* Gov. Pat Quinn contradicted House Speaker Michael Madigan today. Madigan said earlier in the week that Quinn had asked him to pass another lump sum budget. But Quinn said today that he did not ask Madigan for that.
“That really isn’t true,” Quinn said, claiming that he told Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton that “if they want to do” a lump sum budget, then, “OK, I’ll do that.” Listen…
Quinn also said that when the General Assembly proposes cuts to education, as the House has done with its $200 million cut to schools, it should be seen as an “alarm bell, and we have to look very carefully at their proposal.”
* The governor was also asked about yesterday’s federal judge’s ruling which tossed out a provision in the McCormick Place reform law that eliminated some union contract rules at the facility.
“It wasn’t exactly a surprise,” Quinn said, pointing out that the had used his amendatory veto power on the legislation. “I thought there were some shortcomings in that bill,” Quinn said, but noted that the General Assembly “had decided to plow ahead” by overriding his AV.
But Quinn’s AV had nothing to do with yesterday’s judicial ruling. He never touched the language which was so hotly opposed by the Teamsters and Carpenters unions. That disputed language was in a new chapter created by the General Assembly (70 ILCS 210/5.4). Nothing in the AV referred to that section of the bill, except for one provision by Quinn that effectively killed off two small unions (on behalf of the Teamsters and Carpenters).
* Federal rights for state workers upheld: [Terrance McGann, who represented the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters] said the [McPier] ruling could have implications in other states. State governments legislating worker rights “is exactly what they are trying to do to public employees in Wisconsin, in Indiana, in Ohio,” he said.
Leaders of the Illinois Assn. of Chiefs of Police voted Wednesday to change their stance on the issue. They now support legalizing concealed carry.
It’s a big boost for those trying to repeal Illinois’s ban on the concealed carrying of handguns. The group of top cops had long opposed the idea. They voted two years to go neutral on the issue. […]
Supporters of concealed carry admit privately that their prospects have vastly improved since Richard M. Daley announced his impending retirement.
Daley is a vigorous opponent of concealed carry. But his influence in the State Capitol is vastly diminished since he became a lame duck.
* Two residents were allegedly murdered and more allegedly tortured at a Downstate group home for the developmentally disabled and we haven’t heard a thing from the attorney general’s office. But, man, don’t let your pool get dirty…
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Wednesday she issued a temporary restraining order against ABVI Management Inc., which owns America’s Best Value Inn in O’Fallon, to keep the hotel’s indoor pool closed following numerous sanitation violations.
Inspectors with the St. Clair County Health Department said they found a pool that was so dirty, the pool’s bottom wasn’t visible. They said the pool lacked a mechanical system to prevent humidity and mold. Hotel staff also allegedly failed to fill out daily reports monitoring the pool’s chlorine and pH levels.
The other day, it was the “road-kill bill,'’ allowing Illinois hunters to scoop up fur-bearing mammals from highways.
Today, it was a bill cracking down on people who steal those plastic stackable milk crates from behind grocery stores, to recycle them for money.
It was during floor debate over the milk-crate thing that Jack Franks had had enough. The Woodstock Democrat launched into an angry speech about Illinois’ already-overcrowded law books, and the Legislature’s habit of hyper-legislating on petty issues while virtually ignoring its looming fiscal crisis.
During the tirade, he tossed out this off-the-cuff remark: “Maybe we should have a law that if you pass a law, you have to take two (laws) off the books!'’
Hopes that Illinois farmers could grow industrial hemp went up in smoke Thursday in the Illinois House.
House Bill 1383, sponsored by Rep. Ken Dunkin, D-Chicago, which would have allowed farmers to get permits to grow hemp, was soundly defeated in the House. […]
However, Dunkin’s House colleagues overwhelmingly disagreed with the measure. They defeated his bill on a 28-83 vote.
One argument was that the plants would still be classified as a controlled substance, and growing them in Illinois would conflict with federal law.
* Some might call this political correctness. I think I’d disagree with them…
The Illinois House Thursday took a step toward wiping offensive terms used toward people with disabilities out of the state law books.
Rep. Emily McAsey, a Lockport Democrat, said she worked closely with the Arc of Illinois, an advocacy group for people with disabilities, to encourage the state to take the lead on using empowering language and eliminating offensive terms. […]
The measure would change all occurrence of the phrase “mentally retarded” in state statute to “intellectually disabled.”
A similar proposal pending in the Senate also would change “crippled” to “physically disabled” in state laws. That measure is sponsored by Palatine Sen. Matt Murphy, and was inspired by Palatine-based attorney Kerry Lavelle, who has a disabled sister and approached Murphy with the idea.
Currently, universities set their own tuition rates and fees. However, Senate Republicans suggested as part of their recently unveiled budget plan that lawmakers should have some say in how the universities spend the money they collect from students. Sen. Matt Murphy, a Palatine Republican, said legislators should consider capping how much tuition revenue public universities can spend each year. […]
Tom Hardy, spokesman for the University of Illinois, said if the Republican plan were approved, some academic programs might have to be cut completely. “We’re going to lose ground,” Hardy said. University employees have not had a general salary increase since 2008, according to Hardy. […]
Murphy said, however, that under the Republican plan, tuition dollars would not be lumped into the general revenue fund and could not be diverted to other state costs. Instead, lawmakers would only have the power to limit how much tuition revenue universities could spend.
* The Question: Should the General Assembly have control over how much tuition money that universities can spend? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* The Teamsters and the Carpenters unions both said from the beginning that their case against the McCormick Place reform law was a slam dunk winner. Round One proved them right…
Efforts by Illinois to preserve McCormick Place’s position as one of the country’s premier trade show venues were upended Thursday when a federal judge ruled that the state overstepped its bounds by revising work rules for unionized tradespeople on the show floor.
The ruling threw out passages of the law enacted last year that allow exhibitors to do more of their own booth setup and limit labor overtime and crew sizes.
The decision, which appeared to stun state political leaders, is a clear setback for efforts by Chicago and the state to remake the image of the convention center as a less expensive and more accommodating facility for trade shows and conventions. The city was taking a beating as high-profile trade shows left or threatened to leave for lower-cost cities such as Orlando and Las Vegas.
Now a major component of the changes that already were proving popular with show organizers and exhibitors has been tossed aside.
Guzman told the Legislature “it had no business trying to interfere with collective bargaining,” said Marvin Gittler, an attorney representing Local 727 of the Teamsters. Gittler said the city-state agency that runs McCormick Place, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, used the General Assembly to enforce concessions it could not get in bargaining.
Guzman held that the National Labor Relations Act pre-empts the Legislature from dictating terms for unions working at McCormick Place. His ruling let stand other aspects of the reform involving the authority, commonly called McPier because it oversees McCormick Place and Navy Pier. […]
The judge attacked the legislative rationale about cost control. “Despite its breadth, it’s not clear that [the reform bill] advances the state’s goal of reducing exhibitors’ costs,” he wrote.
Guzman noted that exhibitors, companies that rent space at a show to tout their wares or services, don’t pay for union work directly but are billed for it by show contractors. Without intruding on labor relations, the General Assembly could have limited contractor markups on labor or regulated the profit McPier gets from facility rentals and parking, the judge said.
* McPier’s full response…
All of us at the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) are greatly disturbed at today’s ruling by the U.S. District Court overturning the labor reforms enacted by the General Assembly last May. As all observers of the convention and trade show business are aware, the implementation of those reforms has, virtually overnight, transformed McCormick Place from a great convention and trade show facility that was rapidly losing its customer base into an industry power house.
Not only were our existing customers convinced to keep their events in Chicago but new shows have been rapidly signing up, and these reforms have had a strong positive impact on the economy of Chicago during these difficult economic times.
We believe the ruling is faulty in several ways and are very hopeful that it will be overturned on appeal. On Monday, we ask the District Court to stay execution of the order pending appeal to the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. We are confident that we have ample grounds to support that request.
The ruling does not affect other aspects of the reform legislation. These include the Trusteeship, the power of the Interim Board to put in place a private firm to manage McCormick Place and MPEA’s ability to enter into a lease with Navy Pier, Inc., the recently formed not-for-profit corporation governed by a Board of civic minded Chicagoans.
* The budget battle is starting to shape up, and it has multiple fronts…
Governor Pat Quinn says any budget plans being floated by lawmakers must include sufficient funding for education.
Quinn’s comments come Thursday in Mokena after the Democratic and Republican leaders in the Illinois House drew up a budget outline that would cut state education funding by $200 million. Another $400 million in federal funds could also disappear. Quinn wants to see cash increases to education, not cuts.
“We want to have a budget that invests in education,” Quinn said. “We aren’t going to have good jobs unless we have smart, well trained workers. So I’m not going to be making radical, severe cuts in our schools. That is very, very the wrong way to go.”
* The Senate Democrats are not enamored with education cuts, either. They had this to say in response to a much larger proposed cut by the Senate Republicans, but it might very well apply to the House as well…
(I)n a letter penned by State Sens. Heather Steans (D-Chicago) and Dan Kotowski (D-Highland Park) that responds to the Senate GOP’s budget-slashing plan, the senators write that, “Reductions that add to the disparity of per pupil spending among school districts in our State will likely gain little support within our caucus.”
* Speaker Madigan more than hinted that the House is going its own way…
After two years of giving Gov. Pat Quinn a lump sum budget and allowing him to make most budgeting decisions, the House and Senate appear to be gearing up to take a more active role in piecing together a spending plan for the coming year. […]
“I think you’re going to see a member-driven budget-making,” Madigan said. “We’ve already started among the Democrats, and I presume that the Republicans will do the same thing where a large, large share of the budget-making decisions will be made by the members.”
The numbers are the House’s estimate of the amount of tax revenue that will come into the state during the next budget year. The House approved a resolution establishing that number at $33.2 billion.
That is far less than the $34.3 billion the Senate officially set as its estimate for revenues for the budget year that starts July 1. Quinn’s own revenue figure is about $600 million higher than the House’s, but his budget plan is nearly $2 billion above the House revenue estimates.
Cross and House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, have vowed that the House will produce a budget based on its revenue estimates and not the higher numbers used by the Senate and governor. That will mean significant cuts to some programs. Under the House outline, education would be cut $200 million. Quinn’s budget plan called for education spending to increase.
* Meanwhile, Speaker Madigan all but said the other day that the governor’s school consolidation plan was dead in the water, and now the state schools superintendent is casting doubt on its viability…
Some of Illinois’ 868 school districts may come together before the start of the next school year. But it will not be because state school leaders have ordered them to consolidate.
Illinois State Superintendent Chris Koch said Thursday that Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposal to force school consolidation is all but dead.
“I doubt there is going to be anything that comes out this year that gives that kind of direction, that says you have to consolidate,” Koch said.
A Board of Education report compiled last fall cautions that cutting jobs could be difficult if new merged districts are too large. It also noted that a state panel in 2002 said high schools should have enrollments of at least 250 and elementary districts at least 625 students. Using that guideline would mean eliminating 359 districts, not the 568 that Quinn has suggested.
The report found no clear correlation between district size and student performance. Small districts did better than large ones by some measures and did worse by others.
* Related…
* Kotowski, Democrats respond to Senate GOP budget cuts
* Senate votes to eliminate treasurer and comptroller offices: The Illinois Senate voted unanimously Thursday to eliminate the offices of state treasurer and comptroller in favor of a single constitutional office - comptroller of the treasury. Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said “there was a lot of debate in the constitutional convention about having the two constitutional offices.” “This is an idea that’s been around time after time after time,” Brown said. “We’ll take a look at it and go forward.”
Federal investigators have opened a wide-scale criminal probe into the way state government compensates its injured workers, targeting three state arbitrators and a rash of claims at a downstate prison and in seven different state agencies.
Federal prosecutors in Springfield and Fairview Heights in southwestern Illinois issued subpoenas in February seeking records on workers’ compensation claims filed since Jan. 1, 2006 by scores of government employees.
The subpoenas obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show an emphasis on claims filed by workers at the Menard Correctional Center, where the Belleville News-Democrat has reported more than $10 million has been paid to 389 prison employees since 2008, including the prison’s warden.
That total included more than 230 guards who have claimed they developed repetitive-stress injuries caused ostensibly by manually locking and unlocking prisoner cell doors, the downstate newspaper reported.
“This is not common,” Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sharyn Elman said of the volume of on-the-job injury claims coming from Menard, one of Illinois’ oldest prisons. “We haven’t seen anything like that in our other prisons, and we have prisons almost as old as Menard.”
* Any email about workers’ compensation claims made by employees of Menard Correctional Center or other state agencies.
* Email, personnel records, employee vouchers and reimbursements for CMS employee Susan Lemasters for the past five years. Lemasters decides workers’ compensation settlements for Department of Corrections employees.
* Email and personnel records for Bill Schneider, the former Assistant Attorney General who handled the workers’ compensation claim of Matt Mitchell — the Illinois State Police Trooper who slammed into a car at triple-digit speeds while using his in-dash computer and talking on his cellphone. The crash killed Collinsville sisters Kelli and Jessica Uhl in November 2007.
* Email and personnel records for Workers’ Compensation Arbitrators Andrew Nalefski, Jennifer Teague and John Dibble.
Federal prosecutors demanded emails and personnel records from commission arbitrators Jennifer Teague and John Dibble. The state put Teague and Dibble, who make $115,840 a year, on paid administrative leave Feb. 15, the day after four subpoenas were issued by U.S. Attorney James Lewis of the central district.
Teague was suspended following a News-Democrat report that she tried to conduct a high-profile workers’ comp hearing “on the sly with no press,” according to an email, and offered to speed up another hearing in return for a quicker payment in her own injury case. The newspaper reported that Dibble, who approved 125 of the Menard prison cases, also received a workers’ comp payment of $48,790 for a November 2009 fall that did not show up in commission records. […]
The lone subpoena from U.S. Attorney Stephen Wigginton of the southern district of Illinois, dated Feb. 23, demands all email account information for Dibble and Teague.
“We need to get to the bottom of everything and I’m very happy that this is happening. Back on the 28th of January I appointed a special person to look into the whole matter of No. 1 we gotta make sure that we look at the work comp commission. To make sure everything is done right there. Any wrongdoing has got to be ferreted out. Number two we’ve got to reform the whole law in Illinois. Next week we are going to be proposing a work comp reform that I think is good for workers as well as businesses across our state. I think it’s also good for Illinois because we’re an employer, one of the biggest employers in the whole State of Illinois. State government. And we want to make sure that everything is done right when it comes to workman’s compensation. Those who are injured, we want to make sure they get fair compensation. At the same time, if there is any fraud, if there is any abuse, if there is any monkey business if there’s any wrongdoing it’s gotta be prosecuted. I appointed someone from our Department of Insurance to oversee all this. The federal government and law enforcement is involved as well.”
Thoughts?
* Related…
* Worker’s Comp Bill Progresses in Illinois: A state Senate committee unanimously approved a bill that would deny worker’s compensation to people who are injured while committing “reckless homicide [that] caused an accident resulting in the death or severe injury of another person.” The committee voted after hearing emotional testimony from the mother of two sisters who were killed in a head-on crash with a state trooper.
* Unemployment benefits extended for thousands in Illinois
* Caterpillar visitor center project still on track: Caterpillar Inc.’s visitor center, long viewed as the development that helps maintain Peoria’s relationship with the Fortune 100 company, could be under construction by next month. No talks of discontinuing the project have been considered, according to a company spokeswoman, despite the hullabaloo raised about CEO Doug Oberhelman’s letter to Gov. Pat Quinn in which he admits other states have been wooing the heavy equipment manufacturer to leave Illinois.
* Feds probe scandal-plagued Cook County jobs program
Thursday, Mar 31, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Myth: HB14 allows Illinois utilities to automatically raise rates every year.
Fact: That is not the case. Under HB14, utilities are required to submit to more frequent oversight (annual) and still are subject to stakeholder challenge and ICC prudence reviews over 8 ½ months.
Myth: HB14 eliminates much of the oversight currently provided by the ICC.
Fact: HB14 actually strengthens oversight because it makes the regulatory process a more frequent annual process that is transparent, allows discovery, holds utilities accountable for every dollar they invest and jobs they create. The ICC retains responsibility for reviewing utilities’ costs and setting rates.
Myth: HB14 provides utilities with higher-than-needed profits.
Fact: Under the Public Utilities Act, utilities are allowed to earn a reasonable rate of return. This is done through determining a return on the equity invested (ROE) for the utility. This rate has varied from rate case to rate case. This proposal only changes the way the ROE is set and is consistent with past ICC approved ROEs. Utilities still must establish that they managed work prudently at reasonable cost and stakeholder challenge and ICC prudence reviews remain.
Hallucinogenic powders with names like “Ivory Wave,” “White Lightning” and “Zoom” may soon be illegal in Illinois.
The Illinois House Wednesday passed House Bill 2089, which would make the substance MDPV – the key psychoactive ingredient in those powders – illegal.
“These substances are legal in many states, although they have effects similar to cocaine and methamphetamine,” said the sponsor, Rep. Wayne Rosenthal, R-Morrisonville. “They’re sold in convenience stores as ‘bath salts,’ ‘plant food,’ but a 1-ounce package … is sold for $60, and it’s just below the street value of cocaine.”
According to Ivory Wave’s website, the powders sell for $36.31 for 500 milligrams, which is less than 2 percent of one ounce. Bath salts for foot baths typically sell for between $2 and $5 an ounce.
The street value of a comparable amount of cocaine is $80 to $100, according to Montgomery County Sheriff Jim Vazzi, who brought the proposal to Rosenthal.
* The Question: Should this substance be banned? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please. Thanks.
* It blows my mind that almost nobody is considering a recount of Chicago’s miserable census results. The city is down 200,000 people, but when you drill down, the numbers just don’t look right to me and to others I’ve consulted. Yet, the media is meekly accepting the figures as carved in stone or something. From a Sun-Times editorial…
Admit it.
The news that Chicago was the only top 10 big city in the nation to see its population shrink over the last decade had you asking yourself:
What am I still doing there?
Or is it just us?
Detroit appealed its count 10 years ago and added 50,000 people. It’s planning yet another recount. New York City is likely to ask for a recount as well.
Yet, Mayor Daley is silent and the media just accepts the figures as gospel.
* For crying out loud, even Murphysboro is doing a recount. Suburban Westmont is also considering an appeal. It’s a pretty common thing. The city would have to pick up the cost, but the state might be convinced to kick in since Illinois narrowly missed out on keeping its 19 congressional seats intact.
Here are just a handful of stories from around the country about recounts…
* I told subscribers weeks ago that we might expect the General Assembly to use the long-dormant conference committee process to iron out differences between the House and Senate budget proposals. Senate President John Cullerton was the one who brought it up to me, but yesterday House Speaker Michael Madigan broached the topic as well, and in a way that appeared to be a shot at Cullerton…
Reconciling those, and therefore the different chamber’s budget bills, could be troublesome.
Madigan laid out one possibility Wednesday during the Elementary and Secondary Education Appropriations Committee. When the Senate and the House can’t come to some kind of agreement on a specific bill, five members from each chamber meet and try to hammer out the details in a conference committee.
Because the House’s $33.2 billion revenue projection is more conservative than the Senate’s $34.3 billion projection, Madigan said Senate Republicans might be inclined to side with the House in such a meeting.
“In the Senate, I think the people that want to raise the numbers would be the Democrats, and they would have three appointments on that conference committee, and they ought to be out voted,” Madigan said. “The report coming out of the conference committee should be for the numbers contained in the House bill(s).”
Actually, conference committees were used during the early 1990s. But the system got out of hand as lobbyists and members started inserting major legislative changes into long conference committee reports. So, it was stopped.
* But the scenario might not work as Madigan envisions. The Senate Republicans aren’t yet willing to completely abandon their Democratic colleagues and throw in their lot with the Speaker…
State Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine, the Senate GOP’s budgeteer, said he’s not sure how a conference committee on budget legislation would play out.
His Republican colleagues in the Senate generally lean toward more conservative budget numbers and didn’t agree with the Senate’s adopted $34.3 billion projection, he said, with a caveat.
“We also felt like a number a little bit higher than what the House came up with is reasonable as well,” he said. “I think it’s a little premature for us to start to weigh in, and choose sides, in a conference committee that I don’t know is even going to happen.”
A truce broke out in the Illinois House Wednesday as Democrats and Republicans embraced the outline of a budget plan that is more conservative than the one proposed by Gov. Pat Quinn and would cut money for schools.
In a rare side-by-side appearance, House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, and House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, acted like old chums rather than political warlords out to crush each other. They led the House in allocating billions of dollars for debt and pension payments and setting out spending plans for areas including education.
As Madigan and Cross faced reporters, shoulder to shoulder, after a committee hearing, both brushed off the idea that there was ever bad blood between them.
“I don’t think there ever was a problem. Was there, Tom?” said Madigan, who routinely has bottled up Republican bills in the Rules Committee and repeatedly referred to Cross’ caucus as “nonparticipating dropouts.”
“I don’t remember a problem,” said Cross, whose political organization put up billboards throughout northeast Illinois blaming the state’s fiscal problems on Madigan.
“Maybe some journalists thought there was a problem,” Madigan said.
Yeah. OK.
Madigan teamed up with Cross and the Senate Republicans the last time he went up against a free-spending governor and Senate President. Cross eventually broke with Madigan over the capital bill (with Cross siding with Rod Blagojevich and Emil Jones) and the two have not cooperated since then. Until now, that is.
The latest projection from Springfield is that schools can expect at least $600 million less than last year. […]
Rep. Will Davis, D-Homewood, said there will be $200 million fewer state dollars, and nearly $400 million fewer federal dollars this year. Davis, who will craft the education budget in the House, said he’s been told he can spend no more than $6.8 billion. […]
Although school districts have received less money and delayed payments from the state, ISBE is still advocating for more education funding. The agency recommends $7.6 billion in state funding for fiscal year 2012 budget, more than 5 percent more than the governor’s proposed $7.2 billion.
ISBE is going to be sorely disappointed, and this story about schools hoarding cash reserves won’t help their cause…
The statewide total of $8.9 billion unspent at the close of the 2010 budget year is enough to cover the entire state portion of public school budgets across Illinois next academic year, though districts stress that the money isn’t just sitting around for no reason — some of it is meant for future school expenses, building projects and other uses.
They say that while these balances can help stave off staff or program cuts, they cannot eliminate the need for them. Many districts that lay off teachers or cut programs have already spent down their reserves, and school officials say it’s irresponsible to use fund balances, which the state likens to checking or savings account balances, for ongoing expenses.
Fund balances are widely considered prudent by school officials weathering Illinois’ fiscal crisis, but they rile taxpayers who say districts are hoarding their money and should give some of it back by lowering tax bills.
The balances have grown by $3.6 billion since 2004-05 and now average about 40 percent of districts’ main operating revenue, up from 30 percent five years ago. The Illinois State Board of Education’s barometer for healthy fund balances is at least 25 percent — enough to cover three months of expenses.
The Tribune found that 8 of 10 school districts had fund balances exceeding that amount when the books closed on June 30, 2010. Nearly half of districts reported fund balances of 50 percent or higher, and 70 school districts — many in the Chicago area — had balances equaling 100 percent or more, enough to cover a whole year of expenses.
Madigan and Cross have settled on a revenue projection about $600 million lower than Quinn’s. After covering various fixed costs, such as pensions, they’re allocating that money to five different broad categories: $6.9 billion for education, $1.2 billion for general services, $2.1 billion for higher education, $12 billion for human services and $1.7 billion for public safety.
Now House appropriations committees are supposed to decide which particular programs get money and which ones don’t. The demand far exceeds the amount of money available.
“We’re going to try to figure out how to stick a 10-inch foot in a 5-inch shoe,” said Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago.
Meantime, dozens of lobbying groups circulated through the Capitol Wednesday calling on lawmakers to reverse cuts proposed by Quinn.
In a letter distributed to members of the legislature, Southern Illinois Healthcare President Rex Budde, said Quinn’s proposal to reduce Medicaid spending by $552 million could result in delays to bricks and mortar improvements at its hospitals and other facilities as well as cuts in services and physician re-cruitment.
“We urge the General Assembly to reject the proposed Medicaid cut,” Budde noted in the letter.
Quinn spokesman Kelly Kraft responds that paying interest costs on another $2 billion in debt might still leave Illinois with a good chunk of the $175 million Medicaid reimbursement. She notes that the Republican proposals couldn’t be enacted soon enough to produce $2 billion in the current fiscal year. And, she says, the higher income tax isn’t producing new money fast enough to meet the other demands on that revenue and also pay these Medicaid bills. We won’t argue. [Emphasis added.]
Um, so the state shouldn’t borrow, but it might be a good idea? I don’t get it.
* Related…
* Press release: Senate Democrats Respond to GOP Budget Suggestions
* Perhaps now all the Nervous Nellies will stop claiming that the sky is falling…
News reports that Peoria-based Caterpillar Inc. was thinking of exiting Illinois were misleading, Doug Oberhelman, chairman and chief executive of the construction and mining machine maker, said Wednesday.
The media read too much into his recent letter to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, he said.
“The headlines were sensational — they said things like ‘Cat leaving Illinois,’ and lots of other things, which isn’t what the letter said,” Oberhelman said in an address to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce gathering in Washington, D.C.
“I actually said, I’m looking forward to finding ways to invest more in Illinois and to change the business climate,” he said at a summit hosted by the chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness.
The business climate in this state is in definite need of improvement. If nothing else, the shock from those nutty headlines might hopefully spur Springfield to act.
* Much of the reporting and commentary on this story has been crazily sensationalistic and just downright horrible. Here’s just one goofy example…
Joliet became part of TV news coverage of the Caterpillar story Sunday when Andrew Mihelich, one of the city’s mayoral candidates in Tuesday’s election, held a quickly staged rally in support of the company and invited coverage of the event. Four Chicago TV news crews came to town, and at least two stations aired footage of the event attended by about 40 of the candidate’s supporters, many of whom held up “Mihelich for Mayor” signs and wore Mihelich T-shirts.
About an hour into the rally at Mihelich campaign headquarters, no Caterpillar workers could be found. But Keith Godsey of Joliet, who said his father is a Caterpillar retiree, was there and said he supported Mihelich’s efforts.
Joliet City Councilman Warren Dorris, another Joliet mayoral candidate and a former manager at the Joliet plant, said Sunday that he thought the news coverage of Oberhelman’s letter was overblown.
“I worked for that company for 36 years,” Dorris said Wednesday. “Caterpillar has always challenged the state of Illinois and the governor to improve the business climate of the state.”
Dorris said he was “not surprised at all” by Oberhelman’s comments Wednesday. “His letter was intended to open dialogue. It did that. Unfortunately, some people took it and made political hay.”
Dorris has been critical of Mihelich’s rally, saying it was an attempt by a candidate to gain attention for his campaign.
Low levels of radiation from Japan have been discovered in test samples taken in unincorporated DuPage and Will counties, officials said Tuesday.
Warrenville-based Exelon Nuclear said small amounts of radioiodine 131, a type of radioactive isotope associated with the troubled Japanese plants, were discovered March 22 during testing at Dresden, its nuclear plant near Morris in Will County.
Also, Argonne National Laboratory, near Darien, found a small amount of the isotope in its regular air test samples last week.
“You wouldn’t find that kind of evidence in normal operations here,” said Marshall Murphy, a spokesman for Exelon Nuclear.
Bed bugs invaded campus over the weekend, but apparently kept their invasion to one room, and were immediately crushed by the defenses of the University of Illinois.
Just one dormitory room in Evans Hall was affected Sunday night, said Erin Ciciora, a resident communications coordinator in University Housing.
The student’s room was closed off and pesticide work began within an hour of the complaint, she said.
Stink bugs — long a scourge of the mid-Atlantic states — have made it to the Chicago area.
The aptly named pests have been spotted in recent months in Geneva and Western Springs. Homeowners reported an infestation in Geneva last fall and in a yard in Western Springs in January, according to Kelly Estes, state survey coordinator for the Illinois Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey program. […]
The brown marmorated stink bug emits a foul stench when frightened, disturbed or squashed.
Cutting the city’s rat baiting crews in half, as Laborers Local 1001 claims Streets and San is planning to do, won’t cause the rat population to explode to 6 million again. But it may increase the rat problem in poor neighborhoods, where overcrowded buildings generate more garbage than carts can hold.
Jennifer and David Hausch have quite a story to tell from their Florida vacation after a huge ray jumped into their tour boat, striking Jennifer.
The Crystal Lake couple was on an eco-tour boat ride Friday in Florida when a 200 pound spotted eagle ray struck her in the chest. She was not injured, according to wildlife officials.
On Saturday, the Chuck E. Cheese in Matteson was a place where several men had to be subdued with pepper spray after fighting and flipping over an arcade machine, police said.
Five men and a teenage boy were charged with mob action and disorderly conduct for their roles in the incident, police said.
Chicago’s premier craft brewery, Goose Island, is selling itself to distribution partner and minority owner Anheuser-Busch InBev N.V. for $38.8 million and replacing its brewmaster.
* Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) wants future Census-takers to count prison inmates as residents of their home towns, not where they are currently residing, as has been common practice in Illinois…
For example, in 2010, when U.S. Census workers tallied the population of Randolph County in southwestern Illinois, they included in their total the 3,552 inmates locked up in Menard Correctional Center, the state’s largest maximum-security prison.
Though the men serving time there can’t vote, they account for more than 10 percent of the county’s population.
The higher head count makes counties such as Randolph eligible for a bigger share of the pie when state and federal money is distributed. The population count affects everything from funding for the sewer system that carries waste from Menard and the nearby town of Chester, to financing for the county courthouse, which handles disciplinary cases stemming from prison yard fights.
State Sen. John O. Jones, R-Mount Vernon, whose district encompasses Big Muddy and Centralia correctional centers and nearly 3,500 prisoners, is among lawmakers who say the local benefit is only fair because those counties are the ones dealing with the inmate issues. […]
On current legislative maps, prisoners who serve even a two-year prison sentence are recorded as residents of the correctional center for the next 10 years.
* The Question: Should the Census count prisoners who are serving less than 10-year sentences in their home towns or in their prisons? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments…
* Gov. Pat Quinn has complained repeatedly over the past several months about how the General Assembly punted by sending him lump sum budgets the past two years. But, today, House Speaker Michael Madigan told reporters that Quinn asked him to pass yet another lump sum budget this year. Watch…
Sheesh.
* Madigan also said that Quinn’s borrowing plan is “not being real well received by the Legislature,” which is kinda obvious. And Madigan said that he has “no plans to pursue” some of Quinn’s other ideas like school consolidation.
* This story is more than a little behind the curve since the actual House resolution divvying up the cash to appropriations committees passed the chamber 117-0 way back on March 17th…
Illinois House leaders are pushing forward with a budget plan that would ignore many of the governor’s spending proposals.
The top Democrat and top Republican in the House said Wednesday they have settled on the amount of money available for major categories of state government. Now, House committees will decide which services get a piece of that money and which don’t.
Education, for instance, would get about $6.8 billion — a cut of $200 million.
* The reason it’s “news” today is because Speaker Madigan and Leader Cross testified in committee about some approp bills. Watch…
You can peruse the budgetary work sheet distributed to approp committee members by clicking here.
One of the center’s conclusions was that despite all of the complaints about the state spending too much, it would be a good deal more if spending had kept up with inflation and population growth over the last decade. If you take those factors into account, the analysis determined, spending is less now than it was in 2000. Not a little less, but nearly 16 percent less. Overall. Higher education, it said, is down 35 percent, and the often vilified outgo for health care is down 13.4 percent.
It’s hard to argue that state government is somehow immune from inflation. But it’s also going to be hard convincing taxpayers - whose own paychecks probably haven’t kept up with inflation - that the state needs to spend more. […]
The analysis determined that about $5.45 billion of [the governor’s proposed $8.75 billion borrowing plan] is for old bills. Another $1 billion is to pay for current bills. That’s a no-no, in the same sense you don’t mortgage your home to buy this month’s groceries. The groceries will soon be gone, but the debt will last for years.
The center also said repaying the money over 14 years, as Quinn wants, is too long and the whole thing is backloaded, which is not a good idea.
The chief executive of Caterpillar Inc. again criticized the business climate in the heavy equipment maker’s home state of Illinois on Wednesday, but downplayed reports that it might leave.
“Legislators in Illinois have created an environment that is unfriendly to business and investment. At Caterpillar we want to help and lead a change in that climate,” said Douglas Oberhelman at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event. […]
At the chamber event, Oberhelman said headlines suggesting Caterpillar might leave the state were misleading.
“That’s not really what I said,” he told the chamber. “I actually said I was looking forward to finding a way to invest more in Illinois and change the business climate. Illinois is our home.”
Notice that Oberhelman once again blames legislators, not the governor, for the problems. Also take note that he repeated his claim that he wants to find a way to invest more here, not less.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* I haven’t seen the now infamous letter from Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman to Gov. Pat Quinn actually posted in its entirety So, here it is. Pay close attention to the third paragraph, which has received the least amount of media coverage…
Dear Governor Quinn:
Caterpillar has been proud to call Illinois home for over 75 years. Personally I grew up in Woodstock, Illinois, and aside from a few years out of the country for my work at Caterpillar, I have lived here my whole life. Before, I never really considered living anywhere else, and certainly never considered the possibility of Caterpillar relocating. But I have to admit, the policymakers in Springfield seem to make it harder by the day.
I’ve included just three of the several letters from Governors across the country that I have been receiving. They are welcoming Caterpillar to their states with open arms, and they make compelling arguments. I have been called, “cornered” in meetings and “wined and dined” - the heat is on.
You’ve always been honest with me, and that’s why I want you to know about these letters. I’m not sending them to you as a threat that Caterpillar is leaving Illinois. I want to stay here. And as our business grows, I’d like to invest more here - Illinois has always been the heart of Caterpillar. But as the leader of this business, I have to do what’s right for Caterpillar when making decisions about where to invest. The direction that this state is headed in is not favorable to business, and I’d like to work with you to change that. Frankly, we need to re-structure this State’s business from top to bottom. I think you know that.
This is a firm letter, no doubt, but it’s also quite respectful and even complimentary of the governor. What it clearly isn’t is a dire threat to move the company out of state anytime soon, or a blatant diss of Gov. Quinn.
Oberhelman seems to genuinely want to work with Quinn to find solutions to the state’s problems. The Cat CEO has taken some heat from the Left for grubbing for money or whatever other advantage he could get here, but that doesn’t appear justified when reading the complete letter.
* Also, if you’ve been wondering how the letter became public, it was cc’d to several politicians, including Congressman Aaron Schock, Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno, House Republican Leader Tom Cross, Speaker Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton and Quinn’s chief of staff Jack Lavin. I’d bet any money that one of them leaked it. Caterpillar’s spokesman has said the letter was meant to be private.
For governors cutting education and health care and going after public-sector employees to balance budgets, here’s a message from Illinois Governor Pat Quinn: You’re wrong. Not mistaken, not misinformed.
“Just plain wrong,” said Quinn, 62, during a March 22 interview in his Chicago office. “I don’t buy into all these radical cuts in government as a way to make life better for ordinary, everyday people.” […]
Quinn says he has made plenty of unpleasant decisions, including raising the retirement age for public employees, putting new hires into a 401(k) retirement plan and altering the Medicaid system.
“I’m not going to get our state out of the hole that it’s in in terms of the economy by just severe cuts in education,” Quinn said. “Lay off teachers? What’s that all about? Is that going to help us?
“No.”
* Related…
* Lawmakers defend tax hike, express concern for CAT
* Editorial: Cat not leaving today, tomorrow, hopefully not ever, but Illinois should take nothing for granted
* Gov. Pat Quinn has nominated Terry Cosgrove for a spot on the Illinois Human Rights Commission. Cosgrove runs Personal PAC, which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to make sure Quinn got elected last year. Indeed, one of Bill Brady’s top campaign operatives blamed Personal PAC’s efforts for his candidate’s narrow loss last November.
Brady’s spokesman responded to the appointment…
Brady spokesman Dan Egler said the governor “reached out to reward one of his big-time political supporters. The citizens of Illinois deserve fair and open-minded people on state’s boards and commissions—not pay-to-play political appointees.”
Pay-to-play?
Gimme a break.
* If anyone thinks that Terry Cosgrove supported Pat Quinn because he wanted a part-time state job, then you really need to get your head examined. Brady is 100 percent pro-life. Cosgrove despised the man and was very worried that Brady would be elected, so he went all out. “Pay-to-play” is by very definition a mercenary act. Say what you want about Cosgrove, but he ain’t no mercenary. He fully believes in what he does.
Rewarding political allies with sweet little plums is as old as government. Brady wouldn’t have given any of his pals state jobs? Please. Get real.
Also, Cosgrove is qualified for the post. He helped pass human rights ordinances in Champaign and Urbana back in the day and has long been a quiet force behind the scenes for gay rights. He’s probably not the most unbiased person on the planet, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to have a gay voice on the Human Rights Commission.
Brady lost. Not by much, but he lost. Time to move on and stop over-reaching for non-controversies like this one.
* But this may rankle the state Senator as well. I received an e-mail from Rebecca Sanchez this week…
Hey Rich,
I wanted to keep you in the loop and let you know that the gov appointed me as his senior advisor on Hispanic issues. I’ll also act as a liaison between the Hispanic Caucus and the governor.
Friday is my start date.
Sanchez is a reporter for the Spanish-language newspaper Extra. She’s the one who asked Brady during an ABC7 gubernatorial debate last year why he attended a fundraiser thrown by Rod Blagojevich cronies Juan Ochoa and Dean Martinez. Brady was tripped up by the question and then called the two men “good people,” which resulted in a firestorm.
That appointment ought to make Brady’s head explode again.
Illinois’ top insurance regulator said Tuesday he’s committed to working with Gov. Pat Quinn and lawmakers on pressing state issues during his last two months on the job.
Insurance Department Director Michael McRaith is leaving in June to take a post in the President Barack Obama’s administration. Until then, McRaith said, he’s dedicated to working with Illinois lawmakers this session on reforms to workers compensation, health insurance and financial regulations.
“My first objective is to work hard every day and be a constructive leader on insurance-related issues,” McRaith said in an interview with The Associated Press.
McRaith is Quinn’s point man on workers’ comp reform. There’s real worry out there that he won’t be as focused as he should be while preparing for the DC gig. Let’s hope the worriers are wrong.
* Another Quinn appointee has to step aside on a contentious issue. Hiram Grau has been nominated to run the Illinois State Police. He used to work for the Cook County State’s Attorney, who has refused to file any charges in the death of David Koschman. Koschman died after allegedly being punched or shoved several years ago by Mayor Daley’s nephew…
Responding to the Sun-Times’ reports, Alvarez called Thursday on the State Police to examine the handling of the Koschman investigation, saying an outside, “independent” police agency needed to step in.
The next day, the State Police agreed to do that, even as Gov. Quinn announced he was appointing Alvarez’s chief investigator, Hiram Grau, to head the State Police. At the time of Koschman’s death, Grau was a deputy police superintendent with the Chicago Police Department, overseeing the department’s detectives. According to the State Police, Grau had no role in investigating the Koschman case but, “out of an abundance of caution, Mr. Grau will be recusing himself from the State Police’s review of the matter.”
* On Sunday, Senate President John Cullerton dusted off his plan to use Chicago’s amusement tax growth to help finance upgrades outside Wrigley Field…
The multi-million dollar proposal would upgrade Wrigley’s creaky creature comforts for both fans and players. The Ricketts family, owners of the Cubs, said they would not alter the fundamental appearance of the historic ballpark.
The idea fell flat in Springfield this past winter. The Ricketts family and their lobbyists tried to push it through in the same lame duck session that approved a 67 percent increase in the Illinois income tax.
In a Fox Chicago Sunday taping, Cullerton said that he thinks the measure has better prospects in the current spring session. He hopes the General Assembly would vote to approve it by Memorial Day.
“There should be some conditions,” Cullerton said. “First of all, Mr. Ricketts has to come up with half the money himself. He should make sure that he comes up with that first. If there’s money to be spent inside the park, that’s where he should spend his money.”
Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday he wants to find a way to save 97-year-old Wrigley Field, but the taxpayer-financed plan being floated anew by Cubs’ chairman Tom Ricketts is a “non-starter.” […]
After striking out with Mayor Daley and Gov. Quinn, Ricketts had hoped for a different outcome with Emanuel.
But during a post-election meeting with Ricketts, Emanuel said he reiterated the “healthy skepticism” he expressed during the campaign about using taxpayer dollars to renovate Wrigley.
In other words, it’s back to the drawing board for Ricketts.
“They know my position from the past. It was an informational meeting. It was a short meeting. … And I let them know that, if all we did was re-package old ideas, that was a non-starter,” he said.
* Meanwhile, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle stated the obvious yesterday. Rahm Emanuel’s “luxury tax” is dead in the water…
With Emanuel at her side, Preckwinkle said she likes the concept, but believes the Illinois General Assembly is unlikely to act.
“My understanding from my conversations with the people in Springfield is that the legislature there is sort of done on the tax issue,” Preckwinkle said. “And having raised taxes on individuals and businesses at the beginning of this year, that’s all that anyone can expect coming out of Springfield.”
* Emanuel said to be making own list for top cop - Mayor-elect says he won’t just sit and wait for search panel’s report
* Alexi Giannoulias being considered for two top education posts?: Word is Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel has spoken with Giannoulias about chairmanship of the Chicago City Colleges board and Gov. Quinn has chatted with Giannoulias about heading the Illinois Community College board.
