* Jim Tobin of the National Taxpayers United Illinois apparently despises Abraham Lincoln with a passion. And since Lincoln’s birthday is coming up, Tobin has been sending out tirades against the former President. Here’s some of Part 2, which was sent out today…
Lincoln’s real priority was not the slaves but the collection of revenue. He knew that a low-tax independent South would attract far more European trade to its relatively duty free ports like Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans, and that goods could easily be smuggled from there across the long border the U.S. would share with the Confederacy. Lincoln’s mercantilist plans would be foiled, and Lincoln was a true mercantilist. He believed in increasing a nation’s wealth by government regulation of all of the nation’s commercial interests. […]
Rather than wish Lincoln a Happy Birthday, perhaps we can celebrate the birth of William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773). Having died only a month into his first term as President, Harrison did not live long enough to do nearly as much damage as Lincoln.
Look, Lincoln was no saint or demigod. But to flat-out say that he fought a spectacularly bloody civil war to preserve tax receipts is so far beyond the pale that the pale can’t be seen.
Was Lincoln a great emancipator? Lincoln’s words in the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation tell
us his goal. Slaves were freed only in “States and parts of States…in rebellion against the United
States…”
Anybody with half a brain knows that Lincoln could not legally, on his own, free the slaves in states which weren’t in rebellion. To do that required a constitutional amendment, which was subsequently passed.
Tobin gets a lot of local media coverage for his frequent anti-tax crusades throughout the state. Maybe now some reporters and editors will see what the guy is really like. I mean, that crack about Harrison is truly appalling.
* Rahm goes for the gold with a new TV ad featuring President Obama. Rate it…
* Transcript…
President Obama: We could not have accomplished what we’ve accomplished without Rahm’s leadership.
His advice has always been candid, his opinions have always been insightful, his commitment to his job has always been heartfelt, borne of a passionate desire to move this country forward and lift up the lives of the middle class and people who are struggling to get there.
We are all very excited for Rahm as he takes on a new challenge for which he is extraordinarily well qualified.
Public employee union leaders who took offense at Rahm Emanuel‘s new campaign commercial are hoping to air a rebuttal, but they may be having trouble raising the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to buy time on broadcast channels.
…Adding More… The Chico campaign responds to the ABC7 poll showing a huge lead for Emanuel…
That ABC poll does not jive with every other campaign’s internal polls which we all disclosed has Gery in the 20s and Rahm in 40s. Our own poll taken just days earlier has Rahm at 46 overall, Gery at 23 and Braun and Del Valle at 7. Also, In our poll we were clearly in first with Latino voters. . .so there is just no way that Emanuel is in first with this voting block with not one but two credible Latino candidates. . .one who has the support of Luis Gutierrez!
* Meanwhile, House Speaker Michael Madigan gave a brief interview to an Illinois Statehouse News reporter late this morning. Worth a watch…
* Sen. Ed Maloney has introduced legislation requiring homeschooling parents to register their kids with the Illinois State Board of Education. The Right is not amused…
“There are virtually no regulations on homeschools. No curriculum, no periodic checks on their progress. Regional superintendents tell me they have no way of knowing whether a home-taught student is truant or not,” he said. “We want more accountability.” […]
“He says he wants to just register us, then says we don’t have curriculum requirements,” the mother of four said. “Some of our curriculum is religious. Should a public school system be able to accept or reject that?” […]
Homeschooling parents are passionate about their freedoms and responsibilities toward their children’s education. They are committed to the task and ask only to be left alone, nothing more. And all the time they are paying property taxes to subsidize government schools. […]
Homeschooling parents are required to obey Illinois’ compulsory school attendance law that says every Illinois child ages 7 through 17 must attend a school that teaches the branches of education comparable to those taught in the public school system. The law also says those subjects must be taught in the English language.
* The Question: Do you think homeschooled kids should have to register with the state to make sure basic education standards are being met? Explain.
Mayoral hopeful Rahm Emanuel addressed the subject of the “missing” tape with some of the same language he has used for months to describe his conversations with Rod Blagojevich.
He hearkened back to a two-year-old report by then-President-elect Obama’s transition team that concluded there were “about four” conversations between Emanuel and Blagojevich Chief-of-Staff John Harris, but “nothing inappropriate or any deal-making.”
“It also noted that I was asked at the time by the President’s transition (team) to provide a list of four names for the U.S. Senate: Tammy Duckworth, Jan Schakowsky, Dan Hynes and Congressman Jesse Jackson [Jr.],” Emanuel recalled, noting that there was a separate conversation about Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
Trial testimony indicated that Blagojevich and his team considered this list a “BS list.”
“I provided that list. Then, there was a question — The governor’s representative said, `What’s in it for us.’ And I responded, `You’ll get thanks and appreciation‚ [but nothing more]. You also know how the [former] governor responded to the word, `appreciation.’ That’s been detailed over two years ago in the report.”
Rod Blagojevich’s lawyers say there may be a “missing tape” of Emanuel talking to a top Blagojevich aide the day before Blagojevich’s arrest. How about just saying if he talked to the guy or not and what was said, if there was such a conversation? No. Instead, a long soliloquy about nothing.
Speaking at Threadless, the successful and popular West Side T-shirt company, Emanuel said he would initiate changes to Mayor Richard Daley’s final budget to realize $75 million worth of savings.
“I will order a government-wide spending freeze and to ask every department head to review all operations and produce a plan for their dept within 60 days to cut city spending by at least $75 million,” said Emanuel.
But the city’s budget deficit is expected to range between $500 and $600 million. Emanuel offered few specific details, instead pointing to ideas illustrated on his website, on how he would manage that.
That’s it? That’s the big budget speech chock full of details that his aides have been promising for weeks? Seriously?
The Sun-Times tried to gently prod Emanuel today to offer up some specifics. I wouldn’t bet on it ever happening…
Rahm Emanuel walked to the edge of a cliff on Tuesday but refused to jump.
That won’t do.
…Adding… Emanuel’s campaign points to his website, which includes this graph…
A Tribune/WGN poll conducted Jan. 15-19 showed city taxpayers prefer service cuts to tax hikes. And in the wake of a despised parking-meter lease, they strongly oppose selling off more city assets that could raise billions in the short term.
No response percentages, not explanation of the questions asked, nothing. They provide a bit more detail later in the piece…
Nearly half of likely Chicago voters favor city service cuts over higher taxes and fees, according to the recent Tribune poll. Less than 1 in 3 want higher taxes and fees, the poll found.
So, less than half want service cuts and fewer than a third want tax hikes. Sounds like they want neither.
Taste of Chicago can reverse huge losses without charging an admission fee — and even turn a profit — by focusing exclusively on food, Mayor Daley said Tuesday.
“What we’re trying to do is make the Taste of Chicago get back to … the Taste of Chicago — not all the other things around it. We’re trying to get it back to what it was originally. It’s a Taste of Chicago. That’s what we’re trying to rebuild without costing you or taxpayers more money,” Daley said.
“Originally, we never had an admission fee. … The cost [escalated]. All the musicials got so costly that they put money into the musicals forgetting it’s Taste of Chicago. It’s not a music fest.”
Pressed on whether the Taste would be food alone, without any music, Daley said, “Yes. That’s what you do because it was always free. It will always be free.”
1. Taste of Chicago is not, in fact, free; one must purchase not inexpensive tickets if one is going to do anything other than smell the food (or, in the past, listen to the music).
2. Taste of Chicago has not always been about food—in fact, with its start as Chicagofest, it primarily was a music festival, and the music has been at least as important a part of the festivities as the food for the last 25 years.
* ‘Chicago Code’ is silent with debut ratings: “The Chicago Code” was beaten by “Two and a Half Men” (15.13 million viewers) and “The Bachelor” (9.97 million), although it bested “The Cape” (4.56 million) and “Gossip Girl” (1.63 million).
* Rumsfeld wanted Iraq to do things the ‘Chicago way’: “In parts of Chicago where officials threatened the mayor’s authority, potholes were left untended and other services were neglected,” the Winnetka native writes. “In areas where local officials cooperated with the mayor, Daley brought the services of the city government to bear and was generous in his patronage. “My point was that instead of giving Karzai the freedom to throw around the weight of the U.S. military, he should learn to use patronage … to get the local Afghan warlords, governors, and cabinet officials in line.”
* How (and why) those Rogers Park high schoolers made their anti-Rahm/pro-Miguel video
* New jury rule in Blago trial: In the filing, Zagel cited “incidents occurring after jurors names were released” and so he has ordered in the next trial that the names of anonymous jurors will be “publicly released eight hours after the verdict is returned.”
* City overstates furlough savings, inspector general says - Officials failed to account for shortfall in pension contributions from its employees: Under the agreement, city workers were not required to make more than $11 million in pension contributions for the furlough days even though they continued to accrue benefits. The city, meanwhile, gave itself a pass on another $13.5 million in payments for its share of pension contributions for the furlough days, according to the report. That means city pension funds were shortchanged more than $24 million over the three-year period, at a time when the pension funds had reached historic shortfalls that threaten the retirement security of thousands of police officers, firefighters, teachers and other municipal employees.
* ComEd’s legislative proposal to raise rates ostensibly to pay for its $2.6 billion grid modernization program is not receiving rave reviews from CUB…
The rate hikes, which would take effect in 2011, would guarantee double-digit profit margins for ComEd during the next decade, enabling the company to overhaul existing cable, replace 130,000 poles per year and upgrade substations with digital micro-processor relays, among other things.
But the state’s top utility watchdog said the legislation would effectively do an end run around the Illinois Commerce Commission, which has had the traditional task of signing off on utility rate hikes.
“Under the guise of saying they want to modernize the grid, which could be a good thing if done right, what they’re really proposing to do is gut the regulatory system that’s been in place about 100 years and replace it with one that’s got far less oversight of rates and lead to rate increases year after year,” said David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board.
And Speaker Madigan wasn’t sure whether the plan will survive…
House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), who traditionally has not been a staunch legislative ally of the powerful Chicago-based utility, told reporters the company’s package would be considered by the Legislature but he wouldn’t predict its outcome.
“I know that they are not happy with the response that they’ve been getting out of the Commerce Commission. And so they want to go to the Legislature and try and get a section in the statute that would give them more of a guarantee that they will be reimbursed for improvements to the power lines,” the speaker said.
Keep in mind that ComEd’s parent company Exelon fought hard against a “clean coal” electricity plant in Taylorville because it said the rate increase would kill thousands of jobs. But this new ComEd plan is supposed to raise rates and create jobs.
A clean-coal gasification plant slated for Southern Illinois could be reduced to coal dust if Gov. Pat Quinn fails to sign off on the project by March 14.
Proponents are urging Quinn to OK the measure, which is predicted to create 1,500 construction jobs and 700 permanent positions in the coal industry. But a consumer advocacy group Quinn founded years ago while working as a consumer rights crusader is running strong opposition to the bill, claiming that Illinois citizens will pay for the jobs with higher heating bills.
“We’re looking at a ticking time bomb for gas bills,” said David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, the group asking Quinn to place an amendatory veto on the legislation — a move that would kill the bill, sending a message to the Legislature that clean coal’s cost burden cannot fall on consumers.
* Other, somewhat random stuff…
* Rich Take From Poor as U.S. Subsidy Law Funds Luxury Hotels: The landmark Blackstone Hotel in downtown Chicago, which has hosted 12 U.S. presidents, opened in 2008 after a two-year, $116 million renovation. Inside the Beaux Arts structure, built in 1910, buffed marble staircases greet guests spending up to $699 a night for rooms with views of Lake Michigan. What’s surprising isn’t the opulent makeover: It’s how the project was financed. The work was subsidized by a federal development program intended to help poor communities.
* UI’s financial status better, but cuts still possible
* Back in 2007, Illinois State Trooper Matt Mitchell slammed into an oncoming car while Mitchell was driving 126 miles per hour. He pled guilty to reckless homicide and resigned, but he has since filed a workers’ compensation claim for crash-related injuries.
The Belleville News-Democrat has uncovered evidence that suggested a state workers’ compensation arbitrator worked with Mitchell’s lawyer to hold the workers’ comp hearing in secret. And an assistant attorney general was also allegedly in on the scam…
A state workers’ compensation arbitrator who will decide whether former Illinois State Trooper Matt Mitchell should be compensated for his injuries wanted to keep the public hearing secret, according to e-mails between the arbitrator, Mitchell’s lawyer and an assistant attorney general, who represents taxpayers.
“We are going to do it on the sly with no press,” wrote Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission arbitrator Jennifer Teague in an e-mail to her court reporter. Thousands of Teague’s e-mails were obtained by the Belleville News-Democrat under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.
Ann Spillane, chief of staff for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, said, “It is completely unacceptable for there to be any discussion to minimize press coverage or to thwart the public’s effort to attend a public hearing.” […]
“There is nothing I can do to keep them (News-Democrat reporters) out of a public hearing, but will be more than willing to do a special setting and an unknown place and time!” Teague wrote to Mitchell’s lawyer, Kerry O’Sullivan, on Oct. 18.
Teague is one of 8 of the state’s 32 workers’ compensation arbitrators who have filed workers’ comp claims. The attorney general’s office has referred the matter regarding the assistant attorney general to its ethics officer.
“I need you to get some dates together for me (when) you are available in December to report the Mitchell trial in Collinsville. We are going to try and do it on the sly with no press.”
From Teague to O’Sullivan at 2:09 p.m. on Nov. 8:
“Hey, on a side note, my schedule is filling, and I’d like to get the Mitchell thing on the books as quietly as possible. Your thoughts?”
I think we’ve reached the point where somebody needs to either name a special prosecutor or invite in the FBI to look at this Workers’ Comp Commission mess.
* The SJ-R editorial board is growing weary with Republicans over the debate on the governor’s proposed borrowing bill, which would be used to pay off past-due state debt. The bill requires a three-fifths majority in both chambers, so GOP votes are necessary to pass it. So far, the Republicans have just talked in generalities about what they want in trade, and the SJ-R is right to be impatiently tapping its foot…
We’d also be more supportive of Republican opposition if we could tie it to a specific demand. But we’re getting various signals from the Republican camp, from a call to address the “structural deficit” to a demand for reform of the state’s workers’ compensation system to more budget cuts.
The Medicaid and pension reforms passed in the last session were major steps toward fixing the structural deficit. From where we stand, those measures appear to be just the start. If there are specific budget cuts to make, let’s hear them.
We are on record as favoring workers’ comp reform, and we believe the exposure of an outrageous tally of workers’ comp payouts for repetitive stress injuries at Menard Correctional Center — uncovered in a series of stories by the Belleville News-Democrat — makes such a movement inevitable.
But we don’t think this is the bill to hold hostage for nebulous demands for spending cuts or a workers’ comp concession. Illinois’ expensive and confounding workers’ compensation system may be a hardship for business in Illinois, but so is waiting months for payment from the state.
If Republicans want economic stimulus for Illinois, they should pay the businesses, schools, hospitals and others that have been waiting patiently for their money for months. Leave the debt-holding to the professionals.
If the GOP wants budget cuts, let’s see ‘em. If they want workers comp reform - and aren’t actually hiding behind a generic call for reform while privately fretting what the reforms would do to their allies at the Illinois State Medical Society - then let’s see ‘em. That three-fifths requirement for passing the borrowing bill puts the GOP at the table as a full partner. It’s time they started playing some cards.
* By the way, the governor’s budget office has done the math for how long it would take to get the state’s payment cycle down to 60 days without the borrowing bill: Ten years…
“If the policy decision were made just on the math, the policy decision were made that rather than borrow $8.75 billion, the idea was to take the tax increase revenue and pay down this backlog of bills, whether it’s 12 months or 18 months … couldn’t that be done?” [Sen. Matt Murphy] asked.
Not without “decimating” state government, Weems said. But he conceded that it was possible if one were just looking at the raw numbers. To maintain state services like education and health care, and pay down the backlog, it would take about 10 years, according to [Malcolm Weems, associate director of Gov. Pat Quinn’s Office of Management and Budget].
He said that paying off vendors quickly helps the state get the best deals it can from its contractors.
“What we’re finding is we have vendors that choose to cancel contracts, and they want to re-bid them because they are going to ask for a higher rate,” Weems said. “We have some vendors that don’t want to participate, and they don’t want to answer any of our solicitations at all. They don’t want to enter into a new contract with the state. We’ve had some bigger vendors who have tried to get us to agree in the contract to pay in advance.”
Again, if the Republicans want to be honest brokers, they’ll offer up some actual plans. If they just want to score points, well, they’ll continue doing what they have been doing, which is nothing.
* However, it would also help if the governor’s office would start being upfront with the General Assembly about what’s really going on with the current fiscal year’s budget. The state’s budget director failed to show up for an important committee hearing yesterday, so one of his assistants was drawn and quartered for effect. But he also dug his own holes…
When asked whether funding for human services could be cut during the last four months of the current budget year, Weems responded: “There has been no decision on any of that.”
Would Quinn propose human service cuts for the upcoming budget? “There is a wide array of different scenarios we are discussing,” he replied.
Could the governor back up his claim of cutting spending by $3 billion in past years? “I can give you some examples of cuts,” Weems said, offering about $250 million worth.
1) There have most certainly been discussions of cuts to Human Services’ budget. Period.
2) Budget cutting scenarios? Really? That’s not what the department directors are saying. And if they are doing scenarios, aren’t those “discussions”? If so, see point 1.
3) Don’t tout $3 billion in cuts if you can only tally $250 million.
House Speaker Michael Madigan hinted Tuesday that more changes are possible to state employee pension and retiree health benefits — including the constitutionally sticky possibility that future retirement benefits for existing employees could be reduced.
On their first full day back since a blizzard canceled last week’s legislative session, members of the Illinois House spent more than an hour bickering over changes in the chamber’s rules. As that debate ended, Madigan, D-Chicago, gave a rare speech ticking off the politically poisonous choices House members will have to make in “the next three to four to five months.”
Those choices could include reducing future pension benefits for state employees, he said.
“We’re all familiar with the inadequate funding of the state pension systems,” Madigan said. “Again, tough decision-making, telling people you’re not going to get everything you thought you were going to get, telling people you may have to pay in more. Not easy stuff. So we all better get ready for it.”
“You’ve already changed it going forward,” Madigan said of the pension changes for new hires. “But now we are working on bills that would change it midstream. A state worker would be told, ‘All right, you have a state benefit package up to today. Starting tomorrow, it’s going to be a different deal.’”
Afterwards, Madigan spokesman Steve Brown cautioned not to portray his boss as “an advocate” for such an approach but that he is merely saying there “is going to be a discussion, and we’ll see where that discussion takes us.”
Brown would not divulge details of any legislative package the speaker may be considering.
Reality or more posturing? It’s posturing until we see an actual bill.
* Meanwhile, watching the Cook County budget fight play out reminds me of how budget cuts often play out in Springfield. First, somebody in the upper levels releases a doomsday plan that cuts vital services and doesn’t touch non-essentials. State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez is playing a very old tune…
“A 10 percent reduction for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office cuts deeply — deeply — into vital services that the people of this county cannot do without,” Alvarez told county commissioners during the start of the budget hearing.
Court reporters who record grand jury proceedings, victim-witness “specialists” who aid and help crime victims navigate the justice system and 58 assistant state’s attorney’s would be shown the door, she said. […]
Preckwinkle said her staff offered suggestions on cuts, including support staff, but never directed her to cut assistant state’s attorneys.
“She has chosen to propose cuts that involve significant layoffs of lawyers — that’s not the only way in which she could reach her goal of 10 percent,” Preckwinkle said.
* Related…
* Both parties in state Senate hand out raises: At the same time they were fighting an income tax hike and calling on Democrats to cut the state budget, Republicans in the Illinois Senate handed out raises to top aides and other staffers worth an average of 4.9 percent
* Obama Plans to Rescue States With UI Debt Burdens: President Obama is proposing to ride to the rescue of states that have borrowed billions of dollars from the federal government to continue paying unemployment benefits during the economic downturn. His plan would give the states a two-year breather before automatic tax increases would hit employers, and before states would have to start paying interest on the loans.
* Budget squeeze could make HIV treatment costlier, rarer: Thousands of low-income Illinoisans who have the AIDS virus could find themselves with fewer choices for life-sustaining medicines and more hurdles to get treatment, as the state continues to grapple with an unprecedented budget crunch amid increased demand and high drug prices. Illinois has reduced the number of medications available to patients or has capped how much can be spent on the drugs through a state assistance program. Officials also have added layers to the process of how to sign up for — and stay enrolled in — the state-run AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which pays for medicines for poor and low-income Americans.
* Metro-east lawmaker pushes for pension system audit: “The pension systems keep saying everything is OK. Either they don’t know it’s not OK, or they don’t want us to know what the whole truth is.”
* Economist presents money solutions to Illinois lawmakers
