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Slated candidates get win after Pritzker-signed election law deemed unconstitutional

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Deception, Elections, Ethics, Girlie man, Illinois State Board of Elections, Look For The Union Label, Organizations, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield, Unions on June 5, 2024| 1 Comment »

By Catrina Petersen | The Center Square

A Sangamon County Circuit Court judge made a temporary injunction permanent, finding that enforcing a recently signed law that eliminates “slating” for General Assembly races in the 2024 election is unconstitutional.

Last month, the Illinois General Assembly gutted and replaced a child welfare bill with changes to election law. They prohibited the slating of candidates for the November general election ballot if that candidate did not run in the March primary. Within three days of the idea surfacing and passing both chambers, Gov. J.B. Pritzker enacted the measure.

Some candidates looking for ballot access in November didn’t run in the primary for their district. Leslie Collazo, seeking to take on incumbent state Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, said she didn’t realize there wasn’t a Republican running the in primary until it was too late. When Pritzker enacted the law while she was preparing to file her petitions to be slated, she said she felt “cheated.”

Candidates then sued and a Sangamon County judge issued a preliminary injunction pending final judgement. A hearing in the case was held Monday, the same day candidates had as a deadline to file petitions to be slated for the November ballot. Wednesday, final judgement was issued for the plaintiffs.

“The General Assembly could make the revisions effective for the next election, rather than in the midst of the current election,” said Judge Gail Noll. “Everyone would then be on notice that, in General Assembly races, when there was no candidate for the nomination of the party in the primary, no candidate of that party for that office can be listed on the ballot at the general election.”

Noll further said: “The revisions to [state law] are unconstitutional as applied to Plaintiffs in the November 2024 general election because the application of the amendment to Plaintiffs during the 2024 election cycle impermissibly burdens their right to vote and to have their names placed on the November ballot.”

Read more here.

Related: “‘Anti-democracy’ law blocked: GOP candidates win court order stopping Dems from using new law to keep them off ballot,” “Editorial: State lawmakers in Springfield pass bill to cut off competition in 78 races,” “Candidates feel ‘cheated, violated, robbed’ after Pritzker enacts law ending slating,” “Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs election bill that would favor Democrats in November,” “(With cheshire grins) Democrats muscle through changes to ballot access, advisory questions”

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Editorial: A balanced state budget. But hardly Springfield Democrats’ finest hour.

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Commodius Maximus, Deception, Elections, Ethics, Look For The Union Label, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, Unions on June 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Rain clouds form above the Illinois Capitol on May 8, 2024, in Springfield. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD | Chicago Tribune

Here’s the good news: Illinois lawmakers under Gov. J.B. Pritzker passed a balanced budget for the sixth straight year, protecting the state’s credit rating and continuing the relative fiscal stability that’s been consistent since the chaotic years of the Gov. Bruce Rauner-Speaker Mike Madigan political wars.

That’s about it for the good stuff, though. The bad — or at least worrying — news is that lawmakers approved more than $1 billion in new revenues to plug a shortfall for the coming fiscal year and to finance more spending for a wide variety of projects and programs. The budget the House sent to Pritzker in the wee hours Wednesday after a tumultuous night that made sausage-making look good by comparison strikes us as imprudent. The philosophy, if one can be gleaned from chaos, is spend what you can get your mitts on today and worry about tomorrow when it comes.

That’s akin to how some teenagers of our acquaintance think about money. But state leaders are supposed to be the grown-ups, led by the governor, guiding Illinois through what continues to be choppy fiscal waters. The grade we would give this year’s $53.1 billion budget is a C-minus, and that’s generous.

Why? Pritzker and fellow Democrats turned to an unusually wide array of cat-and-dog revenue raisers, aimed at keeping income taxes level for individuals. They included reducing how quickly businesses can write off their net operating losses from the pandemic era, sharply higher taxes on sports betting companies, a cap on the allowance retailers get for collecting and remitting sales taxes (more on that Monday), a new tax on firms that reserve and re-rent blocks of hotel rooms and more. That random assortment is the state-budget equivalent of looking under the couch cushions.

Even some Democrats are growing alarmed at the spending. As lawmakers were preparing to leave Springfield last week, Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates, warned that next year’s budget is likely to feature yet another revenue shortfall, and that’s before lawmakers have to worry about coming train wrecks like the $700 million-plus funding cliff for Chicago public transit agencies. With Springfield having blown its wad on relatively “painless” revenue raisers this year, Crespo said, “There’s really only one place we can look at getting these revenues, and that’s taxpayers.”

Of course, this year is an election year for state lawmakers. Next year isn’t. Watch your wallets, Illinoisans.

Editorial continues here.

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Illinois’ new budget ends statewide grocery tax

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Politics, Springfield, Taxes on May 29, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The new state budget eliminates the 1% grocery tax, placing Illinois with 37 other states by 2026. But the bill gives municipalities the option to implement their own tax without voter approval.

By Kurtis Karg | Illinois Policy

Illinois lawmakers are putting an end to the 1% statewide grocery tax as part of the $53.1 billion state budget for fiscal year 2025.

But city leaders might be bringing it right back.

The change doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1, 2026. Local governments will be able to institute their own 1% tax either on groceries or a local sales tax without holding a referendum.

Eliminating the grocery tax had municipal leaders complaining it would hurt their budgets. State leaders were not giving anything up with the change because the tax only went to local governments. The option for municipalities to add their own tax was a compromise.

Illinois will finally join the other 37 states that don’t have a state grocery tax. It was the only state among the 10 most populated with a grocery tax.

More here.

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Illinois General Assembly oks $1.1B in tax hikes for record $53.1B spending

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Illinois Policy Institute, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, Unions on May 29, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Illinois state lawmakers’ spending plans came in $410 million higher than what Gov. J.B. Pritzker originally proposed. Taxpayers will be forced to pay $1.1 billion more so Illinois can spend record amounts in fiscal year 2025.

By Bryce Hill | Illinois Policy Institute

Members of the Illinois General Assembly managed to take Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s record $52.7 billion budget proposal and boost it into a $53.1 billion spending plan, which also required them to take his $898 million in new taxes and hike them to $1.1 billion.

Those tax hikes were what reportedly delayed lawmakers, who originally anticipated passing the state budget and adjourning their spring session by May 24. Pushback from Democratic members on aspects of the various tax hike proposals delayed adjournment until May 29. An hour of debate at 1 a.m. was followed by a 65-45 (7 abstaining) House vote that sent the 3,300-plus page budget to the governor.

Despite $1.1 billion in tax hikes and record spending, the 2025 budget continues Illinois’ long-standing tradition of failing to make an actuarially sufficient pension payment. Appropriations to the five statewide pension funds will fall $4.5 billion below what the plans’ own actuaries have determined is required to actually begin paying off the state’s pension debt.

Lawmakers ultimately chose not to include Pritzker’s plan to extend Illinois’ pension funding ramp by through 2048 in order to increase the state’s funding target from 90% to 100%. Illinois’ pension systems should be targeting 100% funding to be fully funded. In addition to continuing to target a lower funding ratio, the budget ignores the basic fact Illinois’ pension contributions, while statutorily sufficient, remain insufficient on an actuarial basis – meaning they won’t meet real-world needs.

The state’s funding schedule will not contribute above current actuarially determined contribution levels until 2039, but that figure will climb each year the state fails to make an actuarially sufficient payment. In fiscal year 2023, actuarially determined contributions were less than $14.9 billion, more than $1.1 billion below today’s actuarially determined contribution.

Revenue changes

Most notably, the approved budget implements a series of tax hikes that are expected to cost Illinoisans an additional $1.037 billion in 2025. Taxes paid to local governments will also increase by an estimated $120 million because of the changes.

Read more here.

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‘Anti-democracy’ law blocked: GOP candidates win court order stopping Dems from using new law to keep them off ballot

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Deception, Elections, Ethics, Illinois State Board of Elections, Look For The Union Label, Organizations, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield, Taxes, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)? on May 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch | Youtube screenshot

By Jonathan Bilyk | Cook County Record

A group of Republican candidates have secured a court order blocking the state from enforcing a new law they say unconstitutionally changed the state’s election rules in the middle of the 2024 election cycle, with the intent of keeping Republican candidates from challenging Democratic lawmakers in November.

On May 22, Sangamon County Circuit Judge Gail Noll granted a preliminary injunction in the lawsuit brought by four Chicago area state legislative candidates, challenging the law known as Senate Bill 2412.

The plaintiffs and other critics have called SB2412 “anti-democracy” claiming it wrongly allows the state’s powerful Democratic Party to block Republican challengers from being placed on the ballot for the upcoming fall 2024 elections and prevents voters from having a real choice.

“We applaud the Court’s decision to uphold the rule of law and support voting rights for all people in Illinois,” said Jeffrey Schwab, attorney at the Liberty Justice Center, of Chicago, who represented the plaintiffs. “We look forward to continuing to defend these fundamental rights in court and will be pressing forward to ensure the preliminary injunction becomes permanent.”

The lawsuit was filed May 11 in Sangamon County Circuit Court in Springfield by prospective Republican state legislative candidates Leslie Collazo, Daniel Behr, James Kirchner and Carl Kunz.

Read more here.

Related: “Editorial: State lawmakers in Springfield pass bill to cut off competition in 78 races,” “Candidates feel ‘cheated, violated, robbed’ after Pritzker enacts law ending slating,” “Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs election bill that would favor Democrats in November,” “(With cheshire grins) Democrats muscle through changes to ballot access, advisory questions”

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Pritzker squeezes Democratic legislators: support tax hikes or expect cuts – Wirepoints

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Elections, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, Unions, Wirepoints on May 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

By Ted Dabrowski | Wirepoints

If you’ve been in Illinois long enough to go through a school district tax hike referendum, you’ll understand what’s going on right now as state lawmakers prepare to vote on the 2025 state budget.

In those tax hike referendums, local residents are often faced with threats from school administrators that go something like this: Support the multi-million property tax increase or else face cuts to popular activities including art, music and sports. The tactic works, as all too often voters give in to the false choice. (Real spending reforms, like cutting administrative bloat, are never offered.)

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is doing a version of that right now with state lawmakers who don’t agree with the nearly $1 billion in tax hikes he’s put into his proposed $52.7 billion budget. The governor wants to hike sports betting taxes by $200 million. He’s pushing for another $500 million from tax hikes on companies. And there’s another $93 million tax hike on ordinary residents. The governor is not allowing the individual income tax standard deduction to fully rise with inflation.

To get his way, the governor, via his proxy Sen. Andy Manar, has sent out a letter to his agencies and lawmakers that effectively says “vote for the tax hikes or I’ll cut your district’s grants by $800 million.” Those are grants in the budget, typically of several million dollars, that lawmakers get for their districts to butter up their voter base. If those grants get cut, those lawmakers can become targets. As the Belleville-News Democrat reported: “While Manar’s letter was addressed to “Agency Directors,” it was just as much a message to rank-and-file lawmakers – particularly those within the supermajority Democratic party.”

Pritzker has given his Democratic allies the same false choice that school district officials often give their residents. You choose. Tax hikes or cuts to popular programs.

Where’s the harmony we’ve seen in Springfield for the last five years, you ask? That harmony was never real, but rather the result of the nearly $200 billion in covid aid that flowed into Illinois’ private and public sectors over the last three years. The windfall tax revenues into the state’s coffers gave Pritzker and his Democratic supermajority huge freedom to spend and harmonize. It’s what allowed the budget to jump from just $40 billion in 2019 to over $52 billion today.

(Click on graphic to enlarge)

More here.

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IL Dems unconstitutionally changed election rules to block Republican candidates from fall ballot, lawsuit says

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Deception, Elections, Ethics, Illinois State Board of Elections, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield on May 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Senate President Don Harmon (left), Gov. JB Pritzker (center) and House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch (right) | Office of the Governor

By Jonathan Bilyk | Cook County Record

Saying the law unconstitutionally rewrites the rules of Illinois elections in the middle of the election cycle, a group of prospective Republican General Assembly candidates have become the first to challenge a controversial new “anti-democracy” elections law, rushed through the state legislature by the state’s Democratic supermajority in less than two days, which could block a number of Republican candidates from running against Democratic incumbents throughout the state.

On May 11, prospective Republican state legislative candidates Leslie Collazo, Daniel Behr, James Kirchner and Carl Kunz all filed suit against the Illinois State Board of Elections, individual members of the ISBE, and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

Those state officials are targeted as defendants for procedural reasons.

The real target of the lawsuit is the new law, generally known as Senate Bill 2412.

The Democratic supermajority in the Illinois General Assembly enacted the legislation in less than 48 hours in early May. The law was then signed by Gov. JB Pritzker, also a Democrat, on May 3. It took effect immediately.

Democrats accomplished the normally impossible legislative feat by using a longstanding, but increasingly controversial legislative tactic derisively known as “gut and replace.”

Ordinarily, the Illinois state constitution forbids lawmakers in the state House and Senate from approving new laws unless the proposed legislation has received “readings” in each house of the General Assembly on three separate days in each house.

However, lawmakers have long used legislative tricks to sidestep those requirements.

Read more here.

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The DNC Is Preparing for the Worst in Chicago — Without the Help of the City’s Mayor

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Elections, Politics, Preckwinkle's Rules of Order, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Unions on May 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

As Democrats plan their convention, they’ll have to address the elephant in the room: How to mitigate the threat of disruptions and work with a rookie mayor who unabashedly sympathizes with the protesters.

By JONATHAN MARTIN | POLITICO

CHICAGO — President Joe Biden’s top advisers are all too aware the ghosts of 1968 may haunt their convention here, but they’re grappling with a pair of more urgent and thoroughly modern-day challenges as summer nears: How far can they go in reprising their virtual 2020 convention to mitigate the threat of disruption inside the arena, and how will they navigate a rookie mayor who unabashedly sympathizes with protesters?

Trumpeting the success of their Covid-era convention four years ago, some in Biden’s orbit are aggressively pushing to make the 2024 conclave a hybrid production. That would mean in-person speeches from the president, party luminaries and rising stars to draw television attention alongside a mix of pre-recorded testimonials and videos from other parts of the country.

The goal: drive maximum viewership on television and the internet while minimizing live programming and openings for protest in Chicago’s United Center. This would mean moving party business, such as rules and platform votes, off the floor and denying would-be demonstrators a chance to seize on contentious debates.

While the Biden campaign, White House and convention planners have only just started hatching plans, senior Democrats tell me they’re discussing whether to conduct such business before the convention even begins or move it out of the arena and across town to McCormick Place, their other Chicago venue. Serendipitously, Biden’s advisers may have a very good reason to move up such housekeeping: If the Ohio Legislature does not relax its ballot certification deadline, which is before the Democrats’ August convention, the DNC may have no choice but to technically nominate the president before the conclave begins.

Also under consideration for Chicago: reviving the pre-taped delegation roll call from each state featured in 2020.

Not only were the clips memorable — who could forget the Rhode Island chef standing on a state beach with a plate of calamari — but a video montage also means one less opportunity for hot mic spontaneity, and therefore disruption, from 50 states and territories worth of delegates.

Read more here.

Related: “Editorial: Democrats are nervous about the city and its mayor. Will the DNC really be ‘live from Chicago’?” – Chicago Tribune

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Editorial: State lawmakers in Springfield pass bill to cut off competition in 78 races

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Deception, Ethics, Girlie man, Illinois Policy Institute, Illinois State Board of Elections, Look For The Union Label, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, Unions, WTF on May 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Why did SB 2412 need to pass on May 2, in the middle of the election cycle, weeks after the primary election but still well ahead of the November general election? Many candidates had already started the complicated process of petition gathering and paperwork under the old rules. What justifies changing those rules in the middle of the game?

By Hilary Gowins | Illinois Policy Institute

Who’s afraid of a little competition? In Illinois politics, the answer seems to be: Incumbent state lawmakers.

To that end, just weeks after the primary, Springfield legislators passed a bill to protect incumbents from the threat of newcomers in the current election cycle. The measure affects races in 78 districts, which will not be contested in November.

How does all of this work? As political writer Rich Miller of Capitol Fax summarized, aspiring political candidates used to have three routes to get on the ballot:

“1) They can circulate petitions and run in the primary; 2) They can run as write-in candidates during the primary; or 3) They can wait until after the primary and be appointed to the ballot by local party chairs, or committeepersons in Cook County, after passing petitions.”

Senate Bill 2412 changed that by eliminating the third option, which allows candidates to get access to the ballot through party officials – a process called “slating.” Candidates using the slating process were still required to go through the regular petition and paperwork requirements to get on the ballot, but if they were in a district with no primary opponent, slating made it possible to get on the ballot for the general election.

Why does this matter? As Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, pointed out, anyone who wants to run after the primary can still do so as an Independent or third-party candidate. “They would no longer be able to appeal to the local party bosses to have them installed as the candidate of a major political party.”

Fair point. As bill sponsor state Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, noted, slating was a favorite tool of disgraced former House Speaker Mike Madigan. On the other hand, fair rules that give people a choice of candidates at the ballot is a good thing.

But why now? Why did SB 2412 need to pass on May 2, in the middle of the election cycle, weeks after the primary election but still well ahead of the November general election? Many candidates had already started the complicated process of petition gathering and paperwork under the old rules. What justifies changing those rules in the middle of the game?

Those questions led four Democrats to oppose the bill. State Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, D-Chicago, was one of them.

“That’s problematic for me because as an elected official in Illinois, I’m constantly trying to rebuild trust in Illinois government and politics that many of the people I represent…don’t have,” she said to Capitol News Illinois.

Now, 66 House districts won’t be contested. And in the Senate, 12 districts face no competition.

Read more here.

Related: “Candidates feel ‘cheated, violated, robbed’ after Pritzker enacts law ending slating,” “Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs election bill that would favor Democrats in November,” “(With cheshire grins) Democrats muscle through changes to ballot access, advisory questions”

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Don’t fall for the “progressive-income-tax-for-property-tax-relief” referendum

Posted in Barrington Education Association, BOHICA, Commodius Maximus, Deception, Ethics, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, Unions, Wirepoints on May 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints

“Should the Illinois Constitution be amended to create an additional 3% tax on income greater than $1,000,000 for the purpose of dedicating funds raised to property tax relief?”

That’s the wording of a new advisory referendum that will be on the November ballot. The referendum question is just one part of a contentious bill that changed several election laws and was rapidly passed by a supermajority of Democrats this week.

While the referendum might end up being nothing more than a political distraction, it could also be that lawmakers are gauging Illinoisans’ appetite for another bite at a progressive income tax hike – this time with lower property taxes as a sweetener.

The problem with a tax swap like the one proposed is it would do nothing to lower Illinoisans’ overall tax burden, already the nation’s 7th-highest. Expect Illinoisans to continue to leave, and for the wealthy to leave even faster if they eventually become a target of such a law.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Here’s what Illinoisans should know before voting on this advisory referendum:

In the end, the proposal totally ignores the cost drivers that continuously push Illinois taxes higher, which is the real problem that ultimately needs fixing. Like the overwhelming power of Illinois’ public unions and their rapidly rising contract costs. Or the guaranteed, multi-million dollar lifetime pensions that keep rising as government salaries jump (see CTU). Or the number of local government units in Illinois, the most-in-the-country, which continue to bloat.

For one, the proposal would change Illinois’ current flat income tax structure into a progressive tax structure. The proposal would create two tax brackets: taxpayer incomes up to $1 million would be taxed at 4.95%. Every dollar above $1 million would be taxed at a marginal rate of 7.95%.

If that sounds familiar, that’s because it is.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker already tried to get a progressive income tax hike passed in 2020, but Illinoisans rejected the governor’s “Fair Tax” amendment 55 to 45 percent. Illinoisans simply didn’t trust lawmakers to not hit the middle class with higher marginal tax rates.

Read on here.

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