* Fox Chicago had We Ask America do an automated poll of President Obama’s job approval rating here in Illinois. He’s still a net positive, but just barely. And the president’s numbers in Downstate and suburban areas have got to be giving legislative and congressional Democrats a severe case of heartburn…
Do you approve of the job President Obama is doing?
Suburban (”collar”) county voters rate Obama job performance:
* Approve: 43%
* Disapprove: 55%
Chicago voters rate Obama job performance:
* Approve: 78%
* Disapprove: 18%
Suburban Cook County voters rate Obama job performance:
* Approve: 53%
* Disapprove: 42%
African-American voters in Illinois rate Obama job performance:
* Approve: 87%
* Disapprove: 11%
Hispanic:
* Approve: 59%
* Disapprove: 34%
White:
* Approve: 42%
* Disapprove: 53%
Male voters in Illinois:
* Approve: 45%
* Disapprove: 52%
Female voters in Illinois:
* Approve: 55%
* Disapprove: 40%
Emphasis added.
Discuss.
…Adding… As a comparison, Obama’s job rating in the 2010 exit polling here was 54 percent approve, 46 percent disapprove. Fewer Democrat tend to vote in off-year elections, so his total approval rating would probably be higher, meaning he’s slipped even more.
…Adding More… The poll also matched up the president with a few rivals. He’s beating them all quite handily. And while he’s over 50 percent in all the contests, his highest point is just 52.85 percent against Herman Cain. Nobody is saying that Obama will lose Illinois. But he should be doing much better than that, and Downstate and suburban down-ticket Democrats need him to do far better than he is.
* Politicians apparently still haven’t gotten the message that their district offices and their political offices are supposed to be kept separate…
U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, state Rep. Karen Yarbrough and a township Democratic organization operated for years out of a village-owned building in near-west suburban Broadview.
But the deal among political allies involved no signed leases with the village and was beset by disclosure problems, the Tribune found, raising questions about whether tax dollars helped bankroll political operations.
Among the issues, Davis used federal tax money to pay Yarbrough’s campaign fund about $300 a month — about $15,000 since early 2007 — but the state legislator failed to disclose it in campaign reports. And the Proviso Township Democratic Organization, which is run by Yarbrough, was allowed to use the same village-owned building without a lease specifying how it would be used and how much to pay for it.
The money from Davis came out of his taxpayer-funded allowance for staff salaries, office and travel expenses. Both lawmakers say it was used to cover his share of utilities and cleaning at the shared offices. […]
“(The staffer) was told by an accountant that you don’t want to make it look like the federal government is making a contribution to your campaign,” Yarbrough said.
A new state law barring government employees from drawing a pension while earning another public paycheck doesn’t apply to the vast majority of current workers, leaving thousands free to “double dip” after retirement and doing little or nothing to help salvage desperately underfunded pension systems.
Responding to high-profile examples of double dipping and a public eager for pension reform, legislators last year passed a law restricting the practice, though only for workers hired – not simply retired – after Jan. 1 of this year. That means most current employees would be permitted to double dip even if they retire decades from now.
Lawmakers said they had no choice because the state constitution doesn’t allow them to reduce retirement benefits for unionized public employees, meaning they could not stop pension payments regardless of an employee’s future job status.
But critics say that’s a matter of interpretation, especially because future double dippers already would be retired from their current jobs before they got another, and there is no specific vested right to employment in other government jobs.
Using new, post-Blagojevich rules, the state of Illinois puts up for public bid a contract that’s been held by the same provider for three decades. The winning bidder promises to cut costs for the cash-strapped state by $100 million a year—a cool $1 billion over a decade.
Who possibly could object?
As it turns out, just about everybody in beautiful Springfield. And therein is a classic example of how state government is broken, caught in a morass of mistrust, complexity and good old politics.
At issue in this case is health insurance for roughly 100,000 state workers and government retirees. In an attack led by conservative Republicans—abetted by Democratic leadership, but oddly not by a key workers union—the Capitol gang has pretty well scuttled Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to shift to new providers. Not good. […]
But COGFA’s co-chairman, state Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, D-Evanston, says the state is tossing away $1 billion. Largely agreeing with him is AFSCME, the big government employees union, which says the anticipated savings “look real.” Even Mr. Schnorf credits the Quinn administration with a sincere effort.
* “Fox Guarding the Hen House” of Illinois Health Reform?: One of the next steps for the Affordable Care Act in Illinois is setting up the Health Benefit Exchange that will help about 1 million uninsured residents and small businesses get coverage. This week, a legislative committee finalizes its recommendations on the Exchange. One big issue is who should sit on its governing board. The insurance industry has asked to be represented, saying it has expertise to offer.
* Quinn administration accused of dragging heels on Medicaid changes: In January, Illinois lawmakers passed a series of Medicaid reforms that they said could save the state up to $774 million over the next five years. However, federal regulators later said Illinois couldn’t proceed with two of the changes, which deal with how the state verifies the eligibility of Medicaid recipients to receive aid. Some Republican lawmakers now say Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration isn’t being aggressive enough in challenging that ruling and implementing other reforms.
* Illinois slashed its budget for indigent burials last spring, and that decision has led to a gruesome result. Bodies are piling up throughout the state. But Cook County has come up with a solution…
The bodies of those who die in Cook County whose family members can’t pay for burial will be automatically donated to science, according to a new policy implemented by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
The new protocol was detailed Sept. 27 and deemed “effective immediately” in a memo from Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Nancy Jones.
If a family of a deceased person claims there is no money for burial, the medical examiner’s office will inform the family that the remains will be released to the Anatomic Gift Assocation within two weeks of the body having being received at the morgue, the memo said. […]
There’s one sticking point. In cases where the remains are decomposed, if the person had AIDS or was HIV positive; or if the person was more than 300 pounds, the cases will not be accepted to the Anatomic Gift Association and the body will be buried by the county in the usual fashion, the memo said.
* The Question: If a family cannot afford to bury a loved one, is Cook County’s solution of automatically donating the body to science OK with you? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please. Thanks.
…Adding… Just to be clear, this can be stopped if the deceased has a will which forbids such a thing or directs that something else be done with his/her body.
Monday, Oct 3, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
After a summer riddled with power outages, angry customers, and a veto of Senate Bill 1652, it’s no wonder that ComEd is back on the SB1652 campaign trail – trying to convince Illinois legislators to override the veto, claiming that the legislation will lead to necessary improvements in Illinois’ electric grid. Don’t buy it.
ComEd and Ameren have received nearly $640 million in rate increases since 2007 – all paid for by consumers. Why haven’t those funds been reinvested for infrastructure improvements? Exelon, ComEd’s parent company, posted $2.6 billion in profits in 2010; Ameren $151 million. Again, why weren’t those funds used to pay for infrastructure improvements?
If ComEd and Ameren had been appropriately reinvesting existing revenues into the infrastructure all along, they wouldn’t need SB1652.
Senate Bill 1652 isn’t about smart grids or modernization of the electric grid. It’s about higher rates and higher guaranteed profits for utility companies. As former CIA Director, James Woolsey, recently said: “A so-called smart grid that’s as vulnerable as what we’ve got is not smart at all. It’s a really, really stupid grid.”
AARP urges lawmakers to stand up for consumers and reject any attempt to override Governor Quinn’s veto of SB1652.
* The same arbitrator who ruled in July that Gov. Pat Quinn could not halt scheduled, contractual pay raises for union employees ruled today that the governor cannot lay people off or close facilities under provisions Quinn agreed to with the union. The full decision is here. From the opinion…
The language of the Cost Savings Agreements is clear and unambiguous. The repeated promises made by the State in the negotiated words found in the Cost Savings Agreements — “… the parties agree that there shall be no temporary or indeterminate layoffs through the end of FY2012 (June 30, 2012) nor shall the state close any facilities … [and] there shall be no temporary or indeterminate layoffs through the end of FY2012 (June 30, 2012), nor shall the State close any facilities prior to July 1, 2012” — could not be clearer. Those words simply mean what they say — i.e., there will be “no” layoffs or facility closures prior to July 1, 2012. With that clear language, there is no need for a hearing concerning what was involved in the negotiation of that language.
You’ll recall that Quinn agreed to the no-layoff, no-closure issue last year during the campaign. AFSCME was supposed to come up with corresponding budget cuts to mitigate the costs.
* However, as with the pay raise issue, this case will undoubtedly be ultimately decided in the courts. Back to the opinion…
I have issued this award on an expedited basis. As with the July 2011 Wage Increase Award, litigation in the courts will no doubt now follow. Given the importance of this case, one would hope that any judicial determinations will also be handled on an expedited basis. This case must be expedited by all involved
* The arbitrator also reiterated what he wrote about the consequences of the governor’s usage of “subject to appropriation” language to subvert a union contract…
If the State is correct in its statutory and Constitutional arguments, the result will be that public sector employers and unions will have to negotiate collective bargaining agreements every year instead of having multiyear agreements (typically three to five years and sometimes longer) which bring labor peace and stability. Some public sector contracts in this state have taken years to negotiate or settle through the interest arbitration process under Section 14 of the IPLRA. Having been involved in the collective bargaining process as a mediator and interest arbitrator for over 25 years, I estimate that thousands of multi-year collective bargaining agreements have been settled in this state.
If the State is correct that economic provisions of multi-year collective bargaining agreements are not enforceable or are contingent upon subsequent appropriations for the out years of the agreements, then the collective bargaining process will be, to say the least, severely undermined. If the State is correct, the result will be most chaotic and costly as public sector employers and unions will now have to drudge through the often laborious, time consuming and costly collective bargaining process on a yearly basis. Unions will do that. Public sector employers will be loathe to have to engage in that costly and time consuming endeavor on a yearly basis. If the State is correct in its statutory and Constitutional arguments, the multi-year collective bargaining agreement is, for all purposes, probably dead.
*** UPDATE *** From the governor’s office…
“The actions taken by the Administration last month are necessary to manage a budget that underfunded the operational and personnel lines in a number of state agencies. This ruling does not change the fact that the money to run all these facilities for the entire year was not appropriated by the General Assembly. You can’t spend money you don’t have.
“Arbitrator Benn concedes that he does not have jurisdiction over the Illinois Constitution and statutes that apply to this issue, and both the Constitution and statutes remain to be addressed by the courts. We will seek to stay and vacate the decision while we continue to manage the budget so that core services the people of Illinois depend upon can be provided for the entire year.”
* Related…
* Illinois Arbitrator Stops Quinn’s Plan to Dismiss 1,900 Workers
* Arbitrator Says Quinn’s Layoffs Violate Union Contract
According to the state’s auditor general, the average cost to the Illinois taxpayer is $142,342 per offender at Murphysboro. It’s even higher, $215,750, at the Pere Marquette youth prison in Grafton, which has 18 offenders and 49 staff members. The governor tried closing that one but failed amid opposition over the loss of jobs.
The recidivism rate in the juvenile system in Illinois is 50 percent, compared with 8 percent in Missouri. And we’re talking just about those who return to the juvenile system as opposed to winding up later in the adult system, a percentage that Illinois doesn’t track. […]
Those community alternatives explain a 25 percent national decline in youths under lock and key. Redeploy Illinois, a program that deals with youthful offenders without incarcerating them, is seen as a success, one that has contributed to a big drop in the state’s juvenile prison population, down to 1,100 in a system with 1,754 beds.
But it’s revealing that while Redeploy Illinois gets $3 million a year, we pay $5.3 million a year in overtime and comp time alone to workers at the youth centers, which helps to explain soaring per-bed costs.
* Doug Finke compares Gov. Pat Quinn’s announcements about new private sector jobs last week with his proposed state job cuts…
Total jobs that will be lost if the state closes all seven facilities: 2,661. That includes non-state jobs that result from the employees and the facilities themselves spending money. Then there are 88 other state jobs that Quinn says have to be eliminated because of budget cuts. Total loss: 2,749.
New jobs in Illinois, according to the press releases: 475.
So, just 2,274 more new jobs needed in Illinois to offset the state government cuts.
If you’re keeping score at home, which I happen to be, the tally looks to be stuck:
Chicago Public Schools –13
Chicago Teachers Union – 470
That’s 13 city public elementary schools where the teachers have voted to extend their classroom days by 90 minutes this year as part of the administration’s controversial Longer School Day Pioneer Program, and 470 schools where they haven’t. […]
The union says teachers at 116 schools have so far voted down the proposed waiver. The administration challenges that number and notes that the option will remain on the table until at least the end of November.
* Herman Cain won the overwhelming number of votes from this past weekend’s TeaCon Midwest 2011 Straw Poll. And Barack Obama outpolled John Huntsman. From a TeaCon Midwest press release…
A Cook County commissioner today is pitching the idea of merging the recorder of deeds operation into the county clerk’s office.
Commissioner John Fritchey, D-Chicago, wants the County Board to put a referendum on the November 2012 ballot asking voters to do just that. Fritchey said it could save taxpayers money.
* If you read the Chicago Tribune’s editorial or the State Journal-Register’s editorial about Bill Cellini’s trial, which starts today, you may notice something missing. The same goes for John Kass’ column. You have to go all the way to the bottom of the Associated Press story to find it. And it’s a buried, toss-away nugget in the middle of several other stories about the trial.
The allegations leveled against Cellini were the subject of some charges in Rezko’s 2008 trial. Rezko was acquitted of eight of the 24 counts against him, including those connected to the alleged extortion attempt against Rosenberg. Levine was the star witness against Rezko.
That SJ-R explanation doesn’t really explain that Cellini is on trial for an alleged conspiracy which Tony Rezko’s jury decided did not exist. Stu Levine, according to that jury, made up the entire conspiracy in his head.
Look, Bill Cellini is what he is. He made millions off of his state contacts, and he continues to do so to this very day. But he’s not on trial for being a wealthy insider, no matter how much some people insist he is. He’s on trial for a very specific act that was dismissed out of hand in Rezko’s trial.
* That doesn’t mean, of course, that Cellini will be acquitted.
Participating in a phony conspiracy can still get you sent to prison for a very long time. An uncle of mine, for instance, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for unloading what he thought was a plane full of cocaine. Unknown to myself and most of my family, Uncle Bruce was involved with some extremely bad people in the Outlaws motorcycle gang back in the day. Unfortunately for Bruce, he was actually unloading a government-owned plane filled with drywall paste. It was a total setup. But Bruce thought it was coke, so off he went.
What I recall about the media coverage of Uncle Bruce’s trial is pretty much the same thing I’m seeing in the Cellini coverage so far. A whole lot of hype about how bad the Outlaws were (and they were and are, indeed, the bad guys), but no mention, or only a buried mention, of what he was really being charged with.
Bernie Schoenburg is the political columnist for the State Journal Register in Springfield, and he says Cellini has been the de facto head of the Sangamon County Republicans for a long time, but he never took the top spot; he preferred the less high-profile, though powerful job, of treasurer.
“He’s certainly not a big deal in the typical politician way because you won’t see him giving a speech In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him give a speech. He’s not the kind of person who needs that kind of adoration or attention from the public. But he’s been a big influence in the background for many years,” says Schoenburg. […]
Rich Miller is another political reporter in Springfield. He publishes a newsletter called Capitol Fax and has been observing the political scene in Springfield for a couple decades. He talks about Cellini with a sense of wonder and amazement. Miller says, “Usually somebody has, like, one idea in life, okay, that works and then every other idea they have doesn’t work, but he kept coming up with new ideas all the time and they always worked, but it was based on a common theme. Government makes certain people money, so you be one of those certain people all the time.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** Rezko’s sentencing is again delayed…
A federal judge in Chicago has again delayed the sentencing of convicted political fixer Tony Rezko, the onetime top adviser to and campaign fund-raiser for ousted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve agreed Monday to a request by prosecutors to delay Rezko’s sentencing — which was most recently set for Oct. 21 — until Nov. 22 so the sentencing doesn’t interfere with the trial of Springfield businessman and longtime political power broker William Cellini.
Potential jurors in William Cellini’s trial were in federal court this morning, but so far, jury selection hasn’t started in the corruption case of the Downstate power broker.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers were still in chambers with U.S. District Judge James Zagel discussing issues connected to the trial, court personnel said this morning. They’re expected in court at about 12:15 p.m.
Last week, lawyers went behind closed doors to talk about star witness Stuart Levine and how much leeway Zagel would give the defense in his questioning.
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column is essentially my answer to last Friday’s Question of the Day. Have a look…
Earlier this year, when it was disclosed that Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget director had handed out two pay raises to top staffers on the same day that the governor signed the income tax increase into law, Illinois Republican Party chairman Pat Brady said the move was evidence of a “void in leadership.”
I tend to ignore or downplay most pay raise stories unless they’re particularly egregious. Unlike the standard-issue government haters, I try to understand that the benefits of employee morale and retention are as important in government as they are in the private sector, where raises for mid to high-level executives are the norm, not the exception.
There’s definitely a market for these sorts of stories, however. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Sept. 15 that real average weekly earnings are in a national deflationary slide and suffered a 2.5 percent drop over the previous year. So, it’s easy to see how taxpayers would be susceptible to reporting which purports to show that their government isn’t acting responsibly during a crisis.
Yet, I tend to believe that most of these stories, and the enraged editorials which always follow, are somewhat distasteful and far too predictable. A reporter will discover the raises and then run to the person most likely to spew just the right quote to make the story seem far more important than it actually is.
Almost all of these stories carry a heavy stench of contrived indignation. They seem almost designed to intentionally rile up the public using the path of least resistance. In the public’s mind, bureaucrats equals bad and politicians equals bad. So, politicians giving raises to bureaucrats is basically a gimme story destined for the front page.
And that’s why we routinely see comments like the one above from Brady. It was your standard “gotcha” quote from a partisan more than happy to help give an unfavorable story even more oomph.
But last week, when Brady was asked about an Associated Press story regarding raises for non-union employees who work for Republican Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka and Republican Treasurer Dan Rutherford, the state party chairman suddenly changed his tune.
Brady told Charles Thomas at WLS-TV (Channel 7) last week that, rather than some undefined “void in leadership,” he didn’t see any hypocrisy at all with two self-proclaimed fiscal conservative watchdogs handing out pay hikes.
“You have to make individual decisions on individual employees and how you treat them,” Brady said. “Most of these folks are underpaid, so I don’t see an inconsistency there.”
Believe it or not, Chairman Brady was right last week. No complaint here.
These raises for nonunion workers were almost all pretty darned small, especially when put into the context of the lack of raises for non-union employees over the years and the fact that union members have received regular raises for decades. And the few non-union workers who received “big” raises didn’t really see all that much more money. Topinka’s chief of staff, who was singled out by the Associated Press, got just $76 extra a week, for instance.
Not only that, but in Topinka’s case, her office headcount is at its lowest level in decades. She’s planning to give back over $1.5 million out of her payroll budget alone at the end of the fiscal year, and that’s after the modest 3 percent raises to 56 non-union staffers, which will cost the state about $127,000.
At the end of June, 2007, the comptroller’s office employed 302 people. It now employs just 233. And because union employees (under a contract signed by Topinka’s predecessor) are receiving 4.5 percent annual raises, 62 management employees have been enticed to join the union in the past two years alone. Awarding smaller, one-time raises could easily be considered as prudent management. Whatever the case, it still remains true that Topinka has more than offset these pay raises.
Rutherford’s current budget is the same as last year’s budget, so his office’s raises are also not increasing overall state spending.
But, hey, let’s all tee off on these two because it’s just so easy. They’ve sharply criticized government spending, and their party boss has hammered the governor for his raises, so let’s all join the outraged chorus. And for heaven’s sake, we wouldn’t want a few facts to get in the way of a fine public roasting, now would we?
* My wife was in an auto accident a little over a month ago. Nobody was hurt, but our car was crunched but good. She picked up the car today in Chicago and said it looked brand new, which is good since it’s not even a year old. She loves that car and she’s ecstatic right now, so this one’s for Wasan…
Honey, it ain’t your money
Baby, I got plenty of that
The parent of the Chicago Board Options Exchange has held talks with a number of governors and state officials about a possible move of its headquarters to another state after Illinois raised its tax rate, providing another challenge to the city’s status as the self-styled “derivatives capital of the world.”
January’s tax increase is seen increasing CBOE Holdings Inc.’s (CBOE) state tax bill by a quarter. Chicago-based CME Group Inc. (CME), the world’s largest futures exchange operator, is also talking about relocating its headquarters.
“We’ve had a series of meetings with people in this state and outside this state,” said Bill Brodsky, chairman and chief executive of CBOE, in an interview. “The bottom line is that we don’t want to leave Illinois, but the structure that exists as it relates to exchanges is virtually punitive.” […]
Chicago’s derivatives exchanges form the nucleus of a broader financial services sector that is also being hit by the tax rise, said Brodsky. The trading business is estimated to employ around 120,000 people in the city, and has expanded to fill the gap left by the decline of its manufacturing base. […]
“Our goal is to find a way that will remove the punitive aspects that will allow us not to move operations out,” Brodsky said. “Hopefully we will come to a solution, but if not we have many other alternatives.”
It may already be too late, but I really think we need to seriously consider repealing that corporate income tax hike.
* 1:56 pm - Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan just sent this e-mail to his executive board. I confirmed it with Cullerton’s office…
Patricia Cullerton, mother of Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, died Thursday at Tabor Hills, a retirement home in Naperville. She was 85.
“President Cullerton is taking this time to honor her memory and celebrate the proud legacy she left in her family,” said Rikeesha Phelon, spokeswoman for Cullerton.
Patricia Cullerton, a Chicago native and longtime resident of Winfield, had nine children and more than 20 grandchildren. Her husband, John J. Cullerton Sr., preceded her in death.
Visitation is from 2-7 p.m. Sunday at Williams-Kampp Funeral Home, 430 E. Roosevelt Road, Wheaton. A funeral Mass will be at 11:30 a.m. Monday at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Winfield.
My most sincere sympathies are extended to President Cullerton and his entire family.
You’d probably better set aside more money in your budget to fight a blizzard of lawsuits over your planned facility closures…
Among the potential roadblocks is a statute designating the Chester Mental Health Center as the state’s sole facility for treating certain kinds of violence-prone residents. The governor wants to move the residents to an existing facility in Alton.
In addition, moving nearly 2,000 inmates out of the Logan Correctional Center will cause additional overcrowding in the state’s already cramped prison system, potentially opening up the state to an inmate lawsuit. […]
In addition to requiring statutory changes allowing Alton to begin serving Chester residents, mental health advocate Mark Heyrman, a facilitor for the Chicago-based Mental Health Summit, said state laws limit how Quinn can use the savings he says he will get from closing the three centers.
* Dear Tammy Duckworth,
It’s “Dick” with a “D.” Try to remember that the next time you send out a fundraising e-mail…
…Adding… But this Duckworth campaign e-mail update ain’t bad at all…
Here’s the good news: when we totaled it up at lunch yesterday, we realized that Tammy has raised $386,504 for the primary from over 2,000 people.
* Dear Community Unit School District 300,
If Sears moves its headquarters because the company’s local economic development area authorization is allowed to expire, you’re gonna get even less tax money…
“EDA is not the way.”
“RIP, EDA.”
Allison Strupeck, director of communication services in Community Unit School District 300 admitted, “I’ve been thinking a little too much about what the slogans might be.”
Those are slogans Strupeck said she hopes to see and hear soon around the Carpentersville-area school district as it treads into uncharted waters to stop the extension of the EDA — economic development area — special property tax status around Sears’ Prairie Stone corporate headquarters in Hoffman Estates.
District 300 is working with students, staff, parents, community groups and legislators to remove an amendment to Illinois Senate Bill 540 that would extend the EDA past its expiration in mid-2012. That’s because those tax incentives hand about $14 million in tax dollars each year that would go to District 300 instead to the EDA generally bordered by I-90, Route 72, Beverly Road and Prairie Stone Parkway, school district officials say.
Three years after a financial crisis pushed the country deep into recession, an overwhelming number of Americans — 90 percent — say that economic conditions remain poor.
* Dear ComEd,
You might wanna consider the distinct possibility that you’ve been cursed…
Wind gusts knocked out power to 31,000 people overnight, ComEd officials said.
Perhaps canceling your Cubs skybox would do the trick.
Schulter’s two campaign committees had $187,299 in cash on hand, with another $647,141 invested in certificates of deposit as of June 30, state records show.
What kind of person calls 911 because his wife locked him out of the house after she discovered on Christmas morning that he was allegedly having an affair with their neighbor? Yeah, she threw stuff at you, but, sheesh dude, couldn’t you just walk away, perhaps to that very same neighbor’s house?
* Dear Chicago Tea Party honcho Steve Stevlic, who is co-hosting this weekend’s TeaCon 2011 event,
In retrospect, I’m sure you would agree that it probably wasn’t a good idea to taunt Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. after his marital problems were exposed when you yourself had been busted two months earlier by the coppers for soliciting the services of a, um, woman of the evening.
It’s fantastic that you weren’t convicted after you agreed to attend a rehab program. Here’s hoping that you’re a better person now. And I mean that without any snark in my heart. But you still might wanna try to keep a low profile during the upcoming festivities.
State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka defended the raises for members of her staff during a stop at an animal shelter in Normal Wednesday morning.
A Chicago-based nonprofit group, the Better Government Association, criticized Topinka for providing raises of at least 3 percent to 56 employees.
“This is a small raise and we’re not talking about huge amounts of money,” she said. “Plus, we are down on our headcount by 24 people and $1.5 million.”
The raises for nonunion staffers were also based on an effort to create more parity with the unionized work force. Under existing contracts, those raises were set at 4.5 percent.
“I had all of these folks who for years have been working, working, working and I didn’t want to have to force them to join a union to get a raise,” she said.
In Illinois, budget belt-tightening has a whole different meaning than is generally understood.
With the state effectively bankrupt, should top state elected officials be handing out pay raises to their staffs? […]
Here [is the reasoning]: The raises were given because employees took on new, more serious duties; the pay raises were given as a matter of equity because the employees had been previously underpaid; and the raises were given to nonunion employees because union employees had received raises.
Those explanations are reasonable. What’s unreasonable is handing out any raises in these offices when the state is effectively broke.
A floundering private business could never get away with this kind of money management. In the private sector, having no money means having no money. In the public sector, that doesn’t seem to be a problem — at least not in Illinois.
This is a bit like the class valedictorian and student council president getting caught phoning in a bomb threat as a prank on their high school. Here we have the lone Republican constitutional officers, the ones who have preached fiscal responsibility to the point of advocating combining their offices to save money, doing the very thing that so drives taxpayers and good government groups crazy. […]
Sure, we get the excuses: Pay equity. Promotions. Adjusting for new duties, etc. But some of the raises handed out by Rutherford and Topinka seem at most excessive and at the very least, tone-deaf.
It doesn’t help public perception that news about these raises arrives only with help from the Freedom of Information Act or by good-government groups sifting through state data.
All the excuses in the world aren’t going to do anything to assuage voter anger, especially since some voters haven’t had raises in many years, and in many cases have seen pay and benefits shrink. Add in the fact that we are paying more taxes to help the state out of a fiscal crisis, and this move isn’t going to do anything to stem the ire when terms are up.
Across the state line, the insanity continues. […]
The ill-timed raises demonstrate the obvious. Illinois’ leadership — pardon our gross misuse of that word — clearly is constitutionally incapable of exercising sound fiscal judgment.
Who knows? Maybe their rationale is to rake in a few final bucks before the state’s entire fiscal house of cards collapses. Chances are it’s too late to save this spend-happy state anyway. […]
Failure for years to deal with known problems landed Illinois in this fix. The only solution, eventually, may be the humiliation of bankruptcy. Really.
Giving pay raises to state workers demonstrates political tone deafness. That was the case when Quinn did. It’s still the case now that Rutherford and Topinka have done it.
They all have excuses and explanations for the new jobs and the big raises. But no way should they be doing this in the midst of a fiscal crisis. They’re supposed to be leading us out of this mess, but instead they are adding to the problem.
* The Question: Are editorial boards overreacting to these raises for non-union employees? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please. Thanks.
Friday, Sep 30, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Prominent experts in utility regulation are speaking out about Senate Bill 1652 (Electric Infrastructure Modernization Act).
Here’s what they are saying:
“ComEd is the only utility proposing legislation that includes performance standards linking utility investments to service reliability improvements. SB 1652 establishes a new era of accountability to consumers and serves as a national model.”
- John Kelly, Galvin Electricity Initiative
“(SB 1652) is an innovative approach to setting electricity rates that is compatible with good regulation, market realities and the goal to modernize Illinois’ electric grid.”
- Ken Costello, former regulator, principal at the National Regulatory Research Institute
“Changing regulatory policy is not easy, nor should it be. But this bill represents one opportunity for Illinois to shape policy that protects consumers, spurs needed investment in a fragile grid and creates much-needed jobs.”
- Ray Romero, former commissioner at the Illinois Commerce Commission
“The long term success of a digital grid requires that we free ourselves of outdated thinking and stereotypes, and embrace innovation as we have in so many other facets of every day life.
- David O’Brien, former Vermont Commissioner of Public Service
The unsuccessful 2011 mayoral campaign of Carol Moseley Braun has failed to file documentation on how $315,000 in campaign funds was spent, something that is required by state law.
Illinois Board of Elections officials told the Chicago Sun-Times and NBC5 News they have been unsuccessful in getting either Braun or her now-defunct campaign to explain how the money was spent.
Candidates are required by law to file quarterly campaign disclosure statements. In an April 15 filing, Braun reported raising $323,000 and spending $315,000.
In the report, the Braun campaign listed “Vendors Multiple” instead of itemizing expenditures over $150.
* And any remaining good will for Carol Moseley Braun should now vanish forevermore…
Any fault, according to Moseley Braun, lies with her former treasurer, Billie Paige.
“If Billie Paige neglected to (detail those expenses), it doesn’t surprise, she is elderly and overwhelmed,” Moseley Braun said by phone this week.
First of all, Billie Paige resigned as Braun’s campaign treasurer on April 13th. If this reporting problem was her fault, Braun has had plenty of time to straighten out the books since then.
By phone this week, Paige told NBC Chicago she had raised questions herself about the expenditure omissions.
Thirdly, Billie Paige has been one of Braun’s best friends for decades. To make these accusations now is inexcusable. Paige has defended Braun through thick and thin, and there’s been plenty of both over the years.
And, lastly, Ms. Paige is not a senile old woman. Far from it. To suggest that this problem was caused by Paige’s age and lack mental acuity is just flat-out disgusting and wrong. She’s still as sharp as a tack. The real problem was a wholly disorganized and disjointed campaign apparatus created by Braun’s total incompetence. Nobody knew what was going on from minute to minute because Braun thought she knew best. She didn’t.
Carol Braun ran a terrible campaign, and these financial reporting problems are further proof of this fact. Thankfully, she has finally been exposed as the horribly disorganized, mean-spirited person many of us have long known her to be.
It was obvious to all of us who knew her that Paige realized early on that she’d made the biggest mistake of her life by convincing Braun to run for mayor. It weighed on her heavily, and probably broke her heart.
And now this. The final insult, and a total crock to boot.
So, just how much is Indiana offering CME Group Inc. to move its headquarters and perhaps other operations to the Hoosier state?
I hear the figure — in net tax savings — is a mouth-watering $150 million a year. That’s from a reliable source who claims to have obtained the information from Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ office.
CME isn’t commenting on who’s offering what, though CEO Terry Duffy earlier in the week said he expects the headquarters matter to be resolved by yearend.
But, in a conversation with my colleague John Pletz on Thursday, Indian’s top economic development official, Dan Hasler, stopped way short of waving us off that number.
The Hoosiers really want that company to move across the border. Illinois cannot afford to compete with an offer like that, but it also cannot afford to lose such a valuable corporation.
