Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2006

New feeds

Thursday, May 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

In addition to the Stateline Illinois feed I told you about earlier today, I’ve added two more news feeds to the blog.

The CBS-2 feed is a combination of local news, video and political stories.

The Illinois Channel has a blog of sorts that posts press releases from government officials and campaigns.

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Stroger sells his house

Thursday, May 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This is really getting to be too much.

Cook County Board President John Stroger’s South Side Chicago home has been sold, real estate listings indicate.

The home on East 91st Street was put on the market April 20 at an asking price of $289,000, the records from the Multiple Listing Service indicate. Tuesday, the home was placed under contract, meaning that someone put in a bid and it was accepted. It was not known what the house sold for or when the closing will be.

Chicago Alderman Todd Stroger did not return calls for comment. After initially making his father’s doctors available for comment, Todd Stroger has declined to get specific about his father’s medical condition after his March stroke.

Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association, said the sale does not raise questions about Stroger’s residency status in regards to the presidency, but it does call into question his commissioner status, which requires him to live in his 4th District. The Chicago Tribune has reported John Stroger is now staying in a downtown condo, far outside the 4th District.

More here.

16 Comments

Question of the day

Thursday, May 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Morning Shorts has always been a pain in the rear to do and then hardly anyone ever comments. So, I’m done with it. It’s over. Kaput. Finished.

Instead, after some initial difficulties getting it to work, I’m posting Stateline’s Illinois news feed on the right side of the page. They do a great job of finding all Illinois-related news items so I don’t have to.

The only way MS gets a reprieve is if you demand it in comments today. Otherwise, it’s history.

Use this Question of the Day to comment on the demise of Morning Shorts and suggest other things you’d like to see on the blog.

UPDATE: How about if I highlight the Stateline feed in a post of its own every day? Like this:

Stateline IL

48 Comments

Back and forth

Thursday, May 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

So far, this story is just a he-said, she-said. It’s difficult to tell what’s really going on here, retaliation or individual corruption.

A state worker fired by the Blagojevich administration for allegedly rigging job applications complained about the number of outside contractors her agency was hiring, then weeks later found herself the subject of an investigation.

Dawn DeFraties, who was personnel director for the Department of Central Management Services, argued in a November 2004 e-mail that a review of her bureau duplicated work that was already under way by another consultant.

“Why do we have to do this again?” DeFraties asked in an e-mail obtained by The Associated Press.

Her boss, Ed Wynn, responded that the work done by the other contractor - The Revere Group Ltd. - wasn’t what the department needed. He said he wanted a consultant he knew from a private-sector job to do it correctly.

But…

“Dawn didn’t want someone looking at her bureau,” DeJong said. “I don’t believe this is evidence of duplicative work; in fact, it’s not. This is evidence that Dawn had something to hide.”

Administration officials say Simmons’ work uncovered irregularities that prompted an investigation by Blagojevich’s inspector general, who found that DeFraties and Casey altered civil-service grades to favor some applicants and graded preferred applicants before others to get them hired more quickly.

Then again…

However, state documents are not clear about Simmons’ role.

Three main witnesses against DeFraties and Casey told investigators that they had either not talked to Simmons, did not discuss special treatment of some applicants with her, or took their concerns directly to Wynn.

22 Comments

Alderman wants $20K pay hike

Thursday, May 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

You’ve gotta be kidding me.

Aldermen would get a $20,000 pay increase spread over their next four-year term under an ordinance introduced Wednesday that is expected to start the debate over what constitutes appropriate compensation for Chicago’s City Council.

Mayor Richard Daley has not signed on to the proposal, nor have his colleagues, said Ald. Bernard Stone (50th), sponsor of the measure.

But Stone insisted that aldermen are worth the raise, which would increase salaries of council members by more than 20 percent, to about $118,000 a year in 2011.

“I think we deserve it,” asserted Stone, who was first elected in 1973. “At least I know I deserve it … I think my constituents think I am entitled to it.”

I have a feeling his constituents are thinking no such thing.

24 Comments

You have to play to win

Thursday, May 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Sun-Times runs a story that looks into whether the state can really get $10 billion for the lottery.

“No one will give them $10 billion,” said Kip Peterson, president of Transnational Market Development, a Georgia consulting firm that has helped start 16 lotteries worldwide.

Because the lottery only generates $500 to $600 million in profits annually, it would take nearly 20 years to earn back the initial investment, he said. “It just doesn’t make sense financially.” […]

“There seems to be a market,” said Ted Damutz, a vice president with the Chicago office of Moody’s Investor Service. “Lots of European companies are already in the market for privatizing lottery systems. But it’s hard to know about this $10 billion. They still have to work out a lot of details.”

On the other hand…

Blagojevich staffers says they’ve considered those variables and stand by their $10 billion figure, saying it’s based on the value of current earnings. The $1.8 billion Skyway lease is 60 times the value of its annual earnings. They only expect to bring in 15 times the value of the lottery’s earnings.

“We have complete confidence in our numbers,” said Becky Carroll, Blagojevich’s budget spokeswoman.

That’s a good point about the Skyway.

Meanwhile, the Sun-Times editorial page doesn’t like the idea.

This latest idea from the desk of Gov. Blagojevich is long on merit but short on a real solution for long-term funding. […]

But this funding plan would last only until 2024, and then what? Luckily for the governor, he doesn’t have to worry about that because he won’t be in office then. […]

We have to wonder, along with state Sen. Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin), that if this were such a splendid program, why was it not introduced while the General Assembly was in session. “To do this now seems so overtly political and self-serving,” Rauschenberger says. “There is a lot of cynicism out there already.” Cynics are most apt to believe that after four years Blagojevich will be long gone but the lawmakers in Springfield will still be scratching their heads about how to invest in our schools, and the real losers will be our grandchildren.

And a Tribune story today begins the nit-picking that the plan will surely be bombarded with over the next few months (if it even survives that long).

Virtually every aspect of the agenda–from state takeover of failing schools to merit pay for teachers to mandated after-school tutoring–has its skeptics and detractors.

And Krol makes a point so well that I’ve had to rework my Sun-Times column.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is no stranger to calling for radical changes to education in Illinois - but he’s also frequently backed away from his plans.

In the past three years, the freshman governor has advocated doubling the number of gaming positions to generate money for schools, legalizing Keno to pay for building schools, giving parents of college students $1,000 tax credits, and getting rid of the State Board of Education. None of those proposals became reality, with Blagojevich eventually backing down on each of them.

So, it’s understandable that a day after proposing the sale of the Illinois Lottery to get $10 billion up front to give more money to schools, one question that loomed large was whether Blagojevich is serious this time.

Bernie makes the same sort of argument.

But it’s possible that the Blagojevich plan could actually work to Topinka’s advantage. If the governor’s proposal is seen by the larger electorate as merely a ploy to sidetrack Meeks and give the governor another issue on which he might not deliver, there could be a backfire factor.

After all, in 2002, Blagojevich talked a lot about a new venture capital fund to create jobs. He advertised its benefits. But he never got it through the legislature. Even this spring, the governor advertised that he was fighting for his “jobs” plan, using a dubious figure for the number of jobs he wanted to create. The legislature didn’t pass that either.

UPDATE: YDD makes some interesting points. Read the whole thing.

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The Stroger beat

Thursday, May 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This seems like a reasonable demand.

Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica on Wednesday demanded a photograph or tape recording to prove that County Board President John Stroger is “alive and well enough to function” after the stroke that has sidelined him for 2-1/2 months.

“With 165 days to go before the election, with the county budget looming on the horizon, with over 40 union contracts to be negotiated, numerous executive appointments to be made, we can’t wait until the end of October when Clerk David Orr has set the deadline to decide whether or not he’s going to be the candidate,” said Peraica, Stroger’s Republican challenger.

But Mayor Daley doesn’t think so.

“Everybody has illnesses in their family. Let’s not already dig their graves. I know you want to dig people’s graves. But I hope you would never do that to your own family.”

And neither does Ald. Beavers.

“There’s always a double standard when it comes to black folks and white folks. Old man [Richard J.] Daley had a stroke and was off for a year. Nobody said one word. They were even afraid to whisper that he was sick around here,” Beavers said.

That’s a good point, but that was then and this is now. There ought to be some sort of deadline on this leave of absence. And we really ought to know who is actually running Cook County in Stroger’s absence.

Meanwhile, African-American politicians are pretty divided over who should replace Stroger.

Rep. Danny Davis continues to lobby ward bosses behind the scenes in the event that Stroger decides to retire. Davis is supported by Ald. Richard Mell (33rd) and possible mayoral challengers Jesse Jackson Jr. and Luis Gutierrez. They are determined to stop Stroger’s son, Ald. Todd Stroger (8th), from replacing his father.

And Sneed has this:

Sneed hears the Rev. James Meeks, who successfully flexed his considerable muscle recently against Gov. Blagojevich, would back Cook County Board Commissioner Bobbie Steele for board president over . . . U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.).

“I would [support Steele] if she put herself out there,” Meeks told Sneed. “I’m hoping she and Congressman Davis can work something out.”

*Hold the phone, again: Sneed hears the Rev. Jesse Jackson would also be in Steele’s corner.

“I am a great admirer of Bobbie Steele,” said Jackson. “She would make a fine board president.”

Your thoughts?

39 Comments

Chicken?

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

There’s word that Gov. Blagojevich refused to appear on CNBC to discuss his education plan if a skeptic from A+ Illinois was also on the show.

UPDATE: Kip Peterson, a lottery industry consultant, had this to say to Chicago Public Radio’s 848 program earlier today when asked whether the state could get $10 billion for the lottery:

“That’s dead in the water. There’s no way… You’re looking at 17 and a half years of revenue… Gaming is not stupid.”

The comment comes about 3:40 into the clip, which can be downloaded here (mp3 file - fixed link).

Peterson also said the only way to get that $10 billion was to allow the new operators to run Keno games and “let them do virtually everything in gaming other than run a casino.”

UPDATE: From ABC7:

The potential buyers are few but the potential profits from purchasing the Illinois Lottery are big. ABC7 News has learned that there are only three U.S. companies that could buy the Illinois Lottery — Intralot, G-tech, which already provides the online technology for the Illinois Lottery, or Scientific Games, which has the contract for Illinois’ instant scratch off tickets.

Intralot’s John Pittman says the bidding will be fierce if the Illinois Lottery goes up for sale. He says they are interested in buying the Illinois Lottery. […]

Professor Derek Neal, chairman of the University of Chicago’s Economics Department, says the plan depends on what the private firms are willing to pay.

“Spend it on whatever you want to, but it makes sense if you have an opportunity to sell an asset for more than you can generate from running the asset yourself — to do it,” said Derek Neal, Univ. of Chicago Economics Chair.

Professor Neal and the private firms ABC7 talked with Wednesday say they really want to hear more specific details from the governor’s office before they can say how much the lottery is worth or how much they would be willing to pay.

21 Comments

Rates going up

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The governor briefly tried to block these hikes last year, then apparently gave up. It didn’t help that he packed the Illinois Commerice Commission and its staff with pro-utility hacks when he first took office.

ComEd introduced a plan Tuesday that would raise but limit residential electric rates for three years, a move the company says would lessen the impact of rate increases slated to begin next year.

But a utility watchdog group contends the “rate stabilization” proposal actually would be more expensive for customers in the long run.

“Only ComEd could think of a supposed rate mitigation plan that actually costs customers more money,” said David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board. “It’s really illusory and it’s based on a false promise.”

The plan filed Tuesday with the Illinois Commerce Commission would restrict average residential increases to 8 percent next year, 7 percent in 2008 and 6 percent in 2009. Costs that go over the caps would be “deferred and recovered” from 2010 to 2012, the company said in a release.

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SurveyUSA has Blagojevich ahead 43-37

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The pollster’s analysis:

In a general election held in Illinois today, 5/23/06, incumbent Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich edges Republican challenger Judy Baar Topinka by 6 points, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for KSDK-TV St. Louis. Blagojevich gets 43% to 37% for Topinka. 15% would vote for some other candidate. 4% are undecided. Blagojevich leads 5:1 among Democrats. Topinka, who is Illinois State Treasurer, leads 7:1 among Republicans. Independents are split. Women favor Blagojevich by 17 points. Men favor Topinka by 4 points. Blagojevich wins in Chicago and suburban Cook County. Topinka wins in the Collar Counties and Downstate. The election is on 11/7/06.

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Duckworth and Roskam tied?

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This just in from the Tammy Duckworth congressional campaign… a new poll has her tied with Peter Roskam.

The following is a tabular report of a telephone survey among 400 registered voters in Illinoisâ€™s 6th Congressional District, who are likely to vote in the general election in November. The survey was conducted from May 9 through 11, 2006 by trained, professional interviewers following procedures established by Bennett, Petts & Blumenthal.

All polls are subject to errors caused by interviewing a sample of persons, rather than the entire population. In 95 cases out of 100, the responses to this survey should fall within plus or minus 4.9 percentage points of those that would have been obtained from interviewing the entire population of likely general election voters in the 6th […]

1. Would you say things in the nation today are generally headed in the RIGHT DIRECTION or would you say things are off on the WRONG TRACK?

RIGHT DIRECTION…………………………………… 27%

WRONG TRACK ………………………………………. 58

(DONâ€™T KNOW)………………………………………… 15

Now Iâ€™d like to ask you some questions about the elections that will be held this November.

4. If the GENERAL ELECTION for Congress were held today and the candidates were: [RANDOMIZE]

o Peter Roskam, the Republican

o Tammy Duckworth, the Democrat

for whom would you vote? (IF UNDECIDED) Well, toward whom do you lean?

ROSKAM…………………………………………………. 35%

(LEAN ROSKAM) ……………………………………….. 5 >40%

DUCKWORTH………………………………………….. 34

(LEAN DUCKWORTH) ………………………………… 5 >40%

(UNDECIDED)………………………………………….. 20

Krol has some additional thoughts, while also noting that President Bushâ€™s favorables/unfavorables were 34/65 in the poll:

Itâ€™s an open-seat election (theyâ€™re vying to replace retiring Congressman Henry Hyde), so only 20 percent undecided before Memorial Day seems way low. Voters in the district havenâ€™t been exposed that much to Roskam in this campaign so far. He hasnâ€™t spent much money. Duckworth probably has higher name ID than your typical suburban congressional challenger by her virtue of her immense publicity and primary, but independents and Republicans probably donâ€™t know much about her. Still, this has to be highly encouraging to Duckworth after her dismal-in-victory showing during the primary (she narrowly defeated the vastly under-funded Christine Cegelis of Rolling Meadows and may have lost if third candidate Lindy Scott wasnâ€™t on the ballot). Itâ€™ll definitely be encouraging to Duckworthâ€™s national fund-raising abilities. Roskam has to be a bit scared by Bushâ€™s numbers in whatâ€™s long been a GOP district. Roskam is more conservative than Hyde on guns and is more conservative than Bush on immigration. If thereâ€™s a Democratic tide nationally and in Illinois, and a general throw-the-bums out sentiment, Duckworth could pull off the upset. Roskam has the money and the DuPage County GOP ground troops to take it up a notch any time he chooses and (presumably) create a little distance between himself and Duckworth, who really needs Cegelis to ask her volunteers to back her. Roskam has yet to pull the trigger, however.

Your thoughts?

UPDATE: Sweet has more:

[The poll] shows that 26 percent of the respondents identified the Iraq war and bringing the troops home as the most important problems they wanted their next representative to address.

Issues associated with immigration came in second, at 19 percent. […]

Thought for years to be solidly Republican because of Hyde, the Duckworth survey shows the potential in the district for Democrats, especially if national, rather than local, issues matter the most to voters come November.

Roskam starts off with a stronger GOP base vote. Asked if you “generally think of yourself as a Democrat, Republican or Independent,'’ 24 percent said strong Republican and 15 percent said strong Democrat. When combined with “leaners,'’ the numbers are 49 percent GOP and 36 percent Democrat, with 10 percent Independent.

That means there is a swing vote to be fought over.

President Bush has high negatives in this GOP territory — 49 percent have a somewhat or very unfavorable opinion of the president and 65 percent said he was doing a fair or poor job.

47 Comments

Question of the day

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Do you think Illinois should make English its official language? Why or why not?

UPDATE: Um, OK, it turns out that English already is the official language of the state of Illinois.

(5 ILCS 460/20) (from Ch. 1, par. 2901-20). Sec. 20. Official language. The official language of the State of Illinois is English. (Source: PA 87-273.)

So, let’s change the question.

Is this a good law or a bad law? Why or why not?

37 Comments

Lane Evans open thread

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Let’s get this started with a story about a recent poll taken in the district.

A poll commissioned by Rock Island Mayor Mark Schwiebert shows likely voters favor four Democrats over Republic candidate Andrea Zinga to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Lane Evans in the 17th Congressional District seat, with state Sen. John Sullivan leading the pack.

Mr. Schwiebert commissioned the poll of 300 likely voters, done May 9-12, before the nominating convention in Galesburg. Personal Marketing Research asked voters if the election were held now, would they choose one of the four leading Democratic contenders or Ms. Zinga.

Mr. Sullivan of Rushville had 49 percent, compared to Ms. Zinga’s 24 percent. Mr. Schwiebert had 45 percent to Ms. Zinga’s 24 percent; state Rep. Mike Boland of East Moline had 41 percent to Ms. Zinga’s 28 percent; and Phil Hare, Rep. Evans’ district director, was favored 39 percent to Ms. Zinga’s 29 percent.

The poll had a margin of error of 5 percent. The pool of respondents was based on 2004 voting data. A fifth candidate, Quincy teacher Rob Mellon, wasn’t included in the poll

Also check out this story and this story.

Now, what have you heard lately?

16 Comments

Morning shorts

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· Airport foes seek probe of ad-blitz donations

Â· “Students now can pray at Kirby District 140 schools â€” provided that it’s their idea.”

Â· Medicare drug changes mean some needy Illinois seniors pay more

Â· Fired city worker says he helped get licenses for connected men

Â· Editorial: Storm before the Floods

Â· Daley short on patronage answers

Â· Funeral protests force free speech debate

Â· Davis replacements?

5 Comments

Fresh stuff on the guv’s plan

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The first thing you should do is check yesterday’s comprehensive coverage at the blog to see if you missed anything, then take a look at these new links.

Â· Sun-Times: Gov’s $10 billion jackpot for schools

Â· Sun-Times: Proposal praised by Dems, ripped by Topinka

Â· Sun-Times: Who would want to buy Illinois lottery?

Â· Brown: Gov’s lottery jackpot plan looks like bad bet for schools

Â· Richards: Sale of lottery looks like good bet

Â· Tribune: State school plan bets on a lottery windfall

Â· Tribune: Critics have doubts about lottery’s benefit to schools

Â· Register-Star: Gov: Sell lottery to fund schools

Â· Copley: $10 billion proposed for schools

Â· Daily Herald: Long-term costs would come with governor’s plan

Â· Daily Herald: Effects of lottery-lease plan still unclear

Â· NW Times: Indiana hasn’t scratched off lottery privatization

Â· Lee: School officials, lawmakers leery of lottery plan

Â· Indy Star: Everyone’s talking about our lease

Â· Chicago Defender Editorial: Meeksâ€™ education plan will force â€˜Black leadersâ€™ to put up or shut up

When State Sen. James Meeks delivered a passionate sermon denouncing the Democratic Party on Feb. 26 in his churchâ€™s massive worship facility, the House of Hope, it was clear that he was fed up with the empty promises made by a plethora of elected officials.

Unwilling to be another Black elected or civil rights official who spends their time holding news conferences to complain about the problems facing African Americans, Meeks used his political savvy, power base as the head of a 22,000-member church, and solid relations with social conservatives (white Republicans) to plan a third party bid for governor that would have done significant damage to the re-election chances of Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Clearly, Blagojevich â€“ who has his eyes set on a potential presidential run in the future â€“ didnâ€™t want a South Side pastor to derail his dreams. So he broke down and hammered out a comprehensive education plan that will result in $6 billion in funds for education for the state.

For those of you who think that all Meeks has done is extract a â€œpromiseâ€ from Blagojevich, let us be clear: the plan announced yesterday stands a serious chance of getting passed, even if House Speaker Michael Madigan â€“ who was conspicuously absent from the announcement â€“ tries to derail it. The public pressure will be too much for him to even stop this from happening.

Six billion dollars. Six Billion Dollars. SIX BILLION DOLLARS!

It is necessary to trumpet this fact because the player haters have already started their sniping. Some have called Meeks an opportunist while others are saying heâ€™s lusting for power. Others are simply jealous because he had the temerity to look the governor in the eye and threaten to pull Black voters away from the party if he didnâ€™t acquiesce. No longer satisfied with threatening the party, Meeks did it â€“ effectively.

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More controversy for fund sweeps

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Another lawsuit has been filed over the governor’s fund sweeps.

A national insurers association has sued Gov. Rod Blagojevich and other state officials for diverting more than $7 million from a trust fund designed to finance auto theft-prevention programs to the general revenue fund that’s used to pay most state bills.

Money has been taken from Illinois’ Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention Fund since fiscal 2003, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, which filed the suit Monday in Sangamon County Circuit Court. For fiscal 2007, which begins July 1, $2 million will be diverted to the general fund, said Joseph Annotti, the association’s senior vice president of public affairs.

“We were hopeful that it was kind of a one-time deal and that the funds would be replenished or reimbursed, but clearly this is becoming a pattern,” Annotti said. “We think this is a dangerous pattern because since these funds have been siphoned off, the types of proven, effective programs that have cut auto thefts have been eliminated or severely cut. And that to us means that there’s going to be an increase in auto theft. It’s not a matter of if, but when.”

Annotti said the prevention fund supports educational programs on stopping auto theft, law enforcement initiatives for tracking stolen vehicles, and a task force in high-theft cities, especially those in Cook County. […]

Annotti believes the association, headquartered in Des Plaines, has “solid legal ground” in moving forward with its complaint.

“On principle alone, if a law exists that said funds are to be dedicated to a specific program, the governor or any other state officials should not be allowed to divert them for other purposes,” he said.

4 Comments

Is the “clout list” fake?

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Late yesterday, I told you that the governor’s office was claiming that the “clout list,” which has been reported on by several news organizations, but posted in full for the first time yesterday right here on my blog, was a fake.

Both NBC5 and ABC7 did stories last night about the list being posted on this site.

What some call a “clout list” or a “favors list” or even a “personal tracking list” was supposedly made public Tuesday.

It’s a list that kept track of state hires tied to hundreds of politically-connected friends of the governor’s office and NBC5’s Phil Rogers reported that now we know who’s on it.

The governor’s list has been in the news for the last week, but until Tuesday, it had not actually been seen by anyone in the media.

Not to quibble, but the AP published excerpts from the list, including names of political sponsors, last week, so I’m pretty sure they saw the whole thing. I assume the Sun-Times saw it as well, since they’re the ones who broke the story. Lee Newspapers claims to have obtained the complete list last Friday.

Strangely enough, though, the governor’s people maintain that no reporters would share the list with them and they didn’t see it until yesterday, when I put the whole thing online.

Governor Blagojevich and his staffers say they never saw the actual list until Tuesday, because the newspapers that had it refused to show them. […]

But late Tuesday afternoon, the list was denounced as concocted by a top Blagojevich aide, spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff, who told the I-Team the list “didn’t come from our office.” She claims “somebody created a document” and that the somebodys were “terminated employees making wild allegations” after being fired following allegations of corruption.

Even weirder, none of the media outlets which originally reported on the list last week have reported today on the governor’s office claims that the list is a fake. Lee ran a story on the list this morning, but nothing about the denials was mentioned.

Most, but not all, of the information on the list has already been confirmed by the media outlets which ran the original stories, so I’m not quite sure what’s going on here. I do know that there’s a lot more coming from the original source of this list, and that the list is supposedly just the tip of the iceberg.

Stay tuned.

25 Comments

Running late…

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Back in a few minutes….

Use this as an open thread until I can get back to the blog.

10 Comments

Guv’s proposal

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

6:42 UPDATE: The Tribune has already published its editorial about the plan.

…If education were the only concern, the governor’s priorities would, on balance, be winners. We wonder how he’ll get jealous communities to consolidate school districts, or teachers unions to go along with merit pay. But his list of wishes includes many that this page supports.

We suspect that what drives this plan isn’t education, it’s politics. If this proposal were such a swell idea for Illinois, Blagojevich would have proposed it for this spring’s legislative session. Instead it surfaced only after Meeks threatened to run for governor. A Meeks candidacy could have siphoned off enough Democratic votes to throw the governorship to Republican challenger Judy Baar Topinka.

Meeks said he would back off only if Blagojevich offered a big education funding plan. Voila! A big education funding plan from the governor!

But Blagojevich has a political price to pay as well: At first blush, this plan does nothing to address fast-rising property taxes that enrage many voters. And it appears that relatively few of its benefits would go to the suburban school districts that state funding already short-changes. Blagojevich may have just torpedoed the suburban support he’ll need against Topinka.

If Illinois schools receive more funding, some of it should go to teaching the rudiments of economics. That’s where this plan really falls short. Blagojevich argued Tuesday that accountability is a big part of his plan. But mostly it’s about spending more money. As is, many Illinois school officials (especially Downstate) cry poor rather than convince their property taxpayers to shoulder a heftier burden. They cry poor rather than consolidate districts to shrink the number of highly paid local officials. They cry poor rather than show anyone that their real priority is spending smarter, rather than spending more.

Blagojevich has shown that he knows how to hold down a payroll, kill obsolete programs and streamline or consolidate the business of government. That, Governor, was a show of leadership. This, by contrast, is the thinking we’ve seen too often from your administration: relying on future generations of Illinoisans to pay for decisions that are politically popular today.

6:05 UPDATE: AP: Blagojevich lottery plan raises big money and big questions.

6:00 UPDATE: Larry has some thoughts about the merits of the policy end. Fran discusses the morality of the idea. OneMan crunches some numbers and looks at some perils.

5:40 UPDATE: The raw tape of the announcement can be found here.

4:04 UPDATE: A Blagojevich spokesperson just told me that no special session will be called. “Everything will run in veto.”

4:00 UPDATE: Here’s a PowerPoint presentation from the guv’s office. There appear to be more details in this PowerPoint than in the press release, but you have to look for them.

3:50 pm UPDATE: The Illinois Federation of Teachers is taking a wait and see approach towards the governor’s proposal.

We believe that any rush to judgment on this important issue would be a mistake. Thorough analysis and discussion from independent organizations such as the Educational Funding Advisory Board (EFAB), the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and A+ Illinois can provide valuable insight on this proposal. Once this plan has been thoroughly studied, we believe the appropriate decision can be made on how best to move forward.

———————————————————————

IMPORTANT UPDATE: The governor’s office has just released some details. Click here for the txt file, or click here for the online press release.

UPDATE: The AP fleshes it out a little more.

UPDATE: The AP has a list of highlights here.

UPDATE: Statement from Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.

Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., today said, “Every student, parent and citizen in Illinois should thank Reverend and State Senator James Meeks for dramatically raising the issue of adequately and fairly funding public education in Illinois. Only time will tell if the Governor’s plan is both innovative and effective because the devil is always in the details. However, I am hopeful that all Illinois children will soon reap the full crop of educational blessings that the Governor is promising through the economic seeds he is planting today.

“This education plan is a public/private partnership - using a public asset to attract private funds in order to gain extra money for public education. If such a partnership is good enough for the kids, then it’s good enough for their parents. Leasing state-owned land to a legal airport authority (ALNAC), so ALNAC can contract with private developers to build an airport and create thousands of new jobs, is just as valid. All we need is the Governor’s signature. He can immediately unlock over $300 million of private investment in Illinois and create 15,000 new jobs at no risk to taxpayers. As the Governor said today, `when you know in your heart what you’re doing is right, the rewarding part of the job is you go out and you just do it’,” Jackson concluded.

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I’ll be updating this post throughout the afternoon, so keep an eye on it.

Crain’s starts us off.

The governorâ€™s plan, to be formally unveiled at a press conference this afternoon, will call for either leasing the Lottery to a private operator or selling it, perhaps by offering stock in an initial public offering (IPO). Sources familiar with the plan said that would pull in an estimated $10 billion, one-time payment.

The state would take about $4 billion of that money for extra school spending in the next four years. That $4 billion would be divided among school construction, pre-school education, more money for special education and a general increase in the â€œfoundation levelâ€ that all public schools receive.

The remaining $6 billion would be saved, invested and generate a guaranteed $650 million a year for schools over the next two decades, according to sources familiar with the proposal.

The Lottery now generates about the same amount for the state, $650 million a year, but some of that money has been pulled off to pay for other state spending.

UPDATE: A Michigan think tank figured three years ago that the sale of that state’s lottery would bring in just $1.3 billion to $2 billion.

UPDATE: Krol has some good questions about the plan here.

Â· How does the private company that leases the lottery plan to actually turn a profit? Will it reduce prize payouts? […]

Â· Has the governor already figured out which he company he wants to take the lottery off his hands? […]

Â· How does the governor ensure the â€œnew lottery moneyâ€ is added to the budget as extra school funding money and that lawmakers donâ€™t pull another shell game? […]

Â· What about the other lottery games, like the special lottery tickets benefiting breast cancer research or military veterans? What happens to that cash already earmarked for special purposes?

UPDATE: AP:

The plan includes $1.5 billion for school construction and calls for performance pay for teachers and the consolidation of school districts, according to an individual familiar with the plan who requested anonymity because the proposal has not been formally announced.

The state also would increase the “foundation” level — the guaranteed minimum state spending on each student — by $250 million in the plan’s first year, although a per-child breakdown was not immediately available. The current state budget would raise the level to just $5,334 for each student, instead of the recommended $6,405.

UPDATE: Back when the governor did his $10 billion pension bond scheme, his expected rate of return on the invested money was just 8.5 percent. This time, it’s much higher.

UPDATE: Topinka calls it a “scam“

The Republican candidate in the governor’s race says Governor Rod Blagojevich’s education funding proposal is “a scam.”

State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka says selling the Illinois Lottery wouldn’t help improve education and would end up costing the state money in the long run. […]

Topinka today also criticized the proposal as a hastily constructed plan designed to keep state Senator James Meeks out of the governor’s race.

57 Comments

The Blagojevich “clout list”

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Several news outlets have written about the governor’s “clout list” but, for whatever reason, nobody has ever published the whole thing, at least not that I’ve seen.

Here it is.

UPDATE: There are some obvious mistakes on the clout list. But try to remember that the list was created and maintained by the governor’s office, not by some media outlet.

UPDATE: Well, this sure is interesting.

The governor says a so-called “clout list” of politically connected hires by his administration was made up by disgruntled former employees. In this Intelligence Report: who’s behind the scheme and why.

The list of hundreds of state employees was posted Tuesday afternoon on a web site for political junkies called Capital Fax. The document has names, government agencies, payroll information, hire dates and political sponsor. Last week, it was described in news accounts and by the governor’s Republican opponent as a favors list. Tuesday, the governor’s office called it a fraud.

Governor Blagojevich and his staffers say they never saw the actual list until Tuesday, because the newspapers that had it refused to show them. The list, circa 2003, contained nearly 300 names and their so-called political clout, designated by initials or identified outright by their names.

But late Tuesday afternoon, the list was denounced as concocted by a top Blagojevich aide, spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff, who told the I-Team the list “didn’t come from our office.” She claims “somebody created a document” and that the somebodys were “terminated employees making wild allegations” after being fired following allegations of corruption.

The clout list was concocted, according to the governor’s office, “to distract attention from themselves.” The governor’s staff does not believe that the list was dummied up by his Republican challenger, State Treasurer Judy Barr Topinka, or anyone connected to her campaign. […]

At Blagojevich’s unrelated news conference Tuesday afternoon, the governor himself hadn’t actually seen the disputed document. But Tuesday, sources in the governor’s office suggest that former officials of the Central Management Services illegally constructed the list after they were fired to make Blagojevich look bad.

Messages left for an attorney representing fired CMS employees have not been returned. Wherever the clout list came from, some of the information about people and the jobs they landed is correct, including one employee recommended by a congressman who got a job at the Illinois Department of Transportation as assistant to the assistant secretary for $94,000 a year.

This is supremely weird because the governor’s office has already admitted that it kept a list and that there was nothing wrong with it.

76 Comments

Comment troubles solved

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

~~Not sure what’s going on with my website yet, but I hope to have it fixed soon. Comments appear to be not working at the moment. Sorry about this.~~

Comments are now working again. Thanks for your patience.

By the way, you may have noticed that I removed the captcha in comments. The result is you no longer have to resolve a question before you post. No, I haven’t surrendered to spam. I’ve installed Akismet, which is really a miraculous piece of software. I highly recommend Akismet for everyone who has a blog.

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And yet more trouble for Alexi

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

It never seems to end.

A Chicago bank owned by Democratic state treasurer candidate Alexi Giannoulias and his family loaned more than $20 million to firms controlled by two local developers who are awaiting trial on federal money laundering charges.

Boris Stratievsky, 44, and Lev Stratievsky, 67, who were arrested last June and charged with money laundering and forgery, obtained six mortgage loans from Broadway Bank between 2001 and 2005 to finance real estate purchases in Chicago, Buffalo Grove and Wheeling, according to county records.

As Broadway Bank vice president, Giannoulias oversees the loan department at the bank, 5960 N. Broadway, Chicago. Between August 2002 and April 2004, he served on the bank’s loan committee, which decides whether applicants will receive mortgage loans, according to a statement from the Giannoulias campaign.

Giannoulias, 30, a senior loan officer and vice president of Broadway Bank, 5960 N. Broadway, Chicago, did not respond to calls to his personal cell phone regarding his bank’s dealings with the Stratievskies.

But a campaign spokesman, Christopher Lackner, said bank officials handled the situation appropriately.

“Broadway follows policies that are designed and put in place to help catch and convict criminals,” he said. “Both the bank and (Giannoulias) were shocked and appalled to hear this stuff. The bank is working with the authorities on this issue.” […]

Boris Stratievsky and Lev Stratievsky, both of Highland Park, are in federal custody for allegedly laundering $210,000 in cash that they believed to be proceeds from illicit drug sales and distributing phony passports.

Both men are being held at the Metropolitan Corrections Center in Chicago without bail, awaiting an Oct. 3 trial. According to court documents, they are considered dangerous to the community and flight risks.

If convicted on charges of federal conspiracy to launder money and forgery, each Stratievsky could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.

Officials from the U.S. Attorney’s office would not comment on the case.

33 Comments

The governor is still telling “that joke”

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Remember the joke Gov. Blagojevich told over and over about the little black girl who mistook him for Mayor Daley? Well, he’s still telling it.

â€œAs we were heading away from downtown and heading toward the airport to come here [ed. note: here suggests Champaign-Urbana], we stopped at a red light (inaudible) I rolled the window down and thereâ€™s a young girl, an African-American girl, maybe about 13 or 14 years old. I looked at her, she looked at me. She said â€˜Oh my God, itâ€™s Mayor Daley.â€™

(Laughs)

â€œSo, itâ€™s nice to know that Iâ€™m known here.â€

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, if a Republican told a joke like that he or she would be crucified in the media. It’s just maddening that he thinks it’s somehow funny or even relevant to always include the race of the ficticious girl in his repeated retelling of this story.

UPDATE: And, just to be clear, this is not a story told about a long-ago incident. The governor always tells this story like it just happened on his way to speak that day to whomever it is he happens to be addressing. If he said “One time, years ago…” that would be different. Instead, he talks about the little black girl mistaking him for Daley as one of those “A funny thing happened on my way to the speech” icebreakers.

There is no need to continue mentioning the race of the little girl because THE GIRL DOES NOT EXIST. Or, if she does exist, it happened once, long ago - but certainly not every time the governor drives to an event with the window down.

14 Comments

Question of the day

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’ll be ramping up the blog to normal levels tomorrow, but let’s do a question while I’m getting myself back in the groove.

From a press release:

Illinois Gov. Rod. R. Blagojevich last week signed a traffic safety measure designed to make Illinois’ roads safer by giving local governments the ability to use photo enforcement at traffic signals. The governor signed House Bill 4835, which authorizes counties in Northeastern Illinois and the Metro East area to use photo enforcement at red lights. Red light cameras are already in use in Chicago.

“Too many drivers think that running a red light isn’t a big deal or that they won’t be caught. It is a big deal because it’s dangerous and now, with photo enforcement, they will be caught,” said Blagojevich in a release.

HB 4835, sponsored by Rep. Angelo “Skip” Saviano (R-Elmwood Park) and Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago), applies to Madison and St. Clair Counties in Metro East and suburban Cook County and the other collar counties in Northeastern Illinois. It allows local governments to establish photo enforcement to catch red light violators. IDOT will work with local governments to establish locations where the photo enforcement for red lights is installed, and the agency will continue to monitor and analyze crashes at those locations to determine effectiveness.

What do you think of this idea?

10 Comments

We’ll know for sure soon…

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

But I think that the Daily Herald comes closest to what the governor’s education funding plan may be.

Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich today will unveil an election-year school funding plan that calls for leasing the state lottery for the next decade to a private firm in return for $10 billion in upfront cash.

Schools would get at least $1 billion a year for the next four years from such a deal, with the remaining $6 billion going into an education trust fund governed by a board appointed by the four legislative leaders, governor, comptroller and treasurer, according to a Democratic source briefed on Blagojevich’s proposal late Monday.

The complex schools plan, hatched in the heat of a campaign as Blagojevich sought to prevent a damaging third-party challenge from state Sen. James Meeks, likely will be controversial, criticized by Republicans and leave numerous questions to be answered in the coming months.

The governor’s office, however, has tried to keep an uncharacteristically tight lid on details, declining several requests for comment ever since Meeks, the pastor of a large predominantly black South Side church, announced last Friday he would not run for governor because Blagojevich met his demand to find more money for schools.

Two of the looming questions essentially are math problems. The state figures to get at least $650 million from the lottery for the school fund next year even if it doesn’t lease the lottery to a private company. So the net increase to schools would seem to be only $350 million a year for four years. It’s possible, but unknown Monday, whether Blagojevich will propose other revenue-generating measures to boost the bottom-line figure.

The other math-centered question is what happens after four years, when the state no longer has the $1 billion per year earmarked for schools and also will no longer have the lottery money, since a private company would be reaping that cash through a lease. Blagojevich’s answer for that involves earning interest on the $6 billion trust fund, the source said. It’s unclear, however, whether the state could earn enough in investments each year to make up the potential shortfall of $1 billion.

I heard pretty much the same thing yesterday.

More here.

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