The owner of a downtown Belleville building that burned to the ground in May 2010 is arguing at trial that he should be paid an additional $1.6 million for property loss and $1.64 in punitive damages from State Farm Insurance Co.

Represented by Penni Livingston of Fairview Heights, Ronnie Phillips sued in 2012 claiming he was unable to rebuild at 205 East Main St. because payment of his policy was insufficient, and since he was not able to rebuild, he lost rental income.

He further claims that total square footage of the insured property at 205-207 East Main had been miscalculated, an error that later resulted in the "reformation" of his policy.

Phillips, who testified on Wednesday, has been paid a total of $823,000 for the loss, which includes $87,000 for lost income, according to testimony. He was originally paid $436,000, until the square footage error was detected.

In an amended complaint filed less than two weeks before trial began, Livingston wrote that a reformed policy should reflect replacement costs as high as $2.7 million, and no lower than $2.414 million.

"Plaintiff asks this Court to enter a judgment against Defendant consistent with the verdict of 12 jurors speaking in one voice in the amount proven at trial and expected to be at $2.414 million minus payments made for building losses, exclusive of other losses paid...," she wrote.

St. Clair County Associate Judge Christopher Kolker is presiding over the trial which got underway on Monday.

State Farm, represented by Michael Bedesky and Martin Morrissey of Belleville, argues that Phillips' consumer fraud and common law fraud claims are not actionable.

Bedesky wrote that after the measuring error was discovered, the loss was ultimately re-calculated and additional monies were paid.

"Although Plaintiff attempts to claim his alleged criticisms of State Farm constitute 'misrepresentation' they do not set forth a factual basis for an ICFA (Illinois Consumer Fraud Act) claim," he wrote.

He further argues that consumer fraud requires "much more than merely promising to do something and failing to follow up on that promise...[T]he Illinois Supreme Court has held that the ICFA does not apply in cases where a defendant has made an 'honest mistake.'"

Bedesky also states that Phillips' common law fraud claim lacks specificity and particularity.

"What the complaint does allege is that Plaintiff received the full policy limits which he purchased for 205/207," he wrote. "Later, after the underwriting mistake was discovered Plaintiff received additional monies on the reformed policy. Although Plaintiff characterizes State Farm's activity as 'fraud' the actual facts contained in the complaint do not allege an intentional misrepresentation of any kind."

He also wrote that Phillips' claim for punitive damages fails to rise to the level of "gross" fraud or other circumstances of malice or willfulness.

On Wednesday, State Farm field underwriter Stephanie Stover also testified until 4:45 p.m. when Kolker adjourned for the day. Another six witnesses are expected to testify before the sides rest.

Closing arguments could take place as early as Friday, or into next week.

Madison County Treasurer Kurt Prenzler, a Republican running against current county board Chairman Alan Dunstan, believes that the Democratic incumbent's alleged misuse of county credit cards for personal expenses will have an impact on election results

“The voters know that this county has been run for decades by a Democrat political machine,” Prenzler told the Madison Record. “This credit card abuse by the county’s top elected official is symptomatic of bad ethics that have led to fraud, waste and abuse.”

Prenzler recently called out Dunstan, claiming that he has been misusing a county-issued credit card for personal expenses. After reviewing records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act last fall, Prenzler claimed that Dunstan made at least 14 personal purchases on the county's card, amounting to $1,800.

“The purchases included a $314 flight for his wife to Washington, D.C.; two personal hotel flights prior to a conference Dunstan attended for $402.02; and $239.60 to Bernard’s Meat Market in Troy,” Prenzler said. “[He also spent] $200 in Kohl’s; $44 for postage; and purchases at Busch Stadium, Rusty’s restaurant, Mac and Mick’s, Laurie’s Place, Subway, Round Table restaurant, and a service charge at a Napa Valley hotel room.”

Dunstan declined to comment for this story.

Prenzler said that county records showed that Dunstan had traveled to Napa Valley where he took part in a weeklong conference with fellow county official, Frank Miles, costing taxpayers more than $5,000.

“Neither Dunstan nor Miles were members of the organization that hosted the event, and they registered late at an extra expense,” he said.

In an online posting, Miles wrote that at the time of the trip he was administrator of Planning and Development for the county.

"We were dealing with the 2008 levee crisis and the de-certification of the levees protecting the American Bottoms placing thousands of people at risk and the meeting we attended was with officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the levee certification agencies of the federal government and with other communities and counties dealing with this crisis," Miles wrote.

"But like he does Kurt left out the facts to make himself look like a hero."

Prenzler questioned why the county board chairman needed a county-issued credit card in the first place.

“I don’t have a county-issued credit card,” he said. “When I go to Springfield for a meeting, I use my own money and submit bills for reimbursement.”

While records show that Dunstan reimbursed the county for the personal charges, Prenzler said that he should never have used the county credit card in the first place to make the charges. 

“The taxpayers of Madison County are generous to Dunstan by giving him a credit card with a $30,000 limit,” he said. “Plus, he gets the use of a county vehicle, which he drives to events after business hours, including political fundraisers.”

The issue of personal use of government credit cards has recently been gaining attention in the media.

Collinsville Councilwoman Cheryl Brombolich was alleged to have sent 131 text messages to her finance director asking not to tell her boss, the city manager, that she had charged a personal purchase to a tax-free city account, claiming that it had been a mistake and that he wouldn't believe it the second time around.

“It’s an abuse of the system,” Prenzler said. “This is about public trust.”

SPRINGFIELD — University presidents and other higher education officials on Thursday told lawmakers they must decide what they want from the state’s colleges and universities.

Higher education hasn’t received state funding outside its pension contributions for this fiscal year, and Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration is proposing a fiscal 2017 budget that calls for a roughly 20 percent reduction in spending.

“Not to state the obvious, but we’re in a bind and the immediate solution is to get us a budget for this year,” Jim Applegate, executive director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, told a state Senate appropriations committee.

Illinois, he said, “is on the verge of dismantling a well-regarded higher education system.”

Since 2010, state support of public colleges and universities has declined by about $1.1 billion when adjusted for inflation, Applegate and other officials said.

Applegate said state government should commit to a three-year, stable funding level while the higher education systems commit to increasing efficiency and affordability.

Senators, particularly Republican members of the panel, focused on what Illinois can do to bring down its higher education costs — or at least put more dollars in the classroom.

Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar Grove, asked how pension obligation affects the amount of money that makes it to classrooms.

Of about $4.1 billion appropriated for higher education in fiscal 2015, more than half went to pensions.

Pension obligations are “literally sucking the air” out of higher education funding, Applegate said. Had the state kept up with its pension payments, leaving itself in a position to mind only current obligations, today’s crisis would be more manageable, he added.

“Not a dime of that (pension) money helps a student get a degree,” Applegate said.

GOP senators also stressed they want both lawmakers and top educators to focus on reducing administration costs, saving money through procurement reform and lowering workers’ compensation costs.

Further, the governor's proposal would shift more of the pension burden from the state to the universities.

University presidents testifying in the non-voting session said they’d work with lawmakers and the governor, but they also painted a picture of an education system in deep distress.

“We cannot do what we do without a consistent and predictable level of state support,” said Randy Dunn, president of Southern Illinois University.

Dunn has outlined more than $46.5 million in reductions that he says SIU would need to make under the governor’s fiscal 2017 budget. They include cuts of $22.8 million at SIU-Carbondale, $14.1 million at SIU-Edwardsville and $8.8 million at the medical school in Springfield.

The spending cuts at Carbondale alone would include 180 faculty, administrative and civil service positions, elimination of some academic programs, a reduction of about 400 classes and the elimination of about 300 student jobs.

“These cuts … are going to have to take place if we can’t figure out this new covenant and have a budget for ’17 that makes us viable,” Dunn said.

The SIU system, the state’s second-largest after the University of Illinois network, “is not going to close,” Dunn said. “We may look like a very different institution two or three or four years down the line, depending on what happens to state support.”

Further, “The scope of programs and the level of opportunity that we provide to students could be very drastically scaled back,” he added.

Sen. Matt Murphy of Palatine, the GOP’s deputy leader, said lawmakers understand the problems but changes have to be made.

“We’ve got to do things that bring your cost of doing business down, that bring everybody else’s cost of doing business down, so that we can create more taxpayers, make it easier for you to operate, and put us in a position where we can consistently and reliably fund you,” Murphy said.

Bills are in play this session to help address the lack of funding in higher education.

Democratic-backed legislation to authorize $3.7 billion spending this fiscal year for higher education and some human services has cleared the House.

But the administration has indicated the governor will veto the two-bill package if the Senate passes it. The GOP argues the money to cover the spending doesn’t exist and says the state is already sitting on a $7 billion stack of unpaid bills.

The GOP is pushing its own legislative proposal, which it says would provide $1.6 billion for higher education. Democrats argue that plan would give the governor lone, unprecedented power over state budgeting and spending decisions.

The Senate was in session Thursday but did not take up final work on substantive legislation. The full chamber met for only about an hour.

A podcast started by SLU School of Law in February hopes to use the school’s legal expertise to make various law topics accessible to a broader audience.

Each episode of SLU LAW Summations, hosted by outreach librarian Cori Dugas, features an interview with one of the school's experts on a given topic of general interest. The inaugural podcasts cover modern challenges for women in the workplace with professor Marcia McCormick, director of the William C. Wefel Center for Employment Law, and the impact social media has on the workplace with professor Matt Bodie.

McCormick’s interview came in advance of the “Shattering the Glass Ceiling” symposium at the law school, while Bodie’s interview more broadly looked at new challenges facing human resources departments.

“Everyone is really excited” Jessica Lillie Ciccone, director of communications for SLU, told the Madison County Record. “A lot of our faculty are really excited about it, because it gives them a chance to talk about stuff that really interests them.”

Ciccone said the idea came about after discussion about the expertise within the school’s faculty. They arrived at a podcast that would discuss the topics in a way that would be accessible to a number of audiences, from fellow lawyers to students considering the law school.

“We have a great faculty that have a pretty diverse set of expertise and we really wanted to tap into,” Ciccione said.

The school plans to produce two podcasts a month, roughly 15-20 minutes each. 

In the next episode, Ciccione said professor Joel Goldstein would discuss the vice presidency. His dissertation on the office form the basis of his book, “The Modern American Vice Presidency: The Transformation of a Political Institution.” 

Ciccione said it covers what makes a good vice president and other questions in advance of the final state primaries solidifying each political parties’ presidential contender.

Though the podcast touches upon legal topics, Ciccione said they have not yet considered how to make the podcast eligible for continuing legal education credits. She said part of the difficulty would be in proving that legal professionals had fully listened to the podcast.

“That’s the goal is to take something that is timely and interesting and look at the legal issues involved,” Ciccione said. “

In addition to being published to the school’s websites, the podcasts will also make their way to SoundCloud and iTunes.

Illinois is the only state in the region with a shrinking population, having lost 105,000 people to other states from July 2014 to July 2015.

That means that Illinois loses one resident every five minutes. A U.S. Census Bureau survey reveals the reason, and it’s bad news for Illinois. Most people who move more than 500 miles from home do so for employment related reasons, according to surveys of Americans who have moved in the last year. Another 21 percent cite housing related reasons.

With the loss of residents setting records for the second year in a row, State Rep. Charlie Meir (R-Okawville) said,“The whole thing is about overtaxation and a lack of good jobs.”

“We have some of the highest real estate taxes in the country,” Meier said. The second highest real estate taxes to be exact, second only to New Jersey.

“As for creating jobs, our good manufacturing jobs are gone. The other states around us have been able to add manufacturing jobs and we are losing our manufacturing jobs,” Meier said. “Companies do not want to invest in Illinois.”

Losing jobs means losing young people, because after they graduate from college, they leave the state to find work, he said. 

“These starter jobs can’t support a family and those are the only new jobs we’ve been adding,” Meier said. 

Older generations are leaving too.

“A lot of them are going and moving to where their children have moved," he said, 

To counteract the trend, Meier would like to see an expansion of the enterprise zones. In these designated zones, businesses can obtain special state and local tax incentives, regulatory relief, and improved governmental services.

“The enterprise zones are helping,” Meier said. “Those same criteria should apply across the whole state so we can bring in businesses faster.”

He would also like to see Illinois use the assets it already possesses. 

“Whether it's ethanol, or clean burning coal, or clean burning natural gas plants, we need to use our natural resources to create jobs and keep our young people here,” Meier said.

High taxes and a lack of career-worthy jobs are only the symptoms, and State Rep. Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon) said he knows the cause of the disease. 

“Most people realize that the last 35 years of government has been very bad government,” he said. “The chickens have come home to roost and people are finally understanding just how badly this state was run.”

He pointed to specific areas of government and even to Speaker of the House Michael J. Madigan, who has served in that capacity almost continuously since 1983.

“We have to persuade Mike Madigan that he needs to step down,” Kay said. “He is the author and finisher of everything that’s happened in the last 25 years.”

In order to save Illinois, Kay said, compromise will be essential. “Compromise is not a bad thing, but compromise has been rejected out of hand by speaker Madigan this past year.” 

He named issues such as workers' compensation, a balanced budget, tort reform and a fair tax base. 

“They’ve all been rejected out of hand," Kay said. "It takes two parties to compromise.”

SPRINGFIELD — Been in accident with a state-owned vehicle and not at fault? Waiting for the state to pony up?

Keep waiting.

The state, which is self-insured, has about 200 claims worth about $560,000 on hold, said Meredith Krantz, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Central Management Services.

Those claims, filed since July 1, aren’t being paid because there’s no state budget.

One Springfield lawyer said he found the situation “pathetic.”

“The way I take this: If a state employee runs into your car and damages a fender or a bumper or whatever, the state isn’t paying that now,” said attorney Jim Ackerman of Springfield, whose work includes auto liability cases.

“And if they run over your mother and kill her, the state isn’t going to pay that for quite some time,” he said.

With no appropriation passed by the legislature and signed by the governor, CMS does not have the authority to make payments.

Krantz said the numbers reflect all expenses, including reimbursement for medical costs and for claim-related services. However, she added, there also are claims still being investigated or negotiated.

CMS handles vehicle liability for all of the state’s departments, boards, commissions, universities and agencies. In all, Illinois owns about 12,500 vehicles, roughly 9,500 of which are passenger cars, Krantz said.

By not funding its self-insurance pool, Ackerman said, the state is, in a way, holding itself to a much lighter standard than it does its citizen drivers, who are required to have liability insurance.

“You can blame whatever politician you prefer, but it’s really a pathetic situation,” Ackerman said.

Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, didn’t disagree.

“This is a continuation of how inept Illinois government really is,” Franks said. “Now, we’re not paying accident victims even though we owe them.”

Franks criticized Gov. Bruce Rauner, arguing Rauner was over-aggressive in use of his veto pen last spring when he vetoed nearly all appropriations, with the biggest exception being the state’s primary and secondary education spending plan.

The governor, Franks said, should have let stand some of those appropriations, including this liability fund and appropriations to handle health insurance payouts for those state employees covered under the state’s self-funded program.

“Someone needs to ask the governor why he vetoed this," Franks said.

Catherine Kelly, Rauner’s press secretary, said, “Rep. Franks is all over the map when it comes to spending. He voted against the bill he now criticizes the governor for vetoing.”

But Franks also said leadership from both parties own the blame for Illinois failing to meet its obligations.

“Understand that the people of the state of Illinois are suffering because we have people on each side of the aisle that care more about politics than them, and (those politicians) still suffer from the delusion that it’s OK for real people to suffer as long as the other side gets blamed,” Franks said.

“If we were a company, the government would seize us and shut us down,” he said. “That’s how bad we are.”

Said Rep. Ron Sandack, R-Downers Grove, “This is just another in an almost never-ending, nonstop series of disappointments.”

Every day the General Assembly isn’t in session looking for a solution to the budget impasse “is compounding a mistake,” Sandack said.

“We ought to be in the session, and we ought to be working on a budget and actually putting votes on the board whether (the proposals) come from the governor or the speaker of the House or the Senate president,” Sandack said.

“The fact that we are not doing that is just a miscarriage of justice and a dereliction of our duties,” he continued. “And it’s shameful.”

Despite more than two-thirds of fiscal 2016 having passed, the first-term Republican governor and the Democratic super majorities in the House and Senate have been unable to reach a budget deal.

Even without an overall budget, the state still is making payments on roughly 90 percent of the bills it covered in the previous year because it is paying for costs mandated in continuing appropriations, by court decrees, in the primary education budget and for its debt service.

As of Thursday, the state’s unpaid bills totaled $7.58 billion.

SPRINGFIELD – With the Southern Illinois University (SIU) system on the verge of lowering a budget ax that will slash both jobs and classes, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are vowing to step up efforts to find a solution even as the House adjourned for a four-week break.

SIU President Randy Dunn testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday that the university system, which has lost out on $150 million since last summer’s budget impasse began, will have to cut its budget by nearly $47 million, meaning hundreds of layoffs and 300 fewer classes at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

In response, some Republican lawmakers emphasized they were committed to a compromise solution to fund higher education.

State Sen. Bill Haine (D-Alton) said in a prepared statement about SIU, “We cannot continue down this path… . To destroy this great university would be ridiculous and disgraceful. I will fight these cuts with every means available.”

Haine’s spokesman, Joe Stosberg, noted that the Senate did vote to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a bill to fund the state’s Monetary Award Program, which provides grants to Illinois college students. The vote was aimed to help higher education, but the House failed to override the bill, so the veto held. The governor described the override attempt as a budget buster that would lead to tax hikes.

Stosberg, who indicated that the Senate would remain in session for the time being, emphasized the senator would keep looking for solutions. 

“It’s a big issue for SIU,” he told the Record. “SIUE is important to him and is one of his top priorities.”

Stosberg added, “It’s going to be on the forefront of senators’ minds this week and next.”

Meanwhile, two Republican House members, Dwight Kay of Glen Carbon and Charlie Meier of Okawville, emphasized this week that they are ready to vote on compromises to fund higher education. The pair criticized Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) for not allowing votes on compromise bills to fund higher education and allowing the House to go out of session until April 4.

“This isn’t the time to dig our feet in politically,” Kay said in a prepared statement Thursday. “It’s time for us to come together and reach a compromise on a realistic plan that can fund SIUE, our community colleges and MAP grants for college students.”

One of the things that divides the two parties on the budget impasse and higher education funding is that Republicans want a dedicated funding stream for any fiscal solution.

“We made a sincere effort to stay and work until we reach a compromise,” Meier said in a joint press release with Kay. “However, the majority of our Democrat colleagues instead chose to take a four-week break, delaying a compromise to fund higher education.”

The House members stressed that waiting to address the issue until April would make a solution more difficult. Both said that that schools such as SIUE, Lewis and Clark Community College, Southwestern Illinois College and Kaskaskia College in Centralia should not have to wait any longer to receive state funds.

Another school, Chicago State University, sent out layoff notices last month to all its instructors, staff members and administrators last month in the wake of the budget impasse. About 900 people are affected, but university officials stressed that the notices don’t mean everyone will be out of a job.