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http://www.rebootillinois.com/2016/...graphic-state-of-the-state-of-illinois/51882/


Infographic: 2016 State of the state of Illinois

Reboot Illinois

REBOOT STAFF
Jan 25, 2016 6001 7

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first address last year, the newly-inaugurated governor said correcting Illinois government’s fiscal troubles and driving down its persistently high, post-recession unemployment would require “shared sacrifice.” The speech was noteworthy for its audacity: Rauner called on Democrats to help him take on some of their closest allies — organized labor and trial lawyers — and to embrace concepts, like term limits, they’ve long opposed.

What kind of progress report can Rauner give this week when he returns to the podium? Here’s a quick look at the state of Illinois government, then and now.


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http://www.rebootillinois.com/2016/...rges-reform-at-colleges-before-funding/51815/

Budget standoff pulls MAP grants from students; Rauner urges reform at colleges before funding

 

Budget standoff pulls MAP grants from students; Rauner urges reform at colleges before funding

Matt Dietrich

REBOOT STAFF
Jan 22, 2016 2007 12




memo harshly critical of Chicago State University’s management in response to those pushing the MAP bill.

When Illinois entered FY 2016 with no state budget on July 1, it meant 125,000 college students who had been promised financial aid through the Monetary Award Program — better known as MAP grants — might not arrive.

MAP grants average $2,700 per recipient and students are notified in the spring and early summer how much they’ll get for the following school year. It’s an important component — along with federal grants, student loans and a student’s own work income — of the financial package that allows many low-income students to attend college.

When the budget impasse moved into late summer and the start of the fall semester, most colleges absorbed the cost of the missing MAP funds, assuming they’d arrive whenever lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner agreed on a budget. But as schools begin the second semester, some can no longer afford to make do without the promised funding. Some students who can’t make up the missing funding — including some community college students for whom MAP grants cover most or all tuition and fees — have opted to drop out.

This week in Springfield, a group of college students gathered to bring attention to the problems the missing MAP funding has caused.

The grants are only one part of the problem for Illinois’ public colleges and universities. Where in FY 2015 higher education received $1.95 billion in state funding, it has received nothing in the first seven months of FY 2016.

Last week, three Democratic state senators introduced a bill to restore part of the MAP funds for the current academic year. Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, said colleges have been hit with a “double whammy” of receiving no operating funds from the state while also facing the choice of either fronting students the missing MAP money or possibly losing students.

But like so much else in the budget impasse, any movement on higher education funding (in total or just in MAP grants) is contingent on spending reforms. In this case, the Rauner administration cites a terrible record in recent years of Illinois colleges offering exorbitant administrator salaries and golden parachutes, among many other examples of mismanagement and abuse of public funds. Rauner’s deputy chief of staff sent a memo harshly critical of Chicago State University’s management in response to those pushing the MAP bill.

As colleges and many students begin the second semester of the 2015-2016 school year, higher education funding is the focus of this week’s “Only in Illinois.”

 

Term Limits? When will people realize there are already Term Limits. They call them Elections.

 

Lady T,

Think about that and then tell me how Obama got elected and then re elected ..? People do not pay attention or figure their lowly vote won't count or off set anything ... Then you have the Morons who believe whats being said by the Politico's even after the first term in office when he did nothing that he said he was going to do ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

If you are smart enough to go to college, maybe you should be smart enough to get a job and pay your own way..Grants are just using someone elses money.Their are a lot of people in college that don't belong there.Maybe get a trade and earn a honest living.The government just takes money from working people and gives to people that don't work.If students had to pay there own way college tuition would not be as high as it is..Using someone elses money is always very easy..When you pay your own way things change ..Politicians are good at spendind someone elses money,not there own..

 

ANDRZEJEWSKI: NEW ILLINOIS AUDITOR GENERAL FRANK MAUTINO MUST STEP DOWN

ADAM ANDRZEJEWSKI

GUEST VIEW
JAN 28, 2016 1064 1

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William Holland retired last fall, three years into his third 10-year term, the General Assembly appointed State Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, as his replacement. Mautino, the former Deputy House Majority Leader, was the anointed pick of powerful House Speaker Michael J. Madigan of Chicago.

But Mautino didn’t stop raising campaign cash — even though he wasn’t running for office any longer. He raised an additional $15,500 from longtime donors between the appointment vote and his swearing-in ceremony as auditor on Dec. 7.

Mautino said he used the money to “pay off debts, shred documents,” and “close his campaign office.” But his campaign disclosures show the loans were already paid off.

This week, the exposure by citizen watchdog groups of hundreds of thousands of dollars in odd payments flowing through Mautino’s campaign account prompted local and Springfield newspapers, good government groups and fellow legislators to ask him to open his books.

This week, the noted downstate accountability group — the Edgar County Watchdogs – quantified $213,338.31 in campaign gas and vehicle repairs paid byMautino’s political committee to one local vendor since 2005: Happy’s Super Service Station in hometown Spring Valley.

The “gas” and “gas and vehicle repairs” averaged $20,000 per year or roughly $55 per day over the last 10 years and nine months.

Additionally, at OpenTheBooks.com, we quantified Mautino’s state travel reimbursement payments (taxpayer money) amounting to nearly $30,000 since 2005. These reimbursements were for travel in regard to his legislative duties and service on the audit commission.

Last year, Republican Congressman Aaron Schock resigned from office after newspaper disclosures of alleged misappropriated gas and travel reimbursements. With Mautino, the gross amounts of the questionable transactions could dwarf the allegations against the former congressman.

But Mautino’s campaign spending doesn’t stop with the gas and car repairs. The hometown Ottawa Times newspaper quantified $77,967 or $382 per month over 17 years spent on “campaign meals” at local restaurants. About $33,000 was spent at his wife’s family’s restaurant, Alfano’s Little Sicily in Spring Valley. Since 1999, Mautino billed the campaign for 500 trips to Alfano’s.

Mautino also spent $273,973 at the local bank, Spring Valley City Bank. The Edgar County Watchdogs again did the math and Mautino’s disclosed loan and principle payments of $94,000 exceeded his disclosed bank loans of $26,000. Then, the watchdogs found another $180,000 in campaign expenses paid to … the bank.

When is the last time anyone saw a local bank running campaign operations?

Here are just a few of the checks that Mautino’s campaign cut to his local bank: $10,000 for poll workers, precinct walkers, and phone banks; $2,600 for 52 precinct walkers; and $8,000 for election expenses.

Our organization at OpenTheBooks.com found other questionable dealings. The family distribution company, Mautino Distributing Company, has received $271,417 in state agency payments — mostly starting in 2009. Coinciding with Mautino’s promotion to Madigan’s leadership team as Assistant Majority Leader, state agency payments into the company jumped from $9,393 (2008) to $71,701 (2009). Mautino worked there for 16 years under his father, and today, his cousin, Mark J. Mautino of Spring Valley, runs it.

In line with a highly publicized resolution last fall at the College of DuPage, new Illinois Auditor General Mautino is in charge of an outside “trust” audit of the school’s spending. After exposure of such spending of his own, who would trust Mautino’s conclusions?

In Illinois, our No. 1 manufactured product is corruption where governors typically end up making license plates. The people need an auditor with basic integrity.

In Illinois, this integrity must be proven. Mautino cannot meet this basic standard.

Mautino must be held accountable for his own record. Mautino must resign asIllinois Auditor General immediately.

Adam Andrzejewski is founder ofOpenTheBooks.com, This column originally was published by the Daily Herald.



Sounds like this guy should be on the BOD or EC, maybe ED of the ATA ..? WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN ILLINOIS: 8 FACTS

CAITLIN WILSON

REBOOT STAFF
JUN 5, 2015 8373 3

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report from the University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Political Science looks at the rates of federal public corruption convictions in Illinois and Chicago and compares them to similar convictions in other states.

As the report points out, Chicago and Illinois are often mocked as being notoriously rife with public corruption. But just because our pain can provide a good punchline for a joke doesn’t mean we should be proud of the consequences of such wide-spread corruption.

From the report:

For more than a century and a half Chicago and Illinois have been notorious for public corruption. Year after year, national and international news media delightfully recount every new case of bribery, fraud, stealing from taxpayers, ghost payrollers and illegal patronage. Our shameful reputation has continued to provide fodder for scores of comedians and late night talk show hosts.

But corruption is not funny and it is not free. Its costs are steep. We all pay a staggeringly high corruption tax and we suffer from diminished government services. In addition, we are handicapped by a poorly functioning democracy because a large number of our citizens — with good reason — have lost faith in the honesty and fairness of government.

Here are 8 particularly interesting facts and comparisons from the UIC report about Illinois and Chicago corruption and the way they affect Illinoisans:

1. The federal Judicial District for Northern Illinois reports more public corruption convictions than any of the country’s 92 other judicial districts, followed by the Central District of California and the Southern District of New York.

2. The judicial district had 45 convictions in 2013 and 1,642 since 1976, for an average of 52.2 convictions per year.



3. Statewide, Illinois has the third-most public corruption convictions for 2013, after New York and California.



4. Illinois has the seventh-highest per-capita convictions of all states in the country.



5. There are an average of 15.4 federal public corruption convictions per 100,000 people every year in Illinois.

6. Illinois corruption costs taxpayers about $500 million per year in damages, lost productivity, prosecution and it inflates the cost of all state contracts by about 5 percent.

7. Hefty non-monetary costs, such as car accidents caused by faulty Secretary of State operations, the deterrence of companies to settle in the state and the loss of trust of Illinoisans in their government, increase the negative effects of corruption in Illinois.

8. Corruption in Chicago could contribute to the city’s high murder rates because citizens have lost faith in their government and don’t put as much stock into following laws and cooperating with police.

The authors of the report acknowledge that the poor rankings of Illinois and the effects of corruption can make it seem like cleaning up government in the state is a lost cause. And it will be a hard job, they say. But they outline eight steps to consider when formulating an anti-corruption culture in Illinois government going forward:

1) Demand more transparency and accountability;

2) Hire more inspectors general, including suburban inspectors general;

3) Provide a new program of civic education in schools by passing the law pending in the state legislature;

4) Encourage more citizen participation in government and politics by moving the date of the primary;

5) Adopt public financing for political campaigns;

6) Elect better public officials;

7) Change how we remap legislative districts and adopt term limits for elected officials; and

8) End political machines and change Illinois’ culture of corruption.”


In Illinois , maybe the ATA also ..? WPT ... (YAC) ...