Traditional taxi cabs made 350,000 trips beginning or ending in Chicago’s underserved communities between October 2015 and March 2016.
Ride sharing companies, like Uber and Lyft, racked up a stunning 3.9 million trips to or from underserved communities in the same period, according to City Hall.
The city defines “underserved” as “areas with high levels of transit-dependent populations and areas that are not receiving high levels of taxi or ride-share service.” Mostly, the South and West sides of Chicago. […]
“If we don’t level the playing field, we are in jeopardy of losing the taxicab industry. The cab industry has been a vital part of our city. They’re ambassadors for the city,” the 9th Ward alderman told the Chicago Sun-Times last week. […]
Uber responds that 66 percent of Uber drivers are rolling less than 10 hours a week, to supplement their incomes or keep them going between jobs. The digital disrupter argues it makes no sense to saddle drivers with hundreds of dollars in licensing fees and a blind bureaucracy, and claims the ordinance would put them out of business.
I don’t buy that and, yes, some regulation is needed.
But let’s get real. While some taxi drivers are professional, many are hardly “ambassadors.” Those I encounter are rude, clueless and reckless.
Most infuriating, they won’t pick up and drop off in certain neighborhoods. I am so done with hailing while black.
* The Senate President has responded to Gov. Rauner’s press release from earlier today demanding a “clean” K-12 approp bill…
Statement from the Office of Illinois Senate President John J. Cullerton regarding the governor’s remarks on education funding:
“Governor Rauner said in his budget speech that no schools should lose funding, and yet more than one-third of the school districts in Illinois lose money under his plan.
He would force schools across Illinois to slash services and staff. Some might not be able to open or stay open next year.
Chicago schools alone lose $74 million. Governor Rauner’s plan cuts funding for schools in East St. Louis and Naperville as well.
That’s not acceptable. Our students deserve better.
I am encouraged that the governor and Republicans recognize the current system’s failings. They said they want a system that recognizes the needs of rural and low-income communities. Lucky for them, that plan is pending in the Illinois Senate and they will soon get the chance to vote for it.”
Governor Bruce Rauner toured Lyons Township High School today to advocate for fully funding education in Fiscal Year 2017. Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno and House Leader Jim Durkin introduced legislation (SB3234/HB6335) in February that would fully fund schools for the upcoming school year. By passing either of these bills, the General Assembly is ensuring schools will receive state funding and open in the fall.
“Our priority right now should be funding our schools for the upcoming school year,” Governor Rauner said. “Since day one, I have been committed to building a world-class education system in Illinois that ensures every child goes to a high-quality school and can go on to a high-paying career. Fully funding our schools is a step closer to making that a reality.”
School districts are already planning for the upcoming year and need direction from Springfield on how much funding they will receive from the state. SB3234/HB6335 ends proration - which benefits every district in the state - fully funds schools for the first time in seven years, and sends a record level of state aid to districts across the state.
“We need to give parents, teachers and school districts the confidence to plan for and to open in September,” Leader Durkin said. “By taking care of our schools, we can build on the bipartisan momentum in Springfield to pass a budget alongside reforms that fund social services, government services and public safety.”
Governor Rauner and the Republican Leaders reiterated they are committed to reforming the current school funding formula. They agree a new formula should send more money to low-income and rural schools without taking resources away from other districts and pitting communities against each other.
“By fully funding schools we are showing the students that they come first,” Leader Radogno said. “School funding is a complicated and emotional issue because of its implications for districts across the state. With funding for the upcoming school year secured, we can continue to work on finding a fair and bipartisan school funding formula.”
* But some folks are starting to catch on to this game. From a Pantagraph editorial…
While many Illinois school districts would welcome additional money from the state, there’s a question whether it’s wise to continue to throw more money into a system that is seriously flawed.
That appears to be what Gov. Bruce Rauner and Republicans in the General Assembly want to do.
The current system is grossly unfair, with rich districts spending up to $30,000 per student and poorer districts getting by on as little as $6,000 per student. The result is students from low-income areas, which several studies have shown need more help in order to succeed, receive the least amount of help. The current system undoubtedly places more value on some students than others.
Rauner threw cold water on the latest bill from Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, claiming it was a bailout for the Chicago public schools. Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, joined the well-orchestrated chorus.
The day before the scheduled vote, the Rauner administration exploited the politically-charged issue by releasing a report on which districts would gain money and which would lose. The administration has had the bill since February, so the release was obviously politically motivated. If this analysis truly took the Illinois State Board of Education two months to complete, then they need to hire better analysts.
* Check out the guy with the big white boutonnière…
Rep. John Anthony (R-Joliet) sent that pic to me over the weekend. He said a neighbor gave it to him and she estimates the photo of Rep. Michael J. Madigan and others was taken in 1974 or 1975.
Illinois, already 11 months behind in the race to come up with a budget for this year, has now been lapped by several U.S. states.
Eleven states have approved two state budgets in the time Illinois has failed to finish one, according to research from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
After Pennsylvania approved a stopgap plan in March that ended its monthslong stalemate, Illinois became the lone state without a budget for the fiscal year that began July 1.
Not all states adopt a yearly spending plan. Of those that do, 11, including Florida, Maryland, New York and Colorado, have a spending plan for the current fiscal year as well as the next.
* Related…
* Editorial: School funding system fundamentally unfair to many: Rauner has stated he’s in favor of education reform, although most of his actions thus far have been to maintain the status quo. In the best interests of the state’s students, Rauner and the Republicans should quit playing political games with Manar’s proposal and work to reform a system that is fundamentally unfair to many.
* Chicago State University graduation rate drops to 11 percent: Chicago State has long argued that it’s unfair to judge it on the graduation rate of first-time, full-time freshmen since that national standard fails to include the many students who transfer into the institution later in their studies — or leave and graduate from other institutions. The university’s six-year graduation rate for transfer students was 49 percent in 2015. “The uniqueness of Chicago State University is that it primarily serves transfer students,” Land said. [Emphasis added.]
A law firm headed by Ald. Edward M. Burke, one of Chicago’s most powerful Democrats, has helped Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and investors in his luxury downtown hotel cut their property taxes by 39 percent over seven years, saving them $11.7 million, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis has found.
Burke — one of 47 Chicago aldermen who voted to approve development of Trump International Hotel & Tower in 2002 — won reductions in six of the seven years for the hotel, retail and other commercial space in the skyscraper, records show. […]
In 2010, Burke saved Trump’s company almost $3.5 million by convincing Houlihan he’d overvalued the entire skyscraper. Houlihan lowered his $432 million estimation of the value to $122 million after Burke argued that most of the residential condos hadn’t been sold, the tower’s storefronts along the river were vacant, the hotel had largely been unoccupied and sales of hotel condos hadn’t worked out as planned. Burke’s law firm even called the concept of selling hotel rooms to investors a “failed business model.” […]
In 2011, Burke saved Trump and his growing group of hotel investors $1.7 million by convincing Houlihan’s successor, Joseph Berrios, another powerful Democratic Party leader, that Houlihan had been overvaluing the commercial space, which was now taxed separately from the residential property.
Since nobody was renting commercial space, Cook agreed to lower the tax burden. And Burke’s firm actually sued Chicago Public Schools, City Hall, Cook County and other governments for refunds. The case is still pending and Burke handed it off to another firm to avoid a direct conflict.
Of Illinois’ 10 casinos, none is as lucrative as Rivers Casino in Des Plaines. Since 2012, it’s reported revenues of more than $400 million a year after winnings — twice as much as any other casino in Illinois.
That success makes its property quite valuable, according to Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios.
But, year after year, Rivers’ owners have argued that profits shouldn’t matter when calculating how much the casino is worth. And each year they’ve gotten an appeals panel to override Berrios, giving them more than $4 million in property-tax cuts since the casino opened nearly five years ago.
Figuring the value of the casino property should be “based upon what this property would be worth if we weren’t operating a casino there,” says Neil Bluhm, the politically active billionaire real estate developer who chairs the casino’s owner, Midwest Gaming & Entertainment.
So, on the one hand, Cook takes into account money-losing units when estimating taxes. And on the other, it discounts the vast sums of money being made at a different property.
It’s a system ripe for manipulation.
*** UPDATE *** From the assessor’s office…
Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios was not the only assessor to lower the assessment on Trump Tower. In 2009, then-Assessor James Houlihan issued a Certificate of Error asking the Cook County Board of Review (BOR) to lower his own earlier assessment on the hotel portion of that building by 95%.
Upon taking office as Assessor (after serving on the BOR), Mr. Berrios identified other errors made by the previous administration. He thus lowered the assessment on Trump Tower’s retail space, much of which was never fully built. That area remains raw, undeveloped space. Other past errors were addressed over several years and, under Assessor Berrios, the Trump building is now properly classified and assessed.
The Cook County Assessor’s Office uses the standard procedure of income-approach-to-value when assessing industrial and commercial real estate. If, after verifiable good faith effort to rent space and otherwise generate revenue, some vacancy still exists, the resulting lower income and its effect on the property’s value is taken into consideration here. Simply put, when income is down, assessed value is likely down. When income is up, value is up.
This impartial system resulted in facts which did not appear in the Sun-Times story, including: the Assessor’s Office did not lower Trump Tower’s assessment for Tax Year 2013 and, as the market improved, we then raised the assessment on the retail space by 33% and the hotel by 32.5% for Tax Year 2015. In fact, Trump Tower’s hotel is now the third-highest assessed hotel in Chicago, ahead of the Peninsula, Waldorf and Park Hyatt. Further, CCAO’s assessed value of the condominium portion was raised by 17% for TY15.
Commercial real estate is assessed at 25% percent of its fair market value. Residential real estate is assessed at only 10% of fair market value.
Thank you.
Tom Shaer
Deputy Assessor for Communications
Cook County Assessor’s Office
* As we’ve discussed before, Rep. Jack Franks has kicked up a hornet’s nest in McHenry County by highlighting a state law which requires county board members to work 1,000 hours per year as part of their agreement to participate in their pension plan. It’s not just McHenry, though. Sangamon County has the same rule, and a Democratic House candidate made a very big oops…
[Tony DelGiorno], who also is a candidate for state representative against incumbent Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, R-Leland Grove, in the 99th House District, says that after being elected to the county board in 2012, he was filling out employment documents.
“The IMRF paperwork was included and I was told at the time that county board members are eligible and we can sign up if we want to,” he said.
But nobody ever told him, he said, about the 1,000-hour standard.
Does he meet that threshold?
“I highly doubt it,” DelGiorno said. His full-time job is as partner in a law firm. […]
DelGiorno contacted the IMRF, asking to withdraw from the pension system because he said he learned of the 1,000-hour requirement from The State Journal-Register. […]
But Beth Janicki Clark, associate general counsel to IMRF, wrote back, saying a choice to participate in the system by an elected official is irrevocable, under state law.
Yeah, that won’t make it into a campaign hit piece. Never. Not in a billion/trillion years.
A political candidate spending more than $200,000 in gas and auto repairs in less than 11 years — at the same gas station — is more than a little bit eyebrow-raising.
When the owner of the gas station turns out to be a city alderman, things get even more interesting.
And when the same candidate reports other campaign expenditures that seem overly large, including payments to a bank for items that don’t seem banking related, it seems time to ask some more questions.
But what makes the case of former state Rep. Frank Mautino stand out even more is this: He’s now the Illinois auditor general, meaning that his job is to examine state government spending and compliance with rules and regulations.
It means that Mautino, a former Democratic deputy majority leader in the House for 24 years, must stand up to an even higher level of scrutiny than most politicians. Anything less and he risks eroding any trust that citizens have in his ability to run the auditor general’s office in an upfront manner as their advocate and watchdog. Indeed, many might argue that Mautino’s spending as a legislator, combined with his lack of an explanation, has already damaged the office’s credibility, especially coming after the long tenure of the well-regarded William Holland.
Mautino isn’t talking, though. In February, a group of Republican lawmakers sent him a letter asking for an explanation. Mautino, who has hired lawyers and a PR firm, asked for time to respond. The lawmakers requested a response by Feb. 25; this week, they publicly asked again for answers, saying Mautino had never responded to them.
Here’s a stunning statistic that is the norm in Illinois politics.
Independent Maps reports that seven of 10 legislative elections on the fall ballot will have only one candidate.
* After giving it much thought, I think remap reform will probably have more of an impact on primary ballots than in the general.
I mean, think about it. Does it really matter if Republicans run against Democrats in Chicago or the south suburbs? How about if Democrats challenge Republicans in Iroquois County, or the counties around Effingham - where Obama lost to Alan Keyes? Western DuPage, anyone?
People in this state tend to live near others who share their views, or they adopt the views of those around them (not quite sure which is which). Either way, we have huge geographic blocs in Illinois which overwhelmingly favor one party over the other, so all the remap reform in the world probably won’t change that, except occasional one-off results that might happen anyway.
So the biggest impact could be on incumbents who can’t protect themselves from primary opponents by drawing them out or packing in all their friendly (to them) territory.
* But, yes, I can certainly see how some areas would be more in play with remap reform. Sen. Andy Manar’s Democratic-leaning district might not be possible under the Independent Maps proposal, particularly its “respect geographic boundaries” mandate. The Peoria area could get more interesting. The Democrats’ hold on a single, mostly DuPage County district might not be possible, either. And the GOPs might have a much better shot at picking up some suburban Cook seats and maybe some spots in southern Illinois.
On the other hand, recent off-year statewide elections (2010 and 2014) clearly showed that Republican candidates can win majorities in Democratic districts (Bill Brady and Bruce Rauner won the majority of House and Senate districts both times).
* I strongly favor remap reform. Politicians shouldn’t pick their voters.
But I don’t believe it’s a be-all, end-all solution. We ought to do it because it’s one of many things we can accomplish to make things more small “d” democratic here. If it were up to me, I’d take away the chamber leaders’ strangleholds on committee chairmanships and staff. Elect the chairs and minority spokespersons within their caucuses and make the staff answerable to them and not the leaders. Some would also give voters much more say in policymaking. I think I’d be open to some of that.
That being said, I think many of the critiques of the Independent Maps’ proposal are valid. This thing would likely reduce Chicago’s influence. You might think that’s a positive development. Heck, I might even agree on some levels. But it’s probably gonna happen if this passes.
Gov. Bruce Rauner said Friday he hasn’t had a chance to review legislation proposed to help financially struggling nuclear power plants in Clinton and the Quad-Cities, but he considers nuclear power important to the state’s “energy mix.”
Answering questions during a visit to Bloomington, Rauner said, “Nuclear plants have have a lot of good-paying jobs” that he doesn’t want to lose.
But he added, “I’m concerned when a big company says in order to stay in Illinois, they need a big taxpayer subsidy.”
Exelon Generation, owner of the two plants, said the Next Generation Energy Plan unveiled Thursday contains financial relief needed to keep the two nuclear plants open, along with other steps to promote low-carbon energy sources and energy efficiency. The company on Friday laid the groundwork for closing the plants if the proposal fails.
I was given a briefing on this bill last week, but was left with more questions than answers. It’s complicated, to say the least.
For instance, ComEd complains that “net metering” for solar isn’t fair to its other customers. In essence, they’re paying rooftop solar producers the full cost of not only the electricity, but also the cost of delivering that power through the grid. That drives up costs for everyone else (although, solar is such a tiny segment right now that it hardly matters). But instead of just making net metering truly “net,” they’ve come up with a murky rebate plan that the solar companies hate. Solar has not taken off here, partly because of ComEd’s policies. This plan of ComEd’s doesn’t look like it’ll change things much.
The company wants to offer similar rebates to business customers, claiming it’ll spur rooftop solar on big box stores, but they don’t have a single company they can point to that has expressed any interest.
The choice: Allow hard-to-come-by jobs to disappear, with the economic hit striking mainly downstate, or in an election year pass legislation that can be characterized by opponents as an electricity rate hike mainly benefiting profitable companies.
Of course, the other complicating factor is the budget impasse between Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic leaders that is resulting in layoffs at colleges and universities and social service providers dependent on state funding.
Rauner says he hopes the General Assembly will balance job losses in particular communities against hitting everyone in Illinois with higher rates. House Speaker Michael Madigan’s spokesman, Steve Brown, says he senses little alarm among lawmakers and notes “there’s a pretty crowded plate already” of demands on elected officials.
Robert Flexon, CEO of Houston-based Dynegy, is highly critical of the state government for “fighting with itself” while industries like his are in trouble. “It’s a disgrace to the people of Illinois and the hardworking men and women at our plants,” he says.
When times were good, they demanded deregulation. Now that wholesale prices are down, they demand re-regulation.
The new survey found a city that described race relations as generally bad, while majorities of all residents think there is some or a lot of discrimination against black and Hispanic residents. There is a sizable racial divide separating how people feel about certain issues like education, city services and the conditions of public facilities.
This gulf is particularly acute when it comes to how people perceive the police department. One in 3 residents said the city’s police officers are doing an excellent or good job. While nearly half of white residents (47 percent) and more than a third of Hispanic residents (37 percent) felt this way, just 12 percent of black residents echoed that opinion. When people from these three groups were asked whether police were doing an excellent, good, fair or poor job, the highest single response was from black residents, nearly half of whom answered “poor.” (Three out of 4 residents said they had not personally interacted with an officer within the past six months, and for most of those who had, they said their interactions were positive.)
What is the single biggest problem facing Chicago today? (INTERVIEWER: DO NOT PROBE IF GIVE A STRAIGHTFORWARD ANSWER, I.E. – “CRIME”) (DO NOT READ LIST. ENTER ONE ONLY) (IF RESPONDENT GIVES MORE THAN ONE RESPONSE, PROBE WITH: “I understand, which of those would you say is the biggest problem?)
“Crime/violence/gangs” vastly tops every other issue across every racial demographic. “Police/police shootings/community relations with police,” barely registers. They appear to be more upset at the cops for not protecting them from criminals than anything else.
And thinking about Eddie Johnson, Chicago’s new police superintendent, do you think it is more important for him to focus on (reducing crime) or (reforming the way the police department operates)? [INTERVIEWER NOTE: IF RESPONDENT SAYS “BOTH EQUALLY”, PROBE ONCE WITH “WE KNOW BOTH OF THESE THINGS ARE IMPORTANT, BUT IF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE ONE TO BE THE TOP PRIORITY…”] (rotate items in parentheses)
* Lots and lots of Polish-Americans live in Illinois. At one time, Chicago had more Poles than any city in the world other than Warsaw. So this makes plenty of homer politics sense…
If Gov. Bruce Rauner achieves the anti-union, pro-business reforms he has made the hallmark of his administration, he plans to travel the world to promote the state — and the first country he’ll visit will be Poland, he said Sunday.
Rauner made the pledge to the large Polish congregation of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 1118 N. Noble St., whose parishioners celebrated Polish Constitution Day over the weekend.
“On May 3, 1791, Poland became the first nation in the world to join the United States in democracy and freedom by constitutional right. The people of America have no greater friends in the world than the people of Poland,” Rauner said.
“We are working hard in Springfield on reforms so we can grow our economy and get more value for taxpayers and fund our schools properly,” he said. “I hope soon we’ll have those reforms accomplished, and then I’m going to travel the world to create stronger ties with the people of Illinois with nations across the globe.”
* But the country’s authoritarian government has pushed demonstrators into the streets. A quarter million folks protested the other day, the largest since the fall of Communism…
The protest comes amid a mounting political crisis in the central European heavyweight, triggered by changes the populist-oriented Law and Justice (PiS) government has made to the constitutional court.
In December it pushed through legislation to stack the court and modify its decision-making rules.
The court itself struck down the changes as unconstitutional in March, pitting it against the PiS majority government, which wasted no time to dismiss the ruling.
The resulting deadlock means the court is paralyzed, leaving Poland without a fundamental check on government powers.
The PiS moves have drawn sharp criticism from the EU and the European Parliament, which Warsaw has dismissed as unnecessary interference in its internal affairs.
Markets have also reacted strongly to the controversy, hitting Poland’s zloty currency and the Warsaw stock exchange.
Fundamentally, over a quarter of a century since the demise of the Communist regime, the differences are now over the direction and reach of the EU, particularly when it comes to values. For Law and Justice, the EU’s values—such as gender equality and a secularism that plays down Europe’s Christian traditions—are intrusive and damaging for Europe’s and particularly Poland’s identity.
The onslaught of globalization is another issue. It has left Law and Justice supporters, especially conservative, rural communities, without anchors—save for the Catholic Church. These parts of society were generally ignored by Civic Platform. Law and Justice now wants to rectify this.
But there is something else that perpetuates this kind of politics of revenge. It is the absence of an independent civil service culture. Professional and competent officials from the foreign and other ministries in Warsaw are being replaced or demoted. (The same thing happened in Hungary.) This robs ministries of continuity, of an institutional memory, and of loyalty. It robs them of ambition and independence.
Maybe it’s time for civil society—especially Modern, or Nowoczesna, a new and fast-growing political party led by Ryszard Petru—to begin campaigning for something that has eluded Polish politics since 1989: a well-paid, independent civil service free from the politics of revenge. This is something that civil society activists are in a position to do. They are the younger generation—free, hopefully, of Solidarity’s bitter, polarizing ideological disputes.
* One of the weirdest developments of the spring session…
Despite Chicago Public Schools’ financial straits, a state investigation concluded the district’s books don’t warrant an intervention from Springfield.
The Illinois State Board of Education’s finding that CPS is not in “financial difficulty” as defined by state law represents a blow to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s efforts to give the state greater control over district finances. […]
“It’s clear in our analysis CPS has financial challenges and a spending problem,” ISBE spokeswoman Laine Evans said in a statement. “However, at this time they do not meet the criteria for certification of financial difficulty, as defined per statute. ISBE will continue to monitor the situation and the district’s finances.”
CPS spokeswoman Emily Bittner said in a statement that ISBE’s “decision demonstrates that Gov. Rauner’s attempts to drive CPS into bankruptcy are misguided and wrong.”
“The district has not realized two consecutive years of negative operating fund balances, nor is it forecasted in this model,” ISBE wrote in the report.
CPS faces a $1.1 billion deficit in the new fiscal year starting July 1, and has been hoarding cash to make a massive pension payment on June 30. It passed last year’s budget with a $480 million gap and has been begging Springfield to help ever since, borrowing hundreds of millions at sky-high interest rates in the meantime. The district has also argued it is exempt from ISBE oversight and has been lobbying for a change to the state funding formula for schools. […]
In February, when the investigation was announced, Rauner said “The state’s going to be ready to come in and take action.”
Blaming CPS’ spending woes on its contracts with the Chicago Teachers Union, he continued, “I believe a state takeover is appropriate.”
He even began looking for a superintendent to replace CPS CEO Forrest Claypool.
The district must make a $675 million pension payment next month. Officials say they can only cover that bill with short-term borrowing and that the Legislature must rectify problems with the statewide school-funding formula.
“You don’t need an actuary or an accountant to know CPS has financial problems,” Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said in a statement. “Otherwise, the district wouldn’t be repeatedly asking the state for an additional half a billion dollars.”
The decision not to declare the district in financial difficulty could suggest recognition by the Rauner-appointed state school board that it lacked proper legal footing to take over CPS in the first place, a Democratic legislative source said.
In April, Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan issued an opinion that the state lacks the authority to take control of the school system’s finances, including its ability to borrow to help fund operational costs.
OK, so CPS got Rauner off its back, but isn’t it tougher to get money from Springfield if they’re not actually on the verge of chaos?
“Suburbanites don’t want to bail out Chicago, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to see Chicago succeed,” [Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine] said. “And if there’s a way to make our education funding system better, we’re open to that. But understand, part of the reason Chicago is getting less money than last year is that they have fewer students. You know, when we talk about closing schools, (Emanuel) did close 50 schools and I give him credit for standing up and fighting to do that. I think he did the right thing when he tried to do that last time. But they have 100 more that are really, you know, adult employment centers serving as schools. They need to do more in that regard.”
Murphy is resurrecting the kind of scorched-earth rhetoric from a quarter-century ago at the Capitol, when the city-versus-suburbs dynamic raged mightily. Then-Republican Senate Minority Leader James “Pate” Philip of Wood Dale famously likened the flow of state money to CPS to pouring “money down a rat hole.”
For Murphy, Emanuel’s argument doesn’t hold water in light of the Democrats’ long-held control of the legislature.
“Ask yourself, do you really think this system is set up to be to the detriment of Chicago, when Chicago Democrats have run Illinois for years? It just doesn’t pass the smell test,” Murphy told WLS-890 AM reporter Bill Cameron on the “Connected to Chicago” program that aired Sunday and can be listened to here.
A staff report for the ISBE says CPS may be in potential difficulty, but not so bad that it qualifies for the state takeover that Governor Rauner has been threatening. He is shaking his head.
“To say that I was a bit surprised by that decision would be an understatement,” he said. “On one hand, we’ve got Forrest Claypool and Mayor Rahm Emanuel screaming fire, disaster, mass layoffs, huge financial crisis and on another hand we’ve got a state agency, a state bureaucracy, saying things aren’t so bad.”
The governor says he wants to get to the bottom of that.
With Donald Trump emerging as the Republican party’s likely presidential nominee, how will his candidacy affect the campaigns of Illinois Republicans?
Republican Strategist Chris Robling told Ward Room that he believes Trump could help certain statewide candidates.
“Downstate and in the collar counties, and even somewhat in the city, for a statewide candidate like [Senator] Mark Kirk or [Illinois Comptroller] Leslie Munger, I think Trump is good news,” Robling said.
Greg Goldner, one of Illinois’ savviest political consultants, drafted a comprehensive budget plan months ago that included detailed spending cuts, revenue increases and pro-business reforms — the long-cited keys to a “grand bargain,” as some call a final agreement— but it’s been on a shelf gathering dust since then
* OK, let’s say you graduated from college with a monstrous mountain of student loan debt that you can’t default on. Your first job paid $30,000 a year. But after a while, it became apparent that you couldn’t pay rent, transportation and everything else it takes to live as well as your student loan payments. So, you run up the credit card debt just to survive. But eventually, that becomes untenable. You’ve maxed out all your cards and the student loan company is breathing down your neck.
So, you find a different, better-paying job, where you make $50,000 a year. Over time, you pay down your credit card debts and, with some frugality, manage to live within your means while making your student loan payments on time.
But then your boss tells you that he can no longer afford to pay your salary and he cuts you back to $37,500 a year. And now the Tribune editorial board can’t figure out what your problem is…
The temporary state income tax hike of 2011 took an extra $31 billion out of taxpayers’ pockets but — despite Democrats’ forceful promises — did little to change the debt-driven trajectory of state government. Taxpayers are still paying a rate of 3.75 percent, a rate one-quarter higher than before the hike. It has made no difference. Illinois’ unpaid bill pile grows every day.
With yet another poll showing plunging downstate support for Gov. Bruce Rauner in a Republican district and the intense Republican freakout over Donald Trump’s impending presidential nomination and its impact on independent suburban women, there appears to be a growing feeling among Democrats, particularly in the Illinois Senate, that they need to get out of the way to let the other party crash and burn.
The almost year-long state government impasse is most definitely having an impact on Gov. Rauner’s poll numbers. Bernie Schoenburg reported in the State Journal-Register last week that a Public Policy Polling poll of appointed Republican state Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez’s Springfield-area district had Rauner upside down, with 37 percent approving of the way the governor is doing his job, while a majority of 54 percent disapproved. Rauner won that district 58-37 in 2014, according to Illinois Election Data’s numbers. So, basically Gov. Rauner’s numbers have flipped almost entirely the other way.
Another PPP poll of GOP state Rep. Terri Bryant’s southern Illinois district near Carbondale was even worse for the governor. Rauner won Rep. Bryant’s district 60-33, but 57 percent of voters in that district disapprove of Rauner’s job performance, while only 33 percent approve. That’s just about a mirror opposite image of his 2014 result. Both polls were taken April 14-17 and had margins of error of a bit over 4 percent.
A PPP poll taken last August in Bryant’s district had the governor’s job approval rating at 40 percent and his disapproval rating was 51. So, that’s a net loss of 13 points in eight months. And, again, this is a Republican district, albeit one that has plenty of government workers.
Rep. Bryant is also experiencing a freefall if the pollster’s numbers are correct. Last August, PPP had her at a 50 percent job approval rating and a 27 percent disapproval rating. Now, she’s at 42 percent approval and 43 percent disapproval. That’s a huge 24-point swing.
Meanwhile, Gallup’s daily March tracking polls showed 70 percent of women nationally had an unfavorable view of the presumptive nominee Trump. That number is surely higher in the more Democratic-leaning Illinois, where independent suburban women have been the deciding factor in just about every major statewide race since 1990.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why Rauner recently let it be known that he won’t endorse Trump and won’t attend the Republican convention in Cleveland this summer, and why, as I write this, appointed Comptroller Leslie Munger is expected to make the same decisions because she’s up for special election this fall.
And you also don’t have to be Einstein to realize that the one-two combo of Rauner and Trump could spell big trouble for down-ballot Republicans.
On the other hand, Rauner’s team says it has polling which shows, by a 2-1 margin, that voters blame House Speaker Michael Madigan more than the governor for the ongoing impasse. To voters, Madigan is “the all-knowing puppet-master,” explained one Rauner official last week. Madigan’s been around so long and is believed to have so much control over Illinois politics and government that he’s seen by voters as “the key to getting something done.”
So, as long as this impasse is going on, Rauner’s legislative allies have a handy pivot they can use, paid for with oil tanker loads of the wealthy Rauner’s cash. Whenever Democratic legislators or candidates demand their Republican opponents answer for the latest Trump outrage or their support for and/or from the unpopular Rauner, the Republicans can turn it back on the Democrats by demanding they justify their support for and/or from the obstructive Speaker Madigan (or Democratic Party of Illinois Chairman Madigan, in the case of Senate candidates).
But even if yet another “Fire Madigan” effort by Republicans isn’t as effective as they believe it will be (the first two tries failed badly), many Democrats will freely admit right now that voters are overwhelmingly blaming incumbents rather than a single political party or person for the impasse—and there are a whole lot more Democratic incumbents than Republicans in the General Assembly.
In a campaign, once your opponent goes down you never take your boot off that person’s neck. So, with Rauner and Republican legislators going down and Trump about to make a big splash, there’s naturally plenty of temptation among a certain type of Democrat (***cough*** intheHouse! ***cough***) to keep this impasse going.
But all those legislative Democrats may wind up doing if the impasse lasts through November is unhelpfully distract Illinois voters from the weirdness at the national and statewide levels.
Exelon’s Quad-Cities nuclear power plant could close on June 1, 2018, the company said in a release Friday announcing its first-quarter earnings.
Exelon said the Illinois Legislature must pass legislation that it says would level the energy playing field in the state in order for the plant to remain open beyond that date. Exelon said the plant also must clear an upcoming PJM capacity auction in order to remain viable.
In addition to the Quad-Cities plant, Exelon said the Clinton, Ill., nuclear plant would shut down on June 1, 2017, if the Legislature doesn’t act and the energy auction isn’t favorable.
On Thursday, Exelon presented legislation it wants the Legislature to pass. In its release Friday, the company said it need the Legislature to act by May 31 in order to avoid a shutdown of the two plants. The capacity auction results should be available by May 24, the release stated.
* The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition has been talking with Exelon about its new bill. Its response…
The Coalition has engaged in productive discussions with ComEd and Exelon Generation about legislation that achieves these goals. At this time, those discussions have not concluded, and we have not yet reached an agreement. We look forward to reviewing the details of this new proposal, and continuing discussions toward comprehensive energy legislation that achieves the goals of the Illinois Clean Jobs bill.
AARP Illinois and other groups, however, blasted away. Click here.
Friday, May 6, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
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Friday, May 6, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Exelon tells legislators: “In 2016, the revenues of all Illinois nuclear units will be insufficient to cover costs, with Quad Cities and Clinton suffering the greatest losses”
Exelon tells the opposite story to Wall Street: In its last earnings call on February 3, Exelon CFO Jack Thayer boasted of their success offsetting low power prices through Wall Street hedges, “As you know, we’re highly hedged in 2016, which . . . allowed us to offset the impacts of lower prices in 2016.”
Exelon only tells legislators about some of their revenues – it’s like McDonald’s disclosing sales from french fries and shakes but not hamburgers and McNuggets
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. JUST SAY NO TO THE EXELON BAILOUT
BEST Coalition is a 501C4 nonprofit group of dozens of business, consumer and government groups, as well as large and small businesses. Visit www.noexelonbailout.com.
State Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, has postponed a vote on his school funding reform plan to give lawmakers more time to digest how it would affect schools in their legislative districts.
John Patterson, spokesman for Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said lawmakers were given yet another set of numbers Thursday, the third in two days. […]
The State Board of Education released a set of numbers Wednesday morning, hours before Manar initially planned to call the bill for a vote in the Senate. Those numbers showed a big increase for the Chicago school system while cutting aid to a number of suburban and downstate school districts. Republicans immediately seized on the numbers as evidence the funding reform bill was intended as a bailout of the financially troubled Chicago school system.
Manar said the numbers were flawed because they didn’t take into account an amendment he’s filed to his bill to further tweak his formula. The board then issued revised numbers to reflect the amendment. But Manar and other Democrats complained the numbers compared Manar’s plan to the current K-12 budget, not to Rauner’s proposed increase. The latest numbers reportedly make that comparison.
So, apparently it only takes the ISBE a few hours to run numbers on an education funding reform bill because they produced three in less than 24 hours. Manar asked them to run his numbers months ago, but they didn’t do it.
That’s ridiculous. The Board needs to stop playing games. You may agree or disagree with Manar’s approach here, but it’s a legitimate approach and obviously he needs to keep playing around with it until he finds the right combination. He can’t do that if the ISBE shuts him out.
* Today is my mom’s birthday. Sunday is Mother’s Day. Like many people who were born in late December or early January, she too often only receives on present for both occasions. Sorry about that, Mom!
Instead of a question, how about you tell us a story about your own mom?
Fifty-nine percent of residents citywide support the decision [by the Chicago Teachers Union] to strike, and that soars to almost three-quarters among African-American parents living with children.
(O)nly one-third of residents say the police are doing a good job. Nearly six in 10 think officers are not punished harshly enough in cases of excessive force. And a majority of residents believe the police are more likely to use deadly force against black people and that African-Americans and Latinos are usually treated unfairly by the city’s criminal justice system.
* Passage came after a very long, very difficult negotiating process. Kudos to the sponsor for working with the other side of the aisle. And kudos to prosecutors for working cooperatively with the sponsor to get something done…
A measure guaranteeing that juveniles under the age of 15 have a lawyer during interrogations in murder investigations is heading to the Illinois House.
The Illinois Senate overwhelmingly approved an amended version of a plan by Democratic Sen. Patricia Van Pelt on Thursday. Van Pelt initially proposed a measure guaranteeing legal representation to juveniles under 18 in murder investigations. Illinois law already requires legal aid to children under 13 during these interrogations.
Van Pelt says children often falsely confess to crimes because they don’t understand the process.
She said the proposal would also require videotaping such interrogations and simplifying language describing to juveniles their rights.
* Meanwhile, as I’ve said before the Department of Corrections too often looks at ideas in tiny silos instead of backing up and looking at the big picture. IDOC opposed this bill instead of working something out, probably over money…
A bill aimed at lowering the cost of phone calls for people incarcerated in Illinois and prohibiting the state from profiting on such calls cleared the Illinois House on Wednesday.
The measure, HB 6200, is sponsored by Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana. It passed the House, 69-44. […]
Under the legislation, prison phone calls could only cost a maximum of 5 cents per minute (and 23 cents per minute for international calls), a rate that is almost 80 percent less than is currently being paid for the same calls. Illinois receives about $12 million each year from prison phone revenues, the highest in the country, Ammons said.
“This bill will put children in connection with their families by lowering the cost of prison phone calls,” she said.
Maybe you don’t care that prisoners are getting ripped off by the state, but it’s not cool.
Kirk is trying to walk a narrow path. He is distancing himself himself from Trump’s policies and rhetoric, but also has said he will back Trump if he was the nominee and suggested Trump could even help the Republican Party.
Asked in an interview with CNN last week if he’d support Trump for president, Kirk said: “Certainly, if he’s the nominee.” Given the opportunity to revise his comments after Trump’s win in Indiana, Kirk’s campaign declined.
Kirk said in that interview that even as he runs against many of Trump’s positions, specifically citing an “isolationist” foreign policy debuted last week, he is comfortable sharing a ticket with the mogul. He even said Trump might help the GOP brand down the line.
“Donald Trump is kind of a riverboat gamble,” Kirk said. “He won the Illinois primary, in this case we have seen the Republican vote up and the Democratic vote down, so it looks like it’s a net benefit.”
* Duckworth campaign response…
“Republican stalwarts Bruce Rauner and Paul Ryan — not exactly a pair of liberals — are refusing to support Donald Trump, while Mark Kirk has happily fallen into line. Kirk even suggested there’s a ’net benefit’ to having Trump on the ticket. Trump has shown himself to be dangerously unserious and unprepared for the office of the Presidency, but apparently the ‘R’ after his name is all Kirk needs to see. Kirk has shown bad judgment before, but his reflexive support for Trump may top it all.” — Matt McGrath, campaign spokesman
I talked with Illinois State Rep. Ron Sandack (R-Downers Grove) Thursday, who supported Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Sandack said he’s not really sure he can come around to Trump.
He’s going to try, but it’s not a given. Trump is going to have to really change his tone - and some of his policies - to win Sandack over. When asked if the Illinois Republican Party could become more fractured this year, Sandack said that is a risk of Trump’s candidacy.
“I mean heck, to be completely blunt, the Republican Party in Illinois has barely been a blip on the radar,” he said. “We’ve had our own problems getting our message out, making ourselves far more attractive to taxpayers and constituents from a policy perspective.”
Sandack suggested the Illinois Republicans pick a small handful of core principles to unite the state party. And if Trump doesn’t come around to where he is and change his tone, then Sandack may end up focusing on his own re-election campaign this fall.
“I want to see some effective Republican policies displayed by our Republican candidate or I may just focus singularly on me and in my local race,” Sandack said.
Southern Illinois University officials are bracing for another enrollment drop in the fall — and they’re pointing fingers at Springfield.
“We’re not there yet to give you specific data,” said SIU Carbondale Chancellor Brad Colwell. “But we will be down if projections hold. It’s not because of a lack of anything the Carbondale campus has done.”
Instead, Colwell said students and parents are telling school administrators they are “worried about what’s happening in Illinois.”
“Our data is showing they’re not going to another Illinois institution. They’re leaving the state,” Colwell said, speaking to reporters after SIU’s Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday morning. […]
[Carbondale Mayor Mike Henry] and others also noted that nearby schools located in other states are taking advantage of Illinois’ soured political climate, and places such as Southeast Missouri State University and Murray State University in Kentucky have stepped up their recruitment efforts of Southern Illinois’s graduating high school seniors.
People are voting with their feet. But come November, they’ll vote the traditional way. And it ain’t gonna be pretty for incumbents if they don’t get this thing solved.
Gov. Bruce Rauner addressed the Illinois General Assembly on Wednesday, outlining his plans for next year’s state budget. The poindexters whipped out their calculators.
But the crucial takeaway was broader than an exercise in number-crunching: We’re at the end of the road in Springfield. No more pavement, nothing but dirty orange barricades and languid yellow warning lights.
They said the same thing a year earlier. We were supposed to ignore Gov. Rauner’s actual budget proposal and instead focus on the big picture of our dear leader’s glorious agenda.
What [Rauner] should have done this year was introduce a budget that reflects actual state revenues. Show the austere budget. Lay out the cuts. The Democrats are going to make Rauner the bad guy no matter what, so he might as well just do his job.
On that, we’re in total agreement, at least on the policy of presenting a real budget.
* Unfortunately, she is also way behind the times with much of the rest of her column, which dredges up stuff from months ago that we’ve endlessly discussed here, including Rauner’s stupid attacks on Senate President John Cullerton and the snarky frat boy attitude of some of his top staff. Better late than never, I suppose, but I believe things have changed.
The current reality is that Rauner and his staff have been working overtime to stay calm and be reasonable behind the scenes. Some Democratic legislators are actually praising Rich “Prince of Snarkness” Goldberg. And as I mentioned earlier today, Senate President Cullerton is working cooperatively with the governor, despite their history. Also, while we don’t yet know where Speaker Madigan’s heart is, he has sent his staff to budgeteer meetings, which is at least a sign of good faith.
* I’ve actually seen some real “growth” and discipline by the governor and his people lately. Maybe I’m wrong. I could be. Maybe he’ll blow everything up again with a ridiculous press conference today or tomorrow or sometime before the end of the month. It ain’t gonna be easy for him to keep a sock in that yappy “I’m the real victim here” motormouth of his.
But, to my eyes (and unlike some Chicago pundits, I regularly go to the Statehouse and talk to people on every possible side during and after session days and even on some weekends - hey, it’s not just my job, it’s my life) things are improving. A lot.
Some of the Madigan folks think I’m a bit tetched these days. But if the governor and his people can maintain this level of reasonableness and professionalism, then the Statehouse could very well tilt against Madigan by the end of this month. That already clearly happened with the stopgap funding bill for higher education, whether another Tribune columnist wants to believe it or not. Madigan needs to meet Rauner’s olive branch with his own and try to end this nightmare, not prolong it.
Child protection investigators in Illinois can now get hands-on training in the state’s capitol.
George Sheldon, director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, helped dedicate the training center Monday at the University of Illinois Springfield.
The small blue house on the University of Illinois Springfield campus is no ordinary home. It’s a training center for state child protection investigators. The training center also has a mock courtroom where case workers experience the legal process. […]
“Training needs to be more than just a textbook,” [Sheldon] said.”That’s what this house does and that’s what the simulation in the courtroom does.”
The courtroom utilizes a judge — usually retired Sangamon County judge John Mehlick — real prosecutors and defense attorneys and witnesses (a volunteer actor and actress from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine) to train investigator-witnesses.
Retired Sangamon County assistant state’s attorney Sheryl Essenburg, who specialized in crimes against children when she was a prosecutor, designed the courtroom experience and works with the program.
“Those who have gone through it say it’s the most real experience they’ve had,” Sheldon said.
Mehlick said he likes being able to tell the trainees what they could do to improve their testimony — something he couldn’t do when he was presiding over a real case.
The state is unveiling new opportunities for kids coming out of foster care. DCFS is starting a career readiness program.
Illinois Building Futures is expanding work and career training opportunities. The expansion is evident in places like Champaign, Peoria, Rockford and others.
Young adults in the program will have access to training and employment services through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
Gov. Rauner unveiled a test program Wednesday designed to provide mentoring, training and jobs for young adults aging out of the state’s foster care system.
The Illinois Department of Commerce will identify businesses willing to hire and help former wards of the state. Rauner said the idea is to ensure children who didn’t grow up with encouraging parents or educational opportunities still have the chance to enter the workforce and support themselves.
“We can’t let these young people fall through the cracks,” Rauner said during a news conference at his Capitol office. “Too often (these children) end up being homeless, they have to resort to crime to feed themselves, and it’s a tragedy of terrible proportion.
“You got to have the experience, you got to have the opportunity to go work, and know what that really means, and what’s involved and the discipline that requires,” Rauner added. “You can’t be thrown out at 21. I don’t think you’ll be able to take care of yourself.”
* And make sure to watch Part 1 and Part 2 of WGN TV’s “New hope for fixing Illinois’ broken child welfare system.”
* They are indeed getting along much better in the Senate, and this is indeed a big reason…
Democrats and Republicans in the Illinois Senate believe they’ve found a successful formula for ending nearly yearlong partisan standoffs over state spending.
For the second time in as many weeks, senators from both sides of the aisle came together Thursday to approve funding for public universities, community colleges and grants to low-income students, all of which had been deprived of state money since the fiscal year began July 1 without a budget in place.
The winning formula: spending bills that aren’t tied to items on Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s pro-business, union-weakening “turnaround agenda” but are tied to specific revenue sources. […]
The measure approved Thursday would spend $454 million to bring eight state university systems up to 60 percent funding, the same level that Chicago State University received in a measure Rauner signed into law last week. That part of the plan was approved on a 55-2 vote.
The spending would be covered by letting the state off the hook for repaying money borrowed from special funds to plug holes in last year’s budget. That portion passed on a 54-3 vote.
But here’s the problem: There aren’t enough fiscal gimmicks and special fund sweeps in the world that can patch this gaping budget hole. Eventually, they’re gonna have to come to an agreement on aspects of the Turnaround Agenda.
Having said that, I think the Senate Dems are working intently to find a path to end this madness. The question, as always, is what the House Dems will do.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel took a dim view Thursday of a package of tax increases the Chicago Teachers Union proposed to help cover a massive funding shortfall at the school district, instead calling on union leaders to join him in pressuring state lawmakers to change the way school districts are funded to bring more money to the city.
The mayor was responding to a revenue package union officials released Wednesday they said could shore up the district’s finances as a $675 million pension payment is due next month. Rather than raising taxes here, however, Emanuel said the onus should be on Springfield to change how school district pension costs are covered.
“Chicago taxpayers already pay twice for pensions,” Emanuel said when asked whether he backs any of the CTU ideas. “They pay for their own teachers’ pensions in Chicago when they pay property taxes. They also pay income taxes that supports every other teacher’s pension. The idea is not to ask people to pay taxes more, which would give our state, get them off the hook for actually fully funding education fairly so poor kids are not adversely affected by the state of Illinois that underfunds education as a total set of dollars.”
Emanuel has not been shy about raising taxes big and small during his five years in office, championing increases to parking and hotel taxes, 911 fees and water and sewer rates, in addition to the huge property tax hike and trash collection fee he pushed through as part of his 2016 budget.
CPS has a billion-dollar structural deficit. The state won’t ever cover that.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner won’t attend the Republican National Convention in July and won’t be endorsing Donald Trump, Rauner aides confirmed on Thursday, while not entirely disavowing the presumptive GOP nominee.
And it’s not yet clear whether Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger will make the trip to Cleveland, as she faces a challenge from Democrat Susana Mendoza this fall.
If she goes after Rauner ditched, she’s nuts. I highly doubt she’ll attend.
While Rauner has dubbed the presidential campaign’s rhetoric “appalling,” he has publicly stated — as the head of the state’s Republican Party — that he will support the nominee.
“I’ll do everything I can to work with that nominee,” Rauner said in March.
Rauner repeatedly had sought to stay out of the presidential race, though he did say that as leader of the GOP in Illinois, he would back the eventual nominee. But Rauner aides stressed there are various levels of “support,” and that the governor would not be giving Trump a formal endorsement.
Underscoring the politics behind Rauner’s move, the governor’s decision means he also will not accept the traditional role of heading up Illinois’ 69-member convention delegation and the high-profile media appearances that come with it. At the same time, Rauner avoids any potential appearance with Trump, which some advisers said privately would not be helpful to the governor back home.
“My feeling is we overestimate the impact of tactics and underestimate broad trends and demographics,” he said. “What Trump does or doesn’t do may have less impact than what Munger or Kirk does. Then there’s the broader context of the election and who votes and who doesn’t vote and what gets people to come out to vote.”
People pay infinitely more attention to presidential races than comptroller races, but that last sentence is most certainly valid. The headwinds ain’t gonna be kind.
His appeal among disaffected Republican primary voters is intensely visceral: He’d arrive in Washington a billionaire businessman in a hurry and get things done. After years of gridlock in Washington, who doesn’t find the idea of an outsider appealing? […]
Trump is an undisciplined political neophyte who loves the limelight and promises big changes, most of which appear either implausible or too vague to take seriously.
The one chance for Chicago City Council members to question Eddie Johnson before approving him as police superintendent was an April 12 council hearing.
The city’s murder numbers were way up. But the police department was still staggering from the fallout of a video that showed an officer fatally shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
The number of police stops had fallen off a cliff.
Some council members wanted Johnson to tell how he would increase that number. “How do we get the officers to do it?” Alderman Patrick Daley Thompson asked.
Johnson answered that the department had taken one step already. It had trimmed back the length of a report that officers had to fill out for each stop. “Every week we’re seeing [an] uptick in terms of the utilization of those forms,” he said. “So we’ll get there.”
Unquestioned at the hearing was an assumption: Police stops make the community safer.
But police department datasets reveal a complicated picture. The records, obtained by WBEZ through the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, show negative trends as officers reported more stops: The gun seizures dropped, detectives solved fewer murders, and a decade-long decline in gun violence ended.
Those numbers did not improve as the department developed one of the most intense stop-and-frisk programs in the nation.
Thursday, May 5, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Exelon tells legislators: “In 2016, the revenues of all Illinois nuclear units will be insufficient to cover costs, with Quad Cities and Clinton suffering the greatest losses”
Exelon tells the opposite story to Wall Street: In its last earnings call on February 3, Exelon CFO Jack Thayer boasted of their success offsetting low power prices through Wall Street hedges, “As you know, we’re highly hedged in 2016, which . . . allowed us to offset the impacts of lower prices in 2016.”
Exelon only tells legislators about some of their revenues – it’s like McDonald’s disclosing sales from french fries and shakes but not hamburgers and McNuggets
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. JUST SAY NO TO THE EXELON BAILOUT
BEST Coalition is a 501C4 nonprofit group of dozens of business, consumer and government groups, as well as large and small businesses. Visit www.noexelonbailout.com.
Without another influx of state funds, Eastern Illinois President David Glassman told state legislators Wednesday, the university may have to make another round of employee layoffs later this summer.
In a stopgap budget agreement last month, lawmakers gave the state’s higher education system some $600 million, about $12.5 million of which went to Eastern. In Eastern’s case, that is 30 percent of a normal year’s appropriation.
But Glassman and other university officials told the House Higher Education Committee on Wednesday that more money is needed.
EIU’s $12.5 million will be gone before the fall semester begins, Glassman said.
“In fact, the stopgap funding in real dollars is so low for EIU that it will likely necessitate additional layoffs beginning in late summer. This is the only way we can achieve the cost reductions necessary to make up for the absent appropriations,” he said. “Insufficient funds equal more layoffs.”
* Related…
* Campus cuts: 50 ways the state budget impasse impacts the University
With deaths from drug overdoses surpassing traffic accidents as the No. 1 accidental killer of Americans, a group of community stakeholders Wednesday stressed that a different approach to fighting the problem has to be taken.
* Let’s circle back to the Illinois Department of Revenue’s use of dynamic scoring that helped kill off a progressive income tax. You’ll recall that the scoring came up with these results…
After 14 years of implementation of this tax policy (year 2030) the main economic effects of this tax policy are:
* Disposable Personal Income decreases $2.8 Billion per year compared with the baseline scenario (current conditions and economic trend).
* Real Gross Domestic Product of the state decreases $1.7 Billion compared with the baseline scenario (current conditions and economic trend).
* Total Employment decreases almost 18,000 jobs compared with the baseline scenario (current conditions and economic trend).
While dynamic models do not generate a margin-of-error estimate for dynamic effects, research has shown that traditional revenue estimates carry an error rate of around 3 percent.
The projections from “Gov. Rauner’s Department of Revenue” are ridiculously precise, given the scales of the base numbers and all the dynamics that go into economic forecasting.
GRDOR estimates a job loss of 43,000 from a current base of 6,100,000. That’s .7 of 1%.
GRDOR estimates a GDP loss of $2B from a current base of $736.3B. That’s .27 of 1%.
Wow, those guys are goooooood. Who’s doin’ the modelin’ and projectin’ — freakin’ sharks with freakin’ lasers on their heads?
Yet not even ballpark projections on the ROI for The Turnaround Agenda. Go figure. Or not, in this case.
I’m thinking they just made it up on the fly and nobody put the “work” to the Absurdity Test. They were supposed to add some zeroes on the back ends of those “projections.”
And he didn’t even factor into the equation that these projections cover a time period of 14 years.
There is simply no way to say with any sort of authority that these statistically tiny predicted changes have any solid significance.
Thursday, May 5, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Nuclear facilities produce more than half of the electricity in Illinois and they’re by far the most reliable source of energy we have. As a result, our state’s businesses know they can depend on the electrical grid round-the-clock for their energy needs.
This is a huge asset and a competitive advantage for Illinois businesses, as they are able to operate regardless of weather or the time of year to meet the demands of their customers. Consumers benefit from this too, as affordable, reasonably-priced energy allows them to purchase goods at a lower cost.
That is why it is so important to find a solution to our state’s current energy problems. A recent State of Illinois report found that if some of our nuclear plants were to close early, as they’re projected to do soon, our state would lose $1.2 billion in annual economic activity and nearly 4,200 jobs. Coupled with higher electricity rates, this would be a severe blow to Illinois’ businesses and consumers.
For Illinois’ businesses to thrive, we need to ensure that nuclear energy remains in our state’s energy future. I urge our state legislators to enact energy reform legislation that properly values the contributions of nuclear energy in our state.
Signed,
Omar Duque, President and CEO, Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
* AFSCME commissioned a Public Policy Polling poll in appointed GOP Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez’s Springfield-area district…
The poll found that 37 percent approved of the job Rauner is doing, while 54 percent disapproved and 9 percent were not sure. Rauner’s approval slipped since a similar survey in August 2015, the firm said, when approval was 45 percent and disapproval was 47 percent.
The new poll also found that job approval for Jimenez was 35 percent, with 30 percent disapproving and 35 percent unsure.
This was an automated poll of 552 voters April 14-17 with an MOE of +/-4.2 percent.
* One question asked about AFSCME’s bill that would “avoid a strike or lockout of state workers.” It was backed 60-22…
Another poll question states that Rauner says the bill “takes power from the governor and gives it to unelected arbitrators who are biased toward unions and would make state government too costly. State workers say lawmakers should override the governor’s (expected) veto because the arbitrator is chosen by both sides to be independent and fair, and that the process would help make certain that important public services are not disrupted by a strike or lockout.” Asked which side they agreed with, 58 percent said the state workers, and 32 percent said the governor.
Yet another question asks if people would be more likely to vote for Jimenez or the Democratic challenger if she “sides with Governor Rauner’s (expected) veto of the arbitration bill, forcing state employees to accept the governor’s terms or go on strike and shut down state government. …” In response, 32 percent said they would be more likely to vote for Jimenez, while 47 percent said the push would be toward the Democrat. Another 17 percent said the issue would have no impact, and 4 percent didn’t know.
47 percent means the issue probably isn’t “moving” voters enough to change the election’s outcome.
But, man, the governor sure is one unpopular dude in that GOP district.
…Adding… The full polling memo is here. Respondents said they voted for Romney over Obama 48-38.
Thursday, May 5, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Over 50 million Americans participate in fantasy sports contests, including more than two million men and women from Illinois, which makes our state the third largest player in the nation. In addition, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association is headquartered in Chicago, along with local and regional fantasy sports entities based here in Illinois.
Fantasy sports are contests of skill in which participants select a team of real world athletes and accumulate points based on how their players perform in an actual game. Participants study athletes’ statistics and other information to assemble a team that will score the most possible points.
Whether it’s a football league with their friends and family or a daily/weekly contest against players across the nation, Illinoisans do so because it is a form of entertainment that gives them a deeper appreciation for the sports that they love.
Vote YES on House Bill 4323 (Zalewski/Raoul) to ensure that these two million (and growing) Illinois residents can continue to play the games they love in a safe and fair environment.
[Metropolitan Family Services, which is owed nearly $2 million by the state] has already informed state officials and its own workers that it will discontinue four state programs serving 900 people if there is no state appropriation to fund them by June 30.
The programs slated for closing include small group homes for people with mental health issues, a counseling program for juveniles at risk of winding up in prison, mental health services for children under age 6 who have been the victims of severe trauma, and home visitation services for teenage mothers and their children. […]
Estrada said state officials were disappointed to learn of his agency’s plan to halt the four programs and urged it to continue to provide the services.
“They said, ‘Couldn’t you pay for this privately?’” Estrada said.
Estrada had to explain that private donations, which the organization already solicits, couldn’t possibly cover the gap.
This is the point where somebody always writes me to say the wealthy Rauner should just pay for it himself.
Sorry, even he doesn’t have enough money to fill all the holes created by his intransigence on the budget.
You could hardly find a more vulnerable population that mental health group homes, child victims of severe trauma, impoverished teenage moms and juveniles at risk of going to prison.
Coalition chair Andrea Durbin said the state’s contracts with providers contain a clause that allows the state to cancel or suspend the contracts if there’s no money to pay for the services, but the Rauner administration instead kept the contracts going.
“We’ve been held accountable to the contracts. We’ve been asked to deliver services, to report our data, to participate in program oversight,” Durbin said. “You can’t with one hand ask people to do work and with the other hand deny them the ability to be paid.”
Durbin cast the lawsuit as “strictly a business case,” saying the state’s failure to make good on its debts to the providers has a ripple effect on banks, creditors and landlords who also do business with the providers.
The lawsuit, which also targets the directors of the Department on Aging and the departments of Human Services, Public Health, Healthcare and Family Services and Corrections, claims Rauner created an “unconstitutional impairment” of the contracts in his June 25, 2015, veto because the administration subsequently insisted on enforcing contract terms despite having no money to pay.
The complaint also alleges the veto ruled out the normal remedy for such situations. Unpaid state bills go to the Court of Claims, which awards payment based on contracts backed by spending authorized by the governor.
The complaint demands immediate payment. No hearing has been scheduled.
An Illinois House plan to change the way legislative district maps are drawn in the state died in a Senate subcommittee Wednesday.
Two Democrats on a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted against sending the proposed constitutional amendment to the full Senate for a vote. The lone Republican on the panel voted in favor.
The proposed amendment, which easily passed the House on Tuesday, would create an independent commission to draw the legislative district boundaries after each 10-year census. The commission would be appointed by the senior Republican and Democratic justices on the Illinois Supreme Court. The proposal also calls for extensive public hearings before a map is approved and requires that minority voting interests be protected. […]
“I am disappointed that as a result of today’s vote, the General Assembly will not offer the voters of Illinois a better way, a procedure by which constituents can choose their representatives and not the other way around,” [sponsoring state Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago] said.
The proposal was sponsored by Rep. Jack Franks and passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support.
* Meanwhile…
Independent Map Amendment Petitions to be Delivered to State Board of Elections in Springfield at 11:30 a.m. Friday
SPRINGFIELD — A yearlong statewide petition drive for a constitutional amendment to create an independent commission to draw legislative maps will end Friday when petitions with nearly 600,000 signatures are delivered to the State Board of Elections in Springfield.
A semi-truck will deliver the petitions at 11:30 a.m. Friday when Dennis FitzSimons, Chair of the Independent Maps coalition, will turn over the petitions to state officials.
The Independent Map Amendment would create an independent commission to draw Illinois General Assembly districts in a process that is transparent, impartial and fair.
Independent Maps will submit petitions with more than twice the mandated minimum 290,216 signatures of registered voters.
WHEN: 11:30 a.m. Friday, May 6
WHERE: Illinois State Board of Elections
2329 S. MacArthur Blvd., Springfield
* The Chicago Teachers Union has released a $502 million wish list of revenue that the city can tap without state action…
Reinstate and increase the Corporate Employer Expense Tax (“Head Tax”) – Reinstate and increase the Employers Expense Tax at four times the previous level. Annual Revenue Potential: $94 million
Personal Property Lease Tax (Mun. Code Ref. 3-32) - Increase the Personal Property Lease Tax rate from 9.0% to 11.0%. This most impacts people visiting from outside of Chicago when they rent vehicles. Annual Revenue Potential: $35 million
Rideshare Tax - Impose a tax on ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft. Annual Revenue Potential: $15 million
TIF Surplus – Make funds in the city’s 150-plus TIF accounts that are not already tied to debt service or an active project available for use to address the funding needs at the Chicago Public Schools. Declare surplus funds and distribute those funds immediately. Increase reporting requirements for improved transparency on TIF accounts. Annual Revenue Potential: $100 million
Chicago Hotel Accommodations Tax (Mun. Code Ref. 3-24) – Increase the City’s Hotel Accommodations Tax from 4.5% to 6.0%. Annual Revenue Potential: $30 million
Commercial Property Tax assessment - Upon the sale of a building, the assessed valuation is automatically set at 25% of sale price. Annual Revenue Potential: $100 million
Chicago Vehicle Fuel Tax (Mun. Code Ref. 3-52) – The City’s current rate of 5 cents/gallon generates an estimated $48.9 million per year (FY 2015). Due to falling gas prices over the past few years, an additional 10 cents may be imposed without consumers feeling as much pain as other tax increases. Annual Revenue Potential: $98 million
Special Service Area (SSA) Tax Levy (35 ILCS 200/27-5) – Under Illinois law, the City of Chicago has the authority to establish special service areas within the City of Chicago and levy taxes (on the properties within the SSA boundaries) to fund debt service and/or annual operations associated with the special municipal services and related capital improvements. Conceptually, the City could create special service areas to pay for certain educational programs, which are only offered in certain geographic areas of the City or CPS capital improvements, which only benefit a well-defined geography. Annual Revenue Potential: $100 million
Redirect $1.2 billion Lucas Museum Bond to Chicago Public Schools – It looks like a museum on the lakefront for a billionaire’s private collection is not viable. Now we have an opportunity to redirect those critical resources to 400,000 students in CPS. Revenue Potential : $30 million
The CTU also said it would sunset all the revenue ideas in 2019, “at the conclusion of what CTU expects to be Governor Bruce Rauner’s first and only term in office and when the first session of the Illinois General Assembly without his interference ends.” OK, but what if he’s reelected?
Let’s just say that anyone who buys gasoline, owns commercial property, rides on Uber or Lyft, stays in a hotel or operates a business that employs people will not be happy. […]
Heading the list is $94 million a year from reinstating—at a quadrupled rate—the city’s former head tax, which Mayor Rahm Emanuel finally finished repealing. CTU did not give a monthly number per employee, and failed to immediately return phone calls seeking details. Emanuel said at the time that tax was driving employers out of town. […]
[The hotel tax hike] would “easily” would give Chicago the highest combined hotel tax in the county—it’s now 17.4 percent if all city, county and other levies are added together, said Marc Gordon, president and CEO of the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association. “We just had a terrible first quarter, and this will hurt us more,” Gordon said. “A lot of people will be laid off, and tax revenue hurt” as Chicago becomes uncompetitive. […]
Uber and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce had no immediate comment on the proposal. But Kelley Quinn, Mayor Emanuel’s director of communications, responded with an emailed statement: “Of all organizations, the Chicago Teachers Union should understand how students and taxpayers are being shortchanged by the current funding system in Springfield. In addition to the inequity that exists for students living in poverty, Chicago taxpayers are already paying twice for teacher pensions. Once for Chicago teachers as well as for suburban and downstate teachers. Before asking Chicago taxpayers to pony up more money, we need to fix this inequity in Springfield. #FixSpringfieldFirst.”
* But lots of state money for pensions isn’t likely…
[Sen. Andy Manar] has since amended the [school funding reform] legislation and is likely to push the revised measure for a full vote Thursday. The changes include extending the hold harmless provision to alternative schools and calling for the state to pick up less of Chicago’s teacher pension costs.
Under the previous version of the bill, Manar said the state would have taken on $200 million in pension costs and given the city $275 million in credit to cover a portion of the retirement system’s unfunded liability. Now, the state would only pay for the “normal” pension costs.
It’s that pension pickup that has raised concerns about the measure’s future in the House, where Speaker Michael Madigan has said the state should be focused on cutting pension costs, not taking on more.
In early March, Donald Trump — who now seems to be en route to the Republican presidential nomination — didn’t even know Rauner.
“Rauner? Who? Don’t know him,” Trump told Sneed.
“Why? What’s up,” Trump asked.
“The state of Illinois is in a budget nightmare,” I said. “Broke.”
“Well, don’t know him.”
*** UPDATE *** From John Gregory…
Hey Rich
Thought I’d pass this along from my archive. Attached is Trump’s answer about whether he’s met or worked with Rauner, from the Trump City Club appearance last year. He seemed to at least know *OF* the Gov then.
“Well, he’s got a hard job. Because you owe a lot of money. The state owes a lot of money. And he’s gonna have to handle that somehow. I do not know him. I hear very good things about him. But I do not.”
So, maybe some commenters are right and Trump is now trying to distance himself from Rauner.
