* Mayor Daley and Gov. Quinn unveiled a proposal to help reform McCormick Place’s cost structure yesterday, but the House Democrats have other ideas….

The proposal announced by the mayor and the governor calls for giving convention center officials more control over labor rules and taking some of the power away from the many trade unions that work at the convention center, including the right to strike. The proposal also includes an effort to restructure the crushing debt schedule facing the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which owns and operates the convention hall and Navy Pier.

But in Springfield, lawmakers threw cold water on the idea of giving any more authority to the current McPier managers, appointed by the mayor and governor. Instead, a House committee sent a bi-partisan message with an 11-0 vote for a bill that would dump the current McPier board and put in place a smaller interim panel to examine the growing expenses and loss of convention activities.

“We’re at a crisis, a crisis of management,” said House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, Madigan’s top lieutenant. She said lawmakers would not consider going along with the work rule changes or giving the convention authority more borrowing power until they know what went wrong.

“It’s time for a little new broom, a little sweep clean,” Currie said. “If they can convince us that it makes economic sense to extend the taxes or extend their borrowing power, well, we have the opportunity to come back and do it.”

More from Crain’s…

“A few hundred workers in one building” would lose some rights, McPier Chairman John Gates said, but in exchange, “Thirty-five thousand (industry) workers would save their jobs.”

One top labor leader, Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon, had a mixed reaction to the proposal.

Auditing contractors is a good idea, one that workers have sought for many years, Mr. Gannon said. But despite several questions on the subject, he declined to take a position on the public employment/no-strike clause. “I need to run that up the flagpole with the unions down there (at McCormick Place),” Mr. Gannon said.

* In other legislative action…

Prosecuting attorneys would receive advance warning about the early release of prison inmates under legislation a House committee approved Monday.

As proposed, the Department of Corrections would have to notify the relevant state’s attorneys at least 14 days before an inmate could be released early. State law presently proscribes only that state’s attorneys get “reasonable” notice before an inmate is let out before the scheduled date. […]

The amendment approved Monday also will require inmates to serve at least 60 days in the state correctional system before review for early release.

State Rep. Jim Sacia, a Republican from Pecatonica, said he would like to see another addition that would require victims, too, be notified.

* A committee also advanced a bill to allow the state to borrow $250 million to help ease the financial crunch on human service providers…

Gov. Pat Quinn could get the ability to borrow additional millions to make health care payments under legislation that gained initial support from lawmakers on Monday.

Quinn’s attempts at short-term borrowing have been thwarted by Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, who’s criticized the governor for being inconsistent in his plans and having no real way to pay off the loans. […]

Lawmakers entered the picture on Monday when an Illinois House committee voted to let Quinn access federal health care money to leverage additional borrowing since Hynes has not gone along. If the House and Senate were to approve this deal, Quinn may not need Hynes’ approval.

* Also…

Although they rejected the idea in October, the Illinois House is again mulling whether to give Gov. Pat Quinn extra time to craft a proposed state budget.

In action Monday, a House committee endorsed legislation that could eventually push Quinn’s budget address into March. Usually, the governor’s budget plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is presented in mid-February.

* And…

Republicans Monday continued to push an idea to give people a penalty-free chance to catch up on back taxes in order to generate some quick cash for the struggling state budget.

Republicans first floated the so-called “tax amnesty” plan last year as a chance to get $100 million immediately to pay for the state’s largest need-based college scholarship program.

Democrats largely ignored the idea then, and lawmakers approved spending $200 million on the Monetary Award Program without a way to come up with the money.

At a hearing Monday, a House panel discussed the tax amnesty plan again, but declined to vote on it.

* Meanwhile, Springfield hotel owners want more money…

Downstate hotel owners, including those in Springfield, will have to wait to see any adjustment in state reimbursement rates.

The latest effort to get a change went nowhere when it was presented to the Governor’s Travel Control Board in December. […]

In an e-mailed response, Alka Nayyar of the Department of Central Management Services said lodging rates for downstate hotels are set by the Travel Regulation Council, which hasn’t raised downstate rates since 2003.

The Springfield state rate is $70 per night. The federal lodging rate is $83.

* In legislative campaign news, the Chicago Reader has a very good article about how the IVI-IPO endorsement process was subverted by the 47th Ward regulars…

On December 29, a group of north-side members of the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization gathered to endorse attorney Dan Farley as their candidate in the upcoming Democratic primary for 11th District state representative. This was a coup for Farley, a first-time office seeker. North-side candidates covet the group’s stamp of approval, which gives them an aura of machine-fighting progressivism popular with voters.

The joke of it all is that there was hardly a real independent in the room that night.

In fact, leading the charge for independence was none other than 47th Ward alderman Eugene Schulter, one of Mayor Daley’s most loyal north-side City Council allies.

The IVI-IPO’s endorsement process is a joke.

* And GOP state Rep. Suzie Bassi’s primary opponent has a new Internet video criticizing the incumbent for missing 242 votes during her last term. Take a look…