I think when the history of the current crisis is written much of blame will be placed on the sharp fiscal contraction of state and local governments, which offset almost all of the fiscal stimulus at the federal level. I think economists will view this as a preventable error equivalent to the Fed’s passive shrinkage of the money supply in the early 1930s.
Many others, including myself, have been warning about this very real phenomenon for well over a year now, but DC just isn’t paying attention.
A June 3 report from the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers shows that the states have cut aggregate spending by $74.4 billion, or 10.8 percent, since 2008. The expiration of $55 billion in temporary federal aid to the states could lead to further substantial spending cuts beginning on July 1.
Budget expert Stan Collender warned on June 8 that a sharp cutback in state spending mandated by state balanced budget requirements could have a negative effect on the economy as a whole. […]
A May paper from the Institute for the Study of Labor looks at the distributional consequences of cutting the pay of public sector workers based on the recent experience of Ireland. […]
A February study by economists Joshua Aizenman and Gurnain Kaur Pasricha found that fiscal contraction in the states offset almost 100% of the fiscal stimulus at the federal level in 2009.
* Yesterday was the first day that independents could file their petitions for the general election. These are always entertaining weeks. For instance…
The poor fellow can’t make up his mind what he wants to do.
Monday was the first day independent candidates could file to run for office in Illinois, but Scott Lee Cohen plans to wait until the last minute before finalizing his plans for governor.
Cohen, who previously won the Democratic primary race for lieutenant governor, plans to file his petitions June 21, the last available day, Cohen spokesman John Davis said.
“You’d like to have at least a little bit of drama,” Davis said. […]
But also waiting until the last day will be Mike Niecestro of Itasca, who also plans to file for the U.S. Senate race.
Niecestro says he has 27,000 signatures and expects to have as many as double that by the time he turns them in June 21.
“A little bit of drama”? Yeah. Like Cohen needs more of that.
Also, if Niecestro has 27,000 sigs today, I’m not sure how he doubles that in a week, unless they’re still coming in from all over the state. And considering Niecestro isn’t all that well known, that’s a bit doubtful. Not to mention that Niecestro told NBC5 he has collected over 40,000 signatures. Which is right?
Would Niecestro even favor drilling in Lake Michigan, if oil were discovered there?
“If there’s oil under Lake Michigan, why not?” he says. “Absolutely.”
Yeah. Stick with that promise. I’m sure it’ll work so well in the Chicago media market, which gets most of its drinking water from the lake. Niecestro also has a prediction…
“If I get my name on the ballot, Mark Kirk is going to go as far right as he can to get the conservative vote,” predicts Niecestro
Assuming he gets on the ballot, and that’s still a big “if,” Kirk will probably use stuff like “Drill, baby, drill in our fresh water supply!” to paint Niecestro as a crackpot.
Also, if you want to read a harshly critical take on people like Niecestro, then click here. It won’t disappoint.
* In other campaign-related news, the state Republican Party misfired badly with its first major attempt to use the Blagojevich trial against Pat Quinn and Alexi Giannoulias…
In a press release [yesterday], the Illinois Republican Party used a government exhibit from the case to point out that now-Gov. Pat Quinn and political consultant Pete Giangreco — who works for Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias — attended a meeting with some of those who have been charged or convicted in the case.
The meeting, which included Alonzo “Lon” Monk, “Antoin “Tony” Rezko and Blagojevich, happened a week after the new governor’s inauguration in January 2003. According to testimony from Monk, nothing untoward occurred. It was just a discussion involving nearly 20 people about what Blagojevich should try to accomplish policy-wise in his first term.
So, prosecution witness Monk testified under oath that the meeting was no big deal, but this is the press release we get from the IL GOP…
Recently, the U.S. Attorney introduced “Government Exhibit January 2003 Schedule” – a section of Rod Blagojevich’s calendar showing a meeting between Blagojevich, Lon Monk, Tony Rezko, Pat Quinn, Pete Giangreco and other key Blagojevich insiders.
Lon Monk testified that kickback schemes were being discussed by this core group as early as 2003. Now seven years later, Quinn is running for governor while Pete Giangreco is serving as senior strategist for Alexi Giannoulias’ Senate campaign.
Asked about the wording of the release, state GOP Chairman Pat Brady, he said he could see how some people could read it like the GOP was accusing Quinn and Giangreco of being part of the conspiracy. But he said that wasn’t the intent.
“I can see what you’re saying. We aren’t insinuating that,” Brady said. “Abraham Lincoln did not write this (press release). That was not the intent. We were talking about that gang of four.”
Um, no, you weren’t.
…Adding… Click here to see the document in question.
* Related…
* Illinois Supreme Court Election Flooded with Money: Millions of dollars will likely be spent on Kilbride’s election this year, though no one is running against him. “Those of us who will be trying to defeat him,” said Ed Murnane, of the Illinois Civil Justice League. “We don’t even need a candidate.”
* Press Release: Today, Tenth Congressional District Candidate Dan Seals announced that Aviva Gibbs, currently Communications Director to U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL), will be joining his campaign team. Gibbs will leave Mr. Quigley’s office to serve as Communications Director for Seals starting in early July.
* Dems seeking applications for 35th District candidate: O’Shea said local Democratic leaders are focused on finding the best candidate and on making it an “open and transparent” process. Unlike the lieutenant governor process, applicants’ information and applications will not be posted online, O’Shea said. “We haven’t really set a timetable. We want to make sure we take as much time as we need to,” O’Shea said. “In my conversations with the mayors and committeemen throughout the district, the thought is to come up with the best possible person to be the Democratic nominee on the November ballot.”
Gov. Pat Quinn is facing criticism after announcing a $6 million grant for the Museum of Broadcast Communications Friday.
The grant will finish the half-built museum at State and Kinzie. MBC founder and president Bruce DuMont says it is not an unusual use of public money.
“If you look historically at how the great museums of Chicago have been built and funded over the years, they’ve all received significant support from the state,” said DuMont. […]
“Broadcast museum doesn’t mean a thing to anybody in our streets,” said the Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Parish. He doesn’t understand how the cash-strapped state with its $13 billion deficit can commit any money from its capital or operating budget to a museum when many neighborhoods are overwhelmed by violence.
He showed ABC7 two letters he’d received in the past week advising that the governor is considering cutting a $3 million statewide program for at-risk young people.
“Youth prevention and youth intervention for violence while we’re talking about broadcast museums and other things that are not being cut and are continuing to be out on the table? That’s unacceptable,” said Rev. Pfleger.
* The Question: With whom do you side in this? Dumont or Pfleger? Explain.
* And, for a bit of context, here’s a budget-related news roundup…
* Glenbard Dist. 87 wants more information from Springfield: Because of very conservative estimates made early this year, Glenbard High School District 87 officials consider themselves better off financially than they expected, but uncertain funding from Springfield still leaves them in a bind.
The recent controversy regarding statements Kirk has made about his military service seems to be taking a large toll on him. Only 10% of voters in the state think Kirk has been truthful about his military service while 45% think he has lied and 45% are unsure.
The good news for Kirk is that only 22% of voters say they’ve been following the story very closely, because among those folks Giannoulias has a 39-28 lead. That may be a short lived saving grace for Kirk though since Democrats will make sure voters are very familiar with the story by the fall.
The candidates for Senate are Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, Republican Mark Kirk, and Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones. If the election was today, who would you vote for?
31% Alexi Giannoulias
30% Mark Kirk
14% LeAlan Jones
24% Undecided
This poll represents progress for Giannoulias since PPP last looked at the race in early April. He now leads 31-30 where he previously trailed Kirk 37-33. The main thing that’s changed since then is voter perceptions of Kirk. His net favorability of +1 (24/23) has seen a decline of nine points to -8 (23/31). Giannoulias is just as unpopular as Kirk, sporting the exact same 23/31 favorability spread. But that’s not a new development for him- he was already at -7 (21/28) back in the spring. Nothing voters have learned about Giannoulias in the last three months has made them like him any less than they already did.
* The Green Party candidate is giving Kirk something to hope for…
The beneficiary of the voter disgust with both Giannoulias and Kirk is Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones. Despite being viewed favorably by only 2% of voters in the state he’s pulling 14% in the horse race. Posing a particular problem for Giannoulias is that Jones is getting a remarkable 26% of the black vote right now. Third party candidates often poll a lot better in the summer than they do by the fall so it will be interesting to see if these folks really stick with Jones or go back to the Democratic fold and that could end up being one of the defining stories of this race.
Racial breakdown…
Jones is actually slightly ahead of Giannoulias with independents…
Favorables…
Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of Alexi Giannoulias?
23% Favorable
31% Unfavorable
45% Not Sure
Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of Mark Kirk?
23% Favorable
31% Unfavorable
46% Not Sure
Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of LeAlan Jones?
2% Favorable
13% Unfavorable
84% Not Sure
It’s hard to see this race as anything but a pure tossup at this juncture but in Illinois a race between a flawed Democrat and a flawed Republican is probably going to end up in the Democratic column, and Giannoulias’ 5 point gain relative to Kirk is in the 10 weeks reflects that.
* You probably know about the “Truthers.” They’re the ones who insist that 9/11 was an “inside job.” They also have a bizarre theory about why Rod Blagojevich was “really” arrested.
According to them, Blagojevich was picked up by the feds because he dared to threaten Bank of America a few days earlier with the loss of all state business…
The impending prosecution of Blagojevich sends a powerful message to other governors, mayors, city council members around the country: don’t mess with the international banking cartel, the global financial mafia.
Your article just goes to show how epic this media failure is when it comes to the Blago trial. What Magical Current and what spell have you fallen under? AOL perhaps first and foremost. Just once I would like to see someone mention the Bank of America boycott! It was the last straw for the federal government. IT was not an action of a sinking life boat but rather an act of self-sacrifice. Watch ‘Rod Blagojevich Uncensored’ on youtube. Remember that when we take over we are going eat the bankers! [F-word expletive deleted] You!
As we have seen in the past year, the media has only tried to bad-name [Blagojevich’s] credibility, poke fun at his hair, call him names, or criticize his personal life. We Are Change, with the intention to provide the American people with the TRUTH, talked to Governor Blagojevich about his resistance to big banks, which is what really led to his arrest.
And here’s the video mentioned in that e-mail. Blagojevich does utter some expletives (no surprise there), so be careful if you’re on a work computer…
When told that they believe the former governor was arrested because of his stance on Bank of America, Blagojevich appears to agree, and talks about how he tried to bully the company into restoring credit to the struggling Republic Windows & Doors company, which is based in Chicago, by cutting off state business…
“I didn’t say ‘please,’ I just said, ‘Hey, you better do it…’ and then they arrest me.”
One of the Truthers then thanked Blagojevich for “standing up to those guys.” And Blagojevich goes all in…
“And the weekend before, this so-called crime spree, they’re liars. It’s all Bank of America.”
Adam is prompting repeated objections from the government, and all of them so far have been upheld by the judge. Government prosecutors have perhaps already objected more in the first 15 minutes of the day than Sam Adam Jr. objected for the entirety of the government’s three days of questioning Monk.
“It might be better if you use less loaded words,” Judge Zagel told Adam. Zagel has also cautioned him on the relevance of his questioning.
Sam Adam Jr. gets animated asking Monk if he remembers any details from the meetings where the four — Monk, Blagojevich, Rezko and Kelly — agreed to split up money off of state deals.
“I don’t remember,” Monk says repeatedly.
Adam is nearing him, then paces away. He points to the ex-governor and points in the air.
Adam notes it’s the first time in Monk’s adult life he was going to commit a felony and he can’t recall “one!” detail about what Tony Rezko wrote on the board.
Rod is sitting sideways with one arm lazily lying on the courtroom table, looking as if he’s enjoying this.
“I don’t know if we gave that much thought where the money was going to go,” Monk says. Rod starts quietly laughing to himself, then puts his hand over his mouth suppressing a smile.
* Mark Kirk is yet again appearing too defensive about his military record.
The Pentagon released a statement yesterday confirming that Kirk engaged in partisan political activities while on duty. From the Pentagon’s statement…
In December 2008, Commander Kirk, while on active duty, participated in video discussions in the media about the unfolding situation involving then-Governor Blagojevich of Illinois. Members of the Armed Forces on active duty may not participate in television discussions as an advocate for or against a partisan political party, candidate, or cause.
In July 2009, while on active duty in the Washington area, either Commander Kirk or a staff member posted a “twitter” to his Senate campaign web site that indicated he was on duty at the National Military Command Center. At the time, Commander Kirk was a candidate for the Senate. Candidates for political office may not participate in any campaign activities while on active duty. They may not update or revise their websites, and they must inform their campaign staff of the applicable restrictions.
These questions have been addressed by the campaign in the past and had there been any issues documented in Congressman Kirk’s military record, the Department of Defense would not have issued a second waiver for his deployment to Afghanistan. The campaign has made all of the Congressman’s military fitness reports available for review and no concerns were documented.
Commander Kirk was counseled about each of his violations after they occurred and signed a statement acknowledging the limitations on his ability to participate in campaign activities while on active duty. He was required to complete this acknowledgement before being allowed to begin active duty in December 2009.
In other words, Kirk was only able to obtain that waiver after he was “counseled” about his violations and signed a statement promising never to do it ever again.
More ominous for Kirk, though, is that unlike last week, when it was just some bloggers and the Sun-Times which picked up on the DoD memo story, this time both the AP and the Tribune have taken notice. From the AP…
The Pentagon said Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk has been cautioned twice for improperly mingling politics with his military service, but Kirk’s campaign denied any improper conduct Tuesday.
The Defense Department said Monday night that Kirk, a commander in the Navy Reserve, was warned after two incidents of political activity while he was on active duty. Before being allowed to go on active duty again in Afghanistan, Kirk was required to sign a statement acknowledging he knew to avoid all political work.
The Pentagon [yesterday] offered details to support its assertion that Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk twice violated military policy by participating in political activities while on active duty — once in 2008 and once in 2009.
* Kirk’s campaign tried to change the subject today with a press release demanding that Alexi Giannoulias release his tax returns…
After two months of waiting for Alexi Giannoulias to file his 2009 individual tax return, the Kirk for Senate campaign today renewed its call for Giannoulias to end his “Blagojevich-style” stonewall tactics and disclose his financial information for the last calendar year.
* And the Giannoulias campaign held a presser this morning to unveil Giannoulias’ energy policy…
In advance of President Barack Obama’s address to the nation after his latest visit to the Gulf Coast, U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias and Director of the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club Jack Darin will participate in a conference call with reporters TODAY, June 15, at 9:30 AM CST. Giannoulias will discuss the importance of implementing safeguards to prevent spills like this from happening again, holding BP accountable, reducing our dependence on foreign oil and jumpstarting the clean energy economy of tomorrow.
* Related…
* Senate Race Rankings: Not So Fast, Democrats: 6. Illinois (D): Rep. Mark Kirk (R) has certainly been bruised from having embellished his military record. But will that sort of controversy have the same gravity and staying power in voters’ minds as Alexi Giannoulias’ problems with his family’s controversial bank? Dems need to find a catchy moniker for Kirk on par with Republicans’ “mob banker” for Giannoulias.
* Why in the World is Giannoulias Announcing Gay Benefits Now?: If Giannoulias has already established himself as the Straight Avenger in this race, why the need for a big show? Because he’s not just competing for the gay vote. He’s also competing for the anti-anti-gay vote: heterosexual, middle-of-the-road voters who have gay friends, gay neighbors or gay relatives. They may not share Giannoulias’s liberal economic views, but they appreciate politicians who treat gays as human beings.
* GOP Candidate: Politics In Treasurer’s Same Sex Benefit Order: The GOP state senator and candidate for Illinois treasurer says he supports the order, but wonders about the motivation behind it. Rutherford said he also wonders whether there are other initiatives from the Giannoulias office that are being launched or publicized to maximize their political benefit
* Desiree Rogers Dodges Reporters at Giannoulias Event: But when Rogers’ car pulled up to the event and she saw the NBC 5 camera, the driver kept rolling. Rogers apparently came and left thru the back door in the alley. One attendee told us Rogers didn’t know how to pronounce the name of Congressman Jan Schakowsky, one of the hosts for the event.
Ruben Delgado, who died Saturday, taught advanced placement Spanish at Morton East High School for the past three years and had been accepted into a master’s program in Spanish language at the Royal Academy of Languages in Salamanca, Spain, a spokeswoman for the senator said.
The move goes against a decades-long trend toward middle schools in which school districts have invested in the middle grades by adding enrichment courses, reducing class sizes and boosting planning time for teachers.
But budget issues are causing several Illinois districts to reconsider the middle years.
About $777.6 million in administrative costs could be saved by improving claims payment accuracy by 1 percentage point, the AMA estimates. Getting to 100% claims payment accuracy would save up to $15.5 billion, according to the AMA. Among other findings, the AMA reported that claim response time ranged from five to 13 days; and health plans improved in terms of disclosing policies and information to physicians through the Internet.
Lauren Sartain is one of the authors of the report. She says the pilot program helps principals do a better job of rating teachers because it clearly defines an unsatisfactory rating as “doing harm to students.”
Eight percent of teachers got at least one unsatisfactory rating — defined as doing academic harm to students — under the new system, piloted in 44 Chicago elementary schools. By comparison, just 0.4 percent of teachers in the same schools were deemed subpar when they were evaluated using the traditional checklist one year earlier, according to the report released Tuesday by the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago.
Goodwin’s “right thing” is a plan to open up the 450 acres of developable land at the DuPage National Technology Park to more than just technology-based firms.
To Schillerstrom, it’s the wrong thing. The county board chairman wants to remove the airport board from having any oversight of the tech park land and allow a tech park board to handle future land deals.
The county’s credit rating went from the A range to Aa2, the second highest rating available. That means its “obligations are judged to be of high quality and are subject to very low credit risk,” Moody’s says.
This new rating was not easily earned, and the county still has an operating deficit of $2 million, which it is trying to whittle down by early retirement options and other measures. But the rating does mean that Moody’s considers the county’s $10 million reserve fund to be enough to ensure financial obligations to bond holders are met, says Scott Christiansen, County Board chairman.
* Eric Zorn recently predicted that Rod Blagojevich’s lawyers wouldn’t put up a defense. Instead, they’ll rest their case right after the prosecution does so, explaining that the feds hadn’t proved anything beyond a reasonable doubt. We’ll have to wait and see if Zorn is correct, but in the meantime the defense is saying that they could call Gov. Pat Quinn as a witness…
About 10 minutes before Blagojevich arrived, his lawyer Sheldon Sorosky held a quick pen-and-pad session with television reporters in which he threw out some names of potential witnesses. Among them, he mentioned the possibility of Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn being called to the stand.
Keep in mind that the defense wants these witnesses (Rahm Emanuel, Dick Durbin, etc.) to testify that they saw Blagojevich do nothing illegal during their dealings with him. Wouldn’t it be a hoot to see Quinn testifying to that? Yikes.
* Quinn’s campaign, meanwhile, will protest Jeb Bush’s Wednesday fundraiser for Bill Brady. From a press release…
Bloomington– As former Florida Governor Jeb Bush visits Illinois to headline a fundraiser for Sen. Bill Brady’s gubernatorial campaign, Lt. Gov. Nominee Sheila Simon will host a rally to “Keep Bushonomics Out of Illinois” at 6:00 p.m.
This event will be free and open to the public, and will highlight the contrasts between the positive economic policies offered by the Democratic gubernatorial ticket, and the backwards, regressive policies proposed by Sen. Bill Brady, Republican nominee for governor.
The rally will be held in the Laborers Local 362 Hall, Bloomington, Illinois. It will also be sponsored by the McLean County Democratic Party.
Plummer drew attention recently when he was called out by Democrats for not releasing his tax records. He says he refuses to let the issue sidetrack his campaign.
“I get out there and I talk to people about the issues they care about,” he said. “I’m not going to allow (Illinois Gov.) Pat Quinn to really change the topic of conversation. When I get out there, people talk about jobs, talk about the economy, talk about education.
“They talk about a lot things but that’s not something they talk about, nor should it be.”
He’ll never get away from that question.
* Congressman Mark Kirk’s campaign has sent out a press release on the state’s bond rating downgrade…
“While many are focused on the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, Illinois families are focused on the state debt crisis right here in Illinois. Alexi Giannoulias stood by and watched as our state’s debt skyrocketed and our pension liabilities spiraled out of control. His failures at Broadway Bank cost the FDIC $394 million. His failures in Bright Start cost Illinois families more than $70 million. And now his failure to do his job as State Treasurer could cost our state even more. The recent downgrading of Illinois’ credit rating by Fitch and Moody’s should be a major wake-up call to the citizens of Illinois. We need fiscal leadership at the federal and state level to rescue our state and turn this economy around.”
I asked the campaign to explain just how Giannoulias’ “failure to do his job” resulted in the credit rating downgrade. I’ll let you know what they say.
“I think Mark Kirk has been brought down to earth by the revelations of some of his exaggerations”, said Durbin today speaking Mark Kirk’s Military record. While making sure to give him respect for the 21 years served, the Illinois senior senator stopped just short of calling Kirk a liar.
* Rock Island Co. Republicans host one-of-a-kind fundraiser: The first “Shot Heard ‘Round the State” sporting clays tournament took place at the Bi-State Sportsmen’s Association in Colona and included a raffle, awards dinner, and a “bragging rights” mixer. Around 65 shooters participated in the fundraiser that planners hoped would be one-of-a-kind and still have meaning for the participants.
* As I told subscribers last week, punishments have been meted out to Republican state Reps. Bill Black and Bob Biggins for their votes for the pension borrowing bill…
[Rep. Black] now goes from one of two deputy minority leader positions to one of six assistant Republican leader positions.
He said his salary will decline “by about $2,500 to $3,000 a month” and he no longer will be the Republican leader on the House floor. […]
Black said some Republicans were angry that he spoke on the House floor after Cross had spoken on behalf of the GOP caucus.
“The mistake I made, and that I feel badly about, is that I have a rule that I will never speak after the Republican leader will speak,” Black explained. “And I did that this time and that was a mistake on my part. As I told Tom (Cross), I don’t know whether I wasn’t focused on the fact that he had already spoken or what. I should have not done that and I apologized to him for that.
Just weeks after the House vote, Republican House leader Tom Cross of Oswego stripped Biggins of his title of minority spokesman for a House appropriations committee. That title came with a $10,327 pay boost, on top of salary and stipends given for committee assignments, of which every General Assembly member has at least one.
The Democratic party may not want Rod Blagojevich, but that doesn’t mean Democrats want the former governor to go to jail.
A Rasmussen poll released Sunday showed that party identity still does play a significant role in what Illinois voters think should happen to Blagojevich, currently on trial for corruption, including trying to sell President Barack Obama’s former Senate seat. The poll found 68 percent of Republicans saying Blagojevich should be convicted and sent off to prison, compared to only 44 percent of Democrats. In a column on Sunday, the Chicago Tribune’s John Kass dismissed the notion of political identity having any impact on a juror “in a Combine state when public money is on the dinner table.”
In reality, the crosstabs (subscribers only) show that a 44-28 plurality of self-identified Democrats favor imprisoning Blagojevich. Either a majority or a plurality of all but three demographic groups favor imprisoning Blagojevich.
A 55-18 majority of African-Americans oppose imprisonment, as does a 36-31 plurality of those who make less than $20K per year. A tiny 45-44 plurality of those unsure of whether to repeal the national health insurance law is also opposed to imprisonment. Keep in mind that these small subgroups will have a very large margin of error, so there is a real danger of outliers and false results here.
Also, keep in mind that the poll was conducted June 7th, before Lon Monk’s damaging testimony began. Still, this is a big movement from a December, 2008 Rasmussen poll taken two days after he was arrested when 79 percent of likely voters said Blagojevich should go to jail, including 73 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of African-Americans and 69 percent of those making under $20K per year.
* Do you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable impression of Rod Blagojevich?
5% Very favorable
8% Somewhat favorable
16% Somewhat unfavorable
69% Very unfavorable
2% Not sure
* How closely are you following news reports about former Governor Rod Blagojevich’s trial on federal corruption charges?
31% Very closely
38% Somewhat closely
7% Not very closely
8% Not at all
0% Not sure
* Should Blagojevich go to jail for his actions?
57% Yes
17% No
26% Not sure
Lon Monk is back on the stand saying he witnessed Rod Blagojevich grow upset when he learned the hospital wasn’t returning his brother’s phone calls soliciting campaign contributions.
“He wasn’t happy, he got up and said: ‘Screw these guys,’ and got on the phone,” Monk testified Blagojevich said in a meeting with him and Robert Blagojevich.
Monk said Rod Blagojevich then called the governor’s office and talked to an aide about the status of state funds for the hospital.
“Don’t do anything with it until I talk to you,” Monk said he overheard Rod Blagojevich say.
Monk told jurors this morning that it went down like this: Blagojevich wanted Johnston to raise $100,000 for Friends of Blagojevich in exchange for signing a bill that would extend cash payments to the horse-racing industry a windfall from Illinois’ nine casinos.
Monk, who also was a lobbyist for Johnston, testified he knew this illegal and wanted to get the contribution in hand as quickly as possible.
“I was trying to get the contribution as quickly as I could so there would be more time between the contribution and the signing of the bill,” Monk said.
Potential jurors waiting to be questioned in Rod Blagojevich’s case discussed the trial’s news coverage with each other last week, apparently flouting a judge’s order just days after they were told to stop reading or listening to such news, a former prospective juror told the Chicago Sun-Times.
But only one of the chosen jurors was in the room at the time, and she didn’t participate in the discussion.
Keep in mind while watching coverage of the Rod Blagojevich trial that reporters in the courtroom have a far keener understanding of what is going on than do the jurors. Their perceptions are not necessarily the same as the jurors’ views. So, their coverage may not match up to how the case will turn out.
For most of the jurors, this is their first time in a courtroom. Unlike most of the reporters at the trial, this experience is quite new to all but two of them who have served on juries before. And, unlike many of the reporters, they have limited knowledge of what the trial is about and the context of the charges.
Most of the jurors know little of Blagojevich and his administration except for their skimming of the local news and maybe seeing him a time or two on TV entertainment programs. One juror said she checks the news “only for the weather.”
If you’re reading this column, then you most likely have more interest in politics than the average citizen. So, to people like us, some of those jurors may seem ignorant and even clueless. But people like us aren’t “normal” citizens. We pay attention to politics closely because it’s in our blood.
Most people, like many of those jurors, live their lives almost totally divorced from day-to-day political machinations.
I’ve often tried to explain this political disconnect with my “Hockey Theory.” And it probably applies to the Blagojevich trial as well.
I never played hockey as a kid. I can barely skate on ice. I have a vague memory of us owning a couple of hockey sticks back in the day, but my brothers and I probably just used them to terrorize each other.
I’ve seen two hockey games in person. One of my earliest memories of television is of a Blackhawks game, but other than that I’ve only watched parts of a few games on TV. I’ve never watched a complete game.
I almost never read about hockey in the papers and don’t know the players, although I am familiar with some historical names.
I’m well aware that the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup Final, and I know they have some great players, but I’m almost ashamed to say that I didn’t watch more than a few minutes of any of the playoff games and couldn’t tell you who the Blackhawks’ big names are if you put a gun to my head.
Two million people showed up in downtown Chicago to celebrate the Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup, but I wasn’t one of them, and I am more amazed by the turnout than what was said and who was there.
Plain and simple, I’m just not a hockey fan. I suppose I have too many other things to occupy my time.
That’s pretty much the way most people (half of whom don’t even vote) view politics in this country. And it’s probably somewhere around the same level of knowledge that many, if not most, of Blagojevich’s jurors have about his alleged crimes and misgovernance.
So while many of us can list many of the reasons why Blagojevich is guilty as sin (just as Blackhawks fans can tell you in detail how their team won the big trophy), many of his jurors are pretty much in the dark at the moment.
It’s not just ignorance that makes them different. If they didn’t know that Blagojevich’s friend, Chris Kelly, committed suicide rather than testify against his buddy, they won’t learn it at the trial, either. The same sort of thing goes for convicted felon Stu Levine. There will be no mention of Levine’s excessive drug use and heavy partying at the trial.
Combine all that with the decree that jurors must always keep an open mind and the result is they will almost undoubtedly see things differently than will the reporters who are covering the trial and the people who are following that coverage.
Jurors often see things in a way that “insiders” don’t, and they make judgments on things that get past some of us. George Ryan’s corruption trial produced countless banner headlines, but some of Ryan’s jurors said there was no single “smoking gun” that did Ryan in. Rather it was the overwhelming amount of evidence produced by the prosecution that sealed the former governor’s fate.
The rating downgrade, to ‘A’ from ‘A+’, reflects the continuing unwillingness of the state of Illinois to take action to address its significant budgetary problems. The recently enacted FY 2011 budget does not begin to address the current operating gap, relying almost entirely on various forms of deficit financing to close the gap. The state is facing a growing budget deficit, very high accounts payables, and a significant structural gap for which solutions have been difficult to identify and implement.
Illinois entered this economic cycle with little financial flexibility to handle a downturn. It came out of the last recession relatively late and did not take actions to build its reserves or restructure its finances as its economy and the national economy grew over the five years leading into this recession. While the extent of the current fiscal problem was clear midway through FY 2009 as revenue estimates were downsized, comprehensive solutions have been repeatedly delayed. Faced with reduced revenues and an aversion to broad based tax increases, the FY 2010 enacted budget relied heavily on non-recurring revenues, particularly the use of debt to finance current operations. Declining revenues and an inability to achieve enacted budget solutions contributed to a $2 billion gap (7% of general fund resources) opening in the FY 2010 budget, for which no solutions were proposed other than to delay payments to vendors and schools districts and other entities that rely on state payments. Taking into account the pension payment that was effectively covered by a $3.5 billion GO issuance rather than general fund resources, the budgetary deficit has grown to almost $6 billion, 22% of general fund resources. The cumulative deficit, reflecting the pension borrowing but including the carryover of $3.7 billion in prior year deficits, is now projected to be $6.1 billion, or 19% of general fund resources.
Fitch indicated in December 2009 and in March 2010 that future rating action would be taken if the state did not address its operating deficit, its growing structural deficit, and its accumulated liabilities in a comprehensive way in the context of its FY 2011 budget. The enacted budget continues to push solutions out to the future; budgetary balance will continue to rely on sizeable borrowing, and those reliant on state payments will continue to have long waits to be paid. While the enacted budget for FY 2011 does include $1 billion in spending cuts, it leaves a $5.9 billion funding gap (21.3% of FY 2011 expected revenues) that is expected to be closed by issuing bonds, interfund transfers, and securitization of tobacco settlement revenues, and carries over $6 billion in accounts payable through another fiscal year.
Yields on some Illinois bonds on Friday rose above those of California, the poster child for local financial problems. The state’s 10-year bonds were quoted at 4.20 per cent while California’s 10-year bonds were quoted at 3.95 per cent, according to one trading desk.
“The market is growing more careful about Illinois,” said Matt Fabian, managing director at Municipal Market Advisors. “Higher yields are one of the costs of a poorly balanced budget.”
“Something significant needs to happen on either side of the budget – either cutting spending or raising revenues,” said Karen Krop of Fitch. “Now they are relying on deficit borrowing.”
Ms Krop said Illinois has budgeted to raise more than $8bn with bonds in the current and next fiscal years. “There doesn’t seem to be an endgame,” she said.
- Eight U.S. states, including California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Illinois, risk lower credit ratings because they lack completed budgets less than three weeks before the start of their new fiscal years.
A ninth, New York, has operated without one since its year started April 1. All are gripped by political stalemates over how to cope with a collapse in tax revenue that included a $67 billion decline in the 12 months ended June 30, 2009, according to the Census Bureau. The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government called that the biggest on record.
* Two maps. The first is state budget gaps. Click the pic for more info, but the redder the state, the higher the gap…
The bluer the state, the higher the revenue shortage…
* Related…
* Big State, Big Cuts, Little Room: As the new head of the Illinois Department of Human Services, Michelle R.B. Saddler knew she would confront tough choices in preparing a budget that juggled rising needs for services with tumbling state revenue. But she wasn’t prepared for the long list of mandates and governor’s priorities that tied her hands. She wasn’t supposed to eliminate services required by law or court order. She was to spare Medicaid-eligible services and food-stamp benefits. And she couldn’t jeopardize residents’ safety or well-being. “What’s left?” she said.
*** UPDATE *** Note to the Giannoulias campaign: If you’re gonna use a surrogate, make sure the surrogate knows what she’s talking about. From a press release…
The negative campaign being waged against my 21 years of service in the United States Navy Reserve turned from dirty to ridiculous. Yesterday, WFLD allowed a partisan surrogate for Alexi Giannoulias to make ludicrous accusations without challenge or correction.
According to Giannoulias’ surrogate State Representative Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora), I should “apologize to all the veterans especially the veterans during the Vietnam era because that’s when he supposedly served.” I was 13 years old when the Vietnam Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973.
Rep. Chapa LaVia was on a roll. She also said “allegations are starting to come out where he falsified that he served in Iraq and Afghanistan too.” I served over Iraq as part of Operation Northern Watch in 2000 and twice served in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
* The Tribune completely ignored the uproar last week over the Department of Defense memo that expressed concerns about Congressman Mark Kirk’s partisan political activities during two tours of active duty. Instead, the paper assigned two reporters to work on a story about semantics…
When Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk says he repeatedly deployed to Afghanistan with the Navy, he’s referring to two-week training missions as part of his annual reservist requirements.
After acknowledging a series of misstatements that embellished his Navy service, Kirk is being challenged over his use of the military term “deployment,” and this could be yet another opportunity for critics to parse his words in what has recently become a resume-bashing battle with Democratic Senate opponent Alexi Giannoulias.
Deployment can mean more than one thing in the military, but it is often used to describe service members going off to war for an extended time.
(DOD) 1. In naval usage, the change from a cruising approach or contact disposition to a disposition for battle.
(DOD) 2. The movement of forces within operational areas.
(DOD) 3. The positioning of forces into a formation for battle.
(DOD) 4. The relocation of forces and materiel to desired operational areas. Deployment encompasses all activities from origin or home station through destination, specifically including intra-continental United States, intertheater, and intratheater movement legs, staging, and holding areas. See also deployment order; deployment planning; prepare to deploy order.
Item “4″ appears to support Kirk’s claim that he used the proper term. The Kirk campaign reportedly sent that definition to the Tribune, but it’s not mentioned anywhere in the article.
U.S. Rep. Phil Hare’s use of the word “veteran” to describe his military service has angered some local military veterans who say he’s improperly taking on the title.
However, a survey of advocacy groups, lawyers and government officials shows that there’s no standard definition of the word.
In fact, while Hare’s service doesn’t appear to meet the basic legal definition of “veteran” used by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for the purpose of receiving benefits, some of the largest veterans organizations in the country say he’s properly using the word when referring to his own service.
Hare served in the Army Reserves during the Vietnam War. He was recently confronted by two supporters of his Republican opponent Bobby Schilling who said he shouldn’t be using that term in one portion of his biography. Schilling at one point claimed on his website that Hare “presumably” joined the reserves to get out of serving in battle, but Hare objected and the passage was removed.
Mark Kirk claims that he is a “21-year Navy veteran” on his own website. But despite the fact that Kirk actually serves in the Naval Reserves, nobody has challenged him on that topic.
The wars between Mexico’s drug cartels are closer than you think, Senate candidate Mark Kirk says.
“The West Coast [of Mexico] Sinaloa Cartel has been attacking the East Coast Juarez Cartel. We should feel somewhat concerned about this because the Juarez Cartel is our guys — they control the drug trade in Chicago,” Kirk says, only half-joking, to audiences on the campaign trail.
Alexi Giannoulias’ prescription for solving the drug problem was the same old, same old…
“The U.S. must do more to curtail the growing threat posed by Mexican drug cartels. I have recommended a two-pronged approach. First, we must embrace a policy that not only strengthens our borders, but also reduces American demand for these drugs through prevention and treatment. Second, we must strengthen our gun control enforcement to ensure that American weapons don’t get into the hands of Mexican criminals. Ninety percent of assault weapons in the hands of drug traffickers in Mexico come from the U.S. Just as Mexico must help to stop the flow of drugs from south to north, we must curb gun flows from north to south.”
Legalization would wipe out the cartels, but nobody ever wants to mention that.
The highest-paid elected-official-turned-lobbyist, according to the Sun-Times/BGA survey, is Lipinski, who as a congressman was the powerful longtime chairman of the House Transportation Committee. He has lucrative contracts with the CTA and Metra.
The Carmen Group has made millions representing Metra and the water reclamation district — two of Chicago’s largest government agencies — for more than 25 years.
The water reclamation district — Cook County’s sewage-treatment agency — pays the firm as much as $645 an hour, under a $657,000 no-bid contract, to help it obtain continuing federal funding for the ongoing Deep Tunnel flood-control project.
And Metra, the city and suburban commuter rail agency, paid the Carmen Group $712,500 last year. That was under a contract that was renegotiated three months ago, cutting the lobbying tab to $500,000 this year.
U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock of Peoria has introduced legislation for a study on a Pike County site that was the first town planned and founded by an African-American. U.S. Sen. Roland Burris proposed similar legislation earlier this year.
As Mr. Daley, 68, prepares a presumed run for an unprecedented seventh term, economic data examined by Crain’s show his success over the past 21 years in remaking Chicago’s business center and nearby neighborhoods into a “global city,” where incomes and education levels are high and amenities are world-class.
But big parts of Chicago have been left behind.
And the city is stuck with the debts Mr. Daley has piled up on infrastructure-rebuilding and gentrification, including the cost of projects such as the Olympics bid, Millennium Park, theater districts, median planters — not to mention underfinanced city pensions and the tax-increment financing subsidies doled out to downtown developers.
…
Bonded debt and long-term leases have risen much faster than the city’s property-tax base under Mr. Daley and now amount to about $5,600 for each Chicagoan. Then there’s billions in unfunded pension liabilities — another $5,000 per Chicagoan — and one of the deepest municipal budget holes in the country.
CPS revealed its latest plans on how to confront its record deficit within hours of teachers concluding their vote on whether Chicago Teachers Union President Marilyn Stewart or challenger Karen Lewis, a King College Prep teacher, should lead them through tough times ahead. Election results are expected early today.
The draw? The former Motorola building in Harvard, now known as the Midwest Corporate Campus. Officials from the city of Harvard, the McHenry County Economic Development Corp., the County Board, and state and federal lawmakers have collaborated to pitch the 1.6 million-square-foot facility as the new corporate headquarters for Navistar.
* SouthtownStar: Oak Lawn fees demonstrate a bigger problem
Existing service in Bloomington-Normal is just one of the factors that could influence the possibility of Peoria rail service. Others include the fact that Illinois recently received over $1 billion in federal funds to upgrade Amtrak service between Chicago and St. Louis and that other Illinois communities - most recently the Quad Cities - are already on track to restore rail service.
…
Rail service, of course, is something that used to work in Peoria, once the fourth largest regional hub in the country. Peoria used to be served by 15 different passenger railroads that accounted for 70,000 miles of track. But the city has been off-track since 1981, after Amtrak’s short-lived Prairie Marksman experiment failed to deliver passengers on service between East Peoria and Chicago.
A judge ruled Thursday that DeWitt County has too much money on hand and had levied some property taxes improperly, and county officials are trying to figure out how that will affect pending tax bills.
In a lawsuit filed by a citizens group challenging the county’s tax practices, Douglas County Judge Michael Carroll ruled that the county violated a 1969 Illinois Supreme Court ruling that prohibited counties from holding excessive reserves without plans for spending the money.
The six-month terms of The State Journal-Register editorial board’s three community guest members are about to expire. This week we will begin the process of naming their successors.
Southern Illinois officials claim a possible Cape Girardeau casino could have an impact on the region’s sole casino, Harrah’s Metropolis Hotel and Casino.
“It’s pretty darn close from what I’ve been reading about the location. It will definitely draw other communities,” said Metropolis Mayor Billy McDaniel.
Edna Stewart’s legendary soul food restaurant on Chicago’s West Side served as a meeting place for leaders of the civil rights movement during the 1960s.
Among her patrons were the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and an aide, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who came to eat for free while they organized for equal rights. King and his colleagues also held meetings in the eatery to launch a campaign to end housing discrimination.
