A press release from Governor Bruce Rauner:
Madigan attaches poison pill to federal funds bill
Hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending Governor Rauner will sign clean bill as promised, veto Madigan’s spending legislation
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and the legislators he controls are considering an amendment to SB 2042 – the bill appropriating money for the pass through of federal dollars, which as a clean bill would have no impact on the state’s budget deficit – that would increase General Revenue spending by nearly $600 million.
“Governor Rauner has supported and continues to support a clean federal pass through appropriations bill,” Rauner Spokesman Lance Trover said.
“Unfortunately, Speaker Madigan continues to play games with taxpayer money and is trying to force through higher state spending with no budget.”
Tim Nuding, Director of the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, issued the attached memo to the Governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff outlining that the line of spending included by Speaker Madigan is identical to the spending in the unconstitutional, unbalanced budget that the Democrat majority passed earlier this summer.
= = = = =
See memo: Rauner Objection to Madigan Amendment to Federal Funds Appropriations Bill
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/867754/rauners-education-chief-used-private-emails-despite-firm-ban
The people should be making plans, via the election process, to make sure the Madigan reign ends!
The best thing that could possibly happen to the State of Illinois is that Madigan resign!
The best thing is Rauner quit.
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/29764918/illinois-3rd-worst-treatment-heroin-crisis-escalates
Rauner’s cuts are going to affect McHenry County as we have lots of drug users here which will cost more later for incarceration and rehabilitation.
I forgot this is so called compassionate conservatism.
karma is not real big on change.
Probably likes that status quo stuff.
Can you do a U-turn in Rauner’s turnaround agenda?
I wonder if they learned the sneaky email tactic from smokey back room Joe Gottemoller.
You remember Joe, the guy who wanted to put a Canadian peaker plant in front of a grade school in Oakwood Hills??
Joe and the Rauner team operate in cloak and dagger.
What was in those emails? What a crock.
ERIC AND KARMA = REGIMERS
I stand with the regime that believes that we shouldn’t sell the people of Oakwood hill and Crystal Lake up the creek to the Canadians!!!
I would like to hear Karma’s and Eric’s solution to the fiscal state of Illinois and their wonderful ideas on how to fix it?
Live:
Let’s start with selling off the 7% land grab that is McHenry county conservation.
I understand parks are important, but its gotten out of control.
Let’s charge fee for those that use it can park, similar to Wisc.
This way at least it self fund for starters.
I saw this issue when I lived in Cook county.
I’d also like to see immigration reform.
These ppl are here, they are in your schools and driving on your roads.
Let’s find out who they are, ID them and collect taxes from them so they are not getting a free ride.
We need to be sensible about welfare, especially the corporate kind.
As a business owner there are a million different loopholes I have seen others exploit to pay virtually no taxes.
The free lunch has to end.
Ask yourself.
How broken is our tax code when the governor who claims the state is broken has made Billions?
Illinois might be broken but not for Bruce Rauner.
You failed miserably in your proposal Eric!
I may not get you to agree, but I am sure there are others that will see that it is a mix of things that will help turn the course of Illinois.
It took several years to get to where we are which could incrementally work together to chip away at this problem.
We call this change Democracy where people work together to resolve their differences.
Radicalism right or left leaning are not the answer Duncan.
I see Madigan as the one unwilling to work to compromise.
Rauner has dropped many of his proposals.
Rauner has even capitulated on things.
Madigan recently turned down federal money because he couldn’t get the state to commit money they didn’t yet have.
But Madigan and the Democrats will say Rauner is holding things hostage, that Rauner won’t negotiate, that Rauner is making unreasonable demands.
The radicals are the Democrats.
They could raise taxes by themselves, with veto proof majority, but they want a tax increase that Rauner will sign (because they don’t want to be the ones responsible for it).
Rauner has said “fine, then give me this” to which Democrats have stomped their feet at.
Democrats could have passed minimum wage with their supermajority in the House and Senate and Quinn as Governor, after voters approved of it, but Madigan blocked it so he could point his finger at Rauner not being for minimum wage increase.
Rauner has done a 180 on minimum wage, saying he would sign an increase, but again given certain conditions.
Democrats stomped their feet at that.
It’s the governor’s job to present a budget.
He has a line item veto.
He presented a budget based on the premise of unconstitutional cuts in the pension.
It’s time for his team to go back and get out of the weeds and have a conversation about what is realistic.
http://www.ilga.gov/commission/lrb/con8.htm
Seems pretty straight forward to me.
Well that was a pretty bad proposal so I will make it easier on you.
How do you fix the teachers pension problem?
How do you fix the state government workers pension problem?
While I agree with some of the tax loopholes within the business sector what about people that have kids then?
Why should anyone get a tax break for having kids?
Essentially it breaks down both ways.
If you have a business you get certain tax breaks for various reasons.
Same as if you have kids you get tax breaks for various reasons.
Why should someone have to pay the same tax bill to schools that have kids as the person that doesn’t.
You speak of no free lunch anymore.
What about all those people on WIC, government subsidies etc..
Though yes some will need help there whole lives, why does able bodied people get a free ride through life?
But this thread is about the state and not local conservation district.
All of the programs that Illinois has funded are going to have to take a hit.
As far as Rauner making money quit being jealous.
He isn’t taking a paycheck or medical from the state.
I take it back I think he might have to take a salary under state law but he donates his check.
And need I remind that Quinn gave big takes breaks to Caterpillar, Chrysler, and Mitubishi.
Why because they were leaving the state.
There is a open market right now and companies are going to take the best deal. Welcome to free market. Look at N.Y. they are advertising on TV come to our state you get 10 yrs free taxes. Plus the people that pull pensions in this state i.e. teachers and government workers, are leaving the state at retirement to save money on taxes. Go figure right! So start again..
And at least Rauner is making them have a balanced budget something that the previous Governors didn’t do and the “White House” hasn’t done forever now!
And if your a small business owner I am sure that you take advantage of those loopholes as well don’t you!
Did you know that you can pay your kids as employees and then write it off as a business expense?
As long as it is a fair and reasonable wage.
Even if they are in diapers!
Of course this is a federal exemption.
What everyone hated about the state tax that was allowed to expire by Rauner was it was hard to abate.
Especially if you were were raking in millions like our Governor what the state income tax that did not allow the exemptions like federal taxes do (free lunch).
When comparing tax versus income Illinois is more friendly than all surrounding states with the exception of Iowa and Missouri.
I own an LLC and know how this system works quite well.
Keep asking yourself how bad is Illinois if Rauner got to where he is?
He ran because we finally held his feet to the fire and made him lay his fair share.
As required by the llinois Constitution it is Rauner’s office that is responsible for balancing the budget.
I see that you avoided the questions but that is ok.
Evidently you have no answer is to why people are leaving this state and any of the other questions.
Why the state is in such a black hole?
Your childish answer “It’s up to the Governor” LOL
Yes I know as well how the system works!
He came out with a balanced budget however, Mr. Madigan didn’t like it!
The budget was not balanced because it was based on changes that were unconstitutional.
You can pound as much sand as you want in the sandbox and that fact will not change.
Everyone is waiting for a budget from Rauner’s office.
You are not included the Workers Comp Tax in your comparison, are you?
The state constitution needs to be changed.
The pension sentence added to the state constitution on December 15, 1970 needs to be repealed in its entirety via constitutional amendment.
Here is that sentence.
“Membership in any pension or retirement system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or instrumentality thereof, shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired.”
That sentence allows unlimited salary hikes, unlimited pension benefit hikes, unlimited current healthcare benefit hikes, and unlimited retiree healthcare benefit hikes, all of which put unlimited pension and retiree healthcare IOU’s on the taxpayer.
The salary hikes, pension benefit hikes, current healthcare benefit hikes, and retiree healthcare benefit hikes then need to be selectively clawed back.
Until that’s done, the budget cannot be balanced without tax hikes in a fashion that’s palatable to taxpayers.
None of the hikes were directly approved by taxpayers.
None of the hikes were clearly explained to the average taxpayer, in a way the average taxpayer could calculate their financial impact on the taxpayer.
Often bogus assumptions including overly optimistic actuarial assumptions were used.
The hikes going forward should be directly approved by taxpayers.
It’s a rigged system to benefit politicians, government workers, and political insiders, at the expense of taxpayers.
The overall tax burden, including sales taxes, income taxes, property taxes, payroll taxes, other taxes, fees, tolls, plus the unfunded pension liability, unfunded retiree healthcare liability, and bond debt, easily puts Illinois taxpayers in a worse financial bind than other midwest states and amongst the worst in the United States, and there are several organizations that have studied various aspects of that.
The taxpayers of Illinois have been duped in a political and governmental financial scheme where fingers can be pointed all over the place and taxpayers easily misled.
Republicans and Democrats are to blame, it’s a non-partisan problem.
It’s such incredibly bad logic to think the state can’t be that bad off because one individual who lives in the state is very rich.
I’m astonished.
Are you suggesting that Bruce Rauner is the only Multi-millionare in Chicago that has not benifited tremendously from a flat tax in this state?
Spend a little time in Belmont Harbor or Winnetka and you will see how badly this recession hit the ultra rich.
I am not bitter as I have made my money too.
Fact is you make your money when you buy and all the recession did for these people is allowed them to pull away from everyone else.
I did too in a lot of ways.
Now that we want to balance our needs as a state and pay our bills we have somehow misplaced our wallet?
Sure I felt a little pain when our taxes went up, but at least we were meeting our obligations.
We are a big state with a massive infrastructure, did we think it was all going to be free?
Illinois is not Kansas.
Regarding the Constitutional Amendment:
Rauner will struggle to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot because people on both sides see that he says one thing and does something else.
And even if he were successful there is a strong chance it would fail.
The Governor is responsible for presenting the budget.
He and his team need to huddle up and rub their heads together and figure out who gets what and decide if it’s enough.
I’d really just like to see him quit posturing and do his job.
This is the same tired argument that we must raise taxes to pay for hiked salaries and benefits, rather than reforming the rigged laws that have been passed and clawing back hiked benefits.
Illinois is a train wreck and it is not because taxes are too low.
Illinois Policy Institute analyzed government statistics and found that the 2011 income tax hike drove people out of Illinois.
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/2011-income-tax-hike-drove-wealthier-illinoisans-to-other-states/
Illinois is the poster child for bad government, kick the can, hide and seek, government policy.
Madigan and Cullerton have no desire to work with Rauner on meaningful reform, and their voting record on bad policy is all public record in the house bills and senate bills.
There was a complete disregard on their part for long term fiscal stability, rather government has been operated for personal and party political power, and plenty of other Democrats and Republicans, in fact the majority of them, operated in the same fashoin.
Illinois state government has ignored basic financial principles so taxpayers are supposed to dutifully pay for it…
Here are some companies that do not believe the answer to Illinois problems is to raise taxes.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/sectors/item/21405-trickle-of-companies-leaving-illinois-turning-into-a-flood
Great info Mark.
The Governor has the pen and the power to write a budget to get us to where we need to go.
He needs to get off the campaign trail and get to work.
It is the governor’s job to write the budget.