You really didn’t think there would be some breakthrough agreement on a state budget and other issues during the fall veto

Speaker of the House Mike Madigan

session, did you? Good, then you’re not disappointed. The General Assembly wrapped up its six-day session (actually, five, after one day was canceled) addressing vetoes and a massively complicated bill to bail out two financially troubled nuclear power plants operated by profitable energy giant Exelon. The bailout bill passed. None of Gov. BRUCE RAUNER’s vetoes were overridden.  Please read story from the link in the Springfield Journal-Register.

Two men were killed and at least six others have been wounded from Wednesday afternoon to early Thursday in shootings across the city, Chicago police said…..Click on this link to read The Chicago Tribune story

They came. They met. They disagreed. Again. Gov. Bruce Rauner and the four legislative leaders Wednesday continued their meetings on reforms and possibly a new spending plan, but left the 90-minute session again without seeming to make progress on ending the state’s two-year budget impasse. In the past few days, House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, has said the Republican governor is angling for a tax increase during the lame-duck session of the General Assembly when outgoing lawmakers could vote for a tax hike without fear of voter retaliation…..Click on this link to read more from the Springfield Journal Register

A series of events Tuesday at the Capitol illustrated that Democrats and Republicans are digging in deeper amid the state’s historic budget impasse, with the focus quickly turning to the 2018 election even as a temporary spending plan is set to expire at year’s end….click here to read more from the Chicago Tribune…

A school funding reform bill intended to direct more money to the state’s neediest school districts narrowly won approval in the Illinois Senate Tuesday.

Here’s a link to the story.

When House Speaker Michael Madigan accidentally triggered a patronage scandal at the Metra commuter rail agency, it was the result of two extraordinary events.

The Chicago Tribune goes after House Speaker Michael Madigan.  Here’s a link to the story.

When Illinois lawmakers narrowly approved major changes to the public employee retirement system last month, supporters touted the measure as saving $160 billion over 30 years.

Here’s the link to a story in the Chicago Tribune.

BY JOHN O’CONNOR

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

According to an AP analysis, Department of Corrections employees made $62 million in overtime pay in the fiscal year that ended in June, more than in any of the past seven years and more than double the $24 million paid out in 2007.

Prisons officials say the amount of overtime has dropped again in the three months since July, but the previous ballooning of costs corresponded with Quinn’s closing of several facilities as a cost-cutting measure.

The state says the costs were driven up by an employee union’s challenge to the closings, but union officials reject that argument, saying they are another symptom of managing an already overburdened system.

The concern “is not so much the overtime as it is the safety and security of the staff here,” said Frank Turner, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union’s branch at the state prison in Pontiac. “With people working overtime, it’s harder to stay focused.”

The state could soon see thousands more prisoners under legislation being pushed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and others in the annual fall veto session that resumes the first week of November. The measure, intended to help stem the city’s gang violence, would lengthen prison time for felons and gang members caught with guns. Even first-time offenders would face a mandatory minimum sentence of three years behind bars.

Corrections officials say it could increase the prison population by nearly 4,000 inmates over the next decade, require $260 million for new prisons and cost $700 million extra annually for operations. As of Friday, there were 48,700 inmates in a system designed for less than 32,100, according to Corrections numbers collected and analyzed by the AP.

Corrections spokesman Tom Shaer said overtime increased because AFSCME filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to keep Quinn from closing prison facilities earlier this year, including a penitentiary in Dwight and the state’s super-max prison at Tamms. That, Shaer said, prevented the agency from moving displaced staff members, who had first dibs over newly hired cadets, into vacancies.

In rejecting that argument, the union notes that three classes of new correctional officers were hired during that time and filled positions. The union says it also offered to set aside contract rules that prevented hiring during the lawsuit and proposed other solutions to “give the department added flexibility to reduce the dangers posed and costs incurred by lack of staff in its facilities,” spokesman Anders Lindall said.

Claiming too much overtime jeopardizes safety, Shaer said, is a “shameful scare tactic which ignores the safe and cost-efficient management of our prisons.”

The AP identified the spike in overtime in fiscal 2013 through figures provided by the state after a Freedom of Information Act request.

According to Shaer, overtime has since dropped. He provided figures showing that during the period from July through September, overtime has declined 22 percent compared with the summer of 2012. He said those numbers are the beginning of a trend that could reduce overtime this year by $17 million because there are 9,792 employees in the prisons now, compared to 9,711 before Dwight and Tamms closed.

However, an AP review of past summertime pay periods shows that since 2007, each of the ten lowest pay periods in terms of overtime were in July, August or September. Shaer acknowledged overtime pay is not always requested at the time it’s worked; workers often request payment for past overtime during holiday periods or into the next tax year.

Overtime is voluntary and based on seniority, said Shaer, adding that employees work as much of it as they can to earn more money. The union counters that while it is voluntary, employees often choose to work it rather than go home because they don’t want to leave their colleagues short-staffed.

Prison officials say the prison closures should mean relief for other facilities’ burdened staffs. But the transfer of guards from the shuttered sites did little in the short term to ease the overtime burden in some prisons.

When the Dwight prison closed in April, 128 correctional officers were moved down the road to the state prison at Pontiac. But from April to June, overtime at Pontiac still was up 35 percent. Over the course of the entire year ending in June, overtime at Pontiac more than doubled from $1.1 million the previous year to $2.2 million.

Thirteen positions were open because employees were on leaves of absence, such as for military duty, and overtime is the only way to cover those vacancies, Shaer said, because they must be kept open for returning workers.

Pontiac is key because it received more than 100 inmates from Tamms, a southern Illinois prison that housed the most violent offenders or those who caused trouble in regular populations. They now are in a separate section at Pontiac.

Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, which includes one of the state’s reception centers for new inmates, paid out $11.1 million in overtime last year, up 46 percent from the previous year.

The new mandatory minimum sentencing bill already has been criticized by prison watchdog groups, such as the John Howard Association, for proposing to lock up more inmates for longer periods without addressing prison crowding. The sponsor, Rep. Mike Zalewski, a Riverside Democrat, met with opponents last week in search of a compromise, but said the state still must act.

“Given that public safety is one of our core issues,” Zalewski said, “we should always choose to protect the safety of our constituents from those who choose to ignore our laws.”