Growing up in Kentucky, one of Alan Lowe’s first memories was visiting Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace. On Monday, Lowe took over as the new director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield.
“The thought of being able to be the director of a library and museum dedicated to his legacy and to use that as a platform to be able to reach people, teach, inspire – it’s kind of hard to beat that,” Lowe said in an interview Monday. “When I heard about the possibility, I couldn’t resist it.” […]
Some critics of the museum have complained that the exhibits haven’t been upgraded since the facility opened more than 10 years ago.
“What I want to do is go through them with a finer eye than I’ve done so far and take a really good look at each component,” Lowe said. “Do we need an update? Do we need a change? Is the technology holding up? Is there a new technology that we could put in there? That depends on a lot of variables, chiefly funding.”
Not only will he rely on his own eye for evaluating exhibits, but Lowe said he wants to carefully review what visitors are saying about the museum, what works and what doesn’t. It doesn’t mean that Lowe necessarily believes there are problems.
* The Question: Your suggestions for Director Lowe?
* You may recall this claim by Gov. Rauner the other day…
I walked into one department in my first week — second week in office actually. Two-hundred people were in a room with paper applications on their desks, and no computers. I said, this doesn’t look efficient. I found out, we could spend half a million dollars on a computer system —half a million — and save $7 million per year.
* Lots of commenters were skeptical, so I followed up and asked which department this was. I was told it was the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Rauner toured the area where professional licenses are processed. Back then, they were apparently processed in a room entirely by hand. So it stood out to him.
Since then, IDFPR has started to retool. From February…
Secretary Bryan A. Schneider of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) is pleased to announce that paperless licensing and renewals have now been implemented for the professions licensed and regulated by the Divisions of Real Estate and Professional Regulation. The transition away from paper-based renewals and licenses means that regulated professionals will now be able to renew their license quickly and easily online, and be provided proof of licensure through email and IDFPR’s License Lookup application. The move to paperless technology is part of the Department’s ongoing efforts to modernize the state’s regulatory agency and will save the state nearly $3 million in postage, paper and printing costs over the next five years.
An alternative to the paper license pocket card is now available for the majority of licensed professionals regulated by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR). An estimated 1.1 million active licensees within the Division of Professional Regulation (DPR) and the Division of Real Estate (DRE) may now choose to store an electronic license pocket card on their smartphone or tablet. This is of particular importance to more than 110,000 licensed professionals across seven regulated professions who are statutorily required to carry a pocket card and the many others who choose to carry with them proof of their professional licensure. The e-license pocket card is the latest announcement from IDFPR in their ongoing efforts to modernize the state’s regulatory agency.
* The governor also claimed that “many” state departments don’t have computers. Not so sure about that, but I suppose the word “many” would have to be defined.
Either way, he saw a problem and now it’s being fixed. That’s a good thing.
* Gov. Rauner spoke to reporters today and said this…
“We could be way, way worse off if the super majority’s budget bill had passed. We’d be spending at an even higher level than we are today.”
* Let’s review, shall we? The governor has claimed for weeks and weeks that the House Democrats’ budget proposal was $7 billion out of whack. The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability projects the stopgap budget the governor negotiated and signed is almost $8 billion out of whack.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles plans to hire 300 new workers at its huge factory in Belvidere as it revamps the facility to produce the Jeep Cherokee.
FCA USA, as the auto manufacturer is also called, said today it will invest $350 million in the factory to ready it for the Jeep Cherokee, one of the company’s top sellers during an auto sales boom that resulted in a record number of sales in the U.S. last year. […]
Production of the Cherokee will start in 2017. Right now, the vehicle is made at the Fiat Chrysler facility in Toledo, and that plant will continue producing it until the Belvidere plant is ready. […]
“This investment will strengthen the FCA US presence in Illinois and create good paying manufacturing jobs for Illinois residents,” Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner said in a statement. “We’re proud FCA US chose Illinois for production of the Jeep Cherokee.”
Illinois just had its best second-quarter haul of venture capital in years thanks to a single deal, according to one national scorecard.
SMS Assist, the Chicago-based technology company that helps property owners manage maintenance across locations, accounted for more than half the funds raised. The privately held company’s $150 million Series D funding round in June pushed its valuation over the billion-dollar mark, making it the city’s latest unicorn.
Seventeen Illinois companies raised nearly $281 million in the second quarter of 2016, says a new MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters.
Most of the quarter’s investments were in the $5 to $10 million range, in early- and expansion-stage companies, which raised more than $88 million combined. But two later-stage, business-to-business companies — SMS Assist and SpringCM, which offers cloud-based document management for businesses — took in the most dollars. SpringCM announced a raise of $17.5 million in June.
* Check out the highlighted part of this quote about the projected $8 billion deficit in the stopgap budget that Speaker Madigan negotiated with the other leaders…
“You can either repeal programs and cut spending, or find new revenue,” Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said. “You can’t do it all through cuts. This reaffirms what the speaker has been saying for several years and reaffirms that the decision to let the income tax go down probably was not the wisest decision.”
Ya think?
It was, in retrospect, the [second] worst possible decision the Democrats could’ve made.
* The Democrats thought they were handing Rauner a booby trap when they allowed that tax hike to partially expire, but it was actually a gift. They completely underestimated his resolve to use the leverage of additional revenue to pry loose support for his economic and political reforms.
And here we stand, eye-deep in debt and wreckage all around.
Ugh.
…Adding… A commenter retorts…
[The tax hike] never should have included a sunset to begin with. That was the worst decision ever, but the Dems miscalculated on that too.
Agreed and I’ve changed the headline to reflect this wise commenter’s opinion.
…Adding More… Another commenter weighs in…
Also boneheaded: letting it expire in the middle of a fiscal year. And in an election year. How were they supposed to craft a budget in 2014 when no one had the backbone to try to make the tax hike permanent while running for re-election?
Yep.
I asked Senate President Cullerton about that once and he said it just never occurred to anyone what they were doing.
Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said the governor knows the stopgap plan is not a complete budget but used existing revenues from set-aside funds to cover necessary costs. However, she added, “The deficit is the result of years of out-of-control spending, mismanagement and court-ordered and statutory spending which have locked in higher spending levels.”
There is no doubt that this state has had years of spending problems and mismanagement. Can’t argue with that. And there has been plenty of court-ordered spending and automatic spending on things like bond payments.
* However, before the income tax hike partially expired, the state was whittling down its pile of bills and its payment cycle was under 30 days. But the Democrats allowed the tax hike to expire after Rauner was elected and then nobody could agree on a real budget, so now we’re in this freaking awful mess.
As a commenter noted yesterday, during the past year our state’s social service system has been whacked hard and our universities have been hobbled and all we got out of it is an $8 billion deficit and a projected $10 billion bill backlog and a six-month late payment cycle and no substantial economic reforms.
* Senate President John Cullerton’s spokesman John Patterson let loose his snark flag yesterday after the Rauner administration sent out a talking points memo to Republican legislators about all of the administration’s accomplishments this year. The administration memo was officially sent by a couple of people, but budget director Tim Nuding was listed at the top, so he received this Patterson e-mail yesterday…
Tim,
Interesting memo you sent around today. I would imagine that’s useful and helpful messaging for some members.
Since this temporary budget agreement was a team effort, I’m wondering if you could help us put together a similar messaging memo for Senate Democrats.
For instance, it would be useful/helpful if you could assist in identifying/listing draconian cuts the Rauner administration proposed that we were able to avoid by working together to make Illinois more compassionate and competitive as we build our bridge to a better future. If you’ve got any other ideas, I’d love to hear them.
* From the governor’s office talking points memo sent to Republican legislators today touting Gov. Rauner’s accomplishments…
Defeated the Democrat supermajority FY 2017 spending plan that would have raised personal income tax rates to more than 5.5% - The House Democrats’ $40 billion spending plan for FY 2017 was more than $7 billion out of balance and would have required crushing tax increases to pay for all of its promises.
The state of Illinois’ spending will outstrip what it brings in by nearly $8 billion this year, according to a government analysis obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
The legislative Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability reviewed the budget deal that lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner approved in June on the brink of the new fiscal year, which began this month, at the behest of Republican Rep. David McSweeney.
The report, provided to AP in advance of general release, found that the state will spend $39.6 billion — including $3 billion in obligations that were not addressed in the six-month stop-gap budget agreed to by Democrats who control the Legislature and Rauner — but only bring in $31.8 billion.
So, what are the tax hike consequences of Rauner’s own proposal? If the rate would’ve been “more than 5.5%” under the Dems’ $7 billion deficit, what are the “crushing tax increases” required for an $8 billion hole?
From: Tim Nuding, Director, Governor’s Office of Management and Budget
Mitch Holzrichter, Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative Affairs
To: Republican Members of the House of Representatives and Senate
Date: July 14, 2016
Fiscal Year 2016 in Review – Holding Strong for Taxpayers
Illinois state government has been overspending and overpromising for years. Rather than confront the State’s deteriorating fiscal condition, prior governors and General Assemblies, controlled by Democrat supermajorities, just kicked the can farther down the road. They bandaged over our fiscal problems with unbalanced budgets, borrowed funds, and tax increases, resulting in record backlogs of unpaid bills and more than $100 billion in unfunded pension liabilities.
But during the last fiscal year, Governor Rauner and Republicans in the legislature changed the dynamic in Springfield by placing a renewed emphasis on the taxpayer as a key stakeholder in state government. From July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016, Governor Rauner and Republicans in the legislature:
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich formed a band called the Jailhouse Rockers while serving time at a federal penitentiary in Colorado, according to a sentencing memorandum filed by the disgraced governor’s legal team late Monday night.
According to the memo, Blagojevich formed the band with a fellow inmate, described as “accomplished musician” “Ernie B.” An avowed Elvis fan, Blagojevich paid homage to the king of rock ‘n’ roll by naming his band after one of the famed rocker’s biggest hits.
* The Question: If Gov. Rauner was in a band, what would its name be? Bonus question: Who’d be in it with him?
* Comptroller Leslie Munger was asked today when legislators would be paid next. As you know, she’s put those paychecks into the pile of past due bills with everything else. Legislators received their April checks on July 6th. Legislators are paid once a month.
Munger said the May paychecks probably wouldn’t go out until late August or early September. The June checks, she said, “could be four to five months behind.”
* The governor was asked by WMAQ reporter Mary Ann Ahern today about his opinion of neighboring Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who has reportedly been chosen as Donald Trump’s running mate. He took a pass. Ahern asked him which presidential candidate he’d be voting for and he twice took a pass, saying he wouldn’t be commenting on the race any more. She also asked him a question he also refused to answer the other day. What does he plan to do next week during the Republican National Convention?…
“Ah, next week, I will be, ah, traveling the state of Illinois meeting with, ah [clicks his tongue], community leaders, business leaders and some legislators and signing some of the most important legislation that got passed this spring.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** Sen. Kirk wasn’t nearly as reticent about Gov. Pence when asked yesterday…
“I hope he gets the nod,” said Illinois Senator Mark Kirk, a former congressman. “I love Mike. He was the leader of the conservatives and I was the leader of the moderates. And we had a mutual admiration society.” (Kirk, who’s up for reelection, said “we’ll see” when asked if he’d reconsider backing Trump if Pence is chosen, but his spokeswoman later called to say he would not back Trump no matter who the running mate is.)
Oops.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From the Kirk campaign…
Here is a statement you can attribute to Senator Kirk:
I like and respect Mike Pence but I will not be supporting Donald Trump.
He does not have the temperament to serve as our Commander in Chief.
*** UPDATE 3 *** DPI…
“It looks like Republican Mark Kirk is getting his wish and extreme social conservative Mike Pence will be ignorant buffoon Donald Trump’s running mate. Kirk even opened the door to supporting Trump again if Trump were to pick his friend Pence. While Kirk has gone to great lengths to try and disavow his Republican roots it’s worth noting his enthusiasm for Pence, a staunch conservative with a history of attacking women’s reproductive rights and who signed one of the country’s most discriminatory anti-LGBTQ bills into law. Likewise, when they served together in Congress, Kirk and Pence both opposed the rescue of the American auto industry, supported several trade deals that have shipped American jobs overseas, and supported the Ryan budget, which would raise taxes on the average middle-class family by $2,000 and turn Medicare into a voucher system in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Kirk’s enthusiasm for Pence is all anyone needs to know about him: no matter how much he tries to change his stripes in an election year, he’s a typical Republican, through and through,” said Democratic Party of Illinois spokesperson Sean Savett
Um, weren’t some of those trade deals done by a Democratic administration? Just wondering…
The group backing the proposed state constitutional amendment to reduce the influence of politics in legislative mapmaking says a majority of its petition signers were Democrats.
Dave Mellet, the campaign manager for the Independent Maps group, said it commissioned a demographic analysis of the 20,518-signature sample that the State Board of Elections used to verify that the proposal qualified for the fall ballot.
That sample is a random 5 percent of the more than 563,000 people who signed petitions to put the proposal on the ballot.
Mellet said the petition sample found 56 percent of signers qualified as likely Democrats, 23 percent as likely Republicans, and 23 percent as likely independent voters based on primary voting history.
* From the Independent Maps press release…
“Illinois is a Democratic state, so it’s not surprising that Democrats would make up the largest group of petition signers,” he said. “However, these numbers are much larger than expected and debunk the narrative pushed by opponents of redistricting reform that Democratic voters do not support this amendment.”
* Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Steven Yaffe…
“The Independent Maps movement is proof that Mike Madigan and the politicians who support him don’t care about good government reform even when it has bipartisan support from voters. Democrats were key to making sure the Independent Map Amendment received enough signatures to make the November ballot, but all Madigan wants is to protect his grip on power.”
Look, right off the bat let me just say there is zero doubt that remap reform polls very well among all demographics, including partisanship. Heck, I support remap reform myself and have for many years, although I have my own oft-stated reservations about this particular proposal.
* But there’s something missing here. What was the percentage of petition signatures gathered in Chicago? After all, the city’s high density makes it a much easier place to gather petitions.
From the Independent Maps folks…
About 34 percent of the signatures were provided by registered voters in Chicago.
5,241,179 votes were cast in Illinois for the top four presidential candidates. 1,015,634 votes were cast for president in Chicago that year - or about 19 percent. So the overall petition submission is heavily skewed to Chicago, which Obama won with 84 percent of the vote.
* Even so, let’s be very clear again, this doesn’t mean Democrats don’t back the ballot initiative. It’s obviously popular in the city if that many petitions were signed there. But are the Democratic numbers really “much larger than expected” considering where so many of them were gathered?
House Republicans called for the removal of Auditor General Frank Mautino on Wednesday amid a federal probe of his campaign spending, while Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner declined to weigh in, saying the investigation should “play itself out.”
Mautino, a Democrat, is a former member of the Illinois House whose appointment late last year to the 10-year term as the state’s fiscal watchdog won overwhelming support from Republican and Democratic lawmakers. […]
Asked about the calls from his fellow Republicans to fire Mautino, Rauner said he was “troubled” by what he’d heard about the case but was “focused on other things.”
“There’s an investigation, there’s a process going on,” Rauner said. “It should just play itself out.”
Agreed. Mautino has a couple of weeks to get his state campaign filings in order and we’ll know a lot more then. We can all wait two weeks.
The Reader has obtained video footage of Saturday’s Taste of Chicago protest that calls into question the official police version of events that led to the arrest of Ja’Mal Green, a 20-year-old activist accused of attacking an officer.
Green was charged with five felonies—two counts of aggravated battery of an officer, two counts of aggravated battery in a public place, and attempting to disarm an officer—and two misdemeanor counts of resisting or obstructing an officer, according to CPD News Affairs.
As was previously reported by DNAInfo, police said that Green had two separate altercations with police Saturday evening, including one at approximately 6 PM. During a hearing Monday, assistant state’s attorney Erin Antonietti alleged that during this incident, Green swung his arms and punched police commander George Devereaux in his left shoulder. Antonetti cited a Tribune photo as evidence of the attack.
However, newly obtained video appears to show Devereaux initiating contact with Green, pulling him off a barrier, then tussling with him after he lands, with protesters attempting to separate the two.
If you actually watch the video, you’ll see that Commander Devereaux ordered Mr. Green several times to get off a metal barricade that Green was standing on amidst a sea of loudly chanting protesters. When Green refused, Devereaux yanked Green’s pant leg enough that Green had to jump off the barricade. Then Green pushed at Devereaux hard and threw a punch, although it appears as though Green didn’t land that punch, but it’s somewhat difficult to tell.
Was Green over-charged? The video itself doesn’t have evidence to back all those claims. But at the very least, the video which supposedly exonerates Green does appear to show him pushing a cop during a highly volatile situation.
* So, why is this even a thing? Because some activists are accusing a Tribune reporter of essentially shilling for the cops…
Yesterday afternoon, a lawyer who wishes to remain unidentified, warned Chicago’s activist community about Peter Nickeas, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. The lawyer stated that he noticed Nickeas and his tweets about Malcolm London during the Laquan McDonald protests back in November 2015. That night, Malcolm London was arrested, and Nickeas’ tweets featured Tribune photos that not only showed a biased angle, but clearly an angle that aids CPD in their further criminalization of young, Black people and utilizes the “hyper-aggressive” stereotype of Black people for clicks. Last week, the same lawyer witnessed similar tweets and coverage from Peter Nickeas during the Taste of Chicago shutdown action, and then created a meme to go along with his warning to us. Tweets from Nickeas supported the narrative that Green was hitting Cmdr. George Devereaux, whereas video now surfaced showing that Green was actually being pulled down from a barricade, courtesy of the Chicago Reader.
* Some have even all but accused the Tribune reporter of being a cop informant. But at least one of his detractors was forced to back off on Twitter when confronted with actual, you know, evidence by another person…
* This is a far more dangerous version of the old “working the referees” game, where you yell at reporters/columnists/etc. loud enough to force them to back off their tougher calls.
What we have here is a bunch of propagandists criticizing journalists for not being propagandists for their own side. Is there media bias? Heck yes there is. Do reporters make mistakes? Sure they do. But retweeting a photo does not automatically make one a police informant or shill.
And possibly putting that reporter into harm’s way with these bizarre conspiracy theories is completely unforgivable.
…Adding… Take a look at the very end of that video. A commenter rightly points this out…
The defendant is walking up behind the police officer when [the video] conveniently ends
Yep.
* Related…
* How technology disrupted the truth - Social media has swallowed the news – threatening the funding of public-interest reporting and ushering in an era when everyone has their own facts. But the consequences go far beyond journalism
Congresswoman and Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Tammy Duckworth’s campaign today released a new ad, entitled “Flat Out.” The ad features Illinois Veterans discussing Duckworth’s commitment to her fellow Veterans, while also responding to Republican Mark Kirk’s latest false attack on Duckworth’s record on Veterans’ issues. The ad, which begins airing this morning at significant levels on Chicago broadcast and cable, can be viewed HERE.
“After serving 23 years in the Army National Guard and Army Reserve, Tammy has made fighting for her fellow Veterans her life’s work. She has real accomplishments to show for it, including programs to help Veterans find jobs as well as to address homelessness among Veterans and suicide,” campaign spokesman Matt McGrath said. “Republican Mark Kirk, on the other hand, was caught repeatedly lying about and embellishing his military record, and with his campaign in desperate straits, he’s now lying about Tammy Duckworth. Illinois Veterans aren’t fooled by Kirk’s desperate lies, and Illinois voters won’t be, either.”
Isiah Bradford: She chooses to get her health care at the VA, like us.
Wally Kubicki Jr.: She knows the VA and gets how important it is to us. Mark Kirk flat out lied repeatedly about his own military service. Now he has the gall to attack Tammy Duckworth on the VA?
Dan Devine: Kirk told one lie after another after another.
VO: Tammy Duckworth made fighting for Veterans her life’s work, and she’ll never stop.
Bradford: Tammy Duckworth fought like hell for us.
TD VO: I’m Tammy Duckworth and I approve this message
Preliminary reports show Duckworth spending more than $160,000 alone on ABC-7 in the next two weeks along with at least $60,000 in cable TV for the next week. Duckworth’s campaign says it’s spending upwards of $600,000 in total.
The ad by Duckworth, a two-term congresswoman from Hoffman Estates, comes as Kirk pumped another $200,000 into an already-running spot criticizing the Democrat for settling an alleged workplace discrimination lawsuit for $26,000. Kirk campaign spending includes nearly $80,000 on ABC-7, $45,650 on CBS-2 and more than $56,000 on Chicago cable TV.
Statement from Kirk For Senate campaign manager Kevin Artl:
“The simple truth is that throughout Duckworth’s political career, she has placed politics above veterans. When Rod Blagojevich was under investigation for denying jobs to veterans, she endorsed and defended him. When VA whistleblowers came to her to address life-threatening issues for veterans, she ignored them and said ‘that’s just the way it is’ at the VA. At each opportunity during her long political career, Duckworth has defended the bureaucracy, ignored whistleblowers and fostered mismanagement instead of fighting for reform at the VA to protect veterans across the nation.”
* How Much Is Your Arm Worth? Depends On Where You Work - Each state determines its own workers’ compensation benefits, which means workers in neighboring states can end up with dramatically different compensation for identical injuries.
* Comptroller Leslie Munger is expected to announce today that the state’s bill payment delays will reach six months by the end of this December. Her office has reportedly projected that it’ll still be paying off bills incurred in Fiscal Year 2016 come December, which is midway through Fiscal Year 2017.
Munger will say, however, that she will be working with social service groups and others to make sure those who are struggling most are helped as quickly as she can.
Munger will also announce a $10 billion bill payment backlog projection for December.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From the comptroller’s press conference…
When new spending authorization is accounted for, Illinois is on track to spend $2.5 BILLION more than it brings in over the next year
Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger on Thursday said the state’s bill backlog will grow throughout the fall and Illinois will enter the New Year with approximately $10 billion in unpaid invoices, resulting in payment delays of at least six months.
The announcement follows last month’s passage of a stopgap budget, which authorized payments that were being delayed due to the state’s year-long budget impasse.
“While the stopgap is a positive step forward, it does not address our larger fiscal challenges. When we look at the numbers we are facing, the realities are sobering,” said Munger, noting the state is on pace to spend $2.5 billion more than it takes in the next six months. “Those severe cash shortages mean my office will continue to perform triage to help those most in need and protect our most critical services.”
While payments as a rule will continue to be treated on a first-in, first-out basis, priority will be given to:
Nonprofits not covered by court orders or consent decrees that continued to provide services without an FY16 budget, including autism services, programs for the homeless, mental health services and others.
Business owners who provided goods and services to the state in good faith last year without payment.
Colleges, universities, and MAP Grant students who faced significant cuts and delays this past year.
In addition, Munger will continue her policy of treating compensation for state elected officials like all other payments. As a result, lawmakers and state constitutional office holders - including Munger - will continue to stand in line for payments with human service providers, small business owners, hospitals, schools and others.
“We’re looking at $10 billion in unpaid bills and vendors waiting 6 months or more to be paid. How can I in good conscience tell hospitals, schools, small businesses, nonprofits and others to get in line - and then walk politicians to the front?” Munger said. “It remains a matter of fundamental fairness. We are all in this together and we all should wait in line.”
