Following up an article from last week regarding LaSalle County State’s Attorney Brian Towne’s promise to pursue the death penalty…
State’s Attorney Brian Towne says he has no plans to decertify the case of Keith Mackowiak.
Quinn this month signed a law abolishing capital punishment in Illinois, but the law does not take effect until July 1. However, Quinn says if this defendant is convicted and sentenced to death, he will commute the sentence to life in prison. “I signed a law that abolishes the death penalty in Illinois, and that’s the end of it,” Quinn said.
Imprisoned former Gov. George Ryan is known around the world for clearing Illinois’ Death Row in 2003 and imposing a moratorium on the death penalty.
But the governor who pardoned more than 200 people admitted in a recently released court deposition that he “didn’t understand” the difference between two major types of pardons and that he was declaring a Chicago inmate innocent by the way he pardoned him.
That surprising admission came in a March 2010 deposition that Ryan, now 77, gave at the Terre Haute, Ind., prison where he’s serving a 6œ-year term on a federal corruption conviction.
Comments got really heated today. I’m willing to leave them open, but will be in no mood to moderate posts that are below what CapFax commenters usually provide if it continues.
The plan is a bold one, but its political future is doubtful at best. Hopefully, it will serve as a starting point, however, for addressing the expense side of the state’s budget crisis.
The poll was conducted by We Ask America, a subsidiary of a company owned by the conservative Illinois Manufacturers Association.
The company polled 1,184 Illinois voting households in an automated phone poll on March 20. Respondents were asked, “In general, do you approve or disapprove of the job Illinois governor Pat Quinn is doing?”
Of those polled, 31 percent approved, 61 percent disapproved and 9 percent had no opinion. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.85 percent. […]
Illinois Republicans plan on capitalizing on the governor’s low approval rating and frustration over the tax hike.
“I definitely think all of the legislators who voted for the tax increase are going to be held accountable,” Illinois Republican Party deputy executive director Jonathan Blessing said.
Among the cuts promoted by the GOP at a news conference was a reduction in the number of cellphones used by state employees.
“The state of Illinois has approximately 15,500 state-issued, taxpayer funded communications devices,” the report noted. “Reducing the number of devices by 50 percent would save $2.3 million.”
While $2.3 million in savings is nothing to scoff at, the Republicans might have this cellphone thing completely backward.
The [“The Fix We’re In For: the State of Illinois’ Bridges”] report was released officially last week in Chicago and showed that statewide some 2,239 bridges out of 26,337 in Illinois, or about 8.5 percent, are considered structurally deficient.
Put another way, that means that one out of every 12 bridges a driver crosses in Illinois carries that “structurally deficient” tag.
At 8.5 percent, Illinois fares better than the country as a whole, which is at about 11.5 percent. Still, the report says Illinois ranks 35th nationally.
Without the great highway access from I-57, even the most creative and generous of business incentive plans would not have achieved what exists today or built hopes so high for the future. I-57 gives Marion and the eastern half of our region a tremendous competitive advantage over the communities further to the west - Carbondale, Murphysboro and Pinckneyville.
Those communities aren’t on the same playing field as Marion and the best plan to close the gap appears to be indefinitely stalled. We’re referring to the planned expansion of Illinois 13/127 to a four-lane roadway that will bypass both Vergennes and Pinckneyville. Without the improved link to Interstate 64 north of Nashville, the western portion of Southern Illinois will not easily reach its full potential for economic development and population growth.
As you know, there has been an effort to come up with some Plan Bs in case the Court tosses the projects package out, but the QC Times editorial board doesn’t want it to include gaming…
Illinois lawmakers should stop this gaming explosion now to protect the casino businesses that have a 20-year track record in the state. Lawmakers everywhere should avoid propping up one failing wagering business by diverting revenue from a successful one. Waning interest in horse racing suggests a marketing job for that industry, not an invitation for the horse tracks to horn in on an entirely different kind of wagering.
The almost-completed first phase of O’Hare International Airport’s expansion had close calls that could have resulted in fatal airplane crashes, according to a Tribune investigation of incidents filed with the Federal Aviation Administration. […]
The potential for disaster has prompted the FAA to begin revising its daily alerts to pilots about airfield conditions and other procedures. Work to build a runway in the southern part of O’Hare will kick into high gear now that the city and the major airlines have agreed on the project after a legal battle. City officials say the work at the airport had met FAA safety standards but acknowledge that more can be done to improve safety.
A leaked letter from Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman to Gov. Pat Quinn about the manufacturing giant being courted to leave Illinois certainly made its way around over the weekend. But a CAT spokesperson told ABC 7 that was the last thing they wanted to happen…
The correspondence says at least four states have approached the company about moving since Illinois raised its income tax in January.
But nothing is written in stone and a spokesperson for Caterpillar says the letter, which they say they did not intend to be made public, was only an attempt to open a dialogue and certainly not a threat.
But in the very next paragraph of the story…
Caterpillar officials say if Illinois doesn’t shape up its business climate, the heavy equipment maker may have to ship out.
llinois Gov. Pat Quinn and the premier of Manitoba, Canada, have signed an agreement to work together on trade and commerce opportunities. Quinn and Premier Greg Selinger signed the memorandum of understanding Saturday in Chicago.
The agreement means the two governments will work together to increase collaboration in industries including manufacturing, renewable energy and information technologies. They’ll also work together on trade and tourism opportunities.
Columnist Sue Ontiveros writes about a lobbying effort put together by the Latino Policy Forum meant to press legislators to vote against human services cuts…
It’s no wonder people in Latino communities are worried, and it’s why that group got on an early morning bus last week and took their concerns to legislators.
For a lot of them, it was their first time in Springfield and their first encounter with state legislators. Good for them.
Without quality child care, working parents have two awful options: leave their most precious possessions, their children, in substandard care or stop working. If they choose the latter, their families are impoverished, and at some point it’s a good bet that they’ll need to lean on their state government for some sort of assistance.
Choosing the latter could also mean an increase in deadbeat parents paying for child support, which has become quite the problem as this Sun-Times research project shows us…
Unemployment and underemployment is a key factor in the high level of back support owed, said [Executive director of the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice Malcom] Rich. Indeed, the Illinois Healthcare and Family Services Department’s Child Support Services Division said among its clients, 57 percent of non-custodial parents have no reported income, and 28 percent have reported income of less than $30,000 annually.
A study released in 2007 from the Urban Institute looking at back support owed in Illinois and eight other states found that 70 percent of the back support owed in 2003-04 was owed by parents who had no reported income or income of $10,000 a year or less. The report estimated that only 40 percent of the arrears owed at that time was likely to be collected over 10 years, and the backlog was projected to grow by 60 percent over that time.
“We have an expression in child support, you can’t squeeze blood from a turnip,” said Ron Haskins, co-director of the Center on Children and Families at Brookings Institution. “Many of these fathers do not have jobs.” […]
The number of Illinois parents requesting court reviews to lower the child support they pay has nearly tripled in recent years — from 4,219 in 2006 to 12,629 last year. Even so, many parents don’t contact child support services or seek legal action to have the amount reduced, he said. […]
The median amount owed in back support in Illinois, according to the Urban Institute study, was $4,467 in 2003-04. The average was $11,365. Mirroring a national trend, most of the arrearages were owed by a minority of parents who owe sizable sums. In Illinois, 10 percent of those owing back support were $30,000 or more in arrears, yet they owed nearly half of all the overdue support. […]
The state also has focused on increasing the percentage of support collected as it’s due, said Lowry. A decade ago, Illinois was on the verge of being sanctioned when it was collecting only 36 percent of current support.
There has been improvement, with the collection rate reaching 58.03 percent in 2009, but it slipped to 57.85 percent last year. Lowry said the state would like to exceed the national average of 61.9 percent.
There’s no denying the national trend: More minorities are moving out to the suburbs of big cities and more immigrants are settling there as well, bypassing the city altogether.
But the suburbs weren’t prepared for the infusion, and many are having a hard time dealing with an increased demand for social services. […]
As people reach out for help, they’re finding that nonprofit service organizations are stretched to the limit and can’t provide the assistance they once could. The agencies have to get by with less state money.
The chairman of the Macoupin County Democratic Party resigned his post — as well as his seat on the local school board — just two days after an undisclosed St. Patrick’s Day incident that’s being investigated by city police.
How much the resignations and incident are connected, though, is a matter of speculation, because most people familiar with the investigation are mum on the details.
Carlinville Police Chief Dave Haley confirmed Monday that he turned over an incident report to the Illinois State Police involving Ken Snider, who also is a State Police officer. […]
“We are cooperating with the Illinois State Police in this investigation and do not want to jeopardize their investigation,” Haley said Tuesday.
Haley said he referred the report to Illinois State Police Zone 6 in Collinsville. Zone 6 interim commander Lt. James Morrisey said Monday that he was not aware of such an investigation, noting that it most likely was turned over to Internal Affairs.
State Police media spokesman Scott Compton confirmed the probe on Tuesday.
Snider had been employed by the state since 1984 and was elevated last December as supervisor of Quinn’s south security detail, a job that put him in charge of overseeing executive protection officers, scheduling, routes and movements, Vega said in a prepared statement late Friday.
That assignment lasted until Jan. 19, when he began to use benefit time until his resignation on March 18, he said.
Carlinville police were called to the Anchor Inn at 1 a.m. March 18. Snider was the person who called police, said Chief David Haley of the Carlinville Police Department, who later turned the investigation over to state police.
The incident apparently involved students at Blackburn College, where state police have interviewed students, according to Jeff Aper, college provost.
No one was arrested, and neither Haley nor state police would provide details, although Haley said he has been getting calls from reporters throughout the state.
In the Springfield incident, Snider was allowed to go free after allegedly breaking the windshield of a woman’s car on Jan. 27, 2010.
Springfield police would not immediately release a report, but Deputy Police Chief Cliff Buscher provided details of the incident, which he said began when Snider appeared to be frolicking near the Hilton Hotel.
“He was running and sliding on his belly on the snow in the sidewalk,” Buscher said.
I’ll bet Rich might have more on this one.
(On a similar ISPD investigation note, the department will review the CPD’s handling of its 2004 David Koschman homicide investigation. Koschman reportedly died after he was struck by Richard Vanecko, one of Mayor Daley’s and W.H. Chief of Staff William Daley’s nephews.)
The president of the 47th Ward Democratic Organization was arrested and charged Saturday with misdemeanor battery for allegedly striking a man in a bar on election night in February.
William Helm, 47, of the 4700 block of North Lincoln, was arrested after a meeting at the ward’s Democratic headquarters Saturday morning.
The victim told police that Helm allegedly struck him on the left side of the face with a closed fist about midnight after the Feb. 22 election at the Celtic Crown Public House, 4301 N. Western. Two others also allegedly punched and kicked the victim, police said.
Reached late Saturday, Helm said he was “amazed and shocked’’ by his arrest more than a month after the alleged incident.
* Bill Cellini’s name has been absent from a lot of the Blagojevich trial coverage until now. Once a player always a players, as Bernie points out this week…
BILL CELLINI has not been convicted of anything and strenuously proclaims his innocence, but the fact that he remains indicted and is scheduled to go to trial this summer on federal corruption charges still might indicate — at least from a public perception standpoint — that he shouldn’t be seen as a force in the Sangamon County Republican world.
But there is a direct link between Cellini and money that’s been paid and offered as part of Springfield’s mayoral campaign.
That’s because when Sangamon County GOP Chairman TONY LIBRI helped engineer payments totaling more than $9,900 for campaign expenses of Sangamon County Auditor PAUL PALAZZOLO — who kept his word and dropped out of the mayor’s race when he didn’t get the party’s backing — the money came from the Sangamon County Republican Foundation.
That foundation, according to state records, is chaired by Sangamon County Board Chairman ANDY VAN METER. The treasurer is Cellini. The only other officer listed with the State Board of Elections is ROBIN ELLISON, administrative assistant, who works for the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association, where Cellini is still executive director.
JANIS CELLINI, sister of Bill, is executive director of the foundation.
Roskam, who grew up in Glen Ellyn, is poised to go places, perhaps even to one day become the U.S. House Speaker, following in Yorkville Republican Dennis Hastert’s footsteps. […]
“Roskam’s savvy. Right away, you knew he was on the fast track,” said Drew Cannon, a soft-spoken Oregon native who, for the past eight years, has watched Roskam and the other congressmen from his perch manning the third floor press gallery, which provides a bird’s-eye view of the lower chamber.
GOP leaders last week sent letters to Gov. Pat Quinn and Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon calling on them to urge state Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, to hold more meetings in order to allow citizens to have input into the map-making process.
In particular, Simon was singled out because she was a member of the governor’s Reform Commission, which recommended at least five hearings around the state on the proposed new map, rather than hearings before the new map is completed. Those recommendations weren’t adopted into law. […]
Forby’s district in southern Illinois, for example, needs to pick up 8,000 additional residents. That means the boundaries of the 59th Senate District would have to expand north or west into territory currently represented by Republicans.
“It’s going to be a lot different,” Forby said.
State Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, is in a district that could grow by as many as 14,000 residents, meaning he, too, will have to squeeze territory now held by Republicans.
One thing I miss about living in Springfield is the local scene. Maybe growing up outside of a small farming village in McLean County lowers the expectations, but the ‘field is one of my favorites to regularly visit. (Rich’s posts about the city’s great musicians and local joints makes me feel a bit better about my expectations.)
Come autumn, a restaurant will once again operate on the 30th floor of the Hilton Springfield.
The unnamed upscale steakhouse will occupy the spot formerly occupied by the bar JAZZ CENTRAL STATION, said Michael Fear, the hotel’s general manager. It will have 60 seats, including a private dining room for 12.
The last restaurant in the window-rimmed top floor, CAPISCSE?, closed in early 2008. That space now is occupied by the PINNACLE CLUB, which is available for private parties of up to 250. When the steakhouse opens, the adjacent Pinnacle Club will operate as a lounge, offering patrons pre- and post-dinner cocktails.
Question: What, if anything, is Springfield missing from its social scene?
Rich is traveling home today, so you are stuck with me for one more day.
For those of you who didn’t join us last week, I do not have access to the Capitol Fax email account (capitolfax@aol.com). If you need to contact me I can be reached at:
Citizens United opened the door for campaign contributions. To counteract that law, the State of Arizona implemented a policy where if a candidates is running against major corporate donations it would make up the difference to the opponent. That policy is subject of oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court Monday…
As conservative Ninth Circuit judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote in his concurring opinion rejecting constitutional arguments against the Arizona system, “there is no First Amendment right to make one’s opponent speak less, nor is there a First Amendment right to prohibit the government from subsidizing one’s opponent, especially when the same subsidy is available to the challenger if the challenger accepts the same terms as his opponent.” Similarly, Charles Fried, a solicitor general in the Reagan administration, argued in an amicus brief that it is the wealthy candidates and interest groups who “in reality are seeking to restrict speech.”
So you’d think that the challengers to the Arizona law would have a hard time in front of a court that declared, in Citizens United, that “it is our law and tradition that more speech, not less, is the governing rule.” But it doesn’t seem likely the court will see it that way. The court showed its hand back in June, when it took the unusual step of suspending the matching-funds portion of the Arizona law in the middle of the election, before it even agreed to hear the case, during a time when candidates (such as Gov. Jan Brewer) had already made the decision to opt in to the public financing system. A key factor that the court considers in deciding whether to grant such extraordinary relief is the likelihood that it is going to strike down the law at issue.
Bill Freivogel, director of the SIUC School of Journalism and a member of the Missouri Bar Association, wrote an analysis about the Roberts Court and its voting trends in First Amendment cases. It’s a good read if you have the time.
The Will County case of Goodman v Ward centered on an election dispute and the specifics of election code. Will County’s election board allowed a candidate for judge,Chris Ward, to stay on the ballot despite the fact that Ward did not live in the judicial district when filing the election paperwork. A Will County judge eventually ordered Ward off the ballot.
The high court sternly reminded officials in Will County that when state law says a candidate has to live in the district they wish to represent, they have to live in that district.
The justices also offered another reminder that only a court, not an election board, can interpret Illinois’ election code.
Of course no mention of residency requirements is any fun without talking about Chicago’s mayor-elect…
Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel asked some of Chicago’s largest nonprofit foundations to pay for his transition, and they agreed to the tune of $200,000. […]
Emanuel submitted grant proposals to the MacArthur, Joyce, McCormick and Spencer foundations because he did not want to solicit contributions from private donors, according to his spokesman.
A large part of the foundation money will pay the salaries of some staff holdovers from Emanuel’s mayoral campaign. The result is that nonprofit money is being used to keep part of Emanuel’s political team intact until he perhaps chooses to put those staffers on the city payroll after being sworn in.
Had the General Assembly not passed the tax increases in January, the fiscal year 2012 budget would be nearly $16 billion, according to a report published earlier this week by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.
The Chicago-based non-profit says the budget introduced by Gov. Quinn now has a $7.3 billion deficit - a figure that includes expenses held over from fiscal year 2011.
The report comes at a time when Senate Republicans are standing by their spending cuts proposals, which total nearly $6.7 billion.
Also this week, Illinois Statehouse News reported tax receipts dropped by $2.2 billion between tax years 2009 and 2010. The increases passed in January retroactively went into effect on Jan. 1, 2011. However overall spending increased by $1.8 billion in the same time frame.
The Republicans say their pension reforms will save the state $1.35 billion annually in unfunded liability. Dillard said under the Republican measure, current employees could contribute more to stay in their current “Cadillac pension plan,” or move into a defined contribution system similar to a 401(k), or utilize the new pension plan implemented for new hires.
From the CTBA’s report…
The FY2012 budget proposal continues to prioritize funding the same four core services of education (36.2% of the budget), healthcare (29.9%), human services (19%) and public safety (6%) as have historically pertained. Collectively, these four core service areas account for over $9 out of every $10 appropriated in the FY2012 General Fund budget proposal.
• Of those four core service areas, only human services—which collectively includes the Department of Aging,
Department of Human Services, and Department of Children and Family Services (“DCFS”)—is scheduled to receive nominal dollar cuts from FY2011 levels, with aggregate appropriations being $211 million less in FY2012 than in FY2011.
• In both nominal dollar and inflation adjusted terms, proposed FY2012 appropriations for the other three major service categories of education, healthcare and public safety, are greater than they were in FY2011.
• Despite the one-year upward trend in spending noted above, after adjusting for inflation and population growth, overall General Fund appropriations proposed for FY2012 will be less than they were over a decade ago in FY2000, with total appropriations down 15.9 percent; PreK-12 down 2.7 percent; higher education down 35 percent; healthcare down 13.4 percent; human services down 30.4 percent; and public safety down
25.2 percent.
• The FY2012 human service cuts were not evenly distributed among the three human service agencies. In fact, aggregate appropriations for the Department of Aging will increase by $170 million or 27.1 percent from FY2011 levels, while DCFS receives a small 0.8 percent or $7 million increase from FY2011. The Department of Human Services, however, is targeted for a cut of $389 million or 10.6 percent from FY2011.
The Republican proposal also outlines $1.3 billion in Medicaid reductions. At the same time, Quinn is looking to borrow $2 billion to inject more federal dollars into the program. As I told you yesterday, this particular type of borrowing does not require the Treasurer’s or Comptroller’s approval, but it would have to go through the Legislature.
More on Medicaid…
Republicans have put their foot down on borrowing - at least until they see more savings. They’re not alone.
States nationwide are preparing for up to 16 million new Medicaid participants when the bulk of the requirements of the new federal health care law go into effect in 2014. Illinois is expecting 500,000 to 800,000 new participants, mainly low-income childless adults able to participate for the first time. That would add the equivalent of $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion a year in costs to taxpayers, using FY2010 HFS data.
According to HFS data, the average annual cost for a Medicaid participant in FY2010 stood at $5,264. Average annual costs among the key five groups are:
Children up to 18, $2,372;
Adults with disabilities aged 19 to 64, $22,790;
Other adults aged 19 to 64, $4,584;
Senior citizens 65 and older, $16,623
Partial benefits for all ages, $1,287.
The federal government is expected to pick up most of the tab of new participants until 2020 when its share drops to 90 percent, but states are nonetheless downsizing their Medicaid services where they can to save money now and in the future.
As far as the other borrowing idea, valued at $8.75 billion, Zorn has more…
The proposed FY2012 budget includes a borrowing initiative that has yet to become law. Under that initiative, introduced as Senate Bill 3, the State of Illinois would issue a general obligation bond in the principal amount of $8.75 billion. Although this bond is being touted as a “restructuring” of debt the state already owes—primarily in the form of past due payments to service providers left over from FY2011—the actual intended uses of the proceeds of this bond issuance are more nuanced than that.
According to SB 3, $5.45 billion of the proceeds from the proposed bond issuance would indeed be used to cover unpaid bills left over from FY2011, by the end of FY2012 (June 30, 2012). Another $1 billion would be used to pay for the delivery of current services funded through the General Fund in FY2012, while just over $400 million would go to covering the FY2012 debt service cost of issuing the bond. The balance of the bond proceeds would be “deposited in Other State Funds, including the Health Care Provider Fund for Medicaid supplemental match to receive higher federal match, the Income Tax Refund Fund (for corporate tax refunds), and the Group Health Insurance Fund (to reduce backlog).
Just a week or so after suggesting that Illinois maybe should begin taxing some retirement income, the Chicago Democrat indicated he could support three other equally controversial ideas: requiring suburban school districts to pay more of the cost of teacher pensions, trimming free health care for retired state workers and eliminating many township governments.
As you know, Cullerton’s counsel filed an opinion saying the state could not alter pension benefits. I guess we will have to see how that one plays out.
In the past eight years, more than 10,000 state employees have joined unions, a four-fold increase over the previous eight years, according to records analyzed by The Associated Press.
If pending requests are approved by the Illinois Labor Relations Board, nearly 97 percent of state workers would be represented by unions - including many employees once considered management. Only 1,700 “bosses” would be left out of nearly 50,000 state employees. […]
Gov. Pat Quinn’s office is pressing a key union to give up several thousand new members. If negotiations fail, Democratic lawmakers will likely resurrect proposed legislation to limit union-eligible jobs and rescind union coverage for thousands of people.
Quinn said earlier this month that Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker “should be ashamed of himself” for pushing through a new law that rolls back state workers’ right to collective bargaining. But Quinn’s effort to scale back union growth is “incongruous” with his and other Democrats’ statements on Wisconsin, said Anders Lindall, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
A Quinn aide said there’s no contradiction between the governor’s two positions.
A recent poll of southern Illinoisans conducted by my colleagues down here at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute shows downstaters would like to see a smaller government…
Results show people have grown more frustrated at public officials and government in general in the last 30 years, when the last survey of this kind was taken.
Among the revelations: Gov. Pat Quinn is more unpopular than Gov. Jim Thompson was during his tenure in office. […]
The poll was taken Feb. 14 through 22 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.
Of course the thing to keep in mind is where the poll was conducted. Southern Illinois has its strong conservative areas. Quinn barely won Jackson County (Carbondale-Murphysboro) in the general, and the Tea Party’s base in the Metro-east area (as well as all along the Mississippi River) has gotten stronger in years. I was driving through Collinsville a few weekends ago and saw local campaign yard signs for school board candidates that made sure the voting base there knew they would NEVER raise taxes.
Not to mention that there is hardly any love for Chicago among southern Illinoisans. (Although, if you want to make the southerners happy you could show them you don’t want to take their guns away.)
Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel has broached a touchy subject during private meetings with aldermen to solicit their ideas on budget and ethics reform: cutting the nation’s second-largest City Council in half.
Several aldermen, who asked to remain anonymous, said they were stunned when Emanuel opened the discussion by asking them point-blank, “What do you think about going down to 25 aldermen?”
It was a bold opening line for a mayor-elect who will need every vote he can get to reorganize the Council, pass his programs and solve a budget and pension crisis that literally has Chicago on the brink of bankruptcy. […]
Still, Emanuel said he was challenging individual aldermen by saying, “The public wants a set of reforms: budgetary, ethics, TIF, etc. Where are your changes you’re willing to make?”
Chicago taxpayers spend $19.5 million a year to maintain 50 aldermen and $4.7 million more for the 19 standing committees.
Any change in City Council structure would have to be made by the Illinois General Assembly or by Chicago voters in the form of a binding referendum. […]
If Emanuel decides to seriously pursue the idea of a smaller City Council — instead of tinkering at the margins by shrinking the roster of committees — he could find an ally in Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th).
Twice in the last 16 years, Burke has called the 50-member Council unwieldy, unproductive and unnecessary and proposed cutting it in half to save taxpayers $10 million a year.
So Burke is one, Michael Sneed suggested in her column earlier this week that Gov. Quinn was the one pushing this idea, but the mayor-elect says it’s a message he got from the voters…
The mayor-elect said it’s worthy of discussion, if only to demonstrate the sweeping nature of reforms that must be made across city government to solve a structural deficit approaching $1 billion-a-year when pension liabilities are factored in.
“It’s not about the City Council. That’s not gonna solve our problems even if they make big, radical change. To solve the type of structural challenges, we’re gonna have to do a number of things. The City Council can’t be immune from it. They’ve got to be part of it. But, if all we do is focus on that … you’re missing the bigger story,” he said.
* Feds say DuPage Housing Authority misspent $5.8 million: The latest report indicates some of the money was spent to buy flowers, meals and clothes for authority employees and Christmas gifts for DHA board members.
Auditors concluded that the Wheaton-based agency failed to follow HUD guidelines and its own policies while administering its Section 8 programs. As a result, HUD officials “lacked assurance that the authority’s resources were used to benefit low- and moderate-income individuals.”
Blame for what happened was placed on the DHA board and former Executive Director John Day.
I’m done for the night, and I realize this is usually when a lot of you are gone. In fact, you’re probably not reading this right away. I have a couple more posts lined up, but it’s Friday night. I’ll have those for you tomorrow. So until then, here is this week’s edition of CapitolView. This week’s discussion, featuring Bob Gough, Charlie Wheeler, Scott Reeder and moderator Jamey Dunn, is on borrowing, pension issues and school consolidation.
The only thing I have to add is something that goes along with the borrowing discussion. A spokesperson for Dan Rutherford said earlier this week the type of borrowing Quinn is proposing does not require the Treasurer’s or Comptroller’s approval to proceed.
The ongoing situation in Japan has prompted a lot of discussion about nuclear safety here at home. It’s an issue both of Illinois’ U.S. Senators are taking up together…
U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk says the size of the evacuation zones around the six nuclear power plants in Illinois should be reviewed.
Kirk and fellow U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin held a forum Friday with a panel of four nuclear experts that resembled a congressional hearing to talk about safety in Illinois in the wake of the disaster in Japan.
Four of Illinois’ 11 reactors are almost identical to those involved in Japan’s nuclear crisis. Exelon Corp. owns the plants and says they’re safe.
Officials sought to assure the senators that Illinois plants are safe and have multiple layers of safeguards.
Kirk and Durbin also were interested in making sure the state’s stockpile of potassium iodide pills for people in evacuation zones is consistent with new 2010 census numbers.
The reactors may be the same, but it’s my understanding the plants’ back-up power generators are enclosed in water-tight compartments and not narrowly above sea level.
Outside of Gov. Quinn’s call for the state’s nuclear operators to provide the state financial assistance to ensure its plants are up to snuff, the topic might continue closer to home…
Sneed hears state Senate President John Cullerton plans to call for a hearing on nuclear energy in Illinois this week in light of the nuclear radiation tragedy in Japan.
A north suburban state lawmaker has shelved plans to push for an end to Illinois’ moratorium on new nuclear power plant construction given Japan’s nuclear catastrophe.
State Rep. JoAnn Osmond (R-Antioch) introduced legislation in January that would have lifted the state’s 24-year ban on nuclear power plant construction but said it no longer is on her legislative front burner.
“I don’t know it’s permanently dead, but it’s not a thing we want to do at this point until we’ve researched and really made sure that whatever causes there were for what happened in Japan are something we wouldn’t have right here,” Osmond said.
With the stroke of the governor’s pen, the cardinal has been posthumously vindicated on at least one piece of that seamless garment. In doing so, Mr. Quinn, a Democrat, also ratified the cardinal’s belief that religious thought has a place in the formulation of law, a premise the governor’s fellow liberals generally resist.
“I think it’s indispensable,” Mr. Quinn said in a telephone interview this week. “When you’re elected and sworn into office, that oath really involves your whole life experience, your religious experience. You bring that to bear on all the issues.”
As far as Brian Towne is concerned, accused killer Keith Mackowiak still faces the death penalty if convicted of murder.
The La Salle County’s state’s attorney said Thursday he has no plans to “decertify” Mackowiak’s case, which would make Mackowiak ineligible for capital punishment.
Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation March 9 abolishing the death penalty in Illinois. Towne, however, pointed out the new law’s limited verbiage merely says the death penalty will be abolished on July 1.
The law makes no mention of capital cases already pending.
The chairman and CEO of Peoria-based Caterpillar Inc. is raising the specter of moving the heavy equipment maker out of Illinois.
In a letter sent March 21 to Gov. Pat Quinn, Caterpillar chief executive officer Doug Oberhelman said officials in at least four other states have approached the company about relocating since Illinois raised its income tax in January.
“I want to stay here. But as the leader of this business, I have to do what’s right for Caterpillar when making decisions about where to invest,” Oberhelman wrote in the letter obtained Friday by the Lee Enterprises Springfield bureau. “The direction that this state is headed in is not favorable to business and I’d like to work with you to change that.”
Oberhelman said he’s being actively courted to move.
Regional superintendents operate alternative schools, offer GED classes, provide teacher certification courses and help schools obtain an estimated $135 million in grants each year, but most Illinois residents aren’t aware of those duties and don’t even know the superintendents are elected.
Illinois’ regional superintendents met in Springfield Thursday to try and convince lawmakers Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to eliminate the offices to save $13 million will cost the state 10 times that amount.
Quinn proposed taking away $13 million from the Regional Offices of Education during his budget speech last month.
Illinois has about 47 regional offices located throughout the state, including one based in Monmouth that serves Warren, Mercer and Henderson counties.
Even the superintendents themselves will admit $13 million isn’t a lot of money, but they’re lobbying effort has been focused on the amount of federal grants they bring into the state…
[Regional Superintendent Donna] Boros thinks Quinn has been misinformed about exactly what Regional Superintendents are all responsible for. Quinn’s proposal would save the state approximately $13 million. However, ROEs receive state and federal grants and funding totaling $135 million.
It’s a familiar refrain for the regional superintendents, who fended off a similar budget attack in 2003 by Quinn’s predecessor, Rod Blagojevich.
Marc Kiehna, regional superintendent for Randolph and Monroe counties in southern Illinois, thinks the two governors may not realize the value of the offices because neither is from downstate.
“Blagojevich wasn’t familiar with what happens outside the city of Chicago. I think there’s a similar situation with the current governor,” Kiehna said Thursday during a visit to the Capitol to line up support for continued funding.
State Superintendent Christopher Koch said eliminating the offices would be a blow to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), as well. “There’s all kinds of work they do with certification. They run schools, alternative schools and truancy alternative schools. They do all sorts of compliance reviews for us at the state board. So it would be a significant loss for us as well,” he told RFD radio after Quinn’s budget address. ISBE’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2012 recommended a $2 million increase for the regional offices.
The superintendents have said they have yet to meet with the governor about this proposal. OMB spokeswoman Kelly Kraft says the plan is still being looked at…
She said a commission proposed by the governor to research a school district consolidation plan, which also proposed in his budget, would look at the issue and weigh the details. Kraft said it is possible that local governments would have to foot the bill for the regional offices if they find them valuable. “If local districts still want to have the regional superintendents, then local districts would need to take up that funding,” she said. That would mean the districts would pay for requirements such as background checks on employees that are mandated by the legislature.
“We’re not attacking Gov. Quinn or his motives – these are tough times, and tough times call for tough solutions,” Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools president Gil Morrison said. “We also know there are needed cuts and there are mistakes. This cut would be a big mistake.”
* Threat to lay off 363 teachers prompts student walkouts: On Thursday, about 1,000 students walked out of their advisory period at Jacobs High School in Algonquin for about 20 minutes, Strupeck said. An additional 400 walked out of Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, and 400 to 500 students briefly walked out of Hampshire High School, she said.
“If we hadn’t done it, we would have felt like we had given up,” said Anita Perez, 14, a Jacobs freshman. “We really care about our education and our teachers.”
State Appellate Defender Michael Pelletier said layoff notices have already been issued to employees whose jobs focused on providing assistance in death penalty cases.[…]
In all, 37 positions will be eliminated from the Appellate Defender’s office, although the number of layoffs comes to only 28, because not all of the positions were filled.
Eleven of the positions are in the Springfield office, where six people will lose their jobs.
The cutbacks will save a total of $4.7 million, Pelletier said, counting salaries and other associated costs.
Those layoffs may have been predictable after capital punishment was erased from the books, but other areas of the criminal justice system are hurting for entirely different reasons…
As the state begins cutting back, counties are picking up the financial slack, forcing departments to deal with smaller budgets and a growing backlog of cases.
In 2010, the Illinois judicial system was short about $28 million it was owed for its annual budget.
Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride said the department only recently received a small installment of the total $64 million it was owed from state coffers.
“It’s extremely difficult to run these probation departments. Today, with that additional $20 million, we’re at $55 (million), and what’s projected (for the next fiscal year) is the estimated cost for salaries and probation is … $95 million,” Kilbride told a Senate committee earlier this week.
The probation departments account for about 24 percent of the entire judicial budget. Illinois has 70 probation departments supervising more than 100,000 offenders.
*** 7:52 p.m. ***
I forgot to include today’s Sun-Times editorial, which came out against the idea of having a registry of released murderers…
The logic of sex offender registries is that at least some small percentage of sex offenders cannot be rehabilitated; released from prison, they will repeat the same crimes. Society must know who they are to protect itself.
But aside from monsters like John Wayne Gacy, there is no compelling evidence that people who have committed murder are likely to commit murder again, especially after serving a 20- to 30-year prison term.
And in similar news…
* Former state trooper Matt Mitchell asks for review of denied workers’ comp claim: Matt Mitchell’s lawyer, Kerri O’Sullivan, filed for a review March 16 — asking a panel of commissioners to review Illinois Workers’ Compensation arbitrator Jennifer Teague’s denial.
In the petition for review, O’Sullivan checked that Mitchell’s injuries occurred in the course of his employment and arose out of his employment. Teague issued an opinion Feb. 17 that found Mitchell did not sustain accidental injuries arising out of and in the course of his employment with the state, then dismissed his claim.
He nominated Hiram Grau for the job Friday. Grau is deputy chief of investigations for the Cook County state’s attorney. He also spent 27 years with the Chicago Police Department.
Now the Illinois Senate will decide whether to confirm Grau’s nomination.
He served in the Chicago Police Department for 27 years, rising to deputy superintendent for the Bureau of Investigative Services, and is a Vietnam War veteran.
Grau’s nomination is a marked difference from Quinn’s first recommendation for the post. Quinn selected Jonathon Monken, then 29, in March 2009. Monken had no law enforcement experience and legislators treated the nomination coldly.
Costigan serves as the secretary and treasurer of Workers United, a division of the Service Employees International Union. Costigan is a former vice president of the Illinois AFL-CIO. Both unions supported Quinn during last year’s election.
That one should not come as a big surprise to subscribers, who were informed earlier this week that Costigan had some major endorsements after Catherine Shannon was abruptly let go.
More on Costigan…
As an elected officer, Costigan has negotiated contracts between the union and employers, led efforts to save jobs at Chicago-based Hartmarx, and he has represented the interests of workers across the state. Costigan is also a past vice president of the Illinois State AFL-CIO, and was on the staff of former Illinois House Speaker William Redmond.
Larry Matkaitis was appointed as the State Fire Marshal in January 2010 after spending more than three decades with the Chicago Fire Department. Matkaitis began his career as a paramedic, and rose to chief paramedic before becoming assistant deputy fire commissioner for emergency medical operations. He has supervised numerous training programs for first responders and hazardous materials incidents. He is also a member of the Illinois Terrorism Task Force.
John Schomberg has served as acting general counsel since May 2010. In addition to providing advice and counsel to Governor Quinn and other top administration officials, Schomberg also oversees the legal staffs for state agencies, boards and commissions.
I have not received any new information about who might replace Gary Hannig at IDOT later this month.
*** 8:40 p.m. ***
Still not looking good for former Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson…
When questioned this morning, Quinn’s press office referred The Daily Journal back to the radio interview archived at www.illinois.gov.
At the press conference for the high-speed rail announcement, Quinn noted that there might be a place for Halvorson in his administration, but he “had someone in mind” for the transportation position. He added that there were “many places” where Halvorson’s services might be used, but he refused to name his candidate for the IDOT post.
The CEO of Cook County’s independent health and hospital board resigned Thursday, just days after failing to win approval for a controversial plan to shutter Oak Forest Hospital.
Although officials say the timing is purely coincidental, William T. Foley’s resignation comes at a critical time for the Health and Hospitals System Board as it tries to overhaul health care and consolidate services.
Foley, 60, declined to comment. He accepted a job as CEO for Vanguard Health Systems running hospitals in the Chicago area, said Warren Batts, chairman of the Health and Hospital System Board. Foley’s resignation is effective May 6.
Population numbers to be used across the country for state-level redistricting were officially completed Thursday, according to U.S. Census Bureau director Robert Groves.
Subscribers have known for a few weeks that officials in Illinois have had most of the numbers available to them and have been able to determine which districts gained or lost population. Without getting too specific, many legislative districts in Cook County suffered big losses according to last year’s decadal headcount.
April 6, 2011 in Springfield
April 16, 2011 in Kankakee
April 16, 2011 in Peoria
April 19, 2011 in Cicero
* The Daily Herald’s editorial board went off on the Senate Democrats today for not scheduling any public hearings in their circulation area…
Census figures show most of the population growth in Illinois has been in the Northwest and West suburbs, but there will be no hearings here. Senate Republicans complained about that.
“I hope that is not a precursor for how the Democrats treat suburbia in drawing the map,” state Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican, told Daily Herald staff writer Jeff Englehardt.
We’ve watched these processes many times over the decades. Let’s quit kidding around. The process is a charade and openness is not a byproduct. We’d be surprised if several versions of maps designed to do whatever is legally possible to preserve Democratic majority power weren’t already drawn. And again, no fooling. If Republicans were in the majority, we’re confident they’d be doing the same thing. This is all about raw political power, controlling and preserving it at any cost.
Raoul has said he plans to schedule additional hearings, so the suburbs might be part of the to-be-announced gatherings. Areas south of Interstate 72, including Metro east, which saw population growth since 2000, are also not on this round of hearings. The 96th General Assembly version of the committee met as far south as Carbondale when it was considering amendments to the redistricting process.
*** 5:12 p.m. ***
I just spoke to a few sources in the Senate Democrats. They said the Committee still intends to schedule future hearings, though specifics are unknown at this time. In response to the DH’s editorial, one of them reminded us that a lot of growth took place in the southern suburbs, such as Aurora. It sounds like there is definitely more to come.
While still the country’s third largest city, Chicago was the only one among the top 10 cities in 2010 to have lost population over the previous decade, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Likewise, Cook County, the nation’s second most populous county after Los Angeles, is the only one of 2010’s 10 largest counties to have lost population since the 2000 census. Chicago lost about 200,000 residents in the past 10 years and Cook County was down by 182,000. […]
But Kendall County was the fastest-growing county in the country, more than doubling its population to 114,736 during the past decade, a 110 percent boost. And Plainfield was the sixth fastest-growing town with a population of more than 10,000, tripling its population to 39,581.
For those who didn’t join us yesterday, Rich Miller is away for his first Spring Training experience. You can contact me at: barton.lorimor@gmail.com
We’re getting a later start today given my class and work schedule. There will be posts later today and maybe some tomorrow to make up for lost time. In the meantime, you can always make use of the RSS feeds in the right-hand columns to get caught-up on the day’s events. I’ll catch up with you later. Thanks for your patience.
4:35 p.m. - The work and school day is FINALLY over. I’m going through everything to put some posts together. Because of the lost time, I’ll have more tomorrow and leave comments open until then. Again, sorry for the delay.
