Wisconsin to Skip Debt Payments to Make Up for Walker’s Tax Cuts - Bloomberg Politics

 

Bloomberg) -- Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, facing a $283 million deficit that needs to be closed by the end of June, will skip more than $100 million in debt payments to balance the books thrown into disarray by his tax cuts.

The move comes as Walker, 47, mounts a 2016 bid for the Republican presidential nomination, and while his state is under stress from a projected shortfall that could exceed $2 billion in the two-year budget beginning in July.

Delaying the $108 million principal payment due in May on short-term debt would free funds. The move doesn’t require legislative approval, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau said in a Feb. 13 memorandum. The terms of the debt sale allow Wisconsin to defer the payment in any given year, a procedure known as a restructuring, without defaulting.

“They need some cash.”

Todd Berry

“They need some cash,” said Todd Berry, president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, a nonpartisan research group that examines taxes and government spending. “This is kicking the can down the road.”

A spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Administration said the state is taking advantage of “favorable short-term interest rates” for the restructuring.

“With these types of notes, the maturity schedule and amortization is determined solely by the state, unlike a traditional bond,” said Cullen Werwie.

Werwie also noted in an email that Walker’s predecessor, Democratic Governor Jim Doyle, “utilized similar financial tools.”

Increasing Bills

Walker’s plan would increase debt-service bills by $545,000 in the next budget year, which starts July 1, and by $18.7 million in the one after that.

Berry said Walker has little room to maneuver.

“That’s a lot of money to try to find in four-to-five months, if you do it through cuts,” Berry said.

Since taking office in 2011, Walker has steered more than $2 billion in tax cuts through the Republican-controlled legislature. The state reported a $759 million surplus on June 30, 2013

Wisconsin to Skip Debt Payments to Make Up for Walker’s Tax Cuts - Bloomberg Politics

Iowa school district passes on Belvidere's superintendent - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

By Ben Stanley

….On Tuesday, the School District's board of directors announced that Dirk Halupnik, superintendent of the Linn-Mar School District in Iowa, has accepted an offer to become Southeast Polk's new superintendent.

Houselog will remain the superintendent of Belvidere schools.

This is the third time since 2012 that Houselog has been passed over by a school district in Iowa after making it to the final round of interviews for an open superintendent position.

Houselog, a Dubuque native, interviewed with the Dubuque School District in 2012 and the Johnston School District, which is 10 miles northwest of Des Moines, in 2014

He has served as Belvidere School District’s superintendent since 2007 and has also worked as the superintendent of both North Boone School District, in Poplar Grove, and Carbon Cliff-Barstow Community School District in Barstow, Illinois.

Houselog told the Register Star last week that he has sought positions in Iowa so he and his wife can be closer to their daughter and granddaughter, who live near Des Moines

Read the entire article by clicking on the following:  Iowa school district passes on Belvidere's superintendent - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

Texas judge's immigration rebuke may be hard to challenge - Yahoo News

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration faces a difficult and possibly lengthy legal battle to overturn a Texas court ruling that blocked his landmark immigration overhaul, since the judge based his decision on an obscure and unsettled area of administrative law, lawyers said.

In his ruling on Monday that upended plans to shield millions of people from deportation, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen avoided diving into sweeping constitutional questions or tackling presidential powers head-on. Instead, he faulted Obama for not giving public notice of his plans.

The failure to do so, Hanen wrote, was a violation of the 1946 Administrative Procedure Act, which requires notice in a publication called the Federal Register as well as an opportunity for people to submit views in writing.

The ruling, however narrow, marked an initial victory for 26 states that brought the case alleging Obama had exceeded his powers with executive orders that would let up to 4.7 million illegal immigrants stay without threat of deportation.

"It's a very procedural point – that he did this too quickly," said Michael Kagan, a law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Hanen's ruling left in disarray U.S. policy toward the roughly 11 million people in the country illegally. Obama said on Tuesday he disagreed with the ruling and expected his administration to prevail in the courts.

The U.S. Justice Department was preparing an appeal of Hanen's temporary injunction to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, Obama said. The court could consider an emergency request to block Hanen's ruling, potentially within days, although most of the 23 judges on the court were appointed by Republican presidents.

There was no consensus among lawyers with expertise in administrative law and immigration law on whether Hanen would be reversed on appeal. But they said the judge was wise to focus on an area of administrative law where legal precedent is sometimes fuzzy.

In the near term, the narrow approach allowed Hanen to issue a temporary injunction barring federal agencies from putting Obama's plans into place. An appointee of President George W. Bush, Hanen had previously criticized U.S. immigration enforcement as too lax.

BRAKE ON PRESIDENTIAL ACTION

Hanen's ruling turned on the Administrative Procedure Act's requirement that a proposed rule or regulation appear in the Federal Register so people have a chance to comment. The Federal Register is a daily journal of U.S. government proceedings.

The "notice and comment" requirement acts as a brake on all presidents, slowing their plans by months or years.

The requirement, though, does not apply to "interpretative rules" or general statements of policy, an exception that Justice Department lawyers said applied to Obama's announcement in November. Rules that must be submitted for notice and comment are sometimes known as "legislative rules."

For Hanen, the pivotal question became whether the new rules, such as granting work permits to potentially millions of illegal immigrants, was binding on federal agents or merely general guidance. He ruled that they were binding, and that Obama should have allowed for notice and comment.

Lawyers with expertise in administrative law said there was little guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court on what qualifies as a rule that needs to be published, leaving disagreement among lower courts and a grey area for Hanen to work in.

"The case law as to what qualifies as a legislative rule is remarkably unclear," said Anne Joseph O'Connell, a University of California Berkeley law professor.

LENGTHY PROCESS LOOMS

O'Connell said it was hard to predict how the appeals court would rule in the end, although she thought it was likely the court would lift Hanen's temporary injunction and allow the Obama administration to begin putting its program in place.

The subject is not strictly partisan, she said, because sometimes a liberal interest group might favor a strict requirement for notice and comment.

An appeal before the 5th Circuit could take months, as lawyers file written briefs and the court holds oral argument and comes to a decision.

The appeals court could also consider other questions, such as whether the states that brought the lawsuit had what is known as standing to sue or whether Obama violated the clause of the U.S. Constitution that requires presidents to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed."

There is no chance Obama would begin the notice-and-comment period now, because U.S. immigration policy would be frozen in place during the lengthy process, said Peter Margulies, an immigration expert at Roger Williams University School of Law in Rhode Island.

He said it could delay Obama's policy for "a minimum of six to eight months, and potentially much longer."

Texas judge's immigration rebuke may be hard to challenge - Yahoo News

Rauner's budget: No new taxes, deep cuts — clashes likely | Chicago

Gov. Bruce Rauner is poised to deliver his first budget address on Wednesday, a blueprint for deep spending cuts across state government that fellow Republicans say will signal “the party’s over” for Democrats’ “voracious spending habits.”

But with no tax increase proposals expected, Rauner could be setting the stage for a fight with Democrats who say “tough medicine” alone won’t cure the state’s financial cancer.

“I said 10 days ago that I don’t think you can cut your way out of the problem,” House Speaker Michael Madigan told reporters after meeting with Rauner on Tuesday afternoon. “I think you need some additional revenue. And that’ll be my position [Wednesday].”

The expected cuts may well be deep given what’s on the table.

While some of Rauner’s budget recommendations will preserve funding to child-related services, even the troubled Department of Children and Family Services will be targeted for reductions, according to a source with knowledge of the governor’s budget. The agency played an unusually high-profile role in Rauner’s campaign against Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn.

Rauner wants to cut off services for former foster care children who have passed the age of 18, the source said.

News of that recommendation already drew the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has longstanding legal battles with the state and its child welfare agency.

“For us to essentially throw them out on the street at age 18, if that’s what the governor is going to propose, is just plain cruel,” said Benjamin Wolf, associate legal director of the ACLU of Illinois. “If you want to increase homelessness and suffering, abandoning them at age 18 is a good place to start.”

Child-related funding that was spared the budget ax includes early childhood education. The governor wants to increase state support by $25.3 million. He also wants to continue funding for the All Kids health care program, including for undocumented children, and leave intact health and human services programs for children of immigrants.

That means continued medical coverage, access to child care and access to education, according to the source.

But the few available details of Rauner’s carefully protected budget address once again left people around the Capitol scratching their heads — wondering how the math would add up. Rauner met Tuesday afternoon with Madigan and other legislative leaders.

Afterward, Madigan said he doesn’t expect Rauner to propose any tax increases.

“The governor simply said that he’s got some tough medicine to deliver tomorrow,” Madigan said. “He understands that some people will not be happy, but he’s committed to reforming the finances of the state.”

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, also said Rauner’s budget does not seek a tax increase nor any new debt.

“For all practical purposes, the party’s over,” Durkin said. “We’re going to reverse the voracious spending habits of the past. There’s going to be cuts in all areas of government. . . . We will for the first time have a truly balanced budget.”

After the meeting with the governor and other leaders, Durkin said it became clear the governor will seek emergency legislative authority to move money from within designated state government funds to cover at least part of the budget hole for this year.

“He spent a great deal of time talking about resolving the imbalance of this year’s budget, 2015. That needs to be resolved quickly,” Durkin said.

But Democrats insisted cuts alone won’t do it for the new budget.

“People think we hadn’t made any cuts, and we have. Are there some things that we shouldn’t be spending money on? Absolutely. But it’s not that huge that it would make that big of a difference,” said state Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates, chairman of the Appropriations Committee for General Services.

“I don’t see how Rauner can pass anything without some revenue,” he said.

Rauner’s budget address comes two weeks after the newly elected governor unveiled an incredibly ambitious agenda in his State of the State speech. And Democrats wondered aloud then how he would pay for proposals such as new investments in education and the hiring of more correctional officers.

Those proposals came from the same person who has used words such as  “stunningly bad,” “horrible” and “death spiral” to describe the state’s finances.

That’s the challenge Rauner has faced as he continues to shift from campaigning to governing. He blasted the state’s political establishment for causing Illinois’ current fiscal mess during the bruising race for his office.

But now he’s the governor of a state in economic shambles — and it’s time for tough decisions.

For example, Rauner criticized Quinn during the campaign over the state of DCFS. That criticism was based on a series of Sun-Times/WBEZ reports analyzing DCFS deaths dating back to 2003.

“Gov. Rauner is committed to ensuring the most vulnerable children of Illinois are cared for and receive the help that they need,” spokeswoman Catherine Kelly has said. “He looks forward to proposing a responsible budget to turn around the agency.”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has also weighed in. The Democrat sent a letter pleading with his longtime friend, the governor, to keep alive a subsidized day care program that’s $300 million short of the cash it needs to operate through mid-year. Emanuel warned that 32,000 Chicago families and 56,000 children would be affected if it shuts down.

Rauner will propose his budget after taking office with the state facing a budget hole in the $5 billion to $6 billion range, a $100 billion pension shortfall and a pension reform law in legal limbo.

His speech also comes against the backdrop of an escalating conflict between the governor and organized labor.

After his Jan. 12 swearing-in, Rauner painted a dismal picture of Illinois and called for shared sacrifice to create a more prosperous future.

“We must accept the challenge and the sacrifice, knowing it will lead us to something greater,” he said then.

Rauner's budget: No new taxes, deep cuts — clashes likely | Chicago