Politics – Rich Miller

Congratulations, everybody! Illinois now has five public universities with junk bond credit ratings. That has to be some kind of record. Last week, S&P Global Ratings lowered the credit score of both Southern Illinois University and Western Illinois University into junk bond status. Eastern, Northeastern and Governor’s State were already in junk bond territory and […]

As you know by now, Gov. Bruce Rauner toured the state for two days last week. He denied that the tour had anything to do with the 2018 election, but it was pretty darned clear that he and his team were tuning up the band for the big show down the road. Campaign funds not […]

I suppose it’s too much to expect that we get an honest debate about the need for more state revenues in the already active gubernatorial race. Candidates will be candidates and voters will be voters, after all. Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign blasted out an email last week telling supporters that newly announced billionaire Democratic candidate […]

As the Senate’s two leaders tried again to find the votes to pass their “grand bargain” last week to end the state’s two-year governmental gridlock, Gov. Rauner began spending more than a million dollars on two new TV ads that portray him as an every-man “duct tape” hero in the fight for Illinois’ future. “Illinois […]

I’ve been going to Statehouse committee hearings longer than I care to remember – something like 27 years. Last week, however, was the first time I can ever recall having to fight back tears during a hearing. The House Appropriations General Services Committee heard testimony last week from Kenea Williams, a state employee who works […]

You may have heard about a recent Paul Simon Public Policy Institute poll which found that Gov. Bruce Rauner’s job disapproval ratings have almost doubled in the past two years, from 31 percent in March of 2015 to 58 percent this month. According to the poll, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s current disapproval rating is […]

If Attorney General Lisa Madigan succeeds in convincing the Illinois Supreme Court to consider ordering the state to stop paying employees without an appropriation and the governor’s legal team uses the same arguments as it did in St. Clair County, we could be in for a highly unusual argument. First, a little background. The Illinois […]

According to a recent poll, Gov. Bruce Rauner is a whole lot less popular than a one-cent-per-ounce state sales tax on sugary drinks. The poll of 800 registered voters taken Feb. 15-20 for the American Heart Association found that Rauner is backed by just 32 percent against an unnamed Democrat, who would receive 47 percent. […]

If you’re running for office anytime soon or if you currently hold office or are a “public figure,” please try to keep one thing in mind: So far, the only person to prove he can thrive by talking like President Donald Trump is … President Donald Trump. Trump, and only Trump, can insult a war […]

Before Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget address last week, Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno made a rare visit to the Senate Democratic caucus meeting. Radogno assured the Democrats that she and her GOP caucus were working in good faith to achieve a bipartisan “grand bargain” in the chamber. Senate Democrats have been grumbling for weeks that […]

You may have read a news story or two about the latest blistering report from New York-based S&P Global Ratings about Illinois’ fiscal and economic woes. But it’s far more brutal than anything reported by the media and it pretty obviously lays the blame for much of the morass at Gov. Bruce Rauner’s doorstep while […]

The latest Illinois credit rating downgrade from Fitch Ratings is chock full of phrases that could be used in the next campaign cycle against the governor and other incumbents. The one that’s made the most headlines is “Unprecedented failure,” as in Fitch’s downgrade “reflects the unprecedented failure of the state to enact a full budget […]