State: Budget deal coming together? | The Rock River Times

 

Several media outlets report a bipartisan group of lawmakers is working behind the scenes on a package of compromises that address reforms, spending and revenue.

Politico Illinois reports the compromise includes proposals for taxing retirement income over $50,000, allowing all school districts to bargain for 3rd party contracting, layoffs, class size, and more, and substantial workers compensation reforms along with property tax freezes.

Meanwhile, Crain’s Chicago Business reports a political consultant released proposals including suggested spending and budget reforms, business and regulatory reforms, revenue, local control and pension reform, among others.

Illinois is now more than four months into the current fiscal year and there’s still no budget.

ICPR to governor: Drop first hour of introductions

A group of civic and reform organizations are urging Illinois’ governor to drop the hour of introductory statements at next month’s meeting between the chief executive and legislative leaders.

The latest in a series of letters from the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform about the meeting, which has been postponed to December 1 in Springfield, urges the governor to quote “dispense with the hour of individual statements and proceed directly to a public and open discussion of the various comprehensive bipartisan budget proposals that have been recently released.”

The letter says the groups believe their requested approach will enable all participants to collectively discuss their priorities. The governor’s office said they had quote “no comment on this one.”

Unfunded mandates and government consolidations task force

A list of ten proposals to be considered Thursday during an Unfunded Mandates and Government Consolidation Task Force hearing features mergers, a constitutional amendment ending future unfunded mandates and more.

According to an agenda for the afternoon meeting in Springfield, task force members are expected to vote on proposals ranging from school consolidations, to merging downstate and suburban public safety pension funds, and merging certain general township and road and bridge districts. Other proposals include eliminating minimum manning from collective bargaining, using the federal definition for catastrophic injury for the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act and allowing arbitrators to use existing financial parameters of local government as a primary consideration during interest arbitration.

The task force was created by Governor Bruce Rauner and is chaired by Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti.

BGA: Consolidating governments will cut down on corruption

Consolidating some of the thousands of units of local government in Illinois can help cut down on corruption. That’s according to the Better Government Association, which plans to testify at Thursday’s Unfunded Mandates and Government Consolidation Task Force hearing. Andy Shaw of the Better Government Association tells WMAY Springfield the BGA plans on testifying on the issue because it’s critical to helping Illinois battle corruption.

“Every unit of government has an opportunity to engage in nepotism, cronyism, graft, corruption of one sort or another and it’s very hard to call it out because there are so many of them.”

Another barrier to government consolidation that Shaw says the state must overcome is the necessary legislative action allowing for mergers. Thursday’s meeting is the second-to-last meeting scheduled this year before a final report with recommendations is due to the governor.

Phelps and Rauner square off on Olive Branch

The governor’s office and a downstate Democratic representative are squaring off over a measure filed just this week to free up money from the Capital Development Fund.

Democratic Representative Brandon Phelps filed House Bill 4339 Tuesday he says would give $5 million dollars from the Capital Development Fund — a fund separate from the General Revenue Fund — to the Department of Natural Resources to help relocate residents from Olive Branch, a community rocked by floods four years ago. Phelps said Olive Branch residents aren’t just his constituents, they’re also Governor Bruce Rauner’s constituents.

Phelps says he’s simply fighting for his district: “I’m just doing this because I see things that are happening. Hardin County, I did this just because I heard the governor wants to shut it down by January the first. So I’m just doing everything I can, using every bullet in the gun so to speak.”

The Hardin County Work Camp is also in Phelps’s district and he filed a bill earlier this month that would keep the facility open. Phelps says he hopes targeting the work camp and holding relocation money isn’t political.

Governor Rauner’s office says Phelps is choosing to politicize a project Democrats failed to include in an out-of-balance budget. The governor’s office says the Olive Branch relocation project was included in two bills of Rauner’s introduced budget, neither of which were called for a vote in committee.

Above available on line at:  State: Budget deal coming together? | The Rock River Times

Ceroni Piping Co. construction postponed to summer - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

Posted Nov. 6, 2015 at 6:00 PM
Updated Nov 18, 2015 at 8:44 PM

 

By Adam Poulisse
Staff writer

Posted Nov. 6, 2015 at 6:00 PM
Updated Nov 18, 2015 at 8:44 PM

CHERRY VALLEY — Construction of a metal fabrication shop that would bring about 25 jobs to the area has been postponed until summer.

Ceroni Piping Co. is planning a $5.5 million, 25,000-square-foot warehouse at the intersection of U.S. 20 and Interstate 90 in Cherry Valley. It was originally scheduled to break ground this month. However, approval for a final plat that would allow President/CEO Steve Ceroni to subdivide and sell two lots — one 4 acres and the other 13 acres — on the property has taken longer than expected.

"It's somewhat disappointing," Ceroni said. "We were hoping to do something this fall. We understand it's all part of the approval process."

The plat received the last of eight required approvals by the Cherry Valley Village Board on Tuesday.

The delay was a result of presenting the final plat at meetings that were already scheduled, according to Natalie Hyser Barber, an attorney with Tobin & Ramon in Belvidere representing Ceroni.

Construction was also postponed to avoid doing work in inclement weather, Ceroni said.

The final plat requires eight signatures. Typically, a plat must be approved by the county engineer, county recorder, adjoining municipalities and a representative from the planning department, said Kathy Miller, interim planning director for Boone County.

"Every plat requires certain signatures," she said.

In June 2014, Ceroni Real Estate, a division of Ceroni Piping, closed a deal on almost 23 acres of farmland at 974 U.S. 20. The County Board in February approved a special use permit to allow outdoor storage.

On Oct. 21, the Boone County Board approved the final plat despite some concern from two board members.

District 3 board member Sherry Branson lives near the property. During the meeting, she referenced documents from Boone County Soil and Water Conservation District that stated the Illinois Geological Survey found the future business site is a high potential for aquifer contamination, and that it would be in the best interest of Boone County to require a groundwater protection plan.

"It concerns me because, I think, as a board we owe it to the neighbors to protect their wells," Branson said. "I would feel better about this if we had a ground water protection plan implemented and it was on file."

Barber told the board at the meeting that Ceroni has worked with the health department to ensure his proposed well and septic system is feasible.

Sheriff Dave Ernest said he didn't believe traffic was a concern for that expanding business district.

"We have accidents all over the county," he said. "I don't think this is any greater of an area than ... the areas that are connected to Bypass 20 as it drives through our county."

Ceroni Piping is the second-largest contractor in northwest Illinois between Belvidere and the Mississippi River, according to Register Star archives. It hires about 45 union members to do field work each year.

District 3 board member Ken Freeman said he had concerns about the traffic that area will generate.

"I'm all for business in Boone County," he told the board, "but that area ... is an accident waiting to happen, and I will not be supporting it."

Freeman and Branson voted against the plat.

Above is from:  Ceroni Piping Co. construction postponed to summer - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

An earlier RRStar piece on the Ceroni project is available at:  http://www.rrstar.com/article/20150403/NEWS/150409767/0/SEARCH

Workers to get UAW vote at Volkswagen plant in Tennessee - Yahoo News

 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday granted the United Auto Workers' petition for a union vote for skilled-trades workers at the German automaker's lone U.S. plant in Tennessee.

 

The workers responsible for maintaining and repairing machinery and robots at the Chattanooga facility are now scheduled to hold a two-day vote on representation by the United Auto Workers starting on Dec. 3.

There are about 162 skilled-trades workers at the plant, making up about 12 percent of the total blue-collar workforce. Volkswagen had argued that they shouldn't be allowed to negotiate union agreements separately from the remaining 1,200-member production team, and that the union was seeking to carve out a group of workers more likely to vote for the UAW after it lost an acrimonious election among all hourly employees on a 712-626 vote last year.

Volkswagen also questioned the timing of the effort to hold an election amid the fallout of the diesel emissions cheating scandal that has engulfed the company.

But the UAW argued that the maintenance workers share unique sets of interests, including enhanced electrical and mechanical skills and training requirements, varying shift schedules, and even different uniforms than their colleagues working in assembly, body welding or the paint shop.

Gary Casteel, the secretary-treasurer of the UAW, criticized Volkswagen for trying to block the vote by skilled-trades workers.

"Volkswagen's attempt to sidestep U.S. law was a waste of employees' time and energy, and a waste of government resources," Casteel said in a statement. "Looking ahead, our hope is that the company now will recommit to the values that made Volkswagen a great brand — environmental sustainability and true co-determination between management and employees."

Volkswagen Chattanooga spokesman Scott Wilson said the company is reviewing the decision and "considering its options."

Groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce decry efforts by unions seeking to create smaller collective bargaining units as being the labor equivalent of political gerrymandering, where the most favorable lines are drawn to gain entry into businesses where the total workforce might lean against union representation.

But recent NLRB decisions have gone in favor of such "micro units," including by cosmetics and fragrance workers at a Macy's department store in Massachusetts and certified nursing assistants at a nursing home in Alabama.

Former NLRB member John Raudabaugh, who was appointed by Republican President George H. W. Bush, said he disagrees with the move away from requiring "wall-to-wall" bargaining units for all workers. Should the Volkswagen maintenance workers succeed, they could gain undue influence at the plant, he said.

"If they don't get what they want, they could go on strike and shut down the whole facility," said Raudabaugh, a law professor at Ave Maria University.

The UAW has been thwarted for decades in its bid to represent workers at a foreign-owned auto plant in the South. The February 2014 vote at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga was seen as the union's best chance because of strong labor influence on the German automaker's board.

But anti-labor groups and Republican officials raised concerns that a successful union vote could hurt future expansion plans at the plant, imperil a lucrative state incentive package and dissuade other manufacturers and suppliers from investing in the state.

The UAW dismissed those statements as scare tactics, but was unable to stem the tide against the union in the election. Following that crushing loss, the union created Local 42 in Chattanooga to renew efforts to represent all blue-collar workers at the plant.

Richard Hurd, a labor relations professor at Cornell University said if the UAW is successful in gaining representation for the maintenance workers at Volkswagen, it may try a similar approach with other foreign autoworkers' plants in the region.

"It certainly would be a reasonable strategy for them if they want to use this as a way to try to gain a foothold," he said.

Workers to get UAW vote at Volkswagen plant in Tennessee - Yahoo News

Rauner reaches labor deals, but still in fight with AFSCMEThe Rock River Times | The Rock River Times

 

By Mark Fitton
Illinois News Network

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration on Wednesday announced it has reached new four-year deals with several trade unions, as well as with Service Employees International Union Local 1 of Chicago and the International Union of United Food and Commercial Workers.

More than 500 employees are covered under the new agreements, the governor’s staff said.

The governor’s office and the biggest state employees union — the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — offered very different takes on the significance of the new pacts.

The governor’s office said the new agreements mean Rauner, a first-term Republican from Winnetka, has so far reached agreements with 17 bargaining units that represent more than 5,000 state employees.

“These developments stand in stark contrast to the ongoing negotiations with AFSCME Council 31,” the governor’s office said in a news release.

“Despite being offered substantially the same material terms as the Teamsters and the Trades, AFSCME has to date rejected the governor’s chief proposals” the administration said.

The administration described AFSCME as being “on the opposite side of these negotiations from their own colleagues in organized labor.”

AFSCME said the governor’s office was using misleading and confrontational tactics and noted it and several other large unions still without contracts represent about 40,000 state employees, or the bulk of the workforce.

The issues in the trades talks and AFSCME negotiations are often quite different, AFSCME said, citing health insurance as one example.

“Because these (other) unions have independent health plans, their members have the option not to take state health insurance,” Council 31 said in its own statement.

Similarly, Council 31 said, trade union members pay “is typically set by the prevailing wage. Our union negotiates the health plan covering state and university employees and retirees, and bargains wage schedules for more than 500 job titles.”

Besides its health insurance offer, the governor’s office said AFSCME continues to reject or resist other items accepted by some or all of the other units, including a four-year wage freeze; a performance incentive program; a collaborative managed competition program; moving the overtime trigger to the common workplace benchmark of 40 hours; and a program to enable Illinois to address minority underutilization in state government.

AFSCME said the wage freeze coupled with increases in employee health costs, including doubled premiums, would severely hurt its members take-home pay.

Further, it argued the administration is “seeking to eliminate our contract’s safeguards against reckless privatization of public services and demanding a so-called ‘merit pay’ scheme that opens the door wide to cronyism by letting politically appointed bosses determine who gets a raise.”

The contracts for the state’s unionized employees expired at the end of June.

The administration and the unions without contracts have signed “tolling agreements,” in which both sides promise to stay at the bargaining table without threatening strike or lockout.

The agreements do not make a lockout or strike impossible, but the initiating party would have to declare talks are at an impasse, and the Illinois Labor Relations Board would examine that claim.

AFSCME and several other unions are also suing in St. Clair County Circuit Court in an attempt to lock in pay while the state operates without a budget, as well as to get medical claims paid, stop layoffs and retain certain raises during the budget standoff.

The Rauner administration has agreed to suspend planned layoffs while the matters are being litigated.

Healthcare workers await talks

Elsewhere, SEIU Healthcare reps say they’re still waiting for action from the governor.

“While we are happy for our sisters and brothers at SEIU Local 1,” said SEIU Healthcare Illinois President Keith Kelleher, “the fact remains that the state’s largest bargaining units, the 52,000 low-income Illinois home healthcare and child care workers of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, continue to work without a contract while Bruce Rauner presses extreme demands that would totally destabilize this workforce.”

SEIU Healthcare employees have been working without a contract since the end of June, and Kelleher says the governor has not negotiated in good faith with the group.

“For some reason, Rauner appears to be willing to single out SEIU Healthcare for demands harsher than the other units of government with whom he has reached a deal and all of which were able to keep their bargained-for health insurance—and their union voice.”

Rauner reaches labor deals, but still in fight with AFSCMEThe Rock River Times | The Rock River Times

Rockford Human Services Department announces warming centers - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

Posted Nov. 16, 2015 at 6:00 PM

ROCKFORD — The city of Rockford’s Human Services Department recently announced warming center hours for locations in Boone and Winnebago counties.

Locations in Winnebago County include the Winnebago County Justice Center, 650 W. State St., which will have its lobby open 24/7; and the Pecatonica Village Hall, 405 Main St., which is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

Locations in Boone County include the Salvation Army, 422 S. Main St., Belvidere, open from 9 to 11:45 a.m. and from 1 to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; and the Belvidere Public Safety Building, 615 N. Main St., which is open 24/7.

For complete list of locations and hours: 779-348-7170.

Rockford Human Services Department announces warming centers - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

U.S. attorney's office checking restaurants' ADA compliance - Chicago Tribune

 

The U.S. attorney's office in Chicago said Wednesday that it will begin checking if restaurants in the city and suburbs are complying with the American with Disabilities Act.

An initial group of restaurants in Chicago and the suburbs will be surveyed on their accessibility. It is not clear how those restaurants were selected, as calls to the U.S. attorney's office were not immediately returned.

Federal investigators may follow up with on-site inspections.

"The Americans with Disabilities Act is an important civil rights law," U.S. Attorney Zach Fardon said in a statement. "Restaurant owners must conform to its accessibility provisions, and we will pursue all reasonable measures to ensure compliance."

Noncompliant restaurant owners and operators will have the option to upgrade their facilities to meet ADA requirements, the U.S. attorney's office said. Those who do not comply may face a civil lawsuit and be subject to potential penalties and

U.S. attorney's office checking restaurants' ADA compliance - Chicago Tribune

Illinois leaders will meet in December - WSIL-TV 3 Southern Illinois

Posted: Nov 17, 2015 12:01 PM CST Updated: Nov 17, 2015 6:42 PM CST

By Jordan Maddox

Email

jmaddox@wsiltv.com

Illinois -

WSIL-- Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner  has rescheduled a meeting with the four legislative leaders to discuss the ongoing budget impasse. The meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 18, but will now take place on Dec. 1.

Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said the meeting has been rescheduled for Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.

"Out of respect for the Speaker's family obligations and to help facilitate the attendance of all four legislative leaders, we are rescheduling the meeting ... Our thoughts and prayers are with the Speaker and his family at this time," Kelly said through email.

The meeting will take place in the governor's office, where he and each leader will have a chance to speak for the first hour which will be live streamed to media outlets throughout the state.

In a press release, the governor's office said they will each have ten minutes to speak about whichever issue they feel most passionately about. One issue the governor plans to speak about is term limits.

The Republican Party has been strongly pushing the issue since January as a way to take down Madigan. The speaker has been a part of the legislature since 1971.

After each person has been given an opportunity to speak, a closed meeting will begin.

Illinois will be in its sixth month without a state budget by the time of the leaders' meeting.

Illinois leaders will meet in December - WSIL-TV 3 Southern Illinois