Illinois State Police executed a search warrant Wednesday at Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan’s Capitol offices as they investigate allegations of wrongdoing, including sexual misconduct and stalking, against Jack Franks, a former state representative who now serves as McHenry County Board chairman. […]
The search warrant — obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times via a Freedom of Information Act request — says Illinois State Police justified the search because “probable cause exists for the crimes of criminal sexual abuse, criminal sexual assault, official misconduct, stalking and aggravated battery.”
Police requested personnel, human resources or other files “containing information related to allegations of wrongdoing or misconduct by former Illinois State Representative Jack D. Franks.”
It also asked for “reports or complaints related to sexual misconduct, harassment, stalking or other misconduct by Franks.” […]
The speaker’s office on Friday said a complaint was first received about alleged sexual harassment involving an employee of the speaker’s office and a former state representative on Nov. 19, 2018. Madigan and his chief of staff were notified, and an investigation began. […]
In February 2019, the speaker’s office determined the harassment allegations were “credible,” and the speaker asked Illinois Secretary of State Police to ban Franks from entering the Capitol without an escort, the speaker’s office said.
A month later, the speaker’s office said they received even more information about the allegations, which increased in severity, and based on that, the office called various law enforcement agencies to report “possible criminal conduct.”
There’s lots more, so click here to read the rest. Franks is also openly backing Brian Sager in the 63rd House District Democratic primary against Peter Janko.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Speaker Madigan’s office…
The Office of the Speaker today released information about a complaint involving allegations of sexual harassment. In an effort to protect the alleged victim’s right to privacy, personal information and private details have been redacted.
On November 19, 2018, the Office received a complaint alleging sexual harassment involving an employee and a former Illinois state representative. In accordance with the Office’s policy, Speaker Madigan and the Chief of Staff were immediately notified and an investigation was initiated. Based on the allegations involved in the complaint, Speaker Madigan directed his Counsel to notify the alleged perpetrator that they were prohibited from any contact with employees in the Office and from visiting the Capitol complex. The Office also took immediate action to assess whether the alleged victim was in danger and whether any immediate accommodations were necessary. The alleged victim requested confidentiality and due to unforeseen circumstances could not fully participate in the investigation for a period of time, but ultimately provided information and assisted with the investigation.
In February 2019, the Office determined that the allegations were credible. As a result, the Office of the Speaker took additional steps to protect the alleged victim and requested the Secretary of State Police ban the alleged perpetrator from entering the Capitol Complex without an escort.
In March 2019, the Office received additional information about the allegations. Based on this information and numerous facts discovered during the investigation, the Office initiated contact with various law enforcement agencies to report possible criminal conduct. Speaker Madigan called the Sangamon County State’s Attorney to advise that the Office had information about possible criminal conduct and would fully cooperate with any investigation. Following that call, the Chief Counsel contacted the State’s Attorney and was advised to contact the Illinois State Police. The Chief Counsel and Human Resources Director met with the Illinois State Police to provide information about the allegations. Shortly after this meeting, the Office facilitated a meeting between the State Police and the alleged victim. Additionally, the Office informed Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope and Maggie Hickey, a partner at Schiff Hardin, who was then engaged in an independent investigation of the Office of the Speaker and Office of the Clerk. Simultaneously, the Office contacted the Secretary of State Police to confirm the Capitol Police were aware that the former member should not be allowed in the Capitol Complex without a security escort. In an effort to cooperate with any potential outside investigation, the Office of the Speaker preserved all documents related to the investigation and offered full cooperation.
On January 24, 2020, the Illinois State Police contacted the Office to request the investigatory file. On January 27, 2020, the Chief Counsel contacted the Counsel for the Illinois State Police to offer cooperation and discuss protocol for transmitting the documents. On January 28 and 29, the Chief Counsel made several attempts to contact the State’s Attorney to discuss how the Office could cooperate and transfer any documents; however, there was no response. On January 29, 2020, the Illinois State Police executed a search warrant at the Office to expedite receipt of documents related to the allegations, and documents were immediately provided. In addition, the alleged victim was notified of the search warrant the following day. Because the State Police search warrant was not filed under seal, the nature of the allegations and the name of the accused are now publicly available. The Office of the Speaker has therefore decided to release the information that can be made public surrounding the complaint.
The confidentiality of the complainant involved in this matter has been and continues to be of paramount importance. The Office’s response and actions related to this complaint were made, to the extent possible, in consultation with the complainant and consistent with the complainant’s wishes. In this instance, the alleged victim has requested confidentiality, and the Office will continue to be committed to respecting the complainant’s request for privacy.
For information on crime victim’s assistance please contact the Crime Victims Assistance Line (800-228-3368). For information on sexual assault please contact the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault (www.icasa.org or call 217-753-4117).
The following statement is attributable to Speaker Mike Madigan:
“After receiving a report of alleged sexual harassment, my office immediately took steps to protect the alleged victim and conducted an investigation. Based on information received during the investigation and subsequent to it, my office informed the appropriate authorities of the allegations and the investigation, including the Sangamon County State’s Attorney, the Secretary of State Capitol Police, and the Illinois State Police for further review and action. I remain committed to working to protect the victim and will see this matter to its conclusion in order to ensure the victim’s safety. My office has taken significant steps to strengthen the process for filing a complaint of sexual harassment. I remain committed to better protecting employees and ensuring a safe and supportive workplace for all.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** Press release…
State Representative Steve Reick (R-Woodstock) issued the following statement upon learning that the Illinois State Police executed a search warrant Wednesday at Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan’s Capitol offices investigating allegations of wrongdoing, including sexual misconduct and stalking, against McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks:
“The news that Jack Franks is under investigation because probable cause exists for the crimes of criminal sexual abuse, criminal sexual assault, official misconduct, stalking and aggravated battery, according to the Illinois State Police, goes beyond anything that can be easily dismissed with a blanket denial,” Reick said. “These allegations stem from actions that occurred as far back as 2016, and they demand a complete investigation.”
According to a report in the Chicago Sun Times: “Madigan’s office said it received a complaint in 2018 about alleged sexual harassment by a former state representative, investigated and found the complaint credible. Madigan’s office said appropriate law enforcement agencies were informed the following year.”
“I have to wonder why it is that predatory actions that allegedly occurred as far back as 2016 took until 2018 to be communicated to and investigated by the Speaker’s office, and why it then took until the following year for law enforcement to be informed of them.” Reick said. “Where will this end?”
“Jack Franks has no choice but to immediately resign as the Chairman of the McHenry County Board.” Reick demanded.
“Everything he does in that role going forward will be tainted by the credible allegations of abuse against an innocent victim of what by all accounts is predatory behavior. The people of McHenry County deserve representation that is not tainted by allegations of misconduct of such breathtaking proportions. Until these allegations are fully dealt with, he has no business holding a position of trust. He must immediately resign.”
The Second Amendment Foundation and Illinois State Rifle Association have filed suit in U.S. District Court against the Illinois State Police, ISP Director Brendan Kelly and Jessica Trame in her official capacity as Bureau Chief of the Illinois State Police Firearms Services Bureau, alleging they have allowed Firearm Owner Identification Card and Concealed Carry applications to languish for interminable periods, thus violating the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Illinois citizens.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Illinois residents Ryan A. Thomas and Goran Lazic. Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys David G. Sigale of Wheaton and Gregory Bedell of Chicago. The lawsuit is known as Thomas, et.al. v. Illinois State Police, et.al.
The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division federal court, says ISP “has swept or transferred funds totaling more than $29,500,000.00 from the State Police Firearms Services Fund, the State Police Operations Assistance Fund, and the State Police Services Fund away from these funds and into other accounts.” According to the complaint, “The money was to be used for three purposes: administration of the Firearm Owners Identification Card (“FOID Card Act”), background checks for firearm-related services, and concealed carry licensing pursuant to the Firearms Concealed Carry Act (“FCCA”). Instead, the more than $29,500,000.00 has been subject to interfund transfers which are ostensibly to be repaid but which have not been, or swept into other accounts without an obligation to reimburse the funds at all.”
“The sweeping of funds has denied qualified Illinois citizens their rights and the ability to defend themselves and their families,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Because of this practice, ISP processing of FOID and concealed carry applications has slowed to a crawl, allowing paperwork to languish. That’s not just poor performance, it’s pathetic.”
“The citizens of Illinois have been delayed getting their FOID cards for months,” added ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson. “It is evident that these fund sweeps have caused these delays.”
Thomas has been fighting the system for nearly three years. He had previously held a FOID card and carry license, but lost them simply because he moved out of state for a while. Since his return, to be closer to his children. Lazic had a FOID and CCL appeal pending since 2017 when a charge against him was dismissed and later expunged.
“It is inexcusable that the ISP has simply allowed these cases to gather dust,” Gottlieb said. “Denial of rights under color of law is an abomination to the Second and 14th Amendments of the Constitution and Illinois state law. ISP has had plenty of time to do the right thing, and didn’t. Now we’re asking the court to make them do it.”
Illinois State Police officials said they are working through a backlog of FOID renewal requests. Last month, the agency reported a backlog of more than 60,000 applications.
“The FOID card this year is a huge issue with the renewals,” state Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia, said. “Having people nervous about having their Second Amendment right taken away because we’re behind on getting their new FOID card – that’s a big issue.”
Anderson said he doesn’t blame state police.
“We’re in one of those ten-year cycles where everybody’s FOID card is coming up for renewal at the same time,” he said.
This week, Sean Casten voted against a bipartisan measure to extend a federal ban on the illegal sale of fentanyl – a synthetic opioid that in one year killed over 32,000 Americans.
The opioid crisis is destroying lives and hurting families across the nation, and has created additional pressures on the law enforcement community. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that in one year killed over 32,000 Americans, and nearly 1,300 in Illinois. The measure may not be a permanent solution, but it protects communities until a more meaningful solution to the overdose crisis can be found.
Sean Casten, apparently, is not concerned with protecting vulnerable communities. Had the vote gone his way, Fentanyl would no longer be treated as a Schedule 1 Drug (a drug with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse). This means it would have been substantially harder for federal law enforcement to prosecute those who deal drugs that are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths over the past several years.
To be clear, a study by the RAND Corporation found, “The sudden appearance of the drug fentanyl in the US has driven up overdose deaths dramatically…”
“Sean Casten truly represents the extreme left-wing of the Democrat base,” Ives said. “His reason for voting against this common sense measure was his worry that street dealers would be over prosecuted. It is because of radicals like him that Democrats are becoming the party of lawlessness and anarchy. We have to wonder: What will be the next law Casten won’t want enforced? How will he tie law enforcement’s hands next?
“He supports sanctuary city policies, which prevent violent criminals - in the country illegally - from being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. He advocates more gun control laws, but won’t hold Kim Foxx accountable for refusing to prosecute gun crimes in Chicago. Now, he protects drug dealers rather than the families in his district.”
Want to see where this ends? Just look at the city that made ‘Jussie Smollett’ a household name: Chicago - a deep blue sanctuary city inside a sanctuary state. According to areavibes.com, Chicago’s rate of crime averages 79% higher than the rest of Illinois while the rate of crime on a national scale is 62% higher than. The occurrence of violent crime in Chicago is 149% higher than the average rate of crime in Illinois and 164% higher than the rest of the nation. Similarly, crime involving property stands 65% higher than the remainder of the state of Illinois and 45% higher than the nation’s average.
“It’s no blueprint for the rest of the country,” Ives continued. “And Sean Casten is no representative of the Sixth District.”
Um, that would be the kitchen sink in its entirety. Plus the refrigerator.
In a phone interview, Casten said voting for the bill, which would put into federal law a temporary fentanyl ban that was imposed administratively, might have helped him get a few votes at election time. But, “I’m not in this job because I’m a politician,” he added. “I’m in it for policy.”
“You can’t find any instance in history where criminalizing a drug has prevented its use,” Casten continued. “Until we invest in rehabilitation and treatment, we’re not going to solve the problem,” and the bill did not fund such efforts. […]
“The opioid crisis has been ravaging communities across the country, and fentanyl in particular poses a grave national threat that I take extremely seriously as the vice chair of the Homeland Security Committee,” said [US Rep. Lauren Underwood]. “While I am supportive of expanding law enforcement’s ability to quickly go after new fentanyl analogues, it must be paired with a strong, comprehensive public health approach to the opioid crisis that includes access to treatment and giving judges the sentencing discretion to make the best decisions for communities on a case-by-case basis.”
Another congresswoman who opposed the legislation, Matteson’s Robin Kelly, said the bill should have contained an exemption for medical research and should not have included mandatory minimum sentences.
Theresa Eagleson, Director
Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services
Marc Smith, Director
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
Re: MCO Train Wreck
Dear Directors Smith and Eagleson:
Since I sent my letter this morning, we have continued to be inundated with inquiries from adoptive parents and subsidized guardians about the dump of their children, along with 19,000 other children, into the MCO scheme scheduled to take place tomorrow.
These parents are far more eloquent than I. I’ve reproduced one of the emails we received today to give a flavor of what these parents are going through. It is from a woman who adopted two medically complex children, yet has still not even received a medical card or insurance information for either of them with the transfer scheduled to happen tomorrow:
“I am a DCFS licensed foster parent. I also have been a pediatric registered nurse for 28 yrs. I adopted a now 4yr.old boy from foster care in 2019. He is legally blind with multiple, complex medical and behavioral issues. I also currently have a 2.5yr.old foster daughter; who I will be adopting next week. She was severely abused and shaken multiple times in the first four months of life. She has severe cerebral palsy. She cannot walk or talk, has cortical blindness and cannot swallow so receives tube feedings.
I still do not have medical cards or insurance information for either child. I spoke to IllinicareYouthcare multiple times; last on 1/28/20. They told me they “hoped” information and cards would “start” to be mailed this week. I asked what PCP [primary care physician] was assigned. They said “all children were assigned a random PCP based on zipcode” and that I would need to call and choose a different PCP if desired after 2/1/20. They said they were “offering” six months of continuity of care with out of network providers, but that the providers did not have to accept it.
My children have 9 specialty physicians and 6 therapists providing 10 hrs. of therapy a week. We have 11 prescription medications that are given daily, including a $5,000 per month daily injection from a specialty pharmacy. The uncertainty of all parts of this transition makes me very nervous since my children’s lives depend on medications and that services go without interruption.”
It is alarming that DHFS and IlliniCare have not even started to distribute information and medical cards to many parents, or to assign primary care doctors, even for parents of such medically fragile children. This is unacceptable if the rollout is to happen tomorrow.
Another of the inquiries we received just today is from another adoptive mother who has still not received the medical card for her son. She asks, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is supposed to go live tomorrow. How can that be? How can something go live tomorrow and the [children and their parents] don’t even have a card to show at the doctor or hospital?”
This adoptive mother also reports that many people have received cards from a different network than the one they selected and a different primary care provider than they selected. She asks, “What was the point of going online or waiting hours to talk to a representative when you are just going to do what you want anyway? Things are not ready. This change needs to be put off.” She urges that “this drastic move in insurance [be delayed] until everything has been figured and all the foster parents who adopted do not have to scrounge for answers and worry whether our children’s medical needs will be covered as promised to us when we adopted them.”
People who adopt and care for these children are saints. They deserve a medal, not this disgraceful treatment. And their children deserve continuity of their medical care.
If you go forward with this tomorrow, knowing full well of all the problems, you will own this and all of the deleterious consequences that are inevitable.
The infant grandson of a Chicago man who was diagnosed with coronavirus has developed a fever and is being tested for the virus, family members told NBC News.
The baby and other family members who had close contact with the man were under isolation following the recent diagnosis. The infant was taken to an area hospital after his fever developed, though it remains unclear if the child was experiencing any other symptoms and the cause of the fever remained unclear.
At least 21 people were under investigation for potential coronavirus exposure in Illinois as of Thursday, state health officials said.
The child’s grandfather this week became the second person to test positive in the state and the first case of human-to-human transmission in the U.S., health officials announced. The man’s wife, who had traveled to Wuhan, China - the epicenter of the recent outbreak - was diagnosed with coronavirus last week.
* The Question: How concerned are you about the coronavirus? Explain.
Three decades ago, it became the first casino to open in Illinois. Now, it’s the first to apply to open a sportsbook.
Illinois Gaming Board officials on Thursday announced the Argosy Casino Alton submitted its sports betting license application Jan. 23, putting it first in line to offer sports betting once state regulators finish vetting bids and hand out licenses.
Two other casinos applied the next day: the Grand Victoria in Elgin and Rivers in Des Plaines. […]
All 10 existing Illinois casinos and three horse racing tracks are eligible to apply, plus up to seven large sports venues such as the United Center and Guaranteed Rate Field, and, eventually, the holders of six new casino licenses that also were created as part of the state gaming expansion signed into law last summer by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
They won’t be ready by Super Bowl Sunday, but it’s a good bet the first Illinois sports books will be open by March Madness. […]
Rep. Mike Zalewski, a Riverside Democrat who helped craft the state’s sports betting legislation, said the three casinos that have filed their applications “have the best chance” of being ready for the Final Four.
“There’s a healthy dose of optimism that they’ll be able to make a bet by March Madness,” Zalewski said Thursday. “That’s a reasonable goal given where we are on the timeline.”
Rivers Casino got a head start on the process when it opened BetRivers SportsBar in December, with 32 leather lounge chairs, a 47-foot-wide video wall topped by a sports ticker and five betting windows.
The complex sports gambling bill drew attention from all corners of the political world—calling for slots at O’Hare and Midway airports, along with horse racetracks.
Paging Mayor Lightfoot. Paging Mayor Lightfoot. Those still-untapped revenues could help spruce up your airports.
Haven Gaming Attorney Scott Sypolt said any time there are changes, they must go before the gaming board. Sypolt called the changes “minor tweaks” and said their goal is to “include as many minorities and women as possible” for the Danville casino ownership.
He said it’s “mostly middle-aged, balding white men” who own casinos.
Sypolt, who is Native American, said the goal is to really get to 25 percent women and minority equity owners. They are bringing in more minorities in terms of vendors and the equity piece, he said. […]
Another issue across the border in Indiana is the race to see if a Danville or Terre Haute, Ind., casino opens first, but the Indiana casino has been put on hold due to an investigation into a firm that worked with Terre Haute’s chosen casino operator possibly violating campaign finance rules.
State gambling regulators on Thursday dealt Matteson village officials a fresh hand in their bid for a coveted new south suburban casino license after residents in neighboring Frankfort railed against the initial proposed location.
The development team vying for the license will instead aim to set up shop at the shuttered Lincoln Mall at Lincoln Highway and Cicero Avenue in Matteson, after the Illinois Gaming Board voted to allow them to amend the application they submitted three months ago.
South Suburban Development LLC, which is led by Hinsdale investor Rob Miller and championed by Matteson Village President Sheila Chalmers-Currin, had initially pitched a site on an undeveloped plot near Lincoln and Harlem Avenue.
But after the Matteson group submitted an application for its $300 million proposal to the Gaming Board in October, several neighboring community groups and the Frankfort Township Board publicly slammed the casino plan for being “directly adjacent to two schools and three densely populated residential subdivisions.” A junior high school and elementary are each within about a mile of Harlem and Lincoln.
* Related…
* Rockford mayor says he won’t accept donations from Hard Rock investors: Cutting off a lucrative source of funding could be a challenge if McNamara seeks re-election and has a strong challenger. But a mayor’s decision to decline contributions from large-money donors is a calculated risk, said Scot Schraufnagel, chairman of Northern Illinois University’s political science department.
Williams: How do you justify that to the, the accountant or the bursar or the CEO or the CFO? All of the people that are in a big multi million dollar company like that? How do you say ‘I need $60,000 in $20 bills, and I need another $50,000. Oh, and I need $250,000.’ I mean, where’s the accounting on that if nothing else? And so those people are just as criminal as the state lawmakers, right?
McQueary: I mean, that’s a good question. How do you acquire, how do you come up with $60,000 cash or like you’re saying. I mean, one of the bribes of $15,000. The companies will say probably that, you know, they were doing lobby activity, they were hiring these people as consultants. That’s always a popular reason to throw people on your payroll.
It turns out, SafeSpeed’s money was apparently not used to bribe Sandoval. The SafeSpeed person was using the federal government’s money. From the Sandoval plea agreement…
The parties further agree, pursuant to Title 18, United States Code, Section 3583(d), that the sentence to be imposed by the Court shall include, as a condition of any term of supervised release or probation imposed in this case, a requirement that defendant repay the United States $70,000 as compensation for government funds that defendant received during the investigation of the case. Defendant will receive credit for any money collected by the government prior to sentencing, including approximately $3,150 seized by the government on or about September 24, 2019 and $18,120 seized by the government on or about October 17, 2019. [Emphasis added.]
In late 2014, then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval was angry with transportation officials.
One of his biggest campaign contributors, asphalt magnate Michael Vondra, had cornered the market on recycled roof shingles for use in road projects. But questions were mounting about whether the eco-friendly pavement material was causing roads to crack more quickly, and the Illinois Department of Transportation tightened the rules over its use.
Sandoval, the chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, sent a threatening letter to the acting head of IDOT criticizing the move. The senator accused her of breaking the law, told her he’d haul her in for a public hearing and suggested he would request an ethics investigation. […]
The letter, which the Tribune obtained through an open records request, was part of Sandoval’s long-running effort to increase the use of recycled asphalt shingles. He also pushed legislation that could potentially help Vondra’s business and pressed IDOT officials behind the scenes to meet with his political patron. […]
As Vondra’s two dozen or so shingle recycling plants began sprouting across the state, Sandoval passed a 2013 measure that, in effect, helped stock them. The law forbid dumping shingles in any landfill within 25 miles of a shingle recycling operation.
State Sen. Don Harmon, the new Illinois Senate president, expressed bewilderment when asked why documents from his clout-heavy law firm were among the items seized by federal agents from then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval’s office in September.
“I have no idea,” Harmon said recently.
But he offered a theory.
“It’s no secret that former Senator Sandoval and I did not get along, and he had a habit of keeping files on his political opponents,” the Oak Park Democrat said. “For all I know, that’s what it could be.” […]
In response to subsequent questions about his departure from the firm, Harmon told the Sun-Times by email: “No salary. No deferred compensation. No exit package. We are working out the details, but it will be soon. I was always an employee and never had an ownership stake in the firm.”
I’m sure Kimberly Lightford’s supporters are absolutely thrilled that the paper waited until after the Senate President’s election to run that hit. /s
* The Tribune’s McQueary was also asked if she was surprised about Sandoval’s admitted crimes…
It’s a surprise to me too. I mean, even though I’ve been covering government for as long as I have, this is someone who was taking cash bribes after the raid at at Burke’s office, after everyone knows the feds are kind of sniffing around, after their questions about who might be wearing a wire. He is still doing these transactions with this person for SafeSpeed who was undercover for [the feds]. […]
I do not think that most lawmakers are taking cash bribes in restaurant parking lots. I really don’t. I think a lot of the corruption in Illinois is more in the fabric of the way we just transact business. And it looks more like what Ed Burke is accused of doing. ‘Give my law business some business, and then I’ll be nice on these different types of legislation that you’re looking for.’
Agreed.
* And former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer was just a wee bit hyperbolic with the Tribune…
“If someone had a conversation with Sandoval about anything other than the weather, you’d better get a lawyer,” Cramer said of public officials who have to be jittery about what’s next, especially those who wore wires, as state Sen. Terry Link, a Waukegan Democrat, reportedly did. “If you talked to Link about anything other than the Cubs, grab yourself a lawyer, because sooner or later two FBI agents are going to come knocking.”
A master of understatement, that one.
Also, as alluded to in comments, Link is a White Sox fan.
Friday, Jan 31, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
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State Sen. Cristina Castro, D-Elgin, likened the corruption cases to recent sexual harassment scandals in Springfield, saying both flourish because those who know about them say nothing.
“There’s a culture down here of a cone of silence,” she said.
State Rep. Grant Wehrli, R-Naperville, said lawmakers who do speak out are often punished.
“Leaders abuse the legislative process to silence those that dissent in having the integrity to call out what it is going on around here,” Wehrli said. “I take it as a form of overt bullying, and it needs to stop.”
If people see something, or know of something, they should be reporting it. I sit on the Legislative Ethics Commission, and when you talk about sexual harassment, we worked really tirelessly to help people understand and feel comfortable to report that type of behavior. We should be doing this with this as well. […]
With everything that happened with Sen. Sandoval, you see the comments in different areas that say, ‘Oh yes this is true, this happened to me, he bullied me here he shook me down for this.’ It goes back to it shouldn’t take the FBI to come and handle the situation, right? It should be that folks should step forward and report those instances right away. And that’s how you stop the unethical behavior, that’s how you change the culture. […]
Lobbyists sometimes also operate in a cone of silence and they should come forward and report improper activity.
The “comments” she was talking about, I’m told, are some of this site’s reader comments about Sandoval’s behavior.
I serve in the minority party and I’ve been a vocal critic of the process around here. And in return for that, what has happened is I’ve had bills that just don’t go anywhere. I mean, there’s an abuse of the legislative process to silence those that dissent and have the integrity to call out what is going on around here. I take that as a form of overt bullying and it needs to stop. So when you talk about calling it out, yes, I 100 percent agree, but every legislator knows that if they do that there are certain repercussions that are going to happen. That is unacceptable, it’s unethical and that needs to stop.
During his State of the State address Wednesday, Pritzker said there should be better disclosure of possible conflicts of interest lawmakers have, and consequences for voting on bills that pose a conflict.
“Disclosure of conflicts of interest and punishment for breaching them must be included in any ethics package for us to truly clean up government,” Pritzker said.
But several witnesses who testified Thursday said the current statement of economic interests disclosure form is anemic, and lawmakers who submit false information face no punishment. In addition, those who vote on bills that pose a conflict are rarely sanctioned.
“We do have a very casual attitude about conflicts of interest,” Better Government Association Policy Director Marie Dillon said.
When a legislator must take official action on a legislative matter as to which he has a conflict situation created by a personal, family, or client legislative interest, he should consider the possibility of eliminating the interest creating the conflict situation. If that is not feasible, he should consider the possibility of abstaining from such official action. In making his decision as to abstention, the following factors should be considered:
a. whether a substantial threat to his independence of judgment has been created by the conflict situation;
b. the effect of his participation on public confidence in the integrity of the legislature;
c. whether his participation is likely to have any significant effect on the disposition of the matter;
d. the need for his particular contribution, such as special knowledge of the subject matter, to the effective functioning of the legislature.
He need not abstain if he decides to participate in a manner contrary to the economic interest which creates the conflict situation.
If he does abstain, he should disclose that fact to his respective legislative body. […]
When, despite the existence of a conflict situation, a legislator chooses to take official action on a matter, he should serve the public interest, and not the interest of any person.
It’s easy enough to fix. Make those guidelines mandatory, and require lawmakers to disclose when they have a conflict of interest and abstain from voting. And add penalties for violations, as the original commission intended.
But it’s not that easy, as Dillon herself found when she was unable to cogently answer specific questions from House Majority Leader Greg Harris about how farmers, for instance, should be voting in the General Assembly.
Another panelist dismissed Leader Harris’ farmer question as a “hypothetical,” but Harris countered that this wasn’t a hypothetical in the least - it is an everyday issue and is as concrete as an issue can get for legislators.
It wasn’t until Common Cause Illinois’ Georgia Logothetis spoke that the “right” answer was finally heard from the panel of testifiers. To paraphrase, if legislation benefits agriculture in general, then farmers can vote on it. If the legislation benefits a farmer-legislator in particular, then the legislator can’t vote on it. In other words, statewide farmland property tax relief? Go for it. Property tax relief focused on farmland in your section of your township? Run away.
Even so, the reformers inexplicably offered no specific statutory language to address this serious problem.
“How do you not come with a copy of a model law from X state and say, ‘Here, let’s try this, it works there,’” marveled one baffled supporter.
Many, many legislators want reform, but they’re absolutely not going to pass any regulatory laws that will unexpectedly or unfairly trip them up. “We’ll know it when we see it,” is, to them, a recipe for disaster. They’ll pass broad, draconian laws and let the executive branch sort out the rules for everyone else, but not when their own necks are on the line.
Nope, nope, nope. One wrong vote and poof goes the career. Ain’t gonna do it.
Most legislators want reform, but they also don’t want to pay the ultimate price or be eternally dragged through the mud by over-zealous, nitpicky investigators because they were too busy, ill-advised or incompetent to properly fill out some form that nobody will read until somebody gets raided by the feds.
Instead, they want “crystal clear” language to make sure that honest legislators always know where the line is, as Sen. Dan McConchie (R-) explained during yesterday’s hearing. The reformers should’ve brought specific proposed language with them. Instead, some couldn’t even answer basic questions.
Nicholas Birdsong, a policy specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said conflict of interest laws vary widely among the states. He said 35 states require lawmakers to recuse themselves from votes in which they have a conflict of interest and 13 states, including Illinois, leave the decision up to the lawmaker.
In Tennessee, where the rules are different in each chamber, the state House has a mandatory recusal policy and the state Senate has a discretionary policy. Utah, Birdsong said, requires legislators to vote if they are present, regardless of whether they have a conflict.
Birdsong said some states have adopted the idea that lawmakers should be able to vote, even if they have a conflict of interest, because “legislators are elected and they’re obligated to vote according to the will of their constituents regardless of whether or not it serves or hurts their interest, and so having these sort of mandatory recusal rules essentially limits their ability to do their jobs.”
When former state senator Martin Sandoval pleaded guilty to bribery charges, and named the red light camera company Safespeed as the source of the dirty money, he caused aftershocks across the political landscape in Illinois.
ABC 7 confronted House Republican Leader Jim Durkin about the $7,500 he’d received from Safespeed.
“I don’t want that money, it will be sent off to a charity in my area, and we will be doing that very soon,” Durkin said. “But in hindsight you don’t know, you expect that people are going to play within the rules, and acting a lawful manner, but I will not accept that tainted money.”
In January 2018, Safespeed made a $5,000 donation to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.
Raoul said on Thursday, “I haven’t decided what charity yet, but it is my intent to donate the contribution to charity.”
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was evasive on her plans for the $7,500 she’s received from Safespeed.
Click here to see all campaign contributions from the company, which should probably start laying low.
…Adding… Leader Durkin’s spokesperson said his committee mailed two checks before the State of the State address to Special Olympics Illinois and The Home 2 Home Project.
Following last year’s historically successful state fair season which generated record-breaking revenue and the highest grandstand attendance in years, Illinois State Fair Manager Kevin Gordon announced six of the eleven concerts for the 2020 Illinois State Fair today.
“We are excited to announce the first wave of concerts today. The lineup reflects a diverse mix of genres from both established artists and emerging stars that will appeal to a wide variety of fans,” Gordon said. “Toby Keith’s mix of country anthems and party tunes are the summer staple we can build the rest of this year’s lineup around. And when that lineup already includes popular hip-hop artist and actor LL Cool J, country’s newest stars like Kane Brown and Chris Young, and alternative rock powerhouses Puddle of Mudd and Fuel, we are well on our way to having another record-breaking State Fair lineup.”
Country music megastar Toby Keith brings his ‘Country Comes to Town’ tour to the 2020 Illinois State Fair on Sunday night, August 16, capping a full day of special activities for our State’s veterans on Veterans Day at the Fair. Fittingly, Craig Morgan — a U.S. Army veteran himself – will serve as Keith’s opening act.
Keith, a multi-platinum selling singer and songwriter, has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide during a career spanning 25 years. He has had 61 singles on Billboard’s Country Charts including 20 number one hit songs. Hits like “How Do You Like Me Now?!,” “Should’ve Been A Cowboy,” and “As Good As I Once Was” have made Keith a can’t miss country concert across the nation. In addition, in what Keith himself describes as his most rewarding experiences, his 11 USO Tours to date have enhanced the lives of nearly 256,000 troops and military families in 18 countries with more than 285 events. He was recognized for his commitment with the Spirit of the USO Award (2014).
Veteran Craig Morgan is best known for his hit single “That’s What I Love About Sunday,” but has had six songs – including “International Harvester” and “Bonfire” –
reach the Billboard Chart’s top ten.
Country’s rising superstars also are slated to hit the Illinois Lottery Grandstand stage this year with Kane Brown headlining the concert on the Fair’s first full day, Friday, August 14 and Chris Young performing on Tuesday night, August 18.
Debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Kane Brown’s newest album “Experiment” was released in November 2018. The acclaimed singer/songwriter, who first rose to stardom on social media, released his first full-length album, self-titled “Kane Brown,” in December 2016. The hit single “What Ifs” came from the album, and in October 2017, Brown became the first artist to have simultaneous number ones on all five main Billboard country charts.
Following a record year on the road in 2019 playing to more than 400,000 fans on his headlining tour, multi-platinum entertainer Chris Young will bring his arena/amphitheater “Town Ain’t Big Enough World Tour 2020” to Springfield on Tuesday, Aug. 18. Chris will be joined by multi-platinum performer Scotty McCreery as direct support along with Payton Smith.
In what is sure to be one of the Fair’s most hopping nights at the Grandstand, Wednesday, August 19, features award-winning rapper, actor and producer LL Cool J. A two-time Grammy Award winner, LL Cool J is best known for hip-hop favorites “Mama Said Knock You Out”, “Going Back to Cali”, and “Hey Lover”. In 2010, VH1 placed him on their “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” list and in 2017, LL Cool J became the first rapper to be honored with the Kennedy Center Honors.
Yet another genre will be the highlight of Thursday night, August 20, as legendary post-grunge alternative rock artists Puddle of Mudd and special guests Fuel, as well as Trapt and Tantric, will slash their way through their electric sets. The Fair is offering special pricing for this show, with all tickets – including seats in the Grandstand and standing room only on the Track – costing only $12 each.
With Puddle of Mudd having sold more than seven million albums to date and having a string of number one mainstream rock hits, including “Control” and “She Hates Me” off their triple-platinum album “Come Clean;” and with Fuel having their massive hit single “Shimmer,” and their second album hitting multi-platinum driven by the singles “Innocent” and “Hemorrhage”, which remained at #1 for ten weeks, this is sure to be one rocking night at the Fair with the additional support from Trapt and Tantric.
At an even greater bargain, The Traveling Salvation Show will play a FREE show on Senior Night at the Fair, August 17. The Neil Diamond Tribute returns this year after inclement weather pushed up the start time of last year’s scheduled performance which caused many disappointed fans to miss this concert. This up-tempo, rock-oriented tribute to the legendary Neil Diamond will have everyone dancing and singing along to all of Diamond’s classic hits.
Tickets will go on sale Saturday, April 25 during the Illinois State Fair’s “Corndog Kickoff” special event. Stay tuned for additional details about both the Corndog Kickoff and ticket sales for the Illinois Lottery Grandstand concerts at the 2020 Illinois State Fair.
The sweeping racketeering indictment of Chicago Ald. Edward Burke isn’t expected to go to trial until at least next year as defense lawyers say federal prosecutors have yet to turn over a “vast” amount of undercover recordings, according to a court filing Thursday
Prosecutors said in the joint status report that they intend to ask U.S. District Judge Robert Dow at a hearing Tuesday to set a trial date for “early 2021” for Burke and his two co-defendants.
Prosecutors said they’ve turned over to the defense more than 44,000 pages of records so far, as well as additional electronic discovery and numerous boxes of hard evidence. In the coming months, prosecutors said, they will be turning over additional evidence pertaining to cooperating witnesses in the case.
That report says prosecutors have continued to turn over evidence as recently as Nov. 5 to lawyers for Burke and his two co-defendants, Peter Andrews and Charles Cui. So far, it says the feds have turned over more than 100 discs, more than 44,000 pages and “several boxes of hard copy material.”
However, there is additional evidence prosecutors don’t want to turn over until six months before the trial, according to the report. Defense attorneys say they understand the additional material to be “vast, and is made up in large part of recorded conversations.” The defense attorneys want the material sooner.
Material related to Burke turned over so far has been “comprised of documents collected from various City Departments, subpoenaed from third parties, and seized from the 14th Ward Office and Committee on Finance” as well as “voluminous recordings,” the report says.
Lawyers for the defendants say they are still reviewing the material. The case is set for a hearing Tuesday.
* The governor was asked today about the fact that he didn’t mention remap reform in his State of the State speech. As we’ve discussed, several Republicans and reformers were upset at the omission. His reply…
Well, as you know the remap process occurs, we have a census that’s taking place. And I want to remind everybody here, students, everybody in the room and everybody you know, that that census is taking place and that you need to take part in it, needed to encourage your neighbors and your friends and everybody else to take part in it. It’s very important for the state for the future of the state, for making sure that we get the proper number of congressional districts and the proper federal funding that comes from the number of people who are counted in the census, lots of undercounted people 10 years ago, we don’t want that to happen again. So that’s my first entreaty to all of you.
I, you know, ran a campaign in which I talked a lot about making sure that we had a fair mapping process, that we ended up with a fair map. And and I really believe that I think we should have compact contiguous districts as best we can.
Not to get into the weeds of it. As you know, when you start on a map, you start with the Supreme Court’s rulings around civil rights, you have to draw those districts first. And then you have to draw everything else around them. So it starts out a little bit gerrymandered by the Supreme Court. And appropriately so, if you ask me, but then, you know, we can have compact contiguous districts.
So look, I am going to veto any unfair map that gets presented to me. And yeah, and I believe that we’ll be able to take care of it that way. Thank you.
Discuss.
…Adding… This is the question I asked all gubernatorial candidates in March of 2018…
This requires only a simple yes or no response: Will you pledge as governor to veto any state legislative redistricting map proposal that is in any way drafted or created by legislators, political party leaders and/or their staffs or allies? The exception, of course, would be the final official draft by LRB.
Yes, I will pledge to veto. We should amend the constitution to create an independent commission to draw legislative maps, but in the meantime, I would urge Democrats and Republicans to agree to an independent commission to handle creating a new legislative map. That designated body should reflect the gender, racial, and geographic diversity of the state and look to preserve the Voting Rights Act decisions to ensure racial and language minorities are fully represented in the electoral process.
Provides that, after January 1, 2020, no non-home rule unit within the counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, Madison, McHenry, St. Clair, and Will may enact or continue to enforce an ordinance for an automated traffic law enforcement system to enforce violations of intersection traffic control signals
It is a mainstay of fairs and carnivals around the country: sink a ping pong ball into a fish bowl and win the goldfish swimming inside.
But if a bill in the Illinois Senate becomes law, carnivals would no longer be allowed to award live animals — such as fish, reptiles and hermit crabs — as prizes.
Illinois’ Humane Care for Animals Act already prohibits rabbits, ducklings and chicks as carnival prizes, but Senate Bill 2472 would expand the law’s protections to all animals — including the goldfish that winners can take home in a plastic bag.
Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton, a Democrat from Western Springs, introduced the bill with backing from the Humane Society of the United States.
“This isn’t just a ‘goldfish bill,’” she said. “Carnivals across the country give out other animals as prizes, specifically iguanas and other exotic reptiles.”
An Illinois bill would allow drivers with certain medical conditions to tint all of their vehicle’s window surfaces.
Under existing law, it’s illegal to apply window tint to the driver side window or entire front windshield unless the primary operator of the vehicle has a condition such as albinism that makes sun exposure damaging to the skin. The law specifically prohibits issuing full surface window tint for “any condition, such as light sensitivity, for which protection from the direct rays of the sun can be adequately obtained by the use of sunglasses or other eye protective devices.”
State Rep. Maurice West’s legislation would allow for all window surfaces to be tinted if a driver has a medical condition, such light sensitivity due to brain trauma, that results in photophobia.
“They will get a special license plate that will tell our law enforcement that they are approved through the Secretary of State’s office,” he said.
Changes all statutory references of alderman and aldermen to alderperson and alderpersons. Changes all statutory references of congressman to congressperson.
Members of the Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reform sought input on what could have been done to prevent recent high-profile conflicts of interest and what more must be done to hold lawmakers accountable at a hearing Thursday.
“We’re here to make systemic change, close loopholes, and root out opportunities for corrupt behavior that have been identified in recent media reports and investigations,” said state Rep. Greg Harris, who co-chairs the commission. “Yesterday, the governor talked about restoring public trust and cleaning up government. He specifically talked about dealing with disclosures of conflicts of interest, revolving door laws, and limitations on lobbying. Looking around the room as the governor talked, I was happy to see he got a rousing ovation for these three items. From the House, from the Senate, from Democrats, from Republicans. That’s a very good sign for our work. But these proposals are only as good as their details, and it is our job to fill in those details.”
Brad Cole of the Illinois Municipal League and former Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon encouraged members to update and improve the financial interest disclosures legislators are currently required to file. Cole reiterated the need for more complete lobbyist disclosures, including disclosure of lobbyists being paid to influence local governments. Aside from state government, only a handful of Illinois’ nearly 7,000 units of government have any kind of disclosure requirements for those seeking to influence decision-making by public officials.
“People deserve to know that their lawmakers are voting in their communities’ best interests, not in their own interest,” said Sen. Elgie Sims, co-chair of the commission. “We look forward to continuing to engage with experts and stakeholders in these critical discussions.”
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Those who would shout doom and gloom might be loud – using social media bots and paid hacks to advance their false notions – but they are not many. You see, we’re wresting the public conversation in Illinois back from people concerned with one thing and one thing only — predicting total disaster, spending hundreds of millions of dollars promoting it, and then doing everything in their power to make it happen.
I’m here to tell the carnival barkers, the doomsayers, the paid professional critics – the State of our State is growing stronger each day.
* The Question: Can he succeed in “wresting the public conversation” back? Make sure to explain your answer. Thanks.
Employees of Secretary of State Jesse White who are members of the Illinois Federation of Teachers have taken a strike authorization vote, but will continue negotiating for the time being. […]
The contract issue involves two locals of the IFT representing employees in White’s office. One is a group of 98 information systems employees and the other is a group of 157 workers with a variety of job titles in the state archives, state library, personnel, securities and elsewhere. […]
Taylor also said IT workers in the secretary of state’s office are paid less than comparable jobs in other areas of state government which leads to job turnover.
“We really don’t want the office to be the stepping ground for employees to move on to other offices or agencies,” she said.
Other job titles in the secretary of state’s office also pay less than comparable positions elsewhere, she said. Taylor said there is also an issue about not filling job vacancies which puts pressure on the remaining workers. She said the IT local has seen a 20 percent reduction in membership since 2010.
Underpaid and grumbling employees in woefully short-staffed offices. And we wonder why there was an undetected automatic voter registration programming glitch? I mean, what could possibly go wrong? [Hat tip to a commenter.]
In his State of the State address Wednesday, Pritzker said he wanted Illinois to adopt a revolving door prohibition to prevent elected officials from retiring one day and then immediately lobbying their former colleagues.
Harmon offered his support for the idea.
“I’ve long been troubled by the appearance of someone serving as a member of the General Assembly on Friday and becoming a lobbyist on Monday. That’s a problem and one we should tackle,” Harmon said. “You shouldn’t be a lawmaker one day and a lobbyist the next.”
But [Gov. Pritzker] said more needs to be done in the coming year, especially in promoting racial diversity and social equity.
“Bit by bit, inch by inch, I am working hard to reverse the harm that has been done to people and communities that have been left behind over many generations by government policies and elected officials who were content to simply ignore them,” Pritzker said.
Those remarks received high praise from members of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus. But they also said they intend to make sure Pritzker follows through on the commitment, especially in the distribution of jobs created through the capital plan.
“There are no other communities in the state of Illinois that have been ignored like the black communities,” Rep. La Shawn K. Ford, a Chicago Democrat, said during a black caucus news conference after Pritzker’s speech. “So we are grateful that we voted for almost a $50 billion capital bill to rebuild Illinois. … That means that this caucus will stand strong to work with the governor’s administration and urge our constituents to urge the governor to rebuild our black communities.”
In its response, the Legislative Black Caucus also pushed for ethics reforms, more money for infrastructure and education, and criminal justice reform.
“The governor talked about corruption, but the greatest corruption in the state of Illinois is the communities where black people live,” said state Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago. “They’re deteriorating, schools are falling apart, roads are crumbling, bridges are crumbling and homeowners are struggling.”
The governor pledged to work on new clean energy legislation, but that pledge came with a warning.
“I’m not going to sign an energy bill written by the utility companies,” he said, a clear warning to utility giant Commonwealth Edison which has had past support in the Illinois Statehouse.
Illinois Environmental Council Executive Director Jen Walling…
At a time when the Trump administration is taking major steps backward on climate, Governor Pritzker’s commitment to signing community-driven energy legislation — not a bill written by big utility companies — is a refreshing and much-needed departure from the old way of doing things.
We are grateful to have the governor as a partner in the fight to combat the climate crisis, which may be the greatest challenge of our time. The Clean Energy Jobs Act, or CEJA, will make Illinois a national leader in addressing climate change by setting us on a course to eliminate carbon from the electricity sector by 2030 and achieve 100% clean energy by 2050. We look forward to working with Governor Pritzker and the bill sponsors to get this done this session.
The speech on Wednesday and Pritzker’s budget address next month will serve as reminders to voters of the importance of the tax proposal, said Dora Lee, director of research at Belle Haven Investments, which manages about $11 billion of municipal assets including Illinois debt.
“The upcoming income tax referendum could potentially be a turning point for the state and to the governor’s pension reform plan,” Lee said. “It’s vital that he continues to make the case to voters over the next several months.”
Illinois’ top fiscal and investment officers touted some of the economic policy initiatives laid out by Gov. JB Pritzker in his State of the State speech Wednesday and stressed the importance of continuing to balance the budget.
The credit ratings agencies’ view that Illinois has better financial stability than it did a year ago means “more dollars are going into our roads and bridges and our schools than into Wall Street bankers’ pockets,” Treasurer Michael Frerichs said.
Ethics reforms will ensure state officials are “always looking for the opportunity to stand up for taxpayers and to be an advocate for them,” Comptroller Susana Mendoza said. Her office is backing measures to address the current “corrupt” red light camera system and eliminate the “exit bonus” some lawmakers get when they leave office.
And while it is “good to see a governor talking about positive aspects of our state,” Frerichs said, “it’s clear we have financial issues that will need to be addressed.”
Theresa Eagleson, Director
Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services
Marc Smith, Director
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
Re: MCO Daily Horror Story
Dear Directors Smith and Eagleson:
I am at a loss as to how Illinois can, in good conscious, precipitously move forward on Saturday with the [managed care organization] scheme for 19,000 former youth in care who have been adopted or are in subsidized guardianship, many of whom have complex medical needs. Everyone knows this is a train wreck waiting to happen. The many and complex problems have been well documented. I’ve now sent you the plights of 9 families involving 15 special needs children.
Yesterday we received a call from an employee at IlliniCare. As you know, IlliniCare is the default MCO for the 19,000 children formerly in care. The utter dysfunction, chaos, and confusion within IlliniCare are well documented in the 6 prior letters I’ve sent you over the past two weeks.
The IlliniCare employee contacted us because she is alarmed by the dysfunctional way the MCO transfer is happening and its harmful impact on medical care for our most vulnerable children. Among other alarming concerns, this IlliniCare employee reported:
• Many of the people doing assessments are not qualified. You will recall that I shared in a previous letter that a different IlliniCare worker reported the same problem to us.
• Staff are assigned too many assessments to do them in a competent manner. Staff are pressured to just complete assessments, whether or not they are accurate or complete, for the sake of getting them done to meet a daily quota.
• As a result, assessments are incomplete or inaccurate. Sometimes when a foster parent calls with a problem or question, and a worker looks at the assessment completed on the child, the assessment indicates that the child is healthy when, in fact, the child has special medical needs.
• Basically what staff are doing is copying and pasting template assessments into the system.
• DCFS caseworkers are often not helpful in assisting parents with the MCO process because it’s time consuming and they have so much else to do.
• The IlliniCare phone lines are overwhelmed. Parents cannot get through. This is consistent with what foster parents, adoptive parents, and guardians are telling us.
For all of these reasons, the employee said that if anyone did an audit on the assessments, IlliniCare would fail. I am therefore requesting that DCFS and DHFS conduct a thorough audit of the IlliniCare assessments. I also request that the precipitous dump of the 19,000 former youth in care be delayed until the audit is complete and we have a handle on IlliniCare’s ability to competently manage the transfer without disruption in medical care for the children. I have copied Heidi Dalenberg and urge that the ACLU and Judge Brown oversee this audit.
The governor talked about reducing property taxes by allowing local government consolidation. But that wasn’t enough for state Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia.
“My takeaway was, something that stuck out to me, is he talked about Twitter more than he talked about property taxes,” Anderson said. “Which is a little frustrating.”
Veteran state Sen. Dale Righter, a Mattoon Republican who has announced he won’t seek re-election this year, said he was disappointed in how little Pritzker spoke about the need for ethics reform.
“The governor who is the leader of a party that is drowning in corruption devoted four paragraphs of an 80-paragraph speech to corruption,” Righter said in an interview. “He spent twice as much time talking about the flags outside the Thompson Center than he did about corruption within his own party. He missed a huge opportunity here.”
The lobbying reforms could be a tough sell, many members work on the side as lawyers and lobbyists.
State Sen. Dale Righter (R-Matoon) said he’ll believe it when he sees it.
“If the governor wants this to happen in Springfield he’s going to have to do more than give it the brief lip service like he did in this speech,” Righter said.
Durkin said he was disappointed that Pritzker didn’t spend time explaining how he plans to grow the state’s economy.
“There should have been more emphasis on that,” Durkin said. “We have to do everything we can to make Illinois a more (economically) viable state, for employers to make investments.”
Pritzker spent more than half of the speech recounting the significant accomplishments from last year, a lengthy list that included a balanced budget, recreational marijuana, a capital plan, expanded gambling and more.
Durkin said he was disappointed Pritzker did not mention redistricting reform, saying the governor previously said he supports a non-partisan map for the state’s legislative districts, but so far has not done anything to back up his pledge. […]
Illinois Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, too, said Pritzker should have focused more on a fair redistricting process and should take the lead in helping Democrats “change how we map things.”
“That will root out ultimate corruption in Illinois,” Brady said on the public television program “Illinois Lawmakers.”
“There are an awful lot of us who think the scourge begins when lawmakers draw the lines and pick their own districts. That’s how it enters the bloodstream,” said Madeleine Doubek, executive director of Change Illinois, a nonprofit dedicated to cleaning up government.
Doubek praised Pritzker for tackling an issue head-on that so many politicos have avoided, but she added: “If we’re truly going to fix things, we need to start with fair maps.”
“I truly believe that the ability the Democratic Party has to draw this supermajority gerrymandered map is the root of corruption,” Brady said. “They’ve given themselves too much power, and that power leads to corruption.”
Pritzker has said he’ll veto any partisan map that reaches his desk, but Republicans say that’s too subjective and that the Democratic majority in the legislature could override that veto.
* I told subscribers about this a couple of days ago…
Attorney General Kwame Raoul today joined Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford and Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring in filing a lawsuit to ensure the federal government acknowledges that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is now the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. The ERA guarantees equal rights for all Americans regardless of their sex.
Raoul and the attorneys general filed a lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Archivist of the United States. In the lawsuit, the attorneys general ask the court to direct the archivist to perform his statutory duty to certify the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“Equal rights are not contingent upon a person’s gender or sex, which is why I was proud to vote in support of the Equal Rights Amendment as an Illinois state senator, and I am committed to continuing to fight for the ERA to be recognized as the 28th Amendment,” Raoul said. “It is past time that we ensure women across the country have the constitutional equality to which they are entitled, and I look forward to my daughter — who aspires to study law — being able to one day, when sworn into the bar, take an oath to promise to support a constitution that recognizes her right to equality under the law.”
“I am so proud that Virginia was the 38th and final state needed to ratify the ERA, finally pushing us over the edge and enshrining gender equality in our nation’s founding document. For too long, women have not been afforded the same protections as men under the Constitution,” Herring said. “We now have this historic opportunity to ensure that equal rights regardless of sex are added to the Constitution. Virginians have made it clear that it is their will that the ERA be ratified and I now have the great honor of continuing that fight to make sure that gender equality is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing equality for generations of women to come.”
“Women have always been endowed with equal rights, even though our country has wrongly failed to recognize them,” Ford said. “These rights are entitled to their rightful place in the Constitution, and I am committed to ensuring they are permanently written into our nation’s history and its future. Advancing civil rights is one of my Administration’s main areas of focus. The gravity of this movement should not be underplayed—today we are advocating for women’s rights here in Nevada and all over the country, and we are taking an essential stride towards inclusivity.”
The ERA states that “[e]quality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Though an equal rights amendment was proposed as early as 1923, the ERA was not adopted by Congress until 1972, when it passed with broad, bipartisan support. By 1977, 35 states had ratified the ERA. Illinois ratified the ERA in 2018. When combined with Nevada’s ratification in 2017 and Virginia’s ratification vote just this Monday, a total of 38 states have now ratified the ERA, passing the constitutional threshold required for the ERA to become the 28th Amendment. With the ERA, the U.S. Constitution provides an explicit guarantee of protection against discrimination based on sex. These protections are forever enshrined in the Constitution.
“This country is ready for Constitutional equality for women,” Carol Jenkins, Co-President and CEO of the ERA Coalition/Fund for Women’s Equality said. “Our research shows that 94 percent of all Americans believe in it. We have worked tirelessly for nearly 100 years. This movement cannot be stopped. The Constitution must be amended and it will be.”
In the complaint, Raoul and the attorneys general explain that under the text of the Constitution, an amendment approved by Congress automatically becomes a valid part of the Constitution as soon as it is ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states. The complaint further asserts that the U.S. Archivist does not have any discretionary authority over which amendments are added to the Constitution. As a result, the Archivist is legally obligated to recognize that the ERA has become part of the Constitution. Raoul and the attorneys general are asking the court to order the Archivist to do his duty and certify that the ERA, as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.
Mary Miller, Candidate for Congress in the 15th District, has landed a major endorsement from Illinois Farm Bureau ACTIVATOR.
Representatives from the county Farm Bureaus throughout the 15th Congressional District met Monday with the candidates running for Congress and ended the day by endorsing Mary Miller for Congress.
Illinois Farm Bureau ACTIVATOR is pleased to endorse Mary Miller in the Republican primary. She’s a strong conservative who understands challenges facing farmers and rural Illinois and is clearly ready to roll up her sleeves and fight for our members and for all citizens of the state’s largest congressional district,” said 15th District ACTIVATOR committee chairman Gale Koelling, president of Washington County Farm Bureau.
Miller said she is looking forward to working with the Illinois Farm Bureau to advocate for farmers throughout the 15th District.
“I am and always will be a friend of Agriculture,” Miller told the local Farm Bureau representatives. “I am in this race to win. I can assure you that I will work with you to promote Illinois agriculture when I get to Congress.”
Mary Miller is running for Congress in the 15th Congressional District, which includes all of 29 counties and parts of four counties. The District is almost 52 percent rural.
This is retiring US Rep. John Shimkus’ district. Miller is the spouse of Rep. Chris Miller (R-Oakland), an Eastern Bloc member. She faces the vice president of the Altamont School Board Kerry Wolff, physician Charles Ellington and Vermilion County Treasurer Darren Duncan.
* Duncan released his own endorsements to counter Miller’s Farm Bureau nod…
Conservative Vermilion County Treasurer Darren Duncan, a seventh-generation farmer, has been endorsed by two of the top House Republican Ag Committee members for Illinois 15th Congressional District.
Former House Agriculture Committee Chairman and current Ranking Member Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX) and the Rural America Counts PAC, chaired by Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) announced their endorsements of Darren Duncan Tuesday.
“As a farmer, a Christian, and a conservative, I’m confident Darren Duncan will be a great leader for central and southern Illinois farm families in the House of Representatives,” said Ranking Member Conaway. “As I’ve worked on many of the most difficult agriculture issues in my career in the House, I know we would be benefitted by a lifelong farmer who puts principle ahead of politics.”
The Rural America Counts PAC is chaired by Arkansas Congressman Rick Crawford, who serves on the House Agriculture Committee and has played a key role in the passage of two Farm Bills, serving on Conference Committees both in 2008 and 2018.
“I represent an area nearly as rural as the one Darren Duncan is seeking to represent, and I know that he will be a strong, principled leader who will govern with common sense in Washington,” said Crawford. “I want more farmers helping create agriculture policy in the House, and I know a lifelong farmer brings common sense, experience, and the values we need to be a champion for farmers and rural communities in the House of Representatives.”
Duncan says he’s honored to have the support of top agriculture supporters in the House of Representatives.
“I’ve spent my whole life farming, and to imagine I would have the opportunity to run for Congress and have the support of some of the top leaders in agriculture is beyond my expectations,” said Duncan. “I’m thankful to Ranking Member Conaway and Representative Crawford for having confidence in a farm boy from Illinois to want me in the House of Representatives to help them advance the cause of farmers and rural Illinois.”
* I’m not sure I totally get the uproar here. If you were 16 years old and would turn 17 before this year’s primary, you’d be eligible to vote in the primary as long as you turn 18 by the general election. So, starting the registration process for 16-year-old kids doesn’t seem to be a giant scandal. That being said, the ISBE was well within its rights to block the registration process from starting…
The Secretary of State’s office allowed approximately 4,700 16-year-olds to begin the voter registration process under the state’s automatic voter registration program, officials said Wednesday. […]
Board of Elections spokesperson Matt Dietrich told The Daily line that the board had noticed a large number of voter registration applications for 16-year-olds were flowing in from the Secretary of State’s office, and had sent letters to roughly 4,700 of those teenagers letting them know their applications to register to vote would not be processed.
Secretary of State officials told the board Wednesday that the agency’s system now prevents a voter application from being forwarded to the Board of Elections if a person checks “no” on either the question about their citizenship or if they are 18 years or older after a recent programming fix.
While a recent law allows for 17-year-olds to vote in Illinois primary elections if they will be 18 by the general election, Dietrich said there’s no way a 16-year-old should ever be registered.
“There’s no getting around that,” Dietrich said. “That’s why we were kicking [the 16-year-olds] out.”
Some board members said they were worried about a potential “chilling effect” on young people voting if the very first interaction they had with a voting authority was a letter saying they were too young to vote.
The SoS and the Board of Elections needs a much better communications process.
* Senate GOP Leader Bill Brady responds…
The Illinois Secretary of State needs to suspend the AVR program until all glitches, known and unknown, are fixed. There clearly also needs to be an independent investigation into how these glitches occurred, why they were unreported and what can be done to ensure this never happens again. Our vote is our most cherished right in a democracy, and even just one illegal vote can tarnish the credibility of the entire system.
…Adding… A spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office says they will no longer send those applications to the board of elections.
Facebook will pay $550 million to Illinois users to settle allegations that its facial tagging feature violated their privacy rights.
The settlement — which could amount to a couple of hundred dollars for each user who is part of the class-action settlement — stems from a federal lawsuit filed in Illinois nearly five years ago that alleges the social media giant violated a state law protecting residents’ biometric information. Biometric information can include data from facial, fingerprint and iris scans.
Illinois has one of the strictest biometric privacy laws in the nation. The 2008 law mandates that companies collecting such information obtain prior consent from consumers, detailing how they’ll use it and how long it will be kept. The law also allows private citizens to sue.
A federal court judge in San Francisco, where the lawsuit was moved, must approve the settlement. Those eligible to claim a portion of the settlement will be notified, said attorney Jay Edelson, whose firm represents some of the consumers.
Edelson’s firm is well-known for suing California tech companies and has expanded to Illinois. From the firm’s website…
The next steps in this case will be the parties finalizing the settlement then presenting it to the Court and asking the Court to grant preliminary approval and direct notice to be sent to the Class. If you are a Class Member, you should get direct notice with additional details about the settlement and your specific options in the coming weeks. At this point, there is nothing you need to do.
The Illinois suit was filed in 2015, alleging that Facebook collected facial recognition data on images of users in the state without disclosure, in contravention of the state’s 2008 Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Similar suits were filed against Shutterfly, Snapchat, and Google.
Facebook pushed back in 2016, saying that facial recognition processing didn’t count as biometric data, and that anyway Illinois law didn’t apply to it, a California company. The judge rejected these arguments with flair, saying the definition of biometric was “cramped” and the assertion of Facebook’s immunity would be “a complete negation” of Illinois law in this context. […]
2019 took the case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where Facebook was again rebuffed; the court concluded that “the development of face template using facial-recognition technology without consent (as alleged here) invades an individual’s private affairs and concrete interests. Similar conduct is actionable at common law.”
Facebook’s request for a rehearing en banc, which is to say with the full complement of judges there present, was unanimously denied two months later.
At last, after some 5 years of this, Facebook decided to settle, a representative told TechCrunch, “as it was in the best interest of our community and our shareholders to move past this matter.” Obviously it admits to no wrongdoing.
Honest members of the General Assembly from both sides of the aisle have some good ideas, and so do I.
It’s time to end the practice of legislators serving as paid lobbyists. In fact it’s time to end the for-profit influence peddling among all elected officials at every level of government in Illinois. Disclosure of conflicts of interest and punishment for breaching them must be included in any ethics package for us to truly clean up government. Most states have a revolving door provision for legislators, and it’s time for Illinois to join them. Elected officials shouldn’t be allowed to retire and immediately start lobbying their former colleagues. It’s wrong, and it’s got to stop.
* The Question: Your thoughts on these specific proposals?
Speaker Michael J. Madigan released the following statement Wednesday following Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s State of the State Address.
“I want to thank Governor Pritzker for offering a straightforward assessment of the state of our state. For the first time in a long time, we come into a legislative session with the opportunity to build on success. Last spring, we worked across the aisle to balance the budget; we enacted reforms backed by the state’s leading business groups that will help small and medium-sized employers grow; we created innovative new job training programs; we fought to rein in the cost of health care and prescription drugs; we took critical steps toward property tax relief; and we began the process of replacing Illinois’ unfair tax system with one that provides relief for the middle class while making millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share.
“There is more work to be done though. Building on this progress means we must continue to make the tough decisions to balance the budget and pay down old bills, while ensuring critical services like our schools, senior care, career and vocational education, domestic violence shelters and breast cancer screenings are funded.
“While we have seen major steps forward, we have also seen the good work of the many honest members of this Legislature be overshadowed too often by the wrongdoing of individuals who have sought to put themselves first. It’s clear that we must take significant steps within the coming weeks to restore confidence in state government. But let’s be clear: bad actors will always try to game the system and break the law. We must commit to sending the clearest sign the game is over and every step will be taken to prosecute.
“House Democrats stand ready to work with Governor Pritzker and our Republican colleagues to balance our budgets, enact lobbying and ethics reforms, make health care more affordable, expand educational opportunities to build an economy that works for all, and continue building a stronger Illinois.”
* Baise…
Statement attributable to Vote No on the Blank Check Amendment Chairman Greg Baise:
“Barely 24 hours after another legislator pleaded guilty to corruption, J.B. Pritzker wants the people of Illinois to trust Springfield politicians with more of their hard earned money.
“The governor’s message is clear. He and the Springfield insiders refuse to stop spending and now demand a blank check from middle class taxpayers.
“The people of Illinois already know taxes are too high, and this new costly income tax will just send more families and small business owners fleeing a state whose crushing tax burden is already unmatched anywhere else in the United States.”
* Chamber…
Illinois Chamber President and CEO Todd Maisch released the following statement on Governor Pritzke’s State of the State Address. “Governor Pritzker presented a positive view of his first year in office, much of which the Chamber agrees with. The Governor embraced pro-growth tax incentives - including the Chamber’s data center incentive legislation - championed by pro-business legislators. He has committed to a professional economic development program, greater investment in workforce development and expansion of access to advanced technology for small businesses.
While bipartisan gains are welcomed by the employer community, we need to remind policymakers of the negative impacts of misguided policies enacted in 2019. Small businesses will struggle mightily with the burden of a $15 minimum wage. The wage is unfairly set at $15 regardless of geography or wage rates that vary greatly in our diverse state. Also, the proposed progressive income tax eliminates our current, true Fair Tax. It is already having a chilling effect on employers’ willingness to invest in Illinois.
A focus on our greatest job producers, small business, must be a priority in 2020 to balance the negative effects of 2019 policies. The Governor has demonstrated a good understanding of issues that impact small businesses, but still has pursued detrimental legislation. 2020 represents an opportunity to offer them more support with bipartisan policies to move our state forward.”
* IMA…
“Manufacturers across Illinois have demonstrated a commitment to working with Governor Pritzker and lawmakers to enact policies that move our state forward, create jobs and invest in our workforce. Last year, we worked together to enact an historic infrastructure bill, invest in apprenticeships, and commit to research & development which is the lifeblood of manufacturing innovation,” said Mark Denzler, president & CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association. “We look forward to partnering with the Governor to further strengthen our education system and reduce the overwhelming property tax burden on Illinois businesses and families. However, moving to a graduated income tax system and hiking energy costs on businesses that create jobs and drive our economy is the wrong approach.”
* CFL…
Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter released the following statement in response to Gov. Pritzker’s State of the State Address:
“Since Gov. Pritzker took office last year, the people of Illinois have witnessed a dramatic turnaround. From the approval of a bipartisan balanced budget to passage of the desperately needed capital plan, this Administration has found ways to work constructively with legislators to move the needle for working families. Because of our collective efforts over the past year, the working class of Illinois will see higher pay, more worker protections, expanded healthcare, and a dramatically revitalized state infrastructure. These are big wins for a state that was in desperate need of real leadership from its Governor’s office.
“Clearly, however, there is more work to be done. There are still too many workers struggling to make ends meet and too many families looking outside of Illinois for opportunity. I am encouraged to see Gov. Pritzker propose real solutions to tackle our long-term challenges head-on in today’s speech. From instituting the Fair Tax to passing a balanced budget to rebuilding the hollowed-out shell of state government, the Chicago labor movement stands ready to work with this Administration to continue the momentum of positive change we’ve built over the last 12 months.
“The state of our state is stronger than it has been in years, and together we will make 2020 another year of incredible progress for Illinois workers.”
The following are the Governor’s remarks as prepared for delivery:
Speaker Madigan, President Harmon, Leader Durkin, Leader Brady, Lieutenant Governor Stratton, my fellow constitutional officers, members of the General Assembly, distinguished guests and people of Illinois –
I want to begin by thanking the First Lady of Illinois, my wife, MK – With quiet strength and with little fanfare, you’ve worked hard over the last year to make this state more inclusive and welcoming to all, from DuQuoin to Springfield to Chicago, caring about and advocating for some of our state’s most vulnerable people. I want to say thank you for making some important aspects of Illinois shine once again.
To now former Senate President John Cullerton: I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for your many years of service to our state. You have always fought for your constituents and for all the people of Illinois with a clear devotion, with a vision to advance this state as a national leader in healthcare, education and civil rights, and with a willingness to listen and seek compromise at just the right moments. John, you’ve brought kindness and humor in even the toughest days in the General Assembly, and everyone on both sides of the aisle in this chamber will miss you as you embark on a new chapter of your life with your beloved wife Pam, who has made so many personal sacrifices over the last 41 years, as many unsung heroic spouses do. On behalf of a grateful state, we thank you both.
And in turn, I look forward to working with our new Senate President, a friend and ally for more than a quarter century and a long-time champion of the Fair Tax amendment, Don Harmon.
My friends, it has been a little over a year since I was inaugurated Governor. I have a real abiding love for the work I do every day… and a deep respect for how fundamentally humbling it is to serve in this office.
Illinois is a state with a grand history of profound impact on our nation and our world. We’ve sent four transformative Presidents to the White House. We were the first state to ratify two of the most important amendments to the U.S. Constitution, one abolishing slavery and another granting women the right to vote. The first cell phone was invented here. So was the first television remote control and the first widely used internet browser.
What all these things have in common is that they were the product of the talented and forward-thinking people of our state.
Illinois is great because our people are great.
That’s why it’s been important to me as governor to listen – truly to hear people from across our state who come with passion and perspective that’s different than my own. Keeping an open door policy means that I’ve been rewarded with a wealth of constructive feedback, advice and help from Democrats and Republicans alike – an indication that perhaps, here in Illinois, we are not as divided in our values and goals as some would have you believe.
Our state has challenges. We inherited a mess that was years in the making, and it had bipartisan roots. On day one it was clear to me that we had a government infrastructure that had withered from neglect and a lack of public trust. At times, it seemed like even the most basic things – like getting a government-issued iPad to work – were hard to do.
But one thing I know in life is that if you want to make profound change in a broken system, you have to do the next good thing that needs to get done. Big problems become big problems when you let small problems sit.
Let me share one small example: The story of the Thompson Center flags.
Sometime last summer, a watchful Twitter citizen noticed that the flags flying outside the state government building in Chicago, the James R. Thompson Center, were hanging a bit haphazardly from their rods, dangling by their last threads.
I have to admit, I didn’t notice it. In fact no one among the 2,000 people working there seemed to notice it – maybe because you could spend all day noticing things dangling by their last threads in the Thompson Center if you tried.
So we did a little research and found that the flags used to be serviced by a small, fourth generation family-owned business in Chicago that has tended Illinois’ flags for a century’s worth of parades, state visits, and sports championships.
But during the last few years – you guessed it – the flag company stopped getting paid. Like so many other small businesses in Illinois that were caught up in the budget impasse, this company did their best, but the Thompson Center flags ended up falling into disrepair.
Once the dangling flags were brought to my attention, we contacted the company and heard their story. We immediately paid them what they were owed, and the next weekend they came with a huge ladder truck and fixed it so our state’s flags flew straight once again.
As it turns out, fixing those flags made people really happy. In fact it’s the most pleased Twitter has ever been with me. I think it’s because this simple story about a flag at the Thompson Center is a metaphor for where state government has been – and where it’s going. And it reminded me that - we have a choice about how we tell our story. We could spend our time reliving every past failure, every bygone insult and fight – or we could fix things and be ardent voices on behalf of an agenda of opportunity in the years ahead. The last year has shown what we can do when we roll up our sleeves and work together to restore stability to our state.
Those who would shout doom and gloom might be loud – using social media bots and paid hacks to advance their false notions – but they are not many. You see, we’re wresting the public conversation in Illinois back from people concerned with one thing and one thing only — predicting total disaster, spending hundreds of millions of dollars promoting it, and then doing everything in their power to make it happen.
I’m here to tell the carnival barkers, the doomsayers, the paid professional critics – the State of our State is growing stronger each day.
Don’t believe me? Consider these facts…
Today the Illinois economy supports 6.2 million jobs. This is the most jobs on record for our state, and we now have the lowest unemployment rate in history. Last year, for the first time in nearly 20 years, every major region in our state was growing simultaneously – and even more remarkably, communities in southern Illinois like Carbondale have led that growth. Over the past year, Illinois has reduced its unemployment rate more than ALL of the top twenty most populated states in the nation — and more than our Midwestern peers.
237 Illinois businesses from all over the state made Inc Magazine’s List of Fastest Growing Businesses in the Nation, including companies in Columbia and Rock Island, St. Charles and O’Fallon, Taylorville and Chicago.
Student applications to Illinois’ public universities increased last fall for the first time in many years. Illinois is the second-largest producer of computer science degrees in the nation, accounting for nearly 10 percent of all computer science degrees awarded in the entire United States.
Our great state has an awful lot that’s going right.
And just look at what a difference a year can make.
We passed a bipartisan, truly balanced budget on time, with renewed investments in job creation, cradle to career education, and physical and mental healthcare. Even the credit rating agencies and financial analysts described a “distinct improvement” in our fiscal stability, and investors took notice and lowered our state’s borrowing rate.
A balanced budget is an important accomplishment, but it’s more than just about fiscal discipline. It’s a moral document that reflects our values as a state.
Thirteen years ago, Bonnie Brackett and her family opened the doors on a new family business: Heartland Kids Early Learning Center in Marion, Illinois. Over the years, hundreds of Williamson County’s babies and toddlers have gone through her program, which is one of the top-ranked in the state.
But as with hundreds of childcare providers across Illinois and more than ten thousand parents, the budget crisis became Bonnie’s crisis and disrupted families across the area. At one point, Bonnie’s staff dropped to a low of 14 teachers from a high of 21.
Bonnie, one of only three childcare centers in Marion, almost had to close her doors.
But this year, with the increase in state funding for childcare that we announced in December, Bonnie is not only able to stay in business but has a plan for teacher training, rebuilding enrollment, classroom improvements, and even beginning the process of hiring more staff. Now, thanks to our bipartisan investments, dozens more parents in Marion can go to work, and Bonnie can get back to the business that matters most to her: caring for the children of Southern Illinois.
Bonnie Brackett is here today, and we want to thank her for all she does for her community, for our kids, and for our state.
For the first time in a decade, we passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill. Rebuild Illinois will create and support 500,000 jobs in the state as we fix our aging and crumbling roads and bridges, bring broadband to parts of the state that are internet deserts, as well as modernize our hospitals, our community centers, our state police facilities, our universities and colleges – all of the things that keep us going and growing.
Over the last several months I’ve had the pleasure of attending many local events celebrating the jobs and projects that Rebuild Illinois is bringing to our communities. Most times those events are attended by legislators and mayors and local officials of both political parties, and it’s clear that when we stand together in front of the public and talk about what we are doing together to literally rebuild bridges and roads and childcare centers and schools – we restore a little bit of the public’s trust that has been lost in government institutions at all levels in the past few decades.
Rebuild Illinois is about more than just roads, bridges and universities; it’s about jobs: middle class careers with wages and benefits, the kind of jobs that help you raise a family. And together, we did more to make these jobs more inclusive and diverse, by investing in the Illinois Works program to recruit new construction apprentices and set strong goals for our public works projects to include diverse employees.
With me today is Reggie Marizetts Junior, a first-year apprentice with Laborers’ Local 165 in Peoria. Reggie fell in love with hands-on work early in his life, and it’s his apprenticeship where he is learning all the skills to succeed not just now, but for decades to come. Reggie intends to become a full-time journeyman and later to pursue his lifelong dream: opening a father-son construction company with his dad. Reggie, please stand so we can cheer for your hard work and your bright future.
Over the next six years, in addition to our expansion of apprenticeships, Rebuild Illinois will transform our infrastructure – even as we create a lot more opportunities for Reggie and thousands of young people just like him, with steady work that will help make sure that our economy works for everyone.
Last year we made enormous strides toward equality and opportunity when Democrats and Republicans came together to legalize adult-use cannabis with the most equity-centric legislation in the nation which will result in 63,000 new jobs, and new opportunities for entrepreneurs, especially those from communities that have been left behind. It gives us a chance to collect tax revenue from the residents of Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa and Indiana, and most importantly, we’re giving a second chance to hundreds of thousands of people who had a low level cannabis conviction or arrest on their record.
The bipartisan License to Work Act that I signed two weeks ago ended the practice of revoking driver’s licenses for unpaid parking tickets and fines – because often the only way someone has to pay their parking ticket is if they can travel to work. We restored driving privileges to more than 50,000 people.
When public policy makes it a crime to be poor, it ends up costing us all. The situation you may be born into, the struggles you may be born with — even the struggles you never expected to be your own — should not be allowed to write your entire future.
We’ve also begun the long work of tackling our pension problems. In addition to expanding our state pension buyout program, in the fall veto session we accomplished something that eluded governors and General Assemblies for almost 75 years by consolidating 650 downstate and suburban first responder pension systems – which will alleviate local property tax burdens and strengthen the funds that offer a decent retirement to our police and firefighters.
Maybe more significantly – the bill we passed was supported by both a leading progressive Representative, Will Guzzardi, AND an outspoken conservative Senator, Dan McConchie.
All I can say is, anything is possible.
We did big things to help people. Real people who live and work here every day. We raised the minimum wage, advanced equal pay for women and minorities, provided millions of Illinoisans relief from high interest on consumer debt, and expanded health care to tens of thousands more people across the state.
We are reaffirming that our most important commitments are to our children and their education. Mark my words, Illinois will be the best state in the nation to raise a young family. Today, 20,000 more kids are getting childcare, and thousands more are going to preschool. To address our state’s shortage of teachers, we raised the minimum teacher salary so we can retain educators in Illinois, and we made it more attractive for out-of-state teachers to move here. We made it easier for high school graduates to get a skilled wage by expanding vocational training and career and technical education for the first time in a decade. And after years of decline, we are turning around university student enrollment by making college more affordable, expanding scholarships to an additional 10,000 college-bound students – and this fall, more than half of the families in our state will be eligible for free tuition at the University of Illinois.
We made healthcare more available – and more affordable.
Working with Senator Andy Manar, we capped out-of-pocket insulin costs at $100 for a 30-day supply so that no one in Illinois has to decide between buying food and paying for the medicine they need to stay alive.
We expanded insurance coverage for mammograms and reproductive health. And we protected people who need treatment for life-threatening allergic reactions.
Overall, the number of opioid related deaths are declining.
We diminished dependence on opioids by reforming the medical cannabis program to cover chronic pain conditions, and we’re focused on using evidence-based practices to reduce racial disparities as we continue to battle the opioid crisis.
In the face of the resurgences of measles, mumps and other diseases, we restored federal funding of our state immunization program — which was shut down under the previous administration.
We raised the age to buy cigarettes and vaping products to 21, so we can reduce youth tobacco use.
We stood up for human rights and civil rights when we put Donald Trump on notice that Illinois will not be complicit in his shameful and draconian immigration policies.
We opted in — to welcoming refugees to Illinois – continuing a proud tradition in this state that stretches back to my great grandparents, welcomed here a century ago after fleeing anti-Semitism in Europe.
We invested in public safety by expanding the number of new Illinois State Troopers. And we’re building a new state police forensics lab so we can solve crimes faster and address the backlog of DNA testing of rape evidence — because crime victims shouldn’t have to wait for justice.
We stopped bad-mouthing the state and started passing laws that make Illinois more attractive for businesses and jobs. Working across the aisle, we brought tax relief for 300,000 small businesses through the phase out of the corporate franchise tax. And we laid the groundwork for new high-paying tech jobs by opening new business incubators, by incentivizing the building of new data centers, and by investing $100 million in a University of Illinois and University of Chicago partnership that will make Illinois the quantum computing capital of the world.
Jobs and businesses are coming to this state because we are investing in the things that have always made us great: a skilled workforce, modern infrastructure, great public schools, top research universities, a robust agricultural sector, and a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship literally built into the steel frames of our skyscrapers – themselves a symbol of Illinois’ ambition and belief in the future.
By almost every measure, over the past year we’ve improved the financial wellbeing, health, education and safety of the residents of Illinois – and we did it working together.
And now we have to work together to confront a scourge that has been plaguing our political system for far too long. We must root out the purveyors of greed and corruption — in both parties — whose presence infects the bloodstream of government. It’s no longer enough to sit idle while under-the-table deals, extortion, or bribery persist. Protecting that culture or tolerating it is no longer acceptable. We must take urgent action to restore the public’s trust in our government. That’s why we need to pass real, lasting ethics reform this legislative session.
Honest members of the General Assembly from both sides of the aisle have some good ideas, and so do I.
It’s time to end the practice of legislators serving as paid lobbyists. In fact it’s time to end the for-profit influence peddling among all elected officials at every level of government in Illinois. Disclosure of conflicts of interest and punishment for breaching them must be included in any ethics package for us to truly clean up government. Most states have a revolving door provision for legislators, and it’s time for Illinois to join them. Elected officials shouldn’t be allowed to retire and immediately start lobbying their former colleagues. It’s wrong, and it’s got to stop.
There are many more ethics reforms that must be addressed this spring, and I expect the legislature’s bipartisan ethics commission to issue its report in the next 8 weeks. Restoring the public’s trust is of paramount importance. Let’s not let the well-connected and well-protected work the system while the interests of ordinary citizens are forgotten. There is too much that needs to be accomplished to lift up all the people of Illinois.
The overwhelming majority of people involved with government and public policy and politics here in Illinois truly just want what is best for this state. From legislators to citizen activists to reporters – they chisel away at intractable problems and put their shoulders into making real, lasting institutional change. They don’t get distracted or dejected – whether they are battling poverty, fighting for increased education funding, or fixing the unglamorous but essential problems of our state’s IT infrastructure. Illinois is full of people who love our state and are willing to work earnestly every day to fight for her.
Which is why we have to be committed to the hard work of changing another aspect of the political culture in this state that has too often rewarded a go-along-to-get-along attitude at the expense of truly ethical conduct.
When I took office a year ago, I hired people who came from all walks of life, all different backgrounds – who were diverse in gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, geography and life experience and whose only loyalty is to good ideas and good results. And I took heat for it from some who had been here a very long time. Many were incredulous that I wasn’t just automatically hiring the same old faces that get jobs year in and year out.
A commitment to diversity and inclusion is not just a talking point for me, and I hope that the past year has proven that. I have an administration that looks far more like the state we represent than any that has come before it. I have elevated talented people who have been overlooked for far too long, and our state is doing better because of it.
Change needs to happen. And much of this change needs to happen outside of the scope of legislation. It’s about how we, as public officials, conduct ourselves in private that also matters. Common sense and basic decency need to prevail in the everyday interactions that make government work. People need to treat disgusting suggestions with disgust. The old patronage system needs to die…finally and completely. The input of women and people of color need to be treated as essential to decision making – not as some token show of diversity.
Bit by bit, inch by inch, I am working hard to reverse the harm that has been done to people and communities that have been left behind over many generations by government policies and elected officials who were content to simply ignore them. I remind myself every day that I have obligations not just to the current people of Illinois, but to the many people who preceded us who were discriminated against, harmed, treated as lesser, and forgotten – lasting damage that echoes through too many communities today. We are obligated to make our future more equitable and fair.
I came into this office with the message that I am committed to doing things differently in my administration. A lot of folks didn’t believe me a year ago. Now you can see how far we can come in a year – even when work still remains.
It’s time for us to recommit ourselves to the hard work of bringing prosperity and opportunity to all communities in Illinois through a fairer tax system, job creation, education and job training programs, child care and pre-school, and a focus on building essential tools of success such as high-speed Internet in all corners of our state.
This spring, working with legislators, we will begin the long path toward a fairer criminal justice system. That starts with phasing out cash bail and following many of the recommendations made by the bipartisan criminal justice reform commission created by my predecessor, most of whose ideas were never adopted because of the rancor and dysfunction.
Our spring agenda must also address the pressing issue of adopting new clean energy legislation that reduces carbon pollution, promotes renewable energy, and accelerates electrification of our transportation sector. We saw the effects of climate change right here in Illinois last year with a polar vortex, devastating floods, record lake levels, and emergency declarations in more than a third of Illinois’ counties.
Urgent action is needed — but let me be clear, the old ways of negotiating energy legislation are over. It’s time to put consumers and climate first. I’m not going to sign an energy bill written by the utility companies.
Property taxes in Illinois are simply too high. That’s why it’s time to put the best ideas to work from both sides of the aisle. Local governments continue to max out their levies even when they don’t need to. There are perverse incentives in state law that encourage that. We can change the law to support local governments and lower property taxes. And with nearly 7,000 units of government in Illinois, it’s time to empower local taxpayers to consolidate or eliminate them. These changes, along with our landmark pension reform that consolidated police and firefighter pensions, can make a serious dent in property taxes.
Today in Illinois we are governing with our heads and our hearts. In a time when cynicism has too often become the rule rather than the exception, we’re proving that we really can make progress. We’re showing the rest of the nation what pragmatic progressive leadership looks like – and putting our state back on the side of working families.
A year ago, I shared a story at my Inauguration. It was also about flags – about how a couple in Barrington, Illinois, had their Pride flag stolen from their backyard and replaced with an American flag.
Bigots wrapping themselves in a veil of patriotism are an increasingly familiar sight these days, and it’s a dangerous trend.
But the community fought back. A neighbor, Kim Filian, upon hearing about the incident, put a Pride flag in her yard in solidarity. And then suddenly lots of people were asking for them, and she was giving out Pride flags to everyone in Barrington – they were popping up in yards all over the neighborhood.
Kim told the news at the time: “Frankly, I’ve grown weary of this, of all this hate. And I gotta say, it just seemed like there was one thing that I could do that I had control of.”
I’ve thought a lot about that story this past year. It reminds me of the fundamental goodness and decency of the people who live here in Illinois and about how hard they will fight for each other.
It reminds me that we all ought to think a little like Kim Filian every day – to remember the things we have control of.
So this past June, I asked Secretary of State Jesse White to fly a Pride flag over the Illinois state capitol for the first time in our history. After all, we have a choice about how we tell our story, and I want our Illinois story to be one of hope, inclusion, opportunity and kindness. I want it to be inspired every day by the fundamental goodness of the people who live and work here and who struggle so hard for a fair shot.
Those are good ideals to live by. Those are good ideals to govern by. Let’s all try to remember them in the year ahead.
New Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, announced his leadership team Tuesday on the first day of the 2020 legislative session.
Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, will remain the chamber’s majority leader, while Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, will become an assistant majority leader and president pro tempore — a position once held by Harmon under former President John Cullerton before he changed the caucus’ leadership structure.
Sen. Laura Murphy, D-Des Plaines, will serve in another newly created position — that of deputy majority leader.
Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, previously a majority caucus whip, will ascend to assistant majority leader as well. She joins Sens. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, Iris Martinez, D-Chicago, and Tony Munoz, D-Chicago, who all already held assistant majority leader positions and will retain them.
Sen. Terry Link (D-Waukegan) is no longer an Assistant Majority Leader. He’s expected to retire in the coming days. Go read the rest.
Illinois House Republicans presented their 2020 legislative agenda Tuesday. Their main areas of focus are property tax relief, legislative redistricting and ethics reform.
House Minority Leader Jim Durkin says “these are interesting times” as Democrats have worked with Republicans on a balanced budget and pro-business laws. He says work on property taxes and fair maps should continue with bipartisan efforts. […]
Rep. Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville) says Democrats should work with their colleagues across the aisle to hold themselves accountable.
“Let’s move these pieces of legislation - revolving door prohibition, no lobbyist legislators, and expanding the statement of economic interest to the level of judges,” Wehrli said. “These are things that we all agree upon, bipartisan support. Let’s get them done.”
Illinois lawmakers want to allow for abused cats and dogs to have legal representation in court.
Proposed legislation filed by State Rep. Allen Skillicorn, R-East Dundee, would have the Illinois Department of Natural Resources create a county-by-county database of legal professionals, from lawyers to paralegals to experts on animal abuse, willing to step in on a dog or cat’s behalf when a person is facing punishment for neglecting or abusing them.
“You have abusers of animals that effectively get off with little to no punishment,” Skillicorn said. “No one’s really looking out for animals that could be physically abused.”
The bill is limited to dogs and cats. The motion to appoint a special legal aid for the animal may be made by any party in the court.
[Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield], along with state Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, introduced legislation to create a compact among states so that member states won’t offer tax breaks to companies in exchange for corporate investment.
“If we’re going to claim that small businesses are the engine of our economy, we need to give them the level playing field to succeed,” Villivalam said.
So far, seven other states have introduced similar legislation. New York Assemblyman Ron T. Kim introduced legislation in that state in October 2019. In Florida, state Sen. Anna Eskamani filed the “Interstate Compact Agreement to Phase Out Corporate Giveaways” Act last month. Republican State Rep. Bill Plett of New Hampshire filed House Bill 1132, which was scheduled to be heard in committee Tuesday. Senate Bill 121 was filed in West Virginia earlier this month, with Iowa and Maryland following suit. […]
Kansas and Missouri enacted a truce via executive orders that they would not offer each other’s businesses tax incentives to get them to cross the border.
The Illinois bill is structured in a way that would not mean Illinois would be alone in ending the use of incentives to attract businesses, Morgan said. It would only take effect when both states have enacted the legislation. It wouldn’t end the practice of giving out incentives for businesses already in Illinois either.
Senate Bill 2502 and House Bill 4138 would enter Illinois into the Phase Out Corporate Giveaways Interstate Compact. That would involve an agreement not to use tax incentives or grants to lure a specific company away from any other compact member for the purposes of relocating a corporate headquarters, manufacturing facility, office space or other retail development.
That prohibition, however, would not apply to tax incentives that are available generally to all businesses such as workforce development grants. It also would not apply to company-specific incentives offered by local governments or incentives offered to companies already located in Illinois.
The bills also call for establishing a national board that would make recommendations about how to phase out other kinds of corporate incentives.
Although the initiative is being sponsored by two Democrats, it also has the backing of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, which was founded in 2004 by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.
* Former state Sen. Martin Sandoval pleads guilty to tax fraud, bribery charges: As part of a plea agreement, Sandoval has agreed to fully and truthfully cooperate in any matter in which he is called upon by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Sandoval admitted in the plea agreement that he solicited and accepted financial and other benefits from an individual affiliated with a Chicago-area red-light camera company, in return for Sandoval using his official position as a state senator to block legislation harmful to the red-light-camera industry, the release said. Sandoval also admitted he engaged in corrupt activities with other public officials and accepted money from other individuals in return for using his official position to attempt to benefit those individuals and their business interests. Sandoval admitted accepting more than $250,000 in bribes as part of criminal activity that involved more than five participants, officials said.
* Ex-Sen. Martin Sandoval said he was going ‘balls to the walls’ for red-light camera company for thousands in bribes: Sandoval could be seen wiping his face with his hands before the judge took the bench, and he only spoke when questioned by the judge. At one point, he seemed to inadvertently reveal the identity of SafeSpeed, which had been referred to in court records only as “Company A.” “I accepted money in exchange for the use of my office as state senator to help SafeSpeed — Company A,” Sandoval told the judge.
* Ex-state Sen. Martin Sandoval charged with bribery in red-light camera scheme: A 2017 Chicago Tribune investigation documented how Sandoval intervened on behalf of SafeSpeed to push state transportation officials to change their stance and allow the company’s cameras to be installed at the relatively safe intersection of Illinois Route 83 and 22nd Street in Oakbrook Terrace. The push came even though the Illinois Department of Transportation’s policies required that cameras target dangerous corners to improve safety.
* Who will Sandoval take down with him?: In total, he got $70,000 in payments from an red-light company that is not identified in the charges. Which leaves the question of where the other $180,000 in bribes Sandoval admitted to came from.
* Former Illinois State Sen. Martin Sandoval Promised To Go ‘Balls To The Wall’ For Red Light Camera Firm SafeSpeed: However, according to a search warrant from a federal raid on Sandoval’s home and offices last September indicates the feds are casting a wide net in their ongoing corruption probe. The warrant revealed federal investigators were seeking evidence related to a vast array of subjects — including SafeSpeed; ComEd; Cook County Commissioner and McCook Village President Jeff Tobolski; businessman Michael Vondra; video gambling company Gold Rush Gaming; several unnamed Illinois Department of Transportation officials; and several asphalt, concrete, and construction companies. Lausch declined to speculate why Sandoval would have taken bribes after so many public officials in Illinois have been convicted of similar crimes.
* Ex-Illinois lawmaker Martin Sandoval charged with red-light camera bribery: Sandoval also was charged with a count of filing a false tax return. It accuses him of misstating his income in a 2017 return when he indicated he made around $125,000. His income “substantially exceeded that amount” and Sandoval knew it, the filing says.
* Former IL Sen. Martin Sandoval pleads guilty to bribery, will assist corruption probe: Sandoval is the fourth Illinois politician to face corruption charges since last January. Last fall, federal agents raided Sandoval’s home and offices. He resigned from the senate after. “It is a very stubborn problem we seem to have here in Illinois,” Lausch said.
* Former State Senator Martin Sandoval pleads guilty in bribery scheme: “I don’t know if I’ve ever been more embarrassed than watching the federal government cart cardboard boxes out of the Capitol. It turned my stomach,” newly elected Senate President Don Harmon said of the FBI’s Sept. 24 raids of Sandoval’s offices.
* Ex-Sen. Martin Sandoval Pleads Guilty to Bribery, Tax Offense: Until his resignation, Sandoval had represented the 11th Senate District - encompassing parts of Chicago’s Southwest Side and the surrounding suburbs - since 2003. Democratic leaders selected freshman state Rep. Celina Villanueva to fill the vacancy earlier this month.
Sources have confirmed former Springfield Mayor Frank Edwards and his wife Cinda, the Sangamon County Coroner, died when a twin engine plane crashed Tuesday afternoon. A third unidentified person also died, along with a dog on board.
The plane had left Florida and stopped for gas in Alabama. It was headed for the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport.
“The tower reported the plane was having trouble on approach due to weather and its instruments,” said Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell. “The plane apparently tried to make a circle around Springfield where they could come in again. At that time is when the tower lost contact with the plane.”
The Piper Aerostar went down in a field and caught fire on the southeast side of Springfield, near Rochester. The crash site, near White Timber Road, was only about 75 feet from a house, said Campbell. No one on the ground was injured, but some residents were evacuated as a precaution.
My deepest sympathies to the family and to the coroner’s staff who had to respond to this tragedy. That must’ve been just horrible.
Residents in the area said they heard “a loud boom” as the plane crashed.
“I was sitting in my chair in the living room. I heard the explosion and thought it was an unusual sound,” said Ward 1 Ald. Chuck Redpath, who lives near the scene. “I ran over to the crash site and the plane was already engulfed when I got there. There were a handful of people, police officers and the fire department, on the scene already. The flames were so high, about 30 feet that no one was getting close. It was a scene you don’t want to see.”
When an Illinois Senate panel met last March to discuss the state’s backlog of untested forensic evidence, there were more than 70 DNA samples in murder cases more than a year old awaiting action from Illinois State Police forensic investigators.
That number is down to 14, representatives of the Illinois State Police told the same Senate Public Health Committee on Tuesday, but they noted the number is still too high and standard wait times for DNA processing are still too long. […]
ISP Director Brendan Kelly said there are several challenges facing the agency, but around October, the completion of DNA tests began outpacing the number of tests coming in for the first time in years.
The average time for processing DNA evidence is about 215 days, or seven months, Kelly said, adding that the goal was to get to six months. That number shrank from 288 days in September.
I would suggest that six months is still too long.
Kelly made a point to include references to increased numbers of qualified staff available because of a positive state budget counteracting previous cuts. He stated completion rates of biology/DNA assignments finally outpaced the incoming evidence with the backlog decreasing 16% since last year.
Regarding 70 unsolved Chicago homicide cases with DNA evidence at the lab discussed in a previous committee meeting, Assistant Deputy Director Woolery stated testing on all but two cases has been completed and the two outstanding cases were awaiting court action.
* US Rep. Adamn Kinzinger penned an op-ed this week about the crucial nuclear energy sector in Illinois. His conclusion…
Unfortunately, due to laws and regulations in Illinois, these federal proposals won’t be enough. The most effective and necessary actions to help save our nuclear fleet can only come from Springfield — from the Governor and General Assembly. If state officials fail to act, our nuclear generating stations will close. If that occurs, we face the prospect of blackouts, unreliable electricity costs, increased gas emissions, and job losses statewide. The lost tax revenue would hurt our communities and make it difficult to pay for things like high quality schools and the critical local services we rely on daily.
Now is the time to act. If you’re concerned about this impending crisis like I am, please contact your representation in Springfield. This is too important of an issue not to act, and quite frankly, the future of Illinois depends on it.
* Kinzinger’s spokesperson sent me a copy of the op-ed and I followed up…
I read that this week and am not clear on what he wants the state to do. Should the state, for instance, approve Exelon’s request for yet another bailout?
Springfield will have to swallow hard and agree to legislation next spring to rescue Exelon’s financially ailing Illinois nuclear fleet despite the legal cloud enveloping the company, or the company will move to close plants. That was the message CEO Chris Crane delivered on a Halloween earnings call with analysts.
For good measure, he added a fourth plant to the three the company already has said are at risk of early closure.
Now in the crosshairs: Exelon’s LaSalle power station in addition to the previously identified Byron, Braidwood and Dresden plants. Two other Illinois nukes, Clinton and Quad Cities, already are benefiting from more than $200 million a year in ratepayer subsidies, enacted in the 2016 Future Energy Jobs Act.
* The reply…
Hi Rich – thanks for reaching out on this. To answer your question, the Congressman understands and appreciates that this issue is complex, fluid, and delicate. Given the consequences associated with retiring any of our Illinois nuclear generating stations early, the Congressman felt it was important to make the public aware of the situation and instill some urgency, but did not feel it would be productive to make hardline, specific demands.
Building on the state’s commitment to address the opioid crisis, Governor Pritzker today signed Executive Order 2020-02 to better address racial disparities in responding to the opioid crisis by establishing the Governor’s Opioid Overdose Prevention and Recovery Steering Committee. Illinois is also dedicating $4.1 million state dollars to expand recovery and prevention services for individuals with opioid use disorder in all corners of the state.
This year, Illinois saw the first decrease in five years in opioid overdose deaths. Despite this decrease, opioid overdose deaths among white residents in Illinois decreased 7% in 2018 while deaths among African Americans increased 9.1% and deaths among Latinos increased by 4.3%.
“This executive order begins an effort to achieve social equity as we work to end the opioid crisis in Illinois,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “We will coordinate innovative, evidence-based approaches in partnership with harm-reduction organizations, establish local systems of care in disproportionately impacted communities, and create a comprehensive statewide opioid plan. I’m equally proud to announce that my administration is increasing our state investment in this fight by over $4 million in this fiscal year. Illinois has made great strides in responding to the opioid crisis that has swept the nation,but our work won’t be done until all our residents have the opportunity to live their most fulfilling lives.”
The Governor’s Office in conjunction with the state’s Opioid Crisis Response Advisory Council will create an Opioid Social Equity Committee to make policy recommendations regarding how to address social and racial disparities in the opioid crisis response. They will also establish local recovery-oriented systems of care councils in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the crisis in order to reach out to and engage individuals in all stages of recovery.
The Executive Order also focuses on harm reduction strategies that promote safer use of opioids to save lives. These strategies will help reduce both the risks of infectious HIV, HCV and Hepatitis A and fatal overdoses. This includes supervised consumption sites, where individuals with opioid use disorder are under the supervision of trained staff with the goal of ensuring the safety of both the individual and the general public.
* Chicago Urban League President & CEO Karen Freeman-Wilson…
The Chicago Urban League is heartened by Governor Pritzker’s Executive Order 2020-02, which will provide $4.1 million in opioid prevention and treatment monies to address the racial disparities in Illinois’ overdose death rates.
In 2017, our Research & Policy Center released “Whitewashed,” a report that detailed the high rates of overdose among African Americans around the country and especially here in Chicago. According to a separate recent study, African Americans are 33 times less likely than whites to be prescribed buprenorphine, a kind of medication-assisted treatment that is used to treat opioid-use disorders and also protects against overdose.
The monies will also provide stipends for doctors to become trained in prescribing buprenorphine and to distribute 50,000 kits of naloxone, the overdose reversal medication, in areas that have extremely high overdose rates. This is much needed funding to address the disproportionate rate of opioid deaths that is devastating African-American communities.
While overdose deaths in Illinois have decreased for the first time in years, in 2018 deaths among African Americans increased by nearly 10% and deaths among Latinos increased by 4.3%. Opioid overdose deaths among white residents in Illinois decreased by 7%. Having the state acknowledge these disparities and create solutions to this public health crisis is a welcome step in a new direction.
Individuals who are dependent on opioids experience trauma at every turn. They are often rejected by their support systems, face countless barriers to accessing healthcare, and often have fewer opportunities to opportunity and employment due to permanent punishments caused by archaic criminal justice practices. Frequent setbacks and personal loss only add to the challenge of achieving recovery and building a rewarding and stable life.
The investments in recovery and prevention services announced along with the Executive Order build upon evidence-based models in Chicago and throughout the state. Distribution of naloxone in areas hard hit by opioid use and overdose will save countless lives. The state’s treatment systems will improvement significantly by prioritizing MAT services in all settings. Heartland Alliance has seen the success of these initiatives are we are thrilled that the state is dedicating some of its scarce resources to these proven models.
Our health and behavioral health safety net systems have a critical responsibility to unravel this knot. Governor Pritzker’s executive order lays the appropriate groundwork, and allows all of us to refocus our efforts on addressing racial inequities and utilizing culturally-sensitive support strategies that work.
