* The House Elections & Campaign Reform Committee held a hearing today to discuss the blowup this past fall over some county clerks mailing military absentee ballots late.
So, now seems to be a good time to publish an e-mail which was sent by Warren County Clerk Tina Conard in reply to a State Board of Elections e-mail in October notifying county clerks throughout the state that the Department of Justice and the attorney general’s office were investigating the matter and urging them to provide all information that they could.
Unfortunately for Clerk Conard, she hit “reply all,” so it’s been preserved for posterity…
We complied so I’m not too worried. But I would sure like to think that the DOJ has more important things to worry about than whether a soldier gets a ballot or not. But there’s one thing I think needs more attention if they are so hell bent on military getting ballots. GET US THE ADDRESS to send the ballot to!!! We had FVAOs from 2008 that we were told to use. Well in 4 years they could have moved on. Why is it my job to track these soldiers down?
I am sick and tired of catering to voters. Be a responsible adult to know: get us the information we will comply, know when to vote, how to vote and where to vote. Election officials shouldn’t have to have the DOJ or the AG breathing down our necks. If they’ve go that much time on their hands, then get out there and educate the voters.
Um, wow.
“I was probably just angry and venting,” Clerk Conard said when I called her today. “I apologize. I truly believe everybody has the right to vote. I wish every citizen would get out and vote.”
Soldiers, she said, “move so often that we don’t know where to send their ballots to. So I just think that there needs to be a better way to get a correct and current address to us.”
She also added: “I’ve not done one election since 2002 the same way because they keep changing the laws… Every election, it changes.”
The lesson: Take a deep breath and maybe a few moments before hitting the “send” button.
* The Champaign News Gazette’s latest editorial criticizes House Speaker Madigan’s proposed constitutional amendment to cap annual state spending increases to the average level of per capita income increases over the past five years…
Then, there is the matter of how the amendment is drafted. Does it really do what it purports to do?
Not according to the Illinois Policy Institute, a market-oriented political think tank.
Has she been allowed to testify at a Monday hearing, the IPI’s Karen Rasmussen would have pointed out that the amendment, even if passed in fall 2012, would not take effect until 2014, creating a four-year window in which spending could rise significantly.
Further, she said, the amendment would exempt $4 billion in mandated spending on public employee pension programs, creating another hole for more spending. Then, there is a provision allowing the governor, the comptroller, treasurer and state legislators to declare an emergency that would allow them to ignore the amendment’s requirements.
“(The amendment) is more akin to a blank check,” said Rasmussen.
Oh, please. Look, there are some loopholes in this thing. Special funds, for instance, don’t appear to be capped. And Ms. Rasmussen definitely should’ve been allowed to testify. But the editorial is just hokum on many levels.
The reason the effective date is the beginning of Fiscal Year 2014 is because FY14 is the first full fiscal year after the 2012 election, when the proposal would be voted on by the electorate. So, no great conspiracy there. Sheesh.
Pensions aren’t included because, I’m assuming, there’s another constitutional provision requiring the state to fulfill its contractual pension obligations. If you included pensions in the cap, their annual increases could force huge cuts to other programs. This is definitely a debatable point, but I wonder if the paper would agree to cuts in the U of I’s funding in order to make pension payments.
And that work-around provision derided by the IPI and the News-Gazette isn’t really a loophole. The governor declares an emergency. Then, both the comptroller and the treasurer have to agree there is an emergency. Then both chambers of the General Assembly can increase spending above the cap, but only with a three-fifths super-majority in each chamber. That ain’t really a loophole. And it’s certainly no “blank check.”
Had this limit been in place from fiscal years 1997 to 2009, Illinois would have saved a cumulative $29.4 billion over actual general spending.
It would save billions, we’d be almost $2 billion in the black right now if it had been in place, yet this proposal is, according to the IPI, a sham. Yeah. OK. What a crock.
The lesson: The IPI has essentially become an arm of the Illinois House Republican caucus, which has an interest in undermining anything the majority party proposes. Be wary of quoting them.
* A bill seemingly being fast-tracked by the Illinois General Assembly would add a new tax…
Beginning July 1, 2011, a retailer having a contract with a person located in this State under which the person, for a commission or other consideration based upon the sale of tangible personal property by the retailer, directly or indirectly refers potential customers to the retailer by a link on the person’s Internet website.
This is widely known as the Amazon Tax. Supporters include the state’s retail merchants. They claim it will raise $150 million a year in revenues. But the Tax Foundation begs to differ…
Word is that Illinois legislators are considering click-through nexus, also known as an “Amazon tax,” pushed by revenue officials who claim that it would raise $150 million a year in revenue. Such laws, nicknamed after their most visible target, require retailers that have contracts with “affiliates”-independent persons within the state who post a link to an out-of-state business on their website and get a share of revenues from the out-of-state business-to collect the state’s sales tax. They exist in New York, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and Colorado. […]
Illinois’s version is a traditional first-generation “Amazon” tax that targets affiliates. Contrary to the claims of supporters, Amazon taxes do not provide easy revenue. In fact, the nation’s first few Amazon taxes have not produced any revenue at all, and there is some evidence of lost revenue. For instance, Rhode Island has seen no additional sales tax revenue from its Amazon tax, and because Amazon reacted by discontinuing its affiliate program, Rhode Islanders are earning less income and paying less income tax. There’s no reason why Illinois wouldn’t suffer the same fate.
The lesson: Don’t count your chickens, etc.
…Adding… The Better Government Association is throwing an “election watch” party next month. The shindig is being held at the Chicago offices of the Jenner & Block law firm. The firm lobbies the Statehouse for Midwest Gaming & Entertainment, LLC, which owns the Des Plaines casino.
The lesson: There’s nothing wrong with this at all. The firm has a solid reputation. But reformers are often quick to point out these one degree of separation appearances of conflicts of interest, so a quick background check is usually in order.
Wednesday, Jan 5, 2011 - Posted by Capitol Fax Blog Advertising Department
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Governor Pat Quinn [yesterday] announced that Mica Matsoff will join the Governor’s Office as the new director of communications. She will work closely with the Governor and senior-level staff as the Quinn Administration begins a new term of office. […]
As director of communications, Matsoff will be a key advisor to Governor Quinn, planning and overseeing the execution of the administration’s internal and external communications. She will work closely with senior members of the Governor’s staff and cabinet as they develop policies that impact the people of Illinois. […]
Previously Matsoff worked as the director of communications at Quinn for Illinois where she managed all press operations. She also served as the director of public relations for Chicago 2016, Chicago’s Olympic and Paralympic Games bid. She returns to state government after previously working as a spokesperson for the Departments of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) and Employment Security. Prior to that, she spent several years at the public relations firm Edelman.
Matsoff replaces Ashley Cross, who is moving over to Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice as its new chief of staff.
Now that former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun has changed her mind and released her federal income tax returns Tuesday, we not only have a clearer understanding of why she wanted to put it off until after the mayoral election but also what may have motivated her to come out of political retirement in the first place.
Simply put, it looks like she needs a job, and these tax returns aren’t going to help her get one on the 5th Floor of City Hall.
Following in the footsteps of Bill Brady and Alexi Giannoulias, Braun neither paid nor owed any federal income taxes for either 2008 or 2009, her returns show.
* The details are scant, but the numbers ain’t good…
Braun did not release schedules or statements to go along with her 1040 forms, so it is difficult to discern many details about her financial situation.
But her 2008 federal income tax return shows she lost more than $225,000 that year, including more than $200,000 in what she called a “net operating loss,” though the source of the loss was not identified. Braun, a former U.S. Senator, state legislator and county recorder of deeds, claimed no wages in 2009.
The $15,954 she claimed as net income in 2009 appeared to be derived largely from public pensions from her former public positions.
* And the campaign wasn’t providing a whole lot of answers…
Braun aides referred questions about her taxes to attorney Louis Vitullo, a Braun friend and campaign volunteer.
Vitullo said he wasn’t prepared to answer many questions posed by the Chicago Sun-Times — including how Braun was able to borrow money in 2008 in the face of apparent financial distress — but said he would seek answers in the coming days.
“We’re pursuing any questions you have,” Vitullo said.
* I’ve heard that CMB writes some of her own press releases, which could explain the typo…
In her news release, Braun portrayed herself as an everyday Chicagoan fighting to keep her business afloat and took a shot at two of her opponents, former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and former Chicago School Board President Gery Chico.
“The reality is that unlike Mr. Emmanuel [sic] and Mr. Chico, who traded on their government relations for vast riches when they left office, I did not,” Braun said. “My tax returns are one measure of the fight I have waged to keep my business running. It is not unlike what many small business owners and regular Chicago families are going through.”
* Back to Mark Brown for this pithy remark about Braun’s blast at her rivals…
That’s a fair point for her to make, except there is some question in my mind about how much influence on which she had to trade.
Heh.
* This isn’t the first time that Braun has found herself in hot water over her income taxes. Eric Zorn has posted an extensive archive. Go check it out…
October 15, 1992: Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Carol Moseley Braun has refused to release copies of her 1988 income tax return, seven weeks after saying she would do so to prove that she was not paid for work as a lobbyist. Braun had promised to divulge her income sources for 1988 after denying an assertion by her Republican opponent, Richard Williamson, that she did lobbying work while in public office….”I have never lobbied for anybody, and my tax returns will show that I never earned $40,000 a year for any clients outside of” those she listed, Braun told reporters on Sept. 2. She said then that she would provide copies of her tax returns for 1988 and 1989. But Tuesday, Braun said a copy of the 1988 return would not be forthcoming. She previously released copies of what she said were her income tax returns for 1989 through 1991. “You’ve got more of mine than you do of my opponent’s. That’s all you’re going to get,” Braun said. Williamson, however, has released copies of what he said were his returns for 1988 through 1991.(Tribune)
* Meanwhile, Gery Chico’s rhetoric appears sound, but his plan is a bit on the thin side…
Calling City Hall the “number one impediment to job growth,” mayoral challenger Gery Chico unveiled a comprehensive plan Tuesday to “break down the bureaucratic wall” and attract the businesses and jobs Chicago so desperately needs.
The cornerstone of Chico’s plan is the appointment of a deputy mayor for business development and job creation who would preside over a “jobs cabinet” comprised of business, labor and academic leaders.
The deputy mayor would be singularly responsible for developing short- and long-term strategies for creating jobs, restructuring city departments and reducing taxes, fees and paperwork that serve as a disincentive to business. It would start with repeal of the $4-a-month-per-employee head tax despised by business.
“I’ve heard from way too many businesses that have tried to locate or expand in the city. All they tell you is their frustrating stories of having to deal with the maze of costly rules and regulations. In many cases, they simply don’t go forward. That means we lose jobs,” said Chico, whose first city job was in the Department of Planning.
No argument about the city being too much in the face of business, but how about coming up with a quick list of the problematic rules, paperwork, etc. that he wants to get rid of?
* And Carol Marin wondered aloud today about an attorney working for Burt Odelson, who is attempting to kick Rahm Emanuel off the ballot…
Even more interesting, though, was one of the attorneys assisting Odelson. His name is Tom Jaconetty, a $135,000 top aide to recently elected Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios.
Berrios also happens to be the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party.
So should we assume that Berrios and the party are against Emanuel? That might be a good guess, since Berrios believes Emanuel was quietly backing his November opponent, Forrest Claypool. […]
Who is paying Jaconetty’s fee to dump Emanuel? “We haven’t really discussed it,” responded Jaconetty with a smile.
Weird, that. Madigan’s guy Mike Kasper is working for Emanuel and Berrios’ guy is working for Odelson.
* Related…
* No accounting for Braun’s bungling on the issue of her tax returns
* Lone bid for Taste of Chicago not going down well
* Alderman calls for hearings on $20 Taste of Chicago admission fee
* Report questions spending by former school board chiefs
* A group of state’s attorneys and victims’ families held a press conference yesterday to plead with the General Assembly not to abolish the death penalty. A vote could be taken today or tomorrow in the House…
Sheldon Sobol, Grundy County state’s attorney and president of the Illinois State’s Attorneys Association, said that the legislation was rushed through committee and that victims didn’t get a chance to be heard by lawmakers.
“When this bill is taken by the Legislature, they have not heard from the most important people that are impacted by this decision,” said Sobol.
Jamie Boyd, Kankakee County state’s attorney, who also has served on an Illinois Supreme Court committee on capital cases, said legislators have based their decision on saving money as the state faces a budget deficit of at least $13 billion.
“[Let’s] talk about the cost of the 18 murders that don’t occur every time someone is executed because we have the death penalty. Those are costs we’re saving,” said Boyd.
Steve Ferguson, Coles County state’s attorney, said certain heinous crimes “cry out” for the death penalty.
“I’ve had any other number of other murder cases that I’ve tried that I’ve not sought the death penalty,” he said. “They did not cry out for it. There are certain offenses that are just beyond the pale that the death penalty is the right verdict to pursue and the right verdict to render.”
The ban on executions remains in place today, though defendants are still being tried and sentenced to death. With the slow pace of capital cases in the system, just 15 men are awaiting execution in Illinois today, with no certainty about when or whether those sentences will be carried out.
Among them is Daniel Ramsey, who killed two girls in 1996, including the 12-year-old sister of his girlfriend. He shot her as she lay on a couch, begging for her life.
“Does he deserve to live? Not in my opinion,” said the victim’s father, Bill Sloop, 56, of Ferris, Ill. “The only true justice in this case is his death.”
Sloop and his wife, Barb, joined a coalition of state’s attorneys, prosecutors and victims’ families in the state Capitol Tuesday to plead for the General Assembly to slow down. Death-penalty proponents maintain that it’s unclear whether the death penalty creates a financial drain on the state because of the extra time and legal costs involved, as anti-death-penalty activists claim, and that some studies suggest it does in fact deter crime.
State Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, Senate sponsor of the bill, disagreed that the debate had been rushed. “The committees and the studies have been taking place over the last 10 years,” he said.
He also expressed concern about the possibility of wrongful convictions.
“Law enforcement departments and prosecutors’ offices are made up of human beings, and human beings make errors, especially when there’s immense pressure on them to solve a crime,” Raoul said.
“The state shouldn’t be in the business of killing its citizens. I mean they just absolutely, positively should not be doing that,” said Rep. Karen Yarbrough, D-Proviso Township, Ill.
* Keep in mind that nothing is set in stone yet. Here’s the Sun-Times’ take on what’s going on…
Gov. Quinn and the two Democratic legislative leaders honed in on a potential tax-hike deal Tuesday that could raise the state’s share of workers’ paychecks to as much as 5 percent, a 66 percent jump.
Multiple options remained on the table and nothing had been finalized, but Quinn administration sources held out hope a tax-increase pact with House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) could be struck as soon as today.
Among the proposals discussed during two rounds of closed-door meetings between the three Democrats were increasing the individual income tax rate from 3 percent to 5 percent or increasing it by as little as one half of a percentage point. In both cases, the leaders were contemplating making at least part of the increases temporary, sources said.
Publicly, no one in the talks would divulge specifics on a tax plan, though Cullerton late Tuesday characterized both tax-hike scenarios as “pretty accurate.”
The governor also is floating the idea of borrowing approximately $14 billion, to be repaid over 14 years, largely to catch up on a backlog of unpaid bills, fully fund state worker pensions this budget year and help pay the costs for next year, a key lawmaker said. The borrowing would be repaid by raising the income tax rate by a quarter- or half-percentage point, above any other tax hike lawmakers might approve.
But internal polling of Madigan’s House Democrats showed significant support for a temporary 1-percentage-point increase in the state’s 3 percent personal income tax rate, with some arguing the hike would be too small to fix Illinois’ long-term budget imbalance, said a source familiar with the vote-counting effort who was not authorized to speak publicly. […]
One factor that could hurt Democratic support is Quinn’s reluctance to agree to limit state spending at current-year levels or lower. A spending cap has been a condition for some downstate Democrats to back an income tax hike.
It’s not an argument, it’s true. If they don’t make big cuts, a one-point hike ain’t enough.
“It’s political suicide for a lot of people, and we all know that, but the right thing has to be done here,” Lyons said. “Being popular isn’t always right. Being right isn’t always popular. The old cliche is so applicable toward this thing. It’s sad.”
* Meanwhile, House Speaker Michael Madigan advanced his latest constitutional amendment yesterday…
A state constitutional amendment aimed at making it harder to sweeten public employee pensions moved to the floor of the Illinois House Tuesday, but its sponsor, House Speaker Michael Madigan, couldn’t answer key questions about the measure.
If approved by voters, the amendment would require three-fifths votes by legislators to increase pension benefits for employees of state and local governments and school districts. Such changes now take only majority approval.
The bill passed out of the House Personnel and Pensions Committee on a 7-3, party-line vote with all Republicans, including Reps. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield, and Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg, voting “no.”
The two Republicans listed, it should be noted, have a whole lot of state employees in their districts.
Lawmakers last spring and last month approved slimmed-down pension benefits for new teachers, state university employees, state workers, judges, legislators, firefighters and police officers. But Madigan said he’s worked on his proposal for the past two years so the sins of the past aren’t repeated – especially after he’s left the Legislature.
“Certain representatives of those organizations have been telling people in casual conversations ‘We’re just going to wait it out until Madigan’ s out of there, and then we’re going to run bills to repeal all of it.’ That’s their attitude, and that’s what you’re looking at going forward,” he said. “And so this is designed to raise the bar. And simply say, ‘Look we now know, given the fiscal condition of the state pension systems and the local systems, that this is an extraordinary situation. This is not something that should be handled in the ordinary course. There ought to be a high bar to move these bills.”
* State insurance fraud investigators are now looking at Menard Correctional Center, where over half the state prison’s employees have filed workers compensation claims since January 1, 2008. The Belleville News-Democrat broke this astonishing story, and here’s their latest installment…
The investigation by the Illinois Department of Insurance follows news articles in the Belleville News-Democrat, which reported that since Jan. 1, 2008, at least $10 million in awards and payment for medical leave has been made in about 225 settled cases.
A total of 389 guards and other workers have filed more than 500 claims, including about 290 still pending. About 230 of these claimed injury for the underlying cause of “repetitive trauma,” including carpal tunnel syndrome, an injury of the wrist. The prison employs about 760 workers, of which 567 are guards.
Fairview Heights attorney Thomas Rich, whose office has handled a majority of the prison’s compensation claims since 2008, said that a check of his own records showed that an overwhelming proportion of repetitive trauma claims by state workers were approved without opposition.
A cynic might say word got around that the state was handing out free money and everybody jumped in line. It’s just crazy that the attorney general’s office allowed this to happen. But the gravy train appears to be over…
However, Rich said the approval rate has reversed since the legislature held recent hearings on reforming the workers’ compensation law and since the New-Democrat’s articles about repetitive trauma claims from Menard began this month.
“Now that the legislature has gone into session to ostensibly change the workers’ comp law, and now that the articles have appeared in the paper, ” he said, “The people who have been approving 19 out of 20 of these claims are having people look over their work and are now denying all repetitive (state worker) trauma claims … Now all anyone can do is go before a judge (arbitrator) and let it rip.”
* $5.9 million was awarded in settled claims where a prison employee, usually a guard, claimed injury due to repetitive trauma due to working manual locking systems and keys or other repetitive duties.
* $2.2 million was awarded because of accidents like falling and injuries due to overexertion.
* $1.6 million was paid to workers recuperating from injury.
* The paper’s recent editorial also made a good point…
Another factor is the “not our problem” attitude at the Department of Corrections. More than half of a prison’s workers are claiming work-related injuries, and the department’s response is that it doesn’t process the workers’ comp claims. Well, it does supervise these workers. With so many of them claiming work-related injuries, shouldn’t there be a review of working conditions? The spokeswoman said she wasn’t aware of any such plans.
