Emerging from the first legislative leaders meeting in months, Illinois Senate President John Cullerton said his fellow leaders recognize the urgency of reaching a budget deal and that Sunday’s meeting should fuel new optimism that it will happen soon.
Asked by reporters if the people of Illinois should be more or less optimistic after the meeting, the Senate President replied: “I would say more.”
When asked why he felt that way, he said, “Because we couldn’t even get a meeting a couple days ago.”
Indeed, Sunday’s afternoon meeting of the Republican and Democratic leaders from the Senate and House was the first of its kind this year. Governor Bruce Rauner pulled the plug on budget meetings with the legislative leaders back in December, arguing that he didn’t think Democrats were serious about a budget deal.
Just weeks later, the Senate leaders unveiled a sweeping set of financial and governmental reforms dubbed the Grand Bargain in an effort to shake loose a state budget after a nearly two-year impasse. The Senate Democrats went on to pass a balanced budget plan. Even the House Republican leader has acknowledged that the Senate has “done their work.”
Senate President Cullerton told reporters Sunday that the meeting was civil and he would be briefing Senate Democrats on developments in advance of another leaders meeting being scheduled.
Asked if the governor would attend future leaders meetings, Cullerton said: “That’s up to the governor. He’s the one that calls those meetings.”
The Senate President again noted that the Illinois Senate had already approved all the issues the governor cited in convening Special Sessions of the General Assembly.
* But…
After meeting, Durkin says GOP will not meet with Democrats again until Madigan unveils his own budget plan.
* House Speaker Michael Madigan emerged from a meeting with the other legislative leaders this afternoon to say he has responded to the governor’s non-budget demands with his own list.
Madigan wants SB 1, the education funding reform bill which passed both chambers, signed into law. He did say, however, that he was open to changing the legislation.
The House Speaker also said he wants regulations on workers compensation insurance rates and he wants the governor to follow procurement rules on his attempt to vastly expand Medicaid managed care programs.
Madigan said the leaders will meet again on Tuesday.
…Adding… I forgot to tell you that Madigan said he would be open to a property tax freeze proposal in return, but didn’t say how long he wants the freeze to be. He didn’t sound at all like he would be open to a term limits proposal, but that’s no surprise.
More in a bit, including audio.
…Adding… Click here for the raw audio of Senate President Cullerton. He didn’t say much of anything.
…Adding More… You can click here to listen to the Madigan audio. I hope it works because I’m having a little trouble with it because I can’t easily upload to SoundCloud at the Statehouse.
*** UPDATE *** House Republican Leader Jim Durkin criticized Madigan to reporters for saying that property tax relief is “part of some right-wing conspiracy.”
“That doesn’t help,” Durkin said, pointing out how high property taxes are in the state.
However, when asked whether Madigan’s addition of new demands was helpful, Durkin said, “They added new things to the mix, but the fact is we’ll manage it.”
* I’m hanging around outside the leaders’ meeting and figured I’d check my e-mail. This press release was in it…
Statement from Mayor Emanuel on State Budget
“As President Kennedy said, to govern is to choose. In the coming days will the governor choose to lead the state down the path to progress, or will he choose to drag the state further into financial demise? Will he continue his obstinance, opposing his own proposals, threatening vetoes of bills that meet 90% of his goals, promising vetoes of overwhelmingly bipartisan bills, and undercutting bipartisan budget agreements? Or will he chose to lead, to truly compromise, by making progress the goal instead of perfection? Will he put the interests of the people ahead of his own personal politics? Governor, it’s your choice. In five days we’ll all have your answer.”
Across Illinois - social service providers are having to make cuts. The head of one shelter says without a state budget, its future is bleak.
Sojourn Shelter in Springfield oversees five counties in central Illinois. It provides care for domestic abuse victims, mostly women and children. There are 32 beds, often full, and the goal is to help survivors become independent. It helps with court advocacy, education and employment.
Angela Bertoni is the CEO. She says the shelter is supposed to get $400,000 annually from the state through the Department of Human Services. Without that money, employees have been laid off and other cost saving measures have been taken. “You get to a certain point where there’s nothing left to eliminate. I mean, we already worked on a very streamlined budget for the entire time we’ve existed (since 1975). There’s no more fluff to cut.”
Bertoni says as things stand, its unclear whether the shelter will be able to keep up with its around-the-clock care. “We have to be here 24/7, 365 - we’re a lot like the police and fire departments. People need us when it’s (a) crisis.” Many such agencies are waiting to see what sacrifices will have to be made if the legislature can’t approve a budget that the governor would sign off on by the time the new fiscal year starts in July.
Asked what his version of a tax plan would involve, Madigan replied that “a House Democratic revenue plan would be items that you’ve seen before and you’re probably written about and others in the Legislature have talked about.”
A commenter on the CapitolFax website parodied Madigan’s reply by suggesting the speaker’s response would have been just as clear as it he had said the Democrats’ bill would “contain ideas, expressed in a text format, that, if passed by both chambers and signed into law, would become public acts.”
It’s that kind of he-who-says-the-least-has-the-most-power approach that has all eyes on the 75-year-old veteran Chicago politician.
After three days of a 10-day special session, nothing was happening in Springfield that was visible to the naked eye. Whatever does happen in between today and July 1, the first day of the state’s 2017-18 fiscal year, probably won’t happen until the last minute.
At least that’s what Bloomington GOP state Sen. Jason Barickman predicts.
“The question will be, ‘Is this a classic Madigan 11th-12th hour negotiating ploy?’” he said.
Madigan loves to wait until the last second to jam big things through. It’s usually tough to see it coming, and then it’s too late because it already happened. He keeps me up at night wondering what he’s gonna pull at times like these.
The only question now is whether it happens by June 30th, or July 31st or…
* Sneed asked Gov. Rauner what he does to handle stress…
“Well, I take long walks with our dog and ride my motorcycle,” Rauner said. “I head out alone and explore roads or find a little park to sit and think. Or a brew pub to strike up conversations.
“It’s really wonderful when people describing themselves as Democrats tell me to stay the course. That I’m doing the right thing,” he said.
“That energizes me and I know it sounds strange, but my wife tells me she hasn’t seen me this happy in 20 years. I feel totally honored and humbled to get the opportunity to improve the future of 13 million people.”
He’s said this several times before, of course. But even now? After two and a half years without a budget? During the lead-up to junk bond status, the loss of college accreditations and the other massive crises that are only going to become worse? He’s still the happiest he’s been in 20 years?
“Glad he’s happy. But he shouldn’t be,” Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said when asked about Rauner’s comments.
“This is really an embarrassment,” Cullerton said. “We owe $15 billion. We’ve been downgraded. People are not being paid. People are not being served. There’s people who aren’t getting breast cancer screenings because of this. … It’s just sad. It’s totally avoidable. That’s why I’ve been working with Republicans this session in a bipartisan fashion, and I give credit to those Republicans who did all the work with us and just weren’t allowed to vote.”
Cullerton blames the lack of GOP votes on bills agreed to by Senate Democrats and Republicans on the governor. Rauner has expressed concerns about the legislation, but has denied peeling off GOP support.
“It’s disastrous, and totally avoidable,” Cullerton said of the effects of the impasse.
“The fact that Bruce Rauner can talk about his own happiness as our economy spirals down the drain and Illinois stumbles towards junk status is appalling,” said JB Pritzker. “Rauner’s comments are an absurd insult to the millions of families struggling under his failed leadership. This is confirmation of what we’ve known all along: Bruce Rauner manufactured this crisis to force his agenda on our state and he does not care how many Illinoisans pay the price.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** From the Chris Kennedy campaign…
Sounds like what’s making most people in Illinois miserable is making Bruce Rauner happy. During his two years as Governor, over a million people have been pushed out of social services that provide basic human rights like food and health care. Our state universities are on the brink of losing accreditation and job growth is below the national average. People are voting with their feet and leaving Illinois in record numbers. The voters are ready for radical change in Illinois, starting with a new governor and state leadership that will put Illinois back to work.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Sen. Daniel Biss…
I’ve been trying to figure out how Bruce Rauner can sleep at night but now we know: hurting people across Illinois apparently makes him happy.
*** UPDATE 4 *** Pawar campaign…
That Bruce Rauner has never been happier as public schools, universities, and social services across State of Illinois are collapsing is embarrassing.
This is what happens when we elect out of touch business men to government who make their fortune destroying companies and gutting jobs for personal profit.
We can - and must - do better than another four years of Bruce Rauner.
Republicans have called Senate Bill 1, which was crafted by Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, a bailout for the Chicago school system. They are behind Senate Bill 1124 which they said will provide more money to the neediest school districts while also not giving the Chicago schools benefits that other districts do not receive.
Manar and other Democrats have denied that Chicago gets special treatment under SB1 and that the bill will guarantee that any new money allocated to K-12 education will be directed to the neediest school districts. No school district will get less money under SB1 than it does now.
During a committee of the whole meeting Saturday in the House, a number of school superintendents testified in favor of SB1, including Don Cox, superintendent of the Staunton School District. Cox said he believes SB1 is the most equitable way to achieve adequate school funding.
“We do not suffer from a spending problem in our district,” Cox said. “We suffer from a revenue problem.”
* The Senate Democrats sent out these bullet points about the Republican funding reform proposal…
· It would result in the loss of federal funding for special education and free/reduced lunch programs in school districts statewide.
· It represents a redistribution of dollars from poor school districts to wealthy school districts.
· It creates winning and losing school districts.
· There is no Republican-sponsored revenue bill to pay for school funding.
· There are no known proponents for Senate Bill 1124, which is sponsored by Senator Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington).
· The Republicans’ full court press for Senate Bill 1124 began three weeks after May 31, the final day of the legislative session.
· Barickman and Rauner education secretary Beth Purvis directly contradicted each other about details of the proposal while answering questions throughout this afternoon’s hearing.
All Illinois school districts would benefit from a more equitable distribution of state education dollars under a compromise proposal introduced by State Senator Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) to fix the state’s broken school aid formula and end the budget stalemate, according to data released by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE).
“This is a true compromise that embraces the priorities of lawmakers from both parties and both legislative chambers, and reflects the recommendations of the Governor’s bipartisan, bicameral Illinois School Funding Reform Commission,” Sen. Barickman said.
“Our legislation focuses on agreed-to principles and best practices to create real equity by treating all districts and students fairly under one system, regardless of zip code,” Barickman continued. “Now the data from ISBE clearly demonstrates that this is the most equitable plan for all students.”
The ISBE data show how schools would fare under Amendment 3 to Senate Bill 1124 as part of a compromise package of budget and reform measures that Sen. Barickman says would be signed by the Governor.
*** UPDATE 2 *** That meeting above is the governor’s meeting with the two Republican leaders. Following that meeting, the four legislative leaders will sit down at 1:30.
We’re attempting to reschedule the meeting that was canceled by Gov. Rauner. We’ve suggested tomorrow at one o’clock. And my office has spoken with the other three leadership offices to reschedule the meeting of the four leaders that Gov. Rauner canceled one or two days ago.
I’ve reached out to the press people for the two Republican leaders to see what their response to this invitation is, but haven’t yet heard back. I’ll let you know.
*** UPDATE *** From Leader Durkin…
“With 6 days remaining in this fiscal year, I once again call upon Speaker Madigan to meet with me immediately to negotiate a resolution to the budget impasse. We are making good progress with workers compensation reform as a result of our Wednesday meeting. I believe we can resolve the unfinished areas in a collective manner. The work needs to be in the House and we should mirror the collaborative efforts performed in the Senate. As Senate President Cullerton told Rick Pearson on WGN Radio last Sunday, ‘Madigan and Durkin should do what Radogno and Cullerton did. Sit down and come up with a plan.’
We are past the point of having these Committees of the Whole. We just need to finish the job.”
* This is raw audio from Madigan’s availability and it doesn’t get going until about the 1:30 mark, so skip ahead. Many thanks to our buddy Dave Dahl for the file.
Madigan starts by sparring with the Illinois News Network’s Statehouse correspondent because the INN is a project of the Illinois Policy Institute…
Just for the record, I have lots of beefs with the Illinois Policy Institute, but their Statehouse guy Greg Bishop works hard and asks tough questions. He’s not a Republican Party operative, as Madigan more than just implied today. If he was, he’d be actively supporting or downplaying the governor’s proposed tax hikes. Instead, he’s one of the only Statehouse reporters who has written some in-depth stories on the governor’s actual proposals. You’d barely know the governor was backing a 33 percent income tax hike by reading most of the stories filed from Springfield this week.
Speaker Michael J. Madigan issued the following statement Saturday:
“At the request of Leader Durkin, House Democrats have agreed to postpone a vote on workers’ compensation legislation in the House Labor Committee and will continue working with our Republican colleagues to craft a bipartisan agreement.
“Throughout this budget crisis, Democrats have worked to find common ground and accommodate the requests of Republicans whenever possible. We’ve worked to move discussions forward by advancing legislation addressing the governor’s requests, including measures cutting property taxes, holding workers’ compensation insurers accountable to businesses, helping small and medium-sized employers succeed, reforming state procurement, selling the Thompson Center and improving the management of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. We’ve also continually urged an ongoing dialogue on the budget and governor’s agenda. We will continue to do so in the hope that our good faith will facilitate the cooperation needed to pass a bipartisan budget.”
Also at risk is accreditation for some state universities after the Higher Learning Commission issued a letter warning that a continued lack of funding “places the higher education system of Illinois at considerable risk and is injurious to the very students the system purports to serve.”
* Here’s the letter…
June 22, 2017
To: The Honorable Governor Rauner Illinois Senate President Cullerton
Illinois House Speaker Madigan
Illinois Senate Leader Radogno
Illinois House Leader Durkin
Members of the Illinois General Assembly
I am writing to you on behalf of the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), the regional accrediting agency responsible for assuring the quality of colleges and universities for students in nineteen states, including Illinois. In this role, HLC also serves as a federally-recognized gatekeeper for student financial aid, including the more than $4 billion distributed to students in Illinois in 2016-17. I am contacting you because of HLC’s preeminent role in protecting students.
In February of 2016, I wrote to you with many of the same concerns about the lack of a state budget that I am going to reiterate today; however, these concerns have grown exponentially since that time. Sixteen months after my initial memo there remains no sustainable funding for higher education in Illinois. The continued lack of such funding places the higher education system of Illinois at considerable risk and is injurious to the very students the system purports to serve. As the accrediting agency tasked with assuring quality, I must warn you about the accreditation consequences of the failure to provide sustainable funding for Illinois higher education.
HLC has closely monitored Illinois institutions of higher education over the past two-and-a-half years and has observed the increasingly dire effects of this budget crisis. These include but are not limited to the following:
• Increased tuition and fees for students and loss of MAP money for needy students;
• Significantly declining student enrollments;
• Loss of faculty and staff and elimination of academic programs and services;
• Canceled capital projects and cuts to plant operations, further diminishing jobs; and,
• Depleted or diminished cash reserves and loss of grant and charitable donation income.
Institutions exhibiting these problems, regardless of cause, are still subject to HLC standards that require the availability of appropriate financial, physical, and human resources. When institutions no longer meet, or are at risk of not meeting these standards, HLC is obligated to implement its system of sanctions and public information to alert the public about the impact on educational quality; some institutions may ultimately face withdrawal of accreditation. Students attending institutions that do not have status with an accrediting agency recognized by the federal government cannot access federal financial aid.
You have the power to stop this spiral of diminishing quality of higher education in Illinois and the resulting accreditation consequences. I urge you to act immediately to fund higher education in Illinois. You have the future of thousands of Illinois college students in your hands. Do what is needed to ensure that they have a strong education in Illinois.
As you deliberate this most consequential decision, please contact me with any questions or concerns. Sincerely,
Barbara Gellman-Danley, Ph.D. President, Higher Learning Commission
“He handles it with . . . experience,” said Steve Brown, Madigan’s spokesman.
“Sure, there’s stress. But he always handles the rigors of the day by exercising on a regular basis. He keeps a stationary bike in his apartment in Springfield, just like he does at home. He has always had a very health-oriented diet. Chicken and fish. That sort of thing.
“Besides that, he does not go into a panic when someone on television lobs criticism at him!”
* The Question: How do you think Speaker Madigan “really” handles stress? Be creative, but follow the rules.
To some extent, what’s unfolding at the Capitol is following the same script as in years past. The governor and legislative leaders spend a few days both calling for compromise and accusing the other side of not being interested in negotiating one. Political messages are sent, daily news cycles tended to and pressure has to build before they sit down and reach a deal, even a temporary one. […]
Rauner put the blame on Democrats, declaring the majority party is operating in “bad faith.” Democrats, meanwhile, said it’s Rauner who’s playing games, contending that summoning lawmakers back to Springfield was a stunt designed to “deflect from his efforts to really not work on reaching an agreement.”
I don’t know, but it’s not my job to untangle this mess and the people responsible for undoing the monstrosity aren’t doing it.
* And Bernie talked to some Statehouse tourists. I particularly enjoyed this take…
[Marvin Williamson] said he’s Republican, and wasn’t expecting a budget deal would get done this week.
Why?
“Because I don’t think they’re willing to get together,” he said. He didn’t think House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, wants a compromise – which Madigan and Rauner both say they want.
“He’s had plenty of chances to get something done,” Williamson said.
But he also didn’t think anti-Madigan TV ads being run by Rauner’s campaign are helpful.
“I know he’s spending his own money, which is his right,” Williamson said. “But it seems to me that instead of spending money belittling the other side,” he could have spent “a lot more of his effort trying to get together with the other side rather than being obstinate to it.”
“They need to get their act together – start listening to each other,” he said.
* Republicans propose new school funding plan: “The spring legislative session ended more than three weeks ago. Senator Barickman missed the deadline,” Manar said. “If his latest proposal was a final project, he’d earn an F because not only did he turn it in late, he showed up looking for his teacher after everyone had gone home and the school doors were locked for the summer.”
* JB Pritzker isn’t just on TV now, he’s also sending campaign mailers. This one is apparently being targeted at women, according to people who’ve received it. Click the pics for larger images…
With junk-rated Chicago Public Schools now paying the state’s legal maximum of 9 percent interest on a portion of the borrowing it has relied on to keep the doors open, the school system’s options for further fiscal juggling keep shrinking.
Sadly, that’s always been what this fight was about: whether Rauner could leverage the worsening financial problems of the city’s schools to win political concessions from the Democrats who control the Legislature before the state’s own problems caught up with him.
The resulting impasse has wreaked havoc on the state’s universities and social service delivery system. But, as bad as things have been, they’re on the verge of getting even worse. […]
The state’s falling bond rating, coupled with its long-running structural deficit, are causing problems for governments across Illinois.
“This negative contagion means all cities, counties, school districts and universities throughout the state see lower ratings and higher borrowing costs,” John Miller, managing director of Nuveen Asset Management, told a legislative committee last month.
This so-called “Illinois penalty” is costing those governments an estimated $930 million a year in added debt service, Miller said.
And it’s only going to get much worse if the state falls further.
An updated “doomsday” picture offered by Comptroller Susana Mendoza warns that without a budget in place soon, come August she won’t be able to write checks to pay for the most basic of services, including state employee payroll, school funding and requirement debt service.
Illinois is already $15 billion behind on paying its bills, as payments for other services have been pushed aside for those and other core priorities as established by law and court orders.
“This has never happened before,” Mendoza said Friday after she privately briefed legislators on the scenario. “The situation couldn’t be more critical.”
[Comptroller Susana Mendoza] said Friday that in a “best-case scenario,” the state will fall $185 million short of what it needs to meet payments required by various court orders, consent decrees and state laws that have been responsible for the state to continue paying some bills in the absence of a full state budget [in August].
“We will no longer be able to fully comply with all of the court orders that determine payments in our core priority sectors,” Mendoza said. “This has never happened before.” […]
“In August, I will have zero flexibility,” Mendoza said. “I guarantee you nursing homes will close. I won’t be able to help them. I won’t even have enough money to make the core priorities that are mandated by the courts.”
Courts have ordered continued payments for some human services programs and for the state employee payroll. State law requires payments to pension systems and debt service. The state has also managed to keep current with state aid payments to schools, although reimbursements for things like transportation costs have fallen behind.
However, Mendoza said that in August, if nothing is done to resolve the budget stalemate, even school aid payments could be in jeopardy, not to mention what might happen if the state can’t make payments decreed by the courts.
* Mendoza distributed this to House Democrats yesterday. That squiggly red line represents mandated core expenditures…
So: Has state government’s fiscal condition worsened under Rauner? Yes, it has, largely because he won’t go along with budget gimmicks and because he wants reforms that would give employers confidence in Illinois’ economic climate and future governance.
He won’t go along with budget gimmicks?
C’mon.
* For crying out loud, go back to his very first proposed budget. This is from the spring of 2015…
In a scathing report being released this morning, the Civic Federation, a Chicago watchdog group largely funded with corporate cash, says the new governor’s $31.5 billion operating budget does not add up and asserts that it could leave the state in worse shape than it was under former Gov. Pat Quinn. […]
For instance, it says Rauner’s budget assumes $2.2 billion in immediate pension savings from changes that have not yet even been introduced to the General Assembly, much less approved or run through a gantlet of probable legal challenges. “It is unlikely that the governor’s new reform proposal could be implemented in FY 2016, and the state’s fiscal condition would worsen if the savings were budgeted but not achieved,” it says. And passage of a possible constitutional amendment to clear the legal path is “not feasible” next year.
Also “unrealistic,” the report says, is a projected $655 million cut in spending on group health insurance for state workers—a reduction of about one-third. Similarly, cuts of hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid and other social welfare programs will require the approval of federal officials or federal judges. For instance, it says, a proposed $167 million reduction in support for young adults who were in the foster care system could run afoul of a 1991 consent decree requiring the state to provide such coverage.
And then, year after year, it only got worse. And his current budget proposal is full of things like magical pension savings and one-time fund transfers.
