* Not sure really if this is news since we don’t even know if Sen. Warren will be in the race by next March…
Sen. Elizabeth Warren endorsed two House Democratic primary challengers Monday, backing two women taking on sitting lawmakers.
The Massachusetts Democrat is endorsing Marie Newman, who is taking on Rep. Dan Lipinski in Illinois’ 3rd District and immigration lawyer Jessica Cisneros, who is challenging Rep. Henry Cuellar in Texas’ 28th District, Justice Democrats announced in a news release. […]
“At a time when women’s reproductive rights are under attack daily from Republican lawmakers across America, Illinoisans deserve a leader with an unwavering commitment to fighting for women’s access to reproductive health care,” Warren said. “Marie Newman is that leader.”
* I was more interested in Lipinski’s response…
Lipinski, who fended off a Newman in a close primary race in 2018, opposes abortion rights and was the only Democrat in the Illinois congressional delegation to vote against President Obama’s signature health care law, because it required organizations to provide employees with contraception even if that clashed with a religious group’s beliefs.
“Warren has moved from independent fact-based thinking to ideological orthodoxy,” Lipinski said in response to the endorsement. “My opponent has always been an ideologue. She has never focused on how she might serve the people of IL3, but has only parroted the talking points of radicals who would take away everyone’s private health care, eliminate Medicare, and raise the taxes of hard working middle-class families by tens of thousands of dollars.”
Lipinski only won by 2.2 percentage points in 2018, and I kinda doubt that district has gotten more conservative. But we’ll see if Republicans cross over for him. That appears to be his goal here.
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Question of the day
Monday, Sep 9, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Uber Freight…
In three years since launch, Uber Freight has grown to a team of hundreds, with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, and Amsterdam. Now, Uber Freight will be solidifying its investment in Chicago with a new Freight headquarters at The Old Main Post Office, in Chicago’s historic downtown.
Globally, freight is a 3.8 trillion dollar industry ripe for change, and Uber Freight is leading the way towards a more efficient and collaborative freight future. We’ve built cutting-edge technology for both sides of the freight marketplace, unlocking opportunity for shippers, carriers, and their drivers so that they can focus on improving their bottom lines, growing their businesses, and keeping their eyes on the road ahead. We’ve pushed the entire industry towards transparency with features like facility ratings and real-time pricing. And this year, we brought these same values and logistics solutions abroad, expanding operations into Europe.
* Sun-Times…
Promising a more than $200 million annual investment in Chicago, the CEO of Uber Technologies said Monday the city will be central to the company’s bold plans to expand in freight.
Dara Khosrowshahi also said despite Uber’s billion-dollar losses, its balance sheet remains strong and the company will have a high profile in Chicago for years.
“While we are investing aggressively in growth and this Chicago investment is part of that, we are very, very confident that the balance sheet that we have, that the cash we have on our books, and our business, are going to be around for a long time. So I have no doubts in our ability to be here for the next five, 10 or the next 20 years,” he said at a news conference in the lobby of the Old Main Post Office, Uber Freight’s future home. […]
[Several politicians] were there to cheer Uber’s vow to hire 2,000 new employees here over the next three years. By early next year, it expects to occupy 463,000 square feet, covering two floors in the vast Old Main Post Office at 433 W. Van Buren St. Its lease covers 10 years.
* Reuters…
Uber’s full-year revenue for 2018 was $11.3 billion, up 43 percent from the prior year. Its losses before taxes, depreciation and other expenses were $1.8 billion, an improvement over the $2.2 billion loss posted in 2017.
* From the governor…
* The Question: Your thoughts on this?
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Our sorry state
Monday, Sep 9, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Comptroller Susana Mendoza…
After adjusting for inflation and population growth, state funding for human services fell by $4.4 billion between 2002 and 2010. Between fiscal years 2009 and 2014, Illinois cut funding for the largest human service categories by 23%.
And then came the Rauner years.
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Get it together, man
Monday, Sep 9, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Tribune has a story up on more complaints about how the cannabis law is being rolled out by the state…
Companies are required to open their second store in the same designated area as their existing medical dispensary. They must show the state that they have at least applied for local zoning approval, and they can’t open within 1,500 feet of another licensed medical or recreational pot shop.
In guidance issued last month, the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said that secondary site licenses will only be issued after a new store has passed a final state inspection, essentially setting up a first-come, first-served system.
Marijuana companies say this could create a system where businesses pour capital into a new retail store only to be beaten out by another business down the street or around the corner.
“Then you have to find a new site and you did all that work,” said Chris Stone, senior policy adviser and co-owner of Ascend Illinois, which operates medical dispensaries in Springfield and Collinsville. “One of the problems is you’re not going to know about who’s next to you until everybody files their secondary license.”
The state acknowledged the possibility of such conflicts in a memo last month and advised companies to keep an eye on the competition by methods that include filing open-records requests with local zoning boards.
The state can’t put that info online somewhere?
* From that aforementioned IDFPR memo…
We are aware that potential conflicts may arise between applicants for Early Approval Adult Use Dispensing Organization Licenses if they seek locations for their second site dispensaries that are within 1,500 feet of each other. In the event of such a conflict, the applicant who receives a license first will be the one permitted to operate. IDFPR will not grant a license for a secondary site until the applicant’s facility has passed final inspection by the CCS, which will occur after receipt of the necessary zoning approval. IDFPR will also not grant a license if it has granted another dispensing organization a license at a location within 1,500 feet of the applicant’s proposed location. In this situation, IDFPR will require the applicant to amend its application with a different location, and if the applicant does not do so, it will deny the application.
One way to minimize the possibility of such conflicts is for potential applicants to make themselves aware of the proposed locations of other applicants. Such information is typically publicly available as part of a municipality’s zoning approval process. For example, any zoning approval or permit requests filed with the City of Chicago can be obtained from the Department of Planning and Development or Department of Buildings via a FOIA request through the following website: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/narr/foia/foia contacts.html.
The CCS will strive to ensure a fair and transparent process for awarding Early Approval Adult Use Dispensing Organization Licenses. If you have questions for CCS related to applications for Early Approval Adult Use Dispensing Organization Licenses, please submit them via e‐mail to FPR.AdultUseCannabis@illinois.gov. The CCS will not be responding to individual questions at this time and, instead, will address questions by providing additional information about the application process to all eligible applicants at the same time.
By the way, there’s a lot more to this Tribune story, so click here to read the rest.
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Marca Bristo
Monday, Sep 9, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* NY Times…
When she was 23, Marca Bristo, a nurse in Chicago, was sitting with a friend on the shore of Lake Michigan. Her friend’s dog accidentally knocked a prized pair of Ms. Bristo’s shoes into the water and, without a second thought, she dived in to retrieve them.
Striking her head, she broke her neck and was paralyzed from the chest down. In that instant, Ms. Bristo’s life changed forever in ways she could never have anticipated. She lost her job, her health insurance, could no longer use public transportation and had no access to many public places.
But rather than dwell on her misfortune, she became a powerful advocate for people with disabilities, spending her life working to change perceptions and the rules in a world that had traditionally ignored the needs of the disabled. She was a key player in the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, which outlawed discrimination against the nearly 50 million Americans with disabilities.
After a long battle with cancer, Ms. Bristo died on Sunday at 66 in her home in Chicago. Her death was confirmed by her husband, J. Robert Kettlewell.
* CBS 2…
“I lost my home, because it had stairs. I lost my job. I lost my income. I lost my health insurance,” she said. “But I didn’t lose my friends or my family, and I didn’t lose that sort of fighting spirit.”
Bristo said she and her friends used to have to time their outings based on whether there was a bathroom available – since even when someone in a wheelchair could get into an establishment, the bathrooms often were not accessible.
“And it took me a while to really grasp that this was a matter of discrimination,” Bristo said. “It really took a while for me to let go of my belief that I just had to suck it up, basically, and accept my limitations.”
But as she put it, she came to realize that “my wheelchair wasn’t too wide for the doors; the doors were too narrow for my wheelchair.”
* Tribune…
Over the years, her activism took on many forms: She co-founded the National Council on Independent Living in 1982. President Bill Clinton appointed her as chair of the National Council on Disability. She served as the first person with a disability to hold the role from 1994 to 2002. She participated in the negotiation for the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which the U.S. adopted in 2006 and was recently appointed n the Ford Foundation board of trustees in June.
Among other things, Bristo was pivotal in forming the first fair housing program to addressed disability discrimination, fought for the inclusion of disability issues in domestic violence law and helped implement the requirement for all televisions to have close-captioned decoders.
Bristo gave her whole self to advocacy, openly telling friends she had several disabilities, some invisible, including a struggle with addiction and alcoholism, Heumann said. She spoke of her life in totality and recognized discrimination within the disability community, fighting for inclusivity within the movement.
“That’s part of the disability experience: taking risks and having a tenacious sense of can-do-it-ness,” Bristo told Chicago Magazine in 2008. “The things we’ve been advocating are not just for a marginal group of people; they’re for the society as a whole. Disability affects all of us. It’s time that we normalize and accept it rather than perceive it to be at the margins of our society.”
* Tom McNamee at the Sun-Times…
Marca’s talent was in building bridges between the “abled” and the “disabled” by making us see there is no need for bridges at all. We’re all on the same side of the river. We all have strengths and limitations, capabilities and incapabilities. We’re all of equal value. We all deserve the same rights and opportunities, no more but no less.
There’s nothing controversial in that. It’s what almost everybody believes. But in our daily lives, we don’t always live it. I don’t, anyway, even when I think I do.
We have to be reminded. We have to be told. We have to be told off.
* From Access Living…
Near the end of her life, Marca said she had no bucket list — that she had done what she set out to do and seen what she wanted to see. She also shared her firm belief that the disability activism work she started was in good and capable hands to be carried on by the staff at Access Living.
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* WJBC…
A freshman lawmaker from Central Illinois is seeking a second term after making his mark opposing Gov. JB Pritzker’s agenda.
101st District State Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) sent out a news release late Sunday night saying far-left extremists who control the Democratic Party pushed through the most radical agenda in the state’s history.
Caulkins cited passage of a capital bill that doubled the state’s gas tax, 21 other tax increases, and a radical abortion bill.
Um, a whole lot of Rep. Caulkins’ Republican colleagues voted for that “far-left extremist” and “radical agenda” of raising the state’s Motor Fuel Tax. Caulkins is, of course, a member of the Eastern Bloc.
* After the session ended in June, WCIA’s Mark Maxwell interviewed Rep. Caulkins about issues surrounding the capital bill…
Maxwell: How would you describe, right now, in 2019, the condition of the roads and highways in your district?
Caulkins: They’re the same as they are throughout central Illinois. We’re no different.
Maxwell: OK, what is the condition in the state, of the roads, the bridges, the transit?
Caulkins: That depends where you live.
Maxwell: You just said two different things.
Caulkins: No, you asked about my district and then you asked about the state, other places in Illinois. And there are places in Illinois where the roads are in fairly decent shape. Take the bypass around Bloomington. Now you go north on Interstate 39 out of Bloomington and there’s some issues. I-55 once you get out of McLean County there’s some issues. But there are places, Champaign, the roads around Champaign, the highways and the interestates. In the townships, there are highways and bridges that need desperate attention.
Maxwell: One of your House Republican colleagues stood up on the floor in the final moments of debate, and said that Illinois is on the verge, if the roads and their conditions continue to deteriorate, Illinois is on the verge of getting the valve shut off of federal funding because we’re so far out of compliance with how safe the roads are supposed to be, that it was really that bad. Wasn’t there some discussion, weren’t you considering at some point staging some sort of protest about the safety of the roads in your district?
Let’s stop the tape for a second. First, notice how he plays down the problems with transportation infrastructure, likely to help justify his “No” vote. Secondly, Rep. Caulkins did at one point talk about holding a “sit-in” or some other demonstration on Interstate 72 to protest the conditions of that roadway. He would’ve been right to do so because parts of that road are in disgraceful condition.
* Now, back to the interview…
Caulkins: We were. To your point, I heard that said on the House floor, I have not seen anything to that effect, I don’t know…
Maxwell: Why didn’t you go through with that demonstration?
Caulkins: Pardon?
Maxwell: You were considering this demonstration, you didn’t do it. Why not?
Caulkins: Because the state came along and, this is between the rest stop on the interstate and the Cisco exit, they’ve gone out and they’ve done a lot of patching work and they’ve filled it in temporarily I hope. But at least it’s passable. So IDOT they must’ve heard me.
Maxwell: You were pretty upset about that.
Caulkins: Two, three weeks they came out and they sought out some bad spots and they filled them in with asphalt patches. And I presume that today, actually is a huge day in IDOT, they’re letting bids out for road contracts.
So, a temporary asphalt patch was all it took? What happens when the temporary fix no longer works?
* More…
Maxwell: You end up not voting for it. How did you get there?
Caulkins: There was no plan to spend that money, first of all.
Maxwell: You don’t trust the Department of Transportation to allocate those funds?
Caulkins: Do you? I don’t. I don’t trust this government, no.
Well, they went out and patched the interstate, so at least they have that going for them.
* More…
Maxwell: How do you then go about putting safeguards in place to make sure those monies are spent the right way? There is a lock box, after all.
Caulkins: With the lock box, but then how do you allocate the money that’s within the lock box. This is the issue that was never addressed, Mark. They’ve asked for $40 billion with no specific plan. If they’d have come out and said ‘We’re going to do the five-year plan,” IDOT has a five-year plan. If the governor and the administration had said, ‘Look, here’s the five-year plan, this is what we need, this is how we’re going to pay for it, let’s talk about it,’ would’ve been a different discussion.
Maxwell: Are you saying that if you had more time to consider all of what was in that $45 billion capital plan you might have voted for it?
Caulkins: Not at 19 cents a gallon, not raising the license fees, not raising the fees that are on the middle class.
Maxwell: Where does the extra money come from?
Caulkins: The money is how do we spend what we have first. Show me what the projects are, show me where the income is. I asked. I asked for three weeks for a meeting with IDOT to come in and talk about what their priorities are, where they intended to spend the money. They didn’t see fit to come and talk with me.
Gee, I wonder why.
* Related…
* Report finds Illinois’ roads deadlier in rural areas
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Actually, the governor opposes the bill
Monday, Sep 9, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WBEZ…
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzer is refusing to say if he would support a bill that would require transparency around prison deaths after a WBEZ investigation found prison staff ignored warning signs and falsified documents connected to three men who died on three consecutive days at Menard prison. An internal investigation by the Department of Corrections largely absolved staff of wrongdoing, and a correctional officer who admitted to falsifying documents remains employed.
Family members say they were given very little information about the deaths of their loved ones at Menard. A bill that would have required jails and prisons to provide family members and the Illinois attorney general with information about prison deaths recently failed to pass the state legislature, but lawmakers and advocates say they plan to try and pass a similar bill soon. […]
At least 166 people died while in Illinois prisons from January 2017 to September 2018, according to records obtained by WBEZ. In around half of those cases, IDOC’s research department had no cause of death listed. When WBEZ requested records on specific deaths, the department claimed that in some cases, it didn’t have even basic information like death certificates or death reports.
The bill is here.
* Scroll down…
The Illinois Department of Corrections and the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association both opposed the bill last session.
IDOC couldn’t oppose that bill without the consent of the governor’s office. That means the governor himself is opposed. It would be nice if his office could’ve outlined to WBEZ what it would like to see done about this.
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Lightfoot statement rated “Mostly False”
Monday, Sep 9, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Setup from Politifact…
“We’ve got 600-plus police and fire pensions Downstate that are on the cusp of insolvency because they don’t have the revenues that they need to be able to keep those pensions going,” [Mayor Lori Lightfoot told the Chicago Sun-Times]. “They’ve done all the things that we have done historically: raised property taxes, sold assets, had their ratings reduced by rating agencies, and they’re out of levers to pull, so they need help just as we do. So this isn’t a Chicago-specific thing.”
Um, no.
* The backtrack…
“I think highlighting that there are lots of police and fire pension systems that are underfunded is accurate,” said Amanda Kass, associate director of the Government Finance Research Center at the University of Illinois-Chicago. “I don’t think it’s accurate to indicate that the majority are on the brink of insolvency.” […]
“The mayor’s point that municipalities throughout the state are struggling with their pension obligations is an important one,” spokeswoman Anel Ruiz wrote in an email. “Approximately 30% of the 632 public safety pension funds in the state are currently funded at ratios of under 50 percent, according to the Department of Insurance.”
That math tracks with the DOI data included in the commission’s report. For comparison, Chicago’s police and fire pensions are both funded at levels below 25%. Just 25 Downstate public safety funds have a ratio lower than that, records show.
It’s difficult to say your city’s pension funds are just like everyone else’s when only 4 percent of Downstate and suburban funds are worse off than your two biggest problems.
…Adding… From comments…
(W)hat has confused me about her “this is a solution for everyone” framing is that I don’t understand what she is proposing that will help downstate towns at the same time as Chicago. Is she suggesting that the real estate transfer tax be raised everywhere, not just Chicago?
* And then there’s this…
Peoria, for example, faced down a $20 million pension gap by cutting its city workforce by about 16 percent — eliminating 22 firefighter positions and 16 police jobs to close its $6 million budget hole.
Downstate, Carterville raised property taxes by 30 percent last year to help cover a shortfall created by a state mandate.
Kankakee increased its municipal sales tax to help pay off its pension tab.
And even little Alton (population: less than 30,000) had to take action: it sold off its water treatment plant for about $54 million to help pay down its unfunded pension liabilities.
Of course, Chicago is much larger and a central pillar of the state’s economy, but lawmakers up for re-election may not see it in purely economic terms. Helping the Windy City gives rhetorical ammunition to political opponents looking to needle incumbents who might approve any kind of a tax hike when so many others were left to fend for themselves.
“Little Alton” is about the same size as Kankakee and both are much larger than Carterville, but you get the drift.
* Also, the property taxes in, say, Rockford (a city mentioned more than once by Lightfoot) are significantly higher than they are in Chicago. Rockford didn’t wait for the state.
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* Charles Selle at the News-Sun…
If more than 400 people came down with symptoms of E. coli bacteria from tainted vegetables, state health officials would be pulling products from store shelves. Surprisingly, they continue allowing e-cigarettes to damage the lungs of Illinoisans.
The latest person to be hospitalized with a respiratory illness after using electric cigarettes — aka, vaping — is an 18-year-old Gurnee resident, Adam Hergenreder. He might be released from the hospital by now, but his lungs are those of a 70-year-old, according to his doctors.
Granted, young Adam admitted in a front-page News-Sun story last week that he’s been vaping since he was 16, and partial to mint and mango flavors. Last year, he says he began smoking sold-on-the-street “dab sticks,” THC-filled devices made for e-cigs. […]
Which is why Gov. J.B. Pritzker needs to immediately ban the use of e-cigarettes in Illinois. There’s mounting scientific evidence these devices are, putting it mildly, unhealthful. […]
Michigan’s Democrat governor didn’t wait to convene a scientific panel to issue a ban on e-cigs in the Wolverine State. Last week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made her state the first to ban flavored electronic cigarettes, accusing companies of using candy flavors and deceptive advertising to “hook children on nicotine,” the AP reported.
* Pritzker administration statement…
The Governor has convened a working group of medical and legal experts to study the scientific evidence so they can develop long-term solutions to keep Illinoisans safe and healthy. So far, this administration has worked with the General Assembly to raise the smoking age to 21 and made e-cigarettes and vaping much more difficult for young people to get their hands on.
1) When e-coli cases pop up, the government can usually trace the outbreak to its origin and then act accordingly. That simply isn’t the case here, and that’s what is unnerving some folks.
2) That “more than 400 people” number cited is nationwide, not Illinois alone. Yes, one person has apparently died in Illinois from likely vape usage, but nobody yet knows what was in the fluid or vaping device that caused this.
3) Cigarettes kill more than 1,300 people a day in this country and more than 480,000 per year. In 2017, 7.6 percent of Illinois high school kids smoked cigarettes. There is perhaps no greater health emergency tied to a specific product than that.
4) The process is moving forward…
“The severity of illness people are experiencing is alarming and we must get the word out that using e-cigarettes and vaping can be dangerous,” said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. “We requested a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help us investigate these cases and they arrived in Illinois on Tuesday.”
A total of 22 people in Illinois, ranging in age from 17-38 years, have experienced respiratory illness after using e-cigarettes or vaping, the department said. The department is working with local health departments to investigate another 12 individuals.
5) As noted, vaping is now illegal in Illinois for anyone under 21.
6) Michigan’s governor got a lot of national press for ordering the halt of all flavored vape sales, but it’s not as simple as some are making it seem…
(T)he rule will likely face court challenges and review by the state legislature.
It’s also a temporary rule, so the state legislature will have to weigh in.
* Some suburban kids are getting sick and that’s sure to set off major political alarm bells and can easily lead to rash actions which enshrine bad policy into law.
Vaping additives are problematic because consumers simply don’t know what they are ingesting. Maybe start there first, although that still won’t solve the problem with the underground market.
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* Willie Wilson press release…
Ogden & Fry, conducted a 3-question poll for Citizens for Willie Wilson on Wednesday, September 4, statewide regarding political preferences of candidates with 538 respondents. Respondents were selected by random sampling of likely 2020 General Election voters. The margin of error for this poll is +/- 4.31% at the 95% confidence interval.
* The first question was about voting likelihood. Here’s the second…
If the election for United States Senator was held today, for which candidate would you vote?
Democrat Dick Durbin 44.1%
Republican Candidate 33.6%
Independent Willie Wilson 4.0%
Undecided 18.3%
I guess you gotta start somewhere, but I’m not sure how releasing these numbers helps him.
The third question was a head-to-head between Durbin and Wilson, but that isn’t going to happen and Wilson was still trailing 44-25 among all voters and 72-8 among Democrats.
I’ve asked how many mobile phone users were contacted and whether this was a robopoll or a mixture of robocalls with live callers. It’s been known in the past as an automated outfit.
The firm released a poll two weeks before the Chicago mayoral election which showed Wilson placing second behind Toni Preckwinkle and getting 13.3 percent. He finished fourth with 10.6 percent. The firm also polled for Jeanne Ives in the 2018 primary.
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Plummer plots his course
Monday, Sep 9, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Illinois Review…
State Senator Jason Plummer told Illinois Review Friday that he’s “taking a hard look” at running for the 15th CD seat that Congressman John Shimkus (IL-15) said last week he won’t be running for again in 2020.
“I’ve been out of town on business for the last several days, and Congressman Shimkus’ announcement was a surprise,” Plummer said via phone. “But I’ve been getting lots of encouragement from Republicans in the district to run for the seat. I’m taking a hard look at it.” […]
Being the member of a GOP Senate caucus that is in the super-minority and appears likely to remain so in the near future, the decision to try for the US Congress where Republicans currently hold the majority would be tempting for any Illinois Republican.
“I’m really thinking about what I could do that would help the state of Illinois the most,” Plummer said.
Um, Republicans currently aren’t in the majority in the US House, but it’s still probably a bit better than being in the super-minority in the Illinois Senate.
He’s not up for reelection next year, so he’d have a free shot at the seat. And these seats are only rarely this available. Yes, reapportionment could mean he’d wind up in a 2022 primary race with either Mike Bost or (if he wins reelection) Rodney Davis (assuming, that is, he defeats Erika Harold next year if she decides to run), but one election at a time. For all he knows, he could get mapped out of his current Senate district, although that job allows him to continue earning outside income from his family businesses and likely gives him the best shot at staying in elective office the longest.
Plummer has come a very long way from his stumbles on the 2010 statewide campaign trail (he simply wasn’t ready for prime time) and his 2012 loss to Bill Enyart (perhaps the last cycle for a long time that a Democrat could win what is now the Bost district). But it’s not a slam-dunk decision either way.
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* Last month…
The state’s attorney general says two former lawmakers should not receive back pay for frozen cost-of-living increases and forced furlough days because they previously voted to approve the two laws and waited “for so long” to file a lawsuit challenging their constitutionality.
Those laws, a Cook County judge ruled last month, violated an article of the state’s governing document that dictates legislators’ wages cannot be changed during the terms for which they were elected.
Judge Franklin Valderrama’s ruling was a partial win for two former senators — Democrats Michael Noland, from Elgin, and James Clayborne Jr., from Belleville — who sued for lost wages.
* Last week…
Two former Democratic state senators are asking a Cook County judge to order Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza to pay back wages they and other lawmakers gave up when legislators voted repeatedly over a decade to freeze their salaries. […]
Noland, now a Kane County judge, originally filed the lawsuit in 2017, seeking back pay for himself and “all others impacted” by bills lawmakers passed to give up the annual cost-of-living raises they are automatically granted under state law. The lawsuit, which Clayborne joined as a plaintiff last year, also takes issue with unpaid furlough days lawmakers approved for themselves each year from 2009 through 2013.
Mendoza “has a clear, non-discretionary duty to pay the members of the General Assembly, including Plaintiffs, the salary unconstitutionally withheld for the furlough days and the (cost-of-living adjustments) for the relevant years,” Noland and Clayborne argue in their motion. […]
Clayborne, now an attorney in private practice, voted in favor of the measures each time. From 2009 to 2016, Noland only once voted against the legislation canceling cost-of-living raises and approving unpaid furlough days.
* From Comptroller Mendoza…
The judge has issued no order to pay any legislators raises they voted not to accept. I think the arguments have just begun over whether legislators can make big election-year speeches about voting to turn down a raise, issue re-election news releases touting their selflessness in turning down a raise; then years later, shamelessly file a lawsuit to force taxpayers to retroactively pay them $10 million for raises they turned down to get re-elected. These hypocrites don’t deserve a penny. How can it be more constitutional to hike salaries mid-term than to keep salaries the same?
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Careful what you wish for
Monday, Sep 9, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) announced last week that he will not seek reelection. Instead, he said he’ll likely be making a 2022 statewide bid for either US Senate against Sen. Tammy Duckworth or secretary of state if Jesse White retires.
He may not be a household name, but Rep. McSweeney has been a huge thorn in Republican leadership’s side since he first ran for the Illinois House in the 2012 primary.
He took on Rep. Kent Gaffney, who had been the House Republicans’ appropriations director for a decade and was appointed to the seat after the untimely 2011 death of Republican Rep. Mark Beaubien. McSweeney at one point during the campaign claimed House Republican staff had violated the law by doing political work on state time and tried hard to get Gaffney kicked off the ballot. He won a three-way primary and then went on to defeat Beaubien’s widow, who ran as an independent in the general election.
In other words, he did not arrive in Springfield well-liked by the people who ran his own party. And he hasn’t tried to ingratiate himself with them at any point since then.
He refused to attend House Republican caucus meetings and eventually became one of the most outspoken Republican critics of Gov. Bruce Rauner. McSweeney became a go-to person for reporters needing anti-Rauner quotes. He basically served the same purpose as former Democratic state Rep. Jack Franks, who built up his name recognition by regularly slamming Democratic governors and was beloved by political reporters and now chairs the McHenry County Board. McSweeney’s district includes part of McHenry County, and Franks and McSweeney have worked together over the years to pass various local government-related bills.
After Rauner lost, McSweeney turned his fire on his own House Republican Leader, Jim Durkin. He has called Durkin corrupt, said he was an anti-Trump “RINO” (Republican in name only) and called on him to resign. Durkin retaliated by yanking staff support on two separate occasions. McSweeney kept his name in the papers.
McSweeney is an information sponge. He is super-smart and makes it his business to constantly find out what is going on in this state’s politics and governance.
He immediately sought out many of Springfield’s old hands after taking office and pumped them for every bit of advice and insight he could get. Those relationships, combined with his outspoken critiques of his own party helped him pass a lot of bills through the Democratic-controlled House, and also probably helped keep him safe from any serious general election challenges.
Rep. McSweeney’s far northwest suburban district is somewhat odd. It was once represented by conservative firebrand and trial lawyer Al Salvi, who left to run for US Senate. Rep. Beaubien was a pro-choice liberal Republican. Gaffney was somewhat more conservative than his mentor Beaubien, but was definitely to the left of McSweeney, who is hard-right on taxation and social issues.
The 52nd District was long considered a Republican bastion, except for the usual Jesse White wins (the popular pol routinely wins most legislative districts and won every single county in 2002). Republican Mitt Romney defeated President Barack Obama by 10 points in the district during the 2012 election.
But President Donald Trump, who had problems everywhere in suburbia, only won McSweeney’s district by a mere 1.6 percentage points in 2016. And then Democratic Comptroller Susana Mendoza won it last year by 2 points. Trump isn’t doing much to improve his popularity in the suburbs, so 2020 could be even worse for Republicans in that part of the world.
McSweeney has sharply criticized Gov. JB Pritzker, so it’s possible that the Democrats might have tried to take him out if he ran again, but it seems unlikely since his dissension in the Republican ranks can be quite useful to their Statehouse purposes (every time the Democrats advanced one of McSweeney’s bills they drove the other side crazy). Even so, a warm Democratic body with little party support could’ve forced McSweeney to spend big bucks on his reelection just to be safe, and that money would be better spent on setting himself up for the 2022 statewide contest.
The House Republican operation was completely blindsided (and overjoyed) by McSweeney’s announcement, so they don’t yet have a list of possible candidates.
But McSweeney’s exit means it’s now quite possible that the district goes into play next year if the Democrats can find the right candidate. That could turn out to be McSweeney’s ultimate revenge on his party. Careful what you wish for.
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A gross misdiagnosis
Friday, Sep 6, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Center Square editor Brett Rowland…
For the past 40 years, we’ve seen more of the same tax-and-spend policies that have left the state’s pension systems dangerously underfunded and the state’s credit just a notch above junk status.
The state’s fiscal problems are mainly about “borrow and spend.” The state essentially borrowed money that should’ve gone to the pension funds in order to spend that cash on operations and programs. That practice kept state taxes artificially low for decades. If they had either raised taxes enough to make the full pension payments (particularly after increasing pension benefits) or cut spending (or both), we wouldn’t be in this mess today. But, no. Raising taxes and making cuts were just too hard for them. When you see or hear the phrase “unfunded liability,” it’s really just massive debt that was allowed to accumulate.
Gov. Pat Quinn literally borrowed billions of dollars to make the state’s pension payments for two years before the state finally raised taxes in 2011. And then the tax hike partially rolled back in 2015. The state made all of its pension payments during the resulting budget impasse, which meant it had to essentially borrow money from its vendors to stay afloat. And then the state borrowed more money to pay off many of those vendors. As of today, the state’s bill backlog is $6.6 billion, so that debt is still not paid off.
* While we’re on this topic, this chart of Chicago’s pension funding ramp is from Forbes contributor Elizabeth Bauer…
They have two big bumps ahead, and then the payment increases become far more manageable.
* However…
The world’s collapsing interest rates have just made survival that much harder for Illinois’ pension funds, most of which are built on the assumption that they can earn around 7 percent on their investments. Interest rates have fallen below zero percent in Europe, while US 30-year interest rates fell below 2 percent for the first time in history. Ten-year rates here are now at 1.5 percent, also near their lowest level ever.
Low rates are particularly hard on the most underfunded pensions because those funds are forced to keep more of their money in short-term, low-yield bonds so they can cover near-term pension payouts. Low rates also hammer the smaller police and firefighter pensions around the state because they, by law, are forced to keep large parts of their investments in bonds.
Expect funding levels to continue their descent across the state.
* Related…
* Illinois ranks 3rd worst on pension plan funding
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* Press release…
Attorney General Kwame Raoul and DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin today released the following statement in reaction to DuPage County Circuit Court Judge Paul Fullerton’s approval of a consent order entered in People of the State of Illinois v. Sterigenics U.S., LLC.
“When our offices partnered to file a lawsuit against Sterigenics in 2018, we called upon and gave the Illinois General Assembly time to strengthen our state’s laws regulating sterilization facilities that emit ethylene oxide. With nearly unanimous support, the Legislature this spring passed the nation’s strictest requirements on ethylene oxide emissions at sterilization facilities, which were quickly signed into law by the governor. The consent order entered today mirrors and goes even further than the new law.
“The consent order gives our offices the tools to act quickly to protect the community and hold Sterigenics accountable for any future violations of Illinois’ new ethylene oxide restrictions or other state environmental laws. To be clear, nothing within the consent order guarantees that the Willowbrook facility will reopen in the immediate future – or that it will reopen at all. Under the consent order, Sterigenics’ Willowbrook facility is strictly prohibited from resuming sterilization operations until it constructs new emissions control systems that have been reviewed and approved by the Illinois EPA. The Attorney General’s office, the State’s Attorney’s office and the court will be closely monitoring each step Sterigenics takes to potentially reopen.
“Our offices are duty bound to enforce state laws as written and passed by the General Assembly. The new law signed this summer – while containing landmark restrictions of ethylene oxide emissions – allows any facility in compliance with the law to operate in the state of Illinois. While Illinois has acted to significantly reduce ethylene oxide emissions, the health concerns arising from the use of ethylene oxide and other harmful chemicals is an issue of national importance, and the conversations surrounding ethylene oxide emissions should continue at the federal level.”
Background:
The now-final consent order requires Sterigenics to comply with a new law passed by the General Assembly this spring, which contains the nation’s most stringent regulations of sterilization facilities that emit ethylene oxide (EtO). Sterigenics’ Willowbrook facility is comprised of two buildings, Willowbrook I and Willowbrook II. The consent order prohibits sterilization operations from taking place at Willowbrook I, Sterigenics’ primary facility, until it is in compliance with both the new law and the consent order. According to the consent order, Willowbrook I is prohibited from resuming sterilization operations unless and until the company installs new emissions capture and control systems and submits plans for testing the new systems, all of which must be reviewed and approved by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA). Sterigenics will also be required to provide the IEPA with test results that confirm the new systems capture 100 percent of emissions. Additionally, Sterigenics must obtain multiple certifications required by the new law prior to using EtO at Willowbrook I. The consent order also prevents Sterigenics from conducting sterilization operations at Willowbrook II until Sterigenics applies for and obtains a permit from the IEPA, and the consent order is amended to allow for such operations.
If Sterigenics receives a permit and is allowed to resume operations, the net effect of the requirements in the consent order and the new law will be to reduce the EtO emissions from the Willowbrook facility to no more than 85 pounds per year. This represents a drastic reduction from Sterigenics’ reported annual emissions from 2006 to 2018, which ranged from 2,840 pounds to 7,340 pounds per year.
The consent order is a court enforced agreement that resolves both the state’s lawsuit against Sterigenics, and Sterigenics’ lawsuit challenging the IEPA’s seal order, which temporarily stopped Sterigenics from using EtO. The consent order is a stronger legal tool than the IEPA seal order because it strips Sterigenics of any legal ability to resume the use of EtO without meeting all legal requirements under the new law and the consent order, including new emissions controls. If Sterigenics fails to comply, the Attorney General and State’s Attorney will seek court enforcement of the consent order and penalties, including the possible cessation of operations at the facility and contempt of court.
I assume I’ll be receiving other reactions soon and will post ‘em when I get ‘em.
…Adding… Sen. John Curran…
I am disappointed with today’s ruling and remain committed to the Governor’s call for a special session to advance legislation that would ensure Sterigenics never reopens.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Press release…
n light of today’s disappointing court ruling, Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) introduced new legislation that will give local municipalities the authority to ban the use of ethylene oxide in their communities.
“Sterigenics continues to prove they cannot be trusted and have no place in our region,” Leader Durkin said. “If the Illinois EPA continues moving forward in issuing permits, then we must do everything we can to empower our local municipalities in their fight to keep Sterigenics closed for good.”
House Bill 3885 authorizes any municipality in the state of Illinois to implement a local ban of the use of ethylene oxide within its boundaries. If a local municipality chooses to adopt this authority, any sterilizing companies would be prohibited from using ethylene oxide. This bill has the support of the village of Willowbrook.
“If the Illinois EPA isn’t going to enforce the Matt Haller Act, then it’s essential that the legislature be called back into session so that we can ensure Illinois residents are safe,” Chief Co-Sponsor Rep. Deanne Mazzochi said.
The governor, you will recall, has said that if Durkin introduced another bill he’d call a special session. From July 18…
“I made it clear to Leader Durkin this morning that, if he requests it, I will call a special session of the legislature to allow for an immediate vote on a bill that is constitutional and will fix the perceived shortcomings of the legislation he previously sponsored.”
…Adding… Press release…
Following is a statement from Antonio Romanucci of Romanucci & Blandin, LLC, one of several law firms representing victims sickened by Sterigenics, the medical sterilization equipment manufacturer in Willowbrook, Illinois. A judge on Friday ruled that Sterigenics, which has been closed since February, can reopen.
“Anyone who lives near Sterigenics will shudder to learn that this dangerous company will be allowed to reopen. They have proven time and again that they are irresponsible and willing to put countless lives in jeopardy by emitting the toxic chemical ethylene oxide into the surrounding atmosphere at high levels. For decades, they knowingly blasted a deadly chemical into the air. Hundreds of thousands of have been exposed and tens of thousands have been sickened. Now, thousands of victims are being represented in these lawsuits seeking justice. Countless more will be sickened in the future–and no one knows how many have already died as a result of this noxious poison. Sterigenics cannot be trusted, and should not be allowed to reopen and put even more lives at risk.”
…Adding… Press release…
State Representative Deanne M. Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) released the following statement after DuPage County Judge Fullerton ruled in favor of allowing the Sterigenics Consent Order to proceed with modifications:
“I’m glad the court’s process stopped the ILEPA’s original plan to allow Sterigenics to reopen under the guise of secret proceedings that were not subject to transparency or judicial review. But the consent order still places a great deal of trust in the ILEPA.
“Legislators will not tolerate an ILEPA that chooses bureaucratic box-checking over doing its job to protect public safety, including following the Matt Haller Act to the letter. If the ILEPA does its job right, Sterigenics should never reopen under these circumstances. And if that necessitates more legislation and ILEPA oversight, so be it.”
…Adding… Willowbrook Mayor Frank Trilla…
Despite the Court’s action today of issuing the Consent Decree, our fight to ban ethylene oxide in our community is not over.
This afternoon, State Rep. Jim Durkin filed new legislation to amend the Environmental Protection Act and give home rule units of government like the Village of Willowbrook the ability to ban ethylene oxide from being used within our boundaries.
We are relying on our state legislature to do what is right to protect not only the Village of Willowbrook residents and our surrounding communities but for the entire state. That means 217 home rule units of government in Illinois can benefit from HB 3885, and prevent ethylene oxide from entering these communities.
I want to thank Rep. Durkin, HB 3885 chief co-sponsor Rep. Deanne Mazzochi, and Sen. John Curran for their endless support in our fight to ban ethylene oxide.
Willowbrook and our surrounding neighbors will work tirelessly to ensure passage of this legislation.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From Emily Bittner at the governor’s office…
Statement
The Governor is pleased that Leader Durkin and his colleagues are proposing a solution to strengthen their original legislation. He looks forward to immediately reviewing the measure, and he will support it unless there are constitutional concerns. From the outset of his term, the Governor has focused on protecting these families, including the Illinois EPA’s seal order in February to shut down Sterigenics’ operations, allowing the Legislature to work to create the strongest possible safeguards for families. To move quickly, he urges Leader Durkin to begin the legislative process on this new bill, including building consensus for this approach, holding hearings and scheduling votes for the relevant committees.
Background
The consent order reached today with the company is significantly stronger than the legislation that passed the General Assembly.
Because the steps outlined in the consent order will take several months to complete, the administration anticipates that this legislation can be taken up immediately in the veto session in October and ensure that local communities have sufficient time to act.
…Adding… Daily Herald coverage…
Amid outrage from some residents, a DuPage judge approved a consent order that would allow the Sterigenics plant in Willowbrook to reopen if it meets strict standards controlling emissions.
“What I believe is not important. What I must do is to follow the law,” Judge Paul Fullerton said Friday, adding he would sign an agreement between Sterigenics, the Illinois attorney general and DuPage County state’s attorney. […]
“He’s signing our death sentence,” Willowbrook resident Melissa Alvarado said aloud in the courtroom, and other homeowners echoed her dismay.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Sterigenics…
Sterigenics, a leading provider of mission-critical sterilization services, today commented on the DuPage County Court’s approval of the Consent Order that had previously been agreed to by the State of Illinois (represented by the Illinois Attorney General and the DuPage County State’s Attorney), the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and the company. Court approval of this agreement resolves all current litigation between the State of Illinois and its representative agencies and Sterigenics, with no finding of liability or fault against either side and with no imposition of penalties.
During today’s proceedings, the Court noted that the State has acknowledged that there is no uncertainty that Sterigenics has operated in compliance with federal standards regarding its ethylene oxide (EO) emissions. Further, the State indicated in its briefing that compliance with the Consent Order and the new Illinois law regarding EO sterilization “will ensure that [EO] emissions from the [Willowbrook] Site are negligible and not a public health hazard.”
Sterigenics has always operated safely, and we are pleased that the State has acknowledged the safety of these new controls. The company will continue to work to complete the permitting process regarding the enhancements detailed in the Consent Order.
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Beware the vapes
Friday, Sep 6, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* AP…
Illinois officials on Friday reported what they consider the first death in the nation linked to vaping after the person contracted a serious lung disease. They didn’t say if the e-cigarette contained marijuana oil or just nicotine. […]
Officials cautioned, however, that there have been respiratory illnesses diagnosed where the vaping product did not contain marijuana.
* New York Times…
Health officials in New York State said on Thursday that they are investigating a possible cause of a recent surge in severe vaping-related illnesses: a compound called vitamin E acetate.
The state Department of Health said in a news release that “very high levels” of the compound had been found in 13 samples from eight of 34 patients who have gotten ill in New York. The samples were analyzed as part of an investigation by the Wadsworth Center, a state laboratory. […]
“No one substance, including vitamin E acetate, has been identified in all of the samples tested,” [Michael Felberbaum, a spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration] said. “Importantly, identifying any compounds that are present in the samples will be one piece of the puzzle but will not necessarily answer questions about causality.” […]
Dr. Zucker, the health commissioner, said that all of the products containing vitamin E acetate were “on the black market” and not part of New York State’s medical marijuana program.
* New York State Department of Health…
Laboratory test results showed very high levels of vitamin E acetate in nearly all cannabis-containing samples analyzed by the Wadsworth Center as part of this investigation. At least one vitamin E acetate containing vape product has been linked to each patient who submitted a product for testing. Vitamin E acetate is not an approved additive for New York State Medical Marijuana Program-authorized vape products and was not seen in the nicotine-based products that were tested. […]
Anyone using vape products should never use unregulated products purchased “off the street.” Cannabis-containing products are not legally available in New York State for recreational use. These unregulated products are not tested and may contain harmful substances. Users of vape products should never modify vape products or add any substances to these products that are not intended by the manufacturer.
I checked with Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago), who sponsored Illinois’ legalization bill. The current law, she said, does not specifically ban this additive. But there are strict limits to how much of any substance can be used to dilute concentrated oils.
* Vaping anything can be more dangerous than some may have believed…
When that vapor cools down in the lungs, it returns to its original state at that temperature and pressure, she said, which means “it has now coated the inside of your lungs with that oil,” [Michelle Francl, a chemistry professor at Bryn Mawr College] said. […]
Unlike the human digestive tract, which can break down and get rid of foreign substances, the lungs aren’t designed to handle anything except gases, experts said.
Laura Crotty Alexander, a lung inflammation and e-cigarette researcher at the University of California at San Diego’s School of Medicine, said it’s not clear whether the chemical itself or its byproducts could be toxic.
* ABC 7…
A suburban [Gurnee] teen is hospitalized, fighting to breathe, due to a lung infection his parents say was caused by vaping. […]
“I’m 18 years old and my lungs are like a 70-year-old’s,” he said.
Adam spent the last year and a half consuming about one and a half Juul pods a day.
* Meanwhile…
Michigan became the first state to ban both online and in-store sales of flavored e-cigarettes Wednesday.
Illinois State Senator Julie Morrison commended Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer for taking action, and called on Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and state lawmakers to do the same to protect teens and young adults.
Pritzker’s spokeswoman released a statement, saying, “The Governor has convened a working group of medical and legal experts to study the scientific evidence so they can develop long-term solutions to keep Illinoisans safe and healthy. So far, this administration has worked with the General Assembly to raise the smoking age to 21 and made e-cigarettes and vaping much more difficult for young people to get their hands on.”
…Adding… Introduced yesterday by Rep. Deb Conroy…
Creates the Flavored Tobacco Ban Act. Prohibits the sale or distribution by an establishment of any flavored tobacco product. Provides that the Department of Public Health shall enforce the Act and may adopt rules or guidelines for the implementation and enforcement of the Act. Amends the Tobacco Products Tax Act of 1995. Permits the Department of Revenue to suspend the license of any distributor that violates the Flavored Tobacco Ban Act.
* Related…
* Springfield Smoking Ban Extended To E-Cigarettes, Vaping
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A big day for the Fleischli family
Friday, Sep 6, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I received a press release yesterday announcing that the Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association had chosen Josh Sharp to replace its longtime executive vice president Bill Fleischli, who is retiring soon. I didn’t know that Fleischli was retiring, but he and his spouse had one heck of a day yesterday…
A horseshoe may have been the good luck charm for the woman who won more than a half-million dollars Thursday night from the Knights of Columbus Attendance Raffle.
Cynthia Fleischli picked the winning number Thursday, scoring the $625,549 jackpot in the progressive game that has been held for more than 95 weeks.
Her husband, Bill Fleischli, was wearing a ring with a horseshoe on it that once was owned by his father. After people told him he was wearing it upside down, he flipped the ring. A short time later, he was driving his wife to fill out the paperwork to collect her prize. […]
She has played weekly, and the mother of four said she wants to buy a one-level house with her winnings. She is retired from the Illinois Office of Tourism and the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association.
I’ve known Bill forever, so I called him this morning and he said he was offered a couple of tickets to the Cardinals game yesterday, but turned them down. It’s a good thing he did. He said he and his wife have been going to the drawings every Thursday for about two months. “I fell over,” he said, describing the experience as “surreal.”
He said the two hope to travel now that they’re both retired. “It’s been a great run and I’ll miss it,” Fleischli said about his more than 25 years at the IPMA.
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“Don’t expect an immediate detente”
Friday, Sep 6, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sun-Times last week…
In the latest round of the seemingly never ending prize fight between the two most powerful women in Chicago, Lightfoot ripped into Preckwinkle for rebuffing her efforts to work together, saying “a lot of that is up to her.”
But Preckwinkle fired back that she has sought to meet with Lightfoot and her top cop to discuss solutions to Chicago’s street violence, but to no avail. […]
“Let me be clear, I have said ‘Madame president, chief judge, sheriff, state’s attorney, let’s get together, let’s put our data out for the public to be able to see it and let’s work together towards solutions’ and what I got back was not a ‘yeah, that’s a great idea.’ I got back another nasty-gram from her,” Lightfoot said.
* Sun-Times editorial a few days ago…
There’s been plenty of finger-pointing between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle when it comes to gun violence in Chicago.
We’re getting pretty sick of it. And we’d imagine you are, too.
As the two remained at odds, at least 43 people were shot — eight of them fatally — across Chicago over Labor Day weekend. That’s about double the number of people shot in the city compared to the same holiday weekend last year.
* Tribune editorial…
Will Lightfoot, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx make serious progress on these problems? Can they set aside differences and tackle issues together, as our counterpart the Sun-Times urged? https://bit.ly/2lG5t3m We’ll continue to demand attention and answers.
* Yesterday…
After Mayor Lori Lightfoot brought up her fraught relationship with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in multiple editorial board meetings last week, and both got a Sun-Times rebuke, Preckwinkle says she’s trying again.
“I personally called Mayor Lightfoot this morning and left a voicemail. As everyone knows, there’s no single remedy to the complex challenges of ending violence,” she said at a Thursday press conference, referring to weeks of disagreements over the county’s bail practices and whether they contribute to Chicago’s violence. “I requested in my message that we have a private face-to-face meeting to start the process of discussing strategies to combat gun violence, which plagues so many of our communities… this is about governance, not politics.”
* Sun-Times…
“We all know that there’s no single remedy to stopping the violence, but there’s also no denying that Cook County and Chicago are stronger if we work together to address these issues. And I’ve said it all along, and I look forward to hearing back.”
As for the mayor, a spokeswoman for Lightfoot would only say “voicemail received and acknowledged.”
* Tribune…
Don’t expect an immediate detente.
…Adding… Good point in comments…
(T)he oldest trick in the book is to leave a message at a time and place that isn’t readily returnable and then leak it to the press that you reached out only to have your hand slapped. Maybe the Mayor is being petty, or maybe the Prez is being disingenuous. Either way, it’d be nice of there was a place, say a government building, that both the City and the County could locate in, to facilitate communication and coordination. Some place that an official could just walk to (without even getting wet) to go see an important frenemy. I’d love nothing better than to see one of them pull off the West Wing moment where President Jed Bartlett walks down Pennsylvania Ave to the Capitol only to have the Speaker and his cadre make him wait. Wanna win this war of who cares more? Make that walk…
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* Tribune…
Last fall the Tribune’s Todd Lighty dug through then-candidate J.B. Pritzker’s financial interests — as part of a larger story about his and his family’s offshore accounts, often used as tax havens for the rich.
Lighty’s story noted Pritzker was building a mansion in the Bahamas.
This week, as Hurricane Dorian wreaked havoc on the island nation, Tribune reporter Dan Petrella checked in with the governor’s office about the status of Pritzker’s property there and it sounds like it was spared. Spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh issued the following statement: “The governor’s property was not damaged in the storm, but his thoughts and prayers are with the people who suffered tremendously, especially the loss of life, as a result of this storm.”
I was wondering about that myself.
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*** LIVE COVERAGE ***
Friday, Sep 6, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’m going to try to tweak the look of this feed over the weekend…
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* As we’ve already discussed, the governor can’t make this trip because of his fractured leg. From a press release…
Senior members of the Pritzker Administration will lead a 5-day trade mission to Japan for the annual U.S. Midwest Japan Association Conference, marking the first international trade mission for the administration.
The mission will take place in Tokyo from September 6 to 11 and will bring together leaders in business and government to highlight the strengths of the Illinois economy and opportunities for investment for foreign companies. The Illinois delegation will be led by Anne Caprara, Chief of Staff to Governor Pritzker; Dan Hynes, Deputy Governor for Budget and Economy; and Erin Guthrie, Acting Director of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, and the full delegation consists of over 30 business and economic development leaders from across the state.
“Our state has enjoyed a strong relationship with Japan for decades, and with this first overseas trip, this administration looks forward to building on those deep ties,” said Governor Pritzker. “With a diverse and growing economy, world-class education system, and our status as one of the world’s most vital transportation hubs, Illinois is a smart investment, and this administration will continue to spread that message far and wide.”
Illinois is the largest exporting state in the Midwest and the fifth largest exporting state in the country. Last year alone, bilateral trade between Illinois and Japan exceeded $12 billion. The state is home to the largest number of Japanese company locations in the Midwest, with over 46,000 Illinoisans currently employed by Japanese companies in Illinois. These companies include Koito Manufacturing, Kotobuki Company, the parent company of Beam Suntory and Hinckley and Schmitt, as well as Astellas Pharmaceutical.
Illinois was a founding member of the U.S. Midwest Japan Association and has operated a trade and investment office in Japan for over 30 years.
“Japan is an important economic partner for Illinois. I’m proud to join Governor Pritzker’s trade delegation to showcase great opportunities to attract foreign investment in our state and expand markets for Illinois companies,” said Mark Denzler, president & CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association. “Manufacturers account for 93 percent of Illinois exports and rely on strong global relationships.”
“Japan is a crucial market for growing product startups,” said Haven Allen, CEO of mHUB. “I’m honored to be a part of this delegation to MWJA and look forward to building relationships to strengthen connectivity and investment between our regions.”
“The relationship between the Midwest Region of the United States and Japan is a critical one,” said Melissa Washington, Vice President of Governmental and External Affairs for ComEd. “Illinois is a great and inclusive place for all businesses across the globe. With ComEd’s highly reliable, and affordable energy infrastructure, we look to continuing to grow trade and business relations both domestic and abroad at this annual conference.”
“It’s an honor to be selected to represent Illinois’ tech community overseas,” said Mark Lawrence, CEO of SpotHero. “The Pritzker administration has been a strong champion for Chicago’s fast-growing technology sector, and I am humbled by the opportunity to share the innovative and important work happening in Chicago and throughout the state on an international stage.”
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Question of the day
Thursday, Sep 5, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I have a number of errands to run that can’t be done after work or on the weekend, so I’m outta here for a bit. How about your predictions for tonight’s big football game?…
The Green Bay Packers have dominated their rivalry with the Chicago Bears since Aaron Rodgers has led the green-and-gold offense, but Chicago went 12-4 last year, qualified for the playoffs and returns the top-ranked defense. Green Bay has a new head coach and new outlook, and the two NFC hopefuls face off in the 2019 NFL Kickoff Game on Thursday night at 8:20 p.m. ET from Soldier Field. Matt LaFleur takes over as head coach in Green Bay, while Matt Nagy enters his second year in Chicago after a successful rookie campaign. The latest Packers vs. Bears odds show Chicago as a three-point favorite, down from the opening line of -4. The over-under, or total points Vegas thinks will be scored, is 46.5 after opening at 46. In the 17-year history of the NFL Kickoff Game, the home team has won 14 times.
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Fodder for the right
Thursday, Sep 5, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The mayor’s people retracted her statement, but the damage is being done and this quote is gonna be repeatedly recycled for the next 14 months. Austin Berg at the Illinois Policy Institute…
The new mayor is already in a world of trouble. She’s staring down a large city budget gap she can’t close without action from House Speaker Mike Madigan. She’s in heated negotiations with some of the nation’s most extreme labor unions (the Chicago Teachers Union has already set a date for a strike vote.) And her city continues to lose taxpayers to other states.
In the face of this, Lightfoot spoke the truth about the progressive income tax. Voters across Illinois, Democrats and Republicans, should take note.
“We can’t keep taxing the hell out of all of our people who make substantial incomes,” Lightfoot told the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board.
“That’s not right, it’s not fair and it’s not going to work.”
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* Tribune…
Illinois paid an estimated $4.6 million in state and federal money to health insurance organizations to cover people on Medicaid who were dead, according to a federal audit released this week.
The state paid the money to Medicaid managed care organizations — insurers that administer Medicaid benefits for the state — between Oct. 1, 2015 and Sept. 30, 2017, according to a federal audit released Tuesday. Medicaid is a state and federally funded health insurance program for the poor.
Now, the state has been advised to try to get the money back and repay the federal portion of $3.2 million.
Auditors said the error occurred because the state did not enter the Medicaid beneficiaries’ dates of death into its system used to process payments and track eligibility and enrollment information. The state attributed that error to a technical flaw in the system, according to the audit.
* This is not an Illinois-only problem. From the HHS Office of Inspector General…
The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (State agency) pays managed care organizations (MCOs) to provide covered health care services in return for a monthly fixed payment for each enrolled beneficiary (capitation payment). Previous Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviews found that State Medicaid agencies had improperly paid capitation payments on behalf of deceased beneficiaries. We conducted a similar review of the State agency, which administers the Medicaid program. […]
The State agency made payments of approximately $11 billion to Medicaid MCOs during our audit period.
Hopefully, the state can get the MCOs to pony up.
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Justice was served in Schock case
Thursday, Sep 5, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’ve seen a lot of harrumphing since yesterday about the federal charges being dropped against former US Rep. Aaron Schock. “Didn’t he essentially commit the same crimes as former US Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.?” many have asked. Why, then, was J3 sent to prison and Schock allowed to walk free?
The answer boils down to how the two investigations/prosecutions were conducted.
* Jim Dey wrote a pretty good summary back in March of how this case crumbled…
Before it was over, the case was assigned to three different judges, and the original prosecution team of Tim Bass and Patrick Hansen was removed from the case by their superiors in Washington, D.C., for prosecutorial misconduct.
In fact, topsiders in D.C. removed all the federal prosecutors from the Central District from the case and replaced them with a new prosecution team from the Northern District in Chicago.
Although the case against Schock collapsed Wednesday, its impending doom was foreshadowed in September. That’s when Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Hayes, chief of the criminal division in the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s office, said a new prosecution team under his supervision would “get to know the case and evaluate it” before making decisions on how to proceed.
It was that promised review of the evidence, two different grand-jury investigations and the indictment that failed to pass muster with the second group of prosecutors.
* This was a hardball prosecution from the beginning. From a Schock legal filing…
[The government] Recruited a staffer to be a confidential informant who covertly recorded Mr. Schock, a sitting Member of Congress, in his District Office and elsewhere; covertly recorded staff members represented by counsel; misrepresented himself as represented by the same attorney representing those staff members; attempted at the government’s direction to steal privileged documents; and covertly stole documents and more than 10,000 emails that were the personal property of Mr. Schock as a Member of Congress
All done without a warrant, mind you.
* More from that same filing about the confidential informant and federal tactics…
The government’s apparent obsession with Mr. Schock’s sexuality and whether or not he “dated” Karla Gonzalez was fueled from the very first conversation with the government’s confidential informant: “C/S [Confidential Source] did not know for sure Schock’s relationship status, but heard gossip that ‘something was going on’ with Shea Ledford. . . . C/S believed Schock’s ex-girlfriend Karla Gonzalez was not a ‘real girlfriend,’ and was a ‘beard.’” As with so many other things, the government’s CI was wrong. But that did not stop the government from trying to prove him right for the next two years.
Indeed, the government asked twelve additional witnesses questions on these topics. We have detailed below where the grand jury transcripts or government reports of interviews make clear that these topics were discussed with ten of those witnesses. But troublingly, it appears based on our own investigation that government reports for two other witnesses omit information regarding these types of inquiries.
They got into some really detailed questioning of witnesses on this topic. Click here to read it all.
* And then this happened…
The Schock case is complicated by the embarrassing admission, following emphatic denials, of possible obstruction of justice. The Acting U.S. Attorney finally admitted on 11 occasions, his attorney told the grand jury Schock “had failed to appear” before the grand jury (a defendant is not required to appear before a grand jury).
* The judge was furious…
The federal judge overseeing the criminal case against former Rep. Aaron Schock leveled an unusual public complaint Tuesday that he was misled by a prosecutor on the case.
Judge Colin Bruce, of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois, also ordered the prosecution to conduct a review of all its court filings in the matter for potential inaccuracies.
* The feds got him removed from the case…
…Bruce ordered the government to review all court filings in the case to determine whether they contained false or misleading claims. Furthermore, Bruce ordered that acting U.S. attorney Patrick Hansen, as opposed to Bass or anyone else, conduct the review.
It was an unusual step for a federal judge, and it didn’t sit well with Bass or others in the U.S. attorney’s office, according to a motion in an unrelated case filed last week by federal prosecutors. Lisa Hopps, a paralegal in the U.S. attorney’s office, saw Bruce’s order as “an unfounded personal attack” against Bass, according to last week’s filing made in response to a request for a new trial made by Sarah Nixon, who was convicted of international kidnapping in 2016 for taking her child to Canada during a custody dispute with the child’s father. Nixon is asking for a new trial based on improper emails exchanged between Bruce, the judge in her case, and employees in the U.S. attorney’s office.
Upset by Bruce’s criticism of Bass, Hopps told Bass about emails that she’d received from the judge nearly a year earlier during Nixon’s trial, when the judge in emails sent to Hopps critiqued the performance of prosecutors and assessed odds for acquittal. Such emails from judges, who are supposed to refrain from commenting on cases outside courtrooms, are considered improper.
* And then DC stepped in and removed the prosecutors…
The increasingly odd corruption case filed against former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock took another bizarre turn Thursday when local prosecutors were removed from the case by their superiors in Washington, D.C.
A few months later, the feds decided to drop all the charges against Schock in exchange for some reimbursements. It was the right decision.
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* Rep. Dave McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) just called to say he’s decided not to run for reelection, but he will complete his current term in office.
McSweeney said he wants to focus on a statewide bid in 2022, either for US Senate against Tammy Duckworth or for secretary of state if Jesse White retires.
It’s tough to see success in the current political environment, but a statewide GOP win isn’t totally out of the question if President Trump loses next year and the new Democratic president has a rocky start (think 1994 and 2010).
McSweeney said he’s forming a super PAC, likely a 501(c)(4), that he’ll use to buttress a statewide bid. He plans to start campaigning statewide soon, but he has been speaking at various Lincoln Day dinners over the past year.
McSweeney said he has been encouraging Barrington Hills Village President Martin McLaughlin to run for his House seat, but McLaughlin has so far made no commitments.
* Rep. McSweeney has fought battle after battle with House Republican Leader Jim Durkin over the years. In retaliation, Durkin has pulled McSweeney’s state staff and McSweeney has called him a corrupt, anti-Trump RINO. A McSweeney exit will undoubtedly lower the tension on the Republican side of the aisle.
Durkin’s spokesperson Eleni Demertzis released a brief statement today: “We wish him well.”
…Adding… Rep. Mark Batinick…
David McSweeney was one of my earliest supporters. While there was friction within our caucus over the last few years, I’ve always appreciated his independent streak and willingness to challenge authority. Rep. McSweeney has been fighting for property tax relief, transparency, and reform at every level of government. We need reformers in Springfield.
Rep. McSweeney will no doubt bring his tenacious approach and reform agenda to a statewide run. I wish him the best.
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* Rebecca Anzel…
Catholic protesters rallied at the Illinois Statehouse Wednesday, denouncing lawmakers’ recent expansion of abortion rights and potential votes to further that agenda.
Led by Father Edward Ohm, of the Diocese of Peoria and based in Lincoln, a group of about 30 met to ensure their legislators know they are “not in favor” of laws recently enacted by the General Assembly and Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, including the Reproductive Health Act and a package of tax increases. […]
Meanwhile, high taxes in Illinois, Ohm said, are “wrecking havoc on people’s lives.”
“Churches need people to help them when it comes to keeping the doors open on the weekends,” he said. “…The funds are not as plentiful as they used to be because more people are paying taxes and, on top of that, more people are moving out of state.”
* Brian Mackey…
“We want to follow what God wants us to do in this life, and some of the things that they’re promoting goes against God’s will in our life,” Ohm said after the service.
But some Democrats say more needs to be done on abortion. Their party controls both the Illinois House and Senate, and they hope to repeal the parental notification law when the legislature returns to Springfield this fall.
Among that group is State Rep. Chris Welch, a Democrat from Hillside and co-sponsor of the parnetal-notification repeal legislation.
“Sometimes, some families communicate better than others,” Welch said. “But I don’t think that’s a business for the legislature to get involved in.”
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SIUC chancellor looks on the bright side
Thursday, Sep 5, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* We talked a bit about Southern Illinois University’s enrollment drop yesterday. SIUC Chancellor John Dunn wrote about it as well. Here’s an excerpt…
Our official fall 2019 enrollment is 11,695, down 8.75 percent. You may be wondering why a decline might be considered positive, but there are a lot of details underneath the overall total that signal a change in direction.
Let’s start with retention. Our freshman to sophomore retention rate, reflecting the percentage of last year’s first-time freshmen who returned this fall, is 75 percent. Consider that it was 71 percent last year and 67 percent the year before. This is news to celebrate, as retention is as critical to our enrollment as recruitment.
Looking at the freshman class, our average ACT score has risen to 24.30, up from last year’s more than 20-year record of 23.65. We are continuing to attract strong students who will find success at SIU. At the same time, we continue to weigh every applicant’s potential carefully as we know that grades and test scores don’t tell the full story.
The number of transfer students was relatively flat at 1,268, increasing by 7 students – or less than 1 percent. This is the result of outstanding efforts to connect with our community college partners and identify pathways for our transfer students.
And while the number of first-time students has declined fewer than 100 students to 1,037, or 8.47 percent, this follows decreases of 24 and 20 percent the previous two years. New programs in nursing, business analytics and other areas will help close this gap in the future. We are heading in the right direction.
Graduate enrollment is also relatively flat at 2,683, down 26 students or just under 1 percent. Last year it was down 8.29 percent.
International enrollment is down 13.9 percent, which is not unexpected given policy changes both in the United States and abroad. While some of this is out of our control, we are working diligently on international recruitment.
While helping out at the SIU tent at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, I had the opportunity to talk with a visitor: Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. He offered some wisdom on the challenges of turning around the state, noting that it’s a lot faster to go downhill than it is to climb back up.
This is true for SIU Carbondale, as well. I note that we had predicted this enrollment decline not only because we had a large graduating class last spring followed by the smaller classes that are still in the pipeline, but also because it will take time to change strategies and perceptions, some of which are tied to the state budget impasse.
Every one of us has a part to play, whether you are in the classroom, maintaining our facilities and beautiful campus, supporting students as they make decisions about classes or campus life, or helping tell our positive story within the larger community. Every single interaction you have with a current or prospective student has the potential to make a difference. Remember my motto: “It’s personal.”
If nothing else, it’s a refreshing attitude.
(Hat tip: Ted Cox)
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State budget gives court system some relief
Thursday, Sep 5, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Rebecca Anzel…
Illinois’ judicial branch will use its first budget increase in six years in part to alleviate costs paid by local governments, court officials said.
This is the first time in almost 30 years the state’s courts were allocated the financial resources by the General Assembly to fully reimburse counties for salaries and probation services, an official said.
* The story is based on a recent column by Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Lloyd Karmeier…
Year in and year out, conflict between the executive branch and the General Assembly exacerbated the state’s financial woes and sent the courts scrambling to find new strategies for meeting their obligations under the law. At one point, the state went nearly 800 days without a full budget. For five straight years, the Supreme Court’s appropriation level remained flat as the expenses we were required to meet continued to mount. We were rapidly approaching the breaking point, especially with respect to reimbursement for probation services.
Fortunately, there has been a dramatic change. This year – for the first time – I was able to report to my colleagues at the Conference of Chief Justices that Illinois could not only boast of a functional court, but also of a government that was finally able to provide the judicial branch with a timely and workable budget. For Fiscal Year 2020, our appropriation from the General Revenue Fund was increased to $405,321,200, a figure that is $60.5 million higher than each of the previous five years.
While substantial, this long overdue increase is hardly a windfall. Rather than fund new initiatives, it will be used primarily to catch up on existing financial responsibilities that have continued to rise even as our budget remained stagnant. Most significant will be the change in our level of probation reimbursement, which had fallen far below statutory requirements.
* Back to Anzel’s piece
Statute mandates the Supreme Court reimburse counties for probation costs. Instead of being locked in a jail cell, a person on probation is allowed to “contribute to their communities,” keep a job and maintain contact with their family, Kara McCaffrey, assistant director of Administrative Services, said. It is a period of supervision different from parole, which is overseen and paid for by the Department of Corrections.
“Because of shortening the judicial branch of their requested amounts, those shortages were passed on through probation back to the communities simply because the court has very limited options in their budget,” Rich Adkins, assistant director of Probation Services, said.
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* Press release…
The Illinois Policy Institute promoted its executive vice president, Matt Paprocki, to president of the nonprofit research organization. John Tillman will remain chairman and CEO of the Institute.
Paprocki will also serve as chairman of the recently formed Illinois Policy PAC. IPPAC gives taxpayers a platform with lawmakers and decision-makers in Springfield, and provides them the same kind of legislative access unions, corporations and other special interests have enjoyed for decades. As a nonpartisan, independent committee, the PAC supports Democrats and Republicans willing to fight for Illinois taxpayers. PAC activity can be viewed at illinoissunshine.org.
Statement from Matt Paprocki:
“The Illinois Policy Institute is the only research organization that helps taxpayers understand how public policy affects their lives and gives them a voice in Springfield. We are a team of economists, policy experts, communicators and leaders. I am proud and honored to work with an amazing team.
“We are thankful to have thousands of donors and hundreds of thousands of Illinois citizens who support our work because they believe in our mission. Our team provides taxpayers with a voice that can compete with the special interests that have long dominated in Springfield.
“I was a staffer in the legislature for seven years before joining the Illinois Policy Institute, and I always admired the Institute’s ability to fight for what’s right – not what’s easy. I will steward what John and the team have built, and will honor the Illinois Policy Institute’s founding vision: To fight for policies that empower people, not government. To do that, we need to build bridges. Our democracy works best when we work together and that will be a principle that drives me forward in all our work in Springfield and around the state.”
Statement from John Tillman:
“This evolution in our leadership structure properly reflects the great work Matt has done to lead our team on the daily fight to advance fiscal responsibility, criminal justice reform and, more broadly, a reform agenda that will put Illinois back on the track to prosperity for all of its citizens. Further, Matt’s role with the Illinois Policy PAC will help the team better advance our agenda with leaders on both sides of the aisle who share our common interest in reforms that put the people of Illinois first instead of special interests.”
I respect Matt and wish him well. He was behind the group’s push to find bipartisan sponsors for their bills this past spring, which was encouraging to see. And it’s also worth noting that Tillman went out of his way to say that the Institute was not formally part of his lawsuit to invalidate billions of dollars in state bonds.
We’ll see how this new PAC does. Its top contributor so far is the Government Accountability Alliance, which appears to be Tillman’s umbrella group for his various organizations.
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* July…
Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts’ designer Wilmette home is worth more than twice as much as previously thought — and that could more than double his property tax bill next year and trigger a tab of at least $60,000 in back taxes and interest.
That bottom line emerged Tuesday as the Cook County assessor’s office completed its reassessment of Ricketts’ property following a Tribune story that revealed the Republican National Committee finance chairman had been paying taxes as if the older, smaller house he’d torn down more than a decade ago was still there.
* Today…
The Cook County Board of Review has referred to the state’s attorney its investigation of Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts’ property tax appeal on his designer Wilmette home after concluding that Ricketts and his real estate lawyer made “misrepresentations” that lowered tax bills by tens of thousands of dollars.
The tax appeals panel concluded that it “does not have sufficient evidence to establish” that either Ricketts or attorney James FortCamp “knowingly misled” officials. But the board also noted it does not have the authority to compel those involved to testify under oath. […]
Ricketts’ attorney, former federal prosecutor Patrick Collins, wrote a four-page letter to the tax board that described the appeal as “a series of good faith miscommunications.”
“While Mr. Ricketts takes responsibility for the errors, there was no intent to deceive anyone,” the letter read.
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Tribune asks “Where’s the urgency?”
Thursday, Sep 5, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune editorial on Mayor Lori Lightfoot and pensions…
We’re grateful to hear an elected official confront the details of the pension crisis and commit to solving it, regardless of the potential political cost. So far the responses from Springfield have been empty. A lot of: We look forward to hearing what the mayor has to say. …
Where’s the urgency?
True, Lightfoot is thin on details. She told Crain’s Chicago Business that handing out generous cost of living allowances to government retirees is “unsustainable,” and she wants to see “structural changes” to the pension system. But what exactly does she want from the state? How does she propose balancing the 2020 city budget? How much will she raise taxes if Springfield does help her — or, by contrast, refuses to help her — with pension relief, taxing authority and the possibility of a Chicago casino? To be determined.
What we know for certain: Chicago has a pension disaster. Springfield has one, too. Future stability and prosperity are on the line. Lightfoot doesn’t have a plan yet, but says she’s determined to act.
That puts her one step ahead of Springfield.
Thoughts?
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