Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2009

Friday, Jun 26, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Should the governor agree to Republican demands to extend the budget another month or two. Or, if the GA sends it to him, should he veto the entire budget and force an immediate overtime session until a resolution is found? Explain fully, please.

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Jack Ryan’s return?

Friday, Jun 26, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller

* He’s ba-ack! Drop-out Republican US Senate candidate Jack Ryan is one of the headliners at the Chicago Young Republicans’ annual membership event…

This will be the largest GOP event Chicago has seen in some time. Hundreds of Republicans will be coming out of the woodwork the evening of June 29th in response to the month long Chicago Young Republican marketing program.

The event is FREE to everyone and will be the perfect chance to see the energy that has been building behind the GOP here in Chicago, President Obama’s very own backyard!

Popular 80’s cover band “Sixteen Candles” will rock the house and Congressman Aaron Schock will emcee!

Other guests include Jack Ryan, Harry Stein - author of I can’t believe I’m sitting next to a Republican and media young guns Guy Benson from WIND-AM and Mary Katherine Ham from Fox Nation, Weekly Standard and Townhall.com.

* Quote of the day goes to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who was asked about what Attorney General Lisa Madigan and President Barack Obama discussed earlier this month during an Oval Office meeting…

. Um, and uh, ya know, there was a discussion about, ya know, let me say this, let me do this: What happens in the oval stays in the oval. They had a conversation about the race.

* And Dorothy Brown is in…

Cook County Clerk Dorothy Brown plans to run for Cook County board president. The formal announcement is set for Friday.

Brown revealed her plans to ABC7 political reporter Charles Thomas

* Related…

* Sewage cleanup chief may go after Stroger’s job: Though Mr. O’Brien’s agency mostly has been out of the news in recent years — a good thing in scandal-plagued Chicago — he did return $39,000 in campaign donations from district employees last year after press reports that the gifts were illegal and had been reported to the Cook County state’s attorney. Mr. O’Brien said he and others at the district were unaware of the “obscure” law involved and had never intentionally solicited subordinates on his behalf.

* Democrat Harper taking another shot at Biggert’s seat

* Press release: Today, Scott Harper formally announced his candidacy for the United States Congress. Harper is entering the race to challenge Congresswoman Judy Biggert in Illinois’ 13th Congressional District which covers parts of DuPage, Cook, and Will Counties. As part of this announcement, Scott Harper has launched a web video that appears on his new campaign website at www.ScottHarperForCongress.com.

* Is Politico Right About Mark Kirk?

* Sen. Matt Murphy makes argument for governor

* Proft campaign responds to Carol Marin: …Carol Marin has one set of standards for those who share her liberal Democrat views and another for conservatives likes Dan Proft. But you want to know the real reason she targets Dan? She knows he can win.

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More fun and games

Friday, Jun 26, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Governor Quinn said this morning that expects the General Assembly will stay in town past the June 30th fiscal year deadline. Speaking to the CARC Adult Developmental Training Center in Chicago , Quinn said he expects another vote Wednesday, July 1st on a tax hike. Oops. This appeared to be listed as an event today on the IIS site, but it was last week. Sorry about that, campers. I didn’t notice that IIS is closed this week. And I listened to the whole thing, too. Thought it sounded kinda familiar. lol

* Did the governor threaten to veto the so-called “50 percent” budget yesterday? Looks like it…

“I’m not going to accept that budget,” he said. “I’m going to send it right back to the legislature, and we’re going to sit there and we’re going to get a full budget.”

Now, that’s a change in plans. He’s never really talked about a veto before in public, although his people told me a few days ago that he was considering it.

* Meanwhile, the Republicans are not impressed, at least publicly, with the governor’s unilateral changes to the corporate income tax hike…

Quinn said he would settle for raising the corporate income tax rate to 6 percent from 4.8 percent, instead of the 7.2 percent he originally proposed. He hasn’t budged on the personal tax rate, which he wants to move up to 4.5 percent from the current 3 percent.

Patti Schuh, spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, was unmoved.

“We’ve been clear and consistent that there’s lots of things that need to be done in state government and a tax increase is not the first one,” Schuh said.

Quinn told reporters yesterday that he received no promise of votes before he proposed making that change.

* It’s been three months since Gov. Quinn picked Jonathon Monken to lead the Illinois State Police. But the Senate never even held a hearing. Heck, they haven’t even read the official appointment message into the record yet…

But the Senate confirmation vote won’t necessarily take place soon.

First, Quinn’s formal message appointing Monken must be read into the Illinois Senate journal, said Rikeesha Phelon, spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton. That hasn’t happened, she said, though she didn’t say why.

Once the message has been read into the record, the state Constitution gives the Senate 60 session days to act, Phelon said. Session days are days when the Senate convenes.

* Back to the budget, the nursing homes are turning up the heat on one proposed reform…

Illinois nursing home operators are fighting a proposal to move thousands of patients out of their facilities in a state cost-cutting move.

It’s among recommendations made this month by a panel appointed by Gov. Pat Quinn to pinpoint spending cuts to chip away at the state’s $9.2-billion budget deficit. The committee suggests moving patients out of nursing homes and state-run institutions and into less costly settings, like home-based care, which it estimates could save the state up to $635 million annually by 2014.

“We believe that a goal of reducing nursing home placements by 10% per year, over the next five years, is desirable and achievable,” the panel’s report says. The state pays for the majority of nursing home care through Medicaid, the health plan for the poor and disabled.

The move would divert revenue from nursing homes, which say profit margins are shrinking as costs rise and Medicaid reimbursement rates stay the same.

* Related…

* ADDED: Home health workers protest at Black’s office - A small group of home health care workers picketed outside state Rep. Bill Black’s Danville office Thursday morning to protest possible budget cuts of 50 percent or more in Illinois human services.

* Republicans want a temporary budget soon

* Deadline, schmedline

* Few Options Remain in Illinois Budget Stalemate

* Protesters want higher taxes to avoid deep budget cuts

* People with disabilities caught in middle of budget fight

* Budget Threats Loom Over Disabled

* Cuts threaten RMTD Belvidere plans

* IPI outlines Illinois budget myths and facts

* Britt: No furlough days for corruption in Illinois

* Toll board director questions leadership

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Protected: *** UPDATED x1 *** SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Some more Doomishness

Friday, Jun 26, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller

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A Blagojevich problem or an historic problem?

Friday, Jun 26, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I think one of the most important question about this U of I “clout” story has never really been touched upon.

Did the school’s admissions process change when Gov. Rod Blagojevich was elected?

Legislators have helped parents with admissions for years. Most of that assistance was just basic constituent services. They help a lot of constituents, like editors of big, powerful landmark newspapers who want the best tee-times at public golf courses.

* Anyway, the chutzpah of the most news-worthy admissions requests makes it look like this was more of a Blagojevich problem than an historical, systemic crisis. Like today’s revelation…

In one e-mail exchange, University of Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman forced the law school to admit an unqualified applicant backed by then- Gov. Rod Blagojevich while seeking a promise from the governor’s go-between that five law school graduates would get jobs. The applicant, a relative of deep-pocketed Blagojevich campaign donor Kerry Peck, appears to have been pushed by Trustee Lawrence Eppley, who often carried the governor’s admissions requests.

When Law School Dean Heidi Hurd balked on accepting the applicant in April 2006, Herman replied that the request came “Straight from the G. My apologies. Larry has promised to work on jobs (5). What counts?”

Hurd replied: “Only very high-paying jobs in law firms that are absolutely indifferent to whether the five have passed their law school classes or the Bar.”

Hurd’s e-mail suggests that students getting the jobs are to be those in the “bottom of the class.” Law school rankings depend in part on the job placement rate of graduates.

Now, that’s pretty darned outrageous. But, so far at least, there’s been no other evidence presented to back up the Tribune’s lede: “What does it cost to get an unqualified student into the University of Illinois law school? Five jobs for graduating law students, suggest internal e-mails released Thursday.”

If that’s the standard cost for everyone, then the Trib is gonna need more than one instance from somebody besides the former governor to back up that very bold statement.

It would also help to know if Blagojevich’s appointments to the U of I trustee board have been much more involved than their predecessors with admissions.

The reason is obvious. If it was a Blagojevich problem, then the newspaper’s hysteria is somewhat unwarranted because the man is gone and his trustees can, and should be fumigated. If it’s a more generalized problem, then new laws are obviously needed.

* Related…

* Blagojevich Co-Defendents May Testify Against Him

* Trial date set for Blagojevich as former aides set to change pleas

* Judge sets Blagojevich trial date

* Patti Blagojevich: Time in jungle a ‘welcome break’

* U. of Ill. releases e-mails about clout admissions

* SJ-R: Madigan should push UIS to release records

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My life’s preparation for covering the Statehouse

Friday, Jun 26, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller

* My Sun-Times column…

As we all do on Father’s Day, I was thinking a lot about my dad last Sunday. One thing I chuckled about were the little phrases Dad relied on in times of stress. When you have five sons, stress is a constant. So, we heard them often.

“Richard,” he would say to me with a dramatic, exasperated sigh, too exhausted to be angry, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

I never really understood what he meant until many years later.

And then Rod Blagojevich was elected governor.

And then re-elected.

And then arrested in a pre-dawn raid and ousted from office in a bloodless, constitutional coup d’etat, all the while grinning for the cameras and declaring it to be yet another “Up day.”

Most rejoiced when Pat Quinn was installed in Blagojevich’s place. Heck, people were so ecstatic to finally be rid of the Blagojemonster that the new governor could’ve been Dick Cheney, for all anybody cared.

Well, maybe not Dick Cheney.

There are limits.

But now we are a month into the third overtime legislative session in three years. Actually, the ruinous session that began the January after Blagojevich was re-elected in 2006 has never really ended.

The budget is in tatters, there is no resolution in sight, tempers are beginning to flare and disgust is the watchword.

The only comfort is cold. The same scenario is playing out all over the country right now. Illinois is just unlucky enough (of course) that the nationwide state revenue plunge happened right at the end of our long political civil war.

For instance, according to CNN, Arizona’s Republican governor is suing the Republican legislature for not sending her a budget bill. The legislature is holding onto the bill because the governor wants to veto it.

That has a familiar ring.

The Democratic-controlled Illinois Senate is refusing to send Democratic Gov. Quinn a crucial budget bill because Quinn won’t say whether he’ll sign it. State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Chicago) has put a hold on the capital projects bill for the same reason. The Senate also is refusing to pass a constitutional amendment for gubernatorial recall until Quinn says he’ll sign a controversial ethics bill that the governor publicly endorsed on numerous occasions.

In other words, Quinn won’t say he’ll sign these bills because the General Assembly won’t send them to him. And the General Assembly won’t send them until he agrees to sign them.

Oh, and did I mention that at this late date the Legislature and the governor are suddenly several billion dollars apart on defining what the state budget deficit really is?

I get that the problems are enormous. I understand that there are no easy ways out. I fully comprehend that solutions to gigantic problems can take time to sort through. And I certainly wouldn’t want to be in their position. It’s easy to criticize on my side of the fence.

But I’m way past sick and tired of being sick and tired. In fact, if the State of Illinois could talk, I’m pretty sure it would say the same thing.

Dad had another saying that we’d usually hear during long car trips when the five brothers couldn’t stop pestering each other. He’d turn around, wave his index finger at us and utter what he called his “Three S’s.”

“Sit down. Sit back. And shut up!”

As we got older, it became a joke. We’d all say it with him in mocking unison, while the car swerved this way and that because Dad had turned almost completely around in his seat.

Little did I know back then my chosen career would be to report on that very same behavior.

…Adding… Some excerpts from that aforementioned CNN article…

In Arizona, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer has filed a lawsuit against the Republican-controlled legislature seeking to compel lawmakers to send her the budget it passed on June 4. The lawmakers are holding back until an agreement is reached because she has said she would veto it.

Leaders are at odds over how to contend with a deficit that exceeds $3 billion. The governor has proposed raising taxes, including hiking the sales tax by a percentage point, while the legislators are cutting spending. […]

In some states, the leaders aren’t even talking. Pennsylvania’s governor and Senate Republicans, who have to close a $3.2 billion gap for the current year, are not negotiating on their budgets. […]

Pennsylvania’s Rendell has already said state workers would have to stay on the job without being paid if the budget isn’t approved. Services will start to be affected if the budget standoff continues beyond its typical week’s delay.

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Morning Shorts

Friday, Jun 26, 2009 - Posted by Mike Murray

* Not making rent

Only once this year has Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education - headed by Supt. Charles Flowers - paid rent to Westchester Public School District 92 1 / 2 , according to documents received from the district through a Freedom of Information Act request.

From July 2008 to June 2009, Flowers’ office should have paid $41,150 for the space at 10110 Gladstone Street in Westchester, which is leased from the school district. It has only made good on $24,004. The regional office shares the building with MacNeal School, a private school affiliated with MacNeal Hospital that services special education students, which also rents from the district.

* Panel advances FBI expansion at O’Hare

The FBI has had a full-time presence at O¹Hare for more than 30 years, but the agency occupied so little space, it paid no rent. The office included only 400 square feet.

The new 10-year lease — with a five-year renewal option — calls for an expansion to 1,693 square feet at a rent of $90 per square foot. The rent would be adjusted upward at an annual rate of three percent.

* 2 FutureGen partners drop out of coal project

Just two weeks after the federal government revived plans to build the FutureGen power plant in eastern Illinois, two of the experimental coal plant’s financial backers said Thursday they are withdrawing.

The exit of American Electric Power Co. and Southern Co. leaves the nine power and coal companies that are still part of what’s known as the FutureGen Alliance searching for new partners to help cover building and startup costs they expect to reach roughly $2.4 billion.

* Greencorps Chicago job program gets $700K grant

Chicago’s green jobs initiative will receive a $700,000 grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation.

The city’s Greencorps Chicago program was selected for the grant by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

The program provides environmental jobs for between 40 and 50 people that last at least nine months. The jobs focus on eco-restoration, community gardens, plant distribution, landscaping, electronics and hazardous waste recycling and weatherizing projects.

* Court OKs Hartmarx Sale to British Firm

The roughly 3,500 employees of a Chicago-based menswear maker are breathing easier. A federal court has approved a sale of Hartmarx Corp. to owners who say they’ll keep most of the company intact.

* Joliet’s Empress Casino reopens 3 months after fire

* Thousands welcome Empress reopening

* Health care sole bright spot in area jobs figures

State figures showed health care and social assistance is the only industry that has added jobs in the Springfield area since May 2008. In fact, the 16,000 people who work in the health field in Springfield fall only 1,200 short of the number working for state government, still the largest local employer.

* Local layoffs add more pain to jobless picture

Aurora companies that have experienced layoffs include Fluid Air, Olsson Roofing Company, Luse-Stevenson Co. and Andy Frain Services, Cooper said.

Two Geneva companies have had layoffs — Catom Trucking and Burgess Norton Manufacturing.

A Plano company, National Tractor Parts, also laid off 80 people recently, according to Cooper’s office.

According to an Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act Report, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Brands in the DuPage County section of Aurora laid off 72 employees.

These layoffs come at a time when one of the area’s largest employers, Caterpillar, finished its planned 1,400 layoffs at the Oswego Township plant for this year.

* Chicago metro jobless rate hits 26-year high

Unemployment in metropolitan Chicago has reached a level not seen since August 1983.

The seasonally unadjusted jobless rate rose to 10.7% during May in the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet area, up from 9.9% the prior month, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

There were 185,900 fewer people employed in the metro area last month compared with the same month in 2008. That figure, the highest among the 12 Illinois metro areas reported, suggests that the recession continues to hamper the local labor market.

Chicago-Naperville-Joliet’s May jobless rate was the second-highest, behind Rockford’s 13.4%. Kankakee-Bradley was third-highest, at 10.6%.

* Unemployment rising again in Illinois metro areas

The Rockford metro area, which includes Winnebago County and part of Boone County, had the highest jobless rate, 13.4 percent, a 1.3 percentage point increase from April and just shy of the March high of 13.5 percent.

Boone County, where the Chrysler plant in Belvidere has been idled intermittently, had the highest single-county unemployment rate at 13.7 percent.

* Unemployment hits 10% in Peoria

* City Council aim to shield taxpayers from Olympic risks

The City Council is mapping plans to hire an independent insurance analyst at taxpayers’ expense to comb through the $1 billion in private insurance policies being lined up by Chicago 2016 to shield taxpayers from any risk beyond the $500 million the City Council has already pledged.

Chicago 2016 Chairman Pat Ryan said this week he needs 45 to 60 days before he’ll be ready to outline the carriers, costs and conditions of the insurance.

But after a closed-door briefing with Ryan Thursday, Ald. Joe Moore (49th) insisted that the information be delivered to aldermen in time to conduct an independent risk-assessment analysis prior to the International Olympic Committee’s Oct. 2 vote.

Aldermen also intend to hire their own experts to verify Chicago 2016’s construction budget and the Olympic committee’s representation of surpluses generated by past Olympics to make certain “they’re not cooking the books,” Moore said.

* Chicago aldermen demand Olympics money details after private meetings

* Community Group Wants Oversight on Chicago 2016 Olympic Spending

Communities for an Equitable Olympics, or CEO 2016, wants oversight on those public dollars.

* Hold the Mayor, City Council Accountable on Olympic Spending

* Costs get county called on carpet

Taxpayers are footing the bill for the new, brilliant blue carpeting in the lobby of the Cook County building. But officials don’t want them treading on a giant logo woven into it.

So blue velvet roping cordons off the single Cook County seal that faces the County Building’s entrance at 118 N. Clark.

A copy of the invoice shows the county paid $1,633.33 for logo work. Another $800 is on the invoice for variety of carpet colors, but it’s unclear whether those are for the logo.

* RTA OKs $67 million in spending cuts

The amount of public funding that Chicago-area transit agencies can expect to receive this year was slashed by $67 million Thursday.

The move by the Regional Transportation Authority board, in a 9-0 vote, was expected in order to bring transit budgets in line with declining tax revenue.

The CTA will need to reduce spending by $35 million for the rest of the year; Metra, $19 million; and Pace, $7 million. In addition, a $6 million cut was ordered for Pace’s paratransit program serving people with disabilities.

* A longer wait for your bus is better than no bus at all

The inevitable is here: CTA service cuts. The Regional Transportation Authority, the CTA’s parent, voted Thursday to reduce the CTA’s budget by $35 million. That’s on top of a $155 million hit the CTA already absorbed in April.

CTA President Richard Rodriguez says he’ll first look in-house to reduce costs but it’s doubtful that will be enough. That leaves only a few other options: route eliminations, reduced bus and train hours or longer wait times between buses and trains.

Thankfully, Rodriguez seems more interested in reducing service than eliminating it. On Wednesday, the new CTA chief mentioned the possibility of increasing the time between buses to 15 minutes from five to seven minutes on some routes.

* Pace could raise fares for disabled riders: chair

RTA Chair Jim Reilly suggested that Pace could raise fares for paratransit riders to $3 across the region to deal with funding problems.

Reilly’s comments came as the RTA board considered reserving $25 million in federal capital funds from CTA, Metra and Pace to pay for service for the disabled. The decision on reserving the money was deferred until next month.

Currently, riders pay $2.25 in the city, $3 in suburban Cook County, and $2.50 in the collar counties to ride on paratransit, which provides van pick-up for riders who cannot take regular transit services due to their disabilities. The real cost of the service, which is federally mandated, is about $40 a trip.

* RTA delays move on paratransit stopgap

* Metra invests in past and Kentucky

Metra could have spent millions of tax dollars in Illinois, but instead is spending the money in Kentucky.

The public transit agency has a contract to spend $87 million with Progress Rail of Mayfield, Ky., over the next three years to rebuild 40 of the diesel locomotives in its fleet of 144.

Back in May, I wrote about the National Railway Equipment Co. of Illinois, which has three plants in Illinois, including one in Dixmoor, and claims to be the largest distributor of remanufactured locomotives in the country. National Railway also has a plant in Kentucky.

That company has launched a new division, N-ViroMotive, to build new, environmentally friendly locomotives that would reduce pollution and noise, cut fuel costs and meet new U.S. EPA guidelines for emissions.

* City beefing up police presence for Taste of Chicago

The enhanced security measures, which include live surveillance feeds near the festival, were in part influenced by President Obama’s successful election night rally in Grant Park, said Weis, who was grilled by aldermen last year after four people were shot just as the crowd dispersed after the Taste’s July 3 fireworks.

The mayor also lambasted Weis for the violence in a one-on-one meeting.

“He was trying to say, ‘We did everything we could to control the problems.’ The response from Daley was, ‘Like hell,’ ” a source had told the Sun-Times at the time.

Weis said the department is learning from past “mistakes” and will keep a vigilant eye on “troublemakers.”

* Cops reveal ‘Taste’ security plans

* Even cops losing their jobs in recession

In Chicago, with a police force of about 13,000, the number of vacancies has climbed to more than 400 since January 2008 because the department is not hiring to keep up with the number of officers who leave. The city could be down 800 officers by the end of the year, said Mark Donahue, president of the police union.

The danger of one-person squad cars was seen last summer in Chicago when Officer Richard Francis, riding alone, responded to a disturbance involving a mentally ill woman. During a struggle, the woman allegedly grabbed Francis’ gun and killed the 27-year veteran.

* CPS to test teens for STDs

Approved by the Board of Education this week, the pilot education, testing and treatment program will be run by the city Department of Public Health in six high schools at no cost to CPS.

Participation by the schools and students — 11th- and 12th-graders are being targeted — will be voluntary, CPS officials said.

The program, in development for over a year, is based on the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics, for 2007, which showed Cook County notched 12,338 reported gonorrhea cases, or 233 per 100,000 population. The county notched 30,881 chlamydia cases, or 583 per 100,000 population — second only to Los Angeles County.

* Chicago alderman has concerns about proposed downtown dorm

A proposed 37-story downtown dormitory is facing resistance from a key alderman, who fears that the privately financed venture would turn into apartment housing with no university control.

* Peoria County Battles Budget Shortfall

* Ardis: Revenue sources needed to patch budget

PEORIA —A combination of budget cuts and revenue increases is needed to patch a $10 million deficit next year, Mayor Jim Ardis told a group of business people on Thursday.

* The people, illnesses behind lawsuits against Crestwood and its use of a tainted well

* Highland Park, Elgin consider restrictions on pit bulls

* Attorney General sues Wheeling travel agency

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit Thursday against a Wheeling tour company, saying the firm canceled trips but didn’t refund its customers.

Madigan’s suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleges that Cosper & Cosper Group Tours and its owners, William and Gayle Cosper, have accepted nearly $24,000 from vacation planners for scheduling guided tours throughout the country. The suit claims the couple repeatedly failed to pay refunds to consumers when those tours were canceled.

William Cosper, reached at his office on Thursday, denied Madigan’s claims.

* Illinois Attorney General sues tour guide company

* Taste is the place for perfect pairings of food and music

* Energy Festival this weekend in Carbondale

* Peterson trial witness list: 805 people

Saying Drew Peterson’s attorneys were attempting to simplify disclosure evidence into “CliffsNotes,” prosecutors thwarted the bid Thursday but will have to pare an 805-witness list down to the 50 most likely to testify.

* Kids expect to set LEGO world record

* John Callaway memorial service on Sunday

A memorial service for John Callaway, the veteran Chicago radio and television newsman, is set for 3 p.m. Sunday in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave.

* Services are Saturday for soldier killed in Afghanistan

* East Peoria soldier promoted posthumously

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax

Friday, Jun 26, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller

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