Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Monday, Apr 11, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The Illinois Municipal League has geared all the way up to stop lawmakers from cutting local revenue sharing. I’ve seen several media reports documenting the push, including this one…

Northlake Mayor Jeff Sherwin gets hot under the collar at the idea of the state retaining money that’s traditionally gone to local governments.

“They can’t discipline themselves, so let’s just take it from (local governments),” Sherwin said. “If we have to cancel senior grass cutting and cut police, (state office holders) will face the price at election time.”

That’s quite the range of essential service cuts. Senior grass cutting and coppers.

* Here’s why the locals are so upset. The IML recently published a briefing paper entitled “The End of State-Collected Local Government Revenue?“…

The state budget crisis has reached such an unprecedented level that there is a very real danger that state-collected local government revenues could be reduced or even lost altogether.

I know of no credible person who is talking about eliminating revenue sharing altogether. Nobody. The Senate Republicans have called for a $300 million reduction, but that’s hardly an elimination. Notice that I wrote “credible.” I don’t consider the Illinois Policy Institute to be a credible organization since it can’t seem to get even basic facts straight and won’t correct the record when challenged, but instead lashes out at its critics and accuses them of grand conspiracies, myself included.

But that’s how you fire up your troops. Go for the extremes and point to the most extreme player and make it look like that player is more important than it really is. Sure enough, the IPI’s report was trumped up in the Municipal League’s white paper as if it had tons of Statehouse allies. The IPI has proposed alternative budgets for the last two years running and nobody has sponsored them in the General Assembly. That’s not what you would call a great track record.

The Municipal League’s lobby day is Wednesday. Expect a big turnout.

* Speaking of the locals, some are still angry that Illinois passed a law to stop them from regulating political speech…

Thanks to a state law that took effect Jan. 1, local governments no longer can require residents to remove signs within a specific time frame on residential properties.

The measure, signed into law last summer by Gov. Pat Quinn, prohibits any ordinances that establish a time limit and essentially allows residents to keep signs up year-round.

State officials have said the issue is one of free speech. But some local officials complain the state has overreached.

“It’s kind of disconcerting that the legislature stuck its nose into a local issue,” Wheaton City Manager Don Rose said. “Taking down campaign signs seven days after an election certainly seems to be a reasonable regulation that gets rid of all of the clutter around town.”

While unfortunate that candidates haven’t all picked up their signs, the real problem was that the locals had incredibly onerous ordinances about when and where signs could be placed. I always thought that was weird because how could you legally restrict 1st Amendment rights like that?

* Meanwhile, we have this bit of inflammatory rhetoric from AFSCME…

State workers and teachers have staged a week long, statewide series of rallies to voice their opposition to legislation that limits collective bargaining for state employees. Hundreds were in Springfield Thursday, where Jeff Bigelow, regional director of AFSCME Council 31, said bills in the Illinois legislature are starting to mirror what’s happening in neighboring states.

“These bills both for education employees and state employees are representative of exactly what’s happening in Wisconsin, exactly what’s happening in Ohio, exactly what’s happening in Indiana,” said Bigelow. “And we’re not going to put up with it.”

What are these bills he speaks of? One of them would be to stop the growth of union representation in state government, which is already at 95 percent representation. It would also eliminate some of the union membership rights of management types who’ve joined AFSCME and other unions.

While I can certainly understand why AFSCME and the impacted members are upset about this proposal, it’s hardly a full-on assault on orgainzed labor’s rights. Yes, it’s the camel’s nose under the tent, or foot in the door, or slippery slope. But taking high-up managers out of the union is hardly something that would rouse Mother Jones from her grave.

More from the story…

“I do not consider this to be even close to what’s happened in Wisconsin,” said Currie. “But I do think it’s important that state government needs to manage its workforce, and there are some work sites in the Department of Transportation where nobody’s in charge because everybody’s a part of the collective bargaining unit.”

But Bigelow says Currie’s bill would go even further. “They’re saying they want to take people out of collective bargaining who currently have it,” he said. “The state’s working now, and it’s working just fine. It’ll work just fine without any further modifications to the law.”

Um, dude, the state is not working “just fine.”

I was raised to believe that all workers are better off in a union and I still believe that and you can’t dissuade me of it, so don’t try. But I never thought I’d see the day when even legislative liaisons were singing “Solidarity Forever” while brandishing their union cards. It’s gotten out of hand. I get why managers and others want to join the union - they’ve been mistreated and not given raises. But shouldn’t there be limits?

* In other news, the Chicago News Cooperative’s subscriber-based publication has folded. From an e-mail…

Dear Reader,

Chicago’s election cycle has finished, so now Early And Often will wrap up. We will no longer update the content on our site, although the content of the site will continue to be available to subscribers. Today is also the last day that we’ll send out the Daily Palm Card.

Early And Often has been a joint effort between Aldertrack, Inc. and the Chicago News Cooperative. The Aldertrack team, Jimm Dispensa and I, had a tremendous time serving you and creating this new, unique news service for Chicago. We also enjoyed working closely with the Chicago News Cooperative and can say without reservation that CNC is one of the best teams of journalists Chicago has ever seen.

I’ll do my best to avoid over-heated rhetoric here, but I never thought their service would work because I never really understood their business model. The subscriptions were based on a single election cycle, not the actual doings of government. Government is how I survive. Campaigns most certainly help, but government is where the subscribers are. Plus, when Rahm Emanuel avoided a runoff, the campaign cycle was radically shortened and their business model was hurt even worse. Also, the Chicago media rarely covers legislative campaigns. They do cover city campaigns, however, including aldermanic races. There was simply no gigantic hole which needed to be filled.

Anyway, I was hoping it would work. Really, I was, mainly because I’ve long thought that a subscriber service was possible for Chicago. I still do. Just not the way they did it. But, nobody asked me.

15 Comments

- soccermom - Monday, Apr 11, 11 @ 2:52 pm:
Rich, I don’t know why the MSMs don’t call you in as a consultant when they try this stuff. You have proven that there is a strong, profitable business model — yet no one seems to be asking for your thoughts on how to create something similar for different audiences.

- wordslinger - Monday, Apr 11, 11 @ 2:56 pm:
–I always thought that was weird because how could you legally restrict 1st Amendment rights like that?–

Yeah, when concerns over residential property values collide with the 1st Amendment you have a real mess.

I have a couple of neighbors who keep “Just Say No to Drugs” and “Abortion Kills” signs in their front yards year-round. I’m as close to a 1st Amendment absolutist as you’ll find, so I let it slide, but I know it drives some of my other neighbors apey — not necessarily because of the viewpoints, but because of the neighborhood aesthetics.

- 47th Ward - Monday, Apr 11, 11 @ 3:06 pm:
Northlake mows lawns for seniors? Lots of towns privatize that sort of work by farming out the labor to 12 year olds. Do they shovel sidewalks and sell lemonade there too? Babysit? Are there no teenagers in Northlake?

Sheesh.

- He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint - Monday, Apr 11, 11 @ 3:09 pm:
AFSCME got greedy with the Leg Leisons. They are policy making and should have never gotten in. Having said that, I disagree with Currie’s bill but the LL should not be in the union.

- Spliff - Monday, Apr 11, 11 @ 3:34 pm:
Under Blago the GA passed card check legislation in Illinois. AFSCME and others went to work organizing and that included state employee’s. One of the groups that were organized were PSA’s. Each agency and the Gov.’s office were given well over a year to exempt out any employee’s that were in that Payroll title that they didn’t think should be in the union. The LL’s that everyone speaks ill of are PSA’s (at least those that went into the union, the rest are AA2’s which is a union position with the LL’s exempted out under Ryan and the rest are SPSA’s that AFSCME has been trying to get into the union for more than the last two years). If Quinn and his people (who are leading the charge on getting LL’s kicked out of the union) had any idea what they were doing then a lot of these former Dunn fellows and LL’s who are now union members (having gone from $30K to $60K and over) wouldn’t be in the union. The LL’s that are in the union only make up about 40 or so people and while they are easy to beat up on they will not save a noticeable amount of money.

- CircularFiringSquad - Monday, Apr 11, 11 @ 3:40 pm:
CaptFax:
we think you know a subscriber service for Chicago will never work because the info there is too locked down.

Now that might change with the new Mayor, so keep the antennas up.

Meanwhile let’s tamp down the overheated rhetoric on the Chicago News Cooperative. A bunch of Trib refugees of varying quality. We are not sure they broke much new ground or any stories during the mayoral and New Yorkers constantly wondered why they were paying to read all this Chicago stuff.

Speaking of overheated, we expect that will be the recommended oven setting for the next six weeks.

Good to see Hanania as the spokesperson for Cicero. That town knows how to pick em

- Rich Miller - Monday, Apr 11, 11 @ 3:43 pm:
===subscriber service for Chicago will never work because the info there is too locked down.===

Quite true, but I did come up with a way around that very real problem.

- KappaKid - Monday, Apr 11, 11 @ 4:19 pm:
@CircularFiringSquad The CNC’s content is only published in Chicago. If you get the Times in New York or Miami or Houston, you won’t see the CNC’s work.

- ispretired - Monday, Apr 11, 11 @ 4:20 pm:
There was never a need for supervisors to be in a union under Blago stuck it to non-union employees. Before all non-union employees got the same pay increase and benefits as the unions got. But here comes Blago and shafted those that did not have a contract. It would not surprise me to think that this was the big plan by Blago and the union to increase their union head count. They knew that most would want to get in a union and protect their benefits and pay and that is what happened.I don’t know the numbers but it wouldn’t be a surprise if unions added 10,000 state employees to their rolls.I was a non union State Police Command officer and by my numbers I lost out on about $40,000 because of Blago when I didn’t get the pay increase the Troopers got and vacation perk as Blago called it when I retired. Yes before I retired we did get the raises a few years later but not the vacation perk. It had to come to a end because officers were asking for rank reductions and nobody wanted to take a M/Sgt promotion because of Blago.

- Dooley Dudright - Monday, Apr 11, 11 @ 4:29 pm:
“I always thought that was weird because how could you legally restrict 1st Amendment rights like that?”

You can’t. So said the U.S. Supreme Court — in 1994.

In City of Ladue v. Gilleo, a unanimous court held that political yard signs are “a venerable means of communication that is both unique and important.”

Text of decision: http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3859249994867287155&hl=en&as_sdt=2&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr

Analysis: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/speech/personal/topic.aspx?topic=yard_signs

Related cases: http://aalto.arch.ksu.edu/jwkplan/law/US%20Supreme%20Ct.htm

In short — this new legislation isn’t some sort of goofy cramdown. What’s goofy is that it places Illinois in step with the rest of the nation — SEVENTEEN YEARS after the fact.

- The Captain - Monday, Apr 11, 11 @ 4:31 pm:
I really liked the Morning Palm Card, the daily email that E&O sent out with links and summaries of the day’s top stories. Fortunately that was free.

I would have considered paying for a subscription for the rest but I wasn’t impressed with what I saw. They spent a lot of time covering the Mayor’s race, which the Trib and Sun-Times were already doing anyway, and not much time covering the rest. If there was more info on things I couldn’t already find in the Trib or S-T it could have been worthwhile.

- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Apr 11, 11 @ 5:45 pm:
ispretired hits the nail on the head…”Who” would want to be a state management employee anyway without union protection in this environment? I can see a few hundred “policy” and executive minions who are directly connected to the gov’s office being non-union; they understand they are at will and political hires. But if you want long term agency middle and upper middle management by the best and the brightest, you can’t seriously offer them a pay cut and job uncertainty as the “perk” for gaining a “promotion” into the management ranks.

If the gov and legislators are serious about de-certifying unionized managers, but want to retain quality staff, they will need to offer something positive in return. But maybe that’s not the point.

- Park - Monday, Apr 11, 11 @ 7:31 pm:
Illinois D’s have disrupted the ‘deal’ always made with management in union shops. The ‘deal’ was always that 1)we’ll give you some special perks to make you feel important; 2) whatever the union is able to negotiate, you get automatically, and then some; 3) because you’re special, you won’t mind making the hard hire/fire decisions, working weekends, dealing with stress 24/7 etc.

Blago/Quinn have gone back on the ‘deal’ [not just them, Daley too]. Now being a manager means being a sucker. Managers know it, but at this point (and with this economy), many are stuck for the time being. But morale is in the toilet, and no talented underling would even think of leaving the union shield. I’m surprised more of them haven’t gone the disability route in protest.

- one of the 35 - Monday, Apr 11, 11 @ 8:41 pm:
Rich: The local government revenue sharing was a permanent agreement made at the time the state income tax was adopted. A deal is a deal in good times and bad. The state should continue to honor the agreement. 1/10 means 1/10.

- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Apr 12, 11 @ 7:28 am:
1. I’d love to hear the argument for why one penny of “local revenue sharing” should continue. Politically, state lawmakers take the heat for every penny of taxes collected, while local officials spend the money with zero accountability.

2. Where’s the local ordinance limiting how long a real estate For Sale sign can be up? You think campaign signs hurt property values? Try four “@properties” signs on your block. These ordinances were designed for one simple reason: incumbent protection. I say good riddance.

3. AFSCME representation has grown in state government because state government hasn’t opposed it. The time for arguing that legislative liaisons shouldn’t be unionized was when they were seeking recognition as a collective bargaining unit. Frankly, I agree they shouldn’t have been recognized, but that train left the station some time ago and the state simply watched and waved.

My guess is that some folks are worried that legislative staff is next, and that’s what this is really about.

As for whether state government is working fine or not: When one defective vehicle rolls off the assembly line, you can blame the worker; but when Toyota has to recall 10 million vehicles, you’ve got a management problem.

4. I always thought that Early and Often needed to grow their readership exponentially and make profits off of advertising, rather than relying on subscription revenues.

We DO need a ChicagoFax…whether anyone has the gusto to put one together remains to be seen.

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