53 Comments - VanillaMan - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 2:43 pm: By this time next year, due to the additional taxes on cigarettes and soda, a smoke and a Pepsi is going to set you back 13 bucks. - Irish - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 2:45 pm: Dear Senate President Cullerton, These retirement changes would also apply to the GA, right? - He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 2:46 pm: Dear Legisltors: You all talk about our pension system, when you have a better one. You all seem fine with employees taking Furlough days even though you do not take them. Here is a challange: Give up your per diem during the next legislative session and lead by example. - Leroy - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 2:46 pm: “Publishing assassination fantasies disguised as jokes probably won’t help with the advertising” Oh lighten up…it was a joke! (and a funny one) - Rich Miller - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 2:47 pm: Leroy, I won’t lighten up about that. If you posted that joke here, I’d ban you for life. - respectful - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 2:49 pm: To IL GOP Leaders: Now that the Civic Club says the State needs an income tax hike, stop pretending that we can balance the budget & pay our bills without one. - Irish - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 2:51 pm: Dear PQ, Are you really interested in our fiscal ideas or are you simply satisfying the time line on the public comment period by having it BEFORE the budget is revealed rather than AFTER. - VanillaMan - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 2:52 pm: Dear Governor Quinn - Now that your VIP card has been exposed as a fraud, when you wish to talk about your personal frugality, hold up your briefcase. But tell them what it is first, as some folks might think you are holding up petrified roadkill… Or mention how holey your Hanes briefs are… Or show the audience your tooth brush and tell them you bought it when Carter was president… Or a sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mints and tell the audience you bought them in 1972. This way you’d look frugal and demonstrate self control. - Bill - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 2:59 pm: Dear Sen. Cullerton, Thank you for your thoughtful, fair, nad morally correct statements on state pensions. It is not fair to blame the victims for this pension mess. The state should pay up. The state is the one that stole their money. I wish some of your thoughtfullness would rub off on the governor and the republicans. - VanillaMan - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:02 pm: Dear Governor Quinn - Another way to demonstrate that level of personal frugality you wish to convey on the campaign trail is to always make it a point when you see a voter eating something - ask if they are going to finish it. Mention that you always have campaign stops near movie theaters so that you can beg for leftover popcorn. Hold up a Burger King Star Wars cup and tell folks you’ve used it since 1977. Hold up your belt and tell the audience that it was once a garden hose. Tell the audience that with a little bleach their bathwater can be used to wash dishes. Show voters that you carry in your pocket Jack In The Box ketchup packets. - Captain Flume - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:05 pm: “If you posted that joke here, I’d ban you for life.” I know it’s your blog, but why did YOU post the link to the joke? - Rich Miller - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:06 pm: ===why did YOU post the link to the joke? === I deemed it newsworthy. - Anonymiss - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:06 pm: Agree with Rich on this. Joking about assassination is intolerable, period. - Rich Miller - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:10 pm: CF, allow me to expand on my earlier remarks. I deemed it newsworthy because a blog which works very closely with numerous ILGOP entities and calls itself a “crossroads” for the conservative community and sells ads to Statehouse groups like the Illinois Civil Justice League just published a joke about the assassination of the US House Speaker. - John Jay - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:18 pm: Even worse, the punchline of the joke is that U.S. Speaker Pelosi is an old cow. That is an out of bounds attack, and unacceptably sexist. - RJW - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:23 pm: ==You all seem fine with employees taking Furlough days even though you do not take them. == I’m not defending legislators, but they are taking furlough days - 12 just like all exempt employees. - Former Card Carrying Repub - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:27 pm: The joke is in bad taste, but Rich…dontcha think assassination is a strong description? I do agree that old cows are getting unfairly picked on in that joke. - OneMan - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:30 pm: ==Doug Beckmann is the university’s senior associate vice president for business and finance. He says the university is using the $800 million to whittle away at $3.8 billion in bills.== U of I has $3.8 Billion in bills? Wow… No wonder their tuition is what it is… - Rich Miller - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:30 pm: ===dontcha think assassination is a strong description?=== It’s a joke about killing the Speaker of the US House. I don’t see how it could be any more clear. - Kumbaya - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:31 pm: Dear Everyone, Let’s all take it down a notch or two. Any joke about the Speaker of the House being assassinated, regardless of whom that person may be, should be out-of-bounds. Or at least be funny. Total fail, IR. Disagree on issues? Fine. Resort to this type of stuff? Lame. Sometimes I wonder how According to Jim has lasted on TV as long as it has. The fact that somebody heard this joke and thought that it was so funny that it had to be published shows that you can’t underestimate people’s senses of humor. Not funny just on the merits of the joke and not appropriate based on content. - Rob N - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:31 pm: Rich writes, “Publishing assassination fantasies disguised as jokes probably won’t help with the advertising.” They have more ads highlighted than you, Rich. Not sure how many of them are paying ads versus gratis “co-sponsor” type ads but since you’re just sayin I’m just sayin. This is the same outfit which “questioned” whether or not Rahm Emanuel pays property taxes. He does, but Fran Eaton doesn’t know how to read public records so she questions whether or not he does … then blames other people who point out her mistake for her mistake. It’s also the same cabal that questioned whether or not Obama was the anti-Christ. It’s another symptom of that weird sort of cognitive dissonance modern conservatives seem to routinely reconcile in their noggins: don’t do as they say until you do do as they say and then they’ll publicly give you a slap on the wrist while turning around to applaud your insane actions behind closed doors… or something to that effect. Look at Scott Roeder. The guy’s lauded as a martyr and a victim just for being on trial for assassinating a doctor. And there’s abundant evidence to show a direct link between the fiery “Tiller the Killer” rhetoric of the right-wing extremists and Roeder literally pulling the trigger (in a church, no less). Look also at the recent Research 2000 poll which indicated conservatives by large margins think Obama wasn’t born in the US and a bunch of other hysterical poop. In the wake of the poll Fox News yappers went on and on about how conservative partisans somehow weren’t nuts even though day in and day out those same Foxies promote the swill that leads cons to believe such madness. This is all par for the course, and Ill Review will be rewarded for their demeaning of the public discourse by some conservative benefactor or another in due measure. …Just sayin. - VanillaMan - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:32 pm: Mr. Brady - Put a picture of a tractor on your bumper stickers. Just go with it. Laugh at yourself. Have an ad where you are at a shrink’s office telling him that you think Illinois is ready for a conservative governor. Have the shrink hear it and fall on the floor laughing. Keep running the ad throughout the campaign until after Labor Day, when you show the shrink on the couch and you telling him how crazy he is. Have an ad showing you walking into the Chicago City Hall and alarms going off. A voice is heard over the intercom warning to take cover that there appears to be a conservative Republican loose in the building. Show a tractor parked in front of the Picasso. “Illinois has arrived in Chicago” Have an ad showing a bunch of young hip hop partiers walking into a new nightclub called “The GOP”. They walk in and it’s a barn dance. Show the disgusted looks on their faces as they are confronted by people clogging across the floor. Have an ad where you are going to a fancy Democratic restaurant. The patrons around you are disgusted as you sit down. The waiters look shocked as they acknowledge you and ask what you want. Tell them you want the hot dog because the state is on a budget now. Mr. Brady - you have to get folks to laugh at you, and show that you know how to laugh along. This will defang you and give you a chance with voters. You will have to make yourself a personality different from the stereotypes the Democrats will be setting up for you. No Palin stops. No silly right wing talking points. Laugh at yourself. Get them to laugh along. Then tell them how you plan to fix this bankrupted state. They may listen. - OneMan - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:34 pm: ==To IL GOP Leaders: Now that the Civic Club says the State needs an income tax hike, stop pretending that we can balance the budget & pay our bills without one. == Lots of people say that the state needs an income tax hike. Fine, but thanks to the voters of Illinois we can have one without a single GOP vote. So go right ahead and raise taxes…. - Rob N - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:36 pm: PS: The recently concluded Conservative Political Action Committee featured effigies (aka, pinatas) of Pelosi and Reid that conservatives could take a whack at. This after Democratic Representative and Senators had nooses, burning effigies and more hung outside their offices in recent months. When other countries do stuff like that, or even when dirtyhippyliberals do stuff like that, the right goes bonkers. Apparently “It’s OK If You’re a Conservative” though. - RJW - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:37 pm: @OneMan: That’s a fine comment and shows just how spineless and clueless the GOP are. I would support a GOP plan that doesn’t raise taxes if I saw one put forth. Haven’t seen a workable plan yet. Everybody in both parties needs to grow some and help fix the problems. I don’t care who caused them. - Michelle Flaherty - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:37 pm: Does that mean the U of I collected $800 million more than it needed until now? I was unaware public universities were for-profit entitities. Shouldn’t that money have gone back to tuition paying students and their families. If the school needs more, it can raise tuition. I’ve never understood the idea of governments “saving” money. That means they’re taking in more than they need. - Rich Miller - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:40 pm: ===They have more ads highlighted than you, Rich.=== True, but I go for quality. lol Also, I’ve got one coming up soon. - VanillaMan - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:43 pm: Mr. Brady - Run an ad showing fur-wearing jewelry covered couples in front of a Mercedes. Walk up to them and tell them that Illinois is broke so they will have to change their lifestyle. You take away their credit cards. You take away the furs and give them sweaters from Walmart. You take away the jewelry and give them Timex watches from JCPenney. You exchange the Mercedes for a Smart car. When they complain that they just couldn’t live like that and who does he think he is to do this to them, tell them that they will have to do what every Illinoisan has been doing to make ends meet and keep them in riches. Tell the that the party is over. - Ghost - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:48 pm: does the U of I cash rerves (and hidden cash reserves) not beg the question about whetehr the budget they recieve is way over bloated! - RJW - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:51 pm: I’m really confused here by people. We complain and moan about the state’s budget situation, yet if we had some sort of reserve it might make the solution a little easier. Now we complain and moan because the university has a reserve and we want to take money away. Jeesh!! - Irish - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:56 pm: I don’t know about Universities but I know local schools are mandated to have a percentage of their budget in reserves. They are also required to have a TORT reserve fund. It used to be that fund could be tapped in dire circumstances but I believe that has been changed. - Ghost of John Brown - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 3:57 pm: Since there has been a lot of discussion about it, I thought I might weigh in. Yep, I’m the guy that posted the joke. I got it from a friend, thought it was funny and posted it. Sometimes, I think politics get a little too uptight, so occassionally I post some humor. As some have stated, this is an old joke. It has been a joke about Rush Limbaugh, Hillary Clinton and suprisingly John Boehner (described as an old lizard instead of a cow, but essentially the same joke). Rich, I’m sorry you see this as a highly offensive joke. It was meant as just that - a joke. If the joke had been something like “…..three guys got out and killed Nancy Pelosi…….”, then no, it wouldn’t be funny. I would agree. The difference here is that it was actually the cow that got killed, and the farm family misunderstood. Rich, I understand why you are upset, but as you can imagine, I don’t concur. To each their own. I still find it funny. - fredformeranon - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 4:04 pm: It would be good to kick out the legislators that are responsible for years of mishandling state finances (our problems began before 2008). But two things will happen, the machine politics (madigan) will ensure the most guilty will stay, national politics (repub vs. Dem) will divide people on who to vote for. The first we can’t do anything about due to the corruption tax (Illinoisans like their corruption because they won’t do anything about it), the second factor we can change if we realize Repub vs. Dem means nothing in Illinois. What epitomizes party politics in Illinois is, “serve yourself.” This is why I laugh when Illinoisans in Washington are referred to as Dems or Repubs. Most current illnois politicians would pimp their own daughters to get elected so they can feed from the corruption trough. Until we begin to say, you are an incumbent and you are gone, and choose the best - not the party - from the people that are left, we have somewhat of a fighting chance. - Captain Flume - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 4:10 pm: Well, the joke is certainly newsworthy now. I wonder how many on this blog will pass it along, or have passed it along already, either as humor or as news. - OneMan - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 4:11 pm: RW If the Democrats would consider a GOP plan I am sure the GOP would offer one. But after ignoring the GOP for a while (don’t blame the Democrats for doing that) it’s a bit hollow when they ask for a plan from the GOP with a primary goal of providing cover for the Democrats. If you are going to lead then lead, don’t ask for cover, just do it or get out of the way and let someone else do it. - frustrated GOP - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 4:22 pm: It’s a level 1 research university with a huge budget, What is that as a % of budget, when large industry closes plants, they usually have 360 days cash on hand. Public doesn’t. It’s a big number, but a percent of what total. So I guess we all need to go broke and file before MJM will do something. Time’s up Mikey, gotta put it up for a vote. We are all dying on the vine out here. - RJW - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 4:31 pm: @OneMan: I’m frankly sick of all of it. The Democrats continue to be un-bold, the Republicans continue to sit on the sidelines waiting for their opportunity to grab power again, and nothing gets done. Politics is an interesting sport to watch, but sometimes it just plain sucks. And somehow we in Illinois continue to feed that which sucks with more that sucks - candidates who don’t or are unfit to lead. Thirteen million people in a state and we don’t seem to be able to find just one who might inspire. - Secret Square - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 4:34 pm: Political jokes get recycled all the time. A good example is the “Walking Eagle” joke (look it up on Snopes.com) which has been told about Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, etc. I also distinctly remember hearing a salacious joke about Gary Hart sorry, can’t print it here) retold 10 years later, almost word for word, only this time it was about Bill Clinton. I wouldn’t be surprised if the exact same joke has been told about Eliot Spitzer, Mark Sanford, Scott Lee Cohen, or any number of politicians. This sounds more like a ham-handed attempt to update an old political joke than a genuine “threat” against Pelosi or anyone else. - Rich Miller - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 4:34 pm: === So I guess we all need to go broke and file before MJM will do something. === I see your point, but if they have reserves then they should spend those down before demanding more cash. It’s exactly what the NJ governor ordered school districts to do. And it’s the right thing to do. - Angry Chicagoan - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 5:06 pm: If we order spend-down of reserves for competently run public agencies, there’s huge moral hazard involved. If this is how we handle agencies that have actually maintained a cash reserve, then what incentive is there for competent management? The culture in the American public sector of “spend down your budget” is pernicious and damaging, and it’s probably the single most compelling reason I can think of for wholesale privatization so that this kind of political pressure ceases to be an issue. - Moving to Oklahoma - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 5:07 pm: wow, Pelosi in a car hitting a car? that is what were getting worked up about? amazing. - D.P. Gumby - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 5:24 pm: the main problem is that very few of the wacko right have a sense of humor—they usually mean it and just put it in the form of “satire”. - D.E.N.N.I.S - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 5:26 pm: So no “Regan, a priest, and a boy scout are in an airplane when the engine dies…” jokes? Sheesh… - Can't Say My Nickname - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 6:29 pm: Guard #1 - the Department of Aging’s Organizational Overview chart (2-19-10) reflects a vacant Deputy Director position. However, in our agency, there are many positions that are not paid from the appropriate payroll. It gives a false headcount and is difficult to plan fiscal budgets. It must not be illegal, however, you would be surprised how bad it really is. We call it “hide and seek.” - Guard #1 - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 7:08 pm: Thanks for the info C.S.M.N….I guess the Agency is paying it, I don’t know. Have you heard anything on a new building and worse….new furniture? - Can't Say My Nickname - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 7:31 pm: Guard #1 - if you know his name, pull up the Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal website, type in his name, then click on his name and it will reflect what agency he is paid from. No, I have not heard anything about a new building, however, check the Illinois Procurement Bulletin, under Notices - Open and Closed - and look at the Procurement Policy Board Meeting minutes. All leases and building purchases must go through a property management review. I think only two agencies are exempt from this process….IDOT is one of them. - Michelle Flaherty - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 8:54 pm: I’ve alwasy disagreed with public sector “reserves.” It’s not the school board or the universities’ money to save. It’s taxpayers money. Give it back to them. If they need more, make the case, year by year. That’s the way this works. Don’t come crying to me for more money when my savings accounts are dry and yours aren’t. - 47th Ward - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 9:17 pm: Rich, Your unsolicited advice to the U of I is politically astute, but tone-deaf in other ways. I’m an outsider, but it seems a safe assumption that the $800 million in reserves is privately-raised money, or income earned from private gifts to the University. Either way, it ain’t tax money appropriated for the operation of the state’s flagship university that they‘ve been squirreling away somewhere. If the state can’t meet its obligations, it should deed over the property and make U of I private. Any responsible finance vp would first reassure donors and students that the University has a plan to weather this Illinois budget storm. Anything less would cause a panic and the university’s benefactors wouldn’t write another check. It would certainly become a vicious circle in terms of the university’s ability to raise money. And since the U of I can’t change the stalemate in Springfield, this is all it can do while the headlines continue to damage its reputation. That the General Assembly doesn’t understand this basic financial model is par for the course. You jumping on this innocuous story shows that you might be a little too caught up in the Springfield mindset to see this for what it is, a responsible announcement by the university’s financial administrators. It sounds to me that the university isn’t playing a game of chicken like everyone else in Springfield. The university is not a state agency, it is a publicly supported university and one of the finest in the country. - zatoichi - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 9:32 pm: Where is this idea that reserves for public sector is a bad thing coming from? You really think the state is the only source of revenue for many places or that the state actually pays anywhere close to full cost? If money comes from a benefactor, rental payments, production profits, or any other source why is that not a good operational outcome? I would think that any organization that did not have a reserve is an incompetent manager who has no idea of how to run a business. Having that reserve for times like this is exactly why the reserve is a good thing. What do you think buys equipment, pays a decent salary, and covers the slow times? - Rob_N - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 9:51 pm: Michelle Flaherty writes, “I’ve alwasy disagreed with public sector “reserves.” It’s not the school board or the universities’ money to save. It’s taxpayers money. Give it back to them. If they need more, make the case, year by year. That’s the way this works.” But then contradicts herself with, “Don’t come crying to me for more money when my savings accounts are dry and yours aren’t.” Which is it? Either they shouldn’t be saving money so they don’t have to come asking for more from you (and us) when our wells are dry … Or they should be saving money so they don’t have to come asking for more. (PS - I agree with Rich’s premise. The reserves are there for situations exactly like this. On that note, Channel 7 and Andy Shaw’s group ought to look into how many townships, especially in the suburbs, have racked up huge “reserves”. Just sayin….) - Arthur Andersen - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 10:49 pm: 47th, your post is spot on. First of all, the AP cadged a News-Gazette story (with no original reporting) and severely distorted the UI’s cash balances and their sources. Here’s the N-G story: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/politics-and-government/2010-02-21/ui-paying-flood-bills-using-its-rainy-day-account.html READ THE WHOLE THING. As experienced State number crunchers know, the UI as a whole has about four major cost centers. Education, Research, Hospital/Clinic, and the various enterprises that range from the Assembly Hall to the campus bookstores. The latter are self-funding and supporting, and any reserves present do not belong “to the taxpayers” but most likely to the bondholders funding various campus facilities or to the students/families paying fees for the use of those facilities. The Hospital/Clinics located around the state receive minimal State support. Almost all research is grant-funded, with strings attached restricting the use of the funds to. well, research. Most of the State approp funds education at the 3 campuses. If the Big U truly has any walkin’ around money, the only place it can likely be found is in the indirect cost recovery pot. This is inside budget baseball and I honestly don’t know how the UI’s ICR program works or how much is a reasonable reserve/balance there. Once again, it’s not like the UI has the “flexibility” to spend down the ICR funds without the reasonable reassurance that the funds will be returned. The Feds (from where most of the indirect cost cash originates) almost always win those battles. Finally, though the UI proper may be able to access Foundation/endowment funds for cash management, that’s another lose/lose proposition in the long run. Those funds should be fully invested in income producing assets, with minimal cash held. Raising cash and/or loaning it to the UI proper will reduce the investment earnings of the funds, reducing the amount of available support from these sources for the campuses. My unsolicited advice to those who think the folks in C-U are trying to pull a fast one here is just to get all the facts before you come out with guns blazing. And, did you hear the one about Rod Blagojevich, Chief Illiniwek, and a campus bar? Oh, sorry, punchline is politically incorrect. Never mind. - aint as smart as you think - Monday, Feb 22, 10 @ 11:42 pm: The U of I guys aint as smart as you think. They lost $130 million in energy arbitrage a couple of years and the hundreds of millions they have borrowed to build buildings is all on variable rate interest that has now soared to 9/10 % and the $800 million aint donor money–donor money is always directed to certain items not to making payroll..no the 800 million is coming right from tuition payers–likly their student health insurance fund or some otehr monies they shouldn’t be touching. These boys are going to go down hard when this all comes out. - Chief Ilini - Tuesday, Feb 23, 10 @ 12:27 am: Civic report says 5% tax on services up to 6.6b additional and 4.5% on income several billion more. Raise health premiums for all employees and retirees, remove teachers from state system and place them in school district pension systems, 2 tiered system, longer periods until retirement and this is solved. Also not a word in the report about the Univ costs statewide, increase tuition and cut all the fat at those schools. Could save hundreds of millions. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.