QUOTE OF THE DAY
Chicago Sun Times: Madigan: Tax extension dead, middle-of-the-road budget on deck
House Speaker Michael Madigan on Monday declared an extension of the 2011 temporary income tax increase dead for the spring and said House Democrats are preparing a “middle-of-the-road budget” that eases up on spending cuts that were part of a failed budget blueprint last week.
Madigan informed his 71-member House Democratic caucus that he was taking the income-tax extension favored by Gov. Pat Quinn off the table and shifting budgetary strategy as state lawmakers enter their final week before a scheduled Saturday adjournment.
“We’re proceeding under the expectation that the income-tax increase will not be extended,” Madigan told reporters after a Monday committee hearing at the Statehouse.
Chicago Tribune: Madigan makes power play for Lincoln library and museum
The latest political power play at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum comes from Speaker Michael Madigan, who is pushing a plan to set up the center as a free-standing state agency despite opponents’ concerns it would become a patronage haven.
With the budget still unsettled and less than a week until adjournment, the Democratic speaker used the Memorial Day session to move through a committee a plan that would make the library and museum more independent of Gov. Pat Quinn. The speaker’s bill would remove the library from under the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The Quinn administration was largely silent on the issue, but estimated the cost for the switch would be $2.4 million at a time when other historic sites are considered for closure because of the state’s budget crunch.
Madigan’s proposal could benefit some of his friends. The Springfield presidential museum is run by Eileen Mackevich, a Madigan friend. Madigan confirmed she is a longtime acquaintance of Stanley Balzekas, whose family runs the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture. Madigan acknowledged his Southwest Side office is at the same 13th Ward address as the museum, and that Balzekas is the landlord.
Times Union: Illinois Legislature has full agenda in final week
Illinois legislators return to the Capitol Monday for their final week of the spring session, with much of the heavy lifting still to do.
In what is practically an annual tradition, the biggest remaining issue is approving next year’s budget. As part of that debate, the Legislature also must decide whether to make Illinois’ temporary income tax increase permanent rather than let it roll back as scheduled in January.
“I’ll tell you something about this place: the most important issues are always last,” Rep. Monique Davis, a Chicago Democrat, said last week. “Sometimes it’s in order to get a lot of support. And sometimes it’s just to have an exciting ending.”
New York Times: I.R.S. Bars Employers From Dumping Workers Into Health Exchanges
Many employers had thought they could shift health costs to the government by sending their employees to a health insurance exchange with a tax-free contribution of cash to help pay premiums, but the Obama administration has squelched the idea in a new ruling. Such arrangements do not satisfy the health care law, the administration said, and employers may be subject to a tax penalty of $100 a day — or $36,500 a year — for each employee who goes into the individual marketplace.
The ruling this month, by the Internal Revenue Service, blocks any wholesale move by employers to dump employees into the exchanges.
Under a central provision of the health care law, larger employers are required to offer health coverage to full-time workers, or else the employers may be subject to penalties.
Sun-Times: Property tax a ticking time bomb
Chicago residents who are worried about a $250 million property tax hike because of the pension bill Gov. Pat Quinn is weighing don’t know the half of it. Or maybe three-quarters of it.
It’s time Chicagoans confront the fact that there’s a nuclear property tax time bomb already set and ticking away here. There’s the potential for another $600 million property tax increase coming in December to fix police and fire pensions. And then maybe another $696 million needed next year for Chicago Public School pensions.
Back to police and fire. Public Act 096-1495, passed in 2010, reads, in part, “The city council … shall annually levy a tax upon all the taxable property of the municipality at the rate on the dollar which will produce an amount which … will equal a sum sufficient to meet the annual requirements of the police pension fund.”
WSJ: New Costs From Health Law Snarl Union Contract Talks
Disputes between unions and employers over paying for new costs associated with theAffordable Care Act are roiling labor talks nationwide.
Unions and employers are tussling over who will pick up the tab for new mandates, such as coverage for dependent children to age 26, as well as future costs, such as a tax on premium health plans starting in 2018. The question is poised to become a significant point of tension as tens of thousands of labor contracts covering millions of workers expire in the next several years, with ACA-related cost increases ranging from 5% to 12.5% in current talks.
In Philadelphia, disagreement over how much workers should contribute to such health-plan cost increases has stalled talks between the region’s transit system and its main union representing 5,000 workers as they try to renegotiate a contract that expired in March.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
