* US Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois…
The owner of a debt collection company spent tens of thousands of dollars in an effort to corruptly influence and obtain business from court clerks in Florida and Illinois, including the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk, according to a federal indictment returned in Chicago.
DONALD DONAGHER, JR., 67, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., and Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., was the owner and Chief Executive Officer of Harrisburg, Pa.-based PENN CREDIT CORPORATION. From 2009 to 2016, Donagher and Penn Credit provided money and services to benefit the court clerks and related individuals and entities, corruptly seeking favorable treatment in the awarding of the courts’ debt collection work, the indictment states. The efforts included payments to certain clerks’ campaign committees, donations to charities supported by certain clerks, financial sponsorship of events hosted by certain clerks, and free or discounted “robocalls” made by Penn Credit on behalf of certain clerks’ campaigns, according to the indictment.
The indictment was returned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. It charges Donagher and Penn Credit with one count of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, and five counts of federal program bribery. Arraignment in federal court in Chicago has not yet been scheduled.
The indictment was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Jeffrey S. Sallet, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Gabriel L. Grchan, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago; and Patrick M. Blanchard, Cook County Inspector General. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Heather K. McShain and Ankur Srivastava.
According to the charges, Donagher in June 2011 caused Penn Credit to pay $5,000 to a scholarship fund named for the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk. Later that summer, Penn Credit began collecting debt for the Clerk’s Office, the indictment states. On Aug. 19, 2011 – less than three weeks after Penn Credit began its work for Cook County – Donagher sent an email to Penn Credit employees and an Illinois lobbyist, advising that Donagher had promised the Cook County Clerk “10k of ‘early’ money,” the indictment states. The following month, Donagher caused a $10,000 contribution to be made in his name “towards the fundraising efforts of Contributions to Friends of [the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk],” the indictment states. The indictment further states that, several months later, Penn Credit made hundreds of thousands of phone calls on behalf of the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk without invoicing or receiving payment from the Clerk’s campaign.
The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The conspiracy charge is punishable by up to five years in prison, while the maximum sentence for federal program bribery is ten years. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
The indictment is here.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
STATEMENT BY PENN CREDIT AND DON DONAGHER
DENYING ALL CHARGES IN FEDERAL INDICTMENT
CHICAGO, IL (March 15, 2019): The allegations against Don Donagher and Penn Credit are false and the Department of Justice should not have brought this case. Mr. Donagher and Penn Credit acted legally and in good faith, and we will prove that in court.
The indictment presents a novel and meritless theory based on conduct that allegedly occurred long ago. First, the government has charged Mr. Donagher with bribery related offenses, but it has not charged any public official or even claim that a public official was a supposed co-conspirator. Second, unlike the long line of corruption cases that have been prosecuted in Chicago, this case has none of the standard hallmarks of bribery and corruption. There are no allegations of secret cash payments. There are no allegations of concealed payments to shell companies. There are no allegations of lavish gifts or free vacations. In fact, there are no allegations that Mr. Donagher did anything to personally enrich any public official. Simply put, none of the usual indicia of corrupt activity are present in this case. Instead, the Department of Justice is attempting to criminalize entirely lawful, publicly-disclosed campaign contributions and laudatory donations to various charities, a scholarship fund and the partial sponsoring of a Women’s History Month event.
Moreover, Penn Credit never sought and never received any improper benefit from any public official. Indeed, the contracts Penn Credit received from Cook County and other government entities were awarded to it purely on the merits.
For example, regarding the Cook County contract, a county-wide committee, which included members of the State’s Attorney’s Office, objectively rated the proposals submitted by Penn Credit and its competitors, and that county-wide committee rated Penn Credit to be the most qualified company for the contract. And that superior rating was borne out by Penn Credit’s documented performance on behalf of Cook County — Penn Credit significantly increased collections and revenue for the county and dramatically outperformed its competitors by every objective measure. Thus, Penn Credit consistently received “excellent” marks for its debt collection work, not just for the Clerk’s Office, but for its superior services to all County Departments under the contract.
Mr. Donagher has a well-earned reputation for philanthropy and generosity, having donated millions of dollars to a wide variety of charitable causes around the country. The company has an unblemished record as a corporate citizen and leading employer in its community.
Theodore T. Poulos, counsel to Don Donagher and Penn Credit, said, “Donating to political campaigns and charities hoping to engender good will is not a crime. That happens every day in this country.”
Mr. Donagher and Penn Credit will enter pleas of not guilty and will vigorously defend themselves against these unsupported charges. We look forward to our day in court.
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Question of the day
Friday, Mar 15, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Steve Lord at the Aurora Beacon-News…
The Fermi National Accelerator broke ground Friday on a project that takes it into the future as one of the world’s premier particle physics laboratories.
The Proton Improvement Plan II, known as PIP-II, is a brand new leading-edge superconducting linear accelerator.
“It’s a new heart for Fermilab,” said Mike Weis, the Fermilab site office manager for the U.S. Department of Energy. “That’s really what we’re doing here.”
Weis was one of 19 speakers Friday at a groundbreaking for PIP-II which included a host of dignitaries, scientists and International representatives of participants in the project.
The governor was in attendance…
* The Question: Caption?
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* Civic Federation…
The Governor said the new [graduated income tax] would bring in an additional $3.4 billion per year. That is exactly enough to cover an annual operating deficit estimated at $3.2 billion plus an extra $200 million—the amount recently proposed by the administration to bolster the State’s severely underfunded retirement systems. However, the Civic Federation has not been able to replicate the $3.4 billion number and the Governor’s Office has not yet provided information about the methodology used to arrive at the figure.
* I asked what result the group had come up with and was told today that their numbers crunchers hadn’t yet completed the calculations…
The Civic Federation has not published a revenue estimate because we are still working to gather complete information. We plan to complete our analysis and update our blog when we have additional information.
They were apparently waiting on the same info I was.
The Illinois Policy Institute is claiming that its own numbers crunchers found the graduated tax would yield $2.4 billion in the first full fiscal year. The group has FOIA’d the methodology info, but the governor’s office said yesterday it would need five more days to respond.
* As I noted above, I’ve been asking for the same information, and the governor’s office just sent this to me…
The Governor’s Office of Budget and Management worked with the Department of Revenue to arrive at a realistic projection for the amount generated by the fair income tax.
The team includes longtime respected experts like Deputy Governor Dan Hynes, who served as the state’s comptroller for 12 years; Department of Revenue Director David Harris, a former Republican lawmaker who served in a leadership role for many years on both the revenue and appropriations committees; GOMB Director Alexis Sturm, who has worked in government finance for more than 20 years; and GOMB Chief of Staff Cameron Mock, who has worked in government finance for nearly a decade.
A breakdown of how many tax filers are in each income bracket can be found below.
To reach the 2021 projection, the team used data from the 2016 tax year, the most recent year for which complete data is available. They assumed filers’ income for 2021 would have grown at the most recent respective 5-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR), and to ensure the estimate was conservative, included a one-year income stagnation in the event of a slowing economy.
The team assumed that local governments would receive 6 percent of the new revenue through LGDF and that $230 million of the new revenue would be used for property tax relief and child tax credits.
The team assumed that 10 percent of filers with net income more than $1 million and less than $2 million would try to capture a lower marginal rate. This is an extremely conservative assumption. In reality, only filers who have a net income between $1,000,000 and $1,009,305 would pay more in taxes than they would receive in income above $1,000,000 when the 7.95 percent rate is applied to all their income.
* Click the pic for a larger image…
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* From the Illinois Human Rights Act…
Freedom from Unlawful Discrimination. To secure for all individuals within Illinois the freedom from discrimination against any individual because of his or her race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, order of protection status, marital status, physical or mental disability, military status, sexual orientation, pregnancy, or unfavorable discharge from military service in connection with employment, real estate transactions, access to financial credit, and the availability of public accommodations.
* HB 246…
Amends the School Code. With regard to the textbook block grant program, provides that the textbooks authorized to be purchased must include the roles and contributions of all people protected under the Illinois Human Rights Act and must be non-discriminatory as to any of the characteristics under the Act. Provides that textbooks purchased with grant funds must be non-discriminatory.
The Human Rights Act is a hugely important, hard-won law that’s been slowly expanded over the years. In my opinion, students ought to learn about the people covered by this law (and about the law itself, for that matter).
* Except…
But it is unlikely that the bill would have any immediate impact, even if it is signed into law. That’s because it only applies to textbooks purchased through the state’s textbook block grant program, which has not received any funding for the last five years, and which the State Board of Education has not requested funding for in the upcoming budget.
So much for that.
* This sentence is what set so many people off…
Provides that in public schools only, the teaching of history of the United States shall include a study of the roles and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the history of this country and this State.
That part has nothing to do with the textbook grant program, so it has to be taught one way or another.
* WICS…
Rep. Anna Moeller, an Elgin Democrat who’s sponsoring the bill, said the measure would help depict an accurate understanding of LGBTQ figures in the classroom.
“This exclusion has denied students the opportunity to obtain a greater and more accurate understanding of world history,” Moeller said. “It also has denied LGBT people their identity and reflection in our school curriculum.” […]
Those opposed to this bill are worried how schools would pay for another curriculum requirement.
They said school districts are already required to do too much without enough state funding.
* Um, that’s not all they said…
State Representative Darren Bailey (R-Louisville), voted no today on House Bill 246 that will mandate school books must include the teaching of the sexual identity of historical figures and that the sexual identities of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) must be identified.
“I am opposed to yet another mandate on our teachers,” said Rep. Darren Bailey, a former school board member. “There is nothing that prevents the teaching of the lives of historical figures including if they were known to have been homosexuals. But forcing that information on 5 year olds and elementary school children is more of an effort of indoctrination than of learning history about individuals who accomplished important discoveries in science or created great works of art.” […]
Rep. Bailey added, “I also opposed this legislation because it does not provide an ‘opt out’ option for parents who do not wish their children exposed to this kind of information for religious reasons or because their child may not be of a mature enough age to fully understand the meaning and implications of what LGBT actually is.”
* This is the current statute, except for the addition of the words “or she”…
No pupils shall be graduated from the eighth grade of any public school unless he or she has received such instruction in the history of the United States and gives evidence of having a comprehensive knowledge thereof.
It should be interesting to see how the more conservative Downstate school districts approach this if/when it becomes the law of the land.
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Today’s number: 1.4 days in reserve, if that
Friday, Mar 15, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Illinois News Network…
A lesser-mentioned consequence of the budget battle between Democrats in the General Assembly and then-Gov. Bruce Rauner was the depletion of Illinois’ rainy day fund, which still sits nearly empty.
A state’s rainy day fund is used to avoid having to make cuts or tax hikes in the event of a sudden drop in revenue like what many states saw during the recession. In 2017, Illinois lawmakers voted to drain the state’s Budget Stabilization Fund and include the hundreds of millions of dollars that were in it to keep services going during the budget battle. Today, there’s less than a percentage of Illinois’ annual budget in that fund.
Justin Theal, an officer with Pew Charitable Trusts, said that goes against the national trend. Most other states have been bolstering their funds during times of higher revenue.
“The state had about $10 million in its rainy day fund, or the equivalent of just one-tenth of one day’s worth of operating cost,” he said. “Fiscal Year 2018 saw thirty-two states add nearly $10 billion to their rainy day funds. That’s largely the result of a healthy economy, robust stock market returns, specific state policy actions, and at least a portion of that was due to tax revenue growth from the recent federal tax reform package.”
Illinois also relies on its end-of-year balance, which Pew reports would cover 1.3 days, hence the headline.
Daily operating costs are based on a 365-day year.
* From Pew…
States use reserves and balances to manage budgetary uncertainty, including revenue forecasting errors, budget shortfalls during economic downturns, and other unforeseen emergencies, such as natural disasters. This financial cushion can soften the need for severe spending cuts or tax increases when states need to balance their budgets.
Because reserves and balances are vital to managing unexpected changes and maintaining fiscal health, their levels are tracked closely by bond rating agencies. For example, S&P Global Ratings downgraded Massachusetts’ debt rating in June 2017, citing its “failure to follow through on rebuilding its reserves.” A year later, Massachusetts deposited more than $492 million into its reserve fund. If left unaddressed, credit downgrades can lead to increased state borrowing costs for years to come.
Building up reserves is a sign of fiscal recovery, but there is no one-size-fits-all rule on when, how, and how much to save. States with a history of significant economic or revenue volatility may desire larger cushions. According to a report by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the optimal savings target of state rainy day funds depends on three factors: the defined purpose of funds, the volatility of a state’s tax revenue, and the level of coverage—similar to an insurance policy—that the state seeks to provide for its budget.
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It’s just a bill
Friday, Mar 15, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Jerry Nowicki at Capitol News Illinois…
According to a report from the Illinois Department of Public Health, an average of 73 women in Illinois died each year from 2008 to 2016 within one year of pregnancy, 72 percent of those deaths were preventable, and 93 percent of violent pregnancy-associated deaths were preventable.
Per the report, African-American women were six times more likely to die of a pregnancy-related condition during that span.
“For African-American women in particular, we’re dying at six times the rate amongst American women, which means we’re dying at Third-World country rates,” state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, said.
Hutchinson and Castro have introduced, among other reforms, Senate Bill 1909, which would continue Medicaid coverage for new mothers for 12 months after giving birth – currently a mother is covered for only 60 days after a birth.
That bill would also create a pilot program to provide voluntary in-home nursing visits to low-income, first-time pregnant women; mandate quality control guidelines and hemorrhage protocols for birthing facilities; and require insurance plans to cover medically necessary treatment for postpartum complications.
* This bill has gone nowhere in the past…
Supporters are making a case for instituting a new tax on financial transactions in the state of Illinois.
The legislation would require a $1 fee on any financial transaction done in the state with the exception of securities held in a retirement account or a transaction involving a mutual fund.
“Beginning January 1, 2020, a tax is imposed on the privilege of engaging in a financial transaction on any of the following exchanges or boards of trade: the Chicago Stock Exchange; the Chicago Mercantile Exchange; the Chicago Board of Trade; or the Chicago Board Options Exchange,” according to the text of the bill. “The tax is imposed at a rate of $1 for each transaction for which the underlying asset is an agricultural product, a financial instruments contract, or an options contract. The tax shall be paid by the trading facility or, in any other case, by the purchaser involved in the transaction.”
Illinois state Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, has been the standard bearer for a state-based financial transactions tax for a number of years. She brought Matt Harrington, a self-described financial expert, to explain how the financial transactions tax “could help bring prosperity to our economy.”
* From the Anna Gazette-Democrat…
A Southern Illinois legislator earned unanimous approval from the Illinois House Judiciary Criminal Law Committee on two separate, but related pieces of legislation last week. […]
HB 2308 ensures that a defendant is prohibited from contacting victims or witnesses from jail while awaiting trial.
Windhorst says inmates awaiting trial sometimes use their phone privileges to harass victims while waiting for their court date.
“This is a victims’ rights piece of legislation,” [Rep. Patrick Windhorst, R-Metropolis] said. “HB 2308 will keep incarcerated offenders from being able to contact their victims while awaiting trial.”
HB 2309 also passed the House Judiciary Criminal Law Committee with unanimous support.
Windhorst says the legislation provides that when a petition for an emergency stalking no contact order, a civil no contact order, or an emergency order of protection is filed, the petition shall not be publicly available until the petition is served on the offending individual.
* Other bills…
* Opponents say bill could make Illinois college campuses less safe: Illinois State University receives about 20,000 applications in a given year. In 2018, Woodruff said about 150 potential students disclosed a criminal history. Of those, six were denied entry. Most of those were because of a past sex offense.
* Childcare facilities would have to hold active shooter drills under new bill: The bill was heard in committee Thursday. Committee members raised concerns about the effect such a measure would have on childcare businesses’ insurance costs, regardless of the size of the operation. Mussman promised changes to address those concerns.
* Bill would require single-occupancy bathrooms in Illinois be gender neutral: Bush said she’d bring back an amendment to change the language to clarify some aspects.
* Measure would require minimum number of women on corporate boards: The measure was heard in committee, but the committee didn’t vote on it.
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Stop narrowing the tax base
Friday, Mar 15, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* When you freeze assessments for one favored group of taxpayers, everybody else has to pick up the slack. So, if you want to help young homeowners, stop doing stuff like this…
The Illinois Senate is poised to take up a bill that would make it easier for some seniors to access a state program that limits property tax increases on their homes.
Under current law, people age 65 and older with incomes up to $65,000 can claim the Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze Homestead Exemption, which effectively freezes the taxable valuation of their homes so that their tax bills cannot go up simply because the market value of their home rises.
Senate Bill 1346, which cleared the Senate Revenue Committee on Wednesday, would expand that slightly, starting in the 2019 tax year, by allowing seniors to deduct from their income whatever money they spend on Medicare premiums. That would allow some people with incomes just above the $65,000 cap to claim the exemption.
Sen. Laura Ellman, a Naperville Democrat and lead sponsor of the bill, said it would benefit seniors who are “on the cusp” of the income limit, but she said she couldn’t estimate how many seniors it would benefit.
* Here’s what happened the last time the General Assembly got carried away with helping seniors on their property taxes…
When state lawmakers pushed through a trio of tax breaks in spring 2017, the idea was to ease some of the financial pain caused by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s series of major property tax hikes on Chicago homeowners, especially senior citizens.
The changes, however, also had an unintended consequence: Thousands of homes in south suburbs such as Harvey and Park Forest fell off the tax rolls, meaning those homeowners no longer pay any property taxes at all, and an even greater number are paying less.
While that’s good news for many, it’s also resulted in tens of millions of dollars in property taxes being shifted onto remaining homeowners and businesses. They are now being hit with even higher bills in an impoverished, long-struggling, largely African-American region where an outsized property tax burden already made it difficult to attract the retail shops and industry needed to reverse economic woes made worse by the Great Recession.
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Chamber president still has hope for Pritzker
Friday, Mar 15, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Dan Petrella…
With a new governor in office, Democratic lawmakers are charging ahead on legislation Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner blocked as he pursued his pro-business, union-weakening agenda. […]
With Democrats trying again on many issues Rauner prevented from becoming law, some in the business community are on edge as Pritzker also advocates for a graduated income tax plan that would raise rates on the wealthy and on corporations.
“I unfortunately do think that (the votes) are an indication of what the next four years are going to look like,” said Todd Maisch, president and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, which was closely aligned with Rauner and opposed legislation on the smoking age, salary history and the minimum wage. “It doesn’t mean every anti-business bill is going to go ahead and pass. I do think that Gov. Pritzker really does want to be seen by the business community as somebody who understands their issues.”
However, Maisch added, “it looks like we’re going to take a few beatings.”
Hang in there, Todd. /s
On a more serious note, it’s interesting to see that Maisch retains some optimism about Gov. Pritzker’s relationship with the business community. I should probably follow up with him on that soon.
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* Peoria Journal Star letters to the editor…
I know very little of JB Pritzker’s personal history but I believe I read during the recent election campaign that he is of the Jewish faith. Consequently, it seems incongruous to me that he could support the right to an abortion.
He is too young to have firsthand remembrance of the World War II holocaust but I am not. Horrific photographs of murdered, innocent Jewish men, women and children are firmly etched in my mind. […]
It is ironic that Hitler is, rightfully so, branded for all time as a monster for the extermination of millions of Jews, Christians and others for being enemies of the Third Reich. Yet Pritzker and other proponents of the extermination of millions of unborn babies are hailed as heroes under the banner of “women’s rights” or “women’s healthcare.”
How sad that abortion rights advocates now legalize extermination at any stage of the baby’s development.
You gotta wonder what goes through an editor’s mind when deciding whether to publish letters like these.
I mean, the governor helped found a Holocaust Museum, for crying out loud.
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PBMs Save Illinois Patients & Payers Nearly $26 Billion
Friday, Mar 15, 2019 - Posted by Advertising Department
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Think of PBMs as your advocates—they’re in your corner, clamping down on prescription drug hikes because your health is non-negotiable. Learn more at OnYourRxSide.org
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* The Tennessean…
Authorities in Illinois have charged the father of the suspect in the deadly Nashville Waffle House shooting, accusing him of illegally giving his son the gun used to kill four people at the restaurant.
Jeffrey Reinking was charged Thursday with unlawful delivery of a firearm. Prosecutors said he gave his son Travis Reinking a gun — despite the fact that his son had recently been hospitalized for mental health issues.
Travis Reinking is schizophrenic, according to a medical expert who evaluated him and testified in court. Illinois prosecutors said he had been treated at the mental health unit of Methodist Medical Center of Illinois.
Illinois state law forbids people from selling or giving guns to anyone who has “been a patient in a mental institution within the past five years.”
* NBC 5…
“Mass shootings have raised public awareness regarding the need to keep firearms out of the hands of persons afflicted with mental illness,” [Tazewell County State’s Attorney Stewart Umholtz] said, noting that doing so in Illinois is a criminal offense. “While I strongly support citizens’ rights under the Second Amendment, I also strongly support holding individuals accountable for the commission of criminal offenses related to firearms.”
The older Reinking has posted bond and is scheduled for arraignment on April 25. He faces up to three years in prison and a fine, if convicted. Telephone calls to his lawyer weren’t immediately returned. […]
Travis Reinking was a onetime crane operator who moved across multiple states and suffered from delusions, sometimes talking about plans to marry singer Taylor Swift, friends and relatives told authorities. He was detained by the Secret Service in July 2017 after venturing into a forbidden area on the White House grounds and demanding to meet President Donald Trump.
* WEEK TV…
Reinking’s attorney disputed the charges.
“Jeff Reinking has not committed a criminal offense. He has been charged under an Illinois statute that prohibits the sale or gift of firearms to someone who has been in a mental institution. But Jeff didn’t sell or gift Travis the guns,” said Joel E. Brown, Reinking’s attorney in a statement to WKRN in Nashville. “The district attorney wants to pound a round peg into a square hole because of the terrible events that happened months after Travis’s weapons were returned to him. Returning Travis’s guns to Travis is not a criminal offense and we will fight it in court.”
* Peoria Journal Star…
In May 2016, a Tazewell County sheriff’s deputy met with Travis Reinking and members of his family, including his father. Travis Reinking said he believed singer Taylor Swift had been stalking him and hacking into his cellphone and Netflix account. Further, the younger Reinking said Swift had arranged to meet him at the Dairy Queen in Morton, but she only yelled at him from across the street before climbing up the side of a building and onto the roof before disappearing. Also in the meeting with the deputy, the family said Travis Reinking had been suicidal. At the end of that meeting, which also was attended by a representative of the Tazewell County Emergency Response Services, Travis Reinking agreed to go into Methodist’s Behavior Health Unit. He was there from May 26 to June 3 of 2016.
In August 2017, after Travis Reinking became a resident of Colorado, the state of Illinois revoked his Firearm Owner’s Identification Card because he was no longer a resident of Illinois. Further, a representative from the Illinois State Police confiscated the card from Travis Reinking and transferred his firearms — including a Bushmaster AR-15 — into the possession of his father. The complaint alleges a county Sheriff’s Department officer “advised” Reinking that the weapons confiscated from Travis in August 2017 and “transferred” to him “were to be kept secured and away from Travis.” […]
Jeffrey Reinking’s attorney said after the charge was filed that the statute defining the crime of giving a firearm to a person whose mental state makes him potentially dangerous does not apply in Reinking’s case.
The weapons “were neither his to sell or give. He never owned the weapons, they were his son’s” who, at the time, had a legal right to have them, said Peoria attorney Joel Brown. “The term ‘give’ is not defined in the statute.”
Jeffrey Reinking “did some research” and concluded his son was entitled to their return, Brown said.
Sheesh. What a mess. Why weren’t his guns confiscated and his FOID card revoked when he was hospitalized?
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* It appears the governor’s Monday meeting with the credit ratings agencies went OK. From S&P Global…
The stable outlook reflects our view that Illinois’ likelihood of experiencing a liquidity crisis in the near term has subsided and therefore, so have the odds of its rating falling below investment grade.
So, no junk bond status anytime soon. At least not from S&P.
* Back to the report…
Outlook
Despite the current bill backlog and estimated deficit to end fiscal 2019, we anticipate that the state will retain sufficient cash flow to provide coverage of all core payments. In our view, the proposed seven-year extension of the pension plans’ amortization alone weakens the state’s pension funding. However, it remains possible that an asset transfer or passage of an income tax increase within the outlook horizon could offset what we would otherwise view as weak budgetary practices proposed in the fiscal 2020 budget. Additionally, we do not expect see a re-emergence of heightened political dysfunction but rather anticipate that the budget process will be more timely and constructive. The state’s strong bond payment provisions also offer some downside insulation to the state ratings. The current GO rating incorporates our view of the state’s longer-term vulnerabilities and remains the lowest possible rating within the investment-grade categories.
We’re just one notch above junk.
* With that in mind…
Illinois’ liquidity position is paramount to the rating. Downward rating pressure would likely ensue if Illinois’ bill backlog continues to climb or its liquidity position weakens to a level that jeopardizes its ability to timely finance core government services. Particularly given the state’s high fixed costs, depleted reserves, and prioritization of government services, we believe it has minimal cushion to weather a recession or other unrealized budget assumptions. If unaddressed, we expect that wider-than-currently forecasted budget gaps would likely exacerbate the state’s already strained liquidity. Given its tenuous fiscal position, near-term progress toward resolving its ongoing structural imbalance is critical to maintaining our investment-grade rating. If Illinois is unwilling or unable to pass a revenue increase within the next two years, absent significant expenditures cuts, we would likely lower the rating. Other key sources of potential downward rating pressure include further measures to reduce annual pension contributions, recognition of asset transfers in a way that undermines pension funding, and substantial growth in the state’s debt burden.
* Overall, though, if we’re all good little boys and girls, we may even see an increase in our credit score…
That said, Illinois’ credit rating is uncommonly low among the states, reflecting a confluence of its daunting long-term liability profile and persistent crisis-like budget environment in recent years. Any upside to its credit quality, however, remains constrained by its poorly funded pension systems and other outsized liabilities. But even with these, the state’s economic base could support a higher rating pending improvement in its fiscal operations and overall budget management.
If Illinois were to make sustainable progress toward structural balance, reducing its bill backlog, and growing reserves, we could raise the rating.
Discuss.
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* Gov. Pritzker was in Quincy today and was asked about whether he supports giving Western Illinois University some emergency state funding, above and beyond what’s in the current budget and what he’s asked to be appropriated next fiscal year. As you know, WIU announced 132 layoffs earlier this month…
We need to look at the availability of funds. As you know I’ve been crusading, in a way, to make sure that we are bringing the right amount of revenue to the state and that we’re finding proper cuts in state government so that we can meet our obligations. We now have a $3.2 billion budget deficit that we’re facing for the coming year. And I’m trying to not only get past that $3.2 billion, but also put us on firm fiscal footing forever and that’s why I put forward a plan for a fair tax for the state to make sure that the wealthiest pay more and 97 percent of the people will pay less.
He’s got his rap down for sure. But, um, what cuts is he talking about? He hasn’t really announced any.
The governor said he’s spoken with Western’s president since the layoffs were announced. He said no decisions were made during the meeting, but that he now has a better understanding of what’s going on there.
He also said he is “very close” to naming new trustees for the university. A majority of the board is vacant.
*** UPDATE *** Yeah, it’s not looking good for WIU…
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Question of the day
Thursday, Mar 14, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* SJ-R…
Country music legend Reba McEntire will close the Illinois State Fair with a Sunday night Grandstand show Aug. 18.
McEntire, who will be joined by singer-songwriter Rachel Wammack, has sold more than 56 million albums worldwide, is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, and is one of only four entertainers to receive the National Artistic Achievement Award from the U.S. Congress. Her new album, “Stronger than the Truth,” will be available April 5.
* The Question: If you could pick one musical artist/band to perform at the Illinois State Fair, who would it be? Explain.
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PBMs Help Lower Prescription Drug Costs
Thursday, Mar 14, 2019 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
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Tobacco 21 bill will head to governor’s desk
Thursday, Mar 14, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The rollcall is here. Senate Democrats…
Hoping a new governor results in a better outcome, the Illinois Senate overwhelmingly approved raising to 21 the legal age to buy cigarettes and alternative nicotine products, clearing the way for the proposal to go to Gov. JB Pritzker and become state law.
The 39-16 vote Thursday comes less than a year after the Senate approved an identical proposal only to have it vetoed by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner. Since then, the proposal has steadily picked up support.
“Everyone knows this should already be the law. Thankfully, we’ve got a new governor and a new chance to right past wrongs and make Illinois a healthier state,” said Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, a public health advocate and supporter of the Tobacco 21 legislation.
The key issue, Cullerton said, is preventing young adults from buying cigarettes for younger teenagers, who then become addicted and face a lifetime of increased health problems.
More than 30 Illinois communities have these restrictions in place. Evanston was first nearly five years ago. Others include Chicago, Normal, Barrington and Hoffman Estates.
“We’ve seen this work in Chicago and other numerous communities. I want to thank Mayor Rahm Emanuel for his work to not only improve public health in the city but to support our efforts here to do the same statewide,” Cullerton said. “It’s time for the state to step up and protect our children from this known danger.”
Hawaii, Maine, Oregon, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California and most recently Virginia have all enacted Tobacco 21 legislation. In Virginia, the bipartisan proposal was even backed by one of the nation’s largest tobacco companies.
The Illinois proposal, HB 345, is sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Julie Morrison, a suburban Deerfield Democrat. Lawmakers have 30 days to send the paperwork to Gov. Pritzker’s office. He then has 60 days to sign or veto it.
…Adding… Tribune…
Pritzker’s spending plan for the budget year that begins July 1 includes $65 million in new revenue from proposals to increase the $1.98-per-pack cigarette tax by 32 cents and apply the state’s wholesale tobacco tax to e-cigarettes. The governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment on how raising the legal purchasing age would affect those revenue estimates.
…Adding… From yesterday…
The soonest the Senate could vote on the legislation, House Bill 345, is Tuesday.
Normally, that would be the case. This time was different.
So, how did the House pass a House bill on Tuesday and the Senate pass it in two days when three days of reading are required? Well, it was three days. The Senate read the bill into the record late Tuesday, then immediately referred it to the Assignments Committee, which referred it directly to the floor the next day for 2nd Reading. The Senate skipped a substantive committee hearing because a Senate committee had already passed an identical bill. The legislation was then advanced to 3rd Reading and voted on today.
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Reproductive Health Act roundup
Thursday, Mar 14, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Illinois Public Radio’s Maureen Foertsch McKinney…
The new Illinois bill would cover reproductive health care, in addition to abortion, including pregnancy, miscarriage, contraception, sterilization, preconception care and any related services. It would repeal a mid ‘90s ban on partial birth abortion and require private health insurers to cover abortions.
Like New York’s law, the Illinois plan would lift a requirement that doctors be the only ones to perform abortions. It would allow other kinds of qualified health care providers, like nurse practitioners, to do the procedure. It would also bring up-to-date the 1975 Illinois abortion law that contained criminal penalties for doctors performing abortions. That could come into play should a conservative U.S. Supreme Court decide to overturn Roe v. Wade, the federal case that removed state prohibitions on abortion.
“People everywhere should have access to the full range of reproductive health and have that available without barriers. This is a healthcare procedure. This is about what the patient and the doctor decide is best for them, and, you know, if that’s considered a progressive notion, so be it,’’ said state Representative Kelly Cassidy, a Chicago Democrat and the bill sponsor.
She says laws on the books about abortion need to be modernized. “The very idea that a health care procedure is discussed and regulated under the criminal code is ridiculous.”
* Rebecca Anzel at Capitol News Illinois…
Illinois’ current abortion statute was passed into law in 1975. Legislators wrote their objective was to “reasonably regulate” abortion procedures to adhere with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade.
Since then, though, courts have struck down several aspects of the Abortion Law, such as a ban on fetal experimentation, a prohibition on sex-selective abortion procedures, and a provision allowing the husband of a woman seeking the procedure to receive a court order barring her from doing so.
Illinois’ chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has also pointed out that the state’s law includes a provision allowing doctors to be jailed for performing an abortion procedure.
According to a memo prepared by the Thomas More Society, the Reproductive Health Act goes much further than bringing the state’s law up-to-date.
“A bill intended to repeal only unconstitutional provisions of Illinois law would have been half a page long, not 120 pages,” the memo’s author wrote.
* Rewire…
Another key provision of the Reproductive Health Act would allow advanced practice nurses and clinicians to provide in-clinic abortions. Current law only allows for physicians to provide these procedures while advanced practice nurses are limited to providing medication abortion. Allowing nurse practitioners to provide in-clinic abortions will increase the number of providers in the state, potentially meeting an increased demand should patients from surrounding areas continue to seek care in Illinois, said Liz Higgins, associate medical director of Planned Parenthood of Illinois.
“Adding in-clinic abortions for nurse practitioners would be a huge benefit of this bill,” Higgins said, noting that nurse practitioners already provide a range of reproductive health care, including IUD insertion and other gynecological procedures. “Limiting in-clinic abortions for advanced practice nurses is really just harming our patients by limiting access to health care in a timely manner.”
* In 1995, 4,853 girls under the age of 18 had abortions in Illinois. But with the passage of the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995, that number is now 79 percent lower. That’s a much larger decrease than the 25 percent overall reduction of all abortions from 1995 to 2017…
According to the [1995] law, “Parental consultation is usually in the best interest of the minor and is desirable since the capacity to become pregnant and the capacity for mature judgment concerning the wisdom of an abortion are not necessarily related.”
But the sponsors of this legislation argued Tuesday the state should not legislate “the details of family life.”
“It never made sense to me that a minor can make other decisions — about carrying a pregnancy to term, about adoption, about sophisticated health care — without parental notification, but only if she seeks an abortion do we require this communication,” [Rep. Chris Welch] said. “We cannot pretend as elected officials that we can force ourselves into these situations because some disagree with a minor’s decision about their life.” […]
“It is unbelievable that the ACLU is joining Planned Parenthood in advocating to allow a child to make an irrevocable decision to kill another child without even a consultation with her parents,” [March for Life Chicago Board of Directors President Dawn Fitzpatrick ] said in an email.
* More on that angle…
As for the bill related to the parental notification, [Rep. Grant Wehrli, R-Naperville] asks what happens in a situation where a teenager goes through the process of having an abortion performed all alone and it leads to other complications.
“It is a medical procedure, and I think a parent or a guardian needs to know just in case something isn’t right,” he said. “I mean, something like depression wouldn’t be too surprising.”
* Protests are being held and a Statehouse rally is planned for next Wednesday…
About 500 people packed the Effingham Event Center Tuesday to oppose two bills that would provide greater access to abortion procedures in Illinois. […]
Attendee Michelle Delhaute McGowan, President of In His Hands Orphan Outreach. She said she attended because the proposed legislation greatly affects an orphan and adoption agency she runs.
“We’ve had women who were eight months pregnant when they came to us and both said they would have had an abortion but it was too late,” she said. “If these bills go through, other women in that situation will be able to abort these children that can survive outside of the womb.”
* Elizabeth Bauer at the Federalist…
To begin with, it wholly repeals IL 720, the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975. This law has been amended multiple times, including in 2017 (HB 40), but some minimal protections remained, so that current Illinois law permits post-viability abortions but requires that an attending or referring physician determine that it was “necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother,” in which case the doctor was required to document the particular medical indications for the abortion. It also requires that, if the baby would be capable of survival, the doctor use the abortion method “most likely to preserve the life and health of the fetus” and a second physician be available to provide medical care for any child born alive. These provisions would be entirely removed.
* Zorn…
The House bill, known as the Reproductive Health Act, “would basically enshrine abortion as a positive good in Illinois law,” says a critical memorandum released Feb. 21 by the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based conservative law firm.
No. It would enshrine access to abortion — abortion rights — as a positive good in Illinois law. It would enshrine female bodily autonomy as a positive good. It would enshrine the idea that the best person to solve the moral dilemmas associated with unwanted or seriously compromised pregnancies is the pregnant woman herself.
I’m thrilled about this legislation because I believe in reproductive choice. I believe it’s none of my business what a woman decides to do after she becomes pregnant. I believe that the very suggestion that women are casually obtaining late-term abortions because — whoops! — they just got around to making the appointment or have decided they really want to fit into that bridesmaid’s dress is offensively misleading and belies the wrenching, usually tragic circumstances.
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Because… Chicago!
Thursday, Mar 14, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the governor’s proposed budget…
Waste plastic in our environment is a serious concern posing a grave risk to fish and other wildlife in our water and other natural habitats. An excise tax on plastic bags, as suggested by the Governor’s budget transition committee, is one way Illinois can help to reduce the risk to wildlife. The state can reduce the use of plastic bags in check-out lanes and generate $19 million to $23 million in new revenue with a five-cent-per-bag tax depending on whether or not the City of Chicago, which already has a plastic bag tax, is exempted.
So, the object here is not necessarily to raise revenue (which is a rounding error on a rounding error), but to reduce the use of plastic bags. And because of that, the governor left open the possibility of exempting Chicago because it already has a bag tax and usage is already down.
* Both bills introduced in the House and the Senate exempt the city. And that, predictably, is not going over too well with some folks…
Chicago approved a seven-cent tax on plastic bags that went into effect in early 2017. Under [Sen. Terry Link’s] proposal, cities like Chicago, Oak Park and Evanston, that already enacted a bag tax, would remain exempt from any new state bag fees, and would not have to pay any portion of the current city tax to the state’s General Revenue Fund, essentially forfeiting the state’s potential to collect tax revenue from roughly a quarter of the state’s consumers.
“That’s bullsh*t,” Senator Chapin Rose responded. The Mahomet Republican called the plan “typical for the Democrats.”
“Exempt Chicago and let everyone else pay,” Rose said sarcastically. “Why not when you have supermajorities like this? Make downstate and the suburbs pay so Chicago can take their skim off the top.”
Also…
* And then there’s this…
The retail merchants also want a state bag tax to pre-empt any local ordinances — at least outside Chicago. […]
[Rob Karr of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association] says with so many companies operating in multiple jurisdictions, a patchwork of local rules would be a logistical and accounting nightmare.
In the end, this bag tax might very well turn out to be more trouble than it’s worth.
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* Illinois Policy Institute…
Persistent income tax hikes for decades have not been able to fix the state’s finances […]
Given the state’s income tax history, it is especially concerning that Pritzker’s proposed “fair tax” does not include any protection against future tax hikes for middle-class Illinoisans
A history of persistent income tax hikes? The income tax was increased in 2011, partially rolled back in 2015 and partially restored in 2017. The last time the General Assembly voted to raise the state’s income tax before all that was in 1989.
That’s thirty years ago, folks. In three decades, the income tax was raised once to 5 percent and it’s now at 4.95 percent.
It’s rare because it’s so darned difficult to do. Those who think it’s so easy must’ve missed that excruciating two-year fight over tax rates which ended with a bunch of House Republicans quitting. I mean, it was in all the papers.
* More…
The last state to implement a plan similar to Pritzker’s was Connecticut in 1996. State lawmakers made the same promises of middle-class tax cuts, property tax relief and increased spending on social services. But those promises were broken. The typical Connecticut family saw a 13 percent hike in their income tax rates, property tax burdens increased 35 percent, and the poverty rate increased 47 percent.
What they don’t tell you is that the marginal income tax rate on a typical Connecticut family rose from 4.5 percent all the way up to a totally ridiculous 5 percent in 23 years. Whew. Those poor, put-upon Connecticutans (Connecticutites? Connecticutians?).
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PBM oversight pushed as small pharmacists fume
Thursday, Mar 14, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Press release from yesterday…
Majority Leader Greg Harris, D-Chicago, is joining state Sen. Andy Manar to announce their efforts to rein in unfair insurance programs and regulate pharmacy benefit managers that dramatically increase out-of-pocket costs for patients at a press conference and rally on Wednesday March 13 at 2 p.m. in the Capitol Rotunda.
“We need to put access to quality, affordable care over the bottom line of corporations,” Harris said. “The status quo is clearly broken when patients are seeing the out-of-pocket cost of their lifesaving medications more than double, simply due to unfair practices that help boost profits at the expense of patients.”
Harris introduced an amendment to House Bill 465, which makes various reforms aimed at lowering prescription drug costs for patients in Illinois. Harris’ measure defines and regulates pharmacy benefit manager (“PBMs”) practices within the State of Illinois; requires pharmacists to inform customers of a less expensive drug product for their prescription; protects consumers entering the emergency room from having coverage of treatment rejected; and prohibits insurers from adopting “copay accumulator programs,” that prevent manufacturer copay cards from reducing out-of-pocket expenses for patients.
“PBMs are billion dollar corporations that are currently operating with no oversight in Illinois,” Harris said. “Over 25 states have begun regulating PBMs including Indiana, Kentucky and Texas. It’s time for us to do the same in Illinois and create protections that will level the playing field and help reduce drug costs for patients.”
* Peter Hancock with Capitol News Illinois…
PBMs generally work on behalf of health insurance plans to negotiate drug prices and develop what are called “formularies” — rules that determine what drugs will be covered for particular conditions, and in some instances, under what conditions those drugs will be covered.
In addition, in the case of high-cost drugs, PBMs will often set a “maximum allowable cost” that limits how much pharmacies will be reimbursed for a particular drug.
Independent pharmacies complain those maximum allowable costs are often less than the wholesale price they pay to manufacturers to obtain the drug. They also allege that certain PBMs have direct ties to large, retail chain pharmacies, such as CVS Health, which operates the nation’s largest chain of retail pharmacies and provides pharmacy benefit management services. […]
“We agree with … Harris that more can be done to address rising drug prices,” [an association that represents PBMs, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association] said in a statement. “However, legislation HB 465, promotes the special interest agenda of the independent drugstore lobby while having adverse effects on drug costs for Illinois consumers.”
The association has also argued that it is not to blame for the closure of small, independent pharmacies. Those pharmacies, it said, are at a natural competitive disadvantage because they do not have the purchasing power to negotiate the same kind of prices with wholesalers that PBMs can negotiate.
More here.
* WAND TV…
Independent pharmacies in Illinois argue they are paid very little in dispensing fees for prescription drugs and often prices and fees eat up their profits. They warn that unless the legislature takes action many independent pharmacies will disappear which has happened in Lincoln and Logan County.
“If they are allowed to continue this practice, and allowed to stamp out competition, and drive prices up we should only expect that there are going to be fewer pharmacies as time goes on,” said Senator Manar.
In the past year independent pharmacies have closed in Lincoln, Taylorville and Mt. Zion.
* More context…
The Springfield-based Illinois Pharmacists Association says many owners of the state’s more than 500 independent pharmacies and smaller chains are being paid less than the “acquisition cost,” or wholesale cost, of the medicines they dispense to Medicaid patients.
Garth Reynolds, executive director of the association, says pharmacies also have seen their per-prescription “dispensing fee” from Medicaid, a fee designed to cover professional services, drop from $5.50 for generics and $2.40 for name-brand drugs under the previous “fee-for-service” system to the current 45 cents per prescription.
Advocates for managed-care organizations and PBMs say the managers save states money in their Medicaid systems. But advocates for pharmacy owners say Illinois’ less-than-transparent managed-care contracts conceal what may be unfairly high profits by PBMs that are being earned at the expense of independent pharmacies.
And because at least one PBM, CVS Caremark, is owned by the huge chain that operates CVS pharmacies, independent pharmacies say Caremark’s rate cuts may be designed to put independents out of business.
That CVS Caremark issue is huge.
* And this talking point from the PBM industry is probably not helping the industry deal with the lobbying by independent pharmacies…
Repeal any willing pharmacy provisions. Requirements that all pharmacies be included in Part D networks drives up costs and are unnecessary, given the network adequacy requirements. Congress should repeal the provision. A recent study showed that greater use of limited network pharmacies in Part D could generate $35 billion in savings over 10 years.
Everybody has pharmacies in their legislative districts. And many constituents love their local pharmacists. They are a potent force, but they’re rapidly declining.
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It’s just a bill
Thursday, Mar 14, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’m wondering if he’d be open to amending this to include statewide candidates and legislative leaders…
A bill making its way through the Illinois Senate would prevent any presidential or vice-presidential candidate from appearing on state election ballots if they do not release their previous five years of tax return documents.
The Executive Committee passed state Sen. Tony Munoz’s Senate Bill 145 on a 13-4 partisan-line vote Wednesday after a brief discussion as to whether the bill runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution.
For Sen. Dale Righter, a Mattoon Republican, the answer was obvious.
“In my 22 years in the General Assembly, this might be the most clearly unconstitutional legislative proposal I have ever voted on,” he said.
But Jeff Radue, of the progressive advocacy group Indivisible Chicago, read from a statement made by Harvard Constitutional law scholar Lawrence Tribe, who said the mandated release of tax returns would not be unconstitutional.
* The Illinois Municipal League is opposed to this bill…
It started with a suburban homeowner’s desire to keep growing food in her Elmhurst backyard throughout the winter but has blossomed into a thorny battle pitting residents and advocacy groups against local government leaders — all haggling over whether Illinois residents have “the right to garden.”
The three-year fight between the Elmhurst homeowner and the city’s government made its way to the Illinois Senate Wednesday as the local government committee mulled a statewide solution to the underlying dispute.
Sponsored by state Sen. Tom Cullerton, D-Villa Park, Senate Bill 1675 would allow Illinoisans, no matter in what municipality they reside, to construct temporary structures for gardening throughout the colder months, often referred to as “hoop houses.”
Hoop houses come in many shapes and sizes, but are generally foundationless structures enclosed by an opaque plastic membrane to keep in warmth and sunlight.
* SJ-R…
The head of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation would be appointed by the governor and approved by the Illinois Senate under a bill approved Wednesday by the Senate Executive Committee.
The legislation takes aim at the private foundation that has come under fire for spending millions of dollars on a collection of Lincoln artifacts, including a hat that purportedly belonged to Lincoln but whose authenticity has never been proven.
Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, said Senate Bill 481 is intended to “reset” the relationship between the foundation and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. […]
Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, voted against the bill. He’s concerned about setting a precedent of the legislature getting involved with appointing people to lead private foundations.
“I’m not even sure where we have the authority to do that,” he said.
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* Yikes…
* What the heck is going on? Here’s Elyssa Cherney in the Tribune…
Most of the crashes occurred when it was dark outside, between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., according to the police agency. Injuries were reported in nine cases, besides Lambert’s, though state police could not specify who was injured in every instance. Previous years saw far fewer cases, with eight in 2018, 12 in 2017 and five in 2016.
“It is difficult to speculate what may be driving the surge of crashes,” state police Sgt. Delila Garcia said in an emailed statement. It could be a combination of factors, she said, including driving under the influence and driving too fast for conditions. […]
Since Lambert’s death, state police have seemingly stepped up enforcement of Scott’s Law and have sought to raise awareness through social media.
Between Jan. 1 and March, troopers issued 366 tickets for violations, compared with 138 for the same period last year. For all of 2018, troopers issued 881 citations, according to data provided by the agency. In many cases, troopers were parked and doing paperwork after a stop when vehicles whizzed past them, so the officers followed those drivers to write the tickets, said Garcia, the state police sergeant.
Go read the rest.
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