* 3:02 pm - I told subscribers about this development this morning. I still can’t understand how the Chicago media missed the lawsuit’s filing, which was last Friday…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s ongoing power struggle with state lawmakers has heated up again with a lawsuit.
The lawsuit filed last week by the governor’s Department of Healthcare and Family Services against Secretary of State Jesse White is aimed at authorizing his health care expansion without legislative approval.
The lawsuit aims to force White to publish rules allowing expansion of the state’s FamilyCare program for Illinois residents who can’t afford private insurance.
The governor has been trying for months without success to persuade lawmakers to pay for the expansion of the program. Twice, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules has turned the governor down.
Download the entire lawsuit by clicking here.
* 3:05 pm - The House showed its eagerness to pass an amendment to the state Constitution today on recalling elected officials, but it’s highly doubtful this will ever see the light of day in the Senate….
In an important test vote, the House advanced legislation Wednesday that would allow voters to dump the governor and other statewide office-holders through recall petitions.
Those who want to give the public a chance to recall the governor would have to get signatures from at least 12 percent of the registered voters who cast votes for that office in the prior election. If they got enough signatures, a special election would be held asking voters if the office-holder should be removed and who the successor should be.
State lawmakers also could be removed, but a successful recall would require signatures from at least 20 percent of voters.
Judges were originally included in the proposed constitutional amendment, but they were removed under the amendment that passed Wednesday by a vote of 80-25, with two lawmakers voting present. Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock), chief sponsor of the legislation, said he took the judges out to reduce chances that a state judge would someday strike down the amendment as unconstitutional if it becomes law.
* 3:09 pm - Mayor Daley threatened a property tax increase today unless the state comes up with another $100 million for Chicago schools. Gov. Blagojevich has proposed an $80 million hike for the city’s schools…
“We don’t want to raise property taxes, we want to avoid that. I want to make it clear, the Board of Education is forced to raise property taxes this year it will be because Springfield forced them to do that,” Daley said at a news conference.
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Former state employee hits the jackpot…kind of
Wednesday, Apr 2, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning
* Yesterday Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias held a press conference to announce this crazy story:
A former state administrator was charged Tuesday with stealing $750,000 from the state treasury, in part to pay college bills, purchase a boat and go on a cruise.
Wow. I’ve heard of state employees receiving generous pension benefits, but she really hit the jackpot. Kirby, who retired from the state in 2006 before Giannoulias took office, was a 33-year employee there, overseeing a unit that processed state deposits.
A federal grand jury in the state capital indicted Kirby on charges of wire fraud and money laundering:
“This indictment represents a stunning disregard for the pubic trust and an appalling display of fraud by someone who was supposed to be responsible for protecting taxpayers’ dollars,” said Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, whose office uncovered the alleged wrongdoing, which predated his tenure.
* And how exactly did her master plan work?
In 2005, Kirby — a $67,000-a-year state worker — allegedly transferred $750,000 in government funds to a personal bank account she had established using her elderly mother’s address.
To cover that transfer, Kirby allegedly created paperwork falsifying the return of a $263,408 tax refund owed to a Downstate Pekin hospital. Later, in 2006, she allegedly took a generic deposit slip from the treasurer’s office and moved the remaining $486,591 from her own bank account back into the treasury.
Prosecutors alleged the net loss to state taxpayers was $263,408, money that she allegedly spent on a boat, a truck, a camper, a vacation to Orlando, a cruise, college tuition and a mortgage payment. The feds are now seeking the return of those funds.
* When interviewed, former Treasurer Topinka said “I guess it is conceivable that she could do this without anyone in the office knowing it. I was personally shocked by it, that it happened at all. But since it did, the state should throw the book at her as that kind of stealing is untenable. Makes me sick.”
If convicted on all counts, Kirby could be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Giannoulias said his office has created safeguards to prevent similar problems, including multiple layers of review and backup documentation before such transfers are authorized.
* This is another job well done by the Treasurer, and is certain to please many tax payers. Glad to see that someone is doing their job…
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Apr 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The setup…
20 Chicago public school students have been fatally shot so far this school year — seven in March alone — compared with 24 the year before, said spokesman Mike Vaughn.
* And…
According to data provided by officials from the U.S. Department of Justice, Chicago school officials are not alone in battling this surge in youth violence. The department cited the most recent U.S. Census Bureau statistics that reveal homicide is now ranked among the top three leading causes of childhood mortality, accounting for one out of 23 deaths of children and youth younger than 18 years of age.
* The question: What is the appropriate government response?
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Wrigley thoughts
Wednesday, Apr 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Something occurred to me during the Senate Appropriations Committee meeting yesterday. Perri Irmer, who runs the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority said the state would be a good steward for Wrigley Field and pointed out how Tribune Co. had allowed the stadium to fall into ruin.
Considering the state of our roads, schools, budget, etc., I’m not so sure the state would be such a great steward of that park, but she was right about Mother Tribune.
The company has added seats, cut lucrative deals with neighboring businesses, sold out just about every game, but they haven’t bothered to fix the basic infrastructure of their stadium - which is at the very heart of the franchise. No Wrigley, no Cub Mania. Yet the Trib has shamefully allowed the place to become a dangerous dump.
So, now the state is asked to step in and do what Tribune Co. would not. Fix the place up. God only knows how prospective private owners might react when they figure out the place is about to fall down around their ears. You can bet that crossed Sam Zell’s mind as he plotted to sell the team.
Zell himself didn’t allow the park to deteriorate, but nobody forced him to buy the Tribune. And now we’re supposed to be left with this atrocity of a building.
Perfect.
* When the Tribune wanted to put lights at Wrigley it ran editorials threatening politicians who would dare vote against its interests. We can probably expect the same this time around as the deal grows closer, but yesterday’s hearing revealed a whole lot of reluctance and downright hostility to this idea. Here are some quotes from a Daily Herald story..
“It is stunning to me that we are dithering around with this issue, wasting one second of time, talent that we have in the state that we could put anywhere else,” said Sen. Christine Radogno, a Lemont Republican, during hearings at the Capitol. […]
“We have to pay pensions — that’s what we have to do. We have to pay schools — that’s what we have to do and we have to have pay our Medicaid bill,” [Sen. James Meeks] said. “And then to go on and find something that we don’t even have to do, that’s just what alarms me.”
There was more, but you get the idea.
* The Tribune’s story today was entitled “Getting to Wrigley sale may take lots of pitching.” They’re gonna need a whole lot more than that to sell this turkey.
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* What a freaking mess…
As Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration was steering $1 million to a private, family-run school, state and federal authorities were trying to collect thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes from the school, the Tribune has found.
That was just one of many issues Loop Lab School managed to sidestep.
Even though Blagojevich said his administration made a “bureaucratic mistake” in giving the money to the school, a number of potential roadblocks were cleared to make the grant possible: The governor gave a rare and swift pardon to the school’s director, a convicted felon; the school for the first time in its 25-year history registered as a charitable organization with the state; and the school filed three years’ worth of required state tax documents in one day.
And the kicker…
Loop Lab School had hoped to move into its space in fall 2007. But the city stopped all interior work on the property when inspectors found the contractor did not have required approvals and permits. Now, the building is in foreclosure and may soon be taken over by new owners.
Rep. Jack Franks is holding a hearing on the issue today, but he hasn’t been getting much cooperation from the administration. He does expect some adminstration officials to testify, however.
* Speaking of schools, it’s stuff like this that make you understand why the House passed a bill yesterday to revamp the Illinois State Board of Education. From a press release…
State Representative John Fritchey (D-Chicago) is calling upon Governor Rod Blagojevich to release almost one-half million dollars in funding which has been promised to local Chicago schools. The FY08 budget, passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor after an amendatory veto, included funding for 14 elementary schools and 3 high schools in Rep. Fritchey’s district totaling $495,000. […]
The school grants were not among the items vetoed. In spite of this fact, the Illinois State Board of Education, at the direction of the Governor’s office, has refused to release the funding for over eight months.
“These are dollars specifically earmarked for books and computers for school kids, at schools in the Governor’s backyard no less,” said Fritchey, in whose district Blagojevich also resides. “Yet these students and these schools are falling victim to the Governor’s political agenda. The situation is made even worse when you look at some of the questionable programs for which budgeted dollars have been released. It is pure hypocrisy for the Governor to claim a commitment to education while holding hostage money for books and computers”
Fritchey and the governor have been on the extreme outs for years.
* Also, I’m told that Rep. John Bradley’s district got stiffed bigtime by the guv. Bradley and Blagojevich are also enemies.
* BB (Before Blagojevich), the Board of Ed was a pretty independent body. Blagojevich convinced the General Assembly to let him take control, and he has used it as a parking place for political appointees and forced it to bow to his bidding. The Board won’t challenge the governor on school funding, even this year when Blagojevich’s funding proposal represented the smallest increase of his entire time in office.
* Yesterday, the House signaled that it has had enough…
The Illinois House has approved a plan to reduce the governor’s influence over the State Board of Education.
The measure would toss out the current board members, who were appointed by Governor Rod Blagojevich. Then a special panel would nominate 27 possible new board members for the governor to choose from.
The House approved the bill 86-21 Tuesday. It now goes to the state Senate.
Much of the vote was simply based on ill will towards the governor. Some of the opponents were Blagojevich allies, but others (including House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie - no Blagojevich fan) made solid arguments that the bill was the wrong move to make.
Check out the bill yourself.
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Gimme a break
Wednesday, Apr 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Right up front let me say that I don’t approve of forcing public employees to work campaigns in order to get promotions, or to get hired in the first place. But this is just goofy…
Chicago aldermen ridiculed and condemned a federal hiring monitor on Friday for awarding $75,000 to the son of the City Council’s elder statesman as compensation for a 2003 aldermanic election that was stacked against him.
Jay Stone, son of Ald. Bernard Stone (50th), got one of the biggest chunks of a $12 million fund created to compensate victims of City Hall’s rigged hiring system.
Federal monitor Noelle Brennan believed Stone’s claim that he didn’t stand a chance against then-Ald. Ted Matlak (32nd) because Matlak had the support of a political army of city workers commanded on city time by now-convicted former First Deputy Water Commissioner Donald Tomczak.
* Sure the odds were stacked against him, but Jay Stone raised just $14,501.40 for that campaign. Did the fact that he was running against the Machine hurt his fundraising? Most probably. But his father is an alderman, for crying out loud, and he couldn’t even get the old man’s support.
Matlak won that 2003 race with 74 percent of the vote. It was hardly competitive. In contrast, four years earlier Matlak only took 54 percent against a much better candidate, Lorna Brett. And, remember, Matlak lost last year, despite bigtime backing from Mayor Daley’s organization.
Yet, Jay Stone gets 75 large. Go figure.
* Here’s Stone’s react…
“It’s not about compensating me for losing an election,” Stone said. “It’s compensating me for political discrimination.”
Cry me a river. I’d rather see employees who were forced to work for Matlak get those cash awards than worthless candidates like Stone. I mean, his daddy is an alderman, so he’s grown up with Chicago politics and that’s the best he can do? C’mon.
* Here’s Brennan’s response to the uproar…
“The compensation isn’t addressing the purported injury that [Stone] should have won. That’s not the issue. The issue is whether or not there were patronage practices in use against him….He submitted persuasive evidence that there were,” Brennan said.
If that’s the case, then a whole lot of other candidates should be getting checks. Where would that end?
* All that being said, Mayor Daley’s comments were just plain ridiculous…
“I guess all the candidates that lost will blame the unions and file a complaint against the unions for stacking it against them, taking political money and taking people off of jobs, so I think it’s silly to tell you the truth.”
* SEIU responds…
“It shows you the level of corruption that has existed in this city that people can’t tell the difference between a campaign volunteer and a political worker,” Morrison said. “Patronage workers are not volunteers—it is a requisite of their public job to do political work.”
Morrison said the only things SEIU offered as inducement for campaign help were “better government, a T-shirt and some pizza.”
Exactly.
But Brennan needs to find another line of work if this is the way she’s gonna run things.
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Morning shorts
Wednesday, Apr 2, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning
* Forum Series: “Should Illinois Citizens Call a Constitutional Convention?”
* Can a Constitutional Convention Fix Illinois’ Broken Government?
* Circuit Court Clerk Gets Chauffeur at Taxpayer Expense
* Accountability? Not in Daley’s government
Christopher Kozicki was the city official who rigged the test scores to make sure that young Andy got the job. Kozicki admitted to that in federal court in the trial of Daley patronage chief Robert Sorich and three others accused of all manner of illegal patronage hiring.
* Candidate’s appearance at event in question
* Controversy In Race For Cook Co. State’s Attorney
* 6 groups want to purchase Midway Airport
Six teams — one including some of the same players who paid $1.82 billion to lease the Chicago Skyway — will vie for the right to make Midway Airport the nation’s first privately-run commercial airport.
* Meeting Ron Huberman
* More clergy visits sought for those awaiting deportation
Often incarcerated for weeks before their cases reach court, immigrant detainees are experiencing severe depression and anxiety, with many unsure about the fates of their families, advocates said at a Tuesday news conference to promote state legislation that would grant religious workers greater access to those inmates in Illinois.
* Republicans stress unity at Lincoln Day Dinner
* No fooling: Sales tax increase kicks in
* House tries upping penalties on late payments from state
* Rep Paul Froehlich On County Secession Bills SB2591 And HB6307
* Illinois Senate in media’s corner
The Illinois Senate overwhelmingly sided with the state’s newspaper industry Tuesday in saying high school sports officials cannot dictate what happens with pictures taken at annual championship tournaments.
* Lawmakers look ahead to session
* Law targets adults who give kids guns
Hoping to target gang actions where adults use children to commit crimes, state Rep. Edward Acevedo wants adults responsible for the juvenile’s access to a firearm to also be charged with murder, which could carry significantly more prison time.
* Why the taxman may be visiting strip clubs
* House Democrats Shouldn’t Take Bait
* Million Dollar Blagojevich
* On tape: No way around clout
“I suggested that Mr. Rosenberg be given a choice,” Levine said he told Kelly and Rezko. “He either pay a finder’s fee or he could raise $1.5 million for the governor’s campaign.”
* Gavel-to-Gavel: ‘If you screw us, we’re gonna cut you’
* Money woes $$$$ . . .
Rumble is President Bush’s big bucks donors have been holding back the cash from GOP presidential contender John McCain because they want him to pick conservative Mitt Romney as his veepmate.
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