Morning shorts
Monday, Nov 26, 2007 - Posted by Paul Richardson
* Editorial: Stroger should take cue from snub by other county officials
Perhaps most astounding of all, Stroger himself admits his new tax would raise far more money than the county needs. The anticipated shortfall in 2008 is $239 million. But rather than cut his $3.2 billion spending plan, Stroger wants his constituents to give him more than he needs today, so he can continue spending more next year and the year after without having to come back and ask for more in 2008 and 2009.
* Editorial: Don’t panic over Med Mal ruling
* Schoenburg: Blago’s deputy governors, Giannoulias, DeJong
* Pace, Union meet to avert strike
* Opinion: CeaseFire will not surrender fight against violence
* BP yet to find way to cut discharges at Indiana refinery
* LaHood working with writer on memoirs
* Chuck Sweeny: Iowa still has more clout than Illinois primary
* Schoenburg: After getting an earful, Versace talks about issues
DICK VERSACE is answering questions now, and that sure makes him seem like a better candidate than he appeared to be when he made his formal campaign announcement for Congress in early October.
Versace, a former Bradley University and NBA basketball coach making his first foray into politics, said at his Statehouse announcement back then that he wanted to go out on what he called a “common-sense express” RV tour and visit voters in all 20 counties that make up the 18th Congressional District.
Versace refused to answer issue questions then, and it didn’t make for a pretty scene.
* Press Release: Lauzen wins Ben Franklin award
* Laesch wants Oberweis to withdraw ads
* Editorial: Hastert resignation will create a mess
But Hastert is silent on his reason. … Hastert owes an explanation to his constituents and to all taxpayers in Illinois, who will help foot the bill for the likely special primary and special election that will determine not the 14th District representative for a number of years, but for a number of months.
This all strikes us as a ridiculous waste of time, energy and money that could have been averted had Hastert been willing to complete the promise he made to voters when he accepted his latest term.
* Tribune Editorial: Adolescent Errors
The moment offered a rare opportunity for Giuliani to side with Obama, saying that “we are all human beings” and should avoid any “pretense of perfection.”
Not a bad idea, since that quality is no more common among politicians than among the rest us. And there’s something else to be said for politicians acknowledging youthful mistakes rather than claim to have led saintly lives: The kids might actually believe them.
* Panel looks for help on wage issue
An ad hoc committee of the Quincy School Board will send a representative to Springfield to learn how the Illinois Department of Labor sets the prevailing wage rate.
The committee hopes that through learning about the process, Adams County might be able to set its own rate that would save money for the Quincy School District on construction projects.
“We want to know how they do it,” said Dennis Gorman, the School District’s legal counsel. “I hear a lot of questions about the validity of that. There’s an option there that we can do it.”
* Wisconsin News: Are MADD’s recommendations feasible?
* Illinois drivers among worst in the nation test says
* 87-year old labor leader is tireless
The winner of the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the East Central Iowa-Northwestern Illinois AFL-CIO Hall of Fame is 87 years old and still hasn’t slowed down.
“He’s on the go every day from 9:30 a.m. until midnight,” Jerry Messer, head of the Quad City Federation of Labor, said Friday of the award recipient, Dick Fallow of Davenport.
* Peoria requests cash for taser cameras
* Not just surviving, cancer patients are flexing some
* Opinion: Illinois plan could cut costs for consumers
Under legislation passed last year, Ameren is required to offer this optional program that allows participants to take advantage of the electricity market’s hourly ups and downs to cut power bills while reducing demand for electricity and preventing pollution.
* Firm exploring Chicago naming rights, sponsorships
Might visitors to the Windy City someday ride the Lowe’s Chicago El, shop on the Microsoft Magnificent Mile and tour Old Navy Pier?
What’s in a name for the future isn’t clear, but the city has hired a marketing firm to explore the potential for naming rights and sponsorships as a way to bring in needed revenue, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.
- Where's the Outrage? - Monday, Nov 26, 07 @ 9:13 am:
Blago’s deputy governors smokin’ n mirrors salaries are just the tip of the iceberg.
This is a Illinois statewide ruse!
- Bill - Monday, Nov 26, 07 @ 9:32 am:
Seeya, Justin. Watch your back around those Chamber guys!
- Cassandra - Monday, Nov 26, 07 @ 9:45 am:
I wish Ms. Richards could pick up Human Servics
and DCFS. They are in such a shambles they need somebody in the young energetic person category.
I think the real money for these young staffers is what they get when they leave state government. So, they’d probably work for much less, meaning we taxpayers could purchase their services for substantially less. And let’s not forget that if you add in health insurance, pension rights, and free cars probably, $100k is a lot closer to $150k. Wonder how long it takes to get vested in a lucrative state of Illinois pension. Probably not that long, this being a blue state after all.
Blago seems to be taking a leaf from Mayor Daley’s
employment practices book, which is to hire young people into high level staff jobs and work them to exhaustion for a few years before they go off to become investment bankers, hedge fund managers and lobbyists. Somebody wrote an amusing article a few years back about the different types of Daley employees; the young folks, the lifers, and some other category I can’t recall. It’s all playing
out right there in Springfield.
Anyway, wonder what Brad Tusk, a former young Blago staffer, is making now.
We should sell these staff jobs so the taxpayers
can actually get some value from them.
- NimROD - Monday, Nov 26, 07 @ 9:59 am:
Cassandra -
It takes the lower level workers 8 years to vest their pensions. I don’t know about MC level positions but I would be quite surprised if they don’t have a much abbreviated schedule of vesting at the higher management levels.
I would like someone to ask why we need a governor, lieutenant governor, deputy governors, a chief of staff and a myriad of deputy chiefs of staff if the purpose isn’t to pad the payroll with political favors. Splitting a person’s payroll between two or more departments comes pretty close to ghost payrolling….it certainly looks like an effort to bury salary for these hires in department budget line items.
One other thought…all of these departments have their own directors, deputy directors, superintendents, etc. Why on earth do we need deputy chiefs of staff overseeing departments when that is the SPECIFIC task assigned to a director in the first place? Is there no way to get some accountability in the system?
- Rob_N - Monday, Nov 26, 07 @ 10:22 am:
Paul,
Picking a nit…
The “60 Plus Association” is only “non-partisan” in the sense that they aren’t a directly-funded arm of the Republican National Committee.
In reality, George Bush’s friends at the 60 Plus Association are about as non-partisan as Daily Kos or Illinois Review…
Both their Pres. James Martin and honorary chair, Ret. Congressman Roger Zion (R-IN), are staunch advocates for “the conservative cause”. Their funding comes from Big Pharma and the group often advocates on pharmaceutical companies’ behalf, in addition to other groups which benefit from having conservatives in power.
So, it’s little surprise they’d give their annual award to a fellow anti-tax conservative such as Chris Lauzen.
Interestingly, the self-proclaimed “non-partisan” 60 Plus Association has little blurbs on their website asking people to leave AARP and join 60+. AARP itself released a paper a few years back on how the astroturf from front groups like 60+ are detrimental to the democratic process. (60+ has, in the past, listed no funds from membership dues on their tax forms; implying they have few if any members.)
(/ nit picking)
- Captain America - Monday, Nov 26, 07 @ 10:28 am:
Cook County Commissioners should just say no to Tood Stroger’s outrageous, exorbitant sales tax proposal.
Other than the bare minimum necessary to sustain curent operations, no more money should be spent on the health/medical care system until the County surrenders sontrol of the system to an independent trustee. No reform, no additional money! Starve the beast!!
It sure seems strange for a liberal Democrat like me - who strongly believes in importance of the County’s health care mission meet the needs of the poor - to be paraphrasing the mantra of hard line anti-government conservatives like Grover Norquist, et al.
Pingback Lauzen receives hollow award from “front group” « Illinois Reason - Monday, Nov 26, 07 @ 10:44 am:
[…] November 26, 2007 in “Grassroots” Conservatives, Congressional Campaigns, Republicans by robnesvacil Paul Richardson posted in this morning’s Capital Fax Morning Shorts about 14th CD Republican Congressional candidate Chris Lauzen “winning” something called the Ben Franklin Award from a group known as the 60 Plus Association. 60+ is a self-declared “non-partisan” organization pitching itself as “the conservative alternative to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).” […]
- Grouchy - Monday, Nov 26, 07 @ 11:15 am:
Was that all the Deputy Chiefs of Staffs? I’m pretty sure the article missed some(seriously). Might need to revisit that one, because he definitely skipped one for sure.
- Hugh - Monday, Nov 26, 07 @ 12:08 pm:
Rockford Register Star: “State Rep. Chuck Jefferson, D-Rockford, and some of his colleagues in the House have said they are looking at ways to restore money to CeaseFire.”
Good for them. Ongoing funding of a local operation vis member initiatives year after year ain’t it. State reps who sponsor local CeaseFires got caught with their pants down.
“The agency’s effectiveness is hard to prove because of on-again, off-again funding.”
No, the funding is off because the effectiveness is hard to prove.
- amy - Monday, Nov 26, 07 @ 12:20 pm:
“The agency’s effectiveness is hard to prove because of on-again, off-again funding.”
No, the funding is off because the effectiveness is hard to prove.
Hugh, you are right on the mark. the cost for
each contact from this program is WAY too high.
Put the money with the police.
- Truthful James - Monday, Nov 26, 07 @ 1:17 pm:
Paul,
I see that you have not taken note of the Daily Herald’s just completed Pulitzer worthy ten part series about the intellectual bankruptcy and financial problems in the Illinois public school system. The last section over the weekebd was a doozy and deserveves everyone’s study.
The series was perhaps the first overarching report on the most serious problem the our citizens are facing.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Nov 26, 07 @ 1:24 pm:
It’s in the subscriber section.
- Truthful James - Monday, Nov 26, 07 @ 1:32 pm:
Rich –
Chapter 10 at
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=83593
is much more important than that.