U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., today announced that he just won’t be able to make the GOP National Convention in Cleveland this summer.
“Senator Kirk has his own re-election to win,” Campaign Manager Kevin Artl said in a candid statement. “So he will be working hard toward that goal, not going to the Republican convention in Ohio.”
Kirk is campaigning as a moderate. Hanging out with the likes of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz could only cause him problems back home, even if the GOP somehow is able to come up with another nominee.
Earlier, U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Wheaton, announced he’s taking a pass on the convention, and aides to U.S. Rep. Bob Dold, R-Kenilworth, indicated he almost certainly would make the same decision.
Thursday, Apr 14, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Nearly 1,900 people responded to the recent Citizen’s Utility Board survey about Exelon’s push to bailout its nuclear plants. Here is how CUB put it:
“Exelon says keeping its nuclear plants open will fight climate change—and they need economic help. Opponents say Exelon just wants bigger profits.
Should Illinois give unprofitable nuclear plants more money if it helps fight climate change?
No:1,583 (about 84 percent)
Yes:298 (about 16 percent)”
—————————————————
Illinois still has no budget, the state’s finances and services are in shambles, the social safety net is being decimated but Exelon STILL wants the Legislature to pass a huge BAILOUT.
BEST Coalition is a 501C4 nonprofit group of dozens of business, consumer and government groups, as well as large and small businesses. Visitwww.noexelonbailout.com.
Thursday, Apr 14, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Last week, a group of leading climate scientists and conservationists from Illinois and around the world, including Dr. James Hansen, Rachel Pritzker, and Michael Shellenberger, urged Illinois’ leaders in an open letter to save Illinois’ nuclear plants so they can provide clean energy for decades to come. They wrote:
Illinois generates more zero-emissions electricity than any other state. Most of it comes from the state’s six nuclear power plants, which produce about half of Illinois’ total generation and 90 percent of its low-carbon generation. These plants are in their prime and could stay in service many more years and even decades.
Unfortunately, Illinois is at risk of losing one or more of its nuclear plants and with them the progress the state has made in clean energy.
If Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear plants were replaced by natural gas, carbon emissions would immediately increase the equivalent of adding two million cars to the road. If they were replaced by coal, the carbon emissions would more than double.
… Illinois is at an urgent juncture. Failure to keep all of Illinois’ nuclear power plants running for the full lifetimes will result in more air pollution, and further cause Illinois to underperform on climate. Action now would establish all of you as leaders in safeguarding clean air today and the climate for future generations.
Gov. Bruce Rauner may have to turn Illinois around without the symbolic help of the McHenry County Board, which is settling a lawsuit prompted by its support of the governor’s agenda.
The County Board will vote next Tuesday to rescind its nonbinding 2015 resolution backing Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda,” in exchange for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 dropping its lawsuit alleging that board members who met with Rauner prior to the vote violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act. While the county admits no wrongdoing in the resolution, the settlement includes paying the union $25,000 to cover its legal fees.
The lawsuit seeks to get the vote rescinded and the resolution declared null and void, and alleges that it had its origins in an illegal meeting. Local 150 filed the lawsuit about a week after the County Board voted April 9 to approve a resolution backing Rauner’s agenda to reverse Illinois’ increasingly desperate economic fortunes, which among other things would significantly curtail union collective bargaining laws.
That whole local government maneuver by Team Rauner was silly and counter-productive from the get-go. And now it’s ending with a whimper.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) announced today that Illinois’ unemployment rate in March rose 0.1 percentage points to 6.5 percent and nonfarm payrolls increased by +14,700 jobs, based on preliminary data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and IDES. Illinois surpassed its January 2008 payroll peak by +16,500 jobs but remains -46,100 jobs short of its peak employment level reached in September 2000. Illinois continues to lag behind while the nation currently stands 3.9 percent above its prior peak employment level.
“While Illinois experienced job growth in March, the over-the-year growth rate still lags behind the rest of the nation,” said IDES Director Jeff Mays. “Monthly employment numbers are volatile but in order to see true and robust job growth, we need more effective policies in place to help Illinois recover its employment peak.”
“Unemployment in Illinois continues to rise as our state fails to keep pace with the rest of the country in job growth,” Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Director Sean McCarthy said. “Industries like manufacturing continue to struggle to regain jobs lost since 2008 - in March alone, 100 manufacturing jobs per day were lost; that’s 100 middle-class families every single day facing the financial stress, hardship and uncertainty of losing a well-paying job. We need to take action on structural reforms that will make Illinois as competitive as it should be to curb the loss of middle-class jobs.”
In March, the three industry sectors with the largest gains in employment were: Leisure and Hospitality (+6,300); Construction (+4,100) and Financial Activities (+3,200). The two industry sectors with the largest declines in employment were: Manufacturing (-3,100); and Professional and Business Services (-1,400).
Over the year, nonfarm payroll employment increased by +79,900 jobs with the largest gains in Leisure and Hospitality (+25,500); Educational and Health Services (+21,600); and Trade, Transportation and Utilities (+16,800). Industry sectors with over-the-year declines in March include: Manufacturing (-7,500) and Information (-1,900). The 1.3 percent over-the-year gain in Illinois is less than the 2.0 percent gain posted by the nation in March.
The state’s unemployment rate is higher than the national unemployment rate reported for March 2016, which inched up to 5.0 percent. The Illinois unemployment rate stood 0.6 percentage points above the unemployment rate a year ago when it was 5.9 percent. According to IDES analysts, the unemployment rate is increasing in Illinois because of lagging job growth and more workers entering the labor force who are not immediately able to find work.
The number of unemployed workers increased +2.3 percent from the prior month to 429,600 and was up +11.6 percent over the same month for the prior year. The labor force grew by +2.3 percent in March over the prior year. The unemployment rate identifies those individuals who are out of work and are seeking employment. An individual who exhausts or is ineligible for benefits is still reflected in the unemployment rate if they actively seek work.
…Adding… From walker in comments…
As soon as some sort of victory is declared on the TA, these same data will be portrayed as “Illinois Is Back!”
* Speaker Madigan will appear at a fundraiser for Sangamon County Democrats on April 25. Bernie talked to Steve Brown and the county’s party chairman Doris Turner about the visit…
Brown said he didn’t want to single out any local races of interest to Madigan “because it might allow somebody to portray themselves as some kind of a victim. We don’t like to give them that advantage. There’s certainly a lot of competitive races around the state … especially given the fact that the governor seems to be pretty much of an anchor around the neck of most of the Republicans right now.”
Isn’t Madigan a similar anchor for Democrats?
“I’d say look at the results of the election and let us know how that worked out last election,” Brown said, apparently referring to races including [state Sen. Sam McCann’s] primary win [during which he was portrayed as “Madigan’s favorite senator] and the primary loss of state Rep. Ken Dunkin, D-Chicago, who sided with Rauner on some issues and criticized Madigan’s leadership.
I asked Turner if Madigan might hurt local candidates.
“I really don’t think so,” she said. “I think that in the current climate … his message is much more palatable to the average working people of the Democratic Party.”
* They gotta say what they gotta say, but the hard truth is that MJM is extremely unpopular in this state. Yes, some normally reform-minded liberal columnists have been praising him lately for standing up to Rauner, but out there in Voter Land, he ain’t exactly being hailed.
Remember what Governor Rauner set out to do just over a year ago. Everywhere I go, people ask me to to tell the Governor not to back down, and believe me, he isn’t. Every day, he is fighting Mike Madigan and the politicians he controls to bring about much needed reform to a state government that is wildly out of balance.
Just yesterday, Governor Rauner met with Mike Madigan and leaders in the General Assembly to bring about a balanced budget, but Madigan said no to reform and yes to forcing a massive tax hike on working families here in Illinois.
Illinois’ debt grows every day, but Democrats in Springfield refuse to provide relief to Illinois taxpayers and refuse to live within their means.
Let Governor Rauner know, we believe as he does, that the path to saving our state starts with balancing our budget - not forcing a massive tax hike. The time is now to turnaround a state government that has been broken for decades.
But Governor Rauner can’t do it alone - your help is needed. Stand with him as he fights to end the status quo in Springfield. Can you give $25, $50, or $100 in the fight against Madigan and his Democrat allies?
Join the movement to bring back Illinois. Make sure the Governor knows that we don’t want him to back down. Your help is needed now. We don’t have much time before it’s too late.
For Illinois,
Tim Schneider
Chairman, Illinois Republican Party
They wouldn’t be using Madigan in a fundraising pitch if they thought it’d fail. Just sayin…
…Adding… Heh…
Rite of passage for @celestebott today. While questioning Speaker Madigan he asked where she worked. His response: "I feel sorry for you."
Thursday, Apr 14, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Shell Community Federal Credit Union donated $5,000.00 to Roxana High School to aid in funding a new scoreboard for the baseball field. Representatives from Shell Credit Union participated in the dedication of the scoreboard last week.
“Roxana High School does a wonderful job in teaching/preparing our young people. The credit union membership, staff and Board of Directors are proud to be a part of making this new scoreboard a reality,” said Greg Lyons, President/CEO of Shell Credit Union.
Shell Community Federal Credit Union has been proudly serving metro east communities for over 80 years. To learn about the benefits of credit union membership, please visit www.ASmarterChoice.org.
Rauner said by refusing reforms and pushing for a tax hike, Madigan, the chair of the Illinois Democratic Party, is holding up money that could be used to fund universities and MAP grants.
“Madigan’s holding us hostage; he’s holding EIU hostage,” Rauner said. “The money is there for MAP grants, and the money is there to fund universities so there would have to be no layoffs. Madigan won’t allow it.”
Rauner said the state has $160 million “sitting there idle” and “gathering dust” in the form of special purpose funds that could be used to fund universities such as Eastern.
* So what’s going on with this “idle” money “gathering dust” in special funds that the governor talked about? From an SJ-R op-ed by an Eastern Illinois University associate professor of journalism…
FundEIU notes that money is in the Education Assistance Fund. Estimates are the fund has around $240 million stashed away at the moment.
The total state budget is comprised of over 700 funds from which appropriations are made. Each fund’s name corresponds with either the purpose of the appropriation or the major source of the fund’s receipts. Individual funds are grouped into larger fund categories, which include the General Funds, Highway Funds, Special State Funds, and Federal Trust Funds.
General Funds
The General Funds include the General Revenue Fund, the Common School Fund, and the Education Assistance Fund. The General Revenue Fund receives most of its revenue from income taxes, sales taxes, and various other state taxes and fees. The Common School Fund gets revenue from sales taxes, cigarette taxes, the state lottery, riverboat gambling, and bingo game receipts. These funds are used to support elementary and secondary education, including the State Board of Education and the Teachers’ Retirement System. The Education Assistance Fund, which is used for both elementary-secondary and higher education, receives a share of income tax revenue as well as proceeds from riverboat gambling.
* The governor’s office, however, disagrees. The $160 million figure, they say, didn’t refer to any specific fund. Instead, Rauner was referencing $160 million in a bill sponsored by Reps. Ken Dunkin and Reggie Phillips that was part of the forgiveness of $454 million in previous interfund borrowing.
* I’m still not convinced that the Senate will even take this up, but you can’t succeed if you don’t try…
Four Illinois lieutenant governors quit the job mid-term. But six went on to become governor.
The debate over whether the state should continue to elect lieutenant governors bolstered some support on Wednesday, when Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, resurrected his attempt to abolish the position via a constitutional amendment. […]
In 2013, McSweeney sponsored the same constitutional amendment. Back then it passed the House with 83 votes, but stumbled in the Senate.
This time, he says, it stands a better chance. McSweeney says he was told by a Gov. Bruce Rauner liaison that the governor would support it. And there’s an identical measure in the Senate.
State Senator Andy Manar’s (D-Bunker Hill) plan to update the state’s education funding formula passed through the Senate Executive committee on April 13.
Senate Bill 231 would provide state funding for education based on student need while ensuring that no district would receive less state money than it did in the 2015 – 16 school year. Senator Manar says Wednesday’s vote is a great step forward in changing “the least equitable system of funding education in the nation.”
There’s a new push to tax you based on the number of miles you drive.
Gas tax revenue has fallen in Illinois, so this would be a way to make money off everyone, including hybrid and electric car drivers. But some critics worry about how the government will monitor the miles you drive. […]
Here’s how the plan would work. Drivers could have a mileage monitoring device put in their cars or if they have privacy concerns, they can choose to pay a 1.5 cent-per-mile tax on a base of 30,000 miles traveled per year. That comes out to $450. Drivers would get a refund for the taxes paid at the pump.
Illinois would be the first state in the country to crack down on predatory lenders if the new bill eventually becomes law.
The bill would require the lenders to take into account the borrower’s ability to repay before approving the loan and would limit late fees and repayment fees.
A representative of one of the loan companies that is targeted says this bill could encourage more lawsuits and hinder job creation.
But supporters say questionable loans and unclear terms from misleading and dishonest loan companies are crippling small business owners, who need to borrow capital in order to grow.
* Press release…
State Rep. Jack D. Franks, D-Marengo, passed legislation out of the House on Wednesday, with strong bipartisan support, requiring local governments to fully disclose taxpayer funded incentives in their budgets to increase transparency of the fiscal practices of local units of government.
“Too often, local governments do not count the incentives they have awarded as an actual cost, which does a disservice to taxpayers,” Franks said. “By requiring units of government to disclose theses incentives in their budgets, it will offer the public a greater understanding of the fiscal practices of their local elected officials.”
House Bill 3760 requires local governments to report the value of any tax incentive they have given as “community investment” on its annual financial reports. The bill also requires the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to report the total value of tax credits it has awarded in a given year to the Governor and the General Assembly by August 1st.
Two Maine Township trustees were among 200 elected officials in Springfield last week challenging efforts aimed at consolidating or eliminating township government. […]
Calling township consolidation and elimination efforts by state officials “powerful bullying,” Maine Township Trustee Walter Kazmierczak said, “Townships are low hanging fruit. They (state legislators and Gov. Bruce Rauner) can’t get their own house in order to even pass a budget and they want to point fingers at us.”
The Illinois House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill April 12 prohibiting the secretary of state from charging fees to vehicle owners who renew their vehicle registration late due to the secretary of state’s suspension of mailed renewal notices. House Bill 4334 further provides that a vehicle owner who receives a ticket for expired license plates within one month of the plates’ expiration does not have to pay the fine if the plates expired during the period in which the secretary of state had suspended mailing vehicle-registration-reminder notices.
A state employee filed a class-action lawsuit against Gov. Bruce Rauner and several other high-ranking state officials Wednesday, alleging the state’s budget impasse has effectively left some state employees without health insurance.
The lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court by Carrie Weeks-Kinowski, a nonunion civil service employee at Northern Illinois University. Weeks-Kinowski alleges that in September 2015, the state stopped giving nonunion employees’ insurance withholdings to the insurance companies, which stopped covering medical expenses.
Despite not turning over the withholdings, the state continues to dock employees’ paychecks, the suit alleges. The failure to pay, which in turn has left nonunion state employees to cover all of their medical expenses, was brought on by the continuing lack of a state budget.
Weeks-Kinowski alleged Rauner “suspended claim payments to insurance companies for about 146,000 state workers, retirees, and their families receiving coverage through plans where state funds pay for health-care costs” in September 2015.
* Meanwhile, WBEZ has a really good story on the budget. Here’s just part of it…
Cynthia Williams started Austin People’s Action Center 35 years ago. It was just her, one room, in a church. By last June, she had 50 employees at three sites, implementing nutrition, social services and employment programs.
Now, she has laid off at least half the staff and closed two of the three sites.
But the expenses haven’t stopped.
“We still have those buildings,” she says. “We’ve got mortgages. We’ve got rent. We’ve got lights. We’ve got the water bill. That didn’t go anywhere.” Those services and others, including internet access and copy machines, are on long-term contracts. […]
Williams still has some private dollars for job-training, allowing her to serve eight students. On the day WBEZ visits, they work out math problems with pencil and paper.
And Austin People’s Action Center has not come roaring back. It can’t. With workers laid off, they lost touch with the clients.
No clients means no services, and no dollars. “We have to start from scratch,” Williams says.
Cynthia Williams spent 35 years building this agency up. It’s effectively been dismantled. And, it’s in debt: She borrowed money to maintain a state-funded program. That hasn’t come back at all.
“We’re now $97,000 in the hole,” she says. “Could somebody have come and told us, ‘Stop the program’?”
With no state budget, a program that would bus Chicago kids to visit their incarcerated mothers stalled months ago. To Pearl Mullen, who’s taking care of her grandchildren while her daughter is in prison, it’s meant her grandkids haven’t seen their mother in four months. WBEZ’s Tony Arnold has been keeping in touch with Mullen over the last few months, and found out there’s a new bus program starting up.
The program was run by Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, which laid off 40 percent of its staff last year.
* Thanks to everyone who showed up for my “celebrity bartending” gig at JP Kelly’s last night. The place was jammed with people, so I had to do some honest hard work for a change, but I did have fun.
I was pleasantly surprised when legendary commenter VanillaMan showed up. I met him almost a decade ago when he attended a speech I gave in Springfield. I hadn’t seen him since, but he hasn’t changed a bit. We had a great talk last night.
The spouse of our commenter “Honeybear” also attended the festivities and we had a very nice chat.
Oswego Willy couldn’t make it, but he “sent” someone in his stead.
All in all, the evening was a success. I’m not sure how much we raised, but it wasn’t trivial. Again, many thanks to everyone who turned out.
Due to the budget impasse, which is now in its 10th month, it is with much regret that I announce additional layoffs of approximately 110 non-instructional staff at Western Illinois University. Individuals facing layoffs will be given the appropriate 30-day notice. Within the next week, those individuals who are impacted will receive a letter.
Other additional measures are also immediately necessary. As of this week, all appropriated budgets have been swept and funds from those accounts are being held at the vice presidential level. To further limit spending, all P-Card purchasing is suspended, unless authorized by the division’s respective vice president. We must conserve all cash resources.
Despite the ongoing furlough/voluntary pay reduction program and the drastic reductions to spending, these layoffs are necessary to protect the University’s cash resources. In spite of our best efforts to conserve financial resources, without an appropriation from our state government, the University will face even greater financial challenges. Should the impasse continue it would require that we make further spending and personnel decisions. We implore the leaders in Springfield to resolve this unprecedented budget crisis and recognize that our public universities are critical to the future of a stable and innovative Illinois. We need state funds to operate and to support the thousands of students we serve. The decisions we are being forced to make are incredibly difficult, and they are being made due to the lack of state support. We recognize that as the stewards of this University, our first responsibility is to take the necessary steps to ensure that we continue providing a great education to our students.
To date, for Fiscal Year 2016, the University has made appropriated budget reductions of over $6 million. More than 500 employees are participating in the mandatory furlough or pay reduction program, resulting in cost savings of over $1.5 million. However, we must continue to reduce our FY’16 expenses. We will fall short of our $4 million savings goal for Fiscal Year 2016, as we have been unable to achieve furlough agreements with all of our employees. Because there appears to be no end to this budget impasse in the immediate future, we must move forward with additional layoffs.
The Office of Human Resources will provide assistance to those employees who will be laid off. It is our hope that if, and when, a budget is passed for Fiscal Year 2016, we may be able to call back a select number of non-instructional employees. However, if the budget stalemate continues, additional layoffs and the extension of the furlough/pay reduction program will be necessary into Fiscal Year 2017. I am distressed that we have been placed in this position. I realize the effect this decision has not only on our University community, but also the local communities in which we reside.
While the end to the budget impasse is uncertain, what is certain is the future of Western Illinois University. Our doors will remain open, and we will continue to serve students and provide an affordable, accessible and quality education.
We need the legislators, government leaders, and the citizens of Illinois to realize the value of public higher education, particularly regional universities. Each person who has been touched by WIU has a story to tell. Those stories must be shared so that others realize the value we provide to this state and beyond. We educate, guide, and develop the future leaders of this state and this nation. Recently, the University was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for outperforming its peer institutions in enrolling and graduating Pell Grant recipients. Western is giving Pell Grant qualified students the opportunity to graduate.
A degree from Western Illinois University has great value. Please write and call your legislator and the state’s governmental leaders to help them understand how important regional public universities are for this state. We will continue to work with legislative and state leaders to urge an end to this impasse and to pass a budget that adequately supports public higher education.
Again, I deeply regret that these layoffs must be implemented at our great institution. Thank you for your continued support, loyalty, and dedication.
Q. Will State employees be paid if there is no budget?
A. State employees are expected to be paid in full and on time. As long as the employee continues to work as directed, they will continue to earn a paycheck. However, depending on court rulings, there could be a delay in payment.
So, they’re gonna “direct” people to work without money for… who knows how long if Lisa Madigan wins her expected lawsuit?
They wouldn’t be paid if they were sent home, but that’s asking an awful lot of folks, particularly those who have child care responsibilities, commuting expenses, etc.
Police in Chicago have “no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color” and have alienated blacks and Hispanics for decades by using excessive force and honoring a code of silence, a task force declared Wednesday in a report that seeks sweeping changes to the nation’s third-largest police force.
The panel, established by Mayor Rahm Emanuel late last year in response to an outcry over police shootings, found that the department does little to weed out problem officers and routine encounters unnecessarily turn deadly.
The group concluded that minorities’ lack of trust and fear are justified, citing data that show 74 percent of the hundreds of people shot by officers in recent years were African-Americans, even though blacks account for 33 percent of the city’s population.
The task force pointed to a painful history spanning generations, including the 1969 killing of Black Panther Fred Hampton, allegations of torture from the 1970s to the 1990s under former commander Jon Burge and stop-and-frisk in the 2000s.
A draft of the report’s executive summary obtained by the Tribune on Tuesday slams the department and its chief oversight body, blames its collective bargaining agreements for supporting a police “code of silence” and calls on the superintendent to publicly acknowledge the department’s “history of racial disparity and discrimination.”
• Create a Community Safety Oversight Board, allowing the community to have a powerful platform and role in the police oversight system.
• Implement a citywide Reconciliation Process beginning with the Superintendent publicly acknowledging CPD’s history of racial disparity and discrimination, and making a public commitment to cultural change.
• Replace CAPS with localized Community Empowerment and Engagement Districts (CEED) for each of the city’s 22 police districts, and support them accordingly. Under CEED, district Commanders and other leadership would work with local stakeholders to develop tailored community policing strategies and partnerships.
• Renew commitment to beat-based policing and expand community patrols so that officers learn about and get to know the communities they serve, and community members take an active role in partnering with the police.
• Reinvigorate community policing as a core philosophy and approach that informs actions throughout the department.
• Evaluate and improve the training officers receive with respect to youth so that they are prepared to engage in ways that are age-appropriate, trauma-informed and based in a restorative justice model.
• Require CPD and the police oversight system to be more transparent and release to the public incident-level information on arrests, traffic and investigatory stops, officer weapon use and disciplinary cases.
• Host citywide summits jointly sponsored by the Mayor and the President of the Cook County Board to develop and implement comprehensive criminal justice reform.
• Encourage the Mayor and President of the Cook County Board to work together to develop and implement programs that address socioeconomic justice and equality, housing segregation, systemic racism, poverty, education, health and safety.
• Adoption of a citywide protocol allowing arrestees to make phone calls to an attorney and/or family member(s) within one hour of arrest.
• Implementation of citywide “Know Your Rights” training for youth.
[Comptroller Leslie Munger], who was appointed by Rauner to fill the term of Judy Baar Topinka who died shortly after being re-elected, said the lack of a budget is affecting universities, community colleges and students waiting for MAP grants.
“Things are stretched at the seams, and seams are splitting in places,” Munger said. “And yet our legislature doesn’t seem to have any urgency to get this solved.”
Munger criticized the legislature for working on bills that weren’t budget-related.
“Life would be much better if we had a budget in place and running the state like a normal, responsible group would be running things,” Munger said.
Not all legislators are budget experts, and there is other business to do. But it certainly made me cringe today when I saw legislation move which designates the pirogue as the state artifact. Until I Googled it, I thought they were trying to stretch the meaning of the word “artifact” to include Polish dumplings.
* Munger was in the Metro East to personally apologize “to those who are served by the Lessie Bates Neighborhood House in East St. Louis, which plans to lay off 117 employees.”
As the state’s bill-payer, she’s supremely and understandably frustrated about the lack of a budget. I’ve gotten to know her over the past year or so (we had a chat last night, in fact), and I have found her to be a decent person with a deep and abiding worry about the imperiled future of our social service network.
* But it takes two to tango. So if Comptroller Munger is demanding that the General Assembly dump the non-budget stuff, then she should publicly call on Gov. Rauner to do the same. And no disrespect intended, but her late predecessor would’ve certainly done that months ago.
I mean, really. Can you imagine what JBT would’ve done about this situation? I don’t think the history of any American state has ever been so hugely altered by the death of a comptroller. I miss that woman every single day.
Nobody could ever fill Judy Baar Topinka’s shoes, and I do not now nor have I ever expected Munger to do that. But our comptroller should keep in mind that Illinois voters from both parties reelected Topinka for who she was. Comptroller Munger has a duty to uphold that legacy while she’s serving out Judy’s term.
* From the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition…
IBIC applauds Governor Bruce Rauner, Speaker Michael Madigan, bill sponsor Representative Lisa Hernandez, deputy House Minority Leader Patricia Bellock, committee chair Representative Greg Harris, and the strong bipartisanship support demonstrated by the Illinois House committee today to support Covering All Kids HB 5736. In a 15 to 2 vote: with 11 Democrats and 4 Republicans voted in support, Illinois legislators upheld a bipartisan commitment made 11 years ago to treat all children equally and that all kids should have access to health coverage regardless of their immigration status. HB 5736 will next be voted by the full House of Representatives.
“Covering All Kids works” said WILLIAM KUNKLER III, Co-Chairman of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition, “Not only is this program good for Illinois and our economy - it is politically smart for Illinois Republicans.”
“Illinois has the second highest health coverage rates for Latino children in the nation - 95.5% because of All Kids,” said RAUL RAYMUNDO, CEO of the Resurrection Project, “Today, Democrats and Republicans reaffirmed their commitment to health care as basic human right, an essential safeguard of human dignity.”
“I give my full-throated support to HB 5736 Covering All Kids. As House Minority leader, I worked closely with Democrats to pass Covering All Kids with unanimous bipartisan support 107 to nothing,” said TOM CROSS, Illinois House minority leader (2002-2013), “The bi-partisan commitment in Illinois, guided by a clear moral imperative, to ensure that every child in the state has access to a healthy life is something Republicans and Democrats should absolutely take pride in, and continue to uphold.”
The Covering All Kids Health Insurance Act covers an estimated 41,000 children from working poor families regardless of their immigration status. The program is the result of a bi-partisan policy decision made in Illinois a decade ago and renewed consistently by Democrat and Republican Governors since then, that in Illinois all children are treated equally and have access to health coverage. The Covering All Kids Act ensures that every child has a relationship with a doctor, receives preventive care, early diagnosis and treatment, and the best health outcomes. Under current law, The Covering All Kids Act sunsets July 1, 2016. HB5736 extends the program to October 1, 2019.
COVERING ALL KIDS WORKS
· Covering All Kids has resulted in Illinois having the second highest rate of health coverage for Latino children in the nation – 95.5%
· Covering All Kids has resulted in Illinois having one of the highest rates of health coverage for ALL children in the nation - 96.7%
· Covering All Kids generates an enhanced Federal match: the program draws down over $40 million annual federal match that reduces the already modest state cost
· In 2006, Covering All Kids was passed with a unanimous bi-partisan vote of 107 to nothing in the IL House, and has since enjoyed the support of both Democratic and Republican Governors
· Substantial federal matching funds will be lost or at risk, and children from working poor families, including immigrant children, will lose health coverage on July 1, if Illinois does not continue “Covering All Kids”
Puerto Rico, Atlantic City and Chicago school district bondholders have reason to fear a fight in court if the ailing governments collapse financially: recent cases show that when municipalities go broke, investors lose when pitted against municipal retirees.
The latest example is San Bernardino, California, which saddled bondholders with a 60 percent loss while keeping retirement benefits intact under a settlement last month aimed at ending its nearly four years in bankruptcy. That’s in line with the outcome of the local-government bankruptcies filed since the onset of the Great Recession, all but one of which sheltered pensioners from the deeper cuts extracted from investors who bought their debt.
“The more cases that come to light like this in favor of pensioners, the odds of breaking those precedents become lower and lower,” said Howard Cure, director of municipal research in New York at Evercore Wealth Management, which oversees $6.2 billion of assets. […]
“Pensions are faring far better than other creditors under Chapter 9,” analysts led by Peter Hayes, BlackRock’s head of municipal bonds, wrote in an note Monday. “This reinforces the view that bondholders need to be extremely cautious dealing with distressed municipalities.” […]
In every recent bankruptcy nationwide except for Central Falls, Rhode Island, pensioners have fared better than bondholders, according to Moody’s. In Detroit’s, the biggest, pensioners recovered about 82 percent of what they were owed, compared with 25 percent for bondholders, according to the rating company.
The dream of using bk as a tool to get out of paying pensions probably won’t work, although it could reduce pension costs. And it could still be used to bust up union contracts (which may be the real point here), although AFSCME is still alive in the Motor City.
Gov. Bruce Rauner has all but sealed the fate of legislation pushed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel that would put off nearly $220 million in payments to the city’s police and fire pension funds, saying “there’s no way” he’d sign the bill without action on his pro-business, union weakening agenda.
[Senate President John Cullerton] said the [leaders] meeting needed to focus on the budget, not Rauner’s “turnaround agenda.”
“We’ve been focusing on the budget; the governor’s been focusing on these other items,” Cullerton said. “So I’m looking forward today to start talking about solutions to the budget problem.”
Speaking to the same gathering a short time later, Rauner balked at the idea that his policy agenda is unrelated to the budget.
“This is not ‘other stuff,’” said the governor, who wasn’t in the room for Cullerton’s remarks. “Growth is the budget.” […]
Democrats “just don’t get it, or they refuse to acknowledge it,” he said.
The governor’s absolutely right about growth and the budget. We’d be a whole lot better off right now if we had a better economy here. Cullerton too often focuses on the bright side to avoid the painful reality that people are leaving Illinois partly because they want a better life for their families. There’s just not enough opportunity here. And while the state can’t solve all those problems, it can at least address some of them. But so far… bupkis.
On the other hand, the lack of a government budget is obviously harming the economy and the quality of peoples’ lives. Thousands of good people (some of the best, in my opinion) have been laid off by social service providers since this impasse began. Tens of thousands of working poor people were forced last year to scramble to find child care, and thousands still aren’t eligible. How is that helping? And tens of thousands more could be kicked to the curb if universities start to shut down.
Rauner needs to get tough and stop all funding that taxes don’t cover. He needs to put ads on TV that call Democrats TERRORISTS!
By the Zorn standard Michael Madigan would get an A after 44 years of failure.
This article has exposed you for what you truly are - a Madigan hack. I can only hope that you are financially compensated for your defense of the worst politician since Boss Tweed. It’s Chicago, so why wouldn’t expect your cut. I hope that the Chicago Tribune reconsiders your employment as the editorial board has justly called out King Madigan for what he is which is the king of corruption and special interests. How could you compare 18 months of a Rauner governorship with the 45 years of corruption, side deals, slime and destruction caused by Madigan and the machine? You are a complete and utter moron. Please do state of Illinois a favor and go away.
I use to think Zorn was an idiot, now I know he’s an idiot. How can a boy write for a major newspaper and be totally ignorant. Zorn is simply Madigan’s boy. Absolutely disgraceful. When is the reorganization of the Trib staff going to take place.
Zorn, why don’t you rate the Democrats who have bankrupted Illinois, Cook County, and Chicago? Rauner is the best thing that happened to Illinois since Edgar. But it’s likely too late to save a State that is on life support with Madigan ready to pull the plug by his dictatorial behavior.
And Zorn gets and epic F as a columnist. To put blame for this mess on Rauner and mention Madigan only once, in passing, is ignoring the real problem in the name of party alliance.
Most of the opinion pieces In the Trib around the Illinois budget situation are fairly accurate and balanced. This one reads like an op-ed written by Cullerton or Madigan. My favorite part is where he says Rauner “insinuates” that our legislative leaders are crooked. I believe that any objective observer knows this to be true. I typically enjoy Eric’s writing, but he’s way off base here. And my politics are liberal.
The Trib should fire Zorn and just run Mike Madigan’s press releases in the place of his abysmal column. At least they would be better written and perhaps even entertaining.
Zorn is Madigan’s puppet!
Zorn is a dufus. Madigan is the ongoing problem.
WHAT GRADE TO YOU GIVE TO KING MADIGAN?
Once again Eric fails to tell the truth. This is 100% Mike Madigan. He us a piece of garbage set about to ruin Illinois.
An EPIC F- to worthless Madigan boot licker Eric Zorn.
Eric Zorn - protecting the Madigan organized crime family.
I didn’t know the Tribune was going to start writing sponsored content. I wonder how much Madigan had to fork over for this hit piece.
WHERE: Illinois State Capitol
1st Floor, South Hall
301 S. 2nd Street
Springfield, IL 62707
WHEN: Thursday, April 14
Lunches available anytime between 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Illinois retailers launched a statewide campaign aimed at shining the spotlight on how little profit margin exists – just two cents – on every dollar spent in an Illinois retail establishment. The retailers Two Cents movement will highlight an industry increasingly burdened with a litany of cost mandates at federal, state, and local level resulting in scaling back employee hours, laying off employees and impacting overall growth. The harsh reality of today’s retail sector is that for every $1 spent in an Illinois retail establishment, only about two cents results in profit, holding true from grocery stores and gas stations, to pharmacies and hardware stores.
Fifteen months after the wealthy Republican private equity investor was sworn in to his first elected office, the state he was elected to lead is in worse shape by nearly every measure than the state he inherited from his Democratic predecessor.
The backlog of unpaid bills is higher, as is the unemployment rate and the largest-in-the-nation unfunded public pension liability. We were one of just six states that showed a net loss in private sector jobs last year. Accordingly, our credit rating has continued to fall, meaning it will cost us even more than anticipated to dig out of a financial hole that’s growing at an estimated rate of $33 million every day.
Illinois still doesn’t have — and at this rate probably never will have — a budget for the fiscal year that began last July, which has put many human service providers and public colleges and universities into a financial crisis.
Now, yes, it’s quite true that Rauner didn’t create the underlying economic problems facing Illinois — those came about due to decades of irresponsible governance, some of it bipartisan, much of it Democratic.
This spring, with prospects for an end to the stalemate dim, education spending is in the cross hairs as Rauner and Democrats fight over the future of school funding. The governor has called on Democrats to send him a bill that would spend an extra $55 million and ensure the next school year isn’t disrupted should the stalemate drag on. Democrats say the governor’s plan only throws more money at an inequitable system that props up wealthy districts to the detriment of poorer ones and suggest now is the time to overhaul the entire school aid funding formula. […]
“They’re trying to create a crisis so our public schools don’t open, to force a tax hike,” Rauner said. “Believe me, it’s hand-to-hand combat every day. It’s really hard to run a government without a budget. Really hard.” […]
Rauner’s approach took the form of the carrot, as he dangled out a list detailing how dollars would be doled out to school districts across the state under his plan to beef up K-12 spending by $55 million this year. It’s a time-tested tactic aimed at building support within districts that would benefit from the plan, designed to put pressure on suburban Democrats whose schools stand to take home more dollars.
Madigan employed the stick, introducing a constitutional amendment to make public education in Illinois a “fundamental right,” creating the potential for the state to be sued if it doesn’t come up with the majority of money to finance public schools. It’s a signal that Democrats aren’t backing down from their larger plan to rewrite the state’s school aid formula following years of complaints that districts with a lesser ability to raise money from property taxes are falling farther behind property tax-rich districts.
I have my doubts that Madigan is gonna be on board with Sen. Manar’s plan because of his suburban Democratic targets mentioned above. So I’m not so sure that last part is actually being signaled here.
To me, Madigan’s plan looks more like Madigan’s response to Manar than anything else. And as some folks mentioned in comments yesterday, this state has belatedly discovered via pension reform that mandating spending in the Constitution can have extremely expensive consequences. So, I’d probably take Manar’s plan over Madigan’s if forced to choose between just those two. And I think the current funding formula is just crazily flawed.
* From Illinois Federation of Teachers President Dan Montgomery…
“For the first time in several years, the General Assembly is having a meaningful conversation about school funding, but Governor Rauner’s proposal only distracts from that serious debate. Let’s be clear: the Governor has not put forth a real education funding reform plan. He merely suggested putting slightly more money into the same broken formula without addressing the core need for fairness or adequacy. His proposal further demonstrates the flaws of the current system where students in dire need would face more cuts if nothing changes.
“We’d be foolish to think this is a silver bullet, especially coming from a Governor who is presiding over an epic collapse of social services and higher education because he refuses to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share. The same schools Rauner claims he wants to help are the center of the communities he is hurting. With limited resources, teachers and school staff are doing their best to educate students whose families are losing the support they need today and the college educations they want tomorrow.”
The key phrase for me here is “putting slightly more money into the same broken formula.” Yep.
* Check out the top ten losers in the governor’s plan…
Prior to the vote [on the Democratic appropriations bill], Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin tried to offer an olive branch, telling legislators he was done with the “heated rhetoric” that is elongating the budget impasse.
“My guess is that what’s going to happen is that the vote will go down party lines. That is not what the public wants anymore. They want us to find solutions in a collaborative manner. I am going to do that. I will stop the rhetoric. I hope that you can as well,” Durkin said. “I think we can slow down with these gotcha votes we’ve been seeing for many, many months so we can get down to the business at hand.”
Just hours after a private meeting with the governor, House Speaker Michael Madigan widened the gap between them Tuesday afternoon, telling legislators the state budget mess is “completely avoidable” and the result of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner pursuing “a personal agenda.”
The Southwest Side Democrat’s relatively rare extended remarks on the floor came just before the Illinois House voted to pass a $3.89 billion appropriations bill to fund state universities and social service agencies. And it also came just two hours after Madigan wrapped up a meeting with Rauner and the other three top legislative leaders about the budget impasse that’s reached its tenth month.
“Never before has the state gone this long without a budget. Every other governor that I have worked with has negotiated with the General Assembly in good faith to help the people of Illinois and to ensure the people of our state did not needlessly suffer,” Madigan said. “The fact is the current budget crisis was completely avoidable. While this crisis was avoidable, Gov. Rauner has refused to put an end to the crisis.”
Madigan called Rauner’s Turnaround Agenda “his personal agenda, which is targeted at diminishing the wages and standard of living of the middle class and other struggling families.”
“The governor’s objections to House Democratic budget priorities are based on his insistence the General Assembly first pass his personal agenda, which is targeted at diminishing wages and the standard of living of the middle class and other struggling families,” Madigan said. “Progress will not be made by targeting the wages and standard of living of the middle class.”
Madigan said he’s had differences with all six governors with whom he has served.
“Every other governor I have worked with has negotiated with the General Assembly in good faith,” Madigan said.
“Differences with governors is not something that is new to me. Nor is it something that has prevented me from working with governors of both political parties for the good of the people of Illinois in passing state budgets,” Madigan said. “Over 30 years I have worked with six governors from both political parties. Twice as many Republicans as Democrats… I have had differences with all the governors I have worked with including governors of my own party… Many of you will recall the very strong differences I had with former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. However, we found a way to compromise. My record over the years is one of compromise…”
[Madigan contended] it has been the Republican governor’s strategy all along to try to get rid of public unions and seek a state government shutdown.
The Democratic leader quoted from a speech then-candidate Rauner made a couple of years ago in Tazewell County in which he likened the need to act in state government the way President Ronald Reagan did in a 1981 decision to fire thousands of striking air traffic controllers.
“I apologize but we may have to go through a little rough times and we have to do what Ronald Reagan did with the air traffic controllers,” Rauner said at that dinner.
“We sort of have to do a do-over and shut things down for a little while, that’s what we’re going to do,” Rauner said.
Rauner met with Madigan and other legislative leaders Tuesday. But the speaker’s remarks indicate they made no progress on a budget deal.
* Our good friends at BlueRoomStream.com posted video of Madigan’s prepared remarks. They’re even harsher than portrayed in the above stories. Check it out…
…Adding… The full video of Rauner speaking at that Tazewell County Lincoln Day Dinner referenced in Madigan’s speech is here…
“But even if they’ve got a major majority against us, you know what, they can’t stop us. They won’t stop me if I want to spend dramatically less. You need the legislature if you want to spend more. If you want to spend less, they can’t stop me. They can’t stop me.”
* Oscar came to the Statehouse with me yesterday. He couldn’t go inside because he’s not allowed, but he did meet Zed when we were out for a walk on the Capitol Complex grounds…
Gov. Bruce Rauner said Tuesday that Attorney General Lisa Madigan is planning legal action in the next couple of weeks to try and stop state employees from being paid and shut down the government.
“(Democrats) are going to try to use the latest Supreme Court rulings about appropriations trumping contracts to say state employees should not be paid more, even though they’re working,” Rauner said. “And by the way, the legislature makes sure they always get continuing appropriations; the legislature always gets paid. They don’t want the state employees paid.” […]
The attorney general’s office is reviewing the court’s decision, and any further action is still under review, Madigan spokeswoman Annie Thompson said Tuesday.
But Rauner, a Republican, said he knows what Madigan, a Democrat and the daughter of House Speaker Michael Madigan, plans to do.
“The attorney general is going to try and stop pay to the state workers to try to force a crisis and force the shutdown of government to try to force a tax hike,” Rauner said. “That’s going on right now.”
Governor Bruce Rauner predicts Democrats will now move to force a total shutdown of Illinois state government, and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan confirms that.
She may, indeed, ask the Illinois Supreme Court to stop state employee paychecks. […]
State workers are still being paid because a lower court judge Downstate ordered it last year. But the Illinois Supreme Court recently ruled that, without a budget appropriation, the state should not pay even those who have an ironclad contract. The attorney general appears to agree.
“Just the same way it happens at the federal level, when there’s no budget you face a shutdown. That’s what happens - or should happen - in every single state. That has not happened here,” Madigan said. “But for far too many people not having access to the services they need, not having a budget has been a complete disaster.”
An Illinois legislative body is being told today that the State’s civil asset forfeiture laws are unfair, inconsistent and chaotic. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois today is calling on the legislature to work with urgency to rewrite these laws in order to ensure that Illinois residents whose property is seized by police cannot be permanently deprived of that property without clear proof that they were involved in criminal activity. The legislators will be told that Illinois recently received a failing grade for the fairness and transparency of its civil asset forfeiture laws.
“Our state’s laws in this area currently are grossly unfair,” according to Ben Ruddell, criminal justice policy attorney for the ACLU of Illinois. “As preposterous as it seems, you can lose your property – including your car, cash, or even your home – without ever being arrested or charged with a crime.”
“The system is bent to favor police and prosecutors who can use the laws as a profit center.”
The hearing on this issue is being held jointly by the Judiciary Civil and Criminal Committees of the Illinois House of Representatives. The hearing is set to begin at 4:00 p.m. in 114 Capitol. Among the witnesses will be two prominent Illinois defense attorneys who have dealt extensively with Illinois forfeiture law, as well as Lee McGrath from the Institute for Justice. That national organization, in a recent report evaluating states’ asset forfeiture laws, gave Illinois laws a grade of “D-“for fairness and transparency.
The Committee also will hear from Judy Wiese, a grandmother from the Quad Cities. She learned about the forfeiture laws the hard way when her car was seized after she lent it to her grandson, who turned out to be driving on a suspended license. No attorney was provided to assist Ms. Wiese to assist in getting her vehicle returned. Many people who face a similar situation must post a bond for 10% of the value of the car just to begin the process. It took five months without transportation, the intervention of the local media, and the kindness of strangers for Ms. Wiese to regain possession of her vehicle.
Residents of Illinois forfeit more than $20 million in property each year. The amount was more than $27 million in 2013. This amount does not account for seizures in Illinois by the federal government. The law provides that almost all of the money and property forfeited from Illinoisans goes directly to the law enforcement agency that seized the property. Many critics of forfeiture laws argue that such a system induces law enforcement to seize more property as a revenue generating opportunity.
“Police and prosecutors should not benefit from taking property away from persons when it is not justified,” added Ruddell. “It creates an incentive to engage in aggressive seizures that only hurt more people.”
* Back in the day, the Illinois Gaming Board ruled against putting a casino in Rosemont because they were worried about alleged mob ties. Instead, they put the casino next door in Des Plaines.
And for years, the Chicago Tribune editorial board was completely enamored with former Illinois Gaming Board Chairman Aaron Jaffe and his staff. In one of several laudatory pieces they did on him, they were all cheered for their “stellar record of insulating the Illinois gambling industry.” Another representative Trib editorial quoted Arthur Bilek, executive vice president of the Chicago Crime Commission, as saying…
“What’s safeguarding Illinois now is the integrity of Judge Aaron Jaffe and Mark Ostrowski,” the Gaming Board’s chairman and top administrator.
Rivers Casino has paid one of the largest gaming-related fines in modern times – $1.65 million – following an Illinois Gaming Board investigation spurred in part by questions over a security and maintenance contractor’s ties to reputed mob figures.
Last year, the Better Government Association discovered that Rivers – Illinois’ newest and most lucrative casino – hired United Service Cos. for security and cleaning work at the Des Plaines gaming site.
The BGA asked Rivers officials last May about United’s hiring because Illinois casinos are not supposed to have even a hint of organized crime connections – something that helped sink Rosemont’s years-long push to score a gaming license.
* If you look at the Gaming Board’s report, you’ll see that Simon’s cleaning firm did work for the casino for a year (2011-2012) without any vendor authorization. Simon’s firm was “lacking a documented bidding process and a formal contract” in 2012. In 2013, “no formal contract” was entered into between the casino and Simon’s company for cleaning work. In late 2014, the casino hired Simon’s company to do cleaning work “without an RFP, without soliciting bids and without entering into a contract,” according to the investigation.
Finally, in late 2014, the casino signed a contract with Simon’s company, but backdated it to July, 2011.
Last week, SEIU Healthcare Illinois began airing ads targeting Rauner and cuts to social services. Now the ads will be aimed at more than a dozen Republican House members, a union source tells Illinois Playbook: “The escalation will begin later this week and it will be statewide. More mail is coming. Cable TV spots. Digital. There will be a new child care TV spot coming, too.”
The ads took aim at the governor: “Governor Rauner is attacking those Illinoisans who care for our seniors and people with disabilities. Endangering our most vulnerable.” A caretaker then looks into the camera, saying: “I don’t know how he expects anybody to survive.”
* SEIU reached out about its new direct mail program today…
[Here’s the] first of several mailers. We have GOP targets that span the state. More than a dozen. Fewer than two dozen. They’ve been contacted individually, each asked to support fair contracts for our 53,000 home healthcare and child care workers, an end to the Rauner cuts and support for our our legislative package, which continues to advance in both chambers.
The Illinois House speaker has proposed a constitutional amendment to strengthen the state’s obligation to fund public education.
Chicago Democrat Michael Madigan introduced legislation Monday. It declares that education is a fundamental “right” — as opposed to “goal” — and that the state has the “preponderant financial responsibility” for funding schools.
If the House and Senate approve, the amendment would be on November’s ballot. Madigan spokesman Steve Brown says the Constitution is clear that the state should be the “primary” financial source, but that the language of the proposed amendment makes it abundantly clear.
Provides that a fundamental right (instead of goal) of the People of the State is the educational development of all persons to the limits of their capacities. Provides that it is the paramount duty of the State to provide for a thorough and efficient system of high quality public education institutions and services and to guarantee equality of educational opportunity as a fundamental right of each citizen (instead of requiring the State to provide for an efficient system of high quality public education institutions and services). Provides that the State has the preponderant financial responsibility (instead of the primary responsibility) for financing the system of public education. Effective upon being declared adopted
Subscribers have more background.
* The Question: Do you support this constitutional amendment? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Ed Izenstark inherited Huntington’s disease from his biological father, but he only found out after the fatal nerve disorder began to show itself and after months of frustrating and costly efforts to learn more about his origins.
The 30-year-old father of three from the Chicago suburb of Batavia was hospitalized last May with severe stomach pains, nausea and involuntary twitching that his doctors couldn’t explain. Suspecting it could be genetic, Izenstark sought more information about his background but had a hard time getting it from state adoption agencies. In February, he finally learned that his birth father had the disease. On Friday, his fears were confirmed that he did, too.
“(The information) should be available to anyone, if it’s yours. But it’s not yours. It’s the state’s and the state decides,” Izenstark said.
The Illinois House is considering a measure that would allow agencies to let people know the reasons they were put up for adoption and other information that wouldn’t identify their birth parents, including details of their medical histories. Its sponsor, Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, a Democrat from Chicago who was adopted herself, said the changes would be a real benefit to adult adoptees.
* Meanwhile, from a press release…
Calling attention to the growing staffing crisis affecting people with developmental disabilities and urging immediate action to address the problem by raising wages for Direct Support Professionals (DSPs), a wide-ranging coalition of disability advocacy groups will join key legislators at a press conference [today] in the Illinois State Capitol.
In Illinois, over 27,000 people with developmental disabilities live in apartments, group homes and other residential programs. DSPs in community agencies provide the foundation for community living. They ensure the health, safety and well-being of people with developmental disabilities by providing daily personal care, teaching life skills, and supporting people to be actively engaged and working in their community. But the state has not adjusted reimbursement rates for community agencies to raise DSP wages for eight years. […]
The coalition includes The Arc of Illinois, the Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, AFSCME Council 31, Don Moss & Associates, The Center for Developmental Disabilities Advocacy & Community Support, The Institute on Public Policy for People with Developmental Disabilities and McManus Consulting.
State Sen. Sam McCann is seeking to protect from government intrusion the longtime practice of “seed sharing.”
McCann, a Plainview Republican, is sponsoring a bill aimed at clarifying ambiguity in current state law that could require the exchanging and sharing of seed to be subject to commercial regulations such as testing and record-keeping.
“This is not a bill saying that anything has been done unfairly,” McCann said. “We’re saying that we’re trying to keep something from being interpreted unduly in the future.”
Illinois lawmakers are in no hurry to pass a state budget after 287 days, but they certainly are in a rush to be the second state in the nation to try to legislate bigotry regarding transgender teens. Those who fail to be effective leaders on the big picture items always seem to busy themselves micromanaging.
* Tax Illinois drivers by the mile?: A new proposal to pay for fixing Illinois’ roads could use devices to track how far Illinois drivers have traveled and tax them by the mile. The plan from Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat, is aimed at gasoline tax revenues that have fallen as drivers have bought more fuel-efficient cars.
* Editorial: School funding formula needs to change
* FiveThirtyEight ran the numbers on the recent drop in Chicago police activity and increase in crime…
Chicago police officers have said they are confused by public scrutiny in the wake of the [Laquan McDonald] video’s release and have pointed to new and burdensome paperwork as discouraging them from making street stops and engaging in other “proactive policing.” Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi acknowledged that officers might have been more uncertain since the release of the video but suggested that the majority of the change was due to the paperwork requirements. Late last month, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed a new interim police chief, Eddie Johnson, in the hopes of improving department morale. Johnson faces the prospect of the bloodiest year since at least 2003: Chicago is on pace for roughly 570 homicides and nearly 2,100 nonfatal shooting incidents, numbers that could be even higher if the violence increases with warmer weather.
After some cities saw a rise in crime last year, police chiefs and even the head of the FBI suggested that the United States was experiencing a “Ferguson effect”: Police officers sensitive to public scrutiny in the wake of protests over the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, were pulling back on police work, the theory went, and emboldened criminals were seizing their chance. The evidence for any such effect nationally was mixed — our colleague Carl Bialik analyzed crime data from 60 major cities in September and found an increase in homicides in some places, but a decrease in others. Chicago had seen a 20 percent increase in homicides from the year before, but, as Carl noted, crime statistics are volatile.
The spike in gun violence in Chicago since the end of November, though, is too sharp to be explained by seasonal fluctuations or chance. There have been 175 homicides and approximately 675 nonfatal shooting incidents1 from Dec. 1 through March 31, according to our analysis of city data.2 The 69 percent drop in the nonfatal shooting arrest rate and the 48 percent drop in the homicide arrest rate since the video’s release also cannot be explained by temperature or bad luck. Even though crime statistics can see a good amount of variation from year to year and from month to month, this spike in gun violence is statistically significant, and the falling arrest numbers suggest real changes in the process of policing in Chicago since the video’s release. […]
Guglielmi placed much of the blame for the decline in proactive policing on a new form that must be filled out after some interactions with members of the public, a result of the city’s August 2015 settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union over the department’s “stop and frisk” program. The form, called an investigatory stop report, is much longer than the contact cards it replaces and can take hours to complete after some encounters. Officers told the Chicago Sun-Times in January that an “ACLU effect” was driving a reduction in police activity. “The rules of the game changed on Jan. 1,” Guglielmi said.
Although the ISR may be playing a minor role in curbing proactive policing, it doesn’t appear to be the major reason behind the downward trend in arrests. The ISR was implemented on Jan. 1, 38 days after the release of the Laquan McDonald video. In that five-week span, the overall arrest rate fell from 26 percent to 19 percent. Since Jan. 1, the overall arrest rate has risen slightly. The onset of the decline in arrests significantly predates the ISR, and arrests have actually increased since it was introduced, though they are occurring less frequently than they did in 2015.
Ander noted that several less controversial crime prevention and intervention resources in Chicago have had their funding cut recently because of a state budget crisis in Illinois, perhaps contributing to violence in the most troubled neighborhoods.
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Last week, a group of leading climate scientists and conservationists from Illinois and around the world, including Dr. James Hansen, Rachel Pritzker, and Michael Shellenberger, urged Illinois’ leaders in an open letter to save Illinois’ nuclear plants so they can provide clean energy for decades to come. They wrote:
Illinois generates more zero-emissions electricity than any other state. Most of it comes from the state’s six nuclear power plants, which produce about half of Illinois’ total generation and 90 percent of its low-carbon generation. These plants are in their prime and could stay in service many more years and even decades.
Unfortunately, Illinois is at risk of losing one or more of its nuclear plants and with them the progress the state has made in clean energy.
If Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear plants were replaced by natural gas, carbon emissions would immediately increase the equivalent of adding two million cars to the road. If they were replaced by coal, the carbon emissions would more than double.
… Illinois is at an urgent juncture. Failure to keep all of Illinois’ nuclear power plants running for the full lifetimes will result in more air pollution, and further cause Illinois to underperform on climate. Action now would establish all of you as leaders in safeguarding clean air today and the climate for future generations.
When Marty Flaska moved his forklift-manufacturing business to Illinois 18 years ago, he didn’t think to look at the cost of operating in other states.
In 2014, out of curiosity, his son ran the numbers.
“I didn’t believe him,” said the elder Flaska. His son told him that a short drive east would save the business $2 million per year.
Thus began the journey of Hoist Liftruck to greener pastures in Indiana; a move that resulted from policy mistakes that have made the Land of Lincoln a laggard state when it comes to forging well-paying manufacturing jobs.
On March 31, Flaska cut the ribbon on a massive facility in East Chicago, Ind., the new home of Hoist. The Indiana factory will house nearly 300 manufacturing jobs transplanted from Bedford Park as well as 200 new jobs Flaska plans to create. The average salary for one of those positions is $55,000.
Bedford Park is just down the road from Speaker Madigan’s house.
Indiana is giving the company up to $8.25 million in tax credits as a reward for the hiring, and $200,000 for employee training. East Chicago, the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority and NIPSCO also are offering additional incentives.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Senate President Cullerton told reporters today that the meeting was called “to discuss the budget,” and that he didn’t believe attendees would be talking about Turnaround Agenda items.
Rich Miller, publisher of the Capitol Fax newsletter and associated blog, is guest speaker at a Citizens Club of Springfield reception on Thursday.
The event, marking the club’s 10-year anniversary, is from 5-7 p.m. at the Illinois Realtors, 522 S. Fifth St. The public is invited, and tickets can be purchased at the door for $25. […]
The club’s mission is to bring area residents impartial, bipartisan discussions about issues affecting the quality of life in the Springfield area.
This is my first speech since the City Club thing last December that’ll be open to the general public, so it should be fun.
* If you go to about the 27-minute mark of this BlueRoomStream.com video, you’ll hear Republican state Rep. Bob Pritchard tell a Chicago audience yesterday that he is open to some specific tax proposals.
“We’ve got to look realistically at some revenue situations,” Pritchard said while speaking on a panel convened by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
“Broadening the sales tax,” Rep. Pritchard said, “could be part of the solution… perhaps even bring the rate down a little bit.” He didn’t say it, but he was likely referring to a sales tax on services.
He also said legislators “should look again at some type of income tax,” and “some type of pension tax,” but said he also wanted some of Gov. Rauner’s business-related reforms, without specifying which ones he backed.
Later, he said he thinks “most legislators” are coming to realize that more revenues are needed. But he also said he wants to see workers’ comp and tort reforms, as well as some modest limits on the prevailing wage.
* Related…
* Illinois Lawmakers: Rank-And-File Legislators Key To Breaking Budget Impasse
To: Members of the General Assembly
From: Richard Goldberg, Deputy Chief of Staff
Date: April 12, 2016
Re: HA 1 to SB 2046 – Another Partisan Spending Bill Filled With Empty Promises
Last week, Governor Rauner called for bipartisan cooperation to solve our budget crisis. “Now is the opportunity to put partisan differences aside and work together on solutions for the people of Illinois,” he wrote in the State Journal-Register.
But rather than work together to find bipartisan solutions to fund higher education and human services, the majority stands ready to pass another phony budget that promises to spend money the state simply doesn’t have. According to GOMB Director Tim Nuding, “at this point, appropriation bills that are not tied to revenue, spending reductions or savings-generating reforms are nothing more than IOUs that drive our state deeper into debt and exacerbate the bill backlog.”
House Amendment 1 (HA1) to SB 2046 would appropriate $3.89 billion, including more than $3 billion in General Funds, without any way to pay for it. That’s not compromise or fiscal responsibility – that’s just another partisan spending bill filled with empty promises for students, universities, community colleges, social service providers and our most vulnerable citizens.
Over the past few weeks, Republicans have proposed ways to fund MAP grants, universities, community colleges, social services, veterans homes, public health grants and much more – all tied to savings-generating government reforms. These alternatives would accomplish the overarching goal of HA 1 to SB 2046 without making empty promises, adding to our debt or exacerbating the bill backlog.
Now is the time to negotiate in good faith, not push each other farther apart. Now is the time for bipartisan solutions, not another partisan spending bill filled with empty promises.
“This money is not just for me,” Romanik said, “it’s for anybody running against any candidate backed by the culture of corruption.” Romanik, on his radio show, often refers to the local Democrat party as a culture of corruption.
He’s previously said he would spend “at least” $325,000 on his own campaign, with the rest going to other candidates.
* The local Democrats have already sent out a mailer blasting him…
On the flip side is a photo of Republican state representative candidate from the 114th District Bob Romanik, wearing a red, white and blue “Uncle Sam” suit. Beside the photo of Romanik, a radio talk show host, is a tersely-worded message urging voters not to vote for Romanik or any of 10 county office Republican candidates he supports in the November election. The photo is below a headline that says “A buffoon.”
“In St. Clair County, (the) Republican Party is in danger. Bob Romanik — the foul-mouthed, bigoted, sleaze jock — has used his ill-gotten money to hijack the party and replace it with his Freedom Coalition,” the Democrat Party’s political flyer states. “It’s time for St. Clair County Republicans to take their party back by rejecting Bob Romanik and his followers.” […]
“I want to thank them for their desperate action,” Romanik said. “This will just mean more votes for us…This shows that the Democrats are just trying to manipulate people like they always have. They are vulgar people.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** For whatever reason, I didn’t notice the “interactive graphic” in the article. According to that document, Chicago Public Schools’ funding would drop by more than $74 million under the governor’s plan. Many thanks to a commenter for pointing that out.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From the governor’s office…
CPS would have lost almost $200m ($189m to be exact) under the Democratic proration method.
Rauner’s 100% funding plan saves CPS over $100 million.
*** UPDATE 3 *** More from the governor’s office…
CPS will receive $74 million less state aid because they have fewer students.
*** UPDATE 4 *** Press release…
State Senator Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) issued the following statement in response to the governor’s education funding plan.
“This information gives us the opportunity to thoroughly debate the merits of the governor’s plan. Each school district deserves to know how it would fare under it.”
“Unfortunately, what I’m seeing is that the additional money flowing into the formula would continue to be funneled away from schools with the greatest need.”
“Putting more money into education is a great idea, but our flawed funding formula means that districts that lack resources and have been hit hard by cuts, districts like Taylorville, East St. Louis, Harvey and Streator, will be hit once again. In these four districts alone, there’s over $1.3 million in combined cuts. It’s not fair to the students, teachers, parents or taxpayers. These numbers show why change is needed.”
“I’m looking forward to similar debates about the education funding reform plan currently before the Senate, and I’m very encouraged by the overwhelming majority of legislators and state leaders who agree that the current system is flawed and needs to be changed.”
“The funding formula he defends makes no sense. If you’re a wealthy district you gain, if you’re a poor district you lose,” Claypool said at a news conference Tuesday.
He likened Rauner’s plan to “more akin to what we would see in the education system in Mississippi in the 1960s” because it shortchanges districts full of children who are poor and black or brown.
Claypool would not say what effect the proposal could have on stalled contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union.
“It certainly makes our already grave fiscal crisis graver,” he said. “The threat to our schools in the coming school year is even more profound than yesterday.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner is releasing numbers Tuesday showing how individual school districts would do under his education funding plan as he continues to push lawmakers to approve it despite the ongoing state budget battle.
Rauner has called for adding $55 million to the state’s general school payments, eliminating a series of cuts from previous years known as proration. That’s in addition to $75 million more that would be spent for early childhood programs. […]
Among the biggest winners in Rauner’s general aid numbers: $5.9 million more for Carpentersville-based Community Unit District 300, about $3.6 million more for Elgin Area District U-46 and $2.2 million more for Aurora East District 131 in the next fiscal year.
A few others each would see more than a million dollars more, including districts in Antioch, Grayslake, Huntley, Wauconda and Waukegan.
Among the districts that would lose money next year under Rauner’s proposal: Indian Prairie District 204 would get about $973,000 less. Addison District 4 and North Chicago District 187 would each see a drop of more than $600,000.
Notice anything missing? The impact on Chicago and Downstate districts with high poverty levels. The Democrats have predicted those schools would fare poorly yet again with the Rauner plan. Stay tuned for those numbers.
The governor is speaking to business groups at 11:45 and then to the bankers at 12:30. We’ll have live coverage.
Cracks might be forming in Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s decades-long hold on House Democrats, as backbenchers continue to cook under the heat of the state’s incessant budget impasse.
Those fissures appeared suddenly Monday in Rock Island, as a pair of House Democrats championed legislation that would impose limits on how long a lawmaker can hold a legislative leadership post.
Provides that no person may serve more than 8 consecutive years in any of the following leadership roles: Speaker of the House of Representatives, President of the Senate, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, and Minority Leader of the Senate. Provides that the limitations imposed by the amendatory Act apply to service beginning on and after January 11, 2017.
According to the article, Democratic Reps. Pat Verschoore and Mike Smiddy now support that bill, although they haven’t yet signed on as co-sponsors.
“I think sometimes — I don’t think, I know — that the top guy can amass a lot of power,” Verschoore told business leaders at a Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce luncheon. […]
Rep. Mike Smiddy, D-Hillsdale, is fighting for his political life. Smiddy, like Madigan, is a vocal critic of Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda.” Yet he, too, joined those supporting the ouster of leadership every eight years, a direct assault on Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton.
“I agree, we need term limits for leadership,” Smiddy said. […]
But it was the candor of Verschoore and Smiddy that raised eyebrows. Madigan not only runs the House and determines a bill’s survival. He’s also head of the state Democratic Party, an organization Smiddy will rely on to beat back a tough challenge by Republican Savanna Mayor Tony McCombie for the District 71 seat. […]
Frustration with the Madigan/Rauner standoff has stewed for months. And distancing oneself from Madigan might behoove any non-Chicago Democrat looking to keep a job. But Verschoore has no reason to pander. And, now, Smiddy is on the record stating unequivocally that leadership should be regularly cleansed.
* The very simple explanation for Verschoore is that he’s still furious at Madigan for not backing his preferred replacement in the recent primary (his nephew Jeff Jacobs). Not to mention that Madigan’s not-so-secret support for the eventual primary winner, Mike Halpin, funded slams on Verschoore himself via negative direct mail and TV ads.
Madigan definitely has some trouble with Verschoore, but it’s not like the guy’s gonna walk over to Rauner. The man bleeds Democratic union blood.
And Smiddy is a Tier One target, so supporting this bill is kind of a no-brainer and isn’t nearly as consequential as saying he won’t vote for Madigan for Speaker come January. Smiddy also got himself elected without help from Madigan in 2012, so he has been more independent-minded, although he had to be bailed out in 2014.
* Madigan only “requires” two votes from his membership: Reelection as Speaker and the House rules. Other than that, they can do pretty much whatever they want, unless they’re a target and then they’re given constant “advice” on how their votes will impact the folks back home and, by extension, their own reelections.
The author of the above piece is the paper’s editorial page editor. And those folks throughout the state are almost uniformly anti-Madigan. I’m not saying there’s no grumbling about Madigan in the ranks. There most certainly is, and for good reason. I’m just saying here that an open revolt is unlikely at this moment, and it’s mainly because of who’s leading the opposition (which is pretty much always the case, but is especially true now).
