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What to expect today

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* From Senate President John Cullerton’s press secretary John Patterson…

The Senate convenes at noon.

My understanding is each caucus intends to caucus for an hour.

At the moment, the plan is to return to the Senate floor and start calling budget/reform/grand bargain proposals for final votes after caucus.

That’s the plan, at the moment.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 10:28 am

Comments

I’m going to be as plain and clear as I possibly can;

My best to Leader Radogno.

Leader Radogno has been important to process here and my hope she and those working with her reap the rewards of compromise.

OW

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 10:32 am
The key question is how many GOP senators will follow their leader.

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 10:38 am
Anon @ 10:38 didn’t finish the sentence. “..how many GOP Senators will follow their leader…off a cliff.”

Comment by Tom Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 10:48 am
Dear Senate, Please don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good.

Comment by LTSW Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 10:52 am
===…“..how many GOP Senators will follow their leader…off a cliff.”===

It’s called a Grand Compromise.

Which of those two words confuse you; grand? compromise?

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 10:53 am
I hope Radogno is in agreement with this plan. Otherwise we’ll be back to the “too soon/not early enough” arguments.

Comment by Robert the Bruce Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:00 am
The working poor and middle classes. About to be hung out to dry—-as usual. Hope it gets defeated.

Comment by Blue dog dem Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:07 am
OW: I would say the word that confuses me is compromise. Last I checked we are a bicameral legislature.

Comment by Tom Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:08 am
==The key question is how many GOP senators will follow their leader.==

In other words, how many decent men and women have we elected to serve selflessly and do what they were sent to do?

Comment by A guy Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:10 am
==The key question is how many GOP senators will follow their leader.==

In other words, how many decent men and women have we elected to serve selflessly and do what they were sent to do?

Comment by A guy Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:10 am
Gratitude and best wishes to both leaders. Some bipartisan votes would be the most hopeful thing we’ve seen in a very long time.

Comment by Earnest Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:10 am
Sorry about the double hit. Too much coffee. lol

Comment by A guy Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:11 am
===I would say the word that confuses me is compromise. Last I checked we are a bicameral legislature.===

The Senate was asked by the Governor, begged by the Govenor to forge a compromise.

They, the Senate, as asked by the Governor, are going to begin voting on these bills geared toward compromise.

What’s difficult?

You don’t want pressure on the House and the Governor under the premise of compromise?

Yikes.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:12 am
- A Guy -

Then tell Rauner to call off IPI and Proft…

… if you claim you want a grand compromise.

“I’ll wait, thanks… “

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:13 am
WORD going around the public health on Jefferson and dogs at iles park place will have power shut off tonight or tom due to lack of payment.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:24 am
Willy, how do you know that I haven’t?

I’ve been encouraging this all the way along. It’s the only thing standing between doing something and doing nothing.

IPI is dead wrong on this. Here’s what I will wait for…a post from me extolling the virtue of IPI. They have a roll and a function. On this one, they are utterly “policy naive”. I haven’t been quiet about it at all.

Comment by A guy Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:37 am
Oy “role” not roll. (still too much coffee!)

Comment by A guy Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:38 am
I am perplexed as to why all the kudos to Senators Cullerton and Radogno? As far as I can see SB 1 is still a shell bill and there is no agreement on the needed language for a school funding reform bill in the Senate. The House now has HB 2808 an evidence-based funding formula beginning with the 2017-2018 school year that the House Democratic leadership seems not to support even though Will Davis is its sponsor, possibly because the bill itself is flawed. Then we have the House Education Task Force to which no Republicans have been assigned.

It was Senator Cullerton himself who repeatedly said education funding reform for equity had to be part of the grand bargain or there was no deal. Well then there is no deal right now.

Cullerton and Radogno would do much better by producing language for SB 1, with a realistic perspective for funding (clearly not $3-$6 billion over current k-12 spending), producing district by district impact spread sheets so the public can see the impact of all of this on their respective districts. Moreover, SB 5 which hands over to CPS every year into the indefinite future at least $215 million for pension payments with no State of Illinois representation on the CTPF board has very little support even among suburban democrats let alone among Republicans.

Passing various parts of the grand bargain without bipartisan support in the Senate is a big waste of time. But neither Senator Cullerton or Senator Radogno know what else to do right now.

Comment by Rod Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:40 am
- A Guy -

Reading is fundamental.

I commented…

===Then tell Rauner to call off IPI and Proft…===

Your response?

===IPI is dead wrong on this. Here’s what I will wait for…a post from me extolling the virtue of IPI. They have a roll and a function. On this one, they are utterly “policy naive”. I haven’t been quiet about it at all.===

No. Good try.

Read. How’s about saying the Governor needs to call off Proft and IPI. Not if you agree with Proft and IPI here.

Again, I’ll wait, thanks.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:43 am
If the Governor favors the bipartisan budget plan, then he would a) say so, and b) call off the dogs. Failing to do either, much less both, may doom the plan due to lack of GOP support. I doubt the Dems would vote to jack up taxes with only one Republican Yes vote. Even if the Democratic Senators would, it’s a no-brainer that Madigan would require a greater GOP participation on tax hikes.

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:47 am
It may be a Compromise, but there is nothing Grand about it.

The packaging together of the bills may well violate the Illinois Constitution.

They are going to vote on an Amendment to SB 1 on school funding that NO ONE HAS SEEN?

Sure, Senators, vote YES on a package of bills that will bite you in the butt when the details, and the effects of those details, become public.

Is this what Illinois has become? Just vote for a Grand Compromise to put pressure on Madigan?

Comment by winners and losers Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 12:03 pm
>I am perplexed as to why all the kudos to Senators Cullerton and Radogno?

My kudos are based on the fact that they are putting their name to reforms, cuts and tax increases in order to balance the state budget. I consider that leadership and courage. We have seen nothing resembling a balanced budget proposal from the governor or the speaker of the House and the Democratic caucus or the House Republican caucus. They all either want the budget hole to keep getting deeper or are scared to lay any unpopular cards on the table.

I get what you’re saying about other issues not addressed. And I’m sure I’m going to dislike parts of the grand bargain, me and pretty much everyone else. However, my belief is that the lack of a stable, balanced budget is the single best thing we can do for Illinois’ financial and business environment. Since they are actually dealing with that, I sing their praises and will resume fighting about my other issues until the financial hole stops being dug deeper and deeper every day.

Comment by Earnest Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 12:04 pm
OW before you start lecturing others tell the Speaker to support the grand bargain and the need to compromise

The silence is deafening

Comment by Lucky Pierre Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 12:05 pm
===that NO ONE HAS SEEN?===

Did robots write it?

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 12:08 pm
===OW before you start lecturing others tell the Speaker to support the grand bargain and the need to compromise==

(Sigh)

If the Senate passes the Compromise, and Rauner, thru IPI and Proft, stops sabotaging it, where does that leave the House?

What’s deafening is Raunerites continually ignoring Rauner sabotaging this Compromise thru the IPI and Proft and personally undercutting Leader Radogno.

Why is Rauner trying to hurt Leader Radogno and SGOP members willing to find common ground?

Enough with the deflection - Lucky Pierre -

Understand the politics at play.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 12:09 pm
(1) The Amendment to SB 1 is still being written.

(2) Given what little is known about it, it might as well be written by robots.

Comment by winners and losers Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 12:11 pm
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 11:24 am:

WORD going around the public health on Jefferson and dogs at iles park place will have power shut off tonight or tom due to lack of payment.

(I) hope to (B)(E) correct (W)hen I say the union works in mysterious ways.

Comment by notbuyingit Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 12:13 pm
Cullerton and (maybe) Radogno are doing the a job that the Governor (sic) is supposed to do, i.e. come up with a balanced budget. My bet is that even if something passes the Senate and the House, Rauner won’t sign it.
But procedurally, roll call votes on each of the compromise bills would be my way of gauging R support. Alphabetically, there are a lot of R names in the first 30/60.

Comment by My New Handle Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 12:22 pm
The fact that Rauner himself still hasn’t taken a position on the bills being called today is really frustrating. Everyone just has to guess at what he really wants.

Comment by Arsenal Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 12:41 pm
You can’t just file an amendment to SB 1 without providing districts with spread sheets showing the impact of the model at various funding levels. Any Senator who would vote for an amendment without knowing the immediate impact on their own school districts should be voted out of office whether Republican or Democrat.

Let’s not forget this story http://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/kadner-mom-says-school-reform-numbers-dont-add-up/ where a local mother who is also a budget analyst had to inform Senator Manar of the impact of that evidence based model on might have on the South Cook Region and on other communities with high property tax rates.

Possibly Cullerton, Radogno, the Governor, and Dr. Purvis could get their act together on SB 1 before we all proceed further.

Comment by Rod Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 12:59 pm
Willy, Reading IS fundamental. I replied by saying “How do you know I haven’t?” The implication being “I have”.
So, there you have it. To make it even more crystal clear for you: Governor, you need to use your influence with IPI to tone down the silly and idiotic rhetoric. And, you, as the Governor need to put effort into seeing a Senate Bill pass and keep this solution, the only solution, on track. Doing nothing is the height of irresponsibility.

That better?

Comment by A guy Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 2:26 pm
===Reading IS fundamental.===

And then this?

===I replied by saying “How do you know I haven’t?” The implication being…===

Reading and Implying don’t fix… Fundamentally.

Still having trouble with words/phrases/meanings. Ugh.

The rest is refreshing. I think we both can hope Rauner would dispose with the games within the SGOP Caucus via IPI and Proft and actually stand by his (Rauner) own words and fully support the grand compromise.

Until Rauner does that, Leader Radogno isn’t getting at minimum a fair shake and she deserves better.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 28, 17 @ 2:51 pm