An effort in Springfield to overhaul Illinois’ clean-energy law to jump-start stalled renewable power projects in the state is dead for this legislative session.
The initiative — pursued for more than a year by environmentalists who say the state’s law to require more of the power consumed here to come from clean sources is broken — has stalled. So says state Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, who has led the negotiations over the issue.
He confirmed the effort died after Exelon Corp., by far the most influential energy industry player in Illinois, threatened earlier this year to close two or three of its six nuclear power plants in the state due in part to subsidized wind farms that it says are dampening power prices and making some of its nukes unprofitable.
The issue, he said, “caused everyone to take a step back.”
* Not long after that story appeared, I received this press release from Speaker Madigan’s office…
A coalition of regional labor leaders, public officials and Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan have won assurances from Exelon to maintain operations at three Illinois facilities for 12 months
“I am happy to confirm that our efforts to preserve jobs in the Quad Cities and Clinton have been successful. The outcome is the result of a concerted effort by labor leaders and elected officials to ensure these families will continue on the job,” Madigan explained.
“When published accounts triggered speculation Exelon might alter operations, I went to work with others to ensure these working families would not be threatened. Today we can report success,” Madigan.
Shifting electricity usage and marketing patterns apparently triggered the speculation and led to discussions that produced the assurances to Madigan.
The Speaker also cited the willingness of Exelon CEO and President Chris Crane to discuss Exelon’s operations and publicly assure the government and labor leaders of the company’s plan. Exelon operates 11 nuclear reactors in six locations. More than 5,300 persons are employed at the facilities.
The powerful Democrat from Chicago chided reporters for suggesting he would be twisting arms in the coming days, saying that’s not how he plans to win support for what amounts to an election year tax increase.
“We’re not in the business of issuing threats,” Madigan said.
He doesn’t need to issue threats. People know what to expect.
So how seriously should you take Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan’s proposal yesterday to rein in the state’s main job incentive program, so-called EDGE tax credits?
The answer likely depends on just how many votes the speaker has — or still needs — to pass a permanent extension of the state’s “temporary” income tax hike in the waning days of the General Assembly’s spring session. And on who might be inclined to provide those votes.
According to a variety of well-placed sources, revamping the Economic Development for a Growing Economy credits is one of a series of still-moving pieces on the wider income tax chessboard. Also reportedly in play are a possible cut in the state’s corporate income tax rate, an increase in the earned income tax credit for working families, Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed $500-a-home property tax “refund,” and a permanent extension of the tax credit for research and development.
* The Question: Will Speaker Madigan pass the tax hike extension? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
The Illinois unemployment rate hit a new five-year low in April when it fell to 7.9 percent, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Illinois Department of Employment Security. More people working pushed the rate down 0.5 points, the lowest since December 2008 and largest monthly decline in the history of this data series which began in 1976. […]
In April 2014, the number of unemployed individuals fell -35,700 (-6.5 percent) to 516,000. Total unemployed has fallen -237,500 (-31.5 percent) since January 2010 when the rate peaked at 11.4 percent. The unemployment rate fell even though preliminary estimates indicate 7,800 fewer private sector jobs in April and 29,300 more jobs than one year ago. The unemployment rate and job creation numbers can move independently of each other because they come from different surveys.
The unemployment rate is in line with other economic touch points. First-time jobless claims have been trending lower for the past four years and at 48,697 in April are 20 percent lower than one year ago. Numbers from the independent Conference Board’s Help Wanted OnLine Survey show Illinois employers in April advertised for more than 200,000 jobs (201,500 seasonally adjusted) and 85 percent sought full-time employment.
Illinois employers added +249,600 private sector jobs since the low point of employment in Illinois. Leading sectors are Professional and Business Services (+114,600, +14.6 percent); Education and Health Services (+55,900, +6.8 percent); and Leisure and Hospitality (+38,000, +7.4 percent). Government (-25,600, -3.0 percent) continues to lead job loss.
* However, Illinois has lost 8,900 manufacturing jobs in the past twelve months, according to IDES, including a whopping 3,500 last month alone.
And while 20,000 new jobs were gained in the professional and business services category during the past 12 months, 7,100 jobs in that category disappeared in April.
* Remember the 2013 bill I wrote about recently which was co-sponsored by 11 Democrats to roll the income tax hike all the way back to 3 percent? Those co-sponsors were…
Martin J. Moylan - Stephanie A. Kifowit - Sam Yingling - Katherine Cloonen - Natalie A. Manley, Deborah Conroy, Sue Scherer, Jerry F. Costello, II, Carol A. Sente, Patrick J. Verschoore and Kathleen Willis
* The Chicago Tribune editorial page dug up comments from individual House Democrats on the temporary tax hike and found five others who went on record against making it permanent…
“I would vote to repeal the tax increase. I would not support extending the tax increase.”
— State Rep. Michelle Mussman, D-Schaumburg
“We made a promise to the taxpayers and we should keep to that promise. It was a temporary increase and it should be kept that way.”
— State Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates
“I do not support extending the increase.”
— State Rep. Kelly Burke, D-Evergreen Park
“I do believe the tax should be truly temporary. We should say what we mean and mean what we say.”
— State Rep. Fran Hurley, D-Chicago
“The tax should expire as planned.”
— State Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley
Add in Rep. Jack Franks as a sure “No” vote and newly appointed Democratic Rep. Anna Moeller and that’s 18 Democrats who’ve said publicly that they didn’t want to extend the tax hike.
Madigan has 71 Democrats. 71-18=53. 60 votes are needed for passage.
Of course, Rep. Mautino is a member of Madigan’s leadership team, so I assume some have already flipped.
Democrats in the Illinois House began advancing a budget Wednesday that is built on the presumption that the legislature will extend the state’s temporary income tax increase.
House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said setting the spending plan first will “set the bar” and help convince House members to vote for the tax increase.
But Republican House member Dennis Reboletti of Elmhurst said setting a budget, before knowing revenue, is putting the cart before the horse.
“That’s not how a business operates. That’s not how my family operates its budget,” Reboletti said, adding that you don’t buy a new house and “hope to have more money.”
* Madigan had some blunt words for those who believe that passing a budget without the tax hike revenues included could wind up as unconstitutional…
Republicans also argued that the math being used by Democrats was unconstitutional, noting the nearly $4 billion shortfall that could result and pointing to a provision in the Illinois Constitution that states “appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.” […]
Madigan dismissed the legal concerns as “fiction,” and Rep. Greg Harris, a Chicago Democrat who chairs the human services appropriations committee, argued that lawmakers must first determine what they want to spend money on before asking taxpayers to pony up for it. He said there were other revenue ideas floating around the Capitol beyond the tax increase, such as the possibility of keeping more of the tax money sent to local towns, though that proposal has failed to gain traction.
“It’s not responsible,” said state Sen. Dan Kotowski, a Park Ridge Democrat and budget committee chairman. “I’d have a very hard time voting for a budget based on revenue that we don’t have.” […]
State Sen. Heather Steans, a Senate appropriations chairwoman who like Kotowski says she can’t support a spending plan without having hard revenue estimates in place, outlined a strategy in which the Senate would wait to act on any House spending plan until it also produced a revenue measure. Cullerton has said for weeks that he’s confident he has the 30 votes needed for a tax increase in the Senate.
“I think we sit on their budget for a period of time and see what happens on the House on the Revenue. Hopefully they will send that over too,” Steans said.
Steans noted, however, that the Senate’s approval of a House budget is no sure thing.
Along with backing a change in a business tax incentive program, Madigan said he supports legislation that would cut the corporate income tax rate in half.
“I’m prepared to advance that bill… as part of a balanced package,” Madigan said.
There’ll have to be a whole lot of reworking the numbers if he goes through with that, unless he finds other revenues.
* As I told you yesterday, the Humane Society decided to drop its efforts to ban pet stores from selling dogs and cats from breeders and require them to sell only animals from shelters. The bill was strongly supported by Gov. Pat Quinn, but they ran into opposition and they’ve considerably reduced the scope of their bill. From their fact sheet…
The Legislation
• Senate Amendment 3 to HB 4056 limits pet stores to purchasing dogs only from breeders who:
1. Are licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA);
2. Have not committed a direct violation of USDA regulations during the previous two years;
3. Have not committed three or more indirect violations of USDA regulations during the previous two years; and,
4. Have not received “No Access” violations from the USDA on their two most recent visits.
Promotes the Sale of Dogs and Cats from Reputable Breeders
• Senate Amendment 3 to HB 4056 does not ban the sale of the dogs and cats by pet stores that have been purchased from breeders.
• The Amendment simply requires that pet stores only obtain the dogs and cats they purchase for sale from reputable breeders who have not been in serious violation of USDA pet-dealer regulations.
Reasonable Approach
• Senate Amendment 3 to HB 4056 is modeled after legislation recently passed unanimously in Connecticut.
• The Amendment would address concerns of closing businesses, as this will not prohibit pet stores from selling puppies as long as they are in compliance.
• This amendment reduces the likelihood that pet stores obtain their puppies from a puppy mill.
Two bills advanced together out of committee Wednesday which would regulate ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft statewide, much to the dismay of the app-based entrepreneurs involved.
The legislative couple — House Bill 4075 and its trailer House Bill 5331 — passed 11-2 and 13-2, respectively, in the Senate Executive Committee.
“The bill creates regulations and requirements for commercial ride-sharing arrangements or transportation and personal-use vehicle prearranged through a dispatcher for a fee,” said Sen. Antonio “Tony” Munoz, D-Chicago, the bills’ chief Senate sponsor.
HB 4075 moves to the Senate floor while HB 5331, if it passes the full Senate, would go back to the House for final approval, a scenario that Munoz said he’s “100-percent” certain will happen.
In addition to mandating companies provide liability insurance, the combined effect of the bills would divide ride-sharing drivers into two tiers, based on the number of hours they work.
* From ride-sharing company Lyft…
Passing this legislation will place severe limits on Lyft and other ridesharing platforms, drastically decreasing the availability of safe and affordable rides. The bill prohibits ridesharing for cars that are more than four years old, even when stringently insured and background-checked, potentially eliminating 70 percent of Chicago’s Lyft drivers. This provision disproportionately affects lower-income drivers in the Lyft community who have come to rely on ridesharing as an important way to earn extra money to make ends meet.
* But Sen. Karen McConnaughay (R-Aurora) says some insurance regulations were very much needed…
“I’m a huge fan of free markets and of Uber itself,” McConnaughay told Illinois Review Wednesday morning. “The core issue for me is how riders and drivers are insured while they’re taking UberX rides. I’m not entirely happy with the bill, but we’ve been working on this and there are problems the bill addresses.”
Uber says they carry a million dollar policy when passengers are in their vehicles, but UberX drivers provide their own private insurance that kicks in when they are not hauling passengers.
“That million dollar policy is to protect the company, not the driver nor the passenger,” McConnaughay said. “You sign a waiver when you sign up for the program. Right now, I wouldn’t want family or friends to get in a vehicle in which they are not insured. If there’s an accident, Uber is off the hook. This legislation addresses that problem.” […]
“There’s no question the taxi industry wanted to eliminate the rideshare programs,” McConnaughay said. “But we worked on the legislation to make changes, and while I’m not entirely happy with the bill, there is a need for insurance requirements to protect consumers.”
U.S. Senate candidate Jim Oberweis, who cites his successful push to raise Illinois’ speed limit as the top accomplishment of his first year as a state lawmaker, has been ticketed for speeding 11 times since 1988, according to public records. […]
More than half of Oberweis’ tickets have come since 2003. Many show Oberweis was driving a red Cadillac when he was cited.
* I went to the Conference of Women Legislators’ big annual event last night. It was raining, and almost everybody got wet before the show. But I passed a red Cadillac parked right in front of the hotel in a handicapped parking spot. The Cadillac had no discernible handicapped sticker or placard, but it did have Senate license plates…
House license plate numbers are based on seniority. Senate license plates are based on district numbers. Wanna guess who represents Senate District 25?
He also had a “Dump Durbin 2014″ bumper sticker on the back of the car.
*** UPDATE *** From Dan Curry…
“Senator Oberweis was parking legally in that spot. He has a handicapped placard for a disintegrated disc condition in his back. He sometimes has difficulty standing or walking long distances. Because of this, he isn’t able to walk in parades. He only parks in the handicapped spots when the pain is intense.”
Again, neither I nor the three people I was talking to about this last night while we were hanging out front of the hotel saw any sort of placard.
*** UPDATE 2 *** I went back and looked at the photo more closely. Keep in mind that I looked into his car and didn’t see a placard. Others with me went over and said they didn’t see a placard.
But the Oberweis people seemed so sincere that I took another look at the photo and made it much larger. If you look at the driver’s side front dash you’ll see what could very well be one of those handicapped placards which are supposed to hang from your rearview mirror…
So, I could’ve just missed it in the rain. I dunno.
* I don’t recall ever seeing an opposition research dump attempt backfire so badly…
[Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s chief campaign consultant John Kupper] emailed Tribune reporters to suggest several potentially negative stories about [Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. The pitch came in response to a Tribune story Wednesday about Blaine Elementary Principal Troy LaRaviere criticizing Emanuel for trying to silence critics of his education policies. […]
In the email, Kupper included what he called “some story ideas that might actually matter to readers.”
He then offered a list of story ideas, many centering on Preckwinkle’s handling of county government that could present her negatively, some based on rumor.
“This morning, of my own volition and without consulting anyone, I sent what I considered a private email to a couple of Tribune reporters complaining about a story they wrote and what I believe to be generally unfair reporting about Mayor Emanuel,” Kupper said in an emailed statement.
“I regret any discomfort that I have created for Mayor Emanuel, County Board President Preckwinkle or anyone associated with their offices,” Kupper wrote. “From now on, I’ll keep my media criticisms to myself.”
* Professional opposition researcher Will Caskey responded…
Kupper shouldn’t have done that but this is about as newsworthy as if someone tried to blow up my clients based on the times I’ve mouthed off on Rich Miller’s comments sections.
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** A source close to Emanuel just called to emphasize Kupper’s point that the consultant acted alone and without anybody else’s prior knowledge.
A Sangamon County judge stopped Illinois’ state pension overhaul law from taking effect Wednesday, issuing a stay on the law until the court can rule on its constitutionality.
Two lawyers representing plaintiffs in the case said that Circuit Judge Jon Belz issued the order to stop the pension law that reduces retirees’ benefits and increases their contributions from taking effect this summer. […]
The House author of the changes, Rep. Elaine Nekritz, noted that none of the savings officials expect to reap from the changes are factored into the state budget for this year.
“I would have been shocked had there not been a stay,” the Northbrook Democrat said. “It should have been stayed and we should wait to see frankly what the Supreme Court tells us.”
“I do think it has led to great confusion … almost across-the-board confusion,” Belz said in a Sangamon County courtroom as he issued a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction blocking implementation of the law until further action of the court or resolution of the case. “There’s just too much uncertainty.” […]
The attorney general’s office had reached a proposed agreement that was much more limited — to delay for a year implementation of the law for university and community college employees.
But Belz’s ruling went further than that proposed agreement.
Aaron Maduff, a lawyer for the State Universities Annuitants Association, said the proposed agreement had been just “half a loaf” compared to the preliminary injunction issued by Belz.
Judge John Belz recognized the retirees and others in the pension systems could suffer “irreparable harm” if the law is allowed to go forward while the constitutionality issues is still being fought out in the courts, according to his order. The case is expected to wind up in the Illinois Supreme Court. […]
Rep. Elaine Nekritz, a Northbrook Democrat and a pension expert, said she did not think the judge’s ruling would slow down attempts by Cook County to overhaul its retirement systems. But many at the Capitol are feeling what is being called “pension fatigue” following reforms approved for state plans, which the governor signed into law, and some of the city of Chicago plans, which Quinn has not yet said whether he will sign.
Maura Possley, a spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who is defending the law, said the ruling was under review.
“The goal of the pension reform law is to stabilize the pension systems. Unfortunately, this decision will likely further burden the systems and hurt taxpayers,” Possley said.
* Full react from the governor’s budget office…
We believe this law is constitutional. This landmark law was urgently needed to resolve the state’s $100 billion pension crisis.
It was also urgently needed to ensure that teachers, university employees and state workers who have faithfully contributed to the pension system have retirement security.
We’re confident the courts will uphold this critical law that stabilizes the state’s pension funds while squarely addressing the most pressing fiscal crisis of our time by eliminating the state’s unfunded pension debt, a standard first set by Governor Quinn.
Today’s stay was not unexpected and will have no impact in this or next year’s budget.
* From We Are One Illinois…
This stays the legislation in its entirety so that the pension systems and other defendants are enjoined from implementing or administering any provisions of the act until further order of the court or the court issues a final ruling on the merits of the act’s constitutionality.
The court found that plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on their contention that Public Act 98-599 violates the Pension Protection Clause of the Illinois Constitution.
“This is an important first step in our efforts to overturn this unfair, unconstitutional law and to protect retirement security for working and retired Illinois families,” said Michael T. Carrigan, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO, on behalf of the coalition. “We are pleased the court prudently chose to halt implementation of these sweeping changes, which have caused so much fear and uncertainty and are likely to be overturned.”
* Nate Anderson has a great story, much of it generated by FOIAs, of how the mayor of Peoria hounded a Twitter user via the state’s attorney and the local police. Go read the whole thing. Part of his conclusion…
The case serves as a reminder of the true power of the state. Thanks to the Internet, even local cops can now track down random Twitter miscreants without leaving the office—something that would have been impossible in the days of anonymous handbills plastered to brick walls around town. And those local cops can get as much information about your life as even the FBI could glean in a major felony investigation.
In this case, Peoria police had complete details of Daniel’s Twitter account usage along with cell phones and computers seized from his house. In addition, the police swore out a fourth warrant on April 17—two days after the raid—for Daniel’s Gmail account. The warrant sought not just connection details, but all content in the account, including “any image file, document files, text files, and other stored files.” Police had broad latitude to search through anything they found. Between an e-mail account, a mobile phone, and a laptop computer, police can gain an almost complete window into someone’s life. Do we want them to have this much power simply to crack down on misdemeanors?
The state doesn’t always exercise this tremendous power under rigorous oversight, either. Though the apparatus of oversight was in place, the judges who signed off on the warrants never pushed back on them, even though the warrants misstated the day on which Ardis learned about @peoriamayor and even though one of them said that the offense in question was a “violation of child pornography laws” rather than the actual claim of “false personation.”
The ACLU of Illinois now represents Mr. Daniel, the creator of the Twitter parody. Mr. Daniel, like other parodists, has a First Amendment right to post these tweets. He was engaging in a time-honored tradition of poking fun at public officials — even when the public official doesn’t like it. Because Mr. Daniel’s activities were protected, they should never have led to a warrant and search of his home. The police activity in this case was unnecessary and contrary to both the First and Fourth Amendment protections to which he was entitled.
In the coming weeks, the ACLU of Illinois anticipates bringing legal action in support of Mr. Daniel against those officials who are responsible for the violations of his rights. We hope this action will send a strong signal to all that wrongful use of the police power to suppress protected speech, even when it is critical or makes fun of public officials is an abuse of power and is not acceptable.
* House Speaker Michael Madigan introduced several reforms of Illinois’ EDGE credit today. It was an amendment to HB 3890, which easily passed out of committee. Here’s one of the biggest reform categories…
New Rules for “Special” EDGE Credits — The amendment addresses the special EDGE agreements, which give qualified businesses the option of utilizing their credits earned against the income taxes withheld from their employees. These special agreements have been approved by the General Assembly by law in the past. Going forward, businesses seeking this special treatment from the General Assembly will have to meet higher standards:
- The business must agree to create new jobs — this special treatment will not be available to businesses that are only retaining employees in this state.
- The new jobs must be created in an area of high poverty or high unemployment; “high poverty” means a census tract with over 20% of residents living below the poverty level; “high unemployment” means a census tract where the unemployment rate is more than 3 percentage points above the state average.
- The business must agree to disclose income tax information during the term of its EDGE agreement, including gross income, the amount of income allocated to Illinois, and net income before and after credits are applied. This information will be publicly available on DCEO’s website.
* The Illinois Chamber’s top dog was furious. From the Twitters…
Madigan wants to encourage small businesses to use EDGE credit, those with less than 100 employees would qualify if they create 5 new jobs
I just wanted to send you a heads up that the bill regarding the sale of cats and dogs in pet stores will not be heard today. The parties are working on an amendment.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* From the Humane Society…
Representatives from The Humane Society of the United States and other witnesses will testify at the Illinois Senate Executive Committee hearing in support of HB 4056.
The first of its kind, the bill would allow pet stores across the state to only acquire dogs and cats from shelters and rescues.
A new report from the Humane Society of the United States lists the 100 worst puppy mills in the country and two of them are in Illinois. […]
“We’ve documented reports of dogs so horribly matted that there was a fur coat like mat going from one end to the other in a sold mass, dogs with injuries and illnesses and injuries that hadn’t been treated by vet and dogs in small stacked cages,” said Summers. Other documented problems included overbreeding, inbreeding, minimum veterinary care and the lack of monitoring of other health issues. […]
“The only thing that’s going to stop this is to ban the sale of puppies at pet stores,” said Ida McCarthy, Chicago Coordinator of the Companion Animal Protection Society. As many as 30 cities in the U.S. have done just that including Los Angeles. San Diego is the latest considering a ban. In Canada, Toronto has enacted a similar law.
“You have to stop the demand and the puppy mills – where are they going to sell their dogs? There are always going to be puppy mills but there’s not going to be thousands of them like there are now,” she said.
You, and other supporters of our cause, know that closing pet stores by banning the retail sale of pets in Illinois does not effectively address the problems associated with bad, out-of-state breeders. In fact, the Chicago Veterinary Medical Association-whose members include over 1,000 veterinarians in the Chicago area-echoed this in in a statement opposing the recent Cook County ban:
“The Chicago Veterinary Medical Association strongly believes that ongoing education of the public is a much more effective method to increase pet owner awareness and bring about the desired positive change necessary to address valid concerns regarding unethical, unscrupulous breeders who are the ultimate problem.” […]
An Illinois-wide ban means consumers will have limited choice in where they obtain a healthy, happy pet as there will be no pet stores to sell them, which will:
Hurt animal welfare since other sources (like rogue internet operators) are not regulated at all. In fact, Illinois pet stores are the most regulated source for consumers to obtain purebred pets in the state-while other sources for purebred pets have no veterinary requirement;
Remove some of the most stringent consumer protection laws in the United States which only apply to retail pet sales;
Negatively impact the state’s economy by putting people out of jobs and reducing tax revenue collected by Illinois and localities; and
Limit the availability of pets and foster an environment for unregulated black market breeding.
* The Question: Should pet stores be forbidden by the state to sell dogs and cats from breeders and mandated to only sell those animals from shelters and rescues? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Illinois depends on the hospital community, but the important and vital work of our hospitals and health systems would be threatened by devastating cuts if the General Assembly does not enact a fully funded budget that maintains current tax rates. The Illinois Hospital Association and hospital community urge our state lawmakers to vote “Yes” to enact an FY2015 state budget that maintains current tax rates and avoids harmful cuts.
Every year, our state’s more than 200 hospitals and nearly 50 health systems:
• Welcome more than 152,000 new babies into the world.
• Perform 1.1 million surgical procedures.
• Admit almost 1.5 million inpatients.
• Treat 86,327 outpatients every day.
• Treat 5.4 million emergency department patients.
Illinois hospitals are the largest employer in many communities, and among the top three employers in 48 of the State’s 102 counties. The total economic impact of Illinois hospitals is $83.4 billion a year.
This week, during National Hospital Week, we celebrate hospitals across Illinois, along with the men and women who, day in and day out, support the health of their communities through compassionate care, constant innovation and unwavering dedication.
Illinois’ hospitals provide care to all who enter their doors, regardless of their ability to pay, thanks to the hard work, dedication and commitment of their nearly 250,000 employees. They are there to care, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Vote “Yes” to maintain current tax rates, to avoid harmful cuts and to support hospitals as they care for people in every community throughout Illinois.
[Gov. Pat Quinn] is, as Winston Churchill reportedly said of an adversary, a modest man with much to be modest about. Hence Quinn’s campaign theme: Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Would you choose to ride with a driver who never received a proper background check or a drug test, in a car that is not properly insured?
Would you let your son or daughter ride with a driver whose background is unknown and who could be a criminal, like in a recent investigation by NBC 5 Chicago?
Why do ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft continue to fight the same public safety protections required of any other car service? Is it because these protections cut into their financial bottom line?
Is the fact that they force their passengers to pay a so-called “safety fee” and sign a waiver agreeing to use their service “at your own risk” because they are worried who their drivers are?
Democratic lawmakers are moving forward with a 2015 budget that is based upon an extension of Illinois’ temporary income tax increase. […]
The move to approve the budget one of political expediency for Democratic leaders in the statehouse, as passing a budget before endorsing a tax increase could serve to force the hand of several vulnerable lawmakers who are on the fence about voting for a permanent tax rise. […]
“I think that a vote for this budget is effectively a vote for the tax increase,” state Rep. David McSweeney, a Barrington Hills Republican said.
Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, an opponent of extending the tax increase, said House leadership has been polling members to gauge support for extending the tax.
“I don’t think they have the votes,” Franks said. “I’ve been doing my own polling and talking to members. I think they’re short.”
Franks also said he doesn’t see how the budget plan “has any validity whatsoever” since it is based on a tax extension that hasn’t been approved.
An idea floating around the Capitol is to pass the larger budget now, then save the tax vote for after the election and let whoever is elected governor then deal with it.
State Rep. Frank Mautino (D-Spring Valley), a member of the House Revenue and Finance Committee, is not on board with that. “I would hope that before we left here on May 31 and voted on the budget that we would have our revenues set for next year,” he said, adding that the uncertainty, to say nothing of the reduction of income, would damage school districts expecting state money.
Let’s hope they don’t leave town with a completely phony baloney budget.
[Democratic Rep. Greg Harris] says the revenue aspect of the budget will be handled separately. Extending the tax hike has been controversial, but Harris says the focus ought to be on what he calls the “important government services” that are at risk.
In a federal lawsuit filed against GTCR, Universal American says Rauner’s firm essentially sold it a $222.3 million lemon after APS and GTCR executives engaged in a “deliberate campaign to conceal the truth.”
Without admitting wrongdoing, APS [which was owned by Rauner’s company from 2007 until 2012] agreed to pay $13 million to settle allegations from the federal government and the state of Georgia in 2011.
The feds said the firm “failed to provide the required services to a large portion of the Medicaid recipients and over-billed the Georgia Department of Community Health.” This allegedly occurred from 2007 until 2010.
“APS Healthcare took Medicaid’s money for itself and left some of our most vulnerable citizens without the aid they deserved,” Sally Quillian Yates, the U.S. attorney for Georgia’s northern district, said at the time the settlement was announced.
Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.
* And the Quinn campaign followed up early this morning with a press release containing “Additional examples of fraud”…
Lason
“If his (political) narrative is ‘I’m a hands-on manager,’ this is not a firm where you would want to say that,” said Peter J. Henning, an expert on securities fraud and white collar crime. “If he was hands-on, he certainly might have gotten his fingers dirty. Henning said Lason might be recalled as “one of the worst accounting frauds ever” had it not been upstaged by similar scandals at much bigger companies — Enron and WorldCom.” (Chicago Tribune, 1/20/14) In an August 1999 interview with The Wall Street Transcript, a subscription newsletter that features interviews with business leaders, Rauner hailed Lason as a “great company … doing quite well,” and went on to describe an ownership philosophy at GTCR steeped in the kind of hands-on involvement he now vows to bring to the governor’s office if elected. “We spend a lot of time living with our companies on a week-to-week basis, understanding what’s going on, and being in the flow of information, so we can be helpful and knowledgeable about the operation,” Rauner said. (Chicago Tribune, 1/20/14)
Acartha
In 2004, Mr. Rauner made a personal $4.5 million startup investment in fund manager Acartha Group LLC, a suburban St. Louis firm founded by Burton Douglas Morriss. Before Acartha, Mr. Morriss had already arranged one deal in which the duo made more than $75 million. Mr. Rauner, an avid outdoorsman, also owned a hunting camp with Mr. Morriss. But in 2012, the SEC seized control of Acartha, accusing Mr. Morriss of defrauding investors of $9.1 million. Mr. Rauner was a “passive investor” who was “misled and defrauded” by Mr. Morriss, like dozens of others, Mike Schrimpf, a spokesman for Mr. Rauner’s campaign, says in an email. “Bruce is angered and outraged by Morriss’ actions.” […](“Rauner backed firm later shut down for fraud,” Crain’s Chicago Business, 2/24/14) To acquire his stake in Acartha, Mr. Rauner traded his interests in Hela and another Morriss venture, for which he paid $2.5 million, and paid an additional $2 million in cash. The two men along with two others also owned a hunting lodge and farm in Canada. […](“Rauner backed firm later shut down for fraud,” Crain’s Chicago Business, 2/24/14)
In a 2005 interview with the St. Louis Business Journal, Morriss said that two of his partners in the Acartha Group included New York financier Nicolas Rohatyn and Bruce Rauner, who operates a Chicago-based private equity firm. They did not return phone calls Tuesday. Morriss served as chairman of the board…”Morriss lived a lavish lifestyle, living in a multi-million dollar home, driving luxury automobiles, leasing a private airplane and helicopter, and taking expensive vacations,” the SEC complaint states. (“SEC accuses Clayton-based financier of defrauding investors,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1/18/12)
“Bust Out” Nursing Home scheme
According to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Florida on March 14, Rauner can’t walk away from being at the helm of an elaborate “bust out” plan to avoid culpability for purchases and practices of a string of nursing homes.
Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown’s husband has been hit with a federal subpoena asking him to appear before a grand jury as part of an investigation into a state anti-violence program.
A source with knowledge of the investigation told the Chicago Sun-Times that the subpoena from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Springfield is directed at Benton Cook III.
It’s a sign that federal authorities, who already have requested documents from two state agencies regarding Gov. Pat Quinn’s troubled Neighborhood Recovery Initiative, are taking a closer look at Cook’s role in receiving grant money from the program. […]
Cook was paid more than $146,000 in salary and fringe benefits from Neighborhood Recovery Initiative grant funds, accounting for 7 percent of the total $2.1 state allotment to combat violence in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. Cook oversaw several subcontractors, including his own non-profit, which took in more than $3,300 in anti-violence grant money. The Sun-Times has previously reported that Cook is a felon, raising questions over how he qualified to oversee money in the program.
An attorney hired by Cook County Clerk Dorothy Brown’s husband Benton Cook III, said his client has unfairly become the “fall guy” for a troubled state anti-violence program that’s been the subject of a series of investigations.
“If there were things that went wrong with regards to that program, neither he nor she had involvement,” Genson told Early & Often, speaking on behalf of Brown and her husband. “He was just a salaried worker who did his job.” […]
“He’s really the fall guy for this because of his relationship” to Brown, Genson said.
Dr. Cook has conducted anxiety reduction and stress management groups at multiple community venues. He has taught in the Psychology and Management Departments and is an experienced meeting facilitator and focus-group leader. He has 25 years of management and administrative experience.
Dr. Cook earned his Doctor of Psychology and Masters Degree. He’s completed internships in clinical and counseling psychology. His Master’s focused on Management and Organizational Behavior. His psychology training and internship institutions are accredited by the American Psychological Association.
* So the Tribune asked the state whether Cook was licensed to practice psychology. He wasn’t and the state sent him a notice to appear before an administrative law judge on June 16. Oops…
The civil complaint by state regulators cites Cook’s online description. Those claims “constitute the unlicensed practice of a clinical psychologist,” which carries a fine of up to $10,000 per violation, the complaint states. The aim is to get Cook to stop representing himself as a clinical psychologist, said Susan Hofer, spokeswoman for the regulatory department.
The Chicago Area Project recently hired Rick Jasculca, a high-profile communications consultant, to answer questions about the state grant. In an email on behalf of the group’s executive director, David Whittaker, Jasculca said Cook told officials that he was married to Brown before they hired him and they “did not find that relevant.”
Jasculca wrote that Cook was hired because of his “seemingly relevant academic achievement, breadth of experience and deep involvement in the community.”
“Cook’s work and credentials were reviewed, and he was interviewed by CAP management,” Jasculca added. “In hindsight, it is clear that we should have used a more robust process to vet his credentials and background.”
A prosecutor who helped convict Canadian media mogul Conrad Black and other high-profile figures is the new head of the criminal division at Chicago’s U.S. attorney’s office.
The office announced Julie B. Porter’s appointment Tuesday.
The announcement comes as the new U.S. attorney for northern Illinois, Zachary Fardon, makes various structural changes. He has faced pressure to find more ways his office can help stem street-level violence in Chicago.
Ed Genson defended Conrad Black, by the way. And Porter helped prosecute Bill Cellini.
* No revenue stream is reportedly in this plan, but the Sun–Times reports that a new pension reform proposal by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle will “likely” pay for the $144 million in new state-mandated contribution costs with a property and/or sales tax increase…
(T)he bill would require all employees hired before 2010 to pay 10.5 percent of their salaries into their retirement, the source said.
That’s a 2-percent hike for most county employees, who currently pay 8.5 percent of their salary into the fund. The increase for sheriff’s office employees would be smaller because they already pay 9 percent.
Future retirees would have to wait two years after retirement to get a cost-of-living increase, the source said. And those cost-of-living increases — currently locked in at 3 percent — would fluctuate between 2 and 4 percent, depending on the rate of inflation
Additionally, all retirees would also have their cost-of-living increases frozen in 2016. And cost-of-living increases would be frozen in the future if the accounts dip below 59 percent funding, according to the source.
AFSCME is opposed, but SEIU Local 73 supports the bill’s “basic components,” the paper reports.
“The funding of health insurance for retirees is a major gain, especially for those who are close to retirement and not eligible for Medicare yet,” according to a post this month on the website of Service Employees International Union Local 73, which represents Cook County workers and other government employees in the Chicago area.
According to another summary on a Teamster website, pension cost of living benefits would be suspended if the fund dips below 50 percent funding and would be increased if funding exceeds 100 percent.
But the cost of living adjustment for workers hired before Jan. 1, 2011, would remain generous by recent standards for pension deals, if the funding level remains between 50.01 percent and 99.9 percent.
According to the Teamsters website, the COLA would be at least 2 percent a year and up to 4 percent a year, depending on the consumer price index, and it would be compounded each year. If the funding ratio exceeds 100 percent, the COLA goes back to three percent, compounded annually.
“Just on the surface, it’s very generous,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a Chicago fiscal watchdog group that advocates for pension changes. “It calls into question whether they get enough savings” from the proposed reforms.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - Posted by Advertising Department
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As not-for-profit financial cooperatives, credit unions hold a strong belief in giving back to their communities at the credit union level and on a geographic basis. Twenty-four chapters unite the state’s 333 credit unions and are integral to fulfilling their mission for nearly three million consumer members. Like the boards at credit unions, chapter boards are also run by volunteers. The Illinois Quad Cities Chapter alone serves 10 credit unions and their 234,000 members in a three county area. Similarly to other credit union chapters, Illinois Quad Cities is particularly active in community charitable activities and worthwhile causes. This includes helping consumers protect their personal information by sponsoring community shred days to properly dispose of documents. The chapter also hosts “community nights” to provide local organizations a forum to request financial support. As a result, more than $15,000 has been provided to a variety of local charities. Motivated by their stories, credit unions separately hold fundraisers to support these groups, as well participate in events for others, including the local children’s hospital. Members know credit unions will be there for their daily financial needs and support their community – just some of the many virtues that define the credit union difference.
After weeks of listening to predictions of doom and gloom from top state officials, Democrats in the Illinois House are poised to roll out a spending plan that relies on an extension of the temporary income tax.
Rather than imposing tough cuts on schools, prisons, universities and social services, the spending plan would mirror a budget proposed by Gov. Pat Quinn that adds more cash for schools, universities and social service programs, said state Rep. Greg Harris, a Chicago Democrat who chairs a House appropriations committee.
The majority party could schedule a vote on the budget blueprint as early as Thursday, with an eye on asking lawmakers to extend the temporary income tax at a later date. […]
State Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, said leaders are polling Democratic members to try to gauge how many members support an extension.
If they go ahead and do this and it’s somehow signed into law before the tax hike extension is approved, I don’t know how it could satisfy constitutional review.
The General Assembly by law shall make appropriations for all expenditures of public funds by the State. Appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.
They’ve gotten around this in the past by fudging revenue or even spending numbers (not making pension payments, for instance, or pushing Medicaid payments off to the future). But when the revenue numbers are clearly lower than the spending numbers, the budget could be challenged.
…Adding more… I can’t help but think this’ll really mess with the state’s bond rating as well. Talk about “uncertainty.” Sheesh, what a stupid idea this is unless they can actually pass a tax hike extension by the end of the month.
And those are only complaints that passengers reported. According to ABC, there are cab drivers on the road with up to eight complaints against them.
In contrast, Lyft and other ridesharing services value the safety of passengers and drivers above all else, and have rigorous safety requirements including criminal and driving background checks, vehicle inspections, and safety ride-alongs that ALL drivers must pass.
When you hail one of the city’s 6,600 licensed cabs, you may not know what to expect when that meter starts.
So the I-Team read through three months of recent cab complaints, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, from the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.
“We get 12,000 complaints a year,” said Jeffrey Lewelling, BACP First Deputy Commissioner […]
The I-Team found that 48 percent, or about 1,400 of them, were about reckless driving. And in just three months, there were 28 total complaints of physical assault.
There’ve been a few allegations of physical assault against Uber/Lyft drivers across the country, but 28 Chicago cabbie assault complaints in three months?
* Despite overwhelming opposition by the state’s editorial boards and fierce lobbying against it by the Medical Society, David Ormsby writes today that legislation to allow psychologists to prescribe certain medication is gaining momentum…
A year-and-a-half battle between Illinois psychologists and psychiatrists may reach a critical point in the House this week. […]
The plan, which is sponsored by State Senator Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) and is being pushed by the Illinois Psychologist Association and community mental health agencies from across the state, cleared the Senate on April 25, 2013 on a bi-partisan roll call, 37-10-4, but stalled in the House last year.
The fight, which has brought out heavyweight lobbyists on both sides of the issue, tilted last week in the psychologists’ favor when a fresh amendment helped House sponsor State Rep. John Bradley (D-Marion) propel the bill out of the House Human Services Committee on a bi-partisan 9-5-1 vote, a vote that drew 34 proponent witness slips and 104 opponents.
The key concession by psychologists was to agree to a “two-year conditional license” supervised by a physician before moving to a permanent “continuing license”.
Only two other states, Louisiana and New Mexico, have similar laws.
Psychologists and community mental health groups say that much of rural Illinois has no access to psychiatrists, which was the same basic argument used by optometrists when they wanted to be given some responsibilities of ophthalmologists a while back.
* The Question: With conditions, and despite physician disapproval of the concept, should psychologists be given the right to prescribe some drugs to their patients? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
(T)here’s one very big thing a governor can do on his own, without legislative approval. Pat Quinn won’t do it, but Bruce Rauner might. And it could make all the difference for the state of Illinois’ future.
When the current AFSCME collective-bargaining agreement expires in 2015, the governor will represent Illinois in the bargaining over a new contract. What if he tells the union — and all our citizens…
When the current collective-bargaining agreement expires, I’m going to ask our employees to take a reduction in wages. They won’t like it, but we have no alternative. And I’m going to continue to hold wages down until we get control of our runaway budgets.
“This will save on annual operating costs. It will also help deal with the pension debt. Pensions are based on career-end wages. If wage levels are reduced, so are pension obligations.
“Some employees will retire or find work elsewhere. Maybe we won’t replace them. If we do, we’ll replace them with “new employees” who come under the new, less-costly pension plan put in place a few years ago by House Speaker Mike Madigan. Or we’ll outsource to some company or firm that will do the work at market rates.
“The unions probably won’t agree, but that will be my bargaining position. If we can’t reach an agreement, then we’ll be at impasse. Some may strike. I hope not, but I’ll do what I think is necessary to save Illinois.
* The Illinois Policy Institute has been pushing for a major state worker wage cut in recent days, so this isn’t likely a coincidence. And Rauner pledged to do what Martin dreamed as far back as March of last year…
“I may have to take a strike and shut down the government for a few weeks [in order to] redo everybody’s contract.”
Martin omits any mention in his column of the essential services state employees provide, ignores years of budget cuts that have left Illinois with the nation’s smallest state work force per capita, falsely claims that state employees are paid more than private-sector workers and urges the next governor to violate Illinois labor law by refusing to bargain with our union. […]
Although a recent study by the University of Illinois found that salaries paid to state employees are 13.5 percent lower than comparable private-sector workers, Martin says cutting state employee pay “would make all the difference for the state of Illinois’ future.”
In fact, wages for the entire state work force amount to less than $1 of every $20 the state spends. Reducing that even by several percentage points wouldn’t dent our fiscal woes. And cutting the pay of middle-class workers will hurt the Illinois economy, not help it. The same U of I study found that public employment contributes $105 billion to the state’s GDP, and is responsible for sustaining 1.1 million jobs statewide, including 300,000 in the private sector.
* Meanwhile, in a somewhat related story, Chicago’s Blaine Elementary School Principal Troy A. LaRaviere recently penned a righteous letter to the editor about how he and other principals are being mistreated…
Since 2011, CPS principals and teachers have experienced unprecedented political burdens. Early on, teachers felt publicly maligned and disrespected by the mayor, leading to the historic strike of 2012.
While publicly praising principals in speeches and with awards, behind the scenes this administration has disregarded principals’ knowledge and experience. They have ignored and even suppressed principals’ voices in order to push City Hall’s political agenda for Chicago’s schools.
The administration’s interaction with principals is often insulting. During the debate over the longer school day, some principals questioned its merits. CPS officials were then dispatched to tell the principals their opinions didn’t matter. “You are Board employees,” a central office official told a room full of principals at a meeting, “and when you speak, your comments must be in line with the Board’s agenda.” He instructed us to have an “elevator speech” supporting the longer day ready at a moment’s notice. We were told that if Emanuel and the press walked into our schools, we’d better be prepared to list the benefits of his longer day. In a move that further humiliated principals, they were called on at random to give their elevator speeches at subsequent principal meetings.
Shortly afterward, CPS slashed school budgets, voted to close 50 schools and made disingenuous statements about the slashed budget giving more “autonomy” to principals. They insinuated these cuts would have little effect on classrooms. I spoke up to give Chicagoans a factual assessment of the effects of these cuts. A reporter from WBEZ Radio recorded a statement I delivered at City Hall in July 2013 and posted it on the station’s website. It became one of the station’s most downloaded audio files.
* The piece sparked a whole lot of interest. So much so that Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett felt the need to respond…
In a telephone call Monday, Byrd-Bennett said she was surprised to read the op-ed by Troy LaRaviere, principal at Blaine Elementary School in Lake View, whom she called “clearly one of our most distinguished.” […]
“He does a wonderful job. But he is feeling as if somehow there is this repressive environment coming from me and or my office, that he feels if he says anything there’ll be a retribution, I need to understand that and know where it’s coming from.”
Byrd-Bennett continued: “It’s a little saddening to believe that people think there’s a fear of retaliation. I know I have never set that fear. I have never called a principal in and said, ‘Off with your head.’ ”
Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - Posted by Advertising Department
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Ride-share car companies: they call it your own private driver, but do you really know who is driving?
FACT: Multi-billion dollar ride-share companies like Uber and Lyft are fighting standard criminal background checks and drug tests for drivers, including HB 4075, which would provide safety standards for all drivers across the board. Recently, a NBC 5 Chicago investigative team report found numerous UberX drivers with criminal pasts, including an ex-con on probation with a list of felonies over twenty years long, even after company “background checks.”
FACT: Ride-share companies are fighting standard insurance requirements for drivers. In fact, after an Uber driver hit and killed a 6-year-old girl in San Francisco, Uber denied responsibility and kept the little girl’s family from any insurance compensation.
These tragic stories show why the Chicago Tribune editorial board recently wrote they are “increasingly wary of leaving it to the ride shares to police themselves when it comes to making those checks, given (Uber’s) unapologetic disregard for rules” and the “same safety standard should apply to all ride shares.”
Customers deserve to have the peace of mind knowing that their driver has passed a comprehensive police background check and drug test and carries sufficient insurance in case of an accident.
* A press release from the Civic Federation, which should never be confused with Ty Fahner’s Civic Committee…
In a new report released today, the Civic Federation’s Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability opposes Governor Quinn’s recommended budget for FY2015 because it uses revenue from extending the 2011 temporary income tax increase for new spending. The State’s fiscal crisis demands that any increased revenue be used to stabilize State finances by significantly reducing its massive backlog of unpaid bills. The Institute’s full 36-page report is available at www.civicfed.org.
Under existing law, the State would lose $1.8 billion in General Funds revenues in FY2015 when the 2011 income tax rate increases are phased out beginning in January 2015. The Civic Federation is encouraged that the Governor’s plan addresses this fiscal cliff by extending the higher rates. The alternative – recommending budget cuts that are not based on specific public policy proposals – may be expedient but does not solve the State’s fiscal problems.
“The Governor’s plan appropriately recognizes that the State’s finances cannot withstand a dramatic reduction in revenues next year,” said Civic Federation President Laurence Msall. “However, new spending initiatives are just as contradictory to the State’s fiscal reality — especially those financed by borrowing.”
The Civic Federation opposes the Governor’s plan to spend $1.3 billion on a new homeowners’ grant program that would replace the State’s existing property tax credit on individual income taxes. Currently, the State provides an income tax credit for residential homeowners equal to 5.0% of the property taxes paid to local governments on their primary residence. The net cost of replacing this credit with the Governor’s proposed homeowners’ grant program is expected to be $715 million in FY2015.
The additional spending would require the State to borrow money to balance the operating budget, even after extending the higher income tax rates. The Governor proposes closing a $170 million budget gap in FY2015 by borrowing $650 million from funds outside of the State’s General Funds and repaying those funds with interest over the next two fiscal years. Although interfund borrowing is a low cost alternative to accessing transitional capital markets, this option should be reserved for financial emergencies and not to compensate for increased spending.
The Federation commends the Governor’s publication of a five-year budget plan, a first step toward true long-term financial planning. However, the policy choices made in the plan are projected to leave a substantial backlog of bills at the end of the five-year period and no strategy is detailed to establish a meaningful rainy day fund.
In its recent State budget roadmap for FY2015, the Federation recommended that the 2011 tax rate increases be extended for one year and then scaled back by 20% over the following three years. The Federation’s five-year plan also broadens the income tax base to include federally taxable retirement income. In the plan, additional revenues would be used to allow modest growth in agency spending while eliminating the $5.4 billion backlog of unpaid bills, providing relief to local governments and building up reserves to cushion against future economic downturns. The Federation continues to urge State lawmakers to adopt a similarly comprehensive approach to stabilizing Illinois finances.
The full analysis is here. Check out the section on the property tax “rebates”…
The State does not collect property taxes, so these payments cannot be considered property tax rebates or property tax relief. The existing property tax credit is nonrefundable, meaning it can only be used to reduce income taxes owed to the State and cannot be collected for any amount above the total individual tax liability. In contrast, new grants would be made regardless of whether the homeowner owes State income taxes, which adds to the cost of the new program. It is also possible the grant would be taxed by the federal and State governments as part of the calculation of homeowners’ individual income tax liabilities.
That could very well be true. In fact, I think it is true. Here’s your alleged property tax rebate, and, by the way, you owe income taxes on it.
Sheesh.
* I personally think the overall analysis makes some sense. The state shouldn’t be paying for that silly property tax “rebate” plan with borrowed money.
In its recent State budget roadmap report for FY2015, the Federation found that the steep rollback in income tax rates would destabilize Illinois’ already weak financial condition. The Federation recommended that the 2011 tax rate increases be extended for one year and then scaled back by 20% over the following three years and that the income tax base should be broadened to include federally taxable retirement income. The Federation urged that the additional revenues be used to allow modest growth in agency spending while eliminating the unpaid bill backlog, providing relief to local governments and building up reserves to cushion against future economic downturns.
That might be doable, except it relies on the retirement income tax. Man, that would be a tough political vote. Impossibly tough, more likely. Suggesting such a thing amounts to a belief in magical budget dust.
Other than that, it’s not far out of line. Although I agree with the governor’s budget office that the entire bill backlog doesn’t have to be eliminated. People and big corporations don’t pay bills the day they arrive in the mail.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - Posted by Advertising Department
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HFA #2 to SB 2187 – which would radically expand prescription-writing powers – puts patients at risk. Just ask the State Journal-Register.
In a May 7 editorial, the Journal-Register called on legislators to reject the bill, calling it “desperately flawed legislation.”
“Desperate” is right. The Illinois Psychological Association is desperate to expand revenues and shore up the schools of professional psychology. That’s why it’s pushing “RxP” legislation to let psychologists prescribe dangerous drugs. Under current Illinois law, advanced practice nurses (APNs) and physician assistants (PAs) can prescribe along with doctors. But they have medical training; psychologists don’t.
The Journal-Register saw through the IPA’s most dishonest argument: “Proponents of S.B. 2187 say the ability of mental health patients in underserved areas of the state to receive medication from psychologists will solve the problem of access. We disagree.”
* The pension reform fight between mayors and unions representing firefighters and police officers has been raging for months. The mayors claim that dozens of pension sweeteners passed by the General Assembly over the years has made the pensions unaffordable. Unions rightly point out that pretty much all of those increases were negotiated with the municipalities, and those agreements included union concessions as well. The unions, in turn, point the finger of blame at the municipalities for deliberately underfunding their systems. But WBEZ’s Alex Keefe manages to sort through the claims and counter claims…
Rather than “pension sweeteners,” longtime Illinois police and fire pension actuary Art Tepfer said the rapidly rising pension costs that towns are struggling with came about by design.
“This is the way that Illinois retains it’s No. 1 ranking as having the worst-funded pension funds in the country,” said Tepfer, who serves as an actuary to more than 100 downstate and suburban public safety funds in Illinois.
Tepfer points to a 1993 change in state law, when legislators approved a pension funding scheme that functioned similar to an adjustable-rate mortgage: low payments at first, but rapidly rising payments in the future.
“Well, we’re in the future now,” Tepfer said. “This is what’s happened. And that’s why we have a pension crisis. We saw it coming.”
Tepfer said smaller funds are also limited in how much money they can invest in stocks, which limits the amount of money they can make on their investments.
It appears Cook County Commissioner Tim Schneider will take on the role to lead the Illinois Republican Party without a challenge.
Schneider’s potential challenger, Blair Garber, notified Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner that he is pulling his name from contention, a source close to Rauner said. Garber reached out to Rauner, saying he would not oppose Schneider in what was to be an election to succeed Jack Dorgan scheduled for Saturday.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* From a press release…
Statement from Jack Dorgan and Bruce Rauner on ILGOP Chairman’s Race
CHICAGO - The following statement was released today from Jack Dorgan, Chairman of the Illinois Republican Party:
“Today, I am proud to announce that I will be joining Bruce Rauner’s Team as a Co-Chair of his Finance Committee. I will continue with the Illinois Republican Party as a member of the State Central Committee in the 5th District. However, with these new dual roles, I will no longer be able to run for re-election as chairman of the Party.
“It has been my great honor to lead the Illinois Republican Party as chairman over the last year, helping position our candidates across Illinois for an incredible victory this November. Our Party is exactly where I had hoped it would be: firing on all cylinders and ready to deliver a new direction to the people of Illinois.
“I believe that Tim Schneider is the best person to succeed me as Chairman. He understands exactly what it will take to spread the Republican Party’s message of more jobs, better schools, and value for tax dollars.
“Bruce and I look forward to working closely with Tim in the months ahead. We trust he’ll do a great job.”
Bruce Rauner today issued the following statement regarding Illinois Republican Party Chairman Jack Dorgan and the upcoming chairman’s election:
“Jack Dorgan has been an extraordinary Chairman, and he will be a great partner in our campaign. I’m honored he’ll be a part of the team. I applaud Jack’s service to the Illinois Republican Party over the last year and look forward to working with him to defeat Pat Quinn in November.
“As we work to shake up Springfield and bring back Illinois, I can think of no one better to be our next Chairman than Tim Schneider — a small business owner, fiscal conservative and proven reformer. Tim has served at the forefront of the fight against cronyism, corruption and fiscal irresponsibility in Cook County - and I know he will be an unmatched spokesman across the state for our pro-growth, pro-reform vision for Illinois.”
Blair Garber of Evanston, who sits on the committee from the 9th Congressional District, is the only other candidate.
But Schneider’s backing from both Rauner and Dorgan gives him a clear advantage going into Saturday’s vote. […]
Dorgan was first elected to the post a year ago following the resignation of Pat Brady of St. Charles, who was nearly ousted from the job after lobbying state lawmakers to vote for same-sex marriage.
It’s no secret that the national GOP is going to put some money behind the party’s nominee for governor here, Bruce Rauner, although Mr. Rauner has plenty of his own to spend on the campaign. But now comes word that the Republican National Committee is hiring 193 field staffers nationwide, boosting a variety of data collection and analytical tools and even springing for campaign offices as part of a Victory 365 program.
“The Illinois implementation of the program means several field offices around the state, advanced voter-contact technology, and a renewed focus on reaching out to new Republican voters,” the Illinois Republican Party said in a statement. Democrats “have taken the people of our state for granted for far too long,” added Illinois GOP Chairman Jack Dorgan.
In follow-up phone calls, officials aren’t offering any more details yet about exactly what will be spent and where. And, as is usual in such cases, the big decisions and financial commitments likely will wait until the fall, when insiders have a better idea which races are winnable and which are lost causes.
But the party already has dispatched a well-respected operative here to act as Illinois victory director, Tony Esposito. A staffer also has been assigned to help embattled downstate Congressman Rodney Davis, R-Champaign, hang on to his job.
* I heard yesterday that Bruce Rauner attended a big ACLU Illinois gala Saturday night and reached out to the group to see if they had any photos. No luck, so no caption contest today.
The fundraising party was intended to celebrate decades of pro-choice advocacy by the group. Illinois Review also got wind of Rauner’s attendance and filed this report…
Nearly 500 guests attended the ACLU event, which was hosted by a number of corporations and individuals, including Rauner’s wife Diana.
“Congresswoman Schakowsky spoke with confidence that reproductive freedom will continue to be protected throughout the states,” Youhnka said, alluding to ACLU-Illinois’ success in warding off attempts to restrict abortion in Illinois. […]
“It is disgusting that Mr. Rauner would give money to, and celebrate with, an organization that brags about its support of partial birth abortion, a gruesome procedure involving the severing of the spinal cords of fully developed unborn children,” Illinois Right to Life Committee’s new executive director Emily Zender told Illinois Review. […]
Zender told IR they had originally been informed that Rauner’s running mate Evelyn Sanguinetti was going to attend the pro-life dinner. However, when the Illinois Right to Life Committee refused to provide her a complimentary ticket, the Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate backed out, citing a scheduling conflict.
Today the State Universities Annuitants Association and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan reached a tentative agreement to postpone implementation of the State’s new pension law (PA 98-599).
The agreement is pending as it requires judicial approval before going into effect. The agreement delays implementation of the pension law until July 1, 2015. Specifically, the agreement protects SURS members currently eligible for retirement by allowing them to delay their retirement decision until the constitutionality of the new pension law is determined. It allows them to calculate their money purchase annuity based on the effective rates as of June 30, 2014 and allows them to avoid the skips in the annual increases if the changes to the pension are upheld. The agreement also ensures that any unnecessary pension contributions will be refunded.
The SUAA request had also asked for a stay of the entire pension law, but instead of holding out for that or going through a protracted court battle, negotiated the deal with the attorney general. Those involved say time is of the essence in hopes of holding off a retirement wave they argue will harm the state’s schools through a loss of institutional memory. They say the State Universities Retirement System has been overburdened with members trying to understand how the pension law would affect their benefits, and without enough time to meet with each, people have been forced to make retirement decisions without the full scope of information.
The tentative agreement between the SUAA and the attorney general resolves problems stemming from what can be described as typo in the pension law affecting university workers’ so-called “money purchase plans.” The SURS board recently voted to interpret the law as if the typo were fixed, so as to not inadvertently further cut some university workers’ pensions.
But the SUAA deal also goes beyond that; it eliminates issues involving so-called “refunds” that would have meant some university employees would have taken big hits were they to stay on the school payroll; the original request for an injunction, filed May 2, cited a man who would lose $190,000 if he kept working rather than retire by July.
The deal would also allow retirement systems to temporarily ignores a key provision of the pension law which reduces by one-percentage point how much employees must contribute toward their retirement; under the terms workers will continue paying what they do now, so as to not create additional harm if the law is found to be unconstitutional. There are additional changes, that affect individuals under systems besides SURS.
A coalition of labor unions on Monday asked a court in Springfield to prevent a new state law aimed at curbing Illinois’ public employee pension debt from taking effect next month until questions about its constitutionality have been resolved.
The legal filing in Sangamon County by We Are One Illinois came more than a week after a similar request was made on behalf of a group representing current and retired state university employees.
The pension law, approved by lawmakers and signed into law in December, sets a goal of wiping out the state’s $100 billion retirement debt within 30 years by reducing automatic cost-of-living increases for existing and future retirees while requiring workers to work longer before retiring.
“The pension theft bill must not be implemented before the courts have ruled,” Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan said in a statement. The coalition includes the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Service Employees International Union, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the Illinois Education Association and other public worker unions.
* The National Journal somehow snagged an interview with Fred Eychaner, one of the Democrats’ biggest campaign contributors both nationally and here in Illinois. Eychaner almost never grants interviews, so this is a very rare profile…
Eychaner decided to construct his own heavily funded lobbying and public-relations vehicle [to help pass gay marriage] instead of donating funds to existing gay-rights groups. To do his media, he hired ASGK Public Strategies, a Chicago-based PR firm with ties to Obama, and he enlisted several of the state’s top lobbyists. […]
Eychaner entrusted Mike Madigan—the powerful Democratic speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and someone to whom he had been a generous donor over the years—to deliver the votes. This did not sit well with other advocates, who wanted to cast a wider lobbying net, as opposed to leaning so heavily on Madigan to round up support.
“I would go on the record with my respect for Mike Madigan, which will probably upset a lot of friends,” Eychaner says now. “He’s enormously skillful at what he does. The only speakers of any House who survive are the ones who can keep their majority and keep everyone going largely in the same direction. Mike Madigan is superb at that.”
When it appeared last summer that they didn’t have the votes, the Legislature’s gay-marriage supporters delayed calling the bill to the floor. The grassroots wing of the LGBT movement was upset, and some began blaming Eychaner. The most obstreperous of these critics, a longtime gay-rights activist named Rick Garcia, publicly chastised Eychaner for being in Madigan’s pocket.
But after a five-month delay, the bill was voted on and passed, marking a historic occasion as well as vindicating Eychaner’s strategy. Eychaner compared the process to 20 mad chefs cooking on 20 different burners. “The person to the left of you by one degree thinks you’re selling out,” he said. “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. I don’t think I’ll be in that position again.”
When I asked about his near-term plans, he indicated only his interest in putting money behind the reelection campaign of Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn whose self-funding Republican opponent, Bruce Rauner, busted the individual spending-limits cap in the primary. “I don’t expect to be among the top donors this year, but I will do my share,” he said. “I am not the progressive Koch brother.”
* OK, I’m gonna give you a hint about how to read news stories. When you don’t see a hard number right away, it’s a tip off that the problem being claimed isn’t as large as the lede might suggest. For instance…
Dozens of state jobs involved in a dispute over whether they should be free of politics were filled by Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration with candidates who were politically connected or gave campaign contributions to the governor’s party, an Associated Press review of state documents shows.
* Four paragraphs in, we see that “dozens” is about two dozen…
In an analysis of about 45 Quinn administration hires described in the government emails, the AP found more than half had connections. For instance, four held jobs in Quinn’s office or worked for another Democrat before moving to IDOT; nine are relatives of officeholders, party officials, union representatives or others who are politically connected; seven are politically active, either as officeholders or party officials; three have donated to campaign committees; and two have served on campaign payrolls, including for legislators.
I’m not trying to minimize this revelation or the reporting at all, but if the administration thought those jobs were exempt, then of course they’d put political hires in there. The only thing that truly surprises me is that it wasn’t 45 out of 45. /snark
Again, it’s clear that those jobs shouldn’t have been classified the way they were. Whether anybody knowingly broke the law is now what’s in question.
The Illinois transportation secretary says it would be too difficult to reopen the hiring process for jobs contested in a federal lawsuit. […]
Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider told a Senate appropriations committee Thursday that people in those jobs are union members and repeating the hiring process would lead to costly lawsuits.
Republican state Sen. Matt Murphy of Palatine says taking no action could lead to future illegal patronage hiring.
I can see Murphy’s point, but it’ll cost a whole lot of money to fire these folks, who aren’t really guilty of anything. It was IDOT’s fault they got those jobs, not theirs. But perhaps you disagree and I’m all ears.
An Illinois tollway director appointed by Pat Quinn also heads a union that is a major financial player in the governor’s re-election campaign, most recently giving $250,000 to the cause in January.
The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, whose president is tollway Director James Sweeney, has donated more than $450,000 to Quinn’s campaign fund since the 2010 election, state records show. Sweeney also is chairman of the Chicagoland Operators Joint Labor-Management PAC that contributed $150,000 to Taxpayers for Quinn in 2010 and 2011.
The contributions don’t breach any ethics laws but they’re troublesome, some government experts say, particularly given past cronyism at the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.
“It’s worrisome to see so much money coming from one source, especially since the head of (Local 150) is also a member of the tollway board, where so many road construction dollars have been spent,” said Susan Garrett, chair of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
I can also clearly see Garrett’s point, but you can’t deny that Sweeney knows a thing or two about building roads.
Senate Bill 2721 sponsored by Representative Mike Bost and Senator Dave Luechtefeld will authorize Jackson County to generate revenue to repair the Grand Tower Levee by issuing bonds. In 1994, voters in Jackson County approved a referendum for the issuance of bonds needed to repair the Grand Tower Levee. Unfortunately, not enough bonds were sold and the timeline to sell the bonds expired – which led to Bost and Luechtefeld’s legislation to help repair the Grand Tower Levee.
* As it turns out, this was Rep. Bost’s final bill. Bost is running for Congress against Bill Enyart (who also traveled to Springfield to testify for the bill after it was bottled up by the House Democrats). Here’s Bost’s speech on his final bill…
And just in case you can’t watch videos where you are, he didn’t throw any papers in the air this time.
Bost has occasionally been someone of a lightning rod over the years, but he remains quite popular on both sides of the aisle. I covered his first successful race when he won a Democratic district in the 1994 GOP landslide. The HDems targeted him for defeat for years, but he always held on.
* The Question: Your thoughts on Rep. Mike Bost leaving the House this fall?
Illinois always has been one of the last states to suffer from a recession and one of the last states to recover, but this is getting ridiculous.
Nearly five years after the recession ended nationwide, the Illinois unemployment rate is 8.4 percent, third worst in the nation… The rate is now almost 2 percentage points above the national average… Since November 2010, when the Illinois unemployment rate was 9.6 percent—just two-tenths of a point above Indiana and the national average—only New Mexico has seen a smaller decline in its unemployment rate, compared with where it was. Indiana’s rate is down 3.5 percentage points since then, while Michigan, which started higher, is down 4.1 percentage points. […]
Income taxes went up in January 2011, precisely when Illinois started to diverge from most other states that saw steady improvement in their unemployment rates.
* As Merrion points out, quite a few people believe that the 2011 income tax hike is the main culprit. We’ve all seen charts like this before…
However, as Andrew Crosby and David Merriman of the U of I’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs note…
Illinois still tracks below ROM after January 2011; however, this difference is no longer statistically significant. One of several possible explanations for the diverging trends in employment is noted by Illinois’ Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA). COGFA notes Illinois has a “growing number of part - time workers that now has reached a record high.” If these part - time workers get a second part - time job, they could be double - counted by CES.
Correct. That probably isn’t a reliable chart.
* Bill Testa at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago read that U of I report and then tested some theories…
Illinois’s slow recovery may have more to do with its industrial structure. […]
Illinois’s mix of industries, while similar in some respects to those of other Great Lakes states, differs as well. It is possible that the small differences in job growth between Illinois and its neighbors are due to its somewhat different industry mix rather from disinvestment and a reluctance to hire in the state. […]
As an analytic exercise, I further ask how the Illinois economy would have fared 1) if it had the same industry composition as the four other Great Lakes states combined and 2) if its industries had the same job growth rates as those in the other states.
The chart…
* So, we’d have been much better overall with that hypothetical. The big difference between Illinois and the rest of the Great Lakes is the prominence of manufacturing and the type of manufacturing…
What are some of the industry mix differences that are notable between Illinois and other Great Lakes states? The large professional and financial services employment base in the Chicago area has already been noted. Further, in relation to other states, Illinois is now much more services oriented overall rather than goods producing. Manufacturing’s share of employment for 2013 clocks in at 11.4 percent of private sector payroll jobs in Illinois, versus 16.4 percent for the other four states. […]
And within manufacturing, Illinois tends to lean more toward food processing and farm, construction, mining machinery relative to the other Great Lakes states. In contrast, while there are important auto assembly operations in the Bloomington–Normal and Rockford areas of Illinois, as well as important links to the automotive supply chain throughout the state, Illinois’s ties to the automotive industry are much less prominent than those of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.
Nonetheless, even payroll employment trends suggest that Illinois is underperforming when examined on an industry-by-industry basis. Accordingly, recent changes in public policies that influence the investment climate, such as tax rate hikes, cannot be ruled out entirely, though such policy effects are unlikely to be exerting such a large and immediate effect. [Emphasis added.]
Economists are loathe to point to local taxes as being to blame for business decisions. But Illinois’ tax and budget crises are almost universally known and derided here, particularly among the corporate types (hence Rauner). There are other factors as well, including our notoriously high workers’ comp costs.
The underperformance in growth on an industry-by-industry basis is striking. Even if we had the same employment mix here, we’d still be behind.
“In fact, one could argue that the economy would be in worse shape had the tax hike not occurred, since the reduction in public-sector jobs and subsequent ripple effect would have been much larger,” says Aaron Smith, a regional economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc., an economics consulting firm in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “Of course, consumer spending would also have been stronger due to more discretionary income, but I don’t think the tax hike is a valid cause of the hiring slowdown in other industries.” […]
Despite claims that Illinois employers are freaked out by higher taxes, public-sector job losses account for a significant portion of the unemployment rate. Six of the nine occupations in Illinois losing the most jobs in 2011 were teachers and other government workers, according to Economic Modeling Specialists International, a labor market data analysis firm based in Moscow, Idaho.
* Joe Cahill at Crain’s writes “I’ve been following Chicago business for more than 30 years, and I can’t recall a time when so many of our big companies were in such a state of flux.” A few examples…
Walgreen’s deal with Europe’s Alliance Boots brought in a major wild card—Alliance Boots GmbH Chairman Stefano Pessina, now the company’s largest single shareholder—and sparked pressure to move its corporate headquarters to Europe.
United management underestimated the challenge of rationalizing the enormous airline it created by merging United and Continental. Poor first-quarter results all but ensure another round of disruptive cutbacks.
Caterpillar, similarly, is trying to right itself after the spectacularly ill-timed $7.6 billion acquisition of Bucyrus International Inc. Cat’s biggest deal ever dramatically increased its exposure to mining equipment just as the industry nose-dived. Sales have plummeted, forcing Cat to eliminate more than 9,000 jobs.
* I hadn’t really been following the Walgreen’s saga until I spoke with a company representative the other day. I was pretty shocked that the possibility of Walgreen’s moving its headquarters to Switzerland is quite real. The company could save huge money…
According to an analysis by UBS, Walgreen’s U.S. [effective] tax rate is 37.5% — compared with Alliance Boots’ rate in Europe of about 20%.
The state can’t do much about that. If it wants to go, it’ll go.
Aon Corp., one of Chicago’s most prominent businesses, shifted its corporate home to London in 2012. Last month, Deerfield-based Horizon Pharma Inc. said it would move its headquarters to Ireland as part of a merger.
Michigan’s Perrigo, Pennsylvania’s Endo Health Solutions and New Jersey’s Actavis moved their headquarters to Ireland last year following merger deals. Connecticut’s Alexion Pharmaceuticals moved some of its intellectual property there, as well, to cut taxes.
Mr. Pessina, a billionaire who resides in Monaco, turned his family’s struggling Naples pharmaceutical wholesaler into the heavyweight Alliance UniChem Group. In 2006, he merged it with U.K. pharmacy chain Boots Group to create Alliance Boots. A year later, the company was taken private in a $22 billion deal that remains Europe’s largest leveraged buyout. The deal was financed by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., the storied private-equity firm that inspired “Barbarians at the Gate,” a book about the tumultuous 1988 takeover of RJR Nabisco Inc.
“When Walgreens talks about the best interests of their shareholders, they’re talking about Stefano Pessina,” Mr. Fein says. “I don’t know if Walgreens did or did not anticipate his influence, but they’ve negotiated a transaction with one of the most sophisticated and respected businessmen in the world.”
A new poll today showing that 99% of Chicagoans don’t want higher property taxes confirmed a key principle of Governor Pat Quinn’s budget: Illinois over-relies on the property tax.
Governor Quinn is pushing a responsible and honest budget plan that would begin to reduce the state’s over-reliance on property taxes by properly funding education and sending every homeowner a guaranteed $500 property tax refund each year.
By contrast, billionaire Bruce Rauner is scheming to shift more of the tax burden to property taxpayers by cutting the state’s investment in education.
“It’s no surprise that Rauner - a self-proclaimed member of the .01% - would be scheming to do something that the 99% are strongly against,” Quinn spokesman Izabela Miltko said. “By cutting the state’s support for education, Rauner would preside over the largest property tax increase in Illinois history.
“It’s time to lower the property tax burden for homeowners across Illinois by properly funding our schools and sending every homeowner a guaranteed $500 property tax refund each year. The governor’s budget plan does just that.”
More than 2.1 million Illinois households would receive an annual $500 property tax refund under the governor’s budget plan, which also provides the largest increase in funding for the classroom in state history. Illinois collects more money in property taxes than the state’s sales tax and income tax combined.
* The poll didn’t say that 99 percent of Chicagoans don’t want a property tax hike. The somewhat oddly worded McKeon & Associates poll [ADDING: McKeon just called to say that the Sun-Times chose the question’s wording] merely allowed Chicagoans to pick their preference of new revenue streams…
Offered four choices on ways Chicago could solve its $20 billion pension crisis, raising property taxes ranked dead-last, chosen by only one percent of the Chicago voters surveyed.
The favorite remedies on the list — both at 25 percent — were a “commuter tax” on suburbanites who work in Chicago and the transaction tax on LaSalle Street exchanges championed by the Chicago Teachers Union.
Running close behind — at 21 percent — was a city income tax. That’s somewhat surprising, since a city income tax would have to be paid by many of those polled.
The transaction tax is dead, as is the city income tax. The commuter tax isn’t going anywhere any time soon. And while the 1 percent favoring a property tax hike is newsworthy, there apparently were no follow-up questions about what voters actually thought of that prospect.
* Also, the governor’s proposed property tax rebate isn’t really a property tax rebate. It’s a $500 check to all Illinois homeowners - at a net new cost to income taxpayers of $700 million.
* And, as Rauner has noted before, education funding hasn’t been protected by Quinn in the past. So, is the governor, then, responsible for large numbers of school-related property tax hikes? And since the governor pushed the original income tax hike, which didn’t include money for local government revenue sharing, is he also responsible for their tax hikes?
* As I told you Friday, eleven House Democrats co-sponsored a bill to completely roll back the 2011 income tax hike. One of those House members was Rep. Willis, who now says she’s undecided about making the tax hike permanent…
State Rep. Kathleen Willis is “totally on the fence.”
“I’m totally undecided still. I’m talking to the people in my district to see,” the Addison Democrat said.
“I’m talking to the people in my district” more likely means “I’m waiting to hear from the Speaker.”
“I was a firm ‘no’ in 2011, and I continue to be a firm ‘no’ on making the temporary income tax permanent. What we really need is bipartisan, long-term economic development plans and major budget reform,” said Sente, who has outlined such plans in a proposal that’s been stagnant in the legislature since March.
One theory for how this will all play out began emerging last week. Rather than take the tough vote, Madigan will ask his members to vote for Quinn’s preferred budget — one that doesn’t include the drastic cuts — but not take a vote on making the income tax permanent.
State government operations would continue as they are now. But, come January when income tax rates roll back from 5 percent to 3.75 percent, the state won’t have enough money to continue on its current track.
Such a move would turn the race for governor into a referendum on whether voters want the tax hike to stay permanent.
A vote for Quinn would be a vote for keeping the tax intact, thus avoiding the doomsday budget scenario he and his agency heads have been laying out this spring.
A vote for Republican businessman Bruce Rauner would be a vote for allowing the tax to roll back and the possibility of major cuts in state spending.
Rep. Elaine Nekritz, a leading Democrat, says members are split on the best approach.
“I’m not making any predictions right now, it’s all in such a state of flux and every legislator I talk to about the budget and what they’d like to see, how they’d like to see it resolved, has a different idea,” Nekritz says. “Until we get 60 that are on the same page, it’s going to be a real challenge.”
* We once again quote Illinois Manufacturers’ Association chief Greg Baise. This time it’s about Bruce Rauner…
“He’s a transaction guy. He knows he can’t do this all alone. He knows he is going to have to come in here and work with” the legislative leaders, two of whom are powerful Democrats who currently hold supermajorities in their respective chambers.
* And speaking of Rauner, the Sun-Times ran a story over the weekend about how disgraced former Democratic US Senate candidate Blair Hull had given $5K to Rauner’s campaign…
“I admire wealthy people who want to serve,” Hull told the Sun-Times in an interview last week. “I admire people like Michael Bloomberg, and I think he did a great job. People who are wealthy can really do what they believe, they can push for the right reforms.” […]
When asked if more financial backing was on the way, Hull laughed.
“He doesn’t need my money. He’s got a lot more money than I do,” Hull said. As for the $5,000 check he wrote to Rauner: “It was emotional support.”
* And one more. Winnebago County GOP Chairman Jim Thompson recently made a bit of news by writing this in his party’s newsletter…
“Media update for the week: saw on the news this week the offspring of a donkey and a zebra, black and white legs, rest all donkey. Not sure why this is news. Now if we can teach him to read a teleprompter, we could have two living creatures the media will fawn over that is part white, part black and all a**!”
Rauner eventually reacted, saying Thompson should resign…
“Bruce believes the comments in the newsletter were wholly inappropriate and don’t have a place in the Republican Party. It would be best if he resigned,” said Mike Schrimpf, Rauner spokesman.
State Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, confirmed that Rauner called him Friday afternoon and said it would be best for the party if Thompson stepped down. Syverson has been one of Thompson’s supporters, saying he should stay in his position because he apologized for the “joke.”
“He’s not racist and he apologized and if somebody took it the wrong way, he apologized and that’s all he can do,” said Syverson.
It’s been assumed all along that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s proposal to spend $100 million to help build Barack Obama’s presidential library was designed to put the Republicans on the spot and perhaps provoke an over the top, maybe even racial response, which would help gin up Democratic turnout a bit this November.
President Obama has put the library’s location out to bid, so Madigan’s proposal is ostensibly designed to help Chicago attract what will likely be a pretty big tourist destination.
But politics is just about everything in Springfield. Democrats are hoping to crowd the November ballot with enough measures to help gin up their party base and get them out to vote. A constitutional amendment to forbid any voter discrimination along racial, ethnic, gender, etc. grounds was already approved for the ballot. A non-binding referendum on whether voters want to increase the minimum wage to $10 an hour is being prepared.
So, this was mainly seen as just another in a series of ploys to fire up the base.
But the Republicans have so far played it quite well, publicly pledging their own support for the library and focusing on the cost. No Republican legislator has yet crossed the line. President Obama may not be all that popular elsewhere, but polling has consistently shown he remains popular here. There’s no sense attacking him and risk a backlash.
Plus, the Republicans make a good point. Obama has proved to be an incredible fundraiser. He still has a lot of very wealthy supporters and he just doesn’t need any help raising money. The government doesn’t really need to be involved.
Illinoisans overwhelmingly agree with the GOP.
“As you may know,” 1,029 likely voters were told May 7th in a Capitol Fax/We Ask America poll, “some lawmakers in Springfield want the state to commit $100 million to help pay for the construction of the future Presidential Library for Barack Obama, if it is located in Illinois. We’d like to know whether or not you generally approve or disapprove of that $100 million proposal?”
Just a scant 29 percent approved, while an overwhelming 67 percent disapproved. A mere 4 percent were unsure.
The only demographic support for the project wasn’t even majority support. A plurality of Chicagoans supported the idea 48-43, as well as a slim plurality of African-Americans, 45-44.
But a plurality of Democrats actually was against the plan, 48-44. And the idea is hugely unpopular with everybody else. A whopping 68 percent of women, 66 percent of men, 75 percent of independents, 80 percent of Republicans, 74 percent of both Latinos and whites, 65 percent of suburban Cook residents, 72 percent of collar county residents and 77 percent of Downstaters opposed the Obama presidential library idea. The poll’s margin of error was ±3.1 percent. 23 percent were cellphone users.
But even more said the state couldn’t afford to help build the library.
“No matter how you feel about the Presidential Library,” respondents were asked, “do you believe the state can afford to support it?”
Only 21 percent said the state could afford it, while an overwhelming 71 percent said it couldn’t. Another 8 percent were unsure.
Not a single demographic category said the state could afford the project. Chicagoans said it was unaffordable 43-42, a 53 percent majority of Democrats said it was unaffordable and African-Americans said it was unaffordable 54-35,
Everybody else’s responses were almost off the charts. 71 percent of women, 70 percent of men, 83 percent of Republicans, 79 percent of independents, 78 percent of whites, 69 percent of suburban Cook and 80 percent of both collar county residents and Downstaters said the state can’t afford it.
Speaker Madigan has had a few misfires this year. He wanted to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to levy a surcharge on income over a million dollars, but he couldn’t round up enough votes.
Madigan said in March that he wanted to make the income tax increase permanent, but last year eleven of his members - many of whom are his most politically vulnerable - introduced a bill to roll the tax hike all the way back. He has 71 Democrats and he needs 60 to pass the permanent extension measure. That gives him no wiggle room at all.
And, as the poll makes clear, Madigan badly miscalculated with this Obama library thing, both with Republican legislators and the voting public.
