Dead
Thursday, Mar 11, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The headline on Kristen McQueary’s column pretty much sums it up…
Budget plan is clever, but D.O.A.
Tactically, this would normally be a decent move. Raise taxes for schools. That’s how income taxes were raised here in 1987, all the money went to schools and local governments.
Politically, however, this is dead.
* Why won’t this go anywhere? It was pretty obvious yesterday…
House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has repeatedly condemned Republicans for refusing to put votes behind an income-tax hike, praised Quinn’s courage in pushing the new plan. But the speaker actually made a compelling case against it during a televised interview after the governor’s speech.
“Let’s be straightforward about this. The people of Illinois, they don’t want tax increases. They’re hurting. The American economy is in bad shape. People are out of work. They don’t want to hear about tax increases,” Madigan said.
“You should admire the governor for standing up in these times and say, ‘Look if we wish to maintain the fiscal integrity of this state, then we ought to do this tax increase.’ That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen,” Madigan said.
Tom Cross…
“This is a fellow who likes to hold people hostage,” Cross said of Quinn. “I suggest that at end of the day, this (education cuts) will not happen. This is a scare tactic. Scaring people is not leadership.”
Leader Radogno…
Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno dismissed the proposed budget as “a tactical document.”
“We’re not going to be bullied into it,” she said.
President Cullerton…
. Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said he supports the latest plan, but it is up to the House to take the lead, since the House never acted on last year’s proposal
More Cullerton…
President John Cullerton, for example, panned a plan to cut $300 million in state aid to cities.
“That’s going to be difficult to pass that bill,” said Cullerton, D-Chicago.
This, however, is more likely…
Given the lack of support for a tax hike, one scenario circulating in the Capitol has Democrats approving a bare-bones budget that carries the state through the November elections, after which they would push through a tax hike to help pull the state out of its fiscal quagmire.
“It’s entirely possible,” Cross said.
* Meanwhile, the Tribune editorial board was predictably enraged, screaming that its pension fund slashes should’ve been implemented in order to save $2 billion, even though they won’t. And just saying something ought to be done doesn’t mean it can be done. I’d like to visit Pluto, but I ain’t gonna get there. Also, proposing cuts of $6 billion when we appear to have a structural hole far larger than that isn’t going to solve the problem in two years, no matter how you do the math.
And Ralph Martire makes a good point that the Tribune should at least listen to…
Illinois ranks — when you look at us compared to other states, and you look at our spending as a percentage of our state GDP, which is the only rational comparison state-to-state — we rank 45th in spending with the 5th biggest populations, and we ranked 42nd in tax burden. We’re low-tax, low-spending, we have a giant, giant deficit.
* The Sun-Times was upset that the governor’s tax hike wasn’t large enough, even though the governor’s tax hike isn’t going anywhere.
* I hesitate to delve too deeply into this budget plan, because the whole thing will need to be reworked. But here’s one of the more interesting proposals that may survive…
llinois Governor Pat Quinn wants the state’s youth prisons to be controlled by another department.
Four years ago, the Department of Juvenile Justice was part of the Department of Corrections. It was separated after some lawmakers and advocates argued youth prisons should not be controlled by the same office as the adult prisons.
Now Quinn wants to fold it into another large agency, the Department of Children and Family Services, to save money, the administration says, and get kids more access to a full range of services.
As Chicago Public Radio has amply reported, the state’s juvenile justice system is a complete mess. Some of the prisons are in outrageously poor conditions. Maybe DCFS can straighten it out, maybe not, but they’re gonna try…
Cook County Public Guardian Robert Harris, whose office represents kids in juvenile court, said it often seemed unfair that children involved in the child protection side of juvenile court have access to services absent on the juvenile justice side.
“They are often confronted with the same issues — neglect, abuse, no family or parents involved in drugs,” Harris said. “It makes sense.”
* Roundup…
* Gov seeks 33% tax hike for education, billions in spending cuts
* Quinn seeks income tax increase for schools
* Pat Quinn proposes tax hike for schools
* Quinn’s budget offers stark choice: raise taxes or cut school spending
* Quinn Releases Budget; Says 1% Tax Hike Would Stop Schools Cuts
* Quinn calls for raising Illinois income tax to 4 percent during budget address
* How education might suffer if income tax increase fails
* Quinn’s budget seeks $2.2 bil. spending cuts
* Child care, AIDS prevention hit
* State Police would lose 500, Operation CeaseFire its funding
* PTSD counseling efforts, military families affected
* Educators, employees, others react to Quinn proposals
* Pols responses to Quinn’s budget
* Radogno Says Quinn is Playing Political Games with Budget
- OneMan - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 9:30 am:
== I’d like to visit Pluto, but I ain’t gonna get there. ==
I suspect covering Springfield you have visited Goofy more than you would care to admit.
- CircularFiringSquad - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 9:34 am:
Wow…when you line up the GOP “leaders” it looks more like Larry,Moe and Curley everyday. This is the alternative?
- Small Town Liberal - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 9:39 am:
Rich, what if there was a sunset on the tax increase, think that would change anything?
- Segatari - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 9:45 am:
>“Let’s be straightforward about this. The people of Illinois, they don’t want tax increases. They’re hurting. The American economy is in bad shape. People are out of work. They don’t want to hear about tax increases,” Madigan said.
Shocking that a Democrat would say this. Is the state just going to go to half-year budgets now?
- Deep South - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 9:45 am:
So the plan is dead.
Well, who’s got the next plan? The only other idea I’ve heard is Brady’s ten-percenter and it seems to not only be dead but almost rotted away. Can we expect more of the same then….which is nothing, no ideas, no action….oh, but plenty of politics? Gutless wonders.
- Angry Chicagoan - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 9:48 am:
OK, so everyone is rejecting every possible solution. Do we just have the state stop paying bills? Let school boards find it all through property tax dollars? Let college students pay full fright? Have Medicaid patients turned away? Wait for the inevitable federal lawsuits to roll in when the state starts stiffing mandates?
That seems to me to be the plan. By process of elimination, nothing else is left.
- Angry Chicagoan - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 9:48 am:
I meant “full freight”, but this was a Freudian slip indeed.
- GoldCoastConservative - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 9:52 am:
I would argue that the statistics offered by Ralph Martire to portray our state as frugal on government spending are distorted by the fact that they do not include the tens of billions of dollars in unfunded pension and healthcare liabilities that our elected leaders have obligated us to pay. And if Illinois is such a low spending (and by implication low taxing) paradise, then why does the state rank 48th or 49th in the country in job creation? Does he think that massive increases in government spending, fueled by higher taxes, will encourage existing businesses to grow or attract new ones from out of state?
- wordslinger - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 9:54 am:
Given the intractable election-year positions of the major players, I sympathize more than usual with those who will have to follow the daily “progress” of the GA this spring.
Sound and fury, signifying nothing.
It’s hilarious: a $13 billion problem, Quinn cuts only two billion and everyone faints. Where did people think the cuts were going to come from: cutting back on pencils and paper clips?
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 9:56 am:
===And if Illinois is such a low spending (and by implication low taxing) paradise, then why does the state rank 48th or 49th in the country in job creation?===
Perhaps you might consider that one has little to do with the other? Just sayin…
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 9:57 am:
===Rich, what if there was a sunset on the tax increase, think that would change anything? ===
No.
- Red Ranger - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 9:57 am:
Nearly every year since the Dems took back the Govs Mansion, they have tried to craft a state budget without the input of the GOP. They have done so in DEM only meetings and passed budgets with DEM only votes. Only when the DEMs failed to pass a budget by May 31 did they allow the GOP a seat at the table. Now that the chickens are coming home to roost, and truly tough decisions need to be made, the DEMS are saying its time for the GOP to step up. How does this make sense? Imagine if you had a sibling that threw a party while your parents were away and didn’t invite you. The house is trahsed. Then your sibling turns to you and says, its your duty to clean up the House. Does that make any sense? The DEMs made the mess, they should clean it up.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:01 am:
===Nearly every year since the Dems took back the Govs Mansion, they have tried to craft a state budget without the input of the GOP.===
Not true.
- zatoichi - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:07 am:
Glad to see the politics of ‘No, but I have no better options to offer’ remains the season’s mantra at the state and Fed level.
“this (education cuts) will not happen”. Great, the money still has to come from somewhere. Since the total pot of available bucks keeps shrinking that somewhere place is really going to get whacked. Then the champions for somewhere can get up and scream how vital somewhere is which starts the entire process again.
I keep imagining this entire process being a stage magician with good card skills. How’d he do that trick? The skill is the control of the magician to distract the viewer and keep them satisfied while revealing nothing.
Martire is right.
- dupage dan - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:08 am:
The same tired plans, the same tired pronouncements, the same tired predictions, the same tired pundits. Does anybody have a prescription?
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:10 am:
===Does anybody have a prescription? ===
No.
- Scooby - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:13 am:
And the Magic Beans caucus grows by infinity.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:14 am:
We have no money. This government is broken. Incumbants have to go. They are Madigan’s infants suckling on their leader’s empty bosom and fighting among themselves who will have to tell voters the truth.
We have the wrong leaders and the wrong legislators for difficult times. We have to vote them all out. We will not see honesty from people who were comfortably led by both Ryan or Blagojevich. It took arrests before these General Assembly mushrooms stopped following these criminals around begging for cash crumbs.
No plan is a bad plan when government shuts down under bankrupsy. But our spoiled leaders won’t admit this, and are too politically frightened to lead.
They all have to go.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:16 am:
“All budgets are political documents.”
- Mayor John Lindsay, New York City, 1966-73
- GoldCoastConservative - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:16 am:
Rich, I beleive that taxes and pension obligations influence a state’s business climate. And I believe that Illinois’ state spedning as a percentage of GDP is artifically low due to the state’s habitual avoidance of paying the “actuarially required contribution.” Those states with the lower unfunded pension obligations and lower taxes (i.e. Texas, Washington, Florida, etc.) are better at growing and attracting jobs.
- Red Ranger - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:22 am:
Sure they have Rich. 03, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 the Dems did one of 3 things, rammed it through with no GOP, got a handful of GOP support at the end, or blew past May 31 and then needed GOP. They never included the GOP during the entire budget process in those years. That is fine, they are in the majority, but now that things are really really bad its disingenuous to say the GOP has to share equally in the tough choices
- (Formerly) Angry Republican - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:25 am:
Rich, your QOTD should be how many more months (or years) can IL “kick the can down the road”? It has become quite clear there won’t be a balanced budget or any major changes until after the election.
- Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:27 am:
The leg “leaders” on both sides of the aisle clearly believe that Quinn will back down just like he did last year.
His only hope is to stick to his plan come hell or high water. Promise and follow through with vetoes. If they punt the cuts to Quinn as they did last year, he should implement his plan as presented.
Will Quinn do it? Doubtful. (It’s clear from yesterday’s interviews that no one believes him.)
Message to Pat Q: You want some respect, don’t back down a single dollar. As soon as you show any sign of backing off the bitter medicine you proposed, it’s all over, you can pack up and go home.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:29 am:
I agree with Pot.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:29 am:
===And if Illinois is such a low spending (and by implication low taxing) paradise, then why does the state rank 48th or 49th in the country in job creation?===
== Perhaps you might consider that one has little to do with the other? Just sayin… == - Rich Miller
Rich is right.
Poor-quality schools lead to higher unemployment, underemployment, depress property values, and make it harder to attract business investment. For starters.
Underinvestment in public health drives up private health care costs for employers, as people are shifted from minor illnesses treated in clinics to major illnesses treated in emergency rooms.
Inadequate efforts to prevent child abuse, elder abuse and domestic violence have tremendous costs. Domestic violence is one of the leading causes of sick days for women workers.
Should we talk about the quality of our roads, our lack of urban green space, our public transit?
Ask yourself every day: If you were launching the next Google, where would you want to be? HINT: they didn’t pick California because of its low taxes.
- vole - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:33 am:
Dems: Yes we can’t.
Reps: No we can’t.
Quinn: We are the can do people.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:35 am:
== Those states with the lower unfunded pension obligations and lower taxes (i.e. Texas, Washington, Florida, etc.) are better at growing and attracting jobs. ==
Washington and Florida just raised taxes in response to the recession.
Texas, of course, has been living off of the gas and oil rights it has, which allowed it to build up a $5.7 BILLION rainy day fund. Those costs of course were simply passed by those companies along to you and me, so in an indirect way, they raised taxes as well.
- Aldyth - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 11:19 am:
“One ring to rule them all.
One ring to bind them.
One ring to bring them all
And in the darkness, bind them.”
Mike Madigan, the wearer of the One Ring.
How is it that one man from one state representative district rules all of Illinois? Those of us in the other 117 districts never got a chance to vote for or against him. Yet, he gets the call on what is going to happen with the state budget.
*bangs head on table*
- GoldCoastConservative - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 11:32 am:
YDD, I respectfully reject your use of California as an example. Employers are streaming out of the state due to its terrible business climate. And people are follwing them into low tax Nevada. For the first time EVER, California will lose a Congressional seat after the next census! And as for greenspace and public transit, I’m wondering if you’ve ever been to LA? Oh, and Washington and Florida still do not have personal income taxes.
- Distant Observer - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 11:35 am:
Not to decide, is to decide. - Harvey Cox
- Double D - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 11:35 am:
Let me get this straight:
1.) The state needs to increase my taxes to pay their bills.
2.) My school district needs to raise my taxes make up for the unpaid bills from the state.
3.) My son’s college tuition needs to increase in order to make up for the unpaid funding from the state.
4.) My employer (school district) needs to lower my salary to balance its budget because of unpaid funding from the state.
5.) Abuses by a few have created a clamoring for a reform of my pension system…or is it merely that the state has figured it needs to get its hands on that money too?
What exactly did I do to deserve this mess?
Thank you Pat, Mike, John, Christine, Tom and all you lousy bums that have allowed this to happen on BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 11:38 am:
===And people are follwing them into low tax Nevada. ===
Nevada’s budget deficit is 50 percent of its operating budget. Just sayin…
- Eagle Eye - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 11:42 am:
Aldyth — Your elected Rep votes for Speaker of the House and Senate President as well as Minority Leader- so they are directly responsible for Madigan, Cullerton, Cross etc.
You vote by proxy - that’s the way ofRepresentative Democracy
- inpatient in il - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 12:16 pm:
the sad thing is, really we need the tax increase, which is DOA, AND the spending cuts, which are DOA, and we still haven’t fixed the problem
- hisgirlfriday - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 12:17 pm:
“This is a fellow who likes to hold people hostage,” Cross said of Quinn. “I suggest that at end of the day, this (education cuts) will not happen. This is a scare tactic. Scaring people is not leadership.”
I am not a fan of Quinn’s cuts to education or borrowing, but seriously, Cross? This situation IS SCARY. It’s too bad there isn’t an equivalent of a “Scared Straight” video for the legislators. And save the hostage soundbites for when you’re talking about the state’s relationship with its unpaid vendors and schools and Medicaid providers.
- Bill - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 12:20 pm:
Its pretty obvious that “the people” don’t want a tax increase. To try to stall until after the election and then raise taxes is silly. There is an election every two years. There will never be a good time to raise taxes. Cut away, dudes. You’re not fooling anyone.
- Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 12:28 pm:
“The people” will never want a tax increase, especially when there are plenty of political “leaders” willing to reinforce the idea that a tax increase is not needed (even though they know, or should know that their assertion is not correct).
Bill Brady will NEVER provide a balanced, cut budget. (Nor will Tom C. or Christine R.) Not now (why should they), not after the election (because it is not possible to do it).
- cassandra - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 1:13 pm:
Our Pat’s proposed tax increase will bring in a little over 2 billion, with a little over 1 billion going to prevent his billion-dollar state school aid cut. But what about the other billion? Even if he does use it to pay down overdue school aid as promised, that’s this year. What about next year?
As I understand it, none of the money from this tax increase would have to go to schools next year. Or the year after that.
With this tax increase, we are giving our governor and legislators, in one of the country’s most corrupt states, a $2 plus billion dollar unrestricted gift, so to speak. Sure they’ll spend it on something. But what? Not schools, necessarily. Whatever they say.
- Arthur Andersen - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 1:13 pm:
I’m late to the discussion, but it’s worth pointing out that among the fiscal problems in Washington and Florida were huge losses in their State pension funds; funds which previously had been at or close to 100% funded.
- Will County Woman - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 1:15 pm:
you people who are complaining about madigan and cross need to stop and consider that: technically mike madigan and the republicans are correct. they are ones who are in touch with the electorate here. quinn is the one who is totally out of touch, just like he was last year.
- fed up - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 1:18 pm:
Pat Quinn will never make the cuts that need to be made. Not while Emil Jones and bobby rush control him. He learned from Blago pander to these two give them what they wantr and let the rest of the state pay for it.
- Will County Woman - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 1:30 pm:
@ Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 10:27 am:
but pot quinn has signaled that he will just do a stopgap again, despite his (muffled–more muffled than last year for sure) claims that it is not a good idea. so hasn’t he already pretty much blinked here and resigned himself to another stopgap? the borrowing he finally laid yesterday bears this out, right?
- Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 2:04 pm:
WCW: While Cross and MJM may claim to be “in touch with the electorate” the electorate is out of touch with budget reality. Letting an uniformed electorate lead the way takes us into further debt because the electorate wants lots of government services and low taxes.
The state needs real leaders who are willing to explain to the voters that government services comes at a price, and then follow through with tax increases & gov’t service cuts. Right now, Quinn is the only person in a leadership role willing to broach the subject. Quinn has been pretty consistent with that message; although, he has been woefully inconsistent on the actions required in the follow-up.
- Will County Woman - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 2:26 pm:
to say that the electorate is out of touch is not entirely fair, pot.
consider what the electorate has been through vis a viz george ryan and blago, and countless other pols in between their time in office who have went down, or are going down, due to political scandal/corrpution. consider that there is a wide perception that obama hasn’t lived up to his hype, even minimally, and the impact that has in voters minds.
“Quinn has been pretty consistent with that message; although, he has been woefully inconsistent on the actions required in the follow-up.”
i disagree. quinn started out his call for a tax hike lasty year saying that the state needed to pay its bills. that was the right message, but he abandoned it in short-order to push poverty and in favor of “brother’s keeper” rhetoric. and that’s where he went all kinds of wrong! similarly, he resorts to a losing tactic this year with using children as a human shield. and what’s even worse, if that’s even possible, is that he totally abdicates the state’s responsibility to pay its ong overdue bills, as if that’s good/wise budgeting policy. can these vendors etc start suing the state for lack of payment? he said yesterday that illinois is just gonna let bills piles up and ignore them,. how is it appropriate for a governor of a state to say that? someone posted on thr blog yesterday that the state is going after a people with a vegence to collect monies due to the state. what’s good for the goose…?
quinn is out of touch on so many levels, that it is beyond ridiculous, pot.
- Amalia - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 2:26 pm:
hey Art Turner, you are in the House, what say you? after
all, you want to be Lt. Gov., next in line, and public schools
are in real need on the West side in the district you
represent.
- GoldCoastConservative - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 2:29 pm:
@ Arthur Anderson: According to a report from the Pew Center on the states released only last month, the latest figures for Florida show that its pensions are funded to 101.35% of the ARC. The number for Washington is only slightly lower at 100.33%. The same measure for Illinois: 54.33%.
- special assistant - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 3:00 pm:
While recently thumbing through the budget I check on raises for Directors and Deputy Directors and sure enough they are there! It makes me angry that they cut programs and social service needs and then turn right around and give them bonuses, travel expenses, a vehicle…. while Quinn says we are broke! What are they thinking? Heaven help us!
- wordslinger - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 3:16 pm:
===And people are follwing them into low tax Nevada. ===
Nevada’s budget deficit is 50 percent of its operating budget. Just sayin…–
Nevada’s unemployment rate is 13.7%. There aren’t a whole lot winners out there now, fiscally or economically, when you use the states as a measure.
Illinois historically tracks the national economy. Right now, the national economy is recovering from the recent gut punches of the housing and financial bubbles as well as the continuing loss of manufacturing jobs to Asia.
A dynamic, global, economy means things change. You adapt and build on your strengths. Illinois has many.
- zatoichi - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 5:00 pm:
SA, I also thumbed the budget. Glad to see that mental health community programs only got whacked 47%. DMH is looking at a loss of 3,800 jobs and dropping services to 70,000 people. Not to mention residential programs that help keep people out of hospitals and in the community at far lower costs. They figure about 80 community agencies will close and emergency room/inpatient care will jump huge. That will help keep the hospitals financials healthy and hold health insurance costs down. It’s the annual hit on human services. That local mental health center that has always taken care of people, will likely not be there next year.
- STATE WORKER - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 5:58 pm:
I don’t care if you put the Department of Juvenile Justice under the I.R.S. The problem was never what you called it. The problem is they chose the wrong Director to lead it. You can’t blame Blago for not doing the proper paperwork to get 2 million dollars of free computers for the kids. You can’t blame Blago for hiring inexperienced Administrators. You can’t blame Blago for wasting time and free grant money to hire parole agents once the kids get out. It’s not Blago’s fault the department hasn’t trained staff in 4 years. Everytime I read a paper about this issue the Director of the agency is blaming the past Governor. Proposing to put DJJ under DCFS is just another smoke screen.
- walk in my shoes - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 6:17 pm:
@State Worker - I couldn’t agree more! IDJJ was built on a pipe dream and pushed through by some rather ambitious politicians without even securing the budget or resources to fund it. They stood by while the name changed and the uniform changed. They have stood by while no new training was given in the past four years. They have stood by while millions of dollars escaped the departments use because they were not adequately prepared for the change. They continue to waste time and money trying to please John Howard and PBS. They have stood by while these kids sit in IDJJ for months before being enrolled in a less than adequately staff school district. They have stood by while the poor choice in leadership continues to be ineffective. They have stood by while the mission statement of the department is not adhered to on a daily basis. They have stood by while the public is told that the kids incarcerated are victims. The truth is that a large majority of the kids incarcerated in IDJJ are murders, rapists, car jackers and convicted of heinious crimes. If I remember correctly two sponsors of the bill were Cullerton and A. Collins. Where are they now? The problems with IDJJ cannot be fixed with a merger to DCFS. The problems in IDJJ will be fixed when competent leaders are put into place from the Director to the Superintendents based on qualifications and not political party appointments and/or favors.
- STATE WORKER - Thursday, Mar 11, 10 @ 9:52 pm:
amen…walk in my shoes. I could not have said it better. I pray our present Governor looks into the real story instead of just reacting. I’m afaid the proposal to move into DCFS is a reaction to poor management.