There should be enough pumpkins for Halloween this year, but that might not be the case for the canned pumpkin used in pies come Thanksgiving, according to crop experts in Illinois, the country’s top pumpkin-producing state.
“I would not wait until Nov. 20,” University of Illinois professor Mohammad Babadoost said, referencing the Nov. 26 holiday. “I’d buy it whenever it comes to the store.”
Large canned-pumpkin manufacturer Libby says yields could be off by as much as a third this year in Illinois, where about 90 percent of the pumpkins grown in the U.S. come from within a 90-mile radius of Peoria.
Libby’s corporate and brand affairs director Roz O’Hearn said the company, which has had a central Illinois pumpkin-processing plant since 1929, is confident it will have enough pumpkin for autumn holidays.
But, she said, “once we ship the remainder of the 2015 harvest, we’ll have no more Libby’s pumpkin to sell until harvest 2016.”
* The Question: The next great calamity to befall Illinois?
The Comedy Central talk show has set its sights on the state’s budget crisis and unwillingness to pay lottery winners.
The show’s crew made their way to Oglesby on Sunday to interview Danny Chasteen, who won $250,000 on an Illinois scratch off ticket in July, and his girlfriend Susan Rick.
The Illinois Lottery has not paid Chasteen his winnings and has said they won’t be able to pay any winnings over $25,000 until a state budget is passed. […]
The day started when camera crews arrived between 11 and 11:30 a.m. The whole thing, including an interview at around 1 p.m., a makeover at JCPenney and a dinner, wrapped up around 9 p.m.
I’m hearing today that the Lottery may run out of money in the next week or so to pay off the smaller winners as well.
* The governor spoke to reporters the other day. And even though he talked on Friday, it’s still worth watching him artfully dodge some questions and responsibilities.
* Rauner Tells University Presidents He’s Working For Better Funding, Despite One-Third Cut: “I have made it clear to the [U of I] president that I am very unhappy that we do not have yet a budget,” Rauner said. “It’s outrageous, there’s no reason for this to be dragged on so long…and I’m working with the [U of I] president to help him get efficiencies and economies inside the administration so we can save money wherever possible.” Rauner also says he wants to increase state support for universities. That’s despite his spending plan, which cuts nearly a third of higher education dollars from the state’s budget.
* Rauner Sympathizes with U of I: He suggested getting more resources to the university but earlier this year proposed a 31 percent cut in state funding to the universities and also decried what he characterized as a fat-cat culture of administrators. With reporters after the event, the governor blamed lawmakers for not passing a balanced budget, not raising taxes if they so desire, and ignoring his Turnaround Agenda.
[State Sen. Jim Oberweis], a Sugar Grove Republican, said he was the one vote against the recommendation. He preferred Hoffman Estates native and California resident Mary Modelski for the job because she had more auditing experience and fewer political connections than Mautino.
“She had a perfect background for the job,” Oberweis said.
For decades, black Americans have faced higher poverty rates, lower incomes and higher incarceration rates than white Americans. While African Americans in every U.S. city face such problems, racial inequality is much worse in some parts of the country. By examining the disparities between white and black Americans in several economic and social measures, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 worst cities for black Americans.
Four of the cities with the worst racial inequality are in Illinois, two are in Iowa, and all are in the Midwest. 24/7 Wall St. interviewed Valerie Wilson, director of the program on race, ethnicity, and the economy at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a progressive think tank. Wilson associated the geographical clustering of these cities to the Great Migration — the relocation of millions of African Americans from the South to cities in the North and Midwest between 1916 and 1970.
Over that period, African Americans fled from the oppressive Jim Crow policies of the South, among other forms of racism, to cities such as Chicago and New York. These areas — the Midwest in particular — were undergoing a manufacturing boom at the time, and black and other Americans sought economic opportunities there. However, the industrial Midwestern economies have declined dramatically since 1970, and the region today is a part of what is commonly known as the Rust Belt.
The manufacturing industries in those areas offered relatively well-paying jobs to relatively uneducated people — many of whom were African American. As Wilson explained, “those industries have essentially dried up, and the opportunities are no longer there, but the people still are.”
Methodology is here. If you’re gonna talk methodology in comments, then make sure to click that link first.
> Pct. residents black: 14.9%
> Population: 111,375
> Black median household income as pct. of white: 48.7%
> Black unemployment rate: 20.6%
> Unemployment rate, all people: 8.1%
More than one in five black workers in Kankakee is unemployed. The black unemployment rate exceeds 20% in only 16 other U.S. cities, three of them among the worst cities for African Americans. Lack of job opportunities likely contribute to a higher poverty rate among black residents. At nearly 40%, the poverty rate among black residents is not only far higher than the comparable rate for white residents of 7.3%, but also one of the highest in the nation. A typical black Kankakee household earns $31,119 annually, lower than the median annual income for black households nationwide, and less than half the median income for white Kankakee households.
6. Peoria, IL
> Pct. residents black: 9.1%
> Population: 379,520
> Black median household income as pct. of white: 49.1%
> Black unemployment rate: 16.5%
> Unemployment rate, all people: 7.2%
Located in central Illinois, Peoria is one of the worst cities in the country for black Americans. The poverty rate of 28.2% among the city’s black population is well above the poverty rate among the city’s white residents of 10.4%. Similarly, the median annual income of $58,563 for white households is more than double the annual income of $28,777 for a typical black household.
While black Americans are about five times more likely to be incarcerated than their white counterparts, in Illinois, they are more than eight times more likely to be incarcerated than whites. As is the case in many other U.S. cities, the incarceration rate is likely far higher in urban areas such as Peoria.
4. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI
> Pct. residents black: 16.8%
> Population: 9,553,810
> Black median household income as pct. of white: 50.1%
> Black unemployment rate: 18.5%
> Unemployment rate, all people: 7.0%
Slightly more than 7% of white Chicago area residents live in poverty, while the poverty rate for the city’s black population is nearly 30%. Similarly, while 43.7% of white adults had at least a college degree, 21.8% of black adult Chicagoans were college educated. In addition to socioeconomic racial disparities, black area residents had far higher mortality rates compared to white residents. The Chicago metro area black population leads the nation with 1,550 deaths per 100,000 African Americans in a year, versus the mortality rate for white Chicagoans of 713 per 100,000 white people.
Chicago is one of the nation’s most diverse cities. It is also one of the nation’s most segregated, however, and in the city’s neighborhoods there is little racial diversity. Wilson explained that outcomes worsen for anyone — black or white — living under poor socioeconomic conditions. However, she added, not only do black urban dwellers suffer more under such conditions, but also racial inequality and segregation are themselves harmful to communities.
2. Rockford, IL
> Pct. residents black: 11.1%
> Population: 342,411
> Black median household income as pct. of white: 44.2%
> Black unemployment rate: 28.9%
> Unemployment rate, all people: 8.3%
Located less than 100 miles northwest of Chicago, Rockford is home to about 342,400 people. Rockford is struggling economically. The area’s unemployment rate of 8.3% is more than 2 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate of 6.2%. While poor economic conditions affect everyone, the city’s black population has been hit the hardest.
Of the 201 metro areas examined, the median income of $22,651 among black households in Rockford is lower than in all but 10 other cities and significantly lower than the $51,264 median income among white households. Even more astounding, 28.9% of the city’s black working population is unemployed, a larger share than in any other city in the country. The poverty rate among the city’s black residents is 43.1%, over four times the city’s white poverty rate.
Did you notice the lower numbers for FY 2016? So did Heather Eagleton, Illinois government relations director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network…
“It’s good to see Governor Rauner taking time to remember breast cancer patients and survivors with his proclamation highlighting Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But what would actually improve outcomes for the 10,000 Illinois women expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this this year would be if the governor prioritized funding for the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program (IBCCP).
“As the governor noted in his proclamation, IBCCP served 19,944 women with free breast and cervical cancer screenings in fiscal year 2015. But more than 75,000 Illinois women still lack access to health-care coverage and are eligible for screenings through the program. And if the governor’s originally proposed 70-percent funding cut and elimination of Medicaid eligibility goes into effect, even fewer women will receive life-saving cancer treatment and screenings.
“State budget inaction has already forced many IBCCP agencies to reduce services, staff and hours of operation. Some agencies have moved to a ‘priority’ status, only referring women who have already had an abnormal screening result. Because of that, women who may have cancer and are not yet aware are currently on a waiting list, while this cancer continues to grow.
“If Governor Rauner wants to help fight breast cancer, fully funding IBCCP should be at the top of his priorities. Breast cancer is the second-leading cause of death among women today, and early detection is critical to identifying and surviving the disease. A proclamation helps raise awareness, but it does not provide necessary screening and treatment. We urge Governor Rauner to take action and fund this program.”
How about Sen. Mark Kirk, the kinda-sorta Republican? Kirk’s campaign manager Kevin Artl ran wiggling to a blogger, shrieking that a Tribune reporter had asked harassing questions for a possible story.
Way to go Team Kirk/Artless Artl. Reporters ask questions. Deal with it.
Kirk, time to retire. And Artless? A month of Moutzas just for you
* From the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service…
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration wants to abolish step increases, or scheduled raises based on time in service, according to the state’s largest public-employee union.
The Rauner administration, however, says that’s a stretch of the truth and argues the governor has never proposed a compensation system based solely on merit.
Council 31 of the the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees told its members that the administration has “clearly stated across the bargaining table that … (the state’s) demands include not just a step freeze, but the abolition of the step plan in state government.”
The union says Rauner is taking a no-compromise approach that belies his stance before the legislators and the public, according to the memo obtained by WMAY Radio in Springfield.
AFSCME members should ask their leaders to start telling them the truth because this bulletin is false and misleading.
The Governor has never proposed eliminating step increases. In fact, he has proposed a temporary freeze until the budget is balanced and the State can once again afford to pay automatic increases.
The Governor has never proposed eliminating protections against privatization. In fact, he has proposed expanding those protections by giving the union the right, it currently does not have, to be awarded a contract if it can meet or exceed the savings from private companies.
The Governor has never proposed eliminating worker protections from layoffs. In fact, the Governor has proposed that workers identified for layoffs could move into any open vacancy for which they are qualified before that vacancy can be filled by a non-state employee.
The Governor has never proposed a compensation system based solely on merit. In fact, the Governor proposed a bonus system that would include an automatic immediate bonus to every AFSCME employee before January 1, 2016 and additional bonuses to those employees with exceptional performance based on objective performance standards.
The Governor has also guaranteed that at least 25% of the state workforce will receive these performance bonuses every year of the contract. AFSCME has made clear that it does not want its exceptional employees paid more for their hard work and outstanding performance.
* From a Belleville News-Democrat article last month…
A month-long governor’s office investigation of state parole board member Adam P. Monreal’s bankruptcy, in which he reported income less than half his actual board salary, has been expanded to include a review of annual state economic interest statements he filed since being named to the board in 2010.
In each of five economic statements filed during 2011-2015, Monreal, 48, of Chicago, reported he was paid for work not connected to his parole board duties, despite a state law prohibiting such employment for parole board members, who earn more than $85,000 a year. […]
As a parole board member, Monreal, an attorney and former assistant prosecutor in Cook County, receives a salary of $85,855. In 2011 he was the board’s chairman and received $91,400. He filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in May of that year listing his salary as $38,673 and his position as “director, state of Illinois penitentiary,” according to bankruptcy court documents. The bankruptcy was approved four months later. […]
In [state parole board member Eric Gregg’s] pending bankruptcy, he listed an income of approximately $48,000 from an energy business in addition to his parole board salary. That was potentially a violation of the law prohibiting parole board members from receiving additional income.
Gregg has since stated in a court deposition that the $48,000 listed on his bankruptcy, which is pending, was a mistake, and should have been filed under his wife Patti’s name, even though she was listed as a “non-filing spouse.” Patti Gregg is a full-time teacher’s aide.
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday removed a member of the state parole board and another submitted his resignation a month after the Belleville News-Democrat reported on improprieties in their federal bankruptcy filings and economic interest statements filed with the state.
Former Harrisburg mayor Eric E. Gregg, a Republican, was removed from the Illinois Prisoner Review Board and former board chairman Adam P. Monreal, a Chicago Democrat, resigned effective in two weeks, according to a written statement released by the governor’s press office Friday afternoon.
The governor’s office began investigating the two after news stories by the News-Democrat.
The longest-serving member of Illinois’ Republican congressional delegation may be facing a challenge in the March 2016 Republican primary.
State Senator Kyle McCarter (R-Vandalia) appears to be preparing a bid to unseat Republican John Shimkus (IL-15), who has been representing Illinois’ southernmost congressional district since 1997.
While the rumor has been persistent for a while, reports are that McCarter made several calls over the weekend to downstate Republican leaders, notifying them of his intentions to primary Shimkus in 2016. They say Shimkus’ longtime loyal staffers, as well as Governor Rauner’s, have unsuccessfully tried to dissuade McCarter from his plans.
McCarter did, indeed, start making calls on Friday.
In the last few days, McCarter has been calling various Republicans across the state and has unveiled a new campaign logo (noticeably void of the office he intends to seek) at the Little Egypt parade in Salem on Saturday. According to one GOP source, McCarter may even announce in Collinsville, Shimkus’ hometown, even though only a portion of the city is in the 15th District.
The congressman had $1.2 million in the bank on June 30, but is not unbeatable in the primary, according to local sources. At the same time, GOP insiders believer McCarter would need significant help from outside anti-establishment groups to put a real scare into Shimkus.
Shimkus, who was first elected in 1996, has a lifetime 66 percent rating with the Club for Growth, but his 2014 grade fell to 34 percent in 2014. That’s the type of score that could attract some attention to the race if McCarter is deemed to be credible. But there is no evidence that the club, or another major outside group, is poised to get involved immediately.
He’s never been happy in the Senate, he’s not easily swayed by party leaders and probably doesn’t care what could happen to him if he runs, so after some initial hesitation, I can now see him pulling the trigger.
A couple of decades of Illinois Statehouse reporting experience in the person of KURT ERICKSON of Lee Enterprises newspapers are moving on to the Show-Me State.
In December, Erickson will join the Jefferson City, Missouri, bureau of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The Post-Dispatch is a Lee newspaper, but Erickson’s main job in Springfield has been to supply stories to Lee newspapers in Bloomington, Decatur, Mattoon, Charleston, Carbondale and the Quad Cities as well as Munster, Indiana.
Erickson became Springfield bureau chief for The Pantagraph of Bloomington in 1996. Lee purchased that newspaper 10 years ago.
Erickson, who has also done a weekly column, “demonstrated a knack for finding exclusive stories apart from the herd,” said a memo to the Post-Dispatch staff about his hiring.
The future of the Sun-Times appeared more cloudy than ever Monday with the resignation of Timothy Knight as chief executive officer of parent company Wrapports LLC. […]
Knight never achieved his stated goal of making Wrapports profitable by introducing “cutting-edge technologies, new content portals and other tools that will expand and drive richer and more satisfying content to readers, while providing more targeted and measurable promotion options for our advertising partners.” Mostly, it seemed, the company failed with a series of half-hearted initiatives while cutting staff and selling off assets.
As it jettisoned its portfolio of suburban daily and weekly publications and websites — nearly 40 in all — Wrapports invested in a hyperlocal news-aggregation startup called Aggrego, and created the Sun-Times Network, an array of clumsy and useless digital sites targeting cities across the country. In 2012 the company acquired the Chicago Reader, the alternative weekly, which remains its only other print product along with the daily Sun-Times.
Knight was instrumental in some of the most controversial and unpopular moves at the Sun-Times, including the firing of the newspaper’s entire photography staff and the elimination of all endorsements of political candidates by the editorial board. Under pressure, both moves later were scaled back.
* If you missed the Better Government Association’s report last week about how the Chicago Public Schools system was caught fudging its graduation rates, you should most definitely click here. Good, solid stuff.
* But this BGA story about e-mails sent by Nancy Kimme to the Rauner folks regarding hiring? Not so much…
Among them was one sent to Kimme Jan. 6 — less than a week before Rauner was sworn in to succeed Pat Quinn. It came from Dave Gross, chief of staff to Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago. Gross asked Kimme to help save the jobs of two state bureaucrats who were slated to be fired and to be replaced with Rauner political hires.
Though the law bans political considerations in much hiring in state government, that ban doesn’t cover many key policy jobs.
It’s unclear how Gross’s requests were handled. One of the state workers Gross asked Kimme about left state government later that month, records show, and the other left in February.
Um, wait, it’s “unclear” what happened to Gross’ requests? Huh? They didn’t keep their jobs, for crying out loud. How much more clarity do you need?
To sum up, we have a big story about how a Democrat failed to convince a Republican to keep a couple of Democrats on the governor’s payroll.
Wow, BGA. That’s some real Pulitzer-level snooping there.
The Illinois Senate had been scheduled to return to Springfield on Oct. 6 after not being in session since Sep. 9. But last week, the Senate President postponed session until Oct. 20.
The reason is pretty straightforward.
The Senate has overridden several gubernatorial vetoes. It’s pretty easy for the majority party because the chamber has 39 Democrats, three more than the three-fifths required to override a veto.
The House has 71 Democrats, the exact number of votes required to overturn a veto in that chamber. So, while the Senate Democrats can be missing a few people or have some folks who don’t want to go along, they can still override the governor on partisan votes. But the House Democrats need every member in town and they all need to be voting the same way for that chamber to succeed.
Because of that tight margin, and because the Republicans have marched in lock-step with their party’s governor, the House has only overridden one veto this entire year: the Heroin Crisis Act.
And the House was only able to override that bill because Gov. Bruce Rauner allowed House Republicans to vote against his amendatory veto, which stripped out state Medicaid funding for heroin addiction treatment. Rauner now gets to portray himself as fiscally conservative, while the Republicans got to do the right thing and make the much-needed criminal justice reform legislation an actual law.
To date, the governor and his staff have successfully fought off 62 override attempts, mainly in the House.
So much for Speaker Madigan’s much-vaunted veto-proof House majority.
And because of this House failure, there are currently no vetoes requiring Senate action during the constitutionally mandated 15 calendar-day period after successful House action. And since the legislative leaders aren’t meeting with the governor and no other visible progress is being made to end the months-long stalemate, there really wasn’t much sense in coming back to town.
Just to show you how divided the Statehouse is right now, the governor used his amendatory veto powers on 20 bills, but the Democrats adamantly refused to accept a single one of those changes he made.
The Democrats even ignored a plea from the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws to accept the governor’s amendatory veto of House Bill 218, which vastly reduced penalties for pot possession.
The governor tweaked the marijuana legislation to increase some of the penalties, but Illinois NORML said those changes were acceptable, and called his veto “a very easy win” for proponents.
The bill only received 62 votes in the House when it passed in April, so there was no way to override the governor. But instead of just accepting his changes, the legislation was allowed to die. Months of hard work came to diddly squat.
The House Speaker is traditionally loathe to accept amendatory vetoes as a way of discouraging the governor (any governor) from using that broad power, which was long ago upheld by the courts. Rauner, for his part, is proving to be just as stubborn.
And the end result is nothing happens.
We have a whole lot of nothing going on these days. For instance, a minor fuss was made recently at the Statehouse when a city of Chicago honcho showed up to testify about Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s property tax proposal without having actual written legislation to talk about.
But, in reality, that thing ain’t going anywhere.
So far, the governor is opposed to the plan, which would exempt homeowners with houses appraised at $250,000 or less from Emanuel’s massive property tax hike. The main burden would fall on commercial property owners and Rauner has said their opposition is valid and that everyone’s property taxes should be capped at current levels—despite Chicago’s horrific fiscal problems.
As long as Rauner remains opposed, it’s highly unlikely that the House could pass such a bill. The House Democrats have not yet convinced the Republicans to break with their party’s governor on anything, and they’re surely not going to do so over a vote for Chicago, and it’s doubtful that all Downstate and suburban Democrats will go along without some relief for their own taxpayers.
The city is simply going to have to find another way to solve its problem unless and until the governor and the legislative leaders work things out. Which may be never at the rate they’re going.
The Democrats can’t go around Rauner, they can’t go through him, they can’t go over him. But Rauner can’t get anything done without them. They all need to start facing reality here.
What’s happening in Springfield might best be explained by World War I.
We have an invading army (Gov. Bruce Rauner) aggressively marching right over one enemy (former Gov. Pat Quinn) before slamming headlong into trench warfare (legislative Democrats led by House Speaker Michael Madigan).
Now, before anybody gets their kerchiefs in a bundle, I’m not at all saying that Rauner actually is Kaiser Wilhelm II nor implying that the Democrats are the French, although Quinn most definitely was Belgium. OK, that was a joke. I’m just attempting to use a broad historical analogy here. No offense intended to Belgians.
As with the Great War, we’ve seen monumental blunders on both sides. To start with, the Democrats completely misjudged the man who beat Quinn.
In 2002, Rauner and his wife hosted a fundraiser at their home for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. After introducing Boxer, the future governor launched into a long tirade about
As Governor Rauner’s new child care restrictions shut out 9 in 10 new applicants who would have previously qualified for child care assistance, quality child care increasingly is out of reach in Illinois even for middle-class families, a new report finds.
“Without assistance, too many Illinois parents simply cannot afford the child care that enables them to balance work and family,” said Emily Miller, director of policy and advocacy at Voices for Illinois Children.
According to the report by the Washington DC-based Economic Policy Institute, in Illinois:
* A parent working full time at the state minimum wage needs to spend more than half of her income for quality child care for a 4-year-old.
* For an infant, that parent needs to spend nearly $4 out of every $5 earned.
* Annual child care for an infant is now more expensive than full-time, in-state public college tuition.
* In the Chicago area, a family squarely in the middle class with an infant and 4-year-old will spend 29% of its income on child care.
These conclusions are based on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ estimate that child care costing more than 10% of a family’s income is not affordable. On top of stagnant hourly pay and the failure of economic growth to trickle down to most Illinoisans, the governor’s cuts are worsening the situation.
Before Governor Rauner’s cuts, a parent with one child could earn up to $2,456 per month (about $14 an hour working 40 hours per week) and still be eligible for child care assistance. Now, a parent re-entering the workforce with one child loses child care assistance if she makes more than $664 per month, only about 20 hours per week at the state’s minimum wage.
“A minimum-wage working man or woman in Illinois simply cannot afford child care without assistance,” Miller said. “When welfare reform was passed in the 1990s, there was bipartisan consensus that families struggling to get by needed assistance to afford the child care essential to parents being able to work. Governor Rauner’s decision has made getting by just about impossible for many hard-working families.”
Illinois families harmed by the Governor Rauner’s child care rules — which were put in place outside of the state budget process — will testify against the cuts at an Illinois Department of Human Services hearing today in Springfield and tomorrow in Chicago.
[South Beloit School District Superintendent Scott Fisher] said the district typically receives a little over $3 million in general aid from the state. The district’s saving grace is its upward enrollment, Fisher said.
“There are no clear payment dates and its not on time,” said Fisher. “We never budget all our money and that has helped us.”
Fisher said typically the district reduces the budget by 10-20 percent when planning due to the lack of certainty in the state.
Sean Milner, finance director at Hononegah Community School District, agreed. The district relies on local revenue at 77 percent, while only 20 percent of funding comes from the state and 3 percent from federal funds. The district’s total general state aid was $4.3 million this year.
Milner said the district typically receives mandated category funding one quarter behind and that district only budgets to receive three of the four scheduled payments, which amount to about $300,000 each.
“We prepare not to receive that money,” Milner said.
More than a little unclear on the concept, of course. The House impeaches, the Senate removes, and the Senate has no control over who the House elects as its Speaker.
The State of Illinois has been without a budget for 60 days. The state museum network goes broke on September 30, 2015. Social service agencies are turning away people in need because they have no funding. Local governments aren’t receiving their gas tax revenues, because it’s illegal to distribute the funds unless there is a state budget. The root cause of the budget impasse is the lack of communication between Bruce Rauner and Michael Madigan. Their inability to agree on even the most issues has brought Illinois to a complete halt. Removing these two men from office may save Illinois.
* Andrea Durbin, the chief executive officer of Illinois Collaboration on Youth, has a different idea…
In recent weeks, we in Illinois were both entertained and appalled by Kentucky clerk Kim Davis’ refusal to do her constitutional duty when she refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. The nation raised alarm and expressed astonishment for her blatant disregard of public office, indifference to the rule of law, and willful disobedience.
But here at home, our own elected officials have failed for months to do their constitutional duties, and I cannot understand how this situation is fundamentally different from that of Kim Davis’. […]
How is it possible that our elected leaders have not met in four months? What could be a higher priority than doing their constitutionally defined job? Where are these supposed negotiations taking place if they are not even speaking to each other? Where is the outrage? Where is the public shaming?
Our leaders have harmed far more people by their refusal to do their jobs than Kim Davis ever has, but she’s the one who was held in contempt of court. It seems only just that our elected officials — legislative leadership, rank-and-file legislators, and the governor — should face such consequences. Isn’t their unwillingness to meet a demonstration of their contempt for us and the Illinois Constitution?
Friday, Oct 2, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The final results are in and as many analysts have noted, “Exelon was the big winner in this year’s [PJM grid capacity} auction.” Here are the highlights:
$1.7 BILLION RATE INCREASE FOR EXELON – Exelon engineered the new rules to increase their profits. Their $1.7 BILLION reward will be paid for by struggling Illinois ratepayers.
Byron and Quad Cities Both Cleared the Auction and are Obligated to Run Well into the Future
Exelon’s Low Carbon Portfolio Standard would have raised $1.6 billion over 5 ½ years for Exelon. The Capacity markets, under Exelon-pushed rules, earned Exelon $1.7 billion over only three years.
Illinois doesn’t have a balanced budget, service providers are being decimated and real people across Illinois are hurting. It’s time for Exelon to take their HUGE $1.7 BILLION WINDFALL and stop asking legislators to keep padding their profits.
Enough is enough!
Just Say “NO” to the Exelon Bailout
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Last fall, 60 percent of [Illinois] state legislators faced no opposition on the ballot.
What kind of democracy is that? A broken one.
You may have heard that the nonpartisan Independent Maps coalition is collecting signatures to place the Independent Map constitutional amendment on the November 2016 ballot.
The amendment, if approved, will create an 11-member commission that will take away the once-a-decade map-drawing power from politicians. New districts will be drawn in an open, transparent manner with no regard to incumbency or partisanship.
The petition drive, which began in May, has collected more than 300,000 signatures toward its goal of 600,000, which is about twice the number necessary.
* That 60 percent figure is true. From Ballotpedia…
Independent commissions draw the lines for both state legislative and congressional districts in six states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana and Washington. Specific membership requirements for these commissions vary from state to state. Generally speaking, however, these commissions do not include legislators or other elected officials
* OK, so let’s combine these two sets of data and look at the percentage of uncontested legislative seats in those six states which have independent district commissions…
Alaska 33.33%
Arizona 40.0%
California 0.07%
Montana 15.20%
Washington 33.33%
All of them are much better than Illinois.
I don’t particularly care for this particular “fair map” proposal, but we definitely need to try something else.
* Yesterday’s story about water service being shut off at an IDOT office led me to call CWLP in Springfield to see if the Statehouse and the area’s myriad other state offices were in danger of having their power or water service disconnected by the municipally owned utility.
“We’re not at a critical mass,” said Amber Sabin at the utility. “We’re used to the state paying on a 60-day schedule,” she said. The state’s Capitol Complex has a bill due later this month for $2.3 million, by the way.
Sabin said the utility would “rather have their revenue,” so “Disconnects are going to be a last resort.”
She also joked that it’s “not like they’re leaving the state, they’re not fleeing us.”
Hey, maybe the governor could move the capitol to Florida and get out from under the electric bill. The winters would be nicer, but I’d have to come back north during the summer.
* And along those lines, here’s an October 1 e-mail sent by Donald C. Barnes, who is the Energy Manager for CMS…
Fiscal Emergency Issues
We have communicated the details surrounding the current fiscal state of emergency relative to our lack of disbursement authority to the various utilities throughout the state and requested that they defer any automatic service termination actions which would be triggered by the non-payment of bills within the legally-defined time frames.
To date, most utilities have responded that they will not be terminating services on State of Illinois accounts though some made those pledges more conditionally than others. Specific responses obtained thus far are as follows:
• Ameren – states it will follow applicable tariff and legal requirements; does not specifically guarantee it will not terminate services for non-payment.
• Illinois American Water – states that it will freeze all termination actions through March 2016 and will re-visit the policy then if the crisis continues.
• Nicor – indicates that all accounts coded as governmental service will not face actual termination (see attached).
• Peoples Gas/North Shore Gas – official communication being developed but Account Executive gave unofficial sense that they will work with State through crisis and let us know in advance of any change in position.
• ComEd – no official response yet.
• Mid-American Energy – no official response yet
• City of Chicago (water and sewer services) – no official response yet but has inquired as to whom the central point of contact with the State will be on this issue. Was informed to keep CMS Utility Management in the loop and we will either respond or forward to the accountable agency for response.
• City of Beardstown - States that it will not initiate any shutoff actions.
• City of Springfield - City Water Light and Power reportedly indicated it will not initiate termination actions at this time but made assurance conditional on the duration of the non-payment status.
Gov. Bruce Rauner has been a large proponent of businesses in the state, in the chamber’s opinion. [Illinois State Chamber of Commerce President Todd Maisch] said state chamber officials have regular talks with legislators, but said the governor’s direction is the way he feels the state should go.
Maisch said that he thinks small businesses and those affected by the budget impasse know that without change, growth will continue to stagnate.
“The status quo is completely unacceptable,” he said. “The governor has our full support. We talk to our members every day and they’re unwavering. They say ‘if we don’t make real changes now, we may never make them and my business and my children may not be in Illinois to see the aftermath’.”
* From the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability…
Through the first quarter of the fiscal year, base receipts are down $987 million. The drop reflects comparatively lower income tax rates as well as the one-time nature of some pharmaceutical court settlements recovered by the Attorney General‘s Office last fiscal year.
Gross personal income taxes are down $699 million, $621 million net of refunds, or $829 million when the diversions to the education and human service funds are included. Gross corporate income taxes are behind last year’s receipting by $154 million, or $138 million net of refunds. Other sources are down $117 million, reflecting the aforementioned court settlement proceeds received last fiscal year in a similar amount. Public utility taxes are off $25 million, inheritance corporate franchise taxes $6 million, and vehicle use tax $1 million.
Overall transfers are up by $57 million, and federal sources, despite its weakness, are up $50 million for the quarter.
* I didn’t get to this earlier in the week, but let’s try now. Amanda Vinicky…
Illinois’ racing board is taking a gamble in an attempt to save the beleaguered industry. Two historic Illinois tracks will hold no races next year, a decision that could lead to their permanent closure.
The decision by Illinois’ 11-member racing board was unanimous: no horses will run at Balmoral and Maywood parks in 2016.
“We can’t sit out a year and survive; we’ll have to default on our lease and that’ll be the end of it,” said Duke Johnston, a partial owner of the tracks. […]
The board has given it and the Hawthorne park all Chicago-area races. The idea is that consolidating races - and therefore expenses and prizes - will make the remaining tracks more competitive.
“It raises purses at both entities, which will attract more horses, which will result in larger field size, which results in more wagering which results in more purses. It’s circular,” Arlington racecourse General Manager Tony Petrillo said.
After unsuccessfully fighting to eliminate Hawthorne’s spring thoroughbred meeting for the last four years Arlington International Racecourse formed an alliance with its former adversary and the tracks made a joint presentation.
Hawthorne agreed to give Arlington a portion of the host track money it receives from out-of-state simulcasts to use to significantly bolster purses at its summer thoroughbred meeting. In return, Arlington supported Hawthorne’s requests for the two harness meetings and its usual spring and fall thoroughbred meetings.
The tracks also have promised to promote one another.
* I think we need more follow-up on this claim, but wow…
Social service groups said the situation is getting dire – and even deadly – as state funding remains stalled due to the budget standoff between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic lawmakers.
Nancy Maruyama, executive director of education and community outreach for SIDS Illinois, had the direst pronouncement, saying some victims of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome might have been saved if her group’s program to educate parents about safe ways to put their babies to bed hadn’t suffered cuts.
“The majority of the death reports that I receive from the medical examiner’s office, those babies are in unsafe sleep situations, and if we had been able to get out there and do this education, it’s really possible that these deaths could have been prevented,” she said. “How many babies have to die before something is done about this situation?”
* There are some caveats to remember when reading today’s Tribune story. First, businesses aren’t infallible nor are they necessarily permanent. Stuff happens, stuff changes, companies go out of business. Second, the Great Recession most certainly did require some drastic actions, including giving tax breaks to help Illinois companies survive.
Illinois’ flagship job program has awarded millions of dollars to companies that never hired an additional employee.
It’s doled out millions more in tax breaks for corporations that eliminated jobs and became smaller.
And it’s allowed companies to reap lucrative rewards and then relocate to other states without penalty or repayment.
Illinois cut these deals through a strategy dubbed EDGE — short for Economic Development for a Growing Economy — that was launched in 1999 by Gov. George Ryan as a way to create jobs and lure businesses from other states.
But what began as a modest number of tax breaks for a handful of companies has mushroomed into a billion-dollar giveaway rife with failure.
The Honorable Bruce Rauner
Governor of Illinois
207 State House
Springfield, IL 62706
Dear Governor Rauner,
I am writing to underscore how the current budget stalemate adversely impacts the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office. Also, it is my responsibility to stress that if a resolution is not reached soon, there may be significant impacts to the state’s ability to pay its bills, run programs, and conduct essential government operations.
As you know, the Illinois Treasurer is the state’s Chief Investment and Banking Officer. Currently, my office manages approximately $23 billion, which includes $10.1 billion in state funds, $7.3 billion in college savings plans, and $5.5 billion on behalf of state agencies and municipalities. The Treasurer’s Office also oversees the Unclaimed Property program, administers the state’s multiple banking functions and financial services, and provides several low-interest loan and financial programs aimed at spurring economic growth, creating jobs, assisting farmers, and enhancing Illinois communities. Our primary focus remains preserving the state’s investment portfolio, providing the necessary liquidity to meet daily cash flow demands, and consistently producing investment earnings that enrich the people and communities of Illinois. To that end, the Treasurer’s Office returns $28 in revenue to the state for every $1 spent on operations.
While my office is committed to fulfilling its duties, the current budget impasse presents significant concerns and challenges that warrant your attention. As we approach the three month point of this budget stalemate, critically important banking and investment contracts remain unpaid which threaten to disrupt operations. If services from these vendors are suspended, there may be devastating effects on the state’s ability to manage its finances, pay its debts, and maximize returns for the people of Illinois.
I want to focus your attention on three specific areas of greatest concern:
1. Disruption of Banking Activities
In order to administer treasury, cash management, and investment operations on behalf of state and local governments, the Treasurer’s Office utilizes a wide variety of financial services and products from outside parties, including brokerage firms, securities dealers, investment consultants, banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions. These entities provide a number of critically important banking and investment services to the Treasurer’s Office. If funds are not available to pay our vendors, banking and financial services that we provide to state agencies may cease, such as: depository services, electronic payments, and lockbox services. State agencies would then not be able to deposit or accept checks, cash, or electronic funds, including federal funds. Further, our office may not be able to make funds available to the Comptroller which would not allow for vendor payments and payroll deposits.
2. Disruption of Investment Operations
Every day, the Treasurer’s Office actively invests and manages monies on behalf of state agencies and local governments. The largest portfolio, the State Portfolio, currently holds assets of approximately $10.1 billion. These monies are managed to provide the necessary liquidity to meet the state’s daily obligations. Remaining funds are placed in authorized short- and long-term investment vehicles.
While the majority of investments in the State Portfolio are positioned for quarter end, the Treasurer’s Office executes a number of daily and short-term trades to ensure sufficient liquidity. These activities could be severely jeopardized by any contractual disruptions. If the Treasurer’s Office is unable to pay contractual fees to banks and they terminate existing contracts and close investment and custodial accounts, our office may be forced to liquidate all investments due to the inability to hold securities with our custodian bank or the Federal Reserve. This may shut down our securities lending program which generates significant incremental income. In addition, security sales may need to be made in order to meet daily liquidity needs, something this office has never been forced to do in its 197-year history.
The Treasurer’s Office may have to sell off $10.1 billion in investments before our bank accounts close. As such, the State of Illinois may lose significant investment earnings and the potential loss of principal depending on market volatility. While it is imprudent to submit an exact figure considering the extensive variables in play, to provide some perspective, consider investment earnings under normal operations:
• The State Portfolio typically earns $3.5-$5 million in monthly earnings ($4.2 million in August 2015) or $42-$60 million in annual investment earnings.
• The Treasurer’s Office currently earns approximately $33,000 per day ($800,000 to $1.3 million per month) in securities lending income. If the Treasurer’s Office cannot replace treasury securities or called securities, securities lending income will be adversely impacted.
3. Risks to Agencies Upgrading to Chip-Card Payment Systems
October 1, 2015, is the deadline for organizations that accept credit card payments to adopt a new microchip processing system. Failure to do so may result in a liability shift that renders them financially responsible for fraudulent charges. This applies to state and local government agencies as well. The liability shift compels businesses and organizations to purchase new terminals and software that read E.M.V. (Europay, MasterCard, and VISA) microchips.
The Treasurer’s Office has been working for months with state and local agencies to prepare for this transition to newer technology. However, there may be agencies that are not ready for this transition as they lack the appropriation authority to purchase the required terminals. This is unnecessarily exposing the state to risks and could create a significant liability for already stretched government agencies.
The Treasurer’s Office will continue to work to forestall these impacts while considering contingencies if our vendors discontinue services. My office will keep you abreast of any pertinent developments, and should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Thank you for your time and attention to these important matters.
Sincerely,
Michael W. Frerichs
Illinois State Treasurer
Cc: Senate President John Cullerton
House Speaker Michael Madigan
Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin
Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti
Attorney General Lisa Madigan
Secretary of State Jesse White
Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger
“I think what’s important is that when you talk about a budget you have to not only have expenditures .. but you also have to have revenue to pay for those expenditures,” Quinn said. “I tried in my six years as governor to always tell the facts to the voters. Sometimes they were difficult. When we say that, ‘Well we need more revenue from the income tax in order to properly pay our bills and to have a decent and humane state,’ there are those who campaign against you on that. But when they do that the consequences are very dire for the public. That’s what we’re experiencing now.”
He added, “I think it’s the job of the governor to realize and tell the truth that Illinois has to use revenue from the income tax in order to properly balance the budget and pay the bills. He didn’t do that last year. He did something else and now the chickens are coming home to roost.”
“We appreciate the former governor’s input, but the people of Illinois have already seen what happens when a governor allows the General Assembly to impose a tax hike on the people of Illinois without any reforms,” [Lyndsey Walters] said. “Governor Rauner is committed to reforming the broken status quo in Illinois and will continue fighting for the taxpayers.”
* Quinn put the blame for the impasse on Gov. Rauner and said Democrats weren’t going to throw unions under the bus…
“It’s important for those who were elected to office, after they’re elected, to understand that their duty is to the public at large and not to a political party or to a particular ideology. So it’s important to talk,” said Quinn. “I did that when I was governor. I recommend that to anybody who serves in that office. I know that Governor (James) Thompson, Governor (Jim) Edgar who served before me oftentimes interacted with legislators of different parties and worked hard to get a fair budget.” […]
“They’re not going to compromise on the right of everyday people to organize and have a union, to have collective bargaining,” he said. “And to make sure that we have decent wages. We just had the pope visit our country last week and made it very clear that it’s a moral duty to make sure that the people who work hard, work 40 hours a week, get paid a decent wage in decent working conditions and have decent benefits.”
The Rauner administration responded that the current AFSCME contract, which Quinn negotiated, requires only a 37.5-hour work week and that Gov. Rauner very much supports a 40-hour work week.
* He was also at West Chicago Community High School…
Sneed hears former Gov. Pat Quinn, who has been on the road visiting family and friends since he lost his gubernatorial mantle, is gearing up for a new public role.
Sneed is told Quinn, who was one of the founders of the storied Citizens Utility Board, is on tap for a consumer advocacy comeback.
“He is concerned nobody is looking out for the little guy,” said a top Quinn source.
* As we’ve already discussed, legislation was introduced earlier this week to fund this program and several others, but its fate is not quite certain…
The budget fight between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats in the General Assembly could leave Illinoisans stranded in an emergency.
Without a budget in place, emergency 911 telephone systems in every corner of the state are no longer receiving revenue from a tax on cellphone users.
Ken Smith, coordinator for Williamson County’s 911 services, said the budget crunch and a consolidation of services in his county have resulted in the layoffs of office staff and the potential for longer wait times for callers reporting an emergency. […]
Under current state law, 911 fees for landline phones are paid to the county-level systems, but fees for cellphones go into a statewide pool.
But, without a budget in place, the Republican governor says the money cannot be distributed.
Tammy Duckworth Sides With Terrorists, Protects Iran Again
Good Afternoon,
Tammy Duckworth’s blind support for the nuclear giveaway to Iran reached a new low today when she cast a vote in Congress to protect the Iranian regime and support terrorists instead of their victims.
The Justice For Victims Of Iranian Terrorism Act would have prohibited $100 billion in sanctions relief for Iran under the nuclear deal unless the regime complied with an order to pay $43.5 billion in damages to terror victims and their families. This afternoon, Duckworth voted against the measure.
Duckworth had the opportunity to hold the Iranian regime accountable, instead she gave a free pass to state sponsors of terror, that’s just not the kind of leadership Illinois families deserve.
“Law enforcement officers know about hostage situations, where people try to get their way by threatening innocent lives. We know that the best and safest way to resolve a hostage situation is through negotiation. What we are seeing now with the state budget is a hostage situation. Unfortunately we aren’t seeing a willingness to negotiate by the person who is holding that budget hostage, Governor Bruce Rauner,” said FOP State Lodge President Chris Southwood. “That’s very concerning to us, both as law enforcement officers and as Illinois citizens. Refusing to consider any possible solution, even a temporary or partial solution, until your list of demands is met is not a responsible or safe way to deal with programs and services that affect the well being of nearly 12 million Illinoisans. We urge Governor Rauner to stop the posturing and sit down with the legislative leaders to craft a budget and end this crisis.”
“One of the more recent victims of the state’s budget hostage situation has been the funding to train police officers to deal with the unique and dangerous situations they face every day. This training directly affects the safety of police officers and the people they protect. Government’s function is to provide the services that the private sector can’t. When government fails to provide those services, law enforcement officers, many of them FOP members, must pick up the pieces,” said FOP Labor Council Executive Director David Wickster. “The Governor should not hold for ransom the services millions of people depend on each day, nor should he demean the working men and women of this great state by implying that they are part of the problem. Governor Rauner, don’t shoot the hostage. Negotiate in good faith with the Illinois General Assembly to end this budget crisis.”
The Honorable Governor Rauner, Senate President Cullerton, Senate Minority Leader Radogno, House Speaker Madigan, and House Minority Leader Durkin:
We write as leaders of the nine public universities in Illinois that annually educate 200,000 students and function as regional economic engines to urge you to end the fiscal 2016 budget standoff. Currently, without a state budget, the state is committed through the K - 12 budget, court ordered expenditures, continuing appropriations and statutory transfers to spend a little more than $34 billion in general funds. The public higher education community has not received a single dollar in state funding.
Requiring the public universities to operate without a budget appropriation is unsustainable. The uncertainty of not knowing when, or at what level, appropriations will be forthcoming is resulting in some students and faculty questioning whether Illinois is the best place to learn or to teach. Students and families are alarmed about the possibility that financial aid and services will not be available. In addition, we are deeply concerned about losing the reputational excellence and the important grant funds that support both students and the Illinois economy.
The impasse casts a shadow of uncertainty over the campuses. We are on the brink of serious operational damage. Mid-term exams are not far off, and so too are decisions that must be made about staffing, academic offerings and student services for the spring semester.
Although the universities we lead have different mixes of resources depending on our respective missions, we all have a crucial reliance on state appropriations to deliver affordable, high-quality education to hundreds of thousands of Illinois students. The appropriation is a fundamental tenet of the partnership between the state and public universities.
Our universities represent over 150 years of investment by the state and its people. Our missions include teaching, discovery, health care, innovation and the transformation of young lives. We achieve these goals, and more, not as cost centers, but as a multitude of regional and statewide economic engines, employing a total of 61,000 Illinois residents and taxpayers, with annual spending of $6.9 billion. This spending generates an estimated $28 billion in economic impact.
As leaders of Illinois public universities, we strongly reiterate a commitment we made last spring to accept our responsible share of providing solutions to Illinois’ fiscal problems. We again urge you to act on a fiscal 2016 budget that provides public universities with a responsible, sustained and predictable level of support that would ensure all of our students can continue to progress academically . We look forward to meeting with you at your earliest convenience.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration given to our request.
Rep. Peter Roskam, a Republican from Wheaton, will not seek a leadership post in the House after Speaker John Boehner’s resignation, he said in a letter Wednesday to his 246 GOP colleagues.
Roskam, 54, entered Congress in 2007 and was chief deputy whip of the House from 2011 to 2014, when he lost a bid to be elected whip, the No. 3 post after speaker and majority leader. The whip corrals votes and helps shape the party’s message. […]
In his letter, Roskam urged the GOP-led Congress to “aggressively” assert its constitutional authority against President Barack Obama’s administration and “be more provocative in our challenges so as to command more of the narrative of these debates.”
He also said the GOP should reflect on what is expected of House leaders. “Right now, we ask of our leaders the impossible task of being on the road, in our districts, and in the press — all while fulfilling other vital policy and communications responsibilities,” he said.
I’ve known Roskam a long time and he’s a lot more thoughtful than his letter might make him look. He has some strong principles which I may sometimes disagree with, but I’ve always respected his abilities.
Congressman Adam Kinzinger (IL-16) - who’s not been a favorite of Illinois’ old right wing since he ousted veteran Congressman Don Manzullo in 2012 - has riled the angst of longtime Illinois conservative activist Paul Caprio.
Caprio, who heads up the Family PAC Federal, sent out a press release Thursday “blasting” Kinzinger’s quotes in Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet’s column criticizing conservative U.S. House Republicans the congressman says pushed House Speaker John Boehner to retire.
“Stop attacking the integrity of the Republican Party base, Congressman. It’s insulting and divisive to grassroots conservatives. This is why so many conservatives are angry with Washington,” Caprio said in a press release.
Kinzinger made it clear to Sweet he rejects idealism and grasps a more pragmatic approach to politics that he believes should soothe conservatives’ frustration with GOP leadership.
The Lynn Sweet story is here. The full Caprio release is here.
Thursday, Oct 1, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The final results are in and as many analysts have noted, “Exelon was the big winner in this year’s [PJM grid capacity} auction.” Here are the highlights:
$1.7 BILLION RATE INCREASE FOR EXELON – Exelon engineered the new rules to increase their profits. Their $1.7 BILLION reward will be paid for by struggling Illinois ratepayers.
Byron and Quad Cities Both Cleared the Auction and are Obligated to Run Well into the Future
Exelon’s Low Carbon Portfolio Standard would have raised $1.6 billion over 5 ½ years for Exelon. The Capacity markets, under Exelon-pushed rules, earned Exelon $1.7 billion over only three years.
Illinois doesn’t have a balanced budget, service providers are being decimated and real people across Illinois are hurting. It’s time for Exelon to take their HUGE $1.7 BILLION WINDFALL and stop asking legislators to keep padding their profits.
Enough is enough!
Just Say “NO” to the Exelon Bailout
BEST Coalition is a 501C4 nonprofit group of dozens of business, consumer and government groups, as well as large and small businesses. Visit www.noexelonbailout.com.
* This guy caught such a break, but now he wants another one? Sun-Times…
Former state Rep. Derrick Smith might have as many as three more weeks of freedom before facing the music for taking a $7,000 cash bribe.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman put Smith’s surrender to the Federal Bureau of Prisons on hold until Oct. 21 “unless this court orders otherwise” after hearing arguments Tuesday from defense attorney Michelle Jacobs. But she only did so after pointing out that Smith’s mere five-month prison sentence could already have been behind him.
“He would have been done by now,” Coleman said. “It would have been over.”
Coleman herself characterized Smith’s sentence as “brief” during Tuesday’s hearing, which Smith attended. Jacobs has argued Smith might win either a new trial or a reduced sentence on appeal, but that process might not end before Smith leaves prison. He was previously due to report to a federal prison in Duluth, Minnesota, on Wednesday. […]
Or, the judge said, the sentence could “maybe go up.”
That’s the same judge who recently threatened to hold the Illinois comptroller in contempt of court. She’s not to be trifled with.
Thursday, Oct 1, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Profit. We generally think of profit as good. We all like to profit from our decisions.
However, when you become profit for someone else, it takes on a whole new meaning.
Credit unions are different. They are not-for-profit financial cooperatives that return earnings to their members. Services are based on member needs, not profit margins.
It’s time your money profited YOU. If you are a credit union member, you already know the credit union difference. If you are not a member, go to asmarterchoice.org to discover all the advantages credit union membership holds.
* From Randy Wells at the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association…
Good Morning Rich:
I realize you get inundated with releases and material from everyone but I wanted to pass this on to you.
As you may know, IADDA’s members provide mental health and substance abuse treatment. We have been surveying our members for the last three months as to the impact the budget situation is having on them. We have not released the results of what our members were telling us until this point due our members not wanting to alarm or panic those they serve or their staff. However, the results of our latest survey of members show a significant change in the status of the end of September and their status in the immediate future without a resolution to the budget. The survey shows we have reached “critical mass” when it comes to the future of many our members and suspect many other human service providers.
I’ve attached the survey for your review and use if choose to do so. Please note, several of members requested we not distribute their data at this time due to staffing considerations which means their data is not included in the attachment.
• Effective October 1, 2014, Wells Center is discontinuing providing detoxification services and will lay-off 10 staff. Over 300 patients annually will not have access to detoxification services. Next closest Detoxification program is over an hour away (Quincy, Decatur, or Bloomington)
Drug Court Services
• Wells Center currently has a contract to provide substance abuse services to the courts in the 2nd Judicial Circuit.
Given the lack of state funding for these services, Wells Center will be ending these services, as well. At this time, it is unknown if the court system may continue some of the drug courts services using local money until the budget passes. Wells Center will determine lay off either 1.5 FTE’s or 2.5 FTE’s depending on whether or not the courts continue to fund 1 staff.
Corrections Contracts
• Wells Center has notified IDOC that they will not continue to provide substance abuse treatment at Logan Correctional Center, Dixon Springs IIP and DuQuoin IIP since these programs are all funded with General Revenue.
IDOC is currently looking for another vendor to provide these services. This will affect 22 program staff, and approximately 1200 inmates.
U.S. Cellular Field will have three new outfield video boards next year—including a new center-field video board that is more than four times the size of the current one—under a renovation approved by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority.
The public agency that owns and operates the Chicago White Sox’s home stadium will foot the $7.3 million bill for the three new signs, which are slated to be ready for the start of the team’s 2016 season.
Most prominent in the upgrade will be a roughly 6,500-square-foot video board in center field that will dramatically alter the park’s backdrop. It will replace the existing 1,484-square-foot video board that was installed in 2003 and is the smallest among main video boards at all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums. The new board will be one of the 10 largest in the league, according to ISFA.
The state’s largest labor organization endorsed Tammy Duckworth for U.S. Senate and Susana Mendoza for Illinois Comptroller for the March Primary Election.
The Illinois AFL-CIO Executive Board voted on the endorsements at its meeting Wednesday.
Duckworth is running for the nomination to face off against first-term Sen. Mark Kirk in 2016.
“Congresswoman Duckworth has a 97 percent voting record on issues affecting working families,” said President Michael T. Carrigan. “She has a track record supporting the middle class. Her race will be one of the most important in the nation. It is critical that union members are educated and mobilized for that race.”
Mendoza is running for the Democratic nomination for State Comptroller – a race in the fall that will likely be against Gov. Bruce Rauner’s hand-picked appointee Leslie Munger. Munger was selected to fill the vacancy following the death of Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka.
“The Illinois AFL-CIO endorsed Judy Baar Topinka and we supported her,” Carrigan said. “We believe Susana Mendoza will stand with working families and against the Rauner anti-worker agenda.”
Mendoza, currently the City Clerk in Chicago, had a 92 percent voting record with the state federation during her 10 years in the General Assembly.
“We have already started our education and mobilization plan with members, families and community allies,” Carrigan said. “The proposals coming out of the Governor’s office and Congress are harmful to the middle class. Who we send to Springfield and Washington can change the priority to focus on income inequality and empowering everyday working people.”
Endorsements for other races in the Illinois Primary Election are scheduled for meetings set in mid-January.
The Illinois AFL-CIO represents more than 1.5 million members of union families.
But Bryce Colquitt, Zopp’s campaign manager, said he believed the backing of Duckworth by the state’s umbrella organization for organized labor had been engineered earlier by outside forces.
Colquitt said Zopp’s camp originally had been told that endorsement interviews would occur in January but were asked earlier this week to meet with the AFL-CIO’s executive board on Wednesday. He said news of Duckworth’s endorsement came less than an hour after Zopp’s interview.
“This is another example of the D.C. elites tipping the scales to try to coronate Tammy Duckworth. It’s clear that their campaign is concerned about the momentum we’ve been getting,” Colquitt said. He likened the endorsement to Duckworth’s early and controversial backing from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
* So, I asked Bill Looby at the AFL-CIO for a response…
It’s not an unusual claim from candidates who didn’t receive an endorsement to say that there was outside influence on the process.
The case for supporting Tammy Duckworth is pretty clear.
This is a race with national repercussions. Duckworth has been endorsed by the Illinois AFL-CIO in her congressional races and, most importantly, she has a 97 percent voting record with the AFL-CIO. She is well-known in the labor movement and we have had thousands of union family members volunteer to knock on doors and make phone calls to help get her elected.
There are concerns about Andrea Zopp’s actions in corporate management and on the Chicago Board of Education. With the current environment in Illinois and Washington D.C., it is critical that we elect a strong and proven ally of working families to the U.S. Senate. Tammy Duckworth’s record earned her the Illinois AFL-CIO endorsement.
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services affirmed its ‘AA+’ long-term rating and underlying rating (SPUR) on Chicago’s existing motor fuel tax (MFT) revenue debt. The outlook on all ratings is stable. The rating reflects our view of: The pledged revenue stream’s diverse statewide base; The insulation of pledged revenues from the financial challenges facing the state of Illinois, because we view the governing statute as not allowing tax revenues to be used to support the state’s general operations. The fact that although MFT revenues are subject to state appropriation, the state historically has never been late in disseminating the MFT revenues…
What was that line in “Animal House”? Something like “You (messed) up, you trusted us”?
The Illinois budget stalemate has left Chicago on the hook to cover monthly payments to the trustee on its motor fuel tax bonds because state transfers are trapped without a fiscal 2016 budget in place.
Pending legislation would allow the state to distribute the motor fuel revenues without a budget, but its fate is uncertain.
Chicago is tapping residual revenues it collects and pledges to bond repayments in order to cover monthly payments on $270 million of outstanding bonds.
Once those funds are exhausted, the city intends to look elsewhere for revenue to avoid a default, according to city finance officials. Biannual debt service payments to holders are made in January and July. […]
The state Senate in early September passed a bill that would allow the motor fuel distribution appropriations to resume without a state budget in placed. The bill was not called up in the House during its session last week because it lacked the votes.
Several suburban House Democrats yesterday rolled out a bill to authorize the release of tax money owed to Illinois cities.
Introduced on Wednesday, the proposal, House Bill 4305, would require the state to release money owed to local municipalities that is collected through gaming operations, the motor fuel tax, and other surcharges.
“The money collected from these funds is meant to be distributed to local municipalities, not used as a political pawn,” said State Rep. Marty Moylan (D-Des Plaines), the bill’s chief sponsor. “The governor’s refusal to let these funds go to their intended recipient is hurting our local communities and weakening the region’s economy.”
Moylan, a former mayor of Des Plaines, notes that the town is the recipient of revenue generated by Rivers Casino, totaling almost $9 million last fiscal year. Currently, the city is receiving no money from its share of the gaming tax revenue.
Additionally, the bill also allows winners of the state lottery to collect their full prizes. Currently, winners are only allowed to collect $25,000 regardless of their prize value.
* The Tribune has a story today about a legislative battle that has been going on for months: The Rauner administration’s emergency rules that shut down most new access to the state’s childcare program as well as home care programs for the elderly and disabled.
We’ve talked about this topic numerous times, but here’s the GOP response as printed by the Trib…
“This may be shocking to the system and the protocol and the feel and jibe of what has been, I get that, but we are truly in new circumstances, these are unventured territories,” said Rep. Ron Sandack of Downers Grove, Republican co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, the panel that’s responsible for overseeing the minutiae of putting a law in place.
“There is only so much that the administration can control, and the few things they can are really difficult topics, it’s not fun,” he added. […]
“With no budget in place and the majority party refusing to pass a single reform to grow our economy, the state of Illinois is most certainly in a state of fiscal emergency,” Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said. “Illinois is facing a $4 billion deficit, and the administration is trying to responsibly manage the state’s finances amid statutorily required payments and various court orders and consent decrees.” […]
“We are on autopilot,” Sandack said. “For those who have made much to do about the rules process, I would ask have they been around for a budget impasse that’s lasted this long? The state has no appropriation authority and the ability to manage what amounts to pennies in the overall budget. If that’s not an emergency, I don’t know what would ever qualify.”
On a purely bean-counting basis, I get what they’re saying. But on a purely bean-counting basis, how do you then justify this?…
Gov. Bruce Rauner has offered packaged food giant ConAgra tax incentives to move its headquarters from Omaha to Chicago, according to a source familiar with the deal.
The revelation comes on the heels of news that ConAgra is negotiating to lease office space large enough to accommodate as many as 1,000 workers at River North’s Merchandise Mart. […]
(A) source familiar with the deal said Rauner met with ConAgra executives earlier this year and offered them Edge tax incentives to move to Illinois.
Though Rauner has since ordered a halt on such incentives until the state’s budget impasse is resolved, the commitment to ConAgra was made before that and will be honored, the source said.
Without businesses and jobs, we don’t bring in tax money. I totally get that. I’m not opposed to this tax incentive.
I’m just saying that when you’re cutting off grandma and grandbaby it might not be such a great time to be handing out bigtime tax breaks to Chef Boyardee.
*** UPDATE *** An interesting press release…
State Representative Grant Wehrli today called on the Rauner administration to work with the Naperville community and the Naperville Development Partnership to replace hundreds of local jobs that will be lost when food giant ConAgra relocates the Naperville jobs to Chicago. Representative Wehrli (R-Naperville) said the Naperville-to-Chicago move is part of a larger agreement that will provide ConAgra EDGE tax incentives for relocating their corporate headquarters to Chicago from Naperville and Omaha, Nebraska.
“These incentives are used to mask the poor business climate in Illinois. Without reforming things like workers compensation and unemployment insurance, we are left in the position of having to buy jobs with these unsustainable incentives,” Rep. Wehrli said.
“We all want to bring new jobs here from other states; but when the deal, brokered with tax incentives, costs an Illinois community 400 jobs, then it’s a hollow victory. Governor Rauner needs to work equally hard to ‘back fill’ those jobs leaving Naperville. The governor’s office cannot just create a hole and walk away,” said Rep. Wehrli.
ConAgra’s Naperville headquarters provides jobs for 400 employees. Its home to many of the company’s largest brands, including Hunts, Chef Boyardee, Peter Pan, and Hebrew National. Corporate leaders announced earlier this week that they are negotiating for office space in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart that will accommodate 700 employees including the relocation of employees from both Naperville and Omaha.
“Shifting hundreds of jobs from one community to another creates winners and losers within our own state. I know the Governor worked hard to bring these jobs to Chicago. Now, he needs to work equally hard to help us bring jobs back to Naperville,” Rep. Wehrli concluded.
The Illinois Supreme Court ordered an appeals panel to look into a candidate’s claim that the incumbent’s $9 million defamation suit was aimed at silencing him during their campaign. […]
Democratic Rep. Scott R. Drury of Highwood filed the suit last year in Cook County Circuit Court, along with a motion for injunctive relief aimed at keeping Mark Neerhof — his Republican opponent for the 58th House District seat on the North Shore — from disseminating any ads “containing false information” about him.
He claimed Neerhof’s campaign and a conservative political action committee, Liberty Principles PAC, placed TV ads and mailers that incorrectly said he supported legislation to change the state’s education-funding formula. The ads also claimed he took that position to appease Democratic leaders.
Neerhof and his campaign filed a Section 2-619 motion to dismiss, arguing Drury’s claims should be tossed because of the Citizen Participation Act, which aims to protect citizens from so-called SLAPPs, or, Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.
He also submitted an affidavit saying neither he, nor his campaign, had anything to do with the advertisements.
In my non-lawyer opinion, this looks like a prime candidate for SLAPP designation. Go read the rest for more background and info.
Today marks the start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. All across the country, advocacy groups, survivors and allies will be joining together to remember those who have lost their lives as well as those who managed to survive and to teach others the importance of creating a culture free from fear of abuse.
But this year, by failing to pass a fully funded year-long budget, the governor and Illinois lawmakers have eliminated state investments in services to empower and protect survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. This failure has put the lives of tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children, at risk.
Instead of receiving the help they need to heal, physically and emotionally, survivors in Illinois now face the reality that our elected leaders simply do not care enough to protect them.
The consequences of the budget impasse are real, not exaggerated. They include:
* Ending state funding for services that help 75,000 survivors of domestic violence across the state of Illinois—20,000 women and children in Cook County alone. This includes medical, psychological and legal services as well as emergency shelter and other protections.
* Some rape crisis centers are facing closure and others will be forced to lay off 30-40 percent of their staffs in the coming months, which would result in turning away 3,400 victims of sexual violence who need advocacy and counseling;
* Eliminating state funding for services that provide immediate crisis intervention for at least 3,700 survivors of sexual assault;
* Eliminating state funding of civil legal aid, compromising access to the civil justice system for 17,500 vulnerable Illinoisans impacted by domestic violence, eviction, and financial exploitation.
