STOP THE SATELLITE TV TAX!
Tuesday, Dec 18, 2012 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
HB 5440 calls for a new tax increase on the 1.3 million Illinois families and businesses who subscribe to satellite TV. A recent statewide poll conducted by We Ask America confirms there is universal opposition to the cable industry’s push to place this NEW 5% tax on satellite TV service. The poll was conducted on November 14, 2012 yielding 1,288 responses with a margin of error of +/- 3%.
Key findings:
* 84% of all respondents oppose a new satellite tax
* 81% of cable subscribers even oppose this concept
* Opposition is strong among both Democrats & Republicans – 83% (D) and 87% (R)
* Regional Opposition
o Chicago 81%
o Suburban Cook 77%
o Collar Counties 84%
o Downstate 89%
Cable pays rent in the form of franchise fees. Satellite companies don’t pay franchise fees for one simple reason: our technology orbits the earth. Why should satellite customers pay for a service they do not utilize?
With family budgets already stretched to their limits, this is one new tax Illinois consumers and families cannot afford.
Tell Your Lawmakers to Stop The Satellite TV Tax
Vote NO on HB 5440
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Question of the day - Golden Horseshoe Awards
Tuesday, Dec 18, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Golden Horseshoe for Best Democratic State Senator goes to Sen. Don Harmon…
There are a lot of legislators that can’t find time to squeeze someone in, and Sen. Harmon is not one of them. With so much on his plate, he still manages to find time to meet with people and genuinely cares. Even if he only has a couple of minutes, you never feel rushed and he makes you feel like your one issue is all he is concentrating on at that time.
He’s also super intelligent, it’s likely that you only need to go over an issue with it once for him to get it.
Even more important, if he’s not with you on an issue he’s straight forward with you as to why, and he’ll try to find common ground that you can agree on.
He is a true statesman, and Springfield would be better off with more Senators like Don Harmon.
I couldn’t agree more. Harmon is one of the most respected, hardest working legislators under the dome. We could use several dozen more like him.
* Runner-up is Sen. Dan Kotowski…
He is a hard charger who wins tough elections. He advocates for budgetary common sense, and passed the Budgeting For Results law. He has also taken impassioned positions on guns and mental health. In light of recent events, I look to Senator Kotowski to be a leader in the Senate working with colleagues from across the political spectrum to move the state in the right direction. He has a bright future, and I’m proud to call him a friend.
And for a guy who came out of the gun control movement, he has been a sober voice on this issue. Gov. Quinn ought to start listening to him.
* Best Republican is Sen. Matt Murphy…
Best Republican state Senator - Matt Murphy has emerged as someone who is intellegent on the issues but evenly intellegent to the political aspects of the business at hand, and still … Murphy understands that relationships with other members, on both sides of the aisle, is the best way to see progress.
It is quite easy, especially in the Minority, to take everything so personal. Matt Murphy does not forget that to get something you want done, you will need to work with those who disagree with you on different issues. Common Ground leads to some good solutions.
It’s about working for good bills, and working together, and Matt Murphy understands the adage, you can disagree, and still not going to be disagreeable.
Matt Murphy has done a tremendous job working in his Caucus and in the State Senate. I wish him well, next session. I feel better knowing Matt Murphy is in the Republican Caucus.
Agreed. Murph can disagree without making permanent enemies. He is principled, yet is often willing to look for compromise.
* Runner-up is Sen. Pam Althoff…
Another straight shooter, Pam will listen to reason and be honest about whether or not she’s with you. In a time where a lot of legislators take the easy way out and say “let me think about it” or “I really need to look at this more” Pam will tell you yes or no, and more importantly why. She’s not a strict partisan legislator and is always willing to listen to your argument. Yet another type of legislator that we need more of in Springfield.
We’d be better off with 58 more Althoff’s in the Illinois Senate.
* Let’s expand today’s category, which was created last year…
* Mark Beaubien Lifetime Achievement Award - House
* John Millner Lifetime Achievement Award - Senate
I created the Millner designation for two reasons: 1) He most certainly deserves it; and 2) We have so many retiring members this year that we really needed separate categories for each chamber.
As always, make sure to fully explain your nominations. Just writing in a name won’t count. Also, do your very best to nominate winners in both chambers. Thanks.
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ISRA wants to arm teachers, janitors
Tuesday, Dec 18, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sun-Times…
One of Illinois’ leading gun-rights advocates urged state lawmakers Monday to pass legislation that would give school districts authority to arm school principals, teachers and even custodial staff with concealed weapons.
“The problem we have is a gun-free zone. We have a gun-free zone around a school. Every crazy person knows that. And so, the gun-free zone is like a magnet for the lunatics. He or she knows there won’t be any resistance there,” said Richard Pearson, executive of the Illinois State Rifle Association.
Pearson told the Chicago Sun-Times that lawmakers should pass a school-safety bill next spring, including the concealed carry authority for educators, as a response to last Friday’s Connecticut school shootings.
“There are a couple of issues. The first issue, of course, is had there been a security guard there who was armed, this wouldn’t have happened,” he said, referring to the Newtown shootings.
“Had there been a teacher who was armed, this wouldn’t have happened.
* But the Tribune points out an important fact…
Among the statistically safest places in this country: the 132,000 schools where we send 55 million of our children. And in the two decades since school violence peaked, those schools have been getting safer. Hurt a school, we wrote Sunday, and you hurt us all. But like commercial airline crashes, school assaults dominate our consciousness in part because they are so rare.
* From the Poynter Institute…
The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice points out: “A 2010 report on school safety found that during the school year 2008/2009 there were 38 school-associated violent deaths — in a population of about 55.6 million students in grades prekindergarten through 12.”
The same report said, “This report also noted that 83% of public schools reported no serious violent crime; 13% of public schools reported at least one violent incident to the police. The rate of serious violent crime at school was 4 (per 1,000 students) compared to a rate of 8 away from school.”
NPR reported, “School violence in the U.S. reached a peak in 1993, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That year, there were 42 [total] homicides by students and 13 ‘serious violent crimes’ — rape, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault — per 1,000 students at primary and secondary schools. By 2010, the latest figures available, those numbers had decreased to two homicides and four violent crimes per 1,000 students.” Update: After a commenter pointed out the implausibility of 42 homicides per 1,000 students, we checked the NCES data. The total number of homicides during the 1992-1993 school year peaked at 34. NPR is updating and correcting its story as well.
* Other stuff…
* Gun company’s shares are in line of fire - California Treasurer Bill Lockyer may order pension funds to pull investments, and Wall Street sells off stock.
* ‘Django Unchained’ premiere canceled after Newtown shooting
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* An interesting proposal…
Rep. Will Davis, a Homewood Democrat and leader of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, said Phelps has a good opportunity to negotiate legislation with common-sense restrictions.
Many caucus members traditionally favor gun control, but Davis is willing to talk about a deal: He’ll offer Chicago-area support for concealed-carry in exchange for downstate agreement on a process to clear some criminal records, an issue that black lawmakers have pushed because youthful convictions often keep law-abiding adult constituents from getting jobs.
But [Rep. Frank Mautino] agreed with Phelps that given the court ruling, gun advocates no longer need to bother with deal-making.
Rep. Davis had earlier proposed putting Black Caucus votes on concealed carry if Cook County was exempted from the bill That idea was flat-out rejected.
* The mental health issue is important because there are some huge holes in tracking people with mental issues. We’ll have to see if that problem can be worked out…
At the same time, Mautino wants a measure that ensures people carrying weapons are trained and do not have mental health problems.
And such restrictions, according to Rep. Al Riley, are what lawmakers should take from the Connecticut tragedy.
“What’s clear is that any bill that we have, have some safeguards along the lines of mental health … and training,” said the Olympia Fields Democrat, who voted against Phelps’ last concealed-carry bill. “At minimum, if someone is going to carry a deadly weapon, loaded, on their person, no matter what comes up, you would think that they should have the bare minimum of training to be able to use the weapons that they propose to carry.”
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* The state bar has come out in favor of a few quite big legislative proposals. From a press release…
The Illinois State Bar Association’s (ISBA) 203-member policy-making Assembly, today adopted a proposal rule governing recusal of judges in cases in which a party has made a campaign contribution to the judge.
The ISBA will recommend the proposed rule to the Illinois Supreme Court as an amendment to the Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct. The proposed rule provides that a judge shall disqualify himself or herself when, after considering all relevant circumstances, there exists a probability of bias. Relevant circumstances include items such as the amount of campaign support, both monetary and non-monetary, and the timing and impact of the support.
The Assembly also voted to support the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act pending in the Illinois state Legislature. The bill provides same-sex and different-sex couples and their children equal access to the status, benefits, protections, rights, and responsibilities of civil marriage.
The Assembly also endorsed Illinois legislation that would allow patients who suffer from a debilitating medical condition to use and possess small amounts of marijuana if certified to do so by their regular physician.
According to the proponents, AFSCME Council 31 has also endorsed the gay marriage proposal.
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* Well, you knew this would be coming…
Gov. Pat Quinn says the time for an assault weapons ban in Illinois is now.
The Chicago Democrat says the shooting in Connecticut, particularly the loss of so many children, should appeal to people’s consciences. A gunman left 20 children and six adults dead at an elementary school.
He said Monday at an unrelated event in Chicago that he has reached out to top lawmakers and sponsors of a proposed assault weapons ban. The governor says lawmakers should consider the ban when they reconvene for the lame duck session in January.
* Listen to the governor speak about what he believes is the urgency of a ban on assault weapons and on high capacity ammunition clips…
* Gov. Quinn will, of course, have opposition from within his own party…
“What happened in Connecticut was not a concealed-carry issue, it was an evil person,” said Rep. Brandon Phelps, a Harrisburg Democrat who is the General Assembly’s chief sponsor of conceal-and-carry legislation. “How do you stop that?” […]
Democratic Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, contended that when Quinn used amendatory veto powers to rewrite a somewhat innocuous ammunition bill to ban assault weapons, lawmakers voted overwhelmingly against him in a tally that was “predominantly a vote on the issue” of assault weapons.
I disagree with Mautino. I think a lot of people voted to override because they wanted to send a message to Quinn about rewriting bills the way he did. However, it’s been clear for some time now that a majority does not exist - without a whole lot of luck and work - on an assault weapons ban. If it did, it would’ve probably passed a while ago.
* The Illinois State Rifle Association issued a press release on Sunday anticipating this move by Quinn…
In this case, it may be said that gun control “worked.” Denied legal access to firearms, the deranged killer murdered a legal firearm owner, stole several of the victim’s guns, and exacted his idea of revenge against nearly 30 innocent people. The pieces of the equation that did not work were the social institutions that are supposed to prevent mentally ill individuals from becoming a menace to themselves and others.
Of course, the gun control movement is trying to sell the notion that the Newtown crimes somehow share a direct link to the free exercise of 2nd Amendment rights. The gun controllers would have the public believe that the killer was just a typical “gun guy” and that every gun owner represents a spree killing just waiting to happen.
Such is the logic that will fuel the gun control movement’s latest onslaught against your gun rights. As you read this message, gun-grabbers like Pat Quinn, Rahm Emanuel, and Michael Bloomberg are formulating legislation that would result in the banning and confiscation of nearly every firearm you own.
In the days and weeks ahead, you will hear a lot of talk about the need for a dialog on so called “gun violence” as well as a need for compromise to seek common ground on gun ownership. Don’t be confused. Such talk is just meant to soften you up for a serious curtailment of your right to keep and bear arms.
You, the law-abiding Illinois firearm owner, may rest assured that the Illinois State Rifle Association will be standing firm to preserve and protect your gun rights. We absolutely will not allow you to be lumped in with psychopathic murderers. The ISRA will not allow you to take it on the chin because liberal social engineers have created a climate where we are expected to learn to live with sociopaths rather than forcing the sociopaths to live by our rules.
Likewise, the ISRA will not engage in any “dialog” in which lawful firearm owners are expected to accept blame for what happened last week in Connecticut. We will not be party to any sort of “compromise” that limits free exercise of your 2nd Amendment rights nor limits the types or numbers of firearms that you may own. At this time, the only thing we’re really interested in discussing is the immediate passage of concealed carry in Illinois as per the recent court order.
Discuss, but try to take a deep breath before you comment today. Like yesterday, I don’t have a lot of time to monitor comments today because I’m giving a speech to the City Club. But I will check in and I will only have time to delete you and ban you if you get out of line.
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