20th District: If you want to send another Michael Madigan “Mini-Me” to Springfield, then vote for Merry Marwig, the Democratic candidate in this Northwest Side/suburban district who is following the Madigan playbook. She’s accepting thousands of dollars from Madigan’s campaign funds. She’s attacking her opponent, Rep. Michael McAuliffe, R-Chicago, with untruthful mail pieces. And she’s lying low, rarely speaking publicly or answering questions. McAuliffe is the only Republican in the House who represents part of Chicago. You want even more one-party, draconian rule in Springfield? Then vote for the “Mini-Me.” We’re endorsing McAuliffe.
* The Question: On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the greatest, how much impact will “the Speaker Madigan issue” have on House races this November? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
The following is a summary of findings from a live interview telephone survey conducted among 600 likely voters in Illinois. Respondents were reached on both landlines and mobile phones. Interviews were conducted September 27-29, 2016. The sampling error for this survey is ±4%.
• Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth has weathered nearly a million dollars of false attacks on TV during the month of September alone and has expanded her lead over Senator Mark Kirk to 46% to 37%.
• These improvements for Duckworth took place without any commensurate advantage in the presidential race. The presidential race remains steady in Illinois.
The current poll shows Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump 52%-35%. Our August 1-4 poll showed Clinton leading Trump 51%-32%.
Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth continues to expand her lead over incumbent Senator Mark Kirk, 46%-37%. As the chart below indicates, this nine-point lead is an increase from the August 1-4 poll that showed Duckworth besting Kirk 44%-37%, a seven-point lead. Duckworth remains ahead among constituencies critical to Kirk’s success in November, including Independents (45%-30%) and among Veteran households (44%-40%). Moreover, she maintains strong leads among core Democratic constituencies of African American (70%-8%), Hispanic (62%-26%), and women (46%-36%) voters.
In September, Kirk and Republican special interest groups spent nearly one million dollars attacking Duckworth both Downstate in the Chicago media market with false ads about her record on Veterans and commitment to fighting terrorism. Despite these attacks, Duckworth maintains a 29-point margin over Kirk for which candidate is dedicated to helping Veterans (44%-15%) and an 8-point lead on Is someone we can count on to keep America safe (30%-22%).
Not only is Duckworth pulling farther ahead but voters have increasing negative impressions of Kirk. As the chart above shows, his favorable rating has steadily eroded since the summer and he is now five points underwater.
God forbid your teenage son is arrested in Illinois on the Friday before a three-day holiday weekend.
Even for an offense as minor as retail theft, as a juvenile he could sit locked up all weekend, and not stand before a judge to determine if he deserves to be charged or detained until the following Tuesday.
Across Illinois, Juvenile Courts are closed on weekends and holidays. But the courts are open for adults 365 days a year. They generally get hearings within 24 hours of arrest.
That discrepancy is expected to end in Cook County next month, thanks to a federal court suit filed by four parents and some tough talk from U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Durkin. Under an agreement being worked out in that case, Cook County is expected to start holding detention hearings for juveniles within 24 hours of arrest.
That’s a change that should be established statewide. Teens are far more vulnerable – and redeemable – than adults. They should be entitled to post-arrest court hearings in every county in the same time frame granted adults, if not sooner.
Gov. Bruce Rauner is pushing a bill that would provide released convicts with state identification cards in an effort to reduce rates of prison returnees.
The bill, which was passed unanimously through the Illinois Senate in April, aims to reduce recidivism, or relapse in criminal behavior or imprisonment. The bill has bipartisan support, Rauner said. Having a state ID will help former convicts obtain a bank account, an apartment lease or a cell phone, he said.
“In order to combat recidivism we need to remove some of the hurdles offenders face when they are released from a detention facility and begin to re-integrate into society,” Rauner said in a news release. “In this case, it’s the simple step of providing an offender with a state ID.”
The bill requires the State Department to issue an ID to any prisoner upon release if they present a birth certificate, a social security card and two proofs of address. For those without those documents, the Department will issue an ID that is valid for 90 days if the prisoner is able to present a verified document from the Department of Corrections or Juvenile Justice with their name, birth date, social security number and proof of address.
The bill is not yet perfect, Flowers said, because it implies the [Secretary of State] has employees in correction centers who are able to give the prisoners IDs when they are released.
* Could TIF surpluses avert a teachers strike? Maybe, says the Tribune…
With an Oct. 11 strike date looming, sources on both sides privately have expressed guarded optimism that a deal can get done.
Emerging as a likely key to any pact is how much money from the special taxing district Emanuel is willing to direct to Chicago Public Schools. […]
“The settlement hinges on money coming from a development slush fund into the public school system,” CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey said last week. “That’s what the settlement hinges on. It’s about the money.” […]
Last year, the amount declared as surplus was particularly large at $113 million, with CPS getting more than half. But pressure to direct more funding from TIFs to schools grew in June, when Cook County Clerk David Orr reported that the city’s total take in 2015 from 146 tax districts grew by $89 million, to $461 million. […]
Sharkey said if CPS received its share of the total overall surplus, not just the $32 million that has been budgeted, “there’d be enough money to pay for a whole number of things that we’re asking for.”
As the mayor says in the story, however, this isn’t a longterm solution.
The way some business interests describe Illinois’ tax climate, one might think it’s about the worst in the nation.
Not so, according to the Tax Foundation, a tax policy research organization. The group’s annual State Business Tax Climate Index ranked Illinois 23rd.
That’s well above California, New York and New Jersey, deemed the nation’s three worst. All of our neighboring states also fared worse, with the exception of Indiana, which was ranked eighth in the nation.
But Illinois made the bottom 10 — at 46th — for its property tax structure. Real estate taxes are high in Illinois because that’s the primary mechanism used to fund local schools.
As the piece goes on to note, Illinois’ ranking will undoubtedly fall once again as soon as the state income tax is raised.
Anecdotes about the impact of state tax systems on business investment are plentiful. In Illinois early last decade, hundreds of millions of dollars of capital investments were delayed when then-Governor Rod Blagojevich proposed a hefty gross receipts tax. Only when the legislature resoundingly defeated the bill did the investment resume.
So one can only wonder what impact an uncertain fiscal future has on the current biz climate.
With less than six weeks until Election Day, Democratic challenger and former Congressman Brad Schneider leads incumbent Republican Congressman Bob Dold, 46%-41% in the rematch contest for the 10th Congressional District of Illinois. […]
o Dold’s favorable rating remains objectively low at 34%-29%. Voters know him but they certainly do not like him.
o His job rating is weak, with just 38% of voters rating his performance as “excellent” or “good” and 35% rating his “not so good” or “poor.”
o Moreover, despite Dold’s repeated attempts to mischaracterize Schneider’s position on the Iran deal to persuade Jewish voters, they remain solidly with Schneider.
Not only does Schneider hold a five-point lead, but the political environment also strongly favors him:
o President Barack Obama is increasingly popular, with a favorable rating of 60%-31% and a job rating of 61%-37%. Both of these measures are better than in 2012 when Schneider first defeated Dold.
o Donald Trump is a major liability for Dold. He is nearly universally unpopular with a favorable rating of 25%-64%, with 49% rating him very unfavorable. Hillary Clinton has a 27-point lead over Trump in the race for president, 59%-32%.
The problem for Schneider is that he’s so badly trailing the top of the ticket.
Respondents were reached on both landlines and mobile phones (51% landlines, 49% mobile). Interviews were conducted September 28-29, 2016. The sampling error for this survey is ±4.9%.
* Meanwhile, from Illinois Review…
DOLD SNUBS GOP NOMINEE TRUMP AND PARTY PLATFORM IN LATEST AD
Congressman Bob Dold (IL-10) is very proud of his independence from the Republican Party’s presidential nominee and the GOP’s conservative leadership in the U.S. House. He boasts of how he’s parted with their pro-Second Amendment and pro-life positions in his new ad:
Thanks to hefty infusions of cash from multimillionaire Rauner and his wealthy supporters, the Illinois Republican Party topped the Democrats by taking in about $21 million since July 2015, state records show. Liberty Principles, a super PAC supporting Republicans, took in another $10 million.
“I’ve witnessed and been part of campaigns where we’ve been outspent by two or three times by the House Democrats,” said Jim Durkin, the House Republican leader. “Now we’re competing dollar for dollar statewide.”
Over the same period, the four political committees that Madigan controls — including the state Democratic Party, which he chairs — have collected more than $14 million. The top donors, as in years past, are unions and their political action committees. […]
By using multiple political committees, Madigan and his allies are able to gather more money from donors than would be allowed for a single committee under state campaign finance laws. Funds also are being moved from one committee to another. […]
As [Rep. Kate Cloonen’s] race grows more heated and expensive — at $1.7 million and counting — her challenger, attorney Lindsay Parkhurst, has received support from Liberty Principles, Proft’s Republican super PAC.
While she fights for her political life, Cloonen’s committee also has become a piggy bank for others. In the last week, more than $300,000 in contributions to her have been redistributed to Madigan’s committees and other campaign funds, including those of several legislators in tough races.
Those transfers by Cloonen are a bit weird, and I went through them with subscribers last week.
* From the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform…
Contribution limits are also lifted if independent expenditures supporting or opposing a single candidate in a race exceed $250,000 in statewide races or $100,000 in all other races. The $100,000 mark has been passed in 3 House and 2 Senate races thus far.
The House districts affected are:
46th: Deb Conroy (D) vs. Heidi Holan (R)
59th: Carol Sente (D) vs. Dawn Abernathy (R)
72nd: Michael Halpin (D) vs. Brandi McGuire (R)
The Senate districts affected are:
28th: Laura Murphy (D) vs. Mel Thillens (R)
49th: Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant (D) vs. Michelle Smith (R)
So far, limits have been removed in a total of 9 races at various levels of government, including the House 114th District, where candidate Bob Romanik (R) has self-funded his campaign against Latoya Greenwood (D) with over $2 million. A total of 16 races saw limits lifted in advance of the March Illinois Primary.
* More…
The Illinois Republican Party transferred another $375K to the RSSCC. https://t.co/0mwhSNEoCw
Gannett’s long quest to buy the newspaper company known as Tronc is nearing the finish line.
Confidential sources have told POLITICO that asset purchase agreement drafts have been exchanged by Gannett, the country’s second-largest newspaper chain and publisher of USA Today, and Tronc, formerly known as Tribune Publishing and the publisher of such broadsheet mainstays as The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Baltimore Sun. The announcement of a deal could come as soon as business opens on the fourth quarter of the year, as early as Monday morning. […]
While the public had become well aware of Ferro’s aversion to selling, it hadn’t realized other complications of the deal. Financing looks like it is now in place for Gannett, with Jefferies LLC, a large American global investment bank, in place, financial sources said. As I reported earlier, Gannett had run into financing issues with large banks, including JP Morgan, growing wary of a deal. There were two main factors to their hesitation: First, the increasingly high price of the acquisition makes its financial justification tougher to certify, with Gannett’s leverage ratios apparently one question. Secondly, the further cratering of print advertising and sluggishness of digital advertising complicate further assessment of forward value.
Investors generally have shared the concern that Gannett could be overreaching in what would be its third significant acquisition since the newspaper operations split from old Gannett (newspapers and broadcast stations, now assembled as TEGNA) two years ago. As the stock market has hit new highs, Gannett has seen a drop of 40 percent in share price since it began its quest for Tribune/Tronc.
For its part, Gannett has remained bullish on the deal, believing it can wring large cost-saving synergies by combining many operations.
When Gannett’s purchase of Tronc becomes official, Gannett will own the #3, #4, #10, #20, and #23 newspapers in the country. pic.twitter.com/pm0ChsxCh4
The Illinois state treasurer plans to announce that the state will suspend billions of dollars of investment activity with Wells Fargo.
Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs plans a Monday morning news conference in Chicago to give details about a moratorium on state business with Wells Fargo.
U.S. and California regulators have fined San Francisco-based Wells Fargo $185 million, saying employees who were trying to meet sales targets opened up to 2 million fake accounts without customers’ knowledge. The abuses are said to have gone on for years, unchecked by senior management.
Wells Fargo made the list of 15 senior underwriters tapped by Illinois this month for bond sales over the next three years. A spokeswoman for Governor Bruce Rauner declined to comment on whether his office is rethinking Wells Fargo’s selection.
Chicago Treasurer Kurt Summers plans to divest $25 million the city has invested with Wells Fargo & Co. after the company admitted to opening potentially millions of bogus client accounts, joining state officials who have pulled business from the bank because of the scandal.
Summers, whose office manages the city’s $7 billion investment portfolio, plans to “unwind these assets as expeditious as possible in a fashion that is prudent and will protect taxpayer money,’’ according to a statement from his office sent to Bloomberg News.
“Today, the Office of the City Treasurer is proud to stand with working families from Chicago and across the nation by divesting in Wells Fargo & Co.,’’ according to the e-mailed statement. “Chicago deserves better.’’
*** UPDATE *** I’m told the Rauner administration won’t be using Wells Fargo for any new bond sales “until further notice.” The administration hasn’t done any bond business with Wells Fargo to date, and it chose not to do business with Wells Fargo on the current bond deal that’s in progress.
Rick Renteria is managing in Chicago again. This time, on the South Side of town.
The White Sox on Monday named Renteria as the 40th manager in club history, replacing Robin Ventura, who managed his last game Sunday after five seasons.
Renteria, hired by the Theo Epstein regime but fired with two years left on his Cubs contract after the 2014 season when Joe Maddon became available, sat out of baseball during the 2015 season before returning as Ventura’s bench coach this season. He managed the Cubs to a 73-89 record during a rebuilding year.
The Sox were 375-435 under Ventura, including 78-84 this year. The Sun-Times first reported Saturday that Renteria would be named as his replacement Monday.
S&P Global Ratings dropped Illinois’ credit rating one notch to BBB on Friday and warned it could fall further absent a long-term solution that deals with the state’s chronic structural budget deficit and pension woes.
“The downgrade reflects our view of continued weak financial management and increased long-term and short-term pressures tied to declining pension funded levels,” said S&P analyst John Sugden in a statement.
Illinois, the lowest-rated U.S. state, is in its second straight fiscal year without a complete budget due to an impasse between its Republican governor and Democrats who control the legislature.
The impasse, along with a $111 billion unfunded pension liability and a growing pile of unpaid bills have pounded Illinois’ credit ratings into the low-investment grade triple-B level.
S&P said another downgrade could follow “should the state continue to demonstrate a lack of ability or willingness to adopt a long-term structural budget solution that also incorporates a credible approach to its long-term liabilities.”
Moody’s Investors Service has assigned a Baa2 rating to the State of Illinois’ $1.8 billion of general obligation (GO) bonds in two series, the General Obligation Refunding Bonds, Series of October 2016, and General Obligation Bonds, Series of November 2016. The rating factors in severely underfunded pension plans, failure to address a structural deficit because of a political impasse, and narrow operating fund liquidity that is driving up a backlog of unpaid bills. Offsetting these challenging conditions are the state’s large, diverse economic base; legal provisions that ensure continued debt payment even with no enacted budget, and the powers common to US states, such as control over revenue and spending. […]
Credit Challenges
» Political paralysis that has impeded efforts to pass appropriation legislation or achieve structural balance for a second year
» Severe pension funding shortfall and growing adjusted net pension liability (ANPL)
» Chronic use of payment deferrals to manage operating fund cash
» Weak management practices shown by pension underfunding, payment delays and recurring negative fund balances
* And while everybody talks about pensions, Greg Hinz concludes it’s time to just fund ‘em fully and move the heck on…
That, though, still leaves the mortgage—the $111 billion owed to Tier 1 folks, money that justices have ruled we cannot avoid paying.
Some say the state ought to ignore the Supreme Court and stiff the pensioners. Not in this state. Others argue that a “consideration” model could be used to cut benefits in Tier 1. That’s a long shot. So is amending the constitution. As for declaring bankruptcy to shed the debt, it’s not legal for states. I like the idea of lump-sum employee buyouts, but where do you get the lump sum?
That leaves one solution: Suck it up and pay. That won’t be easy. A recent blog post by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago concluded, “Illinois has little room to increase taxes without reducing economic activity in ways that would be damaging.”
But instability is more damaging, I now think. Delaying the day of reckoning just drives up the ultimate price tag. And maybe it all doesn’t have to come from taxes. Perhaps public employee unions can be convinced to make concessions on pay or work rules in exchange for the luxurious guaranteed 3 percent annual increases they’re getting in pension benefits at a time of 1 percent inflation.
If the state’s economy remains slack and investment returns remain low, Illinois and a lot of other states are going to have big, big problems. But at least we won’t be denying reality and can-kicking anymore. That would be a start.
The Illinois comptroller’s election is often described as a proxy war between Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Speaker Michael Madigan. It is most definitely that, but the result could change the direction of state government.
Rauner appointed fellow Republican Leslie Munger to the job after Judy Baar Topinka, the fiercely independent and outspoken Republican incumbent, died about a month after her re-election in 2014. Normally, Munger would’ve received a full four-year term, but Madigan decided that was too long so the Democrats changed the law. Rauner could appoint Munger for two years only.
Several months after Munger’s appointment, Madigan helped recruit Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza into the race. And then he, um, nudged state Sen. Daniel Biss out of the Democratic primary to give Mendoza a clear path to the general election.
As a matter of both pride and credibility, the governor has an obligation to help his appointee win. And since Rauner and Madigan are engaged in a long and nasty war, and since Mendoza is Madigan’s candidate, the speaker most definitely wants to see her prevail.
Whoever wins this contest will obviously give their political overlords bragging rights. Normally, a Democrat would be heavily favored because it’s a presidential election year. But the spectacularly wealthy Rauner is expected to dump a fortune into Munger’s campaign.
Gov. Rauner attended a meeting last week of his “Cabinet on Children & Youth,” but it’s not known if he pulled aside one of its members, State Superintendent of Education Tony Smith, for a little chat.
The Illinois State Board of Education is reportedly mulling whether to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed eight years ago by the Chicago Urban League. The suit essentially claims that Illinois’ education funding system violates minority students’ rights because a disproportionate number of those kids reside in areas with the lowest property wealth and also attend schools with majority-minority enrollment. They’re basically getting shafted by the state, so they sued.
According to the Urban League’s CEO Shari Runner, the ISBE “walked away from lengthy settlement talks that we held this summer.” The group has filed a motion for summary judgment and Runner said last week it is “awaiting ISBE’s response.” Runner said the group hopes to “hold ISBE liable for implementing an unlawful and discriminatory school system.”
A settlement would drastically alter the way Illinois funds its school system, with wealthier suburban and Downstate districts losing tons of state money. It would also preempt long-stalled legislative action on the topic.
Last summer, when negotiations with the Urban League were still apparently underway, Gov. Rauner impaneled an education funding reform working group and charged it with coming up with a solution to the funding inequities by the first of next year. So, the Urban League’s civil rights lawsuit may actually be why Rauner imposed such an ambitious timetable.
What the administration doesn’t want (along with a whole lot of impacted legislators) is to take the tricky solution out of the hands of the governor and the General Assembly and give it to a Cook County judge. But there’s no guarantee that the governor’s funding reform working group will come to an agreement. A deal is politically complicated because legislators who represent wealthier school districts also tend to oppose tax hikes. But they’ll be forced to choose between losing state cash or voting for higher state taxes. Some might actually welcome judicial intervention to spare them this fate.
Word from inside is that some ISBE legal staff are urging board members to settle the suit. The board’s chief legal counsel, for instance, is a former Chicago Public Schools chief of staff. The city’s school system filed an amicus brief years ago supporting the Urban League case.
Perhaps more importantly, though, a massive amount of supporting data has been compiled since the suit was brought all those years ago, mainly because of state Sen. Andy Manar’s constant push to reform the system. The plaintiffs might be able to make their case more easily now than they could when their suit was filed. So, the logic goes, a settlement would be far better than a loss.
Superintendent Smith has made no bones about the fact that the state’s funding system is archaic and harmful to minority children, but he apparently hasn’t spoken up in the last couple of private board meetings when members discussed the litigation, and one board member swears Smith is not communicating directly with members about the case. Still, rumors abound that he is driving the settlement talks.
Smith has recently upped his national profile by traveling the country to talk about various education issues. He is not a popular man within the administration for several reasons, and his generous employment contract caused the Rauner folks quite a few headaches last year. Some Republicans claim he’s angling for a spot in a potential Hillary Clinton administration, which he has denied.
State Board of Education Chairman James Meeks, a former state Senator who pushed hard for education funding reform for years and was one of a tiny number of high-profile African-Americans to support Rauner’s 2014 election, has reportedly not taken an official position on the litigation. Meeks is said to be suggesting that board members also talk with the governor’s legal counsel to get another side of the issue. The board insists that Smith doesn’t have the authority to settle the case on his own, and there’s no indication at this moment that he plans to do so.
A settlement would also create a thorny political problem for Gov. Rauner down the road. A big chunk of his political base would get the short end of the stick, which won’t go over well when he runs for reelection in 2018.
Ironically, the state government got itself dismissed from the case several years ago, so I suppose we could see the administration try to get itself back into the game if the ISBE decides to move forward with a settlement.
* As we discussed earlier today, Gov. Rauner just added $5 million to his campaign account and Comptroller Leslie Munger has spent pretty much all her available cash on a one-week statewide TV buy. But Rauner didn’t use his own money to replenish Munger’s coffers. The governor’s two most faithful and generous contributors stepped up instead…
A 91-year-old World War II veteran from Auburn says he is “absolutely outraged” that his political views were “completely” mischaracterized in campaign fliers put out by a union organization.
“They took advantage of an old man,” Vincent Speranza wrote in a letter distributed to area newspapers after he saw a flier, from Service Employees International Union Healthcare, that has him attacking state Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, R-Leland Grove, and Gov. Bruce Rauner, over proposed cuts to funding for a home-care program.
The flier also backs Jimenez’s opponent in the 99th House District, Democrat Tony DelGiorno of Springfield.
Speranza said he received a call Friday morning from Jimenez. He said he backs her candidacy, and he offered to campaign with her.
“We had a nice chat,” Speranza said.
* Here’s the mailer…
* And here’s the resulting letter to the editor from Speranza…
* Meanwhile, check out the latest mailer sent by the ILGOP on behalf of Rep. Wojcicki Jimenez…
The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) - the Illinois General Assembly’s independent budget analysts, projected that total state spending for the current fiscal year (FY2017) which began on July 1, will ultimately be $39.5 billion, but that revenue would only come in at $31.8 billion, leaving nearly a $7.8 billion deficit. On Wednesday, Rauner’s administration disagreed maintaining the budget deficit would be $5.4 billion. Budget Director Tim Nuding said the commission didn’t factor in several key sources of revenue, including the full amount of federal reimbursements to the state for Medicaid anticipated for FY2017.
What’s really troubling is that both of these projections of the General Fund deficit only compare anticipated, year-in, FY2017 spending to FY2017 revenues. Neither are factoring the accumulated deficit left over at the end of FY2016-and thus both COGFA and the Governor’s Budget Office understate the true General Fund deficit in Illinois. (The “General Fund” is the part of the state budget that pays for the services that affect most people-education, healthcare, public safety, and human services.)
HERE’S WHY.
At the end of FY2015, the state’s General Fund deficit was $5.97 billion. CTBA’s analysis shows that the accumulated deficit grew by some $3.13 billion over the course of FY2016, to a total of $9.1 billion.
In other words, Illinois began FY2017 with $9.1 billion in unpaid bills. That means that even if we balanced this year’s revenue with this year’s expenses, we’d still have a $9.1 billion deficit.
Of course, that means both deficit projections quoted in the Sun-Times article understate the true accumulated deficit by that $9.1 billion carry forward. After this carry forward deficit is included, the projected FY2017 General Fund deficit balloons to either $14.5 billion using the Governor’s estimates, or $16.9 billion using COGFA’s.
Another way to look at the General Fund deficit is as a percentage of General Fund service appropriations. CTBA analysis projects the state to spend $24.69 billion on General Fund services in FY2017. Using the Governor’s projected FY2017 deficit figures, 58.7 percent of all General Fund service appropriations aren’t paid for by FY2017 revenues. Since COGFA projects the FY2017 deficit to be even greater, using its numbers, that figure is 68.4 percent.
What does this all mean? The state’s financial condition continues to deteriorate due to a lack of revenue. Whether the General Fund deficit is $14.5 billion or $16.9 billion, it’s definitely unstainable. Between 59 percent and 68 percent of FY2017 spending is deficit spending. And Illinois will continue on this deficit spending path until it increases revenue. But in order to do that, the state needs to fix its flawed tax policy in order to generate additional revenue (see “It Is All About Revenue: A Common Sense Solution for Illinois’ Fiscal Solvency” for CTBA’s suggestions to fix the state’s revenue problems). Until then, the trend of growth in the accumulated deficit is likely to occur past FY2017.
The state of Illinois has abruptly changed the rules for providing vaccines to children from low-income families, putting tens of thousands of them at risk of potentially not getting their immunizations on time.
In late August the Illinois Department of Public Health told doctors that children covered by the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Plan for low-income families would no longer get their vaccines for free. Children covered by Medicaid can still get free vaccines, but for those 185,347 children covered by CHIP, doctors will have to privately order vaccines from suppliers and wait to be reimbursed by the state.
This new policy presents a sizable challenge for doctors and parents. And it goes into effect Oct. 1.
“This is an ill-advised change happening at far too fast a pace,” said Dr. Edward Pont, a pediatrician in Elmhurst. “What was the impetus to change this program? It seemed to be working extremely well. Illinois immunization rates were on a statewide level always fine. Now here we have this major change with very little fanfare, very little warning. Our concern is it is going to cause a severe disruption.”
If you read the entire article, you’ll see that this new policy was pushed by the Center for Disease Control. Several states have already done this, including Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
Without this change, I’m told, IDPH would run the risk that the CDC won’t continue providing vaccines free of charge to the state.
* But, frankly, I don’t care who is responsible. This needs to get cleared up pronto…
#CPS is threatening to lockout kids Oct. 15th if vaccines aren't up to date. Meanwhile at the state level… https://t.co/uQlboGn3N8#Twill
The change was announced in late August. Providers are confused and screaming bloody murder. This all takes effect tomorrow. Yesterday, the governor said he didn’t know anything about it. He might wanna think about dumping that deadline and put off the change until next year.
*** UPDATE *** From IDPH…
Hi Rich
I want to clarify some information in your post. First, I would like to provide information about the eight-week transition period. I’ve attached the letter we sent to providers.
Illinois is committed to every child being immunized. For parents or guardians of a child covered by Medicaid or by CHIP, their child’s eligibility for free vaccines has not changed. What has changed is the way doctors obtain and get paid for vaccines. Some providers may choose not to provide free vaccines to children covered by Medicaid or CHIP.
The change was required because, for years, many doctors had not been doing the necessary work of determining a child’s eligibility for a vaccine (e.g. do they qualify under the Vaccines For Children program or CHIP), and then submitting the proper paperwork to HFS (the entity that administers CHIP). Because many physicians were failing to provide this billing paperwork, HFS has not been able to channel the appropriate reimbursement for children in CHIP to the CDC. For good reason, the CDC has requested that Illinois, and many other states, alter their process to ensure that the proper reimbursement occurs. Without making such a change, IDPH runs the risk that the CDC will no longer continue to provide vaccines free of charge to the State for the VFC program.
Thank you for helping us get the correct information out to parents who are concerned about immunizations for their children.
Melaney Arnold
Illinois Department of Public Health
Public Information Officer
Three Illinois state employees added to a lawsuit brought by Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner challenging the legality of so-called “fair share” fees paid to public employee unions have been cleared by a federal judge to proceed with their litigation against the unions.
Rauner, however, lacks the standing to remain an official party to the lawsuit, the judge said.
Tuesday, May 19, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman dismissed Rauner’s action against the state worker unions, which included the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 and the AFL-CIO.
“In the instant case, the governor has no personal interest at stake,” Gettleman wrote in his opinion, released late Tuesday. “In effect, he seeks to represent the non-member employees subject to the fair share provisions of the collective bargaining agreements. He has no standing to do so. They must do it on their own.”
State employees who replaced Gov. Bruce Rauner as plaintiffs in a suit against unions have notified a federal judge that they challenge the constitutionality of compulsory union fees.
Mark Janus, Marie Quigley and Brian Trygg filed the notice on June 1, along with a complaint to replace one that Rauner filed in February.
For Janus and Quigley, the new complaint raises objections to policy positions of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Lawyer Joseph Torres of Chicago wrote that Janus “does not agree with what he views as the union’s one sided politicking for only its point of view.”
“Janus also believes that AFSCME’s behavior in bargaining does not appreciate the current fiscal crisis in Illinois and does not reflect his best interests or the interests of Illinois citizens,” Torres wrote.
Plaintiffs Mark Janus and Brian Trygg have brought a second amended complaint challenging the constitutionality of the compulsory collection of union fees under the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act (“IPLRA”), 52 ILCS 315/6. Defendants have moved to dismiss, arguing that the case is controlled by the Supreme Court’s decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, 431 U.S. 209 (1977), which upheld the constitutionality of such assessments. Plaintiffs brought the suit hoping that Abood would be reversed in a matter then pending before the Supreme Court in which the continued validity of Abood was challenged. Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, __ U.S. __, 136 S.Ct. 1083 (2016). In Friedrichs an equally divided Supreme Court affirmed the Ninth Circuit’s decision upholding fair share fees based on the reasoning in Abood. Id. As a result, Abood remains valid and binding precedent.
Plaintiffs continue to argue that Abood was wrongly decided, but recognize that it remains controlling in the instant case. Consequently, defendants’ motion to dismiss (Doc. 146) is granted.
New affidavits from former employees in the Macon County State’s Attorney’s Office claim employees have been harassed, forced to do political work and have been fired under questionable circumstances.
The two documents were filed Wednesday in Macon County Circuit Court as an attachment to the original petition to request a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of misconduct by Macon County State’s Attorney Jay Scott.
The affidavits go into greater detail of the alleged misconduct in the office, which includes electioneering within county offices, using county-owned property for personal use and providing a computer flash drive that contained pornographic material to a female state’s attorney employee that was accidentally shown to family members of a crime victim on a computer owned by the county. […]
Scott, a Democrat, is being challenged by Dan Hassinger, a Republican and Decatur-area lawyer. Scott defeated Hassinger in the 2012 election.
A Harrisburg doctor accused of murdering his wife is now charged with attempting to kidnap the Saline County State’s Attorney.
Charges of solicitation, conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping, and attempted aggravated kidnapping were filed against Brian Burns Wednesday.
Burns, 57, was arrested in March for the murder of his estranged wife Carla Burns. Investigators believe Burns shot his wife and burned her body near their rural Harrisburg home.
During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Saline County State’s Attorney Mike Henshaw said Burns had phone conversations with a detective who was acting as an undercover agent. In those conversations, Burns agreed to pay $1,000 to have Henshaw kidnapped.
Six years ago, then-U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, a Republican from the Chicago suburbs, won what some considered an upset victory, defeating Democratic state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias in a race for the U.S. Senate.
In 2016, now-Sen. Kirk is running uphill again, considered to be the underdog in his campaign for re-election against a strong Democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth. Political handicappers have identified Kirk as the most vulnerable of Senate Republicans seeking re-election, mostly because Illinois is a solid Democratic state.
But Kirk has beaten long odds before. First, in his run for the U.S. House of Representative to succeed his boss, retiring U.S. Rep. John Porter, and later, in his 2000 Senate race, he demonstrated strong appeal to Democrats, Republicans and independents.
It’s our hope he’ll do so again this year. The News-Gazette is endorsing Kirk because of his solid academic background, vast experience, political independence and sound judgment. Duckworth offers a reasonable alternative to the Republican incumbent, but lacks the qualities that have made him an exemplary public official.
An Illinois Veterans Affairs hospital already under fire for excessive wait times, festering black mold and kitchen cockroaches faces a new shame – the bodies of dead patients left unclaimed in the morgue for up to two months without proper burial, whistleblower documents allege.
The whistleblower, whose identity is not being revealed for fear of retaliation, complained last month to the VA’s inspector general about the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital’s handling of veterans’ remains in cases where families have not come forward to claim the body. The complaint singled out Christopher Wirtjes, chief of Patient Administrative Services, saying “The Chief of PAS has the funds available, yet has no sense of urgency to lay the veteran to rest.”
Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., whose office also received the complaint along with emails, is now calling for Wirtjes’ firing and in a statement, slammed the hospital – located in the Western suburbs of Chicago — over its recent history of controversies.
“Hines VA — the hospital that has been overrun with cockroaches and mold and left vets waiting for care for months on secret wait lists, has reached a new low in the treatment of our veterans,” Kirk told FoxNews.com. “We now have reports of bodies being left to decompose in the morgue for months on end.”
The whistleblower, who has spoken with Kirk’s office, described a “horrible issue” at the hospital in the letter to the IG: “Some veteran’s remains have been left in our hospital morgue for 45 days or more until they are stacked to capacity at times.”
…Johnson made it his top political priority to install a school voucher system (an effort that failed because of the legislature’s opposition). He also annulled public employees’ collective-bargaining rights, slashed funding for social programs, reduced taxes for the wealthy, implemented one of the country’s strictest welfare-reform programs, and pushed for harsher sentencing laws. […]
He rejected minimum-wage increases and backed “right-to-work” bills. And in 1999, when public employee unions’ right to collectively bargain was set to expire, Johnson vetoed a bill to extend it. Thanks to Johnson’s actions, AFSCME’s Carter Bundy told me, ten thousand government workers saw their wages frozen. “He was incredibly hostile to labor,” said Morty Simon, an attorney who represented labor groups in the ’90s. “We were just totally shut out of the Gary Johnson administration. No contact, no nothing.”
That’s pretty much the same agenda that tronc supports here. He’s a nearly perfect fit. He even reversed himself and opposed the death penalty.
* Jake Lewis, who’s the “campaign director” at the liberal, pro-union Illinois Working Together group, sent me a link yesterday to a page within Gov. Rauner’s campaign site and suggested I take a look at his boast on pension reform…
REFORMING PENSIONS
Forced entrenched politicians to agree to comprehensive pension reform. The proposed pension reforms could save taxpayers billions of dollars for years to come.
When the clerk called Willie Mae Swansey’s case in a crowded courtroom last February, the 72-year-old approached the judge slowly, supporting herself with a four-pronged cane. It had been a busy afternoon in the Daley Center’s civil forfeiture courtroom, with more than a dozen quick hearings and a pair of trials preceding her own. The crush of defense lawyers and hopeful claimants had thinned by the time Swansey stepped up to the bench. She steadied herself beside a prosecutor and stood with a stately straightening of her back.
Swansey was here to reclaim her car. The Chicago Police Department had seized the 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser two years prior, arresting the driver, Swansey’s son, and charging him with manufacturing or delivering 15 to 100 grams of heroin. The car had been impounded ever since. Swansey herself was never charged with a crime, and it was her name, not her son’s, on the title. All the same, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office had agreed with CPD that the vehicle, which the office valued at $1,400, was worth keeping for good.
Swansey was prepared to tell the court that her 53-year-old son, Vincent Turner, had taken her keys without her permission. She wanted to explain that she needed her car not only for basic needs like groceries and laundry, but also because she and her granddaughter, whom she cares for, make frequent trips to doctors’ offices and hospitals. Swansey suffers from congestive heart failure, while her granddaughter has cerebral palsy and experiences frequent seizures. She wanted also to stress she had no knowledge that her son had drugs in her car.
“Ain’t no way I’d let them take my car for drugs,” Swansey later said. “That’s not me. I’m not that kind of person.”
But at her February trial date, she wasn’t allowed to argue her case. The judge simply asked if her son’s criminal case had been resolved. It hadn’t, so by law, the judge was allowed to delay the civil litigation until after the criminal case was over. They would reconvene in two months, the judge said.
This was the ninth time Swansey had appeared in civil forfeiture court and the ninth time she was told she’d have to come back. A lawyer, had she been able to hire one, could have filed a hardship motion that would allow Swansey access to the car while she waited. A lawyer might have also convinced a judge to hear the case immediately, since Swansey didn’t plan to contest the allegations against her son.
But for the fixed-income retiree, hiring a lawyer was not an option.
“I’m a poor black woman,” Swansey says. “I don’t have no money for an attorney.” Instead, she continued to represent herself.
Kimberly Foxx needs to address this problem as soon as she’s sworn in as state’s attorney.
*** UPDATE *** Put into the context of the cops seizing a poor woman’s $1200 car, this is just infuriating…
Drunken drivers with prior convictions for driving under the influence might consider driving expensive cars, given a recent ruling by an Illinois appellate court.
“That’s, essentially, the policy that’s being espoused by the Fifth District (Appellate Court),” said David Robinson, a state appellate prosecutor who came out on the losing end of a case in which the court reversed a trial judge and ordered a pricey motorcycle returned to its owner.
In a Sept. 22 ruling, the Fifth District Appellate Court reversed a ruling by Crawford County Circuit Court Judge Christopher Weber, who had upheld the seizure of a $35,000 Harley-Davidson trike from a woman who was a passenger when her husband was busted for driving under the influence. In reversing the forfeiture, the appellate court ruled that vehicle’s value was out of proportion with the misdeed, and so seizure was unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment, which bars excessive fines to punish wrongdoing.
In reversing the trial judge, the appellate court said that the financial circumstance of the trike’s owner didn’t matter – whether she was rich or poor, the vehicle’s value alone made the seizure a “harsh penalty” that was out of step with the gravity of the offense, the appellate court ruled.
So, that gives her, let’s say, about $600K on hand right now. Sources say her recent TV buy was $577K for a week, which is pretty much all the money she has on hand. She’s going to need more cash really soon.
* That’s why this development could turn out to be important…
Bruce Rauner adds $5 million of his own money to his campaign account, Citizens for Rauner. https://t.co/h0jP9EMVlW
I’d asked the Tribune’s editor, Bruce Dold, what he thought about his page-two columnist and editorial cartoonist showing up in Madigan’s partisan arena. He sent me a prepared statement, and in it he didn’t sound happy.
“Tribune journalists should not be involved in activities of outside organizations that could give the appearance of partisanship,” Dold wrote. “John and Scott understand that they should not have agreed to be interviewed for this film, even if they were expressing views they have published in the course of their work for the Tribune.”
An interesting wrinkle is that Rickert writes occasional op-ed columns for the Tribune; she’s a smart, pugnacious writer, and Dold began publishing her years ago when he was the Tribune’s editorial editor. Like Rickert, Stantis didn’t want me to interview him, but unlike Rickert he replied and said so. I wanted him to tell me whether he’d have any problem sharing his paper’s editorial pages with the spokesperson and chief defender of the outfit he accused of deceiving him.
Then again, will he go on sharing those pages? Will the Tribune have any problem with continuing to publish Rickert? That relationship is now under review.
The Republicans’ central Senate super PAC is plowing $21 million more into six key races in the coming weeks as the fight for control of the chamber moves to states more hospitable to GOP candidates.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC that is part of the American Crossroads suite of GOP big-money groups, is expanding its television buys in New Hampshire, North Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada and Pennsylvania, officials told The Washington Post. At the same time, the group is cutting back most of its planned spending in Ohio, where incumbent Republican Sen. Rob Portman has widened his lead over former governor Ted Strickland. […]
Altogether, the Senate Leadership Fund plans to spend $76 million in September and October — and the total could swell larger by Election Day, thanks to mega-donors such as Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, who gave the super PAC $20 million in August.
With less than 40 days until the election, Senator Mark Kirk is changing the traditional plans for debates in Chicago.
While Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth agreed to five debates, the incumbent does not agree. Kirk has turned down the SunTimes editorial board, ABC7 League of Women Voters and Univision debate and WTTW Public television debates. Those venues have been on candidates schedules for years, according to both campaigns.
Kirk will only do three debates. Kirk has agreed to the Chicago Tribune editorial board on Monday October 3 and a downstate debate in Springfield October 27, and a new Latino forum to be broadcast on WGN. The Duckworth campaign has not yet agreed to the Latino forum.
Kirk wants to speak Spanish during the WGN forum, even though it’s not actually supposed to be a Spanish language debate. Duckworth doesn’t speak Spanish.
* Press release…
Tammy Duckworth’s campaign for U.S. Senate released a new ad today, entitled “Disgraceful.” The 30-second spot features former U.S. Army Captain Emily Miller, who served two combat deployments in Afghanistan. Miller describes earning the Army’s Combat Action Badge during her two deployments, saying it’s not something one necessarily wants to receive, since it is awarded to Soldiers who come under enemy fire.
Meanwhile, media outlets have caught Duckworth’s opponent, Senator Mark Kirk, lying repeatedly about his military record, including falsely claiming to come under fire in Afghanistan despite never deploying there. Nevertheless, Kirk is often seen being driven in a car that includes an “I served in Afghanistan” bumper sticker.
“Republican Mark Kirk has lied repeatedly about his military record. He lied about being shot at. He lied about serving in combat in Afghanistan and in Kosovo. He lied about serving in both Iraq wars. He lied about an award he never earned and claimed a position he never held. Now in desperate political straits, he’s banking his re-election campaign on lying about Tammy Duckworth’s record and commitment to her fellow Veterans. As Captain Miller said, it’s disgraceful.” said campaign spokesman Matt McGrath.
CPT Emily Miller: I did two deployments to Afghanistan going on night raids with Special Operations. We were going after high-value terrorist targets; that’s how I earned the Combat Action Badge. It’s a badge that you don’t really want to get, and it’s certainly not something to lie about.
VO: Mark Kirk lied repeatedly about facing enemy fire and serving in combat.
CPT Miller: For Mark Kirk to attack another veteran, especially somebody like Tammy who’s done so much for veterans, it’s really just disgraceful.
For his sake, let’s hope the guy can generate some positive news today. I’ll post it on the blog if I see it.
