Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2010

Thursday, Dec 16, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Whenever a legislature tries to do some sort of budgetary or policy reform, somebody’s ox is gonna get gored. And sometimes, that certain somebody is a powerful interest group. For instance, the Illinois Hospital Association testified this week against lowering the rates paid for doctor visits for workers compensation patients…

Barb Malloy, consultant and former workers’ compensation administrator for the city of Chicago, said that medical fees employers pay for injured worker’s treatment in Illinois outpace what the state and federal government pay under medical programs for the low-income and elderly residents. Malloy said a standard visit to a doctor costs $24.25 under Medicaid, $42.99 under Medicare and $77.81 under workers’ compensation requirements in Illinois. […]

Mark Deaton, general counsel for the Illinois Hospital Association, said that as some of the largest employers in the state, hospitals are sensitive to costs of workers’ compensation. However, he warned that budget cuts and substantial federal health care reforms make it a dangerous time to do any major tweaking to Illinois’ health care sector. […]

Eugene Munin, budget director for the city of Chicago, said the city has seen workers’ compensation costs rise while the number of city employees decreased. Munin said the city has eliminated around 6,000 positions in the last 10 years because of budget cuts. He said the city had 2,000 workers’ compensation claims in 2005 and had 1,350 in 2009. But workers’ compensation cost Chicago $61 million in 2009 versus $38 million in 2005.

Clearly, the 2005 workers compensation reform bill didn’t save the system any money, and, in fact, raised costs. But changing the law will not be easy at all.

* More often than not, however, those “somebodies” are political nobodies with little power. From a press release…

Community Leaders to Governor Quinn: DON’T BE A GRINCH!
STREET THEATRE ACTION CALLS ON GOVERNOR AND IDOC TO KEEP THEIR PROMISES TO CHILDREN OF INCARCERATED PARENTS

WHO/WHAT: Community and religious leaders will join Community Renewal Society’s Civic Action Network in a Christmas-themed action calling on Gov. Pat Quinn and Illinois Department of Corrections Director Gladyse Taylor to respond to the needs of children with incarcerated parents. Protesters will perform their adaptation of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” portraying Quinn as “the Grinch.” Protesters will also perform a series of mock Christmas carols and attempt to deliver letters to the offices of Quinn and Taylor. […]

WHY: At an Oct. 9 public meeting, Quinn and Taylor committed to working on behalf of children of incarcerated parents. But at a follow-up meeting, Taylor stated that she no longer felt that these issues fit into IDOC’s mission. Quinn has yet to schedule a meeting with the Children of the Incarcerated team, despite his commitment to meet by Thanksgiving.

Community Renewal Society’s Children of the Incarcerated campaign is advocating for vital resources for the more than 90,000 Illinois children who have a parent in prison or on parole.

* And these sorts of fight are likely to proliferate as the state attempts to solve its budget problems. Illinois isn’t alone…

The worst recession since the 1930s has caused the steepest decline in state tax receipts on record. State tax collections, adjusted for inflation, are now 12 percent below pre-recession levels[1], while the need for state-funded services has not declined. As a result, even after making very deep spending cuts over the last two years, states continue to face large budget gaps. At least 46 states struggled to close shortfalls when adopting budgets for the current fiscal year (FY 2011, which began July 1 in most states). These came on top of the large shortfalls that 48 states faced in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. States will continue to struggle to find the revenue needed to support critical public services for a number of years, threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs. States face:

A few charts…

Related…

* State eager to help keep local auto plant going: State officials aren’t saying exactly what they would do to help keep a Japanese carmaker in Central Illinois, but Gov. Pat Quinn hasn’t been shy about doling out big-ticket incentives for other struggling automobile manufacturers.

* Illinois to RTA: The check’s in the mail

* Budget Cuts Threaten Emergency Preparedness

* Rockford school district gets overdue payments from state

* Public policy meeting slated for Friday

25 Comments

*** UPDATED x2 - Wife won’t be called - Boxes found *** Were Emanuel’s tenant demands for $100K related to residency case?

Thursday, Dec 16, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The plot thickens…

The real estate manager who helped Rahm Emanuel buy his North Side home testified in a residency hearing today that Emanuel’s renters wanted $100,000 to end their lease early when he returned to Chicago this fall to run for mayor. […]

Levy said he passed the $100,000 figure to Emanuel, who called it “ridiculous.” The counter offer was $5,000 a month for every month early the Halpins left, Levy said. The lease is set to expire in mid-2011.

* And could this $100K gambit by the Halpins been part of the challenge to Emanuel’s candidacy? Maybe…

A lawyer for Halpin called him, [realtor Paul Levy] said, and told him he was concerned that another lawyer Halpin was talking to, Burt Odelson, was speaking to the press about the situation in possible breach of the confidentiality agreement that is a rider on the Halpins’ lease.

Odelson went on to be the lawyer for the lead objectors to Emanuel’s candidacy.

Hmm. Curiouser and curiouser.

* Hearing officer Joe Morris is expected to decide today whether to call Rahm Emanuel’s wife, Amy Rule, to the stand. So far, Emanuel’s lawyers have been able to keep her out of it. But after yesterday’s weirdness, Morris may have no choice…

Rahm Emanuel’s tenant, Lori Halpin, testified Wednesday that contrary to Emanuel’s testimony, she has never seen any of the 100 boxes of personal items he says he left in the basement.

Halpin said she has not found any hidden room where such boxes might be stored. There is a piece of plywood behind some shelves against an outside wall that would lead to an area under a porch. But she would not think people would store valuables there, she said. […]

As part of his argument that he is eligible to run for mayor, Emanuel testified Tuesday that he kept 100 boxes of valuable and sentimental personal items – his wife’s wedding dress, a jacket owned by his grandfather – in the Ravenswood home he rented out to the Halpins a year and a half ago.

But…

A friend of Chicago mayoral hopeful Rahm Emanuel’s wife testified Wednesday that she helped pack away their family heirlooms and other mementos for storage before Emanuel moved to Washington to become President Obama’s chief of staff.

Mee Kim-Chavez spoke at a Chicago Board of Election Commissioners hearing on residency challenges to Emanuel’s bid for the city’s top job. She said she helped Emanuel’s wife, Amy Rule, store 20 to 30 boxes in a crawl space under a home addition they’d built.

“She was going to come back,” Kim-Chavez said of the possessions. “There was no need for her to take them with her to D.C.”

On Tuesday, Rahm Emanuel testified that he didn’t know whether his wife checked the box for a “permanent” address change on the US Postal Service’s form to forward their mail to DC. That could also be a reason for her testimony.

If Morris decides not to call Ms. Rule, then he could wrap everything up today.

* Meanwhile, some of the objectors who got all goofy on Tuesday and didn’t seem to understand how to ask a question and that the questions they asked needed to be pertinent to a residency case complained to Morris yesterday about their treatment in the media…

The proceedings sometimes became chaotic as objectors shouted in protest and held Emanuel’s vehicle sticker up to overhead lights to try to see if it was real.

Some of those citizens pointed out Wednesday they did ask some proper questions, complaining to Morris that the news media portrayed them as a ragtag group of conspiracy theorists and “rejects from ‘The Price is Right.’”

Objector Georzetta “Queen Sister” Deloney challenged the media to stop making fun of her behind her back, saying that from there, “you’re in a real good position to kiss my butt.”

Quite a large number of Tuesday’s objectors appeared to have far higher self-esteem than self-awareness. It was positively painful, which may have been the object of the whole charade. It’s not the media they should be upset with, it’s the people who may have put them up to this scam in the apparent hope that their antics could ruffle Emanuel’s feathers.

They failed miserably. And it could’ve even backfired today…

Burt Odelson, the lead attorney in the case against Emanuel, appeared to be losing his patience with some of the non-attorney activists who have piggy-backed onto his case. Odelson complains that some of the out-of-left-field questions some of them ask cloud the central legal question of the case.

As one challenger, Dr. Lora Chamberlain, asked Levy whether the disputed “storage area” in the house’ basement where the Emanuels say their valuables are stored is heated, Odelson told her that was a “great” question.

“Really?” she asked.

“Yeah, for the other side,” he said.

Heh.

*** UPDATE 1 *** AP…

Rahm Emanuel’s wife won’t be subpoenaed to testify as the hearing over residency challenges to his mayoral bid grinds on.

Some of the objectors to Emanuel’s Feb. 22 mayoral bid withdrew their requests to subpoena Amy Rule.

A Chicago Board of Election Commissioners hearing officer also denied a request for a subpoena from another objector who didn’t give a good reason why Rule should be called to testify.

No surprise about the objector’s nonsensical reasoning. Sheesh.

*** UPDATE 2 *** As if there was ever any doubt…

The mayoral-race mystery of where candidate Rahm Emanuel stored boxes of personal items has been solved.

Attorneys for Emanuel visited the house he owns in Ravenswood at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, located the much-discussed “crawl space,” looked inside and found the valuable items Emanuel had maintained he had stored there. They have argued the fact they left the items there while Emanuel went to Washington D.C. to work as President Obama’s chief of staff shows he always planned to return to Chicago — and therefore should be eligible to run for mayor.

Attorney Dana S. Douglas brought photos of the boxes — which include his wife’s wedding dress and other sentimental items — to Emanuel’s ongoing residency hearing just 80 minutes after taking the pictures Wednesday, and he passed copies of the photos around to all the objectors claiming Emanuel is not a bona fide resident of Chicago.

But, of course, one of the objectors refused to be convinced…

“I believe that these photographs are phony and faked. Those could have been taken in my house,” said objector Zakiyyah Muhammad.

73 Comments

Question of the day

Thursday, Dec 16, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* A new school reform proposal working its way through the Illinois House has a section which would severely limit teachers’ right to strike. If there’s an impasse, the state’s Education Labor Relations Board could appoint a fact finding panel which would then come up with a solution. If that’s rejected by both parties, the panel’s proposals are published in local newspapers and the sides then have 10 days to settle. If there is no settlement, the two sides exchange their proposals and then the school boards, by a two-thirds vote, can impose a solution on the unions. If the school boards cannot muster a two-thirds vote, then and only then the union has the right to strike.

However, according to an internal analysis I’ve obtained created by the Illinois State Board of Education, it appears that Chicago’s education board could simply impose their own terms on the teachers union and prevent it from striking. And lots of people believe that this bill is designed to prevent a teachers strike when the current contract expires in 2012.

The legislation would also prevent teachers from including school-year length in their union contracts. Again, this appears aimed at the city, where the school year is one of the shortest in the nation.

* The Question: Should the Chicago Board of Education be allowed to impose its own terms on the teachers union to prevent a strike? Explain.

* Related…

* Illinois lawmakers considering plan to limit tenure, strike rights

* Teachers’ tenure being challenged

* No strikes? Tougher tenure? Lawmakers contemplating school reforms

57 Comments

Buyer beware when dealing with Groupon

Thursday, Dec 16, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* It’s kinda difficult to lay all the blame Groupon for this because apparently somebody didn’t do that math over at Navy Pier…

Navy Pier officials blame Groupon for a drop in revenue for its biggest annual festival, though they credit the daily-deal site for generating more traffic.

With Winter Wonderfest ticket sales up 12% in volume, but event revenue down about 8% so far, Navy Pier officials are reconsidering whether future partnerships with Chicago-based Groupon are worthwhile.

Groupon offered Winter Wonderland tickets for $9, half the price, one day in early November. Mark Thompson, senior director of marketing for the Pier, estimated some 7,500 Groupons were sold that day — a 283% increase from the same Groupon deal offered for last year’s Wonderfest.

Overall ticket sales are running 12% ahead of last year to date.

But revenue is down considerably: Wonderfest has netted $420,000, compared with $455,000 during the same period in 2009.

More…

While pier officials expect to garner more revenue than last year for the indoor holiday fun fair, which runs through Jan. 2, they plan to evaluate whether to use Groupon again, at least at those deep discount levels.

Well, duh. Groupon claims it is always willing to make a deal with its clients, and that’s what should have been done here to begin with. It’s not really Groupon’s fault that Navy Pier officials didn’t consider that so many tickets could be sold at such a low price.

Groupon has been criticized for this before, but every time I’ve seen a story, it’s about a businessperson who was overwhelmed with the response to its offer and ended up losing money. They either figured that coupon holders would buy other items when they were in their shops (which didn’t happen because the shoppers just wanted the steeply discounted stuff) and/or they simply sold too many items at less than the cost of providing them. From Chicagoist…

We’ve taken advantage of one Groupon that we can remember and have talked with chefs and other entrepreneurs who have felt similarly burned after doing a Groupon. We were also at a recent brunch at a local restaurant where we were also the only person in the restaurant who wasn’t there because of a Groupon deal.

But that’s the Catch-22 with Groupon. It should introduce businesses to valuable new customers, but once the half-off deal is cashed in, does it?

Groupon users are apparently cheapskates. So, buyer beware.

* Speaking of Groupon, they’re helping spark a tech boom in Chicago, according to WBEZ…

In this building, Watermelon Express is like a tiny barnacle stuck to the side of the Groupon battleship.

It’s an example of how Groupon is transforming the culture of Chicago, creating the right atmosphere for small companies like this one to get a start.

RANGNEKAR: I would say the last nine months have been phenomenal. I would not want to be in any other city but Chicago right now.

And here’s the lineage to Groupon.

Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell are serial entrepreneurs who bankrolled Groupon.

They discovered Rangnekar at the University of Chicago business school and funded his company in July.

It’s one of eight startups they’ve invested in this year out of a new $100 million dollar fund.

Keywell says Chicago’s tech scene is starting to get the ego it needs to rival Silicon Valley.

31 Comments

Meeks: No set asides for white women

Thursday, Dec 16, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Rev. Sen. James Meeks has a well-known mouth problem. The problem is he continually inserts his foot into his mouth, particularly on the subject of race. From Fox Chicago…

On Wednesday, Chicago mayoral candidate James Meeks said that only African-Americans should be able to participate in affirmative action programs– and that Hispanics, Asians, and women should be excluded. Later, he tried to clarify his remarks.

Speaking to a candidates’ forum Wednesday on black-oriented WVON radio, the South Side state senator said it’s unacceptable that the share of city contracts going to African-American-owned businesses has shrunk in recent years.

“I think that the word ‘minority,’ from our standpoint, should mean African-American,” Meeks said. “I don’t think women, Asians and Hispanics should be able to use that title. That’s why our numbers cannot improve, because we use women, Asians and Hispanics, who are not people of color, who are not people who have been discriminated against. We fought for these laws based on discrimination. Now, groups that have not been discriminated against are the chief beneficiaries.” […]

Later on Wednesday night, Meeks attempted to clarify his earlier statement, and said that he would remove from City Hall affirmative action set-aside only businesses owned by “white women.”

Video…

React…

“People need those protections that are afforded in that term and the programs that go along with them. I think we need a broader set of protections, not a narrower set of protections,” Gery Chico said.

“I think what is needed is a greater outreach effort to make sure that we have qualified businesses who can contract,” Miguel del Valle said.

“I think the whole point of the set-asides is to integrate and bring people into our economy who had previously been excluded and that includes women and African Americans and Hispanics. There’s a whole list of people,” Carol Moseley Braun said.

Thoughts?

* Roundup…

* Meeks wants vouchers for 50,000 students

* Candidates debate education

* Critics force CPS to table charter vote - Proposals for 4 new charter schools need further view, CEO says

* Mayoral candidates grade schools very low

* 3 black Chicago mayoral candidates agree on little

* Mayoral hopefuls enlisting help from corporate, civic worlds: “I just accepted this responsibility a week and a half ago,” said Willie Wilson, an entrepreneur and former McDonald’s franchisee, who is volunteering as U.S. Rep. Danny Davis’ finance chairman. “By the end of next week, I should have my arms around this thing.”

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