The comprehensive budget for Fiscal Year 2018 is the product of more than a dozen negotiating sessions with Senate Republicans on a balanced FY 18 budget and is heavily influenced by the budget package Senator Bill Brady filed on March 28, specifically SB2181 and 2182. It eliminates a $10 billion deficit through a mix of cuts, savings and new revenue. […]
Negotiations left a $475 million gap between spending and revenue. This plan closes it by means testing certain income tax breaks, adjusting the borrowing to pay old bills plan and making $60 million in additional reductions.
• Sen. Brady presented the group with a spending base of $41 billion
• Based on current revenues, that spending level would exceed revenues by over $10 billion
• Sen. Brady offered a combination of revenue and budget cuts to achieve a balanced budget
• We (Senate Democrats) agreed to 22 (of 26 proposed) items that would reduce state spending by $3.8 billion
• The group collectively agreed to $5.7 billion in additional resources to help reach a balanced budget
• We came to a point where we had a deficit of $475 million and have not been able to make progress on how to close the gap
• We offered to adjust the amount and terms of a borrowing plan to pay down the bill backlog in order to adjust spending levels
• The plan we are proposing today incorporates that borrowing plan along with other spending reductions and a limit on an income tax break for mansion owners in order to close the gap and achieve a balanced FY18 budget
Key GOP priorities included in the proposals:
1. Uses 4.95 tax rate.
2. Reform the state pension system, including moving to a defined benefit program proposed by Gov. Rauner
3. Reduces Medicaid spending by over $400 million (5 percent)
4. Cuts the amount of state revenue dollars that are shared with local governments
5. Increases p-12 spending by over $350 million
6. Reduces state agency spending by 5 percent compared to the governor’s proposed budget.
7. Cost reductions for group health insurance program.
Revenue:
Personal income tax: Increases to 4.95 percent from current 3.75 percent.
• Generates $4.453 billion annually.
• This is a 1.2 percentage point increase, or a 32 percent increase in the tax rate.
• The rate will return to 3.75% after seven years
Corporate income tax: Increases to 7 percent from 5.25 percent.
• Generates $514 million annually.
Eliminates three corporate tax loopholes worth a combined $125 million a year:
• Eliminates the domestic production deduction (decouples Illinois from federal tax law; Wisconsin and Indiana already did this.)
• Repeals the non-combination rule
• Eliminates loophole exempting areas outside of standard U.S. from taxation, “outer continental shelf”
Imposes a cap of $1,000 a month on the tax rebate that retailer’s receive: $83 million
Implements a sales tax on services. Total: $149 million
• repair and maintenance of personal property 44 million
• landscaping services $14m
• laundry and dry-cleaning $4m
• storage (cars, boats, property) $18m
• cable/satellite/streaming services $46m
• pest control $4m
• private detective, alarm and security services $5m
• personal care $16m
Means testing applied to state income tax breaks: $81 million
Individuals making more than $250,000 and joint filers making over $500,000 would not be eligible for the person exemption ($18M), property tax credit ($59m)and education expense credit ($4M).
Example: homeowners get a tax credit equal to 5 percent of their property tax bill. The more expensive the mansion, the higher the tax break. Gov. Rauner gets a $4,500 credit on his income taxes. This closes that tax break to those whose taxable income exceeds a half million ($500,000) a year jointly or a quarter million ($250,000) individually.
Tax credits: cost of $264 million state
• Increases the Earn Income Tax Credit (EITC) by 50 percent over a 5 year period. This benefits lower income workers.
• Increases the family cap on the Education Expense Credit to $750 from $500.
• Creates a $250 tax credit for teachers who spend their money on classroom supplies.
• Reinstates and makes permanent the Research and Development Tax Credit Extends the Film Tax Credit to Jan. 1, 2027.
• Rolls the currently expired Manufacturing Purchase Credit and Graphic Arts Equipment sales tax exemption into the existing Manufacturing Machinery & Equipment sales tax exemption (streamlines the exemptions and puts us in line with how other states provide the exemption).
The budget passed this afternoon. The revenue package has not been voted on as I write this. The budget implementation bill, however, was defeated. Click here for the text of that legislation.
*** UPDATE *** From the Senate Democrats…
We won’t proceed to revenue. Many of the budget cuts were in the bimp.
It’s needed for the whole budget package. Our side of the aisle can’t, on its own, pass the list of cuts that Republicans brought to the table and we included.
* The A-1 is here. More in a bit. Griffin is a longtime Rauner supporter and has contributed heavily in the past. He’s also the state’s wealthiest resident. Rauner dumped $50 million into his own account last December.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From Ken Griffin…
“Governor Rauner cares deeply about the future of our state and making it a better place to live and work. He has the winning plan to create jobs, improve our schools and put Illinois on the right path forward.”
The contribution by the founder and CEO of Citadel, reported to the State Board of Elections on Tuesday, brings to nearly $33.6 million the amount of money and services that Griffin has contributed to the governor’s political fund since Rauner began running for office in 2013.
The donation appears to be the largest noncandidate contribution ever given to a campaign. Rauner gave his own campaign $50 million in December of last year.
Griffin is the second-largest contributor to the Republican governor behind only Rauner himself. In his initial 2014 bid and in his current re-election effort, Rauner has given himself $95 million.
The Griffin donation gives Rauner’s re-election bank account nearly $71 million, virtually all of it from the two men.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Press release…
Illinois Working Together Campaign Director Jake Lewis released the following statement in regards to Ken Griffin’s $20 million campaign donation to Gov. Bruce Rauner:
“Never has the Rauner re-election strategy been clearer. On the same day the state’s bill backlog tops $14 billion, the governor released a new campaign ad and his political campaign raked in $20 million from Illinois’ richest man. Rauner’s game plan is simple: spend millions of dollars to paper over his abysmal record of failure as governor. If Rauner truly wanted to fix Illinois, he would drop the big money political games and do his job.”
*** UPDATE 3 *** From the Pritzker campaign…
“Bruce Rauner is a failed governor who has put politics over governing and passing a budget for our state,” said Pritzker campaign communications director Galia Slayen. “Now, his special interest friends are back to bail him out and ensure his Koch brothers agenda gets a second life. Before once again dumping money into Rauner’s campaign, Ken Griffin donated $100,000 to Donald Trump’s inaugural. It’s clear that Ken Griffin and Rauner’s special interest allies want to force the Rauner-Trump agenda on our state, which attacks our working families and is decimating our economy.”
* From Ameya Pawar…
Billionaire tax avoiders, like Bruce Rauner and Ken Griffin, will spend whatever it takes to implement their radical and bigoted Trump-aligned agenda.
What’s clear is that this billionaire class wants to buy Illinois for themselves. Don’t think for a moment these wealthy people have anyone’s interests but their own at heart.
We have to to stop worshiping wealth, get big money out of politics, and unite as a state around an agenda that invests in people and communities.
*** UPDATE 4 *** From the DGA…
“Rather than focus on the budget, Governor Rauner has turned to Trump donor Ken Griffin for $20 million to try to salvage his failing re-election campaign,” said DGA Communications Director Jared Leopold. “Now we know why Bruce Rauner won’t stand up to Donald Trump: Rauner’s top donor enthusiastically supports Trumpcare. Bruce Rauner has shown he’ll choose Donald Trump over the people of Illinois every day of the week.”
*** UPDATE 5 *** Kennedy campaign…
Chris Kennedy’s campaign is fueled by 3,000 individual campaign contributions because Illinois residents want to restore the promise of the American Dream and reform a system that is working well for political insiders but not for them. Democrats should not fall into the trap of replacing one billionaire for another. Party insiders might think that is the best way to beat Bruce Rauner, but voters know we can’t afford more of the status quo.
State Solutions, an issue-advocacy organization affiliated with the Republican Governors Association, released a new television advertisement today in Illinois, highlighting Governor Bruce Rauner’s push to balance the budget, reform government and grow jobs.
“The broken ideas of the ‘Duct Tape Dynasty’ - higher taxes and more spending – got Illinois into this mess, but Governor Rauner’s budget plan offers real reforms to fix Illinois now,” said State Solutions spokesman Jon Thompson. “Governor Rauner is working hard to enact a balanced budget that grows jobs and supports the middle class, not the political class.”
Owners of vacant properties who are not actively seeking tenants or buyers, or making alterations while continuing to receive property tax relief could face a vacancy fraud complaint and pay a penalty under bipartisan legislation co-sponsored by House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs).
“Corporations or unscrupulous property owners should not be able to receive special breaks or deals at the expense of communities. This bipartisan bill helps to address that as it relates to property taxes by giving local taxing bodies the ability to go after bad actors and ensure that property owners are paying what they actually owe, which will help our schools, other units of local government, and taxpayers,” said Durkin.
House Bill 2517 creates the Vacancy Fraud Act. The new act would allow a taxing body or representative of a taxing body to file a vacancy fraud complaint with the county board of review if property is receiving vacancy relief and the property owner is not actively attempting to lease, sell or alter the property. In addition, it establishes factors in determining whether or not vacancy fraud has occurred and the penalties.
Upon determination that an owner of vacant property is not actively attempting to sell, lease or alter the vacant property, the board of review and chief county assessment officer may impose the following penalties: Prohibit any vacancy relief until the property is sold or leased; require the payment of three times the amount of back taxes owed for any vacancy relief while the owner was not actively attempting to sell, lease or alter the vacant property; require the payment of interest on any back taxes. Repeat offenders within a five year period may be charged a penalty not to exceed 25% of the amount of back taxes.
* But the hilarious aspect to Durkin’s move is that this is a Democratic-sponsored bill. Rep. Rob Martwick (D-Chicago) sponsored the measure back on February 7th. It went to subcommittee, then wound up back in Rules Committee after it failed to meet the passage deadline.
I’ve reached out to Rep. Martwick and will let you know if he says anything.
“House Democrats under Speaker Madigan have been sending over special interest groups to attack the senators on the Democratic caucus to try to kill the ‘grand bargain,’” Rauner said in Springfield on Tuesday. “House Democrats under Speaker Madigan have shown really no good faith, willingness to engage in negotiations with true change, true reforms to our system.
“Speaker Madigan in our four leader meetings has always been obstinate, just not wanting to really have good-faith negotiations and come to an agreement,” the governor said. And I think that my sense is this is probably a last-minute attempt by the House Democrats to create a distraction and derail the senators who seem to be making progress and are coming close to an agreement. So I think we need to focus on the Senate and try to get that done. […]
[Madigan spokesman Steve Brown] said accusations that Madigan is attempting to thwart the plan have “no basis in fact.” As for the speaker directing special interest groups, Brown said Rauner has provided no proof: “I don’t think any of that is going on to the best of my knowledge.
Brown pinned efforts to “derail” the plan on the governor himself.
“I think he ignores the fact that he’s the chief architect at destroying the Senate budget talks. I mean on multiple occasions he’s destroyed any effort to pass bills over there. I mean, I think he needs to go look at the history of his own activity,” Brown said. “Maybe look at a mirror, say ‘Hey Bruce, why did you screw this up?’”
* Meanwhile, a group of Senate Republicans held yet another press conference this morning to once again ask for more time…
.@SenBillBrady opens saying they believe they have made progress, are close to getting a deal. They hope that progress wont be derailed.
They’re right that the negotiations have produced some results and they are closer than they’ve ever been. They should continue talking.
* However, I really don’t blame the Senate Democrats for being fed up with all these pleas for more time. From the SDems…
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner encourages ‘grand bargain’ with stronger reforms
Sen. Pam Althoff: “A balanced budget deal cannot be just about raising taxes. That doesn’t work. We need structural changes to move our state forward on a path to prosperity. The time is now. I call on my colleagues to get it done.”
Source: Northwest Herald, February 16, 2017
http://www.nwherald.com/2017/02/15/illinois-gov-bruce-rauner-encourages-grand-bargain-with-stronger-reforms/am6cbfm/
Democrats say Rauner bungling ‘bargain’ – gov calls that ‘goofy’
Sen. Christine Radogno: “We are looking at going in the hole $11 million a day, every single day, we don’t get this solved. So I think there’s enough good will in this building. I know the governor will be joining us in trying to get that done, but we need to get it done soon.”
Source: Sun-Times, March 4, 2017
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/democrats-say-rauner-bungling-bargain-gov-calls-that-goofy/
As ‘Grand Bargain’ is blocked, Democrats point to Rauner
Sen. Christine Radogno: “To a person, the people that I have spoken with have been sincere, honest, willing to compromise. And with that kind of an attitude in this chamber, I have no question in my mind that we’re going to bring this thing in for a landing.”
Source: NPR, March 2, 2017
http://nprillinois.org/post/grand-bargain-blocked-democrats-point-rauner#stream/0
‘Grand bargain’ budget deal taking shape in Senate
After Tuesday’s votes, Radogno said there were “very few” loose ends that still needed to be resolved. She said the votes were pretty much what she expected. “This is a long process, but we have an obligation to get some things moving here. We have a very urgent situation in the state. I think (senators) were beginning to understand that if we’re ever going to do something, now is the time.”
Source: SJ-R, February 28, 2017
http://www.sj-r.com/news/20170228/grand-bargain-budget-deal-taking-shape-in-senate
What’s Next After State Legislature Fails To Vote On ‘Grand Bargain’ Budget Deal?
Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, says he’s never been ready to support the grand bargain. But he says both sides are closer than ever — and a little more delay is worth it.
Source: Northern Public Radio, March 2, 2017
http://northernpublicradio.org/post/whats-next-after-state-legislature-fails-vote-grand-bargain-budget-deal
GOP State Senator Bill Brady Takes Lead in Brokering ‘Grand Bargain’
Brady has been meeting with Senate President John Cullerton, and while he said “we’re not there yet; we are closer to a comprehensive plan that lays it all out,” more lawmakers now believe a vote will be taken on the Senate’s so-called “Grand Bargain” before the May 31 deadline.
Source: NBC 5 Chicago, May 5, 2017
http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/illinois-senate-budget-deal-421570084.html
But what’s the alternative? A partisan “grand bargain”?
There are two sets of numbers to consider here. The first is 30, 60 and 1, which represent simple majorities in both chambers plus the governor’s signature.
The second set is 36, 71 and 0. That’s the number of votes the Democrats will need to override the governor’s veto. And that can’t be done without Republicans.
* In other news…
With the end of the Illinois legislative session fast approaching, Illinois Democratic Leadership is suggesting a compromise with Gov. Rauner may be possible, but Fair Economy Illinois rejects the main tenets of the Grand Bargain that Democrats have been discussing for some time: cuts to vital government responsibilities paired with regressive tax increases like an expansion of the sales tax.
“We are marching to Springfield for a budget that prioritizes the needs of people and the health of our environment,” says Samantha Nichols, an organizer of the March to Springfield for a People and Planet First Budget. “The Grand Bargain asks working class people to pay more for less, and will cause suffering for people and damage to the environment. The only common ground Illinois Democrats and Republicans need to find is the political will to make corporations and the rich pay their fair share of taxes.”
Fair Economy Illinois supports passage of HB 4004, a bill to close nearly $1 billion corporate tax loopholes, and SB 1970, a bill to put a tiny sales tax on futures and commodities trades on Chicago’s LaSalle St that would raise an estimated $12 billion annually.
“Speaker Madigan and the radical leftists he controls.”
Pritzker said that he opposed a property tax freeze, a favorite Rauner talking point, saying local communities should make that decision.
Hat tip to a Democratic operative for finding that one.
* As I was preparing this post, an ILGOP e-mail landed in my in-box…
Today the Illinois Republican Party released a new ad targeting J.B. Pritzker and Mike Madigan for using a corrupt, insider property tax system to benefit themselves at our expense.
Pritzker is under fire this week for claiming that a Gold Coast mansion is uninhabitable, slashing his tax burden by 83% and taking a quarter million dollars in property tax breaks and refunds.
The ad mirrors a Republican ad [click here to see it] used by Rep. Mike McAuliffe’s campaign in 2016 to defeat a heavily financed Madigan-backed challenge from Merry Marwig.
In a state house district that voted for Hillary Clinton by an 8-point margin, Rep. McAuliffe won re-election by 12 points.
Both ads combine three lethal hits to any Democratic candidate in Illinois – Mike Madigan, Chicago corruption, and abuse of the property tax system at our expense.
* So, I followed up with the state party and asked for a response to Pritzker’s reported Oak Park comments…
It is almost unimaginable that after J.B. Pritzker played an inside game to slash his property taxes by over $250,000, he would oppose freezing the property taxes of middle class homeowners. He’s proving that he’s a billionaire Chicago insider who plays by a different set of rules as everyone else.
*** UPDATE *** I forgot to post this, which I retweeted yesterday…
Started asking 6 hrs ago to speak to @JBPritzker (as I did yestdy too) no word onwhen/if he will react to property tax questions #ILGov18
Pritzker’s real estate attorneys Schmidt, Salzman and Moran contributed more than $25,000 in campaign donations to Assessor Berrios. Pritzker initially said “I’m unaware of that.” But when it was pointed out that was reported Monday by WCIA TV, Pritzker added “someone brought it up for the very first time yesterday.”
You can’t say you’re unaware of something when you were specifically asked about that very same thing the day before.
Illinois’ estimated bill backlog has increased from $13.3 billion to a record $14.3 billion. The jump reflects more than $1 billion in liabilities held at state agencies that the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget reported to the Comptroller’s office this week. This new information brings the estimated total of bills held at agencies to $6.6 billion.
The state’s bill backlog is nearing the point of having tripled in just the past two years, making it all the more pressing that policymakers receive timely reporting of the consequences of not having a budget — at a growing cost to taxpayers. This week’s $1 billion bill dump from Governor Rauner’s office makes evident the need for agencies to regularly report liabilities to the Comptroller’s office including the late interest penalties associated with these outstanding bills. This increase is due to a reported increase of bills for medical, corrections, state group health insurance, human services and other state agencies.
“It’s clear the Rauner Administration has been holding bills at state agencies in an attempt to mask some of the damage caused by the Governor’s failure to fulfill his constitutional duty and present a balanced budget. At a time when Senators from both sides of the aisle are working together to reach a deal, this administration has been keeping them in the dark about the true extent of the bill backlog,” Comptroller Susana Mendoza said. “This action makes obvious the urgent need for more sunlight on the state’s bill backlog. It’s time for a full accounting of what the state owes to schools, social service organizations, health care providers, vendors, small business owners and others across the state.”
Legislation initiated by Comptroller Mendoza known as the Debt Transparency Act (House Bill 3649) calls for more accountability from state agencies on Illinois’ bill backlog. It would require agencies to report monthly to the Comptroller the bills they are holding and estimate the amount of late interest penalties that will be paid on those bills. The Comptroller’s office projects that Illinois will owe at least $800 million in Late Payment Interest Penalties on its overdue bills by the end of the current fiscal year. But without accurate information from state agencies on what is owed, it’s nearly impossible to precisely report interest charges.
“Clearly policymakers and taxpayers need to be fully aware of the rising costs taxpayers are on the hook for and that must be accounted for in a budget,” Comptroller Mendoza said.
Representative Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates, and Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, sponsored HB 3649, which passed in the House with bipartisan backing last month. Comptroller Mendoza is calling on the Senate to approve HB 3649 and on the Governor to sign the bill when it reaches his desk.
Current state law only requires agencies to report on Oct. 1 of each year the aggregate amount of bills being held on the previous June 30. The information is outdated by the time it is received, Mendoza said. But the agencies already have the personnel and infrastructure in place to compile the data.
Setting aside her rhetoric, the current state law is completely outmoded. This really needs to change.
* $142 million in past-due bills, services dying or dead on the vine and a patient waiting list of almost 13,000 people. But all is well. Right. Keep telling yourselves that.
From a press release…
A new survey by a top behavioral health advocate group reveals that the state of Illinois owes community mental health centers statewide a staggering $142 million in unpaid bills, a debt that is squeezing care for people struggling with mental illness and addiction.
The Community Behavioral Healthcare Association of Illinois released on Wednesday a survey of state community mental health providers that shows that these agencies are owed for fiscal year 2017 a total of $142,558,150 or nearly 90% of what has been budgeted for the current fiscal year that expires on June 30.
Moreover, the survey shows that, in Fiscal Year 2016, 73.5% of community agencies had reduced or eliminated behavioral health programs and that in Fiscal Year 2017 an additional 33.7% of agencies further cut or ended services.
“To say that community mental health providers are operating on fumes would be incorrect. They consumed the fumes long ago,” said Community Behavioral Healthcare Association of Illinois C.E.O. Marvin Lindsey. “The financial starvation of providers has shriveled our ability to serve an exploding need to the extent that Illinois is fast becoming a behavioral health system Potemkin Village.”
Lindsey also pointed to a survey finding that says that a psychiatrist wait time of one-to-two months at 40.6% of agencies in Fiscal Year 2016 has jumped to a one-to-two month wait at 64.0% of centers in Fiscal Year 2017. And a four-month wait or more at 25% of agencies has edged up to 28% of providers.
Overall, the survey estimates that waiting lists to access all sorts of behavioral health treatment has ballooned to 12,696 individuals.
“A mental health crisis can’t be scheduled three weeks from next Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.,” said Lindsey. “But that’s where we find ourselves, turning away mothers, children who need our help, today, not tomorrow, not next week, but today.”
* And check out the timeline…
Beyond the immediate budget impasse, Lindsey also cites the survey’s finding of a vast disinvestment in behavior health by the state over the last 10 years.
In Fiscal Year 2008, the state legislature authorized Mental Health grants from General Revenue Funds totaling $368,281,300 to community agencies. In Fiscal Year 2018, in Governor Bruce Rauner’s proposed budget, the number had fallen by more than half to $170,622,300. Addiction treatment money followed the same pattern, dropping from $165,602,200 to $78,633,500.
“Some of the GRF was transferred to cover the state’s Medicaid mental health and substance use services, which I estimate totals $40 million for mental health and $15 million for addiction treatment,” said Lindsey. “But that shifting of a small amount money in no way excuses shameful financial disinvestment in behavioral health that has occurred and is continuing to occur today despite the disingenuous promises being made.”
Illinois Senate Democrats have scheduled votes for measures in the so-called “grand bargain” budget compromise.
Assistant Majority Leader Donne Trotter of Chicago says the Senate will call each piece of legislation in the plan for votes on Wednesday. He says time is running out to agree to the state’s first budget in two years. The General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn May 31. […]
Trotter says the Senate needs to know where the votes are for agreeing to a budget. So each bill will stand alone. Even bills that have passed were recalled Tuesday to be voted on again as stand-alone measures.
Patty Schuh, a spokeswoman for Republican Leader Christine Radogno of Lemont, says Radogno remains hopeful negotiations can continue.
“We’re more focused on where we can prioritize spending but reduce systemic growth and spending so it is a balanced plan. We’ve already said that we’d be willing to consider an [income tax] increase of 1.2 percent. That would be temporary along with a property tax freeze,” Brady said. “Probably the biggest stumbling block is we need [a] real property tax freeze, real relief.”
“I hope they don’t blow this all up prematurely,” Brady said of Senate Democrats. “We’re still hopeful.” […]
On Tuesday, the Senate moved several “grand bargain” bills into position to see movement on the Senate floor on Wednesday. Those measures include local government consolidation, procurement reform, the second half of a spending plan for the fiscal year 2017 and gaming.
Cullerton spokesman John Patterson warned of the ticking clock, and said the Senate president believes it’s time to act on reforms and a balanced budget.
As the end-of-session jockeying to avoid blame and assign it elsewhere begins, there may be another round of voting on portions of the plan as soon as Wednesday.
Democrats took procedural holds off several bills in the “grand bargain” package that already have passed, with the plan to remove provisions that linked the bills so that if one failed, they all failed. Democrats now say time is running out and they are eager to try to get Republicans to weigh in one way or the other.
“There are some people who’ve indicated that they don’t want to vote for bills that are all tied together, some people who would be willing to vote for a revenue package and then some people who aren’t willing to, under any circumstances, vote for a revenue package but may like some of the other reform ideas that have been negotiated in the bipartisan fashion,” said Democratic Sen. Toi Hutchinson of Olympia Fields, a key budget negotiator. “Maybe that might help to get to passage of the individual pieces.”
Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, said it would be “a huge mistake” for Democrats to press ahead while details continue to be worked out.
Josh Metnick, who buys and sells internet domain names the way a real estate broker handles land deals, has put Illinois.com on the market.
Metnick has owned the domain name since 2005 but decided to sell now because he sees interest peaking. China is buying up more domain names these days, and there are a few Illinois gubernatorial candidates who might find Illinois.com an attractive property.
Metnick is referring all calls on the deal to Lou Weisbach, a Chicago entrepreneur who’s overseeing the sale. Weisbach is CEO of Merch Time LLC, a marketing services and promotional products startup.
“I’ve known Josh for a long time. He’s brilliant in this space,” Weisbach tells me. “Given the confluence of interest overseas and in Illinois and given the gubernatorial race, in which you have three high net worth individuals leading the pack, it seems like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Considering that half of the state’s residents want to leave, our largest city has a well-publicized crime problem and the state government hasn’t had a budget in over two years, etc., etc., etc., I’m not sure how valuable the domain name really is.
* From the press release…
“Illinois.com is an asset that can be kept in perpetuity as it continues to appreciate in the years to come,” continued Weisbach. “The site’s purchaser can realize strong cash flows from the investment, as the site can be valued against an escalating and recurring revenue model. All in all, this is a significant opportunity to secure a prized geodomain.”
A “geodomain” is a domain name identical to a geographic location such as a city, state, or country. Often, geodomain sales are kept confidential via private transactions, similar to private sales of other types of domain names. There are some geodomain sales figures, however, that have been publicly disclosed:
* LasVegas.com sold for $90 million in 2005. Las Vegas, Nevada drew approximately 42.9 million visitors in 2016 (source: Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority).
* MyrtleBeach.com sold for $6.5 million in 2010. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina drew approximately 16.1 million visitors in 2013 (source: Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, 2015).
By comparison, Illinois welcomed approximately 110 million domestic visitors in 2016 (source: Illinois Department of Commerce), with an additional 1.7 million overseas visitors (source: U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Travel and Tourism Office, 2015).
“There are endless possibilities when it comes to how Illinois.com could be strategically leveraged and monetized,” said Dan Pulcrano, a domain name industry expert and CEO of Silicon Valley-based media holding company New SV Media, Inc. “It could be the home page for a media outlet, corporation, or political candidate, or used to redirect traffic to a third-party site or for the selling of customized email addresses. Whatever an investor chooses to do with Illinois.com, I expect this domain name to be well-trafficked and successful.”
Any thoughts how somebody could use the domain name?
During the interview, Maze broached the issue of the building trades…
Maze Jackson: You got the endorsement of the… building trades. The building trades council. Now, we know that in the black community there has been systemic racism…
JBP: That’s right
MJ: …within. Wait. What? Within the building trades.
* Jackson seemed stunned by Pritzker’s possible candor (or just an admission that he was endorsed by them), but didn’t follow up directly. Instead he asked how he was going to fix the systemic racial problems within the building trades. Charles Thomas cut Pritzker off to ask how he expected black peoples’ support when Pritzker was being backed by unions that many blacks consider racist…
JBP: Here’s what I would say. Building trades certainly are completely, there are not enough African-Americans in the building trades, in the apprenticeships…
CT: [Cross-talk] So, why would you accept their endorsement?
JBP: …or in pre-apprenticeship programs. Hold on. There are good people who are in the building trades who are not racists, who are trying to, yes, who are skilled labor, who want to make the building trades more diverse. But, here’s the problem. The state of Illinois, when it contracts, when it has a capital bill, when it does any kind of construction, it actually doesn’t live up to the obligation to make sure that there are [Thomas tries to interject], to make sure that there are African-American building trades working on these projects. [Cross talk as Thomas asks what he’s going to do.] Listen, I have consistently said, all of them that are endorsing me, I have consistently raised this issue. By the way, some of them have raised it with me, their effort to make changes. But it’s not good enough. The state of Illinois needs to require that the building trades, when they’re doing business with the state, that they increase the number of African-Americans that are… [Cross talk] …
CT: Did you even consider not accepting their endorsement as an act of good faith to the black community?
JBP: Better I think to have a dialogue that increases their awareness, making sure that they’re adhering to it. I think you have a governor who cares about it, who is influencing them at the state level, that is a better way to go.
Gov. Rauner has made an issue of this since the beginning of his administration. But without a capital bill, it’s somewhat difficult to do anything about it.
An Illinois legislator says striking seven words from the state’s massive energy bill would clear the way for more than $2 billion in new wind energy projects.
State Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, filed a bill in January to remove language concerning wind projects from the Future Energy Jobs Bill, which passed in December and was hailed as one of the most significant pieces of state energy legislation in the U.S. in decades.
The bill included a provision that requires the Illinois Commerce Commission to develop certification and training standards for wind developers – a process that took the commission about two years when the state established similar standards for developers of solar installations and electric vehicle charging stations.
“The bill created significant uncertainty that prevented investment in Illinois by the wind industry, which makes no sense,” Harmon said in a press release.
* Press release…
State Senator Daniel Biss’ measure to bring small donor matching to Illinois to ensure government better reflects the people it serves advanced out of the Illinois Senate Tuesday.
“Everyone who is frustrated today by the influence that corporations and billionaires wield over politicians and the policy decisions they make should support the concept of small donor matching,” said Biss, an Evanston Democrat.
“This is one way we can restore the balance of power in government and ensure that average people – those who represent Main Street America and middle-class values, not Wall Street and the corporate class – have greater influence over the decisions that are made in Springfield and elsewhere.”
Senate Bill 1424 would establish a small donor matching system for statewide races in Illinois, including governor, attorney general, comptroller, treasurer, secretary of state, state senators and state representatives. The system empowers ordinary people to compete financially and ideologically with special interests and wealthy donors. It also opens up the playing field to more diverse candidates for office and leads to more options at the ballot box.
Senate Bill 1424 would weaken the influence of money in Illinois elections by doing the following:
Contributions between $25 and $150 from local donors would be matched 6:1 by public funds.
Limits would be set on the amount of public funds available to each candidate.
Candidates would not be able to accept contributions of more than $500 from a single donor.
Under the legislation, the General Assembly could appropriate money to a special fund in the state treasury. The funds would be either $1 per Illinois resident or 1/20th of 1 percent of the state’s annual budget, whichever is greater.
* Press release…
Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS), the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and retired NASA astronaut Captain Mark Kelly, applauded the Illinois House Judiciary Committee today for advancing the Gun Dealer Licensing Act (SB 1657) to help slow the flow of illegal guns in Illinois, and urged the full House to act to save lives. The bill would give state authorities and law enforcement the tools to encourage better business practices among federally licensed gun dealers and hold corrupt dealers accountable to slow the flow of illegal gun trafficking in Illinois and help keep guns out of the wrong hands.
The bill, which was passed by the Illinois Senate last month, would give state authorities and law enforcement the tools to encourage better business practices among federally licensed gun dealers and hold corrupt dealers accountable to slow the flow of illegal gun trafficking in Illinois and help keep guns out of the wrong hands.
The head of the City Council Budget Committee on Tuesday sought to point the blame at Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner when it comes to finding a way to avoid a looming financial meltdown at Chicago Public Schools, saying in the often-blunt language she’s known for that “somebody needs to take Rauner by his neck and wring it.”
When asked about ways the city might be able to help the school district from going broke around the end of June, Ald. Carrie Austin toed the line of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration by trying to blame the governor, using rougher language in the process.
“Why won’t anybody go after the governor?” asked Austin, 34th, who was referring to the prospect of further city tax increases or draining funds from special taxing districts to help CPS. “Why is it always a strain on us? Why? Nobody ever asks that question. You don’t see this going on in any other school district, except for Chicago. Somebody needs to take Rauner by his neck and wring it.”
Rauner’s spokesperson Eleni Demertzis said Austin’s “outlandish rhetoric can’t paper over the years of fiscal mismanagement that triggered” the financial crisis at CPS.
”Rather than throwing unnecessary insults, it would be helpful if all sides would come together and work on an agreement that balances the state budget along with property tax relief and job-creating reforms that will grow our economy,” Demertzis wrote in an email.
“Alderman Austin is a passionate and committed advocate for our schools, and while we all express exasperation differently, make no mistake, we’re all exasperated by the governor’s leadership failures,” [Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s] spokesman Matt McGrath said.
Twice in the past month or so, people have casually asked me why nobody has yet “taken out” Speaker Madigan.
Leaders need to realize that their words can be taken literally, particularly in this insane age.
* Back in 2014, it seemed like everybody was posting videos doing an “ice bucket challenge.” You’ll recall it was a big fad back then and it raised a ton of money for the ALS Association. Candidate Bruce Rauner posted a video featuring three helpers dumping ice water on his head. Gov. Pat Quinn did a video as well.
JB Pritzker’s ice bucket challenge video is no longer online. A reporter pal brought up the subject last night. He said he saw the video back in the day, but he can’t find it now. So, I reached out to a trusted opposition researcher last night. He told me he’d also heard about it, but, sadly, has come up empty time and time again. I asked the Pritzker campaign what happened to the video this morning and am still awaiting a reply.
* Pritzker is dressed as the Dr. Evil character from the “Austin Powers” movies in his video, stroking a toy cat and wearing one of those bald wigs. The reporter who watched the video says Pritzker talked in a Dr. Evil accent while cheesy, 70s style sound effects played in the background. From a story done at the time by Shia Kapos…
He appears in his video, above, dressed as Dr. Evil, the fictional character played by actor Mike Myers in the “Austin Powers” films — bald head, tipped pinky and all.
Seated in a chair “deep below the Merchandise Mart,” he says he was nominated “by the techno geeks at 1871.”
“Little do they know, I’ll be turning the tables on them with ‘operation ice bucket,’” he says with a sinister laugh. “I’ll pour one million bajillion gallons of water over Chicago!”
The buckets drop with the help of two assistants, and a drenched Mr. Pritzker then peels off his mask to say he’s giving $26,000 to the ALS Association — $100 for each of the 260 companies in 1871. He also challenged his “evil brother” Tony Pritzker, Graff CEO Henri Barguirdjian and professional poker player Phil Hellmuth.
* Maze Jackson and Charles Thomas interviewed JB Pritzker on WVON yesterday. Click here for the full video.
A caller who said he owns a small company in the building industry asked whether Pritzker would consider making a commitment to putting a million dollars into a black-owned bank “so we can have loans and hire people.” Pritzker’s reply…
“As a matter of fact, I have made a commitment to do that. And we’ve met with a number of African-American faith leaders who were very encouraging about that and felt that’s a very important way for us to help create employment in the African-American community. So, it’s something I’ve already done.”
Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner made good on a promise to deposit $1 million in a South Side credit union for small business loans.
Rauner arrived in his 20-year-old Volkswagen van. At the teller’s window he made a $200,000 donation and an $800,000 deposit to help the African American-owned credit union make small business loans. […]
“Is he the kind of person who would rather buy votes in the community as opposed to being here all along?” said Rikeesha Phelon of the Democratic Governor’s Association.
Charles Thomas: I have talked to so many black people over the last several weeks, who say JB’s my guy. Man, they got JB’s personal cell phone number. Everybody’s trying to get paid. These politicians and political operatives, it seems to me, by JB Pritzker because they know he’s got three and a half billion dollars…
JBP: That’s not happening in my campaign. Listen, we have gained a lot of support in the African-American community which I think is a direct consequence of my spending a lot of time in the black community.
CT: Not money.
JBP: No, no. I am spending time in the black community. You ask, people have seen me everywhere. I am going West Side, South Side, everywhere. I’ve spent time and I have a lot of friends in the black community for some time. So, I’ve been successful I think because I’m working hard.
CT: So, you’re not being that guy who’s buying, you say you’re not buying…
Maze Jackson: Hold on. Look. In the interest of what’s in it for black folks, and there’s a half billion dollars being spent, find some black people to hire, because we need to participate in the economic part of this election process too.
So, on the one hand he’s going to make a large deposit into a black bank. But on the other, he’s spending time not money, which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your perspective.
Asked Monday if he believed Democratic leadership was working against him and aligning behind Pritzker, Kennedy warned against creating a political party that won’t allow dissent.
“I think there are elements within the Democratic Party that would like to have someone fight their battle for them. I’m not among them. I believe you look back at the great history of the United States and the progress that’s been made, it always occurred when people fought for themselves,” Kennedy told reporters. “I think we’re at an impasse like that now in our state. And if people think that they can get somebody else to fight their battle for them and have a good outcome, they’re wrong.”
Kennedy pointed to Rauner’s influence on the Republican Party, which the governor heavily funds, and the reluctance of GOP lawmakers and officeholders to break ranks.
“One of the worst things that Gov. Rauner has done is to silence his own party. None of the state reps, none of the state senators, none of the constitutional officers have spoken up against him. None have spoken out. And we don’t want to replicate that system in the Democratic Party as well.”
“I don’t think this is about individuals. I think this is about a whole network that makes it nearly impossible to see integrity in the system for the average voter, the average taxpayer. Having faith in government, understanding that government can be an ally, understanding that government can function at a higher level is something that occurs in other states. We don’t have that here because people don’t believe that the system is just or rid of corruption. We need to rid it of corruption by changing the system.”
J.B. Pritzker Lying to Reporters
Peddling in Alternative Facts about Uninhabitable Mansion Scam
Just weeks into his campaign for Governor, J.B. Pritzker is already lying to reporters about troubling tax breaks he took out on two of his Gold Coast Chicago mansions.
Asked about the questionable property tax appeal on his $3.7 million mansion on a radio show yesterday, the Associated Press reports that Pritzker says he “appealed only once in the nine years he has owned the property”.
This means that Assessor Joe Berrios reduced Pritzker’s assessment by 83% for the second year in a row.
And as a result of his 2015 appeal, Pritzker also received huge refunds retroactively for years 2012, 2013, and 2014 – netting him a $132,000 check according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Capitol Fax also reported yesterday that Pritzker appealed his property taxes on a third Chicago property - a condo near his Gold Coast mansions.
All of this means that Pritzker’s claim that he “appealed only once in the nine years” is a lie. He’s appealed twice and has received property tax breaks for five years.
Will J.B. Pritzker stop shortchanging Chicago schoolchildren, lying to reporters, and end his scam?
In the long and raucous, altogether lively if recently beleaguered history of Chicago newspapers, Monday will rank as a “stop-the-presses” day after it was announced that, in short headline style: “Chicago Tribune Seeks To Buy Chicago Sun-Times.”
Tronc, the parent company of the Tribune, has entered into a nonbinding letter of intent to acquire Wrapports Holdings, which owns the Sun-Times as well other assets such as the Chicago Reader alternative weekly, the Aggrego digital content business and the syndicated column The Straight Dope.
The announcement follows months of discussions between Wrapports and Tronc and after both organizations worked closely with the Department of Justice’s antitrust division.
The tentative deal means Chicago would remain one of the last two-newspaper cities in the country, though those papers would operate under a single corporate owner. Terms of the potential deal were not disclosed.
“There are minor points still to be worked out, but we are confident that we will be able to move forward on this transaction and reach a definitive agreement,” said Tronc CEO Justin Dearborn. “This is generally viewed as good for all Tronc shareholders.”
The Sun-Times is publishing a full-page advertisement in Tuesday’s paper “seeking new ownership that will commit to preserving the Sun-Times as an independent news source in the city of Chicago,” Wrapports officials said in a statement.
After that, the Sun-Times will be sold to Tronc “if no other viable buyer expressing substantial interest” within 15 days, according to the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, which investigates newspaper mergers. Tronc also would acquire the alternative weekly Chicago Reader and Wrapports’ stake in Aggrego, a digital content company.
Federal investigators “will closely monitor the sale process for the Chicago Sun-Times, including whether any other viable buyer expresses interest,” according to a Justice Department statement.
In a memo to employees, Sun-Times Publisher and Editor In Chief Jim Kirk said the companies entered discussions several months ago and informed the Justice Department of the “possibility of a transaction.”
Assurances by both companies that the Sun-Times would remain editorially independent did little to quell fears of substantial cutbacks to the city’s No. 2 daily. The Tribune’s own account described the deal as “providing a lifeline to the scrappy but struggling tabloid.” Others viewed it as the beginning of the end.
The man behind all the machinations is Michael Ferro, the Chicago tech entrepreneur who headed Wrapports until 2016 when he switched sides to become chairman of Tribune Publishing, later renamed tronc.
Ferro has never disavowed ambitions to take back the Sun-Times and combine its ownership with the Tribune. In an interview weeks after he took over the Tribune, Ferro said of buying the Sun-Times: “I do see that someday, and why not?”
The structure for the two newspapers will not look like a joint operation venture, a setup that some rival newspapers have used in years past to share costs without blending their newsrooms. Knight didn’t provide details on what exactly the infrastructure would look like, what costs would be shared and whether there would be new management. “We are working through all of that right now,” he said. “The Chicago Sun-Times will continue to be operated as an independent newsroom, and that’s where there’s benefits for the readers and citizens of Chicago.”
If there’s any potential political winner here, it could be Gov. Bruce Rauner. Rauner was an early investor with Ferro when he first bought the paper in 2011. Under Ferro (and Tim Knight, who has now landed back at tronc) the Sun-Times stopped all political endorsements. That is until the governor’s race in 2014, when it suddenly came out and endorsed its former investor, Bruce Rauner, for governor. The Sun-Times editorial board has just reestablished its independence, moving more to the left, recently laying the state’s budget impasse at the governor’s feet. That’s in contrast to the Trib’s editorial board, which is strongly pro-Rauner.
“Internet privacy legislation making its way through Springfield is more in line with the interests of the trial bar than it is with consumer protection, critics say.”
“John Pastuovic, president of the Illinois Civil Justice League, said that everyone would likely agree that reasonable guidelines are needed to ensure consumer privacy, but the current proposals in Springfield “are falling in the same old trial lawyer trap of using lawsuits to enforce the new standards.”
“Pastuovic also said that legislators should keep working until they find a better way to protect consumer data. ‘There has got to be a better way” than what is currently being proposed,’ he said.”
These bills are wrong for Illinois – VOTE NO ON HB 2774/SB 1502 & HB 3449.
Even if Rauner is right (and he may be) that a bad deal “continues our state’s slow and painful decline,” he completely ignores the fact that no deal would take that slow decline and jam it into overdrive.
No deal means $24 billion in overdue bills by January of 2019. No deal means junk bond credit ratings, which means Illinois won’t be able to borrow in 2019 to pay off that mountainous backlog. No deal means an accelerated decline and even collapse of universities and colleges and more huge tears in our already ripped up social service fabric. No deal means more delays in funding for K-12 schools which are currently dealing with a billion-dollar backlog. No deal means higher unemployment. No deal means chaos.
* Meanwhile, this reader said he received an automated poll…
My wife answered a telephone poll yesterday (yes, we still have a landline) that tested Rauner against Pritzker and Kennedy, then had multiple questions about the “four and four” compromise – 4 year increase in income tax, 4 year complete property tax freeze along with multiple levels of cuts to Medicaid, higher ed, local government funds (10%), state operations, mass transit, etc. Wish I took notes on all the listed items and cut levels but we were finishing dinner at the time.
Pretty clear from the questions that the poll was by the Rauner camp.
* GOP Rep. Dave Severin was listed as having an excused absence (click here) on a recent House floor vote to prevent the layoffs of some Department of Corrections prison nurses. Here’s his explanation…
“I did what I did for one reason and that is so people would ask me why I walked off,” said Severin, R-Benton.
Severin said his decision April 6 to leave Springfield was specifically related to a pending vote that afternoon on Senate Bill 19, which would require the Illinois Department of Corrections to maintain staffing levels at what they were in January 2016 for registered nurses and medical technicians — affecting about 300 positions. […]
Severin said he wanted to support the nurses but faced pressure from Republican Party leaders for him to vote against the bill. Therefore, he decided to skip town that day instead of voting for or against the bill.
“I refused to vote against the nurses,” Severin said. “I didn’t think it was the thing to do but there also was pressure on me not to vote for it. I said, ‘Here’s what I’m going to do then. I’m walking off the floor because I refuse to vote against those nurses.’” […]
Severin said that it is a “fair question” for people to ask him why he didn’t vote in favor of the legislation if he believed in the intention of the bill, regardless of what pressure he felt from his party leadership. Severin did not specifically say who in the Republican Party leadership pressured him to vote against the bill, or in what way they pressured him. He only would describe the pressure as coming from “the Republican Party.”
House Democrats seeking common ground with Gov. Bruce Rauner in order to end the budget stalemate and put the state on a path to fiscal stability will outline additional reforms they plan to present to the governor at a press conference Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the Capitol Blue Room.
Democrats declined to provide details of their plans in advance of a Tuesday morning news conference, but Madigan’s previous proposals included cutting the corporate income tax rate by at least 50 percent but applying that rate across the board so that a vast majority of businesses that currently don’t pay any income taxes will have to pony up.
He also called for keeping in place a sometimes controversial tax credit for businesses that create new jobs, and banning “any future tax incentives for corporations that ship American jobs out of our country.” The speaker has also pushed for expanding the earned income tax credit for low-income families, raising the minimum wage and taxing those who earn over $1 million.
With only a few weeks to go before the end of the spring legislative session, Rauner’s office said it was “skeptical” about Madigan’s intentions.
“After two years of playing games and refusing to negotiate, call us skeptical that all we will see from Madigan Democrats is another set of phony reforms to disguise a massive tax hike and bailout for Chicago,” spokeswoman Eleni Demertzis said.
*** UPDATE *** From the House Democrats…
House Democrats seeking common ground with Gov. Bruce Rauner in order to end the budget stalemate and put the state on a path to fiscal stability are asking the governor to consider their reform proposals that will improve the business climate while lifting up the middle class.
“House Democrats believe the budget crisis demands immediate action, and it is our hope to show Governor Rauner that we stand ready to work with him,” state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie said. “We plan to seek common ground with the governor on his proposals, and present him with items we believe should be part of the bargaining in order to encourage economic growth while lifting up the middle class.”
Last week, House Speaker Michael J. Madigan appointed Currie and House Leaders Lou Lang, Arthur Turner and Jay Hoffman to work with Rauner to find compromise on issues unrelated to the state budget.
The legislators plan to present the governor with House Democratic Caucus proposals that will improve the business climate while lifting up the middle class. While the governor has prioritized changes to the workers’ compensation system, Democrats are pushing for additional reforms that would prohibit insurance companies in Illinois from eliminating an insurance policy due to a pre-existing condition and would also create an Insurance Rate Review Board to prevent insurance companies from unfairly gouging consumers.
The House negotiators also plan to ask Rauner to stand with Democrats in working to close corporate loopholes that allow large businesses to pay nothing in taxes. House Democrats have prioritized cutting the overall corporate income tax to level the playing field for small and medium-sized employers, while also cracking down on large corporations that game the system to avoid paying anything in taxes.
“House Democrats have put forward a number of reforms that address the governor’s goals, and we will continue pushing ideas that will strengthen the economy while also lifting up the middle class,” Lang said. “We believe we can create jobs without hurting the people who work in those jobs every day. We look forward to working with the governor to find common ground and move this conversation forward by discussing his ideas in depth, and presenting him with ideas of our own.”
J.B. Pritzker is under fire this week for abusing vacancy laws to get massive property tax breaks on his two Gold Coast mansions totaling nearly a quarter million dollars.
And Pritzker is slated to get the same tax breaks this year.
But questions remain – such as why the Pritzkers felt it necessary to disconnect all the toilets in the home – allowing them to claim the home as uninhabitable.
Pritzker is taking money from Chicago Public Schools and other City services, and even liberals are taking note.
Mark Brown from the Chicago Sun-Times penned a column yesterday saying that Pritzker “is not paying his fair share of taxes”.
This is not about the commonplace practice of appealing property taxes on someone’s principal place of residence. This is about a very unique situation of a homeowner buying an expensive property next door and being rewarded for being a lousy owner.
As explained by the assessor’s office, this tax break is intended for someone buying a property to rehab it, the idea being they shouldn’t be required to pay full price on their taxes if nobody can live there.
I can’t speak to the exact condition of the home when Pritzker bought it, but I can tell you it was definitely habitable.
At some point afterward, however, all the toilets in the home were disconnected. The Pritzkers haven’t explained when this happened or why it was necessary.
* Pritzker told reporters yesterday in Springfield that the photos shared yesterday by the Republicans didn’t show the house’s problems. He claimed, for instance, that the staircase was falling off the wall…
“It was in terrible disrepair. Actually, the stairs were coming off the wall, the basement is unfinished and has a dirt floor, and so there was nothing in good shape in that house at all, and there was nothing that we did other than we asked that our taxes be reassessed because it wasn’t worth what we paid for it,” Pritzker said. “The truth is we probably over paid for the house, and lots of people have done that, especially in the environment of falling home prices.”
He also said he plans to rehab the house sometime in the future.
Pritzker paid $3.7 million for the building, below the original list price of $6 million. According to a Chicago magazine story by my colleague Dennis Rodkin, he became only the third owner in 118 years of a building designed by Holabird & Root with unique features. […]
It’s unclear if the building declined with age or if there was internal demolition prior to a possible rehab, but in an appeal filed with Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, the assessed value of the property dropped from $6.3 million to $1.1 million, saving Pritzker $230,000 in property taxes so far.
OK, so read between the lines a bit. Pritzker paid $3.7 million for the house, but it’s assessed value remained at or above its original $6 million list price. Usually, you’d file for a reassessment right away if you bought a house for much lower than its assessed valuation, but Pritzker didn’t, which cost him some bucks he didn’t need to be paying.
Not defending him or anything, but on that point some of this isn’t totally out of the realm of reasonableness.
Greg also reports that Pritzker claims to have used the mansion next door “as a staging area for the complete renovation of his home next door.
Still, this is all kinda weird to me.
* Meanwhile, Mark Maxwell reports that Pritzker’s property tax appeals attorneys contributed $25,000 to Assessor Joe Berrios (no surprise in that county). He also has Chris Kennedy’s reaction…
“It’s an inherently corruptible system. We ought to reject it. Nobody is confident that the system yields a fair outcome either for individuals - but most importantly - for the kids who depend on the income to fund their schools.”
“This is an attack by Bruce Rauner and by the GOP because they really have nothing else to talk about, no accomplishments to tout, and so they’re taking any shot they can take. Obviously they are taking a shot at me because they think I’m a threat to them.”
* Sen. Daniel Biss gets the last word…
Right now, two billionaires running for #ilgov are fighting each other over who did the better job of getting out of paying their taxes.
Everyone seems to have a powerful lobbyist in Springfield but you, the taxpayers. That’s why you elected me. I’m here to fight for you and stop career Chicago politicians from squeezing you dry.
For the last two years, the career Chicago politicians who run the General Assembly have been focused on one thing: Raising your taxes without any fundamental changes to their broken system. No real spending reductions or hard spending caps to balance the budget for the long run. No economic reforms to grow our economy and bring high-paying jobs back to Illinois. No relief from skyrocketing property taxes or term limits on the career politicians. Just higher taxes to fuel more government spending and bailouts for Chicago. The Democrat majority has been in power for more than 30 years, and they’ve overseen our continuous deficits, frequent tax hikes, job losses and more than $180 billion in debt.
Plenty of powerful lobbyists are on their side. They’re just fine with an insider-rigged system that raises your taxes and rewards their special interests. But for two years we’ve been your voice in the state Capitol — standing up for you to say enough is enough.
Two years into our state budget impasse, it’s encouraging that some Democrats are finally willing to engage in serious negotiations to resolve our differences. But as we approach the end of the legislative session, many of them are buckling under enormous pressure from Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, powerful lobbyists and special interests who want to maintain the status quo.
It’s always a good idea to chastise Cullerton and his caucus for buckling to Madigan. Yep. That’ll work wonders, I’m sure.
* The other day, I asked the Senate President’s spokesman this question: Does Senate President Cullerton believe that Gov. Rauner really wants a deal on the budget and non-budget items?
He took the question to Cullerton and this is his answer…
Yes, because I refuse to believe that the governor of Illinois would desire otherwise.
