A press release from Governor Bruce Rauner:
Administration Initiates Management Steps to Prepare for Madigan-Cullerton Budget
Initial Steps to Save ~$400 Million
Suspends EDGE Tax Credits
Additional Actions Being Prepared
SPRINGFIELD – House Speaker Mike Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton and their caucuses passed a budget for the 2016 fiscal year beginning July 1 that is nearly $4 billion in the hole.
This latest broken Madigan-Cullerton budget comes on the heels of a Fiscal Year 2015 Madigan-Cullerton budget that was more than $1.5 billion out-of-balance when it was passed.
Since taking office, Governor Rauner has worked diligently to eliminate the inherited $1.5 billion budget deficit without raising taxes, and the state is now projected to end the year with a balanced budget.
With the upcoming Madigan-Cullerton budget deficit more than double that of last year, a mid-year solution is not a possibility this time. The Administration must immediately begin taking steps to manage state spending.
While the Administration is committed to managing the Madigan-Cullerton budget responsibly, because their budget includes no reforms, the options available to the Administration are limited.
“Speaker Madigan, President Cullerton and the politicians they control refuse to act responsibly and reform state government,” Rauner Spokesman Lance Trover said. “It is time they come to the table with Governor Rauner to turnaround Illinois.”
Outlined below are steps the Administration is initiating today in order to begin balancing the phony Madigan-Cullerton budget. Many additional steps will be announced as they are finalized.
Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
Effective Immediately
- Immediate suspension of all future incentive offers to companies for business attraction and retention.
o This includes EDGE Tax Credits, Large Business Attraction Grants, Employer Training Investment Program Incentive Grants and Prime Sites Grants.
- Will defer application approvals for film tax credits and High Impact Business designations.
- All commitments previously made in any of these programs will be honored.
Action Initiated
Prepare and provide notice for the July 1 suspension of the State Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (SLIHEAP).
- The federal portion of the program, funded at about $170 million, will continue.
Department of Transportation
Effective Immediately
- In light of the state’s current fiscal crisis and a lack of sufficient capital resources, the Illiana Expressway will not move forward at this time. As a result, the Illinois Department of Transportation will remove the project from its current multi-year plan. It is the determination of IDOT that the project costs exceed currently available resources. The Department will begin the process of suspending all existing project contracts and procurements.
Mike Madigan and his friends will now have to drive to Springfield or find private planes.
Action Initiated
- Beginning July 1, the Department will “ground” all state plane passenger service. Planes will be maintained and available for emergency services.
Department of Juvenile Justice
Action Initiated
- Begin the process of identifying one or two juvenile correctional facilities for closure.
- Juvenile system has a surplus of capacity
o Capacity at approximately 1,200 beds, with less than 700 occupied.
Department of Corrections
Action Initiated
- Begin the process of closing the Hardin County Work Camp
o Approximately 180 inmates will be moved
- Approximately 60 Work Camp staff affected
Department of Healthcare and Family Services
Action Initiated
- Implement an audit review of nursing home reimbursements to ensure payments comply with recently implemented new rate structure.
- Recover overpayments to nursing homes and implement financial penalties for improper billings.
Illinois State Police
Action Initiated
- Immediately freeze all vehicle purchases.
Department on Aging
Action Initiated
- File emergency rules to enact means testing to Aging’s Community Care Program. No income limit currently exists.
- Increase the Determination of Need (DON) Score required to obtain services through Aging’s Community Care Program
Department of Human Services
Action Initiated
- DHS will pursue cost control strategies through emergency rules to the Childcare Program:
o Increase copays for parents using the program; and
o Freeze intake and create waiting lists.
- DHS will also begin background checks for relatives providing child care. Background checks are currently required for child care licensed centers, group homes and non-relatives who provide care.
Department of Natural Resources
Action Initiated
- The Department will not award Open Space Land Acquisition Development Grants in FY16.
- The Department will begin the process to suspend operations and close the five state museums to visitors. The state will continue to maintain and secure the museums to protect the artifacts and exhibits.
Madigan-Cullerton SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!……
RESIGN!
IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS!
Not one Rauner activity listed that I object to.
I suggest he cut the power to the State Legislature until Madigan and Cullerton agree to submit a balanced budget.
Our children cannot afford to support us living beyond our means!!
I am not a fan of Rauner but think some of these things are good and need to be done.
con on, great idea about cutting the power.
I think Madigan has meet his match
Awesome!
Be prepared for the parade of needy and greedy pointing the finger at Rauner, union mailings,muni’s up in arms about their precious grants being taken away.
OSLAD should have stopped years ago same with ILIANA.
We have plenty of toll roads not taken care of already.
Keep it coming Governor!
What in the heck does doing background checks on family members babysitting their own families kids have to do with the budget?
Fear tactics by Rauner…. go after the poor, not his rich pals?
What happened to State Farm? Why did they leave the state?
I understand moving to Texas, but why did State Farm leave Illinois?
Half my family had to leave the state to follow their jobs with State Farm.
What a nightmare this state is…..
My god, what have they done to us?
I realize my comment seems to be slanted against Rauner…
I don’t mean it to sound that way.
I wish he would cut off the power to all the air conditioners to the state building for the entire summer.
Cut til we all bleed if we must, but I know a lot of very wealthy people around here doing just fine.
If Medicare alone were carefully and skillfully audited, I’m certain we would find half the missing budget.
Benefits that go to illegals alone would find a great savings.
But there are legit people out there in need of assistance from government, don’t cut them out.
We lost a huge business in State Farm….. could wipe out Bloomington all together.
All those tax dollars, now sitting in Texas.
God blessed Texas, our elected officials F#%$ed Illinois!
We need a real balanced budget law, not the phony one we have now.
Madigan and Cullerton play Santa Claus and let Rauner play Scrooge.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The 800 lb Gorilla is pensions.
The Illinois General Assembly and Governors have been playing Santa Claus for 45 years with legislative benefit hikes to underfunded pensions in the very same years annual pension contributions were shorted or skipped, akin to charging the credit card on which you are carrying a balance and shorting the monthly payment.
So the new Governor comes into office and he inherits the pension mess.
+++++++
Comparing the annual budget to the pension mess is sort of like standing on the railroad tracks and the tricycle is about to hit you but down the tracks you see this freight train coming.
You stand on the railroad tracks for 45 years.
Over the years you start seeing the lights, begin hearing the horn, the train keeps coming.
Well the train hasn’t hit me in 45 years, maybe it will never reach me.
Originally the train was just the engine.
Over the years it added tanker cars, coal cars, hopper cars, Reefers (refrigerated cards), container cars, automobile cars, flat cars, etc.
Now the car is heavier and takes longer to stop.
But it still hasn’t arrived yet.
Maybe the train will never get here.
And this is a special train, it also has passenger cars.
And every year there’s more and more passengers.
All the passengers are retired.
And each year, the new crop of retired passengers is more wealthy than the previous years.
But everyone gets a raise every year.
Life is good on the passenger train.
Pretty predictable.
No risk for the passengers.
Only people outside the passenger train have risk, and only those people not contributing to the passenger train pension plan.
But as the passenger looks out the window, the scenery changes over the years.
Foreclosure signs on houses, more and more houses are not kept up as nice, factory closings, McMansions appear, a closed shopping mall here, a high rise office building there, more delivery trucks carrying packages ordered over the internet, the world is changing.
But the train still hasn’t arrived.
The passengers holler out the window, a pension is a promise, we need more money.
And the money keeps coming.
The train keeps on rolling.
Maybe it’s a magical perpetual train.
The story needs a slight adjustment.
Only people outside the passenger train have risk, and only those people not members of the the passenger train pension plan.
We’re now seeing the face of the pension mess.
So Mark, what is your fix?
I enjoy and appreciate all your postings…thanks.
That Illiana project seemed like a bad project anyway.
Even before Rauner was in I had read stuff that said it really wasn’t worth the cost.
Won’t be missed.
Here’s how anyone can get involved in stabilizing pensions.
Educate others.
Advocate to repeal the pension sentence that was added to the state constitution in 1970.
Pick a local taxing district and start attending board meetings, view them online, or listen to a voice recording online, as decisions at the local level impact pensions such as hiking salaries means the eventual pension is hiked.
The politicians have forced the taxpayers to become human resource experts to understand the problem and advocate how to fix the problem.
They are more of a public nuisance than a public servant, it’s awful what they have done.
Mark, your comment:
is spot on but I would add the following:
Just look at the County Board.
Yesterday there was an agenda item for seating someone on the Conservation District Board.
It was stated that only the Chairman of the County Equine Board applied for the position.
There was a small group of Board members who objected but the great majority voted YES.
Will he serve the taxpayers or will he serve the Equine owners?
Last time I checked, no POOR people owned a horse.
Why do ALL taxpayers have to fund equine trails in the Conservation District?
Those trails do nothing for the average citizen, yet the County Board votes in favor of placing their primary lobbyist on the Conservation District Board.
There’s a County Equine Board?
Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
Effective Immediately
Immediate suspension of all future incentive offers to companies for business attraction and retention.
o This includes EDGE Tax Credits, Large Business Attraction Grants, Employer Training Investment Program Incentive Grants and Prime Sites Grants.
Why aren’t tifs classified in these suspension guidelines?
I realize the State cannot dictate to municipalities, but the State could make STRONG recommendations to cease and desist with business incentive mechanisms which shift large chunks of tax revenues through the black-box decision filter of municipal rulers and into the hands of favored developers.
The State could institute economic penalties for setting up tifs, by withholding discretionary State funding from municipalities which choose to inflict this huge property tax burden onto the citizens paying into the supporting taxing districts so that tifs may receive all school and public services without paying.
Mike Walkup wrote in another post that the gentleman who applied for the McHenry County Conservation District Board position was the President of the county horse association, which presumably is the McHenry County Horse Club.
Local control doesn’t do much good if taxpayers at large don’t apply for County Board positions.
Every taxing district / government unit can benefit from a taxpayer / citizen watchdog, that aspect of community service is definitely not well publicized.
The gentleman has a right to advocate for horse trails, hopefully any discussions and proposals will be watched, but it doesn’t seem there is a watchdog for McHenry County Conservation District (MCCD).
The MCCD Board of Trustees does not video tape its board meetings and thus does not archive them on their website, which is inexcusable for a taxing district / government unit with a budget and debt level the size of the conservation district.
Illinois’ Squishy Balanced Budget Requirement It would appear that Illinois’ budget is required to be balanced.
The Illinois Constitution states that “Proposed expenditures shall not exceed funds estimated to be available for the fiscal year shown in the budget” (emphasis added).33 However, Illinois’ balanced budget requirement has some serious limitations.
First, it refers to anticipated revenues, and there is no requirement that the state adjust its spending if the anticipated revenues are not realized.
There is nothing to stop a governor or General Assembly from using an unrealistically high estimate when crafting the budget.
This is well known and has been acknowledged by political leaders.34, 35 In addition, Reports of the State Budget Crisis Task Force Illinois Report 18 “funds available” can include existing fund balances, even if these are intended to meet future obligations; and borrowing, even to pay operating expenses. Illinois’ balanced budget requirement is also a cash concept, referring only to the current fiscal year.
This means that the balanced budget requirement does not refer to future pension liabilities or unpaid bills from the previous year. Each fiscal year from 2009 to 2012 ended with a larger stack of unpaid bills — $8 billion at the end of fiscal year 2012 — and each year these bills were ignored when projecting balance for the next year’s budget.
Rauner should have legislation to change the IL Const to read:
If Brucy doesn’t work in that direction he is no better than the other political hacks that came before him.
I’ll readily admit, that I did not apply for the position on the CD board. Obviously, no one else here did either.
Had I realized the board was taking applications, I might have applied.
The above not withstanding, I am a hunter.
Does that mean I would only advocate for hunter’s rights with the MCCD?
Of course not.
While I would certainly lobby on behalf of hunting in the district, I would also make sure every groups rights are defended.
But not one or the other at the cost of the tax payers.
Maybe that’s just me??
I don’t know the gentleman appointed, but can anyone give a valid reason to believe he couldn’t be impartial?
In the end NO ONE ELSE applied.
Including none of us on this board.