Get the latest news from around Illinois.
The Southern: Rauner urges Illinois Senate to keep working on budget deal
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner says he’s urged Republican state senators to keep negotiating for a budget compromise that’s “a good deal for taxpayers.”
The Illinois Senate has been working for months to pass a so-called “grand bargain” that could resolve a nearly two-year state budget impasse.
Wirepoints: Two Sets of Numbers We Want From Illinois. Now.
’m fed up with the entirely fictional debate about the Illinois budget being played out in the press. One cause is the the state’s failure — at all levels — to give us meaningful, current numbers. Let’s start with two:
First, Governor Rauner’s office, Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats alike are consistently claiming that the pending pension bill, Senate Bill 11, would save about $1 billion per year. The press repeats that claim without challenge. But the bill is built primarily on the goofy “consideration” theory about pension reform. Yes, it’s “goofy,” because it can’t work “by definition” for the reasons explained in sworn filings by the City of Chicago before the Illinois Supreme Court. For details, see our earlier articles on this going back almost two years, linked here and here. Worse, we now have somebody in the Governor’s office referring to the bill as “comprehensive pension reform.”
Chicago Tribune: Emanuel calls governor emperor without clothes; Rauner aide suggests mayor has 'Napoleon complex'
The name-calling and finger-pointing continued between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats on Tuesday, this time on the next step to negotiating a massive budget proposal and how to proceed on extra money for Chicago Public Schools.
The insults were traded as Mayor Rahm Emanuel was asked about the dispute over how to come up with $215 million for the city’s teacher pension system that evaporated after a Rauner veto late last year. Rauner met Friday with Grammy-winning South Side artist Chance the Rapper to discuss the issue, then the governor laid out a couple of options Monday that Democrats dismissed.
Chicago Sun-Times: Rauner leaves little to chance, seeks separate CPS, pension votes
Days after the “grand bargain” faltered in the Illinois Senate — with Democrats pointing the finger squarely at Gov. Bruce Rauner — the governor on Tuesday said he now supports signing the pension and CPS bills “now,” whether or not it’s in the budget package.
“We don’t have to do a balanced budget today comprehensively to get CPS $215 million today. We could just pass the pension reform bill and pass the CPS payment bill, both of which are there. These exist. They either don’t have to be drafted or negotiated. And it’s done. We save $1 billion for Illinois taxpayers a year and we get $200 million right now for CPS,” Rauner told reporters in Chicago after speaking at the Internet of Manufacturing Business Conference.
WTTW Chicago Tonight: Rauner: ‘No Reason to Wait’ on CPS Funding
On Monday, Chicago’s beloved Chance the Rapper publicly called on Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner to “do your job” and get Chicago Public Schools $215 million the district says it needs in order to keep students in class for the full school year.
Tuesday, Rauner insisted there are two viable plans to do that, and quickly: use money the city has withheld via tax increment financing, or have legislators pass a massive pension overhaul to save the state money so the state could afford to give additional money to CPS.
Chicago Tribune: Dear Chance the Rapper: Don't stop with Rauner
We weren’t in the room when Chance the Rapper met with Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday, but we can imagine the awkward scene: A 61-year old business guy from Winnetka trying to connect with a 23-year-old rap artist from West Chatham, both steeped in good intentions but partitioned by generational, political and social differences.
Rather than establish common ground, the meeting apparently devolved into a patriarchal lesson from Rauner on his passion to improve education and Democrats’ efforts to block him. Chance described the meeting as more of a lecture than a potential partnership. The governor said he looked forward to working with Chance (not on music, we hope).
Chicago Tribune: Rauner: Illinois 'won't do very well' under Republican health insurance plan
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Tuesday said he’s worried Illinois “won’t do very well” if the proposed U.S. House Republican Obamacare replacement plan becomes law.
The governor’s comments were his first since congressional Republicans unveiled their changes Monday. The plan would cut federal funding to Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and disabled paid for with state and federal dollars.
Chicago Sun-Times: Democrat Mendoza slams Rauner for state’s ‘abysmal’ finances
State Comptroller Susana Mendoza on Tuesday painted a bleak picture of Illinois’ fiscal health, and pointed a finger at Gov. Bruce Rauner for creating the “lawless fiscal climate” in the state.
The Chicago Democrat, who won a heated, expensive campaign against Rauner’s Republican ally Leslie Munger to win her first term as comptroller last fall, issued a 395-page annual report on the state’s finances. A few highlights: backlogged payments to doctors and hospitals more than doubled to $4.3 billion; spending on health and social service programs dropped $834 million; the state paid $1.5 billion on $30 billion in bond debt; the overall deficit climbed $5.7 billion, to $126 billion.
State Journal-Register: State elected officials should spend time on what really matters
With all that ails Illinois, this is what time is being wasted on these days?
The “this” being referred to is the feud between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who are arguing what fund should be used to pay about 600 state employees.
Peoria Journal-Star: School districts forced to use federal dollars to offset state’s pension costs
Jenny Darrow prepares the second-graders in her small reading group for a set of new words. “Trick words, or sight words,” she says as she posts the first word card on an easel.
“I don’t think we’ve seen this word, but I know we’ve had a word that rhymes with it.”
News-Gazette: AFSCME wins round in court
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s attempt to get a handle on labor costs has sustained a serious setback.
Members of a state employees’ union who recently voted overwhelmingly to go on strike got a big break last week from a state appeals court.
In an unsigned opinion, the 4th District Appellate Court rejected a request by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s staff to lift a court order blocking the administration from implementing its last, best and final offer to members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. So the stay will remain in place while the union’s legal challenge to the state labor board’s finding that contract negotiations had reached an impasse plays out.
State Journal-Register: If state workers strike, can replacements become permanent?
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration has begun to amass the names of people willing to work for the state in the event of a strike by the largest union representing state workers, even suggesting online that replacements could end up with permanent jobs.
But whether any of those people would get a permanent state job if there’s a strike could be yet another issue for the courts to decide.
Bloomington Pantagraph: Rauner welcomes Rivian; state incentives detailed
The day Gov. Bruce Rauner welcomed Rivian Automotive to Illinois, state officials finally detailed their incentives that helped to bring the company to Normal’s former Mitsubishi Motors North America plant.
Rivian, which operates research facilities near Detroit and San Francisco but plans to make Normal the manufacturing core of its upcoming line of electric cars, will receive state tax credits worth “roughly $49.5 million for the creation of 1,000 jobs over 10 years,” said Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity spokeswoman Jacquelyn Reineke.
Daily Southtown: Students concerned about Governors State tuition increase, program cuts
Rocio Carbral is a junior majoring in health administration at Governors State University in University Park.
But the 26-year-old single mother said she fears the school’s plan to raise tuition by 15 percent will strain her financially.
Chicago Tribune: Teachers at Aspira charter schools set strike date
Unionized teachers at the city’s Aspira charter school network said Tuesday they will walk off the job late next week if they can’t reach a deal on a new contract.
Labor leaders say it would be the nation’s first strike at a privately run charter school.
Chicago Sun-Times: CPD use-of-force change prompts downtown protest, march
A draft of a new Chicago Police Department use-of-force policy released Tuesday would give officers more latitude in deciding when to fire their weapons, backing off an earlier proposal that the police union had said was too restrictive and could have put officers in danger.
The new draft backs off a suggestion in October that officers not use force unless “all other reasonable alternatives have been exhausted.” That prompted concern from the city’s main police union that it was “too restrictive and would endanger officers who need to protect themselves in various situations.”
WBEZ: Chicago Police Alter Policy On Force Following Backlash
A draft of a new Chicago Police Department use-of-force policy released Tuesday would give officers more latitude in deciding when to fire their weapons, backing off an earlier proposal that the police union had said was too restrictive and have put officers in danger.
Chicago is struggling to forge a new police policy that balances the need for officers to do their work amid a wave of shootings, while restoring community trust following public anger over the shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014.
Chicago Sun-Times: Alderman: City won’t fingerprint Uber, Lyft drivers, city workers
After belatedly registering as an Uber lobbyist, President Barack Obama’s former campaign manager addressed aldermen in groups of ten about a fingerprinting requirement he claimed, would have prompted the ride-hailing giant to abandon the lucrative Chicago market.
David Plouffe’s behind-the-scenes lobbying is about to pay political dividends for the $68 billion company whose investors include Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s brother.
WTTW Chicago Tonight: Alderwoman: More Info Needed to Evaluate Chicago Manganese Ban
Several advocacy groups are calling on Chicago to ban storage of materials containing manganese in residential areas following a 2016 study that revealed potentially harmful levels of manganese dust on the city’s Southeast Side.
The request came in a January letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel from representatives of two national organizations, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Illinois chapter of National Nurses United, and two local groups, Southeast Environmental Task Force and Southeast Side Coalition to Ban Petcoke.
Rockford Register-Star: RAVE Authority chairman convinced Rockford can cover venue subsidies and hotel project
Craig Thomas reversed course 10 days after sending Mayor Larry Morrissey a letter objecting to a proposal to tap a funding source that in part is reserved for downtown venue subsidies to instead finance construction of a 40,000-square-foot conference center.
The $13.1 million conference center is part of Gorman & Company’s proposal to transform the former Amerock factory into a $64 million, 160-room luxury hotel near the Rock River and Davis Park.
Bloomington Pantagraph: Normal: Metro Zone pact is not dead
Normal officials affirmed Monday they believe the Metro Zone is not dead, and they hope Bloomington officials will work with them to change it.
The 30-year-old agreement called on the cities to equally share expenses and revenues in a commercial and industrial district on the west side of the Twin Cities, but Bloomington City Council voted 7-2 on Feb. 27 to terminate it because the arrangement favors Normal by $1.2 million per year recently and by a total of $7 million over its history.