Rep. Cavaletto and House Colleagues Thursday announced the Administration's agreement to rescind
planned nursing layoffs and to return to the bargaining table on the issue of sub-contracting.

State Representative John Cavaletto (R-Salem), joined other House Members this morning at a press conference in Springfield to explain that he and his colleagues urged the administration to rescind the layoffs and return to the negotiating table to find a solution to the issue of subcontracting of over 120 nurses positions at Illinois corrections facilities. The administration has agreed, and the layoffs have been rescinded while the negotiations proceed.

“When I heard about the planned layoffs, I immediately urged the Administration to reconsider their decision,” explained Rep. Cavaletto, who has a prison in his district. “Legislators cannot negotiate for either side, but I will continue to urge both sides to negotiate in good faith to find a solution.”

In discussions with the Illinois Nurses Association (INA) on April 20, representatives from the Department of Corrections and the Department of Central Management Services offered several ideas to start discussions on a framework of concepts which would allow the Department to achieve cost savings and operational flexibility without subcontracting the nursing services currently provided by INA-represented employees.

The Vandalia Correctional Center is located in the 107th District represented by Rep. Cavaletto and two other facilities are outside of the district (Centralia Correctional and Big Muddy Correctional) but have constituents employed at these locations.

Hi Everybody:

We have a critical message today for all the people of Illinois.

Our state is at a crossroads. We can either keep going down the path of broken budgets, stopgap spending, higher taxes and disappearing jobs — or we can demand a truly balanced budget, job creation and property tax relief.

Just last week, one Republican senator proposed a balanced budget plan with hard spending caps, job creation, a property tax freeze, term limits and pension reform. His proposal was ignored. Instead, Speaker Madigan’s long-awaited stopgap could be introduced within hours.

Stopgap spending plans do nothing to balance the budget — they don't grow jobs — they don't freeze property taxes — they don’t fix a broken system. They force higher debt and higher taxes down the road. They keep our universities, community colleges and social service agencies on the verge of collapse with no permanent funding to keep their lines of credit intact.

A few months ago, I told you that Speaker Madigan and his majority Democrats would not support a truly balanced budget with the changes we need to create jobs and lower property taxes. And we said we wouldn’t support the Speaker’s tax-hike forcing, stopgap spending without something real and lasting to protect taxpayers — something like a permanent property tax freeze.

That commitment remains steadfast. Instead of focusing on stopgaps that serve the Springfield insiders, we should be coming together to pass real and lasting solutions to our problems — a truly balanced budget, job creation, a property tax freeze, spending caps, term limits and pension reform.

We hope the Speaker’s majority will reconsider. But we cannot accept a Madigan stopgap without a permanent property tax freeze to protect the hard working taxpayers of Illinois.

Bruce Rauner

Governor of Illinois