75 Comments - Fed up - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 12:54 pm: Wow a campaign promise that is kept this is big news in Illinois someone inform Gov Quinn. - Montrose - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 12:55 pm: “Wow a campaign promise that is kept this is big news in Illinois someone inform Gov Quinn.” Fed Up, you have made your point - repeatedly. You should take a deep breath and move on. - Anon - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 12:57 pm: Dan will make a Good Governor Someday. - BSP II - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 12:58 pm: Shame on Rutherford. Since closing the offices doesn’t save any money, he must just think that the services his office provides shouldn’t be accessible to people throughout the state. - cassandra - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 1:02 pm: Good for Rutherford, but this is awfully low hanging fruit. Why hadn’t they been closed already, like, when Quinn became guv. If we have to rely on incoming Repub agency heads to get to even the low-hanging fruit, we will save very little money in the coming years. There are, what, two of them? But what the heck–there will be plenty of new $$$$ coming in soon. - 47th Ward - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 1:12 pm: ===Why hadn’t they been closed already, like, when Quinn became guv.=== Because the Treasurer is a constitutional office, not an agency under the Governor. Giannoulias opened those offices (and some may have been under Topinka). Quinn could not have done much to shut them down unless the Treasurer agreed. But yeah, good for Rutherford for doing it. And you are correct to point out this is the lowest of low-hanging fruit. - chi - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 1:12 pm: What business brings someone into the Treasurer’s satellite offices? I can’t picture ever having the need to use one. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 1:15 pm: Cassandra - do you even have ANY idea how Illinois government is structured? Rutherford is not an incoming Repub agency head - he is an independent elected official. “Quinn” as you call him, or Governor Quinn to the rest of us, could not close the Treasurer’s satellite offices; that would have been up to Treasurer Giannoulias. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 1:16 pm: BSP II - One of the offices closed was in Effingham, less than thirty minutes from me. I travel there often. I’ve lived here 26 years. I didn’t know that the office was there, have never had need to contact it and if I should ever need to contact the Treasurer’s office, (I can’t imagine why) it would be by phone or by e-mail. This is the kind of waste that needs to be cut in this state. A cut doesn’t have to save a million dollars at a time, but 100 small cuts that save $10K each add up to some real dollars in this taxpayer’s eyes. - TimB - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 1:17 pm: Sorry, Anonymous 1:16 p.m. was me - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 1:38 pm: Sen. Dan Duffy is one of the more interesting Republicans in the Senate. He just rose to speak on behalf of the death penalty abolition bill. He’s very, very conservative, yet not easily pigeonholed. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 1:42 pm: By the way, although I criticized Cassandra at 1:15 pm, I absolutely agree with closing the offices. They were transparently an effort by the prior Treasurer(s) to get their names out in the community at taxpayers’ expense, in their drive for higher office (nearly every former Treasurer - Giannoulias, Topinka, Quinn, Cosentino, Dixon, Stevenson III - has run for higher office). Can anybody think of ONE Treasurer’s office program that residents need to visit an office for? - Das Man - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 1:46 pm: Representative Winters, Tryon, Verschoore, Osterman, May and Hoffman all bailed out of SB2505 after it was sent over to Revenue & Finance this morning. I guess it was hijacked. A bill that would have been good for the working men and women of Illinois has seemly been beaten down by the banking lobby. - Robert - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 1:47 pm: to more quickly claim money from unclaimed assets. I think it is called CashDash or something like that…but that’s a program I’ve never undersood anyway - why spend money to help people find unclaimed assets they’ve lost track of? - Team Sleep - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 1:48 pm: It speaks volumes to me that the voters of our great state entrusted the financial side of state business to two Republicans. Yes, I know neither JBT or Dan sign or veto legislation, but they can keep budgets and borrowing in check. Dan is about as honest and forthright as they come. I have no doubt he will keep moving up the political ladder unless we have another Republican scandal/albatross such as George Ryan or George Bush. - Team Sleep - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 1:51 pm: I think another purpose of the satellite offices was to provide a local “service” to county officials needing to work with the Treasurer’s office. But, as other people mentioned, I don’t know how well-advertised these offices were. - Chris - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 1:54 pm: Channel 7 is reporting income tax hike down to 4.7% - Lefty Lefty - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 1:56 pm: As a skeptical left-winger who’s not that old, I honestly thought there was a snowball’s chance in Hades that we’d have comprehensive health care reform and death penalty reform in my lifetime. Step by step, things get better sometimes. Now, if our leaders would just get finished raising our taxes and capping spending, we could move on to the next topic…. - Bill F. - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:00 pm: Team Sleep - I think you’re way overthinking the elections of Rutherford and Topinka. - Montrose - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:12 pm: And the tax increase bill is out of committee on a party line vote. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:14 pm: Pretty sure the ABC7 report is wrong. - Chris - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:19 pm: Any moderates on the committee? Any way left to stop this thing? - Honest Abe - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:19 pm: As a lifelong resident of Illinois, I cannot think of a single occasion when I needed to contact an employee of the State Treasurer in person. The Cash Dash program can easily be accessed online if you are looking for lost assets. Rutherford may have saved a small amount of money, but eliminating any form of waste is an accomplishment in Illinois. - Bill F. - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:20 pm: Classic Rickey Hendon. - Bill - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:20 pm: == Any way left to stop this thing?== No. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:22 pm: –It speaks volumes to me that the voters of our great state entrusted the financial side of state business to two Republicans. Yes, I know neither JBT or Dan sign or veto legislation, but they can keep budgets and borrowing in check.– Really? They can’t do anything on budgets, except their own. They can hold up short-term borrowing, but I seriously doubt they ever would. I don’t think anyone in those offices ever has. But, by that logic, if you believe their elections speak volumes for their minor roles in the process, does it also speak volumes that the people elected Democrats for the real heavy-lifting when it comes to taxation, budgeting and all other policy? As an aside, it’s a very common phrase, but what the heck does the construct “speaks volumes” mean? That’s not a knock on you Sleep, I use it all the time. It’s just one of those goofy English phrases that has an accepted meaning that doesn’t hold up to its deconstruction. - Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:24 pm: Like him or not, Hendon is doing a great job on the death penalty bill. - yikes - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:26 pm: I thought Dillard’s comments on the death penalty were interesting (from the inauguration clip). I hope the Governor keeps his position and waits to see how the reforms are working, and thus, vetoes the bill. If something happened to someone in my family in the heinous fashion we have seen in other cases, I would want to know there is a death penalty waiting out there. I still believe it is a deterrence to crime. I bet most of Illinois agrees (not commenters here). - drew - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:39 pm: Anybody know what’s going on with the House and Senate video feeds? Seems like they’ve been down a while… - amalia - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:48 pm: @yikes, I agree. here’s how they could do it….keep the death penalty for law enforcement officers, multiple murders, knock out felony murder. It’s an option to ask for the death penalty, not a requirement. Notice that Bob Berlin made the decision not to seek death in a case. happens more than the antis would have us believe. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:53 pm: The Channel 7 story did, indeed, contain a mistake. No change in the tax plan. Stuff happens. - Steve Brown - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:54 pm: When do you think we can get CapitolFax, the media generally and the biz lobbos to report the corporate replacement tax is just that a tax that replaces a personal property tax. It is not an income tax, many other states levels a similiar tax AND ALL THE MONEY GOES TO LOCAL GOVT. Other than that the reporting is spot on. - Secret Square - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:57 pm: Death penalty abolition passed Senate 32-23-2. Whoops, somebody just filed a motion to reconsider, but sponsor moved to table it. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:57 pm: ===It is not an income tax=== It is, however, a tax on income. - Secret Square - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 2:58 pm: Senate now going to Executive Committee. To clarify my last comment, the motion to table was sustained. Death penalty abolition passed the Senate. - The Captain - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 3:09 pm: Dan Rutherford may have kept a campaign promise but he just cost the state money and he knows it. The Treasurer’s office has to have regional employees throughout the state for the business it serves. When these people work from home they get mileage reimbursement for every trip they make. When they have a regional office they are assigned to they only get paid mileage for trips over a certain distance from the office. Every single one of those satellite offices were provided to the Treasurer’s office rent free. So now they are going to pay out roughly $3,000 - $4,000 per regional employee per year in travel expenses by closing these offices. The cost of running those offices was about $200-$300/mo in phone bills and such. “Low hanging fruit” is expensive. - Helm - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 3:13 pm: Anyone know if the Tenaska bill is still alive and/or anywhere in mix ?? - Robert - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 3:21 pm: @The Captain - but who provided the satellite office rent-free? assuming it was another area of govt., then freeing up office space still counts as a savings to govt. overall. - dupage dan - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 3:27 pm: Hmmmmmm, =So now they are going to pay out roughly $3,000 - $4,000 per regional employee per year in travel expenses by closing these offices. The cost of running those offices was about $200-$300/mo in phone bills and such= Let’s see now, mileage costs will be 3-4 K per year and each office will cost $2-300 per month in ph bills. Which totals up to about 3K per year. Big savings/loss? A wash. Low hanging outrage on your part. - dupage dan - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 3:29 pm: BTW, I’m with “Anonymous @1:42pm” on this. What regional or local business does the Treasurers office perform, anyway? - amalia - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 3:32 pm: 32-25-2 Kowtowski Present, really? - The Captain - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 3:33 pm: Robert, they were vacant. And that was a typo, those phone costs weren’t per month, they were per year. My fault. - S - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 3:35 pm: Rutherford did the right thing. Those offices served little (if any) practical purpose and were primarily advertising vehicles for the predecessor. Closing these offices clearly saves the state money through reduced overhead and salary (after releasing at least one staffer) in the Treasurer’s office, not to mention additional savings from state offices currently renting space that may now use those facilities rent-free. Well done, Treasurer, for implementing a campaign promise so swiftly upon taking office. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 3:46 pm: –I would want to know there is a death penalty waiting out there. I still believe it is a deterrence to crime. I bet most of Illinois agrees (not commenters here). – In 1974, Chicago hit its peak of annual murders with 970. The death penalty was in effect. In 2010, Chicago had 435 murders, its lowest total since 1965, and the death penalty moratorium had been in effect for 10 years. Does that mean the absence of a death penalty is deterring murder? Do you think murderers sit around weighing the pros-and-cons of their actions? You might need to “know it’s out there” for some reason, but the fact that it was didn’t stop the record numbers of murders in 1974. The fact that it wasn’t didn’t keep the city from recording the lowest numbers of murder in 45 years. Maybe some other dynamics come into play. Let’s not forget the folks who were cleared from Death Row before the moratorium because of later DNA evidence and prosecutorial misconduct. The state came within 48 hours, in one case, of executing an innocent man. What would that have deterred, other than morality and justice? - amalia - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 3:53 pm: we could make similar arguments about numbers of other crimes, say sexual assaults, that crimes increased or decreased because of or in spite of the penalty. bottom line is, what is justice? too many people think that those who support the death penalty think just of revenge or just of deterrence. Instead, think of justice. and I trust prosecutors to determine justice. Bob Berlin just decided not to seek death in a case. but he had the choice. I want prosecutors to have the choice in a case. If the case in Connecticut happens in Illinois, as a citizen I would want justice that included the death sentence that the jury in Connecticut imposed on the first of the two defendants. LIke with Gacy, sometimes it’s just the right thing. - Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 3:55 pm: Wordslinger, I also support the death penalty, but I don’t want to see innocent people executed. For me, crimes of the most heinous order can’t be punished enough. - Bill - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 4:03 pm: ==and I trust prosecutors to determine justice.== That’s a big mistake. - Bill F. - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 4:07 pm: Bill, you beat me to that remark. - amalia - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 4:08 pm: yep, I do trust prosecutors. I think Anita Alvarez and Bob Berlin are awesome. Anita’s office reflects her and Bob’s office will reflect him. kudos to DuPage County for picking Bob for the job. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 4:18 pm: – Instead, think of justice. and I trust prosecutors to determine justice. – Wow. Amalia, you go right ahead then. I think I’ll remain here in the United States in 2011. Feel free, as well, to bring up Gacy every time as the standard, while ignoring the facts about the innocent folks who almost got cooked. By the way, Dillard’s remarks on this issue in today’s video were very reasoned and statesmanlike. It’s a shame he didn’t get out of the primary. I suspect there are a lot of Quinn voters like me who would have voted for him. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 4:25 pm: –yep, I do trust prosecutors. I think Anita Alvarez and Bob Berlin are awesome– That’s swell, I’m sure they’re dreamy. But forgive some of us if we’d like to keep legislatures, judges and defense counsel in the mix as well. Amalia, I’ve been under the impression that you’re an attorney. Is that correct? - Lefty Lefty - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 4:25 pm: Thou shalt not kill* *(except when 12 of thou are angry enough to say it’s OK) - Secret Square - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 4:39 pm: “In 1974, Chicago hit its peak of annual murders with 970. The death penalty was in effect.” Technically it was in effect. However, at that time, Illinois had not executed anyone since the early 1960s, and there was a sort of informal nationwide “moratorium” on executions due to recent SCOTUS decisions that raised the question of whether or not death could be considered unconstitutional “cruel and unusual punishment”. SCOTUS finally ruled in favor of the death penalty in 1976 and it was shortly after that, that executions resumed (initially with defendants who wanted to die and had refused all appeals). Also if I remember correctly, the early to mid ’70s were the era when judges would hand down sentences of 100 or 200 years or more for the most heinous murders, on the grounds that this would keep the perps behind bars for the longest time possible before they could become eligible for parole. They didn’t hand out death sentences very often, if at all, during that time because no one knew for sure if SCOTUS would even allow states to keep the death penalty much longer. So I don’t know whether the death penalty really served as a practical deterrent at that time. It probably did not make a whole lot of difference then, and it probably doesn’t now. My guess is that the high murder rate at that time probably had more to do with the Baby Boom generation being at the peak of their crime-prone years (late teens to mid-20s) than anything else. - Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 4:40 pm: I trust prosecutors. Unfortunately, they are people like the rest of us. I am also aware that they have ambitions and need to look tough on crime to move up the professional ladder. It also looks bad to admit you are wrong; so, I understand that some prosecutors will fight to retain a conviction and continue to stand behind a conviction even after it is shown to be wrong. We are all human, even prosecutors. Because we are human, and because the death penalty cannot be revoked, it needs to be gone. - Publius - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 4:45 pm: What time tomorrow does the new House and Senate get sworn in? This will give us a timeline for when they have to have all of this done - phocion - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 4:46 pm: Wow. This lame duck session has some truly stellar achievements on the progressive social front. Civil unions and death penalty have been festering civil rights issues for too long. Good to see that they have finally been addressed. - Bigtwich - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 4:47 pm: Last I looked the homicide rare in Texas, a noted death penalty state, was about the same as in Illinois where there has not been an execution in this century. You may chose to believe the theoretical existence of the death penalty continued to act as a deterrent. I rather think the homicide rate relates to the age of the population and we are not getting any younger. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 5:01 pm: Secret Square, below is a link to a helpful chronological rundown on the death penalty in Illinois since the U.S. Supremes got involved. By the way, in choosing your handle, who was your inspiration? Underdog Wally Cox, Marlon Brando’s old North Shore buddy? Charley Wheeler, the gran-paterfamilias of the Hollywood Arquette clan (not the Sun-Times and PAR dude)? http://truthinjustice.org/dphistory-IL.htm - Wensicia - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 5:08 pm: I hope Quinn signs the abolition of the death penalty. I also hope recent events in Arizona don’t sway him towards the veto side. - huh? - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 5:42 pm: Great Job Senator Kwame Raoul!! A difficult issue that you took on and succeeded!! - Secret Square - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 6:02 pm: Actually, it was no particular character, just the fact that I like classic Hollywood Squares and 70s game shows in general. Reminds me of the good old days before the talking/shouting/chair-throwing heads took over daytime TV. (BTW, Cliff Arquette’s stage name was Charley WEAVER.) - amalia - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 6:04 pm: @wordslinger, you’ve been a tad nasty to me on this site of late so I’m surprised you would care to ask anything about me personally. for example, of course legislatures, defense counsel and judges are in the mix on the discussion about the death penalty. but did Bob Berlin have to consult all of them to make the decision not to ask for death the other day? Prosecutors make decisions all the time. but it appears that there is a lack of respect for authority that they have on all kinds of cases. they make decisions all the time, decisions on how to proceed with cases. They are not the demons. The demons are the people who hurt other people. Unless, of course, people want to change our entire criminal justice system and let the legislature in on Municipal Court and decisions on everyday issues, for example. - TimB - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 6:14 pm: Cigarette tax 51-66 (?). Placed on postponed consideration. - crcostel - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 6:16 pm: What do you think of the cigarette tax being voted down? Will it come back? Does this affect increased spending on education? - Bill - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 6:20 pm: Jay Levine reports that the tax increase bill went down. Being the lightwieght that he is he didn’t give the vote and only said that the black caucus was holding out. Back to you Bill and Walter. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 6:33 pm: –Instead, think of justice. and I trust prosecutors to determine justice. Amalia, that’s what you said, and that’s what I disagree with. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 6:40 pm: Just Wondering Why they Closed the Collinsville Office Was Jay Hoffman on available to Hold one of “His Famous ” Press Conference’s ??? Has anyone seen Kyle “Eddie” Anderson since his Defeat as the Short serving Madison County recorder ???? - amalia - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 7:39 pm: @ wordslinger, ok,understand that my shorthand may be confusing. I trust that prosecutors make the decision to seek the death penalty and in that I trust that they determine justice. - anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 9:24 pm: For everybody’s information, the satellite offices were NOT vacant prior to the move-in of Treasurer Giannoulias’ staff. Some offices were being occupied and were then cleared out for the Treasurer’s stafff due to political pressure. That’s the truth that you won’t hear, not to mention, that the political appointees in some of those offices like Rock Island and Rockford were filled by relatives of high ranking Democrat politicians and appointees. - ez does it - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 9:32 pm: That’s a lie and you know it, you anonymous coward. Hiring relatives does not happen anymore. - STO wife - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 9:42 pm: Whoa ez does it, there is some truth to this. I personally know both people that are being mentioned in this, and I can verify that yes, they were hired for political reasons. And as an insider to this sideshow circus, those two staffers don’t know jack about their jobs. Their sole reason for being hired was to conduct political work, as opposed to real state government work. Hello? Is anybody home? This is what we’ve been saying during the campaign about the satellite offices. Maybe this is the first time you heard about it, but in the former Treasurer’s circle, it was common knowledge. Let me clarify one more thing…STO wife means State Treasurer’s Office wife honey, I heard it all from my hubby. - BOB - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 9:49 pm: Its a sad day in Illinois. There is no deterrent to serious crime. The house and senate decide the Death penalty is a bad idea. What about the shooter in Arizona. NO! let pass some more gun restrictions on the law abiding citizens. GIVE CRIMINALS A BREAK. Gun laws only effect the law abiding citizen. Look at convictions in the state if a criminal is convicted of a gun crime the time runs together with his other crimes. The death penalty works! - anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 9:57 pm: Look, here’s the deal, there’s something rotten in Rock Island, Rockford, and Riverdale. The three staffers that were assigned to those satellite offices, got away with the most blatant activities that anyone could imagine. I’m talking about ethics violations, disrespectful behavior, and doing political work on taxpayer time. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. They should be run up the flag pole and exposed. I hope the new administration will not turn a blind eye to THE THREE STOOGES that are still on the payroll. - What good do they do? - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 11:39 pm: For those that think closing the satelite offices doesn’t assist much, i ask you this… do you know what is done at those offices - what services can they assist with? The state treasurer’s work is performed out of Springfield. these were opened because Alexi knew he’d be running fo a bigger office someday and it’s name recognition. The Colinsville office opened up just months prior to the general election. - state worker - Tuesday, Jan 11, 11 @ 11:53 pm: dupage dan and captain..can i explain mileage reimbursement to you? If these satelite employees have been assigned to springfield or chicago offices (the only that appear to remain open) then they would only get mileage if that exceeds their normal commute. So, if you normally drive from Effingham to Springfield for work - to get mileage, you would need to travel more than that distance from your HOR. Chances are - there is no way $3-4K of expenses will be used for this purpose. If you can explain how - after i have explained this to you - please feel free to do so Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.