* 12:53 pm - The House is now debating a proposed constitutional amendment that would double the state income tax rate for people who make more than $250,000 a year.
Read the proposal here. Listen or watch the debate here. Background here.
The proposal, if approved by both chambers and the voters, would raise $3 billion a year.
* 1:03 pm - The House Republicans demanded a “Committee of the Whole” to discuss the topic in as much depth as the governor’s Gross Receipts Tax was last year. A motion to adjourn until Monday so that a Committee of the Whole could be held was defeated on party lines.
Firefighters and a hazardous materials team have left the Howlett building after determining no dangerous substance was inside.
One floor of the building, at Second and Edwards streets, was evacuated about 11 a.m. today after a mailroom worker opened an envelope that smelled like gasoline and had a brown smudge on the paperwork inside.
Interesting that they only evacuated one floor.
*** 3:20 pm *** The proposed constitutional amendment failed to garner enough votes to send it to the Senate. There were 60 “No” votes. At least that’s what I think the number was. I was momentarily distracted. It did fail, however.
…Adding… The vote was 52-60
House Republican leader Tom Cross accused the Democrats of playing election-year politics and trying to distance themselves from past support of embattled Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
But Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) contended the “most troubling part” of the measure fails to break down specifics, such as which education programs would get more money and which school districts would come out ahead.
That last point would simply be a silly thing to do with a Constitutional amendment and Cross knows it. Not to say that this idea was great - it was fatally flawed on many levels - but that sort of detail should never be put into a Constitution.
But Republicans say it’s unwise to raise taxes in a sour economy.
I don’t really buy that one, either. When the economy is strong, they say “Don’t raise taxes or you’ll kill the expansion.” When it’s weak, they say “Don’t raise taxes or you’ll make things worse.” Pick one.
Again, I’m not necessarily arguing for a tax hike here, but these circular arguments that are reported without challenge kinda bug me.
* 4:39 pm - The roll call for the con amend vote is now online. It appears that some conservative Dems, Dems with GOP opponents, and Blagojevich allies voted “No.” Two Democrats (Hamos and Washington) were absent.
A bill to lift the state’s long-standing prohibition on building new nuclear power plants has won approval in a state House committee and may soon get a floor vote. […]
The action surprised environmental groups, some of which adamantly oppose new nuclear plants. They had little warning of the committee hearing and vote.
[Rep. JoAnn Osmond, R-Antioch] said she moved to lift the moratorium on new plants — first approved in the 1980s following the near-disaster in 1979 at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania — after learning of the ban’s existence during recent discussions with Exelon about a fast-track plan to reclaim a shuttered plant in north suburban Zion. (Zion is in Ms. Osmond’s district.)
“Do I have someone on the side who’s ready to place a nuclear plant in Illinois? No,” Ms. Osmond says. “But I think we should look at it again. It’s been 30 years.”
She referenced recent moves by power generators in other parts of the country to consider building new reactors as the industry responds to heightened concerns about global warming. Coal-fired plants are major sources of carbon emissions tied to global climate change; nuclear plants are not.
* The question: Should the state’s moratorium on building new nuclear power plants be abolished? Explain.
* This has been done before, but check the last paragraph for a glimpse into the bill’s future…
Illinoisans with kids in schools would get an unexpected state tax break before fall classes begin under a plan that unanimously passed the Senate Wednesday but appears to face long odds in the House.
The legislation would impose a nine-day period at the beginning of August where the state sales tax would be suspended on the purchase of school supplies, clothing, shoes or computers. […]
The $33 million measure passed the Senate 58-0 and now moves to the House, where it could face difficulty because there is no clear funding source to pay for the program at a time when the state can’t pay many of its bills on time.
Cook County would join the rest of the state in having annual property tax assessments under legislation the Illinois House passed Wednesday.
The measure is designed to take advantage of rapid fluctuations in the housing market, particularly when dropping values could lower property tax bills. Rep. Kevin Joyce (D-Chicago), the legislation’s sponsor, said the current three-year reassessment cycle is “not fair and equitable.” […]
The House approved the bill on a 78-32 vote, sending it to the Senate. But Cook County Assessor James Houlihan’s office questioned the price tag, saying it could cost $10 million to reassess the entire county by the measure’s proposed October deadline. The bill does not apply to commercial or industrial property.
Its fate in the Senate is uncertain, to say the least. Senate President Jones tends to ally with Speaker Madigan’s enemies, and Houlihan is high on Madigan’s enemies list.
* Also yesterday, a conservative group released its list of what it calls egregious pork projects…
llinois’ state budget for the current fiscal year is loaded with hundreds of millions of dollars in “wasteful spending,” two organizations said in releasing the 2008 Illinois Piglet Book on Wednesday.
* But much of what the group claims is “pork” really doesn’t fall under that traditional definition…
The report targeted projects such as Rural Medical Edcuation program at Rockford’s University of Illinois campus as wasteful spending.
* Forget recall, Sen. Mike Jacobs says, the governor should resign…
A state senator who has a history of confrontations with Gov. Rod Blagojevich called on the governor to resign Wednesday.
State Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, said revelations about corruption that are surfacing in the federal trial of one of the governor’s former top advisors are the main reason he wants Blagojevich to step down.
“No one has confidence in the man,” Jacobs said. […]
“State capitols are known for being full of hot air. That’s all this is,” said [a Blagojevich spokesperson].
Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, said he is troubled by testimony emerging from the Tony Rezko trial. Rezko, a top fundraiser and a close adviser to the governor, is on trial on federal corruption charges.
In addition, Blagojevich has been “derelict in running the state,” Jacobs said.
It has been almost a year—351 days, but who’s counting?—since a bill to raise ethics standards in state government whizzed out of the Illinois House on a 116-0 vote and landed with a thud in the Senate. More than three-quarters of the members of the Senate signed on as co-sponsors, a pretty good sign that the measure would pass there, too, given half a chance. But that’s half a chance more than Senate President Emil Jones has been willing to give it.
The “better bill” that Senate Democrats have been working on for almost a year finally squirted out of the Rules Committee on Wednesday… it looks an awful lot like the House bill. […]
Senate Democrats are painfully aware that their reluctance to challenge Jones on this and many other fronts makes them look like a flock of hapless sheeple. So it’s likely the Senate will dither awhile longer and then pass a slightly altered ethics bill on a lopsided vote and send it to the House, instead of to the governor’s desk.
At the end of the day we’ll have two bills and no law. If that’s how it shakes out, smart voters will hold the Senate Democrats accountable.
* After raising over $800,000 through mid-January and winning the primary with 71 percent of the vote, GOP congressional frontrunner Aaron Schock has decided he can raise even more and give it away to other congressional candidates…
Schock, the GOP nominee to succeed retiring seven-term Republican Ray LaHood , has formed a “leadership” political action committee (PAC) to help Republican candidates who also are seeking re-election to or membership in the upcoming 111th Congress.
It is hardly unusual for members of Congress to set up leadership PACs. These fundraising vehicles, which collect money from donors and mete it out to other candidates of the same party, once were mainly the province of top party leaders but have proliferated through the ranks in recent years.
But it is still extremely rare for a candidate who has not yet arrived in Congress to establish a leadership PAC — especially someone like Schock, who still is roughly seven months out from the general election that he expects to send him to Washington. Schock faces a viable though longshot challenger in Democratic farm broadcaster Colleen Callahan.
Schock, a 26-year-old state representative from Peoria touted by some Republicans as one of his party’s rising stars, has filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to form his leadership PAC, just two months after his victory in the Feb. 5 Republican primary. The committee, which has been dubbed the “GOP Generation Y Fund”, will give donations this fall to Republican candidates in close races for the U.S. House, said Steven Shearer, Schock’s campaign manager and the treasurer of the leadership PAC.
Barack Obama did the same thing a few years ago, and it has helped his presidential campaign a lot.
* Meanwhile, Hiram informs us of this interesting turn of events…
While the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has long targeted the 6th Congressional District where Democrat Jill Morgenthaler is battling one-term incumbent Republican Peter Roskam, the DCCC now is targeting the 13th District where Democrat Scott Harper faces incumbent Republican Judy Biggert.
Harper is not on the DCCC’s successful “Red to Blue” program, which would indicate serious financial support, but the Dems appear to be expanding the playing field a bit here.
* Harper press release…
Harper reported raising $134,115 this quarter with $103,463.54 cash on hand. By March 31 of this year, Harper had raised $247,410, which is more than any Democratic candidate in this district has ever raised for an entire cycle.
A new report by the Pew Research Center finds that this fiscal paradox is common in America. Most people, no matter where they fall on the economic spectrum, believe they’re in some way part of the middle class.
State Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat, and sponsor of the follow-up legislation, said she felt it was important to have transparency when spending tax dollars. As lawmakers worked to stave off a transportation “doomsday” scenario, Garrett said she fielded concerns from the disabled community who felt they were forgotten.
If Canadian National gets its way, the days of its locomotives sitting in the South Loop would soon end. Last fall, company announced it wanted to purchase the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad.
“I’d say that many of the people are laughing and saying it’s idiotic,” Pavlik said of Erickson’s pet-addressed newsletter. “Why would he send something to a dog?”
* Charges won’t be filed against ex- Lombard trustee who flashed badge
* 7:39 am - Atheist activist (and Green Party state Rep. candidate) Rob Sherman claims on his website that Rep. Monique Davis has apologized for her public tirade against him…
Rep. Davis said that she had been upset, earlier in the day, to learn that a twenty-second and twenty-third Chicago Public School student this school year had been shot to death that morning. She said that it was wrong for her to take out her anger, frustrations and emotions on me, and that she apologized to me.
I told her that her explanation was reasonable and that I forgave her. I also suggested that if she really was concerned about public school students dying needlessly, she should look into helping me to get passed legislation to get lap and shoulder seat belts on school busses that is pending in the House and in the Senate.
She thanked me for forgiving her and said that she would look into those two pieces of legislation.
Among other things, Rep. Davis said to the atheist: “You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.”
She also said about atheists and Sherman, “They want to fight prayer in school. I don’t see you fighting guns in school…. You will go to court to fight kids having an opportunity to be quiet for a minute, but damned if you’ll go to school to fight for an opportunity to keep guns out of their hands.”
Anyway, it’s good to see she apologized. Davis can certainly be a hothead, and she does get carried away, and what she said was out of line, but she isn’t nearly as bad as some of you claimed in comments yesterday.
An effort to bar Illinois residents from buying more than one handgun a month has failed.
The measure got only 53 of the 60 votes it needed to pass the Illinois House, but the sponsor could bring it back for another vote later.
Democratic Representative Luis Arroyo calls his bill a reasonable response to gun violence in Chicago.
* 2:00 pm - The woman who called tree-climbing kids monkeys is not stepping down…
A suburban Chicago delegate backing Sen. Barack Obama is now expected to keep her spot at this summer’s Democratic National Convention, reversing an outcome the Illinois Democrat’s campaign had reported a day earlier.
“Ms. Ramirez-Sliwinski is an elected delegate and we respect her decision to represent the campaign at the convention,” Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said in a statement.
On Tuesday, LaBolt had said the trustee in suburban Carpentersville had decided to step down after she used the word “monkeys” to describe two African American children.
“It is clear that the incident was a misunderstanding,” LaBolt said.
As an elected delegate, Ramirez-Sliwinski’s decision is her own. Obama’s campaign had been told on Monday that she planned to step down.
* We seem to always have bad news to report here. How about a spot of positivity for a change?
State Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson, announced this week that he has donated all of the overtime pay he received for the special sessions called by Gov. Rod Blagojevich during last summer and fall’s legislative standoff.
Legislators received a per diem of $125 per day for 37 days and $129 per day for five days, resulting in a total of $5,270 paid to each legislator in overtime per diems, totaling more than $1 million.
Like many others, Moffitt said he disagreed with calling the special sessions because the House and Senate leaders had not reached any agreements and no legislation could be considered for a vote. So, he decided to donate all of the $5,270 to charity, above and beyond what he normally gives.
The amount of the gifts ranged from $25 to $750 and went to 29 different recipients, including a number of city organizations, including the Galesburg Public Schools Foundation, Galesburg Rescue Mission, Orpheum Theatre, Discovery Depot, Galesburg Veterans Memorial, FISH food pantry and Carver Community Action Agency.
* 10:55 am - Not that I believe a single word that comes out of Stu Levine’s mouth, but this is worth noting. According to Levine, Gov. Blagojevich wanted Tony Rezko to monitor David Wilhelm’s success at winning contracts…
“My understanding was that Mr. Wilhelm’s success before the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board would be decided by Mr. Rezko and that would be based upon whether or not he felt Mr. Wilhelm was deserving of whatever the help he was seeking,” Levine testified.
“Mr. Rezko told me that Gov. Blagojevich and Mr. Rezko wanted to keep track of what clients Mr. Wilhelm had before various boards in the state of illinois and they wanted to keep track of what success he had and what success he did not have.”
Levine continued: “And that it should not be taken for granted that Mr. Wilhelm should be successful on anything (before) a board I was on unless I was specifically told by Mr. Rezko that he wanted him to be successful.”
They wanted “to assess the value of Mr. Wilhelm’s contribution to helping Gov. Blagojevich,” Levine said.
Wilhelm eventually left the state to care for an ailing parent. The rumor at the time, which has since been flatly denied, was that he had a major falling out with Blagojevich. Wilhelm chaired the governor’s 2002 campaign.
Through intermediaries, Levine said he conveyed to Edward [Hospital] officials that Wilhelm was on the outs with the administration. It was part of an elaborate shakedown scheme to convince Edward it needed to hire a corrupt contractor working with Levine if it wanted to get the go-ahead for its Plainfield facility.
What Levine and his confederates did not realize was that the hospital’s chief, Pam Davis, had alerted the FBI about the shakedown scheme. That triggered an investigation that eventually led to Levine’s indictment on a broad range of extortion-related charges.
* In the wake of yesterday’s House passage of a constitutional amendment providing for recall of state officials, Statehouse reporters went over some various obstacles today to getting the amendment on the November ballot.
Both Senate President Emil Jones, who could block the idea or ensure its defeat, and Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson said they needed to review the measure before deciding its fate.
Halvorson is running for Congress and the Rules Committee that she chairs is already bottling up a major ethics bill. If Rules blocks the recall amendment, this would definitely be an issue in her race, so I think it’s a big reason why it might actually make it to a standing committee, where it may die.
* The Senate only has until May 4th to approve the amendment, and the Sun-Times looks at the history of constitutional amendments in Illinois…
The last time a constitutional amendment passed either chamber was eight years ago.
The last time a proposed amendment was acted on by both the House and Senate and went before voters was 1998.
And the last time all of that happened and the state Constitution actually was amended was 1994.
* Despite all this, the Tribune editorial page continued its drumbeat…
That said, Jones and his Democrats have so many ways to game this: They can bury recall legislation in a dead-end committee, they can change it in ways the House won’t accept, they can ignore it.
Or Jones and his fellow Democratic senators can give Illinois citizens a voice. If the senators, or the citizens, don’t want this amendment, they’re free to vote against it.
What Jones and Co. aren’t free to do is ignore the overwhelming majority of Illinois voters who expect to see a recall amendment on the ballot when they go to the polls Nov. 4.
This is not a defense of Blagojevich. We’re as disgusted by the stalemate in Springfield as everyone else. But recall powers, which first require approval by the General Assembly and then Illinois voters on Nov. 4, would stick around well after Blagojevich leaves office, undermining effective government.
* If this study is accurate, then it’s a strong case for fixing a major problem…
More than 18 working-age Illinoisans die each week due to a lack of health insurance, according to a report released Tuesday by a health care advocacy group. […]
Families USA has released similar studies for all 50 states and said the reports are the first to give a state-level look at deaths stemming from a lack of health insurance. During 2006, the group estimates 960 Illinoisans between 25 and 64 died because they lacked health insurance.
The group made its estimates based on methods used in two previous studies. The Institute of Medicine estimated that 18,000 U.S. adults died in 2000 because they did not have health insurance; the Urban Institute estimated that number stood at 22,000 adults in 2006.
According to a U.S. Census report that averaged data from 2004 to 2006, 13.6 percent of Illinois residents are without health insurance. Nationally, 47 million people, 15.8 percent of the population, are uninsured, according to Census data.
* Read the full report here. Other state reports can be found here.
* More from the report…
* Between 2000 and 2006, the estimated number of adults between the ages of 25 and 64 in Illinois who died because they did not have health insurance was more than 6,100.
* Across the United States, in 2006, twice as many people died from lack of health insurance as died from homicide.
* Uninsured Americans are up to four times less likely to have a regular source of care than the insured.
* Uninsured adults are more than 30 percent less likely than insured adults to have had a checkup in the past year.
* Uninsured adults are more likely to be diagnosed with a disease in an advanced stage. For example, uninsured women are substantially more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer than women with private insurance.
A new report indicates a minimum-wage earner would have to work 97 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in the Chicago area. […]
By traditional measure, housing is no longer affordable when individuals or families must spend more than 30 percent of their gross income on the expense.
A just-released study by Housing Action Illinois found that someone who makes the minimum wage, $7.50 an hour, would have to work 64 hours a week to pay for a typical two-bedroom apartment in Springfield. The organization figured rent and utilities for such an apartment would total $623 a month
* The full report is not yet posted online (or at least I couldn’t find it).
* Last week, Eric Zorn quoted Rep. Monique Davis’ tirade against atheist activist Rob Sherman during a House committee meeting…
Davis: I don’t know what you have against God, but some of us don’t have much against him. We look forward to him and his blessings. And it’s really a tragedy — it’s tragic — when a person who is engaged in anything related to God, they want to fight. They want to fight prayer in school.
I don’t see you (Sherman) fighting guns in school. You know?
I’m trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children.… What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous–
Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma’am?
Davis: It’s dangerous to the progression of this state. And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! Now you will go to court to fight kids to have the opportunity to be quiet for a minute. But damn if you’ll go to [court] to fight for them to keep guns out of their hands. I am fed up! Get out of that seat!
Sherman: Thank you for sharing your perspective with me, and I’m sure that if this matter does go to court—
Davis: You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.
* Yesterday, liberal MSNBC host Keith Olbermann gave Rep. Davis his nightly “Worst Person in the World” award. Watch it below…
* Other than Zorn and Olbermann, Rep. Davis’ comments have been all but ignored by the mainstream media, although a post at Daily Kos has over 1,400 comments as I write this.
The one Statehouse reporter who has picked up on the story, as I told subscribers yesterday, was Scott Reeder with Small Newspapers. He had this snarky comment in his latest column…
Illinois politicians have a long history of being tolerant of crooks, adulterers and liars — as long as they believe in God.
* One of the reasons this has gone mostly unreported locally is that strange statements are often the norm at the Statehouse. Last night, some pals of mine and I were discussing the dumbest things ever said in Springfield, and one of the goofiest was former Rep. Willis Harris’ objection to a bill that would have closed some parks at dusk. Harris said many of his constituents were too poor to buy a watch, so they wouldn’t know when it was dusk.
Let that one sink in for a minute.
* Rep. Davis is a Barack Obama supporter, after refusing to back him in his 2004 Democratic Senate primary. Obama hasn’t yet been asked about her comments, unlike Obama’s Illinois delegate who was ticketed by Carpentersville police for telling a group of kids to “quit playing in the tree like monkeys” and then had to step aside.
In a congressional race Democrats believe they can win, candidate Dan Seals of Wilmette reported this week that his campaign had raised more than $613,000 from nearly 2,000 contributors during the first three months of this year, giving him an estimated $750,000 heading into the spring campaign season.
As the award-winning “superstar'’ principal of Chicago’s Nobel Elementary, Mirna Diaz doubled school test scores as she fought the crack houses, gangs and poverty outside her schoolhouse door.
Tuesday, she walked into court and fought a 42-count indictment, charging her with embezzling about $35,000 from the West Humboldt Park school she served as principal for 20 years. She pleaded not guilty
“By now, there should have been a new HR chief. The new chief should be a highly-qualified politically neutral individual. By now, there should have been a list of Shakman-exempt positions and job descriptions of these positions. Finally, the county should have presented a plan to the (court) setting out its strategy to measure existing patronage practices,” Nowicki wrote.
Gayles replied, “I will not argue with you. … There is a slight increase in cost relative to the administration of contracts.” But, he said, the city would ultimately save money because there would be fewer contract amendments increasing the costs.
Bennett said neither the press nor the IHSA gave up anything in the deal. “What it does change,” he said, “is the ability to tell newspapers how to run their business.” Newspapers get access to the games and the IHSA can still have its own photographer.
After a review of the Marion VA Medical Center, Dr. Ralph DePalma, the VA’s national director of surgery, recommended allowing certain surgeries. Minor outpatient procedures for low-risk patients will resume on May 8, officials said Tuesday.
Hospitals in Rockford and around Illinois are in line for another $470 million in additional federal money, thanks to a law signed Tuesday by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
