I'll Gladly Pay You Tuesday

I’ll Gladly Pay You Tuesday…

A person who does not pay his debts is considered one who welches in semantically correct England.  In America, where language is more, shall we surmise utilitarian; we favor the term deadbeat.  For Illinois Comptroller Susanna Mendoza, it’s neither: She hasn’t the funds to make all the payments in a back log of unpaid bills after years of no budget agreements between Rauner and the General Assembly.  Instead, it’s a matter of financial triage. 

On Mendoza’s website,  at the Illinois Office of Comptroller, she provides a daily amount for the backlog of unpaid bills as well as a graph-filled history of how we got HERE and just how bad HERE is. 

May 15^th: $6,557, 858,078. 

According to Mendoza, the collection of $6 billion in General Obligation Bonds alleviated some pressure from the budget impasses, but even though nearly $2 billion was paid into backlogged state healthcare bills, it was insufficient to meet all current needs.

https://illinoiscomptroller.gov/financial-data/backlog-voucher-report-bvr/

A message from Jim Bachman, Executive Director of IRTA, was issued today describing the Comptroller’s inability to provide quick payment for TRIP participants and the possible backlog of payment for medical procedures taking more than 200 days.  The last paragraph calls for some fact gathering and anecdotal information if IRTA is to proceed in a legal action to require payments by the state.  Thus far, my doctors have not dropped terms like welcher or deadbeat when I arrive in the office, and they have not asked for payments in advance because of the state’s being both.

Please read Mr. Bachman’s message and be informed:

Dear IRTA Members,

At a recent meeting of the TRIP Advisory Committee we were notified by the Department of Central Management Services (CMS), that the Comptroller had not made the State's payment to the Teachers Health Insurance Security fund since January 2017. The State's payment is approximately $10 million a month. Therefore, the State currently owes the fund approximately $170 million.

The fund is where all TRIP money is deposited. The fund has the following contributors: TRIP participants' premiums, Active teachers (percentage of payroll), School districts (percentage of payroll), State of Illinois (matches the active teachers' portion) and the federal government. Due to the lack of the State's payment insurance companies are not being paid on a timely basis as in the past. Therefore, if the insurance companies are not getting paid in a timely manner the doctors and hospitals are not receiving their payments in a timely manner either. CMS has told us some payments have been delayed as much as 200 days.

The IRTA's contract lobbyist and I met with the Comptroller's office recently to discuss the lack of payments to the fund. As we assumed, the Comptroller does not have enough revenue to make all required payments on a monthly basis. Therefore, she has decided to make the most necessary payments first and if money is available she will make payments to other needs.

In addition, I asked our law firm of Tabet, DiVito, and Rothstien to provide us an opinion on whether IRTA had standing to sue the Comptroller to compel her to make payments to the Teachers Health Insurance Security fund. In short, our law firm replied that the IRTA can bring a mandamus action to compel the Comptroller to pay TRIP payments.

A lawsuit would be a last resort. What we are asking you as TRIP participants is if you begin to experience your doctors or hospitals asking for payment up front for any procedure in lieu of them waiting for payment from the insurance company to notify the IRTA. At that time the IRTA Board of Directors will determine our course of action.

Sincerely,

James Bachman

IRTA Executive Director

  

My Pocahontas

My Pocahontas

I honestly believed my mother was Native American.  My brothers and I were proud of that. 

She was also a very discreet and secretive mystery in our constantly questioning lives.  When we’d ask about her childhood and early life, she was often evasive and cautious to cover her answers with the frosting of anecdote rather than actual answers.  But in our minds we fantasized another truth.

"How’d you get that scar by your right eye?  Why is your nose bent and different than ours?  Why do you turn so much darker in the sun while we just burn?"

“Dog bite.”  “Thrown baseball bat.”  “Dunno, just do.”

She was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma, and I knew just enough about the Trail of Tears to believe my mother was definitely Cherokee.  My younger brother believed more romantically she was Apache and hopefully had carbines stored somewhere in a wall in the basement.  Whatever, we agreed that was no dog bite.   More likely from some ceremony of bravery, self-administered before a snapping fire against a purple sky. 

Our extended family helped fuel our belief.  They whispered to us when we were tightly pajamed in bed, “Just so you know, your Mother is a half-breed, you know.” 

“Really?” But they mistook the excitement in our mouthing voices for horror, not the ecstatic hope that Mom was something wild and beautiful and filled with a history of freedom and boundlessness. 

“Yes, really. And that’s just the beginning, I’m afraid.”

My mother and father eloped in 1946, just like Elizabeth Warren’s parents did over a decade earlier in 1932.  My father, having returned from a war which murdered his sleep for the rest of his life, blind-dated a dark-haired woman in Virginia, then returned to his Indiana home and dawdled one week before he left smitten back to Virginia to beg another chance.  Another chance forever.

His family and uncles and aunts never forgave him.

Unfortunately, we haven’t changed much since that time long ago when I suffered the hushed comments of my relatives.   In the Chicago Tribune, John Kaas described his glee at Senator Elizabeth Warren’s reluctance to undergo a DNA test to reveal whether or not she had any American Native DNA present in her genes.   Senator Warren, like my brothers and our family, fell prey to the allure of our family’s apparent narration and little scientific substance except for the manufactured tales of the unaccepting family.  “Isn’t it delicious that Fauxcahontas, aka Sen. Elizabeth Warren — the liberal Massachusetts Democrat toying with a 2020 presidential run — is refusing to take a DNA test to finally prove whether her self-serving claims of Cherokee heritage are true?

Actually, watching Warren squirm and Chuck Todd all but flagellate himself for having to ask about the DNA test on “Meet the Press” was more than delicious.”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-met-elizabeth-warren-cherokee-kass-0314-story.html

Chickasha is in Grady County southwest of Oklahoma City, and my mother’s orphanage is no longer in operation, but in the early 1930’s it was populated by the unwanted offspring of Mexican laborers and Native Americans, as well as some Whites.  She was only three and her adopters chose her and my Uncle Jack, a darkly handsome Mexican boy nearly three years her elder. 

And it was just the beginning, I’m afraid.  Whenever the “family” arrived, my mother stayed present but retreated into a distant and perfunctory person who smiled little and talked less. I remember her receiving a gift for Christmas: a long, sharply honed butcher knife with two carefully cut notches in its handle.  Everyone laughed at this inside joke, but my mother’s mouth played a faint twist as if suppressing an unwanted memory.

When Trump derided Warren once more, using his usual pejorative word Pocahontas to describe her for the Native American Code Talkers of World War Two  standing before him, I was more than staggered. I was catapulted back to my own childhood bed, in my pajamas, listening to one part of the family whose susurrus of whispers derided another’s skin, another’s color, another’s refusal to accept and my own mother.

As a result, I embraced multi-ethnicity without knowing what it was; instead, just a seething resentment for those who would dismiss my mother with a judgmental and derogatory description: half-breed, Indian, Red, squaw.  And if and when they visited and came to tuck us in, I gorged my antipathy waiting for them to finish the Lord’s Prayer with some breathy, disdainful comment about my mother.

Yet, like Senator Warren, I was without any real proof, just a desire to know she was special and her blood was coursing through my veins with all the history and significance my small life lacked. 

Now, science has trumped the lure of romantic family lore.  No longer believe in your responsibility to your great-great grandmother’s legend.  Check the DNA stream. 

Kaas calls Senator Warren Fauxcahontas.  Inversely, as mean-spirited as anything I ever heard hushed to me while I drifted to sleep.  

In the end of his sad diatribe, Kaas reminds us all that we are just and more importantly all Americans.  But in this respect, he would reaffirm what his column already purports: that those honored code talkers can be insulted by an ignorant man in power (momentarily), that the honored memories of a family’s past responsibilities and  beliefs are worthless unless scientifically provable, that the Democrats’ politics of race and gender are nothing compared to what we have now, and it’s just acceptable now to make fun of a politician interested in the lives of those without advocacy.

My mother died some ten years ago, and I wrote to the District Judge of Grady County for the records of her birth.  After determining that there would be no one left alive to argue against such a release, I was provided her records.  She was white and a ward of the state of Oklahoma.  White.  

As if that ever mattered.

Are You Walking Out of School Tomorrow?

Are You Walking Out of School on Wednesday?  A Basic Primer from the ALCU.

(https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/students-free-speech-rights-public-schools)

Across the nation on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m., students across the country will be making the decision to walk out out of classes for seventeen minutes to protest gun violence and remember the lives senselessly lost at Parkland, a minute for each lost life. 

The ACLU offers this advice, as does other sites and organizations.

How the First Amendment Protects Student Speech

If you’re a public school student, you don’t check your constitutional rights at the schoolhouse doors. But whether schools can punish you for speaking out depends on when, where, and how you decide to express yourself.


Do I Have First Amendment Rights in School?

Yes. You do not lose your right to free speech just by walking into school. You have the right to speak out, hand out flyers and petitions, and wear expressive clothing in school — as long as you don’t disrupt the functioning of the school or violate the school’s content-neutral policies.

What counts as “disruptive” will vary by context, but a school disagreeing with your position or thinking your speech is controversial or in “bad taste” is not enough to qualify. Courts have upheld students’ rights to wear things like an anti-war armband, an armband opposing the right to get an abortion, and a shirt supporting the LGBT community. And “content-neutral policies” means rules that have nothing to do with the message you’re expressing, like dress codes. So, for example, a school can prohibit you from wearing hats — because that rule is not based on what the hats say — but it can’t prohibit you from wearing only pink pussycat hats or pro-NRA hats.

Can My School Discipline Me for Participating in a Walkout?

Yes. Because the law in most places requires students to go to school, schools can discipline you for missing class. But what they can’t do is discipline you more harshly because of the political nature of or the message behind your action.

The exact punishment you could face will vary by your state, school district, and school. Find out more by reading the policies of your school and school district. If you’re planning to miss a class or two, look at the policy for unexcused absences. If you’re considering missing several days, read about truancy. And either way, take a look at the policy for suspensions. In some states and districts, suspension is not an available punishment for unexcused absences. And nationwide, if you are facing a suspension of 10 days or more, you have a right to a formal process and can be represented by a lawyer. Some states and school districts require a formal process for fewer days, too. Also, you should be given the same right to make up work just as any other student who missed classes.

Find out the rules so you can tell if they are being applied differently when it comes to your walkout.

What about Protesting Away from School?

Outside of school, you enjoy essentially the same rights to protest and speak out as anyone else. This means you’re likely to be most protected if you organize, protest, and advocate for your views off campus and outside of school hours.

What are My Rights on Social Media?

You have the right to speak your mind on social media. Your school cannot punish you for content you post off campus and outside of school hours that does not relate to school. Some schools have attempted to extend their power to punish students even for off-campus, online posts. While courts have differed on the constitutionality of those punishments, the ACLU has challenged such overreach.

Are My Rights Different Depending on What Grade I’m in?

They could be, because the test for whether speech is protected is based on whether what you’re doing can be considered “disruptive” to your school’s functioning. So, for example, the level of disruption caused by a certain message could be different in a high school classroom than in a middle school. Also, high school students are closer to being adults, so they are capable of hearing more provocative messages. Therefore, schools would likely have more leeway in restricting speech for younger students.

If I Participate in a Walk Out, Can the School Keep Me from Coming Back Inside Afterwards?

Locking out students is essentially the same thing as a suspension, so it depends on whether suspension is a possible punishment for missing class. If getting suspended is not a punishment for an unexcused absence at your school, then getting locked out after a walkout is not allowed.

How are My Rights Different at a Private School than a Public School?

The First Amendment applies to public schools’ actions, but not those of private schools, so unfortunately there is much less protection for students’ speech at a private school. This is because public schools are run by the government and private schools aren’t, and the First Amendment only controls what the government can and can’t do. That said, we hope that private schools will still allow students the leeway to express themselves and engage politically in the issues of the day.

Of course other questions come to mind.  Can a teacher schedule a test on the same day and moment?  Can I be asked to write or learn something before attending the walkout?  Can I be punished for participating? Can participation affect my application for college?  Another site dealing with these and other questions can be found on a CNN website:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/12/health/student-walkout-questions-trnd/index.html

Pension Cost Shifts for Local Districts AGAIN

"What we’ve suggested is that local districts have a little skin in the game when they hire teachers and administrators and set their salaries.  They should be required to set aside money into the pension system for their future retirees.”  Senate Leader John Cullerton (McQueary, Kristen.  Illinois schools may chip in…  NY Times 19 February 2012).

“Unlike elected officials in Wisconsin and Indiana, we work with unions in Illinois.” – John Cullerton to Phil Kadner 16 February 2012).  

“Some Skin in the Game” (…or...Making local school districts pay for pension costs).

Idiom: While many people give credit to sagacious investor Warren Buffet for the phrase “to have some skin in the game,” Mr. Buffet has strongly denied such attributions.  In essence, the idiomatic phrase means being personally, emotionally, or financially vulnerable to a possible venture and, therefore, connected to it at all levels of possible aftermaths.  According to William Saffire, the Oxford English Dictionary explains the “skin game” as a card game in which each player has one card which he bets will not be the first to be matched by a card drawn from the deck; so dealer or player all have equal chances of winning or losing 

( http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/opinion/17iht-edsafire.2839605.html ).

Sadly, in the case of the public pension system, it appears to be losers all around.  The concept of shifting financial responsibility for the teachers’ pension from the State of Illinois to local school districts has become increasingly popular in the last few months.  

The president of the senate, Mr. Cullerton, sees this transfer as an opportunity to force local districts to keep the state’s increasing costs and teachers’ salary increases in check.  Costs for pensions per district would become an essential part of union contract negotiations (McQueary, Kristen).  

For Governor Quinn, the “rendezvous with reality” will also call for everyone’s sacrifice, including the local districts.  

Regarding teacher retirement benefits, the state could save nearly $1.5 billion; according to  the associated press, Governor Quinn has given the nod to those who would seek such a shift in responsibilities (http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/illinois/quinn-looks-to-shift-teacher-pension-funding-to-local-school/article_bed030a4-1a1d-56f9-bcd0-c2fedce38fa3.html). Such savings would allow the State of Illinois to continue making payments to reduce the unfunded liability, to continue to provide and improve human services, and to force local districts to enact new procedures for dealing with public unions that want better benefits for their employees.  

On the other hand, many Republicans and others - including the Illinois Association of School Boards – figure the costs would be injurious to local taxpayers as well as the districts themselves.  Such requirements might bring “an additional  $800 million in contributions toward teacher pensions,” which coincidentally is the projected amount the state of Illinois will owe to the pension system this year - without their required payment to the unfunded liability (McQueary, Kristen). In short, it may be more than coincidental that this proposal will allow the debtor (the state) to pay simply the interest on past non-payments and not the current bill that is due for 2012.  

Meanwhile, Republicans in the General Assembly realize what kind of pressure is being put on the local districts and the citizens who live within those school boundaries.   They foresee an increased burden on the local taxpayers and the school boards. “’It could either be a property tax increase or, depending on how they structure the deal, they’re going to have to cut whatever those costs are within [the] school district,’ Rep, Ed Sullivan, R – Mundelein, said. ‘So you’re either going to lose teachers or have a massive property tax.’”  

(http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/illinois/illinois-republicans-against-shifting-pension-costs-to-school-districts/article_aa4db910-5cfe-11e1-b880-001a4bcf6878.html)  Perhaps there will also be cuts in programs, such as Industrial and Theater Arts, Music and  Creative Writing? Etc.?

Some truths are still evident.  School income – also wealth – is created by a combination of three elements:

1.         Property Wealth – This is the combined value of all the real estate in a school district which, in turn, determines just how much money the local schools can generate from their property taxes.  According to Dick Ingram, Executive Director of TRS, “Illinois is a state of financial extremes.”

2.         Tax Effort – The total assessed value of real property must be multiplied by the school district’s tax rate to determine the amount of property taxes the district can receive.  Tax rates are subject to local referendums; therefore, taxpayers themselves decide whether or not to support their local schools and by how much.

3.         State Equalization Aid – The State of Illinois is supposed to provide equalization funds to compensate for the differences in local property wealth, but the dollars can never meet the vast gaps in differences.  District relying on state aid have far less than districts that can rely on wealthy property taxes.

(Illinois Association of School Boards.  Playing fair with the children of Illinois.  www.iasb.com)

Need an example?

In south suburban Ford Heights, where the median annual household income is about $16,000 and the average home is worth $42,000, the local taxpayers pay a property tax rate of 21.7 percent.  On the other hand, in Winnetka, where the average home is worth $1 million, and the annual household income is $207,955, the property tax rate is about 6%, according to statistics compiled by the Cook County clerk (Kadner, Phil. Pols pull bait and switch on teacher pensions, taxes.  Chicago Sun-Times 12 February 2012).  

Here’s a real rendezvous with reality:

Shifting the costs of the state’s pension problems to local taxpayers would break the poor but only slightly distress the wealthy.  (Personally, while I can live with the latter, I find it unconscionable to do the former).  

Augmenting that most unacceptable fact, Illinois (in 2006!) had the most inequitable education funding system in the country, with per pupil spending ranging from a high of almost $23,700 to a low of less than $4,500 (Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. “The current status of public education funding in Illinois,” 2006).  Today, while taxpayers in Schaumburg pay a composite tax of nearly 7.7%, those who struggle in poverty-ridden Robbins will pay property taxes ranging from 9 to 10.3%, despite an income average of at least one third that of Schaumburg.  

In the case of House Speaker Madigan, “skin in the game” means, basically, if you are a public employee, it’s your skin.  “The question is how to do that (solve the pension problem) within the confines of the state constitution, which says public employee pension benefits cannot be reduced once they are given.  Madigan outlined a potential trade-off.  ‘The question is for a person in a public job today, can we say to them “Everything you’ve earned up to today you keep, no change?” But…can we say to that person, “Starting tomorrow, it’s going to be a different deal.  It won’t be as rich.  The benefit level will not be as high, but we will save the stability and integrity of your pension system.’” (http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/quinn-asks-lawmakers-to-put-some-skin/80c6ffd8eea873ac52a4b9427d90ce9e)

So, either the public employees sacrifice or the local taxpayers sacrifice.  Meanwhile, companies in Illinois carry on calmly claiming their rights to tax loopholes and rebates.  While the governor nods to the idea of locals paying more; remember that big-box Illinois retailers receive back 1.75% of the sales tax revenue they collect from consumers on behalf of the state (Sachdev, Ameet & Cancino, Alejandra.  Tax giveaways under a microscope. Chicago Tribune) 

Here we are again...