* According to the Commission on Government Forecasting & Accountability, the state’s budget deficit is even worse than Gov. Pat Quinn says it is.
COGFA’s director testified to a Senate committee that the actual combined budget deficit is $12.4 billion, not the $11.6 billion claimed by Quinn. The reason? We started the current fiscal year with an $835 million deficit from last fiscal year, which COGFA believes wasn’t counted in previous estimates. Add that to the $11.6 billion deficit and you get $12.4 billion.
Wunnerful.
* Mayor Daley kinda, sorta apologized today for the Al Sanchez conviction. The Sun-Times has the statement…
“I want to say to the people of Chicago that I understand that this is a disappointment and that this conviction does not reflect well on our city or my administration,” Daley told reporters at an event at Daley College. “For that, i am sorry.
Daley declined to answer questions about whether he was aware of the corruption.
“It happened under my administration and that’s it,” he replied.
He also dodged a question about testimony in the trial that linked his brother William Daley and former top aide Timothy Degnan to the creation of HDO.
“This is a statement that speaks for itself,” he said, chiding any reporters who might describe him as “mad or upset” with the questions.
He then abruptly cut off the news conference.
“You can do with his not answering your questions whatever you will,” mayoral spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard said after the mayor left the podium.
* Last night, Daley fumed about a gun education proposal…
Mayor Daley is seething over a West Side legislator’s suggestion that children be educated about gun safety and gun use.
State Rep. Annazette Collins (D-Chicago) said she believes that education is the key to gun safety, and said a hands-on approach is the key to taking away the mystery and allure of guns. […]
“It’s the silliest position I’ve ever heard taken,” Daley said.
Daley said putting guns in the hands of more children is the last thing the city of Chicago needs.
“It would be different if they have an interest and the family takes them so they’re going out hunting,” he said. “Don’t you think we should concentrate on math, science, reading, attendance, keeping children in school, after-school programs? I think the representative should put her priorities in order.”
* Gov. Quinn was on Chicago Tonight last night, but I think the station’s online embed player crashed my Mac, which has never happened before, so go view it at your own risk.
Progress Illinois has posted a couple of exerpts. In the first excerpt, Quinn calls on his critics to get into the game…
In this clip, he was asked about the tricky politics of the budget…
The man in charge of electing more Republicans to the United States Senate says the party “absolutely” will make winning the seat now held by Sen. Roland Burris a top tier priority next year — if it can get the right candidate to run.
In an interview during a quick stop over in Chicago Monday evening, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, suggested he is willing to open up the committee’s wallet and send money to an increasingly blue state that national Republicans effectively abandoned more than a decade ago. […]
Asked directly if a decision by either Mr. Kirk or Mr. Roskam would guarantee Illinois tier-one national support, Mr. Cornyn replied, “Absolutely.” If that happens — and November, 2010 is a long time away — an Illinois Senate race could draw tens of millions of dollars of spending.
Look for both Mr. Kirk and Mr. Roskam to make up their minds by Memorial Day, and perhaps earlier.
The Illinois Democrat announced today that he’s appointing Kenneth Montoya to be his legislative director and Jose Rivera to serve as director of his Chicago office. […]
Montoya has worked for Democratic Sens. Paul Simon of Illinois and Paul Wellstone of Minnesota. Most recently, he served as the Government Affairs Representative for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Rivera joins Burris’ staff after serving as director of program audit compliance for the Chicago Department of Human Services.
The Illinois Technology Partnership has snagged Rich Miller, publisher, editor, and chief scribe of the Capitol Fax newsletter and The Capitol Fax Blog and columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times to speak to the role of blogs and other social media tools in Illinois politics at the group’s conference – ”Illinois 2.0″ – in Springfield on March 25.
Aviva Gibbs, the organization’s Executive Director, will talk to legislators, staff, candidates, and media regarding reaching larger and targeted audiences, such as constituents, via blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other online gizzmos once the exclusive preserve of whizz-bang college students.
In a recent survey of legislators, the group found as many as 50 percent were already using social networking sites, while another 25 percent expressed interest in learning more. Gibbs will share some battle-tested best practices and digital “do’s and don’ts”.
“Blogs and social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter have become a much more relevant way for not just college students, but businesses, organizations and the government to connect, interact and share ideas,” said Gibbs.
Miller will comment on the influence of digital media on news coverage and the impact on political and public policy processes.
“While traditional media is cutting back considerably, digital platforms are becoming an influential way to get and write the news,” said Miller. “I break stories all the time on my blog and have hundreds of readers add comments and share posts in real-time. With social media becoming so popular, I’m seeing more politicians getting in on this than ever before.”
“ Illinois 2.0” will be held at the Statehouse Inn in Springfield from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. or immediately following session.
This should be an interesting and fun event. They’re even serving “complimentary refreshments and appetizers.” Mmmm.
But space is limited, and spots are filling up very fast (I’m not kidding, they only have a handful of open slots left), so you should RSVP as soon as possible to: aviva@iltechpartner.org.
People ask me all the time why Daley hasn’t been charged in connection with the hiring probe, which you’ll recall is an outgrowth of the earlier Hired Truck scandal.
I can only assume that if federal prosecutors had evidence the mayor knew how his underlings were flouting the Shakman decree’s prohibition on political hiring, then he would have been charged by now. Since he hasn’t been charged, I have to believe they don’t have the proof.
Brown has already reported that HDO founder Victor Reyes is now beyond federal reach because of the statute of limitations.
But, at least as far as Mayor Daley is concerned, a RICO beef might still be possible. Interestingly enough, both Chicago papers danced around the Daley issue today.
“No one has had the guts to come forward and take responsibility” for the hiring system, Breen said after his client was convicted. “I don’t understand why Al Sanchez has been singled out.”
Prosecutors would no doubt be delighted for Sanchez to open up to them about the corrupt system his attorney railed about in court. With Sanchez’s cooperation, the “fat cats” could be held to account.
We have every confidence that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald will not end this investigation with Sanchez, a powerful player but not among the ultimate benefactors of the city’s corrupt hiring practices.
We expect Fitzgerald’s investigation to go wherever it leads, without fear or favor.
Both papers have screamed for Todd Stroger’s scalp over far less.
But if you ask me how it’s possible the mayor could not have known, I understand completely.
Even if he didn’t know the details of exactly how interview scores were cooked, the mayor must have known there was a system in place to take care of finding jobs or making promotions to keep his political backers happy. And as the man in charge, he should have been asking how it was possible to do that within the confines of the law.
Yep.
* Related…
* Sanchez found guilty in four of seven counts of mail fraud
* Al Sanchez convicted: Ex-Daley aide guilty in Chicago hiring fraud trial - Juror believes the verdict ’says everybody’s aware of what’s going on and let’s clean it up’
Sneed is told new State Police chief Jon Monken, 29, who now has more than 3,600 people under his command, may undergo State Police cadet training.
You look silly, especially since you didn’t really say that you’d do it…
The upshot: “That’s certainly something I’d be interested in,” said Monken –who claims he will definitely go through State Police weapons training.
And take your own advice, please…
Monken has no plans to make immediate waves: “Some of the best advice I got in the military was, ‘When you are a new leader coming in, the best thing that you can do is go in and observe.’ And that’s what I plan on doing.”
OK, so commense with the observing and shut your trap.
* As I’ve been telling subscribers for weeks, the Democrats will do their best to drag Republicans into any budget solution if the GOP wants a capital bill…
Legislators won’t leave the state Capitol this year until they approve a capital construction program, and it will be tied to the passage of a new state budget, Senate President John Cullerton said Monday.
“My number one priority has always been a capital bill, and it hasn’t changed. We have to do the budget and the capital bill together,” said Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat who took over as Senate president earlier this year.
“The two are linked, and by the way, the votes will be linked,” Cullerton told the editorial board of The State Journal-Register. “So for the Republicans who think that they’re going to let the Democrats … raise the taxes, and they’re going to just vote for the spending, I don’t think it’s going to work that way.”
Later Monday, Republican legislative leaders said they don’t want to link the two issues. Instead, they think lawmakers should pass a capital plan as soon as possible, enabling projects to begin this construction season.
Of course the Republicans don’t want any linkage, but they may have no choice.
At the same time Gov. Pat Quinn is calling on most Illinoisans to pay higher income taxes, his budget proposal calls for he and other top state officials to get cost-of-living raises.
The governor’s spending blueprint would raise Quinn’s salary to $182,400, up from $177,000, while boosting base pay for lawmakers by about 2.7 percent to $69,735 annually, up from $67,836.
Oops.
…Adding… The governor’s budget office just called to say that the COLAs are not in the actual budget proposal. Instead, they’re outlined in the comptroller’s narrative.
* And my weekly syndicated newspaper column talks about the budget fight ahead…
The biggest problem Gov. Pat Quinn faces in getting his tax hike and budget proposals passed is not that almost every special interest group opposes them.
The Illinois Federation of Teachers, for instance, sent out a statement before Quinn had even finished his budget address to say that any state legislator who votes for the governor’s proposed “pension cuts” would automatically lose the union’s endorsement.
State workers are spitting mad about paying more into the pension plan and being forced to take unpaid days off.
Business groups are beside themselves about the tax hikes.
Mayors hate the idea that they won’t get their usual 10 percent slice of Quinn’s proposed income tax increase.
These are very serious, almost insurmountable obstacles, of course. But they’re not the worst.
The biggest hurdle, by far, is the governor focused on a problem that he alone wants to deal with, but nobody else really cares about.
The governor, you already know, wants to raise the state’s personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 4.5 percent, but also triple the $2,000 personal exemption so almost 5 million people will get a tax cut or pay no extra taxes. Quinn claims this is about “tax fairness” as much as it is about raising new money to close the state’s $11.5 billion budget deficit.
But, seriously, when was the last time you heard anybody complain about the Illinois income tax?
At just 3 percent, Illinois has the lowest flat tax in the nation. Quinn has pushed this tax fairness idea for decades, but almost nobody else has. Tripling the personal exemption is just not something that any legislator has ever cared much about.
Since the governor’s tax proposal has no real constituency within the General Assembly, he starts out with almost no legislative allies.
Just about every legislator has fervently campaigned to reduce the property tax burden and increase spending for schools. Also, suburban Cook County and Chicago representatives are hearing loud and constant screams of anger from their voters about their region’s super-high sales tax.
There are some very angry everyday people demanding a solution to these festering problems. Yet, Quinn’s budget and tax hike proposals do nothing about any of them.
In fact, the governor’s proposals may be making the political situation for incumbent legislators far worse than they would be with a more “normal” tax hike and budget fix.
For one, the governor has proposed a relatively tiny education spending increase. That pretty much guarantees some local school districts, which are also experiencing serious problems in this economy, will have to raise property taxes even higher.
Local governments are strapped in this economy as well and are dying for money. Without help from the state via their usual share of the income tax hike, they may also have to raise sales or property taxes.
Quinn wants to expand the state sales tax to cover items like grooming and hygiene products, sweetened tea and coffee drinks currently exempted from the full sales tax rate. That’s not really a big thing, but in this sort of environment it could make for big headlines.
And not surprisingly, legislators aren’t particularly thrilled with voting for Quinn’s 50 percent income tax hike and still having to vote for well over a billion dollars in state budget cuts. Quinn’s tax exemption reform proposal took a tax hike that could’ve raised almost $6 billion down to only about $2.5 billion.
The governor said Friday that he hoped he could convince the business lobby to support his tax hike by showing them how he’s forcing teachers and state workers to pay more into the pension systems. But it’s the height of folly to assume the business lobby will ever get behind a tax hike.
The only groups that can be counted on to reliably support tax hikes are the very groups Quinn has gone out of his way to whack. Public school teachers, state workers and people such as Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley are absolutely key, and all of them are firmly in the “no” category.
I still think there will be a state tax increase in our near future. I just don’t think yet that it’ll be this one. Quinn has a horrific fight ahead of him.
* Related…
* GOP attacking Gov. Quinn over income tax increase: Republicans still haven’t answered that question, other than to call for spending cuts. That approach alone can’t erase the deficit, because much government spending is legally mandated, for Medicaid, education and other big-ticket items.
If an agreement is not reached, Communities for an Equitable Olympics, an umbrella group of neighborhood organizations, has threatened to protest during the International Olympic Committee’s visit to Chicago beginning April 2. The IOC evaluation team will be in town to review Chicago’s bid and tour proposed venues, such as the Olympic Stadium in Washington Park and Olympic Village on the former site of Michael Reese Hospital.
If a set-aside deal is worked out, it will be taken up at a City Council Finance Committee meeting set for Friday.
Buildings SS, NN and LL of the East Peoria Caterpillar complex that employs about 2,800 tractor and transmission workers is shut down for the week, which may explain the long lines at local unemployment offices, said Rick Doty, president of United Auto Workers Local 974 in East Peoria.
“Rolling layoffs have been going on since mid-December, but this is one of the first times a complete division has been shut down,” he said.
Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) said Monday he plans to introduce an amended redevelopment agreement at the April 22 Council meeting that would allow Wal-Mart to build its second Chicago store at a former Chatham industrial site.
“There’s no other way to get this moving. The [Daley] administration is not willing to do it themselves. The only way is to force their hand is by spelling out that Wal-Mart shall be permitted to come,” Brookins said.
Ald. Brian Doherty (41st) was hospitalized with a “nasty head wound” on Monday — and the paramedic who treated the “combative” alderman was slightly injured — after Doherty fell down a flight of stairs at his Far Northwest Side home.
Doherty, 51, is the City Council’s lone Republican. He was listed in stable condition in the intensive care unit of Resurrection Hospital. Barring further complications, he is expected to be released Tuesday.
Throughout the city, many Chicago Public Schools are getting education makeovers. Failing or under-enrolled schools are being closed and new ones opened, sometimes even within the same building. The Chicago Board of Education is scheduled to vote tomorrow on where next fall’s new schools will open up. But the whole process leaves some parents and education activists questioning the correlation between urban planning and school planning.
* 7:28 am - WLS Radio’s program director just announced that the disgraced, arrested, impeached and removed former Gov. Rod Blagojevich will fill in for Don & Roma tomorrow morning from 7-9.
This is supposedly just a one-time gig. We’ll see.
Man, are they that desperate for attention over there?
* 8:05 am - Blagojevich, of course, accepts. From a press release…
(PRNewsChannel) / Chicago, Ill. / He’s done dozens of interviews since being thrust into the national spotlight–and countless more during his political days. Now, for the first time, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will ask the questions when he takes over as guest host on a top Chicago-area radio station, the PR firm that represents the former governor announced today.
Blagojevich will fill in Wednesday morning for the vacationing Don Wade and Roma - “the dynamic duo” on WLS 890 AM.
“He’s excited about hosting,” says Glenn Selig, Blagojevich’s publicist and founder of The Publicity Agency (http://www.thepublicityagency.com). “He’s ready for the challenge and promises to be a fair interviewer. He’ll also be tough when he needs to be. He’s a talented communicator.”
“Broadcasters and the public were witness to his talent when he went national to tell his side of the story,” says Selig. “He thinks fast on his feet, is energenic and knows how to speak about complicated subjects so that anyone can understand what he’s saying.”
Blagojevich is in the midst of writing a highly anticipated book due out in October. The former governor received a six figure advance.
Blagojevich was a guest on the “Don Wade and Roma” show March 17.
Guests for Blagojevich’s fill-in show will be announced later today, Selig says.
