* From an e-mail sent by the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability to Rep. Dave McSweeney…
See attached requested update of FY’17/18 estimated deficits. As shown, the FY17 estimated deficit is approx. $6.249 billion. It includes updated spending figures published in the Gov’s FY’18 budget book. We then updated the resource section with CGFA’s last official forecast of March 2017.
Similarly, updated FY’18 spending under the “maintenance” scenario per the Budget Book was combined with CGFA’s revenue estimate to yield a FY’18 deficit of $7.651 billion. When that figure is added to the Comptroller’s reported likely $15-16 billion end of FY’17 owed bills projection—the total end of FY’18 unpaid bills would approach $23 billion.
* Back in 2016, GOMB’s forecast for the unpaid bill backlog by the end of Fiscal Year 2018 was $19.9 billion. It’s been a widely used number ever since then. But COGFA’s new projection is a $22.7 billion mountain of bill backlogs by June of 2018 - almost $3 billion higher.
To give you an illustration of how bad this is, if they don’t pass a real budget, then by the end of June, 2018 our unpaid bill backlog will equal 73 percent of state revenue collections.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Ugh…
cause there hasn't been enough bad news…Univ of Ill and Illinois State University Debt Ratings Lowered Following Downgrade to state.
Odds are greater than even that Illinois debt officially will be rated junk—and soon—if lawmakers do not resolve an impasse with Gov. Bruce Rauner and enact a new budget by the beginning of the state’s new fiscal year on July 1.
That was the word from S&P Global Ratings today as the New York financial firm turned up the pressure another notch in a political feud that shows no sign of breaking soon.
In a call with reporters, analysts at S&P, which on June 1 moved state debt to just one level above junk, said that without a budget, the state’s rating could drop more than one notch.
“We think (a further downgrade) is above one in two likelihood around the time” the fiscal year 2018 begins on July 1, said Gabriel Petek, a managing director and sector leader for the firm. “This situation definitely is moving quickly if they don’t have a budget.”
Passing a temporary stop-gap budget—something Rauner has vowed to veto without Democratic concessions—”would be helpful” if only because it would provide cash to some programs and units that now are totally without help. It also “might result in us having a less than one notch” downgrade. But without new revenue, too, “the fiscal situation could continue to erode,” he added.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Pritzker campaign…
“Bruce Rauner is stumbling from crisis to crisis as Illinois families pay the price for his failed leadership,” said JB Pritzker. “Rauner ran for office attacking the previous governor for downgrades and promising a turnaround. But all we’ve gotten under Rauner’s failed leadership is eight downgrades so far and ratings agencies essentially promising that there will be more. These agencies are confirming what so many Illinois families already know: Bruce Rauner’s manufactured budget crisis has wrecked our state’s economy. S&P, Moody’s, and Illinoisans across the state have had enough. We need a real leader in Springfield who can pass a budget and clean up Rauner’s fiscal mess.”
* Related…
* Press release: Social Workers Call For End To Stop-Gap Budgets
Wiretapped conversations between current gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker and Rod Blagojevich have provided plenty of ammunition for the billionaire Democrat’s political rivals, but Blagojevich’s lawyers thought the former governor came off pretty well on tape.
In fact, they had wanted to play Pritzker and Blagojevich chatting about the various options for the then-governor to appoint to the U.S. Senate seat that came open in 2008, when Barack Obama left the post to take office as president, said Sheldon Sorosky, who was part of Blagojevich’s defense team for both the former governor’s trials. […]
“[The conversation] was absolutely legal,” Sorosky said this week while walking the hallways of the Cook County Criminal Courthouse. “That’s why we wanted to play them.
“An argument could have been made that, if Blagojevich was interested in money, and he was interested in someone taking the Senate seat, why not Pritzker? He’s a billionaire,” he said. “He had more money than anybody.”
U.S. District Judge James Zagel wouldn’t allow the tapes of the Pritzker-Blagojevich conversations into evidence, Sorosky recalls, ruling that they had nothing to do with the charges that Blagojevich was shopping the seat for his personal financial gain. […]
Sorosky said he’d forgotten about the conversations until they started making headlines last week.
“I did not give out [the tapes],” he said. “I don’t know if I still have them. I think we had to give them back to the government after the trial.”
I dunno. Blagojevich was clearly trying to pry something out of Pritzker on those tapes. The only reason the conversations were “absolutely legal” was because Pritzker kept deflecting the governor’s probes.
And yet, those same tapes, which are still under federal judicial seal and were not even allowed to be played at trial, somehow found their way to the state’s largest newspaper.
* Chris Kennedy was on WBEZ this morning. This exchange begins around the 20:25 mark…
WBEZ: Certainly our finances here in Illinois are a huge issue and there have been a lot of discussions about ways to bring in some more money. One of them is legalizing marijuana, to do what perhaps Colorado has been able to do. Where do you stand on legalizing pot?
KENNEDY: I wouldn’t legalize pot as simply a way to balance our budget. I mean, we’re not a failed state. Gov. Quinn, with a slightly higher income tax, was able to balance the budget, make payments that are currently due under the pension program and pay down outstanding payables. And if… Gov. Quinn could do that, Gov. Rauner ought to be able to do it as well. It’s not beyond our grasp to balance the budget on the economy that we have in our state, but Gov. Rauner’s got such a stranglehold by not allowing us to have a budget that he’s repelling the very economic development activities that should be naturally occurring in our state.
WBEZ: So if not using legalization of pot for those purposes, would you still be supportive of legalizing marijuana just in general?
KENNEDY: I’d say this: I’m a big believer in science and the medical profession. I would take my cues from them. I do think we should understand what the long-term outcomes are in places like Colorado before we embrace, say … embrace massive change like legalization of marijuana. But if the studies indicate that we have no worse outcome, then I would follow the science on that. But, you know, we haven’t figured out what to do with the massive opioid epidemic that’s hollowing out our communities, that’s destroying the lives of young people and for which we have no clear answer. There’s no protocol. Every town doesn’t handle this the same way. Every family doesn’t handle it the same way. We have very few beds in Illinois to deal with the opioid crisis or a methodology to put people on the path to recovery, and I think before we introduce yet another drug into the lives of our young people and, I guess the full population as well, we ought to understand what we’re getting ourselves into.
The Macon County State’s Attorney says he’s satisfied after a woman who plead guilty to stealing almost $70,000 from Whitmore and Oakley townships has now paid the money back.
Tricia Napier, 41, the former assessor for the two townships, appeared in Macon County Circuit Court Friday and was placed on probation for two years in addition to the restitution order. She was also ordered to submit her DNA for indexing to the State Police offenders’ database, and charged a $250 fee for that. […]
Scott said full restitution in this case was particularly important given the size of the sum involved and the relatively small size of the two townships. Sworn police affidavits said Napier, whose office was in Oreana, looted the money over 13 months and spent a lot of it on feeding her addiction to OxyContin. Napier, who earned $20,500 a year in the job, had told detectives from the Macon County Sheriff’s Office that street prices for the drug ranged from $50 a pill to as high as $6,000 for a bottle of pills.
Detectives said they had discovered the township accounts had been drained with 88 checks written with forged signatures that had started being cashed in January 2015. Napier had told the police who arrested her in February 2016 that she was in “detox” and had filed a lawsuit against a hospital in connection with a previous surgery that had caused her to become addicted to painkillers.
As this story shows, opioid addiction can happen to just about anyone. And it almost never ends well.
* Yesterday, Gov. Rauner was near the Indiana border talking about people and businesses fleeing for the Hoosier State. He made some good points…
“We have the highest property taxes in America. We are literally two minutes from the Indiana border, and property taxes over in Indiana are between a half and a third on average of the property taxes for the same type of property here in the state of Illinois. That makes it unaffordable to compete here. That forces [businesses] to have higher prices to cover the high property taxes here. Customers can go across the border and have cheaper costs in large part because the property taxes are cheaper.”
* But the folks at Illinois Working Together took a look at some Census numbers (click here for the raw data) and tweeted out a storm…
* It’s dark and grainy and difficult to see, but a pal sent me this video of gubernatorial candidate Ameya Pawar “levitating” someone today, accompanied by saxophone music…
Facebook released on Wednesday a new set of tools to help facilitate civic engagement and discourse between voters and their representatives.
The new tools give both constituents and lawmakers more targeted means of interacting with another, and are a part of Facebook’s larger push to introduce civically focused features to the platform. […]
The “Constituent Badge,” feature will allow users to opt in to displaying a badge that they are a part of a lawmaker’s district, so that they lawmakers can know that they’re engaging with those they represent.
Along with the new badges, Facebook introduced “Constituent Insights,” a tab that allows lawmakers and their staff to see what topics and news stories their constituents are talking about. If there is a spike in discussions about something like crime, or the budget, representatives would be able to see this. A developer noted that trending news stories among constituents wouldn’t just be limited to news stories, so that they could get full insights on what their districts are discussing.
The “Districting Targeting,” feature allows lawmakers to make posts visible only to their district, with the idea of turning posts into a “mini community meeting.” The company also noted that in addition to posts targeted directly to districts, representatives would have the option of targeting live videos as well.
* As we’ve already discussed, Rep. Chad Hays (R-Catlin) led the mini revolt that passed a 911 emergency call center fee hike last month. He talked to Tom Kacich…
“I came to the conclusion that my constituents weren’t that concerned with the amount that the people of Chicago paid and if Chicago legislators were comfortable with that amount, fine,” Hays said. “But what I was not willing to do was go home and tell my own constituents that when you dial 911 and on the other end of the line it says that this has been disconnected and people ask, ‘Why did this happen?’ I was totally uncomfortable with saying that the mayor of Chicago and the governor are in a wrestling match over something peripheral to your 911 service.” […]
“I suspect that with this subject matter, if the governor chooses to veto the bill, he will be overridden,” Hays declared.
The problem comes if Rauner chooses to use his amendatory veto powers and then Speaker Madigan does his usual thing and rules it out of compliance with the Constitution and the bill dies from inaction.
* Hays also talked about if that template could be used to break the impasse…
“In the House, it’s very difficult to get anything passed that the speaker doesn’t at least allow for a vote. That’s the inherent problem with the rules of engagement in the House of Representatives, that the speaker of the House has the rules screwed down so tight that if he doesn’t want to run a bill, it doesn’t run,” Hays said. “So going over the head of the speaker in the House of Representatives and doing what you just darn well please whether he likes it or not is nearly impossible. […]
But Hays insisted that “there are budget talks going on as we speak behind the scenes” and “people talking to ascertain if there is a deal to be made.”
“If that is the case,” he added, “I think you’ll be seeing some more concrete proposals coming in the next couple of days.”
Hays said again he’s prepared to vote to raise taxes and cut spending as part of a budget deal.
If anybody can get this done from the ground up it’s gonna be people like Chad Hays. There aren’t many of them in the House, but you takes what you can gets.
*** UPDATE *** I just talked to Rep. Hays, who said that while people are holding discussions to see if there’s a pathway to ending this impasse, he didn’t mean to imply that something was imminent.
* Illinois owes billions to suburban non-profits, companies, government agencies: In the suburbs, that adds up to $2.2 billion owed to more than 5,100 health care providers, local government agencies, small businesses and other state vendors… The amount is roughly 15 percent of the $14.7 billion the state owes all vendors. Chicago-based vendors are owed close to $5.6 billion, according to the comptroller’s figures.
A federal judge says she’ll decide soon whether to order Illinois to pay health-care bills for low-income and other groups even as the state heads into another fiscal year without a budget.
Judge Joan Lefkow said during a Tuesday morning hearing in Chicago that she’d deliberate on the question of forcing Medicaid payments and post a ruling in the civil case later the same day. […]
But advocates for low-income families and others who rely on Medicaid say an order would help clarify that payments to health-care providers should be as high or a higher priority than other payments, including state salaries.
Two years after Lefkow’s ruling, a cash crunch in Illinois’ main checking account has caused the state to fall behind on a number of payments, including about $2 billion owed to Medicaid providers. Lawyers for Medicaid recipients argue that the doctors and hospitals who are owed the money are starting to cut off services to the poor people who need their care, putting the state in violation of federal consent decrees. […]
Yates argued Tuesday that the state is in violation of the 2015 order because it hasn’t kept current on the payments, instead sending dollars to pay other bills as required under state law. Yates argued that those payments are being made for “political reasons,” while the payments ordered by a federal court are being pushed to the back of the line.
More than two dozen health care providers and insurance companies have asked for a federal ruling.
“All we’re asking for today is that the consent decree takes precedent over pension obligations,” attorney Thomas Yates, executive director of the Legal Council for Health Justice said. […]
Lawyers representing the Illinois Attorney General’s office claim that the state is paying its bills, but “just not as prompt as the plaintiffs would like.”
During Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Lefkow said Illinois has “an insolvency situation,” comparing the state’s finances with bankruptcy – but she was reluctant to tell State Comptroller Susana Mendoza which bills to prioritize.
If, however, the Court grants the requested relief, Defendants request that the Court make the order effective July 1, 2017 (the beginning of the next fiscal year), for two reasons. First, as Defendants’ counsel advised the Court during the June 6, 2017 hearing, Moody’s Investor’s Service issued a statement on June 1, 2017, in which Moody’s stated that one of the factors that could lead to a downgrade of the rating on Illinois’ general obligation bonds is the entry of “[c]ourt rulings that increase the volume of payment obligations that are legally prioritized.” And, as Defendants’ counsel also advised during the June 6 hearing, a rating downgrade would have the immediate effect of triggering provisions in several credit swap agreements that could require an immediate payment of approximately $39 – 107 million and an increase in the interest rate the State pays under the swap agreements, which would further reduce the cash available to the State to pay its obligations.
If this Court enters an order granting Plaintiffs their requested relief, that order could lead to another downgrade. However, if the Court grants relief but the order is not effective until July 1, 2017, that likely will avoid an immediate downgrade and also would send a message to the Illinois General Assembly and Governor that they have until June 30 to resolve the State’s budget impasse and avoid the consequences of the Court’s order. If the budget impasse is not resolved by July 1, that fact alone likely will lead to a rating downgrade, regardless of the effective date of the Court’s order.
Second, making any order effective July 1 will give Defendants some additional time to determine how to comply with the Court’s order. Although Defendants do not know how the Court might word an order granting relief, Defendants anticipate that they will need some time to figure out how in practical terms to comply with any such order, given that, as has been described in earlier hearings, the State’s cash flow crisis leaves Defendants with no obvious way to satisfy Plaintiffs’ request for relief.
* Chris Kennedy was on WBEZ this morning. Tony Arnold gives us a rundown…
Except Kennedy himself made a play for that endorsement and tried to keep Pritzker from getting it.
* From the ILGOP…
J.B. Pritzker was panned yesterday by Democrats and Republicans alike after receiving the Mike Madigan-backed AFL-CIO endorsement.
The endorsement comes hundreds of days before the primary, before any debates, and without a proper vetting process.
But Mike Madigan knows that J.B. Pritzker can be trusted to maintain the corrupt Chicago machine – Pritzker’s already been exposed on FBI tapes and media reports working the system to get state jobs and massive tax breaks.
Chris Kennedy, Ameya Pawar, and Daniel Biss blasted Pritzker and the insider process used to obtain the endorsement.
Pritzker appeared “very at ease, very comfortable talking to labor, and he was quizzed pretty hard on different question, and he came back with all outstanding good answers and I just think he’s been working it and working it hard,” Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan said.
The decision to act so early was motivated by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s efforts to weaken union rights, he added.
“There were a few who raised comments that this is the earliest we have ever done it, but we all agreed on one thing, that Gov. Rauner is not leading this state forward and he needed to go, and I think that propelled the early endorsement discussion for J.B.,” Carrigan said. […]
Carrigan dismissed suggestions that Madigan orchestrated the endorsement.
“I didn’t really hear that in the meeting today. I heard a lot of discussion focused on (Pritzker’s) questionnaire and how he answered and how he talked about helping other candidates,” Carrigan said. “The speaker is the chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois, he has certainly been around a long time, but I didn’t not feel any, you know, hard force from him.”
* And the Pritzker campaign seems a bit unclear on the concept…
AFL-CIO is one of 16 Illinois unions that have now endorsed JB and are ready to bring Rauner’s war on the labor movement to a swift end. Throughout his time in office, Bruce Rauner has held this state hostage, in a reckless attempt to cripple unions and attack working families.
Oh, for crying out loud. The AFL-CIO is not a union. It’s the umbrella organization for most unions in Illinois. It’s a federation (that’s the “F”) and a congress (that’s the “C”).
Some of the top holders of Illinois debt aren’t bailing out, even as the state slides toward a junk bond rating. The reason? They say Illinois isn’t an economic basket case, just the victim of a political logjam that will one day be broken.
“Illinois’s problems are self-inflicted,” said Guy Davidson, director of municipal bonds at AllianceBernstein Holding LP, which owns about $550 million of the bonds. “They have the resources to pay their debt and we think they ultimately will.” […]
Like other money managers, [Peter Hayes, head of municipal bonds at BlackRock Inc.] sees Illinois as a state with a solid economy but serious political problems. “In that sense, it is very different from places like Detroit and Puerto Rico,” he said.
While Illinois has drawn comparisons to Puerto Rico, which collapsed into bankruptcy after the U.S. gave it legal power to escape from its debt, the differences are vast. Illinois’s bond debt is less than half the Caribbean island’s, even though the state’s population is more than three times as big.
Illinois’s $800 billion economy — more than 10 times the size of Puerto Rico’s — is growing, albeit slower than the rest of the nation. It has been adding jobs, sending its unemployment rate tumbling to 4.7 percent from more than 11 percent in the aftermath of the recession. State law requires the government to appropriate sufficient money to pay debt service and it can draw from all unrestricted funds to do so. Illinois has never defaulted.
* But the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service director sees it differently…
As in Puerto Rico, Illinois is in a fiscal death spiral because of decades of poor government.
“So, in the end, both chilly Illinois and tropical Puerto Rico have one really major thing in common — bad government,” the Investors Business Daily column concludes. “Both over-promised on welfare services, pensions and other government spending, then tried to raise taxes to pay for it. And both have been grossly mismanaged by people operating under the delusion that big government solves everything.”
Could bankruptcy be Illinois’ only hope? As in Puerto Rico, it would take an act of Congress for that to be an option. But, as far as the state has fallen, the remaining options for a fiscal recovery are limited.
From North Lawndale and Little Village to Calumet City and Melrose Park, residents in working-class neighborhoods were more likely to receive property tax bills that assumed their homes were worth more than their true market value, the Tribune found.
Meanwhile, many living in the county’s wealthier and mostly white communities — including Winnetka, Glencoe, Lakeview and the Gold Coast — caught a break because property taxes weren’t based on the full value of their homes.
As a result, people living in poorer areas tended to pay more in taxes as a percentage of their home’s value than residents in more affluent communities. Known as the effective tax rate, the percentage should be roughly the same for everyone living in a single taxing district.
But the Tribune’s analysis shows the rates became skewed in favor of wealthier residents.
“What the Chicago Tribune has revealed today is nothing less than an illicit enterprise that runs right through the Speaker’s office. The Chicago political machine has manufactured a property tax system designed to punish the poor and extort millions from taxpayers for their own benefit. Democratic candidates for Governor – J.B. Pritzker and Chris Kennedy – have profited from this corrupt system. They all have some explaining to do.” – Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Steven Yaffe
A bombshell three-part series released by the Chicago Tribune this morning documents how the Chicago political machine – Mike Madigan, Joe Berrios, and others involved in the property tax appeals business – have manufactured a property tax system that targets the poor and puts millions in their own pockets.
Some Key Highlights:
Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios has “resisted reforms and ignored industry standards”, creating a “staggering pattern of inequality.”
Berrios, whose “strongest allies” include Mike Madigan and Ald. Edward Burke, has “raised more than $5 million since 2009, more than have of which came from property tax attorneys and businesses associated with them” in his capacity as chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party.
“Some of the state’s most influential political families have been tied to the office or the industry of tax attorneys that has grown up around it; Madigan, Burke, Hynes and Cullerton are among the most prominent.”
They have created “a property tax system that harmed the poor and helped the rich.”
The Assessor’s office “would not say” what methodology is used to determine valuation adjustments.
Property tax appeals lawyer’s fees – lawyers like Mike Madigan and those used by J.B. Pritzker to get massive breaks on his “uninhabitable” mansion – have soared to $35 million per year.
The wealthy are able to get huge tax breaks through the appeals process and loopholes like those that claim properties are not inhabitable.
You know what, Mike, here’s what I think’s going on. I don’t know for sure, but, um, the Speaker’s main lieutenant Lou Lang two years ago said, ‘You know what, we’re never gonna have a budget for four years.’
He told you what they really want. They want chaos. They want mayhem. They’re happy to hurt whoever they need to hurt because, and now they’re being honest again.
I think it was the Senate President who came out and said, ‘You know what, the governor can’t be reelected unless there’s a budget.’ He said that publicly.
You see where they’re going? You see what this is about? They’re damaging communities like Hegewisch. They are damaging human services for political gain.
Bruce Rauner has been at the state’s helm since last January, which means he’ll be governor for at least another two and a half years. Back in May, Democratic State Representative Lou Lang remarked:
“That it was entirely possible that there would not be an agreed budget during the entire four years of Bruce Rauner’s governorship.”
Lang says he doesn’t want that. But, he says, it’s possible.
* Now, here’s Senate President John Cullerton’s recent quote…
“He’s been spending time working on his commercials and his campaign instead of governing,” Cullerton said. “And the irony is, he would actually have a better chance of getting elected if he would’ve passed the budget. Without a budget, this guy is toast.”
…Adding… I really thought this was self-explanatory, but for the slow out there, here’s the point: Cullerton was saying that if the governor would spend less time campaigning and more time getting a budget, then, ironically, that would actually help the governor get himself reelected. Rauner twisted that to say that Cullerton deliberately killed a budget deal to continue doing damage to the state, thereby hurting the governor’s reelection chances.
* A very reliable union source says that the Illinois AFL-CIO executive board just voted to endorse JB Pritzker for governor.
More when I know more.
* Here’s how the voting reportedly went…
19 yes
7 no
2 abstained (part of the total)
3 unmarked (not part of the total)
The 2/3 requirement was 19.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From Liz Utrup at the Kennedy campaign…
Chris Kennedy has always believed that union labor provides a competitive advantage for Illinois’ economy, that includes the working men and women of the AFL-CIO. The members work hard every day to support their families and build a stronger, better state for our children. Unfortunately, today’s endorsement isn’t about the members. It’s about Springfield establishment insiders who cut deals and circumvented the normal endorsement process. As Governor, Chris Kennedy will continue his career-long support for the labor movement and its role in building America’s middle class. He will fight to make sure every family in Illinois can realize the potential of the American Dream. He will take his message of radical change directly to members of the AFL-CIO and the people of Illinois because they should determine who the Democratic nominee is— not political insiders who are cutting deals behind closed doors.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Ameya Pawar…
I have always been, and will always be a steadfast supporter of organized labor and collective bargaining rights. As a Chicago alderman, I partnered with labor organizations to pass paid sick leave, raise the minimum wage and combat wage theft. If elected governor, I will bring that same commitment to supporting labor and working families across Illinois. Endorsements or non-endorsements won’t change that.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael T. Carrigan…
“The Illinois AFL-CIO Executive Board voted today to endorse JB Pritzker in the Democratic Primary Election for Governor.
“The Board followed a process that included meeting with the candidates and evaluating issue questionnaires. An early endorsement is necessary in order to achieve our top priority in 2018 – defeating Gov. Bruce Rauner, whose anti-worker proposals and refusal to compromise on a budget are destroying Illinois.
“Pritzker has the vision and background to put Illinois on the right track by empowering working families, not shifting more power and wealth to corporate class.”
* JB Pritzker campaign…
Today, the Illinois AFL-CIO endorsed JB Pritzker for governor. The Illinois AFL-CIO represents nearly 900,000 members across the state and is a powerful voice for Illinois working families.
“I am honored to receive the endorsement of the Illinois AFL-CIO and the working families they represent across our state,” said JB Pritzker. “As governor, the labor movement will always have a seat at the table and will be a partner in our work ahead. I will always stand up for collective bargaining rights and prevailing wage, protect retirement security and pensions, and ensure safe working conditions and pay equity for working families.
“We have our work cut out for us. Over 700 days into a historic budget crisis, Bruce Rauner continues to attack our working families instead of doing his job as governor. Our social services and public education system are on the brink of collapse, but Rauner is focused on dismantling collective bargaining rights, cutting pensions, and opposing prevailing wage. The AFL-CIO and the working families it represents deserve a real leader in Springfield who will always stand with them to get our state back on track. I look forward to being that governor for Illinois working families.”
* Sen. Daniel Biss…
“The working people of Illinois deserve better than being told they have to support a billionaire whose family fortune was enriched by anti-union behavior. As Governor of Illinois, I will always put the interest of the working men and women of Illinois ahead of money and the machine.”
*** UPDATE 4 *** As we’ve already discussed, AFSCME Council 31 wasn’t a fan of endorsing this early. I asked the union for a statement…
Our process is driven by our members. We have an obligation to follow that process to vet the candidates, their records and priorities, and to hear from our members about what direction they wish to take. That process will conclude with a decision to endorse or not in the Democratic primary.
A nonprofit designed to help with upkeep at the Illinois state fairgrounds plans on selling naming rights to fair buildings to help pay for improvements.
The Illinois Fairgrounds Foundation is in negotiations with corporations for naming rights to various buildings, Chairman John Slayton told The (Springfield) State Journal-Register. The foundation hopes to raise $3 million to $5 million a year to pay for improvements, he said.
“It will start to pick up soon,” Slayton said. “The naming rights are going to be our biggest dollars.”
* The Question: Your own corporate naming rights suggestions?
* In a 2,300-word piece about how Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Statehouse operation is lousy, we find this buried paragraph…
Of course, there’s a limit to what any one politician—even one as experienced as Emanuel—can accomplish long-distance, particularly in a state and a party so dominated by the likes of Madigan and an opponent as entrenched as Rauner. And with Emanuel’s backing, City Hall in the most recent legislative session scored some wins around crime, school funding and a bump in the city’s 911 tax, while close lieutenants such as Michael Sacks worked the back channel to move some pension and tax measures forward. That said, the standoff in Springfield constitutes an emergency of epic proportions for the city of Chicago, and yet its chief executive has remained away from the public front lines in the fight.
The article compares Emanuel unfavorably to Richard M. Daley, but Daley always talked a big game on gun bills and never really delivered. Emanuel got his gun crimes bill passed over the strong opposition of some Black Caucus members. Not an easy feat, to say the least.
The author breezes past the school funding issue, but, again, this was a huge piece of legislation. Yeah, it’ll probably be vetoed, but if they can ever get the talks back on track, evidence based funding will be very beneficial for the city’s schools. We now have a template for an eventual agreement.
And that “bump” in the city’s 911 tax will take pressure off local property taxes for police and fire pensions. The bill passed with lots of Republican support, even though it was labeled a Chicago “bail out” by the governor’s people. Again, that wasn’t easy.
Also, Sacks was in Springfield almost constantly during the final days of the session. He worked like crazy on that school funding issue, among other things.
“One of the things I’ve been saying to folks is, if this were any other year, where the budget negotiations weren’t part of the discussions, you would have to say, this has been a really bellwether year from the General Assembly, in terms of progress on K-12 school funding, pension reform, procurement reform, they’re making progress on worker’s comp reform — maybe not as far as people want it to go, but they’re making movement on some of these things that have been pretty much intractable issues over the years,” [Jak Tichenor, interim director at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute] said.
They also got an agreement on automatic voter registration, plus a ton of other stuff.
* If there was no impasse, Emanuel and others would probably be lauded for this spring session. But there is an impasse, and Chicagoans think their mayor is supposed to be all powerful, so he’s getting some of the blame.
Could Emanuel do more? Heck yes he could. In my opinion, the mayor needs to go to his friend John Cullerton and urge him to somehow get the grand bargain talks back on track and offer to help any way he can.
A top Chicago political consultant who asks not to be named says that after that scandal and the continuing federal investigation into how the Police Department and the Emanuel administration handled the case, the mayor “has less political capital to spend,” so not getting involved in Springfield’s dysfunction is a risk worth taking. “From both a political and time-management perspective, it’s not the worst decision if a high-profile person like the mayor is not involved in the budget talks, because if you lose, it’s not necessarily a reflection on him, but on Springfield. You don’t want that lack of success splashing on you,” the consultant says. “The mayor’s pretty calculating that way.”
He is indeed a calculating man. Too calculating, if you ask me.
But another reason is one that existed long before the police reform issue caught fire: Emanuel’s lack of clout. The previous two Daley administrations had iron-bound ties to Springfield because father and son were both major power brokers in the Democratic Party and with Republicans. Richard J. served 10 years in the state House and Senate before becoming Cook County Democratic chairman and then mayor; Richard M. was an Illinois state senator for eight years. That experience translated to power once they presided over City Hall because legislators understood that to survive re-election, they had to give Chicago’s mayor what he wanted.
Wait. I thought those were supposed to be the bad ol’ days. Careful what you wish for.
So far it appears that Emanuel has left city lobbying to the Department of Intergovernmental Affairs. Collins, his spokesman, will not say who is in charge of such lobbying, and phone calls to the department were not returned. Michael Rendina stepped down last year to become Emanuel’s senior adviser.
A court hearing scheduled for Tuesday has the potential to shake up Illinois’ already-precarious financial situation. Organizations that run the state’s Medicaid program are asking a judge to speed up their payments.
There are a lot people and organizations in line to be paid by state government. The Medicaid providers are asking a federal judge to put them at the front of it.
The thing is, Illinois spends a lot on Medicaid. Comptroller Susana Mendoza says letting those groups cut in line means Illinois would soon run out of money.
“We’ll have to go to the courts and ask them: ‘OK, out of all of these court-mandated payments, which ones am I allowed to violate?’” Mendoza says.
Russian hackers attacked at least one U.S. voting software supplier days before last year’s presidential election, according to a government intelligence report leaked Monday that suggests election-related hacking penetrated further into U.S. voting systems than previously known.
The classified National Security Agency report, which was published online by The Intercept, does not say whether the hacking had any effect on election results. But it says Russian military intelligence attacked a U.S. voting software company and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials at the end of October or beginning of November. […]
The document said Russian military intelligence “executed cyber espionage operations against a named U.S. company in August 2016 evidently to obtain information on elections-related software and hardware solutions, according to information that became available in April 2017.”
The hackers are believed to have then used data from that operation to create a new email account to launch a spear-phishing campaign targeting U.S. local government organizations, the document said. “Lastly, the actors send test emails to two non-existent accounts ostensibly associated with absentee balloting, presumably with the purpose of creating those accounts to mimic legitimate services.”
A new published report suggests a vendor for the Illinois elections board might have been compromised by Russian hackers seeking to attack voting systems here and in other states.
Russian hackers attacked the voting-software supplier days before last year’s presidential election, according to the classified National Security Agency report.
The report, published online by The Intercept, does not say whether the hacking had any effect on election results. But it says Russian military intelligence attacked a U.S. voting software company and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials at the end of October or beginning of November.
The company involved has contracts in eight states: Illinois, California, Florida, Indiana, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia, according to The Intercept. It was unclear whether any officials in Illinois might have received spear-phishing emails.
Illinois election officials acknowledged to The Washington Post last year that they discovered “an intrusion” into the state’s election system in July, months before the November election.
Though the manufacturer victimized by the attack has its name masked throughout the report, contextual clues imply that it might be VR Systems.
The email account used to spearphish customers is listed as vr.elections@gmail.com, and the attack made use of malware-infected files with titles that reference to the EViD poll book system. The report makes reference to voter-registration themed phishing attacks against third parties possibly using information from the account, making it likely the company is somehow related to registration or voter roles.
VR’s website says EViD products were used in California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, New York and Virginia. The company is based in Florida.
The NSA document alleges the GRU have hacked the voting systems company using a false Google alert requiring a target to enter login credentials. According to the report, it also attempted a parallel campaign using a false email account meant to be confused with a second company.
The report does not claim that voting machines were hacked, a once-popular post-election theory from Democrats, nor does it state whether the information pertaining to the voting systems could be used to hack those systems.
The EViD system is a network of electronic devices at voting sites communicating with each other and with the county’s voter registration system. The electronic devices—EViD stations—allow poll workers to quickly check in voters during early voting and on election day.
A voter’s voting history is transmitted immediately to the county database, eliminating the massive effort for post-election processing, and concerns about multiple votes.
With the EViD system, there’s no need for printed poll books: all the information you need is on the EViD. To check in a voter, the poll worker swipes their photo ID on an EViD station or types their name and birthdate on the onscreen keyboard. Using the ID data, the EViD system verifies the voter’s eligibility. Then it requests the voter’s signature on the electronic sig pad, and checks them in to vote.
But a more worrying prospect, according to [Mark Graff, a digital security consultant and former chief cybersecurity officer at Lawrence Livermore National Lab], is that hackers would target a company like VR Systems to get closer to the actual tabulation of the vote. An attempt to directly break into or alter the actual voting machines would be more conspicuous and considerably riskier than compromising an adjacent, less visible part of the voting system, like voter registration databases, in the hope that one is networked to the other. Sure enough, VR Systems advertises the fact that its EViD computer polling station equipment line is connected to the internet, and that on Election Day “a voter’s voting history is transmitted immediately to the county database” on a continuous basis. A computer attack can thus spread quickly and invisibly through networked components of a system like germs through a handshake.
Touting his independence from Democratic Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, Democratic north suburban state Rep. Scott Drury on Tuesday announced a bid for the party’s nomination for governor.
In a press release, Drury noted that several candidates have declared their candidacies but that Drury sees the contest as a two-way race: Those with “demonstrated loyalties to the Madigan machine” versus him.
“I like those odds,” Drury is quoted as saying in the release.
* The full press release…
SCOTT DRURY TO RUN FOR GOVERNOR
DECLARES THIS IS NOW A TWO-WAY RACE
Highwood, Illinois – This morning, Scott Drury officially announced he is running for governor. “For too long, Illinois has been defined by public corruption and a lack of honesty,” said Drury. “I am running for governor to bring honest change to Illinois and return Illinois government to its rightful owner – the public.”
According to Drury, Illinois’ brightest days are ahead of it. People are yearning to break from Illinois’ past and elect leaders who will be their voice. As governor, Drury will rebuild the foundation of trust between government and the public that has crumbled in the Madigan era and, more recently, under Bruce Rauner. With this strong foundation in place, Illinois can construct its promising future.
Drury is widely recognized as the most independent Democrat in the Illinois General Assembly. In January, Drury became the first Democrat in three decades not to vote for Mike Madigan for Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. Drury attributes his independence to his unique background. Unlike many Illinois politicians, Drury was not “next in line” when he first ran for office. Prior to running, Drury was an Assistant U.S. Attorney where he successfully prosecuted corrupt public officials and worked to rid neighborhoods of illegal guns, among other things.
Drury is not concerned about other candidates who have claimed to be the independent Democrat in the race. “Imitation is the greatest form of flattery,” quipped Drury. “I can assure you that when I took the bold step of not voting for Madigan, none of those candidates called to thank me or ask how they could help the effort to return Illinois government to the people.”
As for the amount of money likely to be spent in the race, Drury acknowledged that he has not inherited billions of dollars. According to Drury, money cannot buy character or judgment. “While my colleagues at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and I were fighting to rid Illinois of public corruption, the current presumptive frontrunner was cozying up to corrupt Governor Blagojevich for an appointment,” said Drury. “That type of small thinking is the polar opposite of what Illinois needs right now.”
While many people have declared their intention to seek the Democratic nomination for governor, Drury sees it as essentially a two-way race: those with demonstrated loyalties to the Madigan Machine versus him – the only candidate with a proven record of standing up to Illinois’ most powerful politicians and giving a voice to the people. “I like those odds,” said Drury.
* He also has a video…
It's time for honest change. That is why I am running for governor. Learn more: https://t.co/ij9VpoCKWH
For far too long, politicians in Springfield like Bruce Rauner and Mike Madigan have hijacked Illinois government to serve their own interests, not yours. Today, I am launching my campaign for Governor of Illinois so the people of our state have a candidate with a proven track record of fighting corruption and standing up against a gridlocked system to advocate for the people.
Follow the Leader: Crisis Creatin’ Rauner Gains New Recruits in the State Legislature
Republican Rep. Admits “We Have To Create A Crisis”
Chicago, IL — Bruce Rauner’s fixation on creating crisis in Illinois is gaining support among members of his own party. On Monday, an NPR Illinois report quoted a Republican member of the state legislature as saying:
“We have to create a crisis. And it is going to be a crisis. I don’t want the schools not to open. But we’ve tried everything else.”
The staggering admission is nearly a direct echo of Rauner’s now infamous “crisis creates opportunity.”
It comes 706 days into a budget impasse where the cost of their “crisis” has become all too clear. Working families are suffering so Bruce Rauner can create the “opportunity” to force a special interest agenda that the people of Illinois continue to reject.
“While schools are being starved for funding and social service agencies are closing left and right, Bruce Rauner remains committed to forcing his agenda on Illinois through a crisis of his own creating,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Instead of standing up to their failed leader, Republicans are letting Rauner continue to drive this state into the ground. Illinois must reject Rauner’s failed leadership and hold him accountable to pass a budget for our state.”
Um, first of all, the quote is by Rep. Bob Pritchard, a Republican from Hinckley. Pritchard is more independent than most House Republicans and actually likes the Democrats’ school funding reform bill that Rauner opposes.
Secondly, the governor has gone out of his way to avoid any K-12 shutdown. As I explained in my syndicated newspaper column, the “crisis” has to be contained to stuff people don’t hugely care about, like universities, bond ratings and the poor. If it spreads to K-12 schools, people are gonna freak and Rauner knows it. He won’t be able to continue the impasse if this happens.
Thirdly, by Pritzker’s own logic, liberal, pro-union state Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria) is a Rauner “recruit” who wants to help the governor create a massive crisis…
No funding for local school district by the end of the summer might finally be enough to bring an end to a state budget impasse entering its third year, a local lawmaker suggested Friday.
“I think that’s the pressure point,” state Sen. Dave Koehler said during a news conference at his Labor Temple office. “… I think that if it takes closing the schools down in September to get this crisis resolved, then that’s what it takes.”
“The Secretary of State’s local Department of Motor Vehicles is open. You can go get your driver’s license renewed. … The lights are still on at most every state facility. That’s true, but this invisible ratcheting up of debts and the backlog of bills continues, pretty much out of sight, out of mind,” [Jak Tichenor, interim director at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute] said.
The state racks up $2 million in late-payment penalties each day it goes without a budget, Mendoza said in February. Illinois currently owes $14.5 billion in unpaid bills.
The bulk of the state’s financial obligations are being spent “on auto-pilot” by court orders and administrative arrangements, Tichenor noted. But the state is operating on the FY 2015 income tax rate, which decreased to 3.75 percent after a temporary tax hike expired.
“So we’re spending roughly as much as $39 to $40 billion a year, while we’re only taking in around $32,” he said. “… It’s like you’re trying to pay your rent with your credit card. There’s only so long you can do that.”
The Senate’s budget plan cut about $3 billion from state spending. Without a real budget, spending will continue to rise uncontrollably. The governor continues to sign contracts for services and goods without appropriations, while other spending rises “naturally” and can’t be pulled back in.
Group Health accounts for roughly 32 percent of all outstanding bills—a significant issue because state lawmakers have not allocated any money to these liabilities for the past two years, and as a result these bills (as well as the interest penalties) continue to pile up. And remember the interest penalties don’t stop racking up until the bill is actually paid. Backlogged Group Health liabilities have skyrocketed from $3.1 billion in April 2016 to $4.6 billion in April 2017, and there’s no end to their growth in sight. Some bills are being paid 734 days (or 2 years) late, and that number is only going up.
The Comptroller’s office has estimated that if the state was able to pay its entire bill backlog right now (which it can’t) it would have to also pay $800 million in interest penalties. Compare that to the total amount of interest penalties the state paid between 2003 and 2015: approximately $1 billion. But the state isn’t going to be able to pay all of its bills at once, and the impasse has yet to be resolved, meaning the backlog of bills and penalty payments are both likely to increase further.
This means that whenever lawmakers do decide to end the impasse, the scope of the problem is going to be much larger than it was in 2015. And in the time between, with our non-budget budgets, we’ll have put ourselves in an even worse position to start paying them off.
* From the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation…
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will be asked to hear a case that could free government workers from being forced to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment.
Forcing government employees to pay money to union officials to keep their jobs violates the First Amendment, argues plaintiff Mark Janus in the case Janus v. AFSCME. Janus is a child support specialist from Illinois, whose lawsuit was brought by attorneys from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and the Liberty Justice Center.
The request for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear this case follows a March ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, which upheld forced dues and fees based on the Supreme Court’s 1977 Abood v. Detroit Board of Education decision. The plaintiffs in Janus v. AFSCME argue that Abood was wrongly decided and should be overturned, especially in light of subsequent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have applied strict scrutiny to mandatory union fees.
Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, issued the following statement about the case:
“For too long, millions of workers across the nation have been forced to pay dues and fees into union coffers as a condition of working for their own government. Requiring public servants to subsidize union officials’ speech is incompatible with the First Amendment. This petition asks the Supreme Court to take up this case and revisit a nearly half-century-old mistake that led to an anomaly in First Amendment jurisprudence. By applying the principles the Court laid out in two recent cases brought for workers by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys – Knox and Harris – the Court can end the injustice of public sector forced dues by the end of next term.”
Jacob Huebert, senior attorney at the Liberty Justice Center, described what is at stake in the Janus case:
“People shouldn’t be forced to surrender their First Amendment right to decide for themselves what organizations they will and won’t support just because they decide to work for the state, their local government or a public school. This case gives the Supreme Court an opportunity to restore to millions of American workers the right to choose whether to support a union with their money.”
Mark Janus works for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services and is forced to send part of his paycheck to AFSCME. He said, explaining why he brought the case:
“I went into this line of work because I care about kids. But just because I care about kids doesn’t mean I also want to support a government union. Unfortunately, I have no choice. To keep my job at the state, I have to pay monthly fees to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a public employee union that claims to ‘represent’ me. I’m filing this case on behalf of all government employees who want to serve their community or their state without having to pay a union first.”
In addition to Janus v. AFSCME, six other ongoing cases brought by workers with free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation are challenging public sector forced dues. These cases represent the full spectrum of public employees, including teachers in Pennsylvania, school aides in Kentucky, university professors in Massachusetts, medical center technicians in California, school electricians in New York and state troopers in Connecticut.
Janus’ case is the first of that group to reach the Supreme Court. The case is on track for the Supreme Court to decide whether to hear it at its first conference of the term beginning in the fall. If four justices agree, the Supreme Court could announce soon after its September 25 conference that it will hear the case.
AFSCME President Lee Saunders called the case an effort to chip away at the power of unions “to negotiate a fair return on our work, provide for our families, and lift up the concerns of all working families.”
Last year, the issue split the court’s liberal and conservative members during oral arguments in the California case. Several conservative justices, including Scalia, seemed ready to scrap Abood. They said bargaining issues like teacher salaries, merit promotions and class sizes are all intertwined with political issues involving the size of state budgets and how taxpayer dollars should be spent.
While unions avoided a loss after Scalia’s death, Gorsuch is seen as equally conservative, though he has not expressed views on the issue of fair share union fees.
For unions, the loss of millions in fees would reduce their power to bargain for higher wages and benefits for government employees.
“This is an aggressive litigation campaign aimed at undermining unions’ ability to operate by forcing them to represent people for free,” said Benjamin Sachs, a professor at Harvard Law School specializing in labor law.
The Illinois AFL-CIO holds a regularly scheduled meeting of its leaders in Springfield on Tuesday, with trade unions expected to push for an unusually early endorsement in the Democratic primary for governor, sources said.
J.B. Pritzker, the billionaire investor and entrepreneur, has the backing of several major trade unions, and they want the labor umbrella group to endorse him now in an effort to try to narrow a field of candidates that also includes businessman Chris Kennedy, state Sen. Daniel Biss of Evanston and Northwest Side Ald. Ameya Pawar.
But some service unions — ones that have some of the most direct involvement in state government under Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner — have been urging a wait-and-see attitude while the race develops. Some think that the contest needs to play out longer and that their unions have established procedures for making political endorsements.
The three public-sector unions that reportedly want to take more time to review the field are AFSCME, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and SEIU.
“We’re not going to vote ‘yes’ for any endorsement tomorrow,” said AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall. “The feedback we’ve received from our members is that Bruce Rauner has been a disaster. But we’re just at the beginning of our process” of backing a Democrat.
Local SEIU chief Tom Balanoff has made similar comments.
IFT isn’t saying anything, but knowledgeable sources say the group’s board does not favor an early endorsement.
This is not a weighted vote. It’s a headcount roll call. And there are a ton of trade and craft unions out there.
Despite some pushback within labor and protests from fellow Democrats, the state’s umbrella group for organized labor, the AFL-CIO, is preparing its endorsement vote today. There was significant arm-twisting behind the scenes in the last several weeks, but two sources again told us that if the vote is called today, that means the votes are there for J.B. Pritzker.
Subscribers know more.
*** UPDATE *** From the ILGOP…
“It’s clear that this is an attempt by Mike Madigan to coalesce Chicago machine support behind his preferred candidate, J.B. Pritkzer. Madigan knows Pritzker is a fellow crooked insider who will raise taxes and support his Chicago agenda.” – Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Steven Yaffe
This morning, Politico Illinois is reporting that J.B. Pritzker has the votes to receive the AFL-CIO’s endorsement – a whopping 288 days before the Democratic primary, before any debates, and without a proper vetting process.
Politico notes “there was significant arm-twisting behind the scenes in the last several weeks.”
It’s clear this is an attempt by Mike Madigan to coalesce his insiders and special interests around a crooked candidate who will play ball with his Chicago agenda.
After all, J.B. Pritzker is already on tape showing his corrupt colors.
WLS: But, certainly, I mean, even your own family, the rich history, the political history of the Kennedy’s, you’re no stranger to backroom dealings.
KENNEDY: On an FBI wiretap? I mean, please, please. I don’t think there’s anything in the history of the Kennedy family that looks like that… The Kennedy’s have never done that. Please, don’t lump us in with that behavior.
“The Kennedy’s have never done that.”
Really?
* Look, I freely admit that I’m a Kennedy family fan. My grandmother met JFK at a Teamsters’ Union event in Chicago in 1959. The future president hugged her, kissed her on the cheek and told my grandfather that he had a beautiful wife. You couldn’t say a cross word about any Kennedy in front of my grandma after that, and she lived well into her 90s.
But, I mean, come on. I can think of a dozen nefarious things that the Kennedy family was involved with which trump that silly little Pritzker FBI tape. Joe Kennedy and booze running and Hitler? Chappaquiddick? William Kennedy Smith? The anti-vaccer Robert Kenndy, Jr.? Need I go on… and on… and on… and on… ?
