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* UPDATED x1 * Budgeteers kick it upstairs

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A group of lawmakers from both parties and both legislative chambers who had been meeting as part of the so-called Budgeteer Group in Springfield is forwarding a budget package to leadership, Illinois Playbook has learned. As part of the package: proposed cuts and proposed tax increases. There are no items from Rauner’s turnaround agenda included in it.

“This is a really simple budget issue. Just pluses and minuses. That was the agreement from all the leaders,” said a legislative source who is part of the negotiations. “This is a package that somehow on paper is balanced. This is forwarded to the leaders and the governor and we’ll see how they react … Keep in mind, that at the end of the day, no matter what we put together, this particular group cannot get to 60 votes in the House and 30 votes in the Senate. That’s up to leaders and to the governor’s office.”

MONEY FOR SCHOOLS — What’s not included in the package? Funding for K-12 education. Education leaders in the House are discussing a new “hybrid” plan that would take portions of a Senate-backed funding formula overhaul and partner it with a so-called evidence-based plan backed by school superintendents. Sources tell Playbook that Manar’s proposal will have a tough time passing as is, with opposition coming from lawmakers whose school districts lose out under the Bunker Hill Democrat’s funding proposal change. The hybrid approach would mean no schools would lose money but Manar’s machinations would go into effect based on district need to boost those with the least funding, while keeping others at the same levels.

And there are no Turnaround Agenda items because this package is from the people working on the budget. Work continues on the governor’s agenda.

*** UPDATE *** I was curious about that school funding part, which I didn’t have today. But I’m now told that money for schools is actually in the budgeteers’ framework.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:06 am

Comments

Hold on to your wallets Illinoisans, the boom is about to be lowered. I hope the middle class is stocked up on coffee - they’ll need it to make it to their second/third jobs in order to afford their shiny new income tax increase, massive service taxes, and likely property tax increases. Twice as much raised in new taxes as cut…sounds about right in Illinois.

Comment by hot chocolate Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:17 am
If this has 71 and 36, and all four caucuses sign off as a “we’re all in this together”… thingy…

That would be interesting.

As was said months, and months, and months ago…

The easiest part? The budget.

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:18 am
I would guess that there are possibly as many as 150 legislators that hope that enough people vote to get that increase in revenue to see it pass. I’m very skeptical that there are actually 90 legislators that will vote yes on the revenue increase though, they’re all hoping someone else will vote for it.

Comment by The Captain Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:18 am
Hot Chocolate. The state needs revenue. That is a fact. The Governor has admitted as much. Be happy that there are cuts at all.

Comment by Saluki Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:20 am
Deep cuts. Layoff workers. 65% should be slaahed budgets at a minimum

Comment by Tone Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:27 am
===Deep cuts. Layoff workers. 65% should be slaahed budgets at a minimum===

Rauner won’t own them, said so himself. So, only when Raunerites carry that water, and Rauner signs on and owns those cuts will that happen.

What else ya got?

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:29 am
Step 1, X more steps to go.

Progress, but the obstacles are “yuge.”

Comment by Norseman Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:30 am
Interesting that K-12 is not included. I understand that they are trying to work out a new formula but it seems to create some leverage over the Governor to sign this.

Comment by Casual observer Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:31 am
The state needs to cut spending. We have the 4th highest tax burden in the nation right now.

Comment by Tone Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:32 am
===The state needs to cut spending. We have the 4th highest tax burden in the nation right now.===

The state owes more Billions now because of the budget impasse.

Owes more. More. Choice of Rauner

Revenue is required. Was required before, requires even more now.

That undisputed.

What else ya got?

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:35 am
Tone remember all those quinn hacks that rauner said he was going to fire? Well their still
Running personel at Idot. Lol

Comment by Foster brooks Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:36 am
Okay Tone…I’ll play along - just once with you…
“Cut Spending” Where? State workforce? We’re already at the same employment as 1973…you want more jobs cut? From which agency? Budgets…okay, by default we’re already cutting by fiat due to the standoff the past 10 months…
Please. Detail. Your. Angst.

Comment by Captain Illini Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:37 am
Cheers to the budgeteers. They are true public servants. And incredible optimists.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:40 am
And sorry for the multiple posts, but I have a question for the group: At what point WILL Madigan pull the rug out from under this? Its still so early in May! He has a lot of time to plot and play games. Plus he and the unions are exacting all types of pain on GOP members all over the state. Why would he want that to end?

Comment by hot chocolate Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:41 am
OW:

You’re playing whack a mole with a troll

Comment by Demoralized Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:42 am
=The state needs to cut spending. We have the 4th highest tax burden in the nation right now.=

So then, what exactly is your “vision” for Illinois? No public services obviously. Sounds like Mississippi or Kansas. I have yet to hear the sonic boom of rapid growth and progress from those states.

Some studies peg Illinois at 27th in overall taxation. You can probably find one that say we are anywhere from worst to first depending on the narrative you want to support.

Comment by JS Mill Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:43 am
Funny that they characterize the evidence-based model as having no losers when the Manar bill doesn’t either anymore. Everyone is held harmless in both of them.

Comment by J Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:43 am
I don’t know if the proposal has any traction or not but it’s nice to see at least a few legislators are working towards a solution.

Comment by Stones Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:43 am
Is this “budget package” for FY16 or FY17?

Comment by Bronco Bahma Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:43 am
- Demoralized -

Yeah…

I had one more quarter in my pocket. Out of change now.

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:44 am
Tone wants to cut K-12 funding by 65%? You realize that’s calling for a 65% increase in property taxes right?

Comment by From the 'Dale to HP Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:46 am
Hard to tell from this if there’s a nexus between the two plans (the budget and turnaround) or if the budget is independent. If the latter, that means the program cuts will be deeper and/or the tax increases will be higher. Win for unions and Democrats (since political reform in this state currently works against them), loss for 1% and non-labor middle and working class (and small-d democrats).

Comment by lake county democrat Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:47 am
(Some) Republican legislators agreed to a tax increase without Rauner’s okay? Is that how we should read this?

Comment by From the 'Dale to HP Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:51 am
By most measures (income tax, sales tax), the overall tax burden in Illinois falls somewhere in the middle among states. The often-heard claim that Illinois has the highest property taxes isn’t true, but they are among the highest. Note that red-state Texas has higher property taxes than Illinois.

Illinois
1.73%

Nebraska
1.76%

Wisconsin
1.76%

Texas
1.81%

New Hampshire
1.86%

New Jersey
1.89%

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/110614/overall-tax-burden-state.asp

Comment by IllinoisBoi Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:51 am
Rays of hope … now we have to wish a cold front doesn’t move in and rains on the parade.

Comment by RNUG Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:52 am
==Tone wants to cut K-12 funding by 65%?==

He’s not coherent enough to know what he wants.

But, if I had to take a crack at interpreting his rantings I’d say he wants 65% of the workforce cut and some as of yet explained “deep” cuts to the budget.

Comment by Demoralized Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:53 am
Sane, sober people know — and have always known — that a proper mix of budget cuts and more revenue is an absolute must for Illinois to stop digging its own grave.

Kansas is Exhibit A for the utter failure of “supply-side” economics and the theory that unlimited tax cuts for the richest among us will produce a cornucopia of economic joy.

I don’t want Illinois to be like Kansas or Mississippi, or Wisconsin; I want us to be more like Minnesota.

Comment by Northsider Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:57 am
==now we have to wish a cold front doesn’t move in and rains on the parade.==

I think the more appropriate thing to say in this climate is I hope nobody comes along and pee’s in the sandbox

Comment by Demoralized Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:59 am
The article didn’t expand on the revenue increases. Any ideas?

Comment by blue dog dem Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 12:01 pm
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 11:18 am:
“If this has 71 and 36, and all four caucuses sign off as a “we’re all in this together”… thingy…
That would be interesting.”

Shared responsibility among our politicians, “interesting”??? Just interesting??? It would be a supernatural event!

Comment by Jimmy H Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 12:15 pm
Kansas and Mississipi have almost nothing in common with Wisconsin. The tax burden is almost double in Wisconsin.

The decline in manufacturing has hurt Wisconsin not low taxes.

Comment by Lucky Pierre Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 12:36 pm
===Shared responsibility among our politicians, “interesting”??? Just interesting??? It would be a supernatural event!===

Nah. That’s a bit hyperbolic, but not your fault.

Governing within the constrains of divided government is about shared sacrifice, we just forget that at times when blame is first and governing is second.

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 12:51 pm
===I hope nobody comes along and pee’s in the sandbox====

Demo brother….just ew. lol

Comment by A guy Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 12:52 pm
===Deep cuts. Layoff workers. 65% should be slaahed budgets at a minimum===

Should this same 65% be executed so they don’t end up on unemployment and welfare?

Comment by forwhatitsworth Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 1:00 pm
On the evidence based model for school funding discussed in Rich’s post. The last ISBE Board meeting discussed this model. It was presented under this subheading - Evidence Based Funding for Student Success, Mike Jacoby and Brent Clark, Vision 20/20. To see this ISBE report go to http://www.isbe.net/board/default.htm then click on State Board meeting of May 11. Then click view packet.

I have not completely studied this entire report as yet, but it was again obvious that there was no ball park attempt at determining the additional cost for implementation of this evidence based model on a state wide basis in Illinois. School districts with the highest needs would have new state funds allocated to them the wealthy districts would have funding levels close to frozen, but the Adequacy Model does include includes any costs associated with payment of normal cost for teacher pensions (presumably inclusive of CPS i. e. about $206 million a year), health care, and salaries using comparable wage indexing.

Somehow I suspect the cost for this approach to the State will be extensive and might require additional revenue probably well beyond just restoring the income tax rate. I have no doubt that to a degree this all must drive Senator Manar to a level of insanity because all of the work going back several years now has been based on an assumption of achieving greater equity in school funding without significant additional revenue.

Comment by Rod Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 1:24 pm
I would like to be optimistic but I can’t because of the deep hatred the Dems and Reps have for each other - especially in an election year to keep what they have or add to it. The earliest I see a budget, with new or increased taxes, is after the election. I hope I’m wrong!

Comment by Sammy1952 Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 1:29 pm
==The state needs to cut spending==

Tone, where do you propose Illinois cut? Illinois already has the 3rd lowest total state expenditures per capita out of the 50 states. Illinois already has the fewest number of state employees per capita out of the 50 states. Illinois is already dead last in state expenditures per pupil for K-12 education.

Comment by Joe M Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 2:01 pm
Some ask what their tax dollars get them. We now have glaring examples of what happens when there’s not enough revenue, with growing debt, drastic cuts to schools and services and widespread pain.

Comment by Grandson of Man Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 2:48 pm
“Education leaders in the House are discussing a new “hybrid” plan that would take portions of a Senate-backed funding formula overhaul and partner it with a so-called evidence-based plan backed by school superintendents.”

I find it very hard to believe most IL school superintendents want evidence-based funding plan.

Comment by Mama Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 3:32 pm
=I find it very hard to believe most IL school superintendents want evidence-based funding plan.=

Just the intelligent ones.

The full details are not available yet. We all want to see the numbers, but if you read the research, this is the most intelligent plan and the one that support/aligns with best practice outcomes.

Comment by JS Mill Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 3:47 pm
We know almost nothing about the details, cost, etc. of the 20/20 “evidence-based” school funding plan.

Sounds good, but then to listen to Manar; his plan sounds so wonderful you wonder how anyone could raise questions about it (until you actually read SB 231, which almost no one does).

Comment by winners and losers Thursday, May 12, 16 @ 4:40 pm
Going to be interesting to see the actual details. The hints this morning in the SJ-R imply there is still some mythological pension and Medicare savings as about $1B of the cuts. And we’ve been there before with the $5B borrowing plan to pay off part of the backlog.

Comment by RNUG Friday, May 13, 16 @ 6:50 am
=We know almost nothing about the details, cost, etc. of the 20/20 “evidence-based” school funding plan.=

Actually, the only thing that we don’t know is the specific costs. Obviously a very important detail.

I would estimate that FULL implementation would be as much as $5 billion more. Crazy big number, but what you have to understand is that partial implementation/funding would be much more positive that current conditions and far better than Manar’s politically motivated, middle income schools killing, bill.

The rest of the details are contained in the research that you can access by googling evidence based model.

Comment by JS Mill Friday, May 13, 16 @ 8:22 am