* 11:41 am - Gov. Pat Quinn just took some bill action that won’t be appreciated by the Republicans. From a press release…
“The people of Illinois provided input at public hearings for both the congressional and state legislative maps. I have carefully reviewed the congressional redistricting map. This map is fair, maintains competitiveness within congressional districts, and protects the voting rights of minority communities. I would like to thank Sen. Kwame Raoul and Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie for their commitment to encouraging public participation in the remap process.”
Pat Brady, the state’s Republican Party spokesman, said Quinn’s signature on the map after the governor had said he wanted fair and competitive boundaries was “a little disingenuous.”
“I wish he would have been more honest and just said that he’d sign the map,” Brady said. “This is what we’ve come to expect from him since he was sworn in.”
The congressional map received the least amount of scrutiny of the political boundaries drawn by Democrats this year. Though Democratic state lawmakers held several public hearings, very little time was devoted to the congressional map that was unveiled for Memorial Day weekend.
“They held a bunch of preliminary hearings and that’s great,” said Whitney Woodward of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. “But throughout the process, what we and other groups asked for were hearings and the data to consider a new map. Instead, we saw a couple of hearings on draft maps without much demographic information.”
* 1:38 pm - From a press release…
Republican members of the Illinois Congressional delegation today issued the following statement after Governor Pat Quinn singed into law the Democrat proposal to re-draw the boundaries of Congressional districts in Illinois:
“We are disappointed that Governor Quinn chose to sign into law this flawed map, thereby proving that his actions do not match his rhetoric. Despite his expressed desire for “openness and fairness,” Governor Quinn instead rewarded his Democrat allies by approving this highly partisan map that tears apart communities and disrespects the will of Illinois voters as expressed in last fall’s election.
“Governor Quinn said that a fair redistricting process required hearings. Yet the map was unveiled on a Friday and passed the following Monday, with no hearings. Governor Quinn said that the way in which district lines are drawn contributes to the success of our democracy. Yet the map he approved seeks to reverse the results of a democratic election. Governor Quinn advocated for a fair and open process. Instead, he has guaranteed an unfair and closed one.
“This map will be challenged in court, and we do not expect to comment further on a matter that now will be the subject of litigation. As we have said before, we do not believe this map will stand.”
Congressman Tim Johnson was the only member of the state’s Republican delegation who didn’t sign the letter.
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady says the new congressional district lines the governor has approved is an attempt to “silence” voters.
Brady says voters sent a GOP majority to Congress just last fall. He says the map signed into law Friday by Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is unfair to Republicans. […]
Brady says Quinn “lost all claims to the label ‘reformer’” by approving the map and says he hopes courts will overturn it.
“Well, I think that there will be a lawsuit that will likely be brought before a Republican judge who picks two other judges to sit on a panel, and they will review the legality of denying Latino voters their full representation in the Congress. And I expect that lawsuit will come to a decision in October or November,” Kirk said.
Kirk says he believe the chances in a court of law are “pretty good.” [Emphasis added.]
It’s so nice to know that Sen. Kirk believes Republican judges are purely partisan animals.
* A few congressional stories…
* Freeport Mayor Gaulrapp to Announce Bid for 17th District: After falling short in his first bid for congress, Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp is going to give it another try this time in a different district. Gaulrapp tells me he will make an official announcement on Saturday morning that he aims to represent the 17th District in congress. In 2010, the Freeport democrat lost to long time 16th District congressman Don Manzullo. But now Freeport and parts of Rockford is in a district that stretches along the Mississippi River from the Wisconsin border all the way down to the quad cities.
* Some of my most favorite memories in life involve hanging out at parties with musicians, sharing a jug and listening to them play guitar and talk about their craft. Those parties were usually at some run-down house with beat-up furniture and dogs running around loose. The parties would often last all night, and sometimes a group breakfast was prepared come morning. And then it would start all over again.
The documentary film Heartworn Highways is about as close as you can get to having that experience without actually doing so.
Shot on a shoestring budget in late 1975 and early 1976, Heartworn Highways doesn’t really tell a story. Instead, we’re invited to those parties, with empty beer cans strewn across the table, ashtrays overflowing with cigarettes and some of the best young songwriters of their generation playing music straight out of Heaven.
James Szalapski’s film wasn’t released until 1981, and it’s hard to find these days, although you can watch it on Netflix if you subscribe. I stumbled across several YouTube videos the other day while looking for something else, so let’s get to it.
* At the beginning of our first video, you’ll see the great Guy Clark saying “Listen to this song,” and pointing with reverence to a babyfaced Steve Earle.
“Listen to that song!” Guy again commands the cameraman, knowing - and wanting all of us to know - that his young protege is destined for a greatness that nobody save him can possibly imagine at the time. Unfortunately, the filmmakers failed to heed Clark’s prescience and the song didn’t make the movie’s final cut. Thankfully, it’s on the bonus DVD.
“Did you hear the verses at all?” Clark asks Rodney Crowell toward the end of the song, shaking his head in wonder and amazement. Earle was just 20 years old at the time and this is his first known recording. Steve later said he wrote “The Mercenary Song” on the back of a menu at a pizza restaurant where he was a cook. It’s probably one of my favorites in his vast repertoire…
I guess a man’s got to do what he’s best at
Ain’t found nothin’ better so far
Been called mercenaries and men with no country
We’re just soldiers in search of a war
* Rodney Crowell has written for many of the greats, including Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Crystal Gale. Bob Seger made a big hit out of Crowell’s “Shame on the Moon.” He’s a Grammy winner, was once married to Rosanne Cash and has a slew of hits, including five number one singles in a row in the late 1980s. But we see him here as a 25-year-old who is still learning at Guy Clark’s feet.
Fair warning: Crowell’s song “Bluebird Wine” will not leave your brain easily or quickly. It’s an incredibly catchy tune that was covered by Emmylou Harris. She eventually asked him to join her band and the rest is history…
The party just started
And I’m drunk on Bluebird Wine
* Richard Dobson never made it big and I don’t know why. But his songwriting is top notch. Johnny Cash covered his song “Baby Ride Easy,” as did Dave Edmonds and Carlene Carter. He also wrote a book called The Gulf Coast Boys. It’s full of stories about his running buddies, including Townes Van Zandt. Dobson lives in Switzerland and tours mostly in Europe, but you can catch him every now and then in Texas. Check his website for info.
Four seasons go around on a pinwheel
And tomorrow ain’t nothin’ at all
* Steve Young wrote the outlaw classic “Lonesome, On’ry and Mean” immortalized by Waylon Jennings. But Young also penned the sublime “Seven Bridges Road,” which was beautifully covered by the Eagles. Here he is singing “Alabama Highway”…
Turn supernatural, take me to the stars, and let me play
As Steve Earle tells it, he was just 17 when he met an artist and performer who would mould the shape of his career. The teenage Earle was singing at a club in Houston, Texas, when he was teasingly heckled by an older man in the audience who asked him to play the song Wabash Cannonball, and told him he wasn’t much of a country singer if he couldn’t.
The heckler turned out to be Townes Van Zandt, a legendary Texan singer-songwriter who Earle already admired. Earle was unable to comply with his request, but instead performed a word-perfect version of a tricky, complex Van Zandt song, Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold. This playful exchange made them firm friends.
“I met this guy, and I was 17,” Earle recalls now. “It was obvious I was going to write songs and make records, but here I was, meeting someone who was making art for the sake of art, at a really high level. He was committed to continuing to do that, whether he made money or not. That’s the most positive thing I took from him.”
From that day to this, Earle has been a diehard Townes Van Zandt fan. It has not always been an easy thing to be: as Earle delicately puts it, “Townes was a real bad role model.”
* Anyway, Steve Earle says that the musicians in Heartworn Highways wanted to take some revenge on the filmmakers over some broken promises. So, they sent them to Austin to interview Townes Van Zandt. Townes was a little, um, difficult to deal with, and they thought this would be proper punishment. But he ended up stealing the whole show.
I came of age and found a girl in a Tuscaloosa bar
She cleaned me out and hit it on the sly
I tried to kill the pain
I bought some booze and hopped a train
Seemed easier than just a-waitin’ around to die
…Adding… I told you a few years ago about the late underground songwriter Blaze Foley. The documentary about his life is now finished and is in limited release. Click here for more info. There’s even a Facebook page.
Since last week — and after the jury began its deliberations — there have been four sealed filings in the case, beginning with a prosecution filing that came one day after a media appearance by a former Blagojevich attorney. Lawyers tied to the trial who usually freely discuss it have since late last week kept their mouths tightly shut.
The filings came after attorney Sam Adam Jr. last week, as jury talks were under way, went on TV and radio predicting “20 not guilty verdicts” for his onetime client. Early last week, two Blagojevich lawyers appeared on “Chicago Tonight.”
On June 16, lawyers were summoned to U.S. District Judge James Zagel’s chambers for a private meeting. Also in the courthouse was Adam, who was not part of the retrial but still a listed attorney on the case. Afterward, the typically talkative Adam would not answer questions about the Blagojevich case. A few times when asked a question, he’d put his hand over his mouth.
“I MUST decline to comment,” Adam repeatedly said. “I cannot tell you why.”
Another defense lawyer, Michael Ettinger, who also still has an appearance on file in the case — and typically answers questions about the trial — responded similarly.
* The Question: Who else in Illinois politics would you like to see placed under a gag order? Explain.
* The NRA refused to back a county-by-county concealed carry “opt-in” compromise during the spring session, but some legislators are now going ahead with it anyway…
Three lawmakers who say carrying concealed weapons should be legal in Illinois are pursuing an alternative that would allow individual counties to decide the matter.
Republican state Reps. Bill Mitchell of Forsyth, Adam Brown of Decatur and Chapin Rose of Mahomet held a news conference Thursday in Clinton about their proposed legislation. They also made stops Thursday in Decatur, Tuscola, Monticello and Mahomet. […]
The new proposal is the same as HB 148 except it would give each of the state’s 102 counties the authority to decide.
“Our ultimate goal is to have conceal-and-carry throughout the state,” said Mitchell.
An opt-in bill would probably only require a simple majority in each chamber, rather than the three-fifths super-majorities required of the previous bill. The earlier legislation was deemed as overriding local home rule powers. This wouldn’t. Details…
As written, the bill would authorize sheriffs to issue concealed carry licenses — once the county board OKs it — to citizens who meet age requirements, complete training courses and pass criminal background tests. Once licensed, a person could carry a concealed handgun in any county that adopts the local option.
Concealed guns could not be carried in schools, courthouses, government buildings, churches, libraries, bars, stadiums and in gambling venues. Business owners would be able to prohibit concealed carry on their property as well.
Quinn stated that he has no plans to allow concealed weapons in Illinois and will veto any such legislation. Illinois is the only state where it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon.
“In too many places in Illinois there is a violence epidemic, and I believe that we need to address that,” Quinn said. “I do not believe that a law that would allow private individuals to carry loaded concealed weapons on their person in public places is the best way to deal with it.”
“The governor says he’s going to veto it. That’s easy for him to say. He’s got a state taxpayer-funded bodyguard,” Rose said. “There are certain counties in my district where on a Saturday night there is only one deputy sheriff for the whole county. This is about a fundamental right to protect yourself and protect your family from an attacker, an assailant.”
* Southtown Star columnist Phil Kadner supports concealed carry, but with reservations…
Even the thought that civilians are packing is enough to make the average criminal think twice about committing a crime, the concealed-carry crowd contends.
I doubt addicts needing money for a fix think that logically.
As for gang members, the fact that rival gangsters frequently carry guns never seems to deter them from making war on each other.
Would a rapist actually think twice about attacking a woman if concealed carry were the law? That could happen. But aren’t most rapists friends or relatives of the women they attack?
Maybe every person really does need a gun to keep the streets safe.
But if there are so many evil people walking around, if our neighbors cannot be trusted, if our police, courts and jails are inadequate, isn’t there something really wrong with this country?
Shouldn’t we be talking about that more and about concealed carry less?
It surprises me that more people don’t seem outraged by this turn of events.
Yes, carrying a gun may someday save your life. But more guns will not make this country a better place to live.
* Yet another reminder to commenters: This topic always seems to bring out the crazy in people. Bumper sticker slogans and drive-by comments are heavily frowned upon here. Keep your arguments elevated and try to come up with an original thought. Deletions will be swift and banishments will be sure.
Quinn did not specify what changes he will make but identified several areas he will focus on.
“There will be some changes, and we want to make sure we put education and public health, job creation, public safety, those are core priorities and we’re going to do the best we can for those, human services and health care,” Quinn said.
The governor can use his veto powers to take a scalpel to parts of the spending plan he doesn’t like without jettisoning the whole document, thus freeing up money he can ask lawmakers to spend on other priorities. The House and Senate have the option of endorsing his moves or rejecting them later this year.
International Business Machines Inc. is owed $1.1 million. Office Depot Inc. is waiting for a $660,955 check. And the 17th Street Bar & Grill in Sparta is due $340.52. They are among at least 8,000 vendors including businesses, charities and government agencies waiting months for the state to pay up. At least 114 companies are due more than $1 million, according to documents from Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka. […]
“An Illinois phenomenon,” said Ron Ford, CEO of Chicago- based Help at Home Inc., which is owed $43.4 million and hasn’t heard from the state since December. […]
“Banks have refused us a line of credit because of the state,” said David Baker, who runs the nonprofit Open Door Rehabilitation Center in Sandwich, Illinois, and is owed $880,000. “We’ve had a long-time relationship with bankers, but now they wonder ‘What if the state never pays you?’” […]
The consequences of years of ignoring bills fall on organizations such as the South Suburban Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, in the Chicago suburb of East Hazel Crest. The nonprofit has an annual budget of $5 million, and 75 percent of its revenue comes from state funding, said CEO Allen Sandusky.
Sandusky, whose company was owed as much as $1.4 million, has cut his staff to 105 from 155 and obtained a $1 million line of credit at 6 percent interest.
Oof.
As I’ve said before, Illinois’ government is one of the greatest drags on Illinois’ economy.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* The budget, of course, isn’t the only legislation that hasn’t yet moved to the governor’s desk. The gaming expansion bill has a parliamentary hold on it. The governor called that “odd” yesterday…
“I mean, if you believe in a bill, and apparently there are members of the House and Senate who believe in this bill, then not to send it to the governor I feel is kind of curious, sort of odd,” Quinn said.
The Constitution says any bill passed by the Legislature “shall be presented” to the governor within 30 calendar days of its passage and that requirement is “judicially enforceable.” That language would seem to create legal questions about Cullerton’s strategy of withholding the legislation to avert the potential of a Quinn veto.
I’m not sure the bill can be classified as “passed” since there’s a legitimate motion filed to reconsider the vote, however. And I doubt the courts will want to jump in on this one, since they tend to shy away from ordering the General Assembly around in this state. Either way, though, it’s an interesting take.
* Meanwhile, the legislative Democrats’ decision to look at the state’s business tax code over the summer won’t be easy, as these comments clearly demonstrate…
“If you are talking only about the corporate tax rate, you are only talking about treating one of the symptoms,” [said Greg Baise, president of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association], citing high utility taxes as another area that makes Illinois less competitive.
Both also said it may prove difficult to end tax incentives that are part of the business tax structure.
“Incentives built into the tax code had an interest group that convinced the General Assembly that this was good policy,” [said Todd Maisch, vice president of government affairs for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce]. “It will be very interesting to hear that this will not be a means to an increase in the overall business tax burden.”
“One man’s tax incentive is another person’s loophole,” Baise added.
If legislative hearings lead to a less onerous tax code and a level playing field for all employers, grand. Companies will create more jobs here. That said, two obstacles stand in the way:
First, Madigan’s and Cullerton’s caucuses include Democrats whose Job One is raising state spending, consequences be damned. They usually scorn attempts to make Illinois more competitive for jobs by improving the business climate here, because “more competitive” likely means “less taxation.”
Second, bringing lots of companies to the table forces them to ask whether their problem is state government or … each other. Some will criticize tax policies and loopholes that others will defend.
* Roundup…
* RTA warns of transit cuts - Transit agency says it needs some of $400 million due from state
* Casino Bill’s True Believer Enters the Final Stretch: “We wouldn’t say ‘no’ to Starbucks because we have too many Starbucks and too many people are drinking coffee,” Mr. Lang said. “We would never say to an auto dealer, ‘Don’t expand your business. Go to Indiana.’ This is a business like any other.”
* Illinois’ data website: Lots of numbers, few answers
* Lawmakers to address Illinois’ business tax climate
The Illinois General Assembly was back in Springfield for one day this week, but they might return again.
The House and Senate had to come back to make sure there were no delays in the state’s massive infrastructure program.
The Senate Democrats had tacked some budget spending onto a bill authorizing the construction, but the House had refused to go along. The Senate backed down this week, so everything is still on track.
The media tended to misinform about the Senate’s add-ons, neglecting to report that the Senate Democrats actually paid for much of that spending by redirecting money within the state budget. And if history is any guide, if the General Assembly has to double-back to Springfield once more this summer, the media will misinform again.
Talk is in the air of a special session to deal with a federal judge’s ruling that the state’s McCormick Place reforms violated federal law.
Unions at McCormick Place have forever been blamed for the high costs of conventions. And while I’d agree that many of the work rules were way out of hand, much of this is overblown.
The biggest problem at McCormick Place is the markup. Federal Judge Ron Guzman went out of his way to point out that problem when he ruled earlier this year that the state’s new “reforms” of union rules violated federal law.
Guzman refused to set aside his ruling this week while McCormick Place appeals, which prompted McPier czar Jim Reilly to suggest Thursday that an emergency legislative session could be needed.
Rosemont’s convention center uses the same unions and the same workers operating under the same rules as McCormick Place. Yet, for example, prices to move exhibits from Rosemont’s loading docks to its convention floor are 38 percent lower than at McCormick Place, according to a Crain’s Chicago Business report.
Rosemont acts as its own contractor. McCormick Place uses private contractors to handle its shows. Two of those contractors, GES and Freeman, are by far the largest.
So, why not just crack down on the contractors? If it were that simple, it would’ve been done already. Two contractors control most of the shows at McCormick Place as well as most of the big shows around the country.
Rosemont focuses on smaller shows. Because it isn’t trying to tap into the really big shows, it doesn’t need to bother dealing with those two contractors. But without those big shows, McCormick Place goes belly up. You might as well turn it into the world’s largest indoor skateboard park. McCormick Place has no choice but to submit to those two contractors.
If it’s that bad, you may ask, then why don’t the exhibitors revolt against the contractors and force them to lower their prices? That happens in some instances, and part of the new reform law allows it.
But most of the exhibitors belong to trade associations, and those trade associations make much of their annual profits with their conventions by jacking up the prices even higher. The trade groups are sometimes even showered with perks by the contractors.
Legislative leaders were deathly afraid of angering the two big contractors when they drafted their reform legislation last year. All proposals to cap contractor markups were ignored. But if the appellate court doesn’t lift Judge Guzman’s stay, then a special session may have to be held.
Gov. Quinn said Thursday that he wants all sides to sit down and negotiate a solution. But if the contractors refuse to budge, there’s nothing much anyone can do.
Whatever happens, it would be nice if the media in this town started reporting the full story.
Convention and trade-show workers at McCormick Place may have to be made public employees if the federal courts continue to quash labor reforms, according to the city’s top convention official.
In his first extensive remarks since a federal judge spiked new state-mandated rules on Wednesday, Jim Reilly said he’s hoping the court order either will be overturned by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals or at least stayed while the appeal is heard.
Mr. Reilly heads the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, which operates McCormick Place and was on the losing end of a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Guzman.
If the 7th Circuit will not stay Judge Guzman’s order, “I think we’ll have to seriously consider asking the presiding officers to call the Legislature back” into emergency session, Mr Reilly said. And the most likely option would be to make McCormick Place workers government employees.
The legal maneuver is not a new one, and was once considered by legislators before being abandoned, said Terrance McGann, an attorney representing the Chicago Council of Carpenters. The council and Teamsters Local 727 were the two union organizations that initiated the challenge of the new work rules.
“They wanted to amend a portion of the Illinois code to lump the trades people in with firefighters and police, and it simply doesn’t fit the profile,” he said. “When you talk about the need for public safety, relative to no-strike clauses, it doesn’t fit.” […]
[Gov. Pat Quinn] said he hopes to work with legislators and labor leaders in the coming months to devise McCormick Place reform legislation that meets federal standards.
“We’ll just hash out a law that will survive any kind of legal scrutiny. That’s imperative,” Quinn said. “I want to tell all our conventioneers this is going to happen, and it will happen in a prompt fashion.”
The son of U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello says his father has tried to warn him off the “dirty business” of politics, but that he’s nonetheless making an all-out push to get an upcoming appointment to the Legislature.
“Our state is in a crisis. If there’s any time to serve, now is the time,” Jerry Costello II said today.
Costello, a Belleville-based financial advisor, has said before that he’s interested in taking over the Illinois House seat of state Rep. Dan Reitz, D-Steeleville, since Reitz recently began talking about leaving the post before his term ends in January 2013. Reitz made it official this week, announcing he will immediately leave the seat he has held for 14 years to spend more time with his family. […]
“I’ve made it known I’m interested in seeking the appointment,” said Costello. He pointed to his “lifetime of experience in government,” his Army service during the first Gulf War, and his tenure as a Sauget police officer. He said his current position as a financial advisor at Huntleigh Securities in Belleville gives him footing in dealing with the state’s fiscal crisis.
* Meanwhile, Bernie follows up on some stories I’ve been reporting for several days…
State Sen. LARRY BOMKE, R-Springfield, can’t say yet if he will be a candidate for re-election in 2012.
And if he does run, there’s some chance he’d face a challenge from a fellow Republican, Sen. SAM McCANN, R-Carlinville — though McCann hasn’t decided which new district he’ll seek to represent. […]
Meanwhile, one of McCann’s constituents, who also happens to be chairman of the Macoupin County Board and chief of staff to Senate President JOHN CULLERTON, D-Chicago, is considering a run for the state Senate in the new 48th.
“I’ve had a lot of phone calls from people who believe that I would be a good candidate,” said ANDY MANAR of Bunker Hill. “It’s something obviously that I’m considering at this time.”
Manar had a major hand in drawing that district’s map, and it’s been known for years that he wanted to serve in the Senate. One plus one equals two in this case.
While the new 16th District still tilts Republican, the big challenge Manzullo may face is from freshman U.S. Rep. Adam Kinsinger, R-Manteno, who Democrats tossed into a left-leaning district represented by U.S. Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr.
Kinsinger’s only hope of remaining in Congress is to move to a friendlier district. If the 33-year-old does run in the new 16th, he’s sure to give Manzullo one heck of a GOP primary battle — and Manzullo may be rusty. Don hasn’t had serious competition since 1992.
Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) will throw out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals game on Thursday as part of Ronald Reagan Day at the ballpark.
The Nationals are one of eight Major League Baseball teams that have partnered with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation to honor Reagan’s 100th birthday.
Schock serves on the Reagan Centennial Commission and was asked to throw out the first pitch, according to his office.
Legislation to prevent another four-person mayoral runoff in Springfield is headed to Gov. Pat Quinn. The bill, which dealt with a number of electoral issues, passed the House 82-22 and cleared the Senate 53-0 on Wednesday. […]
Mayor Mike Houston, who came out on top in March’s four-person general election, said the legislation is a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t address a potential problem if there are fewer than five candidates running in the primary. Current election law states there is only a primary election if more than four candidates run for a given opening.
“If you have three or four (candidates), they would all appear in a consolidated general election without a primary,” Houston said.
Houston, who won with 47 percent of the vote, favors narrowing the field. The next closest vote-getter in Springfield’s mayoral election this year was Sheila Stocks-Smith, with 21 percent of the vote.
* Roundup…
* Durbin, Kirk, Shimkus, Johnson, Schock, Schilling Ask Air Force To Explore Flying Missions For The 183rd Fighter Wing
Illinois Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan announced today a joint House-Senate Revenue Committee review of the state’s business tax structure in the months ahead.
This joint effort will be led by State Rep. John Bradley and State Sen. Toi Hutchinson.
Speaker Madigan said he expects the review to involve key groups and leaders representing businesses big and small throughout the state.
“I see this as a timely opportunity for critics and advocates alike to participate in the process and offer their views on what the state’s business policies should be,” Madigan said.
Input would be sought from groups such as the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, Illinois Retail Merchants Association, National Federation of Independent Business, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Construction Industry Committee and the Civic Committee of The Commercial Club of Chicago.
President Cullerton said there’s a growing sense of urgency regarding the need to reform the state’s current business tax structure, a system often derided in the media as so filled with loopholes that it resembles Swiss cheese.
“We need to take a holistic approach to business taxes as opposed to the continued piecemeal policies that often pit one business against another,” Cullerton said.
The issue of tax policy continues to garner headlines as breaks and exemptions for major businesses have come under scrutiny from both the media and within the business community. CME Group Executive Chairman Terrence Duffy and Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman have been among the business leaders who’ve expressed concerns with the state’s existing business tax structure.
In addition, the Associated Press recently reported that more than $100 million worth of state tax exemptions for numerous companies will expire over the next three years.
That was pretty carefully worded. No confirmation as of yet that this means they’ll look at reducing the corporate tax rate. Senate President Cullerton promised CME Group’s chairman he’d address the tax hike not long ago.
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown did not offer any hope that the legislative initiative would result in a rolling back of that tax increase, which is scheduled to revert to its past rate in 2014 and could not be cut under the state Constitution without also doing so to the tax rate paid by individuals.
“There is a constitutional provision that would have to be adhered to. I’m not going to go down that alley because it might pre-empt the work of the joint committees,” Brown said.
Actually, no. The state Constitution sets a cap on how high the corporate tax rate can go in relation to the individual rate. There is no floor…
In any such tax imposed upon corporations the rate shall not exceed the rate imposed on individuals by more than a ratio of 8 to 5.
The speaker’s aide also suggested further workers’ compensation reforms would not be on the committees’ radar. While the General Assembly did pass a workers’ compensation package, it did not include business’ No. 1 goal of beefing up standards to ensure businesses don’t wind up paying bills for an injured worker if their injury occurred away from the workplace, like a weekend softball game.
“You may want to look at the impact of enterprise zones, of [tax-increment finance districts], a wide range of different incentives that are available. Some are helpful; some may be outmoded. I don’t think we’ll prejudge any particular action,” Brown said.
A parliamentary hold Senate President John Cullerton placed on legislation that would authorize a Chicago casino could stay in place through the fall, the top Senate Democrat said Wednesday.
That pronouncement came on a busy day when lawmakers sent Gov. Pat Quinn a spending bill to preserve funding for billions of dollars in construction projects and gave final approval to a plan to cut lawmakers’ pay.
Cullerton’s move is aimed at buying time for negotiations with Quinn on a follow-up bill designed to narrow the scope of the gambling package that passed in May with Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s backing. […]
“There’s no sense in giving it to him to veto it,” Cullerton told reporters.
Even though the bill passed the House and Senate, Cullerton has the power under Senate rules to keep the legislation in his chamber through the end of this term of the General Assembly, which ends in January 2013.
Last month, Senate Democrats slowed approval when they attached $430 million in spending on schools, social services and other areas to the construction legislation. The House refused to go along, and lawmakers left town. Quinn later threatened to shut down construction projects throughout the state by July 1, a move that would have idled thousands of workers.
The Senate backed off the extra spending, and lawmakers sent a construction bill to Quinn on Wednesday.
“In light of the governor’s action, we obviously didn’t want to jeopardize the capital (construction) bill,” said Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago. “We’ll take up the shortcomings of the House budget that we did pass when we come back.”
The Regional Transportation Agency said today that service cuts could occur on the CTA, Metra and Pace as early as July if the state fails to pay part of the nearly $400 million it owes the RTA.
The RTA said it has exhausted its ability to borrow. This borrowing has been used to bridge the cash shortfalls caused until now by delinquent state payments.
Sen. Kyle McCarter brought a whole roast pig to a news conference at the state Capitol. The Lebanon Republican said he was trying to draw attention to spending policies that he compares to “a pig on a feeding frenzy.”
McCarter claims Illinois government spending is climbing too fast. He says the temporary income tax increase will wind up being made permanent to pay for the increases.
Democrats, however, point out that much of the new spending covers costs that were ignored last year, such as government pensions. They also say spending was cut for many programs.
McCarter last month alleged that fellow Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, punched him in the chest during a Senate floor argument over utility legislation. Jacobs was mad that McCarter had made a speech chiding Jacobs for ushering a bill friendly to the utility industry—for which Jacobs’ father, ex-Sen. Denny Jacobs, D-East Moline, is a lobbyist.
The younger Jacobs has claimed the physical gesture in question was more of a tap than a punch, but he has issued a public apology.
For awhile there, it looked like this one might be headed to court (McCarter’s complaint was forwarded to a local prosecutor, who declined to file charges), but things seem to have settled down.
“I just talked to him today. I don’t have anything against him,” McCarter said of Jacobs after today’s news conference. He insisted he wasn’t accusing Jacobs of impropriety in pushing the pro-utility bill, but only of failing to avoid “the appearance of impropriety.”
The Illinois Senate did not vote Wednesday on a bill that would have allowed Gov. Pat Quinn to boot nearly 2,000 state employees out of their unions and prevent another 1,700 from going into collective bargaining. Senate President John Cullerton, D- Chicago, said the bill was shelved after it became clear there were not enough votes for its passage.
* Press release: Governor Quinn Announces $100 Million Capital Funding for Local Transportation Projects
* Leaders kick off official push for Rockford gaming casino
* Editorial: Workers’ comp bill a good start on reform
* Some businesses say workers’ comp bill doesn’t go far enough: An employee of his, whom he declined to name, was a skydiver with more than 2,000 jumps, Knight said. That employee worked for one year, then stood up one day and needed a knee replacement, he said.
Based on issues raised by a Texas blogger, Senate Republicans put the brakes on Quinn’s appointment, asking that Chico personally appear before a Senate panel to explain his relationship with Save A Life Foundation, a charity that is undergoing a probe within Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office.
“To me, this is the biggest non-event there could be,” Chico said when asked about the wrinkle in his confirmation. “I’m happy to come down there and answer any questions.”
The Senate won’t take up Chico’s confirmation until, at the earliest, October, when lawmakers reconvene for their fall veto session. Chico can serve as the board chairman until he’s confirmed.
“No one is accusing him of anything, but if something comes up, you want to resolve it,” said Sen. Tim Bivins (R-Dixon), the ranking Republican on the Senate Executive Appointments Committee. “Without him here, we can’t answer those questions.”
Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) said he “absolutely” favors Chico’s appointment. The head of the Senate appointments panel, Sen. Tony Munoz (D-Chicago), said he did not believe Chico’s nomination is threatened but was willing to accommodate Republicans so they could ask questions of Chico, who was not required to attend Wednesday’s hearing.
* Save a Life Foundation was built on a lie and the group’s founder lied to everybody about just about everything. For instance, founder Carol Spizzirri said she started her organization after her daughter was killed in a hit and run accident and the police responders didn’t know emergency first aid. Turns out, that wasn’t true. Her daughter was allegedly drunk and flipped her own car. She didn’t die at the scene, according to an I-Team report.
Spizzirri claimed to be a nurse. Not true, either. She claimed to have taught nearly 70,000 children how to save a life in Chicago Public Schools in 2006 alone. Apparently not true. The group claimed to have a National Guard contract. Nope. Spizzirri filed defamation lawsuits that failed and her charity closed in 2009.
But before the end came, Spizzirri had managed to dupe a whole lot of people into backing her organization. Click here for a partial list of the duped, which included Mayor Daley. Barack Obama was also a supporter at one time. It got regular grant money from the Center for Disease Control, the state of Illinois, FEMA and others.
* The Chicago Public Schools under Paul Vallas and Gery Chico were also apparently conned. At one point, Chico was listed as being on the group’s board of directors.
Chico flatly denies ever being on the board, and considering that Save a Life was built on a foundation of lies, it’s kinda difficult to believe them and not him. But there is this…
[Chico] appeared at SALF’s “Bridge the Gap” Summit in 2003, where he received a 10th Year Anniversary Award from the organization.
In a news release from that same year, Chico’s wife, Sunny, described her husband as “instrumental to bringing SALF to the Chicago Public Schools” during his tenure there.
* The “Texas blogger” described in the Sun-Times report is Lee Cary, who publishes the SALF Exposed! blog. Cary recently sent a letter to the Illinois Senate Education Committee describing himself as a “writer whose articles have been published by Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government, the American Thinker, and elsewhere.” He’s quite dogged.
The fact that Chico was conned is unfortunate, but so were a heckuva lot of other people. Unless something else comes out between now and October, he ought to be confirmed.
Selection of former Democratic state Rep. Mike Smith for the Educational Labor Relations Board also was held in the Senate Executive Appointments Committee. Bivins said Smith’s appointment might violate a requirement that no more than four members of the seven-person board be from the same political party.
Bivins said there also are questions about whether Smith meets statutory requirements that board members have a “minimum of five years of experience directly related to labor and employment relations in representing educational employers or educational employees in collective bargaining.” […]
In Smith’s case, [Quinn spokeswoman Annie Thompson] cited his 16 years as a member of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, including four years as chairman; 12 years on an appropriation committee for education; and six years on the House Personnel and Pension Committee.
“He was responsible for negotiating with legislators and advocates to make changes to the state’s education labor law — impacting educators and their employers,” Thompson said.
What the Sox have done in interleague play lately -– 17 straight series victories — is nothing short of astounding. That includes six straight, a full three years’ worth, against the Cubs.
Give up yet?
* Related…
* Cubs owner Joe Ricketts sued for harassment retaliation: Two Nebraska women are suing the founder of TD Ameritrade and an owner of the Chicago Cubs, claiming he fired them from his Omaha-based charity after they complained of sexual harassment… The lawsuit alleges Ricketts re-hired the charity’s chief operating officer shortly after the COO was fired amid the women’s complaints. The suit alleges the COO often commented about Davis’ legs and cleavage and once putted a golf ball into Duncan’s office, saying “I’m trying to get into your hole.”
McCormick Place officials have lost a legal battle to keep labor changes in place temporarily while they appeal an earlier court ruling invalidating the measures.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman issued a permanent injunction on Wednesday preventing McCormick Place from operating under labor rules imposed by the state legislature about a year ago.
The labor changes have allowed exhibitors to do more of their own booth setup, and have also limited labor overtime and crew sizes. The provisions, aimed at cutting exhibitors’ costs and hassles, were popular with trade show exhibitors, and led to new and renewed show contracts for the convention center.
Guzman ruled in March that the National Labor Relations Act pre-empts states from enacting legislation that would interfere with the ability of private-sector employees to negotiate employment terms. Most trade union employees who set up and tear down shows work for private contractors.
The state’s and city’s top political leadership — including Democrats and Republicans — is pledging to do “whatever it may take” to preserve McCormick Place labor reforms that are under fire in federal court.
In an extraordinary letter to trade show organizers, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Gov. Pat Quinn and the four top legislative leaders say they “are aware of the uncertainty” caused by U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Guzman’s decision to overturn the reforms.
That, says the letter, is “why we are committing to provide you the certainty you need to bring your show to our state. We want you to know that this effort has the complete and bipartisan support of state and city leadership, and we pledge to take whatever steps are necessary to provide you that certainty.”
In his ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Guzman said it’s unlikely that MPEA will win its appeal.
“In sum, defendants have some chance of success on appeal, but it is not strong enough to outweigh plaintiffs’ interest in obtaining relief and the interests of the public and other stakeholders in eliminating the cloud hanging over the statute,” he wrote. “Therefore, the court declines to enter a stay.”
Trade-show managers and exhibitors had complained for years about the high costs of hosting trade shows at McCormick Place, which they blamed on complex, restrictive union work rules. A double whammy of a full-blown recession and the threat of a trade-show exodus out of Chicago last year pressured the Legislature, and the governor, to intervene. In May 2010, the General Assembly adopted the reforms and named the new McPier board.
The reforms expanded exhibitors’ rights to put up their own booths on the show floor; reduced labor crew sizes under new rules of “straight” time, overtime and double-time provisions; and changed in-house electrical contractor operations, including pricing and service delivery. The labor changes prompted five trade shows to recommit their conventions to McCormick Place and several others to sign on.
* What’s the biggest cost driver at McCormick Place? It’s the huge markups by private contractors. And that continues unabated…
Trade associations and exhibitors likely will pay more for electrical services under agreements that keep McCormick Place electricians on the job but allow two private contractors to mark up the cost of the electricians’ work, Crain’s has learned.
The agreements appear to flout state legislation passed last year that requires McCormick Place to provide electrical labor at cost but opened the door to competition from the contractors, Las Vegas-based Global Experience Specialists and Dallas-based Freeman. The law also allows trade show exhibitors to choose the lower-cost McCormick Place option over potentially more expensive electrical services offered by the contractors.
Under the new arrangement, McCormick Place electricians will continue to work at cost, but their services will be billed through the general contractors, which are free to mark up the price of labor and materials. Exhibitors no longer will be able to choose among competing electrical providers.
News of the electrical deal comes as Freeman continues to consolidate its hold on the trade show industry by acquiring two competitors, Champion Exposition Services and George Fern Exposition & Event Services.
Freeman’s acquisitions further strengthen the contractor’s hand at McCormick Place. Between Jan. 1, 2009, and mid-June of this year, Champion served as the general contractor for 12 McCormick Place trade shows, including the Chicago Boat, Sports and RV Show. George Fern ran one trade show, the Rock and Roll Chicago Race Expo.
Adding those shows to Freeman’s stable would give the company 82 of the 153 shows at McCormick Place in that period, or about 53.6%. With the 44 shows managed by GES, the two companies will now control four out of five McCormick Place shows.
The Justice Department’s anti-trust division really needs to take a look at this situation.
Some thought yesterday would be the day. Some thought it would have been last week, others were saying next week.
But this morning, I’ve heard several people give the same reaction: “I’m done guessing.”
Here we are, day 9 of deliberations in a case that prosecutors took 11 days to present and no sign from the Rod Blagojevich jury. No note since last Thursday.
We will mention that last year’s jury sent out two notes right away, then went eight days without making a peep. On day 11, the panel sent a flurry of notes before concluding they could not come to a consensus on 23 of the 24 counts.
In the retrial, there are 20 counts the jury of 11 women and one man must ponder. And significantly different this time: Blagojevich was on the witness stand for parts of seven days.
So they’re not only weighing witness testimony, transcripts, tapes and documents — but the defendant’s own words.
* It’s not quite the same, of course, but I’ve been through enough overtime sessions involving deadlocked leaders’ negotiations to have come to a simple conclusion long ago: Never try to guess when it’ll be over. Just go with the flow. Guessing will only drive you crazy.
I’ll never forget my first overtime session, in 1991. It lasted 19 days, but it seemed like forever. I didn’t have the sources that I do now, so I was pretty much in the dark about what was going on behind those closed doors. Some days, it looked to me like it was about over. Some days, it appeared that everything had completely fallen apart. I was almost tearing my hair out after two weeks.
* It’s always fun to speculate about things like whether 11 women on the jury will make a difference, or how this stacks up to the last Blagojevich deliberation, or how it compares to the George Ryan trial. The Ryan jury was a freaking mess, and it took them 10 days to reach a conclusion after the judge replaced two jurors and ordered everything be restarted. Nine days is really no big deal in that context.
It’ll happen when it happens and there’s nothing anybody can do about it.
Former presecutors, interviewed as experts during the first trial, explained to Chicago TV viewers that conspiracy is a crime if there’s evidence that two or more people take action to effect a criminal act, and that doing something as simple as picking up a telephone to bully a subordinate qualifies as such an action.
I cannot agree with some of the more fervent Blago backers, who insisted that the case was a setup. I do wonder whether a law that defines otherwise inconsequential talk as “action” reaches too far. Laws that make mere talking a crime are familiar weapons in government attempts to silence dissidents of all types. They have a long and inglorious history in Illinois, where they have been widely used by government agents to hunt down socialists and trade unionists and “Reds” in the 1880s, during World War I and again during the Cold War.
We don’t hunt Reds in Illinois, at least for the moment. We do hunt politicians. Corruption trials of the sort in which Illinois officeholders have figured so gloriously often have relied on laws that thoughtful Illinoisans might regard as dubious. A good example is the 1988 federal statute that made it a crime to “deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.” It was widely used to punish self-dealing and conflicts of interest by government and corporate officials even, or rather especially, when those officials could not be shown to have received a direct quid pro quo in exchange for their actions. In effect they were charged with having committed what we might call (with apologies to Jimmy Carter) “bribery of the heart.”
* As you already know, the Senate passed a 12-day furlough bill for legislators yesterday. The measure now goes to the governor…
“This is somewhat pandering to an electorate to say we are self-righteous enough to cut when we haven’t been able to cut the overall budget,” said Sen. Tom Johnson, R- West Chicago.
“I just think that this is getting a little ridiculous, and I think that the electorate and I think the press and everybody else knows exactly what we’re doing. … I don’t think it means anything, except it diminishes the work of everybody in this chamber and probably discourages a lot of good people from being able to make the races to come in here.”
The legislation’s sponsor, Sen. Dan Kotowski, D- Park Ridge, said the General Assembly had cut the budget, and this showed lawmakers are willing to share the pain.
“The message that this sends today is that … we’re willing to sacrifice for the second year in a row,” Kotowski said.
Next year will actually be the third year in a row that legislators will take unpaid furlough days. It’ll be the second year in a row that they’ll take 12 days.
“To me, this is a mockery,” said Collins, D-Chicago, who recently came over from the House. Collins argued that “$65,000 is not a lot to get paid to do a job. Not saying we don’t love this job, because I love representing my community, the poor people who cannot be here to be represented.”
* The Question: Are legislative furloughs appropriate? Explain.
