* A little late in posting it, but I’m still on break. Here’s my weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Women and children literally are being thrown into the street while the three-headed monster that runs Illinois government continues to do battle with itself.
More than a thousand protesters gathered at Chicago’s Thompson Center last week to demand an end to the ugly political war that has engulfed Springfield. The protesters wanted the restoration of millions of dollars vetoed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich from alcohol and substance abuse recovery services. The programs keep drug and alcohol users out of jail by giving them an opportunity to clean up and get their lives back in order.
The governor vetoed the money - and a whole lot more - after the House and Senate failed to pass a balanced budget. Actually, the House did pass a balanced budget, but it’s still sitting in the Senate. The proposal that made it to the governor’s desk was favored by the Senate Democrats but required additional revenue, which the House didn’t approve during the spring session.
The House came back to Springfield to override some of the governor’s vetoes, including the alcohol and substance abuse cuts. But the House Democrats, who run the chamber, never took up any funding proposals, claiming the House Republicans had refused to negotiate with them at the request of the Democratic governor. The Senate refused to come back to town as long as the House failed to pass revenue bills, and then the never-ending finger-pointing ritual, which passes for leadership here, fully engaged.
The governor blamed the House, the Senate blamed the House, the House blamed everybody but itself, the Republicans blamed the Democrats, and the Democrats blamed the Republicans.
Meanwhile, A Safe Haven, a facility for homeless families that houses 80 women and 40 children in Alsip and relies solely on state funding through the alcohol and drug program, is preparing to close its doors and evict its residents.
“It’s like our lives (aren’t) important,” said Demetria Woods, who works for the facility. The SouthtownStar reported that Woods once was a resident of the facility who had changed her life to the point where she was hired to help others. Except now there will be no one to help.
Back to the blame game.
The governor’s people had predicted the Illinois House would bear the brunt of the blame in this budget fight, but that hasn’t happened so far. He made the vetoes, the House overrode some of them, and the Senate won’t return. Politically, the governor and the Senate are taking most of the heat at the moment. And the more the governor cuts (he has said much more is on the way as he manages his way through hundreds of millions in additional red ink), the more blame he will get.
But this no longer is a merely political story. We’re talking real people with real problems blithely tossed to the four winds while the “leaders” seek to use the crisis to their own advantage. Blagojevich and Jones want to destroy Madigan, and Madigan is trying to do the same to them.
Illinois always was known as a rough and tumble state that still got the job done. No longer. The rough and tumble has increased exponentially to the point where “the job” now is a distant second to “the fight.”
I’m reminded of those old Godzilla movies. You may remember Ghidorah, also known as the “King of Terror.” Ghidorah was a three-headed monster who made even Godzilla tremble. Well, in the Illinois version, Ghidorah’s three heads (Blagojevich, Jones and Madigan) are now fighting among each other without taking even the slightest notice of the devastation they are causing to the people and infrastructure below. It may be thrilling to watch, unless, of course, you are those Thompson Center protesters or Demetria Woods, and then your cries of anguish go unheard while the monster tramples you to a bloody pulp.
Apparently, the rest of us are doomed to letting this three-headed monster fight itself until a “win” is declared or until Ghidorah is too exhausted to continue. And there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot we can do about it until the war is over, whenever that may be.
I’ve never been so disheartened by this state’s government as I am right now.
* As I told you earlier, we’re shutting down until the middle of next week or so. The news feeds will still be up and running, of course, and InsiderzExchange will still be active, as will Illinoize. So keep on coming back.
I’ve told people before that this site has become a living, breathing thing. Every time you come back, something’s different and new. A new post, new items in the news feed, new coments, a new ad at InsiderzExchange, or whatever. But every now and then I have to get away from it.
* Many thanks to Chicago Magazine for including me in their “Best of Chicago” editition, which is on newsstands now. Read the blurb by clicking here. I’m also quoted in their article about Jim Oberweis.
* AOL e-mail problems continue. I was able to send out the Capitol Fax this morning, but I haven’t been able to send e-mail since then. I can’t even log into the online version.
* “Out of office” bounceback e-mail’s have increased exponentially in the past few days, and comments here are dropping like a rock. Since the readership is taking a break, I will too. Today is it for a while. So get your comments in while you can because Kevin and I are shutting down the shop until next Wednesday or Thursday - or until the governor makes another big, goofy splash.
* I told you Monday that GOP gubernatorial hopeful Sen. Bill Brady had raised a pathetic $55,730 during the first six months of this year. Brady now has an excuse…
Brady said that with fellow Republicans involved in active campaigns in November, he didn’t want to raise money that might compete with them. He said he’ll wait until the 2010 election is closer to begin collecting campaign cash.
‘’We weren’t going to do anything out of the ordinary,'’ Brady said.
That’s an unfortunate remark. One of the biggest knocks on Brady’s 2006 bid was his lack of fundraising abilities.
And Mike Lawrence makes an excellent point in the article…
‘’It’s a lot easier to build on a big fund than be scrambling for money during the campaign season itself,'’ Lawrence said.
It is still business as usual for Gov. Blagojevich, the only statewide officeholder taking campaign contributions from companies with state-paid contracts awarded by his office or agencies under his control.
Yesterday, the Blagojevich campaign committee filed campaign disclosure reports for the first half of 2008, and we have found dozens of contributions from people and businesses connected to state contracts. In a preliminary look through his report, we found 70 that appear, on their face, to be from businesses or employees of businesses that have FY09 contracts from agencies under his control worth more than $50,000. Those donations total $238,500. That’s about 22% of his itemized individual donations, or 12.6% of all the contributions to his campaign.
While Illinois legislators took action against the state’s “pay to play” reputation, Gov. Rod Blagojevich took donation after donation from people who stood to gain financially from his administration.
We’ve just discovered another 220,000 reasons why Gov. Blagojevich should sign an ethics bill sitting on his desk that takes aim at pay-to-play politics in Illinois.
That’s 220,000 dollars, to be precise.
That’s how much Blagojevich raised in the first half of 2008 from companies that were granted major state contracts for this fiscal year, according to a rough analysis of new campaign finance reports by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. This estimate, which doesn’t capture all donors, represents about 20 percent of the $1.1 million Blagojevich raised from individual donors.
Some legislators also are interested in the position, including state Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock and senators Christine Rodogno, R-Lemont, Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, and Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline.
“I’m mulling it over,” said Jacobs, who believes voters are tired of Chicago politicians, but admitted he’d have to raise some serious money to run. “What I’m willing to do is work hard, roll up my sleeves and move Illinois forward. I don’t want to see Illinois roll backward.”
In a welcome relief from the politics of blaming the other party for the inaction that infests Washington, the men and women who occupy the nation’s statehouses are noticeably more interested in finding solutions, many of them wonderfully wonky, to the problems facing their citizens.
* As is typical for DC types, they visited a meeting of the National Governors Association and declared governors to be superior. Well, they really need to visit Illinois…
After eight years of helping homeless and drug-addicted mothers, A Safe Haven sits on the brink of oblivion. Eighty women and 40 children may be kicked out of their apartments beginning Thursday if lawmakers don’t restore money taken away by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. […]
“This is the first time I’ve ever experienced anything like this. The cuts have been so drastic,” said Sterling Gildersleeve, executive director of the Alsip facility, which may begin separating families as soon as Thursday. […]
Repeated calls to the governor’s office for comment weren’t returned.
The story concludes with a quote from a former addicted mother who was hired by the center…
“We’re citizens, and we need help. It’s like our lives (aren’t) important.”
Those lives aren’t important. Not to the people who run Illinois, anyway.
More than a thousand demonstrators gathered at the James R. Thompson Center on Tuesday, calling for state lawmakers to override Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s veto of $43 million in funding for alcohol and substance abuse recovery services. […]
Protesters hoped to get the attention of Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago), who is ultimately responsible for re-convening the Senate in Springfield and following the House’s suit in casting an overriding vote.
The Blagojevich administration Tuesday continued to say little publicly about how it plans to deal with cuts to the state budget.
* Nobody wants to talk to the press, but they’re still ginning up the hatred. Check out a couple of photos from yesterday’s protest rally. Gee, I wonder who might’ve sponsored these guys?…
The Senate can sit idle as 42,000 people are kicked out of care, as current waiting list of 7,500 is doubled and as public safety decreases. Or, the Senate can restore the state’s budget for treatment, and avert the costly consequences to families, communities, and taxpayers.
Methinks they’ll sit idle.
* Meanwhile, Gov. Blagojevich has never been to a state park in his entire life, and it shows…
A coalition of conservation and environmental groups called Tuesday for Gov. Rod Blagojevich to put off implementing $14 million in budget cuts for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. […]
“We’re calling on the governor not to make any cuts until after (the Nov. 4 election) and to keep the budget where it is right now,” said John Gaudette of the Illinois Environmental Council. […]
“The Department of Natural Resources is already at a skeleton level,” he said.
Construction will start back up today on several local projects after state officials fixed a mix-up in the current budget.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday signed into law Senate Bill 1130, which lawmakers approved two weeks ago. It clarifies state budget language that his administration said had stalled 39 construction projects statewide.
*** UPDATE *** Senate President Emil Jones talked to some reporters today. Of course, nobody apparently asked him about the no-growth budget bills still sitting idly in his chamber…
“We have to have a balanced budget,” Jones said. “I’m not going to get involved in playing silly games and giving false hopes to people when the money isn’t there. I support many of the programs that cut. But we in the Senate also supported the revenue to support the budget. That’s why we passed the revenue to support the budget in May. Now, if the House was genuinely sincere about passing those programs, then they in turn would pass the revenue to support it.”
Jones compared the House’s approval of the budget without enough revenue to support it to “check kiting.”
“The House is good at check kiting. Send them a big check, knowing dog-gone well the check is going to bounce. And that’s where we stand right now.”
Jones also insisted the Senate’s absence from Springfield to deal with the budget had nothing to do with having to confront the pay raise issue head-on if he returned. The Senate has two legislative session days left to reject a raise that would boost the salaries of lawmakers and many other state officials salaries by about 7.5 percent by next summer.
There was easily enough gas to make a round trip, but, hey, I’m in Missouri, I might as well take advantage of this cheap gas I’m always hearing about. Looky here, gas for $3.98 a gallon. I’ll top off the tank and save a couple bucks.
Imagine my surprise when, later that night, we get back to Springfield and gas is selling for — $3.98 a gallon.
State Sen. John Millner, a Republican from Carol Stream, acknowledged Tuesday that the characterization of the NIU proton treatment center “could’ve been done differently.”
“I want both centers to be built,” Millner said. “I want to make sure both become very successful. And I’ll do what I can to promote both centers.”
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is coming to Springfield to be the keynote speaker at a brunch Aug. 13 hosted by the Democratic County Chairmen’s Association.
The governor vetoed the money - and a whole lot more - after the House and Senate failed to pass a balanced budget. Actually, the House did pass a balanced budget, but it’s still sitting in the Senate. The proposal that made it to the governor’s desk was favored by the Senate Democrats but required additional revenue, which the House didn’t approve during the spring session.
I’m reminded of those old Godzilla movies. You may remember Ghidorah, also known as the “King of Terror.” Ghidorah was a three-headed monster who made even Godzilla tremble. Well, in the Illinois version, Ghidorah’s three heads (Blagojevich, Jones and Madigan) are now fighting among each other without taking even the slightest notice of the devastation they are causing to the people and infrastructure below. It may be thrilling to watch, unless, of course, you are those Thompson Center protesters or Demetria Woods, and then your cries of anguish go unheard while the monster tramples you to a bloody pulp.
