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* I saw some news reports last week and decided to follow up. Here’s my statewide syndicated newspaper column…
Several downstate Illinois legislators were furious last week that Gov. Pat Quinn decided to go ahead and close some state facilities, including prisons, in their districts.
They weren’t just upset about the lost jobs, however. Some also claim Quinn broke an agreement regarding the closings.
“If the governor proceeds with this, he has gone back on his word,” Rep. Mike Bost (R-Murphysboro) told a crowd gathered to protest the planned closures last week.
Bost and others indicated that the deal was made over revenue issues but didn’t get more specific. Bost did not return a phone call, but he was almost surely referring to the cigarette tax increase.
“We believe the governor’s office was working members for votes on certain legislative initiatives in exchange for keeping facilities open,” said Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego).
She said there was no deal discussed among the four legislative leaders and the governor, but she did say when pressed that the cigarette tax hike was among those “legislative initiatives.”
Bost and several other House Republicans voted for the $1-per-pack tax hike, which received the bare minimum majority of 60 votes in that chamber. The roll call was carefully structured in a bipartisan manner so the bill could pass without forcing politically endangered members to vote in favor of it.
No Senate Republicans voted for the cigarette tax increase, but the Senate Democrats have repeatedly passed cigarette tax hikes on their own in the past. The House Democrats couldn’t (or wouldn’t) muster enough votes to do so.
“False,” replied Kelly Kraft, a top official with the governor’s budget office, when told of the supposed dealings between Quinn and some GOP House members.
There were a ton of rumors floating around during the last few days of the spring session on what exactly was going on with the facility closures. One downstate Democrat, who represents a district where a prison was slated for closing, insisted that a Quinn administration official had testified in a House committee meeting toward the end of the session that if the General Assembly put money back in the budget to keep the targeted facilities open the governor would probably do so.
But Rep. Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago), who chairs the House Appropriations Public Safety Committee, and the committee’s minority spokesman, Rep. David Reis (R-Ste. Marie), both said no such claim was ever made by the governor’s office at any of their hearings.
Instead, the Quinn official merely said when pressed on the budget question that maybe the administration would consider keeping the facilities open but made clear that she could not speak for the governor, according to Arroyo and Reis.
And it turns out the cigarette tax trade rumors could be false as well.
“To my knowledge there never was a deal,” said Rep. Jim Watson (R-Jacksonville).
Watson was one of the House Republicans who voted for the cigarette tax hike and has a facility in his district that’s slated for closure in August.
Apparently, members on both sides of the aisle attempted to push their leaders to force some sort of a quid pro quo with Quinn on the cigarette tax hike and the facility closings. But that never happened.
Quinn was obviously making deals near the end of the session, so an eagerness to cut a deal on the cigarette tax increase was understandable at the time.
What appears to have happened on the cigarette tax issue was that legislators voted for the higher tax with the hope that it would persuade Quinn to reconsider closing the detention and mental health centers.
Quinn apparently ignored the wishes of the House members who stuck out their necks for him. At the Statehouse, that’s almost as bad as breaking a deal with them.
They probably won’t be helping out the governor any time soon.
* Related…
* Erickson: Springfield insiders speculate Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to close prisons merely ploy to garner support
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jun 25, 12 @ 10:48 am
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no trade, wait, oh, you aren’t talking about baseball…..
Comment by amalia Monday, Jun 25, 12 @ 11:30 am
during orientation, veterans tell the newbies a couple dozen times a day, “your word is your bond”, and the most important thing you have. way to go, gov Q.
Comment by langhorne Monday, Jun 25, 12 @ 11:47 am
it sounds like the downstate Republicans and a few Democrats (Rep. Phelps and Bost and Sen. Forby) were indulging in a bit of wishful thinking — that is all. This story basically confirms appearances: the governor has been clear about his plans for closure, has maintained that position for months, and has now stuck to his guns despite the increasing crazed rants of a few legislators. In their wild new conference last week, Phelps and Forby came close to threatening the governor’s safety! Using prisons as an engine for jobs has got to end. Maybe these closures mark the beginning of the end of that policy?
Comment by bartelby Monday, Jun 25, 12 @ 11:48 am
Is there anyone in this State who still trusts this administration? Are we going back to the days of making the Governor sign MOUs?
Comment by Anonymice Monday, Jun 25, 12 @ 11:51 am
I don’t know. As you point out, it doesn’t sound like a deal.
It seems more likely that Forby and Phelps and leadership wanted to put it in the budget so they could go back to their constituents and say “we did our job” and then they would just demonize Quinn when he stuck to his guns and cut it out.
Leadership liked it too b/c they could satisfy downstate legislators (without actually following through on the costly plan to make a new prison for political reasons.)
Comment by Dan Bureaucrat Monday, Jun 25, 12 @ 11:53 am
It appears that some people are seeing only what they want to see in this story. It’s quite interesting.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jun 25, 12 @ 11:56 am
“If the governor proceeds with this, he has gone back on his word,” Rep. Mike Bost (R-Murphysboro) told a crowd gathered to protest the planned closures last week.
Gee, I guess the legislators don’t like broken promises either. Too bad it only matters to them when it affects them.
Comment by sk hicks Monday, Jun 25, 12 @ 12:36 pm
–What appears to have happened on the cigarette tax issue was that legislators voted for the higher tax with the hope that it would persuade Quinn to reconsider closing the detention and mental health centers.–
One can always hope. But a “hope” to “persuade… to reconsider” is a lot different than having a deal, and is pretty thin gruel when accusing someone of breaking their word.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jun 25, 12 @ 12:50 pm
I guess the unanswered question for Bost is who told him this was the deal. Was it the republicans or Quinn? They need to sort that out.
Phelps and Forby need to shut up. I believe Madigan ran this through to get what he wants knowing Quinn would close the prisons like he said he would anyway. Forby and Phelps can complain all they want about Chicago having too much power, but they will show up next January and put Chicago leaders in charge of the house and Senate. You can’t beleive Chicago has too much power and then vote for Madigan as speaker. The two are incompatible.
Comment by the Patriot Monday, Jun 25, 12 @ 1:28 pm
Whether there was a deal or not, it appears certain legislators did indeed “stick their necks out” a bit for Quinn in the interest of good will.
When that good will was not reciprocated, well… interpret that however you like.
At minimum, that won’t exactly hekp Quinn’s relations with the legislature next time he’s looking for votes.
Comment by Freeman Monday, Jun 25, 12 @ 2:07 pm
State of IL retirees and workers have already learned that they can’t trust IL politicians; it’s great now that IL politicians are learning they can’t trust IL politicians either !
Comment by sal-says Monday, Jun 25, 12 @ 5:01 pm