Today’s translations
Tuesday, Sep 6, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* It’s official, he’s in…
Businessman Jim Oberweis said Friday he will run for the Republican nomination for the 25th State Senate District seat currently held by Chris Lauzen. […]
“I think we have a wonderful country and we used to have a great state,” Oberweis said Friday. “I have 16 grandchildren. I’m worried about their future and the future for other people’s grandchildren.”
Oberweis, a Republican from Sugar Grove, said his top priority if elected would be to create an economic environment that would attract people looking to create businesses in Illinois or move them to Illinois.
Translation: If he wins this race, watch for a 2014 gubernatorial bid.
* This is pretty funny…
U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson doesn’t get to choose his Democratic opponent in next year’s general election. But if he did, it would be former state Rep. Jay Hoffman. […]
Hoffman’s close association with former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was used against him last year in his unsuccessful campaign for re-election against Republican Dwight Kay of Edwardsville. Hoffman also came in for criticism earlier this year when, as a lame-duck legislator, he voted for a 67 percent state income tax increase in the closing days of the old 96th General Assembly.
“I guess given the fact that there’s a long history of votes that I would say are safely out of the mainstream of the people of this district, for example nearly doubling the income tax in a lame duck session of the Legislature, I’d rather run against somebody who’s been a part of the problem,” Johnson said Friday.
Johnson pledged that he “won’t run a negative campaign in any way against either one of them.”
Translation: “He’s the devil in disguise, but I’m gonna take the high road.”
* Congressman Randy Hultgren previewed his likely primary bid against fellow Republican freshman Joe Walsh…
Hultgren has begun working away quietly, emphasizing his strengths in background and experience against the charismatic tea partyer, who is battling allegations of late child support payments and a potential backlash from controversial statements that have irked top-ranking members of the GOP.
“I think some people are always confrontational. Others, there’s an ability to talk, listen, work with each other without compromising core values,” Hultgren said. […]
Hultgren said he won’t “make things personal” but admits, at the same time, “campaigns are where that’s the hardest. Especially when there’s not that much difference on the issues.”
Translation: “Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa?”
* A proposed change in the Illinois GOP’s delegate selection process has been picking up some steam online…
At issue are proposed new rules for allotting delegates to next year’s GOP convention in Tampa, Fla.—rules that state GOP Chairman Pat Brady says will make nominating a presidential candidate easier and fairer, but which critics call a power grab by the party’s old guard. […]
As originally drafted, the rules would have required a presidential candidate to get a stiff 20% [since changed to 10%] of the vote in the state primary to receive any delegates—likely a big impediment to contenders like Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann, who have a staunch but not particularly large following.
The Aug. 18 draft also would have abolished the current system, in which delegates mostly are elected in congressional district votes while a separate, non-binding “beauty contest” is held for the presidential candidates. Instead, the central committee would select all delegates, apportioning them based on “beauty contest” results, with the candidates for president restricted to “consultation” in picking their own delegates [”revised language makes it clear that the presidential campaigns will select their own delegates, with the central committee in a pro forma role”].
Treasurer Dan Rutherford is opposed…
having delegate candidates on the ballot “adds more people vested in the process, to be advocates at our Lincoln Day Dinners, party rallies and forums on behalf of their ‘preference’ for President. Having hundreds and hundreds of party faithful on the ballot, committed and engaged, is only good.” As for the challenge of collecting signatures, he said, “if one wants to be the President of the United States and leader of the free world,” such organization “is not too high a threshold to meet.”
Rutherford is heading the Illinois effort for GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, but told me via email (from Hong Kong, part of an Asian trip) that his support for Romney has nothing to do with his opinion that delegates should still be elected from congressional districts in the primary.
Translation: Finding delegate candidates and gathering all those petition signatures are a tuneup for Rutherford’s 2014 statewide campaign.
* Your turn.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Sep 6, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WJBC Radio takes a look at the Farm Bureau’s “Adopt-A-Legislator” program…
A group of nearly 40 young people and their parents from the south side of Chicago visited the McLean County Fair Thursday as guests of the McLean County Farm Bureau through the Illinois Farm Bureau’s Adopt-A-Legislator program. The program pairs McLean County Farm Bureau with Illinois State Representative Thaddeus Jones in the 29th District.
“We are teamed up with them in their area just to try to learn about each other, and what we have in common and the differences that we have,” said Fred Grieder, a member of the government affairs committee and a county director with the McLean County Farm Bureau.
At the Farm Bureau’s invitation, Jones brought a group of nearly 40 children and adults from his district to tour the McLean County Fair as a part of his Y29 program. Y29 stands for “Youth 29th District” and the goal is to educate young people in the district about programs throughout the state of Illinois. Jones said this is the first time they’ve come to the McLean County Fair and worked with Farm Bureau members, but he hopes to do it every year.
* The Question: What other groups ought to start an “Adopt-A-Legislator” program? Explain how that might work.
Snark is heavily encouraged.
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Southtown: Roll back corporate tax rates
Tuesday, Sep 6, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The usually liberal Southtown Star is now in favor of rolling back the corporate income tax hike…
The higher corporate tax rate has been strongly criticized by the business community as the last thing Illinois needed in trying to remain competitive in jobs with surrounding states. Illinois Chamber of Commerce president Doug Whitley said Illinois’ economy is increasingly intertwined with those of its neighbors and regional cooperation must be the goal rather than states raiding each other for jobs.
“Illinois should never have a higher corporate tax rate than our neighboring states,” Whitley said.
We agree. Illinois political leaders’ fiscal irresponsibility has created great pressure to raise revenue and cut costs to address that massive budget hole. But with the state still waiting for an economic recovery, jobs must be Priority No. 1 — especially keeping and adding well-paying manufacturing jobs.
More needs to be done than simply lowering the corporate tax rate, but lawmakers seem to be getting the message, holding hearings on the increase.
Will they reverse field and lower it? We think they should, but it’s probably unlikely — until a major company leaves the state along with several hundred or even thousands of jobs.
Thoughts on this idea?
* In a somewhat related vein, the Tribune looks at our very narrow sales tax base…
The average state allows its sales tax to be applied to 56 different categories of services, according to the Washington-based Federation of Tax Administrators. In Illinois, the number is 17, most involving utilities.
That sets up curious anomalies. A key reason sales tax rates are so high here is because so little is taxed compared with elsewhere. And despite all the furor about lofty rates, Illinois residents pay less in sales taxes than neighbors in surrounding states where the rates are lower but more is taxed.
Per capita, Illinoisans shelled out $727 in state and local sales taxes in 2008, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group in the nation’s capital. The corresponding number in Indiana was $901, in Wisconsin and Iowa it was $814, and in Missouri, $852.
It’s pretty simple, really. Our rate is so high because we tax so few things, and we bring in less per capita because of it.
* Meanwhile, despite perpetually stubborn unemployment rates, the Tribune editorial board continues to believe that cutting capital projects equals prosperity…
We have no doubt that smart infrastructure investments pay off for the public. But keep in mind that as of July, fewer than 6 million people held jobs in Illinois. So the Tollway plan will expand total employment significantly — if the estimates prove accurate. A few more government projects like that and Illinois risks a labor shortage!
Denying the reality of a state in dire need of job creation won’t change the fact of it. Illinois pols need to get their fiscal affairs in order and make it competitive again. Then, go ahead: Put on a hard hat, and spout off about all the jobs, jobs, jobs supposedly being created over the next 15 years, the next 30, whatever.
If the rest of Illinois is back to work when the politicians preen for the cameras at their news conferences, no one will pay attention anyway.
* And despite all the legitimate uproar about our tax rates, Illinois manufacturers appear comparitively upbeat…
Manufacturers in Illinois were feeling more optimistic than their counterparts across the country at mid-year, according to a survey by tax consulting firm RSM McGladrey Inc.
More than half of Illinois companies, or 52%, were thriving or growing, compared with 44% nationwide, according to the McGladrey Manufacturing and Distribution Monitor survey. Some 64% of local companies plan to increase their workforce in the next year, and 54% will increase inventory, vs. 58% and 46% nationally, respectively.
That’s an improvement over last year, when 48% nationally said they would bolster their workforce.
Still, 60% of the Illinois manufacturers fear that the weakening economy will hinder their business, nearly half are concerned about higher commodity prices and more than a third worry about federal regulation.
* Related…
* Senate Dems seek veto-proof ComEd measure: Ideas on the table include having the utility set up a $50 million fund to help elderly and poor consumers pay their electricity bills, devote $150 million to better insulate its power grid from weather-related outages and cap ComEd’s annual profits to less than 10 percent during the next three years. The provisions have emerged from Senate President John Cullerton’s caucus in a bid to salvage legislation that ComEd pushed through last spring that would enable the utility, in modernizing its power grid, to sidestep the Illinois Commerce Commission on certain rate-hike decisions and lock in double-digit returns on equity.
* Health care expansion to cost Illinois, study finds: Expanding Illinois’ Medicaid program under the federal health-care reform law will cost the state $1.3 billion a year in 2020 and beyond, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Rand Corp.
* Hospitals fear loss of tax exemption in Illinois: [D]aring to seek an exemption on any buildings could land the health center squarely where no Illinois hospital wants to be right now, under the microscope of the state Department of Revenue and possibly subject to losing the tax exemption on Sarah Bush Lincoln’s hospital buildings, Sheagren said.
* ‘Unemployed need not apply‘ a disturbing trend - Companies that bar unemployed job candidates are shortsighted – and wrong
* U.S. lottery sales surge: Is economy the reason?: In Illinois, lottery sales were $2.27 billion in the last fiscal year — July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2011 — up abut 3 percent from the previous year.
* Editorial: Squabbling over sales taxes: The law shouldn’t make it difficult for businesses to vote with their feet. But a company shouldn’t be able to duck sales taxes in Cook County by pretending it’s located downstate.
* Black contractors plan next Friday to disrupt work on new Mississippi River Bridge
* Regulations, taxes aren’t killing small business, owners say
* Three CPS schools break from union, OK longer school day
* Millington (pop. 549) fights for its post office: One person who could speak on behalf of Millington is State Rep. Kay Hatcher, R-Yorkville, who talked to Smith Thursday. “I certainly intend to plead for any community that needs the help,” she says. “I worry because sometimes a big organization doesn’t recognize that in a small community, the post office is truly the gathering spot.”
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*** UPDATE 1 *** Gov. Pat Quinn is once again using the “subject to appropriations” clause to justify breaking yet another agreement with AFSCME. Quinn told reporters today that he will, indeed, propose to slash state jobs and close facilities despite his agreement last year with the union and said he has no choice because there is no appropriated money. From his remarks…
“Clearly, the budget of the General Assembly that they appropriated is going to require significant changes… All agreements are subject to the clause in Illinois law that says ’subject to appropriations’… I have to abide by the will of the General Assembly that passed a budget that requires reductions and, therefore,, we’ll have to carry those reductions out. It will be done in an orderly way according to law… The bottom line is the money isn’t there to pay for a full fiscal year unless reductions are made.”
Quinn also said he’d be open to proposals to redo the budget using increased revenues.
* Raw audio…
*** UPDATE 2 *** Sen. Bill Brady wonders if the cuts will be focused on Republican areas…
“I assume it will be a political document. It will be interesting to see how many of these facilities are in areas where Democrats are running. He’s turning into a blowhard that has no credibility in the General Assembly.”
On a personal note, thanks to Brady for pointing out that the Tribune did not break this story today. Raw audio is here.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Via press release, AFSCME claims there’s a “crisis of will”…
“AFSCME has not received any notification from the Quinn Administration regarding facility closures or employee layoffs. However, we take very seriously the persistent and widespread rumors that the governor is giving serious consideration to announcing such closures and layoffs this week.
“This course of action would be in direct violation of negotiated agreements with our union. Moreover, it would have a dire impact on the maintenance of public safety and the delivery of services of vital importance to the people of Illinois.
“Illinois state government is already an extremely lean operation. Staffing levels have been cut to the bone over the past decade—and Illinois now has the lowest per capita number of employees of any state in the country. Nearly every state agency is struggling to meet its mandates. Prisons are understaffed and severely overcrowded, operating at almost 150 percent of inmate capacity. Human service caseloads have soared past any reasonable standard. Veterans homes have long waiting lists for care.
“Closures and layoffs at such a time will plunge state government into chaos.
“The Governor is apparently concerned that there is not sufficient appropriations authority to maintain services at their current level until the fiscal year ends next June. We agree that a supplemental appropriation is needed. But there is certainly not a funding crisis at this point in time. There is merely a crisis of will.
“Our state urgently needs leadership. Rather than disrupt vital services and add to Illinois’ already alarmingly high unemployment rate, the governor should work with the General Assembly to forestall service cuts and layoffs. The necessary funding is available if the legislature takes action when it returns for the veto session. The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability reports that revenue is coming in this year at higher than projected levels.
“We call on the governor and the legislative leaders to work together for the good of our state. This is not a time for partisanship or finger-pointing. It’s a time to work together to ensure that essential services to maintain public safety and meet human needs can continue to be provided. AFSCME stands ready to be part of that effort.”
*** UPDATE 4 *** If the governor thought he would stampede state legislators, he may have another thing coming, at least in the House…
The rumor that Gov. Pat Quinn will issue layoff notices this week to thousands of state workers and possibly close some state facilities was met with a quick note of reassurance from state Rep. Lisa Dugan, D-Bradley.
“We understood that cuts would have to be made,” she said today. “We approved a budget that was at least $2 billion less than he asked for.'’
Then again, we’ll see what she says if Kankakee’s state hospital is put on the closure list.
*** UPDATE 5 *** From the AP…
Quinn blamed the cuts on the General Assembly, saying lawmakers hadn’t appropriated enough money to cover Illinois’ expenses for the rest of the fiscal year. But Quinn says he’s willing to work with lawmakers to avoid the cuts, and he says talks will happen this week.
Neither the House Democrats nor the Senate Democrats have any meetings scheduled with the governor this week. However, I listened to the raw audio file twice and I think the governor said that he’d be rolling out his proposal this week, not that he’d be talking to legislators. Listen for yourself…
I asked the governor’s office for a comment and got this…
The Governor believes in the democratic process and will continue to work with and listen to legislators in regards to implementation of an incomplete budget. If legislators want to make adjustments to the budget they passed in May, the Governor, as always, is willing to listen.
[ *** End Of Updates *** ]
* I told subscribers about this late Friday morning…
Gov. Pat Quinn plans to issue layoff notices to thousands of state workers this week as he deals with a budget shortfall he pegs in the hundreds of millions of dollars, a state government source with knowledge of the situation told the Tribune.
The governor also intends to announce the closing of several state facilities, including a prison, juvenile detention center and homes for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled, sources confirmed. Without action, Quinn’s budget office says, several agencies would run out of money by the spring.
Quinn is responding to the Democratic-controlled Legislature’s decision at the end of May to dictate this year’s budget with little input from his office. The Democratic governor maintains that lawmakers didn’t provide enough money to keep the state operating for a full year. Quinn, who asked for $2.2 billion more, already has made partial vetoes to the budget and blocked raises for thousands of state workers, a decision that’s being challenged in court by the state’s largest government employee union. The union also is expected to fight the pink slips, citing a no-layoff agreement it struck with Quinn last year. […]
Unless lawmakers step in, the prisons system won’t have enough money to pay guards, let alone feed and clothe inmates or provide proper drug addiction counseling and medical care, according to Quinn budget office estimates. There also won’t be enough cash to cover checks for workers who care for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled, or keep the doors open for a full year at state-operated residential facilities and psychiatric hospitals. The state also is struggling to cover the cost of the food stamp program and cover travel costs for workers investigating allegations of abuse or neglect. […]
Some lawmakers warn that Quinn will find little relief as state coffers remain bare despite the major income tax increase. Republican Sen. Matt Murphy, of Palatine, says the state already spends too much and needs to cut further. He said moves like shutting facilities need to happen, but that Quinn should have known that before making a campaign pledge to keep them all open.
During the campaign last year, Quinn forged an agreement with AFSCME that precluded layoffs and facility closures in return for the union to come up with budget-balancing ideas. Word is that Quinn will say that the union hasn’t held up its end of the agreement, a claim the union flatly denies.
* In a related story…
The General Assembly has been forced to deal with less income from taxpayers and, as a result, has trimmed the number of public employees. But those still working in public-sector jobs are earning more, according to an Illinois Statehouse News, or ISN, analysis.
Between 2009 and 2010, lawmakers increased the paychecks of those still on the job with the state by $83 million, the ISN analysis found.
Overall, the $3.93 billion in payroll accounted for about 12 percent of the state’s operating budget for fiscal 2010, and was 2 percent higher than in fiscal 2009. Employee pay usually hovers around 10 percent of the state’s operating budget. But that does not include public university employees, whose salary data were not included in the analysis.
“That’s a problem when your revenues are not increasing, (and) we’ve got all this past-due debt that is owed by the state. There needs to be an effort to contain costs,” Tom Johnson, president of the Taxpayers Federation of Illinois, a government watchdog organization, and chairman of Gov. Pat Quinn’s Taxpayer Action Board.
Discuss.
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Can the tax hike trump the Democratic map?
Tuesday, Sep 6, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Last year, the state Senate Republicans tested anti-tax messages in their campaigns without much success. While almost all Senate Democrats had voted for a large income tax hike along with an expansion of the sales tax to services, the Republican message just didn’t work because the tax bill the Democrats backed never became the law of the land.
But now that a tax increase has actually been approved, with all the resulting hype surrounding it, there could very well be a different outcome next year. The tax increase has become a part of the public consciousness, and not in a good way, either.
The tax hike vote itself has received a ton of publicity, but the circus ever since has further burned into voters’ minds a highly negative and toxic message. There was Gov. Pat Quinn’s infamous flip-flop, first claiming he’d veto anything over a one percentage point increase and then signing a two-percent hike. Then came the flood of high-profile bashing of our tax hike by Republican governors throughout the country — all of whom pledged to poach our corporations and our jobs. We had the widely reported but false stories about Caterpillar considering leaving and the statewide nervous breakdown which resulted. On top of all that, the state still has severe budget problems despite the cut in everybody’s take-home pay. Then, obviously, there’s the problem of rising Illinois unemployment since the tax hike took effect.
This was also the first purely partisan tax increase since the state’s new Constitution was adopted two generations ago. In the past, tax hike roll calls were carefully structured in a bipartisan manner and the two parties generally avoided dealing with the issue during the following campaign cycle. Republicans and Democrats worked closely together two years ago to raise taxes to fund the state’s infrastructure program, for instance. Nobody heard a peep about that vote on the campaign trail last year. But the income tax is an entirely different matter. No Republican votes were on that bill.
To make matters worse for the ruling Democrats, 2012 is a redistricting election year. Most legislators have lots of new constituents who don’t know who they are and won’t be prepared to cut them any slack.
And, on top of everything else, a large number of state House Democrats ran last year on anti-tax platforms. House Speaker Michael Madigan even refused to recruit candidates who barely hinted that they’d vote for a tax hike. In the Quad Cities, for example, Madigan rejected his former staffer Porter McNeil in the primary when McNeil tried to stake out a middle ground between the more aggressively pro-tax Democrat Jerry Lack and the anti-tax Dennis Ahern. Madigan injected himself into the primary and backed Ahern, who turned out to be a total dud of a candidate whom Madigan eventually dumped. McNeil might’ve been able to hold former Rep. Mike Boland’s seat, but Madigan was so anti-tax at the time that McNeil wasn’t considered viable.
Two months after the election, of course, Madigan completely switched gears and muscled through a 67 percent income tax hike. Democrats who followed his lead in both directions now find themselves in a serious pickle. They promised (or came right up to the line of promising) not to vote for a tax hike and then did it anyway before they were even sworn in for another term.
The Republicans are now preparing to move in for the kill. And at this point their battlefield is quite large. President Barack Obama’s presence on the ticket will be a problem for the Republicans in some areas, but the president is now quite unpopular in many of the districts he won three years ago. If the economy doesn’t improve and if the national Republicans nominate a sane presidential candidate, then the House and Senate Democrats will have to find a way to win downstate and suburban and exurban areas without his coattails.
And the same thing goes for Democratic state legislators trying to move up the political ladder. At least two former legislators and one current legislator are running for Congress right now. All three voted for the tax hike. If they think that the national Republicans are going to give them a pass on that, then they’re dreaming. Heck, their Democratic primary opponents would probably be wise to use the issue as well.
* But one of those three Democratic legislators has the surprising support of a major Peoria bigshot…
State Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, is gearing up for another fundraiser in the Peoria area to bolster his campaign coffers as he makes a run for Congress in the newly drawn 17th District. […]
Perhaps most eye-catching among the names is Doug Oberhelman, the CEO of Caterpillar Inc. He and his wife, Diane, the chief of Cullinan Properties, are included. […]
It was the Caterpillar CEO’s letter to Gov. Pat Quinn earlier this year that launched a debate over the impact of the corporate and personal income tax increases on the business climate in Illinois. Koehler voted for that tax hike.
Both individually and as a couple, the Oberhelmans have been frequent political donors. However, campaign records indicate that the lion’s share of the money they’ve given has gone to those running on the GOP side of the aisle. And it was just last year that they hosted a fundraiser at their home for U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock’s re-election bid that boasted former first lady Laura Bush as the marquee guest.
Nevertheless, Koehler has described himself as close to the Oberhelmans, calling Doug Oberhelman “a longtime friend” and “one of my first donors.” He’s said that he’s “very proud of the fact that I have a bipartisan group of donors” in the primary campaign.
Discuss.
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