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Congressman Jackson wants Obama to “declare a national emergency,” take “extra-constitutional” action

Thursday, Oct 13, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

Illinois Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. told The Daily Caller on Wednesday that congressional opposition to the American Jobs Act is akin to the Confederate “states in rebellion.”

Jackson called for full government employment of the 15 million unemployed and said that Obama should “declare a national emergency” and take “extra-constitutional” action “administratively” — without the approval of Congress — to tackle unemployment.

“I hope the president continues to exercise extraordinary constitutional means, based on the history of Congresses that have been in rebellion in the past,” Jackson said. “He’s looking administratively for ways to advance the causes of the American people, because this Congress is completely dysfunctional.”

* Rival Democrat Debbie Halvorson’s response via press release…

“In Rep. Jackson’s entire congressional career, he has never introduced a single jobs bill,” said Halvorson. “Now, he’s calling on the President to suspend the constitution? As a representative of the people, you don’t give up when you hit a roadblock and throw the constitution out the window – you keep working to get something done. The people of the 2nd district deserve real leadership, not rhetoric.”

In Jackson’s sixteen years in Congress, Jackson has proposed ten separate amendments to the Constitution – none have passed.

* Jackson video…

* Meanwhile, Raja Krishnamoorthi’s latest press release tries to put the best spin on his latest fundraising numbers…

Raja (RAH-jah) Krishnamoorthi (krish-nuh-MOOR-thee) has raised nearly three quarters of a million dollars since launching his campaign for Congress in the 8th District of Illinois–a figure that puts him well ahead of his Democratic primary challenger, Tammy Duckworth.

Krishnamoorthi holds a lead over Duckworth in both funds raised and cash on hand. According to his campaign’s latest filing with the Federal Election Commission, Raja raised $726,184 and has $635,997 cash on hand.

Trouble is, Tammy Duckworth outraised Krishnamoorthi in the most recent quarter, $476,894 to $313,536. However, federal candidates almost always do their best fundraising in the first quarter because their money is coming from longtime friends and supporters. This is Duckworth’s first quarter. The second quarter is more difficult because their buds are often capped out and they have to find new sources, ergo the decline for Krishnamoorthi.

Duckworth had David Axelrod and that entire crowd helping her raise funds, so it was expected that she’d do well.

Also, we don’t know how much of this money is for the primary and how much was raised for the general. Those are two different pots and they are rarely ever disclosed in press releases.

…Adding… Duckworth’s campaign says $24K was raised for the general.

…Adding More… Krishnamoorthi’s campaign refuses to disclose how much was raised for the general.

* Greg Hinz…

Bottom line: If Team Tammy hoped to bluff Mr. Krishnamoorthi out of the race, it’s not going to happen, not with these kind of numbers.

But they’d still like him to pick up his war chest and run instead in the north suburban 10th District, where the Dems so far have not been able to recruit a top-tier contender and his odds of winning might be better.

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Stu Levine’s testimony continues in Cellini trial

Thursday, Oct 13, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* There are a couple of people Tweeting from the Cellini trial today, so maybe we’ll have more updates. As always, BlackBerry users click here and everybody else can kick back and watch. I’ll be posting stories from earlier this morning so you can catch up with what’s going on…

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*** UPDATED x2 - Quinn to ask Madigan to carry scholarship bill *** Question of the day

Thursday, Oct 13, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

*** UPDATE 1 *** From Monique Garcia’s Twitter feed…

Gov. Pat Quinn says he’ll ask Speaker Michael Madigan to carry a bill eliminating the legislative scholarship program during veto session.

Quinn’s comments come after Madigan said he won’t let lawmakers vote on Quinn’s amendatory veto to abolish the program.

*** UPDATE 2 *** Raw audio of Gov. Quinn…

Click to download

[ *** End Of Updates *** ]

* Today’s Tribune editorial…

House Speaker Michael Madigan says he’s guarding the sanctity of the state constitution, but he’s actually protecting a cherished legislative perk.

To nobody’s surprise, the speaker says he won’t allow his chamber to vote on whether to accept Gov. Pat Quinn’s amendatory veto of a bill that purported to reform the shamelessly abused General Assembly scholarship program. That means lawmakers can keep gifting friends, relatives, staffers, lobbyists, political donors, campaign workers and others with free tuition to state universities.

Madigan’s spokesman says the governor overstepped his authority by rewriting a bill that would have prohibited lawmakers from awarding scholarships to their own families. The version Quinn returned to the legislature would instead eliminate the program entirely. Without a vote to accept or override that change, the bill will simply die. So it’s back to the status quo: Anything goes.

Madigan would have us believe that’s the lesser of two evils. The speaker himself has voted to eliminate the scholarships on a number of occasions, after all. But we can’t have the executive branch stepping all over the legislative branch, can we?

That’s a self-serving dodge. We agree that the amendatory veto has been a vehicle for all sorts of gubernatorial mischief over the years. But the constitution grants the governor authority to recommend specific changes to legislation, and it’s not as if Quinn attempted to graft a pet cause onto an unrelated bill.

* The constitutional language is in the Legislative article…

The Governor may return a bill together with specific recommendations for change to the house in which it originated.

* From the House rules…

[The governor’s amendatory veto] shall not alter the fundamental purpose or legislative scheme set forth in the bill as passed.

* The Question: Do you agree with Madigan or the Tribune on this AV decision? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.

Online Surveys & Market Research

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Veto session budget planning begins - Quinn knocks Kirk

Thursday, Oct 13, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Subscribers know more details, but Gatehouse picked up my story on a working document that’s being discussed by House Democratic appropriations chairpersons…

Gov. Pat Quinn, the Illinois Gaming Board and other state agencies want the legislature to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in spending to the state budget when the General Assembly returns later this month for its annual veto session.

The chairs of the five House appropriations received a document — first reported in Capitol Fax, a political newsletter and blog — laying out dozens of requests.

Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, chairwoman of the appropriations committee that allocates money for human services, said the list simply lays out potential options. Whatever additional spending is eventually approved will have to be offset, however, to remain within the $33.2 billion spending cap approved by the House earlier this year. The same cap was adopted by the Senate, by default, when it approved the House budget.

“This is a moving target. There are a lot of things on the table,” Feigenholtz said. “We have a great deal of pressure from a variety of agencies that got cut.”

Kelly Kraft, a spokeswoman for the governor’s budget office, described the requests as “a mix of discussions, draft calculations and requests.”

Keep in mind that while the list totals $700 million, the General Assembly won’t go above its spending limit. Some things will have to be cut even if all of the governor’s vetoes are upheld. Gatehouse didn’t go into the cut details. Subscribe for the full list, but here is their shorter one…

$17.2 million for the Monetary Award Program (grants to college students)

$35 million for a backlog in estate tax refunds

$49 million for the Illinois Gaming Board, requested if the governor signs the pending gambling bill

$89 million to restore school transportation reimbursements

$36 million for the Department of Corrections

$10 million for indigent burials

$75 million for the transition of people with mental health and developmental disabilities out of state institutions to community-based facilities

Not all of those requests were made by the governor. The restoration of funding for indigent burials, for instance, was made by the funeral directors’ association. The school transportation reimbursements were vetoed by the governor and some want that veto overturned.

* In other news, Gov. Pat Quinn said yesterday that US Sen. Mark Kirk’s report on the state debt situation was exaggerated…

Quinn said the state is making progress in cutting its unpaid bills.

“I think (Kirk) probably exaggerated some of the numbers. We have whittled down the bills we have to pay, we still have a long way to go. You know if it’s just woe is me and a doomsayer - I don’t think that’s particularly helpful,” Quinn told reporters Wednesday at an unrelated news conference.

* Roundup…

* Deal struck on Medicaid asset transfers: The agreement, approved unanimously by the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, deals with the practice of “gifting” assets to relatives and other people. The new rules, which take effect Jan. 1, make Illinois one of the last states to implement the federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.

* Group preps for Oct. 24 JDC hearing: Ideally, the group wants to see 2,000 people attend the hearing.
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* William Gorman and Ruth Burgess Thompson: Closing 2 centers is sensible

* Pressure builds to fund county school post

* Bad move by Quinn on IPA boss: Juracek is the fox in the electricity hen house, with a record of dragging consumers behind her ComEd pickup truck. Her role as a ComEd employee in the 2006 power auction would have cost Illinois consumers about $1 billion until federal regulators forced a refund. The Illinois Power Agency was born directly because of that rip-off, in which ComEd’s parent company, Exelon Corp., won 97 percent of ComEd’s 41-month contracts. The price was $70.14 per megawatt hour, although an Argonne National Lab and University of Illinois study found that the cost to supply electricity in the region was from $20 to $28 per megawatt hour.

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*** UPDATED x1 *** CME chairman is frustrated with Quinn

Thursday, Oct 13, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Crain’s has a story online about how Mayor Rahm Emanuel is “stepping up efforts to keep CME Group Inc. from moving out of town” because of its high tax burden. Emanuel told the magazine’s editorial board yesterday that he has repeatedly met with CME Chairman/CEO Terrence Duffy…

“They came and asked me to help them in Springfield. That’s what I’m doing,” Mr. Emanuel said. “One company should not represent 6% of the corporate income tax (payments).”

But this is what caught my eye…

The mayor declined to be drawn into a discussion of rumors that Mr. Duffy increasingly is frustrated that Gov. Pat Quinn has not yet presented a plan to help the exchange. “I’m not answering any hypotheticals,” he said, adding, “I’m working on” getting the company relief in Springfield.

I checked around yesterday and, indeed, Duffy is upset at Quinn for not getting off the dime. I called Gov. Pat Quinn’s spokesperson yesterday, but didn’t receive a return call. I’ll let you know if they see this post and want to say something.

* Duffy was on Jack Bouroudjian’s radio show yesterday and talked about moving…

“We have very viable alternatives. The traders can stay wherever they want, but the company can certainly go to wherever it suits its best interests…

“Being a good steward [of shareholders’ money] is not paying six percent of the aggregate tax bill of the state of Illinois in corporate taxes. We are the number one taxpayer in the entire state of Illinois… but we are far from the largest company in the state of Illinois.”

Duffy also explained why his company is paying state income taxes even though people are trading out of state, or even out of country…

“We dont’ know who our ultimate end user client is. They have to go through one of our [intermediaries]… so we don’t know who their clients are. So, their client could be trading out of Mumbai or trading out of Asia, but because of the apportionment laws in Illinois, we are getting taxed on all those particular trades. They have to have the mailing addresses where our clearing entity is. Our clearing entity happens to be in Illinois.”

His conclusion…

“First, they don’t deserve these tax dollars, but we are being treated completely unfairly.

Audio…

Click to download

* Meanwhile, the UAW has reached a contract agreement with Chrysler. If ratified, Illinois will be in line for some new investment at the company’s Belvidere plant.

But Ford’s workers are balking…

Members of Ford Motor Co.’s UAW locals are being instructed to prepare to strike as votes to ratify a proposed labor contract have turned sour.

Rejection of the pact would undo the company’s plan to add at least 1,100 jobs through a third shift at its Torrence Avenue plant on Chicago’s Far South Side as part of pledge to hire 12,000 workers nationwide over the life of the four-year contract. […]

In the first ratification vote Tuesday, workers at one of the Ford’s two assembly plants in Wayne, Mich. rejected the pact, with 51.1% of them voting no. The UAW Local 900 represents nearly 4,000 workers in Wayne. […]

“If we strike, they will use whatever resources necessary to continue operating their plants including the use of scab labor.” [according to a Facebook post by the UAW’s Ford Department.]

But don’t panic yet…

Another Chicago-area union member characterized the strike call as a typical bargaining tactic. “Chicago is in the process of voting,” said the member. “They were picked to do an early vote with the hopes of turning it around to use as a tactic for reassurance to vote for it.”

A strike at Ford involving scab labor would be a gigantic mess for everyone involved.

*** UPDATE *** Uh-oh…

Workers at Ford Motor Co.’s Chicago assembly plant voted overwhelmingly to reject a tentative four-year contract agreement with the automaker — setting the stage for a possible national strike, said a local union official early Thursday.

Seventy-seven percent of 2,317 workers at the Torrence Avenue plant who voted rejected the contract, said Grant Morton, United Auto Workers Union Local 551 plant chairman. The plant employs 2,700 UAW workers.

With the Chicago voting results in, the contract proposal now has more no votes than yes votes nationally, Morton said.

“We were given direction earlier today to prepare for a strike,” said Morton, who added the national union’s executive board will take a strike authorization vote if the deal is rejected nationally.

But union leaders have said the Ford offer was a good deal.

* Related…

* Sears’ request for tax breaks pits town against schools

* Hoffman Estates Approves Resolution To Keep Retailer In State

* CME’s Duffy: Tax on Trading Would Raise Food Prices

* Video: Emanuel on TIF, pensions, CME and what his budget means for Chicago business

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Rate ComEd’s new TV ad

Thursday, Oct 13, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* ComEd has a new TV ad running in Chicago. The Adelstein Liston spots started last night on cable TV news stations and will run through next Tuesday in the evenings. Rate it…

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)

Thursday, Oct 13, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

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