48 Comments - Anonymous - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 10:30 am: Is “Answer Man” being sarcastic or serious when he mentions the notion of privatizing the U of I? In other words, has that really been discussed or did Erickson just make that up as an example of a crazy idea for funding health care? - Levois - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 10:36 am: The idea of giving transit rides to everyone is absurd! People seemingly are bellyaching over free transit rides for seniors but how is any transit system going to make money if it’s free for everybody. That might be the most fair but a transit system has to make money somehow, and it shouldn’t have to be fully subsidized. - Reddbyrd - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 10:41 am: Notice Rich did not post the section of the column where he notes Blaggodiot is a kinky, liar who is trying to destroy Madigan, before suggesting Madigan should waste his time meeting with the madman to find “common ground” Good job Capt. Fax —- don’t let your readers/fans think you have gone completly insane. P.S. Blink Jim Edgar did not like the legis around either, but he came to work most days. - Levois - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 10:42 am: Rich says that Madigan won’t sit down with the governor and find common ground. From what I can tell and I know I don’t have the whole story, it’s kind of difficult to find common ground with someone who doesn’t seem like he’s going to listen to reason. In that case there is no point. - VanillaMan - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 10:49 am: Madigan has a record of not suffering fools gladly. If you don’t know what you are doing, he has no time for you. After 35 years in office, Mr. Madigan prefers to work productively. Blagojevich has no credibility among the movers and shakers in Illinois. He has lost the trust of everyone he has broken promises with. He also has a record, doesn’t he? Expecting Madigan to sit and listen to Rod Blagojevich’s empty headed, but charming blatherings about movies, sports and himself is too much for even a saint to endure. Who has been around for decades and have seen governors come and go? Whats three years to a guy who has witnessed decades? Blagojevich is toast, and has worn out his welcome in every way. If Fitzgerald doesn’t take him out of office before 2010, Madigan will just wait it out. You don’t work for decades just to watch some smarmy fake wreck it all in order to compromise with him. - Louis G. Atsaves - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 10:55 am: Banning cell phones while crossing the street. I was hit from behind while walking on a sidewalk (LaSalle Street) by a cell phone user. He dropped his phone after sideswiping me. He gave me blank look. He fussed over his phone after he picked it up (from a puddle: snicker!) No apologies. Inattentiveness exists outside of motor vehicles too! Rep. Turner! Expand the language of your bill! Like smoking. Ban cell phone usage unless someone is completely stationary and not shouting! - Bill - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 10:57 am: The Miller column raises an excellent point. Blagojevich has to overcome his childish “no tax” pledge and raise revenue to fund the jobs program and Madigan has to overcome his desire to have everything exactly his own way and to make the governor look bad. A little more gambling, a little tax increase, throw in a little health care and we’re there. Oh, and here’s a novel idea. How about prioritizing capitol projects based on objective criteria like need, viability, and feasibility instead of giving legislators what amounts to gift cards based on where they live, what caucus they are in, and who they support within their caucus? Failing that, how about just mailing every Illinoisian $600 like the feds want to do? - Levois - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 11:06 am: WOW!!! I’m with you Bill! - Little Egypt - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 11:08 am: Well give Blagoboy a medal for finally telling the truth about something. “I must confess, I kind of wish I could do just about everything by myself, because I feel Illinois would be a heck of a lot better.” He doesn’t have to wish for it any longer - he’s doing it. He’s running this state like a dictator, having to answer to no one - not even the voters. - Anon - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 11:10 am: This state needs a capitol bill and its time for the Speaker to listen to the other leaders and get it done. Each of the other leaders supports the jobs program, but it was the Speaker who dragged his feet through the fall to prevent it from becoming reality. Now is the true test of the Speaker. Will he do as rich suggests and pass a capitol bill to help this state weather the economic storm and withstand the recession that the federal government has brought on, or will he starve the state to prevent blagojevich from cutting some ribbons? Isnt that what it comes down to? Enough with the lack of trust — thats what the MOUs are for. Besides, if the governor is standing with the other three leaders calling for a capitol plan, dont you think that they will demand that he shoot straight before they hold Madigan’s feet to the fire? C’mon Mr. Speaker. Illinois needs this capitol plan. We know you can get it done — now get it done! - Little Egypt - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 11:11 am: Oh, and Bill, you know I hate to say this, but your comment is a very good one; however, it’s way too sensible for Blago and the legislators to understand. - Little Egypt - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 11:13 am: Rezko’s under arrest??? http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2008/01/28/breaking_news/doc479dfea47545d310832177.txt - Bill - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 11:14 am: Anon, You are really on target today. Keep it up! - Vole - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 11:30 am: Per the Congress Letter and the Federal Highway Administration numbers, if Congress would just give each state 1 billion dollars for highways, that would create 2,375,000 jobs and 310 billion dollars in economic activity! Why piddle around with giving $150 billion dollars to a bunch of taxpayers who will just spend it on gas and tear the roads up? If Congress can be such a money machine why the hell are any of us working anyway? - Esteban - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 11:41 am: Didn’t Blago handle the importation of the flu vaccine from Europe “on his own”? That was a rousing success for his regime. - Anonymous - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 11:48 am: Why should we invest billions in endless maintenance of massive old infrastructure that leaves us addicted to imported oil? Why not invest a much smaller amount in fast fiber optic links to every home so citizens can telecommute to work, school, shopping, and socializing? Why not make our economy far more energy efficient and better prepare our youth to help us remain competitive in the global future? - Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 11:49 am: Vole, Under the last federal transportation bill, IL gets well over $1 billion a year in federal “formula” funds for highways and mass transit. IL also got over $1 billion in project-specific federal transportation earmarks, the majority of which have remained unspent. - Skeeter - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 11:51 am: Am I the only person who thinks the Gov. should return every call from a Democractic U.S. Congressman? 18 calls? Blago belongs to his own party. He sure doesn’t appear to believe that he belongs to the Dems. Of course, he may feel that the Dems belong to him. - Ghost - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 11:51 am: Nice article, but I have to disagree with anon and to a certain extent, Rich. === Madigan doesn’t trust the governor to release cash for projects in his members’ districts - and for good reason. Blagojevich simply isn’t trustworthy, and he has proved over and over again that he will use whatever power he has to undercut Madigan. On the other hand, Madigan won’t sit down with Blagojevich and try to find common ground. === How does the speaker come up with this magic common ground? As you may recall the speaker sat down and cut a deal with Jones on the Budget. The deal that Jones, being a man of his word, later refused to honor. Since any type of a capital plan requires the Gov to release the funds, what common ground can they reach? Since Jones would block any legislative attempt to write a law requring the disbursement of funds and removing the Gov discretion to hold up certain funds, how do you reach this imaginery deal? Blago’s word has no value. Since the Speaker must be able to trust the Gov to live up to his word to get a deal done, how does the speaker solve this problem? The idea that madigan can sit donw and negotiate a deal that requires trust with somone who can not be trusted bespeaks the problem. There is nothing Madigan can do given that the foundation of any agreement is the word of a man that carries no weight. The there is still the pay to play problem that the gov refuses to fix. We need a simple law, if you contribute money to a State elected official or family memebr, neither you or your business can get a State contract or do business with the State. Until we have some protection, what you are really saying is Madigan must provide millions of dollars for Blago to dish out to his benefactors, to help him fill that cob web of a war chest, with no protections. No protections on Blago using the money to play politics like he did in the budget and with holding it from his opponents (remeber he fired the wife of Madigans staffer just to make it clear how petty he can be); and no protection that the money wont be improperly funneled. So instead of saying Madigan needs to sit down, lets see a hints on how madigan could get handle this situation to get blago to keep his word. Syaing go sit down is empty blago style rhetoric without more. We need a capital plan, but we need one that will be carried out as written. Since Jones and Blago wont carry out whats written (see Budget) then there is no point to putting pen to paper. Unless somone knows how to mandate blago keep his word, the reality is the gov is not to be trusted with hundred of millions of dollars. - Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 11:57 am: Anon 11:48- Great idea. No one ever leaves their fortress, except warehouse, trucking, railroad and airline employees, FedEx, UPS, the US Postal Service and Peapod. No more stores, order everything online. All remaining factories can close down because everything’s made in China anyway. Oh, and I guess farmers can’t telecommute their crops to Peapod either, so they’ll occasionally have to plant and harvest crops. - Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 12:02 pm: And no more visiting relatives, friends or neighbors who are not within walking distance, we’ve all got plasma TV’s to interact with them via fiber optic. No more recreation, etc. unless it’s playing a video game at home. Truth is, all these other “global economies” like China are investing lots of $ in brick, mortar and steel infrastructure, as we speak. - Napoleon has left the building - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 12:29 pm: Great column as always Rich. Too bad though that the Governor doesn’t read the blog nor listen to anything you or the other 11 million critics of his have to say. - Budget Watcher - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 12:38 pm: Bill and anon 11:10, A capital (with an ‘a’, not an ‘o’) will likely be a unifying goal this year and Madigan was politically savvy enough to wait until the new year to delink it from the transit bailout. So far, he’s got the transit bill he wanted and probably was smiling as he watched the clumsy (or as Rich puts it “clownish”) attempt by the governor to improve it. He also was astute enough to see that gambling expansion wasn’t the public’s preference in how to fund capital. As a minority party with a temporary voice, the Republicans were last year willing to hold their noses and vote for increased gambling. Those same minority leaders will have seen their caucuses support for gaming seriously eroded now, so a capital plan tied to gambling will be a much tougher sell. Again, without gambling what’s left…probably an income tax increase. Will the Governor agree? Know also, that the state is looking at approximately $700 million as a budget imbalance this year, which makes it doubly harder next year. - zatoichi - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 1:07 pm: Is there a dollar figure for Federal match that Illinois needs to come up with? The number of Fed=4 and Ill=1 comes to mind. If there are $1B in transport earmarks unspent and the ratio of what $1B does for the economy is right as Vole 11:30 says, why spend time on gambling and other junk? Talk about eye off the ball. - BIG R.PH. - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 1:13 pm: Amen Brother Rich! Hopefully, the Gov gets out of the way. - Levois - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 1:30 pm: Good luck with the Governor getting out of the way. I don’t think he knows how! - Truthful James - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 1:48 pm: From Vole’s numbers, given that there are 50 states, the number of jbs per state (per $1B) is 47,500. - Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 1:50 pm: Zatoichi- Many federal funds require at least a 20% state or local match. This applies to the formula funds as well as earmarks. I’m not certain that IL is matching all the available formula funds, either. A lot of the formula funds are restrictive in nature also, such as set-asides for bridge reconstruction, safety projects, transit capital projects, etc. where there is a litmus test for the use of the funds. Many projects are cobbled together with a mixture of different federal, state and local funds. as far as earmarks go, it is rare that an earmark will cover all or even most of the cost of a capital project, especially if it is large. - Bill - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 1:52 pm: BW, If you read my post you will notice that I mention a tax increase as a possible revenue source for a jobs bill (with an o). Which kind and on whom does not really concern me. It is time to pony up to provide the services Illinois citizens deserve. A little increase in gaming isn’t going to hurt or bother anyone. A combination of gaming and taxing will go a long way to soothe Madigan and the drunken sailors with pork while we spend federal dollars for roads to nowhere and bridges back from there. - Truthful James - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 2:00 pm: Yes, Bill A tax increase will be necessary unless we get a Build Illinois II started — and probably even then. Drunken sailors? There isn’t enough pork in the world to satisfy the GA. - Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 2:00 pm: The numbers cited by Vole have been questioned by right wing think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation- http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/bg1747.cfm But still there is obviously some ripple effect through the economy when capital programs spur additional economic development. To be fair, there will also be a ripple effect if taxpayers get a fat refund check. Some of it will go to CC debt, some of it will be blown on liquor and lotto tickets, some of it will go to Chinese-made goods at Wal Mart, and some of it will circulate a few times through the local economy. - Honest Abe - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 2:02 pm: Funny stuff! Sad, but true. For those in the know, which includes most who post here, the following comment is old news. Nonetheless, for the individual who asked why Blagojevich does not understand the legislative process: Blagojevich was a total nonentity as a member of the Illinois General Assembly and the US Congress. Despite a decade of drawing paychecks in two legislative bodies, Blagojevich never passed any important bills of his own (I am not counting the honorary resolution to rename a post office branch as being anything other than routine) and never was an active participant in legislative sessions. He has always been all about grandstanding and enriching himself and campaigning for reelection. - Anonymous - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 2:30 pm: People really do just live in their own little bubble. Too busy to read the paper or watch the local news. - Vole - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 2:35 pm: Truthful — Not my numbers: “The Federal Highway Administration estimates that for every billion dollars invested in infrastructure, 47,500 new jobs and $6.2 billion in economic activity is created, the letter said.” This is from the Congress Letter link that Rick posted: http://daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=412675 I have no data to discount this kind of data, but I am skeptical nevertheless. Guess it depends partly on the definition of “new” jobs. They look a lot like the kind of numbers that the Guv used in his last campaign about the number of jobs he helped to create. But, no question that capital spending means jobs, new or renewed. Anonymous made a good point that is important and that gets short shrift: We are maintaining an unsustainable infrastructure built and fueled by cheap oil. Ironically, the capital and resources needed to build something more permanent and sustainable compete with keeping the wheels on this maladapted beast. A design revolution is desperately needed. - anon - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 2:47 pm: The Speaker sitting down with the Governor to find common ground? Why would he, or anyone, try to find common ground with someone who is suing him? Illinois has not really had a capital bill since 1999, has it? I don’t think the Speaker is starving anyone, not single-handedly. Weren’t there some capital projects in the $465 million that was vetoed out of the FY2008 budget. Did not the House vote to override most of those vetoes? I think the Senate did not make those votes. So who is starving whom? One might argue, disingenuously probably, that many of those vetoed projects were pork. Show me a capital project that isn’t someone’s pork. One might also argue that there was no money to pay for those vetoed projects. There is no money to pay for any capital project now, is there? Gambling as a revenue source turns Illinois into Potterville without ironclad safeguards on its operation. And if you are willing to take people’s money at the roulette wheel or the slot machine, why are you not willing just to increase their income tax by a fraction of a percent, or the sales tax on food, or newspapers, or automotive service by a percent? - Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 2:51 pm: Vole- Most state highways except the interstates have been in place since the 1920’s, and the railroads were mostly in place by then, too. Gasoline powered travel was very expensive (for the times)during and after the massive road building in the 20’s and only became relatively cheap after WW II. Railroads were powered by coal until then, for the same reason. What “more permanent and sustainable” infrastructure do you suggest? All things fall apart sooner or later. I suspect we will be trading a transportation infrastructure based on cheap oil for one based on moderately priced electricity in the near future. Infrastructure needs relatively the same, method of propulsion different. - Sir Reel - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 3:05 pm: While the size of a capital program and the way to pay for it are topics of dicussion, no one has commented on Illinois’ ability to execute a big capital program. With the loss of experienced, technical staff like engineers and project managers at IDOT, CDB and other agencies - from lay-offs, outright firing, jumping ship due to no raises, etc., Illinois is no longer prepared to spend billions for capital improvements. It’ll take years to gear back up. - Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 3:16 pm: sir Reel- The private sector stands at the ready to accomplish all your planning and engineering needs. Just get out your checkbook. - M - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 3:24 pm: I thought it was a joke about Rep. Kenneth Dunkin introducing legislation banning cell phone use when crossing a street. But then I looked it up and it’s a legitimate bill. I guess that makes Rep. Dunkin the joke. - Truthful James - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 3:26 pm: Vole — was not disagreeing with your numbers, merely placing what I assumed to be the total American jobs accross the total states. Agree with everyb regarding cheap oil being out of the window. The question is, how can we work this through to electrifying the railroads, piggy backing the trucks and building high speed passenger AND freight express rail service. - Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 3:41 pm: Truthful- All you need is cash, and lots of it. True HSR requires a dedicated right of way and grade separations like Europe and Japan, not this halfway stuff where you are mixing with freight trains and RR/highway gated crossings. LCL (Less than Carload) rail freight service went out the window in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, and no one misses it, especially the railroads - they only want to haul bulk loads and containers. I remember my great uncle, a wholesale grocer, complain about the crappy service the railroads provided when they were in the parcel freight business (remember the old freight houses and station agents of long ago). And Pandora’s box is opened with personal transportation. We can hope for less use of cars and trucks, but the personal and business convenience is too great, and 100 years of development patterns and infrastructure aren’t going to change overnight. Rural America and farming are almost 100% dependent on motorized transport and farming, too. We will need to find a new way of powering the vehicles. The search for the “holy grail” EV battery is one of the great R&D efforts of our time, in case you haven’t been keeping track. - Anonymous - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 3:55 pm: I guess the Answer Man (to paraphrase Dave Barry) was not making any of this up! I’d still love to know who came up with the idea of selling the U of I to fund healthcare expansion, even if no one (including the Governor himself, thank God) is taking the idea seriously. - phocion - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 4:16 pm: I think we should just make it legal for motorists to hit pedestrians in the crosswalk who are talking on cell phones. Same with those pesky people who are talking to someone they’re walking with in the crosswalk. Who said crosswalks are for pedestrians, anyway? They’re for cars, and pedestrians are a damn nuisance! - Truthful James - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 4:19 pm: Absolutely correct, SDS HSR does not work for passenger travel alone. There must be High Speed Freight movement, otherwise track usage is sub optimal. It is alos limited in range by time factors. Uniquely, Chicago makes a great hub, although Naptown might have pretensions for that. IMHO, the neceesary conditions for success is to have the trackage aand right of way built and maintained by a public body, probably an interstate corporation, as are the roads. Private enterprise would own the stations and the development above them. The tracks would be leased by bid for various time segments, separating individual “trains” ny five minutes. Bidders would acquire the rolling stock, built to track specifications by aircraft or railroad car manufacturers and capable of maintaining an average speed of two hunded miles per hour before the necessary deceleration points just outside the terminals. Most trains would be end point to end point with one intermediate stop. However, fitting within the schedule would be possible for intermediate runs at the same speed. Get out your map and game it yourselves. Put endpoints at St. Louis, Des Moines, Minneapolis (via Madison), Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Indianapolis (onward to Cincinnati or Louisville.) I envisage a mix of passenger and freigt ‘trains; during he day, mostly freight trains at night. Talk about your public works projects, your employment. - Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 4:45 pm: TJ- Amtrak lost their US Mail contract a few years ago - remember the passenger trains that had 10 extra boxcars tacked onto the end. In the end, it was just not cost effective for USPS. HSR could change that for express parcel service. Just tack on some aerodynamically designed express freight cars onto that fast train. As a railroad guy, though, I want no regular freight trains mixing with the HSR. Maybe some fast container trains, off peak. But a unit coal train, or local freight making switching movements in and out of warehouses or industrial plants? No way. BTW, have you seen the plan put out by National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission? Their report gives a lot of information on the topics we are discussing today, including a future High Speed Rail network focusing on the most dense corridors rather than a national Amtrak-like system. http://www.transportationfortomorrow.org - Truthful James - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 5:36 pm: 6DOS – Of course the minimum speed limitations would not permit coal train, etc. And as I think I emphasized, there are limitations on time/distance, which make long range HSR not a good investment. For a Chicago hub, Minneapolis would be stretching it. Measure downtoen to downtown elapsed time from terminus to terminus and you will see what I mean. We certainly would free up landing slots at the major airports, minimizing new airport construction, etc. - In the Sticks - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 5:57 pm: Just remember, there is always plenty of capital to spend at Chicago State. Over $100 MM in construction underway for about 6000 students, thanks to Mr. Jones. Both consultants and contractors for much of those expenditures deserve further investigation. Change orders on those projects are rather high. - Frank Booth - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 10:39 pm: Hey Lou, the sponsor is Rep. Dunkin, not Rep. Turner. Open your eyes before someone starts saying some nasty things about you. Or do you have a legitimate excuse for confusing Rep. Dunkin with Rep. Turner? - Louis G. Atsaves - Monday, Jan 28, 08 @ 10:55 am: Banning cell phones while crossing the street. I was hit from behind while walking on a sidewalk (LaSalle Street) by a cell phone user. He dropped his phone after sideswiping me. He gave me blank look. He fussed over his phone after he picked it up (from a puddle: snicker!) No apologies. Inattentiveness exists outside of motor vehicles too! Rep. Turner! Expand the language of your bill! Like smoking. Ban cell phone usage unless someone is completely stationary and not shouting! Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.