State Sen. Dave Koehler dropped his bid for Congress in Illinois’ 17th District on Friday and instead will seek re-election to his Peoria-area seat in the Illinois Senate.
In an interview, Koehler said he had to reassess what his priorities were, and he said he thought he could best serve in Springfield.
He said he was optimistic about his chances in the Democratic congressional primary but thought it best he run again for the Senate seat he has held since 2006.
“We felt we had a good chance, but in the end, we had to evaluate all the possibilities, and this one looked like it was the best one for me to pursue,” he said.
* I’ll have more for subscribers on Monday, but Democrat Cheri Bustos looks like the immediate beneficiary in the congressional race, but she has work to do…
It’s been hard thus far for Peoria County Democrats’ Chairman Billy Halstead to assess the strengths of the other candidates and what attention they might bring Peoria’s way, particularly in the case of the perceived frontrunner for his party’s nod, Cheri Bustos.
“I don’t know Cheri Bustos at all,” Halstead said. “I haven’t met her.”
Although he said he saw the value in having “another congressman from Peoria fighting hard” for area interests, he said in his view the most important thing was that his party come together and elect a Democrat to the seat.
The candidates remaining in the race on the Democratic side include Bustos, an East Moline alderwoman; Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp; Rock Island attorney Eric Reyes; and Augustana College diversity coordinator Greg Aguilar.
Peoria County Board member Allen Mayer had previously declared that he’d seek the Democratic nomination for the 46th Senate seat, but is now backing down. At the outset of his bid he said he would not run against Koehler.
“I’ll be withdrawing my petitions at the appropriate point after (Koehler) files his petitions for re-election, and he’ll be doing so with my full support,” he said.
Mayer said he is exploring his options for what, if any, other office to seek in 2012. That will include a conversation with the declared Democratic candidate for the County Board seat Mayer now holds before any final decision is made. He and firefighter Rick Waldron were unable to speak Friday because the latter was on duty — and thus not able to discuss political business — until Saturday morning at the soonest.
One candidate who’s not making way for Koehler is James Polk. The former Peoria City Council member and current Illinois Central College trustee said he has no plans to exit the race.
“I’m going to stay in the race because … I have told people that I’m going to run,” he said. “I’ve got support because I’ve always stood up for what’s right … I can serve and fight for the working men and women of the (district).”
* Full statements by Sen. Koehler and Congressman Schilling are here.
You can bet there’ll be a mad scramble for petition signatures this weekend all over Peoria.
Top leaders of CME Group Inc. (CME) Friday afternoon will meet with Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, who is attempting to lure the world’s largest futures exchange group to the Hoosier State.
Indiana is among the states CME has been eyeing for months as it weighs a move from its longtime home of Chicago, citing a heavy tax burden that leaves the exchange operator paying an estimated 6% of all corporate tax collected by Illinois. […]
A spokesman for Mayor Ballard confirmed the meeting Friday.
“We have a very competitive offer and we’re excited and happy to be talking to CME officials,” he said, declining to reveal details on any incentives.
No one yet has anything to announce, but the failure of the Legislature to approve tax breaks for Chicago’s big trading exchanges has set off a flurry of late-week activity, some aimed at keeping the exchanges in town, some at luring it away.
In one development, sources close to Mayor Rahm Emanuel say he “cleared his calendar” and spent much of Friday trying to broker a deal on behalf of CME Group Inc. and CBOE Holdings Inc.
The mayor is said to have made numerous calls, several to the same folks. […]
Other activity occurred when Illinois House GOP Leader Tom Cross met with Rep. John Bradley, chairman of the House Revenue Committee and the point person on tax matters for that chamber’s Democrats.
A source close to Mr. Cross says the two plan to talk again over the weekend in hopes of developing a package that could be put to a vote in the next couple of weeks.
* We’re gonna kick off our annual Golden Horseshoe awards next week, so start putting some thought into your nominations. The awards somehow transformed from a snarky lark to a highly coveted prize, so we pretty much have no choice but to go through the process again.
* Much of what I’ve heard from Eric Church is radio-friendly country pop, but I truly love this tune and I think many of us can relate…
* Russ Stewart’s latest column, which isn’t online yet, begins this way…
Illinois is the “most bankrupt state in the nation,” asserts Dan Rutherford, the Republican state treasurer. According to his office, Illinois’ indebtedness is a staggering $192.1 billion, almost four times the annual budget of $53 billion. “That debt is the highest in the nation,” said Rutherford.
“We are spending $3 for every $2 in revenue,” said the treasurer, with a $12 billion annual structural budget deficit – expenditures over revenues.
OK, first of all, bankruptcy is like pregnancy. You’re either bankrupt or you’re not. Illinois isn’t bankrupt.
* And we’re spending $3 for every $2 in revenues with a $12 billion annual structural deficit? Did Rutherford miss the tax hike?
I asked for an explanation…
That statistic comes from the Civic Committee’s analysis of FY11 made in January using GOMB’s Three Year Budget Projection (General Funds) 2012-2014, COGFA’s FY2011 Budget Summary and input from the Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois and the Illinois Business Roundtable.
Civic Committee cites $28.865 billion of general fund revenue (excluding non-recurring sources such as pensions bonds, tobacco settlement, stimulus, etc.)
Civic Committee cites $34.118 billion of general fund expenditures plus a $7 billion underfunding of retiree costs (including pension and health care liabilities) leaving a $12 billion structural deficit
$41.118B to $28.865B = $2.85 for every $2
Rutherford’s office also sent along these PowerPoint slides which purport to explain everything. They don’t.
But from what I can gather, part of the problem here is that Rutherford is adding old bills to the structural deficit and calling them both structural. They’re not. For the past several years, Illinois had a huge structural deficit which was adding more and more late bills to the pile every year. The tax hike and subsequent budget cuts have reduced that structural deficit down to a relative nubbin. The pile isn’t getting much larger, but it still exists.
Also, both the governor’s and the General Assembly’s three-year forecasts are way outdated because one was done in January and the other in March, well before the final budget was passed.
The Auditor General projects spending to be $30.6 billion this fiscal year, not the $34 billion cited by the treasurer. Excluding the same non-recurring and federal sources as Rutherford, revenues are estimated by COGFA to be about the same as spending, which is over a billion dollars higher than the figure cited by Rutherford.
And $7 billion in unfunded retiree costs? I cannot find anything, anywhere to show me this is a credible number.
* Illinois has many problems. No doubt. They’re enough to make you wanna tear your hair out. But the problems aren’t nearly as bad as Rutherford is trying to make them out to be.
In Illinois it’s a Christmas tree. That’s what Gov. Pat Quinn calls the tall greenery erected in the main state office building in downtown Chicago.
What governors call the seasonal trees made news when Rhode Island’s governor recently called the blue spruce erected in the Statehouse in Providence a holiday tree instead of a Christmas tree.
Quinn made his thoughts clear on the Christmas tree vs. holiday tree debate Thursday after lighting the state tree. There is also a tree at the Illinois Capitol in Springfield.
Chicago’s first Jewish mayor will flip the switch during the 98th annual tree lighting ceremony in Daley Plaza on Wednesday.
But unlike Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who recently insisted on calling the Wisconsin State Capitol’s evergreen a “Christmas tree,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel intends to refer to the towering Tannenbaum at the city’s center as a “holiday tree,” spokeswoman Tarrah Cooper said.
*** UPDATE 1 *** The governor’s office points to this bill which was introduced in February, but never made it out of committee as proof that it supported reinstating the tax credit program.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From the IMA…
The bill (HB2948) cited by Quinn was an IMA initiative. We drafted it and worked with Rep. Mussman who sponsored the bill.
Dugan said the state hasn’t done enough recently to encourage investment in research facilities. The R&D tax credit has been a political football in the state General Assembly as lawmakers swing back and forth between curtailing and expanding tax incentives for businesses. The R&D credit has expired three times in past eight years.
“What message does that send?” Dugan said. “There’s a lack a of stability and predictability” in the state’s business policies, he added.
Under the credit program that expired at the end of 2010, companies were able to earn credits on their state income taxes based on spending increases on research and development. Quinn’s spokeswoman predicted the program will eventually be reinstated.
“The governor believes strongly in the R&D credits,” Anderson said. “He knows it’s important and he’s in support of it.”
OK, just wait a second here. If Gov. Pat Quinn “believes strongly in the R&D credits,” and “knows it’s important,” and is “in support of it.” then why the heck did he allow the tax credit program to expire in the first place?
I don’t go in for Illinois bashing, but this sort of thing is exactly why Illinois has such a horrible reputation.
* I’m sure this company used the R&D credit, but while the credit’s expiration doesn’t appear to have played a role in the board room decision to leave, it certainly didn’t help…
Consumer products giant Unilever plans to close the Alberto Culver plant in Melrose Park in 2013 and will begin laying off at least 600 employees in a few months, employees and a union representative said Thursday.
“Most of the employees are very long-term and a lot of them are either in shock or denial,” said Steven Kramer, vice president of the United Steelworkers union Local 9777. He said the union represents about 250 people at the plant, which has operated since 1961.
Kramer and employees estimated the shutdown will eliminate 800 jobs at the factory and at adjacent offices that used to be Alberto Culver’s headquarters. However, Unilever spokeswoman Anita Larsen said there are 600 jobs at the location. She said the entire office staff will be cut or transferred.
One worker said Unilever is giving up on Melrose Park because it has a largely older work force. She said that despite the plant’s age, it consistently surpassed benchmarks for productivity.
“They told us they didn’t want us even if we worked for free,” said the worker, who asked not to be named.
The governor talks a lot about creating 21st Century jobs. But doing so means fostering companies that create those jobs. Killing off a tax credit for research and development is simply foolhardy. Cat, by the way, spends most of its $1 billion on R&D right here in Illinois.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn says lawmakers who question expanding a tax credit for low-income workers should read Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
Quinn says increasing the earned-income tax credit is about helping all those “Bob Cratchits” who work hard raising kids and deserve some tax relief too if Illinois is going to give breaks to big companies.
After lighting the state Christmas tree Thursday in Chicago, Quinn said he supports a major tax breaks package that increases the state version of the EITC to 10 percent of the federal credit, up from 5 percent.
Some lawmakers don’t even want the EITC mixed into a tax package deal that’s aimed at keeping major companies like the CME Group Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp. in Illinois.
Parisi also said the CME would not give up on negotiations with Illinois lawmakers on a package of tax breaks from the state after a proposed deal was voted down by the Illinois House of Representatives on Tuesday.
The exchange has threatened to leave Illinois because of a heavy tax burden.
“Unfortunately we were not able to get something passed in this recent session that would have been a benefit for CME going forward,” he said. “We’ll continue to work there and we will continue to look at our other options.”
* When are jobs worth the big cost?: “We’re so desperate for jobs that we’re vulnerable to this,” said Patton, a senior associate at Policy Matters Ohio, a Columbus-based think tank. “It’s a sad thing that our leadership has decided this is what they want to do.”
The Indianapolis tourism agency has yanked a video of its version of the 1985 Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle” from YouTube after it faced wilting mockery from online viewers.
The video showed hotel and restaurant workers dancing and singing new lyrics to the Bears’ 1985 rap song. The tourism agency produced the video as a marketing promotion linked to February’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis.
Critics started a Facebook page asking that “this abomination of a promotional video go away as soon as possible!”
* Turn out the lights on deal: Sunday, in its latest round of disturbing revelations about Yanagihara, The Indianapolis Star cited investors who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to him on a California housing venture whose developer says he wrongly cashed in on its name. A spate of other problems in areas such as debts, taxes and licensing has been compiled by The Star as well, and Yanagihara has been mum since his gala announcement on Oct. 26, which included Mayor Greg Ballard and Gov. Mitch Daniels, of plans to bring 1,100 jobs to the city.
* Lynn Sweet tells us that Republican Congressman Joe Walsh is letting Jack Roeser do his talking for now about whether he will switch districts and run in the 8th CD…
“If he gets the assurances of a big welcome in this thing, Joe will run in the 8th,” GOP activist Jack Roeser told me Thursday night. Roeser told me he has been discussing the switch with Walsh and GOP House leaders.
“He’s told me he is going to run (in the 8th) and I have a close association with him,” Roeser told me.
Walsh is not close to GOP House leaders and he would need their help in the November contest, especially if Duckworth is the Democratic nominee. Duckworth, a wounded Iraq war veteran and former VA official, is close to President Barack Obama and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
A House contest with a Tea Party Republican pitted against an Obama Democrat would be a marquee, expensive race.
All Walsh wants, Roeser said, is a pledge to “treat him like a good acceptable fellow Republican candidate.” […]
Last September, Walsh said he would run from the new 14th district, setting up a battle with Hultgren. “A blood bath is not what we need,” Roeser told me.
I’ve received several “off the record” e-mails from Walsh this week. I can’t go into details, but he’s not happy with his coverage. I gather from talking to others that he basically wants to do the right thing by his party, but is unhappy that he’s being portrayed as some sort of an opportunist.
* Roundup…
* Press Release: Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin Endorses Ilya Sheyman for Congress in Illinois’ 10th District
