* 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.
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.
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.
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.
* 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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.”
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…
GOP congressman: “I never thought I’d play a baseball game for charity, go to practice… and have to dodge bullets.” https://t.co/o956SLUXGv
Chicago homeowners are about to get whacked with a 10 percent increase in their property taxes.
Owners of commercial properties will have to dig almost as deep. The average hike there is 9.3 percent.
Both pieces of news come in a summary from Cook County Clerk David Orr of the bills that’ll be in the mail soon. Orr’s office completes the process of calculating, or extending, each property owner’s bill.
The huge city hike has been expected, since both Chicago and Chicago Public Schools imposed multiyear property tax increases, mostly to pay for shortfalls in worker pension systems.
But this is likely to intensify a debate over the heavy reliance on the property tax system that has become a central issue in the race for governor.
Increases in the suburban portions of the county won’t be quite as steep as in Chicago proper, and in some cases, there will be a decline. According to Orr, the new average residential bills for 2016 will rise 6.5 percent in the north suburbs and 3.9 percent in the south suburbs.
The average city increase will be about $360.
* ILGOP…
“Today’s double-digit property tax hike is just another sign that Illinois’ property tax system is broken and corrupt, and the politicians and wealthy insiders who benefit from the system refuse to take responsibility. This is exactly why we need Governor Rauner’s property tax relief plan passed immediately. Let’s take the property tax system out of the hands of the Chicago political machine and give it back to the public.” – Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Steven Yaffe
Crain’s Chicago Business is reporting that Chicago property tax owners are “about to get whacked with a 10 percent increase in their property taxes.”
Democratic Leaders in the General Assembly, who make money off the property tax system, are blocking Governor Bruce Rauner’s property tax relief plan.
Rauner’s plan would freeze property taxes and give local voters more referendum power to lower property taxes.
…Adding… As a commenter notes, Gov. Rauner signed the bill that allowed Chicago to raise these taxes. Click here.
Gov. Bruce Rauner was back in Peoria last week, pushing another of the planks in his platform of reforms that he’s had little luck implementing since his election.
This time, the issue at hand was a property tax freeze the governor’s been pushing for two and a half years years without any success, though hovering over the whole discussion was the continued lack of a state budget.
Such a freeze was part of multiple versions of the “grand bargain” deal that members of both parties in the state Senate were crafting, though Rauner didn’t like the limited length of the freeze that were being discussed. He’s especially scathing about the two-year version that got called for a vote after the gov effectively pulled off GOP support from the legislation. […]
Asked about it, Rauner ignored the potential, saying that a two-year freeze is “not real” and that it guarantees rates will rise in years three, four, five and six. (You can ask yourselves whether that same thing would happen at the end of Rauner’s preferred four-year freeze.)
*** UPDATE *** I just totally unloaded on the person who sent me the original video because I specifically asked if there was anything else about the topic on the clip and was told in no uncertain terms that what I had been given was all that Kennedy said. Turns out, that wasn’t the case. Here’s the end of Kennedy’s answer…
Let’s balance our budget the way a great state balances its budget, and if we want to legalize marijuana for other reasons, then let’s do that.
So, he’s getting closer to actually coming right out and saying he’s OK with legalization, but he’s not quite there yet. More importantly, my apologies to the Kennedy campaign.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Tracker footage from last night’s Democratic Women of Kendall County event…
* Transcript…
Audience question: Where do you stand on Illinois legalizing marijuana for recreational use and financial benefits for the state?
Chris Kennedy: I’d say this. We are not a failed state. We have a state government budget problem, that’s what we have. We don’t have an economic problem. Now Gov. Rauner is slowly making that state government budget problem become an economic problem. It doesn’t need to be that way. When Pat Quinn was governor, we had a slightly higher income tax, we had a balanced budget, we were paying our currently due payments under all pension programs, and we were paying down outstanding payables. That’s pretty much all you want out of your government right there. And we can do that again without a lot of harm at anybody in our state, and that’s what we should do. The idea that we should abandon that and instead pay for everything by legalizing marijuana because we don’t want to take on the hard work necessary to balance a budget in a modern state in America is ridiculous. Let’s separate those two issues. Let’s separate those two issues.
Lots of words.
And, may I ask, who are these people who say we should abandon the hard work of balancing a budget and “pay for everything by legalizing marijuana”?
* Brian Mackey is in Mt. Vernon today to watch the appellate hearing on the lower court’s ruling to pay state employees without an appropriation.
Background on the case is here. Justices Richard P. Goldenhersh, Melissa A. Chapman, and Judy Cates are hearing the oral arguments. Deputy Solicitor General Brett Legner is arguing for the attorney general, who wants the payments stopped. On the other side of the case are Steve Yokich for AFSCME and Kenton Skarin for the Rauner administration…
…Adding… Brian is also covering another lawsuit over the comptroller’s office. So, we’ll leave this on.
As we’ve all seen over the past several months, Gov. Bruce Rauner is adamantly refusing to provide any help whatsoever to Chicago, which is struggling mightily under the weight of years of fiscal misfeasance, until his Turnaround Agenda demands are met. A long-sought education funding reform bill, a 911 emergency call center fee, even a bill to allow the expedited sale of the Thompson Center have been hit with Rauner’s broad (and often false) brush of being a “Chicago bailout.”
* OK, now let’s take a look at these three issues one at a time. First, here’s the Chicago Tribune editorial board on the education funding reform bill that has passed both chambers…
Let’s get something straight: It’s not a bailout. CPS is teetering on bankruptcy. It is borrowing to pay off borrowing and faces a structural deficit so alarming that none of the proposals in Springfield to overhaul the statewide formula would funnel enough money to bail out CPS. Not even close.
That said, this proposal would put CPS on steadier footing while closing the gap between wealthy and poor districts from Rockford to Cairo. It should not be summarily dismissed simply because CPS gets help. Let’s all acknowledge CPS serves the largest number of low-income children in this state.
“I came to the conclusion that my constituents weren’t that concerned with the amount that the people of Chicago paid and if Chicago legislators were comfortable with that amount, fine,” Hays said. “But what I was not willing to do was go home and tell my own constituents that when you dial 911 and on the other end of the line it says that this has been disconnected and people ask, ‘Why did this happen?’ I was totally uncomfortable with saying that the mayor of Chicago and the governor are in a wrestling match over something peripheral to your 911 service.”
And if it’s a “bailout,” it’s a self-imposed one because the Chicago City Council has to approve that new fee before it can be implemented.
City Hall would be crazy to share control over what goes there. […]
Rauner also wanted the Legislature to grant him a say in what zoning changes would be allowed for any new development. This is necessary, the governor’s administration has argued, if he is to negotiate the best deal for the state, potentially bringing in an estimated $300 million.
Democrats did not yield to the governor last week, nor should they have. In this deal, the state is just another landlord. Zoning decisions are made by municipalities. And fees imposed for zoning changes are collected by the municipality for use by the municipality. City Hall expects to invest much of that money in more impoverished parts of town.
The governor should do what sellers do: Find a potential buyer and then negotiate with the city for whatever zoning changes the buyer might demand.
As I’ve also argued, this had nothing to do with a “bailout” and everything to do about control.
But Rauner has a stronger public hand. His pledge to stop any and all Chicago bailouts fits right in with attitudes of this state’s “white flight” suburbanites and city-hating Downstaters.
If the governor was accurately describing the above legislation as “Chicago bailouts,” I’d let it go. But he’s obviously not, so somebody needs to point out that he’s using politically expedient dog whistle language.
And, please, don’t tell me this isn’t racially and geographically divisive rhetoric. I grew up in a rural Downstate area. I also covered Pate Philip’s tenure for many years. This ain’t rocket science. It’s old style politics at its worst and was used to fire up the rubes since long before I was born.
* And it’s not new to Rauner, either. From a column I wrote almost exactly one year ago today…
Having spent much of my white male life downstate, I can vouch for the effectiveness of these attacks. Yes, some downstaters realize they’re being pandered to, but many still love it. Finally, they say, we have a governor who’s saying what we’ve been thinking. […]
Even so, deliberately creating this much division is flat-out wrong. Stop it.
“He understands that there are divisions between Chicago and the rest of the state. There’ve always been. But he exploits that by saying things like Chicago teachers are virtually illiterate, or calling Chicago Public Schools prisons or referring to our schools using corporate terms like a bailout,” Pawar said.
“I mean, it is code words to prey on people’s fears about what they might think about Chicago. It’s embedded in race and class. What he does is racist. It is racist. There is no doubt about it, except he’s a lot less bombastic and nasty about it. But the code words are there,” he said.
The governor’s camp pushed back.
“The Rauners are proud to have personally supported Chicago schools and contributed substantial resources to improving education in the city for many years,” spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said in a statement. “As governor, Bruce continues to work towards funding reform that is fair to the entire state.”
What a lame push-back.
Look, Rauner has accomplished some things on criminal justice reform (including signing the bail reform bill last week) that no racist would ever do. He’s for automatic voter registration, for crying out loud.
I think that Rauner is simply a very accomplished political opportunist who claims he’s for “the people” while employing all sorts of tactics to win the media cycle, including tactics used by racists and those who would divide this state for their own personal political gains.
But it does need to stop. No political gain justifies this crud.
*** UPDATE *** Pawar is now coming right out and saying it…
In response to toilet-gate and the Blago tapes, boss Democrats engineered an early endorsement of Pritzker by labor leaders of the Illinois AFL-CIO to demonstrate J.B.’s strength.
A Kennedy being squeezed by Cook County Democrats and organized labor in Illinois?
Richard J. Daley is rolling over in his grave.
Now there’s another problem for Democrats: the exhaustive analysis of Cook County property taxes by the Chicago Tribune’s Jason Grotto. It shows that under Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, a Boss Madigan ally, property assessments in Cook County are riddled with errors. According to the Tribune, lower-priced homes were overvalued, while higher-priced homes were undervalued.
Minorities won’t like that. Without minorities, Boss Madigan can’t rule and take advantage of all those Pritzker bucks. And so, Kennedy hit at Madigan’s weak spot.
The Tribune story, Kennedy said, “demonstrates there is enormous prejudice in the system, the system is rigged against the poor, and that is probably a de facto violation of the Civil Rights Act because people of color are so disproportionately punished by the system and disproportionately paying much higher taxes.”
On the other hand, I think Berrios has some points in his favor, too. For instance, the main map the Tribune displayed to summarize its findings showed that while the poor, black West Side on average is overassessed, so is the white Northwest Side and most of northwest suburban Cook.
Here’s that map. Dark red means the properties were overvalued by at least 10 percent, light red is overvalued by less than 10 percent…
The full Kennedy interview is here. That’s quite a play-in Kass has.
*** UPDATE *** From Assessor Joe Berrios…
Mr. Kennedy’s comments stem from Chicago Tribune stories based on faulty sales ratio studies not done by assessment professionals and not including all properties, countywide.
I grew up in Cabrini Green, am the first minority to become Assessor and was the legislature’s first Hispanic-American. I won’t allow unfair assessments to cause minorities to pay more than they should.
The Cook County Assessor’s office does base all valuation on all sale prices and market conditions over a three year period for similar homes in each neighborhood. The Assessor doesn’t set tax rates or levies. That is done by school districts, municipalities and other taxing bodies. Mr. Kennedy’s lack of knowledge of assessments may have caused his errors.
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s education adviser, Beth Purvis, said the governor supports 90 percent of the education funding reform bill that was passed by the legislature this spring, but would still veto it because it is too generous to Chicago Public Schools.
A key proponent of the bill, state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, fired back at the governor’s office, saying, “Most rational people would take 90 percent and call it a win.”
Lawmakers filed a motion last week that will delay Senate Bill 1 from being formally transmitted to Rauner for his signature or veto, in hopes that tensions will eventually die down.
In an interview with The State Journal-Register last week, Purvis said she views the extension as allowing for “continued conversations” that can produce legislation the governor could support.
One major sticking point for Rauner, she said, is that the bill funnels $215 million into the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund this year, in addition to a $250 million block grant the Chicago school system receives.
Except the governor has said he could support that $215 million in exchange for pension reforms.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has some political advice for Gov. Bruce Rauner: When you like 90 percent of a proposal, take yes for an answer. […]
Emanuel, who has burnished a deal-making reputation during his decades in government, suggested the school funding formula bill is close enough to what Rauner wants that the governor should sign it into law.
“Now look. I would like to get 100 percent all the time. I got three aldermen here. None of us get 100 percent of what we’re seeking. Ninety percent in public policy is a victory, and yet the governor is still issuing a veto threat when it meets the needs of the children of the state of Illinois 100 percent,” the mayor said.
Later, Emanuel contended “you cannot make perfection the enemy of progress. It explains why we don’t have a budget.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** Pritzker campaign…
Bruce Rauner is showing his true colors by planning to veto an education bill that he mostly supports. After talking up the issue for years and even convening his own task force, Rauner is cowardly abandoning the bill to make a political statement.
This is the epitome of failed leadership: getting 90% of the job done and still refusing to compromise. It’s clear that Bruce Rauner will never step up to the plate and lead our state. Real leadership is negotiating and compromising for the future of our state and our children — something Bruce Rauner refuses to do.
Rauner’s strategy is clear: it’s my way or the highway.
While Illinois has the least equitable school funding system in the country, Bruce Rauner is failing to solve the problem. And, under Rauner’s failed leadership, Illinois is breaking national records for not passing a budget for 713 days. Despite this fact and the incredible pain he is inflicting across the state, Rauner continues to put himself and his special interest allies above Illinois schoolchildren.
“While Bruce Rauner can try and bankrupt our state, he cannot bankrupt our people,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Rauner almost reached a compromise, but instead of doing what’s right, he cowardly retreated the moment he didn’t get his way. That’s not how compromise works. No one should be in government unless they truly care about our state and our families. Unlike Rauner, JB invests in people and in our communities. It’s abundantly clear that Rauner will always put politics above the people of our state.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** Biss campaign…
“This is yet another example of Bruce Rauner protecting his rich friends rather than fully funding schools in Chicago and hundreds of other low-income districts across Illinois — the same low-income districts that are hurt by our corrupt property tax racket. As governor I will fully fund all schools to give all kids the education they deserve, starting by making the millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share.”
