Union leaders use City Council hearing to bash Gov. Rauner's right-to-work zones | Chicago

 

Two weeks ago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel flatly declared that, “As long as I’m mayor, Chicago will not be a right-to-work city.”

On Tuesday, union leaders who helped the mayor get re-elected added an exclamation point at the end of that sentence.

They turned a City Council hearing on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed right-to-work zones into a bash Rauner fest that was so lopsided, it was over in 35 minutes.

They argued that right-to-work zones that limit prevailing wages and workers’ compensation laws and eliminate project labor agreements would reduce annual employee income by 6 percent, with minorities suffering most, and increase workplace deaths by 53 percent.

They poked holes in the governor’s claim that his “turnaround agenda” would put more people to work, noting that seven of 11 states with the highest unemployment rates are right-to-work states.

“Let’s turn around Gov. Rauner’s turnaround agenda, because after all, right-to-work is nothing more than right to work for less for all working people in the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago,” said Don Finn, business manager of IBEW Local 134.

James Ellis, business manager for Laborers Union Local 1001, added, “Right-to-work doesn’t work. It has never worked. Right-to-work works for who? Corporate America.”

Dan Allen serves as executive director of the Construction Industry Service Corporation. That’s an organization representing 6,000 union contractors and 140,000 members of the building trades in Northeastern Illinois.

“Gov. Rauner’s turnaround agenda is an attack on the entire middle class . . . It is an attempt to unfairly demonize working people as the cause of the state’s financial woes. It is a slick, divisive, deceptive, well-packaged campaign that will have a detrimental effect on our city and state’s economy and greatly weaken already-struggling middle class families,” Allen said.

“It is a law to rob us of both our civil rights and job rights. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and freedom of collective bargaining, by which unions have improved wages and working conditions for everyone. Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer and there are no civil rights.”

After the hearing, Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), the Emanuel floor leader who chairs the Committee on Workforce Development, said he finds it hard to believe that right-to-work will become little more than a bargaining chip for the rookie governor.

“I’m not quite sure what the strategy is because this was part of the campaign. This was part of his inauguration message. If one thinks that what he’s set forth as a premise all along was always meant to just be a bargaining chip, I think that’s a stretch,” O’Connor said.

“I think he truly believes that this is something the state should engage in. His past practices in terms of his business would indicate that this is a true belief — not a bargaining chip,” he said. “But it may become a bargaining chip when they find that they can’t accomplish what it is they really set out to try and do.”

O’Connor didn’t miss a beat when asked about people in job-starved, inner-city neighborhoods who believe Rauner when he says he can create jobs, if only union shackles were removed.

“What do you say to people who already have these jobs who own homes, who pay taxes and tuitions for their children who will then be out of a job or making less money?” O’Connor said.

“Shouldn’t we all be about creating more good-paying jobs as opposed to saying `I can offer you a whole bunch of half-jobs, but I can’t offer you a good job?’ Clearly, that’s what the governor’s offer is.”

In an emailed statement, Catherine Kelly, Rauner’s press secretary, wrote: “The Turnaround Agenda is about empowering local communities and voters to have greater control over the costs inside government and their ability to compete for more jobs. If Chicago doesn’t want to compete and drive value for taxpayers, that shouldn’t prevent other communities from having that right.”

Union leaders use City Council hearing to bash Gov. Rauner's right-to-work zones | Chicago

Gov. Bruce Rauner plans to restore about $26 million in grant cuts - Chicago Tribune

 

The move comes after weeks of hearings by Democratic lawmakers to put a continued public focus on the cuts, which the Rauner administration made quietly on Good Friday ahead of the Easter holiday weekend. Democrats contended the $26 million in trims went above and beyond an earlier agreement to cut $300 million and sweep special funds in an effort to close a $1.6 billion shortfall in the budget year that ends June 30.

Rauner administration officials countered they were upfront about the possibility that more cuts might be needed. The spending plan the Republican governor inherited in January was out of whack after Democrats last year approved a budget that didn't have enough money to pay for 12 months of state government services.

Now the legislature's bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability says an additional $300 million to $500 million in tax revenue is expected to roll in above previous forecasts, largely because Illinois' economy is performing better. Dan Long, the agency's executive director, said the money is a "one-time" bump made available after tax returns were filed, and it appears to be the result of capital gains from the stock market performing better than expected.

Here's how that windfall is expected to impact the state budget situation:

 

•The Rauner administration says it plans to use some of the money to restore the $26 million in Good Friday cuts. Aides said providers should see the money within the next month, but not before some programs had to shut down completely, including the state hotline to help smokers who want to quit. Autism treatment programs and one to cover the costs of burying the poor are among those in line to have their funding restored.

•The additional money means no further cuts are likely in the current budget year that ends June 30, Rauner aides said.

 

•Staying in place will be the $300 million in cuts the Rauner administration and state lawmakers agreed to in late March to fix the current budget. Rauner aides said the cuts will be made because the administration wants to be flexible should other unexpected shortfalls arise. They also say the administration wants to whittle away at a more than $6 billion backlog in unpaid bills.

That means the budget ax still will fall on the state's Monetary Award Program scholarship, which lost $8.4 million, resulting in 3,000 fewer students receiving tuition help. Domestic violence shelters will lose $419,300 and a program for expectant parents will lose $225,900. In addition, the sickle cell center at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System faces a $500,000 funding cut, while Medicaid health care providers for the poor also face deep rate cuts.

•Looking ahead, the state budget that lawmakers and the governor are trying to craft by the end of May is short by more than $6 billion. Rauner is pushing deep cuts but has indicated he could be open to new taxes if lawmakers make accompanying changes to things like workers' compensation or curbing union powers.

Gov. Bruce Rauner plans to restore about $26 million in grant cuts - Chicago Tribune

Committee finds gaps in Boone County's mental health resources - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

BELVIDERE — Supervising a transitional halfway house, expanding transportation services, and increasing the number of Spanish-language resources are three of six ways a mental health advisory committee says Boone County could fill gaps found in its mental health coverage.

After an 18-month assessment of health care providers, support groups and counseling centers, the Boone County Mental Health Advisory Committee found few health care providers and limited treatment options available in the county to residents suffering from mental illness. The committee was formed in 2013 to analyze the area's mental health resources.

The committee described six needs in a draft of its report: faster and better mental illness assessment, more providers and hospital beds, more transportation services, more Spanish-language resources, a halfway house for supported supervision, and a referral service. Children, Spanish-speakers and people without health insurance suffer from a "severe shortage" of mental health resources, according to the report.

Many of Boone County's mentally ill are evaluated for the first time at the county jail after they have already been arrested for behavior triggered by their diseases, the report said.

"We have people that come in with various forms of mental illness," said Lt. John Hare, a committee member and Boone County Jail superintendent. "There is some degree of likelihood that if they had not been suffering from that (illness), then they would not" have been arrested.

"It’s fairly common." 

Assessment results and several recommendations will be presented to the County Board within the next three months. The cost of implementing those recommendations has not been determined.

Bill Hatfield, director of environmental health for the county health department, said the agency doesn't have the resources to keep track of mental illness statistics. Lack of data has made it difficult to measure the extent of the county's mental health issues.

Most of the county's 20 mental health and addiction counseling providers direct patients to out-of-county facilities for care. Only one, Rosecrance, which has a clinic in Belvidere, provides all 10 services assessed by the committee. But many of Rosecrance's services are only available to Boone County patients if they travel to its building in Rockford.

According to statistics obtained from Rosecrance, between July 2014 and December 2014, 600 of its clients were from Boone County. Of those clients, 364 were served at Rosecrance's Belvidere clinic.

"For several reasons there is a lack of adequate resources," said Harriet Roll, Boone County Mental Health Advisory Committee chairman. "Partly because the providers aren’t there and partly

Committee finds gaps in Boone County's mental health resources - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL