* A group of liberal Democrats around the country is monitoring Rush Limbaugh’s radio talk show and compiling a list of his advertisers. The idea is to use the list to enforce a boycott of Limbaugh’s show over his grotesque remarks about birth control and a woman who testified in Congress.
John Majka is monitoring Rush’s show on WLS radio for advertiser names. One of the advertisers he added to the master list yesterday was the Illinois Lottery.
* So, does the Illinois Lottery really advertise on Rush Limbaugh’s show?
Well, as it turns out, a Lottery ad did run on Rush’s program yesterday during a WLS traffic report. But the ad was mistakenly placed by an advertising network, a Lottery spokesperson claimed today. Metro Networks buys ad time for the Lottery’s traffic spots.
According to the Lottery, it doesn’t advertise on national programs and doesn’t advertise on WLS radio. It also doesn’t advertise on “political” programs. Metro Networks is supposed to follow the Lottery’s rules, but apparently didn’t in this case.
The company is refunding the Lottery’s money, according to a Lottery spokesperson. Two Metro Networks execs werent able to immediately confirm the Lottery’s explanation. I’ll let you know if the company has a statement.
The Lottery was all over this when I alerted them to the fact that they were on the Rush advertiser list. They don’t need or want that sort of publicity.
* Meanwhile, Illinois Review has doubled down on the Rush controversy by publishing a new cartoon…
* Kelly Kraft of the governor’s budget office went on Fox Business News because somebody had said on the channel last week that Gov. Pat Quinn had asked for a federal bailout. The interview was at times pretty contentious, with host Stuart Varney regularly interrupting.
Varney offered up what he claimed was a simple solution to the state’s pension problems: All new hires should be put into 401(k) plans. “I know how this works, I know how this works,” Varney said. What he didn’t know, though, was that Illinois would have to start making Social Security payments for tens of thousands of workers if the state followed Varney’s advice.
Varney also claimed the state’s income tax hike didn’t bring in the amount of money that was expected. Wrong.
And Varney flatly stated than long term municipal bonds paid lower interest rates than short-term bonds. He made that claim while arguing that a ten-year California bond’s interest rate which is much lower than that for a recently sold 25-year Illinois bond meant Illinois’ credit problems are worse than California’s. Um.
An interest rate of 300 percent is usually associated with lenders who threaten kneecaps if payments aren’t made.
But in Illinois that interest rate is allowable, and it appears it will remain so after a House committee last week refused to consider legislation that would have imposed new regulations on car title lenders.
Currently, the interest rate that can be charged by car title lenders is capped at 300 percent, if you can call that a cap.
The House Consumer Protection Committee, a misnamed group if there ever was one, was asked last week to consider a bill that would have capped that interest rate at 36 percent. Only five of the 21 members of the committee voted “yes,” putting the legislation in turmoil. The legislation had been supported by many groups, including the Decatur City Council, which had approved supporting the cap. […]
(T)he state has a role in regulating such loans. In this instance, the House Consumer Protection Committee acted more like a predatory loan protection committee.
I can see their point.
* Phil Kadner is right to be upset that local legislators aren’t returning his calls to talk about a very important issue…
I’ve been waiting for an outcry from Southland legislators about a plan being discussed in Springfield to shift the state’s obligation to pay teacher pensions onto the backs of homeowners.
I haven’t heard a word.
I’ve called state senators Toi Hutchinson (D-Olympia Fields), Maggie Crotty (D-Oak Forest) and James Meeks (D-Chicago) and have yet to get a return call.
I ran into Crotty at a charity fundraising event, and she apologized for not returning the call. She told me that legislative leaders are discussing all options on pension reform, and rumors about a “done deal” when it comes to shifting the pension payments to school districts are inaccurate.
But representatives of the Illinois Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, have told me that such shifting is the one proposal they’ve heard that would be constitutional.
* Let’s end this on an up note. Toronto Star travel editor Jim Byers attended a tourism briefing held by Gov. Pat Quinn this week and filed a long report about our state’s wondrous beauty, including this…
The state also is home to more bald eagles than any other state in the U.S. except Alaska, and, according to Quinn, is an excellent place for bird-watching. (Actually, Quinn made this point several times in an entertaining speech that made me think the guy is quite smart but likes playing up the image of a good old boy hunkering for a tasty snack at the Bar-B-Q Barn in Harrisburg, complete with a country fried steak and a big old Coke)
Governor Pat Quinn’s proposed budget cuts to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources are so severe, the agency’s chief of staff says it’s on the brink of closing.
Jay Curtis says in the past decade the department’s budget shrunk from $106 million dollars to $45 million. And Curtis says in that ten years the agency has lost over half its employees. […]
Quinn wants to reduce D-N-R’s budget this year by 13.5 %. […]
At least one legislator is suggesting fees to enter state parks as another way to supplement the department’s shrinking budget.
* The Question: Could you support an entrance fee for Illinois state parks? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please. Thank you kindly.
The House’s research and appropriations unit [Democrats] estimates 12-13 percent of state workers, at some point, file a workers compensation claim.
Either the state is a horrible employer that fails to pay attention to worker safety, or workers are abusing the system. The Speaker thinks it could be the latter…
“Given that statistic, my concern is that there’s a culture or environment among some state workers that would encourage workers compensation claims when they’re really not warranted,” said House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago).
His approp director suggests it could be the former…
John Lowder, director of the House research and appropriations unit, said there could be more attention to detail if a private company was hired.
“I would think they would be more thoroughly researched to determine what caused the injury, what can we do to lessen the injury and what we can do to lessen the claims,” Lowder said.
*** UPDATE *** From AFSCME…
Because the Speaker’s staff has refused repeated requests to share the material referenced at a recent hearing, we have not been able to review it or assess its validity. We have no way of knowing what assertions it makes or what data such assertions may be based on.
With regard to this issue in general, it is important to consider the very high proportion of state employees who work in uniquely physical, strenuous or dangerous occupations, such as in prisons, on highways, in psychiatric hospitals, law enforcement, developmental centers and veterans homes to name just a few.
We do not know whether the data includes analysis of comparable state employees in other states.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Meanwhile, Gov. Pat Quinn touted the creation of a whole bunch of well-paying union jobs today. From a press release…
Governor Pat Quinn today announced an agreement between Rock Island Clean Line LLC and Flora, Illinois-based Southwire Company that will support wind turbine and transmission manufacturing in Illinois and create 1,450 union construction jobs under a project labor agreement in Illinois over a three-year construction period. The agreement supports Governor Quinn’s commitment to growing the renewable energy sector in Illinois and continues Illinois’ leadership in the green economy. The governor announced the agreement after delivering the keynote address at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) Regional Wind Energy Summit held today in Chicago.
“Illinois is a leader in the renewable energy sector, and agreements like these are helping make Illinois even more competitive,” Governor Quinn said. “These cutting-edge projects will help maintain Illinois’ national leadership in wind energy and manufacturing, and create good paying, home-grown jobs.”
Under the agreement, Southwire will supply the overhead transmission cable for the Rock Island Clean Line project. This project will consist of approximately 500-mile overhead, high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line that will deliver 3,500 megawatts (MW) of renewable power from Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota to communities and businesses in Illinois and other states to the east. Construction of the Rock Island Clean Line could begin as early as 2014 and continue over the next few years.
* But as the AP reports, it’s tough for some manufacturers to fill their jobs…
Nationwide, an estimated 600,000 manufacturing jobs are going unfilled, according to a survey by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute published last year. Manufacturers expect the shortage to worsen in the next three to five years as older workers retire.
“Exacerbating the issue is the stubbornly poor perception of manufacturing jobs among younger workers,” the report says, adding that manufacturing ranks at the bottom of industries in which young workers would chose to start their careers. […]
In Illinois, Gov. Pat Quinn is supporting manufacturing by pledging incentives to retain or expand the employee base for such companies as Ford Motor Co., truck- and engine-maker Navistar International Corp. and Excel. Aides said Quinn’s strategy to help the industry includes investments in roads and a push to streamline regulation, such as last year’s overhaul of the workers’ compensation system.
* In other news, some nursing homes have apparently found a loophole in state law that lets them avoid hiring higher-priced nurses…
But the 2010 legislation does not distinguish between registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs), who do not have to undergo as much training as RNs. A new rule expected to come up Tuesday before the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules would require facilities to use RNs for 20 percent of direct care.
Lawmakers who worked on the reforms said that was their intent. “There can be no true nursing home reform without addressing the issue of RN staffing ratios,” says Sen. Jacqueline Collins, a Democrat from Chicago, in a prepared statement.
However, many for profit nursing homes argue that they cannot afford to hire enough RNs to fulfill such a demand. “We are not against improving staffing, but we are against putting in a requirement that sets nursing homes up to fail,” Pat Comstock, executive director of the Health Care Council of Illinois, told the State Journal-Register. Comstock did not return a call from Illinois Issues.
Sen. Heather Steans, who was a sponsor of the reforms, said that a revenue stream was built in to pay for higher staffing levels. “I very much urge the JCAR members to support and pass the rule. I think it will very much help improve the quality of care in our nursing homes. We also passed the bed tax, which was primarily to fund the increased staffing we are putting into place, so funding has been put in place for that,” Steans said.
* Last month, the prestigious National Journal gave Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger a 58 percent conservative voting record score. It gave Kinzinger’s GOP primary opponent Congressman Don Manzullo a 74 percent conservative score. Manzullo is now up with a TV ad that yet again claims Kinzinger is a false conservative and drags in Nancy Pelosi, President Obama and Debbie Halvorson. Kinzinger defeated Halvorson in 2010. Halvorson’s National Journal conservative score was 48 percent at the time, so Manzullo’s ad claims that Kinzinger isn’t much different than the Democrat he replaced. Watch the ad…
* There has been much consternation over National Journal’s rankings, according to Politico’s Dylan Byers…
So I took my first foray into congressional rankings last week and noticed some major discrepancies between the list published by the National Journal last month and those published by conservative groups like Heritage Action and Club For Growth — which, I quickly learned, is an ongoing source of frustration among many conservatives here in Washington.
For instance, Representative Justin Amash — who ranks as the most conservative House member on the Club For Growth’s list and fifteenth most conservative congressman on the Heritage list — ranks as the fourth most liberal Republican representative on the National Journal list. Utah Senator Mike Lee, the second most conservative congressman on the Heritage list, is less conservative than Utah Senator Orrin Hatch on the National Journal list. Per the National Journal, Mitch McConnell is more conservative than Marco Rubio, who is more conservative than Rand Paul, and so on down the seemingly backward line.
“In no planet is Mitch McConnell more conservative than Marco Rubio or Mike Lee,” one source at a conservative think tank told me. “Only in bizzaro world is Rand Paul considered the 32nd most conservative senator.”
Erick Erickson, the editor of Red State, made an even more aggressive critique shortly after NJ’s list came out in February: “I think National Journal must hand over its rating of the most conservative and liberal members of congress to an outsourced shop in Mumbai filled with mental midgets,” he wrote. “There can really be no other explanation for this year’s embarrassing list of the most conservative members of Congress.”
However, in this particular contest, both Heritage Action and the Club For Growth rate Manzullo as far more conservative than Kinzinger.
These two guys have been arguing over who is the more conservative candidate since they kicked off their campaigns. But now Manzullo has some statistical support to back up his claims. From a Manzullo press release…
American Conservative Union lifetime scores: Manzullo 96, Kinzinger 72.
Heritage Action for America: Manzullo 84, Kinzinger 63.
Americans for Prosperity: Manzullo A+, Kinzinger B.
National Journal (conservative composite score): Manzullo 74, Kinzinger 58.
* Kinzinger, by the way, was just endorsed by Dan Proft…
The consequence of failing to return Adam to Congress will be to tell other young, bright, diligent, and principled conservatives to again “wait their turn”. If we do that, we will again suffer the corresponding brain drain.
The benefit of returning Adam to Congress will be to signal to the Regressive Left that they are on the wrong side of history for the next generation of conservative grassroots leaders is ascendant and prepared to abide the Burkian contract between ourselves, our ancestors who provided for us and our posterity to whom we owe a responsibility to act responsibly.
The letter is signed thusly…
Regards,
Dan Proft
WLS Radio Talk Show Host*
*Opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of WLS-AM 890 radio or Cumulus Media, Inc.
* Meanwhile, if you live in the Chicago area, you could soon be seeing some Republican presidential ads. I’m told the Mitt Romney-backing super PAC Restore Our Future just booked a heavy schedule on the Chicago Cable Interconnect plus AT&T Verse and DirecTV. No Illinois ads are posted on the group’s YouTube site as of yet.
It’s misleading to publish a popular vote poll in this primary, because that’s not how the delegates will be awarded. They’ll be awarded according to the winners of each of the state’s 18 new Congressional districts. This gives Romney a huge advantage, because Santorum isn’t running delegate slates in four districts: the 4th, 5th, 7th and 13th. […]
In addition, Illinois will choose 12 unpledged delegates at the state party convention in June. The Republican National Committeeman and Committeewoman, Richard Williamson and Demetra DelMonte, plus the state party chairman, Pat Brady, will go as “superdelegates.” Romney has the support of Pat Brady, Sen. Mark Kirk and the Illinois Republican Party establishment, so most if not all of those 15 votes will be his.
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has a federal prison identification number.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has given Blagojevich the number 40892-424.
Typically, once inmates are assigned a number, it is their individual number throughout their prison term. It is also typically affixed to their prison clothes.
The 55-year-old Blagojevich has been ordered to report to prison on March 15. While he has asked to be incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution Englewood in Colorado, he could be sent elsewhere.
* Meanwhile, Commissioner Beavers seems to be taking a page from Blagojevich’s first trial, which ended in a hung jury on all but one count…
Cook County Commissioner William Beavers pleaded not guilty to federal tax charges Friday and then lobbed another bombshell — declaring U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald “a wild man” guilty of driving three political figures to suicide with “Gestapo-type tactics.”
After a relatively mundane arraignment hearing — lasting all of about 10 minutes — Beavers left the courtroom and walked in a crowd of reporters in the lobby of the Dirksen Federal building — unleashing on Fitzgerald.
“I do not owe the government any money — no taxes,” Beavers said, moving on to his next point: Fitzgerald.
“Let me tell you about this federal prosecutor. This man is like a wild man on a train, and somebody needs to stop him.
“He has caused three deaths — Michael Scott, Orlando Jones and Chris Kelly — with these Gestapo-type tactics that he used to try to make them tell on their friends,” said Beavers, 77.
Sam Adam and Sam Adam, Jr. are defending Beavers. They also defended RRB in his first trial.
Randall Samborn, a spokesman for Fitzgerald, declined comment. But Beaver’s allegations don’t square with the known facts about two of the suicides.
Scott, the former Chicago schools chief, was not being investigated by federal authorities but his use of his Chicago public school credit card had been questioned.
Jones, a former top Cook County aide, was under investigation for an alleged contract scheme in Las Vegas.
Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn paid a quick visit to Premier Dalton McGuinty on Monday to talk water, how to stop the Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes and to get tips on hosting a G8 summit. […]
Quinn added he is looking for advice from McGuinty on how to handle a G8 world political summit.
“We have a state that is hospitable and welcoming. We want to have a conference that is peaceable and where people can speak out on the issues they believe in but we want to have law and order.”
In June, 2010, Huntsville hosted the G8 summit and the federal government spent tens of millions on security and sprucing up the Muskoka area.
“We have to be prepared for anything and I am sure he has good advice for me.”
Oops.
* Not much later in the day, the word came down that the G8 was canceled…
Gov. Pat Quinn’s office issued a statement Monday reacting to the relocation of the upcoming G-8 economic summit from Chicago to Camp David.
The statement doesn’t mention G-8. Instead it emphasizes that the NATO summit will still be held in Chicago and stresses that Illinois is “an excellent place to do business.”
The statement says the state of Illinois continues to look forward to hosting world leaders and their representatives in the “great city of Chicago” at the NATO meeting in May.
Despite the well-orchestrated spinning by Emanuel and the White House that it’s a “win-win” for everybody, the move seemed abrupt. Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy had just been interviewed by the Tribune about his preparations for the G-8/NATO summits, expressing confidence. Other political bureaucrats had been trotted out to play talking heads as well.
You don’t send them out there if you think the White House is going to yank the chain.
* Did the mayor keep Quinn and others in the dark?…
National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Mayor Rahm Emanuel was consulted about the switch. Emanuel spokesman Sarah Hamilton said the White House called late morning or early afternoon to inform the mayor about the decision.
Just hours before the White House stunner, Emanuel was still talking up the back-to-back summits at McCormick Place — and playing down the political risks.
That lends credence the claim that the decision came from Washington.
“This is a unique opportunity for Chicago to showcase itself to the world and the world to see the city of Chicago,” the mayor said before the White House announcement.
The G-8 summit will be held at Camp David, not in Chicago as had been scheduled.
The White House announced the change in the following statement:
“In May, the United States looks forward to hosting the G-8 and NATO Summits. To facilitate a free-flowing discussion with our close G-8 partners, the president is inviting his fellow G-8 leaders to Camp David on May 18-19 for the G-8 Summit, which will address a broad range of economic, political and security issues.
“The president will then welcome NATO allies and partners to his hometown of Chicago for the NATO Summit on May 20-21, which will be the premier opportunity this year for the president to continue his efforts to strengthen NATO in order to ensure that the Atlantic Alliance remains the most successful alliance in history, while charting the way forward in Afghanistan.”
That news will come as a relief to a whole lot of Chicagoans, and to some of the rest of us. It’s more trouble than it’s worth.
City Hall insisted that it was President Obama’s decision — that Mayor Rahm Emanuel did not ask the White House to take the more controversial of the two summits off Chicago’s hands. […]
Andy Thayer, a spokesman for the Coalition Against NATO-G-8, didn’t buy the City Hall spin. He believes that pressure from local business leaders concerned about an international onslaught of protesters convinced the mayor to cut the risk in half.
“There’s been a lot of grumbling from business leaders in the city about what a total pain in the neck this thing would be. [The White House] probably looked at what a mess they were gonna make of the city and decided to move part of it to Camp David,” Thayer said.
“I really think the business community began to lean on Emanuel and Emanuel probably realized he was in over his head.”
Although the economic summit will be held in the secluded environment around Camp David, Thayer stressed that the demonstrations in Chicago “will go forward, but maybe not on the 19th” of May.
Taking huge, multi-billion dollar short-term gains up front from long-term pension reform will only undermine the reforms, or mean that the reforms are so drastic they couldn’t possibly pass…
Legislators on a panel tasked with bringing the cost of the state’s pension systems under control have yet to identify potential solutions, but the Senate Republican on the committee said he wants no extension of the 2011 state income tax increase past its expiration date in 2015.
“That’s a line in the sand for me,” Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, said in an interview last week. “Everything should be negotiated from a base of the tax increase falling off. Whatever we do, it’s got to be a long-term plan that has a fiscal forecast that coincides with the rolling back of that tax increase as prescribed by today’s law.”
To me, this looks like a setup for voting “No” on a possible compromise.
The Illinois Senate is giving itself some extra options when it comes to weighing in on Gov. Pat Quinn’s top hires. […]
Under the new rules, the Senate panel that screens all appointees before they are brought before the full Senate floor for confirmation can now vote to not recommend prospective agency heads and Cabinet members.
Previously, the Executive Appointments Committee did not have the formal ability to issue a negative ruling on a gubernatorial appointee.
“It strengthens the actual committee to either recommend or not recommend certain appointees,” said Rikeesha Phelon, spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago.
Seems logical to me.
* Dear Illinois House candidate Danielle Rowe,
When you send out a press release with “Chicago Style Intimidation” in the e-mail subject line, I’m not sure I think of this particular charge…
DANIELLE ROWE WON’T BE INTIMIDATED BY CHICAGO-STYLE BULLYING TACTICS
In the latest Chicago-style intimidation tactics used against tea party conservative Republican candidate for State Representative Danielle Rowe, Rowe’s billboards have disappeared from multiple locations throughout the district. The billboards were 4 feet tall by 8 feet wide, solidly constructed on sheets of plywood, pegged into steel poles, pounded down two feet into the ground, and valued between $1500 and $2000. They are not to be mistaken for paper signs on wire hangers commonly found on the side of the road.
Sign stealing is as old as political campaigns. It’s the height of geocentricity to claim that this is a Chicago thing. It ain’t. Besides, few in Chicago are silly enough to spend two grand on a yard sign.
Also, your “bullying” headline just made me think of this recent story…
Danielle Rowe said she responded sincerely, and what she thought to be truthfully, when she disclosed an 11-year-old arrest on her Daily Herald candidate questionnaire.
Rowe, who’s in a three-way GOP primary race for the 52nd House District seat, wrote that she slapped her sister during a heated argument, but that charges were dropped. However, McHenry County court records show she received one-year supervision and a $342 fine for misdemeanor battery.
Later in the piece, you are quoted as saying, “I don’t even remember being on supervision.” Are you gonna remember your campaign promises?
Under the federal consent decree, DCFS violates the rules if an investigator is assigned more than 12 new cases a month. For three months of the year, that number may go up to 15. Since investigators must close out their cases within two months, the theory is they will not juggle more than about 24 combined cases at one time.
A Tribune survey of investigator caseloads showed widespread noncompliance. In Cook County, for example, 80 percent of 126 investigators were assigned more cases than allowed during at least one month last year. A majority of them had caseloads that were too high for several months, records show.
“Several months” could be three months, which wouldn’t be in technical violation. How many months is several? And how many actual violations are occurring?
* Dear Fran Eaton,
I’m not sure we ridiculed you at all at the event you referenced today. We (or, perhaps just I) challenged some of your more out there assertions, but whatever…
No one outside Breitbart’s inner circle is privy to exactly where “The Bigs” are headed, but this excerpt from Breitbart’s own fingers is the first in a series that purports to unveil the Barack Obama Chicago and Springfield journalists knew well, but refused to reveal, even when they knew well the nation and the world would be affected.
At a Northwestern University School of Journalism panel in 2008, a couple of those key Illinois journalists ridiculed and mostly ignored Illinois Review when we warned that someday the world would hold them accountable for not doing their jobs and writing about the real Barack Obama they knew so well.
While several excellent books about the Obamas have made their way into the mainstream and New York Times’ best seller list, America should look forward to Big Journalism’s branded vetting. And as the truth comes forward, those who so irresponsibly ignored and kept under cover should be held responsible for aiding and abetting the Obama agenda.
The reason few take you seriously, Fran, is you say things like journalists “refused to reveal” the fact that state Sen. Barack Obama spoke after a Chicago play about Saul Alinksy, along with Cook County Clerk David Orr, Studs Terkel, AFSCME’s Roberta Lynch and a group of old, has-been lefties.
We didn’t “know it well,” Fran. Actually, we didn’t know it at all. And I doubt anybody would’ve cared back then or care today.
* Parents Ask For Notifications Of Pesticide Use: Illinois Legislators Scoff
* Gun group wants extra tax on residents of violent neighborhoods: “After imposition of our proposal, I’m quite sure that homeowners and business people in high-tax areas would be highly motivated to reign in their fellow residents responsible for violent crime,” he says. Great idea! I’m sure that higher taxes is just the kick in the pants that gang-afflicted areas need. Apparently, fear that you and your loved ones might be blown away if you step outside the basement isn’t enough.
One year ago this Friday, Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation abolishing the death penalty in Illinois.
The rightness of that decision is more clear than ever. Violent crime rates have not climbed. The public is no less safe. And the pursuit of justice has been served, not undermined.
Although hundreds of convicted murderers had been sent to Death Row since Illinois reinstated capital punishment in 1977, only 12 men had been executed in the 34 years the death penalty law was on the books. Yet during that same period, 20 innocent men were convicted of murder and sentenced to death, only to be exonerated after spending decades in prison facing execution for crimes they didn’t commit.
The last execution in Illinois took place in 1999, one year before former Gov. George Ryan declared a moratorium on the death penalty, as the only way to avoid what he termed “the ultimate nightmare” of the state wrongfully executing an innocent person. That moratorium remained in effect until capital punishment finally, and officially, ended last year.
Death penalty proponents had long argued that capital punishment was necessary to deter murders. But no evidence ever supported such an argument. In fact, in the year since abolition, the Chicago Police Department reports that the murder rate in the city remains at a 40-year low.
* The Question: Do you think most of the furor over abolishing the death penalty has subsided? Or do you think the anger will reappear in this fall’s general election campaigns? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please. Thanks.
* A Democratic House candidate has one of the odder ideas I’ve ever seen. He’s campaigning on a platform to get state money for churches. From a press release…
Chicago Businessman and Police Officer Richard Wooten, a candidate for State Representative in Illinois’ 34th District and Committeeman in Chicago’s 6th Ward, said if he is elected to those offices, he will fight for programs to revitalize struggling churches.
The churches are struggling, Wooten said, because high unemployment led to a decline in church attendance and tithing, resulting in a growing number of churches going into foreclosure or severe debt. In many churches that are able to keep their doors open, Wooten said the pastors are spending less time addressing the needs of members and residents, because they have to spend too much time making sure the electric and gas stays on. This week churches received even more bad news when Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration announced that the mayor wants churches to start paying water bills, adding to the mounting utility debts.
“If Wall Street and the automotive industry can be bailed out, why can’t we provide support to our churches?” asked Wooten, an associate pastor at Faith Walk Church International in Chicago. “The economy has had a devastating effect on our churches, which have been the backbone of our communities. When they are healthy, our families are healthy, and when our families are healthy, our communities are healthy. If we truly want to help people in need, we have to help our churches.”
Wooten will gather with pastors on Tuesday, March 6, 2012, at 10 a.m. CT. for a press conference. The press event will be held at 434-440 E. 79th St. in Chicago.
Black churches have always been very influential on South Side politics, so this is a pretty darned blatant attempt to win over their support.
SECTION 3. PUBLIC FUNDS FOR SECTARIAN PURPOSES FORBIDDEN
Neither the General Assembly nor any county, city, town, township, school district, or other public corporation, shall ever make any appropriation or pay from any public fund whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of land, money, or other personal property ever be made by the State, or any such public corporation, to any church, or for any sectarian purpose.
I asked the Wooten campaign how the candidate justified his proposal in light of the Constitution, but haven’t heard back. Whatever. This isn’t about constitutionality. It’s about votes. Plain and simple.
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column looks at the upcoming budget…
Last year, the Illinois House was able to control the Statehouse budget process by releasing low-ball state revenue estimates early on and then vowing to stick to those numbers no matter what.
The Senate Democrats wanted to spend more money but were eventually stymied by the House’s revenue estimates. There was just no way around the problem.
Some Senate Democrats thought about forcing the spring session into overtime, but that would’ve been stupid because it would’ve required a three-fifths majority to approve the budget — and that would’ve given the Republicans a seat at the table. And the Republicans wouldn’t want to spend more money.
It’s too early to tell, but this year may be different. Last week, the House kicked off the budget process by locking in the chamber’s new revenue estimates. The estimates are $221 million below the governor’s projections and $271 million below those of the General Assembly’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.
The main differences are in income tax revenue. The House’s estimate for personal income tax collections is $302 million below the governor’s, while the corporate income tax estimate is about $50 million above the governor’s.
The differences aren’t nearly as dramatic as last year’s round of budget-making, when the House’s estimates ended up being about $1 billion below the Senate’s. But a difference of $221 to 271 million is still quite significant, particularly in a year when so many popular state programs are facing the chopping block.
The Senate Democrats basically got rolled last year and had to swallow cuts that many members did not want. They were hampered not only by the House’s lower revenue projections but also because their two new appropriations committee chairmen got bogged down in the details of the state’s new “budgeting for results” law. The hearings on that new law slowed the Senate’s budget process and allowed the House to pass its appropriations bills first.
Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) said last week that there would be some changes in the way his chamber deals with the budget this year. He also said he had spoken with House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), and as a result, strongly believed that this year’s process would be far more cooperative than last year’s.
And, indeed, there have been changes. The new House revenue forecasts were devised in cooperation with the Senate Revenue Committee.
Even so, expecting lower revenue won’t go down well with the more liberal members of the Senate Democrats, most of whom are outraged at the cuts proposed by Gov. Pat Quinn and who have a unified and powerful voice. Finding another $250 million in cutbacks will undoubtedly be seen as a bridge too far.
These estimates also come in the context of the enormous pressure to slash Medicaid spending by $2.7 billion. The liberal push-back against that demand by Quinn is enormous — despite the very real and credible evidence that ignoring the problem, or even just coming up with a partial solution, will lead to a systemic crisis in a few years.
Doing nothing will create a roughly $21 billion mountain of overdue Medicaid bills in five years. And the total will keep going up after that. The whole system could crash.
But the people who run the government might also try a bit of old-time Statehouse fudging.
OK, we’re now going to do a little math, but it isn’t hard, so stay with me.
Quinn wanted to take $162 million next fiscal year and pay off past-due bills. Steve Schnorf, a former state budget director, suggested last week that Quinn might put that $162 million back into state spending programs. The cuts that would then have to be made would total $59 million ($221 million via the House’s revenue forecast minus $162 million returned to the budget). That would be a lot easier to swallow.
Even so, the uproar over Quinn’s proposed budget and Medicaid cuts is so intense that even if the legislative leaders and the governor do manage a bit of fudging, there are going to be some very furious people in the Statehouse the rest of the spring. Nobody is in for a pleasant experience.
* Related…
* Finke: Looks like state will try rerun of budget process
* DNR director: Expect even more cuts: Marc Miller said Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed budget reduces DNR spending by 13.5 percent, which includes 9.4 percent less in general revenue. This comes on top of federal cuts, he said.
* Editorial: Can state officials deal with budget ‘reality’?
