Senate President Emil Jones has circulated a memo today to his members saying the Senate will not reconvene until Nov. 12. The move means state park closures, social service cuts and potential state layoffs will not be staved off in the short term.
It also means that the ethics bill is dead because the Senate would have to act on the House’s override within 15 calendar days.
This ain’t over yet. Expect much gnashing of teeth.
The Illinois Constitution requires the Senate to act on the ethics bill sent over by the House yesterday within a 15-day time limit or it dies. But Davidsmeyer said Senate Democratic researchers don’t believe that time limit kicks in until the Senate reads the measure into its records, and that hasn’t happened yet.
The two other issues - restoring budget cuts and approving a lottery lease - do not have a constitutional deadline attached to them.
However, dozen of state workers face the loss of their jobs if the budget cuts aren’t reversed before November 12th, and state parks and historic sites are supposed to close before then.
Jones is arguing that the 15-day constitutional rule has been misinterpreted in the past, so they don’t have to show up.
Just one more reason for a con-con, if you ask me.
More tomorrow.
* 5:23 pm - From a press release…
This Saturday, Sept. 13, frontline employees of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and their supporters will rally to stop the closure of 14 state historic sites and the layoff of 34 historic preservation workers as a result of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s recent budget cuts.
The demonstration will coincide with the Illinois State Historical Society’s annual awards reception at the governor’s mansion—located just blocks away from the landmark Dana-Thomas House, one of the historic sites marked for closure by Blagojevich.
But several lawmakers from both parties said Jones is wrong to wait because doing so will jeopardize the legislation. They cited a provision in the state constitution that a 15-day clock starts ticking once one chamber votes on a governor’s proposed changes and delivers the legislation to the second chamber. Without action after 15 days, the legislation would die.
The House delivered the ethics legislation Thursday to the secretary of the Senate, but Jones said the 15-day clock does not start until the Senate returns and reads the bill into the official record.
Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), part of Madigan’s leadership team, questioned Jones’ decision. If his interpretation is incorrect, then his action by inaction will have killed the ethics reform,” Lang said.
The matter could be challenged in court, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers said.
* Rod Blagojevich just can’t help himself when it comes to Barack Obama. During the Rezko trial, Blagojevich often pointed out to reporters that Rezko also had connections to Obama.
“I would hope the Democrats wouldn’t say that about a governor,” Blagojevich, a former state legislator and congressman, told O’Dell of criticism that the first-term [Gov. Sarah Palin] lacks experience.
“The reality is, governors every day have to make decisions for better or for worse. That’s part of the job. It’s an executive position. And it’s a position that is like what you’re going to do when you’re president. Legislators, they do different things. They debate and they pass their bills back and forth,” he said.
The time [Gov. Palin has] spent away from the capital and her state-funded travel have come under question.
That’s not unlike Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Palin has been criticized for accepting daily expense reimbursements while living at her Wasilla home. Some lawmakers have said she isn’t in the Capitol enough. And her family often travels at state expense.
Democrat Blagojevich spends little time in Springfield and last year sometimes flew daily round trips between the Capitol and his Chicago home. His state-funded travel has been questioned and tax experts even believe he could owe taxes on some because it’s a personal fringe benefit.
Metal bats would be banned from all youth baseball leagues in Chicago under an ordinance that Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) is set to introduce at today’s City Council meeting.
Advocates of the ban argue that metal bats are more dangerous than wood bats.
“The statistics show that a ball that comes off of a wooden bat goes at about 93 miles an hour, probably at most, but a metal bat anywhere from 100 to 125 miles an hour,” Fioretti said. “Our pastime is built upon the wooden bat. It’s not upon the metal bat.”
The ban would apply to all baseball games involving children under 18 years old and over 8.
Similar legislation introduced in the Illinois General Assembly last year by state Rep. Robert Molaro (D-Chicago)) has not been approved. The state proposal would make it illegal for any coach, parent or teacher to allow aluminum bats in baseball or softball games involving players under 13 years old. Violators would face fines of between $250 and $500.
David Williams, a coach and former president of Hamlin Park Baseball on the North Side, said new standards put into place in 2003 that limit the maximum velocity at which a ball can come off a metal bat — called the Ball Exit Speed Ratio — should ease parents’ fears.
“I think [the proposal] is a knee- jerk reaction,'’ said Williams, whose 10-year-old son Logan used an aluminum bat while practicing at the BASH Sports Academy on Wednesday.
* The question: Should metal bats be banned by the state? Explain.
An independent Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group named U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-3rd) to its fourth annual list of the “20 most corrupt members of Congress” on Wednesday, singling out for scrutiny his local chief of staff, Oak Lawn Trustee Jerry Hurckes.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington claims Hurckes may have violated the prohibition against congressional staffers serving as lobbyists. It also argues his acceptance of contributions to his trustee campaign from interests with business before a committee on which Lipinski serves may violate House ethics rules. And the group also questions the $60,000 in consulting fees he received from Bridgeview Bank.
“Mr. Hurckes clearly used his position in the House to provide special treatment to his constituents and encouraged the notion that his constituents would receive preferential treatment from Rep. Lipinski’s congressional office,” CREW stated in a news release.
Hurckes said neither he nor Lipinski, of Western Springs, has done anything wrong and that CREW’s claims amount to “a rehash of old news.”
Lipinski dismissed the charges against Hurckes and pointed out that while it’s his name on the list, CREW said little about the congressman himself.
It’s true that not much was said about Lipinski, but he is, obviously, the responsible party.
Given that Mr. Hurckes is the most highly paid staff member in Rep. Lipinski’s office, that his position is a full-time job and is generally considered a “senior staff” position, the fact that Mr. Hurckes’ salary is just under the figure that would make him “senior staff” suggests that Rep. Lipinski is paying Mr. Hurckes a salary under this limit precisely so that he can earn a substantial outside income. As a result, the House Ethics committee ought to investigate whether Rep. Lipinski and Mr. Hurckes are attempting to end-run the outside income restrictions.
* And here’s another one..
Finally, by accepting money for his local electoral campaign from companies with interests before Rep. Lipinski, Mr. Hurckes is using his position as a congressional staff member to accept benefits under circumstances which might be construed by reasonable persons as influencing the performance of official duties in violation of House rules.
* Sometimes, I think that Gov. Blagojevich acts just like a spoiled child. His temper tantrum yesterday only reinforced that notion…
It was a very angry Governor Blagojevich going off on mostly the CTA Wednesday. He says the CTA should stop lying to the people and stop breaking promises made in order to get a sales tax increase. Wednesday’s heated words came one day after Mayor Daley pointed fingers at Blagojevich for offering free rides to senior citizens.
“Go back to the CTA and tell them to stop lying to the people. They already broke their promise because they laid off some workers. And now they’re talking about a fare increase, which is yet another broken promise,” Blagojevich said.
A heated Governor Blagojevich accused the CTA of lies, lies and more lies after CTA president Ron Huberman announced a $40 million budget shortfall Monday.
Blagojevich said he plans to “make some changes” to his appointments on the CTA board in an effort to provide more oversight and block a possible fare increase. The transit agency has blamed Blagojevich for some of its budget woes, and warned this week that fare increases may be necessary to cover increasing fuel costs and to pay for a program he pushed that gives free rides to thousands of senior citizens.
The governor said the CTA was exaggerating the impact of the free ride program and accused the agency of lying to lawmakers when pursuing a sales-tax increase to prevent a “doomsday” scenario earlier this year.
“They ought to stop blaming senior citizens, and they ought to stop being dishonest to the public,” Blagojevich said at a news conference on the city’s Southwest Side. “They said if the General Assembly gave them that sales-tax increase that they would not increase fares, that they wouldn’t lay people off and that they wouldn’t cut service, but already we know that they’ve broken that promise.”
As I wrote yesterday, the governor is mostly right on the actual issue. But, as usual, he feels the need to demonize anyone who would dare disagree with him or call him out. This is not the behavior of a reasonable human being.
Maybe it’s because he was handed everything early in his political career. He was made a state legislator and he was made a congressman. He never had to do any real legislative work in either venue because he had such a safe seat and because he didn’t have the temperament.
In a move aimed at insulating themselves from pre-election charges of being a do-nothing legislature, members of the Illinois House Wednesday took steps toward putting a statewide construction program on the books
* Rather than focus all that much on the details of the Lottery lease, the big debate yesterday was over why the House Democrats had provided a revenue stream for the capital projects package, but no actual capital projects…
But the House bill under consideration did not specify which capital projects the lottery lease money would fund.
“When are you going to pass the jobs bill? When are you going to invest in building schools and hospitals and fixing our roads and our bridges and investing in the public transportation needs of our state?” said Governor Blagojevich.
But Flynn-Currie says the House bill could not be specific about spending because no state has ever leased its lottery.
“We don’t know at this moment whether the idea of leasing the lottery will hold water. We probably won’t know for six or eight months whether we have a done deal,” said Flynn-Currie.
That’s true, but the story behind the story which you probably won’t see in the newspapers is that the House Democrats don’t want to give the House Republicans any juicy projects before the November elections. They also would rather deal with a new Senate President, rather than sit down with Emil Jones before he retires.
But the House didn’t pass a spending plan for construction projects. Many House members complained they were only doing half the job.
“The audacity of anyone calling this a capital bill is insulting,” said House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego.
Cross urged leaders to sit down and work out a spending plan by October or this would be the “biggest political hoax we’ve seen so far this year.” He then voted for the lease idea. [emphasis added]
That tidbit about somebody railing against a bill and then voting for it is often left out of these types of stories, so kudos to Finke.
“At least it’s a starting point,” said state Rep. Pat Verschoore, D-Milan, a regular critic of the lottery lease who voted for the lease to move the construction program forward. “We just need a capital bill and it looks like it’s the only way we’re going to get one.”
“Madigan wants it,” is a good enough reason for most House Dems.
State legislators Wednesday agreed to tap into $221 million in special funds to save the jobs of state workers facing layoffs and to keep open state parks slated for closure.
The move by House members brings cuts Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced last month one step closer to be being undone. Funding would be restored for Department of Children and Family Services workers, alcohol and substance abuse counselors and for state historic sites and parks.
* I’m kind of surprised that this didn’t get more play today…
A separate measure approved by the House, although by fewer members, would ensure that Medicaid providers would receive more timely reimbursements from the state, but the $371 million to do so would not be covered by the fund sweeps. Hannig said the House wants to work with the governor to find another funding source for the Medicaid payments. Most of the state dollars would capture federal matching funds.
The Senate is not slated to return back to Springfield until November, though some lawmakers, like state Rep. Pat Verschoore, D-Milan, think the cash-strapped agencies will pressure for a special Senate session before then.
Even if the Senate OKs the plan, it still needs the governor’s approval.
“We have several concerns with the proposed legislation,” said gubernatorial spokeswoman Kelley Quinn, who said the funds might not have enough money to support the sweeps.
The Illinois House on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attempt to rewrite ethics legislation aimed at preventing him from giving state contracts to campaign donors.
The high-profile smackdown in Springfield came hours after the embattled governor argued in Chicago that lawmakers should embrace amendments he inserted into the bill to improve and toughen it.
House lawmakers instead voted 110-3 to override Blagojevich’s proposed changes, accusing him of trying to kill the ban on pay-to-pay politics rather than enhance it.
The bill’s fate is still uncertain. If the state Senate does not also reject the governor’s changes, the legislation dies.
If the measure isn’t voted on in the Senate within 15 days, the entire bill and the changes die. Senate Democrats have said until they see what the House does, they don’t have plans to return to work until November.
[Rep. John Fritchey] said Senate leaders have repeatedly promised to call an override for a vote in that chamber and hopes they live up to that commitment.
* The ethics bill wasn’t the only veto override yesterday. If and/or when the Senate returns, they’ll have to deal with bill like these…
HB 1432: Insurance coverage of sexual assault services
Originally passed 94-20-0 in the House and 56-0 in the Senate
The House overrode the changes, 77-36, on September 10, 2008 Original intent: It would require insurance companies to pay for treatment of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa in addition to other mental health services they already cover. Governor’s changes: The governor would add treatment and services for sexual abuse victims, as well as for their parents, children, spouses, siblings, domestic or same-sex partners if they die or commit suicide from the abuse.
HB 953:
Insurance coverage of autism services
Originally passed the House 100-7-0 and the Senate 48-4-3
The House overrode the changes, 84-29, September 10, 2008 Original intent: It would expand mandatory insurance coverage of mental health services to also cover marriage counseling or therapy. Governor’s changes: It would require insurance companies to reimburse families for diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders for children younger than 21. The benefit would max out at $36,000 a year but would be annually adjusted for inflation. Families still would have to pay a co-payment and deductible as usual for their policies, but they could not be dropped from their policies simply because their children were diagnosed with a form of autism.
* The Sun-Times uncovers a nifty little trick at the Chicago Children’s “Museum.” Visitors pay $19 to $23 to park, the museum takes a headcount as everyone walks in, and…
Then, at the end of the year, the museum uses its total annual attendance to help it get a six-figure “parking rebate” from its government landlord, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority.
Last year, McPier gave the museum $550,000 — money awarded based on the idea that visitors deserve a break on the high cost of parking, records show.
But the museum didn’t use that money to rebate anybody’s parking. Instead, it gave about half the money back to its landlord to cover its share of maintenance costs for common areas of Navy Pier. The museum pocketed the rest for its operating budget.
“Only about 54 or 55 percent of our visitors arrive by car,” Natalie Kreiger, the museum’s spokeswoman, reasons. “With the parking money going into our operating budget, all of our visitors benefit from that money.” [,,,]
Well, the museum had 445,765 visitors last year. The museum estimates that about 245,000 of them arrived by car. Figure, conservatively, that all 245,000 traveled two to a car — a parent and child. That would mean the museum could have provided $4-per-car rebates to all museum visitors who parked in Navy Pier’s garage — and still have had money left over.
Sweet deal, eh?
* More…
A year-by-year look at the “parking rebate” McPier pays to the Chicago Children’s Museum:
2001-02 $270,267
2002-03 $340,043
2003-04 $408,347
2004-05 $489,331
2005-06 $569,887
2006-07 $550,000*
Total $2,627,875
*First year of a $550,000 cap on the parking rebate.
Source: Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority
Rep. Bill Black (R-Danville) announced on the House floor yesterday that he was inspired by the Blagojevich-Madigan hugfest and offered to hug Madigan himself. They embraced in the hallway…
“All those times we come here, you take it for granted,” Watson said in an interview on the floor Wednesday. “But this time it was like, it’s good to be home. It’s good to walk up, and hopefully you don’t lose that enthusiasm.”
Students will be measured every five weeks in math, English, social sciences, science and physical education. An A nets $50, a B equals $35 and a C still brings in $20. Students will get half the money upfront, with the remainder paid upon graduation. A straight-A student could earn up to $4,000 by the end of his or her sophomore year.
Saturday, Gov. Blagojevich announced a partnership between the state and eight Illinois-based credit unions that invested $100 million in securities to finance low-interest, federally backed loans.
Because the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, not the lenders, will determine who gets the loans, community college students’ requests are considered with the same weight as students from 4-year institutions, spokesman Claude Walker said.
Mochal said Presto-X used grain treated with Avitrol, a chemical that causes birds to emit cries and visual signals that frighten away others in a flock. He said ConAgra officials did not know Avitrol would be used or that it is controversial. Avitrol is banned in some jurisdictions, including New York City.
After four years of heading the 16th Circuit, Chief Judge Donald C. Hudson is bound for the Illinois Appellate Court.
Hudson will replace 2nd District Appellate Court Justice R. Peter Grometer, who will retire from the bench in early January. The court is located in Elgin.
* Dem Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran Endorses GOP State’s Attorney Mike Waller, Takes Heat From Terry Link
* 1:01 pm - The guv went on the attack again today. No surprise…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich slammed CTA leadership today, accusing the agency of being dishonest to the public, and “scaring” the General Assembly into passing sales tax hikes.
Blagojevich said everyone on the CTA board takes its marching orders from City Hall, and he plans on appointing new members to the CTA board who will think independently.
It appears the House is positioning itself to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in project and program funding cut by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to balance the budget. Cuts and closings of state parks, historic sites and jobs at DCFS and the Department of Human Services would be reversed.
However, it also appears at this point that the House will restore for more spending than it will come up with money to support. A quick glance of the “uncuts” found more than $880 million restored. But a run through of the money in the special state accounts the House would tap came up with less than half that amount. [emphasis added]
The fund sweeps would produce about $266 million in revenues if all were tapped. That’s a whole lot less than the $880 million which would be restored, if all of those pass.
CLARIFICATION: What’s going on here is that the House will advance about $214 million in funds sweeps and a like amount in budget restorations, including for alcohol and substance abuse programs and state parks and historic sites. The rest, about $371 million in GRF and a bunch in federal match (mostly payment cycle stuff) is not yet funded, but the House Dems say they are willing to work with the governor, the Senate and the Repubs to come up with funding streams.
ComEd customers in Illinois will soon pay 6 percent more, but a consumer group plans to appeal the decision to increase utility bills.
The Illinois Commerce Commission approved the delivery rate hike for the utility giant Wednesday, adding about $4.50 to the average consumer’s bill.
* 3:12 pm [Posted by Kevin Fanning] - WBEZ has posted audio from the Governor’s comments regarding the CTA. Also included in the audio is Blagojevich answering questions from reporters on the capital bill and the debate over education funding.
* 4:05 pm - The House has overriden the governor’s amendatory veto of the ethics bill. Just three members (Hoffman, Granberg and Collins) voted against the override.
* So, back in 2003, state Sen. Barack Obama voted for a bill in commitee that expanded non-mandated sex education classes to far younger students. Previously, sex education was available by state law only to children in grades 6 through 12.
The proposal, sponsored by Sens. Carol Ronen, Maggie Crotty, Susan Garrett and others (but not Obama) passed Sen. Obama’s Health & Human Services Committee on a 7-4 vote.
It was backed by the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the Lake County Health Department, the IL Public Health Association and the IL Champter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, among others.
* One of the changes, besides the school grade range, was this (all changes underlined)…
All course material and instruction shall be age and developmentally appropriate.
* One of the stated goals of the bill was to make sure that younger children were informed how to avoid sexual predators, and the language on that section of existing law was tightened up (again, proposed additions are underlined)…
Course material and instruction shall teach pupils to not make unwanted physical and verbal sexual advances and how to say no to unwanted sexual advances and shall include information about verbal, physical, and visual sexual harassment, including without limitation nonconsensual sexual advances, nonconsensual physical sexual contact, and rape by an acquaintance. The course material and instruction shall contain methods of preventing sexual assault by an acquaintance, including exercising good judgment and avoiding behavior that impairs one’s judgment.
“Well, I had noticed that, in your voting, you had voted, at one point, that sex education should begin in kindergarten, and you justified it by saying that it would be “age-appropriate” sex education.”
“We have a existing law that mandates sex education in the schools. We want to make sure that it’s medically accurate and age-appropriate.
“Now, I’ll give you an example, because I have a six-year-old daughter and a three-year-old daughter, and one of the things my wife and I talked to our daughter about is the possibility of somebody touching them inappropriately, and what that might mean.
“And that was included specifically in the law, so that kindergarteners are able to exercise some possible protection against abuse, because I have family members as well as friends who suffered abuse at that age. So, that’s the kind of stuff that I was talking about in that piece of legislation.” [Emphasis added]
Keyes was so outrageous on everything else that nobody really bought into his argument.
* Sen. Susan Garrett, one of the co-sponsors, said today that, as she remembers the bill, it never required schools to teach sex education and it allowed an opt-out, both of which are correct.
“‘Nobody’s suggesting that kindergartners are going to be getting information about sex in the way that we think about it,’” Obama told the Daily Herald. “‘If they ask a teacher ‘where do babies come from,’ that providing information that the fact is that it’s not a stork is probably not an unhealthy thing. Although again, that’s going to be determined on a case by case basis by local communities and local school boards.’”
* However, the proposal was certainly controversial. It was never brought to the full Senate for a vote and the Republicans were against it. Even so, former GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney tried to make it an issue, but it never caught fire.
* And, now, it’s become part of the presidential campaign via an ad by Sen. John McCain…
* From the ad…
“Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama. Wrong on education. Wrong for your family.”
McCain’s ad is to air in parts of Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri and Wisconsin, as well as on the Discovery channel.
* Mclatchy fact checks the ad and pronounces it way off base…
This is a deliberately misleading accusation. It came hours after the Obama campaign released a TV ad critical of McCain’s votes on public education. As a state senator in Illinois, Obama did vote for but was not a sponsor of legislation dealing with sex ed for grades K-12.
But the gap between the implication (Obama has liberal, radical views about sexuality) and the reality in this ad is pretty big and fairly consequential.
“It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls – a position that his friend Mitt Romney also holds. Last week, John McCain told Time magazine he couldn’t define what honor was. Now we know why,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
* My own take: The bill in question was just too hot to deal with at the time, and remains so today. Too often in Springfield, legislators vote for legislation in committee just because it’s supported by a friend, or a fellow party member, or to advance it along because they support the concept but realize that it needs further work.
Obama has said time and again that he supports the concept of teaching sex ed to kindergartners to help them avoid sexual predators, but that’s not completely what this bill was about. If he wanted to just help kids learn the warning signs, he could’ve sponsored a bill to do only that. This bill went beyond that scope.
For instance, here is some of the proposed language…
Course material and instruction shall present the latest medically factual information regarding both the possible side effects and health benefits of all forms of contraception, including the success and failure rates for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
Again, this was all supposed to be age and developmentally appropriate, but the above language had absolutely nothing to do with keeping very young kids safe from sexual predators.
Still, McCain’s TV ad is way, way, way over the top and is terribly misleading, if not downright scandalous. It probably deserves whatever criticism it gets.
We had a version of this question during last week’s Republican National Convention, so it’s only right that we have one for the other side as well.
Who is your favorite Illinois Democrat? Explain.
Bonus Questions: Who is your least favorite Illinois Democrat? Explain.
As before, please answer the first question before you get to the bonus question. Also, let’s leave the governor, Mayor Daley and the two legislative leaders out of the equation. It’s too easy. Dig deeper, please. Thanks.
*** UPDATE 2 - 11:28 am *** Both parties are now going to caucus and committees will start at 12:30 pm.
*** UPDATE 3 - 11:41 am *** From a lobbyist…
We’re holding a press conference today at 12:00 in the blue room announcing supplemental approps bills to restore the DNR funding cuts. I expect both statewide and local advocates plus legislators.
The famous hug last month between Gov. Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan at the Democratic convention did not signal a full-blown detente.
But in its wake, the unthinkable has happened: Madigan signaled a willingness to entertain one of Blagojevich’s boldest ideas.
Madigan called the House back into session today to consider a proposal he rejected long ago: privatizing the lottery to pay for a sorely needed statewide road, transit and school construction program.
Actually, Madigan has been talking about a Lottery lease with his members for several weeks, as I and others have previously reported. Days before “the hug,” Madigan told State Fair attendees that “the prospects look very, very good” for a Lottery lease deal.
* Anyway, on to today’s session. Finke probably has the best MSM coverage…
Illinois House members return to Springfield today with plans to lease the Illinois Lottery, restore some money cut from the budget and to override Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s amendatory veto of a major ethics bill.
[Rep. Gary Hannig] said he does not expect the House to take up a spending bill that would allocate money to capital projects.
“We would have to engage the Senate and the governor’s office to do that,” Hannig said. “We could send something over to the Senate, but it wouldn’t really be a compromise. Why would you want to put out false hopes?”
Republicans complain that while the speaker and governor could finally agree on how to raise the revenue for the capital plan, the Democrats have not listed in detail how they’ll spend the money.
“Not talking about spending certainly begs the question is this real when the complete package is revenue and spending,” said Rep. Cross.
If there are no spending specifics, lawmakers cannot return home before the election to tout their accomplishments. The Republicans want a capital bill with spending details by October 1.
But Madigan–who has said publicly he doesn’t trust Blagojevich–reportedly wants it written in a capital bill that the terms of any lottery lease must be approved by State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes. Both Giannoulias and Hynes identify themselves as Blagojevich opponents.
On Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman for the governor’s office released a statement about those terms:
“We don’t see any problem with that. It’s a good first step for them to at least agree in substance with leasing the lottery”.
Hannig said the House is looking at taking $250 million from such programs, although the amount could be slightly higher by the time representatives vote on a bill.
That’s less than half of the $530 million Blagojevich wanted to use earlier this year.
The best-known amendatory veto involves House Bill 824, which would ban campaign contributions from people or companies that do more than $50,000 a year in business with the state. Although the ban applies to all statewide officials, the measure was mainly directed at Blagojevich, who collects large sums from those contractors.
What about schools? The lottery provides roughly 3 percent - $600-some million - of all K-12 public education spending annually. So far, lottery lease plans have called for setting aside a portion of the upfront payment to ensure the education budget is not shorted.
Insiders take: To outsiders this two-day session rightly appears rather incremental. But to insiders any indication that House Speaker Michael Madigan and Gov. Rod Blagojevich are working together would be monumental. The two have been bitter rivals but at the Democratic National Convention in Denver were prodded into a public hug in an alleged show of unity.
The optimist says: This could be a good-faith effort among the state’s Democratic leaders to move ahead and put political gridlock behind them.
The skeptic says: Only the House is returning for a vote. The Senate is not, so this is a long way from being a deal. And the House is only considering the money-raising side of the equation, not the project-spending side that is sure to create its own controversies.
Instead of creating jobs, instead of working to expand access to health care, instead of building schools and fixing bridges and instead of protecting taxpayers from higher taxes, some lawmakers are more concerned with simply taking care of their own.
A drug treatment center in Elgin is laying off staff members and eliminating beds because of state budget cuts, the group that runs the center announced Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for Lutheran Social Services of Illinois said a $1.4 million state funding cut means five staff members in Elgin have been told their jobs are being eliminated.
The cuts also mean the halfway house and residential treatment programs at the Elgin site will each eliminate one bed. That could mean as many as 38 fewer people being treated between the two programs each year.
Lutheran Social Services, one of many agencies providing counseling and treatment on behalf of the state, announced Tuesday a total of 21 staff cuts between its programs in Elgin and Chicago and urged lawmakers to restore funding.
* Based on an inaccurate media report yesterday, I criticized a Republican proposal as “pandering in the extreme.” It’s actually not as extreme as we were led to believe…
The Illinois House’s top Republican said Tuesday he’s crafting legislation designed to stop the longtime practice of outgoing elected officials anointing their successors without any say from voters. […]
[House GOP Leader Tom Cross] said his bill is still being drafted but that if a seat were left vacant before June 30, a special primary election would be held within 70 days.
If a vacancy occurred after that date, party leaders would name a temporary candidate to fill the general election ballot spot.
But a special primary and special general election for the seat would be required if the temporary candidate won office.
The bill wouldn’t apply to congressional vacancies, but it would apply to statewides, legislators and Cook County.
The key change in the proposed law is that even if an officeholder decides to resign just before a general election, and hand her place on the ballot her child or other insider, there would still be a special primary and another election right after the general, so there would not be a full term.
It’s not clear that any of this will go anywhere. The Illinois State Senate president is Emil Jones, Jr., who just gave his state senate seat to his son, Emil Jones III.
* The Tribune ran an editorial yesterday about pending CTA fare hikes and blamed much of the problem on Gov. Rod Blagojevich…
More evidence came Monday that Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s efforts to buy off the electorate voter by voter come at a real, significant cost. The Chicago Transit Authority announced it will eliminate 80 more jobs. Fare increases and service cuts could be on tap for next year.
Why? Several reasons. But here’s a big one: Blagojevich insisted that the CTA and other state transit agencies give away their services to certain people.
Last week, Blagojevich signed a bill that requires public transit agencies to provide free rides for poor people who have disabilities. Earlier this year, he insisted on those agencies give free rides for senior citizens. (The Chicago City Council also got in the act, telling the CTA to give free rides to soldiers and disabled veterans.)
Meanwhile, Blagojevich has cut the state funding that transit agencies counted on to help pay for free and discounted transit rides. That’s putting a squeeze on the people who have to provide the services the governor loves to give away.
Providing free rides will cost the CTA $34.5 million in 2009. Blagojevich just took away $32 million in annual state subsidies to the CTA intended to offset reduced fares.
Daley is pointing at the free rides for seniors as a reason the CTA tightened its bureaucratic belt by another $40 million this week to lay the political groundwork for a fare hike and service cuts.
Daley said Tuesday the agency’s financial woes can be blamed partially on the governor’s veto of the state’s reduced fare subsidy, and his executive order mandating free rides for low-income people with disabilities. He said those problems were exacerbated by the Chicago City Council’s decision to extend the freebie to active military personnel and disabled veterans.
“To think that a $66 million program in a $1.2 billion budget is causing all this is hard to believe. It amounts to two-to-three-cents-a-rider. They’re using seniors as a scapegoat. It’s just not right. It’s not fair,” [Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero] said, suggesting that the CTA follow the state’s lead and cut jobs instead of raising fares.
Guerrero argued that the slumping real estate market, declining retail sales and rising fuel costs are even more responsible for the CTA’s budget crisis. The CTA expected the real estate transfer tax hike to produce $7 million in May. The actual take was $2.7 million, he said.
* Guerrero appears to be correct. According to the CTA itself, May sales tax receipts were $1.8 million below budget, and real estate transfer tax receipts were $4.3 million below the average monthly budgeted amount.
Those two factors alone work out to an annualized budget shortfall of $73.2 million.
By contrast, fare revenue continues to exceed budget due to higher ridership and a higher average fare.
In other words, they’re bringing in even more fare revenues than expected despite the free rides.
* The bottom line is this: Yes, the free rides and the governor’s veto of subsidies has probably hurt the CTA’s budget. But those factors don’t appear to be the sole or even the most significant source of the problem.
Disappointing tax receipts - from the stalled housing and retail economy along with people leaving Cook County to shop - appear to be the real problem here.
* Related…
* CTA plans comment sessions - Public can discuss good, bad about city’s transit agency
For some reason, the fax I sent out this morning didn’t process correctly, so I’m now resending to the entire list. You can scroll down for a text version if you can’t wait. Sorry about that. Hopefully, it won’t happen again.
Springfield has hosted conventions of every description from toothpick holder collectors on up, or on down, depending on your perspective. This weekend, in what is surely a first, we are hosting bloggers.
Staffers from the Illinois Bureau of Tourism have spent the last six months identifying and tracking down bloggers. The state has invited them to spend this weekend experiencing what Springfield has to offer. They expect about 10 to come to town.
Again, normally this would be an innovative step, even if the state has hired a gaint PR firm to handle the meetup and only about ten bloggers are planning to show. It takes time to develop a program like this, and, besides, why should dead tree reporters get all the attention?
Will this meetup also include a tour of the historic Lincoln and other sites that the state is closing down soon?
* The comment inspired a response…
Rich -
The itinerary does include a couple of the sites whose hours of operation are affected to some extent; however, all of those included in the itinerary remain open to the public for at least one day a week.
The Illinois Bureau of Tourism (IBOT) continues to promote the sites affected, and encourages travelers to explore these and other area attractions.
* The FB meetup page still includes a stop at the Dana-Thomas House, which is closing its doors on October 1st. It won’t “remain open to the public for at least one day a week.”
An early itinerary for this weekend included showing the bloggers the Dana-Thomas House State Historic Site. That turned out to be unfortunate, considering that the house will close on Oct. 1. Instead, blogger weekend will focus more on Springfield’s Lincoln sites and restaurants.
“Unfortunate” is right.
* What we have here is a public relations push for Illinois tourism at exactly the same time that the governor and the General Assembly are combining to devastate Illinois tourism in areas throughout Downstate Illinois. Also, I want to make this as clear as I can: The PR firm isn’t to blame, and neither is the tourism agency. They’re doing what they do.
But it would be nice if the bloggers who attend (I have lots of family members coming to town this weekend so I probably won’t be able to make it, but I might) would ask some pointed questions about the site closures and how this will impact tourism.
— Dana-Thomas House, Springfield
— Lincoln log cabin near Charleston
— David Davis mansion, Bloomington
— Fort de Chartres, Randolph County
— Vandalia statehouse
— State center at Bishop Hill, Henry County
— Carl Sandburg birthplace, Galesburg
— Cahokia courthouse
— Bryant Cottage, Bement
— Jubilee College, near Peoria
— Apple River Fort, Elizabeth
— Fort Kaskaskia, Randolph County
— Pierre Menard home, Randolph County
* Related…
* Kickapoo concerns dominate Vermilion County Board meeting
David Hartke, president of the Illinois Counties Solid Waste Management Association, urged that pharmacies be required to take back unused medications and to dispose of them by incineration.
“It would be ideal to have pharmacies take back all substances,” he said.
But Garrett also took Hartke to task.
“I feel like you are passing the buck and everyone is saying, ‘Let’s have so-and-so take care of it,’” she said. “Our goal is to work with each entity in a collaborative way.”
A candidate seeking the highest law enforcement job in Cook County ought to be the first to distance himself from even potentially misleading campaign propaganda. And this flier goes beyond “potentially.”
Instead of ceasing and desisting, Peraica has responded to the U.S. attorney with . . . an invitation to lunch. So far, no response.
Mr. Peraica, quit trying to be clever. This stunt doesn’t inspire confidence that you’d be a judicious prosecutor—or that you’d enjoy the respect and cooperation of the U.S. attorney’s office.
Fitzgerald doesn’t want to be a prop on your flier, and he won’t be a prop at lunch. Better to apologize, recall the misleading fliers—and put all half-million out for recycling.
Richard Means, a campaign-finance attorney, said an organization that raises at least $3,000 for a candidate has 10 days to register with the state as a political committee. As of Tuesday, the X Company had not registered, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections’ Web site.
Two years ago, John Kosiba was the highest-ranking City of Chicago official to testify how he helped rig city jobs to reward the mayor’s political workers. Now, Kosiba is facing the loss of his law license as a result of that testimony.
The solution is so simple. New mothers have up to seven days to leave their babies at hospitals, police stations, staffed fire stations and emergency medical care facilities — no questions asked. It’s the result of a law drafted on Dawn Geras’ dining room table, and her tenacity got it passed.
“We want Illinois to be a leader when it comes to keeping credit card companies off campuses,” he said.
The legislation would ban credit issuers from offering free gifts when marketing credit cards on campuses.
“I know a lot of you college students are not happy about (not receiving) free gifts,” Giannoulias said to the crowd. “But over the long term, you’ll be grateful.”
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday announced $4 million in state financial assistance toward development of a $275 million ethanol production facility in Madison.
“He doesn’t have full range of motion yet,” Halvorson said. “This is what rehabilitation is going to take care of. The doctors say in nine to 12 months, he’ll be 100 percent.”
