*There’s no sense tipping one’s hand so early, but I think there’s little doubt that she wants to move up the ladder…
While Gov. Pat Quinn has publically committed to a 2014 run for re-election, his running mate has yet to say if she’s willing to take the plunge with him.
That was true again Friday.
Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon evaded questions about another run with Quinn during an interview regarding a group she is leading to discuss firearms issues.
“I think I’ll choose to keep the focus on the firearms working group,” Simon told the Chicago Sun-Times when asked if she was up for a second tour as Quinn’s running mate. […]
On Friday, Simon did not shoot down the possibility of going after the attorney general’s slot if Madigan were to run against Quinn.
“When we’re ready to talk about it, we’ll let you know,” she said.
Keep in mind that she was appointed to the ticket in 2010. She didn’t have to run for that office on her own, as Jason Plummer did.
* The Question : Your thoughts on what sort of statewide candidate Simon would be if she decides to run for something else?
I am sick and tired of the fair-weather Democrats. They date us, take us to the prom, marry us, and then divorce us right after the honeymoon. I am sick and tired of the so-called friends who commend us when they’re running for election, but condemn us after they’ve won. I am sick and tired of the politicians who stand with us behind closed doors, but kick us to the curb in front of the cameras. I’m here to tell you that’s bullshit and we’re not gonna take it anymore.
Many of you know some of the people I’m talking about. Mayor Michael Nutter in Philadelphia. Governor Pat Quinn in Illinois. We’ve come to expect union-busting, anti-worker tactics from ultra-conservatives like Scott Walker and John Kasich. But now, everybody’s on the bandwagon.
Look at Nutter. AFSCME members in Philadelphia haven’t had a contract in four years, and Sister Baylor knows it. What does the mayor do? He goes to the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania Supreme Court to get a legal decision that would let him shove his contract down our throats. He’s no different from Governor Snyder in Michigan, who went to his state’s Supreme Court to get legal cover for cutting school employees’ pay. Different political parties, same political games.
Look at Governor Quinn. He has waged a relentless war on state employees – slashing pensions, driving down incomes and wiping out jobs. Last year he took the unprecedented step of terminating our contract. He is the first and only Illinois governor, Republican or Democrat, to take such a blatantly aggressive action.
I have had enough of these turncoats, and it’s time to make them pay.
“Bellicose rhetoric is not going to address Illinois’ financial challenges,” Anderson added in an emailed statement. “The governor respects the collective bargaining process and the right to organize. He’s been a lifelong ally of the labor community, leading the state’s largest capital construction program in history to put thousands of workers back on the job. He has long championed increasing the minimum wage and protecting workers’ rights.
“Governor Quinn inherited massive financial challenges from decades of mismanagement by previous governors and legislatures. He did not create these challenges, but he is committed to addressing them,” the statement read. “In these difficult economic times, trade unions have made concessions. Auto unions have made concessions. And the union of government employees will have to understand the importance of making concessions to acknowledge the fact that the current path of credit downgrades and debt is unsustainable.”
* James Warren has a long piece on Gov. Pat Quinn in this month’s Chicago Magazine. You really should read the whole thing. The most newsworthy section…
Quinn further suggests that [Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s] entry into the arena could bring surprises of a negative sort for a politician he has alternately praised and chided. He also claims that Mike Madigan, her father, told him: “If she runs, I have to leave.” (A Madigan spokesman responds: “I never heard that discussion or anything along those lines. I would doubt that it ever happened.”)
“He simply doesn’t get the credit deserved for smart, progressive moves in some areas, like getting juveniles out of adult correctional facilities, trying to deinstitutionalize care for the mentally ill, and having the state now well positioned to implement Obamacare,” says one Democratic state senator.
Notice that the Senator offering up praise wouldn’t go on the record.
A onetime Illinois Department of Transportation employee has been chosen by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to replace Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th).
Natashia Holmes was one of dozens of candidates who applied to fill the job vacated when Jackson resigned last month.
Holmes could not be reached for comment. An IDOT co-worker said she no longer works there. […]
The mayor’s search was hampered by his determination to steer clear of anyone with ties to the two powerhouse political dynasties that have controlled 7th Ward politics for decades.
Former Ald. William Beavers (7th) is now a county commissioner awaiting trial on federal corruption charges. Former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Il.) signed a plea agreement last week on charges of misusing campaign funds.
* In case you don’t get that furniture reference, this is from a month ago…
Sandi Jackson assured her faithful supporters that she was still large and in charge as she signed off as the 7th Ward alderman Tuesday night. […]
“From an insider’s point of view, Mayor Rahm may say he wants to have interviews. The people he will interview will be the people I am suggesting,” Jackson told the gathering made up mostly of precinct workers. “They are interviewing people in the community, but they do that to calm people down. People want to have their input. But for the most part, they turn that matter over to the alderman.” […]
Jackson also noted that all of the furnishings for her ward office at 71st and Exchange were bought with campaign dollars.
“That means the city does not own any of the furniture that you are currently sitting on, any of the furniture that is in the campaign office, any of the furniture that is in the aldermanic office. I bought every item personally, and if the mayor upholds my wishes [to appoint her chief of staff Keiana Barrett], everything in that office will stay the same. Keiana will inherit everything,” Jackson said.
In 2010, aldermen grudgingly created the post of legislative inspector general — with little authority or resources — to escape the scrutiny of pests like Joe Ferguson, who has his hands full exposing breaches in the executive branch.
Now aldermen are upset that their watchdog, Faisal Khan, had the audacity to ask them to turn over two years worth of time sheets for full- and part-time workers. It sounds to us like he’s doing his job, or trying to. Aldermen have been known to pad their payrolls with friends and relatives, some of whom were paid to do nothing.
In the last 25 years, the city’s Board of Ethics has found zero cases of wrongdoing by aldermen. In that same period, 20 of them were convicted of felonies. [Emphasis added.]
Facing mounting criticism for paying insiders with state construction grant money, the leader of the United Neighborhood Organization said Sunday the charter school network would at least temporarily stop doing business with a brother of UNO’s No. 2 executive.
UNO CEO Juan Rangel said the group will not work with d’Escoto Inc. — owned by a brother of Miguel d’Escoto, UNO’s senior vice president of operations — until after completing an internal review of its contracting practices.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Feb. 4 that d’Escoto Inc. and other companies with close ties to UNO were paid millions of dollars to help build schools under a $98 million grant approved in 2009 by lawmakers in Springfield and Gov. Pat Quinn.
D’Escoto Inc., owned by Federico “Fred” d’Escoto, has been paid more than $1.5 million so far to serve as the “owner’s representative” for the construction of the UNO schools built with the state money, records show. Miguel d’Escoto’s son also works for d’Escoto Inc.
Public documents show Fred d’Escoto was UNO’s board secretary until stepping down at some point in 2010. The group’s first payment of state grant money to d’Escoto Inc. was made Aug. 31, 2010, according to UNO records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
* There’s no bill number yet, so we can’t look at the fine print. But this is from a press release…
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and Police Superintendent Garry F. McCarthy today announced the introduction of statewide gun safety legislation that increases minimum sentencing for the most serious gun crimes and requires offenders to serve at least 85 percent of the imposed sentences. […]
According to a recent University of Chicago Crime Lab analysis, the average sentence for a crime committed with a gun was slightly longer than two years, but offenders only served approximately one year in prison. After implementing a similar mandatory minimum law in New York, offenders began serving their full sentences while the murder rate and prison population fell by double digits. […]
The proposed legislation would have the following impacts:
· Increase the penalty for felons who carry guns, from two years to three years, with subsequent offenses requiring a minimum of five years.
· Increase the minimum sentence for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon when the offender does not possess a valid FOID card and the gun is in their possession and loaded, from one year minimum to three years minimum.
· Add these specific gun crimes to the list of serious crimes that are subject to Truth in Sentences guidelines, requiring that offenders serve at least 85% of their sentence.
Until legislation is passed, the State’s Attorney has issued a directive to all Assistant State’s Attorneys to pursue the maximum possible sentence on gun crimes.
* I’m told that Gov. Pat Quinn will drop by today’s pension reform summit, which was called by organized labor. He won’t attend the whole event, but he has sent a couple of people in his stead, Gary Hannig and Jerry Stermer. The governor’s office stresses that Quinn and his staff have met with the unions “numerous times” over the past year.
Senate President John Cullerton is sending people today as well, but Speaker Madigan is not. House GOP Leader Tom Cross will attend today…
Illinois House Republican Leader Tom Cross will be available for questions from the media after the “We Are One Illinois” Pension Summit this afternoon. The Summit is being held at 1 p.m. at the Illinois AFL-CIO offices in Burr Ridge, 999 McClintock Drive, Suite 100. Cross will be available outside those offices immediately following the meeting.
* In related news, Finke had a very good piece over the weekend on pension reform…
“Of principle concern to the Commission is the accumulation of large unfunded accrued liabilities resulting for the most part from the inadequacy of government contributions in prior years to meet increases in costs due to the upward trend in salary rates and large additions to the membership of the funds.”
That could have come from any number of studies in recent years about funding problems facing public employee pension plans in Illinois. But it didn’t. That warning was part of a report by the Illinois Public Employees Pension Laws Commission to Gov. William Stratton … in 1959.
“Then, during the Thompson administration, they came up with this proposal that they felt they really don’t need to contribute even this 100 percent of payout because there’s been good years of investment return,” Goldstein said. “Because of that, they proposed they would only pay 60 percent of the payout.
The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club said Edgar’s approach “was structurally flawed from the beginning.” Not only was the payment plan backloaded, it wasn’t based on actuarial requirements. Consequently, pension debt continued to balloon.
Lawmakers have stalled on fixing this mess. They didn’t even meet for more than a few hours the entire month of January. February doesn’t look much better: The House meets for only nine days; the Senate is in Springfield only eight days. But the members rack up pension credit regardless of whether they’re in Springfield.
“I was very surprised at the large staffs available to state legislators,” he commented. “I don’t need that many people to run my office, and I don’t think anyone else does, either. I have my own secretary, and she’s very good at her job, but I don’t need a private secretary. My secretary could handle the workload from two or three senators. If legislators just hired the staff they needed instead of using their entire staffing budgets, we could probably run the state government with 25 to 30 percent fewer taxpayer dollars.”
This, by the way, is the same person who said recently that he was overwhelmed with e-mails…
“All of my time is now being spent responding to emails on social issues,” he said.
Senate secretaries also serve as clerks for committees on which their members chair. In the House, they have a separate staff for that job.
And considering the huge number of calls that members have been receiving on pensions and guns lately, I’m not so sure that one secretary can handle three Senators. Heck, even Speaker Madigan’s line is constantly busy.
The state’s largest employee union is urging its members to be prepared for the possibility of a strike.
With the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union at odds with Gov. Pat Quinn over a new bargaining agreement, government workers received a letter this week outlining steps they can take in the event a strike is authorized.
“The most important thing you can do to prepare for a strike is to begin to put some money aside now out of each pay check,” the letter notes. “Do not make any major purchases until the possibility of a strike has passed.” […]
In the letter, AFSCME said it is already working with “key financial institutions” to offer workers short-term loans if needed in the event of a work stoppage.
The union offers other advice as well.
“Schedule any predictable medical appointments right now,” the letter notes. “You may also want to talk with your doctor about lengthening any maintenance drug prescriptions so you don’t have to purchase drugs while on strike.”
* Here’s AFSCME’s memo. Click the images for larger versions…
* Robin Kelly has been making a lot of political hay over the gun issue, but she’s now taking some flak for not doing something that pretty much nobody else did in the previous decade…
But is Kelly, a former state rep, as pure on the gun issue as she’s trumpeting?
Records show that when Kelly was chief of staff to then-Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, more than $7 million in pension money was invested with Alliant Tech Systems, the world’s largest ammunition manufacturer, which supplies Wal-Mart and Cabela’s with ammunition as well as a small investment into Smith & Wesson, a top gun manufacturer.
The investment is a drop in the bucket when considering the billions of dollars in Illinois pension funds, and Kelly’s campaign says she was far removed from making such a decision. […]
Another opponent, state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, who changed her position on an assault weapons ban — now supporting one — asked why Kelly, who claims to have played a major role in directing policy under Giannoulias, didn’t urge against investing in weapons manufacturers when she was in a position to do so.
“Robin Kelly was the senior-most staffer in an office and . . . didn’t lift a finger to stop the state from sending millions of dollars to gun and ammunition manufacturers,” Hutchinson said. “She has repeatedly claimed to be an advocate for regular families and a fighter on guns . . . but she sent our tax dollars to the very gun manufacturers she says she’s been fighting for years.”
The Illinois State Board of Investment manages the investment of pension assets for the General Assembly, and the state treasurer is an ex-officio member of the board.
The irony of Hutchinson’s attack is more than just a little obvious.
A Mike Bloomberg-funded super PAC is about to surpass $1 million in ads in a House special primary election in Illinois, lambasting former Democratic Rep. Debbie Halvorson over her high marks from the National Rifle Association.
In a new spot out Monday, the group laces into Halvorson for her A+ rating from the NRA and her opposition to an assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004 and which some gun-control advocates are looking to restore.
* Meanwhile, I doubt that this endorsement will make a huge difference, but I guess one never knows…
Robin Kelly, candidate for Illinois’ second Congressional district, was endorsed by Congressmen Bobby Rush and Danny Davis at a press conference this afternoon.
“Our communities are facing an epidemic of gun violence, and we need more members of Congress who can be trusted to fight for common sense gun control measures. Robin Kelly is a woman of integrity and conviction, and President Obama, Congressman Davis and I need her as our partner in ending gun violence,” said Congressman Bobby Rush.
“Robin Kelly has the kind of pragmatism that you need to get results in Washington, while never compromising her beliefs like many do. If we are going to stop the NRA in their tracks, and make our communities safe again, Robin Kelly is the right woman for the job,” said Congressman Danny Davis.
* And the Tribune’s endorsement probably won’t have much sway, either…
Of the 16 Democrats on the ballot, Robin Kelly, 56, of Matteson is best suited for the job. The Tribune endorses her in the Democratic primary.
Kelly worked for the village of Matteson, served two terms in the Illinois House, oversaw the office of former Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and served as an administrative chief for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. In each role, Kelly brought integrity and pragmatism.
She is not a show-boater. She won’t dazzle you with ebullience. She doesn’t grandstand. She just works hard.
In the Illinois House, she was the chief sponsor of a bill that encourages businesses to grow and expand. That program, known as the EDGE tax credit, is one of the state’s most popular tools to give small- and medium-sized businesses incentives to stay in Illinois. She was the chief sponsor of legislation that cracked down on illegal firearm sales, and she worked on economic development issues, including construction of a third airport.
The Tribune relentlessly attacked Giannoulias for months over the way he ran his office. I guess that war is now passé since he lost to Mark Kirk.
Gov. Pat Quinn used the phrase “our Illinois” almost 30 times in one form or another last week during his annual State of the State address.
“In our Illinois, everyone should have access to decent health care,” Quinn said.
“In our Illinois, working people find good jobs, not just for today but for tomorrow.”
“In our Illinois, we find a way to get hard things done.”
In our Illinois, Quinn said, we are a “community of shared values.”
While the phrase was mainly a rhetorical device for a constitutionally mandated annual speech, it’s important to point out that Illinois isn’t really “one” and doesn’t have all that many “shared values.”
“Our Illinois” means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
Imagine trying to govern a state so diverse that it included both Boston and Richmond, Va. Waukegan is about 40 miles north of Chicago at the same latitude as Boston. Cairo, at the southern tip of Illinois, sits at the same latitude as Richmond.
While the Chicago area’s similarities to Bostonian liberalism might be obvious, our state’s history has more in common with Richmond than you might think.
For the first few decades of the 19th century, a state-owned salt works in Saline County in southern Illinois used slave labor and produced almost a third of state government’s revenue. Fights over whether Illinois should become a slave state dominated the General Assembly for years.
These days, southern Illinois politicians closely resemble Kentuckians, or southern Virginians, for that matter.
But our diversity and differences go much further than that.
In Chicago, we have unimaginable wealth next door to some of the worst poverty in the nation.
We have the third-largest city in the nation, substantial suburban sprawl, numerous river- and energy-dependent regions and a vast portion consisting of rural counties with few people in them.
We have Chicago wards that voted almost unanimously for Barack Obama last year, and dozens of downstate counties that almost always vote straight Republican since Abraham Lincoln joined the party.
We have more black residents than any “free” state except New York. And we have some counties that are so “white” that I know some black legislators and lobbyists who are afraid to stop for gas on their way to and from Springfield.
Our industrial capacity is almost unparalleled, yet we grow more corn than any state except Iowa.
Our Republican Party is almost hopelessly divided and nonexistent in Cook County. We have Chicago-area Republicans who openly supported former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and now back Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
We have many downstate residents who believe Chicago is by far the biggest problem in Illinois, and the state would be much better off the city wasn’t part of Illinois.
Many of our southern Illinois Democrats make many suburban Republicans look downright liberal.
Barack Obama won most of those typically Republican suburban counties last year, but he lost Madison County, near St. Louis, even though every other countywide Democratic candidate won there.
Our liberal Democrats are among the most “progressive” in the nation. But there are so many Democratic factions in some Chicago wards that you almost need a passport to cross the street.
The Nov. 6 election produced supermajorities in the Legislature for the Democrats, but those are majorities in party name only. In a year when southern Democrats are pushing hard for a concealed-carry law, the 2nd Congressional District Democratic primary election revolves largely around gun control.
So, while I often get frustrated with the way Pat Quinn governs — and for very good reasons — it’s always important to keep in mind that this state is nearly ungovernable, particularly in these times when people are so sharply divided by just about everything. Consensus among such cultural, ethnic and political diversity is almost impossible to achieve.
None of this means that governing is impossible, however, and this column isn’t meant to excuse any of Quinn’s many shortcomings.
But the next time you think that solving Illinois’ serious problems ought to be easy, remember that nothing has been easy in Illinois for many years.
In our Illinois, we embrace the voices…and the votes…of all people. Our democracy is strongest when more voters raise their voices at the ballot box.
That’s why Illinois should join 15 other states in making voter registration available online. We must move our election process into the 21st century.
Notice he didn’t say “register to vote online.” Texas, for instance, allows you to fill out a form online, print it and then mail it in. That seems to be the norm.
I can’t believe we don’t have that simple option here.
And while we’re at it, let’s pass a long overdue law to allow voters to participate in primary elections without having to publicly declare their party affiliation.
* The Question: Should voters be able to participate in primaries without having to declare their party affiliation? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Under the terms of the deal Jackson signed, he pleads guilty and his fate – as to jail time – would be in the hands of a federal judge, not yet assigned.
He would repay the government hundreds of thousands of dollars – for items like the $40,000 Rolex watch, travel expenses for a woman he described as a “social acquaintance” and furniture purchased for his home.
Converting campaign contributions for personal use is strictly prohibited by federal law. It opens Jackson up to “not more than 5 years” in prison.
(T)hose with knowledge of the investigation believe the loose ends now deal with Jackson’s wife, former Alderman Sandi Jackson, and whether or not she is ultimately charged.
* Latino power brokers have transformed the United Neighborhood Organization into a political force to be reckoned with. The group has obtained millions for its charter schools and even got around procurement law by avoiding blind bidding. As a result, insider deals have apparently proliferated…
A $98 million state grant — approved by the Illinois Legislature in 2009 and believed to be the nation’s largest government investment in charter schools to date — funded the construction of Soccer Academy Elementary and other new schools built by UNO.
More than one-fifth of the taxpayer money spent on the Soccer Academy Elementary project went to four contractors owned by family members of UNO’s political allies and a top executive of the group, records show:
◆ A company owned by a brother of Miguel d’Escoto , UNO’s senior vice president of operations, was paid more than $600,000 as the “owner’s representative” for the project.
◆ Another d’Escoto brother landed a $4.4 million contract that included installing the school’s windows and distinctive metal exterior panels.
◆ State grant money that was used to guard the construction site went to a security firm run by two brothers of state Rep. Edward Acevedo, a Chicago Democrat who voted to approve the UNO grant.
◆ Two deals for plumbing work went to the sister of Victor Reyes , a lobbyist who helped UNO obtain the grant money to build the school. UNO also hired the janitorial service it operates, paying it more than $31,000 to clean up the Soccer Academy site before classes began. […]
◆ D’Escoto Inc., owned by Federico “Fred” d’Escoto, whose brother Miguel d’Escoto holds the second-ranking post with UNO and was the city of Chicago’s transportation commissioner under former Mayor Richard M. Daley. D’Escoto Inc. has been paid more than $1.5 million so far, mainly for overseeing construction management on all of UNO’s state-funded projects. Miguel d’Escoto’s son, Miguel T. d’Escoto, works for d’Escoto Inc.
UNO hired d’Escoto Inc. without seeking other bids, Rangel says, because the firm provided the sort of services that government agencies often contract for based on merit rather than price alone. “I trust that they are looking out for our interests,” he says. “I’ve known the d’Escotos for decades. Fred’s reputation is impeccable.”
◆ Reflection Window Co., owned by Rodrigo d’Escoto — another brother of Miguel d’Escoto. It stands to make nearly $10 million for work on all of the UNO schools built with the grant money. Reflection was paid about $6.7 million for work on the Soccer Academy Elementary and Galewood schools, and it has a contract for about $3.1 million for work on the high school that’s under construction.
◆ Aguila Security, which was run by Manuel Acevedo and Joe Acevedo — brothers of state lawmaker and longtime UNO ally Edward Acevedo — during the time the company provided “site security” for UNO on the Soccer Academy Elementary project.
◆ Toltec Plumbing, owned by Virginia Reyes, whose brother Victor Reyes was a top mayoral aide during the Daley administration and also headed the now-defunct Hispanic Democratic Organization. Victor Reyes was UNO’s lobbyist when it landed the 2009 grant, and his law firm is doing zoning work for UNO that will be paid for out of the state grant money, according to Rangel.
◆ Windy City Electric, which has ties to Ald. Edward Burke (14th) and was banned from working on City Hall contracts after city officials determined that brothers Anthony and John McMahon operated the company in their wives’ names to obtain millions of dollars from city contracts set aside for businesses owned and operated by women. Windy City was paid $1.67 million for work on the Soccer Academy Elementary’s construction.
Anthony McMahon is a top precinct captain for Burke, a longtime UNO backer whose Southwest Side ward is home to five of the charter network’s schools. Burke’s daughter-in-law has worked for UNO since 2009.
In 2010, Rangel endorsed Burke’s brother, state Rep. Daniel Burke (D-Chicago), when he narrowly won a Democratic primary fight against a Hispanic challenger.
◆ The law firm of Chico & Nunes, headed by attorney Gery Chico, who has done zoning work for UNO and been paid with money from the state grant.
◆ UNO JaMS, a not-for-profit “social enterprise” initiative of UNO that provides janitorial services at its charter schools.
UNO’s grant agreement requires it to “immediately notify the department in writing of any actual or potential conflicts of interest, as well as any actions that create or which appear to create a conflict of interest,” spokeswoman Sandra M. Jones says. The state “has no record of receiving such notifications. We are currently reviewing the matter. We take our oversight of taxpayer-funded programs very seriously. If it is found that a grantee has used funds incorrectly, we will take steps to address it.”
He also reported that UNO contractors donated at least $51,000 to [Silvana Tabares] in her successful state representative campaign, and UNO employees even gathered most of the signatures on her nominating petitions.
What’s wrong with any of that?
Well, most fundamentally, I don’t think the purpose of creating charter schools was to establish new political fiefdoms with their own bases of patronage — whether of the classic or pinstripe variety.
I’m not knocking the UNO schools. They operate in difficult neighborhoods and have a reputation for delivering a better education than many of the other charters.
But we need to extract the charter operators from this type of political activity before it becomes the norm.
As it stands now, I don’t think any other charter operators are nearly as far along in their political entanglements as UNO.
The fact that Emanuel is a huge proponent of charter schools and that UNO CEO Juan Rangel is the mayor’s former campaign co-chairman and a mayoral appointee to the Emanuel-chaired Public Building Commission adds to the political embarrassment.
“I know what the United Neighborhood Organization does — both as a neighborhood group and as an education group. And I know they’re gonna have to hold themselves accountable because I believe in being held accountable to the public,” the mayor said. “They’re getting public resources. The people [who] are the proper people will look into it and be held accountable so dollars aren’t misspent.”
Pressed on whether UNO still enjoys his confidence, Emanuel said, “On their educational mission, yes, and that they do it in the right way.”
* Also, as I’ve told you before, House Speaker Michael Madigan was pushing hard for even more money for UNO last month. Greg Hinz had some details about how hard Madigan was working…
But, in checking around, I hear that the guy who really pushed the proposed $35 million grant was House Speaker Michael Madigan, whose district has turned overwhelmingly Latino in recent years and who probably could use one of those new UNO schools in his district. Mr. Madigan — his spokesman did not return calls — was so hot for the grant that he actually tried to add it to some other bills, multiple reliable Springfield sources say.
Mr. Rangel confirms that the money “quite possibly” would have gone for work in Mr. Madigan’s district, where schools are “severely overcrowded.” And guess where that new soccer high school is? At the north end of Mr. Madigan’s legislative district, 5050 S. St. Louis Ave.
That cash was omitted from the supplemental approp bill which passed this week. There’s just too much heat on UNO right now.
* When you’ve got the lowest approval rating of any governor in the country and two prominent members of your own party are openly contemplating a primary challenge and people are lining up around the block in the other party to challenge you in a general election, you can expect stories drenched in hostility like this one from the AP…
The idea seems simple enough: Ban Illinois lawmakers from voting or taking action on anything that might benefit them personally, all in the name of honest government.
But the ethics proposal Gov. Pat Quinn outlined in his State of the State speech has sparked questions about whom it targets and whether it’s necessary as the state deals with mountainous financial problems. Some Republicans and political experts also have alleged political motives, suggesting the Chicago Democrat was simply floating the proposal to lay the groundwork for what could become a pet issue in his 2014 re-election bid. […]
Some lawmakers said they were confused by the timing: Illinois traditionally enacts reforms in the wake of scandal, and they expected more details on finances when Quinn has made overhauling pensions his top issue for more than a year. Illinois has a nearly $100 billion pension problem, the worst of any U.S. state.
What a bogus excuse. Financial details will come in the March budget address. This was a State of the State address. The fact that so many people who cover the Statehouse and work there can’t seem to differentiate between the two boggles my mind. This happened last year as well. Enough, already.
* Also, timing? Yeah, there’s an election coming up, but Quinn has been pushing this issue for years and years. From the transcript of his SoS address…
But our constant mission to restore integrity to Illinois government cannot end here. We have more work to do.
In 1976, I led a petition drive to ban conflict of interest voting in the General Assembly. 635,158 voters signed this petition – the greatest number of signatures ever gathered on a single petition in Illinois history.
Silence about conflict of interest voting wasn’t our Illinois then, and it’s not our Illinois now. We can do better.
Conflicts of interest are regulated all over: from the Illinois Supreme Court, to right here in the Executive Branch.
And more than 30 states have banned conflict of interest voting.
Illinois should too.
With this reform, we can keep moving towards a state government that always puts the people first, and a government that tackles the tough issues, no matter how hard.
Some lawmakers pointed out Quinn’s plan might duplicate legislation already being considered.
Democratic state Sen. Dan Kotowski of Park Ridge sponsored a bill calling for more lawmaker disclosure of economic interests. While legislators have done so for decades, the forms they use are outdated, Kotowski argues. He has proposed requiring more information — relationships with lobbyists, for example — and allowing them to be viewed online.
Yes, Kotowski has a decent bill. The governor gets to propose his own stuff, however.
* You have to go way down into the story to find the meat of the problem…
Illinois statute says when taking an official action, like a vote, a lawmaker should “consider the possibility” of eliminating the interest or abstaining from the official action. Unlike federal lawmakers who face strike provisions and can be investigated by bipartisan ethics committee of their peers, the state law guidelines contain no provision for enforcement or penalties.
The legislature’s inspector general, Thomas Homer, calls Illinois’ laws “somewhat farcical.”
He pushed reforms in a 2011 report he issued detailing problems, including relationships with lobbyists. A former lawmaker himself, Homer said his office received two dozen complaints last year, and about half were related to potential conflicts of interest. However, Homer said his hands are tied when it comes to acting on the complaints. Any investigations must be approved by a commission, and he doesn’t have power to punish or take action.
The difference is that congressmen are full-timers who have outside income bans. Illinois is by design a citizens legislature, despite its relative high pay.
Quinn’s plan is aimed at limiting votes cast by lawmakers who haven’t been accused of any impropriety — including lawyers, real estate agents and entrepreneurs with business interests in the state.
I seriously doubt that you’ll convince all the lawyers in the General Assembly to list their law firm clients. I’m not even sure that they can. But that’s ultimately where the, um, conflict will be.
* I’m one of the governor’s most intense critics. But I’m sick of the annual whining about how the State of the State address isn’t the budget address.
* Unlike in Springfield these days, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is trying to negotiate pension changes with labor leaders…
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle got down to brass tacks with labor leaders Thursday, setting a 30-day deadline for unions and county officials to help her craft legislation aimed at cleaning up the pension mess.
Preckwinkle and Chicago Federation of Labor President Jorge Ramirez, were among roughly 20 union and county leaders in the meeting, and both stressed no “ultimatum” was given.
“This is a mutual problem — there’s no need for tough talk,” Preckwinkle told the Sun-Times. “We’re trying to work together to solve this.”
“I emphasized this has to be shared sacrifice,” Preckwinkle said. “I told them we can’t wait any longer.”
Preckwinkle declined to discuss specifics, but she outlined broad concepts. Both workers and county government would have to pay more money into the pension fund. Annual cost-of-living adjustments would be pegged to inflation. Older retirement ages would be phased in.
And health care coverage would be guaranteed for the first time, but limits would be placed on the annual cost increases paid for by the county. The county also would continue to provide traditional pensions rather than switch to 401(k)-type plans.
Just a decade ago, the county pension fund was sound, with 90 percent of the cash on hand needed to cover payments it was obligated to make. Now it has only 58 percent of what’s needed, leaving a shortfall of $5.8 billion.
They tried talking things through in Springfield, to no avail. Maybe this will work in Cook. The Chicago Federation of Labor seems interested in a compromise, so we’ll see.
I spent Thursday afternoon looking at some numbers and discovered some good news that you probably don’t know.
For the first seven months of the fiscal year (through the end of January), Illinois tax revenues grew by about a billion dollars. That’s almost a 7 percent growth rate, according to a nonpartisan legislative commission.
But man, is there ever a lot of bad news.
You knew there’d be bad news. This is Illinois, after all.
All of that extra money is barely enough to cover the state’s increased pension payment this year. That pension payment is going up another billion dollars next year, too.
Not to mention that state employee health insurance reimbursements are running anywhere from a year to 500 days late. Yes, you read that right. Five hundred days late.
The state is releasing $600 million or so that had been set aside for health insurance costs, but that cash won’t even cover costs for the rest the rest of the fiscal year, which ends June 30, let alone touch the bill backlog.
Meanwhile, unemployment remains stubbornly high. Illinois didn’t even recover all the jobs lost during the 2001 recession before the last one began.
I was listening to Gov. Pat Quinn’s State of the State address this past Wednesday with the hope that he had come up with some ideas to drag Illinois out of its morass.
No such luck.
Then again, there are no magic wands here. There’s no fairy dust we can sprinkle on ourselves to solve our problems. Illinois is a state, so it can’t print its own money.
The governor is insisting on pension reform, but even that will not immediately relieve the massive budget pressures, because any new law will certainly be challenged as unconstitutional and therefore put on hold. It could be years before the courts figure things out. And that assumes the General Assembly can even get something done on this front.
The only thing that will save us is economic growth. Lots of it.
Government has a role here, both in spending and in policies.
Gov. Quinn touted a few hundred million dollars for infrastructure in his State of the State speech, but we could use a truly massive public works project that updates our antiquated water and sewer systems, fixes our roads and bridges, modernizes public transit and tears down old schools and builds new ones. The cold reality, though, is that Illinois just doesn’t have the money to pay for all that stuff, and a tax hike to fund the projects will slow growth in other sectors.
Another funding source has to be found. Maybe the federal government can finally get off its duff and start updating our nation’s infrastructure and schools. The federal stimulus bill four years ago barely touched infrastructure.
Illinois reformed its workers’ compensation laws a couple of years back, but it fell far short of what’s needed. Attorney General Lisa Madigan demanded more reforms several months ago, pointing to a case where a worker flung himself at a vending machine because his treat was stuck. The employee hurt himself. A state appellate court awarded him workers’ compensation benefits. In Illinois, “causation” isn’t part of the equation. You get hurt, you get paid. That’s insane.
Workers’ comp insurance costs are a huge problem for some Illinois businesses, but the doctors and lawyers love the revenues, and they have powerful Springfield lobbies, so nothing substantial gets done. Quinn didn’t even mention the topic this week.
We need bold plans on a decidedly un-bold budget. We need some creativity and some real urgency. Unfortunately, I don’t see either trait in this governor.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s super political action committee has spent at least $660,000 for 12 days of TV ads blasting Democratic congressional candidate Debbie Halvorson’s past support from the National Rifle Association, records filed by local affiliates of the four major networks showed Thursday.
When its current ad buy ends Sunday, the Independence USA super PAC will have aired 574 half-minute broadcast TV commercials to influence the outcome of the 2nd Congressional District special election, records show.
Halvorson, a former one-term congresswoman from Crete, has accused Bloomberg of trying to buy an Illinois congressional seat. She has maintained her opposition to bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, in line with the NRA. The former lawmaker has, however, backed comprehensive background checks, a federal gun registry and increased penalties for criminal gun use and possession
It was a lively exchange between ten democrats on the stage at the campus in the south suburbs. They discussed everything from whether we should keep American troops in Afghanistan even after the president says combat operations will seize, to whether we should balance the budget with spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both.
Given the national discussion on gun control and recent hearings locally, it was no surprise that some of the sharpest exchanges during the debate were on the topic. FOX 32’s Mike Flannery, who moderated the debate, asked for a show of hands on who supported the president’s proposal for a ban on assault weapons and on high capacity ammunition magazines. Only one candidate disagreed with that proposal: Debbie Halvorson– the former congresswoman who has the backing of the National Rifle Association.
“I refuse to support any other wide-ranging law that is going to harm a law-abiding citizen until we do something that is going to go after the criminal,” Halvorson said.
All of the candidates agreed on issuing universal background checks before a gun could be purchased.
“Even though it’s probably going to happen in the state of Illinois, I’m also against concealed carry,” Robin Kelly said. “When do we say enough is enough with all the killings in Chicago and all the mass murders around the country?”
On other issues, Hutchinson said she’d like to see a repeal of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts, with extra money put into programs benefiting education and infrastructure, while Williams said he’d like to see a federal lottery to raise money for education programs.
Kelly said she’d like to see cuts in military spending.
“We don’t fight wars like that anymore,” she said of fleets of battleships.
Chicago 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale said he’d like to see cuts in agriculture subsidies that he says pay farmers not to grow crops.
One area where there was general agreement was on immigration reform. All said they support a version of reform that gives many of the roughly 11.1 million people living illegally in the United States a chance to gain U.S. citizenship.
