To subscribe to Capitol Fax, click here. *** UPDATED x7 - Oops in proclamation? - Pawar, Koehler, Kennedy, Biss, ILGOP, Pritzker respond *** Special session proclamation issued Monday, Jul 24, 2017 * Click here or on the pic for the full proclamation… Here we go again. *** UPDATE 1 *** Pritzker campaign… Bruce Rauner has made it clear he intends to pit schoolchildren and communities against each other by issuing a yet to be revealed amendatory veto to SB 1, a bill that lets school districts across the state open their doors on time. In response, JB Pritzker issued the following statement: “The only person driving an ‘artificial crisis’ is Bruce Rauner. Rather than working cooperatively with lawmakers, advocates, families and school districts, Rauner has once again decided to approach school funding with his arrogant and dismissive ‘my way or the highway’ style,” said JB Pritzker. “It’s simply unconscionable that Bruce Rauner cares more about pushing a right-wing agenda than he does about making sure children get a quality education. Unfortunately for our children and families, it looks like Rauner still hasn’t figured out that being governor means coming out from behind the desk in his office to work with other people. If he follows through on his threats to hold children and families hostage to his political agenda, Rauner will be responsible for preventing schools across Illinois from opening on time.” *** UPDATE 2 *** ILGOP… ILGOP Supports Rauner Decision to Call Special Session

Mike Madigan’s Attempt to Hold Schoolchildren Hostage Needs to Stop “It is beyond inexcusable that Mike Madigan and his allies refuse to release education funding for all Illinois schools unless they get their $500 million Chicago bailout. It’s just another attempt by Madigan to hold our state hostage for his disastrous Chicago agenda.” “Governor Rauner’s decision to call lawmakers back to Springfield is necessary to protect students across Illinois from Mike Madigan’s hostage-taking.” – Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Steven Yaffe *** UPDATE 3 *** Press release… Daniel Biss released the following statement in response to Governor Rauner’s calling of a special legislative session: “We already knew Bruce Rauner as the proverbial kid on the playground who takes his ball and goes home when he doesn’t get everything he wants. Today, he’s proven that he’ll also bulldoze the playground. “After more than two years of manufactured crisis, and over Rauner’s objections, Illinois has a budget, and a semblance of certainty. In retaliation, Rauner is now using divisive and evasive tactics to plunge us into crisis once again. “Despite the pleas of families, students, educators, and legislators, Rauner has made it clear that he wants to create a crisis so that he can impose 100% of his ideological agenda on us.” *** UPDATE 4 *** The governor’s official proclamation states that the “Illinois State Board of Education is required to begin making payments to school districts across the state on August 1, 2017.” But this is what the statute actually says… In making this distribution, the State Board of Education shall present vouchers to the State Comptroller on the 10th and 20th days of each month beginning in August. But this language is in SB 1… Moneys distributed under this Section shall be calculated on a school year basis, but paid on a fiscal year basis, with payments beginning in August So, maybe that’s where the confusion is. *** UPDATE 5 *** Kennedy campaign… “This is the latest smokescreen Bruce Rauner has thrown up. He has no interest in fair funding for public schools in Illinois. He hasn’t led and waited until the eleventh hour to threaten a veto. That’s what happens in Springfield under Bruce Rauner. He creates a crisis instead of finding a solution. There’s been plenty of time to debate the bill. It isn’t perfect. It doesn’t fix the broken property tax system tied to our school funding, but it’s too late to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. It’s time to show up, lead, and allow our schools to open this fall— not use our public schools, teachers and students as Bruce Rauner’s latest political football.” *** UPDATE 6 *** Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria)… “Governor Rauner has demonstrated once again that he favors campaigning over governing. Rather than focusing on how he could work constructively with the General Assembly, he calls Blagojevich-style special sessions that only waste taxpayers’ dollars. “I am calling on the governor to sign a bill that his own administration says he supports 90% of. It is time to stop pitting one part of the state against the other for political purposes.” *** UPDATE 7 *** Ameya Pawar… “It’s painfully apparent that Bruce Rauner continues to play politics instead of governing. He says he agrees with 90 percent of the school funding bill lawmakers passed during the last session, yet he is threatening an amendatory veto without releasing any details. Now, he’s calling lawmakers back to Springfield to rehash what was a common sense solution to our inequitable school funding system. Lawmakers did their jobs, while Bruce Rauner is failing at his. “What Bruce Rauner is doing is pitting communities against each other and dividing our state by race, class and geography. He’s telling downstate communities that their schools aren’t getting funding because of ‘those people’ in Chicago - propping up a false narrative that Senate Bill 1 is a bailout for Chicago, despite the fact that it increases funding for every school district in the state. Meanwhile, school districts and families across the state are in panic mode as they try to plan for the start of the school year. “We must reform our outdated school funding formula that relies on property taxes for funding and start making significant strides toward closing the 20 percent funding gap between upper income and lower income school districts. Instead of asking local communities to foot a majority of the bill for their schools, our government needs to make school funding a priority as our state constitution requires.” - Posted by Rich Miller

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