The problem, and I suppose this was inevitable, is that Occupy Wall Street is being portrayed as some kind of anti-Tea Party. Left vs. right, blue vs. red, rock vs. country, et cetera—it’s the only way we know how to draw battle lines anymore. But how are the two movements meaningfully different? I sure as hell can’t figure it out. There are plenty of minor differences, mostly concerning priorities and demographics, but the similarities are much more substantial. Both are popular uprisings against powerful-but-nebulous entities believed to be responsible for America’s economic struggles. Both are defined not by easily-identified leaders, but by the sum total of countless unique viewpoints, and thus are not capable of articulating their goals with any cohesiveness or specificity (nor should they be expected to). And both movements, to borrow the classification scheme created by Bill O’Reilly, are teeming with both pinheads and patriots. […]
We should pay less attention to the individual lunatics, and more attention to what a movement is really about. Occupy Wall Street, at its core, is a reaction to the increasing power and influence of large corporations. The Tea Party, at its core, is a reaction to the government’s constant interference with private enterprise. But wait a minute—aren’t those things connected?
* As expected, House Speaker Michael Madigan will block a vote on Gov. Pat Quinn’s amendatory veto of a legislative scholarship reform bill. Quinn rewrote the bill to abolish the program in its entirety. The Speaker’s spokesman was not kind…
It’s not in compliance with the constitution as it relates to the use of the amendatory veto. That’s very clear,” Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said. “This is something the speaker has worked on for two decades in terms of keeping the coequal branches of government intact.”
Referring to Quinn, Brown said, “You can’t sit around in one little place, one office, and say, ‘Here’s what I think the legislation should be.’ You have to engage in the legislative process. You can’t decide in the summer this is the bill I want. That’s not the way it was designed. There are three equal branches of government, regardless of the topic.”
A Quinn aide said the governor is intent on getting rid of what one aide repeatedly characterized as the “political scholarship program.”
“Obviously the governor doesn’t agree,” Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said when told of Brown’s comments regarding the governor’s use of the amendatory veto.
As I’ve said before, the scholarships should be abolished. But I have always been uncomfortable with the way governors try to stretch their amendatory veto powers.
* The Northwest Municipal Conference has proposed some changes to the way ComEd responds to storms, including forcing the company to set up regional 24-hour operations centers to inform customers what’s going on. The company’s response reputation is horrid, for good reason…
“I would receive messages from them that they had a crew on site, on scene, working on the repair, not realizing apparently that I was physically standing at the scene, watching the fact that there was nobody there, no work was being done,” said Wilmette Village Manager Tim Frenzer. “And in fact, the work wouldn’t be done for days.”
Busted. Cold.
* The super-intense storms last summer knocked out power for thousands of people. Without a smart grid, power outages cannot be contained and can become wider blackouts. Also, no smart grid means the company has to rely on customers to tell them when their power is out. But the company was clearly overwhelmed and residents had a right to be angry. And now, nobody wants to listen to the company’s ideas. This suburban editorial sums up a lot of the baby with the bathwater anger…
Until ComEd can get service returned quickly in the wake of power outages, residents should not be saddled with the bells-and-whistles-filled smart grid.
Too many people lost too much food in the last string of outages to reward ComEd with its coveted prize. Too many people suffered through days without air conditioning and nights with lights to give the power company a new gadget and higher electric rates. Too many traffic signals were dark, creating dangerous intersections, and too much emergency manpower was needed to baby-sit downed wires for state lawmakers to hand the power company yet another golden egg.
No one is saying that ComEd’s equipment should have withstood the powerful storms that rolled through the region this summer, but for residents in the northern suburbs to be without power for two, three and four days in the storms’ aftermath is simply unacceptable. Not being able to get power restored in a timely manner has to have consequences.
Keeping the smart grid from ComEd is not punishment, it is practicality. It is like your teen-age son asking for a Mercedes after he gets his driver’s license when he hasn’t mastered driving the 10-year-old mini-van yet. Any smart grid talk has to wait until ComEd proves itself worthy of the upgrade.
The editorial completely ignores the fact that we need both upgrades. The old grid needs to be shored up and the smart grid added to provide extra protection. But, ComEd is so unpopular that people just don’t want to listen. I can’t really blame them.
ComEd would probably be wise to go back to the drawing board, come up with a very big “dumb grid” and service upgrade and use that to justify the smart grid. And it should drop all that other crud about executive salaries and the like out of its bid to get around the Illinois Commerce Commission. If it doesn’t and its bill doesn’t pass, Illinois will be missing out on a chance to bring itself into the 21st Century.
ComEd’s new president said recently that Alexander Graham Bell wouldn’t recognize the telephone today, but Thomas Edison would be quite familiar with our existing 19th Century power grid. Enough with the games, already. And the AARP ought to back off the silliness about how “dangerous” smart meters are. It’s like the fluoridated water goofiness all over again.
* Craig Clausen penned a rah-rah op-ed for the Tribune today. Despite the exuberance, he makes good points…
In other states, smart meters are set to become the smartphones of the electricity business. Your current home electric meter knows one trick — dial spinning. If a human doesn’t read it each month, you end up receiving an estimated bill that may take months to reconcile to your actual usage. A smart meter is electronic, not mechanical. It can accurately bill you each month, week or day — your choice. It allows you to buy market-priced power at any given moment and even at tomorrow’s likely price.
A smart meter can tell you how much power each appliance is using and what your carbon footprint is. Want to ask your appliances how they’re feeling and whether the fridge might be headed for a motor failure? There’ll be an app for that.
Those inconvenient power outages we all endure will shorten because ComEd will instantly know who has power and who doesn’t. Crews can go to exactly the place they can do the most good. If a squirrel has his last meal chomping into your power connection, the meter can tell ComEd to restore service before you get home. You’ll know about it because the meter contacted you too. There’ll be an app for that.
Working late? Send your meter a message to save hours of cooling time if you want. There’ll be an app for that too.
Electric vehicles need smart meters to make sure that battery recharges are done during the wee hours of the night when prices are low. That app could come free from Ford or GM.
A law on the books for more than a decade sounds like it might have helped people like Sheldon Langer, who last year lost $600 of groceries after five days without power. And the village of Glenview, which spent tens of thousands of dollars in overtime this summer for firefighters and police officers who baby-sat downed wires and helped open emergency cooling centers.
The law was intended to compensate victims by holding Commonwealth Edison financially accountable for extreme outages, defined as those that leave more than 30,000 customers without power for at least four hours and could have been prevented.
But 14 years after the law’s passage, ComEd has never had to pay out for such losses.
ComEd simply found a way around the law. It’s a very crafty company, that one. And that’s why it shouldn’t be allowed to draft legislation like this smart grid thing.
* Exelon: Good for shareholders, not always customers: Sunday’s column was about why the Maryland Public Service Commission should reject Exelon Corp.’s applicaiton to take over Constellation Energy and BGE. One reason is what knowledgeable people describe as Exelon’s and utility ComEd’s unstated motivation to close their Zion Station nuclear plant: to decrease the supply and increase the price of electricity.
* Mike Boland is dropping out of the congressional race and will run for state Senate. This will be one of the most-watched primaries of the year…
Former state Rep. Mike Boland is dropping out of the Democratic primary in Illinois’ 17th district and will pursue a challenge against state Sen. Mike Jacobs.
The state Senate race would pit two longtime rivals against one another. And it would also pare the already lengthy slate of Democrats seeking to unseat U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling, R-Ill. […]
Boland acknowledged he hasn’t done much fundraising, and he said he’d only raised about $6,000, far less than what some of his rivals are expected to report. Still, he said it wasn’t lack of money that is behind his exit.
He said he is challenging Jacobs because he’s unhappy with his record, particularly his sponsorship of a bill to let utilities raise rates to improve the electrical grid.
The feud between Boland and the Jacobs family goes back decades. He and Mike’s father despised each other, and the enmity continued when the son got the seat. Attempts were made in the past to dislodge Boland by both parties, but he’s always held on. He’s not all that popular at the Statehouse, but he was popular back in the district.
However, Boland has no money in his state campaign account. He drained it during his feckless bid for lt. governor last year, but he raised only a few thousand dollars for that campaign. Most of his money came from loans made by himself and his wife. Sen. Jacobs had $88K in the bank at the end of June and has raised about $48K since then.
Jacobs sponsored the much-hated “Smart Grid” bill. Jacobs’ father lobbies for ComEd. There’s plenty of fodder for Boland if he can run even a half-real campaign.
“I’m surprised,” Sen. Jacobs said. “He announced he was dropping out of the (Illinois) House where he had served 20 years to spend time with his grandkids. Then he ran for lieutenant governor and finished fifth. Then he ran for a Black Hawk College trustee position and then he announced a campaign for Congress.
“Now he’s going to drop out of the congressional race to run for (state) Senate. He makes me wonder if he knows what he wants to be when he grows up. I feel sorry for him. He has some issues.”
Sen. Jacobs said he doesn’t know Mr. Boland very well, but questions his motivation to run for the Illinois Senate.
“I don’t know what he could possibly offer the folks,” Sen. Jacobs said. “He hasn’t been very effective. … Thirty years ago, Boland ran against my father (for state Senate) and lost and endorsed a Republican after my father (Denny Jacobs) beat him. I don’t know what his motivation is. But anyone can run. It’s America.”
* Meanwhile, Democratic state Rep. Tom Holbrook has taken himself out of the race to replace retiring Democratic Congressman Jerry Costello. Others aren’t exactly climbing over each other to run, either…
St. Clair County State’s Sttorney Brendan Kelly and state Rep. Jerry Costello II, the congressman’s son, have told the News-Democrat they don’t plan to run for the seat Costello is giving up.
St. Clair County Board C hairmanMark Kern also has decided not to run for the 12th District seat, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Kern couldn’t be reached for comment. […]
Holbrook predicted “There’ll be a Democrat running.”
As to who that Democrat would be, “I would have to refer you to the party chairs,” he said.
* In other campaign news, there’s been a lot of talk about House Republican Leader Tom Cross thinking about endorsing Rick Perry’s presidential campaign. But Cross’ political godfather has just endorsed Mitt Romney…
“During my years in the House, I was an advocate for balanced budgets and low taxes,” Hastert said in a statement. “Mitt Romney stands up for these principles….From his success in the private sector, Mitt Romney understands how to create jobs and turn around this economy.”
* Everybody knows that Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky is intensely hated by the right wing. This post by Rebel Pundit is no exception…
#OccupyChicago: thousands of anarchists, union members, and Democrats–and not one American flag.
Just like the Tea Party!
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) was on hand. She addressed a mob outside the Hyatt Regency Chicago, where some activists apparently attempted to disrupt a meeting of the Mortgage Bankers Association. She then led them in one of five feeder marchers that combined into a sea of pot-smoking, bongo-drumming, flea-infested dreadlock lunacy outside the Art Institute of Chicago.
We caught up with Jan, and asked for her thoughts on the patriotism of the protest, since we could not find one American flag in her parade of nearly 1000 liberal loons.
* Elk Grove Mayor Won’t Run For Congress: “I have no desire to run for Congress or state senate, as long as you give me the privilege, nothing makes me prouder than to say I’m the mayor of Elk Grove,” said Mayor Craig Johnson at Tuesday night’s village board meeting, putting to rest talk he might mount a run as a Republican in the newly remapped 8th Congressional Dist.
* Resident to Biggert: ‘I am Seething‘ About Job Cuts - Protesters came to Rep. Judy Biggert’s office in Willowbrook to encourage her to support the jobs bill that was before the U.S. Senate Tuesday.
Calling it a “misguided attempt” to exploit his new position as a member of Congress, Joe Walsh says his ex-wife is lying about not receiving some of the $117,437 in missing child support funds she says she’s owed.
In fact, he says he paid extra from November 2005 to June 2007.
The McHenry Tea Partyer, however, admits he did not pay child support from March 2008 to December 2010, but says he and his former wife had a verbal understanding that they would divide the children’s expenses but neither would pay the other child support. The couple’s children are ages 24, 20, and 16.
In the 31-page filing submitted to the Cook County circuit court’s Domestic Relations Division Tuesday afternoon, Walsh, the freshman who in the last eight months has catapulted onto a national stage with his charismatic candor and caustic rhetoric decrying government spending, argues that he’s been “pummeled by the media” since allegations he owed years of child support first broke in July.
* Mr. Walsh was able to prove (backed up with checks cashed by Laura Walsh) that he did in fact make years of payments at a time in which Laura Walsh claimed she received no payments from Mr. Walsh.
* Mr. Walsh did in fact pay his share of the education costs for all of his Children to attend Catholic school; despite the claim that Laura Walsh claims she incurred all of the costs.
* By blatantly and knowingly submitting false information in her pleading Laura Walsh and her attorney’s not only broke Illinois state law, but it is clear that the only point in submitting these allegations was an attempt to tarnish the Congressman’s reputation.
From 2007 on, the children lived with Mr. Walsh half the time.
* Over a five year period, Mr. Walsh and his wife agreed to both increases and decreases in child support changes, without modifying them in court.
* In fact for almost a full year while Laura Walsh was making $140,000 a year and living in another state, Mr. Walsh provided full time residential custodial care for his youngest son, despite making significantly less money than Laura Walsh.
* At no time did Mr. Walsh ever ask Laura Walsh for child support despite her high salary and the fact that he was the full time care giver of their only remaining dependent child. […]
I have unfairly endured two months of media ridicule as a “deadbeat dad.” My children have had to endure this as well. Yesterday’s pleading proves this charge is unfounded and shows that I have been a loving, supportive, involved Dad from the beginning. I understand that politics is a rough business and I have been an outspoken member of Congress who has clearly become a target. But to lie about me, especially my worth as a Father just isn’t right and I won’t put up with it.”
* The attorney for the former Mrs. Walsh denied there was a verbal agreement and added…
Laura Walsh’s attorney, Jack Coladarci, said his client stands behind everything she said in her December pleaading, which they began working on back when Walsh was largely unknown.
After years of not trying to collect money from Walsh, Laura Walsh went to her attorneys after she saw that the then-candidate had lent his campaign $34,000, Coladarci said.
“Last year, when she came to us, nobody thought he was going to win that race,” Coladarci said. “This wasn’t going after a congressman — it was about a guy who had enough money to donate to his campaign.”
* These stories about union leaders taking advantage of their positions and an obscure state law continue to make me sick to my stomach…
Among those in line to reap multiple pensions with the blessing of city pension fund officials is Liberato “Al” Naimoli, president of Cement Workers Local 76.
Naimoli retired in 2010 from a $15,000-a-year city job that he hadn’t worked at in a quarter-century. He now receives a city pension, based on his union salary, that pays him about $158,000 a year, more than any other annuitant in the city laborers’ pension fund.
In order to get that inflated city pension, Naimoli signed an application in 2009 that stated he was not receiving credit in any local union pension plan. Yet information obtained by the Tribune and WGN-TV shows that the local has been sending pension contributions on his behalf to the union fund since 1977. He is now eligible to receive about $60,000 a year.
His second pension will come from the Laborers’ Pension Fund for Chicago and Vicinity, a plan established by hundreds of private employers as well as the Construction and General Laborers District Council of Chicago and Vicinity. The council is an umbrella group composed of nearly two dozen Chicago-area unions affiliated with the Laborers’ International Union of North America, or LIUNA.
Naimoli’s continued participation in the union pension plan has the blessing of Heiss and of James Capasso Jr., executive director of the city laborers’ pension fund. Years ago, Capasso was booted from another LIUNA affiliate for receiving contributions to the district council pension fund despite never holding a paid job with a union.
James Capasso Jr. walked into a union pension fund office in 2002, announced he was retiring from Laborers’ Local 1001 and applied for a pension.
The request was curious, considering Capasso had never held a paying job with Local 1001. In fact, he had been making more than $100,000 a year working full time as executive director of the Laborers’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, a city pension plan with more than $1 billion in assets.
It turned out that dues from union members had been set aside for Capasso with the Laborers’ Pension Fund for Chicago and Vicinity as if he had been working for the local 30 hours a week for 18 years, union documents show.
The union pension fund eventually rejected Capasso’s pension request. But the episode raises serious questions about how a college dropout with no prior experience became the executive director of a city pension fund — and why he was allowed to keep that job after the laborers union threw him out for attempting to collect a pension he was not entitled to receive.
At the city pension fund, Capasso is the official who allowed employees of Local 1001 and other unions affiliated with the Construction and General Laborers’ District Council of Chicago and Vicinity to land inflated city pensions on top of their union pensions.
Ugh.
* From a press release…
As the Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV continue to uncover gross abuses in the Chicago’s pension funds, Illinois House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) filed legislation today to ensure that Chicago union officials cannot collect multiple pensions, one through the City of Chicago and one through other labor organizations for pension credit earned for the same period of service.
Rep. Cross filed House Bill 3832 to strengthen current law, because according to the news reports, some top union officials circumvented the law to allow double dipping in the Chicago Municipal Pension Fund and the Chicago Laborers’ Pension Fund.
“This is double-dipping on steroids—and it was meant to be illegal. Unfortunately, top union officials used a questionable interpretation of the pension law that allowed them to use a loophole in to grab two or sometimes three pensions,” said Cross. “This is a disgrace—and must be remedied immediately.”
The reports are slightly different than what were in the news last month when the Chicago Tribune and WGN reported that city of Chicago union bosses were double dipping a city pension with a union pension by falsifying their City pension applications—stating they were only receiving one pension, but were collecting both.
Current State law provides that the deliberate falsification of documents in an attempt to defraud a public pension system is a Class 3 felony, and a conviction for this type of fraud will disqualify the individual from receiving municipal pensions.
Even though Illinois law was violated, the union officials were allowed to keep their inflated City of Chicago pension as long as they disclaimed the union pension they had also been receiving. It was a decision by the Executive Director of the Chicago Municipal Fund to not go after the violators of the current statute.
* Mayor Rahm Emanuel began rolling out his budget yesterday. Best line of the day…
“If you think you’re gonna balance a budget with a $637 million deficit that’s about 20 percent out of whack and you’re … gonna do it without controversy, call me. I’m really interested in the idea,” Emanuel said facetiously.
Emanuel made that comment at a press conference to announce that Accenture Financial Services is adding 500 new Chicago jobs. Those new jobs may help take a bit of the sting out of all the bad news.
If Mayor Rahm Emanuel gets his way and closes three police districts, the people who live in those communities will be short-changed, Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields said Tuesday night.
Under the mayor’s budget proposal, first reported Tuesday afternoon by the Chicago Sun-Times, three of the oldest stations — Belmont, Wood and Prairie — would be closed and its personnel consolidated into adjacent buildings.
“There’s going to be longer response time on 911 calls. There’s going to be less police officers in those neighborhoods, and it’s going to happen over time,” said Shields.
Some neighbors who live in the affected 13th District also challenge the plan.
“It’s an absolutely terrible idea,” said one resident.
* Explaining this won’t be easy, but they’re trying…
Sources said the stations were chosen because of their relatively low crime statistics and the ability of nearby stations with similarly low numbers to absorb the operations.
Chicago has 25 police districts, each with its own station. O.W. Wilson, the city’s first civilian superintendent, bit the bullet in 1960 and closed several stations, leaving only 20. Five more have been added since then.
For every station closed, McCarthy estimated that 20 officers could be made available for street duty. The move would also free scores of additional officers now assigned to police areas who support those district operations.
“At the end of the day, the consolidated districts will have the largest police forces — meaning by district manpower,” the mayor said.
“As it relates to libraries, you should know two things: I know what other cities are doing is closing them. I know the important role that libraries play in the educational and cultural life of our city, and I’m going to stay committed to the goal of libraries in our communities so our kids have an opportunity to go and to learn — not just in school, but at home and at their libraries.”
Even the city’s libraries would be impacted. They’re currently open just 8 hours a day. Those hours could be shortened again. “No! Not here. It’s used too much. It’s always busy,’ said Arlene Rosado, library user.
* The city’s hotel tax will jump from 3.5% to 4.5%, putting Chicago “on an equal level with other major cities,” according to mayoral aides. But look for big squawks from the hotel industry, because the overall tax (including levies by the state and other governments) will jump to a lofty 16.4%.
* A “congestion fee” — a higher tax on certain central area parking lots during certain portions of the day — will be imposed. Team Rahm isn’t yet saying how much the levy will be, but is reporting that funds will be used to rebuild two downtown el stations and pay for an express bus system known as bus rapid transit. […]
* The city’s “condo rebate fee,” a $75-a-unit annual payment used to compensate owner-occupied condo residents for the cost of private garbage collection, will be abolished. That likely will pass, but only over the opposition of lakefront aldermen.
Reported projected annual savings are $10 million.
* Not-for-profit institutions, from churches to schools, will lose free water. The only partial exception will be hospitals which primarily serve the poor, which will get a 20% discount on their water bill.
After initially rejecting the idea, Emanuel now will tap some surplus TIF dollars to help balance the city budget and also fund Chicago Public Schools and other local taxing districts, sources told the CNC. […]
Emanuel had said he preferred to avoid one-time fixes for deficits and instead would enact long-term changes.
“The TIFS are one time,” the mayor said in August.” “They don’t solve the problem. They don’t deal with the problem. Next year, we’d be back at it like Groundhog Day.”
Country music fan Gov. Pat Quinn is welcoming singer Martina McBride to Chicago.
Quinn will be at Union Station on Wednesday morning to greet McBride. The crooner is on an 11-city, cross-country train tour promoting her new album, “Eleven.”
* So, the Republicans believe 17,000 Illinoisans [typo fixed] are gonna pay $5 each to vote in a straw poll? Good luck…
Illinois Republicans hope to raise at least $85,000 via a presidential straw poll that gets under way later this month.
The state party’s first-ever straw poll — modeled on similar GOP fundraisers in other states — will allow voters to cast their unofficial ballots online beginning Oct. 29 at IllinoisStrawPoll.com.
Voters wanting to cast actual physical ballots will have to wait until Nov. 5. The in-person paper voting, run by county party organizations wishing to participate, will take place from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. that day.
The cost to cast a ballot: $5, payable at the voting sites or via a credit card if voting online. […]
Blessing said he is not sure how many people might participate in the poll, but he hopes Illinois can surpass totals set in Iowa this summer, in which nearly 17,000 Republicans cast ballots and gave Bachman an early boost.
It’ll be one heckuva feat if they meet their goal.
Rainbow PUSH joined with Attorney General Lisa Madigan to expose the targeting and steering of Blacks and people of color into sub-prime loans, and to demand appropriate remedies from Countrywide and other banks that engaged in discriminatory lending practices.
What Rev. Jackson forgot to mention is that he opposed a state predatory lender law back in early 2007, before all heck broke loose. Jackson said back then that the law, which targeted areas hardest hit by the scammers, had “the smell of apartheid.”
* The Lake County News-Sun’s “Talk of the County” is like an online letters to the editor page. I figure that this anonymous opinion posted to the page is pretty much the thinking behind Joe Walsh’s most committed followers…
Rep. Joe Walsh is a man who sticks by his word. He does what he says. He’s not a wimpy wishy-washy politician. I pick my battles. And don’t give me the poor example of not paying child support. The truth will come out. Those who are without sin can throw the first stone. And you have thrown yours by talking about someone without the facts.
Discuss.
* WBEZ’s Sam Hudzik tried to get Walsh’s GOP primary opponent Randy Hultgren to talk about whether he would run a negative campaign. Hultgren carefully dodged every question…
Last week, I chatted with Hultgren about the expected primary. I asked him if he would bring up the child support issue.
HULTGREN: You know, we’re going to talk about what we’ve been doing. I don’t, I really don’t know, what all is going to happen in this. I hope it doesn’t happen. I’m still hopeful that the courts are going to do the right thing and change these districts. So, what we’re going to do is focus on what we’ve been doing, and the good work that we’ve done for the people. […] In this district, particularly, I know that people are sick and tired of negative campaigns. I know in the media that, that people – they like that. But in this, there’s so much positive, that I feel like I can talk about, of what we’ve been doing and what we’ve done and what we’re going to do, that that’s going to be the focus.
I pointed out to Hultgren that his statement left the door open to using personal issues. He replied that his “focus is going to be on a positive race,” but added…
HULTGREN: There’s so many other things that play into it, of what people on the radio will say or what people in newspapers will say, but our focus is going to be positive. I think that’s absolutely what the 14th Congressional District wants.
Noting negative races in the past, Hultgren said, “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
So does that mean he’s personally pledging to run a positive race?
HULTGREN: Well, my focus is going to be on talking about positive things. We’re, I’ve, I’m careful on pledges, other than my pledges to serve the people that I represent as best as I possibly can, and to tell the truth, and to follow through on what I said I was going to do. Those are the pledges I’ve made and those are the pledges I’m going to keep.
That, my friends, is a careful answer.
Yep.
* And speaking of embattled incumbents, Republican state Sen. Suzi Schmidt now has a primary opponent…
Saying that incumbent state Sen. Suzi Schmidt will “have to run against her own incriminating 9-1-1 tapes” in the 2012 elections, former Lake County Board member Larry Leafblad of Grayslake formally declared his candidacy Monday to face his fellow Republican in the March 20 primary.
“The whole world was watching. Suzi mortally wounded herself,” Leafblad said in an appearance at the Round Lake Beach Cultural and Civic Center, referring to three domestic incidents between Schmidt and her husband, Robert, between December 2010 and Sept. 26 this year.
While neither Schmidt nor her husband were charged with any offenses in the incidents, Leafblad said he believes they made her “vulnerable next fall” among voters.
“The politicians that are tied to Suzi’s kite, because she’s got connections, (are) kind of circling the wagons around her right now,” Leafblad said following his formal remarks. “But the people are not. I’ve talked to 250, maybe 300 people throughout the last week or so (who) are very concerned that a Democrat could just walk into the position.”
* Meanwhile, Scott Reeder is rightfully not pleased with former state Rep. Mike Boland, who can’t make up his mind whether he will run for Congress or state Senate and is passing petitions for both offices…
Passing petitions to run for two different offices at the same time is sort like asking a gal to marry you, while still keeping your options open with the girl down the street.
Is Boland a two-timer pledging his devotion to the people of the 17th Congressional district while flirting with the voters in the 36th State Senate District?
* And Scott Cisek was remarkably candid about Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.’s primary race against former US Rep. Debbie Halvorson…
“Another city person getting in the race could only help Deb Halverson,” Cook County Democratic Party Political Director Scott Cisek said. […]
Though Jackson is already lining up support from local leaders in the black community, most onlookers downplayed the racial dynamic in the contest. Halvorson’s appeal to women could be a bigger factor, local Democrats speculated, especially in light of Jackson’s admitted affair.
Jackson “could have some real difficulty with women voters of every stripe,” Cisek said.
I’m assuming the Jackson campaign will use Halvorson’s pro-gun voting record to prevent her from winning over female voters, but Cisek has a good point.
*** UPDATE *** I can’t believe I forgot to post Mark Brown’s column here. The whole idea for this post came to me when I read his piece about the new Starz series “Boss” starring Kelsey Grammer as a Chicago mayor…
The scene is shot in the actual City Council chambers, which unfortunately may be its only brush with reality.
At one point, Mayor Kane becomes so frustrated with the City Council refusing to go along with him on a particularly outlandish scheme that he clears the chambers of the press and public, shuts off the lights (and presumably the sound system) in the upstairs gallery and decrees:
“Hand over the hardware. Laptops, BlackBerries, phones, iPads. All of it. No word in, no word out. No Twitter. No Facebook. Nothing.”
Mayor Kane goes on to tell the aldermen they will stay there until they vote his way, and if they don’t, he’ll make their votes public. The aldermen grumble, then throw their electronic devices into a box as ordered, but still refuse to vote with the mayor.
Somebody has got to be kidding.
That could happen in the General Assembly, because the Legislature is exempt from the Open Meetings Act. Something similar has actually happened, although it wasn’t done to strongarm members. But there’s no way a Chicago mayor could get away with pulling a stunt like that. And, as Brown points out in his column, there’s almost no way a Chicago mayor would ever need to do something like that.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration has found an interesting way of getting around Freedom of Information Requests: Don’t keep records in the first place…
Hundreds of people saw Lady Antebellum, M.C. Hammer, Jason Aldean and other recording artists at the Illinois State Fair this year for free, courtesy of the governor’s office and the Department of Agriculture. But those agencies did not keep records of who received the tickets.
The state gave out 1,997 tickets, valued at from about $10 to $40, with the majority of them going to television and radio stations for promotional purposes to dole out to listeners and viewers. The governor’s office, the Department of Agriculture and the state fair received their own allotment of 654 tickets. The State Journal-Register filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information on who received the tickets.
* What’s next, a dispute over the shape of the table? Sheesh…
With every passing hour, the meeting between Chicago Public Schools officials and the Chicago Teachers Union to discuss longer school days appears less likely.
Last week, CTU President Karen Lewis had said she and her union officers were ready to talk about the district’s controversial plan, but suggested union headquarters as a meeting location.
CPS countered by suggesting the two parties meet at a school that has chosen to add 90 minutes to its school day.
And since then, the talks have stalled.
* Bad timing all around? Steve Stevlic has resigned as Chicago Tea Party director after it came out that he’d been busted last year for soliciting a prostitute. But according to a rival tea party group, Stevlic ought to also resign from the IPI…
Mr. Stevlic, of the 6800 block of West Cermak Rd in Berwyn, was removed from our tea party two years ago for inappropriate behavior towards a female tea party member. We never worked with him or his group and never will.
We also strongly suggest to all affiliated groups and organizations that support Steve Stevlic to stand him down. In particular, we suggest that John Tillman of the Illinois Policy Institute, where Stevan Stevlic, 36, was hired as an employee last week, fire him. We also demand, as tea partiers, that Steve Stevlic resign from his position and resign today. We just cannot afford him!
Actually, Stevlic is already gone. He resigned from IPI right after the revelations hit the media.
* An errant fax provides some insight into how things are done in St. Clair County…
St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department records clerk Joann Reed wanted a speeding ticket for the son of a deputy dismissed, but she didn’t go to a judge or jury in traffic court.
Instead, Reed faxed a copy of the Centreville Police Department’s ticket from the Sheriff’s Department’s fax machine to Centreville village attorney Carmen Durso, with a handwritten message: “Dismiss this case.”
The problem is, she didn’t fax the ticket to Durso. Reed accidentally faxed it to the News-Democrat’s newsroom.
Oops.
* This is just way too much power concentrated in one alderman’s hands…
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee, have agreed to work together to wring $15 million in savings out of the city’s $100-a-year million tab for workers compensation. […]
Burke, who has sole authority to process and settle workers compensation claims and handpick attorneys when claims are challenged, has agreed to more aggressively investigate and manage individual cases.
* Some of us wondered why Chicago’s Census effort was so mangled…
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White’s Securities Department temporarily has revoked the securities license of Alvin Boutte Jr. after concluding that the Chicago municipal finance banker acted improperly in advising the agency that runs the state’s prepaid tuition program to invest $12.8 million in now-failed community lender ShoreBank Corp.
Mr. Boutte — a board member of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and recent co-chairman of a committee appointed by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley to provide a total count of the city’s population for the U.S. census — performed the “due diligence” review on behalf of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission for its investment in ShoreBank in late 2008. That investment was wiped out when ShoreBank failed in August 2010.
In its Oct. 3 order barring Mr. Boutte from offering or selling securities or providing investment advice, the Securities Department said Mr. Boutte misrepresented facts ISAC should have known before agreeing to invest and acted both as an adviser to ISAC and as a representative for ShoreBank in soliciting investors.
In March 2004, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley announced a deal that promised to save taxpayer money, reduce natural gas consumption and bring “green” jobs to Chicago.
But taxpayers might see red when they learn how the deal turned out. More than seven years later, the initiative has been quietly suspended amid problems with some of the equipment — and acknowledgements by city officials that taxpayers will probably lose money on the deal and never realize the energy savings that Daley touted, the Better Government Association has learned. […]
In the end, the BGA found that one of the few beneficiaries of the deal appears to be a businessman with close ties to Daley: United Service Cos. President and CEO Rick Simon, the former chairman of the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau and a South Loop neighbor of the ex-mayor.
Former Mayor Richard M. Daley on Monday denounced as “disgraceful” and a “personal insult to my wife” an internal audit concluding that recipients of city subsidies were told to donate to Maggie Daley’s After School Matters program.
The former mayor insisted that no arms were ever twisted to produce donations to the charity that his wife founded to occupy and educate Chicago teenagers. […]
Last week, Ferguson charged that After School Matters received $915,000 in contributions over a ten-year period from companies that received tax-increment-financing subsidies from the city.
TIF recipients interviewed by Ferguson’s investigators reported that, in the vast majority of cases, the charities were “unilaterally chosen” by the city with no specific standards for making those decisions.
* Related…
* Double-dipping in the teachers’ pension system: Michael Johnson didn’t wait until he retired as executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards to start cashing in on his public pension. Johnson earned $324,785 in compensation from the Illinois Association of School Boards, or IASB, while simultaneously collecting $209,379.43 from the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System between July 1, 2007, and July 1, 2008, according to documents obtained by Illinois Statehouse News.
* Union leaders pull down millions in public pensions: Former employees of the National Education Association, or NEA, Illinois Education Association, or IEA, Illinois Federation of Teachers, or IFT, and Illinois Association of School Boards, or IASB, drawing pensions have collected more than $47 million from the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System, or TRS, to date.
* Feds investigating Cicero personnel practices: Federal authorities have interviewed dozens of current and former employees of the Town of Cicero, some under subpoena, as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the town’s personnel practices, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, along with the U.S. Department of Justice, is conducting the investigation to determine whether to file a federal lawsuit against Cicero. Over the last three decades, the federal government has sued the town repeatedly over its hiring practices and alleged discrimination, but this investigation specifically targets practices under Town President Larry Dominick.
* Evans steps down as Country Club Hills police chief
* The Sox and Cubs had miserable seasons. The Bears were horrible last night. The NBA has canceled the first two weeks of the season. The Blackhawks ain’t what they used to be.
“We watch those (states) very carefully,” said Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. “We also look at exposures of banks and other institutions to those states. We don’t see any immediate risk there.”
* This morning, Kirk released a report on Illinois finances that was somewhat accurate, but also out of date and, like his Greek theory, needlessly alarmist. For instance…
Illinois owes $8.3 billion in unpaid bills. That’s 10 times higher than the level in 2002.
Um, no. That number is way out of date. This is from a September report issued by the Illinois comptroller…
(T)he state ended fiscal year 2011 on June 30 with nearly $4 billion in unpaid bills dating back to January. When lapse period spending is included, the end-of-fiscal-year payment deficit balloons to $5.1 billion, which will be paid with fiscal year 2012 revenues.
Indeed, the State has put itself in a classic “debt spiral.” It borrows to cover deficit spending, so credit ratings fall and interest rates rise. Taxes go up but tax receipts still fall short because businesses aren’t growing and taxpayers are moving to other states. So, as if it were paying off a mortgage loan with a credit card, the government starts the cycle all over again by borrowing more and paying higher interest for the privilege.
Actually, there’s no new borrowing built into this fiscal year’s plan. And tax receipts are definitely not falling short since the tax hike.
* And even major budget players like Senate Appropriations Committee II Chairman Dan Kotowski are against more borrowing…
In the meantime, if the governor asks the General Assembly to borrow more money in the upcoming veto session, Kotowski said he would vote no.
“I wouldn’t support borrowing,” he said.
* Look, there’s no doubt that Illinois’ finances are not yet in order. Far from it. But as I’ve said time and again, it took the state decades to get into this mess, we cannot expect to get out of it in one year. It would certainly help if Gov. Pat Quinn were more committed to this goal, because the General Assembly can’t continue to do this on its own. And I’m not optimistic that the budget trend will remain. But Sen. Kirk should probably try using some updated numbers the next time he talks about his home state’s fiscal problems and avoid crying “Wolf.”
Also, the Tribune might wanna check Kirk’s numbers before it allows itself to be used like it was today.
* A civil war is brewing inside the most influential conservative group in Congress: The Republican Study Committee, which has long served as the conservative policy nerve center for the House GOP, has been beset by infighting and disputes over the group’s mission… Alabama Reps. Jo Bonner and Martha Roby have dropped out of the group, as has Louisiana Rep. Bill Cassidy. At least one other, Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, is in the process of leaving, according to a source familiar with his thinking. Bonner, who met with Jordan privately before he dropped out, said he’ll “be damned if I am going to sit by and watch our members fight against each other.” Roby, Cassidy and Kinzinger refused to comment on their departures. “There’s a bit of an überconservative environment that’s going on, and we can’t continue to shoot ourselves in the foot or have what I call a circular firing squad,” said Florida Rep. Allen West, a freshman member of the RSC who is remaining in the group.
* Jacksonville Developmental Center hearing moved to larger site: An Oct. 24 meeting of the legislative Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability to hear testimony about the state’s plans to close the Jacksonville Developmental Center has been moved to the Bruner Recreation Center on the Illinois College campus.
* Mother Warns of Danger If Mental Health Facilities Are Closed: In 2008, Barb Carlson’s daughter, Jennifer, and three of her friends were killed when a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia set her Chicago apartment building on fire. A Cook County judge found Mary Smith not guilty by reason of insanity. During the trial, Smith’s family said they tried to get her help, but no one would take her. Carlson fears if Singer closes it’s a tragedy that could happen again. “I think he needs to consider the ramifications that this is going to cause” says Carlson. “I heard there is no plan in place to put people once they shut these facilities down. I can see down the road if we’re not careful the same thing is going to happen again.”
* As we area all painfully aware, CME Group’s chairman/CEO has announced that he hates Illinois’ tax hike and may move pieces of his company to another state. But a couple of plans are surfacing…
Recent studies have shown, however, that most large Illinois-based corporations do not pay income taxes at anywhere near the official rate. Large manufacturers such as Boeing and Caterpillar, for instance, tend to book sales elsewhere, and because Illinois imposes its income tax taxes only on profits from sales within the state, these companies pay substantially less than if all their profits were taxed.
The CME Group, in contrast, executes the vast majority of its millions of daily trades in Chicago.
CME Chairman Terrence Duffy recently told reporters that the way Illinois apportions income tax liability puts his exchange at a distinct disadvantage. If Caterpillar sells earth-moving equipment to an individual living outside Illinois, the transaction does not incur state taxes in Illinois.
So the CME Group is looking for relief. Under one scenario, its trades could be recorded in the home state of the buyer or seller of the futures contracts. Under another, the state and the city could provide a package of economic incentives-job training grants, TIF financing, property tax abatements – to partially offset the income tax hit. [emphasis added]
I checked with the governor’s budget office on this and they, in turn, checked with the Department of Revenue. The budget office’s response…
As a general matter, their sales should be sited to the location of their customers. It is perhaps an open question who their customers are - perhaps they are the clearinghouses.
So, it’s possible that the law could be tweaked to allow CME Group to avoid state taxes by using a different formula for how the point of sale is calculated. But a decision really needs to be made soon.
* Earlier in the year, Gov. Pat Quinn set a September 13th deadline for a resolution to the labor issues at McCormick Place. Quinn said he’d call a special session of the General Assembly if no deal was reached. But before the deadline expired, Quinn announced that there was no need for a special session because talks were progressing smoothly. Not everyone agrees…
Talks aimed at reviving labor reforms at McCormick Place are dragging on too long, and may end up doing too little to make Chicago competitive with other cities, the head of the city’s convention bureau is warning.
In a remarkably candid interview, Bruce Rauner, the chairman of the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau, says current and potential trade-show customers “are losing their patience” at lengthy talks among Springfield politicians.
With talks already weeks behind schedule, the Legislature’s fall veto session is running out of time to work on McCormick Place matters, he said. “It’s not clear how these negotiations will turn out, or how comprehensive the changes will be,” Mr. Rauner said.
“This decision has dragged on too long and, if it continues they (customers) could go elsewhere,” he added.
* Gov. Quinn has had since the end of May to craft an alternative to the gaming expansion bill. Legislators and others have complained that he won’t say what specific changes he’d like to make to the bill. Doug Finke is rightly unimpressed with the governor’s latest pronouncement…
Quinn said last week that he will detail his concerns about the gambling expansion by the end of the month. Whoopee.
Quinn has been bad-mouthing the bill for months, complaining variously that it’s too big, it weakens oversight of gambling, it will ruin the family atmosphere of the state fairgrounds, etc. etc. etc. But he’s never really detailed all of his objections so that lawmakers can attempt to work on a compromise
But now Quinn is ready to lay out all of his concerns - by the end of the month. The end of the month, of course, is when lawmakers will be back in Springfield for the veto session. They could end up drafting a final compromise on the fly.
You know how well things turn out when they are rushed through the Legislature.
However, Quinn apparently did say that a south suburban casino is out of the question…
Not that all trustees were as concerned about proposals of a south suburban casino. [Lansing] Village President Norm Abbott said Gov. Pat Quinn told south suburban mayors during a recent meeting that it was unlikely any casino would ever be located in the South Side or its surrounding suburbs.
“He (Quinn) told us there just won’t be a new casino on the South Side,” Abbott said.
* Related…
* Durflinger reflects on doing business with China
* Legislative update: Illinois Fall Veto Session looms week of Oct. 25
* Hispanic leaders want seat on health review board
Tuesday, Oct 11, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
CHICAGO TRIBUNE (6/9/11):“The utilities stand to earn a return of 6 percentage points over the 30-year Treasury rate—that’s a profit of more than 10 percent at present. The profit could soar if interest rates rise, and apart from a weak provision written into the measure, the sky’s the limit. The bill also has a rate cap that applies only to part of the period it covers. The formulas for both return on equity and rate caps should be strengthened.”
ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR (6/7/11):“As we wrote in a May 22 editorial, the complex regulatory process in Illinois has served consumers well. There’s no need for the company to do this end run and weaken protections in place for decades.” “…ComEd thinks the regulatory process is broken – and its remedy is a guarantee of double-digit profits for the next decade.”
CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS (6/27/11): “The bill guarantees the utility an investment return of more than 10% annually, paid for by its customers. It also would weaken regulatory oversight of ComEd, the monopoly electric supplier to homes and small businesses in Northern Illinois.”
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column digs a bit deeper into the governor’s latest weird move…
Gov. Pat Quinn has been trying to get rid of Illinois Power Agency director Mark Pruitt almost since the day Quinn was sworn into office. He finally did it, but the move is backfiring.
The governor is a big cheerleader for alternative power like wind and solar. But Pruitt, whose main job is negotiating contracts with electricity generators on behalf of consumers, refused to sign some alt energy contracts because they’d cost consumers too much money.
Pruitt’s IPA was created after mega utility ComEd announced that it intended to buy electricity via a weird reverse auction system that was roundly slammed by Attorney General Lisa Madigan and every other reasonable political leader in Illinois. As a result, Pruitt claims to have saved Illinois electricity consumers $1.6 billion since 2007, and he has the numbers to back him up.
The IPA was created by House Speaker Michael Madigan, who to this day lists the creation as one of his greatest accomplishments. Pruitt wasn’t initially Speaker Madigan’s guy, but the speaker grew to respect him and found himself protecting Pruitt against Quinn’s hostility, eventually passing a bill this spring that removed the Power Agency from Quinn’s direct control. Quinn, in a move he’ll likely regret, vetoed Madigan’s proposal this summer.
Pruitt is most certainly an egghead, not an administrator. He initially tried to run the IPA by himself, which resulted in an embarrassing report by the Illinois auditor general. And although the Quinn administration denies it, word from inside is that the governor has blocked Pruitt from hiring staff, and Quinn has repeatedly taken money from Pruitt’s special fund to shore up the rest of the state budget. That turmoil is mainly why Speaker Madigan finally stepped in and attempted to insulate the power agency from Quinn’s meddling.
Back in June, Quinn tried to replace Pruitt with a lawyer who works for the attorney general’s office. The Senate Democrats decided that the lawyer didn’t meet the state law’s job requirements and quietly demanded that his name be withdrawn.
Quinn’s people still insist that the man was qualified. But they also claim, in a bizarre bit of pique, that he was actually pressured into withdrawing by the attorney general. The attorney general’s office flatly denies this allegation.
The governor’s folks say they asked Speaker Madigan for names to replace Pruitt but heard nothing back. That’s not surprising since Pruitt is Madigan’s guy.
Quinn finally ousted Pruitt last week and replaced him with Arlene Juracek, a retired ComEd executive. Juracek actually testified on behalf of the much-ridiculed reverse auction and admits to owning Exelon stock, but she won’t say how much.
Exelon, ComEd’s parent company, will be on the other side of the table when Juracek negotiates power prices. The Quinn people say the job requirements are so strict that they had little choice but to name Juracek to the post. Plus, they say, the Illinois Commerce Commission can veto any unfavorable deals Juracek might negotiate with her former parent company, which is cold comfort to the attorney general.
The bottom line here is that the governor has made a move that would’ve caused a gigantic uproar if Rod Blagojevich had done the same thing. Just imagine the hostile reaction if Blagojevich had appointed a ComEd retiree who still owns shares of her former parent company’s stock as the point person for negotiating power prices with that very company.
And below that bottom line is an even bigger problem. The governor has angered both the House speaker and the attorney general just weeks before the start of the fall veto session which was already looking like a disaster for Quinn as members prepare to override or reject almost all of his vetoes.
It’s not certain yet that Juracek’s nomination is doomed, but it is sure starting to look that way. The governor spent last week flying around to various downstate media markets to gin up public support for his veto of ComEd’s “Smart Grid” bill. How he can bash ComEd on the one hand and hire a ComEd veteran to negotiate electricity prices on the other is more than a bit beyond me.
Remember the dark days of 2007 when electric rates doubled and tripled because the power companies had been deregulated and they were buying high-priced power from themselves through a reverse auction? Juracek and the utilities loved the reverse auction idea. Obviously.
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The power agency was set up as an alternative to the reverse auctions, and Pruitt has done a great job for consumers, saving them an estimated $1.6 billion since 2009. We don’t understand why Quinn would replace him at all, but especially with someone who spent her career with ComEd.
Fortunately, the Senate will have to confirm Juracek. Let’s hope the senators have better sense than Quinn and say no to this appointment.
During the news conference, Quinn praised Juracek as his appointment to head the agency, despite criticism from Attorney General Lisa Madigan — who is often a supporter of the governor’s — that Juracek’s role in the 2006 electricity auction played a part in the considerable jump in the utility rates consumers pay.
“I’ve happened to know Arlene for some time. She’s worked with the utility company. We didn’t always agree, but she was prepared and knew the subjects backwards and forwards,” Quinn said. “I think it’s very good to have someone who is well-versed in the area of power procurement to represent the people of Illinois, the governments of Illinois and to get the best deal we can.”
Quinn said Juracek’s experience played a role in her appointment. State law, Quinn said, requires someone with 15 years of utility experience to take over the IPA’s top position.
In other words, despite Quinn’s longtime challenges to the utility industry as both governor and citizens advocate (his efforts helped form the Citizens Utility Board in 1983), he had to pull from the “other” side for this one.
* Related…
* Utilities gave legislators $1.3 million in push for ‘Smart Grid’ bill
* All ComEd bill provides is checkbook pain: He claims SB1652 does not guarantee utility profits. Read the bill: Page 82 clearly states that utility profits are tied to an automatic formula that is based on 30-year Treasury bonds. As bonds increase, so will ComEd and Ameren’s profits. Furthermore, Pages 84 to 86 state that year after year, ComEd and Ameren are guaranteed that their profit margins cannot fall below half a percentage point under what was reported the previous year. Mr. Romero also says that SB1652 includes consumer protections like a 2.5 percent cap. The reality, as stated in Pages 72-74 and 101-102, is that rate cap only applies for three of the bill’s 10 years, and that the so-called cap actually masks continuous increases in the delivery rates.
