Gov. Pat Quinn today said the Illinois Senate will not head back to Springfield to vote on a nearly $3.7 billion pension borrowing plan until after the November election.
…Adding… I suppose this means I can finally get a haircut. My wife will be pleased, as will my mother.
But not on every topic…
Meanwhile, Quinn defended giving raises to certain members of his staff amid the state’s budget crisis, saying the bumps in pay corresponded with increases in responsibility. An Associated Press report found that Quinn has given 43 salary increases averaging 11.4 percent to 35 staffers in the past 15 months.
But Quinn said that despite the pay hikes, the budget for the governor’s office is less than it was when he took over for disgraced ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in January 2009.
“I raised individual members of my staff when they had a new assignment that required them to do a different jobs,” Quinn said. “Having said that, the overall budget of the governor’s office is 25 percent lower than it was when I was sworn in. I think that’s what the taxpayers are looking for. If you don’t cut the budget, then you’re not getting the job done. I’ve cut the budget of the governor’s office. I’ll continue to do so.”
*** UPDATE *** Bill Brady’s campaign responds…
“Today’s revelation shows there are two rules under Governor Pat Quinn - one for him and the powerful insider crowd, and another for all the rest of us.
While working families are tightening their belts and doing more with less, Pat Quinn is doling out massive pay raises to his own staff - and we’re paying for them. Today’s revelation shows, once again, that Pat Quinn is incapable of solving our fiscal crisis, and has lost control of state government. How many other agencies received pay raises?”
* Why Alexi Giannoulias didn’t just take a credit for future years’ taxes on his ‘09 tax return is beyond me. As it is, he’s hurt his own campaign by accepting a 100 percent tax refund on his state salary.
[Mark Kirk] said there is a big difference between the financial situation of Mr. Giannoulias and Mr. Brady, even though neither has had any income-tax liability of late due to reversals in their families’ businesses.
The difference is that “the Giannoulias family transferred this incredible $394-million bill” to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. when its Broadway Bank recently collapsed, he said.
But, in the same way that Mr. Giannoulias ought to pay something because he draws a state paycheck as Illinois treasurer, so should Mr. Brady, a state senator, Mr. Kirk said.
“If you are dependent on a salary paid by the taxpayers, you ought to pay tax,” Mr. Kirk said. “You ought to find a way to pay taxes.”
Kirk is exactly right on that second point. If you’re a politician, you need to find a way to pay taxes on your state salary.
And don’t think for a minute that Pat Quinn won’t use that quote against Bill Brady. This is obviously a game of every man for himself. Kirk played it today, Quinn will play it as well.
*** UPDATE *** Jason Plummer wasn’t spared, either…
And in another statement that could come back to hit the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, Jason Plummer, Kirk said, “All statewide [candidates] should release their tax returns.” Brady initially refused to release his tax returns but relented. Plummer still has not released his and says he won’t.
But Kirk repeatedly dodged a question about himself…
Kirk also refused to say during the news conference whether he stands behind a statement that he was fired on while riding in a dutch armored vehicle in Afghanistan. He repeated several times that reporters should just look at the fitness reports he released about his military service.
I thought he was pledging to be Mr. Honesty these days?
* The McLean County Medical Society formed a PAC back in late March and transferred $201,000 out of what appears to be the Society’s operating fund to the PAC on June 23rd. It then contributed $200,000 to Sen. Bill Brady’s campaign on June 30th. Brady is from Bloomington, which is in McLean County. Quite a nice chunk of change there.
* This doesn’t look like a huge deal to me. I think 11th District GOP candidate Adam Kinzinger did a pretty good job explaining the reasoning in the final graf of our excerpt…
In the primary election, Kinzinger’s biography on his website and his news releases said he was serving in the Air Force Special Operations Command. […]
It turns out Kinzinger was detailed to Air Force Special Ops for two three-month stints in 2008 and 2009, but was not permanently assigned to Special Ops, Air Force officials said.
“The way it was worded was incorrect,” Dawn M. Hart, chief of community relations for AFSOC public affairs in Florida, told the Chicago Sun-Times on Saturday. “He only worked for [Air Force Special Operations Command] for those two assignments.” […]
Kinzinger was never disciplined by the Air Force for saying he works for Special Ops. But he changed his website to say that he “has worked for” Special Ops. […]
Changing “is” to “has” on his website was no bigger deal than changing his age from 31 to 32 in February, Kinzinger said.
If there’s more to this than I’m seeing here, then we’ll of course revisit. Your thoughts would be appreciated, however.
* The Tribune wants a new state law to guarantee special elections for vacant US Senate seats, but it does point out a serious problem with the case moving through the federal court system right now, which could force a special Senate election on the state…
Elections officials need 180 days lead time for a special election. That allows time for candidates to gather petitions and for challenges to be resolved, plus time to prepare the ballots, program the machinery, handle early and absentee balloting and deal with emergencies. As of Tuesday, there are 119 days until the Nov. 2 election.
* Roundup…
* Lawmaker divests nursing home stake: State Sen. Heather Steans has divested her ownership stake in a troubled southwest suburban nursing home that has faced repeated citations for serious patient neglect, including medical failures that allegedly contributed to two patients’ deaths. The December death of Cordelia Lee at Evergreen Health Care Center in Evergreen Park and another death of a 90-year-old patient last year are part of a pattern of substandard care that moved state health authorities earlier this month to revoke the facility’s license… Steans had no operational role in Evergreen, and the Chicago Democrat said that, following a Tribune report on the facility earlier this month, she shed her 2.8 percent interest in the home.
* David Axelrod headlining Giannoulias fund-raiser July 25
* Giannoulias: Obama will campaign for me: “I have a feeling he’ll be out here a few times before November,” Giannoulias said Tuesday in an appearance on the ABC News/Washington Post “Topline” Web show. Giannoulias said that he had not personally asked Obama to stump for him, but added: “The White House has been great; they’ll be out here.”
* Yet another charge that is gonna send Rod Blagojevich to prison. Lying to FBI agents. From this morning’s testimony by FBI supervising agent Patrick Murphy…
During that 2005 [FBI] interview, held in the offices of Winston & Strawn, Blagojevich said he maintained a separation between politics and fund-raising.
“He said he did not track who was contributing to him or how much they were contributing,” Murphy said. “This was a decision he made when he became governor,” he said Blagojevich told him.
Murphy, who is lauded as the investigative architect of the case, is testifying to the false statement charges in the indictment. Blago is charged with lying to the FBI about material matters in the investigation.
The surveillance tapes clearly show those statements to be outright lies. I’m not a huge fan of that “lying to a federal agent” law, but these are clear violations.
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column takes a look back…
During the long, excruciating overtime state legislative session of 2007, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan complained that Gov. Rod Blagojevich had a habit of diverting high-level discussions away from the budget and toward Madigan’s ties.
Madigan, it should be said, does wear some eye-catching ties. He takes no credit for his taste in clothing, however. His wife, he says, picks his ties out for him.
Speaker Madigan confided to me one day back then that whenever Blagojevich would compliment Madigan on his choice of ties, he would always complain that, as governor, he couldn’t afford such fashion gems. Madigan has a lucrative law practice which brings in a pretty penny. Blagojevich couldn’t do side jobs as governor, he would repeatedly explain to Madigan and everyone else in the room, so he couldn’t afford to dress like Madigan.
The House Speaker seemed quite frustrated at the time with Blagojevich’s fixation on his fetching ties, rather than on dealing with the budget deadlock and general political gridlock. After all, it wasn’t like Blagojevich dressed poorly. He always wore sharp clothes. He even showed up at the State Fair once dressed in designer blue jeans.
Thanks to his federal corruption trial, we now know that it was taste, not money, which caused Blagojevich to wax envious whenever he saw Madigan wearing a pretty tie.
According to testimony by an IRS agent last week, the former governor and his wife spent a mind-boggling $400,000 on clothes between 2002 and 2008.
Just for a little context, Blagojevich spent about half of his after-tax income as governor on clothes. Not to mention that the man usually worked out of his house or down the street at his campaign office.
All told, Blagojevich spent $206,000 at a single men’s store - the Tom James Company, a custom clothing maker. He spent another $31,000 at Geneva Custom Shirts. Blagojevich and his wife shelled out $57,000 to Saks Fifth Ave. and $29,000 to Neiman Marcus.
By August 2008, the Blagojeviches had run up over $90,000 in credit card debt - more than half of the governor’s gross annual salary. Their total “consumer debt” by the morning of Blagojevich’s arrest was more than $210,000.
Last week’s trial included the playing of a surveillance recording from November 2008 of Blagojevich bitterly complaining about how his wife’s real estate business was all but dead. Reporters had dug through Mrs. Blagojevich’s client list in an attempt to show she often did no work for the money she made off of connected insiders. During that process, reporters called several of her former clients, and that, combined with the negative publicity and Mrs. Blagojevich’s real fear of a federal indictment led to her company’s collapse.
A minute or two later, Blagojevich whined about an upcoming financial burden.
“Amy is going to college in six years and we can’t afford it. I can’t afford college for my daughter,” Blagojevich exclaimed.
During the six days after he complained about his dire financial situation, Blagojevich plunked down $858 for four ties at Saks.
Apparently, the man couldn’t help himself. It goes without saying that $400,000 would’ve paid for a whole lot of college tuition for both of his kids.
It also goes without saying that prosecutors have established a very strong financial motive for several of Blagojevich’s alleged crimes.
Financially, he was in way over his head. The very real possibility of impeachment, which he constantly fretted about on the tapes, would dry up his future earning prospects. His wife’s career was in ruins. He was at the end of the line. There would be no more designer ties, handmade shirts and custom suits he so clearly loved. When Barack Obama won the president’s race and his U.S. Senate seat suddenly became vacant, Blagojevich pounced on the opportunity as his ticket out of debt and back to the high life.
It won’t be difficult for Blagojevich’s jurors to make this connection. They’ve seen the fancy clothes he’s worn during the trial. None of them are millionaires who could afford such nonsense, so this is a devastating attack by the prosecution.
I hope Blagojevich doesn’t mind wearing orange, because a federal jumpsuit is most probably in his future.
* The FBI agent who ran wiretaps on Blagojevich: “He was in his running suit. He was stretching, running in place, animated. I couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t sit still,” Cullen said. “He kept combing back his hair. It was almost like he’s awaiting going on camera. But we were just here [in the FBI office] — no one was going to see him.”
* After taking a ribbing for not disclosing his income tax returns (the topic that won’t go away) Republican lt. governor nominee Jason Plummer was asked about his favorite baseball team. His answer wasn’t exactly standard IL GOP fare…
* The Question: I just got back from a baseball trip to Texas (Go Sox!), so how about telling us what your favorite baseball team is and why?
* The New York Times engaged in gross hyperbole over the weekend…
…but many analysts, liberal and conservative, warn of a potentially far grimmer reckoning — Greece by Lake Michigan. Borrowing costs are rising, nonprofits that depend on taxpayer money are dropping contracts, and the state’s pension costs and unpaid bills balloon each month.
That’s what’s known as lazy journalism.
The state is suffering through a fiscal crisis, no doubt about it. But one of those vaunted New York Times editors that I always read about should’ve demanded that this reporter reveal the names of those “liberal analysts” who are making that “Greece” comparison. Also, the state’s borrowing costs are predicted to rise (although strong interest from foreign buyers could mitigate the price increase), but haven’t really risen yet.
The “Little Tribune” editorial writers at the Daily Herald were quick to pounce, of course…
This is Illinois, which the New York Times over the weekend dubbed “Greece by Lake Michigan.”
* Things are undoubtedly horrific, but let’s take a look at some facts.
A recent report from the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability shows Illinois is ranked 9th in the nation per capita on its outstanding debt. That’s high, but far from the highest.
As for total state expenditures, Illinois ranked 21st in the nation per capita. K-12 state and local spending is ranked at 22nd per capita. State and local spending on public welfare programs was 30th in the nation on a per capita basis. All of those are below the national average.
And there’s plenty of room for future revenue increases, if the populace decides to go with a Democratic governor this fall…
Illinois ranked 7th in the nation in the amount collected from state government individual income taxes in 2009 with a total amount of $9.2 billion. On a per-capita basis, Illinois ranked 31st. Illinois’ per-capita rate of $711 was below the national average of $801 and well below the 1st ranked state in this category, New York, at $1,885 per capita. Illinois has had a flat personal income tax rate of 3.0% since it was
increased from 2.5% in July 1993. Of the seven states with a flat income tax (most have graduated rates) Illinois’ has the lowest rate. […]
In 2009, Illinois ranked 9th in the amount of sales tax revenue collected with a total of $7.5 billion. California collected the most, generating $29.0 billion. On a per-capita basis, Illinois ranked 37th in the nation with a value of $579 per capita. As shown in Chart 9, in the Midwest Region, only Missouri (42nd) was ranked lower than Illinois.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has handed out raises topping 20 percent to his staff at a time when he’s promising $1.4 billion in spending cuts because of the fiscal crisis. An Associated Press analysis of documents shows Quinn has given 43 salary increases averaging 11.4 percent since he became governor.
They include a $24,000 bump to the man overseeing state spending. Budget Director David Vaught got a 20 percent raise — to $144,000 — when he was promoted in October.
* After endorsing his opponent in the Democratic primary and refusing to endorse either general election gubernatorial candidate four years ago, the Illinois Education Association has endorsed Pat Quinn for governor. From a press release…
“There never has been a more clear-cut choice for governor and lieutenant governor of Illinois. The Illinois Education Association enthusiastically recommends Governor Pat Quinn and Sheila Simon to our members and to everyone who supports public education,” Swanson said.
IEA represents more than 133,000 education employees including elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty and staff, educational support professionals, retired educators and college students preparing to become teachers.
* Acknowledging that the IEA has had its differences with Quinn, IEA President Ken Swanson. But Swanson lashed out at Republican Bill Brady’s opposition to new revenues, his plan to convert defined benefit pensions to 401(k) funds with no state contributions and his support for making Illinois a “right to work” state. Watch his video…
The backing of the IEA, one of the two major politically active teachers unions in Illinois, is a big victory for Quinn. Odds of the union backing Brady were slim because he opposes tax increases and backs dismantling the state’s education bureaucracy. But Quinn has done little to move his agenda with the Democratic legislature.
*** UPDATE *** From the Bill Brady campaign…
“The union leadership has unfortunately chosen the status quo. Governor Quinn’s answer to the crisis in Illinois is to keep spending, borrow money and raise taxes. Pat Quinn will fight for massive tax hikes, while I strongly oppose them. I am advocating a strong jobs climate that generates lasting job opportunities and revenues.
Pouring more and more of our tax dollars into the bureaucracy with no plan and no accountability is not the solution for improving education. But under four more years of Pat Quinn, that is exactly what will happen. I am standing with teachers to redirect our tax dollars away from the bureaucrats into where we need them most — our classrooms. The choice is clear, and I welcome this debate in the months ahead.”
* Related…
* Cost of Governor’s Campaign Going Down: State Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington), the Republican candidate for governor, estimates he’ll spend $13 million to $20 million on his campaign this year, far short of the $27 million Rod Blagojevich spent to win in 2006. Republican Judy Baar Topinka spent $9.8 million on her unsuccessful campaign. Brady says he’ll economize by allowing the Blagojevich corruption trial to do some of the talking. “A lot of people are focused on the trial right now, so spending money through the summer months is not necessarily the most productive use of resources, which may delay some of the spending,” Brady says.
* Tea party rally focuses anger on Obama policies, Illinois politics: “We don’t have a president, we have a usurper,” said McKiernan, who identified herself as a volunteer with the Brady campaign.
* Tea Party bags GOP speakers at rally of ‘true patriots’: “It’s time to turn the State of Illinois around, isn’t it?” Brady said, standing on the steps of the Ansel Cook Mansion with his wife, Nancy. “Are we tired of tax increases? Are we tired of not paying our bills? (Are) we tired of record unemployment?”
* Libertyville hosts Tea Party event: “We’re good, solid people who care about their government and won’t take for granted their government anymore,” Republican candidate for governor Bill Brady said.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias didn’t have to pay any state and federal income taxes last year because of big losses tied to his family’s failed Broadway Bank, according to his campaign and tax returns released Friday.
The wealthy state treasurer stands to collect about $30,000 in refunds, but immediately announced he would donate the money to charities. Giannoulias sought to avoid having his tax situation become a campaign issue that could anger voters who make less money, pay their taxes and don’t have much sympathy for a rich guy getting a break.
Giannoulias reported $2.7 million in losses last year. That represents the 3.6 percent he owned in non-voting bank shares, said campaign spokeswoman Kathleen Strand.
You can try burying a story before the 4th of July weekend, but people like me won’t let you.
Also, what Giannoulias doesn’t say is that a charitable donation would give himself another big tax deduction for this year’s return.
* If you thought that Mark Kirk would tread a bit lightly on this topic since fellow statewide Republican candidate Bill Brady is basically in the same boat, you’d be wrong. From a press release…
“Alexi Giannoulias wants to raise our taxes but doesn’t pay any taxes himself. After costing the FDIC $394 million and wiping out $73 million in college savings, Illinois voters can no longer afford Alexi Giannoulias.”
In response, the Giannoulias campaign flat-out lied…
When asked for comment by TPMDC, the Giannoulias camp turned the story right back to Kirk’s own personal dirt, relating to his previous inaccurate statements about his military record. Giannoulias spokesman Matt McGrath told us: “It comes as no surprise given his record of mistruths, half-truths and untruths about his military record, but when he says Alexi wants to raise taxes, Congressman Kirk is lying. Again.”
Giannoulias doesn’t want to raise taxes? Then why did he tell the Illinois Education Association that he’s “said from Day One,” that Illinois “needs an income tax increase”? Here’s the video…
Giannoulias also told the Chicago Tribune that if he is elected he would vote to let some current federal tax cuts expire, which is, in effect, a tax increase…
The Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans generated some of the largest deficits in U.S. history and contributed nearly $2 trillion to our deficits. Those tax cuts were unnecessary and irresponsible, and I would allow them to expire.
You can usually see the true character of a campaign during a crisis, and the Giannoulias campaign has totally failed the test this time.
* The Illinois Republican Party has called on Giannoulias to give the cash to the FDIC. From a press release…
The Illinois Republican Party today called on Alexi Giannoulias to send his $30,000 in tax refunds for 2009 to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as a down payment on the $394 million loss the FDIC incurred after the collapse of Broadway Bank. […]
“Alexi Giannoulias’ unsafe and unsound banking practices ultimately led to the collapse of Broadway Bank and the loss of $394 million to the Federal Deposit Insurance Fund,” ILGOP Chairman Pat Brady said. “Alexi wants to raise our income taxes but doesn’t pay any income taxes himself. Instead of using his distasteful tax refund to win another tax write-off, Alexi should do the right thing and send his refund to the FDIC.”
Congressman Kirk just announced that he’s holding a press conference at one o’clock this afternoon. Kirk has a very real opportunity to turn this race around again. Charlie Cook recently moved this race from lean Republican to toss-up. It’ll probably go back to lean Republican again.
* My own opinion is that Giannoulias ought to write a check to the state and federal government equal to the amount owed on his state treasurer’s salary. It’s the same position I had on Bill Brady’s taxes.
Using private business losses to avoid paying taxes on an elected official’s government salary is just plain wrong. And it’s especially bogus during a period of time when the state can’t pay its bills and the federal deficit is soaring.
