By Jamey Dunn
A new study found that Illinois’ higher education system, once one of the best in the country, has lost substantial ground in recent years
A Story of Decline: Performance and Policy in Illinois Higher Education found that between 1998 and 2008, there was a 10 percent drop in the number of high school graduates who enroll in college within four years of graduation and an 8.5 percent decline in the number of students who enroll in college directly after graduating.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Research on Higher Education also found many factors that could lead to a college degree becoming less affordable in the state. “From 1999 to 2009, median family income in Illinois fell by 7 [percent] in constant dollars while tuition increased by 100 [percent] at public four-year universities and by 38 [percent] at public two-year colleges. At the same time, state support for need-based grants dropped from $1,036 to $745 per undergraduate full-time student, a decline of 28 [percent.]”
The study found racial disparities among Illinois college students. “Blacks and Hispanics and individuals with low incomes are far less likely than other Illinoisans to enroll in college or, if they do enroll, to earn degrees. For example, as of 2009, only 36 [percent] of black students and 44 [percent] of Hispanic students attending four-year colleges and universities were graduating within six years, compared with 66 [percent] of white students and 69 [percent] of Asian-American students,” said the report.
The report pointed to a lack of universal priorities in the state’s higher education planning, as well as the existence of few incentives for schools to increase performance in areas such as graduation rates and closing learning gaps. “The Illinois legislature, for its part, is seen as partisan and lacking consistent and substantive leadership for higher education. State leaders we interviewed, including state legislators, questioned the legislature’s ability to establish shared goals and priorities for higher education,” said the study. The study said that recent governors have not made higher education a priority, and political corruption has only made matters worse.
George Reid, executive director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, said that the study is outdated. “My take on that study is that it might have been accurate two or three years ago, but it definitely does not characterize higher education in Illinois today.”
Reid said the Illinois Public Agenda for College and Career Success, a master plan released by the board in 2008, is an integral part of the turnaround. Reid said many of the problems pointed out in the University of Pennsylvania study are included in the agenda, along with the state’s plan to address them. “The legislature and [Gov. Pat Quinn] and all of us are now singing from the same hymn book,” he said.
Reid said the board is working to address the performance gaps found in Illinois’ higher education system. “We know we have two states of Illinois.” He said one state is filled with residents who have financial security. However, Reid said, “we have this underside of Illinois where people are not doing well — where they don’t have a job, and their economic outlook is not good. … What we found out in the public agenda is that if you have a college degree, that is the gateway of rising out of that underside.”
The authors of the report agree that education is the key to closing that so-called prosperity gap. However, they say the agenda needs more focus. “There are so many recommendations without a clear sense of the priorities,” said Laura Perna, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and an author of the report. She said that especially during a budget crisis, state leaders must agree on a set of realistic priorities if the higher education system is to be led in a coherent direction.
The report cites funding cuts as part of the problem, and said the often staggering totals of overdue payments to universities have eroded trust between academic leadership and lawmakers. However, the report also said that the decline began before Illinois’ current budget crisis. “The state is also facing substantial fiscal shortfalls, but it is important to note that the decline in higher education performance began before the recent budget challenges; it is likely that increased funding alone will not improve performance.”
Illinois is looking to create financial incentives for schools to improve performance. In August, Quinn signed House Bill 1503, which is the first step to linking funding and school performance. The bill calls for a commission to create metrics to measure the performance of higher education institutions. Chicago Democratic Sen. Edward Maloney said that work on the metrics has been productive and he expects them to be released sometime next month. He said that one important detail has been to ensure that schools are not measured in an across-the-board manner, but that the system takes into account each institution's unique circumstances and mission. He said one way this might be accomplished is giving schools more credit for positive outcomes for students who have been determined as “at risk.”
Maloney, chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, said that the amount of funding linked to performance would likely be small at first. He said that one of the biggest challenges to the plan is the state budget. Maloney said the idea is to reward schools that are doing well, not punish schools that are under-achieving. But he said if higher education funding is cut or even holds steady, the end result would be punitive — taking away money from current funding levels — instead of a positive incentive — getting bonus funds for good performance. “The higher ed community has celebrated flat funding as a victory. That is unfortunate, but that’s where we’re at.”
Perna and her research partner, Joni Finney, who is also a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, looked at Illinois as part of a series of five state studies and plan to release data on other states in the near future. The project focuses on the possible causes of higher education outcomes in different states. Perna said that other states are struggling with issues similar to those facing Illinois. However, she said that the findings in Illinois are particularly disheartening because the state was performing very well in recent years. According to the study, Illinois was a leader on enrollment rates and college affordability during the mid-90s. “Illinois was once a state that people looked to as the model for higher education performance, as well as public policy and government, and it's not really any longer,” Perna said. She said that Illinois' more positive performance history is an indicator that higher education in the state could bounce back. “The potential is there, but there’s been a serious erosion. … Some profound things have to change.”
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Several tax breaks are on the table
By Jamey Dunn
Illinois lawmakers took a look at ways to change tax policy in the state as part of a package to keep companies that have threatened to leave.
Threats to leave the state from the CME group, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, spurred work on a package that could offer tax relief to CME, other businesses and Illinois families.
Lawmakers are considering a number of tax tweaks meant to spur economic growth, including:
The plan would be paid for in part by decoupling from a federal tax incentive meant to encourage businesses to buy equipment. The plan allows businesses to deduct more of the costs of such purchases upfront, instead of spreading it out over several years. Illinois links its practices to the federal tax code, but if it were to “decouple” from the feds on this policy, the Department of Revenue estimates that it would mean an additional $571 million in revenue for Fiscal Year 2012, and another $354 million next fiscal year. These estimates are based on applying a decoupling retroactively back to January.
Many who testified today at committee hearing on the package said that such a retroactive action would be unfair to businesses that bought equipment under the current rules. John Stevens—owner of Stevens Implement Company, a John Deere dealership in Petersburg— said his sales have gone up 10 percent in the last year, and the increase has allowed him to hire more staff. The tax incentive, known as bonus depreciation, is “one of the major reasons we have seen our sales increase in 2011.”
Stevens said the change would pull the rug out from under companies that have made large purchases in “good faith” under the bonus depreciation plan. “Large investments like this must be planned well in advance to engineer, schedule and finance while considering all tax implications.”
Creating a package that can pass will be a difficult task. Legislators on both sides of the aisle support the idea of making some tax changes to spur the economy, but opinions differ on what is needed. Senate President John Cullerton introduced a plan that only targets exchanges, such as CME. Many Republicans did not support the measure, saying it was unfair to help out one large business when many small companies are struggling. Gov. Pat Quinn has backed an increase to the Earned Income Tax Credit since lawmakers were weighing tax increase options shortly after he took office. However, all of these tax breaks will suck up precious revenue in a time when the state is making cuts to education, human services and politically popular programs. The difficulty in weighing all these considerations likely played a part in the issue being pushed out of the regular veto session and into some specially scheduled session time later this month. Another hearing is scheduled on Friday, and the full House is scheduled to return to Springfield to take up a plan on November 29.
For more on the businesses lobbying the General Assembly, see the current Illinois Issues.
Illinois lawmakers took a look at ways to change tax policy in the state as part of a package to keep companies that have threatened to leave.
Threats to leave the state from the CME group, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, spurred work on a package that could offer tax relief to CME, other businesses and Illinois families.
Lawmakers are considering a number of tax tweaks meant to spur economic growth, including:
- Changing the way the state calculates the tax bill for CME and other exchanges in the state by reducing the percentage of sales that are taxable. Currently, CME’s income tax is calculated based on all of its sales even though online trading leads to many of the sales going to customers outside Illinois The Illinois Department of Revenue estimates that this change would cost the state about $85 million in revenue.
- Extending the research and development tax credit. The Department of Revenue estimates that this would cost about $40 million a year.
- Increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit for working families from 5 percent of the federal credit to 15 percent over two years. According to the Department of Revenue, the increase would cost about $112 million annually.The department estimates 900,000 households or 2.5 million residents would benefit from the credit.
- Reinstating the Net Operating Loss Credit that allows businesses to write off losses. It was temporarily removed under the tax increase passed in January. The Department of Revenue estimates that this would eat up about $275 million each year.
- Reducing to $100 the fees companies must pay to become corporations, which can range from $500 to $750. The change would cost about $12 million in state and local revenue.
The plan would be paid for in part by decoupling from a federal tax incentive meant to encourage businesses to buy equipment. The plan allows businesses to deduct more of the costs of such purchases upfront, instead of spreading it out over several years. Illinois links its practices to the federal tax code, but if it were to “decouple” from the feds on this policy, the Department of Revenue estimates that it would mean an additional $571 million in revenue for Fiscal Year 2012, and another $354 million next fiscal year. These estimates are based on applying a decoupling retroactively back to January.
Many who testified today at committee hearing on the package said that such a retroactive action would be unfair to businesses that bought equipment under the current rules. John Stevens—owner of Stevens Implement Company, a John Deere dealership in Petersburg— said his sales have gone up 10 percent in the last year, and the increase has allowed him to hire more staff. The tax incentive, known as bonus depreciation, is “one of the major reasons we have seen our sales increase in 2011.”
Stevens said the change would pull the rug out from under companies that have made large purchases in “good faith” under the bonus depreciation plan. “Large investments like this must be planned well in advance to engineer, schedule and finance while considering all tax implications.”
Creating a package that can pass will be a difficult task. Legislators on both sides of the aisle support the idea of making some tax changes to spur the economy, but opinions differ on what is needed. Senate President John Cullerton introduced a plan that only targets exchanges, such as CME. Many Republicans did not support the measure, saying it was unfair to help out one large business when many small companies are struggling. Gov. Pat Quinn has backed an increase to the Earned Income Tax Credit since lawmakers were weighing tax increase options shortly after he took office. However, all of these tax breaks will suck up precious revenue in a time when the state is making cuts to education, human services and politically popular programs. The difficulty in weighing all these considerations likely played a part in the issue being pushed out of the regular veto session and into some specially scheduled session time later this month. Another hearing is scheduled on Friday, and the full House is scheduled to return to Springfield to take up a plan on November 29.
For more on the businesses lobbying the General Assembly, see the current Illinois Issues.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Catholic Charities to end fight over foster care
By Jamey Dunn
Catholic Charities has given up its fight to administer foster care and adoption services in the state of Illinois.
The Thomas More Society announced today that it plans to drop its lawsuit against the state. The organization argued that the state did not have the right to end contracts with Catholic Charities to provide adoption and foster care services.
The dispute was over placing children in the homes of couples who have a civil union. Church representatives said it went against the organization’s belief system to place children with unmarried couples. Catholic Charities pushed for legislation that would have allowed them to refer couples in a civil union to another adoption and foster care provider, but the measure was shot down in committee. Kendall Marlowe, a spokesperson for the Department of Children and Family Services, said the agency did not renew the contracts because representatives of Catholic Charities voiced the organization’s intention not to comply with the state’s new civil unions law.
Opponents to ending the contracts say that provisions in the civil union law itself should protect religious-based organizations in situations like the one Catholic Charities is facing. “The dismantling of Catholic Charities’ foster care ministry marks a tragic end to 90 years of foster care service by some of the most effective child welfare agencies in Illinois,” Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society, said in a written statement. “The Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act only passed after specific assurances that the law would not impact the work of religious social service agencies. Specific protections for these agencies were written into the law, but unfortunately, Illinois officials refused to abide by those protections. This stands as a stark lesson to the rest of the nation that legislators promising ‘religious protection’ in same sex marriage and civil union laws may not be able to deliver on those promises.”
However, civil rights advocates argue that when an organization—religious or otherwise—goes into business with the state, it must treat everyone equally and fulfill all requirements set out by state law. “When a private organization — even a private religiously affiliated organization — performs what is really quintessentially a government function, such as screening foster homes for licensure or caring for the wards of the state, it must abide by the laws that bind the government. If the religiously affiliated organization does not want to abide by these laws, it should exercise its choice not to accept those government duties,” said Mary Dixon, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.
Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Schmidt ruled in August that Catholic Charities was not entitled to new contracts. “No citizen has a recognized legal right to contract with the government,” the opinion said. The Thomas More Society has filed an injunction trying to halt the end of contracts with Catholic Charities affiliates of the dioceses of Springfield, Joliet, Belleville and Peoria. But the group said it now plans to end its legal battle.
Catholic Charities has given up its fight to administer foster care and adoption services in the state of Illinois.
The Thomas More Society announced today that it plans to drop its lawsuit against the state. The organization argued that the state did not have the right to end contracts with Catholic Charities to provide adoption and foster care services.
The dispute was over placing children in the homes of couples who have a civil union. Church representatives said it went against the organization’s belief system to place children with unmarried couples. Catholic Charities pushed for legislation that would have allowed them to refer couples in a civil union to another adoption and foster care provider, but the measure was shot down in committee. Kendall Marlowe, a spokesperson for the Department of Children and Family Services, said the agency did not renew the contracts because representatives of Catholic Charities voiced the organization’s intention not to comply with the state’s new civil unions law.
Opponents to ending the contracts say that provisions in the civil union law itself should protect religious-based organizations in situations like the one Catholic Charities is facing. “The dismantling of Catholic Charities’ foster care ministry marks a tragic end to 90 years of foster care service by some of the most effective child welfare agencies in Illinois,” Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society, said in a written statement. “The Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act only passed after specific assurances that the law would not impact the work of religious social service agencies. Specific protections for these agencies were written into the law, but unfortunately, Illinois officials refused to abide by those protections. This stands as a stark lesson to the rest of the nation that legislators promising ‘religious protection’ in same sex marriage and civil union laws may not be able to deliver on those promises.”
However, civil rights advocates argue that when an organization—religious or otherwise—goes into business with the state, it must treat everyone equally and fulfill all requirements set out by state law. “When a private organization — even a private religiously affiliated organization — performs what is really quintessentially a government function, such as screening foster homes for licensure or caring for the wards of the state, it must abide by the laws that bind the government. If the religiously affiliated organization does not want to abide by these laws, it should exercise its choice not to accept those government duties,” said Mary Dixon, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.
Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Schmidt ruled in August that Catholic Charities was not entitled to new contracts. “No citizen has a recognized legal right to contract with the government,” the opinion said. The Thomas More Society has filed an injunction trying to halt the end of contracts with Catholic Charities affiliates of the dioceses of Springfield, Joliet, Belleville and Peoria. But the group said it now plans to end its legal battle.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Veto session roundup
By Jamey Dunn
While Illinois lawmakers pushed some issues to additional session days scheduled later this month, they did pass a few substantial pieces of legislation.
Regional superintendent pay
The wait for paychecks will end for regional superintendents after Gov. Pat Quinn signs Senate Bill 2147. Quinn vetoed the funds for the administrators’ salaries, and while many have remained on the job, they have not been paid since summer. The measure draws from local revenues to compensate superintendents for one year. The bill also calls for a task force to study a potential consolidation of some of the Regional Offices of Education, which are run by the superintendents. Lawmakers expressed frustration with Quinn for cutting the funding for the superintendents' pay without a plan for who would take over their legally required duties, including school inspection and teacher certification. “We should be ashamed of the position that the governor’s veto has put us in,” said Spring Valley Democratic Rep. Frank Mautino, a sponsor of SB2147.
Quinn has maintained that local governments should pay for their salaries. A spokesperson for Quinn said that he plans to sign the bill.
Speed cameras
The city of Chicago could install cameras to catch speeders around parks and schools if Quinn signs SB965. The cameras would take a picture of the license plates of speeders who then would be mailed a ticket. They would not be charged with a moving violation. The offense would be on par with a parking ticket. And, like a parking ticket, the owner of the car, who may or may not have been driving at the time of the violation, would be responsible for the ticket.
Unemployment insurance
Legislators also approved a plan to address the state’s growing obligation to the federal government for unemployment benefits. The state has been borrowing money for the feds to keep pace with unemployment benefits paid out during the recession. The interest bill would have reached an estimated $240 million, which would have come out of general revenue funds. Under SB72, business will have to pay up to make the trust fund that pays benefits solvent. However, the interest payment and even larger penalties for businesses that would have happened if no action were taken, would be avoided. Companies that have not had any layoffs, nearly half of businesses in Illinois, would pay less. The plan passed with bipartisan support and the backing of the business and labor communities. “Many of us have campaigned that we want to help business out. … Well, here is your bill,” said Sen. Kyle McCarter during floor debate. Quinn also supports the measure. "We are in difficult economic times, and we need to bolster our unemployment insurance program to protect both workers and businesses," Quinn said in a prepared statement. “As we did with our workers’ compensation overhaul this spring, we brought everyone to the table to find a solution.”
For a comprehensive look at the unemployment insurance trust fund, see Illinois Issues November 2010.
House Speaker Michael Madigan said the House plans to return for session on November 29. Senate President Cullerton said his chamber would return before the end of the year to take up issues that were not resolved during the veto session.
While Illinois lawmakers pushed some issues to additional session days scheduled later this month, they did pass a few substantial pieces of legislation.
Regional superintendent pay
The wait for paychecks will end for regional superintendents after Gov. Pat Quinn signs Senate Bill 2147. Quinn vetoed the funds for the administrators’ salaries, and while many have remained on the job, they have not been paid since summer. The measure draws from local revenues to compensate superintendents for one year. The bill also calls for a task force to study a potential consolidation of some of the Regional Offices of Education, which are run by the superintendents. Lawmakers expressed frustration with Quinn for cutting the funding for the superintendents' pay without a plan for who would take over their legally required duties, including school inspection and teacher certification. “We should be ashamed of the position that the governor’s veto has put us in,” said Spring Valley Democratic Rep. Frank Mautino, a sponsor of SB2147.
Quinn has maintained that local governments should pay for their salaries. A spokesperson for Quinn said that he plans to sign the bill.
Speed cameras
The city of Chicago could install cameras to catch speeders around parks and schools if Quinn signs SB965. The cameras would take a picture of the license plates of speeders who then would be mailed a ticket. They would not be charged with a moving violation. The offense would be on par with a parking ticket. And, like a parking ticket, the owner of the car, who may or may not have been driving at the time of the violation, would be responsible for the ticket.
Unemployment insurance
Legislators also approved a plan to address the state’s growing obligation to the federal government for unemployment benefits. The state has been borrowing money for the feds to keep pace with unemployment benefits paid out during the recession. The interest bill would have reached an estimated $240 million, which would have come out of general revenue funds. Under SB72, business will have to pay up to make the trust fund that pays benefits solvent. However, the interest payment and even larger penalties for businesses that would have happened if no action were taken, would be avoided. Companies that have not had any layoffs, nearly half of businesses in Illinois, would pay less. The plan passed with bipartisan support and the backing of the business and labor communities. “Many of us have campaigned that we want to help business out. … Well, here is your bill,” said Sen. Kyle McCarter during floor debate. Quinn also supports the measure. "We are in difficult economic times, and we need to bolster our unemployment insurance program to protect both workers and businesses," Quinn said in a prepared statement. “As we did with our workers’ compensation overhaul this spring, we brought everyone to the table to find a solution.”
For a comprehensive look at the unemployment insurance trust fund, see Illinois Issues November 2010.
House Speaker Michael Madigan said the House plans to return for session on November 29. Senate President Cullerton said his chamber would return before the end of the year to take up issues that were not resolved during the veto session.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Quinn hopes to slow facility closures
By Jamey Dunn
Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to close seven state facilities may soon be put on hold, but layoff notices have already gone out to some workers.
Members of the General Assembly are in talks with Quinn about shifting funds to avoid the looming closures, which Quinn had planned to implement in the closing months of 2011 and the beginning of 2012. Kelly Kraft, Quinn’s budget spokesperson, said she expects an agreement to be reached when lawmakers return for an additional session beginning on November 29. The House announced last night plans to return to the Capitol later this month to work on a business friendly tax incentive plan that didn’t gel during the time frame that legislative leaders set for the General Assembly's fall veto session.
But Quinn has not backed away from the idea of closing state institutions. The new plan calls for the shuttering up to four centers for the developmentally disabled and at least two mental health centers.
The plan would transition about 600 of the 2,000 people with developmental disabilities in state institutions to community care settings. Michael Gelder, senior health policy adviser to the governor said the transition would take two and a half years. Once the plan gets rolling, he said, about 20 people a month would be transferred according to individual transition plans based on assessments of their needs.
“As appropriations increase, we’ll be able to maintain these facilities over the course of this year. That is our goal,” Gelder said.
Gelder said the plan could result in closing more than two psychiatric hospitals by 2014. “That would be the minimum. We think we could do more with that planned thoughtful approach working with local hospitals and working with other community base service providers to prevent emergency psychiatric admissions that are now treated in our state centers.”
Kraft said the money to keep the facilities open would likely come from Quinn’s budget vetoes, which stand because they did not come up for a vote this week, and transfers from special funds — the same funds targeted by Senate Democrats as a revenue source during their failed attempt to add spending to the budget shortly after it passed. She said federal Medicaid dollars might also be tapped.
Union officials, who represent many workers at state institutions, were not impressed with Quinn’s new plan to close facilities in a slower and more deliberate manner. “Governor Quinn is under fire for his irresponsible push to cut mental health care, force people with severe developmental disabilities out of the homes they have chosen and destroy thousands of middle-class jobs. Spreading that pain out over the coming years doesn’t make it any less wrong,” Anders Lindall, spokesperson for the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31, said in a written statement.
The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability voted to keep all seven facilities open. Though many members said they thought some facilities should be closed, they objected to Quinn’s rushed timeline. Republican legislators, including House Majority Leader Tom Cross, have accused Quinn of targeting facilities in Republican districts. These opponents called on the governor to slow down the process and put all state facilities on the table.
“There’s a right way to close these places and a wrong way to do it, and I thought this was the wrong way,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, an Orland Park Democrat. “We are over-institutionalized in our state. We understand that. We want to move forward.” COGFA plays an advisory role in the process, but according to COGFA co-chair Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, no governor has gone against its recommendations on a facility closure.
While lawmakers argue that they want all facilities up for consideration, many members of COGFA say that it would be impossible to close either the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln or the Chester Mental health center, which houses the criminally insane. “There are two facilities I think that we just couldn’t close, and it’s incumbent upon us to find the resources. One is Chester, one is Logan [Correctional Center in Lincoln,]” Rep. Michael Tryon, a Crystal Lake Republican, said at a previous COGFA hearing. “[Chester is] the only maximum security facility for the criminally insane and those who are not fit to stand trial. … These are not the kind or prisoners that we should put in Alton [Mental Health Center] or any other facility.”
The proposed plan to close Logan, which Schoenberg said “defies imagination,” involves housing prisoners in the gymnasiums of other prisons.
The new tack described by Gelder did not focus on correctional facilities, although Quinn’s original plan called for closing Logan and the Illinois Youth Center in Murphysboro. “We would rather spend less on maintenance of institutions and more on the people who are served in [them.] So we will move ahead with a planned thoughtful approach — stopping admissions, initiating assessments and completing care plans and transition plans that will enable us to serve and meet the needs of the people that we all want to meet wherever they are in the state,”Gelder said . “We will work with the General Assembly…to identify the facilities and prioritize those facilities. Not everybody is going to agree.”
Although members of Quinn’s administration say he wants to put the breaks on closures, the state sent out layoff notices earlier this month to 200 employees of the Tinley Park Mental Health Center. The layoffs would be effective December 3. Kraft said if legislation to shift funds is passed soon, it would save those workers’ jobs, but the state is obligated by law to give them layoff notices because the money is not there to pay them. If a plan is not approved soon, about 160 workers at the Singer Mental Health Center in Rockford would be the next to get pink slips.
Kraft said there are no plans to reinstate 21 Department of Agriculture employees who have already been laid off under the original closure plan.
COGFA co-chair Rep. Patricia Bellock said hearings held throughout the state on the proposed closures helped to raise awareness among lawmakers about the need to give more patients access to community based care. “Besides the 12 members of COGFA, at all those hearings, the local legislators were there. So now you have 35 or 40 legislators who are familiar with this process in Illinois of institutionalization and are ready to move forward with the [Quinn] administration on this in a serious way,” said Bellock, a Hinsdale Republican.
She added, “This will not go away.”
Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to close seven state facilities may soon be put on hold, but layoff notices have already gone out to some workers.
Members of the General Assembly are in talks with Quinn about shifting funds to avoid the looming closures, which Quinn had planned to implement in the closing months of 2011 and the beginning of 2012. Kelly Kraft, Quinn’s budget spokesperson, said she expects an agreement to be reached when lawmakers return for an additional session beginning on November 29. The House announced last night plans to return to the Capitol later this month to work on a business friendly tax incentive plan that didn’t gel during the time frame that legislative leaders set for the General Assembly's fall veto session.
But Quinn has not backed away from the idea of closing state institutions. The new plan calls for the shuttering up to four centers for the developmentally disabled and at least two mental health centers.
The plan would transition about 600 of the 2,000 people with developmental disabilities in state institutions to community care settings. Michael Gelder, senior health policy adviser to the governor said the transition would take two and a half years. Once the plan gets rolling, he said, about 20 people a month would be transferred according to individual transition plans based on assessments of their needs.
“As appropriations increase, we’ll be able to maintain these facilities over the course of this year. That is our goal,” Gelder said.
Gelder said the plan could result in closing more than two psychiatric hospitals by 2014. “That would be the minimum. We think we could do more with that planned thoughtful approach working with local hospitals and working with other community base service providers to prevent emergency psychiatric admissions that are now treated in our state centers.”
Kraft said the money to keep the facilities open would likely come from Quinn’s budget vetoes, which stand because they did not come up for a vote this week, and transfers from special funds — the same funds targeted by Senate Democrats as a revenue source during their failed attempt to add spending to the budget shortly after it passed. She said federal Medicaid dollars might also be tapped.
Union officials, who represent many workers at state institutions, were not impressed with Quinn’s new plan to close facilities in a slower and more deliberate manner. “Governor Quinn is under fire for his irresponsible push to cut mental health care, force people with severe developmental disabilities out of the homes they have chosen and destroy thousands of middle-class jobs. Spreading that pain out over the coming years doesn’t make it any less wrong,” Anders Lindall, spokesperson for the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31, said in a written statement.
The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability voted to keep all seven facilities open. Though many members said they thought some facilities should be closed, they objected to Quinn’s rushed timeline. Republican legislators, including House Majority Leader Tom Cross, have accused Quinn of targeting facilities in Republican districts. These opponents called on the governor to slow down the process and put all state facilities on the table.
“There’s a right way to close these places and a wrong way to do it, and I thought this was the wrong way,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, an Orland Park Democrat. “We are over-institutionalized in our state. We understand that. We want to move forward.” COGFA plays an advisory role in the process, but according to COGFA co-chair Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, no governor has gone against its recommendations on a facility closure.
While lawmakers argue that they want all facilities up for consideration, many members of COGFA say that it would be impossible to close either the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln or the Chester Mental health center, which houses the criminally insane. “There are two facilities I think that we just couldn’t close, and it’s incumbent upon us to find the resources. One is Chester, one is Logan [Correctional Center in Lincoln,]” Rep. Michael Tryon, a Crystal Lake Republican, said at a previous COGFA hearing. “[Chester is] the only maximum security facility for the criminally insane and those who are not fit to stand trial. … These are not the kind or prisoners that we should put in Alton [Mental Health Center] or any other facility.”
The proposed plan to close Logan, which Schoenberg said “defies imagination,” involves housing prisoners in the gymnasiums of other prisons.
The new tack described by Gelder did not focus on correctional facilities, although Quinn’s original plan called for closing Logan and the Illinois Youth Center in Murphysboro. “We would rather spend less on maintenance of institutions and more on the people who are served in [them.] So we will move ahead with a planned thoughtful approach — stopping admissions, initiating assessments and completing care plans and transition plans that will enable us to serve and meet the needs of the people that we all want to meet wherever they are in the state,”Gelder said . “We will work with the General Assembly…to identify the facilities and prioritize those facilities. Not everybody is going to agree.”
Although members of Quinn’s administration say he wants to put the breaks on closures, the state sent out layoff notices earlier this month to 200 employees of the Tinley Park Mental Health Center. The layoffs would be effective December 3. Kraft said if legislation to shift funds is passed soon, it would save those workers’ jobs, but the state is obligated by law to give them layoff notices because the money is not there to pay them. If a plan is not approved soon, about 160 workers at the Singer Mental Health Center in Rockford would be the next to get pink slips.
Kraft said there are no plans to reinstate 21 Department of Agriculture employees who have already been laid off under the original closure plan.
COGFA co-chair Rep. Patricia Bellock said hearings held throughout the state on the proposed closures helped to raise awareness among lawmakers about the need to give more patients access to community based care. “Besides the 12 members of COGFA, at all those hearings, the local legislators were there. So now you have 35 or 40 legislators who are familiar with this process in Illinois of institutionalization and are ready to move forward with the [Quinn] administration on this in a serious way,” said Bellock, a Hinsdale Republican.
She added, “This will not go away.”
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
House plans additional session to finish business incentive plan
By Jamey Dunn
UPDATED ON NOVEMBER 10: Speaker Michael Madigan announced on the House floor today that members of the chamber will return for session on November 29. That is a change from last night's announcement of November 21.
Lawmakers will likely be returning to Springfield later this month to wrap up a plan intended to keep businesses in the state.
As the legislative session was drawing to a close this evening, it was announced on the House floor that legislators should be prepared to return to the Statehouse for session on November 21. Veto session was originally scheduled to last through tomorrow. “It will be an opportunity for the House Revenue Committee to report a tax incentive bill,” House Speaker Michael Madigan said after the announcement. When asked whether the tax incentive package, which began as a plan to keep the CME Group from making good on threats to leave the state, would be addressed, Madigan said, “That’s the plan.”
A spokesperson for Senate President John Cullerton said Cullerton is “surveying his members” to see if they are available for more session days.
Cullerton introduced a bill that would cut taxes for the CME Group, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade. CME representatives said the recent income tax increase would result in the company owing the state $158 million. Republicans demanded other business friendly provisions and said they would not support a bill that was geared to only one business. Sears is also looking for incentive to stay in the state. Since the introduction of the bill, wish lists from all sides have been piled on, and Madigan seems to be seeking more time to iron out a deal that can pass.
Additional session days would allow sponsors who have been unable to drum up support for their bills more time to try an find “yes” votes.
One such sponsor could be Skokie Democratic Rep. Lou Lang. Senate Bill 1849, a revamped version of a gaming expansion package, failed to pass today in the House. Lang said yesterday that he was seeking a veto-proof majority, but the bill failed to gain even the simple majority needed to move it over to the Senate.
Lang said the new bill was a better version of a gaming package that lawmakers approved last spring. “This bill provides less gaming and more oversight.” He said he took Gov. Pat Quinn’s complaints about SB 744, which Quinn vowed to veto, under consideration when drafting the new plan. But in the end, the sticking point is allowing horse racing tracks to have slot machines. Quinn is opposed and Lang and Waukegan Democratic Sen. Terry Link, who is the gaming point man in his chamber, say a gambling expansion cannot pass in the legislature without them. Quinn’s office did not respond to an inquiry about the governor’s position on SB 1849.
“The first thing that the governor said was, No help for our agribusiness people. No help for central and southern Illinois. 'No help for you. You’re on your own. You’re on your own. Oh, we’ll continue to cut jobs in your communities. We’ll close facilities in your communities,'” Lang said during floor debate. “It would make me angry if I lived in central Illinois.”
Lang attempted to tweak legislative frustration with the governor toward his favor, but in the end, it may have been Quinn’s opposition that pulled off of this new bill at least some of the original 65 “yes” votes for the larger gaming package approved in spring.
Madigan said Quinn’s opposition to slots at horse racing tracks and what most see as an inevitable veto for SB 1849, if it should pass, may have damped support. “That could dissuade people from voting yes.”
“Clearly several people who voted for this in May did not vote for it today. I had several members who voted no last time that told me that they were going to vote yes today,” Lang said. “We’ll get to the bottom of it and figure out if we can find the necessary votes to pass it by tomorrow.”
Lang said legislators should not allow Quinn’s veto threats to sway their votes. “That happens around here a lot. And that would be not a proper way to make legislation. We have a Constitution that provides for three coequal branches of government, and I would hope that legislators would not abdicate their responsibilities under the Constitution worrying about what [the governor] might do if we pass a bill.”
Other issues could bleed into extra session days. House Minority Leader Tom Cross has yet to call, SB 512, his plan to reduce pension benefits for workers hired before reduced benefits kicked in this year. The deadline has passed to override Quinn’s budget vetoes, which include a cut to Medicaid reimbursements for hospitals and an unpopular cut to funding for school transportation. Without a corresponding rate cut, the Medicaid reduction would essentially push bills into next fiscal year. The vetoes stand, so lawmakers may look to make budget tweaks in the near future.
UPDATED ON NOVEMBER 10: Speaker Michael Madigan announced on the House floor today that members of the chamber will return for session on November 29. That is a change from last night's announcement of November 21.
Lawmakers will likely be returning to Springfield later this month to wrap up a plan intended to keep businesses in the state.
As the legislative session was drawing to a close this evening, it was announced on the House floor that legislators should be prepared to return to the Statehouse for session on November 21. Veto session was originally scheduled to last through tomorrow. “It will be an opportunity for the House Revenue Committee to report a tax incentive bill,” House Speaker Michael Madigan said after the announcement. When asked whether the tax incentive package, which began as a plan to keep the CME Group from making good on threats to leave the state, would be addressed, Madigan said, “That’s the plan.”
A spokesperson for Senate President John Cullerton said Cullerton is “surveying his members” to see if they are available for more session days.
Cullerton introduced a bill that would cut taxes for the CME Group, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade. CME representatives said the recent income tax increase would result in the company owing the state $158 million. Republicans demanded other business friendly provisions and said they would not support a bill that was geared to only one business. Sears is also looking for incentive to stay in the state. Since the introduction of the bill, wish lists from all sides have been piled on, and Madigan seems to be seeking more time to iron out a deal that can pass.
Additional session days would allow sponsors who have been unable to drum up support for their bills more time to try an find “yes” votes.
One such sponsor could be Skokie Democratic Rep. Lou Lang. Senate Bill 1849, a revamped version of a gaming expansion package, failed to pass today in the House. Lang said yesterday that he was seeking a veto-proof majority, but the bill failed to gain even the simple majority needed to move it over to the Senate.
Lang said the new bill was a better version of a gaming package that lawmakers approved last spring. “This bill provides less gaming and more oversight.” He said he took Gov. Pat Quinn’s complaints about SB 744, which Quinn vowed to veto, under consideration when drafting the new plan. But in the end, the sticking point is allowing horse racing tracks to have slot machines. Quinn is opposed and Lang and Waukegan Democratic Sen. Terry Link, who is the gaming point man in his chamber, say a gambling expansion cannot pass in the legislature without them. Quinn’s office did not respond to an inquiry about the governor’s position on SB 1849.
“The first thing that the governor said was, No help for our agribusiness people. No help for central and southern Illinois. 'No help for you. You’re on your own. You’re on your own. Oh, we’ll continue to cut jobs in your communities. We’ll close facilities in your communities,'” Lang said during floor debate. “It would make me angry if I lived in central Illinois.”
Lang attempted to tweak legislative frustration with the governor toward his favor, but in the end, it may have been Quinn’s opposition that pulled off of this new bill at least some of the original 65 “yes” votes for the larger gaming package approved in spring.
Madigan said Quinn’s opposition to slots at horse racing tracks and what most see as an inevitable veto for SB 1849, if it should pass, may have damped support. “That could dissuade people from voting yes.”
“Clearly several people who voted for this in May did not vote for it today. I had several members who voted no last time that told me that they were going to vote yes today,” Lang said. “We’ll get to the bottom of it and figure out if we can find the necessary votes to pass it by tomorrow.”
Lang said legislators should not allow Quinn’s veto threats to sway their votes. “That happens around here a lot. And that would be not a proper way to make legislation. We have a Constitution that provides for three coequal branches of government, and I would hope that legislators would not abdicate their responsibilities under the Constitution worrying about what [the governor] might do if we pass a bill.”
Other issues could bleed into extra session days. House Minority Leader Tom Cross has yet to call, SB 512, his plan to reduce pension benefits for workers hired before reduced benefits kicked in this year. The deadline has passed to override Quinn’s budget vetoes, which include a cut to Medicaid reimbursements for hospitals and an unpopular cut to funding for school transportation. Without a corresponding rate cut, the Medicaid reduction would essentially push bills into next fiscal year. The vetoes stand, so lawmakers may look to make budget tweaks in the near future.
House approves plan to pay school administrators
By Jamey Dunn
School officials who have worked for months without pay are one step closer to getting a paycheck.
The Illinois House today approved Senate Bill 2147, which would pay regional superintendents out of a local revenue stream. The administrators have not received pay since Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed the funding for their salaries last summer. However, many have continued to work. Regional superintendents' duties include inspecting schools, certifying teachers, training bus drivers and conducting background checks on job applicants.
The legislation's sponsor, Rep. Frank Mautino, a Spring Valley Democrat, called the situation “an embarrassment to the state of Illinois, and it needs to be corrected.”
The bill would allow for regional superintendents to be paid for one year, including back pay from the time they have worked without compensation, out of corporate personal property replacement tax revenues. The measure also calls for the creation of a task force that would make recommendations on potential consolidation of the Regional Offices of Education, which are run by the superintendents.
Mautino said that the plan would cost about $13 million. “It’s a one year hit of less than 1 percent, less than a penny on the dollar.” But local representatives of local governments say the real issue is not the price tag, it’s about the state shifting the cost onto local governments of an office created by the legislature.
Joe McCoy, legislative director for the Illinois Municipal League, said the move to pay regional superintendents from local funds falls into a larger pattern of the state looking to shift expenses to local governments during the current budget crisis. He said there is concern that some lawmakers are starting to view money from the personal property replacement tax as a “slush fund of the state of Illinois.”
McCoy said that although the provision that would end payment out of the tax revenue after one year does provide a safeguard, “it doesn’t really address our underlying concern, which is that the state is going to begin to cost shift onto local governments.”
The deadline has passed for lawmakers to override Quinn’s veto, so the bill appears to be the superintendents’ only hope. “We have to act today because an override is no longer an option. Because if we do not, the next time we will meet will be in January, and they will not have been paid for seven months,” Mautino said today on the House floor.
But some opponents said the General Assembly should not swoop in to fix a problem that Quinn created. "I don’t know how many times we’re going to have to keep cleaning up the mess that our governor is making. This is the mess that he’s created, and he’s asking us to fix it. We shouldn’t do that for him,” said Rep. Jack Franks, a Marengo Democrat. Franks was critical of Quinn for cutting the superintendents’ pay without a clear plan of who would handle their responsibilities, many of which are required by law. “If he didn’t think that the Regional Offices of Education were necessary, then he should have had their duties transferred to the state superintendent of schools, but he didn’t do that.”
A Senate committee approved the bill this evening, and supporters expect it to come up for a floor vote in that chamber tomorrow.
School officials who have worked for months without pay are one step closer to getting a paycheck.
The Illinois House today approved Senate Bill 2147, which would pay regional superintendents out of a local revenue stream. The administrators have not received pay since Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed the funding for their salaries last summer. However, many have continued to work. Regional superintendents' duties include inspecting schools, certifying teachers, training bus drivers and conducting background checks on job applicants.
The legislation's sponsor, Rep. Frank Mautino, a Spring Valley Democrat, called the situation “an embarrassment to the state of Illinois, and it needs to be corrected.”
The bill would allow for regional superintendents to be paid for one year, including back pay from the time they have worked without compensation, out of corporate personal property replacement tax revenues. The measure also calls for the creation of a task force that would make recommendations on potential consolidation of the Regional Offices of Education, which are run by the superintendents.
Mautino said that the plan would cost about $13 million. “It’s a one year hit of less than 1 percent, less than a penny on the dollar.” But local representatives of local governments say the real issue is not the price tag, it’s about the state shifting the cost onto local governments of an office created by the legislature.
Joe McCoy, legislative director for the Illinois Municipal League, said the move to pay regional superintendents from local funds falls into a larger pattern of the state looking to shift expenses to local governments during the current budget crisis. He said there is concern that some lawmakers are starting to view money from the personal property replacement tax as a “slush fund of the state of Illinois.”
McCoy said that although the provision that would end payment out of the tax revenue after one year does provide a safeguard, “it doesn’t really address our underlying concern, which is that the state is going to begin to cost shift onto local governments.”
The deadline has passed for lawmakers to override Quinn’s veto, so the bill appears to be the superintendents’ only hope. “We have to act today because an override is no longer an option. Because if we do not, the next time we will meet will be in January, and they will not have been paid for seven months,” Mautino said today on the House floor.
But some opponents said the General Assembly should not swoop in to fix a problem that Quinn created. "I don’t know how many times we’re going to have to keep cleaning up the mess that our governor is making. This is the mess that he’s created, and he’s asking us to fix it. We shouldn’t do that for him,” said Rep. Jack Franks, a Marengo Democrat. Franks was critical of Quinn for cutting the superintendents’ pay without a clear plan of who would handle their responsibilities, many of which are required by law. “If he didn’t think that the Regional Offices of Education were necessary, then he should have had their duties transferred to the state superintendent of schools, but he didn’t do that.”
A Senate committee approved the bill this evening, and supporters expect it to come up for a floor vote in that chamber tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
Pension changes still up in the air
By Jamey Dunn
A bill to overhaul pensions benefits for state workers was approved by a House committee tonight, but the measure’s future remains uncertain.
An amended version of Senate Bill 512 would reduce retirement benefits for workers hired before a new benefits system took effect in January. If the measure becomes law and survives court challenges vowed by unions, employees hired under the old system would be allowed to keep all the benefits they earned until the law goes into effect. After the law kicked in, they would have to pay more to keep their current or so-called tier one benefits, switch to the so-called second tier that contains any workers hired after January and offers reduced benefits and a later retirement age, or move their money to a savings plan similar to a 401(k).
Under a previous incarnation of the plan that failed to gain the support needed to pass last spring, the amount employees would have to pay to remain in tier one would have been recalculated every three years in order to reflect the real cost of tier one benefits. The proposal that House Minority Leader Tom Cross presented today would allow for a single recalculation after three years with any increase capped at a 2 percentage points. Cross said the change reflects a willingness to compromise and is meant address complaints that members of tier one would have difficulty planning around required contributions that could change every three years. However, he said without the additional recalculations, members of tier one will likely end up paying less than the actual cost of their retirements.
“The downside is that it doesn’t completely cover the cost of the benefits. I think you’ll hear from people who will say … it should be higher, and that was the rational for the original version. But in the legislative process, we try to hear what people are saying,” said Cross.
Supporters of Cross' plan said the state’s billions in unfunded obligations to the pension system would continue to eat up the budget, leaving little money for core state services such as education and public safety.
“Without reform, we must either watch as pension contributions crowd out all other state services … or accept responsibility for allowing the pension funds to fail,” said Tyrone Fahner, president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, one of the driving forces behind the pension reform push.
However, union officials argued that changes to benefits for employees hired under the old plan are unconstitutional.
“Whether it was corporate tax breaks or new programs — for decades these tax breaks and these programs have been paid for in part by putting off or ignoring pension payments due to these good workers," said Michael Carrigan, Illinois AFL-CIO president. “Pensions have become an issue because they weren’t a priority when spending decisions were made over the past decades. Had pensions been adequately funded down throughout the years, the recent economic downturns … could have been weathered.”
Opponents of SB 512 said that reductions in benefits would not automatically create reform in the system and questioned the lack of a guarantee in the bill that the state would make its required contributions. Rep. Karen May said she would like a so-called lock-box provision in the bill that would end the increased contribution levels for workers if the state fails to make its contribution.
May, a Highland Park Democrat, and Rep. Daniel Biss, an Evanston Democrat, said that they thought the proposal needed improvement. Biss said that since the effective date for SB 512 is not until July 2012, with most of the provisions kicking in even later than that date, lawmakers can work until the spring legislative session on a better bill. However, he said as of now, “there is not a clear counter proposal on the table.”
Biss added that he hopes working groups with representatives from all sides of the issue can come up with a more holistic plan. “I’m going to be for a major pension reform bill this spring. Period. If there’s nothing better on the table than Senate Bill 512, I’ll be for 512. I hope that’s not where we are.”
After the hearing, Cross declined to comment on his next move. He claimed in the first week of veto session that he has 30 Republican “yes” votes for the plan and said it was up to bill co-sponsor House Speaker Michael Madigan to supply 30 Democratic supporters and call the bill for a floor vote. When asked yesterday when he planned to call the measure, Madigan replied that the bill belongs to Cross. Senate President John Cullerton has said that he believes that the bill is unconstitutional, but he said he would allow it to come for a vote in his chamber if it passes in the House.
A bill to overhaul pensions benefits for state workers was approved by a House committee tonight, but the measure’s future remains uncertain.
An amended version of Senate Bill 512 would reduce retirement benefits for workers hired before a new benefits system took effect in January. If the measure becomes law and survives court challenges vowed by unions, employees hired under the old system would be allowed to keep all the benefits they earned until the law goes into effect. After the law kicked in, they would have to pay more to keep their current or so-called tier one benefits, switch to the so-called second tier that contains any workers hired after January and offers reduced benefits and a later retirement age, or move their money to a savings plan similar to a 401(k).
Under a previous incarnation of the plan that failed to gain the support needed to pass last spring, the amount employees would have to pay to remain in tier one would have been recalculated every three years in order to reflect the real cost of tier one benefits. The proposal that House Minority Leader Tom Cross presented today would allow for a single recalculation after three years with any increase capped at a 2 percentage points. Cross said the change reflects a willingness to compromise and is meant address complaints that members of tier one would have difficulty planning around required contributions that could change every three years. However, he said without the additional recalculations, members of tier one will likely end up paying less than the actual cost of their retirements.
“The downside is that it doesn’t completely cover the cost of the benefits. I think you’ll hear from people who will say … it should be higher, and that was the rational for the original version. But in the legislative process, we try to hear what people are saying,” said Cross.
Supporters of Cross' plan said the state’s billions in unfunded obligations to the pension system would continue to eat up the budget, leaving little money for core state services such as education and public safety.
“Without reform, we must either watch as pension contributions crowd out all other state services … or accept responsibility for allowing the pension funds to fail,” said Tyrone Fahner, president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, one of the driving forces behind the pension reform push.
However, union officials argued that changes to benefits for employees hired under the old plan are unconstitutional.
“Whether it was corporate tax breaks or new programs — for decades these tax breaks and these programs have been paid for in part by putting off or ignoring pension payments due to these good workers," said Michael Carrigan, Illinois AFL-CIO president. “Pensions have become an issue because they weren’t a priority when spending decisions were made over the past decades. Had pensions been adequately funded down throughout the years, the recent economic downturns … could have been weathered.”
Opponents of SB 512 said that reductions in benefits would not automatically create reform in the system and questioned the lack of a guarantee in the bill that the state would make its required contributions. Rep. Karen May said she would like a so-called lock-box provision in the bill that would end the increased contribution levels for workers if the state fails to make its contribution.
May, a Highland Park Democrat, and Rep. Daniel Biss, an Evanston Democrat, said that they thought the proposal needed improvement. Biss said that since the effective date for SB 512 is not until July 2012, with most of the provisions kicking in even later than that date, lawmakers can work until the spring legislative session on a better bill. However, he said as of now, “there is not a clear counter proposal on the table.”
Biss added that he hopes working groups with representatives from all sides of the issue can come up with a more holistic plan. “I’m going to be for a major pension reform bill this spring. Period. If there’s nothing better on the table than Senate Bill 512, I’ll be for 512. I hope that’s not where we are.”
After the hearing, Cross declined to comment on his next move. He claimed in the first week of veto session that he has 30 Republican “yes” votes for the plan and said it was up to bill co-sponsor House Speaker Michael Madigan to supply 30 Democratic supporters and call the bill for a floor vote. When asked yesterday when he planned to call the measure, Madigan replied that the bill belongs to Cross. Senate President John Cullerton has said that he believes that the bill is unconstitutional, but he said he would allow it to come for a vote in his chamber if it passes in the House.
New gaming plan could cut out Quinn
By Jamey Dunn
A sponsor of legislation to expand gambling in the state said he is looking for enough votes to override a potential veto from Gov. Pat Quinn.
Skokie Democratic Rep. Lou Lang sponsored Senate Bill 744, which the General Assembly passed last spring. Senate President John Cullerton used a procedural move to hold the bill to try to negotiate with Quinn. However, Lang said the strategy did not work. “Throughout the summer, there were many meeting held with the governor, but none of those meetings are what you would call negotiations. There was never a point in time that the governor chose to negotiate,” Lang said. “And so we were left with trying to figure out how to handle this.”
During a news conference shortly before veto session began, Quinn said he would veto SB 744 if it were sent to his desk. He also detailed some suggestions for rewriting the bill. He said he supported new casinos but would not go along with allowing slot machines at horse racing tracks. He also raised concerns about the oversight included in the original plan.
Sen. Terry Link, sponsor of SB 744 in his chamber, introduced another bill, SB 747, during the first week of veto session that he said was based on Quinn's suggestions. Quinn came out strongly against Link's proposal, and the plan has not been called for a floor vote.
Lang said he tired to take Quinn’s thoughts — as well as criticisms from Illinois Gaming Board Chairman Aaron Jaffe, newspaper editorial boards and others — into account when drafting a new gaming expansion bill, SB1849. A House committee approved Lang's bill today.
The measure includes slots at horse racing tracks but does not allow for slots at the Illinois State Fairgrounds or Chicago airports. It would reduce the number of gaming positions available to casinos from 2,000 in the original bill to 1,600. They currently are allowed 1,200 positions. The Chicago-owned casino proposed in the plan would be allowed 4,000 positions. Lang said any unused positions at a facility could potentially be transferred to another casino that would use them. “It is in the benefit of our citizens to have all of those positions used.” Lang said that it would be up to the Gaming Board to create the procedure for transferring positions.
SB 1849 does not include a controversial provision that called for the Gaming Board to issue temporary licenses within 60 days of application to bars and restaurants seeking video gaming. The proposal was meant to spur the board to implement video gaming, which was approved as part of the funding for the state’s capital construction plan. So far, no licenses have been issued and no revenue from video gambling has come in.
Lang said some lawmakers were uncomfortable with issuing the temporary licenses. His new bill calls for the board to begin implementing video poker before any new casinos can be licensed and before horse tracks can get a license for a permanent location for slots. However, they would be able to operate out of a temporary facility, such as a tent. Lang said he wanted to ensure that the board did not “skip over” video poker to begin work on a gaming expansion. “That could be one machine, it could be 10,000 machines, but they’ve got to get it up and running.”
Lang said the legislation should clear up concerns about oversight of the Chicago casino. He said the ultimate authority would belong to the Gaming Board. Quinn complained that the city would be allowed too much regulatory leeway under SB 744.
But Lang’s stated goal of finding 71 “yes” votes in the House — enough supporters to override a veto from Quinn — indicates that he is less worried about pleasing the governor with his bill and more concerned with getting as much support from his fellow lawmakers as possible. While Quinn has yet to take a position on the plan, Lang's goal shows that he is anticipating a veto. A spokesperson for Quinn said his administration is “reviewing the proposal.” Quinn has said numerous times that he opposes allowing slots at horse racing tracks. He has said that such a proposal allows for too much gambling in the state and would lead to the cannibalization of business from existing casinos.
Current casinos owners oppose Lang’s plan for that very reason. “We’re not opposed to a casino in Danville. We’re not opposed to a casino in Rockford, Chicago, the Waukegan area. … We are opposed to the facilities right next door to existing casinos,” said Tom Swoik, executive director of the Illinois Casino gaming association. Swoik said casino owners are not opposed to expansion as long as it is “reasonable” and in “new market areas.”
He added: “The state isn’t going to get the kind of money that they think they are going to get out of this. We’re just transferring gamblers from one area to another.”
But Lang said the bill would bring in roughly $1 billion in licensing fees in addition to future revenues from taxes paid by casinos and racetracks. “I think we’ve made a very good piece of legislation better; one that will raise billions of dollars for the state, one that will pay our old bills,” Lang said. “At a time when our unemployment rate has reached 10 percent, this is something that we must do.”
He said finding the backing for a veto proof majority is “not going to be easy,” and he is not above exploiting recent rifts between the governor and the legislature to rally the votes he needs. “I will use any legal means to get a veto proof majority to pass this bill.” He said Quinn’s proposal to close state facilities, his comments implying that campaign contributions influenced votes to override his veto on a smart grid plan and his refusal to negotiate about gaming caused some animosity toward the governor among lawmakers. “I think when the governor announced two weeks ago that he was not in favor of slot machines at racetracks, it made some people very angry. … I’m going to go to those legislators, and I’m going to get them angry.”
Lang said he hopes to call his bill for a floor vote tomorrow.
A sponsor of legislation to expand gambling in the state said he is looking for enough votes to override a potential veto from Gov. Pat Quinn.
Skokie Democratic Rep. Lou Lang sponsored Senate Bill 744, which the General Assembly passed last spring. Senate President John Cullerton used a procedural move to hold the bill to try to negotiate with Quinn. However, Lang said the strategy did not work. “Throughout the summer, there were many meeting held with the governor, but none of those meetings are what you would call negotiations. There was never a point in time that the governor chose to negotiate,” Lang said. “And so we were left with trying to figure out how to handle this.”
During a news conference shortly before veto session began, Quinn said he would veto SB 744 if it were sent to his desk. He also detailed some suggestions for rewriting the bill. He said he supported new casinos but would not go along with allowing slot machines at horse racing tracks. He also raised concerns about the oversight included in the original plan.
Sen. Terry Link, sponsor of SB 744 in his chamber, introduced another bill, SB 747, during the first week of veto session that he said was based on Quinn's suggestions. Quinn came out strongly against Link's proposal, and the plan has not been called for a floor vote.
Lang said he tired to take Quinn’s thoughts — as well as criticisms from Illinois Gaming Board Chairman Aaron Jaffe, newspaper editorial boards and others — into account when drafting a new gaming expansion bill, SB1849. A House committee approved Lang's bill today.
The measure includes slots at horse racing tracks but does not allow for slots at the Illinois State Fairgrounds or Chicago airports. It would reduce the number of gaming positions available to casinos from 2,000 in the original bill to 1,600. They currently are allowed 1,200 positions. The Chicago-owned casino proposed in the plan would be allowed 4,000 positions. Lang said any unused positions at a facility could potentially be transferred to another casino that would use them. “It is in the benefit of our citizens to have all of those positions used.” Lang said that it would be up to the Gaming Board to create the procedure for transferring positions.
SB 1849 does not include a controversial provision that called for the Gaming Board to issue temporary licenses within 60 days of application to bars and restaurants seeking video gaming. The proposal was meant to spur the board to implement video gaming, which was approved as part of the funding for the state’s capital construction plan. So far, no licenses have been issued and no revenue from video gambling has come in.
Lang said some lawmakers were uncomfortable with issuing the temporary licenses. His new bill calls for the board to begin implementing video poker before any new casinos can be licensed and before horse tracks can get a license for a permanent location for slots. However, they would be able to operate out of a temporary facility, such as a tent. Lang said he wanted to ensure that the board did not “skip over” video poker to begin work on a gaming expansion. “That could be one machine, it could be 10,000 machines, but they’ve got to get it up and running.”
Lang said the legislation should clear up concerns about oversight of the Chicago casino. He said the ultimate authority would belong to the Gaming Board. Quinn complained that the city would be allowed too much regulatory leeway under SB 744.
But Lang’s stated goal of finding 71 “yes” votes in the House — enough supporters to override a veto from Quinn — indicates that he is less worried about pleasing the governor with his bill and more concerned with getting as much support from his fellow lawmakers as possible. While Quinn has yet to take a position on the plan, Lang's goal shows that he is anticipating a veto. A spokesperson for Quinn said his administration is “reviewing the proposal.” Quinn has said numerous times that he opposes allowing slots at horse racing tracks. He has said that such a proposal allows for too much gambling in the state and would lead to the cannibalization of business from existing casinos.
Current casinos owners oppose Lang’s plan for that very reason. “We’re not opposed to a casino in Danville. We’re not opposed to a casino in Rockford, Chicago, the Waukegan area. … We are opposed to the facilities right next door to existing casinos,” said Tom Swoik, executive director of the Illinois Casino gaming association. Swoik said casino owners are not opposed to expansion as long as it is “reasonable” and in “new market areas.”
He added: “The state isn’t going to get the kind of money that they think they are going to get out of this. We’re just transferring gamblers from one area to another.”
But Lang said the bill would bring in roughly $1 billion in licensing fees in addition to future revenues from taxes paid by casinos and racetracks. “I think we’ve made a very good piece of legislation better; one that will raise billions of dollars for the state, one that will pay our old bills,” Lang said. “At a time when our unemployment rate has reached 10 percent, this is something that we must do.”
He said finding the backing for a veto proof majority is “not going to be easy,” and he is not above exploiting recent rifts between the governor and the legislature to rally the votes he needs. “I will use any legal means to get a veto proof majority to pass this bill.” He said Quinn’s proposal to close state facilities, his comments implying that campaign contributions influenced votes to override his veto on a smart grid plan and his refusal to negotiate about gaming caused some animosity toward the governor among lawmakers. “I think when the governor announced two weeks ago that he was not in favor of slot machines at racetracks, it made some people very angry. … I’m going to go to those legislators, and I’m going to get them angry.”
Lang said he hopes to call his bill for a floor vote tomorrow.
Monday, November 07, 2011
Plenty on the table heading into last week of veto session
By Jamey Dunn
When lawmakers return to Springfield to wrap up their veto session this week, borrowing to pay off the state’s backlog of overdue bills may be on the table, as well as several items of unfinished business from the session two weeks ago.
Borrowing
A new plan from Gov. Pat Quinn to borrow $4.5 billion to pay down some of the state’s overdue bills could surface this week. Quinn pitched an $8.75 billion borrowing plan in his fiscal year 2012 budget proposal, but it never gained traction. House Minority Leader Tom Cross said the idea of a smaller borrowing package came up in leader’s meetings last week and that Quinn voiced interest in engaging in some horse trading — Republican votes on a borrowing plan for his support of a business friendly tax incentive package. A spokesperson for Quinn said that the governor pitched the idea as part of an overall “jobs creation” package. Paying vendors could potentially halt layoffs and would inject billions into the state’s economy.
Rushville Democratic Sen. John Sullivan, who sponsored a package of borrowing bills, said legislators are coming around to the idea. “I’ve been talking to a lot of members and colleagues about the issue and trying to explain to them why we need to pay our bills. … And I feel that there has been momentum.” While some lawmakers may be warming to the idea, recent polling shows voters are not. A Paul Simon Public Policy Institute survey of 1,000 Illinois voters found that only 39 percent favored borrowing to address the backlog. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. "If every dime of that borrowing package were dedicated to paying past-due bills and making pension contributions on time, it might be something citizens would be willing to tolerate," institute Director David Yepsen said in a prepared statement. "Even that would be a tough sell, since many voters thought the last round of tax increases were supposed to pay bills on time, and they don't feel that happened."
Sullivan said that he is not working directly with Quinn on a revamped plan, but he said he is willing to tweak his legislation in whatever ways needed to garner support. When Sullivan called a measure to borrow about $6.2 billion for a vote in the spring, it only got 19 “yes” votes. “I definitely think that we’re at a better place now than we were when the plan was introduced,” he said. At least one Republican vote will be needed in his chamber for borrowing legislation to pass.
Business package
Lawmakers will likely consider a second incarnation of a tax incentive package meant to keep large businesses in the state. Senate President John Cullerton sponsored a plan to offer a tax cut to the CME Group, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, to keep it from moving out of state. Terrence Duffy, chairman and chief operating officer of the CME Group, starting making such threats after realizing that the company would pay more than $150 million in income taxes under the state’s recent income tax increase. During a committee hearing on the measure last week, Republicans said they could not support giving target breaks to one company. They said they wanted a broader relief package that would help out other businesses, too.
A revamped plan could offer relief to Sears, which has also threatened an exit, as well as some generally business friendly sweeteners, such as an extension of a research and development tax credit.
Collective bargaining
House Speaker Michael Madigan pitched a resolution that would allow the legislature to get involved in bargaining union contracts.
Under the plan, both chambers would agree to put a spending cap on how much the governor can offer public employee unions in wage increases under a new contract. Current contracts are set to expire in 2012. “What we’re talking about is about a two-and-a-half-year obligation on spending. Well, I think the legislature has a rightful place in this bargaining,” said Madigan when the resolution was read on the House floor two weeks ago.
Traditionally, the legislature has not been at the forefront of contract negotiations. But lawmakers became frustrated with Quinn after he promised no public union employee layoffs through the end of the current fiscal year. Quinn has since gone back on that promise by backing a plan for layoffs and facility closures. He also froze union pay raises included in contracts. Quinn said both moves are necessary because the legislature did not include enough money in the budget to cover personnel costs and keep basic services running through the end of the fiscal year. Union officials say that Quinn has violated their contract and are taking the state to court.
Cross went one further than Madigan, proposing an amendment that would halt pay increases until the state has had a budget surplus for two years. “Our priority is on the protection of jobs in this state and ensuring that we get our fiscal house in order above all else,” Cross said in a written statement. “We should not enter into any new contracts that guarantee wage and benefit increases at a time when the governor is talking about closing seven state facilities that serve those with mental health needs, at-risk youth, and house dangerous criminals.” The Republican leader has said the facilities Quinn want to shutter are primarily in Republican districts and accused Quinn of playing politics when choosing his closure targets.
Madigan called upon the House Revenue and Finance Committee to set the number for the cap. The committee may also consider Cross’ proposal. The House Revenue and Finance Committee has two hearings scheduled for next week. The first is scheduled for today.
Insurance Exchange
Legislators may also consider a pivotal component of the federal health care reform law. Illinois is working to set up its own insurance exchange, an online marketplace meant to drive down the cost of insurance policies by encouraging competition. Health care advocates are pushing for lawmakers to approve legislation that would determine who would serve on the board overseeing the marketplace and who would ultimately pay for the exchange. “We want the state to move forward, and we are optimistic,” said Jim Duffett, executive director of the Campaign for Better Health Care.
The major sticking point is who will be eligible to sit on the board. Advocacy groups want insurance industry insiders barred from holding any voting power, because they could potentially profit from board decisions. They say those in the industry should hold purely advisory positions. Duffett said the board should be made up of “health care experts, small business owners and consumers.” He likened allowing insurance professionals voting power to letting a fox into the hen house.
Representatives of the industry say their hands-on expertise is needed on the board to shape an exchange that works well in practice. “To suggest that insurance expertise should be prohibited on the board, as some have … we believe is analogous to suggesting that an aeronautical engineer should be prohibited from serving on the board of Boeing Aircraft,” said Phil Lackman, Illinois vice president of government relations for the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.
The House Insurance Committee has a hearing scheduled for Tuesday. “We do believe that there will be some action taken on Tuesday,” Duffett said.
Gambling
Supporters of a gaming expansion package are still looking for a plan that can pass in the legislature and get Quinn’s support. Quinn is opposed to Senate Bill 744, which passed last spring and would allow for five new casinos and slots at horse racing tracks. Quinn laid out his recommendations days before the veto session started, and Sen. Terry Link, sponsor of SB744, backed a bill that he said was based on those suggestions. Quinn did not agree and opposed the bill. Link held off on calling the legislation, SB747, last week and said he wanted to continue talks with Quinn.
This week, Quinn said that he was not engaged in negotiations on gaming. He said passing an expansion is not one of his priorities, but he is “open minded” about the concept. After meeting with Quinn last week, Cullerton told reporters that he was optimistic about finding a compromise. “I expect we will have a gaming bill going on next week as well. … We had a lot of productive input from the governor in ways in which we could correct the bill that we did pass. I can’t say we’ve narrowed the differences to agreement, but I think we’ve made a lot of progress. A lot of reforms suggested by the gaming board, we can incorporate into the bill.” More than half — 57 percent — of respondents in the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute survey said they backed expanded gambling as a way to bring in more state revenue.
When lawmakers return to Springfield to wrap up their veto session this week, borrowing to pay off the state’s backlog of overdue bills may be on the table, as well as several items of unfinished business from the session two weeks ago.
Borrowing
A new plan from Gov. Pat Quinn to borrow $4.5 billion to pay down some of the state’s overdue bills could surface this week. Quinn pitched an $8.75 billion borrowing plan in his fiscal year 2012 budget proposal, but it never gained traction. House Minority Leader Tom Cross said the idea of a smaller borrowing package came up in leader’s meetings last week and that Quinn voiced interest in engaging in some horse trading — Republican votes on a borrowing plan for his support of a business friendly tax incentive package. A spokesperson for Quinn said that the governor pitched the idea as part of an overall “jobs creation” package. Paying vendors could potentially halt layoffs and would inject billions into the state’s economy.
Rushville Democratic Sen. John Sullivan, who sponsored a package of borrowing bills, said legislators are coming around to the idea. “I’ve been talking to a lot of members and colleagues about the issue and trying to explain to them why we need to pay our bills. … And I feel that there has been momentum.” While some lawmakers may be warming to the idea, recent polling shows voters are not. A Paul Simon Public Policy Institute survey of 1,000 Illinois voters found that only 39 percent favored borrowing to address the backlog. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. "If every dime of that borrowing package were dedicated to paying past-due bills and making pension contributions on time, it might be something citizens would be willing to tolerate," institute Director David Yepsen said in a prepared statement. "Even that would be a tough sell, since many voters thought the last round of tax increases were supposed to pay bills on time, and they don't feel that happened."
Sullivan said that he is not working directly with Quinn on a revamped plan, but he said he is willing to tweak his legislation in whatever ways needed to garner support. When Sullivan called a measure to borrow about $6.2 billion for a vote in the spring, it only got 19 “yes” votes. “I definitely think that we’re at a better place now than we were when the plan was introduced,” he said. At least one Republican vote will be needed in his chamber for borrowing legislation to pass.
Business package
Lawmakers will likely consider a second incarnation of a tax incentive package meant to keep large businesses in the state. Senate President John Cullerton sponsored a plan to offer a tax cut to the CME Group, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, to keep it from moving out of state. Terrence Duffy, chairman and chief operating officer of the CME Group, starting making such threats after realizing that the company would pay more than $150 million in income taxes under the state’s recent income tax increase. During a committee hearing on the measure last week, Republicans said they could not support giving target breaks to one company. They said they wanted a broader relief package that would help out other businesses, too.
A revamped plan could offer relief to Sears, which has also threatened an exit, as well as some generally business friendly sweeteners, such as an extension of a research and development tax credit.
Collective bargaining
House Speaker Michael Madigan pitched a resolution that would allow the legislature to get involved in bargaining union contracts.
Under the plan, both chambers would agree to put a spending cap on how much the governor can offer public employee unions in wage increases under a new contract. Current contracts are set to expire in 2012. “What we’re talking about is about a two-and-a-half-year obligation on spending. Well, I think the legislature has a rightful place in this bargaining,” said Madigan when the resolution was read on the House floor two weeks ago.
Traditionally, the legislature has not been at the forefront of contract negotiations. But lawmakers became frustrated with Quinn after he promised no public union employee layoffs through the end of the current fiscal year. Quinn has since gone back on that promise by backing a plan for layoffs and facility closures. He also froze union pay raises included in contracts. Quinn said both moves are necessary because the legislature did not include enough money in the budget to cover personnel costs and keep basic services running through the end of the fiscal year. Union officials say that Quinn has violated their contract and are taking the state to court.
Cross went one further than Madigan, proposing an amendment that would halt pay increases until the state has had a budget surplus for two years. “Our priority is on the protection of jobs in this state and ensuring that we get our fiscal house in order above all else,” Cross said in a written statement. “We should not enter into any new contracts that guarantee wage and benefit increases at a time when the governor is talking about closing seven state facilities that serve those with mental health needs, at-risk youth, and house dangerous criminals.” The Republican leader has said the facilities Quinn want to shutter are primarily in Republican districts and accused Quinn of playing politics when choosing his closure targets.
Madigan called upon the House Revenue and Finance Committee to set the number for the cap. The committee may also consider Cross’ proposal. The House Revenue and Finance Committee has two hearings scheduled for next week. The first is scheduled for today.
Insurance Exchange
Legislators may also consider a pivotal component of the federal health care reform law. Illinois is working to set up its own insurance exchange, an online marketplace meant to drive down the cost of insurance policies by encouraging competition. Health care advocates are pushing for lawmakers to approve legislation that would determine who would serve on the board overseeing the marketplace and who would ultimately pay for the exchange. “We want the state to move forward, and we are optimistic,” said Jim Duffett, executive director of the Campaign for Better Health Care.
The major sticking point is who will be eligible to sit on the board. Advocacy groups want insurance industry insiders barred from holding any voting power, because they could potentially profit from board decisions. They say those in the industry should hold purely advisory positions. Duffett said the board should be made up of “health care experts, small business owners and consumers.” He likened allowing insurance professionals voting power to letting a fox into the hen house.
Representatives of the industry say their hands-on expertise is needed on the board to shape an exchange that works well in practice. “To suggest that insurance expertise should be prohibited on the board, as some have … we believe is analogous to suggesting that an aeronautical engineer should be prohibited from serving on the board of Boeing Aircraft,” said Phil Lackman, Illinois vice president of government relations for the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.
The House Insurance Committee has a hearing scheduled for Tuesday. “We do believe that there will be some action taken on Tuesday,” Duffett said.
Gambling
Supporters of a gaming expansion package are still looking for a plan that can pass in the legislature and get Quinn’s support. Quinn is opposed to Senate Bill 744, which passed last spring and would allow for five new casinos and slots at horse racing tracks. Quinn laid out his recommendations days before the veto session started, and Sen. Terry Link, sponsor of SB744, backed a bill that he said was based on those suggestions. Quinn did not agree and opposed the bill. Link held off on calling the legislation, SB747, last week and said he wanted to continue talks with Quinn.
This week, Quinn said that he was not engaged in negotiations on gaming. He said passing an expansion is not one of his priorities, but he is “open minded” about the concept. After meeting with Quinn last week, Cullerton told reporters that he was optimistic about finding a compromise. “I expect we will have a gaming bill going on next week as well. … We had a lot of productive input from the governor in ways in which we could correct the bill that we did pass. I can’t say we’ve narrowed the differences to agreement, but I think we’ve made a lot of progress. A lot of reforms suggested by the gaming board, we can incorporate into the bill.” More than half — 57 percent — of respondents in the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute survey said they backed expanded gambling as a way to bring in more state revenue.
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
Poll: Illinois voters have appetite for reform
By Jamey Dunn
Illinois voters support a variety of reforms to state government, ranging from tweaks to campaign finance rules to term limits for elected officials
The Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale today presented results of a survey of 1,000 registered voters — part of the institute’s annual poll. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Those surveyed strongly backed legislative term limits, with 75 percent saying they support limits of five consecutive two year terms for state representatives and three consecutive four year terms for state senators.
David Yepsen, director of the institute, said widespread support for term limits is an indicator of the public’s frustration with their state government. He noted that the Tea Party has supported term limits, and that issue could become the focus of such a populist movement in Illinois. “If I am member of the legislature, I’ve got to be thinking, ‘How do I get the fuse out of this bomb?’” Yepsen said.
He said he thinks term limits cut in on the democratic process by blocking voters from choosing incumbents once their time has run out, regardless of what the popular vote might be. Yepsen said that forcing out lawmakers with institutional knowledge and experience would leave new lawmakers to turn to staff members and lobbyists for the bulk of information. “Staff people have too much power as it is, and lobbyists have too much power as it is.”
However, Yepsen said, “There’s all kinds of reasons why term limits are a bad idea, but voters are so fed up and so exasperated.”
Charles Leonard, visiting professor and polling director for the institute, agreed that term limits may not be the best public policy choice, but he said that if the redistricting process in the state is not changed, that idea could find more supporters. He said because districts are often drawn to protect incumbency, “a lot of people who might otherwise not support term limits may see it as a desperate move to throwing the bums out.”
Respondents also backed several campaign finance reform measures, including changes to the rules for judges:
Leonard said judicial reform might be low hanging fruit for legislators because they could institute a change that does not apply to their own branch of government.
Voters who responded to the poll also supported reworking the way Illinois redraws its legislative maps every 10 years after the census takes place. A plan to overhaul the redistricting process failed in the legislature last year, and the League of Women Voters was unable to capture the needed signatures to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot to change the process. But the institute’s poll found that voters generally agreed with one of the primary components of the league’s proposal. About 65 percent of respondents said they were in favor of having a commission independent from the legislature draw the map. That number increased from 53.5 percent in favor of such a plan in 2010. Yepsen and Leonard agreed that the efforts to change the system, as well as media coverage of the legislature drawing new maps last spring, has put the issue on the voters’ radar. “I think our mass media culture is capable of keeping about four items on the agenda at any time given our short attention span, And it’s up there right now,” Leonard said.
Yepsen said another effort to put a new method on the ballot as a constitutional amendment could be successful, but it would take a lot of money and professional organization. “A ballot initiative in a state this size takes a level of sophistication that a bunch of well-meaning volunteers just simply can’t do.” However, he said attempts to get an amendment on the ballot, such as ones from the league and others, may eventually spur legislative change. “I think just the threat of these constitutional amendments might give reform-minded people in the legislature and legislative leaders reason to do something on their own on these things.”
Leonard noted that only about 15 percent of voters think the state is headed in the right direction. “I think there’s some potential for this dissatisfaction to coalesce around an issue.” Out of all the reforms those polled supported, Leonard said redistricting reform may be the most pivotal to changing state government. “I think it’s our best hope at getting reformed politics. “
Illinois voters support a variety of reforms to state government, ranging from tweaks to campaign finance rules to term limits for elected officials
The Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale today presented results of a survey of 1,000 registered voters — part of the institute’s annual poll. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Those surveyed strongly backed legislative term limits, with 75 percent saying they support limits of five consecutive two year terms for state representatives and three consecutive four year terms for state senators.
David Yepsen, director of the institute, said widespread support for term limits is an indicator of the public’s frustration with their state government. He noted that the Tea Party has supported term limits, and that issue could become the focus of such a populist movement in Illinois. “If I am member of the legislature, I’ve got to be thinking, ‘How do I get the fuse out of this bomb?’” Yepsen said.
He said he thinks term limits cut in on the democratic process by blocking voters from choosing incumbents once their time has run out, regardless of what the popular vote might be. Yepsen said that forcing out lawmakers with institutional knowledge and experience would leave new lawmakers to turn to staff members and lobbyists for the bulk of information. “Staff people have too much power as it is, and lobbyists have too much power as it is.”
However, Yepsen said, “There’s all kinds of reasons why term limits are a bad idea, but voters are so fed up and so exasperated.”
Charles Leonard, visiting professor and polling director for the institute, agreed that term limits may not be the best public policy choice, but he said that if the redistricting process in the state is not changed, that idea could find more supporters. He said because districts are often drawn to protect incumbency, “a lot of people who might otherwise not support term limits may see it as a desperate move to throwing the bums out.”
Respondents also backed several campaign finance reform measures, including changes to the rules for judges:
- 61.4 percent favored limiting the amount of money that party leaders can give to other candidates.
- 71.4 percent supported limiting the amount of money that people can contribute for judicial races.
- 53.6 percent backed giving judicial candidates public funding for their campaigns.
Leonard said judicial reform might be low hanging fruit for legislators because they could institute a change that does not apply to their own branch of government.
Voters who responded to the poll also supported reworking the way Illinois redraws its legislative maps every 10 years after the census takes place. A plan to overhaul the redistricting process failed in the legislature last year, and the League of Women Voters was unable to capture the needed signatures to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot to change the process. But the institute’s poll found that voters generally agreed with one of the primary components of the league’s proposal. About 65 percent of respondents said they were in favor of having a commission independent from the legislature draw the map. That number increased from 53.5 percent in favor of such a plan in 2010. Yepsen and Leonard agreed that the efforts to change the system, as well as media coverage of the legislature drawing new maps last spring, has put the issue on the voters’ radar. “I think our mass media culture is capable of keeping about four items on the agenda at any time given our short attention span, And it’s up there right now,” Leonard said.
Yepsen said another effort to put a new method on the ballot as a constitutional amendment could be successful, but it would take a lot of money and professional organization. “A ballot initiative in a state this size takes a level of sophistication that a bunch of well-meaning volunteers just simply can’t do.” However, he said attempts to get an amendment on the ballot, such as ones from the league and others, may eventually spur legislative change. “I think just the threat of these constitutional amendments might give reform-minded people in the legislature and legislative leaders reason to do something on their own on these things.”
Leonard noted that only about 15 percent of voters think the state is headed in the right direction. “I think there’s some potential for this dissatisfaction to coalesce around an issue.” Out of all the reforms those polled supported, Leonard said redistricting reform may be the most pivotal to changing state government. “I think it’s our best hope at getting reformed politics. “
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Operation Board Games investigation winding down with Cellini conviction
By Jamey Dunn
Springfield businessman William Cellini, a longtime Illinois political insider, was convicted on two federal felony charges today in Chicago.
Cellini was accused of attempting to extort campaign contributions for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich from Thomas Rosenberg, an investment firm owner and movie producer, in exchange for business handling pension investments for the state. Blagojevich was convicted on 17 corruption counts in June.
Springfield businessman William Cellini, a longtime Illinois political insider, was convicted on two federal felony charges today in Chicago.
Cellini was accused of attempting to extort campaign contributions for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich from Thomas Rosenberg, an investment firm owner and movie producer, in exchange for business handling pension investments for the state. Blagojevich was convicted on 17 corruption counts in June.
A jury found Cellini guilty of conspiracy to commit extortion and aiding and abetting bribery. He was found not guilty on two other charges, attempted extortion and mail and wire fraud.
Cellini’s lawyers painted him as and innocent go-between, saying he had nothing to do with any plans to squeeze campaign funds from Rosenberg but only delivered information to him. “We made our points. Obviously I’m very grateful that the jury appears to have agreed and at least has thrown out the most serious charges against Mr. Cellini,” Attorney Dan Webb told reporters in Chicago today.
“Shaking someone down and threatening them with loss of business is a crime,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said today in Chicago. He said the conviction should make power brokers in Springfield and Chicago think twice before committing any illegal backroom deals. “The fact that Bill Cellini was convicted today sends a very, very loud message there.” Fitzgerald said that the investigation dubbed "Operation Board Games" — which led to the convictions of Blagojevich, his confidante Tony Rezko, Stuart Levine, who testified against Cellini, and others — is not officially closed because some defendants have appealed their convictions. However, he said he was not “predicting anything in the future” in regards to the investigation.
“I think clearly the whole corruption problems that occurred under the Ryan administration and then under Blagojevich — we have to root out every single manifestation, and that’s what I’ve tried to do since January 29 of 2009,” Gov. Pat Quinn told reporters in Chicago today. “We’ve passed ethics laws. We’ve established strong standards of conduct, and we enforce them,” Quinn said that “more than anything,” his “mission” is to “clean up Illinois government.”
More info on the Cellini trial see:
Quinn: Gaming negotiations aren't taking place
By Jamey Dunn
Gov. Pat Quinn said today that he is not negotiating when it comes to a gaming expansion in Illinois.
Quinn told reporters in Chicago today that lawmakers who want more gambling in the state have two options: Pass a bill based on his ideas; or send him the bill they passed last spring. “I’d be happy to take it, veto out the defects and flaws and put in the good important things and send it back to them,” Quinn said. In the hopes of working out a plan that Quinn and lawmakers could live with, Senate President John Cullerton used a parliamentary procedure to hold the bill from going to the governor’s desk. But when asked today if he was working on a compromise with lawmakers, Quinn said, “I don’t think the word negotiate is appropriate.”
He reiterated his call for Cullerton to send Senate Bill 744 to his desk. “This is rather unusual, to say the least, if you believe in what you voted for. Now if they want to send it to me, we’ll be very happy to apply my framework to their bill. And my framework will emphasize integrity and honesty.”
Quinn said he would support five new casinos but could not back allowing horse racing tracks to have slot machines. He said he wants more oversight of the proposed Chicago casino and he wants an option that would require local governments to opt into legalizing video gaming in some bars and restaurants. Legalized video gaming is one of the founding sources of funding for the state’s capital construction program. Quinn’s proposal would likely reduce potential revenues once the program was implemented. Quinn also wants to give the gaming board unlimited time to vet businesses owners seeking to offer video gaming. SB744 allows for probationary licenses for applicants 60 days after they apply.
Sen. Terry Link presented a bill during the first week of veto session that he says is based on the governor’s ideas. The governor did not agree. “The bill was not our framework," Quinn said today. "Charades and playing games on any subject are inappropriate, in my opinion. The legislature should be serious about its work. They tried to do a kind of a charade their last week, and we called them out on it.”
Link, who also sponsors SB744, said today that he has tried to pass a gaming expansion for years and has backed several different versions of the idea. “These we’re his ideas; these were his thoughts,” he said about the governor. “We weren’t trying to do a charade. We were trying to see if there was a will out there for this [to pass in the legislature. The point is that we’ve tried different ways — with or without the track, with the casinos owning the slots at the tracks. … We’ve tried every which way you could conceivably think of.”
Link, a Waukegan Democrat, said he held the bill, SB747, from a floor vote last week at Quinn's request. “The governor called and didn’t want it and [said] he wants to talk.” But Link said that meeting has not materialized. ‘We have done everything in our power to try to set up [meetings] and discuss these things. I just hope that the governor doesn’t get to this point where he wants to draw a line in the sand.”
Quinn explained today that while he is “open-minded” about gaming, it is not a priority for him.
“It is up to the legislature,” Quinn said. “My interest is not to promote gambling. That is not my foremost goal in Illinois. I don’t think you can gamble your way to prosperity.”
Gov. Pat Quinn said today that he is not negotiating when it comes to a gaming expansion in Illinois.
Quinn told reporters in Chicago today that lawmakers who want more gambling in the state have two options: Pass a bill based on his ideas; or send him the bill they passed last spring. “I’d be happy to take it, veto out the defects and flaws and put in the good important things and send it back to them,” Quinn said. In the hopes of working out a plan that Quinn and lawmakers could live with, Senate President John Cullerton used a parliamentary procedure to hold the bill from going to the governor’s desk. But when asked today if he was working on a compromise with lawmakers, Quinn said, “I don’t think the word negotiate is appropriate.”
He reiterated his call for Cullerton to send Senate Bill 744 to his desk. “This is rather unusual, to say the least, if you believe in what you voted for. Now if they want to send it to me, we’ll be very happy to apply my framework to their bill. And my framework will emphasize integrity and honesty.”
Quinn said he would support five new casinos but could not back allowing horse racing tracks to have slot machines. He said he wants more oversight of the proposed Chicago casino and he wants an option that would require local governments to opt into legalizing video gaming in some bars and restaurants. Legalized video gaming is one of the founding sources of funding for the state’s capital construction program. Quinn’s proposal would likely reduce potential revenues once the program was implemented. Quinn also wants to give the gaming board unlimited time to vet businesses owners seeking to offer video gaming. SB744 allows for probationary licenses for applicants 60 days after they apply.
Sen. Terry Link presented a bill during the first week of veto session that he says is based on the governor’s ideas. The governor did not agree. “The bill was not our framework," Quinn said today. "Charades and playing games on any subject are inappropriate, in my opinion. The legislature should be serious about its work. They tried to do a kind of a charade their last week, and we called them out on it.”
Link, who also sponsors SB744, said today that he has tried to pass a gaming expansion for years and has backed several different versions of the idea. “These we’re his ideas; these were his thoughts,” he said about the governor. “We weren’t trying to do a charade. We were trying to see if there was a will out there for this [to pass in the legislature. The point is that we’ve tried different ways — with or without the track, with the casinos owning the slots at the tracks. … We’ve tried every which way you could conceivably think of.”
Link, a Waukegan Democrat, said he held the bill, SB747, from a floor vote last week at Quinn's request. “The governor called and didn’t want it and [said] he wants to talk.” But Link said that meeting has not materialized. ‘We have done everything in our power to try to set up [meetings] and discuss these things. I just hope that the governor doesn’t get to this point where he wants to draw a line in the sand.”
Quinn explained today that while he is “open-minded” about gaming, it is not a priority for him.
“It is up to the legislature,” Quinn said. “My interest is not to promote gambling. That is not my foremost goal in Illinois. I don’t think you can gamble your way to prosperity.”
Monday, October 31, 2011
Veto session CapitolView
The first week of veto session in the Illinois General Assembly wraps up with some unexpected movement on some of the issues facing the legislature. Gaming, the Smart Grid/ComEd rate hike and pensions are discussed.
Panel: Mike Lawrence, Charles Wheeler & Benjamin Yount. Moderated by Jamey Dunn (Illinois Issues Magazine)
Friday, October 28, 2011
Lawmakers push some issues to the last week of veto session
By Jamey Dunn
This week, lawmakers overturned Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of a smart grid plan, clearing the way for the state’s two biggest utilities to raise rates and begin work on the state’s electrical grid. But legislators left many issues unresolved and say they plan to revisit them when they return next month for the second half of veto session.
Tax breaks
Senate Present John Cullerton presented a bill in committee this week that would give a tax break to a business that says the recent income tax increase would result in a $158 million tab.
The CME Group, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, has threatened to leave the state if lawmakers do not provide some form of tax relief.
Cullerton purposed changing the way the group’s taxes are calculated. CME’s tax bill is based upon its sales, but many of those sales are online trading. Cullerton said that state considers all of those sales as happening in Illinois, even though many of CME’s customers do not live in the state. “You can’t tell where the customer receives the service nor where the customer orders the service, so there’s a default that every sale takes place in the state of Illinois. So 100 percent of the revenue from this activity is being sourced to Illinois,” Cullerton said. His plan would lower the percentage of CME sales that are taxed by Illinois, and he said cut that $158 million tax bill “about in half.”
Cullerton added, “So there would definitely be a reduction in revenues to the state, but of course if they leave, there will be an even further reduction.”
Cullerton and other Democrats framed the change as keeping the tax code modern and in step with new technology. “The exchanges have said that if we don’t correct this inequity that they would consider going to another state, and so that obviously is something that we should take into account as well,” he said. “But it really is not a threat to leave that motivates me to do this. I think it’s just a recognition that this is an unfair way of calculating their tax.”
The proposal also includes a five year extension of a business tax break for research and development.
James Parasi, chief financial officer for CME, said his company employs more than 2,000 people in Illinois. He said those employees also pay income, property, sales and other taxes in the state. Parasi said CME’s income tax payment for 2010, before the tax increase, made up 6 percent of all the cooperate income tax revenues the state brought in that year.
Senate Republicans said they supported the idea of lightening CME’s tax load, however they said it was unfair to focus in on one business for relief. “There are dramatic and significant unintended consequences from that tax increase that need to be addressed. And it is preferable if they are addressed not necessarily on a company-by-company basis so much as in a broader based fashion,” said Sen. Matt Murphy, a Palatine Republican. “And including things that frankly will help the little guy, the small business, as well.”
Sen. Dale Righter said that offering help to only CME sends the wrong message to small-business owners who do not have the means to lobby the General Assembly on the same level. He likened the plan to a “corporate bailout.”
“I believe that you have a real problem. I believe that you have been caught in a glitch here that probably does need a fix,” Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno said to Parasi. “This may be a real issue, but there is a perception problem that the only folks that get the help are those that have the access and the money to buy that access.” She said of the bill as is: “What’s not real is moving this bill forward because the governor is not going to sign it. It is not going to go through the House. And I don’t want to perpetuate the perception of this special treatment.” Radogno said she is willing to work on a more comprehensive package, but she did not think that lawmakers should rush a plan through before the end of the veto session to appease CME. “If you guys leave because this doesn’t pass today, it does raise the question to the sincerity of whether or not you were staying in the first place.”
A Quinn spokesperson said the governor had some suggestions to be included in the plan.
Regional superintendents
Quinn’s plan to pay regional superintendents was shot down in the House this week, leaving the administrators, who have not been paid since the summer, scrambling to find a solution before the end of veto session.
Quinn vetoed from the budget in June the money to pay regional superintendents and their assistants. He said the locally elected administrators should not be paid with state dollars and put forth a plan to pay them out of a local tax.
Rep. Frank Mautino said some of the superintendents are receiving support from public aid programs because they are barred by law from having another job. Mautino, a Spring Valley Democrat, is the sponsor of House Bill 3828, which calls for the superintendents to be paid out of the personal property tax replacement fund.
Opponents said that it is unfair to push the cost onto local governments, when the budget the legislature passed included the funding for the administrators’ pay.
“We’re getting a lot of concern from every unit of government that receives part of this money,” said Crystal Lake Republican Rep. Michael Tryon. Some opponents said it would be better to simply override Quinn’s veto of the funds. Mautino said he had no control over whether an override would be called for a vote. He placed HB 3828 on postponed consideration, which means he could call the bill for another vote. An override of Quinn’s veto could also happen before the end of veto session, but for now, the superintendents continue to wait for paychecks.
"We have said from the outset we deserve to be paid now and moving forward. We are disappointed by [the] vote in this chamber against this possible funding solution. We know we need a solution now and can't wait any longer. We will keep working with legislators to find the votes for a reasonable solution for our very serious funding problem, and we remain hopeful that resolution will happen in this veto session,” Bob Daiber, president of the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools and Madison County regional superintendent, said in a prepared statement.
Pension reform
House Minority Leader Tom Cross said this week that he has the 30 Republican votes he needs to pass Senate Bill 512 — which would reduce pension benefits for employees hired before January, when a reduction for new hires went into effect. Cross said it is now up to House Speaker Michael Madigan to call the bill and put up 30 Democratic votes. Madigan’s spokesperson said once Cross gives Democrats a chance to review an amendment he is working on, Democratic leadership will start polling its caucus members to gauge whether there is enough support to pass the measure.
Gaming expansion
Gov. Pat Quinn said that if he were given the opportunity, he would veto the gaming bill lawmakers passed last spring. Since the bill, Senate Bill 744, was held from going to Quinn’s desk through a parliamentary procedure, he instead laid out what he would like to see changed. After being pushed all summer by the sponsors of SB744 for specifics, Quinn shared his thoughts in a news conference a week before veto session. Waukegan Democratic Sen. Terry Link, sponsor of SB744, said Quinn’s plan couldn’t pass in the Senate.
However, Link is also sponsor of SB 747, a plan he says is “based” on Quinn’s demands. Quinn denounced that bill and called Link's efforts a “charade.” Link said he would call SB747 for a vote on Wednesday but then opted not to because he said he wanted to allow for more discussion on the bill.
Cullerton, who supports gambling expansion, said he wants to give Quinn next week, when lawmakers take a break from session, to consider his options. Cullerton said his chamber would take up the issue of gaming in the last days of veto session. Lawmakers are scheduled to return to Springfield for the final three days of the veto session on November 8.
This week, lawmakers overturned Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of a smart grid plan, clearing the way for the state’s two biggest utilities to raise rates and begin work on the state’s electrical grid. But legislators left many issues unresolved and say they plan to revisit them when they return next month for the second half of veto session.
Tax breaks
Senate Present John Cullerton presented a bill in committee this week that would give a tax break to a business that says the recent income tax increase would result in a $158 million tab.
The CME Group, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, has threatened to leave the state if lawmakers do not provide some form of tax relief.
Cullerton purposed changing the way the group’s taxes are calculated. CME’s tax bill is based upon its sales, but many of those sales are online trading. Cullerton said that state considers all of those sales as happening in Illinois, even though many of CME’s customers do not live in the state. “You can’t tell where the customer receives the service nor where the customer orders the service, so there’s a default that every sale takes place in the state of Illinois. So 100 percent of the revenue from this activity is being sourced to Illinois,” Cullerton said. His plan would lower the percentage of CME sales that are taxed by Illinois, and he said cut that $158 million tax bill “about in half.”
Cullerton added, “So there would definitely be a reduction in revenues to the state, but of course if they leave, there will be an even further reduction.”
Cullerton and other Democrats framed the change as keeping the tax code modern and in step with new technology. “The exchanges have said that if we don’t correct this inequity that they would consider going to another state, and so that obviously is something that we should take into account as well,” he said. “But it really is not a threat to leave that motivates me to do this. I think it’s just a recognition that this is an unfair way of calculating their tax.”
The proposal also includes a five year extension of a business tax break for research and development.
James Parasi, chief financial officer for CME, said his company employs more than 2,000 people in Illinois. He said those employees also pay income, property, sales and other taxes in the state. Parasi said CME’s income tax payment for 2010, before the tax increase, made up 6 percent of all the cooperate income tax revenues the state brought in that year.
Senate Republicans said they supported the idea of lightening CME’s tax load, however they said it was unfair to focus in on one business for relief. “There are dramatic and significant unintended consequences from that tax increase that need to be addressed. And it is preferable if they are addressed not necessarily on a company-by-company basis so much as in a broader based fashion,” said Sen. Matt Murphy, a Palatine Republican. “And including things that frankly will help the little guy, the small business, as well.”
Sen. Dale Righter said that offering help to only CME sends the wrong message to small-business owners who do not have the means to lobby the General Assembly on the same level. He likened the plan to a “corporate bailout.”
“I believe that you have a real problem. I believe that you have been caught in a glitch here that probably does need a fix,” Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno said to Parasi. “This may be a real issue, but there is a perception problem that the only folks that get the help are those that have the access and the money to buy that access.” She said of the bill as is: “What’s not real is moving this bill forward because the governor is not going to sign it. It is not going to go through the House. And I don’t want to perpetuate the perception of this special treatment.” Radogno said she is willing to work on a more comprehensive package, but she did not think that lawmakers should rush a plan through before the end of the veto session to appease CME. “If you guys leave because this doesn’t pass today, it does raise the question to the sincerity of whether or not you were staying in the first place.”
A Quinn spokesperson said the governor had some suggestions to be included in the plan.
Regional superintendents
Quinn’s plan to pay regional superintendents was shot down in the House this week, leaving the administrators, who have not been paid since the summer, scrambling to find a solution before the end of veto session.
Quinn vetoed from the budget in June the money to pay regional superintendents and their assistants. He said the locally elected administrators should not be paid with state dollars and put forth a plan to pay them out of a local tax.
Rep. Frank Mautino said some of the superintendents are receiving support from public aid programs because they are barred by law from having another job. Mautino, a Spring Valley Democrat, is the sponsor of House Bill 3828, which calls for the superintendents to be paid out of the personal property tax replacement fund.
Opponents said that it is unfair to push the cost onto local governments, when the budget the legislature passed included the funding for the administrators’ pay.
“We’re getting a lot of concern from every unit of government that receives part of this money,” said Crystal Lake Republican Rep. Michael Tryon. Some opponents said it would be better to simply override Quinn’s veto of the funds. Mautino said he had no control over whether an override would be called for a vote. He placed HB 3828 on postponed consideration, which means he could call the bill for another vote. An override of Quinn’s veto could also happen before the end of veto session, but for now, the superintendents continue to wait for paychecks.
"We have said from the outset we deserve to be paid now and moving forward. We are disappointed by [the] vote in this chamber against this possible funding solution. We know we need a solution now and can't wait any longer. We will keep working with legislators to find the votes for a reasonable solution for our very serious funding problem, and we remain hopeful that resolution will happen in this veto session,” Bob Daiber, president of the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools and Madison County regional superintendent, said in a prepared statement.
Pension reform
House Minority Leader Tom Cross said this week that he has the 30 Republican votes he needs to pass Senate Bill 512 — which would reduce pension benefits for employees hired before January, when a reduction for new hires went into effect. Cross said it is now up to House Speaker Michael Madigan to call the bill and put up 30 Democratic votes. Madigan’s spokesperson said once Cross gives Democrats a chance to review an amendment he is working on, Democratic leadership will start polling its caucus members to gauge whether there is enough support to pass the measure.
Gaming expansion
Gov. Pat Quinn said that if he were given the opportunity, he would veto the gaming bill lawmakers passed last spring. Since the bill, Senate Bill 744, was held from going to Quinn’s desk through a parliamentary procedure, he instead laid out what he would like to see changed. After being pushed all summer by the sponsors of SB744 for specifics, Quinn shared his thoughts in a news conference a week before veto session. Waukegan Democratic Sen. Terry Link, sponsor of SB744, said Quinn’s plan couldn’t pass in the Senate.
However, Link is also sponsor of SB 747, a plan he says is “based” on Quinn’s demands. Quinn denounced that bill and called Link's efforts a “charade.” Link said he would call SB747 for a vote on Wednesday but then opted not to because he said he wanted to allow for more discussion on the bill.
Cullerton, who supports gambling expansion, said he wants to give Quinn next week, when lawmakers take a break from session, to consider his options. Cullerton said his chamber would take up the issue of gaming in the last days of veto session. Lawmakers are scheduled to return to Springfield for the final three days of the veto session on November 8.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
House minority leader says Republicans are ready to pass pension reform
By Jamey Dunn
House Minority Leader Tom Cross said today that he has the Republican votes needed to pass a plan to reduce pension benefits for most state employees, but a teachers' union claims there is not enough support from lawmakers to pass the legislation.
Cross said he and House Speaker Michael Madigan agreed that each of them would find 30 votes for Senate Bill 512 within their respective caucuses. The two House leaders have partnered on pension reform talks that took place while the legislature was out for the summer. Cross said today that he has the votes on the Republican side. “We’ve got our votes ready to go. The bill itself is still being finalized. It’s a very complicated bill, so it should be ready this week.”
Cross said it is up to Madigan whether the bill is called for a vote when lawmakers return in November for the last week of the veto session. “We want to have a bill ready, and we want to be prepared on our side, and that’s what we’re doing.”
He added: “This is a priority. We need to do it.”
Cross' legislation would allow employees to keep all the benefits they previously earned. Under the bill, they would have to opt to pay more for their benefits, choose to participate in a reduced-benefit plan that was enacted for employees hired after Jan. 1 of this year or move into a plan similar to a 401(k).
Steve Brown, Madigan’s spokesperson, said Democrats are waiting to see Cross’ changes to the bill. “An accurate view of the situation from our side is the Cross staff has said there is another amendment to the bill. … That’s where we’ve been all week.” ” Brown said once lawmakers get a chance to see the review, Democratic leadership will begin polling them to see if there are enough votes to pass the bill.
The Illinois Education Association issued a response today saying that members of House leadership have told the organization that there are not enough legislators willing to vote in favor of Cross' bill. Jim Reed, director of government relations for the IEA, said in a video statement on the group’s website that claims that there is enough support to pass the bill are “false” statements. Reed said the group has been told by legislators that “really nothing has changed since last spring.” The House held a hearing on SB 512 during the the spring legislative session, but Cross acknowledged then that it lacked the support to needed pass on a full floor vote. Union officials say pension benefits are protected by the state Constitution, and plans such as SB 512 are unconstitutional. Senate President John Cullerton has said that he agrees that such changes are unconstitutional. However, if the bill is approved in the House, Cullerton said he would allow it to come up for a vote in his chamber.
The House today passed a different bill from Cross, House Bill 3813, meant to prevent pension fraud and double-dipping cases. The bill was rushed through the legislature after the Chicago Tribune reported on Chicago unions officials collecting both city and union pensions. The paper also uncovered two union officials who served as substitute teachers for one day each and then counted their years working for the union toward state pensions. Cross said such abuses have helped solidify support behind broader pension reforms. “We’re going to do what we can — and I think others will, too — in saying that those days are over, and we can’t go forward. We can’t afford it. Plus, it’s just wrong.”
Cross said Quinn backs HB 3813 and that it has a good chance of passing in the Senate.
“Earlier this week, at the start of session,” said a prepared statement from Quinn’s office. “Governor Quinn urged lawmakers to address flagrant abuses of the pension system. The governor wholeheartedly supports the pension abuse reforms that passed today and is very interested in pension reform moving forward but has always noted that any changes to the pension system should be within the bounds of the Constitution. Governor Quinn looks forward to reviewing legislation once it arrives on his desk.”
House Minority Leader Tom Cross said today that he has the Republican votes needed to pass a plan to reduce pension benefits for most state employees, but a teachers' union claims there is not enough support from lawmakers to pass the legislation.
Cross said he and House Speaker Michael Madigan agreed that each of them would find 30 votes for Senate Bill 512 within their respective caucuses. The two House leaders have partnered on pension reform talks that took place while the legislature was out for the summer. Cross said today that he has the votes on the Republican side. “We’ve got our votes ready to go. The bill itself is still being finalized. It’s a very complicated bill, so it should be ready this week.”
Cross said it is up to Madigan whether the bill is called for a vote when lawmakers return in November for the last week of the veto session. “We want to have a bill ready, and we want to be prepared on our side, and that’s what we’re doing.”
He added: “This is a priority. We need to do it.”
Cross' legislation would allow employees to keep all the benefits they previously earned. Under the bill, they would have to opt to pay more for their benefits, choose to participate in a reduced-benefit plan that was enacted for employees hired after Jan. 1 of this year or move into a plan similar to a 401(k).
Steve Brown, Madigan’s spokesperson, said Democrats are waiting to see Cross’ changes to the bill. “An accurate view of the situation from our side is the Cross staff has said there is another amendment to the bill. … That’s where we’ve been all week.” ” Brown said once lawmakers get a chance to see the review, Democratic leadership will begin polling them to see if there are enough votes to pass the bill.
The Illinois Education Association issued a response today saying that members of House leadership have told the organization that there are not enough legislators willing to vote in favor of Cross' bill. Jim Reed, director of government relations for the IEA, said in a video statement on the group’s website that claims that there is enough support to pass the bill are “false” statements. Reed said the group has been told by legislators that “really nothing has changed since last spring.” The House held a hearing on SB 512 during the the spring legislative session, but Cross acknowledged then that it lacked the support to needed pass on a full floor vote. Union officials say pension benefits are protected by the state Constitution, and plans such as SB 512 are unconstitutional. Senate President John Cullerton has said that he agrees that such changes are unconstitutional. However, if the bill is approved in the House, Cullerton said he would allow it to come up for a vote in his chamber.
The House today passed a different bill from Cross, House Bill 3813, meant to prevent pension fraud and double-dipping cases. The bill was rushed through the legislature after the Chicago Tribune reported on Chicago unions officials collecting both city and union pensions. The paper also uncovered two union officials who served as substitute teachers for one day each and then counted their years working for the union toward state pensions. Cross said such abuses have helped solidify support behind broader pension reforms. “We’re going to do what we can — and I think others will, too — in saying that those days are over, and we can’t go forward. We can’t afford it. Plus, it’s just wrong.”
Cross said Quinn backs HB 3813 and that it has a good chance of passing in the Senate.
“Earlier this week, at the start of session,” said a prepared statement from Quinn’s office. “Governor Quinn urged lawmakers to address flagrant abuses of the pension system. The governor wholeheartedly supports the pension abuse reforms that passed today and is very interested in pension reform moving forward but has always noted that any changes to the pension system should be within the bounds of the Constitution. Governor Quinn looks forward to reviewing legislation once it arrives on his desk.”
COGFA shoots down facility closures
By Jamey Dunn
A legislative panel voted today to reject the closure of four state facilities because legislative leaders plan to work with the governor on budget tweaks that may make some closures unnecessary.
Gov. Pat Quinn called for the closure of seven institutions and the layoff of more than 1,900 state workers. Quinn said the budget approved by the legislature in the spring would not fund basic services through the end of the year, and the closures would be needed to keep government afloat. “Something has to give, and what has to give is we have to close down some of those facilities,” Quinn said when he announced the closures. Under Quinn’s timetable, the state would start closing facilities next month, with the last of the closures coming early next year.
But lawmakers sitting on the Commission of Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) disagreed with Quinn’s tactics.
Legislators who voted for and against the closures generally agreed that the state does need to consider shutting down some of its institutions. Those who voted on both sides of the issue also agreed that Quinn’s plan was rushed and a coherent transition would take time. “We’re trying to do something in three or four weeks that we’ve waited eight years to do,” Hinsdale Republican Rep. Patricia Bellock said at this hearing this morning. “We want to close facilities, but taking a look at all the lives and jobs and people in these residences, it’s a very, very hard decision to make.”
Bellock, a co-chair of COGFA, said budget cuts affecting small providers that offer community-based care to the mentally ill and developmentally disabled raised concerns about whether they will be able to handle the needs of patients currently housed in state facilities. “The community providers have lost money, so to put that all on them and the hospitals … it’s a very. very difficult decision, especially when we’re looking at the fragile lives of the mentally ill. … It’s just not the one place. It’s how it affects the entire mental health system in Illinois.”
Other lawmakers echoed Bellock’s call for a more comprehensive look at all the institutions in the state to best determine where closures can be made. “We need to be taking a systemic look at all of these, and there may be a need for some closures, but it needs to be done in a much more organized [way] and in a manner that’s going to make financial sense and fit into reality,” said Sen. Dave Syverson.
Syverson, a Rockford Republican, argued that the closure of the Singer Mental Health Center in Rockford would not result in savings because the center is used for emergency cases — the average stay is 14 days — and such patients would have to be transported long distances to get similar treatment. “From a dollar standpoint, it does not make sense. The idea of how can we operate these facilities more cost-effectively immediately makes sense. Can some of these services of any of these facilities, can they be transferred to the private sector over a period of time with a legitimate transition plan? … That is a possibility, but again, that is going to have an upfront cost to it. And if the goal here is to try to save $50 million, that’s not going to occur.” Singer was in Syverson’s district until a new legislative map was drawn this year.
However, Rep. Elaine Nekritz, who voted to close Singer, said that the budget crisis is forcing lawmakers to make choices that could be damaging. “In this kind of environment — and it’s happening in other states too — the old decision-making models where it’s harm versus no harm or risk versus no risk don’t really work. The decisions we’re going to have to make are harm versus less harm and risk versus less risk because people are going to be hurt by the decisions we make,” said Nekritz, a Northbrook Democrat. “We don’t have the luxury of unlimited time or lengthy time. I wish we did. … And we’re going to have to make these decisions with incomplete information.”
Chicago Sen. Donne Trotter, a budget point man for the Senate Democratic leadership, scolded lawmakers who backed budget cuts in the past and voted today to keep facilities open. “I think that everyone that represents these districts that didn’t vote for some funding to make sure that these most-vulnerable people are taken care of should be voted out of office,” Trotter said. “That was not the concern when they were voting last May. Hard decisions had to be made … and we have to make them now. So there’s a story that should tug at everybody’s heart every place we go, but some hard decisions have to be made. … Do the right thing. Either close these places or come up with funding to ensure that we can keep them open until we can find some other alternatives.”
He added “This is B.S. The chickens have come home to roost, and the egg is on your face.”
All the members of the panel agreed to keep the Chester Mental Health Center open, arguing that there is no other facility prepared to house the criminally insane. “There are two facilities I think that we just couldn’t close, and it’s incumbent upon us to find the resources. One is Chester, one is Logan [Correctional Center in Lincoln,]” said Rep. Michael Tryon, a Crystal Lake Republican. “[Chester is] the only maximum security facility for the criminally insane and those who are not fit to stand trial. … These are not the kind or prisoners that we should put in Alton [Mental Health Center] or any other facility.”
The committee also voted to recommend that the Illinois Youth Center in Murphysboro and the Jack Mabley Developmental Center in Dixon remain open.
Those who did not vote in favor of some of the closures said that they were still open to the idea of closing facilities, but they want to see how budget negotiations during veto session pan out. “I think that these are things that really take time. A lot of things are happening. We’re looking at maybe redistribution money in the budget. I think there’s more information that we need. I don’t think that it really does us any good to be hasty just for the sake of haste,” said Rep. Al Riley, a Democrat from Olympia Fields.
House Minority Leader Tom Cross said that the four party caucuses plan to come together with Quinn and discuss shifting about $240 million in funds to other areas, including keeping facilities open. He said some of the money would come from Quinn’s line item vetoes. Cross said House members are open to moving dollars around, as long as the spending total is the same as the original budget passed in May.
COGFA plays an advisory role when it comes to facility closures, so Quinn could ignore today’s votes.
However, Evanston Democratic Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg, co-chair of COGFA, said, “No administration has ever moved contrary to how the commission has recommended.” He said he expects the commission to vote on more closures during the last week of veto session.
"While we respect the role of COGFA, their recommendations do not change the reality of the budget we are tasked with managing. These are not closures that we sought to accomplish this fiscal year; we are forced to close these facilities now because there is not enough money appropriated to run all these facilities for the entire year. Unless the General Assembly takes action, we must continue to seek these closures and other actions to responsibly manage the budget, and we will continue to do so," said a prepared statement from Quinn's office.
A legislative panel voted today to reject the closure of four state facilities because legislative leaders plan to work with the governor on budget tweaks that may make some closures unnecessary.
Gov. Pat Quinn called for the closure of seven institutions and the layoff of more than 1,900 state workers. Quinn said the budget approved by the legislature in the spring would not fund basic services through the end of the year, and the closures would be needed to keep government afloat. “Something has to give, and what has to give is we have to close down some of those facilities,” Quinn said when he announced the closures. Under Quinn’s timetable, the state would start closing facilities next month, with the last of the closures coming early next year.
But lawmakers sitting on the Commission of Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) disagreed with Quinn’s tactics.
Legislators who voted for and against the closures generally agreed that the state does need to consider shutting down some of its institutions. Those who voted on both sides of the issue also agreed that Quinn’s plan was rushed and a coherent transition would take time. “We’re trying to do something in three or four weeks that we’ve waited eight years to do,” Hinsdale Republican Rep. Patricia Bellock said at this hearing this morning. “We want to close facilities, but taking a look at all the lives and jobs and people in these residences, it’s a very, very hard decision to make.”
Bellock, a co-chair of COGFA, said budget cuts affecting small providers that offer community-based care to the mentally ill and developmentally disabled raised concerns about whether they will be able to handle the needs of patients currently housed in state facilities. “The community providers have lost money, so to put that all on them and the hospitals … it’s a very. very difficult decision, especially when we’re looking at the fragile lives of the mentally ill. … It’s just not the one place. It’s how it affects the entire mental health system in Illinois.”
Other lawmakers echoed Bellock’s call for a more comprehensive look at all the institutions in the state to best determine where closures can be made. “We need to be taking a systemic look at all of these, and there may be a need for some closures, but it needs to be done in a much more organized [way] and in a manner that’s going to make financial sense and fit into reality,” said Sen. Dave Syverson.
Syverson, a Rockford Republican, argued that the closure of the Singer Mental Health Center in Rockford would not result in savings because the center is used for emergency cases — the average stay is 14 days — and such patients would have to be transported long distances to get similar treatment. “From a dollar standpoint, it does not make sense. The idea of how can we operate these facilities more cost-effectively immediately makes sense. Can some of these services of any of these facilities, can they be transferred to the private sector over a period of time with a legitimate transition plan? … That is a possibility, but again, that is going to have an upfront cost to it. And if the goal here is to try to save $50 million, that’s not going to occur.” Singer was in Syverson’s district until a new legislative map was drawn this year.
However, Rep. Elaine Nekritz, who voted to close Singer, said that the budget crisis is forcing lawmakers to make choices that could be damaging. “In this kind of environment — and it’s happening in other states too — the old decision-making models where it’s harm versus no harm or risk versus no risk don’t really work. The decisions we’re going to have to make are harm versus less harm and risk versus less risk because people are going to be hurt by the decisions we make,” said Nekritz, a Northbrook Democrat. “We don’t have the luxury of unlimited time or lengthy time. I wish we did. … And we’re going to have to make these decisions with incomplete information.”
Chicago Sen. Donne Trotter, a budget point man for the Senate Democratic leadership, scolded lawmakers who backed budget cuts in the past and voted today to keep facilities open. “I think that everyone that represents these districts that didn’t vote for some funding to make sure that these most-vulnerable people are taken care of should be voted out of office,” Trotter said. “That was not the concern when they were voting last May. Hard decisions had to be made … and we have to make them now. So there’s a story that should tug at everybody’s heart every place we go, but some hard decisions have to be made. … Do the right thing. Either close these places or come up with funding to ensure that we can keep them open until we can find some other alternatives.”
He added “This is B.S. The chickens have come home to roost, and the egg is on your face.”
All the members of the panel agreed to keep the Chester Mental Health Center open, arguing that there is no other facility prepared to house the criminally insane. “There are two facilities I think that we just couldn’t close, and it’s incumbent upon us to find the resources. One is Chester, one is Logan [Correctional Center in Lincoln,]” said Rep. Michael Tryon, a Crystal Lake Republican. “[Chester is] the only maximum security facility for the criminally insane and those who are not fit to stand trial. … These are not the kind or prisoners that we should put in Alton [Mental Health Center] or any other facility.”
The committee also voted to recommend that the Illinois Youth Center in Murphysboro and the Jack Mabley Developmental Center in Dixon remain open.
Those who did not vote in favor of some of the closures said that they were still open to the idea of closing facilities, but they want to see how budget negotiations during veto session pan out. “I think that these are things that really take time. A lot of things are happening. We’re looking at maybe redistribution money in the budget. I think there’s more information that we need. I don’t think that it really does us any good to be hasty just for the sake of haste,” said Rep. Al Riley, a Democrat from Olympia Fields.
House Minority Leader Tom Cross said that the four party caucuses plan to come together with Quinn and discuss shifting about $240 million in funds to other areas, including keeping facilities open. He said some of the money would come from Quinn’s line item vetoes. Cross said House members are open to moving dollars around, as long as the spending total is the same as the original budget passed in May.
COGFA plays an advisory role when it comes to facility closures, so Quinn could ignore today’s votes.
However, Evanston Democratic Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg, co-chair of COGFA, said, “No administration has ever moved contrary to how the commission has recommended.” He said he expects the commission to vote on more closures during the last week of veto session.
"While we respect the role of COGFA, their recommendations do not change the reality of the budget we are tasked with managing. These are not closures that we sought to accomplish this fiscal year; we are forced to close these facilities now because there is not enough money appropriated to run all these facilities for the entire year. Unless the General Assembly takes action, we must continue to seek these closures and other actions to responsibly manage the budget, and we will continue to do so," said a prepared statement from Quinn's office.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Legislators override Quinn's veto on smart-grid bill
By Jamey Dunn
Lawmakers today overturned Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of a bill that will allow the state’s two biggest utility companies to raise customers' rates in exchange for investments in the state’s power grid.
Under the plan, Ameren and Commonwealth Edison will be able to increase customers' rates by 2.5 percent annually in exchange for $3.2 billion in spending on the grid over 10 years. The companies will add smart grid technologies that allow them to monitor transmission and respond quicker to outages. The measure would also require ComEd to create 2,000 new jobs through the plan and Ameren to create 450 jobs.
Supporters were able to pass a trailer bill this week that would impose reliability standards on the utilities. It would also require them to spend more on traditional infrastructure, such as underground wires, to prevent blackouts. The bill also calls for $60 million from the utilities annually to go toward rate relief programs for low-income customers. Backers of the overall plan say the so-called trailer bill helped pull in the three-fifths majority needed to override Quinn’s veto.
Sen. Mike Jacobs, a sponsor of the plan, said the state’s increasing demands for energy make upgrades to the out-of-date grid a necessity. “If you look around the room here, everybody is on the phone. Everybody’s got a computer in front of them. Everybody’s got a smart phone in their pocket. We need the power.”
Opponents say the bill is just a way for the utilities to skirt the authority of the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), which rules on proposed rate hikes. “I’m not sure smart grid’s really the issue here. It think the real issue is that this is a new way to recalculate rate hikes because Ameren and ComEd didn’t get the approval that they wanted from the ICC. Let’s be honest, that’s what this is about. If you put the name smart grid on it, it doesn’t make it any better,” said Sen. Kyle McCarter, a Lebanon Republican.
McCarter said that increased energy rates would drive business out of the Illinois. “One of the last good things we’ve got going in this state for businesses is affordable power. We’ve increased taxes on people, we’ve got high regulation. and we still have high workers’ compensation rates.”
But Jacobs, a Democrat from Moline, pointed to the economic development that he says the plan will bring. “I don’t know the last time I was in a legislative body when anyone stood up and said they we’re going to create 2,450 jobs. And these are good paying jobs. … These are jobs that are written into the contract.”
Quinn, a vocal opponent of the plan from the start, would not say if he plans to sign the trailer bill containing some consumer protections. “The consumers of Illinois are deeply disappointed in the General Assembly’s action today to give Commonwealth Edison and Ameren guaranteed annual rate increases for each of the next 10 years… and so am I,” said a prepared statement from his office. “The fight for consumers against unfair utility practices will go on and will never end as long as I am governor.
Lawmakers today overturned Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of a bill that will allow the state’s two biggest utility companies to raise customers' rates in exchange for investments in the state’s power grid.
Under the plan, Ameren and Commonwealth Edison will be able to increase customers' rates by 2.5 percent annually in exchange for $3.2 billion in spending on the grid over 10 years. The companies will add smart grid technologies that allow them to monitor transmission and respond quicker to outages. The measure would also require ComEd to create 2,000 new jobs through the plan and Ameren to create 450 jobs.
Supporters were able to pass a trailer bill this week that would impose reliability standards on the utilities. It would also require them to spend more on traditional infrastructure, such as underground wires, to prevent blackouts. The bill also calls for $60 million from the utilities annually to go toward rate relief programs for low-income customers. Backers of the overall plan say the so-called trailer bill helped pull in the three-fifths majority needed to override Quinn’s veto.
Sen. Mike Jacobs, a sponsor of the plan, said the state’s increasing demands for energy make upgrades to the out-of-date grid a necessity. “If you look around the room here, everybody is on the phone. Everybody’s got a computer in front of them. Everybody’s got a smart phone in their pocket. We need the power.”
Opponents say the bill is just a way for the utilities to skirt the authority of the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), which rules on proposed rate hikes. “I’m not sure smart grid’s really the issue here. It think the real issue is that this is a new way to recalculate rate hikes because Ameren and ComEd didn’t get the approval that they wanted from the ICC. Let’s be honest, that’s what this is about. If you put the name smart grid on it, it doesn’t make it any better,” said Sen. Kyle McCarter, a Lebanon Republican.
McCarter said that increased energy rates would drive business out of the Illinois. “One of the last good things we’ve got going in this state for businesses is affordable power. We’ve increased taxes on people, we’ve got high regulation. and we still have high workers’ compensation rates.”
But Jacobs, a Democrat from Moline, pointed to the economic development that he says the plan will bring. “I don’t know the last time I was in a legislative body when anyone stood up and said they we’re going to create 2,450 jobs. And these are good paying jobs. … These are jobs that are written into the contract.”
Quinn, a vocal opponent of the plan from the start, would not say if he plans to sign the trailer bill containing some consumer protections. “The consumers of Illinois are deeply disappointed in the General Assembly’s action today to give Commonwealth Edison and Ameren guaranteed annual rate increases for each of the next 10 years… and so am I,” said a prepared statement from his office. “The fight for consumers against unfair utility practices will go on and will never end as long as I am governor.
Gaming bill held for more work
By Jamey Dunn
After publicly calling lawmakers' attempts to pass gaming legislation based on his suggestions a “charade,” Gov. Pat Quinn is reportedly in talks with its sponsor.
Last week, Quinn laid out the changes he wanted to the gaming expansion package lawmakers approved last spring. Sen. Terry Link, the sponsor of the original plan, Senate Bill 744, decided to back a bill, SB747, that he said was based on Quinn’s proposals.
A Senate committee heard testimony on SB747 today, and Quinn balked at the idea of his plan being pushed through the legislative process. “This is not the governor’s bill. Instead of improving their current bill and having good faith discussions within the governor’s framework amongst the House, the city of Chicago, the racing industry, the [Illinois] Gaming Board, and the governor’s office, some have chosen to put on a charade,” said a prepared statement from Quinn’s office. “The governor announced a framework — not a bill — for any gambling expansion last week. He will support a smaller, more moderate gambling expansion that prevents corruption and provides adequate revenue for education.”
But Link, a Waukegan Democrat, said he carried they bill with the sincere hope that it would pass. “I can do only as much as I can do.”
Link said he thinks Quinn may have backed away from the plan after he began to realize that it did not have enough support to pass in the legislature. “I think he already felt that there were a lot of people out there that didn’t have the willingness to vote for his concept. So now that we put it in a bill form, his feelings [are] a little bit different.”
Link said he and supporters of the original bill tried to work with Quinn all summer to negotiate a rework of the bill that he could live with. “President [John] Cullerton has met with him a couple times without any type of real negotiations,” Link said. “Until that press conference [when Quinn made his demands] … we had no idea of where the governor stood on any of these issues.”
After the committee hearing this afternoon, Link said he doubted Quinn’s willingness to negotiate. “If he was truly open to negotiations … why wouldn’t he personally call me and say, ‘I’d like to negotiate with you?’ I’m still the sponsor of the bill. I’m the chief sponsor of both bills.” However, someone must have picked up the phone because a member of Cullerton’s staff said Link, Quinn and Cullerton plan to meet to discuss an amendment to SB747. Earlier today, Link said he planned to call the bill for a floor vote this evening, but later, he chose not to. “We’re going to have a meeting,” he said. A spokesperson for Quinn would not confirm the meeting, but said the governor will be attending a scheduled leaders meeting in the morning where several topics would be discussed.
Per Quinn’s suggestions, the bill does not allow for slot machines at horse racing tracks and limits gaming expansion to five new casinos, including one operated by the city of Chicago. However, it would require casinos to pay a so-called impact fee of more than $330 million to replace the money that the tracks could have made with slots. “This would be a fee that would make up for the amount of money that was figured to be made from the racetracks,” Link said. “Casinos would also have to chip in on an impact fee of $70 million that would go toward education.” He estimated that each casino would pay about $25 million.
Tom Swoik of the Illinois Casino and Gaming Association said the fees would put four or five of the state’s 10 existing casinos out of business. “You’re against SB 744 when you had the racinos,” Link said of the casino owners. "Now you’re against this with the impact fee. What do you want? You can’t have it both ways. If we want to increase he number of casinos in the state of Illinois, you have got to be for something." Link said that he was open to making changes to the fee system and filed an amendment this afternoon that would put off the fees until 2015.
Swoik said casino owners are not inherently against new casinos, as long as they do not cannibalize the business of existing operations. “We’re not opposed to expansion if it’s in new markets and in areas that don’t have such a concentration of existing gaming positions. All of the racetracks are right next to existing casinos.”
Cullerton said today that he supports the legislation but that there were some components he did not like. He noted that making local governments vote to opt into a plan to legalize video poker in bars and restaurants across the state likely result in less money for capital construction projects. Currently, local governments can vote to be exempt from the plan but do not have to vote to be included. The Illinois Gaming Board has not issued any licenses for video poker, and the gaming expansion has yet to bring in dollars for the capital plan it was enacted to fund.
Cullerton said SB 747 plan could bring in education dollars and more than $1 billion to help the state pay down its billions of dollars in unpaid bills. He said that even though he disagrees with parts of the plan, it is more important to try to stop gamblers from crossing state lines by approving five new Illinois casinos. “We do have all these people from Illinois spending their money in other states,” Cullerton said. “If you supported the original bill, I think there’s a way in which you could also support this bill.”
Sen. Matt Murphy, a Palatine Republican said that if a gaming bill does not pass during the veto session, it would be a “failure of leadership” on Quinn’s part. “The state is losing out on the $1.5 billion in up front revenue to pay down the backlog of bills and $1 billion in annual revenue that say could go to reducing or rolling back the tax increase that has seen us struggle on the jobs numbers since January.”
Murphy added: “That is going to sit right at the foot of the governor.”
Whatever happens with SB 747, Link, who by his own count has been pushing gaming expansion for about 20 years, said he would not be ready to give up. “I won’t sit back and just go in a corner. I will be working with the [Senate] president and the House to try to get another bill resurrected and make sure we can get something done.”
After publicly calling lawmakers' attempts to pass gaming legislation based on his suggestions a “charade,” Gov. Pat Quinn is reportedly in talks with its sponsor.
Last week, Quinn laid out the changes he wanted to the gaming expansion package lawmakers approved last spring. Sen. Terry Link, the sponsor of the original plan, Senate Bill 744, decided to back a bill, SB747, that he said was based on Quinn’s proposals.
A Senate committee heard testimony on SB747 today, and Quinn balked at the idea of his plan being pushed through the legislative process. “This is not the governor’s bill. Instead of improving their current bill and having good faith discussions within the governor’s framework amongst the House, the city of Chicago, the racing industry, the [Illinois] Gaming Board, and the governor’s office, some have chosen to put on a charade,” said a prepared statement from Quinn’s office. “The governor announced a framework — not a bill — for any gambling expansion last week. He will support a smaller, more moderate gambling expansion that prevents corruption and provides adequate revenue for education.”
But Link, a Waukegan Democrat, said he carried they bill with the sincere hope that it would pass. “I can do only as much as I can do.”
Link said he thinks Quinn may have backed away from the plan after he began to realize that it did not have enough support to pass in the legislature. “I think he already felt that there were a lot of people out there that didn’t have the willingness to vote for his concept. So now that we put it in a bill form, his feelings [are] a little bit different.”
Link said he and supporters of the original bill tried to work with Quinn all summer to negotiate a rework of the bill that he could live with. “President [John] Cullerton has met with him a couple times without any type of real negotiations,” Link said. “Until that press conference [when Quinn made his demands] … we had no idea of where the governor stood on any of these issues.”
After the committee hearing this afternoon, Link said he doubted Quinn’s willingness to negotiate. “If he was truly open to negotiations … why wouldn’t he personally call me and say, ‘I’d like to negotiate with you?’ I’m still the sponsor of the bill. I’m the chief sponsor of both bills.” However, someone must have picked up the phone because a member of Cullerton’s staff said Link, Quinn and Cullerton plan to meet to discuss an amendment to SB747. Earlier today, Link said he planned to call the bill for a floor vote this evening, but later, he chose not to. “We’re going to have a meeting,” he said. A spokesperson for Quinn would not confirm the meeting, but said the governor will be attending a scheduled leaders meeting in the morning where several topics would be discussed.
Per Quinn’s suggestions, the bill does not allow for slot machines at horse racing tracks and limits gaming expansion to five new casinos, including one operated by the city of Chicago. However, it would require casinos to pay a so-called impact fee of more than $330 million to replace the money that the tracks could have made with slots. “This would be a fee that would make up for the amount of money that was figured to be made from the racetracks,” Link said. “Casinos would also have to chip in on an impact fee of $70 million that would go toward education.” He estimated that each casino would pay about $25 million.
Tom Swoik of the Illinois Casino and Gaming Association said the fees would put four or five of the state’s 10 existing casinos out of business. “You’re against SB 744 when you had the racinos,” Link said of the casino owners. "Now you’re against this with the impact fee. What do you want? You can’t have it both ways. If we want to increase he number of casinos in the state of Illinois, you have got to be for something." Link said that he was open to making changes to the fee system and filed an amendment this afternoon that would put off the fees until 2015.
Swoik said casino owners are not inherently against new casinos, as long as they do not cannibalize the business of existing operations. “We’re not opposed to expansion if it’s in new markets and in areas that don’t have such a concentration of existing gaming positions. All of the racetracks are right next to existing casinos.”
Cullerton said today that he supports the legislation but that there were some components he did not like. He noted that making local governments vote to opt into a plan to legalize video poker in bars and restaurants across the state likely result in less money for capital construction projects. Currently, local governments can vote to be exempt from the plan but do not have to vote to be included. The Illinois Gaming Board has not issued any licenses for video poker, and the gaming expansion has yet to bring in dollars for the capital plan it was enacted to fund.
Cullerton said SB 747 plan could bring in education dollars and more than $1 billion to help the state pay down its billions of dollars in unpaid bills. He said that even though he disagrees with parts of the plan, it is more important to try to stop gamblers from crossing state lines by approving five new Illinois casinos. “We do have all these people from Illinois spending their money in other states,” Cullerton said. “If you supported the original bill, I think there’s a way in which you could also support this bill.”
Sen. Matt Murphy, a Palatine Republican said that if a gaming bill does not pass during the veto session, it would be a “failure of leadership” on Quinn’s part. “The state is losing out on the $1.5 billion in up front revenue to pay down the backlog of bills and $1 billion in annual revenue that say could go to reducing or rolling back the tax increase that has seen us struggle on the jobs numbers since January.”
Murphy added: “That is going to sit right at the foot of the governor.”
Whatever happens with SB 747, Link, who by his own count has been pushing gaming expansion for about 20 years, said he would not be ready to give up. “I won’t sit back and just go in a corner. I will be working with the [Senate] president and the House to try to get another bill resurrected and make sure we can get something done.”
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