AFSCME tries to “jumpstart” contract talks
Monday, Jan 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Press release…
One year and one day since Governor Bruce Rauner’s administration broke off contract negotiations with the largest union of public service workers in state government, AFSCME is taking the initiative to jumpstart constructive dialogue. The union has sent the governor a letter outlining a new settlement framework which significantly modifies AFSCME’s previous positions on core economic issues.
The elements of the AFSCME framework include the following:
✓ Employees would forgo any increases in base wages in all four years of the contract.
✓ Employees would pay increased health insurance premiums, co-pays and deductibles in FY 17, 18 and 19 as determined by an independent arbitrator in the recent interest arbitration regarding contract terms for Illinois state troopers.
✓ All employees would receive the amounts the governor has already proposed to expend on bonuses—$1,000 per employee in the first year of the contract and 2% of payroll in each subsequent year—as one-time payments in each of those years.
✓ In order to prevent large pay differentials among employees performing the same work, the 40% of employees eligible for continued movement through the pay plan would move to the next step in FY 18 and 19.
✓ Further negotiations on all other outstanding issues.
“Our union remains ready to return to bargaining,” AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said. “We know that Illinois residents rely on public service workers in state government to protect children from abuse, aid our veterans, respond to emergencies, keep our air and water clean, and much more. We want to keep Illinois working, without the potential disruption of a statewide strike.”
The Rauner Administration broke off negotiations on Jan. 8, 2016, and has refused to meet with the union bargaining team in the intervening year. Instead the governor asked the Illinois Labor Relations Board, whose members he appoints, to declare an “impasse” in negotiations, thus opening the door for Rauner to impose his own terms on state workers. Rauner’s demands include:
• No salary increases for four years;
• A 100% hike in employee premiums for health care (forcing workers to pay double their current health costs) in the first year alone; and
• Withholding all scheduled movement through the pay plan for the newest-hired and often lowest-paid workers.
In all, Rauner’s demands equate to a $10,000 pay cut for the average state worker. By trying to impose those terms, the governor is threatening to force state employees out on strike for the first time in more than 40 years of collective bargaining.
“Our framework recognizes the state’s fiscal problems and shows that state employees will do their part to help address them,” Lynch said. “Employees would pay more for health insurance in three of the four years while receiving no increase to their base salary for four years, so the costs to the state are extremely modest.
“We think compromise, not conflict, is the way to move Illinois forward,” she said. “Let’s get back to the bargaining table and work toward an agreement that’s fair to all.”
The letter is here.
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* The Illinois Manufacturers Association is not at all pleased with this “grand bargain” in the Senate.
For instance: “You could do anything you want to help us in workers comp, but it would pale in comparison to how bad this is,” was how one IMA member responded when told about the provision that eliminates the foreign and domestic dividend deduction. That’ll apparently cost businesses over $200 million on profits they don’t make in Illinois.
There are a lot of manufacturers involved with the sugar industry in this state, so a new sales tax on pop of $2.88 a case isn’t going down well with them, either. They point out that Cook County’s new sugary drink tax will result in taxes of almost $6 a case of pop in that county with this new state tax.
Then there’s the increase in the minimum wage and the permanent income tax hikes.
The proposal extends the research and development tax credit, “but doesn’t modernize it,” as the IMA leadership has wanted The proposal also doesn’t include manufacturers’ purchase credit and the graphic arts exemption, which have both expired.
The workers comp bill “doesn’t provide any savings,” the IMA claims. And despite the insistence of some, this is not Caterpillar’s proposed language, they say.
* “All they’re doing is trying to find money and not do anything on the business side to help us compete with our Midwestern neighbors,” said the IMA’s Greg Baise, adding saracastically, “This is a typical Illinois solution.”
“They’re putting a horrible marker down,” said Mark Denzler of the group.
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* As I told subscribers early this morning, the Senate’s grand bargain was a whole lot grander than we thought last week. It included a minimum wage hike to $11 an hour over five years, a huge gambling expansion bill and a whole lot more…
Also, Amanda Vinicky has updated her Friday story with some more deets. Click here. I don’t believe a service tax is part of this, though.
* Meanwhile, in the House…
In the House on Monday, Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, filed a proposal that would give social-services programs $258 million and higher-education programs $400 million. That money would include a full semester for MAP grants for all colleges, universities and community colleges, as well as funds for adult, vocational education and GED programs, according to Harris.
The money would come from two funds — the human-service fund and the educational-assistance fund. Both are fed from income taxes and would be available to spend within the first six months of the year.
“It’s a lifeline. As you remember, all the appropriations for social services and higher education ran out on the first of January, so you have schools trying to figure out how to stay open and you have MAP grant recipients trying to figure out if they can actually go to school — or if their school will be funded for the whole year,” Harris said. “Social service agencies are literally deciding whether to shut their doors, so this proposal would be a lifeline to them as the larger negotiations go on.”
The governor has repeatedly said he would oppose a stopgap budget unless he got term limits and a permanent property tax freeze, however.
…Adding…. More details on the House Dems’ proposal can be found by clicking here.
* Related…
* Illinois public employee union strategy to fight for pensions: Members should “do nothing” and let Madigan be our goalie.
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* As the Tribune editorial board notes, more than half the states require special elections in cases like this…
Voters on Chicago’s South Side didn’t have a choice last year in the race for the 27th House district. Longtime Rep. Monique Davis, D-Chicago, briefly faced a challenge from Justin Slaughter, but he dropped out before the primary. Davis ran unopposed in the November election.
Then just before Christmas, she filed paperwork to retire from the seat she has held since 1987. But voters won’t pick her replacement. Local Democratic leaders did it for them. A handful of Chicago aldermen and suburban township committeemen met privately Thursday and selected Slaughter, a Chicago resident who works for the Cook County Board, to fill Davis’ seat. Surprise, 27th District voters! You have a new state rep.
It’s a maddening pattern repeated by lawmakers from both parties: They resign midterm or just before or after an election when it’s too late for someone else to compete for the seat. The timing triggers a process that allows local power brokers to choose the next lawmaker.
Roughly one-third of the 177 lawmakers serving in the House and Senate first got their seats in the General Assembly because they were appointed, not elected. An appointed lawmaker still has to run for the seat in the next election cycle, but he or she gets a head start, sometimes nearly a full term, in Springfield. They gain access to staff, campaign donors and special interest groups. Their political patrons prop them up by giving them popular, noncontroversial bills to sponsor. They have all the benefits of incumbency, including campaign lawyers, advice and money.
Slaughter is highly qualified and should do a decent job.
Look, I know that special elections cost money, but other states manage just fine.
* Meanwhile…
In Georgia, lawmakers are set to pass a more than $20 billion budget this year and grapple with a failing hospital system.
But Georgia, like many other states, faces a serious human resource problem in its Legislature: Salaries are often low and many would-be politicians can’t afford to be lawmakers.
Former Georgia state Rep. LaDawn Jones loved serving in the General Assembly even as she juggled raising two kids and running a law practice. But she left after one term because the job didn’t pay enough.
“I absolutely believe that we need to increase the wage for legislators to keep up with the times,” said Jones.
Lawmakers in Georgia make $17,342 a year, plus a per diem for lodging and meals when the Legislature is in session and reimbursement for mileage. Serving in the Georgia Legislature is considered a part-time job, but it took much more of Jones’ time than that and she had to hire extra help for her law firm. […]
That low level of pay also keeps many people from entering politics, said Malhotra. “There’s very, very few working class people in legislatures. This might have something to do with why a lot of legislation does not seem very friendly towards working class people.”
We have the opposite situation in Illinois, where legislators make a base pay of about $67K per year, plus other stipends for leadership or top committee slots.
* And speaking of that topic…
The state’s bill backlog has surpassed $11 billion and there’s no budget in place, but two suburban Republican lawmakers each will get extra $1,506 checks for two days of work this week.
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin tells me the move is the only way to get around Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan’s seniority rules.
Durkin late last week named Rep. Peter Breen, of Lombard, and Rep. Keith Wheeler, of Oswego, to leadership posts. But instead of making it effective when a new session begins Wednesday, Durkin named Breen and Wheeler to the posts for Monday and Tuesday, the final two days of the 99th General Assembly.
The $1,506 stipends are for one month of work in those roles. Members of the General Assembly make a base salary of $67,836. Breen and Wheeler’s stipends would be $18,066 apiece if they’re kept in leadership a full year.
Durkin, of Western Springs, says he appointed the two because he wants them to serve as committee spokesmen. House rules say those positions can be held only by lawmakers with three terms of seniority, which Breen and Wheeler lack, or with leadership appointments.
I was told around 9 o’clock this morning that the HGOPs would be checking with those two members to see if they’ll be accepting their stipends. I’ll let you know if I get an answer.
*** UPDATE *** I’m told neither Republican will accept the leadership stipends. Instead, they’re refund the stipends back to the state.
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* From the ILGOP…
Extra! Extra! Boss Madigan Democrats Get Morning Delivery
Madigan’s Post-It Note Commands, Metra Scandal Top the Headlines
With three days left until Decision Day, Boss Madigan Democrats will receive envelopes from the Illinois Republican Party containing information they may wish to consider before supporting Madigan for a 17th term as Speaker.
The envelope will contain the Chicago Tribune’s scathing report and editorial about Boss Madigan’s use of post-it notes to inappropriately direct hiring decisions at Metra through “ward-style patronage”.
As a reminder, the Chicago Tribune reported that,
“A secret report put together by the legislature’s watchdog in the wake of last summer’s Metra scandal offers new insight into how Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan navigates the intersection of public business and ward-style patronage through his Southwest Side office and Illinois Capitol suite.
The analysis by then-Inspector General Thomas Homer — based on interviews with Madigan’s political allies, government officials and the speaker himself — presents those methods in an unflattering fashion.
The report contains an account of Metra’s chairwoman entering Madigan’s Capitol office to talk about state issues and leaving with a yellow Post-it note bearing names of two workers the speaker wanted to see promoted. In another meeting, a Metra lobbyist who was a longtime Madigan aide was spotted leaving the speaker’s office with two resumes. Another time, Madigan simply called the cellphone of one of his “better” precinct captains to tell him about a state job, according to the report.”
The envelope also contains a warning from Boss Madigan himself, in true post-it note patronage boss fashion.
Today’s delivery is part of the Illinois Republican Party’s countdown to Wednesday’s election for Speaker.
Now, Democrats have no excuse for being in the dark about Madigan’s ethical problems.
Will they still support him?
* Some sample packages…
But, remember, the governor has nothing whatsoever to do with influencing a chamber’s leadership election, except for the fact that he’s funding just about every dime of state party spending. But, still… no involvement whatsoever!
…Adding… As noted in comments, it’s a bit ironic that the party is talking about patronage hiring after Friday’s SJ-R story. Just sayin…
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The power of the press?
Monday, Jan 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Friday afternoon, the Tribune published a story entitled “Bill to require school lead testing stalls in Springfield“…
Despite renewed national attention to the dangers of lead plumbing, most schools and day care centers still aren’t required to guarantee the safety of drinking water provided to children who are most vulnerable to the toxic metal. […]
Given the widespread use of lead in Illinois during the last century — Chicago required lead plumbing until it was banned nationwide in 1986 — Attorney General Lisa Madigan and public health advocates are pushing legislation that would require every Illinois school and day care center to regularly test water for a potent neurotoxin that can trigger learning disabilities and violent behavior. […]
But with only two days remaining in the current legislative session, the attorney general’s bill is on hold in a House committee, stalled after Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration announced it opposed the measure and proposed rival legislation in late November.
The governor’s bill would allow schools to conduct detailed plumbing inventories instead of testing drinking fountains for lead. It also would order state health officials to develop their own standards for lead in drinking water — a task traditionally handled by federal authorities after years of study. […]
“If you don’t require testing, how are you supposed to know if there is a problem?” said Jennifer Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council, which helped draft the attorney general’s legislation. “The governor’s approach also could end up being more expensive for schools that already are concerned about costs.”
The article noted that the Rauner administration “appeared to soften their opposition to Madigan’s bill Friday.” Notably, this change apparently came after reporter Michael Hawthorne started checking around.
* From the governor’s press office this morning…
The following is an excerpt of a story from Politico Illinois:
Illinois public schools and licensed daycare facilities will be required to test drinking water for lead contamination under a major compromise reached by key stakeholders, parties involved in the deal told POLITICO Illinois.
Long-running negotiations among environmental groups, lawmakers, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office and the governor’s office culminated in a compromise late last week, according to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office and the Illinois Environmental Council. […]
The agreed terms include a framework of the existing bill, pushed for months by Lisa Madigan’s office and others: schools built before the year 2000 that serve students fifth grade and younger, would be required to test for lead in all its drinking water sources, as well as sources of water used for cooking at the schools. Also, licensed day care centers would also be required to test water sources. A compromise effort ramped up by Rauner’s office since the veto session helped bring opponents on board, Walling said. […]
Walling said the amendment that is expected to be added to the bill on Monday is “the framework that the AG had been working on,” and includes technical tweaks pursued by Rauner’s office: “The agencies and the governor’s office did work (to bring compromise); they helped bring major stakeholders on board,” she said. […]
“Since its introduction, the administration met regularly with the proponents and the other stakeholders throughout the fall, as well as during the fall veto session and all of December to address some of the concerns raised with the original language,” (Gov. Rauner) spokeswoman Allie Bovis said.
However, a source close to the negotiations said today that “the only opponents the Rauner administration helped to bring on board was their own agencies.”
Three Rauner agencies had registered in opposition to the bill last year.
…Adding… The Rauner folks claim they told the Tribune on Friday that a “deal was done,” but the paper went ahead with the story anyway.
…Adding More… That same source close to the negotiations said that on Friday the Rauner administration was merely attempting to get itself to neutral.
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Today’s quotable
Monday, Jan 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Minnesota U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison has reached out to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan about his bid to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee and plans to do so soon with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
But speaking to reporters prior to a Sunday rally of progressive Democrats on his behalf in Lincoln Park, Ellison also said he’s gotten no commitment from Madigan, the state’s Democratic chairman, though he said the House speaker is someone “who I admire tremendously.”
You don’t see that every day.
So, now I assume the SJ-R, the Belleville News-Democrat and the Chicago Tribune will firmly oppose Ellison’s candidacy?
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* Yep…
As I’ve been saying all along, the idea isn’t to get a bill to the governor’s desk this week, it’s to come up with a bipartisan Senate counter-offer to the governor and to hopefully prod the House Speaker into meaningful talks with Gov. Rauner based on that outline.
As subscribers know, the question now is whether there will actually be a bipartisan Senate package today. We’ll see.
* The AP fills us in on what’s at stake here…
• $11 billion: The amount in bills at least 60 days old that the state owed, as of Friday, to vendors and service providers. That figure is higher than the current-year expected general revenue for 30 states, and more than the estimated tax dollars coming in this year for Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming combined, according to figures from the National Association of State Budget Officers.
• $5.3 billion: The estimated Illinois budget deficit on June 30 if nothing changes, according to the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget. That’s more than 13 percent of the total the state is on track to spend this fiscal year, and it’s the amount of revenue Arkansas estimates it will raise all year. Without action, the governor’s budget office predicts a $7 billion deficit in June 2018, or nearly 18 percent of the total spent.
• $1.7 million: The amount that was available for rape crisis centers to spend last fall after Rauner and legislative Democrats agreed to a six-month, stopgap budget that expired Dec. 31, according to Polly Poskin, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Other money appropriated paid the previous year’s bills. The remainder is about one-quarter of what the 29 centers statewide need to operate annually, so clients are waiting longer for counseling and layoffs have meant professionals must do administrative chores.
• $0: The amount available, once again, for the income-based Monetary Award Program that helps students attend college. The stopgap provided $321 million for 107,000 awards, but that left 162,000 eligible students without help. For the spring, the budget uncertainty once again puts colleges in the position of fronting students the money with the hope of state reimbursement or students finding alternatives, including sitting home instead of registering for class. An Illinois Student Assistance Commission survey in December found that more than half of MAP-eligible students responding to a survey reported the funding uncertainty had adversely impacted their school plans.
• 1 million: Number of people who had lost services from United Way social-service agencies, including mental health and substance-abuse treatment, domestic violence services and HIV prevention, as of last summer. The United Way of Illinois reported that 91 percent of its local organizations had cut services.
* Related…
* State cuts blamed for falling Springfield hotel occupancy rates
* Senate budget deal brewing ahead of lame duck session
* Lame-duck lawmakers return to Springfield with obstacles in way of budget deal
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Take Frerichs off the 2018 governor’s list
Monday, Jan 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tom Kacich…
State Treasurer Mike Frerichs, a Champaign Democrat, said last week that he’s “not looking at” running for governor in 2018. […]
And he shied from offering support for any of the other possible Democratic contenders, but took a shot at Rauner.
“I think part of our problem with our state is that everyone is looking at the next election and not looking at the office they were elected to,” he said. “At some point people have to stop campaigning and start governing. I had some hope after this last election the governor and Genera Assembly would sit down and focus on governing. But his reactions are to create web sites attacking other people and put $50 million into his campaign fund. It’s clear it’s going to be a two-year campaign, not two years of governing.
“I choose to focus on governing and managing my office rather than campaigning right now.”
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You have some real leverage right now
Monday, Jan 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My Crain’s Chicago Business column…
If you’ve ever had problems with your phone or cable service, you’re in luck.
Well, maybe not in luck, but you do have the perfect opportunity to exact some revenge and maybe even force your service providers to do a much better job.
AT&T is ramping up to spend big bucks this year in Springfield to once again try to get out of the state requirement that it provide everyone with a copper wire phone line. I haven’t had one of those in years. But lots of people still do, particularly older folks.
In the past, groups like the Citizens Utility Board and AARP have blocked AT&T’s efforts in the General Assembly. David Kolata at Chicago-based CUB tells me his group has “serious concerns” about what dropping that requirement would mean “for less populated and low-income portions of the state in particular.”
Even so, as hard-wired phone lines continue to dwindle, the company may have a better shot this year. That’s where you come in.
What AT&T wants will be controversial. So it stands to reason that it will have to give up something in return. Last year, Exelon wanted a bailout for its nuclear power plants. In return, it had to agree to stop opposing programs benefiting alternative energy like wind and solar, among other things. Groups like the Sierra Club ended up as big winners.
CUB has a list of things it would like to happen. For instance, it wants to
Please click here to read the rest before commenting. Thanks.
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* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Back in December, Gov. Bruce Rauner was asked by a Chicago TV reporter if he planned to run for reelection. Rauner said he wasn’t focused on such things.
Just three days later, Gov. Rauner contributed $50 million to his own campaign fund.
So, either he suddenly focused himself on the 2018 campaign, or he simply wasn’t telling the truth.
Rauner does this a lot. Whenever he’s been asked about the Illinois Republican Party’s blistering post-election campaign attacks tying Democrats to House Speaker Michael Madigan, Rauner has said he doesn’t pay attention to that stuff - even though he has given his party almost all of its funding during the past year and even though he has often referred to himself as the leader of the state party and put his own people into positions at the party.
Look, all politicians play with the truth. But this is getting to be a bit too much to bear because these actions are at the very core of what Rauner is doing as governor.
You will recall that some of Rauner’s buddies set up a huge and ostensibly Democratic political action committee (IllinoisGO) right around the time Rauner was inaugurated in January of 2015. That campaign committee was, in reality, solely designed to mess with Madigan.
In June of 2015, the governor launched an expensive statewide TV advertising campaign attacking Speaker Madigan, blaming him for the failure to cave to the governor’s demands for pro-business/anti-union reforms in exchange for a state budget solution.
Shortly thereafter, the governor moved into the primary season, spending millions more. And then he started spending real money on state legislative races in June of 2016, an unheard-of early start date which actually came while lawmakers were still in session. Rauner even began paying for Chicago broadcast TV ads for Rep. Mike McAuliffe, R-Chicago, in early August, also an unheard-of start date. And the governor launched a TV ad touting his support for term limits, a not so subtle dig at the House Speaker’s record longevity.
Republican candidates picked up four House seats during last year’s campaign. But days after the election ended, the state GOP launched a new website, “BossMadigan.com.” The site is filled with profiles of Democrats whom the Republicans say are really just Speaker Madigan’s pawns. The party is also spending money on social media to spread the word about those naughty Democrats who’ve allegedly dared to align themselves with their own state party chairman.
This is still a free country and Gov. Rauner can do whatever he wants. The House Speaker is, after all, notorious for holding floor votes on ridiculously political bills. Madigan must’ve forced Republicans to vote against a phony “property tax freeze” bill 15 times in order to bash them with their own votes during the campaign. And this Madigan stuff goes back decades. We’ve always been in constant campaign mode in Illinois. Rauner is simply upping the ante with actual year-round campaign spending.
So for the governor to deny involvement or even knowledge of campaign activities when his entire organization and others around him have been deeply in campaign mode since Day One defies all credibility. This is not some ancillary activity.
To put it as simply as possible, Rauner has used campaign tactics to try and force a wedge between Democrats and Speaker Madigan. That’s what IllinoisGO was supposed to be about - an alternative source of campaign money for Democrats who defied Madigan, or a bludgeon against those who stuck with him. Everything Rauner has done since then has had the same two goals regarding Madigan.
And yet, when asked again about this topic just last week, Rauner said, “I’m not getting involved in any of the General Assembly’s decisions on their leadership.”
Right.
But this obsession with Madigan means Rauner has defined his own term in office as a crusade against the Great White Whale. Yes, there is plenty of public support for that. Madigan is the least popular politician in this state, and perhaps in the entire country.
“Moby Dick” didn’t end well for the pursuer, however. Madigan’s top people have been saying for more than 18 months that they know they can’t move their own guy’s poll numbers up very much, so their plan is to drag Rauner down to Madigan’s level. Rauner has eagerly followed Madigan into that rabbit hole and failed to accomplish much of anything else in the process.
At last check by a Republican pollster, the governor’s favorable rating was 36 percent, with an unfavorable rating of 48. He’s gonna need every bit of that $50 million, and a whole lot more.
* From Reboot…
In the era of Bruce Rauner, the Illinois campaign season has become an eternal cycle, with completion of one election serving as the starting line for the next.
We got hints of this when Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner, seven weeks after his victory over Pat Quinn in 2014, put $10 million of his own money into his campaign fund on New Year’s Eve. (Actually, the full deposit was $20 million, with Rauner’s contribution matched by another $10 million from billionaire Ken Griffin.)
* Tribune…
As for whether he thinks Madigan deserves another term as speaker, Rauner said late last week that he wasn’t going to comment on the matter, saying it’s a decision for lawmakers. “That’s their prerogative,” Rauner said.
His comments came just hours after the Rauner-funded state GOP blasted incoming Democratic Rep. Mike Halpin of Rock Island after he told a local TV station he would vote for Madigan.
Democrats have dismissed the campaign against Madigan as a distraction that makes reaching a budget resolution only more difficult.
“I don’t think that’s going to go anywhere, I mean nowhere,” Currie said. “So I don’t understand why they are spending time spinning their wheels on projects like that. They would be better off paying attention to the crisis that various programs and vulnerable people face after Jan. 1. I would say that’s plenty on our plate without having side spats.”
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