Since the state last paid for a majority of road costs in 2000, construction costs have increased 61 percent, according to the Federal Highway Administration. State funds for transportation, however, have fluctuated and on average, remained largely static in that amount of time.
This kind of works like the pension problem: pension costs increase over time, but the state’s appropriation for those costs have simply not kept up. That’s how we end up billions behind in that arena and this one.
Though far less expensive by comparison, even maintaining the roads isn’t cheap. To show just how stretched Illinois’ infrastructure budget is. IDOT Officials are shooting for Illinois roads to be at or better than a “fair” condition between now and 2024. That’s the second to last rating on its pavement condition scale.
[Kevin Burke of the Illinois Asphalt and Pavement Association] says, if that’s the goal, a commute probably won’t get any better; in fact, he warns Illinois roads are probably going get a lot worse.
* A buddy of mine who has worked in southern Illinois for years said he’d driven over three creaky old bridges today in rural Union County. He texted me a pic of one of them…
* Difference between the last impasse and first post-impasse fiscal years…
Table shows State of Illinois General Funds revenues in FY2017 and FY2018. Federal revenues were depressed in FY2017 as the State’s cash flow problems led to delayed payment of Medicaid bills: https://t.co/XW7EZDbPozpic.twitter.com/kOJ9XZ6yxi
— The Civic Federation (@CivicFederation) July 25, 2018
* As I think we’ve already discussed, revenues exceeded expectations by about $900 million…
Federal revenues of $4.0 billion exceeded projections by $614 million, or 18.0%. The federal component of General Funds revenues relates mainly to reimbursements for State Medicaid spending. Budget officials said the federal revenue increase was largely a matter of timing: because the State paid more Medicaid bills before the end of the fiscal year, more matching federal payments were received and booked in FY2018 instead of in FY2019. It should be noted that the federal revenues shown in the table above do not include $1.2 billion of Medicaid reimbursements due to bonds sold in November 2017 to reduce the bill backlog.
The State also brought in more income taxes than expected, which has been attributed to federal tax changes. Corporate income taxes (net of amounts diverted to pay tax refunds) of $2.0 billion exceeded projections by $133 million, or 7.1%. Net individual income taxes of $17.7 billion were $115 million, or 0.7%, above GOMB’s forecast.
Transfers were above projections, largely due to $198 million in additional payments from the Capital Projects Fund to reimburse General Funds for capital purpose debt service costs. Sales tax receipts of $7.8 billion were $141 million below forecast amounts.
Nearly a third of property taxes now collected by City Hall go into 143 special taxing districts controlled by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and aldermen, according to a new report by Cook County Clerk David Orr.
Orr said a record-high $660 million poured into tax-increment financing funds last year, which was more than 31 percent of the $2.1 billion-plus that city government collected. The veteran clerk called the percentage “stunning.”
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Tuesday said he supports the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, a politically connected conservative judge, just as Democrats in Illinois and across the country sounded the alarm on potential rulings on abortion restrictions, gun rights and a roll back of Obamacare. […]
“I support the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh. I believe he is highly experienced, well-qualified for the position, and I hope that his nomination is voted on and approved expeditiously,” Rauner told reporters in Schaumburg after touring Amada America, Inc.
Rauner, too, accused Democrats of “trying to play politics with this issue.”
Nearly all of the nation’s Republican governors have signed a letter backing Senate confirmation for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
In a letter to Senate leaders, first obtained by the AP, GOP governors from 31 states and territories ask that senators move “expeditiously to confirm” Kavanaugh to the court.
They write: “Judge Kavanaugh’s impeccable credentials demonstrate he is worthy of this nomination.”
The letter is part of a coordinated campaign by the White House to build public support for Kavanaugh, in hopes of securing his confirmation in time for the beginning of the Supreme Court’s term this fall.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to questions about the letter on Tuesday afternoon.
*** UPDATE *** From Will Allison at the Rauner campaign…
Governor Rauner has supported Judge Kavanaugh as a nominee for the Supreme Court since he was announced earlier this month. The RGA is adding Governor Rauner’s signature to the letter
Those other two aren’t running for reelection this year, so Rauner is the least popular governor in that category. Alaska’s governor is second on that list, according to the poll, with a 54 percent disapproval rating.
Two cases of Legionnaires’ disease have been reported at an Illinois veterans’ home more than two years after an outbreak killed 12 people and sickened 54 at the facility.
The Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs said Wednesday that two residents at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy contracted the disease. Department spokesman Dave MacDonna said one resident died last week but officials believe the death resulted from other factors.
A new lawsuit alleges medical personnel mishandled testing of a dying Quincy veterans’ home resident last fall, resulting in him not being diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease until just hours before his death.
This is the second lawsuit from the family of Valdemar “Roy” Dehn, an 88-year-old Korean War veteran and ex-Chicago Tribune employee who died from Legionnaires’ last October. The first lawsuit, filed last week, was focused solely against the state of Illinois in the state’s obscure Court of Claims, where families suing the state are limited in their damages. […]
The lawsuit alleges staff at Blessing Hospital ordered Dehn be tested for Legionnaires’ disease on Oct. 8, 2017, but the test wasn’t carried out. Three days later, another doctor questioned why the test had not been completed and ordered it be done a second time, according to the lawsuit. The test result came back positive for Legionnaires’ the next day, about eight hours before Dehn died, according to the lawsuit.
The court filing alleges [Zorian Trusewych, the medical director of the Quincy veterans’ home] also failed to test Dehn, even in the months leading up to the 2017 outbreak as other residents tested positive for Legionnaires’.
So, lemme get this straight. Twelve people died during the 2015 Legionnaires’ outbreak. The facility was hit with another outbreak in 2016. And they still apparently couldn’t get it right during the third outbreak?
Gov. Bruce Rauner doesn’t plan to be there when Donald Trump makes his first visit to Illinois as president later this week.
Asked about his plans, Rauner wasn’t even sure when Trump would visit the state.
“I heard the president is coming to Granite City, I think either Thursday or Friday,” Rauner said Monday in Wheaton.
Thursday, a reporter pointed out.
“I, uh, I do not plan to go. I was just in Granite City just in the past week,” he said.
Hilarious.
* The Question: Which would be worse for the governor: POTUS is upset about the guv’s snub and tags him with an unflattering nickname; or POTUS tells the crowd what a great governor Illinois has? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
The Rauner campaign continues to focus on the corrupt relationship between JB Pritzker and Mike Madigan with a paid digital ad titled “Pritzker Covers For Madigan” highlighting their failure to defend women who have been victims of sexual harassment.
The ad showcases Pritzker’s inability to challenge Mike Madigan throughout the sexual harassment scandal that has rocked Madigan’s official and political organizations. Not only did Pritzker wait days to even name Madigan when pressed on the issue, he has given millions to Madigan’s political groups AFTER harassment allegations were levied against some of the Speaker’s top allies.
* The two brief clips of Pritzker in this ad have him saying “We need to find out what the facts are” and “We need to make sure that all the facts come out.” I just don’t get how that’s supposed to be a negative. The on-screen messages do try to make the case, however, and a lot of people watch these online ads without sound, so maybe all that makes this ad work. I dunno, though. You be the judge…
Also, they haven’t yet settled on a tagline to unify all these ads, except the single word “Madigan.” A catchy, memorable phrase is the usual route, but maybe that one word is enough considering how massively unpopular the guy is.
The bloodbath that wiped out half the editorial staff of the New York Daily News Monday will continue today at other units of Chicago-based parent company tronc. That’s the word from CEO Justin Dearborn, who told employees the cutbacks would “accelerate our company’s transformation into a truly digitally-focused enterprise — one that creates meaningful journalism, delivers it more quickly and more frequently, and develops new approaches to engage our reader.”
* But Tronc execs apparently have no idea how to do that…
When a top executive from frugal newspaper giant Tronc was asked Tuesday about the specific strategy behind draconian cuts to the New York Daily News on Monday, he didn’t have an answer.
On Monday, the company slashed fifty percent of the editorial staff at one of New York’s two remaining iconic tabloids, including dozens of top longtime staffers from virtually every section of the paper.
During a Tuesday meeting with editorial staff that lasted more than an hour, Tronc executive vice president Grant Whitmore and the Daily News’ newly installed editor in chief Robert York occasionally struggled to answer pointed questions about the underlying strategy behind the cuts.
At one point, York asked for 30 days to develop an editorial strategy, which prompted dismay from some staff.
Tronc bought the money-losing Daily News in 2017 for the token price of one dollar in what many saw as a grab for its printing plant and real estate. […]
Insiders say it’s all about getting the company ready for a sale.
Revenue for the first quarter 2018 includes $25.9 million attributable to the NYDN (acquired in September 2017) […]
First quarter 2018 was impacted by fees associated with a consulting agreement that the Company entered into with Merrick Ventures LLC, Michael W. Ferro, Jr. and Merrick Media, LLC. Following Mr. Ferro’s retirement from the Company’s Board on March 18, 2018, the Company fully expensed the $15.0 million contract in the first quarter, which included $500,000 while Mr. Ferro was actively engaged in the business. Including this charge, net loss for first quarter 2018 was $14.8 million [Emphasis added] […]
Adjusted [Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization] for first quarter 2018 was $24.4 million, versus $33.7 million in the first quarter 2017, due primarily to an anticipated negative first quarter 2018 adjusted EBITDA at the NYDN and digital investments.
So, the paper was bleeding some money (hard to tell just how much), but paying off that Ferro contract is what apparently put them under water. And it’s much harder to sell a company when it’s not showing a profit.
And just like that, @BruceRauner campaign spokesman now pipes up and says "No, Rauner will not be giving Wilson any more money." https://t.co/s85EAhacE2
The Chicago construction company behind the 95th Red Line terminal expansion, FH Paschen, is involved in the CRED (Create Real Economic Destiny) program, which gives ex-offenders stability (like housing and a job) after being incarcerated. FH Paschen works with CRED to provide meaningful career pathways to ex-offenders.
Michael Reed (I can get you his info) is a participant in the program and, after being in jail, now works full-time for Paschen and is putting his new skills to use on the 95th station project. He will not only get real construction experience, but also earn any related construction certificates/credentials that he needs to keep his career momentum going. The program is meant to give people an alternative to what they were used to, facing violence in the streets, by teaching them industry skills they need to take control of their own destiny in a positive way. Check out the attached sheet for more info and interview opportunities. This would make an awesome feature or profile.
* Why is this so important? Well, a few minutes after I received Linze’s e-mail, I got this one from the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council…
The attached report updates the Sentencing Policy Advisory Council’s (SPAC’s) 2015 High Cost of Recidivism report. Similar to regular updating of financial reports on economic activity or investments, this criminal justice update incorporates new trends and improved methodology to provide a more accurate and current picture of the high costs of recidivism in Illinois. The updated report describes the costs, how those costs accumulate over time, and how evidence-based policies and practices can help reduce recidivism such that the benefits outweigh the costs.
Key Findings:
* In 2016, more than 38,477 people were convicted of felonies and 33,074 were convicted of misdemeanors in Illinois.
* Only 11% of the 71,551 total convictions were of individuals with no prior arrests. Roughly 96% of the people admitted to prison eventually return to the community.
* Forty-three percent of those released from prison each year recidivate within three years of release and 17% will recidivate within one year of release.
* Thirty-five percent of those sentenced to probation for felony offenses each year recidivate within three years of sentencing, and 17% will recidivate within one year.
* Thirty-seven percent of those sentenced to probation for misdemeanor offenses each year recidivate within three years of sentencing, and 19% will recidivate within one year.
* The average cost associated with one recidivism event is $151,662. Given current recidivism trends, over the next 5 years recidivism will cost Illinois over $13 billion.
Last Friday, Illinois Senator and Conservative Party gubernatorial candidate Sam McCann filed legislation to undo a $180 million grant from Illinois’ Road Fund supporting the Obama Presidential Library, committing the money instead to road and bridge repairs in downstate Illinois. The grant was part of the budget reached in June.
McCann issued the following statement:
Today, I am calling on my fellow legislators to join me in making the fiscally responsible decision to put this $180 million back in our Road Fund.
Illinois hasn’t had a comprehensive capital bill since 2010 and the American Society of Civil Engineers gave our roads a “D” grade last year. If we cannot provide Central and Southern Illinois with safe and efficient roads, we cannot afford to pump money into high-profile luxury projects.
Citizens in Central and Southern Illinois are counting on us to make sure that their tax dollars make a positive difference in their lives, and that is what this bill will do. It also sends an important message that we will support economic development efforts throughout the entire State of Illinois.
Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic nominee J.B. Pritzker aren’t commenting on the move. But Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office had plenty to say, asserting that the state is doing for Chicago only what it did for Springfield when it helped the Lincoln Library with more than $220 million in subsidies—so far.
“The Illinois Legislature recognizes the significant benefits created by presidential centers,” said a city spokeswoman. “This expenditure is critical to the development of the Obama Presidential Center, and we consider it to be a settled matter.”
Did I mention that McCann’s district happens to include Springfield?
Anyhow, McCann has been far downstate and unavailable for comment today on questions like whether a Lincoln Library is better than an Obama Center.
This isn’t a bad move for McCann, politically speaking. The governor signed the budget and agreed to the Obama expenditure. The House and Senate Republican leaders also agreed to spending that state money.
So, McCann gets a free shot at Obama-hating Republicans. But, it’s just a press release. Not many will really read or hear about it unless he can raise enough money to tout his position on the airwaves.
The Executive Director at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Alan Lowe, joins us in the studio to talk about the ALPLM’s backpack drive.
The District 186 Backpack Drive started July 1st and will end July 31st and is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Free museum admission is included with every donation.
There are a few ways you can donate.
First, by dropping them off at the museum, off of Sixth Street, or at the Real Estate Group on Wabash, or right here at our WICS/FOX station.
On July 27, we’ll be hosting a live grab-n-go backpack drop-off right in front of the museum.
— Democrats are now a little better than 50-50 to win the House. This is the first time this cycle we’ve gone beyond 50-50 odds on a House turnover.
— We’re making 17 House ratings changes this week, all in favor of the Democrats.
US Rep. Peter Roskam’s district was moved from “Leans Republican” to “Toss-up.”
* From the Chicago Republican Party…
Counter-protest for Peter Roskam, this Thursday
Peter Roskam is in the fight of his life and he needs our help this Thursday. His race was just changed from “Likely Republican” to “Toss-up”. If we hope to keep this district from turning Blue in November, we need to match the other side’s intensity right now.
We just got wind that the Democrats are planning to protest at the sold-out debate between Peter and his opponent this Thursday evening in Chicago. They’re planning on having over 100 people there. This is a perfect opportunity for us to show we are ready to fight. Can you come show your support for Peter outside the event this Thursday?
We are gathering with our signs at the north east corner of Jackson and Clark (courtyard of the Federal Building) across from the Union League Club (65 Jackson Blvd, Chicago) where the debate is taking place starting at 4:30 PM and going until the debate starts at 6 PM.
We’re also having a bus take supporters from the suburbs to downtown and back! We’re meeting in Wheaton at 3:15 PM and plan on having everyone back by 7:15. If you’d like to take the bus, let us know and we’ll send you more details!
We can’t let the Democrats’ protest go unanswered, especially on such an important debate night!
Thursday’s Lincoln Forum debate between Republican Rep. Peter Roskam and Democratic challenger Sean Casten is sold out. The event was only supposed to have 100 audience guests, ideally supporters evenly split between the two candidates. But when tickets went on sale, Casten’s supporters gobbled them up. Lincoln Forum co-founders Pat Brady, the former state GOP chairman, and Eric Adelstein, a Dem strategist, decided out of fairness to sell an additional 70 tickets to Roskam supporters. “The Lincoln Forum is nonpartisan and we have a duty to have a balanced room,” Brady said.
I’m told that Casten’s campaign manager bought a big block of tickets, so this reaction seems reasonable to me.
* But check out Casten’s response via press release…
Organizers of Thursday’s debate originally proposed 100 tickets sales, the parties agreed, and both candidates were informed simultaneously of the procedures for online sale. Those 100 seats sold quickly. Thereafter, Peter Roskam expressed concern that more tickets had been purchased by Casten supporters, and insisted upon an additional ticket allotment exclusively for his campaign as a condition to participate. The debate organizers complied, providing Roskam’s campaign with access to a secret stash of 70 additional tickets to the sold-out debate.
“Sixth District residents are clamoring to hear Peter Roskam defend his actions in Washington D.C. When given an opportunity — at $33 per ticket versus free of charge — they jumped. Our campaigns agreed to rules for this debate, but now Peter Roskam wants to change them after the fact in his favor.”
“We still eagerly look forward to the debate on Thursday, but Peter Roskam should agree right now to more debates at home in larger, free venues so all Sixth District residents have a fair and open opportunity to hear about our campaigns. If Peter Roskam is afraid of his own constituents, how can we expect him to stand up to Donald Trump?”
Anyone watching their TV recently may have been startled to see—months earlier than most political spots usually arrive—a TV ad promoting the accomplishments of U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Wheaton.
The ad now has disappeared from the airwaves. But consider it an omen of what’s to come. […]
The [$209K American Chemistry Council] ad hails Roskam’s work on behalf of the tax bill that Congress approved under strong pleadings by President Donald Trump. The congressman “fought to reform our nation’s tax code to lower taxes for middle class families so they can keep more of their hard earned money,” said ACC President and CEO Cal Dooley in a statement. “His leadership on tax reform has also benefited businesses by allowing them to reinvest in their employees in Illinois and across America.”
Casten’s campaign sees it a lot differently.
It emphasizes that the chemistry council’s members include units of major petroleum companies including BP, Chevron, Occidental and Total, all of which received big benefits from the tax bill. Roskam further voted to open oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and restrict federal limits on methane emissions in oil drilling on federal land, it says. More generally, says Casten, “As a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, Peter Roskam has done a lot of favors for big corporations—not the least of which was giving them billions of dollars in tax cuts in the tax bill he authored. Now these corporate PACs are repaying him for those favors—and hoping for more.”
Illinois taxpayers could save more than $3 billion a year from government consolidation and mandate relief, according to Gov. Bruce Rauner. […]
“The estimate was we’d save Illinois taxpayers $3.5 billion per year,” Rauner said. “$3.5 billion per year if we actually implemented the 27 recommendations our task force laid out.” […]
For consolidation, recommendations [by the Local Government Consolidation and Unfunded Mandates Task Force] included, among others, a moratorium on creating new local governments, expand DuPage County’s pilot program to all 102 counties, allow township consolidations with coterminous municipalities, incentivize school district consolidation, and encourage sharing of public equipment, facilities and other resources regionally.
Mandates to be repealed, the report suggested, included prevailing wage laws, providing third-party contract mandate relief for school districts, making collective bargaining permissive rather than mandatory, eliminating minimum manning from collective bargaining, merging downstate and suburban public safety pension funds into a single fund, and others.
* Meanwhile, here’s a memo from AFSCME Council 31…
TO: All State Local Union Presidents
FR: Roberta Lynch, Executive Director
Mike Newman, Deputy Director
RE: Rauner Administration Tries to Strip Bargaining Rights from Hundreds of State Employees
In the wake of the US Supreme Court’s ruling in the Janus case, Bruce Rauner has launched an aggressive campaign to strip hundreds of state employees of their contractual rights by attempting to remove their positions from union bargaining units.
Within the past few weeks, the Department of Central Management Services (CMS) has filed over one hundred unit clarification petitions with the Illinois State Labor Relations Board to remove a broad array of positions from AFSCME bargaining units (as well as from the bargaining units of other unions representing state employees). We will shortly send you a list of all affected employees in your local union.
While these employees have been included in the bargaining unit, with full contractual rights, for many years, the Rauner Administration is suddenly alleging that their positions meet one or more of the statutory exclusion definitions under the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act (IPLRA).
This is a very deliberate attempt by the Administration to force these members out of the union and leave them without any guarantees regarding wages, health insurance costs, promotional opportunities, job security, or other essential rights.
Council 31 has sent a letter to all employees in the affected positions informing them of this attempt to strip them of their union rights (see attached sample letter).
The IPLRA is the law that provides collective bargaining rights to public employees in Illinois. It narrowly defines the supervisory, managerial and confidential standards that are the basis for exclusion from union representation. For example, under the Act working supervisors are eligible to be in the union and confidential employees are limited to those who have access to confidential labor relations information. AFSCME does not believe that any of the positions now targeted by CMS meet these standards for exclusion from the act.
When there is a dispute as to whether specific positions should be excluded from a bargaining unit, the Labor Board holds a fact finding hearing to make a determination as to eligibility. You can be assured that Council 31 will vigorously oppose this assault on members’ rights at the Labor Board. Our ability to successfully do so will depend on the affected employees providing the union with comprehensive information on their job duties. We may be contacting you for assistance in gathering such information.
Harassment, beatings and sexual assault are just a few of the abuses transgender inmate Deon Hampton, who goes by Strawberry, claims she suffered at the hands of corrections officers in two southern Illinois prisons.
Federal court filings outline those claims against staff at Pinckneyville and Menard Correctional. […]
Among the allegations, Hampton, who has identified as a woman for more than two decade, says corrections officers at Pinckneyville physically and sexually assaulted her, and regularly forced her to have sex with her cellmate for their entertainment, while shouting racist and homophobic slurs.
And after she reported the incidents under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, Hampton claims the abuse only got worse, with officers demanding she rescind the complaints or face beatings.
The complaint, which seeks damages from IDOC and named employees, describes an incident In May, where Hampton says prison staff beat and sexually assaulted her, before telling her it was retaliation for reporting officers.
Hampton recalled an incident where she and her cellmate were taken from their cell by officers — there are several pages of defendants named in the lawsuit’s complaint document which include the warden of Menard Correctional Center as well as a list of correctional officers — and told to dance for the men. She said she was also told to have phone sex with one officer and forced to put her mouth on the penis of another.
Alan Mills, executive director of the Uptown People’s Law Center, said he and his team came prepared for the second day of a preliminary injunction hearing in one of Hampton’s civil federal cases when representatives from IDOC came to them with an offer.
“With the judge’s help, we spent the day negotiating and seeing if we could resolve this case without a decision by the judge,” Mills said. […]
He said she has been housed in a health care facility, and will be until her transfer Wednesday to the Lawrence Correctional Center in Sumner.
Mills said he hopes the facilities at Lawrence will better suit Hampton’s needs.
“I know that there are other transgender women at Lawrence, so I’m hoping that they will have the sort of materials she and other transgender women need,” he said.
* But the transfer to Lawrence didn’t work out and she was then transferred to Dixon. But that isn’t working out either…
A transgender woman, who’s incarcerated at a men’s correctional facility in northern Illinois, is again suing the state Department of Corrections to be housed in a women’s prison after alleging she’s suffered abuse in several male facilities.
Deon “Strawberry” Hampton has sued the agency multiple times and has been transferred to four different facilities in the last year. Hampton currently resides at the Dixon Correctional Facility, after spending time at the Lawrence Correctional Center where other transgender inmates live.
Hampton’s attorney says abuse has continued regardless of where her client has been sent.
I asked IDOC today whether any guards had been disciplined for their alleged behavior. I’ll let you know if the department responds.
The fleece zip-up vest, the capstone of a new corporate uniform, lurks in air-conditioned corporate cubicles across America. It covers the sweating backs of nervous interns ordering supersize coffees at Starbucks . It’s worn by silver-haired executives in the elevator, heading up to their corner suites. It appears in myriad shades of grey and blue, on men of all shapes and sizes who earn all kinds of salaries. It has become as ubiquitous as the take-out salad in humdrum workplaces, and is slowly supplanting the suit and tie as essential office wear.
Typically, the vest is worn over a button-up shirt and paired with chinos and brown dress shoes of any flavor. “The uniform” is how this ensemble has been branded around the office of one 36-year-old working in capital markets in Pittsburgh, a past practitioner of the much-mocked look who asked that his name be withheld. During a recent trip to New York City this month, he observed scores of men wearing grey fleece vests even as temperatures touched the mid-90s.
The trend is so pervasive that an Instagram account with nearly 40,000 followers, The Midtown Uniform (@midtownuniform), has sprung up to savagely document these corporate clones in cities like New York, Toronto and Washington D.C. The anonymous account adds pithy captions to crowdsourced photos, riffing on the omnipresence of this particular outfit. “Money isn’t really ours unless you’re fully vested,” read a caption on a recent post showing two men in matching pink shirts and blue vests.
I did not know any of that.
* As you are most certainly aware by now, both major party candidates for governor sport a fleece vest on occasion…
* The Question: Who wears it better? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* From the Anti-Harassment, Equality and Access Panel’s website…
The panel will put forth a set of recommendations intended to:
— Promote and support a culture of equality, safety and respect in Illinois politics free of sexual harassment.
— Improve the process for combating and reporting sexual harassment in Illinois political campaigns.
— Increase the number of women in leadership positions and those on track to leadership positions at all levels of Illinois politics by expanding access and tools for professional and leadership development.
— Facilitate more women running for office in Illinois by identifying and reducing structural obstacles that prevent them from doing so.
In response to the national and state harassment allegations, two lawmakers and the state comptroller are traveling Illinois, gathering stories from women in politics — or who want to be in politics — about barriers that keep them out of leadership roles. The Anti-Harassment, Equality and Access Panel has held meetings in Champaign, Chicago and the Metro East, and will next hear stories from women in Springfield and Carbondale.
And, as it turns out, those stories are about a whole lot more than sexual harassment.
Comptroller Susana Mendoza told me on Monday that the panel’s work has become about elevating women into leadership positions around the state — with the eventual goal of Illinois becoming the first state to boast a majority of women in the Legislature. […]
[Mendoza] says one goal of the panel is to find ways parties can actively encourage women to get involved.
“(Sexual harassment) is an issue that is pervasive across … parties, industries, public and private — it just exists everywhere,” Mendoza says. “What we can do to address sexual harassment is look at the (political) party structure.”
“We’re going to do something really amazing that no one has ever done,” she says. “And get behind this effort of putting more women in office, and doing it intentionally.”
The panel came to Springfield Monday to get input from Springfield-area women about their experiences being involved in politics and public service and steps that can be taken to improve the experience. Springfield is the fifth location for the listening sessions and two more are planned.
“We’re trying to develop policies and guidelines for political parties that are more inclusive for women and that will remove barriers so that more women will feel comfortable working in politics and running for office,” Bush said.
“We started out really focused on the whole issue of sexual harassment,” Mendoza said. “In terms of the panel’s work itself and the people who come to talk to us, it’s amazing how more of the conversation has shifted to the barriers to entry to politics. The fact that there are not enough women in politics seems to be an issue that keeps coming up over and over again.”
In the Illinois General Assembly, 35 percent of lawmakers are women. That puts Illinois sixth among states with the largest percentage of female lawmakers. Bush said it isn’t enough.
“Our representation should look like us,” she said. “We’re 51 percent of the population.”
Reached by phone, F. Scott Winslow, Wilson for Mayor campaign spokesman, told WGN News Sunday’s event was “absolutely not” a campaign event. Winslow says since Wilson launched his second bid for Chicago mayor, he’s probably given away $500,000.
Winslow insists the campaign is not violating any campaign finance laws since the campaign was not involved. He said he didn’t think any of the governor’s money was distributed in cash Sunday, but there was no way to know how much of the governor’s money was part of the hand out.
Once people contribute to Wilson’s foundation “all the money gets mixed together,” he said.
He also said there is a Chinese wall between the foundation and Wilson’s campaign. He said they bent over backwards Sunday to avoid any appearance of vote influencing, even removing political signs from nearby yards.
The governor, who is facing a tough re-election campaign, knew that Wilson would be at that church on Sunday talking about tax relief. It’s unclear whether he knew the checks would be handed out, too.
At a news conference Monday, Rauner said he donated money for people who were vetted through the foundation. He said he had no idea that Wilson would be handing out cash.
“Just handing out cash randomly to people, I’ve never done that and I think it’s not a good thing to do,” Rauner told reporters. “It’s one thing if you’re just a person and you just want to walk around and throw money. I mean, it’s a free country. If you’re a candidate for office, it’s not a proper thing to do.”
Anyone who knows Wilson, though, knows that’s what he does. He gives on the spot and doesn’t spend a lot of time and energy interviewing the recipients. He takes people at their word that their financial horror stories are true.
That last paragraph is totally true. And it shoulda been crystal clear to Rauner that money would be handed out if anyone had bothered to read Wilson’s press release…
On Sunday, July 22nd at 10:00am, Wilson will give away $300,000 to assist struggling homeowners who are being threatened with losing their homes because of staggering property tax bills.
* Rauner didn’t know that cold, hard cash would be handed out? Seems a tiny bit difficult to believe after reading this Sun-Times story…
Wilson’s spokesman Scott Winslow said this isn’t the first time Rauner has attended an event in which Wilson has handed out cash and checks. Winslow said Wilson has been doing it for more than 20 years.
And a Wilson campaign ad called “Helping Others” is posted on Wilson’s campaign Facebook page featuring a video of Rauner crediting Wilson for being “generous.” The video was posted on June 19 and features a church banner which reads “God Reigns in 2018.” The campaign ad shows Wilson passing out money in a church.
Wilson’s campaign said it’s a “composite spot.”
“The portion where he is handing cash to a member of the church was a January 15 MLK event, before he had declared himself a candidate for mayor,” Winslow said.
“He’s a wonderful entrepreneur. He’s built his own business from scratch. He’s been very successful. And he’s very generous,” Rauner says in the ad while the camera shows Wilson handing out cash to a man in a church. “He’s taken his success and given back to the community, to help many families who need help.”
* The spot is 49 seconds, which is too long and too short to be a standard :30 or :60 TV ad. And it hasn’t yet shown up on Facebook. There are plenty of other platforms, however, so let’s take a look at it since our late friend Paul Green makes an appearance and the Tribune covered the ad…
Rauner’s out with a new ad that tries to tie Pritzker and powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan together as pushing for a tax increase.
The ad shows both men with the words: “Pritzker-Madigan. Higher taxes. More corruption. Want to raise your taxes.” It then plays various TV news coverage of Madigan as well as Pritzker, who is pushing for a graduated income tax that would levy higher tax rates as income rises.
Pritkzer, however, has refused to say what those tax rates should be—something that has given Rauner an opening to attack a change in the income tax as higher taxes on everyone. Even to impose a graduated income tax rate would require years, including a voter-endorsed change in the state constitution.
The end of the Rauner ad plays a clip of Pritzker at a campaign event saying, “You can hear what a theme for this campaign is going to be, right?”
* The RGA was pleased as punch with the Trib’s coverage…
Chicago Tribune: J.B. Pritzker Still Won’t Say What His Tax Hike Rate Would Be
Despite criticism from editorial boards across Illinois over his refusal to detail the specifics of his “immediate increase” tax hike plan, J.B. Pritzker still won’t say how high he would raise taxes if elected.
The Chicago Tribune is again calling out the Illinois Democrat gubernatorial candidate, writing that “Pritkzer, however, has refused to say what those tax rates should be—something that has given Rauner an opening to attack a change in the income tax as higher taxes on everyone.”
As the heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune and an expert at using insider schemes to avoid paying his fair share in taxes, Pritzker simply does not appreciate what his tax hike would do to struggling families.
Hardworking Illinois families already having a difficult time paying their tax bills should be deeply concerned about Pritzker’s lack of honesty and candor about his tax increase proposals.
* And so was Team Rauner…
ICYMI: Morning Spin Covers Latest Rauner Campaign Ad
This morning, the Chicago Tribune’s Morning Spin covered the Rauner campaign’s latest ad, “Raise Taxes For Everybody.” The ad features a clip of Mike Madigan saying that taxes can go in “whatever direction you want to go” followed by news coverage of Pritzker’s plan to hike taxes on Illinois families.
They started as a University of Illinois garage band and reached the heights of arena rock. Now the members of REO Speedwagon have been voted the top musicians in Illinois history by participants in the Illinois Top 200 project, a part of the state’s bicentennial celebration.
REO Speedwagon was followed by Alison Krauss, the fiddler with an angelic voice and more Grammy wins than any other woman in history, and Nat King Cole, the beloved crooner and trailblazing African-American entertainer.
Cheap Trick, the Rockford band that’s now in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and jazz legend Miles Davis rounded out the top five.
“Perhaps nothing better represents the state’s cultural and geographic diversity than its many contributions to American music. The most remarkable thing about this list is how many people on it were major contributors to different styles of music: blues, jazz, rock, soul, country, you name it,” said Christian McWhirter, a Lincoln Presidential Library historian and music expert. “And it’s not just Chicago, either. These great acts come from all over the state.”
“Keep On Loving You,” “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” “Take It on the Run.”
Bleh. Not a big fan of hair-band arena rock.
* However, there is one track that redeems all of REO for me. “Golden Country”…
Golden country your face is so red
With all of your money your poor can be fed
You strut around and you flirt with disaster
Never really carin’ just what comes after
Well your blacks are dyin’ but your back is still turned
And your freaks are cryin’ but your back is still turned
You better stop your hidin’ or your country will burn
The time has come for you my friend
To all this ugliness we must put an end
Before we leave we must make a stand
Hindsight is always 20/20. Little did we know how truly corrupt the Obama-era Justice Department and FBI really were. With predawn raids, overzealous prosecutors with a flair for big, flashy press conferences and the need to secure convictions at all costs, even when the evidence suggests otherwise, we have learned the hard way how some prosecutors have weaponized their unchecked power to criminalize the routine practices of politics and government.
A few hours after the predawn raid where my husband was taken away, federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald held a press conference where he announced to the world that Rod was trying to “sell” President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat.
That sensational charge is what people remember, but it was a lie. In July 2015, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed those charges, ruling that the so-called “sale of the Senate seat” was not a crime. It was nothing more than routine “political logrolling.”
My husband fought the charges. He resisted the relentless efforts by the prosecutors bullying him to plead guilty. They even threatened him with a life sentence. But he refused to give in.
Why? Because we trusted the system, unaware that the case against him was rigged from the beginning.
Special counsel Robert Mueller, former FBI chief James Comey, and Fitzgerald have done more than enough damage to our family. Their politically biased agendas and insatiable desire to convict, even where no crimes exist, should frighten every single citizen in our country.
Mueller and Comey are two of President Trump’s “favorite” people.
But notice she doesn’t mention how her husband shook down a children’s hospital exec for bigtime campaign bucks before he’d release their state funding. Wonder why?
Blagojevich, though, was arrested at his home on Dec. 9, 2008, more than a month before home-state U.S. Sen. Barack Obama was inaugurated president. […]
In reality, her husband was still convicted of wire fraud involving discussions to personally profit from selling the Senate appointment. The charges that were dropped were due to a technicality involving jury instructions. […]
On upholding the other 13 charges against the impeached former governor, Easterbrook wrote on behalf of the three-judge appellate panel that “the evidence, much of it from Blagojevich’s own mouth, is overwhelming.”
Not mentioned in Patti Blagojevich’s column were her husband’s convictions of attempting to shakedown an executive of a children’s hospital and a racetrack owner for campaign cash in exchange for official actions.
This development has been expected for weeks. Two of Chuy Garcia's allies won Democratic primaries for House seats in March. This makes the third Chuy-backed House Dems this year. The Chuy-MJM alliance of convenience is perhaps the least reported political story in Chicago https://t.co/eFesaKNb5l
Celina Villanueva will take the oath of office on Tuesday to formalize her appointment to the 21st District state representative seat vacated when former State Rep. Silvana Tabares became alderman of the 23rd Ward in May.
“I am humbled to accept this appointment to represent my community in the Illinois General Assembly,” said Villanueva. “I am committed to advocating for the best interests of working people in the 21st District every day, and will always be a voice for social justice and democracy in Springfield.”
Villanueva was previously the Youth Engagement Manager at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), where she led the largest immigrant civic engagement program in Illinois, which registered more than 200,000 new American voters and mobilized hundreds of thousands more to get out to vote.
Villanueva led ICIRR’s efforts through the Just Democracy Illinois coalition to expand voting rights through online voter registration, election day registration, and most recently automatic voter registration, all of which are now law.
Prior to joining ICIRR, Villanueva served as the Director of Organizing at Chicago Votes, and worked as an organizer on various issue-based campaigns, including the fight for marriage equality in Illinois. She also previously served as Outreach Coordinator for Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.
Villanueva graduated with a B.A in Latina/Latino Studies with minors in African-American Studies and Spanish from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a resident of Little Village.
…Adding… Press release…
Following is a statement from Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) Executive Director Lawrence Benito, in response to the news that ICIRR New Americans Democracy Project and Youth Engagement Manager Celina Villanueva has been appointed to become the 21st District State Representative:
“We are beyond thrilled for Celina, who has been a tireless leader in our work to protect immigrants and refugees in Illinois for the last four years. We know she will bring the same clarity and fierce commitment to the needs of working people and immigrant communities to her role in the General Assembly. We look forward to working with Rep. Villanueva to make Illinois an even more welcoming state for immigrants and refugees.”
…Adding… From the swearing-in…
It was an honor to stand and watch Celina Villanueva take the oath of office as the next State Representative of the 21st District before her family and friends today. It was a proud and emotional moment as we welcomed a new progressive champion to the ILGA. Congrats Celina! pic.twitter.com/rg0dkYgZI9
— Emanuel Chris Welch (@RepChrisWelch) July 24, 2018
* If you search the Illinois attorney general’s charitable trust database (click here) for the Dr. Willie Wilson Foundation, you won’t find anything.
That sometimes doesn’t mean anything because there can occasionally be a data entry backlog or some other glitch. So I reached out to the AG’s office yesterday and asked what was up.
They got back to me just before 4:30 yesterday afternoon with this message: “They are not up to date with us.”
The AG’s office, I’m told, reached out to Wilson’s foundation yesterday, but nobody has called them back.
The last report the AG’s office has, I was told, is for 2016.
It’s unclear what happens next. There could be financial penalties if the foundation doesn’t comply, for example. And the AG’s office could conceivably shut down the foundation.
* From Wilson’s campaign spokesman last night…
The 2017 990 report is on extension and will be filed this week (not due till Nov 15th) to make the foundation up to date
Mayoral candidate Willie Wilson apparently did not violate election law by handing out more than $200,000 in cash and checks Sunday to people at an event he attended with Gov. Bruce Rauner at a South Side church, according to the state elections board. […]
Illinois State Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich said the fact that the money came from Wilson’s foundation seems to allow him to avoid running afoul of campaign finance laws.
“As far as we can see, it looks like he didn’t use campaign funds for this,” Dietrich said. “And there doesn’t appear to have been any quid pro quo, like, ‘Here’s some money, vote for me.’ So from our perspective, it doesn’t look like there was anything illegal about this.”
“It looks kind of skeevy,” said Ken Menzel, general counsel at the Illinois State Board of Elections, who noted he did not have enough information to make a call one way or another on the matter. “If that were the threshold for Illinois politics, the chambers would be empty.”
…Adding… From Dietrich…
Rich: I think Ken Menzel and I are answering different questions in the quotes you have. The answer I gave to John Byrne yesterday morning came after I talked to Ken about it. Ken’s comment to Natasha came out of a larger conversation and concerned the general optics of the event.
When the calls started flooding in, I sent out this statement:
All we know about this is what has been in media reports. If the money came from his foundation and not his campaign committee, and the other details as have been reported are correct, then it likely would not violate the Campaign Finance Act. However, the State Board of Elections does not want to engage in extensive speculation about a situation which could generate a formal complaint for which the State Board of Elections would be the hearing body.
Willie Wilson’s campaign spokesman Scott Winslow on Monday said “we did nothing wrong.”
“It’s very normal and what’s being picked up is the mudslinging of the mayoral race of Chicago,” Winslow said, adding Rauner attended the same event with Wilson last year, when cash was also handed out.
Uh-oh.
*** UPDATE *** Video clip from the last such event, on January 15, 2018: “I’m honored, I’m honored to be here with Dr. Wilson to support those of you who need help paying your property taxes. I’m happy to chip in and I’ll chip in in the future”…
Today, Jim Dodge, the Republican nominee for State Treasurer, and Darlene Senger, the Republican nominee for State Comptroller, issued a joint statement calling on the legislature to pass legislation consolidating the two offices:
“Illinois is facing a budget shortfall and a politician surplus. We urge the legislature to save taxpayer dollars by consolidating the offices of Treasurer and Comptroller.”
Dodge and Senger pointed out that most states have one Chief Financial Officer and that by dividing the duties between two constitutional officers the state is wasting money. It is estimated that consolidating the two offices could save taxpayers between $12 and $14 million.
Both candidates urged their Democratic opponents to join them in pledging to fight for consolidation.
“Mike Frerichs and Susana Mendoza should be a part of the Illinois budget solution, not part of the problem,” said Dodge.
“We shouldn’t feel comfortable asking Illinois taxpayers to tighten their belts and handover more of their hard-earned money, when political leaders in Springfield aren’t willing to do the same thing,” added Senger.
In 2012, the Illinois state Senate voted to place the question of consolidation on the ballot in the 2014 election. Democratic Speaker of the House Mike Madigan, however, blocked the provision from passing the House.
“The only consolidation Mike Madigan is interested in is the kind that consolidates his power, he is wholly uninterested in saving taxpayer dollars,” said Senger.
“Mike Frerichs and Susana Mendoza should have the political courage to stand up to Mike Madigan and to stand up for Illinois taxpayers,” concluded Dodge.
“I voted to put (the merger) on the ballot,” Frerichs told me in a phone call. “Unlike Republicans, I’ve supported this idea whether Republicans or Democrats have held these jobs. When Leslie Munger was comptroller (she was unseated by Mendoza in the 2014 election), silence. . . .Why didn’t Republicans say something then?”
Frerichs also challenged whether the $12 million to $14 million in potential savings are real or “something in a press release.” In fact, his entire annual operating budget is only $7.6 million, Frerichs said. […]
“The framers of the state constitution were familiar with the potential for corruption in having one officer in charge of receiving money, investing it and paying it out. That’s because Orville Hodge embezzled $6 million in state funds in the ’50s. That’s $57 million in today’s money—far more than the phony projected savings number,” said a [Mendoza] spokesman, referring to the infamous former auditor of public accounts, which later became the comptroller’s office. “Not only could this still happen—it did happen as recently as 2012. Rita Crundwell was the combined comptroller and treasurer of Dixon, Ill. She was convicted of embezzling $53.7 million from the town’s taxpayers.”
The spokesman also pointed to Mendoza’s fight with Gov. Bruce Rauner over refinancing state debts, exchanging bonds that cost interest of 3.5 percent compared to IOUs that carried a 12 percent rate.
[Rep. Jeanne Ives] has said that she ran to hold Governor Rauner responsible for the policy decisions he’s made since 2015. Mission accomplished. But she’s also said that she won’t endorse the Governor for re-election. Her unwillingness to do so now will only make inevitable the very things she ran against in the primary. That’s not the type of legacy anyone should want to leave.
Every day that we move closer to the election, it’s becoming ever more obvious that this race is far from over, but in order to avoid the total meltdown of Illinois, we need to grow or at least maintain our numbers in the House and we need to retain the Governorship.
Jeanne, don’t leave your colleagues in the House facing that which you have within your power to help to avoid. Don’t leave the people of Illinois with a state government that will be hell-bent on leading us faster in our race to the bottom. If it’s your intention to carry on the fight beyond this election, do so by leaving something standing that’s worth fighting for.
You need to join the battle, and you can only do that by stepping onto the battlefield as it now exists. If you don’t, you run the risk of being remembered by the label that was pinned upon you during the campaign:
Madigan’s Favorite Republican.
Ouch.
* The Question: Should Rep. Jeanne Ives endorse Gov. Rauner for a second term? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* The governor held a press conference today to sign legislation that received unanimous support in both chambers. So, the press conference afterward was mainly about yesterday’s Willie Wilson event. Click here for background if you need it…
“None of my money should be used for that and I hope it wasn’t.” @GovRauner He says he gave money to help with people’s property taxes but didn’t know it would be handed out yesterday. Doesn’t think handing out cash randomly is a good idea. @tahmanbradley@WGNNews
@GovRauner says he wasn’t aware Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson would hand out cash Sunday at a church and doesn’t approve of it. pic.twitter.com/pv4FPDndvb
@GovRauner looking into whether election law was violated with cash hand out and if it was he will demand his money back from Wilson. @tahmanbradley@WGNNews
* The event was not on the governor’s public (state) schedule, but he did have someone from his campaign staff with him, so that’s a little bit problematic…
.@GovRauner says that yes, there was 1 campaign staffer at church event yesterday. Called Willie Wilson a friend, said he did not know that cash would be handed out yesterday and does not support that. “it’s outrageous.” Says if he finds out it was his $100k, he’ll demand it back pic.twitter.com/Cf86nVbQe6
Today, Illinois Senator and Conservative Party gubernatorial candidate Sam McCann issued the following statement in response to reporting and photographs of Willie Wilson and Bruce Rauner handing out $300,000 at an event in a South Side church:
Governor Rauner has reached a new low. For a gubernatorial candidate and a mayoral candidate to be photographed distributing cash to thousands of attendees in the heat of an election season is beyond bad judgment – it disqualifies Rauner from being Governor.
As $300,000 in so-called ‘property tax relief’ was distributed in cash, Bruce Rauner touted himself as the candidate who would fight for lower property taxes. This was a political event, and Bruce Rauner and Willie Wilson handed out stacks of cash.
This is not the kind of change Illinois needs. This is the kind of old-school Democratic Machine politics that got us where we are today. Republican and Conservative voters should reject Bruce Rauner and his attempt to buy another election.
Um, there are no photographs that I know of showing Gov. Rauner handing out cash.
RAUNER: “No, I certainly did not and I don’t know that anybody else did.
REPORTER: “Was anybody from campaigns there?”
RAUNER: “Uh, anybody from my campaign staff? I think well one person, yeah. I think we did.”
REPORTER: “Is it true that 100,000 of that money came from you?”
RAUNER: “Well so, we should understand what happens. So, two things first. I worship at different church around the State of Illinois almost every Sunday, I try to every Sunday. And I have attended Reverend Thurston’s church, New Covenant, in the past where I attended yesterday. I was there primarily to worship, as I have done, and the Reverend asked me to speak which I occasionally do. So that’s why I was there. In terms of my money and my donations, Dr. Willie Wilson is a friend of mine and I’ve known him for five or six years. He’s a successful businessman, a successful entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He and I worked together on the issue of property taxes. Property taxes are out of control in the State of Illinois, they are much too high and some of the worst property taxes in America are in the African-American community south of Chicago and west of Chicago. There are property taxes for black families in the south suburbs – 12% of home value. Dr. Wilson came to me last year and he said, ‘Bruce could you help me? I’m putting in several hundred thousand would you join me in putting $100,000 of a donation so we can help families that are struggling and can’t pay their property taxes, to pay their property taxes.’ I said I would, I gave him $100,000 last year, and I believe he helped families with parts of my money, mostly his money. And in the last month or two I gave him another $100,000 at his request to help people pay their property taxes.”
REPORTER: “Did you know cash would be handed out yesterday?”
RAUNER: “I did not know that. I learned it after the fact and I do not support that.”
REPORTER: “Are you worried that it might be a violation of the criminal statute of the election code [INAUDIBLE]?
RAUNER: “I think the idea of handing out cash if you’re a candidate for office is outrageous. It should not happen.”
REPORTER: “Were you offended yesterday?”
REPORTER: “Well I learned after the fact, and I was pretty upset when I heard it was going on.”
REPORTER: “What are your concerns about the fact that some of this money is from you?”
RAUNER: “Well as far as I know no money of mine got handed out to anybody, we’re checking right now. If it did I’m going to demand my money back.”
REPORTER: “You said that $100,000 of the money gave out came from you.”
RAUNER: “You got to separate, what I’ve been told, you’ve got to separate out. It’s proper, and we checked the channels, doing a assistance for property tax payments for people who got checked and went through a process and got their name vetted and they got checks, that was a proper process. That’s what I was told my money went for, and I’m fine with that. I did it last year, I did it this year, and I’ll do it again next year. It has nothing to do with electioneering, it raises the profile of the issue of how unfair – African-American families in the south side paying 12% of home value in property taxes, it’s outrageous. Separate issue, I learned after the fact that Dr. Wilson was handing out cash. If that’s true, that’s wrong, it shouldn’t happen. None of my money should be used for that and I hope it wasn’t.”
REPORTER: “Where’d the money come from Governor? Was it from your foundation or – what was the source of the $100,000?”
RAUNER: “$100,000? I’ll have to check, I think it was just personal. I’ll find out, I don’t have the answer.”
REPORTER: “Did you see him handing out the cash and did it raise any concerns in your mind?”
RAUNER: “I did not anybody hand out any cash yesterday.”
REPORTER: “Did you have a conversation with Dr. Wilson about this?”
RAUNER: “I have not yet. Our team is doing their homework to find out exactly what happened and then when I know the facts I’m going to talk to the Doctor about it.”
REPORTER: “And the difference between the cash and the checks is what?”
RAUNER: “Vetting of the people who receive the money and the use of the money. I believe in helping people with their property taxes. I did it last year, and it should be vetted, the people checked, understand their property tax situation and their financial positions, and assisting those who might run the risk of losing their home. I’ve met people who were on the verge of having to be evicted because they couldn’t pay their property taxes. I met some at church yesterday. That’s fine for me as a philanthropist, I donate to many causes, that’s a worthy cause. Just handing out cash randomly to people, I’ve never done that and I think it’s not a good thing to do.”
REPORTER: “Why is it a bad thing to do?”
RAUNER: “It’s just not – if you’re a candidate for office, it’s one thing if you’re just a person and you just want to walk around and throw money I mean it’s a free country. If you’re a candidate for office, it’s not a proper thing to do.”
REPORTER: “Do you judge it violates election laws?”
RAUNER: “If it doesn’t I think it probably should.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** Press release…
Yesterday, Gov. Bruce Rauner joined Willie Wilson to hand out a reported $300,000 in cash to potential voters at New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church. With a campaign staffer on hand and after reportedly chipping in $100,000 of his own money, Rauner conducted one of the most highly unethical campaign stunts yet. In response, Democratic Party of Illinois Executive Director Christian Mitchell released the following statement:
“This is one of the most highly unethical campaign stunts Rauner has ever conducted, and it’s stunning that he would even dare show up in the black community after failing to pass a budget for four years and creating the highest unemployment rate for black people in the country,” said DPI Executive Director Christian Mitchell. “But to show up with a campaign staffer and hand out $100,000 in cash? It’s not only possible that it’s illegal, but the height of hypocrisy from someone who claims they want to ‘clean up the system.’”
Townships are not the only public bodies in the crosshairs of Republican leaders scrutinizing their tax bills and looking for taxes to slash.
“They never go after the libraries,” Algonquin Township Republican Party Chairman Glen Swanson said.
“Illinois has the highest-paid librarians in the country,” McHenry County Republican Party Chairwoman Diane Evertsen said.
Both Swanson and Evertsen shared their concerns about libraries last week with state Sen. Dan McConchie, a Hawthorn Woods Republican who stopped at the Crystal Lake Colonial Cafe to drink coffee with his constituents.
The 26th District leader said he had heard an out-of-town visitor once describe an area library as something like the “Taj Mahal.” McConchie pointed to the “very property-rich southern part” of Lake County, where “every year they take the max they can under the tax caps” and build “massive” facilities.
“Sure,” McConchie said, “they provide nice services to their folks, but I walk in there, and there’s people that are just sitting there on the clock doing absolutely nothing.”
Illinois school districts continued to pad pensions for retiring educators amid a two-year budget impasse and despite concerns about the state’s growing pension debts, highlighting the persistence of a problem that lawmakers have struggled to contain.
As the state’s budget stalemate entered a second year in the summer of 2017, some school administrators raised concerns about being able to to keep the doors open for the upcoming school year. Some talked about laying off teachers, cutting after-school activities or draining swimming pools. Others worried about depleting reserve funds. But through it all, the state’s locally controlled public schools paid millions of dollars in penalties each year directly to the state’s largest pension fund as a consequence of giving out raises and sick time in excess of the threshold set by a 2005 state law designed to discourage what is commonly known as pension spiking, an Illinois News Network investigation found.
“It’s inexcusable that school districts were spiking pensions at the end of their careers to the point where they’ve got to pay penalties,” said state Rep. Peter Breen, a Lombard Republican. “This data is Exhibit A for what’s wrong with Illinois’ pension systems.”
The whole point behind the state law wasn’t necessarily to stop end of career pay spikes, it was to make the local school districts pay for the costs of those spikes. If they decide at the local level that they want to entice some older workers to retire to make way for newer workers, shouldn’t that be up to them? If the GA wanted to fully stop these spikes, they could’ve outlawed the entire practice.
Look, this is undoubtedly beneficial information for local taxpayers to have, which they can use the next time their own school board members come up for election. But it’s not like they’re paying a criminal fine. They’re just being told to pay their own way.
* The Illinois News Network has published several stories about this topic like it’s some sort of gigantic scandal. Here’s another one…
Some McHenry County school districts continue to give employees big raises just before retirement more than a decade after a state law aimed to limit the practice was passed.
The county’s school districts have had to pay $619,833.92 directly to the Teachers’ Retirement System of the state of Illinois since 2014 for giving out raises and sick time allowances, according to TRS data obtained through the state’s open records laws.
Again, the law wasn’t necessarily aimed at limiting the practice, it was about making the locals shoulder the costs instead of making every taxpayer in Illinois do it.
Over the past five years, schools in the Metro East have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties for giving teachers in the twilight of their careers pension-boosting raises.
According to documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, the Teachers Retirement Fund, Illinois’ public teacher retirement pool, has received $527,845.00 from school districts in East St. Louis, Alton, East Alton, Belleville, and Edwardsville for excessive pay increases and sick leave days.
In just four years, the Illinois State Board of Education itself cost taxpayers an additional $592,619.69 in penalties because of end-of-career pension spiking for retiring staff. […]
Dora Welker, a division administrator with ISBE, made $95,000 in 2013. She made $132,500 in 2017. That’s a 39 percent salary increase. But her 2013 salary wasn’t what was used in the final calculation. Documents show Welker’s salary of $103,744 in 2014, nearly $9,000 more (a nine percent increase) than the year before, her 2015 and 2016 salary (which was virtually unchanged) and her 2017 salary of $132,490 (a 27 percent increase from the 2014 salary) was used in the calculation.
ISBE averaged out the salary from the final four years of Welker’s salary to be $108,175, or $3,124 more than what the average salary would have been if at the 6 percent annual cap. The difference, $3,124, is then multiplied with an actuarial factor of 16.6. The employer, ISBE, owed $52,147.91 for Welker’s 27 percent spike in four years.
Documents show Susan Morrison, a deputy superintendent and chief education officer at ISBE, had a salary of $158,881 in 2011. It increased to $216,940 by 2015. That’s an increase over the four years of 36.5 percent. That’s also $4,769 more than the 20 percent over four years, 6 percent a year, allowed without a penalty to the pension fund. Multiplying the difference by an actuarial factor of 14.7, and ISBE had to pay nearly $71,000 extra into the pension fund.
A spokesperson for ISBE said the reason for the larger than 6 percent salary increase at the end of an employee’s career is “generally the result of the distribution of compensable days, but can also include salary increases.”
ISBE should definitely be more careful about this.
[Rep. Christian Mitchell] represents Hyde Park and nearby portions of the South Side. Considered by some to be at least a mild political reformer, he’s African-American, less than half Madigan’s age (76), got the job [as DPI’s acting executive director] with behind-the-scenes help from Pritzker and actually showed up on a picket line to protest a local appearance by Vice President Mike Pence the other day. I doubt Madigan has orated before a picket line in the past half-century. On the other hand, Madigan was forced to dump predecessor Executive Director Tim Mapes amid a sexual harassment scandal and designated another lieutenant, Mike Kasper, to stay around as the party’s treasurer in case Mitchell gets any wild ideas. So control is, at best, split.
Ergo, the question: Will the speaker-for-life finally let loose? And, if he doesn’t, will Pritzker give him a shove if he gets himself elected?
One theory out there is that Madigan would have no choice but to go, and fairly soon, because his caucus has decided he’s a liability. “They don’t want to live with another four years under him,” says one top Democratic insider—particularly since Pritzker personally is filling the war chests of darn near every Democratic candidate in the state, presumably buying their loyalty in the process. Pritzker needs Madigan long enough to learn the ropes and get through his first budget, and then let nature run its course, says that source.
Pritzker would emerge as his own man, in his own incremental way, argues another ranking Dem. “He won’t try to gouge out Madigan’s eyes like Blagojevich did. But he’ll be more effectively assertive than (Pat) Quinn,” another ex-Democratic governor whose idea of working with Madigan was “pounding on the table.” So look for some patronage jobs and other ducats to change hands, particularly if Pritzker starts pushing his promised graduated income tax plan. But little by little, Pritzker would assert power. […]
One of those who ran against Pritzker in the primary, state Sen. Daniel Biss, predicts a bumpy ride ahead, amending his prediction during the primary campaign that Madigan would call the shots if Pritzker won. “I expect there will be tension between the speaker and the governor, just like there has been with every governor,” he says. “Madigan will be resistant to enact progressive priorities.” Like the progressive income tax or, say, a statewide $15 minimum wage.
Thoughts?
* Related…
* Rep. Gordon-Booth talks Madigan, criminal justice reform: Rep. Gordon-Booth, a member of Democratic leadership in the House, says because of her role she may have been insulated from some of the harassment her colleagues and others have been exposed to. However, she believes Speaker Michael Madigan has acted quickly to address issues that have come before him.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) signed legislation empowering police to confiscate firearms from citizens and extending the wait period for gun purchases to 72 hours.
The new waiting period means a single woman being pursued by a stalker now has to hide and/or live behind locked doors for three days while she waits to get a gun for self-defense.
NBC 26 reports that the confiscatory law is called the Firearms Restraining Order Act. By signing it, Rauner made Illinois the 13th state to empower police to confiscate guns and he joined a growing list of Republican governors who signed such laws into place following the February 14, 2018, Parkland high school shooting.
Illinois Republican Governor Bruce Rauner signed two new gun control bills into law at the end of last week.
Everyone wants to do something to stop mass public shootings. Unfortunately, these laws will not make Americans safer and surely won’t prevent mass public shootings such as the one in Parkland.
State Rep. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, said the bill to takes guns away from those with mental health issues unfairly limits due process and could make criminals out of law-abiding citizens.
“Quite simply, the bill goes too far and allows for actual confiscation of legally-owned weapons,” she said.
She said the 72-hour waiting period law is another example of Chicago Democrats playing to a radical anti-gun base.
“This bill creates yet another layer of bureaucracy to place at the altar of Chicago Democratic-base politics,” Bryant said. “This legislation really strikes at some beloved traditions in Southern Illinois and will harm gun dealers and gun and knife trade shows. Unfortunately, every day that the Legislature is in session in Illinois, pro-Second Amendment legislators like myself must be vigilant and work to protect our constitutionally guaranteed rights.”
* And then there’s the other side: The gun dealer licensing bill he’s pledged to veto…
Kathleen Sances, president and CEO of the Gun Violence Prevention PAC of Illinois, disagrees. She says Chicago police recover 7,000 illegal guns a year — and 4,000 from in-state dealers.
“He should want to be saving our children,” says Sances. “And he looks like he’s choosing to secure the profits of the gun industry rather than keep our communities safe. “
Just before announcing his veto plans for the licensing bill, Rauner signed two other gun-related measures. One allows confiscation of guns from people if a court deems them dangerous to themselves or others; another imposes a 72-hour waiting period for all gun purchases in Illinois.
Sances says while she is pleased that Rauner approved the other two gun-safety bills, she is perplexed over his decision not to want to track illegal gun sales.
“I mean, I think these are easy bills for him to sign,” says Sances. “I don’t understand, though, why he wouldn’t sign a bill that would have helped stopped the shootings in our city. I mean, our children are dying. There are shootings every two hours here — and that’s because there’s too many illegal guns.”
“We know that illegal guns are flooding our neighborhoods and contributing to the daily violence so many in our state face, particularly minority communities,” argued the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park. “I hope he will reconsider his threat to veto this legislation and prove that he cares about everyone in Illinois.”
“Illinois needs stronger, smarter state gun laws to keep guns off our streets and out of the wrong hands,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement Monday afternoon. “It is the height of hypocrisy when the same governor who signed a bill to regulate catfish sales will not stand up and take common sense steps to regulate gun sales.”
* Normally, when candidates look for a middle ground on hot-button issues, they wind up getting blasted by both sides for their apostasy. Judy Baar Topinka is a notable historical example. She considered herself pro-choice, so she was constantly attacked on her right flank. But Personal PAC decreed that she wasn’t pro-choice enough, so she was whacked for being a right-winger on the topic.
Under the new law, however, family members or law enforcement can go before a judge to seek a restraining order that directly addresses the respondent’s firearm ownership.
Illinois State Rifle Association Executive Director Richard A. Pearson released a statement celebrating the bill’s success.
“We applaud the governor for taking action to save lives,” Pearson wrote. “Studies in both Indiana and Connecticut indicate that similar laws to [House Bill] 2354 reduce gun-related suicide deaths by 7 percent to 13 percent.”
* Kinda puts Gov. Rauner in a bind. From the Belleville News-Democrat…
President Donald Trump announced Sunday he plans to visit Granite City on Thursday, where a U.S. Steel Corp. mill reopened in March.
While Trump has not specified the reason for his visit, about 800 employees have been called back to work for the U.S. Steel Corp since Trump announced he would be placing tariffs on foreign steel in March.
The tariffs were aimed mainly at China, which had been accused of dumping steel into the U.S. market at lower costs.
In a press release in March, U.S. Steel Corp said the change was due to an anticipated demand for steel in the United States due to Trump’s announcement in March that the federal government would impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports.
Trump mentioned U.S. Steel at the White House’s Roosevelt Room during a ceremony surrounding the tariffs, according to St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The newspaper reported that Trump said the reopening of the Granite City plant is a “big one” and thought it was the start of many closed plants reopening across the country.
As we’ve already discussed, the plant supplies the Texas oil industry with pipe, and that state’s oil industry is rebounding because of high prices.
Simmons, president of the Steelworkers Local, said they have been advocating for the reopening of the plant for years. While Simmons said Trump’s announcement poised them in a position to reopen, market trends indicated the mill could have reopened long before Trump’s announcement.
“Conditions and market trends have been inching up enough for us to start up without the trade case,” he said.
“We should have started up a few times. They had some missed opportunities on making some good profits. They were wanting such securities (the tariffs),” he said.
Six weeks before the facility’s closure was announced, Simmons said they completed a trial for high-strength steel and were the only facility in North America capable of creating it due to their advanced equipment. This high-quality grade of steel was of interest to automakers like Nissan, which wanted the steel for its 2018 Nissan Altima model.
…Adding… Just in from the Pritzker campaign…
his Thursday, Donald Trump will be in Granite City, Illinois, but will Bruce Rauner join him?
Rauner has spent the last month cozying up to Trump — praising his policies and calling his Vice President one of the “greatest leaders in American history.” But as the Chicago Tribune reports, “embracing the president can create political hurdles, especially after the governor has tried to avoid addressing the president’s almost daily controversies throughout much of his first term.” So, will Rauner appear with Trump in Illinois on Thursday?
“From his silent partner to a vocal supporter, Bruce Rauner has been Donald Trump’s staunch ally while his hatred and devastating policies wreck Illinois,” said Pritzker campaign spokesman Jason Rubin. “Will Rauner fully embrace or run scared of Trump when he comes to Illinois?”
*** UPDATE 1 *** Not unexpected, but decent snark from McCann…
#ILGov Rauner says he doesn’t plan to go to Granite City to welcome POTUS Thursday.
This one is a doozy, even by Chicago standards: Millionaire Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson handed out $300,000 in cash to attendees at a South Side church Sunday. And it gets better: According to Wilson, $100,000 of it came from Gov. Bruce Rauner.
In a video aired on WGN on Sunday, Wilson is seen holding a wad of bills and handing out a few to each person in line after a church event attended by the governor. Wilson said he put in $200,000 of the money, while Rauner pitched in for the other $100,000.
A source familiar with the foundation said Rauner did pay $100,000, but it was to Wilson’s nonprofit and he was “not aware” that cash would be distributed at Sunday’s event. […]
In an interview with POLITICO, Wilson insisted philanthropy — not politics — was behind the gesture and that Rauner has donated before to give money to those in need through the foundation.
“We help people that need property taxes paid and food to eat and electric bills paid and senior citizens help. We’ve probably done this six times over the past two or three years,” said Wilson, referring to his foundation. The Chicago businessman has a rags to riches story. He’s the son of a Louisiana sharecropper who worked as a janitor before becoming an early owner of McDonald’s franchises. He’s since expanded his business interests and runs a multimillion-dollar plastic glove distribution business.
Republican state Rep. David McSweeney asked on Twitter, “How can Willie Wilson, a candidate for Mayor of Chicago, literally hand out CASH at a public event? This is so wrong!”
But when asked about allegations of vote buying, Wilson said, “There’s no truth to that at all.”
Meanwhile, Rauner is locked in his own difficult battle for re-election.
“Gov. Rauner attended a Sunday service at the New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church as a guest of Rev. Stephen Thurston,” Will Allison, a spokesman for Rauner’s campaign, said. “The governor has attended Sunday services at different churches across Illinois since he first ran for office, and other elected officials and community leaders are often present.”
For more than 20 years, Humanitarian Dr. Willie Wilson has given away his heart…and his money, to those less fortunate and those who simply need a helping hand. This year, the man who puts his all into everything he does is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, Wilson is stepping things up – bigger and better!
On Sunday, July 22nd at 10:00am, Wilson will give away $300,000 to assist struggling homeowners who are being threatened with losing their homes because of staggering property tax bills. Wilson will present the relief to homeowners at New Covenant Baptist Church, 754 East 77th Street, Chicago IL 60619 where Rev. Stephen J. Thurston is the pastor.
After nearly five years, Wilson increased his giving this year by a whopping $100,000! This increase was necessary due to the ridiculous property tax hikes that are strangling these hardworking homeowners. Wilson has vowed not to stand by idle and allow folks to get choked out under the weight of the outrageous tax hikes. He has also committed to working on getting the state tax bill rolled back from an 8-month term to a 12-month term to further help the residents. […]
More than 2,000 people are expected to attend this annual charitable giveaway. Wilson will also be assisting hundreds of senior citizens to purchase much-needed food and medication. Individuals who are a part of the Second Chance programs will also receive a “hand up” from the popular businessman. Individuals from Pacific Gardens and Sister House mission and recovery shelters will participate as well, and will receive crucial aid to help them on their way.
Wilson’s campaign spokesman insists today’s appearance was not campaign related. But Chicago politicos on both sides of the aisle raised concerns about the event. […]
Winslow insists the campaign is not violating any campaign finance laws since it was not involved with today’s handout. But the event certainly had a political feel.
During the event, Rauner also addressed the church in brief remarks. The governor shared with worshippers that he received an award from the National Black Chamber of Commerce at in event in Washington, D.C. this past Friday, and talked about his work reforming Illinois’ criminal justice system and boosting education funding for schools. […]
“You pay the highest property taxes in America here in Chicago and the South Side and the south suburbs, “ said Rauner. “This is wrong. The system is broken and I’m trying to fix it.”
So let me get this straight. @BruceRauner, the sitting governor of the state of Illinois went to church yesterday and watched as $100,000 of his own money was handed out in front of him. #twill#ilgov
Illinois State Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich said the fact that the money came from Wilson’s foundation seems to allow him to avoid running afoul of campaign finance laws.
“As far as we can see, it looks like he didn’t use campaign funds for this,” Dietrich said. “And there doesn’t appear to have been any quid pro quo, like, ‘Here’s some money, vote for me.’ So from our perspective, it doesn’t look like there was anything illegal about this.”
A couple of years ago, a little more than 1,400 voters took Democratic primary ballots in sparsely populated Warren County, which is about an hour west of Peoria. Almost twice that many took Republican ballots.
The Warren County Democratic Central Committee is not exactly a campaign powerhouse. The organization officially opened its PAC with $923.72 in June of 2016. By June 30 of this year, the county party reported having $917.72 in the bank. I couldn’t find any records showing how that $6 was spent.
But last week, the county organization received a $5,000 check from the Rock Island County Democratic Party. Warren is one of 14 counties that received a total of more than $200,000 from the Rock Island Dems last week.
Warren’s check tied with Effingham County’s for being the smallest. The Kankakee County Democrats received about $28,000. Kane County’s Dems received about $20,000. Williamson County got about $14,000. The Metro East’s Madison County Democrats have so far received the largest check in this initial round: $45,495. The Carroll County Democrats have raised an average of about $3,000 a year for the past 18 years, but they received $7,523.50 last week.
As I’ve told you before, the Rock Island Democratic Party Chairman is Doug House, who also runs the Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association. Because state campaign finance laws allow unlimited contributions between county-level party organizations, the J.B. Pritzker campaign gave House’s Rock Island Democrats $1 million earlier this year as the first installment on its “Blue Wave Illinois 2018” program.
The idea is to finally try to build the party up at the local level after years of neglect by the top. The Democratic Party of Illinois, run by House Speaker Michael Madigan, has reported raising more than $80 million since 1999, but it has spent precious few dollars to help local parties. Basically, the only time DPI has bothered to work with local party organizations in the past is when they could be helpful with the handful of competitive state legislative races scattered here and there — particularly Speaker Madigan’s House races. And even then, the object wasn’t really to make local parties viable, but to extract whatever human and other resources they had in order to assist Madigan’s campaigns.
Chairman House has, along with the Pritzker campaign, established a grant program. County party organizations can qualify for money by, for instance, opening an office. The local committees are also being strongly encouraged to hire a part-time or full-time administrator, depending on their size.
Some counties will reportedly receive money to send direct mail and run ads on local radio stations and on cable TV. They’re supposed to establish a social media presence, recruit specific numbers of volunteers for phone-banking and door-to-door canvasses, among other things. They’re also supposed to put together a get-out-the-vote program for the final month. This is all new stuff for many local parties.
Several county parties, particularly Downstate, have few actual precinct committeepersons. In Chicago and suburban Cook, precinct captains are appointed by local township and ward committeemen. They don’t have to live in the precincts assigned to them. Everywhere else, committeepersons are elected in their precincts — and it’s not easy convincing people to run for that office, particularly in overwhelmingly Republican areas. However, those county chairs can fill vacancies, and the appointed committeepersons don’t have to live in the precincts they represent, so a big push is on to get counties to a minimum level of 75 percent coverage.
Some local party officials have also been told that the million-dollar contribution from Pritzker is just the first round. More party-building money is coming.
By contrast, as of last week Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign had given a total of about $33,000 divided between nine county and township Republican organizations since the March primary. The Illinois Republican Party chipped in another $25,000 during the same time period for a handful of county organizations.
J.B. Pritzker’s campaign has contributed $5.7 million to various Democratic groups and candidates since the primary, including big bucks to several suburban and Chicago political organizations. Pritzker’s campaign gave the St. Clair County Democrats $200,000 during the primary and it paid off big. Pritzker won St. Clair with 76 percent of the vote.
It’s not like the Democrats are expecting to win all that many Downstate counties this year. In the short-term anyway, I think the plan is simply to try to lose those counties by fewer votes than they have in the past, which will still help the overall effort.
My name is Mark Janus, and I am the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case Janus v. AFSCME. I am a child support specialist for state government in Illinois. Quite simply, my job is to help people. When parents aren’t together anymore, I work to ensure that children receive all the financial support available to them.
I love my job. Serving others is part of who I am. But in order to do this type of work, I am forced to check my First Amendment rights at the door. That’s why I’ve asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in.
Emphasis added.
* Press release…
Mark Janus joins Illinois Policy Institute as senior fellow
Janus to serve as spokesman, workers’ rights advocate after the historic Supreme Court victory in Janus v. AFSCME, helping workers across the country understand their restored First Amendment rights
CHICAGO (July 20, 2018) — Mark Janus will be joining the Illinois Policy Institute and the Liberty Justice Center as a senior fellow effective Aug. 1.
STATEMENT FROM MARK JANUS
“I’ve respected the work of the Illinois Policy Institute and the Liberty Justice Center since first connecting with them in 2015. As I’ve worked with them more closely over the years, I’ve come to admire both the staff and the mission of the organizations. With their professionalism and ability to speak out on issues that affect not only Illinois but also the entire country, I’m looking forward to adding my voice to this fine team.
“Every day, their staff is working to turn around the state of Illinois and I am grateful for the opportunity to spend the remainder of my career doing something I believe in. I look forward to helping make a difference for workers in the state and across the U.S.”
STATEMENT FROM ILLINOIS POLICY INSTITUTE CEO JOHN TILLMAN
“We are thrilled that Mark has decided to bring his invaluable insight to our team after a long, hard fight at the Supreme Court. During the years that this case took to reach its conclusion, I have had the privilege of watching Mark express his core values on free speech and worker freedom over and over again. He is articulate, courageous and committed to the cause of empowering workers. He will be touring the country to make sure workers understand their rights and to share with workers and other people interested in his Supreme Court case what the Janus win means.”
“Once again it’s clear that this court case was never about Mark Janus, but about billionaires like Bruce Rauner and big-money corporate funders launching a political attack on the freedom of working people to speak up together through a strong union,” AFSCME Council 31 spokesman Anders Lindall said. “While IPI tries to dupe workers into quitting their union, AFSCME members will continue doing what they’ve always done: providing important public services and building their union to speak up for themselves, their families and communities.”
*** UPDATE *** Asked Monday by a reporter if he helped Janus get his new position, Gov. Rauner replied “I did not.” Asked if he had anything to do with Janus getting his new job, Rauner said “I did not.”
