* So, apparently, tomorrow’s scheduled meeting is being postponed unless the Dems get back to the governor soonish…
The following is attributable to Lance Trover, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor, regarding Democratic leaders’ ongoing discussions with their caucuses on whether or not to propose a budget framework:
“The Governor and Republican leaders remain ready to negotiate on a balanced budget with reforms to grow jobs, lower property taxes, improve schools and implement term limits. However, Democratic leaders continue to discuss internally whether they are prepared to present a budget proposal, so we will schedule the next Four Leaders meeting when we receive confirmation that they are ready.”
Rauner’s administration said the delay was prompted after reaching Rep. Greg Harris and learning the Democratic leaders were not planning to present their budget proposal. Harris has been attending leaders meetings alongside House Speaker Michael Madigan as his “chief negotiator.” […]
“The Democrats have been working tirelessly to deal with the budget issues. Somehow they had it in their heads that we’re going to take over some executive action. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“We’re trying to do what the governor is asking us to do and go forward,” Brown said.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Harris, I’m told, informed the governor’s office that there had been no presentation to his caucus about the budget proposal as of yet (which was discussed at the Tuesday meeting). When asked if there’d be a budget presented at the meeting tomorrow, Harris told them there would not be.
Madigan’s spokesman Steve Brown said in response, “We’re going to try to examine and try to understand the governor’s actions.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** From Senate President John Cullerton’s spokesman John Patterson…
“The Senate President is disappointed that the governor cancelled what we hoped would be a robust discussion on a budget framework. President Cullerton has participated in these meetings to keep moving toward a fair and balanced budget. He thought that progress, albeit slow, was finally being made. President Cullerton hopes the governor will reconsider and get everyone to the table so we can keep working.”
On her first day in office, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza instructed her staff to issue a directive prioritizing social services, education, and public safety payments ahead of employee bonuses.
“I know first-hand how hard state employees work,” Mendoza said. “But I know there are group homes for people with disabilities; rape crisis centers; caregivers for the poor and elderly and other worthy programs likewise waiting to be paid by the state and it’s hard to justify leap-frogging millions of dollars in employee bonuses over those bills.”
This fulfills a campaign pledge Mendoza made during her campaign for the office of comptroller. The previous administration had argued they could not separate out employee bonuses from regular pay. Mendoza was able to implement the change in her first day.
Payroll Bulletin 2-16, distributed to state agencies Wednesday, explains that employee bonus requests should be submitted separately from regular pay forms for state employees from now on.
This will allow the office to group those bonuses along with vendors, state legislators and top elected officials, including the Comptroller, whose payments are subject to delay due to insufficient funds because the state has not passed a balanced budget.
“When we learned through news reports in October, that as social service agencies were cutting programs because of delays in state payments, the Comptroller, at the direction of the Governor, was giving out nearly $4 million in bonuses to mainly top management staff in the heat of the election, I found that unconscionable,” Mendoza said.
The new rule will also bring needed transparency to the practice of granting bonuses, allowing the public to know who is on the receiving end of such awards.
“This is a necessary step to ensure accountability and transparency in government and should’ve been in place before now,” Mendoza said.
The state’s current backlog of bills stands at $10.4 billion and growing.
The nearly $4 million in bonuses reported in October were on top of employees’ regular salaries. Regular salary payments to employees will continue uninterrupted.
Good move. Munger’s protestations were never really believable.
Chicago’s public school (CPS) system plans to sell a new type of bond issue in an attempt to separate the debt from the district’s severe financial woes and protect it in a potential bankruptcy filing, according to a document released by the district on Tuesday.
The preliminary prospectus for the debt indicates the Chicago Board of Education will issue $500 million of bonds secured solely by a capital improvement property tax and not by the district’s general obligation pledge.
That pledge currently covers about $6.8 billion of existing bonds that are rated junk by Moody’s Investors Service, S&P, and Fitch Ratings. […]
CPS cannot currently file for municipal bankruptcy in Illinois, although there have been attempts to change state law to allow such a move. The prospectus includes legal opinions on a “hypothetical bankruptcy” by CPS that conclude payments on the new bonds would not be automatically stopped by a federal bankruptcy court and that bondholders would retain a lien on the tax revenue.
In the 47 state House districts in which a Democrat and Republican appeared on the November ballot, Democrats won just 50.6 percent of the votes cast for a major-party candidate and won only 22 of those races (46.8 percent).
In the 13 state Senate districts in which a Democrat and Republican appeared on the ballot, Republicans won 51.5 percent of the vote but won only six of those races (46.2 percent). […]
But the results continue to suggest what critics of our partisan political maps have long maintained, that the state is far more closely divided than indicated by the Democratic legislative majorities
There are so many problems with this type of analysis.
I looked at the Senate races because I don’t have all day, but I’d bet much the same can be said of the House.
* Let’s start with something that often gets overlooked. There are a lot of Latino residents in the 22nd Senate District (at least 36 percent), which means the turnout will not be as high as other districts. So, Democrat Christina Castro got 64 percent of the vote and 39,000 votes. In the far whiter 26th District, however, Republican Sen. Dan McConchie scored 59 percent, but almost 63,000 votes.
Also, by focusing solely on contested districts you leave out the votes in all those uncontested districts. This year, 15 Chicago Senate districts were up for grabs, but none of those incumbents had challengers. And, to say the least, it would be tough for even the most committed reformers to draw lots of Republican districts in the city unless they were spoking them way out into the western suburbs. There were also no challengers in the Rockford Senate district, and the Dem districts in Rich Township, Joliet, Peoria and Alton.
That’s 20 overwhelmingly Democratic areas without Republican challengers. By contrast, just 8 Senate Republicans had no challengers. I don’t know why those votes weren’t counted.
* On to the main point. Seven Democratic incumbents and one Dem favorite had Republican challengers this year. The Democrats lost one of those races by 10,000 votes (Forby). Sen. Tom Cullerton won by only 800 or so. Of the other winners, Cristina Castro won by almost 20,000, Sen. Bennett won by 19,000, Sen. Morrison won by 16,000, Sen. Bush won by about 7,000, Sen. Bertino-Tarrant won by 6,000 and Sen. Laura Murphy won by about 5,500. All but the Castro race were “real” contests. That works out to a total margin for the Democratic winners of a little over 74,000 votes.
But Democratic candidates challenged several heavily favorited Republicans, which ran up the score. Sen. Oberweis ended up winning by 10,000 as did Fowler over Forby. Sen. Rezin won by 15,000, Sen. McConchie won by almost 20,000, Paul Schimpf beat Sheila Simon by 21,000 and Sen. Althoff won by a whopping 34,000 votes (almost half the Democrats’ total margin). That works out to be a total margin for the winners of about 110,000 votes.
And all that tells you… what?
Well, it does tell you that the Democratic map-makers packed a whole lot of Republican voters into GOP districts (which would be GOP anyway because of where they are) and carved up some swing districts for themselves. But does it mean that voters as a whole actually preferred Republicans over Democrats when you’re only talking about a handful of districts? Nope.
* Now, is the state more closely divided than the legislative maps indicate? Well, Hillary Clinton got 55.8 percent of the vote here. Let’s compare that to the House totals since all House seats were up this year. The Democrats won 67 seats, or 56.8 percent of the chamber. Um, that’s pretty darned close.
Go back a couple of years and look at the governor’s race and things are different, of course. But, hey, as long as we’re playing around with numbers…
* Again, just to be clear, I support remap reform on general principles. The people should pick their legislators, not the other way around. But let’s have an honest discussion about it.
* Semi-related…
* Mark Brown: Term limits might be the answer, after all
* The 2016 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best House Secretary/Admin. Assistant goes to JoAnn Sullivan in Speaker Madigan’s office. She’s retiring soon and is one of the most organized, yet sweetest people you’ll ever meet. I do not know how she will be replaced. She is, as one commenter called her, a “class act who has kept everything headed in the right direction for years.” True that.
Runner-up goes to Lynn Langdon with Representative Hammond’s office. “I envy her amazing organizational skills,” was how one commenter put it.
* The 2016 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Senate Secretary/Admin. Assistant goes to another retiring person, Jan Hohl with Senator Sullivan for nominations like this…
Put simply, Jan is like bedrock in a place subject to seismic shifts of all shapes and forms– annoying lobbyists, new staff, and crazy protestors, just to name of few. She is diligent and organized, firm, yet cordial. She knows when to make a joke and when to be serious. On top of all this, she does it all with elegance and class that I fear is becoming characteristic of a bygone time. She’s been a great asset to Senator Sullivan, the Senate Democrats, and the entire Statehouse as an institution. For those reasons, and many others, I would nominate her as best legislative assistant in the Senate.
Runner-up goes to Martha Kohlrus, who was nominated by Sen. Weaver himself…
I regularly hear from constituents regarding the great service they have received from Martha whether they called, emailed or stopped by my office. She has done all she can to get me up to speed my first year in Springfield. I don’t believe I have ever met a person that can maintain such a positive attitude regardless of work load.
* Now, on to today’s categories…
* Best State House Staffer - Non Political, Democrat
* Best State Senate Staffer - Non Political, Democrat
Remember, if you just provide a name your vote won’t be counted. So, please explain your nominations and please do your very best to nominate in both categories. Thanks!
As you know, since the Labor Board’s ruling on November 15 that the State and AFSCME are at impasse, we have begun implementing $1,000 bonuses and other merit pay, instituted bereavement leave, and asked AFSCME to join us in jump-starting workplace safety task forces.
AFSCME responded by going to court to stop the State from implementing these and other common sense measures.
Once employees found out about AFSCME’s efforts, we started receiving questions like this one: “I was curious if the union blocked my $1000.00 bonus that I have earned or if the state was able to issue my check.”
Unfortunately, AFSCME obtained a court order that blocked bonuses, bereavement leave, and workplace safety task forces. On December 5, appearing before a judge who we believe has no jurisdiction to even hear the case, AFSCME got a temporary restraining (TRO) order that blocks the State’s implementation efforts. Until the TRO is lifted, no bonuses may be issued, nor may the State implement any other common-sense proposals.
We will of course vigorously challenge the TRO on appeal and keep you updated on the progress.
Sincerely,
JT
John Terranova
Deputy Director
CMS Office of Labor Relations
It’s hard enough to maintain a first-place finish in Site Selection’s annual ranking of state business climates three years in a row. Georgia did that last year. This year, it extends that winning streak with a fourth consecutive top billing. This ranking combines an equal share of subjective and objective criteria.
Fifty percent of the ranking is based on a survey of site selectors – corporate facility investors and site consultants — who indicate simply which states they deem to be the most business friendly. Texas and South Carolina were first and second by that measure, followed by Georgia. At 50 percent of the total, a third-place finish earned Georgia significant points. That’s the subjective part. The other 50 percent — the objective side — is a combination of factors primarily based on announced project data resident in the Conway Projects Database (see the methodology below), which credits areas with corporate facility projects of at least $1 million in capital investment, 20 or more new jobs or new construction of at least 20,000 sq. ft.
Illinois doesn’t fare well on the “subjective side” because of our well-deserved reputation. We’re 24th.
But Illinois’ performance far outpaces its bad rep. On the objective side of actual new projects of at least $1 million, things are much different. Illinois ranked 3rd in total numbers of new projects in 2014, 2015 and did so again in 2016.
The site’s overall ranking had Illinois tied for 15th with Michigan and Iowa.
* Related…
* Cahill: Indiana can’t compete on costs. You heard me.
* A Sneak Peek of the Seismic Shift in Corporate Tax Breaks: New nationwide accounting rules now require state and local governments to report all economic development incentives programs — like Boeing’s — as foregone tax revenue. Beginning with fiscal 2017’s annual financial reports, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) is requiring governments to report things like the total number and value of tax abatements that year, the criteria that businesses must meet, and how the government will get that money back if the goals aren’t achieved (commonly referred to as clawback provisions). Reporting the annual value of these abatements will clearly show their effect on governments’ bottom lines.
Chris Kennedy & 3 Others Added To BossMadigan.com
Kennedy Kissed Madigan’s Ring; Knows Madigan is the Real Boss
Madigan: “I told him that ‘you’d make a very good candidate for governor.’”
The Illinois Republican Party today added Chris Kennedy and three new legislators to BossMadigan.com.
Over the summer, Chris Kennedy earned a glowing endorsement from Mike Madigan after secretly meeting with him, but ran away when pressed by reporters.
“Mike Madigan endorsing a run for governor by Chris Kennedy tells you everything you need to know about Chris Kennedy,” said Illinois Republican Party spokesman Steven Yaffe. “Chris Kennedy secretly kissed Mike Madigan’s ring months ago because he knows Madigan is the real boss.”
Chris Kennedy
Before he can announce a run for governor, Chris Kennedy knew he first had to kiss the ring of Mike Madigan. That’s why Kennedy secretly met with Madigan, but so far he’s refused to talk about it.
In fact, instead of discussing his meeting with Madigan, his thoughts on the income tax or his opinion on reforms for state government, Kennedy lashed out at reporters. Learn more by watching this video.
Fred Crespo
Fred Crespo’s taken nearly $1 million in political funds from Mike Madigan and voted 5 times to make Madigan the Speaker of the House. While Madigan and Crespo look out for each other, they’ve also teamed on a phony budget that would have increased state debt by $8 billion or forced a massive tax hike on Illinois families. Worst of all, Crespo voted to make sure he gets paid even while he refuses to pass a balanced budget.
Deb Conroy
Mike Madigan funneled over $1.2 million into Deb Conroy’s campaign accounts, and she voted to make him Speaker every time she had the opportunity. That’s not all. Madigan and Conroy both voted to make sure they get paid even without a state budget.
It’s no wonder Madigan and Conroy are refusing to pass a balanced budget alongside good government reforms. They already made sure they get paid even if schools and social services suffer. Time for Conroy to break away from Madigan.
Jay Hoffman
Jay Hoffman is one of Mike Madigan’s most loyal lieutenants. Hoffman voted 11 times to make Mike Madigan the Speaker. He voted in favor of Madigan’s 67% income tax hike with no reforms. He voted for the Madigan-Blagojevich pension scheme that increased debt by up to $22 billion. He voted with Madigan to make sure politicians get paid before schools and social service providers. Last, but not least, Hoffman voted for Madigan’s $8 billion out-of-balance budget.
Jay Hoffman is the poster-child for what happens when politicians follow Mike Madigan’s commands. It’s time for Hoffman to finally show some independence and oppose Madigan’s next bid for Speaker.
A long-time political reporter doubts the state will get a new budget before next summer.
In fact, Chicago Tribune’s Ray Long says there may be no budget until Democrats try to get Governor Bruce Rauner out of office in the 2018 elections.
* You may recall that I asked Gov. Rauner about this almost a year ago, back in January. Oscar the Puppy made the interview slightly difficult, however…
Miller: Do you see [Speaker Madigan] cutting a deal before the primary? Or before the General Election?
Rauner: I don’t know what timing he is going to choose. You know my buddies over in the Democratic caucus, some say that there’s a chance he’ll do it soon, others have said there is no way it’s happening before the primary. And more and more are sayin’ no way until after the general. At some point we got to lead.
Miller: How do you get there? You’ve faced complicated situations in business. You didn’t become who you were by just waiting everyone out.
::Oscar growing increasingly agitated::
Rauner: I haven’t played every card in my hand, I haven’t done everything I can do. I’m just going to keep doing what I can do to try and get a compromise.
Miller: Are you going to wait four years? Before we get a budget? Your entire term?
Rauner: Here’s the thing – I will not sign off on a tax hike that doesn’t have reforms in it.
::Oscar barking madly::
Miller: Oscar please!!
Miller: So, four years? Are you really willing to wait four years?
::Oscar continues barking as if to stop the interview all together::
Miller: Are you really willing to wait four years?
Rauner: I’m not waiting, I’m working my ass off 24/7.
Miller: Ok, are you willing to work your ass off and get nothing 24/7 for four years?
Rauner: We’ve already got a lot in the first year. I’m all about improvin’ the future for the people of Illinois.
*** UPDATE *** That above interview was when the governor promised me economic and fiscal projections for his Turnaround Agenda. When I published them, Rauner promptly disowned his own numbers and then falsely claimed I was a former Madigan employee to distract from his woefully anemic projections of a $500 million revenue increase.
So, along those lines, here’s Wordslinger in comments today…
–We’re two years into Rauner’s term and I continue to be amazed that he thinks he’s going to get what he wants by opting for a 24/7/365 war against Madigan. Is he really any closer to his policy objectives than he was when he was first elected?–
Therein, I think, is a fundamental miscalculation many are making.
If squeeze-the-beast is the real agenda, and I think it is, then everything Rauner is doing makes perfect sense.
By his own (since disowned) calculation, Rauner estimated that his “agenda” would generate $500 million a year in extra state revenue.
So, do you push an FY17 budget with an $8 billion deficit (now estimated at $13 billion), and triple the backlog of bills to an estimated $14 billion by June 30, to hold out for an extra $500 million a year?
That would be the act of a lunatic. And Rauner ain’t crazy. He knows what he’s doing, and he’s accomplishing what he set out to do.
He just didn’t tell anyone what that was, for good reason.
Your thoughts?
…Adding… 47th Ward offers a counter-point…
He’s just so far removed from the carnage that he doesn’t care about the damage he is doing. The damage he is inflicting is in service of his anti-union zeal. He will stop at nothing to eliminate public unions. Period.
He knows he can’t get this done without breaking the whole political system so that’s what he’s doing, and damn the consequences.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey may be pressing his own candidacy to be the next chairman of the Republican National Committee, but Mr. Trump, who has the final say, appears to have other ideas.
A person close to Mr. Trump said the president-elect’s allies are coalescing around Nick Ayers, a member of the transition team, to be the party’s chairman. Mercedes Schlapp, another Republican operative, is being considered for a role as co-chairwoman.
Pence’s vice presidential race is headed by the same operative, Nick Ayers, who ran Rauner’s 2014 race for governor. Ayers described himself to me in a telephone call last year as a key player in Rauner’s campaign—the guy who drafted the campaign plan, hired staff, and handled media buying. He said, “I was the one who on election night [November 4, 2014] called [Rauner] and Diana in their hotel suite and told them we had won. I gave them the news before the AP called it.” […]
In addition to guiding Rauner, who had never run for as much as student council president before taking the state’s top job in 2014 from incumbent governor Pat Quinn, Ayers also connects to Rauner through the Schrimpf twins, Mike and Chris. When Ayers, 33, became executive director of the Republican Governors Association in 2007, he hired both Schrimpfs (also 33), Chris first, as communication director.
Ayers claims credit for later talking Mike Schrimpf into working for Rauner as communications chief, before the venture capitalist formally entered the race. Schrimpf stayed on during the campaign, and until well into Rauner’s first term […]
Interestingly, while Ayers made plenty of money working for Rauner—Politico’s Natasha Korecki reported late last year that Ayers’ Target Enterprises, which creates campaign ads, “was one of [Rauner’s]…biggest payees”
Schrimpf was in Springfield briefly last week, by the way.
In 2014, Ayers reinvented himself, this time with a much lower profile, finding new success on the shadowy edges of the dark-money world, where avoiding scrutiny is the point. After the Pawlenty debacle, Ayers went to work for Target Enterprises, an ad-buying firm based in Los Angeles. Ayers and his new employer picked up work consulting on the campaign of Bruce Rauner, an extremely wealthy Republican businessman from Chicago, who ran for governor as an outsider against a crowded field of Republicans and a troubled incumbent Democrat. Shortly before Ayers went to work for Rauner, his opponents came under fire from mysterious outside groups.
The groups, based in Ohio, emerged out of the blue to lob factually dubious attacks at Rauner’s opponents, and then disappeared. Far more experienced Republican candidates and would-be candidates fell by the wayside. The Ohio groups doing the attacks—with vague names such as Jobs & Progress Fund—hid the source of their money and the motivations for the attacks. (It later came out that one of the groups was partially funded by Ayers’ old employer, the Republican Governors Association.) But the limited paper trail they left showed that they had hired Ayers’ consulting firm. Rauner’s campaign denied any knowledge of the outside groups or who was funding them, despite their close ties to Ayers.
More background on those mysterious 2014 primary ads is on this site.
In early 2013, Rauner was publicly considering a run for Illinois governor, as was Rep. Aaron Schock (R). Quite suddenly, a previously unknown — at least to Illinoisans — group, the Jobs & Progress Fund, began running a series of ads on television and radio tearing Schock down for allegedly voting for huge tax increases and “a mountain of debt.”
Jobs & Progress, an Ohio group, had less than a month earlier changed its name from the equally bland Ohio First for a Better Government. A politically active 501(c)(4) nonprofit, the group is not required to disclose its donors, nor did it share much else on its initial corporate filings besides the name of its attorney, David Langdon. Langdon is known in Ohio as a staunch conservative and opponent of campaign finance disclosure.
Schock wasn’t even a declared candidate at the time, though there was a good deal of buzz that he’d throw his hat into the ring. All of that immediately screeched to a halt.
“It looked to everybody that it was a brushback pitch,” said Rich Miller, a blogger and local pundit who covered the mysterious attacks at the time. “It was getting fairly clear that (Schock) was gearing up for something like that and then those ads appeared and everything kind of stopped.”
House Speaker Michael Madigan emerged from a leaders meeting on Tuesday with the fiery yet unexplained accusation that Gov. Bruce Rauner is holding the budget hostage “to help his wealthy friends and large corporations.”
When asked to elaborate, Madigan would only say: “I mean by that exactly what I said.”
The speaker’s comment came after another leaders meeting with the governor in Rauner’s Chicago office — with no sign that a resolution is on its way. There are just 25 days left before appropriations granted by a partial budget run out — leaving social service agencies and universities, among many other state services high and dry.
“I’m not the one who decided to hold hostage the Illinois governmental budget. It’s a very unusual tactic for anybody, including the governor, to hold hostage the governmental budget making process in order to help his wealthy friends and large corporations,” Madigan said.
Thoughts on what Madigan meant by that? Perhaps keeping the personal and corporate tax rates down?
During Tuesday’s press conference, the speaker once again pushed for working groups, a move Rauner and the Republicans have frequently dismissed.
Madigan proposed establishing working groups for a series of non-budget issues, including education, pensions, workers’ compensation, local government consolidation and the elimination of mandates on local governments. Madigan also pushed for rank-and-file members of the legislature to aid in the state’s negotiations with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31.
“This would be in response to the governor’s request for what he would characterize as a turnaround agenda,” Madigan said. “These are all issues that are pending before the legislature. They’re such that the members of the legislature and those who have become expert in these areas should participate in the discussions, should participate in the decision-making, in terms of trying to move toward an agreement on moving bills that would make all of these changes.”
OK, so now he wants to talk about non-budget issues via working groups. But the Republicans say it’s too late.
But bipartisan working groups studied budget issues last winter and spring before the General Assembly adjourned in July without a spending plan:
“The question here is how much more do we want to go back to square one and recreate working group?” said Republican State Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno.
“I look at that as a stalling tactic, which we’ve seen a lot over the last few weeks,” said Republican House Minority Leader Jim Durkin.
Nobody asked about the AFSCME angle, however. I’m certain that the GOP doesn’t want to talk about that hot potato.
Indeed, Madigan downplayed the urgency of the deadline, pointing out that the stopgap spending plan provides a full year of funding for primary and secondary education, as well as capital construction — meaning that some, but not all, of the spending will expire with the new year. At risk is funding for higher education, human services and some government operations, Madigan said.
The speaker, who has been the target of pre- and postelection attacks by the Rauner-led Illinois Republican Party, tried to pin the blame on the governor.
There is little doubt that MJM is slow-walking this thing. I mean, why else would he allow a resolution to reach the House floor that puts members in opposition to a lame duck tax hike?
The crux of the disagreement over a budget has remained the same. Rauner is insisting that Democrats pass parts of his agenda, including passing pro-business legislation, freezing property taxes and considering term limits among other things. But Democratic leaders have said Rauner should drop his demands and focus only on a state budget without pre-conditions.
Meanwhile, Illinois is more than five months behind in paying debtors, and every month the state is increasing its more than $5 billion deficit because spending for government employees and crucial services like Medicaid is on autopilot.
“Today, Illinois’ ability to compete for middle class manufacturing jobs was weakened by Governor Bruce Rauner’s signature of SB 2814.
“Last week, lawmakers approved a 500-page bill that significantly alters Illinois’ energy policy with very little time for stakeholder review. We hoped that the Administration would take time to review this comprehensive legislation and contemplate the impact that electric rates have on Illinois job creators.
“Illinois manufacturers have lost nearly 10,000 good, high-paying jobs in the past year while our neighboring states are growing. Building a guaranteed electric rate hike into state law and reversing twenty years of deregulation is not the answer to get our economy booming again.”
…Adding… The governor obviously disagrees with the IMA…
Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has ruled the state party for over three decades, has become the Republicans’ favorite target for attacks, even as they try to get him to capitulate to Rauner’s conditions for a budget.
Last week, after Madigan cited a scheduling conflict for missing a negotiating session, the Illinois Republican Party launched a “Boss Madigan” website criticizing his tenure as the country’s longest-serving state House speaker and highlighting lawmakers loyal to him to pressure them to break ranks with their leader. Republicans have also urged House Democrats not to support Madigan for another term as speaker next month.
The media has reported on that website several times. But reporters haven’t even mentioned the startling introduction of Republican Party video trackers at the Statehouse. And Rep. Sam Yingling wasn’t the only legislator targeted by the trackers. He was apparently just the only one who said something goofy enough to post on YouTube. If this continues, it will do infinitely more damage than any website or e-mails.
Republican operatives also hand-delivered an anti-Madigan packet to Democrats’ Statehouse offices last week, which was odd and took some Dems by surprise (and kinda creeped them out).
GOP types have also been actively trying to privately convince Democrats to vote against Madigan’s reelection. So far, to no avail.
* Meanwhile, here’s the latest ILGOP press release…
Businessman Chris Kennedy is interviewing potential pollsters and consultants as he moves toward a possible 2018 gubernatorial run, sources close to Kennedy told POLITICO Illinois.
Kennedy, son of the late Robert F. Kennedy, has increased his public profile since the spring and has publicly discussed the possibility of running for governor — without making commitments.
Top Illinois Democrats who have met with Kennedy say they would welcome his candidacy but were not sure if he’ll actually make the run, given his flirtations with higher office in the past.
But a top aide to Kennedy told POLITICO Illinois on Tuesday that he is preparing to file papers with the state board of elections “in short order … some time in the next month.”
Kennedy doesn’t have the cash of someone like Bruce Rauner or JB Pritzker. He’s got money, but he’s not OMG rich. Case in point was his backing of Innovation Illinois, which was supposed to be a counter to the Illinois Policy Institute. But Kennedy never put nearly enough money into it or raised enough outside funds and it fizzled.
So, we’ll see how he does on his first fundraising report.
We’ll also have to wait and see if he decides to venture out to experience how large this state really is. We’re essentially Boston, MA to Richmond, VA in length (and in politics). And Quincy to Danville (our widest point) is about 230 miles. He’s been to Springfield and the Quad Cities, but there’s a whole lot of Illinois beyond that.
The guy has floated his name so many times for so many offices that it’s difficult to believe he’ll actually follow through. And, of course, he failed bigtime when confronted by an aggressive reporter during the Democratic National Convention. Does he have what it takes to endure a statewide bid? Maybe we’ll find out.
After being elected to a leadership role in the House Democratic Caucus Monday, Rep. Cheri Bustos is primed to shape outreach and communications efforts for a party that suffered a series of pivotal losses in November’s election.
Bustos was tapped to co-chair the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee after winning every county in her downstate swing district last month. […]
During Tuesday’s interview, the congresswoman also looked ahead to the 2018 Congressional elections.
“We have a lot of opportunities in two years to hopefully win back some seats and spread what we think is important to working families,” the congresswoman said. “Spread that at a deeper and broader level throughout the country, and that will be part of what I hope to play a part in.”
Bustos dropped by some state lobbying associations lately to let them know she’s interested in running for governor. But she doesn’t yet have an active state campaign account and that new DC role could mean she’ll be otherwise occupied.
…Adding… Good point from a commenter on the new Bustos gig…
It could also just be one of those “everyone gets a title” things that caucuses, especially minority caucuses, do nowadays.
Throughout the recent presidential campaign, this mostly blue state’s Republican governor tried to keep a safe distance from Donald Trump.
While Bruce Rauner skipped his party’s convention last summer, Palatine GOP leader Aaron Del Mar cheered Trump enthusiastically from the arena floor, as a member of the Illinois delegation in Cleveland.
That difference must not matter much, because Rauner picked Del Mar last week to represent him at the city-state agency that runs the port of Chicago through June 2020. Del Mar stands to make $20,000 a year to sit on the Illinois International Port District’s board, which meets once a month.
Del Mar says he’s the best person for the job, citing a degree in public management from Indiana University, his prior service as a Palatine village trustee and his current position as Palatine Township’s highway commissioner.
“I’m honored the governor appointed me to this position,” Del Mar said. “My resume speaks for itself. I have real-life experience and the educational background.”
Some nasty oppo is also included in the story, but nowhere does it mention what could be the actual reason behind the appointment.
When GOP Sen. Matt Murphy announced his retirement, Del Mar coveted the appointment. As a township committeeman he had almost 42 percent of the weighted vote in Murphy’s district, making him a strong contender. He could’ve also appointed himself, by himself, to Rep. Tom Morrison’s (R-Arlington Heights) seat if Morrison got the Murphy gig. But Team Rauner got a lot of pushback on Del Mar (that oppo may have had something to do with it), so they went with Rolling Meadows Mayor Tom Rooney instead.
Del Mar got completely shut out. And now he gets a little plum job at the port district.
I wanted to make sure you are aware of a meeting on the Mayor’s schedule this morning.
Mayor Emanuel will meet with the president-elect this morning when he is in New York for a series of other meetings. When they spoke a few weeks ago the President-elect asked for a meeting with the Mayor, as he has done with others who have significant experience in the White House and several other big city mayors. The meeting will take place at 10 AM eastern, 9 AM central.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and mayors from across the country today sent a letter to President-elect Donald Trump urging him to continue the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program until Congress modernizes the immigration system and provides a more permanent form of relief for the close to one million young people who were brought to the United States before they were 16.
“Ensuring DREAMers can continue to live and work in their communities without fear of deportation is the foundation of sound, responsible immigration policy. Ending DACA would disrupt the lives of close to one million young people, and it would disrupt the American economy, as well as our national security and public safety,” said Mayor Emanuel in the letter to Trump. “We encourage your Administration to demonstrate your commitment to the American economy and our security by continuing DACA until Congress modernizes our immigration system and provides a more permanent form of relief for these individuals.”
The DACA program helps ensure that qualified undocumented youth can seek higher education, work and engage in military service without fear of deportation. Youth who were under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012; came to the U.S. before reaching their 16th birthday; have lived in the US continuously for five years; and are currently in school, have graduated or obtained a certificate of completion from high school, have obtained a general education development (GED) certificate, or are an honorably discharged veteran of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States; who have not been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor, or more than three misdemeanors of any kind; and do not pose a threat to national security or public safety; may apply through the program for temporary deferred action and work authorization.
Nearly 742,000 youth have participated in DACA since the program began in 2012. In addition to citing the disruption to countless lives of youth across the country, the Mayors also cautioned the incoming Administration about the economic impact that would come with the eliminating DACA.
According to the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA), eliminating the program would lead to the loss of $9.9 billion in tax contributions over the next four years and would wipe away at least $433.4 billion from the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) over the next decade.
Mayors signing the letter included: Mayor Megan Barry of Nashville, TN; Mayor Bill di Blasio of New York City, NY; Mayor Jorge Elorza of Providence, RI; Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, CA; Mayor Michael Hancock of Denver, CO; Mayor Betsy Hodges of Minneapolis, MN; Mayor Jim Kenney of Philadelphia, PA; Mayor Ed Lee of San Francisco, CA; Isiah Leggett County Executive, Montgomery County, MD; Mayor Sam Liccardo of San Jose, CA; Mayor Ed Murray of Seattle, WA; Former Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore, MD; Mayor Fran
On the day before Gov. Bruce Rauner is to sign into law a multi-year electricity rate hike for consumers and businesses statewide, his Illinois Commerce Commission approved a $127 million 2017 rate increase for Commonwealth Edison.
The power-delivery rate hike goes into effect Jan. 1 and will add about $2 per month to the average household’s monthly electric bill.
Unlike Rauner when he agreed last week to sign the bill raising rates statewide to keep open two nuclear plants slated for closure by ComEd owner Exelon, the ICC had little choice but to approve next year’s rate hike.
That’s because ComEd’s rates are set according to an annual formula enacted over then-Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto in 2011. The formula permits the utility to quickly recover its $2.6 billion investment in upgrading the area’s power grid and installing smart meters in nearly 4 million homes and businesses. The formula gives regulators only minimal ability to influence ComEd’s requested rates. It also enables the utility to collect more from ratepayers if it doesn’t earn its allowed rate of return in a previous year.
With next year’s increase now set, ComEd will have hiked delivery rates by $734 million over the past five years under the 2011 law. That has raised the average ComEd household customer’s monthly bill, which currently exceeds $80, by more than $10.
The Rauner Administration issued the following statement after today’s Four Leaders meeting. It is attributable to Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly:
“Today the Speaker refused to put forward a budget proposal and refused to commit to passing any budget whatsoever after December 31st. Republicans will not consider revenue without reform. Only Speaker Madigan has proposed raising the income tax. As the Speaker stalls to force a crisis, we call on the majority to pass term limits and a permanent property tax freeze before any consideration of Speaker Madigan’s stopgap spending plan.”
This post will be updated in a few minutes with post-meeting comments from Senate President Cullerton.
*** UPDATE *** Always the optimist, Senate President John Cullerton emerged late from today’s leaders meeting to say “We could have an agreement on workers’ comp,” particularly when it comes to reducing abuses and fraud. “That’s where you save your money, and you don’t fundamentally blow up the whole workers’ comp system.”
And while he said that Madigan hasn’t yet committed to supporting pension reform, “The question with pension reform, as I told the governor, is getting enough votes for it.”
On taxes, Cullerton said, “Let me make it clear… We cannot on our own raise any revenue by ourselves. The most important person on revenue is the governor.”
Responding to Republican demands for Democratic “parameters” on the budget, Cullerton said “We want to know what their parameters are too, it wouldn’t just be our parameters,” adding, “So we need to know from the governor at the next meeting what his parameters are on revenue.”
* Cullerton also backed up Speaker Madigan’s contention that the working groups need to be reconstituted. “The working groups is where we got progress,” he said. The working groups can do “the ground work,” while the leaders can make the final decisions. “It’s highly detailed to do a budget. It takes weeks and weeks. So, it’s something that will be helpful.”
But he couldn’t resist a little snark: “I think the complexity of the budgeting process is something that the governor’s actually starting to appreciate.”
* Asked about the ongoing Illinois Republican Party attacks on Speaker Madigan, Cullerton said “I don’t think it’s helpful to start the election cycle for 2018 when we’re still worrying about Fiscal Year 17. The election just occurred a few weeks ago. Could we just legislate for a while? I’m not campaigning anywhere.”
The Illinois Labor Relations Board on Monday issued a written version of its Nov. 15 ruling that an impasse exists in contract talks between the state and Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall said after the written version was issued that the union is appealing the ruling to the state appellate court based in Chicago.
The union had filed a lawsuit in St. Clair County circuit court seeking an injunction to block the Rauner administration from implementing its final contract offer before a written opinion was issued. A ruling had been expected as early as Monday. […]
The full board ruled that because privatization - or subcontracting - was such a critical issue, the parties should be considered to have reached overall impasse.
Lindall said the union is asking the appellate court to block implementation of the state’s final offer because many components
The governor’s office claimed yesterday that any TRO by that St. Clair County judge would be moot, but he went ahead and issued it today anyway. Click here to read it…
Another hearing is set for January 13th, unless the Rauner administration asks for an expedited process.
Awaiting Rauner administration react.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Catherine Kelly…
“With this order, AFSCME’s hand-picked judge blatantly ignores yesterday’s written ruling which memorialized and reinforced the Labor Board’s final decision, made at its November 15th meeting confirming that the parties are at impasse. In addition, the order ensures that taxpayers and employees will not be able to benefit from common sense solutions such as overtime after 40 hours of work, workplace safety task forces, bereavement leave, and $1,000 merit bonus payments for eligible employees.”
Although the Board’s written decision was issued while the TRO request was pending, the judge found that “by implementing new terms and conditions of employment without notice to and the agreement of the union”, the Rauner administration “has violated that Tolling Agreement” that extends the terms of the current contract.
Under the TRO, the administration must honor the tolling agreement and rescind any changes it has made, at least until a hearing now set for January 13 (possibly sooner).
“Although temporary, this order sends a message to Governor Rauner that he is not above the law,” AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said. “Instead of sparking further conflict in the courts and at state worksites, Governor Rauner should return to bargaining and work with us to find common ground.”
* The 2016 Golden Horseshoe Award for best political bar goes to DH Brown’s. “Great beer, fun jukebox, bipartisan non uptight crowd,” wrote a commenter. “Always has the most politicos,” says another. “It’s just cool that you can find all kinds of lobsters there in the afternoon, and legislators make it a pit stop through out the night,” wrote yet another. Sangamo Club wins runner-up because it’s a go-to meeting spot for heavy hitters.
* The 2016 Golden Horseshoe Award for best political restaurant goes to, who else? Saputo’s. “Years of meals and deals,” is how one commenter described it. Runner-up goes to Augies, mainly for this nomination…
Augie’s is hands-down the best political restaurant. In addition to good food, you can always “get work done” while having dinner as there are always opportunities to “run into” someone you just happen to need to see on an issue (legislator or staffer). Also, it has become a regular haunt of Gov. Rauner and his wife, which makes Augie’s just that much better as a “political” restaurant.
* On to today’s categories…
* Best Senate Secretary/Admin. Assistant
* Best House Secretary/Admin. Assistant
As always, make sure to explain your votes or they won’t count. Also, please do your best to nominate in both categories. Thanks!
A new, first-of-its-kind statewide survey released by the Alliance for Safety and Justice (ASJ) bucks conventional wisdom regarding the views of crime victims on incarceration. Despite popular assumptions that victims support long sentences and prison expansion, the Survey of Illinois Victims’ Views finds that seven in 10 victims prefer a more balanced approach to public safety – shorter prison sentences and greater investments in prevention, rehabilitation and trauma recovery for victims to stop the cycle of crime.
By a margin of nearly 3 to 1, crime victims believe that time in prison makes people more likely to commit another crime rather than less likely. These views cut across demographic groups, with wide support across race, age, gender, and political party affiliation.
Nine in 10 crime victims prefer that Illinois invest more in schools and education rather than investing in more prisons and jails. The vast majority of victims also prefer investments in rehabilitation, mental health treatment, and drug treatment to more spending on prisons and jails. […]
The survey also finds that victims of crime experience significant challenges in recovery and healing—seven in 10 report experiencing at least one symptom of trauma. The survey found fewer than half of victims receive help from the police and only two in 10 receive help from the district attorney.
According to FOX’s Ken Rosenthal, the Chicago White Sox traded Sale to the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday in exchange for Moncada, starting pitcher Michael Kopech and two other prospects.
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month in United Auto Workers v. Hardin County that Kentucky’s local governments—not only the state legislature—can decide whether to implement right-to-work laws, which ban unions from firing workers who refuse to pay dues. This ruling should relieve reformers throughout the Midwest, but it’s particularly good news for Illinois, where unions and their political allies have made securing workers’ freedom an uphill battle.
Right to work is an important part of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “Turnaround Illinois” agenda. Under his proposal, local governments would have the option to decide for themselves whether to adopt right to work. The policy could apply to workers in the private economy, as well as government employees. Any unit of local government could make this decision—cities, towns, counties, municipal wards and even school districts.
Yet Mr. Rauner has faced hurdles at every turn. Mike Madigan, Illinois’s powerful speaker of the house, almost immediately shot down the idea of serious right-to-work legislation. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the speaker’s daughter, issued a legal opinion arguing that right-to-work laws for local governments within a state are illegal. The Sixth Circuit’s judgment may help overcome such resistance. […]
Although Illinois isn’t under the Sixth Circuit’s jurisdiction, a similar challenge is already under way. The village of Lincolnshire, about 30 miles north of Chicago, enacted a right-to-work ordinance last year. Lincolnshire immediately faced lawsuits from unions, including the AFL-CIO. […]
Lincolnshire isn’t the only municipality where right to work would be beneficial. These laws would help Winnebago County, next to Wisconsin, and many of the southern counties that border Kentucky, Missouri, and Indiana, where coal-related jobs have disappeared.
I seriously doubt coal-related job losses have been due to the lack of right to work laws, but whatever.
Illinois governor Bruce Rauner will be in the [Quad Cities] this week to sign the Future Energy Jobs Bill.
The bill was passed last Thursday and reportedly will ensure that Exelon nuclear plants in Cordova and Clinton, Illinois will remain open for at least the next ten years.
Governor Rauner will sign the bill in the gym at Riverdale High School at 9:30 on Wednesday.
But he can’t actually sign a bill that isn’t on his desk.
Gov. Bruce Rauner plans to visit Clinton on Wednesday to sign a bill overhauling Illinois’ energy policy and creating $235 million in annual ratepayer subsidies to keep open Exelon Corp.’s nuclear power plants there and near the Quad-Cities.
The Clinton Chamber of Commerce announced Sunday on its Facebook page that Rauner plans a bill-signing ceremony at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Clinton High School. The governor’s office did not respond immediately Monday to a request for confirmation, and as of Monday afternoon, the bill hadn’t been sent to his desk. [Emphasis added]
The Senate still has the bill. I was told by the Senate Democrats today that they weren’t sure when they could get it to Rauner’s desk. So, stay tuned.
The typical Ameren Illinois residential customer will pay about $1.93 less per month for power after a far-reaching energy bill goes into effect June 1, 2017, according to an analysis of the Future Energy Jobs bill by the Illinois Commerce Commission.
Eventually, however, rates will start to increase beyond today’s levels around 2023, according to the ICC model.
The energy bill, promoted for almost two years by Exelon Corp. to preserve its nuclear plants in Clinton and the Quad Cities, was approved by the Illinois Legislature on Thursday. The main feature of the measure is a subsidy of up to $235 million a year to keep the two nuclear plants open for at least 10 more years. […]
“Based on our analysis,” said ICC Executive Director Cholly Smith, “we expect residential customer caps will reduce rates in the first few years and meet the goals of the legislation to limit increases throughout the life of the law. As an agency whose mission is to balance the interests of consumers and utilities, we stand ready to enforce these caps.”
While proponents of the bill tout “rate caps,” sadly these caps are a sham, gamed by Exelon using technical language to mask artificially high baselines against which caps will be measured. For commercial and industrial customers, the gaming of the rate caps will cost them more than $100 million per year.
For residential ratepayers, the gap between rhetoric and reality is extreme. Exelon has said their bills will go up by no more than 25 cents a month, but that’s an average of all residential customers, not individual homeowners. An independent analysis by Illinois’ leading energy expert, the Power Bureau, finds the bill will cost the average residential ratepayer an additional $4.54 a month for ComEd customers and $2.01 a month for Ameren customers in downstate Illinois.
Illinois lawmakers recently passed the Future Energy Jobs Bill (SB 2814), which would create the biggest rate hike in U.S. history. Proponents of the legislation claim it will “create jobs” and reduce energy rates. This is not true. This anti-free market legislation will kill tens of thousands of Illinois jobs, increase rates in the state by more than $13 billion and prop up politically connected corporations at the expense of Illinois residents. […]
The state’s economy would likely be the hardest hit. The legislation would cause a projected loss of over 44,000 jobs and a reduction in Illinois’ economic activity of $14.7 billion. State and local governments would also see an estimated tax revenue loss of $429 million.
Given the drastic impact of this legislation on Illinois residents, businesses, and the state’s economy as a whole, one can only ask is this cost truly worth bailing out two insignificant nuclear plants in the state, while also doling out billions of dollars to special interests? The answer is obviously no.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) has the ability to save his constituents from this needless and burdensome legislation, simply by refusing to sign the Future Energy Jobs Bill and ensuring Illinois residents and businesses are not subjected to the highest rate hike in history, thousands of jobs lost and billions of dollars in reduced economic growth.
* Subscribers were tipped to this earlier today, as well as the reason why…,
State Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, released the following statement Tuesday, after delivering letters to Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic and Republican legislative leaders urging a working group of lawmakers to immediately begin negotiations on a state budget:
“With only weeks before the stopgap budget expires, passing a responsible and comprehensive budget for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2017 and a full-year budget for Fiscal Year 2018 must be a priority. The governor and caucus leaders have been open to forming a bipartisan, bicameral budget working group. House Democrats are ready to do their part to end this gridlock and pass a budget that protects vital programs and services for families throughout Illinois. I am hopeful this group will begin meeting immediately and work throughout the coming weeks to achieve a budget solution.”
The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget Chief of Staff Scott Harry released the following statement in the lead-up to today’s budget presentation from Speaker Madigan to the Governor and legislative leaders:
“The budget working group has gone as far as it can in putting together a balanced budget framework to accompany key reforms that grow the economy, lower property taxes, improve education and bring government pensions under control,” Harry said. “Now it’s time for the four leaders and the governor to reach agreement on these key reforms and give final parameters for a balanced budget framework.”
Yesterday, GOMB Director Tim Nuding met with budget directors from all four legislative caucuses to answer any remaining questions about the stopgap funding bill or issues needed for final decision-making on a FY17-FY18 balanced budget framework. The administration looks forward to seeing Speaker Madigan’s budget proposal in today’s Four Leaders meeting, including specific parameters for funding levels, cuts, revenue and/or reforms.
Notice there’s no mention of revenues in that budget framework. There were, but they don’t like to talk about that.
Thank you for your most recent letter regarding budget working groups. I refer you to my letter sent to you last week that already addresses the topic. I am attaching a copy of that letter.
I look forward to seeing you at today’s meeting at 2pm to discuss the budget.
Her letter from last week is here. Basically, she said that she already did the working groups thing and now it’s up to the leaders.
Which brings to mind the Republican effort to “out” the downstate Democrats ahead of the Illinois House electing its next speaker. Mike Madigan’s 32-year lock on that spot, and all the dysfunction that has flowed from that leadership, is under attack and local Democrats are under the microscope at bossmadigan.com. The site names state Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Eldorado; Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville; Rep. Dan Beiser, D-Alton; and Rep. Jerry Costello II, D-Smithton.
Costello said he doesn’t know how he’ll vote.
“I think my constituents know I’m a very conservative Democrat, and I consider myself to be exactly in the middle,” Costello said.
But exactly in the middle is a very bad place to be. If anything is to change in Illinois, Costello and the rest of Illinois’ leadership must choose sides.
Continue to follow Madigan, to what destination is anyone’s guess. Try something different than the insanity of topping two decades of unbalanced budgets by shirking the obligation for two years to even have a budget, by ignoring a $130 billion pension deficit and by continuing to bleed jobs and population that are destroying our middle class.
Serve yourself. Serve your master. Serve the people who elected you.
This shouldn’t be a hard choice.
There are only two sides in the House: Madigan and Rauner. What the BN-D essentially proposes here is that Costello and other Democrats side with Rauner. They don’t come out and say it, of course, but that’s what this is really all about.
Being “exactly in the middle” is a good thing, by the way. He can help nudge people on both sides to an agreement. Costello worked hard on the higher education stopgap earlier this year to make it more equitable for Downstate. Illinois needs more legislators like him, not fewer.
Gov. Bruce Rauner is calling on new Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza to fight a lawsuit filed by her fellow Democratic lawmakers seeking to collect paychecks they haven’t received since May.
Speaking in Chicago, the Republican governor says it’s clear the lawsuit was “orchestrated” with Democratic party leaders such as Rauner’s rival, House Speaker Michael Madigan. […]
Rauner says he hopes Mendoza will “fight as hard as Comptroller Munger has.”
He says she should hire outside legal counsel rather than be represented by Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office. Lisa Madigan, a Democrat, is Michael Madigan’s daughter.
“I hope that she’ll speak out about it every day. I hope that she will get her own special counsel and not purely count on Attorney General Lisa Madigan to fight the lawsuit,” Rauner said. […]
Mendoza’s office responded to calls for an independent counsel in a statement, citing her office’s independence from the governor’s office.
“We appreciate the governor’s advice but as an independent constitutional office, we’ll explore our best legal options on this case and any others,” Mendoza spokesman Abdon Pallasch said.
The Illinois Attorney General’s office, however, on Monday said it’s reviewing the lawsuit and plans to represent the comptroller’s office.
Abdon’s response was pretty darned polite, considering the situation. But, hey, he just started a new gig.
“Sam Yingling’s flustered response to a simple question shows just how loyal Yingling is to Mike Madigan. Yingling knows that a vote for Madigan is a vote against a property tax freeze, pro-growth economic reforms, and term limits, but Yingling will not dare speak out against his political patron.” – Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Steven Yaffe
Yesterday’s dodge comes after Yingling was asked last week whether he would support Madigan, to which he responded “I don’t know, you should talk to him.”
Rauner said he warned the speaker last week that he’ll only approve another stopgap budget with term limits and a property tax freeze.
Besides deep fundamental disagreements about reforms, the two are so at odds that they disagree over the word “stopgap.” Last week, Madigan said it was the governor’s office that coined the term in late May, and that he preferred it to be called a budget. They also disagree about whose idea it was to try to pass a stopgap budget, which began in July.
The governor on Monday called that “semantics.”
“I call that a stopgap. He calls it a budget. Semantics. It’s not a real budget,” Rauner said.
And while the governor has said he’s still “fighting” for his reforms, he warned a stopgap budget may be where the state is heading.
“I will insist that those be part of any stopgap plan, Rauner said. “Be ready, because that’s where we’re going.”
We already know about these two demands in exchange for a stopgap, but have people really internalized them yet? All we’ve seen so far is straight reportage on his demands, but we are heading for a serious meltdown here and more people need to speak up. So far, I’m getting a lot of private feedback that people are still holding out beyond all hope for a deal. Does this sound like a deal is imminent?
* No stopgap could mean very real problems. Social service agencies are already crumbling. You can kiss many of them goodbye if they don’t get any more cash. Same for some of our universities.
And when a prison is about to close is he really gonna say “We’ll be glad to keep it open if we get term limits”?
I went over some of the scenarios with subscribers last week. Suffice it to say here that the administration thinks it can tough it out, move money around and confine most of the damage to Democratic areas.
But more people need to be demanding answers about what, exactly the future holds.
We can’t allow the executive branch of government to illegally use personal economic coercion to make the legislative branch fall in line on policy disputes, even if sticking it to politicians makes everyone feel good. […]
As somebody who has tried to illuminate the plight of the little people getting mistreated by the state’s failure to pass a budget, I can appreciate there’s a certain appearance of fairness in treating elected officials as poorly as other state vendors are being treated.
Rauner piled on the paycheck issue again Monday, calling the lawsuit “frivolous” and an “insult to taxpayers.”
“Only in Illinois would politicians who have failed to pass a balanced budget put their own personal gain before taxpayers and critical human services,” Rauner said.
This from a man who reported an adjusted gross income of $188 million to the IRS for 2015, a year in which he was the full-time governor of Illinois. And we’re supposed to be impressed he voluntarily refuses his state salary. […]
Despite all Rauner’s money, I think the governor appreciates how withholding six months pay squeezes lawmakers to bend to his will. They’ll go broke long before he will.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants Gov. Bruce Rauner to publicly back his efforts to promote Chicago as a welcoming place for immigrants as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office.
A resolution sponsored by Emanuel, new Democratic state Comptroller Susana Mendoza and 35 of the city’s 50 aldermen calls on Rauner to issue a statement of “support for cities that welcome our undocumented family members and neighbors and condemn any effort to strip the city of Chicago of federal funding.”
Chicago Democrats also are attempting to whistle in the Republican governor — the resolution, which was advanced Monday by a City Council committee, calls on Rauner to speak at a special council meeting “held solely for the purpose of discussing the president-elect’s plans for cities that welcome and protect immigrants.”
Asked to respond to the specifics of the city resolution, a Rauner spokeswoman instead issued a general statement reiterating the governor’s support for immigration reform. Rauner has spent much of the last year avoiding even the mention of Trump’s name.
Democrat Susana Mendoza was sworn in as Illinois comptroller Monday, saying bipartisan agreement is needed to get the state out of its fiscal crisis, but also saying GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “turnaround agenda” shouldn’t be linked to passing a budget.
“I don’t think that the approach of tying non-budgetary related items to the budget has proved fruitful for Illinoisans,” Mendoza, 44, told reporters concerning Rauner’s priorities, which have ranged from term limits and a property-tax freeze to limiting some collective bargaining and lowering workers’ compensation costs. “I think all of those things independently should be standing on their own merits and should not be tied to the budget.” […]
“I will use the full power of my office to prevent Illinois’ hospitals, group homes, rape crisis centers and universities from going under,” Mendoza said. […]
“As I said during my campaign, I am here to be that independent, truth-telling fiscal watchdog that will prioritize … both the state’s fiscal and moral health,” Mendoza said. “If anyone from the governor on down tells you we can afford to bail out the big power companies but we have to bail on Illinois’ school children, I’ll be here to call their bluff.”
That last line closely echoed Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s criticism of the governor for backing the Exelon deal while vetoing Chicago Public Schools funding…
“The governor said he was going to sign a bill to bail out the utilities and then vetoed a bill that bailed on the children of the city of Chicago. That’s the way I look at it,” said Emanuel of a measure that raises electricity rates for consumers and keeps open two nuclear power plants.
* Gov. Rauner was asked today about his recent calls to Democrats to tone down their rhetoric. But what about the BossMadigan.com site, which is run by the Illinois GOP that’s almost totally funded by the governor? Why not give that a rest for a while?
His response…
This is the job we’ve chosen. We’re in a field where politics is always going on. Partisan stuff. That’s on the side. We can keep that out. That’s not in the room when we’re negotiating. That’s its own process. I have nothing to do with it. I don’t spend my time thinking about it or focusing on it. We ought to be mature enough, thoughtful enough that we can put politics aside. Politics are always going on. That’s the world we live in. We should focus in the room on getting a compromise, doing the right thing for the long term for the people of Illinois… The political stuff, the partisan stuff, ignore it. That shouldn’t matter. That should not get in the way.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner says legislation that provides billions of dollars in subsidies to power giant Exelon Corp. is imperfect but that he’s “proud” of the deal lawmakers reached.
The measure approved Thursday provides $235 million per year to Exelon to keep unprofitable nuclear plants running in Clinton and the Quad Cities. More than 4 million customers of power-distributing subsidiaries ComEd and Ameren will pay more to finance the plan.
Rauner has previously blasted “special deals” for corporations. On Thursday he vetoed additional state money for Chicago Public Schools, calling it a “bailout.”
The Republican, who’s expected to sign the Exelon bill, said Friday that Clinton and the Quad Cities communities would have been “devastated” if those plants closed.
For a few days, Illinois touted a functioning government, and the sudden bit of 11th-hour bipartisanship salvaged nuclear plants in Cordova and Clinton, Illinois. […]
This time, Gov. Bruce Rauner showed real leadership. For months, his administration was oddly silent on the Exelon bill. Only when it really mattered did Rauner and his staff speak up, leveraging its full political muscle to shape something palatable to Rauner, pro-business Republicans and environmentally minded Democrats. Rauner’s administration said late Thursday that the Exelon bill is expected to be signed into law.
Madigan, too, backed off on his “poison pill.” Finally, Illinois’ dominant speaker freed his members to speak for themselves.
It made for another sad commentary on a Legislature that seems impotent and fearful in the ongoing budget dispute between Rauner and Michael Madigan, but was willing and able to take tough votes to assist a profitable corporation.
The governor’s team actively worked to craft the Exelon bailout. Too bad the only time Rauner and Democrats in the General Assembly found common cause, it was to do the state harm.
“It’s all about clean hands,” a group of Republican lawmakers is complaining Monday, and the Illinois Democrats that filed a lawsuit last week to get their paychecks from State Comptroller Leslie Munger simply “don’t have them.”
The lawsuit six state representatives filed last week sues on behalf of all the state lawmakers affected by Munger’s policy of “No budget, No pay,” but those six are a part of the reason why no state budget has been passed, and why they’re not getting their paychecks.
“In order to be worthy to file the lawsuit, those filing must be worthy of asking, and they have not complied with the statutory requirements” to pass a balanced state budget Illinois Review was told by a source that wanted to remain anonymous. […]
“The House members must comply with their required duties or they have no standing to file a complaint about not getting their paychecks - in other words, they don’t have ‘clean hands’ required,” and that position could soon be filed in court.
* Here’s a bit more from an e-mail that’s being circulated among some lawmakers that I obtained this afternoon…
As of June 30, 2014, the General Assembly members get paid under a continuing appropriation bill covering their salaries.
Unfortunately for the continuing appropriation bill, the cumulative effect of the current expenditures exceeding funds estimated to be available by the General Assembly, such an appropriation bill is unconstitutional under Article VIII, Section 2(b) of the Illinois Constitution which says:
“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. “
The doctrine of unclean hands is an affirmative defense to a Mandamus of the type requested by the 6 Illinois House members. First, look at the standard definition of Unclean Hands:
“For instance, if a plaintiff asks the court for an injunction to stop the defendant from dumping his trash in the plaintiff’s backyard, the defendant may argue that the plaintiff has also dumped her trash in the defendant’s backyard, and so the plaintiff has “unclean hands” and should not receive the injunction she wants. The doctrine is based on an idea of basic fairness: One person should not be able to stop another person from doing a bad action if the first person is also doing it.”
http://www.rotlaw.com/legal-library/what-are-unclean-hands/
Second, consider the fact that it is the very acts of the 6 named Plaintiffs individually and collectively as a body that has refused to send to the governor’s desk a Constitutional appropriations bill where all expenditures do not exceed the funds estimated to be available. The doctrine Unclean Hands of Plaintiffs should prevent the Cook County Court from issuing a Mandamus order.
The only step missing in this lawsuit is to have one or more members of the General Assembly file an interpleader to join the lawsuit as a matter of right and to oppose the relief requested because of the unclean hands of the plaintiffs. Do not let the crooks who created this problem and who can collectively solve the problem by the own required duty avoid the effects of their own Constitutional malfeasance.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Press release…
Governor Bruce Rauner today called on Democratic legislators to put taxpayers and critical human services ahead of their own personal gain by withdrawing their lawsuit seeking paychecks and join him in pushing for a balanced budget with reforms.
“This lawsuit is a stunning reminder of why we need change in Springfield,” Governor Rauner said. “Only in Illinois would politicians who have failed to pass a balanced budget and reforms put their own personal gain before taxpayers and critical human services.”
As promised, Governor Rauner does not accept a paycheck or benefits.
“Democrats should end this frivolous lawsuit, put taxpayers and human services ahead of themselves, and pressure their leadership to work with Republicans on passing a balanced budget with reforms that create jobs, lower property taxes and improve our schools,” Rauner added.
Governor Rauner and Republican leaders are pushing for a balanced budget with reforms that will create jobs, lower property taxes and improve our schools.
Speaker Mike Madigan prefers a stopgap spending measure. While the speaker prefers calling it a budget, it is not. What the speaker advocates for is simply a short term, incomplete stopgap spending measure. Last week, the governor made clear that he will only support a stopgap measure if the Democrats pass term limits and a permanent property tax freeze.
He also talked about it at his press conference today…
*** UPDATE 2 *** From a plaintiff in that lawsuit…
@GovRauner We are calling on you to respect the Constitution. Being a billionaire does not give you the right to break the law! https://t.co/DX5njS7Zwh
* Yes, it’s that time of the year again. I realize that many of you are grumpy as heck, but our annual awards are a Statehouse tradition and we’re not going to stop now.
As always, we’ll start off light. Your nominations, please, for best political bar and best political restaurant in Springfield?
Make sure to explain your nomination or it won’t count. These awards are about intensity rather than numerical supremacy. And please nominate in both categories.
* I have some appointments to deal with and some errands to run today, so I probably will not be around when this breaks.
Friday e-mails from a reader…
I’m in the court St Clair County. Judge is issuing a TRO to prevent implementation of Rauner’s last best and final offer.
So they agreed that the TRO would come out Monday at noon. Mum’s the word until then.
I’ve confirmed this with others.
*** UPDATE *** I’m told that the Illinois Labor Relations Board has issued its written ruling, which the governor’s people say renders the St. Clair County decision moot.
I read the blog often to help keep up to date on various downstate activities and enjoy the knowledge and difference of opinions everyone brings and shares.
When it comes to the budget, I am not sure if anyone has shared that while a K-12 budget may have been passed, the bigger picture of an overall budget still affects districts. The gaping revenue whole that has produced the backlog is still taking a toll on a district like mine.
As of now, we are in the 6th month of the budget year and the State still owes us over $600k from last fiscal year. As you may or may not know, School Districts get categorical money from ISBE and the State as well as the General State Aid (GSA) that is talked so much about. We get the GSA monthly, and are happy for that, but we get those categorical payments four times a year. As it stands, we are still owed that final payment from last year and have not of course seen the first payment this year.
This still puts hardships on districts and do not think that this is mentioned enough as I know that there are other districts that serve a low socioeconomically diverse population like we do. I just think that it should be noted that passing that budget did not necessarily save districts, it just saved them from shutting our doors at the beginning of the year.
Students still suffer when cash flow is this bad and we need to make decisions on what we purchase and when because our state is not only dead last in the country with education funding, but is this far behind with what they do pay.
Patrick Palbicke
Director of Business/CSBO
Beach Park District #3
* The State Journal-Register offers advice to our new Illinois Comptroller, Susana Mendoza…
One of your main duties is to cut the state’s checks; we feel you should know that as of right now, there are hundreds of nonprofits, social service agencies, schools and other vendors waiting to be paid for work they did or services they provided months ago. We were encouraged to hear that you do not believe state legislators should be bumped to the front of the line for payment, and they would have to wait just like everyone else does.
Granted, it might not be your choice anymore: Six Democratic lawmakers filed suit Friday against your predecessor, Leslie Munger, saying she was violating the constitution by not issuing them paychecks. They may legally be right, but perhaps you can tell them what you said last week during a Better Government Association forum held in Springfield, that withholding paychecks is not a punitive action, but that the pain has to be shared. It’s a concept some state lawmakers haven’t always understood.
Sure, it may be unconstitutional. Sure, it gives unprecedented authority to an otherwise ministerial executive branch officer to set state policy by fiat. And sure, it hasn’t worked at all.
But, hey, it polls off the charts and allows us to howl populist platitudes at the wind, so by all means let’s do it!
* I realize this is a completely “politically incorrect” thing to say in our current political climate, but duly elected members of the Illinois General Assembly should not be held hostage to the political whims of a state comptroller.
“Today we talked about the budget for 14 minutes,” Madigan said, and then actually provided the tick-tock. “From 10:16 to 10:20 and from 11:15 to 11:25 we talked about the budget.” The meeting ended at about 11:38 or so.
However, Radogno argued that the brevity of discussion was by state Democrats’ design.
“Today we said, ‘OK, what are your ideas on the budget?’ ” Radogno said. “[Madigan] had Greg Harris there — his appointed spokesman — unprepared to talk about the budget.”
Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, countered that unknowns in the future of the state’s economic situation needed to be “accurately accounted for” before a substantive discussion could take place. […]
Harris argued lawmakers have a number of questions to answer before substantive progress can be made. Among them, Illinois’ new road lockbox amendment, which requires all transportation related fees and taxes be used exclusively for transportation-related expenses. Harris also referenced the incoming Trump administration and looming questions regarding block grants for Medicaid.
“These will have profound implications on our state budget-making,” Harris said.
No doubt those will have profound implications, but Trump won’t even be inaugurated until after the second half of the stopgap starts. And he has to pass a whole lot of bills for whatever he wants to do. Illinois can’t wait to deal with the rest of this fiscal year while DC sorts itself out. Leave that talk to next fiscal year.
So, maybe by tomorrow, when the leaders meet again, the Democrats can walk in with a plan.
“My strong recommendation is that we tone down the rhetoric,” Rauner said Friday, when asked about harsh response from Emanuel. “Heated rhetoric doesn’t help. Getting emotional doesn’t help. Pointing fingers doesn’t help. Let’s stay mature. Let’s stay thoughtful. Let’s stay positive.”
* From the almost solely Rauner-funded ILGOP today…
Four More Added to BossMadigan.com
Time for Cullerton, Nekritz, Scherer and Moylan to Prove Their Independence
The Illinois Republican Party this morning made four more additions to BossMadigan.com – Sen. Tom Cullerton and Reps. Elaine Nekritz, Sue Scherer and Marty Moylan.
“Mike Madigan is doing everything in his power to block a property tax freeze, term limits, job-creating economic reforms and a balanced budget,” said Illinois Republican Party spokesman Steven Yaffe. “It’s time for legislators to put a balanced budget and bipartisan reforms ahead of Mike Madigan.”
“Tom Cullerton already betrayed the students in his district by voting to bail out Chicago Public Schools with $215 million in taxpayer money, but Elaine Nekritz, Sue Scherer and Marty Moylan can prove their independence by opposing this reckless bailout and refusing to support Mike Madigan for speaker until he allows votes on bipartisan reforms.”
Tom Cullerton
Just this month, Tom Cullerton betrayed the students in his district by voting to bail out Chicago Public Schools with $215 million in taxpayer money. Before his most recent election, Cullerton voted against the bailout, but he now sold out to Mike Madigan. Tom Cullerton proved that he cares more about Madigan’s Chicago agenda than the families in his own district.
Elaine Nekritz
Elaine Nekritz has voted 7 times to make Mike Madigan the Speaker of the House. In return, she was selected by Madigan to serve on his leadership team. Only the most loyal legislators are named one of Madigan’s top lieutenants, and taxpayers have paid a steep price for Nekritz’s loyalty.
Nekritz voted for Mike Madigan’s reform-free, 67% income tax hike, the largest in state history. She joined Madigan in teaming with Rod Blagojevich on a pension scheme that increased debt by up to $22 billion. And Nekritz even voted for legislation that makes sure she gets paid even if there is no state budget. Now, legislators are using the Nekritz-backed legislation to sue so they get paid before social services receive their funding.
It’s time for Elaine Nekritz to break with Mike Madigan.
Sue Scherer
Sue Scherer’s campaigns have pocketed more than $850,000 from Mike Madigan. So, it’s no surprise Scherer voted repeatedly to make Madigan the Speaker. Scherer also supported Madigan’s broken budget that would increase state debt by $8 billion or force a $1,000 tax hike with no reforms on Illinois families. She also helped enable the current lawsuit filed by legislators that is trying to force they get paid ahead of funding for services for the needy.
Sue Scherer can show her independent by finally opposing Mike Madigan as Speaker.
Marty Moylan
Mike Madigan has helped funnel nearly $1 million into Marty Moylan’s campaigns, and Moylan’s returned the favor by twice supporting Madigan as Speaker. Moylan joined Madigan in trying to hold local schools hostage to force a bailout for Chicago, and he voted for Madigan’s broken budget that would have required a massive tax hike without reforms. Moylan also voted to make sure he gets paid even if the government shuts down.
It’s time for Marty Moylan to put the people ahead of his political patron. It’s time for him to vote against Mike Madigan as Speaker.
Members of the Illinois House will cast votes in January on whether Michael Madigan will again serve as their speaker. And the state’s Republican Party is warning that if metro-east lawmakers vote the wrong way, it’ll haunt them in 2018.
Republicans have been trying to make an issue of whether downstate House members will vote for Madigan as speaker. Their efforts include a website, www.bossmadigan.com, which singles out Democratic House members from Southern Illinois: Rep. Jerry Costello II, D-Smithton; Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Eldorado; Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville; and Rep. Dan Beiser, D-Alton.
Costello said he hasn’t made a decision.
“I don’t think I can answer that question until I know who all the candidates are,” he said. “What I have to do is vote in a way which helps me best represent my constituents and my district. I represent roughly 110,000 people, and what I’ve got to do is make sure the vote I cast isn’t an emotional vote — that it’s a vote that allows me to best represent those people.”
Some Democrats believe Pritzker, who has instant name recognition, a lengthy resume in philanthropy and an investment in Chicago’s business and tech world, is uniquely positioned to go up against multimillionaire Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who in 2014 spent a record amount of money in an Illinois governor’s race — more than $65 million.
“J.B. is not intimidated by Rauner’s money,” said a source close to Pritzker. “If he did this, he would do whatever it took to do it the right way. He would run to win and he would do what it takes to do that.” […]
Not everyone is cheering Pritzker’s potential candidacy. Some progressives fear pitting a billionaire against another multi-millionaire would create the wrong narrative in the Democrats’ quest to retake the governor’s mansion. Democrats have painted Rauner as the out-of-touch rich guy who is allowing the state’s neediest to suffer in order to push through his personal political agenda. Warring sides have left the state without a full budget since Rauner took office in 2015. […]
“[Chris Kennedy] can’t walk in with a check for $100 million and go toe to toe with Rauner,” said one said a top Illinois political operative who was among those Pritzker called.
We’ll see. Rich guys like to talk a lot of smack about writing big checks, but few actually do. Rauner did, which made him unique. And, speaking of money, Rauner stressed that he didn’t inherit his great wealth, which helped him connect with people lower on the economic food chain (think his grandparents’ trailer at their dairy farm that he mentions every chance he gets, or his fondness for his Harley, or his trash-can van, or his g-droppin’ ways). Pritzker inherited a fortune, which makes it far tougher for him to show he’s like everyone else.
Also, when he hires an opposition researcher to thoroughly look into his own past, we’ll know he’s more than just taking a cursory look at this run. Rauner did that early on, which was key to understanding that he was dead serious about his campaign.
Pritzker may have “instant name recognition” in some circles, but I gotta figure that lots of folks in Rock Island or St. Clair counties don’t know who the heck he is. More importantly, what will he do to build the party beyond Cook County and other reliable Democratic strongholds? He doesn’t have to win Downstate, of course, but he has to do much better than Pat Quinn within that region. We already know he’s a progressive Democrat, but how will Pritzker connect with the rest of the state?
And, early on, he’ll need an answer to the “Madigan question.” He needs to show that he can get things done, but isn’t willing to return to the pre-Rauner “status quo.” That’ll be important to Downstate and also to the suburbs, where the pro-choice Rauner will pursue independent women with a ferver.
There are a few guidelines that were employed in this process. First, no incumbent starts a cycle in the Toss Up column. Do we expect Illinois GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner and Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to have difficult races? Absolutely, but first they need announced first-tier opposition.
If you want to get things done in government, you have to occasionally be careful with your political rhetoric. That’s easier said than done in this age of anything goes, grab ‘em by the whatever campaigns. But here’s one small but important example.
During the campaign, state Sen. Gary Forby’s Republican opponent Dale Fowler sent out a mailer headlined: “Organized labor can’t trust Gary Forby!”
That would be news to the Illinois AFL-CIO, which endorsed Forby, D-Benton, along with just about every union in his district.
Why can’t labor trust Forby? ”Forby voted to install Rauner appointees to the board deciding the fate of our union contracts,” the mailer said.
So a Republican candidate who, in one way or the other, got most of his money from Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner sent out a mailer denouncing a pro-union Democrat for voting to confirm Rauner’s anti-union appointees.
Cute.
Now, you may have heard that Illinois government is in meltdown mode. The state hasn’t had a real budget since Rauner was inaugurated almost two years ago because the governor won’t negotiate a budget until he obtains some anti-union, pro-business reforms.
Just about nothing can get done in this toxic environment. But one of the few things that has worked so far has been the Illinois Senate’s confirmation process. The governor, to his credit, sat down with Democratic Senate President John Cullerton early in his term and went through the details of how the process worked and what was expected from both sides. Rauner has worked well with Cullerton, who is far more willing to make accommodations than House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Some folks predicted massive appointment confirmation battles between the Democratic Senate and the Republican governor, but it’s been smooth sailing.
Last year, Rauner appointed Alexander “Sandy” Stuart to the Illinois Teachers Retirement System board. Stuart’s father, Robert Stuart Jr., was a former chairman and CEO of Quaker Oats, and the wealthy Lake Forest resident is respected in Republican circles. But the nomination drew an angry response from the Illinois Federation of Teachers.
Stuart’s family foundation gave a six-figure contribution to the Illinois Policy Institute. The economically right-wing group has also received money from Rauner and opposes defined-benefit pensions, and, like Rauner, opposes prevailing wage laws and champions so-called “right to work” legislation.
The Rauner folks claim the Stuart Family Foundation made those contributions when its founder, Robert Stuart Jr., was still alive and making the decisions. The elder Stuart founded the America First Committee, which opposed America’s entrance into World War II. He was a pretty far-right dude.
Sandy Stuart’s nomination sat in limbo while he continued to serve on the TRS board for the past year. The Illinois Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, never publicly opposed his nomination.
As Senate President John Cullerton sees it, Gov. Bruce Rauner “needed an excuse” to veto a bill last week that would’ve given the Chicago Public Schools $215 million for its June 30th pension payment. And Cullerton believes he turned out to be that excuse.
There’s little doubt that Rauner was likely to veto the proposal, which passed in June with Rauner’s support contingent upon a pension reform agreement by early January. Rauner’s office was already privately threatening to veto it as part of the ever-escalating war over a “stopgap” budget with House Speaker Michael Madigan. And, frankly, one of the biggest reasons why the neo-liberal education reformer ran for governor in the first place was his view that the Chicago Teachers Union had “won” its 2011 strike and needed to be severely reined in or even broken. “Starve the beast” to force teacher layoffs would be one way to hobble that union.
Not to mention that the governor and his top people have been convinced for months that Speaker Madigan wouldn’t ever come to terms on a pension reform deal. A proposal backed by Mayor Emanuel to make changes to the pension laws for non-educator employees at the Chicago Public Schools system is opposed by the CTU, and Madigan and that union have become super-tight since Rauner’s inauguration—and the relationship only strengthened when CTU backed Madigan during his primary campaign earlier this year.
It also probably didn’t help matters much when Cullerton suggested to Rauner during a leaders meeting earlier last week that it would be a whole lot easier to pass a pension reform bill if the governor reached a contract agreement with AFSCME. Gov. Rauner, who has often referred to the state employee union as “AF-Scammy” and said during his campaign that he might have to “take a strike” to bring the union to heel, told Cullerton in no uncertain terms that the two issues were not connected and would not be connected. This from the same guy who wants to connect term limits to passing a budget.
And then after last Thursday’s leaders meeting at the Statehouse, Cullerton was asked about the timeline of the pension reform negotiations so that CPS could get its $215 million. “You’re talking about two different bills,” Cullerton said. “We haven’t talked about putting those two things together at this point in time.” Reporters followed up, saying they thought there was a deal tying the two topics together. Cullerton said that was the governor’s plan. Rauner, he said, had declared he wouldn’t sign the CPS bill without a pension agreement, but that the Democratic leaders had always reserved the right to override if that didn’t happen.
The governor’s people only heard Cullerton say there was no deal. They claimed he was deliberately blowing things up and were furious about it. The governor’s veto of the CPS legislation soon emerged: “Breaking our agreement undermines our effort to end the budget impasse and enact reforms with bipartisan support,” Rauner wrote in his veto message.
The move took Cullerton by surprise. He agreed during a chat with me later in the day that he’d put a parliamentary hold on the bill in June in order to “buy time to negotiate the pension reform.” But he denied that he’d broken any agreement. “Pension reform was the price for signing the bill,” he admitted, but “I was always reserving the right to try to override” a CPS funding veto if that deal couldn’t be done.
“They misunderstood what I said and they should’ve called and asked me and I would’ve gone back out and clarified it,” Cullerton insisted. “They just vetoed the bill.” That failure to reach out to him convinced Cullerton that Rauner was simply looking for any excuse to kill the CPS bill.
Cullerton insisted that he was serious about trying to negotiate a pension reform deal. “I’m the only one pushing the pension reform stuff. He hasn’t actually worked on passing any bills,” Cullerton said of Rauner.
Sen. Cullerton didn’t deny that he’d brought up settling the AFSCME contract with Rauner, but said it was a “logical” step to take to find the necessary votes to pass a pension reform bill. Plenty of Republican legislators, after all, have state employees in their districts. “You don’t just go out there and pass a bill,” he said, adding, “They don’t know how to pass a bill.”
