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Mendoza calls Rauner a “madman”

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Illinois

After two ratings agencies dropped Illinois’ ratings to within one notch of junk bond status last year, Rauner said he “wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more ratings downgrades, there should be, because the majority in the General Assembly won’t get a balanced budget.” He also said, “Don’t listen to some Wall Street firm. That’s not what matters. Listen to the people of Illinois.”

Mendoza thinks Rauner wanted to create chaos with another downgrade, pointing to his support for federal legislation allowing states to seek bankruptcy-like protections to reduce their pension debts (they are not legally able to now) and his dismissive attitude toward the possibility of Illinois bonds being rated as junk.

“I think the governor, absolutely, on purpose, created this fiscal crisis. I say that without equivocation. Yes,” she says.

“On the very eve getting a budget passed, when we were teetering on the brink of going into junk bond status, here I am telling the markets, ‘Don’t worry, I’m going to make the debt service payments no matter what.’ And then Gov. Rauner is saying, ‘Don’t listen to the markets! The people don’t want a tax increase. Don’t listen to Wall Street.’”

“I thought, oh my God, he is metaphorically giving them the finger,” she says. “This madman is running this state into the ground.”

It never ends with those two.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:08 pm

Comments

Is she wrong?

Comment by Bobby T Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:09 pm
Ah nice to see a politician willing to say it like it is.

Comment by Publius Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:17 pm
And that’s how the worlds worst republican govenor got the nickname “govenor junk”. Running illinois like one of his business deals

Comment by Rabid Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:18 pm
She should enjoy this year while she still has Rauner to kick around.

The budget problems are only getting worse next year but Governor junk won’t be around to blame.

Comment by Anon Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:21 pm
“Madman” is so much nicer than lying, incompetent misanthrope.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:23 pm
Comptroller Mendoza is right.

Comment by Mama Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:24 pm
Susana Mendoza for President

Comment by Cheryl44 Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:24 pm
But as he said during his campaign against PQ - “I’ve been successful at everything I’ve done”.

Comment by Stones Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:24 pm
He also answers to ‘chuckling liar.’

Comment by Sonny Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:27 pm
I know which one is sane.

Comment by El Conquistador Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:28 pm
Normally I’d regard these statements as over the top hyperbole…

After 3 1/2 years of BVR I’m going to rule this a fair statement

Comment by Morty Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:32 pm
Mendoza is right. The Rauner administration signed contracts with businesses with the attitude that they wouldn’t pay them back, at least in full if they didn’t have to. That tells you everything you need to know about the Governor. He did in fact talk about seeking assistance from Washington to allow the state to seek bankruptcy protection. A lot of the damage Rauner did was in fact intentional. Rauner was a bigger failure than the inept Pat Quinn.

Comment by The Dude Abides Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:32 pm
Is Rauner even back yet from Europe? Why is he so quiet?

Doesn’t he relish in persisting the idea that Mendoza is “full of yogurt?”

Comment by Bobby T Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:34 pm
==created this fiscal crisis.==

Just one fiscal crisis among the dozens of existing financial crises the state is facing is not too bad.

Comment by City Zen Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:36 pm
Oh boy she keeps forgetting how she helped put us in this mess we are in today. This woman loves seeing her name in the press more then any other politician I’ve ever seen.

Comment by Long Time R Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:41 pm
Name change to Comptroller Obvious?

Comment by d.p.gumby Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:44 pm
The fact that Mendoza is not a white, middle-aged man of business must drive Rauner bonkers.

Careful, Bruce.

Comment by Bobby T Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:47 pm
She is not wrong.

Comment by Ole' Nelson Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:49 pm
What did the feds say about state filing bankruptcy

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:49 pm
Mendoza has a lot of political courage, and her head is screwed on straight. Maybe not “madman” though - this was deliberate, concerted, targeted destruction, hardly the work of a madman.

It seems to me that the gov basically saw the state of Illinois as a PE investment which he bought for many $$, then proceeded to asset-strip with a view to selling it off (i.e. privatization of state services) to cronies, also for many $$.

He doesn’t care about the fact that a state is not a business that can be bought, stripped of assets, and re-sold at a handsome profit - like,for example, chains of nursing homes back in his actual PE days.

Those who share the gov’s stance should be encouraged to go on extended field trips to Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arizona (to name only three) to learn more about how drastic tax and budget cuts, privatization, demeaning of public servants,union-bashing, neglect of core services such as education and infrastructure is working out for them.

Comment by dbk Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:50 pm
== This woman loves seeing her name in the press more then any other politician I’ve ever seen. ==

Apparently you haven’t seen many politicians.

Comment by IllinoisBoi Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 4:02 pm
You can count the number of balanced budgets Mendoza signed on one fist.

Comment by City Zen Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 4:03 pm
==she keeps forgetting==
Rauner knew there were budget issues when he ran for Governor. He chose to let the temporary tax expire. All he had to do was use the revenue to pay down the backlog, manage spending and phase out the tax increase over his first term. That is what a Governor in charge would have done. But he is not in charge so its not his fault. It is the Democrat legislators that came before him. What a strategy.

Comment by Tired Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 4:06 pm
*What did the feds say about state filing bankruptcy

The people pushing it couldn’t get anyone to sponsor a bill. The first thing any bancruptcy court would do is get rid of the state’s unsecured debt, ie it’s credit cards. In the state’s case this would be bonds. No republican can look at the big banks and say “Sorry, all those bonds you bought are worthless.”

Comment by Han's Solo Cup Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 4:13 pm
City Zen
How many has Rainer signed? In fact has he signed ANY budget? As for Mendoza, shes not the governor why would she sign the budget?

Comment by Old and In The Way Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 4:17 pm
@City Zen and Long Time R
Which has a more severe impact on the state’s rating: a) an unbalanced budget or b) no budget?

Comment by Cubs in '16 Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 4:23 pm
Can anyone even imagine what comments and remarks we would be reading from a Comptroller Munger?

Comment by illini Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 4:50 pm
“Mendoza thinks Rauner wanted to create chaos with another downgrade, pointing to his support for federal legislation allowing states to seek bankruptcy-like protections to reduce their pension debts (they are not legally able to now) and his dismissive attitude toward the possibility of Illinois bonds being rated as junk.”
—————-

It doesn’t matter what either Mendoza or Rauner think. It’s really all about the individual that Chief Justice John Roberts appointed (U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the Southern District of New York) to handle the biggest bankruptcy in the history of the U.S. municipal debt market.

Puerto Rico.

Roberts made the appointment with part of the appointment duties being to develop a ‘framework’ for processing non-corporate bankruptcies. We’ll see what Judge Swain comes up with.

Link is: https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-chief-justice-appoints-york-judge-handle-puerto-163625425–sector.html

IMO, until Judge Swain decides on Puerto Rico, everything else is just noise.

Wait for it.

Comment by Anon Downstate Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 5:23 pm
== This woman loves seeing her name in the press more then any other politician I’ve ever seen. ==

Most politicians are such shrinking violets.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 5:29 pm
Have businesses with state contacts lost a penny?

On the contrary, they revived a 12% premium for their late invoices in an environment of less that 4% interest rates

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 5:57 pm
–Have businesses with state contacts lost a penny?

On the contrary, they revived a 12% premium for their late invoices in an environment of less that 4% interest rates–

BTIA(TM) unveils the Rauner Stimulus Plan: Run up $12 billion in unpaid bills and pay a billion in late-fees because it’s good for the economy.

This new breed of “fiscal conservative” is trippy.

But, here on Planet Earth, plenty of state contractors went out of business because they didn’t get paid on time. It was virtually a daily thread here for two years. If you didn’t see that, you must be positively blissful in your willful ignorance.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 6:04 pm
Mendoza is a great comptroller.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 6:05 pm
=… plenty of state contractors went out of business because they didn’t get paid on time. ==

We all thought Rauner wanted to bankrupt the State. We were wrong; he just wanted to bankrupt businesses in the State so they either stopped being competitors to the 1.4% or could be bought up.chesply by the 1.4%. Makes you wonder what Rauner’s “blind” trust has been investing in the past 3 years.

Comment by RNUG Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 6:21 pm
Fair & balanced: 1) Rauner has not done a good job minimizing the fiscal damage to IL 2) Mendoza is not a great Comptroller-she is a Madigan shill.

Comment by Justacitizen Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 7:23 pm
=Fair & balanced: 1) Rauner has not done a good job minimizing the fiscal damage to IL 2) Mendoza is not a great Comptroller-she is a Madigan shill.=

LOL, yeah that is “Fair and Balanced” FOX style.

Here is another take…

1) Rauner turned financial difficulties in to an absolute catastrophy that resulted in the deaths of Illinois citizens.

2) Sometimes Mendoza engages in political hyperbole.

Comment by JS Mill Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 7:59 pm
Mendoza is a bought and paid for mouth piece for the Speaker. If it wasn’t for him she wouldn’t be the comptroller plain and simple. And if JB wins she will turn on him in a heart beat. Mendoza is a one party person first, the Mendoza Party…

Comment by Board Watcher Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 8:34 pm
Susanna should be our next Governor. A rock star

Comment by Tired teacher Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 8:41 pm
Mendoza simply tells the truth. It’s very difficult to explain how “Elect me, I’m a smart businessman, I’ll fix the financial stuff” Rauner managed to take something bad and make it so much worse without resorting to what would otherwise be considered hyperbole.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 8:48 pm
==IMO, until Judge Swain decides on Puerto Rico, evWerything else is just noise,==

Unless and until Congress enacts a law allowing state (as it did, kinda, for US territories), nothing Judge Swain decides concerning Puerto Rico means anything. And, since Congress can set the parameters it chooses on state bankruptcies, it’s likely nothing he says about the law for territories will ever mean anything for states.

Comment by Whatever Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 9:34 pm
I think Comptroller Mendoza has done a good job overall, especially in the fiscal environment we have. The quoted statement, though, I find to be misleading and inflammatory.

No assurances needed to be given “to the markets” that our debt service was going to be made, as it, like pension contributions, is a continuing appropriation paid as scheduled with or without a budget.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 10:07 pm
==Susanna should be our next Governor. A rock star==

Milli Vanilli comes to mind…”Whatever you do, don’t put the blame on you. Blame it on the rain, yeah, yeah.”

Well, that and someone else’s words coming out of your mouth.

Comment by City Zen Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 10:54 pm
“Unless and until Congress enacts a law allowing state (as it did, kinda, for US territories), nothing Judge Swain decides concerning Puerto Rico means anything. And, since Congress can set the parameters it chooses on state bankruptcies, it’s likely nothing he says about the law for territories will ever mean anything for states.”
————-
We’re going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

Congress won’t be able to agree on anything, except when the created they created the oversight board, they dumped the whole matter in the Chief Justice’s lap, and he appointed Judge Swain (BTW, it’s “She”) to establish a FRAMEWORK for processing non-private sector bankruptcies.

You may not think it’s important, but the lawyers for the financial players involved in Puerto Rico sure think it’s important. And there’s lots of players out there in government finance who are keeping a very close eye on the whole Puerto Rico situation.

We’ll see.

“When They Say It’s Not About The Money, It’s ALWAYS About The Money”.

Comment by Anon Downstate Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 12:19 am
Milli Vanilla should never come to mind.

Comment by Sonny Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 7:30 am
Bruce’s rich banker friends make a lot of money off our debt, and the idea we’ll go bankrupt.

Somebody owns that debt. Somebody rich.

-the future

Comment by 33rd Ward Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 7:41 am
Rauner claims she is lunch meat, she raises him to a mental case, your not running for comptroller, you just got OODA looped. You want constitutional mike joining in too

Comment by Rabid Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 7:44 am
Her criticism seems fair & appropriate.

Haven’t forgotten #Unfit4ILGov’s “starve the beast”, have you ?

Comment by sal-says Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 8:52 am