* It just never ends. I kinda like it that way. We always have something to talk about. Whatever you may think of Rod Blagojevich, he’s sure prompted a whole lotta interest in Illinois government and politics. We are no longer the ignored stepchild.
Anyway, that’s it for me. Head to Illinoize for more, as you should be doing every day. And make sure to post a classified ad or calendar event at InsiderzExchange. It’s the place to be seen.
* 12:40 pm - Now, this is pretty darned desperate…
Governor Rod Blagojevich says he fears next week’s vote could be a “Republican trap” to entangle presidential candidate Barack Obama in the gridlock over Illinois’ ethics legislation.
The Democratic governor says he worries Republican John McCain’s campaign will accuse Obama of helping his old friends in Illinois if state senators override Blagojevich’s veto on ethics legislation. […]
If lawmakers go along with the ethics reform measures he wants, Blagojevich says Obama can brag about how he helped change the system in Illinois.
McCain can say whatever he wants, of course, but Obama would have a far tougher time explaining things if he was siding with the most investigated governor in Illinois history and against every reformer in the General Assembly and every good government group that deals directly with Illinois politics, not to mention every Statehouse journalist and every columnist and editorial page editor in the entire state.
* 2:54 pm - Senate President Emil Jones has just informed his members that the Senate will convene a regular session on Monday at noon. He’s also told his members to be prepared to stay until Tuesday.
* Remember that strange line that a bipartisan legislative committee inserted into the ballot question about a constitutional convention?…
By law, Illinois is required every 20 years to ask voters if they want to hold a constitutional convention.
Because 1988 was the last such vote, our elected officials had to put the question on the ballot in November.
But instead of posing the question in a neutral fashion, as required by law, they inserted this sentence: “In 1988 the electors rejected the call for a constitutional convention, with 75 percent voting against calling a convention and 25 percent voting in favor.” […]
“It’s a factual statement, but you can use the facts to sway an argument, and obviously that fact is included to make voters think this must be a crackpot idea if voters rejected it in such an overwhelming fashion 20 years ago,” said state Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago), who supports a constitutional convention and was one of eight members of a joint House and Senate committee that came up with the language for the Nov. 4 referendum. [emphasis added]
* Lt. Governor Pat Quinn filed a motion with Secretary of State Jesse White to remove the clearly offensive, “leading the jury” language.
On behalf of Secretary of State Jesse White, please be advised that your petition is hereby denied. The Secretary of State’s submission of the question was in accordance with House Joint Resolution No. 0137. Further, the submission of the question was in accordance with Secretary White’s constitutional authority and state statute. Accordingly, the certification of the ballot question will not be revoked.
* Quinn’s response…
The Lt. Governor is disappointed by the Secretary’s decision. He continues to believe that a clear and direct question is the right way to go from a constitutional and legal perspective, but also from the standpoint of basic fairness.
He is considering how to proceed from here.
There will be a press conference on Monday in the blue room in the capitol before special session (exact time TBD) where he will announce his next steps.
* Phil Kadner looks at the striking disparity in Cook County property tax rates…
(I)n Ford Heights, one of the poorest suburbs in the nation, the property tax rate for a homeowner is more than 20 percent of his home’s equalized assessed value. Most of that money goes to the schools.
In the villages of Northfield and Wilmette, two of the wealthier suburbs in Illinois, where the schools are top notch, the tax rate ranges from 4.8 percent to 5.3 percent.
In Winnetka, the home of New Trier Township High School, where state Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) recently brought Chicago students to register for school, the tax rates range from 4.9 percent to 5.3 percent. […]
The property tax rates in Park Forest range from 14 percent to 17 percent and in Markham from 12 percent to 15 percent. Dixmoor is 12.5 percent, Dolton about 13 percent and Riverdale 14.5 percent.
* And he provides this food for thought…
A suburb that has lots of property tax wealth can raise a lot of money with a small tax rate.
Homeowners in a suburb that is property poor can quadruple their tax rate and still not raise as much money.
Actually, they can keep raising the rate, and still barely keep pace. This really needs to be changed.
Chicagoans will face a double whammy. Tax bills will be based on home values as of Jan. 1, 2006, before the lending crisis began battering the housing market. At the same time, the benefits of the 7 percent cap will drop significantly this year for many city homeowners.
“Voters are facing a unique confluence of property tax issues this year,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation.
Six thousand protesters, wearing bright orange T-shirts, could ring Wrigley Field during the first Chicago Cubs playoff game, under a plan by state Sen. James Meeks to move his school funding protests to a national stage.
With the Cubs expected to clinch the playoffs soon, Meeks said Thursday he hopes overhead TV shots from the Goodyear Blimp during the first home playoff game — probably a night game on Oct. 1 — will give the entire nation a view of protesters upset about Illinois’ inequitable school funding system.
* You gotta wonder if Meeks has ever been to a Cub game - not inside, but outside amongst the legions of idiotic drunken revelers…
Chicago Police Department officials said the prospect of dropping off young children in dozens of buses to a sporting event in a congested area filled with excited fans who could be intoxicated raised definite safety, traffic and crowd control concerns.
“Unlike New Trier, where the environment was controlled and enclosed, this . . . is an open environment where children can be subject to vehicular traffic, intoxicated fans — there are a number of external factors,'’ said Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department.
“We can’t compromise the safety of children, the safety of fans and the safety of residents.'’
This idea needs to be dropped. Those kids could get hurt. Plus, it’s tantamount to child abuse to subject them to those inebriated barbarians.
Meeks’ comments followed the release of a new study that found that a small number of Illinois districts with the most property wealth spend $2,324 more per pupil on instruction annually than the vast majority of Illinois districts.
In addition, the study by Ralph Martire of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability found that Illinois elementary-only districts with some of the fewest poor kids tended to do better on state tests when they spent more on their students, especially if they spent at least $6,000 per pupil.
Also Thursday, Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan told a legislative committee that the state should pass a modest income tax hike to boost school funding and forget about a “tax swap'’ that would link property tax relief with higher state taxes.
That point is hammered home by a new study that adds heft to the argument that extra dollars can help boost test scores.
The researchers started by documenting what we all already know: Wealthier school districts spend more per kids than poor districts do. On average, the wealthiest districts spend $4,186 more per child than the poorest ones. Broken down by dollars that go to instruction, the differential is $2,324, according to the analysis by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.
The researchers then tied spending to achievement. Among elementary districts with few poor students, they found a correlation between extra dollars and higher state test scores. Affluent districts that spent up to $5,000 per student on instruction produced a mix of outcomes — about half performed below expectations on state tests, half performed above. When spending approached $7,000, almost every district posted better-than-expected test score averages. The same pattern exists with respect to high-poverty schools, though it’s more tenuous because there are only a small number of poor districts that spend $7,000 per student.
This analysis has its flaws. The researchers were unable to look at the most destitute districts and didn’t analyze the link between high spending and test scores.
* Since the SouthtownStar has published my syndicated newspaper column since 1996, I’m often asked about the paper’s editorial positions and about its columnists.
One question I often hear from Democrats is whether political columnist Kristen McQueary is a Republican.
While we don’t always agree (which is the point, after all, of a columnist) she’s almost always pretty darned fair to both sides. They get whacked when they deserve it.
Her last piece on the Debbie Halvorson vs. Marty Ozinga congressional race was even-handed and soberly reasoned. I may have disagreed a bit with the conclusion, but that’s life, man.
* Now, however, Republican Marty Ozinga’s campaign wants McQueary removed as the moderator of an upcoming debate. From a press release…
It would be hard to imagine a presidential debate moderated by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann. Similarly, we cannot imagine a congressional debate moderated by Kristen McQueary.
Oh, please. Spare me the hyperbole.
* The Ozinga campaign proposes these alternatives…
We propose one of two options to rectify this problem: 1) for balance, have fellow Southtown Star opinion columnist Fran Eaton to serve as the comoderator with Mrs. McQueary; OR 2) have an objective news reporter familiar with the race, such as the Joliet Herald News’ Patrick Ferrell, to serve as the sole moderator.
No offense, but Fran Eaton is such a partisan Republican and so far to the right that adding her to the program would not be “balance” in any imaginable way. You don’t balance “fair” with “unfair.” Ferrell is a darned good reporter, but I can’t possibly imagine why anyone would say Ferrell is far and away a much better choice than McQueary.
* Here is one of the campaign’s reasons for opposing McQueary’s choice…
McQueary’s second column about Ozinga ran the day after his official nomination. We granted her a 40-minute in-person interview, and she chose to focus the article solely on negative questions about Ozinga (rather than write a nice profile piece, like she did on Halvorson the day after she announced). McQueary questioned his integrity and his ability to “stay clean.” Of course, she has never asked that question of Halvorson, even though she’s in the leadership of that famously pure body known as the Illinois General Assembly.
And here are the cherry-picked excerpts…
–“Can a person with those ties, landing those deals, floating in that stratosphere, stay clean?”
–“In the meantime, Ozinga is sticking to a script when asked about the minority program involvement, which the Chicago Tribune detailed in an unflattering 2005 expose. He didn’t break any rules, operate under the table or spur investigations. It was all done aboveboard with good intentions, he says.
–“After 40 minutes, I wasn’t entirely convinced. For railing against the system, Ozinga is doing pretty well within it, running a multimillion-dollar company and befriending politicians on the charity and fundraising circuit.”
I remember that piece and Ozinga got the coverage he deserved.
What a buncha whiners.
*** UPDATE 1 - 12:30 pm *** I just spoke with the person at the Southland Chamber in charge of the debates. They have denied Ozinga’s request, citing McQueary’s fairness and even-handedness and her expertise on Southland politics.
McQueary, apparently, offered to step aside last night, but was asked to stick to her guns.
Good for the Chamber, and good for Kristen.
And, once again, this was a supremely dumb idea by the Ozinga campaign.
*** UPDATE 2 - 2:30 pm *** The debate’s rules have McQueary reading questions submitted by the Southland Chamber and making sure no candidate exceeds their allotted time.
So, Ozinga made a big stink about absolutely nothing.
* OK, after some confusion yesterday, there will be both a “special” session on Monday and a “regular” session. The regular session means that bills beyond the override of governor Blagojevich’s amendatory veto of the ethics bill can be considered. And that means that other veto override motions will likely have to be dealt with and that there will be huge pressure to stop the pending closures of state parks and historic sites. This might take a couple of days…
Cindy Davidsmeyer said that other issues may be on the table as well. “When you convene a regular session day, a variety of issues can be dealt with,” she said.
The distinction between regular and special sessions could be important.
Lawmakers can take up only what the governor puts on their agenda in a special session, which this time will be ethics reform. By calling a regular session, the Senate can — and will face pressure to — consider other important issues: dealing with the governor’s vetoes on several bills, reversing deep budget cuts and approving a lease of the state lottery to fund public works projects.
* I’m not sure whether the first part of this sentence is completely true…
In a separate move that left many lawmakers shaking their heads, Blagojevich also issued a call Thursday for a special session to start at 1 p.m. Monday.
They are certainly shaking their heads, but it’s doubtful that this was, indeed, a “separate move” by a governor acting alone…
Blagojevich spokeswoman Kelley Quinn said the governor and Jones had spoken and that the governor was the only one with authority to call both chambers back on the ethics issue.
Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero suggested the pay-to-play prohibition is yesterday’s news and challenged lawmakers to do more.
“This whole pay-to-play thing, it’s all ready been done. What we’re hoping is the General Assembly does more than just agree with the governor,” he said.
And if they don’t, he warned they might grow accustomed to seeing the Capitol in the coming weeks.
“The governor’s willing to call special sessions as long as it takes,” Guerrero said.
The ethics bill override would restore a simple ban on most state contractors giving money to the governor’s campaign fund. The governor claims his latest executive order will cover that problem, but the EO is so broad that it’s almost undoubtedly illegal.
But, the governor threatened special sessions earlier this summer on education and never followed through, so Guerrero’s threat may be empty.
* The governor has his own ethics bill, which is a compilation of his original amendatory veto language, but good government groups oppose it…
“There is a great deal of consensus that it is an overbroad piece of legislation.” [ said Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.]
And ethics proponents in the General Assembly say the language is nowhere near complete…
“It’s not ready for prime time,” said state Sen. Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat and sponsor of the initial ethics deal. Harmon said he’ll persist with an override of the governor’s changes.
The governor’s people have said the same thing in recent days.
* The decision to call the GA back to town will impact several campaigns, including Halvorson’s..
Locally, Jones’ refusal to go back into session also became an issue in the 11th District Congressional race of Democrat Debbie Halvorson, the Senate Majority Leader who has been taking flack from her Republican opponent Marty Ozinga for an apparent lack of leadership.
“I am extremely pleased the Senate will return to special session to override the governor’s veto of the ban on pay-to-play in Illinois,” Halvorson said in a statement. “I’m glad Sen. Jones finally decided to respect the wishes of the members of his caucus and the people of Illinois.
Illinois is among 36 death penalty states in the United States. Eighteen of the 289 condemned men and women later were exonerated in Illinois, making the state second behind only Florida in documented wrongful convictions.
The plan calls on every city resident to reduce their emissions by making 13 changes listed at chicagoclimateaction.org. Complying with the changes would save you more than $800 a year. Lowering your thermostat by 3 degrees, for example, would shave $129 in energy costs.
Despite tight county finances, Walsh said the county will be able to make road and other infrastructure improvements through the $200 million “Build Will” public works program that’s being financed by the county’s share of the mass-transit sales tax increase approved the Legislature in March.
