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* Not surprisingly, the City Club debate between treasurer candidates Tom Cross and Mike Frerichs this week was heated at times…
Yikes.
If you go to the 40-minute mark of this video, you’ll see the two men go toe-to-toe over whether Bruce Rauner’s budget proposal is balanced or not.
* From the Sun-Times…
Cross, who has promised if he wins to fight the General Assembly if it passes unbalanced budgets, made his comment after Frerichs asked him about Rauner’s spending proposals.
“Bruce Rauner’s put forward a budget plan that’s been widely criticized by economists, by journalists, by political scientists, as being out of balance,” Frerichs said. “Would you sue Bruce Rauner’s budget? Would you call that budget out as being out of balance?”
Cross said he would, if that turns out to be the case.
“If, in fact, Bruce Rauner’s the governor, and when he actually lays out a budget that’s passed, and it’s not balanced, you’re darn right I’ll take him to court,” Cross said.
Even so, Cross still dodged the central question, which is whether he thinks Rauner’s proposal is balanced. It ain’t.
In the treasurer’s race, Tom Cross, the former state House minority leader, had collected $331,000 over the past three months, spending $226,000 and leaving $614,000 on hand.
A big chunk of that $614K is now gone because Cross reserved a bunch of cable TV buys last month. Cross has reported raising another $67,500 since the first of this month.
* Frerichs reported raising $423,624 in the third quarter, spent $1.3 million (TV buys) and had $413,563.22 cash on hand. He has reported raising another $36,001 since the first of the month.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 12:26 pm
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Pretty good answer by Cross.
Comment by chi Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 12:32 pm
city club does a nice job and they always post their videos the day after and I would recommend them for Illinois expats and folks outside chicago looking to see what the city is up to from the horses mouths.
the ed board sessions the candidates do posted on newspaper websites I think are also incredibly useful as they in many cases tend to focus more on the nitty gritty of policy and key local issues and less like those awful abc7 debates a few years ago of just plugging random talent.
Comment by Shore Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 12:36 pm
Cross hits on property taxes that are paid when he knows he missed his own personal property taxes…must be desperation Oct. time…
Comment by Anon Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 12:38 pm
Why did he vote for Blago’s schemes that have deepened the pension crisis??? That’s what I want to know.
Comment by low level Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 12:44 pm
Too bad none of the bright lites told Billboards that is unlikely he would have any standing in court to file his suit. Oh well
Comment by circularfiringsquad Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 12:45 pm
yeah, Cross answered that question pretty good.. how can you comment on details that havent been determined? Nobody landed any haymakers here..
Comment by Lance Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 12:50 pm
Nice moves out of Cross. Ugly, heated debate but he got the headline.
Comment by Ralph Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 12:51 pm
I’d bet a case of scotch cross wont sue rauner.
Comment by foster brooks Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 1:15 pm
How does treasurer have standing? Sure can’t spend public money for it.
Comment by Wordslinger Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 1:23 pm
Amanda Vinicky was wrong.
There are two people who don’t think Rauner’s budget is unbalanced.
Bruce Rauner, who says it is balanced.
And Tom Cross, who says it isn’t a budget.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 1:33 pm
=A big chunk of that $614K is now gone because Cross reserved a bunch of cable TV buys last month.=
Rich if the cable buy was last month, how come it’s not reported in his expenditures? And this would mean realistically Cross has less than Frerichs’ COH even after Frerichs’ $1.1 million media buy. Cross might be getting outspent over 2-1 on the airwaves; not good with Quinn running a good campaign, and Rauner sinking on top of that. I still think this will be the closest the race, but is leaning towards Frerichs.
Comment by Almost the Weekend Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 1:34 pm
Oh Man, over 40 minutes of this is way too big of an ask. Glad to hear Cross appeared to do well.
Maybe I should say too “tall” of an ask.
Comment by A guy... Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 1:40 pm
=== Rich if the cable buy was last month, how come it’s not reported in his expenditures? ===
Because Tom Cross can’t manage to balance his check book, apparently.
Just imagine how much fun his bookkeeping will be if he has $15 billion to slush around.
Is it any surprise Tom Cross is the only person who doesn’t know what a budget looks like?
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 1:44 pm
YDD: Let’s just “read between the lines” with the Sun Times, shall we?
There’s no way Rauner actually believes his “blueprint” is either balanced or a budget. No one who can add is that stupid.
There’s no way Tom Cross doesn’t know that he has no standing to sue.
Where does that leave us? Treated like chumps.
Comment by walker Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 1:49 pm
Walker -
We have a huge pension debt precisely because guys like Tom Cross argued we could increase spending without raising revenue.
The only way they could do that of course was to borrow, and they borrowed from the only place they could which was the pension system, because the bank would not lend them that kind of cash.
So, don’t say “no one actually believes it,” because we aren’t mind readers. What matters is they act like they believe it.
Now, what most of them were gambling back in 1995 when they voted to blow a $57 billion hole in the pension system was that they probably wouldn’t be around in 2014 when the bill came due.
Some are though, and Tom Cross is one of them. It would be interesting to compare roll calls from the pension ramp in 1995 and SB 1 to see how legislators voted.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 2:00 pm
YDD: We agree.
Comment by walker Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 3:04 pm
Apparently YDD is the only person in the free world who pays for his dinner at the exact moment he makes a dinner reservation.
Comment by Easy Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 3:28 pm
Easy-
Look, Cross that the Rauner budget was enough of a “budget” to endorse it when it first came out.
Even the Tribune says they don’t believe his claims he will sue, and they said that in an endorsement.
Maybe you agree with Cross that it is impossible to say whether Rauner’s budget is unbalanced or not. But everyone else seems to have figured it out.
On a related note, any chance Amanda Vinicky will run for Governor in 2018?
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 3:56 pm
Y Dog, you’re getting a little less yellow the closer we get. lol
Comment by A guy... Friday, Oct 17, 14 @ 4:46 pm