Will wonders never cease?
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* As we discussed a few months ago, some truly awful investment and spending decisions made by Chicago’s elite financiers on behalf of some of the city’s museums and cultural institutions have put those institutions in very real financial danger.
Also as I told earlier, partly in reaction to this problem, the General Assembly passed a bill with a large bipartisan majority that would allow museums and aquariums to reduce the number of required free admission days by half, from 52 down to 26. Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed the legislation…
“Many Illinois families can only visit these museums on the 52 days that they are currently open to residents free of charge,” the governor wrote in a letter to lawmakers that explains his veto.
“Limiting the number of days our aquariums and museums are available free of cost would disproportionately limit access to our lower-income families,” he said. “I cannot support any legislation that seeks to reduce exposure to the vast educational resources on display at our museums, particularly for those in our state that are most vulnerable.”
* The bill received 79 votes in the House back in April, but impassioned speeches on the House floor today by members of the Black Caucus helped turn the tide in favor of Quinn’s veto and just 49 House members voted to override.
Also helping to kill the override motion was a speech by Rep. Jack Franks, who before today has rarely if ever had anything nice to say about Gov. Quinn. Franks said the veto had changed his own perspective and urged his colleagues who’d never changed their minds to do so on today’s vote.
“The governor is right!” Franks said.
That’s not a misprint.
…Adding… Statement from Gov. Quinn…
“It’s always important to ensure that our residents with modest incomes have equal access to our world-class museums and cultural institutions.
“I commend members of the House for their vote today. They did the right thing.”
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sen. Kirk Dillard to John Kass…
“The inevitable outsider characterization makes me laugh,” said Dillard. “No, I don’t think he’s inevitable. And while I respect Mr. Rauner’s success in the private sector, his inner-circle status with Rahm Emanuel is not a plus in a Republican primary.” […]
“In one of your columns I had to laugh, because Rauner tried to backtrack how close he was with the mayor,” Dillard said. “There’s nothing wrong with a relationship. But you have to be able to tell the mayor ‘no.’ As chief of staff for Gov. Edgar I told Mayor (Richard) Daley ‘no’ when he wanted casinos the size of several football fields. Rauner is the man who made Rahm Emanuel rich. That’s the fact. And governmentally, it’s a problem to be that close to the mayor of Chicago.”
* Kass’ take…
Some argue that Rauner is beholden to the mayor of Chicago. But Rauner is the one who helped Emanuel make several million dollars in private deals when Emanuel was between political posts. Besides, guys like Bruce Rauner don’t dance for politicians. It’s the other way around.
I think both guys make good points. No way can Bruce Rauner be considered an “outsider,” and polling has shown this to be a killer GOP primary issue.
But he’s an insider who does, indeed, make politicians dance for him. And he’s lately taken to criticizing Emanuel over the way the mayor handled the teachers’ strike.
* The Question: Will Bruce Rauner’s insider experience help him govern if he’s elected? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
surveys & polls
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Getting It Right For A Change
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2013 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
We talk a lot about what’s wrong with Illinois, but did you know we’re leading the nation in the transition to clean energy? Since the General Assembly passed our Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) with bipartisan majorities in 2007 setting clean energy targets for Illinois, we’ve all been winners. We’re on a path to get 25% of our power from renewable energy by 2025, and already we’re seeing the benefits.
Moving to clean energy has already paid off for Illinois. The RPS has already:
• Saved consumers $177 million per year
• Created 19,047 clean energy jobs
• Eliminated 5 million tons of air pollution
It’s a great start, but to stay on track we need to update the RPS to suit today’s competitive power market. Our electric markets have changed a lot since 2007, and we need to update the RPS to reflect that, to make sure we’re incentivizing investment in Illinois clean energy projects. We need to stop sweeping the Renewable Energy Resources Fund and let the Illinois Power Agency invest it in our communities.
Clean energy companies have more than $4.5 billion in Illinois wind and solar projects ready for development. Let’s keep the benefits coming, and greenlight the next generation of clean energy investments in Illinois. We need the General Assembly to update the RPS this fall, and keep us on track to a better future.
To learn more, visit www.ILikeCleanEnergy.org.
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Caught on tape
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Yikes…
In September 2008, Cook County Board of Review analyst Thomas Hawkins was talking about an alleged scheme to lower property tax assessments for a corrupt Chicago police officer when he mentioned that the “boss” had grand plans for how to make even more in bribes in the future.
“This is the move…Joe’s gonna run for assessor…he’s gonna win,” Hawkins allegedly told the officer, Ali Haleem, who was secretly recording the conversation for the FBI. “And then he’s gonna appoint his top deputy for commissioner. So now Joe’s gonna get paid double. He’s gonna get paid for raising taxes and lowering (them).”
The “boss,” according to the Tribune, was Cook County Democratic Party Chairman Joe Berrios, who was then on the Board of Review and eventually won his race for county assessor.
More…
Berrios hasn’t been charged with any crime, and he wasn’t in court Tuesday as hours of wiretapped conversations defendants Tommy Hawkins and John Racasi had about their alleged bribe scheme were played for a federal jury.
But he was center stage nonetheless as both defendants repeatedly implicated him in the secretly taped conversations with an undercover FBI informant.
In one, recorded Sept. 17, 2008, Hawkins, 49, boasts that he was “with Berrios… having lettuce salads” — code, the feds say, that the defendants used for accepting cash bribes.
In another, recorded Sept. 11, 2008, Hawkins was recorded explaining that he planned to bypass “red tape” on an allegedly corrupt property tax appeal by going “straight to Berrios and get a signature.”
“You know, with the lettuce, say here you go, man — sign this. Put this through right away,” Hawkins was taped saying.
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Defending Gov. Dangerfield
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* House Bill 3717 was introduced yesterday by Rep. David Harris (R-Arlington Heights). The measure would cut the governor’s office budget by a million dollars…
Reduces a Fiscal Year 2014 appropriation from the General Revenue Fund to the Office of the Governor for operational expenses from $5,521,100 to $4,521,000. Effective January 1, 2014.
This is almost undoubtedly a ploy to get some media attention rather than an actual legislative threat.
Harris talked to WUIS about his bill…
“It’s my contention [Gov. Quinn] and his staff haven’t done their job, because it’s a cooperative venture here in the state, between the legislature and the chief executive,” Harris says. “We passed 600 bills in the spring session. Six hundred bills. Because we didn’t pass one single bill he claims we haven’t done our job.” […]
In response, a spokesman for the governor sent a summary of task forces, deadlines and public pronouncements Quinn has made to help resolve the pension issue, and says the governor isn’t taking a paycheck until that’s done.
That isn’t enough for Harris, who says Quinn has job perks most legislators do not.
“I’m not driven around by state troopers, I have to buy my gas myself, kay? I have to put food on my table and it doesn’t come from the state coffers at the executive mansion. So there’s a little bit of a difference here,” he says.
Harris also notes that, unlike he did for legislators’ pay, Quinn did not veto his own salary; he is just making a temporary choice to not take a paycheck.
OK, but Harris is now getting paid. And Quinn didn’t use his veto to touch staff salaries. Harris’ bill is focused on staff. That’s a bit much.
* And speaking of no respect for Quinn…
The chairman of a legislative panel considering a pack-age of tax breaks for Archer Daniels Midland signaled Tuesday the General Assembly may move forward with a plan despite the threat of a veto from Gov. Pat Quinn.
Earlier this month Quinn said he would oppose any legislation offering tax incentives to the Decatur-based agribusiness giant to keep its world head-quarters in Illinois unless the House and Senate sign off on a plan to overhaul the state’s massively underfunded pension systems.
State Rep. John Bradley, a Democrat from Marion, brushed off the governor’s demands following a Tuesday hearing on a separate set of possible tax breaks aimed at helping Illinois beat out Florida as the headquarters of newly merged OfficeMax and Office Depot.
“We’re used to rhetoric like that coming out of the governor’s office,” Bradley told reporters after chairing a meeting of the House Revenue and Finance Committee.
Maybe so, but there’s no great love for this bill in the GA right now.
* And this is incredibly misleading…
llinois Gov. Pat Quinn says publicly that public-pension reform is “a paramount issue right now,” but that’s not stopping him from asking for more than $100 million to hike the pay of unionized public employees.
“In terms of fiscal issues, there’s a paramount issue right now, and that is pension reform,” Quinn told reporters on Tuesday. “We must not step back from it, we must step forward.”
At the same time, however, Quinn is asking lawmakers for $200 million in new spending, more than half of which will go to pay promised pay raises for the state’s public employees.
And that’s not sitting will with some lawmakers.
“Our unpaid bills have gone from $4 billion to $7 billion, this guy is a reckless ship when it comes to financial management,” state Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington said. “Yes, we need to live up to pour obligations, but (Quinn) needs to learn to live within our means.”
OK, first of all, that proposed approp is actually about paying off an old, unpaid bill. It’s for pay raises going back to 2011 which weren’t funded by the Legislature. A court has ordered the raises have to be paid. And the raises weren’t negotiated by Quinn but by Rod Blagojevich. And then there’s this…
Quinn’s staff is urging lawmakers to pay them sooner, so less interest is piled on. Some agencies have already been able to find the money for back pay in their budgets.
So despite the lede of that first story, paying the raises is basically the same argument that Quinn is making on pension reform. Deal with it now or the costs will increase with every day of delay.
You can make the argument that Quinn ought to find the money to pay the raises from within his existing budget, but then you might be asked where he ought to make his agency cuts. And just about every time he lays off workers or closes a state facility, a large group of GOP lawmakers screams bloody murder.
Also, revenues are coming in about $360 million higher than original estimates. So if you treat the back pay as a past-due bill like all the others, then there’s a very logical argument to make that the supplemental appropriation should be approved.
* For his part, Gov. Quinn refused to directly criticize Senate President John Cullerton over the whole “is the pension debt a crisis or not” argument despite this story’s spin…
Gov. Pat Quinn Tuesday reiterated that the state’s pension problems are an “extreme emergency” that demand lawmakers’ attention now.
Speaking at a Statehouse news conference, Quinn dismissed a statement from Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, over the weekend that the pension problem does not rise to the level of a crisis.
“I think it is a matter of extreme emergency, it is urgent,” Quinn said when asked about Cullerton’s comments. “Whatever word you want to use, when taxpayers are paying $5 million a day more in pension liability, to me that’s a matter of grave importance. We have to resolve the issue right now.”
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Credit Union (noun) – an essential financial cooperative
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2013 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Cooperatives can be formed to support producers such as farmers, purchasers such as independent business owners, and consumers such as electric coops and credit unions. Their primary purpose is to meet members’ needs through affordable goods and services of high quality. Cooperatives such as credit unions may look like other businesses in their operations and, like other businesses, can range in size. However, the cooperative structure is distinctively different regardless of size. As not-for-profit financial cooperatives, credit unions serve individuals with a common goal or interest. They are owned and democratically controlled by the people who use their services. Their board of directors consists of unpaid volunteers, elected by and from the membership. Members are owners who pool funds to help other members. After expenses and reserve requirements are met, net revenue is returned to members via lower loan and higher savings rates, lower costs and fees for services. It is the structure of credit unions, not their size or range of services that is the reason for their tax exempt status - and the reason why almost three million Illinois residents are among 95 million Americans who count on their local credit union everyday to reach their financial goals.
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“Emphasis added” gay marriage rally roundup
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* So were Springfield police officers enforcing a religious dress code yesterday, or were they just keeping the peace? Sun-Times…
Throughout the day Tuesday, activists rallied, marched and met face-to-face with House members. Later in the day, a trio of Roman Catholic gay-rights activists — greatly outnumbered by police — silently prayed the rosary in support of Harris’ legislation at Springfield’s largest Catholic cathedral.
Bishop Thomas John Paprocki, head of the Springfield Catholic diocese, warned earlier in the day that anyone wearing rainbow sashes — a sign of solidarity in the same-sex marriage push — would be barred entrance to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception because their defiance against church policy on marriage amounted to “blasphemy.”
The activists who showed up at a late-afternoon mass at the church were not wearing the sashes.
* Belleville News-Democrat…
Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, said people have strong opinions on both sides of the issue.
“But I do believe that it could be categorized, to a large extent, as generational,” Hoffman said. “People who are my daughter’s age believe much differently than older individuals. That’s just kind of the sense I’ve gotten from the calls I receive.”
Hoffman voted in favor of civil unions but has previously said he’s opposed to gay marriage. In an interview this week, however, he left open the possibility of voting in favor of it.
“I haven’t decided. I’m still reviewing some of the information that’s been provided by both sides. Until we see a final draft of a bill, I think it’s premature,” Hoffman said.
Um, dude, the bill was drafted months ago. It passed the Senate in February.
* SJ-R headline…
Hundreds rally at Capitol for same-sex marriage
* Sun-Times lede…
Saying it’s “criminal” gays and lesbians can’t marry in Illinois, more than 1,000 gay-rights supporters braved a steady rain at the Capitol Tuesday to push stalled same-sex marriage legislation — but faced a harsh backlash from a top Catholic leader.
* Chicago GoPride headline…
Record-breaking crowds rally in Springfield for marriage equality
* The official Secretary of State Police estimate…
“This is our hour. This is our moment,” Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn told the estimated crowd of 3,000 that had gathered under a cold rain.
* Speaker Madigan was the center of attention for some leaders who addressed the crowd…
Noticeable absent was Lisa Madigan’s father, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D), who supports the measure but has yet to call the bill in the House.
“Mike Madigan’s House failed us,” said Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network. “We have a message to Mike Madigan, pass the damn bill this fall veto session.”
Thayer continued his impassioned message, “It is time. It is time Mike Madigan!”
At one point the energized crowd started chanting, “Call the bill!”
Lambda Legal’s Jim Bennett, chair of the Illinois Unites for Marriage Coalition, continued on message, “It’s time for Speaker Madigan to show some leadership and pass this bill now.”
* But this was unbelievably stupid…
The tension was on display through the day, as some in the crowd shouted “Call the vote” while [gay marriage bill sponsor Rep. Greg Harris] spoke. Others took to the stage in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln’s statue to declare they were prepared to vote out of office lawmakers who got in the way — including Harris.
Yeah, that’ll help. Primary the most ardent gay marriage supporter in the entire Illinois General Assembly. Great.
Anybody who does that is a moron, plain and simple.
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