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* We talked about the first part of my Crain’s Chicago Business column last Wednesday, when the governor released a letter to Senate President John Cullerton. What I didn’t tell you last week was that a high-level person in the governor’s office pushed back. Here you go…

Gov. Bruce Rauner demonstrated for perhaps the last time the other day that he has still not learned how to pass a bill.

Rauner sent a letter to Senate President John Cullerton on Nov. 28 about a House amendment he supported in late May. That proposal was designed to stop Andrew Hamilton, the executive director of eight of the 10 regional development authorities in Illinois, from profiting off his lucrative side businesses that help companies with economic development assistance, including tax breaks and government loans.

The Illinois House deleted all of the language of an unrelated Senate bill with its amendment, then unanimously passed the amendment with the new language May 31, the last day of the spring legislative session. Almost six months later, the Illinois Policy Institute published a story noting that the bill hadn’t advanced in the Senate during the first week of the fall veto session, which began Nov. 13.

I happened to run into the bill’s Senate sponsor, Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake, at an event not long after the IPI story was published, and I showed it to her and asked why she hadn’t moved the bill.

Bush’s original bill, before the House amended it, was predicated on the passage of two other bills. One of those bills didn’t pass, so she had simply stopped following its progress and didn’t even know that the House had amended it and had no idea about the story behind the House’s amendment.

Basically, the bill just got lost in the shuffle.

Cue Rauner. The governor fired off a letter to Cullerton on the final afternoon of the Senate’s veto session claiming the amended bill had been “buried” in committee, which, Rauner said, “gives the appearance of backroom deals cut by insiders in Springfield.” That letter was emailed to me by Mischa Fisher, the state’s chief economist and an adviser to the governor, before it was sent to Cullerton.

Rauner had met with Cullerton the day before. Maybe Rauner didn’t see the IPI’s story until afterward, but instead of just picking up the phone and asking Cullerton to move the bill, Rauner sent him an insinuating letter after first releasing it to the media.

Also, the governor’s office employs a large number of people who get paid to lobby legislators. If this issue was so all-important to Rauner, then why not have one of his liaisons contact Bush in the months before the veto session began?

I made similar remarks on my blog, and Fisher reached out to say it was

Click here to read the rest before commenting, please.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Dec 3, 18 @ 9:12 am

Comments

Even after 4 long years, the Rauner Administration still doesn’t understand IL government or how to do their jobs. Yet still they’re full of arrogance (and ignorance).

Let the failed Rauner experiment teach us that those hostile to government are the least capable to run it.

Comment by El Conquistador Monday, Dec 3, 18 @ 9:19 am
You really have to try hard not to learn these subtle but important legislative hygiene practices.

Apparently, Rauner was none too interested in learning the job.

Comment by Gallactic Cupcake Monday, Dec 3, 18 @ 9:23 am
Incompetent in month 1 and STILL incompetent in month 46..

Comment by NotRich Monday, Dec 3, 18 @ 9:48 am
Rauner doesn’t do “working with people”. His schtick is to attempt to issue a public gotcha to Cullerton, so he can reinforce his narrative. Hey Bruce, they voters already told you what they think of your narrative. Ciao.

Comment by PublicServant Monday, Dec 3, 18 @ 9:53 am
–… Fisher reached out to say it was not the “role of the executive branch to shepherd legislation back and forth between the two chambers.”

Um, yes, it is. “Why even have legislative liaisons if you’re not going to use them?” I asked. “To communicate the governor’s position on legislation as it moves through the two chambers,” Fisher replied.

Did he not realize that this is exactly what I was talking about? –

What a bizarre exchange. If I hadn’t observed the work of BTIA(TM) over the years, I’d find it hard to believe that a senior official could spout such nincompoopery out loud.

But I guess Fischer chose to fly the BTIA(TM) flag to the bitter end. Absurd arrogance in defense of clueless incompetence.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Dec 3, 18 @ 10:00 am
==it was not the role of the executive branch to shepherd legislation==

Yeah, it’s far more effective to tell legislators you don’t want @#$%& problems and bend them to your will. /s

Comment by Jocko Monday, Dec 3, 18 @ 10:31 am
If I was going to be out on my keyster in a little over a month, I might tread more carefully with the negative attention-grabbing decisions. As Jack from the movie Titantic knows all-too-well, if you stay on the ship too long there isn’t always enough room on the floating debris. Best to not make those kind of waves, as it were. But par for the course I suppose.

Comment by Amber Ale Monday, Dec 3, 18 @ 12:11 pm
==“To communicate the governor’s position on legislation as it moves through the two chambers,” Fisher replied.==

Ms. Fisher (and apparently her superiors) believe that LL’s only job duty is to act as glorified messengers for the governor? That’s good work - if you can get it

Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Monday, Dec 3, 18 @ 12:19 pm
===Ms. Fisher===

Mr.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 3, 18 @ 12:25 pm
I served on one of the regional econ dev planning boards and we attempted to go alone without Andy’s help. It was virtually impossible because of the complexity and economic development skills required to bring economic development projects to rural Illinois. Andy essentially filled the role that the state’s economic development arm couldn’t or wouldn’t. I am sure that Andy makes a good living, but not because he is corrupt or is gaming the system, but because rural Illinois needs someone like Andy Hamilton to get economic development deals done.

Comment by anon Monday, Dec 3, 18 @ 12:53 pm
No one deserves a bucket of private sector cold water thrown all over him more than Mr. Fisher. He is insufferably arrogant and utterly ineffective. Yes, the fish rots from the head down so all of the blame for his disastrous term ultimately lies with Rauner himself. But arrogant goofballs like Fisher — our state’s 30-something, non-PhD “chief economist” in case you didn’t know — did neither himself nor the governor any service. Good luck taking orders from the little people you disdained.

Comment by DougChicago Monday, Dec 3, 18 @ 1:57 pm