* [I’ve been assured that this reason is legit.] I’m really hope this has nothing to do with the fact that Hodas was Sen. Sam McCann’s media consultant…
The Illinois Governor’s Prayer Breakfast, an annual Springfield event since 1963, is being postponed and likely will not be held this year.
Although the breakfast receives no state money, and the governor’s office is not involved in organizing it, the state’s ongoing budget stalemate is being blamed for the postponement.
“The current budget impasse made it very difficult to find speakers,” said Glenn Hodas, a member of the all-volunteer organization that puts on the breakfast in early May. […]
“Basically, we realize the governor and legislative members who usually make up the event are so busy with the session negotiations, that it was just not a good idea to have a prayer breakfast this year,” Hodas said.
* Let me know when you get some Republican sponsors [Sen. McCann ended up voting for the bill]…
* If you want to see a prime example of a Chicago politician who doesn’t understand that new jobs and development on the West Side are vitally important, click here.
* OK, except we hardly invest anything in transportation infrastructure any more…
Excellent point by Stephanie Strong from @ChiUrbanLeague - "We invest in things like buildings and transportation but not human capital"
In short, Puerto Rico’s problem is mainly one of lack of capacity to deal with its problem while Illinois’ situation is more a lack of will and discipline
He pointed to a 2015 study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that found no big crash risk associated with people driving with marijuana in their system but says more study is needed. said.
CHICAGO—As anger builds over Sen. President John Cullerton’s stalling of elected school board legislation for Chicago, CPS parents and community members will be stepping up the pressure Wednesday with a rally and press conference in front of the senator’s Lakeview office. The groups are pledging to continue to picket at his office until he moves the legislation in the senate.
The bill, HB 0557, sailed out of the Illinois House earlier this year by a vote of 110 - 4, but is now stuck in the Senate because Cullerton refuses to even assign it to a committee. At a meeting with parents last month, he pledged to advance the measure but has not kept that promise.
WHAT: Rally and picket for an elected school board
WHEN: 10 a.m., Wednesday, May 11
WHERE: Office of Senate President John Cullerton, 1726 W. Belmont
WHY: Cullerton is blocking HB 0557, the elected school board bill, even though he promised constituents he would allow the bill to proceed in the senate. Parents and community members demand that he keep his word.
VISUALS: Parents marching, chanting and carrying signs calling out Cullerton for not keeping his promise to move the elected Chicago school board bill.
As president of the Senate, Cullerton controls how and when legislation advances. Although he is the chief senate sponsor of the bill, he refuses to assign it to a committee, which would give the measure a good chance at passage by the full senate.
The elected school board bill passed out of the house on March 3. Even though the measure has widespread support among Chicagoans and Cullerton’s own constituents, he has blocked the bill in the Senate for the last two months.
A non-binding referendum last February passed by nearly 90 percent in the 35 wards where it appeared on the ballot, including Cullerton’s own 33rd ward. But the Senate President continues to side with Mayor Rahm Emanuel over his constituents and other Chicagoans who are demanding more democracy and accountability in Chicago Public Schools.
Groups plan to protest outside Cullerton’s office until he advances HB 0557. Groups involved in the protest are: Parents 4 Teachers, Illinois Raise Your Hand, Northside Action for Justice, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, the Kenwood Oakland Community Council, ONE Northside, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.
* The Question: Should Cullerton call the bill for a floor vote? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* It won’t be easy, both because of the subject matter and because it’s an amateur production, but whatever else you do today you must force yourself to watch this video…
* As we’ve discussed before, the Illinois Department of Human Services has clamped down on overtime by personal caregivers to avoid paying time and a half per federal rule…
Terri Harkin, vice president in charge of home health care for SEIU, said Rauner is using the policy as leverage to extract concessions in negotiations to replace the union’s contract with the state, which expired June 30. Human Services spokeswoman Marianne Manko chastised SEIU for trying to salvage a system that endorses what she said was “slave labor.”
A Jan. 1 federal rule decreed that home-care workers on the clock more than 40 hours a week be paid time-and-a-half for overtime. Rauner, managing a state with a multibillion-dollar deficit and no approved budget plan, ordered a limit to overtime. Human Services said additional workers would have to be brought into homes where the caretaker worked more than 40 hours.
“In unilaterally implementing the new cap and throwing the system of care in disarray, the Rauner administration has violated the law,” Harkin said in a statement. “But this is not just illegal policy — it hurts people with disabilities.”
Manko said the policy doesn’t ban or cap overtime, but rather it requires workers to justify the hours they report on the job. She said other state agencies and private-sector employers follow such policies.
* OK, back to the video. I’m told that Jordon’s mom Theresa has been his sole personal assistant up until recently and provided about 75 hours a week of service.
Jordon apparently has multiple disabilities, including an inability to absorb vitamin D, osteoporosis, an inability to swallow and a severe seizure disorder. He needs to be watched 24/7 and seizes multiple times a day. The complexity of his disabilities has made it extremely difficult to secure additional attendants, and his mom can’t leave him with his father because he has a history of heart attacks, so it wouldn’t be safe.
Theresa, I’m told, applied for an overtime exception for her son, but was denied and she had to cut back to 40 hours per week. But she also had to find a part-time job to make up for the lost income.
She managed to find someone to work with Jordon while she is at her new job, but that will end in 3 months and she is said to be very concerned that she won’t find another caregiver.
* A close family member of mine is going through a similar situation with her grandma, who just had a serious stroke. They had such a difficult experience finding a qualified, caring personal attendant for her now late grandpa that her mom will be quitting her job to provide the care this time around.
We need to help these people. And the state needs to realize that they may be causing more harm by trying to save a few bucks on overtime.
…Adding… From a friend of Theresa’s…
Before April 2008, Theresa worked at North American Lighting for nearly fifteen years. Jordon was able to walk and was a different person. Before December 2007 Jordon rarely had a seizure. In December of 2007, he was nearly dead on the table at Salem Township hospital post a non stopping grand mal seizure. He was sent to ICU at Barnes. He was put into a coma to stop the seizing. They lost half of Jordon’s abilities that day. After Jordon’s hospitalization in December 2007 Theresa found it too difficult to continue working, plus handle his medical appointments, plus be up at night. Jordon’s service plan has him at 300 hours of service per 31 day month, or about 67 hrs of Home Services Program support per week. He has another personal attendant who only works two to three days per week at 5-6 hours on those days. This person works approximately 15 hours a week, with Theresa handling the other 52. Even with the other personal attendant, Theresa is still leery of leaving but must at times. Theresa’s husband also has a history of multiple heart attacks. With the DHS overtime policy as it is, if Theresa’s husband were to pass (or leave for that matter) Theresa would only have the 40 hours a week of work, which is unsustainable financially for her to keep Jordon at home.
Also, Theresa says the 3 month job did not pan out and the attendant she found to cover those hours quit before starting.
Confronted with the bloodiest weekend in Chicago since being named police superintendent six weeks ago, Eddie Johnson on Monday called the gun violence “completely unacceptable” and said the dozens of shootings highlight “the uphill battle” confronting police.
More than 50 people were shot, eight fatally, between Friday afternoon and early Monday, the city’s most violent weekend since the end of September, according to a Tribune analysis. […]
He focused his remarks on how much of the bloodshed is being driven by about 1,300 individuals on the Police Department’s “strategic subject list” — those believed to be most prone to violence as a victim or offender.
About 78 percent of the homicide victims and about 84 percent of the nonfatal shooting victims this weekend were on the list, he said.
“That means essentially we know who they are,” he told reporters at 50th Street and South Karlov Avenue, where a Chicago police officer fatally shot a bank robbery suspect on Monday. “Oftentimes, they have gang affiliations, and many have had previous arrests and convictions.”
Not sure what they can do about those 1,300 people except try to keep some tabs on them, but it’s not like you can assign a cop to every person on the list. Perhaps the feds can help since they have experience with their terror watch lists.
Veterinarians in central Illinois say canine influenza has sickened dozens of dogs in the Bloomington and Normal area over the past few days.
The (Bloomington) Pantagraph reports that veterinarians are urging dog owners to keep their animals away from other dogs and take their dogs to the veterinarian if they show symptoms.
Dr. Kirsten Pieper of the Animal Emergency Clinic of McLean County says the most important thing pet owners can do is keep their dogs at home until the outbreak is under control.
The newspaper reports that the first case in the area was confirmed two weeks ago and since then the number of cases has risen.
* Gov. Rauner was asked yesterday about his demand for term limits as part of his Turnaround Agenda. He noted that it was too late at the moment to get the issue on the ballot for this fall, but he had another suggestion…
“But you know what? We could vote now in the General Assembly or next week or next month and get it on the ballot in 2018. Let’s do that. How about we vote as part of our grand compromise and grand reforms and get term limits on the ballot in 2018?”
Look, the governor has been pretty good about watching his mouth lately, but it’s kinda dangerous to set expectations this high. I mean, what did the Tribune say about Trump when they bashed him the other day? Oh, yeah, he “promises big changes, most of which appear either implausible or too vague to take seriously.”
“Governor Rauner, who I think has sterling fiscal conservative credentials, has now in two sessions as governor not laid out a balanced budget that doesn’t rely on additional revenue,” [Democratic state Sen. Daniel Biss] said.
“And the reason for that is even someone who is deeply interested, as he is, in decreasing expenditures and finding low-tax ways of balancing budgets has looked very closely at this and simply not found a mechanism to balance the state’s books that doesn’t have some additional revenue coming in.”
Exactly right.
And, by the way, it’s something the members of the Tribune editorial board have yet to comprehend. Their great fiscal hawk hero has been blatantly telegraphing the need for more state revenues since Day One.
To: House Democratic Caucus Members
From: Michael J. Madigan
Date: May 9, 2016
Re: Governor Rauner’s Actions: Fiscal Year 2016 Budget
The state is beginning its 11th month without a complete budget for the 2016 Fiscal Year. Following the May 2015 spending proposals passed by legislative Democrats, House Democrats have debated numerous measures to provide needed funding for critical state services, including breast cancer screenings, in-home medical care for the elderly, meals for homebound seniors, and higher education, as well as funding for victims of child abuse and sexual assault – only to see our efforts blocked by legislative Republicans and Governor Rauner.
While House Democrats’ priority has been to pass a comprehensive, full-fiscal year budget using a balanced approach that includes spending cuts but does not decimate needed services, Governor Rauner’s priority has been his personal agenda that attacks the wages and standard of living of the middle class. His insistence on passing his personal agenda has been the single roadblock to finding a true bipartisan solution to the budget deficit and implementing a Fiscal Year 2016 budget.
However, since March 26, 2015, Governor Rauner has approved six budget proposals that did not include any part of his personal agenda. This reaffirms my previous statements that when the governor sets aside his personal agenda that hurts middle-class families, we can make progress on the state’s most important issue. Like you, I am committed to passing comprehensive budgets for Fiscal Years 2016 and 2017. I also hope the governor will look at his recent budgetary actions and see that we can come together to find reasonable solutions when he sets aside his personal agenda that has nothing to do with the state budget.
Governor Rauner has signed 6 appropriations bills passed by the General Assembly:
*** UPDATE *** From a a senior administration official…
We’ve seen recent success when rank and file legislators stand up to the speaker and demand compromise. We saw it recently on the higher education bridge funding bill, which passed over the speaker’s objections. By now, rank and file legislators have seen the governor’s willingness to compromise and do a budget — the only thing they’re waiting to see is whether the speaker will support meaningful reforms that create jobs and lower property taxes.
Anyone worried that Ken Griffin might run out of cash for the November election can rest assured.
The CEO of Chicago-based investment firm Citadel took home an estimated $1.7 billion last year, making him tied for the highest-paid hedge fund manager in 2015, the New York Times notes, reporting on the annual ranking by Alpha magazine.
Coincidentally, demonstrators shut down Citadel’s Loop headquarters yesterday, demanding higher taxes on the rich, Fox Business News reports. The ranking saves them from finding another billionaire to protest for another year, which can be so inconvenient.
Illinois’ top Democrat said Monday that the party can’t rest on its laurels if Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination for president. […]
“Now that the Republicans have nominated Trump, or appear ready to, don’t rest on your laurels,” Madigan told the group in downtown Springfield. “This will be a very contested election, from president on down, and particularly the Illinois election.” […]
“At the end of the day, Democrats will be together,” Madigan said. “This is about the future of the country, and Democrats understand it’s about the future of the country; that’s what will bring them together.” […]
“It’s no surprise that Speaker Madigan is urging party unity,” Illinois Republican Party spokesman Aaron DeGroot said. “Madigan wants the conversation to be about anything other than his disastrous 30-year record of tax hikes, cronyism, and corruption.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has become so concerned that he won’t even talk about the presidential race any more — or so much as utter Trump’s name.
Rauner waved off a question about Trump at a Tuesday news conference at Lyons Township High School, declining to expand on comments last week when he confirmed he won’t be going to Cleveland. […]
“I’ve said everything I’m going to say about the presidential race,” Rauner repeated over and over last week in response to questions about Trump. […]
Even some of those who plan to attend the conventions, such as House Speaker Paul Ryan and Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, say they aren’t ready to endorse Trump.
House Republican House Leader Jim Durkin says his focus is on trying to get lawmakers out of Springfield by the end of the month with a budget. But he admits he is thinking about how presidential politics might play into the legislative contests.
“The air is different,” he said. “There is a lot of volatility out there and I’m not going to predict how things are going to end up in November and how they are going to work in the suburbs or in the north part of the state or the southern part of the state but this is going to be a more unique election than the one that I was involved with Senator McCain and then-Senator Obama so I was very involved in that.”
In fact Durkin led John McCain’s campaign in Illinois in 2008. Barack Obama won big here.
* Related…
* Illinois GOP platform committee opens door for suggestions: Sources familiar with this year’s platform committee discussions suggest that while the pro-life plank is always touchy, the biggest controversy appears to be more on the IL GOP’s family plank. Whether the 2012 definition of marriage remains the same could be the most divisive issue with which the committee deals in 2016.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Over 50 million Americans participate in fantasy sports contests, including more than two million men and women from Illinois, which makes our state the third largest player in the nation. In addition, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association is headquartered in Chicago, along with local and regional fantasy sports entities based here in Illinois.
Fantasy sports are contests of skill in which participants select a team of real world athletes and accumulate points based on how their players perform in an actual game. Participants study athletes’ statistics and other information to assemble a team that will score the most possible points.
Whether it’s a football league with their friends and family or a daily/weekly contest against players across the nation, Illinoisans do so because it is a form of entertainment that gives them a deeper appreciation for the sports that they love.
Vote YES on House Bill 4323 (Zalewski/Raoul) to ensure that these two million (and growing) Illinois residents can continue to play the games they love in a safe and fair environment.
The governor and House GOP Leader Jim Durkin said rank-and-file legislators, meeting behind closed doors, are finding common ground on how to make Illinois’ workers’ compensation insurance program less expensive for businesses — a key Republican priority.
They said there’s also been movement on property tax relief and changing the way state and local governments buy items, which Rauner has said could save millions annually. Durkin, of Western Springs, said there could be a report “very soon” on possible workers’ compensation legislation.
At a west suburban event to highlight the need for school funding reform, Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin on Monday also cited progress in the working groups when it comes to workers compensation reform, and he said the group would issue a report “very soon.” He also said there was progress with procurement reform and property tax relief.
Rauner also walked back his position on a CPS bankruptcy, saying, “I certainly don’t advocate bankruptcy.
“That’s a hard process and it’s a dangerous process,” Rauner said. “That said, I believe bankruptcy should be an option if it’s absolutely necessary.”
That’s a change in tone from earlier this year, when Rauner was aggressively pushing the bankruptcy option.
“When I look at the numbers, I don’t see an option. I either see bankruptcy or massive, massive property tax hikes on the people of Chicago,” Rauner said in late February.
State Sen. Andy Manar, a Democrat from Bunker Hill who is part of another group looking at issues such as school funding and workers’ compensation, acknowledged “general progress” and positive discussions in recent weeks, but said there’s been a lack of clarity about what Rauner wants.
“If we had a better idea of what his position was, we could attempt to try and find a compromise,” he said Monday after the City Club event. “The test of progress is going to be this: Is the governor going to drop his ‘turnaround agenda’ in order to allow the legislature to have an honest debate about a budget?”
As anybody knows who has ever tried to deal with Speaker Madigan, getting the guy to show his cards is the most difficult part. Rauner is taking basically the same route.
Despite the Illinois State Board of Education last week revealing CPS isn’t in bad enough shape for a state takeover, Rauner said on Monday that bankruptcy should still be an option.
“Chicago should have that option for itself in the school system, and I believe all school districts across the state should have that as an option,” Rauner said.
A bipartisan group of state legislators tasked with sorting out the state’s stalled budget could have some answers by the end of the week, a Republican legislator said Monday.
State Rep. Patti Bellock, R-Hinsdale, the deputy minority leader of the House and actively involved in budget talks, said the working group formed by the governor, with legislators from both parties, including those in charge of appropriations committees, are now meeting daily for several hours at a time. […]
At a west suburban event to highlight the need for school funding reform, Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin on Monday also cited progress in the working groups when it comes to workers compensation reform, and he said the group would issue a report “very soon.” He also said there was progress with procurement reform and property tax relief.
Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, whose school funding bill still awaits a vote, offered his own “bold prediction” to the City Club crowd.
“The question was what does an eventual budget look like? I think it’s going to look substantially similar to the budget that was passed last year that the governor vetoed,” he said.
So what’s the most likely legislative budget scenario? Similar to last year: Lawmakers are required to put forward a budget and it’s likely be a Democratic plan (surprise!). Rauner will have the option to veto it in its entirety as he did in 2015 (with the exception of K-12) or use reduction veto power to fund certain services that suffered over the last year like higher ed, social services, rape crisis centers, senior services, etc. It’s unclear how Chicago schools would fare in such a scenario, however. That’s something Senate Pres. John Cullerton sought to address in his formula change push. […]
THE QUOTE: A veteran Democratic operative talking about the Rauner era in Springfield: “In the Civil War we had a budget. In the first War World we had a budget. In the Great Depression we had a budget. In the second World War we had a budget. 18 months ago we had a budget. We don’t have a budget now. What’s the only difference?”
The difference, Rauner would probably say, is that state budgets have been unbalanced for decades and he wants his reforms before he’ll do another one.
A bipartisan forum of state lawmakers at the City Club of Chicago on Monday produced a fair amount of optimism, though tempered by the panel’s two Democratic members.
State Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, referred to himself as “Little Dark Raincloud” in pointing out the “very dramatic clash” of philosophical differences between Republican Gov. Rauner and Democrats who hold legislative supermajorities.
Biss also warned that if and when a budget agreement is ever reached after the state’s lengthy impasse, lawmakers shouldn’t “act as if it never happened” and that the “depth of the long-term damage” to social service providers should “guide our behavior.”
Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (IDJJ) Director Candice Jones today issued the following statement:
“On February 12, the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (IDJJ) announced the closure of the Illinois Youth Center at Kewanee as part of the State’s strategy to further shift towards a model of rehabilitating youth that aligns with national best practices, strengthens youth outcomes and improves community safety.
“Since that time, the Department has followed the process outlined in State law to move forward with the closure of IYC-Kewanee. We have met with employees, legislators, community leaders and youth advocates to provide context, answer questions and plan for the future.
“Last week’s advisory vote by the Members of the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability is disheartening. It is hard to justify keeping a facility open when the Department has excess capacity, outcomes for youth are poor, and the State’s resources are sparse.
“We must focus on a meaningful dialogue about how to change Illinois’ juvenile justice system to improve public safety through better youth outcomes.
“While we are disappointed in the advisory recommendation from the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, we recognized the potential for a vote against closure and the need to outline next steps if the Commission made such a vote. The Department will move forward with closure of IYC-Kewanee in recognition of national best practices based around high-intensity individualized services for high-risk youth in its facilities. We will continue to work with IYC-Kewanee employees to secure placement in IDJJ or other State agencies’ vacant positions.
“By closing this large, maximum-security facility, IDJJ will be able to transition to developing smaller, regional treatment-focused facilities that are proven to be more effective in rehabilitating youth. That’s good for taxpayers, youth, families, and our communities.”
Those cable TV ads that VoteVets Action Fund is running in two contested Downstate legislative districts are part of a larger multistate push to protect local prevailing wage laws, the group said.
Cable TV records showed the group buying $185,000 in ads, part of pushing a study showing veterans who return home to construction-related work benefit “substantially” from prevailing wage policies.
Prevailing wage laws require governments to pay prevailing union wages on public works construction projects. Republican Gov. Rauner wants to give local governments the option to forgo prevailing wage requirements as part of his pro-business, union-weakening agenda.
The study, whose authors include Frank Manzo, policy director of the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, and Robert Bruno of the University of Illinois, concludes that there are “significant costs to repealing state prevailing wage laws for veterans.”
VoteVets is running $127,470 in ads in the central Illinois House district where Republican state [Sen.] Sue Rezin of Morris is being challenged by Ottawa Democrat Christine Benson. It also has bought $57,660 in ads in the Kankakee state Senate district where Democratic [Rep.] Kate Cloonen is being challenged by Republican Lindsay Parkhurst.
* Press release…
A first-of-its-kind, peer reviewed study released today finds that prevailing wage greatly improves economic outcomes for veterans and that growing attacks on prevailing wage at the state level will disproportionally hurt the hundreds of thousands post-9/11 veterans who are returning to the workforce.
Exploring of the economic impact of state prevailing wage laws on veterans in the construction industry, the study was commissioned by VoteVets, the largest progressive group of veterans in America, and conducted by Frank Manzo IV of the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, University of Illinois-Urbana Professor Robert Bruno, and Colorado State University-Pueblo Economist, Dr. Kevin Duncan.
“The data clearly shows that veterans work in the skilled construction trades at significantly higher rates than non-veterans,” said Manzo. “The difference is even more pronounced in states with average or strong prevailing wage policies–so any changes in these laws will have an outsized impact on those who have served in the military.”
In the state budget impasse, Gov. Bruce Rauner was campaigning for reform Monday in the suburbs.
Still no deal and Rauner is now claiming the Democrats are holding the state school budget hostage.
“They’re screaming and saying it’s got to change this year and it can’t go further and they’ve threatened to hold up school funding and school opening in the fall for a new school funding formula,” Rauner said. “That’s wrong. Our schools should not be held hostage. We’ve got to put more money in the schools while we continue to work on a bi-partisan basis to come up with a school funding formula change.”
He’s not just claiming it now, he’s been saying it for months, ever since Senate President John Cullerton tipped his hand in January that two can play the hostage game.
“Since day one, I have been committed to building a world-class education system in Illinois that ensures every child goes to a high-quality school and can go on to a high-paying career. Fully funding our schools is a step closer to making that a reality.”
Apparently, they can finish high school and get a “high-paying career” without state funding for higher education, the House Democrats note…
Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, criticized Rauner for pushing for K-12 funding while the state still hasn’t fully funded colleges and universities for the current year.
“I don’t know when it became in vogue to separate,” Brown said. “It strikes me if you’re going to improve the prosperity of the state, I think the whole education network needs to be up, running, funded.”
* And the HDems continue to walk back Cullerton’s threat to hold the K-12 approp up until the funding process is reformed…
Not in Madigan’s playbook: But a high-level Democrat close to House Speaker Mike Madigan tells Illinois Playbook the speaker has no desire or intention of delaying school openings in the fall. The discussion over a funding formula overhaul timed for this session has largely played out in the Illinois Senate. The source says Madigan believes the strategy of attempting to leverage school openings in order to pass a full state budget is a losing gambit, saying it could be viewed as placing the interest of children on equal footing with even the most mundane of spending.
“We can’t let school funding be held hostage for the political games that are going on in our state legislature,” Rauner said. “We can’t allow Rockford schools, which are much better run, to be held hostage to the problems in Chicago.”
Steve Brown, a spokesman for Madigan, called Rauner’s claims “irrational” and that there is no basis for what the governor is saying. Brown attributed the hard stance to Cullerton, but said the Senate president made the statement in broad terms — that the entire state school funding system needs to be overhauled.
“We are concerned about how critical the Governor is of the Chicago Public Schools,” said Brown in a phone interview. “But we are going to work with him to help all students and better fund all schools.”
Traditional taxi cabs made 350,000 trips beginning or ending in Chicago’s underserved communities between October 2015 and March 2016.
Ride sharing companies, like Uber and Lyft, racked up a stunning 3.9 million trips to or from underserved communities in the same period, according to City Hall.
The city defines “underserved” as “areas with high levels of transit-dependent populations and areas that are not receiving high levels of taxi or ride-share service.” Mostly, the South and West sides of Chicago. […]
“If we don’t level the playing field, we are in jeopardy of losing the taxicab industry. The cab industry has been a vital part of our city. They’re ambassadors for the city,” the 9th Ward alderman told the Chicago Sun-Times last week. […]
Uber responds that 66 percent of Uber drivers are rolling less than 10 hours a week, to supplement their incomes or keep them going between jobs. The digital disrupter argues it makes no sense to saddle drivers with hundreds of dollars in licensing fees and a blind bureaucracy, and claims the ordinance would put them out of business.
I don’t buy that and, yes, some regulation is needed.
But let’s get real. While some taxi drivers are professional, many are hardly “ambassadors.” Those I encounter are rude, clueless and reckless.
Most infuriating, they won’t pick up and drop off in certain neighborhoods. I am so done with hailing while black.
* The Senate President has responded to Gov. Rauner’s press release from earlier today demanding a “clean” K-12 approp bill…
Statement from the Office of Illinois Senate President John J. Cullerton regarding the governor’s remarks on education funding:
“Governor Rauner said in his budget speech that no schools should lose funding, and yet more than one-third of the school districts in Illinois lose money under his plan.
He would force schools across Illinois to slash services and staff. Some might not be able to open or stay open next year.
Chicago schools alone lose $74 million. Governor Rauner’s plan cuts funding for schools in East St. Louis and Naperville as well.
That’s not acceptable. Our students deserve better.
I am encouraged that the governor and Republicans recognize the current system’s failings. They said they want a system that recognizes the needs of rural and low-income communities. Lucky for them, that plan is pending in the Illinois Senate and they will soon get the chance to vote for it.”
Governor Bruce Rauner toured Lyons Township High School today to advocate for fully funding education in Fiscal Year 2017. Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno and House Leader Jim Durkin introduced legislation (SB3234/HB6335) in February that would fully fund schools for the upcoming school year. By passing either of these bills, the General Assembly is ensuring schools will receive state funding and open in the fall.
“Our priority right now should be funding our schools for the upcoming school year,” Governor Rauner said. “Since day one, I have been committed to building a world-class education system in Illinois that ensures every child goes to a high-quality school and can go on to a high-paying career. Fully funding our schools is a step closer to making that a reality.”
School districts are already planning for the upcoming year and need direction from Springfield on how much funding they will receive from the state. SB3234/HB6335 ends proration - which benefits every district in the state - fully funds schools for the first time in seven years, and sends a record level of state aid to districts across the state.
“We need to give parents, teachers and school districts the confidence to plan for and to open in September,” Leader Durkin said. “By taking care of our schools, we can build on the bipartisan momentum in Springfield to pass a budget alongside reforms that fund social services, government services and public safety.”
Governor Rauner and the Republican Leaders reiterated they are committed to reforming the current school funding formula. They agree a new formula should send more money to low-income and rural schools without taking resources away from other districts and pitting communities against each other.
“By fully funding schools we are showing the students that they come first,” Leader Radogno said. “School funding is a complicated and emotional issue because of its implications for districts across the state. With funding for the upcoming school year secured, we can continue to work on finding a fair and bipartisan school funding formula.”
* But some folks are starting to catch on to this game. From a Pantagraph editorial…
While many Illinois school districts would welcome additional money from the state, there’s a question whether it’s wise to continue to throw more money into a system that is seriously flawed.
That appears to be what Gov. Bruce Rauner and Republicans in the General Assembly want to do.
The current system is grossly unfair, with rich districts spending up to $30,000 per student and poorer districts getting by on as little as $6,000 per student. The result is students from low-income areas, which several studies have shown need more help in order to succeed, receive the least amount of help. The current system undoubtedly places more value on some students than others.
Rauner threw cold water on the latest bill from Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, claiming it was a bailout for the Chicago public schools. Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, joined the well-orchestrated chorus.
The day before the scheduled vote, the Rauner administration exploited the politically-charged issue by releasing a report on which districts would gain money and which would lose. The administration has had the bill since February, so the release was obviously politically motivated. If this analysis truly took the Illinois State Board of Education two months to complete, then they need to hire better analysts.
* Check out the guy with the big white boutonnière…
Rep. John Anthony (R-Joliet) sent that pic to me over the weekend. He said a neighbor gave it to him and she estimates the photo of Rep. Michael J. Madigan and others was taken in 1974 or 1975.
Illinois, already 11 months behind in the race to come up with a budget for this year, has now been lapped by several U.S. states.
Eleven states have approved two state budgets in the time Illinois has failed to finish one, according to research from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
After Pennsylvania approved a stopgap plan in March that ended its monthslong stalemate, Illinois became the lone state without a budget for the fiscal year that began July 1.
Not all states adopt a yearly spending plan. Of those that do, 11, including Florida, Maryland, New York and Colorado, have a spending plan for the current fiscal year as well as the next.
* Related…
* Editorial: School funding system fundamentally unfair to many: Rauner has stated he’s in favor of education reform, although most of his actions thus far have been to maintain the status quo. In the best interests of the state’s students, Rauner and the Republicans should quit playing political games with Manar’s proposal and work to reform a system that is fundamentally unfair to many.
* Chicago State University graduation rate drops to 11 percent: Chicago State has long argued that it’s unfair to judge it on the graduation rate of first-time, full-time freshmen since that national standard fails to include the many students who transfer into the institution later in their studies — or leave and graduate from other institutions. The university’s six-year graduation rate for transfer students was 49 percent in 2015. “The uniqueness of Chicago State University is that it primarily serves transfer students,” Land said. [Emphasis added.]
A law firm headed by Ald. Edward M. Burke, one of Chicago’s most powerful Democrats, has helped Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and investors in his luxury downtown hotel cut their property taxes by 39 percent over seven years, saving them $11.7 million, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis has found.
Burke — one of 47 Chicago aldermen who voted to approve development of Trump International Hotel & Tower in 2002 — won reductions in six of the seven years for the hotel, retail and other commercial space in the skyscraper, records show. […]
In 2010, Burke saved Trump’s company almost $3.5 million by convincing Houlihan he’d overvalued the entire skyscraper. Houlihan lowered his $432 million estimation of the value to $122 million after Burke argued that most of the residential condos hadn’t been sold, the tower’s storefronts along the river were vacant, the hotel had largely been unoccupied and sales of hotel condos hadn’t worked out as planned. Burke’s law firm even called the concept of selling hotel rooms to investors a “failed business model.” […]
In 2011, Burke saved Trump and his growing group of hotel investors $1.7 million by convincing Houlihan’s successor, Joseph Berrios, another powerful Democratic Party leader, that Houlihan had been overvaluing the commercial space, which was now taxed separately from the residential property.
Since nobody was renting commercial space, Cook agreed to lower the tax burden. And Burke’s firm actually sued Chicago Public Schools, City Hall, Cook County and other governments for refunds. The case is still pending and Burke handed it off to another firm to avoid a direct conflict.
Of Illinois’ 10 casinos, none is as lucrative as Rivers Casino in Des Plaines. Since 2012, it’s reported revenues of more than $400 million a year after winnings — twice as much as any other casino in Illinois.
That success makes its property quite valuable, according to Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios.
But, year after year, Rivers’ owners have argued that profits shouldn’t matter when calculating how much the casino is worth. And each year they’ve gotten an appeals panel to override Berrios, giving them more than $4 million in property-tax cuts since the casino opened nearly five years ago.
Figuring the value of the casino property should be “based upon what this property would be worth if we weren’t operating a casino there,” says Neil Bluhm, the politically active billionaire real estate developer who chairs the casino’s owner, Midwest Gaming & Entertainment.
So, on the one hand, Cook takes into account money-losing units when estimating taxes. And on the other, it discounts the vast sums of money being made at a different property.
It’s a system ripe for manipulation.
*** UPDATE *** From the assessor’s office…
Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios was not the only assessor to lower the assessment on Trump Tower. In 2009, then-Assessor James Houlihan issued a Certificate of Error asking the Cook County Board of Review (BOR) to lower his own earlier assessment on the hotel portion of that building by 95%.
Upon taking office as Assessor (after serving on the BOR), Mr. Berrios identified other errors made by the previous administration. He thus lowered the assessment on Trump Tower’s retail space, much of which was never fully built. That area remains raw, undeveloped space. Other past errors were addressed over several years and, under Assessor Berrios, the Trump building is now properly classified and assessed.
The Cook County Assessor’s Office uses the standard procedure of income-approach-to-value when assessing industrial and commercial real estate. If, after verifiable good faith effort to rent space and otherwise generate revenue, some vacancy still exists, the resulting lower income and its effect on the property’s value is taken into consideration here. Simply put, when income is down, assessed value is likely down. When income is up, value is up.
This impartial system resulted in facts which did not appear in the Sun-Times story, including: the Assessor’s Office did not lower Trump Tower’s assessment for Tax Year 2013 and, as the market improved, we then raised the assessment on the retail space by 33% and the hotel by 32.5% for Tax Year 2015. In fact, Trump Tower’s hotel is now the third-highest assessed hotel in Chicago, ahead of the Peninsula, Waldorf and Park Hyatt. Further, CCAO’s assessed value of the condominium portion was raised by 17% for TY15.
Commercial real estate is assessed at 25% percent of its fair market value. Residential real estate is assessed at only 10% of fair market value.
Thank you.
Tom Shaer
Deputy Assessor for Communications
Cook County Assessor’s Office
* As we’ve discussed before, Rep. Jack Franks has kicked up a hornet’s nest in McHenry County by highlighting a state law which requires county board members to work 1,000 hours per year as part of their agreement to participate in their pension plan. It’s not just McHenry, though. Sangamon County has the same rule, and a Democratic House candidate made a very big oops…
[Tony DelGiorno], who also is a candidate for state representative against incumbent Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, R-Leland Grove, in the 99th House District, says that after being elected to the county board in 2012, he was filling out employment documents.
“The IMRF paperwork was included and I was told at the time that county board members are eligible and we can sign up if we want to,” he said.
But nobody ever told him, he said, about the 1,000-hour standard.
Does he meet that threshold?
“I highly doubt it,” DelGiorno said. His full-time job is as partner in a law firm. […]
DelGiorno contacted the IMRF, asking to withdraw from the pension system because he said he learned of the 1,000-hour requirement from The State Journal-Register. […]
But Beth Janicki Clark, associate general counsel to IMRF, wrote back, saying a choice to participate in the system by an elected official is irrevocable, under state law.
Yeah, that won’t make it into a campaign hit piece. Never. Not in a billion/trillion years.
A political candidate spending more than $200,000 in gas and auto repairs in less than 11 years — at the same gas station — is more than a little bit eyebrow-raising.
When the owner of the gas station turns out to be a city alderman, things get even more interesting.
And when the same candidate reports other campaign expenditures that seem overly large, including payments to a bank for items that don’t seem banking related, it seems time to ask some more questions.
But what makes the case of former state Rep. Frank Mautino stand out even more is this: He’s now the Illinois auditor general, meaning that his job is to examine state government spending and compliance with rules and regulations.
It means that Mautino, a former Democratic deputy majority leader in the House for 24 years, must stand up to an even higher level of scrutiny than most politicians. Anything less and he risks eroding any trust that citizens have in his ability to run the auditor general’s office in an upfront manner as their advocate and watchdog. Indeed, many might argue that Mautino’s spending as a legislator, combined with his lack of an explanation, has already damaged the office’s credibility, especially coming after the long tenure of the well-regarded William Holland.
Mautino isn’t talking, though. In February, a group of Republican lawmakers sent him a letter asking for an explanation. Mautino, who has hired lawyers and a PR firm, asked for time to respond. The lawmakers requested a response by Feb. 25; this week, they publicly asked again for answers, saying Mautino had never responded to them.
Here’s a stunning statistic that is the norm in Illinois politics.
Independent Maps reports that seven of 10 legislative elections on the fall ballot will have only one candidate.
* After giving it much thought, I think remap reform will probably have more of an impact on primary ballots than in the general.
I mean, think about it. Does it really matter if Republicans run against Democrats in Chicago or the south suburbs? How about if Democrats challenge Republicans in Iroquois County, or the counties around Effingham - where Obama lost to Alan Keyes? Western DuPage, anyone?
People in this state tend to live near others who share their views, or they adopt the views of those around them (not quite sure which is which). Either way, we have huge geographic blocs in Illinois which overwhelmingly favor one party over the other, so all the remap reform in the world probably won’t change that, except occasional one-off results that might happen anyway.
So the biggest impact could be on incumbents who can’t protect themselves from primary opponents by drawing them out or packing in all their friendly (to them) territory.
* But, yes, I can certainly see how some areas would be more in play with remap reform. Sen. Andy Manar’s Democratic-leaning district might not be possible under the Independent Maps proposal, particularly its “respect geographic boundaries” mandate. The Peoria area could get more interesting. The Democrats’ hold on a single, mostly DuPage County district might not be possible, either. And the GOPs might have a much better shot at picking up some suburban Cook seats and maybe some spots in southern Illinois.
On the other hand, recent off-year statewide elections (2010 and 2014) clearly showed that Republican candidates can win majorities in Democratic districts (Bill Brady and Bruce Rauner won the majority of House and Senate districts both times).
* I strongly favor remap reform. Politicians shouldn’t pick their voters.
But I don’t believe it’s a be-all, end-all solution. We ought to do it because it’s one of many things we can accomplish to make things more small “d” democratic here. If it were up to me, I’d take away the chamber leaders’ strangleholds on committee chairmanships and staff. Elect the chairs and minority spokespersons within their caucuses and make the staff answerable to them and not the leaders. Some would also give voters much more say in policymaking. I think I’d be open to some of that.
That being said, I think many of the critiques of the Independent Maps’ proposal are valid. This thing would likely reduce Chicago’s influence. You might think that’s a positive development. Heck, I might even agree on some levels. But it’s probably gonna happen if this passes.
Gov. Bruce Rauner said Friday he hasn’t had a chance to review legislation proposed to help financially struggling nuclear power plants in Clinton and the Quad-Cities, but he considers nuclear power important to the state’s “energy mix.”
Answering questions during a visit to Bloomington, Rauner said, “Nuclear plants have have a lot of good-paying jobs” that he doesn’t want to lose.
But he added, “I’m concerned when a big company says in order to stay in Illinois, they need a big taxpayer subsidy.”
Exelon Generation, owner of the two plants, said the Next Generation Energy Plan unveiled Thursday contains financial relief needed to keep the two nuclear plants open, along with other steps to promote low-carbon energy sources and energy efficiency. The company on Friday laid the groundwork for closing the plants if the proposal fails.
I was given a briefing on this bill last week, but was left with more questions than answers. It’s complicated, to say the least.
For instance, ComEd complains that “net metering” for solar isn’t fair to its other customers. In essence, they’re paying rooftop solar producers the full cost of not only the electricity, but also the cost of delivering that power through the grid. That drives up costs for everyone else (although, solar is such a tiny segment right now that it hardly matters). But instead of just making net metering truly “net,” they’ve come up with a murky rebate plan that the solar companies hate. Solar has not taken off here, partly because of ComEd’s policies. This plan of ComEd’s doesn’t look like it’ll change things much.
The company wants to offer similar rebates to business customers, claiming it’ll spur rooftop solar on big box stores, but they don’t have a single company they can point to that has expressed any interest.
The choice: Allow hard-to-come-by jobs to disappear, with the economic hit striking mainly downstate, or in an election year pass legislation that can be characterized by opponents as an electricity rate hike mainly benefiting profitable companies.
Of course, the other complicating factor is the budget impasse between Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic leaders that is resulting in layoffs at colleges and universities and social service providers dependent on state funding.
Rauner says he hopes the General Assembly will balance job losses in particular communities against hitting everyone in Illinois with higher rates. House Speaker Michael Madigan’s spokesman, Steve Brown, says he senses little alarm among lawmakers and notes “there’s a pretty crowded plate already” of demands on elected officials.
Robert Flexon, CEO of Houston-based Dynegy, is highly critical of the state government for “fighting with itself” while industries like his are in trouble. “It’s a disgrace to the people of Illinois and the hardworking men and women at our plants,” he says.
When times were good, they demanded deregulation. Now that wholesale prices are down, they demand re-regulation.
The new survey found a city that described race relations as generally bad, while majorities of all residents think there is some or a lot of discrimination against black and Hispanic residents. There is a sizable racial divide separating how people feel about certain issues like education, city services and the conditions of public facilities.
This gulf is particularly acute when it comes to how people perceive the police department. One in 3 residents said the city’s police officers are doing an excellent or good job. While nearly half of white residents (47 percent) and more than a third of Hispanic residents (37 percent) felt this way, just 12 percent of black residents echoed that opinion. When people from these three groups were asked whether police were doing an excellent, good, fair or poor job, the highest single response was from black residents, nearly half of whom answered “poor.” (Three out of 4 residents said they had not personally interacted with an officer within the past six months, and for most of those who had, they said their interactions were positive.)
What is the single biggest problem facing Chicago today? (INTERVIEWER: DO NOT PROBE IF GIVE A STRAIGHTFORWARD ANSWER, I.E. – “CRIME”) (DO NOT READ LIST. ENTER ONE ONLY) (IF RESPONDENT GIVES MORE THAN ONE RESPONSE, PROBE WITH: “I understand, which of those would you say is the biggest problem?)
“Crime/violence/gangs” vastly tops every other issue across every racial demographic. “Police/police shootings/community relations with police,” barely registers. They appear to be more upset at the cops for not protecting them from criminals than anything else.
And thinking about Eddie Johnson, Chicago’s new police superintendent, do you think it is more important for him to focus on (reducing crime) or (reforming the way the police department operates)? [INTERVIEWER NOTE: IF RESPONDENT SAYS “BOTH EQUALLY”, PROBE ONCE WITH “WE KNOW BOTH OF THESE THINGS ARE IMPORTANT, BUT IF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE ONE TO BE THE TOP PRIORITY…”] (rotate items in parentheses)
* Lots and lots of Polish-Americans live in Illinois. At one time, Chicago had more Poles than any city in the world other than Warsaw. So this makes plenty of homer politics sense…
If Gov. Bruce Rauner achieves the anti-union, pro-business reforms he has made the hallmark of his administration, he plans to travel the world to promote the state — and the first country he’ll visit will be Poland, he said Sunday.
Rauner made the pledge to the large Polish congregation of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 1118 N. Noble St., whose parishioners celebrated Polish Constitution Day over the weekend.
“On May 3, 1791, Poland became the first nation in the world to join the United States in democracy and freedom by constitutional right. The people of America have no greater friends in the world than the people of Poland,” Rauner said.
“We are working hard in Springfield on reforms so we can grow our economy and get more value for taxpayers and fund our schools properly,” he said. “I hope soon we’ll have those reforms accomplished, and then I’m going to travel the world to create stronger ties with the people of Illinois with nations across the globe.”
* But the country’s authoritarian government has pushed demonstrators into the streets. A quarter million folks protested the other day, the largest since the fall of Communism…
The protest comes amid a mounting political crisis in the central European heavyweight, triggered by changes the populist-oriented Law and Justice (PiS) government has made to the constitutional court.
In December it pushed through legislation to stack the court and modify its decision-making rules.
The court itself struck down the changes as unconstitutional in March, pitting it against the PiS majority government, which wasted no time to dismiss the ruling.
The resulting deadlock means the court is paralyzed, leaving Poland without a fundamental check on government powers.
The PiS moves have drawn sharp criticism from the EU and the European Parliament, which Warsaw has dismissed as unnecessary interference in its internal affairs.
Markets have also reacted strongly to the controversy, hitting Poland’s zloty currency and the Warsaw stock exchange.
Fundamentally, over a quarter of a century since the demise of the Communist regime, the differences are now over the direction and reach of the EU, particularly when it comes to values. For Law and Justice, the EU’s values—such as gender equality and a secularism that plays down Europe’s Christian traditions—are intrusive and damaging for Europe’s and particularly Poland’s identity.
The onslaught of globalization is another issue. It has left Law and Justice supporters, especially conservative, rural communities, without anchors—save for the Catholic Church. These parts of society were generally ignored by Civic Platform. Law and Justice now wants to rectify this.
But there is something else that perpetuates this kind of politics of revenge. It is the absence of an independent civil service culture. Professional and competent officials from the foreign and other ministries in Warsaw are being replaced or demoted. (The same thing happened in Hungary.) This robs ministries of continuity, of an institutional memory, and of loyalty. It robs them of ambition and independence.
Maybe it’s time for civil society—especially Modern, or Nowoczesna, a new and fast-growing political party led by Ryszard Petru—to begin campaigning for something that has eluded Polish politics since 1989: a well-paid, independent civil service free from the politics of revenge. This is something that civil society activists are in a position to do. They are the younger generation—free, hopefully, of Solidarity’s bitter, polarizing ideological disputes.
* One of the weirdest developments of the spring session…
Despite Chicago Public Schools’ financial straits, a state investigation concluded the district’s books don’t warrant an intervention from Springfield.
The Illinois State Board of Education’s finding that CPS is not in “financial difficulty” as defined by state law represents a blow to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s efforts to give the state greater control over district finances. […]
“It’s clear in our analysis CPS has financial challenges and a spending problem,” ISBE spokeswoman Laine Evans said in a statement. “However, at this time they do not meet the criteria for certification of financial difficulty, as defined per statute. ISBE will continue to monitor the situation and the district’s finances.”
CPS spokeswoman Emily Bittner said in a statement that ISBE’s “decision demonstrates that Gov. Rauner’s attempts to drive CPS into bankruptcy are misguided and wrong.”
“The district has not realized two consecutive years of negative operating fund balances, nor is it forecasted in this model,” ISBE wrote in the report.
CPS faces a $1.1 billion deficit in the new fiscal year starting July 1, and has been hoarding cash to make a massive pension payment on June 30. It passed last year’s budget with a $480 million gap and has been begging Springfield to help ever since, borrowing hundreds of millions at sky-high interest rates in the meantime. The district has also argued it is exempt from ISBE oversight and has been lobbying for a change to the state funding formula for schools. […]
In February, when the investigation was announced, Rauner said “The state’s going to be ready to come in and take action.”
Blaming CPS’ spending woes on its contracts with the Chicago Teachers Union, he continued, “I believe a state takeover is appropriate.”
He even began looking for a superintendent to replace CPS CEO Forrest Claypool.
The district must make a $675 million pension payment next month. Officials say they can only cover that bill with short-term borrowing and that the Legislature must rectify problems with the statewide school-funding formula.
“You don’t need an actuary or an accountant to know CPS has financial problems,” Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said in a statement. “Otherwise, the district wouldn’t be repeatedly asking the state for an additional half a billion dollars.”
The decision not to declare the district in financial difficulty could suggest recognition by the Rauner-appointed state school board that it lacked proper legal footing to take over CPS in the first place, a Democratic legislative source said.
In April, Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan issued an opinion that the state lacks the authority to take control of the school system’s finances, including its ability to borrow to help fund operational costs.
OK, so CPS got Rauner off its back, but isn’t it tougher to get money from Springfield if they’re not actually on the verge of chaos?
“Suburbanites don’t want to bail out Chicago, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to see Chicago succeed,” [Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine] said. “And if there’s a way to make our education funding system better, we’re open to that. But understand, part of the reason Chicago is getting less money than last year is that they have fewer students. You know, when we talk about closing schools, (Emanuel) did close 50 schools and I give him credit for standing up and fighting to do that. I think he did the right thing when he tried to do that last time. But they have 100 more that are really, you know, adult employment centers serving as schools. They need to do more in that regard.”
Murphy is resurrecting the kind of scorched-earth rhetoric from a quarter-century ago at the Capitol, when the city-versus-suburbs dynamic raged mightily. Then-Republican Senate Minority Leader James “Pate” Philip of Wood Dale famously likened the flow of state money to CPS to pouring “money down a rat hole.”
For Murphy, Emanuel’s argument doesn’t hold water in light of the Democrats’ long-held control of the legislature.
“Ask yourself, do you really think this system is set up to be to the detriment of Chicago, when Chicago Democrats have run Illinois for years? It just doesn’t pass the smell test,” Murphy told WLS-890 AM reporter Bill Cameron on the “Connected to Chicago” program that aired Sunday and can be listened to here.
A staff report for the ISBE says CPS may be in potential difficulty, but not so bad that it qualifies for the state takeover that Governor Rauner has been threatening. He is shaking his head.
“To say that I was a bit surprised by that decision would be an understatement,” he said. “On one hand, we’ve got Forrest Claypool and Mayor Rahm Emanuel screaming fire, disaster, mass layoffs, huge financial crisis and on another hand we’ve got a state agency, a state bureaucracy, saying things aren’t so bad.”
The governor says he wants to get to the bottom of that.
With Donald Trump emerging as the Republican party’s likely presidential nominee, how will his candidacy affect the campaigns of Illinois Republicans?
Republican Strategist Chris Robling told Ward Room that he believes Trump could help certain statewide candidates.
“Downstate and in the collar counties, and even somewhat in the city, for a statewide candidate like [Senator] Mark Kirk or [Illinois Comptroller] Leslie Munger, I think Trump is good news,” Robling said.
Greg Goldner, one of Illinois’ savviest political consultants, drafted a comprehensive budget plan months ago that included detailed spending cuts, revenue increases and pro-business reforms — the long-cited keys to a “grand bargain,” as some call a final agreement— but it’s been on a shelf gathering dust since then
* OK, let’s say you graduated from college with a monstrous mountain of student loan debt that you can’t default on. Your first job paid $30,000 a year. But after a while, it became apparent that you couldn’t pay rent, transportation and everything else it takes to live as well as your student loan payments. So, you run up the credit card debt just to survive. But eventually, that becomes untenable. You’ve maxed out all your cards and the student loan company is breathing down your neck.
So, you find a different, better-paying job, where you make $50,000 a year. Over time, you pay down your credit card debts and, with some frugality, manage to live within your means while making your student loan payments on time.
But then your boss tells you that he can no longer afford to pay your salary and he cuts you back to $37,500 a year. And now the Tribune editorial board can’t figure out what your problem is…
The temporary state income tax hike of 2011 took an extra $31 billion out of taxpayers’ pockets but — despite Democrats’ forceful promises — did little to change the debt-driven trajectory of state government. Taxpayers are still paying a rate of 3.75 percent, a rate one-quarter higher than before the hike. It has made no difference. Illinois’ unpaid bill pile grows every day.
With yet another poll showing plunging downstate support for Gov. Bruce Rauner in a Republican district and the intense Republican freakout over Donald Trump’s impending presidential nomination and its impact on independent suburban women, there appears to be a growing feeling among Democrats, particularly in the Illinois Senate, that they need to get out of the way to let the other party crash and burn.
The almost year-long state government impasse is most definitely having an impact on Gov. Rauner’s poll numbers. Bernie Schoenburg reported in the State Journal-Register last week that a Public Policy Polling poll of appointed Republican state Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez’s Springfield-area district had Rauner upside down, with 37 percent approving of the way the governor is doing his job, while a majority of 54 percent disapproved. Rauner won that district 58-37 in 2014, according to Illinois Election Data’s numbers. So, basically Gov. Rauner’s numbers have flipped almost entirely the other way.
Another PPP poll of GOP state Rep. Terri Bryant’s southern Illinois district near Carbondale was even worse for the governor. Rauner won Rep. Bryant’s district 60-33, but 57 percent of voters in that district disapprove of Rauner’s job performance, while only 33 percent approve. That’s just about a mirror opposite image of his 2014 result. Both polls were taken April 14-17 and had margins of error of a bit over 4 percent.
A PPP poll taken last August in Bryant’s district had the governor’s job approval rating at 40 percent and his disapproval rating was 51. So, that’s a net loss of 13 points in eight months. And, again, this is a Republican district, albeit one that has plenty of government workers.
Rep. Bryant is also experiencing a freefall if the pollster’s numbers are correct. Last August, PPP had her at a 50 percent job approval rating and a 27 percent disapproval rating. Now, she’s at 42 percent approval and 43 percent disapproval. That’s a huge 24-point swing.
Meanwhile, Gallup’s daily March tracking polls showed 70 percent of women nationally had an unfavorable view of the presumptive nominee Trump. That number is surely higher in the more Democratic-leaning Illinois, where independent suburban women have been the deciding factor in just about every major statewide race since 1990.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why Rauner recently let it be known that he won’t endorse Trump and won’t attend the Republican convention in Cleveland this summer, and why, as I write this, appointed Comptroller Leslie Munger is expected to make the same decisions because she’s up for special election this fall.
And you also don’t have to be Einstein to realize that the one-two combo of Rauner and Trump could spell big trouble for down-ballot Republicans.
On the other hand, Rauner’s team says it has polling which shows, by a 2-1 margin, that voters blame House Speaker Michael Madigan more than the governor for the ongoing impasse. To voters, Madigan is “the all-knowing puppet-master,” explained one Rauner official last week. Madigan’s been around so long and is believed to have so much control over Illinois politics and government that he’s seen by voters as “the key to getting something done.”
So, as long as this impasse is going on, Rauner’s legislative allies have a handy pivot they can use, paid for with oil tanker loads of the wealthy Rauner’s cash. Whenever Democratic legislators or candidates demand their Republican opponents answer for the latest Trump outrage or their support for and/or from the unpopular Rauner, the Republicans can turn it back on the Democrats by demanding they justify their support for and/or from the obstructive Speaker Madigan (or Democratic Party of Illinois Chairman Madigan, in the case of Senate candidates).
But even if yet another “Fire Madigan” effort by Republicans isn’t as effective as they believe it will be (the first two tries failed badly), many Democrats will freely admit right now that voters are overwhelmingly blaming incumbents rather than a single political party or person for the impasse—and there are a whole lot more Democratic incumbents than Republicans in the General Assembly.
In a campaign, once your opponent goes down you never take your boot off that person’s neck. So, with Rauner and Republican legislators going down and Trump about to make a big splash, there’s naturally plenty of temptation among a certain type of Democrat (***cough*** intheHouse! ***cough***) to keep this impasse going.
But all those legislative Democrats may wind up doing if the impasse lasts through November is unhelpfully distract Illinois voters from the weirdness at the national and statewide levels.
Exelon’s Quad-Cities nuclear power plant could close on June 1, 2018, the company said in a release Friday announcing its first-quarter earnings.
Exelon said the Illinois Legislature must pass legislation that it says would level the energy playing field in the state in order for the plant to remain open beyond that date. Exelon said the plant also must clear an upcoming PJM capacity auction in order to remain viable.
In addition to the Quad-Cities plant, Exelon said the Clinton, Ill., nuclear plant would shut down on June 1, 2017, if the Legislature doesn’t act and the energy auction isn’t favorable.
On Thursday, Exelon presented legislation it wants the Legislature to pass. In its release Friday, the company said it need the Legislature to act by May 31 in order to avoid a shutdown of the two plants. The capacity auction results should be available by May 24, the release stated.
* The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition has been talking with Exelon about its new bill. Its response…
The Coalition has engaged in productive discussions with ComEd and Exelon Generation about legislation that achieves these goals. At this time, those discussions have not concluded, and we have not yet reached an agreement. We look forward to reviewing the details of this new proposal, and continuing discussions toward comprehensive energy legislation that achieves the goals of the Illinois Clean Jobs bill.
AARP Illinois and other groups, however, blasted away. Click here.
Friday, May 6, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Profit. We generally think of profit as good. We all like to profit from our decisions.
However, when you become profit for someone else, it takes on a whole new meaning.
Credit unions are different. They are not-for-profit financial cooperatives that return earnings to their members. Services are based on member needs, not profit margins.
It’s time your money profited YOU. If you are a credit union member, you already know the credit union difference. If you are not a member, go to ASmarterChoice.org to discover of all the advantages that credit union membership holds.
Friday, May 6, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Exelon tells legislators: “In 2016, the revenues of all Illinois nuclear units will be insufficient to cover costs, with Quad Cities and Clinton suffering the greatest losses”
Exelon tells the opposite story to Wall Street: In its last earnings call on February 3, Exelon CFO Jack Thayer boasted of their success offsetting low power prices through Wall Street hedges, “As you know, we’re highly hedged in 2016, which . . . allowed us to offset the impacts of lower prices in 2016.”
Exelon only tells legislators about some of their revenues – it’s like McDonald’s disclosing sales from french fries and shakes but not hamburgers and McNuggets
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. JUST SAY NO TO THE EXELON BAILOUT
BEST Coalition is a 501C4 nonprofit group of dozens of business, consumer and government groups, as well as large and small businesses. Visit www.noexelonbailout.com.
State Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, has postponed a vote on his school funding reform plan to give lawmakers more time to digest how it would affect schools in their legislative districts.
John Patterson, spokesman for Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said lawmakers were given yet another set of numbers Thursday, the third in two days. […]
The State Board of Education released a set of numbers Wednesday morning, hours before Manar initially planned to call the bill for a vote in the Senate. Those numbers showed a big increase for the Chicago school system while cutting aid to a number of suburban and downstate school districts. Republicans immediately seized on the numbers as evidence the funding reform bill was intended as a bailout of the financially troubled Chicago school system.
Manar said the numbers were flawed because they didn’t take into account an amendment he’s filed to his bill to further tweak his formula. The board then issued revised numbers to reflect the amendment. But Manar and other Democrats complained the numbers compared Manar’s plan to the current K-12 budget, not to Rauner’s proposed increase. The latest numbers reportedly make that comparison.
So, apparently it only takes the ISBE a few hours to run numbers on an education funding reform bill because they produced three in less than 24 hours. Manar asked them to run his numbers months ago, but they didn’t do it.
That’s ridiculous. The Board needs to stop playing games. You may agree or disagree with Manar’s approach here, but it’s a legitimate approach and obviously he needs to keep playing around with it until he finds the right combination. He can’t do that if the ISBE shuts him out.
* Today is my mom’s birthday. Sunday is Mother’s Day. Like many people who were born in late December or early January, she too often only receives on present for both occasions. Sorry about that, Mom!
Instead of a question, how about you tell us a story about your own mom?
Fifty-nine percent of residents citywide support the decision [by the Chicago Teachers Union] to strike, and that soars to almost three-quarters among African-American parents living with children.
(O)nly one-third of residents say the police are doing a good job. Nearly six in 10 think officers are not punished harshly enough in cases of excessive force. And a majority of residents believe the police are more likely to use deadly force against black people and that African-Americans and Latinos are usually treated unfairly by the city’s criminal justice system.
* Passage came after a very long, very difficult negotiating process. Kudos to the sponsor for working with the other side of the aisle. And kudos to prosecutors for working cooperatively with the sponsor to get something done…
A measure guaranteeing that juveniles under the age of 15 have a lawyer during interrogations in murder investigations is heading to the Illinois House.
The Illinois Senate overwhelmingly approved an amended version of a plan by Democratic Sen. Patricia Van Pelt on Thursday. Van Pelt initially proposed a measure guaranteeing legal representation to juveniles under 18 in murder investigations. Illinois law already requires legal aid to children under 13 during these interrogations.
Van Pelt says children often falsely confess to crimes because they don’t understand the process.
She said the proposal would also require videotaping such interrogations and simplifying language describing to juveniles their rights.
* Meanwhile, as I’ve said before the Department of Corrections too often looks at ideas in tiny silos instead of backing up and looking at the big picture. IDOC opposed this bill instead of working something out, probably over money…
A bill aimed at lowering the cost of phone calls for people incarcerated in Illinois and prohibiting the state from profiting on such calls cleared the Illinois House on Wednesday.
The measure, HB 6200, is sponsored by Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana. It passed the House, 69-44. […]
Under the legislation, prison phone calls could only cost a maximum of 5 cents per minute (and 23 cents per minute for international calls), a rate that is almost 80 percent less than is currently being paid for the same calls. Illinois receives about $12 million each year from prison phone revenues, the highest in the country, Ammons said.
“This bill will put children in connection with their families by lowering the cost of prison phone calls,” she said.
Maybe you don’t care that prisoners are getting ripped off by the state, but it’s not cool.
Kirk is trying to walk a narrow path. He is distancing himself himself from Trump’s policies and rhetoric, but also has said he will back Trump if he was the nominee and suggested Trump could even help the Republican Party.
Asked in an interview with CNN last week if he’d support Trump for president, Kirk said: “Certainly, if he’s the nominee.” Given the opportunity to revise his comments after Trump’s win in Indiana, Kirk’s campaign declined.
Kirk said in that interview that even as he runs against many of Trump’s positions, specifically citing an “isolationist” foreign policy debuted last week, he is comfortable sharing a ticket with the mogul. He even said Trump might help the GOP brand down the line.
“Donald Trump is kind of a riverboat gamble,” Kirk said. “He won the Illinois primary, in this case we have seen the Republican vote up and the Democratic vote down, so it looks like it’s a net benefit.”
* Duckworth campaign response…
“Republican stalwarts Bruce Rauner and Paul Ryan — not exactly a pair of liberals — are refusing to support Donald Trump, while Mark Kirk has happily fallen into line. Kirk even suggested there’s a ’net benefit’ to having Trump on the ticket. Trump has shown himself to be dangerously unserious and unprepared for the office of the Presidency, but apparently the ‘R’ after his name is all Kirk needs to see. Kirk has shown bad judgment before, but his reflexive support for Trump may top it all.” — Matt McGrath, campaign spokesman
I talked with Illinois State Rep. Ron Sandack (R-Downers Grove) Thursday, who supported Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Sandack said he’s not really sure he can come around to Trump.
He’s going to try, but it’s not a given. Trump is going to have to really change his tone - and some of his policies - to win Sandack over. When asked if the Illinois Republican Party could become more fractured this year, Sandack said that is a risk of Trump’s candidacy.
“I mean heck, to be completely blunt, the Republican Party in Illinois has barely been a blip on the radar,” he said. “We’ve had our own problems getting our message out, making ourselves far more attractive to taxpayers and constituents from a policy perspective.”
Sandack suggested the Illinois Republicans pick a small handful of core principles to unite the state party. And if Trump doesn’t come around to where he is and change his tone, then Sandack may end up focusing on his own re-election campaign this fall.
“I want to see some effective Republican policies displayed by our Republican candidate or I may just focus singularly on me and in my local race,” Sandack said.
Southern Illinois University officials are bracing for another enrollment drop in the fall — and they’re pointing fingers at Springfield.
“We’re not there yet to give you specific data,” said SIU Carbondale Chancellor Brad Colwell. “But we will be down if projections hold. It’s not because of a lack of anything the Carbondale campus has done.”
Instead, Colwell said students and parents are telling school administrators they are “worried about what’s happening in Illinois.”
“Our data is showing they’re not going to another Illinois institution. They’re leaving the state,” Colwell said, speaking to reporters after SIU’s Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday morning. […]
[Carbondale Mayor Mike Henry] and others also noted that nearby schools located in other states are taking advantage of Illinois’ soured political climate, and places such as Southeast Missouri State University and Murray State University in Kentucky have stepped up their recruitment efforts of Southern Illinois’s graduating high school seniors.
People are voting with their feet. But come November, they’ll vote the traditional way. And it ain’t gonna be pretty for incumbents if they don’t get this thing solved.
Gov. Bruce Rauner addressed the Illinois General Assembly on Wednesday, outlining his plans for next year’s state budget. The poindexters whipped out their calculators.
But the crucial takeaway was broader than an exercise in number-crunching: We’re at the end of the road in Springfield. No more pavement, nothing but dirty orange barricades and languid yellow warning lights.
They said the same thing a year earlier. We were supposed to ignore Gov. Rauner’s actual budget proposal and instead focus on the big picture of our dear leader’s glorious agenda.
What [Rauner] should have done this year was introduce a budget that reflects actual state revenues. Show the austere budget. Lay out the cuts. The Democrats are going to make Rauner the bad guy no matter what, so he might as well just do his job.
On that, we’re in total agreement, at least on the policy of presenting a real budget.
* Unfortunately, she is also way behind the times with much of the rest of her column, which dredges up stuff from months ago that we’ve endlessly discussed here, including Rauner’s stupid attacks on Senate President John Cullerton and the snarky frat boy attitude of some of his top staff. Better late than never, I suppose, but I believe things have changed.
The current reality is that Rauner and his staff have been working overtime to stay calm and be reasonable behind the scenes. Some Democratic legislators are actually praising Rich “Prince of Snarkness” Goldberg. And as I mentioned earlier today, Senate President Cullerton is working cooperatively with the governor, despite their history. Also, while we don’t yet know where Speaker Madigan’s heart is, he has sent his staff to budgeteer meetings, which is at least a sign of good faith.
* I’ve actually seen some real “growth” and discipline by the governor and his people lately. Maybe I’m wrong. I could be. Maybe he’ll blow everything up again with a ridiculous press conference today or tomorrow or sometime before the end of the month. It ain’t gonna be easy for him to keep a sock in that yappy “I’m the real victim here” motormouth of his.
But, to my eyes (and unlike some Chicago pundits, I regularly go to the Statehouse and talk to people on every possible side during and after session days and even on some weekends - hey, it’s not just my job, it’s my life) things are improving. A lot.
Some of the Madigan folks think I’m a bit tetched these days. But if the governor and his people can maintain this level of reasonableness and professionalism, then the Statehouse could very well tilt against Madigan by the end of this month. That already clearly happened with the stopgap funding bill for higher education, whether another Tribune columnist wants to believe it or not. Madigan needs to meet Rauner’s olive branch with his own and try to end this nightmare, not prolong it.
Child protection investigators in Illinois can now get hands-on training in the state’s capitol.
George Sheldon, director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, helped dedicate the training center Monday at the University of Illinois Springfield.
The small blue house on the University of Illinois Springfield campus is no ordinary home. It’s a training center for state child protection investigators. The training center also has a mock courtroom where case workers experience the legal process. […]
“Training needs to be more than just a textbook,” [Sheldon] said.”That’s what this house does and that’s what the simulation in the courtroom does.”
The courtroom utilizes a judge — usually retired Sangamon County judge John Mehlick — real prosecutors and defense attorneys and witnesses (a volunteer actor and actress from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine) to train investigator-witnesses.
Retired Sangamon County assistant state’s attorney Sheryl Essenburg, who specialized in crimes against children when she was a prosecutor, designed the courtroom experience and works with the program.
“Those who have gone through it say it’s the most real experience they’ve had,” Sheldon said.
Mehlick said he likes being able to tell the trainees what they could do to improve their testimony — something he couldn’t do when he was presiding over a real case.
The state is unveiling new opportunities for kids coming out of foster care. DCFS is starting a career readiness program.
Illinois Building Futures is expanding work and career training opportunities. The expansion is evident in places like Champaign, Peoria, Rockford and others.
Young adults in the program will have access to training and employment services through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
Gov. Rauner unveiled a test program Wednesday designed to provide mentoring, training and jobs for young adults aging out of the state’s foster care system.
The Illinois Department of Commerce will identify businesses willing to hire and help former wards of the state. Rauner said the idea is to ensure children who didn’t grow up with encouraging parents or educational opportunities still have the chance to enter the workforce and support themselves.
“We can’t let these young people fall through the cracks,” Rauner said during a news conference at his Capitol office. “Too often (these children) end up being homeless, they have to resort to crime to feed themselves, and it’s a tragedy of terrible proportion.
“You got to have the experience, you got to have the opportunity to go work, and know what that really means, and what’s involved and the discipline that requires,” Rauner added. “You can’t be thrown out at 21. I don’t think you’ll be able to take care of yourself.”
* And make sure to watch Part 1 and Part 2 of WGN TV’s “New hope for fixing Illinois’ broken child welfare system.”
* They are indeed getting along much better in the Senate, and this is indeed a big reason…
Democrats and Republicans in the Illinois Senate believe they’ve found a successful formula for ending nearly yearlong partisan standoffs over state spending.
For the second time in as many weeks, senators from both sides of the aisle came together Thursday to approve funding for public universities, community colleges and grants to low-income students, all of which had been deprived of state money since the fiscal year began July 1 without a budget in place.
The winning formula: spending bills that aren’t tied to items on Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s pro-business, union-weakening “turnaround agenda” but are tied to specific revenue sources. […]
The measure approved Thursday would spend $454 million to bring eight state university systems up to 60 percent funding, the same level that Chicago State University received in a measure Rauner signed into law last week. That part of the plan was approved on a 55-2 vote.
The spending would be covered by letting the state off the hook for repaying money borrowed from special funds to plug holes in last year’s budget. That portion passed on a 54-3 vote.
But here’s the problem: There aren’t enough fiscal gimmicks and special fund sweeps in the world that can patch this gaping budget hole. Eventually, they’re gonna have to come to an agreement on aspects of the Turnaround Agenda.
Having said that, I think the Senate Dems are working intently to find a path to end this madness. The question, as always, is what the House Dems will do.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel took a dim view Thursday of a package of tax increases the Chicago Teachers Union proposed to help cover a massive funding shortfall at the school district, instead calling on union leaders to join him in pressuring state lawmakers to change the way school districts are funded to bring more money to the city.
The mayor was responding to a revenue package union officials released Wednesday they said could shore up the district’s finances as a $675 million pension payment is due next month. Rather than raising taxes here, however, Emanuel said the onus should be on Springfield to change how school district pension costs are covered.
“Chicago taxpayers already pay twice for pensions,” Emanuel said when asked whether he backs any of the CTU ideas. “They pay for their own teachers’ pensions in Chicago when they pay property taxes. They also pay income taxes that supports every other teacher’s pension. The idea is not to ask people to pay taxes more, which would give our state, get them off the hook for actually fully funding education fairly so poor kids are not adversely affected by the state of Illinois that underfunds education as a total set of dollars.”
Emanuel has not been shy about raising taxes big and small during his five years in office, championing increases to parking and hotel taxes, 911 fees and water and sewer rates, in addition to the huge property tax hike and trash collection fee he pushed through as part of his 2016 budget.
CPS has a billion-dollar structural deficit. The state won’t ever cover that.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner won’t attend the Republican National Convention in July and won’t be endorsing Donald Trump, Rauner aides confirmed on Thursday, while not entirely disavowing the presumptive GOP nominee.
And it’s not yet clear whether Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger will make the trip to Cleveland, as she faces a challenge from Democrat Susana Mendoza this fall.
If she goes after Rauner ditched, she’s nuts. I highly doubt she’ll attend.
While Rauner has dubbed the presidential campaign’s rhetoric “appalling,” he has publicly stated — as the head of the state’s Republican Party — that he will support the nominee.
“I’ll do everything I can to work with that nominee,” Rauner said in March.
Rauner repeatedly had sought to stay out of the presidential race, though he did say that as leader of the GOP in Illinois, he would back the eventual nominee. But Rauner aides stressed there are various levels of “support,” and that the governor would not be giving Trump a formal endorsement.
Underscoring the politics behind Rauner’s move, the governor’s decision means he also will not accept the traditional role of heading up Illinois’ 69-member convention delegation and the high-profile media appearances that come with it. At the same time, Rauner avoids any potential appearance with Trump, which some advisers said privately would not be helpful to the governor back home.
“My feeling is we overestimate the impact of tactics and underestimate broad trends and demographics,” he said. “What Trump does or doesn’t do may have less impact than what Munger or Kirk does. Then there’s the broader context of the election and who votes and who doesn’t vote and what gets people to come out to vote.”
People pay infinitely more attention to presidential races than comptroller races, but that last sentence is most certainly valid. The headwinds ain’t gonna be kind.
His appeal among disaffected Republican primary voters is intensely visceral: He’d arrive in Washington a billionaire businessman in a hurry and get things done. After years of gridlock in Washington, who doesn’t find the idea of an outsider appealing? […]
Trump is an undisciplined political neophyte who loves the limelight and promises big changes, most of which appear either implausible or too vague to take seriously.
