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* Subscribers know more, including the Team Rauner react and immediate prospects in the Senate…
House Democrats are weighing a plan to rush money to social service providers and universities that have gone months without state funding, with some pushing for a vote this week before legislators leave town for spring break.
As with all things in the Capitol, plans remain fluid. But there’s roughly $750 million set aside in special funds not currently being used that could potentially be tapped, said Rep. Greg Harris, a Chicago Democrat and key budget negotiator. That’s just a fraction of what would normally be spent on higher ed and care for the state’s most vulnerable, but Democrats’ hope is to provide a lifeline amid widespread cuts and layoffs.
“I think we need to do everything that we can to get some money to these folks as soon as we can,” Harris said.
Talks of pushing the plan come as a bipartisan budget proposal in the Senate remains stalled, which Democrats blame on interference by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Still, Rauner continues to say he’s hopeful the Senate can come up with a broad agreement, and he has generally opposed one-off spending plans.
He may have generally opposed one-off spending plans, but he did two in 2015 and another one last year.
*** UPDATE *** Monique with some deets…
Ok, let’s do this again: Rep. Harris says stopgap has $258 million for social services, including $6.6 mil for domestic violence shelters.
— Monique Garcia (@moniquegarcia) April 5, 2017
Another $559 million would go to higher education, including $270 million for MAP grants, $50 million for career and tech education.
— Monique Garcia (@moniquegarcia) April 5, 2017
*** UPDATE 2 *** The governor tweets his video response…
Stopgap spending plans do nothing to balance the budget, they don’t fix a broken system. They force higher debt & higher taxes down the road pic.twitter.com/JXLuszE2Cb
— Bruce Rauner (@GovRauner) April 5, 2017
He’s claiming the proposal will “force higher debt,” but these things are being funded by special state funds specifically designed for those very same spending purposes.
The proposal is here.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 10:03 am
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No, need to get big picture done rather than more duct tape solutions. It is going to take a big closure for people to actually rise up and demand action. No one wants to take the tough vote, this just lets them place another Band-Aid on the overall disaster. And where do you stop with Social Services? Children only? Elderly? Domestic Violence? Anti-violence?
Comment by OurMagician Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 10:11 am
Any sensible person uses duct tape until a permanent repair can be done. Hate to live in Rauner’s house and have a big leak in a pipe. By time the plumber gets there you have a flood
Comment by Truthteller Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 10:12 am
Make it a true lifeline; only provide money to the social service providers. Leave Higher Ed out of it; that destruction, while apparently desired by Rauner, also comes back on Rauner as another pressure point. If you have to include money for the universities, make it targeted to just the medical schools that provide social services. Make it clear the purpose of this stop-gap is to keep people from dying from a lack of services … and make that the message, period.
Comment by RNUG Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 10:16 am
Truthteller
When you have 9 houses who needs duct tape?
Comment by Trolling Troll Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 10:19 am
*** By time the plumber gets there you have a flood ***
Yes, but you can be sure that the leak and flooding will be limited to the bedrooms of the family members Rauner wants to see move out, the living space of all the others will ’somehow’ be unaffected.
For this reason, we can be sure that Rauner will block this House initiative in the Senate because it would help precisely the victims the governor has chosen for leverage against unions. He laid out his strategy explicitly at the Bush Institute in 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQkbgwVUFxI&feature=youtu.be&t=30m40s and then hid it during the campaign. This ploy is the beginning and the end of his reason for being governor. It is the north star of his tenure as governor.
Comment by X-prof Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 10:25 am
To RNUG’s point. If universities can also be helped and the bill is opposed by Republicans, it would be another example of republican reps failing their districts. The problem remains that the Democrats remain ineffective in damaging them politically. So frustrating.
Comment by don the legend Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 10:31 am
Will DpeyDuct need to tie up his “supporters” to avoid the stopgap?
Comment by Annonin' Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 10:36 am
=== He may have generally opposed one-off spending plans, but he did two in 2015 and another one last year. ===
So Rauner’s current opposition to stop-gaps isn’t a matter of longstanding principle.
Comment by anon2 Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 11:16 am
Community Care Program providers will not survive without some duct tape.
Comment by CCP Hostage Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 11:43 am
It’s not more duct tape, it’s a tourniquet.
Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 11:45 am
If the money is sitting in special funds that are intended pay for education and human services, not directing that cash in a way that can save actual lives because you’re hung up on talking points that revolve around the use of duct tape seems particularly unwise and callous.
Does it solve the overall financial problem created by 22 months without a budget? No, of course not.
But if you’re a woman trying to escape an abusive relationship with your children and you’re unsure whether you will have anywhere to go because you heard on the news that your local domestic violence shelter is about to close, then yeah—funding for domestic violence services solves the problem of you needing somewhere to go to save your life and the lives of your children.
The Governor made it really clear that he was not interested in the results of the bi-partisan good-faith negotiations that were conducted in the Senate, and he won’t even follow his constitutional obligation to propose a balanced budget. He won’t even admit that it was unbalanced, for crying outloud.
This budget process is going nowhere, and increasingly folks believe we just won’t get one. At this point if you can save lives, you must.
Who’s going to be the one to tell that mom that saving the lives of her children isn’t a good enough reason to push the green button? You think she’ll accept your duct tape analogy, and agree that her kids’ lives are an unfortunate element of that short-term pain the Governor is willing to inflict?
Comment by Emily Miller Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 1:36 pm
Thanks RNUG, but our universities are suffering as hostages too. Please give ‘em some tape, a tourniquet — whatever will stop the bleeding. We regionals don’t have extra income like UofI …we’re doing our best, but we’re dying here (along with our regions) without a state budget.
(I know, I know, that’s his plan).
Comment by DyingonVine Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 1:44 pm
- DyingonVine -
I understand. And I wish there was a budget that fixed everything.
But if the D’s try to fix everything on their own, all we will get is some temporary relief and continued hostage taking. There needs to be a resolution of sorts.
Brutal truth, but most the citizens of this State don’t think about social services until a family member needs help or someone dies. The same is more or less true about the colleges; until they close nobody (except the locals and students) thinks about them.
And if we don’t have enough money to save both, my vote is for social services.
Comment by RNUG Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 2:23 pm
I wondered when we were going to start talking special funds again, with a new budget year approaching.
And is it crazy for those of us out here in the real world to wonder why, if 3/4 of a billion dollars is “not being used” for its stated purpose, why we don’t go ahead and use it.
Comment by Cassandra Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 2:40 pm
To this…
===He’s claiming the proposal will “force higher debt,” but these things are being funded by special state funds specifically designed for those very same spending purposes.===
The ONLY way you have a statement so off to the actual governing is…
1) It’s a blatant attempt to deceive the truth about the monies and the debt actuality.
Or…
2) Rauner and his Crew and Staff lack the actual political acumen in understanding how things work.
Those are the choices.
Rauner does NOT, however, want to release any hostages, that’s crystal clear here.
Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 2:48 pm
So Rauner is threatening a veto. Will the HGOPs repeat the Governor’s gibberish?
Guess what guys: higher debt and higher taxes are coming down the road anyway. You might as well vote to keep colleges and domestic violence shelters open, at least for a little while longer. We only need a handful of HGOPs to tell the Governor enough is enough.
This is spending money we already have, for things that money is intended to fund. You can’t get more fiscally conservative than that.
Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 2:50 pm
It’s outright cruel and crazy to hold back actual survival money that can be appropriated from special funds.
If you were saving up for a down-payment but discovered your baby needed life-saving surgery, you’d use the down-payment money. At least most humans would.
Wasn’t there an item about a ’special fund’ that was trying to literally give away half a million excess budget dollars a few weeks ago? That’s an example, maybe there are more excess funds like that.
Comment by northsider (the original) Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 3:13 pm
An email to all Richland Community College employees today indicates they are dropping education for IDOC due to lack of state funding.
Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 3:27 pm
We should listen to Rauner when he talks about “higher debt.” With his leadership (or lack there of) we have entered into unprecedented “higher debt.” This is obviously his area of expertise.
Comment by PDJT Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 3:45 pm
— RNUG —
“I understand. And I wish there was a budget that fixed everything…And if we don’t have enough money to save both, my vote is for social services.”
I’m not trying to “fix everything”…just keep places like WIU alive long enough to fight another day. But I hear you too. If you’re saying the choice is (a) let people die, or (b) prevent students from an education & creating jobs, etc., — then, yes, my choice is to support social services and save life first. I can find another university job in another state — and high school seniors are already leaving IL in droves, so we’ll connect eventually regardless. But it wouldn’t take very many HGOP/SGOP members to override a veto. I hope the Republican legislators in university and comm. college districts will be loyal to their communities, first.
Comment by DyingonVine Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 4:16 pm
–Still, Rauner continues to say he’s hopeful the Senate can come up with a broad agreement, and he has generally opposed one-off spending plans.–
How does that statement reflect experience, reality or truth at all?
Rauner set his whole crew out to sabotage any progress for a broad Senate agreement and has pushed and signed one-off agreements time and again.
For crying out loud, give it a few months before concocting revisionist history.
Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 6:25 pm
These clowns are experts at avoiding what they should really do, and instead doing something else to make it look like they’re doing their real job.
Comment by Just Me Wednesday, Apr 5, 17 @ 10:17 pm