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.]
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* 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.
* The governor has often bemoaned the number of people who are leaving Illinois. Well…
Last week paleoecologist Eric Grimm, the director of science at the Illinois State Museum in Springfield, rented an 8-meter-long truck, bought $500 worth of lumber, and built temporary shelves in the back. Then, with the help of his wife and former coworkers, he loaded his cargo: roughly 30 sediment cores drilled from lake bottoms.
The cores, which hold pollen grains, minerals, and other clues that help researchers reconstruct past environments, had been stored at the museum where Grimm has worked for 28 years. But the museum is scheduled to close on 1 October as the result of a tense budget standoff between the state’s Democrat-led General Assembly and its Republican governor. So Grimm is moving his collection to the University of Minnesota’s National Lacustrine Core Repository (LacCore) in Minneapolis. And he’s retiring from his post at the museum—with a certain sense of dismay.
“It’s a travesty,” Grimm says of the political stalemate that has dominated Illinois for months, and the consequences for the museum. “I think it’s political corruption and malevolent anti-intellectualism.”
Grimm isn’t the only one mourning the imminent closure of the 138-year-old Illinois State Museum and four related sites. Researchers know the museum as the home to the largest collection of mastodon fossils in the world, databases used by international scientists, and artifacts from native Midwestern tribes. Its collection includes some 13.5 million objects, including 8.5 million anthropological and archaeological artifacts. The museum also hosts a relatively small but active research program, run by a staff of 10 curators and scientists. […]
For now, Grimm and his colleagues are continuing to pack up their boxes. Soon, he’ll be driving to Minnesota to sort his sediment cores and preparing to move from Illinois. “I can’t even stand to look at it,” Grimm says of the museum closure. “You watch the whole thing you helped build be brought down basically because of politics.”
“I am very disappointed they are moving forward with the closure,” said Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, who said he’s had “ongoing discussions” with Rauner’s office during the whole closure process.
“I’m going to continue talking to them,” he said. “We need to have a plan to reopen the museum. I do believe there is a commitment from the governor’s office to reopen the museum once we have a budget. It will be difficult. We’re going to lose some very good employees.”
Not everyone agrees. Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, defended the closure.
“The governor does have to do it,” Brady said. “The Democrats have left him with a multiple billion dollar budget deficit that has to be dealt with. I blame the Democrats with this.”
* Property taxes aren’t based on an ability to pay, and folks have been attempting to make that tax more “progressive” for a very long time. Mayor Emanuel’s proposed property tax hike is a big step in that direction. From Greg Hinz…
At a council committee hearing this week, the mayor’s financial team released a revealing “fact sheet” on the pending tax/homestead plan that disclosed fascinating new details.
The most significant section, tucked into a paragraph in the middle of three charts on Page 2, says: “Homeowners living in homes valued at $250,000 or less will see little or no increase and most—nearly 290,000—will see a decrease in their overall bill.”
An accompanying chart spells that out. For instance, in the first year of the tax hike (the levy would be phased in after four years) the owner of a home worth $200,000 would see their tax bill drop to $3,054 a year from $3,260. Three years later—after the full hike is levied, and with the mayor’s proposed homestead break in effect—that owner still would be paying $65 a year less than now, assuming no other changes. […]
I can report that well over half of city taxpayers apparently would have their bill cut under the mayor’s plan, which is pending in Springfield. According to Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios’ office, 419,153 Chicago homeowners applied for the homestead exemption in the most recent tax year. Almost three-quarters of them—291,755 to be exact—had property worth less than $250,000.
Hinz is upset about this and I think he has a right to be. Everybody ought to have some skin in the game when solving this fiscal mess. That’s not to say that those at the bottom should pay the full freight, but shouldn’t they pay a little something something?
Four finalists remain in the Illinois Legislative Audit Commission’s search to replace retiring Auditor General William Holland. The Commission has been actively searching for candidates since Holland announced his intent to retire. An LAC Search Subcommittee reviewed a total of 14 applications, conducted background checks, and last week interviewed seven candidates before narrowing to four finalists. The four candidates include:
• Frank Mautino of Spring Valley, IL. State Representative Mautino serves as Deputy Majority Leader in the Illinois House and chief negotiator on major legislative issues.
• Mary Modelski, CIA, CISA, CGAP, of Walnut Creek, California. Ms. Modelski, a Hoffman Estates native, is a Division Chief for Internal Audit for Alameda County, California.
• Elaine Nekritz of Northbrook, IL. State Representative Nekritz is an Assistant Majority Leader in the Illinois House and an attorney.
• Attorney Larry Sanders of Marion, IL. Mr. Sanders is the General Counsel of the Rend Lake Conservancy District. He served as senior partner of Sanders & Sanders, where he represented many southern Illinois school districts.
“The Auditor General serves as our partner in our effort to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in State government,” said LAC Co-Chair State Senator Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington). “This is why it’s so important that we find the best candidates for the positon.”
The Audit Commission will make its recommendation to the General Assembly from the remaining candidate pool. The Legislature has the final authority to choose the Auditor General and statute requires that the successful candidate be selected by a 3/5s majority vote in both the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate.
The Auditor General is a constitutional officer charged with the audit of public funds of the State. In addition, the Auditor General performs investigations and efficiency, management, and program audits at the direction of the Legislature or the Legislative Audit Commission. State law requires that each State agency be audited every two years.
“Our next Auditor General will have a tough act to follow, as current Auditor General Bill Holland has built an impeccable reputation as a steward of taxpayer dollars,” said LAC Co-Chair State Representative Bob Rita (D-Blue Island).
Bill Holland has served as Auditor General since 1992. In June he announced that he will retire on December 31, 2015. The Audit Commission announced the search for a replacement soon after via press release and also placed notices in several online publications to attract individuals with experience in auditing, accounting, administration, law, or state government. Ads ran in four daily newspapers and a total of 14 individuals applied for the position.
* The Question: Your pick for Auditor General? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
[Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy] pointed to curious behavior from Chicago criminals, who tend to hold on to their guns during police chases because “the sanction from the gang for losing a gun is greater than the sanction for getting caught by police and getting put through the criminal justice system.”
I’m not sure the courts could order beatdowns of gun violators, but I see the superintendent’s point.
As part of the city’s ongoing study into traffic-control devices, officials on Sept. 15 turned off the traditional red, yellow and green traffic light setup at two intersections: Spring and Monroe streets, and Second and Edwards streets.
Instead, drivers on Spring and Edwards streets saw a flashing red light, which meant they had to stop and then proceed when the intersection was clear, while drivers on Monroe and Second streets saw a flashing yellow light, which meant they could proceed through the intersection with caution but without stopping.
Some drivers didn’t pick up on the change and would often wrongly stop at the flashing yellow light, causing confusion, said Lori Williams, the city’s traffic engineer. In addition, pedestrians had trouble crossing the streets.
So last week, the city changed back the lights at both intersections to the traditional red, yellow and green configuration.
Oy.
Springfield has way too many traffic lights downtown. Most are only useful for about an hour in the morning and then another hour after work. And even then, stop signs would probably suffice.
Guerry Suggs, chairman of the state museum board of directors, said the move [by the governor to close the museum] doesn’t make much sense.
Researchers and scientists will continue their work, but it’s unclear what staff such as tour guides and security officers will do, Suggs said. […]
“Closing the Illinois State Museum and Sparta Shooting Complex will save Illinois taxpayers millions of dollars,” [Rauner spokeswoman Lyndsey Walters] said in an emailed statement.
Suggs estimated the savings from laying off a small number of nonunion museum employees would be less than $400,000 annually — minuscule compared with the state’s multibillion-dollar deficit or the tax revenue generated by tourists, he said.
“As we move into fall, I think you’ll see some rank-and-file members calling for increased levels of discussions,” said state Rep. Dan Brady of Bloomington. “There are pressure points everywhere, from child care services to higher education.”
Brady, the ranking Republican on the House committee overseeing the budget for higher education, said the lack of a spending plan for the state’s universities is taking a toll.
Southern Illinois University, for example, recently announced a series of a program cuts designed to ensure the institution can continue operating into the new year.
Eastern Illinois University saved about $10 million through a series of cost-cutting measures enacted in the summer, including employee furloughs, attrition and reductions to athletic programs.
“We know that this cannot go on like this,” Brady said.
I have long been convinced that the real key to solving this impasse will be moderate Republican legislators who have been endorsed by unions. Those folks, like Rep. Brady’s ISU, often have government facilities in their districts. They don’t see unions as inherently evil. They generally prefer compromises.
* And then you have a handful of rich folks who don’t care what the governor might do to them…
“The governor needs to show he has the votes,” said [Barrington Republican state Rep. Dave McSweeney], adding, “And he can count me as a ‘yes’ vote.”
But if Rauner’s rabidly anti-union Turnaround Agenda fails to get the necessary 71 votes in the House?
“We still need a budget,” declared McSweeney. “We need to get this over with.”
* Even so, betting on a “mushroom revolt” is always a fool’s wager. As much as I like Rep. McSweeney (and I do), he doesn’t exactly have a huge following in his caucus. And what makes moderates like Rep. Brady so, um, moderate is their general aversion to fights to the death, particularly with their leaders, and particularly when their leaders have taken such a hard line…
Achieving a budget deal before 2016 looks to be a near impossibility. “Highly unlikely,” Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin tells POLITICO. The Illinois House only has two more session days scheduled for the remainder of 2015. Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative leaders haven’t met since May. “At what point do they realize if they want to get through this they have to be willing to negotiate?”
* Things are not always as simple as they initially appear. For instance…
The lack of inertia to get a budget in place after three months of gridlock has some lawmakers itching to jump-start talks.
“I think we need an outcry from the rank-and-file lawmakers to the leaders to sit down and figure this out,” state Rep. Sue Scherer, a Decatur Democrat, said Tuesday.
At issue is the Republican governor’s insistence that Democrats approve a number of pro-business, anti-union proposals before he signs off on a tax increase designed to balance the budget.
Democrats have balked at the changes sought by Rauner, saying they would hurt the middle class.
“We can’t give that up,” Scherer said.
The bottom line is that while all rank and file Democrats want a solution, the vast majority of them (pretty much all, really) aren’t willing to decimate unions in the process (OK, maybe one guy is).
In other words, they’re not being held back by their leaders. There is no yoke on them, no golden handcuffs. When you see assertions to the contrary, you should always check to see if they’re being written by somebody who is regularly in Springfield…
Rise up, mushroom lawmakers in Springfield.
Leave the musty darkness of your cellars. Unshackle yourselves from your leaders. Stifle your re-election fears.
Grow a spine.
There are few in the General Assembly willing to do any of that.
Again, where is the evidence that large numbers of Democratic lawmakers are impatiently itching to vote to whack unions, if only their party bosses would let them?
This protracted war is not about the budget or even taxes. The governor has said repeatedly that he is willing to raise taxes, but only if his anti-union preconditions are met.
I can’t fault Democrats for opposing severe cuts to services, and I stand alongside many of my Republican colleagues in opposing higher taxes; like the people I represent, I believe that with hard work and compromise, we can find a more balanced approach. What troubles me is that instead of seeking this middle ground, both sides have come to agree on a destructive shared delusion that it’s OK for taxpayers to suffer as long as the other side of the aisle takes the blame.
It’s clear that breaking the budget stalemate will require a new way forward.
The governor campaigned on closing corporate tax loopholes as a means of generating revenue and closing the state’s budget deficit. This is a common-sense approach that Republicans and Democrats alike should agree on, but unfortunately the governor has yet to introduce legislation to make it happen. Illinois can’t wait any longer. Last week I introduced a bill that will generate new revenue without raising taxes by closing billions of dollars in corporate loopholes and rewriting outmoded elements of our state tax code.
We’ve talked about the Franks proposal before. But, again, nothing matters if the governor continues to make impractical demands about his Turnaround Agenda. Democrats just ain’t gonna go for it.
* Rep. Ken Dunkin is best known these days for skipping a crucial House vote to override Gov. Rauner’s veto of AFSCME’s “no strike” bill. Rep. Esther Golar succumbed to cancer just a few days after needlessly traveling to Springfield to vote to override that same veto.
Dunkin has taken tons of heat for missing that vote. But he sat next to Gov. Rauner at Golar’s funeral today.
Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., mulling a leadership run in the wake of the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told the Chicago Sun-Times on Monday that House Republicans “need to be more rhetorically aggressive against the administration.” […]
“We need to be more rhetorically aggressive against the administration,” Roskam said. “There are many times I hear from folks at home — and other Republicans — ‘you’re not fighting.” […]
Roskam said being more aggressive might be helpful – in moving along, not stopping the business of lawmaking.
If those hard liners “know you are fighting,” then “if you make a suggestion that the next move is incremental” then they may accept taking those smaller steps.
That last quote puts it in the proper context. He obviously understands his party’s base and believes harsher rhetoric can be used to manipulate the folks out there in the hinterlands to support more moderate solutions. But, still…
There won’t be any more ping pong balls flying up tubes to pick daily winners in the Illinois Lottery, which goes to an all-digital format later this week.
Starting Thursday, Pick 3, Pick 4, Lotto and Lucky Day Lotto will go to the all-digital format, and that means the daily drawings will no longer be aired live on WGN-TV, Illinois Lottery officials have announced. Instead, winners will posted at illinoislottery.com. […]
The new digital draw system uses a random number generator (RNG) to pick numbers, the lottery said. A similar system has long been used for raffle games; the My 3 and Hit or Miss games; and at retail terminals when players use the Quick Pick option instead of picking their own numbers.
About half of all state lotteries nationwide use digital draw systems, according to the lottery.
This being Illinois, I’m wondering if Lottery players will trust the digital draw mode.
I watch Illinois politics from afar. (My brother in law lives there.) Your site has unique content and amazing engagement and here’s a way to generate revenue with no sales effort. (My state CA has many similarities with IL.)
My company is launching “promoted comments”. This is where users can bid to push their comment to the top of the comment list. Users can still comment for free but any user can also pay to have their comment listed in the top 3 slots. It’s a fantastic way to generate revenue just using your natural visitor engagement. There’s no selling on your part. Commenters are given the option to pay using points (which are purchased with cash) to have their comment at the top of the list. Think of it as a mix between ebay/google ads/comment section. It’s super easy to implement. Just replace your current comment code with code from my company SolidOpinion. You get a check each month for 50% of whatever revenue is generated. You get more engaged users, relevant content and revenue!
A little about me. I’m the guy behind digital music pioneer MP3.com. This is my new company. We’re launching with Yahoo in their politics section in October and with a major finance site. I’m looking for a few marquee smaller publishers to launch with to show how it will work for any size publisher. Your site looks perfect.
Attached is a mockup of a non-profit news site based in San Diego that may use our technology. Please let me know if you have any questions. I’m happy to get on the phone or answer more questions via email.
– MR
* The attachment…
* I had some follow-up questions and he provided some answers. I added some emphasis…
1) How much do they pay to promote each comment?
The publisher (you) can set a minimum but the “market” sets the price much like a seller on ebay. If nobody wants it then you may not even get the minimum. If lots of people want it then they can outbid each other.
Lets say somebody bids 100 points for the top slot. If another commenter wants to list theres above that person they will have to bid more than 100 and so on and so on.
2) What payment method is used?
Commenters buy points using Paypal. It’s 88 points per dollar and they buy them in $10 increments.
3) Can they pay to promote somebody else’s comment?
Absolutely!
4) How about if I post this email and ask my commenters what they think?
Sure why not? I imagine some will be negative because everyone would rather have everything free. However, creating a market is actually a service to the community because if people feel strongly they have an avenue to insure their voice is heard.
Remember free comments are still available. They’re just displayed below up to 3 promoted comments.
They aren’t running “promoted comments” yet because that isn’t available until October 10th. It is very easy for you to turn on/off promoted comments. Our hope is that you have a very un-intrusive way to generate revenue for your site that some users actually see as a service.
Btw, the promoted comment must be relevant to the story or it removed. We believe promoted comments can enhance the content and help publishers generate revenue from their efforts!
Let me know if you have any questions. The company is: SolidOpinion.com
– MR
I’ll make the final decision, but I most definitely want your input.
Also, keep in mind that this is not a “pay to comment” system. It’s simply a “pay to promote a comment” system.
* The Question: On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most supportive, how do you feel about switching over to this new commenting system? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Harris v. Quinn in 2014 forced Illinois to stop requiring the payment of union fees from unwilling home care providers and day care operators. The court ruled that the First Amendment prohibits Illinois and other state governments from compelling people like home care and day care providers – who accept state subsidies but are not government employees – to pay money to a union as a condition of receiving state funds.
Since then, revenue has plummeted for the union those providers were forced to support – the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU. Before the decision, SEIU skimmed about $808,000 a month from the checks of day care providers alone; since the Harris decision, it has only been able to take about $343,000 per month from the minority of providers who have not opted out of paying union fees.
And the Harris decision might land another financial blow on SEIU: A class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of nonunion day care providers seeks to make SEIU repay the tens of millions of dollars it wrongfully took from those workers since the state force-unionized them in 2005.
The lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Laura Baston and Sandy Winner, who operate small businesses that provide day care services to low-income children. Watch them tell their stories in this video:
* The Illinois Office of Tourism has a couple of new promotional videos…
Michael Higgins, owner of Maldaner’s Restaurant in downtown Springfield, wondered why the Illinois State Museum was being showcased with its future hanging in the balance. The museum’s fate, at least for the near term, became clearer as Friday wore on. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources announced late in the afternoon that the state museum system and the World Shooting and Recreational Complex near Sparta will close Wednesday.
The facilities will stay closed to the public until a court case over layoffs of state workers is decided.
The facilities were targeted earlier this summer for closure at the end of this month, casualties of the ongoing budget fight. Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration earlier this week postponed previously planned layoffs of more than 100 unionized workers, including museum employees, due to an agreement between the state and the unions. The employees will return to work despite the closures.
Gemberling said the bureau’s video project that included museum footage began “several months ago.”
“We do have a contingency plan in place to replace some of that footage depending on what happens with the Illinois State Museum,” she said earlier Friday.
Video production takes a while, so I can see why it’s still in there.
But, here’s something to ponder: If the museum is so good that it’s in a state tourism promotional video, why is it being shut down even though the employees are still working?
“I would love to meet with the governor. I’ll meet on any conditions, whether it’s just us, whether it’s all the leaders.
“The question is what are we gonna talk about? And are we really gonna talk about some serious negotiations and not just ‘This is my bottom line and I want a hundred percent’? That’s not gonna work.”
House Speaker MICHAEL MADIGAN, D-Chicago, and the governor did meet Monday, Madigan spokesman STEVE BROWN said.
Rauner hasn’t shifted from wanting action on what Madigan has called “nonbudget issues,” Brown said, so “it would be hard to say there was much progress.”
* And that seemed to be confirmed by a Republican leader last night. Back to Chicago Tonight…
Senate President Cullerton: “What [Gov. Rauner is] doing is… the process of shutting down government in order to get leverage for these things [like workers’ comp and prevailing wage reforms].”
Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno: “Otherwise, how does it get done?”
Achieving a budget deal before 2016 looks to be a near impossibility. “Highly unlikely,” Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin tells POLITICO. The Illinois House only has two more session days scheduled for the remainder of 2015. Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative leaders haven’t met since May. “At what point do they realize if they want to get through this they have to be willing to negotiate?”
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To make matters worse, the state is threatening human services agencies, telling them they must continue to operate without funding or else be barred from ever getting a contract should there ever be a budget. In what universe does that kind of blackmail make sense? Only in Illinois.
A spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton said there have been no budget meetings with Rauner in September although Cullerton is willing to talk anytime, anywhere.
Likewise, Rauner spokeswoman Lyndsey Walters said that since May the governor “has invited the four (legislative) leaders to meet as a group and members of the majority party have declined. Despite their unwillingness to meet as a group, the governor has held individual meetings with the leaders whenever and wherever they’ve agreed to meet.”
Phelon also said there have been no such meetings with all four leaders and the governor since May, and she denied that Cullerton has turned down any meetings since the last one took place.
“At this point, we’re ready to work with the governor to resolve the budget issues in whatever forum that works,” Phelon said. […]
Asked if Madigan has turned down any requests for a full meeting of the governor and leaders, Brown said, “I’m not aware of anything like that, so … that doesn’t hold any water either.”
In 2014, the U.S. recorded its lowest population gain since the Great Depression. Growth stood at .73 percent, largely in contrast with the 5 percent of the 1990s, a period of prosperity. Demographer William H. Frey of the Brookings Institution attributed the decline to the economic downturn. Not only did the crisis deter job-seeking migrants from flocking to the U.S., but it also discouraged couples from having children. Meanwhile, population numbers shifted across states, creating short- and long-term effects on local economies.
In order to identify the cities that have expanded most rapidly in socioeconomic terms between 2008 and 2014, WalletHub compared 515 U.S. cities of varying sizes across 10 key metrics, ranging from population growth to unemployment rate decrease. The results of our study, as well as additional insight from experts and a detailed methodology, can be found below.
The highest ranking Illinois city was Elgin, at 211th Aurora at 187th [thanks to a commenter for pointing out my mistake].
Oy.
Bloomington was ranked 270th, Naperville tied for 336th, Peoria ranked 372nd and Chicago ranked 379th.
Illinois had two cities in the bottom ten, Skokie was 508th and Decatur ranked 510th, just a sinlge notch above Detroit.
Democrat Laura Murphy of Des Plaines will be the newest member of the Illinois Senate after being picked by party leaders Monday to finish the term of the departing Dan Kotowski of Park Ridge.
Murphy, a former Des Plaines alderman, was backed by Kotowski going into Monday’s vote and emerged the victor.
Schaumburg Township Democratic Committeeman Mike Cudzik said no other candidates made presentations before party leaders, and Murphy — the Maine Township committeeman — abstained from voting for herself. […]
Kotowski announced earlier this month he’d be stepping down to become the CEO of the Chicago nonprofit ChildServ, capping a nearly nine-year career in Springfield.
* The Senate was originally scheduled to return to town on October 6th. But, as I told subscribers earlier today, those plans were changing. And now they’re official…
In an extraordinary action, his campaign manager, Kevin Artl, leaked a memo to my colleague Rich Miller at Capitol Fax castigating an upcoming Trib story that is said to allege that the senator harshly treated staff members, with aides “physically and verbally abused,” as Miller put it.
In the memo, which promptly went national, Artl charged that the Trib’s Todd Lighty had even harassed Kirk’s 79-year-old mother with repeated calls in an effort to substantiate the story. At least one staffer involved has given the campaign a sworn affidavit denying any misconduct by his boss. The memo also suggests anti-Kirk bias by Lighty, who has done a series of critical pieces on the senator, including one about charges that the senator put his ex-wife and girlfriend on his campaign payroll. That story appeared just a few months after Kirk suffered a severe stroke.
The Trib hasn’t gone with the story, at least so far. And it released a statement strongly defending it and Lighty.
It’s impossible to know for sure what’s going on without reading the story and talking to those involved. But it would be a brave staffer–at least one who wants to continue to work in politics–who would publicly slam the boss.
I do hear reliably that Kirk can be difficult and demanding. But many pols are. The joke at City Hall used to be that one of the job requirements to be Richard M. Daley’s chief of staff was to come in each morning and be yelled at about what went wrong since the day before.
Assuming the Trib eventually publishes, Kirk will have drawn more attention to its article.
The only point of disagreement I have with Greg is that I think the Tribune story would’ve been a bombshell regardless of whatever Kirk did. Forget about the verbal abuse stuff. A sitting US Senator accused of physically abusing his staff is most definitely a man bites dog moment.
* From the Democratic SuperPAC American Bridge 21st Century…
Vulnerable Senator Mark Kirk has been making a lot of news over the last week — though not for reasons he’d like.
Kirk allegedly bullied staff members, subjecting them to both physical and verbal abuse — or so reports a thus-far-unpublished Tribune investigation, according to the Associated Press.
Predictably unhappy about the story, Kirk’s campaign launched an “unusual” counter-attack — threatening “legal action” against the Tribune in an attempt to suppress the report, the AP reported.
But the Kirk campaign’s effort backfired: The threatened lawsuit became public, and Mark Kirk is now publicly defending himself over the alleged bullying.
Here’re some coverage highlights:
Associated Press: Kirk campaign launches unusual attack on Chicago Tribune
Huffington Post: Senator Mark Kirk’s Campaign Pre-Emptively Bashes Chicago Tribune Ahead Of Negative Story
Sun Times: Mark Kirk’s office launches preemptive strike against reporter
Politico: Kirk camp goes on offense against upcoming Chicago Tribune story
Chicago Tribune: Kirk campaign attacks Tribune before any story is published
The Guardian: Mark Kirk campaign: reporter ‘bullied’ staff with questions about abuse claims
Notice how they gave the AP all the credit for the story. That could be because the AP itself neglected to mention where the info came from.
Whatever.
But I don’t see Kirk yet defending himself against the bullying allegations. So far, the coverage has mainly been about the unusual tactic.
* And just in case you’re wondering, I decided to run the piece because I thought it was a truly unique move with some special circumstances and gave my readers a fascinating look behind the scenes at how stories like these can develop.
In other words, it was most definitely newsworthy, as the national coverage clearly shows. My responsibility isn’t to the Kirk campaign or the Tribune. It’s to my subscribers and my readers. Everyone else can go pound sand, for all I care.
* The Question: While it is arguably too early to judge, at this very moment do you think the Kirk campaign’s preemptive strike at the Tribune will turn out to be a good move or a bad move? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Jesse White Announces Office to Suspend Mailing Vehicle Registration Renewal Reminder Notices Due to the Budget Stalemate
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White announced today that his office will suspend mailing out vehicle registration renewal reminder notices to the public due to the lack of a state budget.
White noted that by suspending this service, which will save approximately $450,000 per month, his office will be able to prolong the ability to mail vehicle registration renewal stickers, titles and license plates to vehicle owners for a few months longer before the postage account is depleted.
“The lack of a Fiscal Year 2016 budget is adversely impacting the Secretary of State’s office, and threatens to jeopardize the services we provide to the public,” said White. “Without a state budget in place, we are doing what we can to manage so that we may serve the people of Illinois for as long as possible. As a result, difficult decisions like suspending renewal reminder notice mailings are decisions we are being forced to make.”
White also noted if the office’s postage account runs out before January, he will be unable to mail the annual license to auto dealers, which they need to operate in Illinois legally, as well as critical incorporation paperwork needed for businesses in Illinois.
Last week, White issued a letter to the governor and legislative leaders outlining concerns on how the budget stalemate is negatively impacting his office. Some of the concerns included critical computer maintenance and data security issues as well as Driver and Vehicle Services facility operations. White is determined to prioritize difficult cuts to ensure his office can provide core services to the public for as long as possible.
White encouraged vehicle owners to be mindful of their vehicle registration status to ensure they renew in a timely manner and avoid driving on expired vehicle stickers. He also emphasized that more vehicle owners will be forced to visit facilities to renew their vehicle registration stickers because without a reminder notice they will not have a pin number needed to renew online. However, people who have signed up to receive electronic reminder notices will continue to receive them by email. To sign up for this service, please visit www.cyberdriveillinois.com.
“I urge the governor and the legislature to come together and solve this budget crisis so that my office, and all of state government, can continue providing services to the people of Illinois without interruption,” said White.
*** UPDATE *** From comments…
without those renewal notices to mail in everyone will have to visit the SoS Office because you can’t even renew online without the PIN that comes on the renewal notice
Not necessarily. There’s a work-around. You can renew via e-mail by using the PIN that’s printed on the registration card in your glove box.
Illinois Times [yesterday] sued Gov. Bruce Rauner after Attorney General Lisa Madigan ruled that the governor must turn over his appointment calendar in response to the paper’s request made under the state Freedom of Information Act.
The newspaper asked for Rauner’s appointment calendar last spring after the governor walked out of a Holocaust remembrance ceremony. The newspaper’s request came after the governor’s press office ignored an emailed query asking where the governor had gone while a Holocaust survivor spoke at the annual ceremony held at the Old State Capitol.
* Bernie followed up…
LYNDSEY WALTERS, a Rauner spokeswoman, told me this week: “Gov. Rauner left the Holocaust Memorial Service early to hold a four-leaders meeting at a time in which all were available. Since May, the governor has invited the four leaders to meet as a group, and members of the majority party have declined. Despite their unwillingness to meet as a group, the governor has held individual meetings with the leaders whenever and wherever they’ve agreed to meet.”
RIKEESHA PHELON, spokeswoman for Senate President JOHN CULLERTON, D-Chicago, said there was an hourlong meeting with the governor and leaders starting at 11:30 a.m. April 16, and Cullerton attended.
Phelon also said there have been no such meetings with all four leaders and the governor since May, and she denied that Cullerton has turned down any meetings since the last one took place.
“At this point, we’re ready to work with the governor to resolve the budget issues in whatever forum that works,” Phelon said.
Minutes after supporters of Gov. Bruce Rauner assumed leadership of one of the biggest government pension funds in Illinois, they shook up the way hundreds of millions of dollars are invested — in the process ousting a union-run money manager.
The Republican governor’s appointees to the Illinois State Board of Investment voted to shift $697 million into investments designed to mimic the financial markets’ performance — a move the board’s new chairman says will benefit taxpayers by slashing multimillion-dollar money-management fees.
In line with Rauner’s anti-organized labor stance, one of the managers the board dumped was Ullico, a union-owned investment firm that lends money to construction projects that agree to hire union labor.
The board’s vote to pull its $65.4 million investment in Ullico’s “J for Jobs” fund was along political lines. The four Rauner appointees and two Republicans who are on the board because of other offices they hold voted to dump Ullico. Two Democratic elected officials and a union leader voted “no.”
Marc Levine, the Rauner appointee elected board chairman at the start of the Sept. 17 meeting, says the governor’s battle with organized labor had “absolutely” nothing to do with the decision.
Says Rauner spokesman Lance Trover: “The governor’s office does not, and did not, instruct the Illinois State Board of Investment on how to invest taxpayer dollars.”
Go read the whole thing for more of the board’s reasoning, which makes some sense. But also keep in mind that Ullico’s president and CEO is Ed Smith, a former bigtime labor union leader from southern Illinois.
* So, the museum and the shooting complex will both close, but workers will stay on the job. Wonderful…
Despite a court case blocking him from laying off workers, Gov. Bruce Rauner is moving forward with the closure of the Illinois State Museum and the World Shooting and Recreation Complex near Sparta.
In an announcement issued by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the administration said the two facilities will remain closed while the legal proceedings regarding the layoffs of more than 100 workers are underway.
The three-paragraph missive noted employees are expected to stay on the job even though the facilities won’t be open to the public. […]
“It’s beyond disappointing, especially with the fact that the employees will still be there,” said state Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield. “I’m not sure what the employees will be doing.”
It’s time for the governor to call a special session of the General Assembly and not let anyone go home until something gets done.
Do the people’s business.
Put everything up for a vote.
Win some. Lose some.
But pass a budget.
Don’t darken our door until you do.
The governor doesn’t want a vote on the state budget yet. He wants his Turnaround Agenda passed first. Then and only then will he talk about the budget.
* Senate President John Cullerton’s told his side of things to Amanda Vinicky yesterday. Cullerton said the budget could get done in a weekend, but also pointed out how he had passed a property tax freeze bill through the Senate which was then rejected by the governor because, Rauner said “it’s not enough because it doesn’t have enough of this anti-union stuff that I insist on.”
“I mean, it’s amazing. The whole concept that we have problems in the state because municipal employees are making too much money, it’s not true. OK? It’s just not causing the crisis that the governor would propose. And it’s just so ironic that a guy who’s so wealthy, to insist on having people who are just working class people make less money. It’s almost an obsession and I don’t know where it comes from, but it’s a problem.”
And if Rauner brings legislators to town by fiat, they’re gonna make that clear to reporters every single day.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I just don’t see any upside for the governor, particularly since his own pollster says he’s currently “winning.”
Some of Sauk Valley’s top education officials say unfunded mandates are a problem that needs fixed, but they fear the governor’s solution could be an even bigger problem.
Gov. Bruce Rauner wants to eliminate the more than 100 mandates as part of a larger proposal to freeze property taxes. In a letter to legislators, he said mandate relief could save districts statewide more than $200 million annually.
While Sauk Valley school officials would welcome relief from unfunded mandates, they say the property tax freeze would be an even bigger burden.
Officials also say it’s hard to put a price tag on the cost of the unfunded mandates, since they change each year.
“Rauner wants legislatures to freeze property taxes for 2 straight years,” said Tad Everett, superintendent of the Sterling Public School District. “That would be a killer for us financially. We would have no new revenue or increases in anything budgetary for 2 straight years.”
A poll and a speech may have hardened positions even further on both sides of the highly partisan and bitter state government impasse.
The speech, by Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich, you likely already know about. The survey, taken by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s pollster, you probably don’t. So, let’s start with the poll.
Basswood Research, which has done extensive work for the Rauner campaign, surveyed 800 likely Illinois general election voters September 14-15 and found quite a bit of support for Rauner and a whole lot of opposition to House Speaker Michael Madigan.
The poll, which had a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percent, found that 45.5 percent approve of Gov. Rauner’s job performance, while 40 percent disapprove and 14 percent don’t know. Not great.
But a whopping 71 percent agreed with the statement: “Bruce Rauner is trying to shake things up in Springfield, but the career politicians are standing in his way,” while just 21 percent said that wasn’t true.
Another 55 percent agreed that “Bruce Rauner is working to find bipartisan solutions that will help fix Illinois’s budget mess and improve the struggling state economy,” while 34.5 percent said it wasn’t true.
President Obama’s favorables (50 percent) were higher than Gov. Rauner’s (47 percent) in the poll, but Obama’s unfavorables (45 percent) were higher than Rauner’s (40 percent).
Only 11 percent approve of the job being done by the General Assembly, while 73 percent disapprove. House Speaker Michael Madigan’s favorable rating was only 21 percent, while his unfavorable was 60 percent. Only 19 percent had no opinion of Madigan either way, which means that Madigan is quite well known to voters.
An overwhelming 76 percent agreed that “Mike Madigan controls the Democratic legislators in Springfield,” while a mere 10 percent disagreed and 14 percent weren’t sure.
If you trust these poll results, then the public is largely siding with Rauner and views the General Assembly as unlikeable obstructionists tools of the House Speaker. So, a well-crafted, well-funded message which ties legislators or legislative candidates to Madigan could be disastrous.
There are caveats here. This is Rauner’s pollster, so the Democrats will likely be dismissive. Also, the group which commissioned the poll, the Illinois Business and Industry Council, is an unknown quantity with a vague website that was created this past July.
But Rauner’s pollster was almost alone in accurately predicting the governor’s win last year. So, keep that in mind when the naysaying starts.
And the point isn’t what the Democrats or even you or I think of the poll anyway. The point is that the Rauner people trust that pollster and are convinced of the poll’s results. So they truly believe they are winning and can make Madigan pay a steep price for losing.
But on the other side of the equation, we now have some very powerful folks who believe they have God – or at least the Pope – firmly on their side.
Archbishop Cupich’s September 17th speech to the Chicago Federation of Labor was perhaps the most profound rallying cry for the importance of organized labor that I’ve ever seen. Without mentioning the anti-union governor’s name, he made it clear that he and Pope Francis stand firmly with unions – both public and private sector – and against those who would exploit or weaken them.
Two years ago, Speaker Madigan specifically credited Pope Francis’ words of inclusion for his change of heart about gay marriage. You could argue that Madigan was simply using his Pope to justify a popular position change, but this time around he has a pretty clear mandate from his church’s leadership. “The Archbishop has said the same thing that we’ve been saying in Springfield,” Madigan told reporters after Cupich’s address.
The problem with mixing religion too deeply with politics, of course, is that religious beliefs can’t easily be negotiated away. So Cupich may have complicated matters.
Both the poll and the speech came during a period when folks with ties to both sides were attempting to get the top dogs to talk. Some are saying that the governor will further narrow his economic demands to a far more politically doable list before he’ll agree to finally deal with the state budget.
But the poll numbers could easily harden the governor’s position, and the Archbishop’s timing might very well end up hurting many of the neediest people served by his church’s charities if we don’t get a budget deal anytime soon.
“I challenge you to find a more stupid and pig-headed way to deal with the mentally ill.” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on people with mental illness who end up in local jails because they can’t get proper treatment as a result of state budget cuts.
