The “temporary” closing of United States Steel’s Granite City Works, announced Wednesday, sent a wave of worry through 2,000 soon-to-be-laid-off steelworkers and a city that depends on its mill. […]
The move comes as tumbling oil prices hit the country’s second-largest steelmaker hard. Much of Granite City’s steel is used to make pipe for the oil industry at U.S. Steel’s Lone Star Tubular plant in Texas, and demand for drilling pipe is falling fast.
U.S. Steel, and the United Steelworkers union, also blamed imported steel, which they claim is being “dumped” unfairly on the American market. The steelmaker has been hit by a surge in Chinese imports. [Emphasis added.]
Average crude oil spot price for March, 2015: $52.83/bbl
* July 6, 2018 Tribune story entitled “The Illinois town where Trump’s tariffs have provided jobs, and a sigh of relief” claims tariffs alone have reopened the steel mill…
But the first blast furnace now has been restarted and U.S. Steel is filling 800 jobs at the mill, a result of the steep tariffs that President Donald Trump announced on imported steel and aluminum earlier this year. The Trump administration has in recent months imposed tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China and on Friday imposed tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports. That country responded by levying tariffs of its own on American-made goods.
Tariffs may very well have played a role. Yet there was not a single mention in the entire Tribune story of the Granite City plant’s direct and crucial connection to the rebounding Texas oil industry.
* American Manufacturing Business Owner: ‘Thank You Mr. President’ for ‘Enough is Enough’ Attitude on Trade: Zach Mottl, the owner of American manufacturing company Atlas Tool Works in Lyons, Illinois, is thanking President Trump for his recent tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. In an interview with Fox Business, Mottl praised Trump’s tariffs on foreign countries and their imported steel and aluminum, saying the economic nationalist approach to trade should have been implemented years ago to help American businesses and workers.
* Red-state governor sticks with Trump on China trade war but warns US farmers can’t take much more pain: Despite the “devastating” effects of the China trade war on soybean farmers, Ron Moore — a lifelong farmer from Roseville, Illinois, who has 850 acres of soybeans — told CNBC on Friday that he’s not angry with the president. Moore, also chairman of the American Soybean Association, said farmers “admire” Trump for trying get China to be a “better and more fair trading partner.” “We just think there are alternative choices” to achieve that goal, Moore added in last week’s “Squawk Alley” interview. “The WTO resolution process is an alternative that needs to be explored before we keep these tariffs on.”
* Congressman wants to see results from Trump’s tough trade negotiations: U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, said Friday in Springfield, Illinois, that while he has concerns about the impact tariffs have on Illinois farmers, he has been told by his constituents to have patience. “If they feel that this is the best way to negotiate, let’s see what those results are,” Davis said. “And if you talk with many of the farmers that I represent they will tell you they are worried, but they still support this president.”
* Rep. Davis wary of tariffs: U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, said Friday that tariffs being imposed on American products are “devastating to our agricultural sector,” and he hopes the administration of President Donald Trump focuses on countries that are “bad actors,” rather than allies. But in general, Davis said, “I do believe the president is actually working hard to move this country in the right direction.”
* Farmers the First Casualties in Trump’s Trade War: “The corn market’s a very fickle thing. It doesn’t take much to tip it over when it gets to a certain time of year,” Illinois farmer James McCune told THE WEEKLY STANDARD. “We have no idea what’s going on, and the market’s cratering like mad.” McCune, who describes himself as an ex-Republican—“now I’m just a Trump supporter”—thinks Trump’s policies have helped to revitalize the economy of small-town America. But he’s also seen the impact falling prices have had on his own 5,500 acre farm: He estimates he’s lost $660,000 in revenue due to falling grain prices, enough to wipe out his grain profits entirely. And he sees himself as one of the lucky ones.
* China’s Taste for Soybeans Is a Weak Spot in Trade War With Trump: Still, soy-producing states like Iowa and Illinois might not feel the tariffs’ impact right away. China buys so much soy from the United States — $14 billion last year — that it can hardly switch to new suppliers overnight. Foreign-grown soybeans are a key source both of low-cost protein for feeding livestock and of cooking oil for Chinese kitchens.
* Gov. Rauner did a press event about property taxes today. From a media advisory…
Today, Governor Rauner will hold an event to highlight the corrupt property tax system in Cook County and how Mike Madigan is blocking reform. Governor Rauner will be joined by a Des Plaines resident who will tell her story of how rising property taxes are hurting her community, while the governor will make clear that voting for Madigan’s handpicked candidate, JB Pritzker, will lead to more taxes and more corruption.
Gov. Rauner holding campaign press conference at Des Plaines home. Tells homeowner, “I’m sorry you’re going through all these property tax burdens.” pic.twitter.com/QmMTWeaM9A
Rauner: Pritzker, Madigan and Berrios part of a rigged and corrupt property tax scheme. Slams Pritzker for taking out toilets from second mansion, as resulting decrease in property taxes hikes them for homeowners in Cook Co. like Mary Anne https://t.co/z9BuDf2Qih
Today, on the eve of Independence Day, State Representative Barbara Wheeler (R-Crystal Lake) has filed legislation to allow Illinoisans to celebrate the occasion with the time honored tradition of fireworks without the risk of fine or arrest. Illinois is one of only four states that does not allow for the consumer purchase and use of fireworks and Wheeler’s legislation would give that independence back to residents.
“Illinois is already an outlier in so many ways, and this another silly example,” said Wheeler. “Illinoisans, like residents in 46 other states, can and should be trusted to responsibly use consumer fireworks and take care of themselves. Not only does it make sense to give a little independence back to the people for Independence Day, but it will also generate some business and tax revenue for the state that will help mitigate some of the exodus of people leaving the state.”
In 2017, the Illinois State Fire Marshal reported there were 204 fireworks-related injuries and one fatality between June 23 and July 20. That was down from 2016 totals of 240 from the same period the year before.
A representative with the Iowa State Fire Marshal’s office said Iowa doesn’t have a mechanism to collect injury data.
The Missouri state fire marshal’s office didn’t have information immediately available because there’s “no statute requiring reporting of fireworks injuries to the Division of Fire Safety.”
In Indiana, the state department of public health compiles the data and reported 238 firework-related injuries in 2017. The majority were male and more than a third were younger than 18.
[GOP Sen. Chapin Rose’s] staff calculated Illinois fireworks consumer provided somewhere between $10 to $15 million in sales tax revenue to neighboring states. […]
The risks of misusing fireworks are considerable. According to the Illinois State Fire Marshal, there are an average of 18,000 fires caused by the improper use of fireworks every year. The fire marshal’s office conducts an annual statewide survey of hospitals for data on the number of fireworks-related injuries.
* The Question: Should Illinois legalize the sale of fireworks in a similar manner as neighboring states? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
A “gun sanctuary” trend spreading across Illinois counties in support of Second Amendment rights has raised questions about just who is allowed to decide what is or isn’t constitutional where guns are concerned.
At least 26 of Illinois’ 102 counties have passed “gun sanctuary” resolutions or similar measures. The term is a play on the phrase “sanctuary city,” which describes cities where political and law enforcement leaders limit their cooperation with federal immigration policies and vow to protect immigrant rights.
“Gun sanctuary” advocates say they, too, deserve protection — from lawmakers in the capital pushing for stricter laws on firearms. […]
* And then after the march began, we got stuff like this…
I’m disappointed in the Mayor. There was an agreement in place. I am calling on the Mayor to take swift and decisive action to put an end to this kind of chaos. I will work with him in good faith and urge him to do his job so that the people of Chicago feel safe.
— Mayor Rahm Emanuel (@ChicagosMayor) July 7, 2018
* But Rauner explained what he meant in a follow-up…
Great piece of community police work today by ISP and CPD. Despite the disruption and traffic chaos, they made sure marchers and drivers were safe. Thanks to officers from both forces.
#Marchforourrights rally members say they are not out here in response to Father Pflegers Anti-violence protest. They also say law abiding citizens should not be punished for the crime happening in the city. pic.twitter.com/eVEcXWb5km
— Olivia Estrada ABC 7 (@olivialestrada) July 7, 2018
* Some coverage…
* A guide to yesterday’s Chicago protests on the Dan Ryan – for people who are new to all this (and trolls): This is just politics! It’s just a publicity stunt. Yes. You’ve captured the exact reason why protests happen: to publicize issues and put pressure on political decision makers. But I’ll agree with you on one point: The posturing by the mayor and the governor yesterday was not particularly insightful or helpful. Especially when you consider the mayor and the governor have both tried to crush unions and teachers, two groups that provide economic and educational health to the affected communities.
* Pfleger, Emanuel, Rauner and Cupich: The inside story of the Dan Ryan shutdown: Sneed has learned Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who cut his teeth watching his mother as a young civil rights activist, decided to use his voice to facilitate the Rev. Michael Pfleger’s anti-violence march Saturday morning down the Dan Ryan Expy. “I made a few phone calls,” Emanuel said in an exclusive interview with Sneed. That included one to Gov. Bruce Rauner, who got on board with a game plan that initially aggravated Pfleger but then didn’t play out as envisioned — enabling the South Side priest to accomplish his goal of shutting down all inbound lanes of the expressway.
* Pfleger, protesters shut down Dan Ryan Expy: There’s a historical significance to marching along the Dan Ryan Expressway — a roadway some believe was built in the early 1960s to separate white communities and poor, black ones. To the west of the new interstate were Comiskey Park, home of the White Sox, and neighborhoods such as Bridgeport, home to then-Mayor Richard J. Daley and his clan. To the east rose the Robert Taylor Homes, a high-rise public housing complex that became notorious for its violence.
* Anti-violence protesters shut down Dan Ryan: ‘Today was the attention-getter, but now comes the action’: After the protest, Tracey Brumfield held up a poster at Marquette and State with pictures of her 26-year-old son, KeShawn Slaughter, who was shot and killed in April 2017 in the far South Side’s West Pullman neighborhood. The poster also had a message written on it: “Enough Is Enough. Stop Violence.” “These guns need to be off these streets,” Brumfield said. “I feel like some of the parents, y’all need to check these kids’ rooms. Check under these beds. You know what I’m saying? Guns be right in your house. You don’t even know.”
* Anti-violence protesters shut down part of Chicago freeway: Illinois State Police, which had warned earlier in the week that any pedestrian entering the expressway would face arrest, said early Saturday that an agreement had been reached for protesters to march on a portion of the roadway. Officers and vehicles lined up, forming a barrier to keep protesters in two northbound lanes, allowing some traffic to pass in other northbound lanes. But Pfleger and protesters insisted there was no agreement and that they would shut down the entire northbound roadway, with Pfleger noting the city closes major roads for parades and other occasions. The crowd began creeping into other lanes — a situation Pfleger said had the potential to become dangerous. Illinois State Police, which has jurisdiction over expressways, announced around 11:30 a.m. that they were shutting down all northbound lanes of the expressway. Protesters then began walking northbound along the route.
* Anti-violence protesters shut down inbound Dan Ryan: ‘The people won today’: Aldermanic candidate Anthony Driver and another demonstrator threatened to force the closure of the two open lanes by breaking police barriers. They were warned they might be killed by a speeding car if they did so. “They are killing us already!” Driver said. “There shouldn’t even be a negotiation. They knew we have been planning this march for over three weeks. These lanes should have already been shut down.” For more than half an hour, Pfleger and other marchers helped pass out water between talks with police, before state police agreed to shut down all inbound lanes for the march about 11:30 a.m. Afterward, Pfleger credited CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson with helping force the issue, saying Johnson “stood up to the state police to let them know it was now a matter of safety.”
* Father Pfleger says Governor Rauner tried to create chaos: Another mother, Sonia Davis, whose son, Tyrone White, 41, was, killed in Chatham said, “His case is still unsolved. I call the police. They never call me back. It’s like my son doesn’t exist. I am grateful to Father Pfleger for doing things like this so people can see that we are parents out here suffering. We need help with our kids cases.”
* This story kinda puts Gov. Rauner in a bit of a bind. If he dumps the investment, he can’t claim that his investments are outside of his control. If he doesn’t dump the investment, he gets criticized for profiting off of a colossal federal mess…
Gov. Bruce Rauner this year reported turning a profit from a health care group that services U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers, including facilities that hold immigrant families with children.
In his most recent statement of economic interests, the multi-millionaire Republican governor disclosed earnings from a private equity fund that owns Correct Care Solutions, a for-profit health care provider that has millions of dollars in government contracts with jails and prisons across the country, including immigrant detention centers.
The governor says he relinquished investment decisions to a third party and has no direct ties to Correct Care Solutions, a group whose work extends to places like Karnes County Residential Center in Texas, one of just four immigrant family detention centers in the country contracted for profit. […]
“He should not be in any way profiting off of this,” said Donald Cohen, executive director of In the Public Interest, a national watchdog group that monitors privatization and advocates for responsible government contracting. “It’s morally reprehensible.”
“Does JB really want to go down this road?,” asked one Rauner operative today. Pritzker, of course, has even more investments than Rauner does.
Correct Care Solutions - the Rauner-linked health care company that services ICE facilities - also has contracts with the IL Dept. of Juvenile Justice worth $20M+
— Illinois Working Together (@IllinoisWorking) July 9, 2018
In his "blind-trust commitments", Rauner promised he would donate "any proceeds from investment interests that I may hold that have any contract with the State of Illinois"
Has he donated his profits from Correct Care? Are there other investments like this? pic.twitter.com/eXwdU2Hqju
— Illinois Working Together (@IllinoisWorking) July 9, 2018
Back in the old, old days, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley would pack passenger trains full of loyalists and send them all to the Illinois State Fair’s Democrat Day rally, where they were treated to rousing speeches by party leaders and candidates. Gov. Rod Blagojevich kept that tradition alive on a somewhat smaller scale by chartering buses filled with supporters.
For decades, both parties’ state fair rallies have been considered the unofficial kick-off to Illinois’ campaign season. In odd-numbered years between elections, candidates have often used the rallies to showcase their campaigns ahead of the following spring primary season.
Many of those potential candidates make big speeches and bus their supporters to Springfield to show their strength and then never even file to run for election, realizing that they don’t have what it takes. Illinois is a bigger state than most people realize. And its regional and hyper-local politics can be maddening to novices with big egos.
Most other off-year speakers are weeded out by the party primaries. By the time of the August event ahead of the even-year general election, the number of candidates who show up to speak is whittled down to a handful.
Aside from the potential candidates, the state fair treats the political class (campaign contributors, labor leaders, legislative staff, etc.) to a big get-together before the November elections (or the legislative fall veto session, as the case may be), so lots of candidates up and down the ballot use the opportunity to raise money.
And the rallies always provide political reporters with something to write about in what would otherwise be a slow news month when most normal people are on vacation or have otherwise completely tuned out politics of all kinds.
But the annual event really started to lose its appeal for the Democratic powers that be in 2012, when AFSCME packed the Democrat Day rally with thousands of green-shirted protesters who angrily and loudly shouted down every Democratic speaker, including Gov. Pat Quinn and House Speaker Michael Madigan. AFSCME and other public employee unions were furious at Quinn and the Democratic leadership for pushing pension reforms that would reduce their retirement income and benefits.
The following year, after a massive pension reform bill had passed and was signed into law and Gov. Quinn picked up a Democratic primary opponent, Quinn canceled the rally’s speeches. The Democrats still had free food and beer at the traditional Director’s Lawn venue, but live music blared from the loudspeakers instead of politicians’ voices. Republicans, for their part, required that attendees obtain tickets in advance before being allowed access to their event, mainly out of concern that the Democrats could try to disrupt their shindig the way AFSCME did to them.
By then, though, the focus had already started to shift away from the Democrats’ rally to a morning brunch at a local hotel hosted by county party chairs. The speeches given at that event were largely repeated verbatim at the afternoon fairgrounds rally, so lots of party regulars eventually got bored and didn’t even bother attending the afternoon rally. Why sit in the hot sun and oppressive humidity (or pouring rain, as the case may be) to listen to the exact same speeches you just heard a few hours earlier?
Last year, Speaker Madigan canceled the state fair rally altogether. He never much cared for it anyway. One year, reporters literally surrounded his golf cart when he refused to answer questions and wouldn’t let him move. Plus, a huge number of Democratic candidates for statewide office that year would’ve made for an unwieldy and divisive event (particularly since some candidates were running on pointedly anti-Madigan platforms).
The annual Democrat Day is managed by the Democratic Party of Illinois unless the party holds the governor’s office. But it doesn’t look like DPI will be all that involved with the rally this August.
“I suspect whatever goes on at the fairgrounds will be done more by the statewide campaigns than anybody else,” Madigan’s spokesman, Steve Brown, said the other day.
Brown said the rally “largely duplicates what the county chairs do,” and it had become “less and less an opportunity to communicate with people.”
It does appear that the fairgrounds rally will be revived, although Democratic gubernatorial nominee J.B. Pritzker’s campaign is staying mum about what it will look like. They’re still “working on the details,” I was told not long ago, but are “excited for a great day.”
Frankly, the whole thing needs a reboot. Ditch the hokey straw bales and endless dreary speeches and give us something interesting.
* Illinois Election Data automatically texts me whenever a campaign committee files an A-1 of $100,000 or more. Here are the last four such texts I received…
All of those contributions were made by JB Pritzker’s gubernatorial campaign. It’s part of his “Blue Wave Illinois” initiative that I told you about in May.
Democratic Majority is controlled by Speaker Madigan. SDVF is Senate President John Cullerton’s committee. Democratic Heartland is a committee designed to benefit Downstate Dems and is overseen by Sen. Scott Bennett of Champaign.
The Rock Island County Democratic Party, run by Doug House, received a million bucks from Pritzker in May. House also chairs the Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association and the money is supposed to be used to build a grass roots operation outside of Cook County. So far, though, the RICO Dems haven’t reported any significant contributions to others.
Pritzker’s new ad focuses on the governor’s recent comments about downstate Illinois. Rauner can be heard in an interview talking about “how difficult” it is to keep businesses in southern Illinois. His comments have irked residents there, and Pritzker’s taking note.
Announcer: What does Bruce Rauner really think of Downstate Illinois? Listen to him talk about our area and our workers during a recent Chicago radio interview:
Rauner: “Champaign-Urbana is wonderful. But it’s very hard to keep a company of more than six people there. There’s no convenient transportation, not much of a workforce, and it’s very hard”
Mark Maxwell on-air: “As you might imagine, folks around here weren’t too thrilled with those remarks.”
Announcer: Bruce Rauner - Four years of failure is enough.
…Adding… Heh…
Not only did Dave Dahl offer free training in how to deliver a proper apology today, he also made @WCIA3Mark blush. I almost fell off the couch laughing. @bschoenburgpic.twitter.com/w4xp7qWU6T
Gov. Rauner’s re-election campaign is launching a new — yet old — line of attack against Pritzker.
After weeks of ads mocking Pritzker for a property tax reduction he received on a neighboring Gold Coast mansion he bought and had the toilets disconnected to declare the residence uninhabitable, the new Rauner ad uses the words of Pritzker’s defeated March Democratic primary challengers to criticize the billionaire and try to link him to Speaker Madigan.
Rauner has long sought to demonize Madigan and tie Democratic candidates up and down the ballot to the veteran House speaker, who also chairs the state Democratic Party. The ad ends declaring Pritzker as “Mike Madigan’s candidate.”
The Rauner folks ran a very similar digital ad right after the primary.
Daniel Biss: JB Pritzker is Mike Madigan’s candidate. Everyone knows it, it’s clear, and if the Democratic Party wants to nominate Mike Madigan’s candidate, they should nominate JB Pritzker.
Chris Kennedy: I think JB Pritkzer has emerged as the poster child for pay to play politics in this state.
Biss: It took JB Pritzker a week to get permission from Mike Madigan to even name him in talking about the sexual harassment cover up.
Kennedy: Pritzker is really there to protect the status quo.
Arthur Jones, a 70-year-old perennial candidate who openly admits his racist and anti-Semitic views, collected the required amount of petition signatures to clinch the primary GOP nomination for the Third Congressional District back in March, although he was uncontested.
In February, Governor Rauner said about Jones, “There is no room for Neo Nazis in American politics. I condemn this man in the strongest possible terms.”
This weekend, Jones cleared another technical hurdle on his way toward almost certain defeat in November when no one, including the Illinois Republican Party, challenged the validity of his petitions to the State Board of Elections. That gave J.B. Pritzker’s campaign an opening to demand Rauner take action.
“Days of silence from Bruce Rauner tells Illinoisans all they need to know: this failed governor can’t find the courage to call on an avowed Nazi to drop his bid for Congress,” Pritzker spokesman Jason Rubin wrote in a statement. “This is no time to cower. Rauner must call on Arthur Jones to drop out immediately.” […]
“What a crock,” Rauner guffawed when he heard the Pritzker campaign demanded to know if he thought Jones should drop out of the race.
“Yes, and I said so immediately,” he insisted. “This is another lie from the Pritzker camp. The guy can’t run on the truth because the truth is so bad for him. That guy [Jones] has no place on the ballot. We tried to kick him off. I called him to get out and he should be out. We should have somebody run against him. There is no room, as I said right immediately when he snuck on there, there is no room in our politics for a person like that.” […]
Some Republicans have suggested voters in the Third Congressional District should punch the ballot for Democrat incumbent Dan Lipinski. The governor, however, would not endorse the pro-life Democrat.
“No,” he said. “The one thing I will say is the person, that guy, Johnson or whatever his name is, should not be on the ballot.”
But he didn’t actually fully “break” with US Sen. Ted Cruz because Cruz tweeted that voters should write someone in and Rauner told Maxwell he wants another candidate in the race. I’ve already told you that the ILGOP says it’s looking for a write-in candidate.
* Rauner responded to the imbroglio on Twitter…
To the voters of the 3rd Congressional District: vote for anybody but Arthur Jones. Nazis have no place in our country and no one should vote for him. For the media or anyone else to suggest I think otherwise is offensive and irresponsible.
* Notice how he blames the media even though the governor specifically said he wouldn’t support the Democrat. Maxwell asked: “Would you endorse Dan Lipinski in that race?” Rauner replied: “No.” And since Lipinski is the only other candidate in the race, the governor put himself on the record saying exactly the opposite of what he tweeted today. Here’s the full video…
OK, so maybe Rauner was referring to some of the more egregious clickbait headlines in his tweet today. But he said what he said and now he’s reversing himself.
Last week, you will recall, the governor said his disparaging remarks about Champaign-Urbana were taken out of context. That simply wasn’t the case.
* I don’t know if I’ll be back Thursday. Maybe Friday, though. But before I go…
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White’ sister has died — nearly three decades after her life-saving kidney transplant helped turn White into a champion of organ donation.
White’s office says Doris Ivy died of natural causes on Friday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She was 85.
White’s interest in organ and tissue donation is a family story that begins in the early 1980s when doctors asked his family to harvest the organs of his brother, who was on life support after suffering a brain aneurism. White’s family knew little about organ donation and declined the request.
Ivy’s 1991 kidney transplant helped spark White and Ivy’s devotion to organ donation and White has dramatically expanded the state’s organ and tissue donation program as secretary of state.
I’d like to express my sincere condolences to Secretary White and his family.
* Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Los Lobos will play us out…
* Scott Fornek began working for the Chicago Sun-Times forty years ago this week, on July 5, 1978. In an era of newspaper downsizing and job-hopping, Fornek has been an every-day, one-paper workhorse. Here he is during earlier times…
I have… no words.
* Anyway, his co-workers threw a surprise party this afternoon for their paper’s invaluable political editor…
It was inevitable — at some point, the shameless gluttony of public employee unions couldn’t last forever.
That reality manifested Wednesday as a devastating — if unsurprising — U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could finally force Big Labor to ditch the fantasy within which it has existed for too long. It was a reckoning that had been building for decades, as private sector wages stagnated and pensions went the way of the dodo. […]
Unions exist for their own promulgation. And public unions, without any semblance of shame, demand private-sector workers — trapped in incessant wage stagnation — to foot the bill for annual wage hikes and gold-plated benefits packages that haven’t been available to most Americans for decades.
Welcome to the 21st century, union bosses. No, things aren’t great. And they haven’t been for most American workers for a long time.
Public-sector unions in Illinois have been right to argue that their members have kept their end of the bargain, paying into their pension funds on a sustained basis even as the state shirked its responsibility to do the same. But as the deficit ballooned to the point where the state’s unfunded pension liability now is north of $130 billion, unions have done little to convince Illinois taxpayers and voters that they’re serious about helping to tackle the problem.
Yes, there’s a clause in the Illinois Constitution that declares pensions to be a contractual obligation that must be paid no matter what. But unions here have relied on that clause to push back against nearly every pension reform proposal that might fix a fiscal problem that threatens to swamp the state. Not so in Arizona, which has similar legal language and yet saw labor come to the table to amend the state constitution and allow a negotiated package of benefit cuts and tax sweeteners, a consensus-building approach that helped Arizona avert financial disaster and safeguarded pensions for those who worked a lifetime to earn them.
Janus may cause severe pain for public-sector unions for decades to come, but it didn’t have to come to this. If unions here had been more willing to discuss trimming the cost-of-living increases that inflate pension costs every year—just to give one example—then perhaps labor could have gotten out front of this issue and deprived pols like Rauner of the political oxygen that has turned anti-union sentiment from a spark to a bonfire.
In a country where workers’ wages have remained largely flat for more than three decades, even as company shareholder dividends and executive paychecks have soared, collective bargaining by organized labor remains one of the few checks on dangerously growing income inequality.
Unionized workers earn more. The typical union worker in 2014 was paid $970 a week, compared with $763 for non-union workers, according to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Unionized workers typically enjoy better benefits, including health insurance and retirement accounts. They are treated with more dignity and respect by employers, and they’ve got an advocate in their corner when they are not being treated justly.
The Supreme Court’s decision poses a huge challenge to AFSCME and other public employee unions, but it also presents them with an opportunity. The challenge for union leaders is to dig down deep, engaging in one-on-one conversations with every union member and making clear the advantages of unionization — and why union dues are a relative bargain. The opportunity is to build a better informed, more socially aware and committed union membership.
In anticipation of the July 7th, 2018 planned protest organized by Father Michael Pfleger through various social media outlets, Illinois State Police (ISP) officials are warning pedestrians not to enter any expressways in Illinois, or they will face arrest and prosecution.
“Our first priority is to protect public safety and that is what we will do,” said ISP Director Leo Schmitz. “This call to protest on the Dan Ryan, however well-intentioned, is reckless. It puts the lives of protestors and people in the community in grave danger. We will work with our partners at the Chicago Police Department to keep our communities safe and we strongly discourage this protest from going forward at this location.”
Both State Police and the Chicago Police personnel have met with Father Pfleger on several occasions to discuss the dangers of holding a march on the Dan Ryan Expressway.
“Shutting down and marching on the expressway recklessly places lives in danger by cutting off emergency services to those around the city who need it most,” said ISP (Chicago) Region I Commander Major David Byrd. “I have family and friends that live in this community, and while I appreciate and support this worthwhile cause, we cannot risk endangering the lives of those who march, of the many motorists traveling on the interstate, or the lives of our officers who are working to keep everyone safe. This planned protest endangers all communities by backing up traffic onto other arterial routes, creating extremely hazardous conditions for motorists, which are likely to cause crashes resulting in serious injury and fatalities. Additionally, the lives of the people marching on the expressway in the lanes of traffic, would also be placed at risk.”
In the interest of protecting lives while accomplishing the goal of peace, the ISP and CPD requests Father Pfleger reconsider the options to peacefully protest at alternate locations where the lives of the public and protestors will not be in jeopardy.
The ISP supports the First Amendment right to peacefully assemble, so long as it does not put the safety of the public in peril. Pedestrians are prohibited by law from entering the expressway including all on and off-ramps. Pedestrians who choose to violate the law and attempt to enter the expressway could be placed under arrest and charged with Criminal Trespassing to State Supported Property, as well as other potential violations.
Protests have shut down parts of the Ryan in the past, but I haven’t yet found any that caused the absolute mayhem the ISP is warning about.
“If the president of the united states was to come to Chicago today, law enforcement would immediately be pulled, and the entire expressway would absolutely be shut down, without negotiation, without conversation, and without fail, to protect one man, who ironically has not done anything currently to save the lives of the thousands of people who have been murdered, shot or wounded in this great city of Chicago,” said Bright Star Community Outreach CEO Pastor Chris Harris at the press conference.
Chicago police warn they have to pull 200 officers out of the high crime neighborhoods on the South and West sides to protect the protesters, leaving those areas unprotected.
“I don’t work for the police department, but let me offer them some advice,” Pfleger said. “If they say doing this will be pulling officers from the most needed neighborhoods in the city of Chicago, then pull them from the north side.”
Illinois’ flat income tax, currently set at a rate of 4.95 percent for all individual taxpayers, is an outlier. The federal government, as well as most states that have an income tax, feature what is commonly referred to as a progressive tax system in which higher earners pay higher rates.
Democrat J.B. Pritzker, the challenger to Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in the November election, says he wants to switch Illinois to a progressive tax, though he has been vague about details.
Rauner’s running mate, Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti, recently ripped into Pritzker’s tax plan during an interview on a Fox News-affiliated talk radio station that serves the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis.
Pritzker will “stick you with that progressive income tax which is surely to be an increase — not to mention the fact that it is wholly regressive,” Sanguinetti told Marc Cox of KFTK.
That is quite the oxymoron. Can a progressive income tax actually be regressive? We decided to check.
* Usually when DC reporters go on one of their patented Trump voter safari hunts, ridiculousness ensues. But Katie Glueck with McClatchy DC has authored a well-written story about the two major party candidates in the 12th Congressional District…
He is a top Democratic recruit, a man party officials have eyed for years and who is now running in one of the most competitive districts in the country. And on a Thursday night in late May, he stood before a room of irate Democrats, defending Donald Trump.
“Let me say this in response a little bit: I think there’s a lot of anger in the country,” Brendan Kelly told the gaggle of grizzled attendees here in southern Illinois’ 12th congressional district, as anti-Trump barbs began to fly.
The town hall gathering, held in a fluorescent-lit, wood-paneled meeting room where a Bud Light-emblazoned clock kept the time, was supposed to be about Social Security, pensions and Medicare. And for awhile, it was. But then the Trump-bashing began from the audience: “No one is a bigger liar in the country than the President or Sarah Sanders.” Trump is “an immoral, draft-dodging punk.”
At first, Kelly, a burly Navy veteran and current state’s attorney, tried to engage, aware that the insults represented a minority viewpoint in this district that backed Trump by 15 percentage points: “I’m running in a district that voted for President Trump, and also for [Democratic Sen.] Tammy Duckworth overwhelmingly. The same people. Why do you think that is?”
The piece doesn’t delve into the split between the urban/suburban Metro East portion of the district and the far more rural areas, but it’s still pretty darned good.
When school districts outside of Chicago negotiate contracts, they do so with the assurance that the state will pick up the tab on pensions. To control growing pension costs, lawmakers capped salary bumps at 6 percent in 2005. This year, the cap tightened to 3 percent.
Illinois’ teachers unions have collected more than 15,000 signatures on petitions urging state lawmakers to reverse that measure.
State Rep. Will Davis (D-Homewood) chairs the House K-12 appropriations committee, and was involved in budget negotiations.
“I mean, things like this are tough conversations. But you know there’s also a manner in which we also have to look at the long-term viability of our state,” he says. “Not everybody’s in favor of raising taxes for the things we want to pay for. Sometimes we do have to make relatively tough decisions, and this fits into that category.”
Senator Elgie Sims (D-Chicago) says districts are free to offer bigger raises, but will have to kick in pension costs for any amount that exceeds the cap.
Nearly 80% of Illinois districts report problems with teacher shortages. In Moline, the applicant pool for Special Education positions is sliced in half. Knoxville can’t get any applicants for its openings.
“You may have classrooms that are manned by a substitute teacher because you have no applicants,” [Regional Superintendent Angie Zarvell] continued.
With fewer applicants, experience and quality also decline. Some districts won’t fill openings. That could mean larger class sizes or not offering the class.
This is all part of a downward spiral that hurts teacher morale and security.
Gov. Bruce Rauner last week signed one new law, HB5627, that is supposed to ease Illinois’ teacher shortage by making it easier for out-of-state and retired teachers to get into Illinois classrooms.
Jontry said Illinois schools are still facing a teacher shortage. He said he expects fewer school districts across the state to have a school bus driver in the fall.
As we’ve seen over the past few years as the economy has strengthened it’s become much more difficult to find part-time bus drivers for the low pay most districts and private providers offer.
Restrictive certification requirements and a lack of candidates has made it difficult to fill some positions, said Todd DeTaeye, Moline-Coal Valley School District Assistant Superintendent of Administration and Human Resources.
“It is becoming more of a challenge to find qualified bilingual teachers, special education teachers, foreign language teachers, and school psychologists,” Mr. DeTaeye said. “When we do find qualified teachers in these areas, the pool of candidates is not nearly as deep as it has been in the past.”
Senate Bill 863 will make it easier for out-of-state teachers to work in Illinois. The legislation allows teachers to become licensed in Illinois if they have completed a comparable state-approved educator program, or hold a comparable and valid license with similar grade and subject credentials from another state.
Last year, we raised the alarm (again) about the unfair TRS Federal Funds Rate. It proved a tough issue for school districts to plan around. Should they hire certified teachers to improve student outcomes, but pay a nearly 40% pension surcharge on those federally funded dollars? Or, should they purchase educational materials that might not have the biggest impact on students but would avoid the pension surcharge, giving them more bang for their buck? Creative accounting is not supposed to be in the job description for school leaders, but the federal funds rate put them in that position.
Last summer, after years of difficult decisions and budgetary jiu-jitsu for school district leaders, education advocates’ hard work paid off when Springfield passed and enacted a law that returned an additional $80 million annually to the classrooms of underserved students. By removing the pension surcharge, districts are now empowered to make decisions in the best interests of their students, not their bottom line.
“You know people spin this [Janus] ruling or me as being anti-union, I am not anti-union. I want more union jobs, I want more all jobs in the state of Illinois, union, non-union I want more pay for everybody,” Rauner said. “What I’m against is conflicts of interest.”
“Crystal clear, I am not anti-union,” Gov. Bruce Rauner told WBEZ in 2015 when asked about his stance on public employee unions.
The governor repeated the “I am not anti-union” phrase June 27 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled public employees don’t have to pay unions a dime to receive the benefits from their union-negotiated contracts.
But Rauner’s word is no good on this claim. He has said over and over for years that public employee unions are inherently “corrupt” because they negotiate contracts with politicians and then support or oppose those same politicians during campaigns with contributions he calls “bribes.”
How can he say that and not want to eliminate them?
Rauner decided to run for governor after watching his friend and onetime ally Mayor Rahm Emanuel cave to the Chicago Teachers Union during a 2013 strike. He has repeatedly called AFSCME, the union that represents most state employees, “Afscammy.” One of his first acts as governor was to try to kill off “fair share” fee payments to AFSCME, which were at the heart of the Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME case.
Fair share fees, which are lower than full union membership dues, can only be used to implement a union contract and cannot be used for political campaign purposes. But, Rauner said in February when the Supreme Court was hearing arguments on Janus: “One hundred percent of what a government union does is political by nature.”
“I’m very pro trade union and I want to grow more trade union jobs,” Rauner said.
Trade union leaders were the first to jump aboard JB Pritzker’s campaign last year, so I’m certain they would strongly disagree. Rauner wants to undo prevailing wage laws, is opposed to project labor agreements and backs the creation of local “right to work” zones.
…Adding… Good analysis, but we’ll see if it works or not in November…
To be clear, Rauner's attempt to claim he is "pro-union" should put to bed any question over whether Janus is good for him politically.
Unions are popular in IL, Rauner attacked them via Janus, and he is trying to avoid paying the political price.
Republican candidates running for the state assembly are fretting about campaign coffers that seem bare. They wonder if/when Gov. Bruce Rauner will give another infusion. He donated $50,000 to the state Republican Party last month. […]
Another lawmaker says Republicans are bracing for a possible Blue Wave and know the only thing that can save them is cash.
A source above the fray, however, tells me Rauner has every intention of donating to the legislators’ campaign fund.
“It’s only the beginning of July (for crying out loud). The governor is 100 percent committed.” Rauner apparently is working to get others to donate, too. […]
Lawmakers hope to see a cash infusion in the next 30 days or so. That’s a few weeks before campaign season really kicks in.
As far as cash to others is concerned, Gov. Rauner is known for two things: 1) He doesn’t relish writing big checks; and 2) He often waits to pump money into others’ campaigns (note the late cash to Comptroller Munger two years ago).
The House Republicans are, I’m told, running on fumes right now. I’m also hearing a half million is expected soonish.
Conservative Party candidate Sam McCann and running mate Aaron Merreighn formally joined the race for Illinois Governor today after the deadline for objections to his nominating petitions passed with no objections filed. McCann submitted more than 60,000 signatures, far surpassing the requirement of 25,000. He immediately called for debates to be scheduled.
McCann issued the following statement:
Conservative and Republican voters clearly showed their dissatisfaction with Bruce Rauner during the primary and those same voters put their hope in our campaign during the petition process. After a brief internal review of my petitions, Bruce Rauner’s paid staffers surely saw that attempting to put these petitions’ validity into question would be fruitless.
I am proud to be on the ballot in the General Election. Voters will now have an option to protect them from the Rauner-Madigan liberal agenda that brought us publicly-funded abortions and a sanctuary state. I am ready to lead the charge to rebuild Illinois together.
With Illinois’ future at stake, I call on Bruce Rauner, J.B. Pritzker and Kash Jackson to join me to schedule debates on these and other issues of critical importance to voters across the state.
*** UPDATE *** I’ve asked the Pritzker and Rauner campaigns for a response.
Galia Slayen from the Pritzker campaign…
After Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership, JB will highlight his plans to get Illinois back on track and our campaign welcomes other voices to the stage that know we need change in Illinois.
* Part of Gov. Rauner’s official schedule for today…
What: Gov. Rauner joined by local legislators, educational and business leaders visits three Champaign-Urbana businesses
Where: Wolfram Research, 100 Trade Center Drive, Champaign
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Granular, 1904 S. First St., Suite 301, Champaign
Time: 2:00 p.m.
A&R Mechanical Contractors, 711 E. Kettering Park Drive, Urbana
Time: 2:30 p.m
Date: Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Note: Media availability follows final tour stop at A&R Mechanical Contractors
* Pritzker campaign…
Rauner Kicks Off Champaign-Urbana Clean Up Tour
After disparaging the entire Champaign-Urbana area, Bruce Rauner is attempting to clean up his trash talk with a tour through the two cities.
The C-U community was not pleased when Rauner said, “it’s very hard to keep a company of more than six people there. There’s no convenient transportation, not much of a workforce. It’s very hard.” It spurred Republicans, Democrats, and nonpartisan community members to clap back in unison against Rauner’s disrespectful badmouthing of the region.
“Bruce Rauner’s clean up tour through Champaign-Urbana only comes after widespread, bipartisan backlash taught this failed governor a lesson,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “While trashing a community may come natural to Illinois’ bad-mouther-in-chief, our families are tired of a failed leader who would rather tear communities down than move this state forward.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** His tour has begun. “It’s very hard to keep a company of more than six people there… not much of a workforce”…
A representative from Wolfram Research tells @GovRauner in a presentation “we do have a global workforce” and “we never have a problem recruiting or hiring people to move here.” pic.twitter.com/azwUzZa285
On transportation, @GovRauner vows to start serious talks about privately funded high speed rail projects to and from Champaign-Urbana. pic.twitter.com/8rs7ONy0ST
Governor Bruce Rauner’s campaign for re-election is expected to get a boost this week from a Super PAC formerly headed by wealthy Chicago businessman and Illinois campaign finance chair of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential run, Ron Gidwitz.
On Tuesday, Economic Freedom Alliance is set to begin running television ads attacking Rauner’s opponent, Democratic nominee J.B. Pritzker. Sources tell WGN the advertising campaign will total more than half a million dollars.
* And this 15-second spot appears to also be running on social media because it has 1,639 YouTube views as of 9 o’clock this morning…
Good spots.
*** UPDATE *** The Illinois Manufacturers Association just moved $900,000 into the Economic Freedom Alliance’s PAC and the PAC just filed a B-1 showing it was spending $895,000 on TV and digital ads.
