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Meltdown roundup and Updates

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Illinois

[Updated and bumped up so that I can use this to give you any further session news.]

*** 9:25 am *** The governor’s press office says there will be no leaders meeting today.

*** 10:17 am *** The guv’s press office says they’ve requested a 2:30 pm leaders meeting for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the House has canceled tomorrow’s session and the Senate has not yet posted any committee hearings this week.

*** 12:16 pm *** Comptroller Dan Hynes’ memo on crucial dates in a budget meltdown, mentioned below, can be downloaded here.

*** 4:16 pm *** Cheap Trick coming to the Senate tomorrow? That’s the word.

——————————————

* My weekly syndicated newspaper column examines the rampant finger-pointing at the Statehouse. Here’s one example, but please go read the whole thing…

Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson has said since he first joined the budget negotiations this month that he believes Gov. Rod Blagojevich is not serious about doing a deal anytime soon. Last week, Watson reiterated his complaint and shared a brief anecdote about the negotiations.

According to Watson, after the leaders had finished discussing the Chicago Transit Authority’s problems during a closed-door meeting, the governor opened the door for discussion on other subjects. Watson said he then asked about the budget. “What’s the rush?” Blagojevich asked, according to Watson.

A spokesperson for the governor claimed that Watson took the governor’s comment out of context. The behind-the-scenes pushback against Watson was intensely fierce and, as a result, was not mentioned in any news stories the next day.

But numerous people who were in the meeting backed up Watson’s claim, insisting Watson did not take the quote out of context.

Does it matter? Some. If there is to be any sort of government shutdown or serious budgetary crisis, it could have serious political consequences.

* Bernie Schoenberg takes a look at the governor’s work ethic, in light of the guv’s demand that legislators be in town five days a week…

In the more than three months listed [March 1 through June 8], the records show the governor spent five nights in Springfield, and was physically in the city for just under 200 hours including those nights. I am assuming his only visits to Springfield were on state planes, and I have no evidence otherwise.

He was physically in the city on parts of 25 days, but on 15 of those days, his airport-to-airport time was less than seven hours. And on one of those days, the Springfield presence was just a 15-minute stopover between Harrisburg and Moline.

* And the cost of his commutes…

Not including a handful of helicopter trips on the March 1-June 8 logs, the governor took 21 one-way trips between Springfield and O’Hare, which would amount to $31,101 in real costs. The 13 one-way trips listed between Springfield and Midway would come to $18,616.

That’s more than $49,700 in just more than three months - and it doesn’t count the miles those planes are flying without the governor on board as they go to pick him up or return to their hangar space. Adding those miles would double the amount to nearly $100,000 for those King Air flights alone.

* And Gatehouse has a helpful article that examines the timeline for a state budget shutdown…

About 4,900 employees of statewide elected officials could miss a payday if a budget isn’t in place by July 9, the report says. If a budget still isn’t approved by July 19, more than 8,100 employees of the Illinois State Police, Department of Transportation, Department of Central Management Services, Environmental Protection Agency and State Board of Education will miss a payday.

The deadlines continue throughout the month, culminating July 25, when 28,000 workers with the departments of Corrections and Human Services will go unpaid unless a budget has been approved by that date. […]

More than $2 billion was paid out by the comptroller’s office last July for nonpayroll expenses. For example, $270 million was paid in Department of Human Services grants to social service providers, $25 million for foster-care grants and $750 million in Medicaid payments. All of those would be affected by an ongoing impasse this July. Unlike state payrolls, there isn’t a specific schedule for making these payments, the report says, making it “impossible to assign a specific date at which services are disrupted.”

Court orders require the state to continue issuing checks for programs such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and Assistance to Aged, Blind and Disabled. A court ruling also requires that state judges be paid. Although not covered by a court ruling, pension payments to retirees, tax refunds and payments on College Savings bonds will be made even without a budget.

* More budget stuff, compiled by Paul…

* Rep. Fritchey: Collateral Damage

* Althoff, Franks, Tryon: Gridlock in Springfield

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 10:40 am

Comments

What is the gov doing to offset his carbon imprint? All those flights are ruining the environment for his daughters.

Comment by Wumpus Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 9:30 am
And we have to wait four years to boot the governor out for sleeping on the job.

Comment by Crimefighter Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 9:32 am
Rich - I don’t know if you heard but I just got a note that the House cancelled session for tomorrow. They will come in on Wednesday at 3pm.

Comment by WTF! Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 9:50 am
What about the greenhouse gas emissions from those wasted private flights that resulted in no results?

Blago and his admin and followers are one big phony press release after another while not so secretly going backwards in ethics and the environment.

Comment by ids Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 9:56 am
Where will Blago be the next time the cicadas arrive?

Comment by Patriot Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 10:00 am
How do you cancel something that was never scheduled?

Any sightings of the Gov over the weekend? Just trying to confirm that hard working man b.s.

Meanwhile: The House did cancel the Tuesday session according to the GA website.

Now let the Nix Nonsense begin for the week.

Comment by Mr. W.T. Rush Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 10:05 am
Blago had a wild father’s day with his loving father-in-law.
Seriously, why can not the leaders sit down in Chicago and settle this instead of Springfield?
Would cut down all the flying?
Better yet lets have a committee of the whole in the United Center. Let’s get ready to rumble…………….

Comment by blago hater Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 10:19 am
Why do they always meet so late in the day?Can’t Blago get up in the morning

Comment by nomoretax Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 10:29 am
Patriot,
He will be retired and helping to plan his presidential Library. It will not be located in Springfield.

Comment by Bill Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 10:56 am
I think Blago and Jones are the primary culprits in the budget impasse, but I’d credit Speaker Madigan with a strong supporting role. Madigan is defineitely trying to destroy the governor politically, but I think the Governor is self- destructing too. I don’t think Rod could win another Democratic primary.

The Democratic party could use a new leader - Madiagn has a separate agenda that is not related to the best interests of the Democartic Party as a whole. But Blago’s plans to demonize Madigan and bleam him for the budget debacle and any unfortunate consequences are doomed to failure. It’s hard to blame the most competent player given the other two key leaders’ obvious inadequacies and failures. I prefer a larger budget than the one than Madigan has already crafted. But at least Madigan had and has a budget, which is more that Rod and Emil can say to date.

Representative Sara Feigenholtz always has a fundraiser every June - like clockwork. This year it’s on July 9. She must expect some resolution by then.

Comment by Captain America Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 11:14 am
Bill, thank you so much for the laugh that you provided me this morning. Our air conditioner died Saturday night so I’m at home sweating with my 3 year old and a 1 year old waiting for a new motor and I got about 2 hours of sleep; but instead of rolling my eyes at your usual Blago-speak, you actually made me laugh out loud HARD!

Thank you so much, Bill!

Comment by schroedk Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 11:22 am
I too had to chuckle at Kool-Aid’s comment.

Comment by jwscott72 Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 11:27 am
Rich: Any chance of obtaining and posting that Hynes memo re: no-budget-approval scenarios? Thanks!

Comment by Cap'n Crud Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 11:48 am
I don’t have a dog in this show except from where I sit, I am very concern about the “business climate” in Illinois.

I see that 40 out of 50 states have a surplus. I question why Illinois has a deficit - It is either the business climate in Illinois is not that good or the state is spending too much.

As a small business operator, I see my cost going up, yes event he min wage, I am sorry the “living” wage, business fees, insurance coverage and resulting cost going up. This is against the back drop of flat revenues. Not healthy either in the short or long run.

I see the pol’s are looking at universal health care. As a business I provide health care (high deductible and catastrophic only). Employees pay 25% of the premium and frankly I am straining to keep paying these costs, now my second largest operating outlay.

This brings me to the state health care coverage -
Question # 1 - Do any of the state employees contribute to the health care premiums?
Question # 2 - Do the tax payers need to provide full health care coverage - Dental & Optical - these coverages in the private sector have been basically absent for many years.

Comment by Concerned Citizen Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 12:16 pm
Citizen:

Yes, employees contribute to premiums

Compare the State to other very large (10,000 or more), heavily unionized employers, and the benefits-health care/dental and vision aren’t unusual

Comment by steve schnorf Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 12:28 pm
If the State shuts down, do I still have to collect sales tax?

Comment by shopowner Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 12:59 pm
RECALL! This is a bull in a china closet mentality for budgeting. So now that he has no support from his party why didn’t they think it would be any different when he called them drunken sailor two years ago.

Comment by game plan Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 1:13 pm
Thanks for the memo posting, Rich –

Comment by Cap'n Crud Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 1:26 pm
… although I now find I can’t get this %$#@! thing to open. Anyone else having trouble with the ‘memo’ link?

Comment by Cap'n Crud Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 1:49 pm
It works for me.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 2:01 pm
Consider the world of Blagojevich
It teeters and totters with every glitch
Yet as things come undone
Bill increases our fun
Blogo as Pres, now ain’t that a stitch!

I couldn’t help myself.

Comment by Cogito Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 2:05 pm
Citizen-

Active state employees pay modest amounts for their health care–far below what they would have to pay on the open market. Retired state employees pay nothing for their health insurance
(beyond modest deductibles depending on the plan)
courtesy of us taxpayers, including you and me.
Not a bad thing. But if it’s good enough for state employees, all Illinois citizens should have access to affordable health insurance.

Shopowner–The answer is most certainly yes. And that’s what we need to keep in mind here. The state taxes will be collected whether the government “shuts down” or not. The money will be there (about a billion more next fy than this fy based on natural revenue growth alone) anyway. In a “shutdown” there are just technical barriers to writing the checks. And there are most certainly ways around that.

Let’s not let the scaremongers railroad us into approving huge spending increases based on the notion that “the state is running out of money.”
It isn’t. It won’t. The fight is over whether to add extra revenues and what to do with those extras. And they are extras.

Comment by Cassandra Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 2:12 pm
Technical, Cassandra by what world to you live in. Are you an employee of the state? If you are you will not receive a pay check if this continues. That means your creditors will be upset, you will not have money in your checking account to pay for essentials. The checks and balances of the our system require the General Assembly to approve the budget. There aren’t ways to get around that.

Comment by game plan Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 2:23 pm
Regarding health insurance premium in the private sector. THe company I work for pays all of my health insurance except $1. They also pay 80% of the dependent coverage. I have a BCBS PPO policy.

In other words, the red herring about the health insurance for public employees is just that. Private companies have to have competetive benefits to keep valued employees. The same does for the State.

Those State of Illinois career employees who have stayed through thick and thin (mostly thin pay checks) are honorable people who believe that they are providing a service to the residents of Illinois.

I left because there weren’t any open positions available for which I was qualified. The reason for the no open positions is that IDOT didn’t have the authority to promote anybody from governot’s office.

Comment by Huh? Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 2:35 pm
We pay health care premiums and are able to pick a plan with dental or optical - but we pay for that too.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 2:48 pm
I forgot to mention that I have a lowly job on the state totum pole.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 2:49 pm
State jobs for everybody! Just kidding. I wouldn’t want one.

Comment by Milorad Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 3:44 pm
The Nonsense seems to be a blizzrd of nine page faxes — mostly House member’s phone numbers — and a comparison of the Rod in Wonderland budget and House passed approp. bill.
The actual comparison is sad becauase of the billions raised in RinW scheme and what schools get. Big winners are insurance companies with lobbyists who have the initials “Wyma”
Score Monday for Madigan — that about 18 in a row.

Comment by Mr. W.T. Rush Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 4:08 pm
Uh, could you explain that a bit better? What faxes?

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 4:11 pm
Cassandra, you also don’t mention that generally state workers get paid about 25% less than the same jobs pay in the private sector. The benefits and pension are a trade-off, getting more on the “back-end” for agreeing to be underpaid up-front. The rank and file are making out like bandits in this deal, and if a private sector firm got behind a couple weeks on paying salaries, there would all manner of hell to pay. I cannot abide the snide commenters with no experience of true Public Service that continually malign my brothers and sisters on the front lines. We work very hard to do a job we believe in, we more than earn what we get. What the upper, politicized branches of the management tree do is a separate matter. Put your insulting remarks towards the proper target at least.

Comment by Worker bee Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 4:19 pm
Hey wait, didn’t Cheap Trick cover Don’t Be Cruel? Isn’t that the theme song for this OT session? The Dream Police live inside of Emil’s head. LOL

Comment by jwscott72 Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 4:39 pm
Cheap Trick? As in the band? Here?

Cool.

Any chance they’ll actually perform somewhere tomorrow?

Comment by Kiyoshi Martinez Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 4:43 pm
Cheap Trick has been in the Capitol for some time now… oh, you mean the BAND!!!

Comment by Gregor Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 4:48 pm
Check with your Senator, Kiyoshi.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 4:48 pm
We should have an Overtime in Hell theme song contest. We need something to do since we’re not tracking airplanes. Aren’t slow news days fun?

Comment by jwscott72 Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 4:53 pm
Theme song “Highway to Hell”?

Comment by Leigh Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 5:13 pm
I think it’s a sham, and a shame, what’s going on with the budget process in Springfield. Those of us providing frontline services in the state system are being hit with the knowledge that no budget means the prospect of no pay. Yet we’ll continue to go to work because we can’t not. If we don’t show up, who will do our work? We’re already shorthanded and understaffed by far too many employees. The people I serve can’t take care of themselves, but Blago doesn’t care. He’s never stepped foot in a place like where I work. He’s not fit to do it.

And now we most likely won’t get any staff to help out in the new fiscal year and overtime will continue at 25% or higher. What a waste of our tax dollars. And I’m a tax payer complaining about it. I miss my family, I miss my life.

Shame on them for not getting the budget done like they were elected to do. This state bites.

Comment by Tessa Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 5:38 pm
One more time for Cassandra and all the ill-informed “know-it-alls” out there. I paid $178.00 last month for health care as a state employee. Compared to Huh? at $1.00, I think that is substantially more, and is probably considerably less than many pay. But it is not free.

Most people who complain about others are usually envious or hateful. You seem to be intelligent so why not stick to facts, and if you don’t have the facts, don’t comment.

Comment by Fed Up State Employee Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 6:06 pm
I think Bill and Cassandra ate too may leaded paint chips as children from the comments I read from them. Although, it is a given that Rod partook of the same brand of chips as a child as well.

Comment by Papa Legba Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 6:27 pm
State employees can choose between a traditional indemnity health care plan that covers everything and a number of HMO/managed care plans. The former plan, known as QCHP, costs much more than the managed care plans, so many (myself included) opt for managed care. The $178 figure cited by “Fed Up State Employee” sounds about right for employee-plus- dependents coverage under an HMO. Perhaps we do get better coverage for less money than a lot of other people do, but it’s certainly NOT free.
On a side note… the more time passes the more the Blago and Bush administrations seem to have become mirror images of one another. The stubbornness in pursuing clearly failed policies, demonizing opponents, governance by fiat, rampant cronyism, the ability to squander huge amounts of “political capital,” and the penchant for alienating members of their own parties are eerily similar.

Comment by Lainer Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 7:08 pm
Cheap Trick, huh? Think Rick Nielsen can get the leaders into a chorus of Surrender?

Comment by Polly Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 7:19 pm
Bill, I have to respectfully disagree with you about the location of Blago’s Presidential Library. It would be our luck that he would place it in Springfield. And may I even go so far as to suggest that he design a giant hand to be placed on the roof of the library with the one finger salute as the flag pole? Now that would be about as classy as he could get.

Comment by Little Egypt Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 8:59 pm
I went through 2 July government shutdowns. They are a pain in the butt. However, the consequences are temporary, hitting primarily employees who live paycheck to paycheck and vendors who are desperate for cash (a lot on inner city hospitals, some nursing homes, and others). Everyone eventually gets paid, though. I have no idea, though, what would happen if you went into a second month of overtime.

Comment by steve schnorf Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 9:01 pm
Sorry Steve, but I believe it is inexcusable for any bureaucrat, present or former, to have a ho-hum attitude about State employees missing a paycheck. I would never explain this fiasco away by saying the consequences of not getting a paycheck are temporary.

Comment by Little Egypt Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 11:25 pm
Cheap Trick eh? Looks like Larry Morrissey is pulling out his biggest guns to get a bill passed for Rockford. Hey, if nothing else has worked…

Comment by uncle_dick Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 11:26 pm
Egypt, I’m not trying to “explain away” anything. I’m simply trying to put this in context. It isn’t the Great Flu Pandemic or the Black Plague or the San Francisco earthquake, or the Chicago fire (or the Iraq War) or something. The consequences, whether good or bad, are temporary. Civilization as we know it won’t end, at least for the first 20 or 25 days.

Comment by steve schnorf Monday, Jun 18, 07 @ 11:51 pm
Little e,
Excellent idea! Ill pass it along.

Comment by Bill Tuesday, Jun 19, 07 @ 7:03 am