State Senator Rickey Hendon has resigned his office. He denies any federal “problems.”
The spokeswoman for Illinois Senate President John Cullerton confirms that the senate secretary has received Hendon’s letter of resignation.
Hendon has served as senator for the 5th District since 1992.
Hendon’s hypertension has been a serious problem lately. I’ve talked to him a few times about that federal investigation and he appeared wholly unconcerned. I seriously doubt that was the reason he left. Subscribe for more info.
The Senate just won’t be the same without Rickey Hendon.
*** UPDATE *** Gov. Quinn was asked about Hendon earlier today. His response…
“He’s been a friend of mine for a very long time… I’ve always liked Rickey Hendon… I know he’s had a few health problems of late. I know he’s a good man.”
Hendon, 57, told the Tribune he was upset about the “pathetic” black turnout in Tuesday’s election and negative stories written about him over the years.
“I’m out,” Hendon said by telephone. “Out is out.” […]
In Springfield today, Rep. Annazette Collins, a Democrat who represents half of Hendon’s Senate district, said she called Hendon once she heard of his plans.
“He just said he’s frustrated with politics, you know, at this time,” Collins said.
“Today is a wonderful day and as much as I have enjoyed working with you and all of my fellow senators, I have decided to call it a day and retire from this wonderful institution,” Hendon wrote in a letter to Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago).
Nicknamed “Hollywood” for his TV and film-production aspirations, Hendon, 57, was a member of Cullerton’s leadership team, had hypertension and frequently was a lightening rod for controversy.
* Rep. Mike Tryon (R-Crystal Lake) just rose on the House floor to demand legislation which would require “non resident legislators” who’ve fled to Illinois to pay income taxes. Tryon said that the Wisconsin and Indiana Democratic legislators should pay taxes here just like the Green Bay Packers players had to pay taxes when they played the Bears during the NFC Championship game.
* From tongue-in-cheek common sense in Springfield to cheekiness in DC…
In his first interview since voting to eliminate a $230 million federal grant to build an Amtrak line from Chicago to Iowa City, U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling sat down with News 8 to discuss his decision, and how he thinks that rail service through the Quad Cities could still eventually happen. […]
Ironically, Schilling said two players from opposite sides of the aisle will make sure the rail comes across his desk again.
“Durbin and [Sen.] Mark Kirk aren’t going to let a lot of this stuff flow through, and then it’s going to come back and then we break it down on an individual basis,” he said. “You know, that’s just how the process works.”
Schilling said he met with Paul Rumler, the executive director of the Quad Cities Passenger Rail Coalition, and for the first time he was willing to go on the record on the issue.
“Rumler, he’s explained to me exactly why the rail will help our area and I’m in agreement with almost 100 percent of what he’s had to say,” he said. [So if it comes down to it] I’d be with it, yeah.”
So, he voted against it, but he finally checked into the biggest project in his district in years and now he’s OK with it.
A long-simmering standoff between Gov. Pat Quinn and the Illinois Senate over the nomination of Illinois Commerce Commission Acting Chairman Manuel Flores is coming to a head, with signs pointing to Mr. Flores’ imminent departure.
The Senate Executive Committee has scheduled a vote for Tuesday on Mr. Flores, who’s been acting as head of the state’s utility regulatory body for over a year but hasn’t been confirmed. People familiar with the matter said Senate President John Cullerton privately has told the governor’s office in recent months that the votes aren’t there to confirm Mr. Flores, a former Chicago alderman who has run into a buzzsaw of opposition from some members of the state Senate’s Latino caucus and from utilities who see him as pro-consumer.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Cullerton referred questions about the nomination to Sen. Willie Delgado, D-Chicago, in whose district Mr. Flores lives.
Sen. Delgado is vice-chairman of the committee and an ardent opponent of Mr. Flores due to a long-standing feud over their differing political allegiances within the Hispanic community. In an interview, he predicted Mr. Flores will be voted down in committee if the governor doesn’t withdraw the nomination.
They’re looking for another job for Flores, but he doesn’t want to move. And the problem isn’t solely with Delgado. Subscribers know more, and they may know even more tomorrow if the stories I’ve been hearing this week are true.
Illinois and Missouri will share the nearly $5.3 million cost of emergency repairs to a Mississippi River bridge just south of St. Louis.
Missouri Department of Transportation spokesman Jack Wang tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the Jefferson Barracks Bridge remains safe and accessible to traffic.
A year ago, nearly 80 percent of Republican primary voters voted for somebody other than Bill Brady to be their candidate in the general election. Brady’s support was astoundingly poor in the six-county Chicago area. His best showing: 8.5 percent of the vote in McHenry County. He got less than 6 percent in Cook, DuPage and Lake. […]
Take note: There also would have been a runoff in the general election. Gov. Pat Quinn’s 46.79 percent on Nov. 2 wouldn’t have gotten it done.
The drawback to adding a round of balloting is the cost. It’s expensive to run a state election. But what if Illinois fully adopted the Chicago system: Everybody runs without party labels on the first ballot, and there’s a runoff if necessary. That would be two trips to the polls, same as now. Both elections could be held in the fall, so we wouldn’t have the ridiculous nine-month gap between the primary and general elections.
* The Question: Should Illinois have non-partisan primaries for all state offices with a runoff if anyone doesn’t score at least 50 percent plus one vote? Explain.
Blue is for Emanuel (who won 2,087 precincts), red for Chico (410), orange for del Valle (47). Oh, and green for Carol Moseley Braun, but you can’t tell with her, since she won exactly one precinct. There were also 11 ties. (The dashed line toward the top represents Rahm’s old congressional district, IL-05, now held by Dem Mike Quigley.)
* Perhaps the only person in the entire city more clueless than Carol Moseley Braun is Rob Halpin…
Rob Halpin, the cantankerous tenant of Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel’s house in Ravenswood who refused to budge before his lease was up, tells Sneed he wouldn’t mind staying! […]
† Quoth Halpin, who lives in Rahm’s two-story family house on North Hermitage: “The lease is up at the end of June 2011. I doubt that they would move back here, as it is a long way from City Hall and the Latin School, where we heard their children may attend.
“It is also a security nightmare as the house has abundant glass and open space. If they wanted us to stay on we would consider it. There aren’t any hard feelings on our part.”
Absolutely hilarious.
Mr. Halpin should take a cue from a good friend of mine who lives in the 19th Ward. My friend’s entire family backed Chico for mayor. He called yesterday to ask if he and his family could move in to my Springfield house until the heat blew over.
Emanuel’s pledge not to entertain a property tax increase of any size came in response to a question about how he planned to solve the city’s pension crisis.
A bill approved by the Illinois General Assembly over Mayor Daley’s objections would saddle homeowners and businesses with a $550 million property tax increase in 2015 unless pension concessions are negotiated or another new revenue source is found.
During the campaign, Emanuel ruled out raising property taxes that much, which would amount to a 90 percent increase. On Wednesday, he was asked whether he would entertain a property tax increase of any size. His answer was an emphatic no.
No sooner had Rahm Emanuel taken the stage Tuesday night as mayor-elect than his thoughts turned toward restoring confidence in the city’s fractured public school system.
Emanuel pledged to try to improve student safety in violent communities, boost the fortunes of struggling neighborhood schools and urge parents to take a more active role.
But Emanuel knows the problems at CPS, the nation’s third-largest school district, run much deeper, and even before his sweeping victory Tuesday he made enemies of the Chicago Teachers Union with his strong support of charter schools and his plan to keep the school board under mayoral control.
The divide culminated last week when union president Karen Lewis stood before reporters and said: “The fact is Rahm Emanuel does not seem to support publicly funded public education as we know it.” The union chose not to endorse a candidate for mayor.
Watch for Emanuel to appoint Dr. Byron Brazier as a co-chair of his transition team. Brazier, an old friend of Carol Moseley Braun and an ordained minister and pastor of the Apostolic Church of God
Gov. Pat Quinn today was asked about Rahm Emanuel’s victory in the Chicago mayor’s race and somehow got into a comparison of energy levels.
The Democratic governor said he called the mayor-elect Tuesday night and offered congratulations on the big win and “oustanding campaign.”
“He’s a person of great energy and idealism. I’ve known Rahm Emanuel for 31 years. And he’s a person who has as much energy almost as I do. And I think I look forward to energetically working for the city of Chicago, where I live, as well for the whole state of Illinois,” Quinn continued.
Wait. I thought the governor said he lived at the mansion because that’s where he kept his undergarments?
Scott Cisek, who lives in the 47th Ward and is political director for the Cook County Democratic Organization, said O’Donnell ran an old-fashioned campaign in an upwardly mobile ward.
“They were counting on a model that doesn’t exist anymore,” said Cisek, who ran Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s successful Democratic primary campaign last year. “They were counting on a buggy-and-whip model.”
The outcome was also partly a result of “people being upset with Schulter trying to endorse a successor,” said Dick Simpson, a former alderman and political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who lives in the 47th Ward and gave Pawar advice on his campaign.
The 47th Ward hasn’t been up to snuff in years. Back in the 1990s, Speaker Madigan’s operation put Lisa Madigan into the state Senate over the strong objections of the “Fighting 47th.” But it was still better than some organizations, and Pawar avoiding a runoff was no easy feat.
* Most Carbondale voters stay home: A total of 1,897 ballots were cast Tuesday in Carbondale’s primary election out of 11,040 registered voters, good for a turnout rate of 17.2 percent, according to official precinct-by-precinct numbers released Wednesday morning by the Jackson County clerk’s office.
Illinois legislators are facing tough budget problems and many are asking if our minority party could follow in the footsteps of Wisconsin and Indiana’s. However to some of them walking out just isn’t an option.
“I may lose that battle but at least I go on the record and I fight for my community,” says Illinois’ 34th District Senator Republican Dave Syverson.
Republican senators in Illinois have been the minority party for nearly a decade. In that time a walkout has never been staged and according to some senators it will never happen.
“They understand that their job is not to run away even when the decisions are hard. The people send them down there to have debates about the issues and stand up for what they believe in,” says Illinois’ 35th District Senator Republican Christine Johnson.
It’s pretty easy to say you wouldn’t follow in others’ footsteps when you are barred by law from doing so. The minority party simply doesn’t have the option of walking out in Illinois. Our state Constitution requires only a majority be present and accounted for, unlike the extraordinary majorities in Indiana and (on fiscal matters) Wisconsin. So, unless a whole lot of Democrats are missing, the Republicans cannot halt business by bolting the chamber.
I’m not sure what the quorum rules were in the 19th Century, but Abraham Lincoln infamously jumped out a window during a failed attempt to prevent an Illinois House quorum call. Lincoln was eventually elected the House Minority Leader.
* After taking a kinder, gentler approach to fleeing Democrats earlier in the week (and getting blasted by his party’s right wing for doing so), Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels changed his tune yesterday…
Indiana House Democrats stayed away from their desks for a second day on Wednesday in an attempt to block a proposed law curbing union power, prompting Gov. Mitch Daniels to say they were showing “complete contempt” for the Democratic process.
“You know, if they persist, the Democratic Party of Indiana will need a rebranding effort because this is as anti-democratic as behavior can be,” Republican Daniels said.
Like their counterparts in Wisconsin, most House Democrats left Indiana for Illinois to prevent the Indiana house from voting on “right-to-work” and other Republican-sponsored legislation. The measure would have made it a misdemeanor for an employer to require workers to become or stay members of a labor union.
“I can tell you I don’t know what will happen,” Daniels said. “I can tell you what won’t happen: We will not be bullied or blackmailed out of pursuing the agenda we laid in front of the people of Indiana. That agenda is going to get voted on. If it takes special sessions from now to New Year’s, we will hold them. We will send the bill to (former) Speaker Bauer and to the Democratic Party of Indiana.”
How far apart are they? Miles.
[House Minority Leader Pat Bauer, D-South Bend] called House Bill 1003, the voucher program for private school tuition, and Senate Bill 575, the bill limiting teacher collective bargaining to only wages and wage-related benefits, “deal breakers.”
Daniels called those bills “non-negotiable.”
* Gov. Pat Quinn has apparently reached out to welcome some of the fleeing Democrats. The governor was asked again about the situation yesterday…
Gov. Patrick Quinn of Illinois seemed to delight in the new arrivals, some of whom said Quinn, a Democrat, had telephoned them to offer his personal welcome.
“We believe in hospitality and tourism and being friendly,” Quinn said Wednesday, quickly adding: “I also believe in unions.”
While its proximity made it the obvious choice, Illinois seemed a fitting hideout. As Republicans seized control of many statehouses in the Midwest in November, Illinois was one of the few where Democrats had held on to theirs.
“It seems like very friendly territory,” said state Rep. Win Moses, 68, one of the Indiana Democrats who say they have been meeting in a hotel conference room, working on business as usual (so far, they have drawn up 105 amendments to the Republicans’ proposed state budget), dining at the Cracker Barrel and waiting for some sign from Indianapolis that efforts to limit unions would be dropped.
* At least we don’t have to worry about our southwestern border being breached…
The situation in Missouri is much different than Wisconsin’s. From a practical standpoint, Missouri does not allow collective-bargaining for public employees like teachers and firefighters. Another difference: Teachers, firefighters and police in Missouri have separate pension agreements with school districts and local governments that don’t count on any financial contributions from the state government.
The other big difference between Missouri and Wisconsin? Missouri has a Democratic governor who has no desire to challenge the state’s unions because they are likely to be key in Gov. Jay Nixon’s quest for re-election in 2012.
* But the Wisconsin standoff - and our “guest” situation - continues…
The 14 wayward Wisconsin lawmakers have given no hint about when they might return, even amid recall threats, a Senate rule change that forces them to appear in person if they want to receive their paychecks and the GOP-controlled Legislature returning to work on other business without them.
Gov. Scott Walker has implied that if the Democrats don’t come back soon, they’ll be responsible for thousands of state workers losing their jobs because Wisconsin won’t be able to refinance its debt.
* Ohio has the same sort of quorum rules as Illinois, so their Democrats won’t be arriving soon…
Ohio Republicans edged back on a plan to strip public workers of their union rights while their counterparts in Wisconsin slogged ahead on a similar proposal, pushing through a punishing debate that stretched into its third day in the state Assembly. […]
Republicans in Ohio offered a small concession on Wednesday, saying they would support allowing unionized state workers to collectively bargain on wages — but not for benefits, sick time, vacation or other conditions.
That Ohio GOP “concession” was Wisconsin’s starting point. Wow.
…Adding… I forgot to post this one from the News-Gazette…
A majority of the Democratic members of the Indiana House of Representatives have temporarily moved to an Urbana hotel in an effort to prevent votes on bills they consider to be bad for teachers, workers and families.
“This is not a walkout; it’s a seminar that is taking place in a lovely place: Urbana, Illinois,” said Indiana House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer of South Bend.
I’ve been wondering whether they’re ordering food from Jimmy John’s.
* This article pretty much tells us all we need to know about how the muni bond hysteria is overblown and how it’s costing taxpayers a pretty penny…
Investors skimmed over Illinois’ well-known financial troubles to vie for a piece of a $3.7 billion taxable pension bond sale on Wednesday.
The state received $6.1 billion in orders from a record 128 investors, according to John Sinsheimer, the state’s capital markets director.
“Well, I have $6.1 billion of bids to tell me the market was comfortable with the budget. And 128 investors must have reached that conclusion as well,” he said. […]
Bonds due in 2014 were priced at a 280 basis point spread over comparable Treasuries, versus 285 basis points from Tuesday. The spread on the longest bonds, due in 2019, also narrowed 5 basis points to 240 basis points over Treasuries.
The amped-up hysteria causes prices to jump, and smart investors know a good buy when they see one. They understand, unlike the freaked out tribe, that Illinois hasn’t missed a bond payment since 1818. The problem is, the hysteria causes prices to jump, which means taxpayers are on the hook for higher interest rates.
The longest maturity in the Illinois bond deal, due in 2019, was sold at a yield of 5.877%. In comparison, a $400 million “junk” bond issued by auto-parts maker Dana Holding Corp. and maturing in 2019 had a yield of 6.24%.
Sheesh.
* Speaking of the state’s budget troubles, right now, Downstate and suburban school districts pay only about half a percent of payroll to the Teachers Retirement System. Senate President John Cullerton wants the districts to increase their payments by about $700 million a year…
The shift from the state being entirely responsible for downstate and suburban teachers’ pensions to a hybrid of state and local funding would be phased in, Cullerton told The State Journal-Register’s editorial board on Wednesday.
School districts would be responsible only for the “normal costs” of pensions – the cost of paying out benefits to retirees for the current fiscal year and funding part of the future benefits for teachers still on the job. The state would continue to pay down the debt created by decades of underfunding by legislatures and governors, Cullerton said.
Cullerton estimated that normal costs account for one-third of the state’s annual ($2.1 billion) payments to the state Teachers’ Retirement System.
Teachers currently contribute 9.4 percent of their salary to the pension fund.
Thoughts?
* Meanwhile, the furor over the governor’s decision to immediately zero out all funding for substance abuse programs continues to resonate…
Jacksonville’s Wells Center is preparing to shut down by the end of March unless Gov. Pat Quinn changes his mind about drastically cutting funding for addiction treatment and prevention.
Providers of such services were notified this week that state funding will end March 15.
“For us, the cuts began on Tuesday,” said Bruce Carter, Wells Center executive director. “We have already begun to prepare layoff notices and patient discharges, creating medical risks involved in the sudden disruption of a patient’s addiction treatment.”
* Legislators call on Quinn to reverse cuts for drug programs: A Chicago legislator says she will request a symbolic vote in the Illinois House today that calls on Gov. Pat Quinn to rescind an immediate $28 million cut in state funding for substance-abuse treatment programs.
* Lawmakers trying to block cuts to treatment facilities
Prosecutors in the Rod Blagojevich corruption case said today they will move to throw out racketeering counts against the former governor because they’re “duplicative,” and to help streamline the case.
All the underlying conduct in those counts are charged in other counts, however.
They also moved to dismiss a fraud count.
The move came after jurors in Blagojevich’s first trial complained they were confused by the case. […]
“It doesn’t change much for us,” [Blagojevich] attorney Sheldon Sorosky said. “Every wrong is still there, nothing has changed.”
The charges in question are racketeering charges, specifically counts one, two and four of the indictment. Act one is conspiracy to commit bribery and bribery, act two involves attempted extortion and attempted bribery and act four includes conspiracy to commit extortion, conspiracy to commit bribery and wire fraud.
Prosecutors said they decided the counts were redundant and they only need to try Blagojevich on the remaining 20 counts.
Jurors at the first trial needed a super-complicated map to connect all those charges against Blagojevich. The whole case was needlessly confusing.
* Todd Wathen of Mattoon and his male partner began planning a civil union ceremony shortly after Gov. Pat Quinn signed the civil unions bill into law. So, they contacted a couple of swanky Downstate bed and breakfasts. Both B&Bs turned them down…
In an e-mail reply to Wathen, Jim A. Walder of the TimberCreek Bed & Breakfast wrote: “We will never host same-sex civil unions. We will never host same-sex weddings even if they become legal in Illinois.
“We believe homosexuality is wrong and unnatural based on what the Bible says about it. If that is discrimination, I guess we unfortunately discriminate,” Walder wrote.
When informed of the new law, Walder replied, “The Bible does not state opinions, but facts. It contains the highest laws pertinent to man. It trumps Illinois law, United States law, and global law should there ever be any.”
There are a couple of public accommodations exceptions in the Illinois Human Rights Act. Owner-occupied inns with 5 or fewer rooms to let don’t have to follow the racial, gender, religion, sexual orientation laws. Timber Creek has more than 5 rooms, so the business apparently must comply with the law of the land. From the statute…
Civil Rights Violations: Public Accommodations. It is a civil rights violation for any person on the basis of unlawful discrimination to:
(A) Enjoyment of Facilities, Goods, and Services. Deny or refuse to another the full and equal enjoyment of the facilities, goods, and services of any public place of accommodation;
(B) Written Communications. Directly or indirectly, as the operator of a place of public accommodation, publish, circulate, display or mail any written communication, except a private communication sent in response to a specific inquiry, which the operator knows is to the effect that any of the facilities of the place of public accommodation will be denied to any person or that any person is unwelcome, objectionable or unacceptable because of unlawful discrimination;
* The Question: What are you thoughts on this story?
Try to be civil in comments, please. I have lots of work to do today and don’t want to spend too much time policing y’all. Thanks.
* I called around yesterday to find out why a provision about possibly seeking federal backing of state pension debt was slipped into a bond offering last week and was told that it never should’ve been included and that it got by the folks who monitor such things. Whether that’s true or not, it’s proving to be an embarrassment…
The No. 4 House Republican in Congress Tuesday shot down Gov. Quinn’s trial balloon of possibly seeking federal help to ease the state’s crushing $86 billion pension shortfall.
Quinn floated the idea in the fine print of his 2012 budget proposal last week, but U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) began laughing Tuesday when asked about the chances of a federal pension bailout for Illinois and other states with retirement systems that are financially underwater.
“There is no appetite in the House for a federal guarantee for a state pension obligation. None. It’s a non-starter,” said Roskam, the U.S. House’s chief deputy whip and highest-ranking Republican in Illinois’ congressional delegation. […]
“Notwithstanding any media reports to the contrary, the state of Illinois has no current plans to request a federal guarantee on any of its bonds or pension debt,” said Kelly Kraft, a spokeswoman for Quinn’s Office of Management and Budget.
“To date, we have not requested any guarantee,” she said in a prepared statement.
And they never will request it, unless DC does a complete 180. What a stupid move.
* I mentioned this numbers problem with Gov. Pat Quinn’s boasts last week on the Illinois Lawmakers TV program after the governor’s budget address…
Gov. Pat Quinn often boasts that Illinois leads the Midwest in job growth. He made the claim at least twice last week and said in his budget address that Illinois is enjoying “an impressive recovery.”
What he doesn’t say is that by another measure, Illinois ranked eighth out of 12 Midwestern states for job growth last year.
The Democratic governor sticks to raw numbers when he discusses jobs. He says, correctly, that Illinois added 46,300 jobs in 2010, more than any other state in the region.
But Illinois also is the largest state, so it might be expected to see bigger job swings. Another way to measure is by looking at the number of jobs compared to the population.
Illinois ranked fourth in the nation for job growth last year. But factor in population, and it ranked 24th - the middle of the pack.
* One of the big problems with Gov. Quinn’s elimination of all non-Medicaid funding for substance abuse treatment programs is that defendants without serious criminal records can often avoid prison by entering a treatment program. Quite often, those people are young, male and poor. Those folks don’t qualify for Medicaid. So, they’ll end up behind bars and learn how to be better criminals. Great…
According to The Illinois Alcohol and Drug Dependence Association, the measure means 80 percent of patients will lose substance-abuse services. It also will mean lost jobs.
An estimated 55,000 people will have their substance-abuse treatments ended, about 32,000 of them under age 21.
“It’s been one crisis after another the last three years,” Ron Howell, executive director of Recovery Resources, said. “We’ll just have to wait until the smoke clears.”
Most items under the cap are hard costs, like debt service and pension contributions, over which neither the governor nor General Assembly have any discretion. Those hard costs increased by more than $1 billion from last year, meaning something had to give. The governor chose [to cut] social services, the circuit breaker and Medicaid reimbursement rates. If he didn’t, he would have had to cut education and public safety. In other words, no good choices were available.
Compared with Illinois’ finances, Wisconsin is on easy street, but you wouldn’t know it from the approaches the governors of these states are taking.
Illinois’ money woes are the worst in the nation, according to a study by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Illinois is at least $13 billion in debt and can’t pay its bills in a timely manner. Add in the worst unfunded pension liability in the country and you get a truly bleak picture.
Wisconsin is not well off, but its hole is not nearly as deep. Yet, from the way Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn are acting, you’d expect the reverse to be true.
Walker is acting with a sense of urgency to fill a projected $3.6 billion budget hole. Wisconsin has a biennium budget process, which means the budget hole is a two-year one.
That NCSL study was conducted before the tax hike, so Illinois’ budget deficit is considerably smaller now. Also, the highly respected National Journal took a look at Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal and found it needlessly focuses on the controversial stuff…
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has sparked massive protests by proposing to curtail public-employee unions and give his administration the power to cut back health care and sell state public utilities through no-bid contracts.
But while Walker argues that his budget-repair legislation must be passed soon to avoid job cuts, the most controversial parts of his bill would have no immediate effect.
The state’s entire budget shortfall for this year — the reason that Walker has said he must push through immediate cuts — would be covered by the governor’s relatively uncontroversial proposal to restructure the state’s debt.
By contrast, the proposals that have kicked up a firestorm, especially his call to curtail the collective-bargaining rights of the state’s public-employees, wouldn’t save any money this year. [Emphasis added]
* Roundup…
* High yield may up demand for $3.7B Illinois bond: According to a term sheet, initial price talk for the longest maturity in the offering, dated 2019, is about 2.40 percentage points above comparable Treasurys, for a yield of about 5.85%. That is about 1.79 percentage point more than comparably rated nine-year debt from cigarette maker Philip Morris International Inc., which traded at 0.61 percentage point above Treasurys on Tuesday. It is also 0.05 percentage point tighter than the initial price target on the deal for that maturity.
* Charter school says its exempt from IL labor law: A Chicago charter school that received millions of dollars in public money is now arguing it is a private institution that does not have to follow an Illinois law giving public school workers the right to unionize.
* Ameren asks ICC for electric, gas delivery charge hikes
* Regional school chiefs plot strategy to fight extinction
Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel told WGN AM 720s Greg Jarrett this morning, “I’m going to order, on day one, a forensics audit of all the departments and all of how the resources are spent.” (full interview mp3)
Either way, that pretty much puts the lie to the claims that the Daley folks backed Emanuel because he wouldn’t dare go so far as to order such a massive audit of city government.
Emanuel won 40 of the city’s 50 wards, getting more than 70 percent of the vote in the heavily populated lakefront wards. Emanuel also won with more than 50 percent of the vote in wards with large African-American populations, racking up margins of at least 2-to-1 over the major black candidate, Braun.
Chico won the remaining 10 city wards. They were primarily Latino-heavy wards on the Southwest Side, where he was raised, and the West Side. Chico, Daley’s former chief of staff, also won the 19th and 41st wards, both with large populations of police and firefighters, whose unions endorsed him. Still, Chico’s vote advantage over Emanuel in those wards was not significant.
Turnout was 41 percent, nearly 10 points lower than election officials predicted.
Emanuel appeared to be the “consensus candidate” of the black community, garnering a larger share of the votes than former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, who came in fourth behind City Clerk Miguel del Valle. Braun had just under 9 percent, del Valle just over 9 percent.
Braun’s collapse opened the door for Emanuel to claim the black vote and made a run-off impossible […]
In her concession speech at the Parkview Ballroom in Bronzeville, Braun said, “It is a very painful thing to lose an election, but I believe that hope springs eternal. We will continue to try to inspire people and get them engaged and involved in government.”
She thanked a supporter and mentioned how she told him minutes before the concession, “I’m really so sorry this didn’t come out better. I’m sorry if I did anything that messed it up.”
Braun also said last night that she hoped someday the city could elect its first female mayor - apparently forgetting that Chicago elected Jane Byrne.
The lessons black politicians can take away from Braun’s miserable loss is the same as it has always been: Black voters matter, and you’ve got to be able to raise money.
Black voters turned out in a mighty big way for Emanuel. They didn’t turn out for Braun.
After all the fuss, in the end, being the “consensus” candidate meant nothing.
I think the take-away for black leaders on this campaign should be: Quality black candidates matter to black voters. They have never just “voted black” for mayor because the candidate happened to be the same skin color. They vote for viable African-American candidates who can prove they can win. Braun was a disaster. And the leaders should’ve known that after watching her implode in the US Senate.
Rahm Emanuel’s Round One victory gives him a running start on confronting problems so severe, the painful solutions could seal his fate as a one-termer.
Whether Emanuel can avoid a one-and-done scenario — assuming he even wants to serve more than four years — will largely depend on how he tackles the biggest financial crisis in Chicago history.
The city is literally on the brink of bankruptcy with a structural deficit approaching $1 billion when under-funded employee pensions are factored in.
Mayor Daley borrowed to the hilt, sold off revenue-generating assets and spent most of the money to hold the line on taxes in his last two budgets. The city even borrowed $254 million to cover back pay raises long anticipated for police officers and firefighters.
The city is only “literally on the brink of bankruptcy” if it refuses to raise new revenues. Failing companies with lousy products can’t just sell more goods as they go down the drain. That’s what makes governments different from private business. They can, and do, raise new reveunes.
The problem with new revenues, of course, is that voters won’t like it. Chicagoans have been blessed with relatively low residential property taxes (even though they think they pay way too much). Those days may have to end unless Emanuel can find another way.
* Meanwhile, big changes are coming to the city council…
Even Oprah Winfrey couldn’t have given Chicago’s City Council a more massive makeover than the one it got Tuesday.
At least 10 new people will fill the Council chambers, and there could be even more fresh faces as at least nine incumbent aldermen appeared headed toward runoffs on April 5.
That included the Council’s oldest member, Bernard Stone, in the 50th Ward.
The other aldermen heading to runoffs include Toni Foulkes (15th) and JoAnn Thompson (16th) on the Southwest Side. Ald. Willie Cochran (20th) will go one-on-one with hip-hop artist Che “Rhymefest” Smith on the South Side. In the 24th Ward, first-term incumbent Sharon Denise Dixon will go head-to-head again with former Ald. Michael Chandler, whom she previously defeated in a tight runoff. Roderick Sawyer, the son of former Chicago Mayor and Ald. Eugene Sawyer, appeared to have forced 6th Ward Ald. Freddrenna Lyle into a runoff as well.
A star is born out of this Chicago election. And, no, I’m not talking about Rahm Emanuel.
State Rep. Susana Mendoza’s victory Tuesday night over Water Reclamation District Commissioner Patricia Horton for the post of city clerk now lifts Mendoza onto a new path. One where the audience will be wider. And the political possibilities greater.
Mendoza, 38, a Mexican-American who represents Chicago’s Pilsen-Little Village neighborhoods, went to the Illinois General Assembly a decade ago as its youngest member. In her time in Springfield, Mendoza has been a reliable vote for the Democratic agenda, gone from proponent to opponent of the death penalty, and vigorously argued for the impeachment of Rod Blagojevich.
She is energetic, collegial, and more often than not, candid.
* Roundup…
* Mayor-elect greets commuters at South Side ‘L’ stop
* Steinberg: Some Chicagoans unaware of mayor’s race
* Conflict in 45th aldermanic race: Sneed hears state Rep. Joseph Lyons, who backed 45th Ward aldermanic candidate Marina Faz-Huppert, reportedly got into a shouting match with a poll watcher — whom he allegedly chest-butted and chin-slapped, but no charges were filed.
* Dixon To Take On Ex-Ald. Chandler In 24th Ward runoff
* Cochran To Face Rapper Rhymefest In 20th Ward runoff
* Lake County coroner quits, pleads guilty in methadone clinic case
…Adding More… A must-read…
* City needs ‘the Carlos treatment’: As the snow fell Tuesday and Chicago residents came out to vote for a new mayor, I recalled my late friend, Carlos Hernandez Gomez, the former political reporter for CLTV.
Indiana House Democrats who fled to Illinois like their counterparts in the Wisconsin Senate say they’ll continue their boycott until Republicans assure them they won’t debate public education and anti-union measures the Democrats oppose.
The House Democrats won a small victory on Tuesday when their absence at least temporarily blocked a GOP-backed labor bill. Republicans, who control the House, planned to try again Wednesday morning to resume business.
In a statement Tuesday night, the Democratic caucus said members were in Urbana, Ill., “for the immediate future” to continue reviewing Republican proposals on public education changes and the right-to-work bill that would prohibit union representation fees from being a condition of employment at most private-sector companies.
“By staying here, we will be giving the people of Indiana a chance to find out more about this radical agenda and speak out against it,” the statement said. “We will remain here until we get assurances from the governor and House Speaker Brian Bosma that these bills will not be called down in the House at any time this session.”
“When your political life and the things you stand for are on the edge, you don’t have many options in the minority,” State Representative Dale Grubb said.
They said they needed to clear their heads.
“We needed a chance to get away and be able to think without interruption,” State Representative Pat Bauer said. […]
“We simply need the opportunity to sit down and negotiate on those things and talk about the areas of concern without it being rammed through and shoved down everybody’s throat,” Grubb said.
* Unlike in Wisconsin, the Republican governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels is trying to calm things down…
Speaking of the Democrats’ tactic of reportedly fleeing for one of Indiana’s borders to shut down the House, Daniels called it “a perfectly legitimate part of the process.” […]
“Even the smallest minority,” he added, “has every right to express the strength of its views — and I salute those who did.”
During an afternoon statement outside his office, Governor Mitch Daniels admonished Republicans almost as much as Democrats.
“I thought there was a better time and place to have this very important and legitimate issue raised,” Daniels said, adding there were other items on his agenda more important to accomplish during this year’s legislative session.
The governor said he will not order Indiana State Police to seek out and return those missing lawmakers. Many are in Illinois and Kentucky anyways, where the state police cannot force them to return to work.
Democrats say they won’t come back to Indianapolis until the right-to-work bill is dead. Daniels held out hope that it would be sooner.
“I’m not going to divert a single trooper from their job protecting the Indiana public. I trust that the people’s consciences will bring them back to work. I choose to believe that our friends in the minority, having made their point, will come back and do their duty, the jobs that they are paid to do,” he said.
Americans strongly oppose laws taking away the collective bargaining power of public employee unions, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. The poll found 61% would oppose a law in their state similar to such a proposal in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who would favor such a law. […]
The poll found people were divided on whether public employee unions were a good thing. A slight majority of 46% said unions were generally more harmful to states while 45% thought they were helpful. […]
Republicans supported limiting bargaining by a 54%-41% margin. However, only 18% of Democrats favored restrictions while 79% were opposed. Independents were against bargaining restrictions by a 31% to 62% margain.
More results. Notice that a majority is against cutting pay or benefits for public employees…
As usual, people are split on cuts, but nobody likes a tax hike.
* Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Dems are still in Illinois. They had a caucus meeting in Harvard, near the border…
Some of the 14 Wisconsin state senators who have been living outside of the state met Monday and Tuesday in Harvard.
The senators continue working while on the road to fight an anti-union bill proposed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
“When he’s talking about ‘we need to do this,’ it’s a joke,” Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, said. “I think the biggest thing right now is for Walker to take this bill, throw it out, let’s start from scratch, let’s figure out how to tackle this deficit without going after the workers, without going after the working class.”
The Democratic senators caucused and granted TV interviews in a rented conference room at the Heritage Inn and Suites in Harvard, 7 miles from the Wisconsin-Illinois border, although they did not stay in the hotel.
Four [Wisconsin] Democrats who were reached by The Associated Press said none of their daily expenses would be charged to taxpayers, and none will accept any per diem funds. Larson did say his hotel room Monday was paid for by the State Senate Democratic Campaign. He said the group might pay for more nights depending on how long he stays.
Others have donated food, he said, but he declined to name them.
“Let’s just say the senators have friends over here who’ve been more than generous in sharing with us,” Larson said.
Sen. Tim Cullen said he already planned to donate some of his pay to a food pantry in Janesville.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker got punked by someone pretending to be billionaire far-right causes financier David Koch. The fake Koch talked to Walker on the phone for twenty minutes yesterday…
FAKE KOCH: What we were thinking about the crowds was, planting some troublemakers.
WALKER: We thought about that. My only gut reaction to that would be, right now, the lawmakers I talk to have just completely had it with them. The public is not really fond of this.The teachers union did some polling and focus groups…
It’s unclear what Walker means when he says he “thought” about planting some troublemakers, but it seems fair to ask him for clarification.
NSFW audio of the conversation is here and here. Walker went on and on about his plans. Oops.
*** UPDATE 2 *** The right to work billw as withdrawn in Indiana, but the Democratic Hoosiers still won’t leave Illinois…
Republicans have killed a controversial labor bill that has sparked a Democrat work-stoppage and large union protests at the Statehouse. […]
Democrats, though, were meeting in an Urbana, Ill., hotel room behind closed doors discussing their next steps. Last night they issued a statement saying they had concerns about 11 bills, including other labor-related bills, education reforms and the proposed next state budget. They singled out two in particular: the right-to-work bill and one which lets state tax dollars pay for private school tuition for some families. […]
Brown, who left the private meeting for a short break, said Democrats were not returning to Indiana.
“We don’t value that,” suggesting the decision to move the matter to a study committee would not sway the Democrats because they have additional issues they want to be resolved.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Former GOP Rep. Cal Skinner caught up with the fleeing Cheeseheads yesterday and was quite impressed…
I asked him why he and his colleagues had not been evoking Abraham Lincoln’s jumping out the Old State Capitol’s window to break a quorum in Springfield back in the mid-1800′s.
He replied that was one of the reasons they had come to Illinois. He was really quite elegant and I wished I had had a tape recorder so I could do justice to his rhetoric.
