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Your move, Mr. Speaker

Wednesday, Jun 14, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Click here for the background if you need to catch up. I’m told that the Senate will not file its budget plan until tomorrow morning, so we won’t know the real details until then. I’m still waiting on the reform bills from the House, but they may be delayed too.

…Adding… The Senate is going ahead with its appropriations bill filing today. Stand by.

* This is a good point from Greg Hinz

Rauner’s office confirmed the governor is willing to sign this package if it passes the Legislature. Earlier, he had laid out general terms but not, to my knowledge, specifically promised to sign any package of legislation.

That’s true. It’s a major first for the governor, who has played coy for well over two years. Give him credit for that.

But it means Gov. Rauner is now on record supporting the Senate Democrats’ tax hike plan with a couple of alterations: 1) Four years instead of permanent; 2) It won’t be retroactive to January 1st, so they’ll lose a bunch of revenues that will have to be made up in however they deal with the mountain of overdue bills (borrowing is most likely).

I’m told the Republicans won’t introduce their own tax hike bill, but will instead insist that SB 9 be amended or a new version filed.

* From the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service

Illinois legislative Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a new budget plan that they say is balanced and includes meaningful reforms to grow the economy. It also includes tax increases.

At a news conference at Chicago’s Thomson Center attended by several GOP senators and representatives, Republican lawmakers said their latest plan incorporates a number of tax increases that were part of the Senate’s grand bargain, but with a few changes.

Senate Democrats approved a plan last month to permanently raise the income tax by 32 percent, from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent, with no Republican support. Under the new GOP plan unveiled Wednesday, the increase would expire after four years. The four-year expiration date would coincide with a four-year property tax freeze that also is in the GOP plan. The income tax hike also would not be retroactive to Jan. 1, as the Democrat plan is, but would go into effect beginning July 1.

A family with annual income of $60,000 would pay the state an additional $720 a year under the GOP tax hike proposal, with their tax bills spiking from $2,250 to $2,970.

The property tax freeze includes an exemption on existing debt service payments as requested by Senate Democrats, but also would allow residents to lower or increase their taxes through voter referendum.

* Sun-Times

Most importantly, Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, said Rauner would sign the new plan if passed. And he noted Republican votes are essential to passing a budget plan.

Beginning on June 1, a three-fifths majority is required to pass bills rather than a simple majority. That means any budget plan will now need 71 votes to pass and require Republican support.

“If he’s committed to breaking the budget impasse he needs to work with us, and work with me,” Durkin said of the speaker. “If he doesn’t talk to us nor work with us, to me it is just a reflection on his desire to do nothing and to make sure that the governor is the one who will be hurt next year in the gubernatorial campaign.”

Also, note that the Senate Democrats aren’t as negative about the plan this afternoon as they were earlier in the day

John Patterson, spokesman for Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, said there’s hope the Republican plan “is a serious, real step toward” compromise. He said the Senate president will wait for the bills to be filed to review the details and see how to proceed.

* The bottom line here is that the Senate Democrats, the governor and both Republican caucuses have all unveiled their own plans. The odd man out here is Speaker Madigan. It’s now his move.

  21 Comments      


*** LIVE COVERAGE *** Human service provider hearing

Wednesday, Jun 14, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Brian Mackey is in St. Clair County today covering a court hearing about a case involving human service providers who want to be paid without an appropriation, just like state workers, who also have a contract with the state

The plaintiffs in that case include groups that provide services to people with disabilities, mental health problems and the like. (It also includes the social service organization run by Illinois First Lady Diana Rauner.) They argue that because the Rauner administration entered into contracts with them, they too should be getting paid — with or without a state budget.

* Follow along with ScribbleLive…


  6 Comments      


*** UPDATED x3 - Harris, Brown respond - Cullerton office responds - Biss responds *** A quick look at the GOP’s new plan, which Rauner supports

Wednesday, Jun 14, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller

* An analysis of the new Republican budget/reform plan can be read by clicking here. No legislation has been filed as I write this. I’ll update with bill numbers when I get them. You can hear the entire GOP press conference by clicking here. The GOP press release is here.

* As expected, there was lots of hyperpartisanship on display at today’s Republican press conference to unveil their new budget and reform plan, which they said would be signed by Gov. Rauner if it was passed.

House GOP Leader Jim Durkin, for instance, said Speaker Madigan’s members should “no longer put up with Madigan’s my way or the highway” approach. He said if an agreement could not be reached by the end of June, it would all be on Madigan’s head.

Leader Durkin insisted that the Republicans would not settle for “reform light” and that the final plan must be in “substantial compliance” with the proposals set forth today. If the Democrats counter with something that is “significantly diluted,” he said he and the governor wouldn’t accept it.

Sen. Karen McConnaughay said that the two sides were “very close” on an agreement in the Senate, but that the bills the Senate actually passed “didn’t reflect what we had been negotiating.” McConnaughay said it was the Democrats who “walked away” from the talks.

Sen. Dale Righter insisted that the package presented today “are compromises,” claiming “We’re putting on paper what the Democratic majority said they needed in the meetings… So, we are already there.”

* But is this really a compromise? The Senate Democrats ultimately rejected a four-year property tax freeze, but the Republicans say their four-year freeze is a compromise from Rauner’s permanent freeze - except the governor has been saying for weeks that he wants a four-year freeze.

A local government consolidation bill has already passed, but the Republicans now say they want to allow voters to initiate referendums on their own to consolidate government. This is another demand from the governor’s office, which had quietly threatened to veto the previous consolidation bill. Rank and file Republicans promised they’d push for a trailer bill if he agreed to sign it, and this proposal is apparently that plan.

The education funding reform bill “compromise” seems mainly targeted at Chicago, reducing many of the gains CPS made with the Democrats’ bill.

And the term limits proposal expands the concept from the originally agreed (in the Senate) limit on legislative leaders to include all constitutional officers.

* The Republicans also want a “hard” spending cap of $36 billion over four years. The Senate Democrats’ bill spent over $37 billion.

The budget proposal would also cut revenue sharing to local governments (which would, remember, have their property taxes capped) and transit agencies.

Again, we don’t have a detailed analysis, so I can’t tell you much more besides what’s in the GOP analysis.

*** UPDATE 1 ***  Sen. Daniel Biss…

“Today’s press conference was more of the same from Bruce Rauner and the politicians he controls. Our state and its people are suffering while Bruce Rauner, the well-connected and their millionaire friends will continue to be just fine. There aren’t enough slick talking points, fancy poster boards or campaign commercials to change that. Until Speaker Madigan and Bruce Rauner sit down with each other - face to face - and hammer out a compromise, our state will continue down a path towards bankruptcy.”

*** UPDATE 2 *** From Senate President Cullerton’s spokesman John Patterson via text…

Hmm. Kinda speaks for itself. I don’t think three-page press releases are what Illinois needs. I hope there is real legislative language coming to back this up, language that rank-and-file Republicans will support and that the governor is committed to signing. Bipartisan compromise is the only way out of this now that the May 31 deadline passed. But a Republicans-only press conference in mid June doesn’t exactly scream bipartisanship. Where’s this plan been hiding the last six months?

* From the Senate Republicans…

Sen. Brady will be filing the budget, and Sen. Barickman will be filing the school funding measure, this afternoon.

The reform components of the Capitol Compromise will be introduced in the House.

*** UPDATE 3 *** Greg Hinz

Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, Madigan’s point person on budget items, was restrained.

“I’m glad they did it. I’m glad they just laid out their position,” he told me.

But without review, the plan at first glance seems to be based mostly on old proposals, Harris added. “There are some things in there that Democrats and Republicans could support. There are some things that our caucus has not supported in the past. The devil’s in the details. It will take some time (to review.)

Somewhat more negative was Madigan spokesman Steve Brown: “Most of these ideas have been considered by the House in the past. I’m not sure whether any of it is a compromise.”

Neither Brown nor Harris would say when the House might vote on a budget, either the one that’s already cleared the Senate or one of their own.

  62 Comments      


*** UPDATED x1 *** Report: Congressional shooter is from Belleville

Wednesday, Jun 14, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Washington Post

The shooter at the GOP congressional baseball practice this morning is James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Ill., according to law enforcement officials. Hodgkinson, 66, owns a home inspection business. His home inspection license expired in November 2016 and was not renewed, state records show.

Hodgkinson was charged in April 2006 with battery and aiding damage to a motor vehicle, according to online records in St. Clair County, Illinois. The charges were dismissed, records show.

You’ll know more when I know more.

*** UPDATE ***  WaPo

Charles Orear, 50, a restaurant manager from St. Louis, said in an interview Wednesday that he became friendly with James T. Hodgkinson, whom law enforcement officials identified as the shooter, during their work in Iowa on Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign. Orear said Hodgkinson was a passionate progressive and showed no signs of violence or malice toward others.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Orear said when told by phone. “I met him on the Bernie trail in Iowa, worked with him in the Quad Cities area.”

Orear described Hodgkinson as a “quiet guy” who was “very mellow, very reserved” when they stayed overnight at a Sanders’s supporter home in Rock Island, Ill., after canvassing for the senator.

“He was this union tradesman, pretty stocky, and we stayed up talking politics,” he said. “He was more on the really progressive side of things.”

His apparent Twitter feed is here.

* Belleville News-Democrat

Two days ago, Hodgkinson posted an angry tweet about President Donald Trump on Facebook.

“I Want to Say Mr. President, for being an [expletive deleted] you are Truly the Biggest [expletive deleted] We Have Ever Had in the Oval Office,” he wrote on Facebook.

Hodgkinson took a Democratic ballot in the primary election in 2016.

In 2012, Hodgkinson took part in a protest outside the downtown Belleville post office. He said he was part of a “99%” team drawing attention to the amount of money and political power the top 1 percent of Americans acquired.

* Rodney Davis was there, but not hurt…


* I’m moving on to other things. I’d suggest you monitor the Washington Post’s live coverage feed and check in with the Belleville News-Democrat.

Also, stay rational in comments or you’ll be banned for life. I’ve already banned one commenter.

  92 Comments      


« NEWER POSTS PREVIOUS POSTS »
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