Speaker Michael J. Madigan, D-Chicago, is directing the House Revenue committee to take up a Democratic Caucus proposal to reinstate a key tax credit for employers who create jobs in Illinois.
In a letter to state Rep. Michael Zalewski, chairman of the House Revenue and Finance Committee, Madigan requested the panel begin work to reinstate the Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) Tax Credit, a key component of the Democratic Caucus’ economic growth agenda.
“House Democrats know that Illinois must take serious steps to improve the business climate and create job opportunities, and we continue working on a reform agenda that promotes job growth without disadvantaging the people who work in those jobs every day,” Madigan said. “Businesses deserve the certainty of knowing that the state will stand with them as they work to create new jobs here in Illinois. By investing in businesses that invest in Illinois, the EDGE Tax Credit is essential to improving our business climate.”
The EDGE Tax Credit provides an incentive for employers who create a significant number of jobs in Illinois. The renewal of the tax credit was recently cited by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce as a key reform Illinois could undertake to help revitalize the economy.
“The House Democratic Caucus believes that it is possible to provide good jobs for working families while also passing policies that help businesses grow,” Madigan said. “These ideas are not mutually exclusive; in fact they’re both critical to the future of our state.”
The governor and the GA let the program expire at the end of last year and then reinstated it for a few months earlier this month. If this was the plan all along, they could’ve just made it permanent earlier.
Amends the State Designations Act. Repeals the following State designations: State bird; State insect; official language; State mineral; State tree and flower; State animal; State fish; State prairie grass; State vegetable; State fruit; State fossil; State artifact; State folk dance; State theatre; State soil; State snackfood; State amphibian; State reptile; State tartan; and State pie.
* The Question: Your thoughts on this proposed legislation?
As AFSCME leadership conducts its campaign for strike authorization, we will continue to provide accurate information and clarify any confusion that employees bring to our attention.
On that note, we learned yesterday of what appears to be a troublesome attempt to discourage voting by those who are inclined to vote against a strike. We learned that some union representatives were telling employees that not participating in the strike vote would be the equivalent of a “no” vote. However, a week ago AFSCME’s spokesperson said, “a vote of more than 50 percent of those voting would grant the bargaining committee the authorization to call a strike if necessary.”
Based on that statement, what the reps were saying yesterday is wrong. We hope the union confirms that by not voting, you have no say in the strike authorization decision.
The decision to vote is yours and yours alone, and we will respect your choice either way. Our obligation is to make sure you have accurate information. To that end, please continue to reach out with questions and concerns and refer to the Labor Relations link on team.illinois.gov.
Sincerely,
JT
John Terranova
Deputy Director
CMS Office of Labor Relations
Emphasis added because that’s a pretty serious allegation.
* From Anders Lindall at AFSCME Council 31…
The truth is plain and simple: We want every AFSCME member to vote, and they’re doing so by the thousands right now.
If the Rauner administration would seek compromise instead of spreading misinformation, we’d be at the bargaining table.
The government needs to move quickly, [Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley] told a large gathering of wealthy conservative and libertarian donors gathered in California, to send power back to the states and deregulate the economy. The problem is how slowly Washington, D.C. moves, and how the administration is tied up in bureaucracy. But if states, which know which regulations affect them hardest, sue, that would give the feds the power to simply settle and withdraw the reg.
“If a state would bring a suit against a regulation, it gives the federal government the opportunity to withdraw that regulation.”
This, he told donors and reporters, “will give the government the ability to move quickly on deregulation.” […]
“I like President [George W.] Bush but… look, they screwed it up,” Rauner told attendees, echoing a common center-right gripe that Bush did not do enough to decentralize government. “Send power back to the states.”
OK, but what are you gonna do with that power, governor? I mean, dude, you can’t even pass a budget with your reforms.
* As I told you yesterday, the Pantagraph’s parent company just shut down its Statehouse bureau. I’m assuming we’ll see lots more oopsies like these in the coming weeks and months, if they even bother covering the Statehouse at all.
Buried among the facts and figures in the Justice Department’s recent book-length report on the failings of the Chicago Police Department was a telling statistic: The rate of suicide among CPD officers is 60 percent higher than other departments across the U.S.
Among the ranks of the nearly 10,000 patrol officers of the CPD, an average of three officers will take their own lives each year, according to life insurance claims information from the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, the union representing the bulk of the department’s sworn officers.
In the past decade, 13 officers have been killed in the line of duty. Nearly twice as many officers died by their own hand during the same span.
Ron Rufo was a peer support counselor for most of his 21 years as a patrolman in the 9th District, volunteering to talk to his fellow officers at any scene where an officer was killed or injured. Rufo, who retired a little more than a year ago, estimates the number of his former peers who kill themselves each year could be double the FOP figure.
“There is a problem, and nobody’s doing anything about it,” Rufo said. “Supervisors don’t talk about it. The rank-and-file don’t talk about it. And it’s like the administration does not want to admit it’s a problem.”
* From a Republican pal regarding the fight over Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s legal motion to stop paying employees without a formal appropriation…
I’m not sure I buy the theory that this is going to take away Rauner’s leverage… I think he’d rather not shut it down, but if it has to be done, he’ll let it happen and blame Speaker Madigan for it.
After House Democrats ignored the will of the people by electing Mike Madigan to a 17th term as Speaker, it’s clear the only way we will stop the Madigan Machine is by ousting the politicians that give Madigan his power.
This means taking the case directly to the voters.
That’s why today, the Illinois Republican Party is launching the first phase of its “Drop the Mike” campaign, highlighting how Madigan and his prospective Gubernatorial candidates are working for the Chicago machine and against the people.
» Revenue-sharing agreements that fuel excessive local spending, such as the Local Government Distributive Fund – for counties and cities with populations above 5,000 – and the Downstate Transit Fund. (Savings: $1.75 billion)
» State pension subsidies that allow districts and universities to dole out higher pay, end-of-career salary hikes and pensionable perks. Going forward, local school districts and universities should be responsible for paying the annual (normal) cost of pensions. (Savings: higher education: $450 million; K-12: $970 million)
» Special carve-outs in the state’s education funding formula that grant subsidies to a select few school districts affected by local property tax caps and special economic zones. (Savings: $250 million)
So, whack the LDF, transfer pension costs to schools and universities and cut Chicago’s school funding.
Reform costly state mandates imposed on local governments such as prevailing wage requirements and collective bargaining rules. Ease the process for government consolidation and other cost-saving measures. (Local government savings: $2 billion-$3 billion)
Right. Yeah.
* It also wants a 10 percent reduction in the number of state employees and implementation of Gov. Rauner’s contract terms, for a claimed savings of $500 million for each point.
The group wants to cut higher education spending by $500 million a year. It would cut Medicaid spending by $415 million.
» Phases in the costs of any pension funds’ actuarial changes over a five-year period. This will reduce the required $800 million increase in state contributions by nearly $650 million in 2018.
» Creates a new contribution schedule with a 2018 payment that is $1 billion less than baseline contributions. That will protect overburdened Illinoisans from
tax hikes and allow the state to prioritize funding for social services.
As her first act on the Senate Government Reform Committee, Senator Heather Steans (D-Chicago) introduced legislation to close the revolving door between state government employees, officials and lobbying firms.
“It is high time that we strengthen ethics laws in Illinois and tighten regulations on the revolving door,” Steans said. “The General Assembly last passed revolving door reforms nearly 10 years ago. While those acts were undoubtedly progress, elected officials and state employees should not be able to immediately translate relationships built on state time into lobbying connections upon leaving public service.”
Senate Bill 615 requires employees and officials to wait one year after leaving a position with the state before accepting a position or compensation for lobbying state government. The legislation also bans state employees and officials from negotiating employment terms or compensation from lobbying entities while employed or serving as an appointee of the state.
“SB 615 restricts legislators and state employees from lobbying for at least one year after their departure from state government, bringing Illinois in line with a majority of other states who restrict this kind of activity,” said Sarah Brune, executive director of Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. “This legislation is an important step in closing the revolving door of state government in Illinois and encouraging openness and transparency in the political process.”
(1) the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, State Treasurer, and State Comptroller;
(2) Chiefs of Staff for officials described in item (1);
(3) Cabinet members of any elected constitutional officer, including Directors, Assistant Directors and Chief Legal Counsel or General Counsel;
(4) Members of the General Assembly; and
(5) Members of any board, commission, authority, or task force of the State authorized or created by State law or by executive order of the Governor.
Legislators in particular should not be allowed to negotiate employment terms with lobbying entities while in office. It defies common sense.
…Adding… It probably should be noted that the governor’s executive order from 2015 did some of this as well. But Rauner didn’t bar his people from working for lobbying entities for a year, like this proposal does. He just barred them from actively lobbying the governor’s part of the executive branch.
Caterpillar Inc. has scrapped plans to build a new office complex in Downtown Peoria and will move its global headquarters to the Chicago area by the end of the year.
The upper echelon of executives, including newly installed CEO Jim Umpleby, will begin relocating later this year, with up to 100 employees total moving by year’s end. About 300 employees will work in the new office at an as-yet undecided location once the transition is complete. […]
The [company’s restructuring] contributed to $2.3 billion in savings in 2016, but sales and revenue for last year still were more than 40 percent below peak levels of 2012. Umpleby said that decline is a fundamental reason the company’s Board of Directors opted to move global headquarters to an area where the global marketplace is in easier reach. […]
“I understand it is a big deal, and it is not a decision that we made lightly. As we step back and looked at what is most important, what’s most important for us is to get Caterpillar growing again and for us to make the company successful,” Umpleby said. “And I clearly recognize it will be disappointing, it will be tough. This is not easy. I clearly recognize that. But again I think it’s the right thing for Caterpillar to do in the long term.”
* The same thing happened with ADM not too long ago. Execs want to live in or next to a big city, with big city amenities and access to transportation hubs. From the Peoria paper’s interview with the CEO…
We have decided to locate a small, lean headquarters team, a team of senior executives, in the Chicago area to have better access to flights. About two-thirds of our business over the last five years has come from outside the United States. We see a lot of growth coming in the international markets, and we believe that speed and agility for our senior leadership team to be able to travel around the globe is very important. I do want to emphasize that the vast majority of our employees in Peoria will not be relocated. And again, both of these decisions, although they seem related, are independent decisions. They’re very much focused on allowing Caterpillar to grow and prosper again. […]
I suspect we’ll start with 100 employees, probably less by the end of the year. And when this new office is up and running, it will probably be around approximately 300 employees. One thing I want to make clear is we’re not moving the top 300 people to Chicago. That’s not happening. Many officers will continue to be in Peoria. We’re talking about the executive office, maybe a couple of the vice presidents. It will be a small group, and then, as with any lean headquarters, there will be support staff around, including a few key finance functions, human resources and members from the legal department. […]
There will be more vice presidents in the Peoria area than there will be in our new location. We have over 12,000 employees in the Peoria area, and we’ll still consider Peoria our hometown. This is where we grew up, this is where our employees are. We’ll be here a lot, so you’ll see us knocking around town. It won’t be a situation where we’re gone. We’re not looking for a building the size of AB (the current Downtown Peoria headquarters) to fill up. We’re not going to build a building. We’re going to lease space in an existing building.
Caterpillar already has a footprint in the Chicago area. There are operations in LaGrange, Joliet and Aurora, though the company is considering ending manufacturing in Aurora.
The company also houses its digital and analytics team in the Merchandise Mart. But the new headquarters will not be at any of those locations, and the employees at the Merchandise Mart will not be moved to the new headquarters, wherever it is situated.
Caterpillar has 12,000 employees in Peoria, Potts said, “and that’s not going to change.” The central Illinois city “is still our hometown.”
* When we think of local government consolidation, we often think of schools or townships. But Illinois also has 1,299 incorporated cities, towns and villages…
Former police chief Craig Kennedy said Monday he wasn’t surprised and has no hard feelings about being laid off by the village of Jerome.
As part of cost reductions necessitated by a budget shortfall, Village President Mike Lopez said the police chief was let go Friday. Kennedy was paid $55,000 per year.
“I attend 99 percent of the village board meetings and watched the downturn in sales tax revenue and figured I would be the first to go,” said Kennedy, 57, who spent the past 15 years with the Jerome Police Department, including three as chief. […]
Earlier this month, The State Journal-Register reported that police officers in nearby Leland Grove had been covering shifts in Jerome due to what village officials described as a temporary manpower shortage.
The 2015 Census estimate puts Jerome’s population at 1,651.
Lopez said that village coffers have been hurt by late payments from the state on monies owed. For example, the village in December received checks from the state to pay for officers who participated last spring in seatbelt emphasis patrols, he said. […]
Sales tax revenue in Jerome is also down, Lopez said. While the opening of Hy-Vee on MacArthur Boulevard might have been good news for the City of Springfield, it has reduced spending at Shop ’n Save, one of the largest businesses in the village. On the other hand, gambling revenue has soared to as much as $7,000 a month, he said, but that money will likely tail off due to the number of video gaming machines that have been installed throughout the area. […]
The village this month ceased paying a portion of health care premiums for dependents of village employees, which will save nearly $23,000, Lopez said, and Jerome residents can expect other cutbacks.
* Finke on AFSCME’s strike authorization vote, which began yesterday…
But as [AFSCME Council 31 spokesman Anders Lindall] said, only members who are eligible to strike are eligible to vote. AFSCME represents about 38,000 state workers in Illinois. Of those, roughly 30,000 can strike. The others work security jobs at the Department of Corrections and Department of Juvenile Justice and are forbidden from striking. […]
Actual voting will take place at 700 work sites around the state, Lindall said. The idea is to make it as easy as possible to vote for as many members as possible.
“We’re trying to give people multiple opportunities (to vote),” he said. “We are putting a tremendous effort into the access to vote and also for the integrity of the vote. We are following federal labor board processes for security votes similar to a union-authorization election.”
Although votes can be cast at hundreds of locations, they will be counted at a central location, Lindall said. None of the votes will be counted until after the election is concluded. Voting is scheduled through Feb. 19, although union officials have said it could be extended a bit if necessary to accommodate all voters.
Sen. Dick Durbin on Monday called Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s motion to halt state employee pay without a budget a “bold move” that will force Gov. Bruce Rauner’s hand.
Durbin — who last year opted not to run for governor — told the Sun-Times the budget impasse, which he said has shredded a safety net and cut off care for the most disadvantaged, hasn’t been enough to create a force for compromise.
“I think what she’s saying is ‘Let’s face the reality.’ The [Illinois] Constitution says you can’t appropriate it. You can’t spend it unless it’s appropriated. And if she tests that, and it comes through, it’s going to force the hand of the governor as to whether or not that the things he’s insisting on are so important that it would create an even worse situation in our state,” Durbin said. […]
“It’s no surprise that Dick Durbin is spinning like a career politician,” state Republican Party spokesman Steven Yaffe said in an email. “Durbin knows ridiculous political attacks by Mike Madigan and the money men who fund his machine don’t work, but exposing the failure of Madigan’s decades of rule in Springfield does. Dick Durbin is unwilling and afraid to stand up to Mike Madigan. It’s why Durbin chose not to run.”
The Diminutive Daughter of the Diminutive Don of Illinois politics shook things up big time last week when she inserted herself into the 19-month-old state budget battle between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and her father, Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.
I heard this could be happening earlier today. The AG filed two motions the other day, one was to dissolve the preliminary injunction, but the other was a petition to intervene. The original defendant was Comptroller Munger, who retained her own counsel over the AG’s objections.
So, the governor’s position is that Comptroller Mendoza should retain her own lawyer, keep AG Madigan out of the case, and even if the judge decides to obey the Constitution and lifts the order that forces the comptroller to pay employees without an appropriation, Mendoza should just keep on paying them until Madigan convinces a judge to tell her to stop doing so. You gotta figure that they’ll then demand that Mendoza appeal it.
In other words, they want to delay doomsday as long as they possibly can while making AG Madigan pay the political price every step of the way. And if the comptroller doesn’t go along with the governor, they’ll make her pay the price, too.
I’ve asked the comptroller’s office and the AG’s office for a response.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From Abdon Pallasch at the comptroller’s office…
As the Comptroller said Thursday, the Governor could very easily end this court action by fulfilling his constitutional duty to propose a balanced budget, and then work with the General Assembly to get it passed into law.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Asked for a comment, AG Madigan’s spokesperson responded: “No thanks.”
Heh.
*** UPDATE 3 *** From the governor’s office…
Once again, Comptroller Mendoza was given an opportunity to stand with state employees and fight for their paychecks. Once again, she declined.
Like I said, they want her to pay an ongoing political price.
The Koch network plans to spend between $300 million to $400 million on policy and political campaigns during the 2018 election cycle.
Officials revealed the target budget at the start of a three-day donor summit at a resort here, indicating that they intend to continue expanding their reach at a time when Republicans control Congress and the White House. By comparison, the network spent about $250 million during the 2016 cycle on policy and political efforts.
The funds will be spread across a constellation of groups, including Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners Action Fund, along with Concerned Veterans for America, the Libre Initiative and Generation Opportunity, which now operate under the AFP banner.
Leaders from the groups said that they plan to focus on building up the capabilities of their grass-roots organization, which has boots on the ground in 36 states, and that the precise amount will depend on opportunities.
Whew, that’s a lot of dough. AFP in Illinois, perhaps the Illinois Policy Institute and who knows what other groups could make out like bandits with this push.
“While people in Illinois were being detained, Gov. Bruce Rauner was relaxing with fellow millionaires in Palm Springs,” said DGA Communications Director Jared Leopold. “The millions that Rauner is raising for the Koch brothers won’t do much to protect the people of Illinois from Donald Trump. Illinois voters deserve a governor who will stand up and fight for their values, not run off to Palm Springs in the middle of a crisis.”
* OK, first of all, not to defend the Koch brothers or anything, but they’re opposed to the travel ban…
The leaders of the conservative network aligned with billionaires Charles Koch and David Koch on Sunday said they opposed President Trump’s controversial ban on immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries.
“We believe it is possible to keep Americans safe without excluding people who wish to come here to contribute and pursue a better life for their families,” Brian Hooks, a co-chairman of the Kochs’ seminar network, said in a statement.
“The travel ban is the wrong approach and will likely be counterproductive,” Hooks added, saying it hinders a Koch goal of promoting a free and open society.
The statement marks the first public criticism of the Trump administration from the Kochs, who oversee one of the most influential outside operations in conservative politics with a staff, budget and voter-turnout operation that rivals the Republican Party.
* Secondly, most folks would presume that Rauner went out there to raise money from the Koch network, not to raise money for it. Not quite sure what to make of that yet. Any ideas?
Today marks the first day of AFSCME leadership’s campaign for strike authorization. The decision to vote in favor of a strike is a very serious choice and should not be done with incomplete (or worse, inaccurate) information. At CMS Labor Relations, we always strive to provide complete information to bargaining unit employees on all topics. You can visit team.illinois.gov to find answers to your many questions and to submit new ones. Our team stands ready to help in these challenging times.
We also prepared the attached one-page document that briefly summarizes why, in our view, a strike is not warranted. Although others may disagree, we believe a strike against the taxpayers is reckless.
We firmly believe that our last, best, and final proposal is one that is both reasonable and necessary given the State’s current fiscal condition. Twenty other unions have accepted substantially similar proposals. A lengthy strike will result in significant disruptions to striking workers’ pay, health insurance, and pension benefits, and risk disrupting the services to some of the taxpayers we have pledged to serve.
Of course, the decision to strike is yours and yours alone. We will respect whatever decision you make and hope the Union does likewise. We remain available to answer questions or provide information to ensure you are fully informed.
Sincerely,
JT
John Terranova
Deputy Director
CMS Office of Labor Relations
* From the attachment…
The State’s Proposal Is Reasonable and Necessary
· Employees continue to be among the best-paid in the nation: average total annual compensation, with benefits, is over $100,000
· Health insurance options allow employees to select what is best for them and their families
· Depending on the choice of health insurance plan, monthly premiums can be as low as zero (AFSCME falsely claims everyone’s premiums will double)
· Temporary pay freeze (not permanent, as AFSCME claims when it falsely says the State is permanently eliminating step increases)
· A merit incentive program that extends to all employees a plan similar to one successfully implemented for AFSCME-represented Lottery Sales Reps four years ago
· Additional safeguards against privatization, along the lines of what AFSCME has negotiated in its CBAs with employees in other States
· Retention of bumping rights during layoff
· Modest changes to overtime provisions without changing the work week you’ve always had
Potential Costs of a Strike Are Significant
· No pay during the strike
· No health insurance subsidy during the strike
· No credit towards pension benefits during the strike
· Average monthly cost to a striking employee is over $8,000
· No one knows how long a strike may be; whether employees strike or not, the State simply cannot afford AFSCME leadership’s demands of billions of dollars in additional pay and benefits during the four-year contract at issue
· Replacement workers can be hired to maintain services during a strike, and in some cases, those replacement workers may be permanent.
· In contrast, employees who cross the picket line continue to receive their pay and benefits and retain their same job protections—contrary to AFSCME’s claim, they do not become “at will”
A suburban lawmaker is pushing to make failing to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk a felony if it results in death or injury. The move was inspired by the death of a Mount Prospect mother of five.
State Rep. David Harris, an Arlington Heights Republican, tells me he attended meetings after the June 9 death of 55-year-old Joni Beaudry, who was struck and killed as she rode her bike through a Central Road crosswalk near Melas Park.
“One of the things that troubled me so much is that over the years we’ve emphasized the right of the pedestrian in the crosswalk,” Harris said. “But that’s just one side of it. … We’ve got to tell drivers, if you don’t do it, there’s a penalty.”
Currently, there are no penalties on the books for striking a pedestrian in a crosswalk, though drivers are penalized for reckless driving. Hanna Burzynska, 56, of Elk Grove Village, pleaded guilty to three different traffic violations for hitting Beaudry. Burzynska lost her license for a period of time and had to pay $364 in fines and court costs.
Learn something new every day. I had no idea there weren’t any specific penalties for hitting people in a crosswalk.
For a time, Frerichs was among Democrats being talked about as a possible candidate for governor, though that talk has waned as he hasn’t aggressively promoted himself.
He said he knows it sounds like a cliche, but he is focusing on his office.
“I like my job,” the Champaign resident said. “I’m looking at keeping that job.” And he added that speculation about who’s running for 2018 offices “does nothing to advance the ball” and “stories right now should be exclusively on the fact that the state doesn’t have a budget in place.”
He said he was hopeful that after the November election there could be real movement toward a budget.
“But I think what we’ve seen is people immediately start putting millions of dollars in campaign funds, creating websites and attacking people they’re supposed to be negotiating with,” Frerichs said, without specifically naming Gov. BRUCE RAUNER, who put $50 million in his own campaign fund after the election, and the state GOP, which during the veto session launched BossMadigan.com, designed to criticize House Speaker MICHAEL MADIGAN, D-Chicago, and people associated with him.
“You can guess who I’m talking about,” Frerichs said. “And I just don’t think that moves our state forward.”
Unlike our new comptroller, who has been bashing the governor for months, the treasurer has been almost mute about the governor for the past two years, avoiding direct conflict.
“What we saw emerge [Tuesday] in the suburbs exceeded our expectations. This race is being decided by tens of thousands of Rauner-Frerichs voters: independents in suburbs from Winnetka to Orland Park, from Waukegan to Joliet in the collar counties, and from Rock Island to deep Southern Illinois.”
The state has a record stack of unpaid bills that’s expected to hit $15 billion by July if nothing is done, and it must fork over interest when it’s late paying them. Putting a hard dollar figure on those interest costs is difficult, however.
A bipartisan budget-forecasting group says the state owes at least $370 million alone in interest on bills for state employee health care during the 18-month stalemate. The Democratic comptroller’s office estimates the state will have to pay $700 million on interest based on what it’s spending in the current budget year, a number more than twice the state’s previous high water mark. The Republican governor’s budget office declined to provide any estimate, saying it “cannot speculate” on future costs. […]
Rauner’s office has declined to put a figure on what the state will owe in interest due to the impasse. And until early December, Rauner was able to make that stick because the comptroller, Leslie Geissler Munger, would not provide an estimate either. Rauner appointed Munger to the job, but she lost to Democrat Susana Mendoza in the November election.
Mendoza’s office puts the state’s interest costs from this year’s budget at $700 million, acknowledging the ultimate figure is a “moving target” depending on how much more the state spends in the coming months.
The estimate is based in part on last year’s spending, when state government operated without a full budget but continued to spend money based on court orders, laws and spending agreements. Illinois is in a similar position this year, as a temporary six-month budget expired with the new year, once again leaving universities, social service providers and prisons without funding.
Not that I’m all that confident about this particular comptroller’s projections, but the governor’s budget office does cost projections all the time, so it’s kinda weird that they won’t do projections on this topic.
The 2016 court ruling puts the attorney general in a position to force the state to stop paying workers, since lawmakers haven’t passed a bill funding state-worker salaries. If the attorney general gets her way, state workers will go without pay until the General Assembly passes an appropriations bill. This could put pressure on state lawmakers to pass another unsustainable state budget like the proposal gaining traction in the Senate, which would subject Illinoisans to massive tax hikes with no real reform, long the priority of Lisa Madigan’s father, House Speaker Mike Madigan.
But the push to force through the Senate’s budget plan is based on a false choice: Lawmakers don’t have to pass this proposal to ensure state workers get paid.
Instead, the General Assembly could pass a clean appropriations bill for state-worker pay, rather than a deal as part of an increasingly complex and unwieldy budget package now taking form in the Illinois Senate.
The governor, however, has said he would demand a permanent property tax freeze and term limits in exchange for his signature on another stopgap budget.
What’s inexcusably wrong is the timing. Madigan said with a new legislative session underway, it was the appropriate time to ask the court to reconsider. She’s asked the court to terminate the injunction on Feb. 28, giving a firm deadline and restoring urgency to get the almost 19-month-old budget impasse resolved.
That argument could hold water - if there had been no substantive recent action on a budget. And while legislators have appeared blind to it, urgency has been a part of this impasse since day one. Just ask any of the vendors waiting for the 141,225 unpaid bills, worth a collective $10.7 billion, to be processed by the state. Or talk to one of the nearly 1 million people throughout Illinois who didn’t get help they needed during the fiscal year where there wasn’t a budget, according to United Way estimates.
Those vendors and clients had reason for hope recently because there were honest efforts at compromise in the Senate, where President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, and Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, have diligently worked together for the past month on a bipartisan budget package. Gov. Bruce Rauner gave his sincere thanks during his State of the State address Wednesday, and implored them to keep working on an agreement.
Lawmakers were finally putting people before politics. The tone of the conversation was slowly changing as politicians together sought solutions. The budget package lit a flame under lawmakers that was intensifying on its own as senators debated and amended the proposal in attempts to improve the plan. Madigan’s actions Thursday added unneeded fuel to that fire: A glance at the statements from the usual political players shows the tentative bridges that had started being built could now come tumbling down. […]
Madigan’s action was the antithesis of the collaboration the state had started to see. If this lone-wolf action slows the momentum that had started and reverts the Capitol to shouting over who is most to blame instead of reaching a budget compromise, Illinois residents will continue to be the ones who suffer.
If this were a board game, you would have quit long ago because there was no way to win at “Illinopoly.”
“At a meeting I attended just this morning, a comment was made that, ‘as soon as deals in Illinois are close to done, someone always tries to blow it up,’” said state Rep. Avery Bourne, a Republican from the Litchfield area.
The Illinois Senate seems on the verge of hammering out a budget deal with some of the reforms insisted on by a governor who refuses to continue monkey business as usual. Here comes Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, daughter of the game master, who wakes up after 18 months to decide, “Hey. We shouldn’t be paying state workers without a budget. I’ll sue.”
If anything, I question why the attorney general didn’t push this issue sooner, which, by the way, is totally consistent with her legal defense of Rauner’s failure to pay social service providers.
At this point, it doesn’t matter. This is the right move.
I don’t want to see state workers go unpaid. I want the state to come up with a budget.
Amid the howls in reaction to the attorney general’s move were complaints the added pressure could disrupt ongoing talks by Illinois Senate leaders, who have provided the first glimmer of hope in a while that a resolution is possible.
Sorry, everyone needs to feel that pressure.
When Senate President John Cullerton and Republican Leader Christine Radogno visited our offices a week ago to tout their proposed deal, they both made it clear a budget needs to be approved now, not months from now. […]
In that light, I don’t see anything unreasonable about Madigan asking a judge to set a Feb. 28 date for wrapping up a budget before stopping state workers pay. The judge could also set a later date.
The important point is that we don’t let this continue indefinitely.
On Thursday, Attorney General Lisa Madigan set the wheels in motion for tens of thousands of state workers to stop being paid if a state budget is not approved by Feb. 28. Effectively, that would mean a government shutdown. Madigan did so, she explained, to create overwhelming pressure on the state Legislature and Gov. Bruce Rauner to finally cut a deal.
Here’s our problem with that: Working people once again are being treated like pawns in a game of power by politicians who will never have to worry about living paycheck to paycheck. If Madigan’s gambit does not work, they will pay the price. And we can’t be sure of her motives. Maybe she’s the most honest of brokers, just trying to force an end to the budget impasse. Or maybe she’s working an angle with the Speaker of the Illinois House, Michael J. Madigan, who happens to be her father.
Lisa Madigan will object to that charge. She has worked hard over the years to show she runs her office independent of her father, and there is no evidence she’s doing his bidding now. But there also is no escaping the bad optics. Given that the Speaker and attorney general are father and daughter, skeptics will always suspect a tag team. And Lisa Madigan’s latest legal maneuver is giving her father’s number-one foe, Rauner, fits. A government shutdown threatens much of Rauner’s leverage to force pro-business reforms as part of a budget package.
Nonetheless, Attorney General Madigan appears to be on firm legal ground — and that means the clock is ticking. If a budget agreement is not reached, state workers may not get paid beginning in March.
Now, Team Rauner is of the opinion that Madigan acted now because her father doesn’t like the grand budget deal the heads of the Senate, President John Cullerton and Republican Leader Christine Radogno, are trying to push through against tough odds. Speaker Madigan wants to do as little as possible until 2018, hoping to unseat Rauner in that year’s election, they suggest.
That may be true. On the other hand, some top Democrats believe Rauner is trying to sandbag the deal.
And some folks believe Lisa Madigan’s move could boost pressure on lawmakers to finally act. “It’s a gentle nudge to get something done,” says one well-connected business lobbyist.
I don’t know. What I do know is that, as a matter of good public policy, Lisa Madigan’s action is appropriate. Tardy, but appropriate.
If lawmakers continue to squabble and paychecks are halted, voters will be furious and take it out on somebody. Good. They should.
And maybe the fear of that finally will get us a budget.
Governor Rauner has always said we need to balance our tradition as a nation welcoming of immigrants and refugees with legitimate national security concerns to keep Americans safe from terrorism.
The governor has been supportive of tightening the vetting process for Syrian refugees because of ISIS attempts to infiltrate refugee flows — but he’s opposed to immigration bans that target any specific religion.
Serious concerns about the [presidential] executive order have been raised. We urge swift resolution of these concerns through the courts to ensure we are a nation that is both secure and welcoming of immigrants and refugees.
Best,
ck
* That was a pretty measured response, so in comparison this is way over the top, but he is who he is…
(A)s of Sunday evening, four of our six GOP members of Congress representing Illinois remained completely silent as to where they stood on Trump’s order. Republican U.S. Reps. Peter Roskam and Randy Hultgren did not respond to requests for comment from POLITICO, while others did not respond to requests from other media. […]
U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, (R-Ill.), posted a response on Medium saying Trump’s executive order “has caused confusion among those asked to enforce it.”
“I urge the Administration to clarify the specifics on what should and should not be done to best protect our homeland, our people, and our communities,” Kinzinger wrote. “I support a comprehensive look at our vetting process, and I believe it’s something every new administration would be expected to do. However, reports of green card holders and those who assisted us in the war on terror being denied or delayed entry is deeply concerning. Such detention is unacceptable and must be remedied immediately.”
U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, (R-Ill.), embraced the temporary ban, saying it would allow “time to evaluate and improve the vetting process,” of refugees.
* AG Madigan…
Attorney General Lisa Madigan joined with 15 other attorneys general today to condemn the unconstitutional Executive Order on immigration.
Madigan and the attorneys general issued the following statement:
“As the chief legal officers for over 130 million Americans and foreign residents of our states, we condemn President Trump’s unconstitutional, unAmerican and unlawful Executive Order and will work together to ensure the federal government obeys the Constitution, respects our history as a nation of immigrants, and does not unlawfully target anyone because of their national origin or faith.
Religious liberty has been, and always will be, a bedrock principle of our country and no president can change that truth.
Yesterday, multiple federal courts ordered a stay of the Administration’s dangerous Executive Order. We applaud those decisions and will use all of the tools of our offices to fight this unconstitutional order and preserve our nation’s national security and core values.
We are confident that the Executive Order will ultimately be struck down by the courts. In the meantime, we are committed to working to ensure that as few people as possible suffer from the chaotic situation that it has created.”
Joining Madigan in issuing the statement were attorneys general from: California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
* U of I…
Dear students, faculty and staff,
The University of Illinois System is a leader in teaching, discovery and outreach in our state, the nation and the world. Our doors are open and welcoming to talented individuals from around the globe and we pledge to ensure that this openness continues into the future. It is at the heart of our commitment to global access and extraordinary impact and is reflected in our Nondiscrimination Statement.
We are greatly concerned about the negative consequences for members of our community and their families arising from President Trump’s recent Executive Order instituting changes in immigration policy.
We want to assure you that we are monitoring events closely and we are working with other universities, national organizations, legal counsel and government officials to support and protect all of our international faculty, visiting scholars and students.
Because of the entry restrictions cited in the new Executive Order, we strongly recommend that students and scholars who might be affected defer travel outside the U.S. until there is fuller assessment of the Executive Order and its implementation, including resolution of several newly mounted legal challenges.
We are working with colleagues at other universities and with national higher education advocacy organizations, such as the Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities, Association of American Universities and American Association of State Colleges and Universities to assess the effects of the immigration directives and to urge that the Executive Order be reconsidered as quickly as possible. We are also engaging with members of the Illinois congressional delegation to share specific concerns.
All three of our universities are communicating with affected members of our communities and are providing information and support. For specific resources, please contact:
University of Illinois at Chicago: Office of International Services, (312) 996-3121 (ois@uic.edu)
University of Illinois at Springfield: Office of International Programs, (217) 206-8319, (intprog@uis.edu)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Supporting Our International Community, (217) 333-1303 ext. 1
We stress that our international community is a vital part of our excellence and reflects our steadfast commitment to diversity, inclusion, global engagement and impact in today’s society.
Sincerely,
Tim Killeen
President
* Mayor Emanuel…
“One hundred years ago, the people of Chicago opened their hearts and their homes to my grandfather when he immigrated to this great city, fleeing the pogroms of Eastern Europe in search of freedom and opportunity. In that spirit, in the coming days my family and I will host DREAMers attending Chicago Public Schools and Chicago City Colleges for a meal, a conversation, and a recognition and celebration of all that unites us, rather than what divides us. I am asking every interested resident of the City of Chicago to join us by hosting a similar meal in your own homes and at restaurants in your own neighborhoods, or by sharing welcoming words through a phone call or email. At a moment of unease and vulnerability for so many, let’s come together as a city and put action behind our words and the values we hold dear as a welcoming city. Lets show the world that the City of Big Shoulders is also a city of big hearts.”
* Comptroller…
In response to President Trump’s Muslim ban, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza issued the following statement:
“President Trump’s attack on Muslims is an attack on every American and it strikes at the heart of our dearest American values of democracy.
We saw clear and troubling warning signs from Trump the candidate, but this goes beyond hyperbolic fear-mongering. To use the Presidential authority granted to him by the American people to isolate, marginalize and discriminate against any group of people based on their nationality or religion, those are the actions of a tyrant.
I denounce President Trump’s despicable and decidedly un-American campaign against immigrants and refugees and I call on my fellow Illinoisans to rise up in a vocal and peaceful opposition until his executive action is revoked.
As an elected official, as the daughter of immigrant parents and as a patriotic American, I will not tolerate bigotry or xenophobia in any form, and most certainly not when it is made legal and institutionalized through the abuse of our democratic republic.”
* Sen. Duckworth…
“I wish the President had realized that governing in a fair and just manner is harder than rallying crowds with catchphrases before human lives were affected, as they were by today’s needless and dehumanizing detentions at O’Hare and airports around the country. Stopping legal permanent residents and babies simply because of where they’re from is not the American way and it doesn’t make us safer. This Muslim ban must end.”
* Sen. Durbin…
“History will judge where America’s leaders stood today, said Durbin. “Faced with the humanitarian crisis of our time, the United States cannot turn its back on children fleeing persecution, genocide, and terror. During the Holocaust we failed to fulfill to our duty to humanity. We cannot allow mindless fear to lead us into another regretful chapter in our history.”
* JB Pritzker…
Among protesters at O'Hare last night, an attorney w @RefugeeAssist helping detainees. Proud to learn she is a fellow @NorthwesternLaw alum!
* ADDED: Koch network slams Trump immigrant ban: “We believe it is possible to keep Americans safe without excluding people who wish to come here to contribute and pursue a better life for their families,” Brian Hooks, a co-chairman of the Kochs’ seminar network, said in a statement. “The travel ban is the wrong approach and will likely be counterproductive,” Hooks added, saying it hinders a Koch goal of promoting a free and open society.
* Data: Refugees in Illinois: More than 40 percent from banned countries: More than 40 percent of the more than 30,000 refugees who have settled in various parts of Chicagoland since 2002 are from the seven countries specifically mentioned in Donald Trump’s latest executive order.
* Last week, Decatur Herald & Review Chris Coates sent an e-mail to employees…
As some of you may have heard, we’ve made the very difficult decision to close the Springfield bureau. This was not an easy choice. I hope we work something out to re-open our Statehouse operation at some point. But for now, we’ll be filling the gaps and localizing content whenever possible.
The H&R, the Bloomington Pantagraph, the Southern Illinoisan, the Mattoon/Charleston Journal Gazette & Times-Courier and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch are all under the Lee Enterprises umbrella. It wasn’t that long ago when most of those papers had their own Statehouse reporter, plus one for Lee itself.
Dan Petrella recently announced that he was leaving Lee. They’re not replacing him. None of the other papers in that company have a Statehouse reporter.
* I followed up with Coates and here’s what he sent me today…
We’ve decided to no longer have a full-time reporter at the Illinois Statehouse. We’ll continue covering these issues with reporters from our newsrooms. Illinois politics and Statehouse decisions are important to us, and we’re committed to reporting on these critical areas.
* Notice the use of the royal “we” in this constituent e-mail from Rep. Scott Drury…
Friends:
We are pleased to announce that Attorney General Lisa Madigan has embraced our long-held belief that the best way to end the budget impasse is from the pressure created by a true government shutdown. Specifically, in an effort to bring the impasse to an end, she is seeking a court order to stop further state payments to government workers
History
Since fall 2015, we have contended that the General Assembly and the Governor have prolonged the budget impasse by implementing a series of partial budgets and making sure government continues many of its day-to-day functions. In an email in November 2015, we stated: “Through a series of various maneuvers, Illinois leaders have helped prolong the budget impasse by relieving pressure points before they boil.”
The Rational Voice
Our belief that the best way to break the impasse is a true government shutdown has often required us to be the rational - but lone - voice against misguided partial budgets. Notably, those budgets: (a) only provided our universities with 30% of their funding - causing damage for years to come; and (b) picked winners and losers, with social service providers repeatedly being the biggest losers.
Madigan’s Actions
Consistent with our view since 2015, in a filing last week, AG Madigan stated that by halting employee pay, she is trying to raise the pressure to get a budget in place. We will keep you posted on the progress of her legal action.
Closing
Success for us is a long-term project. Getting buy-in for our pressure theory has taken over a year and, at times, subjected us to ridicule by Springfield insiders. But we are fueled by the knowledge that the only way to make progress in Illinois, is to continuously push against the status quo. So push we will.
As always, thank you for the privilege of allowing me to represent you.
The General Assembly by law shall make appropriations for all expenditures of public funds by the State. Appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.
As long as the General Assembly is allowed to estimate available funds, then legislators can play with the numbers all they want and there’s really nothing anybody can do about it except change the Constitution.
The GA did give some power to the Auditor General to check to see if the numbers were valid and then to recommend actions, but that authority expired with most of the income tax hike.
Gov. Bruce Rauner is among three Republican governors attending an annual summit in California hosted by billionaire conservatives Charles and David Koch — a trip that’s drawn criticism from unions and some Democratic lawmakers over its timing.
The Koch brothers, the nation’s top conservative donors, have hosted gatherings of donors and politicians over the years, but usually in private. This year’s attendees include five Republican senators, three governors and two congressmen.
The governor’s office confirmed Rauner is attending the summit in Palm Springs, California, but said he’s there to discuss policy and the state’s achievements with criminal justice reform, not politics or fundraising. An administration aide added that Rauner is also meeting with people on the West Coast to recruit tech companies to come to Illinois.
But the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which is in a longstanding war with the governor amid the state’s budget impasse, on Sunday harshly criticized Rauner for what they called “huddling” with the Koch brothers as refugees are stranded and Illinois is in “crisis.”
“Actions speak louder than words. He’s not compassionate. He’s not willing to work together,” IFT President Dan Montgomery said in a statement. “In one of our darkest hours, he’s plotting with billionaires on how to make the rich richer.”
Class warfare, preached and evangelized by liberals, is frustratingly nefarious and frustratingly effective. From the presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton to the state and local levels in Illinois, caricaturing Republican candidates as out-of-touch elitists is akin to linking them to thuggery.
The disgust. The furor. The loathing.
That’s why it will be fascinating to watch the 2018 gubernatorial election to see how the Democrats, who seethed over Gov. Bruce Rauner’s wealth, will handle J.B. Pritzker as one of their candidates and a potential gubernatorial front-runner or nominee. What a pretzel they’ll be in trying to repeat the themes of 2014. This time, one of their own candidates could be labeled as a self-funded billionaire, philanthropist and entrepreneur.
Then, will the Democrats be forced to drop the nauseating references to “Billionaire Bruce?” Will they have to stifle their hysteria over self-funded campaigns? Will they cast aside Pritzker because of his wealth?
Because at this point, Pritzker’s pockets are the primary reason he’s being taken seriously in Democratic circles. He can self-fund, pitting his money against Rauner’s and relieving a pressure valve on Democratic donors who can instead put their money into other races, perhaps legislative. Pritzker is seen as perhaps the only chance to take out Rauner.
Valid points all. But the one she missed is that the “Billionaire Bruce” attack didn’t work in 2014, and the “Billionaire Trump” attack didn’t work in 2016. Maybe it’ll work in 2018, but there’s a decent chance that the Democrats will also nominate a billionaire here.
Perhaps Montgomery is sending a message to Pritzker, or perhaps he’s just reaching for the nearest stick to use. If it’s the former, then fine. It’s a free country. If it’s the latter, then think it through a bit before doing so again.
Also, we’ll take up the local angle on the travel ban in another post, so let’s stick to this topic in comments, please. Thanks.
“I only needed eight votes to tie up the speakership vote and send it to a runoff, and they weren’t there,” Drury said. “To give you an example of how hard it was to find votes, I reached out to my state senator [Julie Morrison]. … I said to her, ‘Will you send out a message saying that you support or encourage my run for speaker of the house?’ I got a text back: ‘I don’t feel comfortable getting involved.’” […]
“I told him it was not my role to get involved in House politics,” Morrison told me. “I try to stay on my side of the rotunda. I said I would give it some thought, and I texted back, and said, ‘No.’”
Yet wasn’t her silence a tacit endorsement of Boss Madigan rule?
“Absolutely not,” she said. “I’ve worked cooperatively with Scott. I’m not going to get involved with Madigan and House politics.”
Throwing his own Senator under the bus like that gives you a pretty good insight into how he operates. The dude apparently couldn’t convince a single House Democrat to stand with him, so he casts blame on Sen. Morrison.
* Meanwhile, some folks have tried to use the fact that Drury didn’t receive a clock from Speaker Madigan to raise some money online…
Now I know you are thinking, this seems a little out of proportion with everything going on in the State right now, and you would be right, but we must take a stand.
So please donate generously so that we can buy Rep. Drury a desk clock in hopes that he can stop releasing press releases and return to passing a budget.
No doubt the clocks handed out to Democratic legislators were priceless- and due to gift limits we likely can’t buy a priceless clock - so please know any money raised over the price of a dollar store clock will be donated to one of the nonprofits in Rep. Drury’ district that hasn’t been paid on time.
It would probably help if they actually named the not-for-profit group because they’ve only raised $30 so far.
Today the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association (IDCCA) announced the results of their online straw poll conducted from Monday January 23rd to midnight on Sunday January 29th. The poll asked respondents to select their preferred Democrat candidate to run for Governor and Lt. Governor in 2018. The result was comprised of its existing members and Democrats who joined the organization via online submission of name, email, and zip code. More than 5,352 ballots were cast online.
The straw poll results are as follows. These results were tabulated from 5,352 responses and examined for duplicates and interference by IDCCA team members. This poll is not a scientific representation of the Democratic Primary electorate.
State Senator Daniel Biss, 25%, 1339 votes
Alderman Ameya Pawar, 15%, 806 votes
Chris Kennedy, 12%, 617 votes
Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, 11%, 602 votes
J.B. Pritzker, 10%, 550 votes
State Senator Andy Manar, 7%, 356 votes
Congresswoman Robin Kelly, 4%, 238 votes
State Senator Kwame Raoul, 2%, 113 votes
City Treasurer Kurt Summers, 1%, 80 votes
* 13% (651 votes) of responses were for write in candidates.
Write in Candidates:
Attorney General Lisa Madigan, 87 votes
Governor Pat Quinn, 45 votes
US Senator Dick Durbin, 41 votes
Alex Paterakis, 39 votes
State Treasurer Mike Frerichs, 24 votes
Lt. Governor votes are currently being tallied and will be posted as soon as they are available.
Alex Paterakis is running a campaign of sorts on social media.
Question the timing all you want, but last week’s legal filing by Attorney General Lisa Madigan to stop paying state employee wages without an official appropriation is long overdue and is completely consistent with a 2016 Illinois Supreme Court ruling and with her (and the governor’s) opposition to a similar lawsuit brought by social service providers.
Back in 2015, after the General Assembly and the governor couldn’t come to terms on a budget deal, AFSCME and other unions went to court and asked a judge to force the state to pay state workers even though there was no official appropriation for the salaries. That ruling remains in place today.
But this passage in the Illinois Constitution pretty much says it all: “The General Assembly by law shall make appropriations for all expenditures of public funds by the State.”
So the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in March of 2016 on a different case that the portion of AFSCME’s contract with the state requiring payment of back wages could not be honored without a proper legislative appropriation. In other words, no appropriation, no payment, even with a contract.
It was a completely reasonable decision. The governor shouldn’t be able to sign contracts and then force state payment without an actual appropriation. The potential for abuse is mind blowing. Just imagine if Rod Blagojevich could’ve paid whomever he wanted, how much he wanted without any legislative permission.
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s position against a lawsuit brought by human service providers is also completely in line with that 2016 Supreme Court decision. The service providers say their signed state contracts mean they should be paid in full even though the General Assembly hasn’t approved the appropriations to do so. Never once has Gov. Rauner said those providers ought to be paid without a formal budget in place.
But there he was last week saying that Attorney General Madigan’s motion would “directly harm” state workers while urging her to drop her legal motion. He’s been fighting the state employee unions since Day One and has said he wants to help social service groups, yet he wants state workers paid without an appropriation but doesn’t want social service providers paid the same way?
C’mon, man. I was born at night, but not last night. What’s he really up to? Give me a minute and I’ll get to it.
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin’s reaction to AG Madigan’s move appeared to fly in the face of common sense: “This decision clearly undermines the legislature’s duty to negotiate a bipartisan solution.”
I was in Decatur to give a speech last week about the prospects for the Senate’s much-touted “grand bargain” when I found out about AG Madigan’s motion. My speech, as initially written, gave that bipartisan effort no better than a 50-50 chance to spur a final deal.
If the attorney general had filed her motion last year after the Supreme Court ruling, we wouldn’t be in this mess today, and Leader Durkin most certainly knows it. Nothing focuses the General Assembly’s bipartisan attention quite so much as a massive crisis.
So, why didn’t she file it last year? I’m told she wanted to give the General Assembly and the governor some time to work things out. They eventually agreed to a stop gap budget, so she laid low. But that stop gap budget expired at the end of December and the General Assembly left town last week without making significant progress.
There will naturally be widespread suspicions that AG Madigan acted on behalf of her father. The Illinois Republican Party explicitly made that very point when it claimed the attorney general “decided to put Speaker Madigan’s power politics ahead of hard-working families in an effort to shut down state government.”
That last sentence is the key here. The governor has done all he could to avoid a shutdown because a shutdown means all the emphasis would then be on quickly passing a real budget and the tax hikes which go along with it to reopen the government’s shuttered doors.
And that means the governor will lose much (or most, or possibly even all) of his beloved “leverage” to force through his various anti-union/pro-business economic reforms. And that leverage, whether he admits it or not, is the extreme pressure that’s been put on social service providers and the people they serve since this impasse began 18 long months ago.
The attorney general has asked the judge to allow the governor and the General Assembly to delay any order until February 28th to give them time to work out a deal.
* Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s spokesperson responds to Gov. Rauner’s claim that her legal motion to stop paying state workers without an appropriation will create a crisis…
What’s truly shocking is the claim that our filing created a crisis in state government. We are in a crisis and we have been for more than 18 months.
The claim that this filing has created a crisis ignores the reality that nonprofit organizations, grantees, vendors and universities have been living in crisis for a year and a half. Many of these organizations that provide critical services to the people of Illinois have been irreparably harmed during this impasse.
Our filing explicitly recognizes the difficulty the Governor and Legislature are having in enacting a full budget. We have asked the court to set a date over a month away – to give the Governor and Legislature even more time to enact a budget that avoids hardship not just to state employees but for all the organizations that serve people in this state.
Asking the court to impose a deadline for the Governor and Legislature to do their jobs will solve the crisis, not create it. The Governor and Legislature can resolve this situation at any time and they have had ample time to do that.
* Steve Schnorf sent me this a little while ago and asked that I share it with you…
I read the comments and am awestruck to find that I have affected so many people’s lives. Fortunately it sounds like I’ve impacted them in a positive way. Those of you who know me best know that I am an imperfect man with many faults and shortcomings, but you also know that I try to never let those human failures impinge on what needs to be done in government and in politics.
I had it easy: I had a wonderful mentor in Jim Edgar for whom I worked 18 years. I was then able to finish my full-time career in state government working for the most decent man I’ve ever known in state government, George Ryan. I have known and worked with multiple iterations of the four leaders in the General Assembly. They have all been extraordinary public servants. You could find no finer than the current four.
Do not lower yourself to thinking of Governor Bruce Rauner or House Speaker Mike Madigan as base or thoughtless, much less evil. Help them help us do what must be done; abandon your silly partisanship. Be inclusive and growth will come from that. Protect the state’s working men and women by improving the state’s economic environment and by defending the virtues we have held dear over the years.
Unapologetically old school all day, every day.
Comments are now closed for the weekend, but you can still post well-wishes by clicking here and I’ll unblock them so that Steve can read them.
State Rep. Kelly Burke (36th District), is calling for aggressive economic reforms that will improve Illinois’ business climate, invest in education and provide immediate relief to hardworking middle-class families in response to Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s annual State of the State Address.
* Closing loopholes and cracking down on large corporations that currently pay nothing in taxes.
* Reinstating the EDGE tax credit for businesses that create jobs.
* Passing reforms to the workers’ compensation system that require insurance companies to pass savings onto employers.
* Outlawing any future tax incentives for businesses that ship American jobs overseas.
…
* Allowing working families to keep more of their hard-earned money by increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit.
* Raising the minimum wage.
* Requiring millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share to fund elementary and secondary education by creating a small surcharge on annual income greater than $1 million.
Not exactly the Chamber’s idea of “aggressive” reforms.
“Closing loopholes that unfairly advantage big corporations, reducing workers compensation costs and expanding tax credits for job creators will improve Illinois’ business climate and put more people to work,” Burke said. “These economic reforms, in conjunction with a fair and responsible budget, can help Illinois move on from the past two years of gridlock and partisanship and allow us to tackle the other serious challenges facing our state.”
The House Democrats apparently still haven’t come to terms with the fact that Illinois elected a Republican governor two years ago.
But, like I said yesterday, this could be Speaker Madigan’s way of setting down some markers.
…Adding… Like I said, they haven’t come to terms with this reality even after two years…
Rauner says a constitutional amendment to create a surcharge on millionaires would be a "disaster" for the economy. Madigan supports it.
Since 2012, the median amount of bond set by Cook County judges for people charged with felony gun crimes has doubled — from $25,000 to $50,000. But over the same time period, the average number of days a defendant spends in jail before posting bond for a gun charge has fallen by more than half, from 42 to 18 days, according to the Tribune analysis. […]
But defendants accused of theft, who often can’t afford bond, typically spend more time in jail than those facing gun charges, the Tribune found.
In the same time period, shootings increased by 42 percent while the number of firearm recoveries, as well as firearm-recovery arrests, have plunged. Firearm recovery arrests dropped by 9 percent, and gun recoveries fell by about 33 percent, from 12,650 in 2012 to 8,416 last year, according to police data.
That last part is a bit misleading because arrests appear to be slightly on the rise after a drop a few years ago…
Following the U.S. Department of Justice’s withering criticism of the Chicago Police Department’s training efforts, top police officials have vowed to improve a field training program that matches rookies with seasoned cops for on-the-job mentoring and education.
Yet two cops currently in training to become field training officers were themselves involved in separate controversial fatal shootings. Both fatalities resulted in multimillion-dollar legal payouts by the city.
I wanted to follow up on the Governor’s message below and assure all employees that, in addition to other resources, they can reach out to our labor relations team for updates on the employee pay lawsuit. The Attorney General’s move to halt employee pay is truly unfortunate. The least my office can do in response is to keep everyone informed.
Staying informed is especially critical for those of you who are about to decide whether to authorize AFSCME to call for a strike. The decision belongs to each employee and we trust that everyone is going to seek out accurate information to make an informed choice. With the Attorney General’s move to cut off employee pay, AFSCME members should consult with their union representatives and ask whether a strike for higher wages would be lawful if the Attorney General succeeds in her quest. In addition, because the Attorney General’s argument implicates the provision of health insurance to state employees-a benefit for which the General Assembly also has not appropriated sufficient resources-AFSCME members should consult with their union representatives on whether a strike over health insurance would likewise be lawful. We know that the decision to strike is yours and yours alone, and we continue to encourage all employees to get accurate information as they decide whether to strike. Please continue to visit the FAQ website and submit your questions for our team.
Yours,
JT
John Terranova
Deputy Director
CMS Office of Labor Relations
Of for crying out loud. This is a labor dispute over the contract, not the appropriations.
* Anyway, I’ve been quietly wondering last night and today whether one reason the governor doesn’t want a court ruling on worker pay is that he won’t be able to pay “replacement workers” if AFSCME employees do walk out. He also wouldn’t be able to shift currently non-union workers to union positions because they wouldn’t be paid, either.
Capitol Fax reported this morning that Mike Madigan showered his legislative enablers this week with engraved crystal clocks.
The cost? Nearly 50 grand.
Madigan’s campaign fund reported spending over $46,000 at the end of 2016 at “Sawbridge Studios”, where engraved crystal clocks from Simon Pearce are sold.
What’s worse? The clocks apparently feature the inscription, “The honorable Michael J. Madigan. Longest serving Speaker of a state House of Representatives in United States history.”
House Democrats sold out the people of Illinois and Mike Madigan paid them off with thousands of dollars in expensive clocks while mocking the people of Illinois with gifts as tone deaf as the Chicago agenda he supports.
Now House Democrats and other Madigan cronies can be constantly reminded that they are always on the clock for Mike Madigan.
Man, I hate getting dragged into this stuff, especially since that story was behind a subscribers-only firewall. I’ll be having a chat with those boys and girls.
Sawbridge Studios is in Winnetka, by the way. Madigan sends people on his Christmas gift list a Simon Pearce piece every year. Pearce is an Irish-American, so it’s kinda fitting.
I didn’t look at his campaign committee spending for my story this morning. But I just did and Madigan’s campaign committee has spent a total of $535,127.03 at the place since 2005. In October of 2015, Madigan reported spending $39,312.50 at Sawbridge, and this past November, he spent the identical $39,312.50. He reported spending $7,312.50 on December 20th. So, that $50K number quoted above may not be accurate. We’ll see if MJM demands a retraction.
* Council 31 executive director Roberta Lynch e-mailed her members today. The e-mail’s subject headline was: “Attorney General Is Wrong”…
Dear [redacted],
Last night AFSCME’s attorney received official notification that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a motion yesterday in St. Clair County Circuit Court to dissolve the preliminary injunction that AFSCME secured nearly two years ago to ensure that state employees would continue to be paid despite the state’s budget standoff.
I want you to know that AFSCME is prepared to return to court in opposition to the Attorney General’s motion and to pursue every available legal means to halt her action. Other unions representing state employees were our partners in securing the original injunction and I’m confident they will stand with us now.
The Attorney General is justifying her action by citing the urgent need for a resolution of the state budget stalemate.
Of course, we all agree that such a resolution is long overdue. That’s why AFSCME has repeatedly called on Governor Rauner to end his insistence that enactment of a state budget must be tied to his personal political agenda which is aimed at weakening workers’ rights.
However, the need for a budget resolution can in no way justify the Attorney General’s harmful and irresponsible legal maneuver.
AG Madigan’s action is particularly objectionable coming as it does at a time when Governor Rauner has already been waging a relentless assault on state employees—seeking to impose his own contract terms that would drastically drive down employees’ incomes and weaken rights on the job.
Our union has said repeatedly that we do not want to see a shutdown of state government. We have done everything possible to avert a strike. But we are determined to resist the governor’s efforts to impose his terms—which would set us back for many years to come.
That’s why it is more critical than ever that union members vote “YES” to give your Bargaining Committee the authorization to call a strike if that becomes the only recourse to gain fair treatment and respect.
Today Governor Rauner will be claiming that he is a friend of state employees and wants to make sure you get paid. We know well what a bunch of baloney that is. After nearly two years of unremitting hostility toward state employees—doing everything possible to inflict damage to our working conditions and our economic security, there’s no way Bruce Rauner has decided to be our buddy now. Rather, his phony sympathy is nothing but an effort to protect his own position in the state budget battle.
You and your fellow state employees are on the job every day providing vital services that Illinois citizens depend on—often under difficult, even dangerous, conditions. It is deeply disturbing when it appears that our state’s political leaders see you as no more than pawns in their games—failing to respect or value the vital work that you do.
But we won’t be discouraged or beaten down. We have won so many battles standing together and fighting back—and we can win this one too!
In Unity,
Roberta Lynch
Executive Director
…Adding… From SEIU President Keith Kelleher…
“On behalf of our home healthcare and child care workers who have collective bargaining agreements with the State of Illinois and provide vital care for 30,000 people with disabilities and 61,000 children, we obviously oppose any efforts to stop payments or efforts that delay payments to our workforce, who struggle to get by as it is. But we all know how we got here–because of a governor who ran on shutting down government.
“Bruce Rauner NEVER will know the real pain that is endured by those he causes to suffer. But he has welcomed it in a shameful fashion by abandoning his constitutional duty to present a balanced budget to the General Assembly. Instead he has held Illinois hostage to his political wish list. The Attorney General’s action is a symptom. This governor is its cause.
“We call on Rauner to present a budget that funds vital services for the most vulnerable in our state.”
* Pretty much everyone who knows Steve Schnorf respects him as a professional and loves him as a human being. The former CMS and budget director has forgotten more about running a government than most everyone will ever know. And he’s one of the kindest, sweetest souls you will ever meet.
We had dinner a month or so ago and he looked great and we had a very nice evening. A few days later, though, Steve called from the hospital to tell me that he had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
That’s the bad one. It moves very fast. An experimental treatment from the University of Chicago was supposed to prolong Steve’s life, but it’s not working as billed. He developed a nasty infection and was in intensive care here in Springfield when I visited him yesterday. He said he was being moved out of the ICU to palliative care. Steve said he expects to be sent home in a week for hospice care.
Steve told me yesterday that he and his wife Jane are planning a celebration of life event and he wants it to be held somewhere at his beloved Capitol Complex after he’s gone. He and his daughter, a musician, are working on the music.
* Steve has been an integral part of this blog. His comments carry great weight. He told me yesterday the tubes in his hands have prevented him from commenting on or even reading the blog, which caused him to realized how much this website and all the characters who populate it have meant to him over the years.
I asked him if he was OK with me doing a post. He made a joke about how he figured I’d eventually try to monetize his impending demise. We had a good laugh about that one. But, hey, I always laugh a lot when I’m around Schnorf. He’s a super guy and I cannot tell you how much I will miss him without breaking down. My heart and the hearts of the few who’ve known about this sad development have been broken for the last month or so.
But he’s taking it like the man he is, and so will I. No tears - just the joy of knowing that I and many others are darned lucky to know this gentleman.
Schnorf has been my friend and my mentor for many years. He has helped so many people and has meant so much to them that I’m not really sure this very modest man understands the full impact of his life.
* So, the point of this post is for all of us to tell Steve what he means to us and to wish him well on his journey. He’ll be reading your comments.
This is my favorite photo of Schnorf from last summer before we took Oscar for a spin on the pontoon…
* While speaking at an event, Gov. Rauner gave a statement to reporters today about AG Madigan’s motion to stop paying state workers without a valid appropriation…
I am deeply disappointed, very upset about this court filing that Attorney General Madigan has made in St. Clair County seeking to block state employee pay.
I hope this is not a direct attempt to cause a crisis, to force a shutdown of the government to force another stopgap spending plan, short-term, unbalanced, incomplete, as a step to force a tax hike without any changes to our broken system.
I hope that’s not what this is. I hope the attorney general will reconsider. This is gonna hurt workin’ families, the good hard-workin’ employees of Illinois, who deserve to be paid, deserve to stay workin’.
The people of our state need our state employees to continue workin’. I hope the attorney general will reconsider this move.
And let’s not block the great work that the Senate is doing to come up with a compromise and a truly balanced budget, which is what we need, along with changes to the system so we can grow the economy and create more jobs.
Please do not take steps to disrupt the Senate’s work. And please respect the fact that we are making progress.
I want to thank, again, the House that did pass the property tax freeze and has said that we need economic reforms to grow jobs.
Let’s not block our progress by creating a crisis.
Um, OK, but this crisis started when he vetoed the budget in 2015.
*** UPDATE *** The governor just sent an e-mail to all state workers…
Dear Employees:
By now you’ve heard the shocking news that Attorney General Lisa Madigan went into court late yesterday to petition a judge to halt state employee pay.
It’s disappointing to see any move to stop employee pay and disrupt government services, especially now as the Senate is on the verge of a bipartisan agreement to enact a balanced budget with changes to create jobs and lower property taxes. The Attorney General’s court filing seeks to directly harm thousands of employee families and even more who rely on your hard work every day.
Our Administration will use all available legal options to continue employee pay and avoid any disruption to government services. I am hopeful Comptroller Mendoza will stand with state employees - just as Comptroller Munger did previously - and support our legal arguments to continue employee pay.
No matter what, we will work tirelessly on your behalf to stop this attempt to undermine good-faith bipartisan negotiations in the Senate - ensuring employee pay continues, government services remain intact and the General Assembly enacts a bipartisan balanced budget with changes to our broken system.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: But so far they have been unable. It’s been going on for years. And I wasn’t president. So, look, when President Obama was there two weeks ago making a speech, very nice speech. Two people were shot and killed during his speech. You can’t have that. […]
They weren’t shot at the speech. But they were shot in the city of Chicago during his speech. What — what’s going on?
Chicago Police, however, told BuzzFeed News there were no fatal shootings in the city on Jan. 10, the day the former president gave the speech.
A police record of shootings in the city that day provided to BuzzFeed News also shows no shootings from about 8 to 9 p.m. while Obama spoke. According to the records, five shootings were reported in Chicago on the day of Obama’s visit, but none of the victims were fatally wounded.
According to the Tribune database, the city had no slayings for about 24 hours before and after Obama’s speech, which lasted from 8:02 to 8:53 p.m. A man was shot about 20 minutes after the speech about eight miles away in the West Side’s Lawndale neighborhood, but that victim survived, according to Police Department data.
Calls and emails seeking comment from the White House media affairs office were not immediately returned.
With crises mounting around him, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s strategy for fending off potential Democratic challengers and keeping his job in 2018 includes stressing the bright spots while blaming others for the things going horribly wrong.
As a Republican in a solidly Democratic state, the wealthy former private equity investor would have been one of the country’s most endangered GOP incumbents even under the best of circumstances. Adding to his task are a state budget impasse that has dragged on for most of his two years in office, decimating many social service agencies and creating billions more in debt, and a labor dispute that has Illinois’ largest public-employee union holding its first strike-authorization vote.
Rauner didn’t make more than a fleeting reference to the budget until the end of his annual State of the State address on Wednesday. Instead, he highlighted accomplishments such as ethics reforms, increased funding for schools and improved cybersecurity of state records and said he was “deeply optimistic” about Illinois’ future.
When he made it to the budget issue, he was quick to point the finger at his predecessors for creating a mess that includes $130 billion in unfunded pension liabilities and the worst credit rating of any state.
Yeah, and then things got worse on every fiscal front.
* A couple of things got lost in the crazy shuffle last night when Barton and I were posting statements regarding Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s legal motion to dismiss the state employee pay order. For instance, Barton rightly asked the AG’s office this last night…
The question I keep getting is why now? Why not weeks or even months ago?
The second paragraph from the AG office’s response was inadvertently left out, so here’s the statement in full…
It has always been our goal to allow the executive and legislative branches to do their job without further litigation. While the stopgap budget was in place, it was our hope that the Governor and Legislature would continue to work to enact a full fiscal year budget. The Legislature and the Governor now face the need to enact a budget for the rest of the fiscal year. With the legislature in session, this is an appropriate time to address the need to pass a full budget to cover all operations.
Also, the burden of the budget impasse has unfairly fallen on the non-profits and vendors that serve millions of Illinois residents. Some of these organizations have been irreparably harmed in the process. The State can avoid causing further damage to them and avoid any impacts to State employees if the Governor and the Legislature take action to enact a full budget.
The AG’s motion is here. Last year’s Supreme Court ruling on an almost identical matter is here.
* The last part of Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s statement also wasn’t posted…
The Office of the Comptroller is currently moving forward with contingency plans to meet the technical adjustments that a payroll stoppage would require. For example, employees in certain categories would receive partial payments and their paychecks and deductions would have to be adjusted accordingly.
Despite the possibility of a payroll stoppage over the last 18 months, the previous administration did not put in place policies to deal with this scenario.
You can’t force someone to work for no pay. The Civil War decided that question. But you can use federal law to designate “essential” workers and then pay them minimum wage. The previous comptroller argued in court that this would take months and may have even been impossible.
However, I am told that former Comptroller Munger’s office had developed a list of workers who could be labeled as essential. Maybe somebody in Mendoza’s office should pick up a phone.
* I was in Decatur about to give a speech to the local Chamber of Commerce when I found out about the filing and called Barton in a panic. Thank goodness for Barton! Anyway, for some reason, my speech was deemed newsworthy by the Herald & Review…
A judge had previously ruled state workers could continue being paid throughout a standoff between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democrat-controlled legislature, although nobody knew that the impasse would last as long as it has, said Rich Miller, founder of CEO of the Capitol Fax, a daily newsletter about Illinois government. […]
The lawsuit puts pressure on Rauner and House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, the attorney general’s father, to come together on a budget agreement by the end of February, Miller said. […]
“We could be seeing the end of this stalemate,” Miller said. “I would have given [the Senate grand bargain] a 50-50 chance. We need more than that or we’ll be in trouble like nobody has ever seen in the history of history. Illinois is already a national and in many ways an international embarrassment.”
What a crazy night. I had prepared a speech about the Senate’s grand bargain and then this AG thing happened so I had to retool the whole speech on the fly.
Madigan’s office filed the request Thursday afternoon in St. Clair County Circuit Court, seeking to undo a July 2015 ruling from St. Clair County Circuit Court Judge Robert LeChien that said the state must pay workers in full despite a lack of a budget agreement.
Madigan makes it clear in the court paperwork that she’s trying to raise the pressure to get a budget in place, saying the judge’s order “has allowed the legislative and executive branches to fail to fulfill their constitutional duties without facing the real threat of a government shutdown.” […]
“With no possibility of a government shutdown to force action by the legislative and executive branches, the state has continued to operate without a budget to fund many services provided by vendors and grantees,” Madigan said in the filing. “Those vendors and grantees and the many Illinoisans they serve are bearing the brunt of this egregious and untenable budget impasse. This situation does not usually happen for long on the federal level or in other states precisely because the possibility of a government shutdown eventually leads to the passage and enactment of a budget.” […]
In the latest motion, Madigan argues a recent Illinois Supreme Court ruling rejected the idea that withholding pay would violate employee contracts, saying collective bargaining agreements are subject to funding from the legislature.
“While serious bipartisan negotiations have accelerated in the Senate, it is outrageous that Lisa Madigan tonight decided to put Speaker Madigan’s power politics ahead of hard-working families in an effort to shut down state government,” state GOP spokesman Steven Yaffe said in a statement. “Only a Madigan would try to disrupt bipartisan momentum in a matter that threatens to cripple government services and hurt state workers and their families.”
Steve Brown, spokesman for the speaker, called the Republican Party’s comments “off base” and “not surprising.”
“The attorney general is her own person and will do what she chooses is the best thing to do,” Brown said, adding there is no basis to the questioning of the timing of the filing.
“They’ve [The Senate leaders] set their deadline. They are moving on their plan. I don’t see the connection frankly,” Brown said.
Lt. Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti: “Just one day after Governor Rauner thanked the Senate for their work to reach a bipartisan agreement on a balanced budget, Attorney General Madigan is attempting to disrupt that progress by filing a lawsuit that could shut down government operations. Illinois’ hardworking state employees deserve to be paid so they can continue to support their families who depend on their work.
State Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, R-Leland Grove: “In the midst of an unprecedented budget crisis, our state employees have continued to perform their work every day and have provided services to the people of Illinois while facing tremendous pressure and uncertainty. I am thankful that every state employee has continued to receive a paycheck throughout this impasse. It is extremely disappointing to hear that Attorney General Lisa Madigan is attempting to block state employee pay until a budget is finalized. We have seen tremendous progress in the last couple of weeks towards hopefully ending this stalemate. I am calling upon Attorney General Madigan to drop her efforts to block state employee pay and allow the members of the General Assembly to finish the work that the Senate has begun and negotiate a balanced budget that will get our state back on the right path.”
