40 Comments - DOWNSTATE - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 6:14 am: This shows that since the Democrats have taken control that the people of Illinois no longer have a voice in government.It shows in higer fees and license,poorer state services,more jobs leaving Illinois,etc.Democrats raiding special funds so they can pay for their pork projects,even stealing from the Breast Cancer Research fund. - outraged - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 6:16 am: Speaking of closed door meetings, this item from yesterday: NOTE TO PATRICK FITZGERALD: It was commonplace in the old days for lobbyists and campaign workers to flow in and out of the governor’s office. The feds took notice. George Ryan was brought up on corruption charges. Blagojevich, as you’re well aware, has repeatedly said that kind of activity has no place in his administration. Yet, here in the midst of the final year of his first term in office, there was his campaign spokesman, Doug Scofield, walking into the governor’s office in the State Capitol on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the governor said Scofield was in the office in his other capacity, which is as a lobbyist. That makes his presence in the place a two-fer. Kurt Erickson and Matt Adrian can be reached at kurt.erickson@lee.net or matt.adrian@lee.net . - HIDDEN AGENDAS in THE PRESS - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 6:41 am: Rich: I have a better idea for a new question or, better yet, a new poll of the day…. Who, among local scribes, is our hometown version of Jared Paul Stern of recent NY Post Page Six infamy? John Kass (Chicago Tribune)? Michael Sneed (SunTimes)? Carol Marin (SunTimes)? Rich Miller (Daily Southtown/CapFax)? Mark Brown (SunTimes) Mary Mitchell (SunTimes)? Laura Washington (Suntimes)? Kristen McQuerey (Daily Southtown)? Russ Stewart (Nadig Newspapers)? Write-ins? - Six Degrees of Separation - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 6:57 am: If you could just subtract the Speaker and the Senate Majority Leader, we’d have a King. - kdruben - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 7:00 am: Committee Chairmen and women should be submitting budgets for the various agencies that they oversee and then have these people duke it out… they are closer to the people than any one of the four tops who are all in Safe Dem/Rep districts. - rationale - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 7:25 am: Maybe the members of the appropriations committees could write the budget. Maybe the chairs of other committees could suggest funding levels for areas within their expertise. Maybe rank and file members could develop spines and do it themselves rather than hiding behind their leaders. oops — there goes the alarm clock. - Mongo - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 7:31 am: who is Downstate kidding? this isn’t a Democratic thing it is an Illinois thing…I am sure Pate Phillip and Lee Daniels and George Ryan and Jim Edgar and even the estimable Jim Thompson, all “real” Republicans, anxiously came to the four tops meetings. I don’t recall Pate ever saying “hey let’s open this process up…why don’t we invite other people to join us?” In an ideal world, it wouldn’t be that way. An earlier commenter mentioned committee chairs, and that would be a great addition. And bring some diversity (geographic, age, gender) to the table. That said, it isn’t gonna happen. Perhaps the 4 tops know that they tell the members, including committee chairs, how things are gonna be so why not just shorten the discussion and keep the 4 in the room? From what I understand (of course I admit I have no personal knowledge here!) the committee chairs and all members get a shot at selling their ideas behind closed doors. Again, not perfect, but I can’t say it is the worst system either. - frustrated GOP - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 7:40 am: I think the more important issue is how some of those leaders got there. At least some of the House GOP leadership is elected by it’s members. Are any of the rest? Rank and file need to stand up on their own and tell their leadership what is needed, not the other way around. I don’t have an issue with working out the budget in a small room, but all the leaders need to be there and they need to represent their members. We need real election reform. - North of I-80 - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 7:41 am: Great idea!! Maybe they’ll decide to give $1 million to a southside Baptist church for a roof… Maybe they’ll decide to give $10 million to stem cell research [or was it flower-breeding research?]… Maybe they’ll decide to NOT pay anything into the IL pension system until they’re ALL out of office… Maybe they’ll decide to give $ millions to the non-producing welfare recipients and ignore the producers, the infrastructure and the state workers that carry the burden of their decisions…. How about if the house / senate members come up with a budget, vote on it and the Governor signs or vetoes it? …Maybe with a penalty for THEM if they miss the deadline. - Brenda Starr - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 8:01 am: Meetings… Smeetings Big waste of time. The real work was always adone by the staff. But the meetings did provide IL statehouse press corp with an easy story. Now they might have to make a few calls. Ask some questions. Develop sources. All that Journalism 101 stuff. Meanwhile editors must be scratching their heads as to why the piss away all that money on Statehouse reporters. People’s Exhibit #1 is the gibberish from the AP Bureau that editors played across the state without reading - Democrat Grrl - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 8:05 am: Why don’t we get a tax structure in this state that provides enough revenue for education, health care and important state services, so we can stop this end-of-session dance of parceling out the pennies and pretending the state is meeting its obligations to its citizens. We may never actually end the dance (I’ve been around here too long to think that is possible) but we could do good things with our revenue…if we had enough of it. - one of the 35 - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 8:06 am: The primary purpose of the Illinois Open Meetings Act is to require that governmental decisions and discussions take place with full public disclosure. EXCEPT, of course for the 4 tops who make the most important policy decisions for all Illinois citizens in the dark; behind closed doors. Even our rank and file legislators do not see the budget untiol after they have voted for or against it. This undermines the very basis of our representative republic because not even our representatives are not permitted to know the details of the budget in advance! - Anonymous - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 8:24 am: I think it is perfectly acceptible for the leaders of the majority party to iron out the details of the state budget. How can the “minority” party (the repub’s) be trusted? They cannot be trusted. They try to derail anything and everything the majority party (the Democrats) do. It all boils down to one thing, and that is, “numbers.” The repub’s do not have them, that is why they are in the “minority.” So, with that said, they need to learn how, let me make sure I can find the right word, “Cope with it!” It is refreshing to see repub’s “frustrated.” How do they think Democrats felt for the last 20 some years. I hear a lot of disgruntled state workers complaining about their pensions, etc., and I do not mean any disrespect to any of them. But, state workers get 50% of their wages after 20 years of work. For the most part, on average, a state employee will earn $60-$70,000 a year by the time they retire after 20 years of service; at a minimum, they will be receiving $30,000 a year for the rest of their life, as a result of their state retirement. Don’t get me wrong teacher’s, state police, etc. earn their keep. Nevertheless, there are approximately 5-7 million workers in Illinois (just a guestimate), and I would say that 75-80% of workers in Illinois earn less than $30,000 a year working full time, 40 hours a week with “NO” retirement or pension from their employers “now.” I know a lot of people who work for the “state,” and I can tell you point blank: most of them have been there since the 80’s and mid-90’s, and 98% of them got their jobs because they put “Republican” yard signs in their yards, stuffed envelopes, etc. I hope the Democrats win in November, but if they don’t, they will retake the governorship in another 4 years. The Democrats are not out anything, as far a patronage jobs, etc. because the same people who have been promoting, giving jobs, etc. going back to the Ryan administration are still in pivotal and critical spots in state government. I do not blame Republicans for hiring their friends and loyal supporters. Actually it makes sense as long as they are qualified because as can be seen in state government today, the “old hacks” from the “repubs” are still in place, and they go out of their way to make the governor look bad every chance they get when it comes to their agency or department. Why would a governor want someone to head an agency or department, etc. that is directly under your responsibility that disagrees with your “philosophy,” your direction you want the state to go, and basically thinks you are an idiot and disagrees with everything you stand for. It doesn’t make sense to me. I hope every administration takes heed from the late great President, Andrew Jackson. If you hate me, I will not trust you. Therefore, if I do not truts you, how can I expect you to do a good job for me and work with me. It is all relevant. - grand old partisan - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 8:27 am: The four tops are one thing, but - and correct me if I am wrong, Rich - haven’t most of the stories about this year’s budget made it clear that we’re talking about just the Speaker, Prez and Guv? Are Cross and Watson being included in those meetings? - Anon - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 8:39 am: I’ll just remind everyone that the governor did vow to end the business-as-usual end-of-session meetings and to open up the process when he was running for governor. Yet another broken promise? - Stavros Popodopolis - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 8:52 am: Cage match, no holds barred, last man standing. Do it in the rotunda and sell tickets, it’ll help up pay for state services and scare people from Iowa and Indiana. - Lovie's Leather - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 8:57 am: Okay… they can do the same thing they are doing now… Blago, Madigan, and Jones in a room making the budget… let’s just have the citizens against government waste be in the room too and have bombs strapped to their bodies… - Anonymous - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 9:00 am: The Legislative budgeteers do most of the framing of budget options for, what is now, just the Governor and the two tops. I would suggest these budgeteers do the budget preparatory work with a deadline that’s maybe 10-14 days prior to scheduled adjournment, and then let there be time for the budget committees to react and ask questions. But, inclusiveness dilutes the power of the Speaker and President, so until the rank and file legislators insist on being proactive members of the process, expect them to have to vote on a deal that’s already been decided. - Anon - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 9:07 am: Anon 8:24 is incorrect when he(or she) asserts that state workers receive 50% of their pay after 20 years. Actually, what they receive is the average of the highest 4 of the final 10 years of salary multiplied times a formula that consists of 1.67% X the number of years worked. So in other words, a state employee with 20 years of service would receive 33.4% of the final average salary. Anon 8:24’s assertion that the “average” state worker will earn between 60-70,000 by they retire is also wildly inaccurate. I would venture a guess that the final average compensation of the “average” state employee retiring today with 20 years of experience would be in the $30,000 to $40,000 range. Therefore, the pension would be in the range of $10,000 to $13,360 - not exactly the huge pension. Now if you want to talk about inequities in the state pension system let’s talk about members, or former members, of the General Assembly. The General Assembly voted themselves a pension that is equal to 85% of their final salary. This explains why we continue to see legislators who retire from the General Assembly and take jobs in state government. Unlike the average state worker they don’t have to take the average of their final 4 years of employment - they get 85% of their final salary. So a legislator who leaves the General Assembly and goes into some type of “make work” job at $100,000 in the adminstration (Democratic or Republican depending on what time period we are talking about) will receive a nice fat pension of $85,000 per year for life (plus annual inflation adjustments). The usual disclaimer - I’m not a state employee - although I used to be one - so don’t worry folks I’m not doing this on the state dime. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 9:15 am: I guess I only have one thing to say about the “former state employee’s” comment; do not take what I say for fact, find out for yourself. Look up the State of Illinois “Master Contract” with AFSCME. A state worker gets 2.5% of their salary for each year of service, ie. 50% of salary for 20 years of service. Maybe this only applies to certain agencies. I am not for sure on that. I could care less if state workers get that much money when they retire. I am retired but don’t make that much. Oh well, that is how our market works. - VanillaMan - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 9:19 am: The current situation is wrong. It is undemocratic and insulting to the people. The problem is that they’ve been getting away with it for so long, they have created a myriad of excuses to justify it, and many idiots are swallowing it. This is not a political issue, both parties did it. It is a power move played by the arrogant for their own enjoyment and enrichment. They seem to really believe they are doing the right thing - they are playing us as the fools we are. There will never be enough money. Every penny grabbed from us was spent twenty years ago. Every penny we will ever have grabbed from us during the next 30 years has been spent. You have to be completely niave to believe that taxes are collected and spent in the similar manner we pay our bills. Blagojevich continually shows his mendacity. Before promising to end business as usual, he was in the General Assembly, and in the US House. Making such a claim after being a part of the problem for so long shows that he either hadn’t learned a single thing as a legislator, or he is a psychotic liar. We chose a new party to clean the State. Instead of doing that, the Democrats have simply played the same game. It is far worst to discover that your rescuer had no intentions of rescuing you, and you discover that they just played on your pleas of help to get their shot at the Trough. It is time for you people to start demanding reform in this state and voting out incumbants that keep reform from occuring. If you keep doing this, sooner or later they will figure it out. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 9:26 am: Anon 9;15 maybe you should of chosen a different field as a young person and became a state employee. - Anon - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 9:30 am: Not to belabor this but Anonymous 8:24 and now 9:15 is correct that this is covered by the AFSCME master contract - I’m not sure where he is getting his information but look at the pensions provision of the contract and it states that the normal pension calculation is 1.67% times final average salary - here’s the link - http://www.state.il.us/cms/persnl/Labor/master/articlexiii.htm#3 Those of you who haven’t been in government need to understand the facts. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 9:38 am: I believe it is the Department of Corrections that gets th 50% pension, etc. and increases with time of service. - decatur's lincoln - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 9:53 am: Lisa Madigan is a champion for open meeting for local governments. It is amazing the General Assembly which usually has more impact on local governments and the people of Illinois does so much business in closed meetings. No matter Republican or Democrat these private sessions with or without the Governor have impacted our lives. It would be some reality show if one could look into these session. Of course then processing of meat would not look as bad. It is time to open state government and the General Assembly’s party causus system. Let the voters see if their individual reps or senators are just followers or stand up people. - frustrated GOP - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 9:54 am: Don’t miss the whole point. Last year’s budget and this’s years puts a huge debt on the people of Illinois. Where d you think the money is going to come from to pay the pension system? It’s not coming from Indiana or cheese land up north. Business don’t want to come to Illinois because of the cost of insurance and the price to do business so someone has to pay for this. The price goes up every day it’s not paid. Yes this is both parties leaders dealing with this. People like Rauschenberger have been said this there entire time in Springpatch. But what this administration has done is far beyond even George. Pension aren’t going to be cut, we’re all going to pay more later on and this administration has done nothing to promote jobs outside of temp jobs from Hollywood. - Supernaut - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 10:14 am: Vote against every incumbent, every time. - DOWNSTATE - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 10:52 am: I like how these mouth pieces for the Democrats get on here and try to put the blame on state workers and their pensions.It’s about these closed door meetings and it seems that the Democrats have taken it to a new level.Here is Blago pushing for a budget that most of the legislatures don’t want even some Democrats are against. He even voted against the same plan years ago when he was a legislator.All of this should be out in the open with all legislators involved where we can see for ourselves who is doing the peoples work. - The original Bill - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 12:03 pm: Typical bs spewed by repub mouthpieces that just don’t understand that they live in a blue state: a. Business is leaving Illinois b. Business won’t come to Illinois c. Rod is “stealing” from the pension fund d. Rod is corrupt e. Rod is stupid f. everything in this state that they don’t like is Rod’s fault g. Illinois is a “high tax” state h. all republicans are blameless i. Jim Edgar would never “steal” from the pension fund. j…then only criminals will have guns k…life begins with a glint in a teenagers eye l…birth control is abortion m…stem cell research is abortion n…we are driving business out of this state o…the pension holiday was Rod’s idea and his fault and was never done in Illinois before. p…Judy won’t raise taxes q…all of Rod’s advisors are from New York r…Rod is not popular downstate There is a lot more but my fingers got tired. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 12:23 pm: We do need to open up the budget process, but the idea that the open meetings act should apply to these three is absurd. Republican Leaders weren’t invited to the meeting because they’ve decided to be obstructionists. If they don’t like it, Cross and Watson can have their own budget meetings. Heck, I’m sure they are. One idea I’ve bandied about is passing a two-year budget in odd-numbered years. That way, budgets aren’t as dictated by political forces and election year promises, and it requires people to think more longterm. You could still have supplemental appropriations, of course, but we’d be talking about hundreds of thousands, not billions. - DOWNSTATE - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 12:55 pm: Well from the postings on here it looks as if Blago has made a laughing stock out of his followers again and they lost another argument.Except for YYD The budget idea is pretty good.Oh the Democrats have played the obstructionist plenty of times and Emil Jones said in the beginning that it would not pass.So this year is no different than past years it’s all about politics. - Goodbye Napoleon - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 1:05 pm: Rich, I think the question is somewhat misleading. Most of the budget discussions happen between GOMB, legis staff, and their own leaders, and with each other. By the time the leaders and the governor meet behind closed doors, that day’s agenda is usually pre-determined. But for now, it sounds like we won’t be seeing any of those meetings this week or next. - DOWNSTATE - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 1:07 pm: Oh no another Blago headline just bit the dust.Committee lead by Democrats refuses to implement the junk food ban.Another non working Blago idea.Let see how many does that make now.The only thing these people can seem to do right is borrow money. - 47th Ward - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 1:15 pm: Two words: cumulative voting. This is all Pat Quinn’s fault. - Budget Watcher - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 2:02 pm: I work in a state that has a bi-annual budget that, on an annual basis,is about 60% of the Illinois budget. Supplemental appropriations in the “between year” totaled more than a billion. So the YDD comments about minimal supplementals in off-years doesn’t necessarily hold true. Political strife over whether to spend less, to spend more, to tax, or to give tax relief is not necessarily blunted by an off-year. Last year’s hasty push in the veto session for AllKids shows that regardless of timing or necessity, budgets can and will be altered as a means to meet political ends. I agree that the majority party should set the budget agenda, but when there’s absolutely no input from the minority party, we encourage non-representaive government. In fact, because one party needs to act as a group to get a budget passed, and a party has multiple coalitions, relatively small numbers of legislators can have enormous bargaining power. When Republican’s controlled the G.A. and the governor’s office, conservative coalitions had a disproportiate amount of influence. Now the pendulum has swung the other way. But in the end, two wrongs don’t make it right. - Team Sleep - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 4:49 pm: Start negotiating the budget IMMEDIATELY after the start of session and the House, Senate and Governor will all have an easier time with spending. That would also allow legislators to quit passing so many pointless and cumbersome laws. - Six Degrees of Separation - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 6:43 pm: I believe it is the Department of Corrections that gets th 50% pension, etc. and increases with time of service. The 2.5% per year pension is the “alternative” service formula that covers employees in high risk occupations - basically state police, corrections front line, and highway maintainers. Nearly all other state employees get 1.67% a year. And there is a move to get the highway maintainers back into the regular formula; the Teamsters successfully lobbied for the higher formula a few years ago, when it was shown that the on-the-job fatality rate was higher for highway maintainers than state troopers. I guess, if the higher formula for highway maintainers is rescinded, it will be because it is more humane to be hit by a drunk driver while filling a pothole than to be stabbed with a shiv by an inmate, or to be shot by a gang-banger during a routine traffic stop. - Cassandra - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 7:28 pm: Whatever the pension formula may be, and Illinois is not the most lavish state by far, pension reform is needed to ensure that future generations of Illinoisians don’t have to pay double for retirement, that is, save for their own unpensioned retirements and also pay for the likely more lavish ones of their state employees. Because of these pensions, state of Illinois total compensation packages are well above market no matter which job classification you are discussing. Eventually, the retirement party will have to end in state government. May it be soon. As to the legislators’ lavish pensions, that’s our fault for not keeping ourselves informed about how they are spending our money. It’s also an advertisement not only for more open discussions of the budget but also for citizens paying attention to those discussions. - taxs man - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 9:19 pm: AS, A highway maintainer, Lets get one thing right. After, 20yrs we get 2.5. But, before that we only get 1.67. But thanks to JIM EAGAR and GEORGE RYAN, MOst highway maintainer won’t make 20 yrs. Because, if we do we’ll be in our 70’s Thanks JIM & GEORGE - These are our choices? - Tuesday, Apr 11, 06 @ 10:08 pm: As to Rich’s original question… NO it is not healthy for government decisions to be made behind closed doors with only three people and their staffs having a say in them, especially when those decisions involve more than 50 billion dollars a year in taxpayer money!!! The solution is campaign finance reform with campaign contribution limits in Illinois. The power for the four tops comes from their stranglehold on campaign pursestrings. All the lobbyists and contributors donate to the four top because they have all the power over the agenda, and the four tops have all the power over the agenda because they get all the contributions that they get to choose whether or not to share with certain members’ campaigns. Too bad it’s the four tops that have all the power to implement the solution, so we’ll never see this problem solved. p.s. I agree with 47th ward that cumulative voting has a lot to do with the budget problems we have now. Quinn running as lite gov with Rod again just shows what a phony populist that man is. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.