*** UPDATED x1 *** What the… ?
Wednesday, Sep 9, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I think perhaps the Department might wanna answer the question posed in the third graf..
Ten people in western Illinois now have died from Legionnaires’ disease after a state veterans home in Quincy reported two new fatalities among its residents.
An outbreak first identified in late August has sickened 53 residents at the home, nine of whom died. State and local public health officials have not disclosed how the 10th victim contracted the disease, a severe form of pneumonia.
The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs said Wednesday that it planned to treat the home’s water systems with a chemical disinfectant. An agency spokesman could not immediately answer why that step had not been taken sooner.
Oy.
*** UPDATE *** OK, so I just got off the phone with Illinois Department of Public Health Director Nirav Shah and Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs Director Erica Jeffries.
I think the AP took a needless cheap shot in its above story.
Back on July 31st, a veterans home resident went to the hospital with pneumonia-like symptons. He was treated and then returned to the home. On August 7th, it was discovered that the resident had Legionnaire’s Disease. The “vast majority” of cases every year in the US are isolated and do not spread, said Director Shah, but they went on alert.
Two weeks later, on August 21st, another patient exhibited the same symptoms. That day, the state shut down the water system and began cleaning the ice machines, water tanks, cooling tower, etc.
Residents were given bottled water and sponge baths until some new shower filters could be delivered from Europe. The filter openings are so small that Legionnaire’s Disease can’t get through. Two filters have been installed in each residential building, which has greatly boosted resident morale, according to Director Jeffries.
With all of that done, they turned to finishing the cleanup. This has been no small, or easy task. The home encompasses 48 buildings on 200 acres with just one plumbing system.
It’s actually more complicated than this, but I don’t have all day to write about it and it appears that the residents weren’t being exposed to tainted water after the home shut down its water system in August, so there you have it.
Move along.
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* With a hat tip to an alert commenter, you had to figure this would happen sooner or later…
A pair of lottery winners have filed a federal lawsuit against the Illinois Lottery, which still is selling tickets despite its inability to pay prizes greater than $25,000 until state lawmakers pass a budget.
“How the heck can they do this, and they’re still selling tickets?” said Homer Glen resident Rhonda Rasche, 48, who is still waiting for the $50,000 she won in July from a $3 scratch-off ticket. “If I was the one selling raffle tickets and I didn’t pay, I would be sued or in jail or both. I feel like it’s fraud.” […]
The suit claims the lottery has continued to pay wages — including the $142,000 salary of acting lottery director B.R. Lane — and money owed to the agency’s troubled private management company, Northstar Lottery Group. […]
“The plaintiffs … are seeking to compel the state to pay the prize money to Lottery winners,” Chicago-based attorney Thomas Zimmerman Jr., who is representing the plaintiffs, said in a written statement Wednesday. “The lawsuit also seeks a court order to halt the sale of lottery tickets with potential winnings in excess of $25,000, and to stop the payment of operational and administrative expenses of the lottery, until all lottery winners are paid.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** Monique…
*** UPDATE 2 *** Nope…
From: Richard Goldberg, Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative Affairs To: Members of the Illinois Senate
Date: September 9, 2015
Re: Opposition to Floor Amendment 1 to SB 2046
After consulting with Director Tim Nuding of the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, I am writing to express the administration’s opposition to Floor Amendment 1 to SB 2046.
Several months ago, Senators Biss, Bush, Morrison, Landek and Noland voted against HB 4165, a bill making appropriations at unbalanced funding levels for the Department of Human Services, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. In addition to their votes in opposition (joining all Republican members), Senator Tom Cullerton opted not to vote on the bill either.
Floor Amendment 1 to SB 2046 makes billions of dollars in appropriations at unbalanced funding levels – no different than the legislation these Senators previously opposed. Nearly four months after they first opposed this unbalanced budget, nothing has changed. Floor Amendment 1 to SB 2046 merely represents the latest multi-billion dollar piecemeal attempt to pass the very same unbalanced budget Senators Biss, Bush, Morrison, Landek and Noland opposed four months ago – the same cynical attempt to stick the taxpayers of Illinois with a massive tax hike without reform.
Let me be clear: a vote in favor of Floor Amendment 1 to SB 2046 is a vote for an unbalanced budget, a vote for a massive tax hike without reform and a blatant disregard of the legislature’s constitutional duty to pass a full, balanced budget. Should SB 2046 as amended reach the Governor’s desk, he would veto it.
Rather than pursuing this failed Groundhog Day strategy of putting unbalanced budgets up for a vote every few weeks, we urge Senate Democrats to come back to the negotiating table to pursue compromise, reform and a balanced budget.
*** UPDATE 3 *** From Rikeesha Phelon…
Rather than jumping at every opportunity to send snarky letters from the second floor to the third, the administration should consider holding legitimate budget meetings with the leaders to resolve fiscal issues. Cullerton will show up. Until then, pardon us while we try to advance solutions that meet basic human services responsibilities for the people of this state.
Bye.
She then added…
And what is this “negotiating table” that they speak of?
*** UPDATE 4 *** And it passes…
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Well, at least they’re doing something today
Wednesday, Sep 9, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* An interesting press release on a subject about which I was completely unaware…
WHO: Rob Karr, Illinois Retail Merchants Association president and CEO
Jeff Pape, president of WrestlingGear.Com, Ltd. based in Elmhurst
Bob Jones, president of American Sale based in Tinley Park
WHAT: IRMA members will testify before the Illinois Senate Revenue Committee about issues retailers unfairly face with qui tam lawsuits in this state, specifically related to application of sales taxes on shipping and handling charges.
For example, one retailer who will testify was sued by a Chicago attorney (who has filed hundreds of these lawsuits as a plaintiff to collect unpaid Illinois Use Tax) over an online purchase that brought about $0.80 sales tax into question. The Illinois-based retailer was abiding by Illinois law and interpretation of the Illinois Department of Revenue, but ending up spending about $25,000 fighting this lawsuit, plus an undetermined amount lost in sales and profits while spending time fighting this lawsuit. Interpretation of state tax law and regulations issued by IDOR should be the exclusive purview of the Illinois Department of Revenue.
*Qui tam lawsuits are civil suits filed against a person or company who is believed to have committed fraud against the government. Qui tam lawsuits are filed by whistleblowers under the False Claims Act, which gives whistleblowers a reward or a percentage of what’s recovered if the qui tam lawsuit he/she files recovers money for the government.
WHEN: 2:30 p.m., Wednesday, September 9, 2015
WHERE: Illinois Senate Revenue Committee Hearing
Room 212
Illinois Capitol, 301 S. 2nd Street
…Adding… Background here.
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*** UPDATED x1 *** Today’s number: $8.5 billion
Wednesday, Sep 9, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Keep in mind that January 1st is merely the half-way point of Fiscal Year 2016…
*** UPDATE *** Press release with emphasis added…
Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger announced Wednesday that if the state continues its current rate of spending without a balanced budget, Illinois’ backlog of unpaid bills to schools, hospitals, businesses, social services and other vendors will exceed $8.5 billion by the end of the calendar year.
Munger said court orders, consent decrees, and statutory continuing appropriations (including debt service, pension payments, tax refunds and lawmaker salaries) are funding 90 percent of the state’s bills even though the General Assembly and Governor have been deadlocked on a budget since July 1. The problem is, the spending is based on FY 15 levels while revenue is based on FY 16 levels, which is running considerably lower due to the sunset of the temporary tax increase in January.
The unpaid bill estimate does not include payments for higher education, employee-retiree health insurance, student MAP grants, some Lottery winners, commercial spending, and other bills that will not be processed until a budget in place. Those expenses could account for an additional $4.3 billion in spending annually.
“Just over two months ago, I stood before you to warn that if the General Assembly and Governor were unable to pass a balanced budget, there would be severe consequences for the state,” Munger said. “Today I’m here to say that those consequences have come to pass and the situation will become more dire the longer we try to fund state services without a budget.”
At the end of August, the state’s unpaid bills to schools, hospitals, businesses, social service agencies and others totaled about $5.5 billion. That number has grown to $6 billion today. If there is no budget in place and the state’s spending trajectory continues, it will enter the New Year on January 1, 2016 owing an estimated $8.5 billion in unpaid bills. As the backlog grows, the state’s cash flow gets tighter and payments to nonprofits and other state vendors for provided services face further delays, Munger said.
Munger will continue to prioritize payments to nonprofits that serve children, the elderly, people with developmental or intellectual disabilities, and other vulnerable residents. They depend heavily on state funding and provide critical services at a lower cost than it would cost the state, she said.
“We will continue to do everything in our power to keep the state and our human service organizations afloat, but to be clear – our office performs triage every day simply to ensure the State of Illinois lives up to its core commitments,” Munger said. “For the sake of our families, businesses and organizations, it is time for members of the General Assembly to sit down with the Governor to find common ground and pass a balanced budget so we can fund our critical priorities.”
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* Speaker Madigan isn’t the only one calling out Reps. Dunkin and Drury on the AFSCME bill…
It’s not typical for Madigan to rebuke House Democrats in such a public fashion. To buttress his contention that the votes to override Rauner would have been there if Dunkin had shown up, Madigan said unions had received the same assurances he had from rank-and-file House Democrats.
Earlier, Michael Carrigan, head of the state AFL-CIO, said in a statement he received assurances from Dunkin and Drury that they would vote for the override.
“In the days before the override vote, both Rep. Dunkin and Rep. Drury told representatives of AFL-CIO-affiliated unions that they supported the fair arbitration bill, and Rep. Dunkin indicated he would be returning from his New York City vacation and taking the train to Springfield to attend the legislative session. We are very disappointed that neither did so,” Carrigan said in the statement.
* And Dunkin responds…
“I’m trying not to be confrontational with any of my members. The speaker, in the last six-seven years, we’ve had issues, talked as men in private, as professionals. I don’t really want to be fighting him or any other colleague. That seems where this has headed,” Dunkin said.
Madigan is clearly more upset than usual, but Dunkin’s colleagues are far more angry at him for blowing off session last week than has been generally portrayed in the media. Many are demanding punishment. And I think that may be why MJM has taken this thing so far.
Plus, everybody probably needs a vacation, man. I know I do.
…Adding… Oops. I forgot to post an important link. Rep. Dunkin on WVON yesterday. Click here.
…Adding More… Reps. Dunkin and Drury were also on Chicago Tonight yesterday. Click here.
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Madigan doubles down on Dunkin, Drury
Wednesday, Sep 9, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
[Bumped up to Wednesday morning from Tuesday night for visibility.]
* Press release…
Good evening. Please find below a statement from House Speaker Michael Madigan regarding the outcome of the House’s override vote of the governor’s veto of Senate Bill 1229. For more information, please contact Steve Brown…
Madigan: House Overrides Governor’s Veto of Arbitration Bill if All 71 Democrats are Present
CHICAGO - House Speaker Michael J. Madigan on Tuesday released the following statement regarding the House override vote of the governor’s veto of Senate Bill 1229:
“It was my expectation that all 71 House Democrats would be in attendance for legislative session last Wednesday. Instead, 70 were present. Had all 71 Democrats been present, as was expected, the House would have voted to override the governor’s veto of Senate Bill 1229.
“Over the last several weeks, I worked with various interested stakeholders to gather support in the House to override the governor’s veto. During that time, every Democratic member of the House gave a commitment either to me or to these various groups that they would vote in favor of the override. Leading up to the vote, Representatives Dunkin and Drury, who had both previously voted for the bill, told members and representatives of labor that they would support the override motion. Even with Representative Dunkin’s absence, we called the bill for a vote at the request of the bill’s sponsor and AFSCME Council 31.
“I believe the failure to override the governor’s veto of Senate Bill 1229 will be used by the governor as part of his ongoing effort to bring down wages and the standard of living for middle-class families.”
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