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Lots more “heroics” may be required

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Illinois

* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…

Nobody, and I mean nobody, ever thought that Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration could ever keep state operations running for a year without an actual state budget.

State and federal courts have ordered about 90 percent of state spending since the General Assembly’s Democrats and the Republican governor deadlocked on a budget last year because they couldn’t come to terms on the governor’s pro-business/anti-union Turnaround Agenda. Because of those court orders, employees are getting paid and Medicaid payments are being made, among other things.

When Gov. Rauner put aside his demands for things like workers’ comp reform before he’d do a budget deal, he and legislators were able to agree on releasing funds for local governments and federal programs and they appropriated some money for universities and colleges.

But state government operations have been hammered. If the air conditioning goes out in a state building and it can’t be fixed in-house, too bad. Lack of money for postage and printing costs forced the Secretary of State to suspend sending out reminder notices for license plate renewals. Enormous overdue utility bills have been piling up. The Department of Corrections uses private contractors to provide things like food for prisoners, and none of them have been paid since last year.

Rauner bragged last week to reporters that keeping the state functioning is a result of “an extraordinary performance by the leaders in our team.”

“We’re doing heroic things,” Rauner claimed.

Ever since Rauner asked legislative Democratic leaders for a temporary “stopgap” budget for bureaucratic operations in April, the Democrats have viewed the request as a sign of potential weakness and have so far refused to comply. Rauner has claimed the Democrats are attempting to force a crisis via a state shutdown. The Democrats counter that Rauner, himself, has been trying to create a crisis to leverage passage of his Turnaround Agenda.

So, how is the administration managing to—literally—keep the lights on?

The Rauner administration has a team of people that works on these issues and has developed all sorts of contingency plans. One of the departments they really have to watch all the time is Corrections. Some little state board might go under and almost nobody would notice. But if the state can’t feed prisoners, well, that could be really bad.

The administration has been using a special loan fund to help some prison contractors get through this rough patch. The vendors can sell their debt to a company for most of what they’re owed, which can keep them limping along.

Every now and then, the governor’s office will get calls from mayors of Downstate prison towns, who sometimes seem to have been ginned up by the Democrats. A water shutoff or some such thing is threatened unless the towns receive payment on their overdue bills. The mayors are asked to please be patient while the leaders work on a budget.

If kindness doesn’t work, the mayors are sternly warned that the state won’t be able to operate a prison without water, so prisoners will have to be moved to other facilities. And once they leave, they won’t ever be coming back. Rauner, the mayors are told, believes we have too many people behind bars anyway. And, besides, once the facility is abandoned, the state would have to comply with much stricter building and safety rules if it wanted to reopen the prison. That would cost lots of money that the state simply doesn’t have.

And, of course, if the prison permanently goes away, so will all those local jobs and the facilities’ huge economic impacts. So, a mayor can shut off the water over a past-due bill, but that’ll turn out to be the most costly utility shutoff in the history of that town. So far, it’s worked.

As I write this, Mt. Sterling is facing this very dilemma. The tiny town of less than 2,000 people is owed $300,000 to $400,000 (depending on whom you talk to) for water service to the 2,000 inmates at Western Illinois Correctional Center. They’re desperate for the money, but they also, obviously, don’t want to lose those jobs.

We could be reaching a turning point. The Department of Corrections director predicted in an early June newspaper op-ed that prison vendors will eventually have to pull their services, which could, he warned, “cripple the department in a matter of days.”

The administration will have to get even more “heroic” if that happens.

* Related…

* Three area communities wait for utility payments from state prisons

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:16 am

Comments

Taylorville has had the same problem. http://taylorvilledailynews.com/local-news/239646

Comment by Southside Markie Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:23 am
https://youtu.be/BJBLFzUNHTo

I think Rauner is maxed out on heroics.

Comment by Grand Avenue Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:25 am
Having J.G. Wentworth finance our prison systems is not “winning” and threatening to shutter prisons if your town complains is certainly not helping.

Comment by Gruntled University Employee Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:26 am
And all this — everything — means that, yeah, voters *like* Rauner?

What’s the disconnect here? Are those Mt. Sterling folks gonna vote for Rauner come 2018?

Comment by Macbeth Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:27 am
There is nothing “heroic” about what 1.4% has done to State government. What he has been doing is damaging the trust, creditibility and responsiveness that government needs to function effectively.

To say that his staff is doing “heroic” things demeans the very nature of the word. To compare what he has done through the use of the word, debases the actions of those people, true heros, who have set aside their own self preservation to save the lives of others.

Comment by Huh? Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:27 am
“So, a mayor can shut off the water over a past-due bill, but that’ll turn out to be the most costly utility shutoff in the history of that town. So far, it’s worked.”

I had to look up the definition of racketeering and DOJ pdf’s on the subject.

Good thing the administration is not committing fraud and threatening harm if not allowed to continue. /s

Comment by cdog Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:28 am
Could you imagine if this heroism from the superstars was devoted to improving this state instead of carefully controlling the fires they created.

Comment by Henry Francis Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:28 am
How about some heroics to reverse the enrollment declines in higher ed?

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:33 am
Rauner’s superstars are heroes; the regular state workers are overpaid scammers. Gotcha.

Comment by The_Equalizer Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:34 am
Moving van comes tomorrow. Texas. Goodbye and good luck

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:35 am
I think the Governor miscalculated in thinking the damage inflicted on social service providers would force action among rank-and-file Democrats long before he’d have to deal with what he’s on the cusp of with IDOC now. Never underestimate the lengths to which Madigan will go to “win.” Neither is better than the other in this. They’re both hurting the state, and neither one really cares, because it’s a game of chicken neither one has to really deal with in their personal lives. Enough. Just do a deal for cryin’ out loud!

Comment by Anon Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:36 am
How is using VAP, started under Quinn, heroic? It’s not like they came up with it.

Comment by Daniel Plainview Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:38 am
=Are those Mt. Sterling folks gonna vote for Rauner come 2018?=

You bet they will.

Comment by Robert the 1st Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:43 am
Any city that wants to be paid for utilities it has provided, is corrupt.

Comment by Joe M Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:43 am
So, bottom line, the courts have become enablers. They should have stayed out of the “political question” - the budget - that is up the the legislature and executive branch to decide upon.

Comment by old pol Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:45 am
What some call heroic, some might call strong arming.
What some call heroic, some might call illegal

It’s not that hard to keep the lights on when you make threats to vendors/providers. It’s not that hard to keep the lights on when you ignore the law. It’s not that hard to keep the lights on when you get “creative” with court orders.

Comment by Get a Job!! Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:50 am
Talked to a guy runs a small paving company Sat. night; has done a lot of work in the past for schools. Is now waiting for his money because the state isn’t sending it to the schools. He says will probably have to step back from doing more school work.
He is out of touch with what is going on, because he hopes to get paid in the next couple of months.

Comment by downstate commissioner Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:52 am
another big loser here if rauner has his way is the city of springfield. if rauner wins there will be a flood of money headed north. the mayor langfelder had better wake up or he won’t have much to govern and Springfield will become another danville. maybe the medical community can prop us up for a while but not forever with no money flowing through here. the city business leaders who voted for rauner will soon be closing shop but hey they’ll have them low taxes to pay and low revenues to go with it. if rauner wins springfield’s population drops by half. enjoy!!!

Comment by wake up call Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:55 am
Shut the water off, don’t maintain the prisons, don’t provide proper food. This will spark a federal civil rights lawsuit so fast your head will spin. Then depose Rauner and his band of merry men and see what he really did or threatened

Comment by DuPage Saint Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:57 am
There’s someone in the Governor’s office that has to go home at night and live with themselves after threatening to destroy communities in order to avoid having the utilities shut off for non-payment.

I really hope that person doesn’t feel like a hero.

Comment by Anon Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:57 am
==keeping the state functioning is a result of “an extraordinary performance by the leaders in our team.”==

With all due respect, the state has maintained operations due to the work of the people in the trenches. We managed a work around for something in our agency and informed the “leaders” in his team of this work around so that they could pass it along to others and those “leaders” then took the credit.

Comment by Demoralized Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:58 am
==You bet they will.==

If it’s a prison town with lots of state employees you bet they won’t.

Comment by Demoralized Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:59 am
Local government shakedown for a turnaround showdown. It’s definitely a modern twist on the protection racket. “Nice prison you’ve got there, it’d be a shame if something happened to it.”

Comment by AC Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:08 am
Demoralized, other than moving displaced clients who lost a provider because they were out of money, the rank and file human service providers are also doing the heavy lifting. I just shake my head when I hear about the “heroics” of the superstars. It’s very, very difficult to be civil in meetings when I hear about these “heroics.”

Comment by CCP Hostage Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:08 am
Rauner received over 70% of Brown county in 2014. That prison only employs 400 people.

Comment by Robert the 1st Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:10 am
That was 2014. He now has the approval rating of the flu.

Comment by Demoralized Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:12 am
There is nothing “heroic” about keeping your own hostages alive.

It’s just pragmatism.

Dead hostages aren’t much use.

Comment by Juvenal Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:15 am
i understand both sides in this, but the State has way too many inmates to shut down favilities; and just imagine if they release large numbers of inmates…. Quinn tried that and Rauner took him to taks for it

Comment by Ghost Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:17 am
-Rauner received over 70% of Brown county in 2014. That prison only employs 400 people.-

Do you have any idea how important 400 jobs are in a county of only 6973 people? Any idea?

Comment by Honeybear Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:18 am
I am now doing a little part time work for a small state vendor. Scuttlebutt is that the state is into this guy to the tune of 800,000.00. He has other large accounts that with some loans I think keep the doors open. How long this can be kept up I have no idea.

As has been indicated here, he could drop the state but would quite likely lose some hard won accounts forever and need to reduce the workforce.

Many of my co-workers at this place are Rush Limbaugh and Hannity fans. They blame MJM and will very likely vote for BVR next time out. I wonder how many in Sangamon County and Mt. Sterling are of the same opinion.

Comment by Bemused Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:20 am
I know those jobs are very important for the county’s economy. Just saying that county will still vote R in 2018.

Comment by Robert the 1st Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:20 am
Heroic, not hardly. They are doing their jobs. The Rauner folks, so-called superstars, are well paid to do their job. There are plenty of folks doing their jobs in this impasse who are part of the much maligned state workforce. Folks like Demoralized who have repeatedly dealt with problems created by the state’s political leaders.

They’ve kept the state running by convincing private contractors to provide goods and services on credit. Smaller ones can’t continue the practice. We’ve seen medical providers go out of business. And, we’ve run up interest charges that will further hamper the state’s ability to provide services.

When you extort mayors and probably many private contractors, you’re more of a coward than a hero.
The heroes are the ones in the social services and high education sectors who are trying to continue to provide for their needy and students without money.

Rauner started the impasse by leveraging. Now he’s stinging from that leverage. His way out is to do his job and get a budget.

Comment by Norseman Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:28 am
My dentist told me about a program offered to him that he coup sell off his debt at 0.90 to the 1.00 to a private company. How were these programs instituted and what are the names of the companies buying up all of this debt? I hope the Federal Government is following the money!

Comment by Triple fat Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:29 am
Sigh. There are indeed too many people in prisons. And of course they have to be fed. This part of the budget dilemma needs to be solved, fast. We the Illinois taxpayers are paying immense sums every year to keep large number of human beings locked up and completely dependent on the government–meaning we have to provide housing, food, medical care, and recreation/education and other reasonable amenities. A disproportionate number of these human beings are young minority men whose families have been wrecked by mass incarceration. And way too many economically moribund towns are being sustained by…mass incarceration. Great system, huh? In the meantime, free the food money. But the evil mogul is right about there being way too many people in prison.

Comment by Cassandra Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:30 am
=Rauner received over 70% of Brown county in 2014. That prison only employs 400 people. =

Exactly. Have any of you even been to Brown County? These aren’t voters who are going to switch over & vote for Lisa Madigan, Dick Durbin or even Pat Quinn against Rauner in 2018. Never. And even if they all did, Rauner would only lose about 4900 votes. Ho Hum

Comment by Get a Job!! Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:31 am
@TripleFat

This is a program that’s been held over from the Quinn days (albeit with a new name). Your understanding of it is a little off though.

Let’s say your dentist is owed $200,000. He can sell that $200,000 to a willing creditor (let’s say a bank). That bank pays him $180,000 (90% of receivable) cash up front. The bank then waits for the state to pay in full, plus interest. Upon receipt of funds from the state, the bank mails your dentist a check for $20,000 (10% of original receivable) and your bank keeps the prompt payment penalty (interest). Your dentist still receives his $200,000, but he forfeits his right to all prompt payment. The bank cashes in on the interest (1% per month, after 90 days).

Comment by Get a Job!! Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:37 am
By the way, the companies buying up the debt get the interest owed on the full amount. It’s a great deal for the companies. There certainly is a lot of money to be made by skimming vendor payments.

Comment by Triple fat Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:37 am
Shifting the conversation from prisons to universities, the “heroic things” that the governor and his staff have been doing to keep the state running are crippling and destroying the universities of the state. I have worked for a university for 20 years and it has never been this bad. State funding for universities essentially had been cut 70% Faculty are leaving or retiring and their positions are not being filled to save money. As faculty decline in number and quality, programs get less attractive to students and they also go elsewhere, especially graduate students. Cutting MAP grants also decreases enrollment, students once again go elsewhere or simply do not go to college at all. The universities of the state are currently caught in a vicious cycle of less state funding means less faculty means less students means less tuition dollars means less state funding and on and on. The damage the “heroic things” being done by the governor and his staff to the universities is long term and systemic and will take years to repair.

Comment by Dutch3001 Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:39 am
As any reader of comics knows, self-styled heroes, by their nature, require terrible villains to combat.

This could help explain Rauner’s childishly Manichean approach to state government.

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:42 am
Get a job - thanks for the information. Does the program allow anyone to buy debt? How are the debt buyers chosen? Are you sure the Administration hasn’t changed anything in the mechanization of the program. What are the safeguards of the program keeping it from turning into a vehicle used to reward anyone’s friends?

Comment by Triple fat Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:49 am
Triple Fat

Some of the banks backing the purchase of this debt are starting to have reservations about continuing to fund the purchase of the debt. I’ve been told by one vendor that they are waiting for payment even after the debt has been purchased because the banks are getting concerned about whether they will see their money.

I don’t think it has anything to do with rewarding anyone. I believe some of the companies were around during Quinn’s administration.

Comment by Demoralized Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:57 am
There’s nothing heroic about willfully engineering a fiscal crisis and tuning up Illinois businesses to advance an overtly partisan agenda with no articulated fiscal or economic benefits.

The Illinois GOP has become the Deadbeat Party, governed by some crackpot theory that stiffing thousands of businesses out of billions of dollars for goods and services already delivered is good “for the economy.”

Perhaps the Raunerbots can explain, with big-kid data, if the governor’s agenda were passed, when the state would recover the jobs, income and economic activity that have been lost due to this “leveraging.”

But they can’t. If they coulda, they woulda, long ago.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 11:01 am
FYI on the VAP. The administration is working very hard to ensure that hostages can’t use the program by keeping their receivables out of the comptroller’s office so they’re not eligible for funding. It’s another “heroic” effort at keeping the hostages, hostage, while releasing pressure points. Interesting that hostage bills can’t get to the comptroller while utility and prison food bills can. Just as an aside, the predictions on how much money the state owes providers are often based on what is in the comptroller’s office and this only scratches the surface. Most of the human services bills remain “pending” in the individual departments so they can’t be financed through VAP. I have no idea how much money this really is, but it’s got to be staggering.

Comment by CCP Hostage Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 11:04 am
I worked at Western for over 25 years and those 400 jobs will destroy the area if lost. I understand they claim the state can absorb the inmates from one prison shutdown. And I believe this administration will do it to strike fear in the rest of the state, using Mt Sterling as an example. I hope the city will realize they would be much better off by reaching out to other towns with prisons and sticking together as a group. They might be able to absorb 2000 inmates but I know they couldn’t find beds for 2 or 3 or 5 prisons. And if they did go it alone and shut the water off and they did close the prison it would be just like all the other past due bills years from being paid! If enough of them did it together it would force an emergency payment they wouldn’t have a choice in my opinion.

Comment by Retired and Glad of it Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 11:13 am
CCP

This program doesn’t operate like the old program. You don’t have to have invoices pending at the Comptroller’s office. This program is specifically for invoices that cannot be paid at all right now.

Comment by Demoralized Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 11:21 am
Hardy heroic, but let’s play along and make BigBrain feel all good inside Wonder why they don’t send these vendors to PayPlant, VSI, et all to suck of the vendor assistance program for cash.
Hundreds of other have grabbed nearly $800 million. If it is good enough for Wingman’s new computers it should be able to pay for a little water.

Comment by Annonin' Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 11:24 am
@TripleFat

The changes to the program have been minimal as I understand it. The biggest difference is that under Quinn, all vendors eligible for prompt payment were eligible to participate in the program. While under BVR the agencies are supposed to certify that the vendor is “essential” before CMS will enroll them in the program. I suppose if your agency takes a hard line on what they deem “essential” then you’re sort of screwed. Personally I think this is the biggest issue with BVR’s program.

I’m not sure about the debt-buyers and how they’re chosen. My understanding is that have to “commit” to a certain level of participation and then CMS hooks them up with a vendor (or vendors) to provide them the amount of debt they’ve committed to buy. They legal agreements are between the debt buyer & the vendor. The only thing the state then needs is a revised address so they mail the check to debt buyer instead of the vendor.

I’m not an expert on this stuff, I just stayed at a Holliday Inn Express last night. If you have serious interest in buying state debt, you may want to contact CMS.

Comment by Get a Job!! Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 11:26 am
And another clarification is in order on the VAP or its successors — MANY providers are not eligible for interest because they are exempted from the Prompt Payment Act — so lots of nonprofits never ever get any interest at all. In fact, they lose money when they have to finance state operations, because they cannot bill the state for any interest payment they might incur, such as on a line of credit, as a result of the delayed payments.

Comment by Pawn Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 11:48 am
DOC has a new coat holder (executive assistant) for the director, the state rep from Joliet to help with the heroism. /s

Comment by Huh? Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 11:48 am
We were almost kicked out of offices in Tinley Park a few weeks ago due to the State not paying its rent for 6 months. Don’t know what happened, but we’re still there. I wasadvuaed to be ready to relocate to another office at a moments notice.

Comment by Ratso Rizzo Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 12:14 pm
Every few months during the Quinn administration Reps had to call the comptroller to get water bills paid…hasn’t changed much.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 12:52 pm
The old joke went something like:

“If you owe the bank three thousand and can’t pay, you have a problem - If you own the bank three MILLION and you can’t pay, the BANK has a problem”

Joke was funnier when it wasn’t official state fiscal policy.

Comment by Newsclown Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 12:58 pm
Any guesses on what Representative Hammond has to say about this?

Comment by btowntruth from forgottonia Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 1:39 pm
Dear Bruce, Turn out the lights the party is over!!

Comment by Dandy Don Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 2:32 pm
We all know that Madigan is a mean spirited tyrant we could all do without but that doesn’t mean that the Governor has to match him tit for tat. He is proving, but not paying medical bills, util. bills, etc,, that he is just a much of a cold blooded, conscious less bully as MJM. Give a little, would ya.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 2:38 pm
I see nothing heroic in perpetuating a no-budget condition, and working contingencies is proof you didnt have a good plan.

Comment by Team Warwick Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 3:19 pm
Plus the health insurance companies/hospitals/doctors, etc. have not been paid for a year.

Plus the prisons have no toilet paper, etc., etc..

Comment by Mama Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 3:27 pm
“If you owe the bank three thousand and can’t pay, you have a problem - If you owe the bank three MILLION and you can’t pay, the BANK has a problem”

If you owe $3 billion, you are a partner/owner of the bank. /s

Comment by Huh? Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 3:45 pm
“If you owe the bank three thousand and can’t pay, you have a problem - If you owe the bank three MILLION and you can’t pay, the BANK has a problem”

Had a friend in that situation; the bank kept throwing them business until they had made enough to repay the bank.

Comment by RNUG Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 4:32 pm
Check out the heroes in social service agencies who have begged and borrowed to continue to provide state contracted services while the Governor and the Speaker fiddled.

Those jobs are being lost. LSSI cut 900 jobs. Geneva Foundation will close June 30. Maryville Academy and Jewish Children’s Bureau are closing major programs. Neon Street is
reducing programs…and this is just a few. Springfield providers of services to the elderly are folding. Many of these are jobs lost by the handful (LSSI the exception) but the total of jobs lost is massive. The impact in downstate counties is harder because there are fewer resources to pick up the slack.

Check the Pay Now Illinois website. Www.paynowillinois.org

Comment by Pandora Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 7:16 pm
Ray Davies seems to have known this crew:

“Everybody’s a dreamer and everybody’s a (super)star,
And everybody’s in movies, it doesn’t matter who you are.
I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes”

Comment by DuPage Dave Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 9:04 pm
- Triple fat - Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 10:29 am: -

Wall Street is buying the debt, and they will profit from it.

Comment by Mama Monday, Jun 20, 16 @ 11:53 pm
Extortion worked! Mt. Sterling backed off.

Comment by Norseman Tuesday, Jun 21, 16 @ 7:32 am