Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Wednesday, Jun 14, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

There are just too many stories today about the Blagojevich administration to blog them all individually. So, I’ve bundled them for you here in one, super-long post.

Â· The governor’s office won’t say how many kids have been signed up for the AllKids plan, but they have said that the taxpayers are spending $3.2 million on TV advertising to promote the program during an election year.

Rep. Rosemary Mulligan, R-Des Plaines, said a constituent complained to her that TV ads for the All Kids program were running in close proximity to Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s campaign ads attacking his GOP opponent in the November election, state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka.

Mulligan said she saw the ads running in tandem and said it amounts to taxpayer dollars being used to expand the governor’s campaign fund. Health care is a major campaign issue for Blagojevich. […]

HFS spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said after the meeting that the state agency has no control over the timing of the All Kids ads because that’s up to the TV stations that run them.

Â· But that’s not all, campers. There was also a mass mailer.

Last month, Barry Maram, the director of the Healthcare and Family Services agency, sent out a letter to thousands of community leaders and health-care providers across the state to promote “Governor Blagojevich’s All Kids Training Tour” to “learn about programs that can help people with whom you work, worship and live.”

In addition to listing other Blagojevich health-care initiatives, Maram’s five-paragraph letter featured the governor’s name four times, including within the official logo for the program “Governor Blagojevich’s All Kids.”

Â· The Belleville News-Democrat has had enough.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is getting all the political mileage he can out of All Kids, the universal health insurance program that starts July 1. Blagojevich’s letter on the Web site for All Kids reads like a campaign ad — which is exactly what was intended. Blagojevich and Democratic lawmakers rushed through the program without any meaningful discussion or debate, with an eye toward having it running before the November election.

Â· And that brings us to the latest audit of the Department of Human Services and this little tidbit buried way down deep in the AP’s story.

Auditors also learned the department spent $48,000 for the Team Illinois program, promoted by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to target revitalization for four economically depressed communities. That money came from leftover grants provided in the 1990s by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to DHS.

About $3,300 of that was spent on a covered wagon, dancers and entertainment to promote Team Illinois in a Chicago parade, auditors discovered. The audit said there was no evidence the grant money was intended to be used that way.

Â· Oh, and did I mention the records? No, I guess I didn’t.

Payroll records containing Social Security numbers of government workers were found in a state recycling Dumpster accessible to the public, Illinois’ auditor general disclosed Tuesday.

The discovery came as a team of auditors hired by Auditor General William Holland toured the Springfield headquarters of the Department of Human Services and came upon the discarded data.

The paper recycling Dumpster in an open loading dock area contained payroll voucher reports with employee names and Social Security numbers, technical computer information and other confidential information.

“The fact it wasn’t properly destroyed was significant,” Holland said. “The unknown is whether any of this information was lifted from that Dumpster.”

Â· And then there’s this inconvenient little audit finding.

The cost of caring for mentally ill and developmentally disabled residents in Illinois has risen at all but four of the stateâ€™s 20 institutions, according to state documents released Tuesday.

Auditor General William Holland, in a study covering two years, found that caring for a resident at the John J. Madden Mental Health Center near Chicago topped $21,000 per month in fiscal year 2004. Thatâ€™s up from nearly $16,000 per month in 2002.

Similarly, at the Jacksonville Developmental Center, the average cost of caring for a developmentally disabled resident was $13,029 per month, up from $12,621 in 2002.

Those examples lend credence to claims by advocacy groups that the stateâ€™s developmental centers be closed, said Don Moss, executive director United Cerebral Palsy of Illinois.

Â· And this:

Auditors said the agency appeared to be circumventing rules designed to make sure taxpayers get the lowest price when buying goods.

Â· Finally, there’s this fascinating bit of insight that I forgot to mention earlier this week.

The Democratic governor also said Topinka only criticizes his ideas and never comes up with any of her own, likening her to President Herbert Hoover and himself to President Franklin Roosevelt during the Depression.

“A new guy comes in, Franklin Roosevelt, and he’s got ideas and approaches and he tried a whole bunch of things. A lot of it worked, some of it didn’t,” Blagojevich said. “But he kept getting up everyday to try to do something to make a difference and improve people’s lives. Ultimately he led our country out of that Great Depression and had Herbert Hoover had his way, nothing would have been done.”

The most memorable quote from FDR’s second inaugural address was “Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.” The operative word being “occasional.”

UPDATE: I forgot one. This is what happens when a governor - any governor - takes total control of the State Board of Education.

The Chairman of the State Board of Education sees no need for public hearings on the Governorâ€™s education plan.

Rod Blagojevich wants to lease or sell the state lottery and push $10 billion in proceeds to Illinois schools. And while one state senator is calling for public hearings, Chairman Jesse Ruiz says regular state board meetings offer plenty of opportunity for the public to ask questions.

Ruiz also says the campaign season will help by offering robust debate on the plan.

38 Comments

- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 7:16 am:
November 7, folks.

November 7.

- the Other Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 7:27 am:
Am I imagining things, or didn’t the Blagojevich team strongly deny that the timing of the All Kids plan was not political?

- Do not adjust your set - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 7:32 am:
OK, I call B.S. on the claim they can’t control where the TV ads are placed.

When you submit spots that are unpaid public service messages, you get whatever slots the station has free, usually these are unsold commercial slots or undesirable ones in the late night. It is charity provided by the station for the public good.

BUT… when you PAY for placement or a PSA or commercial, you get them put EXACTLY where you want, because the the fees are VERY different depending when they run. During the evening news shows or the most popular TV shows in prime time, you are paying more. Much more. The salesman’s commission also depends on how high-profile the placement is and the frequency of placement.

But you can confirm all this by FOIA requesting the billing sheets from the ad buys. The times will be specified in advance in the paperwork, there’s an audit trail. This is how all TV stations work, thehy have to have things pre-scheduled.

This is typical Blago; try to sneak something by, then claim ignorance when caught red-handed. The next step is always to blame it all on some anonymous staffer, who is never disciplined. The step after that will be to claim George Ryan did it more.

Which makes it all right, I guess.

- bored now - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 7:32 am:
boy, if mulligan’s “constituent” is tired of all the advertising NOW, they ought to consider a prolonged vacation from labor day until november 7. (it could be worse — we could live in michigan, where there’s TWO well-funded gubernatorial opponents!)

still be interested to see what effect going negative has on topinka’s fund-raising. oh, and how many of those “national republican” dollars she’s gotten…

- Tessa - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 7:50 am:
Wwork some OT, come home for a while, read the blog, realize why the department I work for is such a mess when I check the audit findings, laugh more when things start to click because the department head is having meetings with people every other week to make them cut costs and making threats if there aren’t. Wow. No wonder DHS is such a mess.

The Gov has never been to a state operated center to know what goes on in one, nor have most of the people who work in Springfield or Chicago that tell the people who work in them what to do. One big freaking mess. Not that most people care, except the ones that want the centers closed.

I think it’s interesting that Judy got flamed for her recent campaigning with state dollars in a flyer, and some are turning their heads when Rod uses his office to campaign using his new programs as a pretext. Same thing. Either it’s okay for both or not. Is it November yet?

- DOWNSTATE - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 8:13 am:
Mental Health Centers need to be state run with Professionals at the helm not some party chief in that county that turned the vote out for Blago.It’s time to go into each agency and get rid of these people.Then put educated people in and run these places right.Before you Blago-Nuts get on here I saw and checked the Clout List.Believe me a lot of these people have problems getting jobs in the private sector with their high school diploma.

- bored now - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 8:35 am:
sorry, tessa, but november will offer little relief. welcome to the permanent campaign. no matter who wins…

- zatoichi - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 8:38 am:
Is the DHS audit (or any of the other audits) available for download somewhere?

- Jim in Accounting - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 8:51 am:
Now he thinks he’s FDR?
Priceless.

And the only thing shocking about the DHS audit is that they didn’t find more shady business. It truly is a giant mess…starting at the top.

- Bubs - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 9:55 am:
With this administration, there are three versions of scary.

First, there is the stuff in the papers. It’s so bad that I’m waiting for Blago to engage in election spin by claiming credit for boosting newspaper sales.

Second, there is the stuff that is known by some, sometimes more than some, but is not in the papers . . . yet.

But then there is the really scary part, which is the stuff that they have pulled that nobody knows about, and won’t for a while. With this crew, God only knows what that will turn out to be, but be confident it will be bad.

November cannot come too soon.

- Truthful James - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 10:10 am:
How has our State gotten to this level of indignity? We have no one to blame but ourselves. Now after four years of refusing to criticize and possibly correct the problems which have gone from pimples to boils, we start to bring up creatures from the deep. The effect of slime thrown at each other clouds the issues.

It did not have to be that way. George Ryan got away with corruption but was eventually corraled and lost because nobody in the party would put manacles on Fawell and his crew. It is known as intra party discipline. The same holds for the current Guv and Bradley Tusk.

This stuff is not all freshly born

Roosting chickens come home.

It did not have to be this way.

- Hoosier - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 10:25 am:
You think a big agency like DHS is a mess?

Cripes, look at some of the smaller agencies. One small agency I know is selling off its state run information systems to a private group. This is more “privatization” that does nothing but give someone money in their pocket.

And the kicker….the person in charge of the state run systems is to head up the private effort. Is not this revolving door stuff illegal? Why isn’t the press descending on this?

- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 10:40 am:
Blagojevich comparing himself to Roosevelt is like seeing Durbin call himself a “New Deal Democrat”.

These guys still think it is 1974. This governor and senator have been asleep since the Reagan adminstration. Over the past 30 years, they have believed that our problem is that we just didn’t create enough government programs, or didn’t give them enough money, and that if we really, REALLY try, that nirvana promised to us by Industrial Age Centralization Experts would come to pass!

Blagojevich is so out of touch with modern governance he might as well be Roosevelt.

Frankly, if Roosevelt, Truman, or Kennedy was alive today, they wouldn’t be proposing 80 year old government solutions!

- Question the numbers - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 10:57 am:
It’s going to be very difficult for HFS to quantify All Kids enrollment numbers because the goal of 50,000 children in FY 2007 was a combination of Medicaid, KidCare, and All Kids programs. They really can’t say with any certainty that children enrolled in Medicaid or KidCare came on the rolls due to All Kids expansion and outreach. So right now, they look like they don’t know. Pretty soon, however, they will “create” some enrollment figures that will really have virtually no foundation.

Competence and credibility. Two sorely lacking qualities.

- One Man Can Make A Difference - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 11:03 am:
I believe Director Barry Maram’s wrote the letter as an order from the Governor’s Office who is trying to circumvent the illegal name change of the Illinois Department of Public Aid to Healthcare and Family Services.

The name remains legally Public Aid as the Governor Office has not filed reports with the General Assembly. If you check the website for the Illinois State Senate, a bill was recently signed by the Gov, it states, “an act of Public Aid” and the Public Aid code still exist which means the General Assembly still acknowledges Public Aid as Public Aid not Healthcare and Family Services.

This is too much in one day. Imagine what tomorrow brings. If it’s hitting the fan, it’s hitting the fan hard!!!!!!!!

Human Services is complaining about not having enough staff. If a client goes to Human Services to apply for emergency LINK, the usual 3 days no longer exist. The Department says since they are short staff, when a client files for emergency LINK, they now schedule appointments via mail because they are short staffed to do on the spot interviews. And they got the nerve to be wasting………………

It’s hitting the fan, “you can run, but you can’t hide”!

- SenorAnon - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 11:23 am:
Um, did anyone ever notice that often the political ads run one after another at the very end of the news broadcast? Think the campaigns request that?

M’lady…your tinfoil hat.

- anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 11:36 am:
While we are talking about newspapers articles why donâ€™t we talk about the St Louis Post Dispatch editorial today?

Blaming Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich for the condition of the state’s economy makes only slightly more sense than blaming him for the weather. In truth, no governor has much influence over a state’s prosperity during a single term in office.

Economies don’t turn on a dime.

Things that a governor really can influence — the quality of schools, job training, public health and transportation infrastructure — take years to produce results in terms of increased business, new jobs and higher wages.

That puts the latest tiff between the governor and his Republican challenger, state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, into the category of election year rhetoric. The friction may be fun to watch, but ultimately it creates more heat than light.

Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, boasts that Illinois added more jobs in April than any other state in the union. Ms. Topinka notes that Illinois ranks 45th in job creation since Mr. Blagojevich took office.

The truth is that the Illinois economy hasn’t been firing on all cylinders for several years. The state was in slightly worse shape than the nation when Mr. Blagojevich took office in early 2003. Since then it has improved, but more slowly than the rest of the country.

The Illinois unemployment rate had fallen to 5.1 percent during April of this year, an improvement from 6.7 percent in 2003, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national unemployment rate has dropped to 4.7 percent from 5.8 in 2003. During the same time period, new job creation in Illinois rose 1.2 percent compared to 3.6 percent nationally. The state ranked 41st last year in per-capita growth in income.

Ms. Topinka claims Mr. Blagojevich torpedoed the recovery by raising a number of taxes and fees on business. That’s an exaggeration. In general, state and local taxes make up only about 1 percent of business costs, and the mild increases under Mr. Blagojevich will affect very few business decisions. The state faced a $5 billion budget deficit when he took office. The primary alternative — sharper cuts to education and other state government functions — would have left Illinois weaker in the next generation.

In the short run, a state’s economic performance depends on the mix of private businesses and how well they are faring in the global economy. Private investment decisions and federal trade and monetary policy — not governors — affect that.

The real influence of state government is on long-term prosperity. Improving children’s health and education today will bring rewards in years to come: a healthier, better-educated work force, more higher-paying jobs, higher per-capita income and less spending on crime, welfare and social programs. Investing in transportation improvements pays economic dividends over decades; that’s why a new bridge over the Mississippi River is critical to southern Illinois’ economic future.

By those measures, Gov. Blagojevich has made the right calls.

- One Man Can Make A Difference - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 11:42 am:
Here is the Bill signed by the Governor, “an act concerning Public Aid. The act is still in the name of the Illinois Department of Public Aid.

http://illinoischannel.spaces.msn.com/Blog/cns!B0DB128F5CD96151!1294.entry

Now that’s corrupt!!!!

- 4% - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 12:08 pm:
To paraphrase the recently deceased Senator Lloyd Bentsen….

“Governor Blagojevich, I knew FDR - he was a friend of mine - and you are NO FDR.”

- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 12:49 pm:
What’s corrupt about an agency changing names? They changed the name? So what?

- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 1:47 pm:
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 12:49 pm:

Whatâ€™s corrupt about an agency changing names? They changed the name? So what?

If you haven’t figured it out then wait till it’s exposed in the news.

- One Man Can Make A Difference - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 1:49 pm:
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 12:49 pm:

Whatâ€™s corrupt about an agency changing names? They changed the name? So what?

If you haven’t figured it out then wait till it’s exposed in the news.

- Sad Days - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 3:54 pm:
Who and how many are going to be fired at Department of Human Services by the Governor’s office because of their questionable audit? Sam Flood, acting Director of Illinois Department of Natural Resources fired the Director of the Illinois Conservation Foundation, after receiving orders from the Governor’s office. Flood fired the Foundation Director even though he was hired by the 13 member Foundation Board and if dismissed, should have been dismissed by the Board. The Governor’s office was unhappy with a few, very minor, items in the Foundations’s audit; it was nothing compared to the money spent for covered wagons, dancers and entertainment by the Department of Human Services. DHS also carelessly discarded confidential employee records and technical computer information in dumpsters. Does the Governor’s office single out only certain agencies for their disapproval?

- Merlin - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 4:16 pm:
If the National Repubs start taking an interest in the Illinois gov race that is very bad news for the incumbant. He has so much baggage there heads must be spinning about where to start attacking.

Blago ads are very weak and have no shelf life and they do look cheesy. What are they thinking?

When the challenger starts her attack ads the message will resonate unless they hire an even worse producer than Blago’s.

- Check my math! - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 4:23 pm:
Is my calculator broken or is not $550,000 divided by 109 shredders over $5,000 a shredder?

(from the Sun-Times records story)

- DOWNSTATE - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 4:32 pm:
Sad Days the firing at DNR was part of the throwing under the bus of the ex-director Joe B. and his friends.It was an attempt to put the blame on them for the sad state of affairs the Dept. is and continues to be in.It didn’t work everybory knows that a lot of the blame lies with Sam the Janitol and his crew.

- Cassandra - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 7:58 pm:
I guess we’ll never know how many of the truly uninsured kids got insured as a result of Allkids. Some of the Google reports of meetings on the issue suggest that most applicants were already eligible for KidCare.

So, how expensive is this all going to be. Well, maybe very expensive. Residency in Illinois is required for eligibility, but it’s vaguely defined. Children may be enrolled regardless of immigration status. Some websites clearly state that already-insured children will likely switch over because the premiums will be cheaper. This is encouraged…officially.

And if the feds don’t approve Blago’s managed care plan, or require substantial changes…that could cost us, as the managed care program was supposed to produce the necessary savings. Just like selling the lotto is supposed to save the schools, yeah.

At the end of the day, it looks highly likely that the new expanded Allkids population will consist primarily of illegal immigrants including those not eligible for Medicaid (Medicaid requires proof of citizenship or legal immigration status) and of children whose parents are insurance-hopping to save money.

Not exactly what the administration described it would be in other words.

- girl friday - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 8:06 pm:
â€˜Check My Mathâ€™ post @ 4:23 that is what I noticed also when I read the article. I asked one of the ladies that does the purchasing at the State Agency I work at and her mouth dropped open. That roughly $5050.00 for each shredder!!! Just for jokes, I did a search on the internet for commercial paper shredders. One company (easycdduplication.com) had a 3140P medium/heavy duty cross cut paper shredder for $2969.00. So are they having the shredder trimmed in gold and studded with diamond chips?

- Little Egypt - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 8:14 pm:
MY memory will not fail me in November. I would vote for ANYONE before I vote for Blago.

- OAD - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 8:44 pm:
Zatoichi -

All state audits are available here:

http://www.state.il.us/Auditor/

- Emily Booth - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 8:59 pm:
Governor Blagoyevich’s name is on the new computer screen we have for caseworkers processing calcs on AllKids cases. His name now appears on the approval notices we mail out to customers. This is unprecedented. It’s not AllKids. It’s Governor Blagoyevich’s AllKids. It’s akin to President Bush’s name going out on the Medicare notices as in President Bush’s Medicare. (BTW, there is no 3 day wait for a LINK card. Anyone can go to any public aid office (we’re called DHS) and get a LINK card with the appropriate IDs and get a replacement card the same day.) The problem with Blagoyevich is not the economy. It’s his total lack of any semblance of professionalism in state government. He has no interest in administration, no interest in customer service, no interest in fraud, no interest in…well, you name it.

- OAD - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 9:04 pm:
Interesting…

Question: How much has the State spent on 1273 - Advertising?

FY Expended
06 $5,590,080.80
05 $4,641,265.17
04 $4,940,779.13

- OAD - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 9:07 pm:
Those figs are from the Comptroller’s website, BTW.

- Anon. - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 9:34 pm:
OAD - where at on the Comptroller’s website did you find this information? I am want to know how much the state has spent on 1399 - promotional items.

- OAD - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 9:58 pm:
OIC home page, Expenditures > Quick Take: bottom of the page, you can select by detl obj code.

Question: How much has the State spent on 1399 - Commodities, N.E.C.?
History
FY Expended
06 $5,499,660.69
05 $7,759,276.71
04 $8,180,588.24

However, that really doesn’t answer your question, because it only covers the broad category of ‘commodities’. I thought I remembered some news story that reported that about 5 months ago, though.

- Disgusted - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 10:51 pm:
BTW, don’t blame the HFS workers for not coming up with the figures as to how many have signed up for AllKids. They, like others employed by the state, had better do as they’re told by the powers that be in the Thompson Center or else they get their walking papers.

I noticed in today’s Tribune that the Blago bunch said they were in contact with the feds about Allkids and approve thereof. However, a federal spokesperson said they have had no contact at all with the Blago team. Surprise, surprise, another Pinocchio moment.

- Truthful James - Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 7:51 am:
Hoosier –

Wow — I am probably the only guy on this thread who is not in the in group. Perhaps you would like to indicate about which agency you are writing.

- Sad Days - Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 8:01 am:
DOWNSTATE: Is it true, my understanding, the former DNR Director had enough of firings, losing qualified employees, fund sweeping and generally no support for the agency from the Governor or his office. He had enough and walked away before the agency totally went in the tank. You seem to be on the inside, share your views.

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