Rauner remembrance of tragedy – an effort to divert public’s attention?

Reading Gov. Bruce Rauner’s formal address to present a state budget for Fiscal 2019, I couldn’t help but notice his opening bit.

RAUNER: Trying to redeem his pol priorities?

The reference to it being exactly 10 years since the day a former Northern Illinois University student felt compelled to fire off his weapon – killing five students before he turned his gun on himself.

THE NEWS EVENTS of the day even called for a last-minute rewrite, also offering a mention of the death Tuesday of Chicago Police Cmdr. Paul Bauer – the officer who tried to stop a fleeing suspect being chased by other police, only to get shot and killed.

Both tragic happenings. In the case of the DeKalb slayings a decade ago, I’m sure the memories remain as strong now in the minds of those who were there as they were back then.

But a part of me couldn’t help but wonder how much this bit of rhetoric was an attempt at misdirection.

Rather than get worked up over the details of the budget proposal Rauner wants the General Assembly to approve for Illinois government for the fiscal year beginning July 1, he’d rather we think of these other happenings.

BECAUSE IF WE think too much of budgetary matters, then we wind up touching on some sore spots of the Rauner era of state government.

Let’s not forget that Rauner, although in his third year of government, has never managed to get a budget proposal of his implemented into law. Heck, he’s never offered up anything that wound up becoming policy.

The only reason we have a budget in place now is because Democratic legislators were joined by a few Republicans willing to put the daily workings of government at the forefront to pass a budget that Rauner himself tried to use his veto powers to kill off!

Because Rauner is the guy who came into the governor’s post thinking he could strong-arm the rest of state government into going along with his vision – one in which organized labor and unions take a severe blow to their influence over Illinois.

THAT CONCEPT WAS more important for the past two years to Rauner than anything concerning the daily operations of the state, which does have responsibilities to fulfill – regardless of one’s ideological hang-ups.

The question we ought to be asking ourselves is whether Rauner is willing to get serious and try to put together budget proposals this year – or if we’re headed for another budgetary standoff.

The last of which stretched out over two years, caused serious complications for daily government operations and created financial problems that will take Illinois years (if not decades) to resolve.

You’d think that Rauner, facing a re-election cycle complicated by the fact that the conservative ideologues the governor is counting on to support him have their own partisan objections (being anti-union isn’t conservative enough for them), would want a straight-forward budget process. Something to ensure that he signs into law the Fiscal ’19 budget on or before June 30.

BECAUSE THE $37.6 billion spending plan for state government the governor put forth includes some serious changes to the way retired teacher pensions are funded – mostly by sticking them on the school districts.

Something I’m sure will tick off the Chicago Public Schools, where officials would actually like to have the state assume a larger share of those pension costs. Is the governor’s budget address merely another excuse to set up a political brawl with Chicago interests later this year?

Some reports made mention of the fact that Wednesday’s budget address, in addition to being 10 years since the bloodshed at DeKalb, was 225 days from the end of the budget standoff.

Will it also become the beginning of a political sequel – one in which Rauner will try to redeem his political self-image at the expense of the people of Illinois. Elections day are March 20 and Nov. 6; those dates can’t come soon enough.

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EXTRA: Illinois state officials (Finally!!!) back education funding bill

It almost has the feel of a pickup game of baseball played by a batch of kids; right down to the do-over.

The Illinois House of Representatives fell short of voting Monday to override the veto of the education funding bill that Gov. Bruce Rauner used his amendatory veto power to alter. But following a closed-door session, the Illinois House came back for a second try – and managed to pass something that finally ensures state funding for public education programs will be provided, as it’s supposed to.

A WHOLE LOT of whining and bickering on both sides of the politically partisan aisle, just as kids are often wont to do when they get stubborn. But this game seems finally at an end.

At least until the two sides decide how they can spin the facts of what happened to try to achieve the most positive result for themselves come the 2018 general elections to be held next November.

For what it’s worth, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, issued his statement at 7:09 p.m., while Rauner’s statement was issued at 7:43 p.m. At least according to the clock on my laptop computer.

Here are the full, unedited, attempts at both Madigan, then Rauner, in trying to claim they didn’t lose the political blather that has been spewed about so much in recent years.

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MADIGAN:  Today we saw compromise. Instead of pitting children and communities against each other, Democrats and Republicans came to an agreement on much of what’s in this bill. And even where we don’t fully agree, we’re willing to work together in good faith and meet each other half way.

This bill provides the same promise of permanent funding for our schools as Senate Bill 1, with some additional items included at the request of Republicans. Even if all members did not agree with 100 percent of what is in the final bill, this bill still delivers 100 percent of what schools throughout Illinois need. This bill is a permanent promise of more funding for schools statewide. Every district in Illinois wins under this plan.

Through compromise, we’ve included some provisions that many members would not have supported on their own. But a package that permanently provides more money for Illinois schools and puts us closer than ever to fixing Illinois’ broken school funding system is too important to let partisan differences get in the way.

RAUNER:  Today, members of the Illinois House of Representatives voted to bring historic education reform to Illinois children and their families. I want to thank Speaker Madigan, Leader Durkin and their staff members for finding common ground that will reverse the inequities of our current school funding system.

Aligned with the framework provided by the Illinois School Funding Reform Commission – a bipartisan, bicameral working group chaired by the Secretary of Education – this bill has much to celebrate. First, every district in Illinois will have an adequacy target based on 27 elements brought forth through an “evidence-based model” of school funding. Second, new state funds will be distributed to ensure that those districts with the largest gap between current spending and adequacy will be funded first. Third, no district will lose state funding as compared to last year.  

The compromise includes the much-needed flexibility for school districts through mandate relief, while providing avenues for property tax relief. It increases transparency related to how districts are funded through local, state and federal resources. 

It protects the rights of parents to choose the school that best meets the needs of their children – providing more school choice for children from low-income families. By setting yearly minimum funding targets, this bill also ensures that Illinois will continue to invest in our most important resource – our children’s education.

I encourage members of the Senate to also pass this bill, which I will sign quickly in order to ensure that our schools – many of which have already opened for the 2017-2018 school year – receive their much-needed resources. 

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Is our long Ill. nightmare finally over?

The word came out Thursday, first from Republican leaders of the Illinois General Assembly, then from the Democrats who hold the majority power – we have an agreement on the way the state will fund public education.

RAUNER: Has he lost?

That issue has been tied up for nearly the past two months – ever since state government passed a budget for the current fiscal year despite Gov. Rauner’s objections. Rauner, feeling the need for a political victory over urban Democratic interests, continued to fight on with this issue – even though it created a potential situation where schools might not have the money on hand to open on time.

PERSONALLY, WHEN I first heard the Republican legislative talk, my suspicion is that this was some sort of political talk by which GOP interests claimed a deal that didn’t really exist – then would try to blame Democrats for failure when nothing wound up happening.

You might think I’m being politically paranoid, but I’m not alone in being suspicious.

Several education administrators I have spoken to have said they’re equally suspicious – saying they’re not going to believe a deal is in place until they actually see the governor sign something into law.

One school board president I know went so far as to say that while he was convinced Republican and Democratic legislators were in agreement, there still is the issue of Bruce Rauner.

“WE’LL SEE IF his people (Republican legislators) can talk him into going along with this,” that official said.

For the record, legislators aren’t really willing to say what their deal is – other than that much of the funding that was to be provided to Chicago Public Schools to cover pensions for retired teachers will be restored. That despite Rauner’s efforts to use his amendatory veto powers to remove it from the education funding bill that was passed by the Legislature back during the spring.

For what it’s worth, Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he is pleased with the deal, as it provides the city school system with what it desired. “That, and more,” he told reporter-type people.

MADIGAN: Can he complete deal this weekend?

Whereas Rauner said in his prepared statement he “applauds” legislators for working together. Although the Chicago Sun-Times wrote in its report that the legislative agreement did not include any of the collective bargaining changes that are supposedly the reason why the governor has been so ridiculously stubborn with regards to the budget and education funding.

SO IS IT possible that Rauner, who has never made a secret of the fact that he desires changes in state government structure to undermine the influence of labor unions, really will wind up coming out the big loser – with legislators feeling the need to keep state government functioning and the public schools open more than they need the financial support he’ll be providing to GOP officials in next year’s election cycle.

The key will be to see what happens on Sunday. For while legislators have met just about every day this week to discuss the issue, we’re now at the point where their staffers (the government geeks who actually know how to write legislation) are taking the grand concepts of the agreement and turning them into the legal language of a bill.

Things could still fall apart between now and then. But officials say that if a bill is crafted without anyone feeling like the other side is trying to pull a last-minute, double-cross (that’s really the way political people think!), then a vote could come Monday.

Our long state nightmare could finally be over. Or maybe?

BECAUSE WE’LL STILL have to go through the upcoming 15 months before the 2018 general election, and I don’t doubt that at this point, Rauner is desperately searching for a publicity team to replace the ideologue twits he recently fired to help him figure out the proper spin for his actions.

Nixon 'nightmare' over, is Ill. budget one too?

Rauner is likely to go into a re-election campaign being unable to say he accomplished much of anything, and was actually the cause of much of the “state nightmare” that may well be an Illinois equivalent of the “long national nightmare” that then-President Gerald Ford alluded to upon the resignation of Richard Nixon.

We’re likely to see a governor who overplays the regionalism card (urban vs. rural voters) and who banks his re-election chances on one gamble.

That the Democratic Party gubernatorial candidates wind up bungling their efforts so badly that they hand a second term at the Statehouse to Rauner, all gift-wrapped. Which isn’t completely out of the question, if you want to be honest.

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Let the (political) games resume

I’m feeling little more than a sense of sluggishness as I write this particular commentary, because it feels like the same old story being told over and over again.
 

DURKIN: GOP likely to back Rauner on edfund

I’m referring to our state’s General Assembly, which continues to haggle with Gov. Bruce Rauner over the way public education will be funded in Illinois, which itself is nothing more than a sequel to the two-year time period during which Illinois operated without an official budget in place.

THAT POLITICAL SQUABBLE eventually ended just over a month ago when just enough members of the Republican caucus broke with the governor to side with the idea of approving a budget. Which now has the governor doubling down his efforts for a political victory.

Which he seems determined to get with the education funding measure that he used his amendatory veto powers to alter in ways that Chicago Public Schools officials see as detrimental to their interests.

Rauner, however, continues to insist the Chicago schools were getting too much under the education funding bill that had been approved earlier this year by the Democratic-led General Assembly.

This fight was to resume Wednesday when the state Legislature was scheduled to reconvene, with the Illinois House having on its agenda the education funding measure. Although Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, made a last-minute decision Tuesday to postpone the vote indefinitely.

RAUNER: Desperate for political victory

THE STATE SENATE previously voted to override the Rauner amendatory veto – which would reinstate the measure as approved by the General Assembly and restore funding for the Chicago schools pension program that Rauner is determined to see as an unfair city perk.

But the Senate has a large-enough Democratic caucus that it could override the governor all by itself. It didn’t need the one Republican who switched sites.

Yet the Illinois House, while Democratic controlled, doesn’t have a caucus large enough to spit in the governor’s face, so to speak, on vetoes. Republicans are making it very clear they’re not about to switch sides on this issue in order to back the Dem-desired education funding bill.

MADIGAN: Eager to deprive GOP a victory

“It is unfair for Chicago to continue to receive excess advantages that are not afforded to any other school district in the state,” Illinois House Republican Leader James Durkin said earlier this week in a prepared statement.

EVEN THOUGH THERE are people who insist the changes being made for the Chicago pension funding are merely meant to balance out the fact that the Chicago Public Schools was funding its own program without outside help – which does differ from other school districts in Illinois.

Democrats already have made clear they have created another bill that is identical to their education funding bill so that the general concepts will remain alive even if Rauner winds up prevailing in his amendatory veto. Theoretically, the issue could come alive once again at a later date.

Which makes the results of Wednesday’s legislative activity fairly pointless in terms of actual public policy.

Would the measure have gone down to defeat, thereby giving Rauner a win – only to have that political victory undermined at some point in the future? Or would Wednesday have been some sort of procedural move meant to stall a legislative defeat and keep the measure alive for a little while longer?

TECHNICALLY, DEMOCRATS AND Republicans in the Illinois Legislature have spent the past few days (as recently as Tuesday) meeting privately to try to work out some sort of compromise plan with regards to the issue.

Ill. CAPITOL: Complicated manner for nothing to occur

But those meetings haven’t exactly been productive. Unless you want to literally believe the official legislative statements where leaders say the sessions were “productive” and refuse to elaborate.

Personally, I’m not expecting to learn a whole heck of a lot following Wednesday’s legislative activity. I expect we’ll continue to be in the same stalemate – with everybody taking actions that they believe will bolster their re-election chances come the 2018 election cycle.

It makes me wonder if our pols behaved like President Donald J. Trump did when he stared directly at the sun during the eclipse without special viewing glasses -- perhaps frying out a portion of their brain cells in the process.

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EXTRA: We all lose!!!

I suppose Democrats in Illinois can claim some sort of politically strategic victory in that they prevented Gov. Bruce Rauner from being able to use his amendatory veto powers on the state Education Funding bill on Monday.
 

RAUNER: Couldn't wait to A-Veto Ed Funding bill

Because they waited until so late in the business day on Monday to send him the measure approved by the General Assembly, Rauner was unable to give the bill his rejection until the opening of business on Tuesday.

BUT THE BOTTOM line is that the measure that details exactly how state funds for public schools are allocated remains in limbo. Rauner used his powers to alter a bill to erase portions meant to stabilize the pensions provided to retired teachers of the Chicago Public Schools.

Which actually are handled differently from the way retired teachers in school districts across the rest of Illinois are handled. Leaders of the General Assembly argue they were merely trying to make all public school districts the same.

But Rauner, in his amendatory veto statement, insisted in sticking by his viewpoint that giving this to the Chicago school system somehow throws things off-balance, and in fact amounts to short-changing public school systems in the rest of the state – particularly the rural portions where there are districts that struggle financially.

Of course, Rauner’s viewpoint, and resulting actions, are not a surprise. He has consistently said he intended to reject the Education Funding bill – which is why Democrats used their own procedural moves to delay Rauner’s ability to reject the bill.

WHO’S PLAYING HARDER-ball politics? Does it really matter?

For the politicking over this issue isn’t complete. At some point, the General Assembly has to reconvene to consider the changes the governor has made to their legislative labor.

At which point, they could try to override his changes and force the bill to become law the way they wrote it. Similar to how they forced a budget to be enacted for state government even though Rauner was all for continuing a political stalemate that had already exceeded two years in length.

 

MADIGAN: Will do all to make Rauner look bad

Although the reality is that many of the Republican legislators who were willing to revolt against Rauner on the budget probably won’t do so for an Education Funding bill. Particularly with Rauner’s Chicago rhetoric being spewed.

WE’RE GOING TO remain in a level of uncertainty over public education, and we’re going to have to wait to see who the public winds up deciding is to blame for any confusion caused to the public schools.

Particularly if that confusion winds up impacting the ability of the public schools to open on time.

Just as the one thing Rauner did right politically two years ago when he started all the budgetary stalemate nonsense was to ensure that at least the schools got their money, the schools are what could cause people to revolt.

The reality is that many people view the schools as their kids’ babysitter – a place where they can be sent for the day while they work or take care of other business. Actually putting people in a position where they have to take the time to watch their own kids all day is a sure-fire way to tick them off!

I’M SURE POLITICAL people will make attempts at high-minded, profound statements about wanting to protect our children and ensure they receive the best education they can so as to guarantee our society’s future. But it would be a bunch of bunk.

 

A jolt of political "wisdom?"

Our political people, on both sides, are acting in ways meant to protect their own self-interest. Nobody is really concerned about society, or the people or the public concern.

Anybody who is making clear-cut statements about this issue and declaring a “winner” is merely revealing their own partisan leanings, which means they predicted a winner weeks ago. We don’t have a winner. We’re all losers, in the end.

As as Lily Tomlin used to say back in her “Laugh-In” days, “And that’s the truth, pthbthhh.

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Does anybody really feel compelled to give political millionaire Rauner their own money to help get him re-elected?

My guess is that Illinois’ governor is disappointed with me, and everybody just like me, who ignored his plea on Monday for cash to supplement the personal wealth he plans to commit to the 2018 electoral efforts to keep himself in office, and also to get a more sympathetic state Legislature to rubber-stamp his efforts.

RAUNER: Wants your President Grants

While many people were paying attention to the Statehouse to see if Bruce Rauner really would instantly amendatorily veto any Education Funding bill sent to him Monday by the General Assembly (the bill was sent to him so late in the day that he wound up not being able to act on it -- maybe Tuesday?), my attention was caught by his fund-raising plea.

AS IN RAUNER insisting that Monday night was a deadline by which people had to send their contributions to him if they want to support his desire to stay in office for another four-year term.

“This month’s contributions go directly to sending the Madigan Machine a clear message; Illinois is not going back to the old way of doing things,” he wrote, while suggesting that $50 was the recommended donation.

In fact, Rauner was hoping to get 32 people to donate $50 each – with the 32 being symbolic of the figure he’s repeatedly using to describe the income tax adjustment that was made over his objections when the General Assembly in early July finally settled on a budget for state government.

Of course, one could argue that the “old way of doing things” within state government entailed actually approving budgets and keeping the mechanics of state government operating.

THE OLD WAY didn’t involve being willing to put things at risk just for the sake of partisan politics – just as the governor’s desire to mess with approving an Education Funding bill is also a willingness to put partisan politics ahead of ensuring that the schools get their initial state aid payments as scheduled on Aug. 10.

If that deadline is missed, we could have some sort of delay with the public schools being able to open, since so many districts rely upon their state portion of funding in order to operate.

I’ll admit that the delay in getting an Education Funding bill to Rauner for his consideration was a political maneuver by Democrats – who knew that Rauner intended to play politics with the issue so as to take pot shots at the Chicago Public Schools while hopefully appeasing the rest of the state.

Our state, at times, feels all topsy-turvy

This is the new way, it seems, that Rauner wants us to support with our campaign contributions. Although I suspect the reason he asked for only 32 donations is probably because he suspects there aren’t many more than 32 people in all of Illinois willing to give their money to his campaign.

A RAUNER ELECTORAL effort truly is going to be a self-funded campaign, as we’re going to see just how far people will go in order to buy themselves a government post with which to assuage their egos.

One other part of Rauner’s campaign appeal caught my attention. Many modern-day e-mail appeals for contributions by Democrats go out of their way to imply that tiny amounts of money can build into the large sums needed to operate a credible campaign.

Appeals for as little as $3 are not uncommon.

Yet Rauner wants for his efforts to build a Republican Party in his image some $50. It certainly wasn’t inspiring enough to make me rush out to find a debit card so as to type in my personal information so that they could get my money instantly – in time to beat their July 31 Midnight fundraising deadline.

WE’RE IN A political mindset. Just about everything is going to be given a spin. Such as the announcement last week that the Illinois State Fair this year won’t include an official “Democrat Day” political rally at the fairgrounds.

MADIGAN: Giving the fair back to fans

There are those who are trying to claim that this is Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, being afraid to publicly face people at a time when the school funding is uncertain.

Although considering how few Chicago people attend the state fair, it makes some sense that the urban types who do come probably want to see the rest of the fair attractions and don't want to hear more campaign blather.

Give ‘em a lemon shakeup and maybe a ticket to a Foghat or Alabama concert (even though the latter is technically on the fair's "Republican Day"), and they’ll enjoy a little less political rhetoric being spewed about.

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Rauner getting desperate to change the story we’re all talking about these days?

I don’t expect political candidates to say nice things about their opponents, but I couldn’t quite get over the level of ludicrousness expressed Thursday by the Illinois Republican Party on behalf of Gov. Bruce Rauner.

RAUNER: 57 days, or 63 percent?

Until, that is, I saw the level of unpopularity Rauner is sinking to in a new survey by the Democratic Governors Association – which isn’t exactly an unbiased source.

BUT IT SEEMS that Rauner has desperately to do something to shift attention away from the fact that his actions as governor are creating scenarios by which Election Day of 2018 can’t come too soon for many people as they eagerly wait for their chance to vote Bruce out of office.

It’s about the only explanation for the nonsense-talk spewed by the state’s GOP where they emphasize 57 Days Madigan Machine Holding Schools Hostage.

Their line of logic is that Democrats who run the General Assembly should have sent the education funding bill (the one that is at the heart of the latest round of partisan bickering in Springfield) to the governor for consideration immediately upon its approval May 31.

That bill is still pending even though already approved by both the Illinois House and state Senate; where President John Cullerton has hinted he may send it along to the governor come Monday.

Which of these political entities ...

WHICH HAS RAUNER claiming that Democrats, particularly Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, are to blame for the potential threat to public schools across the state being able to open for the new school year come mid-August.

GOPers literally have created a clock ticking down the amount of time since then that Dems are supposedly to blame – even though most public school officials I have talked to in various districts are more inclined to blame Bruce Rauner for the fact that public school funding for the upcoming fiscal year isn’t set in stone yet.

It’s why we’re getting nonsense-talk such as “It’s a blatant assault on our democracy in order to create pressure for their Chicago bailout.” Even though his “Chicago bailout” is really just a measure long needed to specify the way in which the state ought to be involved with the retirement benefits for public school teachers in Chicago the way they are with teachers in any other district across Illinois.

OF COURSE, THE bill that supposedly has a 57-day countdown means nothing. It wouldn’t have meant anything until a budget for the state was put in place in early July. Which makes any 57-day tally as of Thursday nothing more than pure nonsense.

... warrants more credibility these days?

But Rauner wants to tar Madigan with a count similar to the 735-day count that was done during the budget talks (as in just over two full years without a state in budget in place, a figure that was used to blast Bruce repeatedly).

It’s also meant to detract from the latest poll by the governor’s association – one that shows 63 percent of Illinoisans thinking Rauner has done a “poor” or “not so good” job as governor.

Only 34 percent of those surveyed think Rauner is doing well as governor – which is actually worse than the 39 percent approval rating that the Gallup Organization gave to President Donald Trump on Thursday.

CULLERTON: Will bill advance Monday?

MUCH OF THE politicking is meant to stir up outrage amongst voters in the rural parts of the state; making them think that Rauner is their protector against the urban monstrosity known as Chicago. He hopes he’s stirring up voter support in the other third of Illinois.

For his sake, he’d better be. Because the same survey shows Rauner with a 68 percent negative rating in Chicago and 54 percent in the collar counties that make up the outer Chicago suburbs – usually the one part of metro Chicago where a Republican can count on some support.

MADIGAN: What will next move be?

The scary part of all this is that we have just over 15 months to go until the 2018 gubernatorial election cycle. We’re going to have to endure a lengthy period of this spiel – particularly since the poll shows Rauner losing to any unnamed Democrat.

For even long after this current partisan spat over the opening of the school year is settled, we’re going to hear the details repeated over and over and over yet again until the level of nausea reaches a record peak.

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EXTRA: Guv withholds allowance?

I got my chuckle for the day Wednesday from reading Gov. Bruce Rauner’s public schedule of events for the day.
 

RAUNER: He tampered w/ Lege money

Among the three events either he or his spouse, Diana, will do during the day is to sign a bill “freezing legislative per diems.”

AS IN THE $111 daily payments that members of the General Assembly receive when they are at the state Capitol. The money is meant to cover the cost of their meals while in Springfield (not that the Illinois capital city has much to offer in the way of fine dining) and housing – whether they choose to rent an apartment or stay at a hotel.

Since another Rauner public event for the day will be to offer up public comment when the General Assembly completes its activity on what is supposed to be the beginning of another special session related to the education funding bill, it really comes across as though the governor is docking legislators their allowance because they’re being bad.

As in refusing to advance the education funding bill to him so he can impose the amendatory veto that Democratic leadership of the General Assembly is trying to thwart.

Now I’m not necessarily feeling sorry for legislators losing some money (although I know if I had a job requiring me to travel to another city, I’d expect some financial help in coping with the added expense).

BUT THIS MOVE really does come across as being so petty a gesture.

 

MADIGAN: How will Lege retort?

It almost makes me wonder if Rauner is trying to show he can be more petty and juvenile than our president – the guy whom his campaign has desperately tried to keep distance from for the past year.

Does this mean our legislators will feel compelled to behave in an equally childish manner as a retort to losing their money?

And then we wonder why the non-ideologue segment of the electorate (a.k.a., real people) just shudder in disgust at the very thought of the nitwits who they sent to the capitol to do “the people’s business.”

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Budget battles linger on, only this time we use our schools as the battlefield

For those of you people who for whatever partisan political reason want the fight over a state budget to continue, take some pleasure in the fact that the political wars aren’t completely over.
 

RAUNER: "Blame Madigan!' Still!

For we still have to consider the portion of the budget that goes toward funding public education in this state. Technically, the General Assembly and Gov. Bruce Rauner still have the education funding bill to fight over.

THAT BILL APPROPRIATES the money that is meant for public education. Technically, it is still pending.

Although Rauner has made it clear that he intends to use his amendatory veto powers to alter the measure – which means it can’t take effect immediately.

To thwart the governor, the Legislature is holding off on sending him the bill. Even though they already have approved it, they won’t let Rauner act. He can’t reject it if he technically doesn’t have it in his possession. We're at the point where the governor on Monday insisted they send him the bill, just so he can amendatorily veto it -- he can't wait to get at it!

It seems the Legislature is hoping that by stalling, they can cause pressure to be built up by educators against the governor, who would then be inclined to blame him for the fact that they might not get the state funding they usually are entitled to and are most definitely counting on in order to get through the upcoming academic year.

PERHAPS THEY THINK they can “blackmail” the governor into feeling too guilty to interfere with school funding if he’ll be the one who gets blamed for the politicking.

Which most likely was behind the public appearances Rauner made in Mount Zion and in Rockford, where he made it clear that it will be Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s fault if something happens that causes the state to be late with the aid payments it provides to public school districts.

“The General Assembly under Speaker Madigan have failed to adequately or equitably fund our schools for decades,” the governor said. “It has hurt generations of Illinois children who live in low income communities.”

 

MADIGAN: Not waving white flag yet

Whether this would work is questionable. Since I have heard from many school administrator types during the past two years who have made it clear that when it comes to the problems related to school finances, they blame the governor!

EVEN NOW, WHEN there is a state budget in place, many say they’re having their attorneys study the situation, and won’t be fully comfortable until they see the education funding bill signed off on and they get their initial aid payments.

If the governor thinks many people are going to suddenly switch to his side, he could be mistaken. Since many perceive the problems as having begun with the partisan initiatives and the desires that Rauner has tried to bring to state government under the guise of “reform.”

The governor’s main objection to the education funding measure is that it includes provisions for altering the funding for pensions for retired teachers in the Chicago Public School system – a provision Rauner is quick to label as a “bailout.”

He’s quick to say that he could provide even more financial assistance to school districts across Illinois – if only we could ignore the problem of that one pesky district that is, by far, the largest in the state.

MEANING THIS IS the same regionalism and nonsense of trying to pit the rest of the state against Chicago, which only serves to build up the hostility and resentment that Chicago voters will feel towards the governor.

Considering the degree to which Rauner has made a series of staff changes by hiring political partisans of the Illinois Policy Institute, it would seem this “urban vs. rural” tone is going to predominate for as long as Rauner remains in office.

Which, if Dems aren’t careful, could easily extend beyond the Nov. 6, 2018 general elections. It could easily extend into “four more year” of stalemate and nothingness.

Since I don’t doubt that Rauner and his minions are miffed at not prevailing on the budget fight, it will be remarkable to see the amount of partisan bloodshed that will occur on the Statehouse Scene in coming years – and the degree to which we all get caught up in the crossfire.

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What happens if state government officials NEVER reach budget deal?

We’re nearly a month-and-a-half into Illinois government’s current fiscal year, and it has been about three months since the period in time when state officials should have been seriously negotiating about a budget for fiscal ’16.

As those of us who pay attention all know, none of that has happened. There isn’t any serious talk about trying to outline how the roughly $32 billion the state expects to have will be spent.

THE MONEY IS there. Tax revenues are being collected, as usual. There just isn’t a spending plan that dictates how all the money is to be allocated to the many services that government has an obligation to provide.

All we have got in the way of fiscal activity are  various moves by the governor and the Legislature that are more about partisan politics – moves that can be described in ways that favor oneself and try to place total blame for what is happening on the other side.

That seems to be the strategy – no one seems concerned about the lack of a budget. Even though the state Constitution specifically says that money can’t be spent without a budgetary plan put in place.

Except that there are certain functions that MUST be performed, even if government can’t get its act together to allocate their finances. Those tend to be the functions that have court orders that say a lack of funds is not sufficient reason to avoid doing something.

THEN, THERE’S THE fact that Gov. Bruce Rauner did sign off on the part of the state budget that covers public education programs. School districts across the state are supposed to begin this week receiving their funding for the upcoming academic year.

So that’s one part of government responsibility that will be performed.

In fact, the Chicago Tribune reported Monday that about 80 percent of the state’s money is being spent – even though much attention will be paid to the remaining 20 percent.

The problem we’re in is that we have state officials determined to view this as a political spat. They want to win the partisan war – and are all convinced that the public will view their own actions as heroic and place blame on the opposition.

ARE WE DESTINED to go through all of Fiscal ’16 without a budget ever formally being approved. Whether we realize it or not, that is a problem!

The issue is that without a budget, state agencies and programs that are able to spend money (including those employees who continue to get paid because the courts in the Illinois-based suburbs of St. Louis said they must) continue to do so at the rate of funds they had last year.

But this is the year the state seriously needs to make a few billion dollars in spending cuts, or approve some sort of tax increase (although I’m sure they have a toned-down term to describe their actions) to make up the difference.

The longer our government officials put off trying to seriously negotiate, the more likely it becomes that we wind up tapping into next year’s money in order to pay off this year’s debt. With the cycle getting worse and worse as time passes by.

THIS IS EXACTLY the kind of inaction that results in the ridiculously-low approval ratings our government officials get. There is no one who will “win” this partisan spat.

Some people want to believe that Gov. Bruce Rauner made it clear when he ran for office that he wanted to take on organized labor; and that his electoral victory last year somehow gives him the right to succeed. Considering Rauner has hinted he could approve some things to create more funds IF his anti-union measures are advanced makes me think he knows more money is a necessary component.

At what point does his desire to challenge the “veto-proof” opposition-party General Assembly on this issue merely constitute a contrarian nature and an ego run amok? For now, this is a fight he needs to put aside for the good of the state.

Perhaps if he gets a more sympathetic General Assembly in the future (and with all the money he’s coming up with for GOP legislative candidates, that’s obviously his goal), then he’ll be in a position to force his organized labor opposition agenda on the people of Illinois without gumming up the works of government operations.

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EXTRA: Keep playing politics, and all of Illinois will come across as losers

Gov. Bruce Rauner followed up his budgetary approval for public education expenses pretty much the way it should have been expected.

RAUNER: Veto was totally predictable

He used his veto power to reject everything else!

SO WITH FIVE days remaining before the end of the current fiscal year, the state still has no budget plan detailing how money will be spent during Fiscal 2016.

Except for the schools portion; where elementary and secondary education will get a $244 million increase in funding and early childhood education programs will get a $25 million boost.

Which isn’t as much as educators will claim they need. But it is better than the thought of the schools not being able to open up on time for the new school year because they aren’t getting their state aid payments.

The practical result would be that parents all across Illinois would have to make arrangements for their kids while they work because they can’t count on just sending them off to school for the daytime hours.

THAT WOULD BE a lot of p-o’ed parents who would look to the situation and see Rauner as the guy to blame.

There will still be many people who will view the budgetary standoff and blame Bruce for stirring things up all for his own ideological motives. But he’ll have a few friends.

Or if not quite friends, at least they’ll be people who won’t despise him quite so much!

As for the fact that Rauner used his veto power to reject the rest of the budget, it’s not a surprise. Because when the General Assembly’s Democratic supermajority used its power to approve a budget, they knew the governor would hate it.

BECAUSE THE BUDGET proposal essentially set spending levels at rates above the actual amount of money on hand. It’s the amount of money they’d like to have.

They saw it as a tactic to pressure Rauner to back some sort of revenue increase for state government – an action that the governor has said he would only consider IF Dems first gave him some of the anti-organized labor measures he has said are a priority for his administration

Which means Rauner isn’t giving in. Not yet anyways. He’s still delusional to think that the people who voted for him in November amount to the entirety of the Illinois electorate.

Hence, he’s issuing statements insisting everyone else has to concede to him – even though the reality is that he has a veto-proof majority of the opposition to cope with in the Legislature.

MEANING THAT IN theory, Democrats could unite and vote to reinstate the budget agreement that Rauner just vetoed. They could literally shove it down his political throat.

Except that the Legislature’s veto session comes in November. Nobody wants to see Illinois government have to operate for four-and-a-half months without a budget agreement where nothing could operate except the schools.

That would cause so much ill-will to go all the way around. Which makes it very likely that the special Committee of the Whole session scheduled for Tuesday is likely to turn into a gripe-fest by Democrats about how reckless and irresponsible Rauner has become.

In some ways, he has. But the truth is that this situation isn’t going to be resolved until both sides quit thinking in terms of how they can “win” this political fight. Nobody wins under those circumstances!

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