Grassroots Collaborative Calls on Governor Rauner Not to Sign Away State’s Legal Rights to Wall Street Banks
CHICAGO, IL – This week Governor Rauner announced re-arrangement of $600 million of variable-rate state bonds. This particular set of bond deals is connected to complex Wall Street financial deals called interest rate swaps. According to Reuters the administration plans to place the debt with four unnamed banks. While the details of the deal remain unclear, Grassroots Collaborative expresses concern that, as part of the deal with these Wall Street banks, Governor Rauner will follow in the steps of Mayor Emanuel and sign away the state’s right to take legal action around the potentially fraudulent origins of these deals to recover funds. The following is a statement from Grassroots Collaborative:
“Grassroots Collaborative has been working to implement legislative oversight and bring legal action to recover taxpayer funds lost in interest rate swap deals for years. Wall Street bankers lied to states, cities, and school districts across the country about the risk of these deals, likely violating fair dealing rules,” said Amisha Patel, Executive Director of Grassroots Collaborative. “While we are encouraged that Governor Rauner has listened and is taking some action around the state of Illinois swap agreements, these actions should be transparent and not preclude legal action to recover taxpayer money from Wall Street.”
“Mayor Emanuel terminated Chicago’s interest rate swaps by giving Wall Street banks everything they wanted. This cost the city of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools $1.4 billion including $400 million in termination fees. Governor Rauner seems to be using the same playbook as Mayor Emanuel, even down to using the same financial advisors. We must ensure that Governor Rauner’s actions do not have the same disastrous results that we saw in Chicago. Illinois can not afford to give away money that should be going to vital programs and services to Wall Street bankers.” added Myra Glassman, Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU Healthcare Illinois.
Background and Timeline: http://grassrootscollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/SwapDealsTimeline2016.pdf
