Some hope for Illinois? Or maybe not

Last updated on: May 22, 2014 at 8:23 am by Jane the Actuary

Some hope for Illinois? Or maybe not 2014-05-22T08:23:00-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The good news: Michael Madigan and Pat Quinn do not yet have the votes to make permanent the “temporary” tax hike. Enough Democrats are standing their ground and holding to their promises, rather than buying Madigan’s line that keeping promises is for suckers (well, paraphrased).

They’re not giving up, though. The latest, according to today’s Tribune, is to create a budget reflecting the scheduled tax rate, in order to “pressure recalcitrant Democrats by showing them what they’ll be giving up if they don’t vote to make permanent what was billed as a temporary income-tax increase in 2011.” And, of course, you know this time-honored tactic will play the game of making the cuts the most punitive ones possible, to make the 5% rate appear unavoidable. (Small favors: in Illinois the property tax funding for schools works by determining the school district’s budget, with a population growth + CPI cap, then backing into a tax rate per household based on the assessments, rather than the fixed millage rate back in Michigan, which always meant the schools had to seek millage increases — and always played games of cutting arts and sports rather than administration.)

What’s really appalling is how dead set the leadership is on this 5% rate. Quinn’s plan includes a trade-off of “rebating” property taxes at the rate of $500 per household as a sweetener. Now the Tribune reports that Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook, has proposed that gas sales tax money be diverted to fund construction projects rather than going into general revenue — in other words, proposing that the state use a part of the “extra” revenue to fund more spending rather than avoid spending cuts.

Also in the news: the State Board of Elections is claiming that the “independent maps” redistricting amendment has too few valid signatures, a rate of 40% based on its initial sample, where the organizers believe they’re at the 60% level. Or, in the words of the e-mail sent to me as part of a mass distribution list:

This week, we saw the state running a rushed, uneven and behind-closed-doors signature validation process. The result of that flawed process was the inaccurate claim that we didn’t collect enough signatures.

It’s time for a fact-check: We have more than enough valid signatures to earn our rightful place on the ballot. We know our validity rate is above 60% because we conducted random samples on every petition that came in our door. Only a flawed review process from the State could have led to a result so biased against us, but now we are fighting back. Our field team is working hard to set the record straight by rehabilitating the supposedly “invalid” signatures.

Here’s some of what we saw this week:

· State Board of Elections staff encouraged validators to rush through review, with a supervisor in the Chicago office repeating the directive time and time again.

· The State Board failed to give staff instructions for how exactly to examine signatures. That meant each validator used his or her own criteria for determining if petition signatures matched. Consequently, we saw wide fluctuations in validity rates per validator.

· State Board of Elections staff reviewed numerous petitions after the close of business, and without notice to the Independent Maps campaign. It was literally a back-room process.

Broken government has led us to this point, but that’s exactly why this campaign is so crucial for our state. This fight is far from over, and we are confident we will make it to the November ballot.

This campaign will continue to stand up for the work that we all did over the past year and look forward to victory on Election Day.

Onward!

Michael Kolenc

Uncategorized

Previous Post

May 20, 2014

Marco Rubio's Big Social Security reform plan: meh

Next Post

May 22, 2014 Introducing: the Swap Visa

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who found baby Moses in the river?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Moses' mother Miriam Pharaoh's daughter A shepherd