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Mayor finally accepts Statehouse reality

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* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…

Gov. JB Pritzker and House Speaker Chris Welch both threw cold water on the idea of a veto session supplemental appropriations bill to help Chicago handle the increasing influx of asylum seekers from Venezuela.

Speaker Welch told reporters last Thursday he had “made it clear” to Mayor Brandon Johnson that “we were not expecting to do a supplemental budget in the veto session,” while the governor told reporters the week before that he hadn’t heard about any plans for a supplemental. Governors always know about supplementals because their office writes them.

There is simply no appetite in the General Assembly to tackle any super controversial issues during the veto session, which runs from Oct. 24 through Nov. 9.

A big part of the reason for wanting a delay until the spring session is that veto session falls smack dab in the middle of petition-gathering season. The migrant issue is super divisive, legislators are getting an angry earful at the doors as they gather petition signatures, and a public vote on spending more tax dollars could very well cause some irate constituents to run against them.

It’s the same basic situation with extending the Invest in Kids Act, a $75 million income tax credit for contributing to groups that then pay for private and religious school scholarships. Teachers unions and progressives hotly oppose extending the program beyond its Dec. 31 expiration date, but some Democrats would still like to see it extended. Unless a reasonable compromise can be found, it’ll likely be kicked to next spring as well.

Plus, Johnson’s recent budget proposal cut the city’s earlier projected spending on the new arrivals by $50 million while increasing spending on other items. That didn’t go over too well with legislators, either.

The message did not seem to get through to City Hall, however. Members of the Johnson administration continued trying to negotiate their case through the news media, before ultimately abandoning their quest.

“Just because there isn’t necessarily a supplemental (appropriation) on the horizon — and I mean, I think those discussions are still happening — there’s ways that there can be funds redirected to the city,” Johnson’s deputy chief of staff, Cristina Pacione-Zayas, told reporters, according to the Chicago Tribune. She also said the city wanted the state to look at “reapplication” of certain state funds.

According to the article, CPZ, a former state senator, pointed to state funding of official Welcoming Centers, which she said could be repurposed to help the migrants. Among many other things last fiscal year, the Illinois General Assembly appropriated $31 million in additional funds for the city and more than $50 million for the state to help deal with the asylum seekers out of the Welcoming Centers program.

“Welcoming Centers are not for asylum seekers exclusively,” Pritzker spokesperson Jordan Abudayyeh emphasized to me. “There are other costs that appropriation has to account for.”

The legislature did approve appropriations for the city’s and state’s migrant responses in the current fiscal year, which will bring total state spending since the crisis began to close to half a billion dollars, the governor’s office says.

And since the city has not done a good job of standing up shelters and then moving people into housing, handing it money intended for the state’s response probably would likely not accomplish all that much. The situation is so bad that migrants are camped in tents outside of police stations now.

But it’s true that not every reallocation of state funding requires a supplemental appropriation bill. Budget items “like rental assistance, support for community-based organizations doing case work and HOME IL lines are increasingly funding services for the asylum seeker response,” Abudayyeh said. The HOME IL program is designed to alleviate homelessness.

This is a very tricky topic. Reallocating money to help asylum seekers only validates complaints by Black and Latino political leaders, including legislators, that their own constituents are being short shrifted by state government in favor of the new arrivals.

Finally, on Friday, Johnson got the message, telling reporters he would wait until next spring to ask for more state money. “When they pass their budget in May, we’ll have some very intentional asks about how we can align our levels of government to meet this demand,” he told reporters, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.

That should help lower the temperature a little by ending the lobbying via news media, which usually doesn’t work in this business anyway. Hopefully, everybody can now get together on the same page and find some actual solutions.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 9:11 am

Comments

It will certainly lower the temperature for the migrants living outside in a Chicago winter if this is ignored until May

The convention in August, which will not be a great look if tent cities are spread all over Chicago by then

Comment by Lucky Pierre Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 9:31 am
===if this is ignored until May===

Who said it was gonna be ignored? The GA appropriated money and the city is about to pass a budget.

Also, since when has your heart bled for the asylum-seekers?

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 9:40 am
I want to call Johnson and his team erratic on this issue, but that’s too kind of a word. I mean, guess who was quoted by Fran Spielman in her Friday story saying this about Lori Lightfoot’s approach to Springfield:

“Our prior mayor sometimes would be very combative. It wasn’t necessarily to her benefit and, more importantly, to the benefit of the city,” he said.

Believe it or not, that came from the Johnson Administration’s bomb-thrower-in-chief, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa. You can’t make this stuff up.

Comment by Telly Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 9:53 am
===since when===

Wholly disingenuous to think they can own the Libs without a rational reflection of who they are.

Not one time has - LP - taken an opportunity to discuss the human beings suffering but it’s always in the context of a “failed policy” lens.

To the post, finally,

===Finally, on Friday, Johnson got the message, telling reporters he would wait until next spring to ask for more state money. “When they pass their budget in May, we’ll have some very intentional asks about how we can align our levels of government to meet this demand,” he told reporters, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.===

The harshest of realities is finally-finally thinking outside dorm room fantasies or Aaron Sorkin wishes, and the realization of 71/36 necessary doesn’t even have a “Chicago” base to cobble votes.

Johnson needs the following;

A political mind in his inner circle that can first be a realist and second be taken seriously to challenges so Johnson looks, sounds, and appears competent to being the executive of the 3rd largest city in America.

As of my comment here, Johnson lacks that touchstone and so much more “on 5”

Great read, Rich. Important read for Johnson and his allies.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 9:55 am
Yes, Mayor Johnson and his team have adopted many of Lori Lightfoot’s political strategies.

Comment by Three Dimensional Checkers Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 10:08 am
I will repeat again Johnson has my sympathies - everyone jumped on him for the tent plan, but nobody outside of Chicago is offering much help, the temperature keeps dropping and the busses keep coming.

Comment by lake county democrat Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 10:36 am
Can find time to take a socialist to the southern border but can’t pick an IGA Director. This is what happens when rock throwers have to govern.

Comment by NotRich Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 10:40 am
===…can’t pick an IGA Director. This is what happens when rock throwers have to govern.===

While not in total disagreement, I’d say that unrealistic expectations and no touchstone in IGA to give the brutal truth to wants, that’s the glaring miss on 5.

Even in dorm rooms there is seemingly one person in that room that bursts the bubbles… now apply that to governance and actual real time governing. It’s lacking spectacularly

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 10:54 am
Give yourselves a raise, pat yourselves on the back, get money from other people at your fundraisers, and then…? “There is simply no appetite in the General Assembly to tackle any super controversial issues during the veto session, which runs from Oct. 24 through Nov. 9.”

Comment by Torco Sign Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 11:05 am
I hope my mayor and his team get the message that they need to figure out a more sustainable plan that looks at the lack of affordable housing, homelessness and the refugee situation as inter-connected. Until they come up with that, I totally support the Guv’s stance. It doesn’t make sense to give money to someone who won’t spend it wisely.

Comment by levivotedforjudy Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 11:12 am
==Great read, Rich. Important read for Johnson and his allies.==

They self importantly declare that they do not read the news, but make it. And making it they are.

This administration is so unbothered with what the public thinks that as public budget hearings get underway, written public comment has been removed as an avenue for participation.

It is understood that Chair Ervin only wanted oral day-of comment because the Mayor did not want written public comment.

Suppression tactics have been in full swing from this administration.

Comment by Chicago Voter Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 11:48 am
I understand the political hurdles here but it is brutally exhausting doing the mutual aid work on the community level. I’m next door to the 9th D CPD. There are around 200 people, 50 children some that are newborn. Our mutual aid group is one of the stronger, better organized ones in the city but people can’t keep doing this. And believe me, volunteers are letting alders and GA members know regularly.

Comment by In Bridgeport Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 11:48 am
==but nobody outside of Chicago is offering much help==

Other than a blank check for $330 million…minus the $29 mil for Guarda World (for tents that aren’t rated below 40 degrees) and $56 mil for Favorite Healthcare Staffing (that’s doing a nice job padding its numbers).

Comment by Jocko Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 12:06 pm
When Johnson won, I thought he had one built-in advantage that Lightfoot lacked: allies in Springfield. CTU/DSA and United Families helped a lot of Dem Reps and Senators get elected in recent years. Johnson began with a cadre of potential Springfield allies to work with, something Lightfoot never had.

But as Rich keeps pointing out, this migrant situation is pulling apart some traditional allies and putting them into different camps. A good political leader would be working overtime to bring those groups together, especially given the stakes involved.

Instead, the Johnson administration is flailing and watching its coalition go to war with itself. He has got to turn this around, by tying together aid for migrants with his overall poverty/housing agenda. He needs a both-and strategy, not the either-or we’ve seen to date.

And the clock is ticking.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 1:26 pm
This is what Nationwide gridlock looks like…nothing will happen while the electoral ball is in the air.

Comment by Dotnonymous x Monday, Oct 16, 23 @ 4:05 pm