Illinois governor says no bailout for Chicago - Yahoo News

 

By Fiona Ortiz and Karen Pierog

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner told the Chicago City Council on Wednesday that the state's "terrible financial crisis" means there is no money to bail out the city from its own fiscal mess.

The governor, in an unprecedented address to the Democratic council, said the city and state need to work together to address problems that include big unfunded pension liabilities facing both governments.

Rauner has been touring the state to sell his "turnaround" agenda that includes cuts to public pensions and controversial proposals like creating local right-to-work zones where union membership would be voluntary instead of mandatory.

Ahead of his speech, Chicago aldermen adopted a resolution against that proposal.

Though Rauner is a Republican and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel a Democrat, the two have been close friends and even political allies in the past, and they share an agenda of strengthening government finances.

Emanuel, re-elected in April, faces growing deficits in the city and school budgets.

Rauner and Emanuel both said on Wednesday that the city and the state must make sacrifices to reach a joint solution, but neither provided much detail of where compromise may be found. Illinois has the lowest credit rating of any U.S. state, which makes it expensive to borrow money.

"For Chicago to get what it wants, Illinois must get what it needs," Rauner said to a city council chamber packed with union members.

"It's not easy," he told reporters, who asked him where he was willing to give, after his 8-minute speech to the city council.

The governor was not receptive to Emanuel's pet tax reform proposal aimed at ending Chicago taxpayer funding of both the Chicago Public Schools' teacher pensions and those of school districts outside of the city. Rauner said Chicago schools receive a disproportionate amount of funds relative to other school districts in the state.

Rauner also told reporters he accepted the city council's rejection of his turnaround agenda. He said his plan is to encourage local Illinois governments to decide on the issue themselves.

"That's my point ... local communities should be empowered to decide how their economies compete," the governor said.

Rauner's proposed fiscal 2016 Illinois budget would cut state funding for Chicago by about $135 million as part of a plan to fill a gap of more than $6 billion

Illinois governor says no bailout for Chicago - Yahoo News

Another Rauner aide set to make nearly $200,000

 

hours ago  •  Kurt Erickson Times Bureau

 

SPRINGFIELD — The former governor of Hawaii is making more money as an aide to Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner than she did when she oversaw the Aloha State.

Rauner's office, along with payroll records filed this week by the Illinois comptroller, show Linda Lingle will receive $60,000 for a state contract running from April to June. After that, she will go on the state payroll as an employee with an annual salary of $198,000.

In 2010, during her final of eight years as governor in Hawaii, Lingle was paid $117,306.

Confirmation of her salary as Rauner's chief operating officer comes as the Winnetka Republican has been defending paying high salaries to members of his Cabinet.

And it comes as Rauner has said rank-and-file workers in Illinois, such as some prison employees, are paid more than their counterparts in other states.

Rauner has called Lingle a "superstar" and says he's willing to pay big salaries to experts who will help fix the state.

"People should be compensated based on talent," Rauner said in March. "We could pay everybody the same and have lots of mediocre folks."

Lingle served two terms as governor of Hawaii from 2002 to 2010 and left politics after making a losing bid for the U.S. Senate in 2012.

She joins a team with six-figure salaries that Rauner has assembled in his first 100 days in office.

The top paid aide is Beth Purvis, who is being paid $250,000 as Rauner's education czar.

Olin "Trey" Childress III, a former chief operating officer for the state of Georgia, is making $198,000 annually. Rauner's chief of staff, Mike Zolnierowicz, is getting $180,000 yearly.

The governor also has been paying Donna Arduin $30,000 per month to serve as a budget adviser. Arduin, who previously worked for Republican governors in California, Florida and Texas, is nearing the end of her four-month contract

Another Rauner aide set to make nearly $200,000

Pope Francis in Washington DC » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

 

by ROBERT HUNZIKER

On the heels of his Papal Encyclical about sustainability, due in June ‘15, Pope Francis is scheduled to address Congress this coming September.

Meanwhile, and only four months before the Pope’s scheduled address: “The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology voted Thursday to cut deeply into NASA’s budget for Earth science, in a clear swipe at the study of climate change,” Michael Hiltzik (The Economy Hub), The GOP Attack on Climate Change Science Takes a Big Step Forward, Los Angeles Times, May 1, 2015.

The Holy See does not hand out Papal Encyclicals every day. Rather, an encyclical, which may address bishops, as well as all Christendom, is a sacred papal letter that addresses the pressing issues of the times.

The upcoming June ’15 Papal Encyclical will address ecological sustainability. Environmentalists have their fingers crossed, hoping the Pope hits the ball out of the park. Climate change deniers, to a great extent, hope he strikes out at the plate.

In preparation, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Vatican’s research unit, recently hosted a one-day conference, bringing together scientists and spiritual leaders from around the world.

Only the highest-ranking Vatican officials know the contents of the upcoming encyclical. Nevertheless, according to Bloomberg news reporter Eric Roston, The Pope Is About to Release His Secret Climate Change Plan, Bloomberg Business, May 1, 2015.

According to Bloomberg’s report, “the letter itself is finished.” Inside the Vatican, theologians and translators are putting together the greatly anticipated letter in the languages of the world. After all, the Pope is the leader of 1.2 billion Catholics, and certainly one of the most influential people on the planet. It makes perfect sense he address worldly issues.

Clues about contents of the preeminent encyclical may be discerned by reading-between-the-lines the origin behind the recent meeting at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute is one of the key organizers. According to Mr. Sachs, “We’re here today because sustainable development is far off course.”

“Sustainable development is far off course” is a polite way of saying “degradation of the planet sucks.”

Further clues as to the Pope’s position are found on the Pontifical Academy of Sciences web site under the heading: “Statement of the Joint PAS/PASS Workshop on Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature: Our Responsibility,” wherein it states:

“The massive fossil fuel use at the heart of the global energy system deeply disrupts the Earth’s climate and acidifies the world’s oceans.”

Well, well now, it is very doubtful much changed with ocean acidification or fossil fuel use since the Joint PAS/PASS affaire in 2014. Those conspicuous clues are likely as valid as a handprint in dried concrete Therefore, we know where the Pope is coming from and likely what he’ll say. Namely, fossil fuels have got to go, the sooner the better. How else interpret the statement that fossil fuel “deeply disrupts” the Earth’s climate?

Not only that, but the biggest clue to the contents of the encyclical is this: Why, in the first instance, conduct a meeting about “sustainability” if the planet is already sustainable? End of story.

But, the story continues as Pope Francis is, after all, scheduled to address Congress this September. Talk about a clash of interests. “Republicans don’t like the idea of addressing climate change head-on,” Ibid.

It doesn’t get much more “head-on” than an address by the Pope, who commands attention whenever and wherever he speaks, especially on the heels of a Papal Encyclical.

How will America’s climate change pooh-pooh entourage in Congress handle such an affaire?

Pope Francis in Washington DC » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names