That trust issue
Wednesday, Jul 9, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning
Posted by Kevin Fanning
* In a new effort to break the impasse over the capital bill, Former Speaker Dennis Hastert and SIU President Glenn Poshard sent a memo to legislators reassuring them that their are plenty of oversight provisions to watch over the Governor.
Most of them have already been discussed:
Oversight provisions outlined in the memo include a “lockbox” that ensures earmarked funds will be applied to the program, a formula for distributing spending equitably across the state and a limit on initial bonding authority of $2.5 billion. The four legislative caucuses—Republican and Democratic groups in the House and Senate—and the executive branch would be assured equal funding for discretionary projects, the memo added.
However, there was one new provision that stuck out…
“Finally, it cannot be ignored that if the General Assembly believes the capital program has not been implemented as expected or executed in good faith, then it is within the General Assembly’s power to refuse to re-appropriate authority for spending in future fiscal years.”
You can read the entire memo here.
* Speaker Madigan continues to get heat for his opposition to the bill, but as stated previously on this blog, he still has Mayor Daley in his corner:
“The speaker agrees with the need to try to put a claim on that federal money as quickly as possible. He’s said that for more than a year now,” said Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat. “The problem is, with the gambling bill, they’ve sent one the city of Chicago opposes.”
As long as he has that ace up his sleeve, it is sure to be an uphill battle for the Governor.
* John Patterson also raises an interesting point that has been left out of recent stories:
Hastert also previously criticized Blagojevich’s priorities regarding the federal highway dollars, suggesting that money is already available.
Asked about that Tuesday, Hastert said it never came up in recent meetings with legislative leaders and the Blagojevich administration and everyone “acquiesced” to moving forward with a gambling-backed construction plan.
* Hastert and Poshard can continue to send memos to legislators and hold press conferences on the capital plan, but it is doubtful that it will change much. At the end of the day, it always comes back to that little trust thing…
Blagojevich set up the stalemate by engendering great mistrust, repeatedly going around the legislative process and constantly introducing big, headline-grabbing ideas that amounted to little.
* Related….
* Analysis: What’s at stake in Illinois’ budget battle?
* State Budget talks: ‘a play in two or three acts‘ or 3-ring circus?
* Get to work, for law’s sake
* PO: Balance IL Budget by Increasing Tax Fairness
* Britt: Cartoon about legislative pests
* Governor ready to put promises in writing on construction plan
* Blagojevich Wants Lawmakers to Pass Construction Bill
* Illinois’ special session looks like $2 billion poker game
* For better or worse
- Bones McCoy - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 10:08 am:
Your perfect sound track for the Special Session:
http://digg.com/comedy/Hilarious_What_fight_scenes_used_to_be_like
- Cassandra - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 10:12 am:
Despite all the hype, it looks as though Blago/Emil will have to wait a while longer for all those billions to fall off the construction bill truck.
Maybe next year.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 10:15 am:
None of the propsed safe guards keep the governor from selling off high dollar construction contracts for campaign donations. The requirments that funds be released proportionaly have no real teeth. What hapopens if he releases the fund disproportionaly? once he has paid out what he wants to pay out threatening to pull the left over money has little substance.
Alos if Poshard truly wants to capture the fed match, lets pass a bare bones capital plan which only spends enough to capture the match…. after all we are 2 bill in the hole already, aren’t we?
As for bonding authority, Mr. Poshard this is just a fancy way of saying we are borrowing money toady that we expect the future to pay for. It seems the country is in a debt crisis already because too many people borrow from the future and then cant cover the bill when the future arrives. How is saddling the States future with greater debt really going to benefit us? We have to pay bonds back!! we are just pushing debt to the future so that we will have an even bigger finacial crisis.
How about this Mr. Poshard, we only spend money the State has. If we don;t have 34Bil (technically we are supposedly at Negative 2 bill) then perhaps a capital bill that spends 34 Bill is a very bad idea.
Take the dedicated road fund money, spend what we have on hand for captal projects, and lets stop trying to strap the future with crushing debt.
- Kevin Fanning - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 10:24 am:
Bones that clip is ridiculously funny.
- MOON - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 10:31 am:
The real problem with the Capital Bill is the source of funding.If the Lotto is sold what would be the source of revenue to make up for the this?
Nothing I know of has been said to deal with this problem.
If you are going to sell/lease assets to gain a one time infusion of cash it should be the tollroad system. I think the tolls collected go strictly for maintenance and improvement of this system. Thus ,any sale or lease would require the new owners to take on this burden of ownership. Therefore the State would not loose any sources of revenue for education, etc.
- jj - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 10:42 am:
The trust thing is overblown - food for the reporters like you to dig up and spit out.
Legislators may not like or trust the Governor, but they know that is not a reason in and of itself to be against a capital bill.
But it is good feed!
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 10:44 am:
==Blagojevich set up the stalemate by engendering great mistrust, repeatedly going around the legislative process and constantly introducing big, headline-grabbing ideas that amounted to little. ==
This is absolutely true. The question we face now is, “how does Blagojevich fix this so that we can move forward?”
When I say the ball is in Blagojevich’s corner, and that he is to blame for the current crisis we face - this is one of the reasons I am saying this. The Governor has not attempted to mend his own self-inflicted wounds with the rest of Illinois government. No only did he generate digust and anger among legislators, he generated disgust and anger among most civil servants. Blagojevich has finger-pointed and blamed everyone else in government for so long I do not see a way for him to suddenly fix the damage he created. By focusing on short term political gags, he had blown any long term political leverage he needs now. He painted himself into his own corner and now few wish to help him.
- Kevin Fanning - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 10:46 am:
==The trust thing is overblown - food for the reporters like you to dig up and spit out.
Legislators may not like or trust the Governor, but they know that is not a reason in and of itself to be against a capital bil===
Talk to a state legislator and ask them if they trust the Governor. It’s hard to trust him if you’re constantly worried about having a state agency moved out of your district or possibly a prison closed if you don’t vote his way.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 10:58 am:
If what Hastert says is true, why not grab that fed money now? I’m a little in the dark as to what he’s referring.
- Fan of the Game - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 11:03 am:
===The trust thing is overblown - food for the reporters like you to dig up and spit out.===
Not really. Legislators want the money they appropriate to be spent on the projects they have identified. When Gov. Blagojevich refuses to release funds or when he tries to divert funds from their intended purpose, he creates distrust among the members of the GA.
If I were a legislator, I would be extremely hesitant to allow the governor any wiggle room when it came to expenditures.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 11:06 am:
Word-
In order to fully leverage the bonding authority that the state Motor Fuel Tax affords, the $500 to $700 million of annual diversions from the Road Fund would probably need to be addressed. Conversely, the windfall in state sales tax revenue on $4 gasoline could similarly be directed to a capital program. If you can fix the hole that either or both of these would blow in the budget, you’d probably have your answer.
- Muskrat - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 11:17 am:
Why stop at the lottery? Why not just sell off ALL the state’s income streams? How many pork-barrel road projects could we pay for by selling off the income tax? Argghhhhhhhhh.
(At a minimum, if you’re going to sell off the lottery, auction it with serious anti-collusion features. Don’t let some pols give it away to friends at a bogus price.)
- anon - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 11:23 am:
The GA website indicates that the House convenes at 1:00 pm. today. It also indicates that the Senate is in session today but gives no time for convening. Going to the link for the Senate schedule, it says that the Senate is in session today but no daily calendar is avaailable. So will the Senate convene today? If not, is that body violating the Governor’s recent proclamation?
- DumberThanYou Think - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 12:31 pm:
Ask the school kids in Carterville how much trust they have with Blagoof…and the people in Lincoln…and Springfield….and on and on.
- DumberThanYou Think - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 12:36 pm:
p.s. Maybe they grab the Carterville $$$ to fix the mansion a.c.!
- Pot calling kettle - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 1:02 pm:
No amount of legislative language can solve the trust problem, because the gov. has ignored such language in the past. Remember the JCAR; he signed off on strengthening their authority, then blew them off. So all this talk about lock boxes and written guarantees is just warm wind blowing through the capitol, with Rod, it means nothing.
- downsouth - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 2:11 pm:
Rod is mistrusted by most everyone but, there is a lot of mistrust to go around. Who can forget Emil stating that he needs food stamps? Then there is Mike and his “don’t tell anyone this idea comes from me” memo.
How can we the citizens and taxpayers of Illinois trust that our elected officials have the good of anyone but themselves in mind? I’m so tired of all of the bickering and backstabbing in Springfield and there is noone that I can trust to be the better man and work for a solution. Hey Rich, why don’t you run?
- Blago's fortune cookie for today - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 2:25 pm:
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
- Warren Buffett
“Reputation is character minus what you’ve been caught doing.”
-Michael Lapoce
“The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.”
-Socrates
“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re GOING to do”
-Henry Ford
“Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation, for it is better to be alone than in bad company”
-George Washington
“A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eye on the spot where the crack was.”
-Joseph Hall
Thus endeth the lesson re: trusting Blago on the budget
- Phineas J. Whoopee - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 3:56 pm:
The Governors proposed funding of the capital bill is wacky so how can anyone be expected to vote for it. Selling Lotteries, expanding gambling and other crack pot schemes are designed to spend like drunken sailors. They’re nuts.
- steve schnorf - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 5:03 pm:
Am I missing something. I would have to assume from most of the comments here that one or more of the leaders has proposed a better way of funding a capital program, and the Governor has rejected it. Did I miss that?
Remember, no matter how much you don’t like it, it’s the only proposal on the table.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 5:04 pm:
===and the Governor has rejected it. Did I miss that?===
Yes, you did.
- A Citizen - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 5:41 pm:
Chris Brit and his cartoons are sophomoric and usually cheap shots. he is way over rated.
- Arthur Andersen - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 6:00 pm:
Steve, AA may have missed it, too..
- Aesop - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 6:18 pm:
Maybe Rod should read the fable about the man who killed the goose that laid golden eggs before he leases the lottery.
- Disgusted - Wednesday, Jul 9, 08 @ 10:26 pm:
Once again, I wonder why the whole GA doesn’t rise up and shove this man into a corner and give him the talking to he needs. He is ruining this state at exponential speed. What are they afraid of? Don’t they know that they will have the undying gratitude of the voters and tax-payers of this state if they at least show some gumption and tell him what he really is. Show some guts, folks. If you take the money and run, the voters will remember. The economy is killing us and we’re MAD!!! You WILL become our scapegoats if you don’t act in the best interests of this state and its residents.
- xarmydoc - Thursday, Jul 10, 08 @ 8:52 am:
Impeach this lameduck Governor. He is done. The feds are interviewing him, Rezko will get the same offer as Ata, and it won’t be long before Mike Madigan goes public with his desire to get his little girl elected as Gov. in Illinois. Without Madigan on his side, or at least the ability to negotiate with him, Blago is in over his head. He can’t beat Madigan because Blago isn’t nearly as intelligent as Mike and he doesn’t have the party support he needs to get ANYTHING done. His only hope is Obama getting into the White House and appointing himself to finish Barack’s term in Washington. But with any luck he will be sharing a cell with George Ryan very soon. Goodnight Guvnah.