*** 2:13 pm *** Speaker Madigan is agreeing to the mass transit bailout proposed by House GOP Leader Cross and Gov. Blagojevich. However, both of those men have demanded that any transit deal be tied directly to a capital program. Madigan apparently hasn’t agreed to that yet.
In other words, Madigan is accepting their transit language as a standalone proposal and leaving it up to Cross and Blagojevich to decide whether they’ll support their own idea divorced from capital.
From a letter Madigan sent to state legislators today…
On Wednesday, November 28, in response to Governor Blagojevich’s special session proclamation, the General Assembly will convene for the purpose of considering legislation that provides “funding solutions for mass transit.”
Last week, the governor sent a letter to all representatives and senators indicating that he supports a plan advanced by Republican Leader Tom Cross, contained in House Bill 4161, which re-directs the state’s share of the sales tax on gasoline in Cook and the collar counties to the RTA.
This is not our preferred solution. As is well known, we favor Senate Bill 572 because it is structured to not be merely a bailout or a band-aid, but to provide the RTA and its service boards with a reasonably stable source of operating funds that would help them avoid the need to return in a few years to the capitol with hat in hand.
However, as an act of compromise, we are willing to accept the Blagojevich-Cross plan and ask that our fellow lawmakers support it, too. We face a genuine crisis and the time to act is now. It is irresponsible to continue to leave workers and employers wondering about travel to jobs, students concerned about making it to class and senior citizens worried about preserving their independence and ability to get to leisure activities, visit relatives, go shopping and see the doctor. This compromise will put an end to the piecemeal cash infusions, months of anxiety for transit riders and workers, and the incessant, and unfortunate, legislative drama that has surrounded this issue for the past several months.
In brief, the legislation we will advance, with some technical adjustments, is modeled on House Bill 4161. It does not include a general sales tax increase, nor would it allow the city of Chicago to increase its real estate transfer tax. The reform components of Senate Bill 572, which include substantial pension and benefit concessions from transit unions and other requirements to protect the best interests of taxpayers and transit riders, will remain in the bill. Allocations to Metra, Pace and the CTA are generally comparable to those in Senate Bill 572. For a more detailed explanation of the measure’s provisions, please see the accompanying fact sheet.
Just as we believe that others should not hold hostage transit riders in northeastern Illinois for the sake of accomplishing unrelated ends, we will not treat mass transit riders as pawns to be used as leverage to pass our desired solution. Instead, we choose to take Governor Blagojevich and Republican Leader Cross at their word and, for the sake of transit riders, will support the funding mechanism they favor.
We also share the governor’s expressed desire to see this bill passed before the holidays and fear that a failure to do so will jeopardize the broad and significant reforms it contains.
The heads of the service boards, RTA chairman, transit unions, and Mayor Daley have made it clear that we cannot afford any further delay. The damage to the livability and economic viability of the northeastern Illinois region would be severe, possibly catastrophic, if its mass transit system is allowed to deteriorate. The issue at hand is mass transit and now is the time to set aside alternative agendas and embrace this compromise.
Session begins at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday. We expect to proceed to partisan caucuses shortly thereafter and to call this measure for a floor vote sometime later in the day.
Click here for the full Madigan letter with attached info sheet.
*** 2:48 pm *** From Blagojevich spokesperson Rebecca Rausch…
This was a compromise solution we embraced several weeks ago. We made this compromise the center-piece of the special session we called for Wednesday. We hope the legislature can muster the votes necessary to pass it quickly.
Now, the question becomes whether Blagojevich releases his five House Democrats who voted against the earlier bill.
*** 3:13 pm *** From House Republican Leader Tom Cross’ spokesman…
We believe it is positive that [Madigan] agrees with us that now is not the time to burden citizens with higher taxes.
We hope he will continue to work on passing a capital bill to address the great needs of mass transit, road construction, school construction and higher education.
I’ll have more on what that actually means in tomorrow’s Capitol Fax.
But it’s uncertain whether the proposal he now says he’ll support will go anywhere. That’s because a letter Madigan released this afternoon makes no mention of finding money to pay for a statewide construction program.
*** 3:20 pm *** Big trouble in the Senate.
Sen. John Sullivan (D-Rushville) just said that Downstate Senate Democrats still believe that transit and capital are “absolutely locked together,” and reiterated their earlier vow to vote against a transit bill until a capital deal is worked out. Sen. Sullivan said he and his colleagues were more than willing to work out a solution.
*** 3:56 pm *** Senate President Emil Jones’ office has “No comment” on the proposal.
*** 4:17 pm *** From the Senate Republicans…
It’s a mirage. Without a proposal to backfill GRF, this particular bill is not a plan.
*** 4:49 pm *** More from the Senate Republicans. Apparently, this e-mail bounced back at them from my account…
It appears the Speaker and Rep. Hamos have come to the realization that there is little support for a tax increase. Senate Republicans have been clear all along that asking the taxpayers to foot the bill is not the solution. We believe the transit systems must be invested in the solution — with greater efficiences, budget cuts and reforms.
* I immediately thought of three things when I realized that last week was the 20th anniversary of Mayor Harold Washington’s death. The first was how I learned of his passing. Some friends and I were jovially traveling north from Springfield for Thanksgiving break when the news broke. We sat in stunned silence as we listened to the radio.
* The second thing that came to mind was the Royko column referenced by the Tribune editorial page the other day…
So I told Uncle Chester: Don’t worry, Harold Washington doesn’t want to marry your sister. — Mike Royko, Feb. 23, 1983
That’s how Mike Royko opened his column the day after Harold Washington stunned Chicago and won the Democratic primary for mayor.
Washington would be Chicago’s first black mayor. If you were too young at the time, or weren’t in Chicago, you may not realize just how extraordinarily well that one sentence from Royko captured the angst of many people in this city.
Marry your sister, run your city; there wasn’t much difference in the eyes of many white Chicagoans. To them, the election of Harold Washington spelled trouble.
In fact, Mr. Washington has cleverly worked the [Al Capone] theme into his standard stump speech, saying that the time will come when people overseas who used to reply, ‘’Al Capone - rat-a-tat-tat'’ when they met someone from Chicago, will ask instead, ‘’How’s Harold?'’
* Question: What’s your strongest memory of Harold Washington?
In what can only be seen as another maneuver to set public policy from the Governor’s office, Illinois’ Department of Human Services recently informed Project Reality — the state’s key abstinence education provider — that the non-profit group has been eliminated from the state budget.
* But the other side says the federal rules which governor the program don’t make sense…
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy just released Emerging Answers 2007 (www.thenationalcampaign.org) by Dr. Douglas Kirby, a leading sexual health researcher. The report studied 48 programs to see how well they prevented unintended teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Two-thirds of the programs showed positive behavioral changes among students, including delayed initiation of sex and increased condom or contraceptive use. Almost 30 percent of students had less sex or no sex; and more than 60 percent had unprotected sex less often.
How did these programs succeed? They taught both abstinence and the use of condoms and contraceptives - a comprehensive approach to sexuality education and prevention all Illinois students deserve.
Unfortunately, Illinois accepts federal funding for abstinence-only sex education from the Title V program, which requires Illinois to provide $2.5 million in matching funds. These are squandered resources because abstinence-only programs have never been able to show success in keeping students from engaging in sexual activity. A study released in April 2007 by Mathematica Policy Research Inc. found that such programs had no effect on the sexual abstinence of youth. The only abstinence consistently linked to this kind of education is an abstinence from safety, because these courses do not teach young people how contraceptives, including condoms, are used.
In fact, to get federal funding for abstinence-only programs, you must prove the instructors never discuss any form of contraception. This poses a serious public health risk to Illinois youth.
* Meanwhile, the Southtown ran a column today in place of mine (I took the week off) which looks at the hugely controversial “moment of silence” law that a federal judge recently enjoined from being enforced. The piece was written by Dean Koldenhoven, the former mayor of Palos Heights…
I believe the intent of a “period of silence” for approximately 20-30 seconds could be saved if the legislators would delete the words “silent prayer” from the law. When our Illinois state legislators meet in Springfield, they could take up this change in wording and salvage the law without giving up the few moments of silence at the beginning of school-day activities.
An alternative proposed by Rep. John Fritchey would delete the word “prayer” from the law as well as kill off the mandate to hold a moment of silence altogether.
Politically, though, I wonder how some legislators are gonna deal with the prospect of “eliminating prayer” in an election year. Pretty much all of them recognize that they’re in a tough spot with this controversy, but there’s no easy way out.
* Remember before the Thanksgiving break when Gov. Rod Blagojevich had this to say about the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules’ blocking of his emergency healthcare proposal?
“Where is it written that a handful of legislators — 12 of them — can tell the executive branch what it’s going to do when it comes to administering the executive branch?”
I’ve been mentioning here and in the Capitol Fax that Gov. Blagojevich signed legislation that vastly expanded JCAR’s powers, so he ought to have known where it’s “written.” Aaron Chambers digs deeper…
Since 1980, JCAR has had the power under Illinois law to veto administrative rules. In 2004, a year after taking office as governor, Blagojevich strengthened that power — effectively putting himself at a greater disadvantage in any battle with JCAR over his administration’s own rules.
Before 2004, JCAR’s objection to a rule was temporary unless the Legislature voted to sustain it. Thanks to the governor’s signature, however, JCAR’s objection is final unless the Legislature votes to overrule it.
Before Blagojevich approved that 2004 law, JCAR’s power to block a rule depended on whether the Legislature backed up its objection. Thanks to Blagojevich, it may permanently block a rule on its own — without the support of the Legislature as a whole.
“I am somewhat flabbergasted that the governor would just kind of say, ‘I’m not going to pay any attention to that,’” Edgar said, adding that “I don’t think is very productive in trying to solve the major problems that are facing the state of Illinois.”
Gov. Rod Blagojevich… will ask the Legislature next year to create a state-regulated pool of affordable private health insurance policies for individuals, families and small businesses.
“It would be kind of a public-private partnership,” deputy governor Sheila Nix told The State Journal-Register last week. “The thing I think we like the most about it is that it gives everybody an option to buy an affordable insurance plan.”
That insurance pool idea was part of the governor’s ill-fated Illinois Covered plan, which never got out of the Senate, despite strong support by Senate Democratic leadership.
He wants to fund the subsidized insurance pool, as well as other initiatives to benefit uninsured and insured residents alike, with a proposed 3 percent payroll tax on all but the smallest employers that offer workers little or no health benefits.
But passing such a tax is unlikely at best in an election year, not to mention the governor’s awful poll numbers. So, expect another legislative bypass…
Though the governor needs the proposed $1.1 billion-a-year employer assessment to fund Illinois Covered in future years, Nix said he will start up several of the plan’s programs with money he cut from the budget.
As you might imagine, the new idea isn’t going over too well in the House…
“It’s an already difficult relationship,” said Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago. “This probably makes it more difficult.”
* It’s not difficult to understand why the Daily Herald would slant towards the horse racing industry, since the Arlington track is in the paper’s prime coverage area. But, still, isn’t this a bit much?
After getting nothing but coal in their stockings for the past decade or so, officials at Hawthorne Race Course and Arlington Park are hoping to get the one gift they really want this holiday season.
Slots.
With Gov. Rod Blagojevich calling a special session of the Illinois legislature this week to discuss a gaming expansion bill — one that would include slots at the two local tracks — the odds are steep but they’re as good as they’ve ever been for the thoroughbred industry to get the added influx of money it believes it needs.
“Everything seems to be pointing in that direction,” said Jim Miller, assistant general manager at Hawthorne. “But too many times we’ve had high hopes before.”
Not mentioned in the article is that the tracks have received a state subsidy for years. There was a time when the tracks subsidized the state. Now, it’s the other way around.
Personally, I think horse racing is a fine thing. And as long as any gaming expansion plan includes super-strict, binding rules requiring the tracks to focus lots of that newfound cash on expanding and vastly improving their deteriorating core business, then I guess the idea wouldn’t be so bad. But the poor-mouthing really gets old.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
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.
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.”
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.
* 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.
It’s time for a holiday break. We’ve all earned it.
I’m thankful for so many things: My eventual good fortune in life, my family, my friends, my subscribers, my blog readers, my advertisers and, of course, Illinoize…
* And, now, I wanna thank you falettinme be mice elf agin…
Flamin’ eyes of people fear
Burnin’ into you
Many men are missin’ much
Hatin’ what they do
“Morally, [Blagojevich] was opposed to gaming three years ago when he had a press conference,” the mayor said. “Remember the press conference? It changed very quickly, in less than three years. … If you can change your moral viewpoints on casinos, you surely can change your political viewpoint or governmental viewpoint [against raising taxes] on a decision that affects public transportation in this city, in the metropolitan [area].”
* I was talking about this subject with somebody yesterday, so I thought I would share it with you.
Do you think it’s odd that not a single major news outlet appears to have covered the fact that Congressman Bobby Rush decided not to run for reelection as Democratic ward committeeman?
Also, what’s up with the total failure by any of the majors to note that the governor allowed a $48 million tax increase to take effect without actually signing it into law?
* Sen. Bill Brady, a likely Republican candidate for governor, has proposed limiting the governor’s ability to call special sessions…
For instance, a governor would have to give at least four days’ notice before the first scheduled day of a special session. A special session could be convened on shorter notice if legislative leaders and the governor agree that an emergency exists.
Also, the governor would have to be physically present in the chambers of the Senate and House on the first day of a special session, and the session must be “permanently adjourned” if, after 15 consecutive session days, the House or Senate fails to pass legislation dealing with the stated reason for the special session.
* Brady made his pitch on the same day that Blagojevich called yet another special session, this one dealing with mass transit…
“This is the 17th one. He’s made a mockery out of them and the system,” said Brady, a Bloomington Republican who ran for governor in 2006.
“I’m hoping to remove a governor’s ability to use these special-session calls from the perception of a little kid that doesn’t get his way,” he added in a phone interview Monday.
* Meanwhile, the governor has not yet proposed any actual legislation to bail out mass transit. This has been a constant complaint about every single special session the governor has commanded this year…
“If there is legislation proposed, then we’ll have something for the House and Senate to consider,” Brown said of the session, adding that he considers that prospect “a big ‘if.’”
Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said it’s the job of lawmakers to draft legislation they can vote on in special sessions.
Ottenhoff noted there is a pending piece of legislation proposed by a House Republican that would redirect sales tax revenue the state collects on gasoline purchases in Cook and the ‘’collar'’ counties to the mass transit agencies to create a steady stream of revenue for them.
That’s a concept Blagojevich said he favors, although questions still remain about how best to replace that revenue in the state budget.
‘’He can like all the concepts he wants,'’ said Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, adding that lawmakers need specifics to vote on.
BROWN: And if he doesn’t identify bills, then there’s nothing for the Senate or the House to consider, and it’s just a meaningless act.
Brown says most of the governor’s special sessions this year have been “absolute failures.” A spokesperson from Blagojevich’s office says the governor is not required to specify bills for special sessions.
Pace is nearly $50 million short of the $261 million needed to run its fixed route and paratransit services next year. To make up the difference, transit officials will cut scores of Metra shuttles as well as weekday and weekend routes. They also are planning to drop all service after 7 p.m. and raise all fixed route fares to $2. Most now are now $1.25.
* Gov. Blagojevich’s decision to forge ahead with his health insurance plan despite the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules’ veto of the proposal is drawing some ire. The SJ-R editorial…
So when the bipartisan legislative panel last week voted 9-2 against the governor’s emergency expansion request, only the uninitiated saw it as a gubernatorial stop sign. Blagojevich didn’t even see it as a speed bump. By Friday, we had learned the orders were already issued to expand the program. He says JCAR’s authority of rulemaking is only advisory.
Then why even ask? Why even pretend to play by the rules, governor? Maybe it’s time for Blagojevich to break out the crown and scepter and start ruling as the sovereign he apparently wants to be. The sad thing is Blagojevich’s disdain for working within the system may end up harming the cause to expand health-care coverage. It certainly has hindered progress in many other important areas: pension reform, infrastructure and school-funding reform, to name a few.
Consistency is generally a good thing. But it’s nothing to be proud of when you consistently screw up.
* What everyone in the “big media” has so far failed to point out is that the governor signed into law an expansion of JCAR’s powers during his first term. To now claim that JCAR’s role is purely “advisory” is ridiculously hypocritical. The governor had this to say yesterday…
“Where is it written that a handful of legislators - 12 of them - can tell the executive branch what it’s going to do when it comes to administering the executive branch?” the governor said.
Springfield is awash in speculation that Blagojevich wants to push as many people as possible into the state program and spend as much as possible, even while its legality is in question. That way, the theory goes, the program becomes so entrenched that the legislature would have no alternative but to find money to keep it going.
That would be reckless, particularly in a state that has more than $100 billion in debts and obligations, much of it for pensions and health-care costs. The state’s in a fiscal hole. And the governor is digging faster.
Not mentioned are previous reports that state revenues for the current fiscal year appear to be in decline. We’re in for a much nastier session next year (if you can imagine that) than we had this year unless a peace treaty is signed in blood, and soon.
* And Jim Duffet, who has gone out of his way to push the governor’s plan, had this to say…
“This issue isn’t about Governor Blagojevich. This isn’t about JCAR,’’ said Jim Duffett, executive director of the Campaign for Better Health Care. “The people want action, they want the General Assembly to take action on accessible, affordable health care.’’
If a governor had abused his or her authority to deny health insurance benefits despite a JCAR ruling, I’m sure Duffett would have a far different take on what the “issue” is. We’re supposed to live by our laws. Duffett’s position as an advocate is understandable, but he should remember that Blagojevich won’t be governor forever.
* Illinoize: Med-Mal ruling not a surprise, but it will have impacts
In fact, there has never been a doubt that the Illinois Supreme Court would ultimately rule on the constitutionality of the 2005 law and the fastest – maybe the only – way to get the law to the Supreme Court is through a lower court ruling of unconstitutionality.
So the process is a step closer to conclusion and, frankly, no one is surprised.
The building on the Champaign-Urbana campus will house the computer known as Blue Waters, which will be the fastest computer in the world when it is finished in 2011. The university’s bid to build the computer came with a pledge from Gov. Rod Blagojevich that the state would kick in $60 million.
* ‘Illinois Works’ needed to update automotive technology facilities at SIU campus
Watch for former Gov. Jim Edgar to formally endorse GOP presidential contender Rudy Giuliani today at the Chicago Sheraton Hotel & Towers.
“It’s a major endorsement for a state which doesn’t have a single Republican on the statewide ticket,” said a Republican source. “Gov. Edgar has a reputation for integrity and continues to remain popular with the voters.”
Three major Cook County elected officials declined Monday to endorse board President Todd Stroger’s plan to more than triple the county sales tax as they stood with him at what he hoped would be a show of support for his budget.
Stroger’s 2006 foe, Republican Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, had filed a complaint asking that Stroger’s fund be fined the full $255,816. But the election board chose the lower fine because the fund is a first-time violator of state campaign-finance laws.
