60-30-1
Wednesday, Oct 16, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Proponents of SB1852, the Sterigenics bill, described it as the toughest ethylene oxide regulation in the nation. Business groups claimed it was the toughest in the world. But the biz folks may have been blowing a bit of smoke…
Yet industry documents obtained by the Chicago Tribune show the state’s business community privately concluded the regulations are less stringent than they had feared.
Shortly after lawmakers close to the Pritzker administration unveiled their legislation during the spring, one of the state’s top business lobbyists assured colleagues it contained the “least concerning language to date,” according to notes from an April 30 meeting.
Donovan Griffith, director of governmental affairs at the Illinois Manufacturers Association, stressed that Pritzker and lawmakers had backed away from earlier versions fiercely opposed by business interests, according to a summary by another industry official at the meeting. Griffith’s presentation noted lawmakers had dropped plans to reconsider permits allowing companies to emit ethylene oxide. They also had scrapped what opponents considered “arbitrary emissions limits.”
The measure later approved unanimously by legislators and signed into law by Pritzker is largely identical to the draft Griffith described, a Tribune review found. Discovery of the lobbyist’s behind-the-scenes assessment comes as community groups demand a more aggressive response to elevated cancer risks faced by more than 67,000 Illinoisans living near facilities that use ethylene oxide.
Even so, the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association and the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois both registered in opposition to the final bill. The Environmental Law and Policy Center and the Illinois Environmental Council both filed witness slips in support.
Laws are never perfect and some are ridiculously weak. But bills won’t become laws without clearing two chambers and getting signed by the governor. And that means compromise.
With that being said, there’s an old saying about how there’s an inverse relationship to what a bill actually accomplishes and how many votes it gets. Bills with unanimous support often do little. That bill passed without a single dissenting vote.
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* WBEZ…
A downstate grand jury has issued at least two more subpoenas to government agencies in the criminal investigation into the state’s mishandling of deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks at an Illinois veterans’ home, WBEZ has learned.
The Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, which oversees the Quincy home, and the Adams County Health Department both received criminal subpoenas from the grand jury in August, signaling the probe which began a year ago is not only active, but also may be intensifying.
But Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office, which is investigating the outbreaks, asked a judge to order that the agencies keep the documents secret because their disclosure “would greatly impede the investigation.”
Downstate Adams County is where the state-run Quincy veterans’ home is located. That’s where 14 residents’ deaths and dozens of illnesses have been linked to multiple Legionnaires’ outbreaks since 2015.
The grand jury had previously subpoenaed the Illinois Department of Public Health.
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* Doug Finke on a new report on school funding…
Advance Illinois President Robin Steans said Illinois recently ranked 45th in the country for the amount of money the state spent per pupil on K-12 education.
“We fixed the formula and the state has been putting $350 million into the formula each of the last three years,” she said at a meeting at the City Club in Chicago. “That has bumped us up in a very short period of time to 24th in the country. That is a huge move in a very short period of time.” […]
The direct effect of that influx of money can be measured by the fact that before the formula was changed, 170 districts had less than 60 cents on the dollar of what they needed to adequately educate their students. Now the number has been cut to 34. […]
Despite progress on the funding front, the report underscored areas where education in Illinois is lagging. Steans said the state has a “significant” teacher shortage and the said the state ranks 45th in support for higher education when it ranked 19th just a decade ago. That creates affordability problems, which hurts enrollment.
The impasse just about killed off higher education in this state.
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* Tribune…
With the departure of former Gov. Bruce Rauner from the state’s political scene, the Illinois Republican Party is turning to grassroots fundraising to try to help make up for at least some of the loss of its biggest benefactor.
Tim Schneider, Rauner’s handpicked chairman of the state GOP, announced the formation of the “Lincoln Legion” with membership through recurring contributions ranging from $10 to $25 a month in exchange for “exclusive invites” to Republican events.
“For too long, ready and willing donors from the grassroots have been neglected,” Schneider said in an email to Republicans. “Not anymore. It’s time for a legion of patriotic Illinoisans to rise up and save our state.”
From the time Rauner announced his candidacy for governor in June 2014, he and his largely self-funded campaign directly gave the state GOP more than $36.8 million. That’s nearly two-thirds of the $58 million the state GOP collected over the same time period.
That story was published a couple of days ago. Since then, the ILGOP reported raising a little over $8,000 in individual contributions during the third quarter, including only $555 in small contributions. The party’s total quarterly take was just $36,405. Yeesh. It had $106,369.28 in the bank at the end of September.
By contrast, the Democratic Party of Illinois reported raising $334,030 in the third quarter and had $819,289 in the bank.
* Speaker Madigan’s campaign fund had over $7.1 million in the bank after raising a little over a million dollars in the bank. But his legal fees are still piling up. Madigan spent $360,582 on lawyers in the third quarter (ten times the amount the ILGOP reported raising during the same quarter, FWIW). He’s spent more than $814,000 on lawyers since the first of the year and almost $1.5 million since the first of 2018.
* Other money stuff…
* Freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Sean Casten builds up war chest of more than $1.4 million in advance of GOP challenge from Jeanne Ives: Federal Election Commission campaign reports showed Ives, who announced her candidacy in mid-July, raised $340,298 through September. After spending $117,500, she said she had about $222,796 on hand.
* With nearly $1.2 million in the bank, U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood has a healthy fundraising lead over potential Republican challengers: The top fundraiser among Republicans trying to win the right to challenge Underwood in November 2020 was state Sen. Jim Oberweis of Sugar Grove. Oberweis, unsuccessful in previous bids for Congress and the U.S. Senate, raised $329,493 and reported $551,578 in cash on hand. … Ted Gradel, an investor from Naperville who entered the contest in April, reported $496,000 in cash on hand to start October. Gradel raised nearly $264,000, including a $100,000 loan to his campaign. He had nearly $290,000 at the beginning of July and spent only $57,000 from July through October. Republican state Sen. Sue Rezin of Morris, who announced her candidacy for the GOP nomination in early July, reported raising more than $245,000 through September, including making a $100,000 loan to her campaign. She reported more than $226,000 to start October.
* Primary challenger Marie Newman outraises Rep. Dan Lipinski by nearly 2 to 1 in last quarter: Newman, seeking a primary rematch against Lipinski after losing her March 2018 bid against the Southwest Side and south suburban lawmaker by 2.2 percentage points, reported raising $351,326 in the three-month period. Lipinski reported raising $177,741. Still, the seven-term congressman from Western Springs held a slight advantage over Newman in terms of cash available to start October. Lipinski had $693,088 to Newman’s $514,237 in cash on hand. A third Democratic candidate, activist and former broadcaster Rush Darwish of Chicago, raised $272,779 in the three-month period including a $62,000 loan to his campaign. He reported $318,113 in cash on hand to start this month.
* In the 13th Congressional District, Congressman Rodney Davis reports $905,657 and Democratic primary challenger Betsy Dirksen Londrigan has $721,805.
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Two problems taken care of, several to go
Wednesday, Oct 16, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* One…
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s zoning rules for recreational marijuana sales in Chicago passed the City Council Wednesday morning in spite of concerns by African American aldermen that minorities won’t get a fair shake to get in on the lucrative business starting next year.
The zoning ordinance laying out where marijuana dispensaries would be allowed and prohibited throughout the city passed full City Council by a 40-10 vote.
This should never have been an issue in the first place. But, all’s well that ends well, I suppose.
The city council is a unicameral, officially non-partisan legislature and the mayor is the presiding officer. That’s one reason why mayors so often get their way. But it’s also why some mayors sometimes don’t quite fully get the far more complicated dynamics of the Illinois Statehouse, where there’s a bicameral legislature, each with two competing political parties and presiding officers who are not the governor.
* Two…
The Chicago Park District and its employees reached a tentative contract agreement, averting what would have been the first strike for workers and would have shuttered facilities across the city, according to union officials.
The agreement reached late Tuesday and made public Wednesday means hundreds of Park District employees will not walk off the job this week even if the Chicago Teachers Union and support staff for public schools decide to strike. The Service Employees International Union Local 73, which represents about 80% of Park District employees across the city, didn’t initially release details of the new contract.
That’ll be a big relief to parents if the CTU strikes.
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* Yesterday…
* Another legislator pulled in?…
The federal search warrant used at the Lyons village hall also showed the FBI’s interest in the Lyons Township Democratic Organization. The group’s leader is Steve Landek, who’s also the mayor of Bridgeview and a state senator. He did not return calls seeking comment.
…Adding… Tribune…
Meanwhile, Landek, chairman of the Democratic Organization of Lyons Township and also the mayor of Bridgeview, said Wednesday that federal authorities have not contacted him in his capacity as a legislator, mayor or local party leader.
* The Sun-Times took a look at the unredacted Lyons and McCook search warrants and compared them to the Sen. Martin Sandoval search warrant. This is only a tiny taste of the full story, so go read the whole thing…
The Lyons records, released Tuesday night, mention Buckle Down Brewery, the Drake Oak Brook Resort and the Democratic Organization of Lyons Township.
Getty is listed as the agent for The Drake Oak Brook Resort LLC, according to Illinois Secretary of State records. He also holds annual fundraisers at the resort. […]
The Sandoval and McCook records also mention Bill Helm, who until recently was a high-ranking Chicago Department of Aviation official at the center of a lawsuit accusing him and other officials of injecting politics into the workplace at O’Hare Airport.
The Lyons and Sandoval records mention John Harris, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s convicted one-time chief of staff, as well as the politically connected red-light camera company SafeSpeed, LLC. They also mention asphalt magnate Michael Vondra.
Documents in McCook and Lyons mention Presidio Capital, whose “principal office” appears to be a postal box at a Hinsdale UPS store. It’s a development company run by Burr Ridge resident Omar Maani that’s built affordable housing in Cicero and Summit using taxpayer money funneled through the county government.
Maani is a SafeSpeed investor. The Sun-Times has twice reported on rumors that he is cooperating with the feds.
* I wondered the same thing last week when I was looking into Krneta. Turns out, you can ask Google Maps to blur the image of your house…
* More on Krneta…
Among Krneta’s recent jobs was the 2018 renovation of the Alta Grill restaurant inside the McCook Athletic & Exposition Center facility, also known as The Max, records show.
Over the past decade, Krneta has donated tens of thousands of dollars to local politicians including Tobolski, Getty and state Senate President John Cullerton, campaign records show.
Krneta was convicted earlier this year of misdemeanor battery stemming from an incident at Tobolski’s August 2018 golf outing and fundraiser at the Gleneagles Country Club in Lemont, Cook County court records show.
A former manager at the Alta Grill accused Krneta of fondling her from behind and attempting to take her phone out of her back pocket, according to the court records. When she protested, Krneta allegedly grabbed the victim by the throat at the event and said, “I’m untouchable. I always get what I want,” the records show.
Quite the guy.
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* From my latest newspaper column…
The [governor’s local first responder pension consolidation task force] estimated the costs of these changes at between $14 million and $19 million a year over five years. The estimated investment gains from consolidation are between $164 million and $500 million per year over five years.
But this is Illinois, and if I’ve learned anything in this job, it’s that estimated costs are almost always too low and estimated returns are almost always too high. I’ll believe those projections when I see them.
* Amanda Kass dug into the task force report and found it was a pretty light on details. As always when it comes to this particular Kass, you should read the whole thing. But here’s part of one section…
Consolidating assets has implications for actuarial assumptions, and assumptions play a vital role in determining a pension fund’s finances and municipalities’ annual payments. According to the Task Force, one of the benefits of consolidation is that it would, “Enhance uniformity in setting investment and other actuarial assumptions.” The report is thin on details about this aspect of consolidation, and it’s important to learn more about it to understand how municipalities will be impacted in both the short-term and long-term.
In determining the long-term finances of the pension systems, actuaries use an investment rate assumption. Right now each of the 600+ public safety funds have their own investment rate assumption, and the assumption rates vary from around 5% up to 8%. Moving to a single investment rate assumption will mean some funds’ assumptions will be lowered, while others will be increased.
Changing the investment rate assumption has an immediate and direct impact on unfunded liabilities. Increasing the assumption will decrease unfunded liabilities, while reducing the assumption increases unfunded liabilities. The Chicago Tribune highlighted that the biggest driver behind increases in Chicago’s unfunded pension liabilities in recent years has been actuarial assumption changes. Since municipalities’ annual pension payments are linked to the unfunded liabilities reducing the investment rate assumption increases the required contribution (and vice-versa). When the Teachers’ Retirement System lowered its investment rate assumption the state’s required pension contribution for one year increased by hundreds of millions of dollars. Lowering the investment rate assumption a quarter of a percentage point (from 6.75% to 6.5%) was estimated to increase municipalities’ contributions for representative public safety funds by between 16% and 22%
* There’s also this…
One issue is that there are transition costs to consolidating the assets. While the report acknowledges transition costs, no estimate was included. A 2012 report also evaluated the possibility of consolidating the public safety funds’ assets. That report discusses transition costs, and includes more detailed cost and saving estimates. Importantly, transition costs are immediate expenses, while savings occur over the long term. The analysis from 2012 found that under the most likely scenario, “it would take 11 years to break even and begin realizing any cost savings in excess of transition costs” from consolidating the assets of all public safety pension funds.
That 2012 report is here.
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* From the recent blockbuster Tribune story on video gaming magnate Rick Heidner…
In 2012, the Gaming Board granted Heidner’s Gold Rush a license to operate video gambling machines. Two board members recently told the Tribune that Heidner’s ties to the Suspenzis would have been an obvious red flag, but they had no recollection of being informed of the real estate deals by the agency’s investigators.
“If that was brought to the board’s attention, it would have been a definite no,” said Maribeth Vander Weele, who served on the Gaming Board when Gold Rush’s license was approved without dissent.
“It certainly would have been a big factor,” said former Judge Aaron Jaffe, who was Gaming Board chairman at the time. “But I don’t recall hearing anything like that.”
Heidner had hoped to become a racino owner, but the Tribune story and Gov. Pritzker’s decision not to sell state land to make it happen put the kibosh on the whole thing.
* Heidner’s testimony to the Racing Board yesterday disputed that the Gaming Board was in the dark about his business ties…
He also swore that the Gaming Board knew of his relationships with Parkway Bank Chairman Rocco Suspenzi and convicted felon Dominic Buttitta, and had no problem with the ties when it awarded him a video gambling license in 2012. Heidner also acknowledged that he remains in business with the people “in question.”
“My video gaming license was approved (in 2012) after a 24-month intensive investigation. All my business relationships were disclosed to investigators, and the relationships in question were explicitly discussed with multiple (Illinois Gaming Board) agents and investigators. As these business relationships were ongoing, they had been disclosed and further discussed at each annual review of my licenses over the last seven years,” Heidner testified. “I have no affiliation with the mafia at all.”
What investigators knew about Heidner at the time remains secret because Illinois gambling statutes exempt gaming license applications from open records laws.
This can be resolved by opening up Heidner’s Gaming Board file. Let’s see who’s telling the truth.
To be clear, I’m not saying at all that Heidner should get a pass on the racino or on his video gaming license renewal that comes up next year. But if what he told the Racing Board yesterday was accurate, then some former Gaming Board members and perhaps some current board employees need to be held accountable.
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* Crain’s on yesterday’s abrupt retirement of Exelon Utilities CEO Anne Pramaggiore…
A Sept. 23 federal search warrant identified, but did not name, four separate Exelon officials in a request for items “related to” them “and/or any issue supported by any of those businesses or individuals, including but not limited to rate increases.”
Exelon and ComEd disclosed Oct. 9 that they were a focus of the Sandoval probe and that Exelon had established a special committee made up of independent directors to oversee compliance with the federal investigation. Two days later, the search warrant was made public.
A short time before, on Oct. 4, ComEd disclosed in a Securities & Exchange Commission filing that Fidel Marquez, senior vice president at ComEd in charge of government affairs, had retired Oct. 2.
The terse wording in Exelon’s press release didn’t give a reason for Pramaggiore’s retirement. A spokesman declined to comment on whether it had anything to do with the probe.
The official retirement date for Marquez may have been October 2, but word has been going around for a while that he left weeks ago. His Statehouse lobbying credentials were canceled on September 30th.
* Tribune…
In addition, the Illinois Senate was served with a search warrant late last month. The lengthy list of things authorities searched for included “items related to ComEd, Exelon, any employee, officer or representative of any of those businesses, Exelon Official A, Exelon Official B, Exelon Official C, Exelon Official D, and/or any issue supported by any of those businesses or individuals, including, but not limited to, rate increases.”
A source with knowledge of the investigation told the Tribune that Pramaggiore is one focus of the ongoing federal probe.
On Tuesday, Pramaggiore declined an interview request through a spokesman at a crisis communications firm. ComEd spokeswoman Jean Medina said she could not comment about Pramaggiore’s retirement beyond what was in a news release.
Pramaggiore was no bit player…
She is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and serves on the Board of Directors for Motorola Solutions, Inc., Babcock and Wilcox Enterprises, the National Safety Council, and several civic and community organizations.
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A missed opportunity
Wednesday, Oct 16, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The mayor has to stop doing this…
Political insiders say Gov. J.B. Pritzker was completely blindsided by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s new proposal for a publicly-owned city and state Chicago casino and first read details of her plan in the newspaper.
“This strikes me as a uniquely amateur view of how governing functions,” one insider said.
I mean, doesn’t she already have enough on her plate? The CTU is about to strike, which is going to really complicate her relationships with elected Democrats. The Black Caucus is threatening to hold up the city’s legalized cannabis rollout. She has to unveil and then pass a very difficult budget soon.
I’m pretty sure the governor and his team want to be an ally. And yet, this stuff keeps happening.
* More…
State Sen. Terry Link, a key sponsor of the gambling bill, said he warned the mayor this fall during negotiations that the governor was not on board with a city-and-state-owned Chicago casino.
“I told them, ‘The governor is still opposed, so why do you keep bringing this in? Let’s focus on some different ways that we are working on. Let’s focus on that.’ And now the mayor comes out and makes this statement,” Link said. “I can’t figure it out.”
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Oct 15, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sun-Times…
Federal agents wanted to know more about heating and air conditioning at the home of Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski when they swept through the southwest suburbs late last month.
That’s according to a set of search warrant documents released Tuesday without redactions by the Village of McCook, where Tobolski doubles as mayor.
McCook previously released heavily redacted versions of the documents, which revealed the feds had targeted Tobolski’s mayoral office. The redacted documents also indicated federal interest in anything related heating and air conditioning at a residence.
However, the village’s previous redactions hid the fact that it was the mayor’s home that was in question.
* More…
Heating and air conditioning work at Tobolsky’s house and the mention of a “place of adult entertainment.”
* The Question: Your thoughts on where this is all going?
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* This is very sudden…
Exelon Corporation (Nasdaq: EXC) today announced that it has appointed Calvin G. Butler Jr., CEO of Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (“BGE”), as Interim CEO of Exelon Utilities, effective immediately.
This appointment follows the retirement of Anne Pramaggiore, Senior Executive Vice President and CEO of Exelon Utilities, which is also effective immediately. Mr. Butler will continue to serve as CEO of BGE. The CEOs of Exelon’s other utilities – Joseph Dominguez, CEO of ComEd, Michael A. Innocenzo, CEO of PECO, and David M. Velazquez, CEO of Pepco Holdings – will report to Mr. Butler.
In addition, Exelon Utility CEO staff heads Val Jensen, Carim Khouzami and Mike Kormos will also report to Mr. Butler moving forward.
Pramaggiore is a former ComEd CEO who was promoted just last year to the $5.9 million job. She had been with ComEd since 1998, and was promoted to COO of the company in 2009.
Exelon, of course, has twice admitted to being subpoenaed by the feds and the company recently brought in some outsiders to oversee “cooperation and compliance with the subpoena.”
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* From the governor’s campaign…
Attached are the state and federal tax return summaries for JB and MK Pritzker for 2018.
In 2018, JB and MK Pritzker paid federal taxes at a rate of 33.99%.
JB and MK Pritzker made $464,000 in personal charitable donations last year.
According to the information provided by the trustees, in 2018, trusts benefitting JB Pritzker paid an additional $5.3 million in Illinois taxes at a rate of 6.45% and $29 million in federal taxes.
With the Fair Tax in place, JB and MK Pritzker and trusts benefitting JB Pritzker would have paid $8.3 million in Illinois taxes, an additional $2.8 million over what was due this year.
Click here for the returns.
He didn’t include the tax returns for the trusts.
I asked about the $1.8+ million “subtraction” to their state taxable income, which is supposedly on a “Schedule M” that wasn’t included. I was told by a spokesperson that this is “federal taxable income from other states that is deductible in Illinois.” He’s apparently done this on previous returns.
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* In These Times…
A standoff at the bargaining table over the Chicago Teachers Union’s (CTU) package of housing demands dominated the city’s news cycle last week. The union is asking Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to provide housing assistance for new teachers, hire staff members to help students and families in danger of losing housing, and take other steps to advocate for more affordable housing overall in the city. […]
Housing advocates agree. “The mayor’s view reflects a very narrow understanding of the professional responsibilities of public school educators,” says Marnie Brady, assistant professor at Marymount Manhattan College and research committee co-chair of the national Homes For All campaign. “The living conditions of their students are indeed the working conditions of their classrooms.”
By raising an issue that affects not only teachers, but the communities they live and work in, CTU is deploying a strategy known as “bargaining for the common good.” That approach was key to the union’s victory in its landmark 2012 walkout, but a potential strike of 35,000 school and parks workers this week is shaping up to be an even more dramatic test.
On some levels, I can understand that position.
* But I cannot understand this on any level…
The Chicago Teachers Union failed to participate in a major study aimed at protecting students from sexual violence, according to the study and its authors.
Consultant Maggie Hickey, a former federal prosecutor hired last year to help Chicago Public Schools revamp its Office of Student Protections and Title IX, wrote in a Sept. 26 report that she tried repeatedly to seek the input of CTU President Jesse Sharkey but received no cooperation.
“The Chicago Teachers Union President is the only person we contacted who failed to respond to our inquiries. We made multiple attempts to contact him by phone, by email, and through his assistant and office, during both our preliminary and follow-up evaluations,” Hickey wrote in a footnote to her 134-page report.
CTU spokeswoman Chris Geovanis said the union searched its archives Friday afternoon and found two of the emails from Hickey and her team — but said they had been diverted to a junk email folder and were never read.
* Um, this isn’t the first time that the CTU claimed emails from Hickey wound up in spam. This is from an interview last year after Hickey released a preliminary report…
In Maggie Hickey’s preliminary report (which examines the district’s handling of sexual misconduct cases), she goes so far as to write in the footnotes that you didn’t call her back. Do you agree with the observation that the union has been absent in the discussions about what to do?
I’m super annoyed about that. She emailed me, the email went to my spam folder, I happened not to see it. I’m not that hard to get in touch with – you can call my assistant, our front desk, our press office. There are a lot of ways to get in touch with me.
The CTU knew Hickey was looking into this. CTU leadership knew Hickey was having trouble reaching them via email and by phone more than a year ago. Why weren’t top officials reaching out to her to help with the investigation? Some students were raped, for crying out loud, and yet the CTU just sat back for over a year and throughout the entire process of writing two reports?
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Stabilize the system first
Tuesday, Oct 15, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Crain’s…
Student enrollment at Illinois public universities is down again this year, but state budget outlays for the 11 schools is up.
OK, stop right there. Illinois is currently spending about $200 million less on higher education than it did before the impasse. And it’s spending about half what it did in Fiscal Year 2000. Year-over-year budgeting numbers are only relevant if that’s been the general trend. Annual funding increases have most definitely not been a trend for two decades.
* Back to the piece…
“There is plenty of evidence that we need to be doing something differently, and we can’t continue to do the same thing with the limited resources we have and expect different results,” says Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a Chicago nonprofit, nonpartisan government watchdog. […]
Nyle Robinson, interim executive director at the Illinois Board of Higher Education, says there’s a “master plan” in place and points to the June 2009 “Illinois Public Agenda for College and Career Success” issued under former Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. Still, he notes that a mainly new board is “starting the process of developing a new master plan” that he expects will take a year.
The 2009 report makes no mention of the Illinois net outflow of college-bound students that has been picking up momentum since 2011. Back in 2002, 29 percent of Illinois high school graduates left the state to go to four-year colleges, but by 2017, the most recent year for which the board published data, the percentage jumped to 48 percent, with nearly half of Illinois students exiting the state.
And it’s no wonder why they exited. We as a state allowed our campuses to slowly deteriorate and then the impasse came along and… Whammo.
Important history cannot be ignored.
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* Click here for background. Tribune…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has put the brakes on a proposed racetrack and casino, telling Tinley Park officials he won’t sell them the state-owned land where the gambling emporium was supposed to be built.
The Pritzker administration’s Tuesday letter to the southwest suburb comes days after a Chicago Tribune investigation revealed that the major video gambling operator pushing the so-called racino has long-standing business ties to a banking family whose financial involvement with mob figures helped sink a Rosemont casino nearly 20 years ago.
Gold Rush Gaming owner Rick Heidner has partnered in numerous real estate deals with Rocco Suspenzi, chairman of the board at Parkway Bank and Trust. Together, they have borrowed millions from the bank in deals for convenience stores and gas stations in several states. […]
On Friday, Heidner’s name surfaced in a federal search warrant executed at Democratic state Sen. Martin Sandoval’s Capitol office last month. Information related to Heidner and Gold Rush was on FBI agents’ lengthy list.
The administration’s letter is here.
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Not sure if there’s any actual “there” there
Tuesday, Oct 15, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WCIA TV…
When FBI agents raided the offices of State Senator Martin Sandoval (D-Cicero) last month, one of the companies in their crosshairs was Bluff City Materials and its owner, the ‘Asphalt King’ Mike Vondra, according to a now-unredacted search warrant recently released by the state Senate.
Among other clout-heavy gambling companies and energy lobbyists named in the warrant, Bluff City Materials, an asphalt company located in suburban Bartlett, was still seeking political influence in the statehouse as recently as ten days ago.
Even after WBEZ reported federal agents raided the headquarters of Bluff City Materials, the company gave a $5,000 campaign contribution to state Senator Dave Koehler, a Peoria Democrat who sits on the Transportation Committee.
“They donate every year,” Koehler said on Sunday. “They’re a sponsor of my golf outing every year.”
That annual contribution claim checks out. Every year going back to 2013.
* GateHouse…
“If there’s anything found where they’re in any kind of violation, it’s going right to charity,” Koehler said in a phone interview Tuesday morning. ”… We’re not going to fool around with it.”
Vondra is well connected in the asphalt and construction business, and both he and his Bartlett company have donated to both Democrats and Republicans over the years. Koehler said in this case the funds were given as a sponsorship for his annual golf outing on Aug. 12.
Koehler, who serves on the Senate Transportation Committee, also has supported legislation backed by Vondra’s business about the recycling of asphalt shingles, a prospect Koehler has said is more environmentally friendly than throwing them away.
Bluff City Materials’ donation to Koehler this year was its largest this decade, dwarfing $1,250 donations in 2018, 2017 and 2014; $2,500 donations in 2016 and 2015; and $250 in 2013, according to records with the Illinois State Board of Elections.
Something not mentioned in either story which is crucially important for context is that Vondra’s recycled asphalt shingles business has a plant in Peoria that’s within Koehler’s Senate district. That’s likely one reason why Koehler has been a big recycled asphalt shingles supporter. As we’ve already discussed, Vondra dominates the RAS industry in Illinois.
It’s pretty common for businesses in somebody’s legislative district, particularly in politically active businesses like asphalt, to contribute to that legislator’s campaign, particularly when said legislator has been a strong supporter of said business. And, unlike Sandoval, Koehler has a pretty sterling reputation around the Statehouse. He’s also received checks of that size or higher from more than 100 contributors during his tenure. It’s not like it was a huge standout dealio or something.
All that being said, this is Illinois, so who the heck really knows for sure anymore. His campaign committee had almost $159K in the bank at the end of the quarter, so he can easily afford to donate that Vondra money to charity.
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A little good news for a change
Tuesday, Oct 15, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WEEK TV…
We are about a year away from seeing [electric] vehicles on the road in Normal and industry leaders at Rivian Automotive say people should be excited for more jobs.
The future is now, or at least right around the corner for Rivian. On Sunday, residents got to see the pickup and SUV models with a glimpse of what’s to come with the company’s skateboard technology.
This was the first time the public and Governor JB Pritzker saw the models up close. Pritzker believes Rivian will boost our local economy.
“I’m thrilled though also for the people of Normal and for Illinois that we have manufacturing that is reviving in our state,” said Pritzker. “This is advanced manufacturing with an advanced vehicle that’s the leader in the world.”
* Center Square…
“I got to say I said ‘when can I get one, when is it going to be on retail so that some of us can go drive one?’ so I find out that maybe we are going to see them by the end of next year for consumption,” Pritzker said. “I’m really excited.”
* WJBC…
Company spokesperson Amy Mast said 139 Rivian employees are now working at the Twin-Cities plant. Within 18 months, she said the workforce will increase to 700 to 1,000.
* Pantagraph…
“There’s some changes we’re seeing on the outside, but what’s really happening is what’s on the inside of the facility. We’re bringing new equipment in. We’re making changes to the layout of the plant, the lines,” said [RJ Scaringe, CEO of Rivian Automotive]. “Once that’s set up, we’ll really start to ramp up, and that involves a lot of hiring. … As the facility starts to get into full-line production, we’re talking about thousands of jobs.”
* WGLT…
They’ve spent months demolishing the old equipment that Mitsubishi used to build cars, re-engineering and re-tooling the plant to make room for larger trucks, SUVs, and the 100,000 Amazon delivery vans that Rivian will produce, [Matt Tall, vice president of manufacturing at Rivian] said. Rivian’s batteries will also be made in Normal, and that equipment will start to be installed in December or January, he said.
“Obviously building 100,000 Amazon vehicles brings a different dynamic because of the size,” Tall said. “The sheer size is significantly larger than trucks, so you have to upsize everything in paint as well as through the body shop. But we’ll have a careful plan and be ready.”
Hiring is going “reasonably well,” Tall said.
Several jobs in Normal are now posted on Rivian’s website, including maintenance technician, battery manufacturing engineer, facilities engineer, packaging engineer, and quality assurance engineer. Among the most important jobs are the 500 to 600 team members who will be doing assembly work, said Tall, who most recently was building Mercedes Benz vehicles in Indiana.
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* Mark Brown…
A search warrant of [Sen. Martin Sandoval’s] Springfield office made public Friday shows federal investigators appear to be looking into at least 10 distinct alleged schemes involving the newly resigned chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.
Red-light cameras, video gambling, road contracts, family businesses, real estate developments and the state’s largest public utility are all caught up in some way in Sandoval’s suspected mischief.
Not to mention several local governments, a member of the tollway board, IDOT, a trucking company, a “Countryside cigar lounge” and a body shop…
Also named in the warrant were Sebastian Jachymiak and Technicraft Collision Repair Experts, a body shop in Justice. Jachymiak, who is one of the managers of the company, according to a filing with the Secretary of State’s office, did not return a call to Technicraft seeking comment.
Technicraft has contributed more than $100,000 to political candidates and organizations since 2007, including Getty, who received $12,900, according to state Board of Elections records. Technicraft has also contributed $14,525 to Tobolski and $3,600 to Sandoval.
The body shop’s website is here.
* Back to Brown…
For Sandoval, the most troubling name on the search warrant may be Monarca Inc. That’s a company listing his wife Marina as the president.
I don’t know what Mrs. Sandoval’s company does, or how it might be mixed up in this. This is the first we’d heard of it.
But I can tell you when politicians put their family members in harm’s way through their own monkey business, federal authorities have a pressure point that can result in submission faster than any mixed martial arts hold.
Yep.
Boom.
* Rick Heidner isn’t the only video gaming exec named in the search warrant…
Mentioned with Heidner is Joe Elias, who runs about a dozen video gambling parlors around the state, all carrying Heidner’s gambling machines. Elias could not be reached for comment.
* I told you about this last week…
There is also a reference in the warrant to specific legislation, House Bill 173.
A measure from 2017 with the same bill number would have outlawed red-light cameras. The legislation passed the House overwhelmingly, but stalled in the Senate, at one point showing up in the Sandoval-led Senate Transportation Committee.
The bill is here.
…Adding… More on the bill history…
It was sent to the Senate Executive Committee and relegated to a subcommittee chaired by state Sen. Antonio Munoz, D-Chicago, a long-time ally of Sandoval’s and fellow member of the Hispanic Democratic Organization.
The Senate sponsors, after seeing the bill put into a subcommittee and not voted on, tried to amend the bill into a study “evaluating automated traffic law enforcement systems in this (s)tate.”
After being sent back to the catch-all Assignments Committee, the bill then was sent to the Transportation Committee, which was chaired by Sandoval, on May 13, 2016.
On May 24, 2016, Sandoval directed the amended bill to the Subcommittee on Special Issues, which had no members.
* Daily Herald…
Just months after joining the Illinois tollway, Director Cesar Santoy resigned Friday after his name surfaced in an FBI investigation involving Sen. Martin Sandoval, the chairman of the state Senate Transportation Committee. […]
Santoy, an architect and Berwyn alderman, was appointed by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker in February amid an ethics reform push at the agency. The previous board was ousted by the General Assembly in January following Daily Herald reports of nepotism and patronage involving contracts and hiring. […]
In addition, investigators sought items related to Behnke Materials Engineering and to Michael Vondra and his company Bluff City Materials. Both businesses are tollway subcontractors.
Tollway officials said the agency “has not received a subpoena for any records related to this investigation. We use a competitive bid process for construction contracts and bid results are reported on the tollway’s website as part of our commitment to transparency.”
* And, of course, there’s this…
As we’ve discussed before, “CW” is often fed-speak for “Cooperating Witness.” The redacted McCook search warrant listed a “CW1″ and a “CW2.”
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* I went over this topic with subscribers earlier this morning. Turns out, the Sun-Times also had much the same information…
Mayor Lori Lightfoot wants the Illinois General Assembly to reduce the effective tax rate on a Chicago casino to 45 percent, have the city and state “own the license” and authorize a graduated transfer tax that would apply to commercial real estate sales.
The mayor floated those plans during a private meeting over the weekend with members of the Chicago delegation. […]
“The casino [plan] proposed to have the city and the state own the license and the casino be operated by a private vendor. That’s a difference. We’ll have to see how people feel about that issue. I can’t predict how people will react,” [Illinois House Majority Leader Greg Harris (D-Chicago)] said Monday. […]
Lightfoot’s decision to take on the concept of city and state ownership — amid a burgeoning corruption scandal that has spread from Chicago and the south suburbs to Springfield — comes as a bit of a surprise. Many expected her to keep a complicated subject simple and confine her request to the tax structure.
*** UPDATE *** Greg Hinz…
Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, is the chief sponsor of the bill approved in the spring that authorized new casinos in Chicago and other locations. He told me he potentially could vote for Lightfoot’s plan, but doubts most of his colleagues or Pritzker will go along.
“This idea is not new. This was floated in the spring. The governor was adamantly opposed,” Link said. “He told me that he did not want city ownership in any regard.” Asked if the votes are there to win approval in the fall veto session that begins Oct. 28, Link replied, “I don’t think so. I don’t think a single Republican would vote for that.”
I tried to reach Link yesterday, but was unsuccessful. Drat.
* From the governor’s office…
After the casino feasibility study was released in mid-August, the Governor was willing to give the new city administration time to develop alternative proposals for the Chicago casino. We understand that a number of lawmakers now have been briefed on these proposals, and we look forward to reviewing them after we are briefed on the details of the proposals. The Governor remains open to a number of approaches for making the Chicago casino successful, but with regard to public ownership, our administration would need to ensure that the challenges of public ownership are fully understood and addressed.
* Back to Greg…
That [”after we are briefed on the details of the proposals”] remark points to another unusual aspect of Team Lightfoot’s handling of this matter. In normal Springfield etiquette, mayors brief all the major players, including the governor, before walking back-bench lawmakers through a proposal. In Lightfoot’s case, she briefed Chicago lawmakers and, separately, Senate President John Cullerton but not Pritzker, though I’m told the mayor has had some preliminary conversations with the governor.
Yep. There’s definitely tension between the two offices.
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* CBS 2…
Illinois drivers have forked over an astounding $1 billion in red light camera fines in the past 10 years, according to a new study, and now some lawmakers in Springfield are reviving a push to ban red light cameras. […]
A ban would leave Chicago and many suburbs with significant budget holes. For example, in west suburban Oakbrook Terrace, a peek at finances shows a 2000% increase in fines collected the year red light cameras were installed at the intersection of Route 83 and 22nd Street. […]
The two cameras in Oakbrook Terrace raked in $5.4 million in one fiscal year. That’s 54,000 drivers zapped at one intersection, an average of more than 147 a day. […]
Chicago is the biggest beneficiary from red light cameras in Illinois, taking in $56 million in fines last year alone.
The Illinois Policy Institute study is here…
The annual haul from red-light camera tickets statewide has more than doubled over the decade, with local governments collecting more than $113.2 million in 2018 compared with $53.5 million in 2008.
Red-light camera revenue outside Chicago city limits drove almost all of that increase, with $56.6 million generated in 2018 compared with $5.4 million in 2008. […]
Although the number of cameras statewide has remained relatively flat since 2010, each camera on average is generating more revenue than ever. Revenue per camera in 2018 was more than $185,600, compared with less than $150,000 in 2014, when the number of red-light cameras in Illinois was at its highest.
* Here’s more on Oakbrook Terrace…
Oakbrook Terrace obtained its cameras after state Sen. Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago, lobbied the Illinois Department of Transportation, or IDOT, to allow SafeSpeed to operate cameras in the city, even though the need for a camera had dropped significantly, according to a 2017 Chicago Tribune report.
IDOT had previously rejected red-light camera requests from Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Tony Ragucci, for whom SafeSpeed has long been a top political donor. But the agency repeatedly found the intersections to be sufficiently safe. IDOT reversed its denial and approved the camera installations at Sandoval’s request, two months after the senator received a political contribution from SafeSpeed.
A year after IDOT reversed its decision on the Oakbrook Terrace cameras, Sandoval received the largest political donation in SafeSpeed’s history, $10,000. SafeSpeed investor Omar Maani gave Sandoval $5,000 around the same time, according to the Tribune, on top of a $10,000 contribution from SafeSpeed parent company Triad Consulting, where Maani is a principal.
SafeSpeed is mentioned in the federal search warrant delivered to Sen. Sandoval’s Statehouse office. Maani was reportedly the subject of federal investigators’ questioning of Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski’s chief of staff.
* That Tribune report is here…
In its 2015 application, Safespeed’s latest study cited half the violations as the 2013 one. Yet the suburb and Safespeed had something else that year: endorsements from lawmakers who received campaign cash from Safespeed.
One was from Sen. Tom Cullerton, D-Villa Park, who by 2015 had received $3,000 from firms tied to Safespeed’s owner.
He wrote a letter to John Fortmann — the top local IDOT official at the time — to “introduce” Fortmann to Safespeed and ask IDOT to approve the application. The need for such an introduction is unclear because, by then, Fortmann’s office for years had been working with Safespeed.
Records show another appeal came the very day the 2015 application was submitted to IDOT, from a more powerful senator: Martin Sandoval, D-Cicero.
Oakbrook Terrace is in Tom Cullerton’s district. Sen. Cullerton was indicted earlier this year on several federal counts. Something most haven’t noted yet is that his August 2019 indictment was issued by “The Special December 2017 Grand Jury.”
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* As we discussed Friday, video gaming magnate and potential racino owner Rick Heidner was mentioned in the federal warrant served on Sen. Martin Sandoval’s Statehouse office.
Well, the Tribune had apparently been looking into Heidner for some time and published this story online Friday night…
A major video gambling operator who is asking the state for permission to build a southwest suburban horse track and casino has long-standing business ties to a banking family whose financial involvement with mob figures helped sink a Rosemont casino, the Tribune has found.
Gold Rush Gaming owner Rick Heidner has partnered in numerous real estate deals with Rocco Suspenzi, chairman of the board at Parkway Bank and Trust. Together, they have borrowed millions from the bank in deals for convenience stores and gas stations in several states. […]
The Tribune also found that Heidner has a similar real estate partnership with Dominic Buttitta, who pleaded guilty to running an illegal bookmaking operation and skimming money from his South Elgin strip club between 2005 to 2009.
* The Illinois Gaming Board gave Heidner a video gaming license in 2012. Apparently, its vaunted investigatory staff didn’t do some basic online searches…
The Tribune found the business, financial and legal connections between Heidner and the Suspenzis, as well as Buttitta, in public land, court and business registration records. Nearly all of the documents were available from online databases maintained by government agencies across the country.
If you haven’t yet, you really should go read the whole thing. Fascinating stuff.
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* ABC 7…
Just days before Chicago Public Schools teachers could walk off the job, a new ABC7/Chicago Sun-Times poll shows nearly half of the people surveyed support a strike.
The survey found 49% of voters either strongly or somewhat support a walkout, while 38% are opposed. […]
“Most people don’t want strikes in general,” said ABC7 political analyst Laura Washington, “The union has done a very good job in making their case. They’ve got a number of other public unions that are supporting them.”
* Sun-Times…
The survey was done Friday and Saturday with automated telephone interviews of 618 Chicago voters.
The poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points, offers a lens into the public relations war that has been waged in recent weeks by the city and Chicago Teachers Union to win the hearts and minds of city taxpayers and CPS parents. Winning public support is paramount as negotiations come to a head and pressure mounts on the two sides to work out an agreement. […]
CPS parents, who made up a quarter of the voters polled, were more likely to support a strike – and to blame Lightfoot for the ordeal. More than half supported a strike and nearly one in five parents placed responsibility personally on the mayor. […]
The freshman mayor’s approval rating stands at 54%, with 15% expressing disapproval. Almost a third of voters say they’re not sure what to think of Lightfoot’s performance. […]
A few months before the 2012 teachers’ strike, Emanuel’s job approval rating stood at 52% with 29% disapproving, according to a Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll.
…Adding… Some commenters have asked about support for the 2012 CTU strike. This poll was taken after the teachers walked out…
Conducted by We Ask America, the poll of 1,344 voting Chicago households asked, “In general, do you approve or disapprove of the Chicago Teachers Union’s decision to go on strike?” 55.5 percent said they approved and 40 percent disapproved. Another 4 percent had no opinion. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percent,” according to Rich Miller, the report’s publisher.
From that day’s Capitol Fax…
Asked who they thought was “most to blame” for the strike, just over 34 percent pointed their finger at Mayor Rahm Emanuel, while 29 percent blamed the Chicago Teachers Union and 19 percent blamed the school board. In other words, a solid majority blames management, one way or the other.
Whites blamed the union more than the full sample, at 41 percent. People without school-age children blamed the union a bit more than the full sample, 31 percent. And 39 percent of those with children in private schools blamed the union.
But almost a majority, 48 percent, of Latinos blamed Mayor Emanuel, as did 33 percent of African-Americans, 42 percent of parents of public school children and 40 percent of parents of school-age children. All age brackets except those aged 55-64 blamed Emanuel the most, with 50 percent of 18-24 year olds pointing their finger at hizzoner, as well as 41 percent of 35-44 year olds.
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* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
One of the provisions of the sweeping state pension reform law passed in 2010 has always stuck in the craw of first responders.
Police and (especially) firefighter unions fought the local government lobby for decades to increase survivor benefits, and then they watched many of those hard-fought wins get wiped away when the General Assembly decided it had to lower pension benefits for new hires to avoid a fiscal catastrophe.
The reforms produced a system known as “Tier 2,” as opposed to the more generous pre-existing system, which is known as “Tier 1.”
One of the changes eliminated survivor benefits if the first responder was killed on duty during the first 10 years of service. Previously, survivors had been entitled to 54 percent of final average salary, no matter how long they’d worked. But, with Tier 2, if that dead cop or firefighter wasn’t yet entitled to a pension, the survivor received nothing.
So, one of the ways the governor’s pension consolidation task force apparently helped convince the firefighters union to go along with the merger of the state’s 600+ local first responder pension fund assets was to change the survivor benefit back to its original Tier 1 level. The cost to the funds is relatively minimal, but the peace of mind it gives first responders is probably priceless.
The police unions are not on board, but the Associated Firefighters of Illinois has infinitely more political strength than the coppers. They raise a lot of money and their members walk a ton of precincts. The police union members do neither, as a general rule. It’s very tough to beat the firefighters (except in 2010 when every public employee union took it in the ear), but it’s a lot easier to pass a bill that the firefighters union supports.
The pension consolidation report, issued last week, also recommended tweaking the annual Tier 2 pension benefit increase to bring it into line with federal laws on Social Security. Pension benefits are not allowed to be less than what a pensioner would receive in the Social Security program.
The current Tier 2 system was deliberately constructed to subsidize the Tier 1 system — in other words, it’s designed to bring in more than it will pay out. One of Springfield’s biggest expensive secrets is that Tier 2 will eventually have to be revised to align it with federal law. And that could come in a little more than a year, when some employees will have put in 10 years of work and will therefore be vested and have standing to sue.
The Tier 2 annual benefit increase is currently set at half the Consumer Price Index increase or 3 percent, whichever is lower. The task force recommended changing that to the full yearly Consumer Price Index increase or 3 percent, whichever is lower.
The pension fund consolidation task force also recommended changing the pension calculation from the current average of the highest eight of the last 10 years of service to the average of four of the last five years because first responders’ “years of service tend to be more abbreviated than other public-sector occupations,” the report claims.
The task force estimated the costs of these changes at between $14 million and $19 million a year over five years. The estimated investment gains from consolidation are between $164 million and $500 million per year over five years.
But this is Illinois, and if I’ve learned anything in this job, it’s that estimated costs are almost always too low and estimated returns are almost always too high. I’ll believe those projections when I see them.
Even so, the governor’s bipartisan task force should be commended for recognizing that: 1) Pension benefit recipients are real people, not just some numbers on a piece of paper; and 2) Reforms don’t automatically happen just because yet another blue ribbon commission recommends them — the reforms must be crafted in a way so they have a chance to clear two legislative chambers and be signed into law.
This report satisfies both of those requirements. Whether it will actually perform as advertised will have to be thoroughly debated.
If this succeeds, however, it might set the template for dealing with the same sort of Tier 2 federal law issues facing the state’s three big pension funds (state workers, suburban and Downstate teachers and university employees). Make some benefit tweaks to get them into line with federal law along with some other benefit changes and then consolidate assets.
* Related…
* Tribune editorial: Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s pension suture can be one step toward a full healing
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