The halls of the Capitol are rife with reports of former Speaker Denny Hastert leaving Congress before the end of his term. These reports are only kind of true.
I just spoke with Hastert, who calls the reports a “rumor,” and that he has a lot of work still to do for Illinois on transportation, health care, energy, etc. Asked directly if he has plans to resign, he said: “Not at this time.” […]
A GOP leadership source says that now the plan is for him to wait until the end of this year or early next to announce his departure… The source says that Hastert is “definitely going to resign,” but that it won’t happen be announced officially for a couple of months or so.
* 1:28 pm - As I told you earlier, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn has demanded that Gov. Blagojevich push Senate President Emil Jones to call the “play to play” reform bill that’s been sitting in limbo for months. Quinn held a press conference today and here’s the official reaction…
Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said the governor doesn’t control what bills legislative leaders call. Regarding HB1, she said, the governor is interested in more sweeping campaign-finance reform.
It gets more bizarre every day.
* 1:38 pm - From a speech given earlier today by Comptroller Dan Hynes…
The Illinois Legislative Session of 2007: A Fable.
“Once upon a time, in a Land of Lincoln, a Governor presented a budget in a lovely town called Springfield. This Governor was great and generous and had a tremendous head of hair. And the wise and diligent people who needed to approve the budget, the members of the General Assembly, invited the Governor to their home to talk about one part of his plan. He did. And when he left their house, the members did what any courteous hosts would do: they voted 107-0 against him. And told him he was always welcome to stop by.
Though the Governor declared this a great victory, the streets of Springfield were strangely free of dancing or parades or general merriment.
Instead, a great black cloud covered the Land.
And the members of the General Assembly knew, to save the day, they’d have to agree on some kind of plan. So their leaders set down to work, day and night, and agreed on nothing of consequence.
And the cloud remained.
Now danger was approaching, and everyone said that they needed more time — so that they could call each other the worst names they could think of. Nasty, terrible names. Like when someone called the Governor a demagogue. And when the Governor called the Speaker of the House —a Republican.
And then things got even worse. The Governor said that God was on his side, and then unleashed God’s fury against a Senator from Moline. And the men who led the General Assembly insisted that they were absolutely, positively right, and whenever discussing the Governor, took God’s name in vain.
God was generally not pleased.
And the cloud remained.
But just when things looked their worst — just in the nick of time — knowing all that was at stake for the people they served, the good and decent leaders came together – in courtrooms all across Illinois. You see, the Governor had said that the members should meet at 2 o’clock. But the members decided to get together at 10 o’clock. That could mean only one thing, in the name of truth and justice, and everything good in the world: sue the bums!.
So in the happiest of happy endings, the Governor sued the Speaker of the House. And just to make sure that the Speaker’s clerk didn’t feel lonely, he sued him, too. And for a moment, the Governor thought about suing a maid at the Statehouse Inn because she had once said hello to the Speaker. But, in the rush to get back for a Cubs playoff game, he forgot all about that.
And the cloud remains over the Land.
Some say that the Governor is acting crazy. Some say that the Speaker is acting crazy. Some say that the other leaders are acting crazy.
But all of the people in the Land of Lincoln do agree on one thing. Their leaders are always, always, always putting them first.”
* Eric Zorn has some flag pledges recited in states across the country. Illinois has no such pledge…
Texas: Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.
Kentucky: I pledge allegiance to the Kentucky flag, and to the Sovereign State for which it stands, one Commonwealth, blessed with diversity, natural wealth, beauty, and grace from on High.
Michigan: I pledge allegiance to the flag of Michigan, and to the state for which it stands, 2 beautiful peninsulas united by a bridge of steel, where equal opportunity and justice to all is our ideal.
Question: Let’s come up with our own state flag pledge. I’ll put the winning entry on a t-shirt that we’ll sell at our charity store and the winner will get one of those shirts for free.
Mayor Daley would love to have a casino in Chicago, but the $800 million it would cost for a license makes it all but impossible, the city’s finance chief said Wednesday.
Pending legislation would require the city to pay the $800 million to the state for a gambling license. But Chief Financial Officer Paul Volpe said the price would prevent a Chicago casino from turning enough of a profit.
“The city will only go forward with a casino that is profitable,” Volpe told the House Gaming Committee at the Thompson Center. “Eight hundred million dollars, quite simply, does not work.” […]
“Even one dollar is too much,” Volpe said at the hearing. “Because every dollar paid for a license fee is less funding available for what we envision as a substantial capital program to improve our city.”
* The governor is reportedly willing to settle for much less than $800 million, but I doubt he’d go all the way down to zero. And Speaker Madigan’s spokesman did his best to throw cold water on the whole idea…
The likelihood of a Chicago casino curing the state’s financial woes edged a little further from reality Wednesday after Mayor Richard Daley’s administration asked for a sizable cut of casino revenues and considerable control. […]
While the committee’s chairman still expressed optimism that a casino deal could be negotiated, a spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) said the city’s demands did little to move things toward that end.
“It sounds to me that there needs to be a lot more clarity before anything happens with gambling expansion in Illinois, so that’s par for the course,” Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said after the hearing. “It sounds like it was a good idea to have this hearing, and it sounds like we need a couple more.”
* And there are other problems with the Senate’s version of the bill, as Mark Brown notes…
Gaming Board officials noted Wednesday that the gambling bill makes provisions to fund the Chicago Casino Development Authority, the agency that would control the city casino, but none to fund the Gaming Board, which would be charged with overseeing the city agency. […]
Left unclarified by Wednesday’s presentation by Paul Volpe, the city’s chief financial officer, was whether employees of the Chicago Casino Development Authority would be subject to background investigations by the Gaming Board.
Volpe told legislators the city has no interest in playing a role in filling the jobs that would be created by a casino, and Volpe probably doesn’t.
Former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is expected to announce that he plans to leave the House later this year, setting up the widely anticipated prospect of a special election to replace him, Republican sources on Capitol Hill confirmed.
Hastert initially planned to make an announcement Thursday but has since scrapped that decision, according to one GOP aide. The former speaker, who announced his plans to retire over the summer, is still expected to leave the House some time in December, but the date of his departure — as well as his announcement — remains unclear.
* I don’t really understand why Hastert would do this, considering the consequences…
Republicans are already locked in a hard-fought primary. But Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich could fast-track that intramural contest in order to schedule the special on the same day as the state’s Feb. 5 primary - when Illinois Sen. Barack Obama will be on the ballot in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
That could be seriously problemmatic for the Republican nominee, to say the least.
* Sometime after we spoke yesterday, retired Col Jill Morgenthaler decided to quit her state job…
Jill Morgenthaler, who is the governor’s deputy chief of staff for public safety, is apparently mulling a bid for Congress in Illinois 6th Congressional District.
The governor’s office said Wednesday that Morgenthaler, of Des Plaines, submitted her resignation on Tuesday, effective Nov. 1.
Morgenthaler is mulling a bid against freshman Republican Peter Roskam. I would take this resignation as a sign that she’s moving much closer to the race.
Do not be surprised if the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) quietly gets into play sometime soon. If they do, it will be on behalf of Oberweis. It’s nothing personal; just follow the math. The NRCC was spread thin in 2006 and will be spread much thinner in 2008. They probably have twice as many seats they need to target as they have money to target them with. Regardless of how the Republican Primary turns out this seat is likely to become a Democratic target. While Lauzen may very well have the fundraising ability to make up for what he lacks in personal wealth to compete in the primary, he would assuredly need significant national help if the general was targeted by the Democrats. The decision-makers at the NRCC aren’t geniuses. But you don’t have to be a genius to figure out that, if Oberweis wins, money that would have to be used to prop up Lauzen in a general could be used elsewhere, relieving a little of the pressure on the very tight national NRCC budget.
It has been surprising how cautious and lackluster the Oberweis campaign has been to this point. Without a renewal of vigor, Oberweis risks repeating the results of his first statewide race when little-known, underfunded State Rep. Jim Durkin swept to victory in the U.S. Senate Primary. Anything other than a decisive win will almost certainly lead the Democrats to target the seat, making the cost of the general election campaign
* With all the talk about proposed tax hikes in Chicago, Cook County, the RTA region and the state, this whopper, which on a per capita basis makes all those other tax ideas look pretty tiny, has gone almost unnoticed…
Fox Valley Park District trustees plan to ask voters for a $57 million tax increase in February to help pay for an all-encompassing list of capital projects. […]
The district has reached a point where its parks and facilities are either going to get better or worse, Executive Director Steve Messerli said.
“We’d like to move it up from good to great,” he said.
That’s quite a bold statement, but at least voters will have a direct say come February.
…the [Progressive and Independent Caucus in the Chicago city council] is now talking about putting together a package of revenue and cost-cutting alternatives to Daley’s record $108 million property tax increase.
“If you look at stories in the paper, the mayor hasn’t got the votes for the property tax increase. And that’s a third of the [new revenue]. We’ve got to think about what [alternative] options might be,” Preckwinkle said.
Privatizing Chicago parking meters could produce a bonanza of revenue to build libraries, parks and schools, but it’s no substitute for raising taxes, Mayor Daley said Wednesday.
Concerned that aldermen might use the parking meter deal as an excuse to run even farther away from his $293 million tax package, Daley said he would insist the windfall be placed in a reserve fund with interest income set aside for long-term investment. It would not be used for day-to-day operations.
Should citizens entrust $890 million a year in new tax revenues to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger? Put on a pair of Stroger Goggles, which distort reality, and you’ll see what he sees — a government that he says has achieved “enormous operational efficiencies” and adopted “modern business practices.”
* Timing is everything. On the same day of Gov. Blagojevich’s annual megabucks fundraiser, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn is demanding movement on a bill to end “pay to play” state contracts. From a press release…
With $25 billion in taxpayer funds at stake in the state’s proposed capital plan, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn on Thursday sent a public letter to Governor Rod R. Blagojevich asking him to call for an immediate vote in the Illinois Senate on House Bill 1, to outlaw pay-to-play state contracts in Illinois.
“The bill to end pay-to-play state contracts passed the Illinois House 116-0, and 46 out of 59 state senators have co-sponsored it as well,” Quinn said. “Before our state considers spending $25 billion in taxpayer funds on construction contracts, we need a tough new ethics law in place to make sure the people of Illinois get full value for their money.”
Quinn called on Governor Blagojevich to urge his legislative ally, Senate President Emil Jones, to call HB1 for an immediate vote by the members of the State Senate. If Jones refuses, Quinn said, Governor Blagojevich should institute the provisions of HB1 by executive order. […]
To demonstrate the widespread support for HB1, Quinn invited Illinois taxpayers to use his website, StandingUpForIllinois.org, to send an e-mail to Governor Blagojevich urging immediate passage of the bill. Quinn also unveiled a new feature on his website, — an animated cartoon showing vested interests being showered with billions of taxpayer dollars.
House Bill 1, introduced by State Rep. John A. Fritchey (D-Chicago), would require all bidders on state contracts of more than $10,000 to disclose any campaign contributions they have made to the elected official in charge of that contract. It also would prohibit any businesses holding more than $25,000 in state contracts from making campaign contributions to the officeholder in charge of those contracts.
A state employee whom Gov. Blagojevich once outed as a subject of a federal probe into his administration’s hiring practices is now being promoted to a top job within the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Robin Staggers once was accused by a subordinate of creating “a culture of intimidation” within DCFS’ human resources department, according to an internal state report disclosed in January by the Associated Press.
But DCFS Acting Director Erwin McEwen said in a message Wednesday to the agency’s 3,000-plus employees that Staggers is being named chief of staff as part of a series of management changes.
A high-level official in an agency under Gov. Rod Blagojevich has resigned during a review of his ties to a company doing business with the state.
Mark Kolaz will leave his post as chief of staff for the Department of Central Management Services on Monday, Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said Wednesday.
Kolaz will take a private-sector job in a move that has been “planned for some time,” although he officially submitted his resignation Friday, Rausch said. She would not elaborate and said she did not know what the new job would be.
Then in 2005, Glennon was indicted in what prosecutors say was a $700,000 kickback scheme involving construction projects at the Chicago Medical School.
Now, Glennon faces trial on Nov. 26 on federal charges of aiding and abetting the misapplication of government funds and lying to the FBI.
Despite his troubles, Glennon remains registered with the state as a lobbyist. And he still has one blue-chip client: the Wirtz Corp., owner of the Chicago Blackhawks.
* Press Release: Bicycling community wins key piece of legislation
* State Senator Link honored
State Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, has been named the American Cancer Society’s “Legislator of the Year” for his lead sponsorship of the Smoke Free Illinois Act. It is the first time the society has named a “legislator of the year.” At the same time, Link has received the President’s Award from the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians, also for his work on the smoke-free bill.
* Yesterday I wondered how John Laesch would respond to Dan Hynes’ endorsement of Laesch’s opponent Bill Foster in the 14th Congressional District. I didn’t have to wait long…
Laesch, who ran and lost to Hastert last year, said he’s not chasing endorsements in Springfield or Washington, D.C.
“There are very few leaders in those places that I admire,” he said.
Joe Serra, another Dem candidate, had the funniest reply, however…
Serra, of Geneva, said he doubted the endorsements would factor into voters’ decisions. “I don’t think the voters are paying attention,” he said. “People don’t pay attention to the primary.”
Good luck with that campaign strategy, poindexter.
* An award-winning national study gave the Illinois General Assembly a perfect score for legislative committee “autonomy.” They weren’t joking and it’s not April Fool’s Day. I checked.
* To my great surprise, The Lipinski Symposium wasn’t at all about how to get your slightly embarassing kid re-elected to Congress. Go figure.
* That Bill Beavers sure is one funny guy. Here he is speaking about a proposed $4 per line monthly tax on all phone lines in the county, including cell phones…
“They say it’s unconstitutional, but if we can get it passed we will let it go to court to see if it is constitutional. I think it is,” said William Beavers, the county commissioner sponsoring the new tax. […]
“A number of people do support it,” he said.
“A number” would be… oh… I’d guess around two: Beavers and Todd Stroger.
Still, though, nothing says “goofy” quite like Blagojevich.
A couple of weeks ago, Blagojevich announced he was using some of the money he vetoed from the budget to pay for free mammograms for Illinois women. The money really wasn’t coming from the vetoes, which I’ve already told you before, and there already is lots of money for mammograms in the state budget.
What I didn’t tell you before was that Blagojevich actually vetoed a $40,000 appropriation to a group called Sisters Embracing Life. The money was supposed to be used to provide breast exams for minority women.
Perfect.
* Former Chicago Ald. Ted Matlak spent years on the city council laying down for real estate developers. Now, he is one of them…
Former 32nd Ward Alderman Ted Matlak has landed in the real estate business.
“It’s somewhat of a natural fit,” said Matlak
Yep.
* And finally, Eunice Conn sums up just about everyone’s outrage when she asks…
Is it any wonder why so many conservatives are turned off by our Party leadership?
She’s referring to state GOP Chairman Andy McKenna’s “refusal” to meet with Mike Psak, a truck driver who is running for US Senate as a Republican. Make sure to read the comments, then take a look at Psak’s campaign video…
Despite the governor’s contention that a “do-over” on juvenile sex offender registration requirements “condones leniency toward sex offenders,” the General Assembly’s override of his veto instead struck a blow for fairness.
The override, 76 to 34 in the House and 41 to 8 in the Senate, axed the requirement that juvenile sex offenders must register as adults at 17 and made it possible for them to eventually ask a judge to remove their names from juvenile registries.
Those overrides were a wise acknowledgment of an over-reactionary law that went into effect Jan. 1, 2006. It actually read that a juvenile sex offender “upon attaining 17 years of age shall be considered as having committed the offense on or after the sex offender’s 17th birthday” — even if he was 12 or 13 at the time of his offense.
In Illinois, where no distinction is made between types of offenses or the age of offenders, that means a 13-year-old who touched a girl’s breast and then fled was equated with an adult rapist or child molester. That simply is not fair, especially since juveniles who took plea deals under one law might have rejected them under the terms of the later, harsher law.
Under state law, juvenile sex offenders still must register, but their names are withheld from all but law enforcement, schools and day-care organizations. Those registrations can run from a short time to life.
Go read the whole thing and then answer the question: Was this veto justified? Why or why not?
Springfield’s daily newspaper is offering a voluntary severance program to nearly half its staff. The State Journal-Register cites the need for flexibility as it adjusts to rapid changes in the newspaper industry.
The company says it sent letters at the end of last week to 149 full-time employees who are not in the union and have been with the newspaper for at least a year. It’s also negotiating with its collective bargaining units to be able to make the same offer to 47 union employees. […]
The newspaper has a work force of 345, including part-time employees.
* Billy Dennis has been closely following the SJ-R’s parent company GateHouse for some time now, and isn’t really surprised…
Just this morning, I left a comment at Rich Miller’s site about how I was worried that by not replacing workers who leave, GateHouse Media was making it harder to practice newspaper journalism at the Peoria Journal Star. […]
They wouldn’t be offering early retirement to people they plan to replace. So this means more beats won’t be covered (or will be covered poorly as workloads increase). It probably means earlier deadlines because fewer people will need more time to get their jobs done.
* And one of his commenters had this to say…
There are two really odd things about this buyout offer — or at least what we know about it:
1. The huge number of people involved. One wonders how many buyouts they are really willing to accept. I can’t believe it’s all 149. There appears to be a rather extensive (but not revealed) list of reserved positions. For example, if every copy editor or every photog quit, that would be a problem.
2. The short service that makes an employee eligible for the offer. None of the dozens of newspaper buyouts I have read about in the past year or so has been offered to employees with only one year of service.
It’s an odd one. One can only guess at how overstaffed the bean-counters think the place is.
* A while back, I posted this map of GateHouse’s papers in Illinois [click for a larger image]…
* Retired Army Colonel Jill Morgenthaler hasn’t even announced that she’ll run against freshman Republican Peter Roskam yet, but she’s already being attacked by a flier in the 6th Congressional District.
The flier, which was apparently sent to Democrats in the district, damns her with praise, claiming, among other things, that she was the Army’s “go-to” person during the notorious Abu Ghraib torture scandal.
Morgenthaler said this morning that she was indeed the Army’s spokesperson during the scandal and a quick search shows she was widely quoted in the media.
“I was trying to make sure we got the facts out,” Morganthaler said, claiming that the scandal and the lack of leadership “led to a lot of good things being discounted.”
The flier also claims that Morgenthaler was a member of the Army’s Psychological Operations team in Qatar, but Col. Morgenthaler, who is Gov. Blagojevich’s deputy chief of staff for homeland security, said her involvement with Psy Ops was limited to a tour in California back in 1984 and likened her job to “advertising and marketing.”
Apparently, however, somebody is using Psy Ops against her now. Morgenthaler said this morning that, despite the claims made in the flier, she was not recruited by Congressman Rahm Emanuel. She has spoken with Emanuel, she said, but others, including fellow soldiers and Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, who lost to Roskam last year, have been far more influential.
Morgenthaler is taking vacation time this week to mull the bid against Roskam, talking to various people and assessing the situation, including the possibility of a continued smear campaign against her.
Morgenthaler is also quoted in the flier complaining about the lack of coverage of the good things that the military was doing in Iraq, and the retired colonel said today that while she was there (she arrive in early 2004 and left in October of 2004) a constitution was formed and elections were held. “Things got positive.”
As for the future, she doesn’t want an immediate pull-out, but said, “We can’t stay the course either.” She thinks several important voices have been overlooked in a search for a solution, including the British and other regional leaders like the Queen of Jordan, whom Morgenthaler praised for her insight.
Morgenthaler currently doesn’t reside in the district (she was mapped out in 2002), but she and her husband live on the Des Plaines River and the flooding this summer has already prompted a search for a new house.
She promised to get back to me as soon as she makes a decision. Stay tuned.
“Mine is a strategy about elevating my name recognition and my overall qualifications for the candidacy and then going after fundraising after we’ve got that reputation and name recognition established,” McConoughey said Tuesday, adding the money he received was not solicited.
McConoughey. who wants to replace retiring Congressman Ray LaHood, got into the race just a month after state Rep. Aaron Schock, but raised just $3,000. He loaned himself the rest. Schock raised $375,000, including a loan to his campaign. John Morris raised about $218,000.
I’m not sure how you establish name recognition before you raise money to establish name recognition, but whatever.
* And, finally, the Daily Southtown urges GOP congressional hopeful Tim Baldermann to consider reprioritizing…
The Issue: Tim Baldermann insists he can run for Congress without shirking his duties as full-time police chief (and part-time mayor).
We say: If campaign proves to be too rigorous, Balderman will have to reassess his situation as chief and do what’s best for taxpayers.
Tim Baldermann wants to be congressman from Illinois’ 11th District. That’s the same Tim Baldermann who also is mayor of New Lenox. And it’s the same Tim Baldermann who also is police chief in Chicago Ridge.
If Baldermann wins the Republican primary in February and qualifies for the general election in November 2008, he will have spent more than 12 months as chief, mayor and candidate.
Compulsive gamblers are getting a new tool meant to help them avoid the temptation of buying Illinois lottery tickets.
Lottery officials launched a “self-exclusion” program Tuesday that lets problem gamblers place themselves on a list of people who aren’t allowed to collect major prizes. They can still buy tickets and collect prizes of up to $600, but the huge jackpots will be off limits.
“We’re trying to limit the incentives,'’ said lottery spokeswoman Katie Ridgway.
So, if a compulsive gambler buys a scratch-off ticket that nets him or her enough to buy five more tickets, that’s OK (and a fairly regular occurrence). But if miracle upon miracle happens and that same person somehow comes up with the winning $25 million Lotto number, there’s no prize.
I don’t get it.
According to the article, only seven people have signed up for a similar program in Iowa in the last two years. Understandable.
“There is absolutely no confidence among law enforcement agencies that a gambling casino currently being considered could be operated without infiltration by organized crime,” Jim Wagner, President of the Chicago Crime Commission, said during a news conference.
The proposal calls for a city-owed casino run by a five-member board, three appointed by the mayor and with a license, critics say, that could never be revoked even if mismanagement or corruption flourished.
Jay Stewart of the Better Government Association questioned how the city could manage a billion dollar casino, when it “can’t do a $40 million hired truck program.”
Tuesday, Mayor Daley made it sound as though all casino decisions were out of his hands.
“We don’t have any decision making there, the state regulates, the state basically okays all contracts,” Daley said.
But critics say, the proposal also allows no-bid contracts to manage the casino, contracts the state gaming board wouldn’t oversee.
Scoopsville? Sneed hears a super secret deal is afoot at City Hall, which could potentially cause an aldermanic revolt . . . and sigh of relief!
• • Translation: It’s hush hush, but Sneed is told Mayor Daley’s fiscal advisers are working on a deal to privatize the city’s parking meters, which could potentially reap 1 BILLION bucks for the cash-strapped city. […]
• • The backshot: “If the aldermen knew what was going on secretly — and that come June or July, there might be this $1 billion windfall, it would make it harder to push for the higher property tax, which would only net the city about $108 million,” a source said. […]
• • The shot in the arm: The sweetener to the deal is already on the books; a provision to raise the parking meter rates, which is clearly a carrot for whomever buys the meters. Sneed hears the city has already hired a law firm to do the legal work on selling the meters and retained an investment banking firm to do the financial advisory work.
• • The flipshot: “In fairness to Mayor Daley, these are not easy transactions, and even though it might be a good idea, the revenue may not be forthcoming in time to help the 2008 budget . . . hence the need for the property tax raise,” said a fiscal source. “It took two years to seal the Skyway sale. And they are still working on selling Midway airport. And the beauty of the property tax is the ability to use it as a federal income tax deduction.”
* You can bet the tongues will be wagging at the Hall about Sneed’s story today. Aldermen are desperate to avoid Daley’s tax hikes and are in full panic freakout mode, and Daley is talking about unspecified compromise…
One week after chiding recalcitrant aldermen — and calling newspaper editorials that blasted his $293 million tax package “an insult to me” — Daley struck a more conciliatory tone.
“It is very controversial. I understood that when I presented it. I could have ducked the other way. But I was willing to propose it and listen to the comments about. … I’m very optimistic. I think … we can work it out and compromise in a lot of different ways,” Daley said.
“This is going to be a whole process of listening to criticism, listening to praise, suggestions to improve it. It’s like a moon coming across. The state has been in such a controversy for the whole year and I’m being part of that. … Then, you have the county. But you live with that. I have a responsibility, which I will fulfill. But at the same time, you understand these are very challenging economic times. I’m not pulling things out of the hat.”
By talking compromise, the mayor is simply facing reality: There is no way he can get the 26 votes he needs to approve the largest property tax increase in Chicago history.
Residents of DuPage County can expect less effective law enforcement and cutbacks or longer waits for health and virtually all other services provided by the county if the proposed 2008 budget released Tuesday is adopted, officials said Tuesday.
It calls for the layoff of about 235 county employees, or about 10.6 percent of county government. Hardest hit are the agencies related to law enforcement, including the Sheriff’s Department, which loses 104 positions, the state’s attorney’s office, three, the Probation Department, 29, and the court clerk, 18.
The $376 million budget plan is about $52 million less than the 2007 plan, which had called for cutting about 40 jobs and trims of social programs, including the county’s Convalescent Center.
Officials whose functions would be affected by the proposed cuts expressed dismay. […]
The board must adopt a new budget before the 2008 fiscal year begins Dec. 1. Members could make some changes in the plan, but raising new revenue in any significant amount is unlikely unless the legislature passes and the governor signs a pending bill authorizing DuPage and other suburban counties to impose a sales tax on cigarettes of $1 per pack. Even that appears to be insufficient to roll back the cuts proposed by Schillerstrom because it would raise an estimated $25 million a year for the county when the cuts total $52 million.
* The last time Scott Reeder did a big investigation of the state’s school system, his series on teacher tenure prompted a major back and forth on this blog between himself and the Illinois Federation of Teachers.
This time, Reeder takes a look at how difficult it is to fire teachers accused of misconduct, among other things. He doesn’t paint a pretty picture. Here are three stories that are posted so far at a special Small Newspaper Group website…
A seven-month national investigation conducted by Small Newspaper Group found that Illinois has one of the worst track records for removing errant teachers from the profession.
The investigation found:
* Among the 50 states, only Virginia revokes or suspends fewer teaching certificates than Illinois.
* No investigators are employed by the Illinois State Board of Education so reports of teacher misconduct are often not investigated or acted upon.
* The Department of Children and Family Services has found 323 cases providing credible evidence of abuse by teachers, but none have had their licenses suspended or revoked.
* Teachers hired before 2004 have not had to undergo a state-mandated national criminal background check.
* Physicians are 43 times more likely than the state’s teachers to have their license suspended or revoked. Lawyers are 25 times more likely than teacher to have their license suspended or revoked.
* None of the tenured teachers fired in the last decade have also lost their teaching certificate and certification officials are not notified when a school district disciplines an educator.
Unlike most states, Illinois has never employed investigators to examine allegations against educators.
* Out of 95,000 tenured teachers in Illinois an average of seven are fired each year, two for poor performance and five for misconduct.
* Eighty-four percent of Illinois’ school districts have never given any tenured teacher a bad job evaluation during an 11-year period.
* Over a five-year period school districts that retained attorneys and attempted to fire a tenured teacher spent an average $219,000 per case in legal fees alone. […]
Even so, school boards lose one-third of the cases heard by tenure hearing officers. But even if a hearing officer upholds the firing of teacher, they are free to seek employment in another school district.
In fact, none of the tenured teachers fired in the last decade have had subsequent action taken to revoke or suspend their teaching certificates.
That is not the way it works in some other states. For example, in Pennsylvania and New York, after a tenured teacher is fired the teacher licensing board automatically considers whether a teaching certificate should also be revoked.
Both the Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers also expressed concern about the logistics and cost of fingerprinting 127,000 teachers.
“I think if someone has been serving honorably in a school district for 25 or 30 years or even longer the idea that they should take time out their day to be fingerprinted doesn’t make a lot sense from any perspective,'’ said Charlie McBarron, spokesman for IEA.
The compromise bill, which passed in 2004, only requires fingerprinting for teachers when they are first hired by a school district. That means most teachers hired before 2004 have not undergone a complete criminal background check and likely will not for the remainder of their careers.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart contends this approach is a mistake.
He noted that some teachers hired before 2004 may continue to be in the profession for 30 or more years.
The likely culprit is a higher standard. In 2007, 55 percent of students in a school, along with each subgroup — including racial and ethnic groups and special education students — had to perform at grade level. It was 47.5 percent last year.
By 2014, the No Child law expects all students to be at grade level. To get there, Illinois began with a modest goal in 2003 of 40 percent and increased it every other year. Starting in 2007, the target goes up every year.
One GOP strategist who asked not to be identified credited Sauerberg for genuinely wanting to make the daunting run against Durbin, a two-term senator who is the second-ranking member in the chamber’s Democratic leadership. Rallying around Sauerberg allows the party to move forward to focus on three open-seat congressional races in the state that had been held by Republicans, the strategist said.
Federal campaign finance reports show Durbin with more than $6.6 million in cash on hand after raising more than $800,000 in the three-month period that ended Sept. 30. Sauerberg reported $170,137 in cash on hand after raising $65,750 in the previous quarter. Sauerberg had previously lent is campaign $250,000.
* Brady to chair Illinois campaign for Fred Thompson
* Smoking on beaches, playgrounds likely to be banned by city parks; more here
It seems as if Daley, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger and Gov. Rod Blagojevich are in a race to see who can raise your taxes the highest.
The city’s “corruption tax” is something I tried to calculate when I was exploring a run for mayor in 2006. While an exact figure is impossible to pinpoint, I conservatively estimated that the tax exceeded $1.5 billion in recent years — including $300 million for the do-nothing hired truckers; $500 million for illegal hiring under the Shakman decree; well over $100 million in fraudulent “minority” contracts to white-owned businessmen; and at least $25 million in legal fees and settlements for police torture cases. And that’s just scratching the surface.
* Stroger open to outside control of health system
* Cook Co. taxes could quickly add up for local families
And then Cook County voters may finally rise up in righteous indignation and vote against Stroger and all the political hacks who have demonstrated their complete disdain and contempt for taxpaying citizens.
It was the poorest of the poor who helped put Stroger in office.
They felt he was getting bad press. Many called it racism.
Since that time, Stroger has not only cut services that benefit some of the neediest folks in Cook County, but he has continued to pad the county payroll with friends and relatives.
In the other ear are politicians and hangers-on urging him to think twice about giving up control of 7,000 jobs and millions of dollars in contracts at a hospital system long seen as ground zero of the county patronage dumping ground.
On Tuesday, Stroger offered only tepid support — and a request for more time — for a proposal that would take control of the $745 million-a-year health system away from Stroger and the 17-member board.
