other.
Illinois is like a family when we’re at our best.
Some politicians try to divide us by where we live, where we’re from, and what we look like.
They leave us fighting for our fair share.
But we’re in this together.
When jobs leave a small town, that hurts Chicago.
When city schools are denied the funding to create tomorrow’s workforce, that hurts the suburbs.
When roads and bridges are crumbling, that hurts all of us.
We can’t disconnect, and we don’t want to.
We’re one state. One family. And we deserve a New Deal
My name is Ameya Pawar. I’m running for governor.
Maybe a little long for online, but still pretty good.
* Meanwhile, from the caption to a 2011 Youtube video…
Published on Jun 30, 2011
June 30 (Bloomberg) — Bruce Rauner, chairman and principal at GTCR Golder Rauner LLC, and J.B. Pritzker, founder of New World Ventures, talk about the outlook for venture capital investments and initial public offerings by Internet companies. They speak with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop.”
As the House debate dragged into a second hour, some of the statements got pointed. Rep. Christian Mitchell, D-Chicago, referred to Gov. Bruce Rauner as the “sugar daddy” of the Republican Party who is demanding lawmakers approve his campaign promises in exchange for a budget. Rep. Scott Drury, D-Highland, said none of the Republicans “has had the spine to stand up to your leader.”
Rep. Peter Breen, R-Lombard, countered that “Republicans want to turn Illinois around. Democrats want to burn Illinois down.”
As we’ve already discussed, Republicans have in the past voted for stopgap funding bills.
* With that in mind Rep. Drury’s comments are worth expanding on here. Drury was one of the lone voices against the stopgap budget bill last year. And so the only Democrat not to vote for Speaker Madigan’s reelection rose to hammer the Republicans for being too afraid to stand up to Gov. Bruce Rauner…
I try to be the one in the chamber that calls it like it is. And I have to say, listening to the debate from the Republican side today is just grotesque. It is just absolutely grotesque.
And let me tell you why. First of all, there is no Republican plan… So to say the Democrats have a plan to burn it down and you have a path to prosperity? Well, last year, there was one person in this chamber who was talking about pressure cookers and letting things boil over and I’ll tell you what, it wasn’t on that side of the aisle. It was me. And the votes were 115-1, 116-1. But your leader, who none of you are willing to stand up to, said, “Today, you should vote this way.” And now your leader has changed his position and he says “Hey, that pressure cooker thing sounds good, let’s try it.”
So, it’s wonderful that you want to come here and pretend that you have some plan, and pretend that you have a backbone. But there is no one on that side of the aisle, no one on that side of the aisle in the last two years who has shown the spine to stand up to your leader. Allright?
There is one person on this side who has. And I can commiserate with you, I can tell you what it’s like, if you want to know what’s going to happen. But in a lot of ways it’s like the shackles being off.
So I encourage at least one of you, instead of talking about all the nonsense that you’re talking about, to grow a spine, do what you think is the right thing. But to stop sitting here and pretend that you have some sort of plan and that the Democrats don’t. Do you what you think is right. Just do you what you think is right. And maybe it’ll come back and shine on you. But as long as you have these lame excuses, I just don’t know how you sleep at night. I really don’t.
That transcription was sent to me by somebody who was greatly impressed with Drury’s speech. And Rep. Drury did make some good points.
State legislators in Springfield are moving to address gun violence in Chicago. The Illinois Senate [yesterday] passed stricter gun laws long sought by the Chicago Police. The legislation is meant to get judges to impose longer sentences on repeat gun offenders.
An earlier version of the plan to raise minimum sentences for some repeat gun crime felons stalled last month despite the high-profile backing of Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson. It’s almost always difficult to pass gun legislation in Springfield, where widely varying regional attitudes toward firearms complicate the politics. The broad nature of this proposal also drew complaints from different directions, which maintained it was too soft on drug criminals or too hard on minorities.
Over the last several weeks, Democratic Sen. Kwame Raoul of Chicago worked to ease some of those concerns among opponents, including Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office. Key to that effort was stripping provisions that would have softened penalties on certain drug crimes. Police contended drug sales fuel gun crimes, and Republicans said decreasing prison time for convicted dealers would send the wrong message as a heroin epidemic grips the suburbs.
“The governor is pleased to have reached an agreement on this important legislation,” Rauner spokesman Lance Trover said. […]
The legislation would increase the sentencing guidelines for judges deciding punishment for some repeat gun felons. Instead of a range of three to 14 years, judges would hand out sentences in the range of seven to 14 years. If they wanted to depart from that guideline, they would have to explain why.
The provisions that were taken out of the bill include those that would have lowered sentencing for those charged with more serious drug offenses. The initial language would have lowered the minimums depending on the charge. Provisions that would have lowered the offense classifications for drug offenses were also removed, the governor’s office and one of the bill’s co-sponsors, Raoul, said.
“What we were trying to do was take more of a judicious approach on those cases, not to let drug dealers off the hook,” Raoul said, while noting the negotiations with the governor’s office were productive.
“In my conversations with the governor’s office, historically, they have been clear that they want to work progressively, incrementally, on the criminal justice reforms so they had to proceed cautiously to do so,” Raoul said. “My preference would be to attempt to take a more aggressive bite out of the prison population. … I understand and appreciate that we’re doing this work on criminal justice reform. It’s not easy politically.”
An example of the change included a sentencing guideline that would have provided a range of six to 30 years for someone charged with manufacturing and delivering heroin amounts from 15-100 grams. It would have kept the same guidelines for those charged with between 15 and 400 grams of heroin — allowing for more drugs under the same sentencing guideline range.
The state’s attorneys deserve a lot of credit here. They didn’t argue for removing the penalty reductions, the governor did. In the past, they were always a stubborn obstacle to criminal justice reforms, but they’ve worked hard for the past couple of years to find ways to compromise.
As Illinois nursing home owners come under heightened scrutiny for improper patient discharges and inadequate staffing care, nursing home workers will picket at 10 nursing homes in the Chicago area on Friday, including Alden Wentworth on the South Side and Legacy Chalet on the North to stand up for fair wages, quality jobs, and patient care.
Over 10,000 nursing home workers at 103 facilities have, as members of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, been fighting to negotiate a new contract for over a year to improve the quality of nursing home jobs and address concerns over low wages and patient care. Yet, despite receiving about $1 billion in revenue each year and an increasing number of residents, for-profit nursing home owners have refused to significantly raise staffing levels and have actively worked to keep wages low.
The owners want the right to pay workers less than the minimum wage – despite the demanding nature of their work, the level of skill and training required and the crucial role workers play in safeguarding the well-being of seniors and people with disabilities in their care.
* From the JB Pritzker campaign…
TODAY at 3:30 PM: JB Pritzker to Join SEIU Healthcare Illinois Picket
* From yesterday’s statement reacting to Pritzker’s campaign announcement by United Working Families, of which SEIU Healthcare Illinois is by far the largest member…
BREAKING: Battle of the Billionaires […]
A real estate mogul in the White House. An investment banker in Chicago’s City Hall. And now the billionaires are battling it out for the Illinois Governor’s mansion, while more and more working people are left behind.
It’s time to build something different: politics for the people, not the plutocrats.
* So, I asked SEIU Healthcare what the heck was going on. I mean, your coalition calls the guy a “plutocrat” on Thursday and you picket with him on Friday? The union’s response…
Today, we’re focused on nursing home workers and their fight for living wages and safe staffing for their residents—not on an election that is a year away. At least four candidates who have declared for governor are supporting these workers, along with many others—and we appreciate that support.
UWF is an independent political organization made up of individuals and organizations—HCII is one of those organizations. None that we are aware of have made any endorsements—but most are here in the picket line supporting nursing home workers fighting for living wages and safe staffing.
* According to the union, Ameya Pawar, Chris Kennedy and Kurt Summers are also joining the workers on the picket line today and Daniel Biss has expressed his support but is out of town.
Having just about all the candidates for governor joining together on a work action is a pretty major event.
* I’m still not convinced that there’s a real fire here, but the story completely plays right into the public’s notions about how state government has always worked. WCIA TV’s Mark Maxwell continues to pursue the story about the old Barney’s Furniture store lease…
Business owner and Republican Procurement Board Chairman Frank Vala knew when he allowed a $2.4 million lease agreement to be approved that it would benefit the daughter and son-in-law of his longtime friend [and neighbor] Bill Cellini.
“I’ve known Mr. Cellini all of my life,” Vala said. […]
State documents filed in February 2017 list Claudia as the sole President of New Frontier Developments, even though she has lived in Dubai for several years. It remains unclear whether she plays an active role in directing the business. William Jr. is no longer listed as an executive.
WCIA has learned Claudia Cellini’s husband, Raffi Vartanian, is separately listed as a one-third owner of Climate Controlled Holdings, LLC. The company just opened for business in February of 2016. In 14 months, the infant corporation has managed to purchase a 62,000 square foot warehouse and immediately lease it to the state of Illinois at a remarkable premium. State documents reveal the privately held company began with a mere $15,000 cash on hand.
Climate Controlled Holdings bought the old Barney’s Furniture Warehouse for $575,000 on January 3rd, 2017. State documents were already being prepared to obtain a government lease five months prior — in September of 2016 — before the warehouse sale was even completed. Less than one month later, the state of Illinois had entered into a binding agreement to pay a minimum of $2.42 million to the upstart company in exchange for a 5-year lease of the facility. […]
Asked how long he’s known Claudia Cellini, Vala answered, “Since she was a little kid.” Vala confirmed he also knows about Cellini’s husband, Raffi, and says he’s even met him in person.
There was no formal vote to approve or disapprove, but the procurement board could’ve voted if it wanted to. According to the story, the board has never stopped a request during Rauner’s term.
* To be super clear here, none of this is illegal on its face. Bill Cellini did his time and he’s no longer involved with the company and there’s zero hard evidence that his kid or his son-in-law did anything at all improper here. The lease was put out for bids and the state chose the lower bid. Yeah, the lease price is high, but lease prices are rising for the state because it isn’t paying its bills. It couldn’t buy the property because it has no appropriation authority to do so. Everything can be logically and reasonably explained.
But, man, this story has almost everything to make it appear to be a perfect “Illinois way” saga.
Thumbs down to 646 days without a state budget. Each week, it gets increasingly difficult to grasp the fact that our legislators and governor are allowing our state to disintegrate financially. We are seeing our education system fall apart — as evidenced by Southern Illinois University being forced to trim $30 million from its budget and school districts suing the state for aid payments. Yet, there doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency emanating from Springfield. Remember the days when legislators would lock themselves in chambers until they hammered out an agreement?
No, I don’t remember those days because they never happened because doing so would be a felony.
The Illinois House wants to tap incoming but unallocated revenue to relieve struggling universities and human services.
The House voted 64-45 Thursday to authorize spending $817 million that is sitting in special funds during a two-yearlong budget holdup.
The stopgap funding deal approved by the House includes about $26 million for the Southern Illinois University System, plus additional Monetary Award Program, or MAP, grant funds that would benefit the campuses. That amount represents about 13 percent of the state appropriations SIU received in fiscal year 2015, the last year a full year’s budget was approved by lawmakers in Springfield.
“It is very encouraging,” John Charles, SIU’s director of government and public affairs, said after the vote. “We’re appreciative for everything that we get.”
Rep. David Harris, R-Arlington Heights, echoed the belief of many Republicans that passing another stopgap budget will take pressure off of lawmakers to pass a full, permanent state budget. He likened the lack of a budget to pressure building up in a tea kettle.
“(This) gives crumbs to those institutions and organizations that rely on us,” Harris said. “These stopgaps are relief valves. They are relief valves for the steam that is building up.”
More on that topic…
Rep. @Andersson4Rep By voting for this, the pressure is off us to get to a full budget. A full budget, not a stop gap budget is what we need
Yep. On the one hand, the Republicans want to take the pressure off the negotiations by paying state workers through infinity, but on the other hand they argue that some of the most vulnerable Illinoisans should be refused help in order to spur a budget deal.
Money for the lifeline budget comes from two special state funds intended to help education and human services. The two funds get a small part of income tax receipts as they are received by the state and are constantly replenished. The funds will have more than $800 million in them by the end of the fiscal year in June that cannot be spent unless the General Assembly authorizes it.
The money is just sitting there gathering dust while universities crumble and the social service network frays. If the Senate was making real progress on a grand bargain, I could understand holding off. But it obviously isn’t.
Though Republicans have previously supported some stopgap spending plans, they said the difference this time is that they were not involved in negotiations. They questioned some of the spending, saying money was being set aside for things that were not urgent, including a program designed to produce teachers to work in distressed schools.
The House Republicans weren’t involved in negotiations by choice. Their leader was invited to participate and he didn’t respond.
Rep. Steven Andersson, R-Geneva, said the bill also provides money to some programs that are no longer in existence, as well as a teacher-training program that Republicans contend has little to show for the money invested in it. Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, said the plan includes $10 million for those programs.
No doubt that part of this vote yesterday was about politics. House members can go home today saying they voted to help people. The Senate won’t return for two weeks, however. And the governor is indicating he’ll veto the bill…
Rauner has said he would not support another stopgap plan unless it included a permanent property tax freeze, a key portion of his political agenda.
Democrats have opposed such a freeze, saying it would starve local school districts that rely on those dollars. But they did approve a measure Thursday to expand some property-tax exemption programs, a move that could provide them some political cover to fight back against GOP claims they aren’t trying to give homeowners some relief.
That’s the political “tell” right there.
Besides that, all these property tax exemptions do is transfer the burden to other taxpayers. The money has to be paid one way or another, but Illinois politicians just love to narrow the taxing base whenever and wherever they can. It’s a big reason we’re in this mess today. Retirement income, food and medicine, services etc., etc., etc. are all exempted from taxation and that means others have to pick up the slack.
Gov. Bruce Rauner opposes turning over the money, saying he prefers passing a full budget, tied to non-budget measures he favors. Rauner said the House bill would keep public universities and social services “on the verge of collapse.”
But ask anyone teetering on the verge of a cliff: It’s better to be there than going over altogether.
Even if the Senate finally agrees on a grand bargain that includes new revenue, it is less and less likely the bargain will cover what remains of the 2017 fiscal year, which ends June 30. In earlier discussions, any income tax increase was to have been retroactive to Jan. 1, which would have provided some revenue for the current fiscal year. But doing that in April — or later — would require withholding a bite out of workers’ paychecks that’s just too big.
Without a budget in place, pain stretches across the state. Seniors with disabilities are losing services. Cutbacks on mental health services, substance abuse treatment and after-school programs will drive violence higher. Once-proud university campuses are reeling.
The state has the money to help. The Legislature and governor should speed it along.
* If this guy committed wrongdoing in New Orleans, then it’s a real problem. But no such allegation is made in the story, so I’m not sure what the dealio is because plenty of other people were fine with bringing Synesi here…
When former Chicago Public Schools chief Paul Vallas was recruited to revive the schools in hurricane-battered New Orleans, he asked for help from back home, newly obtained records show.
In a series of letters to Louisiana officials who oversaw the New Orleans district, Vallas vouched for Synesi Associates, an education consulting firm that recently had been started in Chicago by a former high school teacher named Gary Solomon.
“This out-of-state provider has a record of demonstrated effectiveness,” Vallas wrote in 2007, citing the “unique experience” of the firm’s staff.
Synesi landed two no-bid contracts worth nearly $893,000 in New Orleans during Vallas’ time running the Recovery School District from 2007 to 2011, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.
Now, nearly a decade later, Vallas appears set to be named to a top leadership post at financially troubled Chicago State University.
And Solomon is scheduled to report to federal prison July 11 to begin an 84-month sentence. Solomon was convicted of bribing Barbara Byrd-Bennett, one of Vallas’ successors heading CPS, who arranged for Synesi and another of his companies to land $23 million in business with the Chicago school system.
Former Chicago Public Schools chief Paul Vallas has resigned from the Chicago State University board of trustees to apply for a top leadership position in the university’s administration, the Tribune has learned.
Vallas’ resignation comes ahead of an emergency board meeting Friday where university trustees are expected to fill two top administrative posts with the hope that sweeping change will help turn around the troubled school. The board has said it plans to name a new interim president and interim chief administrative officer, a newly created position.
Chicago State University Friday named Paul Vallas as temporary chief administrative officer and voted for its longtime dean of the Arts and Sciences as interim president.
Except for Nikki Zollar, the board vice chair and head of the presidential search committee,, the entire board voted for Rachel Lindsey as interim president.
Zollar also abstained from the Vallas’ vote.
Vallas was Gov. Bruce Rauner’s top pick to run the financially troubled Chicago State University.
“I’m excited to be back here in Monroe County. This is strong Republican territory here,” he cheered, motioning to a crowd of more than 22o supporters. Rauner had attended the county’s Republican Lincoln Day Dinner in 2013 as a prospective gubernatorial candidate and returned in 2014 for a short visit while on the campaign trail.
During his speech, the governor went on to thank the county for their support and for fighting for the party’s values. He briefly mentioned the state budget, but only as a means to transition into his agenda.
“Some people think the problem is about the budget,” he uttered in a sincere tone. “It’s partly about the budget, but it’s really about our future prosperity.”
To Rauner, that future prosperity includes bringing power back to the Republicans in Springfield — he confidently foretold at the dinner that eight more Illinois Republicans would unseat Democratic representatives in the 2018 elections. He also continued his call for pension reform, job growth, term SAT limits and non-partisan redistricting, among other topics. [Emphasis added.]
Rauner’s standard stump speech always includes that line these days about picking up eight Democratic House seats. He says it everywhere he goes.
“I am all in to make sure we pick up eight seats next November,” Rauner said [at the Piatt County GOP’s Lincoln Day Dinner]. “And when we do, Republicans control the House of Representatives. … We can turn this state around dramatically if the House flipped to Republican control. … We’ve got a really good shot.”
It would actually take a nine-seat pickup for Republicans to take over the Illinois House
The Democrats have 67 House seats. So if the Republicans pick off 8 seats there’d be a 59-59 tie.
Personally, I’ve been praying for a 59-59 tie since the 1990s. Man, what great theater that would be.
* Ameya Pawar’s official response to JB Pritzker’s announcement sent to reporters…
“J.B. Pritzker is an accomplished investor and philanthropist and I welcome him to the race for governor. People are hungry for a governor who understands working families and my legislative record shows my commitment to protecting the middle class. I look forward to a healthy debate about the issues.”
* But this is what he sent to supporters…
Friend –
Moments ago, another billionaire entered the race for Governor. In a field of millionaires and billionaires, Ameya stands out as a voice for all of us – a leader with a strong track record as Alderman of delivering results for working families.
Big money politics shouldn’t limit what we can achieve as a state. When supporters like you speak up and chip in, we can fight back. Please show your support right now by donating $5, $10, $15 or whatever you can.
Ameya may not have a Springfield-backed Super PAC or a billion dollars, but what we’re building is far more powerful – thousands of grassroots supporters like you who are ready for real change.
The groundswell of support we see in town after town shows that voters are hungry for real change in Springfield. They’re looking for a progressive champion. A leader who isn’t afraid of taking on tough issues.
Now we need to keep this going to compete with our opponents’ big bank accounts and their special interest money. Can you chip in $5 or more to fuel our momentum?
Together, we’re sending a signal that people across Illinois are tired of the Trump/Rauner agenda, and ready to bring real change to Springfield.
I’ll post other reactions as they come in.
*** UPDATE *** United Working Families is a coalition that includes the Chicago Teachers Union, Cook County College Teachers Union and SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana. It sent out an e-mail today entitled “BREAKING: Battle of the Billionaires”…
It’s official: Billionaire investor J.B. Pritzker is entering the race for Illinois Governor.
If he wins the Democratic primary, he’ll square off against billionaire investor Bruce Rauner, who recently put $50 million of his own fortune into his re-election campaign.
Tired of being priced out of politics? Donate $5 or more a month to become a United Working Families member today.
A real estate mogul in the White House. An investment banker in Chicago’s City Hall. And now the billionaires are battling it out for the Illinois Governor’s mansion, while more and more working people are left behind.
It’s time to build something different: politics for the people, not the plutocrats. Become a member of United Working Families today.
Illinois is my home. This is where I’ve raised my family, where I started businesses and where I’ve created programs to improve the lives of people across the state.
What’s happening now in Springfield is offensive to our values and who we are as a state. Bruce Rauner’s failure as Governor isn’t just about numbers, it’s creating real damage every day to people across Illinois.
Now, let me address a question I imagine may be on your mind:
With Bruce Rauner as Governor and Donald Trump as President, why do we need another rich guy running for office?
My answer is that it’s a matter of values, and that Trump and Rauner are trying to destroy many of the things I’ve spent my life fighting for.
About a century ago, my great-grandfather Nicholas arrived in Chicago penniless. He worked hard — but he had help. A social service agency helped him find a place to live. A good public school helped him learn English. A state university allowed him to get a higher education degree.
You can’t pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you don’t have any, and this state gave my great grandfather his bootstraps.
It’s what everyone in Illinois deserves, it’s what I’ve been fighting for my whole life, and it’s what I’ll be fighting for every day as your next governor.
Pretty sure that argument alone is not gonna do the trick. Your own thoughts about what he should say?
* This from a state Republican Party whose governor says he would be fine with a 4.99 percent income tax rate and a new tax on services…
Before even announcing his campaign for governor, J.B. Pritzker followed Mike Madigan’s lead and proposed raising the income tax to over 5 percent without any reforms to fix Illinois.
At the City Club in 2015, Mike Madigan said that raising the income tax back to 5 percent with no reforms was “a good place to begin.”
Now, as J.B. Pritzker prepares to plunge into the Democratic primary, he’s made clear he supports Madigan’s tax hike plan.
Behind closed doors, Pritzker told Chicago machine insiders that he supports raising the income tax to over 5 percent.
At a meeting with Democratic activists just three weeks ago, Pritzker told party insiders the following:
“Let’s remind everybody, the tax used to be 5 percent, and he let it lapse down to three and three quarters percent. And that’s what started a lot of the problems that we’ve got in the state. So, if you just put it back that’s $5 billion dollars. That doesn’t get you everything you need, but it’s a good way toward, you know, toward getting real revenue in the state.”
“Like a true machine politician, J.B. Pritzker mirrored the Madigan tax hike plan behind closed doors, before even announcing his campaign. It’s clear that Pritzker’s loyalty belongs to Mike Madigan and his plan for Illinois is higher taxes with no real reform.” - Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Steven Yaffe
Also, the doors weren’t closed. The media was inside the event.
But, hey. Politics!
…Adding… I thought they were referring to the Democratic committeeman’s event, but Yaffe says the recording was made during “a meet and greet put on by a state legislator from Chicago.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** The ILGOP has a new press release and a digital ad…
“Political insider J.B. Pritzker is the financial muscle behind Mike Madigan’s political machine, funneling over a million dollars to help him in just the last year. And like Madigan, Pritzker wants to hike the income tax to over 5 percent without any fixes to repair Illinois. One can only imagine the devastation Mike Madigan could do with a lapdog billionaire at his side. Pritzker puts the insiders first and the taxpayers last.” - Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Kirsten Kukowski
To welcome Pritzker to the race, the Illinois Republican Party is launching digital ads highlighting the Madigan-Pritzker plan to pass a devastating income tax hike with no reform to fix our broken system.
Pritzker Caught on Tax Hike Lie
Tells media one thing, insiders another
At his campaign announcement, J.B. Pritzker responded to tapes revealing his plan to raise the income tax to at least 5%.
His response to the media? The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Pritzker, “tells reporters state should start with taxing millionaires and billionaires first, not middle class.”
Except, he told Madigan machine insiders the exact opposite – admitting that his tax plan could not realistically be implemented for at least three years.
Pritzker said behind closed doors, “so lets just talk about this flat income tax, because we’re not going to be able to turn it into a millionaire’s tax, a fair tax – it’s gonna take us three years.”
“Pritzker kicked off his campaign by trying to cover up his real tax plan: a massive tax hike on every Illinoisan with no real reforms,” said Illinois Republican Party spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski. “The tape doesn’t lie. If he’s elected, J.B. Pritzker wants to take income taxes over 5 percent as soon as he takes office with no changes to bring down costs or grow jobs.”
*** UPDATE 3 *** From the governor’s campaign…
We’ll be frank – no one on Team Rauner is surprised by the news today.
J.B. Pritzker announced his bid for Governor and now joins a list of Democrats who want to be governor so they can raise your taxes while enacting no changes to control spending, reform government or grow jobs.
In fact, Pritzker has already said he wants to take the income tax to over 5 percent. Higher than it was under Pat Quinn!
We know they will all try to tell a different story. So, we’ve set up a fund to directly combat the anticipated attacks from J.B. Pritzker, Chris Kennedy, and any other candidate as they try to detract from their own questionable plans.
Your contribution today will help us keep Illinois voters informed of the truth.
Here on Team Rauner, we’re working to bring back Illinois and put our state’s families first. And now matter how hard the political machine tries to stop us, we won’t give up.
The entire tone of these Fix Illinois commercials seems meant to create the impression that Rauner is a newcomer to Illinois’ problems instead of one of the major problem creators for the last couple of years.
He’s not some new guy with great, new solutions running for office. He is the hard-line governor of the state that won’t pass a budget.
So, these dress-up commercials seem more that a bit disingenuous.
Maybe the Democrats should counter the governor’s commercials with commercials of their own.
Let’s see, Rauner dressed up as Norm the carpenter from “This Old House” (minus the protuberant stomach possessed by all real carpenters).
Who could Madigan dress up as for his TV commercial?
* The Question: Who could Madigan dress up as for his own TV commercial? Explain.
Indiana gained 20,000 Illinoisans on net in 2015, the most recent year of data available. From 2006 to 2015, Illinois lost more than 119,000 people to Indiana on net. That’s equivalent to Indiana annexing the entire city of Peoria.
Illinois also suffered a net loss of more than 11,000 people to Wisconsin in 2015, and nearly 86,000 people over the preceding decade. That’s almost as if the entire city of Waukegan moved 15 miles up the shoreline.
There is some good news for Illinoisans: The state now has more payroll jobs than ever, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But it’s a question of where those jobs are being created that should concern political leaders. […]
Illinois has regained barely a sliver of the manufacturing jobs that evaporated during the Great Recession, and it’s lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs since the turn of the century. There are now far more jobs in sectors such as state and local government, leisure and hospitality, and business and professional services than in manufacturing. It didn’t used to be that way.
Indiana and Wisconsin, however, are seeing strong manufacturing comebacks. Both states have recovered a larger share of their manufacturing jobs than Illinois, and manufacturing workers see higher wages than their Illinois counterparts, when adjusting for cost of living.
A mostly empty warehouse at 2410 South Grand Avenue East in Springfield now holds neat rows of filing cabinets and pallets of paper records which belong to the Department of Human Services. The lease agreement binds Illinois to fulfill at least the first five years of the deal, which adds up to a minimum of $2.4 million.
Procurement Board Member Ed Bedore, an appointee of House Speaker Michael Madigan, tells WCIA the total cost could clear $11 million before the 10-year deal is over. Bedore estimated Illinois could have purchased the property for $700,000. It’s value is listed at $1.1 million.
The Procurement Policy Board is led by Chairman Frank Vala, a Republican appointee of Governor Bruce Rauner. Vala’s five-member panel had the chance to block the Rauner administration from overspending on an inflexible lease arrangement, but it never held a discussion about the terms of this lease. Rick Morales and former state representative Bill Black are the other two Republican appointees on the board. Larry Ivory was appointed by Senate President John Cullerton, a Democrat. […]
The Illinois Department of Central Management Services provided this statement in an email: “The lease was secured through the open, competitive bidding process and was fully reviewed by the Illinois Procurement Board.” WCIA is only aware of one other bid for this particular lease. Those familiar with the Procurement Policy Board’s discussions say the warehouse lease was never even discussed.
The DHS statement also claims the facility owners, Climate Controlled Holdings, LLC, made “additional enhancements” to the warehouse, upgrades the state could not afford to make without a full budget or a specific appropriation.
According to records kept by the Secretary of State’s office, Climate Controlled Holdings is registered to Mr. Thomas Storniolo at 20 North Clark Street in Chicago. The business appears to be a young entity. It was registered with the state in February of last year.
Storniolo’s LinkedIn page also shows him as the Controller of New Frontier Management.
WCIA reporter Mark Maxwell is new to town, so he apparently didn’t recognize the New Frontier Management name.
Old-timers will recognize it, however. That’s the company which used to be run by Bill Cellini and which leased a whole bunch of buildings to the state over the years.
* From a reader who knows how to do research…
Climate Controlled Holdings (CCH) has 3 members of the LLC and has a registered agent named Thomas Storniolo at 20 Clark Street, Suite 1600. One of the members of CCH is Andiamo Development LLC. The other two LLCs are registered in Springfield. Andiamo has the same registered agent and address. Andiamo is managed by 3GEN Management INC. 3GEN Management has the same registered agent and address and lists Jeffrey Richards, also of the same address as President of 3GEN Management.
On LinkedIn Thomas Storniolo identifies himself as the Controller/Secretary at New Frontier Management, Co. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-storniolo-3152a564/)…
New Frontier Management lists Thomas Storniolo as the registered agent and is also at 20 Clark Street, Suite 1600. The president is listed as Claudia Cellini. New Frontier Developments has the same registered agent and address and also has Claudia Cellini listed as the president.
In a 2011 article on Bill Cellini, Bernie Schoenburg writes “New Vista’s address is listed as 20 S. Clark St. in Chicago, an address shared by several other firms associated with the Cellini family.” (http://www.sj-r.com/x422405742/Cellini-business-interests-remain-extensive-documents-show) The focus of that article is partly on New Frontier Companies. New Frontier Company, on their website http://www.nfcompanies.com/, lists their address as 20 Clark Street, Suite 1600. The registered agent for New Frontier Company is Thomas Storniolo at 20 Clark Street, Suite 1600. The president for New Frontier Company is listed as William F. Cellini, Jr.
Additionally, you’ll see that the property was obtained January 3, 2017 for $575,000 (http://tax.co.sangamon.il.us/SangamonCountyWeb/app/saleSearchResults.action?pn=22-02.0-201-029&township=&saleClass=&saleYear=&fromDate=&toDate=&fromAcres=&toAcres=) Yet, it is listed on CMS lease inventory going back to October of 2016 for a lease starting February 1, 2017 (https://www.illinois.gov/cms/agency/property/leasing/Documents/October-2016-CMS-Lease-Inventory.pdf) In October, 2016 CMS is listing a lease starting Feb 1,2017 with CCH for a building they don’t even purchase until January 3, 2017.
The lease started before the property was even purchased by the new owners? That ought to raise some eyebrows. But it’s that Cellini family name which could gin this up even more. This may very well be all smoke and no serious fire, but it’s an easy thing to understand for Springfieldians who’ve seen these types of deals for decades.
CMS put out for bid three times the need for warehouse space before settling on the Springfield location. Only two landlords responded – apparently a sign of property managers’ reluctance to do business with the state of Illinois, which is more than $12.6 billion behind in paying vendors.
*** UPDATE *** From CMS Acting Director Mike Hoffman with all emphasis in the original…
Hi Rich –
First, this lease was handled in the exact same way as every other lease as required by law, which includes review and approval by the independent Chief Procurement Officer.
It was posted publicly on the Illinois procurement bulletin and reviewed by the Procurement Policy Board.
State and Federal law requires the safe keeping of these documents.
The Quinn administration was inappropriately keeping these documents in dilapidated facilities around the state including Dwight Correctional Facility. These facilities were not designed for storage of sensitive materials and some files were incurring damage from flooding, mildew and mold. In addition, DHS staff was unable to access many of these documents without having to travel and incur further costs.
Some of these storage areas also did not have the proper level of security to store these documents.
Under this administration, DHS made the decision to consolidate these documents in a more appropriate facility in Sangamon County – providing better access to the documents, greater security as well as a climate controlled space that would ensure the integrity of these documents as required by law.
Finally, the consolidation of these documents is an important first step in any future digitization effort. As far as the facilities that were used under the Quinn Administration, the storage of these documents at those sites precluded the sale or disposal of these locations of which the maintenance and upkeep costs taxpayers millions each year.
The initial requirement stated by DHS was 26,000 sq ft.
An RFP was put out twice with no responses.
By the time the third RFP was issued DHS’ space needs had already increased to 37,000 sq ft. and there were more sites scheduled to be consolidated which would increase their need even more.
As such, the option was exercised to take the full building of 60,000 sq ft.
It is important to note: that Climate Control Holdings was the only bidder who put forward two properties – CMS took the lesser of the two bids.
Rich, to your question about leasing before they owned:
The law allows CMS to enter into a lease as long as the party shows site control and/or option to buy – they had shown an option to buy.
The Democrat-controlled Illinois House is preparing another stopgap spending plan that would allocate more than $800 million to higher education and human services.
A House committee Wednesday afternoon approved the plan that taps into two special state funds intended to help education and human services. The vote split along party lines. The bill now goes to the full House.
The two funds get a small part of income tax receipts as they are received by the state and are constantly replenished.
“We have $800-some million dollars sitting in a bank account gathering dust, doing nothing, that could go out the door immediately to help our communities, to help seniors, to fund our higher education system,” said Rep. Greg Harris of Chicago, a top House Democrat budget negotiator.
The move came as Northeastern Illinois University announced it was canceling three days of classes in an effort to save on salary costs as it struggles to make ends meet without financial support from the state. School employees were already asked to take unpaid furlough days during the recent spring break.
Rauner, however, disputed the idea that the Democrats’ plan would help. He posted a video on his Facebook page and said stopgap budgets do little to address long-term issues but “keep universities, community colleges and social service agencies on the verge of collapse with no permanent lines of funding.”
The governor repeated an earlier pledge that he would not sign off on another one-time spending plan unless it also included provisions to “protect taxpayers” such as a permanent property tax freeze.
“Instead of focusing on stopgaps that serve the Springfield insiders, we should be coming together to pass real and lasting solutions to our problems,” Rauner said.
Yeah, well, the Senate tried to do that and was stopped dead in its tracks.
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said Democrats were watching the Facebook video during caucus.
“It’s reminiscent of the big staircase press conference he had at the end of May a year ago, where he denounced everybody. And then at the end of the day, he signed a temporary spending plan that included $400 million in spending for higher education that he had left out,” Brown said of the video. “I think history may serve as an example here. We are hopeful of getting a full budget done but that appears to be an elusive goal.”
Brown was referring to a news conference Rauner held on the Capitol staircase, surrounded by GOP lawmakers, in which he called the 2016 spring session a “stunning failure” while accusing Madigan of holding the state hostage. The Illinois Senate — just before the midnight adjournment — shot down a budget plan that was approved by the Illinois House. In June 2016, Rauner signed a stopgap budget and school funding bill — while calling it no solution, and not a balanced budget: “This is a bridge to reform. That’s what this is.”
That partial budget ran out on Jan. 1 — leaving social service agencies and universities in the lurch of the historic budget impasse. […]
The Facebook video was released as House Democrats wrapped up a caucus to discuss the measure.
A new survey conducted by United Way of Illinois documents the impact of Illinois’ record-breaking budget impasse on the human services sector and on people and communities across the state. Data shows that 69% of agencies have received no or only partial payment for services delivered in fiscal year 2017.
“We see the deep and lasting effects of this impasse every day in our schools, in our neighborhoods and in the state’s spiraling reputation. The lack of urgency from the state in coming together to work on a full budget is negligent given rising violence, population decline and the loss of jobs and talent,” said Sonja Reece, Board Chair of United Way of Illinois, the statewide association of 52 local United Ways and the largest non-governmental funder of health and human services in the state. “While stop-gap funding provided limited and temporary relief to some service providers, it did not repair the long-term damage imposed by the lack of a full budget, nor is it funding current service delivery.”
Survey data showed that 46% of agencies have been forced to reduce the number of clients served, with the highest reported declines in the areas of youth development, mental health and job training. “Hospitals, law enforcement, State’s Attorneys, housing and city/community staff are asking when services will start again as they have no other resources to take care of the quite dire situations in their communities,” said Kathy Weiman, CEO of Alternatives in Moline.
Twenty-five percent of respondents have been forced to completely eliminate programs due to the lack of payment from the state. The most significant program cuts were reported in the areas of criminal justice, job training and youth development—programs that were contracted by the state to reduce crime and violence and build the strength of the Illinois economy. “We know investing in our young people and in training for living wage jobs is key not only to solving social challenges like poverty and violence by providing opportunity, but also in growing the local economy,” said Wendy DuBoe, President and CEO of United Way of Metropolitan Chicago. “Additionally, waiting lists for services and a lack of psychiatric support for the mentally ill results in more expensive interventions down the line.”
Agency respondents reported taking a number of measures to continue delivering services contracted, but not paid for by the state, including eliminating staff, not filling vacant positions, increasing waiting lists and utilizing cash reserves. Survey data shows that private philanthropy cannot plug the hole left by the state, with only 1 in 10 agencies reporting they have replaced 25% or more of the funding owed to them by the State through additional fundraising efforts.
“Private philanthropy can never provide enough resources to solve for the delinquency of the state,” said Reece. “United Ways and generous Illinoisans are doing their best on the private end of the private-public partnership meant to maintain and build well-being in the state, but we currently have no public partner.”
The survey was conducted March 3-March 17, 2017, and responses were received from 463 human services agencies that represent every region in the state and every service category including youth development, domestic violence prevention, mental health, emergency housing, senior services and employment training.
By the way, that 69 percent who report receiving no or only partial payments for services in FY17 is almost double the 35 percent who reported the same thing in Fiscal Year 2016.
Chris Kennedy’s campaign for governor of Illinois announced today it has received over $1 million from over 3,000 individual contributors since launching his candidacy six weeks ago.
Kennedy has raised more individual contributions in the first six weeks of his campaign than Governor Rauner did between announcing his campaign and the Republican primary in 2014.
“Thousands of Illinois families have contributed to this effort because they know fixing our state’s challenges will take more than a big wallet,” Kennedy said. “Illinois has never been in worse shape than it is under Governor Rauner. We need a fundamental change in state government. Thousands of Illinois families have responded to our message because they want to restore the promise of the American Dream. I am ready to bring my unique set of experiences to build a stronger economy that works for every Illinois family, no matter where they live in our state.”
Sneed is informed Dem dollar powerhouse J.B. Pritzker, a billionaire businessman and major Dem donor, will officially announce his bid today to run for governor in the Democratic primary.
UPDATE: The Pritzker campaign later Thursday morning announced the time and place of the announcement: 2 p.m. at Grand Crossing Gym, 7655 S. Ingleside Ave.
There’s lots of snark potential there and I was all set to unleash a fusillade of it, but was then informed by a Pritzker staffer that the candidate has lost 50 pounds, so he has probably seen the inside of a gymnasium in recent weeks.
Grand Crossing Park and its surrounding community take their name from a historic train wreck which occurred less than a mile away from the site of the park.
Again, the snark potential is pretty much endless. But that same Pritzker person sent me a text message earlier today. The person hadn’t Googled the park or the neighborhood and wasn’t involved in the location choice, but said…
The community is still standing– they rebuilt it together after a historic train wreck. That’s a pretty decent job description for the next governor.
Not a bad analogy.
*** UPDATE *** From Sen. Daniel Biss…
“I welcome J.B. Pritzker into this primary race — one which will be a test for Democrats across Illinois. Do we want to perpetuate the broken politics that got us into this mess to begin with or do we want to write a different kind of future? Do we try to out-Rauner Bruce Rauner or offer a truly democratic alternative that empowers ordinary Illinoisans? I welcome the debate about whether the future of the Democratic party will be a vehicle for the very rich and machine politicians or one for the rest of us.”
