The Rauner Administration issued the following statement after today’s Four Leaders meeting. It is attributable to Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly:
“Today the Speaker refused to put forward a budget proposal and refused to commit to passing any budget whatsoever after December 31st. Republicans will not consider revenue without reform. Only Speaker Madigan has proposed raising the income tax. As the Speaker stalls to force a crisis, we call on the majority to pass term limits and a permanent property tax freeze before any consideration of Speaker Madigan’s stopgap spending plan.”
This post will be updated in a few minutes with post-meeting comments from Senate President Cullerton.
*** UPDATE *** Always the optimist, Senate President John Cullerton emerged late from today’s leaders meeting to say “We could have an agreement on workers’ comp,” particularly when it comes to reducing abuses and fraud. “That’s where you save your money, and you don’t fundamentally blow up the whole workers’ comp system.”
And while he said that Madigan hasn’t yet committed to supporting pension reform, “The question with pension reform, as I told the governor, is getting enough votes for it.”
On taxes, Cullerton said, “Let me make it clear… We cannot on our own raise any revenue by ourselves. The most important person on revenue is the governor.”
Responding to Republican demands for Democratic “parameters” on the budget, Cullerton said “We want to know what their parameters are too, it wouldn’t just be our parameters,” adding, “So we need to know from the governor at the next meeting what his parameters are on revenue.”
* Cullerton also backed up Speaker Madigan’s contention that the working groups need to be reconstituted. “The working groups is where we got progress,” he said. The working groups can do “the ground work,” while the leaders can make the final decisions. “It’s highly detailed to do a budget. It takes weeks and weeks. So, it’s something that will be helpful.”
But he couldn’t resist a little snark: “I think the complexity of the budgeting process is something that the governor’s actually starting to appreciate.”
* Asked about the ongoing Illinois Republican Party attacks on Speaker Madigan, Cullerton said “I don’t think it’s helpful to start the election cycle for 2018 when we’re still worrying about Fiscal Year 17. The election just occurred a few weeks ago. Could we just legislate for a while? I’m not campaigning anywhere.”
The Illinois Labor Relations Board on Monday issued a written version of its Nov. 15 ruling that an impasse exists in contract talks between the state and Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall said after the written version was issued that the union is appealing the ruling to the state appellate court based in Chicago.
The union had filed a lawsuit in St. Clair County circuit court seeking an injunction to block the Rauner administration from implementing its final contract offer before a written opinion was issued. A ruling had been expected as early as Monday. […]
The full board ruled that because privatization - or subcontracting - was such a critical issue, the parties should be considered to have reached overall impasse.
Lindall said the union is asking the appellate court to block implementation of the state’s final offer because many components
The governor’s office claimed yesterday that any TRO by that St. Clair County judge would be moot, but he went ahead and issued it today anyway. Click here to read it…
Another hearing is set for January 13th, unless the Rauner administration asks for an expedited process.
Awaiting Rauner administration react.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Catherine Kelly…
“With this order, AFSCME’s hand-picked judge blatantly ignores yesterday’s written ruling which memorialized and reinforced the Labor Board’s final decision, made at its November 15th meeting confirming that the parties are at impasse. In addition, the order ensures that taxpayers and employees will not be able to benefit from common sense solutions such as overtime after 40 hours of work, workplace safety task forces, bereavement leave, and $1,000 merit bonus payments for eligible employees.”
Although the Board’s written decision was issued while the TRO request was pending, the judge found that “by implementing new terms and conditions of employment without notice to and the agreement of the union”, the Rauner administration “has violated that Tolling Agreement” that extends the terms of the current contract.
Under the TRO, the administration must honor the tolling agreement and rescind any changes it has made, at least until a hearing now set for January 13 (possibly sooner).
“Although temporary, this order sends a message to Governor Rauner that he is not above the law,” AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said. “Instead of sparking further conflict in the courts and at state worksites, Governor Rauner should return to bargaining and work with us to find common ground.”
* The 2016 Golden Horseshoe Award for best political bar goes to DH Brown’s. “Great beer, fun jukebox, bipartisan non uptight crowd,” wrote a commenter. “Always has the most politicos,” says another. “It’s just cool that you can find all kinds of lobsters there in the afternoon, and legislators make it a pit stop through out the night,” wrote yet another. Sangamo Club wins runner-up because it’s a go-to meeting spot for heavy hitters.
* The 2016 Golden Horseshoe Award for best political restaurant goes to, who else? Saputo’s. “Years of meals and deals,” is how one commenter described it. Runner-up goes to Augies, mainly for this nomination…
Augie’s is hands-down the best political restaurant. In addition to good food, you can always “get work done” while having dinner as there are always opportunities to “run into” someone you just happen to need to see on an issue (legislator or staffer). Also, it has become a regular haunt of Gov. Rauner and his wife, which makes Augie’s just that much better as a “political” restaurant.
* On to today’s categories…
* Best Senate Secretary/Admin. Assistant
* Best House Secretary/Admin. Assistant
As always, make sure to explain your votes or they won’t count. Also, please do your best to nominate in both categories. Thanks!
A new, first-of-its-kind statewide survey released by the Alliance for Safety and Justice (ASJ) bucks conventional wisdom regarding the views of crime victims on incarceration. Despite popular assumptions that victims support long sentences and prison expansion, the Survey of Illinois Victims’ Views finds that seven in 10 victims prefer a more balanced approach to public safety – shorter prison sentences and greater investments in prevention, rehabilitation and trauma recovery for victims to stop the cycle of crime.
By a margin of nearly 3 to 1, crime victims believe that time in prison makes people more likely to commit another crime rather than less likely. These views cut across demographic groups, with wide support across race, age, gender, and political party affiliation.
Nine in 10 crime victims prefer that Illinois invest more in schools and education rather than investing in more prisons and jails. The vast majority of victims also prefer investments in rehabilitation, mental health treatment, and drug treatment to more spending on prisons and jails. […]
The survey also finds that victims of crime experience significant challenges in recovery and healing—seven in 10 report experiencing at least one symptom of trauma. The survey found fewer than half of victims receive help from the police and only two in 10 receive help from the district attorney.
According to FOX’s Ken Rosenthal, the Chicago White Sox traded Sale to the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday in exchange for Moncada, starting pitcher Michael Kopech and two other prospects.
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month in United Auto Workers v. Hardin County that Kentucky’s local governments—not only the state legislature—can decide whether to implement right-to-work laws, which ban unions from firing workers who refuse to pay dues. This ruling should relieve reformers throughout the Midwest, but it’s particularly good news for Illinois, where unions and their political allies have made securing workers’ freedom an uphill battle.
Right to work is an important part of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “Turnaround Illinois” agenda. Under his proposal, local governments would have the option to decide for themselves whether to adopt right to work. The policy could apply to workers in the private economy, as well as government employees. Any unit of local government could make this decision—cities, towns, counties, municipal wards and even school districts.
Yet Mr. Rauner has faced hurdles at every turn. Mike Madigan, Illinois’s powerful speaker of the house, almost immediately shot down the idea of serious right-to-work legislation. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the speaker’s daughter, issued a legal opinion arguing that right-to-work laws for local governments within a state are illegal. The Sixth Circuit’s judgment may help overcome such resistance. […]
Although Illinois isn’t under the Sixth Circuit’s jurisdiction, a similar challenge is already under way. The village of Lincolnshire, about 30 miles north of Chicago, enacted a right-to-work ordinance last year. Lincolnshire immediately faced lawsuits from unions, including the AFL-CIO. […]
Lincolnshire isn’t the only municipality where right to work would be beneficial. These laws would help Winnebago County, next to Wisconsin, and many of the southern counties that border Kentucky, Missouri, and Indiana, where coal-related jobs have disappeared.
I seriously doubt coal-related job losses have been due to the lack of right to work laws, but whatever.
Illinois governor Bruce Rauner will be in the [Quad Cities] this week to sign the Future Energy Jobs Bill.
The bill was passed last Thursday and reportedly will ensure that Exelon nuclear plants in Cordova and Clinton, Illinois will remain open for at least the next ten years.
Governor Rauner will sign the bill in the gym at Riverdale High School at 9:30 on Wednesday.
But he can’t actually sign a bill that isn’t on his desk.
Gov. Bruce Rauner plans to visit Clinton on Wednesday to sign a bill overhauling Illinois’ energy policy and creating $235 million in annual ratepayer subsidies to keep open Exelon Corp.’s nuclear power plants there and near the Quad-Cities.
The Clinton Chamber of Commerce announced Sunday on its Facebook page that Rauner plans a bill-signing ceremony at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Clinton High School. The governor’s office did not respond immediately Monday to a request for confirmation, and as of Monday afternoon, the bill hadn’t been sent to his desk. [Emphasis added]
The Senate still has the bill. I was told by the Senate Democrats today that they weren’t sure when they could get it to Rauner’s desk. So, stay tuned.
The typical Ameren Illinois residential customer will pay about $1.93 less per month for power after a far-reaching energy bill goes into effect June 1, 2017, according to an analysis of the Future Energy Jobs bill by the Illinois Commerce Commission.
Eventually, however, rates will start to increase beyond today’s levels around 2023, according to the ICC model.
The energy bill, promoted for almost two years by Exelon Corp. to preserve its nuclear plants in Clinton and the Quad Cities, was approved by the Illinois Legislature on Thursday. The main feature of the measure is a subsidy of up to $235 million a year to keep the two nuclear plants open for at least 10 more years. […]
“Based on our analysis,” said ICC Executive Director Cholly Smith, “we expect residential customer caps will reduce rates in the first few years and meet the goals of the legislation to limit increases throughout the life of the law. As an agency whose mission is to balance the interests of consumers and utilities, we stand ready to enforce these caps.”
While proponents of the bill tout “rate caps,” sadly these caps are a sham, gamed by Exelon using technical language to mask artificially high baselines against which caps will be measured. For commercial and industrial customers, the gaming of the rate caps will cost them more than $100 million per year.
For residential ratepayers, the gap between rhetoric and reality is extreme. Exelon has said their bills will go up by no more than 25 cents a month, but that’s an average of all residential customers, not individual homeowners. An independent analysis by Illinois’ leading energy expert, the Power Bureau, finds the bill will cost the average residential ratepayer an additional $4.54 a month for ComEd customers and $2.01 a month for Ameren customers in downstate Illinois.
Illinois lawmakers recently passed the Future Energy Jobs Bill (SB 2814), which would create the biggest rate hike in U.S. history. Proponents of the legislation claim it will “create jobs” and reduce energy rates. This is not true. This anti-free market legislation will kill tens of thousands of Illinois jobs, increase rates in the state by more than $13 billion and prop up politically connected corporations at the expense of Illinois residents. […]
The state’s economy would likely be the hardest hit. The legislation would cause a projected loss of over 44,000 jobs and a reduction in Illinois’ economic activity of $14.7 billion. State and local governments would also see an estimated tax revenue loss of $429 million.
Given the drastic impact of this legislation on Illinois residents, businesses, and the state’s economy as a whole, one can only ask is this cost truly worth bailing out two insignificant nuclear plants in the state, while also doling out billions of dollars to special interests? The answer is obviously no.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) has the ability to save his constituents from this needless and burdensome legislation, simply by refusing to sign the Future Energy Jobs Bill and ensuring Illinois residents and businesses are not subjected to the highest rate hike in history, thousands of jobs lost and billions of dollars in reduced economic growth.
* Subscribers were tipped to this earlier today, as well as the reason why…,
State Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, released the following statement Tuesday, after delivering letters to Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic and Republican legislative leaders urging a working group of lawmakers to immediately begin negotiations on a state budget:
“With only weeks before the stopgap budget expires, passing a responsible and comprehensive budget for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2017 and a full-year budget for Fiscal Year 2018 must be a priority. The governor and caucus leaders have been open to forming a bipartisan, bicameral budget working group. House Democrats are ready to do their part to end this gridlock and pass a budget that protects vital programs and services for families throughout Illinois. I am hopeful this group will begin meeting immediately and work throughout the coming weeks to achieve a budget solution.”
The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget Chief of Staff Scott Harry released the following statement in the lead-up to today’s budget presentation from Speaker Madigan to the Governor and legislative leaders:
“The budget working group has gone as far as it can in putting together a balanced budget framework to accompany key reforms that grow the economy, lower property taxes, improve education and bring government pensions under control,” Harry said. “Now it’s time for the four leaders and the governor to reach agreement on these key reforms and give final parameters for a balanced budget framework.”
Yesterday, GOMB Director Tim Nuding met with budget directors from all four legislative caucuses to answer any remaining questions about the stopgap funding bill or issues needed for final decision-making on a FY17-FY18 balanced budget framework. The administration looks forward to seeing Speaker Madigan’s budget proposal in today’s Four Leaders meeting, including specific parameters for funding levels, cuts, revenue and/or reforms.
Notice there’s no mention of revenues in that budget framework. There were, but they don’t like to talk about that.
Thank you for your most recent letter regarding budget working groups. I refer you to my letter sent to you last week that already addresses the topic. I am attaching a copy of that letter.
I look forward to seeing you at today’s meeting at 2pm to discuss the budget.
Her letter from last week is here. Basically, she said that she already did the working groups thing and now it’s up to the leaders.
Which brings to mind the Republican effort to “out” the downstate Democrats ahead of the Illinois House electing its next speaker. Mike Madigan’s 32-year lock on that spot, and all the dysfunction that has flowed from that leadership, is under attack and local Democrats are under the microscope at bossmadigan.com. The site names state Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Eldorado; Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville; Rep. Dan Beiser, D-Alton; and Rep. Jerry Costello II, D-Smithton.
Costello said he doesn’t know how he’ll vote.
“I think my constituents know I’m a very conservative Democrat, and I consider myself to be exactly in the middle,” Costello said.
But exactly in the middle is a very bad place to be. If anything is to change in Illinois, Costello and the rest of Illinois’ leadership must choose sides.
Continue to follow Madigan, to what destination is anyone’s guess. Try something different than the insanity of topping two decades of unbalanced budgets by shirking the obligation for two years to even have a budget, by ignoring a $130 billion pension deficit and by continuing to bleed jobs and population that are destroying our middle class.
Serve yourself. Serve your master. Serve the people who elected you.
This shouldn’t be a hard choice.
There are only two sides in the House: Madigan and Rauner. What the BN-D essentially proposes here is that Costello and other Democrats side with Rauner. They don’t come out and say it, of course, but that’s what this is really all about.
Being “exactly in the middle” is a good thing, by the way. He can help nudge people on both sides to an agreement. Costello worked hard on the higher education stopgap earlier this year to make it more equitable for Downstate. Illinois needs more legislators like him, not fewer.
Gov. Bruce Rauner is calling on new Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza to fight a lawsuit filed by her fellow Democratic lawmakers seeking to collect paychecks they haven’t received since May.
Speaking in Chicago, the Republican governor says it’s clear the lawsuit was “orchestrated” with Democratic party leaders such as Rauner’s rival, House Speaker Michael Madigan. […]
Rauner says he hopes Mendoza will “fight as hard as Comptroller Munger has.”
He says she should hire outside legal counsel rather than be represented by Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office. Lisa Madigan, a Democrat, is Michael Madigan’s daughter.
“I hope that she’ll speak out about it every day. I hope that she will get her own special counsel and not purely count on Attorney General Lisa Madigan to fight the lawsuit,” Rauner said. […]
Mendoza’s office responded to calls for an independent counsel in a statement, citing her office’s independence from the governor’s office.
“We appreciate the governor’s advice but as an independent constitutional office, we’ll explore our best legal options on this case and any others,” Mendoza spokesman Abdon Pallasch said.
The Illinois Attorney General’s office, however, on Monday said it’s reviewing the lawsuit and plans to represent the comptroller’s office.
Abdon’s response was pretty darned polite, considering the situation. But, hey, he just started a new gig.
“Sam Yingling’s flustered response to a simple question shows just how loyal Yingling is to Mike Madigan. Yingling knows that a vote for Madigan is a vote against a property tax freeze, pro-growth economic reforms, and term limits, but Yingling will not dare speak out against his political patron.” – Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Steven Yaffe
Yesterday’s dodge comes after Yingling was asked last week whether he would support Madigan, to which he responded “I don’t know, you should talk to him.”
Rauner said he warned the speaker last week that he’ll only approve another stopgap budget with term limits and a property tax freeze.
Besides deep fundamental disagreements about reforms, the two are so at odds that they disagree over the word “stopgap.” Last week, Madigan said it was the governor’s office that coined the term in late May, and that he preferred it to be called a budget. They also disagree about whose idea it was to try to pass a stopgap budget, which began in July.
The governor on Monday called that “semantics.”
“I call that a stopgap. He calls it a budget. Semantics. It’s not a real budget,” Rauner said.
And while the governor has said he’s still “fighting” for his reforms, he warned a stopgap budget may be where the state is heading.
“I will insist that those be part of any stopgap plan, Rauner said. “Be ready, because that’s where we’re going.”
We already know about these two demands in exchange for a stopgap, but have people really internalized them yet? All we’ve seen so far is straight reportage on his demands, but we are heading for a serious meltdown here and more people need to speak up. So far, I’m getting a lot of private feedback that people are still holding out beyond all hope for a deal. Does this sound like a deal is imminent?
* No stopgap could mean very real problems. Social service agencies are already crumbling. You can kiss many of them goodbye if they don’t get any more cash. Same for some of our universities.
And when a prison is about to close is he really gonna say “We’ll be glad to keep it open if we get term limits”?
I went over some of the scenarios with subscribers last week. Suffice it to say here that the administration thinks it can tough it out, move money around and confine most of the damage to Democratic areas.
But more people need to be demanding answers about what, exactly the future holds.
We can’t allow the executive branch of government to illegally use personal economic coercion to make the legislative branch fall in line on policy disputes, even if sticking it to politicians makes everyone feel good. […]
As somebody who has tried to illuminate the plight of the little people getting mistreated by the state’s failure to pass a budget, I can appreciate there’s a certain appearance of fairness in treating elected officials as poorly as other state vendors are being treated.
Rauner piled on the paycheck issue again Monday, calling the lawsuit “frivolous” and an “insult to taxpayers.”
“Only in Illinois would politicians who have failed to pass a balanced budget put their own personal gain before taxpayers and critical human services,” Rauner said.
This from a man who reported an adjusted gross income of $188 million to the IRS for 2015, a year in which he was the full-time governor of Illinois. And we’re supposed to be impressed he voluntarily refuses his state salary. […]
Despite all Rauner’s money, I think the governor appreciates how withholding six months pay squeezes lawmakers to bend to his will. They’ll go broke long before he will.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants Gov. Bruce Rauner to publicly back his efforts to promote Chicago as a welcoming place for immigrants as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office.
A resolution sponsored by Emanuel, new Democratic state Comptroller Susana Mendoza and 35 of the city’s 50 aldermen calls on Rauner to issue a statement of “support for cities that welcome our undocumented family members and neighbors and condemn any effort to strip the city of Chicago of federal funding.”
Chicago Democrats also are attempting to whistle in the Republican governor — the resolution, which was advanced Monday by a City Council committee, calls on Rauner to speak at a special council meeting “held solely for the purpose of discussing the president-elect’s plans for cities that welcome and protect immigrants.”
Asked to respond to the specifics of the city resolution, a Rauner spokeswoman instead issued a general statement reiterating the governor’s support for immigration reform. Rauner has spent much of the last year avoiding even the mention of Trump’s name.
Democrat Susana Mendoza was sworn in as Illinois comptroller Monday, saying bipartisan agreement is needed to get the state out of its fiscal crisis, but also saying GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “turnaround agenda” shouldn’t be linked to passing a budget.
“I don’t think that the approach of tying non-budgetary related items to the budget has proved fruitful for Illinoisans,” Mendoza, 44, told reporters concerning Rauner’s priorities, which have ranged from term limits and a property-tax freeze to limiting some collective bargaining and lowering workers’ compensation costs. “I think all of those things independently should be standing on their own merits and should not be tied to the budget.” […]
“I will use the full power of my office to prevent Illinois’ hospitals, group homes, rape crisis centers and universities from going under,” Mendoza said. […]
“As I said during my campaign, I am here to be that independent, truth-telling fiscal watchdog that will prioritize … both the state’s fiscal and moral health,” Mendoza said. “If anyone from the governor on down tells you we can afford to bail out the big power companies but we have to bail on Illinois’ school children, I’ll be here to call their bluff.”
That last line closely echoed Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s criticism of the governor for backing the Exelon deal while vetoing Chicago Public Schools funding…
“The governor said he was going to sign a bill to bail out the utilities and then vetoed a bill that bailed on the children of the city of Chicago. That’s the way I look at it,” said Emanuel of a measure that raises electricity rates for consumers and keeps open two nuclear power plants.
* Gov. Rauner was asked today about his recent calls to Democrats to tone down their rhetoric. But what about the BossMadigan.com site, which is run by the Illinois GOP that’s almost totally funded by the governor? Why not give that a rest for a while?
His response…
This is the job we’ve chosen. We’re in a field where politics is always going on. Partisan stuff. That’s on the side. We can keep that out. That’s not in the room when we’re negotiating. That’s its own process. I have nothing to do with it. I don’t spend my time thinking about it or focusing on it. We ought to be mature enough, thoughtful enough that we can put politics aside. Politics are always going on. That’s the world we live in. We should focus in the room on getting a compromise, doing the right thing for the long term for the people of Illinois… The political stuff, the partisan stuff, ignore it. That shouldn’t matter. That should not get in the way.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner says legislation that provides billions of dollars in subsidies to power giant Exelon Corp. is imperfect but that he’s “proud” of the deal lawmakers reached.
The measure approved Thursday provides $235 million per year to Exelon to keep unprofitable nuclear plants running in Clinton and the Quad Cities. More than 4 million customers of power-distributing subsidiaries ComEd and Ameren will pay more to finance the plan.
Rauner has previously blasted “special deals” for corporations. On Thursday he vetoed additional state money for Chicago Public Schools, calling it a “bailout.”
The Republican, who’s expected to sign the Exelon bill, said Friday that Clinton and the Quad Cities communities would have been “devastated” if those plants closed.
For a few days, Illinois touted a functioning government, and the sudden bit of 11th-hour bipartisanship salvaged nuclear plants in Cordova and Clinton, Illinois. […]
This time, Gov. Bruce Rauner showed real leadership. For months, his administration was oddly silent on the Exelon bill. Only when it really mattered did Rauner and his staff speak up, leveraging its full political muscle to shape something palatable to Rauner, pro-business Republicans and environmentally minded Democrats. Rauner’s administration said late Thursday that the Exelon bill is expected to be signed into law.
Madigan, too, backed off on his “poison pill.” Finally, Illinois’ dominant speaker freed his members to speak for themselves.
It made for another sad commentary on a Legislature that seems impotent and fearful in the ongoing budget dispute between Rauner and Michael Madigan, but was willing and able to take tough votes to assist a profitable corporation.
The governor’s team actively worked to craft the Exelon bailout. Too bad the only time Rauner and Democrats in the General Assembly found common cause, it was to do the state harm.
“It’s all about clean hands,” a group of Republican lawmakers is complaining Monday, and the Illinois Democrats that filed a lawsuit last week to get their paychecks from State Comptroller Leslie Munger simply “don’t have them.”
The lawsuit six state representatives filed last week sues on behalf of all the state lawmakers affected by Munger’s policy of “No budget, No pay,” but those six are a part of the reason why no state budget has been passed, and why they’re not getting their paychecks.
“In order to be worthy to file the lawsuit, those filing must be worthy of asking, and they have not complied with the statutory requirements” to pass a balanced state budget Illinois Review was told by a source that wanted to remain anonymous. […]
“The House members must comply with their required duties or they have no standing to file a complaint about not getting their paychecks - in other words, they don’t have ‘clean hands’ required,” and that position could soon be filed in court.
* Here’s a bit more from an e-mail that’s being circulated among some lawmakers that I obtained this afternoon…
As of June 30, 2014, the General Assembly members get paid under a continuing appropriation bill covering their salaries.
Unfortunately for the continuing appropriation bill, the cumulative effect of the current expenditures exceeding funds estimated to be available by the General Assembly, such an appropriation bill is unconstitutional under Article VIII, Section 2(b) of the Illinois Constitution which says:
“The General Assembly by law shall make appropriations for all expenditures of public funds by the State. Appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year. “
The doctrine of unclean hands is an affirmative defense to a Mandamus of the type requested by the 6 Illinois House members. First, look at the standard definition of Unclean Hands:
“For instance, if a plaintiff asks the court for an injunction to stop the defendant from dumping his trash in the plaintiff’s backyard, the defendant may argue that the plaintiff has also dumped her trash in the defendant’s backyard, and so the plaintiff has “unclean hands” and should not receive the injunction she wants. The doctrine is based on an idea of basic fairness: One person should not be able to stop another person from doing a bad action if the first person is also doing it.”
http://www.rotlaw.com/legal-library/what-are-unclean-hands/
Second, consider the fact that it is the very acts of the 6 named Plaintiffs individually and collectively as a body that has refused to send to the governor’s desk a Constitutional appropriations bill where all expenditures do not exceed the funds estimated to be available. The doctrine Unclean Hands of Plaintiffs should prevent the Cook County Court from issuing a Mandamus order.
The only step missing in this lawsuit is to have one or more members of the General Assembly file an interpleader to join the lawsuit as a matter of right and to oppose the relief requested because of the unclean hands of the plaintiffs. Do not let the crooks who created this problem and who can collectively solve the problem by the own required duty avoid the effects of their own Constitutional malfeasance.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Press release…
Governor Bruce Rauner today called on Democratic legislators to put taxpayers and critical human services ahead of their own personal gain by withdrawing their lawsuit seeking paychecks and join him in pushing for a balanced budget with reforms.
“This lawsuit is a stunning reminder of why we need change in Springfield,” Governor Rauner said. “Only in Illinois would politicians who have failed to pass a balanced budget and reforms put their own personal gain before taxpayers and critical human services.”
As promised, Governor Rauner does not accept a paycheck or benefits.
“Democrats should end this frivolous lawsuit, put taxpayers and human services ahead of themselves, and pressure their leadership to work with Republicans on passing a balanced budget with reforms that create jobs, lower property taxes and improve our schools,” Rauner added.
Governor Rauner and Republican leaders are pushing for a balanced budget with reforms that will create jobs, lower property taxes and improve our schools.
Speaker Mike Madigan prefers a stopgap spending measure. While the speaker prefers calling it a budget, it is not. What the speaker advocates for is simply a short term, incomplete stopgap spending measure. Last week, the governor made clear that he will only support a stopgap measure if the Democrats pass term limits and a permanent property tax freeze.
He also talked about it at his press conference today…
*** UPDATE 2 *** From a plaintiff in that lawsuit…
@GovRauner We are calling on you to respect the Constitution. Being a billionaire does not give you the right to break the law! https://t.co/DX5njS7Zwh
* Yes, it’s that time of the year again. I realize that many of you are grumpy as heck, but our annual awards are a Statehouse tradition and we’re not going to stop now.
As always, we’ll start off light. Your nominations, please, for best political bar and best political restaurant in Springfield?
Make sure to explain your nomination or it won’t count. These awards are about intensity rather than numerical supremacy. And please nominate in both categories.
* I have some appointments to deal with and some errands to run today, so I probably will not be around when this breaks.
Friday e-mails from a reader…
I’m in the court St Clair County. Judge is issuing a TRO to prevent implementation of Rauner’s last best and final offer.
So they agreed that the TRO would come out Monday at noon. Mum’s the word until then.
I’ve confirmed this with others.
*** UPDATE *** I’m told that the Illinois Labor Relations Board has issued its written ruling, which the governor’s people say renders the St. Clair County decision moot.
I read the blog often to help keep up to date on various downstate activities and enjoy the knowledge and difference of opinions everyone brings and shares.
When it comes to the budget, I am not sure if anyone has shared that while a K-12 budget may have been passed, the bigger picture of an overall budget still affects districts. The gaping revenue whole that has produced the backlog is still taking a toll on a district like mine.
As of now, we are in the 6th month of the budget year and the State still owes us over $600k from last fiscal year. As you may or may not know, School Districts get categorical money from ISBE and the State as well as the General State Aid (GSA) that is talked so much about. We get the GSA monthly, and are happy for that, but we get those categorical payments four times a year. As it stands, we are still owed that final payment from last year and have not of course seen the first payment this year.
This still puts hardships on districts and do not think that this is mentioned enough as I know that there are other districts that serve a low socioeconomically diverse population like we do. I just think that it should be noted that passing that budget did not necessarily save districts, it just saved them from shutting our doors at the beginning of the year.
Students still suffer when cash flow is this bad and we need to make decisions on what we purchase and when because our state is not only dead last in the country with education funding, but is this far behind with what they do pay.
Patrick Palbicke
Director of Business/CSBO
Beach Park District #3
* The State Journal-Register offers advice to our new Illinois Comptroller, Susana Mendoza…
One of your main duties is to cut the state’s checks; we feel you should know that as of right now, there are hundreds of nonprofits, social service agencies, schools and other vendors waiting to be paid for work they did or services they provided months ago. We were encouraged to hear that you do not believe state legislators should be bumped to the front of the line for payment, and they would have to wait just like everyone else does.
Granted, it might not be your choice anymore: Six Democratic lawmakers filed suit Friday against your predecessor, Leslie Munger, saying she was violating the constitution by not issuing them paychecks. They may legally be right, but perhaps you can tell them what you said last week during a Better Government Association forum held in Springfield, that withholding paychecks is not a punitive action, but that the pain has to be shared. It’s a concept some state lawmakers haven’t always understood.
Sure, it may be unconstitutional. Sure, it gives unprecedented authority to an otherwise ministerial executive branch officer to set state policy by fiat. And sure, it hasn’t worked at all.
But, hey, it polls off the charts and allows us to howl populist platitudes at the wind, so by all means let’s do it!
* I realize this is a completely “politically incorrect” thing to say in our current political climate, but duly elected members of the Illinois General Assembly should not be held hostage to the political whims of a state comptroller.
“Today we talked about the budget for 14 minutes,” Madigan said, and then actually provided the tick-tock. “From 10:16 to 10:20 and from 11:15 to 11:25 we talked about the budget.” The meeting ended at about 11:38 or so.
However, Radogno argued that the brevity of discussion was by state Democrats’ design.
“Today we said, ‘OK, what are your ideas on the budget?’ ” Radogno said. “[Madigan] had Greg Harris there — his appointed spokesman — unprepared to talk about the budget.”
Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, countered that unknowns in the future of the state’s economic situation needed to be “accurately accounted for” before a substantive discussion could take place. […]
Harris argued lawmakers have a number of questions to answer before substantive progress can be made. Among them, Illinois’ new road lockbox amendment, which requires all transportation related fees and taxes be used exclusively for transportation-related expenses. Harris also referenced the incoming Trump administration and looming questions regarding block grants for Medicaid.
“These will have profound implications on our state budget-making,” Harris said.
No doubt those will have profound implications, but Trump won’t even be inaugurated until after the second half of the stopgap starts. And he has to pass a whole lot of bills for whatever he wants to do. Illinois can’t wait to deal with the rest of this fiscal year while DC sorts itself out. Leave that talk to next fiscal year.
So, maybe by tomorrow, when the leaders meet again, the Democrats can walk in with a plan.
“My strong recommendation is that we tone down the rhetoric,” Rauner said Friday, when asked about harsh response from Emanuel. “Heated rhetoric doesn’t help. Getting emotional doesn’t help. Pointing fingers doesn’t help. Let’s stay mature. Let’s stay thoughtful. Let’s stay positive.”
* From the almost solely Rauner-funded ILGOP today…
Four More Added to BossMadigan.com
Time for Cullerton, Nekritz, Scherer and Moylan to Prove Their Independence
The Illinois Republican Party this morning made four more additions to BossMadigan.com – Sen. Tom Cullerton and Reps. Elaine Nekritz, Sue Scherer and Marty Moylan.
“Mike Madigan is doing everything in his power to block a property tax freeze, term limits, job-creating economic reforms and a balanced budget,” said Illinois Republican Party spokesman Steven Yaffe. “It’s time for legislators to put a balanced budget and bipartisan reforms ahead of Mike Madigan.”
“Tom Cullerton already betrayed the students in his district by voting to bail out Chicago Public Schools with $215 million in taxpayer money, but Elaine Nekritz, Sue Scherer and Marty Moylan can prove their independence by opposing this reckless bailout and refusing to support Mike Madigan for speaker until he allows votes on bipartisan reforms.”
Tom Cullerton
Just this month, Tom Cullerton betrayed the students in his district by voting to bail out Chicago Public Schools with $215 million in taxpayer money. Before his most recent election, Cullerton voted against the bailout, but he now sold out to Mike Madigan. Tom Cullerton proved that he cares more about Madigan’s Chicago agenda than the families in his own district.
Elaine Nekritz
Elaine Nekritz has voted 7 times to make Mike Madigan the Speaker of the House. In return, she was selected by Madigan to serve on his leadership team. Only the most loyal legislators are named one of Madigan’s top lieutenants, and taxpayers have paid a steep price for Nekritz’s loyalty.
Nekritz voted for Mike Madigan’s reform-free, 67% income tax hike, the largest in state history. She joined Madigan in teaming with Rod Blagojevich on a pension scheme that increased debt by up to $22 billion. And Nekritz even voted for legislation that makes sure she gets paid even if there is no state budget. Now, legislators are using the Nekritz-backed legislation to sue so they get paid before social services receive their funding.
It’s time for Elaine Nekritz to break with Mike Madigan.
Sue Scherer
Sue Scherer’s campaigns have pocketed more than $850,000 from Mike Madigan. So, it’s no surprise Scherer voted repeatedly to make Madigan the Speaker. Scherer also supported Madigan’s broken budget that would increase state debt by $8 billion or force a $1,000 tax hike with no reforms on Illinois families. She also helped enable the current lawsuit filed by legislators that is trying to force they get paid ahead of funding for services for the needy.
Sue Scherer can show her independent by finally opposing Mike Madigan as Speaker.
Marty Moylan
Mike Madigan has helped funnel nearly $1 million into Marty Moylan’s campaigns, and Moylan’s returned the favor by twice supporting Madigan as Speaker. Moylan joined Madigan in trying to hold local schools hostage to force a bailout for Chicago, and he voted for Madigan’s broken budget that would have required a massive tax hike without reforms. Moylan also voted to make sure he gets paid even if the government shuts down.
It’s time for Marty Moylan to put the people ahead of his political patron. It’s time for him to vote against Mike Madigan as Speaker.
Members of the Illinois House will cast votes in January on whether Michael Madigan will again serve as their speaker. And the state’s Republican Party is warning that if metro-east lawmakers vote the wrong way, it’ll haunt them in 2018.
Republicans have been trying to make an issue of whether downstate House members will vote for Madigan as speaker. Their efforts include a website, www.bossmadigan.com, which singles out Democratic House members from Southern Illinois: Rep. Jerry Costello II, D-Smithton; Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Eldorado; Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville; and Rep. Dan Beiser, D-Alton.
Costello said he hasn’t made a decision.
“I don’t think I can answer that question until I know who all the candidates are,” he said. “What I have to do is vote in a way which helps me best represent my constituents and my district. I represent roughly 110,000 people, and what I’ve got to do is make sure the vote I cast isn’t an emotional vote — that it’s a vote that allows me to best represent those people.”
Some Democrats believe Pritzker, who has instant name recognition, a lengthy resume in philanthropy and an investment in Chicago’s business and tech world, is uniquely positioned to go up against multimillionaire Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who in 2014 spent a record amount of money in an Illinois governor’s race — more than $65 million.
“J.B. is not intimidated by Rauner’s money,” said a source close to Pritzker. “If he did this, he would do whatever it took to do it the right way. He would run to win and he would do what it takes to do that.” […]
Not everyone is cheering Pritzker’s potential candidacy. Some progressives fear pitting a billionaire against another multi-millionaire would create the wrong narrative in the Democrats’ quest to retake the governor’s mansion. Democrats have painted Rauner as the out-of-touch rich guy who is allowing the state’s neediest to suffer in order to push through his personal political agenda. Warring sides have left the state without a full budget since Rauner took office in 2015. […]
“[Chris Kennedy] can’t walk in with a check for $100 million and go toe to toe with Rauner,” said one said a top Illinois political operative who was among those Pritzker called.
We’ll see. Rich guys like to talk a lot of smack about writing big checks, but few actually do. Rauner did, which made him unique. And, speaking of money, Rauner stressed that he didn’t inherit his great wealth, which helped him connect with people lower on the economic food chain (think his grandparents’ trailer at their dairy farm that he mentions every chance he gets, or his fondness for his Harley, or his trash-can van, or his g-droppin’ ways). Pritzker inherited a fortune, which makes it far tougher for him to show he’s like everyone else.
Also, when he hires an opposition researcher to thoroughly look into his own past, we’ll know he’s more than just taking a cursory look at this run. Rauner did that early on, which was key to understanding that he was dead serious about his campaign.
Pritzker may have “instant name recognition” in some circles, but I gotta figure that lots of folks in Rock Island or St. Clair counties don’t know who the heck he is. More importantly, what will he do to build the party beyond Cook County and other reliable Democratic strongholds? He doesn’t have to win Downstate, of course, but he has to do much better than Pat Quinn within that region. We already know he’s a progressive Democrat, but how will Pritzker connect with the rest of the state?
And, early on, he’ll need an answer to the “Madigan question.” He needs to show that he can get things done, but isn’t willing to return to the pre-Rauner “status quo.” That’ll be important to Downstate and also to the suburbs, where the pro-choice Rauner will pursue independent women with a ferver.
There are a few guidelines that were employed in this process. First, no incumbent starts a cycle in the Toss Up column. Do we expect Illinois GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner and Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to have difficult races? Absolutely, but first they need announced first-tier opposition.
If you want to get things done in government, you have to occasionally be careful with your political rhetoric. That’s easier said than done in this age of anything goes, grab ‘em by the whatever campaigns. But here’s one small but important example.
During the campaign, state Sen. Gary Forby’s Republican opponent Dale Fowler sent out a mailer headlined: “Organized labor can’t trust Gary Forby!”
That would be news to the Illinois AFL-CIO, which endorsed Forby, D-Benton, along with just about every union in his district.
Why can’t labor trust Forby? ”Forby voted to install Rauner appointees to the board deciding the fate of our union contracts,” the mailer said.
So a Republican candidate who, in one way or the other, got most of his money from Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner sent out a mailer denouncing a pro-union Democrat for voting to confirm Rauner’s anti-union appointees.
Cute.
Now, you may have heard that Illinois government is in meltdown mode. The state hasn’t had a real budget since Rauner was inaugurated almost two years ago because the governor won’t negotiate a budget until he obtains some anti-union, pro-business reforms.
Just about nothing can get done in this toxic environment. But one of the few things that has worked so far has been the Illinois Senate’s confirmation process. The governor, to his credit, sat down with Democratic Senate President John Cullerton early in his term and went through the details of how the process worked and what was expected from both sides. Rauner has worked well with Cullerton, who is far more willing to make accommodations than House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Some folks predicted massive appointment confirmation battles between the Democratic Senate and the Republican governor, but it’s been smooth sailing.
Last year, Rauner appointed Alexander “Sandy” Stuart to the Illinois Teachers Retirement System board. Stuart’s father, Robert Stuart Jr., was a former chairman and CEO of Quaker Oats, and the wealthy Lake Forest resident is respected in Republican circles. But the nomination drew an angry response from the Illinois Federation of Teachers.
Stuart’s family foundation gave a six-figure contribution to the Illinois Policy Institute. The economically right-wing group has also received money from Rauner and opposes defined-benefit pensions, and, like Rauner, opposes prevailing wage laws and champions so-called “right to work” legislation.
The Rauner folks claim the Stuart Family Foundation made those contributions when its founder, Robert Stuart Jr., was still alive and making the decisions. The elder Stuart founded the America First Committee, which opposed America’s entrance into World War II. He was a pretty far-right dude.
Sandy Stuart’s nomination sat in limbo while he continued to serve on the TRS board for the past year. The Illinois Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, never publicly opposed his nomination.
As Senate President John Cullerton sees it, Gov. Bruce Rauner “needed an excuse” to veto a bill last week that would’ve given the Chicago Public Schools $215 million for its June 30th pension payment. And Cullerton believes he turned out to be that excuse.
There’s little doubt that Rauner was likely to veto the proposal, which passed in June with Rauner’s support contingent upon a pension reform agreement by early January. Rauner’s office was already privately threatening to veto it as part of the ever-escalating war over a “stopgap” budget with House Speaker Michael Madigan. And, frankly, one of the biggest reasons why the neo-liberal education reformer ran for governor in the first place was his view that the Chicago Teachers Union had “won” its 2011 strike and needed to be severely reined in or even broken. “Starve the beast” to force teacher layoffs would be one way to hobble that union.
Not to mention that the governor and his top people have been convinced for months that Speaker Madigan wouldn’t ever come to terms on a pension reform deal. A proposal backed by Mayor Emanuel to make changes to the pension laws for non-educator employees at the Chicago Public Schools system is opposed by the CTU, and Madigan and that union have become super-tight since Rauner’s inauguration—and the relationship only strengthened when CTU backed Madigan during his primary campaign earlier this year.
It also probably didn’t help matters much when Cullerton suggested to Rauner during a leaders meeting earlier last week that it would be a whole lot easier to pass a pension reform bill if the governor reached a contract agreement with AFSCME. Gov. Rauner, who has often referred to the state employee union as “AF-Scammy” and said during his campaign that he might have to “take a strike” to bring the union to heel, told Cullerton in no uncertain terms that the two issues were not connected and would not be connected. This from the same guy who wants to connect term limits to passing a budget.
And then after last Thursday’s leaders meeting at the Statehouse, Cullerton was asked about the timeline of the pension reform negotiations so that CPS could get its $215 million. “You’re talking about two different bills,” Cullerton said. “We haven’t talked about putting those two things together at this point in time.” Reporters followed up, saying they thought there was a deal tying the two topics together. Cullerton said that was the governor’s plan. Rauner, he said, had declared he wouldn’t sign the CPS bill without a pension agreement, but that the Democratic leaders had always reserved the right to override if that didn’t happen.
The governor’s people only heard Cullerton say there was no deal. They claimed he was deliberately blowing things up and were furious about it. The governor’s veto of the CPS legislation soon emerged: “Breaking our agreement undermines our effort to end the budget impasse and enact reforms with bipartisan support,” Rauner wrote in his veto message.
The move took Cullerton by surprise. He agreed during a chat with me later in the day that he’d put a parliamentary hold on the bill in June in order to “buy time to negotiate the pension reform.” But he denied that he’d broken any agreement. “Pension reform was the price for signing the bill,” he admitted, but “I was always reserving the right to try to override” a CPS funding veto if that deal couldn’t be done.
“They misunderstood what I said and they should’ve called and asked me and I would’ve gone back out and clarified it,” Cullerton insisted. “They just vetoed the bill.” That failure to reach out to him convinced Cullerton that Rauner was simply looking for any excuse to kill the CPS bill.
Cullerton insisted that he was serious about trying to negotiate a pension reform deal. “I’m the only one pushing the pension reform stuff. He hasn’t actually worked on passing any bills,” Cullerton said of Rauner.
Sen. Cullerton didn’t deny that he’d brought up settling the AFSCME contract with Rauner, but said it was a “logical” step to take to find the necessary votes to pass a pension reform bill. Plenty of Republican legislators, after all, have state employees in their districts. “You don’t just go out there and pass a bill,” he said, adding, “They don’t know how to pass a bill.”
