Chicago’s most powerful alderman, Edward M. Burke, had his cell phone seized by federal agents who raided his government and political offices late last month, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
It’s unclear why the FBI seized the phone or where it was when they took it.
I had heard they tracked him down the day of the raid and took his phone.
Shortly before FBI agents raided the offices of Ald. Edward M. Burke, they knocked on the door of the alderman’s top political aide, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
The FBI showed up at Peter Andrews Jr.’s home in Mount Greenwood around 7 a.m. on Nov. 29. […]
Andrews is the chairman of two of Burke’s three campaign funds, which total a combined $12 million — money the alderman has raised from companies that have gotten business from City Hall, some that also have hired his law firm, Klafter & Burke, to challenge their real estate assessments, seeking to lower their property tax bills.
Burke has paid Andrews more than $100,000 since 2001 to serve as a political consultant, according to records the alderman has filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections.
Fourteen years ago, Andrews and his wife, Ginger, got caught up in the scandal over the city’s Hired Truck Program under which the administration of Mayor Richard M. Daley spent $40 million a year to hire dump trucks that often ended up doing no work on city construction projects.
Oh, that’s big. Andrews is to Burke ~ what Marty Quinn is to Speaker Madigan.
* The Southern Illinoisan’s Gabriel Neely-Streit has a well-written story about the many tough challenges facing volunteer fire departments in the rural south…
“It’s hard to be a non-paid department and get anybody that wants to participate,” Grant said. “Then, if we do get people, we don’t have the proper equipment to give them for them to be safe.”
Throughout Southern Illinois, small town fire chiefs say they’re fighting to recruit and retain volunteers, and to provide expensive and time-consuming training to keep up with stringent state regulations.
Meanwhile, small towns like Buncombe are shrinking, and residents are growing older.
“We’ve had seven people pass away in Buncombe this year,” said Tommy Groner Jr., the town’s assistant fire chief. That means empty houses in town, less taxpayers to support the department, and a smaller pool of potential volunteers.
But as Buncombe’s population decreases, its need remains.
In rural Southern Illinois, having trained firefighters and first responders next door, instead of two towns over, can save lives, local officials say.
* Illinois Public Media News interviewed Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago) about her work on a new legislative draft to legalize marijuana in Illinois. The whole thing is worth a read, but here’s one excerpt…
Steans: We see this as a three-piece process. One of them is the expungement, and two is inclusion and enabling people of color with backgrounds to be included in the industry now going forward.
We also want to ensure that anybody who is in the business has to have plans to do minority hiring. To the extent that we can do it, we want to encourage preference for minority-owned, women-owned and veteran-owned [cannabis businesses].
Then we also want to create new classes of licenses. You know right now we just have cultivation and dispensary [for medical marijuana], limited opportunities for people to get involved in the industry. We want to add additional license categories so that there’s more opportunities for people of color to get involved, and women and veterans.
And then the third piece is we think some of the revenue [from marijuana taxes] should be going toward neighborhoods that have been disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs.
* Opening up opportunities is important because, as Tom Schuba reports, some real heavy-hitters are circling above…
Cannabis is becoming big business in Illinois, with some local pot companies emerging as national leaders after inking record-setting deals and starting to trade publicly in Canada, where marijuana was recently legalized. […]
The River North-based pot firm now has operations in six states, with plans to expand to New York and Massachusetts. In October, Cresco began trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange after carrying out a reverse takeover of an existing company. The public offering comes on the heels of a $100 million private funding round, the second-largest for an American pot company. […]
Almost two decades later, Kovler started Green Thumb Industries. Headquartered in River North, the rapidly-expanding cannabis company now has eight manufacturing facilities and 60 dispensaries spread across eight states. Earlier this year, GTI raised $67 million after the company was listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange. According to Kovler, the company’s growth has happened “one step at a time.” […]
Teddy Scott recently brokered the largest acquisition in the history of the marijuana industry, selling Oak Park-based PharmaCann to touted California pot brand MedMen for $682 million in October.
Under the bill promoted up by Assistant Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford on Friday, a petitioner could ask a circuit judge to expunge the record of a conviction or plea of guilty for an offense from before July 29, 2016, if three years or more have passed since the petitioner has completed their sentence.
“As the conversation about legalizing recreational marijuana continues to gain traction, it would be irresponsible of legislators to overlook the damage over-criminalization has caused,” Lightford, D-Maywood, said. “This measure is about helping nonviolent offenders rehabilitate and have a better chance of getting a job.”
Lightford will have to get the bill through the Senate and get it to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s desk next month, or the process will have to start anew in the 101st General Assembly.
State Rep. La Shawn Ford, who initially sponsored the bill, said that expunging the low-level conviction would allow people to once again tell prospective employers that they’ve got a clean record. […]
According to a 2013 report from the American Civil Liberties Union, African-Americans in Illinois are more than 7 times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession. […]
The city of San Francisco is in the process of clearing all marijuana convictions there dating back to 1975, a move that could result in the clearing of an estimated 3,000 misdemeanors and the possible reduction of an estimated 5,000 felonies to lower charges.
McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally has asked state representatives to vote against legalizing marijuana in Illinois, if and when the time comes. […]
“It is disheartening to see legislators willing to unleash recreational cannabis with all the driving force of capitalism before the health and social consequences are fully understood,” Kenneally wrote. “It is far better to wait for the ongoing experiments in Colorado, Washington, Michigan and Canada to reach fully mature and conclusive results over the next several years.”
The state’s attorney said he’s not opposed to decriminalizing the possession of larger amounts of marijuana, but he claims legalizing it entirely would open the door for cartels and black market dealers to move in and take advantage of Illinois’ “exorbitant” taxes.
Skillicorn, R-Crystal Lake, is a sponsor on a bill seeking to legalize marijuana in Illinois. As it’s written now, the bill would not allow for additional taxes to be tacked onto marijuana sales. The cautionary measure should be enough to stave off potential black market dealers, Skillicorn said.
Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker, traveling the state on a thank-your tour, told a crowd in Sangamon County Democratic headquarters Monday that his travels downstate and his efforts to build the party will continue. […]
Pritzker also said that as a “competitive sort,” he wanted to talk a little politics, in part saying that his defeat of Gov. Bruce Rauner was by “the largest margin that anybody’s beaten an incumbent governor” in history.
“It’s really because of you,” he said. “We all hung together, we Democrats.”
I asked Team Pritzker if “margin” meant percentage or vote total and was told it meant percentage.
He seems to be right. Or, at least, I think so. All of the results aren’t online and my set of “Centennial History of Illinois” had some of the results (all with much more narrow margins than Pritzker vs. Rauner), but is missing two volumes, so I couldn’t be sure. And then I found the online version, but I couldn’t find all the results there, either. Maybe one of you will have better luck because I ain’t got all day to mess with this.
The next biggest margin over a sitting governor appears to be Democrat Adlai Stevenson’s 1948 win against Republican Gov. Dwight Green. Stevenson won by 14.5 percentage points. Pritzker won by 15.7 points.
By the way, Stevenson won by 572,067 votes, which was apparently the record until now. Pritzker won by 713,995 votes. So, the record is apparently for both percentage and vote margins.
* The 2018 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Democratic State Senate Campaign Staffer goes to Natalie Benner…
It’s nice to see women in the Senate Dem campaign apparatus start playing a more sustained, significant role on the managerial front and even more wonderful when it is someone like Natalie. Just being in the Tom Cullerton office for a short while, you can tell that Natalie’s hard work yielded a strong operation. And she even camped out at DuPage County Election Authority when her race was in the bag. Watch out for Natalie. She’s going places.
She received several strong nominations. Runner-up goes to Ben Donovan…
Ben is a hard worker, fast learner, and super nice guy. He will out work the competition and he treats everyone on the campaign with respect. Ben was a major part of turning a district that went for Nybo by 20% in ‘14 to winning the rematch by 1.6%.
* The 2018 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Republican State Senate Campaign Staffer goes to Rachel Bold…
Rachel Bold did an outstanding job getting Senator Anderson back to Springfield. Held off a strong opponent during an otherwise blue victory party. Strong TV and mail ads. I hope we will get to see her in the quad cities again.
That was a no-brainer. Runner-up goes to Jon Nelson…
One of the few bright spots for the Republican caucus was hanging on to Curran’s seat while the other “safe” suburban GOP seats went under.
Congrats to everyone.
* OK, let’s move on to today’s categories…
* Best campaign staffer - House Democrats
* Best campaign staffer - House Republicans
Please make sure to explain your nominations or they won’t count. I’d prefer nominations in both categories, but if you work exclusively with one party I will understand if you can’t.
Governor-elect @JBPritzker greets and thanks supporters in Springfield. Someone joked every Democrat in Sangamon County is crowded into this small room. pic.twitter.com/oqGxLFfx8R
Candidates Toni Preckwinkle and Ja’Mal Green would get rid of TIF districts altogether.
“We’ve really got to look at unwinding as many of those TIFs as we possibly can and turning the resources back to Chicago Public Schools,” Preckwinkle said last Monday, a day before she won the Chicago Teachers Union endorsement. She said she would give all annual TIF surpluses to the schools until all 144 TIF districts are phased out. […]
Lori Lightfoot, Robert “Bob” Fioretti and LaShawn Ford called for a moratorium on creating new TIF districts. […]
Paul Vallas vowed to “implement a new paradigm” with “clearer TIF guidelines for developers.” Vallas would dedicate a third of TIF revenue to a Chicago Equity Investment Fund to be used in blighted areas.
Lightfoot touched on a topic during a mayoral debate last month that merits more attention: the issue of regressive taxation in the city of Chicago.
“We live in one of the most taxed cities and the most taxed county, unfortunately, in the country,” she said at a debate in November. “And low-income families and individuals and working families have shouldered far too great a burden because our tax system, our levies and fees have been completely regressive.”
Technically, Lightfoot’s wording was a bit overstated, as my colleagues at the Better Government Association recently pointed out. But her larger point—about the inequity of how taxation in Chicago affects the rich and the poor—is one that deserves consideration. It would be useful to hear more on this from all the candidates hoping to occupy the office on the fifth floor of City Hall.
I agree that, “technically” she might possibly have “a bit overstated” the facts, but Greising’s BGA colleagues rated her claim “mostly false” in yet another example of the BGA’s attempt to police political rhetoric instead of hard facts. Maybe the group should follow its leader and focus on policies and not goofy little click-bait gotcha pieces.
But most of the contenders so far are barely touching this issue. Like businessman Willie Wilson, No. 2 on the February ballot, who says on his website that he wants to “create safe neighborhoods” and “end carjackings . . . (and) police brutality”—along with letting seniors ride free on the Chicago Transit Authority. I appreciate that, sir. This senior just loves free stuff—providing the CTA doesn’t slash service to pay for it, that is. But what specifically are you going to do to make the streets safe?
Ditto Bill Daley, who says in his new TV ad that he’ll “make getting gangs and guns off of our streets priority No. 1″ but doesn’t give a clue as to how. […]
As usual, the most detailed policy plans come from Paul Vallas, and I give the former Chicago Public Schools chief lots of credit for daring to open himself up to critics rather than peddling bromides. Among ideas from him: bringing back—perhaps part time—retired but experienced detectives who could help the Police Department clear up a huge backlog of unsolved cases, and offering a city witness protection program for those who are worried about gang retaliation if they help prosecutors. Of course, it’s not clear Vallas has a plan to pay for that and other proposals. But his ideas are worth a look.
Then there’s Toni Preckwinkle, who calls herself a progressive but lately has been focused on trying to knock foes off the ballot on technicalities and lining up endorsements from powerful labor chiefs. On her website, she talks not about cutting crime but cutting the number of nonviolent drug offenders in the county jail and the number of children tried as adults. There’s some merit to both, but what does Preckwinkle want to do about crime? What would she do to those who run around with guns, terrorizing people?
* Another good question…
Where are the mayoral candidates on Rahm's plan to let this guy try to bore a tunnel to ORD from the Loop? https://t.co/B18mr238dw
The Chicago Sun-Times editorial board has the heft to put all of these questions and more to the candidates. What they did with TIF districts was a good start.
…Adding… Sounds like I hurt the BGA’s fee-fees…
My name is Bob Secter and I am the senior editor at the Better Government Association. I realize that it has become fashionable these days for people to elevate themselves by trying to diminish others, so I usually laugh off your gratuitous commentary about us and others as well. Today’s ridicule of our recent Lori Lightfoot seemed particularly ill-informed, however. Here we have a candidate for Chicago mayor who is making sweeping assertions about complicated tax policy that are ill informed. The irony was that she could have made a compelling point had she simply stuck to the facts about how the tax system was particularly unfair to low-income residents. But she didn’t do that, and our job is to provide context for the claims politicians make. One of the reasons tax policy is so difficult to fix is that its too easy to demagogue rather than deal with the nuance. Your ill-informed attack on us simply reinforces that problem.
Politifact does not allow us to slap any old rating we feel on a statement we are vetting. There are a strict set of guidelines we are required to follow in rating comments, and all ratings are decided on by a jury of three editors. We are not doing this by the seat of our pants. In case you are interested, here are the guidelines: https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/feb/12/principles-truth-o-meter-politifacts-methodology-i/
The definition of Mostly False is: “The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.”
And that’s exactly where Lightfoot’s claim fell. She didn’t just “overstate things” as you contend. She got a little bit right, but a lot a bit wrong.
As for your snark about “goofy little click-bait gotcha pieces,” have you read your blog lately?
Pot meet kettle.
“I” didn’t originally “contend” that she “overstated” things a bit. That was David Griesing, the president of the Better Government Association, for crying out loud. I therefore have no choice but to rate this Bob Secter reply “Pants on Fire!” /s
Also, I don’t sell ads based on clicks. Never have. So, the senior editor is wrong once again. Is there a double “pants on fire” rating allowed?
* From Fitch Ratings’ “Illinois: What Happens Next” report…
The governor-elect’s plans regarding pension liabilities focus more on possible adjustments to the state’s funding schedule, rather than on any steps to seek employee consent for or constitutional changes to allow for accrued benefit changes, or shifting costs to school districts or public universities as proposed by the incumbent. When asked about his pension proposals during the campaign, the governor-elect suggested stepping up the statutory payment to a level-dollar amortization that would potentially mean higher annual contributions in the near- compared to the systems’ level percentage-of-payroll amortization under current statute. He did not provide extensive details on where the necessary funding would come from. Fitch notes that the current statutory contribution remains inadequate relative to the level recommended by actuaries to ensure full funding over time.
So far so good.
* Onward…
One possibility, advocated by the also progressive-leaning Center on Tax and Budget Accountability (CTBA) in Illinois, is to use pension obligation bonds (POBs) to partially fund stepped-up pension contributions for several years. The proposal also calls for re-amortization of pension liability with a new funded ratio target of 70% by 2045, versus the already comparatively weak 90% statutory funding target (also by 2045) under the current statutory ramp-up. The CTBA’s executive director was recently appointed as one of 17 members of the governor-elect’s budget and innovations transition committee.
Fitch has previously noted that issuance of POBs is generally neutral to negative for an issuer’s credit quality. If POB proceeds are deposited with a pension trust, while actuarial contributions continue to flow uninterrupted from annual budgetary resources, the issuance of POBs offsets unfunded liability and has little immediate impact on the issuer’s overall long-term liability burden.
However, the CTBA proposal to use proceeds for budget relief by offsetting an annual pension contribution is viewed by Fitch as deficit financing. Such situations result in the issuer’s bonded debt increasing without necessarily a corresponding decrease in its net pension liabilities, a factor that may negatively weigh on the credit ratings.
* I asked the CTBA’s Daniel Kay Hertz for a response…
CTBA agrees that using POBs to “offset an annual pension contribution”—ie, to replace funding that would normally be coming from tax revenue—is irresponsible. That was one of the upshots of our Crain’s editorial in August.
But I think it’s not right to say the POBs in the reamortization plan are “offsetting an annual pension contribution.” Those POBs are *in addition to* the amounts paid with tax revenue as scheduled under current law. In other words, CTBA’s reamortization plan doesn’t create false savings by substituting tax-funded spending with debt-funded spending; it uses all of the POB proceeds to directly increase contributions to the pension systems as a bridge to the level-dollar amortization contributions.
As for the 70% funded ratio target, two things. First, and most importantly, by putting more money in the pension systems up front, CTBA’s reamortization plan actually increases the funded ratio *faster* than the current ramp through about the mid-2030s. That’s crucial in the short term because it gives the pension systems more breathing room in the increasingly likely case of a recession. In the longer term, it’s important because it means that, fifteen years from now, if the state decides it wants and is in a position to increase its funded ratio target for 2045, *it will be in no worse, and maybe a better, position to do that than under the current ramp*. Because, again, the funded ratio is actually higher under the CTBA reamortization than under the current ramp through the mid-2030s.
Second, while pushing the pension systems’ funded ratios higher is important, it needs to be weighed against the state’s capacity to raise revenue and fund crucial public services. Our view is that the current ramp—which achieves a 90% funded ratio in 2045 by calling for annual contributions approaching $20 billion at the end of the schedule—is just not sustainable without unrealistic, and intolerable, revenue increases and service cuts.
In large part because of the pressure created by pension debt in the ramp, Illinois’ real per capita General Fund spending on current services has already declined by more than 20% since FY2000, including a 50% cut to higher education. We understand that a 70% funded ratio target isn’t ideal in the abstract, but in the actual circumstances Illinois finds itself in, we believe it is part of a plan that responsibly stabilizes the pension systems while creating room for the state to meet other obligations that Illinoisans depend on.
* I had earlier asked Hertz to explain the group’s idea…
So basically the challenge with replacing the ramp with the level-dollar reamortization is that, while the level-dollar saves a lot of money over the whole 2019-2045 period, it requires higher payments for the first eight years.
Our suggestion, essentially, is that in each year where the level-dollar payment is higher than the ramp payment (as currently projected), we fill the gap with a POB, to avoid facing a cliff of either new revenue just for pension contributions or service cuts. So if in a given year the level-dollar payment is $1 billion over what the ramp would have called for, the state would issue $1 billion in POBs. Since the level-dollar payments are higher than the ramp payments for the first eight years, that means we’re talking eight years of POBs, which add up to a total of $11.2 billion.
The period over which we pay off those POBs is 30 years, at (in our model, using a very high 6.5% interest rate) between $900 million and $1 billion per year when all of them have been issued.
Then there’s the question of the freed up revenue from the old POBs that are coming off the books in the next year or so. In our model, we see that revenue—nearly $1 billion a year—as money that should be redirected from paying debt service on POBs to directly supporting the pension systems, and so we use that as well to boost the state’s annual contributions.
* Is there arbitrage involved?…
No. There may very well be some arbitrage benefit, but that isn’t really the point. The point is to be able to immediately get annual contributions to the pension funds up to the amount called for by the level dollar plan.
In a “pure” version of reamortization, you just make that full payment from tax revenue, and the state would be forced to either immediately raise a sizable amount of additional funds or cut spending. The POB idea is to ease that transition so there aren’t big shocks on either side.
And to be clear, making the full payments with tax revenue would save more money, looking just at the pension systems, than easing the transition with POBs. But a) the POB version still saves $67 billion between 2019 and 2045 in our estimates, and b) the POB version may be more realistic, given that the state has many other crucial services it needs to fund. In other words, we don’t think it’s a great idea for the state to find the money to make the level-dollar contributions by further slashing higher education funding or human services.
Immediately upon reaching office, Macron abolished the Solidarity Wealth Tax (ISF), giving €4 billion to the richest; and has strengthened the Tax Credit for Solidarity and Employment (CICE), a tax cut and exemption program transferring €41 billion a year to French companies, including multinationals. Shortly afterwards, with the 2018 budget bill, Macron established a flat tax that allowed a lowering of taxation on capital, handing another €10 billion to the richest.
At the same time, the government has increased the General Social Contribution (CSG) income tax to be paid by pensioners, while pensions themselves have ceased to be indexed to inflation (and thus to retirees’ ability to buy consumer goods). It has got rid of the subsidized contracts (which allowed large numbers to work on contracts partly financed by public bodies) and lowered by five euros a month the amount of housing contributions (APL) for the most disadvantaged.
The [tax] cuts, which mainly target employers, fit into a strategy of making work pay more in a country where labor costs are high and unemployment — currently stuck above 9 percent — is plaguing the presidency.
But to pay for his cuts, Macron is hitting the less productive sections of society: Pensions are to be capped, as are welfare benefits, and public sector jobs are to be axed, according to a sneak peek of the budget provided Sunday by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.
However, Macron has ruled out a return of the impôt de solidarité sur la fortune, or solidarity tax on wealth (ISF). The president reportedly told a meeting of the council of ministers on Wednesday: “We’re not going to unpick anything we’ve done in the last 18 months.”
Lifting part of the ISF was a pillar of Macron’s election campaign and one of the first fiscal measures he implemented on taking power in May 2017, leading to his nickname “president of the rich”.
Flatter taxation, tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations, pension “reform” and austerity. That pretty much sums up the Tribune editorial board’s policy road map for Illinois.
In France, an individual earning between $30,675 and $82,237 is taxed at 30 percent. In the U.S., an individual earning $30,675 would pay 12 percent in federal tax while someone earning $82,237 would pay 22 percent.
Joseph Downing, an expert in French politics at the London School of Economics, agreed that the protests were about “much more” than taxes on gas.”
The tax will increase the price of fuel by about 30 cents per gallon and will continue to rise over the next few years, the French government says. Gas already costs about $7.06 per gallon in France.
* There is so much disinformation out there. From the AP…
THE CLAIM: Video shows French firefighters turning their backs and walking out on French President Emmanuel Macron during a ceremony.
THE FACTS: Macron was not at the event where firefighters were captured on video turning their backs on officials on Saturday, Dec. 1, but the video is real. Social media users began sharing the video with the false claim after grassroots demonstrations in France turned violent last weekend. The protests began as a response to Macron’s plan to increase the fuel tax. Sebastien Delavoux, secretary general of the local fire and rescue union, told The Associated Press that firefighters turned their backs toward their employers because they were angry that their yearslong concerns about staffing issues had not been addressed. […]
THE CLAIM: Video shows French citizens chanting “We want Trump!” during recent protests.
THE FACTS: Social media users are misrepresenting the video, falsely claiming it was taken during recent protests in France. The video actually shows people at a demonstration in London chanting for President Donald Trump. The video was taken June 9, 2018, during a rally held in support of Tommy Robinson, a right-wing activist who was jailed for contempt of court in England. In the video, a demonstrator wearing a Trump mask can be seen on top of a blue sightseeing bus trying to rally the crowd by chanting, “We want Trump!” Posts saying the video was taken during a French demonstration began circulating widely on social media after protests in France turned violent the weekend of Dec. 1.
* Related…
* Chris Miller calls pension benefits ‘legalized extortion’: State Rep.-elect Chris Miller (R-Oakland) points to news that just over 19,000 state retirees received pension benefits totaling nearly $2.4 billion in fiscal year 2018 as yet another example of how taxpayers are victimized in Illinois. … “One of the biggest reasons why pensions are so underfunded is the people in them don’t have to fund them,” he said. “They don’t have to pay any income taxes on their retirement benefits and are making a 1,000 percent return on this investment.” … The 110th House District includes Clark, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, Edgar and Lawrence counties.
* INN: Rauner say yes to infrastructure bill, no to new taxes
The nearly 181,000 jobs in Michigan tied to the auto industry constitute 19 percent of the nation’s total, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Indiana has the second-most auto jobs, heavily concentrated in recreational vehicles. Illinois ranks No. 8, with about 13,000 jobs building chassis or bodies and 23,600 making auto parts.
Michigan and Indiana are the dominant players in the auto industry and both states lost a whole lot of jobs during the economic crash during the final years of the previous decade. But when auto sales rebounded, so did their state economies.
* But while other states are now reeling from GM’s recently announced layoffs, the same article has some good news for Illinois…
That popularity [of the Ford Explorer] means the 5,400 employees at Ford’s plants on Torrence Avenue and in Chicago Heights can breathe easier, at least a little, even as GM announces up to five plant closures and Ford transfers 1,150 workers in Michigan and Kentucky to build better-selling models. The same is true in Belvidere, near Rockford, where 5,300 Fiat Chrysler workers pump out the Jeep Cherokee, another model with solid sales. […]
The question is whether, when the Taurus disappears, anyone at the Torrence Avenue plant will even notice. The facility is operating at 150 percent capacity, running above and beyond the two shifts that equal normal production. The Explorer placed among the 10 best-selling light trucks for the first 10 months of the year, with 218,805 purchased nationwide. […]
The Jeep Cherokee also sells well. Fiat Chrysler sold 198,341 of the model in the first 10 months of the year, a 48 percent increase over the year-earlier period.
Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker was asked last week about the timeline for passage of a new minimum wage law.
“That’s very important to me,” Pritzker said, “It’s probably something we’ll be able to get done in the first six months in office.”
Pritzker had campaigned to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour, so he was asked whether he was still on board for that goal.
“Yeah,” he said, and then went on a somewhat long, rambling explanation, during which he repeated a talking point about how he wants to make sure that small business “are not ill-affected” by a minimum wage hike and that “large businesses are implementing it in as rapid fashion as we can make happen.”
I’m told that Pritzker hopes to shield small businesses from excessive harm to their bottom lines by using some sort of tax relief, including tax credits. The devil is always in the details, including defining what is and isn’t a small business, but that’ll apparently be part of the upcoming negotiations.
Illinois’ current minimum wage is $8.25 per hour. Indiana, which has often made a public spectacle of poaching Illinois businesses, has a $7.25 an hour minimum wage. Chicago’s minimum is $12 per hour and will rise to $13 an hour next year. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has claimed an increased minimum wage would attract workers from around the region.
The governor-elect also noted that his team has the “various constituents and stakeholders … at the table. The Illinois Retail Merchants, the entrepreneurs and the labor unions, all at the table.”
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association voted earlier this year to not endorse anyone in the governor’s race, making it the only major business group that didn’t back Gov. Bruce Rauner. It also took a pass on the gubernatorial contest four years ago, but endorsed Republican state Sen. Bill Brady over Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn in 2010.
This year’s decision came after two meetings between Pritzker and Rob Karr, IRMA’s president and CEO. Karr came away impressed, believing that, while Pritzker has some very liberal goals, he will negotiate in good faith on ways of reaching those goals.
Retailers are very sensitive to labor costs, and Karr was instrumental in convincing House Speaker Michael Madigan to not move forward with a minimum wage increase bill in 2014. Instead, Madigan pushed through legislation to put a non-binding referendum on the ballot. It passed overwhelmingly, but Gov. Rauner was also elected that year and he had once said he opposed having a minimum wage at all. A minimum wage hike has been put on the back burner ever since.
Crain’s Chicago Business has referred to the pre-campaign version of J.B. Pritzker as the “unofficial mayor” of Chicago’s downtown business community. Not many of those business titans stepped up to endorse Pritzker, but they also didn’t rise up in strong opposition to Pritzker or in fervent favor of Rauner. So, there’s also a level of trust that Pritzker won’t go totally overboard.
The Pritzker folks say they want to negotiate with all stakeholders on numerous issues, with the minimum wage being just one of them. This is the way things were done before Rod Blagojevich came onto the scene. Blagojevich was a big fan of jamming major ideas through on partisan roll calls.
IRMA has always tried to be an honest and willing negotiator. And its leader Karr was reportedly convinced from his two meetings with the then-candidate that once Pritzker made a deal he’d stick with it and pass it, despite any objections from the hard left.
Pritzker will have his work cut out for him in that regard. The head of the legislative Progressive Caucus, Rep. Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago), recently threw down an online gauntlet about how Illinois “must not” follow the lead of Colorado Democrats, who after taking over their state’s legislature have now signaled that they’ll be more open to negotiations with the business community.
“People elected us because we said we’d make their lives better,” Guzzardi wrote. “Raise their wages, provide decent benefits, make college and healthcare more affordable, etc. We ran on this. We won. And now… we run away? If so, why vote for us at all?”
And Pritzker will also have to deal with more moderate Democrats on this topic. Those I’ve spoken with are not necessarily opposed to a minimum wage increase, but going all the way up to $15 an hour gives them serious pause, even with possible tax credits.
*** UPDATE *** Pritzker was asked about a possible tax credit for small businesses and the phase-in of the higher wage today…
Governor-elect @JBPritzker reaffirmed his support for a gradual minimum wage hike to eventually reach $15/hour this morning. He also confirmed @CapitolFax's reporting that a tax credit for small businesses could be part of a compromise to entice business groups to back the idea. pic.twitter.com/jFiYQLHbfZ
The Illinois Manufacturers Association held a huge party for retiring president and CEO Greg Baise today. This video was shown. It’s pretty funny at times and there are a few obvious references to the shortcomings of Gov. Bruce Rauner…
Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I’m on my way
But when I think it’s time to leave it all behind
I try to find a way, but there’s nothing I can say to make it stop
Today the US EPA released the results of 2 ambient air tests that were conducted near the Sterigenics site. These test results are still being analyzed by experts, but one thing is clear – these new test results confirm our position that this is an immediate public health threat, a health crisis that most dangerously affects hundreds of children and families in the immediate area.
Another round of air monitoring near Sterigenics detected alarming levels of cancer-causing ethylene oxide near the west suburban facility, but federal officials cautioned Friday that they need more information before deciding if neighboring communities are still at risk.
Spikes of the highly toxic chemical were detected in samples collected during three days in mid-November at Willowbrook Village Hall and a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warehouse, according to results posted online by the EPA. Both monitors are close to a pair of buildings off Illinois Route 83 and Interstate 55 where Sterigenics uses ethylene oxide to sterilize medical equipment, pharmaceutical drugs and food.
The highest average level of ethylene oxide detected during a 24-hour period was 6.62 micrograms per cubic meter of air, more than three times greater than the amount that federal officials relied on earlier this year to calculate potential cancer risks in the area.
However, six other monitors — located at schools and in nearby residential areas — did not register measurable amounts of ethylene oxide during the same testing period, the EPA reported.
The latest results are the first posted since the company installed new equipment intended to reduce the amount of ethylene oxide leaking from its sterilization chambers. EPA officials said they won’t be able to determine if neighbors are in danger until the agency has completed three months of community air monitoring and plugs the results into its computer modeling of pollution emitted by Sterigenics.
* Sterigenics…
“Sterigenics is reviewing the results of the initial air sample tests from the US EPA, but it is no surprise that the samples indicate variable levels of ethylene oxide (“EO”) in the air. We note from the samples that all of the residential, parks, and school locations selected for testing had non-detect readings. The two locations in the commercial area next to our Willowbrook facilities had variable levels of EO detected. As is commonly known, EO levels in the air vary greatly based on a number of factors including proximity to sources of EO, of which there are many including exhaust from diesel trucks and automobiles, and the weather conditions on the days that samples were collected.
“”As the EPA states, “It is premature to draw conclusions from the data. EPA plans to continue monitoring in the Willowbrook area for three months and will continue to post data as it becomes available.” We will continue to work with the EPA to understand the results and will continue to cooperate fully.
“Sterigenics has operated, and continues to operate, well within the limits of its permit and the regulations. By properly controlling emissions while preventing life-threatening infection, the Willowbrook facility serves to safeguard global health every day. Sterigenics remains committed to working with public officials to evolve regulations in the continued interest of public safety.”
…Adding… US Rep. Dan Lipinski…
Despite Sterigenics’ claims that it isn’t a public health threat, and despite their new pollution control equipment, initial EPA testing has shown significant EtO emissions around the facility. While more testing will be occurring, this preliminary data confirms my belief that this plant is a threat to public health and unless data is provided to the contrary, I maintain that this plant should be shut down.
* The 2018 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best State House Staffer - Non Political goes to Sherri Garrett…
No question. To go from someone very few folks were familiar with to the greatest change agent this place has seen in ages is stunning. To do all of that with grace, humility and humor makes it all the more worthy of recognition.
Sherri Garrett stood up, spoke out and changed the culture immediately and permanently. That took enormous courage and it gave every non-political staffer protection from what had become a toxic work environment. Her action put powerful men on notice that this (stuff) will no longer be tolerated.
This is her year. Bravo.
* The 2018 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best State Senate Staffer - Non Political goes to Aaron Holmes…
I have to echo an above comment. Aaron is the most valuable asset that President Cullerton has. His knowledge of the legislative process is quite impressive. Aaron helps review every bill that comes through the chamber. He constantly has to help new members of staff and is potentially the nicest person under the dome. It should be obvious that Aaron is the best.
Congrats to both recipients.
* OK, on to today’s categories…
* Best campaign staffer - Senate Democrats
* Best campaign staffer - Senate Republicans
Make sure to explain your responses or they won’t count and please try to nominate in both categories if you can. I will understand if you work with only one party and can’t, however.
14th CD State Central Committeeman Stan Bond… expressed hope that the IL GOP will stick to its party platform - meaning a conservative slant. Bond’s hope clashes with others who expect the current leadership to abandon if their proposed “unified” message is embraced. Bond says that conservative IL GOP platform is crucial to the party’s future.
“Conceptually I will say our party must remain loyal to its platform - a document which seemed largely ignored by losing candidates in this last cycle,” Bond told Illinois Review. […]
State Rep. Jeanne Ives - who almost unseated GOP incumbent governor Bruce Rauner in the 2018 GOP primary - has signed on as a “fellow” with the Illinois Conservative Union, spoke with Illinois Review about the state party chairman’s refusal to step down. Ives has become a key spokesperson for the state’s conservative movement. She pointed directly to the party leadership for failing to organize to take advantage of the Democrats’ obvious weaknesses and strategic failures. […]
“There are motivated Republicans still willing to fight in this state so we can save our homes and afford to stay in Illinois,” Ives said. “We will work together outside of official leadership to advance policy solutions at the local level and block bad policy at the state level. We will support and work only for candidates that support the party platform.” [Emphasis added.]
We believe that our natural rights, as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, begin at conception and continue until natural death. We believe that these rights include the fundamental right to life of unborn children, and we support the appointment or election of judges who share that belief.
We support a human life amendment to the federal and Illinois constitutions affirming the right to life of unborn children, and we support making clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.
We advocate the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
We oppose the use of taxpayer funds to pay for abortions or to support organizations that perform abortions, that participate in the purchase or sale of fetal tissue or organs, or that create and destroy human embryos for the harvesting of stem cells for research or treatment purposes. […]
VII. EMBRACING THE TRADITIONAL FAMILY
The family is society’s central building block. Thus, efforts to strengthen family life are efforts to improve life for everyone.
Our children need secure and nurturing environments, which are best found within the traditional family. No law should be enacted nor policy implemented without fully contemplating the effect it would have on children and their families.
While not universally achievable, the ideal environment for children is within a two-parent family based on the principle of marriage between one man and one woman. The Republican Party endorses a constitutional amendment protecting our Defense of Marriage Act and enshrining in constitutional law marriage as it is defined in our “DOMA.”
Therefore, we accept that good Republicans do not have to agree on all the issues contained in this Platform and that this Platform shall not be used as an instrument of division or attack on others within the party who hold opposing views. We must unite as a party behind those items on which we agree.
* I’ve been working on a story involving lots numbers and I suddenly hit a brick wall and in the process lost all track of time. Oops. Be kind to each other and keep it Illinois-centric, please.
Equality Illinois is making the unusual move to endorse a candidate for the city treasurer’s office. The gay-rights advocacy group has long endorsed in legislative and mayoral races. This time, it’s getting involved in the treasurer contest because of “concerns about a candidate’s commitment to the LGBTQ community,” Brian Johnson, the group’s CEO, told POLITICO.
He was referring to state Rep. Melissa Conyears-Ervin, one of four candidates running for treasurer. Equality Illinois, which tracks voting records, says Conyears-Ervin hasn’t taken a stand on two particular pieces of legislation.
On HB1875, the birth certificate-sex designation bill (which allows trans folks to change their gender on their birth records without having surgery), Conyears-Ervin was the only lawmaker to vote present (instead of yea or nay). And Equality Illinois says Conyears-Ervin hasn’t committed to SB3249, which would add LGBTQ issues in school history books. That bill was just placed on the calendar for a second reading.
Conyears-Ervin, who this week was endorsed by SEIU 73 and Chicago Teachers Union, responded to POLITICO about Equality Illinois’ concerns. In an email sent through a spokesman, she wrote:
“My record on issues of fairness and equality is second to none and I will continue to work with anyone promoting these causes. I support teaching LGBTQ history in schools and I will work with my colleagues to achieve this measure as it comes up for consideration and a vote in the General Assembly. Finally, I did not oppose legislation changing the criteria medical professionals require to change the gender on a person’s birth certificate, and in hindsight recognize the value of a law that relieves the burden put on transgender men and women to be recognized by the state as the gender that they identify. I support this law.”
The bill number in the story is wrong, it’s HB1785. She did indeed vote “Present.” SB3249 passed the Senate with 34 votes.
What little hope remained of reopening or repurposing the shuttered Tamms Correctional Center continues to grow dimmer.
The prison and its adjacent work camp are “rampant” with mold, Lindsey Hess, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections, confirmed on Wednesday, and would require millions of dollars of treatment.
A 2015 inspection by ExecuClean Restoration found high levels of Aspergillus and Penicillium molds, which are “responsible for more human health issues worldwide than any other group of fungi,” including many respiratory illnesses, the company stated. […]
Just addressing the mold issue would cost some $2.5 million, Hess said, and would require the removal of all “drywall, carpet, counters, counter tops and cabinets,” per ExecuClean’s recommendations.
Southern Illinois legislators and candidates have been demanding the prison’s reopening since it was closed in January of 2013, apparently without the knowledge that the site is rampant with mold.
Freshman state Rep. Terri Bryant, a Murphysboro Republican, has been pushing lawmakers to join her in urging Gov. Bruce Rauner to reopen the facility at the southern tip of Illinois.
“I think there is a pressure building within all of the facilities that has to be relieved somehow. I think that’s only going to be relived by either kicking inmates out or creating some more bed space,” Bryant said in a recent interview.
The Democrat running for state representative in southern Illinois wants to re-open the state’s super-max prison. Marsha Griffin told reporters yesterday that if the state of Illinois can build a new prison mental health center in Joliet, the state can re-open the Tamms Prison. Griffin said the decision to close the prison back in 2012 is still hurting southern Illinois. The state spends about 750 thousand-dollars a year on Tamms, just to keep up with maintenance.
Wait. The state is spending $750K a year on maintenance and it’s been full of mold for at least three years?
* David Krupa is a 19-year-old freshman at DePaul University who had big dreams of running for alderman. Unfortunately, he wants to represent the 13th Ward and he ran into one of the weirdest brick walls I’ve ever heard of. Krupa says he collected 1,703 petition signatures, far more than the 473 he’d need to qualify for the ballot against Ald. Marty Quinn. But even before he filed them, this happened…
An organized crew of political workers — or maybe just civic-minded individuals who care about reform — went door to door with official legal papers. They asked residents to sign an affadavit revoking their signature on Krupa’s petition.
Revocations are serious legal documents, signed and notarized. Lying on a legal document is a felony and can lead to a charge of perjury. If you’re convicted of perjury, you may not work for a government agency. And I know that there are many in the 13th Ward on the government payroll.
More than 2,700 revocations were turned over to the elections board to cancel the signatures on Krupa’s petitions. Chicago Board of Elections officials had never seen such a massive pile of revocations. […]
The number of revocations far exceeds the number of signatures Krupa collected. That means false affidavits were filed with the elections board.
If this story by John Kass is accurate, the 13th Ward has just brought a whole new round of heat on itself.
…Adding… To address some questions in comments, here’s Krupa’s attorney…
“We turned in 1,703 signatures. We compared them to the 2,796 revocations, and found only 187 matches, meaning only 187 people who signed David’s petitions filed revocations,” Dorf said. “So, what about the 2,609 people who didn’t sign for David but who filed revocations? That’s fraud. That’s perjury. That’s felony.”
The only other explanation is that they might’ve filed revocations to signatures Krupa collected but didn’t turn in. But how they knew those names would still be a mystery.
Under state law, the revocations need to be filed BEFORE Krupa filed his petitions so they wouldn’t have been able to cross-check these with actual Krupa petition signers.
A petition, when presented or filed, shall not be withdrawn, altered, or added to, and no signature shall be revoked except by revocation in writing presented or filed with the officers or officer with whom the petition is required to be presented or filed, and before the presentment or filing of such petition.
If there ever was any hope that five Chicago city workers pension funds would make any money by investing $68 million with then-Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew and one of his key political supporters, it didn’t last long.
Only months after the deals were made a dozen years ago, problems began to emerge.
The nephew, Robert G. Vanecko, and his business partner Allison S. Davis, a developer who gave campaign money to Daley and was appointed by the mayor to head the Chicago Plan Commission, started investing in a series of property deals that, by the time the last of them are unwound by the end of December, will have cost the city workers pension funds 80 percent of the $68 million they put in — $54 million in all. […]
And somehow they even lost money — more than $11 million on the deal that built a busy Mariano’s supermarket in the North Side neighborhood of East Lake View, a location that has 90,000 people living within a one-mile radius.
Hello, this is a very important message. Did you know that you probably received more robocalls per day in November than any previous month in the history of recorded phone messages? […]
There were 5.1 billion robocalls made in November — a record 1,963 per second — meaning that the average person did in fact hear more annoying health insurance, easy-money and interest rate scam pitches than ever before, according to a monthly YouMail survey.
Chicago ranked fourth among cities with more than 164 million robocalls received last month, trailing only Atlanta, Dallas and New York, according to the survey.
* From yesterday…
Attorney General Lisa Madigan today announced she is joining with a bipartisan group of 38 other attorneys general to stop or reduce annoying and harmful robocalls.
“Robocalls are an obnoxious form of consumer harassment,” Madigan said. “I am pleased to be part of this bipartisan group that will provide people simple ways to avoid annoying and invasive robocalls.”
Madigan and the multistate group has had in-depth meetings with several major telecom companies about technological capabilities currently in existence or in development that would reduce robocalls. The coalition of states is pushing the carriers to, among other things, quickly develop and implement technology to help identify and block potential unwanted robocalls for their customers.
Madigan and the coalition will seek to develop a detailed understanding of what is technologically feasible to minimize unwanted robocalls and illegal telemarking. They will also engage the major telecom companies to encourage them to expedite the best possible solutions for consumers, and determine whether states should make further recommendations to the FCC.
All these robocalls are making polling vastly more difficult to do because people aren’t answering their phones. It also has to be hurting campaigns for the same reason.
Illinois Family Action seeks to fortify the traditional foundations of civil society through efforts to educate, inform and influence elected officials in support of the country’s historic ideals of equality under the law, and the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness on which the nation was founded.
Illinois State Senator Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) has been an outspoken proponent for legalizing high-potency marijuana and he wants a “seat at the table” when Gov.-elect JB Pritzker and other Chicago Democrats move the bill in 2019.
Take ACTION: Barickman will be the featured speaker Dec. 4 at the McLean County Chamber of Commerce’s BN The Know event in Bloomington, titled “Recreational Marijuana and the Business Community.” You can register to attend HERE. […]
The chart below is from a new report released this month put out by the Centennial Institute titled Economic and Social Costs of Legalized Marijuana. It is the first of its kind to calculate the negative costs associated with legalization. For every dollar spend on legalization, it’s costing Colorado residents $4.50. They claim this is a low estimation. Can Illinois afford more bad public policy that will cost the taxpayers in the end? […]
Please plan to attend this event and bring up this timely report. Point all in attendance to the www.NoWeedIllinois web site to get the facts for themselves.
Hey, what happened to liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Also, Kathy Valente happens to be the author of every, single article at NoWeedIllinois.
A new report from Colorado Christian University’s Centennial Institute claims that “for every dollar gained in tax revenue, Coloradans spent approximately $4.50 to mitigate the effects of [marijuana] legalization.” That factoid is already showing up in arguments against legalization, even though it is plainly fallacious.
Centennial Institute Director Jeff Hunt, who is also the university’s vice president of public policy, takes the approach favored by anti-pot polemicists, conflating correlation with causation and counting every purported cost to which a number can be attached, no matter how implausibly, while ignoring every benefit except for tax revenue and the increased value of Colorado homes since legalization (which suggests the state has not turned into the drug-addled dystopia predicted by prohibitionists).
Most glaringly, as Paul Danish notes in the Boulder Weekly, Hunt et al. make no attempt to isolate the impact of legalization, which is supposed to be the subject of the report. Instead they tote up supposedly marijuana-related costs without regard to whether they were caused by the change in policy the authors claim to be analyzing.
The study, which was carried out for the Institute by a research firm named QREM, is a dog’s dinner of statistical scraps that run the gamut from misleading to dishonest, irrelevant and embarrassing.
The assertion that “for every dollar gained in tax revenue, Coloradans spend approximately $4.50 to mitigate the effects of legalization” is the first sentence of the study’s executive summary.
In order to arrive at this conclusion, the study’s authors had to tote up all the supposed costs of legalization they could think of, including some that are pretty silly. Like the $54.8 million cost of stoners’ “physical inactivity” due to marijuana turning them into couch potatoes.
Other “costs” are not so silly, but are much more dishonest. Like the alleged $423.4 million in lost income over a lifetime of the kids who dropped out of high school in 2017 supposedly due to their marijuana use. The latter figure is the single largest “cost” in the study’s laundry list. […]
The figures, even if accurate, represent the economic and social costs of marijuana use in 2017. But the study’s supposed purpose is to identify the economic and social costs attributable to marijuana legalization, which are different than the overall costs (real, imaginary or theoretical) of marijuana use generally.
Marijuana use in Colorado didn’t begin when pot became legally available at the beginning of 2014. Coloradans used marijuana illegally for decades before then, and it’s reasonable to assume that if pot was producing stoner sloths and stoner school dropouts in 2017, it was also producing them prior to legalization.
And that means that the only economic and social costs that can be attributed to legalization are those that occurred incrementally after marijuana became commercially available at the beginning of 2014.
But in most cases the Institute’s study doesn’t include cost estimates for the years prior to the beginning of legal sales, so it’s not possible to calculate what costs, if any, are attributable to legalization.
Chicago mayoral candidate Bill Daley unveils a proposal to freeze homeowners’ property taxes in a television ad his campaign is set to start airing Thursday. […]
After the spot shows Daley talking to various people of different ages and ethnicities, the narrator gets to the big promise: “Bill will put a moratorium on tax hikes to keep families in their homes.” The words “PROPERTY TAX FREEZE” appear on the screen in large letters next to images of Daley speaking to a Hispanic woman in a store and a white man with a young child. […]
He previously had stressed the need to get away from raising the taxes on homeowners, but had not proposed an outright freeze. In a speech to the City Club of Chicago last week, he vowed that any property tax increases would be met with “dollar-for-dollar” cuts to city government. […]
While Daley is calling for a moratorium on property tax hikes, he previously has advocated for City Hall to consider a wide range of new taxes and fees to deal with the city’s ongoing pension crisis, which will require the next mayor to come up with nearly $1 billion in new annual retirement fund payments by 2023. In his City Club speech, Daley opened the door to a commuter tax on suburbanites who work in the city to help fill the pension gap while also saying an increase in real estate transfer fees and taxes on legalized marijuana and a long-sought Chicago casino “must be on the table.”
Refusing to raise property taxes while waiting on Springfield to give the city a casino or whatever pie in the sky idea Richard M. Daley had at the moment is what got the city in trouble in the first place because it didn’t adequately fund its pension systems (or even pay a dime into some of them).
And now Bill Daley thinks that the General Assembly is gonna pass a commuter tax? Does he not know that a record number of suburban Democrats were elected to the legislature last month and that they will be highly resistant to a possibly unconstitutional tax on their own constituents to benefit Chicago, on top of any graduated income tax plan? Or is he just being a Daley?
Daley said that should include considering an amendment to the state’s constitution, deleting a provision that says current public employees cannot have their pension benefits “diminished or impaired.” […]
Many legal scholars question whether changing the constitution would allow the city to reduce the retirement benefits of current city employees, and changes already have been made to lower benefits for new city employees. As a result, it’s unclear what changes a future mayor could make with state lawmakers to save additional money, and Daley did not outline any specifics.
The Illinois Department of Corrections continues to flounder in its efforts to care for inmates with mental illness, according to a new report authored by Dr. Pablo Stewart, a psychiatrist and court-appointed monitor on a 2016 settlement agreement on a class-action lawsuit. […]
The report singles out Pontiac Correctional Center for having a “culture of abuse and retaliation” against mentally ill inmates.
The monitoring team found both an “informal use of force and retaliation system” and “evidence of intimidation of the mental health staff at Pontiac by the custody staff”—problems that have persisted since the lawsuit was settled 30 months ago.
“It is my opinion as Monitor that the Department has not done anything to effectively address this ongoing problem at Pontiac,” wrote Dr. Stewart, adding that he is “absolutely convinced” that staff are physically assaulting mentally ill inmates there.
We as a state don’t provide decent mental health care for our residents, then we turn jails and prisons into de facto mental health centers, then we abuse the mentally ill inmates and people trying to help them. Wonderful.
I have also encountered the presence of an elaborate system of retaliation perpetrated by the custody staff against the mentally ill offenders at Pontiac. These retaliatory acts include, but are not limited to:
1. Withholding of food/visits/phone calls.
2. Not allowing certain mentally ill offenders to attend required structured or unstructured activities.
3. Setting up certain mentally ill offenders for assault by labeling them “snitches.”
4. Providing mentally ill offenders with the means for them to perform self-injurious behaviors (i.e. staples, paperclips, or other sharp objects.)
5. Planting incriminating evidence in the cells of mentally ill offenders, such as weapons or other forms of contraband.
During my site visits, I often encounter mentally ill offenders who present with injuries to their heads and face. I have even encountered mentally ill offenders with newly missing teeth and physical exam evidence of recent trauma to their faces. If I had encountered these types of injuries with my own patients, I would be obligated to report them to the police.
* The 2018 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best House Secretary/Admin. Assistant/District Office Director goes to Mika Baugher…
I don’t know how she stays on top of everything but she does. There’s no way I could ever do what she does!
Agreed. Joann Sullivan had been with Speaker Madigan for several decades. Stepping into that job couldn’t have been easy, but she makes it look that way.
* The 2018 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Senate Secretary/Admin. Assistant/District Office Director goes to India Hammons…
There are all kinds of great people doing great work behind the scenes in this category.
I’d like to honor India Hammons for her outstanding work during her tenure in Senator Lightford’s Capitol Office.
She juggled a lot of responsibilities in deftly managing everything that came her way.
India recently moved on to a different job, but she is missed.
She really was great at her job.
* OK, let’s move on to our next category…
* Best State Senate Staffer - Non Political
* Best State House Staffer - Non Political
As a reminder, this category also includes folks who work for the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate. Please try to nominate in both categories, but I’ll give you a pass if you mostly deal with one chamber. Also, please make sure to explain your votes or they won’t count. Thanks!
With nearly a decade having passed since lawmakers approved Illinois’ last major capital program, billions of dollars worth of deferred maintenance has racked up. […]
“We’re behind, to be perfectly frank,” said IDOT Secretary Randy Blankenhorn, one of the panelists. “We are not funding transportation as well as some of our neighbors and as our competitors. … I spend $250 a month on my phone. I spend $50 a month for water. This is the infrastructure of my life. It’s what I need to make things happen. And we’re spending 50 cents a day on transportation. And, honestly, it’s inadequate.”
To help fix the chronic funding problem, an increase in the state gas tax, which has not been raised since 1990, and vehicle registration fees will be inevitable, Blankenhorn said.
Blankenhorn said such an increase would provide “revenue necessary to maintain, enhance, modernize our system. That’s the conversation that we need to have.”
Five years after the conservative think tank criticized lawmakers for passing a pension bill it once called “grossly inadequate,” the group has changed its mind. “It turns out it was pretty darn good,” John Tillman, CEO of IPP, told POLITICO. His organization recently revisited SB1, the bill that passed in 2013 but was found unconstitutional in 2015.
Tillman said the measure would have saved somewhere between $1.1 billion and $1.4 billion a year in 2016, 2017 and 2018. “It would have put the state on a much better path to fully funding pensions,” he said, crediting Democratic state Rep. Elaine Nekritz for shepherding the bill and the bipartisan nature of it.
IPI’s turnaround signals an olive branch toward Democrats and the state’s new administration. And it follows a tumultuous four years working with Gov. Bruce Rauner. The anti-union, anti-tax group appeared aligned with Rauner when he first took office. That changed when the governor signed the controversial HB40 abortion law—after he said he wouldn’t. Tillman called him a “failed” leader. Their relationship spiraled downward. […]
He insists pension reform is still possible, but only with bipartisan support. Tillman hopes to talk to Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker about creating a two-pronged pension system that would protect already-earned current retirees and current workers’ benefits (possibly with a 401K system) and also those of retirees.
Tillman is indeed on a mission here. We had a long off the record conversation in Springfield this week.
And while he is trying to position himself as extending an “olive branch,” I doubt that the governor-elect is all that interested. Pritzker has talked a lot about the CTBA plan to reamortize the pension debt, but has rejected all other reform ideas. Tillman claims the CTBA plan is unworkable because it won’t contain costs.
…Adding… The group’s opposition to SB1 was a lot harsher than described above. From 2013…
Government workers and taxpayers should call out Illinois’ pension bill for what it is – a farce. […]
Workers and taxpayers will need to say no to fake reforms and call for the only sustainable solution going forward: giving state workers control over their retirements through defined contribution plans that workers own and control.
…Adding… And the group knew the projected savings back then as well, but dismissed them…
The pension bill saves only $1.3 billion in its first year
…Adding… Tillman also says in that Politico piece that he hopes to meet with Madigan, but his group just published a cartoon comparing Madigan to Satan. I kid you not. Click here.
Tillman admits he was wrong about SB1. It would have been good if it stayed in place, he said.
“It turns out it wasn’t just one good step, maybe it was five or six very good steps. If you look at what would have happened since that bill was passed and if the Supreme Court had not ruled it unconstitutional,” Tillman said.
So, now, the controversial think tank, at the center of some turmoil under Governor Rauner, is suggesting a bipartisan effort under JB Pritzker to change the Illinois Constitution and create a two-option pension system that, he said, won’t affect benefits earned by current workers or retirees. He is not expecting an easy sell.
“The most important thing to do is to fix the problem now and that’s why we are using the anniversary day of the 2013 reform to hold ourselves accountable and to encourage the General Assembly to look back at what they did in a bipartisan fashion and say hey there’s a lesson there,” Tillman said.
* And the Illinois Policy Institute’s Austin Berg kinda/sorta explains what they want to do via an op-ed for the Illinois News Network, which is based at the same address…
That’s why a constitutional amendment is so necessary. And it doesn’t have to eliminate the pension clause in order to allow cuts.
A solid amendment simply needs to allow for changes in future benefits, while protecting what has already been earned by public employees. Voters could approve the amendment as early as 2020, and lawmakers could pass specific reforms that trigger the morning after Election Day.
Those changes need to be a bit more substantial than in 2013, because the problem has grown tremendously since then. But the principles can remain the same.
A constitutional amendment allowing reductions in the growth of future benefits could be followed with legislation that essentially reintroduces the 2013 reform concepts with differences in degree, including the following:
Increasing the retirement age for those not currently close to retirement
A cap on the maximum pensionable salary that grows at a rate pegged to inflation
Replacing Illinois’ 3 percent guaranteed benefit increases with a cost-of-living increase tied to inflation
Potentially suspending COLA increases for certain years to allow inflation to catch up to past raises
* But even Gov. Rauner told Crain’s this fall that a constitutional amendment was futile…
He wants pension reform, but said the idea of amending the Illinois Constitution to reduce such benefits likely is a political and legal non-starter.
If I recall correctly, Rauner specifically said he doubted that voters would approve such an amendment even if you could get it out of the House and Senate.
* And changing the state’s Constitution won’t help with this clause in the US Constitution…
No State shall… pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts
For instance, while the unemployment rate in the region dropped from 9 to 7.6 percent overall, among blacks it dipped just four-tenths of a percentage point, or 0.4 percent. That’s significantly smaller than the drops among Latinos, Asians and non-Hispanic whites, even though the unemployment rate was and remains far higher among blacks, more than 17 percent.
Similarly, median household income among blacks is still off nearly a tenth—9.4 percent—among blacks. In comparison, among whites, the drop was 1.5 percentage points; among Hispanics, 4.2 percentage points, with Asians gaining a bit. And while the drop-off in labor force participation rates was smallest among blacks in the 2010-17 period compared to other groups, blacks already had and still have the lowest rate, with just over 60 percent holding a job or actively looking for one.
Among non-Hispanic whites, Asians and Latinos age 16 to 64, a clear majority of 53 percent to 64 percent, respectively, of those leaving the region already hold jobs. But among blacks, only 42 percent are employed. The remaining 58 percent of those moving either are unemployed or out of the workforce and not looking at all.
CMAP Associate Policy Analyst Aseal Tineh said there could be various reasons for the latter distinctions, such as more rapid aging among white residents. But overall, it’s likely that African-Americans here are having a harder time finding jobs, and a harder times getting jobs that pay well, she said. Beyond that, the report itself notes previous research that black commuters tend to have a longer trip to work than other area residents.
The Will County Health Department has confirmed an outbreak of mumps, a contagious disease caused by a virus, on Lewis University’s Romeoville campus. According to university, one case has been confirmed and seven more probable cases have been reported among students. As a result of the outbreak, starting Dec. 10, all students, faculty and staff who cannot provide evidence of immunity are barred from the campus by Illinois Health Department mandate.
Lewis announced the outbreak on Tuesday and canceled several events scheduled on campus.
News of Lewis’ mumps outbreak comes as health officials nationwide are confirming the resurgence of measles in 27 states, including Illinois. […]
“The best defense from the mumps is MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccination, which is available at many healthcare facilities, including major pharmacies, clinics, doctor’s offices, immediate care facilities or local health departments,” Lewis said in a press release.
Measles, a childhood disease that was all but wiped out by 2000 due to widespread vaccination, is making a comeback worldwide, including in Illinois. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that 220 cases of measles have been confirmed in 26 states and the District of Columbia. […]
The CDC said the rise in measles in the United States can be traced to outbreaks in countries to which Americans often travel — including England, France, Germany, India, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Also, the agency said, measles is spreading in the United States in communities with unvaccinated people. For example: In 2017, 75 people were sickened in a Somali-American community in Minneapolis with poor vaccination coverage. A multi-state measles outbreak in 2015 — 147 cases — was tracked to an amusement park in California and further back to a large measles outbreak in the Philippines in 2014. Unvaccinated Amish communities in Ohio were disproportionately sickened in a 2014 outbreak associated with the outbreak traced to the Philippines.
Measles can be prevented with vaccination. A 1978 goal by the CDC to eliminate measles from the country by 1982 fell short, widespread vaccination programs caused the agency to declare measles eliminated in the United States by 2000.
The Illinois Board of Higher Education has approved a fiscal year 2020 budget that would include $314 million new dollars, or a 16.6 percent increase in funding, for higher education operations in Illinois. “This next fiscal year is beyond critical for the future of higher education in our state,” said Tom Cross, chairman, IBHE. “The board believes that a $2.208 billion budget request will mean reinvestment in higher education, and a commitment to ending the pattern of outmigration of Illinois students.” The board action was taken Tues, Dec. 4.
“For the public universities, we feel that a ten percent increase, or $110 million in additional revenue, is reasonable and will allow those institutions to start to heal after 16 years of budgets below the benchmark of fiscal year 2002,” explained Cross. “Universities still haven’t come close to recovering from the worst blow, which was the stopgap budget of fiscal 2016.” The chart above shows the appropriations for higher education as adjusted for unfunded mandates and inflation.
In the budget request, IBHE is asking for additional money for grant programs. IBHE Executive Director Dr. Al Bowman said, “If Illinois wants more of its high school graduates to attend Illinois colleges and universities, an important incentive is the availability of grants. This budget request will go a long way toward keeping more students here.”
The new or increased grant lines include:
• Monetary Award Program (MAP) $100 million
• AIM HIGH $20 million
• Veterans and National Guard $26 million
• Assistance for Nonpublic Institutions $25 million
“It’s important to note that even with a 16.6 percent increase, next year’s budget would still be lower than the $2.417 billion amount approved by lawmakers for fiscal year 2002,” said Cross.
Bowman told the board that there is a clear connection between tuition increases and the woefully inadequate budgets for higher education. “Revenues for public universities used to come primarily from the state budget, at 72 percent of the total in fiscal 2002. That meant that only 28 percent came from tuition and fees. That ratio has flipped, so that students are largely responsible for almost 65 percent of university revenue.”
* The 2018 Golden Horseshoe Award for best political bar goes to JP Kelly’s…
I recall at one point early in Rauner’s term there were two bottles of Jameson, from Rauner and Cullerton. That’s the kind of crowd it is during session: mixed, but not in a contentious way. As long as you don’t start filming. That’s another good reason it’s my nominee: it produced one of the stranger campaign stories.
* The 2018 Golden Horseshoe Award for best political restaurant goes to Augie’s Front Burner…
If you want to eat and talk I pick Augie’s. Great food, nice atmosphere, and a “How YOU doin’” or two.
* The 2018 Golden Horseshoe Award for best Statehouse-area bartender goes to Dennis at the Sangamo Club…
Might be one of the only bartenders in town that knows your name, drink and when you need another. Takes great care of those that have bizness to do.
* The 2018 Golden Horseshoe Award for best Statehouse-area wait staffer is Tony at the Sangamo Club…
He is retiring at the end of December after 35 years. He knows his customers and always brings me an iced tea when I sit down. Super friendly and all around wonderful person. If all wait staff modeled themselves on Tony they would be successful. Tony! Tony! Tony! I’ll miss him.
Congratulations to everyone.
* OK, let’s move along to today’s categories…
* Best House Secretary/Admin. Assistant/District Office Director
* Best Senate Secretary/Admin. Assistant/District Office Director
I’ve added district office director this year just to see if we get any nominations.
Please explain your nominations. Try to nominate in both categories if you can, but I will understand if you only or mostly deal with just one chamber. Thanks.
Jason Barickman is confident recreational marijuana use will be legal in Illinois in two years — but a lot of details remain undecided.
“It’s rather inevitable that Illinois will (act to) legalize cannabis next year,” said Barickman, a Republican state senator from Bloomington, “and I think it’s incredibly important that, if that be the case, we sit at the table and make sure it’s done in an appropriate way.”
Barickman hopes to let local areas opt out of legalizing marijuana; allow employers to impose zero-tolerance policies for use; direct some sales proceeds to law enforcement; and use revoking driver’s licenses as a deterrent for underage violators under a recreational marijuana law if passed.
The way that local opt-out part is written isn’t what’s actually being discussed, from what I’m told. Local communities will be allowed to opt out of siting dispensaries and grow centers. But if they don’t want those facilities in their areas they won’t qualify for any grants that will come out of legalization. Private use and possession will be legalized throughout the state. You just might have to travel to another town to purchase the products. That’s basically the same route the state took immediately after Prohibition. Those “blue laws” have faded over time.
It’s still somewhat up in the air, but regulated public use ought to be allowed, in my opinion. It should be treated more like alcohol. If you ban it in all public accommodations, people will smoke it in the street and then we’ll have another law enforcement problem. Plus, allowing regulated use in some public accommodations will create more business opportunities and, therefore, more jobs. We need more of both in this state, so let’s not get too nannyish over this.
According to the Illinois State Board of Education, in 2017 state funding comprised 24.4 percent of school funding, with 7.5 percent coming from the federal government, and the majority – 68.1 percent – coming from local sources.
There were 4,635,541 ballots cast this year with a registration of 8,099,372 for a statewide turnout of 57.23%. Turnout was up everywhere but it was highest in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/FcBC87Vjry
Pretty impressive across the board for an off-year election.
* The Republicans have a very real problem in the collars and 2020 isn’t going to be any better for them…
In the last two cycles we've had 8 statewide races. In the combined total of the 5 traditional collar counties (DuPage, Lake, Kane, McHenry & Will) the Democratic statewide candidate finished with more votes than the Republican statewide candidate in 7 of them. pic.twitter.com/qJExKnYKvj
Also, not to belabor the point, but GOP SoS candidate Jason Helland not only got smoked in the collars, he also lost his home county of Grundy, even though he’s the local state’s attorney. And as a commenter pointed out yesterday, he was the only statewide Republican candidate to lose Grundy. Gov. Rauner, Erika Harold, Darlene Senger and Jim Dodge all carried the county. President Trump won Grundy by 23 points two years ago.
The final vote totals for the Nov. 6 midterm elections released Monday by the Illinois State Board of Elections show that Democrats won 61 percent of the votes cast in U.S. House races in the state, yet they won 72 percent of the seats — 13 out of 18, instead of the 11 out of 18 that would have almost exactly reflected the Democrats’ share of the vote. […]
All 118 seats in the Illinois House of Representatives were up for election this year (as they are every two years) and Democrats won 62 percent of those seats with 59.8 percent of the overall popular vote. […]
In the Wisconsin midterm elections, Republicans won just 46 percent of the overall popular vote for the U.S. House, but 63 percent of the seats — 5 out of 8. The weekly Isthmus newspaper based in Madison reports that Democrats won 54 percent of the popular vote for Wisconsin State Assembly but, due to the Republican-friendly map, only 36 percent of the seats.
In the Ohio midterm elections, Republicans won 52 percent of the overall popular vote for the U.S. House, but 75 percent of the seats — 12 out of 16. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Republicans won 50 percent of the popular vote in state House elections, but 63 percent of the seats.
In the North Carolina midterm elections, Republicans won 50 percent of the overall popular vote for the U.S. House, but 77 percent of the seats — 10 out of 13 — though one apparent Republican victory has yet to be certified due to allegations of fraud. The Washington Post reports that North Carolina Democrats won 51 percent of the popular vote in state House elections, but just 45 percent of the seats.
Keep in mind that the Republicans hold two Illinois congressional seats which were originally drawn for Democrats (Mike Bost and Rodney Davis) and the Democrats picked up two this year in districts that were packed with Republican voters to keep them away from Democratic districts (Peter Roskam and Randy Hultgren).
Zorn’s conclusion is that Gov.-elect Pritzker should abandon his pledge to veto any map that isn’t a “fair” map until the federal government takes some action. I suppose I wouldn’t argue too strenuously about congressional maps because of the national situation, but state legislative maps need to be a lot more fairly drawn.
Cook County commissioners voted to appoint former colleague Edward Moody to serve as the recorder of deeds for the next two years before the office is folded into the county clerk’s operation in what’s been billed as a cost-saving measure.
Moody is a longtime political operative for Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan. The dissolution of the recorder’s office was spurred by a November 2016 referendum in which voters opted to merge the office with the clerk’s by the end of 2020. Karen Yarbrough was sworn in as clerk Monday after running to succeed David Orr, and Moody was appointed Tuesday to fill her vacancy.
With Moody as the new recorder and Yarbrough as the new clerk, Madigan allies are now in charge of streamlining the two offices and eliminating highly paid but duplicative administrative jobs. Yarbrough once served in the House under Madigan’s leadership and is currently vice chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party that Madigan leads.
The Moody brothers, Ed and Fred, are two of Madigan’s best captains. They could talk a dog out of a meat truck.
It didn’t take long for former Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios’ sister and one of his close friends to land new government jobs, though they did have to take a major pay cut.
Carmen Berrios and Victoria LaCalamita started work Monday with the Illinois secretary of state. That office is led by Jesse White, who cut a campaign radio ad for Berrios, the former chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party and an unabashed defender of old-school patronage politics.
The secretary of state’s office, which has around 3,700 jobs, has long been known as a patronage haven under both Democrats and Republicans. The two women will each make $37,992 a year as public service supervisors in the Vehicle Services Department, said Dave Druker, White’s spokesman.
Druker said the two were hired to fill open positions after going through an application process and were “graded based on experience and training.”
Both were making six figures at the assessor’s office, so it wasn’t all great.
Ed Burke has not yet officially landed on the feds’ “naughty” list, but Santa Claus himself joined over a thousand others bearing gifts Tuesday to support Chicago’s most powerful alderman despite the cloud of a federal investigation.
The St. Nick lookalike rode past the Sheraton Grand atop a firetruck bearing a sign declaring “I’m for Ald. Ed Burke,” as the Friends of Edward M. Burke showed themselves to be friends indeed.
They turned out in mass for Burke’s annual holiday fundraiser supporting one of his political committees, just five days after federal investigators raided the alderman’s City Hall and 14th Ward offices.
Hundreds arrived at the ritzy hotel more than a half hour early to wait in a long receiving line to demonstrate their support for Burke, who already has more than $12 million in the three campaign funds he controls.
* A little video…
Here it is: The "I'm For Ald. Ed Burke" Christmas fire truck with "Run Rudolph Run" blasting & Santa Claus waving, which drove past his annual holiday fundraiser tonight at the Sheraton.
* And, finally, if you click here you’ll see a Chicago Teachers’ Union notice that its executive board is recommending 13th Ward Alderman Marty Quinn for a formal endorsement by the union’s House of Delegates, which meets today. That’s Speaker Madigan’s ward and that’s the alderman whose brother is alleged to have sexually harassed a campaign worker in Madigan’s office. Ald. Quinn is known as “The General” in Madiganland.
The CTU’s executive committee is also recommending the endorsement of Toni Preckwinkle for mayor. Preckwinkle, as you know, chairs the Cook County Democratic Party.
