Rick Pearson: Do you as governor bear any moral responsibility for those deaths? Moral responsibility.
Gov. Rauner: Um, I’ll tell you this, it’s heartbreaking that any, anyone should have suffer, um, a health challenge or, uh, be exposed to a bacteria. Um, and we are taking every step we can, every step we can to keep our veterans safe and reviewing every option and being as aggressive as, as possible with every expert from around the nation.
Rick Pearson:As governor, do you bear any moral responsibility for what happened to those deaths in Quincy?
Gov. Rauner: Bottom line, I work every day to support our veterans. They are our heroes and I will never ever back down or give up on fighting and workin’ to keep our veterans safe.
Amanda Vinicky: Have you reached out to the families?
Gov. Rauner: I have been to that veterans’ home several times, meeting with the veterans and meeting with their families. And Erica Jeffries, our director of our veterans administration, has been constantly reaching out and talking to members of the families, the veterans and their representatives.
…Adding… Video of his answer to the first question is here. He seems to shrug it off.
The shave in rates, and doubling of the standard deduction, and an increase in the child tax credit and some other new breaks may not counterbalance the new $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes. At present, all income and property taxes are deductible. […]
Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., who represents the 15th Congressional District in southern Illinois, asked about the state and local tax deduction cap said, “Maybe Illinois should cut their taxes.”
The first blow would come from expanding 529 college savings accounts, which offer tax advantages to encourage families to save money for college, to cover K-12 expenses, such as private school tuition and home schooling costs.
This amendment by Senator Ted Cruz passed only because of a midnight tiebreaking vote cast by Vice President Mike Pence. Under current law, earnings on contributions to 529 plans are not subject to federal taxes. These investment vehicles work well for college savings because deposits grow tax-free over a long time. Using 529 accounts for elementary or high school tuition, however, substantially shortens that period, making these accounts a minimal boost to school choice.
While this change would have only a small effect on the federal Treasury, it creates outsize impacts on the state income tax bases in the 33 states that instituted state tax deductions and tax credits to encourage 529 college savings. The federal expansion opens these state incentives to an entirely new area of expenditures, allowing private school families to funnel their tuition payments through 529s as a way to avoid state taxes. […]
Illinois, for instance, allows deductions for $20,000 in contributions a year per beneficiary to 529 plans […]
Expanding 529 plans to deliver state deductions to private school families will erode the tax base that funds public schools, affecting high-poverty schools the most. By limiting state and local tax deductions at the same time, Republicans would make it harder for states and cities to raise taxes to make up for those shortfalls.
The piece estimates this could cost New York’s state budget as much as $3 billion a year. It likely won’t be that much, but, yikes. New York has a $10,000 state income tax deduction for 529 contributions and there are 465,000 New York private school students. Illinois has a $20,000 deduction and has 279,432 private school students.
Illinois is no longer the fifth-largest state in the U.S., according to data released Dec. 20 by the U.S. Census Bureau. That title now belongs to Pennsylvania.
Illinois shrank by 33,700 people from July 2016 to July 2017, the worst decline of any state in the U.S. in raw terms. In percentage terms, Illinois saw the third-worst population decline in the nation. That brought the 2017 population estimate for Illinois to 12,802,023 people.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania saw modest population growth of 18,400 people over the same time. And that was enough to overtake Illinois as the fifth-largest state in the country. The Census pegged Pennsylvania’s population at 12,805,537.
The one-year spreadsheet is here. Indiana gained 32,811 people during the same one-year period. Iowa gained 14,842. Michigan gained 28,866. Ohio added 36,055. And Minnesota added 51,556.
Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released population estimates that showed Illinois is continuing to shrink under Governor Bruce Rauner. Over the past year, 33,703 people left the state. Illinois fell behind Pennsylvania and now is the 6th largest state in the nation. All of Illinois’ neighbors grew.
The rate of population loss has been accelerating under Rauner’s failed leadership:
2016-2017 – Lost 33,703
2015-2016 – Lost 26,325
2014-2015 – Lost 20,387
2013-2014 – Lost 7,965
2012-2013 – Gained 11,909
[US Census, Accessed 12/20/17]
Rauner made out-migration a campaign issue in 2014, and his inaugural address focused on population loss - “People are leavin’ to find jobs, or because they run companies, and they’re takin’ their jobs with `em.” Rauner continued, “One of the main reasons companies have been leaving Illinois is that they don’t have confidence in the financial condition of our state.”
Rauner’s solution? He plunged the state into a budget crisis that tripled the bill backlog, sunk the state’s bond rating, and forced a max exodus from the state’s colleges and universities. Unsurprisingly, more people are leaving the state than before he became Governor.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Chris Kennedy campaign…
Bruce Rauner’s leadership is decimating our state and our rapid population decline is evidence of that. Illinois residents are moving to states where quality schools and economic opportunity are available to them. His budget impasse cut off social services to more than 1 million people and made it impossible for too many to see their future in our state.
It doesn’t have to be this way. But, we need to do more than change our governor to fix the broken system that’s pushing people out of Illinois in droves. We have to change the way we fund our schools, the way we tax our citizens, the way we confront gun violence, and we need to hold our leaders in both parties accountable.
A malicious cyber attack launched in early July paralyzed a statewide computer program built to help Illinois veterans claim their benefits from the government.
The outage blanketed the state for at least six weeks and disrupted thousands of claims likely worth several million dollars, according to state records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Veterans were left to fill out pages of tedious paperwork and submit their claims on fax machines. The logjam delayed benefit claims that run the gamut, including drastic reductions in processed medical claims for wounded veterans, burial benefits for surviving family members and pension benefits for widows. […]
Stranded without access to their computers and some without internet, Veteran Service Officers worked overtime to fill out as many claims as they could on paper. Now that the program is back up and running, many of those claims are still waiting to be submitted online. Army veteran Justin Jennings works at the Springfield location and says he still sees a staggering amount of wounded combat veterans come in to claim benefits for the first time. […]
(N)early halfway through the fiscal year, the total figures and monthly averages in FY2018 are far behind the number of claims filed in previous years.
Veterans Compensation benefits are down 57 percent; Widows Pension benefit claims are 45 percent behind where they were last year; Veterans Pensions idle at 48 percent below FY17 figures; VA Education benefit claims lag 65 percent behind; DOD Combat Related Special Compensation claims suffered at a rate of 60 percent on average; Monthly Discharge/Medal claims were filed 73 percent slower after the July cyber attack; Also stuck in a 73 percent nosedive are death benefits for veterans killed in the line of duty and burial benefits granted to surviving family members; VA Insurance claims are down 62 percent so far this fiscal year.
This is yet another example of Governor Rauner and a broken system in Springfield failing our most vulnerable—our seniors and veterans.
Veterans risked their lives for us and, in return, Bruce Rauner watches as a growing claims backlog puts their health and, ultimately, their lives in jeopardy. Veterans left behind widows whose benefits have diminished under Rauner’s administration.
Bruce Rauner owes veterans and their families further explanation about why he’s knowingly let them suffer and he owes them an expedited plan to fully restore the online claims system and the benefits he’s withheld. It’s time for our elected leaders in both parties to demand accountability for failures so we can bring back transparency, faith and credibility to state government.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Pritzker campaign…
Thousands of Veteran benefits potentially totaling millions of dollars have lapsed after Bruce Rauner let a Department of Veterans’ Affairs hack spin out of control.
While millions of dollars in healthcare, pension, widow and burial benefits were interrupted, Bruce Rauner did little to address the hack, even praising a “rapid response” effort. This “rapid response” consisted of the entire statewide system shutting down for six weeks, forcing benefits to be administered through phone and fax. Almost six months after the hack, medical benefits for wounded veterans have plummeted by 62%, pension benefits for widows have dropped by 45%, and burial benefits have dropped by over 70%.
“Bruce Rauner’s gross mismanagement of our state government is costing veterans who bravely served our country the security and dignity they deserve,” said JB Pritzker. “Instead of taking charge and providing the leadership needed to navigate the state through this crisis, Rauner continues to evade responsibility and try to cover up the truth. Whole agencies of state government are not functioning, the lives of our nation’s heroes are on the line, and Illinoisans deserves answers from their failed governor.”
*** UPDATE 3 *** Sen. Biss…
“It’s outrageous that Bruce Rauner continues to neglect his responsibility to our veterans. We have a social and moral responsibility to provide the best our government can offer to the brave men and women who have served and sacrificed for our country. Instead, veterans have lost their lives and are being denied the benefits they earned because our governor either lacks the empathy or the ability to effectively manage our state.
“Bruce Rauner is solely responsible for the way social services have failed our state’s most vulnerable residents under his watch. And while he’d like you to think “he’s not in charge” and that all our state’s problems are anyone else’s fault, the reality is that Bruce Rauner is a complete failure and a callous villain with no heart. There is no excuse for the pain and destruction he has caused Illinois families. That’s why we need a governor with experience, who will represent middle-class families across Illinois.”
* Related…
* Ill. Senator tours vets’ home due to Legionella cases: Cullerton said he hopes to find out through the hearing when the outbreaks actually occurred and why families weren’t notified immediately. He believed residents at the home shouldn’t have to worry about coming down with an illness like Legionnaires’ disease.
When Rauner appeared before the Tribune editorial board just months into his firm term in April 2015, he promoted the idea that “Crisis creates opportunity. Crisis creates leverage to change.” It became a precursor to an historic 736-day budget impasse, a test of wills between his pro-business, union-weakening agenda and labor-backed Democrats who control the legislature. […]
Some Republicans joined Democrats in July to end the impasse by passing a major income tax hike and spending plan over Rauner’s vetoes. As a result, the governor said the state had “lost” an opportunity for economic change.
“We had the possibility of a transformation for the state with the crisis that we had — if we had a principled caucus. It’s the primary reason I ran. We had the opportunity for a massive transformation. We lost that,” the Republican governor said.
The governor’s office pushed back hard this morning against part of my subscriber edition that used the above quote. What he told the Tribune yesterday doesn’t prove that he created the crisis, only that he tried to use it to get what he wanted. Fair enough.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Pritzker campaign…
During a meeting with the Chicago Tribune editorial board yesterday, Bruce Rauner endorsed the Crisis Creatin’ Rauner campaign by finally admitting that he created a crisis to leverage his special interest agenda. The endorsement comes after Rauner’s infamous comments two and a half years ago to the same editorial board where he said:
Yesterday, Bruce Rauner admitted that his crisis creatin’ ways had failed, saying: “We had the possibility of a transformation for the state with the crisis that we had — if we had a principled caucus. It’s the primary reason I ran. We had the opportunity for a massive transformation. We lost that.”
“Bruce Rauner gave truth telling a try and finally admitted what we’ve known all along: Rauner manufactured a budget crisis to advance his political agenda no matter the human cost,” said Pritzker communications director Galia Slayen. “The Crisis Creatin’ Rauner team appreciates the governor’s validation of our work and resounding endorsement of our mission to put his ruthless strategy and malicious intent on full display.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** DGA…
In a Trumpian editorial board meeting yesterday, Governor Bruce Rauner laid to rest any lingering questions about his role in creating and exacerbating the budget crisis. Rauner admits he wanted to use the crisis to pass his political agenda, and lamented to the Chicago Tribune that he “lost” the “possibility of a transformation for the state with the crisis that we had” after Republicans broke ranks in July […]
This spring, Rauner twice pulled back his caucus from negotiating a compromise. He then vetoed the state’s first budget in two-years despite warnings from credit houses that further impasse would lead to a “junk” bond status for the state. Rauner’s budget crisis exploded state debt, slowed job creation, devastated state services, and decimated the state’s higher education system.
Earlier this week, Rauner’s campaign listed the budget veto as a “Top 10 accomplishment.”
“Bruce Rauner just admitted he forced the state to go years without a budget for his own political ambition,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “Millions of Illinois residents had their lives disrupted and hurt by the budget impasse, but Rauner shows no remorse for his actions. Rauner only regrets that it did not continue longer. Illinois is worse off because of the budget crisis and Bruce Rauner just admitted he is to blame.”
