* Check out our Press Release of the Day from the Illinois State Rifle Association…
Press Release - Bill That Would Effectively Prohibit African Americans and Hispanics From Buying Guns Advances in the Illinois General Assembly
Law-abiding African Americans and Hispanics would take it on the chin under a bill now moving through the Illinois General Assembly. Sponsored by Rep. Harry Osterman (D-14), HB6123 would prohibit any person or entity from selling a firearm to a so-called “street gang member.” This prohibition applies even if the individual has passed a Brady Law FBI background check. Making a prohibited sale would result in Class 1 felony charges and possible jail time for the seller. Although the ISRA supports genuine efforts to curb criminal violence, the organization is strongly opposed to HB6123 as the bill’s provisions are arbitrary and pose an unreasonable intrusion on the rights of law-abiding Illinois citizens.
“HB6123 promotes racial profiling at its worst,” commented ISRA Executive Director, Richard Pearson. “Popular culture has branded urban minorities with the ‘gangsta’ stereotype that is pervasive well beyond the confines of actual criminal enterprises. Today’s fashion, music, slang and lifestyle are all heavily influenced by the urban experience. Given that the provisions of HB6123 establish no test for determining ’street gang’ membership, and given the harsh penalties for violating the proposed law, it is understandable that retailers would shy away from selling firearms to persons whose speech, dress, mannerisms, or taste in music reflect the urban lifestyle.” […]
“The bottom line is this,” said Pearson. “If HB6123 is passed into law, the calendar on race-relations will be turned back 70 years and there will not be a gun shop in the state that will sell a firearm to an African American or Hispanic person. If that’s Rep. Osterman’s intent, then he has a lot of explaining to do.”
[A person commits the offense of unlawful sale of firearms when he or she knowingly does any of the following:]
Knowingly sells or gives any firearm to any person who is a street gang member. For purposes to this paragraph: “street gang member” has the meaning ascribed to the term “street gang member” in Section 10 of the Illinois Streetgang Terrorism Omnibus Prevention Act.
“Streetgang member” or “gang member” means any person who actually and in fact belongs to a gang, and any person who knowingly acts in the capacity of an agent for or accessory to, or is legally accountable for, or voluntarily associates himself with a course or pattern of gang‑related criminal activity, whether in a preparatory, executory, or cover‑up phase of any activity, or who knowingly performs, aids, or abets any such activity.
This has nothing to do with baggy pants or civil rights.
* On a totally unrelated note, rememberthis from the other day about how Gov. Pat Quinn had apparently chosen the wrong school district to make the case for his education tax hike? Springfield’s superintendent had this to say…
Walter Milton, Springfield’s schools superintendent, said his district could prevent layoffs next year even if Quinn’s proposed education cuts go through.
Milton said the Springfield district averages about 100 new teachers each year to keep classroom sizes down, but that likely would fall to 30 or 40 if the state cuts school funding. The state also owes the district about $6 million in payments, though Milton said the district has been able to plug the hole from excess funds elsewhere.
The Springfield School District has started receiving nearly $15 million in federal economic stimulus funds. But most of the highly regulated money won’t help the district with its $8 million budget deficit or avert the need to eliminate 56 teaching positions and other proposed cuts next year.
Roughly $6 million, 40 percent of the $14.7 million in federal money, covers state government’s unmet or reduced obligations to Springfield schools this year.
“It is not extra money. It’s how the state is using the money they receive from the feds to pay their bills,” wrote Springfield schools business director Agnes Nunn in an e-mail.
So, he’s cutting 56 teaching positions next year and it appears directly related to the state. And he had to have known that when he made that comment to the media.
Monday, Mar 15, 2010 - Posted by Capitol Fax Blog Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
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From car phones to cell phones to smart phones and from floppy disks to CD-ROMS to cloud computing, technology is changing rapidly and public policy must keep pace. The state must encourage investment in new and emerging technologies and foster growth and innovation within this sector that is expected to create one million new jobs over the next five years. Illinois has let important legislation, such as the Telecommunications Act, that significantly impacts job creation fall out-of- date.
In such a quickly evolving industry, policies should be created to promote advancements in new and emerging technologies. At the same time, legacy regulations that stifle important investment and innovation in this growing sector should be removed. If we do not change, Illinois runs the risk of losing companies and jobs to states that have already taken steps to create an environment where start-ups can grow and existing companies can sustain. For more information, visit iltechpartner.org/resource-center and check out the video of our recent press conference.
* As you may know by now, GOP state Sen. Dan Duffy has been pushing hard to rid the state of red light cameras. During today’s meeting of the Senate Transportation Committee, Senate President John Cullerton offered up a compromise amendment on the issue which Duffy opposed.
The big news, though, was that Cullerton revealed that Sen. Duffy had been hit with a red light ticket himself [which Duffy clearly deserved, but previously claimed he didn’t]. Cullerton then showed video of the violation. According to notes from my intern Dan Weber, Cullerton’s staff was able to get the video online.
…Adding… This, by the way, is how a lot of legislation begins. A legislator has a bad experience and believes there oughtta be a law. I can certainly relate to Duffy’s anger, even though I’ve not yet been hit with a red light ticket, but you’d think he’d have disclosed the ticket earlier.
…Adding more… Oops. Duffy did disclose the ticket. Trouble is, he said he stopped when the video clearly shows he rolled right through…
Duffy said he wrongly received a ticket from a red-light camera in Schaumburg. He said he stopped behind the line and inched forward before making a turn because a utility box obstructed his view. He said he wanted to fight the ticket but said it would have cost more than $1,000 to fight the $100 ticket.”
Ummm… Huh? If you watch the video, not only did Duffy breeze through the light, but the utility box appears to be on his right, which wouldn’t have obstructed his view of oncoming traffic from his left. And if a different utility box did obstruct his view, that was one very unsafe roll-through.
…Adding still more… President Cullerton dodge a question today about the staff shakeup at the Department of Corrections. Watch…
“Almost all scandals, I think, result not from the invention of new evils, but from the imposition of new ethical standards.” – Bill James, The New Historical Baseball Abstract
Notice he said “almost.” Rod Blagojevich’s alleged misdeeds don’t really fit. [Via.]
* The DSCC has a new Internet ad that blasts Mark Kirk for favoring the big banks. It’s pretty much a preview of the fall campaign. Rate it…
* A video of Bill Brady’s “unity rally” in DuPage County features this remark at the 32-second mark…
“Most of you know that I’m not a career politician.”
Brady was first elected to the House in 1992 - eighteen years ago.
Adam Andrzejewski said in his endorsement of Brady that the state hasn’t created a job since 1997. Watch it.
* Today’s graph from Moody’s Economy.com shows how fast or slow various metro area real estate prices are expected to rebound. Click the pic for a better look. Our area isn’t doing so bad in comparison to Florida and California, but it could be better…
We are asking all IEA members to stand in solidarity with our laid-off members on Friday, March 19th by wearing pink. We also invite administrators, parents and community members to join us, in recognition of the effect that these losses will have on the quality of education our state.
The two gubernatorial candidates, Gov. Pat Quinn and Sen. Bill Brady, will be speaking at the IEA Annual Representative Assembly (RA) on March 19 in Rosemont. We anticipate there will be extensive media coverage of the event. With our RA delegates in pink, we will show the state the IEA commitment to fair funding, and the impact that funding cuts will have on the goal to build a quality education system and economy in the state.
* This video is kinda cool, unless all the honking is right outside your back door on Lake Springfield. Your afternoon Zen…
* Whether you could tolerate watching it or not, do you think Rod Blagojevich’s appearance on that Donald Trump show is helping or hurting him with the jury pool? Explain.
* Phil Kadner lays out where he thinks the governor’s proposed tax hike is going…
There is a hole in the state budget of about $13 billion.
But Quinn doesn’t have to cut the education budget.
He could cut anywhere he wants, including the jobs of all of his staff members.
However, in this game of pretend, we have to believe that the cuts must come from education, because that’s going to get a lot of people angry.
Teachers are already being notified that they might not have jobs next year.
The more people who are mad, the greater the pressure on legislators to pass a tax increase. That’s how democracy is supposed to work.
Close your eyes now, click your heels together and say, “I’m not in Illinois any more.”
Because public pressure doesn’t work in Springfield.
The lawmakers will ignore the governor, put together their own spending plan and pass a six-month budget to get through November.
Um, Phil, if public pressure didn’t work in Springfield, they’d double the income tax rate. Just saying, man. Also, Kadner skipped over the tax hike for education in the late 1980s in his history of education funding.
We’re not budget experts. We don’t know if the Quinn tax-increase plan is the best way to go. It does seem unlikely a state with a total payroll of around $3 billion is going to simply cut its way into the black.
What we do know is that we are sick of politics trumping policy; incumbency trumping ideals; partisanship trumping planning.
There was a time, at least it seems, when we elected people to make hard decisions, to lead.
But something has changed. Everyone wants everything, but no one wants to pay for it … or even step forward and say no. As polling by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute shows, Illinoisans overwhelmingly favor cuts in state spending. But asked to identify what they’d accept in cuts, the numbers just don’t add up.
Illinois is in a sorry state. Some would say it is a sorry state.
Trouble is, you can’t lead if nobody will follow, and it’s pretty tough to lead if even the editorial boards with tons of state facilities, a huge university and a big community college in their coverage area are too timid to step up. Leadership isn’t just top down. While I am on record numerous times arguing for a tax hike, I can easily see why so few would want to vote for it this year.
The hard truth is that every major tax hike passed in this state for the past 40 years has been done in a bipartisan manner. Every, single one. If the minority party won’t play ball, then the issue becomes simply too hot to deal with for the majority. It’s as simple as that.
Several Republicans voted for the driver fee increases to fund the capital bill last year, and you barely hear a word about that these days. The reason is because it was passed on a bipartisan vote. Refusing to vote for an income tax hike on their own may make the Democrats cowards in some eyes, but to them they’re just being politically smart. Only people with some sort of mental issues want to commit suicide.
* The Southtown Star continues in this vein, sputtering about do-nothing legislators while the budget burns…
Sen. Maggie Crotty recently passed a vital bill - regulating funeral processions. A current Illinois ban on the slaughter of horses for human consumption would be lifted under a proposal from Rep. Jim Sacia. Another measure would allow active duty soldiers home on leave to hunt or fish without a license under a proposal by Rep. Jack Franks. Illinoisians under the age of 18 would be prohibited from buying caffeinated pop and other drinks containing taurine or guarana under a measure proposed by Rep. Louis Arroyo.
If the Dems have lost the Southtown, they are in big trouble.
* My syndicated newspaper column looks at the budget and ahead at November. The last section of the piece is something we haven’t really talked about here..
Like all of the budgets proposed by governors in the past few years, Gov. Pat Quinn’s spending outline last week was an almost complete fantasy. It has pretty much zero chance of surviving intact and will have to be tossed out and substantially reworked before the session ends.
Unless the school interests can pull off a legislative miracle during an anti-incumbent election year, Quinn’s proposed one percentage point tax increase to prevent $1.3 billion in school funding cuts and pay another $1.5 billion in overdue bills to schools and universities is deader than a rock on a stump. House Speaker Michael Madigan made that pretty darned clear right after the speech.
Asked what he would do if the Republicans refused to cooperate on the budget, Madigan said his Democratic majority would have to go it alone. Asked if that meant he’d go it alone on a tax hike, he pointedly said, “No.”
A few minutes later, appearing on public television’s “Illinois Lawmakers” program, Madigan said, “Let’s be straightforward about this. The people of America, the people of Illinois, they don’t want tax increases. They’re hurting.”
Madigan then praised the governor for having the courage to propose a tax hike in this climate, but quickly added: “That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.”
Shortly afterward, Senate President John Cullerton made it crystal clear that his chamber would not take the lead on a tax hike. House GOP Leader Tom Cross indicated that he still has the hammer down on his members who might be amenable to a tax hike. “It’s not going to happen,” said Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno.
Just like that, the whole thing was dead before Quinn’s voice had stopped echoing in the House chambers.
In a different year, the theory behind Quinn’s tax hike gambit wouldn’t be bad.
People despise Illinois government these days - for good reason - so a tax increase for state operations is pretty much out of the question. Most people do like their local schools, parents like their kids’ teachers, and property tax payers are fed up with constant increases. Using a tax hike to “save” the schools is far easier to do than justifying a tax hike to make more pension payments to state employees, or fund a state system widely derided as incompetent and corrupt.
But anybody who takes the time to look at this proposal knows it’s just too obvious of a setup. Gov. Quinn didn’t propose any cuts at all to the State Board of Education’s bureaucracy. Instead, the slashes were all classroom-related. And education took well over half of all the cuts Quinn proposed, despite being only about a third of the budget.
Rather than making a serious attempt to balance the budget in a reasonable, even-handed manner, the Quinn administration went far out of its way to strike maximum fear into the populace. The real motivation behind this gambit is just way too overt to be believable.
And does anybody really believe that Quinn will actually stick to his guns? Doubtful. The governor threatened a doomsday for social service providers last year and then blinked when his deadline approached. He’s an old-school, compassionate liberal. Everybody knows he doesn’t want to make these cuts and will do just about anything to avoid them.
There are those in the administration who say the tax-hike-for-schools template can be used after the November election (assuming Quinn wins), when legislators feel safer about voting for it. The proposal, the insiders say, is more of a road map for the future than a plan to be implemented this spring.
The schools tax hike, they say, is also a way to lessen the pain of the inevitable Republican charge that the Democrats are not-so-secretly planning to raise taxes once they’re reinstalled in power in November. But if the “secret” plan is to raise taxes for schools and local governments, that might mitigate the political damage by giving Quinn a way to dodge claims on the campaign trail that he wants to raise taxes to prop up the bureaucracy. The polling numbers are turning so bad on taxes right now that Quinn needed to do something to save his political skin without totally abandoning his principles.
That’s all well and good and a dandy little political theory. In the meantime, the state is $13 billion in the red and still lacking a real plan to tackle it.
* Related…
* Lawmakers get eviction notices: The state’s money problems are so bad that lawmakers are getting eviction notices and calls from collection agencies about their offices back home.
Before Brady took the stage, his opponents in the primary race took turns praising the longtime Bloomington lawmaker and attacking Springfield leadership.
“We need a Republican governor so badly in Springfield,” said Kirk Dillard, who lost the primary election to Brady by just 193 votes.
He said out-of-control spending, post-census remapping and the releasing of prisoners has made it time for Republican leadership.
“Minorities are not, in this state, dependent on government jobs They’re looking for private-sector jobs,” said Brady, a real estate developer with other business interests. “They understand it’s private-sector principles that will bring big-box construction jobs, permanent jobs and affordable quality food to their communities.”
One of the few times Brady campaigned in Chicago during the primary was when he did so on behalf of the “big box” (read: WalMart) stores.
But as he attacked Quinn’s recent call for a 33 percent increase in the state’s income tax—moving the personal rate from 3 percent to 4 percent—Brady also said he would not use his position as a state senator to sponsor his own budget plan. […]
“It doesn’t need to be put in legislation. It’s not complex,” Brady said of his fiscal plans. “We’re not going to play (the Democrats’) game. They’re all about politics and game playing.”
It won’t be put to paper because of the uproar it would cause.
* There were some other weird coverage aspects to the rally. First up, Fox Chicago…
Brady knows where votes are concentrated — and said it’s no co-incidence today’s rally was in the heart of Pat Quinn country.
Addison is the “heart of Pat Quinn country”? Does Fox (or Brady) know where Addison is? Yes, it’s far more Democratic than it used to be, but you gotta go a bit east for Pat Quinn country.
All of Bill Brady’s rivals attended the event, except Andy McKenna. ABC7 is told McKenna had a prior family commitment.
Yeah, he still owes his wife a fortune from his failed primary race against Brady. [/snark]
* Related…
* Quinn, Ponce & Marin: Governor Pat Quinn joins us on Chicago Tonight Monday evening at 7P on WTTW/Channel 11. We’ll talk taxes or no taxes, legislative gridlock, teacher layoffs, and the November election.
* Illinois Democrats to pick Scott Lee Cohen replacement March 27
* Political runners-up shouldn’t win: I don’t recall Daley saying “If you run for public office and the person drops out before the election or even after the election, the person who was second moves automatically up” four years ago when medically incapacitated Cook County Board President John Stroger had to withdraw from his re-election bid shortly after eking out a victory over Commissioner Forrest Claypool.
* 2:35 pm - Reports have circulated for weeks that Dept. of Corrections Director Michael Randle would be fired soon. Randle, of course, was responsible for the botched early release program that let hundreds of violent prisoners out of confinement, some of whom went on to commit more crimes.
Instead, it appears that a handful of people who stood up to Randle internally were shown the door today. From a DoC spokesperson…
As of today Executive Assistant to the Director Sergio Molina; Chief of Staff Jim Reinhart; and Northern Regional Supervisor Jack Charlier are no longer State of Illinois employees. Since this is a Personnel issue the agency cannot comment further.
I’ll have more for subscribers on Monday. There are lots of conflicting rumors out there about Randle’s immediate future, so try to keep those in check while commenting, please.
Asked if his departure had anything to do with the early release debacle, Molina said: “Director Michael Randle stood with the governor and took full responsibility for the early release program, and that’s precisely where the responsibility lies, with Director Randle.” […]
The news of Molina’s dismissal came as a shock to state Sen. William Delgado. The Democratic lawmaker from Chicago’s Northwest Side said Molina was being used as a “scapegoat” to cover larger flaws within the department that were brought to light following the prisoner release scandal.
Delgado said Molina represents years of institutional knowledge and proved to be a value to the corrections community by earning the respect of several administrations, Democrat and Republican alike. But Delgado said Molina was “isolated” almost immediately after Randle was put in place in May 2009. Delagado, a former parole officer, said he believes the release “blunder could have been prevented” if Randle had properly consulted with Molina.
“What an atrocious decision by the administration of Quinn,” Delgado said. “Because he brings in a new director who institutes the release program, (Molina) gets pushed out. It’s shameful.”
* Mark your calendars, campers. On Thursday, April 8th at 7 pm some friends of the late, great Carlos Hernandez Gomez are throwing a benefit concert at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn…
All proceeds from the concert and auctions will benefit Living Water International (LWI), a faith-based, non-profit organization that helps communities in developing countries acquire safe drinking water. In particular, the proceeds will help to build a water well in Carlos’ honor in Haiti, as well as fund additional clean water projects.
Carlos watched coverage of the Haiti earthquake the week before he died and was deeply affected. He knew the work of LWI is what is truly needed there; without clean water, there is no foundation for development. Everything that LWI stands for reflects Carlos’ love of others and of God.
The lineup…
It will be a true rock and roll salute to Carlos, with performances by some of his local favorites and closest friends: The Beatle Brothers, Phil Angotti and Brad Elvis, and Eric Howell. To kick off the festivities, Carlos’ own band, The Gear, will reunite to perform for the first time in 15 years. Carlos’ best friend, actor Joe Farina, will serve as master of ceremonies for the evening.
There’s a place every one of us can go to
Maybe you have been there once or twice
Where all your friends just look at you and whisper
And they want to give you nothing but advice
• To wit: Word is Dem Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool is eyeing a run for the assessor’s seat as an independent — and Cook County Dem Party chief Joe Berrios, who is already slated as the Dem Party assessor’s candidate, may be reaching for a bottle of Bromo Seltzer.
• The scoop du jour: Sneed has learned “friends” of Claypool, a close pal of Axelrod and Gov. Quinn who is rumored to also be eyeing the lieutenant governor spot, are now conducting a phone survey to determine his viability for a shot as Cook County assessor.
3. Pat Brady, the Illinois Republican Chairman, should resign for interfering and taking sides in this Republican primary and for doing nothing to effectively stop his predecessor from spending $5 million to attack his opponents (after having promised to monitor and enforce clean campaigning standards).
4. The Kane County Republican Chairman should resign so that we can credibly begin the work of reconstructing a reformed Republican-led coalition of Republicans, Independents, and disillusioned Reagan Democrats. “Less Government, More Individual Freedom” will be our objective and slogan.
Today, Kane County Republican Party Chairman Mike Kenyon responded…
Kenyon responded by saying Lauzen’s letter is the result of lingering grudges over his loss to Jim Oberweis in the 14th Congressional District Republican primary a couple of years ago. Oberweis also recently won a spot on the Illinois Republican State Central Committee during a vote where Lauzen wasn’t allowed in the room.
“What Mr. Lauzen does is he takes everything to the personal level,” Kenyon said. “That’s his greatest flaw. I don’t think he likes me, but don’t ask me to get into his head because it would be uncomfortable, even though he’s got a small brain.
“He would never come on board and say, ‘Congratulations, Jim (Oberweis). I support you.’ If he could just put all his energy in a positive direction, he’d be great. It’s got to be some sort of a mental problem. He’s stuck in the fourth grade and needs to get out of it. I really do want to get along with him.”
Yikes.
* A Republican controversy has been building in Will County after the recent vote for the 11th District State Central Committeeman’s slot. Illinois Review…
It was during the election for the 11th district State Central Committeeman where problem arose. The race was between Bobbie Peterson and Corey Singer. Both were allowed to speak, but discussion amongst committeemen was not allowed. Corey spoke of getting back to core Republican values. He spoke of encouraging primary challenges. He said we have to stop being Democrat-lite. He spoke directly towards all of the newly involved, energized people who have been working hard against the Obama agenda over the last twelve months. While it is my understanding that Bobbie has worked hard for the Republican Party for decades, Corey’s speech won the room.
The vote was an open roll call. Despite the fact that everyone who voted for Corey was going to be the scorn of the establishment, the weighted vote total was approximately 9000 to 4000 – better than 2 to 1. Considering that many people were probably afraid to not vote for Bobbie, that vote was an absolute landslide for Corey. That is of course until Chairman Kavanagh decided he had the right to exercise votes for not only the vacant precincts, but also for the committeemen not in attendance! That was over 13,000 votes! No matter how the committeemen voted, it didn’t matter. The Chairmen was going to decide the winner.
What happened was that Chairman Kavanagh voted the proxies of the vacant precincts and absent committeemen, which he claimed he had a right to do. Those in the room wanted Singer, but the chairman went for Peterson.
Kavanagh, who works for Singer as a lawyer for the forest preserve district, says it’s over.
But Singer says he’s getting encouragement from Republicans across Illinois and is considering his options, including a lawsuit.
Singer questions Kavanagh’s authority to cast votes for elected committeemen who missed the meeting. Singer said he was ahead even after Kavanagh and Grundy County Republican Chairman Donald Hansen cast votes for Peterson on behalf of precincts without committeemen.
Kavanagh said he cleared his action before the convention with Brian Sheahan , the attorney for the state party.
Kavanagh works for Singer? Hilarious.
* In other campaign news, the House just passed HB 5820, which would provide for the joint nomination of governor and lieutenant governor candidates.
* The following photo is of Steve Kim, the Republican nominee for Illinois attorney general vs. Lisa Madigan…
* The Question: Caption?
…Adding… A small handful of GOP versions of Bobby Rush are whining in comments that this question might somehow get out of hand because Kim is an Asian-American, even though they haven’t. So, just to placate these silly folks and keep the comments flowing smoothly, please don’t be racist in comments, even though nobody has been and undoubtedly wouldn’t be.
* The House Republicans tried unsuccessfully this morning to advance a resolution urging the Dept. on Aging to rethink this deal…
The Illinois Department on Aging will move from state-owned buildings to rented space despite complaints from lawmakers that the move is a waste of money during the state’s budget crisis.
The Department of Central Management Services, which oversees state office space needs, on Thursday issued a written statement that nothing has changed that would keep the majority of Aging employees in the Herndon Building at 421 E. Capitol Ave. […]
The state will pay more than $532,000 a year for the space. […]
Reps. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield, and Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg, are among GOP lawmakers sponsoring a resolution urging Aging and CMS to work with the state’s Procurement Policy Board to find less expensive office space for Aging.
* Is a red-light camera compromise in the works? Maybe…
Lawmakers are moving closer to a compromise on reforming the use of red-light cameras while a complete repeal of the technology appears to face little chance. […]
Lawmakers at the meeting said the broad compromise includes giving motorists more leeway on right-turn violations and requiring studies evaluating the need and effectiveness of the red-light cameras.
But a state Senator involved in the negotiations wasn’t happy that the red light camera lobsters were included in the talks…
State Sen. Dan Duffy, a Lake Barrington Republican pushing to ban the cameras, said he was upset lobbyists for RedFlex and RedSpeed, the two biggest red-light camera companies, were included in the negotiations in Senate President John Cullerton’s office.
“I guess it is what it is, but I would have preferred them not be in the room when we’re discussing the legislation,” Duffy said.
* The Tribune editorial board follows the Sun-Times’ lead on Rep. Keith Farnham’s strange bill…
[Kane County State’s Attorney John Barsanti] complains that if a [DUI[ suspect can refuse a search warrant to submit for a blood sample without facing consequences, then the law has “no teeth.”
Now Rep. Keith Farnham, D-Elgin, is trying to insert some fangs. He has introduced a bill that authorizes police to use “all necessary and reasonable force” to execute a search warrant, whether for driving under the influence of alcohol or anything else. That means suspects could be restrained at a hospital so a nurse or doctor could draw blood or a hair sample.
Defense attorney Donald Ramsell, who serves on the Illinois State Bar Association’s traffic law committee, says the number who refuse is “minuscule.” Ramsell says he’s handled more than 13,000 DUI cases since 1986. “I have never had a single client in the face of a search warrant who has ever refused.”
You would expect the defense bar to protest this. But consider the position of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Chuck Hurley, CEO of MADD, said: “We support penalties for test refusal and reasonable actions shy of strapping somebody down.” […]
Police need good tools to fight drunk driving. A forced blood draw isn’t one of them.
* Related…
* Welfare Reforms Scuttled In Illinois House: Wednesday saw a number of proposed welfare reforms go by the wayside. One of those plans, from State Rep. Jim Sacia, R-Pecatonica, would have required drug tests for adults receiving public aid.
* House Passes “Sexting” Ban: Illinois lawmakers want teenagers who send salacious or sexually provocative photographs via their cell phones to come before a judge in a courtroom. But lawmakers don’t think these same teenagers should have to go to prison. The Illinois House on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a “sexting” ban proposal that would impose civil, not criminal, penalties on the practice. Under the proposal sponsored by state Rep. Darlene Senger, R-Naperville, minors who are found guilty of sexting by computers or cell phones could face in-house counseling and/or community service.
* Fight attempts to erode FOIA law: We’re beyond disappointed. We’re disgusted. Many have the support of local lawmakers including Republicans state Sen. John Millner of Carol Stream and state Rep. Michael Connelly of Lisle, and Democrats state Sen. Dan Kotowski of Park Ridge, state Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia of Aurora and state Rep. Paul Froehlich of Schaumburg.
* House would keep government evaluations secret: The Illinois House voted Thursday to keep evaluations of public employees private, barring them from being released to the public. The proposal, which now goes to the Illinois Senate for consideration, follows lawmakers’ previous push to similarly exempt teacher evaluations from public disclosure.
* Quinn expected to OK bill moving primary election back to March: “It’s hard to imagine he will veto or even amend it, given the wide margin,” said state Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook, whose measure passed the House on a 114-1-1 vote… The one “no” vote came from state Rep. Mike Boland, D-Moline, who wanted the primary even later in the year.
* Advocates Urge Lawmakers to Abolish Death Penalty
* Correct me if I’m seeing this wrong (and I’m sure you will), but unless there is some proof that Broadway Bank knew that this guy was kiting checks, I just don’t see how this story is a huge deal for the Giannoulias campaign other than the campaign contributions, which will soon be donated to charity…
A father and son who operated the Boston Blackie’s burger restaurants were charged Thursday with ripping off nearly $1.9 million from two banks in a check-cashing scheme, and authorities said they arrested the father on the U.S. border as he was trying to enter Canada.
The allegations caused a new round of political embarrassment for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, whose family owns Broadway Bank and has long known the father and son.
The Blackie’s operators are accused of writing bad checks from their accounts at Broadway to other banks as part of their alleged scheme. Longtime Blackie’s operator Nick Giannis gave Giannoulias more than $114,000 in campaign contributions for his treasurer and Senate campaigns.
Giannoulias was in a state of “shock and disbelief” at the news, according to his campaign, which announced he would donate an equivalent amount to local charities.
Again, unless there’s some collusion, it looks like Broadway was a victim here.
The Kirk campaign tried to connect the dots. From a press release…
In 1996, Nick Giannis was convicted of 4th degree felony possession of a firearm. Giannis was sentenced to 2 years in prison but given probation. (Illinois Court Records, Case Number: 1996C22008201)
Despite his felony conviction, between August 2000 and December 2002, Broadway Bank loaned Nick Giannis roughly $6 million in mortgages – at least $1.22 million during the time Alexi Giannoulias served as the bank’s Chief Loan Officer. (Cook County Recorder of Deeds, Document No.: 0021330151)
Since when do banks check low-level felony gun conviction records that resulted in no prison time before loaning money to a successful restauranteur?
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is putting at least a half-dozen struggling Chicago-area banks out for bid to healthy institutions that might want to buy their deposits and assets.
The fact that so many banks are being peddled simultaneously shows that the crisis for many small and midsize institutions continues and could be getting worse.
“What we have seen in terms of bank failures so far in the market cycle is, unfortunately, only the tip of the iceberg,” said Justin Barr, managing principal at Loan Workout Advisers LLC., a Northfield-based bank-turnaround consulting firm. “The real bloodbath will shortly begin to unfold and will likely drag on for some time to come.”
Loan Workout said that of more than 200 banks headquartered in the Chicago area, 119 were in the red in 2009, while 86 turned a profit.
One of the banks reportedly on the FDIC’s list is Broadway.
Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Alexi Giannoulias tried today to change the focus of his campaign from talk about his family’s troubled bank to what he says is his history of standing up to big banks and his Republican opponent’s history of “cozying up” to Wall Street banks.
“He voted five times against reining in bonuses for Wall Street executives,” the state treasurer said of Mark Kirk. Ticking off every consumer-protection bill he said Kirk has voted against, Giannoulias said: “That is who he listens to — he listens to his Wall Street cronies, and, not coincidentally, his Wall Street pals have given him over $2 million in campaign contributions.”
Giannoulias spoke at a locksmith business near Greektown, where owner Tom Glavin said he hoped Giannoulias’ policies might help fill up Downtown’s partially empty office buildings and help his key-making business. Giannoulias donned protective eyegear as he cut a key.
* As we’ve seen time and time again, some of these allegedly corrupt operators have fooled a whole lot of people. So, try to keep that in mind when reading these stories…
Testimony in the federal corruption trial of a Chicago developer on Thursday revealed that U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez met with the developer and Mayor Richard Daley to push for the city’s approval of a controversial real estate venture.
Gutierrez’s involvement in lobbying Daley to support the project goes a step beyond what the congressman has previously told the Tribune in stories documenting his political and financial relationship with the developer, Calvin Boender, and his unusual role in backing a project outside his congressional district.
The Tribune previously has reported that Gutierrez wrote a letter to Daley on Boender’s behalf after receiving a $200,000 loan from Boender. The newspaper reported Sunday that relatives of Gutierrez and two other Chicago politicians who supported Boender landed jobs tied to the project known as Galewood Yards.
The situation is quite odd, though. It’s definitely worth a closer look.
* Related…
* Witness: Rep. Gutierrez in on pitch for rezoning - Bribery trial witness notes presence of rep. who got $200K loan
* Reputed mobster charged with rigging bids at McCormick Place
* The Quinn administration is considering selling off part of a big “asset” to pay off its debts…
Part of the borrowing could be covered by selling off the state’s rights to a portion of a massive legal settlement with cigarette companies, said David Vaught, director of Quinn’s budget office.
“We haven’t finished our proposal, but we would hope it would be in the range of $1 billion,” Vaught said.
The state now collects roughly $300 million annually under the tobacco settlement. The idea would be to sell off the rights to half of that for $1 billion upfront.
The question remains whether [Gov. Quinn] will stick to his guns on such things as altering state employee pension plans, pay freezes and/or furloughs other cost-cutting measures. He hasn’t demonstrated that ability so far.
He backed away from the “doomsday” cuts to social service providers last year, backed away from pension cuts during a teachers’ union rally, etc., etc., etc. He has a lot to prove.
* A degree in 3 years? U. of I. looking at creating program - An accelerated program might work for 1 in 5 U. of I. students: president
* Quinn aide is among 5 finalists for top tollway post: Kristi Lafleur, deputy chief of staff for economic development and recovery, is among five remaining applicants for executive director, narrowed from a field of 33.
* 9:57 am - The Democratic Party of Illinois’ state central committee will begin meeting to decide who will replace Scott Lee Cohen on the ballot next Saturday, March 20th, according to a letter just released by Chairman Michael Madigan’s office. Read the letter by clicking here.
The party plans to split into subcommittees to allow candidates to make their pitches, but that’s “subject to change,” according to the letter. The subcommittees will meet in Chicago, Hoffman Estates, Bolingbrook and Springfield.
The central committee will then meet in Springfield on Saturday, March 27th in Springfield to vote for a nominee.
* I overslept this morning (either I slept through my alarm or it didn’t go off), so everything is running way, way behind schedule. There will be a late version of Capitol Fax for subscribers, but for now here’s my Sun-Times column…
‘The idea that Rahm Emanuel would be in the house gym . . . lobbying another congressman whether he had clothes on or not is the reason I wanted him to cut the deal to make the attorney general a senator in exchange for jobs, health care and no taxes,” Rod Blagojevich said earlier this week on WLS-AM.
As ever, Blagojevich was babbling about pure fantasy. The former governor was referring to his claimed plan to appoint Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat back in 2008, right before he was arrested by the FBI for, among other things, allegedly trying to sell that seat to the highest bidder.
The impeached and ousted governor has used this Madigan cover story over and over to “prove” that he wasn’t trying to sell Obama’s seat.
A few days after a newspaper story appeared in December 2008 that Blagojevich was being wiretapped by the feds, I received a tip from a top source that Blagojevich was seriously talking about appointing Lisa Madigan. But let’s back up a bit.
The day before that wiretap story ran, Blagojevich was caught on federal recordings attempting to speed up a deal to appoint U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. to Obama’s seat in exchange for something “tangible upfront.”
“Some of this stuff’s gotta start happening now, right now, and we gotta see it. You understand?” Blagojevich instructs an aide to tell a Jackson intermediary. He then added an ominous warning: “You gotta be careful how you express that and assume everybody’s listening, the whole world is listening. You hear me?”
The day the story ran, wiretap transcripts show that Blagojevich tried to hide some of his dirty deeds, ordering an aide to “undo” the Jackson deal. (Jackson has not been charged with anything.)
Blagojevich knew he was under the gun, so I believe he concocted the Lisa Madigan appointment to give himself an alibi. He could then say that he wasn’t trying to sell a Senate seat, he was just trying to do what was best for the state.
Blagojevich has often pointed to the plan as a way to bring peace to Illinois politics. He and both Madigans — Lisa and her father, speaker of the House Mike Madigan — feuded for years. They totally despised one another. Blagojevich says the idea was to use the appointment to break loose his long-stalled (by Speaker Madigan) multibillion-dollar capital construction bill and his universal health-care proposal.
Balderdash.
First, Speaker Madigan hadn’t returned Blagojevich’s calls in months and wouldn’t even sit in the same room with him during closed-door legislative meetings. Madigan wouldn’t pass a $30 billion capital bill because he was worried that Blagojevich would try to steal everything that wasn’t nailed down. The universal health-care bill included a gigantic tax increase on businesses that Madigan staunchly opposed.
Attorney General Madigan was widely known to loathe the man she had been investigating for years until she turned over the case to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. And she had no interest in the Senate.
In other words, there’s absolutely no chance that this Lisa Madigan appointment deal could’ve been pulled off.
The impossibility of closing such a deal wouldn’t have meant much to Blagojevich if he was looking to establish an alibi, however. He could’ve just announced his decision with great fanfare and the federal case against him might have been undermined.
The FBI knocked on his door one cold December morning before he had a chance to make everything public, but that hasn’t stopped him from peddling this nonsense ever since. As usual with this guy, don’t believe a word.
* Illinois Democrats haven’t gotten a break in a long while, but one might be coming from an unlikely source…
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich has repeatedly said he’s looking forward to clearing his name at his trial.
But now he wants that trial to start five months later than scheduled. Lawyers for the indicted governor made a formal request to continue the June trial to November.
They say they need a delay because they don’t know what the charges they’ll face at trial.
That could mean a post-election trial, which would be fine with the Democrats. The only problem would be all those pre-trial motions, which could still be used for political payback. Just imagine.
* The February primary experiment was a failure. I think a lot of folks would like a total do-over. We can’t do that, but the primary date can be moved back where it was…
Illinois’ primary election would be pushed back to March under legislation the House sent to Gov. Pat Quinn today.
If the governor signs the measure into law, the state’s experiment with a February primary would end after just two elections. […]
The measure would move Illinois’ primary to the third Tuesday in March, where it had been for decades. The House approved it 114-1, with one lawmaker voting present. The Senate signed off last month.
* Check out the difference between how two news outlets covered a visit by the governor to a Springfield school this morning. First, the local SJ-R…
Gov. Pat Quinn vigorously denied charges by Republican legislators that he is engaging in scare tactics in order to win passage of an income tax hike.
Appearing this morning at Jefferson Middle School in Springfield to promote his tax hike for education, Quinn reiterated that schools face severe budget cuts from the state if more revenue isn’t found for them.
“There’s no scaring involved,” Quinn said. “We have to understand reality. We are without $1 billion (in federal funds) that we had this year.
The governor, however, didn’t pick the best school to illustrate his point. Walter Milton, Springfield’s schools superintendent, said his district could prevent layoffs next year even if Quinn’s proposed education cuts go through.
Milton said the district is finalizing its budget and working to keep cuts “as far away from the classroom as possible.” Milton said while teachers will not face layoffs if education cuts go through, he won’t be able to hire as many new teachers as in the past.
Quinn said he did eat breakfast with Madigan Thursday. But he didn’t say how exactly he would try to convince election-minded lawmakers to support his plan while they are out on the campaign trail facing angry voters.
* Green Party gubernatorial nominee Rich Whitney outlined his budget and economic plan today at a Statehouse press conference.
Among other things, he wants a forensic audit of state government…
Convene an independent commission of citizens, drawn from both the private and public sector to examine the budget with a fresh set of eyes and identify programs, positions and practices that can be cut without any detriment to the public. Borrowing a good idea from a former rival candidate, Republican Adam Andrzejewski, I propose to give this commission the authority to conduct a “forensic audit” of the budget for this purpose and the authority to subpoena state employees and documents.
He later told reporters that he might appoint Andrzejewski to the commission, or even Dan Proft.
The audit, an expanded state government “suggestion box,” a review of pork and cuts to the capital program are supposed to save $2 billion.
After the cuts, he wants a SB750 type bill to raise taxes and reduce property taxes. He also would expand the sales take to include services, and impose a financial transactions tax on “speculative trading”…
At a time when the Illinois legislature repeatedly hits low-income workers disproportionately with ―sin taxes‖ on alcohol, tobacco and gambling, a Financial Transactions Tax would impose a tax on another form of gambling, one that is every bit as harmful as the other sin taxes, and far more voluminous
He also wantsa “fee and dividend” system on energy producers responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and nuke plants…
Fees would be imposed on the producers while consumers would receive quarterly dividends from the proceeds, based on their income level, that would provide protection from energy price hikes and allow a shift in spending in favor of clean energy and energy efficiency.
His rhetoric is pretty sharp…
It may surprise some people to hear a candidate talk about expanding public employment at a time when the media keep pounding into people’s minds the notion that government is “too big” and we can’t afford it.
However, we have to ask ourselves why we are continually being told this. We have to recognize that the corporate-dominated media have an agenda and that there is a reason why we have been hearing this propaganda steadily for over 30 years. We also have to realize that when the opinion leaders in the corporate media keep telling us that “we” can’t afford it, what they are really trying to tell us is that “they” – the wealthy owners of corporate America – don’t want to afford it. They don’t want to pay their fair share of taxes needed to maintain the most basic functions of government. And thus the illusion is created that in the richest, most productive nation in the world, we as a society somehow can’t “afford” quality public education, quality health care for all, quality employment opportunities for all and decent retirement security for all.
He also wants a state-owned bank…
Create a state bank, in which to deposit our tax revenues, supplemented by funds from private depositors, so that the State of Illinois can invest in productive ventures that benefit the people of Illinois, and keep the interest collected for the benefit of the people, rather than pay interest to enrich the same private financial institutions that have already preyed upon workers, homeowners and taxpayers.
* Whitney took questions from the press and here are some snippets…
* This was one of the reactions to Gov. Quinn’s budget proposal, which included a $2500 per worker tax credit for small businesses that hire new employees…
“Small-business owners don’t need tax credits. They need customers,” Kim Clarke Maisch, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said while noting economic growth comes from areas such as workers’ compensation reform and a lower minimum wage.
* The Question: Do you agree or disagree with Maisch? Explain thoroughly, please.
* To say this is a big boost would just be too obvious, so I’ll just skip that and go right to the story…
Mayor Daley today endorsed the runner-up in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor — State Rep. Art Turner (D-Chicago) — in the political sweepstakes to replace Chicago pawnbroker Scott Lee Cohen. […]
“There’s only one winner in the lieutenant governor’s position and that’s Art Turner. He won second [place],” the mayor
“If you run for public office and the person [in first place] drops out before the election or even after the election, the person who [finished] second moves automatically up. If you forfeit a game, [your opponent] wins the game.”
Reporters reminded Daley that his conclusion is true in sports, but not necessarily in politics. The State Democratic Central Committee has the final say.
“Well, what would you do if not?” he said. “Art Turner is No. 2. No. 1 dropped out. He withdrew. Sure, you automatically move [up]. He put his name and his career on the line in a public way no one else has done . … Whether you voted for him or not, he came in second place.”
* Meanwhile, Rasmussen released the rest of its polling yesterday. Here are some of the responses…
* How would you rate the job Barack Obama has been doing as President… do you strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, or strongly disapprove of the job he’s been doing?
33% Strongly approve
23% Somewhat approve
19% Somewhat disapprove
35% Strongly disapprove
0% Not sure
* How would you rate the job Pat Quinn has been doing as Governor… do you strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, or strongly disapprove of the job he’s been doing?
10% Strongly approve
33% Somewhat approve
28% Somewhat disapprove
27% Strongly disapprove
2% Not sure
* In terms of how you will vote how important is Alexi Giannoulias’s involvement in the Broadway Bank?
30% Very important
26% Somewhat important
24% Not very important
8% Not at all important
11% Not sure
* Generally speaking, do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and the congressional Democrats?
35% Strongly favor
18% Somewhat favor
8% Somewhat oppose
37% Strongly oppose
2% Not sure
* When it comes to health care decisions, who do you fear the most: the federal government or private insurance companies?
41% Federal government
49% Private insurance companies
9% Not sure
* Regardless of how Congress is doing overall, does your local representative in Congress deserve to be reelected?
39% Yes
32% No
29% Not sure
* Generally speaking, would it better for the country if most incumbents in Congress were reelected this November or if most of them were defeated?
27% Better if most incumbents were reelected
58% Better if most incumbents were defeated
16% Not sure
* Do you have a favorable or an unfavorable opinion of the Tea Party movement?
37% Favorable
40% Unfavorable
23% Not sure
* Do you consider yourself a part of the Tea Party Movement?
13% Yes
68% No
19% Not sure
* A year from today, will the U.S. economy be stronger than it is now, or weaker?
46% Stronger
32% Weaker
16% About the same
6% Not sure
* Is it possible for anyone who really wants to work to find a job?
26% Yes
56% No
18% Not sure
Except for Quinn, these are more positive numbers for the Democratic majority than in other states Rasmussen has polled. At least the ones I’ve seen. Then again, that ain’t saying much.
By the way, in the crosstabs, 32 percent of Republicans said they considered themselves a part of the tea party movement, while just 4 percent of the Democrats said so. 73 percent of Republicans and just 15 percent of Democrats had a favorable opinion of the tea partiers.
* The Alexi Giannoulias campaign has been challenging Mark Kirk to release his tax returns since early February. Kirk finally did so yesterday after issuing a press release that attempted to turn the tables…
Mark Kirk’s U.S. Senate campaign today announced the five-term congressman and Navy veteran would make available his personal income tax returns dating back to 1999. In the spirit of transparency, the Kirk campaign requested Mr. Giannoulias release all documents related to Michael “Jaws” Giorango, insider bank loans and Bright Start College Savings Fund.
But reporters weren’t allowed to copy the documents and the campaign wouldn’t send them to the reporters…
Unlike Giannoulias, who provided copes of his tax returns to the press, Kirk allowed a lower level of access to his.
Reporters were required to travel to Kirk’s office in Northbrook for a peek at his returns and were not allowed to make copies.
“It seems to me that what he’s simply doing here is ignoring the problem, kicking the can down the road, trying to make it past the election,” Brady said. “I frankly wonder if he’s planning on being here in January because he’s leaving a pretty big problem.”
In a veiled reference to the financial solution proposed by state Sen. Bill Brady, his opponent in the Nov. 2 election for governor, Quinn said, “There are some people who say we should just cut across the board until we close our $13 billion deficit and our spending equals our revenues — even if that means draconian cuts in health, human services, education and public safety. But that approach is both heartless — and naïve.
“We must consider the financial impact — as well as the human cost — of every cut we make,” Quinn said.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady on Wednesday called Gov. Pat Quinn’s fiscal year 2011 budget a “catastrophe,” insisting his own plan for a 10 percent across-the-board cut would balance the budget and dig the state out of its $13 billion hole. […]
“I wish [Quinn] would take more time to analyze what I’ve suggested Illinois needs,” Brady said. “I really don’t want to be governor and be saddled with the albatross he’s created in this fiscal mess.”
“Today was an embarrassing day. He (Quinn) asked for an extra 30 days and yet the best he could come up with was a budget that is $4 billion out of balance,” Brady said, referring to Quinn’s request to delay his budget address by a month.
Um, $4 billion out of balance? Try $11 billion.
After Brady’s press conference, the governor’s campaign issued a news release…
Response to Bill Brady’s Critiques of Governor Quinn’s “Fighting for Illinois” Budget Plan:
Bill Brady says he opposes Governor Quinn’s budget plan and won’t support any additional revenues for education or additional borrowing to close the state’s $12.7 billion gap. So what would Brady include in his all-cuts plan to balance the budget? So far, he ’s refused to say - because it simply can’t be done without causing devastating harm to education, healthcare and public safety. No wonder former Governor Jim Edgar called Brady’s chainsaw approach to the budget “naïve.”
In fact, Bill Brady ’s own voting record provides the best clue about what he’d do as governor. His solution to our economic problems would be to turn the clock back by eliminating the minimum wage, equal pay for equal work, Family and Medical Leave, and to allow discrimination in the workplace. That’s an economic vision from 1910 — not for 2010.
You can expect that Edgar quote to be used ad infinitum by the Quinnsters.
* Brady did much better yesterday than I thought he would. His presser was on the third floor near the rail and the gun rights folks were in town so it was hard to hear anything in the Rotunda. But, it appears TV and radio got their audio and Brady got in a lot of decent shots, despite his consistent refusal to look at the complete budget picture.
Of course, Brady doesn’t have his own alternative legislation. As Senate President Cullerton pointed out yesterday, Brady is the first sitting Illinois legislator to be nominated for governor in over 100 years. He therefore has the ability to introduce his own plan.
…Adding… I forgot to mention that Gov. Quinn will appear at two schools today to tout his tax hike proposal. From a press release…
GOVERNOR’S PUBLIC SCHEDULE
**Thursday, March 11, 2010**
SPRINGFIELD - Governor Pat Quinn will speak about his education priorities.
WHO: Governor Quinn
WHEN: 11:00 a.m.
WHERE: Thomas Jefferson Middle School - Library
3001 South Allis Street
Springfield, 62703
CHICAGO - Governor Pat Quinn will speak about his education priorities.
WHO: Governor Quinn
WHEN: 1:30 p.m.
WHERE: James R. Lowell Elementary School
3320 West Hirsch Street
Chicago, 60651
* The headline on Kristen McQueary’s column pretty much sums it up…
Budget plan is clever, but D.O.A.
Tactically, this would normally be a decent move. Raise taxes for schools. That’s how income taxes were raised here in 1987, all the money went to schools and local governments.
House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has repeatedly condemned Republicans for refusing to put votes behind an income-tax hike, praised Quinn’s courage in pushing the new plan. But the speaker actually made a compelling case against it during a televised interview after the governor’s speech.
“Let’s be straightforward about this. The people of Illinois, they don’t want tax increases. They’re hurting. The American economy is in bad shape. People are out of work. They don’t want to hear about tax increases,” Madigan said.
“You should admire the governor for standing up in these times and say, ‘Look if we wish to maintain the fiscal integrity of this state, then we ought to do this tax increase.’ That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen,” Madigan said.
“This is a fellow who likes to hold people hostage,” Cross said of Quinn. “I suggest that at end of the day, this (education cuts) will not happen. This is a scare tactic. Scaring people is not leadership.”
. Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said he supports the latest plan, but it is up to the House to take the lead, since the House never acted on last year’s proposal
Given the lack of support for a tax hike, one scenario circulating in the Capitol has Democrats approving a bare-bones budget that carries the state through the November elections, after which they would push through a tax hike to help pull the state out of its fiscal quagmire.
“It’s entirely possible,” Cross said.
* Meanwhile, the Tribune editorial board was predictably enraged, screaming that its pension fund slashes should’ve been implemented in order to save $2 billion, even though they won’t. And just saying something ought to be done doesn’t mean it can be done. I’d like to visit Pluto, but I ain’t gonna get there. Also, proposing cuts of $6 billion when we appear to have a structural hole far larger than that isn’t going to solve the problem in two years, no matter how you do the math.
And Ralph Martire makes a good point that the Tribune should at least listen to…
Illinois ranks — when you look at us compared to other states, and you look at our spending as a percentage of our state GDP, which is the only rational comparison state-to-state — we rank 45th in spending with the 5th biggest populations, and we ranked 42nd in tax burden. We’re low-tax, low-spending, we have a giant, giant deficit.
* The Sun-Times was upset that the governor’s tax hike wasn’t large enough, even though the governor’s tax hike isn’t going anywhere.
* I hesitate to delve too deeply into this budget plan, because the whole thing will need to be reworked. But here’s one of the more interesting proposals that may survive…
llinois Governor Pat Quinn wants the state’s youth prisons to be controlled by another department.
Four years ago, the Department of Juvenile Justice was part of the Department of Corrections. It was separated after some lawmakers and advocates argued youth prisons should not be controlled by the same office as the adult prisons.
Now Quinn wants to fold it into another large agency, the Department of Children and Family Services, to save money, the administration says, and get kids more access to a full range of services.
As Chicago Public Radio has amply reported, the state’s juvenile justice system is a complete mess. Some of the prisons are in outrageously poor conditions. Maybe DCFS can straighten it out, maybe not, but they’re gonna try…
Cook County Public Guardian Robert Harris, whose office represents kids in juvenile court, said it often seemed unfair that children involved in the child protection side of juvenile court have access to services absent on the juvenile justice side.
“They are often confronted with the same issues — neglect, abuse, no family or parents involved in drugs,” Harris said. “It makes sense.”
Mayor Daley warned today that the day of reckoning has arrived for a financial crisis that’s choking local taxpayers: underfunded city pensions.
Daley said the 32-member pension commission he created more than two years ago will soon recommend solutions to the crisis that won’t be pretty or politically popular.
Daley and others commented on an exclusive Chicago Sun-Times report Wednesday of massive grade changing after the marking period ended last school year at Hyde Park, including 873 F’s changed to passing marks. More than 1,100 other grades were changed downward.
As a result, training instructors for the Chicago Police Department have moved away from teaching recruits to do searches that way in recent years. Instead, trainees are taught to make suspects stand, then hold one arm of the suspect and perform a one-handed pat-down.
The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) may file an application with the U.S. securities regulator for an initial public offering, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
