Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Thursday, Oct 16, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

Are you pro-choice, pro-life or somewhere in between? Explain fully, please. Thanks.

Giannoulias a bright spot on a dismal day

Thursday, Oct 16, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* This seems like a good idea…

llinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias plans to make a $1 billion deposit in the state’s banks, giving them needed cash for borrowers in a bid to dismantle a credit jam and brace the state during the financial crisis.

Giannoulias told The Associated Press he will make the money available to interest-bearing bank accounts by shifting it from lower-yielding investments in one of the first sweeping moves by a state government to face down a menacingly volatile economy. […]

“The foundation of healthy local economy is a strong local lender,” Giannoulias said. “We want them to know that the state’s banker has confidence in our local lenders. As soon as we give them the resources and the capital to continue lending, we can keep businesses open and we can keep jobs here in Illinois.” […]

The billion-dollar bank deposit will move state money away from more conservative investments whose returns are dropping as skittish investors flock to them, Giannoulias said. But the bank deposits will be protected by collateral, he said.

Maybe those banks will loan a bit of money to the state vendors who aren’t being paid in a timely manner and are teetering on the brink.

* Things are getting really bad out there, of course, and Chicago’s budget woes are huge. Buried beneath the bright, shiny ball of yet another Chicago Police Department reorganization is this important, but overlooked nugget…

Meanwhile, Daley hopes to save $10 million by slowing down police hiring next year. He proposes hiring only 200 officers. Mark Donahue, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, warns that attrition could cause the department to be 850 officers under its sworn strength of more than 13,500 officers by the end of 2009.

The cops expect to the ranks will naturally attrit 450 officers by the end of this year, which will leave the city way short even if those new badges hit the streets.

* Here’s part of that big reorg announcement…

The current first deputy superintendent — who has traditionally run the department from day to day — would become the assistant superintendent of operations.

Ooooo. I’m so tingly.

* Two priceless quotes from Hizzoner…

“The [police] union doesn’t like change,” Daley said. […]

“No,” the mayor said. “The [police] morale is good.”

What the police union and most of its members really don’t like is that they’ve been working without a contract for months. Not good.

* Yes, there is a real budget problem…

Mayor Richard Daley warned Wednesday it will take longer to repair potholes and replace burned-out streetlights as he unveiled a 2009 budget plan that would slash the city’s workforce and increase a long list of taxes and fines.

The mayor said his proposal would close a $469 million shortfall and be the first step in a four-year plan to grapple with hard times.

“We think next year will be worse,” Daley told the Tribune’s editorial board after presenting his plan to the City Council.

Even factoring in modest increases in now-plummeting tax revenues, city officials project budget shortfalls of about $200 million a year in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Wages and benefits will grow by about $150 million a year, largely due to the 10-year deal that Daley reached last year with labor unions representing many city workers.

…But with crime skyrocketing and the economy tanking (which is almost always followed by increased crime rates), is this the right time to be cutting back on the police force?

* More bad news…

* Pace proposes a 25-cent fare hike

* Highlights from Mayor Daley’s budget

* ‘This is not a good time’

* In tough times, Daley crafts sensible budget

* Daley’s bad-news budget

* Amid economic woes, museums tighten belts

26 Comments

Con-Con updates

Thursday, Oct 16, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* 10:45 am - An appellate court has upheld a lower court ruling requiring fliers be given to voters which includes new language for the constitutional convention referendum. The brief ruling can be seen at this link.

More in a bit.

* Background…

A Chicago Bar Association lawyer ripped into the statewide ballot asking voters if they favor a constitutional convention as “a joke” Wednesday, saying a judge has already found its language is misleading and false.

No matter how flawed the ballot is, though, there is insufficient time to fix the situation beyond what a judge already has ordered because Election Day is less than three weeks away, an attorney for election officials told an appellate panel. […]

The Illinois Supreme Court said Tuesday that an appellate court should decide how to fix the ballot. The Chicago Bar Association, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and others asked the high court to directly reverse Howse’s remedy for the faulty ballot because so little time remains before the Nov. 4 election.

“It is a joke,” attorney Steven F. Pflaum told appeals Justices Denise O’Malley, Robert Cahill and Joseph Gordon on Wednesday. “This ballot is flagrantly misleading.”

Pflaum and other critics of the ballot want a completely new and separate ballot. Howse said that was impractical and instead ordered officials to give voters a notice in the polling places warning about false and misleading words.

* Meanwhile, Eric Zorn spoke to the guy responsible for that chain e-mail on the constitutional convention that we heard from yesterday…

Other public employees who worry a constitutional convention would result in a loss of their pensions are forwarding an e-mail from Palatine attorney C. John McCauley: A “yes” vote will put pensions in “SEVERE JEOPARDY,” McCauley writes. “If our present constitution is terminated, all will be lost.”

Well, two things.

First, all will not be lost. Article I, Section X, of the U.S. Constitution—which trumps Illinois’ governing document—forbids states from passing laws “impairing the obligation of contracts.”

Existing government pension plans are contracts. So if a new constitution eliminated the pension guarantees, that elimination would not be retroactive.

Even McCauley conceded Wednesday when we spoke that taking away government pension benefits that public employees already have earned would require “overturning decades of rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Second, “Protect government pensions, vote no!” is a lousy slogan for convention opponents.

Agree on both counts. Thoughts?

40 Comments

Schock throws kitchen sink at allegations, local media laps it up

Thursday, Oct 16, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* We talked a little about this Associated Press story yesterday…

Aaron Schock, the Republican state representative making a strong bid for the 18th District seat in the U.S. House, once notarized documents with false dates while helping his parents set up tax shelters, his own father testified in federal court.

* Schock is taking a three-pronged approach to his counter-spin.

First, he’s calling the false date a clerical error…

“It was a clerical mistake and it was made over eight years ago.”

* That’s not what his own father testified to under oath, however…

[Aaron Schock] declared that he witnessed the documents being signed on Jan. 1, 2000, but they weren’t actually signed until more than a year later. […]

Richard Schock said they put money and property into a variety of corporations and a charitable trust beginning Jan. 1, 2000, as directed by two of the defendants in the federal trial, Kenton Tylman and Debra Hills. But despite repeated requests, Tylman and Hills did not provide some of the documents for them to sign until spring of the next year.

He testified that the couple signed the documents with the earlier date because that’s when the tax shelters were formally established.

A trial transcript shows Richard Schock was asked, “And your son, Aaron, would not have signed this on January 1 of 2000; isn’t that correct?”

“That’s correct,” he replied.

That doesn’t sound like a “clerical mistake” to me.

Oops.

* It’s truly unfortunate that the local media doesn’t seem to be calling Schock out on this fabrication, allowing the arguments to be played as a he said, she said affair without providing factual context…

Is it a smear campaign - or a concerning lapse in judgment? It depends on which candidate for the 18th congressional district you believe.

* Secondly, Schock is hiding behind the ol’ “the Democrats are trying to smear me” and “negative politics is so horrible” gambit…

Schock says the story was fed to the Associated Press by the National Democratic Party and is nothing more than a smear campaign three weeks before the election.

Local reporters never called the national party or the Associated Press to verify the claim, however.

* More…

Schock, 27, called Callahan’s tactics and those of the national party an “act of desperation” from a candidate he says is behind in the polls.

“Voters don’t like the gutter attacks, the gutter politics and they don’t like to see the candidates throwing mud at one another,” Schock said.

* And, finally, the 27 year old congressional candidate is employing the “youthful indiscretions/ancient history” angle…

Schock says the documentation was an accident that happened when he was nineteen, and with almost three weeks till Election Day, his contenders are trying to smear his image.

“I think it’s an act of desperation to go to this document over eight years ago and try and say, well somehow now, Aaron Schock is not qualified.” Schock said.

Amazingly, this angle has remained completely unchallenged in the local press.

* One more thing. This is mentioned in pretty much every story…

Schock’s family did not benefit from backdating the documents

They didn’t benefit because they were defrauded. However, they were obviously trying to profit from what turned out to be phony tax shelters, and admitedly involved their son in the process.

* More congressional stuff…

* Cheney phones in to lunch

* Bailout, economy divide U.S. Senate picks

* Durbin still holds heavy war chest

* Durbin reports $6.5 million in campaign fund

* Bean, Greenberg cordial — to a point

* Foster opens up large cash lead on Oberweis

* Incumbents raising big cash in Illinois congressional races

* Around the horn: Ozinga, Hassert, Duckworth

* Congressman Rush’s son pleads guilty in sex case

25 Comments

Morning shorts

Thursday, Oct 16, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* A road to compensation opens in wrongful conviction cases

Former Illinois inmates exonerated of wrongdoing now have another recourse after enduring long delays for clemency decisions by the governor.

Lawyers at Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions plan to take advantage Wednesday of a new law that allows the exonerated to circumvent the governor and file for certificates of innocence directly from circuit courts.

* Rosemont’s casino bet tops foes by $210 mil.

* Rosemont bid for casino nearly double Waukegan’s

* Rosemont bid for casino license at $435 million

* Seven Illinois Cities Vie for 10th Casino License

* A breakdown of the companies’ bids for the license

* Illinois section of natural-gas pipeline about halfway complete

It’s over budget and behind schedule, but a natural-gas pipeline that will stretch from the Rocky Mountains to eastern Ohio is well under way in Illinois.

Construction is about halfway finished in Illinois, where three firms that are partnering to build the 1,679-mile Rockies Express Pipeline — one of the longest in the nation — expect to spend $1 billion on the state’s portion, pipeline officials said during a Wednesday tour of the construction. By April, the pipeline should be delivering gas here, they said.

* Tribune may alter Cubs deal

Tribune Co. is considering retaining a larger ownership stake in the Chicago Cubs, said sources involved in the deal, as the company explores options to sell the team amid the nation’s worst financial conditions in decades.

With banks reluctant to make loans, Tribune Co. faces increasing risk of prospective buyers dropping out of the auction or being unable to close a deal in the next few months no matter how creditworthy they are. In addition, the higher costs of borrowing could trim the size of the bids.

To address some of the concerns, company officials have tossed out the idea of keeping more than 5 percent of the franchise, said three sources close to the bidding process. In this way, the buyer would have to come up with less cash but still gain controlling interest in the team. When lending markets open up, the buyer would have the option to buy Tribune Co.’s ownership interest.

“Things are very fluid right now,” said a source close to one bidder, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the sales process is ongoing. “Tribune is looking for ways to get the deal done.”

* Cook County hospitals’ total cost: $1.1 billion

The $1.1 billion figure represents what the hospitals system is seeking from the Cook County Board and President Todd H. Stroger. When pension and other costs currently being carried on the county’s books, rather than the hospitals books, are subtracted, the budget is roughly $1 billion.

* Cook forest preserve budget has no tax increase

* U of C Committed to Milton Friedman Institute

* Challengers seek changes in state’s attorney’s offices

The top prosecutors in Lake and McHenry Counties face November election challengers who are upset with the status quo for very different reasons.

In Lake County, Democrat Michael Jacobs is making his second straight run at Republican State’s Atty. Michael Waller, claiming the 18-year incumbent hasn’t done enough to protect the public from sexual predators.

In McHenry County, Thomas Cynor, also a Democrat, claims Republican State’s Atty. Louis Bianchi has done too much when it comes to personnel issues.

* Google Answers the iPhone

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax

Thursday, Oct 16, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

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In case you’re wondering…

Thursday, Oct 16, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

[Bumped up to this morning to facilitate discussion.]

* Joe the Plumber…

* CBS snap poll

Immediately after the debate, CBS News interviewed a nationally representative sample of 638 debate watchers assembled by Knowledge Networks who were “uncommitted voters” - either undecided about who to vote for or who could still change their minds. Fifty-three percent said Obama won the debate, 22 percent said McCain won and another 25 percent thought it was a tie.

* MediaCurves poll

* CNN…

Obama: 58%
McCain: 31%

McCain won in two categories. Eighty percent of debate watchers polled said McCain spent more time attacking his opponent, with seven percent saying Obama was more on the attack. Fifty-four percent said McCain seemed more like a typical politician during the debate, with 35 percent saying Obama acted more like a typical politician.

* Debate transcript

Discuss.

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