BM: For the people of Illinois, is it a net positive or a net negative that House Speaker Michael Madigan continues in power?
JB: Look, I am the leader of this state. I’m the governor of the stat. And I set an agenda, and I have gone to the legislature and to the leaders of legislature with that agenda. And for the most part, we have passed much of the agenda that I put forward for last year. And so I intend to keep working with whoever is holding those offices going forward.
I believe that it is a positive that I am getting my agenda through, and I’m looking forward to continuing the progress that we’ve made and to bring a greater optimism and success to our state, as we did over the last year.
* The Question: For the people of Illinois, is it a net positive or a net negative that House Speaker Michael Madigan continues in power? Make sure to explain your answer in comments, please. Thanks.
Lincoln Towing Service may be off the hook for years of alleged towing violations after a Cook County judge Wednesday reversed the state’s decision revoking its license.
In his ruling, Cook County Circuit Judge Neil Cohen said the Illinois Commerce Commission “violated fundamental fairness and…due process rights” by failing to advise Lincoln Towing that it could lose its license as a result of the hearing process.
The ICC voted unanimously in September 2018 to revoke Lincoln Towing’s license in the wake of a 2016 investigation that found 831 alleged violations over an eight-month period. It ordered Lincoln to immediately cease towing operations and park its fleet of trucks.
* Somebody actually took the time today to print this out and then go to a UPS store in Chicago to send me this fax…
I have no idea about the McPier thing, but I’ve asked and will get back to you if I hear back.
Also, I am pretty sure the governor has said he would try to convince people to move to Illinois from other states. So, here’s to success! A Hoosier could be moving here! Huzzah! /s
And, yes, I still fax the subscriber edition. You’d be surprised how many people still receive them and want them. So, let me be clear: I am not dissing faxes. It’s part of my publication’s name after all.
It’s just that I don’t receive many faxes any more. And I cannot remember the last time somebody went to the trouble to send me an anonymous tip via fax. Not a bad idea, actually. Very difficult to trace. Many thanks to whomever sent me this. I’m on it!
[US Rep. Sean Casten] claims his condo on Massachusetts Ave as his primary residence while running for Congress in Illinois.
Sean Casten currently takes a homestead deduction on his Condo in Washington, DC. In order to take a homestead deduction in Washington, DC, a property must be the owners ‘primary residence’:
On January 2, 2019, Sean Casten purchased a Condo at 555 Massachusetts Ave NW in Washington DC.
(DC Office of Tax and Revenue, “Property Search – 555 Massachusetts Ave NW United 219,” Accessed 3/19/19)
Casten claimed the homestead deduction on his Washington, DC condo – claiming it as his primary residence.
(DC Office of Tax and Revenue, “Property Search – xxx Massachusetts Ave NW United 219,” Accessed 3/19/19)
According to the Office of Tax and Revenue for the government of Washington, DC, in order to take homestead exemption the property must be the primary residence of its owner. “The property must be the principal residence (domicile) of the owner/applicant.” (DC Office of Tax and Revenue, “Homestead/Senior Citizen Deduction”, Accessed 3/20/19)
The homestead deduction reduced Casten’s taxes by $636.23. (DC Office of Tax and Revenue, “Property Search – xxx Massachusetts Ave NW United 219,” Accessed 3/19/19)
* I reached out to Casten’s campaign yesterday. Spokesperson Chloe Hunt’s initial response today…
As soon as Sean became aware of the error he immediately took action to remove the exemption, rectify the situation, and pay back the difference.
Casten’s letter to the DC tax office…
Office of Tax and Revenue, Real Property Administration
PO BOX 176
Washington, DC 20044
To the DC Office of Tax and Revenue,
I recently learned that through a clerical error, I have been receiving the Homestead deduction on a property I purchased in 2019. To address this error, I have filled out the FP-105 Cancellation of Homestead Deduction - Senior Citizen/Disabled Tax Relief form through your website, a copy of which is attached to this letter. I also submitted a payment through the online portal with the amount of property tax that was mistakenly deducted from my tax bill.
“We’re going full bore on this,” says CEO Maria Whelan, whose nonprofit connects families with childcare and preschools. “Every employee is going to be a babbling idiot about the census.” The state can’t afford a repeat of what happened 10 years ago: Kids younger than 5 were undercounted by 36,000, costing Illinois $2,700 per child each year in federal assistance.
In all, the United States Census Bureau estimates it missed 59,800 Illinoisans the last time around. As a result, the state lost $122 million in federal health funding, according to the George Washington Institute of Public Policy. So it’s no surprise that Illinois is spending more than it ever has on the census, including $29 million from Springfield, $4 million from Cook County, and $2.7 million from Chicago. Illinois’s investment is the third highest per capita, after California and New York. […]
A particular challenge for Illinois: its high percentage of hard-to-count residents, especially immigrants. The state has 1.8 million foreign-born inhabitants, the nation’s sixth-highest total. And immigrants account for the population increase in the few parts of Illinois that are growing, especially the Fox River Valley. (Latinos are now the largest ethnic group in Aurora and Elgin.) It’s not news that immigrants — even legal ones — participate in the census at a lower rate than native-born Americans. This year, though, getting them to fill out a form will be even tougher, thanks to fears stoked by the Trump administration’s efforts to add a citizenship question to census forms. While the Supreme Court rejected the question, just the fact that it was proposed has left many immigrants wary. Organizations that sued to keep the question off the census claimed it was intended to reduce the participation, and thus the political representation, of Latinos, who make up about 17 percent of Illinois’s population.
“We’ve got a lot to fight in terms of government mistrust,” says Jeanine Stroger, who is coordinating the Illinois Complete Count Committee for the Illinois secretary of state’s office. “That whole discussion left a chilling effect in the community.” Her office is distributing literature in five languages to municipal libraries, assuring residents that their individual census information will not be made public for 72 years.
* Illinois Environmental Council executive director Jen Walling wrote a piece for her members about Gov. JB Pritzker’s first year in office. While much of it was laudatory, some was clearly not. I’ve taken out the praise and posted some of the criticisms…
While I am appreciative for the improvements made by Gov. Pritzker, it is my responsibility to provide an honest assessment of our progress and the opportunities missed along the way. And while it is uncomfortable for me to admit, the truth is that those of us who care about protecting our environment are eager to see more action from the governor on his environmental commitments. I hope my comments are taken in the spirit they are meant: to provide transparency to the governor as a partner who shares our values and the people of Illinois who depend on us to advance policies that protect our communities and environment. […]
Unfortunately, 2019 fell short on energy issues despite the urgency of climate change. Illinois remains one of the only Democratically controlled state to not advance major clean energy legislation. The governor has yet to back the Clean Energy Jobs Act, a demonstration of leadership that would move the bill forward in the legislative process. Although he has announced that energy issues will be taken up in 2020, he has failed to name clean energy among his top priorities in recent interviews reflecting on his plans for this year. It is time for Gov. Pritzker to take action on climate change and leave dirty, corrupt energy companies in the past.
The governor missed an opportunity to stand up to President Trump by choosing not to adopt clean car standards before the repeal of the federal waiver. California, along with 13 other states have already adopted a LEV/ZEV standard, and Minnesota and New Mexico initiated the process in the wake of Trump’s actions. Illinois would have been one of the largest car markets to adopt these standards, meaning that more electric cars would be produced and sold. Gov. Pritzker’s IEPA has also failed to revise the Rauner Administration’s plan for the VW emissions scandal settlement. Without changes, our state will dedicate $18.6M – over 17% of the total – towards fossil fuel technology, the third highest of all states receiving the money.
In addition to reducing the amount of fossil fuels burned in Illinois, we must commit to keeping dirty fuel sources in the ground. Unfortunately, the Pritzker administration issued a permit on the dirty and dangerous Bull Dog Mine permit and is currently considering approving a permit to pump wastewater from Pond Creek Mine into the Big Muddy River. Instead of tying us to industry in decline that has a long history of polluting and then abandoning communities, Governor Pritzker should focus on building for the future.
* Dems swept the Midwest. Why hasn’t it helped clean energy?: “Energy certainly isn’t Gov. Pritzker’s priority,” said Howard Learner, the longtime head of the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center, a Midwest environmental advocacy group.
*** UPDATE *** The Pond Creek Mine permit she wrote about has been approved by IDNR…
Williamson Energy last month was granted the first of two application approvals for its Pond Creek Mine pipeline, which, if also approved by the Illinois EPA, would dump millions of gallons of mine wastewater into the Big Muddy River.
On Dec. 5, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources rendered its final verdict on Williamson Energy’s application, approving the development of more than 70 acres to construct a pipeline from its Franklin County Pond Creek Mine to the Big Muddy River. The company says it needs to pump seep water from mine shafts to ensure the safety of miners, according to public documents. These documents also show that before being diluted in holding ponds, the water will contain high levels of chlorides and sulfates.
Pritkzer’s original plan for this year’s budget included partially deferring the state’s pension payment, extending the deadline by which Illinois is set to reach 90% funding of its woefully underfunded pension systems, from 2045 to 2052.
After criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and thanks to an infusion of unexpected tax money, that idea was dropped.
But it’s not off the table for the coming fiscal year, as long as it’s coupled with other changes such as transferring valuable state assets (the lottery, tollway or Thompson Center government office building are among the possibilities).
“We put out a number of things that we think you need to do, ways, tools, that you can use in order to help us manage our pensions in the state,” Pritzker said. “This component has to be done in conjunction with these other items. Because we’re trying very hard not to crowd out the important expenditures that need to be made.”
Pritzker and legislators are on the hook for finding $9.8 billion for the state’s pension systems in the next budget – a half-billion dollars more than the pension payment this fiscal year.
The only component of that “plan” that he was willing to flesh out last year was skimping on the state contributions. Pretty much everything else was super vague and iffy.
If he tries that same nonsense again, he’s gonna get the same push-back.
An ethics violation and fraud complaint was filed today with the office of the Illinois Legislative Inspector General against State Representative Allen Skillicorn The complaint, filed by Skillicorn’s primary opponent Carolyn Schofield, claims Skillicorn created a false attendance and voting record in Springfield on Saturday, June 1, 2019 while simultaneously campaigning for another elected office at an event in Harvard, Illinois, 220 miles north of the State Capitol.
“The current Representative for the 66th District never misses an opportunity to grandstand politically when elected officials violate ethics rules, when he himself had violated the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act on the final day of the spring legislative session,” said Schofield. “He created a fraudulent House transcript that made it look like he was in Springfield voting, when instead he was walking in the Harvard Milk Days Parade more than three hours away. It was a willful effort to mislead his constituents and represents a clear violation of the Ethics Act.”
Along with the complaint, Schofield submitted a copy of the official House of Representatives Journal for June 1, 2019, which shows that roll was called at 12:11 pm with 114 members taking a digital vote that they were present in the House chamber. Skillicorn’s voting switch was engaged and a “present” vote was recorded. At the same time, Skillicorn was photographed and appeared in videos 220 miles away at the Harvard Milk Days Parade.
“The indication of ‘present’ implies that Rep. Skillicorn’s switch was pressed or else the switch would have been turned off in his absence,” continued Schofield. “Records further indicate that 26 bills were called for a vote prior to a 3:01 pm recess that day. Of these 26 votes, Skillicorn was recorded as either a ‘Y’ or ‘N’ on 23 of the bills. Obviously, he couldn’t have been in two places at once.”
In addition to the House Journal for the day in question, Schofield submitted supporting documentation from the Harvard Milk Days Facebook page, a Facebook Live video from the parade and photos posted to the Facebook pages for the Algonquin Township Republican Party, on the pages of an individual who watched the parade, photos Skillicorn posted to his own political Facebook page, and photos posted to the McHenry County Blog.
“The fact that he was physically in Harvard, Illinois the afternoon of June 1 participating in a 1:00 parade when he was recorded as ‘present’ during June 1, 2019 roll call at 12:11 pm and recorded as voting on 23 votes prior to 3:01 pm, is a concern for ethics and public integrity,” Schofield added. “These deceptive actions represent a direct violation of the State Ethics Act. He needs to be held accountable for his decision to engage in political activity while creating a fraudulent record that he was being paid for, appearing to be taking votes in Springfield.”
“I can’t recall the exact time I left, but I left fairly early in the morning from the parade,” Skillicorn told The Daily Line, noting a floor speech he made that evening before voting against a bill that doubled the state’s gasoline tax to support transportation infrastructure in Illinois. “I didn’t miss any important votes. I did represent the people of the 66th District that day.”
When told the official Milk Days schedule indicated the parade began at 1 p.m., and that a Facebook live video posted at 2:07 p.m. on the official Milk Days’ Facebook page showed Skillicorn walking in the parade, Skillicorn said “I don’t think that could’ve been possible,” and provided the phone number of a volunteer with him at the parade that day.
Glen Swanson, himself the Algonquin Township Republican chairman, also told The Daily Linehe did not remember the exact timeline of the day, but vouched for Skillicorn, calling him a “workaholic” and accusing Schofield of only running for the House to “collect a paycheck.” […]
House Rules, which govern how business is conducted in the chamber, instruct that lawmakers must be counted as present in a quorum roll call vote before being able to vote on a bill, resolution, motion or other question before legislators.
“No member may vote on any question before the House unless on the quorum roll call before the vote is announced,” according to House Rule 49.
But the rules are silent on members falsely being marked as present when they are not, or what counts as “present.” A spokesperson for the House Republican Caucus did not return a request for comment.
So, Facebook’s time stamping was obviously malfunctioning, the official Milk Days schedule was totally wrong and we’re supposed to believe Sillicorn and Glen.
* Dave McKinney and I talked about the back-story behind this photo the other day, so I’m glad he tweeted it out…
WBEZ’s chance encounter last week with ex-lobbyist Michael McClain was news again Tuesday when Gov Pritzker criticized the “smug grin” McClain displayed when @dmihalopoulos and I asked him if he was cooperating with federal investigators. “They’ve asked,” McClain said repeatedly.
Afterward, McClain stood in a downtown high-rise lobby as @DenverManuel captured this shot of him on the phone. Rather than turning away or becoming combative, McClain stayed put as @WBEZ’s photog stood a few feet away and shot 40 to 50 frames. Seemed oddly deliberate. pic.twitter.com/m3KbqeikJT
He just stood there, as if he was posing. Usually, folks at the center of a big media firestorm tend to lay low. But he not only dined at a popular spot for political types and then stood for a brief interview with WBEZ, he let the photographer take 40-50 shots while he talked on the phone.
“Seemed oddly deliberate” is right. Was he sending some sort of message to the feds and/or anyone else? Or was he getting a little kick out of the attention? Or… ? I just don’t know. But this is highly unusual behavior.
Sullivan told The Rushville Times the governor’s office reached out to him Friday and asked if he had received the email. He said that prompted him to search his email account, and that is when he discovered the forwarded email that had originated with McClain.
“I was stunned,” Sullivan said. “I immediately knew the optics and what it looked like.” […]
“I take full responsibility, and I’m not making excuses, but Mike McClain sends lots of emails, most of which I don’t even pay attention to,” Sullivan said. “I know in my mind and my heart that I did not read all of that email. If I had seen an email that talked about a rape in Champaign, I would have turned it over.” […]
“I understand it looks horrible,” Sullivan said. “…I’m stunned and I’m disappointed…I can’t believe someone would put that kind of information in an email. How would you expect that to help someone get a job or get through a disciplinary hearing?”
“I just want people to understand the context we were working in,” Sullivan added. “I understand it looks really bad. I got the email, and I didn’t do anything about it. I understand. However, I am disappointed in the statement the governor put out that makes it look like I did something criminal.”
However, the Governor holds all state employees to the highest ethical standards, and the Governor requested the Director’s resignation because he is disturbed that then-Senator Sullivan became aware of the existence of the July 31, 2012 email contemporaneously, and did not handle it appropriately, including not alerting the inspector general or other authorities.
The total liability of the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois increased $4.5 billion over the year that ended June 30, 2019, while its funding ratio decreased over the same period, according to the most recent audit of the state’s largest public employee retirement fund.
TRS covers all public retired teachers in Illinois, outside of Chicago Public Schools. An Auditor General financial audit published Tuesday for the previous fiscal year showed the system had a total pension liability of $134.4 billion, an increase of $4.5 billion from the previous year when the fund had a total liability of $129.9.
The funding ratio for TRS decreased from 40 percent in 2018, or $77.9 billion underfunded, to 39.6 percent in 2019, or $81.1 billion underfunded.
Total administrative expenses in 2019 were $24.3 million, up more than $2.7 million from the year before. Investments were up nearly $755,000.
There were nearly 124,300 TRS benefit recipients, an increase of more than 1,870. There were 163,000 active members, an increase of more than 2,100. Inactive membership also increased by more than 2,000 to 136,178.
Capitol News Illinois: What do you think you learned about state government in your first year? Is there anything you know now that you didn’t know coming into the job?
Pritzker: Certainly from outside of government, I had seen that government had been hollowed out and that there were agencies that just weren’t fulfilling their functions properly. But it isn’t until you get inside of the agencies that you see just how bad it really is, that they hadn’t been fulfilling their mission – in part because of morale, in part because of a failure to fill positions that are authorized to be filled, and in part because there’s a failure of mission and direction. When I came into office, it was frankly worse than I thought. And so I have worked very hard over the course of my first year to change that and to set us in the right direction.
And we have made real progress. I’ll give you one example, if I may. We walked into office and found that there was a backlog of people who had applied for Medicaid, many of whom are eligible for Medicaid, and those who have applied for what’s called redetermination. Year-in year-out, Medicaid recipients have to reapply. That backlog had grown to 140,000 people. That’s basically because under my predecessor, they had stopped processing those applications. And so when we walked into office (seeing a) 140,000 backlog, we had to work very hard to address that. We basically cut that in half in just a year, which is a very hard thing to do, because we were already understaffed.
Today is the one-year anniversary of Pritzker’s inauguration. His campaign committee, Think Big Illinois, has compiled a list of accomplishments. Click here for that.
* The Question: On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the best score, how would you rate Gov. Pritzker’s first year in office? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
* This press release caused quite a stir within the Senate Democratic caucus…
Progressive Leaders Endorse Michael Cabonargi for Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court
Progressives at multiple levels of government rally behind the only candidate with a vision to bring progressive reform to the Clerk’s office
Michael Cabonargi, candidate for Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court, announced today that he received endorsements from an ever-growing list of progressive leaders who represent the people of Cook County at various levels of government, including the following:
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky
State Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago)
State Sen. Don Harmon (D-Oak Park)
Sen. Iris Martinez (D-Chicago) is also running for circuit court clerk. The Senate President election is this coming Sunday, so endorsing against Sen. Martinez wouldn’t have gone down too well in the caucus, no matter which side Martinez is on. Harmon has said he endorsed Sen. Dan Biss in the Democratic gubernatorial primary because Biss was a colleague and he endorses colleagues.
* Harmon’s people say he did not endorse Cabonargi, even though he has been a contributor over the years and passed petitions for him. Sen. Martinez told me Harmon also assured her this morning that he did not endorse Cabonargi.
* Cabonargi spokesperson Rebecca Evans…
Mike has appreciated the support and friendship of Don Harmon for a number of years, but his name was mistakenly listed on a large list of endorsements that was announced today. It’s since been corrected.
Odd.
…Adding… From an email sent by Democratic Party of Oak Park Committeeman Don Harmon (xxxxx@donharmon.org) in November of last year…
Hmm.
*** UPDATE *** Sen. Iris Martinez just called.
“I’m f—ing pissed,” Sen. Martinez said. “He lied to me early this morning,” she claimed of Harmon’s call to tell her that he hadn’t endorsed Cabonargi.
Martinez pointed to the home page of the Democratic Party of Oak Park that Harmon chairs. It lists the county party’s slate of candidates, which includes Cabonargi. I explained to Martinez that this was the county party list not the township party list, but she was unmoved.
“It doesn’t matter,” Martinez said. “I know the games that are being played behind the scenes.”
Martinez was furious when Speaker Madigan wouldn’t back her bid for countywide office and claimed that Harmon was making “a Madigan move, making sure that I’m not the endorsed candidate.”
“I’m just really disgusted right now about this,” she said, saying it was “typical of some of these committeemen.”
* We talked yesterday about how Rush Darwish is the first Democrat running in Dan Lipinski’s 3rd Congressional District to send direct mail. I also told you he would air a cable TV ad today. The campaign claims they’re “spending $9K this week in 3 zones and will be upping our spend weekly hereafter.”
[ON CAMERA] I’m Rush Darwish and I approve this message because Americans deserve a choice when it comes to our healthcare.
[VO] Choice is a fundamental American value. The freedom to choose where you live, who you marry, how you make a living.
[VO] I’m the only candidate in this race who believes that we should provide Medicare for all who want it, while also keeping a private insurance market so you have a CHOICE when it comes to your insurance.
[ON CAMERA] If quality, affordable healthcare is important to you, vote for me, Democrat Rush Darwish for Congress.
This McClain email is emblematic of a culture that has been poisonous in Springfield for far too long. Those who protect the culture, those who tolerate it, those who promote it, well, they’ll have to answer for their role in it. […]
If an investigator contacts someone and asks them to cooperate, they should cooperate. Not put a smug grin on their face and laugh about not cooperating like Mike McClain did. And furthermore, anyone who thinks that it’s OK to talk about these things [rape and ghost payrolling] like they’re in a crime syndicate doesn’t belong in Springfield anymore. We need change.
Reporter 1: Are you saying that if the feds asked Mike McClain to cooperate against Mike Madigan that he should?
Pritzker: I think anybody that is interviewed by an investigatory body should be forthcoming with the information that they have. […]
Every person in Springfield needs to take a good hard look at themselves and ask what their role has been in creating this culture, the availability in engaging in corruption, the culture that I’m talking about that’s so poisonous. […]
Whether you’re a leader, or a member, or a lobbyist or anybody engaged in that Springfield culture, you gotta ask yourself what direction you’re taking things, or what you’ve done to contribute to it or what you’re doing to alleviate the concerns that voters and the rest of us have about this culture and the corruption.
I think there is a gathering storm for people who are headed in the wrong direction, the people who created this culture, the people who are contributing to it. As you know there are investigatory bodies involved just in this McClain email, including a former federal prosecutor our OEIG, including a prosecutor leading the state police… including a prosecutor in Champaign County that are all engaged in rooting out what’s involved in this particular matter with Mike McClain. And then there’s the broader matter which obviously the federal government and the FBI are looking into. So we’re going to know a lot more in short order. […]
Nobody belongs in Springfield who is engaging in this kind of corruption.
Despite previously saying she had the City Council votes and wanted to move forward on a plan to allow people to smoke weed in Chicago tobacco shops, Mayor Lori Lightfoot will not present the ordinance to the City Council this week, her administration said Tuesday.
The mayor’s team will head to Springfield to try to get state lawmakers to make several changes to the laws governing where people can publicly smoke cannabis, which could delay the implementation for several months or longer as the amendments make their way through the legislature.
That will leave many Chicagoans without anywhere to legally smoke weed they purchase in dispensaries, since landlords can prohibit tenants from smoking in the apartments they rent and smoking is not legal on sidewalks or in cars. […]
Lightfoot’s City Council floor leader, Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, said aldermen raised “a whole bunch of concerns” about the way the state rules and the mayor’s plan were designed. It could take until February or March at the earliest before state lawmakers act on those changes, Villegas said.
“At the earliest” is right. Lawmakers rarely favor reopening laws they just passed unless it’s for technical changes. That’s what they did with cannabis in November and it’s one reason why the mayor’s casino bill went nowhere during the veto session.
Easing the public consumption laws by lowering the start-up fees, expanding the cigar bar alternative, deleting the 1500-feet between shops mandate, etc. could take a lot of time or never pass. Remember, the bill passed last year because it didn’t have those things. The taxes fund the program, lots of legislators feared looser public consumption rules and they absolutely didn’t want to create dense cannabis shop clusters like they’ve had in Denver and California.
This is how the Statehouse works. Pretty much the only way to pass a sweeping new law is to load it up with restrictions or tack on a sunset date to convince the squeamish to go along - and there’s a lot of squeamish people in the General Assembly. And then they wait to see if all heck breaks loose before easing up a bit.
Think about the civil unions path toward marriage equality. There have been exceptions (death penalty abolition being one), but those exceptions tend to prove the rule.
* I’m not saying that Chicago can’t possibly make some changes. But the city needs to stop delaying its own local actions while it places demands on the state legislature that a majority of legislators are super-reluctant to pass so soon.
Thankfully, Mayor Lightfoot also said today that she plans to bring the cigar bar expansion ordinance to the floor next week, because, as mentioned in the headline, the only way legislators can see if something works or doesn’t work at the local level is if locals go ahead and try it out (and that goes for the casino as well). /rant
In a phone interview, Pritzker referenced only in passing some of last year’s accomplishments, from raising the state’s minimum wage to enacting a $45 billion capital plan and strengthening abortion rights. He said he’ll begin year two by focusing on a bit of advice from one of his GOP predecessors, Jim Edgar, to enact a balanced state budget—in Pritzker’s case, for the second year in a row.
“We’ve got to keep on with our progress,” he said. “We’ve got a lot more to accomplish.” […]
The governor was a little more specific on his graduated income tax amendment, again dangling the possibility of guaranteeing that a greater share of the proceeds will go to pay off the state’s huge pension debt. Pritzker has offered $200 million a year, but in our chat said, “It could be more.” […]
The governor also indicated that Mayor Lori Lightfoot and he are in agreement on proposed legislation designed to revive a proposed Chicago casino. Lightfoot needs some of the revenue from the gambling center to pay pension costs, and Pritzker needs some for debt service on his capital plan. The two officials “have a common understanding” about what should be in the bill, but they’re not the only interested parties in the Capitol, Pritzker said.
That’s good news about the casino. Those two absolutely must be on the same page for this to have any chance.
On property taxes, Republicans have complained that a task force on the issue hasn’t taken their ideas seriously.
“Many legislators on both sides regularly contact me to talk to me about their ideas for lowering property taxes,” Pritzker said, “so I have heard many of the ideas already.” He said he would be “happy to listen” to GOP proposals.
But, he said, he did a lot over the course of the year to alleviate the burden on local property taxes including raising state school funding. The pension consolidation bill for downstate police and fire pension systems also ultimately will save “billions of dollars,” he said. The savings are expected to come through better returns and less administrative costs when about 650 local pension funds are consolidated into two for investment purposes.
Despite some continued differences with Republicans, Pritzker said his ability to work with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle “probably stands in stark contrast to the national stage, and to my predecessor.” He was referring to President Donald Trump and former GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner, whose battles with Democrats led to more than two years without a state budget in place.
The property tax burden is around $30 billion a year. He did a bit more than nibble around the edges, but lots more needs to be done.
When Deborah Bruyette imagines a world where it is 5 p.m. in Missouri, but 6 o’clock in Illinois, she doesn’t like it.
“That’s a no go. It would just throw everything off,” said Bruyette, a Freeburg resident who works at Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville.
The idea of having Missouri and Illinois in different time zones is circulating after the Illinois Senate approved legislation earlier this year that would make daylight saving time the standard in Illinois.
Although the proposal still needs approval in the Illinois House, as well as the signature of the governor and an OK from the federal government, it has residents and business owners on both sides of the Mississippi River thinking how it might affect their lives.
Sex education in Illinois middle and high schools would be required to include a discussion on sexting if a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives becomes law.
House Bill 4007, introduced by Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, would require sex education curriculum in grades 6-12 to include material on the legal and social risks of sharing sexually explicit images, messages and videos.
“This is something that a lot of our students are dealing with and are partaking in without really understanding what the consequences could be,” West said.
After hearing reports of first responders losing life insurance coverage after getting anti-overdose drugs for work, an Illinois lawmaker wants to prohibit such cancellations.
State Rep. Margo McDermed, R-Mokena, said she didn’t know that there was a coverage issue until a resident of her district reached out.
“A constituent had been denied life insurance when she had the prescription because she is a first responder,” McDermed said. “When we investigated, we found out that this is an issue and that a number of states have already acted legislatively to address the issue.”
Her legislation, filed last week, would bar life insurance providers from denying coverage or dropping a contract for a first responder solely because that person got a prescription for an opioid antagonist, the most common being naloxone or Narcan.
Then the story goes on to describe the bill, but the full text is actually silent on first responders. Here’s the summary…
Prohibits a life insurance company from denying coverage to an individual, limiting the amount, extent, or kind of coverage available to the individual, or charging an individual or group to which the individual belongs a different rate solely because the individual has been prescribed or has obtained through a standing order an opioid antagonist.
It’s a law that’s been on the books in Illinois for more than 50 years, but State Representative John Cabello is looking to have the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act repealed.
The 68th district Republican filed House Bill 4067 which would eliminate the law that requires all Illinois residents to apply for a FOID card in order to legally possess or purchase guns or ammunition in the state.. Those in favor of FOID cards say it helps keep Illinoians safe because the application process includes a background check. But Cabello argues that FOID cards are needed in just three other states: Hawaii.. New Jersey and Massachusetts. So why is it needed in Illinois.
“For me it’s seems like it’s just another road block for law abiding citizens,” said Cabello. “Criminals are never going to go out and get what they need because they’re criminals. It’s just one more layer of government. I think right now there is a 62,000 back log of people trying to get their FOID or renew their FOID. It’s a problem that we’ve had for a long time. “
Hyde Park-Kenwood’s state representatives have long been vocal about the need to refine Illinois’ legalization of marijuana, and both introduced legislation to that end late last year that may be considered in the legislature’s spring session.
On Dec. 27, State Rep. Curtis Tarver II (D-25th), who represents Hyde Park east of Ellis Avenue and southern Kenwood east of Woodlawn Avenue, filed House Bill (HB) 4009, which would amend the Juvenile Court Act to expunge law enforcement records of people who committed cannabis-related violations before turning 18.
His bill would also require law enforcement agencies to allow access, review and confirmation of automatic expungement. Circuit court clerks would similarly expunge people’s juvenile court records. […]
In November, Buckner introduced HB 3953, the Cannabis Banking and Credit Union Act, which would create state-licensed financial institutions to provide banking services to cannabis businesses.
* Gov. Pritzker set aside about ten minutes for interviews with some political reporters last week. I’ll have more on my interview for subscribers tomorrow. Hannah Meisel decided to focus on DCFS…
In an interview with The Daily Line last week, Pritzker touted $128 million in new granted to DCFS in the current year’s budget, along with efforts to hire more frontline agency workers to both investigate claims of abuse and neglect and at the agency’s so-called “front door” — its overworked hotline.
But some changes are slower than others. Pritzker said thousands of DCFS employees are being retrained on his watch.
“Don’t think that’s a small thing,” Pritzker said. “That takes time and effort and expense and we’re doing all of that. We’ve replaced personnel. We put in new policies and procedures. And, very importantly, we have outside advisors and monitors that are helping us to figure out what more needs to be done…Because this is maybe the important thing that government does it protect the most vulnerable people, the defenseless people in our society and the kids who are in the DCFS system, as well as the many who don’t get identified to DCFS.”
The governor also pointed to an uptick in reports to DCFS as evidence the agency is beginning to turn around. Agency officials told The Daily Line that DCFS investigated 5,000 more claims of abuse and neglect in the 2019 fiscal year as compared with 2018.
Pritzker acknowledged the dismal numbers and conclusions published in DCFS Inspector General Meryl Paniak’s annual report earlier this month, in which Paniak and her staff found that 123 children died in the 2019 fiscal year even after DCFS had prior contact with the child or families. Additionally, Paniak confirmed to The Daily Line last week that in the first half of the 2020 fiscal year, 56 children DCFS had prior contact with had died.
“We have a lot to work on at DCFS itself,” Pritzker said. “Some of it is what was elevated in the OEIG report, which was very important. These are challenges DCFS has had for years…It is the hollowing out of government over a number of years prior to my becoming governor that has led to the tragedies that we’re now seeing.”
* More on the DCFS angle from Shia Kapos’ interview…
It’s no surprise Pritzker is pivoting toward efforts to improve the lives of children. In the private sector, he supported education at every level.
During his first year in Springfield, the governor said worrying about children under the care of the embattled Department of Children and Family Services is what kept him up at night. “They deserve better,” he said. A recent report notes 123 children who had contact with the department in 2019 had died.
An inspector general’s investigation into Illinois’ child welfare agency after the October 2018 deaths of two Quincy children found multiple lapses in the department’s ongoing investigation with the family that started more than six months before the blaze.
This includes an investigator with the Department of Children and Family Services not going inside the home at 611 N. Eighth for a required visual inspection and multiple failures in following up in the case.
After the Oct. 12, 2018, fire that killed Toby Brewer, 8, and Emma Kramer, 5, fire officials found extension cords hand-spliced together with masking tape, including one placed under a mattress, which were later determined to be the cause of the fire.
The family was supposed to vacate the home in September 2018 and was squatting there. There was no electricity or other utilities to the home, and the extension cords were used to receive electricity from a neighboring home.
One of the family’s two other children later told fire investigators that the cords would “snap and pop and smoke” and that they would hold the cords over their heads until the popping stopped.
Sunday can’t come soon enough for state senators who will gather in Springfield that day to elect a new Senate president. There was buzz Monday fueled by blogger Rich Miller and WCIA reporter Mark Maxwell that state Sen. Elgie Sims was backing out of the race and endorsing Kimberly Lightford over Don Harmon. But a source close to Sims tells Playbook he’s still deciding. So we wait.
First of all, Lightford herself told Maxwell that Sims was backing her. The interview is not online yet, so I asked Mark for the transcript…
Mark Maxwell: Do you have the support of Senator Sims?
Senator Kim Lightford: I do.
MM: That seems like a significant development.
KL: It is. Senator Sims is a capable member of our caucus. I’m honored to have received his support.
MM: What got him across the line?
KL: I think he just realized that I’m the person to lead the caucus in a new direction with a lot of creativity, a lot of new ideas on how we can collectively come together and collaborate. He and I just spoke about it a number of times as we’ve been campaigning along the way. I’m just really glad that he’s decided that I would be a better fit for it for the race.
MM: Can we presume that means he’s bringing a few votes along with him?
KL: I’m not certainly sure about the level of support the Senator has arrived at, but I know for he and I, we have a good understanding of where he wants to be.
And I talked to Sims and the Senator told me he’s endorsing Lightford.
* Kristen McQueary spent some time going through lobbyist expenditure reports and then wrote about several legislators who had meals with Mike McClain…
His lobbyist expenditure reports show a long list of regular breakfast, lunch, drink and dinner companions at Springfield bars and restaurants. Honestly, he should have put up a sleeping cot at Saputo’s or Sangamo Club and skipped the walk to his hotel each night. Would have been more efficient.
He actually had an apartment in town. But, she’s right, he was out and about every day. And he was one of those people who refused to allow anyone else to pick up a tab. Wait staff would always side with him because he brought in so much business. The only exception was Speaker Madigan, who almost never allows anyone to buy his meals.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with lobbyists taking lawmakers to dinner. It’s what they do.
But the trail of relationship-building shows why all of Springfield suffered a wave of nausea when the Tribune first reported that the feds had raided McClain’s house and recorded his phone conversations. It’s why so many players in Springfield are tiptoeing along the marble corridors of the Capitol and nibbling their fingernails.
McClain was Madigan’s guy. That gave McClain power. It gave him access. He knew everybody. He worked with everybody.
It must be isolating to be McClain now. Because nobody wants to be linked to Mr. Everybody.
* Press release excerpt from the Illinois Democratic Women and Chicago NOW….
It is time to shine a bright light on why Mike McClain had so much political power in Springfield. McClain emailed two of the most senior officials in state government referencing rape and a coverup as well as ghost payrolling without fear of any negative consequence. McClain’s email is further evidence of unscrupulous behavior in our state capital which harms women and everyone who calls Illinois home. The women of Illinois will no longer tolerate this kind of abuse of power within our political system. McClain’s actions and those who have enabled him put our state’s future at risk. The time is up on this toxic culture in Springfield.
* From Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria) on yesterday’s collateral damage…
John Sullivan is one of the very best legislators that I have ever had the privilege to serve with in the legislature. What he brought to the Senate and then as director of Ag was a true public service mindset and a desire to do right. As a farmer – legislator, he brought a unique perspective that made a difference for the people he represented and for the State of Illinois. John was the perfect person for the governor to choose as his Ag Department Director. His leaving that office is a loss for the state.
* Related…
* WBEZ: Pritzker’s Agriculture Secretary Resigns In Fallout From ‘Rape In Champaign’ Email
* Sun-Times: Pritzker’s agriculture chief ousted over ‘rape’ email he now says he ‘simply did not read’ in its entirety
* WGN: Pritzker’s Dept. of Agriculture director out following email scandal
So reads one Illinois newspaper caption from Jan. 13, 1983, the day after Madigan’s peers in the General Assembly elected him speaker of the House for the first time. The choice was easy. Madigan had recently redrawn Illinois’ legislative maps, which meant many lawmakers in part owed their jobs to the 40-year-old from Chicago’s Southwest Side.
Madigan has now held that speaker’s gavel for 35 of the last 37 years.
The state’s median age is 37 years old, meaning one man has served as speaker for the vast majority of most Illinoisans’ lives. No legislative leader in American history has held power for longer.
What were you (or your parents) doing in January of 1983?
* I’ve been trying to pull together some longish posts on a few topics and finally looked at the time. Oops. So, talk amongst yourselves, but be nice to each other and keep the conversation Illinois-centric. Thanks.
