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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Raw audio of this morning’s gaming press conference

Monday, Dec 10, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

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This just in… Madigan unveils gaming plan… Suit barred… No special session this week?…

Monday, Dec 10, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

* 11:59 am - The AP has a brief story up about the House Democrats’ new gaming proposal. Since the subscriber-only post is quite long, I’m going to leave it behind the firewall. However, the plan includes a $200 million price for a new Chicago casino (which will surely be seen by many as too low), 3,600 new slots at racetracks and a tough new ethics proposal. For the first time, Speaker Madigan has relented to pressure from the governor and the other leaders and agreed to a 70-30 split of the gaming proceeds between capital projects and education spending.

You can read the entire gaming proposal at this link [pdf file] or this link [txt file].

* 12:02 pm - As I told subscribers this morning, House GOP Leader Tom Cross is meeting with the governor and Senate President Jones at the moment to discuss the House Democrats’ gaming plan. I’ll pass along more when I know more, but the spending side of Madigan’s proposal could prove to be problemmatic, I’m told.

* 12:19 pm - Here’s the language on minority and female investment that we talked about the other day…

Once a license has been awarded, the winning bidder must allow for 25% of their equity interest to be put up for sale in $5,000 increments. The 25% shall be made available in the following manner: 20% for minority interests and 5% for female interests. If more applications are received than exist available shares, a lottery-based system shall be implemented with complete Gaming Board oversight.

This appears to apply only to the new private casinos, not Chicago’s publicly owned casino.

* 1:09 pm - The AP has a full story up now…

House Speaker Michael Madigan showed his hand in gambling negotiations Monday, proposing a major expansion that would raise $1 billion a year through two new casinos and thousands of slot machines at riverboats and horse tracks. […]

In a letter to lawmakers, Madigan said the House will meet next Monday to consider the proposal. […]

Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said the governor’s office hadn’t seen details of the proposal and would need to compare them with what leaders had discussed in recent weeks.

[Emphasis added.]

* Daily Herald…

But one Republican familiar with ongoing talks cautioned that this should not yet be described as a “deal.” […]

The two Democratic state lawmakers who unveiled the gambling plan said they think a deal is close.

“We think it’s 99 percent there,” said state Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat.

* 1:45 pm - React from Senate President Jones’ spokesperson…

“We have not seen language of the legislation yet. There are issues that were described in the meeting that we could support, others still need work. Once we see the actual legislation, we can begin to move forward.”

* 3:56 pm - This is not exactly earth-shattering because of the other pre-existing suit in Cook County, but here’s part of the AP story…

A Sangamon County judge barred a lawsuit against Governor Rod Blagojevich’s expanded health care plan Monday. But that’s only because a similar one is proceeding in Cook County.

Circuit Judge Leo Zappa agreed with lawyers for Blagojevich that allowing the lawsuit would be unfairly duplicative because a similar suit in Cook County was OK’d Monday.

The Illinois Coalition for Jobs, Growth and Prosperity sued the governor last week to stop him from adding 147,000 parents to state-subsidized health insurance. Blagojevich announced plans to expand the program even though he didn’t have authority from legislators.

React from the governor’s office…

We’re pleased that Judge Zappa today barred the lawsuit filed by two Republican activists designed to take healthcare away from families. We will continue to fight any efforts that keep hardworking people from getting the healthcare coverage that they need.

* 3:59 pm - I’m hearing from two different sources that there will likely be no special session this week. The Senate may hold a hearing on Friday, but it looks like we’ll all be back at the grind on Monday.

* 4:17 pm - Good riddance.

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - House Democratic gaming proposal *** Updated several times ***

Monday, Dec 10, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

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A few notes to readers and subscribers

Monday, Dec 10, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

* To subscribers: I’ll be posting the House’s new gaming plan for subscribers only right around 10 this morning. I’ll take the password protection off once other media outlets jump in, but if all goes well you should get it first.

* For everyone: Don’t forget to purchase tickets here for the December 16th performance of “No-El or How the Blagojegrinch Stole Christmas” - Our Capitol Fax holiday party.

* We’re going to start voting tomorrow on our “Best of” awards that we debated last week. I’m still going through the list and deciding which to choose.

* I was mentioned by Congressman John Shimkus last week during committee debate over new FCC rules on media ownership. Shimkus makes a good point that maybe the worries over consolidation (particularly in large cities) are somewhat overblown…

[audio:SHIMKUS_CAPFAX.mp3]

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Question of the day - Blagojevich and Bush

Monday, Dec 10, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

* My syndicated newspaper column this week attempts to explain the battle over JCAR and put it into perspective…

Now that Gov. Rod Blagojevich has unilaterally declared a previously obscure but always important legislative committee has no real power, things could radically change at the Illinois Statehouse.

* More on what could happen now that the governor has said that JCAR is essentially irrelevant…

I asked House Speaker Michael Madigan what impact the governor’s move would have. His response: Bills are going to get longer.

In the past, the General Assembly could avoid writing the minutiae of implementation language into most legislation because JCAR had a check on the administration’s rulemaking authority. Now, with the governor throwing JCAR out the window, legislators will likely want to make sure they write as much detail as they can into their proposals. As a result, the system may become lots more cumbersome.

Lawmakers may also want to revisit old laws and update them in an attempt to prevent Blagojevich from making even more mischief.

* And the conclusion…

Whenever an executive tries to grab lots more authority, it’s usually seen by the legislative branch as an abuse of power, and that branch often ends up with more power than before. The backlash against President Nixon’s notorious power grabs produced all sorts of laws designed to limit the executive’s authority, and the same thing is starting to happen with President Bush.

Blagojevich has seemed intent since day one on remaking the governor’s office into a far more powerful branch, often overstepping his authority or “misreading” the Constitution. Considering his abrasive tactics, massive unpopularity and bungled Statehouse execution, he could wind up leaving the governor’s office as a hobbled shell of its former self.

* Now, the question: Compare Gov. Blagojevich to President Bush.

Related stories…

* Editorial: King Blago the compassionate

* Editorial: Reining in Blagojevich

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Thompson keeps story alive

Monday, Dec 10, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

* A letter to the editor prompted a full-blown news story in the Tribune over the weekend…

Former Gov. James Thompson, who spent the last four years defending Illinois’ last chief executive against criminal charges, on Friday defended the current governor and his wife against a story in the Chicago Tribune.

Thompson wrote a letter to the editor questioning the news value of Friday’s story revealing federal authorities are investigating real estate deals in which Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s wife, Patricia, received hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions from politically connected clients. […]

“How many times a day do you suppose house sellers in Chicago who have a friend in the real estate business give that friend the chance to sell the house. Are they on the front page of the Tribune?” Thompson asked in his letter to the Tribune’s editorial board. “I thought the Tribune was better than this.”

* To which Chicagoist responds…

And how many times a day do you suppose those friends then just happen to receive a lucrative government contract in return?

* But as Thompson notes in his actual letter…

So the story boils down to John H. Simpson — who has no state contracts — giving part of the seller’s real estate commission on the sale of his house to his friend, Patti Blagojevich.

[Note to the Tribune, now that you’re all Web 2.0 and stuff, how about putting links in your stories to items referenced? There’s no link to Thompson’s letter in your coverage of the letter. That’s kinda goofy.]

* We’ll give the Tribune the last word…

Thompson acknowledged that one of the two lawyers working for the [Blagojevich] campaign is Bradley Lerman, a litigation partner who spent years on convicted ex-Gov. George Ryan’s legal defense team.

“I don’t know,” Thompson said, when asked what type of work the firm is doing for the campaign. “And if I knew I wouldn’t tell you.”

Thompson’s firm has been paid more than a million bucks for services rendered to the governor’s campaign committee.

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Decoding Stroger

Monday, Dec 10, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Let’s decode this Sun-Times story on Cook County Board President Todd Stroger…

Todd Stroger said he had no designs on being Cook County Board president. Maybe some other office, sure, but not his dad’s. So when Democratic Party leaders came calling and his family gave its blessing, he thought it was right.

* I don’t buy it. Back when he was a state Rep. there were widespread rumors that Stroger’s father wanted to pass down the office to his son.

But he continues to be dogged by talk he’s not interested in the job, something not helped on days he’s difficult to find or when he describes being president as “pretty much [a] 9-to-5 [job].”

* This unavailability extends to those around him. His campaign team often couldn’t reach him when he was running for the office, and even looked to hire somebody to answer his cell phone.

Stroger is aware of the talk about his electability and plummeting public opinion, as some in his camp desperately want to make him more publicly available. Others aren’t as trusting and want a wall built around him.

* That’s a good question for debate. Should he be more publicly available or less?

He says he needs more money, that he can’t make any more cuts. Having cut $500 million last year and not raising taxes, he thought, would win him praise. It’s instead drawn anger over where he cut.

* And then he overreacted to that by proposing a gigantic tax hike. A fairly recent Democratic poll had Stroger’s “very unfavorable” rating among fellow Cook Co. Democrats at 50 percent.

Discuss amongst yourselves…

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Morning shorts

Monday, Dec 10, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Tribune Editorial: What CTA workers want for Christmas

* Henry Hyde funeral, pols from both parties offer praise; more here

* Sun-Times Editorial: Sorry, housing woes won’t reduce property tax bills

Of course, the foreclosure crisis could make the situation much worse over the next few years, and home values could start to drop. But let’s say that happens. Even then, taxes won’t automatically be lower. It all depends on how you fared relative to other property owners. If everyone saw a similar decrease, then your tax burden could stay the same — and could even go up, if local governments keep on demanding more money. Your taxes would fall only if you were hit harder than most other people.

* Editorial: Schools lose money as governor dawdles on BIMP bill

Because the payments are smaller, school districts that can afford to are dipping into their reserve funds to pay their bills.

Eventually, they may be compensated retroactively for that money but not for the interest earnings they are losing because of it.

Blagojevich supports the funding measure as it was approved by the Legislature, according to one of his PR people.

“Schools are not going to lose out on this,” spokeswoman Susan Hofer said.

* Editorial: Letting a little common sense flow

The bottled water backlash has begun. Illinois schools and offices are shunning those omnipresent liters, and why not? This $15 billion-a-year industry is a triumph of marketing over common sense.

* Rules of new IL smoking law still foggy

* Editorial: New year, new law good reasons to quit smoking now

* Tribune Editorial: The truth about teen births

Given all this, a one-year overall rise is grounds for concern but no more. If it turns out to be a brief interruption in a continuing decline, no one will much remember what happened in 2006.

Despite the uncertain meaning of the change, some people were sure what caused it. Planned Parenthood blamed abstinence-only education that omits information about condoms and other types of contraception.

* All casino patrons may be carded

The Illinois Gaming Board is thinking about requiring every patron to hand over a driver’s license or state-issued identification card for electronic scanning in order to check against a state list of “self-excluded” gamblers who have promised not to enter casinos. Currently, casino operators scan the IDs of people who appear to be younger than 30 before they can enter gaming areas.

* Groups offer tax, financial, indemnity services to entice FutureGen project

Illinois has dangled $80 million in financial incentives, including tax breaks, low-interest loans, reimbursement for worker training and $17 million in outright grants. That’s four times as much as Texas has offered.

Neither the FutureGen Alliance nor the Department of Energy has publicly asked for subsidies from states, and money might not make a difference. Ohio, which offered $164 million, didn’t make the first cut, and neither did Kentucky, at $90 million.

* Hilkevitch: Study due this month on long-discussed Chicago-area bypass

* Word on the Street: Peoria mayor has track record of endorsing losing candidate

* Clout Street: State GOP endorses Sauerberg for Senate against Durbin

* WurfWhile: The trouble seeing Bill Foster’s grassroots campaign

* Mark Pera’s new TV ad

* Peoria Pundit: Aaron Schock’s Website is up, glitches and all

* Sharpton says he’ll lobby against Olympics unless Chicago deals with police brutality

‘’Chicago does not symbolize a place that can hold an international event when it can’t deal with its local problems,'’ Sharpton told the Associated Press Sunday. ‘’They can’t say to the world, ‘Come to Chicago. We are an example; we are a beacon of light,’ when you’ve got systematic abuse (by police).'’

Sharpton said if Mayor Richard Daley and city officials don’t respond in a matter of weeks, he will travel to other countries with West Side church leaders and victims of alleged police abuse to persuade members of the IOC to not chose Chicago.

* Sharpton threatens Chicago on police brutality

* Press Release - Governor for a Day: Mike Messuck…

The Illinois Republican Party today announced that the winner of the special drawing, Governor for a Day, is Mike Messuck of DuPage County.

“I am excited to be chosen as Governor for a Day,” said Mr. Messuck. “If this is a governor’s typical work day, I cannot imagine this will be too difficult.”

Mr. Messuck, who sells cranes, grew up in Westchester, Illinois, and attended college at Bradley University in Peoria where he played hockey.

“Congratulations to Mr. Messuck on his win, I am sure he will enjoy his day” said ILGOP Chairman Andy McKenna. “Hopefully, this serves as a reminder to the people of Illinois that we need a change of leadership in Springfield.”

Mr. Messuck will begin the day at the hour of his choice. From then, he will be ushered to a salon for a haircut and massage.

Following his time at the salon, Mr. Messuck will be treated to a first-class lunch which will be followed by a tour of the City of Chicago including visits to the Sears Tower and other Chicago landmarks. Mr. Messuck will end his day by attending a Chicago Blackhawks game.

Final details as to the date Mr. Messuck will step up to the not-so-difficult task of being Governor for a Day are still in preparation.