Rauner tries to leverage CPS woes into crackdown on union rights

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Chicago Tribune

By Monique Garcia, Juan Perez Jr. and Kim Geiger

Gov. Bruce Rauner on Wednesday tried to use Chicago Public Schools' money woes and lack of a new teacher contract as leverage, saying the state should not help the district pay for pension costs without also giving local governments across Illinois the ability to limit unions' collective bargaining ability.

The first-year Republican governor's criticism was directed at a proposal passed a day earlier by Senate Democrats that would freeze property taxes statewide and pick up roughly $200 million in CPS pension costs. Rauner said that while he supported the idea of a two-year tax freeze, he could not support the Senate measure because it doesn't contain provisions to let towns and school districts determine what benefits were covered by collective bargaining.

But the fate of that legislation was in question even without Rauner's suggested changes, given that House Speaker Michael Madigan has said the state should be cutting back on paying for local pension costs, not taking on more of the burden. CPS CEO Forrest Claypool tried to distance himself shortly after from the governor's remarks, issuing a statement that said "mixing labor issues" into the Senate proposal wouldn't relieve the district's financial pressures.

And so the stalemate at the Capitol continued Wednesday, with no movement on a state budget and top issues such as a CPS bailout and government worker pension changes stuck in limbo.

FULL story at link. Video: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-gov-rauner-pushes-for-flexibility-video-20150805-premiumvideo.html



Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-bruce-rauner-illinois-senate-met-0806-20150805-story.html#page=1

[Still In Wisconsin]

1. Boy I wonder where he got that idea??

*Cough* Scott Walker.

[n2doc]

3. *cough* ALEC *cough* Koch Bros *cough*

how I wish people would respond to Rauner

[Still In Wisconsin]

4. THAT would be excellent...

and, yes, Walker got the idea from ALEC/AFP/Koch, which is where all fo his ideas come from.

[rurallib]

2. contracts in reality mean nothing, do they?

work all your life thinking in your golden years you will have a decent reliable income and some puppet of the wealthy steals it from you through whatever means possible.

[blackspade]

5. The war on unions continues...

Assisted by some stellar examples of 'Democrats.'

[kas125]

6. Teachers in Illinois are not allowed to participate in Social Security so this

is especially egregious. They can't even collect their spouse's social security if the spouse dies. To mess with their pensions is unconscionable.