* The House approved an amended version of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s anti-carjacking bill today…
Another interesting bill up for debate now: SB2339, which would crack down on carjackings and prevent "revolving door" of carjackers getting out of jail within 24 hours. It's basically a penalty enhancement. https://t.co/YGItlBGV2d
.@AndradeRep40 tells his colleagues that the Senate already spoke 56-0 on the bill. Doesn’t have as easy a time in the House, though — 85 yes votes. pic.twitter.com/imQnx3H9y3
The bill now goes back to the Senate for concurrence.
* Mayor Emanuel’s response…
“We commend Representative Jaime Andrade and the Illinois House of Representatives for hearing the voices of victims and taking steps to create a culture of accountability for those involved in carjacking. Chicago needs our legislative and judicial partners to step up to the plate and hold offenders accountable, and we strongly urge the Illinois Senate to pass this bill without delay.”
Also Monday, the House approved a revised proposal backed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to crack down on people who commit carjackings.
The legislation is aimed at closing what the mayor’s office considers a loophole in existing law. Now, a person in possession of a vehicle has to know it has “been stolen or converted” in order to be charged with a felony. That’s often difficult to prove because people often claim they don’t know vehicles are stolen. As a result, many face a misdemeanor charge of trespassing.
The measure would allow officials to consider “surrounding facts and circumstances that would lead a reasonable person to believe that the vehicle or essential part is stolen or converted” when pursing charges. The idea is to have more accountability for those responsible for carjackings.
A dormant gambling-expansion plan came to life just long enough to stall in a House committee.
The Executive Committee’s 5-4 vote Monday on Rep. Robert Rita’s plan was one vote shy of the six needed to move it to a floor vote.
The Blue Island Democrat’s long-discussed plan won Senate OK 15 months ago as part of a “grand bargain” to break what was then a 20-month stalemate over the budget. It would authorize six new casinos, including Chicago, and allow slot machines at horse racing tracks.
Rita added several provisions to the measure. They include also allowing table games at race tracks and creating sweepstakes games.
What was heard at the committee was a lot of testimony from opponents who said the expansion contained in the latest proposal will further cannibalize gaming in Illinois which will ultimately hurt revenue. Jay Keller, a representative of Penn National Gaming, which operates casinos in Illinois, said the bill will authorize 22,000 new gaming positions which, added to what Illinois already has, would give the state the equivalent of 52 casinos.
“This bill is a massive expansion and would put Illinois at a level that people would consider (acceptable),” he said.
Tom Swoik, executive director of the Illinois Casino Gaming Association, said the state’s 10 existing casinos lost 28 percent of their customer base after the state legalized video gaming terminals.
“These gamers didn’t disappear. They went to the 6,500 neighborhood locations with slots,” Swoik said.
The video poker types opposed the new expansions. The Fairmount Park folks opposed the bill because they couldn’t install slot machines at their track without first coming to an agreement with the nearby Casino Queen in East St. Louis, which essentially gives the Casino Queen folks the upper hand. Lots of folks also grumbled loudly about a surprise provision to legalize “sweepstakes” games.
The only people who seemed happy were track owners outside of the Fairmount folks.
*** UPDATE *** Getting the bill out of committee does not yet equal having the votes to pass it on the floor. Just sayin…
Efforts to drastically expand gaming in Illinois — and create a Chicago casino — will get another chance on Tuesday after falling short of advancing in an Illinois House committee on Memorial Day.
With adjournment of the Illinois General Assembly just days away, the House Executive Committee voted 5-4, one vote shy of advancing the revived measure that has been in the works since last year.
But State Rep. Bob Rita, D-Blue Island, will call the gaming measure for a vote in committee once again on Tuesday morning. The quick turnaround may mean he garnered enough support to pass it.
The rule of law is under assault in America. It is being perverted and abused by the people sworn to enforce and uphold it. Some in the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation are abusing their power to criminalize the routine practices of politics and government.
I learned the hard way what happens when an investigation comes up empty after the government has invested time, resources and manpower. When they can’t prove a crime, they create one. Did you know that an elected official asking for a campaign contribution is the same as a dirty cop asking a motorist for a cash bribe to tear up a speeding ticket? I never did. Yet that’s what a federal prosecutor told the jury during my second trial on bribery and extortion charges in 2011.
Fundraising is a routine and necessary part of America’s political system. You can’t compete in politics, and you can’t govern from a position of strength, if you are perceived as weak. Building and maintaining a healthy war chest helps lead to success. For most people in the political arena, the fundraising part of the job is no fun. I liken it to exercise. It hurts but it makes you healthy and strong.
The problem, of course, was that Blagojevich’s fundraising practices were too often “unhealthy.”
At several points, [John Wyma] said, Blagojevich appeared to link spending on certain state projects to campaign cash from donors likely to benefit from the state help.
“If they don’t perform, (expletive) ‘em,” Blagojevich allegedly told Wyma at one point.
At a meeting Oct. 8, Wyma said Children’s Memorial Hospital came up. The governor, Wyma said, mentioned how he had recently been called by former Cubs manager and ex-hospital board member Dusty Baker about raising Medicaid reimbursement rates to pediatric specialists at the hospital by at least $8 million.
The hospital had been seeking the boost for years. Wyma said Blagojevich told him he was going to give the go-ahead — but with a caveat. The governor wanted Children’s CEO Patrick Magoon to kick in a $50,000 donation to his campaign, Wyma said.
In a phone conversation in mid-October with Children’s CEO Patrick Magoon, the Governor said he would approve a $10 million increase in the Medicaid payments and that Magoon should keep this quiet until the end of the year when it would take effect.
Five days after that call, prosecutors say Magoon received a call from the governor’s brother Robert asking Magoon “to raise $25,000 for the governor.”
An uncomfortable Magoon didn’t respond and wouldn’t take later calls from the governor’s brother.
On November 12, in a meeting at Blagojevich campaign headquarters, the governor’s long time friend Lon Monk says the governor “got upset” that no fund raiser had been set up, and he said words to the effect, “screw them.”
Then Rod Blagojevich made a call to his deputy Governor Rob Greenlee - call 572 - secretly recorded by the FBI in which the governor asks if they could pull back the Medicaid increase for Children’s Memorial if we needed to - budgetary concerns, right? Greenlee put the brakes on the plan, and Children’s never got the money.
* I doubt I’ll be posting much more until later in the afternoon, when the House and Senate convene. Using my ScribbleLive account, I’m estimating traffic at about a third of normal, so I’m doubting we’ll see many comments, either.
So, the few of you who are here right now can talk amongst yourselves if you want. As always, keep it Illinois-centric and be nice to each other.
* Jacob Schulz started commenting on this blog as “JakeCP” way back in 2006 when he was just 14 years old. Despite his age, he mostly managed to hold his own in what can often be a rough and tumble environment. The African-American kid was somewhat unusual because he was a strong supporter of Republican Judy Baar Topinka in her campaign against Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Well, Jacob is all grown up now and recently reached an important life milestone…
I DID IT!! I graduated with a Master's of Public Administration!
The Illinois Department of Corrections has taken considerable steps to enhance the delivery of care for offenders who are on the mental health caseload. The Department remains focused on fully complying with the terms of the Rasho v Baldwin settlement agreement… The Department remains committed to ensuring that mentally ill men and women receive the treatment that is essential to their wellbeing, rehabilitation and reentry into society.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael M. Mihm issued an opinion Friday in the class action case Rasho v. Baldwin ordering the Illinois Department of Corrections to provide mental health treatment to prisoners who are on “crisis watches” and in segregation, as well as to provide medication management, mental health evaluations and necessary mental health staff throughout the system.
The judge ruled that IDOC’s failure to provide mental health care constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the U.S. Constitution, as well as violates the settlement agreement that the department entered.
In a 42-page decision, Mihm found that IDOC’s deliberate indifference to mentally ill prisoners is causing “irreparable harm” that requires the court to issue injunctive relief. The court decision states that the constraints faced by IDOC “are dwarfed by the immense harm to the inmates.”
“These are mentally ill individuals, who themselves are left, in a very real way, at the mercy of the IDOC to provide them with the constitutionally minimal level of health care. And this is simply not being done, and based on the record presented, will not be done unless there is a preliminary injunction issued by this Court.”
This order comes almost two years to the day after a settlement agreement was reached by IDOC and lawyers representing the more-than 12,000 prisoners with mental illness in Illinois. The original class action challenge to the treatment of prisoners with mental illness was filed in 2007.
The testimony during the hearing shows deficiencies in medical treatment in segregation have created an extremely dangerous situation. The length of time, sometimes staggering, that inmates are put in segregation, without properly addressing their mental health medical needs, furthers the mental decomposition of the inmate.
“The question is what progress will the state make, if any, in breaking out of those long-running challenges?” Moody’s Investors Service analyst Ted Hampton said in a phone interview. He added that the outcome of the budget process will be more significant than when the process ends.
In other words, don’t pop the champagne if the GA wraps up by May 31st. Moody’s and other raters will likely care more about what’s actually in the budget. And Illinois is just two clicks above junk bond status, so it won’t take much.
Gov. Bruce Rauner froze automatic compounding pay hikes for around 14,000 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 in 2015, saying lawmakers never appropriated the money. Now, a court order is due later this year that could make all that due at once.
Records obtained by the Illinois News Network via a Freedom of Information Act request show Rauner’s office estimates it will cost $412 million for just the four years of higher pay if the state is forced to pay all of the past years’ frozen step increases in the fiscal 2019 budget.
In 2015, the cost of the raises was $38.7 million, but that balloons to more than $170 million by the coming fiscal year. […]
The state’s fiscal 2018 budget is on the hook for the cost of about 1,400 applications from Medicaid for seniors in nursing homes that never got processed. That’s $311 million for nursing homes, [Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago] said. This bill, Harris said, combined with a supplemental spending request for the Department of Corrections totals up to $1.8 billion lawmakers still need to fund.
Using recently revised criteria, Fitch on Friday downgraded by five notches the rating on $2.5 billion of Build Illinois sales tax revenue bonds to A-minus. The firm cited too big a spread between the debt’s previous AA-plus rating and the state’s GO rating of BBB with a negative outlook.
The recurrent theme of this year’s budget negotiations is optimism, as in optimistic that there will be a successful outcome.
It’s worth remembering, though, that a hiccup before a budget is passed used to be a regular occurrence before the chaos of the past couple of years. It was something of a routine at the Capitol that a budget would be negotiated and then presented in private briefings to the individual caucuses. Almost inevitably, the deal would blow up somewhere that appeared to jeopardize the budget. Some further tinkering would be done, the revised agreement would be sold to lawmakers and a budget approved.
So even if something crops up this week, it’s not necessary reason to panic.
* So, does this WGN Radio headline indicate a problem ahead or just a minor speed bump?…
Deputy Majority Leader of the IL House Lou Lang: “I don’t expect the Governor to sign the budget”
“In his budget address that he came out with … (he) said, ‘I’m going to fix everything for $50 million,’ ” said state Sen. Tom Cullerton, D-Villa Park, the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. “We’re going to get it fixed and done. Now, all of a sudden, ‘I’m going to need $245 million?’ ”
Tom Cullerton said the state would actually need to come up with $85 million because federal funding through the Department of Veterans Affairs would pay another $160 million. But lawmakers must still authorize the entire amount.
Democrats want assurances of the federal funding and that provides another way for them to go after Rauner, who avoids speaking about the White House and President Donald Trump.
“We need a letter from the president that says, ‘After speaking with your governor I am going to expedite that $160 million that you need because it’s important that our veterans stop dying and that it’s important that our veterans and their families stop getting sick,’ ” Tom Cullerton said. “If the governor can’t make that phone call, then I don’t know what else to say.”
* Final countdown: Area lawmakers hopeful for budget in last days of session: State Sen. Andy Manar, a Democrat from Bunker Hill and one of the budget negotiators in the Senate, is cautious to go into much detail about the state of negotiations, but did say the talks have been more bipartisan than in recent years. “I want to say, I have found that this year that my Republican colleagues in the legislature and the Democrats have come together in a good faith effort to do what we can to forge compromise,” Manar said. “There are many, many … outstanding issues that we have to deal with, but I’m confident the process we have put in place is going to continue. And my hope is we can present a budget that is representative of compromise.”
* If you checked in with my Twitter feed over the weekend, you know that $1 million transfer to the Rock Island County Democratic Party and the $50K contribution to Sen. Kwame Raoul’s campaign happened Friday evening. Here’s my weekly syndicated newspaper column, which was distributed Friday afternoon…
For weeks now, some Democrats have been wondering if their party intends to run a “coordinated campaign” this year and have asked what it might look like. A coordinated campaign means all the party’s candidates are working together under one umbrella group.
The party’s standard-bearer J.B. Pritzker has kicked off “Blue Wave Illinois” and will soon make a $5 million contribution. Democratic sources say much more cash is expected to follow.
The new group won’t be a separate, stand-alone entity, but will instead be an internal branch of Pritzker’s campaign apparatus.
The House and Senate Democrats will each receive a million dollars. Sen. Kwame Raoul’s attorney general campaign will get about $50,000 (around the maximum he can legally receive) and the other statewide nominees will eventually receive money as well.
To stay within campaign finance contribution limit laws, a million bucks will be transferred to the Rock Island County Democratic Party, which is run by Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association Chairman Doug House. Chairman House appears to be playing a key role in this new “Blue Wave” organization. House personally endorsed Pritzker ahead of his statewide group’s endorsement session.
Pritzker refused to take any campaign contributions during the primary except from himself, but that will also change. Pritzker’s campaign committee will raise the money to fund its “Blue Wave” operation from small individual donors and large contributions from others, including his wealthy friends and family. I’m hearing $30 million may be the target number.
Pritzker will retain responsibility for funding his own race, I’m told. His initial $5 million contribution can be seen as seed money to get the group going (and the million each to House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton could help soothe any possible paranoia on their part). And since contributions to Pritzker’s big-spending campaign will have no legal caps on them, Pritzker will be able to vacuum up every possible dime that contributors can afford to give. He has told others that he doesn’t want to compete with other Illinois candidates’ fund-raising, so he will travel to other states to raise cash.
Any Statehouse-connected dollars will bring the sort of criticism that the self-funder was able to avoid until now, so we’ll see how this works out. And, of course, giving money to Madigan’s operation has already prompted Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign to claim that the two men are in cahoots.
But this move also means Democrats will have a centralized funding source with no direct ties to Speaker Madigan. The benefit can work both ways. Some liberal big-money folks just don’t like Madigan, and even more candidates are skittish (to say the least) about taking money from the House Speaker. It also seems clear that Pritzker wants his own, independent organization outside of Madigan’s Democratic Party of Illinois – which has been accused in the past of redirecting coordinated campaign money toward Madigan’s favored House candidates.
The Pritzker cash will be used to fund campaigns “up and down the ticket,” from statewide campaigns, to legislative races to county races. The money will also be used for training in messaging and the use of digital technology. The Pritzker campaign wants to concentrate on the most winnable races, but they also say they don’t want to leave any stone unturned.
Local political organizations, including township and ward organizations in Chicago and county party organizations throughout the state, will also likely receive contributions in the future. Chairman House will apparently play the lead role in working with those organizations in an effort to build up a party that is sorely lacking at the local level outside Cook County.
Pritzker won kudos during the primary for opening 18 campaign offices and hiring about 100 field staffers, although there was some internal party criticism for the way at least some of those offices were run. It reminded some influential folks of the DCCC – helicoptered-in staffers who didn’t know the lay of the land.
Whatever the case, the Pritzker campaign plans to continue building out those local field offices and will use them to help Pritzker and other regional and statewide candidates.
A true coordinated campaign also involves congressional candidates. At this point, I’m told, Pritzker’s “Blue Wave” group figures its field work will benefit all candidates at all levels.
One of Pritzker’s slogans has been “think big,” and this definitely has the potential to be the biggest effort of its kind that this state has ever seen.
Some Illinois towns could lose broad home rule taxing authority as the state’s population continues to decline, a possibility that could ease local taxes and further squeeze municipal budgets.
U.S. Census numbers released Thursday show the population of Freeport, Collinsville and Harvey fell below 25,000. That’s the threshold for automatic home-rule status.
In 2010, Freeport had 25,638 residents. Now, it has an estimated 24,091 people. The city of Collinsville became home-rule by special census in 2005. Its population has declined to 24,703, according to new Census estimates. Harvey had 25,282 residents in its borders in 2010. Now, there are 24,908.
Home rule authority gives local elected officials expanded powers for self-government, including the ability to raise certain taxes and issue debt without voter approval. […]
Unless those cities persuade more people to move in by 2020, they’ll have to place a question on the ballot in November 2022 asking voters if they want to retain home rule status. […]
Taxes and fees levied by the city under home-rule authority would be rolled back en-masse as soon as the referendum saying so is certified, Diamond said. The exception would be taxes levied to pay bonds, like those referenced in a recent court decision on Harvey’s debt. […]
Six cities, including these three, are within 1,000 people of falling below the home-rule threshold. One notable population slide toward the threshold is Kankakee, which has lost more than 1,300 people since 2010 and is now at 26,216 residents.
Keep in mind that these population figures are estimates. The decennial Census will conduct a full count…
Mitch Blair, the city manager for Collinsville, disagreed with the Census Bureau’s estimates, which had his town dropping below 25,000 residents.
Blair said city officials looked at the building and demolition permits for multifamily and single-family homes since 2010 and came up with its own estimate of about 25,800 people living in town.
* Related…
* Census: Peoria losing residents quickest among large Illinois cities: The agency estimated the city’s population at 112,883 people as of July 1, 2017, a decline of 1.3 percent from 2016 and a 1.9 percent decrease from the last full census in April 2010. From 2010 to 2016, the Census Bureau estimated Peoria’s population decline at 0.7 percent, indicating that the rate at which people are leaving the city also increased last year.
* Chicago’s population drops 3rd year in a row, US Census Bureau says: While downtown may be gaining, Chicago is losing residents overall. The decline is getting attention as it’s the third straight year of decline. … “The decline in the city of Chicago is largely happening among African Americans and among African American communities, those communities on the South and West Sides, that’s generally what the city of Chicago is seeing in terms of loss. Every other community type is growing and every other demographic is growing,” Loury said.
* In a shrinking state, half of Illinois’ largest cities have shed population since 2010: Nearly 80 percent of Illinois’ most populous cities saw population decline from July 2016 to July 2017, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau released May 24. Of the state’s top 50 cities, 39 saw a shrinking population over the year, while 25 have seen their populations shrink compared with 2010.
* Here’s How Illinois’ Population Changed Between 2016 And 2017: Cook County had the largest population decrease, with more than 20,000 residents leaving. … McHenry County saw the largest population increase, with 1,150 new residents.Illinois’ housing stock grew to 5,359,557 housing units between 2016 and 2016, adding 14,327 units. The state’s growth rate for housing units was 0.3 percent, which was below the nation’s growth rate of 0.8 percent.
* New census numbers show which Southern Illinois communities are shrinking: Belleville has seen a 6 percent drop since the 2010 official head count. Granite City saw a 4 percent drop. Alton, East St. Louis, Freeburg and Cahokia also saw population drops, according to census estimates. Edwardsville, Columbia, Waterloo, O’Fallon and Shiloh, however, all saw population growth.
A person commits death penalty murder when at the time of the commission of the offense he or she has attained the age of 18 or more and he or she purposely causes the death of another human being without lawful justification if:
(1) at the time of the offense, the person caused the death of 2 or more other human beings without lawful justification; or
(2) the victim was a peace officer, as defined by Section 2-13 of this Code, killed in the course of performing his or her official duties, either to prevent the performance of the officer’s duties or in retaliation for the performance of the officer’s duties, and the person knew that the victim was a peace officer.
* Gov. Rauner today…
We agree with Representatives Costello and Bryant. Mass murder and killing police officers and firefighters are crimes so heinous that they deserve the death penalty. #PublicSafetyIL#twill
Rob Warden, who has spent years exposing wrongful convictions as a journalist and academic, noted that while Rauner might call his idea on capital punishment “limited,” it’s easy for lawmakers to expand.
When Illinois restored capital punishment in 1977, there were six “aggravating factors,” or legal determinations that, if met, could warrant a death sentence, Warden said. When it was abolished, there were 20.
That tweet by the governor is the best proof yet that his AV is just “show-biz.”
* Lots of unconfirmed rumors floating around out there that Gov. Rauner may go up on TV early next month. If that happens, JB Pritzker is expected to quickly follow suit. Until then, we’ll have to settle for digital ads…
Today, the Rauner campaign launched a new digital ad on JB Pritzker’s refusal to call out Mike Madigan’s corruption involving sexual harassment and retaliation cases within his political operation.
After sexual harassment allegations swirled around Speaker Mike Madigan’s political operation, State Representative Kelly Cassidy came forward about what she calls retribution for speaking out against Madigan’s investigation into the accusations.
Pritzker refuses to speak about Madigan’s role.
If Pritzker won’t call out Madigan now, how can we trust him in the future?
The Gun Dealer Licensing bill was expected to be called for a vote Thursday, but not enough lawmakers showed up.
This is the second time this week lawmakers told Newschannel 20 they’re holding off bills because of attendance.
The sponsor of the Gun Dealer Licensing Act measure said she also delayed calling the bill Thursday because she may amend it.
The sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment said he’s not calling the resolution because of attendance.
By the end of yesterday, the House had nine excused absences and a few others who were listed as not voting.
Lots of family graduations are happening these days. Tons more are scheduled for May 31st.
But, remember, there’s still plenty of time to move bills that will need as many bodies in town as possible. May 31st is next Thursday. They’re coming back to Springfield on Monday.
State Rep. Jerry Costello II, D-Smithton, state Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park, state Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Freeport, state Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, state Rep. Natalie Phelps Finnie, D-Elizabethtown, state Rep. Monica Bristow, D-Godfrey, state Rep. Dave Severin, R-Benton, and state Rep. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro are working with a bipartisan group of lawmakers working to reinstate the death penalty for cop killers, killers of firefighters and mass murderers, while also rejecting sweeping gun control measures proposed by the governor.
Gov. Bruce Rauner has tied reinstatement of the death penalty to strict gun control measures opposed by the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights advocates. Costello is working in a bipartisan effort with other members of the legislature to introduce their own clean death penalty legislation without Rauner’s gun control language, in order to protect law enforcement officials and firefighters to keep local communities safe without infringing on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.
These legislators released the following statement:
“According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 28 police officers have been killed in 2018. Our law enforcement officers are doing everything they can to keep our families safe and they shouldn’t have to fear for their own lives. As a community, we have a responsibility to support members of law enforcement for all that they do for us. It is unacceptable that anyone would target police officers or firefighters for doing their jobs, which is why we support the death penalty as a form of punishment for those who target our members of law enforcement.
“While the governor’s amendatory veto of House Bill 1468 supports the death penalty in the situation of targeting a police officer, it also places overreaching restrictions on law-abiding gun owners. As strong supporters of the Second Amendment, we oppose these new restrictions which only punish those who are already following the law. When the men and women who keep our communities safe are injured in the line of duty, we have a responsibility to be there for them. Police officers and firefighters continuously put their lives on the line to protect the public in times of crisis. The families of police officers and firefighters deserve justice and the ability to hold people accountable for their actions, which is why those who knowingly and willingly kill members of law enforcement and firefighters should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The bill is here. All those Democrats represent conservative pro-Trump, pro-gun areas where this will play well. Adding firefighters was a nice touch, too.
Rep. McSweeney, of course, is one of the most frequent Republican critics of Rauner. Rep. Bryant is a Tier One target.
WHEREAS, The budget estimate contained in this Joint Resolution reflects the repeal of Public Act 100-22, the income tax hike, enacted in July 2017;
He can’t help himself. He just loves sticking it to the governor, who will obviously use a revenue estimate based on every dime of the money from last year’s tax hike.
Jeanne M Ives - John M. Cabello - Brad Halbrook - Margo McDermed, Tony McCombie, Mark Batinick, Brian W. Stewart, David A. Welter, Thomas Morrison, Allen Skillicorn and Joe Sosnowski
* Other bills…
* SIU study, if approved, may delay vote on splitting university system: State Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, said in a phone interview that state Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, will not call for a vote on his bill to separate SIU Edwardsville from SIU Carbondale, if a resolution for a study were to pass.
* Should SIU Edwardsville And Carbondale Split? Or Stay Together For The Kids?: Rep. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) and Rep. Norine Hammond (R-Macomb) both warned that having the IBHE assess the feasibility of splitting ISU would set a precedent that could be the proverbial “camel’s nose under the tent” that could lead to similar investigations in everything from the University of Illinois system to community colleges with satellite campuses.
* Lawmaker charging retaliation wants complaint system changes: Under the current process, the legislative inspector general, who works independently from the ethics commission, cannot conduct an investigation into a complaint without the ethics commission’s permission. The commission is composed of eight state legislators — four Democratic and four Republican.
* Bill to give Sangamon County first dibs on state jobs passes Senate: If signed, House Bill 4295 would make Springfield and Sangamon County the default location for employees of most state agencies. The director of Central Management Services would have to establish a geographic location for each state job and specify why positions located outside the capital city need to be there. The legislative and judicial branches are exempt, as are the offices of the state’s constitutional officers and those employed directly by the governor’s office.
* House OKs bill to pay $63M in back wages owed to 24,000 workers: The issue stems from 2011 when former Gov. Pat Quinn said lawmakers did not appropriate enough money to cover 2 percent raises for thousands of AFSCME members at 14 state agencies. Quinn said that without the appropriation, the state could not pay the additional money to workers.
* Press Release: To expedite discrimination case decisions and clear the backlog of claims, the Senate recently approved State Senator Heather Steans’ (D-Chicago) measure to restructure the Human Rights Commission. “The Human Rights Commission is an important avenue for individuals who have been discriminated against or harassed to resolve their complaints,” Steans said. “Due to the current structure and process, a backlog of cases has developed over time. To expedite cases, I worked to restructure the commission to ensure that cases are addressed quickly and efficiently.” Senate Bill 20 would change the Human Rights Commission from 13 part-time commissioners to seven full-time, dedicated commissioners. Additionally, it creates a temporary three-person panel to address the backlog of cases. To prevent a future buildup of cases, it streamlines the administrative process and removes duplicative steps. In March 2017, Gov. Bruce Rauner issued an executive order to consolidate the Human Rights Commission with the Department of Human Rights. However, the executive order did not take effect following the House’s passage of a resolution disapproving the order.
* Press Release: A measure sponsored by State Senator John G. Mulroe to simplify Illinois’ complicated court fee system recently cleared the Senate. Because court fees in Illinois vary greatly among counties, House Bill 4594 aims to standardize them by establishing four categories for civil fees and fines and 13 categories for criminal and traffic cases.
* First it was the Nazi running against Dan Lipinski, and now this…
The Republican nominee for a US House seat in Illinois has said the September 11 terrorist attacks were an inside job and that singer Beyonce Knowles has ties to the Illuminati.
Bill Fawell is running against incumbent Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos in Illinois’ 17th District, where she won by 20 points in 2016 even though the district also voted narrowly for Donald Trump. Fawell won his uncontested primary in March. He has not reported any fundraising to the Federal Election Commission, per publicly available records. […]
In an interview with CNN, Fawell stood by his blog posts and the theories he espoused on them. He said that Jay-Z and Beyonce expressed their support for the Illuminati in their videos, and that singer Taylor Swift had as well. […]
The Illinois Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment. […]
In a 2014 post, Fawell speculated that New York City was going to be destroyed in a false flag attack by the deep state in either the year 2016 or 2017.
County Republicans have asked Glen Evans, state representative candidate for the 72nd District, to withdraw from the race. […]
Court records show Mr. Evans, of Rock Island, was charged with criminal trespass and criminal contempt after violating an order of protection in December 1997. The charges were dismissed in February 1998.
In addition, Marion County, Indiana records show an outstanding warrant for Mr. Evans in 2008 after he failed to appear for a probation hearing on a charge of violating an order of protection against his wife, Erica Evans.
In November 2009, an emergency order of protection was filed by Ms. Evans in Rock Island County, following a domestic battery charge against their 5-year-old son. According to an article in the Dispatch-Argus, Mr. Evans struck his son while he was sleeping after he witnessed his son sucking his thumb.
Ms. Evans withdrew her petition in Rock Island County in October 2010. The protective order and charge was dismissed. […]
Rock Island County Clerk Karen Kinney said Mr. Evans has previously run for office as a Democrat in about 18 different local races. He has lost every election with the exception of two precinct committeeman races.
Evans is running against Rep. Mike Halpin (D-Rock Island). Like the Nazi, neither Evans nor Fawell were given a chance in Hades of winning even before their history was known.
Defying a warning from the Internal Revenue Service, the Illinois Senate has overwhelmingly approved a bill intended to give local taxpayers a workaround for new federal caps on state and local tax deductions. […]
The Senate action came yesterday afternoon when, by a 51-1 margin with one abstention, the Senate approved a bill sponsored by Sen. Julia Morrison, D-Deerfield, that allows taxpayers to substitute donations to charities benefiting state government, municipalities and school districts for regular Illinois income-tax and property-tax payments. Donors would receive a credit worth 90 percent of their donations, applied to their state or local tax liability.
The IRS earlier this week suggested that it will rule against such measures, which already are the law in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and other high-tax states. The agency suggested that charitable donations are not supposed to reap a financial reward for the donor and said it will follow not state but federal law, which under the measure approved by President Donald Trump last year limits SALT deductions to $10,000 a year.
“Property tax relief is an important issue all around the state,” Morrison said in a phone interview. Any final IRS ruling “probably is not going to happen until the fall,” and may be challenged in court, she said. “I think it’s important for us to pass legislation that will help our residents.” […]
“How quickly, what’s in it, how it’s impacted by the IRS, all those things need to be considered,” [Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan] said. Concurrence motions on House bills that were amended in the Senate and sent back will occur “next week.”
* Sen. Jim Oberweis was the lone “No” vote. From a press release…
The Internal Revenue Service has warned states looking to get around the deduction caps – New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and now Illinois – that they could face new regulations.
“There is no way the federal government is going to allow states to pull a fast one like that, to find a tricky way around the deduction limits,” Oberweis said. “Trying to get around the IRS is not a good idea. This is a ‘lose-lose’ situation.”
If somehow a court upheld the Illinois plan (unlikely), Oberweis said the federal government could come back and limit all deductions to $10,000, which would be bad news for charities, as charitable contributions could be negatively impacted.
In an accompanying video, Oberweis called the bill “fools gold” a “phony, tricky work-around” and “sham legislation.”
I am pretty stunned at the “won’t SOMEONE think of the carjackers?” approach to this bill from @ToniPreckwinkle, her allies and now Cassidy. We look completely insane as a state and city https://t.co/nb5TgK5Doz
Because the bill doesn't go after "carjackers." It goes after people in possession of stolen property. Worse still, it violates equal protection by treating juveniles more harshly than adults, which we know does long-term damage to kids and communities. https://t.co/9mRtBkbcpu
Amdor is right. Even the bill’s House sponsor, Rep. Jaime Andrade (D-Chicago), freely admits that his bill is not about carjacking. From a statement Rep. Andrade sent me via text on May 16th…
The biggest issue is that people are calling it a “car jacking” bill.
This is NOT a carjacking bill.
This is a change to the PSMV [Possession of a Stolen Motor Vehicle] act. That needs to be changed because modernizations of vehicles, the FOBS, keyless entry, etc.
My goal is to deal with the 1000s of motor vehicle thefts in the state.
Most car thefts involve parked and unattended vehicles, not violent seizure. Under current law, people who were not involved in the original theft may still be prosecuted for possession of a stolen motor vehicle. It is a serious offense which carries a sentence of between 3 and 7 years, and one for which passengers as well as drivers can be held liable no matter how long ago the car was stolen.
Considering the length of the sentence and how broad the liability is, it is important to establish that the defendant knew that the car was stolen. This requirement to show knowledge is not a “loophole,” as the bill’s staunchest proponents would have you believe, but rather an essential way of making sure the law is fair.
Carjacking is a very different crime, a violent and dangerous one. But the barrier to prosecuting carjacking effectively is not that so-called “loophole” in the law. It is, quite frankly, that nine out of ten carjacking offenses in Chicago never result in an arrest.
If the police do not successfully arrest the perpetrators, the State’s Attorney has no one to prosecute.
Instead of developing a strategy that could result in more arrests, the mayor and the Chicago Police Department have proposed a law that is overly broad and would result in punishing not only the person in possession of the car, but also their passengers, many of whom may not even know they are committing a crime.
It is perhaps instructive to note, by the way, that the state’s attorney’s Motor Vehicle Theft unit was funded for many years by a state grant that fell victim to the recent budget standoff.
* Zeke’s reasons for staying calm during times of legislative strife was as sound back then as it is today…
May 24, 1994: The House paid tribute to the late Rep. Zeke Giorgi, who at the time of his death was the body's longest-serving member. His protégé, Speaker Madigan, recalled Girogi's frequent admonition during difficult debate to "Stay calm, Mike. It's just show biz." pic.twitter.com/1znQlb5YnI
The General Assembly can often resemble professional wrestling. The results are almost always preordained and, while the fights can draw real blood, they’re mostly staged.
* Lightly edited text exchange between Rich and myself…
Him: Um, why haven’t you done a blog post about your new Chicago Mag piece? Me: That’s self-promotional! Him: Do it.
* So here we are. Earlier this week Chicago Magazine published a story I wrote about the revenue ideas too politically difficult to even mention in Illinois these days: taxing retirement income and expanding the state’s sales tax to certain services. A big thank you to editor Whet Moser for making it happen. Here it is…
As Illinois lawmakers stare down their final weeks in Springfield, the state is staring down its own fiscal realities: $6.5 billion in unpaid bills, a $130 billion pension shortfall, and credit ratings still barely teetering above junk-bond status despite an income-tax hike last summer. That makes it an anomaly within the Midwest, a state that can never seem to manage its money while surrounding ones thrive. But its tax system is also strikingly different than theirs, a fact members of both parties have long bemoaned but not changed.
J.B. Pritzker’s campaign is the latest to propose aligning the state’s revenues with that of its neighbors, and it would be a considerable shift. After years of non-serious discussion of the issue, he’s pushing to change the state’s constitution to permit a graduated income tax instead of the mandated flat tax. If that happens, it would bring Illinois closer to the tax structures of surrounding states.
But there are two other types of taxes employed by our neighbors—ones brought up again and again—that still seem too poisonous to consider.
[Note from Rich Miller: I’m often asked by reporters to post their stories because y’all can really drive up their numbers in a big way. So, please, click the link and read Hannah’s story before commenting below. Thanks.]
* Both the House and Senate have canceled their previously scheduled Saturday and Sunday sessions. The chambers return on Memorial Day. Follow today’s action with ScribbleLive…
