This will be the extent of the blogging today unless something major happens. The list, as always, was compiled by Paul Richardson. We’ll reopen comments on Tuesday…
* Rich Miller: Poll shows most Illinoisans support tax swap for schools…
As you probably know, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has flatly ruled out an income- or sales-tax hike in exchange for a property-tax cut and more money for education. House Speaker Michael Madigan has said there isn’t sufficient support in his Democratic caucus to pass an income- or sales-tax hike.
But there’s a recent poll out that shows the public disagrees with both politicians. The poll showing majority support for a tax-swap plan also seems to be right in line with previous surveys. In addition, the poll found strong opposition to the governor’s super-controversial gross-receipts-tax plan.
The survey, conducted independently by the Glengariff Group, found that about 57 percent of Illinois voters support a so-called “tax swap,” while just less than 28 percent oppose it.
A pension for George Ryan?: Nothing? State records indicate that in January, the pension system returned to Ryan the $235, 508.58 that he had contributed to his retirement account. His lawyer must have forgotten that windfall. It didn’t come up Wednesday.
* Retiree knew his bills were too high, but ComEd said ‘everything was fine’
ComEd spokesman Luis Diaz-Perez said the utility’s records only go back two years. “If he can show bills going back further than that, we’ll adjust his account,” Diaz-Perez said. “Mr. Krystyniak’s suspicions were correct. We had a situation known as ‘reverse meter condition,’ and I don’t know why previous technicians didn’t realize the problem. I wish I could tell you why it wasn’t detected.”
“We’re not going into the hotel business,” said Sen. James DeLeo, a Chicago Democrat who sponsored the measure. “This does not allow the authority to enter into the hotel business. It’s allowing them to lease for hotels.”
* Student loan agency may aid bankruptcy borrowers
* Brent Manning: Former DNR chief making his way back to Springfield
Revenue from parking has increased since at least 1999 — $77 million that year, compared with $160.3 million in 2006 — even as the number of tickets written has decreased, according to the city Revenue Department.
* Buried in all of today’s stories about more casinos is a plan put in front of Senate Democrats yesterday to increase taxes. From the Daily Herald…
Senate Democrats are also pushing to close nearly $600 million worth of annual corporate tax breaks and want to impose the state’s corporate income tax on certain businesses such as “S corporations” that currently aren’t subject to that tax. That, combined with expanded gambling, could raise $5 billion annually.
Health insurance tax: Up to $1 billion from a 3% payroll tax on employers who don’t spend enough on health care for their workers.
Business taxes: up to $1.2 billion from applying the state’s corporate income tax to businesses that currently do not pay it; $600 million from a new alternative minimum tax on businesses who owe no state taxes after exemptions.
Ending tax breaks: $650 million from ending various corporate tax breaks.
Sales tax: Up to $40 million from technical changes in the way sales tax is collected and calculated for certain products.
* I had this for subscribers yesterday afternoon, but since others are talking about it now here is the document that was given to Senate Democrats yesterday about revenue generating options. Click for a larger pic…
Senate Democrats introduced a massive gambling proposal Friday that could be coupled with new business taxes to generate $5 billion for the state.
The gambling plan, approved along partisan lines by a Senate committee, would allow four new casinos, including one in Chicago. Existing casinos would be allowed to nearly double in size. […]
“If it means health care for everybody, I’m willing to accept the proposal that would provide more gaming,” Blagojevich said after meeting with Jones and House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago).
Actually, Blagojevich’s plan for medical coverage for uninsured adults must be slashed by two-thirds because of lower revenue projections, said Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson (D-Crete). […]
House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego offered his own “no tax increase budget,” which relies on growing state revenues, cutting pork projects and a scaled-down expansion of gambling to fund various construction projects.
Madigan suggested the Cross gambling plan, which would add positions only at existing casinos, would stand a better chance in the House than the broader Senate bill.
Blagojevich said he, Jones and Madigan swore to one another that “we were going to act as Democrats in good faith to finish on time before May 31, to finish the business of the people on the date that we’re supposed to, and to keep the Republicans from getting into the game.”
That sworn partisan allegiance was news to Madigan’s spokesman. “I don’t know what the hell that’s all about,” said Steve Brown. Madigan has been meeting with Cross on budget matters.
And Cross’ spokesman blasted Blagojevich’s message given Democrats’ inability to work together so far.
“They control the House and the Senate and the governor’s office, and they’ve done a bang-up job working together this session,” said David Dring, Cross’ spokesman. “If they’re more worried about partisan politics than what’s good for the people, that’s a shame, but that’s definitely their prerogative.”
Republicans attacked the proposal, in part, because it would divert 2 percent of revenues from the four casinos to Chicago State University, potentially handing the school a $40 million windfall that would double its take from the state.
The university has been a Jones favorite. He has steered state funds to the university when other colleges faced deep cuts, and Chicago State has named a building after Jones and given him an honorary degree.
This week, the university was hammered by Auditor General William Holland for misspending public funds, including on a pair of “leadership seminars” its president attended on cruise ships in the Caribbean and Mediterranean.
In committee, Jones initially said Chicago State wasn’t in the legislation. But the GOP pointed out the specific language in the 218-page bill that would assure the university a multimillion-dollar windfall, prompting Jones to quietly tell a dissatisfied and surprised Senate Democratic colleague that the bill could be amended.
* Meanwhile, Dick Durbin and other members of the Illinois delegation urged the General Assembly and the governor to come up with cash for transportation projects. Sun-Times…
After simmering for months over Gov. Blagojevich’s inaction, the two Illinois senators and nine of the 19 House members on Friday unloaded on the governor for risking $6.1 billion in federal money for Illinois transportation projects.
At issue is the need for the state to come up with more than $1 billion in order to trigger the release of the $6.1 billion. The money was part of a big transportation bill Congress passed during the last session, when Rep. Dennis Hastert (D-Ill.) was the speaker. […]
“If the State of Illinois does not enact a capital bill and provide the non-federal match this year, as much as $6.1 billion in federal funding could be at risk,” the letter said.
“In the 109th Congress, we worked together in a bipartisan manner to provide Illinois with a 33.4 percent per year increase in federal funding” for highways and transit, Durbin said in a letter to Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the top four legislative leaders.
“We encourage you to enact state legislation to provide the needed state match for the federal transportation funds we secured in 2005. If the state of Illinois does not enact a capital bill and provide the non-federal match this year, as much as $6.1 billion in federal funding could be at risk.”
Durbin notes that the state needs to provide “as much as $1.2 billion to complete all the projects” that require state matching funds.
“We hope we can count on you to enact appropriate legislation that will provide the required state match” and not leave any federal dollars behind, Durbin said.
* And if you think things are crazy in Illinois, go check out the situation in Texas. Bizarre.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Subscribers looking for late budget updates should go here and here. In case I update this weekend, the password will remain the same.
Also, Capitol Fax will be published Monday, but it probably won’t arrive until early afternoon.
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I feel like death. Sure glad it’s Friday. I may be updating over the weekend with new stuff about the budget talks, but right now I’m going to take a nap.
Barring updates, we’ll resume blog posts and comments early Monday afternoon, shortly before the House and Senate are back in session.
Do yourself a favor and head to Illinoize to check out all the new bloggers. They’re very good. Of course, our “old” bloggers are pretty darned good, too.
Name one currently legal product or activity which you’d like the state to ban, and name one currently illegal product or activity which you’d like the state to legalize.
For a second straight year, Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration has failed to renew hundreds of leases and keep up with rent and utility payments for private office space used by the state, a new audit showed Thursday.
Auditor General William Holland’s review of the controversial office-management agency, the Department of Central Management Services, found the department’s failure to promptly deal with billings from landlords and utilities resulted in eviction notices and disconnection notices for some state agencies.
* From the same story, Orlando Jones appears once again…
Meanwhile, a separate state audit of the Illinois State Board of Investment showed that Orlando Jones, the godson of former Cook County Board President John Stroger and a well-connected political insider, collected more than $471,000 in marketing fees from William Blair & Co. to promote the investment firm before the board. The state investment board is the oversight panel for state pension systems for lawmakers, judges and state workers.
Jones also has had business ties to Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a top fundraiser and adviser to Blagojevich who was indicted last fall on federal corruption charges. Jones was previously a vice president of Rezko’s real estate development firm.
* And then there’s Chicago State University, Senate President Emil Jones’ pet project. Maybe they have too much money there…
Even as Chicago State University faced budget pressures, the university’s president spent public funds to attend two extended “leadership seminars” aboard cruise ships in the Caribbean and Mediterranean, bringing five family members along on one, state officials said Thursday.
University president Elnora Daniel attended the cruises and on at least one, the room rate was 3,000 for the nine-day affair when $1,499 rooms were available, according to the report by Auditor General William Holland.
Five family members attended one or both cruises at state expense, a perk allowed by Daniel’s contract, which allows for $10,000 in travel for family members.
Thirteen charges to the university’s credit card totaled $3,932 for “various theatrical events,” including “The Lion King” and the Lyric Opera, but included no details or reasons for the spending, the audit found. Employees slept in hotel rooms whose rates exceeded the state limit; stayed past the end of conferences they attended; and were reimbursed for movies, gifts and alcohol.
Robyn Wheeler, spokeswoman for the 6,600-student school, refused to answer specific questions about Daniel’s travel, the audit, or the $10,000 in family travel perks.
‘’The substance of the transactions represent valid university business,'’ Wheeler said.
* My Sun-Times column this week is mainly about how long Speaker Madigan and Senate President Jones have been in power without producing results on an issue both claim to wholeheartedly support…
llinois House Speaker Michael Madigan was first elected to the House in 1970. I’m 45 now, so I was 8 years old at the time. Senate President Emil Jones was first elected to the House two years later, in 1972. I was in fifth grade. Both men have held legislative leadership positions for pretty much my entire adult life.
Madigan and Jones’ combined 70-plus years of experience can be a good thing. They’ve seen almost everything, so it’s tough for a lobbyist or a governor or anyone else to sneak something past them.
Lately, though, I’ve been getting the urge to change the channel and watch a new program. Over the years they have become little more than self-perpetuating power machines. Plus, the two men have so much history between them, much of it antagonistic, that they too often can’t seem to put aside their differences for the good of the state.
* My Sun-Times editor, Steve Huntley, has a column today about the lack of gubernatorial leadership, among other things…
All this doesn’t add up to the kind of leadership Illinois needs any time, but especially this year with pension, education and transportation funding in dire need of help. Because of a no-tax-pledge made in spite of mounting fiscal problems and in the face of ambitions by the governor and Democratic legislators for new spending, the campaign of 2006 has come back to haunt Springfield. Where all this will end is anybody’s guess, but it tells you a lot that lawmakers are talking about an expansion of gambling.
Maybe a deal can still be reached to address the state’s funding problems, but it will take more flexibility and leadership than our government has so far displayed.
* And Eric Krol looks at why the governor’s tax plan tanked and includes this bit…
Where to from here? Looks like a session that’ll last half the summer, depending on whether Senate President Emil Jones decides to stand firm with ally Blagojevich (and is able to keep his members with him) or cut a scaled-back deal with House Speaker Michael Madigan.
* More tax and spend stories, compiled by our ever-popular intern Paul…
Blagojevich and his staff said Mahajan’s long-standing, no-bid state contract preceded the relationship with the first lady and that there was no connection between the two. Blagojevich called the Tribune inquiry “Neanderthal” and sexist.
Critics said the idea would put existing hotels at tollway interchanges at a disadvantage and could enable politically connected developers to find a new way to cash in on government business.
But a letter last month — disclosed this week — from Pete Rahn, director of the Missouri Department of Transportation, to his Illinois counterpart, Milton Sees, shows that Missouri is willing to back down on its position on tolls.
* Election Board privacy breach: lawsuit claims controversial data can be seen by all