Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2010

Monday, Mar 22, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Dear Leader Cross,

The constitution provides that only three constitutional articles can be put on the ballot for voter approval at one time. One of those spots already is taken by a proposed amendment allowing recall for future governors, which was approved last year.

House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, says [House Speaker Michael Madigan’s] judicial experience amendment could be used to keep other ideas from reaching the ballot – such as changing how lawmakers draw their own districts, an effort Republicans are pushing this year.

“We believe it is a tactic by the Speaker,” said House Minority Leader Tom Cross.

From the Constitution…

The General Assembly shall not submit proposed
amendments to more than three Articles of the Constitution at any one election.

Madigan’s judicial reform amends Article VI. The Speaker’s amendment to abolish the lt. governor’s office amends Article V. The already ballot-approved recall measure amends Article III.

So, if the two Madigan amendments are approved, no further amendments could be submitted to voters by the GA.

* Dear Decatur Herald & Review,

I don’t get your logic in a recent editorial calling for local government consolidation…

No one has suggested consolidating governmental units to make operations more efficient and reduce the burden on taxpayers. […]

So, one of the first steps has to be taken by the General Assembly to change the statutes that stand in the way of consolidation. Our lawmakers should be embarrassed that while the state is facing a monumental budget crisis, there has been no serious discussion that government in Illinois is simply too big and bureaucratic.

OK, government is too big, but you want to make local governments bigger? I’m not quite following.

* Dear Chicagoland judges,

I own a sports car (it’s 13 years old, but I like it) and I admit to driving very, very fast on occasion, but giving supervision to most of the people who get popped for doing over 100 mph is absurd…

A Tribune analysis of state police tickets, license data and court records shows that since 2006, Chicagoland courts have given supervision to nearly two-thirds of those found guilty of driving 100 mph or faster.

For hundreds of motorists caught driving that fast every year, court supervision helps keep their insurance rates low while stopping officials from using the tickets as a reason to suspend their licenses.

* Dear pundits,

Basing predictions on the bizarre musings of Rod Blagojevich is a bad idea. Blagojevich said on WLS a couple weeks ago that he thought the White House would push Alexi Giannoulias out of the race and replace him with Rahm Emanuel. Since then, a slew of folks have fanned the flames, including Laura Washington…

So who can sit in for Obama’s beleaguered basketball buddy? In this March Madness, the two best candidates could compete in a political jump ball. They’re two short guys with big political stories. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is headed back home sooner than later. Chase executive and political powerhouse William Daley has been a major mouth for Obama.

And, Bill Daley? C’mon. Really? The guy has floated his name for tons of offices and never once pulled the trigger. And the Daley name ain’t so great these days.

* Dear Caterpillar,

I really hope you build that new plant in Illinois, but your whining about a new tax on your truly gigantic federal subsidy isn’t making me love you much. The background, which has been repeatedly cited by opponents of the health-care reform bill…

Caterpillar Inc. said the health-care overhaul legislation being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives would increase the company’s health-care costs by more than $100 million in the first year alone.

The real story…

The company said the potential extra costs would primarily come from provisions to tax the federal subsidies the company now receives for providing prescription-drug benefits to retirees and their spouses.

Since the Medicare drug program was enacted in 2003, Caterpillar and more than 3,500 companies that already provided drug benefits for retirees have received tax-free subsidies from the federal government as an incentive to maintain their drug programs.

The subsidies average $665 per person covered under a company-sponsored prescription program, according to benefits consultant Towers Watson, which recently completed a study on the health-care legislation’s effects.

Watson Towers estimates federal taxes on the drug subsidies would amount to $233 per person receiving drug benefits under such programs.

Also, this will be a non-cash charge by Caterpillar, according to that story.

* On a related note…

Dear David Axelrod,

Two whacks at Mark Kirk in a week? Worried much?…

Axelrod also made it clear that Dems will play hardball: “I heard Congressman [Mark] Kirk in Illinois — running for the Senate — say he was going to lead the fight to repeal this health-insurance reform. So the question is: Is he going to look young people in the eye who now are [going to get coverage despite] preexisting conditions and say, ‘You know, I don’t think you should get that’? Is he going to look the small businessman in Illinois in the eye and say, ‘You know what? I don’t think you should get those tax credits to help you cover your employees.’ It’ll be interesting to see if they’re willing to do that — whether they’re willing to say, ‘We want to put the insurance companies back in the driver’s seat,’ or not.”

* Dear Michigan,

Bite us. Again…

The Supreme Court has turned down a second request to immediately close shipping locks to prevent invasive Asian carp from infesting the Great Lakes.

The court on Monday refused a renewed request by Michigan to issue a preliminary injunction that would order the locks closed. The justices turned down the original request in January.

* Dear Rep. Bassi,

I think you might be about to get those calls you say you haven’t received…

Bassi says she has had very few, if any, phone calls from teachers or parents about school cuts in her Northwest suburban district.

Three… Two… One…

* Your turn…

…Adding… Dear Rep. Holbrooke,

Smart move…

A supporter and sponsor of a House bill that would create sales tax revenue bonds in Illinois now opposes the proposal.

State Rep. Tom Holbrook, D-Belleville, announced Monday that he was joining fellow state lawmakers Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Collinsville, Sen. Bill Haine, D-Alton, and Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Decatur, in officially opposing “STAR” bonds.

The local mayors are lining up against the project, so its prospects are looking worse by the day. I once called the STAR bonds proposal the “Worst. Bill. Ever.” and I meant it. Still do.

28 Comments

Question of the day

Monday, Mar 22, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Before we begin, just a quick thanks to everyone who commented on Friday’s QOTD. Dad really got a kick out of it.

* To the question: Last night, the president cautioned against making snap political judgments on how his healthcare bill will play out in November, but let’s do it anyway.

Will the new law (assuming the Senate follows suit) be a net positive or net negative for Illinois Democrats and Republicans this fall? Explain.

71 Comments

Another process rant

Monday, Mar 22, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I’m old enough to remember when the state passed the Gift Ban Act. Lobbyists could no longer buy gifts for legislators, or take them out for expensive dinners.

The people who grumbled most about that law belonged to a handful of legislative mooches - members who existed mainly to mooch goodies off of lobbyists. Most lobbyists I knew (and since they’re almost all subscribers I know most of them) actually favored the law. Many even wanted to go further. A ban on all meals and drinks, for instance, would mean they could go home to their families a whole lot earlier and avoid being strong-armed by politicians who didn’t want to pay their own freight.

The above may sound counter-intuitive, even unbelievable, but most political reporting and punditry is cartoon-based. It’s cynical stuff and cynicism in most cases is just a cover for intellectual laziness (Rod Blagojevich excepted, of course).

People just aren’t nearly as bad as they are portrayed. Yes, they’re human, yes, there are some bad ones out there, but I don’t think I’ll ever get over my reaction when I first began covering the Statehouse. I was so surprised at how meticulously ethical the vast majority of the lobbyists were.

That’s a big reason why I was glad to see David Kelm’s op-ed piece the other day. Kelm was writing about the ridiculous new fee imposed on lobbyists that has been ruled unconstitutional by a judge…

We all hate lobbyists. We all have an image of a whiskey-swilling, cigar-munching, three-piece-suit-wearing lobbyist palling around with legislators in dimly lit bars in quiet corners of Springfield. Lobbyists, we cynically believe, exist to prevent government from being “for the people” and instead use their influence and money to make government serve the “special interests.”

However, the advocacy that lobbyists perform in Springfield on behalf of the elderly and poor, sportsmen and conservationists, small businesses and large corporations, and so many others, is the natural extension of our collective guaranteed First Amendment rights. When a lobbyist speaks before a committee or button-holes a legislative staffer in a Capitol elevator or speaks to the governor at the James R. Thompson Center, they are speaking on behalf of those they represent. […]

Lobbyists make for easy villains. The truth of the matter, though, is that we are all part of a special interest that represents our interests in Springfield. Parents with autistic children, CTA riders, teachers, farmers and birdwatchers are all guaranteed the right to freely speak without the burden of a lobbyist tax. You may not like the ACLU or lobbyists, but the courts have recognized that the basic right to speak freely extends to those who advocate in the Capitol on our behalf. Constitutional liberties should not be so easily eroded in the General Assembly’s pursuit of a shallow revenue stream for the state’s budgetary woes.

Again, I’m not so naive as to think that all lobbyists are the greatest people on Earth. If they were, we wouldn’t need reforms. But I’m also clear-headed enough to not always let cynicism rule.

19 Comments

Brady vs. Quinn and a new Claypool theory

Monday, Mar 22, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* If you watched the Pat Quinn vs. Bill Brady debate at the IEA conference on Friday, you saw this jab by Quinn…

In the first debate of the campaign for governor Friday, state Sen. Bill Brady told a packed hall of anxious teachers that he knows the tough choices needed to solve the state’s financial crisis because he laid off 25 workers and withheld raises at his business.

Gov. Pat Quinn saw his opening.

“That is not a very good record in job creation,” he shot back movements later.

The dig drew laughs and howls from the nearly 1,500 union members at the Illinois Education Association banquet in Rosemont - naturally not a friendly environment for Brady, a Republican conservative who has called for the abolition of the state education board and expansion of charter schools.

Too much? Probably.

Brady seemed to hold his own, and got in his licks when speaking to the teachers’ union, however…

“I think Governor Quinn dealt with you in an unfair way. He used the word ‘heartless’ to refer to my plan. I think it’s heartless to make you the scapegoat for this,” Brady said.

Watch a few of IEA’s excerpts…

* Meanwhile, Sen. Brady campaigned with Karl Rove over the weekend. He’s also trying to mend a few fences with pet owners…

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady stepped in some deep political do-do with his short-lived sponsorship of legislation that would allow for the mass gassing of stray dogs and cats.

But the state senator now appears to be making amends with pro-pet voters by supporting a measure busting neglectful dog owners who keep their animals chained outside inhumanely or in unsafe conditions.

Brady broke ranks with some of his Downstate GOP colleagues by voting Thursday for anti-tethering legislation pushed by the Humane Society of the United States and backed by the Illinois Farm Bureau.

“He voted for this because it was a humane thing to do,” Brady campaign spokesman John Hoffman said. “One of the aspects of tethering is often it’s related to dog-fighting, and he felt it was important to protect dogs.”

Not enough, but at least he’s listening now. The Quinn campaign responded…

“The governor has never wavered as a leader for animal care and against animal cruelty, while others seem to flip flop on their positions regarding animal welfare,” Quinn spokeswoman Mica Matsoff said.

* And the Sun-Times connected the dots over the weekend on the seemingly contradictory Forrest Claypool rumors. Turns out, the contradictions may have been part of a wider plan…

According to some committeemen and elected officials close to [Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool], Claypool tried the unusual tactic of threatening to run as an independent candidate for Cook County Assessor against the Democratic nominee for that office, Joe Berrios, the chair of the Cook County Democratic Party, if Madigan would not support him for lieutenant governor. Berrios is a close ally of Madigan.

But Claypool’s threat —some Democratic voters got polling calls asking if they would support Claypool in such a race — did not result in Madigan throwing his support to Claypool, so it’s unclear whether Claypool will now follow through on the threat to run for assessor. Claypool was not on the list of lieutenant governor candidates scheduled to appear today. He has not returned calls on the issue and Madigan’s spokesman would only say that Madigan is following the public process for lieutenant governor candidates.

However, Berrios warned that Claypool better get more than the required 25,000 signatures to run for assessor as an independent because he planned to go over them closely.

I bet he will.

* Related…

* Illinois GOP announces “I Give Republican Red” blood drive in June

27 Comments

The Tribune’s magic beans

Monday, Mar 22, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* A recent Tribune editorial repeated a blatant falsehood…

Three weeks ago in this space, we offered “A no-tax-hike option,” a list of financial proposals for Medicaid, education, pensions, capital improvements, subsidies to local governments, privatizing internal services, selling surplus assets and so forth. The minimum $6.4 billion in annual savings would eliminate the state’s budget shortfall — in truth, it has accumulated over several years, not just one — in two years. In year three, Illinois would turn a surplus.

What they’re doing is saying, “OK, we have a $12.8 billion deficit, so cut that in half one year and those cuts will wipe out the remaining deficit in the second year.”

That doesn’t make any sense.

The governor’s proposed FY 2011 budget slashes appropriated spending by $3.2 billion over what was actually spent in FY 2009, and almost two billion under the current fiscal year. But, pension contributions will rise by $1.4 billion over FY09 and a whopping $3.9 billion over the current fiscal year (the state borrowed rather than digging into revenues to make much of the payment this FY). Debt service (including pension bond debt service) and other required-by-law payments (entitlements, worker pay and health insurance, etc.) increases by about a billion dollars over FY09 and $710 million over the current fiscal year.

Total all that up and you’ve got an operating deficit of $4.7 billion - and that includes all the governor’s hugely unpopular proposed cuts to schools, local governments, human services, etc.

However, even with this, the state still can’t pay past due bills totaling about $6.3 billion.

Now, back out all the governor’s proposed cuts and substitute them with the Tribune’s proposed cuts and pretty much all of that $6.3 billion in unpaid bills will still remain.

What the Tribune purports to do (and some of their alleged cuts aren’t really cuts - like reducing capital spending that’s already been spent or that can’t be transferred out of the Road Fund for operating expenses) is match revenues to spending and eliminate the structural deficit.

That’s a very good, laudable idea, but then they count the savings twice. If state spending is reduced to around $27 billion or so (about where the Trib’s target is), we still have to spend that $27 billion the following year with pretty much the same revenues coming in the door. There’s no huge pile of “extra” money to pay off that bill backlog in a year. It just doesn’t exist.

Not to mention that fixed costs like wages, health insurance, transportation and pension payments will continue to rise above that $27 billion.

So, while the Tribune’s proposal slows the state down from digging the hole ever deeper, it does nothing to get us out of the hole that’s already been dug. This two-year “solution” relies on magic beans.

* In that same editorial, the Tribune also threatened Democratic members who toe the Madigan/Cullerton line…

Parents of schoolchildren, university students, families of people who rely on health, disability and other social services: If your current legislature won’t reform how Illinois spends money, you have a choice. You can re-elect lawmakers who, for two decades, have grown state obligations at twice the rate of inflation. Or you can mobilize en masse and elect a responsive new legislature.

Because if Madigan and Cullerton, with those 72 years in Springfield, continue to fail at responding boldly to this epic moment, you need to curtail their clout.

Strange, but when the Tribune made Democratic primary endorsements, it backed the incumbent Democrats or preferred Democrats almost half the time. Now that we get to the general election, it’s all about beating incumbent Democrats.

* Related…

* Illinois House takes small ‘first step’ on pensions

* State House OKs change in pension benefits

* House approves less lucrative legislative pensions

* House OKs pension measure

* Illinois Budget Deficit Could Hurt Odds of Winning Federal Money

* Erickson: GOP tries to cut it both ways

* Cuts to Illinois State Police budget could be deep

* Taxpayers fed up with spendthrifts

* Finke: Giving up furniture a good thing

* State’s ‘day of reckoning’ arrives in force

* Illinois’ public schools hit by ‘double whammy’ of economic pain: The Illinois comptroller’s office has a $4.3 billion backlog of bills that haven’t been paid, and some of those date back as far as Sept. 1, spokesman Alan Henry said.

* Roundtable: Education Funding

* School districts suffer while state funds lag, but severity may vary

* Schools will suffer because Illinois has no money

* Southland teachers face mass layoffs

* Schools prepare for worst: Districts across metro-east cutting budgets, programs, staff

* McCaleb: No future in using reserves to offset deficits

* Delayed revenues cause Kane problems

* Bloomington council prepares Plan B for funding shortfall

* [Pekin] Budget vote Monday

* Wearing their hearts on their backs

* [Fox River Grove] eyes water rate increase

* State behind on $135K in payments for DeWitt Co. workers

* [Waukegan] eyes furloughs, layoffs, ‘rainy day funds’

* [Park City] Aldermen take 8.3% salary cut

23 Comments

They did it to themselves

Monday, Mar 22, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* While I’m preparing a few more complicated posts, have a look at my weekly syndicated newspaper column…

I’m going to tell you right up front that this is a column about the state budget and involves a little math.

Wait! Don’t move on to the next story. I know this can get a bit tedious. But the math is easy and the story itself tells us a lot about how this state is being governed.

I decided to write about this when Gov. Pat Quinn appeared on public television’s Chicago Tonight show last week and was grilled hard by hosts Phil Ponce and Carol Marin.

The governor did his best to deflect some very tough questions about his budget and other topics (many of the questions seemed to come right from one of my previous columns, by the way).

One thing the interviewers returned to again and again was how Quinn’s proposed budget cuts more than a billion dollars from education spending. The governor wants to stop those cuts with a one percentage point income tax surcharge. Quinn has warned that, without a tax hike, the schools would suffer. Thousands of teacher layoffs would result. Kids would be put into ever-more crowded classrooms.

The governor kept explaining that the federal government was primarily to blame. The state got about a billion dollars from the U.S. government’s stimulus program last year to fund schools, but that cash won’t be forthcoming again this year, and now there’s a crisis.

Blaming Washington, D.C., is always fun, but his comments were misleading at best. Quinn and the General Assembly actually did cut state education funding last year, and that’s why we have a problem now.

The truth is that federal education dollars were used to replace existing state funding last year.

Here’s what they did.

First, the schools budget was cut by about a billion state dollars and then the hole was immediately refilled with about a billion federal dollars. Quinn and the General Assembly essentially put that federal money into the state’s permanent spending base, instead of using it to supplement what the state already was spending.

And now, with the federal school program ending, that billion-dollar education budget hole has reappeared.

The absolute worst part about this whole thing is Quinn and everybody else knew last year that the federal stimulus program was a temporary, one-shot deal. They knew what the consequences would be if the economy didn’t turn around quickly and state revenues began to grow again. Instead, the economy may have since bottomed out, but unemployment still is rising and state tax revenues have continued to plunge.

This time, Quinn’s plan is to fill that hole yet again with a one percentage point income tax surcharge.

What they did last year is pretty much what the state does with lottery proceeds. Instead of increasing dollars to schools, lottery cash (which is about $650 million a year) just frees up money so it can be spent on the rest of the budget.

Despite all this, it’s tough not to blame Quinn for pulling that little fiscal trick last year. The budget was such an intense, unprecedented disaster, and not enough political will existed to increase taxes, that Quinn and the other leaders - Democrats as well as Republicans - were looking for anything they could do to keep the government afloat.

While some did call for big cuts last year, particularly the Republicans, even they blinked when reality started hitting home. It was the Senate Republican Leader, after all, who demanded that money be found somehow, some way (without a tax increase, of course) to fund human service providers last summer when the prospect of providers going out of business became an all-too-clear reality. So, pulling the switcheroo with that federal school money was an easy target. They did what they had to do to get through the crisis.

No matter the reasons or the excuses, this year’s education hole is the governor’s fault, shared with the General Assembly. And it’s entirely misleading to blame the feds for this current calamity with school funding. They did it to themselves.

Thoughts?

34 Comments

Morning Shorts

Monday, Mar 22, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Prices at the pump up 4 cents, highest since Oct. 2008

The nationwide average hit $2.799 per gallon, a penny higher than Wednesday, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.

* Daley: ‘Thank God’ Boender got convicted

* Daley won’t discuss specifics of 2008 FBI interview

Mayor Richard Daley on Saturday refused to discuss specifics of his 2008 interview with FBI agents investigating a West Side land deal, saying he was simply cooperating in a federal attempt to root out corruption.

The mayor said developer Calvin Boender’s conviction last week following a probe into the Galewood Yards development is an isolated incident, not an indication of a broader problem of pay-to-play relationships between real estate developers and Chicago elected officials.

* Suspected ‘front company’ has good city hall lobbyist

It’s one of City Hall’s busiest woman- and minority-owned contractors. And, for the last two years, Azteca Supply Co. has been the target of a federal investigation that led to charges last month that the company is a sham “front” that fraudulently was awarded millions of dollars in government contracts.

This is the story of a Hispanic woman who found she could make millions by selling goods to government agencies eager to do business with women and minorities — and did so with the help of some of Chicago’s most well-connected Hispanic leaders, including a former chief of staff to Mayor Daley.

* Former news reporter gets home detention for union theft

A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a former Post-Tribune reporter to six months of home detention and three years’ probation for stealing $18,100 from a newsroom employee union.

* Advocates: State needs more sunshine

* Putting our resources to work for you

* Compliance with Freedom of Information Act under way

* Marin: Words alone can’t stop gun violence

* SIUC and city need students to do census

* Daley wants Chicago college students who study out of town counted as city residents on Census

* Daley urges South Side residents to return census

* Nearly 60,000 CTA transit cards set to expire in April

* Cook Co. gets $16M to battle obesity

* Editor’s view: Citizens can insist on accountability

It’s not just state aid cuts that has districts worried. Property values are dropping, and the state used stimulus funds to pay for some school funding, which won’t be available in the next fiscal year.

* Will Grayslake charter school be the same with union teachers?

Prairie Crossing’s teachers became eligible for union representation through a law Gov. Pat Quinn signed last July, which also allows the number of charter schools to grow from 60 to 120 statewide. Charter school instructors had not been allowed to organize under state labor laws.

* Word on the Street: Councilman knows stress of startup loans

* DACC rate hikes may keep coming

Jacobs said in 1994, Illinois provided about 40 percent of DACC’s operating budget. By next year she expects that percentage to be cut in half, while local property taxes continue to fund approximately one-third of the budget.

* ICC officials say recession likely cause of app increase

* Some Illinois program regulations make trying to go green a lot harder

* [Champaign] County Board Redistricting

* Most law enforcement agencies giving drivers time to adust to new texting, cell phone laws, but time is running out

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Monday, Mar 22, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

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