A coroner in western Illinois is facing sharp criticism for how he handles poor people who can’t afford to bury their loved ones: He has them sign over their rights to the deceased, leaving them without the death certificate, then cremates the body and keeps the ashes until the family pays $1,000.
If they cannot come up with the money, the ashes are eventually buried, along with others, in an unmarked grave. If the family needs the death certificate to access bank accounts or life insurance, the coroner first arranges for the county to recoup its costs from any proceeds.
Adams County Coroner James Keller says the policy started after the state, which for years has faced billion-dollar deficits and unpaid bills, announced it was too broke to pay for indigent funerals and burials — shifting the cost to funeral homes and county coroners. Of the $1,000 people pay, he says $800 goes to the funeral homes and $200 to the crematory. […]
Illinois provides up to $1,655 — $1,103 for funerals and $552 for cremation and burial. But the money was cut off in 2010 and again in 2015 as the state headed into a more than two-year budget impasse. In some cases, counties ended up picking up the costs.
* Not mentioned in the story is that money was appropriated last year…
For Funeral and Burial Expenses under Articles III, IV, and V, including prior year costs 9,271,600
(A)gencies that get assistance from three-dozen state human service programs learned in recent weeks that Rauner had unilaterally decided to withhold some of the money promised them in the state budget lawmakers passed this summer over the governor’s veto.
As of last October, funeral and burial expenses had been cut by 35 percent. And this wasn’t the first, or even second time that the governor has tried to cut or zero out burial expenses.
* From the comptroller, with emphasis added by me…
Illinois Comptroller Susana A. Mendoza is urging the Illinois Department of Human Services to ensure that county coroners, funeral directors and cemeteries are aware that there are state reimbursements available to help cover the costs of funerals and burial for those in Illinois who cannot afford these services.
The move comes after the Associated Press reported that Adams County Coroner James Keller is refusing to release remains and death certificates to families who cannot afford to pay for a funeral and burial.
“Holding the remains of people’s loved ones for ransom is unthinkable. Everyone deserves a respectful burial. Being poor is not a crime, but disrespecting grieving families the way Coroner Keller is should be,” said Comptroller Mendoza. “This disgusting behavior by Coroner Keller isn’t reflective of who we are as a state.”
The two-year budget impasse has left county officials and funeral directors feeling as though they cannot count on the indigent funeral and burial program. No state money was spent on the program for Fiscal Year 2016. In FY 17, only $2.1 million of the $8.8 million appropriation was expended. This lack of state support created an environment that allowed for Keller’s gross abuse of power.
The AP story reveals a sad reality that many coroners, funeral directors and family members of the indigent are not aware of existing funding administered by DHS. There is a $9.3 million appropriation in the current fiscal year for the program, but only $1.5 million has been expended to date. The Comptroller’s office pays these reimbursements within a few days of receiving the vouchers for them from DHS. In fact, the office is currently prioritizing payment of all vouchers from DHS.
“We are urging the Rauner administration to do more to let county officials and funeral directors know that this money is set aside at the state level, so the costs aren’t pushed onto local taxpayers and businesses, and families aren’t faced with added stress in a time of mourning,” Mendoza said. “Through my office’s role working with cemeteries and funeral homes in a regulatory capacity, we have confirmed that many in the industry are not aware that these funds are available.”
In an effort to increase awareness of the program, the Comptroller’s office will inform funeral directors and burial entities in the Office’s regulatory listing that funding is available for the program in the current year and provide them with the appropriate contact information at DHS.
“When DHS receives these reimbursement applications, they should process them as quickly as possible and send the vouchers to my office for payment. If there are any outstanding applications, I would ask the department to expedite them. Doing so will allow us to bring relief to the funeral homes, that have been shouldering the cost of the state’s financial dysfunction, and lift some of this unnecessary burden on grieving families,” Comptroller Mendoza said.
If DHS is sitting on lots of vouchers, this could get uglier. Both the comptroller and the governor need to get on this.
Met with Dem House and Senate leaders today. We want to match spending and revenues. That’s a novel concept in the General Assembly where it hasn’t been done for many, many years. First step is straightforward, and it is the law: certify FY19 revenue.
* She’s right. It’s pretty much all Rauner has, except for the likely “corruption” claims. Taxes, Madigan, Taxes, Madigan, Corruption, Taxes, Corruption, Madigan, Taxes all the way to November…
The numbers don’t look good for Gov. Bruce Rauner’s re-election chances based on enthusiasm among Democratic voters alone. Four years ago, the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial primaries drew 1.3 million voters to Illinois polling places. In March, that number jumped to 2.1 million, driven by Democrats. They’re stoked.
Consider that Democratic nominee J.B. Pritzker in a six-way race still collected 597,756 votes. Rauner, in a two-way primary, collected only 372,124. Too early to cue the “Price is Right” loser horn? Bum-bum-ba-buuum. Perhaps.
Rauner has one shot: Convince Illinoisans of both parties that a vote for Pritzker is a vote for higher taxes. Tap into the rebellion that overturned the Cook County soda tax. Remind voters that Springfield cannot be trusted with another blank check. Rauner still can position himself as the only backstop between voters’ wallets and the irresponsible savoir-faire of the General Assembly.
It starts with a fierce campaign against the Democrats’ graduated income tax proposal requiring a constitutional change. Pritzker and House Speaker Michael Madigan are positioning the tax as a fairness issue. Stick it to the rich guys (and never mind the ambidexterity of their positions, being two rich guys).
The rest of the column is a bit on the hyperbolic side, but that part is right.
[I accidentally hit the “publish” button on an earlier version of this story before I was finished. That post has been deleted, but then I accidentally lost all my work, so I had to start all over again. Oops! Been one of those days, I guess.]
Three years ago today, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down the state’s attempt to cut its employees’ pension benefits to chip away at a retirement-system debt that’s swelled to almost $11,000 for every man, woman and child.
Since then, Illinois’s credit rating was downgraded to the verge of junk, its bonds have tumbled and its largest city — Chicago — was stripped of its investment-grade status by Moody’s Investors Service. And Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and the Democrat-led legislature have made no real progress toward a new plan that doesn’t violate the state constitution’s ban on reducing benefits. […]
The funding shortfall across Illinois’s five retirement systems climbed to $137 billion by last June, a jump of about $17.8 billion since 2015, after the government for years failed to made adequate contributions. That pension deficit — more than four times larger that its debt to general-obligation bondholders — is adding hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to Illinois’s budget each year as the government plows more money in to catch up. […]
Even as the state is set to pay $8.5 billion to the five retirement systems in 2019, it’s still not enough. Unfunded liabilities keep growing. And the 2019 contribution is more than three times the state’s payment a decade earlier: Illinois paid $2.8 billion to pensions in 2009. By 2045, the projected contribution will be $19.6 billion, according to a March report, based on actuarial valuations.
Yes, the projected annual state contribution will be $19.6 billion by 2045, but the state’s Unfunded Accrued Actuarial Liabilities will be just $32.7 billion by then, so I’m thinking the state will likely avoid the full payment for that year and probably a few years before as well. That ramp is so darned back-loaded.
* According to COGFA, Tier 2 is working. Tier 1’s annual “normal costs” (the benefits paid out in a given year) are 17.4 percent of payroll this fiscal year, while Tier 2’s are 1.6 percent. By 2032, Tier 1 costs drop below Tier 2, at 6.7 and 6.8 percent respectively. By 2045, Tier 1 will cost 0.5 percent of payroll, while Tier 2 will be at 10.4 percent.
The question becomes whether Tier 2 can survive federal regulations because the benefits are so low. That could very well be a huge ticking time bomb.
The real problem, as always, is the unfunded liabilities.
* Senate President John Cullerton emerged from the leaders’ meeting after about an hour to say they had some good discussions. He said the leaders didn’t talk about the supplement appropriation requested by the governor. He said there was no talk about a tax hike. “We did that last year,” Cullerton said.
He denied an earlier claim by Gov. Rauner that the Democrats were slow-walking the process and later said, “We have a much closer, smaller gap and there’s ways to fill it.” And when asked how receptive Gov. Rauner has been to listening to his and other leaders’ priorities, Cullerton replied, “Very receptive.”
* There’s still a budget gap to fill, he said, but he said he was hopeful that they could do some things that they’ve done in the past to close it, including interfund borrowing. Cullerton also said there was some “federal changes” that may allow Illinois to “bring in some more revenue,” but didn’t specify what those were. He was pressed a couple of times about coming up with a formal revenue estimate…
My point was to not get hung up on a specific number, because whatever that number is there’s a general idea about what it is and it’s not enough to pay for our other bills. So, that’s where we get into these other variables. You know, selling the Thompson Center could bring in 200 or 300, so there’s a number you’re never gonna tie down. But that’s another consideration of closing this gap. There’s a number of different things that we would consider to closing the gap and that’s what we’re going to ask our negotiators to do. […]
I wouldn’t get hung up on that. That gets into somewhat of a gotcha game and a political fight… That’s not what’s holding us up.
He kinda meandered, but I think what he meant was there could be ideas for bringing in more revenue (including sweeps, etc.), so locking everything down now with a formal estimate isn’t necessary and could be counter-productive.
* Then came Gov. Rauner…
Gov. Rauner on emerging from the leaders meeting "the process is moving very slowly i would like to see it move more expeditiously" since time running out on spring session (may end) …."there is a clear reluctance" to pin down speaker and sen pres on revenue number ….
Gov….no more taxes, the people are taxed out…. budget group meeting today and tonight "hope to get to an agreement" this month….leaders and gov will meet "every few days"
Question? what suggests that process going slow? Gov. says lack of agreement on revenue estimate…"we want to match spending and revenue"…..Question? what is the gap? Gov. says first have to agree to a revenue estimate to know the gap….
The tale of two budget talks. Sen. President John Cullerton says they made progress with GOP & "generally agree" on revenue. @GovRauner says Cullerton, Madigan are "reluctant" to agree to specific revenue estimate. Gov said it's not "appropriate" to get into specifics. pic.twitter.com/6yTfdt78lo
Sen. minority leader Brady….there is a gap, but "today's meeting was very fruitful" ….Brady says COGFA estimate is what they are going with…..Durkin, our priority is to have a dollar certain what we can spend….
After more than three years, the governor has yet to successfully negotiate a full-year budget. Maybe listening to Leader Brady would be the smart move here.
* Rahm’s anti-carjacking bill is unfair, being falsely sold and won’t work: The offense targeted by House Bill 4729 and proposed amendments is not carjacking – or assault, robbery, or any related violent offense. The bill, far more broadly and dangerously, would make it easier to convict someone of felony possession of a stolen motor vehicle by allowing a court to “infer that a person knows or recklessly disregards” a car is stolen if he or she happens to be in a vehicle “without the consent of the owner.” … Like nine out of ten shootings, nine out of ten carjackings did not end in an arrest by the Chicago Police Department by the end of the year. This is not the fault of state sentencing laws. Giving more felony convictions and prison years to a very broad group of people because police can’t identify the small number who are committing violent crime isn’t a public safety strategy. It is wanton state interference with employment, housing, education, child support and the host of other factors that contribute to stable families and communities.
* Chicago has fewer beat cops despite police hiring surge, records show: More than a year into the Chicago Police Department’s biggest hiring surge in decades, 14 of the city’s 22 police districts now have fewer beat cops than they did when the push was announced, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.
* Carjacked — by a boy who reminded me of my son: It’s aggravating to see the hyperbolic rhetoric about crime ravaging our city and all the tough-on-crime speeches that haven’t worked. I do appreciate police Superintendent Eddie Johnson bringing in federal agents on this matter and Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushing new legislation aimed at combating carjackings. Yet I struggle and consider this boy. Would I really want him to get a punishment that would cut him off from any opportunity or future?
* Editorial: Young offenders with de facto life terms deserve a chance at parole: Juvenile justice reformers and scientific experts have pointed out that young people are less culpable for their actions because their brains are not fully developed. It’s easy for them to make terrible decisions, as McKinley did, especially because of peer pressure or in the heat of the moment. Our laws already recognize that young people don’t make decisions as well as adults: That’s why we have age requirements for voting, drinking, driving, smoking, getting married and joining the military.
A clear contrast in the Illinois governor’s race is emerging between GOP Governor Bruce Rauner, who supports reforms that will help Illinois grow jobs, and Democrat J.B. Pritzker, who wants to hike taxes and do nothing to help Illinois’ business climate.
Rauner has proposed numerous pro-jobs reforms, but they’ve been consistently vetoed by J.B. Pritzker’s top ally, House Speaker Mike Madigan.
Now, the News-Gazette editorial board is slamming J.B. Pritzker for allying with Madigan and having “shown no interest in promoting changes needed to boost the business climate.” With Illinois families and businesses already fleeing the state in record numbers, Pritzker wants a massive tax hike that will make the problem even worse.
Illinoisans know that this November’s election is a choice between J.B. Pritzker’s tax-hike, anti-jobs agenda, and Governor Bruce Rauner’s pro-jobs reforms that will get Illinois back on track.
Massachusetts ranks No. 45, Connecticut (46), New Jersey (47), Illinois (48), New York (49) and California (50) [according to Chief Executive magazine].
If that seems familiar, Chief Executive said, “That’s because those are the exact same positions each of these states has occupied in each of the last four years in our annual poll of CEOs about business climates.” […]
Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, was elected four years ago on a platform dedicated to restoring a healthy business climate. But he’s been stopped cold by a Democratic-controlled Legislature determined to maintain the status quo.
That doesn’t mean Democrats are automatically hostile to policies aimed at creating more job opportunities. But Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker, so far at least, has shown no interest in promoting changes needed to boost the business climate.
That’s the kind of static situation Chief Executive cited as a factor to running in place. Right now, Illinois is two spots from last place and shows no interest in moving up.
Aside from completely absolving Gov. Rauner, the editorial fails to mention the fact that supposedly last place California has had an astonishing rebirth under Gov. Jerry Brown…
California’s economy has surpassed that of the United Kingdom to become the world’s fifth largest, according to new federal data made public on Friday. […]
California last had the world’s fifth largest economy in 2002 but fell as low as 10th in 2012 following the great recession. Since then, the largest US state has added 2 million jobs and grown its GDP by $700bn, now contributing a little over 14% of the US economy despite having 12% of the US population, according to state economists.
Massachusetts, which Chief Executive magazine ranked 45th, had a 2.6 percent GDP growth, ranking it 11th out of 50. Massachusetts has a popular Republican governor who has worked well with his Democratic legislature.
Pritzker founded 1871, the tech business incubator in the Merchandise Mart credited with creating some 7,000 jobs. This remarkable nonprofit has raised Chicago’s profile nationwide as a high-tech hub. He served as chairman of Chicago’s Technology and Entrepreneurship Committee. He was a founder of Matter, the nonprofit healthcare technology incubator.
This kind of future-focused approach to economic development is precisely what Illinois sorely needs right now. It is also reflective of what seems to be Pritzker’s philosophy for trying to make a difference in this world: work it from the bottom up.
Tuesday, May 8, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The credit union movement focuses heavily on community service and charitable giving, but credit unions also give back to their members through generous financial benefits like low loan rates, high savings rates, and fewer fees than most other banking institutions. In 2017, Illinois credit unions gave an estimated $309,145,878 in direct financial benefits to the nearly 3.2 million credit union members in our state (CUNA.org). Intrigued? Visit ASmarterChoice.org to learn how you can save by becoming a credit union member today.
Abortion, military service and racial inequality could remain at the center of debate over whether Illinois lawmakers should ratify the decades-old Equal Rights Amendment in the coming weeks.
Those issues were on display at a four-hour Illinois House committee hearing in Chicago on Monday, more than 35 years after the 1982 deadline for states to pass the constitutional amendment designed to protect citizens against sex-based discrimination. […]
Anti-abortion activists were the most vocal in Monday’s hearing. They view the Equal Rights Amendment as a vehicle for putting abortion protections into the U.S. Constitution. […]
Lang needs 71 votes to get the amendment approved by the House, meaning he’ll need both Democrats and Republicans to back it. While Lang has noted conservative opposition, some Democrats don’t like it either. So the issue may be more complicated than traditional partisan differences.
* From Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago)…
Isn’t this all about changing the law on abortion?
No. The right to abortion is already protected under the U.S. Constitution. Whether the ERA has an additional impact on state laws relating to abortion is something that courts will have to resolve, based on the goal that the state is attempting to achieve through the law and whether the law is narrowly tailored (and the least restrictive means) of achieving that goal. Within Illinois, ratifying the ERA will not lead to a significant change in the status of state laws that might touch on abortion, given that the Illinois Constitution already prohibits sex discrimination by the state government.
Reproductive Rights:
The repeated claim of opponents that the ERA would require government to allow “abortion on demand” is a clear misrepresentation of existing laws and court decisions at both federal and state levels.
In federal courts, including the Supreme Court, a number of restrictive laws dealing with contraception and abortion have been invalidated since the mid–20th century based on application of the constitutional principles of the right of privacy and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. The principles of equal protection or equal rights have so far not been applied to such cases at the federal level.
State equal rights amendments have been cited in a few state court decisions (e.g., in Connecticut and New Mexico) regarding a very specific issue – whether a state that provides funding to low-income Medicaid-eligible women for childbirth expenses should also be required to fund medically necessary abortions for women in that government program. Those courts ruled that the state must fund both pregnancy-related procedures if it funds either, in order to prevent the government from using fiscal pressure to exert a chilling influence on a woman’s exercise of her constitutional right to make medical decisions about her pregnancy. The New Jersey Supreme Court issued a similar decision based on the right of privacy and equal protection, with no reference to its state constitution’s equal rights guarantee.
The presence or absence of a state ERA or equal protection guarantee does not necessarily correlate with a state’s legal climate for reproductive rights. For example, despite Pennsylvania’s state ERA, the state Supreme Court decided that restrictions on Medicaid funding of abortions were constitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court in separate litigation (Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 1992) upheld Pennsylvania’s restrictions on the abortion procedure under the federal due process clause.
State court decisions on reproductive rights are not conclusive evidence of how federal courts would decide such cases. For example, while some state courts have required Medicaid funding of medically necessary abortions, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the federal “Hyde Amendment,” which has for decades prohibited the federal government from funding most or all Medicaid abortions, even many that are medically necessary.
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday announced the federal government has approved a state Medicaid waiver that will allow community-based service providers to provide more care for patients with substance abuse and other mental health problems.
The waiver, which was more than two years in the making and includes 10 pilot programs, will provide services that are not currently covered by Medicaid, Felicia Norwood, director of the state Department of Healthcare and Family Services, said Monday at a West Side press conference. And it’s aimed at getting patients continual care instead of having them go to pricey emergency rooms or institutions.
“I personally believe this is maybe one of the most important days in the history of public health for the state of Illinois, anywhere in our state’s history,” Rauner said.
The initial focus of the program will be behavioral health, both mental health and substance abuse, and that was chosen “due to the urgency of the issue as well as the potential financial and human impact,” the state’s department of Healthcare and Family Services said in a fact sheet. The goals are to help stem the opioid epidemic, reduce violent crime and violent encounters with police and improve maternal and child health.
This waiver has been sought for years, starting with Gov. Quinn. It’s a very big thing.
Gov. Bruce Rauner announced Monday that the federal government has approved $2 billion in Illinois-directed Medicaid funding for the use of programs focusing on behavioral health conditions and addiction treatment via a 5-year pilot program named Better Care Illinois. Without the waiver, the money couldn’t be used in this manner.
Rauner says the waiver will allow the state to care for the whole person while finding savings in the Medicaid system.
“We believe that this will save huge amounts of taxpayer funding while improving the quality of mental health and total health for the people of Illinois,” he said.
* Those savings won’t be realized right away, of course. It will take time to implement the programs and lots more time for the programs to work as intended…
Rauner said one in four Medicaid recipients have behavior health conditions. They account for 52 percent of Medicaid spending.
“We are going to change the way our services are provided up front,” Gov. Bruce Rauner said. “That will save money over the five-year waiver program, and we’re going to then reinvest those savings back in the program and then drive major savings in the future subsequent to the five-year waiver.”
So some savings within five years and then “major savings” after five years.
* With that in mind, check this out from yesterday’s IDHS bullet points…
What is budget neutrality?
The federal government requires the demonstrations to be “budget neutral,” meaning that during the course of the waiver Medicaid expenditures cannot exceed what they would be without the waiver. The 1115 waiver is not a grant but rather an opportunity to use Medicaid dollars differently to increase the efficiency and quality of care for Medicaid populations.
That link and language was provided by a commenter, who asked…
Question for the Governor: since the overall state spending of federal dollars cannot increased, what will he be cutting out of current Waiver spending in order re-direct money to the pilot programs, or is he planning to use money out of GRF that receives no federal match for the pilots and what will he then cut out of GRF to pay for that?
The state has five years of flexibility for how it spends $2 billion. It’s a fraction of Illinois Medicaid spending, which is about $21 billion a year.
In other words, they’ll be repurposing about ten percent of current Medicaid spending. It’s actually 2 percent per year for five years…
$1,997,670,906 in repurposed spending over 5-years… So we’re talking about 2%, not 10%.
Speaking on WOC AM-1420 in Davenport, Iowa, Rauner declared himself a unifier — not just among Republicans, but also with independents and Democrats.
“You know primaries are tough. They’re part of the process. I respect the process and now we’re all coming together in the state. We’re unifying all Republicans,” said Rauner, who faces a third-party challenge from Downstate Republican state Sen. Sam McCann and a potential battle over re-electing his hand-picked state GOP chairman.
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday tried to distance himself from a leadership battle within the Illinois Republican Party, the latest in an ongoing struggle between the governor and a vocal wing of conservatives who say they have been betrayed. […]
On Monday, Rauner tried to make light of the party leadership issue, saying: “I really don’t spend much time thinking about it.” […]
Rauner said Monday that he’s not paying attention to the infighting within the party, pointing out that “there have been fights and disagreements and challenges many times over the years. It’s part of the process.”
* Meanwhile…
We need a solid conservative to lead the IL GOP, not an inept insider completely controlled by Governor Rauner!https://t.co/7ovA2HnJYb
Lori Lightfoot has resigned as head of the Chicago Police Board, the board confirmed Monday. […]
Her resignation comes days before sources say the former U.S. attorney is expected to announce her campaign for mayor, set to happen Thursday.
Lightfoot has been meeting with key political operatives to build a team, but will not confirm the Thursday timing.
* Fran Spielman reports that Lightfoot has already “hired a fundraiser, a pollster, a campaign consultant and a firm to handle her direct mail.” OK, but she hasn’t even filed a D-1 yet. From Fran’s piece…
Greg Goldner, who managed Emanuel’s 2002 congressional campaign, advised Lightfoot to follow the playbook that carried County Board President Toni Preckwinkle to a landslide victory during a 2010 campaign master-minded by Ken Snyder, who just happens to be Lightfoot’s political consultant.
“She unified the African-American community to a large extent, and she was able to get white progressives,” Goldner said of Preckwinkle. […]
Jacky Grimshaw, who served as a top aide to former Mayor Harold Washington, has her doubts about Lightfoot’s ability to pull it off.
“Dorothy Brown has the church ladies. I don’t know what constituency Lori has,” Grimshaw said. “If police and police misbehavior is your issue, then you pay attention to it. If it’s not, what else have you done? How’s that gonna help me get a job? How’s that gonna help me keep my health care?”
Grimshaw is right. Dorothy Brown does, indeed, have “the church ladies.” Brown visits several churches every weekend and she’s the only Emanuel opponent so far with a readily identifiable and historically friendly base. If she survives the federal investigation (which has dragged on for years and years), she could very well make the runoff without having to spend much. Don’t laugh. Weirder things have happened.
* The four legislative leaders will meet with the governor at 11 o’clock this morning. They met briefly last month. Watch the live coverage post for updates.
Gov. Bruce Rauner said Monday that budget talks have been “frustratingly slow” ahead of a deadline to pass a spending plan with simple majorities.
“I hope it’s not some orchestrated effort to go slow,” Rauner told reporters Monday in Chicago. “We need a balanced budget for a full year, not just six months, no new taxes and a budget that lives within our means.” […]
“[The] pace [is] being set by his budget director,” said Steve Brown, Madigan’s spokesman. “The speaker continues to work to get the budget done by the end of the month.”
Brown also said the budget director is focusing on a fiscal 2018 supplemental budget “to pay for administration overspending.”
LISNEK: So is this something the state can and should pay for? Durbin [says] we’re going to get federal money. Is it something where we might get the feds? Some have called on the governor to call Trump and say ‘help us.’
IVES: Well that would be me, because I called on the governor months ago to call Donald Trump and ask for assistance immediately and to have that entire structure torn down and rebuilt, and I’m kind of shocked that he has not done that and made that call yet. Maybe he has and it’s being misreported, but I would certainly reach out to the VA [unintelligible] as well.
LISNEK: Before I leave this topic I just wanted to get your reaction to the Darlene Senger— I know you know her well— but that e-mail. Obviously she never intended that to be public, but nevertheless, ‘Hey maybe we can put this back on Tammy Duckworth,’ who you know is a decorated war veteran, served this country. What was your reaction to that?
IVES: Listen, it’s unfortunate that she would ever try to link this Quinn administration that was years before the Rauner administration. Granted, I will give her this though, that for decades both the Democrats and the Republicans have not set aside money to do the maintenance that is required in many of our areas. In fact, I know we’re $21 billion per year behind on infrastructure improvements and much of that goes to our state facilities. So I think there’s some blame to be shared, but you don’t blame-shift when you had 13 deaths and then you failed to actually move those Veterans out of an unsafe condition. Nobody should be blaming that on anybody but the Rauner administration.
* Meanwhile, from that same interview, here’s Politico…
During an interview with CLTV’s Paul Lisnek on Monday, state Rep. Jeanne Ives went on a tear against Gov. Bruce Rauner and Tim Schneider, the Illinois Republican Party chairman the governor is backing. Ives, who narrowly lost to Rauner in the March primary, is supporting Schneider’s opponent Mark Shaw in a heated fight over the GOP throne.
Among the reasons Ives is backing Shaw: she blames Schneider for the Nazi candidate running as a Republican in Illinois’ 3rd congressional district.
“So he’s alienating the base by propping up Schneider again, and Schneider has failed. Look we have 37 state reps, Democrats, unopposed in this coming up election. It is the party chairman’s responsibility to find opponents. We have an avowed Nazi sitting as a Republican in a congressional race, and that’s wrong too. And then on top of it, the entire emphasis from Tim Schneider and Rauner et al over the last campaign cycle is simply to get Rauner elected, and so much of what they did in terms of data collection and everything else did not support our state reps. We need a whole new vision for our party, and a whole new way to attract voters.”
And then there’s this exchange. Ouch: Lisnek: “If polls look close come November and it looks like Pritzker could pull it out, would that be enough of a scare for you to look at your supporters and say it’s ok, vote Rauner?”
Ives: “I can’t predict what the future’s going to look like, umm, in a few months, so we’ll just see what’s going on.”
*** UPDATE *** DGA, with emphasis added by me…
ILGOP Feud Continues - Ives Says Rauner “Never Actually Heard the Message that Was Sent to Him”
While Governor Bruce Rauner claims he’s “unifying” Republicans, state Representative Jeanne Ives blasted the Governor’s lack of rapprochement with the 48% of Republicans that supported her in the primary. Ives went on CLTV and reiterated that they still, a month and a half later, have not spoken:
Reporter: “The Governor says everything is fine between you and him. Let me get your take. Is it all good?”
Ives: “Listen, I have not spoken with the Governor yet. So, he is doing his thing. And I am continuing to do my thing as a state Representative.”
Rauner’s strategy of ignoring Ives is clearly not working as they continue to fight over the party chairman position and the direction of the Republican Party:
Reporter: “…But isn’t supporting somebody besides Tim Schneider an effort to sort of say we still need to shake things up?”
Ives: “No, it’s actually… Governor Rauner supporting Tim Schneider is basically saying he never actually heard the message that was sent to him on March 20th… So, he’s alienating the base by propping up Schneider again, and Schneider has failed.”
Ives finished the interview by refusing to commit to helping Rauner.
Reporter: “If the polls look close come November, and Pritzker could pull it out - will that be enough of a scare for you to look at your supporters and say it is ok to vote Rauner?”
Ives: “I cannot predict what the future is going to look like in a few months. So, we just see what is going on.”
“Bruce Rauner’s sham strategy of claiming that his party was unifying without reaching out to the 48% of Republicans that rejected him is clearly not working,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “It’s been nearly two months since the primary and the only unifying Bruce Rauner has done is getting Independents, Democrats, and Republicans in agreement that he has failed them long enough.”
* I’ve made some changes to this now-daily post to make it even more user-friendly. I’ve added some of the morning roundups I receive every day and I’ll “pin” one of them to the top for the first part of every morning (the pinned item has a red triangle in the upper-right corner). The pinned roundup comes from RK PR Solutions’ Ryan Keith. Many thanks for his help.
The new format worked out well for me yesterday. Instead of adding to my workload it actually reduced it a bit because I didn’t have to struggle to figure out how to post some marginal items. Those will go here from now on, so keep an eye on this post every day. Anyway, watch all the action with the help of ScribbleLive…
Chalk it up to good intentions, bad policy. Democrats in Springfield are pushing legislation that would require public school districts to pay teachers a minimum salary of $40,000. Sounds righteous , right?
The idea is part of a broader agenda to address a teacher shortage mostly outside Chicago in rural districts that struggle to fill openings and retain staff. It’s a serious problem that impacts learning. Kids endure rotations of teachers and substitutes, or miss out altogether on hard-to-staff subject areas such as physics and foreign languages. We get it. […]
There are ways to attract quality teachers that don’t involve a state-mandated starting salary. How about lifting nonmonetary barriers that make the profession unattractive? Teachers certified in other states who move to Illinois often deal with more than a year of Illinois State Board of Education roadblocks and paperwork.
Professionals with bachelor’s degrees who decide to teach midcareer face more than a year of required classes, testing and job shadowing.
Have only an associate’s degree but want to teach? Sorry. Here’s your stack of prerequisites.
On one hand, policymakers, who don’t understand that the education of students is much more than a test score, tell teachers, “Because we want the best for our kids, we’re going to test our students to prove that they’re learning what they’re supposed to be learning and then we want to evaluate teachers based on those tests.”
Yet, at the same time, educators nationwide are told by non-educators: “We should lower the standards for the people to whom we entrust our children’s education and upon whom we rely to fill their heads with knowledge and stimulate a love of learning.”
See the contradiction? The goal is “better teaching” and “better results,” yet the proposal is to accomplish those goals by lowering the bar for classroom teachers. This is illogical.
It’s painful to state something so obvious: Not everyone can teach. Acquiring a bachelor’s degree and spending a few years in another profession doesn’t mean you have the skills it takes to manage a classroom of 25 students. You don’t walk in, untrained, and understand all of the different ways those students learn and how to assess whether they’ve actually learned what you’ve taught them.
Those skills are not typically acquired in the two years it takes to earn an associate degree.
Teaching is a profession. To address the teacher shortage, instead of “easing” teacher licensure requirements, let’s show our teachers their work is valued. Acknowledge that teaching is a profession.
* The Question: Should the state establish a minimum wage for public school teachers? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
The death of Pamela Knight, an Illinois Department of Child and Family Services caseworker who was attacked and beaten while attempting to take a child into protective custody, was a high-profile example of what many say is a reality: Caseworkers’ jobs can put them in dangerous situations.
The Illinois General Assembly was quick to unanimously pass a resolution praising Knight and expressing condolences to her family and friends.
But bills that would give DCFS case workers like Knight the same protected status as police officers and firefighters harmed while performing official duties have stalled in a House committee. And though a similar Senate bill has shown new signs of life, it, too, faces a difficult climb to passage. […]
The bill was introduced in January but lingered for months in a Senate subcommittee, often a place where legislation goes to die. But last week, the bill was revived and cleared committee with no opposition.
Even if it clears the Senate, there’s still a problem with the House. So, we’ll see.
* Legionnaires’ outbreaks prompt bills to mandate faster notifications: Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Aurora, said that testimony prompted her to sponsor one of these notification bills, House Bill 4278, criticizing the method used by the facility which she described as was “simply word of mouth.”
* Illinois Senate views marijuana as opioid alternative: The Senate voted 44-6 Thursday to allow doctors to prescribe medical marijuana as an alternative to opioids . Those addicted to opioids would also be eligible to apply for a medical card to use marijuana.
* Letter: Illinois lawmakers can stop TrumpCare from harming Illinoisans with preexisting conditions
* Editorial: Illinois legislators snub voters on fair maps again: Like Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who is seeking re-election, Pritzker has vowed to veto any gerrymandered maps if he wins. But will he? It is up to all of us to require not only that he keep that pledge, but even prior to the election, he show real leadership in the push for a fair map referendum. He did not provide that leadership this spring.
* Two legislative research staffs to merge: The Legislative Research Unit, which does research for the General Assembly and puts out a range of publications, is apparently going to merge into another group that serves lawmakers: the Commission on Government Forecasting & Accountability. LRU and COGFA are among legislative support services controlled by the General Assembly. “I think all the leaders are for it,” said STEVE BROWN, spokesman for House Speaker MICHAEL MADIGAN, D-Chicago, of combining the two services. “From time to time, you review operations, and there’s a decision you can consolidate these entities and maintain these services.”
* Illinois counties declare ’sanctuary’ status for gun owners: At least five counties recently passed resolutions declaring themselves sanctuary counties for gun owners — a reference to so-called sanctuary cities such as Chicago that don’t cooperate with aspects of federal immigration enforcement.
Bruce Rauner doesn’t want to “dwell on the past” after 13 Veterans and spouses died on his watch and 11 families are suing the state for negligence after Rauner failed to end the Legionnaires’ crisis and keep our Veterans safe.
When asked if he thought an administration email trying to blame his fatal mismanagement on combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth was “proper,” Rauner responded, “I don’t think we should dwell on the past.”
“Bruce Rauner let 13 Veterans and spouses die on his watch and then his administration tried to pin it on our combat Veteran U.S. Senator, but Rauner doesn’t want to ‘dwell on the past,’” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Years of fatal mismanagement and blatant cover ups deserve our full attention, and to suggest otherwise is an insult to the wellbeing of our nation’s heroes.”
* This is how the Senger campaign responded last week, with emphasis added by me…
The simple, bipartisan fact is that for years, including the past Blagojevich and Quinn administrations, our veterans homes suffered from chronic underfunding that impacted the care our veterans received along with the critical maintenance and modernization of the state’s veterans facilities.
There is no doubt that the lack of proper funding for veterans over the last decade has exacerbated the problems we currently face. If we choose to ignore the past, systemic failures to fund our veteran’s programs, then we are destined to continue to face these challenges in the future and that was the point of my comment–we need to understand how and when these problems started in order to find long-term solutions.
Not to mention that the governor almost constantly talks about the disastrous years before he was elected. That’s almost his entire schtick.
So, does “the past” actually start in December of 2014?
Speaker of the House Mike Madigan “I don’t go to Springfield for the people that live off of investment returns, I go for the people that work everyday to live.” pic.twitter.com/t4dIQQaWtl
* Amanda Kass looks at the bill backlog. You can skim this first part if you are already well-versed in the budget impasse…
I estimated that the state’s General Fund spending was $32.8 billion in FY2016*, which was only about 7% less than the last “normal” year, FY2015. In other words, during the two-year impasse, most of the state’s spending was still legally authorized for a variety of reasons.
Even though most state spending was legally authorized in FY2016 and FY2017, the state didn’t actually have enough revenue to pay all its bills, so a backlog built up—leaving a growing number of vendors with state contracts in the lurch. Imagine trying to keep your business afloat while waiting years to receive payment for services already rendered. Instead of just holding onto the bills, some of these vendors turned to third-parties to offload this debt. Vendors are able to do this because of the Vendor Payment Program (VPP), which then Governor Pat Quinn created in 2011.** Under the VPP, a vendor sells its debt to another entity (known as a “Qualified Purchaser”), and this provides the vendor the cash it needs to keep operating. The state incurs a penalty charge when it pays bills late, and the interest rate is 9% or 12% depending on the underlying service. The Qualified Purchaser gets the interest penalty fees when the underlying bill is eventually paid by the state.
Importantly though, the VPP is only for bills that are for legally authorized spending, and the program was suspended in 2015 during the budget impasse. In 2016, Governor Bruce Rauner created the Vendor Support Initiative (VSI), which is just like the VPP except it’s for bills for which “no appropriation or other legal authority currently exists to pay the invoice.” This brings me to my first head scratcher: how was the Governor able to unilaterally create this program? Moreover, how were bills allowed to stack up if there was no legal authority to spend money on those goods and services? Remember, during the impasse most state spending was legally authorized, and several court cases occurred specifically to hash out whether spending on specific aspects of the state government (for items like state employee payroll) could continue.
That first question is a very good one. How could the governor unilaterally create this new Vendor Support Initiative, which deleted the previous requirement for an actual appropriation? The state constitution is clear that no expenditures can be made without an appropriation. Also, why were some vendors allowed into VSI and others weren’t? I suspect that some were simply more “important” to the governor than others (Dept. of Corrections vendors vs. human service providers).
The answer to the second question about how the bills were allowed to stack up is fairly straight-forward: During the long impasse, the Rauner administration convinced some crucial vendors (particularly Department of Corrections and human service providers) that they’d eventually get paid. So, those vendors kept providing their goods and services - or new vendors were brought in if somebody dropped out. And some of those same vendors (Corrections) were enticed to stick around by unilaterally deeming them qualified for late payment interest benefits in Rauner’s new Vendor Support Initiative, which means they could also sell their debts to Qualified Purchasers without a formal appropriatioin.
This brings me to my final set of questions: Which vendors have sold off their bills, and how many bills have Qualified Purchasers bought? This should be relatively straightforward to figure out because Qualified Purchasers are required to submit monthly reports detailing this information. Nearly a year ago I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Central Management Services (CMS) asking for those reports from April 2011 through May 2017 for all Qualified Purchasers (QP). What I got back seemed like incomplete records and didn’t align with previous reporting done by Dave McKinney. For example, the records I received for Payplant (a QP) showed it hadn’t bought any bills, while McKinney reported that Payplant purchased $475,330 worth of bills between November 2015 and August 2016. I also didn’t receive any reports for Illinois Financing Partners (another QP), which Pierog reports has purchased $1 billion worth of receivables since 2015. I sent several follow-up emails to CMS and even asked the Public Access Counselor (which is part of the Attorney General’s office) to review CMS’s response, but never heard back from either entity.
Sounds like Comptroller Mendoza needs to look at this issue as part of her budgetary transparency initiatives.
…Adding… From Rep. Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego)…
Hi Rich, I just read your post on the VSI program. I have actually been critical Of the new program under the Rauner administration since it was changed from VPP and effectively removed the Comptroller from the equation. As Vice Chair of General Services I have been on the record, and directly asked questions to the qualified purchasers of the legitimacy of the new program. My concerns were routinely rebuffed by CMS. I’m glad this situation is finally being brought to light.
Republican Governor Bruce Rauner tells WGIL that a progressive tax plan is a job killer, and would do more harm to the state than good.
“Every state that has gone to a graduated income tax – or what they call a progressive income tax… I call it a destructive income tax – every state that’s done it, the middle class families that make $40,000, $45,000 $50,000 have seen their taxes raised.” Rauner said. “Nobody is getting rich on that. That’s a middle class family income they end up paying a lot higher income taxes too.” […]
Rauner says that Illinois should follow Iowa and Wisconsin’s example and cut their income taxes. […]
Rauner says that in Minnesota, which has a progressive tax plan, a single taxpayer making around $25,000 pays 7% income tax. He called that tax rate “outrageous”.
Yes, that’s the published tax rate (the tax rate actually applies to income above $25,891, but it’s kinda close enough, although the important thing to remember is that only income earned above that rate is taxed at a higher rate, which the governor really messes up here).
But if you use a tax payment calculator, you’ll see that a single Minnesotan making $25,000 a year will owe just $797.15 in state income taxes. That’s an effective tax rate of 3.2 percent. (At 26,000, the effective rate is 3.27 percent.)
How can they afford to do that? By making higher income earners pay more.
The CTBA should send the governor a dozen roses.
*** UPDATE *** Let’s go back to the governor’s interview with WGIL…
“Kentucky, which has been stealing jobs from Southern Illinois for a while now, they just got rid of their graduated income tax and went to a flat tax at a lower rate. So they can grow more jobs, higher family income.”
He didn’t mention an important point…
The Kentucky tax reform plan Bruce Rauner praised today? It also expands the sales tax to new services like dry cleaning, fitness centers, labor for auto repairs, pet grooming, and BOWLING
According to Tribune Editor Bruce Dold, supervisors and managers, along with non-newsroom employees, will be excluded from the new negotiating units.
“As we move ahead, we need to be united as one organization with an important purpose – to help the company transform and thrive as a business, and to serve our readers world-class journalism,” he said.
In late April, Tribune management opted not to recognize the union, which was approved by reporters by a massive margin. They did continue to review the situation however, and ultimately decided to recognize the union’s right to negotiate on behalf of its members.
“People need to realize that what we do is important,” reporter Mary Wisniewski said after the initial decision in April. “We’re doing good, important professional work, and we need real news and real investigations to support our Democracy.”
The union will not represent supervisors, managers and other non-newsroom employees, but there is some disagreement over whether certain editors and editorial board members should be included.
“We will engage in further conversations concerning whether certain job classifications will be included in the bargaining unit,” Dold said in his email.
* A text from a bemused Democrat…
Hahahaha. Bruce Dold and the Trib management always telling elected officials to stand up to unions. Did it take them one week or two to cave? Can’t wait for the edit board fairshare payments.
The staff made its demand on April 24th. The Tribune agreed to terms on May 6th.
* As we all learned in 2011, Chicago mayoral candidates must have established residency in the city for at least one year before the first round of voting. Next year’s first round in Chicago is February 26th. This year’s primary was March 20th. Now, on to the Tribune…
Ra Joy, the lieutenant governor candidate on Chris Kennedy’s unsuccessful Democratic ticket, said he will decide by the end of the week whether to join the large field running for mayor.
Joy said he wants to see a change from two-term Mayor Rahm Emanuel. […]
Joy also said he has been making the case that Kennedy, who voted from his home in suburban Kenilworth, “has been essentially keeping residence in the city of Chicago since January.”
Since Kennedy voted from his Kenilworth residence in March, convincing a judge that he’s really a Chicago resident is gonna be pretty darned tough.
Most residency decisions center on intent. And one way to prove intent is by voting from a particular address. For instance, this passage is from the dissenting appellate court decision that Rahm Emanuel lost in 2011…
At all relevant times, including the time he was in Washington, D.C., the candidate [Emanuel] continued to pay property taxes for the Hermitage house, continued to hold an Illinois driver’s license listing the Hermitage house as his address, continued to list the Hermitage house address on his personal checks, and continued to vote with the Hermitage house as his registered voting address. [Emphasis added.]
As you know, the Supreme Court eventually put Emanuel back on the ballot, precisely for stuff like that.
What: Gov. Rauner, DHFS Director Felicia Norwood, legislators and stakeholders announce a major new statewide behavioral health initiative
Where: A Safe Haven, 2750 W. Roosevelt Road, Chicago
Date: Monday, May 7, 2018
Time: 10:00 a.m.
This is Rauner’s first media availability since last Tuesday.
* Last week, Gov. Rauner and several other Republicans formally endorsed Tim Schneider’s reelection as state GOP chairman. Yesterday, Rauner primary opponent and his chief GOP critic endorsed Schneider’s opponent. Press release…
Today, State Representative and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) joined State Representative David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) in announcing their endorsement of Committeeman Mark Shaw for Chairman of the Illinois Republican Party over incumbent ILGOP Chairman Tim Schneider.
“Mark Shaw has a record as a commonsense conservative who is unafraid to stand up for our party platform and take on the political ruling class in Illinois,” said Ives. “He will work with all members of our party to win races so we can pull this state back from the brink of financial disaster. The current chair has demonstrated neither the willingness or ability to advance our party in such a direction.”
“Simply put, Chairman Schneider has failed as our state party chairman. Under his leadership dozens of Democrats went unchallenged in state legislative seats, he alienated the conservative ILGOP base in the gubernatorial race by choosing sides in a primary, and under Schneider’s leadership a man who proudly associates with the Nazi party is on the ballot as a Republican. His tenure has been an unmitigated disgrace,” Ives continued.
After the disastrous 2017 legislative year, during which 15 legislative Republicans joined Democrats to enact the largest permanent tax increase in the history of the state, McSweeney said, “if we cannot agree on no new taxes as Republicans, then we cannot agree on anything. Tim Schneider failed to unite our party against a massive tax increase.”
McSweeney went on to say, “Mark Shaw is a solid conservative who will work to expand the Republican Party. Tim Schneider, Chairman of the Illinois Rauner Party, is an inept insider who has badly damaged the party of Lincoln and Reagan.”
Both legislators have served in the Illinois General Assembly since 2013 and have led on issues of tax cuts, government accountability and spending reform.
Ives plans to attend the ILGOP State Central Committee meeting on May 19th in Springfield where the election for state party chairman is scheduled to take place.
…Adding… DGA…
Governor Bruce Rauner’s struggling reelection campaign got more bad news this weekend as state Representative Jeanne Ives announced she would back the effort to take down Rauner’s handpicked party chairman. The Illinois GOP Party Chairman election has turned into an ugly affair and threatens to enflame the party’s open wounds.
Rauner recently told a radio station he was “unifying all Republicans,” but the truth is he’s done next-to-nothing to bring disgruntled Republican voters back into the fold. He lied about his interactions with Ives, failed to hold any “unifying” event, and now is using the same attack that infuriated Ives’ supporters on his new Republican opponent, state Senator Sam McCann.
“The last thing Rauner needs right now is another reminder that nearly half the Republican Party wanted to dump him,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “Voters of all parties sent Rauner a powerful message that they were sick and tired of his failed leadership — and it’s clear he still hasn’t learned his lesson.”
* The Belleville News-Democrat lauded the comptroller for her accomplishes in a recent editorial, but also called her a “political lapdog”…
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza pushes hard to get Illinois leaders to face fiscal reality, but it’s too bad that so much of what she says starts with “blame Rauner.” […]
Here’s Mendoza’s problem: Everything gets couched in those “blame Rauner” terms. That debt period is the governor’s tenure in Springfield. The hidden governor’s employee bill and interest accounting comes as Mendoza pushes J.B. Pritzker to replace Rauner.
Illinois’ fiscal meltdown should be blamed on more than the last guy to arrive at the blast furnace. Analysts gave us a near junk bond rating because Illinois failed to change spending patterns or address the $130 billion pension deficit as others did after the recession hit.
So “hurrah” for Mendoza the fiscal watchdog. “Boo” for Mendoza the political lapdog.
Plenty of blame and finger pointing is deserved by everyone in that capitol rotunda. Single-mindedly placing blame on the slightly experienced billionaire we’ve got does little to convince anyone that the new inexperienced billionaire would do any better.
I really wish you would pay closer attention to what I say during my frequent visits to your Editorial Board. At no time did I ever “blame Rauner” for the entirety of “Illinois fiscal meltdown” as you misrepresented in your editorial.
I have told you on multiple occasions that Rauner walked into a mess and deserved no blame for the $5 billion backlog of bills he inherited. What he does own is more than tripling that backlog by deficit-spending more than any other governor in state history.
I did not “blame Rauner” alone for the bad practice of hiding staffers on other agency payrolls to mask the size of his staff and budget. My exact words to you were: “It’s something that every single Governor as far back as we can tell has done. So it’s not unique to Governor Rauner … In all fairness, Governor Quinn was a chronic offender. It’s not okay if Quinn does it. It’s not okay if Blagojevich did it. It’s not okay if Ryan did it. And it’s still not okay that Bruce Rauner does it. But it’s not just a Bruce Rauner thing.” […]
You are upset with me for reporting that Governor Rauner ran up more late payment interest penalties in 2½ years than all the Republican and Democratic governors and legislatures did in the previous 18 years combined. I say if the shoe fits, Gov. Rauner can wear it.
You say the governor is the “last guy to arrive at the blast furnace” of the state’s fiscal meltdown. That may be, but he then shoveled more than $1 billion dollars into that furnace in late payment interest penalties. And that number continues to grow. I showed on my report the actual numbers of late payment interest penalties that each of his Republican and Democratic predecessors ran up. I admit there are no clean hands here.
Eastern Illinois University’s legislative liaison Katie Anselment had some strong words for legislators during an Illinois Senate Higher Education Committee hearing last week.
Anselment testified against a bill that would create a pilot program to allow a Downstate community college offer nursing bachelor’s degrees. The four-year universities view this legislation as a dangerous slippery slope toward turning community colleges into full-on competitors.
I’m not going to take a stand on the merits of this particular bill. There are good arguments pro and con. It is, after all, just a pilot program. The sponsor wants to address a very real nursing shortage, but the nurses’ union is strongly opposed, believing it won’t create any net new nurses and will instead just shift current students around.
Anyway, setting all that aside, Anselment began her testimony with a searing indictment of the current state of higher education in Illinois after the more than two-year budget impasse that caused universities to lose most of their state funding. Legislative liaisons are lobbyists, so they don’t usually go off on legislators in public, but this time was different.
Anselment said the state’s relationship with its public universities “has been a bit of a ‘Catch-22′ situation lately.” In other words, darned if they do, darned if they don’t.
“Hold the line on tuition, while we reduce your state funding,” universities are told by the state, she said.
“Focus on teaching, but pay more attention to marketing and technology,” Anselment said.
“Whittle down your programmatic offerings and don’t try to be all things to all people, but make sure your majors reflect today’s modern economy and are responsive to regional workforce needs,” she said.
“Tell us in excruciating detail just how bad of a position we’ve left you in thanks to the budget impasse, but stop the outmigration and convince more Illinois families to choose Illinois public universities.”
And then, later in her testimony, Anselment had a mic-drop moment: “At a time when public universities are being admonished to up our enrollments despite declining numbers of high school graduates, to identify and implement more efficiencies in our operations, to focus on what we do best and to consider eliminating duplicative offerings, this bill sets the stage for opening up 48 new taxpayer-funded competitors in a State that has recently proven unable to reliably support the nine universities it already has.”
Whew.
That’s pretty much everything in a nutshell right there.
Illinois used to have an unwritten budget rule that higher education received one dollar for every two dollars received by K-12.
But Gov. Rod Blagojevich strongly believed that universities were too top heavy with administration. His solutions of reduced state funding and a tuition freeze kick-started the decline of higher education in this state. That decline continued under Gov. Pat Quinn and, as with just about everything else, became infinitely worse under Gov. Bruce Rauner during the long impasse.
One of Gov. Rauner’s current big ideas is to force universities to downsize by becoming more specialized. That may be fine, I suppose, for graduate and post-graduate levels.
But how many high school kids truly know what they want to major in when they apply for college? The first year or two of college are supposed to be an exploration of possibilities. Gov. Rauner graduated from Dartmouth, which doesn’t allow students to declare a major until their sophomore year.
By forcing universities to shed undergraduate degree programs, Rauner would likely narrow their ability to recruit students because their options could be too limited.
I don’t intend to say here that public universities are completely blameless. They’ve made way more than their share of mistakes over the years. They can and should do a whole lot better. And some under-utilized degree programs could be dumped without much disruption.
Instead of trying to create and sustain higher education jewels throughout Illinois, the state government has allowed too many universities to slowly deteriorate.
Solving most of their problems will take money, which the state currently does not have. And it will also take ingenuity, but not the kind that would actually threaten their very existence.
We’ve had so much drama and turbulence since Blagojevich. One day, hopefully soon, this state’s leaders will start building instead of childishly blowing stuff up. Last year’s K-12 funding reform was a decent start. Higher education ought to be next.
