Monday, Apr 23, 2012 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
ComEd and municipal leaders from across ComEd’s service territory recently announced a new collaboration to coordinate response and improve customer service during significant outage-related events by establishing Joint Operations Centers (JOC) in communities throughout the utility’s service territory.
ComEd will set up, with approximately 400 municipal partners, region-specific JOCs in communities affected by service issues – within hours of a significant disruption. Representatives from ComEd and regional municipalities, working based on a pre-established list of public health, life, and safety facilities, will work together 24 hours a day until service is restored. Regular trainings and simulations will ensure that ComEd and its municipal partners have an effective and efficient working relationship.
In addition, ComEd has planned several technology improvements to allow for quicker response times and improved customer service:
• A smart phone “app” to report service interruptions and pay bills online, available in the coming months;
• A responsive text-messaging system to report outages and receive service updates; and
• A revamp of the annual report summaries provided to municipalities.
ComEd has entered into this unprecedented initiative to serve our customers better. We are looking forward to working with our municipal partners to reach unrivaled levels of customer service.
Former Sangamon County Republican Chairman Tony Libri said the party got a good price, $15,000, to bring conservative activist and “Cat Scratch Fever” rocker Ted Nugent to Springfield.
The county GOP paid two installments of $7,505 each to the cleverly named Projectile Marketing
Even so, the county Republicans did pretty well with their fundraising last quarter. Not so much for the Sangamon County Dems…
The party’s main fundraising committee began the year with $3,163 in the bank, took in $75 over the following three months, and, after some expenditures, had only $880 in the bank on March 31.
“It’s so quiet,” sighed Pippin in the movie version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Fellowship of the Ring.”
“It’s the deep breath before the plunge,” counseled Gandalf.
“I don’t want to be in a battle,” Pippin said, “but waiting on the edge of one I can’t escape is even worse.”
That exchange pretty well sums up the current climate in the General Assembly. It’s very quiet. Too quiet.
Everybody knows that big, tough decisions are looming and inevitable, and they’re all tiptoeing around Springfield — peering over their shoulders and whispering about the coming fight that deep down they are starting to realize they cannot escape. The bloodiest of all battles is just around the corner, and they know it.
The most natural human reaction to a crisis is to either run away or try to deny reality. Maybe, some think, the General Assembly could just solve part of the gigantic and ever-growing $2.7 billion hole that the Medicaid program has blown in the state budget.
Or it could kick the can down the road on pension reform until after the election, when dozens of lame-duck legislators can be used to pad the roll calls.
But Gov. Pat Quinn said at least one credit agency has threatened Illinois with what’s known as a “double downgrade” of its bond rating if both the Medicaid and pension crises aren’t resolved this spring.
A double downgrade would lower the state’s credit rating by two notches instead of one and likely would result in a public relations disaster. But it also would put the state dangerously close to junk bond status, if not right in it.
The last time Illinois faced a double downgrade was just before the income tax hike was approved. The state was given the same threat a few days before the General Assembly rammed through major pension reform for new public employees in the spring 2010 spring legislative session.
So, Quinn’s position is that the big stuff needs to be done this spring — or this summer, in case the job isn’t completed by the end of May. No ifs, ands or buts about it, his people say.
“We come to it at last, the great battle of our time,” Gandalf said.
It won’t be much longer before our great Statehouse battle is in full swing. The first major volley beyond the trash-talking in Quinn’s budget address was launched last week when the governor detailed his tough but reasonable plan to patch a $2.7 billion Medicaid budget hole. On Friday, Quinn revealed his pension reform plan.
The legislative session is scheduled to adjourn at the end of May. Between now and then, there will be much complaining and whining, with threats issued from all sides from those about to lose what they have.
But the threat with the biggest teeth will probably turn out to be that double downgrade. The state has so much bond debt and such a strong desire to do more capital spending that it cannot ignore those warnings. The New York bond houses always win in the end, and this year may be no exception.
I’ve been telling friends for weeks that this is the most important legislative session of my lifetime. This spring is when Illinois government leaders decide whether they want to continue living in a dream world of spending as much money as they wish without ever worrying about how to pay for it or whether they finally decide to face the grim reality of their own making.
“My dear Frodo, Hobbits really are amazing creatures,” Gandalf said. “You can learn all there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you.”
The long-term (and short-term) fiscal health of Illinois hinges on what our legislative Hobbits do in the next six weeks. They must take that big plunge toward responsibility and surprise all of us.
And the governor needs to stick to his guns and demand they complete their task, no matter how long they have to stay in session.
Emanuel said video poker “is not right for the city,” and cited protecting kids by not having gambling on potentially most blocks in the city.
“I am absolutely, 100 percent against it in every part of the fiber in my body,” Emanuel said. “And it will not happen on my watch.”
And I’m absolutely, 100 percent sure his stance has absolutely, 100 percent nothing to do with possible competition to his beloved Chicago-owned casino.
Absolutely, 100 percent sure.
* Meanwhile the Gaming Board has started the process of revoking a video poker machine supplier’s license because he was splitting winnings with a central Illinois American Legion Post. Chairman Aaron Jaffe was his usual drama queen self…
Jaffe said the state’s video poker business long has been “in the clutches of organized crime,” and said local law enforcement has “turned a blind eye to this crime for decades.”
“The proponents of the Video Gaming Act argued that strong regulation was going to make sure all the bad apples were gone,” Jaffe said. “That clearly, clearly is not the case.” […]
Gaming Board attorney Emily Mattison said she was unaware of any criminal charges against Sprague but said he refused to answer questions or cooperate with the board’s investigation, which alone is grounds to revoke a license.
Is it me, or does it look like Chairman Jaffe would rather the state keep the status quo ante and allow mobsters to infiltrate the industry rather than just do his freaking job?
* Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka looks at the state’s bill payment backlog in her latest quarterly report…
$4.322 billion in the General Revenue Fund ($121 million in backlogged pension payments), $974 million in the Education Assistance Fund ($193 million for pensions), and $281 million in the Common School Fund (all for pensions).
That’s almost $600 million in backlogged pension payments. And the Education Assistance Fund backlog is particularly troubling…
While the backlog is estimated to decrease from the current $974 million level in the fourth quarter, the backlog at the end of the year will be large enough to cause significant cash flow problems for the fund next year. Revenues into the fund in the first six months of FY 2012 totaled a little over $750 million. If the lapse period is extended beyond the traditional end of August date, nearly 6 months of FY 2013 EAF revenues would need to be used for FY 2012 liabilities. This would set up major delays for any new FY 2013 appropriations from the fund. [Emphasis added.]
Oof.
* More bad news…
The backlog of unpaid bills from the General Funds in the Comptroller’s office (IoC) stood at $5.57 billion at the end of this quarter – an increase of $1.304 billion from the end of the second quarter. […]
However, that adjusted backlog total accounts only for what has been submitted to the Comptroller for payment, and not what is being held by state agencies. For example, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services is holding an estimated $2 billion in Medicaid bills. When Medicaid and other unpaid state obligations are considered, illinois’ estimated bill backlog at the end of the quarter rises to more than $9 billion.
* There was good news, though. Sales tax collections are way up and income tax receipts are up. But federal receipts are down almost $2.1 billion, or 48.2 percent.
Phil Humber threw the first perfect game in the majors in almost two years, leading the Chicago White Sox to a 4-0 victory Saturday over the Mariners in Seattle.
It was baseball’s 21st perfect game and first since Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay threw one against the Florida Marlins on May 29, 2010. It was the third in White Sox’s history, joining Mark Buehrle against Tampa Bay on July 23, 2009, and Charles Robertson against Detroit on April 30, 1922.
With the White Sox lined up on the top step of the dugout, Humber fell behind 3-0 to Michael Saunders leading off the ninth. But he rebounded to strike him out. John Jaso then flied out before Brendan Ryan, another pinch-hitter, struck out to end the game.
Ryan took a checked swing and missed at a full-count pitch, but the ball got away from catcher A.J. Pierzynski. Ryan lingered outside the batter’s box for a minute, unsure of umpire Brian Runge’s call, and Pierzynski fired to first to complete the play.
Monday, Apr 23, 2012 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Opponents of SB 678 and the Taylorville Energy Center have a math problem.
Since Illinois law limits any rate increase associated with the project to 2.015% over 30 years, or about $1.67/month for a “typical residential customer” according to the ICC, their math has to be pretty creative to scare the public.
After all, if they were honest and said, “it may cost you less than a ½ gallon of gas per month,” few people would be too concerned. Instead they’ve unleashed their robocall invasion around the state to scare seniors into believing electric bills will go up NINE times, which is only an 898% exaggeration.
And because an 898% exaggeration wasn’t enough, last month Exelon paid $40,000 for a bogus study claiming the Taylorville rate impact has spiked.
The Truth?
While projected natural gas and power price decreases have caused a modest rate impact increase, 40% lower interest rates (which will save the project nearly $900 million over 30 years) have more than offset any increased rate impact.
Remember the SJR warning:
“ComEd would do anything necessary to protect its bottom line and keep competition away, no matter how much hyperbole and alarmism was necessary.”
Springfield Journal-Register Editorial – September 13, 2011
So next time the Exelon-funded STOP coalition tries to scare you and your constituents about SB 678 and Tenaska, remember: there they go again.
· 3% increase in employee contributions
· Reduce COLA (cost of living adjustment) to lesser of 3% or ½ of CPI, simple interest
· Delay COLA to earlier of age 67 or 5 years after retirement
· Increase retirement age to 67 (to be phased in over several years)
· Establish 30-year closed ARC (actuarially required contribution) funding schedule
· Public sector pensions limited to public sector employment
To entice (or force, depending upon your standpoint) workers into that new system, employees who elect to stay in the current system would no longer be eligible for any government subsidies of their health insurance upon retirement. And none of their future pay raises would count toward their retirement income if they decide to stay in the current pension system.
By appearing to endorse these unfair and unconstitutional cuts, the governor has made the process of finding common ground much more difficult.
Forcing public servants to choose between two sharply diminished pension plans is no choice at all. It is a clearly illegal attempt to solve the problem caused by past governors and the legislature solely on the backs of teachers, caregivers and other public workers.
We’ll talk about more details as we go along, but I’m curious today what you think about the overall fairness of this plan to workers and to taxpayers.
* I’m told that former Miss America Erica Harold is interested in replacing Republican Congressman Tim Johnson on the ballot. From her Wikipedia page…
Erika N. Harold (born 1980) was Miss America 2003, having qualified for the pageant by being selected Miss Illinois 2002. Her official platform was “Preventing Youth Violence and Bullying: Protect Yourself, Respect Yourself.” This platform choice was said to have grown out of personal experience; she recounts having been the subject of racial and sexual harassment while growing up. However, in the first week of her reign, she also adopted a dual platform for Sexual Abstinence, causing some pageant observers to accuse her of harboring a hidden agenda. She held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington during which she claimed the Miss America organization was bullying her.
Harold’s ethnic background is extremely varied. On her father’s side, she has Greek, German and Welsh ancestry, and on her mother’s side, Native-American, African-American and Russian descent.
Harold was born in Urbana, Illinois. She attended University High School and Urbana High School in Urbana, and later graduated from the University of Illinois as a Phi Beta Kappa honoree. In 2007, she graduated Harvard University’s Law School and as of June 2008 was employed as an associate attorney at Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago, Illinois, but is no longer at the firm.
Harold is politically conservative, and was the Youth Director for the Republican primary campaign of Illinois gubernatorial candidate Patrick O’Malley. She later served as a delegate to the 2004 Republican National Convention.
* The Sun-Times editorialized on behalf of the cigarette tax hike to help patch the state’s huge Medicaid funding hole…
First, a tax on cigarettes will deter smoking. The American Cancer Society estimates the tax increase would stop 72,700 children in Illinois from becoming smokers and encourage 53,400 adults to quit. That’s no small accomplishment, given how terrible smoking is for our health.
Second, smoking-related health-care costs drive up Medicaid spending, a fact Gov. Quinn emphasized when he met with the Sun-Times editorial board Friday. Smoking is estimated to cost the state $4.10 billion a year in health-care costs — and $1.5 billion of that tab is picked up by Medicaid.
“This is a very big public health measure,” Quinn said, “and anyone who is involved in public health is all for this.”
Third, trying to balance the state’s Medicaid budget with cuts alone means walking away from federal dollars. No other tax offers that huge federal match.
Fourth, Quinn already is proposing 58 stunningly deep Medicaid cuts. Further cuts would be devastating.
Fifth, the last three Republican governors of Illinois backed cigarette tax increases five times.
One significant quibble: Any tax hike or revenue increase or budget cut elsewhere could be used to leverage federal Medicaid dollars.
All of this is necessary, but doesn’t reach $2.7 billion. Enter the $1-a-pack cigarette tax, which would generate an estimated $337.5 million. Because Washington matches each state dollar spent on Medicaid, the state’s gain would double, to $675 million. We support this hike for two reasons: Medicaid, which provides care for smoking-induced illnesses, needs the money; the American Cancer Society estimates that tobacco cost Illinois $1.5 billion in Medicaid spending last year. And making cigarettes costlier means many people will quit or never start.
We hope Democrats, including those beholden to unions, will build on Quinn’s plan. Just as we hope Republicans will do the same — and drop their opposition to including a cigarette tax hike in any Medicaid rescue.
For Illinois to escape its downward spiral, its politicians of both parties will need to abandon some of their customary talking points (”No benefit reduction,” “No tax hike”).
We take it as a real measure of leadership that Gov. Quinn — accepting his “rendezvous with reality” — is pressing the case for major Medicaid and pension reforms. Friday afternoon, meeting with our editorial board, he said that legislative agreement to rescue Medicaid and pensions “will make Illinois a whole lot better state.”
While Southern Illinois voters remain adamantly opposed to raising major taxes to plug the state’s $15 billion budget deficit, they show some support for increasing the cigarette tax, according to the latest Southern Illinois Poll conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
The poll, taken Feb. 14-22, showed 60.3 percent of registered voters in the state’s southernmost 18 counties favor a $1 per pack increase in the cigarette tax. There were 36 percent opposed. The rest were undecided.
A poll released Thursday by the Illinois Coalition Against Tobacco found that voters statewide supported raising the cigarette tax by $1 – from 98 cents per pack to $1.98.
Of the 502 people who were surveyed, 74 percent supported the increase. That total included 71 percent of Republicans, 81 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of independents.
Even 42 percent of smokers said they support a cigarette tax increase, the survey found.
Supporters said the tax increase was the best way to fix the state’s $13 billion budget deficit. Other options, including higher income taxes, higher sales taxes and higher vehicle registration fees, were largely opposed.
Interestingly enough, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids estimated back in 2010 that the buck a pack tax hike would bring in “nearly $300 million each year.” Gov. Quinn estimates that his buck a pack tax hike would bring in well over $300 million a year.
* But the two GOP legislative leaders are opposed…
“We stand with our members on the Medicaid working group against any tax increases to solve our Medicaid crisis,” noted Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno and House Minority Leader Tom Cross. “We are encouraging the working group to continue working in a bipartisan way to come up with $2.7 billion in Medicaid reforms and cuts, not revenue enhancements.”
* Former Senate President Pate Philip, a conservative, anti-tax Republican, usually supported cigarette tax hikes, believing the impact was felt mainly by Democratic voters, which may be why some Democratic legislators are opposed.…
“I’ve always been again against cigarette taxes,” said state Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton. “My district likes to smoke. When you do a tax on this, they go over in Kentucky, they go over in Indiana and they buy them cheaper. They just quit spending money in the state of Illinois.”
Illinois has a very long border with a whole lot of states, which is probably the most logical reason to oppose a cigarette tax hike.
* Roundup…
* Components of Medicaid savings plan still open to change
* Finke: Quinn threatens no break until Medicaid deal
* Our View: Illinois’ health care, pension quandary
The bottom line here is that Quinn has given lawmakers a template to do what he repeatedly has told them needs to be done. He’s given them plenty of time to debate this, to adjust, to add their own proposals before this legislative session’s scheduled conclusion May 31. All good.
The rendezvous with reality starts now. The Legislature is notorious for pushing off tough decisions to another day, another year, another decade. That can’t happen this time. “If we don’t make those changes, we won’t have a system at all,” Quinn said Thursday. He’s right.
So let’s get to it. Lawmakers, if you don’t like the governor’s solutions, let’s hear yours. Only one thing can’t change: The number is $2.7 billion.
“We commend Gov. Quinn for stepping forward in a timely fashion with a plan to save the Medicaid program — a plan that is reasonable, given the magnitude of the crisis,” says federation President Laurence Msall in an email. “We call on the General Assembly to adopt this plan or identify other comparable combinations of program cuts that are reasonable.”
* Quinn has said that anything short of that $2.7 billion goal will have to come out of other state programs. And since legislators have already cut Quinn’s proposed budget spending by $700 million, that means they’ll have to find more than $1.1 billion in cuts to Quinn’s introduced budget if they abandon the cigarette tax idea and don’t make up for the lost cash, for instance (the cig tax would raise about $336 million, which is doubled by the federal Medicaid match, so state spending would have to be cut by a like amount to make up for that approximately $700 million from the cig tax hike). No provider cuts means either $700 million in additional Medicaid service cuts or another $350 million in state budget cuts. The Republicans, however, are calling Quinn’s bluff…
But leading Republicans on the issue — Rep. Patti Bellock, R-Hinsdale, and Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon — said they don’t believe Quinn will follow through on his threat of massive cuts.
* Polls consistently show that tax hikes on cigarettes are popular with a strong majority of Illinoisans. But the Republicans say they want Medicaid expenditure cuts instead…
The top Republicans in the Illinois Legislature say they won’t go along with Gov. Pat Quinn’s call for higher cigarette taxes to help the state’s struggling Medicaid program.
House Minority Leader Tom Cross and Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno oppose “any tax increase to solve our Medicaid crisis.”
They noted that the Democratic governor said in his budget address that the state needs to reduce Medicaid expenditures and didn’t mention a tax increase. Cross and Radogno said they’ll hold Quinn to his word.
The Repubs don’t want cuts to providers, so they want the greatest pain to fall mainly on current recipients. That’s a political non-starter because there’s no way that Democratic lawmakers can agree to it. And the House Democrats clearly want a bipartisan proposal, so the cig tax hike might very well be dead if the Republican remain opposed…
House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, will keep working with the governor, but finding a solution will require a “bipartisan coalition to get it all done,” said Steve Brown, the speaker’s spokesman.
Asked about the cigarette tax increase, Brown said, “I think anybody would say that you’re going to need a lot of other pieces of the puzzle to come together before you find a coalition to pass a revenue increase.”
* But Rep. Bellock is optimistic that a tax-free solution can be found…
Republicans on the working group said more cuts should be made.
Rep. Patricia Bellock, R-Hinsdale, said a number of cost-savings reforms passed by lawmakers last year still haven’t been implemented.
“We feel if we can get all of these reforms done and continue on a few major ones, we can get to $2.7 billion without increasing a tax on anybody,” Bellock said. “If we have a couple of more weeks to work on this, we think we can get to the $2.7 billion.”
* Courtesy of BlueRoomStream.com, here’s Gov. Pat Quinn’s full press conference on Medicaid…
* And here’s the Republican press conference on Medicaid…
Illinois already has the lowest reimbursement rate in the region. In many cases, they don’t even cover the actual cost to provide services.
The program reimburses doctors so poorly that many simply cannot afford to take more Medicaid patients. This leaves most Medicaid patients competing with each other for fewer and fewer doctors willing to see them. In Chicago, for example, children with throat cancer have only a one-in-three chance of seeing a specialist if they’re enrolled in Medicaid. For those with juvenile diabetes or epilepsy, the odds of seeing a specialist are one-in-two. And even when they can get an appointment, they have to wait months just to see the doctor. Cutting those rates even further doesn’t solve the problem. It just leaves the poorest and most vulnerable with even fewer options to receive quality care.
* The Illinois Hospital Association’s reaction to Gov. Pat Quinn’s Medicaid proposal yesterday is worth reading in full…
The Illinois Hospital Association (IHA) and the hospital community are deeply concerned about the Governor’s Medicaid proposal calling for a major rate cut to hospitals of about $350 million or approximately 8 percent. This proposed rate cut is in addition to about $150 million in other proposed reductions directly targeted at hospitals.
While we commend the Governor for taking some positive steps – including incorporating several of IHA’s savings alternatives – the proposal is still too drastic and too rash to impose on the state’s already fragile health care system. Simply engaging in a math exercise to fill a budget gap is the wrong approach that will hurt patients.
A reduction of this magnitude will jeopardize patients’ access to quality health care, cause irreparable harm to the Medicaid program and the health care system, and undermine hospitals in their critical roles as health care providers and major job creators. About one-third of Illinois hospitals are now losing money, and Illinois currently ranks 44th in the U.S. in per beneficiary Medicaid spending. Under the Governor’s proposed rate cut, many hospitals will be forced to reduce or eliminate key services or lay off staff – or both – and some hospitals may close.
The hospital community recognizes that the state’s budget challenges are significant. We want to partner with the Governor and the General Assembly on workable solutions that will help address those challenges. To that end, IHA and the hospital community have offered a series of alternatives to generate substantial cost savings and new revenues for the Medicaid program, totaling as much as $1.4 billion. (See IHA’s alternatives at: http://tinyurl.com/6t8doaw)
We urge the General Assembly to consider several alternatives that are either excluded from or undervalued in the Governor’s proposal in order to avoid blunt rate cuts, including:
· Maximizing revenues – both federal and other revenues – including enhancing the Hospital Assessment Program;
· Improving verification of eligibility for new and current beneficiaries; and
· Increasing provider based care coordination by enhancing the current Primary Care Case Management Program (which has saved the Medicaid program than $400 million since 2007).
IHA and the hospital community are firmly committed to working with the General Assembly on meaningful solutions – in a multi-year approach – to address the state’s budget challenges while transforming the Medicaid program to be sustainable and cost effective for the people of Illinois.
* Statement from Health Care Council of Illinois Executive Director Pat Comstock…
Our initial review of the governor’s proposal suggests there is a $237 million cut for nursing homes, an enormous amount. Such a cut would be devastating for resident care at nursing homes throughout the state. If that dollar amount proves to be accurate, it would decimate the money we generated by taxing ourselves to pay for recent safety reforms.
Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka suffered a minor fracture of her left hip after a speech this week, but she’s already had minor surgery and was “up and about,” a spokesman said Thursday.
Topinka, 68, had just finished a speech to the Illinois Public Health Association’s annual meeting at a downtown Springfield hotel Wednesday. When she was getting into an elevator, she fell and landed on her left hip, said Brad Hahn, her spokesman.
She went to Memorial Medical Center and had minor surgery that involved putting a couple of pins in her hip Wednesday night, Hahn said.
She could be out of the hospital by today. But she also has a big knot on her head from her fall.
* I cannot believe I missed this poll from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute last month. 48.8 percent of southern Illinoisans said Cook County should be separated from Illinois, while 39 percent were opposed…
There has been a proposal to have Cook County separated from the rest of Illinois and to form its own state. Would you strongly favor, favor, oppose, or strongly oppose this proposal?
And what do you think about government spending in your area of the state? In terms of its share of state spending, do you think your part of the state gets more than its fair share, about the right amount, or less than its fair share of state spending?
More than its fair share 3.3%
About the right amount 13.3%
Less than its fair share 79.3%
Donʼt know 4.3%
Charles Leonard, a visiting professor at the Institute who supervised the poll, said, “This notion that downstate Illinois somehow does not belong with Cook County is consistent with the results of our 2010 Southern Illinois poll, in which large numbers of respondents also expressed antipathy toward Chicago.”
The poll also showed voters in the Southern Illinois region do not believe they are getting their fair share of state government spending. Almost eight in 10 (79 percent) said Southern Illinois gets “less than its fair share,” while only 3 percent said the region gets “more than our fair share.” About one in eight (13 percent) said the area gets “about the right amount.”
John Jackson, a visiting professor at the Institute and one of the authors of the poll, said: “Given that many political leaders and others constantly complain about Chicago, and about how badly Southern Illinois is treated by the state, and that significant portions of the media in Southern Illinois routinely echo that complaint, the belief in a downtrodden Southern Illinois has become a part of the conventional wisdom in this region.
“The belief is so embedded in the political culture that it undoubtedly is a root cause of the dominant attitude toward Cook County reflected in this question,” Jackson continued.
Which of these statements comes closer to your own views – even if neither is exactly right?
Most rich people today are wealthy mainly because of their own hard work, ambition, or education. 31.3%
Most rich people today are wealthy mainly because they know the right people or were born into a wealthy family. 51.5%
Neither 1.5%
Both equally 12.8%
Donʼt know 3.0%
Do you feel that the distribution of money and wealth in this country today is fair, or do you feel that the money and wealth in this country should be more evenly distributed among a larger percentage of the people?
Fair now 30.5%
Should be more even 59.0%
Donʼt know 10.5%
Do you think the federal government should or should not pursue policies that try to reduce the gap between wealthy and less well-off Americans?
Should pursue 51.0%
Should not pursue 38.3%
Donʼt know 10.8%
* There’s also been a statistically significant shift on gay marriage/civil unions since the Institute’s last poll in 2010…
The poll of 400 registered voters covered the 18 southernmost counties in Illinois: Alexander, Franklin, Gallatin, Hamilton, Hardin, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Massac, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Randolph, Saline, Union, Washington, White, and Williamson. Live phone interviews were conducted February 23-28. The sample of 400 has a margin of error of 4.9 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. This means that if we conducted the survey 100 times, in 95 of those instances, the result would be within plus or minus 4.9 percentage points from the results obtained here. We also included a special sample of cell phone users to ensure greater accuracy.
The poll was conducted by Issues & Answers of Virginia Beach, VA. It reports no Illinois political figures as clients. The poll was paid for with non-tax dollars from the Institute’s endowment fund.
But legislators on a committee assigned to suggest fixes to the severely underfunded retirement program said they were told Quinn wants workers to put more of their paychecks toward their nest eggs, though they wouldn’t provide specifics. The plan also will call for an adjustment to cost-of-living increases for retirees. […]
Quinn, whose plan will also include a 30-year schedule for catching up on the funding backlog, according to the legislators, will forge forward even though the committee advised the governor’s office they had not reached agreement on a complete package of reforms. They intend to keep working. […]
Sen. Bill Brady, a Republican committee member from Bloomington, said the plan will include the “best mix” of ideas, including an adjusted COLA that “we can afford” but which “maintains the value of the pensions.”
But Republicans say more could be done to stop fraud in the Medicaid program.
“And you don’t have other people in the system that drive away in a Cadillac and a Lexus and have people in the program that shouldn’t be in the program,” said Rep Patti Bellock, (R) Westmont.
Illinois ranked third while Wisconsin placed 42nd in the most recent Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States index, which includes personal income, tax revenue and employment.
Illinois gained 32,000 jobs in the 12 months ending in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found. Wisconsin, where [Gov. Scott Walker] promised to create 250,000 jobs with the help of business-tax breaks, lost 16,900. […]
Illinois ranked behind only North Dakota and Michigan in the Bloomberg economic index, which also measures home prices, mortgage delinquency rates and the equity performance of companies headquartered in each state. The index ranked Wisconsin 42nd among the states when comparing the fourth quarter of 2011 with the same period of 2010.
First, we invited Walker for a very simple reason — he has turned his state around. While we fully agree not all of his policies would work in Illinois, we agree with his general philosophy — which is that jobs and prosperity are created by the private sector and government should get out of the way. Our members wanted to hear his side of the story. Goodness knows they’ve heard plenty from his critics, whose public tantrums and bullying tactics have attracted international media coverage.
It’s also worth noting that Walker has acknowledged that perhaps he moved too aggressively in the beginning and that he should have taken more time to build broader support for his reforms. However, it is important to note that swift action meant an even swifter economic recovery for his state.
* And Gov. Pat Quinn reacted via press release to news that Illinois’ unemployment fell to 8.8 percent while 9,100 jobs were created in March…
“Our commitment to putting Illinois residents back to work is paying off. For the seventh straight month, unemployment numbers in Illinois have continued to fall. Last month, unemployment fell to 8.8 percent – the lowest it has been since February 2009. Today’s number is a testament to our solid efforts to create good jobs in Illinois.
“During March alone, we created 9,100 jobs. Since Illinois began its recovery in January 2010, we have added more than 142,100 private sector jobs. And the good news is that these jobs are being created in growing fields that pay a good wage: education, health services, professional sectors and manufacturing. In fact, today an international healthcare company announced plans to expand in Illinois.
“Baxter International, Inc. is the latest company to choose to expand operations in Illinois. Baxter will create more than 200 new, high-tech jobs as it expands a manufacturing facility in Round Lake. Baxter Chief Scientific and Innovation Officer Norbert Riedel is a member of my Innovation Council, which is one of the many tools we have implemented to help meet the needs of growing companies.”
Friday, Apr 20, 2012 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Opponents of SB 678 and the Taylorville Energy Center have a math problem.
Since Illinois law limits any rate increase associated with the project to 2.015% over 30 years, or about $1.67/month for a “typical residential customer” according to the ICC, their math has to be pretty creative to scare the public.
After all, if they were honest and said, “it may cost you less than a ½ gallon of gas per month,” few people would be too concerned. Instead they’ve unleashed their robocall invasion around the state to scare seniors into believing electric bills will go up NINE times, which is only an 898% exaggeration.
And because an 898% exaggeration wasn’t enough, last month Exelon paid $40,000 for a bogus study claiming the Taylorville rate impact has spiked.
The Truth?
While projected natural gas and power price decreases have caused a modest rate impact increase, 40% lower interest rates (which will save the project nearly $900 million over 30 years) have more than offset any increased rate impact.
Remember the SJR warning:
“ComEd would do anything necessary to protect its bottom line and keep competition away, no matter how much hyperbole and alarmism was necessary.”
Springfield Journal-Register Editorial – September 13, 2011
So next time the Exelon-funded STOP coalition tries to scare you and your constituents about SB 678 and Tenaska, remember: there they go again.
