An Illinois legislative body is being told today that the State’s civil asset forfeiture laws are unfair, inconsistent and chaotic. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois today is calling on the legislature to work with urgency to rewrite these laws in order to ensure that Illinois residents whose property is seized by police cannot be permanently deprived of that property without clear proof that they were involved in criminal activity. The legislators will be told that Illinois recently received a failing grade for the fairness and transparency of its civil asset forfeiture laws.
“Our state’s laws in this area currently are grossly unfair,” according to Ben Ruddell, criminal justice policy attorney for the ACLU of Illinois. “As preposterous as it seems, you can lose your property – including your car, cash, or even your home – without ever being arrested or charged with a crime.”
“The system is bent to favor police and prosecutors who can use the laws as a profit center.”
The hearing on this issue is being held jointly by the Judiciary Civil and Criminal Committees of the Illinois House of Representatives. The hearing is set to begin at 4:00 p.m. in 114 Capitol. Among the witnesses will be two prominent Illinois defense attorneys who have dealt extensively with Illinois forfeiture law, as well as Lee McGrath from the Institute for Justice. That national organization, in a recent report evaluating states’ asset forfeiture laws, gave Illinois laws a grade of “D-“for fairness and transparency.
The Committee also will hear from Judy Wiese, a grandmother from the Quad Cities. She learned about the forfeiture laws the hard way when her car was seized after she lent it to her grandson, who turned out to be driving on a suspended license. No attorney was provided to assist Ms. Wiese to assist in getting her vehicle returned. Many people who face a similar situation must post a bond for 10% of the value of the car just to begin the process. It took five months without transportation, the intervention of the local media, and the kindness of strangers for Ms. Wiese to regain possession of her vehicle.
Residents of Illinois forfeit more than $20 million in property each year. The amount was more than $27 million in 2013. This amount does not account for seizures in Illinois by the federal government. The law provides that almost all of the money and property forfeited from Illinoisans goes directly to the law enforcement agency that seized the property. Many critics of forfeiture laws argue that such a system induces law enforcement to seize more property as a revenue generating opportunity.
“Police and prosecutors should not benefit from taking property away from persons when it is not justified,” added Ruddell. “It creates an incentive to engage in aggressive seizures that only hurt more people.”
* Back in the day, the Illinois Gaming Board ruled against putting a casino in Rosemont because they were worried about alleged mob ties. Instead, they put the casino next door in Des Plaines.
And for years, the Chicago Tribune editorial board was completely enamored with former Illinois Gaming Board Chairman Aaron Jaffe and his staff. In one of several laudatory pieces they did on him, they were all cheered for their “stellar record of insulating the Illinois gambling industry.” Another representative Trib editorial quoted Arthur Bilek, executive vice president of the Chicago Crime Commission, as saying…
“What’s safeguarding Illinois now is the integrity of Judge Aaron Jaffe and Mark Ostrowski,” the Gaming Board’s chairman and top administrator.
Rivers Casino has paid one of the largest gaming-related fines in modern times – $1.65 million – following an Illinois Gaming Board investigation spurred in part by questions over a security and maintenance contractor’s ties to reputed mob figures.
Last year, the Better Government Association discovered that Rivers – Illinois’ newest and most lucrative casino – hired United Service Cos. for security and cleaning work at the Des Plaines gaming site.
The BGA asked Rivers officials last May about United’s hiring because Illinois casinos are not supposed to have even a hint of organized crime connections – something that helped sink Rosemont’s years-long push to score a gaming license.
* If you look at the Gaming Board’s report, you’ll see that Simon’s cleaning firm did work for the casino for a year (2011-2012) without any vendor authorization. Simon’s firm was “lacking a documented bidding process and a formal contract” in 2012. In 2013, “no formal contract” was entered into between the casino and Simon’s company for cleaning work. In late 2014, the casino hired Simon’s company to do cleaning work “without an RFP, without soliciting bids and without entering into a contract,” according to the investigation.
Finally, in late 2014, the casino signed a contract with Simon’s company, but backdated it to July, 2011.
Last week, SEIU Healthcare Illinois began airing ads targeting Rauner and cuts to social services. Now the ads will be aimed at more than a dozen Republican House members, a union source tells Illinois Playbook: “The escalation will begin later this week and it will be statewide. More mail is coming. Cable TV spots. Digital. There will be a new child care TV spot coming, too.”
The ads took aim at the governor: “Governor Rauner is attacking those Illinoisans who care for our seniors and people with disabilities. Endangering our most vulnerable.” A caretaker then looks into the camera, saying: “I don’t know how he expects anybody to survive.”
* SEIU reached out about its new direct mail program today…
[Here’s the] first of several mailers. We have GOP targets that span the state. More than a dozen. Fewer than two dozen. They’ve been contacted individually, each asked to support fair contracts for our 53,000 home healthcare and child care workers, an end to the Rauner cuts and support for our our legislative package, which continues to advance in both chambers.
The Illinois House speaker has proposed a constitutional amendment to strengthen the state’s obligation to fund public education.
Chicago Democrat Michael Madigan introduced legislation Monday. It declares that education is a fundamental “right” — as opposed to “goal” — and that the state has the “preponderant financial responsibility” for funding schools.
If the House and Senate approve, the amendment would be on November’s ballot. Madigan spokesman Steve Brown says the Constitution is clear that the state should be the “primary” financial source, but that the language of the proposed amendment makes it abundantly clear.
Provides that a fundamental right (instead of goal) of the People of the State is the educational development of all persons to the limits of their capacities. Provides that it is the paramount duty of the State to provide for a thorough and efficient system of high quality public education institutions and services and to guarantee equality of educational opportunity as a fundamental right of each citizen (instead of requiring the State to provide for an efficient system of high quality public education institutions and services). Provides that the State has the preponderant financial responsibility (instead of the primary responsibility) for financing the system of public education. Effective upon being declared adopted
Subscribers have more background.
* The Question: Do you support this constitutional amendment? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Ed Izenstark inherited Huntington’s disease from his biological father, but he only found out after the fatal nerve disorder began to show itself and after months of frustrating and costly efforts to learn more about his origins.
The 30-year-old father of three from the Chicago suburb of Batavia was hospitalized last May with severe stomach pains, nausea and involuntary twitching that his doctors couldn’t explain. Suspecting it could be genetic, Izenstark sought more information about his background but had a hard time getting it from state adoption agencies. In February, he finally learned that his birth father had the disease. On Friday, his fears were confirmed that he did, too.
“(The information) should be available to anyone, if it’s yours. But it’s not yours. It’s the state’s and the state decides,” Izenstark said.
The Illinois House is considering a measure that would allow agencies to let people know the reasons they were put up for adoption and other information that wouldn’t identify their birth parents, including details of their medical histories. Its sponsor, Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, a Democrat from Chicago who was adopted herself, said the changes would be a real benefit to adult adoptees.
* Meanwhile, from a press release…
Calling attention to the growing staffing crisis affecting people with developmental disabilities and urging immediate action to address the problem by raising wages for Direct Support Professionals (DSPs), a wide-ranging coalition of disability advocacy groups will join key legislators at a press conference [today] in the Illinois State Capitol.
In Illinois, over 27,000 people with developmental disabilities live in apartments, group homes and other residential programs. DSPs in community agencies provide the foundation for community living. They ensure the health, safety and well-being of people with developmental disabilities by providing daily personal care, teaching life skills, and supporting people to be actively engaged and working in their community. But the state has not adjusted reimbursement rates for community agencies to raise DSP wages for eight years. […]
The coalition includes The Arc of Illinois, the Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, AFSCME Council 31, Don Moss & Associates, The Center for Developmental Disabilities Advocacy & Community Support, The Institute on Public Policy for People with Developmental Disabilities and McManus Consulting.
State Sen. Sam McCann is seeking to protect from government intrusion the longtime practice of “seed sharing.”
McCann, a Plainview Republican, is sponsoring a bill aimed at clarifying ambiguity in current state law that could require the exchanging and sharing of seed to be subject to commercial regulations such as testing and record-keeping.
“This is not a bill saying that anything has been done unfairly,” McCann said. “We’re saying that we’re trying to keep something from being interpreted unduly in the future.”
Illinois lawmakers are in no hurry to pass a state budget after 287 days, but they certainly are in a rush to be the second state in the nation to try to legislate bigotry regarding transgender teens. Those who fail to be effective leaders on the big picture items always seem to busy themselves micromanaging.
* Tax Illinois drivers by the mile?: A new proposal to pay for fixing Illinois’ roads could use devices to track how far Illinois drivers have traveled and tax them by the mile. The plan from Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat, is aimed at gasoline tax revenues that have fallen as drivers have bought more fuel-efficient cars.
* Editorial: School funding formula needs to change
* FiveThirtyEight ran the numbers on the recent drop in Chicago police activity and increase in crime…
Chicago police officers have said they are confused by public scrutiny in the wake of the [Laquan McDonald] video’s release and have pointed to new and burdensome paperwork as discouraging them from making street stops and engaging in other “proactive policing.” Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi acknowledged that officers might have been more uncertain since the release of the video but suggested that the majority of the change was due to the paperwork requirements. Late last month, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed a new interim police chief, Eddie Johnson, in the hopes of improving department morale. Johnson faces the prospect of the bloodiest year since at least 2003: Chicago is on pace for roughly 570 homicides and nearly 2,100 nonfatal shooting incidents, numbers that could be even higher if the violence increases with warmer weather.
After some cities saw a rise in crime last year, police chiefs and even the head of the FBI suggested that the United States was experiencing a “Ferguson effect”: Police officers sensitive to public scrutiny in the wake of protests over the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, were pulling back on police work, the theory went, and emboldened criminals were seizing their chance. The evidence for any such effect nationally was mixed — our colleague Carl Bialik analyzed crime data from 60 major cities in September and found an increase in homicides in some places, but a decrease in others. Chicago had seen a 20 percent increase in homicides from the year before, but, as Carl noted, crime statistics are volatile.
The spike in gun violence in Chicago since the end of November, though, is too sharp to be explained by seasonal fluctuations or chance. There have been 175 homicides and approximately 675 nonfatal shooting incidents1 from Dec. 1 through March 31, according to our analysis of city data.2 The 69 percent drop in the nonfatal shooting arrest rate and the 48 percent drop in the homicide arrest rate since the video’s release also cannot be explained by temperature or bad luck. Even though crime statistics can see a good amount of variation from year to year and from month to month, this spike in gun violence is statistically significant, and the falling arrest numbers suggest real changes in the process of policing in Chicago since the video’s release. […]
Guglielmi placed much of the blame for the decline in proactive policing on a new form that must be filled out after some interactions with members of the public, a result of the city’s August 2015 settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union over the department’s “stop and frisk” program. The form, called an investigatory stop report, is much longer than the contact cards it replaces and can take hours to complete after some encounters. Officers told the Chicago Sun-Times in January that an “ACLU effect” was driving a reduction in police activity. “The rules of the game changed on Jan. 1,” Guglielmi said.
Although the ISR may be playing a minor role in curbing proactive policing, it doesn’t appear to be the major reason behind the downward trend in arrests. The ISR was implemented on Jan. 1, 38 days after the release of the Laquan McDonald video. In that five-week span, the overall arrest rate fell from 26 percent to 19 percent. Since Jan. 1, the overall arrest rate has risen slightly. The onset of the decline in arrests significantly predates the ISR, and arrests have actually increased since it was introduced, though they are occurring less frequently than they did in 2015.
Ander noted that several less controversial crime prevention and intervention resources in Chicago have had their funding cut recently because of a state budget crisis in Illinois, perhaps contributing to violence in the most troubled neighborhoods.
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Last week, a group of leading climate scientists and conservationists from Illinois and around the world, including Dr. James Hansen, Rachel Pritzker, and Michael Shellenberger, urged Illinois’ leaders in an open letter to save Illinois’ nuclear plants so they can provide clean energy for decades to come. They wrote:
Illinois generates more zero-emissions electricity than any other state. Most of it comes from the state’s six nuclear power plants, which produce about half of Illinois’ total generation and 90 percent of its low-carbon generation. These plants are in their prime and could stay in service many more years and even decades.
Unfortunately, Illinois is at risk of losing one or more of its nuclear plants and with them the progress the state has made in clean energy.
If Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear plants were replaced by natural gas, carbon emissions would immediately increase the equivalent of adding two million cars to the road. If they were replaced by coal, the carbon emissions would more than double.
… Illinois is at an urgent juncture. Failure to keep all of Illinois’ nuclear power plants running for the full lifetimes will result in more air pollution, and further cause Illinois to underperform on climate. Action now would establish all of you as leaders in safeguarding clean air today and the climate for future generations.
When Marty Flaska moved his forklift-manufacturing business to Illinois 18 years ago, he didn’t think to look at the cost of operating in other states.
In 2014, out of curiosity, his son ran the numbers.
“I didn’t believe him,” said the elder Flaska. His son told him that a short drive east would save the business $2 million per year.
Thus began the journey of Hoist Liftruck to greener pastures in Indiana; a move that resulted from policy mistakes that have made the Land of Lincoln a laggard state when it comes to forging well-paying manufacturing jobs.
On March 31, Flaska cut the ribbon on a massive facility in East Chicago, Ind., the new home of Hoist. The Indiana factory will house nearly 300 manufacturing jobs transplanted from Bedford Park as well as 200 new jobs Flaska plans to create. The average salary for one of those positions is $55,000.
Bedford Park is just down the road from Speaker Madigan’s house.
Indiana is giving the company up to $8.25 million in tax credits as a reward for the hiring, and $200,000 for employee training. East Chicago, the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority and NIPSCO also are offering additional incentives.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Senate President Cullerton told reporters today that the meeting was called “to discuss the budget,” and that he didn’t believe attendees would be talking about Turnaround Agenda items.
Rich Miller, publisher of the Capitol Fax newsletter and associated blog, is guest speaker at a Citizens Club of Springfield reception on Thursday.
The event, marking the club’s 10-year anniversary, is from 5-7 p.m. at the Illinois Realtors, 522 S. Fifth St. The public is invited, and tickets can be purchased at the door for $25. […]
The club’s mission is to bring area residents impartial, bipartisan discussions about issues affecting the quality of life in the Springfield area.
This is my first speech since the City Club thing last December that’ll be open to the general public, so it should be fun.
* If you go to about the 27-minute mark of this BlueRoomStream.com video, you’ll hear Republican state Rep. Bob Pritchard tell a Chicago audience yesterday that he is open to some specific tax proposals.
“We’ve got to look realistically at some revenue situations,” Pritchard said while speaking on a panel convened by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
“Broadening the sales tax,” Rep. Pritchard said, “could be part of the solution… perhaps even bring the rate down a little bit.” He didn’t say it, but he was likely referring to a sales tax on services.
He also said legislators “should look again at some type of income tax,” and “some type of pension tax,” but said he also wanted some of Gov. Rauner’s business-related reforms, without specifying which ones he backed.
Later, he said he thinks “most legislators” are coming to realize that more revenues are needed. But he also said he wants to see workers’ comp and tort reforms, as well as some modest limits on the prevailing wage.
* Related…
* Illinois Lawmakers: Rank-And-File Legislators Key To Breaking Budget Impasse
To: Members of the General Assembly
From: Richard Goldberg, Deputy Chief of Staff
Date: April 12, 2016
Re: HA 1 to SB 2046 – Another Partisan Spending Bill Filled With Empty Promises
Last week, Governor Rauner called for bipartisan cooperation to solve our budget crisis. “Now is the opportunity to put partisan differences aside and work together on solutions for the people of Illinois,” he wrote in the State Journal-Register.
But rather than work together to find bipartisan solutions to fund higher education and human services, the majority stands ready to pass another phony budget that promises to spend money the state simply doesn’t have. According to GOMB Director Tim Nuding, “at this point, appropriation bills that are not tied to revenue, spending reductions or savings-generating reforms are nothing more than IOUs that drive our state deeper into debt and exacerbate the bill backlog.”
House Amendment 1 (HA1) to SB 2046 would appropriate $3.89 billion, including more than $3 billion in General Funds, without any way to pay for it. That’s not compromise or fiscal responsibility – that’s just another partisan spending bill filled with empty promises for students, universities, community colleges, social service providers and our most vulnerable citizens.
Over the past few weeks, Republicans have proposed ways to fund MAP grants, universities, community colleges, social services, veterans homes, public health grants and much more – all tied to savings-generating government reforms. These alternatives would accomplish the overarching goal of HA 1 to SB 2046 without making empty promises, adding to our debt or exacerbating the bill backlog.
Now is the time to negotiate in good faith, not push each other farther apart. Now is the time for bipartisan solutions, not another partisan spending bill filled with empty promises.
“This money is not just for me,” Romanik said, “it’s for anybody running against any candidate backed by the culture of corruption.” Romanik, on his radio show, often refers to the local Democrat party as a culture of corruption.
He’s previously said he would spend “at least” $325,000 on his own campaign, with the rest going to other candidates.
* The local Democrats have already sent out a mailer blasting him…
On the flip side is a photo of Republican state representative candidate from the 114th District Bob Romanik, wearing a red, white and blue “Uncle Sam” suit. Beside the photo of Romanik, a radio talk show host, is a tersely-worded message urging voters not to vote for Romanik or any of 10 county office Republican candidates he supports in the November election. The photo is below a headline that says “A buffoon.”
“In St. Clair County, (the) Republican Party is in danger. Bob Romanik — the foul-mouthed, bigoted, sleaze jock — has used his ill-gotten money to hijack the party and replace it with his Freedom Coalition,” the Democrat Party’s political flyer states. “It’s time for St. Clair County Republicans to take their party back by rejecting Bob Romanik and his followers.” […]
“I want to thank them for their desperate action,” Romanik said. “This will just mean more votes for us…This shows that the Democrats are just trying to manipulate people like they always have. They are vulgar people.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** For whatever reason, I didn’t notice the “interactive graphic” in the article. According to that document, Chicago Public Schools’ funding would drop by more than $74 million under the governor’s plan. Many thanks to a commenter for pointing that out.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From the governor’s office…
CPS would have lost almost $200m ($189m to be exact) under the Democratic proration method.
Rauner’s 100% funding plan saves CPS over $100 million.
*** UPDATE 3 *** More from the governor’s office…
CPS will receive $74 million less state aid because they have fewer students.
*** UPDATE 4 *** Press release…
State Senator Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) issued the following statement in response to the governor’s education funding plan.
“This information gives us the opportunity to thoroughly debate the merits of the governor’s plan. Each school district deserves to know how it would fare under it.”
“Unfortunately, what I’m seeing is that the additional money flowing into the formula would continue to be funneled away from schools with the greatest need.”
“Putting more money into education is a great idea, but our flawed funding formula means that districts that lack resources and have been hit hard by cuts, districts like Taylorville, East St. Louis, Harvey and Streator, will be hit once again. In these four districts alone, there’s over $1.3 million in combined cuts. It’s not fair to the students, teachers, parents or taxpayers. These numbers show why change is needed.”
“I’m looking forward to similar debates about the education funding reform plan currently before the Senate, and I’m very encouraged by the overwhelming majority of legislators and state leaders who agree that the current system is flawed and needs to be changed.”
“The funding formula he defends makes no sense. If you’re a wealthy district you gain, if you’re a poor district you lose,” Claypool said at a news conference Tuesday.
He likened Rauner’s plan to “more akin to what we would see in the education system in Mississippi in the 1960s” because it shortchanges districts full of children who are poor and black or brown.
Claypool would not say what effect the proposal could have on stalled contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union.
“It certainly makes our already grave fiscal crisis graver,” he said. “The threat to our schools in the coming school year is even more profound than yesterday.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner is releasing numbers Tuesday showing how individual school districts would do under his education funding plan as he continues to push lawmakers to approve it despite the ongoing state budget battle.
Rauner has called for adding $55 million to the state’s general school payments, eliminating a series of cuts from previous years known as proration. That’s in addition to $75 million more that would be spent for early childhood programs. […]
Among the biggest winners in Rauner’s general aid numbers: $5.9 million more for Carpentersville-based Community Unit District 300, about $3.6 million more for Elgin Area District U-46 and $2.2 million more for Aurora East District 131 in the next fiscal year.
A few others each would see more than a million dollars more, including districts in Antioch, Grayslake, Huntley, Wauconda and Waukegan.
Among the districts that would lose money next year under Rauner’s proposal: Indian Prairie District 204 would get about $973,000 less. Addison District 4 and North Chicago District 187 would each see a drop of more than $600,000.
Notice anything missing? The impact on Chicago and Downstate districts with high poverty levels. The Democrats have predicted those schools would fare poorly yet again with the Rauner plan. Stay tuned for those numbers.
The governor is speaking to business groups at 11:45 and then to the bankers at 12:30. We’ll have live coverage.
Cracks might be forming in Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s decades-long hold on House Democrats, as backbenchers continue to cook under the heat of the state’s incessant budget impasse.
Those fissures appeared suddenly Monday in Rock Island, as a pair of House Democrats championed legislation that would impose limits on how long a lawmaker can hold a legislative leadership post.
Provides that no person may serve more than 8 consecutive years in any of the following leadership roles: Speaker of the House of Representatives, President of the Senate, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, and Minority Leader of the Senate. Provides that the limitations imposed by the amendatory Act apply to service beginning on and after January 11, 2017.
According to the article, Democratic Reps. Pat Verschoore and Mike Smiddy now support that bill, although they haven’t yet signed on as co-sponsors.
“I think sometimes — I don’t think, I know — that the top guy can amass a lot of power,” Verschoore told business leaders at a Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce luncheon. […]
Rep. Mike Smiddy, D-Hillsdale, is fighting for his political life. Smiddy, like Madigan, is a vocal critic of Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda.” Yet he, too, joined those supporting the ouster of leadership every eight years, a direct assault on Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton.
“I agree, we need term limits for leadership,” Smiddy said. […]
But it was the candor of Verschoore and Smiddy that raised eyebrows. Madigan not only runs the House and determines a bill’s survival. He’s also head of the state Democratic Party, an organization Smiddy will rely on to beat back a tough challenge by Republican Savanna Mayor Tony McCombie for the District 71 seat. […]
Frustration with the Madigan/Rauner standoff has stewed for months. And distancing oneself from Madigan might behoove any non-Chicago Democrat looking to keep a job. But Verschoore has no reason to pander. And, now, Smiddy is on the record stating unequivocally that leadership should be regularly cleansed.
* The very simple explanation for Verschoore is that he’s still furious at Madigan for not backing his preferred replacement in the recent primary (his nephew Jeff Jacobs). Not to mention that Madigan’s not-so-secret support for the eventual primary winner, Mike Halpin, funded slams on Verschoore himself via negative direct mail and TV ads.
Madigan definitely has some trouble with Verschoore, but it’s not like the guy’s gonna walk over to Rauner. The man bleeds Democratic union blood.
And Smiddy is a Tier One target, so supporting this bill is kind of a no-brainer and isn’t nearly as consequential as saying he won’t vote for Madigan for Speaker come January. Smiddy also got himself elected without help from Madigan in 2012, so he has been more independent-minded, although he had to be bailed out in 2014.
* Madigan only “requires” two votes from his membership: Reelection as Speaker and the House rules. Other than that, they can do pretty much whatever they want, unless they’re a target and then they’re given constant “advice” on how their votes will impact the folks back home and, by extension, their own reelections.
The author of the above piece is the paper’s editorial page editor. And those folks throughout the state are almost uniformly anti-Madigan. I’m not saying there’s no grumbling about Madigan in the ranks. There most certainly is, and for good reason. I’m just saying here that an open revolt is unlikely at this moment, and it’s mainly because of who’s leading the opposition (which is pretty much always the case, but is especially true now).
