* The Senate left town yesterday, the House adjourned hours ago, the comments are slow except for an argument about Jesuits in the open thread, and I have some plans. So, I’m knocking off early. Let the good times roll…
Let the stories be told
Let them say what they want
Locked into a tough primary race for re-election, U.S. Rep. Marie Newman has signed on to legislation that would ban the increasingly controversial practice of members of Congress trading stock in individual companies.
But Newman’s conversion to that issue is recent—very recent. Only in the last month have Newman and her husband voluntarily ceased the practice themselves, this after trading stock worth $5.8 million in 2021. That was enough to rank her ninth among the 535 members of the House and Senate, right behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is eighth. […]
Newman’s campaign says her family’s investment decisions did not affect her public conduct, and there is no direct sign to the contrary. But in 2021, she and her husband, Jim Newman, engaged in numerous trades that involved companies with major issues before Congress.
For instance, according to disclosures tracked by Washington, D.C., website Capitol Trades, they bought or sold tens of thousands of dollars of stock in Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, the three pharmaceutical firms whose anti-COVID vaccines were purchased in large numbers by the federal government after receiving approval from Congress.
* I’ve been asking the Democratic Party of Illinois and others who’ve pledged not to cross the WTTW picket line how far they would go with this, particularly whether they would take questions from WTTW reporters. I asked because I remembered a presidential candidate refused questions from an NBC reporter during a strike at that network several years ago. Most said they were waiting for word from IBEW Local 1220, and now here it is via the state party…
Those honoring the picket line are asked to not have any direct on the record communications with WTTW reporters via phone, email, etc. However, if there is a public press event (e.g. a press conference), WTTW reporters cannot be barred from attending those events.
If candidates choose to answer WTTW’s questions at those public press events, the union will not consider that crossing the picket line, I was also told.
DPI’s spokesperson said today that if candidates ask, they’ll forward the union’s guidance. The governor’s spokesperson says they will comply with the union’s request.
…Adding… Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s spokesperson says she will be complying with the union’s request.
* Gov. JB Pritzker endorsed US Rep. Danny Davis this morning, but the Davis campaign hasn’t yet sent out any sort of notice. They promised me something almost two hours ago, so here’s the take from Davis primary opponent Kina Collins…
Today, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that he will be lending his support to Congressman Danny Davis in his re-election. Rep. Davis is being primaried by Kina Collins, a national gun violence prevention advocate, with deep roots on the West Side of Chicago. In response to the endorsement, progressive frontrunner Kina Collins released this statement:
“Over the last year, Danny Davis has shown the voters of IL-7 that he has some powerful friends, but once again, he is more interested in using his favors to strengthen his own grip on power than in securing attention and support for the people in the communities he is supposed to be fighting for. This endorsement is just the latest example.
“The reality is that Rep. Davis is finally starting to recognize how much trouble he’s in. He is inviting big establishment supporters to visit our community months before election day and expects their names to be enough to convince our communities to vote for him. We see Rep. Davis using his political power — not for us, the residents of this district, but to try and save himself.
“We don’t want an establishment-backed candidate who only calls in his political favors to save his seat. The residents in IL-7 deserve someone who can fight and deliver for our district.
“Our district deserves real transformative change and someone with a vision that is ready to fight for them. I am that person for IL-07.”
In the last few months, Kina Collins has earned the endorsement and support from powerhouses including Indivisible, National Organization for Women, The People’s Lobby, Sunrise Movement Chicago, Justice Democrats, and many more. Kina’s broad coalition of endorsements includes many progressive grassroots organizations that are ready to see true leadership in IL-07.
* I told you about this yesterday, but here is Politico’s story…
An unusual petition challenge could see two Democratic Illinois Supreme Court candidates kicked off the ballot.
Lake County Judge Elizabeth Rochford is challenging the petitions of Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering and Kane County Judge Rene Cruz in the Democratic primary battle to fill the vacant 2nd District Supreme Court seat. A few candidates in other Supreme Court races are facing similar challenges.
The challenges have nothing to do with authenticity, which is usually the beef in these cases. Instead, it’s about how many signatures are actually required.
According to Rochford’s elections attorney, Michael Dorf, Rotering and Cruz used numbers from the State Board of Elections that “miscalculated the signature requirements. They read the law in a different way than it should be read,” he told Playbook. Instead of the 334 they thought they needed, Dorf said 791 signatures should be required. Dorf is a high-profile election attorney who represented Lightfoot’s campaign to get on the ballot in 2019.
He says his team followed the statute, used county records that make up the 2nd District, and “did the multiplications and division by one-third” to come up with the numbers.
Rotering’s election attorney, Ed Mullen, says he’s confident “the plain language of the statute” and “relevant legal precedent… support the minimum signature calculation.” Cruz’s attorney didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
On Tuesday, the challenges will be assigned to Election Board hearing officers who will rule on the challenge — which could be appealed by either side and then head to court. If Rochford’s campaign is victorious in kicking her challengers off the ballot, she would bypass a primary and slide into the general election in November.
* HGOPs…
It has now been several weeks since federal prosecutors dropped a 22-count indictment against former Speaker Michael Madigan, following a string of investigations, indictments, arrests, and cover-ups. For many Illinoisans, the stain of corruption on our politics feels like something we may finally be able to remove, but House Democrats who were “made by Madigan” are finding the stain a stubborn blemish they seem unable to hide.
“After years of accepting millions from former Speaker Madigan, Democratic incumbents cannot shake the ghost of their former leader,” said Jayme Siemer, Executive Director of the House Republican Majority. “Now that these made-by-Madigan Democratic House members have primary opponents, will they finally step away from their indicted former leader?”
Among some top Primary Election races, House Democrats have a Madigan problem.
Fran Hurley:
Accepted $201,977 in campaign contributions from Madigan.
Supported Madigan for Speaker FIVE times.
Curtis Tarver:
Accepted $37,167 in campaign contributions from Madigan.
Supported Madigan for Speaker TWO times.
Natalie Manley:
Accepted $584,870 in campaign contributions from Madigan.
Supported Madigan for Speaker FOUR times.
Justin Slaughter:
Accepted $53,065 in campaign contributions from Madigan.
Supported Madigan for Speaker THREE times.
Mike Zalewski:
Accepted $203,934 in campaign contributions from Madigan.
Supported Madigan for Speaker SEVEN times.
Thaddeus Jones:
Accepted $248,732 in campaign contributions from Madigan.
Supported Madigan for Speaker SIX times.
Kathleen Willis:
Accepted $614,156 in campaign contributions from Madigan.
Supported Madigan for Speaker FOUR times.
Led charge against Ethics Reform legislation on the House Floor.
Sonya Harper:
Accepted $76,335 in campaign contributions from Madigan.
Supported Madigan for Speaker THREE times.
Democrats have been silent on these tainted funds, with no indication members will donate these funds to charity, a practice often used by politicians to dispose of funds taken from undesirable sources.
Jesse Sullivan’s campaign released the following statement ahead of an upcoming Prisoner Review Board parole hearing for convicted murderer and rapist Curtis Brownell:
“In 1977 Curtis Brownell kidnapped, raped, and killed Louise Marie Betts. Four months later, he was caught attempting to do the same to a pregnant woman, who he kidnapped, raped, and attempting to kill by running over her over with his car. In addition to these gruesome crimes, he’s admitted to sexual abuse of a child.”
“Because Brownell’s crimes were committed prior to 1978, he is entitled to a parole hearing every 3-5 years. Given the questionable judgement that J.B. Pritzker’s appointed Prisoner Review Board has shown in the past, we urge the Board to stand with the families of his victims and to reject parole for Curtis Brownell. He presents a clear and present danger to society, and he should not be released.”
* Cases are up by a few hundred, or 7.7 percent from last week. Hospitalizations, a lagging indicator, are still dropping, down 11 percent. ICU usage decreased 27 percent and ventilator usage was down about 5 percent. Deaths fell by 11 percent. Test and case positivity rates are both up slightly from last week, but we’re talking fractions of a point. New vaccination doses are down again, this time by 7 percent. IDPH…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 8,039 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including an increase of 109 deaths since March 18, 2022.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 3,061,224 cases, including 33,307 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Since March 18, 2022, laboratories have reported 563,249 specimens for a total of 56,891,628. As of last night, 470 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 64 patients were in the ICU and 33 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from March 18-24, 2022 is 1.4%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from March 18-24, 2022 is 1.6%.
A total of 21,315,893 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 7,513 doses. Since March 18, 2022, 52,589 doses were reported administered in Illinois. Of Illinois’ total population, more than 76% has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, more than 68% of Illinois’ total population is fully vaccinated, and almost 50% is boosted according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
All data are provisional and will change. Additional information and COVID-19 data can be found at https://dph.illinois.gov/covid19.html.
Vaccination is the key to ending this pandemic. To find a COVID-19 vaccination location near you, go to www.vaccines.gov.
While numbers are still low in the city of Chicago in terms of new COVID cases, there is an uptick in cases that has been noted by health experts. As of Thursday, the city is averaging 177 new cases of COVID per day, a 29% increase over a week ago when the city was at 137.
Omicron’s more contagious subvariant, BA.2, has more than doubled in prevalence over the past two weeks in the U.S. and now represents more than 34% of Covid-19 infections that have undergone genetic sequencing, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week.
BA.2 has been steadily growing as a proportion of the Covid variants circulating in the U.S. since Feb. 5, when it represented about 1% of genetically sequenced virus samples, according to the CDC. BA.2 probably already accounts for 50% of new infections in the U.S. because many people are taking tests at home that aren’t picked up in the official data, according to Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
Data from Walgreens, which conducts testing at its pharmacies nationwide, shows BA.2 as the dominant variant, at 51% of all positive Covid cases for the week ending March 19.
Though BA.2 is rising in the U.S., leading public health officials are not expecting another dramatic surge in new cases, largely due to the level of immunity the population has from vaccination and the fierce outbreak during the winter omicron wave.
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that elected public officials and their campaign committees may, in limited circumstances, use campaign funds to pay criminal defense attorney fees. […]
They partially rejected the committee’s argument that payment of criminal defense fees is always permissible solely because the General Assembly did not specifically include them in the list of prohibited expenses. But it also partially rejected Sigcho-Lopez’s argument that the legal fees were a prohibited “personal debt.”
Instead, they found that because the General Assembly had not specifically prohibited the payment of criminal defense attorney fees from campaign funds, it is reasonable for the Board of Elections to rule on a case-by-case basis.
On the other hand… (w)e cannot ignore that not all allegations by political rivals are sound and that baseless allegations are at times asserted against public officials because of their very capacity as public officials. See Williams v. Graves County, No. 5:21-CV-21-TBR, 2021 WL 2828517 (W.D. Ky. July 6, 2021) (plaintiff’s civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) (18 U.S.C. § 1962 (2018)) allegations were conclusory and unsupported by specific plausible factual allegations supporting a claim for any of the predicate offenses); Green v. William, No. 1:17-cv-266-PLR-SKL, 2017 WL 6892910 (E.D. Tenn. Dec. 15, 2017), report and recommendation adopted, No. 1:17-cv-00266, 2018 WL 387630 (E.D. Tenn. Jan. 11, 2018) (complaint’s rambling allegations mentioning, among other things, extortion and bribery by public officials failed to show entitlement to relief); Huffmaster v. Foster, 565 F. Supp. 2d 693, 698 (S.D. Miss. 2008) (allegations by politician that other members of his political party committed acts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and bank fraud were insufficient in that politician’s complaint did not specifically identify anything any of the defendants was alleged to have done to support the claims); Hawkins v. Schirack, 659 F. Supp. 1, 3 (N.D. Ohio 1986) (because routine check would have disclosed no basis in fact for public official’s suspected involvement in illegal contract allegations but would have disclosed that the amended complaint was filed for harassment purposes by political rival, public official was entitled to award of reasonable attorney fees).
In such a case, the payment of legal defense fees from campaign funds may be appropriately considered as a payment “in connection with the nomination for election, election, or retention of any person to or in public office” … Therefore, in limited circumstances, pursuant to the plain language of the campaign disclosure and regulation provisions of the Election Code, the Board may appropriately allow the use of campaign funds to pay for legal expenses in defending such allegations. […]
Until the General Assembly amends the statute to, for example, specifically prohibit payment from campaign funds for legal fees incurred in defense of criminal allegations against a public official or candidate, the issue requires the Board’s consideration on a case-by-case basis, applying the plain language of the applicable statutory provisions. In this case, despite the parties’ arguments regarding legal defense fees incurred as a result of public corruption allegations, the record here reveals that Solis had not been indicted on criminal charges but only that he had worked with federal investigators using his official capacity to expose public corruption.
Notice that all four cases cited above were civil cases, not criminal. Also note that the justices used the lack of a criminal indictment as reason to allow Solis to use his campaign money for attorneys.
What this may imply is that somebody who is indicted maybe can’t use campaign money for defense attorney fees, but they left it up to the State Board of Elections to decide things on a case by case basis.
The State Board of Elections is the same bunch of people who, as one elections attorney said today, “can’t handle deciding whether to issue a $50 or $500 fine, and you’re going to allow them to ask people to provide them with protected attorney-client information? It’s insane.”
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx will start asking judges to give early release to some long-serving inmates sent to prison by former administrations under a new resentencing initiative.
The state’s attorney’s office this week filed three resentencing motions, with two more planned for later in the month. Advocates said the hearings, expected next week, will make Cook County the first jurisdiction in Illinois to take advantage of a new state law that empowers prosecutors to identify prisoners whose sentence “no longer advances the interests of justice.”
(a) The purpose of sentencing is to advance public safety through punishment, rehabilitation, and restorative justice. By providing a means to reevaluate a sentence after some time has passed, the General Assembly intends to provide the State’s Attorney and the court with another tool to ensure that these purposes are achieved.
(b) At any time upon the recommendation of the State’s Attorney of the county in which the defendant was sentenced, the State’s Attorney may petition the sentencing court or the sentencing court’s successor to resentence the offender if the original sentence no longer advances the interests of justice. The sentencing court or the sentencing court’s successor may resentence the offender if it finds that the original sentence no longer advances the interests of justice.
(c) Upon the receipt of a petition for resentencing, the court may resentence the defendant in the same manner as if the offender had not previously been sentenced; however, the new sentence, if any, may not be greater than the initial sentence.
(d) The court may consider postconviction factors, including, but not limited to, the inmate’s disciplinary record and record of rehabilitation while incarcerated; evidence that reflects whether age, time served, and diminished physical condition, if any, have reduced the inmate’s risk for future violence; and evidence that reflects changed circumstances since the inmate’s original sentencing such that the inmate’s continued incarceration no longer serves the interests of justice. Credit shall be given for time served.
(e) Victims shall be afforded all rights as outlined in the Rights of Crime Victims and Witnesses Act.
(f) A resentencing under this Section shall not reopen the defendant’s conviction to challenges that would otherwise be barred.
(g) Nothing in this Section shall be construed to limit the power of the Governor under the Constitution to grant a reprieve, commutation of sentence, or pardon.
* Excerpt from an op-ed by Alan Spellberg, who left the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office last year...
I believe that judges should deny the petitions and refuse to order resentencing pursuant to the statute because it violates the separation of powers as it improperly delegates the Governor’s exclusive clemency authority to the judiciary. Article II, section 1, of the Illinois Constitution provides that “[t]he legislative, executive and judicial branches are separate. No branch shall exercise powers properly belonging to another.” Furthermore, Article V, section 12 provides that “[t]he Governor may grant reprieves, commutations and pardons, after conviction, for all offenses on such terms as he thinks proper. The manner of applying therefore may be regulated by law.” In construing these provisions, the Illinois Supreme Court has consistently and repeatedly held for nearly 130 years that judges improperly encroach upon the Governor’s exclusive authority whenever they attempt to reduce a convicted defendant’s lawfully imposed sentence based upon post-conviction behavior and circumstances. […]
More recently, the Illinois Supreme Court stated in People ex rel. Madigan v. Snyder, 208 Ill. 2d 457, 472 (2004), that “[o]ur constitution confers the pardoning power upon the executive branch of the State government, and the Governor alone can prevent the infliction of punishment after a legal conviction.” (Emphasis added). Likewise, in People v. Howard, 363 Ill. App. 3d 741 (1st Dist. 2006), the Appellate Court held that the ability to consider a defendant’s post-conviction circumstances as a basis for reducing a valid sentence falls exclusively within the Governor’s clemency power and is beyond the authority of the judiciary. Id. at 751-52. The Howard court explained that “‘[t]o hold *** that the court has power to amend a [valid] sentence after the prisoner has served a part of it would infringe upon the exclusive power of the governor under the Constitution to commute sentence’” (Id. at 751 (quoting People v. Fox, 312 Mich. 577, 581-82, 20 N.W.2d 732, 733 (1945)), because “‘[t]he judicial process ends at sentencing, at which point the executive branch of government takes over and the defendant is directed to the correctional and rehabilitative process. . . . The judiciary phase of the criminal process–imposing a penalty–is complete’”). Id. at 752 (quoting State v. Stenklyft, 281 Wis. 2d 484, 544, 697 N.W.2d 769, 798 (2005)).
* The argument surfaced in a Cook County courtroom yesterday when SA Foxx’s prosecutors presented their first resentencing case…
“It’s constitutional? Takes away the governor’s only right? What he does is resentence people through clemency,” [Cook County Associate Judge Stanley Sacks] said. “… Isn’t that something for the governor to do?”
“That’s one avenue, but that’s mercy. There’s also justice,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Nancy Adduci, who explained that the new law simply “revest(s) jurisdiction” back to the courts so a judge can consider a new sentence.
The effort is also a “re-entry initiative,” Adduci said in court. Prosecutors have identified people who could help them understand the challenges they face upon release from prison; Miles has agreed to collaborate in that effort, and prosecutors have petitioned for his resentencing in part as an incentive for that cooperation, she said.
“We’re trying to improve the fairness of the system,” Adduci said in court. Miles’s sentence was fair at the time Sacks handed it down, she said, but “people change, circumstances change.”
“The question is, has the person been rehabilitated, and can the person help us understand the concept of re-entry … help us understand what people need when they re-enter society,” she said.
“I’m not a social worker,” Sacks said. “All I know is, he commits burglaries … oh, he’s changed in custody? We’ll see.”
Foxx argued resentencing inmates would address “the fact that many Black and Brown people are still incarcerated today under failed policies of the past, even though they have been rehabilitated and pose little threat to public safety,” and save the state money that could be used elsewhere.
But none of the three men prosecutors have motioned for resentencing are expected to be incarcerated past next year. […]
Prosecutors actually had to withdraw one of the three motions Thursday at a different hearing because the defendant will likely be released before the judge would make a ruling.
Assistant State’s Attorney Nancy Adduci told Judge Timothy Joyce that prosecutors had since received “new information” that Roland Reyes was expected to get out of prison as early as next week after serving his full sentence for an aggravated robbery conviction.
She’s causing all this uproar over three people who are getting out soon anyway?
*** UPDATE 1 *** Foxx is getting plenty of attention, but a white, tough on crime state’s attorney in Will County actually brought the first such case and almost nobody has noticed…
Cole, 38, is the first person in Illinois to have his prison sentence reconsidered in part with new powers granted to prosecutors under SB2129 — an amendment to the state’s criminal code that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law last summer. It allows prosecutors to ask judges to revise sentences when “the original sentence no longer advances the interests of justice.” […]
Still, the law is being cited for the first time, in Cole’s case, by Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow — a seven-term incumbent Democrat with a tough-on-crime reputation.
In 2003, a jury convicted Cole of first-degree murder and attempted murder stemming from a shooting at a busy intersection in Joliet, just 6 miles from Stateville’s doors, according to court records. Cole was driving a car with another man, Travaris Guy, in the passenger seat. They were stopped at a traffic light next to another vehicle when Guy shot at the people inside — killing 39-year-old David Woods and wounding his 19-year-old daughter, according to court records. […]
“Guy’s testimony established that he acted with an unreasonable belief of self-defense so that the shooting was not a first-degree murder,” Glasgow wrote in his motion asking Will County Judge Daniel Kennedy to recall Cole’s case. “Obviously, this evidence was not available to Cole during his trial, and the result is that Cole is serving a sentence for a first degree murder that never occurred.” […]
The court hearing in late February that cut Cole’s sentence by two-thirds was brief. Cole spoke tearfully about his past and the future.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From Restore Justice…
Our view is that the Resentencing Initiative codified already existing revestment powers.
The group sent along a link to this story from 2019, before the bill was passed and signed into law…
The first inmate released based on a petition from the Illinois Prison Project walked out of the Lake County jail Wednesday after a judge agreed to shave the end of his sentence, due in part to the inmate’s failing health.
Larry Hayes, now 82, has early dementia and worsening glaucoma, according to family members and Jennifer Soble, executive director of the Chicago-based Illinois Prison Project. […]
Michael Melius, chief of prosecution protocol and conviction review for the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office, said that after Soble petitioned for Hayes’ release, the case was reviewed by State’s Attorney Michael Nerheim, who then asked Melius to review it as well.
Melius said it was decided not to object to the petition in the case of Hayes due to his age, physical status and the fact that he had served the vast majority of his sentence, factoring in the time off for good behavior. He had been scheduled for release in December 2020.
“It wasn’t like someone just saying, ‘I’m old and I want to get out,’” Melius said, in stressing such releases are not routine.
Lawmakers at the state Capitol have been working to find a solution to a $4.5 billion problem. The state’s unemployment insurance trust fund, the pool of money used to pay out unemployment insurance benefits, sank $4.5 billion into debt during the pandemic.
On Thursday, the Senate gave final approval to paying $2.7 billion of funds from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan Act to address the problem, though it still leaves the fund $1.8 billion in the hole.
The funding is coming through a piece of legislation, SB 2803, sponsored by Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, and Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora. Both hold leadership roles in the General Assembly’s budgeting and financial process.
The bill passed the House of Representatives on a 68-43 vote Wednesday night with solely Democratic support. It passed the Senate Thursday afternoon on a 39-16 vote. It now goes to the governor for final approval.
The measure also would use about $1.4 billion in surplus state funds to pay off old employee health insurance bills, shore up a college savings plan that has been headed toward insolvency and make additional deposits into the state’s woefully underfunded pension plans. […]
But Republicans, who since last spring have repeatedly criticized the majority party for not addressing the unemployment fund debt in the current year’s $42 billion operating budget, maintained that only about $1.2 billion of the federal relief money has actually been spent. That would leave enough to cover the full unemployment fund debt if the other allocations were abandoned. […]
Ongoing negotiations with business and labor groups over separate legislation to fill the remaining insurance fund hole have touched on the possibility of issuing bonds that likely would be repaid through increased payroll taxes on businesses and reduced or shortened benefits.
Republicans urged reallocating other ARPA funds, particularly a $1 billion sum allocated last year to capital projects, to pay down the entire debt to stave off the negative consequences for employers and workers.
Republican Senators, in a Thursday news conference after the vote, did not identify any other ARPA funds that they would like to see reallocated to be put toward the trust fund. […]
Democrats called their action a fiscally prudent measure that goes a long way to addressing the trust fund problem while allowing other necessary expenditures of ARPA funds.
“You know as well as I do that we’ve used the ARPA funding during this emergency to support those institutions and those businesses who have been on the frontlines and delivering health care in our communities,” Harris said in response to Republican criticisms Wednesday.
He pointed to spending for hospitals, nursing homes and purchases of personal protective equipment, as well as trust fund payments to gig workers and increased unemployment payments to workers which were paid by the federal government.
The Gray TV Illinois Capitol Bureau asked Democratic leaders if they considered running two separate bills to have more bipartisan support. Gov. JB Pritzker said it doesn’t make sense to see Republicans vote against a bill that could help address debt and help businesses in the long run.
“On the Republican side, it seems like they have perhaps more support from big business,” Pritzker said Thursday. “And I would just say that businesses across the state, small and large, benefited mightily from the work that was done through this bill to reduce their tax burden.” […]
Sen. Win Stoller (R-Peoria) said this will still create one of the “largest tax increases on employers in Illinois history.” He said the move to only use $2.7 billion from the ARPA funds to address the debt will cause significant benefit cuts for unemployed Illinoisans. Stoller said the state will try to borrow money to get out of the problem through bonding and create more debt.
“That’s one, actually, that we know how to do in this state, and that’s going into debt,” Stoller said. “Even with all of our practice going into debt, we’re even screwing that up. If we had decided to bond just six months ago, and had gone down that path, we would be facing an interest rate of about 1.5 percent.”
Pritzker said he’ll sign the partial payment as soon as the bill hits his desk, even as early as Thursday evening, saying it will be “between labor and business to decide how we’re going to pay off any deficit that exists.”
State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said Republicans support paying down debt, but they want to pay down the whole debt. Not doing so could lead to tax increases on businesses, benefit cuts for the unemployed and continued interest payments that taxpayers would be responsible for.
“They’ve had $16 billion [of federal COVID-19 tax funds] over the last two years and they couldn’t fix this,” Rose said during a news conference.
It’s now up to business and labor groups to negotiate how to plug the gap.
* On to press releases. The most important is this one from the Joint Employers…
The Joint Employers have released the following statement regarding today’s vote to ease the deficit facing the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund:
“Today’s vote will inject $2.7 billion from the American Rescue Plan (ARPA) into the Illinois Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. Illinois employers appreciate the Governor and members of the General Assembly for taking this positive step in addressing the massive $4.5 billion in outstanding debt. We’re hopeful that negotiations will continue to resolve the remaining balance of this unprecedented deficit.”
The Joint Employers include the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Businesses of Illinois and the Associated General Contractors of Illinois.
* Comptroller Mendoza…
“I’d like to join business and civic groups around Illinois praising the General Assembly and Governor Pritzker for a great step in the right direction to responsibly pay down $4 billion of Illinois’ bills with the passage of SB 2803 today.
• The bill spares Illinois businesses an onerous tax hike by devoting a larger-than-expected $2.7 billion in federal ARPA funds – more than our neighboring states – toward paying off Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund advances.
• It allocates $900 million to address legacy debt for state employee health insurance – money that previous administrations have kicked the can on from one budget to the next.
• It provides $300 million extra to the state’s pension funds, which will reduce the pension shortfall by $1 billion between now and 2045.
• And there’s $230 million to pay off the College Illinois tuition program, saving taxpayers $75 million.
This is the kind of responsible budgeting that will keep those first-in-20-years credit upgrades coming for Illinois.
I will continue to work with Illinois’ congressional delegation on their effort to extend the interest waiver on the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, saving state taxpayers an estimated $70 million or more in interest.”
* Senate GOP Leader McConchie…
“Illinois has long been known for its financial issues, and today’s decision to leave a large hole in the unemployment trust fund is just another example of how Democrats continue to mismanage this state. Despite this payment, Illinois still has the fourth largest deficit in the country and is left with the second largest shortfall in state history. The impact this will have on employers across the state will be devastating. To no fault of their own, they were forced to lay off workers and close their doors, and will now be on the hook to pay for the unemployment costs ensued by the pandemic and the fraud that engulfed the Department of Employment Security. These industries and their workers deserve better, but they were failed today.”
* DPI…
Today, the Illinois Senate joined the Illinois House of Representatives in passing SB 2803 to pay off over $4 billion in debts, support working families, and help get our state’s finances back on track. Statehouse Democrats passed the legislation without a single Republican vote, which will help pay down Illinois’ unemployment insurance trust fund debt by using funding provided by the American Rescue Plan…which Congressional Democrats also passed without a single Republican vote last year.
“First, Congressional Republicans voted against the American Rescue Plan to deliver relief to small businesses, working families, and state and local governments. Now, statehouse Republicans—including 2022 statewide candidates Darren Bailey, Tom Demmer, and Avery Bourne—have voted against using those dollars to pay down our state’s debts in a fiscally responsible way,” said Jake Lewis, Deputy Director of the Democratic Party of Illinois. “Bruce Rauner’s fiscal mismangement racked up billions in unpaid bills and nearly plunged our state into junk status. Thankfully, Democrats are working to put Illinois’ finances back on track and move our state forward—no thanks to a single Illinois Republican.”
* Sen. DeWitte…
On Thursday, Senate Democrats passed an ill-advised and incomplete plan to address the state’s multi-billion-dollar Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund deficit. Following the party-line vote, State Senator Donald DeWitte (R-St. Charles) issued the following statement:
“It’s incredibly disingenuous for Governor Pritzker and his Democrat legislative leaders to paint this vote as a victory. This action will lead to the largest tax increase on jobs in Illinois history. Employers who have been treated poorly and with complete disregard throughout the pandemic will be left holding the bag and left responsible for filling the remaining multi-billion-dollar deficit in the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.
“Responsible states across the nation took their federal ARPA funds and prioritized the replenishment of their states’ unemployment insurance funds, but not Illinois. Governor Pritzker and legislative Democrats made a conscious choice to use the majority of the ARPA funds on pork projects and other election year gimmickry to buy support and votes from constituents in an election year.
“Yet again, Governor Pritzker and the Democrats are turning their backs on the business community. Their action guarantees a significant tax increase on every Illinois job through higher employment insurance costs, and a decrease in benefits for every Illinois worker. Especially as we head towards what many believe will be another recession, when unemployed workers turn to Illinois’ unemployment system, their benefits will be reduced due to the greed shown by the majority party. Even if the majority party chooses to borrow funds to plug some or part of the remaining hole, the result is the same: a huge tax increase and millions and millions in new interest costs.”
* DGA…
Last night Richard Irvin’s running mate and Ken Griffin’s handpicked Lt. Gov. candidate Avery Bourne voted against legislation to pay off $4.1 billion in debt and accomplish several key goals laid out by Gov. JB Pritzker in his budget proposal.
Since March, Irvin’s Rauner Reboot costar has refused to engage in good faith on legitimate solutions to help working families deal with the challenges caused by the pandemic, and yesterday’s vote is no exception.
Bourne won’t address the multi-billion-dollar deficit in the unemployment insurance trust fund, and she’s made it clear that she’d rather see working families and small businesses suffer than work with the governor to find bipartisan solutions to the challenges Illinoisans face today.
Meanwhile, after decades of fiscal mismanagement, Gov. Pritzker is righting the wrongs of previous administrations. He passed balanced budgets, eliminated the state’s nearly $17 billion backlog in unpaid bills, and continues to lead Illinois on a path toward fiscal stability.
“Between misleading voters on the campaign trail, avoiding reporters, and voting against legislation that will lead to fiscal stability, Richard Irvin and Avery Bourne will have a lot of explaining to do ahead of the messy GOP primary,” said DGA Senior Communications Advisor Christina Amestoy. “No matter what they say, the Republican gubernatorial candidates are not in the party of fiscal responsibility.”
* Sen. Bryant…
On March 24, Senate Democrats rammed through legislation that underfunds the state’s massive $4.5 billion Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund deficit that State Senator Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) is calling both ill-advised and financially irresponsible.
Senate Bill 2803 appropriates only $2.7 billion from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 funds for the state’s UI Trust Fund. Sen. Bryant noted that the late additions in the bill, including roughly $1.4 billion of the state’s General Revenue Fund for paying old health insurance bills, a $300 million boost to pension payments, and paying more than $200 million in College Illinois debt, were positive proposals that could have easily gained bipartisan support if they had not been lumped with the shortchanging of the UI Trust Fund.
“This proposal will still leave our state’s UI Trust Fund with a $1.8 billion debt that will force businesses to fill that hole by either paying the highest business tax increase in recent Illinois history or cutting benefits to workers. Instead of using our federally gifted funds to fix this problem, we continued to delay which allowed the debt to grow,” said Sen. Bryant. “By shortchanging the UI Trust Fund, we are going to harm the people who need the most help within our state. This will hurt our hospitality and restaurant industry, an industry who is still struggling to recover from the Governor’s imposed shutdowns, more than anyone else.”
The state of Illinois received $8.1 billion of ARPA funds from the federal government, which was designed to be used to for COVID-19 relief and help with economic recovery. The federal government approved ARPA funds to be used on items like the UI Trust Fund, which prompted several states to use their APRA dollars to fully fund their own deficits.
“What Democrats did today is simply not right. It’s wrong for our state to lay the burden of fixing this problem on our state’s employers when they did absolutely nothing to create the debt. It’s even more disgraceful that Democrats decided to force this upon them when our state was given nearly double the amount of funds needed to replenish this deficit.” continued Sen. Bryant. “We could’ve and should’ve avoided this by allocating some of the billions of federal dollars we got from the federal government last year. However, when we asked Democrats and the Governor to put the federal dollars into the trust fund, they chose to ignore us and claimed we had plenty of time to address the problem. Now, a year later, we are being told by those same people that we are out of time and that this is the best that our state can do.”
* Quotes from Gov. Pritzker’s press release…
“We are continuing our responsible use of federal dollars by providing $2.7 billion in tax relief to businesses and benefit protections for workers,” said Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park). “At the same time, our investments in college savings, health insurance and the retirement security of teachers, prison guards, state troopers and university workers will again demonstrate strength through stability for the hard-working people of our great state.”
“This is what fiscal responsibility looks like,” said House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch (D-Hillside). “We’re putting $4 billion toward our state liabilities and saving taxpayers more than a billion dollars. It’s disappointing that every Republican voted against this responsible legislation, but I’m proud Democrats are united in building a strong financial future for Illinois.”
“This General Assembly has made a firm commitment to paying down debt,” said Assistant Majority Leader Senator Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago). “By dedicating $2.7 billion to the unemployment trust fund, we are not only doubling down on that commitment, we are protecting employers from higher taxes and employees from benefit cuts.”
““I’m proud of this unprecedented change to catch up on some outstanding debts to continue improving our state’s credit standing,” said Leader Linda Holmes (D-Aurora). “Allotting $2.7 billion to the Unemployment Trust Fund, as well as substantial earmarks for group health insurance bills, the College Illinois Program and extra pension payments, is a big step to boost our fiscal standing. It also provides a sense of security for Illinois residents, including current and retired state workers and their families.”
“With this legislation, the State of Illinois is living up to its obligations, paying off billions in debt and making sure working families aren’t left footing the bill,” said Majority Leader Greg Harris (D-Chicago). “This is what responsible leadership looks like and I’m grateful to Governor Pritzker and Democrats in the General Assembly for coming to the table and getting this done.
With our budgets balanced and our bills paid, Illinois is on its best fiscal footing in years,” said Assistant Majority Leader Jay Hoffman (D-Belleville). “This legislation builds on that incredible progress, paying off billions in debt, some of it many years-old, and leaving our state better off for future generations.
“I’ve always been a strong advocate of balanced budgets, and today Illinois Democrats have done even more than simply balance our budget – we’ve paid down $4.1 billion in debt,” said Assistant Majority Leader Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston). “Our efforts today mean taxpayers will save billions over the long run, and comes with the peace of mind that we’re putting our fiscal house back in order.”
“This is a $4.1 billion down payment on the future Illinois residents deserve,” said Assistant Majority Leader Marcus C. Evans, Jr. (D-Chicago). “We’ve put the state in the best fiscal position it’s been in since the 21st century – and we did so while continuing to prioritize the other key investments we’re making in a strong state.
“At a time when Illinois families are experiencing rising costs in their everyday lives, it’s never been more important to put the interests of taxpayers first – and that’s what Democrats in the statehouse did today,” said Assistant Majority Leader Elizabeth Hernandez (D-Cicero). “We’re paying off $4.1 billion now, saving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and putting Illinois families first.”
“This bill is the right thing to do for businesses, labor organizations and everyday Illinoisans,” said Senator Elgie R. Sims Jr. (D-Chicago), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I want people to know that if they need temporary help providing for their families, no matter the reason, Illinois has their back. Paying down debt, making additional pension payments and fully funding Illinois Colleges is the fiscally responsible move that could lead to another credit upgrade.”
“I’ve said before that it’s a hard truth for some, but Illinois’ fiscal condition is in its best shape since September of 2001, and I’m incredibly proud to be part of the team that is making this historic debt payment,” said Representative Michael J. Zalewski (D-Riverside). “Everyone from ratings agencies to the Civic Federation is right to praise Illinois for the steps we’re taking to put our fiscal house in order, and I’m committed to continuing this work with next year’s budget.
“Democrats in the statehouse are proving that we can invest in justice, education, and opportunity while also being responsible with our resources,” said Representative William Davis (D-East Hazel Crest). “Illinoisans can be proud to know that our state is in its best fiscal shape in decades – and we’ll use the rest of session to bring more progress to working people.”
*** UPDATE *** The governor signed the bill just now…
Governor Pritzker today signed SB2803, which pays off $4.1 billion in debt and saves taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in interest payments. The Governor and Democratic leaders in the General Assembly gathered Thursday to celebrate the passage of the unprecedented measure, noting that watchdog groups like Civic Federation are praising the fact that Illinois is “in a much stronger financial position than it has been for many years” under Governor Pritzker’s prudent leadership and partnership with the General Assembly.
