Illinois’ Senate Republican leader says she’s advised her caucus to oppose a plan from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to bail out two city pension systems.
Christine Radogno of Lemont told a Senate committee Wednesday that the state is in “continual crisis mode” with spending and revenue. She says she wants to see a long-term plan from the city dealing with its other troubled pension funds.
Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday trotted out his running mate Paul Vallas to hammer Republican challenger Bruce Rauner’s position that the state income tax rate should rolled back, saying doing so would result in huge cuts to education and spikes in local property tax rates.
Vallas, the former Chicago Public Schools CEO, contended that lowering the income tax rate would leave at least $1 billion less for school districts across the state – a situation Vallas said would be “absolutely devastating.” […]
Rauner argues the increase should be allowed to expire as scheduled, but so far has not detailed how he would make up for the revenue loss beyond saying there’s room to cut in the state budget.
Vallas said that stance is disingenuous, and accused Rauner of “deferring the tough questions until after the election.”
“I know the impact that major cuts have on the education budget,” Vallas said at a downtown hotel, repeating his credentials as a school superintendant for 17 years. “And these type of draconian cuts which is what would occur if the rates were reduced under the Rauner plan, would have a devastating impact. There’s no way around it.
“Either you don’t understand the budget or in effect, you’re deferring the tough questions until after the election,” he said. […]
Vallas, who also ran school districts in Philadelphia, New Orleans and Bridgeport, Conn., said Rauner’s proposed income tax rollback to 3 percent would result in more than a billion dollars in cuts to education funding. Chicago Public Schools alone would lose some $233 million, according to the campaign’s analysis.
“No district will be able to absorb that impact without borrowing, which is bad, finding some way to raise property taxes, which is even worse, or going out and making draconian cuts to critical programs,” Vallas said.
“Pat Quinn broke his promise, raised taxes and still cut education funding by $600 million,” Rauner campaign spokesman Mike Schrimpf said in an email. “Paul Vallas laid off 130 public school teachers and staff while pocketing over $310,000 in taxpayer money for himself. Misleading the voters has been a hallmark of Quinn’s for the last four years and with that kind of record, it’s no surprise the Quinnocchio ticket is now making things up about Bruce.
Earlier this year, a bipartisan State Senate committee, created by State Senator Andy Manar (D–Bunker Hill), issued a report acknowledging Illinois’ outdated school funding system and recommending changes be made to the system to better reflect students’ needs.
On Wednesday, Manar, along with other Senate Democrats, introduced the School Funding Reform Act of 2014, a proposal to streamline the current hodgepodge of funding sources into one funding formula that would account for school districts’ funding needs.
“Illinois has the second-most inequitable school funding system in the nation. Our current funding system is doing a disservice to taxpayers, school districts and, most importantly, our children,” Manar said. “The funding system we are proposing will better address student needs, such as socio-economic background, language ability or special learning needs, while also accounting for a school district’s ability to raise funds locally.”
The current funding formula, unchanged since 1997, only distributes 44 cents for every $1 invested in education on the basis of district need. The other 56 cents is distributed to schools through archaic and complicated grants, not based on need.
Under the new funding system, 92 cents of every $1 invested by the State in the K-12 education system, with the exception of funds for early childhood education, construction projects and high-cost special education, would flow through a single funding formula that provides a simple, straight-forward and equitable means to distribute education funds for Illinois school districts.
According to Manar, the new formula would also increase stability and transparency regarding how much state money is provided, how it gets to school districts and how it is spent.
This is opening week for America’s 2014 baseball season, and there’s no place where patriotism is more in vogue than at Chicago’s White Sox season opener Monday at U.S. Cellular Field.
Over 100 members of the United States military stretched out this 250 foot flag in front of 40,000 baseball fans. […]
Monday, the game’s opening routine was inspirational seeing the flag and American baseball fans of all political views singing with their hands on their hearts, “the land of the free, and the home of the brave.” Then finishing with the inevitable, “Play ball!”
* Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be inspired by the pre-game festivities because of another American tradition: Poorly executed security rules…
Fans arriving at U.S. Cellular Field on Monday were greeted by long lines and metal detectors when they tried to enter the stadium to watch the Chicago White Sox take on the Minnesota Twins on opening day.
Major League Baseball has told its 30 teams they must implement security screening for fans by 2015, either with hand-held metal detection or walk-through magnetometers. The White Sox checked fans by hand-held or walkthrough metal detectors depending on where they tried to enter the stadium.
That, and a sellout crowd of 37,422, contributed to lengthy delays trying to see Chris Sale and the White Sox face the Twins.
The White Sox didn’t hire nearly enough security guards, so thousands were still outside waiting in endless lines during the singing of our National Anthem.
* I arrived about an hour early, but got stuck driving through a parking lot near the stadium surrounded by a mass of people trying to get inside. I couldn’t move more than a few feet for a half an hour because nobody was directing foot or auto traffic, except a couple of guys who were sitting on a golf cart doing essentially nothing.
Yeah, I was upset at missing part of the game, but I was really steamed that we were all - drivers and pedestrians - put in a needlessly dangerous situation and I was scared to death that I was going to run over somebody’s foot, or worse. People were literally squeezing by my car and jumping in front of me as I was stuck in the morass.
So, perhaps a legitimate concern for security turned into a potentially dangerous situation elsewhere. Not cool, Mr. Reinsdorf. Not cool at all.
Also, dude, you’re losing money when fans can’t get into your park. There were still people lined up at Gate 3 during the 3rd inning, for crying out loud.
Wednesday, Apr 2, 2014 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The cable TV industry is asking lawmakers to place a NEW 5% tax on satellite TV service. This proposal is an unfair, unjustified tax increase on the 1.3 million Illinois families and businesses who subscribe to satellite TV.
Satellite TV taxes will hurt Illinois families and small businesses
• Residential satellite TV subscribers will see their monthly bills go up 5%.
• This tax will impact every bar, restaurant and hotel that subscribes to satellite TV service, which will translate into higher prices, decreased revenues, and fewer jobs.
• Rural Illinois has no choice: In many parts of Illinois, cable refuses to provide TV service to rural communities. Satellite TV is their only option.
This is not about parity or fairness
• Cable’s claim that this discriminatory tax is justified because satellite TV doesn’t pay local franchise fees could not be further from the truth. Cable pays those fees to local towns and cities in exchange for the right to bury cables in the public rights of way—a right that cable companies value in the tens of billions of dollars in their SEC filings.
• Satellite companies don’t pay franchise fees for one simple reason: We use satellites—unlike cable, we don’t need to dig up streets and sidewalks to deliver our TV service.
• Making satellite subscribers pay franchise fees—or, in this case, an equivalent amount in taxes—would be like taxing the air. It’s no different than making airline passengers pay a fee for laying railroad tracks.
* The Chicago pension reform bill is about to start moving as I write this. There’s a noon committee hearing scheduled.
One of the more interesting developments in this legislation was SEIU’s reaction…
.Christine Boardman, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73, said she supports the “basic constructs” of the pension deal that impacts 10,000 of her members.
“We’re in support of the increase in employee contributions. We’re in support of the Emanuel plan to try to fund it through property tax increases. The bill is going to pass. I know that. You know that,” she said.
“We’re not gonna work against the bill. We’ve told that to Speaker [Mike] Madigan. We’re gonna be neutral, only because of the effect it has on retirees.”
There shall be printed on each [property tax] bill, or on a separate slip which shall be mailed with the bill: […]
there shall be a separate statement of the dollar amount of tax due which is allocable to the Pension Stabilization Levy under Articles 8 and 11 of the Illinois Pension Code
So, Chicago property taxpayers will get to see how much they’re paying toward this pension fix.
for payment years 2016 through 2055, the annual amount determined by the Fund to be equal to the greater of $0, or the sum of (1) the City’s portion of the projected normal cost for that fiscal year, plus (2) an amount determined on a level percentage of applicable employee payroll basis (reflecting any limits on individual participants’ pay that apply for benefit and contribution purposes under this plan) that is sufficient to bring the total actuarial assets of the Fund up to 90% of the total actuarial liabilities of the Fund by the end of 2055.
* Some Republicans are saying that the above language means there is a mandated property tax increase in the legislation. Yes, there are definitely minimums set, so taxes will absolutely have to rise because of the statute. But aldermen are gonna have to put a little skin in the game as well…
For levy years 2015 through 2020, the city council of the city shall levy a separate tax annually upon all taxable property in the city that shall be known as the Pen Stabilization Levy and shall be at a rate that, when extended, will produce an amount that is no less than one-half of the city’s required contribution amount under subsection (a-2) for each year.
* Those of us who looked at the past to justify a belief that Speaker Madigan would be cool to the idea of raising the minimum wage were just plain wrong…
In a sign Democrats are sticking to their 2014 election playbook, House Speaker Michael Madigan signaled Tuesday a minimum wage increase could be on the horizon in Illinois.
With President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Gov. Pat Quinn all singing the praises of boosting the minimum wage above $10 per hour, Madigan — who is chairman of the Democratic Party in Illinois — suggested it might have the juice to move through the General Assembly’s lower chamber this spring.
“There’s strong support for the minimum wage in the House,” Madigan told reporters. “I think that it’s a matter of fairness, it’s a matter of equity.”
Saying he was “adamantly, adamantly opposed” to increasing the state’s minimum wage, [Bruce Rauner] suggested rolling back the current rate in Illinois during a candidates forum in December.
In January, Rauner reversed course and outlined a scenario in which he could favor an increase in the wage, so long as it was paired with a series of business-friendly reforms in state workers compensation and tort laws.
“I think it’s a matter of fairness. It’s a matter of equity,” Madigan said. “I think you’ll find the opposition to raising the minimum wage comes from people who have done pretty well in America. For some strange reason, they don’t want others in America to participate in prosperity.”
Asked if he was describing Rauner, Madigan shot back a one-word response before walking away: “Who?”
* Meanwhile, I haven’t seen much conservative anger about this Madigan proposal, but maybe it’ll happen in time…
Current laws against discrimination aren’t good enough, says the speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) is sponsoring a constitutional amendment which today (Tuesday) unanimously passed a House committee. “Eight states have attempted to enact photo ID laws,” he told the committee.
“According to the Brennan Center, approximately 25 percent of eligible African-Americans and 16 percent of Hispanics don’t have photo IDs.” If both chambers approve, this would be a question on the ballot in November and could help turnout in a year that includes the race for governor.
David Morrison, policy advisor for government watchdog group, Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, testified on behalf of Madigan’s measure and said it would simplify the process to seek justice because aggrieved voters would be able to point directly to a violation of the state constitution.
“If anyone today did feel like there were an undue burden on their right to vote, this would give them a right to challenge it,” Morrison said. “Not only would get you a trial court action, but constitutional challenges are appealable directly to the Supreme Court.”
But Ron Sandack, R-Downers Grove, who voted for the measure, questioned the need for Madigan’s change in the state constitution.
“Is there an instance of voter suppression or access denied to register or cast a ballot here in Illinois?” Sandack asked the speaker.
Madigan couldn’t cite an example but said he wanted to prevent potential examples from cropping up.
The proposal received unanimous support in the committee.
The measure seeks to counter a U.S. Supreme Court June 2013 ruling that dislodged part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and prompted eight states to attempt to restrict access to polling booths, Madigan said. States have required some voters to show photo identifications, a move that Madigan said has “disproportionally” impacted minorities and the poor.
If it makes the fall ballot and is approved, the amendment would prohibit both future General Assemblies and local election authorities from imposing various restrictions, the speaker said.
* I really don’t see why this is a problem. A guy gets a ticket. He pays the ticket. He thinks the law is wrong, so he tries to change the law. But when the guy is a lobbyist with the NRA, well, we just can’t have that…
After a state conservation officer ticketed the National Rifle Association’s Illinois lobbyist last December for breaking a hunting law, the gun-rights advocate dutifully paid his $120 fine.
But Todd Vandermyde, one of Springfield’s most powerful and effective lobbyists, didn’t stop there.
A month later, he worked with one legislator to rewrite the law he broke.
And not long after that, he enlisted help from House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, to carry legislation that, at least initially, would have greatly restrained the authority of Department of Natural Resources police officers to venture onto private property.
* If you read the whole story, Vandermyde was hunting on private land. He had a loaded crossbow while on an ATV. You’re not supposed to do that, even on private land. So, he got a ticket from a conservation officer. On private land, mind you.
Vandermyde’s crossbow bill was pretty uncontroversial. It passed the House last week 84-28.
And, frankly, DNR needed some restraining, if you ask me. Too many of their officers think they don’t need a warrant to go into somebody’s house because state law doesn’t specifically require one. That’s just plain goofy and even DNR is not opposing the Durkin bill, which will require a warrant before conservation officers can enter someone’s house or yard.
…Adding… Some of you aren’t reading carefully enough. The Durkin bill does not apply to private hunting grounds, only to someone’s house and yard. Plus, it’s long-standing constitutional policy that a cop can bust someone even in a yard or a house if the cop witnesses a crime being committed.
“Look, I like Todd. I do, in spite of myself,” said state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, a gun-control advocate and a lead architect of the state’s same-sex marriage law. “But if I got a ticket and changed the law because I got a ticket, people would be screaming bloody murder. I don’t think it’s any different when someone with the level of influence and access that he has does it, too,” she said. […]
Cassidy stood by her belief that Vandermyde, in trying to change law because of his own misfortune, was wrong and ridiculed his comparison to her work on behalf of same-sex marriage.
“It’s a little different to change the law when you’re being discriminated against than to change a law when you break it,” she said. “There’s a little difference.”
That last statement is just not true. The entire civil rights movement was fueled by people deliberately breaking stupid laws.
There was a problem, it’s being fixed. What’s the big deal?
Wednesday, Apr 2, 2014 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
In any discussion of the treatment of mental illness, patients and their families should come first. But according to recent editorials in the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune, Senate Bill 2187 fails that test.
SB 2187 – sometimes called “RxP” – would allow psychologists with no medical training to prescribe medications to patients. Current Illinois law allows only people with medical training – doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants – to prescribe.
“It would create too many medical risks without doing enough to make drug treatment for mental health more widely available,” the Sun-Times wrote on Feb. 20, 2014. “We need to provide much better mental health care for our citizenry. But expanding prescription-writing rights is not a safe way to do it.”
Why does medical training matter? Physical illnesses and mental disorders are often intertwined. Additionally, psychiatric medication, such as drugs for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, can interact negatively with medication for chronic illnesses. Finally, many drugs are powerful and can create risky side effects. To understand these complexities, psychiatrists go through four years of medical school and four additional years of residency, on top of their college training in the sciences. They learn to treat the whole patient – not just the brain.
“We didn’t support this effort in the spring and we still don’t because this bill does not require sufficiently stringent training and oversight,” wrote the Chicago Tribune in its March 22, 2014 editorial.
The Supreme Court struck down limits Wednesday in federal law on the overall campaign contributions the biggest individual donors may make to candidates, political parties and political action committees.
The justices said in a 5-4 vote that Americans have a right to give the legal maximum to candidates for Congress and president, as well as to parties and PACs, without worrying that they will violate the law when they bump up against a limit on all contributions, set at $123,200 for 2013 and 2014. That includes a separate $48,600 cap on contributions to candidates.
But their decision does not undermine limits on individual contributions to candidates for president or Congress, now $2,600 an election.
Chief Justice John Roberts announced the decision, which split the court’s liberal and conservative justices. Roberts said the aggregate limits do not act to prevent corruption, the rationale the court has upheld as justifying contribution limits.
The decision chipped away at the central distinction drawn by the Supreme Court in its seminal 1976 campaign finance decision, Buckley v. Valeo.
Independent spending, the court said in Buckley, is political speech protected by the First Amendment. But contributions may be capped, the court said, in the name of preventing corruption. The court added that aggregate contribution limits were a “quite modest restraint upon protected political activity” that “serves to prevent evasion” of the base limits.
Wednesday’s decision only concerned contributions from individuals. Federal law continues to ban contributions by corporations and unions.
The court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has been consistently hostile to campaign finance limits in its half-dozen decisions in argued cases on the subject so far. The five more conservative justices have voted together in all of those cases, though Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. have taken a more incremental approach than the bolder one called for by Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Anthony M. Kennedy.
Wednesday’s decision may increase overall campaign spending, but it may also rechannel some of it away from “super PACs” and toward candidates and parties.
This [restriction] meant that donors weren’t able to spread around donations to multiple party committees and candidates and would have to be more selective about whom they contributed to.
In its decision, the court compared the overall contribution limits to restricting the number of candidates a newspaper can endorse.
“Contributing money to a candidate is an exercise of an individual’s right to participate in the electoral process through both political expression and political association,” the justices wrote. “A restriction on how many candidates and committees an individual may support is hardly a ‘modest Restraint’ on those rights. The Government may no more restrict how many candidates or causes a donor may support than it may tell a newspaper how many candidates it may endorse.” […]
Most Republicans, though, praised the ruling for allowing Americans to have more voice in the political process through political donations.
“Today’s Court decision in McCutcheon v. FEC is an important first step toward restoring the voice of candidates and party committees and a vindication for all those who support robust, transparent political discourse,” said Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee.
In the current election cycle, those nearing the limits include 11 donors who derive their wealth from private equity and investment firms. During the first three quarters of 2013, there were 13 who gave solely to Republican candidates and parties and four who gave only to Democrats. Only three of the donors contributed to candidates of both parties, but they heavily favored (95 percent or more) one party over the other. While just three led companies that are currently lobbying the federal government, 17 of them made large contributions to super PACs. And many of them are trying to influence the government.
CHICAGO – Quinnocchio will highlight Pat Quinn’s education funding cuts.
WHEN: 10:30 a.m.
WHERE: Hotel Allegro
171 W. Randolph St
Chicago, 60601
The Old Promise: “We have to invest in education. We have to be custodians of the future.” (Quinn video statement to ABC 7 on December 30, 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kisEvjk7Nt4)
The Reality: Pat Quinn has cut elementary and secondary education funding by more than $600 million. (CGFA 2014 Budget Summary p. 165)
* That COGFA budget summary is here. From a graph on page 165 of appropriations to the State Board of Education from FY06 to the current fiscal year…
Keep in mind, however, that this graph excludes teacher pension funding, which has ramped up every year. The state, not local school boards, covers those payments.
* And here’s another graph from the same COGFA document which represents the annual change in state revenues over the same time period…
Anybody wanna guess what would’ve happened to education funding if the tax hike that Rauner despises and pledges to eliminate hadn’t passed in 2011?
* Greg Hinz reports on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s supposed pension reform “deal.” It’s a whole lot more expensive than advertised…
Crain’s and other outlets reported this morning that the city’s property tax levy would go up $250 million over the next five years to pay for the deal. The figure came from briefings by city officials, officials who stuck with that figure even when repeatedly challenged.
But this morning, citing “confusion” amid a flurry of announcements and briefings, a city spokeswoman conceded that, in fact, the tax hike will be $750 million over five years.
Specifically, the city now says, the city’s property tax levy will rise $50 million in 2015, and keep rising by an additional $50 million a year over the following four years. Thus, the city’s gross property levy will be $50 million higher in fiscal 2015 than it is now, $100 million higher than now in 2016, and so forth, reaching a level $250 million higher than now in five years.
Thus, over the five years cumulatively, the city would pull in $750 million more for worker pensions than now. That’s somewhat different than the $250 million tax hike over five years” that was widely reported today.
* So, Greg Baise at the Illinois Manufacturers Association e-mailed today saying I should congratulate Mark Denzler when I see him next. Attached to the e-mail was a press release. The headline…
Illinois Chamber Announces Mark Denzler as New Head of Government Affairs
Wow. Interesting move, I thought. I thought Denzler was next in line after Baise finally decided to retire after 75 years at the IMA, or whatever it’s been.
* The text…
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce incoming CEO Todd C. Maisch has chosen Mark Denzler to take over the reigns of government affairs at the Chamber and serve as his number two.
I actually texted someone at that point that there could be a big job opening in town.
* But then there were the quotes, like this one from Ray Drake, the Chamber’s board chairman…
Denzler currently serves as VP & COO of the Illinois Manufacturers Association. He will have to broaden his horizons and step up his lobbying game to meet the high government affairs standards of the Illinois Chamber. Incoming CEO Todd Maisch is confident that under his mentorship Denzler will soon grow into the role. I hope that Mr. Maisch is correct. This is a huge gamble from the perspective of the Chamber Board.
* From Todd Maisch, the Chamber’s incoming CEO…
“I see Mark as someone I can mold and grow into a truly great business advocate. For the past decade Mr. Denzler has proven himself to be fairly competent in manufacturing related issues. I hope this move to represent the broader business community will not be too overwhelming for him.”
* From Baise…
“Denzler has served me well as an assistant. Mr. Maisch is lucky to find someone whom he can mold in his image. I congratulate both gentlemen on the opportunities that lay ahead for them.”
* This Indiana press release reveals that the state’s new billboard advertising campaign “Stillinnoyed” was produced in-house. I saw one of those billboards on the Dan Ryan heading south last night from the ballgame. It wasn’t much to write home about. Maybe outsourcing to a top notch Chicago ad agency might work, but, then again, that would defeat the purpose.
Hoosiers don’t like us. Never have. This looks to be more about internal state politics than it is about a massive new effort to steal our jobs…
The Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) encourages Chicago businesses who are stillinnoyed to move to Indiana with the launch of the state’s most recent marketing campaign designed to highlight the benefits companies gain from operating in Indiana’s business climate.
The campaign, Stillinnoyed, contrasts the Illinois business environment—marked by tax hikes and budget deficits—with the Hoosier business climate, which is supported by a stable environment and lower taxes. Debuting earlier this week and running for eight weeks throughout Chicagoland, both billboards and digital advertisements state “STILLINNOYED? No wonder.” along with an address to AStateThatWorks.com, a website that highlights the numerous reasons why Indiana is a state that works for business.
“In an increasingly competitive marketplace, companies are seeking to maximize their competitive advantage,” said Victor Smith, Indiana Secretary of Commerce. “Indiana offers companies the ultimate upper hand, with lower taxes and more affordable business costs just minutes away from downtown Chicago. When comparing Indiana to high-tax Illinois, the difference is clear.”
Earlier this week, Governor Mike Pence signed into law tax reform that encourages new job growth, including placing the corporate income tax on a reduction schedule ultimately falling to 4.9 percent, which will give Indiana the second lowest corporate tax rate in the nation. Meanwhile, Illinois’ corporate income tax rate is 9.5 percent.
Still, Illinois has far outpaced Indiana in economic development, pulling in more than three times as many significant business investments last year, according to Site Selection Magazine data.
Last year, Illinois ranked third nationally by attracting 383 projects that involved more than $1 million in investment, at least 50 jobs, or 20,000 square feet, according to the trade publication. Indiana had 103 such projects, which was at least 60 fewer than all of its neighboring states and second-to-last per capita in the Midwest. […]
Indiana launched the original Illinois campaign in 2011, after Illinois raised its corporate income tax by 30 percent and its individual income tax rate by 67 percent trying to plug the state’s then-$13 billion budget deficit. Around 40 Illinois companies, many from Chicago’s southeast suburbs, have moved factories, warehouses and other facilities across the state border.
They pretty much got some low-hanging fruit. The huge exodus of business across the state line never occurred.
More than two dozen tourists were stuck in an elevator Sunday in the Illinois State Capitol building. […]
“There were like 25 or 30 people. It was very uncomfortable. Everybody was packed together,” said Pamela Ruzich, a who was visiting the Capitol from Ozark, Illinois. “And just as the elevator took off, there was a loud pop.”
Wait. 25 or 30 people? How the heck did they even squeeze that many people on? The elevators have a weight limit of 5,000 pounds, on a good day, and as many of us know, they don’t often have good days.
With no cell phone signal, that left the tour guide to call for help. She picked up the in-elevator phone line, but according to protocol, she is supposed to call the elevator company, rather than the fire department to rescue them from inside the elevator.
“Repeatedly we asked them to call 911 and we were repeatedly told, ‘that’s against our protocol, we’re not doing that,’ and with no cell phone signal, that left us completely helpless,” said Lence.
After about 45 minutes, they took matters into their own hands.
“One of the men finally pried the elevator door open. Someone put their phone into the shaft so we could get signal, and we called the fire department ourselves,” said Lence.
They aren’t allowed to call the fire department? Sheesh.
The fire department responded in a few minutes. All was well and it turns out that actor Jesse Spencer, from the “Chicago Fire” TV show was one of the trapped elevator riders. He took photos with his fellow passengers.
Whew. I kinda feel like Sneed after writing that sentence.
A spokesman for the secretary of state’s office says current policy prohibiting Statehouse tour guides from calling the fire department in the event of elevator troubles is being reviewed.
Dave Druker said Monday that representatives of the firm contracted to service Capitol building elevators have been notified that they should have arrived sooner when a tour guide called from a stalled elevator with 25 people on board late Sunday morning. […]
Asked why it’s Capitol policy to notify the elevator service firm and not the fire department, Druker said the state “has a contract with the firm that does work on the elevators, and I think they didn’t arrive as quickly as we’d hoped.”
* As subscribers know, there’s lots more to this story beyond the public sturm und drang…
Gov. Pat Quinn pulled an end run on state lawmakers to salvage the jobs of two Cabinet members and dodge a short-term showdown with African-American and Latino lawmakers whose support he needs to win re-election this fall.
The Democratic governor took the rare step of withdrawing — and then quickly renominating — Julie Hamos, director of the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, and Manny Flores, appointed to head the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. The move has the effect of hitting the reset button on what had been a deadline this week for the Illinois Senate to confirm the two aides.
Critics who had been poised to vote down the appointments are crying foul — Quinn nominated Hamos, a former lawmaker from Evanston and Flores, a former Chicago alderman, a year ago, but now both are poised to stay in their jobs until the governor’s term expires in January without ever facing an up-or-down vote.
The Illinois Constitution says nominees must be voted up-or-down within 60 legislative session days — as opposed to calendar days — of the governor’s recommendation to the Senate or their nominations take effect automatically.
Hamos, a former state lawmaker who has served as agency chief since 2010, has been in the legislative crosshairs for more than a year, primarily because of she has been in charge of implementing an overhaul of Medicaid that was supposed to cut $2.7 billion from the health care program for poor people.
Last year, members of the Senate’s African-American and Latino caucuses sent a letter to Quinn urging him to replace Hamos, saying she’s made spending cuts a higher priority than helping low-income and disabled Illinoisans.
By contrast, Republicans have contended she is not moving fast enough to implement the savings.
In a statement issued Monday, the governor’s office didn’t address the reasons for the maneuver.
“The governor strongly supports the director,” Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said.
As Republican Spokesman for the Senate Executive Appointments Committee, Senator Bivins said his concerns are not about the particular appointees, but more about the integrity of the executive appointment process. The 45th District Senator is filing an amendment to his Senate Bill 2683 that will close this loophole by prevent the 60 legislative session days “clock” from restarting by simply withdrawing an appointee and reappointing them.
All gubernatorial appointments have to be submitted to the Senate Executive Appointments Committee, which then sends its recommendations to the full Senate for approval.
The two directors up for reappointment are Julie Hamos, Director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, and Manuel Flores, Secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
Senator Bivins also questioned the Senate Majority’s sincerity in protecting the integrity of the process. In his letter to the Senate President withdrawing the two directors’ appointments, Governor Quinn specifically indicates the withdrawal came at the Senate President’s request.
“Keep in mind that on the day before the primary election, a meeting of the Executive Appointments Committee was called because of concerns about the pending deadline; however, neither Secretary Flores nor Director Hamos were on the list of names to be appointed,” Senator Bivins said. “But suddenly, the Governor circumvents the process and pulls a Friday stunt like this.”
Jorge Sanchez, a senior litigator for MALDEF, said he is concerned the complicated system for picking the 11-member commission that will draw the map “creates very little opportunity for communities of color to have representation.” […]
Notably, Sylvia Puente of The Latino Policy Forum, which usually sides with MALDEF on redistricting matters, is endorsing the constitutional amendment. […]
But Shari Runner, a senior vice president at Chicago Urban League, which has played an important role over the years in protecting the rights of African-American voters in redistricting, also withheld support.
“While we have not endorsed the independent maps amendment, we are open to engaging in dialogue about redistricting,” the group said in a statement later. “That said, we believe that any proposal on redistricting reform must include protection of minority voters and minority representation. In its present form, we do not see any language in the proposed plan that addresses this concern.” […]
Michael Kolenc, campaign manager for Yes! For Independent Maps, argued the amendment contains specific language to prevent the commission from drawing legislative boundaries to “dilute or diminish the ability of a racial or language minority community to elect the candidates of its choice.” It also would require legislative leaders to use their four commission appointees to make sure it “reflects the geographic and demographic diversity of the state.”
Thoughts?
…Adding… From Michael Kolenc…
No one came out against this measure yesterday at the ICPR forum. It was a very academic discussion. Further, MALDEF was part of the two-year process that drafted this amendment.
This is the criteria set forth in the amendment. We feel that this criteria, and the 100% transparency involved, will protect minority communities. We have lots of organizations in our coalition that are part of this effort for that very reason.
From the text of the amendment, that will be in the State Constitution if approved:
Contiguous, substantially equal in population, and in compliance with federal laws
Not drawn to dilute or diminish the ability of a racial or language minority community to elect the candidates of its choice
Respecting the geographic integrity of cities, towns, and other units of local government
Respecting the geographic integrity of communities sharing common social and economic interests
Not drawn to purposefully or significantly discriminate against or favor any political party or group, and not considering the residence of any person
* It would be nice to see what happened after 1991. Did MJM’s patronage influence wane? I kinda doubt it. Sun-Times…
A new report by Gov. Pat Quinn’s transit task force came out swinging Monday at House Speaker Michael Madigan, accusing him of “in effect” deciding for years if some job candidates were hired at Metra.
The report — whose ethics recommendations were overseen by former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald — revealed that Metra kept three boxes of three-by-five-inch cards holding the names of more than 800 people referred for jobs, promotions or raises by “various political officials or persons influential with political parties.’’
Those boxes dated roughly from 1983 to 1991, but some job decisions involving Madigan went as far back as 1976, according to the report.
The records “reflected patronage hiring at Metra,’’ said the report, which outlined a series of reforms to address influence-peddling and enhance regional transit planning.
Madigan was among a host of individuals — including Metra and CTA board members as well as Cook County and legislative officials — who made job-related recommendations to Metra, the final report of the Northeastern Illinois Public Transit Task Force said.
But when it came to Madigan’s recommendations, the report noted, “in some cases, he did not recommend people to be hired — he in effect decided they were hired.’’
The report contains a long accounting of patronage abuse in Illinois, but the grand prize example is buried in footnote No. 107: One of Metra’s index cards refers to efforts to hire a prospect flagged as “high priority” by the speaker. The candidate’s phone was disconnected, so Metra sent a letter to his home and put a note in his file indicating that he would begin work “as soon as he calls and we can get him in for an interview, physical, etc.”
“It appears as if the hiring decision was made before the first interview,” the task force report observes.
Again, this is all from more than 20 years ago. It’s weird that this is all they can come up with.
The Emanuel administration announced that it has reached a compromise with some of its unions that would resolve about half of the city’s pension debt crisis, putting about 70 percent of the burden on the city and its taxpayers and the rest on workers and retirees.
The city is putting on the table a $250 million increase in property taxes over five years, increasing the tax bill by $50 a year for the average homeowner. Retirees would see slower growth in cost cost-of-living increases and workers are expected to increase their contributions eventually to 11 percent of pay, from 8.5 percent today.
* But the unions that represent many, if not most, of the 34,000 active employees covered by this alleged agreement oppose the plan…
The We Are One Chicago union coalition is opposed to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s pension proposal affecting participants in the Municipal and Laborers pension funds. Coalition members opposing the deal include the Chicago Teachers Union, AFSCME Council 31, and the Illinois Nurses Association – all of whom represent city and school board employees and retirees that would be directly affected.
The CTU represents lots of school workers who aren’t in the teachers pension fund.
* The trade unions are hailed as supporters, but the other unions will be working hard against this thing once Mayor Emanuel unveils his Springfield legislative package.
* What residents and workers would be forced to give up…
The mayor’s proposal involves both taxpayers and city workers paying more. Under the proposal, the owner of a $250,000 home would pay $50 more a year starting in 2016. After five years, the homeowner would be paying an extra $250 a year. […]
City workers also would pay 2.5 percent more toward their retirement, increasing their contributions by 0.5 percent a year for five years. Employees now pay 8.5 percent of their salary each year for pensions and would ultimately pay 11 percent. The increase would amount to about $1,500 more a year by 2019 for a city worker making about $60,000.
In addition, City Hall would change how it awards cost-of-living increases to city workers. Instead of 3 percent yearly bumps that are compounded, the city would provide increases at the lower of 3 percent or at half the level of inflation, not compounded. In addition, annual pension bumps would not be given in 2017, 2019 and 2025, and there would be a two-year delay in starting the hikes upon retirement.
If Emanuel can convince the General Assembly to approve the pension deal with building trades and white collar employees, it could leave police and fire unions on the outside looking in.
Next year, Chicago is required by state law to make a $600 million contribution to stabilize police and fire pension funds that have now have assets to cover just 30.5 percent and 25 percent of their respective liabilities.
The mayor wants the General Assembly to put off the balloon payment until 2023 to give him time to negotiate a similar deal with police and fire unions.
The cops and firefighters are gonna be tough nuts to crack. The firefighters, especially, are quite adept in Springfield and they rarely lose. Actually, I’m having a hard time thinking of a bill that passed which they wholeheartedly opposed. Kicking the can down the road is, therefore, a wise move. But the first responders know they’re next, so they’ll fight this thing hard.
The mayor’s plan calls for 70 percent of the money to come from the city, 9 percent from employees and 21 percent from benefit reforms.
Roughly 30 percent of the city’s contribution would be paid by “appropriately allocating” increased pension costs to the Aviation and Water funds based on the number of employees whose work is tied to those funds. Another 20 percent would come from savings generated by phasing out the city’s 55 percent subsidy to retiree health care and other budget savings.
* William P. O’Connell, of the 7200 block of North Oleander Avenue in Chicago is the first person to at least temporarily lose his concealed carry license…
O’Connell was involved in a quarrel over rent money with a 52-year-old man on March 23, police said. O’Connell allegedly pointed a handgun at the man and threatened to shoot him.
Police said the victim and a woman both identified O’Connell, who admitted hiding his gun. O’Connell took officers to a vacant apartment where they recovered a .38-caliber revolver, police said.
O’Connell was carrying a valid state firearm owner’s identification card and a concealed carry license when he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, police said. He’s scheduled to appear in court on May 8.
The license was revoked under Illinois’ new concealed carry law, which allows a license to be pulled if someone uses or threatens violence, among other grounds.
If the charges are dropped against O’Connell, the license will be reinstated, according to Illinois State Police spokeswoman Monique Bond. His next court hearing is May 8. O’Connell could not be reached for comment.
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2014 - Posted by Advertising Department
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* I’m still not feeling 100 percent well today, but I bought White Sox opening day tickets long ago and I decided last week that even if I needed an ambulance to take me to the game I’d be there. So, I’m heading out soon.
* The Sun-Times reports that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is backing a Statehouse bill which would expunge some juvenile arrest records…
The legislation, introduced Friday by Rep. Arthur Turner (D-Chicago), would apply to juvenile arrests that never resulted in formal criminal charges. The state would have to expunge those arrests automatically when a person turns 18. […]
About three-quarters of juvenile arrests in Cook County don’t result in charges, records show. The legislation would have applied to more than 16,000 arrests in 2013 in Chicago. Because the proposed legislation is retroactive, it could apply to tens of thousands of arrests, administration officials said. […]
Under the proposed legislation, those expunged records would be sealed to everyone except for police agencies to use in screening job applicants.
Prosecutors also would have access to those records to make charging decisions and sentencing recommendations in cases in which someone is charged with a similar crime as an adult, officials said.
Paula Wolff, senior executive of the policy group Metropolis Strategies, said she knows of a 19-year-old who was working as a school custodian for 10 months when he lost his job because of a background check. It revealed two juvenile arrests that didn’t result in charges, she said.
* The Question: Should juvenile arrest records be expunged if no formal charges were ever filed? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
• 89 percent of Illinoisans feel corruption is somewhat common in the state, with 53 percent believing it’s very common.
• 79 percent say corruption at the federal level is at least somewhat common, with 45 percent saying it’s very common.
• 62 percent of all Illinoisans believe county or city politic al corruption is at least somewhat common, with 35 percent reporting local corruption to be very common.
° However, 85 percent of those living in Chicago believe county or city political corruption is at least somewhat common, with 55 percent perceiving local corruption to be very common
* Obviously, Leader Durkin is hoping to bait Illinois’ newest state Rep. into voting against Speaker Madigan’s millionaire’s tax and other stuff, but the way he’s doing it is quite interesting…
DURKIN APPLAUDS NEW REP’S BIPARTISAN, ECONOMIC GROWTH PLEDGE
Chicago – House Republican Leader Jim Durkin welcomed newly appointed state Rep. Anna Moeller (D-Elgin) on Monday by applauding Moeller’s bipartisan and economic growth pledge. Moeller told reporters that she is pledging to serve in a “bipartisan fashion” and she will work to “create jobs and strengthen our economy.”
“The best way to strengthen our economy is to not raise taxes on anyone,” said Durkin. “Many key votes are coming before the Illinois House in the coming days and weeks that will slow Illinois’ economic recovery and drive unemployment higher.”
Last week, Democratic leaders have all endorsed the idea of making the 67% temporary tax hike of 2011, permanent.
“The House GOP will gladly work with any member of the General Assembly who is committed, like Rep. Moeller, to strengthening our economy and protecting hardworking families, taxpayers and job creators,” added Durkin.
Heh.
* In other economy-related news, Greg Hinz takes a close look at legislation that appears pretty good on its face. The bill would allow companies to recoup up to 100 percent of their job training costs. But all the jobs would have to be net new Illinois positions. There’s a problem with that…
“More than 300,000 manufacturing workers are set to retire in Illinois in the next decade. . . .The idea of a tax credit against withholdings could greatly benefit companies making significant investments in their human capital,” said Illinois Manufacturers’ Association Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Denzler, in a statement.
“However, the current proposal is cumbersome and overly bureaucratic,” he added. “(That) will dampen enthusiasm while failing to provide any help for companies simply looking to train replacements for an aging workforce.”
Qualified training costs could be credited not only against a company’s own income tax liability but against money it collects from workers in paycheck withholding that is supposed to be passed on to the state. There have been only a few instances in which such tax breaks have been approved in Illinois, all involving so-called EDGE tax credits. In each case, allowing companies to keep employee tax withholding has had to be approved by the General Assembly.
Under the current proposal, that authority would be given to officials at Mr. Pollet’s DCEO and the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
Consumers like ride shares. They like being able to find a nearby car, check out the driver and agree to a fare, all on their smartphones. They like the option of paying a premium for faster service in peak hours or bad weather. They like choices.
Sticking to the current rules would rob them of a promising new model while protecting an archaic system that works mostly for the medallion owners. It doesn’t work for the independent contractors who actually drive the cabs. Last week, a group of them sued, saying they should be considered employees of the cab companies from whom they rent the medallions. (Another pending suit argues that the drivers should be considered employees of the city.) […]
Government isn’t doing its job if it accepts the companies’ assurances that everything is hunky dory. So the question now isn’t whether the ride shares will be regulated, but who will set the rules. […]
Lawmakers shouldn’t be in the business of marking cars or dictating fares, either. Their aim should be to promote safety and competition, not to take sides in the taxi vs. ride share battle
Sneed has learned Quinn plans to announce a new state-subsidized mortgage loan program Monday for first-time Illinois home buyers.
“This program is not for millionaires,” Quinn told Sneed. […]
◆ Fact: The plan will give eligible first-time home buyers a 30-year fixed mortgage offered by the Illinois Housing Development Authority at below market interest rates, according to Quinn. (Right now, the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage charges 4.4 percent interest.)
◆ Fact: It will also offer a forgivable loan of $7,500, secured by a second mortgage, to help with the down payment or closing costs. At minimum, borrowers must contribute the greater of one percent of the purchase price or $1,000 toward the down payment.
◆ Fact: This program is only for first-time home buyers, or anyone who hasn’t owned a home in the last three years, and has at least a credit score of 640. […]
◆ Fact: Quinn claims the program will be funded with $130 million from the capital budget — set aside five years ago for the Illinois Housing Development Authority to use on housing construction and mortgage subsidies.
* And the editor of a website devoted to nursing home issues says Bruce Rauner’s candidacy is gonna bring down major heat on the industry…
In Illinois, when the inflammatory ads start again in the Rauner-Quinn race, few will think twice about the guaranteed loser: the nursing home profession.
Rauner’s proponents will again assert he had no hand in the day-to-day management when the bad acts occurred at his nursing home businesses. Attack. Defend.
And the remaining impression will simply be that, whether or not this guy is a greedy shark investor, nursing homes are terrible places where horrible things inevitably happen.
They might be trying to put Rauner on trial, but the skilled nursing profession will already have been convicted in the public’s mind, no matter the November vote totals show.
* The AP drilled into the governor’s budget a little bit and found a few surprises. The biggest surprise, which probably shouldn’t be a surprise…
Quinn also has suggested zeroing out funding for the Community Based Organizations for Violence Prevention program, which succeeded the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative, which has received $15 million over the past two years.
You’ll recall that the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative was at the center of a scathing Auditor General’s report for its shoddy and goofy operations. Obviously, the governor wants to distance himself from that program. But what happens if violence spikes again this year?
The Murphysboro youth center, which closed two years ago, could serve as a facility minimum security facility for more than 400 drunken driving offenders, according to the governor’s office. […]
The Joliet Youth home, which closed last February, also would be repurposed, according to governor’s budget office documents. […]
The governor’s office of management and budget would see a 30 percent budget increase under Quinn’s plan, as it adds seven positions. Pallasch said the increase “comes from the addition of a new requirement that would audit state grants and is housed in the governor’s office.”
But that “requirement” is a bill sponsored by state Rep. Fred Crespo of Hoffman Estates that hasn’t yet been passed by the Legislature.
* Despite the expansions, the governor turned thumbs down on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s dream of expanding Soldier Field in order to attract a Super Bowl…
“We have serious financial challenges,” Quinn said. “Changing Soldier Field, making it bigger? It just ain’t gonna work.”
In defending his proposal to make Illinois’ 2011 income tax increase permanent, Gov. Pat Quinn Friday called his Republican challenger Bruce Rauner’s plan to let the tax lapse and slash the budget a “scheme.”
Quinn argues Rauner can’t promise to both stabilize the state’s troubled budget and lower tax rates. Illinois needs the extra money to fix its budget woes, Quinn said.
“He basically has a scheme, and it’s not an honest scheme,” Quinn said.
Pushing the larger tax as he seeks re-election is risky, but Quinn has blasted Rauner and other Republicans for not offering a similarly detailed proposal.
“Some people think you get elected by not saying anything substantive,” Quinn said.
The governor’s office also pointed out to me this morning that slashing the budget could result in higher local property taxes, if education takes a hit. Rauner has pledged to protect education spending, but where would he find the money if the tax hike expires or is repealed? He doesn’t really say. The Illinois Policy Institute has called on the state to drastically cut funding to local governments, but that would also undoubtedly lead to property tax hikes.
* Earlier today, I received this solicitation from the Yes for Independent Maps coalition…
Rich:
We know you’re busy. You are probably doing three things while you read this (hopefully driving isn’t one of them). So we’ll be brief: Today is the last day of the fundraising quarter, and I am writing to ask you for a contribution.
We know you support this campaign. So please head over to our website (click here) and make a $5 donation so we can continue to do what we do.
This is the paragraph where we usually include something compelling about why Independent Maps matter. Today, I’ll just say this is a big deadline for the campaign and we could use your support.
Lots of campaigns are going to ask you for money today. I bet none will ask like this.
* Greg Hinz talks about a new report due out today from Gov. Pat Quinn’s transit study commission, which is headed, Greg says, “by one of the best big thinkers in the Chicago area: business and civic activist George Ranney”…
Likely to get a cooler response is a proposal to merge the CTA, Metra and Pace into one agency with one governing board and three operating units, in the process dismantling the Regional Transportation Authority. Mr. Ranney is dead set on killing the RTA, which he helped create three decades ago.
The agency never was given the power needed to do its job of supervising the CTA, Metra and Pace. Given that failure, the next-best alternative probably is setting up a mega-agency that would run the operating units, much like the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Doing so has some clear advantages. CTA, Metra and Pace each have their own planning departments, IT units, personnel departments and the like. Consolidating them could save $30 million to $50 million a year, according to people familiar with the Ranney report. That would buy a lot of buses and maybe a train or three.
There are two other financial advantages. Instead of crawling all over each other in Washington in a hunt for federal capital, disputes over priorities would have to be resolved locally. And if the agency actually did some smart stuff—shifting resources to priority areas, unrolling an expansion plan that makes sense, etc.—it would help open the door to what Chicago-area transit really needs: more money.
To quote one item in the preliminary version of the Ranney report, the Chicago region spent half as much per capita in the past decade on transit capital projects as peer cities Boston, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington: $1,039 per person here versus an average of $2,039. All those metropolitan areas have strong unified or regional governance.
“The problem is not just transit, it’s the entire transportation system in this region has come to something of a standstill and people are spending a whole lot of time tied up in traffic,” Ranney, Jr. said. “The cost of an average commuter is $1500 a year just from the delays involved. So what really needs to happen here is you need an alternative, a relief value for all that auto traffic. And the best way to do it, the most effective and cheap way to do it is getting transit into better shape and encouraging people to use it. That’s the answer.”
And the answer may include raising the RTA sales tax.
Feb. 24, 1997: “Illinois’ schoolchildren — and taxpayers — deserve something better than the state’s arcane, inadequate and inequitable system of paying for public education. It’s a method that relies far too heavily on property taxes, overburdening homeowners and creating huge inequities between rich and poor districts.”
April 19, 1997: “The legislature needs to establish a minimum amount guaranteed for each child to provide an adequate education. It should finance that foundation level by raising the state income tax, and then offset some of that increase with property tax relief. … What’s more, a modest increase in the state’s income tax would not be unduly burdensome, particularly when coupled with a drop in property taxes.”
Those aren’t my words. They’re the words of the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, praising then-Gov. Jim Edgar’s thoughtful, responsible plan to change the way Illinois schools are funded by raising the income tax and reducing the property tax burden.
How right they were!
In fact, that is exactly what I set out to do last week when I proposed maintaining the current income tax rate — among the lowest in the nation — to properly fund public schools, while reducing the property tax burden by providing every Illinois homeowner with a guaranteed $500 annual refund. […]
The Chicago Tribune was right in 1997: It’s time to tackle this “arcane, inadequate system” where homeowners are overburdened and children are shortchanged.
* But is this really property tax relief? To me, anyway, it looks a whole lot like what President George W. Bush did during the 2008 crash…
Tax rebates created by the law were paid to individual U.S. taxpayers during 2008. Most taxpayers below the income limit received a rebate of at least $300 per person ($600 for married couples filing jointly). Eligible taxpayers received, along with their individual payment, $300 per dependent child under the age of 17. The payment was equal to the payer’s net income tax liability, but could not exceed $600 (for a single person) or $1200 (married couple filing jointly).
As Americans hold their breath over the economy, Bush elbowed Congress to pass a $150 billion stimulus package, with rebate checks and temporary tax cuts. Democrats agreed, with swift passage in the House.
It’s money drawn from thin air, amid crushing deficits.
* Quinn’s proposal (which was pushed by Speaker Madigan) is to cut a $500 check to every Illinois homeowner and then mail those checks before the general election.
The proposal does nothing to address the reasons behind our high property taxes. The money could’ve been used for schools, perhaps with a requirement that school districts not increase their budgets in exchange for the cash. There are no ideas here to address unfunded state mandates, which push up costs. There are no ideas to force schools to rein in administrative costs, etc., etc., etc..
There is zero “reform” in this plan. It’s just a check, paid for with money we as a state really don’t have.
* Bruce Rauner and US Sen. Mark Kirk were interviewed yesterday on Rick Pearson’s increasingly important WGN radio talk show. One topic was Medicaid…
Rauner suggested the federal government wouldn’t pay for the bulk of the Medicaid expansion “for many more years.”
“When the federal government steps back to its traditional role of a being a 50-50 (payment) partner with states, Illinois will be facing a massive budget problem, a massive hole,” Rauner said.
That “when” should’ve been “if.” The feds currently pick up the entire cost, but the match isn’t ever scheduled to revert to a 50-50 split…
Under the health-care law, the federal government will pay 100 percent of the cost of expansion in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Then the federal match is pared back to 95 percent in 2017, 94 percent in 2018, 93 percent in 2019 and then 90 percent in 2020 and beyond. It would stay at the 90 percent level unless the lawmakers change or repeal the legislation.
So it would take congressional action and a presidential signature to slash those reimbursement rates by that much.
“The basic political trick of Obamacare is to claim that Medicaid is a health insurance and we all know many, I would say most, doctors don’t take Medicaid,” Kirk said at a news conference in Greektown.
“The question is, is their family actually going to be covered? And the answer is no — that when you show up and find out the doctor says, ‘No I don’t take Medicaid because the…payments are too slow and the state of Illinois is too incompetent to run this,” Kirk said.
“Payments are too slow” probably should be “too low.” I asked the comptroller’s office for the current Medicaid payment cycle…
We have $635 million in Medicaid bills at the Comptroller’s Office, dating back to Jan. 21, 2014.
That does not include what is still at DHFS, which we estimate to be an additional $800 million (the agency should be able to give insight on how far back those go).
The governor’s office says all bills are submitted for payment within 30 days.
So, the bill backlog isn’t nearly as bad as it once was.
Also, Illinois has one of the least costly cost-per-patient ratios for all of Medicaid. Why? Our provider reimbursements are very low. So low, that docs are reluctant to participate.
But when asked if the state should roll back the expanded eligibility rules, Rauner said more investigation of fraud needs to be conducted and that the state should move Medicaid further into a managed care system.
Translation: I’m trying to run as a neo-liberal. Quit asking questions like that, Rick.
One thing — really the only thing — I don’t like about Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan’s proposed constitutional amendment to add a 3 percent state tax on all income over $1 million is that it’s not indexed for inflation.
“We thought about it,” said Steve Brown, Madigan’s spokesman. “But we decided this is a cleaner proposal, simpler to understand, easier to get through the legislature without arguing about whose inflation index we’re going to use and so on.”
Yes. And a clever if crude way to gain popular support for the introduction of needed progressivity in our income tax system.
But constitutional amendments are designed to last a long time, and $1 million 10 years from now will not be worth as much as $1 million today.
Think of it this way: If we’d put such an added tax into the revised state constitution when it was ratified in 1970, it would have targeted only people earning more than the equivalent of $6.1 million a year in 2014 dollars, according to the inflation calculator at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website.
That same calculator says that a person earning $165,000 a year in 1970 had the same purchasing power of a person earning $1 million a year today.
Agreed. It’s so difficult to change the Constitution that hard and fast numbers should never be used.
1) The language leaves to the General Assembly the task of defining the word “income.” In Madigan’s proposal, the wording could be legislated to mean gross income, without any adjustments for expenses whatsoever. That would indeed leave some farmers and small business owners in danger of being hit with the surcharge, as Bruce Rauner and others have warned.
2) If voters approve the idea in November, the tax hike is retroactive to January 1st of this year. That’s an awful big first bite.
It turns out that the governor and the two Democratic legislative leaders met privately for at least several days to negotiate details of Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget address.
The highly unusual move means that most, if not all aspects of Gov. Quinn’s budget proposals last week have already been agreed to by the Democrats who run the Illinois Statehouse.
House Speaker Michael Madigan tipped his hand after the governor’s address during Jak Tichenor’s invaluable “Illinois Lawmakers” Public Television program when he twice insisted that the governor’s property tax proposal was actually his idea.
The governor proposed eliminating the state’s property tax credit, which is currently worth five percent of property taxes paid, and replacing it with an automatic $500 tax refund.
That idea was apparently just one of Madigan’s demands in exchange for supporting the governor’s proposal to make the “temporary” income tax hike permanent, which was the centerpiece of Quinn’s speech.
Both Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton offered their full support for the governor’s income tax proposal on Tichenor’s show, with Madigan saying he planned to move a bill forward this spring and Cullerton saying he’d let Madigan go first to make sure there were enough votes, and then move ahead in his own chamber, which tends to be far more liberal than Madigan’s on stuff like this.
The Senate Republicans have claimed that the Democrats were in cahoots this entire spring legislative session to make it appear the budgetary outlook was so bad that the tax hike absolutely had to be made permanent. At least in one respect, they were right. The Democrats have apparently been working closely together for the first time in anyone’s memory. Budget addresses are rarely, if ever, negotiated this much in advance of the actual speech.
Quinn spent quite a bit of time during his address not so subtly attacking his Republican opponent Bruce Raune. Quinn ruled out ever supporting a tax on retirement income, saying he wouldn’t balance the budget on the backs of senior citizens. Rauner has said he’d be open to the idea. Quinn also said he would oppose any effort to tax small businesses that provide services. Rauner has said he’d be open to a service tax.
But Quinn also announced a five-year, $1.5 billion investment into his “Birth to Five” initiative, which he has claimed would focus on prenatal care, access to early learning opportunities and parental support.
The Ounce of Prevention Fund lavished praise on Quinn’s proposal after the speech, and warned of the “potentially devastating cuts that would be necessary without adequate revenue,” which seemed like an all but endorsement of the governor’s proposal to keep income taxes at their current levels.
Why is that so important? Well, Bruce Rauner’s wife Diana is the Ounce of Prevention Fund’s president.
So, while Rauner blasted the governor’s budget address as yet another “broken promise” to Illinoisans, said Quinn was “doubling down on his failed policies” by proposing to keep the tax hike permanent and asserted that he could “balance the budget without more tax increases,” Mrs. Rauner’s highly respected organization was saying just the opposite, that the budget proposal was a “vital investment in the state’s future at a critical juncture.”
Heh.
Then again, Diana Rauner’s more liberal approach could help soften her husband’s hardcore image
Before the speech, Speaker Madigan warned his House Democrats during a closed-door caucus meeting to “keep their powder dry” about the governor’s proposals. Madigan doesn’t want his members getting too far ahead of the game and making statements that they might have to take back when the velvet hammer comes down on their heads later in the session.
As a consequence, not many were eager to talk about the governor’s income tax hike proposal. It wasn’t difficult to see in their faces that they knew what was coming, however. They are all in for yet another extremely tough vote this year. Few want to take that vote, but most know they’ll probably have little to no choice in the matter.
One nervous member expressed the hope that the tax hike would simply be extended until the end of the fiscal year, then let Rauner deal with it if he’s elected. But that idea was quickly shot down by a top Madigan lieutenant.
“And vote for this again?” he asked, incredulously. They already took one vote, after an election during a late evening lame duck session that they’ve been hammered with constantly for over three years. No more of those, apparently.
* Resigned state Rep. Keith Farnham’s replacement could be picked this weekend…
Elgin businessman Kevin Echevarria is among candidates interviewed by Democratic officials for the seat left vacant after Keith Farnham resigned March 19, Kane County Democratic Party Chairman Mark Guethle confirmed Friday.
Another candidate is Elgin Councilwoman Anna Moeller. Kane County Board member Cristina Castro said she also talked to Democratic officials about the vacant House seat.
Anna Moeller is rumored to be the frontrunner, but things can change and we’ll see soon enough.
* I’ve been sick since I woke up Wednesday morning. I caught a cold or something that just won’t quit. That’s the hazard of working in a place which draws people from all corners of the state, I suppose. I’ve mostly tried to power through, but the weather certainly hasn’t helped.
* US Sen. Dick Durbin said he called Sen. Mark Kirk after Kirk said he would preserve his relationship with Durbin by not campaigning for Republican Senate nominee Jim Oberweis…
“You know, a lot of people have an image of Washington as a place of two parties at war,” Durbin said. “Mark Kirk and I have really tried to find ways to work together. I think that’s good for the state. t’s really good for our country. We do have a friendship and a partnership doing a lot of things together. Oh, we’re gonna disagree on some votes, that’s for sure. But we really try to accentuate the positive. His statement this week was very nice. I called him and thanked him.”
Kirk’s office has since said he’ll be endorsing the entire Republican ticket, but no campaigning for Oberweis has been scheduled.
The state is fighting to take back $2 million in grant money it awarded a company that promised to install ultra-high speed Internet access throughout the South Side.
Gigabit Squared, a Cincinnati-based company that last May touted the high-speed project in nine South Side communities, “has lied repeatedly” about its intentions and may have spent only $250,000 of the grant money for legitimate purposes, said David Roeder, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, which issued the grant.
* The company has been a bust everywhere, and maybe far worse…
Gigabit—a four-year-old, Cincinnatti-based startup that has announced plans to bring broadband to Topeka, KS, Chicago, Jackson, MS, and other cities—has not, to date, hooked up a single Internet connection anywhere
Two community groups say they will jump-start a delayed plan to roll out ultra-high-speed wireless Internet access to as many as 100,000 residents and 11,000 students on Chicago’s South Side.
Pierre A. Clark, a community activist who heads the Woodlawn Broadband Expansion Partnership and the Southside Broadband Expansion Collaborative, said Sunday that the two groups have developed an alternative plan to deploy the high-speed wireless network first in Woodlawn and ultimately to the South Side, aimed at a mid-spring launch.
(A) South Side neighborhood group determined to get ultra-high speed Web access in Woodlawn has started work on a demonstration project aimed at starting up in late April. […]
Two of the community group’s engineers with Key Link Technologies, a south suburban engineering design firm, have started testing the Cisco access points at the Blue 1647 innovation center at 1647 S. Blue Island Ave. in Pilsen. The team hopes to put the first access point and network operations center in a business incubator started by Sunshine Enterprises and slated to open this summer at 501 E. 61st St.
Other supporters of the project include Globetrotters Engineering Corp., headquartered in Chicago, which does network mapping, and the New America Foundation, whose open-source software is designed to enable community-based and locally governed technology solutions.
The ultimate goal is to showcase Woodlawn as the “proof of concept” community in expanding to a Wi-Fi and fiber-optic network covering nine communities — Douglas, Grand Boulevard, Greater Grand Crossing, Hyde Park, Kenwood, Oakland, South Shore, Washington Park and the rest of Woodlawn.
The project engineers hope to set up applications for telemedicine, online banking and financial literacy, and neighborhood safety and communications.
Hopefully, the state won’t step in and screw this one up as well.
* State Sen. Jim Oberweis asked the Federal Trade Commission to comment on his legislation to repeal the Sunday car sales ban. After a vote by the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission’s Office of Policy Planning, Bureau of Competition, and Bureau of Economics responded…
The existing Code provisions effectively ban the sale or long-term lease of both new and used automobiles (except private sales) on Sunday throughout Illinois. They therefore eliminate the possibility of competition among dealers to determine the hours of operation on Sunday that might be most responsive to consumer preferences and most beneficial to automobile dealers.
Further, because automobile dealers also provide repair services and sell replacement parts, the probable effects of mandatory Sunday closing laws extend beyond vehicle sales. The principal harms to competition from such laws likely include:
(1) increased consumer search costs that impede comparison shopping;
(2) a market that is unresponsive to consumer preferences for hours of operation; and
(3) diminished competition among dealers for both automobile sales and a range of related services.
Collectively, these effects may lead to higher prices and reduced output for sales of new and used automobiles and related automobile services than would otherwise be the case.
“Since 1983, car dealerships in Illinois have been forbidden to be open on Sundays under penalty of a $1500 fine,” Oberweis said. “A majority of states allow automobile sales on Sundays, and car dealers in Illinois should be free to choose whether they wish to be open or closed on Sundays without government interference.” […]
“This analysis and recommendations from the FTC bolster the argument for repealing this ban. Senate Bill 2629 should not be bottled up in committee. It should be sent to the Senate for full, public legislative debate,” Oberweis said. “We need to rethink the weak argument that car dealers should be closed Sundays to give their employees a day off and keep costs down. Plenty of other employers and stores set their hours – with full consideration of what their competition is doing – without input from the government.”
The case for Quinn’s vulnerability is simple: He’s the leader of a dysfunctional state government that sent his two predecessors to federal prison. He raised state income taxes after saying he wouldn’t, and the state’s finances are still a mess. And by signing a pension-reform deal, Quinn alienated the public-sector unions that make up the Democratic base.
Just repeating that can work, Kirk said, provided Rauner doesn’t alienate the moderate suburban Chicago voters key to statewide GOP victory.
Kirk defined the recipe for Republicans to win in Illinois: “Be pro-choice and be a social moderate and be right up front with that. Use the pro-choice words that come out of your mouth, which for a lot of Republicans is hard to do.” […]
“He is a Republican in a Democratic sphere,” Kirk said. “If he ties his shoes wrong, the Democrats can always get a significant number of commentators to be offended at how he has tied his shoes. There’s a whole offended industry that will be ginned up to speak heavily against him in the coming campaign.”
“There was a lot of feeling that with an African-American president, life on the south side of Chicago would be radically different,” Kirk said. “You hear that, immediately that it’s not different for me. What you’ll see is Rauner reaching into the African-American community pretty heavily.”
I, too, have heard several people on the South Side say this. But it’s one thing for them to say it, and it’s quite another for a white Republican to attack Obama directly.
* And speaking of which, Sneed had a story this week about black GOP ward committeemen who’ve never really done much of anything attacking black ministers for cozying up to Rauner…
Sneed is told that the skirmish for fiscal attention resulted in a summit being called at 6 p.m. Monday at 2800 W. Madison by at least a dozen South and West Side committeemen — some of whom claim neglect and little funding under the leadership of Cook County GOP Party Chairman Aaron Del Mar. Del Mar is up for re-election on April 16, and the group is scheduled to hear from his opponent, 43rd Ward Committeeman Chris Cleveland. […]
[Larry Nelson, 24th Ward GOP committeeman] also is angry that ministers get more attention than committeemen.
“Don’t go to the ministers!” he told Sneed. […]
So who has more control over voting in the South and West Side wards?
“The ministers,” [Cook County GOP Party Chairman Aaron Del Mar] said. “Committeemen have small constituencies in their wards; the ministers have flocks all over the place. Both sides have to be happy.
There’s more than enough money to make everybody happy, I’m sure.
Gov. Pat Quinn has spent about 10 percent of his time in Springfield during the past six months.
The Democrat governor found himself absent from the Illinois capitol on all but 19 days since August.
* But you have to read between the lines to get a real idea what the actual timeline is…
The vast majority of the governor’s time has been spent in the Windy City, where he logged 148 days between Aug. 1 and Feb. 7 […]
Of the 19 days the governor did spend in Springfield during that same time period… [Emphasis added.]
* The beginning of August through the first week of February? You mean the totally dead time?
C’mon.
* The General Assembly was in session three days between January 1st and February 7th. The GA was in six days between August 1st and the end of December.
So Quinn was actually in town more than twice as many days as most legislators?
The chief of state parks in Illinois must repay $7,200 of travel reimbursement he wasn’t entitled to after inquiries by The Associated Press, the latest in a series of missteps at the Department of Natural Resources since February.
Ronald House, the department’s director of the office of land management, was reimbursed nearly 80 times for commuting to or from work when state travel rules forbid such reimbursement, according to an AP review of state records.
It’s another blemish for Natural Resources officials, who initially defended the reimbursements as proper, after a series of recent public relations troubles: a deputy director who attended fishing tournaments while on sick leave and two mining regulators who accepted campaign contributions from a coal-mine operator.
Chris Young, spokesman for IDNR Director Mark Miller, initially said the director would not require House, who makes $75,000 annually, to repay the money because it was not his error. But Miller changed his mind this week and asked for reimbursement, ten days after the agency acknowledged the error.
“I thought it was a pretty good speech, and I give the guy credit for taking on the really hard issues that have to be dealt with,’ Topinka said.
She said she’d like to see the tax increase phased out more gradually rather than have a large part of it disappear at once, which could trigger budget problems.
* State Treasurer Dan Rutherford’s reaction…
“I appreciate the fact that Governor Quinn is putting several options on the table for solving the state’s fiscal crisis. This is an approach I have long supported. I don’t want the income tax hike to stay, but it needs to be part of the discussion and not the only solution.
“I think state leaders should look to further reduce spending as I have in the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office. Through the years, I have been able to find ways to cut 10 percent from my budget. I also believe we need to focus on making Illinois more business friendly. ”
By the way, this is slightly off topic but Rutherford spokesperson Catie Sheehan, a former Downstate TV reporter, is leaving the office for a big job with the Mac Strategies Group on April 1st. That firm has made some big “gets” lately, including former Emanuel campaign manager Tom Bowen and former IRMA honcho Dave Vite.
Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios said the defeat of his daughter, Rep. Maria “Toni” Berrios, to a self-styled reformer in the recent Democratic Statehouse primary isn’t a referendum on what critics call his old-school approach to politics.
“I don’t see it that way,” Berrios, the powerful chair of the county Democratic Party, told the Sun-Times on Thursday, when asked whether Toni Berrios’ landslide loss diminished his political power. […]
Ultimately, Joe Berrios said, Toni Berrios lost the election because of the changing racial makeup of the district — a demographic shift anchored around the hipster-centric neighborhood of Logan Square, which was once a Hispanic stronghold.
“The district completely changed. It went from 64 percent Hispanic down to about 52 percent Hispanic,” Berrios explained. “She worked hard. We did everything we could to win that election and it didn’t come out the way we wanted it to, but, you know, you move on.”
I don’t think Berrios is as “evil” as the Sun-Times and others constantly make him out to be. But there’s no getting around the fact that his family name has been poisoned.
Yes, Will Guzzardi walked precincts non-stop for almost three years. And, yes, the district did change. But smart politicos change with the times and with the districts.
I checked out the recent Democratic primary vote totals for unopposed candidates, like Joe Berrios, who were on the Chicago and Cook County ballots. Nobody had to vote for these candidates, so people were making conscious choices if they voted for some but not for others.
Joe Berrios only got 200,992 votes, far behind Jesse White’s 252,005, Lisa Madigan’s 240,674, and Dick Durbin’s 239,348. Even Mike Frerichs, a non-incumbent from Downstate, got 212,827 votes, almost 12,000 more than Berrios. That’s a lot of dedicated Democrats deciding to skip voting for Berrios. It doesn’t really have any immediate effect, as he still wins office for four more years. But it does show a fair amount of discontent.
* Gov. Pat Quinn is making the rounds of editorial boards. Here’s some of what he said to the Sun-Times…
He’d like to finance a new statewide construction program for roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects by closing corporate tax loopholes. He said he plans to present lawmakers with a list of tax laws for businesses “that I think are loopholes that don’t produce jobs for our state” in hopes of generating money for such projects.
“A lot of the corporations would much rather have us build infrastructure than anything else,” he added.
Quinn said House Speaker Michael Madigan’s proposal to impose a 3-percent surcharge on nearly 14,000 Illinoisans with annual incomes of $1 million or more to generate $1 billion for schools is “worth considering.”
But he stopped short of endorsing it, noting that if lawmakers approve the plan, it would bypass him and go before voters in the form of a constitutional amendment. “Anything like that, the voters have to make the final call,” he said.
Edgar wasn’t the only Republican whom Quinn called for advice about his budget plan. He said he also reached out to former GOP Gov. Jim Thompson.
“He said he would look at our ideas,” Quinn said. “The difference between me and him on this issue is Jim Thompson did things after the election, OK? ‘Ooop, ooop, we need money.’ OK? We’re doing this before the election.”
That’s very true. This may be the first time since the income tax was initialized under Gov. Richard Ogilvie that such a vote will be taken during the spring session. Ogilvie, by the way, ended up losing to Dan Walker.
In a bit of a surprise, Mr. Quinn launched a financial attack on Mr. Rauner’s proposal to immediately stop workers from accruing further pension benefits and switch them to a defined-contribution system like a 401(k).
Even if Mr. Rauner succeeded, Illinois would still owe tens of billions of dollars to retirees for past service that the state is paying in part with retirement contributions withheld every month from the paychecks of current workers. If that revenue stream were diverted from the pension plan to a 401(k) plan, “There’s a tremendous transition cost,” Mr. Quinn said. Just one of the state’s five pension funds, the Teachers Retirement System of Illinois, estimates it would need $32 billion.
“What are you going to do, borrow $32 billion?” Mr. Quinn asked.
Indeed, Mr. Rauner has not released a detailed pension or financial plan; aides say they do not know when one will be available. Instead, he generally has suggested that the pension-reform plan adopted last year by lawmakers was inadequate and has not said whether he would raise other taxes to make up for allowing income-tax rates to drop back.
But another crucial part of the Rauner plan that Quinn didn’t mention is that Rauner would freeze all pensions forever. No more annual increases, ever. It may be heartless, but it does save a ton of dough.
During our examination we noted that there were problems with the Modernization - Re-Engineering Project.
The project has been ongoing for five years, is only 20% complete, and over $2,000,000 has been expended by the State Retirement Systems collectively.
Due to staffing issues and the lack of a project management framework and the associated documentation, the project has not been fully implemented. In addition, formal documentation to provide detailed information on the current status and projected completion date is lacking.
And as we work together to forge a solution, let me be clear about what I won’t do.
I won’t institute any new, unfair taxes on everyday services that working people rely on. It hurts working families the most to tax basic services like going to the Laundromat…like taking your child to daycare…like visiting the barber shop…or taking your dog to the vet.
We should not create a new and unfair tax burden on everyday families and the small businesses that serve them.
Bruce Rauner has said he is open to such a tax, which is probably why the line was inserted into the speech.
* But Rauner’s campaign dug up a couple of articles from 2009 when Quinn backed just such a tax…
In 2009, Quinn Supported A Tax Hike Plan Passed By Senate Democrats That Would Have Applied The State Sales Tax To “Dozens Of Services.” “Democrats warned of severe cuts in education and health-care funding without a tax increase, but couldn’t muster the votes in the House for a two-year, 50 percent increase in the personal income tax. The House likewise balked at the prospect of considering a Senate-backed plan to raise the income tax 67 percent and apply the state sales tax to dozens of services. Republicans, the minority in both chambers, opposed all tax-increase plans and blamed Democrats for a new round of dysfunction made infamous during the tenure of ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich. With lawmakers facing the need to revisit the budget talks in coming months, post-session voting requirements will give the GOP a seat at the bargaining table. Rookie Gov. Pat Quinn, who supported both failed tax plans, said he would call legislative leaders together Monday to work on putting together a better budget than one that is ‘hopelessly out of balance.’” (Rick Pearson and Ray Long, “Tax Hike Defeated; Budget Gap Remains,” Chicago Tribune, 6/1/09)
Quinn Testified In Favor Of The Senate Tax Hike Plan Before An Illinois House Committee. “The Senate Democrats’ 2009 income tax increase bill also included a provision extending the state’s sales tax to services, such as haircuts, that are not taxed now. Quinn testified for the bill before a House committee.” (Chris Wetterich, “Quinn, Brady Far Apart On Taxes,” The State Journal-Register, 10/3/10)
Former Governor Jim Edgar says spending cuts triggered by the scheduled reduction in the state income tax rate would make it even harder to catch up on unpaid back bills and fund education. So the Republican Edgar says Governor Pat Quinn’s budget proposal to make the state income tax hike permanent is a good idea. But Edgar says it would have been better if the income tax increase had been paired with cuts and controls on spending in the first place.
“You don’t raise revenue or come up with a consistent revenue source and not do the tax cutting or controls that you need to do. You ought to do them all at the same time. Think that was a mistake they made three years ago, whenever they passed this temporary tax. They didn’t really make any spending cuts or put any effective spending controls in. Would have been helpful,” says Edgar. […]
As for the $500 property tax credit that Governor Quinn is proposing, Edgar says it’s useful if it helps get Quinn’s income tax rate extension passed. But he says it’s NOT like his proposal to cut school property taxes through a so-called “education tax swap” back in the 1990s.
* From an Americans for Prosperity Illinois press release…
AFP-Illinois is launching a new ad aimed at educating the public about the perils of Speaker Madigan’s so-called “millionaire tax”.
“This politically-motivated proposal seeks to cynically win votes rather than craft a serious fiscal policy that will help the Illinois economy recover from years of woeful mismanagement and cronyism,” said AFP-Illinois State Director David From.
The ad campaign targets specific members of the General Assembly. It highlights Illinois’ continued economic crisis and high unemployment and encourages their constituents to contact them and express their opposition to the job-killing tax.
“It is no accident that the Speaker made this proposal in advance of the Governor Quinn saying he wants to make his record setting temporary tax increase on all Illinoisans permanent,” said From. “This is the classic bait-and-switch designed to distract voters from the fact that the biggest tax hike being pushed through is going to land squarely on the backs of working families.”
The advertisements are being run online and on cable television with an approximately $120,000 buy funded by AFP-Illinois donors within the state. The ads will run for approximately one week and are part of AFP-Illinois’ effort to educate voters about the highly politicized anti-growth agenda being pushing in the Spring legislative session.
As we’ve already discussed, the group is already running ads against the progressive tax.
* This is the ad targeting Democratic Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo). Rate it…
Timid creatures by nature, state legislators often have to be cajoled, begged and even outright threatened to cast tough votes.
It took the Illinois General Assembly years to finally vote in December for a politically dangerous pension reform bill. The “temporary” income tax hike passed in 2011 only because some lame-duck legislators who had lost their elections (after campaigning against a tax hike) decided to play ball, and coincidentally got sweet state jobs.
That vote, which raised the personal income tax rate to 5 percent from 3 percent, was safely held weeks after an election. The hike is scheduled to expire Jan. 1, with the tax rate falling to 3.75 percent. But now, House Speaker Michael Madigan says he’d like to pass a bill to make the tax hike permanent by the end of the spring session, about five months before the Nov. 4 general election.
Making the tax hike permanent is probably very unpopular. A February survey found that 60 percent of Illinois residents want the tax hike to expire, while a mere 26.5 percent favor keeping it, according to the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University.
Not to mention that the person taking the lead on making the tax hike permanent is Gov. Pat Quinn, who barely won his 2010 election.
Mr. Quinn forcefully argued during his annual budget address March 26 that keeping the tax hike in place would preserve much-needed state programs like education funding and prevent “draconian” budget cuts.
His Republican opponent has been ripping him all week. Bruce Rauner says Mr. Quinn in 2010 promised to oppose any tax increase above one percentage point and then signed a hike double that amount. Now he wants to make it permanent.
Mr. Quinn’s popularity among legislators is almost nonexistent; his political future is in doubt. So why follow him off a political cliff?
