* My wife was in an auto accident a little over a month ago. Nobody was hurt, but our car was crunched but good. She picked up the car today in Chicago and said it looked brand new, which is good since it’s not even a year old. She loves that car and she’s ecstatic right now, so this one’s for Wasan…
Honey, it ain’t your money
Baby, I got plenty of that
The parent of the Chicago Board Options Exchange has held talks with a number of governors and state officials about a possible move of its headquarters to another state after Illinois raised its tax rate, providing another challenge to the city’s status as the self-styled “derivatives capital of the world.”
January’s tax increase is seen increasing CBOE Holdings Inc.’s (CBOE) state tax bill by a quarter. Chicago-based CME Group Inc. (CME), the world’s largest futures exchange operator, is also talking about relocating its headquarters.
“We’ve had a series of meetings with people in this state and outside this state,” said Bill Brodsky, chairman and chief executive of CBOE, in an interview. “The bottom line is that we don’t want to leave Illinois, but the structure that exists as it relates to exchanges is virtually punitive.” […]
Chicago’s derivatives exchanges form the nucleus of a broader financial services sector that is also being hit by the tax rise, said Brodsky. The trading business is estimated to employ around 120,000 people in the city, and has expanded to fill the gap left by the decline of its manufacturing base. […]
“Our goal is to find a way that will remove the punitive aspects that will allow us not to move operations out,” Brodsky said. “Hopefully we will come to a solution, but if not we have many other alternatives.”
It may already be too late, but I really think we need to seriously consider repealing that corporate income tax hike.
* 1:56 pm - Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan just sent this e-mail to his executive board. I confirmed it with Cullerton’s office…
Patricia Cullerton, mother of Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, died Thursday at Tabor Hills, a retirement home in Naperville. She was 85.
“President Cullerton is taking this time to honor her memory and celebrate the proud legacy she left in her family,” said Rikeesha Phelon, spokeswoman for Cullerton.
Patricia Cullerton, a Chicago native and longtime resident of Winfield, had nine children and more than 20 grandchildren. Her husband, John J. Cullerton Sr., preceded her in death.
Visitation is from 2-7 p.m. Sunday at Williams-Kampp Funeral Home, 430 E. Roosevelt Road, Wheaton. A funeral Mass will be at 11:30 a.m. Monday at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Winfield.
My most sincere sympathies are extended to President Cullerton and his entire family.
You’d probably better set aside more money in your budget to fight a blizzard of lawsuits over your planned facility closures…
Among the potential roadblocks is a statute designating the Chester Mental Health Center as the state’s sole facility for treating certain kinds of violence-prone residents. The governor wants to move the residents to an existing facility in Alton.
In addition, moving nearly 2,000 inmates out of the Logan Correctional Center will cause additional overcrowding in the state’s already cramped prison system, potentially opening up the state to an inmate lawsuit. […]
In addition to requiring statutory changes allowing Alton to begin serving Chester residents, mental health advocate Mark Heyrman, a facilitor for the Chicago-based Mental Health Summit, said state laws limit how Quinn can use the savings he says he will get from closing the three centers.
* Dear Tammy Duckworth,
It’s “Dick” with a “D.” Try to remember that the next time you send out a fundraising e-mail…
…Adding… But this Duckworth campaign e-mail update ain’t bad at all…
Here’s the good news: when we totaled it up at lunch yesterday, we realized that Tammy has raised $386,504 for the primary from over 2,000 people.
* Dear Community Unit School District 300,
If Sears moves its headquarters because the company’s local economic development area authorization is allowed to expire, you’re gonna get even less tax money…
“EDA is not the way.”
“RIP, EDA.”
Allison Strupeck, director of communication services in Community Unit School District 300 admitted, “I’ve been thinking a little too much about what the slogans might be.”
Those are slogans Strupeck said she hopes to see and hear soon around the Carpentersville-area school district as it treads into uncharted waters to stop the extension of the EDA — economic development area — special property tax status around Sears’ Prairie Stone corporate headquarters in Hoffman Estates.
District 300 is working with students, staff, parents, community groups and legislators to remove an amendment to Illinois Senate Bill 540 that would extend the EDA past its expiration in mid-2012. That’s because those tax incentives hand about $14 million in tax dollars each year that would go to District 300 instead to the EDA generally bordered by I-90, Route 72, Beverly Road and Prairie Stone Parkway, school district officials say.
Three years after a financial crisis pushed the country deep into recession, an overwhelming number of Americans — 90 percent — say that economic conditions remain poor.
* Dear ComEd,
You might wanna consider the distinct possibility that you’ve been cursed…
Wind gusts knocked out power to 31,000 people overnight, ComEd officials said.
Perhaps canceling your Cubs skybox would do the trick.
Schulter’s two campaign committees had $187,299 in cash on hand, with another $647,141 invested in certificates of deposit as of June 30, state records show.
What kind of person calls 911 because his wife locked him out of the house after she discovered on Christmas morning that he was allegedly having an affair with their neighbor? Yeah, she threw stuff at you, but, sheesh dude, couldn’t you just walk away, perhaps to that very same neighbor’s house?
* Dear Chicago Tea Party honcho Steve Stevlic, who is co-hosting this weekend’s TeaCon 2011 event,
In retrospect, I’m sure you would agree that it probably wasn’t a good idea to taunt Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. after his marital problems were exposed when you yourself had been busted two months earlier by the coppers for soliciting the services of a, um, woman of the evening.
It’s fantastic that you weren’t convicted after you agreed to attend a rehab program. Here’s hoping that you’re a better person now. And I mean that without any snark in my heart. But you still might wanna try to keep a low profile during the upcoming festivities.
State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka defended the raises for members of her staff during a stop at an animal shelter in Normal Wednesday morning.
A Chicago-based nonprofit group, the Better Government Association, criticized Topinka for providing raises of at least 3 percent to 56 employees.
“This is a small raise and we’re not talking about huge amounts of money,” she said. “Plus, we are down on our headcount by 24 people and $1.5 million.”
The raises for nonunion staffers were also based on an effort to create more parity with the unionized work force. Under existing contracts, those raises were set at 4.5 percent.
“I had all of these folks who for years have been working, working, working and I didn’t want to have to force them to join a union to get a raise,” she said.
In Illinois, budget belt-tightening has a whole different meaning than is generally understood.
With the state effectively bankrupt, should top state elected officials be handing out pay raises to their staffs? […]
Here [is the reasoning]: The raises were given because employees took on new, more serious duties; the pay raises were given as a matter of equity because the employees had been previously underpaid; and the raises were given to nonunion employees because union employees had received raises.
Those explanations are reasonable. What’s unreasonable is handing out any raises in these offices when the state is effectively broke.
A floundering private business could never get away with this kind of money management. In the private sector, having no money means having no money. In the public sector, that doesn’t seem to be a problem — at least not in Illinois.
This is a bit like the class valedictorian and student council president getting caught phoning in a bomb threat as a prank on their high school. Here we have the lone Republican constitutional officers, the ones who have preached fiscal responsibility to the point of advocating combining their offices to save money, doing the very thing that so drives taxpayers and good government groups crazy. […]
Sure, we get the excuses: Pay equity. Promotions. Adjusting for new duties, etc. But some of the raises handed out by Rutherford and Topinka seem at most excessive and at the very least, tone-deaf.
It doesn’t help public perception that news about these raises arrives only with help from the Freedom of Information Act or by good-government groups sifting through state data.
All the excuses in the world aren’t going to do anything to assuage voter anger, especially since some voters haven’t had raises in many years, and in many cases have seen pay and benefits shrink. Add in the fact that we are paying more taxes to help the state out of a fiscal crisis, and this move isn’t going to do anything to stem the ire when terms are up.
Across the state line, the insanity continues. […]
The ill-timed raises demonstrate the obvious. Illinois’ leadership — pardon our gross misuse of that word — clearly is constitutionally incapable of exercising sound fiscal judgment.
Who knows? Maybe their rationale is to rake in a few final bucks before the state’s entire fiscal house of cards collapses. Chances are it’s too late to save this spend-happy state anyway. […]
Failure for years to deal with known problems landed Illinois in this fix. The only solution, eventually, may be the humiliation of bankruptcy. Really.
Giving pay raises to state workers demonstrates political tone deafness. That was the case when Quinn did. It’s still the case now that Rutherford and Topinka have done it.
They all have excuses and explanations for the new jobs and the big raises. But no way should they be doing this in the midst of a fiscal crisis. They’re supposed to be leading us out of this mess, but instead they are adding to the problem.
* The Question: Are editorial boards overreacting to these raises for non-union employees? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please. Thanks.
Friday, Sep 30, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Prominent experts in utility regulation are speaking out about Senate Bill 1652 (Electric Infrastructure Modernization Act).
Here’s what they are saying:
“ComEd is the only utility proposing legislation that includes performance standards linking utility investments to service reliability improvements. SB 1652 establishes a new era of accountability to consumers and serves as a national model.”
- John Kelly, Galvin Electricity Initiative
“(SB 1652) is an innovative approach to setting electricity rates that is compatible with good regulation, market realities and the goal to modernize Illinois’ electric grid.”
- Ken Costello, former regulator, principal at the National Regulatory Research Institute
“Changing regulatory policy is not easy, nor should it be. But this bill represents one opportunity for Illinois to shape policy that protects consumers, spurs needed investment in a fragile grid and creates much-needed jobs.”
- Ray Romero, former commissioner at the Illinois Commerce Commission
“The long term success of a digital grid requires that we free ourselves of outdated thinking and stereotypes, and embrace innovation as we have in so many other facets of every day life.
- David O’Brien, former Vermont Commissioner of Public Service
The unsuccessful 2011 mayoral campaign of Carol Moseley Braun has failed to file documentation on how $315,000 in campaign funds was spent, something that is required by state law.
Illinois Board of Elections officials told the Chicago Sun-Times and NBC5 News they have been unsuccessful in getting either Braun or her now-defunct campaign to explain how the money was spent.
Candidates are required by law to file quarterly campaign disclosure statements. In an April 15 filing, Braun reported raising $323,000 and spending $315,000.
In the report, the Braun campaign listed “Vendors Multiple” instead of itemizing expenditures over $150.
* And any remaining good will for Carol Moseley Braun should now vanish forevermore…
Any fault, according to Moseley Braun, lies with her former treasurer, Billie Paige.
“If Billie Paige neglected to (detail those expenses), it doesn’t surprise, she is elderly and overwhelmed,” Moseley Braun said by phone this week.
First of all, Billie Paige resigned as Braun’s campaign treasurer on April 13th. If this reporting problem was her fault, Braun has had plenty of time to straighten out the books since then.
By phone this week, Paige told NBC Chicago she had raised questions herself about the expenditure omissions.
Thirdly, Billie Paige has been one of Braun’s best friends for decades. To make these accusations now is inexcusable. Paige has defended Braun through thick and thin, and there’s been plenty of both over the years.
And, lastly, Ms. Paige is not a senile old woman. Far from it. To suggest that this problem was caused by Paige’s age and lack mental acuity is just flat-out disgusting and wrong. She’s still as sharp as a tack. The real problem was a wholly disorganized and disjointed campaign apparatus created by Braun’s total incompetence. Nobody knew what was going on from minute to minute because Braun thought she knew best. She didn’t.
Carol Braun ran a terrible campaign, and these financial reporting problems are further proof of this fact. Thankfully, she has finally been exposed as the horribly disorganized, mean-spirited person many of us have long known her to be.
It was obvious to all of us who knew her that Paige realized early on that she’d made the biggest mistake of her life by convincing Braun to run for mayor. It weighed on her heavily, and probably broke her heart.
And now this. The final insult, and a total crock to boot.
So, just how much is Indiana offering CME Group Inc. to move its headquarters and perhaps other operations to the Hoosier state?
I hear the figure — in net tax savings — is a mouth-watering $150 million a year. That’s from a reliable source who claims to have obtained the information from Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ office.
CME isn’t commenting on who’s offering what, though CEO Terry Duffy earlier in the week said he expects the headquarters matter to be resolved by yearend.
But, in a conversation with my colleague John Pletz on Thursday, Indian’s top economic development official, Dan Hasler, stopped way short of waving us off that number.
The Hoosiers really want that company to move across the border. Illinois cannot afford to compete with an offer like that, but it also cannot afford to lose such a valuable corporation.
With an eye on drawing more attendees closer to the 2012 election, Right Nation, a conservative conference that drew roughly 6,000 to Hoffman Estates last year, is postponing a second conference originally scheduled for Nov. 3-5.
Hoffman Estates Mayor William McLeod said he learned of the news a few days ago, but had “no idea why” the conference organizers backed out of those dates.
The United Republican Fund, which was organizing the event, declined to comment Wednesday.
But Joe Morris, a board member with the American Conservatives Union, which had been working with the organizers of the Right Nation conference, said he was “informed of the decision rather than participating in the making of it.”
That Morris quote seems kinda ominous.
* If you go to the Right Nation 2011 website, there’s no indication yet that the conference has been postponed…
* The Illinois Review is listed as a “participating organization,” but the self-described “crossroads of the conservative community” doesn’t have anything on its website about the “postponement” either. The United Republican Fund, which runs the show, has nothing on its Facebook page. And Right Nation’s news page hasn’t been updated since June 15th.
* The URF spent thousands of dollars on consulting contracts for Right Nation 2010, including to Illinois Review’s top person, Fran Eaton. The group was over $40,000 in debt at the end of June and had just $428.87 in the bank. It has filed no disclosure reports for large contributions in the third quarter, which ends this week.
Sears Centre General Manager Ben Gibbs noted that the arena will still generate revenue because of a cancellation provision in Right Nation’s contract.
…Adding… I’m told that the URF has formed a 501c4 organization and has money built up in that account, which isn’t public. They also claim that the event will happen eventually.
Fresh off his convincing win in last week’s Florida straw poll and his resulting dramatic rise in a major national poll, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain will be appearing at TeaCon 2011 in Schaumburg on Saturday.
According to Chicago Tea Party Coordinator Steve Stevlic, Cain will appear as part of a presidential candidate forum on Saturday afternoon from 1:00 - 4:00 that will also feature a recorded video message from Governor Rick Perry. The group is currently working on setting up a live address via Skype from Rep. Michele Bachmann as well.
The Tea Party will conduct its own straw poll following the forum, learning from the experience of the Iowa straw poll. In Iowa, voters were allowed to cast ballots before the candidates had even addressed the attendees. After hearing the speeches, many voters asked for their ballots back so they could change their votes to vote for Cain according to Stevlic, who said, “We’re not going to make that same mistake.”
Right Nation’s list of “participants” was decidedly less glittery.
* In related news, Carol Marin’s most recent column is about Jack Roeser, who was tea party almost before the original tea party…
Roeser, who operates his aerospace engineering company and nonprofit Family Taxpayers Foundation out of offices in Carpentersville, has never gotten along with the moderate members of the GOP. Or they with him.
“I’ve been called some of the most interesting names,” he said. “Like a cockroach in the caviar . . . or a member of the lunatic fringe.”
Roeser views the ascendance of the Tea Party as vindication.
Then again, Roeser has long fired away at fellow Republicans with invective: U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (“The Tea Party hates him.”); former Gov. James Thompson (“He’s the progenitor of the whole mess.”); or former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (“Elements like Hastert are slugs.”).
Directors of an Illinois company that develops and manufactures wound-care dressings plan to relocate the company to Fort Worth from Illinois, citing their pursuit of a more business-friendly home.
Ferris Manufacturing Corp. is negotiating a potential lease on 40,000- to 50,000-square-foot building in the Alliance area of north Fort Worth, company officials said. The privately held company plans to move next spring or summer.
“The taxes are oppressive (in Illinois). The business climate is terrible. Every time you turn around, they’ve got some new regulation or some way to make you uncomfortable,” said Dr. Roger Sessions, Ferris chairman and CEO.
Harsh.
Sessions is the nephew of the company’s founder and was once a football coach at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine. I am not making that up. Sessions lives in Texas.
* But Illinois did gain a bunch of new jobs today. From a press release…
Governor Pat Quinn today announced the opening of a new FedEx facility in Grayslake that would result in the creation of more than 450 new jobs, including managers, clerical staff, maintenance workers, drivers and more. Local officials, FedEx representatives and Assistant Director of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Dan Seals gathered today to officially open the facility, which was supported by the state with an estimated $500,000 business investment package to strengthen the company’s $38 million private investment. […]
The new 206,000 square-foot highly-automated distribution center is expected to process about 63,000 packages per day between the Midwest and the rest of the country. DCEO is administering the state’s $500,000 business investment package, which consists of Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) tax credits based on job creation and Employer Training Investment Program job training funds that will help enhance the skills of the company’s workforce.
“We are pleased that FedEx Ground has chosen Illinois as the location of their newest distribution center,” DCEO Assistant Director Dan Seals said. “With investments like this, we are continuing to fuel the state’s economic growth, creating jobs and supporting Illinois businesses.”
* In a related story, Republican Congressmen Joe Walsh, Don Manzullo, Bobby Schilling and John Shimkus have sent a letter to Gov. Pat Quinn about our tax situation…
As Members of Congress overseeing a vast federal budget that itself is in the red, we certainly understand the difficulty in trying to solve budgetary issues. However, raising individual income taxes by 66 percent will only exacerbate our wider problem and take more Illinois residents off the tax roll when they leave our state. Middle class families are already stretched thin. A family of four earning $60,000 a year right now has an additional $1,040 to pay in taxes each year. We understand this might not seem like much but for the families in our districts this is money that they cannot afford to lose.
The largest employers in the state of Illinois are struggling too. Illinois has the third highest corporate tax rate in the country and this takes away from their competitive edge and ability to create new jobs. Many of our large employers based in Illinois could leave as a result of the new 9 percent corporate tax rate that was raised from 6.8 percent in January. These are critical jobs that must be protected. We are willing to work with you on this issue as similar measures are considered right now in Congress.
That first paragraph almost reads as if the state hadn’t yet passed the tax hike. Kinda weird. Also, our “largest employers” will probably end up getting state aid to stick around.
We elect congressmen to run the country. We elected Pat Quinn to run the state. He doesn’t give advice to Congress, and he doesn’t need advice from congressmen, either.
Quinn routinely offers his advice to anybody and everybody, whether they listen or not.
The governor’s office passed on a chance to comment.
* And speaking of Congress and the state, I mentioned in passing yesterday that Congressman Bob Dold was criticized for railing against the stimulus bill and then showing up for an unveiling of a $4.9 million renovation of a Metra station paid for with those stimulus funds. Greg Hinz says Dold just handed his foes some ammunition…
Congressman Robert Dold, R-Winnetka, has just given a little gift of sorts to whoever will be his Democratic foe next year. […]
“Jobs are created by small businesses growing and adding employees, not through handouts of taxpayer dollars,” one Dold press release [during the 2010 campaign] stated. The stimulus “handouts” merely “add to the growing federal debt,” another 2010 press release from Mr. Dold read.
Asked how he can celebrate spending from a program he slammed, Mr. Dold’s spokeswoman replies that he “was pleased to accept the invitation from Metra to attend this event in the 10th District. The office regularly works with Metra.”
But it goes farther than that. Dold showed a real enmity toward capital projects in his last campaign. For instance, here’s a press release from his Republican primary race against former state Rep. Beth Coulson…
Coulson is a Springfield-Insider who has sponsored tax and spending increases:
Sponsored HB656, the RTA sales tax increase in 2008 that raised sales tax in several Illinois counties by $500 million per year to fund a bailout of the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority). The sales tax increased helped Chicago become the highest taxed city in the nation. […]
Voted for the spending portion of the 2009 Capital Bill which included taxpayer monies for special works projects in her district, but voted against initiatives to fund those projects (HB255 & HB312) piling more debt onto Illinois taxpayers. […]
Voted for a $750 million pork spending bill that would have funded projects started by imprisoned former Governor George Ryan. Former Governor Rod Blagojevich vetoed $550 million of the pork spending bill, but Coulson voted to override most of Blagojevich’s line-item vetoes (SB1239, 2003).
As Congressman of the 10th District, Dold will bring small business common sense to Washington by cutting taxes for families and small businesses, ending Congressional leaders’ irresponsible borrowing and spending, and advocating a realistic and balanced federal budget.
The RTA praised that quarter-point press release at the time…
“The new funding and reforms will allow us to bring our system up to a state of good repair and ensure that we are operating efficiently,” said Steve Schlickman, RTA Executive Director.
And, of course, the capital bill mentioned above also included transit funding.
So, bash the stimulus, bash the RTA sales tax, bash state capital spending, but, by gosh, don’t miss a chance to cut a ribbon at a subsidized train station with one of those over-sized scissors…
Also, Dold has campaigned often at Metra stops. It’s a requirement for suburban politicians. But I’m wondering if he told those commuters how he felt about funding their rides?
* Related…
* ADDED: Congressman: Don’t tax the rich: Cutting taxes and eliminating restrictions on corporations are the two main pillars of Schilling’s plan to spur the economy… “It wasn’t the millionaires and billionaires that created Obamacare, cap and trade, the over-regulation by EPA and OSHA – it was the administration and the people that he appointed in,” Schilling said.
* Former Belleville mayor Roger Cook will try to unseat Costello
While impeached ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich awaits sentencing, the state watchdog that polices lawyers has asked the Illinois Supreme Court to suspend his law license in a move that could deal yet another indignity to the state’s defrocked chief executive.
Blagojevich’s legal team has until Oct. 11 to tell justices why the felon should not have his law license suspended after a jury this year convicted him of trying to sell the state’s U.S. Senate seat and extorting a hospital official for campaign contributions and another jury last year found him guilty of lying to the FBI.
“While the judgment of conviction has yet to be entered in respondent’s criminal case because the sentencing hearing has not been conducted, due to the egregious breadth of respondent’s conduct while governor of this state as concluded by two separate juries, an interim suspension is appropriate at this time,” wrote Jerome Larkin, administrator for the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission in a late-August filing with court.
Such a suspension, if imposed by the court, likely would be a precursor to an outright disbarment.
* The Question: Aside from prison and losing his law license, what other punishments should Rod Blagojevich face?
Snark is heavily encouraged, of course, but please stay away from any sort of violent imagery. Thanks.
* When the Argonne National Laboratory says there’s a real problem, I tend to pay attention…
It could be one of the most disturbing e-voting machine hacks to date.
Voting machines used by as many as a quarter of American voters heading to the polls in 2012 can be hacked with just $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education, according to computer science and security experts at the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The experts say the newly developed hack could change voting results while leaving absolutely no trace of the manipulation behind.
“We believe these man-in-the-middle attacks are potentially possible on a wide variety of electronic voting machines,” said Roger Johnston, leader of the assessment team “We think we can do similar things on pretty much every electronic voting machine.” […]
Almost all voters in states like Georgia, Maryland, Utah and Nevada, and the majority of voters in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Texas, will vote on DREs on Election Day in 2012, says Flaherty. Voters in major municipalities such as Houston, Atlanta, Chicago and Pittsburgh will also line up in next year’s election to use DREs of the type hacked by the Argonne National Lab. […]
“This is a fundamentally very powerful attack and we believe that voting officials should become aware of this and stop focusing strictly on cyber [attacks],” says Vulnerability Assessment Team member John Warner. “There’s a very large physical protection component of the voting machine that needs to be addressed.”
The team’s video demonstrates how inserting the inexpensive electronic device into the voting machine can offer a “bad guy” virtually complete control over the machine. A cheap remote control unit can enable access to the voting machine from up to half a mile away. […]
This type of attack is particularly troubling because the manipulation would occur after the voter has approved as “correct” the on-screen summaries of his or her intended selections. Team leader Johnson says that while such an attack could be mounted on Election Day, there would be “a high probability of being detected.” But he explained that the machines could also be tampered with during so-called voting machine “sleepovers” when e-voting systems are kept by poll workers at their houses, often days and weeks prior to the election or at other times when the systems are unguarded.
Johnston said the machine is “incredibly easy to tamper with” because all the crucial electronic components are accessible and can be easily modified. The Accuvote TS’ enclosure isn’t tamper resistant so hjackers can work on the machine without leaving visible signs, he added.
“All we had to do was find out what the machine was doing in terms of communication,” Johnston said. “We just had to understand the various components and how the data was being sent. We needed to understand what signal had to be sent to fool the machine into thinking the voter had touched the screen at a particular location.”
The experiment shows that e-voting systems are susceptible to more than just cyberattacks, which get the most attention but are harder to pull off as the perpetrators must have some knowledge of the machine’s software, hardware and firmware.
The so-called man-in-the-middle attacks don’t require knowledge of the voting machine’s proprietary software or hardware, Johnston said. “All you need to do is understand the communication between the different parts of the system. Then you just sit there and listen and do whatever mischief you want to.”.
Although it wouldn’t take a nation-state to pull of a successful attack, he said. Someone with limited computer science knowledge and electronic parts costing about $25 could do it, without needing to even solder anything and leaving no trace behind, according to the researchers.
E-voting systems have been plagued by criticism about security issues, so much so that elections officials in various states have abandoned touch-screen systems over security and fraud concerns.
Dominion Voting Systems, which now owns Diebold and Sequoia, did not respond to a phone call and e-mail seeking comment from CNET this afternoon. E-voting system vendors in general have argued that security problems identified are either overly theoretical or have been fixed with hardware and software updates.
Previous demonstrations of e-voting hacks involved cyber attacks where knowledge of the operating system and hardware were required, according to Johnston. However, that was not the case in these demonstrations, he said.
“It would be pretty easy to pull off,” Johnston said. “The bigger concern is that this attack is so straightforward. It suggests that there hasn’t been much thinking about security in these voting systems.”
While it would be relatively easy to make this type of attack more difficult to do by making modifications to the voting machine, stopping the attack cold would require more effort and a “careful examination of the security protocols used,” he said.
* Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said he’s against this tax hike idea proposed by the Chicago Inspector General, but that hasn’t stopped the fear mongering…
Chicago officials this week tossed around the idea of a commuter tax — charging suburbanites who work in the city of Chicago a 1 percent income tax — as a way to bring in additional revenue.
The idea was one of a list of potential cost cuts and money makers compiled by the city’s Inspector General Joe Ferguson that could reduce a budget shortfall.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has ruled out tax hikes for now, but some aldermen favored the commuter tax notion.
The idea didn’t sit well with commuters, however, nor potential commuters.
Andrea Laue of Mokena, who has been commuting to Chicago for 15 years for work, said she thinks the income tax idea is “absolutely ridiculous.”
“Since I work in the city, I am already buying food and drinks, retail items, and eating out at restaurants, and paying the higher city and county taxes that are imposed on most of these items. By working in the city, I am already generating revenue for the city, and now they want to penalize me for it,” Laue said. “This on top of Metra talking about raising the cost of train tickets. I’m not going to be able to afford to work downtown anymore!”
Not gonna happen. Period. End of story. Stop frightening people, for Pete’s sake.
* And after increasing the income tax and voting to raise electricity rates, how much chance does this tax idea have in Springfield? Slim to none…
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is floating a unique plan to help solve the city’s budget problems. He is pushing a proposal to lower the sales tax, but the mayor also wants to increase the number of items and services that are taxed.
Under the mayor’s proposal, everyone from barbers to lawyers will have to pay the sales tax.
“I’m not for a toll on Lake Shore Drive, I am not for a citywide income tax, I’m not for increasing property taxes, I’m not for increasing sales tax,” he said. […]
Any change in the sales tax formula would require approval by the Illinois General Assembly and the governor’s signature. The mayor revealed Wednesday morning that part of the process is already in motion.
“I have advocated and I’ve talked to the speaker and Senate president about lowering the sales tax by expanding what is, in fact, taxed,” Emanuel.
First of all, even if they do a service tax, it won’t include barbers. They’ve killed just about every attempt to tax their services in the history of the republic. No way will that happen. Also, this…
…it’s one of those ideas that’s been kicking around the State Capitol literally for decades. But it’s gone nowhere. Retail store owners dream that the rate affecting them might actually go down, making them more competitive with Indiana. But a man who represents 23,000 stores across Illinois is skeptical.
“Mayor Emanuel’s been very successful in his first 140 days in office. But I’ve been around here a long time. People have talked about broadening the base for the 35 or so years I’ve been around. And it’s not gotten done yet,” said David Vite of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
A spokesman for Senate President John Cullerton confirmed Cullerton did speak with the mayor and supports the concept of reducing but expanding the sales tax. In fact, a similar bill actually passed the Senate two years ago, but was never called in the House.
Emanuel would have to use all of his chits for a very long time to get this passed. Don’t bet on it.
Give [Inspector General Joe Ferguson] credit for serving up a pile of options. And give the mayor and aldermen credit, this time, for not rejecting them out of hand. Last year, departing Mayor Richard Daley conjured up a package of cheap fixes that he knew would leave a mess for the next mayor, and the City Council let him get away with it. Finance Committee Chairman Ed Burke, 14th, dismissed Ferguson’s suggestions then as “nothing new.” Daley’s better ideas included raiding the rainy-day fund and declaring a TIF surplus. A complete punt.
But this time it looks like aldermen are listening. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has vowed spending discipline and an end to the one-time gimmicks. Emanuel said Wednesday he’s against tolls on Lake Shore Drive, but he backed some of Ferguson’s cost-saving ideas. He also revived his campaign idea to lower the city’s sales tax rate and broaden the base on which the tax is collected. Ferguson included it in his idea menu.
So … tolls on Lake Shore Drive? Nobody seems to like that one. That’s fine. But Ferguson has offered plenty of other ideas. Emanuel is cooking up plenty of his own. Anybody else? Speak up.
Just imagine what that editorial would read like if somebody close to Gov. Pat Quinn had proposed these ideas. Oh, the humanity.
It would be nice if we could get reasonable editorials like this on everything, but I’m not holding my breath.
Soaked with beer and champagne, Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman embraced in the St. Louis Cardinals plastic-wrapped clubhouse, basking in a celebration no one thought possible less than a month ago.
Chris Carpenter and the Cardinals completed one of baseball’s greatest comebacks on Wednesday night, clinching the NL wild card with an 8-0 win over Houston and a later loss by Atlanta.
The Cardinals got their playoff spot when the Braves fell to Philadelphia 4-3 in 13 innings.
St. Louis trailed Atlanta by 10 1/2 games on Aug. 25, then won 23 of the last 31 games to finish its improbable charge.
“Any time you’re on a playoff team and you make a run like this, you invest a lot of yourself in the season with a great group of guys,” Berkman said. “It just makes it special.
*** UPDATE - 5:38 pm *** Statement from Sen. Schmidt…
“Christmas, 2010 was the beginning of what has obviously become a very emotional period in my 31-year marriage. Information I discovered recently filled me with deep sadness. On the 911 call, I identified myself – but I never intended to inappropriately use my title. However, I apologize if any of my comments during this very emotional time seem inappropriate. I am taking the appropriate steps to deal with these issues. It is a very difficult, personal family matter that I would like to deal with privately. In the meantime, I remain committed to serving the citizens of my district.“
I’m not sure that’s gonna be enough.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* The details of the alleged domestic violence are in dispute, but this is not good at all…
State Sen. Suzi Schmidt mentioned being a former Lake County Board chairman and her “connections” on a December call asking a 911 dispatcher to ignore her husband if he summoned help, according to a recording released today. […]
“Hi Allison, this is Suzi Schmidt. I was the Lake County Board chairman for 10 years,” she said on the 911 recording. “Listen, I’m having a little problem with my husband right now.” […]
“If he calls, Bob Schmidt, you can ignore him. Of course, I just caught him with another woman, so that’s why I’m a little upset,” she said. […]
“He might (call), except he’s kind of afraid of me because he knows I have connections,” she said while on the line with the emergency dispatcher.
Oy.
Using her connections to stop a police call is going to haunt her for a long time. This ain’t the old days.
Also, it’s been known by a few of us for some time that her husband’s alleged infidelity was behind the repeated domestic disturbance calls to the house (four in all on three different dates). But now everybody’s gonna know.
The recordings released today include a 911 call that Robert Schmidt made on Aug. 16 claiming his wife rammed her 2000 black Cadillac into his 2000 tan Chevy Malibu three times after the two argued. He told police she drove her Cadillac head-on into his, then backed up and rammed the Malibu two more times.
“No, don’t need an ambulance. I’m a little shaky right now,” Robert Schmidt tells the sheriff’s dispatcher. “She just plowed into me like two or three times and then a little bit harder the next time and then she really rammed me the next time.”
Sen. Schmidt denied ramming her husband with her car, then told police that maybe she did.
* And, finally (although, maybe not), came the September call…
In that incident, Robert Schmidt called police from the couple’s Lake Villa home and claimed the state senator struck him with a cellphone, bit his arm and scratched him.
During his 911 call, Suzi Schmidt is heard in the background denying she bit her husband, but then later saying, “You bet I did.” […]
Prosecutors have declined to file charges in any of the incidents, though a prosecutor acknowledged this week that “there was apparently mutual combat between Suzi Schmidt and her husband” Monday evening.
This is, by far, the most dramatic audio of the bunch…
* There’s no doubt that Tammy Duckworth is a war hero who has given a lot for her country. I, for one, am in awe of her service and her toughness. But this fundraising e-mail from David Axelrod kinda rubs me the wrong way. Emphasis is in the original…
Like you, I can’t wait to see Tammy Duckworth walk down the aisle on those titanium legs and stand in the well of the U.S. House, a woman with a spine of steel who has always done her duty, exhorting the Republicans in Congress to do theirs.
That’s a bit much, if you ask me, but nobody did.
* Debbie Halvorson says she will announce her decision next week…
Former Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson says she’ll announce by the end of next week whether she’s running again for the U.S. House. She would challenge U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., in the Democratic primary.
Halvorson lost her seat in Congress to Republican Adam Kinzinger last year. But when political boundaries were redrawn, her home was swallowed by the district held by Jackson, a fellow Democrat but longtime adversary of Halvorson’s.
“I’ve decided I didn’t want to keep everybody waiting,” Halvorson said Tuesday. “I want to make my decision by this weekend,” with a public announcement “absolutely” coming the following week.
* After comparing the budget fights to “Fort Sumter in the Civil War,” Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger is now complaining that the Democrats are unfairly using a potential government shutdown in the latest budget argument…
U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Manteno, on Tuesday said Democratic leaders are using the threat of a government shutdown as a “nuclear bomb” and that a deal on government spending for the next two months is likely.
* Over in the 10th, one of Republican Bob Dold’s potential Democratic opponents has just picked up a couple of endorsements…
Brad Schneider, one of the Democratic candidates in the new north suburban 10th Congressional District, has pulled in a couple of big endorsements.
Two state senators who had been wooed to run, Jeff Schoenberg, D-Evanston, and Susan Garrett, D-Lake Forest, Tuesday formally threw their backing to him. […]
The endorsements sure will help Mr. Schneider in his goal to take on GOP incumbent Robert Dold. But they also are a tacit sign that the Democratic field in the district is pretty set.
* Dold, by the way, was recently whacked in HuffPo for duplicity…
An ardent opponent of the federal stimulus plan showed up Monday in Winnetka, Ill., to smile and cut the ribbon at a ceremony unveiling a local project funded by that very stimulus.
“Originally built in the 1940s, the [train] station not only got a facelift but three heated platform warming shelters, two new elevators and a new pedestrian bridge to allow commuters to wait in the station and then quickly cross over the tracks to the Chicago-bound platform,” Winnetka-Glencoe Patch reported Tuesday morning.
Walsh then told an audience filled with concealed carry advocates exactly what they wanted to hear in pledging to be a “cheerleader” for gun rights in Congress.
“We are an embarrassment (in Illinois),” Walsh said. “We are the last state standing when it comes to concealed carry. There’s no issue when it comes to freedom that matters like this, like the Second Amendment. The most important amendment in that Bill of Rights is the Second Amendment. It protects every other amendment. It is the last line of defense between us and our government.”
Walsh said Congress should move to cut off all funding to the United Nations as well as any exploration of restricting gun manufacturing or arms trading through the U.N.
“There’s no way the United States should be restricted by any international law,” Walsh said. “It amazes me that we’re even looking into it.”
Emanuel disclosed Wednesday that he plans to revive the most controversial idea he raised during his campaign: reducing the city’s portion of the sales tax from 1.25 percent to 1 percent, but broadening the base to include an array of services not now covered. […]
“I have to go to Springfield to do that,” Emanuel said at an unrelated news conference Tuesday. “ … I’ve talked to both the Speaker and the Senate President about lowering the sales tax by expanding what is, in fact, taxed because we tax too few things and … the working families of the city carry the burden and it’s one of the highest sales tax rates in the country.”
He added: “I wanted to do exactly what I think is the right thing: close loopholes, lower the rate, make sure other people are carrying the burden — not the working families of Chicago.”
CME Group Inc. has received tax proposals from multiple states looking to lure it from Illinois, but so far, not one from its home state, CME Executive Chairman Terry Duffy said.
Nonetheless, Mr. Duffy said the Chicago-based company, which operates the biggest futures market in the country, aims to reach an agreement on a corporate tax revision with Illinois officials before the Legislature’s October veto session, or for consideration during a special session this year. […]
“I pay the most in state taxes,” Mr. Duffy said during a question-and-answer session following a speech Tuesday on business ethics at Xavier University. “Why is that? Because I don’t have a loophole. I don’t want a loophole. I want what’s fair and equitable.” […]
Mr. Duffy said he doesn’t want to set a deadline for reaching an agreement with Illinois officials because he doesn’t want to put pressure on them. But he thinks it isn’t unfair to expect an agreement to be reached within a year of starting negotiations, which began in January.
* The Question: What sorts of state tax reform could you support? Explain.
* Without a doubt, the “Smart Grid” bill was one of the most controversial pieces of legislation passed by the General Assembly this past spring. Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of the legislation has been lauded far and wide. But this issue isn’t as cut and dried as it too often looks. As I’ve already told you more than once, I’ve been a proponent of a smart grid for several years. Modernizing our infrastructure gives us a leg up on the competition, both regionally and internationally.
Yesterday, a group of business leaders held a press conference to discuss the benefits of the technology, which is often lost in the shuffle…
At a news conference held at S&C Electric Co. in Chicago, which makes smart-grid technology, John Estey, the company’s president and CEO, demonstrated how “self-healing” electrical lines promised by a smart grid would work in the case of an outage.
Today, he said, the power goes out, residents call ComEd and the company rushes trucks out to find, isolate and fix the problem, a process than can take hours or days.
With a smart grid, he said, the problem can be resolved in seconds. The system automatically isolates the outages and figures out a way to run power from substations that are still working to homes with outages, while ComEd runs trucks to fix the problem. The result, he said, is that outages don’t become widespread.
“It’s not bleeding-edge technology,” he said. “This stuff really works.”
We have a semi-smart grid in Springfield. My power went out Sunday morning. I called CWLP and was informed that the utility already knew my power was out and that a fix was underway. But a real Smart Grid might’ve meant that my power would’ve remained on the whole time.
* One of the business owners who spoke at yesterday’s press conference said his company was being wooed by Michigan to relocate out of Illinois. Michigan is, indeed, ramping up its Smart Grid technology…
On Monday, utility Consumers Energy announced it will work with SmartSynch to roll out cellular-based smart meters for 1.8 million customers in Michigan. Consumers Energy says that it will start deploying the network in August 2012 and will continue until 2019.
SmartSynch says Consumers Energy is the largest utility to embrace cellular for smart meters. Earlier this year Duke Energy also indicated it would put a large emphasis on cellular networks for its smart grid roll-out, too.
According to a Vancouver Sun news report, local politicians have expressed a repeated theme that their ratepayers have concerns about potential health impacts from the radio frequency (RF) emitting devices.
* But almost totally missed by most reporters who write about this proposal is that the Sierra Club is also a major supporter. Jack Darin, the group’s executive director, wrote this not long ago..
This Spring, the General Assembly passed the Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act. The core of the legislation, Senate Bill 1652, aims to build a smarter, stronger grid for the future. Building up the grid is great, but just as important is breaking down the barriers to clean, renewable energy that makes service more reliable and the air cleaner. SB 1652 does just that by allowing large rooftop owners to benefit by installing solar and windpower on their roofs.
f these big box stores, office parks, warehouses, parking garages, and other large rooftop owners install clean energy on the roof, they would get the same incentive homeowners currently have – on days when they make more electricity than they use, putting the extra back on the grid, they get a credit for that power against their electric bill. In addition, utilities would be required to buy some of the power they sell to us from small renewable systems like these. The combined effect of these two incentives will be turning empty roofs into job sites, with electricians, equipment operators, carpenters, laborers, and others installing pollution-free power systems.
The bill makes another fundamental reform that will reduce the cost of power by harnessing market forces to spur new energy efficiency businesses. SB 1652 will change the way the Illinois Power Agency (IPA) and our utilities buy our power. In addition to buying nuclear, coal, solar, and wind power, the they will now also buy power from entities that reduce energy use if it is cheaper than generation. This will provide a market- ‐based mechanism that will save consumers money and create jobs and economic growth.
Still, even Darin has reservations about the bill’s lack of consumer protections…
With added protection for consumers to go along with needed grid upgrades and new energy technologies, the forecast can look a whole lot better in the years ahead.
There are real problems with this bill. That’s to be expected, since ComEd basically wrote it. The General Assembly really dropped the ball on that one.
* The Pioneer Press published a story recently about how one man is using his smart meter to save big bucks…
Since buying a smart meter in July 2010, Russell has combined this information with the price-per-kilowatt data he finds on ComEd’s website to produce his savings. ComEd’s electricity rates change by the hour (a formula guided by how much power it has to generate during the day versus how much leftover juice it has sitting in its grid at night), and it reaches its lowest prices around 2 and 3 a.m.
Through site monitoring, Russell has found that, sometimes, in the middle of the night, ComEd has so much energy to spare that it gives it away for free. Other times, its rate goes “negative,” and ComEd actually pays customers to take unwanted electricity off its hands.
“They say ‘Use it, please, please, please,’” he explained.
*** UPDATE *** Speaking of Luddites, this incredibly paranoid YouTube video has over 700,000 views…
[Hat tip to a commenter.]
* Related…
* VIDEO: Imagine an electric grid that tells the power company when it is down without you having to call in the problem! John Estey, CEO of President of S&C Electric Company demonstrates how an electric smart grid works as Illinois business leaders gather to voice their support for the Illinois Infrastructure Modernization Act.
* The Chicago Tribune almost never runs local campaign polls by any other outlet, no matter how reputable. Yet, the paper is apparently willing to publish the results of an Internet poll. Strange…
A parent-advocacy group whose members have criticized Chicago Public Schools’ efforts to offer financial incentives for a lengthened school day found that most respondents to its online survey support a longer day.
Raise Your Hand leaders said 68 percent of the 1,222 survey takers, made up of parents and teachers from 230 schools, said they favored a longer day. About 43 percent said they supported a longer school year.
There was no explanation about how the respondents were recruited for the survey. And there was no explanation for what this group is or how it’s funded. The “poll,” by the way, is here.
* The easy part of being Chicago’s Inspector General is you can toss out a bunch of revenue ideas for the city that have absolutely no chance of passage and nobody blames you or even questions why you’re doing it. Why the IG would consider tax hike proposals to be part of his “mandate of promoting efficiency and effectiveness in City government” is beyond me, but let’s check out his list. Some of these aren’t bad ideas, but most ain’t going anywhere…
· Reducing the ratio of managers to non-supervisory employees in City government to save more than $100,000,000 annually
· Eliminating all Tax Increment Financing Districts to increase tax revenues to the City’s general fund by an estimated $100 million annually
· Increasing the work week of all City employees to 40 hours to save approximately $40 million annually
· Broadening the City’s Sales Tax to include more services generating an estimated $450 million annually
· Eliminating Police and Fire Duty Availability Pay that costs the City approximately $52 million a year
· Raise Water and Sewer Rates to the national average which would increase annual revenues by $380 million
· Eliminating Police Department Supervisor Quarterly Pay saving approximately $9.6 million annually
· Create a Commuter Tax estimated to generate $300 million in annual revenues
· Eliminate Tuition Reimbursement for City Employees, saving approximately $7.3 million
· Implement Congestion Pricing for vehicular traffic that is estimated to generate an additional annual revenues of $235 million
· Reducing the number of paid holidays for City workers from 13 to 10 resulting in annual savings estimated at $4.9 million
· Broadening the City’s Amusement Tax which would produce an additional $105 million in annual revenues
· Eliminate the Fire Commissary Contract for yearly savings of $2 million
· Doubling the City’s Boat Mooring Tax to generate an additional $1.3 million
* And check out the weasel wording from the inspector general’s press release…
…the inclusion of any option in this report is not, and should not be, construed as an endorsement by the IGO
In other words, “I’m not saying, I’m just saying…”
* Such a list, of course, leads to headlines like this one…
Report: Chicago could charge tolls on Lake Shore Drive
Kinda misleading.
* Mayor Emanuel responds…
Across Chicago, residents, Aldermen and now the Inspector General have proposed ideas to tackle the difficult fiscal challenges ahead. Anything that will protect taxpayers and maintain the quality of services the City provides should be considered.
As I have said from the beginning, raising property taxes, income taxes or sales taxes is off the table. And asking drivers on Lake Shore Drive to pay a toll is also a non-starter.
There are a number of reforms and efficiencies in the Inspector General’s report that are promising, some of which we have already implemented and some we will give serious consideration.
“A 33 percent daily absentee rate has put the city in the position that it’s making choices between services it need not make. . . . That’s unacceptable to the city,” Emanuel said then.
“Residents and taxpayers and people [who] expect these services deserve better and they will get better. I ask the leaders of organized labor to be that partner in solving this problem.”
At the time, Lou Phillips, business manager of Laborers Local 1001, insisted that the daily absenteeism rate is more like 5 percent.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday turned up the heat on garbage collection crews he has accused of chronic absenteeism — by releasing records that he said show a pattern of abuse on Mondays and Fridays.
In the 13-month period ending on Aug. 31, an average of 40 laborers a day had “unscheduled absences” on Mondays, roughly 6.6 percent of the daily workforce of 600. That’s compared to 27 unexcused absences or 4.5 percent on Thursdays.
On Fridays, 5 percent of the workforce was on unscheduled days off.
Bar graphs posted on the city’s website show a similar pattern for truck drivers. Their absenteeism averaged 19 on Mondays and dropped to 13 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
A difference of half a point between Thursdays and Fridays doesn’t really mean much, but whatever.
* The Department of Corrections has filed its required report (click here) with the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability on its proposed facility closure plan. Gov. Pat Quinn, you will undoubtedly recall, wants to close the Logan Correctional Facility. It’s pretty grim…
Closing the Logan Correctional Center eventually will force Illinois’ jam-packed prison system to house 1,500 inmates in prison gymnasiums around the state, the Department of Corrections said in recently filed documents.
Also, up to 180 inmates from the medium-security prison at Lincoln would be transferred to the super-maximum-security prison in Tamms. […]
“I’ve read closure documents before, but none so outrageous and irresponsible as the Logan prison plan,” said AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall. […]
The Corrections document said 1,980 inmates are housed at Logan. It said 300-350 inmates will be moved to health care units and segregation units at other prisons. The move will use up nearly all of the state’s beds in health and segregation units, the department said. […]
In the document, Corrections said that “while IDOC is prepared to face the challenges of providing mandated services in a less than ideal situation, an increased risk of legal exposure is an evident possibility. To assist in confronting these challenges, IDOC will be required to increase employee headcount at the facilities that will receive the additional inmate population.”
The problem for IDOC is that the prison system is at historic capacity right now. There’s literally no place to put these people.
* And then there’s the ripple effect of closing facilities throughout Downstate…
At a time when Gov. Pat Quinn is pushing to lower the unemployment rate and boost investment in Illinois, the Chicago Democrat’s plan to shutter seven facilities as part of his budget fight with lawmakers will cost the state more than 2,600 jobs, according to figures compiled Tuesday.
Economic impact surveys show the governor’s proposal to shut down a prison, mental health centers and other state facilities in downstate communities like Lincoln, Murphysboro, Chester and Dixon will essentially strip $295.8 million out of the Illinois economy.
The surveys, conducted for the General Assembly’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, show that laying off 1,924 employees at the facilities will have a ripple effect on local businesses, resulting in an additional 738 people losing private sector jobs.
In Logan County, for example, laying off 356 people from the medium-security Logan Correctional Center will result in the loss of 104 other jobs in the area, causing a net $73 million blow to the local economy, the survey noted. Retail sales, hotels and restaurants are among the hardest hit sectors. Similar loss projections are outlined in reports dealing with the other facilities.
* Illinois Statehouse News has done a good job compiling all the data. From its story…
Closing the Singer Mental Health Center would require local community care providers in Rockford to care for the 845 people usually treated at Singer.
But state Rep. Patti Bellock, R-Hinsdale, said that may not happen.
“I am extremely concerned that this will send people to hospitals or out (on) the street. A lot of these community providers do have group homes, but there is not enough room,” Bellock said. […]
The mental health center at Tinley Park is one of the state’s busiest, handling nearly 1,900 people a year. Those people would be sent to community care providers and local hospitals.
Bellock said community care providers in Cook County are overwhelmed and she fears the worst if a plan to transition people out of Tinley Park slowly is not available.
“For a local community to step up and pay for this kind of care, that would be impossible,” said Bellock.
* And AFSCME sent out a press release yesterday condemning COGFA for moving too fast…
The largest union representing frontline state employees is calling for greater openness and public accountability by a panel of lawmakers charged with overseeing Governor Pat Quinn’s proposal to close three psychiatric hospitals, two centers for individuals with profound developmental disabilities, a prison and a juvenile detention center.
In a letter to the senators and representatives that serve on the Commission for Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 executive director Henry Bayer wrote:
“[T]he Administration is intent on implementing these closures as quickly as possible with as little public scrutiny as possible. Unfortunately, it appears that COGFA is prepared to collaborate in this effort to stifle public review and input rather than seeking to provide an independent review based on the broadest possible public examination of the facts—as is the clear intent of the law.”
Specifically, the AFSCME letter cited the scheduled Wednesday, Oct. 5, public hearing on the Singer Mental Health Center in Rockford, which was announced with little more than a week’s notice, and the commission’s stated refusal to conduct the legally mandated review of the proposed closure of Tinley Park Mental Health Center. […]
“We realize that it may not be COGFA’s intent to depress turnout or stifle participation at these public hearings, but that will certainly be the result if the hearings go forward as currently planned,” Bayer wrote.
* Related…
* Study: Closing Chester Mental Health Center would cost $45 million to economy
* I’m working on a couple of longer posts and just realized how late it’s getting, so let’s do another caption contest of a pic uploaded by Gov. Pat Quinn. The governor is returning from his Asian trip today, so this could be the last one…
