* Maybe, just maybe, the summer has finally started for us Statehouse types. I haven’t seen any late afternoon press releases from the governor yet, but I’d hate to jynx us all with a flat-out prediction that we won’t be back in session any time soon.
Anyways, head yourself to Illinoize this weekend. And don’t forget to buy an ad at InsiderzExchange, or at least check out the ads that are there, like this one.
* Anyway, here’s to better days…
Well, I see no reason as for why it cannot be
A little time, a little trouble, a better day
An outspoken atheist filed papers in court yesterday to stop Illinois officials from giving money to a historic church.
Rob Sherman is known for his lawsuit that halted a moment of silence in schools. Now he wants to prevent the state from giving Pilgrim Baptist Church a million dollars to rebuild after a fire.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has said the money is intended for a community center and administrative offices, not religious purposes.
But Sherman says that violates the constitution.
SHERMAN: What goes on in an administration building? That’s where the church operates its ministry from. So Rod cannot stick the taxpayers with the cost of a church’s ministry expenses.
* Question: In your opinion, does Sherman’s claim have merit? Explain.
* The Tribune editorial misses a big point in its discussion of the budget and the governor’s vetoes…
Political retribution aside, Blagojevich had some tough choices. It would have been easier to pass a sensible budget if anybody talked to anybody else in Springfield. But they don’t. So the legislature gave Blagojevich a budget he didn’t want, and he gave them back a budget they don’t want.
Not mentioned is that the House did pass a flat-growth budget and it’s still sitting in the Senate.
* The editorial concludes…
[Senate President Emil Jones] wants a pay raise. But he doesn’t want to call his members to work because he doesn’t want to be held accountable for a 7.5 percent pay increase that will take effect next summer—unless senators vote to reject it. They can’t vote if they’re not in town, and if Jones has his way they’ll stay home until the November election is safely past, just in case voters aren’t as dumb as he hopes they are.
Yes, you’ve got that right: They can come to work and do their job, or they can stay home and get a raise they don’t deserve.
The unfinished budget is proof they haven’t even earned their current salary. Sadly, there’s no provision in state law that would require them to give it back. But to quietly award themselves a raise is pure disdain for voters. Jones should call in his members. There’s little hope this year’s budget can be repaired in any meaningful way. But the pay hike requires only a simple up-or-down vote. Surely they can handle that.
The House did its job. But the pay raises will still go through unless the Senate votes no. That’s one reason observers suspect Senate President Emil Jones has declined to reconvene the Senate. Jones enthusiastically supports the raises. But it is likely a state senator not beholden to him (any Republican, for example) would call for a vote on the raises. That vote would provide legitimate campaign fodder against any senator foolish enough to hike his or her own salary while everyone else in Illinois faces severe cuts.
Some observers suspect Jones will wait until after the November election to convene the Senate and face a possible vote on the 7.5 percent hike boosting annual pay to $72,985.
Legislative salaries, like all salaries, have to be earned. We’ve seen little evidence lawmakers have earned the $67,836, each is supposed to be paid right now.
* Speaking of budget cuts, a familiar face is back in the news, and she’s using a catchy little attack line…
The governor’s decision to cut $37.3 million from the RTA’s budget leaves the RTA in a “very bad state” at a time when high gas prices are driving more people onto buses and trains, according to RTA director and former gubernatorial candidate Judy Baar Topinka.
“There’s more clamor for transportation, and that’s the time you pull the plug on it?” said Topinka. “What was he thinking?” she added, echoing a campaign slogan Gov. Blagojevich used against her to devastating effect in the 2006 campaign.
Unemployment surged in Illinois in June to 6.8 percent, the highest level in 15 years, rising from 5 percent a year earlier.
The rate was up from 6.4 percent in May and exceeded the nation’s 5.5 percent June unemployment rate, the Illinois Department of Employment Security said Thursday.
In the Republican underdog role against two-term veteran Durbin, Sauerberg, a physician from Willowbrook, repeatedly has sought to label his opponent as too liberal. On one of his campaign’s Web sites, Sauerberg noted Durbin’s opposition to a Constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning and said the nation’s founders never included one “because they never had to deal with ultra-liberal Americans who hate their own country.”
Asked whether he was referring to Durbin, Sauerberg said Thursday, “I think he’s an ultra liberal. Whether he hates his own country, I cannot determine for the gentleman.” Sauerberg said voters “wonder a lot” about Durbin’s patriotism.
Because, you know, the second ranking member of the US Senate is probably just a Manchurian Candidate waiting to be activated by his terrorist managers.
* Sauerberg then showed again why he’s not quite ready for prime time…
Labeling the nation’s energy problems a top voter concern, Sauerberg restated his call for a federal gas-tax holiday as the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, has proposed. Sauerberg said money lost to the federal highway construction fund could be replaced by finding “another wasteful program that government runs.”
Asked to name a specific wasteful government program to cut, Sauerberg said, “I can’t answer that” and apologized, before proposing a freeze on federal hiring or a 2 percent cut in federal agency spending.
* Meanwhile, Progress Illinois has put together a nifty summation of 2nd Quarter congressional fundraising…
While all that anti-lobbyist hoopla from Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has caused something of a minor identity crisis on K Street, it turns out that the prospect of an Obama presidency has one firm seeing dollar signs.
Chicago-based Dan Shomon Inc., the shop of former Obama political director and campaign manager Dan Shomon, has been busy pitching potential inside-the-Beltway clients.
“Should ‘CHANGE’ occur in November as polls indicate, we should see a lot of people from Illinois moving to Washington D.C. and taking key spots in an Obama administration,” said an e-mail from Shomon’s colleague, Gerald Galloway, to potential clients.
“Now is the time to anticipate these changes. … We will be in Washington DC August 4, 5, and 6th and were interested in scheduling a meeting with your government affairs team to discuss the changing political landscapes and our services and capabilities,” the e-mail continued.
* The Sun-Times editorial board continues the slams on Gov. Blagojevich for suggesting that violence in Chicago is “out of control” and suggesting that the National Guard might be deployed…
Now that Gov. Blagojevich’s political career is teetering, we’ve been giving some thought to what his next job might be.
It has to be a job that requires only minimal ability to cultivate allies because, really, he’s not much good at that. The GOP, of course, has never been on his side. His father in law, Ald. Dick Mell, gave up on him long ago. Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan can’t bear to be in the same room with him. And on Wednesday, he embarrassed and drove away Mayor Daley — his last remote hope for a political leader he could do business with — when he declared that violence is “out of control” in Chicago.
It has to be a job that requires no particular ability to read other people. The governor apparently believed that by shaming Daley — talking down Chicago while the mayor is trying to win the 2016 Olympics — he could bully the mayor into working with him in Springfield.
This is the same editorial page that has attempted to shame the city for weeks into paying attention to the surging violence. So, while the governor’s National Guard comments were goofy, he didn’t really say anything that hasn’t already been said in the Sun-Times.
Unlike Mayor Daley, who blames everybody but himself for the crime problem (including reporters), Blagojevich took notice and offered to help. Sure, the press conference may have hurt the Olympic bid and embarrassed the city’s thin-skinned mayor, but all those front page stories and editorials about the murder of children this year probably had the same effect.
And I’m fully aware that the governor is a bizarre human being. But the Sun-Times could use this event as an opportunity to spark discussion about what the city can do to break the gangs and stop the violence. Instead, they’ve elected to rhetorically shoot a messenger who mostly echoed their own views.
A day after Gov. Rod Blagojevich called Chicago’s rising crime rate “out of control” and offered state manpower to help, Police Supt. Jody Weis carefully waded into the political fray Thursday on the city’s behalf, saying reports on the uptick in crime have been exaggerated.
At a news conference, Weis walked a cautious line, avoiding laying blame, asserting that his department has a handle on crime but still welcoming assistance. The superintendent said any deployment of state police would need more discussion and planning, and the Illinois National Guard isn’t likely to be on the way. Weis said the Guard doesn’t have the police powers necessary to help fight crime in the city.
The governor’s offer, which the administration said potentially involved using state troopers to patrol streets and National Guard helicopters to carry out surveillance, raised questions about whether it was more the result of a political struggle with Mayor Richard Daley rather than the need for more police.
DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett is jumping into the governor’s controversial offer to put state troopers on Chicago’s streets to fight what the governor called “out of control” crime.
“I urge you to stop disparaging the Chicago Police Department, who, in my opinion, have done an outstanding job in their fight against street gangs,” Birkett told Gov. Blagojevich in a letter today.
Illinois officials hope schoolchildren, churches and businesses will take part in next year’s celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday.
The Lincoln Bicentennial Commission offered a look Thursday at events it’s organizing to mark the anniversary.
They include a simultaneous reading of the Gettysburg Address by Illinois schoolchildren, having churches toll their bells next Feb. 12 and asking businesses to say “Happy Birthday, Abe” on marquees and message boards.
The commission’s budget was $1 million last year, and legislators asked for $5 million this year. Because of the state’s budget problems, however, the commission probably will end up with only $1.5 million.
Maybe. But there’s obviously a lack of imagination at play here. “Happy birthday, Abe” signs? What?
* And there doesn’t seem to be much interest by the bigs…
The commission also has invited U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama and U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts as guests for a banquet that evening. None have accepted yet.
Durbin lives in Springfield, so his lack of cooperation so far is simply astounding. Obama announced his presidential campaign at the Old State Capitol, which Lincoln helped move to Springfield. Obama also used Lincoln imagery in his speech, so he has an obligation to cooperate.
It is interesting to note that, while an estimated nine-thousand people gathered for the celebration and probably thousands more having been turned away, across town the colored citizens, who had not been invited, had their own celebration at the A.M.E.Church. There was “great indignation expressed by the colored residents of the city because they were barred from the Lincoln banquet.”
* I checked the list of events for Springfield, and there’s nothing on the agenda to redress this egregious rebuff from the last century. Maybe that’s because of the shockingly low number of African-Americans on the state’s bicentennial commission.
* The budget cuts will have an impact on the celebration, however…
But this month, Gov. Rod Blagojevich slashed the budget for staff at all of the historic sites in Illinois, many of which revolve around Lincoln’s life.
Thursday, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency Director Jan Grimes said the cuts mean some sites will have to close or reduce hours.
“All sites will be impacted by that in some way,” Grimes said. “We’ll have some reduced hours; we’ll have some sites that will have to close.
Illinois’ largest psychiatric hospital left sexual predators unguarded despite allegations that at least 10 mentally disabled children were assaulted during the last three years.
The youngest victim was an 8-year-old state ward admitted for evaluation after expressing suicidal thoughts.
Unnecessary deaths and amputation, grossly inadequate medical care and routine inmate beatings.
Those are some of the disturbing findings at the Cook County Jail after a 17-month civil review by the U.S. attorney’s office, which is considering criminal charges against some jail guards.
Cook County Jail is a bleeding mess. That’s the only conclusion you can arrive at after reading a 98-page report from the U.S. Justice Department on conditions at the facility, the largest county jail in the country.
The criticisms that have been leveled at the DuPage County Election Commission have had more to do with the appearance of impropriety. They’ve been about some members’ close personal relationships with both the manufacturer and distributor of the voting machines, for example, and the kind of cross fertilization that, frankly, is not unusual in “old boy” networks.
That report noted a direct withdrawal of nearly $30 million in spendable income from the four-county region surrounding the prison where a vast majority of its 569 employees live. Indirect losses to Pontiac and other communities would be even greater.
“It would be devastating to businesses,” Rutherford said.
* This buried nugget is something that has been overlooked this week during the House veto override session…
With 27 members of the House absent, lawmakers had a hard time overriding the governor’s vetoes, many of which needed a three-fifths majority, or 71 votes, to pass.
Only six of those 33 [override] motions to restore the funding passed, worth about $480 million.
Lots of legislators voted with their feet this week. They knew this game was essentially a farce. As long as the Senate refuses to return, their votes were meaningless, except as political cover and a vehicle to put the onus on the other chamber.
House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) refused to call legislation this week that would raise more money to avoid the cuts, including a measure that would allow the administration to dip into other state funds to cover expenses.
Jones spokeswoman Cindy Davidsmeyer also cited Madigan’s decision for why the Senate also wasn’t in town. “They didn’t pass the revenue, so there is no reason to come back,” Davidsmeyer said. […]
Blagojevich called the House overrides “totally irresponsible” and said he won’t call the Senate back to Springfield unless the House passes a meaningful revenue bill.
Restoring vetoed money without adding at least some revenue streams is not the most responsible thing the House has ever done.
Republicans, who opposed many of the motions to restore the cuts, complained the House votes were about political posturing that toys with groups in need of help. […]
House Republicans and allies of Blagojevich joined together to blast House Democrats for trying to promise money out of a budget that had none to offer.
They’ve joined the Senate in arguing the House wants more spending but doesn’t want to make the tough votes for money-generating measures needed to pay for it.
Because the House Democrats had far fewer than 60 members in town yesterday, every one of those successful veto override motions passed with GOP votes.
* The AP finally updated their over-the-top story from yesterday which completely bought the claim by some Downstate Republicans that Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) had injected racial hatred into a committee debate. But maybe they should’ve just retracted the whole thing. The lede is the same from yesterday morning…
Three Republican state representatives accused a Democratic colleague of spreading “racial hatred” during a committee meeting Wednesday and demanded that the speaker of the House investigate the incident.
“That type of racial hatred that was displayed in committee went out with the ’70s, and I respectfully request that you review the transcript,” Rep. Jim Sacia, R-Pecatonica, said on the House floor.
A recording of the hearing shows that while Davis alleged some lawmakers want to keep crime rates up so that prisons stay full, the racial content was minimal: She argued that her fellow African-American legislators must fight hard for legislation to help former criminals go straight.
Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Greenville, alleged that Davis specifically said some lawmakers want to keep prisons filled with “black people from Chicago.”
He called it “Alice in Wonderland kind of stuff” to suggest any lawmaker would want to keep crime rates up. Suggesting a racial motivation is even worse, he said.
“That is a criminal insult and she should be sanctioned,” Stephens said. Rep. Dennis Reboletti, R-Elmhurst, agreed. He accused Davis of “race-baiting.”
* Sorry, guys, but you’re the ones doing the race-baiting. From the Tribune…
But a tape of the hearing shows that Davis never accused the Republicans of protecting prisons on the basis of race. In fact, she said it was a matter of economics.
“Illinois must recognize there’s some people in the Illinois General Assembly who have prisons in their district and their whole objective is to keep them filled,” Davis said at the hearing. “Anything — anything — that would create an atmosphere to get those prisons with fewer people, were threatened to close, it’s a war. ‘We’ve got to have those prisoners. They got to come down here from Chicago and we got to keep em filled because that’s how we get work. That’s our economy. We no longer plant corn. We no longer have farms. We don’t raise cows and pigs. We keep prisoners.’ So if you don’t have prisoners you will not have the economy to keep their livelihood going.”
* What Rep. Davis did was impugn the motives of Downstaters with prisons in their districts. That was over the line. But if anybody ought to be “sanctioned” (and I’m not arguing for sanctions, just throwing their words back at them) it should be the legislators who shouted the bogus claims about “racial hatred.”
“Her comments were definitely racial,” [Rep. Jim Sacia] said after the hearing. “They were directed at white Republicans. It was totally unacceptable.”
What does their reaction say about those legislators? Davis talked economics and they heard race. Not a banner day.
* From what I gather, yesterday’s announcement by Gov. Rod Blagojevich that he wanted to “help” Chicago fight crime by sending in more police and possibly the National Guard was an “off script” moment.
Blagojevich had apparently mused about the idea in private, and then kinda blurted it out at a bill signing ceremony. Oops. Here’s how it started..
“Something is wrong, and this violence has to stop. And we have to do something constructively to try and make that violence stop,” he said. “Maybe, we can play a role and provide more manpower so that the mayor doesn’t have to make that choice between taking a police officer from, let’s say, the North Side and putting that police officer on the street in the South Side.”
* And then after the governor mentioned the state cops and the National Guard, he decided to take it one step further…
“The mayor can be a great help in this in getting the House Democratic leadership to pass that big capital program,” he said.
“My guess is the governor may be smarting because the mayor was quoted publicly as saying he tried to convince [Blagojevich] to have a more common-sense approach to the capital plan, and that advice was ignored,” Brown said. […]
“Making sure that kids aren’t shot and guns aren’t in the hands of bad guys is far from political,” [Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero] said.
“It is, at the very least, a little disconcerting that we’re only hearing about this as the media does,” she said.
* But the governor does have a good point about the violence…
The governor noted 16 children — “almost one child a day” — have been gunned down in Chicago since June 26. The shooting death toll for Chicago Public School students stands at 29 since last fall.
“Twenty-eight of those kids are African-American and Latino. Hard to imagine that that would be acceptable if that were, in fact, the case in other parts of the city or in a middle-class suburb somewhere. . . . Something is wrong, and this violence has to stop,” he said.
But [police department spokeswoman Monique Bond] took issue with the governor’s contention that crime is “out of control” in Chicago.
In fact, she said if the current murder rate holds in the city, 2008 may end with fewer than 500 homicides and that it is expected to be one of the least deadly years in the city in the last 40 years.
It’s kinda weird that the cops think that 500 murders is something to be proud of.
In the end, this was a goofy stunt. But Chicago is overrun by gangs. Nobody knows how many gang members there are, but one report has the Gangster Disciples alone with 70,000 Chicago-area members.
Was the governor’s splash a goofy stunt? Yes. Is there an urgent problem in Chicago? Heck yes. Will the leaders be able to put aside their egos and work on that problem? Ha.
The standing room-only cars will begin operating within a few months, probably starting on the Brown Line and later expanded to the Red and Blue Lines, CTA President Ron Huberman told the transit agency’s board.
