* I was gonna shut down for the Monday holiday, but that wouldn’t be any fun with the election coming up, would it? We’re almost to the point where I’m going to keep the blog open on the weekends. Maybe next week. Not this one, though.
So, you’ll have to satisfy your fix with regular visits to Illinoize. And, hey, bubbas and bubbettes, go place a classified ad or calendar announcement at InsiderzExchange. Like I always say, it’s the place to be seen.
As many city homeowners complain about their new, higher property tax bills, Mayor Richard Daley on Thursday called on state lawmakers to increase and make permanent breaks designed to soften the effect of rising home values.
In Chicago, those property tax exemptions are being phased out and are set to expire in 2010 unless the General Assembly renews them.
The CTA’s announcement Thursday that the agency must hike fares next year was greeted with frustration by riders who are already stressed over the high cost of commuting and the ailing economy. […]
Free rides for seniors and selected other riders, instituted in recent months by Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the legislature, turned out to be the last straw, they said. […]
“The CTA got a sales tax hike approved . . . [that is] more than enough to cover what was lost by letting seniors ride free,” Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero said.
The suburban bus line is looking at a 25-cent increase in fares, which would bring its base fare to $1.75 in a move to raise badly needed money, officials said. […]
Budgets are being drained by the increased cost of fuel and other operating expenses. In addition, sales tax revenue is lower than expected, and transit agencies are feeling the loss of fare receipts and state subsidies for senior citizens and the disabled.
Lake Forest-based Brunswick Corporation says it will cut 1400 jobs. The boat manufacturer says the plan comes as a last resort in a poor economy.
As the recreational boating market sinks, manufacturer Brunswick needs to find a way to make ends meet. By early next year, the company plans to shut down four plants and temporarily close three others. Brunswick spokesman Dan Kubera says boats just aren’t selling in this economy.
State Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-12th), chairman of the Commerce and Economic Development Committee, also weighed in on the federal [rescue/bailout] legislation […]
“It is evident that HB 4050 that House Speaker Michael Madigan and I sponsored, and which Gov. Blagojevich suspended, was ahead of this crisis,” he said, asserting that the pilot program that mandated credit counseling for homebuyers in certain circumstances “would have protected many of our neighborhoods on the Southwest Side of Chicago.”
Blagojevich suspended that legislation at the behest of some ministers who appeared to be in the tank with predatory lenders.
* Blagojevich’s legal troubles and erratic behavior means his ability to govern is just about nil these days. God help us…
Sneed hears rumbles political fund-raiser/fixer Tony Rezko, who is now singing sweetly to the feds from his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, has been talking about his “dealings” with a Chicago bank, which has political connections.
The ads hit Morgenthaler as a “top lieutenant” of Blagojevich and accuse her of trying to help Rezko land a multi-million contract in Iraq. Morgenthaler called the ad “a blatant lie.”
Morgenthaler served as the deputy chief of staff for homeland security for Blagojevich from December 2005 until October 2007.
The ads cites as a source a letter Morgenthaler wrote on behalf of a company that had ties to Rezko.
Morgenthaler said she has never met Rezko nor accepted campaign donations from him.
“I don’t know the man,” she said.
And she said she had no idea that Rezko had behind-the-scenes ties to the firm she introduced to the Illinois Department of Economic Opportunity in 2006.
* In another race, Democrat Dan Seals blasts Republican Rep. Mark Kirk on the Iraq war.…
In a new broadcast ad starting today, an unnamed Iraq war veteran says Kirk was “irresponsible” in voting for the war and then voting to cut veteran health care funding.
“We fought for our country and Mark Kirk turned his back on us,” the man says.
Republican candidates Steve Greenberg and Steve Sauerberg along with GOP U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert landed on the Center for Responsive Politics list of “Wall Street’s Favorite Candidates” Thursday. […]
Greenberg, who is challenging incumbent Democrat Melissa Bean in the northwest suburban 8th District, was listed as the tenth highest candidate for congress in terms of Wall Street backing.
He has taken in more than $125,850 from the finance sector, nearly 20 percent of his total haul as of mid-year.
Biggert, who has a lot of banking interests in the west suburban 13th District, made the 10th slot for incumbents. The Hinsdale Republican raised $398,015, or 42 percent of her campaign fund, from the financial sector.
Meanwhile, Sauerberg took in nearly 16 percent of his campaign fund, more than $54,000, from the financial sector, giving him the 4th slot for U.S. Senate challengers. He hopes to unseat Democrat Dick Durbin of Springfield.
* Related…
* ADDED: Ill. Democrats expect boost from Obama, not magic
* Newspaper Endorsements Continue to Roll in For Mark Kirk
“Dr. Sauerberg would be a change in Washington,” Durbin said. “At least a change in face, but he would bring the same politics. It’s sad for students who are here because this is a debt that you will pay for.”
Durbin calls the gridlock among his fellow Democrats at the state Capitol embarrassing. […]
“This mess is our creation, Democratic creation, and there are no excuses for what has happened,” [said Durbin]…
Durbin said he’s tried to work more closely with Blagojevich on key issues, but doesn’t get his phone calls returned regularly. He said he doesn’t know what it will take to fix the problems or whether he or anyone else in Washington could help cut through the morass.
“I don’t know that I could ride to the rescue of our state government,” Durbin said. “They have to own up to their own responsibility.”
That may end up in a GOP mailer or two.
* On another front, here’s a quote from Sauerberg during the Tribune editorial board “debate” with Sen. Dick Durbin earlier this week…
Sauerberg acknowledged that Durbin has “done a great job on some of these issues” dealing with veterans.
* Sauerberg during last night’s Illinois Radio Network debate…
Only days after backtracking on questioning Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s patriotism, Republican challenger Steve Sauerberg reheated the issue Thursday by accusing him of actions that “embolden the enemy” and “put our soldiers in danger” in Iraq.
The facts are I go around the state and people question Dick Durbin’s patriotism. These behaviors are unpatriotic. I see the ramifications of his poor judgment.”
Sauerberg also supported his plan to eliminate Medicare and instead allow citizens to buy individual health care from private venues. He said this plan will give all citizens health care, regardless of preexisting conditions or health care benefits through employers.
On health care, Sauerberg proposed dismantling employer-provided health care in favor of an open market system that eliminates pre-existing condition restrictions and tightens a patient’s ability to sue their doctors.
But he offered no specifics on the size of the tax breaks and vouchers he backs to help the uninsured.
* Yesterday, the Washington Post ran one of the better analyses I’ve seen yet of Barack Obama’s history in the Illinois Senate. You should definitely go read the whole thing. While it covers some overly familiar territory (poker games, clashes with black Senators, white friends, etc.), it is overal quite nuanced - until it gets to the end…
There remained only one problem with Obama’s résumé, a rare hole the politician himself had never foreseen, friends said. Obama voted “Present” 129 times in the state Senate, all during his six years in the minority. His political opponents have used those votes as proof of cowardice. By refusing to vote “Yes” or “No,” they argue, Obama avoided casting votes on controversial issues in order to protect his record.
But Obama placed more than half of his “Present” votes along with other Democrats in organized protest of Republican legislation, voting records showed. Allies said many of his other “Present” votes reflected his tendency toward analysis and precision: He voted “Present” whenever he liked a bill but felt uncomfortable with its wording, they said.
“Nobody ever thought the ‘Present’ votes would become an issue,” Lightford said. “Obviously, he never thought so, or he probably would have voted ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ ”
Nobody thought the votes would be an issue because “Present” votes are pretty common in the General Assembly.
* I requested the following charts from a Democratic entity. The first has the summary of the top seven “Present” voters in the Senate during the time Obama was in Springfield…
As you can see, almost every one of those Senators is (or was) highly respected at the Statehouse.
Here’s the breakdown by year. Click the pic for a larger image…
Obama’s “Present” votes appear to closely track with other Democrats on the list. So, while Obama certainly had more “P” votes than lots and lots of other Senators, he wasn’t out of line with people like Vince Demuzio and John Cullerton.
* One more thing. Former GOP Sen. Steve Raushenberger has repeatedly made an issue of Obama’s “Present” votes and once told me that his total was nowhere near Obama’s. In fact, the Democratic researcher found that Rauschenberger voted “Present” 82 times between 1997 and 2004. That isn’t too far below Obama’s total.
* My Sun-Times column this week was written in direct response to a Sun-Times editorial this past Tuesday which formally endorsed a “No” vote on the constitutional convention referendum. The Sun-Times has always been very accomodating whenever I’ve wanted to openly disagree with the official viewpoint on their own editorial page, so I give them major props for green-lighting this piece, which actually quotes their own flawed reasoning…
“No Negro or mulatto shall migrate to or settle in this state after the adoption of the constitution.”
If you think Illinois politics is bizarre, nasty and brutish now, it ain’t got nothing on the past.
That above passage was approved by the Illinois Constitutional Convention of 1862.
That’s right.
Illinois.
The Land of Lincoln.
1862.
The Civil War.
Amazingly enough, the proposed ban on “negroes” and “mulattoes” was drafted just weeks before President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
The 1862 constitutional convention was dominated by radical southern Illinoisans, widely reviled as “Copperheads,” who sympathized with the Confederacy to the point of advocating secession from the Union.
Times were tense and very tough in Illinois at that time. The war wasn’t going well. Most of the state’s banks had collapsed. The Mississippi River was closed to barge traffic, so farmers couldn’t easily export their crops. Family legend has it that one of my own ancestors was deployed to deep southern Illinois to help quell an armed revolt.
Republican Gov. Richard Yates, a Lincoln ally, called for troops to patrol Springfield during the convention. Gov. Yates believed that the hated Copperheads might use the convention to mount an insurrection and seize control of state government.
Thankfully, the grave injustice and permanent stain on our state’s history was avoided when Illinois voters rejected that vile “Copperhead Constitution” during a statewide referendum.
Eight years later, a new constitutional convention was convened and Illinois voters eventually approved one of the most progressive constitutions in the nation. For the first time anywhere, the railroads were subjected to state regulation. The 1870 constitution is now seen as the birth of the modern regulatory society. Several of the convention delegates, most of them young reformers, ended up running for the General Assembly and swept the horribly corrupt old guard out of office.
Then, in 1920, Illinois took another shot at a new Constitution. The United States Constitution had been amended seven years earlier to allow Congress to impose an income tax. Illinois convention delegates followed suit by proposing a new income tax for Illinois. But voters overwhelmingly rejected the constitution during a 1922 referendum, 900,000 votes to 200,000.
It wasn’t until 1972 that Illinois voters finally approved a new Constitution, which was considered a model of progressivity at the time. As with the previously successful convention, the page seemed to turn on Illinois politics as several delegates used their newfound reputations as modern reformers to springboard to elective office.
There are two points to this story.
Illinois voters are given a chance to call a constitutional convention every 20 years. This year is the year. And after 18 years of covering Illinois politics, I’ve come to the firm conclusion that a constitutional convention should be approved. Changes simply must be made.
But earlier this week the Sun-Times editorialized against convening a convention.
“The dangerous wild card in all this, however, is not so much what a convention might fail to do, but what it might do. Once the Constitution is thrown open, anything goes. A woman’s right to choose an abortion could be curtailed. Same-sex marriage could be permitted or prohibited.”
That misses a crucial point.
Any proposed constitution must be submitted to voters for final approval. And after looking at the history of far stranger times, I trust the voters to make the right decision.
Also, both successful conventions sparked a new beginning in Illinois politics. The old guard was replaced by the young, fresh reformers who populated the constitutional convention. We need to turn that page again.
So, please, vote “Yes” on the constitutional convention this November.
* Meanwhile, retired public employees, particularly teachers, are being bombarded with goofy spamlike e-mails which trash the con-con and demand a “No” vote. Here’s the latest one I’ve seen…
CON-CON is the Constitutional Convention vote that will take place on the Nov. 4th Ballot.
One of the changes that the CON-CON will provide is the taxing of pensions in the State of Illinois .
To all my retired friends and those that will retire in the future, get the word out to vote NO!!!!! For those of us that get municipal pensions, our Social Security is already cut, thank you Dan Rostenkowski.
Do not let the State tax our pensions.
Tell all your Illinois friends that on Nov. 4th vote NO to CON-CON.
Let’s get the word out.
Thanks for you help.
Notice that the core message is that pension income “will” be taxed if a convention is convened. Ridiculous.
* Here’s another chain e-mail going around…
Another even bigger concern for teachers is that if Con-Con is passed our pension can be cut drastically or totally eliminated. They can vote to no longer fund it or to erase any of the monies owed us because it would be a really easy way to help balance the budget without voter approval. They would have free reign to do whatever they want with our retirement.
Any changes can be made to our constitution through the process of making and passing amendments and getting voter approval. With Con-Con they can just make the changes without voter approval.
That is a complete, utter lie in every respect.
Pension payments to current retirees can NOT be cut not matter what happens at a constitutional convention because the current constitution guarantees the payments as a contract. Therefore, that contract is and will always be binding on the state.
That other part about a convention making changes without voter approval is probably the most disgusting lie I’ve seen to date. As I’ve said I don’t know how many times: Voters get final approval on everything.
Riling up senior citizens with lies like this is absolutely unforgivable. The perpetrators ought to be ashamed of themselves. And I’m going to start calling them out in public by name and include their full contact information if this doesn’t stop right now.
Overall, 58 percent of the 1,000 likely Illinois voters surveyed by Rasmussen Reports currently favor a Con-Con. That’s just short of the 60 percent mark that would be required to vote “yes” in order to initiate the convention process. The poll found that 21 percent are opposed to the idea, with 21 percent undecided.
That’s just not true.
I was recently given the full poll results on condition that I not publish them. But if the supporters are going to mislead the public and hide the actual results, then I have no choice but to call them out here. This is the actual result…
2* Do you support or oppose an Illinois Constitutional Convention?
37% Support
31% Oppose
33% Not sure
* The pollster then asked a question about legislative job performance, a right-track/wrong-track question, asked if they are satisfied with education funding, and then posed nine “push” questions designed specifically to sway voter opinion in favor of the con-con vote. Here’s just one of them…
13* If you knew that those opposed to calling a constitutional convention have donated more than $10 million to Governor Blagojevich and the Springfield politicians since 2002, would you be more likely or less likely to support a constitutional convention?
Only after those nine push questions were asked did 58 percent say they’d support a con-con.
The point here is that there is no way on God’s green Earth that the proponents will have the money to effectively “burn” those nine points into voters’ minds by election day. No way.
“All these people in America are going to go out and vote on Election Day 30 days from now and the truth is that their vote doesn’t really count because it’s the Electoral College who will decide who the next president is,” LaHood told about 130 students Wednesday at Holy Family School.
Earlier this year, Illinois became the third state to support choosing the president by the nation’s popular vote instead of the Electoral College, which is set up by the Constitution. Maryland and New Jersey also embrace the idea, but dozens more states would have to join the effort before it could take effect.
Chicago motorists who get caught talking on cell phones while driving without a hands-free device would no longer lose their driver’s licenses, under a mayoral plan that would have spared a North Side alderman political embarrassment.
Last year, Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) got pulled over and ticketed for yakking on his cell phone while driving. He was forced to hand over his license like thousands of other motorists.
Mayor Richard Daley declared eight years ago that Chicago would end “the failed policies of the past.” Yet a Tribune investigation found that the city has pumped hundreds of millions of federal tax dollars into housing complexes that preserve the very policies the plan was meant to reverse.
The largest is the Altgeld-Murray Homes, a sprawling 190-acre development built on the Far South Side for black factory workers during World War II. At that development alone, the CHA plans to spend $451 million rehabbing 1,998 barracks-style apartments, with politically connected Walsh Construction doing much of the work.
Despite the lousy report, Daley said Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Michael Picardi “has done a good job.” The mayor also denied union allegations that Hoffman issued the report to help Daley’s case for layoffs.
“We are going to identify these individuals. We are going to discipline and fire them,” he added.
The tough comments, typical for Daley after embarrassing news breaks, came after an Inspector General’s report released Wednesday blasted garbage workers for loafing in what was characterized as “systemic, pervasive” waste and fraud. The office spied on 77 garbage truck drivers and 145 laborers in 10 wards before drawing its conclusions.
Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) is fed up with valet parking companies that damage cars, park illegally, gobble up on-street spaces and tie up downtown traffic.
Reilly wants to require valet companies serving Chicago restaurants, bars and hotels to provide enough off-street spaces to serve 25 percent of the establishment’s seating capacity. The current requirement is 10 percent.
ComEd has concluded that clout and favoritism played no role in the company’s decision to deliver a generator to the home of Chicago’s No. 2 man at O’Hare Airport to restore power during a violent August storm.
First Deputy Aviation Commissioner David Ochal resigned his $155,604-a-year job in the wake of the scandal, allowing him to escape a mandatory interview by the city’s inspector general.
Women enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program can receive insurance coverage for tests to see if they carry genetic mutations linked to breast and ovarian cancer, state officials said Thursday.
Chicago marathon organizers say they’re stepping up safety efforts this year. Runners last year said the event was mismanaged. Some complained there wasn’t enough water on the course despite record heat.
Chicagoans have a choice Sunday: either join the 1.5 million people expected to watch the Chicago Marathon — or try to avoid it altogether. But it won’t be easy, as 45,000 runners will clog up the 26.2 mile race course and more streets for a good part of the day.
As the nationwide mortgage crisis puts the squeeze on homeowners, the Cook County sheriff’s office is on pace to evict more people than ever from foreclosed homes.
At least it was until Wednesday, when Sheriff Tom Dart announced he wouldn’t do it anymore.
Dart cited the growing number of evictions that involve rent-paying tenants who suddenly learn their building is in foreclosure because the landlord neglected to pay the mortgage. By refusing to do any foreclosure-related evictions, the hope is that banks will change their policies.
As it happens, the decision also will spare from eviction those legitimately in foreclosure.
Too many times, our deputies arrive at a home to carry out a mortgage foreclosure eviction, only to find a tenant — dutifully paying their rent each month — who is unaware their landlord stopped using that rent money to pay the mortgage. They had no fair warning that they were about to be thrown out of their home.
That’s because, in many cases, the banks have done nothing to determine, in advance, who’s living in the building — even though it’s required by state law. Instead, those banks expect taxpayers to pay for that investigative work for them.
That stops today.
We won’t be doing the banks’ work for them anymore.
“By ignoring the law and his legal responsibilities, he is carrying out ‘vigilantism’ at the highest level of an elected official,” the statement read. “This cannot be acceptable to anyone, regardless of their viewpoints.”
The statement noted numerous laws are in place to protect homeowners and renters, including provisions for giving notice.
* Question: Do you agree or disagree with Sheriff Dart’s decision? Explain fully, please.
* Former Illinois US Senator Peter Fitzgerald went after Barack Obama yesterday on behalf of John McCain’s campaign…
“For Senator Obama, reform and nonpartisanship is something to campaign on but not something he does when he actually gets into office,” said Fitzgerald who served with the Illinois Democrat in the state legislature. Fitzgerald added that Obama was nothing more than “one of those state Senators from Chicago who viewed the Democratic Party as being right 100 percent of the time and the Republican party wrong 100 percent of the time.”
Looking at Obama’s career in Springfield, Ill., Fitzgerald said, “I don’t recall him as being a reformer.” […]
Fitzgerald acknowledged that Obama has collaborated with GOP state lawmakers on legislation, but said the bills probably had prior approval of Democratic leaders. “They weren’t controversial and it didn’t take courage to do that,” he said.
GOP influence in the state is minimal, he said.
“The Republicans there, at this point, have little or no power, and they’re just not relevant,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald, In His Farewell Speech, Noted His Two Years Of State Senate Service With Obama And Said He Was “Almost Unequaled In His Potential And Promise…He May Surprise The Political Pundits By Voting, Crossing Party Lines At Times That You Don’t Expect Him To…” In 2004, Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL) said on the Senate floor, “Barack Obama, my successor, I wish him well. It was a privilege to have lunch with him yesterday in the Senate dining room. I served with Barack Obama in the State senate for 2 years. He was coming in, in the legislature in Springfield, in my last 2 years of service there. He is an uncommonly bright and talented young man.
He is 1 year younger than I. He is the first African-American president of the Harvard Law School. He is almost unequaled in his potential and promise. I am confident he will be a credit to the State of Illinois. I think he may surprise the political pundits by voting, crossing party lines at times that you don’t expect him to. It may be a challenge for him with Senator Durbin as his whip. But I see Barack Obama as possibly being a fairly moderate voice, more moderate than many people suspect.” [Congressional Record, 11/19/04]
It is less that Obama has bad ideas than that Obama is a bad person.
This, McCain and his female Sancho Panza say, is demonstrated by bad associations Obama had in Chicago, such as with William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist.
But the McCain-Palin charges have come just as the Obama campaign is benefiting from a mass mailing it is not paying for. Many millions of American households are gingerly opening envelopes containing reports of the third-quarter losses in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts — telling each household its portion of the nearly $2 trillion that Americans’ accounts have recently shed.
In this context, the McCain-Palin campaign’s attempt to get Americans to focus on Obama’s Chicago associations seem surreal — or, as a British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, “like being savaged by a dead sheep.”
The City Council on Wednesday gave lightning-fast approval to Mayor Daley’s $2.5 billion plan to privatize Midway Airport, despite an alderman’s complaint that the blockbuster deal was “shoved down our throats.”
By unanimous vote Wednesday, the City Council expanded the 2005 restriction that forbids talking on hand-held cell phones while behind the wheel. Violators could face a $75 fine, with the penalty rising to as much as $200 for violations that occur “at the time of a traffic accident.”
Chicago garbage collection crews work fewer than six hours a day — and get “paid to do nothing” for 25 percent of their time on the clock — costing taxpayers at least $14.3 million a year, according to an internal investigation denounced as a “witch hunt.”
During a 10-ward, 10-week surveillance, Inspector General David Hoffman found that waste and falsification of time in the Bureau of Sanitation is “systemic and pervasive and extends to all wards,” aided and abetted by poor supervision by layer upon layer of middle management.
* The allegedly poor performance wasn’t just “aided and abetted by poor supervision,” it was apparently the root cause…
[The inspector general] identified “extremely poor supervision” as the “principal cause” for the waste and fraud that Chicago taxpayers can ill afford.
* The Sun-Times editorial focuses mostly on the workers, but way down in the piece is this truism…
Supervision of garbage crews must improve. As the report notes, any boss “mildly interested” in making sure their garbage crews were working wouldn’t have to do much to ensure they were. It doesn’t take an agent from “CSI” to notice a garbage crew worker sleeping in his car.
It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to notice when a worker goes missing for two hours for a leisurely lunch — as the inspector general’s team noticed.
Worker productivity is the supervisors’ responsibility. It’s a bit different in a patronage system because workers are often “protected” by their sponsors. But a good supervisor can usually get around that problem. Trouble is, the supervisors are also patronage guys.
* Union leaders point to the mayor’s desire to lay off a bunch of garbage workers as the reason behind this probe…
“My members are out there to do a job, and they do the job well,” said Lou Phillips, business agent for Laborers Local 1001.
He said city officials have told him to expect 302 of his 1,100 members to be laid off after Daley proposes his 2009 budget next week.
Chicago Federation of Labor leader Dennis Gannon thinks the timing of the report is not coincidental. “It’s a cheap shot,” he said.
It’s the attention to minor offenses that raises eyebrows among productivity experts. They say the inspector general would be hard-pressed to find an American office in which workers don’t tackle personal chores on company time or begin their morning chit-chatting.
“That happens in most workplaces,” says John Gallagher, chief executive officer of the Challenger, Grey and Christmas outplacement firm. “To look at what the garbagemen are doing moment by moment is treating them like they’re children. You should treat employees as adults and judge how they’re handling their jobs.”
I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t about an excuse to privatize the system.
* More of that heroic leadership from the governor that we’ve all come to expect…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has approved diverting $221 million in the state budget that lawmakers hope will prevent layoffs and program cuts, but he said Wednesday that it’s up to a potential rival, Comptroller Dan Hynes, to determine whether the money is available.
That leaves in question the fate of 323 state employees, who have been told they’ll lose their jobs soon, and 24 state parks and historic sites that would be shuttered.
Hynes pointed out that the legislation requires him to transfer the money to a “budget relief fund” in quarterly installments. So more than $110 million will be available by today, spokeswoman Carol Knowles said.
Punt to Hynes and let him take the heat from special interest groups for emptying out those state funds.
Further muddying the issue is that Blagojevich still hasn’t signed a companion bill that authorizes spending the money. Even if he does, the administration is not obligated to spend it.
“It isn’t a guarantee he won’t close parks and lay off these people,” said Rep. Gary Hannig of Litchfield, one of the Democrats’ top budget negotiators. […]
Because there is a question about how much money might be available, Quinn said, the governor will not immediately act on the companion bill that authorizes where the swept money is to be spent. She said the administration is proceeding with preparations for the previously announced cuts that will result in the layoffs and site closings.
Hannig said it appears Blagojevich “has made up his mind he wants to close parks and lay off employees and cut human services.” If there are problems with the sweeps bill, they can be fixed before the cuts are implemented, he added.
* And what about the governor’s complaint about transferring money out of those special funds? Well…
Rep. Gary Hanning, a Litchfield Democrat and House member who negotiated the deal, said the bill was in the public domain in the House for a week, and it sat in the Senate for two weeks. Democrats and Republicans of both chambers had an opportunity to voice concerns and ask for changes, some of which were accommodated before they sent it to the governor.
“All through that period of time, the governor and his people sat silently by and never weighed in one way or the other, so we assumed that they were OK with this bill,” Hannig said.
The governor’s office offered another statement that his office made its concerns known in September
September. Late September. After both chambers had passed the bill.
[AFSCME] says the Department of Corrections plans to move 50 prisoners by Friday to a minimum-security prison in East Moline and another 50 next week to a minimum-security facility in Taylorville, meaning its appeal of Wednesday’s decision could come too late to stop the transfers.
* Columnist Barb Ickes notes that the East Moline facility is in a residential area and quotes an AFSCME official as saying that these large, last-minute prisoner transfers “are rare, if not unprecedented.”
But Department of Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp said it happens all the time. When asked whether the East Moline Correctional Center ever has received 50 inmates in one day, he said, “I don’t know about East Moline.” […]
Asked whether a three-day notice was practical, he answered, “We can give it (notice) the day of. There is no set guideline on notification.”
That’s peculiar. Does the Department of Corrections truly make a habit of simply dumping dozens of inmates on unknowing state prisons? Surely not. The East Moline prison this week has 1,060 prisoners, and the place was built to accommodate 688. A fair warning would seem in order.
Thodos said he doesn’t think the prisoners are going to stick around. More likely, he said, the move is part of Blagojevich’s bigger plan.
“My personal opinion is that this is probably a stop on the way to Thomson,” he said.
The governor wants to eventually close Pontiac and move many of the prisoners to the Thomson facility.
* CBS2, which first reported that the investigation of Gov. Rod Blagojevich appeared to be seriously heating up, had a pretty explosive report last night…
Several sources tell [CBS2] that federal agents are preparing charges of tax fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice against the governor.
The case against the governor reportedly focuses on allegations first made five years ago by his father-in-law Ald. Dick Mell involving alleged trading of jobs for five-figure campaign donations.
Sources claim newly issued subpoenas show First Lady Patti Blagojevich is also under scrutiny. She took nearly $200,000 in real estate commissions – some on deals done with the convicted Tony Rezko. They allegedly coincided with the award of state contracts by her husband’s administration. [emphasis added]
[Rezko defense attorney Bill Ziegelmueller] said Rezko is currently being held in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, two blocks from the downtown courthouse.
He said MCC officials disagree with the designation as “solitary confinement” but that Rezko is being held in an area often used for punishment and is not allowed to mingle with the general population.
[Rezko] doesn’t get out. There’s no cell-mate, there’s no ability to walk around the cell block and he’s in the area that they have for discipline purposes and he’s been there now for, I guess since June.
Ziegelmueller would not say if he thought it was a tactic by prosecutors to pressure Rezko into cooperating with their investigation into corruption in state government under governor Rod Blagojevich. The Metropolitan Correctional Facility, is — like the U-S attorneys office — part of the department of justice. A spokesman says when designating an inmate, the jail gets information from many sources including the U.S. attorney’s office.
Getting out of that cell to talk to the G must almost seem like a vacation to Rezko.
* Rezko’s defense attorney also had something to say about Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s constant references to a letter written by Rezko which claimed he was involved in no illegal activites with Blagojevich…
On Tuesday, Blagojevich said he hoped Rezko “tells the truth” and said he wasn’t worried about his former adviser and fund-raiser talking about him.
The governor pointed to a letter Rezko sent St. Eve earlier this year saying he wasn’t going to make up lies about Obama and Blagojevich.
Ziegelmueller said both the letter and the governor’s comments speak for themselves.
“I think everyone else can draw their own conclusions,” he said.
A miniature monument commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 1908 Springfield Race Riot will be unveiled at 4 p.m. Saturday during the Illinois NAACP’s 72nd annual state convention at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel & Conference Center.
* Judge denies request to stall transfers from prison
* Waukegan, Des Plaines renew developer partnerships in pursuit of casinos
With a deadline looming, officials in Des Plaines and Waukegan have extended development agreements aimed at luring a casino to their communities.
Applications to the Illinois Gaming Board for the long-dormant 10th casino license are due Tuesday.
The Des Plaines City Council voted this week to renew an exclusive agreement with Chicago developer Neil Bluhm in its bid to land a casino.
In the last 15 months, the village has been tarnished with political scandal and news of the weird.
Three politicians, including two mayors, have been charged with crimes related to how they run the village.
The village also made headlines in the spring after a landowner threatened to turn his property into a pig farm to prevent Island Lake from building a water tower nearby. About the same time, two trustees had a Vietnam veteran arrested because he pointed his finger at them while wearing a Marine Corps T-shirt with a picture of a man pointing a rifle. They claimed it was a veiled threat at a heated board meeting.
Next fall Chicago could have its first high school formed by labor unions. The project is among 18 new schools the district is recommending for Board of Education approval this month.
The Illinois Federation of Teachers and Service Employees International Union Local 73 have formed a nonprofit group to run the school. They’ve agreed to locate the school in West Garfield Park, a mostly African American neighborhood. Carlene Lutz works for the teachers union.
* City leaders to recommend approval of gay high school
A “gay-friendly'’ Chicago public high school that will weave gay and lesbian “heroes” — from James Baldwin to Gertrude Stein — into its curriculum was among 20 new school proposals unveiled Wednesday.
Lawmakers in Will County think they have the solution to what ails the nation’s troubled economy: Build more roads.
County Board members on Wednesday unveiled an ambitious, $300 million transportation package to help unclog crowded roads, repair bridges and improve safety in some of the most dangerous intersections. The seven-year plan could generate as many as 8,400 new jobs in Will County and would be paid for with local, state and federal funds, including the state’s newly approved regional transportation tax, officials said.
Stunned homeowners are lining up at assessor’s offices across Cook County after opening up property-tax bills with whopping increases in recent days.
In a declining real estate market, many mistakenly thought their shrinking home values would lead to a smaller tax bite.
But north and northwest suburban homeowners, along with their counterparts in booming city neighborhoods, are in many cases facing double-digit increases—or worse. In the rest of the county, it’s not quite as bad.
“We have a lot of people who are confused because the current economic circumstances would lead them to believe that their assessment should go down,” said county Assessor James Houlihan. “Their actual tax liability has gone up.”
Fourteen companies statewide are laying off around 2,600 workers altogether, including hundreds from the Chicago suburbs, according to documents filed with the state.
The U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday moved to ease a credit crunch that’s endangering the economy. But an expert says Chicago may not benefit as much as other big cities.
The Federal Reserve said it would buy massive amounts of what’s known as commercial paper. That’s a form of short-term financing that investors provide large companies for day-to-day operations.
Abol Jalilvand, the dean of Loyola University’s business school, says Chicago has less to gain from the Fed’s move than places like New York or Los Angeles. He says that’s because Chicago has relatively few large companies.
Cook County sales dropped 11.94% in one month after the county instituted its new tax, new data released Tuesday shows, but just how much of that drop had to do with the tax is far from clear.
According to sales tax figures from the Illinois Department of Revenue, Cook County businesses reported $3.360 billion in sales in July, the first month the new 1.75% county sales tax took effect. Sales in June, when the county tax was 0.75%, were $3.816 billion.
However, a look at sales tax data from the last five years shows there has always been a drop from June to July, albeit never as large as this year. In 2004 the drop was 4.61%; in 2005, 7.57%; in 2006, 8.56%; in 2007, 6.67%.
* As you already know, Gov. Blagojevich repeatedly referenced a letter that Tony Rezko sent to his presiding judge. This is a representative quote…
“Tony Rezko sent a letter to a judge. In that letter, he expressly states neither Sen. Obama nor I did anything wrong.”
* That letter will make it impossible to rely solely on Rezko’s word, but it may not rule out Rezko as a witness against the governor. From the Sun-Times’ Eye on Rezko blog…
If Rezko does cut a deal with the feds, that letter — sent to a federal judge — will no doubt haunt him as a witness.
As we reported in an earlier story, it isn’t necessarily a deal breaker.
Former prosecutor Zachary Fardon noted in a June 16th story Scott Fawell, former chief of staff to Gov. George Ryan, wrote a similar letter, saying he wouldn’t make up lies about Ryan.
Fawell was the star witness in Ryan’s trial.
“Do I think he could effectively be crossed on this letter? Yes,” Fardon said. “Does that mean they can’t call him or use him [as a witness]? No.”
One of the matters that prosecutors have been interested in learning is who paid for the renovation of Blagojevich’s Chicago home. Rezko’s now defunct Chicago Construction Services was the contractor on the project. One person familiar with the renovation contacted Monday afternoon, speaking only on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy, said he was subpoenaed by federal prosecutors and asked about the project.
“They were looking for basic business dealings, who paid, how much, that sort of thing,” he said. He said the governor’s wife, Patti, paid the bill.
The retiring Jones (D-Chicago) was hailed as nothing short of a hero by those in attendance, from Gov. Rod Blagojevich to interim university president Frank Pogue, who praised Jones for always fighting for South Side interests.
Jones said he was inspired to use his influence to benefit the university by observing how legislators in Springfield banded together to pass projects for other state schools. He blasted news accounts that questioned his motives and said his actions were an attempt at “parity” and “fairness.”
“We learned a lot in Springfield, when they slice the pie,” Jones said of the budget process. “It’s nice to be in the room when you slice the pie. And [sometimes] I get criticized for making sure that a piece of that pie comes back home here, but that’s your job as a lawmaker. To look out for your district, to look out for the young people that attend these institutions.”
CSU isn’t in Jones’ district, but whatever. They named a building after him, so I guess that sorta counts.
“You win by showing the people of Illinois who Dick Durbin really is,” [Sauerberg] said. “He is a divisive, partisan politician who has spent 37 years on the government dole.”
* In that same interview, Sauerberg also revealed why he initially decided to run against Durbin…
Sauerberg said he first considered running after Durbin compared the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners to atrocities committed in Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia and Cambodia.
“When he compared our troops to Nazis, that pretty much put me over the top,” he said.
Durbin profusely apologized for the remark, but Sauerberg was having nothing of it. His press releases throughout the summer have been some of the most vitriolic I’ve ever seen.
* Sauerberg was therefore furious with Durbin’s first TV ad of the season, which highlights the incumbent’s work on behalf of disabled military veterans…
* Here’s Sauerberg’s press release…
Today, Republican Senate nominee Steve Sauerberg, M.D., sharply criticized Senator Dick Durbin for a new television ad running as part of the Senator’s campaign for re-election. “Dick Durbin, who has been unwilling to stand up for our brave men and women in uniform in his role as a United States Senator, has stooped to shamelessly exploiting our troops for his own political gain,” said Sauerberg. “This is cynical election-year politics at its worst.”
“Time and time again Dick Durbin has failed to stand up for our troops. It’s incredible that Dick Durbin, the same man who compared our troops to Nazis on the floor of the U.S. Senate, pronounced the surge a failure before it began, and would not denounce the slandering of General Petraeus, would now attempt to use our troops as election-year gimmicks,” continued Sauerberg. “One slickly crafted campaign commercial cannot make up for a life-time of failing our men and women in uniform.”
* Yesterday, Durbin had a chance to confront Sauerberg about his attacks during a Chicago Tribune editorial meeting. After months and months of going on the offensive, Sauerberg backed off…
Republican U.S. Senate challenger Steve Sauerberg backtracked Tuesday from questioning Sen. Dick Durbin’s patriotism after the Democrat emotionally accused his rival of employing “the lowest form of politics.” […]
“I apologize if you’re upset with me and I understand, but the fact of the matter is, you shouldn’t say these things,” Sauerberg said. “People are hurt. They’re still hurt.” The Republican said every veteran he has spoken with holds Durbin “in great disdain.”
“You need to meet more veterans,” Durbin said, pointing out he recently received the endorsement of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
That’s a sharp, spot-on retort by Durbin. The VFW isn’t in the habit of endorsing troop-hating, terrorist-loving commies.
* And then Sauerberg completely capitulated…
Sauerberg acknowledged that Durbin has “done a great job on some of these issues” dealing with veterans. And Sauerberg said a news release issued Monday by his campaign, criticizing Durbin for “shamelessly exploiting our troops for his own political gain” in a campaign TV ad was “a little bit too strong. I think I might take that one back a little bit.”
“I do applaud your efforts on behalf of the troops,” Sauerberg said. And after their editorial board session ended, Sauerberg shook Durbin’s hand and said, “I apologize for any offense.”
Candidates who don’t have the guts to back up their assaults when their opponents are in the same room deserve whatever ridicule results. In Sauerberg’s case, however, he manned up and apologized. We’ll see if his campaign follows suit.
*** UPDATE - 9:53 am *** The governor has quietly signed SB 790, the $220 million special funds sweep bill that will provide funding to keep parks, historic sites and social service programs open and running. The governor’s budget office had repeatedly signaled opposition to the sweeps bill, complaining that some of the sweeps just couldn’t be done.
Developing…
*** UPDATE - 9:55 am *** The appropriations bill, which would spend the money from the funds sweep bill, has apparently not yet been signed.
*** UPDATE - 10:52 am *** The SJ-R gets a quote from the administration…
“The governor did sign the funds sweep bill yesterday. However, there are some funds included in the bill that agencies have expressed concern over. At this point, we don’t know how much will actually be available, so it’s too soon to say how far this money will go,” [spokeswoman Kelley Quinn] said in the statement.
Quinn said the governor had not decided yet what action to take on Senate Bill 1103. That’s the measure lawmakers approved last month to restore spending so two-dozen state parks and historic sites wouldn’t have to close and hundreds of state workers wouldn’t be laid off.
Blagojevich now has until early December to decide what to do with that bill.
“At this point, we have to see how much money is available to spend,” Quinn said.
***************************
[Everything below was written before I - or anybody else, for that matter - realized that the sweeps bill was signed yesterday.]
* Several conservation groups want the governor to veto a bill that would keep state parks open. Sound strange? Well, it is, kinda, but they do have a point. The bill they want vetoed is the special funds sweep proposal, which skims a bit over $9 million from funds benefitng sportsman’s groups, like the Wildlife and Fish Fund, the Illinois Habitat Endowment Trust Fund and the Illinois Habitat Fund…
Members of Pheasants Forever, National Wild Turkey Federation, Delta Waterfowl, Illinois Audubon Society, among others, are urging Blagojevich to look for another way to fund the state parks, he said.
“It’s not fair to pit two similar groups against each other,” [Dave Grass, president of Winnebago County Pheasants Forever] said.
State park supporters and hunting and fishing supporters are all conservation organizations, said Tom Clay, executive director for the Illinois Audubon Society.
“Funding sources shouldn’t be coming from other dedicated groups,” he said.
They all support land and habitat conservation, he said — several supporters represent both camps.
That’s why he’s hoping Blagojevich vetoes the bill.
“You shouldn’t have to be using habitat money to keep the state parks open,” Clay said.
The problem is that the groups aren’t offering up any alternative. “Don’t cut me, cut the other guy,” ain’t gonna work. There’s a plan on the table that passed both chambers (after weeks of opportunity for public input) and almost nobody uttered a peep until the deed was done.
The bill also provides revenue sources to reverse severe cuts to mental health providers and social service agencies, including money for treatment of substance abuse.
It’s not just about the people facing layoffs because of the governor’s cuts - although that is certainly important.
The bill protects people who need services from these agencies.
Without the additional revenue, they may face longer waits for help or receive no help at all. And when the help needed involves mental health or substance abuse issues, a delay can have a significant negative impact.
* A Rockford Register-Star editorial lays out how payment delays and a big gubernatorial budget cut - which was partially restored with special funds money - is impacting local social service agencies…
The governor cut $55 million — 50 percent — from the Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, which sends money on to local agencies such as Rosecrance, Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities, and PHASE/WAVE. The General Assembly voted to restore some of those cuts, but the approved legislation has yet to reach the governor.
Those cuts and the payment delays have been devastating to agencies such as Rosecrance.
“Without the restoration of funding and the timely payment for services already provided, these providers of essential service like Rosecrance will have no alternative but to discontinue a number of life-sustaining and life-changing services to people who are most in need of them,” said Susan Rice, Rosecrance public relations director.
Some group homes for developmentally disabled adults in Central Illinois are closing or are not reopening, partly because of the state’s budget crisis.
“It (the problem) is far greater than the public imagines,” said Dreux Lewandowski, executive director of Macon Resources, based in Decatur. “I haven’t seen it this bad since the ’90s.”
Marcfirst, the Bloomington-based agency, is closing two of its nine group homes — one home in Bloomington and one home in Normal, said CEO Rick Glass. Two residents have relocated outside McLean County, five residents will move into Marcfirst apartments, and three residents will be assimilated into the remaining group homes, Glass said. […]
The agency heads said group homes for the developmentally disabled — called CILAs (community integrated living arrangements) — have been underfunded in Illinois for several years. Funding has worsened recently with delays in state reimbursement payments and with a 2.5 percent rate cut for group homes, they said.
The Illinois Senate and House have voted to restore that cut but final action is up to Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Tom Green, of the Illinois Department of Human Services, said late Tuesday that the governor’s office is reviewing the legislation.
agencies that have attempted to delay layoffs in hopes funding will be restored cannot deal with continued uncertainty. That’s especially true in these tough economic times when trying to borrow money can be costly - if a business is able to get a loan at all.
So, in the end, does it really make sense to veto the fund transfer bill and worsen an already horrible situation over money that wasn’t being spent in the first place? These conservation groups need to reconsider their decision.
* Related…
* Efforts to stop budget cuts back in hands of governor
* State sends letters to parks detailing what will happen if they close
A downstate Illinois electricity cooperative today will announce plans to offer power statewide, with an eye toward signing up Ameren Corp.’s Illinois customers infuriated by rate hikes.
* Millions of Dollars in Stimulus Checks Go Unclaimed
After a month-long hiatus, testimony resumed Tuesday at an administrative hearing meant to resolve whether the Illinois Department of Natural Resources made a mistake when it granted a permit for a strip-mining project near Banner in Fulton County
His voice quaking with emotion, Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan refused Tuesday to accept an anti-gun violence award, saying “I don’t feel I’ve earned it'’ with student deaths on track to double this school year.
Duncan left the Abraham Lincoln Award from the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence on a sidetable, but walked away from the lecturn at the Ritz Carlton to a standing ovation from an obviously moved audience.
More than a third of the Chicago Police positions at the city’s two major airports are vacant, but officials say cops are helping to fill the gap by working overtime.
* DuPage deputies, prosecutors could score big raises
DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba and State’s Attorney Joseph Birkett are pleading for double-digit percentage raises for deputies and assistant prosecutors.
Last school year, Simeon High School senior Bruce Zayas was captain of the volleyball team, a rising star recruited from Mount Carmel, and looking at a volleyball scholarship.
But a paddling by his coach last April for missing serves during a game — a “whupping” that left welts on the 17-year-old — changed that.
DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom said the county was prepared to house the makeshift center for as long as it took for all the flood victims from Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Lake, Kane, LaSalle and Will counties to receive help. More than 700 people had registered for assistance after the center’s opening was announced last weekend. DuPage officials estimate the flooding cost the county roughly $10.5 million in personnel costs and infrastructure damage.
The district wants approval to issue $185 million in bonds to acquire land, restore habitats and improve public access throughout a system that has grown to nearly 27,000 acres.
“Typically on the last day of voter registration maybe we see 1,000 voter registrations. Based on morning traffic, we’re projecting 12,000 today,” said Jim Allen, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.
Last-minute registration in Cook County suburbs also increased. On Tuesday, the Cook County clerk’s office handled 13,000 voter registration forms downtown, pushing the total over 40,000 since Oct. 1. That’s already more registrations than before the 2004 election and Tuesday “was the busiest day yet,” spokeswoman Courtney Greve said
Young voters are expected to have a hefty turnout this Nov. 4, several analysts have predicted. But Generation Y — those born after 1979 — is still somewhat of a political wildcard
* Renovated Morse Theatre reborn as live music venue
There’s a new player on the Chicago concert stage. The Morse Theatre, 1328 W. Morse, reopens Thursday as a resplendent music hall, restaurant and broadcast studio.
This year’s Lollapalooza rock ‘n’ roll festival was music to the ears of Chicago Park District officials who will accept a $1.6 million check today.
The district’s take for this summer’s Grant Park festival is about $400,000 more than last year’s revenues.
* University of Chicago physicist Yoichiro Nambu wins Nobel Prize
Nambu, 87, was woken up early Tuesday with news that he had received the Nobel Prize for physics in recognition of work from the 1960s that many peers described as decades ahead of its time. He took half of the $1.4 million award, with the rest going to Japanese researchers Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa for their work in predicting a third family of the subatomic particles called quarks.
* Berwyn alderman in court over incident with Wal-Mart guard
Ald. Michael Phelan, 39, appeared in local ordinance court in Forest Park last week to face charges of disorderly conduct in connection with an incident in which he was detained by Wal-Mart security guards for allegedly refusing to show his store receipt.
