Still more progress on crime-related issues
Friday, May 29, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the unusual coalition of the Illinois NAACP and the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police …
State legislation regarding the use of body-worn cameras by police officers in Illinois has been a priority for both of our organizations this spring. In April of this year the NAACP and the ILACP met to discuss our mutual concerns, and body cameras emerged as a top mutual priority.
We are pleased to see this initiative advance in the Illinois General Assembly in Springfield this week, and we believe it is significant that our two organizations are making this statement of support together. We are committed to seeking and demanding transparency and accountability in law enforcement. Body cameras will help show the public that most police officers are engaged in constitutional policing, and they will help identify officers who abuse their authority or commit misconduct.
We are pleased that the legislation moving through the General Assembly adopts many recommendations from the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Police Executive Research Forum, the International and Illinois associations of chiefs of police, and the NAACP Legislative Agenda. It does not require every officer to wear a body camera. That could be prohibitively expensive in some communities. At the same time, this legislation makes grants available so that more police departments can purchase body cameras and it provides reasonable guidelines for their use. It will take some time for police departments to acquire the cameras and provide training for their use. Also, it will take some time for all citizens to understand the rules about when the cameras are turned on and when the cameras can be turned off.
We plan to work together to educate the public about the use of body cameras and other initiatives that will help build mutual trust. We all want to make our communities safer and the best way to accomplish that is for us to work together.
In the meantime, we continue to review other proposed police reforms in SB1304 and we thank Senator Kwame Raoul and Representative Elgie Sims and other supporters.
* And from the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law…
Senate Bill 1547, now on its way to the Governor, creates a necessary protection to survivors of domestic violence and individuals with disabilities in Illinois. It will prevent local governments from enacting or enforcing ordinances that punish tenants for calling 911 in response to domestic or sexual violence, or for crimes committed against them. The bill is a response to local ordinances that treat police calls as “nuisances”—sending a victim-blaming message to survivors of domestic violence and discouraging them from seeking help. No one should fear losing their home because they call the police to protect themselves.
The language of SB 1547 is a result of negotiations with local governments, property owners, law enforcement organizations, and advocates throughout the State. It strikes a critical balance between the needs of cities to address public safety concerns and the needs of tenants and landlords to be free from the dangerous impact of ordinances that impose penalties based on 911 calls. As a result, SB 1547 was voted unanimously out of both chambers and has the support of over 80 organizations, including the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence, ACLU of Illinois, Illinois State’s Attorney, Illinois Sheriffs’ Association, Illinois Association of Realtors, Access Living, and Illinois Attorney General’s Office.
We thank Senator Toi Hutchinson and Representative Anthony DeLuca for their leadership in moving this important bill through the General Assembly and we urge Governor Rauner to sign it into law as soon as possible.
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Unsolicited advice
Friday, May 29, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Gov. Bruce Rauner said over and over today during an afternoon press conference that he doesn’t want to see “phony reforms” passed by the end of the scheduled spring session. He said he wants “real” reforms or all bets are off.
He’ll obviously decide what’s real and what’s not, but - and I don’t think I’ve ever said this before [/snark] - he ought to heed Rep. Jack Franks’ advice…
Thursday morning, Rauner released the prepared remarks of top aide Rich Goldberg to be given before a committee of lawmakers.
“In short, while Gov. Rauner says yes to reform and yes to compromise, the legislators in control of the General Assembly say no to reform, no to compromise, yes to unbalanced budgets and yes to higher taxes without reform,” he said.
Franks carried a property tax freeze proposal that Republicans decried as a stunt, but the Democrat says he agrees with the governor on the idea in general, and he had some advice for Rauner to advance his big first-year agenda.
“Do it incrementally. That’s what happens here in Springfield. I’d like to move things quicker, too,” Franks said. “It doesn’t happen overnight, because some people just aren’t ready for it. So you have to chip away.”
He’s right.
Get your foot in the door.
It’s what Gov. Jim Edgar did with property tax caps in the 1991 spring overtime session. Edgar settled for much less than he demanded and eventually the limits spread well beyond the handful of counties originally capped.
Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. You can go on and on. They started off much smaller than they are today.
* Don’t make the perfect the enemy of the half-good.
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* I told subscribers this morning that there’s been some interesting little behind the scenes movement over the past 48 hours or so. Keep your fingers crossed…
* And…
Media Advisory
What: Governor Rauner Holds Media Briefing
Where: Illinois Executive Mansion
410 E. Jackson St., Chicago
Date: Friday, May 29, 2015
Time: 1:30 p.m.
*** UPDATE 1 *** I wasn’t at the media availability, so I asked Cullerton’s press secretary to explain…
Cullerton again restated his commitment to work with the governor on reforms. Many of the governor’s ideas were given a fair hearing in the Senate.
Even though those bills failed, that doesn’t mean that we can’t continue to work on a turnaround agenda that works for middle class families.
*** UPDATE 2 *** The event will hopefully be live-streamed by BlueRoomStream.com. Click here.
*** UPDATE 3 *** The two GOP leaders said they didn’t think there would be a negotiated budget by Sunday, but they did hold out hope that some progress can be made on the non-budgetary front. Listen to the whole thing…
*** UPDATE 4 *** I really thought I could see a glimmer of hope in the governor’s remarks, despite the bluster.
But Speaker Madigan’s spokesman Steve Brown told me he didn’t see anything in there to indicate that the impasse could be broken.
He also said that the leader’s meeting featured the governor repeating his usual talking points.
Brown added that when Rauner was told that his own budget proposal was $3 billion out of balance he acted surprised. “It was totally news to him,” Brown said. “I conclude that the bubble is perhaps more complete than we thought.”
Sigh.
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Pot, meet kettle
Friday, May 29, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Remember this tweet from yesterday?…
* The back story…
When Democratic Sen. William Haine of Alton asked whether defense attorneys were a part of the development of the tort reform bill, Radogno said, “I don’t think we should have the lobbyists drafting the bills.”
“I’m shocked, I’m shocked that you would say that,” said Haine, feigning surprise.
Then Rauner’s deputy chief of staff, Rich Goldberg, interjected, “I know Governor Rauner is not from Springfield. I’m not from Springfield. A lot of us are not from Springfield. The culture in Springfield has to change. That lobbyists, it’s status quo for them to help write your legislation, Governor Rauner wants to get the lobbyists out of government.”
Later, Goldberg added, “To accept the status quo of special interests and lobbyists writing legislation is something that we reject and it is really the reason why …”
Haine interrupted: “I’m not suggesting they write the legislation. I’m suggesting that the way we have historically done things here and in all states of the union, and Congress, is to have people in the room negotiating with the legislators who know the consequences to their groups.”
* OK, first of all, Radogno’s claims are completely unbelievable.
Defense bar lobsters may not have been physically at the table when the legislation was drafted, but, c’mon, man. Where did that language come from? The defense bar and its allies, obviously. It didn’t just organically spring up outta nowhere.
* Secondly…
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
And…
RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE AND PETITION
The people have the right to assemble in a peaceable manner, to consult for the common good, to make known their opinions to their representatives and to apply for redress of grievances.
The founders of this nation and the drafters of our own state Constitution realized that the government truly needed input from the governed. That’s only logical.
Of course some lobbyists can get outta hand. This is not a perfect system, to say the least.
But legislators and governors are not all-knowing gods. They simply can’t, and shouldn’t, pass legislation without first consulting the people, businesses, groups, whatever who are being impacted by that legislation. It’s stupid governance to do otherwise. How would a lawyer from Skokie know anything about a farm bill without talking to farmers and their representatives and the folks on the other side?
* Haine is right. You don’t let lobsters write bills on their own, which is what the GOP did with their tort reform bill, whether they admit it or not. But you need to bring stakeholders into the room at some point so you don’t mess things up.
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Today’s quotable
Friday, May 29, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
The governor also has not taken questions from journalists since May 14. This week, after leaving a private meeting with Republican lawmakers, a Chicago Tribune reporter got in an elevator with Rauner and several aides and asked the governor a series of questions about the state budget Democrats were preparing. Rauner didn’t answer, but eventually looked at the reporter and said, “Can I give you a hug?” The reporter declined.
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Sturm Und Drang
Friday, May 29, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* A good point…
“We are going to have to wait until the Democrats realize they are going to have to come to the table and compromise,” [Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno] said. “Remember, they’ve had 13 years of complete control, so having to compromise is a brand-new way of thinking for most of them.”
It most certainly is and they’ve never experienced this kind of treatment before.
* For instance…
“You go right to the heart and cut that off because you want to go after collective bargaining,” said [Sen. Kimberly Lightford] following a tense exchange in which [Richard] Goldberg, Rauner’s aide, at one point tried to speak over her in an attempt to rebut her argument.
Goldberg received a scolding from Sen. Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat who chairs the committee.
“When a senator is speaking to you, I would strongly counsel you to close your mouth and open your ears and then you’ll have a chance to respond,” Harmon said.
* And if something doesn’t change really soon, this state is careening toward DC-style gridlock…
The budget battle between GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner and Springfield Democrats is producing lots of collateral damage, as the two sides hold up action on unrelated bills to send a message in the larger dispute.
For instance, a bill to tweak the state’s telecommunications law had appeared on the path toward passage early yesterday despite opposition from the Citizens Utility Board and Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
The measure would block AT&T’s request to cut back on its number of land lines. But it would allow the company and other providers to begin imposing a means test for those who receive certain low-price phone packages via a grandfather clause in state law. It also would allow the city of Chicago to continue to impose a $3.90 tax on monthly phone bills to pay for 911 service, and would centralize 911 regulation outside Chicago into a new state agency.
But according to House Speaker Michael Madigan’s office, Rauner no longer is promising to sign the bill, risking passage prospects. A rather snippy Team Rauner isn’t denying that.
* Tribune…
As Democrats who control the General Assembly make a big political show of rejecting portions of his “Turnaround Illinois” agenda day after day, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has all but disappeared from the public eye.
He occasionally surfaces outside his suite of key-coded, second-floor statehouse offices to pose for pictures with high school students, or to make a quick pitch to supporters of elements of his agenda. He’s visited Republican lawmakers in closed-door sessions at the Capitol to offer pep talks to try to keep them unified, and even had the House GOP caucus to the executive mansion on Wednesday night for a chat over beers. […]
Privately, rank-and-file Republican lawmakers say the hideaway strategy is simple: one, the rookie governor wants to avoid muddling his message. Two, the governor is preparing to use an ample campaign war chest with an assist from his allies to air a fusillade of TV attack ads this summer aimed at swaying public opinion to pressure Democrats to give him what he wants.
And so as Sunday’s deadline approaches, Republicans say Rauner already is looking ahead to overtime, rather than attempting to broker a broad-based deal to end the session on time.
I have a different view about his public silence, as subscribers are aware. But I don’t necessarily disagree with the Trib’s take.
* Related…
* Rick Pearson in Springfield: “We are heading to a showdown like we’ve never seen.”
* Standoff brewing over Illinois budget, reforms
* Senate refuses Rauner on lawsuits, property taxes: “So you think the key to turning around Illinois is to pay teachers less?” Sen. Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) asked Rauner administration officials.
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The Speaker giveth…
Friday, May 29, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* You can bet all nine of the governor’s houses (and the Senate) that this thing is gonna be vetoed with relish…
The state’s largest public employee union is pushing a bill that would prevent state workers from striking or being locked out in the event talks on a new labor contract stall.
Instead, the labor dispute would be handed over to an arbitrator to resolve through binding arbitration.
The House Labor and Commerce Committee approved Senate Bill 1229 on Thursday night on a partisan vote. […]
“That will prevent any unilateral and dictatorial imposition of any harsh and unreasonable changes in employment, changes that would likely force a work stoppage, thereby causing massive disruption of state services,” [Mike Newman, deputy director for Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees] said. […]
Newman, though, said it was “highly unlikely” the two sides would reach an agreement by the end of June “given the extreme nature of the proposals that we’ve been looking at.”
The proposal is sponsored by Rep. Mike Smiddy, who was elected three years ago without much backing from Speaker Madigan, but with tons of support from AFSCME.
* But check out this passage from Speaker Madigan’s proposal to separate the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum away from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency...
Staff hired [by the new ALPLM entity] on or after the effective date of this Act shall not be subject to the Personnel Code or any applicable collective bargaining agreement.
Um, wow. That could’ve been written by Rauner himself.
AFSCME says they’re aware of the problem and are working on it.
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Consequences of failure
Friday, May 29, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Bloomberg looks at how the Statehouse impasse is impacting state bonds…
Yields on the state’s 10-year obligations reached a 16-month high of 4.17 percent last week, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The spread was about 1.8 percentage points above benchmark debt, the widest since December 2013.
Debt from Illinois has lost about 1.3 percent this year, while the entire municipal market is about flat, Barclays Plc data show. […]
“I don’t see how this credit does not get downgraded within the next two months,” said Paul Mansour, head of municipal research in Hartford, Connecticut at Conning, which oversees $11 billion in munis for insurance companies.
Trading in Illinois bonds suggests the municipal market is moving in that direction. Federally tax-exempt general obligations maturing in March 2032 traded Thursday for an average yield of about 4.9 percent. In comparison, a Bank of America Merrill Lynch index of BBB general obligations due in about 17 years has an effective yield of 4.85 percent.
* Meanwhile, in Chicago…
In a measure of how serious Chicago’s financial woes have become, the city will pay unusually high interest rates on a $674 million borrowing deal reached Wednesday — the first since a major debt rating agency lowered Chicago’s creditworthiness to junk status this month.
A Tribune analysis estimated Chicago is paying at least $70 million more to borrow the money than if the city were rated at the higher level it was just 15 months ago.
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*** UPDATE 1 *** From the LA Times….
Indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was paying an individual from his past to conceal sexual misconduct, two federal law enforcement officials said Friday.
One of the officials, who would not speak publicly about the federal charges in Chicago, said “Individual A,” as the person is described in Thursday’s federal indictment, was a man and that the alleged misconduct was unrelated to Hastert’s tenure in Congress. The actions date to Hastert’s time as a Yorkville, Ill., high school wrestling coach and teacher, the official said.
“It goes back a long way, back to then,” the source said. “It has nothing to do with public corruption or a corruption scandal. Or to his time in office.” Thursday’s indictment described the misconduct “against Individual A” as having “occurred years earlier.”
Asked why Hastert was making the payments, the official said it was to conceal Hastert’s past relationship with the male. “It was sex,’’ the source said. The other official confirmed that the misconduct involved sexual abuse.
Ugh.
*** UPDATE 2 *** New York Times…
J. Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, was paying a man to not say publicly that Mr. Hastert had sexually abused him decades ago, according to two people briefed on the evidence uncovered in an F.B.I. investigation into the payments. […]
The man – who was not identified in court papers — told the F.B.I. that he had been inappropriately touched by Mr. Hastert when Mr. Hastert was a high school teacher and wrestling coach, the two people said on Friday. The people briefed on the investigation spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a federal investigation.
[ *** End Of Updates *** ]
* Riopell takes a look at some unanswered questions about the federal Denny Hastert indictment…
Who is “Individual A?”
The indictment accuses Hastert of agreeing to pay an unnamed person, “Individual A,” $3.5 million in order to cover up some kind of “misconduct” on Hastert’s part. The document says Individual A is a longtime Yorkville resident who has known Hastert most of his life.
What is the “misconduct?”
The indictment is silent on this point. It doesn’t describe what federal authorities say Hastert was trying to cover up.
When did it happen?
The accusations also don’t describe this. Given the long time “Individual A” is said to have known Hastert, the “misconduct” described could predate his career in politics. Hastert was the longest-serving Republican speaker and spent 20 years as a member of Congress. Before that, he served at the Illinois Capitol. The indictment noted that before entering state and federal politics in 1981, Hastert served for more than a decade as a government and history teacher and wrestling and football coach at Yorkville High School.
* Politico…
Hastert’s case was assigned Thursday to U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Durkin, an appointee of President Barack Obama. The former speaker was apparently not arrested. A statement from the U.S. attorney’s office said he would be arraigned at a later date.
* More on Durkin…
Judge Thomas Durkin is the brother of House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs, the GOP’s leader in the Illinois House. Jim Durkin is in the middle of a budget fight in Springfield against Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Judge Thomas Durkin was confirmed to the federal bench in 2012 and used to be a partner in the law firm Mayer Brown.
Hastert’s son, Ethan Hastert, is an attorney at Mayer Brown.
Leader Durkin, by the way, was not pleased with the lack of support shown for his US Senate campaign by Speaker Hastert.
* Tribune…
On Thursday, there were signs that Hastert’s world has been turned upside down. A spokesman for the CME Group confirmed that Hastert had resigned from the board of directors of the Chicago-based futures market operator. Hastert also resigned his position as co-leader of Dickstein Shapiro’s Public Policy and Political Law practice, a spokesman for the lobbying firm confirmed late Thursday.
It also emerged that the Illinois House put on hold a proposal to spend $500,000 to put a statue in the state Capitol honoring Hastert. He declined the offer about a month ago, a spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan said.
* About a month ago, eh? Hmm…
Rumors that Hastert had serious legal problems were bouncing around the Capitol in recent weeks. In an interview with POLITICO last week, Hastert, the longest-serving Republican House speaker in U.S. history, denied that he had problems with the IRS and denied that he was about to be indicted.
“I read what you heard, but that’s not correct,” Hastert told POLITICO when asked about problems with the IRS. “I’m not going to talk to you.”
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.,talks to reporters in his office on Wednesday, May 14, 2014, in Columbia, S.C. Clyburn said South Carolina can’t improve if it continues to elect Republicans. Clyburn is South Carolina’s only Democratic congressman. (AP Photo).
When a POLITICO reporter told Hastert in a phone interview that he was about to be indicted, he said, “Well, it’s not true.”
“I’m not speaking to you right now, thanks,” Hastert said, before hanging up.
* The Tribune’s editorial is headlined “Denny Hastert’s dark secret”…
On paper, he’s accused of moving money around illegally and fibbing to the feds about it. Between the lines, prosecutors suggest he has harbored a dark secret.
* Mark Brown…
There’s no small irony in the fact that Hastert survived a career in Illinois and Washington politics with his reputation relatively unscathed only to have it crash down upon him in retirement for something that may predate his first run for the Illinois Legislature.
An individual of modest means when he first became speaker, Hastert is now wealthy enough as a lobbyist paid to influence the government of which he was a part that he could allegedly pay out $1.7 million over a four-year period to help clear his conscience.
It must have been something pretty bad.
* And I don’t know if it means anything at all, but watch the video. It is super creepy…
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The attacks continue
Friday, May 29, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I received two anti-Madigan and one anti-Democrat press releases from the governor’s shop today. Here’s the first…
The Southern: Rauner Matures, Madigan Pouts
Below is an excerpt from an editorial in The Southern:
“Being surrounded by so many children must be frustrating for Gov. Bruce Rauner. And the neonates are tasked with funding the state.
The General Assembly, particularly the House, has devolved over the past two weeks into preschool recess. And Speaker Mike Madigan is an accomplished playground bully. It’s an unacceptable state of affairs as the May 31 budget deadline looms.
Rauner, for his part, has repeatedly shown an interest in compromise. The Republican governor and Legislature’s Democratic leadership have been at odds since Rauner stepped into the governor’s mansion. But, in recent days, it’s been the political neophyte Rauner who’s been acting his age…
he’s shown a sudden willingness to sit, in good faith, at the negotiating table. All he requires is a victory or two. It’s called compromise and it’s how the system works. And it’s not like he created this mess in the first place.
* Second…
ICYMI: Speaker Madigan’s Interview with ABC 7 Chicago
In an apparent effort to remove any doubt that Speaker Madigan and the legislators he controls are insistent on rejecting any compromise reforms and are only interested in raising taxes, the Speaker sat down for an exclusive interview with ABC Chicago.
Story Excerpt:
The capitol’s most powerful Democrat commandeered the budget process from Rauner this week. He announced that he and Cullerton will write a spending plan that’s $3 billion short of money needed to pay for it.
“We’re not hiding anything. We’re not being deceitful,” Madigan said. “The governor has his own spending plan. Both plans don’t have enough money to be paid for. We need more money to pay for the state’s spending plan.”
But the governor says no tax increases unless he gets pro-business reforms that Republicans say will rescue the state’s sagging economy.
“This Governor was elected by the people to address some of these structural problems we have. I think he’s holding firm and I support that,” said Rep. Ron Sandack, R-Downers Grove.
“Charles, those are non-budget issues, non-budget issues,” Madigan said.
To watch the interview, click the link: http://abc7chicago.com/politics/madigan-says-hes-on-track-to-pass-spending-plan-/746737/
* Number three…
ICYMI: Democrats reject 3 parts of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s ‘Turnaround Agenda’
An excerpt from GateHouse Media:
Illinois Senate Democrats have rejected three components of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “turnaround agenda,” which the Republican has said needs to be adopted before he will discuss tax hikes to balance the state budget.
Democrats on Senate committees on Thursday voted down the administration’s proposed reforms of civil liability lawsuits and a property tax freeze that was coupled with allowing local governments to restrict what they collectively bargain with employees and not pay the prevailing wage on projects.
A Senate committee on Wednesday voted down the Rauner administration’s proposed changes to workers’ compensation.
At a morning hearing on the lawsuit reforms, Rich Goldberg, Rauner’s deputy chief of staff for legislative affairs, said the governor had compromised on his reform agenda to produce the bills being considered in Senate committees.
“Sometimes no compromise is good enough for those who stand in the way of reform,” Goldberg said. “Taxpayers are fed up with pouring their hard-earned money into a system that is broken.”
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