* 10:36 am - Holy moly. The former executive director of a prominent prison watchdog group has been indicted. From a US Attorney press release…
An Illinois prison consultant was added as a defendant in a pending federal criminal case alleging that a former head of the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) received approximately $50,000 in illegal kickbacks. The new defendant, Michael J. Mahoney, allegedly paid the kickbacks while representing vendors that had multi-million-dollar contracts with the state prison agency. Mahoney was charged together with Donald N. Snyder, Jr., who was IDOC director from 1999 until early 2003, in a six-count superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Mahoney and others allegedly were involved in paying kickbacks totaling approximately $20,000, out of the approximately $50,000 total, to Snyder.
Mahoney, 63, of Cassopolis, Mich., and formerly of Chicago, until 2002 was the Executive Director of, and a registered lobbyist for, unnamed “Association A,” a not-for-profit prison watchdog organization. He was charged with three counts of mail fraud.
That unnamed watchdog group is the John Howard Association, which fights for prisoners’ rights. What a state we live in. I’ll have documents in a bit.
* 10:42 am - And here they are…
* 1:49 pm - The Washington Post’s Chris Cilllizza believes that retiring Republican Jerry Weller’s seat is the fourth most likely in the country to switch hands to the opposing party.
* I wrote about this yesterday in the Capitol Fax, and the Daily Herald picked it up today…
As the clock ticks closer toward a transit “doomsday,” officials are backing away from a sales tax hike and opening up to ideas like a property tax on parking spaces.
“People would pay a certain amount of money based on how many parking spaces they had on their property whether it’s free parking or sold parking. That’s very cumbersome to try to collect, but it is being bounced around,” [said Sen. John Cullerton.]
As I told subscribers, the plan was floated this week by John Filan, the governor’s budget guru. Filan claimed the tax surcharge would be levied on commercial parking spaces only (both free and paid). Residential parking would supposedly be exempted.
Question: What do you think of this one? Also, do you think it’s preferable to a regional sales tax hike of a quarter point? Explain.
* Maybe this is a good thing. Daley just hasn’t been the same since he ventured forth on this grand quest…
Chicago stands in “third or fourth place” in the race for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and it’ll take Chicago-style politicking — including more involvement by the private sector — to turn that around, the chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee said Thursday.
* According to USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth, Chicago is behind Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo, and the reason is apparently that the big boys and girls aren’t wining and dining the Olympics’ big boys and girls…
Ueberroth indicated Chicago’s private sector needs to be more involved in the bid, especially in the area of contact with IOC members. […]
“I expect all the [technical] bids to be terrific,” Ueberroth said. “It’s the relationship with members that will make the difference.
As for logistics, the USOC chairman insisted that the CTA’s financial crisis — and the possibility of fare hikes and service cuts without a Springfield bailout — would have no impact on Chicago’s chances.
“Any Olympic Games can make the adjustments in its transportation system for a three-week period in order to accommodate the world athletes. There are bigger conventions that come to this town,” he said.
Great. Just what we need. Daley and civic leaders should spend more time traveling the world instead of fixing dire problems at home. Perfect.
I am now leaning strongly against the Olympics.
* More problems that “don’t matter”…
* Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says the city can’t afford to hire more than fifty new police officers next year. In
* If you don’t subscribe and were wondering about that mysterious subscriber-only post yesterday afternoon, here’s the rundown…
The acrimony between Gov. Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan hit a new low Thursday after the administration abruptly fired the wife of Madigan’s top aide from her $102,000-a-year state post.
The Department of Human Service justified last week’s firing of Bronwyn Rains, noting she did not meet educational requirements dictated by the Social Security Administration, which funded her job.
But Madigan spokesman Steve Brown dismissed the justification as “an absolute lie.”
Key House Democrats viewed the firing as a new phase in the “political vendetta” Blagojevich is waging against his chief nemesis, who has stifled the governor’s agenda.
“I think the governor’s latest move seems clearly vindictive and can do nothing but make an already volatile situation worse,” said Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago).
* Thanks to the AP for giving me some props on yesterday morning’s scoop…
Mapes said he didn’t know why his wife was fired after a long period of service with the state but acknowledged retribution could be a reason.
“She’s doing fine,” Mapes said. “Just like any person when they’re terminated, she finds it unusual.”
News of the move, first reported by the Capitol Fax political newsletter, caught lawmakers off guard Thursday, as they wrapped up the first week of their two-week fall veto session. Some feared it could poison any chance of reconciliation between Blagojevich and Madigan on key policy issues for the rest of this year and beyond.
Tom Green, spokesman for the state Department of Human Services, said the federal Social Security Administration notified DHS that certain disability determinations must be signed by psychologists who either have doctorates or, alternatively, master’s degrees coupled with a listing on a national register of health service providers in psychology. Rains and another person doing the same job at DHS had only master’s degrees and aren’t on the national register. […]
Because of the change in rules, he said, “It was a decision that was made by the federal government.” […]
Steve Brown, spokesman for Madigan, D-Chicago, said, “We find the administration devoid of credibility.”
Plus, and I can’t emphasize this enough, the DHS explanation doesn’t really matter, no matter how credible you find it. What really matters here is how the players react to it, and Madigan is one angry camper.
A spokeswoman for the governor said the issue is not personal despite such heated rhetoric.
“I think that people are starting to filter out comments that we’ve come to expect from Mr. Brown. But this issue is not between Governor Blagojevich and Speaker Madigan. It’s between Human Services and the Social Security Administration,” said Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch. “The federal government was very clear … that they would no longer fund a person in that position that did not possessed a specific set of qualifications.”
There’s more to this story, but you’ll have to subscribe to get it.
Rep. Tom Cross, the Republican leader in his chamber, had the quote of the day from the House floor before lawmakers finished their first week of the annual fall session.
“Perhaps, at least at the higher level, we’ve had an inability to communicate to get the budget done, to take care of capital, to take care of RTA, to take care of gaming. And I have a suggestion,” he said.
He cited psychologist and author Kate Wachs, who’s been interviewed by such media entities as the Chicago Tribune and Oprah Winfrey.
“She’s a nationally acclaimed relationship expert, and she’s written a book, Relationships for Dummies,” Cross said. “And she has a very good chapter on good communication, the bolts. One of the things she talks about is finding compromises that work for you and your partners. And I thought maybe she could come to a leaders’ meeting.”
Hmmm. Sneed hears rumbles state Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs), who is ramrodding John McCain’s presidential bid in Illinois, is being encouraged to run for Cook County state’s attorney … as well as former Assistant State’s Attorney Ed Barron, who is preparing to circulate nominating petitions.
* DOC says fewer inmates returning to prison, cites programs
The rate of former prison inmates returning to prisons in Illinois is declining, thanks in part to an array of education and drug treatment programs in the institutions, Illinois Department of Corrections officials said Thursday.
Their comments came a day after a forum in Bloomington at which activists said the state is failing in its responsibility of offering enough help to keep inmates from returning to prison.
Prison system spokeswoman Januari Smith said the recidivism rate among Illinois’ prison population, which now stands at about 45,200 people, is starting to decline.
* House overturns gov’s objections to rail authority
FIVE YEARS AGO, a bill amended the state’s Silent Reflection Act, changing it to the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act and guaranteeing students the right to observe voluntary, nondisruptive prayer whenever they chose to during the school day. The bill also allows for a moment of silence to begin the day if a teacher and his or her class choose to.
So, Illinois children can already reflect and pray in school any time they want. And a classroom can choose to observe a silent moment any day it wants…
MAYBE ONCE this vital piece of legislation is finally secured, the General Assembly can move on to pass the technical bill needed to allow school districts to collect the $400-per-pupil increase they were promised in the state budget. We’re pretty sure they could use the money a lot more than another vapid, state mandate.
The Illinois Department of Transportation is now talking in terms of three years (2007 to 2010) to chart a transportation system, including such features as bike paths and commuter rail lines, for the vicinity. They are counting on three additional years (2010-2013) to do preliminary engineering and environmental studies for each project.
The earliest conceivable groundbreaking date to extend the expressway? 2016.
That’s simply too long to wait to get started on transportation improvements that have been needed for so long.
[The political pundits assure us] that the wise and deliberative citizens of the early states take their responsibilities so seriously. But do they really? And if they don’t, what does that say about the way we’re choosing the next leader of the free world?
* Iowa’s caucus turnout is pathetic…
If this is a typical election, somewhere between 6 and 10 percent of voting-eligible Iowans will bother to show up to a caucus. Yes, you read that right. Those vaunted Iowa voters are so concerned about the issues, so involved in the political process, so serious about their solemn deliberative responsibilities as guardians of the first-in-the-nation contest, that nine out of ten can’t manage to haul their butts down to the junior high on caucus night. […]
…Yet around 200,000 of them, possessed of no greater wisdom or insight than the rest of us, will determine who presides over this nation of 300 million for the next four years.
* And then there’s New Hampshire…
If nothing else, unlike Iowans, they have the good grace to find their way to the polls, at least to a degree. New Hampshire turnout in the 2004 primary was under 30 percent; in 2000, when both parties had contested primaries, it hit 44 percent. (Figures on primary turnout in the last two elections can be found here.)
But only three times since the current nomination system took effect in 1972, and only once in the last 20 years, has the New Hampshire winner in either party not been the man who placed either first or second in the Iowa caucus a week before.
* And why does this matter?
But while we are not literally forced, the imperious campaign press will do all it can to coerce us into narrowing our choices. Like Roman emperors glaring contemptuously at a collection of wounded gladiators, then turning their thumbs down as the crowd roars its assent to the execution, they will pronounce candidates dead on the judgment of a few thousand Iowans. No appeals to mercy or reason will be allowed once the judgment is rendered.
Question: I know this is a state politics blog, but how would you change the presidential nominating system to make it more fair? Or is it OK with you as is?
* As you already know, the House voted yesterday to override the governor’s amendatory veto of the Cook County assessment cap…
The Senate’s next move is still in question. President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) has pushed to the Senate floor a separate bill that reflects the governor’s higher level of relief.
Sen. Terry Link (D-Waukegan), Jones’ point man on the issue, predicted the Senate will have no trouble passing whatever version of the 7 percent legislation it chooses and predicted a tax-relief package soon would be approved. But the Senate must decide whether to go along with the House, pass the separate legislation now pending on the Senate floor or find a compromise with the House and pass that, Link said.
“I feel very optimistic,” Link said.
* I wouldn’t be too sure of that. House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie made this plea on the House floor yesterday…
“We believe there isn’t support in the chamber across the rotunda to accept the governor’s changes. If I’m wrong, they’ll send us something, and it will be a whole new game. But if I’m right, this is the 11th hour and the only game in town,” Currie said.
* Hendon may have tipped the Senate’s hand…
Yet Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago), another member of Jones’ leadership team… said the Senate may end up going along with the House action “just to give the people something.”
“If this goes down in flames, there’ll be hell to pay,” Hendon said.
On Wednesday, state Sen. Terry Link, a Waukegan Democrat leading talks on the issue, said suburban homeowners would not fall victim to Capitol gridlock.
“There will be something done next week,” Link said, “because there has to be some kind of tax relief.”
* The governor’s full statement…
“I’m disappointed that today the Illinois House chose to take property tax relief away from homeowners in Cook County. The House had an opportunity to extend the 7% property tax cap that we passed three years ago. Instead, they voted to take it away and continue a system that places too much of the property tax burden on homeowners while it protects commercial property owners and real estate developers.”
Harsh.
* Part of a press release from the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago…
A permanent cap would be damaging to many school districts. A district that loses tax base from the assessment cap may not be able to maintain its tax
levy.
HB 664, passed by both chambers, would implement a three-year phase-out of the program with special income-based provisions for long-time homeowners in gentrifying areas.
* As you may know, AFSCME and SEIU held a rally yesterday demanding that the Senate override the governor’s budget vetoes. AFSMCE claims over a thousand people signed in as participants, with several more attending and not signing. SEIU had over 200 people at the Statehouse rally and lobby day…
At least a dozen Senate Democrats attended the rally, including Sullivan, Jacobs, Dave Koehler of Peoria, and Deanna Demuzio of Carlinville.
There was reportedly a lot of pressure on some Democrats not to attend, but they went anyway, which the unions considered a victory. [The downstaters listed above weren’t pressured, but there were plenty of others at that rally.]
* Meanwhile, the AP is just one of the outlets backing off its original assertion from yesterday that Senate President Emil Jones was completely against a budget override…
The case is closed. Or is it?
All eyes are now on the Illinois Senate and President Emil Jones as they decide what happens with more than $460 million in state budget cuts made by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The House voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to restore most of the cuts, and the Senate will decide their ultimate fate.
Jones has some wiggle room.
He originally said “case closed” when Blagojevich announced the budget vetoes, vowing to block any effort to override them. But lately he’s been more coy.
When asked again Wednesday if budget veto overrides would ever come for a Senate vote, Jones offered a cryptic response.
“Keep hope alive,” he said.
* GateHouse, which went against the press room trend yesterday that claimed Jones was still opposing an override, follows up today with this…
If Jones is rethinking his position, Watson said, it is because of pressure from Jones’ fellow Democrats.
“I think a lot of it has to do with his members, the fact that the Democrat members have gone to him . . . and said ‘look, these issues are important to constituents in my district’,” Watson said.
As Gov. Rod Blagojevich and lawmakers continue the budget battle they began last spring, school districts across Illinois face receiving fewer state dollars. […]
Lawmakers might consider the matter this week. A bill that would rectify the problem by increasing the state’s foundation level, the minimum that a school must spend on each pupil, is pending before the House.
But until lawmakers approve the bill, ISBE says it will withhold $617 million in general state aid, spending authorized by the budget Gov. Rod Blagojevich approved. […]
State officials say they hope to resolve the matter by the end of October and are optimistic that schools will see their funding hikes. Lawmakers were supposed to complete the budget by May 31 so schools knew how much state funding they would get before the school year began. […]
The bill pending in the House, known as a budget implementation bill, would raise the foundation level to $5,734, an increase of $400 per pupil. Until that bill passes, the state board says it can only spend last year’s per-pupil amount, $5,334, even though the new budget authorizes the state to spend the additional money.
There are some other problems with the BIMP bills as well, including a Senate GOP addition that imposes a Medicaid managed care trial in Will County that advocates believe will, in reality, impose managed care statewide. [Clarifying note: The above story is about a different BIMP bill, but the two were sent over at the same time. I was trying to get the post done too quickly to fully explain this, I suppose.]
* More budget stuff, compiled by Paul…
* ICPR: Legislation, not personality conflict, is the reason for the sessions
* The Illinois Manufacturers Association is running a radio ad on Chicago’s WBBM 780 and over 50 stations throughout the state which blasts Gov. Rod Blagojevich…
“In recent years, Illinois has lost thousands of good-paying manufacturing jobs. Unfortunately, instead of trying to improve the economy of Illinois, Gov. Rod Blagojevich is making it worse,” Greg Baise says in the 60-second ads […]
“Enough is enough,” Baise continues.
“Governor Blagojevich has tried to raise taxes on employers by more than ten billion dollars,” the ad continues. “He promotes class warfare by calling employers derogatory names, and implying that somehow they’re breaking the law. And now, he’s trying to take the law into his own hands by spending taxpayer’s money on his own pet projects. As I said, enough is enough.”
“Ask your state legislators to continue to stand up against the self serving and destructive schemes that Governor Blagojevich is promoting.”
A second ad is expected as well.
Baise told me the ad buy will run at least through the veto session, scheduled to end next week.
* You can listen to the ad at this link or just click the thingy below…
The Fordham report found several states, including Illinois, have lowered their testing standards since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. Illinois dramatically lowered the passing score on the 8th-grade math exam two years ago, which produced double-digit gains in the percentage of students who passed.
The study also found wide variations in the difficulty of math and reading exams among states and major changes from one grade level to the next within states. These discrepancies, the authors say, leave parents and taxpayers wondering what students actually know and whether test score gains are real or the result of “smoke and mirrors.”
* IllinoisReview: Obtaining an efficient system for educational development
* State pays foster parents too little, says study
The Illinois child-welfare system reimburses foster parents at a rate that falls short of the actual costs of supporting a foster child, according to a report released Wednesday by two national organizations and the University of Maryland.
Illinois fell into the second-lowest category because it needs to raise its rates by as much as 81 percent, according to the report. Arizona and the District of Columbia already have rates that meet or exceed the costs of supporting a foster child. A handful of states where rates are closer than in Illinois to the actual costs includes Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky.
“It turns out there’s a lot more churning in the system than the political professionals normally expect,” Malbin said. “We picture a candidate going back to the old list, going to the same old, same old again and again, but not that’s really the way it works. People are constantly coming in and then leaving the pool of donors. Today, there are a lot of old donors who haven’t given yet – and who may not give at all.”
* ChicagoReader: Ethical questions surround Daily Herald reporter with uncanny info and well placed girlfriend
An influential alderman demanded Wednesday that Mayor Daley hire at least 100 new police officers and bolster sanitation services to justify a $193 million tax wallop.
To soften the blow of higher taxes, Daley is planning to hire 50 more police officers at a cost of $4.1 million and spend $1 million to install 100 more surveillance cameras in high-crime areas.
* Mayor backs decision to withhold names of cops accused of excessive force
* Editorial: Higher speed limit for trucks imperils safety
AAA Chicago is lobbying hard against the increased speed limit for one reason — it believes more automobile drivers and passengers will die and be injured if the truck speed limit is raised. It is confident in that projection because crashes involving large trucks have indeed risen in our neighboring states of Kentucky, Wisconsin, Missouri and Minnesota since they raised their truck speed limits.
It would be a shame to do something to reverse a positive trend in Illinois — the number of traffic fatalities last year in Illinois (1,254) was the lowest since 1924. That sounds like a system that is not broken, so why “fix” it? The Senate has already unwisely overridden the veto; we urge the House members to put safety first and reject an override of Senate Bill 540.
