Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Lightford’s epic smackdown

Posted in:

Illinois
YouTube

* The Tribune on yesterday’s MAP grant appropriations vote…

Republicans insisted the state’s lack of funds means the measure was a false promise, noting various court orders and laws have put Illinois on track to spend billions more than it is taking in this year.

“I have never seen a more tragic case of playing games with young people’s lives,” said Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon. Righter argued Democrats were following Madigan “like lemmings, right off the cliff.”

That prompted a fiery response from Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, who accused Republicans of blindly following Rauner’s orders to repeatedly vote against spending bills.

“All we hear from you is ‘womp, womp, womp, womp,’” Lightford said. “I don’t even know why you come to the Capitol. Why do you even show up?”

Lightford’s remarks were far more epic than that.

* Listen to her entire speech. Whew…

Yeah, we’re getting so close to a resolution. If only Madigan would just step aside.

Right.

* Related…

* Charlie Wheeler: Budget Fix Needs Statesmanship, Not Magic Tricks: No one should expect Democrats would abandon organized labor and not just because they fear retaliation from House Speaker Michael Madigan, as Rauner and his PR minions like to suggest. Anyone could be the speaker, and most Democrats would continue to believe that working men and women should be able to organize to safeguard their workplace interests. It’s in their DNA. In fact, plenty of Republicans share that belief, including the three GOP chief executives who preceded Rauner.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:15 pm

Comments

Missed the part about the plan to pay the 7.7 billion in late bills in the Comptrollers office without a tax increase

Comment by Lucky Pierre Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:24 pm
Good stuff.
Kimberly did something I strongly encourage others to do as well. RUB the fact that Rauner sandbagged and screwed his own party in the General Assembly regarding educational funding. Remind them that he is not their friend. He shoved the GOP into a corner, they did what he wanted - then he turned around to become the hero at their expense.

This governor is not your friend. No one is benefitting from this governorship. Republicans, as well as everyone else, are getting hurt by him. He does not care.

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:32 pm
The passion was quite something, but the fact that she used real numbers was what I found powerful.

Comment by Earnest Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:32 pm
This should go viral. I have a new hero.

Comment by CCP Hostage Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:32 pm
Nobody said entitlement reform would be easy. One way or another it is happening. Lots of kicking and screaming and vile behavior. Anyone surprised? I’m not.

Comment by Beeker Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:34 pm
Smackdown? Epic? Sounded pretty childish to me.

Funding sources? Or was that one of those “don’t worry about it, money still grows on trees” arguments?

Pretty pathetic state of affairs in Springfield these days.

Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:34 pm
She does this every session. Nothing new.

Comment by Team Sleep Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:37 pm
===She does this every session. Nothing new.===

Which doesn’t invalidate what she said.

Comment by Name Withheld Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:41 pm
People on this blog still defending the decimation of our educational system. She speaks the truth, indeed.

Comment by Trolling Troll Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:43 pm
Anyone who listens to that speech and thinks Lightford is controlled by Madigan, and not voting for her constituents, needs to visit an audiologist.

Comment by AC Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:45 pm
“I’m tellin’ the truth! Pull the record — I’m speaking the truth!”

Amen.

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:45 pm
Withheld - okay, I’ll bite. Then what’s her plan to pay for it? She’s more than welcome to introduce a tax increase bill or a fund sweep bill or a surtax bill or a bill of any kind.

She can dog on Righter all she wants, but he’s at least introduced legislation on the issue. It’s not perfect and Cap Fax types probably wouldn’t like it, but he did drop an actual bill.

Comment by Team Sleep Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:45 pm
===Sounded pretty childish to me.==

Leave Ron Sandack out of this…

===Funding sources? Or was that one of those “don’t worry about it, money still grows on trees” arguments?===

Rauner is getting close to $10 billion more in Illinois debt.

So, there’s that, lol

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:46 pm
Womp. Womp. Womp. Womp. That’s all I heard on the audio clip of Lightford’s “speech.”

Boy those Republicans are so bad. They vote “no” on bills the Democrats put forward. Senator, that speech was an embarrassment to you and your party.

Comment by phocion Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:49 pm
And no - I’m not saying that Senator Lightford doesn’t introduce any legislation. But if she’s gonna stand up there and scream, she needs to back it up with a plan or at least reference a bill.

Comment by Team Sleep Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:50 pm
Amen! She took them to church!

ZERO votes for Education GOP/Rauner. Womp, womp, womp, womp! You guys are getting punked!

Comment by cdog Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:52 pm
Not a Lightford fan normally. She has been the driving force for some legislation that has forced hundreds of districts to expend time and money on problems that just do not exist in those districts. SB 100 is case and point.

But, her rant was spot on yesterday. I listened to Sandack and wanted to try and spin the earth backwards to get that time back in my life afterward. I still do not know what he actually said.

Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:53 pm
“Why doesn’t she do something?” howl Governor No-Budget’s fiercest defenders.

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:54 pm
Will students who shoulda/woulda/coulda got MAP money instead add to their student loan debt? How many years and how much interest will they end up paying on that. (Wonder if Rauner and friends, inc are in on the student loan business?)

Comment by morgan Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:55 pm
MrJM - if you’re gonna throw water balloons at your enemies, then expect to get wet with returned fire.

Comment by Team Sleep Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 12:56 pm
Kim and a whole bunch of Democrats in the GA, especially the Senate, deserve their venting. These people have been busting their butt behind the scenes for over a year to work out both revenue and spending cut plans, and have been stymied by Republican intransigence to go public with any concrete suggestions. They weren’t even allowed to say they were meeting with Democrats, and then were told to stop those meetings altogether (I believe Rich has reported on this). The level of frustration is phenomenal - and not all is directed at the Governor and the Republicans. Just most of it.

Comment by Archiesmom Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:00 pm
“if you’re gonna throw water balloons at your enemies, then expect to get wet with returned fire.”

Eight months into Illinois’ fiscal year and we’re still without a budget from Bruce Rauner.

You’re gonna need a bigger balloon.

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:07 pm
This governor has asked for funding to be reduced by the tax cut. He has made no real effort towards a balanced budget. Now all of a sudden he doesn’t want money spent. Illinois needs educated young people. Illinois needs a healthy college education system. Illinois needs students to stay home for college. Illinois needs for the University of Illinois to remain one the world great universities (except football).
Illinois does not need this bull crap about balanced budgets only focusing on higher education. So very sad.

Comment by Niblets Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:10 pm
To everyone asking where the funding is… Where’s the funding for that “clean” k-12 bill? Is it growing on the same magical tree you accuse the democrats of using here? How about the ten billion dollar deficit this year? Where’s the funding for that? Is that not a direct result of the “no budget until I get the TA passed”? Wasn’t he supposed to be a fiscal hawk? Didn’t vetoing the democrat’s budget last year actually put us 6 billion dollars further in the hole? The next time a Rauner supporter says we don’t have the money I’m tuning them out. We didn’t have the money for any of this mess, but that hasn’t stopped the insanity.

Comment by [moderated comment] Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:12 pm
This is a serious and truthful comment, I have voted in 9 presidential and gubernatorial elections and voted republican each time (save one when I didn’t vote for Quinn or Rauner because I couldn’t stand either one). And I can’t believe I am saying this but I am rooting for Madigan and the Dems all the way on this battle. Rauner, you are not #winning.

Comment by sonny chiss Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:12 pm
Someone needs to check the audio…I listened to it and all I could make out was womp, womp, womp, womp.

Comment by Anon Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:22 pm
From 1990 to 2014, the number of registered voters in suburban Cook County rose from 1.2 million to over 1.4 million. In the same period of time voter turnout fell from 30.2 percent to only 16 percent.

As a whole, Illinois has 7.5 million registered voters, yet the Illinois State Board of Elections reported about 1.4 million ballots cast. Voter turnout for the gubernatorial primary was about 19 percent.

In other words, we’re getting exactly what we deserve. So, sit back, shut up and enjoy the ride.

Comment by Business Unfriendly Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:33 pm
–Smackdown? Epic? Sounded pretty childish to me.–

Because there’s so much dignity in taking the wrecking ball to higher ed and social services while increasing the state’s backlog of unpaid bills from $4.3 billion to $12 billion in just 18 months.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:34 pm
I detect more than a wee bit of misogyny in this thread.

Comment by Chucktownian Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:37 pm
Anon, you may need a hearing aid.

Comment by RIJ Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:39 pm
Would dearly love to hear why the Rs did not vote for the K-12 bill that their CEO signed and now is requesting again for FY17…with increased funding, no less, apparently from the same Magic Money Tree that they won’t use for MAP grants. #RacetotheBottom

Comment by Decaff Coffee Party Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:43 pm
== womp, womp, womp, womp ==

Great statesmanship, Senator.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:43 pm
Team Sleep, I’ll bite. Righter’s bill purports to free up 2016 resources by not repaying borrowing of cash that was spent in 2015 and will not be repaid until 2017. So it doesn’t actually free up any resources in 2016.

Both sides are promoting irresponsibility from a budgetary perspective, but the GOP is doing it with gimmicks and righteous indignation.

Comment by Juice Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:54 pm
Because Lightford’s Village of Maywood is a model community with first class schools.

Comment by Anon Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:57 pm
Amen sister!

Comment by state worker Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:58 pm
False promises to students and families without funding. political expediency trumping decency and respect for citizens that deserve better.

Comment by the Cardinal Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 2:02 pm
As the GOP cries crocodile tears over the university budgets, remember that not a single Republic voted for the university budgets.

Comment by Michelle Flaherty Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 2:07 pm
Thank you, Senator Lightford, for being a voice for the voiceless, especially our students. It’s a sin and a shame that our Governor and Republicans are willing to let our youth go to hell in a handbasket for political principals. May they each personally reap the state that will evolve from the seeds they are sowing with their decision to follow Rauner like lemmings.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 2:08 pm
I commented a couple of weeks ago that the Dems lopped off a chunk from the higher ed budgets during the Quinn years. Lightford voted for all of those budgets, but now she found Jesus.

Comment by Team Sleep Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 2:41 pm
Lightford is right, if you’re not going to vote for a budget that is $4 billion short of projected revenue and not follow Madigan and Cullerton blindly, why would you show up to the capitol?

Comment by Ahoy! Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 3:09 pm
go head, girl. loved it.

Comment by molly maguire Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 3:51 pm
Sen. Lightford’s speech brought me to tears. Then I read the comments.

I don’t notice a difference in my lifestyle at 3.75 and 5. Most of the people I know don’t either. Grants helped me get an education so my children wouldn’t qualify for grants. I see that as a win for the State. The 2500 yearly investment in my educaton has been paid back to the state many many times over. I think Illinois got and continues to get a good return on that money. We need to look at the effects of budget both long term and short term. To fix it, you have to look at more than each election cycle. You need to look at generations. Where are we going to be 20 years from now? What are we doing to our workforce?

Comment by burbanite Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 7:24 pm
The Senator should save some righteous indignation for a) Chicago State, which just lost a whistleblower lawsuit in federal court to the tune of $5 million, including double punitive damages, due to the actions of “President Emiritus” Watson, who is still on the State payroll until June, and b) the other State universities who had the stonies to file amicus briefs on CSU’s behalf, noting their shared financial woes.

While everyone is (rightfully) bashing Rauner, don’t forget we’re going to be paying Quinn’s tab for years to come-this is one fine example.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 9:59 pm