Question of the day
Tuesday, Mar 2, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’ve been telling subscribers about this for at least a couple of weeks now. Speaker Madigan and Senate President Cullerton are both hoping to run a six-month budget this May…
Just days after the Civic Federation’s Lawrence Msall cast an ominous warning on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight that absent new tax revenue, “we run the risk of the state’s entire financial system collapsing,”a team of journalists convened on the set Friday night to talk about the political calculations for actually passing an inevitable income tax increase.
At one point, host Joel Weisman asked his panelists: “Where does Mike Madigan stand on it?”
“Where he’s always been,” veteran political reporter Mike Flannery responded. “He wants to protect his Democratic caucus. Madigan has set the earliest ever adjournment deadline, May 7 … [T]he thinking in Springfield is [pass] a six month budget, get the heck out of town.”
In theory, the “six month budget” would allow the Democrats to get through Election Day without putting any votes on an income tax hike.
The “theory” would be to pass another budget like the one they did last year, giving the governor tremendous authority to decide which budgetary line items to save and which to cut. If Quinn is reelected, then they’d take up a tax vote (if needed) in the January lame duck session. If Bill Brady is elected, they’ll just dump the problem in his hands.
* The Question: Your thoughts on this idea?
…Adding… Yes, the story is wrong about the “earliest ever” adjournment date. They adjourned April 15th one year. Stick to the question, please.
101 Comments  
|
* Yikes…
Picture this scene: Six or seven police officers struggle for a half hour on the floor with an uncooperative man while a phlebotomist repeatedly jabs the man’s hand with a needle, trying to draw blood.
It’s not a pretty picture. But it’s one you could see in Illinois if a bill that last week passed out of an Illinois House committee becomes law.
As the law stands now, police — even with a subpoena — are not allowed to use force to draw a suspect’s blood. House Bill 4969 would change that, allowing “all necessary and reasonable force” to obtain a blood sample.
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Keith Farnham (D-Elgin), says he introduced the bill at the request of the Kane County state’s attorney’s office, which has staged occasional “no refusal” weekends since 2008 to crack down on DUI suspects who refuse Breathalyzer tests. […]
The scene described above — cops fighting a suspect for a blood sample — did in fact take place in Arizona, where the man was left with a hand so swollen he couldn’t use his thumb. Former Cook County Judge Daniel M. Locallo, who sits on the Illinois State Bar Association’s Criminal Law Section, calls it an example of “frontier justice.”
Farnham barely won his race last year, so apparently he thinks he has to look super-tough on crime and cooperate fully with his local prosecutor to win this time around. But this seems to be a bit much, no?
* Here’s an interesting populist notion…
Legislation pending in the Illinois House would prohibit businesses from hiring based on a person’s credit history to spare people who lose their jobs and their homes from being “double victimized” when they can’t find new work, its top supporter said Monday.
“Can you imagine you’re someone who, at no fault of your own, you lose everything — you’re laid off, you can’t afford your mortgage so you lose your home — and then when you’re trying to get back on your feet, you got companies running credit checks on you while you’re looking for jobs?” said Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock), chief House sponsor.
I have a pretty good life, so I really can’t complain about much. However, I’d like to see some legislation to stop mobile phone companies from running those over-long explanatory messages (often with several-second pauses) during voice mail messages. I’m pretty sure everybody knows how to leave a message at the beep. I’m also pretty sure that those several seconds add up to huge profits when taken in the aggregate.
* It might also be nice if not-for-profits that don’t tell the truth about their lobbying expenses be somehow penalized, but I won’t hold my breath, especially considering the subject of this particular story…
Chicago Children’s Museum officials said they plan to amend the museum’s federal tax filings to reveal its City Council lobbyists and how much they were paid in recent years after the Tribune asked why it had failed to do so.
According to council members, several professionals were hired to lobby aldermen — who in June 2008 sided with Mayor Richard Daley and approved a controversial plan to build a museum in Grant Park.
But those lobbyists weren’t disclosed, as required, on the museum’s Internal Revenue Service reports for a two-year period ending June 30, 2008, according to recent not-for-profit filings at the Illinois attorney general’s office.
“It was an administrative error, and we are currently amending those tax returns,” said museum spokesman Natalie Kreiger.
That’s a pretty big error.
* Related…
* Meeks’ School Voucher Plan Moves Ahead: His voucher proposal would allow parents of students in the academically lowest 10 percent of Chicago Public Schools to have the option of sending their children to a private school, if space is available.
* Possible red-light camera ban faces Senate hurdle
* Illinois Primary Might be Moved Again
* Legislators take aim at new FOIA
* Recorder has risen quickly: Relationship with Hoffman has helped county official
* Ties to Jay Hoffman help Madison County recorder — just 31 — rise quickly in political circles
26 Comments
|
* Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign is obviously planning to paint Mark Kirk as a definite vote to perpetuate the DC gridlock on President Obama’s proposals. Kirk is a smart guy, however, and is already trying to show that he won’t be an automatic “No” on everything…
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk of Highland Park, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois, opposes a Kentucky Republican senator’s stand against extension of unemployment benefits.
Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., is blocking action in the Senate to extend the benefits. The blocked legislation also includes some highway money and Bunning’s action has temporarily shut down more than 40 projects nationwide, including a $1 million road project in Alexander County in far southern Illinois.
“I voted for the unemployment extension last week,” Kirk told The State Journal-Register during a visit to Springfield Monday. “In Washington, 41 senators can stop something, but one senator can only delay it. My read on this is the vote is pretty much 99 to one.”
Kirk’s campaign recently admitted that their own polling showed pretty high approval ratings for Obama in Illinois. So, he has to make sure he is more identified with, say, the new Republican Massachusetts Senator, who broke the impasse on a recent jobs bill, than people like Bunning.
* Kirk also scored some big PR points on the Giannoulias family bank yesterday…
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk said Monday the fate of his Democratic rival’s family bank should be an issue of concern for voters.
“I think there’s no question that Alexi Giannoulias bears direct personal responsibility for reckless loans that could bankrupt the Broadway Bank,” Kirk said of the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee. “I also worry that the possible collapse of the Broadway Bank will leave taxpayers left paying for Alexi’s reckless loans.”
Kirk’s comments came after the Tribune reported Sunday that the bank’s chief executive, Demetris Giannoulias, said the family must raise at least $85 million by the end of April to prevent a government seizure of the financial institution. Demetris Giannoulias is the older brother of Alexi Giannoulias.
More…
“Alexi Giannoulias engaged in the same kind of reckless lending that brought our U.S. economy to its knees,” Kirk said.
The Giannoulias campaign response sounded more than a little canned…
“While Alexi hasn’t been at the bank for four years, Mark Kirk has been in Washington for a decade supporting the failed and reckless Bush policies that got us into this economic mess,” Strand said.
It’s not a bad point, mind you, but it just oozes “DC talking point” blandness.
* Meanwhile, failed Democratic comptroller candidate Raja Krishnamoorthi is stepping up his efforts to be appointed the Democratic lt. governor candidate…
In addition, the Indo-American Democratic Organization is trying to collect 10,000 signatures on Krishnamoorthi’s behalf to present to House Speaker Mike Madigan.
I just can’t see how they could skip over an also-ran in the lt. governor’s race and give the slot to an also-ran in the comptroller’s race. But both parties are actively courting Indo-Americans, who haven’t quite yet established themselves here. It’s a delicate balancing act for sure. And that may be why more are saying they should just leave the slot open, including, apparently, Senate President John Cullerton…
CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery has learned top Dems are seriously considering leaving the slot open while simultaneously asking Illinois voters to abolish the office entirely. […]
Wiping out the office of lieutenant governor would save millions of tax dollars. And Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said Monday that having nobody as lieutenant governor would be preferable to the rookie Republican candidate.
He’s Jason Plummer, a 27-year-old whose main experience involves working for his father’s downstate lumber company. Democrats saw an opening last week, after Plummer stumbled repeatedly during an interview on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight.”
Cullerton on Monday expressed interest in floating a constitutional referendum to abolish the office of lieutenant governor, following the embarrassment his party endured over Cohen. Voters could be asked to approve the measure on the November ballot, if super-majorities in the House and Senate can approve the proposal this spring.
*** UPDATE *** The Democratic Party of Illinois has published the list online of everyone who has applied to be considered for the open lt. governor slot, as well as their applications and their resumes. Some even supply references. Click here to see the list. Some of the bigger names aren’t on the list, like Rep. Art Turner, Raja, etc.
…Adding… The links on that page appear to be working now.
* Related…
* NBC5 Broadway Bank coverage
* ABC7 Broadway Bank coverage
70 Comments
|
“Cut somebody else”
Tuesday, Mar 2, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Dennis Byrne is only about half right today…
Nice try, governor, but when you asked the people of Illinois how to balance the state budget, you got thousands of responses, but not one that I could see who said cut my services or raise my taxes.
Actually, a quick scan of just the front page of the governor’s budget website comment section revealed numerous pleas to raise taxes and fees on everyone, not just the rich. Here are a few…
* How about raising the driver’s license fee…
* Please pass HB 174 to raise revenue now.
* Increase income taxes.
* Raising user fees (driver’s license, car registration, etc)
As I’ve been monitoring the comment section for the past few days, however, I have noticed that almost nobody has demanded that their own pet programs be cut. The teachers are flooding the site demanding no cuts to schools - or even saying they want more money for schools - and pretty much everyone else is focusing on cuts to “the other”…
* KEEP THE TEACHERS AND THEIR UNION OFF THIS WEBSITE!! THIS IS FOR HARD WORKING TAXPAYERS, NOT FOR A BUNCH OF WHINY OVERPAID FUTURE MILLIONAIRES!
* Have all elected and appointed state officials take off one day per week with no pay just as companies are asking of their employees.
Byrne’s conclusion…
The truth is that much of what the state spends is for things that someone in Illinois wants. If we’re to come anywhere close to balancing the budget, it will require more than a debate over bigger cuts versus higher taxes. It will require a fundamental downsizing of our expectations of what we, ourselves, can milk from the government.
That’s a good point. And as I’ve said many times before, when newspapers and their employees start editorializing in favor of getting rid of their industry’s bigtime tax breaks, I’ll be far more inclined to take their other positions more seriously. Just about everybody has their fingers in the state government pie. And that’s a big reason why it’s so hard to do anything about the size of government.
…Adding… Several people are leaving budget-cutting proposals in comments. As with the state site, these are all aimed at other folks. We’ve had numerous posts here about ways to cut the budget. Your little cut ideas don’t interest me unless you propose cutting something that you depend on. I may start deleting these comments if they continue. Don’t waste our time.
* Related…
* Our Opinion: Sorting through budget thoughts
* Local lawmakers warn of deep school cuts
* Teachers pension fund earns 15% return
* Keep up push to end costly ‘free’ rides for seniors
58 Comments
|
Morning Shorts
Tuesday, Mar 2, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Daley defends Chicago handgun ban on eve of Supreme Court hearing
* SCOTUS to ponder Chicago gun ban
* Daley Defends Handgun Ban
* Mayor Daley ‘optimistic’ U.S. Supreme Court will uphold city’s handgun ban
* The Evolution of Chicago’s Handgun Ban
* Chicago gun control case could change constitutional map
* Plaintiffs put sympathetic face on Chicago gun case
* Chicago man explains challenge of city’s handgun ban
* January spending increases but income growth slows
* Unemployed fear losing benefits as Republican senator filibusters to block extension
* Thousands to Lose Unemployment Benefits
* Project Shield a big drain on Cook County taxpayers
Cook County’s post-Sept. 11 security initiative, dubbed Project Shield, which has come under fire for being sharply over budget and years behind schedule, is proving to be an even bigger drain on taxpayers.
* City steps in to block Daley testimony at developer’s bribery trial
The city asks a judge to quash a defense subpoena seeking to call Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to testify at the bribery trial of developer Calvin Boender. Boender is set to go on trial next week on charges he bribed then-Ald. Isaac “Ike” Carothers to obtain support for a large project.
* Ex-congressman’s daughter: Polish-Americans are under-counted in Census
“Why are there no Poles on major boards and commissions?” Pucinski asked. “Why, on the short form for the Census are we not allowed to identify ethnic identity?”
* School Districts Waive Pulaski Day Off
* Naperville City Council to mull 3 measures to fill budget gap
Garbage tax, gas tax hike and fund transfers to be considered
* New commission will help guide La Grange Park’s sustainability efforts
* Deer hits car, ‘crash tax’ hits driver
On her way to work in Glendale Heights on Dec. 8, a deer jumped onto Locklin’s car, crushing the windshield. Locklin slammed on the brakes and caught her breath.[…]
The Westchester resident suffered only minor injuries, a few cuts and scrapes from the damaged windshield.
What hurt far more was a $350 bill from the Glenside Fire Protection District, a fee critics refer to as a “crash tax.”
* Carbondale city council to discuss 2010 budget
* ‘Swipe fees’ a hidden tax on the poor, most of all
“These fees are a hidden tax on all of us, and they hit the poor especially hard,” said the study’s author, Robert Shapiro, who was undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs in the Clinton administration.
To pay for the rewards programs, which are heavily skewed toward the higher-income brackets, the card companies have boosted the processing fees retailers pay. “The result is massive transfer of wealth from poor to rich” in the checkout line, said Shapiro.
* Downstate judge resigns after alleged threats: [Judge] Brunton was suspended for allegedly making threats, though the nature of them never has been spelled out. No charges have been filed.
* A loud, bizarre silence in Island Lake
Two weeks ago, Village President Debbie Herrmann surprised the community by announcing she placed Police Chief Anthony Sciarrone on administrative leave.
* UI Springfield chancellor to retire in October
* Owner of many Peoria radio stations declares bankruptcy
* New broadband network would reach deep into Central Illinois
5 Comments
|
|
Comments Off
|
* Our quote of the day goes to Chris Mooney, a professor of Political Studies with the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois Springfield speaking about the governor’s new budget.illinois.gov website, which allows people to post suggestions about ways to cut the state budget…
“I think blogs are a terrible thing in the American public because there is no responsibility,” Mooney said. “It’s interesting and a good thing that many people [on the governor’s budget site] are owning what they say, which is unlike a lot of blogs.”
Actually, the worst commenters are found mostly on newspaper websites, not blogs. Whatever the case, Mooney’s thesis is not wholly correct. There are lots and lots of pseudonymous and anonymous comments on the governor’s budget site. Have a look for yourself. And quite a few of the ideas are a little silly…
“It won’t save millions of dollars, but is it really necessary to use a new pen, that I’m sure isn’t a 10-cent Bic pen, every time the governor signs his name on a document?” Kevin Taylor, Chicago.
Here’s a clueless one posted this morning…
Susan Nikka Chicago Since most of the budget goes to the employee payroll and all benefits, I suggest taking back the last pay raises of ALL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, which means local and state-wide, administrative, congressman, alderman — EVERYONE!
“Most” of the budget does not go towards employee payroll and benefits. And how is cutting congressional and aldermanic salaries gonna help the state budget?
Finke finds evidence of astroturfing on the governor’s site…
Several commentators wrote to promote hospital funding. They appeared to be form letters. Suggestion to writers: Don’t use form letters. Quinn may be an exception, but many politicians routinely ignore form letters.
* Another Mooney quote…
“How could anything on this (Web site) have an impact on what is going to be said?” Mooney said. “The budget is put together over the course of an entire year and has the input of hundreds of people and specialists. And now two weeks before, (Quinn) sets up a blog to get input?”
What Professor Mooney fails to grasp is that Quinn can use some of the more lucid suggestions for political cover in his budget address. He can incorporate the suggestions into his speech and portray himself as a man of the people. Used properly, it could be an effective little gimmick.
* The Chicago Tribune laid out its own budget cut proposals yesterday. The paper wants a two-year solution with not tax hikes. One item on the list was the pension funds…
The most ambitious initiative to rein in costs now and in future decades comes from the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, which has proved up its legal and financial implications. The plan would freeze, and guarantee, pension benefits already earned, but would set somewhat lower benefits going forward for current state employees and new hires. Retirement ages would increase, while accrual rates and annual cost-of-living bumps would decrease. An offsetting drop in employee pension contributions could put more money in some workers’ pockets.
These changes appear to be constitutional and parallel how private-sector employers have moved tens of millions of workers to less costly retirement plans, such as 401(k)s. One huge difference: The Civic Committee proposal keeps all employees in a defined-benefit plan — a golden nest egg that many private-sector workers no longer have. None of this would affect current retirees, whose pensions are constitutionally guaranteed for life. Actuarial studies estimate that these changes would reduce the state’s unfunded pension obligations, now approaching $95 billion, by about $20 billion. Budget savings: At least $2.1 billion.
A $2.1 billion savings right away? I haven’t been able to find anything at the Civic Committee’s website with that number, but I’ve been told an answer will be forthcoming. I’ll share the info when I get it.
That editorial also called for cutting local government revenue sharing in half, which would only transfer the problems to somebody else.
* Related…
* Dems must OK cuts to get tax increase: If, in the end, the Republicans refuse to play ball, Madigan should move forward without them, the political price be damned. He owes it to Illinois to use his power to deliver for the state — not just to accumulate even more power.
* Quinn: Lawmakers not cheering for tax increase: But Quinn has said he won’t back down from an income tax increase if House Speaker Michael Madigan and Illinois Senate President John Cullerton ask him to do so because lawmakers hesitate to support one in an election year.
* Range of services at risk due to city, state budgets: Like a frog in a gradually warming pot of water, not everyone notices the trouble brewing. But budget problems have already hurt the Chicago area’s way of life — public transit is shrinking, library hours have been cut, and public schools are laying off employees by the hundreds. And it looks like things can only get worse.
* By the numbers: How Illinois’ fiscal picture adds up
* Ideas to fix Illinois budget run from the ordinary to the exotic
* Take your own whack at state’s budget mess
* Online budget plan has obvious holes
* A Titanic mistake or nothing at all: This ship of state is steaming full speed ahead as people scream, “Iceberg!” That’s what this State of Illinois budget mess looks like to me.
* College tuition costs causing heartburn: One year at Illinois State University, my alma mater, costs more than $16,500. If prices kept pace with inflation from the time I graduated, one year at ISU should cost $10,000. Instead, the price more than doubled.
* Time to reform pensions, not add more sweeteners
52 Comments
|
* I don’t doubt this Bloomberg lede at all…
Fridays are getting tense in the Chicago campaign office of Alexi Giannoulias, the Democrat seeking the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama. That’s the day regulators announce which troubled banks they’ll close.
Broadway Bank in Chicago, owned by Giannoulias’s family, must attract at least $75 million in capital by late April to meet terms of a consent order with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. prompted by losses on commercial real-estate loans. Even if successful, the family could lose control before November’s election, dealing a blow to Democrats and an Obama friend.
“The last thing that Alexi Giannoulias needs right now is another round of bad news stories and stories raising questions about the family’s business,” said Stu Rothenberg, editor of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report. “The one thing you don’t want to spend in a campaign is a lot of time defending yourself.”
The Tribune explains why it will be so difficult for the bank to get itself out of this mess…
Demetris Giannoulias, a Yale University economics and sociology graduate, said one of the few options for Broadway Bank to raise money is through private-equity firms.
But that won’t be easy. For one thing, many private-equity firms won’t bother doing deals of less than $100 million, he said. For another, banking regulations make it unappealing for private-equity firms to take more than, say, a 25 percent ownership stake. Exceeding that threshold would force such firms to register as bank holding companies. That would open up a typically secretive industry to more scrutiny in the highly regulated banking world.
A purchase of Broadway by another bank is virtually off the table, Demetris Giannoulias said. That’s because many healthy banks believe it makes more sense to wait until a lender fails before swooping in for the deposits, assets and branches. That way, the acquiring bank can usually strike a deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that limits its losses.
Also, with only four branches, including its 5960 N. Broadway headquarters, Broadway has scant franchise value, providing little incentive for another institution to fashion a deal before its collapse.
Sen. Durbin said over the weekend that he believes Giannouolias will address all these issues soon…
“There are a lot of people who want to attribute all sorts of things to him, but most people in fairness will say, you know ‘he’s been away from this for four years, and banks are failing’ he needs to answer these questions, he’s prepared to answer these questions and it will happen soon.”
And this factoid from the Bloomberg piece can be expected to be part of that explanation…
[Giannoulias’] campaign presented figures showing 9 percent of about $240 million in non-performing assets now on the bank’s books originated while he was there.
Watch Giannoulias being asked about the bank by the Sun-Times…
* You may have noticed the new polling app in the center column for the US Senate race. I’m gonna keep it for a while unless it slows down the site (as these sorts of apps often do). I’ll also be adding the gubernatorial trendlines as soon as some more polls are taken so we can have some trendlines.
* Related…
* Kirk: Waive $1M penalty against district
* Giannoulias works Kane audience to build momentum in Senate race
39 Comments
|
* John Patterson at the Daily Herald has a must-read retrospective today about what went wrong last year with the Illinois Reform Commission. Go read the whole thing, but this excerpt is quite important. Former GOP state Sen. Duane Noland was a member of Patrick Collins’ hand-picked Illinois Reform Commission. He was the only former legislator on the commission and has now become the first commission member to openly criticize the way the IRC handled last year’s push for reforms…
[Noland] said many of his commission colleagues had no idea what awaited at the Capitol and when advised what was coming chose not to engage the system even if it meant their proposals might falter.
“I tried to talk about ways we could be more effective,” Noland said in a recent interview. “But they wanted to be independent and above the fray.”
Noland said his advice was “hit singles and advance runners,” but the feeling of the commission was they’d been assembled “to hit a home run.”
The problem, he said, is those who swing for the fences often strike out.
“I sensed real quickly - it’s getting ugly and our people don’t know how to engage the process,” Noland said. “I could just see it, we were grinding to a halt.”
While that may look to many of my readers like common sense advice, engaging the system and coming up with reasonable compromises was obviously seen as somehow dirty by the commission.
Patterson’s article revolves around the controversy over Collins’ and the commission’s apparent overreaction to what looked like a fairly benign meeting between one commission member and the spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan. Former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar added his own two cents…
Edgar said negotiations are part of the process, the earlier they begin the better the outcome, and, while some things shouldn’t be sacrificed, wiggle room is needed. He said Collins should have reached out to legislative leaders.
“I can’t believe … that everything there was chiseled in stone,” Edgar said of the reform report. “And if it is, then you’re going to have a tough time.”
Again, go read the whole thing.
* Meanwhile, the Sun-Times has a report about how Northwestern University allegedly managed to keep a lucrative county traffic school contract. A cousin of Mayor Daley was involved. And so was Senate President John Cullerton. The Sun-Times provided his full explanation…
Like most members of the General Assembly, Cullerton serves as a part time state senator while continuing his professional career. As a partner with Thompson Coburn LLP, he continues to practice in law in areas of zoning, licensing, assessments, nonprofit law and other matters that come before Cook County and City of Chicago. The City of Chicago and Cook County lobbyist registration ordinances broadly define the term what constitutes “lobbying,” including traditional legal services. Out of an abundance of caution to ensure compliance with these ordinances, Cullerton has registered as a lobbyist for the traditional legal services he provides to clients with matters before the City of Chicago and Cook County.
The [National Safety Council] asked Cullerton for representation in the traffic safety school bid. Later the NSC issued a Request for Proposal for general representation on all legal work across the U.S. After submitting a proposal, competing with other law firms for the work, and a series of interviews, Thompson Coburn (the largest firm in St. Louis with offices in Washington D.C., Chicago and Belleville) was awarded the representation.
* Related…
* New law cuffs commissioners’ campaign cash
* Now is no time to water down FOIA law
28 Comments
|
* As you already know, Sen. Bill Brady gave up his sponsorship of a bill last week to re-legalize mass euthanasia of dogs and cats by gas chambers after the press got wind of the legislation. But that wasn’t the only bill which Brady dumped…
The Illinois State Senate is considering a bill (SB3447) to roll back some protections of the Illinois Human Rights Act, which currently prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. […]
The bill was authored by State Senator Bill Brady, Republican gubernatorial hopeful, though the chief sponsorship has since changed to State Sen. John O. Jones. The bill has been assigned to the Judiciary Committee and a hearing on the bill is scheduled for Tuesday, March 2.
I wish I had known about that when I wrote my syndicated weekly newspaper column on Friday. The beauty of the column is I can somewhat bypass the Associated Press if they’re not covering an issue. The column appears in over 100 newspapers statewide, so I do reach a lot of eyeballs. This time around, the AP has so far completely ignored the uproar over Sen. Bill Brady’s bill to re-legalize gas chambers for dogs and cats. My column uses the legislation to partially illustrate how Brady’s campaign is doing so far, along with another related development…
Jerry Clarke is not easily ruffled. Not only has he seen it all in his years running campaigns in Illinois, but he’s served several tours of duty in Iraq as a combat helicopter pilot.
But I thought Jerry might actually faint last week when I called him with an update on his candidate’s latest piece of legislation. Clarke is running state Sen. Bill Brady’s gubernatorial campaign.
Sen. Brady’s bill would undo a compromise worked out over two years to stop the practice of mass euthanasia of dogs and cats. The animals were often put into auto exhaust gas chambers and killed en masse, sometimes allegedly by so-called “puppy mills” when the animals weren’t sold. The gas chambers were deemed cruel because it could take as long as 30 minutes for the animals to die, and some even survived the ordeal.
One of the state’s animal gas chambers is in Brady’s Senate district, and Brady has said he sponsored the bill on a local veterinarian’s behalf. Brady’s new legislation would delete the law’s requirement that “companion animals” be euthanized one at a time.
The Humane Society of Illinois blasted Brady’s legislation. “This bill would allow numerous animals to be gassed at the same time, in the same chamber, which will cause fear and panic, at the same time these dogs will be gasping for their final breath.”
That’s not exactly the image you want associated with your gubernatorial candidate, to say the least.
The point here is that Bill Brady is obviously not yet thinking like a statewide candidate. For crying out loud, you can’t introduce a bill to help out your local puppy gas chamber when you’re trying to be governor. I mean, seriously, what kind of thought process concocts an idea like that?
Clarke called me back to say that Brady would introduce an amendment to delete the bill’s content. The next day, Brady handed off sponsorship to someone else. At least his campaign is finally learning that they’ll have to keep this guy on a short and tight leash.
Jerry has no time to spare, either. As I write this, the Senate Democrats are drafting a state budget based on Sen. Bill Brady’s proposals from his Republican primary race.
During the primary race, Brady told the Chicago Tribune: “I believe Illinois needs to prioritize its programs and cut state spending by approximately 10 percent, saving $5.5 billion on the $55 billion base budget.”
Brady’s answer was dismissed by most budget experts because about half that $55 billion figure can’t really be altered much. You can’t, for instance, just tell Wall Street that you’re cutting your bond payments by ten percent. So a ten percent across the board cut to the operating budget would only provide about half of Brady’s projected savings.
And now the Senate Democrats have decided to show the world just what, exactly, Brady’s proposed ten percent cut and billion dollar tax cut would mean to Illinois - agency by agency.
The Senate Democrats have already passed a legislative scholarship “reform” that was specifically designed to call attention to Brady’s granting of a tuition waiver to the child of a campaign contributor. The ploy didn’t work, though, because Brady uses an independent committee to award the scholarships. Also last week, the Democrats forced a hearing on Brady’s campaign finance reform bill. The legislation was so poorly drafted that Brady was forced to agree to make numerous fixes, but the hearing got absolutely no media coverage.
The “Brady budget” proposal may finally break the media logjam, so this budget hearing could be a major test of Brady’s campaign, and its early reaction was fairly strong.
“When are they going to hold hearings on Quinn’s budget?” Clarke thundered last week when told of the planned budget hearings. Brady’s campaign manager accused the Democrats of using a Senate committee and state agency higher-ups for pure political gamesmanship while their own party - which has a huge majority in the chamber - hasn’t yet come up with solutions of their own. Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget address will not be unveiled until a full week after the scheduled “Brady budget” hearing.
If Jerry can just get a hold on his guy, he may have a real shot here.
As subscribers already know, the Senate appropriations hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
* Gov. Pat Quinn got in some licks during the annual International Kennel Club dog show on Saturday…
“As long as I am governor, we’re never going to pass any kind of legislation that allows cruelty toward animals, whether it be dogs, cats or any other living things,” Quinn said to applause, barks and woofs.
Quinn spoke amid the booths of organizations that rescue abandoned pets and finds homes for them, holding the leash of a German shepherd.
“The governor has a veto pen and we’re going to make sure we protect our animals from any kind of cruelty,” he said, then added, “There are some folks in our society unfortunately they have dollar signs for eyes, and that’s all they think about is money. We’re not going to let that kind of monetary compulsion get in the way of treating our animals in a proper, dignified, friendly manner.”
Asked if that was a direct shot at Brady and his bill, Quinn said, “That was a terrible piece of legislation and I think everybody in Illinois knows it. A bill was put in to allow a mass killing of dogs and cats in the gas chanber. Putting all those animals together… many of them obviously very fearful as you put them in a small, contained place, perhaps fighting with each other, for them to be subject in their last minutes on earth to that kind of cruelty, is just plain wrong… There may be firms out there that think they can make money by mass killings of dogs, puppies and kittens. But that’s not what our state stands for and that law will never be approved.”
WBBM Radio got to a point that Quinn will probably use several more times before this campaign is over…
Quinn accused Brady of caving in to business interests by sponsoring the bill.
* Related…
* Saying ‘yes’ can be dangerous
* Abused scholarship program should be ended, not altered
* It’s time for politically connected tuition waivers to end
* Same problems at the state level
* Quinn turns heat up on Brady over dog bill
23 Comments
|
|
Support CapitolFax.com
Visit our advertisers...
...............
...............
...............
...............
...............
|
   
|
Hosted by MCS
SUBSCRIBE to Capitol Fax
Advertise Here
Mobile Version
Contact Rich Miller
|
