Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s top City Council ally on Tuesday said Gov. Bruce Rauner’s political inexperience and his background in business are complicating matters as the first-term governor tries to reach agreement with the “tremendously experienced” Democrats who control both legislative branches in Springfield. […]
“One of the things Harry Truman said about businessmen when they go into politics… he said the difficulty with businessmen entering politics after they’ve had successful business careers is that they want to start at the top,” O’Connor said in a reference to Rauner’s time in private equity before he ran for governor. “And sometimes government needs a learning curve. Sometimes it’s not as easy as it looks. And sometimes, just because you say it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.” […]
“And so we’ve got a very inexperienced group in the governor’s office against a tremendously experienced group in the House and the Senate, two individuals who over the course of the last year-and-a-half have been vilified, called names, basically portrayed as evil, corrupt individuals. And now we expect them all to sit down at the table and get along, and put it all behind them and solve our problem. It’s a daunting task,” he said. “And so, for the people who think about ‘Why can’t they just get on with it,’ they’re all human and they’ve all come off a campaign that essentially just tried to eviscerate each other.”
“I would hope both sides don’t escalate their attacks. I’m happy I haven’t seen any advertisements and I hope the Democrats stop sending their mailers. I’m not sure either side is going to scare the other side into an agreement.
“I’ve been in a lot of battles and, a year later, you can’t even remember what they were,” he said. “You get caught up in these things. Keep your eye on the bigger picture. We have to have an adequate budget, which we haven’t had for a long time.”
* OK, but Gov. Rauner just told reporters that Speaker Madigan and Senate President Cullerton make money off their property tax law practices which is a “conflict of interest” because they make more money when property taxes are high. He claimed Madigan makes “millions” off of high property taxes and Cullerton makes his “wealth” off of “government inside deals.”
You gotta wonder if Rauner had the stones to tell that to Cullerton’s face when the two met earlier today.
Just a thought, but perhaps Edgar ought to make his “calm down” case directly to the governor himself, because it isn’t what I’m hearing that Edgar has actually been saying.
An Illinois House member has returned fire in what Gov. Bruce Rauner’s staff calls Democrats’ “sexist smear campaign” against the administration’s education adviser.
Chicago Democratic Rep. Sara Feigenholtz told colleagues on a House appropriations committee Tuesday that the Republican governor’s proposed cuts in daycare services are “ultimately the biggest act of sexism.”
Rauner representatives labeled Democrats sexist last week when the committee reviewed the $250,000-a-year contract for education czar Beth Purvis. It’s funded by the Department of Human Services’ budget — a target of Rauner spending cuts.
If there is indeed a government shutdown, however large or small that is, that’s what taking on the Illinois political machine looks like. The long-term benefits of enacting Rauner’s reform agenda far outweigh any short-term impact of a temporary government shutdown.
Voters sent Rauner to Springfield to “shake things up.” If Illinois wants to break away from the downward spiral it’s on, “shutting things down” might be the price we need to pay.
When Minnesota state government shut down in 2011, as much as 80 percent of the government continued to operate. […]
If it happens in Illinois, the usual crew will be taken care of: Under state law, politicians, pensioners and government workers will still collect paychecks. No wonder Illinoisans are so jaded about state politics.
Minnesota missed its budget deadline by only 20 days. That’s nothing compared to what could happen here if the players engage in the full-blown war that Rickert so desires.
Also, state workers here won’t collect paychecks unless they get a judicial order. Come August, however, when the school aid payment doesn’t go out and schools announce they can’t afford to open their doors, you’re gonna hear some serious screaming.
* Kristen McQueary goes a bit overboard in her warning of what could happen with a possible AFSCME strike, but perhaps Ms. Rickert should read it anyway in the context of her own confident war-mongering…
You’ll start squawking when your elderly neighbor’s home care worker doesn’t show up or the state park reserved for your daughter’s wedding gets closed. If unionized workers in the secretary of state’s office honor their striking comrades in AFSCME, you’ll have second thoughts when your driver’s license expires or your teenager needs a driver’s permit.
You won’t have much patience for a strike when the Thompson Center closes or the state election board stops answering the phone or your kid’s university shuts down. You might reconsider Rauner’s tough stance with AFSCME when you can’t get your professional license renewed or your tax return processed.
And of course there are more serious consequences to a strike. How would it affect caseworkers at the Department of Children and Family Services who check on children suspected of being abused? What about severely disabled children and adults who rely on state-employed health care professionals? What about the essential providers — addiction centers and day care centers and juvenile homes — that can barely keep their doors open, waiting for reimbursement from the state? If the state shuts down, all bets are off.
There are no-strike clauses in state government, so there will be no sympathy strikes at the SoS. But those offices could very well shut down during a state budget impasse.
And the universities won’t be impacted by an AFSCME strike, either, and state support is only a small portion of their income, so I doubt any will close their doors anytime soon during a shutdown.
Still, the rest of it is mostly plausible, and not at all pleasant.
The Democrats’ $36.3 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins in July avoids about $5 billion in cuts Gov. Bruce Rauner has proposed. Madigan said the Legislature is committed to “work with the governor” to raise the funds needed to protect vulnerable residents.
Here’s the problem: Illinois residents aren’t interested in Democrats working with the Republican governor on ways to raise funds, which is a nicer way of saying, “Raise taxes.” […]
If Illinois residents wanted more of the same, they would have voted for Pat Quinn in November. They didn’t. They voted for Rauner, who promised smaller government and to run the state like a business.
We can’t trust lawmakers with more money. Last time we gave lawmakers more money after a shady, lame-duck vote to raise taxes, they didn’t use the money the way they promised.
Illinois needs to examine spending, not look at ways to find more money so it can spend more money.
OK, first of all, that $5 billion appears to include Rauner’s phony $2.2 billion in savings from shorting the pension funds. Most of the rest can’t be done without significant change to state statutes, like the nearly $800 million he would save by taking health insurance out of the collective bargaining process.
* Secondly, and more importantly, the governor has repeatedly said that he is quite willing to raise taxes if he gets his Turnaround Agenda passed. He offered a one-point income tax increase, which would yield $3.5 billion and take us up to 4.75 percent.
He’s also repeatedly floated the idea of a service tax, which would likely be used to fund a capital bill. The satellite TV tax is also apparently in the mix for that same purpose.
So, all the editorial boards cheering the governor for opposing a tax hike might want to keep in mind that he’s not actually with their program.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner told the leadership at the Hardin County Work Camp to prepare for imminent closure despite the fact that the prisoners provide food to local food banks, and cheap labor to local communities. […[
“I don’t want to cut,” Rauner said. “I don’t want to close facilities. I don’t want to do that at all. Madigan and Cullerton have caused this by their financial mismanagement and we’re going to fix it.”
* And thirdly, the governor’s original budget was pretty darned ham-handed, as Zorn explained recently…
Yes, he released a budget document in February. It contained controversial and, to some, alarming cuts to mass transit, higher education, local governments, human service and Medicaid as part of his effort to make up a roughly $6 billion anticipated shortfall in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
It’s hard enough when one side isn’t bringing to the table a tangential set of supposedly non-negotiable demands.
I won’t pretend here to catch the vapors over the very idea of a politician using leverage in one area to extract policy concessions in another, but really? Is Gov. Rauner really planning to hold our state’s most vulnerable citizens hostage until he’s able to check a few items off his broader agenda? Does he really think he has a popular mandate to try to impose dramatic cuts in programs and services if he doesn’t get his way on workers’ comp and property taxes?
Maybe so. But before you fit him for his white hat, you ought to find out what those cuts will look like. Or, since he’s unlikely to say, you ought to at least try to imagine.
Do you remember your first serious crush? You couldn’t think straight, and your tongue got so thick you could hardly get a sentence out without coughing and clearing your throat. It’s sort of the way the Tribune has sounded since it swooned over Bruce Rauner.
And if you’re not blushing and gasping in the throes of adolescent ardor, you’re blurting out besotted hyperboles.
“Mostly they want to scare you, then break you,” said the lovestruck editorial page on May 29, speaking directly to the governor. “You don’t seem fazed . . . . You come across as a patient man. . . . You also come across as a focused man. A governor who won’t flinch . . . . The crony-coddlers in Springfield—and their loyalists who live off state spending—finally have met someone they don’t frighten . . . . You, Governor, are free to keep calm and stand pat. How liberating to answer only to the voters who sent you.”
It was an editorial that might have ended, “Take me.”
* I wouldn’t be too sure that these things are necessarily connected…
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration has extended the contract of one if its top-paid consultants, Donna Arduin, but is cutting her $30,000-a-month fee in half, following increased scrutiny over a governor’s office practice of paying top dollar to appointees while threatening to slash state services.
The move comes after an Illinois House committee held a hearing last week reviewing why another top appointee, education secretary Beth Purvis, was drawing her $250,000 salary out of the Department of Human Services, rather than the governor’s office budget. That same committee has called on Purvis to appear for testimony on Tuesday, said state Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago. Harris could not yet say whether she would attend.
“Her compensation has been reduced by half from her previous contract and will terminate when the final budget is signed or on August 28, whichever comes first,” according to a statement from the governor’s office.
Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, said Monday he hasn’t changed his view that a property tax freeze should only be discussed in conjunction with school funding reform — to ensure that school districts aren’t handcuffed by having their principal source of revenue frozen.
“Senate Democrats for weeks now have been willing to negotiate with Gov. Rauner on a property tax freeze, provided his willingness to discuss reforming school funding in the state, because the two go hand-in-hand,” Manar said. “So far the governor has been just summarily dismissive of that idea. It would be irresponsible to proceed as the governor suggested without taking into consideration the financial plight of hundreds of school districts in the state today.”
The Rauner administration says Manar is under the control of House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, both Chicago Democrats.
“Everyone in Illinois knows that property taxes are too high, and the governor will continue to fight for a property tax freeze,” spokesman Lance Trover said. “Rather than finding excuses to block a property tax freeze, we urge Madigan-Cullerton Democrats like Andy Manar to support a property tax freeze and work with Governor Rauner to increase funding to public education.”
* Text message from a trusted friend…
Just got an IVR poll. Direction of Illinois. Support MJM plan to raise taxes. Support Rauner plan to balance budget and hold line on taxes. Do you support [Rep. Stephanie] Kifowit even though she votes with MJM? Would you support a different candidate? Do you always vote party line or do you vote independently?
Tuesday, Jun 9, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Credit unions have a well-recognized reputation for providing exemplary service in meeting their members’ daily financial needs. A “People Helping People” philosophy also motivates credit unions to support countless community charitable activities on a continual basis.
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Credit unions are able to wholly serve their communities because of their not-for-profit cooperative structure and leadership of a volunteer board elected by and from the local membership. Credit unions– locally owned, voluntarily led, and Paying it Forward in your community.
A southern Illinois speech meant to build public support for Gov. Bruce Rauner’s legislative agenda amid a budget impasse with majority Democratic lawmakers instead turned into a test of the first-term Republican’s ability to stay on message, as he faced a flurry of taunts from union protesters.
Sign-carrying members of the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers Local 309 in Collinsville and the Caseyville-based Steamfitters Local 439 repeatedly interrupted Rauner’s nine-minute pitch at Eckert’s Country Store and Farm. The St. Clair County rally Monday afternoon followed a similar event earlier in the day in Marion. […]
“This is going to be a rough summer,” [Rauner] told reporters after the rally, during which he repeatedly laid fault for the impasse with the “Chicago political machine,” a reference that drew the event’s loudest cheers of support. “They’ve just not negotiated in good faith. We need bipartisan compromise.”
I think this was the first time since the campaign ended that union protesters have booed the governor.
When Rauner met with reporters after the speech, he repeated a warning he’s been giving a lot lately: Get ready for “a rough summer.”
“We’ve got to get the power away from (Madigan and Cullerton). They’re not going to give it up easily, this is going to be a rough summer,” Rauner said. “We’re going to negotiate in good faith. We have been for months. We want bipartisan agreement.”
“It’s going to be a number of weeks” before a deal is made, but Rauner said he wants to avoid a state government shutdown. But he said his office is “making contingency plans” anyway since none of the budget bills the General Assembly passed have been delivered to his desk.
A mix of cheers and boos among about 200 people greeted Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday in Marion.
Both Mayor Robert Butler, as he introduced the Republican governor, and Rauner himself noted Democracy at work in response to the split crowd.
Many who turned out for the appearance at Black Diamond Harley-Davidson were union members with signs calling Rauner bad for Illinois and for jobs. Pro-Rauner signs carried a contrary message.
Rauner, when asked later about the protesters, characterized them as partisan supporters of Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan and Democratic Senate President John Cullerton.
“There are folks who, the status quo is good to them, and they’re loyal to Madigan, they’ve got a relationship there,” said Rauner. “The reality is, working families in this state are suffering. Suffering … Madigan and Cullerton aren’t for working families. They’re for the political class.”
That’s not our property tax freeze bill - more games just like they did a couple weeks ago in the House. More phony reforms from Speaker Madigan and President Cullerton.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Rep. Jack Franks explains the differences between his proposal and the governor’s via text…
Mine starts in 2015, Rauner’s starts in 2016. The governor’s has prevailing wage, mine does not. Mine does not allow for an increase in the debt extension where his does
A new state-by-state analysis from the Pew Charitable Trusts shows that Wisconsin experienced the biggest decline in middle-class households in the country between the years 2000 and 2013.
The study found that the percentage of households in the middle class dropped in all 50 states, with Wisconsin’s drop from 54.6 percent to 48.9 percent being the most significant. Moreover, Wisconsin saw a 14 percent decline in median household income.
GUIDELINES FOR PROCEEDINGS 15 CR 315 U.S.A. v. HASTERT
The following procedures will apply in connection with the arraignment in U.S.A. v. Hastert, scheduled to commence at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 9, 2015 in Courtroom 1441.
• The U.S. Marshals Service will be in charge of providing security and may limit seating as necessary to ensure the safety of all present.
• All cell phones, laptops, and other electronic devices must be turned off while in courtroom 1441.
• Seats will be reserved for news organizations with reporters assigned to the courthouse on a full-time basis: Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Daily Southtown and WBBM-AM. Each organization is allowed one reserved seat in this row, and must be present at 1:40 p.m. in the hallway outside the courtroom.
• Sketch artists will be provided a seat and must be present at 1:40 p.m. in the hallway outside the courtroom.
• All other media and public will line up in the public corridor outside courtroom 1441. Admission to the courtroom will be on a first come, first served basis. Once all seats are occupied, the courtroom will be closed and those without seats will be directed to the overflow courtroom, 1425.
• Due to other court proceedings, media and spectators may not line up prior to 11:30 a.m.
• Courtroom 1425 will be an audio overflow courtroom only. The media may use laptops and smart phones, etc. to work on their stories in courtroom 1425, but may not record, stream, or photograph while in the courtroom pursuant to Local Rule 83.1. The audio feed will also be streamed to the media office on the second floor.
• Photographing and video or audio recording or transmission of court proceedings is prohibited.
• No beverages or food (other than water at counsel table or the witness stand) are allowed in the courtroom.
• No conversations or disruptive gestures are permitted in the courtroom.
• No interviews or interview requests are permitted on the 14th floor or any other floor of the E.M. Dirksen U.S. Courthouse other than in the lobby, pursuant to General Order 07-001.
• Pursuant to General Order 07-001, found at www.ilnd.uscourts.gov, Clerk’s Office Page/Media Information, interviews may occur only in the media area of the lobby. Filming of any security equipment or uniformed security personnel is prohibited.
• Media personnel will have lobby access until 6:00 p.m.
• The recording, streaming, or use of cameras is not allowed in the courthouse, except in the
media area in the lobby.
• Cameras are prohibited in all areas of the courthouse except in the media area of the lobby.
• The U.S. Marshals Service is allowed to restrict the entrance to the media area in the lobby should there arise a life safety issue with occupancy.
• The media is reminded that public safety must be considered, and any action that may cause an unsafe environment will be addressed by the U.S. Marshals Service.
• Failure to comply with these rules will result in removal from the courtroom. Any violation of a court order will be addressed appropriately.
* My absolute favorite line from the session so far is Richard Goldberg’s response to a member’s question during a House approp hearing last week…
“I’m sorry, but your question falls outside the purview of this sham hearing.”
I’ve actually used that line on somebody else since then (substituting “conversation” for “hearing”)
* The quote by the governor’s top legislative liaison perfectly illustrates what Kurt Erickson calls the Rauner administration’s “full-blown snark attack” on Democrats.
My own take about the escalating Raunerite snark, posted earlier today…
Other governors may have prostrated themselves humbly before you [Democrats], but Rauner is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Yeah, the administration’s response was hugely over the top. But that’s the way they roll. Have you forgotten the 2014 campaign already? These folks are stone cold killers. And they ain’t changing. Plus, it’s just show business. Don’t take it personally.
* Some worry that the attacks by Goldberg, et al will hinder a budget/Turnaround Agenda solution.
Meh.
Rank and file Democrats won’t be in the room if this thing is ever settled. So, in the end (if there is an end) their opinion of Goldberg and the other Raunerites probably won’t matter.
* The author of my favorite quote, who, believe it or not, is also one of my favorite people in the Rauner administration…
A bill sponsored by state Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, that could allow significant savings for Belleville taxpayers by allowing for the dissolution of Belleville Township has passed through the Illinois House and Senate and will now be sent to the governor. […]
Current law only permits townships to be dissolved if there is a county-wide vote approving the dissolution of all townships within the county. Hoffman’s bill, House Bill 3693, allows the members of the Belleville Township Board and Belleville City Council to approve a dissolution ordinance without requiring a countywide vote.
Belleville Township’s lone task is providing temporary general welfare assistance to families who are waiting to receive state aid. The township uses an operating cost of $288,000 and only provides $177,000 in assistance to local families.
That’s some pretty darned low hanging fruit right there.
* I bring this up because Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti’s task force on reducing the number of local governments has been bogged down over her apparent insistence on a handful of anti-union proposals…
The panel met May 20 at the offices of the Illinois Municipal League in Springfield. That meeting came after two previous meetings in April and in May had to be canceled.
But, not enough members showed up May 20 to have a quorum, leaving the committee unable to vote on recommendations designed to jump-start the consolidation process.
Some of the absences were by design. Labor unions, for example, opposed recommendations affecting the prevailing wage, privatization and relief from unfunded state mandates.
The unions then called union-friendly members of the committee and asked them to simply stay away from the meeting.
Afterward, Sanguinetti pledged to work hard to ensure enough members show up at a late June meeting to have an official vote.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) says a fundraising e-mail isn’t the same as him making an official endorsement in next year’s Senate race. Durbin sent out a fundraising request on behalf of the Senate bid of U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Hoffman Estates), calling her “a friend” and “a champion,” but he says that’s not a formal endorsement. He says he’s helping with fundraising since the campaign is heating up earlier than he’d hoped.
“The interesting thing about this Senate race is it’s starting so darn early,” Durbin said. “You know, the incumbent senator has started television ads. There’s discussion about primary opponents, and so that’s the reason the e-mail was sent.”
Durbin has said he will endorse and campaign for the Democratic nominee in the race. His fundraising e-mail mentioned how he encouraged Duckworth to run for Congress, but he dismisses the notion that he “discovered her.”
Expect an Illinois GOP press release explaining how this is just horrible for Duckworth in five… four… three…
Domestic-violence organizations also are facing severe funding issues. It is considered one of the “non-critical” social services on the chopping block under Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed budget cuts.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed budget cuts would drop funding to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville to a level last received in 1986. SIUE faces $19.6 million in cutbacks. That scenario would have devastating effects.
Also on the chopping block is a program that provides funding for low-income renters and homeowners who can’t afford to pay their energy bill.
Catholic Charities, which serves Grundy, Will and other counties in the region, said they often refer clients to the Will County Center for Community Concerns, which administers the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
“There’s quite a few,” said Pam Terrell, community services division director. “It’s a resource that’s very much needed in our area.”
Worst-case scenario, she said, people will be evicted from their homes and wind up in homeless shelters if they can’t pay the electricity bill.
“I hate to see something like this happen. People who require this program are likely already behind in bills. If this program is all of the sudden not there, you have people living paycheck-to-paycheck who could become homeless,” she said.
For the most part, governors own budget decisions.
* But there are those who are hoping to spread the blame. And they do have a point…
We get letters over the Internet machine aimed at persuading Gov. Bruce Rauner to not be such a meanie and to stop making budget cuts that will damage poor people, children, road contractors, universities and, well, just about everybody who relies on the state’s tax receipts for one thing or another.
One I read came from Kris Kieper, head of the YWCA Rockford. The YWCA is administering the state-funded day care assistance program. The letter explains that the governor intends to increase co-pays for parents, freeze intakes, create waiting lists and begin background checks for day care providers based on the clients they serve, to save money. […]
Outrage should be directed to people like former Gov. Pat Quinn, who went on a $405 million spending spree AFTER he was defeated in the Nov. 4 general election. Quinn doled out grants like crazy, putting our state deeper in debt.
Pleas for mercy should go to Democrats who control the General Assembly; they have passed two unbalanced budgets in a row.
Chuck’s not wrong, although I wouldn’t completely absolve Rauner here. It’s just that for many voters (and reporters) that’s a bit too complicated. Hence the Rauner plan to spend big money on TV if this thing goes to war and the government starts to really shut down. He’s gonna have to redirect that anger at the Democrats.
* Every policymaker in this state should read these two Tribune articles. The first one’s from last month…
Alarming levels of brain-damaging lead are poisoning more than a fifth of the children tested from some of the poorest parts of Chicago, even as the hazard has been largely eliminated in more prosperous neighborhoods, a Tribune investigation has found.
The toxic legacy of lead — added to paint and gasoline for nearly a century — once threatened kids throughout the nation’s third largest city. As Chicago’s overall rate of lead poisoning steadily dropped during the past two decades, the disparities between rich and poor grew wider.
Some census tracts, smaller geographic areas within neighborhoods, haven’t seen a case of lead poisoning in years. But children ages 5 and younger continue to be harmed at rates up to six times the city average in corners of predominantly African-American neighborhoods ravaged by extreme poverty, chronic violence and struggling schools, according to a Tribune analysis of city records.
In more than a fifth of the city’s census tracts, the rate of lead poisoning was higher in 2013 than it was five years earlier, the analysis showed. […]
In the upscale Lincoln Park neighborhood around DePaul University, more than 80 percent of kids tested in 1995 had elevated lead levels — about the same rate as the southeast corner of Austin, one of the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods.
By 2013 the rate for the DePaul neighborhood had plummeted to zero. But in the same part of Austin, testing found dangerous lead levels in nearly 24 percent of kids tested.
“People in neighborhoods like Englewood have faced multiple assaults over different periods of time — job losses, segregation, housing discrimination,” said Robert J. Sampson, a Harvard University researcher who has been studying Chicago for more than two decades. “Yet through all of that there is this persistent lead poisoning. It creates a social context where kids are at a clear disadvantage.”
Sampson recently added lead data to his existing research on poverty, education and crime in Englewood and other neighborhoods. The results, he said, were shocking. A map of lead poisoning rates among children younger than 6 in 1995, for instance, looks very similar to a map of aggravated assault rates in 2012, when those kids were 17 to 22 years old.
A former chief of lead poisoning prevention at the Chicago Department of Public Health, [Anne Evens] obtained the lead tests of more than 58,000 children born in the city from 1994 to 1998 and compared the results with how they performed on standardized tests in third grade.
Her peer-reviewed study, published in April in the scientific journal Environmental Health, found that exposure to lead during early childhood significantly increased the chance that a student would fail reading and math tests, even when controlling for other factors such as poverty, race, birth weight and the mother’s education level. […]
Jessica Wolpaw Reyes, an economist at Amherst College, studied what happened during the 1990s when Massachusetts embarked on an effort to eliminate lead paint hazards in homes with young children. She found the $5 million-a-year program helped reduce the number of students who performed poorly on standardized tests by 1 to 2 percentage points, with most of the benefits seen among children from low-income communities.
While that might not sound like much of an improvement, Reyes said, it was equivalent to what the state could have expected if it had closed the income gap between poor and middle-income communities by 22 percent.
Emphasis added for obvious reasons.
If there ever is a capital bill, lawmakers and the governor ought to make lead removal a serious priority.
It’s hard to argue with the growing body of research, but even if abatement doesn’t lower crime and increase learning abilities, lead is a nasty, nasty poison and removing it from the environment ought to be on our agenda.
* These three will be very high-level targets next year. From the IL GOP…
A Time for Choosing
It’s time for Sen. Forby, Rep. Bradley, and Rep. Phelps to stand up for taxpayers instead of President Cullerton and Speaker Madigan
Last week, Democrats in Springfield passed a budget with a $4 billion hole. Last year, they passed a budget that was unbalanced by $1.6 billion. The Democrats controlled by House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton reject reform and pass unbalanced budgets.
After more than 80 years in power, Mike Madigan and John Cullerton wield unmatched power over their House and Senate members. Sen.Gary Forby, Rep. John Bradley, and Rep. Brandon Phelps claim to represent Southern Illinois, but they are controlled by the heavy hand of John Cullerton and Mike Madigan.
It’s time for Forby, Bradley, and Phelps to stand up for Southern Illinois taxpayers instead of their Chicago bosses Madigan & Cullerton.
Sen. Gary Forby
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2015 Was Unbalanced By $1.6 Billion. “Illinois lawmakers moved Monday to plug a gaping $1.6 billion hole in this year’s state budget after weeks of tense negotiations between a Republican governor and Democratic-led Legislature over authority to transfer funds as money runs out for social programs such as subsidized day care. (”Illinois House Passes Plan To Fill State’s $1.6 Billion Budget Hole,” The Associated Press, 3/24/2015)
Forby Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2015 Budget. (Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2016 Is Unbalanced By More Than $3 Billion. “House Democrats worked into the evening Tuesday to push through major parts of a new budget they acknowledge is at least $3 billion short in an effort to force new Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to eventually go along with a tax increase to fill the deficit.” (Monique Garcia and Kim Geiger, “Illinois Democrats Push Ahead With Budget That’s $3 Billion Short,” Chicago Tribune, 5/26/2015)
Forby Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2016 Budget Bills.(Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
Forby Has Taken $695,131 From Madigan, Cullerton And Committees They Control. (Illinois Board of Elections, Accessed 6/7/2015)
Rep. John Bradley
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2015 Was Unbalanced By $1.6 Billion. “Illinois lawmakers moved Monday to plug a gaping $1.6 billion hole in this year’s state budget after weeks of tense negotiations between a Republican governor and Democratic-led Legislature over authority to transfer funds as money runs out for social programs such as subsidized day care. (”Illinois House Passes Plan To Fill State’s $1.6 Billion Budget Hole,” The Associated Press, 3/24/2015)
Bradley Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2015 Budget. (Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2016 Is Unbalanced By More Than $3 Billion. “House Democrats worked into the evening Tuesday to push through major parts of a new budget they acknowledge is at least $3 billion short in an effort to force new Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to eventually go along with a tax increase to fill the deficit.” (Monique Garcia and Kim Geiger, “Illinois Democrats Push Ahead With Budget That’s $3 Billion Short,” Chicago Tribune, 5/26/2015)
Bradley Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2016 Budget Bills.(Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
Bradley Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s 67% Tax Increase. (SB2505, 1/11/2011)
Bradley Has Taken $71,979 From Madigan And Committees He Controls. (Illinois Board of Elections, Accessed 6/7/2015)
Rep. Brandon Phelps
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2015 Was Unbalanced By $1.6 Billion. “Illinois lawmakers moved Monday to plug a gaping $1.6 billion hole in this year’s state budget after weeks of tense negotiations between a Republican governor and Democratic-led Legislature over authority to transfer funds as money runs out for social programs such as subsidized day care. (”Illinois House Passes Plan To Fill State’s $1.6 Billion Budget Hole,” The Associated Press, 3/24/2015)
Phelps Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2015 Budget. (Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2016 Is Unbalanced By More Than $3 Billion. “House Democrats worked into the evening Tuesday to push through major parts of a new budget they acknowledge is at least $3 billion short in an effort to force new Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to eventually go along with a tax increase to fill the deficit.” (Monique Garcia and Kim Geiger, “Illinois Democrats Push Ahead With Budget That’s $3 Billion Short,” Chicago Tribune, 5/26/2015)
Phelps Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2016 Budget Bills.(Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
Phelps Has Taken $74,815 From Madigan And Committees He Controls. (Illinois Board of Elections, Accessed 6/7/2015)
*** UPDATE 1 *** The governor will speak in that area today…
Daily Public Schedule: June 8, 2015
What: Governor Discusses the Turnaround Agenda’s Impact on Williamson County
Where: Black Diamond Harley Davidson
2400 Williamson County Pkwy., Marion
Date: Monday, June 8, 2015
Time: 12:00 p.m.
What: Governor Discusses the Turnaround Agenda’s Impact on St. Clair County
Where: Eckert’s Belleville County Store & Farm
951 S. Green Mount Rd., Belleville
Date: Monday, June 8, 2015
Time: 2:45 p.m.
*** UPDATE 2 *** As noted in the above update, the governor also plans to be in the Metro East today…
A Time for Choosing
It’s time for Metro East Democrats to stand up for taxpayers instead of President Cullerton and Speaker Madigan
Last week, Democrats in Springfield passed a budget with a $4 billion hole. Last year, they passed a budget that was unbalanced by $1.6 billion. The Democrats controlled by House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton reject reform and pass unbalanced budgets.
After more than 80 years in power, Mike Madigan and John Cullerton wield unmatched power over their House and Senate members. Sen. Bill Haine, Sen. James Claybourne, Rep. Jay Hoffman, Rep. Jerry Costello, and Rep. Daniel Beiser claim to represent Southern Illinois, but they are controlled by the heavy hand of John Cullerton and Mike Madigan.
It’s time for Haine, Claybourne, Hoffman, Costello, and Beiser to stand up for Southern Illinois taxpayers instead of their Chicago bosses Madigan & Cullerton.
Sen. Bill Haine
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2015 Was Unbalanced By $1.6 Billion. “Illinois lawmakers moved Monday to plug a gaping $1.6 billion hole in this year’s state budget after weeks of tense negotiations between a Republican governor and Democratic-led Legislature over authority to transfer funds as money runs out for social programs such as subsidized day care. (”Illinois House Passes Plan To Fill State’s $1.6 Billion Budget Hole,” The Associated Press, 3/24/2015)
Haine Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2015 Budget. (Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2016 Is Unbalanced By More Than $3 Billion. “House Democrats worked into the evening Tuesday to push through major parts of a new budget they acknowledge is at least $3 billion short in an effort to force new Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to eventually go along with a tax increase to fill the deficit.” (Monique Garcia and Kim Geiger, “Illinois Democrats Push Ahead With Budget That’s $3 Billion Short,” Chicago Tribune, 5/26/2015)
Haine Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2016 Budget Bills. (Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
Haine Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s 67% Tax Increase. (SB2505, 1/11/2011)
Haine Has Taken $295,821 From Madigan, Cullerton And Committees They Control. (Illinois Board of Elections, Accessed 6/7/2015)
Sen. James Clayborne
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2015 Was Unbalanced By $1.6 Billion. “Illinois lawmakers moved Monday to plug a gaping $1.6 billion hole in this year’s state budget after weeks of tense negotiations between a Republican governor and Democratic-led Legislature over authority to transfer funds as money runs out for social programs such as subsidized day care. (”Illinois House Passes Plan To Fill State’s $1.6 Billion Budget Hole,” The Associated Press, 3/24/2015)
Clayborne Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2015 Budget. (Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2016 Is Unbalanced By More Than $3 Billion. “House Democrats worked into the evening Tuesday to push through major parts of a new budget they acknowledge is at least $3 billion short in an effort to force new Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to eventually go along with a tax increase to fill the deficit.” (Monique Garcia and Kim Geiger, “Illinois Democrats Push Ahead With Budget That’s $3 Billion Short,” Chicago Tribune, 5/26/2015)
Clayborne Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2016 Budget Bills. (Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
Clayborne Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s 67% Tax Increase. (SB2505, 1/11/2011)
Clayborne Has Taken $63,194 From Madigan And Committees He Controls. (Illinois Board of Elections, Accessed 6/7/2015)
Rep. Jay Hoffman
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2015 Was Unbalanced By $1.6 Billion. “Illinois lawmakers moved Monday to plug a gaping $1.6 billion hole in this year’s state budget after weeks of tense negotiations between a Republican governor and Democratic-led Legislature over authority to transfer funds as money runs out for social programs such as subsidized day care. (”Illinois House Passes Plan To Fill State’s $1.6 Billion Budget Hole,” The Associated Press, 3/24/2015)
Hoffman Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2015 Budget. (Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2016 Is Unbalanced By More Than $3 Billion. “House Democrats worked into the evening Tuesday to push through major parts of a new budget they acknowledge is at least $3 billion short in an effort to force new Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to eventually go along with a tax increase to fill the deficit.” (Monique Garcia and Kim Geiger, “Illinois Democrats Push Ahead With Budget That’s $3 Billion Short,” Chicago Tribune, 5/26/2015)
Hoffman Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2016 Budget Bills. (Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
Hoffman Has Taken $351,178 From Madigan And Committees He Controls. (Illinois Board of Elections, Accessed 6/7/2015)
Rep. Jerry Costello
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2015 Was Unbalanced By $1.6 Billion. “Illinois lawmakers moved Monday to plug a gaping $1.6 billion hole in this year’s state budget after weeks of tense negotiations between a Republican governor and Democratic-led Legislature over authority to transfer funds as money runs out for social programs such as subsidized day care. (”Illinois House Passes Plan To Fill State’s $1.6 Billion Budget Hole,” The Associated Press, 3/24/2015)
Costello Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2015 Budget. (Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2016 Is Unbalanced By More Than $3 Billion. “House Democrats worked into the evening Tuesday to push through major parts of a new budget they acknowledge is at least $3 billion short in an effort to force new Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to eventually go along with a tax increase to fill the deficit.” (Monique Garcia and Kim Geiger, “Illinois Democrats Push Ahead With Budget That’s $3 Billion Short,” Chicago Tribune, 5/26/2015)
Costello Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2016 Budget Bills. (Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
Costello Has Taken $192,851 From Madigan And Committees He Controls. (Illinois Board of Elections, Accessed 6/7/2015)
Rep. Daniel Beiser
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2015 Was Unbalanced By $1.6 Billion. “Illinois lawmakers moved Monday to plug a gaping $1.6 billion hole in this year’s state budget after weeks of tense negotiations between a Republican governor and Democratic-led Legislature over authority to transfer funds as money runs out for social programs such as subsidized day care. (”Illinois House Passes Plan To Fill State’s $1.6 Billion Budget Hole,” The Associated Press, 3/24/2015)
Beiser Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2015 Budget. (Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
The Budget Constructed By Madigan And Cullerton For FY2016 Is Unbalanced By More Than $3 Billion. “House Democrats worked into the evening Tuesday to push through major parts of a new budget they acknowledge is at least $3 billion short in an effort to force new Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to eventually go along with a tax increase to fill the deficit.” (Monique Garcia and Kim Geiger, “Illinois Democrats Push Ahead With Budget That’s $3 Billion Short,” Chicago Tribune, 5/26/2015)
Beiser Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s Unbalanced FY2016 Budget Bills. (Illinois General Assembly Records, Accessed 6/7/2015)
Beiser Voted To Pass Madigan And Cullerton’s 67% Tax Increase. (SB2505, 1/11/2011)
Beiser Has Taken $242,997 From Madigan And Committees He Controls. (Illinois Board of Elections, Accessed 6/7/2015)
*** UPDATE 3 *** From the twitters…
.@GovRauner to legislators: are you loyal to Madigan or are you going to vote for taxpayers and homeowners?
* Tom Kasich writes about a former House Republican candidate’s trials and tribulations on the campaign trail as he attempted to keep his restaurant afloat…
“For me it always comes back to that I need to take care of my (restaurant) staff and to be honest, one of the things that was tough the last time is that I’m a very, very easy target,” [Rob Meister] said. “All it takes is someone to come in here or call or email or whatever and they can say they’d like to make a reservation for 40 people at 7 o’clock next Friday night. I take down their name and phone number and ask if they want me to do a private menu or anything. And then 20 minutes after they were supposed to show up I call them and they call me everything besides a nice person and slam the phone in my ear, and then I’m out money that I had booked for that space.“
Meister said the dirty tricks happened “weekly” when he ran against former state Rep. Naomi Jakobsson three years ago, a race he lost 69 percent to 31 percent.
“There were one-star reviews of the restaurant popping up (online) every other week where people wouldn’t even give the right information. They’d write about a dish that we don’t even serve that supposedly was super-cold,” he said. “Honestly, my Number One worry is it’s just so easy when you meticulously try to plan your week-to-week business. It’s easy for someone to throw a wrench into that.”
When things can get that mean in a lopsided district like former Rep. Jakobsson’s, just imagine how rough it gets during a hotly contested race in a much more equally drawn district.
My name is Maddie Murray, and I am a junior at New Trier High School. For my semester project, my partner Casi Radulovic and I wanted to advocate for special needs families regarding Rauner’s FY16 budget plan. As you may or may not know, this budget plan could harm thousands of special needs families throughout Illinois, particularly those that receive services through organizations like Glenkirk. In response, we created a video in which we interviewed four special needs families that use respite services from Glenkirk to highlight some of the impacts these cuts will have on families.
I had been referred to you through Josh Evans from IARF, who helped us a lot with our project. He suggested that we ask you to post our video on your blog to help inform the public and the representatives about these cuts.
Gov. Bruce Rauner says he wants [Rob Meister] to consider running for Senate, and is willing to bankroll his campaign to the tune of about a million dollars.
“He told me very specifically that he has 20 million dollars and that he’s working to do a million for 20 races that he thinks are the most winnable,” said Meister, the 32-year-old owner of Minneci’s Ristorante in southwest Champaign, and an unsuccessful candidate for state representative in 2012. […]
Meister said he has met with Rauner a few times, the most recent being last month at the Executive Mansion. […]
Meister knows he’s not the only potential candidate on Rauner’s radar. The governor has talked to Urbana attorney Erika Harold as well.
If he runs, he’d be up against appointed state Sen. Scott Bennett, who took Mike Frerichs’ seat when Frerichs was elected treasurer.
After five months, you’d think that the warring parties at the Illinois Statehouse would have learned something about each other. Instead, last week’s bitter and divisive House overtime session showed that they still fundamentally misunderstand one another.
What follows are some questions I’m hearing and my own responses.
Republicans: Why would the House Democrats propose such a weak workers’ compensation reform plan last week when they knew Gov. Bruce Rauner wants so much more?
The Democrats’ plan didn’t contain much real-world progress and actually regressed in part. Unless you read between the lines. Workers’ comp insurance essentially is a no-fault system designed to keep disputes out of the courts. For years, Republicans have attempted to insert “causation” into the system in order to weed out employees whose injuries are mostly not the fault of employers.
But House Speaker Michael Madigan’s bill used the term “causal” in relation to a certain kind of injury. This was a pretty good indication that after more than 30 years as speaker, Madigan is moving away from his complete opposition to causation standards.
He appears willing to deal on this topic because he attached his language to a House bill that now can be amended by the Senate. If he had used a Senate bill, it would have been “take it or leave it.”
So build on the causation issue and ignore his other items that set the negotiations back. It’s not rocket science.
Democrats: Why won’t the Republicans accept the fact that we’re moving in their direction but can only go so far? We’re not Republicans.
The governor believes Republican legislators were far too content in the past to accept any crumbs the Democrats offered. Those days are over. We have a Republican governor who is demanding significant change. And with the session in overtime, he’s not going to want to look like he’s caving to Madigan, as so many of his predecessors did. The Democrats must keep moving toward the governor’s position or this thing ain’t ever gonna end.
Republicans: Madigan hasn’t moved an inch all spring. We’ve retreated on dozens of issues, so why won’t he give up a single priority?
He has. If you look at his floor actions as a negotiating process, Madigan has eliminated several of Rauner’s proposals from consideration by defeating them during floor votes. He did the very same thing to his millionaires’ tax proposal. The Republicans interpreted the floor vote as an insult to the wealthy governor. Well, yeah, but its defeat also effectively took the issue off the table. Ignore the show business and look for progress.
Democrats: Why did the Republicans go nuclear on Democrats in committee last week by claiming we were conducting a “sexist smear campaign” against one of their appointees who is drawing her $250,000 salary from a mostly unrelated state agency? We’ve held plenty of similar hearings about Democratic governors. It’s part of our budgetary oversight process.
Y’all were preparing to zing the governor with an over the top claim that he was stealing money from poor people in the Department of Human Services budget and giving it to his education czar. Other governors may have prostrated themselves humbly before you, but Rauner is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Yeah, the administration’s response was hugely over the top. But that’s the way they roll. Have you forgotten the 2014 campaign already? These folks are stone cold killers. And they ain’t changing. Plus, it’s just show business. Don’t take it personally.
Republicans: Madigan negotiated privately and in good faith on the fiscal 2015 budget problem without all these silly floor votes and side shows. Why won’t he just sit down with us now and hash out the new budget and the governor’s turnaround agenda?
There was some initial anger over the “Good Friday Massacre,” when the governor unilaterally cut programs that Madigan had inserted, including autism assistance funding. But Madigan got over that because he had unilaterally put that money into the appropriations bill, so he figured he should have cleared it with Rauner. The tide changed in April. Why? Well, one reason is that that’s when local governments around the state began voting on the governor’s draft resolution in support of Rauner’s anti-union agenda. That freaked out labor to no end. Eventually, I think, Madigan decided that Rauner was more interested in campaigning than governing and sided with his fired-up base.
Plus, Madigan is, um . . . odd. He ain’t changing, either. You gotta figure him out if you really want a deal. If you don’t want a deal, fine. Otherwise, start learning.
The subscriber version of this included several additional points of possible compromise.
It seems to be an article of faith on the right that if Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner declares war and spends millions of dollars on TV attack ads targeting Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, Rauner will “win” and Madigan will “lose” and the speaker will be forced to negotiate with Rauner in good faith.
But I don’t think Madigan is going to cave any time soon.
When Senate President John Cullerton wanted to send the governor a separate education budget bill that exactly matched the governor’s own proposal, Madigan shot down the idea, reportedly because he didn’t want to take the chance that Rauner might sign it and schools would open on schedule this August.
In other words, the man appears serious about crashing the government if the governor declares all-out war.
In 2007 and 2008, when the world’s economy started to tank, Madigan ignored the growing economic and state fiscal disasters because he was determined to continue his fight with then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Madigan’s unwillingness to make peace is one reason the state was so ill-prepared to deal with the global crash.
Rauner has far more resources at his disposal than Blagojevich ever did, so the right’s firm belief in victory over Madigan seems unshakable. We’ve seen it in editorials, columns and press releases over the past several days, and we’re sure to see more.
But after talking with some top Rauner people, I don’t think…
Why does it have to be a war? Because the entrenched power brokers that have run Illinois for so long do not wish to release their power … despite running the State into the ground! They’d rather remain in charge than fix this State (think on that, please). So this will be the summer of our political discontent. Some of the battles will be conspicuous and well known, but most will not. But just know this, there is a war happening right now for the future of Illinois. And Illinois is worth fighting for. PLEASE read the link http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-madigan-rauner-cullerton-illinois-afscme-edit-20150605-story.html
* Moving on to Twitter…
.@GovRauner actually pays tax dollars for @LTrover to behave like a juvenile on Twitter? What a colossal was waste of state funds. #twill
— State Rep. Lou Lang (@StateRepLouLang) June 5, 2015
Committee of the Whole on Property Tax System in Illinois Announced
What: Testimony on Property Tax System in Illinois
Who: President Cullerton Announces Committee of the Whole
Where: Senate Floor, Springfield
When: Tuesday, June 9th at Noon
House Democrats on Thursday passed their own workers’ compensation reform bill despite warnings from their Republican colleagues that it faces a certain veto.
Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Collinsville, said Democrats were making a sincere effort to improve the administration of the workers’ comp law and deliver savings to employers.
“We believe that, for the first time, this is us trying to extend an olive branch to the governor,” Hoffman said. “We are trying to move this issue forward.”
House Republicans were not buying in, especially when it came to changes in the definition of causation, or what makes an injury a workers’ comp-eligible injury.
Rauner rejected the proposal labeling it as “phony” and warned that it could potentially cost businesses more. “This makes us less competitive,” he said. The legislation, which passed along party lines. The measure simply codifies existing interpretation of the law for legal purposes, critics say.
Rauner bashed Madigan, saying he believed some Democrats might embrace his proposals if not for their fear of angering the head of the state Democratic Party, who controls the party’s purse strings.
One of the amendments added to the legislation addresses how compensation is paid if an injury is repetitive. Another would allow insurers to sue a previous employer for some of the costs incurred with injuries.
Another item makes it difficult for a company’s employees to obtain compensation if they injure themselves while traveling.
But it wasn’t workers’ compensation that sparked a scorching verbal volley at day’s end. It was a Rauner aide’s comments to lawmakers who earlier in the day questioned him about how Rauner is paying his $250,000-a-year education secretary.
Deputy Chief of Staff Richard Goldberg labeled the appropriations committee’s proceedings as a “sham” when asked why school czar Beth Purvis is on the payroll of the Department of Human Services – an agency Rauner has targeted for spending cuts to deal with the deficit. The Chicago Sun-Times reported the arrangement last week.
Goldberg said previous governors had done the same thing and said, “There’s no reason to subject a great leader like Beth Purvis to a sham hearing.”
* I posted the governor’s stuff yesterday, so let’s take a look at the response…
Democrats say they are not concerned about Dr. Purvis’ qualifications or salary, but that her pay is coming out of a department facing significant cuts which will affect the elderly and children. They argue Dr. Purvis’ salary should come out of the education department or the governor’s office.
“This is not anything other than us being worried about precious dollars being diverted from the programs we are struggling to maintain,” said Representative Natalie Manley (D) Joliet.
“It really looks bad when we’re taking poor people off of child care and kicking them off of community care and paying somebody out of this budget,” said Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago. […]
“Her gender should have absolutely nothing to do with this conversation,” said Rep. Kathleen Willis, D-Addison. “That is not what we’re questioning. We’re questioning why is her salary coming out of our budget.”
Purvis herself did not appear before the committee, though numerous members said they wanted to question her personally.
Later in the day, state Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, blasted Rauner’s aide on the House floor.
“You used that committee time as an opportunity to be insulting and to be degrading and to say things that are beneath the dignity of this chamber,” Lang shouted. “I stand against those comments. I stand against that press release. . . . Those comments were degrading to the process, and they should stop.”
When Lang sat down after his remarks, Democrats gave him a standing ovation, including Madigan — who inched toward Lang while applauding and smiling.
State Rep. Lou Lang took to the House floor on Thursday to denounce Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration for accusing Democrats of launching a “sexual smear campaign” against education czar Beth Purvis.
A key Rauner aide answered back.
On Twitter.
“Seriously, Lou. Give it up. It is a sexist smear campaign you and your colleagues continue to engage in,” Rauner’s communication director Lance Trover (@ltrover) tweeted.
Trover also tweeted: “Lou Lang – another politician Madigan controls,” and “Speaker Madigan to Gov: please, please just raise taxes so we can all go home!!”
As House Speaker Mike Madigan took questions from reporters after the House session, Trover tweeted: “The Speaker is the best spokesman for everything that is wrong in this state.”
* An e-mail sent to state employees by the administration…
The many important issues facing the State of Illinois require that all of us make every effort to be thoroughly informed.
The ongoing collective bargaining process is of particular interest - understandably so - given the contracts’ expiration date of June 30, 2015.
To provide a forum for all employees to raise questions and seek answers is one way that we can be better informed with timely and accurate information.
A new website will be available today and will be at http://www.illinois.gov/EmployeeFAQs.
The site will provide you the detail regarding how to submit questions and will be periodically updated with questions and their associated answers. We urge you to visit this site every few days to inform yourself and raise any concerns that you might have.
Welcome to the Illinois state employee Frequently Asked Questions website. The state recognizes that its employees may have concerns about a variety of issues. This website provides a forum for employees to raise questions and find answers about a variety of subjects, including labor issues, the state’s finances, and new policies that may have an impact on state employees.
All questions submitted by employees through this website will remain anonymous. In fact, employees can and should submit questions without providing their names. Thank you for your interest in the state.
State Finances & Economics
Q: Is the state truly facing a financial crisis?
A. Yes. Years of mismanagement have caused a financial crisis. When Governor Rauner took office, the state had nearly $6 billion in unpaid bills, a mid-year budget deficit of $1.5 billion, and over $100 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. Moreover, the state is now facing an over $3 billion hole in the budget the General Assembly recently passed for the upcoming fiscal year.
Contract Expiration – 6/30/15
Q: Will managers have to perform the jobs of union employees if those union employees strike?
A. The administration is negotiating with the unions in good faith and hopes all employees remain active and productive. That said, the state is developing plans to ensure continuity of services for any number of contingencies.
Q: Who makes the decision to strike? Can I abstain?
A. Most unions follow some process by which they request the union membership to vote to authorize their bargaining representatives to initiate a strike. You should familiarize yourself with the process your union follows. If the union initiates a strike, you still have the absolute right to remain at work or return to work.
Ten years ago, I invited a wounded warrior from Walter Reed Army Medical Center to join me in the Capitol for the State of the Union address. Her name was Tammy Duckworth.
Now, my friend, Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth is running to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate in an amazing journey from the battlefields of Iraq to the campaign battleground in Illinois.
Tammy is no stranger to tough challenges, but to win this race, she is going to need our full support. Join me in backing Tammy’s campaign for U.S. Senate by contributing today. […]
From the beginning, Tammy impressed me with her determination to overcome adversity and her commitment to her brothers and sisters in uniform.
It wasn’t long after I met her that she was calling me about problems facing other wounded soldiers and combat veterans at Walter Reed. So eventually, I encouraged her to run for Congress so that she could better advocate for veterans and for working families.
She’s already doing a terrific job, working to help veterans find jobs and access mental health care, and standing up for working families on issues like protecting Medicare and making college more affordable.
The incumbent in this race is already running television ads — 18 months before the election! Tammy needs our help to catch up.
Illinois families deserve a champion like Tammy Duckworth fighting for them in the U.S. Senate. Contribute $5 now to support her campaign.
The timing of Durbin’s endorsement is an extra boost. At the end of March, Duckworth announced her bid to replace Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill. Since then, competition in the March 2016 Democratic primary surfaced.
Andrea Zopp, who is leaving as Urban League chief and Chicago Board of Education member, also is running, with a formal announcement coming in July or August, her campaign said.
I asked Zopp for her reaction to the Durbin move, and she noted that his endorsement was no surprise.
* Remember when Sen. Mark Kirk refused to endorse Durbin’s Republican opponent last year? Well…
Kevin Artl, Kirk’s campaign manager, said in statement that Durbin “is once again choosing political party over Illinois. By hand-picking Sen. Kirk’s opponent, he abandons the bipartisan partnership that they have cultivated on behalf of our state and has delivered a real blow to Illinois.”
* The ILGOP piles on…
“It is clear that Dick Durbin’s endorsement of Tammy Duckworth’s fledgling campaign is a reflection of growing concern among Washington powerbrokers about her candidacy. Duckworth is not an independent voice because she is beholden to insiders in Chicago and the nation’s capital. Senator Mark Kirk is a thoughtful, reform-minded leader who speaks for all Illinois citizens,” said Nick Klitzing, Executive Director of the Illinois Republican Party.
The Republicans are attempting to cause as much trouble for Duckworth as they can because they apparently fear her more than Zopp.
“I don’t know of any bill that actually passed that’s more important to the business community,” says Illinois Chamber of Commerce chief Todd Maisch, whose group was one of several business and labor organizations that backed the measure. “We’ve been pushing this for 10 years.”
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, and Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook, deals with something known as Prevention of Significant Deterioration permits. According to the chamber, 41 other states, including all of those around Illinois, now have state-run PSD programs. The bill allows Illinois to do the same, “putting the state on a level playing field with other states,” by adopting federal regulations as state rules.
There were some changes in wording during the legislative process, and those were enough to get green groups to drop their opposition, says the Environmental Law & Policy Center’s Howard Learner. For instance, the state rules can be more stringent than the federal standards, and those who object to proposed rules will more easily be able to intervene in court or appeals process.
Nekritz notes that Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office also was actively involved in developing the bill. “Everyone negotiated,” she puts it—despite the “bigger picture” battles over the budget, pensions and other matters.
Several fronts saw significant progress this year. This is only one.
In Steve Reinboldt’s 1970 high school yearbook, wrestling coach Dennis Hastert wrote that Steve was his “great, right hand man” as the student equipment manager of the Yorkville, Illinois wrestling team.
But Steve was also a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of Hastert, Steve’s sister said today in an interview with ABC News. It is the first time an alleged Hastert victim has been identified by name since his indictment for lying to the FBI and violating federal banking laws to cover-up past misconduct. Hastert, due in court next week, has not responded to the allegations.
In an emotional interview, Steve Reinboldt’s sister Jolene said she first learned of her late brother’s purported years-long sexual abuse at the hands of the future Speaker of the House back in 1979 when her brother revealed to her that he was gay and had been out of high school for eight years.
“I asked him, when was your first same sex experience. He looked at me and said, ‘It was with Dennis Hastert,’” Jolene said. “I was stunned.”
Jolene said she asked her brother why he never told anyone. “And he just turned around and kind of looked at me and said, ‘Who is ever going to believe me?’” […]
“He took his belief in himself and his kind of right to be a normal person,” Jolene said. “Here was the mentor, the man who was, you know, basically his friend and stepped into that parental role, who was the one who was abusing him… He damaged Steve I think more than any of us will ever know.”
There’s so much more. Click here if you can stomach it.
He was a manager of the wrestling team that Hastert coached, the AP found. He was also manager of the football team, student council president and a member of the pep club, letterman’s club, the French club and the yearbook staff. […]
Burdge said her brother told her about his past with Hastert in 1979, after she graduated high school, but never brought his story out into the open because he feared “nobody would believe him.” […]
Burdge considered telling her brother’s story in 2006, as a scandal involving Rep. Mark Foley unfolded. Foley, a Florida Republican, was discovered sending inappropriate emails and sexually explicit instant messages to former House pages while Hastert was speaker. Burdge spoke briefly with news outlets, including the AP, but she ultimately decided against coming forward with a statement at that time. Hastert stepped down in 2007.
By the end of 2006, the House Ethics Committee put out a 200-plus page report indicating that Hastert, his aides and others had failed to take sufficient steps to put a stop to Foley’s long-standing overtures to current and former House pages.
Hastert was singled out for not acting on warnings about Foley’s emails — cautions delivered separately to him by two GOP officials in spring 2006. That was months before media attention on the sexually charged electronic communications Foley sent to former pages led to Foley’s resignation. The warnings came after top Hastert aides were told Foley was behaving inappropriately with male pages, the report said. […]
The committee, in a 200-page report issued in December 2006, found the “weight of the evidence” supported the conclusion that Hastert was told, at least in passing, by both Boehner and Reynolds about Foley’s worrisome emails.
“In all, a pattern of conduct was exhibited among many individuals to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences” of Foley’s conduct with pages, the report said.
In the worst of his personal scenarios, Rauner does not run for a second term.
He goes back to one of his seven homes and two ranches. He pops open one of those exclusive bottles of California wine as his friends pat him on the back for giving it his all.
That sounds like a damn good alternative for a man with little to lose.
Rauner knows that.
So does Madigan.
Yeah, and what folks are failing to realize is that Madigan may be willing to “help along” that very scenario: Make Rauner’s life so miserable that he leaves office after a single term.
Something to think about while everyone seems to be cheerleading for war.
Sen. Mark Kirk R-Ill. is donating $10,000 former House Speaker Dennis Hastert R-Ill. contributed to his 2010 Senate fund to a Waukegan charity. […]
Hastert sent the $10,000 to Kirk through his political action fund, “Keep Our Mission PAC.” Kirk’s Senate campaign fund will send the money to Family First.
The DSCC turned up the heat on Kirk and two other senators who took Hastert contributions, Sen. John Boozeman R-Ar. and Sen. Roy Blunt R-Mo. and were aiming to play hardball over the Hastert donation.
“Mark Kirk should return or donate Denny Hastert’s money immediately,” said Sadie Weiner, DSCC National Press Secretary in a statement. “Kirk has taken $10,000 from Denny Hastert who is just the latest Republican Speaker of the House to face serious charges about corruption and misconduct, and until Kirk returns the funds he is giving his tacit approval to these bad actions.”
* That action has prompted the DCCC to demand that GOP Congressman Rodney Davis jettison his Hastert money…
“After refusing to donate money from Aaron Schock’s shady coffers, as well as refusing to cooperate with ongoing ethics investigations, with Hastert’s contributions Congressman Davis now is the recipient of funds from two disgraced former members of the House Republican caucus,” said DCCC spokeswoman Sacha Haworth. “How long will it take for Rodney Davis to come out of the Washington shadows and return these dirty donations?”
Davis received a mere $2,000, but that money could make more problems than it’s worth for him.
* I met Emma not long ago and found her to be very intelligent, bright and quite politically aware for someone her age (or any age, for that matter). She’s also a regular reader of the blog, so go check this out…
Emma Todd, then a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Tulsa, found herself seriously contemplating suicide, again. This time, the Springfield native had made her way to the top of a building. She wanted to jump, but someone stopped her. “I have been extremely lucky. A lot of people aren’t; a lot of people kill themselves,” she says.
Todd struggles with depression, and for much of her young life, body dysmorphic disorder has been a part of that. It’s a mental disorder in which an individual sees his or her body as defective, and at times some people dissociate from their bodies completely. Todd is transgender, and she’s not alone in her feelings.
In 2011, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality published a first-of-its-kind report on discrimination and challenges faced by transgender people. It found that 41 percent of respondents had attempted suicide at some point in their lives. Discrimination is seen in nearly every facet of life — from education to health care to work and relationships. The same study found that of the respondents who had come out as trans in K-12 school, 78 percent reported having been harassed. Respondents dealt with extreme poverty — the sample was four times more likely to live on $10,000 or less per year than the overall population, and they faced double the rate of unemployment. Transgender people face higher risk of physical and sexual abuse. Nineteen percent of respondents reported domestic violence as a direct result of their gender identity. Respondents were more likely to turn to drugs and prostitution than the overall population. For trans people of color, the situation is even grimmer.
In Illinois, transgender individuals have more protections than many other states. According to the Transgender Law & Policy Institute, Illinois is one of 19 states, plus Washington, D.C., that have laws prohibiting discrimination based on someone’s gender identity or expression. But there’s still a push by activists and legislators to enact policies they say would better the quality of life for transgender people.
Todd, now 20, says about her gender: “I was uncomfortable since about the time I was probably 4 or 5 or so. I suppose that’s the earliest I remember it at least … I had felt extremely uncomfortable with my body.” By the time she was 15, Todd knew there was a word for what she was feeling. She had found a forum online for transgender people to share experiences. “For the first time, I felt like there was someone who understood what I was going through.”
This is not a usual topic for this blog, but we should all remember the human faces on the abstract issues we often discuss. So, go read the whole thing and please be respectful in comments. Thanks.
House Democrats engage in sexist smear campaign
to deflect from own failures
Ignore Democrat Legislative Staff Compensation topping $300k Taking a pay raise, while trying to raise taxes on hardworking Illinoisans Fail to explain why budget doesn’t cut General Assembly
SPRINGFIELD - In an effort to distract from their own pay raises, refusal to cut their own budget or that of other Democratic officeholders and passage of a phony state budget with a $4 billion hole, Illinois Democrats today sought to smear the reputation of one of Illinois’ leading educators before a House committee.
“It is clear that politicians controlled by Mike Madigan will stop at nothing to distract from what they’re doing in Springfield,” Governor Rauner Spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said. “Instead of stopping their own pay increase, instead of cutting their own General Assembly budget and instead of passing an honest, balanced state budget, they are engaging in a sexist smear campaign to tarnish the reputation of a woman who has dedicated her life to improving education for children in this state and makes less in total compensation than the men who lead the offices of the House Speaker and Senate President.”
House Democrats recently passed an out of balance budget that keeps level funding for the General Assembly, the Attorney General and the Secretary of State while cutting the Governor and the Comptroller by 10 percent.
Furthermore, the committee refuses to address some of the highest paid staff of the General Assembly - some topping the $300,000 mark.
* The accompanying chart…
* More…
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
Gov. Rauner Deputy Chief of Staff Richard Goldberg House Appropriations Committee on Human Services June 4, 2015
Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee -
Beth Purvis is the one of the most accomplished women I have ever met. A Doctorate in early childhood special education, Beth has devoted her life to bettering the world for future generations. Across Illinois, across America, around the world - Beth is a respected education and cradle-to-career expert who is sought after for her wisdom, leadership and counsel.
Put simply, Governor Rauner recruited a superstar to be in his cabinet. To bring a new approach to how the state treats education and child development. Beth’s philosophy is simple: every agency, every program, every taxpayer dollar that touches a child’s life should be coordinated to support a cradle-to-career approach for each new generation.
As this committee knows well, early childhood education and a range of other programs that touch child development are housed at the Department of Human Services. The Board of Education, Board of Higher Ed, Community College Board and Student Assistance Commission play critical roles as well.
It’s no secret that Governor Rauner puts the issue of education at the top of his priority list. It’s also no secret that, for too many years, Illinois has been failing kids when it comes to education.
So it should be no surprise that a new governor dedicated to turning around education would recruit a superstar like Beth Purvis for his cabinet.
Now I want to make a couple of points that everyone on this committee knows to be true.
First - paying top administration personnel out of agencies is not new. This is a standard practice of every administration. And when you compare this administration’s IGA personnel costs to the previous administration, Governor Rauner comes in more than $500,000 under Governor Quinn on spending.
Second - and I think in the 21st century when we think the days of double standards are behind us - I am deeply troubled by a hearing targeting a highly successful, highly respected woman in our administration when the male staff of the Democratic leadership makes as much or more in compensation. I want to be clear - I am not here to criticize their pay or their professionalism - I’ve worked with them and find them to be utmost professionals. But I will not sit by and watch you berate and belittle an incredibly successful woman like Beth, when those who control this Committee refuse to look in the mirror.
Third, I would point out the deep hypocrisy in attacking the pay of administration personnel when the career politicians who run the General Assembly refuse to cut their own budget or stop their own pay increases.
The out of balance budget you passed keeps level funding for the GA, the Attorney General and the Secretary of State while cutting the Governor and the Comptroller by 10 percent. We are willing to do our part - why won’t you?
Separately, as you know, legislation is required to stop the automatic pay increases legislators receive every year. Leader Durkin and Leader Radogno have introduced legislation to stop this pay increase but the majority refuses to pass that. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee - if this hearing was anything more than a charade to distract the public from your phony $4 billion out of balance budget, you’d have already passed that bill and sent it to the governor’s desk
Let’s call this hearing what it is. A desperate attempt to distract the public from your phony unbalanced budget and your demand to raise taxes without reform — all at the expense of a talented woman who has earned her pay and position.
Let’s end this hearing now and use the time to get back to the negotiating table to deliver a balanced budget and real reform for the people of Illinois.
Illinois House members will return to Springfield on Thursday and are scheduled to take up a workers’ compensation reform bill.
But even before lawmakers arrive in town, Gov. Bruce Rauner said the bill doesn’t go far enough.
“Our team has very quickly reviewed it,” Rauner said. “I’m sad to say that based upon that review, it’s not real reform. It’s more of the same, more of a phony reform, more of an insignificant reform. We’ve seen this movie before.”
Rather than being an attempt at compromise, Rauner said, the proposed bill will actually cost businesses more in some cases.
* From Lance Trover…
“Unsurprisingly, Speaker Madigan has proposed phony reforms in any effort to protect his special interest allies. His proposal ignores the most important reforms we need for our worker’s compensation system, and in another instance, could actually undermine previous reform efforts. Sadly, this is exactly the type of unserious, political posturing Illinoisans have now come to expect from the Speaker and the politicians he controls. Illinois needs real reform.”
* From the business lobby…
Illinois job creators have consistently called for comprehensive and meaningful reform of the Workers’ Compensation Act that will significantly reduce costs for employers – private and public sector - while protecting the rights of legitimately injured workers and ensuring their access to quality health care. Despite the 2011 reforms, Illinois still has the 7th highest cost of workers’ compensation in the United States and it is consistently cited as one of the primary reasons that companies move out of state or choose not to invest capital and grow jobs in Illinois.
“For House amendments 5, 6, and 7 to HB 1287, we are asking all House lawmakers to vote “No” since these amendments will result in zero savings for employers and likely increase the cost of workers’ compensation.
Amendment 5 simply codifies current law and doubles down on the bad ideas that have been thrust upon Illinois employers by our Courts. Amendment 6 will dramatically increase litigation for employers. Amendment 7 does nothing to decrease workers’ compensation costs, it only duplicates and adds additional regulation on employers.
Illinois employers stand ready to work with leaders on both sides of the aisle.”
Associated Builders & Contractors
Chemical Industry Council of Illinois
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce
Home Builders Association of Illinois
Illinois Chamber of Commerce
Illinois Coal Association
Illinois Construction Industry Committee
Illinois Manufacturers’ Association
Illinois Municipal League
Illinois Retail Merchants Association
Illinois Self-Insurers Association
Illinois Trucking Association
Midwest Equipment Dealers Association
Mid-West Truckers Association
National Federation of Independent Business
Technology & Manufacturing Association
* The Illinois Manufacturers Association was more pointed. Here’s it’s analysis…
1) Codify Venture-Newberg – travel must be required or directed by employer or the course or method of travel must be determined by the employer.
Agree but the Democrat language does not fully codify the court case. Since 2007, Illinois Appellate Courts have made seven major rulings dramatically expanding the scope of a “traveling employee.” In the December 2013 in the Venture-Newberg case, the Illinois Supreme Court stepped in and restricted some of the Appellate Court expansion. Employers should not be held responsible for actions of employees engaged in activities out of their scope of employment.
2) Prohibit insurers from using repetitive injuries that occurred within 3 months of the start of employment to determine premiums.
This is part of a discussion that Democrats used in the working group. It seeks to address the issue that an employer is on the hook for repetitive motion injuries when first hiring an employee. However, rather than relieving the employer from paying the medical costs or award, this simply says that an insurer cannot use that information when calculating premiums. This does not address the fact that a hotel should not have to pay for a $100,000 cost of carpal tunnel injury for a maid that worked for only six weeks.
3) Provide greater transparency and oversight of workers’ compensation rates
• Provide for rate review and pre-approval of rates
• Require insurers to justify deviations from advisory rates
• Make information concerning self-insureds available to the public
• Create a task force to look at the issue of premiums not reflecting NCCI recommended decreases (HJR 49)
This is the standard boiler plate talking points from trial lawyers and labor unions that seeks to shift blame rather than looking at why the cost of workers’ compensation is significantly higher in Illinois. Self-insured companies and governments do not use insurance companies so there is no reason why their information would need to be made public. Illinois has a competitive insurance market (health care, workers’ compensation, property & casualty) with generally low rates except for WC. It’s not because of insurance companies – it’s because of the law and court system. If it were truly the case that insurance companies were “gouging” businesses, then you would see a significant difference in WC costs between insured and self-insured companies.
4) Allow the last employer responsible for providing workers’ compensation to seek contributions from prior employers to the extent they contributed to an employer’s injury
Again, this proposal does not help the last employer who still has to pay 100 percent of all medical and indemnity payments to the injured worker. It actually hurts the employer, especially small and mid sized companies who not only have to pay the WC award, they have to hire an attorney to chase previous employers for potential reimbursement.
Democrats led by House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton have said the budget can be balanced with a tax increase, but Rauner wants a property tax freeze, worker compensation reform, terms limits and other business-friendly changes designed to promote job growth.
“It’s devastating to know that he is trying to do this to working families,” Phelps said. “His budget was out of whack, as well. We had to do something so government wouldn’t shut down. I am hoping he doesn’t want government to shut down, because I don’t.”
Rauner spokesman Lance Trover fired back that it was Democrats who have put the state in a fiscal crisis, forcing the governor to take drastic action to balance spending.
“Rep. Phelps continues to empower Speaker Madigan and vote for his unbalanced budgets, which have plunged Illinois into a $10 billion hole,” Trover said in an emailed response. “Gov. Rauner is working to shake up Springfield while protecting the middle class, not the political class of special interests supported by Rep. Phelps and Speaker Madigan.”
Remember when Rod Blagojevich called Phelps’ neighboring Democratic legislator John Bradley a Madigan-loving “wall flower?” Rep. Bradley used it to his advantage. But Blagojevich didn’t put 3,000 gross ratings points a week behind that message.
* And speaking of Madigan and RRB, read this by News-Gazette columnist Jim Dey, which was shared with reporters by the Rauner press office today…
Madigan said that Rauner’s reluctance to do things the Speaker’s way bears a resemblance to the governance style of the now-imprisoned Rod Blagojevich, the former Democratic governor.
But Blago was a Democrat Madigan supported twice (2002 and 2006) for election as governor, while Rauner is a Republican Madigan tried to defeat. And didn’t Madigan serve as an honorary re-election committee co-chairman for Blago in 2006, when it was clear to anyone paying attention that Blago was a serial felon begging to be indicted? […]
Power is divided, so compromise will be required. Madigan is trying to shove his “let’s-compromise-and do-it-my-way” approach down Rauner’s throat. Rauner isn’t swallowing it […]
Those who are happy with the way things are now in Illinois should be pulling for Madigan. Those who think the state has lost its way and must change need to get behind Rauner.
* The Rauner team also sent around this Sun-Times editorial, which asks “Who’s the real middle class champion?” and then answers…
Who is the real champion of the middle class? A Legislature seemingly bent on playing the same old game that has driven Illinois into the ground? Or a governor… who understands that Illinois is in desperate need of more fundamental reform?
If the Legislature does not work with Gov. Rauner, our state is in for nothing but further decline.
That goes both ways, of course, but having lived through the Blagojevich wars, I really don’t want to see another knock-down, drag-out fight.
* The Rauner folks haven’t yet sent out this editorial from the SJ-R, however…
Understandably, Rauner doesn’t want to walk away from his first legislative session looking like a failure. But his leadership skills in a government setting need some work. Months of tough talk, calling lawmakers corrupt and threatening them with his hefty war chest did nothing to help him advance his agenda.
Likewise, Democrats, who hold a super majority in the legislature, should have given serious consideration to at least a few of his proposed reforms long before now. Instead they drew a line in the sand and dug in their heels, even though a majority of voters sent Rauner to Springfield.
Illinoisans now are left to watch both sides volley blame via media interviews and hostile press releases instead of getting in a room together and identifying issues where they can help each other.
* This gaming bill gets heavier by the week. Two smallish “satellite” casinos with 400-600 gaming positions each are apparently in play…
The site being looked at in Southern Illinois is the Walker’s Bluff entertainment development in Carterville. It features a restaurant, winery, gift store and music venue. The first sign that Walker’s Bluff wanted to be a player in the casino talks came earlier this year when the company hired former state Rep. Dan Reitz, D-Steelville, in early April to serve as its lobbyist in the Capitol.
I’ve been to Walker’s Bluff. Wow, what a place. The owners have put a fortune into it. The grounds are definitely large enough to expand.
* The other spot they’re looking at is Decatur, but the mayor is dubious…
Decatur Mayor Mike McElroy said the city isn’t actively pursuing a casino. He said he only learned of the idea last week during a short telephone conversation.
“This call just comes to me out of the blue,” McElroy said. “We don’t say `no’ to anything. But I don’t think there is a snowball’s chance in hell.”
Illinois Democrats have scheduled a hearing on why Gov. Bruce Rauner’s education secretary is being paid from the state’s human services budget.
Lawmakers are expected to discuss Beth Purvis’ $250,000-per-year salary at a hearing Thursday in Springfield.
Documents obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times showed the money comes from human services, even though Purvis reports to Rauner’s office.
The Republican governor has recommended cutting millions from the agency’s budget for programs that deal with autism and burials for the indigent.
* From a press release…
State Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, announced the House Human Services Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing Thursday at the State Capitol on the $250,000 salary Gov. Bruce Rauner is paying his education secretary and why the money is paid from a state agency where the governor proposed deep funding reductions for the elderly and autistic children.
“This lucrative salary for the state’s head of education is paid by an agency where Governor Rauner recently eliminated funding for autistic children and after-school tutoring and wants to make further reductions that would drastically impact services for the frail, the elderly, children with disabilities and our most vulnerable citizens,” said Harris, who chairs the House Human Services Appropriations Committee. “Taxpayers and the families who stand to be seriously harmed by the governor’s slash-and-burn budget plan deserve an explanation. This six-figure salary buried within the Department of Human Services could go a long way toward helping to fund medical care services for the elderly, persons with disabilities, struggling families, autistic children or any number of other services provided through the department.”
Reports in March revealed Beth Purvis, tapped to be Rauner’s education secretary, would receive a $250,000 taxpayer-funded salary, more than double what her predecessors received. Then last week, following a Freedom of Information Act request, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Purvis’ salary was coming not from the governor’s office allotment or from the State Board of Education, but from the Department of Human Services.
Three weeks after Purvis’ contract was signed in March, Rauner announced $26 million in cuts to human services programs, including funding for autistic children. In unveiling his budget in February, Rauner proposed massive cuts to in-home care for senior citizens, homeless children, and breast and cervical cancer screening for women, while completely eliminating funding for after-school programs, homelessness prevention and services for children with developmental disabilities.
The House hearing follows a letter from Harris, delivered to the governor last week, in which Harris pointed out the human services budget cuts Rauner proposed. Rauner’s office, the Department of Human Services and the State Board of Education have been invited to testify at the hearing.
“We understand cuts will have to be a part of a balanced budget, but for the governor to pay someone a six-figure taxpayer-funded salary at the same time he’s planning to devastate critical services to vulnerable residents is unacceptable and completely out of touch,” Harris said. “What’s more, this game of hide-and-seek with his education secretary’s salary shows that the governor is not the change he promised. It’s more of the same business as usual that people are fed up with.”
The House Human Services Appropriations Committee will meet Thursday at 11 a.m. in Room 118 of the Capitol.
This is exactly the sort of thing we can look forward to for the foreseeable future as the overtime session drags on.
* John Kass wants Gov. Bruce Rauner to wage an all-out war against House Speaker Michael Madigan beyond some TV ads. For instance, Kass notes that Joe Berrios will have to win his ward committeeman’s race to remain the county’s party chairman…
Berrios belongs to Boss Madigan, and the boss doesn’t like it when people see a chink in his armor. Madigan needs Berrios. And that’s where Rauner and company could make a play. They could quietly drop some cash on Democrat candidates to challenge Berrios.
And later, with commercials, they can make the low-key but vitally important post of Cook County assessor into a high-profile race. Republicans could turn that assessor’s race into a referendum of taxpayers against the Boss Madigan and his cronies.
Berrios is gonna have big problems with legit party members unhappy with his reign, but there’s no reason those folks couldn’t receive a bit of help from Team Rauner.
* Kass also wants Rauner to go nuclear on Madigan’s property tax law business. Madigan, as we all know, represents a sizable portion of the city’s downtown real estate owners…
I wonder how Madigan would feel if those wealthy Republican landowners changed lawyers? I don’t know if they have the guts to defy him. And you run risks when you cross the Rubicon.
But no one ever said that Illinois politics was a game.
Chicago’s future as a growing center for film and TV production could quickly fade to black unless Springfield’s budget war eases and crucial state tax credits are restored, industry sources are warning.
Gov. Bruce Rauner announced [Tuesday] that he will “defer application approvals” for any new film credits, which entitle a producer to receive up to 30 percent of qualified in-state expenditures. The freeze won’t be lifted until the GOP governor and majority Springfield Democrats resolve budget and related matters.
The freeze apparently won’t apply to continuing TV shows that are headed into new seasons, including “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago P.D.” and “Empire.” But a rumored medical show from “Fire” and “P.D.” producer Dick Wolf may be on the block. And it’s not clear if Spike Lee’s much-discussed new film “Chiraq” will be caught in the freeze. […]
“Hollywood and the film industry are a pretty skittish lot,” one that had to be lured here even though the industry was partially founded here a century ago, [Matthew Irvine, director of the School of Cinematic Arts at DePaul University] added. “It won’t take much to scare them off.”
To set your mind at ease, Illinois Film Office director Christine Dudley has made it known that all existing approved applications will continue to be processed, issued and transferred and that the statue is still in full effect.
New applications will not be processed, however, until this issue is resolved. Dudley encourages filmmakers to continue to file applications, although their approval will be deferred, reports Mark Androw, AICP/Midwest chapter president
The application process applies to all film genres that are eligible to receive a 30% Illinois tax credit on their projects. TV shows “Empire,” “Chicago PD” and “Chicago Fire” are safely set for the new seasons. However, funders of two entertainment projects backed out and left Illinois upon hearing the news.
* I had a couple of things to do this morning, so I’m kinda getting a late start on the blog. Let’s begin with some righteous music. This one’s for my grandma, who passed away a year ago…
