Still not getting it
Monday, Jul 21, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Somebody finally notices, but he buries it way down so nobody else will likely notice…
With all of the budget folderol from last week, it’s worth remembering that back in May, the House passed another budget that didn’t increase spending nearly as much as the one that landed on Blagojevich’s desk. However, it was never called for a vote in the Senate, so that was that.
Basically, this budget mess didn’t have to be this way.
It’s difficult for readers to remember if hardly anybody ever told them it happened in the first place.
* A downstate editorial goes on and on about the veto overrides and the general nastiness in Springfield without mentioning the budget bills still sitting in the Senate…
The entire Senate should have a say on whether to accept the cuts made by the governor - and senators should have that say before November and without any threats regarding what will happen if they don’t follow the wishes of Jones.
But, in refusing to bring the Senate to Springfield to act on the governor’s amendatory veto, he is following the same pattern he did a year ago, so no one should be surprised.
* This editorial blames the governor for the budget mess, but also doesn’t mention the bills idling in the Senate…
Now there will be pain. And no matter how he prefers to view it, the pain comes from the governor’s hand. Unless voters send a radically new membership to the House in the November elections, the governor should plan on either coming up with more realistic revenue plans or inflicting more pain in the next two years. He should also plan on being held accountable for it.
* Related…
* Lawmaker pay rates exceed neighbors
* Emil Jones finagles a raise
* Illinois budget cuts to have broad impact
* Stalled renovations empty Lincoln Hall
* Ralph Martire: Ideas to generate new state revenue woefully lacking
- GoBearsss - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 9:25 am:
The Governor should come up with more revenue plans? really?
How about… you know… anybody else… coming up with… anything?
- Dan S, a voter and Cubs Fan - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 9:32 am:
Can you say con-con? More ammunition to vote yes for a con-con.
- Pot calling kettle - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 9:52 am:
Question for the budget hawks: After the Gov. made his cuts, how close was the “improved” budget to the oft overlooked one sitting in the Senate?
I’m betting it was pretty close. If so, the Gov. should blame the grief he gets for the vetoes on Emil. (Not that he will.)
- wordslinger - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 9:57 am:
It’s the kind of story that combines two elements the mainstream press avoid: process and numbers.
- anon - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 10:15 am:
I wonder why the Speaker did not make more of the fact that the House passed a less expansive budget. Last year, he repeatedly noted that the House has passed a budget that the Senate did not take up. Perhaps, if he or others in the House had been more vocal, the story would have had some legs. I am sure the Speaker and Mr. Brown know that.
- Captain America - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 10:48 am:
Senate President Emil Jones has enabled Governor A to paralyze State government for two years now. When is the Seante caucus going to wake up and overthrow him? Every Democratic Senator who fails to speak out vigorously in public against Senator Jones’ flawed leadership shares the responsibibilty for this debacle. Each Senator who fails to demand that the Senate reconvene to consider the overrides or other interim funding alternatives is a political coward for failing to stand up against Jones.
Con-con seems to be the only alternative to the average informed citizen, liberal or conservative, to express their discontent when our represntaitves in Springfiled fail to speak out and act decisively to minimize the consequnces of the megalomania and resultant gridlock in Springfield. In the immortal words of Senator James Taylor , we are tired of the executive-legislative-administrative “bulljive” that has characterized Illinois governemt in recent years.
PS i’m not absolving MJM from his share of the responsibility - just ranking the blame proportionately to the culprits: (1) Blago, (2)Jones, and (3) Madigan
- Ghost - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 10:55 am:
Imagine how many papers the main stream press could seel if they investigated facts and reported complete information. Its almost like people have to go other places for good neews.
The flat rate budget sitting in the Senate should be headlining the budget dispute. Every time the Gov complains about an out of whack budget somone should ask why he did not push for the flat growth budget or just use his veto pen to restructure what he got to match the no growth version sitting stalled by jones/Hendon. Then follow that with stories about hendon passng out 20k to firends and Jones stalling for a 12% pay raise.
- Pot calling kettle - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 12:02 pm:
anon: I’ll speculate that the Speaker is keeping quiet because he knows any high-profile infighting is advertising for a con-con. The Gov., on the other hand, is a con-con proponent’s dream. Every press conference where he complains about the House is a free ad.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 12:04 pm:
===I’ll speculate that the Speaker is keeping quiet because he knows any high-profile infighting is advertising for a con-con.===
He’s not keeping quiet about other issues, so I don’t think you’re correct.
- South Side Mike - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 12:39 pm:
Capt. America,
I’ve wondered the same thing myself. But I wonder if the Senators *like* the gridlock and politics of the last two years. The Dem. Senators get all of their appropriations, unlike the Dem. House members. They are covered from any unpopular stands by their almighty leader, all the while soaking up the benefits of public office (see Hendon, RickEy).
If they were to overthrow Jones and install a leader who actually allows votes, then they might have to justify their actions/inactions to voters. No, it’s safer and easier to cower from Jones than it is to serve the Illinois public.
- VanillaMan - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 12:48 pm:
We cannot expect a better government from these people. They have either shirked their responsibilities or simply don’t understand them. How any legislator could just sit back and do nothing as these corrupt stunts occur around them, is like watching firefighters roasting hot dogs on a five alarm blaze.
We have had years of this. It is quite clear that expecting reform from this body of elected officials is dreaming. We are being forced to take this situation into our hands and vote for a Con-Con in 2008.
The longer we sit here, the worse the situation becomes.
- Capitol View - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 1:21 pm:
Madigan did not want the blame for the cuts, so he is being quiet that he proposed a slimmed down budget as damaging to human services as the gov’s - let the focus be on “Blago getting what he wanted” including cutting out raises for direct service community based workers that the unions worked to get into the FY 09 budget.
An expansion of the sales tax to services already collecting it for an ancillary part of what they do would have raised enough money to avoid most if not all of the human services vetoes. But the dollars from this overdue tax reform would never to go to just human services, everyone’s stepchild… until the community based human services sector finally collapses due to state underfunding, which it is dangerously close to doing. No annual COLAs since the second year of the Edgar Adminstration mean that many sectors’ rates are down to 70% of actual cost. And now the IDOA Community Care Program is having its 12th month payment deferred into FY 10. What a terribly run state government, and what an abuse of non-profit providers…
- Captain Flume (a former anon) - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 2:14 pm:
Maybe the smaller House version of the budget was a cover, or a Plan B. The Speaker did not need to flaunt it because a “big” budget was more agreeable to the Senate AND to the Governor. Since the Repubs in both chambers seem to have had some Kool-Aid slipped into their sloe gin fizzes, the Speaker and many House Dems decided to just let them all dangle with deep cuts, no ill-conceived revenue sourcing, and sharing the responsibility for the budget we wound up with. There might have been some good PR in passing a revenue bill to help pay for the House overrides, and perhaps forcing the Senate into action. But I am still hearing stories critical of the Senate not wanting to vote on pay raises. So maybe pressure from the media and the public will better serve than too much ballyhoo from the Speaker.
- Pot calling kettle - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 7:52 pm:
Rich: That’s why you make the big bucks while I sit in my cave and speculate.
- I wonder... - Monday, Jul 21, 08 @ 11:20 pm:
how many state employees and”or contractors will lose their jobs and from what agency?
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