* 3:50 pm - The House has adjourned until tomorrow citing the lack of any bills to debate.
The Senate Dems and Repubs are caucusing until 4:15.
* 5:05 pm - The Senate Rules Committee just popped the pay raise resolution onto the floor. Sen. Hendon claimed the House’s inaction on capital and school funding meant that this was not a good time for raises.
So, it appears that the pay raises may be dead. A vote is expected in minutes.
One of the House Democrats’ point people on education, Rep. Mike Smith of Canton, announced that he’ll host a series of public hearings to consider a proposal to abolish property taxes for school funding by 2010. It’s been floated by Sen. James Meeks, a Chicago Democrat who previously threatened to run against Blagojevich for governor in the absence of education funding reforms. Meeks didn’t run, but he also didn’t get what he wanted.
* The question: Do you favor allowing the property tax for schools to “sunset” in 2010 to force the General Assembly to come up with another funding alternative?
Note: This is not necessarily about abolishing the property tax for schools. They may renew it, at least partially. This is about the sunsetting tactic. Will it work? Should it be tried? Explain.
Senate President Emil Jones has had a change of heart and will allow an up-or-down vote on legislative pay raises this week.
Jones, a Chicago Democrat, told Sen. Susan Garrett, D-Lake Forest, Friday that he will give the chamber a chance to accept or reject the raises when senators meet today and Wednesday in special sessions called by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
“He made a commitment to call the pay raise for an up-or-down vote,” Garrett said Monday. “I take him at his word on that.”
The commitment was for an up or down vote, but not specifically on the resolution to reject the pay raises. Jones’ people floated alternative ideas back in May. Plus, there’s a lot of backroom maneuvering going on right now. Stay tuned.
Therising number of editorials and public awareness of this issue means any further games could backfire in a big way. So, maybe they will vote to reject the raises, but maybe not. Attendance won’t be high in the Senate this week, so one never knows.
But if they do vote to reject the raises, then Comptroller Dan Hynes is off the hook. Hynes has refused to say yet whether the pay raises kick in this week. The Senate Democrats claim that the pay raises won’t take effect this week because special session days don’t impact the 30-day deadline that the chamber has to reject the raises.
* I told you yesterday that Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn was protesting outside the governor’s City Club speech demanding that the Senate reject the pay raises.
Outside of the banquet hall where Jones and Blagojevich appeared in Chicago, Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn, a Democrat who opposes the pay raises, warned that the hikes could take effect this week, which Jones branded as incorrect and “stupid.”
As Jones entered the restaurant, he looked at the well-known Quinn and said, “What’s your name?”
* Related…
* Quinn leads pay raise picket at gov’s speech - Jones indicates he may be willing to allow vote on increase
* This is a bit presumptuous of him, don’t you think?
Calling Jones one of his most loyal friends, Blagojevich added, “Emil and I are homeboys, man. … There are times I consider myself the first African-American governor of Illinois.”
Bill Clinton never actually called himself the first black president. That was left to others. For Blagojevich to say that really shows you something about him.
* And then there’s this Blagojevich quote from yesterday…
“I give me high marks for being willing to compromise.”
Except that when the does compromise nobody can accept his word.
The governor continued with this interpretation of how the House Democrats respond to his compromising attitude…
“If I say it’s day outside, they’ll tell me it’s night. If I say it’s Friday, they’ll say it’s Monday,” he said.
* Addicts are being kicked into the street, hospitals and nursing homes will have to wait months to be reimbursed for their services, the governor claims that the state’s budget is $2 billion out of whack.
Yet, there he was playing the big shot at the Kerry Wood Strike Zone fund-raiser last week…
The biggest draw at the Kerry Wood Strike Zone fund-raiser Wednesday night wasn’t one of the star athletes — it was Mark Cuban.
Fans swarmed outside 10Pin Bowling Lounge, 330 N. State, and when Cuban stepped outside they rushed him for autographs. “I can’t really say anything,” he told reporters when asked about his bid to buy the Chicago Cubs. “I just love Chicago.” […]
Gov. Blagojevich came with his 12-year-old daughter Amy, a major fan who likes to call pitches when she watches games with her dad. […]
The party raised about $360,000, which is being matched in a state grant by the governor, to benefit the Organic Food Project. The money will go to supply healthy lunches to students at Louisa May Alcott Elementary School, 2625 N. Orchard, for a year.
The governor just pulled that announcement out of his hat, according to people I know who were there. It was a total surprise.
The charity is a good one. No disputing that. But how about pulling some cash out of the hat for programs that have already been slashed?
A private burial will be held this week. A memorial Mass will be said at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Queen of Martyrs Catholic Church at 103rd Street and Central Park Avenue. For an hour before the Mass, there will be a visitation with family members.
Following on the heels of a Supreme Court decision that held that a blanket ban on handguns violated 2nd Amendment rights, Evanston’s City Council voted 7-1 Monday night to amend the North Shore suburb’s weapons ordinance to conform to the landmark court ruling.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Weisman, who heads Projects Safe Neighborhoods program in Chicago, said the $2 million pledge will go a long way in building on an already successful program.
NEW: City Club speakers are traditionally given a coffee mug for their efforts. Gov. Blagojevich reportedly quipped today when he was presented with the cup that he guessed a mug was better than a mugshot.
The man has no internal editor. But the wisecrack got a big laugh, as you might imagine.
There’s no real “news” to report from the speech, apparently.
* The governor is speaking at a City Club luncheon today. I’m hearing of a planned protest by Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn outside the venue. Quinn’s gonna demand that the Senate reject the legislative pay raises this week. He already has a website on the topic.
…Adding… Comptroller Dan Hynes has apparently decided not to rule on whether the pay raise clock expires this week (I’m not sure it does, by the way). Instead, he just sent out a press release saying that the raises won’t be paid because there is no appropriation…
“We cannot implement the pay raises without an appropriation. But more importantly, I am of the opinion that this is no time for pay raises,” Hynes said, pointing out the drastic cuts to health care providers and social service programs in the FY09 budget.
The raises could legally kick in before the election, and then be retroactively funded in a future budget (that retroactive funding happened last time), but Hynes is apparently refusing to make a ruling on that point. Instead, he’s saying that nobody will get a bigger check until there’s an appropriation. True, but they’ll all get a lump sum check in the future when these raises are included in a budget.
Courageous, no?
No.
…Adding more… The comptroller just called, and after much back and forth, I finally just asked him to tell me when the clock expires. He said he’d get back to me. I’ll let you know.
Quinn says he doesn’t have a ticket for the City Club of Chicago event Blagojevich is headlining. But he’s outside handing out information alongside a staffer holding a sign that reads “Vote Now, Vote No.”
* Here’s a brilliant, must-see parody ad by Joe Fournier. Click the pic to watch…
* A YouTube person who goes by the name Altgeld’s Ghost created quite a racey pro con-con video last week that I never posted. AG’s latest pro con-con effort is here.
* You may have seen Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s recent outrage over “Meth Coffee”…
The back of the package for Meth Coffee suggests drinkers “chew them whole, snort the powder dry, cook it over a lighter and huff. . . .”
But Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is having none of it.
Madigan is demanding a San Francisco company stop what she calls the misleading marketing and sale of the coffee.
“Parody or not, it’s still glorifying drug use and it’s sending a terrible message,” said Madigan’s spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler.
But Scott Reeder thinks AG Madigan is being a bit of a prude, and digs up a New Yorker cartoon drawn by Madigan’s husband, Pat Byrnes…
[Byrnes] drew an office worker with a meth lab set up on his desk telling a co-worker with a cup of Joe, “Meth doesn’t upset my stomach the way coffee does.”
Gee, I hope she doesn’t sue her own husband.
See her husband’s toon here. Watch the Meth Coffee ad here, and Zorn’s take is here and here.
A 2006 survey by Response Insurance, a national car insurer, found that 57 percent of American drivers don’t signal when changing lanes. Men are less likely to signal than women, and drivers under 25 are less likely to signal than older drivers. Their reasons were a bit scary:
• 42 percent said they didn’t have time,
• 23 percent said they were lazy,
• 17 percent said they don’t because they forget to turn it off,
• 12 percent said they changed lanes too frequently to bother,
• 11 percent said it was not important,
• 8 percent said they don’t because other drivers don’t. And, most disturbing of all,
• 7 percent skipped the signal to “add excitement” to their trip.
* Several voters in the 11th Congressional District received this mailer from Republican candidate Martin Ozinga the other day…
* Trouble is, the members of that attractive “family” have probably never heard of Ozinga. They’re paid models…
One Democratic operative has called the advertisement “Ozingaweis,” arguing that it’s eerily reminiscent of a tactic Republican Jim Oberweis used in an unsuccessful bid during a special election this spring in the 14th District.
Oberweis’ mailer, which was trashed by the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board, used actors and gave them fake names and situations to argue against his opponent’s tax policies.
Ozinga’s mailer doesn’t go that far, and only includes a quote but no names.
“It’s a symbol of the fact that families are supporting Marty Ozinga,” Andy Sere, Ozinga’s campaign manager, said.
Sere also points out that the DCCC’s television ad also appears to use stock video.
“It’s a common campaign procedure,” he said. Such images and videos can be purchased more easily and cheaply than assembling local families for such situations.
“I’m shocked that (Democrats) think this is important to the voters of the 11th District,” Sere added. “It shows just how bankrupt they are of ideas and that they would go to any lengths not to talk about Debbie Halvorson’s record.”
A previous Ozinga mailer prominently featured one of his employees. This new one uses paid spokesmodels. You’d think the Ozinga campaign could find a good looking family in the district that is voting for the man.
…the National Republican Congressional Committee launches near daily attacks on Foster’s early record on Capitol Hill.
“Where’s Bill Foster?” read the title of a recent NRCC e-mail blast to the media.
In it, the committee — which spent close to $1.3 million in support of Oberweis leading into March’s contest — targets Foster for voting to recess instead of staying in Washington to debate energy policy. Last week, the NRCC released an “energy report card” that painted Foster as unwilling to get behind solutions to energy issues.
“Bill Foster has used his brief stint in office to define himself as an out-of-touch obstructionist, but this report card paints an alarming picture of a member of Congress who will do anything he can to side with Democrat leadership instead of the people of Illinois,” NRCC spokesman Ken Spain stated in one release.
* Other congressional stuff…
* Hinz: Pregnant women will have to deliver in back seats. Whole subdivisions will burn. Productivity will plummet as firetrucks and cars alike are stuck in traffic. That’s the story that opponents of a pending big railroad merger in the Chicago area have peddled in recent weeks in a highly effective media blitz to pressure federal authorities to reject the deal. As that great liberal populist U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Wood Dale, thundered in a press release last week, “In CN’s eyes, we are nothing more than speed-bumps on the way to an enhanced bottom line.”
Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Sunday used his amendatory veto power to give a full property tax exemption to an estimated 16,000 Illinois veterans with severe disabilities. The exemption would affect veterans who have a service-connected disability of 50% or more, according to a release from the Governor’s office.
There is no state money to pay for this new program, however.
“That is an absolute abuse of the amendatory veto power,” said Dawn Clark Netsch, a former state senator and one-time Democratic nominee for governor who was a principal architect of the state’s current amendatory-veto statute.
“The idea was that you keep the substance of the legislation but make some improvements,” said Netsch, now a law professor at Northwestern University. “It was never intended for the governor to sit back and not participate (in the legislative process) and then say, ‘Now I’m going to do it my way.’”
The Governor may return a bill together with specific recommendations for change to the house in which it originated.
The voters rejected a 1974 referendum that would’ve changed the constitution to confine the AV to minor changes, and the Illinois Supreme Court has kinda jumped around on the issue. Netsch has been running all over the place denouncing a proposed constitutional convention as unnecessary, but she just disproved her point yet again.
Blagojevich sounds like he’s prepared to take several shots if lawmakers don’t agree with him. He suggests the pile of bills lawmakers put on his desk gives him lots of opportunities to try to force lawmakers to go along with the proposal for disabled veterans as well as other ideas he’s cooking up.
“It’s sort of like a quiver with a whole bunch of arrows in it,” Blagojevich said. “And if they don’t approve a specific bill, I may take other bills and put the same rewrite in it. We’ll take several bites at the apple before we take ‘no’ for an answer.”
Just to add a little pressure, he said he wants lawmakers to consider his changes before the election. The move relies on lawmakers caving into populist ideas under public pressure right before they ask voters to cast their ballots. The theory is simple: how many legislators will risk taking an unpopular vote right before an election. […]
“It’s very easy, and it’s no accident that the General Assembly has the veto session comfortably after the election, and there’s a certain cynicism to that, which I think is kind of troubling if you’re a citizen of this state and you feel like there’s no reason why good things shouldn’t happen before an election,” Blagojevich said.
* Little hope going into special session - State lawmakers return Tuesday, but both sides feel there’s not much that can be done on education funding, capital bill
* Fair creates new hurdle for lawmakers - Political divisions may become even more evident at festivities
The Democratic governor also defended the budget cuts he made to erase a massive deficit, saying he struggled with the difficult choices but ultimately did the right thing.
“You know, you ought to walk a mile in my shoes, OK? Sit there and look at $2.2 billion in deficit and decisions you have to make. It’s not easy,” he said during an appearance at the Illinois State Fair.
* Poor guy. He has such a tough job…
That didn’t sit well with an administrator of a drug-counseling program that will have to slash services because its state support is drying up.
“I would love for him to walk a mile in the shoes of someone who has gone though addiction and gone through the recovery process,” said Neli Vazquez-Rowland, vice president of A Safe Haven in Chicago.
She invited him to visit the program, which has already cut housing for 52 mothers and their children and could end up kicking out 400 people.
The governor, who has been making more frequent public appearances recently after curtailing them the past two years as the federal probe deepened and investigative newspaper stories dropped, also mulled a new way to raise money for his long-stalled statewide construction program: a trip to the dunk tank.
“Isn’t that what you guys do to me almost every day?” said Blagojevich when asked if he’d get drenched at the fair to raise some of the $25 billion he’s seeking for new roads, bridges and schools.
“Give me a number, how much we could raise,” Blagojevich responded to a follow-up question. “I’ll look at it.” […]
“Why don’t you give me the pledges and then we’ll put it towards healthcare. I might consider that.”
He took it in good humor and offered up a pretty good retort. Right on message.
Blagojevich was asked if he will be attending the Democratic National Convention in Denver later this month. Yes, indeed, he said.
“I’ve got a big speaking role,” Blagojevich said. “I think it’s something like four o’clock in the morning in the men’s room of the convention center speaking to a handful of voters. I’m hopeful I can persuade them and we can carry Colorado.”
But Finke points out this is a retread…
Here’s what Blagojevich said in 2004 when Obama stole the show at that year’s Democratic convention. He was asked how his role in that convention compared to Obama’s.
“The Democratic National Committee invited me to speak at 4:30 in the morning in the men’s room of Faneuil Hall,” Blagojevich said.
“The people’s feedback is always generally mixed here in Springfield,” he said, again with a laugh, “but it’s honest, and you’ve gotta love that.”
* But the best quote goes to Sen. Michael Noland, who said this when askd about the prospects of passing anything meaningful during this week’s special sessions…
“And I think we’re going to cure cancer, and win the war, both of them - Afghanistan and Iraq,” said state Sen. Michael Noland,
I had heard from numerous sources, including Deputy House Majority Leader Gary Hannig, that the governor announced during a legislative leaders meeting that Rep. John D’Amico (D-Chicago) was the state representative who feared losing his city job [if he voted for the capital bill].
Gov. Rod Blagojevich Friday found a new person to blame for the legislature’s failure to approve a public works construction program and what he believes is an effort to raise income taxes.
Rep. Gary Hannig, D-Litchfield. [Emphasis added]
Did the governor single out Rep. Hannig for harsh criticism on Friday because he spoke to me on the record? Good question.
* Now, for the meat of this post we must go back to the Sun-Times column…
[Gov. Blagojevich said] “They fear their leader, Mr. Madigan, and if Mike Madigan tells them to vote a certain way, they will tell you privately, and I’ve had these discussions with a couple of state reps, one of whom said, ‘I’m afraid if I vote for the jobs bill I’ll be fired from my job at Streets and Sanitations [sic]. I’m afraid I’ll lose my job.’ ” […]
D’Amico said he told the governor that he has been in the union for 26 years and there’s no way he could be fired over a legislative issue unless they first canned a whole bunch of people with less seniority to get at him. Rep. D’Amico said he told the governor he opposed the capital plan because Mayor Daley was against it. D’Amico told me he informed the governor that he didn’t fear losing his job over the capital bill. […]
A source close to [Congressman Rahm Emanuel] confirmed everything D’Amico said.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Friday blamed 10 “double dipping” Chicago lawmakers for “killing” his statewide construction plan, two days after he called on Mayor Richard Daley to pressure them into reversing their positions. […]
“We’ve just got to keep pushing those Chicago Democrats who have city jobs, who work for the Cook County government in Chicago to . . . stop killing jobs,” Blagojevich said while opening the Illinois State Fair.
It’s fascinating how those Chicago legislators were so easily and instantly transformed in Blagojevich’s mind from pitiful victims of Madigan’s power to obstructionist bad guys.
* It’s also instructive that Blagojevich now wants Mayor Daley to put pressure on these 10 legislators to switch their positions. How would Daley do that? By threatening their jobs?…
“In a democracy, we don’t usually use the political bosses to make you do something. That is the old way of doing things.” [said Rep. Monique Davis, who retired from her public job a few years ago, but is still on the governor’s list of obstructionists]
That was a very good pivot by Rep. Davis.
The governor has now done an Olympics-level flip-flop. Blagojevich falsely accused Madigan of threatening legislators with the loss of their city jobs, then called on Daley to do essentially the same thing.
* From comments on Friday’s blog post of my column…
The Governor thinks this is so, because it is what he would (and does) do. He routinely threatens and fires the friends and relatives of those legislators & staffers who do not do as he likes.
Yep.
* Ironically enough, that long list of Blagojevich’s retaliatory firings includes the wife of Speaker Madigan’s chief of staff, Rep. D’Amico’s uncle and Rep. Hannig’s brother. On Friday, the governor’s list of obstructionist Chicago Democrats also included Rep. Eddie Acevedo, who has been on unpaid leave from the police department since last year. Keep that in mind while reading this column from last October…
In a move that has probably fatally poisoned an already supertoxic Illinois Statehouse atmosphere, the wife of House Speaker Michael Madigan’s chief of staff, Tim Mapes, was fired from her state job. […]
This isn’t the first time that Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, have gone after a House Democrat’s relative. They fired the uncle of Rep. John D’Amico from his state job after D’Amico strayed from the Blagojevich playbook. The brother of the House Democrats’ “budgeteer,” Rep. Gary Hannig, was let go after his contract expired. Rep. Eddie Acevedo’s brother was dismissed and the brother of Rep. Careen Gordon was recently demoted.
Do you understand a bit better now why it’s so darned difficult to deal with this governor?
When you hear people like Mayor Daley say that there’s a “trust issue” with Blagojevich, it’s because nothing he says can be believed — not even his favorite story about how Mike Madigan’s members fear losing their city jobs.
* The final word goes to Rep. Susana Mendoza, who tried hard to work with the governor and was considered a somewhat “Blagojevich friendly” legislator until early 2007, when she was manhandled by the governor’s top staff…
“It is an obvious example that the governor is a pathological liar.”
The genesis for this week’s legislative special session on education funding is Rev. Sen. James Meeks’ call for a boycott of the Chicago Public School system’s first day of fall classes. But a campaign threat is what really seemed to motivate Gov. Rod Blagojevich to take some action.
Meeks’ boycott idea was widely dismissed at first as a potentially harmful stunt. Reinforcing the notion among students that their schools are so lousy that attending classes is a waste of time is probably not a great message to send, no matter how bad the schools are.
Even so, Sen. Meeks (D-Chicago) has been able to sign up a growing number of fellow African-American ministers to his boycott idea.
African-American ministers represent one of the last bastions of support for the breathtakingly unpopular Blagojevich. So, if some of them are ready to revolt, he’s gotta be ready to listen.
The most interesting part, though, was when Meeks appeared on Fox Chicago Sunday, one of those “newsmaker” interview shows.
Meeks announced that he would run against Blagojevich if the governor ran for reelection in 2010.
“If he runs again, I’ll definitely run against him,” Meeks told the show’s hosts.
Meeks blasted Blagojevich during the program for not keeping his campaign promise to put $2 billion into education funding.
“He has failed in the area of education,” Meeks said.
Blagojevich always seems to respond best to threats like this. Meeks’ threats to run against Blagojevich in 2006 prompted the governor to pledge that aforementioned $2 billion for schools, which never materialized.
So when Meeks made yet another campaign threat, the governor didn’t wait to ask “How high?”. He jumped.
Blagojevich quickly called a one-day special session and then said he was considering bringing lawmakers back in September until they came up with a plan to fund education, even if the special sessions lasted until the November elections.
That’s pretty extreme, but the governor apparently wanted to head Meeks off at the pass. Right now, Meeks is the only potential black gubernatorial candidate in the 2010 Democratic primary. Keeping Meeks out would give Blagojevich a shot at the African-American vote, which could prove decisive in a multi-candidate race against a bunch of white Democrats.
Whatever happens, the special sessions will certainly provide a more constructive and positive outlet for the growing protest. Meeks and other members of the Black Caucus plan to showcase legislation that would “sunset” (the legislative term for allowing a law to die on its own by a certain date) local property taxes for schools by 2010.
The idea, based on the state of Michigan’s experience, is to create a “doomsday” deadline to spur some sort of action. Michigan sunsetted its own property tax several years ago and eventually settled on the sales tax as a replacement.
The obvious question is whether, and for how long, the governor will remain focused on this issue. He’s infamous for bouncing around from one bright, shiny ball to another without any serious follow-through. And Meeks is right that school funding reform has never been much of a Blagojevich priority.
Indeed, when the governor was asked last week about Meeks’ property tax sunset idea, he said he opposed it. When asked repeatedly by reporters if he had any funding reform ideas of his own, he dodged the questions.
The property tax sunset idea was opposed by just about every school group and union when it was introduced in the House earlier this year. But the Illinois Federation of Teachers is taking a second look at the plan in the wake of the latest developments. That doesn’t mean it will actually pass, but the proposal may have a little more life in it than some of us may have initially expected.
And if nothing happens? Well, the governor is off the hook because he called the special sessions. Blagojevich can revert to his favorite game of blaming House Speaker Michael Madigan for all the troubles in the world.
And Meeks will have demonstrated to his allies and the community at large that he has the influence to drive the state’s agenda. He might even be able to use this as an eventual springboard to higher office.
In other words, like always, education funding reform could turn out to be a “win-win” for politicians, and a “lose-lose” for students and parents.
* Towards An Equitable School Funding System: The system is broken and it must be fixed. We should therefore abolish it, by a date certain, so that the General Assembly and governor will be forced to develop an alternative, equitable, and just school funding system.
* State report: Special tax districts too secret: Quigley and others think that when school districts are not allowed to capture natural tax growth, they are forced to hold referendums to increase their tax base, taking the dirty job of asking for a tax increase away from municipalities.
* Maureen Murphy, the Illinois Republican Party State Central Committee Member for Congressional District 1 and the Worth Township GOP Chairman, has passed away
That history remains threatened by the state’s budget crisis as Gov. Rod Blagojevich recently vetoed $2.7 million from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency’s fiscal year 2009 budget.
“We must end pay-to-play politics,” Hynes said while in Morris Wednesday. “It was dramatized in the (George) Ryan trial. A contractor can receive a $5 million contract and the next day write a $100,000 (campaign) check to a state office holder.
The truly interesting thing about the John Edwards love child scandal is not that it happened — men are human beings, alas — but how, having been broken by the National Enquirer, the story percolated for weeks in the online world before exploding Friday into what is called with increasing derision “the mainstream media.”
Cook County leads the nation as the county with the highest number of whites — meaning those not Hispanic, black, Asian, American Indian or Native Hawaiian — moving out, according to recently released U.S. Census figures.
In the summer of 1980, Dad ordered one of my brothers to record the Rolling Stones song “Emotional Rescue” on a 90-minute cassette tape, back to back, over and over again. He drove us all crazy with that tape, but it’s a funny memory (now)…
