Interest is very high among Illinois residents who are considering obtaining civil unions after the new state law goes into effect on June 1. From Carbondale to Chicago, from Rockford to Rock Island, more than 1,000 people throughout Illinois have attended recent forums to learn how to take advantage of the new right for same-sex and different-sex couples.
“We have been fighting for this on the political front for years. Now that civil unions are almost a reality, this level of enthusiasm demonstrates this was not a symbolic battle but something that deeply impacted couples who are sharing their lives together yet lack legal protections that civil unions will provide,” said Bernard Cherkasov, CEO of Equality Illinois.
* The Question: Do you know of anyone who is planning to have a civil union ceremony?
* There was much drama and wringing of hands over Rod Blagojevich’s reported decision to call some high profile witnesses to the stand in his own defense. The AP, for instance, ran a story entitled “Blago witnesses may be too risky“…
In deciding whether to call Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel or other big names to testify, attorneys for ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich have treaded carefully because they know that such high-profile witnesses can backfire. […]
Among the names tossed around as possible defense witnesses is also U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Both he and Emanuel have been under subpoena in the case since before Blagojevich’s first trial last year.
“All these witnesses can end up hurting you far more than they can help,” said Phil Turner, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago. “They’re land mines. You’ve got to be really, really careful.”
After weeks of crowds far smaller than during Blagojevich’s first trial last year, there was a crush of people trying to get into the downtown Chicago courthouse Wednesday morning.
Long lines with dozens of people waiting to get in snaked through the lobby. Many people asked reporters if anyone had seen Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who’s expected to be called to testify.
* But spectators may have been disappointed. Congressman Jackson was on the stand for about 20 minutes today…
Under oath, Jackson says “No I did not” direct or order anyone to offer Rod Blagojevich fund-raising in exchange for appointing him senator.
“I never directed anyone to raise money for another politician in my life, other than myself, in 16 years,” Jackson testified.
Jackson sported an angry, vengeful look when he repeatedly snapped his fingers, mocking Rod Blagojevich’s Elvis routine.
Blagojevich flushed, shaking his head, looking amazed. He smiled slightly, shaking his head. He looks uncomfortable, shifting in his chair, mouth agape.
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. says his wife didn’t get a promised appointment to head the Illinois lottery after Jackson refused to give former Gov. Rod Blagojevich a $25,000 campaign donation.
Prosecutors have used Jackson’s testimony at Blagojevich’s retrial on corruption charges to demonstrate that the former governor was not above exchanging jobs for campaign cash.
Jackson said under cross-examination Wednesday that he met with Blagojevich in 2003 after someone else was appointed to the lottery job. Jackson says Blagojevich snapped his fingers and said, “You should have given me that $25,000.”
Jackson says Blagojevich made the comment while mimicking his idol Elvis’ voice. And Jackson himself put on a low, Elvis-like voice as he explained the conversation with Blagojevich.
* Mayor Emanuel’s testimony wasn’t all that enlightening, either, and even more brief…
After testifying that no one ever asked him for anything in exchange for his request to get Valerie Jarrett appointed senator, Emanuel was dismissed as a witness. Prosecutors asked no questions.
“The government has established through its case-in-chief that the purported conversations to which its witnesses testified amount to nothing more than ‘hot air,’” defense lawyers state in the motion.
The filing adds that the “parade of government witnesses” didn’t prove any crime and that “ideas bounced around” in wiretaps were just that — ideas..
“…The very most that could be found is that the government may have put in evidence of an attempt to attempt,” the filing stated. “That is not a crime.”
And Springfield will borrow. And the warning bells are ringing off the wall.
“This is historic, it is epic,” said Laurence Msall, president of the non-partisan Civic Federation research group. “It is impossible to overstate the level of peril.”
“I don’t doubt that when the Republicans have the majority, we’ll be screaming that they’re not being transparent enough and not involving people enough,” she said. “That’s the way it always works.”
The proposed redistricting map is especially brutal to Sen. Kyle McCarter, who has been a thorn in the side of the Democrats since he was appointed to replace Sen. Frank Watson and won election on his own in November.
The Democrats knocked McCarter completely out of the 51st District in the proposed map. The new map means he will no longer live in the district.
That leaves the 51st District open for a new senator and, as indicated a few paragraphs ago Rep. Chapin Rose has already an-nounced he’s going to make a run for it
McCarter was drawn into the same district as Sen. Dave Luechtefeld. His options appear limited.
* Sen. Mike Jacobs (D-East Moline) dismisses concerns about rate hikes to fund ComEd’s plan to modernize its grid and tells the attorney general, who opposes the plan, to mind her own business…
“If consumers want something to work they’ve gotta pay for it… There’s nothing for free. My cable billl went up $10 a month last month. Nobody asked me if they could raise it. But, here, the attorney general, who doesn’t even have a vote in this body, is determing how I could vote or what I should do. No! If you want to have a vote in this General Assembly run for the office.”
* Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook), correctly explains why new power plants are needed in Illinois…
“In the next several years, some of the coal-fired power plants will be coming off line because of some new federal regulations,” Nekritz said. “In Illinois, we are going to need some new baseload power. One of the ways we can do that is through clean coal.”
* Health and Family Services director Julie Hamos on government employee and retiree worries about what will happen after the state switches health insurance providers…
“This is what’s happening every day in the private marketplace,” Hamos said.
*** UPDATE *** The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability adopted a resolution this afternoon knocking down the Quinn administration’s attempt to switch insurance carriers. But Health and Family Services points to a recent attorney general decision to claim that the vote meant nothing…
“HFS will continue the process of contracting with the winning bidders… Solano said.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
…New name, but the same game.
ComEd has developed a new tactic to urge passage of their automatic rate hikes legislation – just give it a different name. ComEd claims that Senate Bill 1652 is better and addresses many of the concerns raised about House Bill 14. But the new bill is still bad news for Illinois consumers and businesses.
Senate Bill 1652 ensures higher utility company profits – at the expense of consumers - by guaranteeing a return on equity of over 10%. The formula rate proposed in the bill still mean that customers will face nearly automatic rate increases for six years. ComEd claims the new bill includes higher performance standards related to reliability, customer service and job creation. ComEd setting their own performance standards is much like the wolf guarding the hen house.
The bottom line is that ComEd is still attempting to use Illinois law to subsidize their corporate profit margins. AARP is opposed to Senate Bill 1652 and urges lawmakers to reject the bill.
Don’t be fooled by the new name, Senate Bill 1652 is still a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
* Counting today, there are seven more days in the scheduled spring session. That milestone always makes me think of Ronnie Wood’s cover of a fine Dylan tune…
All I gotta do is survive
Besides the obvious (budget, remap, workers’ comp, etc.), what would you like to see accomplished before next Tuesday’s scheduled adjournment?
* Rep. Lou Lang is quite good at putting together solid, complicated, controversial bills. He’s not quite as good at actually passing them…
Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, formally began his yearly push for a major gambling expansion but acknowledged he’s not sure he has the votes to pass it.
The latest version, which could be heard this week, would put casinos in Chicago, Danville, Rockford, northern Lake County and a yet-to-be-determined location in the south suburbs. Existing casinos would be allowed to expand gambling positions and horse racing tracks would be allowed to operate slot machines. Slots also would be installed at O’Hare International and Midway airports, and a new “racino” would be built at the state fairgrounds in Springfield.
“I can’t tell you today whether I have 60 votes to pass this bill,” said Lang. “But I can tell you it’s the right thing to do.”
Mayor Mike Houston said he supports having horse racing and slot machines in Springfield.
“Anything that would promote the use of the fairgrounds and generate revenue and excitement is certainly something that would be good for the city of Springfield,” Houston said. […]
“The money would go to the fairgrounds, help 4H, FFA, go to funding infrastructure for the fairgrounds,” Poe said last week. Fairgrounds maintenance funding has been cut in budget proposals passed by both the House and Senate this year. […]
“It would help save the horse industry in Illinois (if gambling expansion passes),” Poe said. “Right now, they’re all moving out, for the fact that the purses (money paid to owners and winners) have all gone away.”
It’s not a new proposal, but year-round gaming would most certainly change the character of the fairgrounds.
Opponents have argued that both the casino and horse racing industries in Illinois have seen clear declines in recent years, so adding more gambling competition could only hurt existing casinos.
And while some lawmakers could be convinced to support parts of a gambling package — slots at Arlington Park for example — a proposal that includes so many new wagering options often draws opposition.
Rep. Tom Morrison, a Palatine Republican whose district includes Arlington Park, said he isn’t sure he’d support slots at racetracks but said he’s sure he wouldn’t support a proposal as big as Lang’s.
“I do not support a massive increase of gambling in Illinois,” he said.
Former state Rep. Bob Molaro, who represents the horse-racing industry, said Lang’s bill has a 50-50 chance of passing, because “the time is now,” and Illinois needs that extra influx of revenue.
“You’re talking about an extra $400 (million) to $500 million just from (a) Chicago (casino) going to the state treasury, education or debt relief — and that’s something that we can’t pass up,” Molaro said.
With the current legislative session six days from its scheduled conclusion and the various sides in this issue — business, trial lawyers, organized labor and the medical community — deadlocked, it’s looking more and more like lawmakers could vote to abolish the entire workers’ compensation system rather than crafting reforms.
Abolishing the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission and forcing all workplace injury claims into the already crowded Illinois court system sounds like a terrible idea to us. But not any more terrible than a system that freely pays out millions of taxpayer dollars to prison guards who claim injury from operating prison locks. If the parties most affected by the workers’ comp system aren’t willing to compromise, as appears to be the case, the so-called “nuclear option” might be the only alternative.
As shown by the Department of Corrections case, the state itself may have been the system’s greatest victim.
In April, Gov. Pat Quinn presented a package of reforms to restrict or eliminate monetary awards in some circumstances, reduce the medical fee schedule for injuries by 30 percent (it still would be the highest in the country) and create strict new rules for hiring and reviewing workers’ comp arbitrators. With a Republican-sponsored bill in the Senate containing similar provisions, a compromise appeared within reach. It still should be.
If not, though, we side with Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, who is leading negotiations in the Senate: “If we can’t do it by agreement by all parties, then we’ll do it by the repeal of the act. Maybe people at that point will be inspired to discuss a workers’ compensation act.”
When we heard that House Speaker Michael Madigan is threatening to blow up the Illinois workers’ compensation system we thought, hmmmm, he’s probably not serious but that’s a nifty little attention-grabber.
The more we hear about the stonewalling of work comp reform efforts in Springfield, the more Madigan’s idea is grabbing our attention. We hope he is serious. […]
Meanwhile, the special interests who feed well off of the work comp system are busy trying to run out the clock on the spring legislative session so they can avoid a serious reform effort. Hence Michael Madigan’s threat that, absent reform, he’d move to eliminate the system and throw the comp cases into the courts.
Illinois tried fixing work comp in 2005. The Legislature passed a sham of a bill that failed to relieve the state of its uncompetitive costs: Goodbye, jobs. Hello, fraud. Illinois has some of the highest work comp costs in the nation, far, far above national averages. That’s a huge disincentive for employers who might think about locating in Illinois.
If no agreement is reached, alternative bills would dismantle the century-old workers comp system and send injured workers back to circuit courts. Legislators report some support among their ranks for this approach, but it has real downsides. Workers would have a harder time proving their injuries were work-related and would have to wait years for redress. Employers would face virtually unlimited jury verdicts.
Ending the workers compensation system would uproot a century of reforms. Fixing workers comp once and for all is one deal that needs to get done.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The enhanced legislation…
• Removes the provision that some characterized as an “automatic rate increase.” SB 1652 now calls for the ICC to set rates after an eight-month proceeding where utilities must persuade the ICC and intervening parties that investments are prudent and reasonable.
• Includes stronger performance standards for utilities with penalties if targets are not reached. The more stringent standards include reliability, customer service and job creation goals that hold utilities accountable.
• Lowers utility profit levels to lower than ICC’s latest case and adds ceiling above which profits must be given back to customers.
• Mandates that if the average residential rate increase exceeds 2.5% annually by 2014, the program terminates.
• Sunsets the entire law in 2017 requiring the utilities to reapply to the General Assembly to continue the program.
• Reduces rate spikes by requiring a utility to spread large expenses over five years.
The new bill addresses stakeholder concerns. Other states are on the move, and we need to get moving building the energy infrastructure the 21st century is demanding. The time to act is now.
