Count Katie Kauffman and Nick Territo among those happy about a 25-cent an hour increase in the state’s minimum wage.
Count Doug Knight and Rob Flesher among those not so happy.
The four are at opposite ends of the minimum wage debate. Kauffman and Territo work at minimum-wage jobs and can use the extra money. Knight and Flesher own businesses that must accommodate the higher wage into their budgets.
“This governor is costing people a lot of money,” said Knight, owner of Knight’s Action Park in Springfield. “We’re $1.90 ahead of (the federal) minimum wage. That’s a pretty good chunk of money.”
The state’s minimum wage was boosted 25 cents per hour on July 1st, to $7.75 per hour.
* Question: Is unilaterally increasing the state’s minimum wage a good thing or a bad thing? Explain.
* Greg Hinz calls GOP US Senate hopeful Steve Sauerberg the Invisible Man…
But none of it does any good unless someone is listening. And so far, the only one Mr. Sauerberg is giving a run for his money is the invisible man.
Mr. Sauerberg’s name appeared in major Illinois newspapers — all of them, collectively, from Carbondale to Chicago — a grand total of seven times in the months of May and June. One of the seven was in a letter to the editor.
If you have a Crain’s subscription, make sure to read the whole thing. If you don’t, sign up. Sauerberg has more problems than just a spokesman who is based in DC and spends more of his time on other projects than this election, but it’s still a fun read.
“I wouldn’t rule it out. I think we ought to look at it honestly and decide whether there’s anything that needs to be done in our constitution that really addresses some of the problems we’re facing today and really, what breaks some of the gridlock we’ve seen in our state capital.”
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s brother, Bill, also has popped up on the scene, but we’re guessing that’s more about the mayor toying with Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
That’s certainly a byproduct, but I’ve spent quite a bit of time talking to Bill Daley lately, and I think his reasons for floating his name right now are much more than just helping his brother tweak the governor.
[Bill] Daley has been laying the groundwork for a 2010 bid, even asking some people to stay neutral until he decides if he wants to jump in. Daley’s main consultant is Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, who also advises Mayor Daley.
I still doubt that Daley will pull the trigger, but he’s definitely doing his due diligence.
* Meanwhile, Jesse White confirms for the umpteenth time that he plans to run for reelection in 2010…
If Jesse White has his way, he will serve a record fourth term as Illinois secretary of state and celebrate his 80th birthday in office.
White, 74, told The Associated Press that he has no other interest politically than to continue in his present job, seek re-election in 2010 and complete 16 years as secretary of state.
I think the Southern Illinoisan reported this first about four years ago, but whatever.
* White also repeated his insistence that he’s not interested in being appointed to the US Senate if Barack Obama wins the presidency…
“I think my name would be at the top of the heap, but I don’t have an interest,” he said.
* Last week, you will recall, the governor held a press conference at a Chicago gas station to highlight his administration’s efforts at making sure that gas pumps are accurate.
The presser was a fiasco, as reporters ignored the gas pump story and instead focused on corruption allegations…
“You guys should get a life and focus on some other issues,” said Blagojevich, who grew increasingly irritated as reporters pelted him with questions after an unrelated news conference at a Chicago gas station.
To be fair, the state essentially oversees Chicago’s inspections, in the same way that the federal government oversees the state’s inspections of, say, meat processors.
But you’d think the governor would at least have done his little press conference at a gas station that is subjected to direct state oversight.
Then again, he rarely leaves the city, and he seems to know little about the actual operation of state government, so it’s probably not a huge surprise.
* John Patterson points out another little tidbit…
In the summer of 2001, Rod Blagojevich appeared at an Amoco station at Clark and LaSalle to launch his campaign for governor by complaining about gas selling for $1.99 and charge that the Republicans who’d run the state hadn’t done enough. He said a Blagojevich administration would do better.
Unfortunately for Blagojevich, Patterson has one of the best memories at the Statehouse.
*** UPDATE *** During last week’s press conference, Gov. Blagojevich was asked why he insisted on putting his name on everything, from tollway signs to leaflets touting AllKids, when he criticized George Ryan for doing the same sort of thing.
Blagojevich flatly denied that he had ever criticized Ryan for this and berated the reporter for even bringing it up. But back in 2003 Blagojevich caught some heat for handing out bumper stickers at the State Fair that featured the fair’s “United We Stand” theme as well as Blagojevich’s name. The bumper stickers were being paid for by the state, but the campaign eventually picked up the tab…
“The bottom line is this,” a top aide said initially, “the bumper stickers will be paid for out of the governor’s campaign fund. This is different from any other governor. This is departing from what other governors have done in the past. It’s not business as usual.”
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column is about the upcoming special session…
Last month, Gov. Rod Blagojevich proclaimed the Illinois House absolutely, positively, without a doubt had to pass the Senate-approved pension obligation bond deal, a special funds sweep and the entire capital construction package or he’d have to slash the state budget right down to the bone. Much suffering would result, the governor warned, unless the House complied with every one of his directives.
Last week, while announcing yet another summertime special legislative session, Blagojevich quietly deleted the formerly all-important pension bond plan from his list of demands. The bond scheme would close a $400 million hole in what is supposed to be a horribly unbalanced budget. The governor also took several items off the budget-slashing table, including rape crisis centers and Amtrak.
In other words, Blagojevich simply reinforced the widespread Statehouse notion that he’s been bluffing all along about the budget’s dire straits.
For weeks now, journalists have reported with a straight face the governor’s claim that the state is facing an unmanageable $2 billion deficit. Editorial writers have expressed outrage at how the General Assembly apparently violated the state’s constitution by sending the governor an egregiously out-of-whack spending plan.
But last week, reporters only barely mentioned the governor dumped a $400 million revenue stream from his list of demands. Apparently, that $2 billion hole isn’t all that big or all that unmanageable.
* This omission is a real mystery to me. We’ve seen stories about restored funding for rape crisis centers and Amtrak, but almost nothing about how the governor blew a $400 million hole in the budget last week - a budget that he previously proclaimed was unacceptably out of balance.
Back to the column…
Why else would the governor abandon it so quickly?
The governor’s people say that after staff talked to a couple of dozen House members, they discovered there weren’t enough votes to pass the pension bond proposal during this week’s special session. But that still doesn’t explain the governor’s flip-flop. Why not propose another revenue source?
In reality, there aren’t enough votes to pass anything. After May 31, it takes a three-fifths majority to pass any legislation that has an immediate effective date. All those bills the governor wants approved have immediate effective dates. A new revenue source would also likely require an immediate effective date. Therefore, very little, if anything, can pass.
So why even bother calling legislators to Springfield for another special session if nothing can pass?
Blame.
The idea is to bring everybody back to town so the governor can once again pin the blame on his old enemy, House Speaker Michael Madigan, for all the trouble in the world.
He’s been laying it on thick lately, too. For instance, the governor now is claiming Madigan has a “secret plan” to increase taxes after the election. Madigan, the governor says, deliberately passed an unbalanced budget to increase the pressure for a post-election tax hike.
The governor’s bold accusations miss two points - both of which are often overlooked by most of the media.
1) The House passed three different versions of the state budget. The Senate approved just one of them, the so-called “Christmas Tree” budget that loaded up on all sorts of goodies. The other two House-approved budgets, which are far more balanced, were never called for a vote in the Senate.
At least two editorial boards failed to mention this fact over the weekend.
2) Senate President Emil Jones, like Madigan, is on record as supporting an income tax increase. A member of Jones’ own leadership team, Sen. John Cullerton, has said he plans to call an income tax increase bill for a vote after the November election.
Jones is Blagojevich’s last powerful ally, so you won’t hear the governor say an unkind word about the Senate president. If he loses Jones’ support, he loses his war with Madigan, and the war with Madigan is more important to the governor than anything else.
Finke had another interesting take on this relationship yesterday.
What the geniuses responsible for the governor’s miserable approval rating may not have reckoned, however, is the special session also could highlight Blagojevich’s political impotence.
This is the same governor, mind you, who tossed together a half-baked budget proposal at the last minute that was full of ideas that already had failed, then completely disengaged from the entire budget negotiating process until three weeks after the General Assembly adjourned.
And now, because of his lack of interest in governance, multiple federal investigations, rising calls for his impeachment and his lack of truthfulness on the budget deficit, he’s in a position of trying to force his will on a bunch of people who don’t care what he does.
“At this time, particularly with the amount of flood water that we have out in the region, we are seeing a significant increase in the number of floodwater mosquitoes within the area,” said George Balis, an entomologist with Roselle-based Clarke Mosquito Control. The company is contracted to operate Elgin’s and other suburban towns’ mosquito control programs.
Day after day, Cook County Board members who voted to raise the sales tax awaken to more headaches that will keep their dereliction of duty right where it belongs: in the forefront of furious voters’ minds.
Last week Fitch Ratings, an influential national firm, changed its outlook for some $3 billion in Cook County debt from “stable” to “negative.” That could portend a downgrading of the county’s bond rating, which would raise taxpayers’ cost to service that debt. Here’s a key Fitch sentence: “With the highest sales tax rate in the nation, the county faces political and economic pressure to provide tax relief for county residents.”
Sneed hears Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, who proposed and rammed through a Cook County sales tax hike — and his buddy, commissioner Bill Beavers — just deferred acceptance of a $75,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation, which was earmarked for affordable housing promotion!
The Hispanic Democratic Organization filed papers this week shutting down its official campaign committee (which may not mean it doesn’t exist anymore in another form).
A few hours earlier, 12th Ward alderman George Cardenas, one of the last people elected with the help of the infamous group, filed paperwork showing a precipitous drop in fund-raising—from tens of thousands of dollars last year down to zilch so far in 2008.
* I hope everybody has a safe, fun and happy Independence Day weekend. We’re shutting down until Monday, but Illinoize will still be up and running, and so will the recently revamped InsiderzExchange. Go buy an ad.
* If you want to see some fireworks, click here. Heh.
* And now your patriotic moment of Zen…
As I was walkin’ I saw a sign there
And that sign said No Trespassin’
But on the other side it didn’t say nothin’
Now that side was made for you and me
* As noted below, the governor claimed today that he wasn’t under federal investigation and engaged in a contentious back and forth with reporters. Chicago Public Radio has the audio. You must listen to this. Here’s the station’s intro to the raw audio…
Illinois Governor Blagojevich’s press conference on gas pump inspections disintegrated into a contentious confrontation with reporters asking about the on-going federal investigation of state government. The governor denied being a target.
* The fun stuff begins at about the 16 minute mark. The first question out of the box was about how Speaker Madigan’s spokesman suggested the governor was a sociopath.
* It really gets fun at the 21 minute mark. “Your questions are ridiculous!” he said. He called the Tribune “dishonest.”
He was asked if he was a target at least a couple dozen times. “I’m probably a target of Mike Madigan’s desire to keep us from passing a jobs bill and having a budget that’s balanced that helps people. If I’m a target, that’s it.”
“I’m not going to reward dishonest reporters who ask dishonest questions.”
* The same governor who vetoed all CeaseFire funding out of the state budget last year said this to reporters today: “I’m a strong supporter of CeaseFire and I believe in CeaseFire.” Oy.
* The governor claimed that two House members with city jobs told him they were worried they would lose their jobs if they voted for the capital budget.
* Phil Rogers asked: Why is it dishonest to ask you if you have been told you are a target of this investigation?
Gov. Blagojevich: “The answer is I am not, and it’s a ridiculous question and you know it’s a ridiculous question because if you carefully look at the things that have happened and you’re not just interested in sensationalizing something so you can do your big news story you wouldn’t even bother asking a question like that.”
Carlos Hernandez Gomez pointed out right afterwards: “But governor, a subject is different, a subject is anybody that is not a target.”
* Afterwards, I’m told, the governor took a TV reporter aside and berated him for not reporting on the corruption allegations about Mayor Daley and Speaker Madigan. That’ll go over well.
The governor also reportedly poked the reporter’s chest quite often during the exchange. Dignified.
* Quote of the week:“Let me tell you something, I know the truth of things and I have nothing to fear but the truth, OK?” - Rod Blagojevich at the 22:09 mark. [Thanks to a commenter.]
* Chicago Public Radio now has a story up. Go check it out. ABC7 will have raw video on its site after 5 o’clock today. Watch for Ben Bradley’s story on that site as well. He was the one confronted and poked in the chest by Blagojevich after the press bang.
* Carlos Hernandez Gomez has a blog entry on the subject entitled “I’m not a crook.”
* 12:13 pm - The House has scheduled a Committee of the Whole for next Wednesday. In other words, another “fair trial before the hanging”…
The Illinois House will schedule a Committee of the Whole on Wednesday, July 9 in order to have a full discussion on all elements of the FY09 budget. The budget is the subject of the two day special session. set to begin at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. The committee will start about 1:30 p. m. The panels could run into Thursday.
A series of panels will be convened to review each issue.
The panels will be:
Capital Appropriations I – Proponents
Capital Appropriations II - Opponents
Gaming I – Proponents
Gaming II – Opponents
Lease of the Lottery I – Proponents
Lease of the Lottery II – Opponents
Pension Obligation Bonds I – Proponents
Pension Obligation Bonds II – Opponents
Fund Sweeps I – Proponents
Fund Sweeps II - Opponents
The list of bills to be reviewed can be found at this link.
* 12:46 pm - Gov. Blagojevich was on the Don & Roma show again this morning. Listen at this link. Kevin worked up a partial transcript…
Don: Governor there was the recent shakedown conviction of Tony Rezko, a friend of yours, and I know that we couldn’t discuss all of those things while the trial was under way. Now what I would like to get from you is some kind of assurance, not only to me, but to the voters of Illinois, that you’re not going to get indicted before the next election.
Governor: Well, I always try to do things the right way, and when you’re the Governor of Illinois or the Mayor of Chicago, there are going to be people who either work for you or people who are supporters of yours that may not always do things the right way.
And when it comes to Tony for example, who has been very helpful to me, he is a friend. He has been helpful to Barack Obama, he has been helpful to Lisa Madigan, he has been helpful to Mike Madigan, he’s been helpful to Pat Quinn.
You know we all assume that, you know, what his activities are when it comes to his own business and personal relationships are honest and legitimate.
In this particular case it was found that he did some things wrong, in his personal activities. Anything related to any fundraising with regard to me were not guilties. And he did send a letter to the judge where he was very specific and clear, and said that he was never involved in any wrong doing with me or with Barack Obama. And I don’t know what more I can say other than I do things right, and I’m very sad for him personally, and that I pray for him and his family and his children. But sometimes people do things that aren’t right, and they have to meet their responsibilities.
But speaking for me, knowing what I do, I do things right and honest. So I just get up every day and keep trying to do the best I can for people, and let the pundits and all theseothers keep trying to spin things and twist things much bigger than they really are.
Notice he didn’t answer the indictment question. More…
Don: Well I want to thank you Governor. Mike Madigan hasn’t had the guts to come on the show and explain what he’s about. We really appreciate you joining us.
Governor: Well let me just say this, if you ever get him on the show, make him pledge to you that he is not going to raise your income taxes after the election or after January 1st.
*** 12:56 pm *** You can bet these people are gonna run some scaaaarrryyyy and memorable TV ads designed to stampede the herd…
A pair of media consultants that helped the Chicago Children’s Museum win City Council permission to move to Grant Park is being hired by a business group to lead its public efforts against a proposed state constitutional convention.
ASK Public Strategies, a firm headed by Obama campaign senior consultant David Axelrod, and the Chicago office of Hill & Knowlton will head a projected $2-million to $3-million media and advertising campaign planned by the Alliance to Protect the Illinois Constitution.
“We haven’t signed the contract, but they’re going to be the choice,” said Gregory W. Baise, a principal in the alliance and the head of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Assn.
Axelrod, apparently, only believes in “Change” when it comes to the Obama slogan. When it comes to Illinois, the motto is: “There will be no change.”
The biz groups don’t raise a huge amount of money in Illinois, so some might be coming from out of state. Not sure if the union dough is included in this total.
* Every now and then, our lovable but supremely pro-Blagojevich commenter known as “Bill” overdoses on the Kool-Aid and goes off message. Like today, for instance…
OK, Rod, its not funny anymore so just knock it off.
Sabotaging House candidates in YOUR OWN PARTY is going too far. Do whatever you want with the budget and talk bad about Madigan all you want but keep your nose out of the House elections, not that you could make any difference anyway.
I called Bill last night and teased him that he should come up with a new screen name for those moments when he leaves the reservation. I suggested, perhaps, a Prince-like “The commenter formerly known as ‘Bill’” name. My intern, Kevin, thought we could even give him a Princeian symbol. Perhaps a backwards “B”?
* The question: What screen name should Bill use on days when he’s fed up with our governor? Any ideas for a symbol? Explain. Have fun. And try to be nice to the guy.
* Kristen McQueary talked to former Gov. Jim Edgar about what would happen if AG Lisa Madigan was elected governor and Mike Madigan stayed on as House Speaker…
“There certainly are no legal problems. From a governor’s point of view, it would be nice to have the speaker always on your side,” former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar said Wednesday from his home in Colorado. “It could be a huge advantage. If they disagreed with each other, they could work it out privately, and it might work well. You wouldn’t have a standoff between the speaker and the governor”. […]
Unless the speaker got favorable treatment - such as a state building erected in his district and named for him - the two roles don’t create an inherent conflict, Edgar said. And how would the Madigans’ relationship differ from the pact between Blagojevich and Senate President Emil Jones, whose pet projects have gotten every green light?
That was a question Edgar asked. I didn’t have an answer.
The public may or may not go for it. We had pretty much the same debate in 2002 and none of those horror stories ever materialized. Still, the governor is a much higher office than attorney general, so one family controlling the executive and half the legislative branch will certainly cause consternation.
Even so, if I was speaker and my kid wanted to be governor, I’d never step aside unless I knew for sure that it would cause her to lose the election. Why leave her to the wolves?
At a time when Blagojevich is beset by almost-daily revelations of mendacity, incompetence, and corruption, Bill Daley is the perfect anti-Blagojevich: He doesn’t need the job, as he is making millions in the private sector; he’ll work with his brother, Chicago Mayor Rich Daley, to make sure that city problems get solved; he won’t pick fights with Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan; and he won’t govern by “triangulation,” like Blagojevich, grandstanding and finding a Clintonesque “third way,” so as to differentiate himself from Madigan.
He’s positioning himself as a talented manager with no higher ambitions. It’s not a bad argument.
Once the most powerful and feared patronage army in Mayor Richard Daley’s political organization, the scandal-plagued Hispanic Democratic Organization is now officially extinct.
The group, known in political circles as HDO, filed paperwork Tuesday closing its campaign committee, state records show.
* If you want to know how the rest of the year is going to go, just check out this Gov. Blagojevich quote that John Patterson pulled from yesterday’s press conference…
“I think there’s great cause to be concerned. If Speaker Madigan and the House leadership pick up a veto-proof majority … then they’ll be in a position to easily override a veto.”
As Patterson notes, “That sounds an awful lot like the Democratic governor is urging voters to shun Democrats this fall so his intraparty rival – Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan — doesn’t get any stronger.”
The House GOP has positioned itself much closer to Blagojevich lately, and the governor has returned the favor by bashing Madigan at every opportunity. Yesterday was the first time, however, that Blagojevich openly fretted that House Republican Leader Tom Cross might wind up in a veto-proof minority.
* The Bond Buyer was one of the only “mainstream” media sources which caught this huge budget story, albeit buried down in the piece…
Yesterday, the governor backed off his push for the pension bond issue and did not provide another idea for how to replace the $400 million it would have saved in the fiscal 2009 budget.
Why did he do that? One reason is that the House Republicans don’t want to vote for it.
An after-Halloween trick could be up Mike Madigan’s sleeve. Governor Blagojevich is suggesting the speaker of the Illinois House is secretly pushing for an increase in the income tax, sales tax, or both after the November election.
The problem with this logic, of course, is that Senate President Emil Jones has said openly this year that he, too, supports an income tax hike and a post-election vote on that topic is already planned for the Senate. But this is about Madigan, not the issue. It’s never about the issue.
* Next week’s special session isn’t about the budget. It’s about blaming Madigan…
“The Senate took the hard votes in order to fund the budget,” said Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, in a statement. “The House should follow through and pass these measures. This can all be handled in a day.”
That’s true. The Senate did take some tough votes. But the Senate also refused to pass two other House-approved alternative budgets that didn’t have such gaping holes. And they won’t next week, either. Why? Because this isn’t about the budget. It’s about Madigan. It’s a concept that the State Journal-Register completely fails to grasp in today’s editorial.
On Wednesday, Madigan spokesman Steve Brown responded to the governor’s call for a special session by suggesting reporters look up the definition of “sociopath.”
Blagojevich spokeswoman Katie Ridgway offered a quick response.
“He’s not a sociopath,” she said of her boss.
Nixon said he wasn’t a crook. Blagojevich says he’s not a sociopath. Wonderful.
But the Blagojevich administration responded with a 2003 memo that Franks sent to a personnel official listing a dozen people he’d like to see get state jobs or be appointed to state boards and commissions.
The list includes family and key players within the McHenry County Democratic Party.
“This memo shows, two months into the administration, he (Franks) was playing the politics of insider baseball - the hypocrisy to go out and talk about impeachment,” said Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero.
* The governor’s office was requesting hiring lists from Democrats back then. Franks sent in his list. Pretty simple. And how did it go for him?
Franks said three of the 12 were appointed to posts or got a job, including his father, who was named to an unpaid post on the Illinois Courts Commission. Franks’ father is the former president of the Illinois State Bar Association and Rep. Franks said he’s “eminently qualified.”
* Guerrero was right on top of that Jack Franks investigation. Too bad the administration has such trouble managing non-payback items such as following the law….
The Illinois Department of Corrections missed a deadline Wednesday to outline its plan to close Pontiac Correctional Center.
The agency, which has threatened to close the maximum-security facility and move 1,600 inmates to a new, unused prison in Thomson, asked a legislative panel for a two-week extension to compile the report.
It wasn’t clear Wednesday whether lawmakers would go along with the delay, which the department blamed on the state’s lingering budget impasse.
Let’s see, they have enough staff to pull Franks’ files, but not enough to outline a plan to close a prison that was announced months ago? Priorities, people. Priorities.
The Blagojevich administration, not known for straight answers, is at it again.
It seemed like a simple question — if the Illinois Department of Transportation’s division of traffic safety moves to Harrisburg as proposed, how many division employees will still be based in Springfield?
But a couple of people who speak for the state gave what seemed to be less-than-complete answers Wednesday.
Bernie asked whether management would be transferred with the staff. We were told weeks ago that management would stay in Springfield, but now nobody’s all that sure.
* Union League Club of Chicago/ University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs to Sponsor Debate on “Whether an Illinois Constitutional Convention Should Be Called?”
But Hardiman says state budget cuts have hurt CeaseFire’s ability to do its work. A spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Human Services says the state is putting $150 million into anti-violence programs. She says the state wants to spread that money out to give other anti-violence groups a chance.
Twice, Rezko violated the home-confinement terms of his bail, formerly sealed court files show, by making “social calls” — including last September to the home of former top Cook County official Orlando Jones after Jones committed suicide.
