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Question of the day
Thursday, Feb 14, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller * US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had this to say yesterday during a press conference with Gov. Pat Quinn…
Sebelius was in Chicago to announce that she’d given conditional approval to Illinois’ health insurance exchange. * The Question: Without snark, what do you think has been Gov. Quinn’s top accomplishment in office to date? Again, no snark, please.
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- Small Town Liberal - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:38 pm:
Administering a $31 billion capital program that’s put thousands of people back to work and kept Illinois from really falling off the fiscall cliff. At the same time it’s bringing a great deal of our infrastructure up to date which will yield benefits for a generation.
- Tonto - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:39 pm:
Partial workers’ comp reform.
- Empty Chair - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:39 pm:
Capital Bill. It may have been the difference between the hard hit Illinois took in the great recession, and possibly being the HARDEST hit state. And it was 100% Pat Quinn.
- slow down - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:40 pm:
Agree on capital program. Also, pension reform for new state employees.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:41 pm:
Pension Reform for new hires
or
Overhaul of Medicaid last spring. I think when he proposed cutting over $2.5B out of Medicaid people thought he was crazy, but that’s what ended up happening
- GA Watcher - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:42 pm:
His election in 2010 despite trailing Senator Brady in the polls the entire campaign.
- Ravenswood Right Winger - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:43 pm:
Abolishing the legislative scholarship program.
- siriusly - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:45 pm:
Capital bill was not his accomplishment, that was a Cullerton Madigan thing.
I think Quinn’s greatest accomplishment has been the income tax increase. He campaigned on it, won and passed it. That’s pretty impressive for a guy who isn’t known for his follow through.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:46 pm:
Signing the death penalty abolition bill.
I’m not against the death penalty, in theory, but its application in Illinois was scandalous, to say the least. It had to go.
- Esteban - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:49 pm:
Being a better governor than Blago.
- PQ's Primary Opponent - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:49 pm:
Income Tax increase: I agree with siriusly, capitol bill and every other legislative initiative mentioned previously were all the leaders accomplishments PQ really wasnt there to put any deal together. He was out front on the icome tax hike so he wears the jacket/credit.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:52 pm:
Agree with Anon 1:41. Both were extremely difficult, I would say Medicaid reform was the tougher of the two, and I am fairly certainly produces larger savings.
that said, no hope of getting to the thornier issue of current employees if you didnt deal with new hires first.
- Rudykzooti - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:54 pm:
Squeezy!
- Cincinnatus - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:57 pm:
Anything the man does concerning veterans.
- Keyser Soze - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 1:58 pm:
Stiffing the unions. No snark, this is coming to a head, the net result of which could be some needed reform.
- RNUG - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 2:01 pm:
Getting the temporary increase through and, even bigger, actually using it to make the pension payments.
- horseracer - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 2:11 pm:
Biggest public works commitment in Illinois history.
Not selling out to insiders on gaming, utility hikes, and facility closures.
For the hand-wringing about JDC and Murray Center, Quinn will leave a courageous legacy on Illinois’ treatment of people with disabilities.
- haverford - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 2:14 pm:
Closing state DD facilities and moving toward community care for people with developmental disabilities. It’s a tough band-aid to pull off, but Illinois was way behind the rest of the nation. It was courageous, serves the public good, and will change the way people think about and act toward people with disabilities.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 2:16 pm:
Medicaid reform, civil unions, income tax hike, ending the death penalty all rate pretty high on an impressive list of accomplishments.
I think the capital bill is a little premature since the funding issues have delayed its full implementation. At the rate the Gaming Board is moving, we’ll never fully fund the capital bill and lots of authorized projects will never be completed.
- gathersno - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 2:18 pm:
I second haverford’s comments. The Governon has stood up to the unions and has done what’s right for persons with developmental disabilities who have been warehoused in outmoded institutions. I only hope that he can close more while he is still in power.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 2:19 pm:
Oh, and I’d add, balancing the state’s budget (despite the backlog of bills and late payments) is a pretty novel accomplishment. He’s made some tough cuts and more cuts are on the way.
Too bad the Republicans will never give him credit for cutting more than any Illinois governor before him, including St. James of Charleston.
- Burning Down da House - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 2:21 pm:
Breaking the union stranglehold on this state.
- horseracer - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 2:23 pm:
Also - making the full pension payment every year, without fail.
- Boone Logan Square - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 2:34 pm:
Raising the income tax and abolishing the death penalty. Both needed to be done a long time ago but the past governors (plural) and legislators did not do it.
A mighty assist to George Ryan for starting the ball rolling on ending the death penalty, but Quinn signed its death warrant.
- shore - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 2:49 pm:
People don’t think he’s competent but in the regular rank and file no one questions his values or ethics or character which considering this state is pretty impressive. He’ll be forgotten pretty easily and overshadowed in a state that remembers people more for their corruption or if they go national, but I think maintaining a public view that he’s at least not a bad guy is his biggest accomplishment.
- Robert the Bruce - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 2:58 pm:
Tax increase. And done the right way - candidate Pat Quinn stood by the idea that governor Pat Quinn successfully pushed for.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 2:59 pm:
Sounds like this guy is going to win in a landslide!
- Small Town Liberal - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 3:10 pm:
One would think, word…
- Cincinnatus - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 3:13 pm:
- wordslinger - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 2:59 pm:
“Sounds like this guy is going to win in a landslide!”
Don’t marriage counselors also take an approach like this when helping people prevent divorce? They get people to list out what they like about the others. They also have them list things they don’t like about the other. (Full Disclosure: Anniversary was yesterday, 32 years, and I am in Springfield while wife at home. We’ve never needed marriage counseling even though we could debate I need my head examined). Unfortunately, most of the effort is for naught.
Maybe we can ask to post tomorrow’s QOTD as:
“Without snark, what do you think has been Gov. Quinn’s top failure in office to date?
Again, no snark, please.”
- wordslinger - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 3:18 pm:
–Don’t marriage counselors also take an approach like this when helping people prevent divorce?–
Don’t know, my future ex-wife and I have been arguing for years about when we’re going to find the time for marriage counseling so we can proceed to the divorce, toot-sweet.
Congratulations on your anniversary.
- walkinfool - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 3:41 pm:
I think Shore’s got it.
Reasonably clean and honest man, in a heck of a mucky environment.
- Just The Way It Is One - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 4:34 pm:
Obviously greatly doubt that he’d win in a landslide, but the more I read these Comments, the more you see what it is he DOES have to run on, which despite some of the setbacks, is plenty actually, as Quinn does have the knack for showing some of that “Comeback Kid” gene in him, like how he was getting battered by Hynes, and later conSIStently behinind Brady in the General, and yet emerged victorious both times! Go figure.
I also agree with many of the suggested top accomplishments notated above. Remember, too, that on a wider scale, PQ also pushed for RECALL of any sitting Governor, a long-overdue Reform which he, long before the Ryan and Blago days of woe, which was finally enacted into law as well under his watch. And there was getting millions in monies for high speed railroads for Illinois.
But, just on the whole, the Gov. really does have to be credited for helping to significantly restore integrity, decency, and respect for Illinois Government–after all of the sickening decay before him–has been his best Accomplishment, kind of what I said years back, like being the “Gerald Ford of sorts of Illinois,” restoring a good degree of honor and dignity to our State overall, and order, helping to guide us through the worst Recession since the Great Depression, and righting the Ship so to speak, following the years of Gubernatorial chaos that preceded him…
- I M Willis - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 6:11 pm:
He shows up on time for public events.
- Arthur Andersen - Thursday, Feb 14, 13 @ 6:18 pm:
Without snark…I got nothin..
Seriously, I have to commend Governor Quinn for pushing the income tax increase on the cusp of the Great Recession. Additionally, and as I have posted before, props to PQ for his constant and meaningful support of our Veterans and active duty military.