Rauner's office doesn't commit on bill to ban payroll practice known as 'offshoring'

2018年5月4日星期五

Rauner's office doesn't commit on bill to ban payroll practice known as 'offshoring'

Topspin

Gov. Bruce Rauner will get his say on a proposal to ban Illinois governors from putting their staff members on the payrolls of other state agencies.

The practice is known as "offshoring," and Illinois governors of both political parties have done it for decades. Back in the 1970s, lawmakers launched an investigation into whether Democratic Gov. Dan Walker hid payroll costs of governor's office workers on boards and commissions.

The Illinois Senate on Thursday voted to send Rauner a bill to change the way the governor's office reports employee salaries in an effort to ban offshoring. Spokeswoman Rachel Bold didn't say whether the governor would sign it, but she said "we have publicly reported all salaries."

The proposal comes from Rauner nemesis Democratic Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who says 58 of the governor's staffers are paid through other agencies. She says the practice lets governors "play hide the ball from taxpayers."

Republican state Sen. Jil Tracy of Quincy voted against the bill. She defended the payroll practice, saying it could allow the governor's office to provide more direction and control over the various state agencies. She advised fellow lawmakers not to "be hasty" in making the change and compared the label of "offshoring" to "good political terminology."

Democratic Sen. Andy Manar of Bunker Hill said the legislation would provide "a true accounting of what the cost of an office is" rather than block the governor from managing state agencies.

Republican Sen. Kyle McCarter of Lebanon agreed.

"Both Democrats and Republicans have practiced this in the past, now it's time to do it right," McCarter said. "With a Republican governor, with a Democrat governor, there's no reason not to be transparent in this way." (Bill Lukitsch)

What's on tap

*Mayor Rahm Emanuel has no public events scheduled.

*Gov. Bruce Rauner and Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti will unveil the state's official bicentennial tequila at a Little Village news conference.

*Democratic U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg will host an event about apprenticeships with German Consul General Herbert Quelle at a Lufthansa facility in Des Plaines.

From the notebook

*Quincy clock ticking: The blame game already has begun if nothing gets done on a pricey Quincy Veterans Home fix before the legislature's scheduled May 31 adjournment.

On Thursday, Democratic state Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia of Aurora accused the Rauner administration of "almost setting us up for failure so nothing does happen this time in the game" by not issuing its Quincy report until May 1. That left 30 days for lawmakers and the governor to figure out how to come up with as much as $245 million to rebuild the home and figure out a new water source.

"We're out of there at the end of May hopefully. But that's the point," said the lawmaker, who chairs the House Veterans Affairs committee. "It's taken them so long in this administration to get us something so we can work."

Rauner spokeswoman Bold said the administration is "looking forward."

"This week we released the plan that addresses ongoing efforts and lays out a clear path to provide a world-class facility for our heroes," she said. "There is ample time left this spring to for the General Assembly to provide funding for this critical project." (Rick Pearson)

*Rauner on "unifying": In an appearance on Quad Cities radio, Rauner downplayed any post-primary rifts among Republicans after his narrow victory over state Rep. Jeanne Ives of Wheaton last month.

Speaking on WOC AM-1420 in Davenport, Iowa, Rauner declared himself a unifier — not just among Republicans, but also with independents and Democrats.

"You know primaries are tough. They're part of the process. I respect the process and now we're all coming together in the state. We're unifying all Republicans," said Rauner, who faces a third-party challenge from Downstate Republican state Sen. Sam McCann and a potential battle over re-electing his hand-picked state GOP chairman.

Rauner said his candidacy is one representing Illinoisans against House Speaker Michael Madigan and Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker.

"This is not an election that's really about Republicans versus Democrats. This is about the people of Illinois against a corrupt political machine run by Madigan and Pritzker, and it's the people against the political insiders," he said. (Rick Pearson)

*Greitens fallout and a former Rauner political aide: The Georgia-based political consulting firm once run by Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, and a top consultant in Rauner's 2014 campaign, has closed, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

The closure of C5 Creative Consulting came the same day the Missouri House released a 23-page report asserting that the campaign manager for embattled Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens sought to cover up the source of a charity donor list used to raise money for Greitens' 2016 campaign, the newspaper reported.

Greitens' campaign manager, Austin Chambers, worked for C5 Creative Consulting. The Post-Dispatch reports that the report doesn't accuse Ayers of wrongdoing and that he said he had not been contacted by Missouri officials investigating Greitens.

Illinois campaign finance reports show Rauner's campaign paid nearly $950,000 to C5 Creative Consulting in his 2014 bid for governor for "media consulting." The last payment was in May 2015, for $12,135.

Ayers went on from Rauner's campaign to become a top consultant for Pence's re-election campaign for Indiana governor, then turned his consulting business over to his wife when he became Pence's vice presidential chief of staff.

Greitens and Pence's replacement, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, joined Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in an early Rauner re-election ad last October in which they mocked Illinois' Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan for improving their states' economies at the expense of Illinois.

That was before Greitens admitted to an extramarital affair, and he faces a May 14 trial date in St. Louis on felony charges of invasion of privacy for allegedly taking a picture of the woman while she was partly nude and taped to exercise equipment. (Rick Pearson)

*Roskam brings Madigan into congressional race: Democratic congressional candidate Sean Casten has been trying to tie Republican U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam to President Donald Trump since before the primary election.

Now, Roskam is taking a page from Rauner's playbook by trying to tie Casten to longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

"Sean Casten consistently stands with Mike Madigan in their shared commitment to raising taxes on Illinois families," Roskam said in a statement on Thursday.

The issue here is the graduated income tax concept Madigan supports. Democratic backers say it'll be a tax cut for most people, but the speaker and governor candidate J.B. Pritzker haven't proposed specific tax rates. Republicans say it'll be a tax hike.

Casten hasn't held elected office before and won't vote on any state income tax plans if elected to go to Washington. Roskam is running on his role in Republicans' federal tax overhaul approved last year.

*On the "Sunday Spin": Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson's guests are Ra Joy, the former Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor on the Chris Kennedy ticket; Republican state Rep. Grant Wehrli of Naperville; and Democratic state Sen. Tom Cullerton of Villa Park. The "Sunday Spin" airs from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on WGN AM-720.

What we're writing

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