* Illinois Democrats haven’t gotten a break in a long while, but one might be coming from an unlikely source…
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich has repeatedly said he’s looking forward to clearing his name at his trial.
But now he wants that trial to start five months later than scheduled. Lawyers for the indicted governor made a formal request to continue the June trial to November.
They say they need a delay because they don’t know what the charges they’ll face at trial.
That could mean a post-election trial, which would be fine with the Democrats. The only problem would be all those pre-trial motions, which could still be used for political payback. Just imagine.
* The February primary experiment was a failure. I think a lot of folks would like a total do-over. We can’t do that, but the primary date can be moved back where it was…
Illinois’ primary election would be pushed back to March under legislation the House sent to Gov. Pat Quinn today.
If the governor signs the measure into law, the state’s experiment with a February primary would end after just two elections. […]
The measure would move Illinois’ primary to the third Tuesday in March, where it had been for decades. The House approved it 114-1, with one lawmaker voting present. The Senate signed off last month.
* Check out the difference between how two news outlets covered a visit by the governor to a Springfield school this morning. First, the local SJ-R…
Gov. Pat Quinn vigorously denied charges by Republican legislators that he is engaging in scare tactics in order to win passage of an income tax hike.
Appearing this morning at Jefferson Middle School in Springfield to promote his tax hike for education, Quinn reiterated that schools face severe budget cuts from the state if more revenue isn’t found for them.
“There’s no scaring involved,” Quinn said. “We have to understand reality. We are without $1 billion (in federal funds) that we had this year.
The governor, however, didn’t pick the best school to illustrate his point. Walter Milton, Springfield’s schools superintendent, said his district could prevent layoffs next year even if Quinn’s proposed education cuts go through.
Milton said the district is finalizing its budget and working to keep cuts “as far away from the classroom as possible.” Milton said while teachers will not face layoffs if education cuts go through, he won’t be able to hire as many new teachers as in the past.
Quinn said he did eat breakfast with Madigan Thursday. But he didn’t say how exactly he would try to convince election-minded lawmakers to support his plan while they are out on the campaign trail facing angry voters.
* Green Party gubernatorial nominee Rich Whitney outlined his budget and economic plan today at a Statehouse press conference.
Among other things, he wants a forensic audit of state government…
Convene an independent commission of citizens, drawn from both the private and public sector to examine the budget with a fresh set of eyes and identify programs, positions and practices that can be cut without any detriment to the public. Borrowing a good idea from a former rival candidate, Republican Adam Andrzejewski, I propose to give this commission the authority to conduct a “forensic audit” of the budget for this purpose and the authority to subpoena state employees and documents.
He later told reporters that he might appoint Andrzejewski to the commission, or even Dan Proft.
The audit, an expanded state government “suggestion box,” a review of pork and cuts to the capital program are supposed to save $2 billion.
After the cuts, he wants a SB750 type bill to raise taxes and reduce property taxes. He also would expand the sales take to include services, and impose a financial transactions tax on “speculative trading”…
At a time when the Illinois legislature repeatedly hits low-income workers disproportionately with ―sin taxes‖ on alcohol, tobacco and gambling, a Financial Transactions Tax would impose a tax on another form of gambling, one that is every bit as harmful as the other sin taxes, and far more voluminous
He also wantsa “fee and dividend” system on energy producers responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and nuke plants…
Fees would be imposed on the producers while consumers would receive quarterly dividends from the proceeds, based on their income level, that would provide protection from energy price hikes and allow a shift in spending in favor of clean energy and energy efficiency.
His rhetoric is pretty sharp…
It may surprise some people to hear a candidate talk about expanding public employment at a time when the media keep pounding into people’s minds the notion that government is “too big” and we can’t afford it.
However, we have to ask ourselves why we are continually being told this. We have to recognize that the corporate-dominated media have an agenda and that there is a reason why we have been hearing this propaganda steadily for over 30 years. We also have to realize that when the opinion leaders in the corporate media keep telling us that “we” can’t afford it, what they are really trying to tell us is that “they” – the wealthy owners of corporate America – don’t want to afford it. They don’t want to pay their fair share of taxes needed to maintain the most basic functions of government. And thus the illusion is created that in the richest, most productive nation in the world, we as a society somehow can’t “afford” quality public education, quality health care for all, quality employment opportunities for all and decent retirement security for all.
He also wants a state-owned bank…
Create a state bank, in which to deposit our tax revenues, supplemented by funds from private depositors, so that the State of Illinois can invest in productive ventures that benefit the people of Illinois, and keep the interest collected for the benefit of the people, rather than pay interest to enrich the same private financial institutions that have already preyed upon workers, homeowners and taxpayers.
* Whitney took questions from the press and here are some snippets…
* This was one of the reactions to Gov. Quinn’s budget proposal, which included a $2500 per worker tax credit for small businesses that hire new employees…
“Small-business owners don’t need tax credits. They need customers,” Kim Clarke Maisch, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said while noting economic growth comes from areas such as workers’ compensation reform and a lower minimum wage.
* The Question: Do you agree or disagree with Maisch? Explain thoroughly, please.
* To say this is a big boost would just be too obvious, so I’ll just skip that and go right to the story…
Mayor Daley today endorsed the runner-up in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor — State Rep. Art Turner (D-Chicago) — in the political sweepstakes to replace Chicago pawnbroker Scott Lee Cohen. […]
“There’s only one winner in the lieutenant governor’s position and that’s Art Turner. He won second [place],” the mayor
“If you run for public office and the person [in first place] drops out before the election or even after the election, the person who [finished] second moves automatically up. If you forfeit a game, [your opponent] wins the game.”
Reporters reminded Daley that his conclusion is true in sports, but not necessarily in politics. The State Democratic Central Committee has the final say.
“Well, what would you do if not?” he said. “Art Turner is No. 2. No. 1 dropped out. He withdrew. Sure, you automatically move [up]. He put his name and his career on the line in a public way no one else has done . … Whether you voted for him or not, he came in second place.”
* Meanwhile, Rasmussen released the rest of its polling yesterday. Here are some of the responses…
* How would you rate the job Barack Obama has been doing as President… do you strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, or strongly disapprove of the job he’s been doing?
33% Strongly approve
23% Somewhat approve
19% Somewhat disapprove
35% Strongly disapprove
0% Not sure
* How would you rate the job Pat Quinn has been doing as Governor… do you strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, or strongly disapprove of the job he’s been doing?
10% Strongly approve
33% Somewhat approve
28% Somewhat disapprove
27% Strongly disapprove
2% Not sure
* In terms of how you will vote how important is Alexi Giannoulias’s involvement in the Broadway Bank?
30% Very important
26% Somewhat important
24% Not very important
8% Not at all important
11% Not sure
* Generally speaking, do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and the congressional Democrats?
35% Strongly favor
18% Somewhat favor
8% Somewhat oppose
37% Strongly oppose
2% Not sure
* When it comes to health care decisions, who do you fear the most: the federal government or private insurance companies?
41% Federal government
49% Private insurance companies
9% Not sure
* Regardless of how Congress is doing overall, does your local representative in Congress deserve to be reelected?
39% Yes
32% No
29% Not sure
* Generally speaking, would it better for the country if most incumbents in Congress were reelected this November or if most of them were defeated?
27% Better if most incumbents were reelected
58% Better if most incumbents were defeated
16% Not sure
* Do you have a favorable or an unfavorable opinion of the Tea Party movement?
37% Favorable
40% Unfavorable
23% Not sure
* Do you consider yourself a part of the Tea Party Movement?
13% Yes
68% No
19% Not sure
* A year from today, will the U.S. economy be stronger than it is now, or weaker?
46% Stronger
32% Weaker
16% About the same
6% Not sure
* Is it possible for anyone who really wants to work to find a job?
26% Yes
56% No
18% Not sure
Except for Quinn, these are more positive numbers for the Democratic majority than in other states Rasmussen has polled. At least the ones I’ve seen. Then again, that ain’t saying much.
By the way, in the crosstabs, 32 percent of Republicans said they considered themselves a part of the tea party movement, while just 4 percent of the Democrats said so. 73 percent of Republicans and just 15 percent of Democrats had a favorable opinion of the tea partiers.
* The Alexi Giannoulias campaign has been challenging Mark Kirk to release his tax returns since early February. Kirk finally did so yesterday after issuing a press release that attempted to turn the tables…
Mark Kirk’s U.S. Senate campaign today announced the five-term congressman and Navy veteran would make available his personal income tax returns dating back to 1999. In the spirit of transparency, the Kirk campaign requested Mr. Giannoulias release all documents related to Michael “Jaws” Giorango, insider bank loans and Bright Start College Savings Fund.
But reporters weren’t allowed to copy the documents and the campaign wouldn’t send them to the reporters…
Unlike Giannoulias, who provided copes of his tax returns to the press, Kirk allowed a lower level of access to his.
Reporters were required to travel to Kirk’s office in Northbrook for a peek at his returns and were not allowed to make copies.
“It seems to me that what he’s simply doing here is ignoring the problem, kicking the can down the road, trying to make it past the election,” Brady said. “I frankly wonder if he’s planning on being here in January because he’s leaving a pretty big problem.”
In a veiled reference to the financial solution proposed by state Sen. Bill Brady, his opponent in the Nov. 2 election for governor, Quinn said, “There are some people who say we should just cut across the board until we close our $13 billion deficit and our spending equals our revenues — even if that means draconian cuts in health, human services, education and public safety. But that approach is both heartless — and naïve.
“We must consider the financial impact — as well as the human cost — of every cut we make,” Quinn said.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady on Wednesday called Gov. Pat Quinn’s fiscal year 2011 budget a “catastrophe,” insisting his own plan for a 10 percent across-the-board cut would balance the budget and dig the state out of its $13 billion hole. […]
“I wish [Quinn] would take more time to analyze what I’ve suggested Illinois needs,” Brady said. “I really don’t want to be governor and be saddled with the albatross he’s created in this fiscal mess.”
“Today was an embarrassing day. He (Quinn) asked for an extra 30 days and yet the best he could come up with was a budget that is $4 billion out of balance,” Brady said, referring to Quinn’s request to delay his budget address by a month.
Um, $4 billion out of balance? Try $11 billion.
After Brady’s press conference, the governor’s campaign issued a news release…
Response to Bill Brady’s Critiques of Governor Quinn’s “Fighting for Illinois” Budget Plan:
Bill Brady says he opposes Governor Quinn’s budget plan and won’t support any additional revenues for education or additional borrowing to close the state’s $12.7 billion gap. So what would Brady include in his all-cuts plan to balance the budget? So far, he ’s refused to say - because it simply can’t be done without causing devastating harm to education, healthcare and public safety. No wonder former Governor Jim Edgar called Brady’s chainsaw approach to the budget “naïve.”
In fact, Bill Brady ’s own voting record provides the best clue about what he’d do as governor. His solution to our economic problems would be to turn the clock back by eliminating the minimum wage, equal pay for equal work, Family and Medical Leave, and to allow discrimination in the workplace. That’s an economic vision from 1910 — not for 2010.
You can expect that Edgar quote to be used ad infinitum by the Quinnsters.
* Brady did much better yesterday than I thought he would. His presser was on the third floor near the rail and the gun rights folks were in town so it was hard to hear anything in the Rotunda. But, it appears TV and radio got their audio and Brady got in a lot of decent shots, despite his consistent refusal to look at the complete budget picture.
Of course, Brady doesn’t have his own alternative legislation. As Senate President Cullerton pointed out yesterday, Brady is the first sitting Illinois legislator to be nominated for governor in over 100 years. He therefore has the ability to introduce his own plan.
…Adding… I forgot to mention that Gov. Quinn will appear at two schools today to tout his tax hike proposal. From a press release…
GOVERNOR’S PUBLIC SCHEDULE
**Thursday, March 11, 2010**
SPRINGFIELD - Governor Pat Quinn will speak about his education priorities.
WHO: Governor Quinn
WHEN: 11:00 a.m.
WHERE: Thomas Jefferson Middle School - Library
3001 South Allis Street
Springfield, 62703
CHICAGO - Governor Pat Quinn will speak about his education priorities.
WHO: Governor Quinn
WHEN: 1:30 p.m.
WHERE: James R. Lowell Elementary School
3320 West Hirsch Street
Chicago, 60651
* The headline on Kristen McQueary’s column pretty much sums it up…
Budget plan is clever, but D.O.A.
Tactically, this would normally be a decent move. Raise taxes for schools. That’s how income taxes were raised here in 1987, all the money went to schools and local governments.
House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has repeatedly condemned Republicans for refusing to put votes behind an income-tax hike, praised Quinn’s courage in pushing the new plan. But the speaker actually made a compelling case against it during a televised interview after the governor’s speech.
“Let’s be straightforward about this. The people of Illinois, they don’t want tax increases. They’re hurting. The American economy is in bad shape. People are out of work. They don’t want to hear about tax increases,” Madigan said.
“You should admire the governor for standing up in these times and say, ‘Look if we wish to maintain the fiscal integrity of this state, then we ought to do this tax increase.’ That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen,” Madigan said.
“This is a fellow who likes to hold people hostage,” Cross said of Quinn. “I suggest that at end of the day, this (education cuts) will not happen. This is a scare tactic. Scaring people is not leadership.”
. Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said he supports the latest plan, but it is up to the House to take the lead, since the House never acted on last year’s proposal
Given the lack of support for a tax hike, one scenario circulating in the Capitol has Democrats approving a bare-bones budget that carries the state through the November elections, after which they would push through a tax hike to help pull the state out of its fiscal quagmire.
“It’s entirely possible,” Cross said.
* Meanwhile, the Tribune editorial board was predictably enraged, screaming that its pension fund slashes should’ve been implemented in order to save $2 billion, even though they won’t. And just saying something ought to be done doesn’t mean it can be done. I’d like to visit Pluto, but I ain’t gonna get there. Also, proposing cuts of $6 billion when we appear to have a structural hole far larger than that isn’t going to solve the problem in two years, no matter how you do the math.
And Ralph Martire makes a good point that the Tribune should at least listen to…
Illinois ranks — when you look at us compared to other states, and you look at our spending as a percentage of our state GDP, which is the only rational comparison state-to-state — we rank 45th in spending with the 5th biggest populations, and we ranked 42nd in tax burden. We’re low-tax, low-spending, we have a giant, giant deficit.
* The Sun-Times was upset that the governor’s tax hike wasn’t large enough, even though the governor’s tax hike isn’t going anywhere.
* I hesitate to delve too deeply into this budget plan, because the whole thing will need to be reworked. But here’s one of the more interesting proposals that may survive…
llinois Governor Pat Quinn wants the state’s youth prisons to be controlled by another department.
Four years ago, the Department of Juvenile Justice was part of the Department of Corrections. It was separated after some lawmakers and advocates argued youth prisons should not be controlled by the same office as the adult prisons.
Now Quinn wants to fold it into another large agency, the Department of Children and Family Services, to save money, the administration says, and get kids more access to a full range of services.
As Chicago Public Radio has amply reported, the state’s juvenile justice system is a complete mess. Some of the prisons are in outrageously poor conditions. Maybe DCFS can straighten it out, maybe not, but they’re gonna try…
Cook County Public Guardian Robert Harris, whose office represents kids in juvenile court, said it often seemed unfair that children involved in the child protection side of juvenile court have access to services absent on the juvenile justice side.
“They are often confronted with the same issues — neglect, abuse, no family or parents involved in drugs,” Harris said. “It makes sense.”
Mayor Daley warned today that the day of reckoning has arrived for a financial crisis that’s choking local taxpayers: underfunded city pensions.
Daley said the 32-member pension commission he created more than two years ago will soon recommend solutions to the crisis that won’t be pretty or politically popular.
Daley and others commented on an exclusive Chicago Sun-Times report Wednesday of massive grade changing after the marking period ended last school year at Hyde Park, including 873 F’s changed to passing marks. More than 1,100 other grades were changed downward.
As a result, training instructors for the Chicago Police Department have moved away from teaching recruits to do searches that way in recent years. Instead, trainees are taught to make suspects stand, then hold one arm of the suspect and perform a one-handed pat-down.
The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) may file an application with the U.S. securities regulator for an initial public offering, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
* Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno started her media availability earlier than she announced, so here is the last minute or so of her response.
More in a bit.
* Sen Bill Brady offered his reaction to reporters. Take a look…
The budget also includes more than $2 billion in proposed cuts, including a deep reduction in education funding. In his budget address, Governor Quinn called on the General Assembly to rescue education from devastating cuts by passing a one-percent income tax surcharge for education. The surcharge for education would restore the education budget to its current level.
“If we enact this emergency rescue plan promptly, we can keep thousands of committed teachers from getting layoff notices,” Governor Quinn said.
* I’m told that the one point tax surcharge would bring in somewhere between $2.8 and $3 billion. Wish I knew that when I was on live TV and was asked the question cold.
Speaker madigan just said the people don’t want to hear about tax increases.
*** UPDATE *** I just got off the phone with Fox Chicago. They accidentally misreported the numbers this morning. The actual numbers are…
Giannoulias 44
Kirk 41
Undecided 10
Other 5
The poll was taken March 8th (the same day as the Quinn/Brady poll) and the margin of error is +/-4.5.
[ *** End of update and text corrected below to reflect update *** ]
* A new Rasmussen poll has Alexi Giannoulias leading Mark Kirk 42-41 44-41.
Rasmussen hasn’t posted the numbers as of 10 o’clock this morning, but I’ll check back later. [UPDATE: Check back after four o’clock for the full poll results.]
So, what the heck is going on? Yesterday’s poll, presumably of the same set of voters, had the governor’s race a lopsided 47-37 Bill Brady lead over Gov. Quinn.
I originally thought that the Quinn/Brady poll was an outlier, but Rasmussen’s US Senate numbers are in line with recent polling…
Again, if Rasmussen polled the same people for US Senate that they polled in the governor’s race, then this is a screwy year, baby. Screwy.
* Anyway, back to the Senate poll. Here are Rasmussen’s numbers for the current poll with their February, December and October results in parentheses…
Giannoulias 44 (40, 42, 41)
Kirk 41 (46, 39, 41)
That’s a huge apparent swing for Giannoulias/Kirk in the past month - a month when the Democrat has been hammered incessantly over his family bank’s troubles. Today was no exception. Tribune…
It’s usually understood that a Democratic president supports his party’s candidates for office, especially when the nominee in question is running for the U.S. Senate seat the president himself once held.
But today Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign went out of its way to announce that he does, in fact, have the backing of the White House.
Giannoulias campaign sent out a news release highlighting remarks by President Barack Obama’s press secretary about the president’s support for Giannoulias, who not only is the Democratic nominee running for Obama’s old Senate seat but also is known for being a longtime personal friend of the president’s.
Illinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, the party’s nominee for the state’s open Senate seat, visited the White House Tuesday and picked up a somewhat tepid endorsement from press secretary Robert Gibbs.
While Democrats may scoff at any notion of a latter-day Reagan revolution coming to the blue state of Illinois, they are hardly cheered by the challenges facing state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias in his U.S. Senate battle vs. Kirk.
Giannoulias has tried to get out in front of the seemingly imminent failure of his family’s Broadway Bank, but there’s no way to put that story behind him as long as the FDIC could move in at any time and take it over.
Giannoulias met with David Axelrod at the White House on Tuesday. At the same time, Republicans were sending out dispatches with a reminder of President Obama’s recent denunciation of “fat cats who are getting rewarded for their failure . . . bankers don’t need another vote in the U.S. Senate.”
Chicago’s reluctance to allow video gambling in the city will deprive the state of almost $178 million annually, according to a new analysis by the Legislature’s budget-forecasting arm.
That shortfall could blow a nearly $2 billion hole in Gov. Quinn’s $31 billion construction program, which was partly reliant on proceeds from video gambling in bars and restaurants across the state.
“This puts a monkey wrench in a couple billion dollars worth of projects we can’t move forward on and do jobs,” said Rep. Raymond Poe (R-Springfield), who requested the estimates from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.
The panel projected that up to $475 million worth of wagering would occur on video gambling machines in Chicago if the city were to authorize them.
The commission said the state stands to lose between $95.6 million and $177.7 million by Chicago’s absence from the video gambling bandwagon.
As we’ve discussed before, Chicago has to approve video gambling before it can commence inside city limits and Daley has grumbled about not wanting to do it yet. He and the city council are up for election next year, and they’ve all got enough problems without adding this to the mix.
* Slots at racetracks is being pushed as a way to supplement (or even replace) video gaming revenues. It’s getting some bipartisan support, but Speaker Madigan’s spokesman sounded non-committal…
Steve Brown, spokesman for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, said approving slots for racetracks isn’t an immediate priority, but there is some interest brewing among members given the state’s $13 billion budget hole and underfunded capital construction program.
“I don’t know I would say there’s serious interest on the part of leadership,” Brown said.
Burns said the idea of installing slots at racetracks has been floated for years, to no avail. He’s hoping he’ll get more traction as the session continues.
“It’s always hard to read the tea leaves this early in the process,” Burns said.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Donne Trotter, a Chicago Democrat, introduced similar legislation in the Senate.
If Brown had been jumping up and down for joy, the Statehouse would’ve exploded with interest, so I get what he tried to do there.
[Illinois State Superintendent of Schools Christopher Koch] once again told lawmakers that schools across Illinois will be looking at $500 less per-student next year in general state aid. Koch reiterated that the 13,000 layoffs he talked about last week is the best-case scenario. He said if lawmakers ordered cuts for the last three months of this school year, or Gov. Pat Quinn followed through with a billion-and-a half dollars in cuts to education, the number of layoffs could triple.
But the newest warning from Illinois’ school chief is that he cannot tell local schools when, or if, they’ll get money for the mandated categorical of special ed and transportation, or for early childhood education programs.
“I’d not be comfortable saying [the governor’s proposed budget is] dead on arrival. But if I was simply assessing how I thought it would fare in the Senate, we’d have to assume we’d have to get Republicans on board to the idea of borrowing . . . and I do not see that happening,” said Rikeesha Phelon, a spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago).
Borrowing beyond a fiscal year requires a three-fifths majority, and that means Republican involvement. It’ll be tough, for sure.
Even if lawmakers go along with Quinn’s cuts, the state still would be $11 billion short next year, Quinn budget officials said.
That’s where the options of a tax increase or borrowing come in.
Quinn aides said the administration will propose borrowing $4.7 billion and carrying over $6.3 billion of the state’s debt.
“Carrying over” means “not paying bills anywhere near on time.” That’s the biggest component of the Quinn plan, but it got the least media attention today.
Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) and House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) issued a joint statement urging ruling Democrats to cut spending and rein in Medicaid expenses and state pension costs before asking taxpayers “to invest more of their hard-earned money into a state government that has not and is not serving them well.”
There aren’t nearly enough Medicaid and pension cuts in this proposed budget to satisfy the GOP. Then again, I kinda doubt that satisfying them is possible at this stage of the game. Going in relatively low leaves room for negotiations.
Stermer also said there was “an agreement in the works” within the legislature that would institute a two-tier pension plan with lesser benefits for future state workers. Such a plan, he said, would provide up to $300 million in savings in the budget proposal. While pushed by prominent politicians in both parties, a two-tier system has been fought by state labor unions.
* As I told subscribers this morning, Murphy proposed borrowing as a solution when he was a gubernatorial candidate, so this is more than a bit disingenuous…
“They want to borrow their way past the election so they can pass the tax increase without risk of retribution from the voters, and that’s what this is set up to do,” said Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine).
* If you watched the briefing videos, you know that the governor’s people had to be pushed and prodded over and over to come clean on just what some of this stuff meant. One of the big questions was about the missing tax hike component…
“The General Assembly has not acted on a tax increase and has given symbols that they don’t want to act on a tax increase,” said Jerry Stermer, Quinn’s chief staff. […]
As to whether Quinn would propose a specific revenue increase in his budget address, or divulge what he plans to do with the money that would come from one, no one in the room would answer that question.
“Quinn’s not included a tax increase in this budget, and that’s a conversation that has to happen,” Stermer said. When pressed on the issue, Stermer said, “The governor will talk about that tomorrow — noon sharp.”
“I don’t think he intends to cut a billion dollars out of education… He’s doing it to get the education community upset and to call lawmakers and say, ‘Vote for a tax increase so we don’t have this cut.’”
There have to be cuts, but education’s share is disproportionate to its budget size. The Sun-Times also rails against the education cuts today…
But we think his education cuts are too severe. We prefer a plan by the conservative-leaning Civic Federation to exempt from cuts Medicaid and a significant portion of the state public school budget, known as general state aid. The Civic Federation recommends across-the-board 7 percent cuts to bring Illinois back to 2007 spending levels, given how revenues have been whacked by the recession. Quinn also will propose a two-tier pension system today, with less generous benefits for new hires. This is both the right thing to do and a good way to bring around recalcitrant Republicans who refuse to support an income tax increase without pension reforms and budget cuts.
As I said earlier, I’m not sure those pension reforms are quite enough yet. The Republicans don’t really want to get in front of this issue because they also fear upsetting the unions. They’ve been content to hang back and demand the Democrats take the lead, which is what the minority party does. So, we’ll just have to wait and see what the actual agreement looks like, if they ever get one.
“Anything meaningful is gonna be very politically unpopular. You’re gonna be cutting programs, eventually you got to look at a tax increase, I just don’t think that’s gonna happen during an election year. What worries me is I’m not sure that’s gonna happen after the election. I’ve become very pessimistic.”
Edgar says his biggest hope is that politicians don’t make the state’s budget mess worse during the upcoming legislative session.
* Former Illinois governor Jim Edgar had some not-so-kind words for his party’s Republican nominee on Chicago Public Radio yesterday. Edgar called Brady’s ten percent across-the-board budget cut plan “naïve“…
“I don’t agree with across the board. I think that’s a naïve approach,” Edgar said. “There are some more essential [programs] than others. It’s a difference of life and death… we don’t want to make a cut that will result in somebody dying. There are some programs in state government that [can mean] the difference between life and death. Those programs you can’t cut.”
And he’s not planning to campaign for Brady, either…
“I was hoping that Kirk [Dillard] would be the [Republican] nominee,” Edgar said. “He was my chief of staff and I think he had a good understanding of what it took to get the problems…I’m at the University of Illinois and I think I’ll take a professorial role in this campaign and just sit on the sidelines.”
* As I already told you, several pro-choice groups held a presser yesterday to blast Brady…
Beth Kanter with Illinois Planned Parenthood’s politcal action committee and several other activist groups gathered in Chicago to declare Brady “anti-woman,” vowing to support Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn.
“Over 17 years in Springfield, Bill Brady has amassed quite a scary record,” Kanter said. “And in his run for governor, Bill Brady is not backing down in his extreme positions against women.”
Kanter was joined onstage by representatives from the National Organization of Women, Personal PAC, Citizen Action, and a supporter of stem-cell research. She said she and other activists scrutinized Brady’s Senate record and campaign questionnaires in formulating their opinion of him as a gubernatorial candidate.
Kanter cited Brady’s opposition to abortion rights, noting his response to an Illinois Federation for Right to Life questionnaire.
“Sen. Brady has said he would sign a law banning abortion except to save the life of a woman,” she said. “That means if a woman is raped or the victim of incest, she would not be allowed to get an abortion.”
Cosgrove and the other speakers admitted they would probably be launching the same campaign if any of the other five Republicans had won the nomination for governor.
All the GOP candidates were anti-abortion except for DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom, who dropped out a week before Election Day. The other six agreed with 26 out of 26 positions supported by the Illinois Federation for Right to Life on the group’s questionnaire, except for Andy McKenna, who agreed with 25 out of 26.
But Cosgrove said surveys of Republican primary election voters showed 70 percent of them supported a right to abortion in cases of rape and incest, unlike the candidates.
* Representatives from Gov. Quinn’s Office of Management and Budget presented a budget plan Tuesday night in the Illinois State Museum Auditorium. They opened with a PowerPoint before taking questions from reporters. Videos from the briefing are below in chronological order.
