* From a Daily Herald story about the legality of pension reform…
Just as Gov. Pat Quinn has used an orange cartoon snake named Squeezy to try to illustrate the harm the state’s pension debt does to the state budget, a 1960s report on the same topic included a tornado, sucking up cash.
And your little dog, too!
* I’ve never heard this General Assembly reform ever suggested before the Alton Telegraph did so…
What we find objectionable is that the “leaders” get an extra $20,000 just for serving in purely party posts. If these duties are so important to the goals of the individual parties, why shouldn’t the party organizations be responsible for the compensation, rather than taxpayers?
No extra leadership stipend? Well, that would sure make things different.
Set for trial in less than nine months, indicted state Rep. Derrick Smith dipped into his campaign fund to pay at least $37,500 to the criminal defense lawyers representing him in his federal bribery case, newly filed state campaign records show.
Smith made that expenditure to the Henderson Adam law firm on March 29, 2012, just days after being arrested for allegedly accepting a $7,000 cash bribe from an undercover FBI informant in exchange for offering to help a fictitious daycare center operator in his district obtain a $50,000 state grant.
He waits until now to reveal this payment to his lawyers? Over nine months after he was required to report it? What the heck?
* The media will probably have a field day with the proposed Sneaker Tax…
The cost of a new pair of basketball shoes could jump by 25 cents under a proposal floated this week by anIllinoislawmaker.
State Rep. Will Davis, D-Hazel Crest, wants to create a new tax that would generate an estimated $3 million annually for a youth job preparation program. He said the added cost would likely go unnoticed by most consumers, while helping finance a program for kids during tight budget times.
It’s not necessarily a horrible idea, if you don’t mind taxes, but I just don’t see it going anywhere. Why? This…
Rob Karr, senior vice president of Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said the organization will fight the proposal because it would create an unnecessary amount of additional paperwork for store owners.
“It imposes significant administrative burdens on the retailer,” Karr said.
Don’t mess with IRMA.
Also, it’s just a bill. Remember that. It ain’t a law. Bills get introduced all the time and never go anywhere. For example…
“I think we need drug testing for welfare recipients. I think the savings to the state can be tremendous, in the multimillions, for sure,” [State Rep. Adam Brown, R-Decatur] said.
Halvorson addressed the issue while speaking at a candidates forum organized by local clergy and church leaders and held Saturday at Lax Mortuary in Kankakee. Halvorson, along with state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, were the candidates scheduled to speak at the forum. Former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds made an unscheduled speech at the end of the event.
That’s two spit-takes in one graf. They debated at a mortuary? And Mel Reynolds unexpectedly showed up to give a speech?
Wish I’d seen that one.
* The Question: What would be the “best” place to hold a candidates’ debate?
The death of a friend he made on a quest to learn more about the needs of black communities has inspired a suburban state senator to look into authoring legislation regulating the use of Tasers.
“It rips my heart apart,” state Sen. Dan Duffy, of Lake Barrington, said of the death of Philip Coleman, a 38-year-old hospice executive and Rainbow/Push coalition member. Coleman died Dec. 13 after police, called by Coleman’s mother, used a Taser on him twice to restrain him.
Duffy, a Republican, hopes to build off previous stun-gun legislation that was introduced by Chicago Democratic Rep. Monique Davis but failed to move out of the Illinois House in the last General Assembly session.
“We need to look at stricter guidelines and training regarding the use and power of these weapons,” Duffy said, noting his research after Coleman’s death made him aware of higher stun-gun use against minorities. […]
But with questions surrounding Philip Coleman’s death, Duffy is calling for “better judgment and discretion before you’re out playing with a Taser.”
“Even though it’s not a gun, it’s just as powerful,” he said.
I happen to agree that stun guns are a lot more powerful than some law enforcement agencies will admit and that they appear to be used disproportionately against minorities.
Just call me stunned that a pro 2nd Amendment guy like Duffy would be willing to impose such restrictions on what the police deem to be a self-defense weapon.
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that a poll taken Jan. 30 of 1,255 likely Illinois Democratic primary voters shows Attorney General Lisa Madigan leading Gov. Pat Quinn by a very large margin.
Madigan also leads Quinn and former White House chief of staff Bill Daley in a three-way contest, according to the poll, but Quinn leads Daley in a one-on-one race.
And a large plurality of Democrats disapprove of the governor’s job performance. The We Ask America Poll has a margin of error of +/- 3 percent. About 18 percent of the results came from non-landline users.
In the poll, Madigan leads Quinn by 25 points, 51 percent to 26 percent. Among women, who almost always comprise a majority of Democratic primary election voters, Madigan’s lead is 53-22, while she leads among men 46-30.
Madigan’s lead over Quinn in Chicago is 46 percent to 30 percent and it’s 51-28 in suburban Cook County, while she leads Quinn 53-23 in the suburban collar counties and by a massive 53-21 downstate, according to the poll.
Madigan has not yet decided whether she’s going to run for governor. People close to her are divided over what they think she will do. She reportedly plans to take her time with her decision.
A Public Policy Polling survey taken in November had Madigan leading Quinn 64-20, but that poll was of just 319 “usual” Democratic primary voters with a margin of error of +/- 5.5 percent.
Still, PPP does excellent work, so if you average the two polls you get a 57 percent to 23 percent lead for Madigan over the governor. If Madigan’s decision is heavily weighted toward whether she can win the primary, she will give it a go.
Quinn has a better shot against Daley — a white, Irish Democrat from Chicago who may not bring much more to the table than Dan Hynes did in the 2010 primary.
According to the We Ask America poll, Quinn leads Daley by five points, 38 percent to 33 percent. November’s PPP survey had Daley leading Quinn 37-34, so average those two results and you get an essential tie at 36 for Quinn and 35 for Daley.
We Ask America found that Quinn leads Daley in the city 45-30, but Daley leads in suburban Cook 40-36. Quinn has a narrow half-point lead in the collar counties and leads by less than two percentage points downstate. The Daley name ain’t what it used to be.
Could Daley be a spoiler who helps Quinn in a three-way race? Not according to the We Ask America poll. It says Madigan leads a three-way contest with 37 percent to Quinn’s 20 percent and Daley’s 15. Public Policy Polling did not test a three-way race in November.
Madigan’s lead among women in a three-way contest is pretty big. She gets 38 percent to 17 for Quinn and 13 for Daley. Among men, her lead is a bit smaller at 34 percent to Quinn’s 24 and Daley’s 18.
Madigan leads Quinn and Daley in Chicago by 35 percent to 22 to 17. Her lead in suburban Cook is 35-18-18. She leads 36-17-16 in the collars and is ahead by a very big 40-19-11 downstate.
Public Policy Polling had Quinn’s job approval rating among Democrats at 40 percent, with a 43 percent disapproval. Last week’s We Ask America poll had Quinn’s approval among Dems at 37 percent, with a 42 percent disapproval.
Women give the governor a slightly lower disapproval rating than men — 41 percent of women disapprove, 46 percent of men. But just 36 percent of Democratic women and 37 percent of Democratic men approve of the way Quinn is handling his job.
Quinn won the 2010 primary and general elections despite low approval ratings. So, he’s been here before.
What he didn’t have to do back then, however, was take on one of the most popular politicians in Illinois. PPP’s November poll pegged Lisa Madigan’s favorable rating at 68 percent among Democrats, while just 16 percent had an unfavorable view of her.
If Madigan runs, she likely wins the primary election. Daley is another story. Like 2010, a Daley-Quinn race will be a hard-fought and bloody battle that could end up being pretty close.
If Quinn has to get a single primary opponent, Daley is the one he wants.
Subscribers have crosstabs.
* Related…
* Illinois attorney general collected $1.1B in 2012: Of that amount, more than half came from collections litigation, including funds from child support, damage to state property, unpaid educational loans, fines and penalties. The rest was split between tobacco litigation and estate tax revenues.
* AFSCME has declared today and tomorrow to be action days on its contract. From the union’s Facebook page…
Anything going on in your office or shop?
* Meanwhile, the Southern Illinoisan, which forcefully opposed the closure of the Tamms state prison, ran a recent editorial about a couple of assaults on prison guards, including this one…
Less than two weeks ago, on Jan. 19, Menard Correctional Center in Chester was placed on lockdown after an inmate assaulted a correctional officer. Fortunately, the staff member’s injuries were limited to bruises, but a spokeswoman for the department of corrections expressed concern about the attack. […]
You may also recall Tamms was defended by some as an appropriate home for the “worst of the worst” state inmates before falling victim to protestations of inhumane conditions and excessive costs. Opponents of Tamms’ closure also said the super-maximum prison helped control inmate violence throughout the correctional system because prisoners did not want to get sent to the facility as punishment.
Ty Peterson, of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the bargaining unit for prison staff, said the employee attacked at Menard recently was transferred to the correctional center from Tamms, which still housed some inmates until the end of the year.
Are you beginning to see a disturbing pattern? Is what we are seeing at Pontiac and Menard the “new normal” for correctional centers in Illinois?
Wait. The guard was transferred from Tamms to Menard, not the prisoner. I’m not sure I get it.
* I don’t know how you first reacted, but a wave of dread enveloped me when the announcers suddenly fell silent and the lights began extinguishing during last night’s Super Bowl blackout. It was kinda like the feeling I used to get during the Cold War at the start of those “We interrupt this program for a special news bulletin” announcements.
* I had to turn to Twitter after a couple minutes because CBS just wasn’t giving anybody any information about what was going on. Thankfully, ABC was on the case…
ABC News reporting Dept. of Homeland Security says “nothing nefarious” about Superbowl power outage #superbowl#abc7chicagonews
* After feeling a sense of relief that we weren’t under attack again, I noticed that lots of people I follow retweeted the Johnny-on-the-spot Oreos post…
The Oreo graphic was “designed, captioned and approved within minutes,” according to Sarah Hofstetter, president of the cookie brand’s digital agency of record, Dentsu-owned360i. All the decisions were made in real time quickly because marketers and agency members were sitting together at a “mission control” center, or a social-media war room of sorts, at the agency’s headquarters in the TriBeCa neighborhood of Manhattan. Among those who were there were two brand team members from Oreo, and nearly a dozen creatives, strategists, community managers and social-media listeners.
* I have to admit that I was confused at first about the #SB47 hashtag, thinking it must be a bill number. I even looked it up. Nope, that couldn’t be it.
Apparently, I spend way too much time thinking about Illinois politics.
Your own thoughts?
…Adding… My favorite Super Bowl ad also had a local angle. Ram Trucks used the late, great Illinoisan Paul Harvey in its moving spot…
Share the video and Ram will make a donation to “support FFA and assist in local hunger and educational programs.”
Hutchinson also has the endorsement from Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. On Wednesday state Sen. Napoleon Harris dropped out of the race and put his support behind Hutchinson.
Yes, Hutchinson was endorsed by Preckwinkle, but Sen. Harris endorsed Robin Kelly.
Everybody makes mistakes. Things happen and it’s usually no big deal. And I know there are a lot of candidates in the 2nd Congressional District race, but that story was really messed up.
* The AP wasn’t the only confused media outlet. The Hill…
While Hutchinson has high name recognition in the district following her 2010 primary challenge to Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), having no money is a bad spot to be in heading into the home stretch of the campaign.
No. Halvorson ran against Jackson.
Yes, the two names are similar, and Hutchinson once worked for Halvorson and got her Senate seat. And I’m always worried that I’m gonna screw up those names myself. But doesn’t the Hill have a ton of editors?
* Anyway, feel free to discuss the AFSCME endorsement, which I told you about over the weekend…
The progressive union AFSCME today announced their endorsement of Toi Hutchinson in the upcoming special election in Illinois’s Second Congressional District. AFSCME cited Hutchinson’s strong record of looking out for middle class interests in making its decision.
“AFSCME Council 31 is proud to endorse Toi Hutchinson for Congress,” the union’s executive director Henry Bayer said. “Toi has a strong record on retirement security, affordable health care, tax fairness and other issues vital to union members and all working people. AFSCME will educate our more than 7,000 members and retirees in the Second Congressional District about her leadership, and encourage them to get out and vote on February 26.”
AFSCME Council 31 is a leading voice for working families throughout Illinois, with 100,000 active and retired members who provide the essential public services that residents rely on. AFSCME is the nation’s largest and fastest growing public-service union with more than 1.6 million active and retired members, including nurses, corrections officers, caregivers, EMTs, sanitation workers and more. With members in hundreds of different occupations, AFSCME advocates for fairness in the workplace, excellence in public services and prosperity and opportunity for all working families.
“When I’m in Congress, I’ll keep working with AFSCME and stand with President Obama to protect the services and programs that people across the country need and depend on,” said Hutchinson. “For too long, Congress has focused on the budget deficit instead of the opportunity deficit. When I’m elected I’m going to work hard to invest in exactly the kinds of initiatives that empower people and communities.”
* Meanwhile, a Kelly partisan wonders about Sen. Hutchinson’s 2012 NRA questionnaire. Hutchinson received an “A-” from the group last year..
The National Rifle Association’s 2012 questionnaire for Illinois state legislature candidates directly addresses questions about assault weapons bans and bans on high capacity ammunition magazines:
• Question 10: Do you support state legislation banning the lawful manufacture, possession, ownership, purchase, sale and/or transfer of any firearms?
• Question 11: Would you support state legislation restricting the possession, ownership, purchase, sale and/or transfer of semi-automatic firearms used for hunting, competitive shooting, collecting and self-defense?
• Question 12: Would you support restricting or banning magazines that hold more than ten rounds?
How does Senator Toi Hutchinson answer those questions? Can we conclude those answers were to the liking of the NRA.
Unless proven otherwise by the Toi Hutchinson campaign, the answer is “yes.” The answers were to the liking of the NRA.
*** UPDATE *** There wasn’t a lot of media coverage. AP…
A state representative from Chicago says lawmakers across the state must work together to craft a rational and “common sense” concealed carry law.
Democratic state Rep. Ken Dunkin told an audience at a town hall meeting in Chicago Saturday that concealed carry “is coming” to Illinois. He and other Chicago lawmakers held the meeting to gather input from constituents about proposed firearms legislation.
But when long-time Chicago resident Gus Philpot asked for a show of hands he found 30 in the crowd of 80 who said they would seek concealed-carry permits immediately.
State Rep. Ken Dunkin (D-Chicago) said Chicago’s international reputation once again has become associated with gun violence, and said he wants to find a compromise that gives gun owners what they want with protections built in. He said Illinois is the last state to enact concealed-carry legislation because of one man, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago).
“The Speaker of our House knows, like most of us know, that if it hit the House floor it would pass,” Dunkin said.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* A town hall on Chicago’s West Side is discussing the concealed carry issue. The forum is being hosted by Sen. Mattie Hunter and Rep. Ken Dunkin and moderated by WVON’s Cliff Kelly. The NRA’s Todd Vandermyde has spoken so far, and Congressman Bobby Rush is in attendance. You can watch BlueRoomStream’s live video by clicking here. [UPDATE: Use that link for archived video.]
Let’s go to the ScribbleLive thingy, because BlueRoomStream is also live-Tweeting the event…
* For the most part, organized labor has stayed out of the 2nd Congressional District primary. AFCSME is the first major union to jump in…
The progressive union AFSCME today announced their endorsement of Toi Hutchinson in the upcoming special election in Illinois’s Second Congressional District. AFSCME cited Hutchinson’s strong record of looking out for middle class interests in making its decision.
“AFSCME Council 31 is proud to endorse Toi Hutchinson for Congress,” the union’s executive director Henry Bayer said. “Toi has a strong record on retirement security, affordable health care, tax fairness and other issues vital to union members and all working people. AFSCME will educate our more than 7,000 members and retirees in the Second Congressional District about her leadership, and encourage them to get out and vote on February 26.”
AFSCME Council 31 is a leading voice for working families throughout Illinois, with 100,000 active and retired members who provide the essential public services that residents rely on. AFSCME is the nation’s largest and fastest growing public-service union with more than 1.6 million active and retired members, including nurses, corrections officers, caregivers, EMTs, sanitation workers and more. With members in hundreds of different occupations, AFSCME advocates for fairness in the workplace, excellence in public services and prosperity and opportunity for all working families.
“When I’m in Congress, I’ll keep working with AFSCME and stand with President Obama to protect the services and programs that people across the country need and depend on,” said Hutchinson. “For too long, Congress has focused on the budget deficit instead of the opportunity deficit. When I’m elected I’m going to work hard to invest in exactly the kinds of initiatives that empower people and communities.”
* Turn it way up, campers, because you’re in for a treat. Here’s Dwight Yoakum doing an old Joe Maphis/Flying Burrito Brothers tune just a few days ago…
* From a prominent Toi Hutchinson supporter, sent a day after Sen. Napoleon Harris dropped out of the 2nd Congressional District special primary race…
Napoleon’s wallet mattered in this race, not Napoleon himself. He has little profile to move voters Robin’s way. He is now a marginal figure in the race at most.
The person most negatively affected by Napoleon’s departure is Halvorson, who needed Napoleon to spend money to gobble up black voters. That won’t happen now.
Robin has been running around town for 6 weeks telling donors the key to her win strategy was Bloomberg attacking both Halvorson and Toi on guns. That hasn’t happened yet and may not happen at all. She also moved heaven and earth to get her former boss Toni to endorse her, a key tactical goal. Instead Preckwinlke, who is the only endorser who has real name ID, went against her CoS and picked Toi Hutchinson.
So both strategically and tactically, Robin and Debbie each had a bad week.
Toi, on the other hand, had a good week. The Toni endorsement and Toni burning up the phone lines is already giving her a big financial bounce. That is a huge tactical victory and it helps the strategic strength for Toi, who is the only candidate who gets both white and black votes in a significant way. If she wins, having a geographic base and winning white and black votes will be the two main reasons why she won.
Agreed that Hutchinson had a pretty darned good week. However, Harris’ exit means that Frank Zuccarelli’s Thornton Township organization is now freed up to back Kelly. Not sure if that’ll happen, but it’s the only place he’d go.
Robin Kelly reported total receipts of $200,000 and about $198,000 cash on hand.
Toi Hutchinson reported a total of $135,000 in receipts and $129,637 cash on hand.
Debbie Halvorson reported $50,000 in receipts and $44,000 cash on hand. The total includes a $25,000 loan to herself. Note: this may be updated, according to the campaign, following a “big fund-raiser” last night. Stay tuned.
Anthony Beale reported just shy of $50,000 — though the filing only shows $5,000 in contributions, including from Tom Dart and Ed Burke’s committees. There’s $44,000 in unitemized contributions. That means he’s saying almost all his donations came in amounts less than $200. A Beale spokeswoman is getting back on this. He had about $44,000 cash on hand.
Kinda meaningless because those reported totals are as of December 31st. They’ve all been raising cash since then.
Kelly is perfect on our Orange to Blue Candidate Questionnaire, which is to be assumed in this district. But who could’ve predicted that we’d get a very real chance to deal a blow to the NRA, in this turf, at this time?
We need to tear the NRA out of Congress, not strengthen its influence. Bloomberg’s anti-gun Super PAC is already softening up the frontrunner, former Rep. Debbie Halverson. We can and should do our part to join the effort.
You want real gun reform? Make the NRA radioactive.
A: A 30-.06 rifle, and 1187 Remington shotgun, and a 9 millimeter Glock. As aldermen, were legally allowed to carry [handguns]. I don’t carry, but under the city ordinance and the state law, we have the right to carry a concealed weapon.
Q: Do you think the entire state should pass that law?
A: Absolutely not.
Q: Why not? If it’s OK for aldermen, why not the general public.
A: An alderman is a sworn peace officer, and we have to go through 40 hours training in order to obtain the license. I’ve even taken 20 hours additional training.
* Under what circumstances could you vote for Pat Quinn for governor in either the primary or the general election? Make sure to explain, and no snark, please. Thanks.
* Back on December 8th, activist Mary Claire Kendall wrote a story about how she and others were hoping to preserve a Hyde Park apartment building where Ronald Reagan lived for less than a year as a young child…
A hot war is now underway over the University of Chicago Medical Center’s decision to raze Reagan’s Chicago childhood home, which it announced this fall, giving no definite date (best guess: by Jan. 1). The property on which Reagan’s Hyde Park home sits is slated to become an empty lot. At the same time, the university is lobbying vigorously to build President Obama’s Presidential Library.
Somewhere among the environs of the University of Chicago Medical Center, they’re about to “pave paradise and put up a parking lot”.
In political lingo, the university medical center is going to demolish the house where President Ronald Reagan grew up in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighbourhood. […]
Meanwhile back at that ranch known as the University of Chicago, university officials, which once included Michelle Obama, are tied up in a pet project of their own. They are actively lobbying for an Obama Presidential Library. Obama’s own Tony Rezko-enabled home also happens to be in the Hyde Park neighborhood. (A Google map search places the two homes less than half a mile apart.)
Over the holidays, when the demolition and wrecking equipment showed up on site, we sprang into action and, after lots of behind-the-scenes work from Tuesday, January 1 to Wednesday, January 9, we discerned a palpable shift in the winds.
On Friday, January 11, Eleanor Gorski, Assistant Commissioner for Historic Preservation at the Department of Housing and Economic Development in Chicago, who approves demolition permits, affirmed that she fully expects the review process will take the full 90 days—until March 29—and that granting the Reagan home landmark status, after all, is one of the possibilities they are considering. The day before, I called the department and was told by a staff person that there had been “a lot of back and forth” vis-à-vis the home at “higher levels” and someone would be contacting me. Only two days before the department spokesperson, Pete Strazzobosco, was downplaying the worth of the Reagan home. As he told the Hyde Park Herald, “It’s a pretty modest apartment building for its style and age. It doesn’t have very much style, at least not enough for the Landmarks Commission to consider a possible landmark for it.” (January 9 issue) But, the next day at 8 p.m., the University of Chicago’s student newspaper, The Chicago Maroon reported that, according to Strazzobosco, “the City of Chicago’s Historic Preservation Division will use this time to ‘reach out to the property owner and discuss alternatives to demolition.’”
On Wednesday, January 16, the Friends of President Reagan’s Chicago Home incorporated in the State of Illinois and this week we added two new board members—Don Totten, the most prominent early Illinois Republican support of President Reagan, and Dan Proft, a rising star in the Illinois Republican Party and political commentator for WLS in Chicago.
* But on the very same day that Ms. Kendall posted that item about the change in attitude, Illinois Republican gadfly William Kelly posted this “story”…
While the university is planning to kill Reagan’s home, University of Chicago is also aggressively lobbying to be the site of President Barack Obama’s presidential library.
Could the Reagan site become a parking lot for Obama’s library? Opponents of the demolition say yes.
The Chicago home where the late President Ronald Reagan grew up is slated to be demolished and potentially turned into a parking lot for President Obama’s Library, it was revealed today.
The University of Chicago Medical Center has announced plans to turn Ronald Reagan’s childhood home in Chicago into a parking lot for President Barack Obama’s library.
* Also on Wednesday, Mary Claire Kendall, the childhood home preservation activist, declared the story to be a farce…
The claim published in Newsmax today and the Washington Times on Friday, re-posted in Drudge, that the University of Chicago is planning to demolish the Reagan home at 832 E. 57th Street to make way for a parking lot for the Obama Presidential Library is utterly inaccurate, according to informed sources in Hyde Park.
“832 E. 57th St. is one of a number of vacant buildings the University owns that will be taken down to allow for expansion of the medical and biological research campus,” Jeremy Manier, news director at the University of Chicago, wrote in a email to Mother Jones. “The University’s permit request currently is under review by the city. Recent media reports that have speculated on other potential uses of the property are inaccurate.”
* But Kelly was not backing down yesterday. From his Facebook page…
White House press secretary Jay Carney is responding to my story on Reagan’s Chicago home being bulldozed by the University of Chicago - which has been lobbying to be the site of Obama’s presidential library. I don’t believe Carney for a minute!
OUR STORY ON THE DEMOLITON OF RONALD REAGAN’S CHICAGO HOME GOES BIG ON DRUDGE REPORT!
COULD RONALD REAGAN’S CHICAGO HOME BECOME A PARKING LOT FOR OBAMA’S LIBRARY?!
RAHM’S PLAN: DEMOLISH REAGAN’S HOME?
A big thank you to Drudge Report, Newsmax, WND, Daily Mail and other publications that picked up my latest column on the demolition of Ronald Reagan’s Chicago home.
As of this morning the column had 11,000 likes and hundreds of thousands of views!!
* This move by Senate President John Cullerton would most certainly take away a fig leaf used by some recalcitrant Republicans…
Cullerton said he is open to a GOP demand to include judges in his plan to solve Illinois’ $95 billion pension crisis — a bill he said he hopes to have the Senate vote on by late February.
In every pension-reform plan that’s surfaced thus far, the 984 members of the Judges Retirement System of Illinois have been left out because of a constitutional protection against having their salaries be “diminished” and worries judges would block a pension deal on legal grounds. […]
The determining factor in whether to include judges in a pension package, Cullerton said, is whether “I pick up votes or lose votes” by adding the provision.
A spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) said that addition has been one of her boss’ demands in a pension deal.
“To somehow not include judges because you think they might rule more favorably [on a broad pension package], that’s just ludicrous,” said Patty Schuh, a spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont).
“Sen. Radogno has long believed [a pension package] ought to be comprehensive and include all five systems because this may be the only opportunity we get to do pension reform,” Schuh said.
Judges shall receive salaries provided by law which shall not be diminished to take effect during their terms of office.
The judiciary ruled during the Blagovjevich years that scheduled salary COLAs were covered by that constitutional provision, so including them in the pension bill is just asking for trouble.
But, if it’s severable and it attracts some votes, then by all means go for it. This is just an excuse by some people to avoid voting on a bill. So, take the excuse away if doing so attracts more net “Yes” votes.
Also, Radogno supported a pension bill last year which included neither the judges nor the teachers.
Valentine’s Day might wind up being more than just a day of romance for Illinois’ gay and lesbian couples.
Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) wants Feb. 14 to be the day his legislative chamber votes to legalize gay marriages in Illinois.
“I’d like to pass it out of committee next week and pass it on Valentine’s Day,” Cullerton told the Chicago Sun-Times in a meeting Thursday with the newspaper’s Editorial Board.
Cullerton said he believes the legislation, Senate Bill 10, has the necessary 30 votes to pass and move to the House, clearing a major hurdle in making Illinois the 10th state to legalize same-sex marriages.
* I think the biggest mistake some Republicans can make is to assume that their 2010 primary vote will equal their 2014 primary base. Times change. Tastes change. New candidates emerge. While some candidates will be more known than others because of their previous run(s), that doesn’t mean they’ll end up in the same place as before.
Keep that in mind while reading this e-mail that Sen. Bill Brady sent to his supporters…
In 2010, when I led the ticket, Republicans elected a United States Senator, four new Congressmen and several new state legislators. I unfortunately fell short by less than one percent – a swing of just 16,000 votes out of the more than 3.5 million cast. There’s no question that Illinois is worse off than we were four years ago and that there’s still much work to be done to rebuild our economy and rein in our state spending.
I am now asked every day whether I will run for Governor again in 2014, and I want you to know that Nancy, my campaign and I are laying the groundwork to finish the job we started together three years ago.
Our state debt has now soared to a staggering $21,607 for every resident of Illinois. Under Governor Quinn, more than 290,000 jobs have been lost. Wall Street has lost confidence in Illinois and downgraded our credit rating 11 times alone since 2009 when Quinn took office – more than half the total downgrades in our state’s entire history.
Illinois is at a tipping point. We’ve suffered a decade of decline, debt and despair under two Democrat governors. Our challenges are great, and our state’s leadership has proved itself weak. People may debate my solutions, but they should never doubt my resolve to helping lead Illinois toward a brighter future.
We need to reduce our debt, fix the pension system, and reinstate sound fiscal principles in the state of Illinois. Illinois families and employers continue to face tough times with unemployment, the economy and out-of-control government spending. The decisions we make today in response to those challenges will affect us for the next generation.
We must continue to work to rebuild our economy, encourage our employers to invest in Illinois, reduce the size and cost of government and provide greater opportunities for our children. I am committed to making the necessary tough decisions to bring Illinois back to the greatness we once knew.
Polling shows that I have earned far more support and recognition than any of the other Republicans who have expressed interest in running in 2014. Just as importantly, polling shows that I am best positioned to take back the Governor’s Office, no matter who the Democrat nominee is. Unlike others, I have shown I can build an enthusiastic first-class organization, raise the millions of dollars necessary and withstand the white-hot scrutiny of the media and Democrats in a hotly contested gubernatorial contest.
I hope you’ll offer me your advice over the next several weeks as I continue to travel throughout the state speaking to Illinois citizens and make my final decision. I want to hear what you think, the issues you consider important and the suggestions you may have to resolve those many challenges we face. Another email in the near future will contain an on-line issues poll that will take only a few moments to answer.
And I hope you’ll take a minute right now to support my efforts with your most generous contribution. . Your contributions and support in 2010 almost put us over the top. This will be another hard-fought campaign, and your investment today is important to the decisions I make. You may click on the link above to contribute by credit card, or you may send your contribution to the address below.
Thanks for your past support, and together, you and I can finish the job and set Illinois on a better course for our families.
California’s first credit upgrade in six years shows how curbs on pension costs, a voter-backed tax boost and an improving economy have allowed it to exit Wall Street’s basement, leaving Illinois as the lowest-rated state.
The higher rating by Standard & Poor’s marks a turnaround for California, which has the world’s ninth-largest economy and was once seen as ungovernable as it faced unrelenting budget gaps and issued IOUs to pay bills. Yesterday’s change came less than a week after Illinois had its score lowered, prompting officials to postpone a $500 million bond issue.
Both states have raised taxes. Both are controlled by Democrats, and both have seen unemployment decline. California Governor Jerry Brown, returning to the office he first held three decades ago, cut long-term retiree obligations, saving as much as $55 billion over 30 years. Illinois has skipped pension fund payments and failed to bolster America’s weakest retirement system, with a deficit that grows $17 million a day. […]
Brown persuaded voters in November to pass the highest statewide sales tax in the U.S. and raised levies on income starting at $250,000, for a temporary $6 billion annual revenue boost for seven years. He won reductions in pensions for new state employees and is benefiting from a legal change allowing his budget to be approved with a simple majority vote, rather than two-thirds of the legislature.
* Jerry Brown came into office and did exactly the opposite of what Pat Quinn did. Brown slashed government to the marrow, causing real pain. He reformed pensions. Only then did California voters agree to tax hikes.
When Quinn took the reins in 2009, he decided against deep cuts and allowed the problems to fester for two years, until he and the General Assembly raised taxes in 2011. But he didn’t raise taxes high enough to avoid spending cuts, so it’s been one excruciating budget after another, and except for that prospective employee pension reform, nothing accomplished on that front, either.
* The thing is, people don’t really pay all that much attention to state government. They don’t really understand what the state actually does. By slashing spending, Gov. Brown created a whole lot of hardship, but the pain showed Californians how vital state government can be.
There were good reasons not to slash the Illinois budget in 2009-10 - one being the economy. But the income tax hike eventually took some real steam out of the economy as well.
It’s easy for me as a successful white male with a grown daughter to say that Quinn should’ve taken the Brown route. A whole lot of real people got hurt by those California cuts. Universities and P-12 education suffered greatly as well.
But Brown has taught his state an invaluable lesson about government, while the message received in Illinois - no matter how erroneous - is that tax hikes don’t work and that government is messed up beyond repair.
Oy.
* Other stuff…
* Editorial: What can labor offer on COLA increases?
