MOU's the rage in Illinois

A friend confirmed that MOU's are the big thing in Illinois. Contractual agreements are a thing of the past. Attorneys no longer study contractual law. You get an MOU degree. MOU's are much faster and you can change them on the fly.

Also check writing is on the O-U-T. It has been a long time since the government wrote a check anyway.

Replacing checks now are IOU's. You dont want to get one from the state of Illinois....now that would s-u-c-k!

Drop by Krieghoff and try financing a gun. Tell them you want to do an MOU and checks are on the O-U-T. If that dont work just grab a gun and walk towards the door. Wink and say I-O-U.

It works in Illinois!

 

Illinois is holding upward of $80 million in lottery winnings – that’s what Tom Zimmerman, the attorney representing Illinoisans who have not yet received their winnings in a lawsuit against the state, shared with radio reporter Greg Bishop.

“Zimmerman said a federal judge entered an order [Dec. 2] that tells the state to segregate winnings and interest on those winnings in a separate fund to ensure the funds aren’t used elsewhere,” according to Bishop.

Zimmerman has two clients: One with a winning ticket worth $50,000 and another winner with a ticket worth $250,000, filed a lawsuit Sept. 9 seeking to stop Illinois from selling tickets for winnings it can’t pay out, according to The Wall Street Journal.

They’re wondering what many other people across the state are asking themselves: If Illinois can’t pay out lottery winnings, why is the state continuing to sell lottery tickets?

Nobody seems to have a good answer to that question, though there is an effort afoot to pay lottery winners. The Illinois House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 2039 on Dec. 2, which would allot funds to get lottery winners their money. That bill now moves to the Illinois Senate, which will meet on Dec. 7.

Regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit and the Senate vote on SB 2039, the state should stop selling tickets with prize values it can’t pay out. Otherwise, those who thought winning tickets were about to change their lives will continue to be left hanging.

Unfortunately for Illinoisans, lottery payments aren’t the only commitment the state isn’t keeping.

The new fiscal year began July 1, and with it came the duty for politicians to pass a balanced budget. The Illinois General Assembly did pass a state budget in May, but it was unbalanced to the tune of $4 billion, and the governor vetoed it. Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed legislation that funds Illinois schools, and many other state spending items have been mandated by consent decrees or pushed piecemeal through the courts.

But Illinoisans across the state continue to suffer as many in the General Assembly refuse to do the right thing and pass a balanced budget the state can afford, instead of resorting to deficit spending. With more than $100 billion in government-worker pension debt and $6.7 billion in unpaid bills, more of the same won’t work.

Rauner expects that the state won’t have a budget until January 2016.

 

ILLINOIS HOUSE APPROVES $3.1 BILLION DEAL TO PAY LOTTERY WINNERS, LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
BUDGET + TAX / Article
December 3, 2015
Amid continued budget gridlock in Springfield, Senate Bill 2039 provides funds to pay Illinois Lottery winners, as well as to allow for road maintenance, 911-center operations and projects by Chicago’s tourism office, among other local government programs.

Illinois politicians approved $3.1 billion to fund payments to lottery winners, local governments, highway departments and domestic violence shelters.


It’s another piecemeal workaround in a state that has been without a budget for six months.

The Illinois House of Representatives freed up these funds when it passed Senate Bill 2039 on Dec. 2. A billion dollars will be set aside to pay out lottery winnings, something the state hasn’t done for almost two months for winnings worth more than $600.

In addition to distributing funds to local governments and lottery winners, SB 2039 also gives $7.2 million to Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism agency, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.

Before any funds can be distributed, the Illinois Senate must sign off on the measure when members convene Dec. 7.

Illinois’ unpaid bill stack sits at $6.7 billion. For more than a decade, politicians have been running the state without a balanced budget, instead using gimmicks and loopholes to push debt off onto future generations.

The new fiscal year began July 1, and with it came the duty for politicians to pass a balanced budget. The Illinois General Assembly did pass a state budget in May, but it was unbalanced to the tune of $4 billion, and the governor vetoed it. Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed legislation that funds Illinois schools, and many other state spending items have been mandated by consent decrees or pushed piecemeal through the courts.

But Illinoisans across the state continue to suffer as many in the General Assembly refuse to do the right thing and pass a balanced budget the state can afford, instead of resorting to deficit spending. With more than $100 billion in government-worker pension debt and $6.7 billion in unpaid bills, more of the same won’t work.

Rauner expects that the state won’t have a budget until January 2016.

 

AFSCME: RAUNER HAS DECLARED IMPASSE IN CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS
LABOR / Article
January 8, 2016
Without a strike fund, AFSCME – which represents 60,000 state workers in Illinois – has avoided a strike. But since the union announced that the governor has walked way from contract talks, a strike could be on the horizon.

Today the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees announced that Gov. Bruce Rauner has declared an impasse in negotiations between the state and the union, which represents around 60,000 Illinois state workers.

The union’s previous agreement with the state, entered under former Gov. Pat Quinn, expired on June 30, 2015. Since then, Rauner and the union have been negotiating a new contract. Meanwhile, the state and the union have entered a “tolling agreement,” under which the state has agreed to keep paying workers their current salaries during negotiations.

If AFSCME doesn’t agree with the governor that an impasse exists – which it appears not to – then the Tolling Agreement requires that the Illinois Labor Relations Board decide whether an impasse actually exists. If the board concludes that there is, in fact, an impasse, then Rauner won’t be bound by the old bargaining agreement or have to keep negotiating with AFSCME.

The next step after that would presumably be a strike by state workers – an event AFSCME has apparently preferred to avoid because it has no strike fund.

TAGS: AFSCME: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, collective bargaining

 

AFSCME, RAUNER REACH ANOTHER DEAL TO KEEP TALKING
LABOR / Article
September 11, 2015
Both the administration and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 have agreed to stay at the table until they reach impasse.

Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration and the state’s biggest public-employee union have reached their third pact to continue contract talks without threat of strike or lockout.

This time, the extension or tolling agreement does not include an end date.

Instead, both the administration and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 agree to stay at the table until they reach impasse.

Should the talks stall, the administration and union could agree impasse has been reached or, should their be a dispute over that question, they agree to submit the matter to the Illinois Labor Relations Board.

If the matter is submitted to the ILRB, the tolling agreement remains in effect until the ILRB resolves the matter.

The deal was signed Wednesday and made public Thursday afternoon.

The agreement notes that two sides continue to disagree on step increases and semi-automatic promotions, and neither side concedes those issues.

All contractual rights that existed before the previous state-AFSCME contract expired at the end of June remain in effect. Both sides retain all of their legal rights.

The newest deal to keep talking follows a bruising political battle over the “no strike-no lockout” or interest arbitration bill that AFSCME supported and the governor opposed.

Senate Bill 1229, would have allowed mandatory arbitration should either the state or its unionized employees declare a bargaining impasse

Once the binding arbitration hearing began, a strike or lockout would have been prohibited. In the end, a panel of arbitrators would have picked from either the state’s or the union’s final offers on economic-interest items such as pay and benefits.

Democrats argued the bill only gave unionized workers a chance at equal footing with Rauner, whom they accused of wanting to break public-sector unions, especially AFSCME, which represents more than 35,000 state employees.

The GOP painted the bill as political gift to AFSCME and said it would take a tax increase to fund what would be a nearly guaranteed $1.6 billion or larger raise should the bill pass.

The bill easily passed through the Legislature in regular session, but it was vetoed by Rauner.

The governor’s veto was overridden in the Senate, but House Democrats last week came up three votes short in their override effort.

TAGS: AFSCME: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees