Last man standing? It’s Mr. Speaker!

The Illinois General Assembly completed its business for the 2019 spring session this weekend – one day after they were scheduled to do so on Friday. History will record that they managed to get a lot of things done – including some measures (a casino within Chicago) that in the past seemed next to impossible.

 

MADIGAN: Illinois making recovery?

So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, felt the need to issue a congratulatory (of sorts) statement.

BUT READING THROUGH it, I couldn’t help but sense the real purpose was to remind people that Bruce Rauner is political history, while he remains in office. Rauner being the guy who spent four years in office perpetually blaming Madigan for Illinois’ inability to get anything done.

And even implying, at times, that Madigan ought to be the Chicago politico facing criminal indictment – rather than Edward M. Burke!

For as Madigan put it, 2019 will go down as the year of a balanced budget that boosts education funding, helps senior citizens and women and helps pay off $1 billion in old bills.

“While there remains more work to be done to put Illinois fully back on track, in these steps we see what Illinois can be when our leaders stand up for our middle-class families while still seeking common ground,” Madigan said. “When we use our time to build compromises, when we have a governor who encourages Illinois to think big again and when we all commit ourselves to working together to build a stronger Illinois.”

I’M SURE THE ideologues of the rural portions of Illinois will have their own retaliatory rants. But the sense is that we are better off for not having a government that was so anxious to play political games with organized labor that it was willing to disrupt its daily operations.

 

RAUNER: He gone!

Heck, even Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of suburban Westchester called the budget deal “bipartisan” and praised the fact it did not include tax increases.

Which makes the Madigan proclamation of the session’s end seem all the more the equivalent of a political raspberry – aimed in the direction of Gov. Bruce himself.

  -30-

Ill. budget “brawl” likely to get ugly

I remember back when I was still in college, trying to gain some experience that might make me a reporter-type person someday when an editor told me the very definition of “news” is wherever there is conflict. People in agreement about things just aren’t very newsworthy.

Madigan seems determined to continue ...

If that’s the case, we’re in for a significant scrap in coming months – because I can see massive conflict occurring within state government.

GOV. BRUCE RAUNER met Thursday with the General Assembly’s leadership, and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, made it clear he’s not about to meekly cower in the governor’s presence just to get a budget put together.

With regard to the Illinois government budget being put together for the state’s 2019 fiscal year (which begins July 1), Rauner earlier this week made a point of talking of the need for the state to have a balanced budget, while also implying that the problem was the Democratic majorities that run the General Assembly.

They’re not doing what Rauner wants of them. They are to blame for any inability of state officials to put together a budget before the state Legislature’s scheduled adjournment come the end of May.

Which led to Madigan issuing his own statement following the Thursday morning session – one in which he attempted to shift back blame to the governor.

AS THE ESTEEMED (some sarcasm intended) “Mr. Speaker” said, “If the governor’s agenda is to push more of his extreme cuts to health care, senior services and resources for our most at-risk residents, or if he again intends to move the goalposts and create chaos, he should stay on the sidelines and allow serious leaders to continue working cooperatively to address the challenges facing our state.”

Because I don’t expect Rauner to put himself on the sidelines during budget negotiations that are taking place in coming weeks between the Democratic and Republican leadership of the Illinois House of Representatives and the state Senate.

For one thing, Republican leadership wouldn’t allow it.

... the political brawl Rauner brought on

They’re not going to meekly go along with whatever kind of orders Rauner tries to bark out at them.

RAUNER’S OWN POPULARITY ratings have dwindled (26 percent approval, and 60 percent disapproval – the worst of any governor seeking re-election this year, according to the Morning Consult group’s latest study) to the point where I suspect many GOP legislators don’t want the governor taking them down to defeat along with him come the Nov. 6 elections.

While many Democratic officials counting on the Donald Trump unpopularity factor aren’t about to do anything to appear to be caving in to Rauner on anything.

Budget talks are going to be downright ugly – and likely to accomplish little of anything significant. Because both sides seem to be more interested in one-upping each other.

If you think about it, Madigan’s comment about, “if the governor is finally ready to accept responsibility for the management of this state and be an honest partner in trying to pass a budget, we welcome him to this process” is about as snide and sarcastic as Rauner earlier this week saying he was fighting against, “a corrupt machine of self-dealing, unethical behavior … that benefit a few against the people.”

WHICH MAKES IT ironic that Rauner wants us all to think his four-year term as governor has been about “reform.”

When the reality is Rauner has behaved in as an obstructionist a manner as any other official within Illinois government has ever done. Meaning that obstructionism in the name of partisan politics is very much a part of the “Way things are done” in Illinois.

Is Pritzker our 'savior' by default?

Although going for so much of the four years of his term without a balanced budget in place will leave the Rauner Years with quite a legacy – particularly if he insists on finishing out his time in office without a budget in place for fiscal 2019.

It will be enough to make all of us eager for Election Day so we can pick a replacement to live and work in the (newly-renamed) Governor’s Mansion.

  -30-

Politicos try to score points off tax returns; even the president in his refusal

We’re coming up on Tax Day and I expect we’re going to hear our share of political rhetoric lambasting and praising President Donald Trump for continuing to tell the American people to “stuff it” if they want to see his tax returns.
 

TRUMP: Still thinks taxes are 'nunaya' business

Personally, I’m not going to get so worked up – I realize we have a president who’s not interested in making the usual gestures of openness to the public and probably doesn’t want us knowing exactly how much more wealthy he is than the bulk of us.

BECAUSE THAT MIGHT be the final straw that would make many of the so-called working people who voted for him realize how ridiculous their presumptions about him were.

Besides, I also have to admit that even when government officials do release their returns, it’s usually because there are circumstances that they wish to exploit.

They’re doing so for their own political gain. Not because of any sense that they’re exposing themselves to the sunshine of truth and honesty and all that other good-government rhetoric.

If anything, Trump’s telling of the American people to “drop dead” on this issue might well be the most honest thing a government official can say. It shows us his arrogance, rather than us having to make us all dizzy with his political “spin.”

I CAME TO that realization on Friday when I learned how state Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, who also is one of the people seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor.

BISS: Poor little legislator

He released the return he filed for 2016 to show just how far his income as a state senator had declined – an adjusted gross income of just over $32,500 even though in past years he had income in the range of $55,000.

But let’s not forget this past year was one in which state legislators had their own paychecks delayed because of the lack of a state government budget to authorize such payments.

Now, we can see for ourselves just what a financial blow the politicking over our state budget has had on the poor individual lawmakers. How sad!

I DO HAVE to admit that if I had to take a $20,000 shortfall in my income, it would be a financial blow. It would hurt. My guess is that Biss wants us all to feel similar sentiment.

Picasso to be surrounded by Trump tax rally

I’m also guessing that gubernatorial candidates J.B. Pritzker, Chris Kennedy and Ameya Pawar (all of whom have told the Capitol Fax newsletter they will be releasing their tax returns in coming days) will find similar ways to make political statements placing themselves in the most favorable light.

Even Gov. Bruce Rauner is most likely to find a way to make himself look good and somehow bear a resemblance to the masses of Illinois on whose behalf he wishes to govern for four more years.

It’s just the kind of cheap rhetoric that can make this time of year most annoying for a political reporter-type person. All the self-serving talk being spewed about!

WHICH KIND OF makes me wonder if we should be thankful that Trump, in his eternal sense of arrogance, isn’t giving us a load of political B.S. to contemplate. There really are limits to how much we, the people, should have to put up with. Which is why some of us will gather Saturday at rallies across the country, including in Chicago's Daley Plaza, along with suburban Naperville and in Chesterton, Ind.

Even though we can wonder how Trump is clueless enough to realize he’s missing a significant chance to humanize himself – and possibly detract from the reports coming out trashing himself and first lady Melania for the lack of activity to prepare for the White House Lawn Easter Egg hunt that has been a D.C. tradition for generations.

Image remains relevant all these yrs later

Although humanizing Trump could just be an impossible task, because the man gives us so many other examples of his unfitness for the office to which 46 percent of the electorate was able to anoint him to last year.

And now, I must turn my attention to my own tax returns – which I must admit that I haven’t even started as of the point in time I’m writing this commentary. It’s a good thing the Easter holiday weekend gives us a few extra days until Tuesday’s Tax Day deadline!

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Political bipartisanship is in a coma; I'd certainly hate to think it's deceased

About the only real concept up for argument is whether the notion of  bipartisan cooperation -- the idea of people of various ideological leanings working together to ensure that everybody can claim a piece of political victory -- is dead, or lying unconscious in a coma from which we have no clue whether it will ever regain consciousness.

Would Rauner, Trump backers hate this sign?

For both at our state and federal levels, we got evidence that our officials aren't the least bit interested in working together. Even when some try to work together, there are others who are determined to work to see that nothing happens.

PERHAPS IT'S BECAUSE they realize many people are more interested in results than ideological victories, no matter how much it might sound for one side to take all or how vengefully delightful it might sound for one side to get absolutely nothing!

I got somewhat worked up at learning earlier this week of the failure of the "grand bargain" to advance. For those of you not paying attention to the nuances of the Springpatch Scene, that is the phrase being used by people to describe the state budget deal supposedly being concocted by the Illinois Senate.

It was something resembling a compromise plan and it would have included minor provisions that Gov. Bruce Rauner once included among the so-called reforms he was asking for.

Most importantly, it would have put the state in the direction of finally approving a budget plan for state government operations -- something that state officials have been unable to do since the days of Pat Quinn as governor.

SERIOUSLY, WE'RE NOW approaching two full years of real time during which state government operations were halted due to a lack of a budget -- except for those agencies performing functions so essential that the federal courts are now essentially telling Illinois how to operate!

Rauner and Trump not political twins ...

Nothing wound up happening because even though Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, was helping to negotiate the deal, none of her Republican colleagues were willing to support it. They were following the lead of Rauner -- whom it seems is more interested in maintaining his partisan stances (his priority always has been to undermine organized labor in Illinois, to the extent that he'll extend his wrath upon the people of the state).

For what it's worth, praise is being offered by the Liberty Principles political action committee, which issued its own statement that called attempts at negotiation nothing more than, "the same old power politics presenting the same false choices" and also said it was prepared to lead people in voting against Rauner if he does NOT maintain his ideological hang-ups.

They also went so far as to lambast former governors James R. Thompson and Jim Edgar of selling out the state -- even though I still remember the days of the early 1990s when Edgar was the guy who held out in budget talks against the same Michael Madigan that Rauner now says is standing firm against him.

... but they do bear similarities

PERHAPS A LITTLE bit of the old Edgar sense of priority in maintaining the daily government operations is what ensured that he got re-elected to a second term, and probably would have won a third term if he had tried to seek it back in 1998. Because at some point, we have to start laying blame on Rauner if he thinks he can go an entire four-year gubernatorial term without an operations budget.

I experienced similar feelings this week when President Donald J. Trump shut down his Twitter account for a few moments and tried speaking to the people. Some are determined to say that Tuesday was the evening Trump became presidential in character.

Yes, I heard his comments about how it was time that people on both sides find a way to come together, with the end result being that we could actually live up in reality to his campaign them of "Making America Great."

Now I know some political pundits, particularly those of a conservative ideological bent, have said that this was a fantastic strategic move by Trump because now it puts the pressure on those of us of a more sensible approach to life to figure out ways to come closer to HIS way of thinking.

THAT COULD ACTUALLY have a bearing of truth, in that I don't doubt for one moment that Trump and his believers seriously think that we wouldn't have any problems in our society if only everybody who didn't agree with them would merely "shut up!" and do what they were told.

CULLERTON: Should all heed his advice?

It was the same sense I felt given off by much of the overly-nationalistic rhetoric spewed in the days following the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon back in 2001. Perhaps some people need for us to be in a "disaster" mode in order for them to think we're moving forward as a society.

Perhaps they also think that peacetime and working together is just a little too dull. Even though one could argue that such dullness is the ultimate evidence that things are functioning properly and that we're all alright.

It also makes me wonder if state Senate President John Cullerton's advice to Rauner is something that also could apply to many other ideologue politicos -- saying of the governor, "he's got to grow up!"

  -30-

We in Chicago have priorities straight

The nation may have been obsessing politically Tuesday over Donald J. Trump and his first nationally-televised address to Congress and the nation, what with Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., going so far as to make a fundraising pitch where she says his rhetoric will be filled with "whatever lies he spreads in his speech."

CLAYPOOL: Cutting the school year short?

But I suspect we here in the Second City had our priorities straight, being more concerned with the potential for political shenanigans that may wind up impacting the Chicago Public Schools and those young people who have little choice but to try to get themselves an education in that system.

THE FEAR IS that with the ongoing inability of Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic Party-led General Assembly to put together a budget that ensures state government can function as its supposed to, the funding that the state already unreliably provides to public education programs will be tampered with.

Which led to the letter Mayor Rahm Emanuel had drafted to send to parents of public school kids, telling them that the 2016-17 school year may have to come to an abrupt end June 1. As things stand officially, the school year is supposed to run through June 20, although it could go longer if we get sudden bursts of harsh wintry weather that could force snow days to be used.

Perhaps that means we ought to be grateful that we have had a mild winter this season. I'm not aware of schools having to be closed at all this year due to snow or excess cold.

The letter was signed by schools CEO Forrest Claypool, but people are pretty sure he wouldn't have the nerve to concoct an idea like this without having the approval of Hizzoner himself.

PERSONALLY, I WONDER how this would harm the students themselves, since they're supposed to have a certain minimum amount of actual days in the classroom for a school year to "count" for something. Basically, to ensure that all students are getting certain amounts of class work, regardless of what district they're actually attending school in.

EMANUEL: The 'man' behind the 'plan?'

Could we be putting our system's students into a status where their school year would not officially count? Would we be doing the equivalent of holding them back a year because of the financial mess?

Would we be giving the crackpots of our society all the more fuel to mock anyone who comes out of the Chicago Public Schools system to think the city somehow lags behind the rest of Illinois?

The Chicago Teachers Union, which is always quick to denounce anything where there's even a tinge of being able to "Blame Emanuel!" in the works, may actually have a point this time with their criticisms.

THE CHICAGO PUBLIC Schools, they say, "is broke on purpose. Hundreds of millions of dollrs remain in TIF surplus funds -- revenuethat could plug the holes in school budgets throughout the district today."

I don't know about the merits of using tax increment district funds (which are supposed to be used to encourage businesses in specific districts to make investments in their long-term viability) for schools operations. But I'm sure we're now facing a drastic enough situation that previously-unconsidered measures need to be contemplated.

Because right now, the teachers union isn't really wrong when they say, "It is criminal that we have a mayor that would rather wait out Rauner's hostage situation (the lack of a state budget) instead of doing the right thing and providing the revenue to fully resource schools."

I'm almost surprised that Trump hasn't used this situation to make more of his Tweets from a Twit to rant about the Chicago schools being in sorry shape, just as the GOPers of the Reagan era used to like to use the "worst in America" label to lambast the Chicago Public Schools. Or maybe that would require Trump to keep more than one train of thought going at a time -- and for now, Chicago is about murder!

OF COURSE, THERE also are the confirmations of all the appointments that Trump wants to make to the federal government, and it seems there are complications with the attempt to put Todd Ricketts in as deputy Commerce secretary. CBS News reported that Ricketts, a member of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs, may have to withdraw his nomination later this week, in order to avoid the humiliation of being formally rejected by the Senate.

RICKETTS: Too many conflicts?

It seems that Ricketts' connections to AmeriTrade, which is the family's primary business interest, puts him into so many financial conflicts of interest with government that it would be impossible for him to comply with Office of Government Ethics rules.

The benefit of Ricketts not getting the appointment may well be the Cubs, since it will reduce the potential for people to take pot shots at the ball club by labelling them the preferred ball club of the Trump Administration -- a status that Chicago White Sox fans (who enjoyed the status of their team labelling former President Barack Obama their "first fan") would be more than willing to exploit.

But it also makes me wonder about all the stink we've been hearing with regards to the potential for Trump himself to have conflicts of interest because of his business ties -- do we have a system of government in which Trump is fit for 46 percent of the electorate to say he can be president, but he'd be unfit if somebody else tried to appoint him to a cabinet post?

  -30-

For Rauner, is 3rd time the charm? Or is it Steeerike 3, Yer Outta Dere!!!

Wednesday is the day that Gov. Bruce Rauner will take his third crack at presenting a budget proposal for Illinois government’s upcoming fiscal year, which kicks off July 1.

RAUNER: At what point is it Bruce's fault?

It’s a routine ritual – the governor puts forth a spending plan, the opposition party in the Legislature says the governor is out of touch. His allies come to his defense, and in the end the General Assembly approves a plan that will be about 99 percent of what the governor asked for in the first place.

OR AT LEAST that’s the way things used to work each spring when it came to putting together the plan by which state government would spend the money it had available from state taxpayers and federal government grants.

For as we all know, Illinois government hasn’t had a formal budget in place since the 2015 fiscal year that was the end of the Pat Quinn era of state government. Rauner came into office with a desire to impose a series of changes meant to undermine the authority of organized labor.

Under the disguise of being “reform,” he has decided that getting these changes is more important than having a government that operates functionally.

While I don’t doubt that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is more than willing to play political games in order to mess with the governor’s mind and prolong any gaffes he makes, this standoff we have been in for two years now is truly going to be Rauner’s lasting legacy.

AND IT IS one that is now going into its third year. Rauner will make his third attempt at proposing a state government budget, even though he’s the governor who has never been able to get a budget passed into law.

 

MADIGAN: When will he be reasonable?

Legislators whose bills continually get stalled and thwarted wind up becoming the subject of ridicule.

So the question arises what will we get from Rauner this year? Is he finally determined to show he’s capable of handling the operations of state government as many Republican governors have managed to do while dealing with Madigan as the Illinois House speaker?

Or are we truly moving forward to being on our way to having yet another year without a state budget – which is a hassle because of the Illinois Constitution requirements that a budget be in place for government to operate the way it should.

THERE HAVE BEEN efforts within the Illinois Senate to put together a budget plan that could get the state operating the way it should and enable officials to focus on the backlog of bills that now totals in the billions of dollars.

Although there are questions about whether the Illinois House of Representatives would follow suit and approve something, Besides, there also are the objections of Republican types who say this plan is nothing more than the same old tax hikes and (what they consider) overspending that has caused the financial situation that has Rauner so willing to thrown the proverbial monkey wrench into the works of state government.

So what will happen Wednesday?

I have no doubt Rauner will attempt to sound oratorical and try to make us think he’s having deep thoughts about our state’s future. Although I always suspect that our state officials don’t think too deeply about what they do – it would confuse them.

JUST LIKE THE legendary baseball catcher Yogi Berra who once said of the mechanics of hitting a baseball, “How can you hit and think at the same time?”

 

The wit and wisdom of Yogi applies too often

But at some point, Rauner is going to have to be the one who breaks – unless he really wants to be the one-term governor remembered because he couldn’t get a budget passed. There's only so far that all the GOP "Dump Madigan!" can go before people turn on the governor.

There’s a lot of rhetoric being spewed about Facebook and Twitter, with the slogan “Do the Job!” being used almost as an order to Rauner. If anything, Rauner could wind up appearing to be the reasonable one if he were to make serious efforts toward putting together a functional budget now. That is how he could convince people it's really Madigan's fault.

As for those ideological, anti-union dreams the governor has, they’ll still be there following the upcoming election cycle of 2018 – when the many millions of dollars of his own money that he’s putting into Republican political coffers may be capable of buying him a Legislature more sympathetic to his desires!

  -30-

Will 100th Illinois Legislature behave more responsibly than its predecessor?

The 99^th version of the Illinois General Assembly finishes its business on Tuesday, and I suspect the few people who give things such thought will be thinking to themselves, “Good riddance!”
 

Has the state Senate ...

For these were the legislators who were chosen back in November 2014 along with Bruce Rauner to be governor. Meaning this version of the state Legislature is going to be the one remembered for its inability to work with a governor to do what some consider the primary purpose of state government – putting together the budget that allows government to operate.

OF COURSE, IT’S probably a stretch to place all the blame on the Legislature. For it can also be said that Rauner is the governor who has shown himself incapable of working with a General Assembly to put together that annual budget, without which government cannot operate!

 

... become the mature legislative chamber?

So as we move into a new version of the Illinois Legislature, the 100^th, to be exact, the real question is whether or not anything will be even remotely different than the past two years.

Or are we already preordained to go through four complete fiscal years of state government without anything in the way of a budget – which is important because many government functions cannot take place without a specific spending plan in place detailing how taxpayer monies are to be spent.

The money may be there, but we don’t allow it to be spent unless a budget is in place. It would be reckless to do otherwise.

WHICH IS WHY it was of some significance that the leaders of the state Senate let it be known Monday that they have something resembling a crude outline of a budget.

Will 'Mr. Speaker' care what Cullerton thinks

There’s no way they could get something rushed into approval by Tuesday night, so their plan is to sponsor a bill when the new Legislature takes over. They’re hinting at something that could be approved by Feb. 1 – at least on their end.

For that’s the trick. This is merely something for the state Senate to act upon. There’s no evidence that anything has any additional support.

This could wind up being nothing more than a stunt by which state senators try to create the illusion that they were ready to act, but that everybody else failed. As in we shouldn’t blame them!

IT COULD TURN out that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, will not care much for what state Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, thinks. Then again, Rauner may wind up finding it presumptuous of Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, to try to tell him what to do.

Will governor care what anyone else thinks?

So do we have a budget deal? We’re going to see just how much either Madigan or Rauner really want to settle this deal. A part of me suspects that Rauner, in particular, would like this issue to be ongoing so he can try to use it as political rhetoric to attack his opponents.

Then again, there are plenty of people in Illinois who believe the reason we have a stalemate is Rauner. He got elected as governor in large part because he wanted to push an ideological agenda – one that particularly targets organized labor.

It probably would be a blow to his ego to have to act in a way that merely maintains government operations.

BUT THEN AGAIN, there also are those individuals to whom Rauner’s idea of “reform” is truly harmful. There are those who voted for the people they did back in 2014 because they wanted them to stand up to any of the new governor’s partisan rhetoric.

SCOTT: Illinois not alone in partisan hacks

Just as I’m sure on the federal level this year there are people now in Congress who are being counted upon to oppose anything that President-elect Donald J. Trump tries to enact once he becomes the chief executive – even though people such as Florida Gov. Rick Scott have acted in ways indicating they think that day has already come.

It’s going to be an ugliness existing at so many levels of government.

Somewhere, we’re going to have to have a level of maturity that we’re not likely to see from any of the chief executives of government. Whether it will wind up coming from the rank-and-file is the question that remains to be answered.

  -30-

EXTRA: Gov. Bruce “No Budget” Rauner??? Is it possible?

"We might not have a budget during the term of Bruce Rauner”—State Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie.

  -0-

LANG: Harsh talk?!?

What if it comes true?

A part of me wants to believe it’s political nonsense being spewed by a Democratic partisan – which certainly is a role that Lou Lang plays within the General Assembly.

HE SAYS THE ‘over the top’ things too ridiculous for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, to say.

But we’re approaching the end of the fiscal year without a budget, which in and of itself is a concept that once would have been unthinkable.

What if we have a governor who buys into his political baloney of shaking up government so much that he doesn’t care about the many services and functions the state is supposed to perform, but isn’t right now because of the lack of a specific spending plan dictating how state funds are to be spent?

To me, it sounds downright irresponsible. Impeachable, almost. The kind of negligence for which we ought to think of removing a person from office.

NOT THAT I expect anyone to seriously lead an effort to impeach Bruce Rauner. In the end, Rod Blagojevich got booted from office because he had an arrogant attitude that caused the people who were supposed to be his political allies to turn on him.

Whereas while they might be somewhat embarrassed by their behavior, Republicans in the General Assembly see Rauner’s actions as the only reason they have a voice in these days of the veto-proof majorities that rule both the state Senate and Illinois House of Representatives.

 

EDGAR: What would Jim have done?

Nobody’s going nowhere at least until the next statewide election cycle of 2018. Even then, we might wind up with the same split. So I don’t see any change, and Lang’s rant from an organized labor rally held in Springfield on Wednesday is something that ought seriously be contemplated.

Still, I am someone who came into following state legislative antics in the days of Gov. Jim Edgar, who himself was the ultimate Springpatch-oriented geek. The idea of not doing a budget is something he could have never envisioned – even though his constant opposition to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley made him the original “Gov. No.”

  -30-

Life’s losers didn’t win the Lottery after all? They have to wait for prizes

At a time when Illinois government is being run largely by court-order mandating that certain things be paid regardless of the lack of a balanced budget in place, it seems at least one entity is being left out in the cold because of the Illinois Constitution.

Illinois Lottery winners!

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE reported Friday about how people who win the large prizes that are the whole purpose of the lottery games are merely being given written statements confirming that they are owed the money.

But not actually being given the money; until the day comes that Gov. Bruce Rauner and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, can learn to act like adults and put together the spending plan that will allow all of Illinois government to function normally.

Well, maybe not normally (because much of our state’s ‘normal’ is rather bizarre), but at least legally.

The Tribune, then WBBM-TV, found Illinois Lottery winners who are downright peeved at the fact that their ‘pot of gold’ at the end of the rainbow is on hold.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS picked up on those reports, and is now spreading the story across the nation – Illinois is the state that is killing people’s dreams while acting in a cold, callous manner.

The Tribune literally found one person who said that anybody who owed state government money wouldn’t be allowed to claim that their finances were too out-of-order as an excuse to get out of having to pay the money.

Which is true. Although not the best of points.

Because I’m going to have to concede that I’m not all too sympathetic to these people – who were winners of prizes of more than $25,000. It seems that anybody who won an amount less than that can still get their money.

DO WE REALLY want to take up the cause of those people who blow their bucks on large sums of lottery tickets, in hopes the prize will be worthwhile financially?

I want to scream at all of these people who are now complaining to “Get a Job!” and work for a living. Anybody who thinks that Lottery games is the key to their financial success deserves whatever abuse they wind up getting.

Besides, I happen to comprehend the reason why the Illinois Constitution requires that a budget be in place before funds can be spent. Do we really think it is appropriate that money can be spent, willy-nilly, without something in writing dictating how much can go toward any individual program.

My biggest fear these days is that when a budget for the Fiscal Year 2016 (which began July 1) does finally get done, so much money will already have been spent that everybody will not have enough to make it to June 30, 2016,

AFTER ALL, THIS was the year that there were either going to have to be billions in cuts or a significant increase in revenues for things to balance out.

The fact that somebody might have to wait on the prize they think they’re entitled to because they either scratched off the proper sequence of figures on a ticket (or got lucky enough to get the right numbers on a “quick pick”) doesn’t really bother me much.

It is one of the occupational hazards of doing business with state government – sometimes payments get delayed, although there is the guarantee that you will be paid in full eventually.

Unlike some private companies that can get out of paying their debts altogether.

MAYBE MY THOUGHTS are harshened because my father once owned his own construction company that got contracts for work on government-owned buildings.

Past political disputes and shortfalls by the state caused so many delays that it was a factor in him eventually having to shut down.

Excuse me for thinking that he, and others like him, are the real victims – not somebody who’s upset that their “Million Dollar Jackpot” hasn’t paid out yet.

  -30-

No pay raise for Illinois legislators? Fat chance that will wind up happening

It has been an ongoing debate, of sorts.

The General Assembly’s members shouldn’t be getting any pay raise (a cost of living adjustment, actually) while they are unable to come to agreement on a budget for state government’s current fiscal year (which actually began 29 days ago).

GOV. BRUCE RAUNER has tried to make an issue out of this point, hoping he can make the legislators appear to be greedy and self-serving enough that public opinion will force them to go along with all the anti-organized labor measures he wants before he signs off on any state budget.

He went so far as to have press secretary Lance Trover (he has a fancier title, but his job is to speak for the governor) issue a statement Tuesday morning keeping up the attack.

“As we approach the end of the month, (Illinois House) Speaker (Michael) Madigan and the politicians he controls have one final chance to side with Republicans and make a clean up-or-down vote on stopping themselves from getting an automatic pay increase,” he said.

“After passing a $4 billion unbalanced budget and refusing to work with Gov. Rauner on turning this state around, the last thing the speaker and his allies deserve is a pay raise,” Trover said. “That is why the speaker should call up the Republican bill – without any poison pills or gimmicks – that will stop him and the politicians he controls from receiving a pay raise.”

EXCUSE ME FOR thinking this statement is going to come across as too self-serving for anyone in the public to take seriously. Except for the ideologues who aren’t about to let any facts get in the way of their viewpoint.
 

RAUNER: Penalizing insolent legislators?

Part of it is that the pay raise issue comes up so often that government officials aren’t phased by it anymore.

This isn’t technically an increase in the salary themselves – it is an implementation of the cost of living adjustment that is meant to keep salaries for government employees in line with the actual cost of things that people need to buy in order to live.

The salary that Madigan received back when he was a freshman legislator from the Southwest Side back in the early 1970s would be regarded as piss-poor and near poverty level these days. Even though I doubt Madigan was starving back then.
 

MADIGAN: Playing politics, or not?

HE CERTAINLY ISN’T anywhere near poverty level now, what with his legal practice making him a wealthy man in his own right (although he is a financial peasant compared to Rauner’s income level).

So cost-of-living adjustments aren’t radical in-and-of themselves. In fact, state law provides for them, and also requires that all state employees get the same increase. It is meant to depoliticize the process.

After all, it wouldn’t be proper if government officials could give raises or increases to only certain officials – the ones who were favored, while those who were opponents would get nothin’.

So excuse me for thinking that what Rauner is seeking is for a financial penalty for those pesky legislators who just won’t jump to attention whenever he barks out an order!!! It might be the way a tyrannical CEO operates, but it’s not democratic government at work.

ALTHOUGH I’M ALSO going to admit that it is tacky for legislators to be getting a pay raise at a time when government operations are all bungled up due to the inactivity. It probably is why the Illinois House took a vote in favor of Rauner's request, while the state Senate said it wants to continue to debate the issue -- which means nothing will happen.

Instead of worrying about denying pay hikes, what needs to happen is the governmental activity that should have taken place a couple of months ago – pass the state budget that details how existing funds are to be spent so that government business can carry on the way it is supposed to.

That means working together; including the governor. Who needs to get serious about the business of governing instead of having his staff issue silly, self-serving statements such as his latest rant on Tuesday!

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