Chicago Jobs with Justice

From Florida to California, March 4th marked an exceptional moment for the student and worker movement in recent U.S. history. People took to the streets to demonstrate their frustration with the government’s failure to pass legislation that would benefit young people such as Student Aid Reform and the DREAM Act.  The mainstream media seemed taken by surprise of all these coordinated actions across the country – How could students and workers come together on one specific day? Was this an organized effort? Were people demanding change from the government and legislators?

I got the opportunity to march along with students, staff, and faculty at U-Mass Amherst.  Being there reminded me about the power of organizing and strategic escalation. Students at this school provided a deadline for their administrators to accept their demands around fees, budget cuts, treating staff & faculty fairly, and improving the school’s climate.  We will be watching their administrations’ response and actions to come.  Check out video from the great actions at the University of Central Florida and the University of California system.  You can also go to www.defendeducation.org

Continue reading Students and Workers Organizing for Justice

How much revenue would be generated by Gov. Pat Quinn's proposed 1 percent increase in the state income tax rate? Quinn’s budget director, David Vaught, told the AP today that the administration estimates the bump would raise $2.8 billion annually. The increase would also be permanent, not temporary. What's unclear is whether the new revenue -- if approved -- would fully restore the proposed education cuts, which total $1.3 billion.

Meanwhile, more and more reactions to Quinn's budget address are coming in from progressive interest groups.  Be sure to check out the updates to our item from earlier today.

Chicago Police are adding Tasers to their weapons cache, according to department officials who announced today that they plan to equip each beat car with the devices. Moreover, patrol officers will be allowed to use the weapons for the first time.

As expected, Gov. Pat Quinn today urged the General Assembly to increase revenue as they craft a FY 2011 budget. His latest proposal, raising the state's corporate and personal income tax rate  from 3 percent to 4 percent to cover proposed education cuts, is more modest than any of his previous plans. Here's video of the governor introducing the idea during his address:

By slimming down his income tax proposal and tying it directly to education, Quinn is trying to gain the support of lawmakers who think a larger tax increase is politically unpalatable. He is also hoping that school teachers, administrators, and parents will get behind the effort if it's tied directly to school funding.  But in doing so, the governor has entirely dropped his emphasis on the need for fundamental tax reform, which played a key role in his budget address last year. "The most compelling case for tax reform is found in our own Illinois tax code," he said last March. "For 20 years, Illinois has had one of the most unfair tax systems in the country." This year, Quinn only discussed the importance of maintaining the state's already-low support for education. Even if approved, this won't begin to fix the state's structural deficit.

Meanwhile, appearing on WSIU's Illinois Lawmakers immediately after the address, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) responded that "the people of Illinois don't want tax increases."  He then applauded Gov. Quinn for exhibiting the "courage" to nonetheless propose one.  Watch it:

Reporters need to ask Madigan to state directly if he supports or opposes an income tax increase.  And if he says yes, they need to question why he can't muster the same sort of "courage" exhibited by Quinn.  After all, he controls a large enough majority in the House to pass a fair and sustainable budget without Republican votes.

SEIU Healthcare (whose Illinois State Council sponsors this website) is the first member of the Responsible Budget Coalition to chime in on Quinn's address. President Keith Kelleher said in a statement that "we need more than a 1% increase to pull Illinois out of this budget crisis":

For months, child care providers, home care agencies, social service providers and school districts throughout the state have been sounding the alarm about Illinois' fiscal crisis. The budget proposed today should make it painfully clear that those alarms were real and our state's house is on fire.  We simply cannot continue to provide the services that millions of Illinois families depend on without adopting a plan to raise significant revenue. While the Governor has the right approach in calling for new revenue, we need more than a 1% increase to pull Illinois out of this budget crisis. Working families are now looking to the General Assembly to step up and enact a fair and adequate income tax increase like HB 174 that will put a stop to these devastating cuts to home care, child care and vital human services.

We'll be posting additional responses as the day goes on.

UPDATE (1:59): Here's the response from the Responsible Budget Coalition. They are not pleased:

"The 200-plus organizations of the Responsible Budget Coalition believe the best and fairest way to adequately fund all our essential priorities--not just education but health care, human services, public safety and more--is through comprehensive tax reform like House Bill 174.

"A one-percent tax increase falls far short of the comprehensive tax reform that's needed. It is an invitation to put off real solutions yet again.

"Illinois communities are already hurting from the failure of legislators to stop damaging cuts and delayed payments to education, human services, public safety and more. If they fail again to support a responsible budget with adequate revenue, they will not only force schools to cut thousands of teachers, but cities will lay off police and close libraries, and our state will turn its back on the most vulnerable in their time of need.

"That’s an outrage, particularly when the right course of action is clear. Rather than slash jobs just as our economy begins to rebound, and reduce vital services when they’re needed more than ever, lawmakers should reform the state’s tax structure and finally fix the broken budget.

"We reject the politics as usual in Springfield that gave us years of cuts, borrowing and delays. That's what got us into this mess. To get out, we need a balanced approach that includes adequate revenue, just as more than 30 other states have raised taxes in the past year to meet the challenges of the recession.

"Anything short of fixing the broken budget is irresponsible. It will force more hardship on every part of the state. Elected officials should act responsibly and pass tax reform like HB 174 to save jobs, pay the bills, fund vital services and build a better Illinois."

UPDATE 2 (2:28 pm): We just got off the line with Anders Lindall from AFSCME Council 31, whose organization is frustrated with both the size of the income tax increase and the reduction in revenue sharing for local governments.

Even before today, the choice was clear. Lawmakers could fix our broken budget -- saving the jobs and services that are needed now more than ever --- or they could repeat the mistakes of the past: cuts, borrowing that's unsupported by revenue, and future payment delays. It's disappointing that the proposal laid out by the governor falls short of a comprehensive fix.

UPDATE 3 (2:43 PM): John Bouman echoes the criticisms of the RBC, calling the 1 percent income tax proposal "an invitation to avoid the comprehensive solution that's needed." Here's more:

A temporary band-aid isn't going to get us through this crisis or pay our unpaid bills. The basic [budget] outline should be a wake-up call for all of us that a real solution is needed. This [1 percent income tax hike] is disappointing  because the governor himself fails to answer the call he set forwad with his own budget proposal.

A new poll from Rasmussen Reports shows Democrat Alexi Giannoulias leading Republican Mark Kirk by three percentage points in the U.S. Senate race, 44%-41%.

The Giannoulias campaign released a statement today noting that, despite Rasmussen's reputations as a polling firm that favors Republican candidates, he remains in the lead:

"Even Republican polls show Alexi's momentum with him leading," said Alexi for Illinois Campaign Manager Mike Rendina. "Illinois voters are showing again and again that they see through the same old, negative smear attacks from Republican Mark Kirk. Illinois families want a Senator who will fight for them every day to create new jobs, not a Washington insider who has spent over a decade in Congress taking millions from Wall Street and corporations and then voting their way."

Turns out Chicago Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th Ward) will carry the torch on creating a living-wage law  that would require stores with 50 or more employees to pay those workers $11.03 an hour if they benefit from tax increment financing (TIF) or other public subsidies. When Ald. Ed Burke (14th Ward) first floated the legislation (in response to opposition over Wal-Mart's proposed expansion), we noted how it represented a new twist on TIF reform. To her credit, Lyle is expanding the population who would benefit from the higher wages even further. In an ordinance introduced today, she proposes that those providing contracted services -- like cleaning or landscaping -- benefit from the living wage law as well.  The bill is headed to the Burke's Finance Committee next.

"We've come too far to go back now," said Rev. Booker Vance of the Good Jobs Chicago Coalition  at a City Hall press conference today. "We won't be denied." Watch:

To save schools from a $1.3 billion in proposed cuts, Gov. Pat Quinn called on the General Assembly to raise the state's corporate and personal income tax by 1 percent during his budget address in Springfield today. The governor did not ask legislators to include in that effort any exemptions for the state's poor and working class taxpayers.

After overcoming a procedural hurdle yesterday afternoon, the U.S. Senate is expected to take up and pass a $138 billion proposal today that would extend the filing deadline for unemployment benefits through the end of 2010. Unemployed beneficiaries of the COBRA program would continue to receive a 65 percent subsidy on their premiums, as well. 

We're still an hour away from Gov. Pat Quinn's FY 2011 budget address, which is scheduled for noon today. But thanks to a briefing by administration officials last night, we already have a firm sense of what the plan entails. Quinn has outlined just over $2 billion in cuts, the majority of which are in K-12 education. Health care and human services take a combined $600 million hit and revenue sharing for local governments will be trimmed by $300 million.

Those reductions shrink the existing deficit to $11 billion. To "balance" the budget next year, the governor has called for $4.7 billion in some form of long-term borrowing. While Quinn is expected to voice support for a revenue increase in his speech, no tax hikes were included in the official budget, leaving unsolved the growing backlog of provider payments, which are estimated to reach $6 billion by the end of the current fiscal year. The administration is also anticipating savings from the implementation of a "two-tiered" pension system and the continuation of enhanced federal Medicaid matching rate, neither of which have been approved yet.

That leaves the General Assembly with three apparent scenarios going forward:

Pass This Budget:

Theoretically, the General Assembly could decide to pass Quinn's formal budget as presented today. But there's a catch: The constitution requires three-fifths majority support in both chambers for any spending plan that relies on long-term borrowing. That means Republican votes will be required.

To attract any support from the minority party, the Democratic leadership would have to give up loads of concessions to Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont). Along with House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego), Radogno has already issued a joint statement calling on Democrats to further cut spending and implement additional "reforms" to Medicaid and the state pension system.

In order to go down this path, the Democratic leaders will have to embrace many of the Republicans' misguided budget proposals -- such as an expansion of private managed care -- and, in doing so, will likely face serious opposition from certain lawmakers in their own party.  "We’d have to assume we’d have to get Republicans on board to the idea of borrowing," Rikeesha Phelon, a spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago), told the Sun-Times, "and I do not see that happening."

Meanwhile, by severely cutting education spending and continuing to put off billions of dollars in unpaid bills, the fallout will continue to make front-page news across the state.

Pass The Buck:

If Democrats can't reach a reasonable consensus with the GOP, leadership could decide to pass a six-month partial-year budget similar to the stop-gap plan they approved last year. The motivation behind this strategy is pretty clear: giving Gov. Quinn authority to spend whatever money is available through the end of 2010 means lawmakers could return to Springfield during the November veto session -- after the 2010 general election -- and plug the budget holes, possibly by passing tax hikes that many consider a non-starter during the current election year.

Of course, the Democrats in Springfield have shown over the past 12 months that they're pretty adept at pushing back the goal posts, so it's far from assured that they would actually move to solve the crisis later this year.

Pass An Income Tax Increase:

The third option is for Democrats to suck it up and pass a sustainable and fair budget on their own. By reforming and modernizing the state's tax system (and raising the state's income tax), the party could protect strained schools, social service agencies, medical providers, and municipal governments. It would also allow the state to close its structural deficit in the near-term without gutting investments in human infrastructure.

Plenty of institutional organizations, not to mention the Democratic base, firmly support this approach.  And as the State Journal-Register points out today, while an income tax hike is sure to anger some voters, further inaction could be just as damaging at the ballot box:

There’s a political risk to pushing off the problems again, as Quinn well knows. It would give Republicans ample material to try to paint Democrats as ineffective leaders and Quinn as the governor who couldn’t even get his own party on the same page.

This afternoon, Quinn will make his pitch for raising new revenue, but he won't move forward on such a plan without further legislative support.  The question is whether Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan are even listening.

Jobs with Justice coalitions and our partners are continuing to build grassroots pressure for bold federal action in this economic crisis. We need to immediately save and create millions of good jobs as a first step towards Full and Fair Employment and a New Economy that Works for Everyone.

Last week you helped Jobs with Justice, in coordination with the Jobs for America Now Coalition, hold actions in cities nationwide and make phone calls that pushed Congress to extend emergency federal Unemployment and COBRA benefits — but only for one month.  Obviously, officials in Washington still don’t get it.  They need a wake-up call that unemployment is at emergency levels.This campaign is just beginning.  And you can help build the momentum!

1)  Take the pledge to continue the fight for jobs with justice.  Ask your friends and co-workers to take the Pledge.

2) Get involved in some of the actions coming up: