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Isabel’s morning briefing
Wednesday, Oct 25, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller * ICYMI: Veto session started off with Speaker Welch’s bill, that would allow the formation of a legislative staff union. State Journal-Register…
- The bill would apply to other employees serving the Illinois General Assembly such as janitors and doorkeepers. - An amendment to the bill was filed late last night. * Related stories… ∙ Pantagraph: Illinois fall session kicks off with legislative staff union proposal ∙ WAND: Welch champions legislative staff union plan, Republicans share veto session priorities ∙ AP: Pritzker wants to consolidate early education, speaker’s bill allows staff to unionize ∙ Farm Week: Midwife certification legislation in Illinois stalled * Isabel’s top picks… * 21st show | Pritzker’s National Ambitions: In 2022, Governor. JB Pritzker (D-Illinois) won reelection to lead The 21st state. But the billionaire governor continues to be the subject of national coverage. Pritzker’s name is often floated as a presidential candidate if President Joe Biden drops out of the the 2024 presidential race (Biden says he is running). In a 2022 interview, Pritzker told The 21st he is only focused on the state of Illinois. And recently, the governor launched a self-funded nationwide abortion rights advocacy organization. We’re talking to the writer of an in-depth profile story in The New Yorker on Gov. Pritzker. * Tribune | Democratic legislators introduce bill to extend controversial private school tax credit program: In addition to extending the program through 2028, the proposal introduced Tuesday would reduce maximum annual contributions awarded by the state to $50 million from $75 million. Instead of the 75% tax credit, the donors would get a 100% credit for the first $5,000 they contribute, then a maximum 65% tax credit for any additional amount if the children they sponsor live in underserved communities and a 55% credit if the children don’t. * Sun-Times | Chicago’s top cop vows ‘stringent’ efforts to root out officers with extremist ties after investigation by WBEZ, Sun-Times: “It serves the Chicago Police Department in no way, in no way good, to have members amongst our department who are filled with bias or members of hate groups,” Snelling said. “And we will not tolerate it.” His comments came days after WBEZ, the Sun-Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Project began publishing a joint investigation, “Extremism in the Ranks,” which found 27 current and former Chicago police officers whose names appeared in leaked membership records for the Oath Keepers. * Here’s the rest of your morning roundup… * Crain’s | J.B. Pritzker, Gavin Newsom juice Joe Biden’s campaign fundraising efforts: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has organized events with deep-pocketed donors, bringing in more than $1 million for Biden’s campaign, according to a person familiar with the fundraising. California’s Gavin Newsom is tapping grassroots contributors to ask them to pitch in small-dollar amounts, said the person, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. * Tribune | Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposes new agency for early childhood services: The creation of a new agency, which would require legislative approval, is intended to cut red tape for both families who need services for their children and the outside agencies who provide them, said Pritzker, who has long touted his desire to make Illinois “the best place to raise a family.” Despite increases in funding for preschool programs and other early childhood initiatives, “it’s clear that we’re not yet organized at the state level to reach that goal,” Pritzker said during a new conference at the Carole Robertson Center for Learning in the North Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. * Rockford Register Star | Illinois jail numbers were supposed to drop with the end of cash bail. Did they?: Advocates for ending cash bail in Illinois are praising a 7.5% drop in the average number of people being held in the Winnebago County Jail since August as a positive early sign. * Chalkbeat | Illinois lawmakers propose allowing Chicago’s school board members to be paid: State Sen. Robert Martwick and State Rep. Kam Buckner, who both represent parts of Chicago, announced at a press conference Tuesday morning a proposal to lift a prohibition in state law that prevents Chicago’s elected school board members from receiving compensation. The bills in the Senate and House, introduced during the fall’s veto session, would not mandate the school district to provide a salary or set minimums for how much school board members get paid. * Tribune | Protesters scuffle with police ahead of emotional community meeting over tent city for migrants in Brighton Park: For the past week, protesters said they have been gathering daily, 24 hours a day, with signs in hand demanding the city halt the plan to turn the site into a tent city that would house about 2,000 migrants. City workers have been assessing the viability of the site, which has been unused since 2020 and records indicate is owned by Sanchez Paving Co., a private entity. * Tribune | Residents’ uprising leads to rejection of multimillion dollar grant for migrant services in Joliet area: A copy of the grant application the Tribune acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request showed that the township had requested $12 million from the state, including $9 million for housing and shelter costs, three welcome centers and a medical clinic, and to hire 17 medical and social workers, four caseworkers and three paralegals. The reaction in Joliet reflects the opposition that Chicago and suburban officials have faced when trying to accommodate some 19,000 migrants who’ve been sent on buses to Chicago from the Mexican border. * Chicago Reader | The end of money bond hasn’t led to an electronic monitoring spike in Chicago—for now: Since Illinois eliminated money bond, the number of people on electronic monitoring in Cook County dipped slightly from 1,846 the day before the law took effect to 1,831 on October 20. But it is too early to tell how long the success will last, says James Kilgore, advocacy and outreach director for the First Followers reentry program. * Sun-Times | CPD plans to buy two helicopters by end of 2024, but Chicago still lags behind other big cities: Earlier this year, the department selected fully equipped Bell 407 helicopters for a total of $11.9 million, which includes training for one pilot per helicopter, department officials told the Chicago Sun-Times last month in a written statement. * Tribune | Man arrested after altercation with Chicago alderman: Charges were still pending as of Tuesday afternoon. But the 47-year-old’s wife identified him as the man who had been arrested, and said the 7th Ward alderman reached for her husband first because he was filming Mitchell for a TikTok video and Mitchell wanted him to stop. * USA Today | There aren’t enough RSV shots for babies. Here’s the new CDC guidance on who can get them.: The tightened recommendations came as the CDC reported a spike in RSV cases nationwide. The cases are primarily concentrated in the southeastern U.S. where the agency issued a heath advisory last month. In the U.S., about 58,000 children younger than 5 are hospitalized for RSV each year, and several hundred die annually of the disease. * AP | Recovering from attack that killed Illinois boy, Palestinian American mother urges prayers for peace: Hanaan Shahin issued a statement Tuesday through the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations after meeting with the group’s executive director a day earlier. The written statement marked her first public comments since the brutal Oct. 14 attack that left her with more than a dozen stab wounds and stitches on her face.
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- Frida's boss - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 8:50 am:
Is anyone else surprised that Senator Martwick passed the School Board bill then it struck him “Hey, we need to pay them a salary?”
This was the plan from the beginning. CTU, Toni Preckwinkle, and the legislators they own knew what they wanted from the get-go.
They don’t even have an elected school board yet and they’re already saying they can’t get quality people without pay? How do they know? They don’t even know when they’ll have meetings. Maybe the people CTU is recruiting won’t do it without pay?
I mean come on, this could be one of the most massive expansions of government. That should help property taxes- 20 school board members, full-time salary, each having a chief of staff plus they’ll create support staff to handle all 20 members. Watch.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 8:55 am:
===That should help property taxes===
I dunno. Not taking a side here, but a few million dollars in a tax base that large is hardly a budget-buster.
- Hank Sauer - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 9:07 am:
Hopefully those with public pensions already will be able to double dip with school board ones , what’s another few million
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 9:11 am:
===Hopefully those with public pensions already will be able to double dip with school board ones===
Are they including a new pension here?
Thanks?
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 9:15 am:
You can’t call the cops after you start the fight, tough guy.
- Lucky Pierre - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 9:17 am:
New York does not pay school board members
LA has only 7 members of their school board and they make 125K if they have no outside employment
If they have other jobs, they make 24K
Why on earth do we need 20 paid school board members?
- Lagartha's Shield - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 9:41 am:
School board members in the rest of the state serve without pay.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 10:03 am:
===Why on earth do we===
The cry first was for an elected school board. It passed.
It’s now up to the question if they should be paid.
Gotta find 60/71 and 30/36 and get a governor on board.
You should use your very persuasive arguing, - LP - against paying these members.
- Downstate - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 10:07 am:
Cook County’s units of government are among the largest number in America - please take it easy on the property taxpayers of Cook and cut the cost of government, salaries, pensions. Public sector overload!
- Frida's boss - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 10:15 am:
@OW-Are they including a new pension here?—
Who knows, they weren’t including salaries when they ran the bill. They haven’t even had elections or any reason to say they won’t get quality candidates and they’re changing the bill already.
Matter of fact Senator Martwick said Chicago wants the exact same rules for an elected school board that apply to every other school district in the state.
Guessing they already had that queued up when he ran the bill in the first place?
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 10:18 am:
===Who knows, they weren’t including salaries===
I know there’s a want for salaries. I haven’t seen the pension.
If you do, lemme know.
The rest of your “worry” is not based on any legislative thought, you say so yourself.
- Tinman - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 10:21 am:
This is a Pandora’s box . Where do we go and how do they get paid . Are they then doing it for good of the community or not. People used to volunteer because they wanted to make a difference especially when it comes to their kids . This is a slippery slope.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 10:23 am:
===This is a slippery slope.===
It’s not.
It’s a position. It exists. Pay is now in a bill. Will it pass? Dunno. Will it get signed? Dunno.
What other board like that is confusing to any slippery slope?
- Frida's boss - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 10:41 am:
@OW–The rest of your “worry” is not based on any legislative thought, you say so yourself.
What “worry”?
- Lucky Pierre - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 10:46 am:
The CTU backed candidate for Mayor has 28% approval
By all means let’s give them more power
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 10:47 am:
===What “worry”===
I mean, c’mon, we already have one - LP -…
“Shot”
===This was the plan from the beginning. CTU, Toni Preckwinkle, and the legislators they own knew what they wanted from the get-go.===
“Chaser”
===I mean come on, this could be one of the most massive expansions of government. That should help property taxes- 20 school board members, full-time salary, each having a chief of staff plus they’ll create support staff to handle all 20 members. Watch.===
Reading above…
===The bills in the Senate and House, introduced during the fall’s veto session, would not mandate the school district to provide a salary or set minimums for how much school board members get paid.===
Folks are already using the “jump to conclusion” mat for pensions, staff…
I can read, you had “worry”. Let’s not have “well, I didn’t”
It’s not even begun. Want to be against it, have at it, but there’s no slippery slope or angst because… “it’s barely a bill”
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 11:04 am:
===The CTU backed candidate for Mayor has 28% approval
By all means let’s give them more power===
Gotta win seats. With your logic no CTU candidates would win.
Isn’t that good in your eyes?
- Big Dipper - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 11:08 am:
CPS already raises taxes to the maximum permitted each year, so additional salaries won’t change that.
- Pundent - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 11:18 am:
=The CTU backed candidate for Mayor has 28% approval=
He’s no longer a candidate. Check back in a few years when he has an opponent and this number might mean something.
- Lucky Pierre - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 11:21 am:
You are assuming we have an informed electorate for municipal elections
These elections usually have low turnout so the activists have alot more influence but you knew that already
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 11:23 am:
==The CTU backed candidate for Mayor has 28% approval==
He’s still the Mayor genius.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 11:33 am:
===You are assuming we have an informed electorate for municipal elections
These elections usually have low turnout so the activists have alot more influence but you knew that already ===
Directly contradictory.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 11:36 am:
===You are assuming we have an informed electorate for municipal elections===
So you’re saying your uninformed, ignorant electorate that sides with you doesn’t vote?
I kid, I kid…
===so the activists have alot more influence but you knew that already===
As you do too, and readily admit you can’t win on turnout, policy, or influence?
In short… the ignorant, ill-informed electorate that can’t be influenced to vote, let alone turn out to vote… is your constituency.
I dunno, that’s not very compelling.
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 11:37 am:
==You are assuming we have an informed electorate for municipal elections==
So the voters are stupid. Is that what you are saying? Your argument doesn’t win and the reason is voters are stupid?
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 11:47 am:
Umm, Mayor Johnson has to be the Mayor for the next 3 1/2 years in order to run for reelection. Talk about putting the cart before the horse.
- don the legend - Wednesday, Oct 25, 23 @ 2:24 pm:
==You are assuming we have an informed electorate for municipal elections==
LP, maybe JB will spend 50 million to influence your uninformed, ignorant electorate that sides with you like he did to get you to vote for Bailey.