* Illinois Review covered an Illinois Republican Party event last Thursday, but managed to bury the big news…
IL GOP’s Executive Curt Conrad said IL GOP Chairman Pat Brady and the new Finance Committee has raised more funds in the first four months of 2010 than was raised in 2009 altogether.
And because of the heightened interest in the possibility of winning the U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races, Illinois has been promised at least $5 million in RNC funds to get out the RNC message and get voters to the polls on Election Day. The state’s RNC Victory program will be headed by Rodney Davis, who’s been key to Congressman John Shimkus’ (R-19) campaigns over the years.
At least $5 million? That’s a lot of scratch, man. The national GOP is in love with the idea of taking the US Senate seat away from the Democrats…
RNC Chairman Michael Steele spoke with the coalition representatives for ninety minutes, emphasizing the importance of grassroots building and message presentation. “A candy hasn’t been invented yet that would be as sweet as winning Barack Obama’s Senate seat back,” he said. Steele promised RNC resources during the upcoming election.
With SEIU, AFSCME and the teachers unions all upset with the Democrats, thus possibly depriving them of bigtime buckaroos, and the absolute governmental meltdown by the Democratic majority, the Republicans would be smart to target money into this state. Whether they’ll actually have it is anybody’s guess. They’re not doing too well these days.
Rich Williamson, an attorney who lost the 1992 U.S. Senate contest to Democrat Carol Moseley Braun, was selected by the GOP state central committee from a field of candidates during a meeting at a Chicago hotel.
Williamson succeeds Pat Brady, who vacated the position when he became chairman of the Illinois Republican Party last year.
Two state representatives called on Gov. Pat Quinn Sunday to deploy the Illinois National Guard to safeguard Chicago’s streets.
Chicago Democrats John Fritchey and LaShawn Ford said they want Quinn, Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis to allow guardsmen to patrol streets and help quell violence. Weis said he did not support the idea because the military and police operate under different rules.
“Is this a drastic call to action? Of course it is,” Fritchey said. “Is it warranted when we are losing residents to gun violence at such an alarming rate? Without question. We are not talking about rolling tanks down the street or having armed guards on each corner.”
What he envisions, Fritchey said, is a “heightened presence on the streets,” particularly on the roughly 9 percent of city blocks where most of the city’s violent crimes occur.
If this sounds familiar, it is. Rod Blagojevich had the very same idea a couple of years back.
Referring to the Kent State shootings in 1970, when National Guardsmen fatally shot four student protesters at a campus demonstration, [Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis] said that “when you mix military functions with law enforcement functions, there is sometimes a disconnect.”
Noting that the military does not operate under the same constitutional constraints as the police, he questioned how Chicago residents would react to soldiers raiding homes without warrants, and said that in his 25 years of law enforcement experience, he had never seen an example of military personnel working under local civilian command.
“The National Guard is very useful if we had a big earthquake or huge flood or a catastrophe like that, where we simply had to control folks,” he said, “But the problems we’re facing are illegal weapons, narcotics and gangs. And while I will always look out for as much help as we can, I don’t think the National Guard is the solution.”
* The Question: Putting aside the fact that Blagojevich came up with idea first, what do you think of it?
* Let’s take a look at six different views on the Bill Brady “didn’t pay any income tax” issue. First up, the candidate himself via press release…
“My family has been blessed, and while the down years have been hard to swallow personally, what has really pained us is the difficulty these times brought to our extended family — the men and women who we were lucky enough to have with our firm,” Brady said. “With private sector businesses like ours, there are good years and bad years. We’re optimistic and know it will work out in the end, but for many workers, it all means a lot of struggle. We’ve had to make the tough decisions and are coming through all right. We need to do the same thing for state government.” […]
In making the returns available, Brady said he supports the public’s right to have confidence that elected officials have no potential conflicts of interest.
“I don’t want anything to distract from my commitment to bring a clean break to Illinois, which we need so badly,” he said. “The people who were part of our company suffered the effects of a state with a job-killing environment. As governor, I’ll work to end the corruption and old politics that hurts so many people.”
But, as a matter of practical politics, Mr. Brady still is going to have to explain how he really can make $75,000 a year as a state senator and still pay nothing, or almost nothing, in federal income taxes in three of the past four years.
[Brady’s tax attorney] said the typical Illinoisan “can relate” to Brady’s financial woes. We’ll see.
This is the weaselly way of “releasing” tax returns that seems to be in the Illinois GOP playbook for 2010. U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, the Republican nominee for Senate against Giannoulias, used pretty much the same method to “release” his tax returns, one big difference being that Kirk’s returns are a lot less complicated than those of Brady, who has many business interests.
While I can appreciate that the two men probably don’t want copies of their returns floating around on the Internet for the rest of their lives, this also has the effect of not giving anyone in the public a real opportunity to scrutinize what’s in those returns. […]
While this may be just how it works when you own your own business, I don’t think I’ll be alone in believing there’s something unfair about a rich guy who also draws a nice government salary but doesn’t pay any income taxes. And something phony about a guy in those circumstances who complains about taxes being too high.
In a press release, Brady voiced his regrets at how the real estate downturn had forced his company to lay off many of its employees, which he also cited as evidence of why he’d make a good governor. It would be interesting to know how many of those employees got by with paying no taxes. It would be interesting to know what trims the Brady family budget took in those years.
* Now, let’s turn to somebody I don’t quote very often here. Doug Ibendahl…
It’s going to be hard for a guy like Brady who has obviously been wealthy enough to afford the luxury of running for governor for basically the last six years straight, to explain why he couldn’t at least kick something into the kitty from the generous state salary he receives. For a fraction of the price the Brady family likely spent on tax lawyers and accountants, Bill could have at least demonstrated he had some skin in the game on the state’s budget crisis.
Tax accountants can be expensive, but probably not that expensive. Still, I see the point. Not to mention the $30K Brady loaned his campaign in 2008 and the $101K he loaned his campaign in 2009, but let’s get back to Ibendahl’s argument…
Again, I know it’s surely all legal. But paying zip in 2008 while you’re on the state payroll and running for governor simply looks bad. It looks even worse when you’ve tried to play the hero to the tea partiers – but now the tea partiers find out you eagerly embraced the hated Obama stimulus plan to greatly reduce your tax burden. […]
Bill Brady should have told Republicans the facts during the primary race. He should have disclosed his returns in December or January (at a minimum, 2008 and prior would have been available). By waiting until now, Brady has given the Democrats effective ammo.
Would it have made a difference in the February primary? I think it would have – certainly 200 votes worth at least – and I think it’s pretty clear that’s why Brady didn’t want to release his returns. I think the excuse about not wanting to reveal proprietary business secrets to his competitors was bogus.
Ibendahl is right that such a disclosure might’ve thrown the close-as-could-be primary to somebody else. Whether Quinn and the Democrats can make this an effective argument is yet to be seen. So far, the coverage has been pretty even-handed.
* As a reminder, here is a statement the Quinn campaign released on Friday…
Today, after significant pressure, Senator Brady agreed to share several years of his past tax returns with the press. But there were conditions: instead of making copies available to the taxpayers of the state, select members of the media were invited to “view” his returns only for a limited period of time. This sounds more like a glimpse of Haley’s Comet or of a solar eclipse than the full disclosure the public deserves.
The original Tea Party’s rallying cry was “no taxation without representation.” Apparently, Senator Brady misinterpreted this line as “no taxation for elected representatives.” Since the public was not afforded the opportunity to view his returns, it’s likely we won’t know how he managed to pay no income taxes on over $100,000 of income in more than one tax year.
Given his track record—of supporting tax cuts for the wealthy but voting against a minimum wage, and of avoiding taxes on the salaries of his campaign officials—it’s not surprising that Bill Brady believes a different standard should apply to him.
If Senator Brady is this secretive and controlling about basic information like his tax returns, just imagine how he would govern. After two recent scandal-plagued administrations, Illinois residents deserve better.
What’s Quinn trying to say? That Brady believes he didn’t have to pay taxes because he is an elected representative? Or that because Brady is an elected representative he should pay taxes that the law doesn’t require?
Should Brady not take advantage of a tax break that is provided under the Stimulus Package? Should he ignore his deductible business loses when calculating his taxes? Really, is he supposed to pay taxes on money that he doesn’t make? Should he not accept his refund? Is he supposed to pay more than he owes, and if he doesn’t is that a legitimate issue for Gov. Pat Quinn to use against Brady?
Brady’s reluctance to disclose his income taxes is a legitimate issue. That he allowed reporters only a peak at his returns is, at best, odd. It makes him look like he is trying to hide something, which he probably is because he’s in business and his competitors might find disclosure of some information useful.
But not paying taxes that he doesn’t owe is not a legitimate issue. If you don’t like tax breaks then you ought to work to change the tax code. If you can understand it.
I think everybody makes some valid points. But I’m not sure yet how this is going to play out. So far, as I noted above, the media has been pretty even-handed. But taxes are a huge issue in these-here parts, so I’m sure we’ll see a revisit soon. Your thoughts?
[Bumped up from Saturday, comments opened and updated with related stories.]
* The Chicago Young Republicans are attempting to gather 10,000 signatures this month to help put the so-called Fair Map redistricting amendment on the ballot in November. The Fair Map campaign is being coordinated by the League of Women voters and they’ve apparently offered the CYRs a sweet cash reward if they succeed…
The Illinois Fair Map project has challenged the CYRs to collect 10,000 signatures in the month of April. In turn they’ll donate $10,000 to the Chicago Young Republicans.
The League has been criticized lately for its alliance with the GOP, but that apparently hasn’t slowed them down any. The CYRs say they plan to circulate petitions at Sunday’s White Sox game. The League needs to gather almost 300,000 valid signatures by May 3rd to qualify their redistricting proposal for the ballot and they’ve admitted that they’re way short.
In a 58-0 vote that took just 94 seconds, Senate President John Cullerton and his colleagues passed a measure that would protect a long-standing bank practice of charging businesses an extra five days in interest each year.
Cullerton, who gave permission for a top lieutenant to introduce the bill, is a Chicago partner in a large law firm with banking clients that would benefit from the proposal. In fact, his firm had just weeks before finalized a class-action settlement on the issue for a bank that agreed to pay more than $4 million to its borrowers.
Much later in the story, we learn that the “permission” came when Sen. Don Harmon “had a brief discussion with Cullerton about the issue when [Harmon] asked permission to use another bill as a vehicle to get around filing deadlines.” The Bankers Association lobbyist said he drafted the legislation and “I never talked to John Cullerton or anyone at his firm.” The bill also was a benefit to all banks, not just the one represented by Cullerton’s firm. But here’s the peg this story is hung upon…
In the wake of the indictments of two successive governors, the Illinois legislature last year moved to tighten some ethics rules but left alone weak provisions that govern disclosure of their incomes, investments and clients. Lawmakers also moved to retool the public records law but exempted themselves from most of its provisions.
There should definitely be more disclosure. No doubt.
* Related…
* Cross wants vote on plan he financed: House Republican leader Tom Cross has sent a letter to the governor asking him to order a special session on legislative redistricting…. Cross’s campaign fund gave $5,000 to the group pushing the “fair map.” … Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno also donated $5,000 from her campaign fund… Rosemont Mayor Bradley Stephens campaign fund is the only other disclosed donor so far. His campaign account provided $3,000.
* Area Leagues of Women Voters set to merge: Cite declining membership and economic benefits
In the 60-second spot, Giannoulias talks directly to voters about the bank where he was a loan officer before being elected in 2006.
“I was very proud to be a part of it, and when I left, over four years ago, it was in good shape. But no one could have foreseen these problems,” Giannoulias says as the ad flashes a headline highlighting the nation’s economic troubles. […]
In the ad, Giannoulias doesn’t miss the chance to take a swipe at Kirk, a five-term congressman from Chicago’s northern suburbs, for the nation’s economic troubles.
“Washington politician Mark Kirk doesn’t get it,” the announcer says.
* Giannoulias accuses Kirk of favoring Wall Street
* Alexi Answers Tough Questions After Bank Collapse
* Daley confident Giannoulias will overcome bad bank news: “So all these small banks are going under. Yes, they are. They’re going under all over the country,” said Daley. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Giannoulias’ bank or anyone else, they’re all going under. There’s going to be more.”… Asked if he has spoken to Giannoulias since the bank closed, Daley said, “Why should I? It’s not my problem. I enjoy my life. It’s my birthday today — give me a break!”
* NYT: F.D.I.C.’s Seizure of Senate Candidate’s Family Bank Further Complicates an Illinois Race
* My syndicated newspaper column this week is about the end of session…
The Illinois General Assembly usually tries to adjourn by the end of May. That hasn’t worked out too well the past few years as partisan bickering, the state’s huge budget problems and the bloody war between former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan forced months-long overtime sessions.
The last time the Legislature truly got out early was in 1999, when then-Senate President Pate Philip demanded they adjourn by April 15th. After legislators left town, I didn’t know what to do with myself. There were no statewide elections at all the following year, which meant that absolutely nothing was going on in the political world. So, I went to Kosovo to cover the war and then took my daughter on a tour of Europe and went with my dad to Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. It was quite an adventure. Later that year, I went to Cuba during then-Gov. George Ryan’s official visit. I have fond memories of that year. I actually had a life back then.
This year, though, the calendar says the General Assembly plans to adjourn by May 7th. I haven’t really experienced a May without grueling work hours since those halcyon days of 1999, so that pleases me. But I’m not holding my breath because of all the carnage I’ve seen the past few years. I just can’t bring myself to believe.
The early adjournment idea isn’t going down well with everyone, however. The plan at the moment is to pass a budget that’s billions of dollars out of balance and inform Gov. Pat Quinn that he is now in charge of figuring out how to pay the bills. Newspaper editorial boards are already warning legislators not to sneak out of town before truly “solving” the problems or they will pay heavy consequences.
One of the demands issued last week by some of the thousands of protesters who descended on Springfield to press for higher state taxes and lower budget cuts was that lawmakers stay in town, finish the job and abandon their early adjournment dreams.
“(I)f you try to leave town without doing your job, we are going to chase you. And when you come back home, we will be there,” warned Henry Bayer, the Illinois director of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees.
So far, though, legislative leaders are still hoping to at least partially meet that May 7th adjournment target. The idea at the moment is to try to finish work on all “substantive” legislation by the 7th, and then return for the last week or so in May to put the final touches on the budget and deal with anything else that comes up in the interim.
But several high-level Democratic legislators are quite nervous about this plan. The perception of a “vacationing” General Assembly while the state sinks ever deeper into a financial and economic morass frightens them to no end. They’ll be sitting ducks, the members worry. Better to finish the whole thing by the 7th or, even better, just work through the whole month, even if there is little or nothing to do.
A big factor playing into the timing of the General Assembly’s summer adjournment will be whether the Republicans, particularly the House Republicans, support more borrowing. The governor wants to borrow billions of dollars to meet the state’s pension payments. But that borrowing has to be approved by a three-fifths vote in the General Assembly, and they can’t do that in the House without the Republican minority. If the House Republicans don’t get on board, the budget will take far longer to craft and will be very “ugly,” one top Democrat said last week. If they do get on board, it’s possible that the Legislature could wrap up everything by May 7th.
That doesn’t appear to be in the cards, however. The Republicans have no incentive to allow Democrats to conclude business early. The longer they’re in town, the longer the Republicans will have easy access to the media to make their case that the Democrats are incapable of governing.
I learned long ago that when it comes to the Illinois Statehouse, don’t ever get your hopes up about adjournment schedules and always bet on nothing ever getting done. That way, you’re never disappointed. Well, you’re still disappointed, but it’s a little easier to digest.
More recently, school districts that operate under property tax caps (metro-Chicago counties and some downstate counties) were given grants to make up for growth in local property wealth that could not be taxed fully because of the caps.
Guess which school district participates in the general state aid formula, has a very high percentage of poverty students and has had rapid appreciation of property values.
Chicago.
As a result of these relatively new elements in the formula, almost all of the $1.3 billion in new funding for state aid in the past five years has gone to poverty grants and state-funded property tax grants, largely for Chicago schools.
Yikes.
* Related…
* Quinn’s bad Monday: As Monday dawns, Quinn is an increasingly lonely proponent of a tax hike. The Civic Federation comes out Monday with a 95-page rejection of the governor’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts in 10 weeks. The support for a tax hike? Gone. Laurence Msall, the federation’s president, sounds exasperated with Quinn and Democratic legislative leaders. “They haven’t lived up to our expectations,” he says. “They haven’t cut spending. We see no evidence that they’ve tried.”
* Civic Federation zaps Quinn’s state budget: “Borrowing five to six billion dollars for operating expenses neither balances the budget nor helps ensure next year’s budget crisis will be any better,” federation President Laurence Msall said. What Illinois needs is a budget “that does not make the situation worse,” he added.
* Daley suggests people should decide fate of video gambling in Chicago: “It’s not me, it will be the people who decide this,” Daley told reporters. “If you put it on the ballot, you’ll find out what the people want.” “You do your surveys and find out,” Daley added when asked if he thinks Chicagoans would support the measure. “One thing they don’t want, they don’t want their taxes increased, you know that.”
* Lawmakers, chamber receptive to slots at track: When told of the possible deal that would put video slot and poker machines at Arlington Park and other tracks, state Rep. Suzie Bassi said she supported the idea because the slots would be put in areas already under the microscope of gambling regulators. Bassi, a Palatine Republican, said that made it much easier to support than video gambling at bars.
* VIDEO: Henry Bayer’s speech to last week’s protest
* Quinn’s Language on Tax Increase Getting Stronger: “This is a heroic battle, an epic battle for education in Illinois… I’m going to fight until the last dog dies, until we get proper funding for education in the Land of Lincoln… Your oath is to the people, not to politics as usual, not to an election year. You’ve got to do hard things.”
* Illinois Gov. Quinn urges veterans to take advantage of state, federal services
* VIDEO: Andy McKenna talks Illinois school voucher legislation
* It’s easy to miss when there isn’t a target: Of course, if Quinn has been vague about where he will cut, the Republicans have been equally vague about how big the cuts should be. Although Sen. Chris Lauzen, R-Aurora, put out a figure of $2 billion to $3 billion the other day, Republicans mostly don’t talk specific numbers. As long as there is no target, you can always charge that Quinn failed to hit it.
* Pension crisis took decades to create, one day to ‘fix’: Quinn’s budget director said there’s no interest in skipping payments or extending the 50-year plan to lower this year’s payment. Quinn has sought an income-tax increase to help cover education funding, which could free up state funds for use elsewhere. But its prospects for approval this session are dim.
* U46 could get millions from state: Elgin School District U46 is nearer to receiving tens of millions more in state financial aid, as state lawmakers take a step to closing a loophole in the district’s funding process.
* Belvidere School District 100 Plans for Future School Years: The state may cut $1.3 billion from Illinois schools and many Stateline districts are trying to prepare now for that blow. In Belvidere, school leaders have a lot of options on the table and it could include closing a school.
* Over coffee, Halloran talks finances: Thursday, during the first of two Coffee With the Superintendent informal public events, Halloran explained the district’s current financial picture to the five visitors who attended.
* Crunching Costs Continues: Elk Grove Township Supervisor Nanci Vanderweel is crunching numbers this week trying to close a $37,000 budget gap in next year’s township budget.
