* Press release…
Today, Governor-elect JB Pritzker and Lieutenant Governor-elect Juliana Stratton announced the formation and members of the transition’s Powering Illinois’ Future Committee.
The committee is the sixth of several working groups of the transition made up of subject-matter experts who will advise and guide the incoming Pritzker-Stratton administration. The Powering Illinois’ Future Committee will be chaired by Illinois Environmental Council Executive Director Jennifer Walling, Exelon Utilities CEO Anne Pramaggiore, and IBEW Local 51 Business Manager John Johnson and consist of 30 members.
“Investing in infrastructure will be a top priority in our administration,” said Lieutenant Governor-elect Juliana Stratton. “We must identify opportunities to invest in a clean energy economy, and this committee will bring both advocacy and industry stakeholders together to put our state on a path toward mutually agreed upon projects that move us toward a clean energy economy.”
“IEC and our advocacy partners know our environment will be protected under the incoming Pritzker-Stratton administration, and we’re excited to work on this committee to make investing in clean water infrastructure and expanding energy efficiency efforts a top priority in Illinois,” said Illinois Environmental Council Executive Director Jennifer Walling.
“Under Governor-elect Pritzker’s vision, Illinois is poised to assume a leadership role in our country’s clean energy future. Making this transformation in our energy sector is critical to our economy and to quality of life in our state. I am enthusiastic about the ability of the diverse group of stakeholders convened by our new Governor to generate ideas that add real value to Illinois,” said Exelon Utilities CEO Anne Pramaggiore.
“This committee will be the first step in making sure the labor movement is an integral part of moving Illinois to a clean energy economy and reinforces JB and Juliana’s commitment to putting Springfield back on the side of working families,” said IBEW Local 51 Business Manager John Johnson.
POWERING ILLINOIS’ FUTURE COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Jennifer Walling co-chairs the transition’s Powering Illinois’ Future Committee and is the executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council. IEC represents over 80 environmental organizations on policy issues. Walling has been involved with the negotiation and passage of many major environmental initiatives including the Future Energy Jobs Act, Lead in Drinking Water Prevention Act, Illinois’ ban on microbeads in personal care products, funding for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, recreation liability protection for landowners, numerous bills on recycling and composting, and many other statewide policies.
Anne Pramaggiore co-chairs the transition’s Powering Illinois’ Future Committee and is the CEO of Exelon Utilities. In that role, she oversees and manages the six utilities that make up the portfolio of Exelon Utilities, including ComEd. Pramaggiore served as CEO of Commonwealth Edison for over six years and, during that time, oversaw the company’s smart grid modernization program as set forth under the 2011 Illinois Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act. This legislation and ComEd’s work has earned Illinois national recognition for having one of the most advanced power systems in the country (Gridwise Alliance Modernization Index) and has placed ComEd among the leaders in the industry for reliability (EEI Index). Also, she oversaw the company’s efforts under the 2016 Illinois’ Future Energy Jobs Act, which further modernizes the power system, creating a pathway for 3000 MW of solar power and some of the largest and most impactful energy efficiency programs in the country. She joined Commonwealth Edison in 1998 (from McDermott, Will and Emery) as a lawyer and worked on the company’s efforts to restructure the electric industry under Illinois’ Customer Choice Act. Pramaggiore also served as Commonwealth Edison COO and President from 2009 to 2012.
John Johnson co-chairs the transition’s Powering Illinois’ Future Committee and is the business manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 51. Johnson has worked in the Illinois energy field for over 42 years. He was first employed by Illinois Power at its Baldwin Power Station in downstate Randolph County. In 1994, he was appointed as a Business Representative for IBEW Local 51 later becoming the Assistant Business Manager. Johnson has represented nearly 3,500 Illinois workers primarily employed in the public utility industry in downstate Illinois. He has represented employees working for electric and gas utilities; nuclear, coal, and natural gas generating operators; rural electric cooperatives; contractors constructing electric distribution, electric transmission and renewable energy facilities; and telecommunication employers. While working for Local 51, he has participated in various legislative and regulatory efforts, most recently with the Future Energy Jobs Act. Johnson was appointed by organized labor to the Midwest Governors Greenhouse Gas Accord working group.
Steve Andersson, State Representative, Illinois General Assembly
Andrew Barbeau, President, The Accelerate Group
Dick Breckenridge, Illinois Regional Program Manager, BlueGreen Alliance
Jon Carson, CEO, Trajectory Energy Partners
Jim Connolly, Business Manager, LIUNA Chicago Laborers’ District Council
Jack Darin, Executive Director, Sierra Club Illinois Chapter
Naomi Davis, Founder, Blacks in Green
Joseph Dominguez, CEO, ComEd
Robyn Gabel, State Representative, Illinois General Assembly
Jacky Grimshaw, Vice President of Government Affairs, Center for Neighborhood Technology
Carol Hays, Executive Director, Prairie Rivers Network
Ronnie Huff, Union Representative, Union Mine Workers of America
Paul Kearns, Lab Director, US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory
Dave Koehler, State Senator, Illinois General Assembly
Howard Learner, President and Executive Director, Environmental Law and Policy Center
Richard Mark, CEO, Ameren Illinois
Iris Martinez, State Senator, General Assembly
Charles Matthews, CEO, Peoples Gas
Michael Polsky, Founder and CEO, Invenergy
Susan Satter, Public Utilities Counsel, Office of the Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan
Debra Shore, Commissioner, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago
Jim Sweeney, President-Business Manager, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150
Rick Tervin, Jr., Legislative and Political Director, Illinois Pipe Trades Association
Mary Vandevord, President and CEO, HeartLands Conservancy
Kim Wasserman-Nieto, Executive Director, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
Ann Williams, State Representative, Illinois General Assembly
Melvin Williams, President, Nicor Gas
That’s not a bad combination of business, labor, greens and legislators with experience getting things done. The people running this transition are impressing me. But transition committees are usually just window dressing. We’ll have to wait and see if the actual governing has this balanced approach.
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One place to look for capital plan cash
Monday, Nov 26, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Illinois News Network…
In 2013, the first year Illinois lawmakers allowed for video gaming, almost 8,000 machines did $121 million in business. Just five years later, almost 30,000 machines did $1.4 billion in business. That’s enough gambling machines to fill 24 full-sized casinos.
The report is here.
* That $1.4 billion is called Net Terminal Income. It’s the difference between what is bet and what is won. Of the NTI, 30 percent is taxed by the state, with one-sixth of the state’s take going to the municipalities.
The rest, close to $1 billion in this instance, is split equally between the video gaming establishments (bars, truck stops, etc.) and the video gaming terminal operators. Terminal operators own the machines, place them, service them, collect the money, etc. They have significant overhead, but I can’t imagine it’s anywhere near a half a billion dollars a year.
If we’re looking for capital plan money, then increasing the state’s tax rate on that pot of terminal operators gold might be worth looking at, along with increasing the rate on establishments that have more than a couple/tree locations. Leave the mom and pop neighborhood spots alone. Focus on the big chain establishments and the major terminal operators.
Then again, they’ll be the ones with the most lobbyists.
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HDems will have 74 seats, SDems will have 40
Monday, Nov 26, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Let this sink in: Next year, Sen. John Curran of Downers Grove will be the only Republican Senator who will reside in the former GOP bastion of DuPage County. Sen. Curran was appointed to the Senate last year when Sen. Christine Radogno retired. Pate Philip would be spinning in his grave if he was dead (thankfully, he’s not)…
For context, 1964 was the “bedsheet ballot” year, when the Democrats won two-thirds of all House seats. The old three-member district process limited parties to no more than two members per district, so each party slated 118 candidates for 177 seats and they all ran on one statewide ballot after a redistricting standoff during LBJ’s massive Democratic landslide.
The House Democrats will hold about 63 percent of all House seats come January.
* Some of the last legislative races that were decided…
* Related…
* ‘Blue tsunami’ should be wake-up call for Lake County GOP: In a clean sweep, Democrat candidates won the sheriff, treasurer and county clerk’s office. Democrats flipped five Lake County Board seats held by Republicans and now control the County Board for the first time in history.
* Democrat Hebreard edges Republican Cantore in tight race for DuPage County forest preserve president: Hebreard’s victory extended the blue wave that swept traditionally Republican DuPage this fall and that already had resulted in Democrats winning seven seats on the 18-member county board and capturing both the county clerk’s office and, for the first time, a circuit court judge’s seat. Democrats had held only one county board seat before the Nov. 6 election.
* FINAL TALLY: Democrat Tony Brown wins Macon County sheriff’s race by 1 vote
* Democrat Ellman unseats Republican Connelly in state Senate District 21: Connelly, an attorney from Lisle, has held the state Senate seat since 2012. He previously served in the state House, on the DuPage County Board and on the Lisle village board.
* Republican Morrison holds on for 37-vote victory over Democrat Trevor in 54th House district: It’s the closest race yet for Morrison, a fiscal and social conservative first elected in 2010 after defeating 12-year incumbent Suzanne Bassi in the 2010 GOP primary. He’s faced a Democratic challenger every two years except in 2016.
* Democrat Edly-Allen defeats Republican Miller Walsh in 51st House District: “From the bottom of my heart, I want to extend a sincere thank you to the thousands of voters who have chosen to place their trust in me, as well as the hundreds of dedicated volunteers who helped me get my message out to the community and stood by my side as we fought to ensure every vote was counted,” Edly-Allen said. “Across the county, state and country, this election demonstrated not only that every vote counts, but most importantly, that the divisive rhetoric advanced by extreme politicians like Donald Trump will not go unchallenged.”
* Rep. Batinick still ‘hopeful’ going into Democratic governorship - As one of the few surviving local Republicans, official ready to get back to work in Springfield
* Bernard Schoenburg: McClure says GOP should stress economic policy
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[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Illinois’ clean energy economy is here but there’s still more we can, and must, do.
In 2016, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition championed passage of the bipartisan Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA), the biggest clean energy breakthrough in the state’s history. From Carbondale to Peoria to Chicago and everywhere in between, FEJA is already building a new economy and reshaping Illinois’ energy landscape by reducing pollution, keeping energy bills affordable, and creating new jobs.
But there’s still more the General Assembly can do to make Illinois a leader in clean energy. That’s why earlier this year, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition launched “Listen. Lead. Share. A Conversation About Winning a Clean, Equitable Energy Future.”
Over the last 10 months, local residents, community leaders and businesses participated in 58 Listen. Lead. Share. events across Illinois to discuss how Illinois can:
• Put Illinois on a path to 100% renewable energy by 2050
• Achieve a carbon-free power sector by 2030
• Create sustainable and equitable job growth
• Reduce pollution from the transportation sector
The time to act is now, and together we must work exhaustively on economic policies that build on the success of FEJA, lift up all of Illinois, enact much-needed climate and health protections, and spur investment and job creation in the communities where they’re needed most.
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* Politico…
Cash is pouring into both sides of a car-sharing bill that’s being considered by the state House for override this week. The Senate already did. Enterprise has donated to the campaign funds of more than 30 state lawmakers, including a few who stood up recently to call for an override of the bill that would regulate online car-sharing startups. Companies that support the veto have also donated tens of thousands of dollars to lawmakers.
The bill would put more restrictions and regulation on companies like Turo, which operates similar to an Airbnb but for your car. Those companies say the bill stifles free enterprise. Turo also takes issue that it was never allowed a seat at the table—there were no public hearings on the issue. (In other states, the company has worked with legislators and rental car companies on the language of the bills.)
Supporters of the Illinois measure say it’s a matter of fairness, that people who rent out their cars should be taxed and regulated the way big rental-car companies are.
State Rep. Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville) and state Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Peru) and other lawmakers joined Enterprise VP Jeff Wilder for a press conference recently in Springfield, where they urged fellow lawmakers to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto. Enterprise also donated to their campaigns. Most of those donations ranged from $1,000 to $1,500. But state Sen. John Cullerton’s campaign was given $10,000, and so was the state Democratic Party. Companies on the other side, including lobbyists for Turo, have also donated money—even to Cullerton. Those firms are Freeborn & Peters, $75,000; All-Circo: $36,500; Leinenweber, Baroni & Daffada Consulting, $61,821; and Thomson Weir, $33,250.
* OK, whenever you see stories like this (and I’m not trying to single this one out because these pieces are very common), you should ask yourself two questions: 1) How many other clients do these lobbying firms have? 2) How far back do these contributions go?
Freeborn & Peters lists 16 Statehouse clients, including several with veto session issues. So, the contributions are not focused on one issue. It’s contributed $77,650 to lots of campaigns and committees (including the Lake County Republican Federation) since March 27 of 2017. That’s way before this car-sharing thing popped up late last spring. It’s contributed about $38K since this past March. Not much.
All-Circo has close to 40 clients and the contributions noted above date back to March 30th of last year. Again, long before this stuff started. It’s contributed about $27K since March, but most of that money went to political committees unrelated to the state legislature.
Etc.
* As far as Enterprise goes, it has contributed $71,200 to 37 legislative campaign committees (counting the $6K to Sen. Kwame Raoul since he’ll be around for veto session) since March, for an average contribution of about $1,900.
Bottom line: I don’t think this thing has proved to be a contribution gusher.
* In other news…
The Senate overturned Rauner’s veto Nov. 14 and the House is supposed to follow suit this week.
Meanwhile, Republican state Rep. David Welter of Morris just floated a bill offering a variety of compromises, which could be a game-changer.
I reached out to a Turo spokesperson to see if he knew about Rep. Welter’s “compromise” bill and he sent me a summary. Click here to read it.
Proponents of the original bill are calling this proposal a last-minute attempt by Turo to derail the override vote in the House. The bill received 78 votes in May, so the Turo folks have their work cut out for them and, at the moment, the Welter bill doesn’t look much like a “game-changer.” It will only be viable if the company can pull 8 votes off the bill and force a compromise. We’ll see.
* Moving right along…
“The tax implications are very tough and would drive Turo out of the market,” said Republican state Rep. Allen Skillicorn, who rents out his Prius with the HyreCar app.
Because Skillicorn rents out his Prius and has a conflict of interest, he voted “Present” in May.
Wait… Skillicorn owns a Prius?
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* Sen. Sam McCann sued when the Senate Republicans stripped him of all services provided to caucus members after he filed to run as a third-party candidate for governor. The 7th US Appellate Circuit has bad news for McCann today…
This case takes us deep into the internal workings of the Illinois State Senate. After Senate Minority Leader William E. Brady (a Republican) decided to oust William (“Sam”) McCann from the Illinois Senate Republican Caucus and thereby to deny certain resources to McCann, McCann and one of his constituents, Bruce Mcdaniel, sued Brady under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for alleged deprivations of their rights under the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the federal Constitution. Brady responded with a motion to dismiss on the basis of legislative immunity. The district court agreed that this doctrine blocks all of McCann and Mcdaniels’s theories and dismissed the case. We affirm. […]
The question here is whether Minority Leader Brady’s decisions about who is included within the Minority or Republican Caucus, and how to allocate resources to those people, are protected by the privilege. We conclude that they are. Simply to list the resources is to show how intimately they are tied to the legislative process. Recalling from Gravel that aides are protected by the privilege, we conclude that the minority staff analyses of bills are a valuable input into the legislative process. As Minority Leader, Senator Brady was attempting to use his party’s resources as effectively as possible in furthering the party’s legislative agenda. Setting legislative priorities for the minority party, including when to schedule bills, how to ensure that senators are ready to vote on them, is also quintessentially legislative activity. Drafting assistance is likewise legislative. […]
Extra help in the form of staff resources is part of the leader’s toolkit for managing his troops. We see no objective standard that we could use to second-guess the leadership’s judgment about how and to whom those resources should be distributed. […]
Imagining what would happen if we were to adopt McCann’s position demonstrates why legislative immunity must apply here. McCann would have the federal courts micro-manage exactly which resources, and in what amount, the legislative leaders of the two major political parties dole out to their members. This is emphatically not our job.
Agreed.
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* The Transportation Research Board, a division of the National Research Council, found that Chicago drivers spent an additional 45,000 hours on the road because of this change by the IEPA…
About two years ago, state environmental regulators announced a controversial move to close the last two vehicle emissions testing facilities in Chicago, along with two other testing sites in the suburbs.
Officials with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency said the closures stemmed from a new seven-year contract with the Chicago-based company Applus Technologies to conduct vehicle emission tests for the state starting in November 2016. The agreement, officials said, would save the state agency $100 million over the course of the contract, reducing the cost of each emissions test from $6.95 to $2.85.
But a new analysis shows that the move came at a cost to hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans, with the biggest impact on low-income and minority drivers. The decision also had a negative impact on area roadways and the environment.
City vehicle owners traveled an estimated additional 1.9 million miles over the past two years as a result of the two Chicago testing sites closing, according to a recently published study. The additional travel amounts to an increase of nearly 768,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions. Put another way, those extra 1.9 million miles produced the same amount of carbon dioxide emissions as that produced by the electricity used in 115 homes in a single year, according to the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.
The study is based on state emissions testing data from 2014-15 for more than 380,000 vehicles tested at the two now-closed Chicago facilities. Illinois EPA did not provide researchers with data for the Tinley Park and Elk Grove Village testing sites that closed in 2016.
The study is here.
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* The BGA’s fact checker strikes again…
While defending her criminal justice record, Mendoza said she was “the deciding vote on abolishing the death penalty in the state of Illinois.”
Before making that claim, she accurately described her change of heart on the issue that led her to support the 2011 abolition measure after long backing capital punishment.
And Mendoza is technically correct that the measure would have sunk had she voted the other way. By that standard, however, any one of the 59 other House members who supported the bill on final passage could make the same claim.
Even with Mendoza’s support, the measure came up short on an initial vote. When the sponsor opted for a re-do later that day, a different lawmaker who’d opposed it on the first try switched his vote, securing its passage. In the end, it clearly didn’t come down to Mendoza.
We rate her claim Mostly False.
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* Tribune…
Rising temperatures in the Midwest are projected to be the largest contributing factor to declines in U.S. agricultural productivity, with extreme heat wilting crops and posing a threat to livestock, according to a sweeping federal report on climate change released Friday.
Midwest farmers will be increasingly challenged by warmer, wetter and more humid conditions from climate change, which also will lead to greater incidence of crop disease and more pests and will diminish the quality of stored grain. During the growing season, temperatures are projected to climb more in the Midwest than in any other region of the U.S., the report says.
Without technological advances in agriculture, the onslaught of high-rainfall events and higher temperatures could reduce the Midwest agricultural economy to levels last seen during the economic downturn for farmers in the 1980s.
Overall, yields from major U.S crops are expected to fall, the reports says. To adapt to the rising temperatures, substantial investments will be required, which will in turn will hurt farmers’ bottom lines.
These are some of the findings of the report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The 1,600-page report — vetted by 13 government agencies and written collectively with the help of 300 scientists — is perhaps the most authoritative and comprehensive statement on the risks of climate change, which has contributed to extreme weather that has cost the U.S. nearly $400 billion since 2015, the authors found.
According to the report, the threat to Midwestern agriculture is just one potential blow to the region.
The report is here.
* ABC…
The report concluded that rising temperatures, rising sea levels, and changes in extreme events are expected to “increasingly disrupt” and “critically damage” infrastructure and labor productivity, affecting import and export prices.
Extreme climate disasters could hinder factory production in both the United States and abroad, resulting in price increases in products and crops. According to the report, American businesses rely so heavily on production and supply chains overseas that there wouldn’t be an industry that goes unaffected.
The Midwest region is expected to be hit the hardest, with higher temperatures, drought and flooding contributing to a decline in soybeans and corn — two of the Midwest’s main commodities, the report said. As a result, the region could potentially produce less than 75 percent of the corn it currently produces, and lose more than 25 percent of its soybean yield.
* Inside Climate News…
Climate change will hit the Corn Belt particularly hard. Under a high-emissions scenario, the Midwest will see greater increases in warm-season temperatures than anywhere else in the country, with the frost-free season projected to increase by an average of 10 days from 2016 to 2045.
A rise in temperatures in the Midwest is “projected to be the largest contributing factor to declines in the productivity of U.S. agriculture,” the report says. Agricultural productivity could drop to 1980s levels by 2050, the report said, essentially wiping out gains made in recent decades from improved technologies.
* CNN…
There will be more mosquito- and tickborne diseases like Zika, dengue and chikungunya. West Nile cases are expected to more than double by 2050 due to increasing temperatures. […]
Energy systems will be taxed, meaning more blackouts and power failures, and the potential loss in some sectors could reach hundreds of billions of dollars per year by the end of the century, the report said.
The number of days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit will multiply; Chicago, where these days are rare, could start to resemble Phoenix or Las Vegas, with up to two months worth of these scorching-hot days.
Currently, Chicago sees just one 100-degree day every 4.5 summers.
* And before you comment, read this from NASA…
The difference between weather and climate is a measure of time. Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere “behaves” over relatively long periods of time.
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A tragic failure
Monday, Nov 26, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Charlie Wheeler…
Like an actor in a Greek drama or a Shakespearean character, Gov. Bruce Rauner will leave office as a tragic figure, felled by his overriding hubris — excessive pride or self-confidence, arrogance — that led to his political downfall.
The private equity investor never seemed to grasp — or was not willing to accept — that he no longer was someone who could say “Jump” and his minions would respond “How high?”
Instead, he was now the head of most of one of three co-equal branches of Illinois government, and thus needed to work cooperatively with the other two branches, especially his legislative peers, Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan. A savvier politician — for that matter, anyone who knows how a bill becomes a law — would have realized that any legislative initiative would need the help of the Democratic majority to become law. Nor can a governor enact a budget by executive order.
Similarly, plain common sense would suggest that finding common ground with negotiating partners probably wouldn’t be made easier by repeatedly calling them “corrupt,” as he referred to Madigan almost nonstop for the past five years or more, in increasingly harsh terms as election day neared. At least he was an equal opportunity insulter — Illinois Supreme Court justices also are part of a “corrupt system,” he told a newspaper editorial board a few months after taking office.
But one suspects Rauner may not have been seeking compromises, but rather intended to impose his will on lawmakers, especially with respect to his overarching goal- - hamstringing public employee unions, notably the detested “Af-scammy,” as he derisively referred to AFSCME, the state’s largest.
He imposed his will on the General Assembly with help from enablers like the Chicago Tribune editorial board until the GA finally had enough and then imposed its will on him. And the tragedy isn’t about what happened to the governor and his political career. The tragedy is what happened to this state in the process of Rauner’s long downfall.
Anyway, go read the whole thing.
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College costs up, graduations down
Monday, Nov 26, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* More on the hollowing out of Illinois from Illinois Public Radio…
College in Illinois is becoming more expensive on average, and fewer students are graduating from the state’s large public universities. That’s according to a decade’s-worth of federal education data. […]
The strain, as the data shows, has mostly fallen on Illinois’ public universities. Schools such as Northern, Southern and Western Illinois universities were among the hardest hit when the state legislature failed to pass a budget for nearly three years.
[Peter D’Amato of education news outlet The Hechinger Report] says Illinois’ budget woes and under-funding of higher education for years have led to enrollment dips and price hikes at some of Illinois’ largest public universities. Since the 2009-2010 school year, those price hikes have amounted to double-digit percentage increases across student income brackets in some cases. At times, prices have climbed higher than the rate of inflation.
“If states are cutting or not fully funding need-based programs and other grant programs,” D’Amato explained, “they’re gonna see the net prices go up or stay flat for some of these students in specific income brackets.”
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The hollowing out of state government
Monday, Nov 26, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sometimes it’s deliberate. One Illinois…
Amid charges of deep staff cuts at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, it has referred far fewer cases to the Office of the Attorney General for enforcement under Gov. Bruce Rauner.
According to data provided by Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office, the IEPA averaged 143 case referrals a year seeking enforcement of environmental laws in the second term of Rauner’s predecessor, Gov. Pat Quinn, but has averaged just 80 a year since Rauner took office in 2015.
In fact, IEPA typically referred between 200 and 300 cases a year to the state attorney general under Gov. George Ryan and in the first years of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s first term. That fell below 200 under Blogojevich and his successor, Quinn. But under Rauner case referrals have dropped below 100 each year. Through September of this year, the IEPA had referred just 59 cases to the attorney general for enforcement. […]
With the state in longterm financial distress, the IEPA has been one of the government agencies that have suffered most. According to a story earlier this year from the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, staff has been cut in half over the last 15 years, from 1,260 down to 635 last year, and 190 full-time staffers have been cut under Rauner. According to that story, the agency is budgeted for 768 positions, but remains “significantly understaffed.”
* Sometimes, government makes it tough on providers. Chalkbeat…
At the end of three hours of briefings Monday on advancing care for Illinois’ tiniest residents, an on-the-ground provider’s 3-minute plea shook awake a gathering of the state’s top early childhood leaders and reminded them why they were there.
“We are in a crisis and unable to get help,” said Carla Holtz, who in seven years has cycled through 147 staff members at her two day care centers in south central Effingham.
Turnover in that time among her 35 employees has been enough to staff the two centers more than four times over.
Speaking to the early learning council that directs how the state funds services for children from birth to age 5, Holtz said half of those departing sought better-paying jobs in other fields. Others headed to public school districts that pay better. Some she let go.
“Down here in the trenches, those of us who are cleaning the poop and plunging the toilets — we’re the ones who are not making it,” said Holtz, ticking off how well-intentioned Illinois directives make it tough to run a childcare business. She listed state policies like raising degree requirements for jobs that pay $8.50 to $10.25 an hour in her area, an endless stream of “health and safety” trainings, and lead and radon tests that cost her $1,000 apiece.
In a meeting that focused mainly on future ambitions, Holtz redirected attention to a present hazard: a critical shortage of qualified staffers to work in infant centers, daycare programs, and community-based preschools.
The issue threatens to undercut any sort of universal pre-K program, which governor-elect J.B. Pritzker pledged to pursue as a candidate.
* And sometimes it’s just disgustingly short-sighted. Tribune editorial…
Imagine you get robbed at gunpoint by someone you recognize. You go to the police, report the crime and provide the name of the criminal. And the officer says, “Please come back in 285 days, and we’ll arrest him.”
It would be crazy. But it wouldn’t be much different from what happens to rape victims who undergo forensic exams that provide DNA evidence from their rapists.
The rape kits are an invaluable tool in identifying attackers and bringing them to justice. But in Illinois, the average time it takes to process DNA evidence in crimes is 285 days — more than nine months. That’s 285 days that a particular rapist is free to savage more women; 285 days before the police can even start looking for him. If that doesn’t sound like a lot, start counting to 285 and see if you finish.
A crime-solving instrument is useful if it’s actually used. And in the case of rape kits, no one is using them for months after they become available. The delays are a callous affront to the women who have submitted to lengthy, intrusive forensic exams in the aftermath of their attacks — and a favor to their attackers.
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Blizzard slams northern Illinois
Monday, Nov 26, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Blizzard warnings were canceled in the Chicago area Monday morning after one of the largest November storms on record dumped as much as 13 inches of snow, jamming the morning commute, canceling more than 460 flights at the city’s airports, shutting hundreds of schools and knocking power out to more than 300,000 homes and businesses.
As of 7 a.m., 7.4 inches of snow was recorded at O’Hare International Airport, the city’s official measuring station. Crystal Lake got 7.6 inches and some areas of McHenry County got 13.1 inches, according to the National Weather Service. Lindenhurst got 9 inches and Downers Grove 4.1 inches.
The north suburbs and southern Wisconsin bore the brunt of the storm. A winter storm warning remains in effect after blizzard warnings issued Sunday night expired early Monday morning.
Chicagoland commute times are here.
* We only had a light dusting of snow in Springfield and the Peoria area was expecting 3 to 6 inches, but the Rockford area was hit pretty hard…
As much as a foot of snow is expected to have blanketed much of Winnebago County by early Monday. […]
By 6 p.m., 7 inches of snow had fallen in Rockford, said National Weather Service meteorologist Ricky Castro. “There’s a heavy snow band from Central Illinois to Winnebago County, and it’s just sitting there. You guys could get up to a foot before it moves to the east.
The Quad Cities area was slammed by more than 13 inches of the white stuff.
How’s it looking by you?
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