* Equality Illinois’s chief lobbyist claims that his coalition can pass the civil unions bill through both chambers by the end of session, even though they haven’t yet proved they can pass it in the House…
Rick Garcia, political director for Equality Illinois, said Thursday he’s “absolutely” expecting the full state House and the Senate to pass a civil union measure either Tuesday or Wednesday. The bill has support from Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D).
And here’s the plan…
The House Youth and Family Committee, chaired by Rep. Greg Harris, who’s gay, intends to attach an amendment legalizing civil unions to a “shell bill” that’s already been approved by the Senate, Garcia said. If the full House votes in favor of the legislation, the bill would be sent to the full Senate within hours for a vote of concurrence.
That’s still a very big “if.”
More…
Garcia said Illinois lawmakers often use “shell bills” to pass legislation expediently. He said it’s necessary to legalize civil unions through this method because the legislative session ends May 30 and the approach limits the time that opponents of civil unions can lobby lawmakers.
“We get it out of the House and then senators only have a few hours of being beat up by our opponents rather than three days or a long weekend,” he said. “Since there is a perfectly legitimate way of doing it in one day, that’s what we’re going to do.”
They have to get it out of the House first, of course, but other bills have passed this way. The civil union bill is not like a lot of “other” bills, though, so we’ll just have to wait and see. Admitting to this strategy might also not go over too well. Again, we’ll see.
EI also has a bunch of lobsters, plus support from SEIU…
Garcia said Equality Illinois has nine lobbyists working as either full-time staffers or contractors to encourage lawmakers to vote in favor of civil unions. Other groups assisting in passing the measure include the American Civil Liberties Union, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and the Service Employees International Union, Garcia said.
* Good catch by Progress Illinois of a remark by WTTW’s Elizabeth Brackett about how she had talked with some of Republican Congressman Mark Kirk’s people and was told Kirk won’t run for the Senate if Attorney General Lisa Madigan does…
I don’t think Madigan will run for the Senate, but since this idea apparently freezes Kirk in place, it’s not a dumb move by the Dems.
…an Illinois Democrat also speaking on the condition of anonymity, told CNN that Kennedy’s political allies are telling state Democrats that he will indeed seek the Democratic nomination for the seat once held by President Obama.
Caroline Kennedy’s campaign for New York’s U.S. Senate seat was a non-starter, but the Kennedy name is still magic in Illinois, Mayor Daley said Wednesday, in a political assessment that Chris Kennedy should find encouraging.
“Sure it does. Yes, it does. You’d better believe it. Same thing as Barack Obama’s name. Those two names. You’d better believe it,” Daley said.
Having met him on more than one occasion, I can tell you that Chis is definitely not the mumbling Caroline.
* Related…
* Representative Jesse Jackson Jr.’s congressional campaign organization has paid his wife at least $247,500 since 2001, including at least $95,000 after Sandra Jackson joined the Chicago City Council two years ago, according to federal election records.
* Pew Research Political Values Study: “The lead,” as Pew Research president Andrew Kohut explained in a briefing yesterday, “is that centrism has emerged as a dominant factor in public opinion.” The percentage of adults who describe their party identification as independent — 36% so far in 2009 — equals its highest level in 70 years.” Meanwhile, Republican numbers “have dropped precipitously” since 2004, while the Democratic numbers though markedly improved during the Bush years have ‘fallen off a little bit” since November 2008. Meanwhile, basic measures on other political attitudes remain stable.
* Local diversity champ weighing statewide bid [fixed link]: In the General Assembly where she served four years, Kelly avoided the political theater embedded in the lawmaking process. She rarely spoke on the House floor during debate, unlike some members who regularly throb and thrash at the microphone to the delight of their colleagues.
* Kinda surprising that this DNA bill went down, considering the get tough on crime attitude of the GA in the past and the fact that it passed the House by an almost unanimous vote…
A controversial measure that would have required people arrested on felony charges to contribute a DNA sample to create a state database was narrowly rejected today by the state Senate.
The measure, sponsored by state Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine), would require people arrested to submit to a mouth swab to collect DNA in much the same way arrestees are required to submit to fingerprinting. The DNA collection would be expunged in the event the person was found not guilty or the felony charges were dismissed.
With the Illinois State Police already facing a serious backlog in DNA processing, lawmakers said the measure would not have gone into effect until 2013.
Since it didn’t take effect until 2013 anyway, there was no real rush to pass it.
More…
“The innocent have nothing to fear from this legislation…” said state Sen. Pamela Althoff (R-McHenry).
Sentences like that always make me a little nervous.
* But, the rhetoric wasn’t exactly cool on the other side…
“It’s 25 years later, but we’re approaching George Orwell’s ‘1984’ right now,” said Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago), who opposed the proposal, saying it would have violated the due-process and equal-protection clauses of the Illinois Constitution.
“To have an officer come up to me without probable cause, arrest me and stick a swab in my mouth is against my constitutional rights,” Raoul said.
A cop shouldn’t be arresting anybody without probable cause.
* Both sides invoked the name of Barack Obama during the debate, claiming he’d either support or oppose the legislation. Sen. Rickey Hendon had this to say…
“I’m just sick and tired of people who hate Barack Obama who (are) always on tv against Barack Obama acting like they had a text message from him while driving this morning on the way to the Capitol telling them about this bill. It’s outrageous. You wasn’t with Obama, quit quoting his name.”
The fact that Quinn arrived 10 minutes early to the Crowne Plaza for the 47th annual [prayer] breakfast was contrast enough. But Quinn did more, by taking time to introduce family members of nine fallen servicemen his office had invited to the event.
Quinn said that passing a budget to keep social programs in place should come before a capital plan, but lawmakers plan to pass parts of the capital bill as early as today. This is the first time Quinn has publicly voiced opposition to passing a capital plan before passing an operating budget.
“I want to tell the members of the General Assembly I know they want a lot of [capital] projects and so on, and so do I. But that is not coming before the priority of taking care of real live human beings.”
If you want to be the Senate President, run for the Senate. Otherwise, stick to being governor.
* More Rodlike behavior - breaking his word to the leaders…
* Speaking of the budget, AFSCME has a new TV ad about the need for a tax hike…
Shortly before passing the capital plan, [a Senate committee] debated a proposal that would drastically change the tax structure for the state and possibly resolve a pending lawsuit. The bill, which has been considered in different versions for the last seven sessions, would raise the personal income tax from 3 percent to 5 percent and expand the sales tax to specific services.
Sen. James Meeks, a Chicago Democrat, classified some of the services as “luxury,” including limousine rentals, massages and pet grooming. But the bill also includes movies and movie rental, taxis and bowling. It would also double the earned income tax credit to protect low-income families and provide property tax relief for all.
Meeks said the intent of the measure is to create more revenue for Illinois schools and ensure schools receive equal funding because the state would take over most of the responsibility. Currently, school districts heavily rely on local property taxes, so funding can vary greatly among districts depending on how much revenue the local tax generates.
* Both Blagojeviches to take part in TV show: While Patti Blagojevich roams the jungle in Costa Rica on a reality television show as a replacement for her indicted and travel-restricted husband, the former governor will still participate in a “surprise” manner, the couple’s publicist said today.
More than 2,000 employees would be spared in the latest effort to rid state government of appointees of former Govs. Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan.
House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, Wednesday offered a revised version of his bill to “fumigate” state government that now affects about 750 people, rather than the 3,000 who would have been axed under his original proposal.
In the new version, people who are “double exempt” — not protected by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Rutan patronage decision or the state’s personnel code — are targeted. However, people holding Rutan-exempt jobs, but still protected by the personnel code, are no longer included.
That change was a no-brainer. Some of you got all upset for nothing, even after I suggested you calm down. Also, the guv will hve 90 days to make his fumigation decisions from the time the bill becomes law. If he wants, he can stretch that out another 60 days by delaying his signature on the bill. And the GA doesn’t have to send it to him until 30 days after it passes both chambers. In theory, he could have as much as 6 months to make his decisions. That’s way more than enough time.
The Illinois House of Representatives voted Wednesday to change the method by which lawmakers and other top state government officials get pay raises.
The Compensation Review Board no longer would have the authority to recommend hikes in the base pay for lawmakers, constitutional officers, judges and state’s attorneys under Senate Bill 2090. Instead, lawmakers would have to introduce and vote on specific legislation to grant pay raises to themselves or other officials. […]
Also, SB2090 would require all 118 state lawmakers to take four furlough days off work and forfeit the pay they would receive for those days.
The upcoming cost of living raises have also been killed off.
* Meanwhile, reform commission chairman Patrick Collins pens an op-ed in today’s Sun-
Times…
Again, as this paper has argued, sensible limits — limits that mirror those imposed on candidates for federal office — should be passed for our state, particularly given our corruption-scarred past. The number 46 is again instructive here: 46 states have imposed some form of contribution limits or prohibitions. See a pattern here? Yet, even though campaign fund-raising excesses are at the core of most of our corruption scandals, the apologists talk about the “parade of horribles” that will ensue if we dare to adopt the same limit system in which U.S. presidential candidates must function.
Notice the rhetoric here. People who oppose his plan are “apologists.” Apologists for what, he doesn’t explain.
I suppose, then, that two conservative activists who wrote a guest column in the SJ-R today are also apologists…
Contribution limits are not an indicator of good governance, either. Research conducted by the Center for Competitive Politics found no correlation between the presence of contribution limits and the Pew Center on the States’ ranking of “best governed” states.
* The Illinois Senate Democrats unveiled their contribution caps proposal yesterday…
Under the legislation, candidates could get up to $5,000 a year from individual contributors and up to $10,000 a year from corporations, labor organizations, trade associations and political issue groups. […]
Political funds controlled by state political parties and legislative leaders would get greater leeway. Each year they could collect up to $10,000 from individuals and $20,000 from other political committees.
But the proposal by state Sen. Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) does not address what critics say is a gaping hole in campaign finance law: limits on how much powerful legislative leaders can transfer from their funds to individual House and Senate candidates.
We are hearing that, while limits at a much higher level may be considered, the sacred cow of legislative leaders being able to transfer as much as they like from their war chests to local races will remain just that, a sacred cow.
These transfers, when exceedingly large, are a gaping loophole that transforms local races into well-funded mudfights and erodes the independence of legislators once elected.
One person’s “well-funded mudfight” is another person’s idea of how a campaign ought to be run. The independence of legislators is important, of course. The leaders have far too much power. Collins’ own proposal is now in bill form and can be downloaded here.
Proposed legislation to revise the Illinois Freedom of Information Act is significantly watered down from recommendations to lawmakers by the Illinois Reform Commission, the state attorney general and others, according to the interim head of the Illinois Press Association.
“Only in Illinois would this be defined as reform or transparency,” Don Craven, the association’s interim executive director, said during a telephone news conference today. The association first learned of the changes about midnight Tuesday in a draft of the bill obtained from Illinois House leadership.
For example, the new law would make postal addresses of public employees or anyone arrested exempt from disclosure and it also creates an undefined, broad category for exemptions of personnel material. It continues to allow lawsuit settlements involving taxpayer dollars to be secret.
The revision also limits the authority of the attorney general’s office in pressuring government agencies for disclosure and it removes earlier provisions for criminal penalties for noncompliance.
Steve Brown, spokesman for the House speaker, would not discuss the specific provisions of the newest proposal.
“These are preliminary discussions and nothing has been finalized,” Brown said.
Brown said he has been told the 75-page proposal may contain drafting errors and it is too early to draw conclusions from it. “I don’t know how these groups jump to these conclusions, but that’s the way they are,” he said.
* As you know by now, the Senate overwhelmingly approved the revenue stream yesterday to finance the capital construction program. Included in that stream was legalized video poker at bars, VFW clubs, etc…
Video poker, which would be overseen by the Illinois Gaming Board, attracted virtually no dissent during floor debate despite anti-gambling advocates insisting it will let organized crime flourish and lead to new cases of gambling addiction.
“This would be unregulated mayhem,” said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who has busted illegal video poker machine operations and has said his office receives calls from people whose spouses have lost their paychecks on the machines.
Unregulated mayhem? That’s what we have now with illegal, unregulated machines that are in most every tavern, truck stop and fraternal club in the state. And the Outfit is handsomely profiting off all of it.
The state lottery helped all but kill off the numbers rackets, and taverns could lose their liquor licenses if they kept illegal machines in their places of business now, so we can expect the same fate awaits illegal machines.
“Well, everybody thinks gambling is bad. Let’s be realistic, everybody does. But why is it in Mississippi? Why is it all over? It’s even in Illinois. If it’s that bad, then why did we allow it to happen if everybody thinks it’s that bad?”
The city will get a cut from the proceeds, which will help Daley balance his budget. Right now, he’s getting no money from the illegal machines. And since it’s currently a cash business, there’s some question whether bar owners are even paying income tax on it.
Just ten Republicans voted against the revenue stream bill. Ten.
“What I really hope is our Department of Revenue will use this to crack down on the rumor that organized crime has been involved with video poker,” said state Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican. “Those machines are already there so we’re not fooling anybody.”
“What a mistake,” Dart said after hearing of the vote. “This is a horrible idea because this is a form of gambling that by its very nature is very addictive… You are going to have guys dropping their whole paycheck at the bar.”
They already do, and there are no betting limits on the machines now.
Two of Mayor Daley’s former top aides — and a security company once co-owned by the brother of Ald. Danny Solis (25th) — are poised to make some serious coin from the $1.15 billion deal that privatized Chicago’s 36,000 parking meters.
Under pressure from aldermen to comply with the city’s minority set-aside requirements, LAZ Parking Chicago LLC has hastily assembled a team of subcontractors that includes former mayoral press secretary Avis LaVelle and Cortez Trotter, who was Chicago’s first African-American fire commissioner before being promoted to chief emergency officer.
Monterrey Security — owned by former Chicago Police Officer Juan Gaytan and once co-owned by former Chicago firefighter Santiago Solis — is in line for $1.2 million in 2009 and has already been paid $413,152, according to a document distributed to aldermen.
Murder in Chicago is an all too common occurrence. And for all the hand-wringing that goes on when people are shot and killed, very few people actually know what to do to prevent future gun violence. Federal prosecutors, including U.S. attorney Pat Fitzgerald, think they have part of the answer.
The whole idea that you can reduce crime from meeting in an hour is just to me so powerful as long as we have enough job opportunities and GED opportunities for people at the other end. It’s not going to be very successful if we go around and tell a whole bunch of people getting out of prison, you have a choice and then they make the right choice and then we say, well actually you don’t have a choice because we don’t have a job opportunity.
Fitzgerald says his time as a prosecutor has convinced him that law enforcement is not going to be able to prosecute it’s way out of the gang and gun problems plaguing Chicago. He says employers need to step up and start hiring ex-offenders.
The combined company, which brings together two family-owned businesses in an industry increasingly dominated by global behemoths, will have about $425 million under management, according to executives from both companies. The acquisition is the first of what Peregrine President and Chief Operating Officer Russ Wasendorf Jr. says will be a series of purchases en route to a target of $1 billion under management.
“You need to get to critical mass,” Mr. Wasendorf says in a telephone interview. More acquisitions are in the offing, he adds, particularly as new rules for currency trading that go into effect later this year force smaller brokers to seek bigger pools of capital.
However, in Wednesday’s entry, I wrote that ratings for game 2 of the Hawks-Detroit series Tuesday were off 31 percent from game 1 on NBC Sunday. It isn’t a complete apples-to-apples comparison and other factors were involved. However, while you would expect some decrease, a 31-percent drop does seem to validate some of Mr. Wirtz’s concerns about people being able to find the channel.
In fairness to Versus, it is only one game, and the network will get another shot Friday when the series returns to Chicago. It also will air games 5-7 if the series gets that far.
