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*** 3:57 pm *** Just in time for a special session, constant Blagojevich critic Rep. Jack Franks has sent out a brand new press release…
Statement from Rep. Franks, “The Legislature Should Consider Convening a Committee to Investigate Evidence for Articles of Impeachment against the Governor”
For decades, Illinois governors have been making hard choices when it comes to the state budget. The difference between our current governor and his predecessors is his attitude toward the process. This is all a game to Blagojevich. He refuses to do his job and has now opened the door for impeachment.
Today, the Governor called for a July 9th special session for the General Assembly to return to Springfield to vote for initiatives that have already failed in the Legislature. He made no changes to his proposals which failed so miserably last year but now expects the General Assembly to come back for another overtime session, where a much larger three-fifth’s majority is required, to vote on the same exact measures.
The Governor’s proposal to sell or lease the Illinois lottery failed by a whopping 7 to 97 vote in the Illinois House last year. The bill failed because it is not sound public policy to lease a $30 billion revenue generating asset for a one-time $7 billion dollar payout. We must question the Governor’s motives for pushing the lottery leasing scheme so adamantly. He continues to advocate for the privatization of the state lottery but refuses to sign pay-to-play legislation that would bar his cronies from enriching themselves from the sale or lease of state assets.
Blagojevich also continues to pressure legislators to pass a capital bill but has made no effort to make any serious proposal. The Governor changed his estimate for the cost of a capital bill from $27 billion to $34 billion in the span of one week. He refuses to give a line-itemed account of what the $34 billion would be spent on. Essentially, the Governor is asking the state to write him a $34 billion blank check. With his long history of using state money to line the pockets of his supporters, can we really trust Blagojevich to administer a capital program without any accountability?
Instead of working on a compromise that will create real solutions for Illinois citizens, the Governor is instead trying to scare Illinois families and state workers. He has repeatedly threatened shut downs and halted some important projects that provide thousands of Illinoisans with jobs. The Governor is using front-line workers who provide vital services throughout the state as a human shield to guard him from compromise. The projected budget shortfall for this year is only about 2.5% of the total budget. Governors before him have made tough choices when it came to the budget. This Governor is squandering a perfect opportunity to cut wasteful spending.
During these hard economic times, the Governor has threatened to put at risk Illinois front-line workers, the disabled, our schools and social service providers. The Governor makes so many threats because he cannot lead. Blagojevich is incapable of doing his job. These special sessions are a game to the Governor. I will ask Speaker Madigan today to create a committee to investigate whether there is enough evidence to proceed with articles of impeachment against Governor Blagojevich.
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* 10:52 am - As of yesterday, the governor was planning to call the General Assembly back next week for a special session. Plans often change up there on the 16th Floor, so this is not a sure thing yet, but that’s the word handed down from on-high as of now.
Kevin will be at the governor’s noon press conference, so we’ll know more then.
* 12:09 pm - Reporters were led into a conference room a few minutes ago, so the presser should be starting within the half hour.
*** 12:17 pm *** From the press release…
On July 9th, the governor will convene a special session of the General Assembly to address the revenue bills necessary to balance the budget, including the Illinois Works capital plan which will put 600,000 Illinoisans to work, and to pass a fund transfer legisltion that would free up $530 million…
*** 12:21 pm *** More from the release…
If the House does not act on July 9th, the governor will issue a second proclamation for July 10 to take action on any budget balancing steps he must take…
*** 12:26 pm *** No mention was made of the pension obligation bond. Interesting.
*** 12:29 pm *** Quotes from governor during presser…
“I want to reiterate my call to the House Democratic leadership to be straight with the public on a tax increase…
“The House shouldn’t do what the Cook County Board did - get elected and then sock it to the public with a tax increase…
“I call on Speaker Madigan to pledge to the public that he won’t raise income taxes.”
*** 12:40 pm *** Press conference is over. More info in a bit.
*** 12:42 pm *** The full press release can be viewed by clicking here.
*** 12:47 pm *** The reason given for not including the pension obligation bond was that the governor’s office called a couple of dozen House members who said they could support the capital bill and the fund transfers, but not the pension proposal. But that was worth a big bunch of money, so this is quite a bit of grandstanding because his “new” budget has an even bigger hole.
*** 2:57 pm *** The governor told reporters that he will keep Amtrak funding level with last fiscal year’s funding instead of slashing its entire appropriation, which was originally threatened.
Instead, he said, elected officials’ budgets (he hinted at the Secretary of State’s budget) would be cut.
*** 3:20 pm *** From the Sun-Times…
“We’ll be in Springfield next week. But the defects in the revenue bills are still the defects. I don’t know there’s any more support for this stuff than there was,” Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said.
Blagojevich also warned voters that Madigan might be setting up the passage of a statewide income-tax increase after the November election or early next year. […]
Brown, Madigan’s spokesman, responded that House Democrats ruled out an income-tax hike “a long time ago.”
The governor also wants the House and Senate to address a “drafting error” in one of the budget bills awaiting his approval that caused the administration to idle 39 ongoing projects throughout the state.
Brown disputed that the language was inserted in error and actually was intended “to prevent the administration from spending out of lump sums for projects that hadn’t been authorized.”
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Starving the enemy
Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I hate stories like this…
The Blagojevich administration has halted work on 39 construction projects across the state, saying the newly passed budget for the fiscal year that began Tuesday contains language prohibiting them from moving forward.
Rep. Gary Hannig, the Litchfield Democrat who helped draft the budget, said the administration is misreading the bill.
“I think they are trying to create a crisis again where none exists,” Hannig said.
On Tuesday, the Capital Development Board, which oversees Illinois’ non-road construction, began issuing stop-work orders on projects that were undertaken after Aug. 31, 2007. The agency said language contained in a 475-page budget bill passed by the Legislature at the end of May prohibits the projects from proceeding and prohibits the state from spending money on them.
“It would be unfair for us to ask contractors to continue working if we cannot guarantee if or when they are going to be paid,” said CDB spokesman Dave Blanchette. “Our legal experts have reviewed the language and have determined that it is fairly cut and dried.”
Blanchette said the work will stay on hold until the General Assembly changes the language. He said lawyers have reviewed the bill and determined that Gov. Rod Blagojevich doesn’t have the authority to change it on his own using his amendatory veto powers.
What we get from that piece is a classic “He said, she said” argument devoid of actual facts.
* Here’s the language in question…
No monies may be expended from any appropriation or reappropriation under any section of this Article 48 unless a grant or contractual agreement for the expenditure was agreed to in writing prior to August 31, 2007. The Comptroller shall not approve the expenditure until he or she receives a copy of that signed grant or contractual agreement.
* The projects that the Capital Development Board says have to be halted can be found at this link. The CDB claims that the budget bill removes their spending authority on those projects. That is correct.
If you check the language of the appropriations and reappropriations for Fiscal Year ‘08, which just ended, you’ll see that CDB was given lump-sum authority to spend reappropriated money. You can find the authorization to spend the cash on page 887 section 240, page 888 sections 247 & 250, page 889 sections 255 & 260 and page 890 section 265.
* However, this year the House Democrats decided that they wanted to force the administration to spend money only on projects that appear on a previous budget’s appropriations list and were never begun. So, they clamped down on all spending from lump-sum appropriations that weren’t previously agreed.
The CDB’s projects that were just suspended weren’t negotiated with the General Assembly, and as a high-level House Dem just told me, “that’s the chance they took.”
* The Senate Democrats now apparently support giving the Capital Development Board the authority to spend money on those halted projects, but the House Dems are opposed.
Bottom line: More gridlock.
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’m still waiting on some call-backs on those other stories, so I figured I might as well do the QOTD while I try to piece everything together.
As Aaron Chambers reported on his blog this week, the Illinois State Bar Association voted over the weekend to go on record as supporting the abolition of the state’s death penalty…
After quoting from the dissent of retired Illinois Supreme Court Justice Moses Harrison, newly-installed ISBA president Jack C. Carey of Belleville, said, “The application of the death penalty in Illinois has been demonstrated to be flawed beyond any doubt. Our position is that the death penalty is not fixable and should be discontinued. To do otherwise would invite the grossest miscarriage of justice imaginable, the death of an innocent person.”
* Question: Should Illinois abolish the death penalty? Explain fully, please. Thanks.
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Will they keep him or dump him?
Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’m not so sure about this…
There is every indication that Todd Stroger, miraculously installed by ward bosses following his father’s illness, will run for a second term in 2010.
There is every reason to believe that Mayor Daley and House Speaker Michael Madigan are already helping him lay the groundwork, raise the cash and turn out the vote. After all, didn’t Madigan engineer moving the Illinois primary to Feb. 2? That wasn’t to help Barack Obama in this year’s presidential contests. C’mon. That was to make sure that the snow, sleet and blizzard season could ensure a depressed turnout in future elections leaving the outcome in the hands of the regulars (read patronage workers) who always turn out. Their jobs depend on it. And Madigan, the mayor and the mayor’s county commissioner brother, John, all know that. Todd Stroger is a wholly owned subsidiary of their interests.
* Carol Marin has a valid point about the February primary. But the 2010 election is still a long way away, and Stroger’s numbers are so horrible in Cook County, including among Democrats, that the powers that be may very well pull the plug. In fact, John Daley is already helping to kick-start the process…
In a surprisingly lopsided vote, the Cook County Board voted Tuesday to curtail President Todd Stroger’s discretionary spending ability, restoring his unsupervised contracting ability to the previous level of $25,000 for professional service contracts.
That had been the limit for years before commissioners agreed to raise it to $100,000 last year in exchange for a quarterly report detailing where the money was going.
John Daley moved for the proposal’s passage. The only “No” vote was Commissioner Bill Beavers, who represents Stroger’s home district. We can probably expect more of this sort of thing.
The tax hikes, the blatant patronage hiring and the enormous amount of mistakes by Stroger himself and his press staff have destroyed his credibility. The Machine always knows how to save itself, and that could very well mean dumping Stroger next time around for somebody else.
* Related…
* Tax hike not sitting well
* GOP candidates speak out against nation’s highest county sales tax
* Another Cook County Tax Increase Coming?
* Shoppers bypass Cook Co. to avoid tax hike
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Sun-Times: Pass these four gun laws
Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Sun-Times editorial today suggests passing four federal gun control laws in response to the recent US Supreme Court ruling…
• • The gun show loophole: Congress needs to close a legal loophole in many states that allows people at gun shows or flea markets to peddle their weapons without conducting background checks on potential buyers. Illinois has closed the loophole partly, but not entirely. In this state, gun show vendors must do background checks, but a person who simply sells a gun to a guy in the neighborhood or to someone answering an ad does not have to do a background check. […]
• • Gun store employee background checks: Of course, felons can’t have guns. But right now, there’s no federal requirement that gun dealers perform felony background checks on their employees — a step that even a gun industry association endorses. […]
• • One gun a month: Illinois lawmakers repeatedly have rejected proposals to limit gun sales to one a month per person. Putting aside fears of creeping over-regulation, there’s just no excuse for rejecting such a limit. The proposed limit is aimed at gun traffickers who buy multiple weapons and resell them to criminals.
• • Lower the volume: State lawmakers also have refused to ban the sale of high-capacity magazines — ones that hold more than 10 rounds.
Such a ban would do nothing to prohibit a homeowner from defending himself against a burglar.
Thoughts?
* Related…
* Victims, survivors show need for more gun control
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Note to readers and a heads up
Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
I’m trying to figure out a couple of complicated posts right now, so blogging will be delayed while I await some return calls. Patience, please.
ADDING… The governor is having a media availability at noon in Chicago. We’ll have coverage here.
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Criminalizing politics?
Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The full appellate bench voted 8-2 yesterday to deny Robert Sorich another shot at hearing Robert Sorich’s appeall…
Mayor Richard M. Daley’s former patronage chief and two other former city officials lost their bid Tuesday for an unusual hearing by all of Chicago’s actively sitting federal appeals judges.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a majority of the judges voting on whether to hold a so-called en banc hearing had been against the idea. It would have involved all the court’s judges except those on senior status.
Robert Sorich, 43, once known as the mayor’s patronage chief, was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted in July 2006 of using fraud to cover up the role of political patronage in city hiring. […]
A three-judge panel of the appeals court denied their request for a new trial on April 15, saying they had been “key players in a corrupt and far reaching scheme - that doled out thousands of city civil service jobs based on political patronage and nepotism.”
* But the Tribune makes a good point…
The defense will seize in part on a sharply worded dissent written by Judge Michael S. Kanne and joined by Judge Richard A. Posner, one of the nation’s most influential judges.
McCarthy’s lawyer, Patrick Deady, said Kanne grasped the argument the defendants have made all along: The federal government has criminalized what were violations of the Shakman civil court decree that forbids political influence in most City Hall hiring decisions. The defendants also argued they should not have been convicted of criminal fraud because they never took a dime in bribes or kickbacks.
“Without explicitly saying so, we have left the impression that the use of political patronage in personnel hiring by the city of Chicago is a crime,” Kanne wrote.
“Although no legislatively defined criminal offense outlaws patronage hiring by government entities in Illinois, such hiring is now seen as a crime because it violates the Shakman decrees—never mind that Shakman is simply a series of civil consent decrees subject only to civil penalties, and imposition of contempt if willfully violated,” the dissent said.
* The ruling went overwhelmingly against Sorich and his co-defendants, but I suppose there’s always a tiny ray of sunshine when you see such a strongly-worded dissent.
Sorich and his cohorts did do some really stupid things, like changing test scores and marking down people as having been interviewed when they weren’t. But the dissent - which you can read in full at this link - makes some valid points about the overreaching nature of these convictions.
Thoughts?
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If you haven’t voted early, then vote often
Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Voting ends tonight for the All Star teams. Jermaine Dye has been playing like a dream, but he really needs your votes. Yes, I said “votes.” You can vote up to 25 times, so head over there now and get on with it. It’s legal ballot box stuffing, so Illinoisans ought to shine at this. If that link doesn’t work, try this one.
Tell us who you picked and why in comments. Also, did you write anybody in? Just for fun, I wrote in Alexei Ramirez, the Cuban Missile. The kid can play, and the pitchers can’t figure him out yet.
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Morning Shorts
Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning
* Minimum wage rises to $7.75
* Feds Relax Education Requirements for Illinois
Illinois is one of six states that has been given some leeway under the No Child Left Behind Act. A new pilot program will allow schools in Illinois to offer tutoring to students sooner when it looks like they need help.
* Casinos continue legal fight against horse tracks
Four Illinois casinos are asking the state’s Supreme Court to reconsider its June ruling that they pay about $76 million to the state’s struggling horse racing industry.
* Illinois Atty. Genl. withdraws claim on electric plants
Two weeks ago Madigan identified plants she said looked like Edison’s that were continuing “high offer” shenanigans. She asked federal regulators to reopen the Edison case and look into it. Now, based on information from PJM Interconnection, which manages the grid from here to Illinois, she has withdrawn the allegation that the identified plants have continued the strategy. But she still contends that Edision still may be withholding power from the grid in some other fashion in an effort to influence prices.
* Superintendent appointment delayed at Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center
* Degorski appeals ruling on videotape
* Silver Cross gets panel’s OK for new hospital
* Influence peddler Levine ends 33-year marriage
* The boost to a federal shield proposal
Similar legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Evanston, already has been passed by a 398-21 margin in the House. We’re pleased that every member of the suburban delegation, Republicans and Democrats alike, voted in favor of that bill.
* Locals building momentum in EJ&E sale fight
* Durbin says help on way for food pantries
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