* A reader forwarded me Cindi Canary’s resignation announcement yesterday…
After long and thoughtful consideration, I have decided to explore new professional opportunities and will step down as director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform in June 2011. It has been extremely difficult for me to make this decision, because of the enormous satisfaction I have had in working with you and so many others in our effort to improve the ethical climate in Illinois government. When Paul Simon asked me to help him establish ICPR in 1997, it was a great honor, and I could not be more proud of this organization’s many achievements.
I am working closely with ICPR’s board of directors and staff to ensure a smooth and successful transition. Over the years, we have developed a very talented and dedicated staff and board, and I feel confident that our operations are healthy and focused. I plan to continue to work with this wonderful organization in some capacity, and I will continue my commitment to government reform issues.
In my time at ICPR, I have built robust relationships with nonprofit, community, foundation and civic leaders whose passion for these important issues is immeasurable. Before my departure, I look forward to personally thanking my friends and colleagues for their vision, leadership, passion and commitment to our work here.
I encourage you to join me in continuing to support ICPR. The organization’s work is more important now than ever.
* From an Illinois State Rifle Association press release…
The ISRA is pleased to announce that it has secured a temporary restraining order against the release of personal information belonging to persons holding Illinois Firearm Owner Identification cards (FOID). The ISRA and four additional plaintiffs filed for the temporary restraining order after Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced that her office believes that release of FOID information to the public is proper under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. The ISRA is very concerned that public release of personal information from the FOID database will jeopardize the safety of law-abiding firearm owners.
The temporary restraining order was granted by judge Scott Shore of the 10th Judicial District, Peoria County. Judge Shore has scheduled a status call for March 15th, at which time a date will be set for hearing arguments regarding the issuance of a preliminary injunction.
“Law-abiding Illinois firearm owners can breathe a little easier today,” commented ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson. “Judge Shore’s order will prevent the Illinois State Police from releasing personal information on FOID holders to news organizations, gun control groups, gangs, and other criminals. We are confident that we will eventually secure a permanent injunction against the release of FOID data.”
It’s not like the info was going to be released any time soon since the Illinois State Police opposed AG Madigan’s decision.
* Meanwhile, this might get the blood boiling a little, but try to stay calm in the comments section. The Violence Policy Center has put together lists of people killed by concealed carry permit holders or those carrying legally concealed guns. Click the links for pdf files explaining each…
* 9: Law Enforcement Officers Killed by Concealed Handgun Permit Holders (May 2007 to the Present)
* 279: Private Citizens Killed by Concealed Handgun Permit Holders (May 2007 to the Present)
* 18: Mass Shootings Committed by Concealed Handgun Permit Holders (May 2007 to the Present)
* 25: Murder-Suicides Committed by Concealed Handgun Permit Holders (May 2007 to the Present)
Take a deep breath before commenting, people. Forever is a long time to be banned.
Failed governor candidate Scott Lee Cohen has set his sights on a seat in the Illinois Senate.
He’s seeking the spot left open after controversial longtime West Side Sen. Rickey Hendon abruptly announced his resignation late last month.
Cohen, a pawnbroker, won the Democratic lieutenant governor nomination last year but withdrew days later amid embarrassing disclosures about his personal life. They included revelations of a prostitute ex-girlfriend, domestic abuse allegations and a dispute over unpaid child support.
Continuing to spend millions of his own money, Cohen later mounted an independent governor bid and scored less than 4 percent.
I heard about this a few days ago and refused to write about it because it’s just so goofy. The guy doesn’t have the decency to fade away, so he’ll have to be pushed aside again.
* The Question: What should Scott Lee Cohen’s “campaign” slogan be as he attempts to convince Chicago ward committeemen to appoint him to the state Senate?
Snark is obviously the point, of course. Have fun, but keep it clean.
* I went after the US Chamber the other day for a job-loss projection “study” that didn’t seem to mean a whole lot. A new Chamber study deals more in reality, however. Check it out…
Stalled energy projects are costing Illinois $40.9 billion and 67,600 jobs a year, according to a study released Thursday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The business group said 15 projects have been delayed or canceled in the state due to a dysfunctional permit process and numerous lawsuits by “Not in My Back Yard” activists. Of all the delayed projects in the nation, almost half are renewable energy projects.
Brandon Leavitt, who installs solar panels for commercial and residential customers, said he is not at all surprised.
“The permit process is a nightmare in many communities,” said Leavitt, who owns Solar Service Inc. in Niles. “It has cost the company several installations, where the customer decided not to endure the costly and uncertain process. Each community can make its own rules, which change month to month depending on who’s in charge.”
He cited a current project in Logan Square that has been held up for seven months and cost the customer $2,000 in permit fees so far “to put something on a flat roof that can’t be seen,” he said.
And it’s not just Chicago. There’s a crazy quiltwork patch job of local regulations throughout the state. It’s Kafkaesque. Ogle County is basically attempting to shut down the local wind industry with onerous new regs.
* Now, even though this is more reality-based than their last study, the Chamber acknowledges that it has some flaws. For instance…
(W)e do not believe that all of the subject projects will be approved or constructed even in the absence of any legal and regulatory barriers. Also, as with all economic forecasts, we recognize that there is an element of uncertainty.
But whether or not the study is off a little or a lot, the state really needs to step in and set limits on these local governments. Seven months for a solar panel permit is beyond ludicrous. It’s downright harmful to our economy.
* While many of us - including myself - are extremely distressed to see the possible destruction of a growing online business model in Illinois with yesterday’s signing of the “Amazon Tax,” Amazon’s adamant refusal to collect sales tax anywhere in the United States is just flat-out wrong.
The Internet’s “free” culture is a wonderful thing. But it can get outta hand. Downloading pirated music has been a big problem for artists, for instance. The online user reaction is generally to blame greedy record companies for ginning up a non-crisis, but artists should be compensated for their work. You can listen to a radio station for free, but that station is charged a percentage of its gross for the music it airs. Most people don’t quite get that.
Because of this mentality, pay-to-read online content models haven’t worked out all that well except for a few publications, like the Wall Street Journal, Crain’s, mine and others which target specific audiences. People have been led to believe that everything should be free on the Interwebtubes. It shouldn’t. I don’t make nearly enough money off of ads to justify taking the locks off.
* Anyway, back to Amazon, a company which hates sales taxes so much that it will upend companies, their workers and their families if anybody tries to make them collect one red cent. The US Justice Department should probably look into their business practices.
Companies with a brick and mortar presence in Illinois have to collect sales taxes. Amazon, Overstock.com and others don’t have that same physical presence, so they don’t collect the tax. Brick and mortar retailers, like Walmart, Sears, Best Buy and others, fought back by pushing this bill. Amazon has affiliates who link to the company’s products and get a percentage of the take. (I used to be an affiliate long ago, but decided it just wasn’t for me.) The affiliates’ physical presence in Illinois is what the legislation targeted.
Roger Ebert is an Amazon affiliate and he expressed anger at the company yesterday via his Twitter feed…
Amazon will terminate my Associates account on 4/15, in order to evade fair and just Illinois taxes. I have 20 more days to make a fortune.
* This new law is not - not - a new tax, regardless of what you may be reading elsewhere. WGN’s headline: “Gov. Quinn signs law to tax online purchases” is bogus. The tax has already been there. Individuals were supposed to report themselves, which is rarely done.
Retailers have watched for years as online companies have grabbed market share. Frankly, they should’ve jumped into the Internet game far earlier. Some of their motivations seem a bit Luddite to me.
But they have a valid point that if you live in Illinois, you ought to pay the state sales tax. Look at how automobile purchases are taxed. The local sales tax is not based on where you buy your car, but where you live. That was done to help stop the flow of auto dealers from towns or counties when local sales taxes went up. It’s completely fair, in my opinion.
* Here’s how this bill passed. The leaders and the governor were in a meeting and they needed more revenue. They were given a range of options. They chose this one, mainly because the Illinois Retail Merchants Association was so heavily on board. Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno was a hyphenated co-sponsor. It passed 49-6 in the Senate, but then the opposition realized what was going on and the bill’s House margin was more narrow, but still a pretty darned wide and bipartisan 88-26.
Personally, I would’ve preferred that Quinn veto the bill rather than sign it, even though it was a leaders’ agreement and therefore sacrosanct. Amazon’s bullying is way out of line, but so many new and interesting companies are sprouting up here to take advantage of online sales and marketing that I thought it was worth a delay to try and work something out and keep those new companies going in the meantime. So, I’m kinda with the Chamber here…
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce has mixed feelings about the new law, said lobbyist Todd Maisch. While it makes competition more equitable, he also said it could raise prices and hurt some Illinois companies.
“There are a lot of businesses whose business model is to work with companies like Amazon essentially as marketing partners,” Maisch said. “They’re the ones that will be impacted by the bill.”
Brad Wilson, founder of BradsDeals.com, is staying in Chicago for now but predicted the new law will stunt the growth of the deal-site industry that has sprouted in Illinois.
“Chicago doesn’t lead on the Internet in many things, but this space is one of the things that we do, and the state should cherish that and foster that,” Wilson said. “These are modern business models. They don’t require factories or fixed investments. They require smart people. And you can find smart people anywhere. They’re legislating (this industry) out of the state.”
* This post ended up way longer than I expected. Sorry. Let’s get to the roundup…
* Amazon cuts ties over state taxes: Amazon has closed affiliate programs in Colorado, North Carolina and Rhode Island for similar reasons. The company has also closed a distribution center in Texas over sales tax issues.
* Quinn signs ‘Amazon tax’ bill — to loud boos and cheers
* Illinois enacts Internet sales tax law - Gov. Pat Quinn signs bill into law, prompting Amazon.com, Overstock.com to say they will cut ties with affiliates in state
* Ebert and Others Cut From Amazon Affiliate Program: Ebert told ClickZ News in a Q&A in January that he uses his Amazon Associates program commissions “to defray the cost of content on my site.” He went on to state that he makes around 7 percent on each Amazon sale originating from his affiliate links. “I hope my Amazon links are often useful or amusing,” he said.
* Quinn signs law to collect online sales taxes: But David Vite, president and chief executive officer of Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said the law will keep national online companies from taking advantage of a tax loophole that isn’t available to their Illinois competitors. “They are bullying small businesses,” Vite said. “They don’t want to collect the tax because they like that competitive disadvantage.”
* Press Release: IL AFL-CIO president comments on passage
* Things have been heating up lately in comments, so it’s time to issue another warning: Stop with the nastiness, the drive-by one-liner sloganeering, the violent imagery and the over the top insults.
Most of these problematic comments have dealt with three issues: Guns, the death penalty and the fleeing Wisconsin/Indiana Dems. Those posts have attracted a lot of outsiders to the blog and comments have degenerated as a result. Unfortunately, one idiot can bring a whole thread down. I’ve tried to keep up, but it’s not always possible because I do have other work to do.
But my message should be crystal clear: Elevate yourselves or leave. Simple as that. And if you won’t leave on your own, i’ll ban you for life. And if you go too far over the top, I’ll track you down and do something to you. I’ve done it before, so don’t test me.
* All that being said, even with the over the top nonsense our comment section is far superior to anyone else’s. But that’s not good enough and y’all know it. We are better than this. Start acting like it or the hammer is coming down hard. Thanks.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, is criticizing Wisconsin Republicans. Wisconsin’s governor says he’ll sign legislation to limit collective bargaining rights for some public workers. The bill passed the Assembly Thursday after Republicans used a procedural maneuver to approve the measure.
On Thursday, Quinn said the Republicans are trying to rough-house public unions.
“When somebody tries to take away your right to band together and organize, that’s not healthy,” Quinn said. “And it’s very bad. And I think what went on in Wisconsin yesterday is something that the governor there, really, should be ashamed of himself.”
* Quinn also talked about the Wisconsin situation on Fox Chicago. Watch…
* Meanwhile, Republican legislators in Indiana created a very clever music video lampooning the House Democrats who’ve fled their state for Urbana, Illinois. Have a look…
* Lyrics…
74 bring them home to the place they belong, Indiana, not Urbana, take them home 74.
Pat Bauer, lost his mind, took his caucus, ran across state lines.
Right to work, PLA’s, bunch other stuff, made them run away.
74 bring them home, to the place they belong, Indiana not Urbana take them home 74.
School reform, was our plea rather than debate it, they all chose to flee. When they come back, time will tell, if they don’t, they can go to (slap).
74 bring them home to the place they belong, Indiana, not Urbana, take them home 74.
Unemployment, who steps up? We got elected, stop acting like you won. When they show up, you know who, just like Noah’s ark they come back two by two.
74 bring them home to the place they belong, Indiana, not Urbana, take them home 74.
* Related…
* Indiana union workers come together, but parties remain far apart: House Minority Leader B. Patrick Bauer, a South Bend Democrat who stayed in Illinois during the rally, said whether this protest changes the debate is “up to the Republicans, whether they are moved.” But, he said, the rally “shows the public the strong, wide and deep support working people have” for the Democrats’ stand.
* In Illinois, reaction to Wisconsin union vote ranges from applause to ‘assault on working families’
* I’ve been telling subscribers about some of the back stage maneuvering surrounding the concealed carry bill. My Sun-Times column today takes a look at the bigger picture…
I wouldn’t blame you if you thought things are moving way too fast at the Illinois Statehouse.
Civil unions, an income tax increase and then, Wednesday, the death penalty abolition law.
But change like this comes maybe once in a generation, if that. Things move at a glacier’s pace in Springfield. Until January, Illinois’ income tax rate hadn’t been increased in 22 years. And that increase came 20 years after the tax was first imposed.
Illinois was the first state to legalize sodomy between consenting adults, in 1961. Chicago outlawed discrimination against gays 26 years later. But Illinois’ anti-discrimination law wasn’t updated until 2005. And it took another six years to pass the civil unions law.
Twelve years ago, in 1999, Anthony Porter was a mere 48 hours away from being executed when he was found to be innocent of the crime he was alleged to have committed.
Gov. George Ryan’s spokesman initially said the system had “worked,” even though two other Death Row inmates had been exonerated just months before. But then Ryan stepped in and convened a summit. The following year, Ryan placed a moratorium on executions and commuted the sentences of all Death Row inmates to life in prison. That moratorium has stayed in place for 11 years.
I was a columnist for the old Daily Southtown back in 1999 and I wrote about the Porter case.
“Don’t kid yourself,” I cautioned, “that the death penalty will be abolished in this state any time soon. Passing bills in the Legislature is a numbers game. And the numbers just aren’t there for getting rid of capital punishment.”
Back then, public opinion overwhelmingly favored the death penalty. Support has dropped a lot since, but as of last year, 56 percent of Illinoisans still wanted to see Ryan’s moratorium lifted, according to a Paul Simon Public Policy Institute poll.
The way I explained things in that long-ago column was that legislators would never touch an “80 percenter.”
When 80 percent of voters oppose something, they are far more likely to base their vote on that one issue. Because opposition to the death penalty has since dropped far below that threshold, it became a bit easier to “do the right thing” without losing the next election.
And that’s why a “concealed carry” bill has a chance of passing in the next year or so. Downstate voters are far more conservative than those in the Chicago region. The death penalty is still supported by a big majority in that region. And lots more people oppose civil unions and tax increase than they do in the Chicago Sun-Times’ circulation area.
So, in order to chill out tons of very angry “80 percenters” and secure their legislative majorities, the General Assembly’s Chicago Democratic leadership may eventually have to swallow hard and pass a bill to allow some folks to carry concealed weapons.
Downstate Democratic legislators are screaming for the bill as a way to help them throw some much-needed red meat at their furious constituents.
Those three huge bills which were signed into law this year couldn’t have passed until after the election. Lots of “lame ducks” were used to pad the total, while others crossed their fingers and hoped voters would calm down before the next go-around. So the Democrats may choose to wait until after next year’s primary (their “real” election) to do something.
Governing is always a balancing act, and the scales have been tipped so far in one direction that another very large, “once-in-a-generation” law may have to be passed.
* Coincidentally, the Paul Simon Institute has a new poll that looks just at voters in the southern-most counties. Keep in mind that there’s a whole lot of other Downstaters (in more Republican regions) to tally when you look at the bullet points…
* There were 59.5 percent of southern Illinoisans who said the state’s budget deficit could be fixed by cutting waste and inefficiency. Last year, it was 60 percent. Also, the statewide Simon Poll conducted last fall showed 57 percent holding that belief.
* Only 5.8 percent in this year’s Southern Illinois Poll said taxes should be raised; 24.5 percent said it would take a combination of tax increases and spending cuts.
* Seven in ten (71 percent) opposed raising the sales tax rate and 61 percent opposed increasing the reach of the sales tax to include services as well as goods.
* A comfortable majority — 61.5 percent — opposed expanding gambling to raise more revenue. That’s up from 54.9 percent opposition a year ago.
* A whopping 64 percent said they opposed the state’s action to implement a temporary increase in the state income tax from 3 percent to 5 percent. Only 32 percent approved. Similar results were found when asked about the increase in the corporate income tax.
It’s very difficult to find poll results these days where 80 percent of the people agree on anything. it’s more like 70 percent or close to that these days. But these results give you an idea of what the Democrats are facing next year.
* Concealed-carry law may need supermajority: Ashley Niebur, attorney for Illinois Municipals League, said House Bill 148 — the plan being considered — deals specifically with a part of Illinois law that favors home rule. “We’re looking at just that subsection, and there’s not the requirement for the three-fifths (majority). Now, maybe that’s arguable, but that’s not my call,” Niebur said.
* Illinois lawmakers balk at gun debate: With all 177 members of the Legislature up for re-election next year, Democratic leaders wary of concealed-carry legislation could delay a vote until after the March 2012 primary in order to protect incumbent members from intra-party challenges.
* Gun owners rally for concealed carry, keeping FOID info private
