May 29, 2018
The (Carbondale) Southern Illinoisan
SIU needs to part ways with Dunn
Randy Dunn can no longer effectively serve as president of the Southern Illinois University system.
According to documents obtained by SIU Carbondale faculty member Kathleen Chwalisz and others provided by Board of Trustees member Phil Gilbert, Dunn appears to have withheld information from SIUC Chancellor Carlo Montemagno regarding a proposed $5.1 million shift in funding from the Carbondale campus to SIU Edwardsville.
The funding shift was in reference to the 60-40 split in state money Dunn insists has been a part of the SIU system’s budgeting process since 1979.
To compound matters even further, Dunn sent a damning email to SIU Edwardsville chancellor Randy Pembrook, SIUE Budget Director Bill Winter, and Vice President for Administrative Affairs Duane Stucky stating that a reference to the 60-40 split was “simply to shut up the bitchers from Carbondale who are saying loudly we shouldn’t even be doing the $5.125M at this time.”
Dunn has subsequently apologized for the “inartful” wording of the email.
Apology notwithstanding, Dunn’s behavior is unacceptable. Inartful isn’t a strong enough characterization of Dunn’s word choice. Even if his statement is a light-hearted jab at those holding opposing views, it is highly inappropriate. Someone of his stature and experience should most certainly understand that.
As president of the university system, Dunn’s job is to work closely with both campuses. The email has certainly strained relations with Carbondale. The email also drew swift and pointed criticism from State Reps. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, and Natalie Phelps Finnie, D-Elizabethtown.
And, the email also casts a shadow on the neutral stance Dunn assumed on proposed legislation to separate the Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses. That stance remains confusing since Dunn’s livelihood is based on the linkage of the two campuses. It also shows a severe lack of leadership in leading the system, which is his primary duty.
Yes, the knee-jerk reaction to Dunn’s actions is that the board should sever its relationship with the embattled president. Dunn’s contract with the SIU system allows the Board of Trustees to terminate the agreement at any time for “just cause.”
However, if the board terminates his contract without proving just cause, Dunn would be entitled to three years’ salary. His base salary is $430,000 per year. That unexpected $1.3 million expense is the last thing the cash-strapped university system needs. At this point in Dunn’s career, that severance package amounts to early retirement, something that hardly seems fair, considering this latest mess is largely of his own making.
He would truly be earning that salary if he could somehow stitch his constituencies back together.
Unfortunately, that hardly seems likely at this point. This latest incident has driven still another wedge into the fractured political structure that is SIU Carbondale.
As distasteful and demoralizing as it seems, the board should execute the termination clause in Dunn’s contract. The last thing SIU, particularly the Carbondale campus, needs is protracted negative publicity and finger-pointing.
SIUC is desperate for leadership at the moment. Dunn’s actions have undermined his position. The healing at Carbondale needs to begin now.
Dunn’s tenure at SIU hasn’t been all that positive for the Carbondale campus. It’s time for change.
The SIU system should cut its losses and sever the relationship with Dunn. The focus here in Carbondale needs to be on recruitment and retention of new students. That cannot happen with still another controversy swirling around the university.
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May 25, 2018
The Quincy Herald-Whig
Time to end off-shoring of governor’s office budget
Getting Illinois’ financial accounts in order is a monumental task, and it’s only made more difficult when salaries are paid from accounts from which they shouldn’t be paid.
Known as off-shoring, the practice has gone on for years. Democratic and Republican governors alike have used various funds to pay for their staff. For example, an Associated Press article reports that Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office budget is $4.9 million, but Comptroller Susana Mendoza claims that his office is actually spending closer to $10.4 million, more than twice what is allocated. Where is the money coming from? It’s money directed from other agencies’ budgets.
A way to hide massive expenses, the practice should not be tolerated. Not only is it dishonest, but it also takes away tax dollars from agencies that should be helping Illinois taxpayers, not political allies.
Fortunately, Illinois lawmakers agree with the comptroller. A bill known as the Truth in Hiring Act passed both chambers of the General Assembly by wide margins. Last month, it unanimously passed the Illinois House. Earlier this month, the Illinois Senate gave the bill its assent by a 46-7 margin.
It is satisfying to know that the majority in both parties agree the practice is wrong and must end, and we applaud Rep. Randy Frese, R-Paloma, and Rep. Norine Hammond, R-Macomb, for their support of the measure. The bill now will go on to the governor to sign into law.
Rauner, who campaigned four years ago on shaking up the status quo in Springfield, is waiting for the Legislature to formally send him the bill.
In the meantime, he should voluntarily restructure his staff for the benefit of transparency. Their salaries should be financed through his office budget. If it can’t be done, the governor should either cut his employees’ pay or lay off members of his staff. Many businesses and organizations have had to face similar situations in the last few years; our elected leaders must face that reality, too.
Once he gets the bill, the governor should sign it quickly. Of course, because it would diminish the capabilities of his office, it’s always possible that he could veto it.
This would be a mistake, and West-Central Illinoisans are encouraged to call the governor’s office and urge him to sign the bill.
And should Rauner veto the measure, the Legislature must override that veto. With such overwhelming majorities voting to approve the bill, this should be no problem. There is no good reason for this practice to continue.
This is one of the rare issues that most Democrats and Republicans in Springfield agree upon, and we applaud any such effort — however small — to bring state spending into check.
The time for off-shoring has passed.
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May 29, 2018
The (Champaign) News-Gazette
IRS sends warning on loopholes
State legislators in Illinois, California and Connecticut are well advised to take notice of a recent warning from the Internal Revenue Service not to play games with the new federal tax law.
Angry over a new law that limits the deduction for state and local taxes to $10,000, legislators in various states are trying to pass legislation creating what they hope will be loopholes in the new measure.
They’re encouraging taxpayers to characterize tax payments as charitable contributions so they can receive full deductibility. But the IRS announced recently that it won’t be fooled.
The IRS said it would not tolerate states that try to flout the law - a stance that is likely to be challenged in court.
In Illinois, pending legislation would create the Illinois Excellence Fund to which taxpayers would receive a tax credit in exchange for a contribution.
Fund money would then be funneled into state government coffers, but the process would provide a means of exceeding the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions for federal income tax purposes.
Meanwhile, New York is in the process of coming up with a plan to convert state income taxes to payroll taxes, the theory being that employers would cover the payroll taxes that would be fully deductible from their federal taxes.
This is an effort by state officials to protect upper-income taxpayers who itemize their federal tax deductions and pay substantial sums in state income taxes and local property taxes.
The vast majority of federal taxpayers takes the standard deduction rather than itemize deductions. Of those who itemize, many will not exceed the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions.
But state governments are concerned because really high income earners will pay more in federal income taxes with the $10,000 cap in place and, as a consequence, will be less tolerant of state and local tax increases if they are not fully deductible.
So state officials aren’t necessarily concerned about high taxes paid by their residents but their residents being less tolerant of higher state and local taxes because they are not fully deductible.
Whatever the IRS decides would be subject to a legal challenge for the court to resolve.
Two issues come to the fore in this discussion. For starters, allowing state residents on a broad scale to avoid federal taxes would cost the U.S. Treasury a substantial sum of money. Further, the IRS has always taken a dim view of artificial contrivances taxpayers and their accountants pursue to evade their lawful tax liability.
State governors in the high-tax states affected by the IRS announcement reacted angrily to the news. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the IRS announcement shows the Trump administration’s “true hostility to New Yorkers and middle-class taxpayers.”
Actually, what the IRS is showing is that it will take more than a little legislative subterfuge disguising tax payments as charitable donations - or anything else - to survive legal scrutiny.
That can hardly come as a surprise even to those state officials in Illinois and elsewhere who are posturing and preening on this issue to win favor from constituents.
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