* Here’s the raw audio of Gov. Pat Quinn talking to reporters at the State Fair today. The clip includes his quip about “pinheads” who would criticize the way the fair is funded. Don’t miss it…
* Unlike some people [cough***Pinheads!***cough] I love the Illinois State Fair. One day when I’m too old to do this, I wouldn’t mind being director. Nice way to go out. And we could get some good music.
Thanks to state Sen. Dave Syverson, Cheap Trick has kinda become our official state band, so it’s only fitting that they’re playing the fair next week. Turn it up…
* Gov. Pat Quinn just called a conservative think tank “pinheads“…
Gov. Pat Quinn opened the Illinois State Fair Friday by calling the event’s detractors “pinheads.”
The fair cost $2.7 million more than it brought in last year, leading to criticism from some interest groups that the event should be scaled back in tough budget times.
“There are, you know, pinheads who think that we should cut out the state fair,” Quinn said after cutting the ribbon on the 157th running of the fair. “I think they’re all wet. I think the people of Illinois want a state fair to celebrate our agriculture.” […]
“The notion of kicking the state fair in the shins is really wrong,” Quinn said.
Texas stands in stark contrast to how Illinois has been running its state fairs, and Illinois should consider looking to Texas as a model to follow. Otherwise, it may end up having to cancel its fairs because of budgeting problems, as other states have had to do,
Texas’ state fair is held in Dallas, a major metropolitan area which has a huge nearby population base to draw from. It’s apples and oranges.
* The Ottawa paper published a story on the topic this week, and included quotes from some staunch fair defenders…
“Think about it. If we criticize everything the state loses money at, we’d never be done talking,” said Monty Whipple, La Salle County Farm Bureau president. “The Illinois State Fair is a yearly tribute to the state’s No. 1 business — agriculture — and it is an important source of education and entertainment not only for farm kids, but other (metropolitan) youths as well. I think it’s worth every penny we have to put into it.” […]
The Utica farmer said, for the small admission price, ($5 for adults, $2 for children under 12), it is a good deal for a family summertime adventure.
Vaugh Kiner, La Salle County Junior Fair president, agrees with Whipple.
“The State Fair is important for kids to meet other kids from other parts of the state where everyone has an opportunity to show off their accomplishments for the year,” Kiner said from his cell phone while walking along the Springfield fairgrounds this week. “Here young people learn things they can use the rest of their lives.”
The state fair is a big deal for rural kids. Getting chosen to exhibit there is a high honor. I made it once, and it was like going to Hollywood.
But it’s a fraud, and an expensive one. Despite the “back-to-school” label, the exemption applies to most clothing and shoes under $100, even if they are bought by adults who haven’t been inside a school in 40 years.
Will this at least give the state an economic boost? Tax holidays “do not promote economic growth or significantly increase consumer purchases,” concluded the Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C. They “simply shift the timing of purchases.”
If your kid needs a new notebook and calculator for school, after all, you don’t have much choice but to buy them, even with sales tax attached.
The brief respite helps low-income consumers only by helping lots of affluent shoppers who don’t need the break.
As the first sales tax “holiday” in Illinois heads into its final three days, retailers at suburban stores and malls are crowing that it produced Christmas-caliber crowds this week.
“It has been like the holidays here at Gurnee Mills. The only thing missing was the snow and Santa,” said Director of Marketing Michelle Rice.
Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale reported that traffic was up 12 percent last week compared to a year ago. […]
“People are living on a budget. The money they save through the tax break encourages them to buy that extra pair of shoes,” said Anita Blackford, senior vice president of mall operations at Stratford Square in Bloomingdale.
While retail sales figures are not available, mall officials say they are hearing anecdotally that sales at many stores are up.
“Our retailers are singing the praises. They are dancing to the sounds of the cash register,” Rice said at Gurnee Mills. Area Walmart stores are also reporting large crowds over the past week.
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association is also ecstatic.
Illinois has lost out to Texas in a bid for a new Caterpillar plant.
Caterpillar Inc. said Thursday it chose Victoria, Texas, as the site for the new factory, which will make a line of excavating equipment, including some currently built in Aurora.
The new plant will employ about 500 when it opens in mid-2012. Aurora isn’t expected to lose jobs, however, because of Caterpillar’s recently announced plans to build hydraulic mining shovels there.
It’s the second time Caterpillar has shuffled some work from Illinois to Texas. Two years ago, the company chose Seguin, Texas, to make engines that previously were manufactured in Mossville, near Cat’s Peoria headquarters.
* What happens to the 2010 campaign environment if Rod Blagojevich - God forbid - walks? For argument’s sake, let’s say it’s a couple of “not guilty” verdicts and a hung jury on the rest.
Do you favor or oppose a bill in which the federal government would provide 26 billion dollars to
state governments to pay for Medicaid benefits and the salaries of public school teachers or other government workers?
Favor 60%
Oppose 38%
No opinion 2%
I’m assuming, since this state is more liberal and more pro-Obama than average and since our budget situation is so bad, that the number is even higher here. Some are calling this a sop to the unions, but most people obviously see it for what it is: A relatively modest attempt to keep states and school districts from meltdowns.
* Bill Brady, however, thinks the bill was a mistake…
Republican candidate for governor Bill Brady said Thursday that Congress was wrong to pass an aid package that will give Illinois nearly $1 billion for teachers and health care.
Brady said the $26 billion legislation will increase the federal deficit and leave Illinois with a bigger budget hole to fill next year.
“These are just typical Washington games, digging a deeper hole,” Brady told reporters as he prepared to march in the Illinois State Fair Twilight Parade. “I don’t know where they’re going to get the money.”
But Brady also said the state should take the money to get its fair share.
Gov. Pat Quinn tamped down speculation Thursday that lawmakers would have to return to the state Capitol this summer to deal with a new influx of federal funds.
Speaking to reporters at the launch of the Illinois State Fair parade, Quinn said he doubted a special legislative session would have to be called for the state to spend more than $400 million for education.
“I don’t think there’s a need for that,” Quinn said.
I followed up with the governor’s office this morning to ask how they would appropriate the money without a special session and received this e-mail…
We are reviewing the legislation to determine our options. We hope to make a final determination shortly.
OK, so the guv says no need for a special, but his office says it hasn’t been determined yet. Great.
* Mark Kirk voted against the state aid bill because he said it added to the deficit. He has also repeatedly attacked his US Senate opponent Alexi Giannoulias for opposing an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts. But the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has just released a new report showing that extending the cuts would add $36 billion to the deficit next year alone…
A Republican plan to extend tax cuts for the rich would add more than $36 billion to the federal deficit next year — and transfer the bulk of that cash into the pockets of the nation’s millionaires, according to a congressional analysis released Wednesday.
New data from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation show that households earning more than $1 million a year would reap nearly $31 billion in tax breaks under the GOP plan in 2011, for an average tax cut per household of about $100,000.
$36 billion added to the deficit in one year for the tax cut extension that Kirk supports, compared to $5 billion or so over ten years for a bill he opposed.
WBEZ asked Kirk about his support for extending those tax cuts, which greatly benefit the wealthy. Kirk gave a short answer about trying to avoid “class warfare.” Here’s a handy graphic which shows the difference between the plan Kirk supports and the president’s proposal. A larger version is here…
Asked by WBEZ where he’d cut the budget to pay for those tax breaks, Kirk refused to be pinned down.
* Other campaign stuff…
* ADDED: Breaking News: Auchi attorneys go after Illinois Review
* ADDED: Brady Can’t Tell Us Where He’ll Cut The Budget. But That’s Quinn’s Fault
Don Wade asked Giannoulias a direct question: “Did you lend any money to anybody who was controlling a nationwide prostitution ring?” Giannoulias answered “No.”
But that answer, as is so often the case here, is only partially true. Giannoulias’ family bank loaned money to Michael Giorango to buy the Lorraine Hotel in Miami. Giorango was busted for promoting (not controlling) that prostitution ring out of the very same hotel. And Giannoulias himself flew to Miami to “inspect” that hotel, and only admitted it after the 2006 Democratic primary when he defeated a Mike Madigan-backed candidate. From an April 27, 2006 story…
Democratic state treasurer nominee Alexi Giannoulias said Wednesday he was “embarrassed” by earlier remarks he made regarding millions of dollars in loans his family’s bank gave to a convicted felon, and he tried anew to explain a relationship that has cast a shadow over his campaign.
Giannoulias, the senior loan officer and vice president of his family’s Broadway Bank, previously described convicted bookmaker and prostitution ring promoter Michael Giorango as “a very nice person” and dismissed his relationship with Giorango as someone he had met at the bank “a few” times.
But on Wednesday, Giannoulias said he traveled to Miami “about a year or two ago” to inspect property the bank had financed for Giorango and met with him there. Giannoulias declined to provide details of that meeting.
“Giannoulias declined to provide details of that meeting.” Classic.
But Giannoulias said that since he became a full-time senior loan officer, he has met Giorango at the bank “a few” times.
He described Giorango as “a very nice person” and questioned whether Giorango actually was a criminal. “Is he a crime figure?” Giannoulias asked. “I don’t know what the charges are that makes him this huge crime figure.”
Nicknamed “Jaws,” Giorango pleaded guilty in 1989 to helping direct a south suburban bookmaking ring that used threats of bombings, beatings and robbery to collect unpaid debts. Then in 1991, he was convicted of additional gambling and tax violations stemming from his role in a separate bookmaking operation overseen by Chicago Heights gambling boss Dominic Barbaro.
In 2004, federal prosecutors convicted him of promoting the Circuit, a nationwide prostitution ring, by encouraging Miami madam Judy Krueger to have prostitutes work from one of his hotels and by using the women to entertain and entice his business associates.
This is the way it usually is with Giannoulias. Wait until after the next election to clear things up and then clear those “misstatements” up after the following election. He said he was a major player at Broadway Bank before the 2006 primary. Now, he says he was a minor player. He didn’t know Giorango before the 2006 primary, afterwards he admitted he knew him and even hung out with the guy in Miami.
He has said that if he and the bank had known about the dark history of Giorango that they wouldn’t have given him the loans. But his brother has said the bank knew at least some of what was going on and went ahead with the loans anyway.
The Miami trip is the closest connection that we know Giannoulias had to a criminal. Most of the other stuff hurled against him isn’t directly traceable to Giannoulias and is way overblown. But that Miami trip is direct. Now, it may turn out to be nothing at all, but Mark Kirk is right to press this issue.
*** UPDATE 4 - 1:43 pm *** Judge Erickson’s report has now been released. Click here to read it. Other info from the press conference follows below…
* Judge Erickson at the press conference: “MGT Push was a total failure… dysfunctional.” “It failed in its basic purpose, which was to help rehabilitate, to protect the public, to deter crime.” MGT Push object was to “save more money.” “No benefit… No deterrent benefit. No benefit to the inmate whatsoever.”
* Erickson: “What push did was it took a broken system and it made it worse.”
* John Bambenek says this in comments and he’s absolutely right…
I just read the entire report… no mention of WHO came up with this idea, WHO authorized it, WHO reviewed it, WHO approved it.
It’s a process-oritented review. It’s needed, sure. But this is not the report we’ve been looking for.
* Erickson: MGT Push “presented dangers to the public safety”
* Quinn has announced a 3:30 press conference in Chicago.
* Erickson claims it wasn’t a “secret” program because a bunch of insiders knew about it. He didn’t say, however, if Gov. Quinn knew about it. Quinn has said he didn’t know.
A report released by Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration today says an accelerated early release program for prisoners was “a mistake” that failed to protect public safety. […]
In a news release, the administration acknowledged the early release program had “serious flaws.”
“The MGT Push program was a mistake. Although focused on reducing costs during a fiscal crisis, it failed to accomplish the overriding goals of the State’s Code of Corrections: protecting the public’s safety and restoring inmates to useful citizenship,” the report states.
Later, the panel concludes the program “was ill-conceived.
* Reporter questions are beginning…
* Director Randle: “The pressure to save money on DoC wasn’t any different from any other state agency… We were asked to look for opportunities to cut costs…”
* Randle said “No” when asked if the governor was aware that violent offenders were being released early. He sid “the governor was clear” that he didn’t want violent offenders released.
* Judge Erickson: “I’ve recommended no one’s dismissal… Personnel matters were not part of my charge…” He said he didn’t know who was responsible for the program.
* End.
*** UPDATE 3 - 1:34 pm *** The report is still not online. Help live-blog in comments if you can. The governor is coincidentally at the State Fair today, so he’s not at the press conference.
*** UPDATE 1 - 1:15 pm *** The press conference will start at 1:30 and live audio and the full report will be available at that time at Illinois.gov. [UPDATED LINK] We do have an advance press release. The headline reads: “Erickson Report Finds Serious Flaws in MGT Push Program, Offers Guidelines for Improved Corrections Procedures.” Click here for the full release…
The review panel’s report sets out four core objectives for any good conduct credit program:
1) Protect public safety by deterring crime, including re-offending by former inmates;
2) Recognize and respect the interests of victims;
3) Offer appropriate incentives and rewards for inmates’ positive behavior while incarcerated, and,
4) Provide inmates with access to relevant rehabilitative programs.
Judge Erickson and the review panel found that MGT Push failed to achieve these objectives. The review recommends three major areas of reform, and further advises that all meritorious credit programs remain suspended until crucial reforms are in place.
Earned and Individualized Awards. The Department of Corrections’ accelerated meritorious credit program discarded an unwritten previous policy requiring inmates to spend at least 60 days in state custody before receiving any awards for meritorious conduct. The MGT Push program also continued the Department’s longstanding practice of routinely awarding MGT credit to inmates who had done little, if anything, to demonstrate good conduct.
Accountability and Transparency. The report found that the Department of Corrections relied on unwritten rules and outdated technology and procedures in its inmate release programs, and further found that the record-keeping and policies related to release decisions varied widely throughout the system.
Some recommendations…
The report recommends a number of measures to enhance the accountability and transparency of both the program and individual meritorious credit awards. The committee calls on the Director to formally delegate authority over earned “good time” programs to the Department’s Chief Public Safety Officer. Program policies and procedures instituted under the Chief Public Safety Officer’s direction should be set forth in formal, written rules, directives, and manuals and should be developed with both notice to and input from community stakeholders.
Communication. The report found that the Department failed to notify local authorities of pending prisoner releases in a uniform and timely manner. In December 2009, Governor Quinn ordered the Department of Corrections to provide local prosecutors with at least 14 days’ advance notice before releasing an inmate with meritorious credit into mandatory supervision. Governor Quinn sought legislation to make this change permanent; this policy was made law when Governor Quinn signed Senate Bill 1013 in January 2010.
In addition to these reforms, the committee recommends that the Department institute a fully electronic advance notification process with appropriate procedural safeguards, to give local authorities time to respond to or prepare for a prisoner’s release. Additionally, updated electronic information-sharing between local authorities, the Illinois State Police, and the Department of Corrections would improve internal decisions on awarding good-conduct credit, expand communication with victims, and alert jail and prison authorities to potential inmate risks.
[ *** End Of Updates *** ]
* 11:01 am - From a press release…
MEDIA ADVISORY
**Friday, August 13, 2010**
CHICAGO - Judge David Erickson and members of Governor Quinn’s administration will release
the Report on the Meritorious Good Time and MGT Push programs.
WHO: Retired Appellate Court Justice and Criminal Trial Judge David Erickson
Jerome Stermer, Chief of Staff, Office of the Governor
John Schomberg, Acting General Counsel, Office of the Governor
Michael Randle, Director, Illinois Department of Corrections
Gladyse Taylor, Acting Assistant Director, Illinois Department of Corrections
Mark S. Prosperi, Public Safety Liaison Officer, Office of the Governor;
Michael J. McCotter, Chief Public Safety Officer, Illinois Department of Corrections
WHEN: 1:30 p.m.
WHERE: James R. Thompson Center
Hearing Room 16-503
100 West Randolph Street
Chicago, Illinois 60601
This will be broadcast live on the Internet. Come back at 1:30 for the link.
I sure hope this isn’t gonna be a whitewash.
* Background…
* December 13, 2009: Illinois prisons shave terms, secretly release inmates: Repeat drunk drivers, drug users and even people convicted of battery and weapons violations are serving less than three weeks’ total time behind bars under a secret change in policy by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s prison system, The Associated Press has learned.
* December 14, 2009: Illinois Governor Pat Quinn puts prison early release program on hold - Opponents claim some inmates spent only weeks behind bars before being set free
* December 21, 2009: Gov. Quinn Appoints Former Judge To Head Meritorious Good Time Review
* December 30, 2009: Gov. Quinn Overhauls Controversial Prison Release Program, Will Bolster Law and Agency Operations
* January 04, 2010: Ill. governor says early secret prison release was a mistake - Gov. Pat Quinn reversed a secret policy that allowed more than 1,700 inmates to be released early
* January 5, 2010: Illinois Governor Pat Quinn suspends another early release program
* January 13, 2010: House OKs minimum prison term, release notice
* January 13, 2010: 130 back in prison after state’s parole crackdown
* Jan 14, 2010: Quinn stands behind corrections director
* January 22, 2010: Corrections: Wrong early release prisoners listed
* May 18, 2010: Governor blames prison board for early release
* June 23, 2010: Dozens of prisoners released early in Ill. have disappeared, some are violent
* June 28, 2010: Judge still reviewing prison-release policy: But the report has languished as Erickson, a senior law lecturer, took teaching assignments in Texas and Florida last spring. And he said officials decided to include a review of the agency’s computer system. “I’m shooting for just after the 4th of July to be done with my report,” Erickson told The Associated Press.
* The US Attorney’s office has never been quite the same since Patrick Collins left for the private sector. Collins was the heart and soul of that operation. His conviction of George Ryan was a work of art. And while I wasn’t exactly enamored with what he did in Springfield with the botched reform effort, I was in awe of his abilities as a prosecutor.
Collins is doing some TV analysis work, and here he is on WGN admitting frankly that yesterday was a “bad day for the government” in Rod Blagojevich’s trial…
The full segment is here. Let’s hope he’s right about the jury coming back fresh on Monday.
* Roundup…
* Try, try again: It’s a safe bet: The feds will retry Blago on every charge where the jury winds up being permanently deadlocked.
Days after Jim Edgar was elected governor in 1990, he walked into his Chicago office suite to see none other than Congressman Dan Rostenkowski waiting for him.
Edgar barely knew Rostenkowski, but he realized that making one of the most powerful congressmen in the nation cool his heels in his outer lobby probably wasn’t a good thing. So he immediately invited Rostenkowski into his private office, apologizing that his staff hadn’t recognized the chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee.
Rostenkowski could be a pretty gruff guy, but he seemed completely unperturbed at the slight, Edgar told me a few months ago.
Once they were inside, Rostenkowski turned quickly to business and said something like: “I was with your opponent during the campaign, but you won and now I’m with you.”
And so began a friendship and strong working relationship that lasted four years and produced numerous projects and dollars for the state.
The two men spoke often, and Rostenkowski almost always came through, Edgar said. He was true to his word and helped Edgar get through some pretty tough times.
When Rostenkowski was under federal investigation during the 1994 Democratic primary, Edgar all of a sudden started hosting ribbon-cutting ceremonies with the suddenly vulnerable incumbent. After Rostenkowski was indicted a few months later, Edgar barely said a negative word.
Almost nobody figured that Rostenkowski could lose re-election, even under indictment. And his legislative abilities, seniority and position made him so important to Illinois and to Chicago that nobody in power wanted to see him go away.
But lose he did, to a hapless, unknown, underfunded kid with no backing other than local voter anger and a national Republican tidal wave.
Edgar stuck out his neck for Rostenkowski, but he has no regrets, and it’s hard to blame him. Those were different times. Most of the corruption cases back then were of judges and lower-level types. And Edgar had such a clean reputation that what little mud splashed on him soon washed off.
We saw the same sort of thing happen when George Ryan was governor.
After the Republican was elected and the federal corruption investigation began to bear down hard, reporters would often ask Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan for comment, and he would always say that he didn’t want to “kick a man when he was down.” Few people of either party ever spoke against Ryan, for that matter.
The reason? Mainly, Ryan had a real knack for getting things done, and he was willing to work with everybody he could to accomplish those goals.
It’s tragic for Illinois that true statesmen such as Ryan and Rostenkowski turned out to be crooked. Their nefarious behavior led directly to Rod Blagojevich’s rise to power. Blagojevich won Rostenkowski’s old congressional seat in the 1996 Democratic backlash and ran mostly against George Ryan when he defeated Jim Ryan in the 2002 gubernatorial election.
That didn’t work out so well, in case you hadn’t noticed. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that Blagojevich’s jurors somehow find a way to put that man where he belongs.
And now here we are, stuck with an accidental governor who can’t seem to get anything done and a Republican opponent who appears unable to grasp the very real crisis we find ourselves in. And Bill Brady has never been mentioned as a statesman.
It’s enough to make me want to scream.
Isn’t there anybody left out there who can play this game who isn’t also a crook? Anybody?
* Gov. Pat Quinn talked to reporters during the State Fair’s Twilight Parade about the Blagojevich jury, whether he thinks Blagojevich is guilty, the lack of civility in the campaign so far, Bill Brady’s support for George W. Bush, Brady’s tax returns and when the federal state aid is getting to schools. Watch…
* State Sen. Bill Brady talked to reporters before the parade about the Blagojevich jury, Blagojevich’s guilt, the impact of the trial on the campaign, Quinn’s recent budget cuts, the governor’s staff pay raises, and his position on the federal aid to states bill. Have a look…
* Robert Blagojevich briefly talked to reporters as he walked out of the Dirksen Federal Building yesterday…
* And Scott Lee Cohen talks to Patrick McDonough on CAN-TV…