* Done. Finished. Kaput. Too many crazy working days in a row can drive you insane, ergo our weekly Friday song…
I’ve always been different with one foot over the line
Winding up somewhere one step ahead or behind
It ain’t been so easy but I guess I shouldn’t complain
I’ve always been crazy but it’s kept me from going insane
The Trib recently published some blistering editorials decrying “overspending” by the state as the sole reason for Illinois’ budget mess, so this NYT article might help enlighten their minds…
The carnage in state budgets is getting worse, [an NCSL] report said Thursday, with places like Arizona being hurt by falling revenue on multiple fronts, like personal income and sales taxes. Other states are having mixed experiences, with some tax categories stable, or even rising, even as others fall off the map. […]
“What this report really underscores is that the states are facing revenue-based problems,” said Todd Haggerty, a research analyst at the conference, a nonpartisan group based in Denver. “If there’s been an increased demand for state services — as there has in many states — it’s putting them into a really tough situation.”
A report issued by the group in April said that spending increases related to the recession, from more people seeking state services, were compounding the impact of a decline in tax revenue. Sixteen states were facing higher-than-anticipated costs for health care, seven were spending more on public safety and four were seeing cost overruns on programs for the poor like food stamps.
Worse is yet to come. The total collective budget gap that the states will have to resolve in the fiscal year that starts, in most states, next month, is $121 billion, compared with 102.4 billion for the year approaching its end, the report said. Measures on the table to fill those holes, or already in place, range from the macro (a cut of 25 percent in grants to local governments in Minnesota) to the micro (elimination of staffing at metal detectors in local courthouses in Maine).
This article might help as well: “Total revenue into [Illinois] state government is still running far behind last year’s totals.”
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich confirmed today that he did indeed refer to former state treasurer Judy Baar Topinka as “a crazy old aunt,” when he ran against Topinka in the 2006 governor’s race.
Blagojevich, in an appearance on on WLS-AM (890) today, was referring to comments his wife, Patti, made Thursday on the reality TV show, “I’m a celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!” […]
“Yes, it’s Judy Baar Topinka,” Rod Blagojevich said this morning. “When you’re in a campaign and you have to be with your opponent from time to time, sometimes they’ll do things to you that you think are unfair. They’ll twist things. I’m sure they think the same thing about you. For me, I try to get myself in a mindset where I could love my opponent and not let it [get] personal. To discipline myself, I tried to imagine, like a method actor might, that Judy Baar Topinka was one of my old aunts. That deep down she was a good person and when she would say the things that she would say or do the things she would do, it was more amusing than anything else. And I think that really probably is who she is. You know, crazy aunt in a good way.”
“The fact that they bring it up in this way just proves that [they] really have no respect for anything,” Topinka said. “They are shameless. They certainly have no respect for the system. They have no respect for the people of Illinois. It’s all about them. You can’t tell me that — as she sits there looking sane, with a bunch of has-beens and wannabes and goofs — she looks better by comparison. This is the same gal with the potty-mouth who was yelling on one of these transcripts of a phone message, you know, ‘Go knock these guys off the [Chicago] Tribune, get rid of these editorial writers if they can’t make a deal on the Cubs, and expletive deleted.’ I mean, Who is this woman? Now she’s suddenly playing Martha Washington. I mean, c’mon. She knew what was going on. She’s lucky [U.S. Attorney] Patrick Fitzgerald isn’t on her case, too.”
* The problems with and questions about this specific project are legion…
The Illinois Senate on Sunday sent Gov. Pat Quinn a bill that will provide an unusual state tax benefit to the developers of a planned commercial hub at Glen Carbon.
The proposed $1.5 billion development, called University Town Center, would be funded with “sales tax revenue’’ (STAR) bonds, which would be paid off by using the sales taxes collected within the development.
Holland wants to build the complex near the intersection of Interstate 270 and Illinois 157, and has plans for new restaurants, retail stores, performing arts and entertainment. Holbrook said the development would bring 10,000 construction jobs and 3,000 permanent jobs to the region. But Haine and Hoffman said they worry it will take jobs and businesses away from other metro-east communities.
Supporters say the project will create 10,000 construction jobs and 3,200 permanent jobs. They argue that the taxes paid by those workers – along with construction costs and other activities – will more than make up the estimated $15 million that the state will lose from sending back the sales tax revenues to pay off the bonds.
A project of this size is likely to divert business from other Madison and St. Clair businesses. Motels in the area are currently running at 54% capacity (down 24% from last year) and we have an approved hotel on hold. O’Fallon alone has more than 175 acres of Interstate-ready retail building lots that do not require government support. O’Fallon and Fairview Heights have three major furniture stores and a national electronics store sitting empty and available immediately for rent.
“The amendments did not change the floodplain requirement. An eligible site must be at least 600 acres and have 30 percent in the 100-year floodplain. The Glen Carbon site is 900-plus acres, 100 percent is in the 100-year floodplain. It consists entirely of jurisdictional and prior-converted wetlands, which play an important role in storing floodwaters and trapping sediment that comes from water flowing from the bluff.”[…]
“… That water will go elsewhere, not remain on site,” Andria said.
At last check, the developer had signed no contracts to actually bring any retail, hotel, etc. establishments to the site. He doesn’t even own all the land. The STAR bonds would help pay for that.
* How the bonds work: The developer will get all the state sales tax money generated by businesses in the STAR bond district. That can be used to sell bonds, which the developer can use to build both horizontal and vertical infrastructure - roads, sewers or even stores for the companies he’s luring.
* The immediate problem is obvious. A study by the Dept. of Revenue claims the state will lose $15 million a year in sales tax revenues. There’s only so much money that will be spent on retail in a given area. So some retail spending will shift to the STAR bond district, creating losers elsewhere in the region. Businesses won’t be able to relocate to the district, but as experience with TIF districts have shown, they may be able to get around that.
* And that brings me to the real problem with this legislation. The bill is specifically written for the Glen Carbon site, but laws can be changed as easily as 1-2-3 in Springfield. Rosemont is already looking at a STAR bond district. A suburban Will County town has already contacted its lobbyist about getting in on the action. Chicago would be foolish not to make a move in that direction.
TIF districts are a much abused economic development tool, but that’s local property tax money we’re talking about here, so it’s no skin off the state’s back. But this STAR bond thing is state money. How long do you think it’ll be before Mayor Daley and others decide to let their TIF districts expire and convert them to STAR bond districts? Half of Chicago, remember, is already in a TIF district.
* Imagine the budgetary consequences for Illinois in just a few short years if this thing spreads. And it will spread. That’s guaranteed. Stuff like this always spreads. Just look at Nevada. It used STAR bond districts to lure a Cabela’s (a name that is also being mentioned for the Illinois site) to Reno and a Legends casino in nearby Sparks. Legends, by the way, is also part of a Kansas City STAR bond development.
And as Reno developers work to protect their own projects, Las Vegas businesses also are working their own deals. Harrah’s Entertainment wants a special exemption for the stadium it wants to build with STAR bonds and the city of Las Vegas wants to be able to use STAR bonds in its redevelopment areas.
Once this thing starts, it’ll never stop. Guaranteed. It won’t be long before a very large chunk of this state is in a STAR bond district, meaning that state sales tax money will be spent on local projects, meaning that the state’s budget situation will only get worse while the locals try to cannibalize each other. Mark my words.
* Top billing today goes to Delmarie Cobb, US Sen. Roland Burris’ crack media consultant, who talked to Politico about all the people lining up to run against Burris…
“They keep trotting out these marquee names to scare Roland,” said Delmarie Cobb, the senator’s media and political adviser, adding that some Democrats are out to “lynch” Burris and turn him into a “whipping boy.”
Apparently navigating Illinois politics isn’t all that different from life in the jungle. On last night’s “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!” Patti Blagojevich had some words of advice for John Salley, who was struggling with a crotchety Janice Dickinson.
“My husband had this campaign where he was running against this woman who was a little bit like her,” Patti told him quietly. “And he thought of her as, as like a crazy old aunt. That he had to kind of like suffer and kind of like, and kind of just like, roll your eyes at. Like she’s the kooky old aunt. You had to be respectful to her because she’s your old aunt.”
Presumably she was speaking of Judy Baar Topinka, who challenged Rod Blagojevich in the 2006 governor’s race. Topinka is more often described as “colorful.”
There is a building called Westhaven Park Tower just a few blocks from the United Center on Chicago’s near West Side. The building is part of the Chicago Housing Authority’s billion-dollar mixed-income experiment. It was created to invent new neighborhoods with racial and class diversity. But an us-vs-them mentality is bubbling at Westhaven among condo owners and public housing residents.
On May 27, American Chartered Bank sued Plitt, saying the firm overstated the value of collateral used to back its loan from the bank. American Chartered says Plitt is worth only half the $12.6 million it owes.
McDermott Will & Emery issued its second layoff memo this year on Thursday. The grim news: the loss of 25 lawyers and 47 administrative staff.
The elimination of 72 people is on top off a reduction of 149 jobs in February, which included 60 attorneys. The combined hit represents about 8 percent of the 1,100 attorneys the firm had in February.
Firms are now reevaluating their recruiting practices. The first signs of change: Big firms, including McDermott, have dramatically cut the number of second-year law students they hire for their summer-internship programs. And many have deferred the start dates of students who have just graduated from law school until next year.
Not filling about 45 job vacancies and eliminating the sheriff’s crime prevention unit are among steps Sangamon County officials have proposed to plug a projected $2.7 million hole in this year’s budget.
County Board member Andy Goleman, chairman of the board’s finance committee, said Thursday the crunch comes from a surprisingly deep decline in revenue, which he attributed to the recession.
Chicago’s city hall is warning union workers that layoff notices could be in the mail soon. The city’s Chief Financial Officer Gene Saffold says monthly revenues continue to come in below projections. And he says personnel costs are more than 80-percent of the city’s budget.
That’s right. The cost for the actual electricity we use just decreased by an average of about 9 percent, saving custom ers about $96 a year.
The rate cut is the culmination of a lot of hard work from fed-up Illinois consumers, consumer groups like the Citizens Utility Board, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Gov. Pat Quinn. In 2007, they led the fight to slay ComEd’s “reverse-auction” power-pricing system, which increased bills by an average of 26 percent.
In the end, Illinois consumers got $1 billion in refunds, and the state created the Illinois Power Agency, the cornerstone of an electricity-pricing system that’s unique in the nation.
Prosecutors in Cook County say they will continue seeking the death penalty. That’s in response to a request from the public defender’s office to take the option of capital punishment off the table. The public defender says his office has run out of money used specifically to defend clients facing the death penalty. Sally Daly is with the state’s attorney’s office. She says a lack of money is no reason to change the judicial process.
* NRA seeks to strike down Chicago-area gun-control laws
The NRA wants the court to rule that last year’s gun-rights decision invalidating a handgun ban in the District of Columbia applies as well to local and state laws.
Kildeer, population 4,200, just OK’d hiring newly elected Mayor Nandia Black’s brother-in-law as the new village administrator at $100,000 a year. Never mind that he has almost none of the qualifications the village listed as musts during a candidate search that cost taxpayers $20,000. That search yielded 13 candidates who do hold the listed requirements for the post, village administrator experience and a public administration degree.
“There is a level at which gifts are not appropriate,” Canary said. “I think it’s very troublesome if people feel pressured to give.”
A former employee who has complained in the past about politics in the clerk’s office said employees feared their careers were in jeopardy if they didn’t donate toward yearly birthday gifts for Brown.
“If you didn’t contribute, you were treated differently than other people who did,” said Barbara Nicosia, a former union leader who retired in 2002 after more than 30 years in the office and repeatedly sparred with Brown. “Eventually, you paid for it.”
Brown disputes the notion that employees are under pressure to give.
* An Illinois congressman is again putting pressure on oil giant BP because of the company’s pollution discharges in Indiana.
KIRK: First they try to violate the water quality of Lake Michigan, notw we find they are violating the clean air act.
Kirk has joined 18 other members of Congress in asking EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to closely examine BP’s emissions.
This week, the EPA cited BP’s Whiting Refinery for violating the Clean Air Act from 2003 to 2008.
The meters — in the 5100 block of North Clark Street — were spray-painted with silver paint, and some kind of putty was shoved into the coin slots, Officer Robert Perez of the Chicago Police Department’s news affairs office said.
Police were called before 11 this morning about what turned out to be 15 to 20 vandalized parking meters on both sides of Clark Street.
Shortly after, they found about 40 more damaged parking meters in the same neighborhood, on North Sheridan Road, West Argyle Street, North Kenmore Avenue and North Winthrop Avenue.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, Chicago officials revealed that parking meter violations have grown by 13 percent to more than 161,000 so far this year, representing more than $8 million in potential fines.
* This is part of what I told subscribers Wednesday and have been hinting about here at the blog. The General Assembly passed a budget that not only funded programs at an average of about 50 percent of their current levels, but which also had a $1.5 billion deficit…
An independent analyst says lawmakers were far too rosy in their assessment of the state budget when they voted this week and have left the state $1.5 billion short. […]
The shortfall stems from lawmakers deciding to keep their scheduled contributions towards the state’s pension systems, but not providing the actual revenue needed for the contributions, according to Bukola Bello, pension policy analyst for the bipartisan Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.
Ralph Martire, executive director of the CTBA, said the brunt of cuts would be directed toward community care groups that receive grants from the state. […]
The budget approved by lawmakers Sunday already had $5 billion in unspecified budget cuts. If there is a $1.5 billion deficit hidden on top of that, the situation could move from dire to devastating, said Charles N. Wheeler III, a professor of public affairs reporting and an expert in the budgeting process.
So, again, on top of the 50 percent reduction to programs, there’s a $1.5 billion deficit that has to be dealt with because the state pension fund payment wasn’t fully funded. The governor’s panel on budget cuts suggested a 2-3 percent budgetary reserve. That won’t come close to what will be needed to solve this thing.
To put this in some perspective, the state’s payroll cost is about $3 billion. Cutting $1.5 billion more would necessitate some gigantic layoffs.
Wonderful, eh? Sheesh. Wait until you see how they deal with that one. They’ve already started and it ain’t pretty at all. Subscribe to find out.
In the meantime, Speaker Michael Madigan said lawmakers have to work with the budget they’ve got, one he predicted would require “very significant'’ state employee layoffs.
“That’s the question before this group: How do we work through a slimmed-down state government?'’ Madigan said.
Slimmed-down? That’s an understatement. Try starved to death. More from MJM…
On Thursday, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) said he was prepared to vote for a tax increase, but “that failed. Now we’re looking at working with a slimmed-down budget.”
Brace yourselves.
* There are two people still talking about a tax hike…
Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) said a tax increase was “inevitable,” and Quinn said even major cuts won’t go far enough to fill the state’s gaping budget hole.
“After doing all the things that you just heard — reforms, reforms, cutting costs, no frills — we’re still going to have to balance the budget, and that means more revenue,” Quinn told reporters.
We believe there are responsible reforms — outsourcing state jobs, restructuring pension plans and converting Medicaid services to managed care — that ought to come before making the kind of cuts the governor is threatening. State payrolls can be reduced through hiring freezes, forced furloughs and streamlining of operations, all standard in the private sector lately. Quinn’s own Taxpayer Action Board recommended similar ideas on Thursday.
If the edit board had bothered to think after reading that editorial, they’d know that the TAB recommendations barely make a dent in the problem.
* Budget causes uncertainty: “It’s about consumers and the people we serve being held hostage — the least capable of being able to fend for themselves. It’s morally wrong,” said Vanya Peterson, associate director of Stone-Hayes Center for Independent Living.
* Local social agencies fear looming state budget cuts: But soon, the state will start sending notices to local agencies that provide a wide array of services, warning they could lose much of their state funding.
* Sen. Bill Brady: The systemic solution to our economic crisis should include revenue increases through natural growth and spending reduction.
* Downtown Rally Calls For A “Fair Budget”: “They haven’t heard the last of us,” Albany Park activist Diane Limas told us. “This is just the beginning. They think they’re going to cut these funds? Who do they think votes for them? They need to get back to the table.”
* I asked below whether anything else was going on out there in Politics Land. Well, yes, there is something else going on out there. I missed Hinz’s post…
…the national Republican Party is up to something at City Hall, where it has formally asked dozens of city departments to turn over copies of any communication they’ve had with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and her father, Illinois House Speaker and state Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan.
The party’s National Republican Senatorial Committee last month sent identical Freedom of Information requests to 27 city departments, including law, the inspector general’s office, the O’Hare Modernization Program and the police review board.
The letters, signed by Sean Cairncross, the committee’s chief counsel, ask for copies of any documents, written or electronic, of “correspondence to or from” either one of the Madigans.
For the attorney general, the period covered stretches back to January 2003, when she took office. For Mr. Madigan, the panel wants records stretching back decades, to January of 1971.
A couple of state agencies have also received the requests. And I think there are more FOIAs out there. I seem to recall something said to me a couple of weeks ago that got lost in the end of session shuffle.
Whatever the case, that’s one heck of a fishing expedition. And it’s a very strong indication that the Republicans intend to make Speaker Madigan the top issue in next year’s campaign regardless of what the attorney general runs for.
* I’m not sure whether it’s a web admin mistake or what, but this is all that remains of Sneed’s top item in today’s Sun-Times online edition…
Begorrah! The Merchandise Mart’s Chris Kennedy may not yet have “officially” announced his bid for the U.S. Senate in Illinois — but his cousin, Ted Kennedy Jr., did the “unofficial deed.”
The print edition included this…
* To wit: “I was told not to talk politics tonight, but…you here in Illinois can have your own Sen. Kennedy — my cousin, Chris, is running,” Ted Kennedy Jr. said at an Access Living dinner at Navy Pier Tuesday night.
* Backshot: U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy’s son made the statement while accepting an award on behalf of his ailing father.
* Slipshot: Chris Kennedy, vice chairman of the event, kept quiet. Gov. Quinn, who told Sneed recently that Chris Kennedy was one of his heroes, was also there. And so was first lady Maggie Daley. [emphasis added]
So, he’s in. Or was it a mistake? You got me.
* Speaking of US Senate candidates, I’ve gotten this e-mail twice now, so I’ll post it to get him off my back…
Mr. Stan Jagla, 47 years old, a progressive DuPage county Democrat, government reform advocate and Democratic candidate for the 2010 U.S. Senate election, registered with the FEC on January 2, 2009 for this race. He has been planning this campaign since July 2007, long before his possible primary opponents. He also filed his candidacy with the FEC before Alexi Giannoulias. And unlike the Giannoulias’ campaign, our campaign committee is a campaign committee, firmly committed to the campaign, not just an exploratory committee.
Mr. Jagla will likely face Alexi Giannoulias, and possibly other Democrats, for the Democratic nomination in the primary election, before he will face the Republican candidate in the General election in November 2010. Mr. Jagla has the support of rank and file Democrats, in contrast with the Cook County Democratic Machine candidates, who believe that they can BUY the U. S. Senate seat, through the usual ‘pay to play’ methods.
Mr. Jagla was a life long Independent, who in 2007 joined the Democratic party to help rebuild our Democracy. In February 2008 he was elected Democratic precinct committeeman in Bloomingdale Township. In the 2008 primary for the 6th U.S. Congressional district, against a heavily supported Cook County Democratic machine candidate, in a highly manipulated primary, Mr. Jagla received over 15,000 votes. During the General election in 2008, against a widely respected and heavily supported Republican incumbent in the election for the DuPage County Circuit Court Clerk, Mr. Jagla received over 160,000 votes. Both elections were used as a training ground for the current 2010 U.S. Senate race.
Jagla lost to Democrat Jill Morgenthaler in last year’s 6th CD primary by about 37,000 votes.
* Many kudos to the Illinois Information Service for live-streaming Gov. Quinn’s 11:30 am joint announcement today with his Taxpayer Action Board’s chairman about the board’s budget reform recommendations. You can listen live by clicking here.
Then, at about 1:30 this afternoon, the governor will hold a press availability following his meeting with the legislative leaders. That, too, will be live-streamed. Click here to listen.
If you can live-blog the events in comments, you’d be a big help to others. Thanks.
*** UPDATE - 11:44 am *** You can read the Taxpayer Action Board report by clicking here.
* There are some harsh comments in the “Minority Report” section, which begins on page 107. This is from TAB member Dory Rand…
In the same “Medicaid Spending” section, the report states that “Medicaid is now the largest single state expense in Illinois, accounting for over 40% of general fund appropriations.” This statement of the expenditure level does not account for the large role of federal funds. It is astonishing that this report does not isolate the state funds spending in Medicaid as its sole focus. The TAB was created to deal with state spending. This report deliberately hides the state spending aspect of Medicaid. The dimensions of this error and its potential to mislead the discussion are substantial. In fiscal year 2006, for example, the state money devoted to Medicaid was 19.4% of state general revenue spending and 18.6% of state funds spent in the entire budget (compared to the 40% that the report uses by including the huge federal portion of the program in its sole statement of Medicaid’s part of the budget).
* And this one was written by frequent blog commenter and former budget director Steve Schnorf, with co-signors Woods Bowman, Dory Rand and Richard Sewell…
In three instances at least, I believe you are being directed toward fixing things that probably aren’t really very broken, and that might not be a best use of your time and energy.
Schnorf makes a whole lot of very good points, particularly about Medicaid. His remarks start at page 121. Go read them.
* This is a very interesting recommendation from the majority report…
To dramatically reduce the prison population by reviewing the prisoners’ records to identify inmates that may no longer represent a significant risk to society, and to allow those individuals to re-enter society under state supervision.
* More from the report…
While across-the-board operating cuts are often criticized as a sledgehammer approach, which can miss large opportunities for cost reductions and penalize disproportionately those programs that are already
operating efficiently, a cut of 2-3% in all budget lines from the FY09 appropriation level would save considerable costs and is an option the State should review.
That would actually be a tiny percentage of what the governor’s office is looking at now. In other words, a vast improvement over the current plan.
* Schnorf’s conclusion in his minority report…
You can, and I believe you will, get some savings from the suggestions in this report. It probably won’t equal billions and it certainly won’t all happen over 12-18 months. Good luck.
The board says the state could save $95 million by managing the care of Medicaid patients more effectively and as much as $65 million by releasing some nonviolent offenders from state prisons.
The Senate GOP has claimed that managed care would save $3 billion, and the Tribune editorial page has fully bought into the notion.
…Adding… Here’s what the report claims, with a footnote explaining it…
Promote cost-effective care management strategies that focus on the health of the person, promote prevention and wellness, and provide a medical home. (2) [$95 million savings in FY 10]
(2) Estimates reflect cost savings created by a decrease in the projected growth rate of Medicaid expenditures, not a spending cut from the current budget level.
*** UPDATE - 3:13 pm *** The live presser never happened, but the governor did talk to reporters and there is a downloadable audio file. Listen here.
* In a column defending Patti Blagojevich, Mary Mitchell claims that Children’s Memorial Hospital is somehow hinky…
According to the hospital’s own Web site, it has a “long history of partnering with government and community leaders,” which means top administrators likely weren’t strangers to pay-to-play schemes.
Let’s see. Rod Blagojevich was caught on tape saying he wanted to shake down the hospital’s CEO for a $50,000 contribution in exchange for approving an $8 million expenditure which paid physicians to treat poor kids. But we don’t know yet whether the demand was ever made. We do know the CEO never paid up. And we also know that the entire state grant was bricked until Blagojevich was out of office.
But Mitchell is pretty sure the hospital execs are crooked, or at least familiar with crookedness. So, her logic goes, why shouldn’t Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation, which is affiliated with the hospital, take the charity money offered by Mrs. Blagojevich during her self-degrading stint on a horrific reality TV show?
This is exactly what is wrong with Illinois and why reform laws are useless unless attitudes are also changed. Taking blood money from that family would mean the hospital was admitting the shakedown was no big deal and that its forgiveness could be bought with a few pennies. It’s simply amazing to me that anyone would endorse accepting this cash at a time of political crisis. There are more important things in life than a few dollars, for crying out loud. But, hey, this is Illinois…
Still, I don’t know what the former governor’s alleged wrongdoing has to do with his wife’s decision to help a foundation devoted to curing pediatric cancer.
That one graf does more to sum up our problem than anything I’ve seen written in months.
If Mrs. Blagojevich had dumped her husband after his arrest, instead of praying for his delliverance from the “evil and oppression” of federal prosecutors on national TV, then, yeah, take the money. Otherwise, it’s just another bribe.
Quinn’s office told state agencies on Wednesday to begin planning to make do with that budget for the coming year, in case nothing better is approved.
In a letter to the agencies, Chief of Staff Jerome Stermer called it a “very challenging and unpleasant task” because it could mean cutting services that “sustain the lives and well being of hundreds of thousands of our neediest citizens.”
Those cuts may have to be deeper than first thought.
Quinn’s office says the budget passed by lawmakers does not include enough money to match the much-reduced level of spending it contains. In other words, it was designed to eliminate the deficit but contains a deficit of its own. Quinn aides said they were still calculating the size of the gap.
The guv’s office and the Democratic leadership of the General Assembly already know pretty well what the size of that deficit is. And it ain’t pretty. We’re looking at huge cuts (including big cuts to personnel) on top of the “50 percent” funding included in the budget. It’ll be a horror show.
“I think this all becomes a political game,” said Rep. Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg. “They didn’t cut into the bureaucracy. They cut into the service providers.”
You can be assured that people like Rep. Brauer are about to get their wish…
[AFSCME] is convinced, though, that the budget approved by lawmakers contains enough shortfalls that layoffs are inevitable.
And then some.
* The AP did give me a hat tip in the piece for reporting that Senate President John Cullerton had placed a parliamentary hold on the budget. Thanks for that. But, actually, it was first tipped here in comments.
Cullerton’s press secretary explains why he did what he did…
“Following our meeting with the governor on Monday, it was made very clear to us that the Governor did not support the budget that we sent him, and in fact he may even veto it, so we simply took that option off the table, and we hope to work with the governor and the other caucuses in coming up with a revenue solution that works for everyone.”
* Besides a big rally at the Thompson Center, here’s what we’re looking forward to today…
Gov. Pat Quinn and top lawmakers are supposed to resume their budget negotiations Thursday, the same day a special panel is to suggest ways to streamline Illinois government. […]
They may get some help from the Taxpayer Action Board, which Quinn created earlier this year. The board has spent about two months looking at government operations and ways they could be improved.
Civic groups and think tanks have smothered Springfield in proposals for managed care and other structural reforms that would help patients and taxpayers alike. Statehouse leaders merely bury their heads, as if this staple of private sector insurance is some foreign and dangerous interloper.
But not one word of the budgetary consequences of those moves. And not one acknowledgment of the state’s severe revenue problems…
the state faces about $5 billion less in revenues this year compared to last.
* And here’s what happens when you try to cut something. Even the GOP objects…
The plan, known as “hold harmless”, guarantees that schools will not get less funding than they received in 1997 even if their enrollments drop. Attendance is a key factor in setting the amount of state aid. […]
[Recently] the state education board said schools will likely get half of their “hold harmless” funding for the 2009-10 school year and then none of it the following year. That’s in the proposed state budget, but it has not yet been signed into law. […]
“Well I think it will be very challenging for the districts,” said state Rep. Sandra Pihos, a Glen Ellyn Republican, whose DuPage County district includes several schools that would lose money. “I think they should have had some forewarning and that if the hold harmless was going to go away then it should have been decreased incrementally so they could adjust to those funding levels.”
Forty years ago when the General Assembly enacted Richard Ogilvie’s income tax plan, those who voted in favor largely were run out of office, recalls former Alsip schools Supt. Bill Smith. He was on the Senate floor with former state Sen. Frank Ozinga, of Evergreen Park, during the historic roll call.
“At some point, (Senate Republican Leader Russ) Arrington realized he had the votes necessary, and so he said to (Democratic Leader Arthur McGloon), ‘I’ve got enough votes. Release your people.’
“But McGloon said to Russ, ‘I promised you 12 votes, and you’ll get 12 votes.’”
Smith shared the story to demonstrate bipartisanship of the 1970s. Democratic and Republican leaders worked together to accomplish major reform, a scenario that would never happen today. […]
Most of the 12 Senate Democrats who supported Ogilvie’s income tax lost their re-election bids.
* Finally, the Illinois Times asked to reprint part of my end-of-session wrapup for subscribers. I said OK…
The Democratic Party was given a clear mandate in the past two election cycles, but they completely blew it last week.
The Senate has more than a three-fifths majority, the House is just shy of a veto-proof majority. The governor, who was installed by the Democratic legislature after it ousted his unpopular and obstructionist predecessor by force of law, is a Democrat. The former governor’s sidekick Senate president is gone. They had no excuses this time.
Yet, here we are, once again without a viable budget and in overtime session. The third in a row under Democratic leadership.
And what did the Democrats do? They blamed Republicans for not bailing them out by putting votes on the tax hike plan. The House Democrats, who control 70 seats in that chamber, came up short on a tax hike in the House, yet they tried to claim it was the Republicans’ fault. The Dems demanded the GOPs go along even after House Speaker Michael Madigan spent the past five months jamming the House Republicans every chance he could get.
Yes, the Republicans could have and should have put their state’s interests ahead of their desire to pay back Madigan for all the ill treatment he’s dished out. There are several House Republicans who were willing to make a deal on a tax hike but who were not willing to cross House GOP leader Tom Cross. And the Republicans may eventually end up wearing the jacket for this debacle if the government disintegrates and they show no willingness to do something. But this has been a Democratic show from the beginning of the session and Sunday’s end was a complete and utter Democratic failure. Instead of finding solutions on their own, and on time, they have put the Republicans in a position of control.
You cannot tell me with a straight face that Speaker Madigan did any serious heavy lifting this session. When real leadership was required, he sat back and let the train of government go completely off the tracks.
At issue is the hospital’s Urban Health Initiative, which steers patients who lack private insurance — primarily poor blacks — to other facilities.
In February, the American College of Emergency Physicians said it was concerned that the policy was “dangerously close to patient dumping” and “reflected an effort to ‘cherry pick’ wealthy patients over poor.”
Although the facility is in Rush’s district, the call for an investigation is his first move on the issue.
City Hall has paid nearly $500,000 in the last 15 months to lease space at a South Side industrial site owned by Mayor Daley’s nephew and his partners, who bought the property with city pension money.
Under fire and investigation from all sides, Chicago’s embattled parking-meter contractor is bringing out the big legal guns.
Former Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson said [yesterday] that he and four other lawyers from the law firm of Winston & Strawn were hired this week by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure and Chicago Parking Meters LLC to “interact with the mayor’s office, the City Council and the attorney general.”
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley finds himself again defending the lease of the city’s parking meters. This follows mounting criticism from aldermen and the city’s inspector general.
DALEY: It’s not that complicated. I mean, these are lawyers in there. I don’t mind constructive criticism. Fine. They had opportunities to talk to us. This has been talked about almost for two years.
Alderman Tom Allen says—yes—the council long knew Daley wanted to lease the meters. But without more details…
ALLEN: …that’d be like saying, ‘Well, the Cubs are playing the Sox two months from now’ So what? You know? I mean, we don’t know what the score will be. We don’t know who’s playing right field. So, yeah. We had the information that we were going to try to sell.
Thaddeus Jimenez was arrested for the murder of Eric Morro when he was 13. Jimenez, now 30, was granted Wednesday a certificate of innocence by a Cook County judge.
JIMENEZ: I feel like I was robbed -you know. Nothing is ever going to make that right, but as far as the courts go he [the judge] did the only thing he can do. And according to his ability, he executed justice.
United Airlines on Wednesday reported that May traffic dropped 12.3%, a decline that outpaced a 10.2% drop in capacity, reflecting the continuing struggle of carriers to deal with slumping travel demand.
Fort Worth-based American Airlines also said Wednesday that its traffic dropped 14.3% in May as it reduced capacity 14.5%. Continental Airlines said this week that its May traffic was down 9% on an 8.8% drop in capacity.
Aldridge Electric’s new wind turbine has stopped spinning, while the company attempts to strike a compromise over what neighbors are calling excessive noise.
On Tuesday, a group of nine residents who live near the Libertyville company, 844 E. Rockland Road, obtained a restraining order signed by a judge asking Aldridge to temporarily stop the turbine from spinning.
The National Training and Information Center, 810 N. Milwaukee, was supposed to use taxpayer money to train employees of various community organizations, but the group spent some of that money on sending its own employees to Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress — for more money.
