state court restores fair share fees while union case is pending
A Circuit Court judge has issued an Agreed Order requiring state agencies to immediately reinstate the transmission of ‘fair share’ fees deducted from employee paychecks.
On March 5, the Illinois AFL-CIO and 26 unions representing more than 40,000 Illinois state employees filed suit in St. Clair County Circuit Court to invalidate an executive order issued by Governor Bruce Rauner that bars state agencies from collecting the fees, which are authorized under state law and multiple collective bargaining agreements. The fees cover the proportional cost to the union of providing representation to those employees.
The court order, issued by Associate Judge Christopher Kolker, is based on an agreement reached between the Rauner Administration and the affected labor unions. It requires the Administration to “remit fair share fees…pending the resolution of the case” and to transmit “the correct payroll information” regarding gross pay for affected employees to the Comptroller.
“We continue to believe that the governor’s executive order is meant to weaken the right of state employees to have effective union representation,” said Illinois AFL-CIO president Michael T. Carrigan. “We’re pleased that all fair share agreements will now be honored while our legal challenge is proceeding.”
Some of you old timers might remember Judge Kolker from his House staff days.
…Adding… From the governor’s office…
The Administration and the unions have reached an agreement that will speed up the case and remove legal obstacles to resolving the underlying First Amendment issues as efficiently as possible. As part of this deal, the unions agree to an expedited timeline for the case and to forego the possibility of compelled arbitration. In exchange, we resume paying fair share fees, but obviously we will still assist nonmembers in recovering those fees from the unions when we ultimately prevail. There are two tracks – one in federal court and the other in state court — to get this case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which is where it must be conclusively decided, as soon as possible.
* If Mike Flynn is really running to succeed Aaron Schock, he should do two things right away: 1) Put that mandatory FEC disclaimer on his website; and 2) Add a “contribute” button. Sheesh…
Conservative activist Mike Flynn has joined the race for Congress in the 18th Congressional District of Illinois.
For more than two decades, Mike has been a national leader in moving the conservative agenda forward. In 2009, as Editor in Chief of Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment website, Mike published the ACORN videos, ushering in the demise of this government funded liberal advocacy group.
But Mike hasn’t reserved his attacks to liberals. Just last year, he took on the Republican leadership for passing the omnibus spending bill that funded the government until September of this year, including full funding for Obamacare and Executive Amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Mike will lead the charge for change in DC. He’ll vote against John Boehner for Speaker of the House. He’ll sponsor and work for term limits. He’ll lead the fight against executive overreach. Mike will take on big special interests, both labor and business, that set the agenda in DC through political contributions and back room deals.
Mike believes that deal making shouldn’t decide who is our next Congressman from the 18th District. Mike doesn’t believe that we should hand our voice in Washington to someone whose principal accomplishment is having a father who worked for Barack Obama and was instrumental in passing the stimulus bill.
I suppose in some minds the attack on Sen. LaHood’s dad is fair game. But anybody who has ever talked with Darin LaHood for more than 30 seconds knows that Darin’s politics and Ray’s politics are light-years apart. What Darin does have is his dad’s last name, and that’ll play well.
Still, it’s gonna be a very low-turnout race. And the far Right tends to dominate those sorts of primary races.
Flynn has no name ID, hasn’t lived in the district in 20 years, hasn’t yet raised any money, but he’s a hardcore conservative with bigtime tea party connections and some campaign chops, so let’s see what he can do.
Then again, this could very well turn out to be a vanity campaign.
* I don’t think that this is necessarily a bad idea. It could be a good idea. But the timing is horrible…
After months of indecision, the Rauner administration is lifting a freeze it put on $100 million in business tax-incentive deals that had been approved in principle by outgoing Gov. Pat Quinn but not yet executed.
The Rauner administration and business sources confirm that an internal review of such spending was conducted and a decision reached to fulfill “commitments made by the Quinn administration” to companies including eBay, CapitalOne, CDW and SAC Wireless. Some deals reportedly were finalized in the past 10 days or so, others are still in process.
But the decision to go ahead with deals under the state’s Economic Development for a Growing Economy program may be controversial — both because Rauner and others have criticized the EDGE program, and because he has suspended $26 million in social services grants and $180 million in park grants that had been approved by Quinn but not yet been disbursed.
Rauner has cited the state’s financial woes in freezing those monies. A spokeswoman said the EDGE credit will proceed “because they have no impact on the current fiscal year.”
That part about the impact on this fiscal year is probably true because it takes a while to get these things going. But, man, they nitpick $26 million for indigent burials, autism programs, etc. and then give some huge corporations EDGE credits?
Whew.
* The Question: The Rauner administration’s new slogan?
…Adding… From the IFT…
“If anyone is still unclear about Governor Rauner’s priorities, look no further,” said Aviva Bowen, IFT Director of Communications. “Giving tax breaks to big corporations while slashing millions from the services our most vulnerable citizens rely upon is beyond the pale.
“Cutting funding for autism, homelessness, parks, and after-school programs before asking the most wealthy to chip in a dime is completely out of touch with what Illinois wants or deserves.”
Acting a couple of weeks after Mayor Rahm Emanuel wrote about a dozen Indiana firms inviting them to move here, World Business Chicago chief Jeff Malehorn drove to Indianapolis on April 6 to meet with companies that could set up shop here in the Windy City.
Malehorn declined to disclose who he talked with. But he does say he met with officials from three companies and is confident that at least one and probably two of them will open some operations here in the near future.
“I am quite confident we will get jobs,” said Malehorn, whose group also mailed CEOs of 80 Indiana companies offering to assist in moving some or part of the business here.
One company is a digital mobile-phone outfit that is seriously considering setting up a Chicago office because of the larger number of young tech workers here. The second is a rapidly expanding health care company and the third is in transportation logistics—all sectors that WBC has targeted.
I am writing you today on behalf of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chairman of World Business Chicago, which is the economic development agency for Chicago. Together we would like to urge you to consider Chicago’s considerable advantages as a location for your company.
Chicago will provide your business with unparalleled opportunity at the epicenter of North American business. Both start-ups and established companies alike, including Google, Motorola Mobility, GrubHub, Yelp, Microsoft, Uber, Groupon, Salesforce, LinkedIn, and many more, all have recently announced major expansions and relocations here, employing thousands in Chicago - and for good reason. Our city provides the top-notch talent, and the creative, vibrant environment that enables them to grow and thrive here.
I am positive that you would find Chicago a truly global city with a world class business environment, a vast and diverse talent pool of millions, and a central location with easy global air access to clients and operations. Our diverse economy rivals nations and we are consistently ranked in the top ten global cities and economies in the world.
As an economic development agency driving growth and job creation, we are collectively focused on making Chicago the most business-friendly city in the nation, and hope to have the opportunity to welcome your firm to Chicago as the newest members of our vibrant and engaged business community.
We are proud Chicago is ranked the number one city for corporate relocations in the United States for two years running, and are confident that Chicago will provide you with exceptional opportunities for continued growth and talent attraction. I am eager to assist you with such an effort.
* Gov. Rauner, however, would rather wait until after his “Turnaround Agenda” is completed before chasing after Indiana companies…
Rauner also waved away the controversy over an Indiana religious freedom law, that some opinion writers viewed as a chance for Illinois to poach jobs from the neighboring state, calling it a “headline opportunity,” not a real one.
“Believe me, I am going to rip — try to rip the economic guts out of Indiana,” Rauner said. “I am one of the baddest, you know, enemies anybody can have. And when I set a goal, we do it. I don’t care what the headline is. I want the results. And we’re coming after Indiana big time. But you know what, we’re going to do it on our terms, the right way.”
What he means by “the right way” is that he’ll weaken unions, lower benefits for workers, lower taxes and then and only then will he go after those jobs.
But what happens if his plan isn’t implemented?
And shouldn’t he be working with the mayor on this poaching operation right now?
* If you saw the update below, you know that the governor’s office claims a handful of municipalities have passed Gov. Bruce Rauner’s draft “Turnaround Agenda” resolution, which includes the local “right to work zone” language…
The following towns have passed the resolution.
East Dundee
Clinton
Cambridge
Makanda
Charleston
I have the PDFs coming.
Thanks
* This morning, Rauner got his biggest win…
McHenry County Board passes resolution supporting @GovRauner "Turnaround Agenda" on 16-5 vote.
Thursday, Apr 9, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
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Rauner spoke with concerned taxpayers at Two Men and A Truck on North Alpine. Part of his Illinois turnaround tour. Rauner focused on empowering Rockford saying we need to get rid of unfunded mandates, consolidate government agencies and have local control of collective bargaining. Rauner also addressed Sportscore 2 funding.
“We’re very concerned about local economy and growth and we don’t want to have to make cuts unnecessarily. So what we’re going to try to do is get our agenda of the turnaround done now in the next few months. That will free up resources so some of the cuts don’t have to be as big and some of the other cuts don’t even have to happen at all. So by July we’ll really know. My goal is that by July we’ll know kind of where we’re at,” says Rauner.
Emphasis added for obvious reasons. Yesterday, Rauner told Steve Cochrane that he hoped to wrap things up in June.
* Rauner’s not the only one making this prediction, though…
Lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner may be jawboning well into July to forge a budget compromise that Democrats and Republicans can live with. That’s the word from Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, and Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park, who stopped by the Editorial Board on Monday.
“House Speaker Michael Madigan has told his caucus not to make vacation plans through July 15,” Cabello told us.
[Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet] and Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, championed reforming worker’s compensation and eliminating unfunded mandates in order to offset proposed cuts.
Across the board, officials said worker’s compensation reform would be a welcome change.
“It’s outrageously ridiculous in the state of Illinois. We all suffer from that,” Jensen said. “It is eating up a lot of money, but I don’t think it’s the solution to the entire state problem.”
Sen. Heather Stearns, a democrat from Chicago and the committee’s chairwoman, agreed. Worker’s compensation reform would only begin to mitigate the “devastating cuts” being proposed, she said.
There is no doubt that workers’ comp needs to be addressed here. Costs are too high. Period. And unfunded mandates are also a problem - although most of those mandates passed both chambers with huge majorities.
But most of this “Turnaround” agenda is pie in the sky stuff. And even if it all passed (and it won’t because “pie in the sky”) it wouldn’t free up the money the governor and his legislative pals say it would.
It’s being used as some sort of magical talisman that can solve all of our problems. Most likely, it’s setting the stage for blaming somebody else when other solutions need to be found.
* Then again, let’s revisit something from the Tribune’s earlier coverage…
“Crisis creates opportunity. Crisis creates leverage to change … and we’ve got to use that leverage of the crisis to force structural change,” said Rauner, borrowing from a political philosophy famously coined by his friend Rahm Emanuel that “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” […]
Asked how he intended to get a ban on union campaign contributions through a legislature that is heavily backed by organized labor, Rauner pointed to the binders his staff had prepared.
“Read it,” he said. “Change the law … that’s what our proposal is.”
Pressed to explain, Rauner simply said: “Crisis. Crisis creates leverage.”
Dragging this session into July would most definitely create several crises.
State Rep. Dan Brady, a Bloomington funeral home director, was among a majority of Republican lawmakers who last month voted for a fix to the current state budget. […]
“I was under the impression that action would stabilize things through the end of the fiscal year,” Brady said Tuesday.
On Friday, however, Rauner froze $26 million in funding for a variety of social service programs, including about $6.9 million that pays funeral expenses for poor people.
“I was not anticipating having this type of situation. I’m confused over it,” Brady said Tuesday. “I’m confused and surprised.”
*** UPDATE *** The Rauner folks say this approp committee exchange between Rep. Frank Mautino and budget director Tim Nuding shows legislators like Brady shouldn’t have been surprised. Emphasis in the original…
Mautino: And a final question to Rich or Tim. In the course of preparing for this year, the number of accounts at the Bureau of the Budget, Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, going back to through the years.
Nuding: No problem, I’m nostalgic about it too.
Mautino: Well you have the right attitude for this year. A number of items that have been suspended and another number of accounts. In the course of passing this fix for this year, what will become the status of the suspended dollars? Cities have been notified that they maybe have a process or program in process over at DNR, EPA, that has been suspended, so those accounts are under suspended status. You may not have this handy here, but I’d like to know what the dollar value of the suspended account statewide is, and what the interaction is with the bill we’re passing today is. Will the status of those accounts be lifted? And may those project resume for those dollars.
Nuding: I would say, representative, that what we have done through the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget to try to address the FY15 problem… This bill works in concert with what we are already doing in terms of establishing reserves and looking at grants that are already out there. So that process will continue. I cannot report to you today how much we have frozen up. We are still actually working through that process with your agencies. As you know there are literally hundreds and thousands of grants out there that our agencies are evaluating, trying to figure out what needs to be frozen, what’s essential, what’s non-essential. We will continue to work through that process. Having said that, I would acknowledge that I do not that believe everything that is currently under review or frozen will ultimately be terminated. I think there will be some things that move forward. I don’t have specifics on that. Conversely, Representative, not all of them will. We need some of those savings to make that $1.6 billion hole balance in concert the bills that are in front of you today.
However, legislators I’ve talked to said they’d made it clear that those programs shouldn’t be cut. They also fully funded things like the autism program for a reason.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said he probably didn’t choose his words carefully enough when he said the state Supreme Court is part of a “corrupt” judicial system.
In a meeting Wednesday night with the Quad-City Times editorial board, Rauner said he wasn’t singling out the high court, nor did he use the word “corrupt” again.
“I probably didn’t use words carefully enough,” he said. “I believe our judicial system is full of conflicts of interests. And the Supreme Court is part of the judicial system. It’s not the Supreme Court, per se, it’s the system.” […]
“My comments about the Supreme Court, one of the issues I raised is, you know, they’re opining on things that impact them, when they talk about pensions and health care and what not,” he said. “I’m just troubled by the conflict. I don’t criticize them. They’re doing the best they can. They’re good people. I don’t criticize individual judges or a particular court. The system, I think, has conflicts.”
* First of all, that’s not a walk-back, it’s a double-down.
* Secondly, he did indeed “criticize” the Supreme Court on stuff besides the “corrupt” angle…
“I don’t trust the Supreme Court to be rational in their decisions,” Rauner said. “I think they’re activist judges who want to be legislators.”
The justices on the high court signaled devotion to that language when they ruled in favor of retirees in a separate case last summer involving an attempt to make retirees pay more for their state-subsidized health care. The court ruled 6-1 that the language in the constitution was “aimed at protecting the right to receive the promised retirement benefits, not the adequacy of the funding to pay for them.”
Rauner told the Tribune on Monday he thought the court’s ruling in that case was “off base.” He said he wants to use a constitutional amendment to “end-run the years of lawsuits” that would come from his plan to reduce pension benefits.
“We can’t just let the Supreme Court decide these issues just with the vague language we’ve got now,” Rauner said. “I have no confidence.”
* Our commenter “walker” offered up a succinct critique yesterday…
Rauner really seems confused.
He calls a strict constructionist stance on Constitutional language “judicial activism.”
He then says the court is corrupted by politics, but then agrees with them by stating that we need changes to the Constitution to move forward with his versions of pension “reform.”
Really, folks — do those statements hang together?
* And as far as the “conflict of interest” regarding the courts ruling on the constitutionality of pension and health insurance laws, who the heck does he think should rule on those statutes? I mean, should all judges just step aside and let the other two branches do whatever they want?
That’s either a completely disingenuous argument or just plain juvenile logic.
“I’m open to tax reform. The critical thing is that we get structure change inside the state. If we just raise income taxes, which is what many people are encouraging me to do, they say put in a graduated income tax that will fix the problems,” said Rauner.
But, Rauner said raising taxes doesn’t always work. He points to similar problems in New Jersey that he said Illinois can’t repeat.
“New Jersey has high property taxes like us, high sales taxes like us. They’ve already put in a graduated income tax. They have very high taxes where they can’t afford to pay their pensions.”
That last graf contains a nonsensical comment, but more important is the fact that the governor is a wealthy man and he got a ton of campaign money from fantastically wealthy people during and after the campaign and he opposes a graduated income tax, which would most definitely hurt himself and his main campaign contributors.
That’s not a conflict of interest?
Of course it is. The world is full of conflicts. There is no possible world where conflicts of interest do not exist, except maybe in some freshman college classes.
* I’m sure all of this polls well. “He’s shaking things up and attacking the status quo just like he promised!” But, dealing with this governor is kinda like dealing with newbie commenters here who believe all solutions are simple and everything is black and white. Experienced adults know better.
* Union members and allies packed a Woodstock City Council hearing earlier this week to the point where it had to be moved to a much larger venue. The turnout worked, at least for now…
Woodstock City Council members balked on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda” resolution aimed at organized labor, after a large contingent of labor unions addressed the council and criticized the measure.
Rauner has asked cities and villages throughout the state to join his push against unions and pass the resolution. It urges state lawmakers to grant local governments and voters the choice to create right-to-work zones and details changes to prevailing wage and workers’ compensation laws.
On Tuesday, hundreds of area union members came to Woodstock to address the council before members were set to discuss and vote on Rauner’s resolution. The large turnout forced city officials to relocate the meeting to the larger Woodstock High School.
The council ultimately voted 5-2 to table the resolution – a request initiated by Mayor Brian Sager.
“I’m a part of Woodstock. If you vote for this resolution, this is what it does. You then give permission to Gov. Rauner to go around the state of Illinois and say Woodstock wants this,” Acosta said. “Well you know what? I’m a part of Woodstock and I don’t want this.”
But not everyone who addressed the council was part of a union.
“I’m a millionaire,” Woodstock’s Craig Hallenstein told the council. “I’m part of the 1 percent. I’m not a member of a union, and I agree with every comment made here. The biggest problem with this country is the declining middle class.”
A resolution to support several policies proposed by Gov. Bruce Rauner did not gain much traction with the Mount Zion Board of Trustees on Monday.
The board was presented with a resolution encompassing Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda,” which ranges from changes to prevailing wage and workers compensation laws to the establishment of what are commonly called right to work zones, in which voters could decide if workers should be required to join labor unions.
Shelby County Board Chairman Dave Cruitt said Monday that the proposal backing right-to-work won’t be voted on when board members meet Wednesday.
“Too many of our board members don’t know enough about it,” Cruitt said. “We’re not going to act on it.” […]
[Iroquois] County Board Chairman Kyle Anderson said he hopes to bring the matter before a board committee Thursday with the goal of getting it on the full board’s agenda next week.
He said despite all members of the board being Republicans like Rauner, he’s unsure whether the resolution will be approved.
Moultrie County Board Chairman Dave McCabe said the issue has been put on hold until at least next month.
Iroquois County’s committee meeting on the issue earlier this week was also flooded with anti-resolution folks. I grew up in Iroquois County. A liberal bastion it ain’t.
* And…
GovRauner's "turnaround agenda" voted down 7-0 in Pingree Grove #twill#workers4il
At Gov. Bruce Rauner’s behest, the Kane County Board will approve a resolution supporting at least some parts of Rauner’s reform agenda. Deciding which parts may involve a discussion about the future ability of county employees to unionize.
Rauner met with county officials Tuesday to ask for the endorsement. County board Chairman Chris Lauzen said Rauner was explicit in saying the county should customize the endorsement to reflect only aspects where county officials agreed with the governor.
In a written statement, Lauzen indicated support of Rauner’s views about public employee unions. That view involves passing legislation giving local governments, such as Kane County, the ability to exclude several topics from union negotiations, such as wage negotiations, use of paid work time to conduct union negotiations, and the use of third-party contractors.
The debate on what to include in the resolution will begin in the board’s Legislative Committee, headed up by Aurora Democrat Brian Pollock. Pollock said the full board will debate the possible elements of the resolution and come to a consensus on what to say about unions.
“The chairman has said it’s up to the board to set the policy,” Pollock said. “And we’re looking forward to that discussion.”
So, it doesn’t look like the anti-union stuff has much of a chance there.
* It’s been a bit slow on the blog today because I’m still kinda on spring break. Also, Gatehouse’s websites have been crashing my browsers all day and I’m about to lose my mind, which isn’t helpful for getting things done. I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring, either.
In addition to celebrating their 1971 masterpiece Sticky Fingers, the Rolling Stones will release a concert film of a London club gig they played the year that record came out. The release, From the Vault: The Marquee – Live in 1971, will be available on DVD, Blu-ray and digitally June 23rd, with some configurations featuring numerous Stones rarities.
The band performed the gig a few months before the release of Sticky Fingers and used the show to preview nearly half the album, including “Brown Sugar,” “Dead Flowers”… It also served as the first and only time the group played “I Got the Blues” live until dusting it off a handful of times for concerts in 1999.
* And from that new release, watch Mick Taylor wail through “Dead Flowers”…
A former top aide to now-resigned U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock said Tuesday that he will have to return to Springfield next month to testify at a grand jury investigating Schock.
Ben Cole, former communications director for the former congressman, was in Springfield because he had been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury.
However, Cole said upon leaving the federal building Tuesday afternoon that a prior commitment limited the amount of time he had available to testify, so federal prosecutors allowed him to return to another grand jury session next month.
“The grand jury has been continued until next month,” Cole said. “Because of my tight travel schedule, the U.S. attorney has graciously allowed me to continue my testimony for another date.
The three staffers in Springfield were Mark Roman, Schock’s chief of staff; Ben Cole, Schock’s former communications director, and Bryan Rudolph, the manager of Schock’s district office in Peoria. […]
Cole said he was handed a subpoena March 19 by Springfield-based FBI agents who were in Washington to talk to potential witnesses.
The agents talked to him about his “work for the congressman” as well as asking questions about “the policies of the office.”
The speed with which the federal government has forged ahead with the grand jury has surprised insiders in Schock’s circle as well as onlookers in Washington. And the probe appears to be at full throttle. According to several people familiar with the matter, the government is homing in on his office’s finance and reimbursement practices.
Yeah, man. This is going really fast.
* Meanwhile, I’m told by US Sen. Mark Kirk’s people that Kirk has endorsed state Sen. Darin LaHood in the special election.
Springfield School Board member Adam Lopez says he wants to be the Democratic nominee in the coming special election to take the seat of former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria, in the 18th Congressional District.
“Some of my close friends have always known I want to run for Congress,” Lopez said Wednesday. He said he had planned on running for Illinois House against new state Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, but his focus is on Congress now that Schock resigned.
Lopez, 32, a financial representative with County Financial — selling insurance and investment products — also said he has hoped to be able to keep that job and not take the $174,000 annual congressional salary, if that is allowed by Congress and his employer.
However, House ethics rules put a cap on outside income of House members, to $27,255 in 2015. And even if a member of the House were to return their salary, the cap would apparently still apply.
* As I told you before, Brian Hopkins is a friend of mine going back to our college days. We were actually roommates for a while. Brian won his 2nd Ward aldermanic race yesterday by a wide 56-44 margin.
Hopkins has always wanted to be in public service. He’s also an entrepreneur at heart (he’s owned a couple of restaurants), so that, in my opinion, gives him a good life balance.
Brian served as the executive director of the Illinois Coalition to End Homelessness and eventually went on to win the presidency of the highly influential Chicago community group SOAR, Streeterville Organization of Active Residents. He has both a sound philosophical grounding and an eagerness and ability to solve problems for his people.
But the political game is a lot about luck. Are you in the right district, in the right year, against the right opponent? Heck, people sometimes wait decades for an opportunity to present itself. Sometimes, it never does. Hopkins patiently bided his time, and when the new ward boundaries were drawn, he recognized the opportunity and carefully pieced together a battle plan and a core team, including a very capable fundraiser, Mia Phifer, who proved invaluable down the stretch when Hopkins’ opponent Alyx Pattison was raking in large union contributions.
* One of the issues that Pattison used against Hopkins was the involvement of Victor Reyes and Mike Noonan in Hopkins’ campaign. Hopkins’ benchmark polling, I’m told, showed that it wouldn’t move more than a handful of voters. Hopkins did retaliate, though, by dredging up the imprisonment of Congresscritter Jan Schakowsky’s husband Bob Creamer in a mailer. Schakowsky was one of Pattison’s most prominent backers. It was basically just a little “love tap” to show they were paying attention.
Pattison’s attacks actually backfired because, as the earlier polling had showed, voters didn’t care. Reyes was “Public Enemy Number One” for years among a certain crowd, but he hasn’t been in the news for ages. The attacks energized Reyes and Noonan, who ended up leaving nothing on the field. They put everything they physically had into that race.
* Reyes called me last night to sing the praises of two people. The first was 42nd Ward Ald. Brendan Reilly, an old friend of mine whom I endorsed during his first aldermanic race in my Sun-Times column.
Reyes said he’d run a lot of aldermanic races in his day, but he’d never seen any alderman work as hard to elect somebody else to the city council as Reilly did. Indeed, Ald. Reilly was an early Hopkins backer and pumped in a ton of money ($75K). The guy was absolutely relentless. He wrote the direct mail and produced the TV ads (something he did when he was on House Speaker Madigan’s staff).
Reilly also supplied Hopkins with a campaign manager, Matt Cain. Reilly and Cain were all-in. And not to take anything away from Hopkins, but there would probably not have been such a victory last night without those two very skilled men.
* Reyes said another hero was Kevin Fanning. You may remember Kevin because he was my intern several years ago.
After Kevin got his master’s degree from UIUC, he signed on with Reyes and Noonan. I had some trepidation about that. The Reyes stuff was still kinda fresh. I also wanted him to keep his promise to me that he’d go to law school. But I also knew that most of the attacks on Reyes were just plain goofy (and despite all the confident predictions from his detractors, Reyes emerged without a legal mark on him). And Kevin wanted to do it, so whatever. It’s his life, and he swore to me that he’d complete his law degree. Kevin ran the Jeffrey Tobolski campaign on behalf of Reyes and Noonan against Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, who most thought couldn’t be beat. As you may recall, Peraica lost and ended up being convicted for damaging a Tobolski campaign sign.
* Commissioner Tobolski hired Kevin after the campaign and it turned out that Brian Hopkins’ office was right next door. Brian was Cook County Commissioner John Daley’s chief of staff back then. So, I reached out to Hopkins and asked him if he’d please keep an eye out for my former intern. He went far beyond that, however, and became Kevin’s mentor. And when Brian left Commissioner Daley’s office to run for alderman, he recommended Kevin for the job.
Kevin was Hopkins’ original campaign treasurer, and he pushed hard to convince Reyes and Noonan to bring their considerable field operation to the Hopkins race. He eventually took a brief leave of absence from his county gig to work for Hopkins and helped finish the campaign, keeping the candidate motivated and focused on the specific tasks at hand 24/7.
Last week, Kevin was notified that he’d passed his state bar exam. This week, one of his most important mentors was elected to the Chicago City Council. Not a bad few days, if you ask me.
* I’ve known Mike Noonan since former state Rep. Clem Balanoff brought him to Springfield many, many moons ago. He rose through the House Democratic staff ranks and became a star.
Brendan Reilly was also on staff back then, and the two developed a strong rivalry. They seemed at times to be brothers fighting to be the favorite Madigan son. They were constantly griping about each other, while doing their best to outwork and out-succeed the other guy. It worked out great for Madigan, but some very hard feelings built up over the years.
Because of that, the two never worked together after they left the House, until the Hopkins race. From what I gathered, they worked quite well together and reestablished their old friendship. Both Reilly and Noonan sent me this photo of the two of them at the Hopkins victory party last night…
I don’t know if they’ll ever work together again, but if they do, watch out.
* Gov. Bruce Rauner expanded on yesterday’s remarks to the Daily Herald about how the Illinois Supreme Court was “corrupt,” too “activist” and biased…
Rauner, too, has pushed cutting pension benefits to help pull the state out of the red. But in a sign of his distrust of the court, he is talking about seeking a constitutional amendment in an attempt to get around language in the state constitution that holds public pension benefits cannot “be diminished or impaired.”
The justices on the high court signaled devotion to that language when they ruled in favor of retirees in a separate case last summer involving an attempt to make retirees pay more for their state-subsidized health care. The court ruled 6-1 that the language in the constitution was “aimed at protecting the right to receive the promised retirement benefits, not the adequacy of the funding to pay for them.”
Rauner told the Tribune on Monday he thought the court’s ruling in that case was “off base.” He said he wants to use a constitutional amendment to “end-run the years of lawsuits” that would come from his plan to reduce pension benefits.
“We can’t just let the Supreme Court decide these issues just with the vague language we’ve got now,” Rauner said. “I have no confidence.”
Rauner previously said he wanted to wait for the Supreme Court ruling on the 2013 law so that justices could provide guidance on whether pensions could be altered. Rauner has discussed a plan to grant current workers the benefits they are owed until July 1, then shift them all into a pension plan for newer employees with vastly reduced benefits.
“Vague language”? Is he kidding?
That language is perfectly clear and for a very good reason: The drafters specifically wanted to prevent bills like SB1 from passage. Period. End of story.
His problem isn’t with the Supreme Court, his problem is with the Illinois Constitution. OK, fine. But changing the Constitution can’t be done with a flick of a wrist. That’s a bigtime ask.
And, as a commenter pointed out yesterday, his previous talk about wanting to wait for the Supreme Court to give the other two branches some sort of direction forward was essentially asking the Supremes to be activist legislators and not simply justices ruling narrowly on the case directly in front of them.
But this guy just has to create strawman enemies. It’s his schtick. It ain’t gonna end. Ever.
* On WGN Radio this morning, Rauner said the Daily Herald took his comments out of context. He’s not just talking about the Supremes, Rauner said, he’s talking about the entire judicial branch, which can take campaign cash from lawyers who then argue cases in front of them.
That is a common critique of the judicial branch, but it’s also a a critique of the legislative and executive branches. Rauner, for instance, signed the Ameren/ComEd bill into law last week. Those companies give tons of campaign money to legislators and he just enabled and reinforced that entire process, regardless of the bill’s actual merits.
Only ideological amateurs and corrupt hucksters claim to be purists in this business. Let’s hope it’s the former with this governor and not the latter.
* Radar Online, a celebrity gossip site, claims to have obtained exclusive photos of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich…
The publication also claims that Blagojevich has suffered some sort of “breakdown” in prison, constantly mutters about President Obama, mostly keeps to himself and is somehow being protected by a Texas gang.
Weird stuff. Take it all with a grain of salt, but that pic sure does look like him.
Tuesday, Apr 7, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Question: What do members of our congressional delegation, two former Obama Administration officials, a former Bush Administration official and a former U.S. Senator and Governor from a neighboring state all agree on?
Answer: Preventing the premature closure of Illinois’ nuclear energy plants is critically important to our environment and our economy.
• Former U.S. EPA Administrators Carol Browner and Christie Todd Whitman: “Nuclear Energy Is Critical to Fighting Climate Change.”
- Real Clear Energy, March 12, 2015
• U.S. Representatives Adam Kinzinger and Cheri Bustos: “Illinois Reps Urge Nuclear Solution.”
- The Times, March 4, 2015
• Former U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk: “Illinois Must Protect Its Nuclear Energy.”
- Daily Herald, February 13, 2015
• Former Indiana Governor and U.S. Senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.): “Nuclear Energy Plants Well Worth Saving In Illinois.”
- Chicago Sun-Times, February 4, 2015
Illinois depends on reliable, clean-air energy from nuclear facilities to power Illinois and drive our economy. But three of Illinois’ six nuclear plants are at risk of closing prematurely, and the consequences of these closures would be catastrophic:
• $1.8 billion every year in lost economic activity
• Nearly 8,000 jobs
• Up to $500 million annually in higher energy costs statewide, according to a PJM analysis
• $1.1 billion per year due to increases in carbon and other pollutants
• Hundreds of millions of dollars to construct new transmission lines
Only one legislative solution - the Illinois Low Carbon Portfolio Standard (LCPS) - would help prevent these closures. The LCPS is good for Illinois consumers, good for our economy and good for our environment.
Members of the Illinois General Assembly:
VOTE YES ON HB 3293 / SB 1585
Tuesday, Apr 7, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
“ComEd has long believed that competitive markets will work in the best interests of our customers. So we are concerned about the negative impact on our customers from a requirement that would force utilities to buy subsidized generation at above-market prices.” (Crain’s, February 28, 2013)
Exelon’s Bailout Legislation is Gross Overreach- Exelon has asserted, but not proven, it needs a bailout for three of its Illinois nuclear facilities yet proposed a subsidy for all six Illinois nukes.
No Faith Based Bailouts - Exelon has refused to disclose any information to prove their plants will be in trouble.
Federal Bailout for Exelon Later this Spring – The coming grid auction, under new rules Exelon lobbied for, is expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars per year for Exelon’s Illinois nuclear plants.
Ratepayer Impact Too Great – The Exelon legislation is going to cost struggling Illinois businesses and consumers $1.6 billion in rate increases over the next five years.
Proposed Solution Not “Market-Based” – The Exelon legislation contains restrictions to ensure only Exelon’s nuclear plants qualify.
Just say no to the Exelon Bailout! Vote no on SB 1585/HB 3293.
Rauner told the Daily Herald editorial board he’s working toward a different pension plan that seeks to break what he calls a “corrupt bargain” between union leaders and politicians who can get campaign money from them.
“I don’t trust the Supreme Court to be rational in their decisions,” Rauner said. “I think they’re activist judges who want to be legislators.”
Asked if the state Supreme Court is part of the same “corrupt” system, Rauner replied: “Yes, correct. Yes. Yes. We have a system where we elect our judges, and the trial lawyers who argue cases in front of those judges give campaign cash to those judges. It’s a corrupt system.” […]
“You tell me if you look at who gives them the money and you decide whether there’s a conflict of interest going on in the courts,” Rauner said. “You tell me. Do you think there’s not?”
I happen to think that we have a pretty good Supreme Court here. I’m not a big fan of much of the appellate bench, but the Supremes get a lot more right than they get wrong. Are there some questionable circumstances at the edges? Maybe, but how many Supreme Court justices have been sent to prison in Illinois’ history? Any? [Adding: OK, back in 1969] Now compare that to the other two branches.
And the “fix” Rauner wants is to allow himself to pick all Supreme Court and appellate judges. But they won’t be influenced by his kabillions?
* Rauner’s pattern is if he doesn’t like something then it’s corrupt. If he does like something, well, then it’s all about the 1st Amendment or some other holy writ.
I’d like to see the governor actually show us some history and some facts to back up his claims about this particular Supreme Court. But, really, this is just one more in a long line of over-blown comic book statements.
It also sets the stage for the failure of the pension law, which he can then blame on those evil unions.
…Adding… Rauner said this about Indiana and his own economic development plan, but it applies here as well…
“I am one of the baddest, you know, enemies anybody can have. And when I set a goal, we do it. I don’t care what the headline is. I want the results.”
“Well then, business will have to suffer, all right? And listen, do me a favor, Tom. No more advice on how to patch things up, just help me win, please. All right?”
…Adding More… From comments…
This isn’t political posturing, it’s destabilizing. This isn’t some person throwing accusations from the peanut gallery, this is the sitting Governor talking about his co-equal branch of government.
“No, no, no! No more! Not this time, Consigliere! No more meetin’s! No more discussions! No more Solozzo tricks! You give ‘em one message - I want Solozzo. If not, it’s all-out war, we go to the mattresses.”
Tuesday, Apr 7, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
My name is Wendy Warmowski. My son, Jacob, was a perfectly healthy, happy toddler until several medical errors changed his life forever.
Jacob was diagnosed with an ear infection and given antibiotics. When his antibiotic was nearly finished he took a turn for the worse. We eventually ended up in the ER.
At the ER, Jacob should have had immediate attention and care, but instead we waited. Jacob was eventually diagnosed with strep pneumomeningitis. The doctors ordered antibiotics to be given immediately, but instead we waited again. Because of the delay in treating Jacob he had 6 strokes, fell into a coma and had to have a tube placed down his throat to help him breath. The doctors told me Jacob might not ever wake up from the coma or come off of the ventilator.
Today, Jacob continues to have physical and mental issues. He has vision problems, balance difficulties, attention issues and epilepsy. He has to have special schooling and goes to occupational, physical and speech therapy several times a week.
The civil justice system allowed our family to hold the doctors responsible for their errors and delays that resulted in Jacob’s brain injury. Our settlement allows us to give Jacob the best care he could have so that he can live the best life he can. Trust me; I’d return it all to have that happy, perfectly healthy toddler back.
The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association fights to ensure all citizens get equal footing in the courtroom. To read more about Jacob’s story, click here.
The satellite TV industry in Illinois has started fighting a potential tax it says could add 5 percent to customers’ bills.
A specific proposal isn’t yet being broadcast in Springfield, but it has come up before. And satellite companies said they shouldn’t be taxed just because cable companies have to pay franchise fees with communities that let them use land to run their wires. […]
Cable providers have proposed the tax before saying it would help level the playing field for TV providers. Several years ago, it was approved by the Illinois Senate but didn’t advance further.
“We’re paying 5 percent for the cost of doing business,” Joe Hadley, President of the Cable Television & Communications Association of Illinois, said.
Cable TV companies pay a 5 percent franchise fee to operate in the state. However, McCabe noted that cable uses public rights-of-way for its technology.
“We don’t use the right-of-way,” she said. “It is not a loophole. It is a different technology.”
Mark Denzler, vice president and chief executive officer of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, said Illinois has a number of businesses that manufacture components for the satellite TV industry. He said the AMA is concerned that a tax on satellite TV could cost the industry customers and, consequently, hurt the businesses that produce the components.
Dan Clausner, executive director of the Illinois Licensed Beverage Association, said many bars and restaurants, particularly in rural areas, depend on satellite service to provide television in their establishments.
In all, the industry said it serves 1.3 million households in Illinois, which represents about one third of the homes that subscribe to television.
The idea is being bandied about by some as a possible revenue source for a new capital construction program. So…
* The Question: Should satellite TV users pay a 5 percent service tax to help fund a capital bill? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* The Tribune editorial board gushed all over Gov. Rauner today, calling his agenda “The Rauner Revolution”…
“We have a moral duty to have an efficient government. The tax money belongs to the taxpayers. It doesn’t belong to the bureaucracy, and government is not a welfare system.”
— Gov. Bruce Rauner to the Tribune Editorial Board, April 6, 2015.
The common gold-throated U.S. officeholder, politicianus americanus, enters conversations desperate to please you, the voter, right now. Ask about any substantive issue — immigration policy, coal standards, Asian carp — and you’ll often get an obsequious answer intended to convey empathy: “I share your concern about your issue. I’ve looked into it, and, um, everything should be on the table!”
Not so with the rookie governor of Illinois. Bruce Rauner sounds as if he wants to get to every issue, eventually. Now, though, he’s focused on precisely one item: an agenda he calls The Illinois Turnaround. He’s barnstorming the state this week, distributing thick binders and committing himself to transform our governments — especially the broke, broken one headquartered in Springfield.
* And, as usual, the Tribites ain’t worried about the details because WE HAVE A NEW SAINT…
We hope, though, that voters who elected him in November see the thrust of this agenda, if not its every jot and tittle, as a path to growing Illinois’ economy and thus its revenues.
Rauner says the package would save state and local governments money and would make the business climate in Illinois more competitive. But during the hourlong meeting, the rookie governor repeatedly steered discussion away from specifics, preferring instead to drive home his contention that “the system is rigged” against taxpayers and employers.
One such moment came when Rauner railed against public worker unions that donate heavily to further their political aims. Asked how he intended to get a ban on union campaign contributions through a legislature that is heavily backed by organized labor, Rauner pointed to the binders his staff had prepared.
“Read it,” he said. “Change the law … that’s what our proposal is.”
Pressed to explain, Rauner simply said: “Crisis. Crisis creates leverage.”
But specifics are important, because you gotta pass a bill. So let’s take a look.
Workers’ compensation is a no-fault system. To recover on a workers’ compensation claim, the employee bears the burden of showing s/he has sustained accidental injuries arising out of and in the course of employment.
Currently, if the employment is related at all to the injury, no matter how indirectly, the employee’s injury is compensable. If a work injury aggravates a pre-existing condition even slightly, the employer is 100% liable for the workers’ compensation claim.
Twenty-nine states have a higher causation standard than Illinois. Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee recently passed laws requiring the workplace to be the primary cause for workers’ compensation to be compensable. Florida’s major contributing cause standard is identical to the one we are proposing.
Proposal
• The causation standard should be raised from an “any cause” standard to a “major contributing cause” standard. The accident at work must be more than 50% responsible for the injury compared to all other causes.
* Some have the tiniest bits of meat added. For instance…
This legislation would repeal the Illinois Prevailing Wage Law. Projects funded by the federal government would still be subject to federal requirements, including the Davis-Bacon Act. Wages would also still be subject to generally-applicable state laws, such as the Illinois minimum wage. While home- rule local governments would be able to determine local prevailing wages, a local prevailing wage would not apply to a state-funded project (but a federal prevailing wage would continue to apply, if the project is federally funded).
This legislation would authorize local governments, acting through their governing bodies or by voter- initiated referenda, to exclude certain topics from collective bargaining. These topics include:
• Use of third-party contractors;
• Wages in excess of aggregate limits established by the local government;
• Health insurance benefits;
• Use of employee time for the business of the labor organization;
• Required levels of staffing;
• Procedures and criteria for personnel evaluations and use of seniority; and
• In the case of schools, curriculum or standards of student academic performance, conduct, and
discipline in school.
This legislation explicitly authorizes municipal bankruptcy. There are no requirements, pre-conditions or other limitations to a municipality’s access to Chapter 9 in the proposed legislation. The decision whether to file is left entirely up to a municipality.
Rep. Ron Sandack has already agreed to create some sort of board to help municipalities find a way out of bankruptcy. Rauner wants none of that.
• Starting in property tax year 2016, payable in 2017, all property tax extensions from local taxing districts will be equal to the extension from 2015.
• This will impact home rule and non-home rule units of government and both PTELL and non- PTELL counties.
• It will still be possible for a property owner to see fluctuations in property tax bills due to an increase/decrease in value, new construction or the expiration of a tax increment financing district.
• Through a referendum voters may decide to break through the property tax freeze.
And, “there’s no chance of the property tax freeze” Rauner wants to impose, [GOP state Sen. Dave Syverson] said, because “he’s already cutting funding for local government.”
State funding cuts are threatening services for people living with autism, as families who receive help through a program called the Autism Project say they will be devastated by its elimination.
The Autism Project says Gov. Bruce Rauner confirmed the decision to cut funding for the remainder of the 2015 fiscal year Thursday - on World Autism Day. […]
Help for autism is not covered under Medicaid.
Yes, let’s confirm our autism program elmination on World Autism Day! Hooray for us!
House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, told lawmakers on the House floor in late March — before the House and Senate voted on a bipartisan plan to resolve the $1.6 billion shortfall — that state funding for TAP and many other programs for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities would be preserved this fiscal year.
The budget compromise included appropriation authority for TAP to operate through the close of the fiscal year, TAP officials said.
“It appears that Gov. Rauner has turned his back on the budget process for the remainder of this fiscal year, which he and legislative leaders negotiated and passed less than two weeks ago,” Bonanno said. “We can’t understand why he gave his word and then took this action.”
Madigan walked out on a limb, and Rauner sawed it off.
Wonderful.
* The autism cut was only part of a list of grants that Rauner’s administration cut or eliminated on Good Friday/Passover…
Gov. Bruce Rauner suspended $26 million in social services and public health grants as part of his push to whittle away at a $1.6 billion shortfall in the current state budget.
The Republican’s office released a list of targeted programs late Friday that included funding to pay for the funerals and burials of public-assistance recipients, smoking cessation, teen programs, autism, and HIV and AIDS programs, among other things. Rauner also froze $3.4 million in funding for immigrant integration assistance as part of his ongoing efforts to keep the state rolling through the June 30 end of the fiscal year. […]
“Part of the solution to solving the inherited $1.6 billion budget hole without raising taxes or increasing borrowing is to continue to evaluate the current fiscal year’s budget,” Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said. “The governor’s office worked with agencies to see which grants could be suspended and prioritized essential services.”
The cuts will save the state $21.8 million in Department of Human Services grants and $4.5 million in unexpended funding through the Department of Public Health.
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s recent suspension of state payments for indigent funerals will lead to delays in bodies being picked up from hospitals, nursing homes and morgues, funeral industry officials said Monday.
“You will see the coroner system holding bodies longer and funeral homes less able to do a removal if they don’t really know there’s a payment source,” said Jay Markwell, a funeral director from Casey and president of the Illinois Funeral Directors Association.
The Rauner administration informed the association a few days ago that it will stop paying claims submitted after Jan. 15 for funerals of public-aid recipients. The action is estimated to save $6.9 million in the current fiscal year and is part of $26 million in cuts Rauner announced last week.
Rauner has proposed zeroing-out funding for the program in fiscal 2016.
The state in recent years has paid between $10 million and $11 million annually for the program, which reimburses up to $1,103 for a funeral and about $500 for burial expenses for indigent clients. Between 8,500 and 9,900 funerals are covered each year.
That was by far the largest cut in Friday’s blood-letting.
“The suspension of grant funding for epilepsy, autism, developmental disabilities, and mental health programs is devastating to the individuals that rely on these services to receive effective medical treatment and care. These programs are designed to keep individuals out of the emergency room, employed, in school, and save the state millions of dollars in healthcare and disability costs. Elimination of these programs will only put individuals out of work, increase costs to state run medical care programs, and endanger the lives and well-being of hundreds of thousands Illinoisans living with developmental disabilities and mental health issues.”
Governor Rauner says some of the millions of dollars in state grants to social service agencies that he froze on Friday may begin flowing again.
But agencies that counsel drug addicts, the homeless, autistic people and others may need a little patience as the Rauner administration reviews the state’s budget that’s over a billion dollars short – for the period just until the end of June.
“So what I’ll do is just stop things, freeze it where we are today and then bring some thoughtful discipline to it and then free up the money and go back and reauthorize some grants, start spending a little bit more again but do it on a more thoughtful basis,” Rauner said.
The Republican says his management team is reviewing the grants and some could be reissued in days, others in a couple of months.
The former chairman of the legislative Black Caucus on Wednesday endorsed Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the April 7 runoff just six months after delivering a rare public tongue-lashing to the mayor and Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy.
State Rep. Ken Dunkin (D-Chicago) acknowledged he has a contentious “history with the mayor,” particularly when it comes to crime statistics that on Wednesday showed a troubling spike in homicides and shootings during the first quarter of the year. […]
But he also argued that Emanuel has “grown” and “matured” after being forced to fight for his political life in Chicago’s first-ever mayoral runoff.
“You see him engaged a little differently [and] better. He’s out in the communities . . . I see him having two ears, instead of just one mouthpiece. The bottom line is, he is listening more and he’s gonna be that much better of a mayor going forward,” Dunkin said. […]
When Emanuel heard himself described as having “two ears, instead of just one mouthpiece,” he turned to Dunkin and joked, “Your time at the mike’s over.”
Heh.
But that’s not our quotable.
* The endorsement sparked some questions online about whether this was an official Legislative Black Caucus endorsement. It wasn’t, explained Chuy Garcia’s political director…
I think the phrase Clem may have been searching for was “Not the brightest porch light on the block,” but still…
* Paul F. Campos writes about the real reason behind skyrocketing college tuition in the New York Times..
For example, when I was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan in 1980, my parents were paying more than double the resident tuition that undergraduates had been charged in 1960, again in inflation-adjusted terms. And of course tuition has kept rising far faster than inflation in the years since: Resident tuition at Michigan this year is, in today’s dollars, nearly four times higher than it was in 1980.
State appropriations reached a record inflation-adjusted high of $86.6 billion in 2009. They declined as a consequence of the Great Recession, but have since risen to $81 billion. And these totals do not include the enormous expansion of the federal Pell Grant program, which has grown, in today’s dollars, to $34.3 billion per year from $10.3 billion in 2000. […]
Interestingly, increased spending has not been going into the pockets of the typical professor. Salaries of full-time faculty members are, on average, barely higher than they were in 1970. Moreover, while 45 years ago 78 percent of college and university professors were full time, today half of post-secondary faculty members are lower-paid part-time employees, meaning that the average salaries of the people who do the teaching in American higher education are actually quite a bit lower than they were in 1970.
By contrast, a major factor driving increasing costs is the constant expansion of university administration. According to the Department of Education data, administrative positions at colleges and universities grew by 60 percent between 1993 and 2009, which Bloomberg reported was 10 times the rate of growth of tenured faculty positions.
Even more strikingly, an analysis by a professor at California Polytechnic University, Pomona, found that, while the total number of full-time faculty members in the C.S.U. system grew from 11,614 to 12,019 between 1975 and 2008, the total number of administrators grew from 3,800 to 12,183 — a 221 percent increase.
* Greg Hinz looks at the various budget promises made by both Chicago mayoral candidates and concludes…
Ergo, after we see what each man can get out of Gov. Bruce Rauner—Emanuel’s list looks far more likely to me than Garcia’s—we’re back to the one revenue source that is absolutely within the control of the city: the property tax.
I can hear the screaming already. But for those who are upset, I would point you to a recent study by the Civic Federation about how, relative to property values, Chicago homeowners pay a third less than those who live in Evanston, barely half of what they get charged in Schaumburg or Oak Park, and half or less of what homeowners are dinged in Elgin, Aurora, Buffalo Grove and Joliet.
Either Chicago property taxes are going up, at least somewhat, or the city is going down. It’s that simple.
This annual report compares effective property tax rates in the six-county region of northeastern Illinois between 2003 and 2012. Effective tax rates for nearly all selected communities rose between 2011 and 2012, the most recent year for which data are available. Among the 12 selected Cook County communities, the Civic Federation found Harvey had the highest effective tax rate for residential properties at 8.87% in tax year 2012, while Chicago had the lowest residential rate at 1.84%.
Residential property tax rates in Chicago have risen by more than 30% since 2003, while all other selected communities in Cook County have experienced residential property tax increases of at least 55% over the ten year period. Commercial property tax rates also increased in the selected Cook County communities between 2003 and 2012, ranging from an increase of 4.1% in Evanston to an increase of 61.1% in Harvey.
* The AP looks at a questionable Aaron Schock campaign committee mileage reimbursement…
The political director of Schock for Congress, Karen McDonald Haney, received a payment of $4,755.40 on Dec. 20, 2014, labeled “mileage reimbursement” on campaign finance forms filed with the Federal Election Commission.
That payment to Haney, who also is a former political reporter at the Peoria Journal Star, is far larger than any of the travel reimbursements she was paid in February, March, April, July, August, September and October of last year, or four others recorded in September, November and December of 2013. The largest of those checks was $478.80, and appeared to cover all time between Dec. 18, 2013, and Feb. 21, 2014. […]
Travel to some political functions throughout the sprawling, 19-county district was standard with the position.
However, at the standard IRS mileage rate of 56.5 cents per mile in 2014, Haney’s December payment equates to 8,491.78 miles traveled — one-third of the circumference of the Earth. It equates to 157.25 miles per day, assuming she traveled on each of the 54 days between her Oct. 28 payment and the Dec. 20 check, including the Thanksgiving holiday.
That amount actually exceeds the amount on all checks labeled mileage on Schock for Congress disbursement records filed with the FEC for 2012 and 2013 combined, for all campaign staff. Those years together added up to $3,652.86. It also dwarfs the $1,996.51 Haney received in mileage reimbursements for the remainder of 2014.
