I’m done for the night, and I realize this is usually when a lot of you are gone. In fact, you’re probably not reading this right away. I have a couple more posts lined up, but it’s Friday night. I’ll have those for you tomorrow. So until then, here is this week’s edition of CapitolView. This week’s discussion, featuring Bob Gough, Charlie Wheeler, Scott Reeder and moderator Jamey Dunn, is on borrowing, pension issues and school consolidation.
The only thing I have to add is something that goes along with the borrowing discussion. A spokesperson for Dan Rutherford said earlier this week the type of borrowing Quinn is proposing does not require the Treasurer’s or Comptroller’s approval to proceed.
The ongoing situation in Japan has prompted a lot of discussion about nuclear safety here at home. It’s an issue both of Illinois’ U.S. Senators are taking up together…
U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk says the size of the evacuation zones around the six nuclear power plants in Illinois should be reviewed.
Kirk and fellow U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin held a forum Friday with a panel of four nuclear experts that resembled a congressional hearing to talk about safety in Illinois in the wake of the disaster in Japan.
Four of Illinois’ 11 reactors are almost identical to those involved in Japan’s nuclear crisis. Exelon Corp. owns the plants and says they’re safe.
Officials sought to assure the senators that Illinois plants are safe and have multiple layers of safeguards.
Kirk and Durbin also were interested in making sure the state’s stockpile of potassium iodide pills for people in evacuation zones is consistent with new 2010 census numbers.
The reactors may be the same, but it’s my understanding the plants’ back-up power generators are enclosed in water-tight compartments and not narrowly above sea level.
Outside of Gov. Quinn’s call for the state’s nuclear operators to provide the state financial assistance to ensure its plants are up to snuff, the topic might continue closer to home…
Sneed hears state Senate President John Cullerton plans to call for a hearing on nuclear energy in Illinois this week in light of the nuclear radiation tragedy in Japan.
A north suburban state lawmaker has shelved plans to push for an end to Illinois’ moratorium on new nuclear power plant construction given Japan’s nuclear catastrophe.
State Rep. JoAnn Osmond (R-Antioch) introduced legislation in January that would have lifted the state’s 24-year ban on nuclear power plant construction but said it no longer is on her legislative front burner.
“I don’t know it’s permanently dead, but it’s not a thing we want to do at this point until we’ve researched and really made sure that whatever causes there were for what happened in Japan are something we wouldn’t have right here,” Osmond said.
With the stroke of the governor’s pen, the cardinal has been posthumously vindicated on at least one piece of that seamless garment. In doing so, Mr. Quinn, a Democrat, also ratified the cardinal’s belief that religious thought has a place in the formulation of law, a premise the governor’s fellow liberals generally resist.
“I think it’s indispensable,” Mr. Quinn said in a telephone interview this week. “When you’re elected and sworn into office, that oath really involves your whole life experience, your religious experience. You bring that to bear on all the issues.”
As far as Brian Towne is concerned, accused killer Keith Mackowiak still faces the death penalty if convicted of murder.
The La Salle County’s state’s attorney said Thursday he has no plans to “decertify” Mackowiak’s case, which would make Mackowiak ineligible for capital punishment.
Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation March 9 abolishing the death penalty in Illinois. Towne, however, pointed out the new law’s limited verbiage merely says the death penalty will be abolished on July 1.
The law makes no mention of capital cases already pending.
The chairman and CEO of Peoria-based Caterpillar Inc. is raising the specter of moving the heavy equipment maker out of Illinois.
In a letter sent March 21 to Gov. Pat Quinn, Caterpillar chief executive officer Doug Oberhelman said officials in at least four other states have approached the company about relocating since Illinois raised its income tax in January.
“I want to stay here. But as the leader of this business, I have to do what’s right for Caterpillar when making decisions about where to invest,” Oberhelman wrote in the letter obtained Friday by the Lee Enterprises Springfield bureau. “The direction that this state is headed in is not favorable to business and I’d like to work with you to change that.”
Oberhelman said he’s being actively courted to move.
Regional superintendents operate alternative schools, offer GED classes, provide teacher certification courses and help schools obtain an estimated $135 million in grants each year, but most Illinois residents aren’t aware of those duties and don’t even know the superintendents are elected.
Illinois’ regional superintendents met in Springfield Thursday to try and convince lawmakers Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to eliminate the offices to save $13 million will cost the state 10 times that amount.
Quinn proposed taking away $13 million from the Regional Offices of Education during his budget speech last month.
Illinois has about 47 regional offices located throughout the state, including one based in Monmouth that serves Warren, Mercer and Henderson counties.
Even the superintendents themselves will admit $13 million isn’t a lot of money, but they’re lobbying effort has been focused on the amount of federal grants they bring into the state…
[Regional Superintendent Donna] Boros thinks Quinn has been misinformed about exactly what Regional Superintendents are all responsible for. Quinn’s proposal would save the state approximately $13 million. However, ROEs receive state and federal grants and funding totaling $135 million.
It’s a familiar refrain for the regional superintendents, who fended off a similar budget attack in 2003 by Quinn’s predecessor, Rod Blagojevich.
Marc Kiehna, regional superintendent for Randolph and Monroe counties in southern Illinois, thinks the two governors may not realize the value of the offices because neither is from downstate.
“Blagojevich wasn’t familiar with what happens outside the city of Chicago. I think there’s a similar situation with the current governor,” Kiehna said Thursday during a visit to the Capitol to line up support for continued funding.
State Superintendent Christopher Koch said eliminating the offices would be a blow to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), as well. “There’s all kinds of work they do with certification. They run schools, alternative schools and truancy alternative schools. They do all sorts of compliance reviews for us at the state board. So it would be a significant loss for us as well,” he told RFD radio after Quinn’s budget address. ISBE’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2012 recommended a $2 million increase for the regional offices.
The superintendents have said they have yet to meet with the governor about this proposal. OMB spokeswoman Kelly Kraft says the plan is still being looked at…
She said a commission proposed by the governor to research a school district consolidation plan, which also proposed in his budget, would look at the issue and weigh the details. Kraft said it is possible that local governments would have to foot the bill for the regional offices if they find them valuable. “If local districts still want to have the regional superintendents, then local districts would need to take up that funding,” she said. That would mean the districts would pay for requirements such as background checks on employees that are mandated by the legislature.
“We’re not attacking Gov. Quinn or his motives – these are tough times, and tough times call for tough solutions,” Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools president Gil Morrison said. “We also know there are needed cuts and there are mistakes. This cut would be a big mistake.”
* Threat to lay off 363 teachers prompts student walkouts: On Thursday, about 1,000 students walked out of their advisory period at Jacobs High School in Algonquin for about 20 minutes, Strupeck said. An additional 400 walked out of Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, and 400 to 500 students briefly walked out of Hampshire High School, she said.
“If we hadn’t done it, we would have felt like we had given up,” said Anita Perez, 14, a Jacobs freshman. “We really care about our education and our teachers.”
State Appellate Defender Michael Pelletier said layoff notices have already been issued to employees whose jobs focused on providing assistance in death penalty cases.[…]
In all, 37 positions will be eliminated from the Appellate Defender’s office, although the number of layoffs comes to only 28, because not all of the positions were filled.
Eleven of the positions are in the Springfield office, where six people will lose their jobs.
The cutbacks will save a total of $4.7 million, Pelletier said, counting salaries and other associated costs.
Those layoffs may have been predictable after capital punishment was erased from the books, but other areas of the criminal justice system are hurting for entirely different reasons…
As the state begins cutting back, counties are picking up the financial slack, forcing departments to deal with smaller budgets and a growing backlog of cases.
In 2010, the Illinois judicial system was short about $28 million it was owed for its annual budget.
Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride said the department only recently received a small installment of the total $64 million it was owed from state coffers.
“It’s extremely difficult to run these probation departments. Today, with that additional $20 million, we’re at $55 (million), and what’s projected (for the next fiscal year) is the estimated cost for salaries and probation is … $95 million,” Kilbride told a Senate committee earlier this week.
The probation departments account for about 24 percent of the entire judicial budget. Illinois has 70 probation departments supervising more than 100,000 offenders.
*** 7:52 p.m. ***
I forgot to include today’s Sun-Times editorial, which came out against the idea of having a registry of released murderers…
The logic of sex offender registries is that at least some small percentage of sex offenders cannot be rehabilitated; released from prison, they will repeat the same crimes. Society must know who they are to protect itself.
But aside from monsters like John Wayne Gacy, there is no compelling evidence that people who have committed murder are likely to commit murder again, especially after serving a 20- to 30-year prison term.
And in similar news…
* Former state trooper Matt Mitchell asks for review of denied workers’ comp claim: Matt Mitchell’s lawyer, Kerri O’Sullivan, filed for a review March 16 — asking a panel of commissioners to review Illinois Workers’ Compensation arbitrator Jennifer Teague’s denial.
In the petition for review, O’Sullivan checked that Mitchell’s injuries occurred in the course of his employment and arose out of his employment. Teague issued an opinion Feb. 17 that found Mitchell did not sustain accidental injuries arising out of and in the course of his employment with the state, then dismissed his claim.
He nominated Hiram Grau for the job Friday. Grau is deputy chief of investigations for the Cook County state’s attorney. He also spent 27 years with the Chicago Police Department.
Now the Illinois Senate will decide whether to confirm Grau’s nomination.
He served in the Chicago Police Department for 27 years, rising to deputy superintendent for the Bureau of Investigative Services, and is a Vietnam War veteran.
Grau’s nomination is a marked difference from Quinn’s first recommendation for the post. Quinn selected Jonathon Monken, then 29, in March 2009. Monken had no law enforcement experience and legislators treated the nomination coldly.
Costigan serves as the secretary and treasurer of Workers United, a division of the Service Employees International Union. Costigan is a former vice president of the Illinois AFL-CIO. Both unions supported Quinn during last year’s election.
That one should not come as a big surprise to subscribers, who were informed earlier this week that Costigan had some major endorsements after Catherine Shannon was abruptly let go.
More on Costigan…
As an elected officer, Costigan has negotiated contracts between the union and employers, led efforts to save jobs at Chicago-based Hartmarx, and he has represented the interests of workers across the state. Costigan is also a past vice president of the Illinois State AFL-CIO, and was on the staff of former Illinois House Speaker William Redmond.
Larry Matkaitis was appointed as the State Fire Marshal in January 2010 after spending more than three decades with the Chicago Fire Department. Matkaitis began his career as a paramedic, and rose to chief paramedic before becoming assistant deputy fire commissioner for emergency medical operations. He has supervised numerous training programs for first responders and hazardous materials incidents. He is also a member of the Illinois Terrorism Task Force.
John Schomberg has served as acting general counsel since May 2010. In addition to providing advice and counsel to Governor Quinn and other top administration officials, Schomberg also oversees the legal staffs for state agencies, boards and commissions.
I have not received any new information about who might replace Gary Hannig at IDOT later this month.
*** 8:40 p.m. ***
Still not looking good for former Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson…
When questioned this morning, Quinn’s press office referred The Daily Journal back to the radio interview archived at www.illinois.gov.
At the press conference for the high-speed rail announcement, Quinn noted that there might be a place for Halvorson in his administration, but he “had someone in mind” for the transportation position. He added that there were “many places” where Halvorson’s services might be used, but he refused to name his candidate for the IDOT post.
The CEO of Cook County’s independent health and hospital board resigned Thursday, just days after failing to win approval for a controversial plan to shutter Oak Forest Hospital.
Although officials say the timing is purely coincidental, William T. Foley’s resignation comes at a critical time for the Health and Hospitals System Board as it tries to overhaul health care and consolidate services.
Foley, 60, declined to comment. He accepted a job as CEO for Vanguard Health Systems running hospitals in the Chicago area, said Warren Batts, chairman of the Health and Hospital System Board. Foley’s resignation is effective May 6.
Population numbers to be used across the country for state-level redistricting were officially completed Thursday, according to U.S. Census Bureau director Robert Groves.
Subscribers have known for a few weeks that officials in Illinois have had most of the numbers available to them and have been able to determine which districts gained or lost population. Without getting too specific, many legislative districts in Cook County suffered big losses according to last year’s decadal headcount.
April 6, 2011 in Springfield
April 16, 2011 in Kankakee
April 16, 2011 in Peoria
April 19, 2011 in Cicero
* The Daily Herald’s editorial board went off on the Senate Democrats today for not scheduling any public hearings in their circulation area…
Census figures show most of the population growth in Illinois has been in the Northwest and West suburbs, but there will be no hearings here. Senate Republicans complained about that.
“I hope that is not a precursor for how the Democrats treat suburbia in drawing the map,” state Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican, told Daily Herald staff writer Jeff Englehardt.
We’ve watched these processes many times over the decades. Let’s quit kidding around. The process is a charade and openness is not a byproduct. We’d be surprised if several versions of maps designed to do whatever is legally possible to preserve Democratic majority power weren’t already drawn. And again, no fooling. If Republicans were in the majority, we’re confident they’d be doing the same thing. This is all about raw political power, controlling and preserving it at any cost.
Raoul has said he plans to schedule additional hearings, so the suburbs might be part of the to-be-announced gatherings. Areas south of Interstate 72, including Metro east, which saw population growth since 2000, are also not on this round of hearings. The 96th General Assembly version of the committee met as far south as Carbondale when it was considering amendments to the redistricting process.
*** 5:12 p.m. ***
I just spoke to a few sources in the Senate Democrats. They said the Committee still intends to schedule future hearings, though specifics are unknown at this time. In response to the DH’s editorial, one of them reminded us that a lot of growth took place in the southern suburbs, such as Aurora. It sounds like there is definitely more to come.
While still the country’s third largest city, Chicago was the only one among the top 10 cities in 2010 to have lost population over the previous decade, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Likewise, Cook County, the nation’s second most populous county after Los Angeles, is the only one of 2010’s 10 largest counties to have lost population since the 2000 census. Chicago lost about 200,000 residents in the past 10 years and Cook County was down by 182,000. […]
But Kendall County was the fastest-growing county in the country, more than doubling its population to 114,736 during the past decade, a 110 percent boost. And Plainfield was the sixth fastest-growing town with a population of more than 10,000, tripling its population to 39,581.
For those who didn’t join us yesterday, Rich Miller is away for his first Spring Training experience. You can contact me at: barton.lorimor@gmail.com
We’re getting a later start today given my class and work schedule. There will be posts later today and maybe some tomorrow to make up for lost time. In the meantime, you can always make use of the RSS feeds in the right-hand columns to get caught-up on the day’s events. I’ll catch up with you later. Thanks for your patience.
4:35 p.m. - The work and school day is FINALLY over. I’m going through everything to put some posts together. Because of the lost time, I’ll have more tomorrow and leave comments open until then. Again, sorry for the delay.
