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This just in…
Thursday, Apr 10, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* 12:53 pm - The House is now debating a proposed constitutional amendment that would double the state income tax rate for people who make more than $250,000 a year.
Read the proposal here. Listen or watch the debate here. Background here.
The proposal, if approved by both chambers and the voters, would raise $3 billion a year.
* 1:03 pm - The House Republicans demanded a “Committee of the Whole” to discuss the topic in as much depth as the governor’s Gross Receipts Tax was last year. A motion to adjourn until Monday so that a Committee of the Whole could be held was defeated on party lines.
* 1:56 pm - From the SJ-R…
Firefighters and a hazardous materials team have left the Howlett building after determining no dangerous substance was inside.
One floor of the building, at Second and Edwards streets, was evacuated about 11 a.m. today after a mailroom worker opened an envelope that smelled like gasoline and had a brown smudge on the paperwork inside.
Interesting that they only evacuated one floor.
*** 3:20 pm *** The proposed constitutional amendment failed to garner enough votes to send it to the Senate. There were 60 “No” votes. At least that’s what I think the number was. I was momentarily distracted. It did fail, however.
…Adding… The vote was 52-60
* 3:47 pm - The Tribbies have an update…
House Republican leader Tom Cross accused the Democrats of playing election-year politics and trying to distance themselves from past support of embattled Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
But Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) contended the “most troubling part” of the measure fails to break down specifics, such as which education programs would get more money and which school districts would come out ahead.
That last point would simply be a silly thing to do with a Constitutional amendment and Cross knows it. Not to say that this idea was great - it was fatally flawed on many levels - but that sort of detail should never be put into a Constitution.
* 4:05 pm - Barack Obama sat down with Chicago TV reporters after his speech in Gary. CLTV’s Carlos Hernandez Gomez has the first one posted online.
On a semi-related note… Um, dude?
* 4:29 pm - AP story on the failed con amend…
But Republicans say it’s unwise to raise taxes in a sour economy.
I don’t really buy that one, either. When the economy is strong, they say “Don’t raise taxes or you’ll kill the expansion.” When it’s weak, they say “Don’t raise taxes or you’ll make things worse.” Pick one.
Again, I’m not necessarily arguing for a tax hike here, but these circular arguments that are reported without challenge kinda bug me.
* 4:39 pm - The roll call for the con amend vote is now online. It appears that some conservative Dems, Dems with GOP opponents, and Blagojevich allies voted “No.” Two Democrats (Hamos and Washington) were absent.
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Question of the day
Thursday, Apr 10, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The setup…
A bill to lift the state’s long-standing prohibition on building new nuclear power plants has won approval in a state House committee and may soon get a floor vote. […]
The action surprised environmental groups, some of which adamantly oppose new nuclear plants. They had little warning of the committee hearing and vote.
[Rep. JoAnn Osmond, R-Antioch] said she moved to lift the moratorium on new plants — first approved in the 1980s following the near-disaster in 1979 at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania — after learning of the ban’s existence during recent discussions with Exelon about a fast-track plan to reclaim a shuttered plant in north suburban Zion. (Zion is in Ms. Osmond’s district.)
“Do I have someone on the side who’s ready to place a nuclear plant in Illinois? No,” Ms. Osmond says. “But I think we should look at it again. It’s been 30 years.”
She referenced recent moves by power generators in other parts of the country to consider building new reactors as the industry responds to heightened concerns about global warming. Coal-fired plants are major sources of carbon emissions tied to global climate change; nuclear plants are not.
* The question: Should the state’s moratorium on building new nuclear power plants be abolished? Explain.
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* This has been done before, but check the last paragraph for a glimpse into the bill’s future…
Illinoisans with kids in schools would get an unexpected state tax break before fall classes begin under a plan that unanimously passed the Senate Wednesday but appears to face long odds in the House.
The legislation would impose a nine-day period at the beginning of August where the state sales tax would be suspended on the purchase of school supplies, clothing, shoes or computers. […]
The $33 million measure passed the Senate 58-0 and now moves to the House, where it could face difficulty because there is no clear funding source to pay for the program at a time when the state can’t pay many of its bills on time.
* In other tax news…
Cook County would join the rest of the state in having annual property tax assessments under legislation the Illinois House passed Wednesday.
The measure is designed to take advantage of rapid fluctuations in the housing market, particularly when dropping values could lower property tax bills. Rep. Kevin Joyce (D-Chicago), the legislation’s sponsor, said the current three-year reassessment cycle is “not fair and equitable.” […]
The House approved the bill on a 78-32 vote, sending it to the Senate. But Cook County Assessor James Houlihan’s office questioned the price tag, saying it could cost $10 million to reassess the entire county by the measure’s proposed October deadline. The bill does not apply to commercial or industrial property.
Its fate in the Senate is uncertain, to say the least. Senate President Jones tends to ally with Speaker Madigan’s enemies, and Houlihan is high on Madigan’s enemies list.
* Also yesterday, a conservative group released its list of what it calls egregious pork projects…
llinois’ state budget for the current fiscal year is loaded with hundreds of millions of dollars in “wasteful spending,” two organizations said in releasing the 2008 Illinois Piglet Book on Wednesday.
* But much of what the group claims is “pork” really doesn’t fall under that traditional definition…
The report targeted projects such as Rural Medical Edcuation program at Rockford’s University of Illinois campus as wasteful spending.
The group’s “2008 Piglet Book” can be read here.
* More tax and spend stories…
* 4 H Kids Learn About Broken Promises as Governor Holds Back Funding
* Drivers on hook for old toll fines
* Texas ruling sheds light on strip-club tax
* Art Is Long, Money Is Short
* University advocates protest flat funding
* How is that extra sales tax being used?
* Sens. Hunter, Trotter Seek Reduction of Minorities in Illinois Prisons; Want Drug Laws Study, $10 Million for Treatment
* Pork Report for Illinois
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Jacobs: Blagojevich should resign
Thursday, Apr 10, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Forget recall, Sen. Mike Jacobs says, the governor should resign…
A state senator who has a history of confrontations with Gov. Rod Blagojevich called on the governor to resign Wednesday.
State Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, said revelations about corruption that are surfacing in the federal trial of one of the governor’s former top advisors are the main reason he wants Blagojevich to step down.
“No one has confidence in the man,” Jacobs said. […]
“State capitols are known for being full of hot air. That’s all this is,” said [a Blagojevich spokesperson].
* More…
Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, said he is troubled by testimony emerging from the Tony Rezko trial. Rezko, a top fundraiser and a close adviser to the governor, is on trial on federal corruption charges.
In addition, Blagojevich has been “derelict in running the state,” Jacobs said.
* On a similar vein, here’s a part of today’s Tribune editorial…
It has been almost a year—351 days, but who’s counting?—since a bill to raise ethics standards in state government whizzed out of the Illinois House on a 116-0 vote and landed with a thud in the Senate. More than three-quarters of the members of the Senate signed on as co-sponsors, a pretty good sign that the measure would pass there, too, given half a chance. But that’s half a chance more than Senate President Emil Jones has been willing to give it.
The “better bill” that Senate Democrats have been working on for almost a year finally squirted out of the Rules Committee on Wednesday… it looks an awful lot like the House bill. […]
Senate Democrats are painfully aware that their reluctance to challenge Jones on this and many other fronts makes them look like a flock of hapless sheeple. So it’s likely the Senate will dither awhile longer and then pass a slightly altered ethics bill on a lopsided vote and send it to the House, instead of to the governor’s desk.
At the end of the day we’ll have two bills and no law. If that’s how it shakes out, smart voters will hold the Senate Democrats accountable.
* More recall/ethics stuff…
* Blagojevich must act now on pardons
* Recall measure could drag down Quinn legacy
* Recall vote allowed Madigan to have it both ways
* Senate expected to bury election recall
21 Comments
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Schock opens leadership PAC
Thursday, Apr 10, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* After raising over $800,000 through mid-January and winning the primary with 71 percent of the vote, GOP congressional frontrunner Aaron Schock has decided he can raise even more and give it away to other congressional candidates…
Schock, the GOP nominee to succeed retiring seven-term Republican Ray LaHood , has formed a “leadership” political action committee (PAC) to help Republican candidates who also are seeking re-election to or membership in the upcoming 111th Congress.
It is hardly unusual for members of Congress to set up leadership PACs. These fundraising vehicles, which collect money from donors and mete it out to other candidates of the same party, once were mainly the province of top party leaders but have proliferated through the ranks in recent years.
But it is still extremely rare for a candidate who has not yet arrived in Congress to establish a leadership PAC — especially someone like Schock, who still is roughly seven months out from the general election that he expects to send him to Washington. Schock faces a viable though longshot challenger in Democratic farm broadcaster Colleen Callahan.
Schock, a 26-year-old state representative from Peoria touted by some Republicans as one of his party’s rising stars, has filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to form his leadership PAC, just two months after his victory in the Feb. 5 Republican primary. The committee, which has been dubbed the “GOP Generation Y Fund”, will give donations this fall to Republican candidates in close races for the U.S. House, said Steven Shearer, Schock’s campaign manager and the treasurer of the leadership PAC.
Barack Obama did the same thing a few years ago, and it has helped his presidential campaign a lot.
Schock may be presumptuous, but he ain’t dumb.
* Meanwhile, Hiram informs us of this interesting turn of events…
While the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has long targeted the 6th Congressional District where Democrat Jill Morgenthaler is battling one-term incumbent Republican Peter Roskam, the DCCC now is targeting the 13th District where Democrat Scott Harper faces incumbent Republican Judy Biggert.
Harper is not on the DCCC’s successful “Red to Blue” program, which would indicate serious financial support, but the Dems appear to be expanding the playing field a bit here.
* Harper press release…
Harper reported raising $134,115 this quarter with $103,463.54 cash on hand. By March 31 of this year, Harper had raised $247,410, which is more than any Democratic candidate in this district has ever raised for an entire cycle.
* More congressional stuff…
* Oak Lawn to hire lobbyist
* Pro-Life Women’s Political Group Kicks Off 2008 Election Effort
* Bush signs bill backed by Danny Davis to help ex-convicts
16 Comments
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Morning Shorts
Thursday, Apr 10, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning
* Cook County Commissioners Question Report on Patronage Hiring
* Stroger says county too ‘broke’ to hire HR workers
* Hiring monitor slams patronage
* Chicago Park District signs off on Children’s Museum project
* Pew on the Middle Class
* Study: Earners high, low think they belong to middle class
A new report by the Pew Research Center finds that this fiscal paradox is common in America. Most people, no matter where they fall on the economic spectrum, believe they’re in some way part of the middle class.
* Study: Reimbursement rate too low for foster parents
* Getting rid of ‘attractive nuisances’
* How is that extra sales tax being used?
State Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat, and sponsor of the follow-up legislation, said she felt it was important to have transparency when spending tax dollars. As lawmakers worked to stave off a transportation “doomsday” scenario, Garrett said she fielded concerns from the disabled community who felt they were forgotten.
* House turns down limit on handguns
* Equal Marriage for All
* Seniors protest possible ComEd hikes
* Goodbye to ‘Ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom’?
If Canadian National gets its way, the days of its locomotives sitting in the South Loop would soon end. Last fall, company announced it wanted to purchase the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad.
* Callum and Bryne to leave Appellate Court
* Are Newspapers Doomed? Do We Care?
* Focus Group Guides Moore Public Pronouncements
* Small Illinois town with no cell phone service to get tower
* Chicago isn’t Detroit
* Berwyn alderman faces ethics inquiry over newsletter addressed to residents’ pets
“I’d say that many of the people are laughing and saying it’s idiotic,” Pavlik said of Erickson’s pet-addressed newsletter. “Why would he send something to a dog?”
* Charges won’t be filed against ex- Lombard trustee who flashed badge
* Levine was not close to Rezko, lawyer says
* Levine: Gov had Rezko keep score
* Rezko lawyer goes back to the tapes
* Defense hits Levine’s memory over meeting with Rezko
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This just in… Rep. Davis apologizes to atheist
Thursday, Apr 10, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* 7:39 am - Atheist activist (and Green Party state Rep. candidate) Rob Sherman claims on his website that Rep. Monique Davis has apologized for her public tirade against him…
Rep. Davis said that she had been upset, earlier in the day, to learn that a twenty-second and twenty-third Chicago Public School student this school year had been shot to death that morning. She said that it was wrong for her to take out her anger, frustrations and emotions on me, and that she apologized to me.
I told her that her explanation was reasonable and that I forgave her. I also suggested that if she really was concerned about public school students dying needlessly, she should look into helping me to get passed legislation to get lap and shoulder seat belts on school busses that is pending in the House and in the Senate.
She thanked me for forgiving her and said that she would look into those two pieces of legislation.
Among other things, Rep. Davis said to the atheist: “You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.”
She also said about atheists and Sherman, “They want to fight prayer in school. I don’t see you fighting guns in school…. You will go to court to fight kids having an opportunity to be quiet for a minute, but damned if you’ll go to school to fight for an opportunity to keep guns out of their hands.”
Anyway, it’s good to see she apologized. Davis can certainly be a hothead, and she does get carried away, and what she said was out of line, but she isn’t nearly as bad as some of you claimed in comments yesterday.
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