In a total of 36 amendatory vetoes, Governor Bruce Rauner unleashed a competing plan for Democrats and Republican negotiators to chew on through the coming week. Substantive vetoes ranged from relocation of Chicago Public School pension funding to the recalculation of teacher salaries. The Daily Line gathered the changes in a rundown for readers here.

After yesterday’s big reveal, the Senate now has 14 days to either override or approve Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto. In either case, the Senate will have to draft at least one trailer bill, despite the fact several Democrats from the chamber have confirmed that another convening is unlikely this week. All eyes now turn to Senate President John Cullerton and the bipartisan group of SB1 negotiators who are tasked with wrapping up the business of the bill before school debts are due. If you missed the veto signing, here’s the highlight reel:

It finally happened. Although not present in the Capitol, Senate President John Cullerton released the hold on education-funding reform bill SB1 late yesterday and sent it to the desk of Governor Bruce Rauner. Once Rauner returns his vetoes, the Senate has 15 days to either accept Rauner’s vetoes or override him. After chambers adjourned for the day, SB1 negotiators took to House Speaker Mike Madigan’s office, spending more than an hour behind closed doors before disappearing through side exits. Republican negotiators were then seen going into Rauner’s office.  

In our Friday July 28 edition, The Daily Line incorrectly reported that to accept the Governor’s recommended changes in his amendatory veto, the Senate would need a simple majority vote. Senate President John Cullerton’s spokesperson John Patterson corrected us in an email the same day, clarifying that “accepting the anticipated changes in the Governor’s amendatory veto would require a three-fifths vote (not a majority vote) because those changes are a new law taking effect after May 31.”  

For those whose concerns pivot on parliamentary maneuvers, this is where the game gets interesting.

In his email, Patterson said that several outlets had reported that a “simple majority” was needed for accepting the Governor’s specific recommendations for change, and that internal discussions were had about the matter.

As reported, Senate Rule 9-6 does indeed hold that when a bill has received a normal majority vote in favor of  “acceptances of specific recommendations for change [from the Governor], the Presiding Officer shall declare that the bill or item has been passed or restored over the veto of the Governor, or that the specific recommendations for change have been approved as the case may be.”

However, Patterson pointed The Daily Line to an opinion issued in 1972 by then Attorney General William Scott which shaped the nature of the veto process and effectively raised the necessary vote count needed to accept the Governor’s vetoes (given the specific conditions around SB1’s passage). The opinion, issued at the request of then Superintendent of Public Instruction Honorable Michael J. Bakalis, clarifies the effective date of a law raising the minimum salaries for full-time teachers and, in doing so, sets two conditions for veto-acceptance on bills meant to immediately go into effect.

Leaning on Article IV Section 10 in the state constitution, Scott opines that “unless the General Assembly provided for an earlier effective date and the bills received a three-fifths majority,” the act passed after June 30, 1971 and signed into law Nov. 17, 1971 would not become effective until July 1 of the following year.

In the case of teachers’ salaries, Scott’s opinion ultimately held back teacher raises for another 8 months. But in the case of SB1, the bill’s language provides clear legislative intent for the effective dates. In order to honor those dates, a three-fifths majority is the bar the Senate must meet in order to accept Rauner’s changes and get immediate funding flowing to schools.

Perhaps less interestingly, but certainly worth addressing, Patterson also pointed out our description of a Wednesday shot Cullerton took at Rauner. We wrote that it was a swipe at Rauner’s “mental health,” and Patterson notes the President’s words were “mental state.” It’s a common legal phrase as pointed out by NPR Illinois’ Brian Mackey and a necessary distinction to make given the rebuke Cullerton received the same day at the hands of the Illinois’ Mental Health Division Director Diana Knaebe. Nostra culpa.

Today’s the day. Party liaisons from both sides of the aisle, having spent the weekend negotiating the fate of education-funding reform bill SB1 are slated to conclude their work so Senate President John Cullerton can deliver the bill to Governor Bruce Rauner’s desk as promised. A pre-veto meeting between the two, indicated on Friday, is anticipated once the bill hits Rauner’s desk and before it returns to the Senate. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have confirmed that with so many members out-of-pocket for seasonal travel and district obligations, wrangling a vote may not be possible until later in the week.

• On the Democrats’ side of the table, chamber leaders appointed the following negotiators Friday to hammer out an agreement: Senate Assistant Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford (D-Westchester) whose district includes one of the state’s most vulnerable school districts, SB1 sponsor Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill), House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago), and Rep. Will Davis (D-East Hazel Crest).
  
  


• On the Republican side: Senate Assistant Republican Leader Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) who said Friday Rauner would be willing to meet with Cullerton after receiving the bill, Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich), Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Litchfield), and Rep. Bob Pritchard (R-Sycamore).
  
  


• The central points of disagreement between the parties has been whether to eliminate Chicago Public Schools’ block grant funding while incorporating CPS’ $506 million legacy teacher pension debts (and $221 million in pension “normal costs”) into a school funding formula, or whether to wrest CPS pension reform into a separate bill. Members of both parties have previously confirmed that they would be able to compromise on issues surrounding CPS pensions if a suitable trailer bill could be crafted in time to accommodate reforms.  
  

Keep an eye on the @TheDailyLineIL today where we’ll be reporting out the weekend compromises made by the SB1 negotiating team, tracking the bill’s movement between branches, and reporting the highlights of leadership press conferences.  

The Senate is poised to cast a contentious vote in the coming week, while campaign season begins and the 2018 Senate elections inch closer. The following is a glance at those Senate campaign funds which filed A-1’s in the past week:

“Déjà vu,” said Governor Bruce Rauner at yesterday’s press conference when Senate President John Cullerton again declined to dispatch SB1 for the governor’s signature. We’re likely to hear the same joke today, as Senate Democrats–hardly present in the chamber yesterday, and missing Cullerton–confirmed an anticipated low-turnout through Friday and likely into Monday, when Cullerton has promised to send Rauner the bill.

As soon as he receives SB1 on his desk, Gov. Bruce Rauner’s actions are limited by the Illinois Constitution. Unless there is some sort of last minute negotiation, the likely outcome of the Cullerton-Rauner showdown will be a veto of SB1, bringing everyone back to the table to create a whole new education funding bill.

As Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Mike Madigan continued to urge Governor Bruce Rauner to meet for negotiations and sign SB1, Republican legislators reacted to the bill’s delay on the first day of special session.

Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington)

“(Cullerton) has made a political observation that by holding that bill, he can put on pressure to do one of two things: one is to change the governor’s mind into signing a bill which he has called a Chicago Bailout and promised to veto, or two, that the pressure will build in a manner that convinces enough Republicans to override the governor. I see both of those options as being unbelievably impossible… I do not believe that the votes exist to override a veto by the governor. ”

Rep. Sheri Jesiel (R-Antioch)

“It’s kind of ironic that this bill when it was drafted was drafted to help those school districts with a concentration of poverty and yet this crisis that’s being manufactured and created by Pres. Cullerton and Speaker Madigan by not sending the bill to Gov. Rauner? Those are the same school districts immediately affected because they do not have savings in order to open up school in the fall.”

Rep. Peter Breen (R-Lombard)

“(Democrats) are desperately trying to get the Governor’s amendatory veto language out so they can start attacking it. To say this is going to take two weeks to negotiate is silly. We were almost to an agreement when we left last special session. It wouldn’t take more than a few days. There are several versions of Republican proposals...The issue is: Are you going to take the back debt of the Chicago Public School pension system and put it on the back of state taxpayers? It’s not just next year. Putting in a new funding formula locks you in place for 10 years or more.”

Rep. Terri Bryant (R-Mount Vernon)

“I’m from the deep south where categorical payments are very important and are very late getting there... For a lot of the rural areas where you don’t have the opportunity to take a cab or get on the L, and whatever transportation you have is not really an option in my part of the state. You have to have money to pay for those buses. And even if you do have the money for them, there are still students who are on those buses an hour and a half, all one way, all driving. In the city, maybe you drive an hour and a half you go six or seven miles. Where I live, if you drive an hour and a half, you go 60 to 80 miles. So it’s really important to get (funding) moving.”  

Education advocates are not a unified for support of Democrats’ school funding bill, SB1, and one Democratic sponsor says he thinks there might be room for negotiation.

Contacted Wednesday, education advocacy organizations were not necessarily carrying the same message. Not surprisingly, Chicago Teachers Union representatives were pushing for Gov. Bruce Rauner to sign SB1, so were statewide advocacy groups like the Illinois Principals Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers. But suburban advocates, such as the Legislative Education Network of DuPage County (LEND), were more agnostic.