Top of the heap
Thursday, Jan 10, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* As you already know, 17 Democrats and five Republicans filed to run for the 2nd Congressional District. In such a huge field, any extra votes Robin Kelly could get from getting the top of the ballot spot would be helpful…
Former state Rep. Robin Kelly of Matteson will get the first spot on the ballot in special Democratic primary for the seat once held by former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
The Illinois State Board of Elections conducted lotteries for the first and last spots on the Feb. 26 primary ballot.
Kelly won out among five candidates who submitted their petitions at the 8 a.m. opening of candidate filing at the elections board last week. In a separate lottery, management consultant Joyce Washington won the bottom spot on the Democratic ballot among five contenders who submitted candidacy petitions in the final hour before the filing deadline concluded at 5 p.m. on Monday.
* In other news, this is a very small buy, but still quite interesting…
U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock’s vote for last week’s fiscal cliff deal already is drawing heat.
A group called the Jobs and Progress Fund plans to spend more than $16,000 on television attack ads in Mr. Schock’s downstate district starting today, Crain’s has learned.
“Washington has a strange effect on politicians. Just four years in Congress, and Aaron Schock has voted for massive tax increases and mountains of debt,” according to a transcript of the ad. “It’s . . . well . . . shocking.”
According to the Ohio Secretary of State’s website, a group called Ohio First for a Better Government registered as a nonprofit corporation in Dayton on March 8, 2011, and changed its name to Jobs and Progress Fund Inc. last month.
Ohio First is registered with the IRS but its annual tax return is not yet available, according to Guidestar.org, a website that tracks nonprofit data.
The group was incorporated by David R. Langdon, a prominent attorney in Cincinnati for several conservative nonprofit groups. He did not respond to a request for comment.
* Meanwhile, in LalaLand…
Tea Party favorite Joe Walsh says conservatives are losing the “war” for U.S. voters and encouraged his backers at a South Loop rally to engage in civil disobedience to defy the Affordable Care Act or new gun regulations.
At his most aggressive, he told dozens of supporters to “defy and or break the law and engage in civil disobedience” if faced with federal health care law restrictions or new gun laws.
He paraphrased Thomas Jefferson in saying, “We may have to shed blood every couple hundred years to preserve our freedoms.”
The one-term McHenry County congressman, who lost his re-election bid to Democrat Tammy Duckworth in November, openly contemplated breaking away from the Republican Party during a Wednesday rally at Blackie’s, 755 S. Clark St.
And in the end of the rally he began organizing a statewide movement he said would “scare Republicans and Democrats.”
A pic from the event…
Caption?
* And one has to wonder whether the father lobster would allow this…
As President Barack Obama tries to avoid fallout from his Cabinet and national security nominations, one potentially controversial post remains vacant.
Amid tension with America’s Roman Catholic leaders about a health care mandate that requires religious employers to provide insurance coverage of contraceptives for employees, Obama must find an ambassador to the Holy See who would please the pope as well as his own political supporters.
“Filling the slot tends to be a special headache for Democratic presidents,” Vatican expert and papal biographer John Allen wrote in a column this week for the National Catholic Reporter.
Allen said Vatican diplomats have their sights set on a number of Catholic scholars and politicians, including an Illinoisan: U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, a socially conservative Democrat who opposes abortion rights and the health care mandate.
In an interview, Lipinski told the Tribune he has not been offered the job but would welcome consideration.
* Other stuff…
* Poll: The Tea Party May be Over; Voters Sour on Movement: The new poll reveals only eight percent (8%) now say they are members of the Tea Party, down from a high of 24% in April 2010 just after passage of the national health care law.
* Freshman Rep. Duckworth hopes to be ‘calm voice’ on gun issues
* Bustos gets seat on House Agriculture Committee
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* More massive fail from the Illinois General Assembly…
The Illinois government agency that looks into complaints against doctors announced it will lay off investigators starting Tuesday and warned of yearlong delays in physician licensing because the Legislature didn’t act to bail out the medical watchdog unit.
In a letter being sent to doctors Thursday, officials from Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation pin the blame on the Illinois State Medical Society for lobbying against legislation to transfer $9.6 million to keep the program going. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter on Wednesday.
The letter details “calamitous consequences,” including “delays between 12 and 18 months to process a medical license and severe constraints to the Department’s ability to prosecute physicians who pose a risk to the health and safety of Illinois citizens.”
The letter is signed by department Director Jay Stewart and Acting Secretary Manuel Flores. “As a direct result of (the medical society’s) actions, the layoffs will occur,” the letter says.
Medical society president Dr. William Werner said the legislation that stalled in the just-finished lame duck session required borrowing against future money collected by the fund that supports the medical watchdog unit. He said it’s time to restore money that was raided from the fund by previous legislatures.
OK, so the docs worked against it. No other solution could be found?
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Investors yawn at Illinois’ failure
Thursday, Jan 10, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The failed lame duck session has so far been greeted with a yawn by investors. From Bloomberg…
Illinois debt is close to the strongest in two years even after state lawmakers failed for the second time since August to fix the nation’s worst-funded pension system.
The $97 billion of unfunded retirement obligations that Democratic Governor Pat Quinn has likened to a python strangling Illinois are rising by $17 million a day. Moody’s Investors Service rates Illinois A2, five steps below the top rank and the lowest among U.S. states. Last month, it threatened another downgrade without pension changes.
Yet investors such as Eric Friedland at Schroder Investment Management North America said they expect the state will repay its general-obligation securities even though it faces a backlog of $8 billion in bills from vendors. The extra yield buyers demand on debt from Illinois and its localities shrank to as little as 1.32 percentage points over AAA munis last month, the least since February 2011.
“I anticipate credit quality will diminish, but at the end of the day, Illinois G.O. bonds aren’t going to ever default,” said Friedland, head of muni-credit research in New York at Schroder, which oversees about $2 billion of the bonds. Rating companies will probably cut the state’s credit another level, he said.
* This is why there has been no run-up in Illinois interest rates as of yet…
Illinois by law must appropriate funds for debt service, according to a 2011 Fidelity Investments report that ranked it among the seven states with the strongest legal provisions.
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Question of the day
Thursday, Jan 10, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* All four legislative leaders were reelected yesterday. No surprise there. Yesterday, I asked you to give Gov. Pat Quinn some advice, so…
* The Question: What advice would you give each of the four legislative leaders?
Try to avoid snark. Thanks.
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Oops
Thursday, Jan 10, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* In case you saw the earlier post, it has been retracted as an e-mail glitch. So, nevermind.
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Looking back and looking ahead
Thursday, Jan 10, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Decatur Herald & Review editorial board made a good point in today’s issue…
It was amazing the past few days to watch General Assembly members scramble for reasons to not support a pension solution. They were almost like Goldilocks; some proposals were too hard; some were too soft. None, however, was just right because legislators are afraid to vote on an issue that might anger the state’s public employees.
State Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, said he couldn’t support any proposal because judges weren’t included. We agree judges should be included, but taxpayers would be better off with a partial solution to this problem than no solution.
Rep. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth, didn’t like that the problem was being handled in the lame-duck session. We agree, but at $17 million a day, isn’t there a need for some urgency?
* The Tribune made a similar point earlier this week…
Timid lawmakers reached hither and yon to find reasons for not supporting reform legislation: This proposal is too strong, that proposal is too weak, and so on — whatever it took to avoid decisive action.
Among the most maladroit: state Rep. Tom Morrison, a conservative Republican from Palatine, who ran for office on a platform of … pension reform.
We endorsed Morrison wholeheartedly — and then he voted Monday in committee against the only serious, cost-cutting pension reform measure that had any momentum. He evidently thought it didn’t go far enough. In other words, pension reform champion Morrison had found his reason to oppose pension reform!
* But Gov. Quinn was still optimistic, as always…
Gov. Pat Quinn says he believes a new crop of lawmakers will help the Legislature fix Illinois’ $96 billion pension crisis.
Members of the new General Assembly took the oath of office Wednesday. Among them were dozens of lawmakers who were elected to the House or Senate for the first time.
Quinn says many of those legislators ran for office on a platform of pension reform. He says that should help “get the job done.”
* Unlike in the past, however, there is some reason for Quinn’s optimism, as the Tribune editorial board points out today…
As for the ambitious crop of new lawmakers, you’ve got to play catch-up, and fast. We’re counting on incoming Democrats such as Sam Yingling and Scott Drury and Republicans such as Jeanne Ives to make some noise. Remember what you said during the campaign?
“It’s going to take the courage of the freshmen class to make changes. I’m not going to need political cover. I’m going down there to get something done,” Ives told us during an endorsement interview last fall. “I’m willing to vote on anything that advances the situation in a positive way. I will do any baby steps to get there.”
Wanted: Baby steps. Big steps. Galloping strides. Fix the pensions now.
With that last line, the Tribune also appears to be coming around. Legislators may need to rethink this entire process. Maybe “baby steps” are in order for now, just to get something done.
* But not everyone is optimistic…
Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, a 20-year legislative veteran and the GOP candidate for governor three years ago, also expressed pessimism.
Based on the failure of pension negotiations earlier this week, he said, “I don’t see any progress on the governor’s ability to do anything. I do think that the rank-and-file members who are dependent on those pension systems, they know that this system can’t be sustained without reforms. They’re willing to discuss reforms.”
But he faulted Gov. Pat Quinn for the failed bargaining.
“When you are sticking a needle in the eye of the state’s biggest union on a contract negotiation, and trying to negotiate this, you see the kind of results this governor gets,” he said.
* Related…
* Pension debate to continue in new General Assembly: That plan also will revive a provision that had been removed this week, in hopes of attracting more votes for the package: shifting pension costs for downstate teachers to local school districts.
* Hinz: What now for Illinois pension reform?
* Lame Duck Session Ends Without Vote On Pensions, Lawmakers Plot Next Moves
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Eliminating the Digital Divide
Thursday, Jan 10, 2013 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
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Squeezy the Python flees!
Thursday, Jan 10, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Good riddance to the snake…
Qantas had its own dramatic ‘’snakes on a plane'’ episode when a three-metre python joined passengers on an early morning flight to Papua New Guinea.
But unlike Samuel L. Jackson’s 2006 fictional Hollywood blockbuster in which a nest of vipers causes death and destruction on a jet, this reptile was concerned only with self-preservation.
QF191 was about 20 minutes into its 6.15am flight from Cairns to Port Moresby on Thursday when a woman pointed outside the plane and told cabin crew: ‘’There’s a snake on the wing … There’s its head and if you look closely you can see a fraction of its body.'’
While some passengers scoffed in disbelief, she was correct.
* Photos…
Discuss.
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More session stuff
Wednesday, Jan 9, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Proponents of allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain limited drivers licenses thought Monday night that they were short of passage by a vote or two. Others thought it wasn’t even that close. So, why did the bill get 66 House votes yesterday? Well, some support came from unlikely quarters. And some folks were turned off by the debate. A sample…
Other opponents, including several South Side Democrats, pointed out the unfairness in depriving someone in the U.S. legally of driving privileges for not paying child support but allowing those here illegally a pathway to a drivers license.
“I believe that all of these provisions in the state of Illinois denying an Illinois citizen from a drivers license should darn well be considered, whose background we know, before we give a drivers license to those we don’t know,” said Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago), who voted against the bill.
Three South Siders voted against the bill. Rep. Bill Cunningham stuck with the cops, who opposed it. Reps. Monique Davis and Mary Flowers voted “No” as well. Both ended up losing bids for leadership.
* Another sample…
Debate in the House lasted nearly 90 minutes, with critics arguing the new immigrant drivers licenses put the state on record as condoning illegal entry into the country, set up a system that can be exploited by fraud and ignore the fact immigration policy is a federal responsibility, not a state one.
“There will be fraud, abuse. All I have to say is people have called me a hater, a racist,” said Rep. Randy Ramey (R-Carol Stream), who voted against the plan. “All I’m doing is standing by what the Constitution of the United States of America says. If the fed government wants to change the rules, I’d stand by that.”
But, if it’s supposedly “in the Constitution,” then how can the feds “change the rules”?
As I noted yesterday on the live blog, Ramey also made a fruitless attempt to stall the bill by asking for some pretty ridiculous impact notes. That likely didn’t go over well, either.
* Meanwhile, from the Sun-Times…
A dormant gambling expansion bill that would bring a casino to Chicago moved to Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk Tuesday after the state Senate’s top Democrat quietly lifted a parliamentary paperweight that he’d placed on the plan nearly two years ago.
The likelihood that the governor would affix his signature to the package seemed remote since Quinn once belittled the effort as “top heavy” and “excessive,” and the top state gambling regulator whom the governor appointed called it a “pile of garbage.”
Before the close of the lame-duck legislative session Tuesday, Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) removed a parliamentary hold he’d put on the bill immediately after it passed the Senate in May 2011.
By releasing the hold, Cullerton now puts Quinn in a position where he could, should he choose to, use the legislation as a bargaining chip in his stalled pursuit of cuts to state pension benefits. The Senate president has been an active supporter of gambling expansion, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel has pushed hard for a city casino.
The state Constitution gives Quinn 60 calendar days to act on the gambling bill - two months into the spring legislative session when presumably finding a way to solve the state’s $95 billion pension crisis will remain on the frontburner after lawmakers whiffed at efforts to pass a pension bill this week.
* Steve Rhodes is skeptical…
I don’t see how the governor has any leverage, though; with Democratic supermajorities in the new legislature, he’s not really at the table anymore. Why would legislative leaders and/or Rahm - who really, really, really, really wants a casino - give up anything to Quinn to get pension reform in exchange for getting a gambling bill signed when they can now pass a veto-proof gambling bill on their own?
Quinn is now about as relevant as Squeezy.
I suppose it could be used as a chip, but it would be pretty darned irresponsible to do that and I don’t see Cullerton making that sort of move. I hope I’m right.
* More…
* Feds say expanding Medicaid in Illinois could bring in billions, but lawmakers are wary
* Editorial: Don’t trim at-risk kids out of state budgets
* Retiring Sen. Cultra unhappy with direction Illinois is going
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Truer words were never spoken
Wednesday, Jan 9, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Oswego Willy displayed his Golden Horseshoe Award chops in comments today…
Quinn becomes more and more the “deer in headlights” because the levers of the Executive are too complicated to wield, and not because Madigan and Cullerton want to be so difficult, but because Quinn puts the Two true Leaders in position to HAVE to take on more of a role than the 1/3 that the Constitution describes.
This is the absolute heart of the problem. We have a basically well-intentioned governor who simply cannot govern.
There are plenty of other aspects, of course. Madigan has yet to truly get behind a pension fix, for example. But Jim Thompson, Jim Edgar and George Ryan all found ways to work with Madigan to get big things done and move this state forward. Pat Quinn has shown over and over and over again that he just can’t. And, as a citizen, I’m really getting tired of it.
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Hold lifted from “management bill”
Wednesday, Jan 9, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Senate President Pro Tempore Don Harmon withdrew his motion to reconsider last night, meaning that the so-called “management bill” is heading to the governor’s desk. Harmon released a statement yesterday about his decision and what preceded it, calling the years-long process “one of the most difficult and frustrating negotiations of my career.” An excerpt…
The bill itself is not the draconian “Scott-Walker-esque” horror show that some opponents describe. If the bill were signed into law, it would not affect “thousands” of union employees, though it may affect hundreds of state employees who probably never should have been unionized in the first place. Still, no one will lose a job—they will just be removed from the collective bargaining unit.
Immediately after the Senate approved the bill, I filed a motion to reconsider the vote. This was a procedural means to keep the bill in the Senate’s control while we tried one last time to negotiate a fair rebalancing of the State’s workforce, giving the Governor the tools he needs to govern, and protecting the right of rank-and-file workers to organize and bargain collectively.
While we were not able to negotiate a comprehensive solution before my motion expired, I did secure several key promises from the Governor. Most importantly, the Governor committed to the following four points:
1. He will negotiate with the unions a fair and equitable process for implementing the bill, which will permit, whenever possible, employees to transfer into union positions rather than be removed from the union;
2. He will not sign the bill before the deadline so that negotiations of the implementation process and clarifying legislation can unfold;
3. He will not use the full measure of authority granted to him, and will designate fewer employees than allowed by law for exclusion from collective bargaining; and
4. He will not reduce the salary of any employee whose position is excluded from collective bargaining.
* And there could be a trailer bill…
Harmon said additional legislation may be needed if negotiations succeed.
Discuss.
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Desperate and weak
Wednesday, Jan 9, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Quote of the day…
The anti-climatic end to the 97th General Assembly had even the powerful leader of the House, Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-Chicago), at a loss for words as he contemplated starting the whole process of pension reform from scratch this spring.
“You know, it’s kinda hard to have thoughts, isn’t it?” Madigan said as he left the Capitol.
* Runner-up…
Cullerton, meanwhile, defended the governor’s work on pensions, though in a backhanded fashion.
“I think the guy’s done a good job. Now, it’s not his strength passing legislation in the General Assembly. You know that. So, he’s never really been in the General Assembly,” Cullerton said. “But the four leaders have been here. We know how to pass bills.”
One ally of Quinn’s allies said he “put everything out there on the field today” with his press secretary refusing to take the bait on any suggestion the governor played a role in the inaction.
Sheesh.
* The Sun-Times editorial page is more hopeful about the future than most…
After their stunning failure, legislative leaders said all the right things about getting back to work. The two main pension bills will be refiled immediately, one by Rep. Elaine Nekritz and Sen. Daniel Biss and another by Sen. President John Cullerton. This time around, notably, Cullerton’s bill will cover four pension systems rather than just two.
Cullerton believes only his approach is allowed under the state Constitution, which protects benefits from being diminished, and we believe his argument has merit.
He proposes passing both bills and letting the Illinois Supreme Court decide which is constitutional. Nekritz said she is open to the idea, so long as it’s cleared by constitutional lawyers. That’s a big if, but at this point it’s hard to see another path forward. More input from the state’s unions also would be helpful.
The only good news is that the hard work is mostly done. The broad contours of a painful but desperately needed pension overhaul are at hand.
All that’s missing is courage.
I think what Cullerton said was that he’d let the Nekritz/Cross plan have a shot at the courts first before his plan could be enacted.
But the hard work is definitely not “mostly done.” The Senate passed its bill, but the House’s bill is way short of clearing that chamber right now. And neither bill has majority support in the other chamber at the moment. What’s required here is leadership, and there’s precious little of that in these parts.
* Speaking of leadership, or the lack thereof, I couldn’t agree more with Mark Brown’s assessment of Gov. Pat Quinn’s last minute gambit to create a commission that could force pension changes into law…
I imagine Quinn’s idea sounds good to some people, taking the power away from the Legislature, and maybe it will sound better to me after a few more months or years of inaction. But springing it at the last minute just looked desperate and weak.
* The Tribune was its usual harsh self…
So the dead-duck session has ended, and the next General Assembly will be sworn into service at noon Wednesday. There is, at this writing, absolutely no reason to think the next Legislature will be more committed than the last to solving this problem.
That’s not really true. As I’ve pointed out before, many of the newly elected legislators are bringing a fresh approach to pension reform, which was an issue in every one of their races. Also, a significant credit ratings downgrade could panic people into taking action. And then there’s the impact this is having on the budget.
* And I’m not so sure this is right…
Rep. David Leitch, a Peoria Republican and former banker, said it was a “gross mistake” to end the session without calling the Nekritz plan for a House vote and added that it might be more difficult to advance the measure in the new General Assembly.
Leitch said the lame-duck session would have been the “ideal time” to move the bill because lawmakers who had one foot out the door could have been persuaded to take difficult votes because they won’t have to face voters again.
“Typically, that’s when you do tough things,” Leitch said. “This is a tough thing. Unfortunately, we didn’t do it.”
Lame duck Democrats are free to vote like Democrats. That’s what happened with the income tax hike, civil unions and death penalty repeal two years ago. This time around, we’re talking about getting lame duck Democrats to vote more like Republicans. Not easy at all, particularly when some retirees are counting on their pensions, and others don’t want to vote for something that could hurt them in any future careers as lobbyists. This was always a super tall order, to say the least.
* Related…
* VIDEO: Senate leaders’ reaction to pension vote
* Illinois lawmakers adjourn without pensions fix
* Illinois Tries, and Fails, to Fix Its Pensions
* Lawmakers leave with no pension solution
* Pension debate to continue in new General Assembly
* No pension reform for the 97th General Assembly
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* Let’s all hope that the new General Assembly can accomplish what the old General Assembly could not. Blackberry users click here, everybody else can just watch right here…
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