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Topspin
A Downstate judge Thursday afternoon will take up the question of whether or not state workers should continue to be paid in full in the midst of Illinois’ budget impasse after Attorney General Lisa Madigan called on the court to rethink its position on the matter.
The case dates back 20 months, to the beginning of the state budget stalemate, when Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the unions who represent state workers asserted that public employees were entitled to full pay if they continued to work through the impasse. A St. Clair County judge issued an order agreeing with that stance. It has been in place ever since, giving legal cover for Comptroller Susana Mendoza and her Republican predecessor to issue paychecks even though there is no legislation in place to authorize the spending.
But circumstances have changed since the order was entered. In March, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in a different case that collective bargaining agreements are subject to funding from the legislature, overriding a lower court ruling that had been the legal basis of the court’s state worker pay order.
Last month, as a stopgap spending plan expired and Rauner and lawmakers seemed unlikely to come to a new deal, Madigan’s office filed a motion asking the court to undo the order. The attorney general, whose father is Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, made it clear that her motivation was to force movement on the budget issue.
In her court filing, Madigan contended that the judge’s order "has allowed the legislative and executive branches to fail to fulfill their constitutional duties without facing the real threat of a government shutdown."
Rauner’s lawyers countered that the attorney general’s motion was months late because the order has been in place for nearly a year after the state Supreme Court ruled.
“If there was no emergency in March 2016, there is no reason for the attorney general to ask this court to act precipitously today,” the governor’s lawyers argued in a filing submitted to the court this week.
On Wednesday, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees also weighed in.
“The purpose of the attorney general’s motion is to spur a budget agreement,” the union’s attorneys wrote in a filing to the court. “There is nothing in the attorney general’s constitutional or statutory authority, though, that supports her intervention in the politics of creating a state budget.”
The hearing begins at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Arguments are expected, and it’s possible things could spill into Friday. (Kim Geiger)
What’s on tap
*Mayor Rahm Emanuel will annouce a new musical attraction, speak at the City Club of Chicago luncheon and welcome new police recruits to the academy.
*Gov. Rauner has no public schedule.
*The Illinois House and Senate will hold session on getaway day. The governor’s budget chief is scheduled to appear at a Senate budget hearing. The Senate advisory suggested Scott Harry, director of Rauner’s budget office, would testify on the governor’s "apparently $5 billion unbalanced spending plan." In case you wondered about the mood at the Capitol.
*Chicago City Council committees: 10 a.m. Health & Environmental Protection; 11 a.m. Transportation and Public Way Committee; 1 p.m. Aviation considers new Midway Airport concession contract and agreement on Elgin-O’Hare western access. Agendas here.
From the notebook
*Print is dead? Illinois senators are being asked to think twice about what they decide to print out after the Senate’s office supply vendor cut off services because of a lack of payment due to the historic budget impasse.
The directive to conserve paper, printer ink and other supplies came in an email sent to senators Wednesday by Kristin Richards, chief of staff to Senate President John Cullerton.
“While we have alternative options in place to address immediate needs, it is unclear how long we can make them work,” Richards wrote. “Employees of the Office of the Senate President have been asked to conserve supplies by limiting printing and copying activities, and lean heavily on sharing documents electronically when they are able to do so.”
Thousands of state contractors have gone without payment or have been left waiting months as the state struggles to pay bills without a complete spending plan. Already, dozens of social service providers have filed suit seeking payment, including the Ounce of Prevention Fund, an early childhood nonprofit agency headed by Diana Rauner, the wife of the Republican governor. (Monique Garcia)
*Cupich opposes abortion bill: Calling on parishioners to “speak for the children in the womb,” Cardinal Blase Cupich condemned legislation that would expand Illinois women’s access to abortion services.
The bill in question would eliminate a so-called “trigger” provision that would make abortion illegal in Illinois if Roe v. Wade is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. It also would allow women with Medicaid and state employee health insurance to use their coverage for abortions.
The measure is a direct response from Democratic state lawmakers to Republican President Donald Trump, who has touted anti-abortion policies and said he would appoint Supreme Court justices with the goal of overturning Roe v. Wade.
In a letter posted online earlier this month, Chicago’s archbishop framed the bill as an attempt to use taxpayer dollars to fund taking a child’s life.
“Tax money should be used to fund prenatal services for the poor and child care for working mothers, as well as expand health-care options for those in need,” he wrote.
The measure could be voted on in the House as early as Thursday. Cupich urged parishioners to ask their lawmakers to reject the bill and instead focus on passing a budget that funds “essential services.”
“Let us make this Lent a celebration of life by protecting the new life and hope the birth of a child brings to the world,” he wrote. (Haley BeMiller)
*Speechifyin’: Gov. Rauner’s budget speech clocked in at 37 minutes or so, including a nearly two-minute delay when his teleprompter gave out.
The delay was perhaps the most awkward moment to happen during a major governor speech at the Capitol in recent memory. A close runner-up would be then-Gov. Pat Quinn’s 2010 State of the State speech. Quinn didn’t use prepared remarks, instead relying on notes. It lasted 75 minutes (twice the length of Rauner’s Wednesday speech) and was decried by observers as rambling.
Quinn waited 45 minutes into his speech to talk about the state budget mess. (On Wednesday, Rauner waited until the final third of his speech to talk about the state’s budget mess.)
Quinn apparently learned a lesson: his budget speech in 2011 was 27 minutes long, and his 2012 State of the State address was just less than a half-hour.
*Buskers better than gunshots? Chicago’s ward-by-ward differences were on display Wednesday as aldermen debated a proposal to crack down on noisy street musicians on a couple of key downtown retail strips.
Although she didn’t vote against the measure, Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th, noted that there are worse problems in her West Side neighborhood, where the sounds of gunshots often can be heard.
“That’s what we’re dealing with,” Mitts said. “Which one would I rather have?”
Sponsoring downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, offered a response.
“I appreciate that,” he said, going on to list addressing violent crime as “the top priority for any officer in the Police Department.” Reilly then reiterated that the street performer noise downtown, where high-rises create noise-amplifying canyons, was a quality-of-life issue for his residents — a notion seconded by those who spoke at the meeting.
“I can’t tell you how much noise we’re dealing with,” resident Tom Callahan, who said he lives at Michigan Avenue and Randolph Street, told aldermen. “I don’t know how you would feel if I came to your neighborhood and started banging on buckets and started playing music at all hours of the evening. … I can’t even open the windows because the sound coming in from noise is overwhelming.” (Hal Dardick)
*More street musicians in below-ground CTA stations? While downtown Ald. Reilly aims to rid Michigan Avenue and State Street of street musicians, he’s all for them plying their trade underground.
As a City Council committee advanced his proposal to push the one-man bands, groups of “bucket boys” and solo saxophone players off the city’s two main retail corridors, Reilly said he and Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, plan to meet with the CTA about freeing up more subway space for the musicians.
“No one sets up a desk in the subway to work for six, seven or eight hours,” Reilly said, noting that many street musicians can be found in New York’s subways. “No one puts a bed down there to try to sleep, at least lawfully, for seven or eight hours. But people pass through these terminals — five, six minutes at a time. That amount of noise isn’t going to bother them in that brief interval.”
As noted in a “Getting Around” column by Tribune transportation reporter Mary Wisniewski, performers now are limited to three CTA stations, setting a high demand for those few spots. Part of the issue might be that most of Chicago’s public transit system is above ground — where noise issues might again come into play just as they have downtown (Hal Dardick)
What we’re writing
*Rauner budget speech: He’s open to income tax increase, expanding sales tax to some services, against tax increase on food, medicine, retirement income.
*That time Rauner’s teleprompter failed in the middle of his budget speech and Speaker Madigan made a joke about Russians.
*Emanuel keeps up Rauner attacks, this time on budget.
*City Council advances Emanuel’s Airbnb tweaks.
*Chicago street performer noise crackdown gains steam at City Council.
*Quinn loss: Federal judge rejects lawsuit demanding elected Chicago school board.
*Exelon competitors sue over state energy law.
*Cook County prosecutors drop cases against four men in 1995 double murder.
*Is Chicago’s downtown apartment construction boom nearing peak?
*Ex-Lake County coroner indicted for perjury over election signatures.
What we’re reading (Chicago’s unending violence edition)
*Chicago police: Suspect shot at 3 gang rivals, killing 11-year-old girl instead.
*Kanari Bowers, 12, dies — third child fatally shot in Chicago in past week.
*Driver shot to death on Lake Shore Drive at Fullerton.
*Three dead, two seriously wounded in shooting at Brighton Park home.
Follow the money
*Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here.
Beyond Chicago
*Trump Labor nominee Puzder drops out, dealing administration another early blow. Solution? Trump to hold Florida rally, get back out on stump.
*Trump moves away from two-state solution in Middle East peace.
*Trump blames leaks for Flynn ouster.
*Murder mystery: Who killed North Korean leader’s brother?
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